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4-2-12, 5 Miles NE of Monte Vista, CO - Bill and Doc put in an outstanding performance today and knocked off 24 miles. 

A half hour before sunrise, all three of my mischievous equines were begging for their oats, so I fed them.  By the time I went out to pull them out of the playpen for harnessing, they were buck-snorting and running all over the pen, acting like a bunch of kids with bees in their pants.  In between their rodeo antics, I managed snag each one and lead them out to the wagon.

After they were hitched up, Bill and Doc spent the first hour at a trot as they burned through the sugar of their morning oats.

The first morning break is a great time for me to cook up some breakfast, and for the horses to get in some good head scratches. After watching some head rubbing it’s a good time for the Teamster to ensure a bridle didn’t get pulled forward of the ears. I checked Bill and Doc’s bridles, but forgot to check Bob’s halter at the rear of the wagon. He managed to pull his off and was quietly standing there with his halter on the ground.  When I went to put it back on, it took a handful of oats to persuade him to stand still!

By lunchtime, the wagon had traveled fifteen miles, but I knew we could expect much less for the afternoon. A horse will only travel a certain amount of miles in a day; whether it is at a trot or a walk.  By the time we were 23 miles down the road, both Bill and Doc were starting to play out and it took a lot of encouragement to keep them going.

Just as I was starting to pull over on a wide spot on the side of the road to camp, a couple of farmers stopped by in a pickup truck and offered us three things: two beers and a place to stay. It was a winning combination, so I coaxed the team to put in another mile to our evening camp.

The ground was too hard to put in electric fence posts, so the lads have to spend the night tied to the side of the wagon (not a big deal for some former Amish work horses). Doc and Bill were pretty tired, alternately taking short catnaps between mouthfuls of hay.

Bob, ever the opportunist, and knowing that he had the hardest day while walking behind the trailer, took full advantage of the creature comforts offered at the end of a tie.

We put in a long day today, but tomorrow we’re poised to get all the way through the City of Alamosa. Just south of Alamosa is a stretch of highway that has beautiful, 150 foot wide, grass covered right of ways. This will make an ideal camping location.

The horses weren’t the only ones that were exhausted.  The sun was barely below the horizon when Dave unrolled his sleeping bag on the cot, zippered up the tent and went to sleep. Bob was so surprised, he had to stand up for the occasion!

All day long, the wind blew hard from the east and filled the sky with dust from the valley.  In spite of the fact the horses were driving into the wind, they still managed to put in a 24 mile day. Not bad for a bunch of Hoodlum Wagon Horses!