Into the water and past the weeds.
15 miles through the Aravaipa Canyon. We spent about 65% of the canyon pass in the water, sometimes up to the horses chests. Felt like it was new to them, certainly new with me. They handled it well, cautious but brave.
Hello pals,
Been a bit behind on my newsletter intentions so I've got another to send out in a week or so. Couple quick announcements.
-I just launched my Patreon page. Patreon is a site where artists can receive monthly contributions from their patrons for projects and their patrons receive things for their contributions. Patreon was always the fourth part of my funding plan for this project after my Kickstarter, private fundraising and money made at my performances. Still just at about 75% of my budget for the whole thing. If ya feel inspired to throw in a few bucks a month check out the link. Very grateful to all my generous glorious supporters so far and I'll be fulfilling those rewards throughout the year.
-I'll be releasing a new Horse Tour tea towel soon.
-I'm heading to Joshua Tree after Tucson if you know any cool folks there or in between.
Coming out of a little white water section we landed in quicksand. 3rd time sinking in to the ground on top of a horse. I do not like it and nor do they. We all three panicked and muscled up to rocket our way out the trouble, but for a brief moment Gus was up to his shoulders! The patch looked like regular pebbly river sand. Very deceiving.
It's fairly rare I ever get a picture of myself with the horses. We didn't see a soul for a good seven hours then ran into a hiker rather bewildered at the site of us. He started snapping pictures and I asked him if he could text me a couple when he had the chance. Twas a relief to be traveling along a creek as finding water was not an issue for once.
First night camping in the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness. Nice forage on the ground. Troubadour gets the evening to wonder in hobbles while Gus, more inclined to leave the heard and explore, stays hoof picketed till the morning.
Traveling through the Aravaipa Canyon was one of our most beautiful rides yet and definitely the most technically challenging. On our approach I talked to several locals, hikers and even horse outfitters about the conditions in the canyon. The consensus was it would be no problem. The funny thing is while horses are way stronger and faster than people they can't get through everything people can. A horse can't walk over a downed tree that's four feet off the ground while a person can just climb over. If two trees are near each other a person can just squeeze through, but a horse with a pack saddle needs a wide birth. Several times we had to stop and could not move forward as we'd worked our way into a spot very difficult to turn around with two horses and the pack saddle. This is where ground work with your horse really comes in handy. You play all these games on the ground and develop this wide vocabulary with them so when you are in a jam and need them to take one step back and a half a step to their right they know what you mean. I've done somewhere in-between very little and not very much at all ground work with them. SO in those jams I just kind of look at them and plead through telekinesis to move in the appropriate ways. Sometimes it works and sometimes it hurts.
I was so freakin proud of my horses how they got through the canyon. Lots of new moments for us together, new terrain, new animals including a sighting of this insane creature. They took it moment by moment. Riding horse took his confidence from me, pack horse took his confidence from the riding horse in front and I took my confidence from....well, I just made it up! Poof! Confidence!
Arizona has been the most difficult terrain for us to find good fresh forage for the horses. Sometimes we get patches of sorta dry grayish desert grasses, but many days it's just endless desert with cactus and chaparral and I have to feed em dry pellets. Coming upon lush verdant green grass is heaven for all three of us. Watching them eat this kind of grass feels overwhelmingly good and nourishing.
The less the road is maintained the safer it is for us. Big highways with cars zipping by is our biggest risk. These kinds of roads are heaven.
The orderliness of my pack saddle resembles the orderliness of my mind. A great trick I learned from my teacher and friend Breck Crystal is if you find your pack is slightly off balance through the day you pick up a rock and lash it to the lighter side of the pack. Voila! Balanced!
I don't think I'm an animal person. I know animal people. I'm not like them. I don't go gaga banana brains with every dog and cat I encounter, drop to my knees and let them coat my face in an even film of cross species appreciation. I'm partial to puppies, kittens and babies of all sorts, but who isn't. I'm not a horse guy. I love my horses and am slowly finding my way to a deeper appreciation of them day by day, but I didn't grow up marveling at them. What is a horse guy? Someone who reads a lot about them? Who enjoys every moment with them? Who spends 7 hours a day riding them? I feel a lot of growth with them, but still eons away from the kind of maturity and attention they deserve? I give them a tremendous amount of time and focus, feel I've gotten so much better at being cautious and careful with their fragility and yet I feel they deserve a lot more. They deserve a horse guy! Maybe I'm on my way. I don't know.
People put all the romance they can on us and what our connection must be like. I don't blame them. I'd do the same. People get steamy eyed when they ask what it's like for me to whistle my horses and feel the ground shake as they gallop towards me with unyielding affection, surrounding me in their 2,200 pounds of muscle and fur nuzzling my cheek with their velvet snouts in gratitude for my care and friendship. It's not really like that. Maybe we'll get there, but right now I feel their questions are mainly "Is it food time? Is it snack time? Is it water time? Is it dinner? Is it breakfast? and when will the next food, breakfast, snack or dinner time be?
At every possible opportunity Gus likes to slowly walk backwards util he's got some object, branch or tree trunk gently nestled betwixt his buttcheeks. It's his happy place.
