Sunday, July 18, 2010

What was I thinking last night when I went to bed? I was thinking, I want to get up really early and go to Shiloh and see Granite. I told Ben, "wake me when you wake up". If you know Ben, you know this is a dangerous request. Ben gets "Up at the Crack of Dawn" everyday. At precisely 4:45 a.m. Sunday morning, Ben reached over and woke me up (he took his life into his own hands, brave man), he said, "honey do you want to go the ranch", in his most charming voice. How did I respond, no, no, I was nice, eventually. I was super excited to go to Shiloh and see Granite and the rest of the horses and critters, I chirped, "NO". Well, that was my first response, but my second response, moments later, much to Ben's surprise, was when I jumped out of bed and said "Lets go honey'. The nicer side shinning out at dawn, the crack of dawn. This is what owning a horse does to you, it makes you nice at the crack of dawn. Dressed, packed with water, Gatorade, soda, protein bars, ranch shoes, sun screen and all the other necessary items to venture into the Mojave desert in the middle of the hottest week of the year. Yes, it was 88 degrees at 5:15 when we left the house. Ben is responsible for everything but dressing me, I did that myself. A quick stop at McDonalds, at Ben's suggestion and off we go. The sun was just coming over the mountains as we drove down 215 on our way to Shiloh. Nice this time of the morning, a few cars, not many. Probably coming home from a night out, no one in their right mind would be getting up at dawn on a Sunday, or would they? The drive is nice this early, its my first early, early drive to Shiloh. We munched down our breakfast and coffee, chatted and checked out the awesome scenery and critters on the way to the ranch. Most people, unless they live in the desert think its just a hot waste land. This is not true at all, its a beautiful place, but you cannot just speed by, you have to pay attention. Its a beautiful and picturesque place perfectly landscaped, rocks, cactus of all kinds, grasses and the occasional quail, yes quail, rabbits, desert fox and if you really keep your eyes open SNAKES. I am not afraid of snakes.
We arrived at the ranch at 6:15 (I wonder where the time goes when I am trying to get to Shiloh, I seem lost in a time warp, it seems to take forever) just in time to see Gene, Gene is the gentlemen who has stopped at Shiloh to wait for the really hot days to pass. He is a super neat and nice guy, he is a long rider. Long riders, I guess, go on these super long rides, thus the term "long rider". Gene is going to travel from San Diego to the east cost, he was on his way to San Diego when he stopped at Shiloh. Shiloh seems to draw the most wonderful and interesting people, horse people. Gene has two of the largest mules I have ever seen, I have not seen a lot of mules, but I know these girls are big. Anyway, Gene was on his way to fill the water troughs for all the horses and critters at the ranch. When you get to the ranch you are always greeted by the ranch dogs, which you pet, hug and tickle. Its like a ritual, pull up, put on your ranch shoes, play with the dogs, open the gate, say hi to whomever crosses your path, human or animal, stop along the way, fill up a trough, chat with a horse, alpaca, lama, human, whomever crosses your path. All the while, in the back of my mind I am excited to see my main guy, Granite. Their is a lot to do before you even get to Granite. First all the introductions we just went through, and little chores you find along the way and then into Cherry Pie (Cherry Pie is a little house built on the ranch with air conditioning, bathroom, fridge and table), gotta drop off my cooler and water jug, cut up the apples and then we are ready to go to the tack room. I have my own little tack room ( I share with Helga, we we have our own little tack room, she is super nice). I was so excited to get my first tack room, me, my own horse and tack room, who knew. By the time I get to the tack room, I have again filled a few water troughs, handed out some of Granites apples and petted a couple of horses. Before going out to get Granite I must prepare his treat, which I do very quickly, right after I killed the biggest black widow I have ever seen. I believe in live and let live, but this sucker could do damage so I squashed it. Ben was no where to be found so it was useless to scream and act scared, killed it myself. Do not tell Ben I am not afraid of spiders. After preparing Granites treat, I grab his new red halter and lead rope. Yes, I have those things, my very first. Granite looks great in red. I am off to get my guy, a couple more stops and I am at his pasture. I looked and looked and could not see him, my heart skipped and then, I spied him, standing with three other horses, tail to face, tail to face. Horses know how to take care of each other, you swat the flies off my face and I will swat the flies off yours. Humans could learn from horses, a lot. I put down the lead rope and halter and climbed through the fence, every time I come to see him it makes me cry, he is saw awesome and he is mine, WOW. Yes, he comes to me, with a little coxing, after all he has his own personal fly swatter, tempting to stay, but he comes. We meet half way, exchange our hugs and kisses, I do all the hugging and kissing, he just stands their. He is so patient, a lot like Ben. On goes his halter and lead rope and we are off. Granite, gets his treats, a brush a wash and lots of love. I do it a little backwards, I have to switch it around, should be work the horse, brush the horse and give him a treat. I like dessert first. We will switch it up later, its dawn, its hot he needs pampering. I did work on his fear of water and that seems to be coming along nicely. During the Granite pamper time, some other friends stop by, Charlie, the resident "little fat pony", he needs some treats, then their is Aztec, he needs some treats, then their is the lama, who I call MAMA, but that is not her name its Inca, a couple of wanders (horses that wander around) and of course Mojo, a little black pony. Mojo is Aztecs love interest, Aztec is an alpaca, don't ask. They love each other, check out the Shiloh blog, its the cutest thing ever. By now its 95 degrees, I know that because, Ben keeps telling me I am hot, I had not noticed, kidding. Ben's funny, he thinks I won't notice that is almost 100 degrees and I am standing in the sun brushing down a huge horse. I notice, I just do not care, I am completely into Granite, its such a cool thing to have your own horse. Granite trusts me for the most part, he still spooks (when I do something dumb) but he is coming along nicely, learning to ignore my obvious short falls. It is time to go, it has heated up and I am really only good for a couple of hours in the super hot heat. I lead Granite back to his pasture all the while checking out this and that. Its not easy to walk a straight line at Shiloh, there is always something to distract you, finally we make it to Granites pasture, just in time for his breakfast, he has already had breakfast with me, but this is his second breakfast. He leads beautifully into the pasture, even though I know he cannot wait to start chowing down. Granite loves food, yes he does, MMM so do I. I release Granite with one last hug and a promise to see him next week and off he goes, happy, content and just simply awesome. Its time for me to go, it takes me forever to leave the ranch, I think its because I do not want to go, but I need to go. I chat with Gene awhile, Ben waits patiently, I have to go back to the tack room a couple of times cause I keep forgetting that I have a halter and rope around my neck, cause I keep getting distracted. Finally, we are ready to go, a quick goodbye to Stretch, Vanilla, the mamas with their babies, and Sitka and we are off. Another wonderful day at Shiloh. The ride home is quiet, I like to think about what I just did. Me, a horse owner, getting my horse from his pasture, putting on a halter, leading and grooming him WoW. For me this is amazing and I love it. The drive back is beautiful, quiet and just the end to a perfect morning. When you get up at 4:45, morning is over at 9:00 a.m., you have a full day ahead, its great. All the creatures we saw on the way their are gone, early arrival at Shiloh is good, lots of things you do not see if you come later. I will do more of getting "Up at the Crack of Dawn". Thanks Granite, you have changed my life, I love you old boy.