Tim, Horses, Dogs, Bloggers and Me Clinic 2013

Madonna and I working round at the Mugs/Big K 2013 Clinic

Pretty isn't it? This was everything I look for in a good day.

I was on Madonna, we were working cattle, K had my back and everybody I was riding with was as horsaii as they come.

Absolute heaven.

The road to this incredible, but tiny, blip in the big picture was a long one. My annual 1340 mile round trip to visit K was going to be quite a bit different this year.

We had decided to invite the readers of the Mugwump Chronicles to come ride with us.

I was finding out Parkinson's really did intend to kick my ass and was getting me this year by keeping me as achy and tired as the morning after starting 6 or 7 colts; except now all I had to do was get up in the morning to enjoy the same sensation.

I had a new-found tendency to fall asleep without warning and experienced scary drops in blood pressure that could leave me unconscious when I over extended myself. This made hauling across three states with my horses a little more of a challenge than I was used to.

It was really, seriously, pissing me off.

For whatever reason, my family was objecting even more than usual about me packing up my dogs and horses and disappearing for ten days. Crybabies.

"You shouldn't be out there aloooone."

"What if you pass ouuuttt?"

"It's toooo faaaar."

What a bunch of whiners.

They tried to make me think there was something risky about a one-armed, cranky old woman with PD, a truck and a trailer full of critters travelling alone. Whatever. I knew that secretly, they were mad because they had to cook their own dinner and wash their own socks. I was going dammit.

Before the war escalated to the point where I had to leave early, Kathy stepped up and offered to come with me. OK. Pancho and Lefty on the road again, just like the old days on the show circuit.

 I got the paperwork taken care of on the horses, and serviced the truck and trailer. It was the first time I was going on the road and putting my trust in a mechanic I didn't know, instead of my husband Jim taking care of things. Another change in the way the world is supposed to spin.

I was wound tight and nervous.

The Whatifs were getting me bad.

Whatif I was a big fat disappointment? Whatif my readers decided I rode like an idiot, was a total dweeb and knew absolutely nothing about nothing? Whatif they wrote an exposé?

Argh!!

We planned on leaving at 6 a.m. Life went as it usually does for me lately, and we were loaded and on the road by 6 p.m. I was shaky, off balance and probably a little flaky.

"We could wait and start in the morning," Kathy suggested.

"I'm going tonight. You can come or not," I replied.

I might have snarled just a bit. Kathy rolled her eyes and looked out the window.

We were on our way.