I am getting more sensitive to something being off in their bodies such as a stone stuck in their shoe or something funky with a saddle. The other day Troubadour got a nasty piece of Chollo cactus stuck in his heel flexer. Rather then buck about and go wild making it worse and capturing more Chollo, which some horses will do, he just gave a few little limps. I hopped off and investigated the problem. My first few attempts to remove these wretched steel spine daggers he was a bit kicky. I grew up being taught that the second you get anywhere near a horses butt or feet he will kick you and kill your face!!! I still have a good deal of foot fear in my bones. I kept talking to him and petting him trying to let him know I was there to make it better, not worse, and in a few minutes it worked. He calmed and let me take all the bloody spines out. He was relived and we carried on. That felt like a bonding moment as did getting out of quicksand in the Aravaipa Canyon and sinking mud along a pipeline road. I felt they saw me as having gotten through and out of those scary moments with them rather than having led them into those near disasters. That's when I'm grateful their brains are the size of a walnut.
It has changed my relationship to a day, seeing the sunrise each day. Downside is the dark of the early morning while packing up is cold!!!!
Traveling through Arizona we learned the economy is driven by the five C's: Copper, Citrus, Climate, Cattle and Cotton. Came upon this Copper Mine, on strike outside Winkleman and joined the cause (for a few minutes).
And again 16 miles later another Copper mine of the same company on the same strike. Rested with the horses for a while and got to know the story of this ongoing, 4 month so far, strike.
This stupendous lady Kathy stopped to say hi while we were traveling Klondyke rd through the second largest protected wilderness in AZ next to Grand Canyon. She's had a ranch in the area for 30 years and asked if she could bring us anything from a town run she was on. I said maybe a chocolate bar? 7 hours later she found us down the road and gifted us two chocolate bars and a medium pizza with sausage, onion, pepper and mushroom. I ate 6 slices in five minutes, thanked her profusely, stuck the leftover pizza on Gus and carried on down the road in the fading light.
Couldn't access an ideal park to spend the night in Winkleman due to a cattle guard with no side gate (we hate this). Set up camp on the side of the road letting the horses feast on the lush greenery before realizing they weren't eating grass but some unknown weed. Had a signal and texted horse friends and my brother who helped me ID the plant. We thought it might have been a clover or wild geranium but It was Cheeseweed Mallow. Toxic to horses! I took em off it. They were fine. Hardy bellies they have and figured out my stupid in time thank God. Got a plant ID app which I believe should come in handy.
This stick bunching is apparently what can be found within a Saguaro Cactus pictured bottom left above. They can grow to 40 feet and live hundreds of years! In front of Troubadours face is a field of Chollo Cactus. This is one of the big dangers with horses on the trail in this country as the spike balls can jump off easy and get bound up in your horse. Not yet sure how Gus would respond. Keeping fingers crossed for a mature response. At the top of the group more spikey spikers. Very spikey state. I have removed spikes from various parts of my body. I do not like it.
Found this most stunning Dactylotum Bicolor on my sleeping bag one night. A most welcome visitor. Tasted good too!
My bros resting beneath Mount Graham at my Host Vance's home. His Mormon family has been in the area for five generations!
Dear hosts, and western fashion icons, Glen and Valerie took great care of me and the horses while we had to be camped out at their home for a few weeks. Troubadour needed healing from a small injury and I dealt with some family things. Got to know Silver City well and played 5 shows there.
In past tours I've been moving pretty quickly. I'm often at a home for a night, maybe two before moving on to the next gig. I love that this journey has necessitated slowness. It's allowed me to spend a bit more time with some hosts and get to know them. Glen and Valerie were all-stars. They got more Gideon than they bargained for, but we all got along really well and they loved my horses. Avid horseman for a gazillion years they were a fount of knowledge. They worked with us in the round pen, gave lots of treasured advice, gifted us a home made halter and manty cover, shod my horses to perfection and welcomed me for a thanksgiving feast! I got to go for a couple rides with Glen. I got to sing songs with Valerie including an encore finale of Peter Paul and Mary's Stewball Was a Racehorse that their home show and the whole audience joined in. Couldn't be more grateful for their kindness and generosity to me and the horses.
Pre show pot lucking before my Silver City show at Valerie and Glen's. This show was 80% horse folks in attendance!
I had some nervousness at my first shows where I felt I had a lot of conservative audience members. Kinda new for me. I had this same feeling the first time I played for a mostly black audience and the first show I had in Japan for folks who didn't speak English. I'd feel "How liberal is my show? How white is it? How NY? How English? How Jewish? Will I be able to connect with this group? To my surprise and delight I did! I guess all that stuff, all the categoricals are secondary to a bunch of people gathering closely in a room for song, fun and joy. I think my show might have been the weirdest thing some of my more conservative audience members have seen, but they had a good time. What doesn't kill you, makes you weirder.
Trying to prepare myself not to loose my shit if I see one of these. I have a recurring dream one lunges at my horse from the ground, I catch it out the corner my eye, grab my knife and slice its head off, mid air, before it sinks its teeth in. I eat it raw as a snack while we mosey on. I realize this is unlikely, but it keeps coming to mind. More likely I start crying and run in the other direction.
Beginning a 200 mile section of the Arizona Trail tomorrow heading towards Oracle and then Tucson. Lemme know if ya got any Tucson friends desperate for a horse show. Then we'll be heading towards Joshua Tree and on to the LA region then North. I say we a lot and it confuses folks. We is the horses and I.
Hope this finds you fully immersed in gazilkanoikis,
G