Change of Seasons and Locations

In the past, fall has always been a sad time of year at the Parasite Ranch.  October brings out an army of semi-sober hunters packing high-powered rifles that discourages even Dangerous from entering the back country.  Who can blame him when he rides a Walking Horse that might be mistaken for an elk or deer by one of the trigger happy bunch who prowls the edges of the woods on their ATVs?

Every year before we are pushed off the High Plateau for a month, we take full advantage of the beautiful fall weather.  Most people only see the change of seasons from the black top, but not us.  We ride or in my case walk out into the middle of the forest's blazing yellow, orange, and red colors that most people only experience from the windows of their cars.  For us, fall is our favorite season, but we also know that the High Plateau riding season is over, and we will soon move south to the desert.

Gen and Dangerous

As you well know, Dangerous is very possessive of the back country where he rides and hikes.  Ask any public land manager that he regularly harangues with unending complaints and suggestions, and they will tell you that he believes he personally owns the entire High Plateau and surrounding canyon country.  However, he doesn't mind sharing sometimes.  Two of his regular companions this year have been Kent and Dennis who are willing to put up with his unending editorializing about protecting the places he rides to see the beautiful fall foliage from the back of a good Walking Horse. 

Kent and Chief -- Dennis and Rose

Rather than boring you with ongoing commentary, I thought you might enjoy just looking at some of the places we visited this fall.  Who knows?  If you approach Dangerous carefully, he might take you along for a ride.  My sheep dog view is a bit different from what you get to see from the back of a tall horse.

Favorite Lunch Spot

October Ferns

Mt. Timpanogos

The Burning Bush

Fall Maples

 Desert Sunrise

These days October doesn't announce the end of the riding season.  A few weeks ago Dangerous and Utah Jack moved the sheep camp to St. George where we will stay periodically until Trea's house is built.  Once completed, the whole family will spend winters in St. George, expanding the Parasite Ranch to three locations.  Depending on where we are (Grover, American Fork, or Little Valley), you are invited to visit.  Drop me a note and I will get you a reservation.

Better than the Emmy's:  I Get My Own Cookie!

As you may know, every Labor Day Weekend the "Grover Boyz" have their annual picnic at Wildcat Guard Station.  What you might not know is this year I was the featured celebrity, and I was honored with something more special than an Emmy Award.  I got my own signature sugar cookie!

Honorary Picnic MC and Most Honored Guest

Every upscale event honoring celebrities must have a master of ceremonies.  This year's honorary MC was Aspen Dangerous' niece who I am coaching to get her to offer up high praise and plenty of platitudes for the picnic's most honored guest -- me, Rosie.  Aspen's father was a bit put off by events leading up to her role at the picnic.  He caught Dangerous and me teaching her to hug trees.  Having a "tree huger" in the family didn't sit well with her dad, but we took great pleasure in refining her environmental education a bit.

Event Producers

They may not look like successful Hollywood producers, but Utah Jack and Dangerous Doug have been putting on their annual Labor Day weekend event for four years now.  It isn't their charm and pleasing personalities that get family and friends to gather every year at Wildcat Guard Station (58 unfortunates this year not counting dogs), but the free food.  A change in menu may be necessary next year to keep attendance up.  All you can eat hot dogs and cheese burgers will bring them out only so long.  Utah Jack believes we should change the menu next year to cheese burgers and hot dogs for a change of pace.  What do you think? 

 Unexpected Celebrities

Like most celebrity events, the "Grover Goyz'" picnic usually attracts some visiting superstars.  While there wasn't a red carpet, we did have the pine-cone walkway.  A lucky photographer captured this picture of two minor celebrities a bit beyond their prime showing off the latest High Plateau fashions.  I think the one on the left might be a tall Danny Devito, but I am not sure about the other guy.  Maybe it's Tom Cruze?  He has that crazed Scientology look in his eyes, but who knows for sure with all the famous people milling about.  Maybe you can identify them for me?

