I carefully laid out my gear for the trip the night before departure. In the black plastic is a wool blanket and my .44-40 Winchester. On top of that is my "waterproof" jacket, sombrero and a bit of cord. The jacket as I learned the hard way is no longer waterproof. The next row has a can of tuna, dry meat, raisins, freeze dried apples and a water filter bottle. The following row is my Cutco folding knife, mini-maglight, two lighters, cash, Cold steel knife, cell phone, belt. Not pictured are the third lighter I carried and a couple pounds of cheese and a bag of fresh biscuits my wife sent along.
It rained all day and we were unable to make it to the village where I had work to do because of an arroyo that was in flood stage. So we spent the day enjoying the outdoors. We did a little scouting for deer hunting and found a scrape but most tracks were washed out by the heavy rains. I think we got more than 3" of rain. At midday the radio was saying we had recieved 2" and it never let up for more than a few minutes at a time.
The temperature was in the 60's and I got soaked to the skin, but was never cold. The gelding I was riding was a bit out of shape and thin so I ended up running up the mountains to give him a break and not slow down my friends any more than I had too. I was pretty beat by the time I got home. We spent about 6 hours on the trail. I like the horse quite a bit. He is very gentle, doesn't spook for anything and has a lot of heart, even when he got really tired he was ready to go again after a bit of rest. On top of it he is smart about picking a path through brush and rocks. A friend of mine owned him for several years and sold him a year ago. The current owner underfed him and didn't exercise him enough... I think with some good feed and proper care he will be a good horse. He is about the easiest horse to shoe you could ever hope to shoe. He even guesses which foot you want to lift next and raises it for you!! I can buy him for $150 and am giving it serious consideration.
