Say Goodbye ..... Sniff Sniff

Having been born and raised on a cattle ranch, I've been attached to horses all my life.  This is me at about three years old on one of our horses in the high desert, just before it became Lake Isabella.  By the time I was four I had my own horse Pico.

You can tell us kids rode a lot ... we had our own kid-version saddles.  By five and six, we were helping gather cattle, pushing them into chutes and playing cowboys and Indians.

We basically went broke.  The cattle business became a big corporation game and we were small potatoes with 300 head of cows and calves.  I never could give up the horses.  Finally having worked outside the ranch and saving up every penny, I bought two horses again, along with a small trailer.

I always wanted to show horses, but was quite a bit older when the opportunity presented itself.  We never could afford all the gear required for competition, let alone the expensive horse to make it happen.

At long last, having inched my way into the cutting horse world locally, I purchased this trailer for about what a house cost.  I hauled it and my two horses everywhere.  It's been to Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Southern California, all over the West Coast.  It's a long story, so I'll tell it some other time.

The Chance family arrived at 8:45.  I had moved the motorhome out of my back yard so there was plenty of room for us to see if this was actually going to work.  Mark and Dan moved the hitch up as high as it would go.  We all held our breath as I raised up the trailer.

Mark gingerly backed up, not being able to see anything.  He'll get used to that forward, back, forward, back stuff eventually.  I lowered the trailer onto the hitch.  We breathed a sign of relief when there still remained about six inches between the overhang and the top of the side rails.  Yeah, he may just have to lower his truck three more inches.

That's when the real work began.  Mark and Dan couldn't get ANY of the lights to work.

He had two chances, one the 5th wheel hookup in the side rail and two, the regular bumper hookup.  Neither worked.  It took a full three hours and blowing a fuse, along with lots of frustration before finally getting things to work.  Turns out it was probably just corrosion on the trailer plug.  I now have this schematic totally memorized.  You need your trailer wired?  I can tell you which wire is which!!

Actually, Laila and I just sat back and watched.  I showed her how to load the horses and gave Mark the spiel about how to give your horse a good ride so he arrives without a broken leg.  The horse, not Mark.  In the meantime, Dan loaded up all the horse troughs in the back.

At long last, every light worked ... or at least the important ones did ... and the brakes made a clicking noise.  It's a go!!!  After a quick trip to Auto Zone to pick up a new fuse to replace the blown one, they were off as I cried in my beer, or pepsi actually.

Say goodbye to your life Nancy!!  There's no use letting it sit and rot for another ten years.  I can't travel to Arizona and have horses too.  It's just not affordable nowadays.  Better to let someone get good use from it, making a little girl happy like I always wanted to be.  

In the meantime, I am going to take Mister Ed's advice and see if I can find some stables around Tucson that might let me take rides out over the trails.  

I instantly felt a great sense of loss that lasted the rest of the day and I didn't sleep at all.  I sent Dan a text message telling Mark he wasn't allowed to wear shorts when pulling horses in the trailer.  Etiquette and all ... even in the Arizona heat, levis are required.  

I sent Mark a message saying when I got there at the end of June, I was going to sleep in the trailer a couple of nights.  It might make me feel better!!