NEW BLOG at MuleArtist.com

Hello, friends!

This blog is retired for now.
I might revive it again, so do check back once in a while.

To read about life after the ride, or between rides, please visit my new blog at muleartist.com.

That's also the website for my pen-and-ink equine art. Any news of upcoming art shows, articles published, book(s) coming out or other such news will be posted there as well.

Thanks for your patience during the transition. Hope to see you at the new site!

settling in, new blog

It's one month to the day since Sir Walter and I arrived back in
Tucson. A whole month. Hard for me to believe. Seems like just
yesterday we rode up the Rillito to Riverbend Stables.

The logistics of re-entry were more challenging than I had planned for, and
I spent the first 2 weeks camping out in the boarders' "bathroom
trailer" (Thank you Jan!) while searching the ads for cheap trucks,
rentals and jobs.

But with the help of friends and family (Thank you Becky!) (Thank you
Mom and Dad!), I soon had a loaner car to use and in short order
landed truck, rental and soon-to-start job. *Whew!*

So much for practical concerns... the emotional and mental re-entry is
another matter entirely. Too big a subject for this short post.

Which brings me to...
New blog?

I am considering retiring this blog and starting another one for life
after the rides, or between rides, whatever. I'd post a link to it
somewhere on this one. Havent decided for sure, so if any of you
reading have thoughts on the matter your comments are welcomed...

Also, I suspect the ride will find its way into some sort of written
and/or visual creation down the line. If you'd like to be on a mailing
list for occasional updates, please send me your email by clicking the
"CONTACT" tab at the top of this web page and following the
directions. Be sure and put "MULE MAILING LIST" in the subject line, so I know it's not spam. Thanks!
And do check back often, as I intend to get a computer sometime within
the next few paychecks and will begin posting again soon.

Be well and enjoy the change of season, my friends.

Postscript... how we made it home alive

Rode Walter mule from Mississippi to Duncan, Oklahoma, where he got injured in fence wreck. Spent 7 weeks in Duncan while Walter recovered. Rode Walter from Oklahoma to New Mexico. Walter mule still showing signs of hip strain, decided he needed to get home and rest, not to ride him over the mountains. Kyle trailered us from Clovis NM to midstate... rode Walter a little further... hauled with racehorses from Albuquerque to north end of Phoenix... rode another day... Randy and Tony gifted us with the blessing of a trailer haul to Tucson, dropped us off a couple miles from the stable... and Sir Walter and I rode into town as I had imagined we would, slowly savoring our lone quiet walk up the dry Rillito riverbed, climbing the access ramp to the road, and riding up the drive to Riverbend Stables. 

 

Home.

 

Walter is in better shape now than the day we started. It was one of my goals. I'm proud of that.

[Postscript: Walter's hip strain healed up completely.]

Thank you to all who followed the ride for your support. I know there were times when y'all wrote wonderful comments on the blog and I could not reply, as I can't do comments from my phone.

But I want you to know that every word of support and encouragement from each one of you, whether comments on the blog, emails or phone calls, gave me a HUGE lift in spirits and morale - you have no idea how much it meant! Just knowing there were people out there who were sure we could do this.

When out on a Long Ride, if a rider gets lonely and discouraged they can stop thinking straight and make stupid mistakes, life-threatening stupid. Love and encouragement saves lives.

All of you helped keep me and Walter alive.

May all of you be showered with blessings, and may you enjoy many happy trails!

- Katie Cooper, Long Rider
(with a bray from Sir Walter the Red)

We made it to Tucson!

We're home.

Mississippi to Arizona!

Tonight... just want to say

THANK YOU to EVERYONE

One love, one life, blessings and beauty abound.

My love to you all!

And brave Sir Walter sends his regards.




Sir Walter the Red surveys his new realm

Almost home

Toni and Randy picked us up this afternoon and brought us to their
spread in Queen Valley, where we are their guests for the night.
Having a great time with new friends, freshening up, enjoying
wonderful hospitality & good company. Walter happy to be with horses.

Too tired to write more. g'nite all...

Next morning... went on beautiful ride in the Superstition Mountains

Toni and Randy, trail angels!

 

backtracking

Got great news! Toni, a member of AZBTR (who has never met me) is
going to haul us past the Phoenix metroplex Saturday, to her place in
West Queen Valley, south of town.

Last night was a pleasant stay at the racing barn, me in the tack room and
Walter in a ritzy pen with shavings. Trainer Juan's wife brought me
hot soup with the thinnest, best tortillas ever.