"Grover Boyz'" Band

No High Plateau event is complete without music.  For want of a better name, I am calling this impromptu group of budding musicians the official "Grover Boyz'" Band.  Some of them can actually play, but not the guy who you might recognize as Fremont Bob on the fiddle, or in his case, the "squawk box."  If you look closely, you will notice he is standing a bit apart from the others in the ensemble.  The other musicians insist on an appropriate distance so they can stay on key. 

Celebrity Cookie Designer

Without our celebrity designer, Rebecca, the picnic honoring me would have been a bust.  From what I understand, she searched long and hard to find a sheep dog cookie cutter, and tried many sugar combinations to match my beautiful red coat.  I think she got it just right minus the dog hair that usually floats around me wherever I go.  Maybe it's time for a visit to the groomer.  Love to hear from you!

Yellowstone National Park

Most everyone I know but me has visited Yellowstone National Park.  I hear lots of talk about places like Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and other attractions located next to the highway, but fewer people ever make the 18 mile round trip hike or ride to Union Falls.  Supposedly, Union Falls has more vertical drop than the more frequently visited Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Falls.  Based on Dangerous' smile, the 18 mile ride to Union Falls was worth the effort.  Since Yellowstone is a national park, I will never get to see the back country because dogs aren't allowed.  I might have to write the Park Superintendent about the Park's policy as Dangerous did complaining about how he was treated at the Beckler Meadows Ranger Station.

Union Falls

Every August Walking Horse Bill and his friends make a trip to Yellowstone National Park to ride.  Dangerous is usually invited because he has two extra horses and space to haul them in his trailer.  You can rest assured that it isn't his pleasing personality or charm that gets him invited every year.  After his most recent altercation with Park Service rangers, I think Bill will think twice before extending him another invitation.  With Dangerous' record, another incident might land him in jail where Trea and I plan to leave him.

Bill, Janet, John, Rich, And Dennis

This year's group included Dangerous and five other riders.  Since I had to stay home, Janet was the only female among the group of six.  According to Dangerous, she never complains as Walking Horse Bill leads them through the lodge pole desert that makes up the vast acreage of Yellowstone National Park.

The Natural Order of Things

Like the natural world, horse riding usually has an order as well.  Bill is out front on Balthazar barely visible in the picture, and Dangerous who took the picture is on Gennie bringing up the rear.  Based on the experience of the rider and the natural affinity of the horses, the riding order is usually set.  Balthazar always has to lead and the three mares prefer to travel together.  Fortunately for Dangerous, Gennie leads, walks in the middle, or rides drag.  If I had been allowed to go along, I would have eaten a lot of dust following Gennie while Dangerous rode drag.  Between the river crossings and long stretches of lodge pole pines, the group stopped periodically at spots like Cave Falls to sight-see, rest, and snack.

Cave Falls

You're probably wondering how anyone could spoil such a beautiful, idyllic outing, but you don't know Dangerous and his luck.  He has a real nose for trouble and an ability to alienate people without even trying.  That's why he prefers the company of animals, and his best friend is a sheep dog.  As I have seen happen before, he got himself and his horses in trouble when the group visited Beckler Meadows Ranger Station.  An excerpt from the letter he wrote to the Superintendent of Yellowstone provides a brief summary of the incident.

"Our party of six riders had started out together to visit Beckler Meadows.  At the Beckler River Ford, we had difficulty getting one of the horses to cross, so I decided to return to the ranger station with the horse and rider while the other four in our party continued on.  After reaching the ranger station, I tied the two horses to my trailer to wait for the others in our party to return.  Approximately two hours later, the four riders returned to the parking lot.  One of the returning horses immediately started calling to her two pasture mates tied to my trailer.  She continued to call to the other horses when I tied her to the trailer to unsaddle and load to leave.  While unsaddling the mare, one of the rangers approached me and told me that I had to quiet the horse or load her in the trailer.  I am not sure what your experience is with horses, but quieting a horse that is calling to her friends is not easy, and I was already in the process of loading the horses to leave.  Shortly after the first ranger approached me, a second one came to the trailer while I was loading the horses.  After the horses were loaded, he lectured me about 'failure to control' my horses.  While tied to the trailer in the dirt parking lot, the horses had pawed the ground.  While he didn't give me a citation, he told me that he could, and that if I had been in the back country he would have cited me for 'failure to control' my horses"

I won't bore you with the complete letter, but if you know Dangerous, you can guess the content.  Fortunately in this case, he kept his mouth shut, and Trea and I didn't have to make a trip to Ashton, Idaho to bail him out of jail.  I know it's hard to believe, but shortly after sending his letter, Dangerous got a response back from the Superintendent of Yellowstone.  I know it's even harder to believe, but he received an apology.  Since I suspect you would doubt my veracity, I have included the complete letter below.

