The trip

People often ask how I travel back and forth to distant places.  The trip to SD Training camp offers the extreme in trip making.

First, the parameters.  I needed to move 3 horses, 11 dogs, an ATV and assorted gear and supplies about 1500 miles alone.  We figured out that we could fit everything, if packed "just so".

Note the rack built over the ATV.  The ATV itself was packed in with saddles, and assorted other tack as the saddle rack had to be removed to make room for the third horse in the back stall



11 crates fit in the insulated front compartment, and with only moving one crate even allowed about 2' of room for me to sleep in the compartment for the overnights!

 And then there are the challenges to overcome....

This was not a fun morning.

 On the morning of the second day, I was about 30 miles from reaching Evanston, WY and had a tire blow on the trailer.  My "spare" that looked good - wasn't.  Four hours of wrangling on the phone finally got me a service that would come out, change the tires roadside and get me going again.  At least the scenery was amazing!

When we travel with horses, we try to find rodeo or fairgrounds to overnight.  Most fairgrounds allow for travelers and one of the best was this stopover at Rawlins Wyoming.  I would have preferred to make Kaycee, where there is also a hot shower (but it does cost $10/head a night instead of just the $5...)

Three days of travel, one incident but all horses and dogs made it here just fine!