Saturday-Monday, August 7-9, 2010
In the previous post, we traveled from Nebraska to near Custer, SD, in just a little under 12 hours! That’s all! I thought it would be 10 or less. With 5 women, I guess we needed more potty breaks!
But we arrived at the Iron Creek Horse Campground safe and sound. The trip actually went fairly fast, except the last hour. That last hour always seems slow.
The campground was small, and we parked head to tail in our own numbered site. The horse corrals are awesome.
Large and spacious, with 7 paneled sections and a walk thru gate. On the downside, we had no electricity and no near water. We could walk the horses to a tank, or carry water. Dianna had the great suggestion to wheel water in a clean muck bucket with the muck bucket holder. This saved carrying water buckets each day.
With 1 corral pen to each site, Savannah had her own corral, since I trailered by myself. The pens were not connected, which I liked. She could see other horses, but she couldn’t touch noses, or fight, with her neighbor.
We arrived Saturday about 6 and set up camp. I am self contained, so all I had to do was park as far off of the road that I could and not hit the large boulders. I hayed and watered Savannah first as she has had a long day in the trailer. I did give her hay in the manger for the trip. I also gave her a small, ½ bucket of water to be able to slosh her hay in.
Once she had eaten for an hour, I grained her. I have decided just to give her 4# of her high fiber pelleted feed, split between 2 meals. She will also be able to graze as we rest on the trail.
Savannah is being pretty good! She is just a little goosey and jumpy on the trails for the first hour, then settles down into a nice, ground covering, flat walk.
We had decided ahead of time that this trip is a vacation, and that we were not getting up early and riding all day. We wanted to sleep in and alternate longer, 6 hour riding days with shorter, 3-4 hour riding days.
Sunday and Monday, we rode out each day about 11 in the morning, and got back to camp about 3.
On Sunday, we followed Centennial #89 to the north, along the Centennial Bypass #89B route east to the iron Mountain #16, which brought us back south.
We saw deer along the way.
At the end of that trail, we tied our horses to trees as we climbed a rock ledge,
to take in the view.
We returned to camp by the same route.
One of the horses jumped a log, catching the fetlock area on a sharp edge of the log. We went into a creek to let the horses drink, and once we were out of the water, we noticed the horse was bleeding a little. We were heading back to camp, and the horse starting favoring the leg as we neared camped. The owner soak the foot in Epsom salts, put an ointment on the cut, and applied a bandage with some drawing salve. All of us helped to bandage the leg that first night. The horse did not want anyone near her foot. Later in the week, 2 small pieces of wood came out of the cut.
Monday, we rode Centennial #89 to the south, which would be an easier ride for the horse. But within a ½ hour, the horse with the cut was walking stiffly. We returned to camp, and the owner stayed and retreated the leg as the rest of us rode back out for a short 2 hour ride.
We continued to follow Centennial #89 south for a little over an hour, then turned around and headed back to camp as there was not any other alternate route. Along the way, we stopped for many picture shots.
We also just had to pick up some pretty white, quartz and pink stones.
Aren't the skies really blue out here?
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