Jan 5
From the horses’ point of view at the end of the first day on the road, we'd landed in a version of horse heaven. We are at the farm of Gayle and Pat Ware, in Eugene OR. In Gayle’s barn are about 30 Fjord horses, undoubtedly all distant Norwegian cousins. Gayle boards and trains horses, and somehow almost every one of them is Norwegian. She even has a Norwegian Dole horse in the barn. The Dole Hest, as they are known, are extremely rare in the US.
Gayle is an old friend and veteran of the Fjord world, universally respected as a trainer, and as the trainer of her own stallion, a horse who has excelled in the reining world, in open competition. When someone asks me, “Can you ride theses horses?” , Gayle is one of the people I point to. Pretty safe to say she is likely the best skilled Western (style) rider of Fjords.
We had an easy and straightforward trip on the road, but moist to wet the whole way. The first two hours were on the back road along Hood Canal, Rt 101, with open water on our left and the bottom slopes of the Olympic Mountains on our right. After Olympia, we had interstate highway the rest of the way. Only when we approached Eugene did we get solid downpour.
The horses got to spend the night loose in Gayle’s indoor arena, and I enjoyed an evening of good food and catching up on old stories. I should note that when I did my cross country trip with horses, I spent the very last nights of the trip at Gayle and Pat’s farm, which was then in Libby MT. It is a particular treat to start this more humble trip at their place.
Gayle gave me a very useful tip. She said when you are introduced to an ugly newborn baby, and don’t know what to say, you have to hope the baby has some hair, and then you can say, “He-she had a LOT of hair”. This came up in a story she told me of a visiting horse sage and entourage who were looking over her horses, and one of a friend. They were expecting some useful comments, but the person said almost nothing. When Gayle checked with her friend, who also was puzzled, her friend (who knew the baby line), said, “I think they just said my horse has a lot of hair! Gayle, whose horses performance and offspring speak for themselves, was unperturbed.
Jan 6
Long day today, just under 600 miles. Given that Oregon and California have 55mph limits for trucks and trailers, it was a lot of hours for horses and me.
We started out in rain, in Eugene, and had some form of rain or shower all the way through the Siskiyou Mountains, on through Redding CA. I had concerns about snow in those high altitudes, but all was rain. Those mountains are some of the views I know anywhere. For many miles I watched spruce tree tops floating above the low fog, with fog above, a dreamy peaceful view - quiet food for the spirit.
Past Redding and the notorious California town of Weed, the land flattens into the great California food producing machine. To each side of the road are orchards or vineyards the size of Rhode Island.
I drove rather relentlessly to be sure not to arrive too late at the training center of Roger Cheverly. The last part of the trip was along the tops of levees in the Sacramento River delta. His wife drove to the horse area at 9:00P to meet me. Roger I knew was from Britain, and so too his wife Marion. She as it happens was from southern Scotland, from Fife. I told her I had studied in Fife at the University of St Andrews. It was a pleasure to hear that Fife accent.
The horses went into a secure pen, and I spent my second night sleeping happily in the trailer.
Jan 7
The morning temperature was 45. I am happy for the few additional degrees of warmth. Fog that travels up the Central Valley made everything but the barnyard invisible. I had arrived in the dark and would leave in the fog, so I still don’t know what the area looks like, except for long flat disc-ed fields and vineyards.
The horses had eaten well and had good gut sounds. My largest concern trailering is that their anxiety turn into some form of the dreaded colic. Stomach gurgles are the music of health.
Roger came at 8:00 to start his day of training. He told me was recruited to come to the US because of his skills in the electronic side of information technology, That served him well until after 9-11 when his employer had to let him go because they had government contracts, and resident aliens were no longer allowed to do that work. He decided to make the move to train horses, which rewarded him an immediate large drop in blood pressure. He specializes in driving training, and appears to have plenty of work.
I left at 9:30, as Roger prepared to hitch one of the horses. I wanted plenty of daylight to get down to LA.