Echo River Ranch

   Five Plus Three
   Equals Eighty

   
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Thursday - August 7, 1986 page 2





  The aftermath of
 the bucking spree.
 "Oh Snickers, even
though you crumpled
 the soup and other
  mixes, you missed
  two eggs and only
    got the canteen
    to the middle of
   the lake, not the
       other side."

She bucked along the bank of the lake and up to where the horses had been eating, then proceeded to buck in circles. The saddle began slipping to her side, but the boxes hung to the saddle tightly. About the time Dena caught up with her, the breeching was broke enough to get wrapped around a hind leg. She stopped bucking, but her efforts were now bent towards removing the straps from her leg through kicking. She struggled and fell on top of the boxes a few times until the breeching broke some more and freed her leg. She was still nervous, but Dena kept her steady long enough for Debie and Kiki to get the cinch and breast collar undone so that the pack saddle would fall off.

Amazingly enough, all of he other horses stood by calmly and watched the entire episode. All the fears and exhaustion of the last few days caused comments of quitting and ending the trip to be voiced. At this point, Debie finally lost patience with the others and blew up; se screamed that she had just about heard enough complaining, that they would continue towards Berry Path and reach it when they could, and that there would not be any more talk about quitting, ever.

Dena decided to ride Snickers for the rest of the trip and Pam who was unhappy with Penny allowed her to be the new pack horse while she rode April. It was after 11:00 before they road back up the path to the main trail, where it continued along the side slopes of Mt. Adams. The trail was very dry and dusty, and crossed only waterless streams. As they rode by the junction of trail #13, they passed a group of day pleasure riders. There was about eight riders with a couple of dogs, and they had two young foals tagging along beside their mothers. They were also leading a little pony, all saddled up, but without a rider.

   
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