This year I brought Rain and Chaos. Chaos had been there two years ago as a two year old but this would be the first time out that he would be ridden. I forgot that Rain had been out there but it had been a few years.
Friday I had to run ot the vet. I'll blog about that later. I finally arrived about 10am with King, Chaos, and Rain in tow. Dad was on Rain and I was on Chaos. I was nervous! I wanted to stay close to the trailer because King is herd bound and I was afraid of what he would do if we were too far out of sight. So we stayed close to the trailers which meant we were close to the railroad tracks. 10am is the first train. Off of Chaos I went! I wasn't about to see how Chaos reacted to a train while on his back. We were a few hundred yards away but he did really well. The little putput engine that went by afterwards spooked him more. But all in all he did well. Rain on the other hand was a bit naughty and got upset more than Chaos.
So every half hour or so while we stood there parking cars, I would have to bail off Chaos when the train went by. My nerves were shot! Rain continued to be naughyt and give dad a workout. Not good for a guy with vertigo.
Chaos was a bit uncomfortable with a fourwheeler and was curious about a bicycle. Otherwise, he was a total champ! Although after two hours mine and his nerves were shot. So about noon we called it a day. I think Dad and Rain's nerves were shot by then too. So we decided to head to camp and let the other rides take over.
Saddle Club Member Directing Traffic Sataurday We knew Saturday would be pretty busy but never had any clue it would be THAT busy. We got to Prairie Village about 8ish and got out to the parking lot. I'm glad we got there when we did. By 9:30am the Highway 34 that goes past Prairie Village was backed up.
The longer we stood there, the longer the line got. We tried parking cars as fast as we could. The top parking lot was completely full by 10am. Dad and I had to keep moving with Rain and Chaos. Unfortunately Rain kept getting worse and worse for dad. So we switched. Dad hopped on Chaos and I got on Rain.
Rain is definately not a good car parking type of horse. I was pretty much a warm body and that was it. We tried to stay in the south parking lot (aka the stubble field) but after while that parking filled up. THAT's when we ran into trouble. Once the south parking fills up, there's no where else to park them.
I had to get Rain out of the parking area about noon. His and my nerves were shot. Rain wouldn't stand still and I was afraid he was going to back up into a car and do some damage. So dad, Chaos, Rain, and I headed back to the camp. There was nothing we could do to help people find parking spots anyway.
When we got back to the trailer, I noticed even *I* was blocked in. There was no way for me to even think of sneaking out.
View of the drivers patiently waiting to get in to Prairie Village (view looking west)
So we sat around for a few hours, had lunch, and chit chatted. I did end up going in to Prairie Village to play with the niece and nephews. I had a blast. By the time they wanted to go home it was about 4pm. The parking lot was STILL completely full! So full I'm positive there was triple parking everywhere.
Dad went with everyone else so that he could play with the grandkids some more. I was waiting for Mike so we could go to the tractor pull that started at 5pm. I think everyone else was planning on attending the tractor pull too.
Mike showed up about 6pm but we had to go find him food. So by the time we got back to the tractor pull the parking lot was still full but we were able to squeeze Mike in right in front of the truck. I was still pretty well blocked in. I could have manuvered the trailer around if I really wanted to get out but I figured there was no point in making multiple trips.
View of the drivers patiently waiting to get in to Prairie Village (view looking west)Mike and I sat at the tractor pull until 10pm when I started to worry about the horses. Rain and Chaos are black, my knots aren't all that great, I'm sure they are getting hungry. So at 10pm I headed out to the trailer to put them in. I figured I'd go back to the tractor pull knowing that the boys were safe in the trailer.
I had to load them with only the moon and my cell phone for light. Chaos loaded like a champ. But when I shut the door I realized that they would start making a ton of noise and there were people even camping out near the horse camp.
So I called Mike and asked if he would come and move the Explorer so I could get the horses home. The trailer that parked next to me that had blocked me in was STILL there sans truck even though he told people he was going to be there just for the day. HA
At 11pm I finally got the horses settled in for the night at mom and dads and headed off to bed. I was completely exhausted. I'd never seen that many people at Prairie Village before.
Sunday rolled around and dad and I decided to switch horses. He would ride Chaos and I would ride Rain. It was a battle to get Chaos in the trailer. For some odd reason he wouldn't have anything to do with that trailer. It took a good 10 minutes working him to convince him he wanted to go in the trailer. I was irritated by that point.
We finally pulled in, parked, and unloaded the horses about 8:30am. I parked right next to the trailer with the implements (the one that had me blocked in the night before).
As we were slowly puttering around getting everything ready, two saddle club members come rushing up to me with two horses (not theirs). They told me someone had gone down, B, and was hurt bad and asked if I could help with the horses. I took the one horse and H took the other. We unsaddled the horses and threw the tack in the trailer. The saddle club member's girlfriend, K, had asked for their truck. I didn't know how to unhook a gooseneck so H took care of that for me. I drove the truck down to the accident scene.
When I was handed the horse I was told B had had gone down. He was unconcious but breathing. When I drove the truck up, he was still unconcious. The ambulance was there along with the sheriff. I wanted to stay out of the way as long as possible. I watched them examine B and prepare him for the gurney. I still can't get over how limp he was. He's a big guy but was totally limp.
I hopped out so I could let K know her truck was there. She wouldn't let me drive her to the hospital. Too stubborn! Although I'm sure I would have done the same thing... need "alone time" to settle you're thoughts.
Everyone is still trying to figure out what exactly happened. No one really knows. So that wreck set the mood for the rest of the day. People kept asking us if we knew anything. Luckily someone at the hospital is a relative to B so they called to let us know in the afternoon that he was awake and asking about his horses. :-) A true horse person! He has bleeding on the brain so he's still not out of the woods but at least he's awake.
I think everyone in our saddle club was pretty quiet for the rest of the day. I know I was spooked to get back on Rain. He was flightly the entire day. I was a nervous wreck since Dad was on Chaos the entire time. I had to give up riding Rain after a few hours. Dad stayed on Chaos until we all decided to call it a day.
I still can't believe how well Chaos did. I will have to try and find a different horse to use for parking cars next year, so I don't have to take Rain.
I think the wreck yesterday has me pretty spooked. I think we should ALL be wearing helmets. They may not be a fashion statement but I'm wondering if B had been wearing a helmet if his condition would be different. We'll never really know. But it does make me want to keep my feet on the ground instead of keeping my butt in the saddle.
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