Settling In The First Night ~ A Camp Tour

 

As soon as I arrived at our Dragonwycke Ranch Horse Camp, I was eager to check on Apache. She had arrived the day before on Thursday afternoon. Colleen put my mare in with her herd because Apache had ridden with all of them before and had been pastured with Etta Bay for a week here at home, so she was quickly accepted and felt quite at home.

Here’s Apache laying down at the far end of the field, with Etta Bay, Rosie, Bella, Jake, and Bandit(the palomino eating hay). In the field on the left are Christine’s gelding, Chester and Bill’s soon to be adopted rescue gelding, Pal, along with Matt and Callie’s recently rescued, adopted and gelded boy, Jasper.

 

After unloading all of my camping stuff inside the tent I shared with Christine and checking on Apache, Colleen and Christine took me for a walk and tour of the property. But only a portion, because Dragonwycke Ranch is over 120 acres. It’s a truly magical and beautiful place to live, and to visit. I also met the generous, kind, amazingly funny and fascinating owner, Deb, who would be joining us and leading our trail rides through the Carson National Forest.

Deb also operates the Taos Dog Camp from her ranch and gives exceptional quality care to the lucky dogs that have the privilege of being boarded there. Deb, even though she now lives about 3 hours from Walkin In Circles Ranch Horse Rescue, is still a big part of the WNCR Horse Rescue and used to be an active volunteer when she lived nearby. Several of her current equines are rescues and a part of her family. They have a great life wandering freely around her entire property.

This is Deb letting her sweet old donkey, Ruthie take her for a short ride.

    

 

When I arrived at Dragonwycke Ranch, there were already several folks riding around, but I got in rather late and I decided to settle in first, and begin riding the next morning. So, after my tour, I came back to the campsite and set up my side of the tent I was sharing with friend Christine. That’s my cot on the right.

Christine teased me with how much padding I had on my cot. Besides the extra sleeping bag and fleece blanket, because I knew it would get very cold at night, down into the 40’s, because we were above 9,000 ft elevation, I also brought with me, 2 foam camp mats and an egg crate mattress. And Colleen left two foam-filled pads on top of the cot for me before I arrived, so with everything combined, my cot was rather cushy. In fact I joked that it felt like I was sleeping on top of jello. But I sure slept comfortably both nights and woke up without feeling sore at all.

There were 4 other tents along with Colleen’s LQ horse trailer to sleep all 8 of us who were camping and riding. And there was the Dining Tent where we shared all our meals family style.

And boy howdy! Did we eat hardy while we were there. The first night we were served delicious chicken and beef fajitas. The next morning we awakened to scrumptious egg and bacon burritos with lots of hot coffee.  For lunch we enjoyed tasty chicken sandwiches, and for dinner we all chowed down on Carne Adovado and potato burritos. The next morning Colleen’s granddaughter, T cooked us up some delicious french toast and sausage along with hot coffee, and then for lunch we enjoyed fabulous shredded chicken barbecue sandwiches. And of course, all the meals were served with salsa, fresh avocado, chips and guacamole. Yumm!

The dining tent was also used for relaxing, visiting, listening to music, dancing and playing rousing games of Equine Trivial Pursuit, America-opoly, and Horse-opoly.

That’s Callie and Matt on the far left. They are the hard-working full-time caretakers of WNCR Horse Rescue. And new adopters of the recently rescued and gelded Jasper. Then there’s Loeta and Christine, with Colleen at the head of the table. Then Bill on the right, also a volunteer, and soon-to-be adopter of the recently rescued gelding Pal. And last, but certainly not least is T, Colleen’s terrific granddaughter. And that’s Ruthie over there waiting for someone to pull out a chair for her, so she can play, too.

Ruby, also tried to join in on the fun, as well. She wanted to sit in that red chair.

And see? I told you there was dancing.

Those are my dear friends, Colleen, Christine and Loeta. (Forgive me ladies. lol!) I think they’re always beautiful, but keep in mind that this photo was taken after riding all day in the mountains, and after cooking, eating and cleaning up dinner, and after getting nice hot showers in Deb’s cabin. It’s amazing how a shower can relax you and re-energize you, all at the same time. lol!

Speaking of showers, we also couldn’t live without the luxury of a bathroom. And we had a really nice outdoor one, built by Colleen’s talented husband, John.

Didn’t he do a great job?

I must share something funny about that cowboy boot curtain waving in the breeze. There were a couple times that I was sitting inside doing my business and was startled to discover a velvety muzzle, sometimes horse and sometimes donkey, poke itself inside to visit with me. When Ruby, the mare stuck her head in, she decided a nice wet snort would be a great way to greet me. But I didn’t agree. yuk! Ruthie, the donkey was much more polite and didn’t cover me with slimy green boogeries.

See how nice this outhouse is? It even has a skylight so it’s not dark and creepy inside.

 

(I wonder how many blogs create posts that showcase outhouse photos?)

Friday night, after we were all tucked into our cozy cots, the rain came pouring down joined by booming thunder and flashing lightning. I kept thinking, “I wonder how safe it is to be inside a metal framed tent during a lightning storm?” And I wondered if we’d be riding in the rain on Saturday or if the ground would be a muddy slippery mess.

Would our Saturday riding be a wash-out?

(To Be Continued………………….)