wvhorse.com
Custer State Park
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
wvhorse.com Custer State Park |
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
June 1 thru 5, 2004 Under the great Ponderosa Pine trees I now sit with my dog Ruby and my mare Teege and type my stories as I gaze
out over the field where elk grazed night before last. Eddie and Dusty have joined Mike and Linda Koziol for a trail ride. I really appreciate sitting in the big quiet
camp while others are out riding. Dale, our personal weatherman, is forecasting a big storm with hail in the next three hours.
It is in the 80's today and he is ready to move on in his constant search for 50 to 70 degree temperature. We have pens for the horses, but I have Teege on a high line near me. I understand that seven horses have been
killed here by buffalo, so the pens were made really strong to withstand a buffalo charge! You can only electric fence a horse
or high line them if you are present. Just in case a buffalo arrives or the hail storm hits, I have the Sundowner almost ready to put Teege inside quickly. Janice and Dale invited me to go into the town of Custer with them, but I wanted to stay and get things together
in camp and write a little to catch up. Dale has ordered horse shoes for his Prides Prime Cut gelding. He is so pacy that
Dale says it is ruining his retirement and his traveling. The big black gelding turned five years old yesterday. (I just killed a little tiny spider that dropped out
of the tree in my lap as I type. There are a few drawbacks to this outdoor office.) The gelding. I call him T-Bone. I think Dale has about decided to call him Scooter. Usually he isn’t quite
so kind in his choice of things to call the horse. T-Bone is as sweet as any horse that you would ever want. He enjoys being
petted and brushed. Now he stands in the hot sun in the big open outside pen while Dale and Janice do their errands. Dale is hoping and praying the shoes will get him back to walking. He will trade or buy another horse if he
doesn’t. This is Dale’s third horse since January when they became full time RVing horse people. He couldn’t
keep weight on the other two. One was too hyper for trail riding. I hope he can get this horse riding smoothly for both of their sakes. Last night was a dreadful evening because a horse in the pens below us became colic. The owners had gone sight
seeing and friends tried desperately to save the big 10 year old golden palomino. Almost the entire camp was down there offering
electrolytes, banamine and even Karo syrup in case he was of the Impressive line and had that quarter horse gene with the
neurological problem. It took the vet an hour to get here and she took one look and said his gut was twisted and he would require
surgery. They loaded him in the trailer and we heard him go down. Everybody was so concerned, but we grasped onto hope as
he stood again and stuck his head out the window. The owner told us this morning that he loved to ride with his head out and the golden horse rode even up I 90 with his
head out. When they saw his head go back inside, they stopped and found him dead in the trailer. Cowboy had fought hard for
his life, but he lost that battle. The camp felt the loss with the owners, who said he was an award winning reining horse,
but he always trail rode too. He was said to be sold for $25,000 when they got back home. Back to more pleasant things, Dale, Eddie and I rode yesterday morning. I rode my old Kentucky Springback saddle
for the first time in years. It is just as wonderful as I remember it being. I may never ride the Big Horn again. I quit riding the old saddle when we took a four day ride and had everything tied all over it. I was afraid
I would tear it up, so I bought the big western. Now I don’t care if I do wear it out. It is a hundred years old almost and what could I be saving it for?
My knees do not hurt with the English stirrups. I used the rubber pad and then my saddlebag pad over it. Then I don’t
really need the horn bags that I can’t use on the Springback. I must get me another saddlebag pad, even if the rubber
weave one does keep most of the sweat off the pad. Teege stands here in her new $70 fly sheet and face mask. I sprayed her and Dusty both with Adams fly spray.