Today, rode off to get another 12-15 miles closer to Toni's spread, and find another
place to stay tonight. This is a very wealthy area near Scottsdale. The main road
we rode along is lined with huge million-dollar equestrian estates, elegant high-end boarding stables and training barns. All of them are behind locked automatic gates that open only to
vehicles. What side roads I tried out lead either to locked back entrances or to non-horse-property suburban houses, thier landscaped front yards planted with carefully chosen cacti.

We rode past all the fancy estates to the outskirts, where groomed grounds
gave way to empty desert and dirt roads leading to the occasional California-style house. No horse properties though, oddly. Then nothing, just desert hills as far as the eye could see.

We turned back.

We had travelled maybe 8 miles. We backtracked about 6 more miles before I
finally spotted a house with empty pens and what looked like an open side entrance. As I struggled with the wire ranch gate next to a cattle guard, a man stopped his car to offer help and ask who I was. Ron then called the neighbors - who weren't home - and got us permission to stay.

Tonight we are grateful guests of Dana and Trish, who own a pawn shop and have
6 dogs, 2 cats and no horses. That's right, they sold their last two horses three days ago.
Shower and cold milk (which I've craved, my body must need it), aaah!

Walter was pacing frantically alone in his pen, calling to the neighbor's horse. So
I pitched my tent in the pen next to his to keep him company. It
worked. He's quiet now, calmly munching hay pellets.

Early next morning...

Hellloooo Arizona

After six and a half impatient stress-filled days trapped in Bernardo
with no way out but riding Interstate 25 for 30 extremely dangerous
miles, riding the desolate road to Magdalena for 40 waterless
miles, or finding someone to haul us, we finally escaped. I paid a
racehorse hauler Vance had contacted to stash Sir Walter in back
behind the thoroughbreds and haul us to the owner's barn in Fountain
Hills, northeast of Phoenix.

Back in Arizona at last!

It felt very strange to trailer here, about 500 miles, eight hours in the
truck. Started out bad weather - wind gusts to 50mph, dust, then rain
off and on for a few hours. The beauty of the landscape was
breathtaking. Being accustomed to 3 miles an hour, the changes felt
like the speeded up time-lapse of an instructional science film. The
billboards, neon casino signs, trash and advertising and loud vehicles
farting exhaust felt like an assault.

But we made it. Arizona!

Next challenge: how to get around the Phoenix metroplex? Stay tuned!

the weekend

Our hosts in Bernardo, Vance and Alice M., run a thoroughbred breeding
operation. They have been going all out calling their racing contacts
to find us a haul to Arizona. It's looking pretty optimistic for next
week. Please think good thoughts and keep your fingers crossed for us!

In the meantime, I am spending the weekend in Albuquerque with my
Goddaughter Chloe and her boyfriend Jake. They are both wonderful
company - only wish I could have planned more time!

Chloe, not sure she wants her picture taken...

It was Balloon Festival weekend! This launch at 8am

Brrrrr

The weather has turned.

This morning I woke shivering in the predawn darkness, my little
shelter in the gooseneck of a horse trailer rocking in the blasting
wind. Cold as it was, I was grateful not to be in the tent with gusts
blowing in the sides.

Walter is starting to fur up. He seems to be adapting better to this
dry climate.

Tonight he's resting contentedly despite being in an open pen, feeling
safe and calm in the company of the surrounding herd.

And I'm snug in my little platform cave, having learned from last
night: wearing 2 layers, socks and gloves, with the wool horse blanket
draped over my sleeping bag. It's quite comfortable.

Don't know what gifts the morning will bring. Still in Bernardo.
Hoping to be home soon...

crossed the Rio Grande

In Bernardo tonight, low signal. (Bernardo isn't really a town - it's a place on the map where Hwy 60 and I-25 meet.) Vance M. stopped his truck this morning to ask where I was travelling to? Then offered to put us up about another 12 miles on, across the river and under the interstate, down a dirt road to his place with "lots of empty pens."

Crossing the Rio Grande was another one of those moments that had way more impact than I expected. The river under the bridge was running high from recent floods. Drivers passed us just before, giving us emphatic thumbs-up out their windows. Then there seemed to be a window of stillness as we crossed. No traffic, no sound but rushing water and the staccato beat of hooves on concrete. Walter was all business: trotting briskly with head up, ears forward.

And then it was done. We had reached the other side.

I tied Walter to a fence and tossed my canvas bucket over the rail, letting it fill and hauling it back up by the parachute string I have attached. My mule drank from the waters of the Rio Grande.

