Monday, July 11, 2011

On the Pony Express Trail - July 10 2011

Greetings,

July 10, 2011 – West of Eureka Nevada – Early this morning we had a horse event.  We gave Frank and Whiskey their bran mash early this morning and then came back about an hour later to load them into the trailer.  In the intervening time, Frank had somehow lacerated his face.  Cindy and I cleaned and dressed the wound and then I talked with Dave Nicholson.  We made arrangements for Bob Nuenzig to suture the wound at the lunch stop.  Because of the sedation required, we decided to wait until the camp site.  In time, Bob sutured Frank's nose.  Frank received three or four stitches in the muscle and about a dozen sutures in his skin.  The trip has been strenuous on the horses and all have lost weight.  In addition, their metabolic systems have adapted to the journey and are different from the normal pasture horse.  Determining the correct dose of sedative can be tricky.  Frank received his does and was very drowsy.  Bob deftly performed the field surgery and Frank is well on his way to recovery.  Bob did a very nice job with the sutures.

I rode Whiskey across the desert floor to the next camp.  It was hot and long.  The distance was about twenty miles across the desert without water.  Whiskey went slow adhering to his motto, "Take care of the mustang" and we arrived in camp near the grave of Bezetal, a famous endurance horse.  Walking along the streambeds near camp, Cindy found jade and turquoise stones in the gravel.

Camp was dusty and after dinner I walked above camp and looked east across the basin.  In the far distance, I could barely make out the outline of the Diamond Mountains and Telegraph Pass.  Looking east across the basin was profound.  I thought, "I rode from telegraph pass to this camp."  And then I thought, "At the top of Telegraph Pass, I could see east to the pass from Ruby Valley."  And from all of the high points, I could look back further eastward until I returned to the bank of the Missouri River.  We have traveled a long way across the country by horse, step-by-step.  Looking back along the journey and retracing the route in my mind is something significant that makes a point-to-point journey special.  I am very lucky to have this experience.

Best Regards,
Tom N

1 comment:

  1. Hello Tom,

    I got the link to your blog just last week and have been reading along catching up. I have enjoyed reading your very nice commentary on the ride. That cut on Frank's nose was a bummer. I hope you can find and fix whatever he did it on.

    Good luck and God's protection on you and yours from me and mine.

    Don Huston

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