I am trying desperately to keep the flies from biting her and making those big marble size lumps that stay for a year. I wish
I knew why her and Zoe does this. Dusty is beautiful in the sun. His golden copper sorrel glistens and if you look really close you can see the
fine white hairs that indicate his strawberry roan registered saddlebred grandmother. His flax mane is streaked with shades
of red, making him look much like the $70 color jobs that all the women are getting these days. He still walks proud like
his days as a stallion but his nature is sweetness itself. When we were riding, Dusty was jumpy about something. Probably the deer we saw later on the trail. "What’s the matter with you. I’d like to know what makes you so jumpy?" Eddie asked to the big gelding. "I can tell you in one word" I told my 65 year old husband. "What?" "Saddlebred!" "Yeah. Probably," he answered. Dusty is about 10 years old now, but he had not been much of anywhere or trail ridden more than a dozen times
when we bought him at about age seven. Even though he is older, his experience is about that of a 3 or 4 year old. But he does live up to his name of Ebonys Powerhouse Dusty. He is big and strong and puts away the groceries. When we rode the other day here, we took the French Creek Trail or Blue trail. I was really disappointed by
having to ride a little narrow trail winding through the trees and rocks or down on the gravel road itself, but we stuck it
out and eventually came to a gate that had to be opened. Dale got through and held the gate back enough for me to get through
but the gate shut and the latch caught. Eddie got off and opened the gate and came through with Dusty. Dale rode in the front trying to get the horse to walk. He and the horse were both aggravated because neither
were pleased with the events. T-Bone was even less easy to ride in the back. We came to another gate and rode up a wide logging trail. It was pretty good riding, but there were still a
lot of rocks. It wasn’t difficult riding and the trail was marked well. I usually just depended on Dale to find the
blue diamonds and I just enjoyed the country. This is the first trip I even took Teege barefoot and she was doing as good as she ever did. I am still tense
because I am afraid she will fall with me again. I finally decided I could not watch every rock and she would just have to
take care of that herself. It was supposed to be a four hour ride and an easy ride. It wasn’t difficult but it is not the easy riding
in the east. We rode along the highway for a long time, maybe an hour or so before meeting up with the Centennial Trail back
on the hill. Dale got off and requested "Let’s eat lunch," even though we were only a half mile from camp. I saw Dale pointing
up into the woods and realized he was watching something. There were two big racked elk up on the hill. We ate and talked and soon a couple of riders came up the hill. When asked how far we were from camp, one told
us that it was only down at the bottom of the hill. We took the four ride in three hours and that included lunch. We would have been back in 2 ½ hours without the
lunch. Everybody here has quarter horses and they seem to ride a really slow walk. Eddie doesn’t care if he does have to walk as long as he can ride and talk. Dusty seemed to adapt to it
real well as long as Teege isn’t up front going out of sight in her running walk. I was content with the pretty, easy ride. Now I could stay in the camp and write. Eddie went back out that evening
for the hour long creek ride. I will probably have him take me on that if we have time. I intended to write yesterday, but Dale was bored and didn’t want to ride a rough horse again. I will
spare you the many descriptive words describing his difficulties. So we all loaded up yesterday and drove back the 50 miles to Rapid City in search of hay, walking horses, groceries,
a drug store and the ever elusive Dairy Queen Shop. We got hay for $6 a bale. Had to have it. I got Teege the fly sheet. Dale gathered up some books looking for
walking horse barns. We stopped at a Ford Dealership and got a $6 "O" ring for our truck. Janice and I went across the street
to the western store. We didn’t find anything but Eddie bought him a pair of Ariat boots for $110 and Dale got camp
shoes for $55! Janice left the western store early in her jaunt down to the nearby casino, where we found her playing the slot
machine. When we left, she was $16.10 to the good. We found the ice cream. I got a cup, Janice got a cone, Dale got a double cone and a root beer float and Eddie
got a great big chocolate milkshake, which he would not exchange for my cup of chocolate soft serve. Next was an exhaustive tour of downtown Rapid City in search for a drug store. Janice told him he could not
find one down town, but he would need a strip mall out of town. This did not deter him in his hunt, so we got a real tour.
It was good to see all of the life size statues on every corner. They were all bronze famous people. We could not read the
inscriptions from the truck, but we recognized JFK and John-John, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and more.