Tonight, guests of Vance and Alice M. at their breeding farm. Walter in pen, me out of the wind in horse trailer. Don't know if riding out tomorrow or waiting on possible haul. Didn't pass any N/S roads I could see besides I-25 on the way in. Don't see any side roads on the map either. Hmmm.

Walter wondering: "How will we get to Arizona?"

Sunset over Bernardo

Long haul & short ride

Once again I am humbled and blown away by the generosity shown us.

Johnny's friend Kyle S. has been keeping a roping horse and huge LQ
trailer at the house. Kyle lives 170 miles west. This morning Kyle
took his horse in the LQ and offered me and Walter a ride. Kyle being
good company, we got to talking... Kyle gets on the phone with
someone, and I hear him say "...we'll be stopping at the ranch to
switch trailers, and then I'm taking the mule lady to Bernardo..."
another 50 miles west! In one day, he got us past the truly desolate
dry stretch and to a couple miles east of the the Rio Grande.

Kyle dropped us off at the intersection of Hwy 60 and Hwy 308, a little 2-laner with barely any traffic that runs south, on the opposite side of the river from I-25.

heading down 380

Walter thinks he's on another planet

No Walter, we're not in Louisiana anymore...

From there we rode south on 308 about 8 miles to La Joya, where we are
tonight. I love these tiny New Mexican villages. It's good to be back
in the Southwest. And mountains! Mountains on the horizon! I know where
I am again!

First glimpse of the Rio Grande valley

La Joya post office

The only intersection in town. 380 dead-ends here.

Turns out 308 ends at this village. All roads south end at this village.
The Rio Grande is flooded and can't be forded. We'll have to ride all the way back to 60 tomorrow,
to where we got dropped off today, and cross near Bernardo. Ah, well.
It's only one day.

Tonight we are staying with Vince and Teresa, at the first horse pens I saw when we rode into town. Vince - with no prior horse experience - rescued an unhandled pregnant mare last year. She blessed him with an appaloosa baby with the most beautiful spotted blanket I've ever seen. Vince named the colt "Luna" because he was born at night under the full moon.

Teresa and Vince with mother and baby

Have to say it felt really, really good to be back on the road today on Sir
Walter. Walter seemed glad to be out too.

All tacked up & nowhere to go

Had Walter all saddled this morning and was about to lift the packs on
when I got a call - if I could wait just one more day, a haul to
Tucson.

I waited. This evening, the trailer ride fell through. But! Johnny
scored us a ride to Willard, 170 miles west of here. To put it in
perspective, that's almost 3 week's riding including rest days. Walter
and I are most grateful.

Yes, indeed we are.

letting go

One of the lessons of this Long Ride has been learning when to let go.
There are times when the harder I try to make a certain thing happen,
the more fervently I desire a particular outcome, the further out of
reach it gets. And then I finally give up and acknowledge that it just
ain't happening. I have to let go or I'll go mad. It's generally after
that point that things start to get interesting.

I intended, after reaching Clovis, to take a few days off to arrange a
trailer ride over the empty stretches and mountains. It never occurred
to me that there might be no trailer to be found.

It's now been 10 days and many searches and phone calls later.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

Johnny and Sondra are back from Albuquerque, the weather is turning
and we need to leave NOW. I rode us into this dilemma, I'll have to
ride us out of it. And that's exactly what I'll be doing tomorrow.
Back to the open road...

grooming for mule and human

Walter's shoes aren't wearing out because they have diamond-hard
Drilltek welded on. But that doesn't keep his hooves from growing. So
yesterday, Walter got his mule pedicure.

Tony N, (the farrier father of Mindy, who adjusted Walter) came out
and pulled the shoes off, trimmed Walter's feet, and nailed the shoes
back on. Walter's hooves look great and seem more even now.

And Saturday, I got my own grooming upkeep - a haircut & styling at
Crazy Beautiful Hair Salon (love that name!) donated by hairstylist
Kirsty Forrest, Sondra's grandaughter. Kirsty gave me a great cut and
styled it so pretty I tried to think of places I could go to show it
off. It was Saturday night, after all!

This mule & human maintenance being done now in preparation for the
last bit of riding into Tucson and reentry into "normal" life.

Ummm.... normal. Right. LOL

1,000 miles

As of Clovis, I have ridden a thousand miles on this journey. Today I
was informed that I am now a full member of the Long Riders' Guild.

