I have to apologize to my followers. I’ve been pretty busy lately and haven’t taken the time to compose posts about my latest pack trips. In fact, I still haven’t finished the last post about my Alaska trip last year!

I have been remiss. No doubt about it.

So,  I thought I’d take just a few minutes and just update you all on what’s been happening and make a promise to get caught up on my trip posts within the next couple of weeks.

I have put in a bunch of trail miles over the past several months. A lot of good rides with a lot of good friends. I calculate I have put over 350 miles on Apollo alone, since I got him February 25, 2019.

During most of the bad weather up here in Utah Valley, spanning the entire winter (which lasted until about last week!) I spent several weekends and one full week, riding in the St George area. I really enjoyed that. I got a lot of training done on Apollo during that span, as well as some miles on Lizzy and a couple other horses.

I also made two trips to Capitol Reef National Park to ride Pleasant Creek.

I spent three days riding with friends in the Moab area at the end of April. Wonderful riding!

The Moab area is spectacular! I put more miles on Apollo there and put some miles on Chance, breaking him in as a pack horse.

I spent five days in early May riding from Brigham City, Utah to Snowville, Utah (near the Idaho border), about 75 miles, as part of the sesquicentennial Golden Spike 150 Wagon Train. I switched off, rotating Apollo and Calypso as saddle and pack horses.

What a great time that was and what good people I met. My good friend, Rob Prody, participated with me, riding Trigger, my daughter’s big Tennessee Walker. That was my first wagon train experience and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Then, to cap it all off, from May 14-18, my good friend, Jeff Palmer, and I rode our horses from Flagstaff, Arizona to the Grand Canyon National Park. What a great pack trip that was! Our horses performed flawlessly…well almost. We had a couple minor incidents, but nothing serious, only enough to add spice to an otherwise uneventful trip.

Uneventful, but enjoyable. We started out above 9,000 feet, in the pines and alpine meadows north of Flagstaff, dropped below 6,000 feet in the junipers and pinons, got rained on a time or two, and ran short of water on one stretch, and ended up at Tusayan, just south of the entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. Jeff enjoyed it so much, he is planning on returning with me next spring to cross the Big Ditch and make our way up to the AZ/UT border.

During all that, I have sold several horses, which has helped finance some of these activities. In January, I sold Turbo, the one-speed wonder, to a fellow who wanted an excellent trail horse that would not buck him off and would keep up with his riding buddies’ horses.

I haven’t heard from him, but he never called during his 30-day trial period, so I expect his riding buddies are now working hard to keep up with Turbo’s run-walk.

In February, I contracted to train a beautiful grade Tennessee Walker Gelding named Apollo. I ended up liking the horse so much that I traded a registered Tennessee Walker mare, Oreo, for him.

Apollo and I are still growing together and enjoying every mile, and Oreo has a great home with a woman in North Ogden who loves her like a family member.

During March, I sold one of the best trail horses I have ever owned, J Golden, to a fellow in Richfield, Utah. It was a surprise move for me, as I had no intention of selling that wonderful gelding.

However, once the thought entered my head, after having allowed the fellow to ride him a time or two, I could not get rid of the thought and eventually, I just caved in. I’m glad I did, as J has a great home and he gets ridden almost daily by a man who appreciates a great trail horse.

I sold Chance in April to a couple from the Kamas area, who were looking for a smooth-riding gaited horse. They are enjoying Chance and are very pleased.

In April, I spent a week down at my parents’ home in Eagar, Arizona, doing some work on my place there. The plan was to return from Eagar with my mare Calypso, which I have been keeping there with my young colt, Chief, and my mustang, Jimbo. While I was there, I noticed Calypso had come into season and that Chief had discovered what being a stallion was all about. I was lucky enough to get them separated before anything “untoward” happened. However, when I got up to feed the following morning, I discovered Chief had destroyed Dad’s corral gate and he and Calypso were standing together in the same corral looking very satisfied. Well, I successfully separated them for the rest of the week, and I decided to leave Chief there in Eagar and took Calypso home to Utah. My hope was that Chief was still young enough (18 months) that he was still “shooting blanks.” Wrong.

I brought Chief back to Salem, Utah after the Flagstaff pack trip. I took him to the vet last week to have him gelded. At the same time I had Calypso pregnancy checked. Turns out I will have a foal out of Calypso and Chief sometime around the middle of March, 2020. I was disappointed at first, but now I’m grateful that I’ll be having a foal out of Chief. He’s turning out to be a very nice looking horse with a wonderful temperament and very intelligent. I had considered keeping him a stallion, but I just don’t have the facilities required to safely keep a stallion. It just didn’t make sense for me. So, Chief is now a gelding and I’ll have a foal out of him sometime next spring. The foal will not be registerable, as Calypso is a grade Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse. However, it should be a nice horse, sired by Chief, which is a registered Missouri Fox Trotter that is turning out to be quite handsome and Calypso is a beautifully built and nicely gaited RMGH.

Which leads me to the next conclusion:  I’ll be keeping Calypso until at least after the foal is weaned.

Last Saturday, June 1, I finalized the sale of the best trail horse I have ever ridden, Lizzy. She went to the wife of the fellow who bought J Golden. This was another sale I had not anticipated.

But, I’m pleased to say that Lizzy will join J Golden in a great home for them both. Both Miranda and Larry became close friends to me as I worked to find the perfect horse for Miranda. I think I nailed it. She and Lizzy are fast becoming a solid trail companionship. That’s good, because Larry laid down the law and let her know she could not have J!

On Monday, June 3, I picked up a huge registered Tennessee Walker for Derek Habel, a friend of mine, and brought him to Spanish Fork. I worked this horse for two weeks to see whether he’s going to be suitable for horse packing hunt trips to Alaska. I think he’s going to work. Last Friday, Derek made the agreement to purchase the horse, so it will be up to me to work the kinks out of him and get him ready for the big Alaska moose hunt this fall.

It’s going to be a fun project. Red is great on the trail, but has a couple of issues that need to be smoothed out, before he’ll be ready for the hunt trip.

Right now I’m on a road trip to New Mexico to help babysit grandkids and celebrate Father’s Day with my oldest son, after which I’ll be heading back down to Eagar, AZ for a couple days with my parents and to get some things done on my place down there. I’ll be back at home and working my horses again by the end of the week.

In between all these activities, in my spare time, whatever that means, I have been doing a little leather work. I made two saddle scabbards, a pair of spur straps, and a Leatherman sheath and started work on a set of pommel bags for myself.  I recently started work on a pair of batwing chaps for a friend.

So, as you can see, there is no moss growing on me. I’ve been pretty busy. Hopefully things will begin to settle down a little over the next month or so and I’ll get caught up on organizing my photos and make some good posts.

I hope my readers will cut me a little slack and stick with me. And thanks for reading.

TH