PENINSULA HORSEPLAY

 

 

 

She’s a wanderer. Calling her­self “The Equine Nomad,” TrishWild sold her home in Colorado, packed her truck, loaded her four horses in the trailer and is fulfilling a lifetime dream of riding 200 miles in every state in three years.

After wait­ing until her three sons were grown, she began her journey in December 2010 by journeying to the beaches of California.

 

I met up with her last month at Olympic View Stables in Agnew, where she spoke to a small group about her journeys and to promote the EponaShoe, a new type of plastic component horseshoe that allows the hoof to flex.

 

She’d been staying at the Mount Mueller horse camp, where she describes the trails and camp as — no surprise to us locals — among the “best I’ve ever experienced.”

 

Although the Mount Mueller spot has the luxury of a toilet, she said, she prefers staying in rugged wilderness campsites where other visitors are virtually nonexistent.

 

At times, she is accompanied by son Zak.

I’m a bit envious of her adven­tures. Pictures on her blog show her on horseback plowing through rivers, wading in the ocean, being the first rider to cross the new bridge in Olym­pia’s Capitol State Forest.

 

One thing I found practically entertaining is when she visits her friends living in cities, she just puts her four horse in their tiny fenced backyards.

 

While it’s likely against city ordinances, so far, she’s found it has entertained the neighbors.

 

Wow, I would just love to show up with my horses at various friends’ homes in Orange County, Calif., and let my horses loose in their manicured backyards!

 

Truly, I’d love to vacation at their homes to catch some warm winter sun.

 

A nurse and a novice horse traveler, Trish is learning much through trial and error — and she’s had a huge learning curve.

 

Before learning the key to keeping her horses close to camp, she temporarily lost all four while camping high in the wil­derness.

 

Not every horse can adjust to overnighting in a strange area, but her lean, fit and healthy horses all looked calm and happy to me, and all have to carry a pack.

 

Trish has learned much about what tents and sleeping bags don’t work when it rains, the importance of good shoes for her and her horses, how to trim and shoe her own horses.

 

While in California, she learned about the EponaShoe.

 

She took a clinic hosted by the company on how to trim her horses’ hoofs (based on the natu­ral barefoot trim) and has since become a strong advocate.

 

While the cost of the EponaShoe is higher than metal, I really do like the concept.

 

She said EponaShoes helped her rescue horse, Moonlight, grow back strong hooves in just four months after they fell apart in chunks back when he was in steel shoes.

 

Catch up with Trish via her Equine Nomad blog at www. trishwild.blogspot.com. Learn more about the shoes at www. EponaShoe.com.

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Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears every other Wednes­day.

If you have a horse event, clinic or sem­inar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also write Griffiths at PDN, P.O. Box 1330, Port Ange­les, WA 98362.