Everything I wrote about being inducted as an Associate goes double
for becoming a full member.
I'll simply add, thank you to everyone, especially my little red mule.
You all rock!

I could not have done it without so much help, human, mule and divine.

One love.

Made it to Clovis!

Walter mule and I have ridden from Mississippi to New Mexico.

We are guests of Johnny and Sondra F. for the next few days. Too much
to write about and too tired tonight, will post over the weekend.

Will say Walter saw his first ostrich today and hopefully his last...

And I celebrated tonight by dancing with cowboys to live music at a
local bar - Johnny and Sondra invited me out - they sure can cut a
rug, they showed those younger folks how it's done!

Sondra and Johnny F.

Walter's back

Sir Walter the Red is back to his old self! The happy healthy sound
mule I had three months ago, before his fence wreck. He was impatient
to leave this morning and stepped out in a beautiful ground-eating
stride that he kept up for hours, head bobbing, ears flopping. He was
playful and funny and arrived at this spread almost 17 miles later
none the worse for wear. As soon as he was turned out he ran along the
fence with the horses, tossing his head and bucking at them before
dropping for a vigorous roll.

I am astonished at what a difference the chiropractic adjustments
made. I hoped it would help, but never dreamed I'd see such an instant
transformation. Wow.

Tonight host of Linda P. in Farwell, alone in just~sold house while
Walter is penned outside. Enjoyed the solitude and books - read a
whole book in one sitting which is why I am posting this at midnight.
Late is okay...short day tomorrow.

Walter gets adjusted

Good day but long. Animal chiro clinic this afternoon, Walter got
another adjustment, to femur, and walked straight. He's way more
flexible now too. Mindy made a believer out of me!

Whole family drove me on tomorrow's route & then to Clovis to find us
a host, which they did. We are all set next two stops. Such a relief.

This has been a wonderful stay.

more rain!

Had destination today: The BACK in Bovina, TX. The BACK is a clinic for animal skeletal adjustment run by Mindy Neal, AVCA Certified in animal chiropractic.

Almost made it - 3 miles from town on hwy 86 - when
the downpour began. After a mile thunder & lightning broke from the
sky and we waited it out in a driveway using a little tree as a
pitiful attempt at a windbreak. Did we ever get soaked! A man drove up
in a pickup. He was the Mindy's father, farrier Tony Neal, looking
for us.

Tony left, we rode off into more rain, it began to clear and he came
back. He led us through town driving on the wrong side of the street.
We chatted through the driver's-side window, Walter picking his way through the puddles.

At the BACK, Mindy wasn't there but she had offered to put us up for the night
plus a rest day, and to see Walter for an adjustment the next day.
Tony got Walter settled, and then he and his wife Dottie invited me to
thier home next door to dry out my gear, soak in the Jacuzzi to warm
up, have a hot dinner while my packs and clothes were washed and dried,
and spend the night. Ohhhhh.... an offer I could not refuse!



Walter in the round pen.. "Hey! Where ya goin'?"

At dinner, Mindy joined us and after some father-daughter consultation on Walter's case decided
to work on him tonight in case he needed another treatment tomorrow.

We all traipsed next door. Dottie kept records, Mindy evaluated, and
father and daughter worked as a team, adjusting Walter front to back,
top to bottom. It was fascinating. Walter's reactions were fascinating
too, all over the map.

Walter gets adjusted

Tomorrow Mindy sees Walter again. I'll try write more then, about the clinic and family
and braiding and dogs and...

and I'm falling asleep...

that's it for tonight!

rain!

After leaving Monte and Sue B.'s place, Walter & I headed back up a
mile to the highway. There would be no alternative to 86 today. But
the shoulder was good riding, traffic was light and we had a lovely,
cool, overcast sky.

By midafternoon the clouds had gathered into a looming dark mass above
us. We found shelter at a farm with horses and pens just in time. The
farmer, Gary H., led us to the pens with covered run-ins. The rain
began as I unpacked Walter. By the time I fed him it was pouring
steadily, and continued in ebbs and flows for a couple of hours. Gary
said it was the first rain they'd had since July.

Later Gary brought melons from the farm garden. Ryan and April, the
farmhand and his fiance who live in the little house next door,
invited me over for supper. I contributed a melon.

Tonight I am looking out across Walter's pen at a classicly beautiful
Western sunset, deepening dusk. A lone star hangs in the sky at the
edge of the red and orange streaks. Crickets singing. Walter
munching. My tent in the pen here next to his. Cornfields all around
us. Sigh of contentment. It doesn't get much better than this.