Mercutio resting in our portable Corrals 2 Go corral after the long trailer ride.
From the Sacramento Pass campground near Ely, Nevada, we traveled to the Rose Ranch Resort (http://roseranchresort.com/) near Marysville, UT. Now, they don't advertise as horse motel, but I was desperate for a place to spend the night so we wouldn't have to spend too much time on the road. Nathan Marshall, the owner, was willing to put us up for the night and he was extremely kind to do so.
We would have loved to book a cabin, but they were all reserved so we ended up pitching a tent and putting up the portable corral.
Rose Ranch used to be a working guest ranch with horses, but they got rid of the horses in the 2008 recession when people were dumping horses. The stables are gone. The Marshalls are the new owners, and they turned it into an RV park where they rent out ATVs to guests.
All the trails that used to be used for guided horse rides are now used by the ATVs, so we were obliged to use a small trail that can't be used by ATVs.
Here I am on the short trail by the creek. We could hear the sound of water running through the creek by our tent. The trail was hard pack and sand.
Once again, I got to set up my kitchen and we had a nice shady area on a lawn. The resort even provided an extension cord, so we could plug in our fridge/freezer. There was wireless internet, but it was spotty.
I am a little peeved by the use of the word "resort" here. In my mind, a resort has a place to eat, a small store, a pool, a jacuzzi, maybe tennis courts and a golf course. The Rose Ranch Resort had none of those things. There were two unisex bathrooms with showers (single stall -bring your own toilet paper, single shower) and an ice freezer where we could purchase ice. We were grateful for a place to spend the night and we purchased two bags of ice for our coolers.
The horses were thrilled that we were allowed to locate the corral on a beautiful lawn.
When we departed, this is what was left of the lawn. You can see where the corral was and where the horses pretty much ate every scrap of grass they could find and were starting to tear up the dirt. This is after a single night.
Our next stop was at Tasha Equestrian Campground near Richfield, UT. At this point, we were seven days into our trip and out of hay. So we stopped in Richfield, hoping to find a feed store with bales of hay or alfalfa. There are three feed stores in Richfield; which, by the way, is a pretty small town. There were more feed stores than Starbucks and McDonalds. None of the feed stores carried bales. We ended up buying two 50 lbs sacks of alfalfa cubes because horses need to eat.
We had just pulled out of the feed store and were at a light when a local in the car next to us signaled me to roll down my window. When I did, he advised me that one of the trailer tires had a bulge in it. I thanked him. Ari pulled onto a side street and we got out to check the tire.
See the bulge in the tire in the lower right?
Well, we couldn't drive on that. Yes, we have a spare and the spare is a real tire, not one of those odd ones, but if we are in a town where we can buy a tire, I would rather do that then burn the spare.
I quickly pulled up 'local tire stores' on my cell phone and found a Big O Tires a half a mile from our location.
We pulled into the Big O Tires place and they took care of us right away. We didn't even have to take the horses out of the trailer. As you can see from the video, they jacked up the trailer with the horses inside. We were taken care of in about 15 minutes. It cost us about $120 for the new tire and the service, plus they checked the air pressure in the remaining tires to make sure they were OK.
Driving to Tasha Equestrian https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/233150, we could still see snow on the mountains and the temperature was in the mid-60s.
We were greeted at the campsite by the hostess who handed us a trail map. It was fairly easy to locate our campsite because my name was on it.
There were three pipe corrals, so the horses were secure. The horses were introduced to alfalfa cubes at dinner, which we poured into their grain bins. Both horses were extremely upset about the menu change. What is this you are trying to feed us? Where is the real food? They dumped their grain bins and stomped all over the alfalfa cubes to show their displeasure. Lennox urinated all over his dinner, but by breakfast his hunger had made him less choosy. Breakfast was gobbled down by both horses.
The mosquitoes were out in force, so I put Mercutio's Rastafarian headband on to keep the insects at bay. Ari talked to one of the other campers who told him that they had been there a week and already gone through two cans of Cutter's insect spray. Apparently, the snow had only recently thawed, the mosquito larvae had hatched and now there were millions of new-born mosquitoes hungry and lying in wait for any unsuspecting warm-blooded creature.
I set up my kitchen, but it wasn't that usable, because the campsite was on a slope.
We set up our tent OK, but it seemed like the campsites are really intended for RV or LQ use even though this is an equestrian site. We were the only tent people in that campground.
We had been warned that the trails were rocky so we put scoot boots on both horses. Lennox wears a Size 8 scoot boot. Mercutio wears a dainty Size 4. This is a picture of Mercutio modeling his Scoot Boots. Both our horses are barefoot. We prefer keeping our horses barefoot because we believe it is healthier for the horse, but also because we have been out in the middle of nowhere and Oberon has lost a shoe. When a horse loses a shoe, they are effectively lame. They can't be ridden. So, you have to find a farrier to replace the lost shoe before you can ride again. Scoot Boots are a great compromise because they act like horse shoes, but they can be worn only when you are on a trail which is really rocky. You don't want to ride barefoot on a really rocky trail because then the horse might pick up a rock in his foot which causes an abscess. An abscess is kind of like a blister that gets infected. If the horse gets an abscess, he is usually lame for at least a week while you baby his injured foot back to health.
We also have used Easy Boots on the trail, but I like the Scoot Boots better. The Easy Boots we used had a clip that bit into the horse's hoof and left a mark. They also didn't always stay on.
There was a hitching post next to the corrals, so we could get the horses tacked up.
Here I am on the trail with Fish Lake in the background.
Lennox continued his Bulldozer act on this ride. He did not want to slow down at all.
There Lennox is in the distance, leaving us in the dust. Mercutio is fine with that because it gives him a chance to eat some of the grass on the side of the trail.
The scenery on the trail was beautiful. We rode the Pauite Trail and a little bit of the Fish Lake trail.
But, the mosquitoes, oh, the mosquitoes! Ari, myself, and both horses were bitten and bitten and bitten.
Ari and I were mostly concerned about Ari because he is seriously allergic to insect bites. He has had to go to the emergency room more than once due to an insect bite.
So, reluctantly we cut our stay at Tasha Equestrian Campground short. We only did one ride and we left first light the next morning.
Our next stop is Green River, UT.
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