A Two Bear Day

Usually I am the last one to arrive--everyone is up and at 'em before I get there. Lynn runs and catches everyone, sometimes has to saddle all of them, and then waits around for me and Shirley to show up and just ride. Not today! Lynn said 5:30, so I got up at 4:00 in an effort to be on time. I kept asking myself, did she mean ride at 5:30 or be there at 5:30? I got up and got everything together so I could get out of the house and hopefully split the difference--

There were no lights on in either house. No one seemed liked they were stirring. I walked up to the trailer and left my gear and grabbed the halters--still no Lynn in sight. I looked all around the barn area and in the pasture. Nope, no Lynn. Finally I walked down to the house and called in the back door window, "Lynn. Are you in there?" She finally answered me, she would be there in a minute. It's a day for the history books--I got up and out before Lynn! (:

Jupiter heard my voice and came to me. So I crawled under the fence and haltered him. I called to Ziggy, but he only looked at me. The only one besides Jupiter who was interested in me and talking back was Buster. (Well, that's not exactly true--Brady came and had a carrot and then of course, Indy did too.) By the time I got to the gate, Lynn was there. I passed off the other two halters and off she went to catch Star and Ziggy. Shirley showed up after everyone was saddled and called herself "the cow's tail." I was happy it wasn't me. As we walked to get into the truck, Lynn said, "I bet we see a bear today."

We had a great ride today--we went up the hill on the road, which took us down and around through the woods. On the other side of the mountain, as we were coming to the road crossing to go on down the trail, Lynn said, "What am I looking at it?" Then she got excited. "Oh! Look to your right, your left, oh over there!" as she pointed to our left."There's two bears--a cinnamon one and a black one!" Then she took off on Zigs to chase them. "They were just little," she said as we stopped on the road and turned back to go on down the trail. As we dropped on down a bit, suddenly they were there again. This time I got to see them, too. Only they weren't little after all. One of them was pretty big. Lynn chased them up the hill a little then she said, "Oh, okay, that's probably far enough," as the big momma gave her the impression maybe she wasn't too scared and was ready to turn back around and defend her baby.

It was fun to see them. We saw evidence of them by the pond as well. Lynn put her two hands together, heel to heel to show the size the bear's back paw. Yeah, she turned out to be bigger than anyone's first impression.

Happy also had an adventure. She didn't tell us about it, but she disappeared for quite awhile. We backtracked, calling her. She showed up, thankfully, and then dragged herself along with us. She was tired. None of us know when exactly she lost us, but I think she made the loop ahead of us and thus did it twice. No matter what, we were all happy to find her--Shirley even said she was about to cry when she spotted Happy on the trail ahead of her. "I just love that dog," she said. Well, she is a "good 'un" as they say.

Wet blankets and happy girls today: no one got thrown off; no one got lost; Zigs did what Lynn wanted him to do (chase a bear) even though the poop just ran out of him; Jupiter stood still and let me get us unstuck from a mess of downfall that ensnared us; Star behaved like the perfect horse. Another day in paradise!