My Trip to Hell

Yes, I'm being extremely overdramatic. I hauled horses down to Albuquerque on Wednesday. I haven't pulled a trailer a whole lot in my life and this was actually only the second time I have pulled ours. It's quite a bit longer/heavier than the trailers I've pulled before. So a seven hour drive, by myself (at least my horse shoer was following me if I got a flat or broke down), with a full load (five horses) did stress me out a bit. It probably shouldn't and an empty trailer wouldn't bother me, but the thought of something possibly happening with horses in the trailer, especially when three of them aren't mine, makes me paranoid. I ended up making it with no problems and even made really good time.

Proof that the truck and trailer survived

Three of the horses were going to my trainer's and the other two were going to the track. The racehorses were in the back, so I dropped them off first. I told security that I had two to drop off and gave them the health, piroplasmosis, and coggins. Then headed to the barn. Not two seconds after we unloaded the second horse security came flying up. The lady asked me how many I was dropping off and I told her two. She asked if I had all of the paper work for the three on the trailer, so I told her I had health, coggins, and a brand inspection, but no piro.

Obviously not the security there, but you get the idea

Why no piro?
Because they aren't staying at the track and they didn't need them.

You have to have a piro on all of them because how do we know that they aren't infected?
Because I try not to make it a habit of hauling diseased horses, especially with healthy ones.

Who owns these horses?
I stole them off of the side of the road. *Okay, I didn't say that even though it was the first response that popped into my head. I just told her I owned the three on the trailer because I do own two and she wouldn't gave been smart enough to understand the situation with B if I had explained it.

Where are they going?
 To a farm.

Well, you can't have them back here.
Well, I'm just getting ready to pull out now. They aren't staying.

Well, they can't be back here.
Well, they are back here and the sooner you get off my ass, the sooner I can leave.

You better dig up all of the paper work you can find because they are going to want to see it at the gates before you leave.
Or what? If I don't, they won't let me take the horses that you're saying can't be here out? Not to mention, every guard there saw me pull up with a full load of horses and not one of them mentioned pulling in to drop a couple off would be a problem. This is security's mistake, not mine and it's not my problem (I was starting to get REALLY pissed at this point).

That finally shut her up. She mumbled something again about my paper work and took off. Heifer was on a power trip!

I went to the gate and the supervisor there at least had a brain. She said just don't do it again. I told her that if I'd known I couldn't, I wouldn't have, but no one sitting there told me. She left it alone.

And here is a list of why the whole sitiation was stupid (I do like my lists):

A) A piro is good for two years. TWO YEARS! Just a guess, but I'd say any horse on the backside could have gotten infected in that time. If they're so worried about it spreading, why is the expiration on the tests so damn long?

B) If they had told me that all of the horses had to have piros when I was at the gates, I would have just unloaded the two in the parking lot and led them in. If the other horses on the trailer had been infected, there wouldn't have been any different eventual outcome.

C) Two people checked me in and there were like five other security guards standing right next to the trailer. Not one of them noticed that I had five horses instead of two. I told them I had two to unload, I didn't say that I only had two on the trailer. They come after me like I'm trying to be sneaky and just abducted their first born child or something, when they're the ones that screwed up.

D) How do they know that horses that came in on vans weren't in contact with an infected horse that is going to a different area? You only need a piro for Albuquerque, most tracks don't require them anymore. What I'm saying is that they can't regulate every horse in the country.

E) If the trailers/vans can't pull into the backside to unload and a horse gets loose in the parking lot and runs out onto Louisleazyanna (Louisiana, busy street), causing a wreck, who is going to be held liable? Just a guess, but I'm pretty sure it'd be the track.

Anyway (sorry to go off), I hauled Indy, Beefs, and B out to my trainer's. My shoer rode with me to help me unload them and I bitched and moaned about how freaking stupid and ridiculous EVERYTHING at that track is. Poor guy.

Sanctuary aka trainer's farm

I got to my trainer's and was just so relieved to be back out there that I took a deep breath and temporarily forgot about the track. Yep, that is definitely my happy place in Hellbuquerque. The three horses settled in, I enjoyed talking to JL and MB (trainer and his wife). I didn't want to leave.

I spent the next morning at the track trying to get organized. This included finding a walker to rent (apparently no one has any or they are too lazy to set them up) and trying to get people's horses out of our stalls. Then I suddenly realized that the fiancé sent me so that he didn't have to deal with all of the typical shit that is involved with getting settled in Albuquerque. Outsmarted again.

Letting Princess graze while we're still somewhere that has grass. Yes, I'm wearing yoga pants. I've declared these last few days here as casual dress days.

So, I'm back in Denver for a few days and am going to enjoy the time I have left here before my return to Hell.

*I probably won't have time to post much for the next week, but I'll try to keep up with as many of your blogs as I can.

Also, check out the giveaways that Equestrian Trend and The Cob Jockey are doing. Two awesome blogs!