When I was in Wyoming last week, we loaded up seven horses into my friend P's big trailer.
Standing in a trailer as horses pile in: only pros can do this safely.Our destination? The end of a country road in the low mountains near the border between Wyoming and Idaho.
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On the way to the end of the road at the bottom of a beaver-dammed stream, we found ourselves in the middle of a cattle drive.
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The view through my friend's windshield. (That's a crack in the glass, not a ghostly mountain in the distance.)It was a small cattle drive, but to this city girl, it was enormous fun. There were cows to the right, left, and straight ahead of us. A bunch of cowboys--and cowgals--were rounding up the stragglers. And a bunch of cattle dogs were making sure everybody did their job juuuust right.
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As we waited for everyone to safely pass, I rolled down my window and snapped photos. I drew curious looks from some of the young women on horseback. I think it's because my friend's big pickup and horse trailer and Wyoming plates clearly marked her as a local, but I was snapping away like some sort of idiotic, cow-struck city slicker.
Well, they were wrong.
I'm a idiotic, cattle-dog-struck city slicker!
Happy feet on that dog!
Not a city slicker.
The hoodie sweatshirt worn with the leather chaps: City meets Country.The gentleman below, clearly an experienced rider, was trying to get his horse to go through a small gap in the fence to reach some cows on the other side. I love how his horse is, for a moment, Not. Having. It!:
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Busy, busy, busy dog.
This group was just a few yards ahead of us.
What're YOU lookin' at?At last all the cows, dogs, and horses passed, and we traveled on to a small turnaround to unload the horses.
We lashed our saddlebags down to our saddles...
Saddlebags come in washable fabric now, too: Good idea!
The gorgeous, one-eyed Hoot, patiently waiting for the start of the ride.We climbed a streamside trail into the low mountains, which were breaking out in a blaze of autumn color:
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A while later, we reached our destination. Horses safely tied, we sat on old logs and ate a sack lunch while admiring the glorious views.
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Then we made our way back to the trailers, loaded everybody up, and drove to the local ice cream place, which is on the grounds of a working sawmill.
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And absolutely everybody had some!
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