Going for Trouble

  Having had the biscuit (so to speak) with Franks horses, our next project was to go to Calgary to get Trouble. That was fine by me as I had been missing him and wanted to have him out in B.C. A trip to Calgary was always filled with visits to the folks and Lyn's parents lived not too far out of Calgary as well.
When we were ready to go home we went out to the pasture where Trouble had been boarded. There were a lot of horses out there and I wondered for a moment how I would find him and how much he had changed in six months.  The easiest way of course would be to whistle for him as I always had and I have never been so proud of him as when he came right out of the herd!  Wow almost like Fury in the movies!

  We had no horse trailer and even the racks on the back of the truck were a bit iffy.  There also was no bank easily accessible to back up to for easy loading. Frank, ever the haywire cowboy, decided the horse could just jump in from the ground.  Well it is possible and that crazy Pronto did it all the time but my young horse??  Oh  ye of little faith! Be damned if Trouble didn't give it a good try but it wasn't clean and he stumbled and hit his knees and my heart had another squeeze of the worried kind. Here I began being a worried Momma for sure and all the way home I continued to worry.  An Alberta storm came up with heavy rain and finally hail! But Frank simply pulled under an overpass and we waited it out.  it seemed a very long trip home indeed! In the end I have to say Trouble rode like a trooper, although he had never been hauled before and I was happy to get him home in one piece and happy to have him with me.

  Now many "firsts" began for Trouble as well as me.  This flat land horse did well in Alberta but B.C. was a lot different.  Riding down the back road, we startled a herd of deer and they "popped" their white tails and poor Trouble didn't know what to make of that.  Then too he had never been ridden on roads with vehicles coming by but eventually he got used to many things and seemed to be a good horse to ride and I enjoyed him a lot.

    Never one to sit still for long, the next thing Frank decided we should do is ride up to Kokanee Glacier. Oh boy, now we would really get to see the mountains!  We went with several other riders, mostly Herb Thompson's family that were almost all teenagers.  My niece Kelly came along on her pony Sugar, Frank rode Big Red of course and I had Trouble.  All our sleeping gear and tents were put in Herbs one ton truck and  his wife Fay drove it up.  One other fellow came with us on a grey horse named Toby, this was Johnny Command and although not well-versed in horses he seemed capable enough.  It was a long ride right from town for all of us.

   Eventually however, we reached the real start of the road leading up to the Glacier.  The trees were huge and thick by the sides of the road and the smell of the air different from down below.  It seemed to get fresher and fresher as we got higher.  There was good camaraderie among all riders and it was an enjoyable ride but we had to push it a bit to get to our campsite before dark.  When we arrived, Fay had camp all set up.  I had not camped out a lot at all but the Thompson family were experienced campers for sure.  We soon had our tents set up and sat down to a good hearty supper of Fays' Hamburger stew and buns.  it  was filling and tasted as good as any meal I have ever eaten. When we went to bed that night a small problem arose.  Johnny was in our tent and decided he wanted Kelly's pillow,which she was not about to part with and it was her pillow after all. Throughout the night Johnny would attempt to steal said pillow and Kelly would squawk and hang on tight. He never did get it!

    We had tied our horses to trees for the night and I was pleased to see Trouble had done alright with that. After a good breakfast we started up the actual Glacier trail.  I soon began to wonder at taking a prairie horse into the mountains.  Trouble seemed to think that as long as his left two legs were close the side of the mountain the other two could dangle off into space!  The distance to the bottom was breath-taking and I was sure if he went over we could not be able to rescue him if he did survive the fall. This would be helicopter work! But I was a prairie chicken as well (heavy on the chicken) and the heights were something new and scary at times.
   When we came to our first dead fall on the trail, Johnny proved to be a lazy rider. He simply tied the reins up and left his horse to judge how to get over it.  Toby gave it a good try but cut his ankle in the process. It was spurting blood and we all decided Johnny would have to take Toby back to Fay and she would doctor it.  So there went this big strong logger back down to the trail head.  Every so often he must have looked at the wound and not being able to tolerate the sight of blood very well would be dry heaving all the way! The sound carried back to us and we laughed every time.When he got to Fay she simply slapped flour on the wound an bound it with a neckerchief and the bleeding soon stopped.
   The rest of us continued on and I learned that in really steep places (wasn't it all that way?) you had to let your horse follow the horse in front of you and hang onto your horses tail! Oh yeah? and what if the horse kicked back?? But in truth the horses were much too busy to be kicking anyone and just worked their way up. Thank goodness horses are herd animals and stick together and follow so well!
   Once again I found myself trying to reason that neither my brother or Herb (who was a forest ranger) would take me somewhere I could be killed? But that possibility looked very possible sometimes! I also learned slick-soled cowboy boots were not the best footwear in the mountains and thereafter would have treaded soles put on my boots by the shoemaker. I often slipped and slid backwards. Fortunately the horses were shod with toe and heel shoes for better grip.
   Even the very last bit of trail was difficult with a huge boulder to negotiate! But what an exhilarating sight to come out at the top--similar to being on top of the world!! You could see for many miles and there were lots more mountains for sure and all looked different in some way or the other. It was very still and quiet and I am sure the horses enjoyed walking on soft grasses and a flat trail for a change.  We ambled around and went to the cabin we knew was there but all too soon we had to go back down again or get caught up here in the dark. But after such a hard climb is seemed a shame not to be able to linger a bit longer.

   Much as I love living in B.C., its true that everything is either up or down.  If you go up sooner or later you have to go down again and vice-versa of course.  And so we checked our cinches and started down again.  Down is hard on the knees and Herb knew it was hard on the horses as well and would call a rest every so often.  I was always up for that! Without any further incidents we arrived back at camp. Fay had supper cooked and again it tasted like fruit of the Gods! Was I hungry!

Johnny received a lot of teasing with his dry heaves that had echoed up the mountain and we sat around the fire hashing over our good day of riding, but not for long. It had been a tiring day and it was not long before we were all in bed snoring and sleeping the tired off.
   The next day was great weather once again and we packed up camp and got Fay headed down the road first and then followed on  our horses. I was pretty proud of my prairie horse and when we reached the bottom of the Glacier road everyone started loading their horses in trucks. There wasn't room for Trouble and although a young lad offered to ride him home I declined his offer and rode the rest of the way by myself
and at one point picked up Chubby to give him a rest as well.  It had been a marvellous trip when I thought about it and I looked forward to more but just not right away?  We had our first mountain trip under out belt and had survived. Could it get any better?