A Quick Trip

Over memorial day weekend we made a quick trip to Minnesota.  It was really fun, but pretty fast!  We wasted no time getting there and back.  (I will explain in the following paragraphs below the reason why we went...)


But, to back up a little bit - before we left for Minnesota we acquired a new trailer.  At the last endurance ride that we attended (Grizzly Mountain) I rode a total of 70 miles over two days (35 miles per day) and I had no complaints.  But, when I got back into camp on the second day my husband very loudly proclaimed, "This is it!  Gad-damnit it, I'm buying something that has living quarters in it!"  And after hearing the tone of his voice - he really did mean it.  So after we got back home, we started hunting for a "new" used horse trailer.


(The photo above was taken on the trip shortly after we crossed the North Dakota border on our way to Minnesota.  We had True Turk, Hallygul, and Annagul in the trailer at the time.)

We found our lovely 2004 model at Double J Trailers in Woodland, WA shortly after the Grizzly Mountain ride.  It is a used warmblood model that is in very good condition.  The trailer dealership went through and upgraded some of the more important features on it - new tires, new brakes, new floor lining, etc.  Afterward, it was good to go!

Two weeks after acquiring the new trailer, we were off!  Away on the trip to Minnesota.  Above is a view of the Absaroka mountain range in Montana.

My weird fascination of rocks was the main focus on most of my photos.  This was a giant rock mountain towering above a lovely slow flowing river somewhere in Montana.

And an impressive boulder range just outside of Butte!  I absolutely loved it.  This was a mountain made totally of boulders.  The sheer awesomeness had me pressed up firmly against the window oogling at it's beauty. 

And this photo brings me to the point of why we went to Minnesota. 


To give a little bit of background about this - I had my eye on this colt for over 9 months, ever since I seen his sales ad posted on the internet last year.  I absolutely loved him, but just didn't have the motive for driving all the way to Minnesota to go and get him.  (By the time the fuel costs were all tallied up, it would've been way too extravagant of a journey to buy just a single horse.)  So, I let the idea go and forgot about him over the winter.  The sales ad disappeared and I figured that someone else had probably purchased him and taken him away.


Well, low and behold - in March, out of sheer curiosity, I decided to contact the seller and see where this colt went.  I figured that he had gone to a new home somewhere and I was interested to see how he filled out and developed.  Much to my surprise - he was still for sale!  Seriously?!?!  I almost fell out of my chair.  And he was EXTREMELY reasonably priced at a low "winter rate" too!  So, the wheels started turning, and I immediately started planning... 


After e-mailing a few people to test the waters and see if anybody was in need of having a horse hauled to Minnesota (or back), it so-happened that Rod Hunt at KopetDag Akhal Tekes had purchased three of Amrita Ibold's young horses to add to his farm in Osage, MN.  So a deal was struck.  We'd haul three to Osage, and pick ours up from Princeton on the way back.  The plan was in motion.

A photo of our first meeting, taken by the seller.  Irahm is a really special colt and I am very glad that he could come and live with us.  His future is really bright, and I look forward to having him as my next show and competition prospect.  I'm very excited for our upcoming adventures together.