Well, with all the riding and confrontation, a rider can wear himself out.  As I well know, when you go on one of these trips, you have to take every opportunity to catch a little shut eye not matter who is watching or what you're wearing.  I guess that's the case with me while trying to report this recent adventure.  I have worn myself and probably you out trying to relate second had what went on in Yellowstone, so I will stop here and take a nap myself.

A Much Deserved Rest

Beautiful Brown Eyed Girl!

Dangerous has always had a weakness for long legged girls with dark wavy hair and beautiful brown eyes, and I guess that is a good description of Gennie.  Her registered name is Oldies Secret Agenda or as we call her "Gen-Gen."

I was lying in my usual place when Dangerous found her online.  I noticed immediately a change in his behavior and knew at once he was looking at something inappropriate for a man his age.  After two trips to Dubois, Wyoming, once to meet Gen and another to bring her home, I am recommending that Trea seriously restrict his computer privileges.  That's all we need around here is another Walking Horse, and a young three year old filly to boot.  What's wrong with this old man?

 Gennie and Dangerous on Boulder Mountain

The Box Hanging Three Ranch is located in Dubois, Wyoming on the Wind River.  It is 1,200 acres of pastures and hay fields all devoted to raising some of the best mountain bred Walking Horses you will ever see.  I didn't get to make the trip, but I have listened to Dangerous discuss in glowing terms the ranch and its 80 year old owner Sylvia.  Walking Horse Bill bought a horse from Sylvia and her husband almost 20 years ago, and I suspect that's where Dangerous go the idea.  Sylvia runs a no nonsense operation with her husband and training staff.  The horses are all excellent quality and receive at least one year of professional training before they are sold.

Box Hanging Three Ranch

Gen-Gen looks a bit small standing next to her trainer Eric, but you need to know Eric is 6' 6" tall.  Gen is a 15-3 bay filly.  As a young three year old, you can expect her to grow another two to three inches in height.  If she reaches maturity at 16-1 (65 inches at the withers), I'm not sure how Dangerous will climb aboard.  When he rides Gennie now, I watch him struggle to get on.  He always has to get her to stand quietly on his downhill side or in a low depression so he can reach the stirrup and throw his arthritic leg over the cantle.  Maybe he will have to attach a rope ladder to his saddle, or heaven forbid use a three step mounting block.

Dangerous, Sylvia, Gennie, and Eric

While her size is impressive, what really sets Gen apart is her great disposition.  According to Dangerous, she is the sweetest horse he has ever owned.  Give me a little time, and I will change her  good nature.  Unfortunately, I may never get the chance because Gen's one obvious flaw is that she hates dogs.  She has already tried to kill me, so from now on I plan on giving her a wide berth.

Next Generation

While picking Gen up, Dangerous, Utah Jack, and Dennis got to see the next generation of Walking Horses born at the Box Hanging Three Ranch.  Two foals were born shortly before they stopped to collect Gen for her long ride back to Utah.  I am surprised Dangerous didn't bring the two foals and their mothers with him.  Not enough room in the horse trailer I suspect.  As you probably can tell, he is a real sucker for anything with four legs.  Too bad he doesn't share the same feelings toward two legged critters.

 

Sweet Baby

As he tells it, Gennie is his last horse.  According to my calculations, she will reach maturity about the time he enters the old folk's home.  She will be 13 when Dangerous turns 76 if he lives that long, and Gen will still have many good years left when he turns 80.  Anyone interested in committing to giving Gen a good home in the not too distant future?  Between now and then, I am sure Gen will wear out a lot of horse shoes riding the High Plateau.