My bestest vacation ever :) August 9th thru August 18th This is my current favorite dream vacation of all times. I was able to spend quality time with my family, childhood friends, and my Awesome Haily. We left all loaded up in my new LQ trailer on Thursday August 9th and went as far as Harlan County Dam. There is a horse camping area on the eastern side of the lake just south of the Republican River Bridge. This camping area is called Perkerneck and has a very primitive camping area but lots of horse trails. With a nice Full LQ trailer primitive is not an issue :) We got to Perkerneck about 3 so I was able to go out and do a nice 2 hour ride. I made it to the pond then turned around and did the other loops back. Ended up being almost 9 miles, this is the kind of trail I am not usually crazy about as it is for the most part out in the open. But it had awesome views of the lake and was just different kinda like a mini Kanopolis. Left for my childhood riding buddies house early on Friday the 10th. We of course had to get lost and went about 30 miles on washboard gravel road before I broke down and called Tammy to get GOOD directions. Haily had been in the trailer for hours without water so we stopped at the fairgrounds in Kiowa let her out for a while and she drank about 4 gallons of water. Then off to Tammy’s awesome horse home. She has the type of place all horse owners dream of having. She had a very nice barn with big stalls and turn outs. 2 nice sized pastures, an indoor, and an outdoor arena. And if that is not enough she has a gorgeous home too. Once we got to talking it was like we had seen each other last week not forty years ago  Saturday was BBQ at Wayne’s house with my daughter Andrea her hubby Steve and grandson Tristen, my Dad, some of Wayne and Barbs kids. Ate too much visited and played horse shoes. Sunday was the day for my hometown Reunion for Idledale, Colorado. Raym was making his famous MO river catfish so we headed out early. It was really awesome to see so many of my childhood friends some of them I had not seen for almost 40 years. Everyone had changed to the point I had to ask who they were! After the reunion we went back to Tammy’s for our last night in that area, Tristen came with us as he wanted to go camp in the mountains with us. On Monday morning we load up and headed up to Grand Lake with Wayne, Barb, Dad, Raym, Tristen, Haily and I. What a trip for poor flat land Raym driving my diesel with the BIG LQ trailer. I-70 to our turn off has the steepest grade allowed for an interstate. Then we exited off onto highway 40 and did the Berthoud Pass road, just had to keep reminding myself to not look down and we did okay! That was a very long slow 40 miles! We finally got to our camping spot near Grand Lake in the mid afternoon, Winding River Resort is an awesome place to horse camp, my only complaint is almost all the trails are out and back and I like loops. I headed out on Tuesday morning for a trail ride about 11, with Haily barefoot, this was a mistake. We only got about 2.5 miles out and we had to turn around as she was getting sore. About a mile from camp we have a Black Bear cross our trail about 50 yard ahead. Haily at this point cannot smell the bear and it looks like a big black dog to her to why are we stopping when my hay and water is only a mile away. I on the other hand am trying to stay very clam and figure out what I should do! So I decide to first take pictures  Must have been shaking some as they are blurry and I should have zoomed in. When the bear finally realized we where watching him he decide to come see what we are! So I decided we needed to look big and mean. I yelled and whipped my Rommel around and it worked he headed back into the woods. When we got to the spot where the bear was Haily must have been able to smell him because I got a little Arab Attitude at that point but her tummy won out and she headed back to camp. On Wednesday I planned on heading up to Granite Fall an 8.5 mile one way trip. Put Haily’s boots on the Gloves on the front took over and hour the renegades on the back went on in about 1 minute. I am defiantly going to sell my gloves and get more renegades. Rode around camp for a while making sure the boots would stay on and making sure Haily was adjusting to the altitude okay. Off we go on some pretty easy trail we are trotting some and having a good time when we get to a major road crossing (trail ridge road to Estes Park) and it looks like my trail ended. I looked for a trail head but never dawned on me I was supposed to ride though a very busy cars rest/parking area. So I went back to camp disappointed I had only gotten about 8 miles in instead of 17. On Thursday I talked with my neighbors at the campground and found out how to get to the falls so off we went. This was one of the most Challenging trails I have ever been on you go up and up forever, over and around rocks and ditches. There are also lots of hikers and back packers. Some just do not have a clue what to do when meeting a horse. Two guys tried to “hide” behind a tree I had to ask them to step out Haily knew they were they and figured since they were hiding there plan was to eat her! Our elevation was just over 8,000 feet at the beginning of the trail and we climbed to almost 10,000 at the falls. It was a great check of Haily’s condition. I thought she was VERY tired but she was pulling my leg as she was more than happy to run all the way home :) Of course with it all being down hill we walked or should I say we power walked most the way back to camp. About ½ mile from camp we come around a corner and Haily is about nose to nose with a big cow moose. Moose is not concerned at all but Haily was not a happy horse! I rang my wildlife bell and the moose went back into the woods. This was our last