The good long walk

So yesterday morning, I look Walter over and see he's got barely a scratch except... a small scrape right in the middle of his back, where I sit when riding. It's just deep enough to have oozed during the night. I'll have to lead him to Comanche.

I had already decided to take a back-road detour from Hwy 81 that would add 5 miles, but keep us off a dangerous overpass with a blind hill and no shoulder that I'd been warned about. 13 miles to Comanche on the back route. With doctoring, dealing with the horse next door, and other matters, we got off to a very late start - around 11 am and about 95 degrees.

I am learning there are few things that dont have a positive angle. Yup, it was hot & humid. Yes, I worried about keeping us both hydrated. The roads were very, very rural - didnt see a vehicle for the first couple hours, no help if either of us keeled over (yeah, I did think about it!).

And you know what? It turned out to be a time of bonding with Walter. And a sort of walking meditation. Walter has been getting balky and difficult about being led. After a couple hours, we fell into a deep rhythm, our steps in perfect time... Walter picking his own best path in the gravel/dirt road, next to or behind me but always with the same amount of slack in his lead, and if he was behind and I gave the slightest bump he quietly stepped up next to me again. I was having to stop every 15 minutes or so for a gulp of water. We stopped at a creek and a house for Walter's water. By the end of the walk I felt such a deep peace, and Walter was softly touching me with his nose about every 20 minutes if I hadn't stopped to drink yet.

 

 

 

We didn't make it to Comanche. Halfway there, after 7 miles, there was a group of houses by the road with a barn and empty pens and a huge yard and garden. A man was out mowing the yard. I tied Walter to a post and waved at the man, pointing to Walter and making drinking motions with a question in my face. The man's eyebrows shot up in surprise, he shut off the mower and next thing I knew, we were invited to stay not one, but three nights! To give Walter time to recuperate and put on some extra weight, and to wait out a 3-day heat wave.

 

More about Steve and Debbie, and pics of Debbies beautiful garden-of-eden landscaping, in the next post...