ride4acure

Hay is my old stomping ground and it’s a little surreal to be here , lived in this area throughout the 80’s until 1992 when I moved to kempsey).  I used to train my horses when I rodeod here at the grounds in the 80’s.  Tonight we’ve yarded the horses (right on dark) and all of us too tired to bother having a shower (too far to walk back to the  shower block (on the other side of the race course area a good 700 m in the dark), so we’re camping here and will relocate in daylight to a powered site and within vicinity of the shower block!  Esther and Joe already catching z’s….I thought I’d enjoy a quiet cup of tea and update the blog.  What a long day today.  I was up at 4.30 and fed the horses (giving Esther an extra 45 minutes in her swag.  But when day break came we had a ‘pea soup’ fog.  We were camped 95 kms East of Hay, Esther had rode nearly 85 kms from just the other side of Narranderra which was a great effort only on Meg and Titan as Lofty is a little lame in his off side hind with some swelling on his fetlock.  We’ve been putting ‘Sore No More’ arnica based linament on him, ice bandages, tuffrock and red lighting him!  The two days here over the weekend will help him.  I’ve got the local Vet Wayne Gardham coming in the morning to  give all the horses a vet check but also to check Lofty for us.  It is expected that there’ll be some settling in with fitness/soundness issues with the horses.  All three are looking magnificent and are in good condition however every day they’re coping with a change in environment, temperatures, road conditions and it certainly is demanding.  I know from my trek last year the horses just like us humans ‘hit the wall’ and can ‘question’ “Can I really do this?-Do I have what it takes?”  I have faith in these guys, I know Meg’s a ripper and tough as nails, Titan has the will and ability, Lofty he’s a ‘doofus’ and is the least ‘mature’ of the string….but he is very capable and has it in him to do the job.  Joe and Lofty get on very well (Esther and I reckon they’re both at the adolescent boy stage!).  The other day Esther passed his reins to  Joe when she dismounted and we overheard Joe say to Lofty, “Come with me mate …lets have some Dude time!”

Esther riding 'Meg' across the Hay Plains.

It was a long day for Esther today, good to be off the shoulder for a good part of the ride, plenty of trucks, who in the fog this morning for three hours were fantastic, I put a call every 15 minutes over the UHF to caution drivers of the horse and slow moving truck giving our location etc and they were all on the look out and kept an eye out.

Well am starting to shiver so am off to bed myself. To cold sitting up now!

5 am, very crisp, foggy no frost equal great conditions for the trek.  Have just ducked outside to greet this new day and was blown away by the clarity of the night sky, a gazzillion bright stars shining their lights for us.  Clancy our little Jack Russell, foxy, Chihauha cross sleeps inside with us, Hamish (Hannah’s Jack Russell) was tied up last night outside (with a sheepskin bed to sleep in) his night on guard and mouse duty under neath the truck, cleaning up mice as we’re travelling through a cronic mouse plague area in the Riverina.  Clancy just went beserk outside chasing mice around, it is unbeleivable, I have met people who are catching hundreds of mice a night in their homes. Heard a story a few days ago where mice ate their way through a 20kg bag of dog food in 48 hours! All I can say is I’m glad we have our hounds with us as they’re a great help in keeping the critters out of our ‘home’.

Esther, Joe and I went to Narranderra Rotary Club last night and I was guest speaker.  I have such a heart for Rotary, a fantastic community organisation with a strong vision for community.  It is such a pleasure to revisit Narranderra Rotary a year on from being here with the pack horse trek.  We were made to feel very welcome. A big thank you to John Foster for being the contact and taxi driver.

Meg, Lofty and Titan had a ripper rest day yesterday, lazing in the warmth, fed to the eyeballs.  We started our day with a delicious bacon and egg breaky cooked by Joe on the campfire, making ‘toad in a hole’ (cutting a hole in a slice of bread with a mug and cracking the eggs in to cook) and bacon.  Delicious after weeks of weetbix on the run! Renee from Mirrool gave Joe the bacon the other morning to cook up…Yum..

Visited Grong Grong Public School on Tuesday, great to be back, the kids very excited to met upwith Esther and Joe.

Esther, Joe and Grong Grong Public School students with 'Hugo'.

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We’ve finally got our solar and 12 volt system sorted on the truck.  Craig from Narranderra Auto Electrical came down to camp on Tuesday afternoon to problem solve for us (had trouble with lights and fridge not charging properly) and he came back yesterday for about four hours and worked solid to get it right for us.  Our batteries were very ordinary and a little ‘charging box’ was cactus so got that sorted and we’re operating to full capacity!  Incredibly grateful to Craig as he donated his labour to do the job.  Thanks so much.