I was impressed with the statues. How come we don’t have any bronze statues back home? At the grocery store, we loaded up and headed back to Custer to the post office so I could mail a card to our
youngest grandson Brett for his 10 Then came the rain. Dale made every effort to outrun or evade it in order that our $48 worth of expensive hay
not be ruined. Finally we lost that battle and the rain poured for a bit. It dried off before we got to Custer and the sun
and wind cured the hay again. I mailed my post card and we headed back to Custer State Park ready for a good nap. Then came the trauma of
a sick horse. Thursday night brought our usual good night’s sleep, thanks to the Coral Calcium pills and we were ready
to move into action. Eddie planned to ride with somebody, but he had to check Dusty’s shoes and tighten up a few nails.
He smoothed Teege’s unshod feet and we waited for Dale to summons us to eat. Dale invited us all over to breakfast on Friday Morning. They had biscuits, sausage gravy, eggs and Dale’s
Mother’s home made apple butter. We all ate until we couldn’t hold any more and went to the trailer for a nap. Linda called and said they were getting ready to ride if Eddie wanted to go with them. They have been here several
times and they know the trails. It sure makes it easier to get the good rides. We saddled Dusty and they were off. Mike rides a palomino and Linda rides a big chestnut. Eddie said, "We left camp and rode down the creek and ran into a big bull buffalo standing in the middle of
the road. We skirted around to the left of him way up through the mountains through the timber and brush and stuff. Finally
we got up high enough that we could get way around the hill and get ahead of him. "While we were riding up on the hill, some boys came along on some bicycles and I guess they scared him on up
the road and we never did see the big buffalo any more. "We rode on up and across the hill and down the other side. Finally we got to the place where they wanted to
ride. We had to cross a little old small stream. "That is where my horse kindly balked on me. He didn’t want to go across. I don’t know what was
the matter with it. It might have been the smell of the water. The water was clear but it was dark underneath. The creek was
only two or three foot wide. "Mike and Linda’s horse went on across and Dusty wouldn’t go for a while. The big gelding would
walk up to it and back off and turn sideways. Finally he raised and jumped all the way across it completely clearing that
scary little old creek." Now Mike calls Eddie "Creek Jumpin’ Eddie." "We rode on down and got into the big long hollow they wanted to go down. It was pretty and had big rock cliffs
on both sides and a pretty little creek ran down it. Trees had fallen across the trails and some places we had to detour around
them. "Dusty went right on through several creek crossings and through all of the mud and water and everything and
he never balked a time. It was the same little creek in different places. I still don’t know why he didn’t want
to cross that other place. "Finally we came out on the road and hit a dirt road beside the blacktop. We were on our way back home by then.
We road that dirt road for a long ways and came back to where the buffalo had the road blocked down there. Traffic wasn’t
coming through. "We went down with 3 or 400 yards of them. We could see people standing around down there with vehicles around.
We decided not to go down and but heads with 2000 lb buffalos to try to get through, so we made a detour across the road and
hit another old logging road. That was a real pretty ride through the old logging road and up the hill and across big bottoms.
"After crossing the hill we hit down on another old road over there and hit back into camp after another hour
and a half or two hours, without any more incidents with the buffalo. "Mike sent us some pictures after we got home and I would like to know if Linda got hurt pulling Mike’s
head out of that grizzly bear’s mouth!" Eddie wondered. This camp is really a great place with lots of sites for any size rig. There is no electricity on site so after
a day of using the laptop, I spent a couple of hours hanging out at the shower house while my battery was being recharged.
It sure didn’t take that long for a nice hot shower, so I socialized with every visitor to the bathhouse. Tomorrow we leave this State Park and go up to Spearfish where we have inside stalls for a couple of days. It
is expensive for us, about $50, but we need inside stalls to sight see. We will spend a day exploring Deadwood and Sturgis
and then head on to the next town. Electric and water hook ups will also be available there. We can do a couple of days without those hook ups,
but it is a little unhandy to not have every other site a facility for RVs. |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
Wild, Wonderful West Virginia
|
|
|
|||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