ride at Grand Lake sure wish I could have gotten more miles in but what we did not was defiantly quality miles. The wranglers for the dude horses and the other horse people at the campground were very impressed Haily and I had done all our miles totally alone. The trip home was pretty uneventful I drove until we got about 100 miles east of Denver so Raym did not have to deal with the steep highway or the Denver traffic. We got to Perkerneck about 6 so it was too late for a ride and Raym wanted to get an early start so I did not get to do the trails on the way home. I wanted to do 75 miles for the vacation but only got in 45 but I am still a very happy camper :) August 4 2012 If I remember right this was a short tip around Indian Caves (the LD loop) it was a little slick due to rain the day before and I did not want to take a chance of Haily or I getting hurt before vacation. 7.24 Miles July 28th and 29th Kim Koenig the wonderful lady that bred/raised/trained Haily had a Clinic at her house on the 28th. So I trailered Haily up there and really enjoyed seeing her work a horse and even more seeing her help a newbie learn how to work with her young stallion. Then afterwards we all went over to Griswold man what an awesome ride. This is a very challenging place to ride if I went alone I am sure I would be lost over and over again! We only did 6.79 miles. I can see why Kim’s horses end up in such great shape this is one challenging place to ride! Then on Sunday I met Janet at Honey Creek she trimmed Haily then we did 8.99 miles. July 21st thru July 24th Decided to do the Perry Sunflower MOTDRA CTR Ride. Went down on Friday after work set up put did not go out and ride as it was late. On Saturday morning went out on the Orange long loop and had a very nice fun quick ride. When we got back Haily’s feet were a little chewed up so I decided she should wear her boot for the LD the next day. Took me over 2 hours to get the boots on they just do not fit unless she has just been trimmed by a pro. She had not been trimmed for a long time! Sunday dawned and she was totally 3 legged lame for the second time in 2 months. The ride vet and a rider vet both agreed she was leaking joint fluid. Did not want to mess with that so I loaded her up and took of to for K-State. $800 later and 1 extra day of vacation and they decided it was a combo of tics and the boots that made her lame. The fluid was a bad reaction to the 20 or so tics I had pulled off her. She had x-ray and all kinds of tests done and she is in great shape her joints are awesome. Total Ride miles for this weekend 11.4 Miles July 13th thru July 15th. Got my new LQ trailer in Ill the last weekend in June so decided I should go try it out my first long weekend at Turkey Creek Ranch in Northeastern Nebraska. We got to our campsite earlier enough I could was able to go out for a ride after getting all set up. Of course this does not take long with an LQ trailer:) and a nice campground with corrals for your horse. The trails there are very manicured wide without a “thing” to step over! We did not even get to actually cross the creeks there was either a bridge or a culvert at every creek crossing. Ride day one was 5.07 miles a nice quite ride. A lot of other riders showed up while I was out riding so the campground ended up pretty full. Raym had lots of neighbors to talk with and Belle to walk so he did not get too bored. We had electric hook ups so the heat was not a big issue for sleep at night. Day 2 I went out after I trimmed Haily’s feet. And something just was not right with her. She was coughing and panting so I decided it was an allergies issue and we came back to camp after only 1.06 miles. I gave her a couple of Benadryl’s and 4 hours off. We went back out again she was growly but not acting like she was earlier and we only did 3.36 miles on this loop. Went out kinda late and did another loop and this one was great we went way out and did a lot of very open area’s that I would have only wanted to do in the evening when it was cooler on this loop we did 5.67 miles, was almost dark when we got back. Then on day 3 we went out for one more awesome loop found a really neat and different trial had to do a little back tracking to find it but it was nice we did 3.43 miles. For a total of 18.59 miles at Turkey Creek. July 7th Went to the Caves very early and did one loop for 7.98 miles before it got hot. July 4th Went over to Indian Caves with Amelia and Power very early to beat the heat and did a nice 7.47 miles. June 30th and July 1st No riding for me this weekend we went to Ill and got my Brand new 2012 Bison 2 Horse LQ Trailer :) we blew 2 tires on the old trailer before even going 100 miles good thing I did not go to the Big River Ride! June 23rd and 24th Did a short ride at home on my Haily trails but they were way to slick so I only got in 3.4 miles for this weekend due to not being able to use the trailer with the BAD tires. This is the first weekend I did not trailer someplace to ride since the first weekend in March! June 16th and 17th This ride weekend was Bev’s idea but she was unable to come with just too much pain. I decided to go anyway as I loved Poosey in March. Janet showed up on Saturday the 16th and I got to meet her new Arab Mule Josie. What a nice molly mule she is! We had a nice ride we rode 15.3 miles. That evening while eating I noticed one of my trailer tires looked weird. They were the same size make and age. But one was skinny and tall the other one looked normal. We decided it probably had a broken belt. On the 17th I rode alone and my heart just was not into it I really missed Bev, I did 13.2 miles then Raym I a drove home very slow worrying about the tire. Had to make a decision when I got home either move up my new LQ plans or buy all new tires for Old Blue.