People are what this ride is about. Meeting and sharing stories.  Met a man two days ago who has lost five of his immediate family to melanoma. Five.  Met a lady who was a special needs carer at a hgh school I was presenting at who had just lost a 19 year old neice to melanoma. A 15 year old boy diagnosed with malignant melanoma, his mum carries the photo of his biopsy with her to remind herself how precious life is and how lucky to get a diagnosis early.  A couple of days ago when Esther rode through Ardlethan (just by down the Newell, Joe and I ducked into Ardlethan and picked up hot pies for lunch) many people shared with us Wes Bonny’s story, he came from Ardlethan.  In the ten minutes we were pulled up in the main street in our ride4acure truck half a dozen people made donations and shared stories with us.  (I have a link on the side bar under resources to Wes’s story). Wes like Hannah was young and lost his life to melanoma in 2010.  Every day for us there’s more stories unfolidng around us. Stories that need to be shared, told, listened to.  My hope is that the ears of those who can make a difference, our politicians,  government organisations that disseminate research dollars, and most importantly people young and old, can understand what they can do to make a difference.

Watching one of my horses in pain reminded me of how much I love them all and rely on them. Titan came down with a mild case of colic last night at about 6pm! A few days earlier Lofty had a mild case of ‘tying up’. Walking Titan around the perimeter of the paddock the three horses were in last night waiting for vet to arrive were the longest minutes of the entire trek! I had just fed all three of them and in the end Meg and Lofty left their feeds and walked around with Titan and I. It really reinforced ‘there is no I in Team’ these horses and me are a crew. We rely on each other and have a bond that runs a lot deeper than face value.

Being able to appreciate the individual traits of each of my horses and understand just as humans we are who we are. Some people are scared of spiders,  Lofty has an intense fear of blown up truck tyres! Some people are scared of heights, Titan hates trucks bearing down on him! Some people like to have their hair brushed, Meg would prefer to be worked, fed and left alone.

I am learning so many things about ‘life’. This trip is certainly teaching me about taking things day by day. Sometimes even hour by hour! I don’t think about getting to Perth, I think about getting the next 15k’s in an hour and a half. Live everyday to the best of your ability and enjoy the people you have to share the moments with! Be who you are, say how you feel, those that mind don’t matter and the people that matter don’t mind!

Happy Trails. Xx Es

Titan Lofty Esther & Meg at Yeoval Show Opening

Emily-The Adventurous Rat’, was a Christmas Gift from Esther and Joe has loved her with all his heart since.  Emily came on the trek and Joe has been dreaming up stories of her since and had hoped to write them up.  Sadly last night little Emily was found dead and a very broken hearted Joe laid her to rest with us following a  little funeral at approximately 8pm.  We’re staying with the Pettit family here in West Wyalong and we buried Emily in their garden (a good distance away from a few passed on cats!- Joe thought that’d send the wrong message to Emily!) Last image before Joe going to sleep last night was Emily being gently and lovingly held in Hannah’s hands. Rest in Peace Emily the Most Adventurous Rat…

Joe & Emily

Lunch camp, Meg ready for the next leg.

It was pitch dark with a just gone full moon rising tonight as we cut our destination of ‘Minaroo’ short and pulled into ‘Inwood’ 32 kms on the West Wyalong side of Forbes.  Esther rode just over 80kms today with many interupptions throughout, but all good.  Had a couple of media interviews and many people stopping to talk which is brilliant.  Met up with the sister of a friend from Kempsey  (Leo Smiths sister Marie) -on the edge of Forbes, which was delightful.  It is so good to see anyone with a connection to Kempsey.  Also today right on lunch camp had Keith and Barb French from French’s Rodeo Photo’s drive past in their bus on their way to a horse event at Gunnedah do a sharp ‘u’ turn and come back and join us for lunch.  Keith and Barb very generously donated a massive and beautiful photo of Hannah and Lena at Chiltern rodeo in 2008 for us (plus Barb came to our second dinner dance in 2009 and spent up big on many auction items!) It is so good to connect with people.

Lofty had a tough morning this morning, with a minor ‘tying up’ (cramping in his gut) for a couple of hours, so we had to keep him walking and we got behind a few hours then.  Esther did an awesome job riding the Newell Highway there is literally thousands of B Doubles and semi’s on this road.  Joe and I heard many truckies talking about the  ‘girl riding her horse’ today.  The truckies are mostly fantastic.  It isn’t as cold for us as we’ve had though I suspect we’re in for a frost tomorrow morning.  We’ll be up at 5am, cuppa tea, feed the horses, and Esther hopefully will be riding away at about 6.30am.  We’ll stop and have morning tea with Richard and Sue Maslin (our hosts for tonight!)  We’ve got a farrier lined up for West Wyalong this Saturday, Lofty has already worn the shoes out he got on at Quirindi!. Rest day in West Wyalong on Saturday (shopping, cleaning truck, washing all our clothes! updating computer stuff, downloading photo’s etc.)

A massive thankyou to the men at Forbes Auto Electrical Service for sorting out our twelve volt charging system!

ride4acure 2011 Coast2Coast horse trek – Day 14 Blog.