Finding a place to spend the night when travelling with horses is usually fraught with uncertainty. The past three nights we lucked out, having put the horses and us up at a ranch, an auction lot, and last night, a rodeo grounds. I said to Pete early on in this trip that we should purchase some panels, carry them on the side of the trailer, and construct a corral when necessary. Then I got to thinking about it – this would definitely take away from the more adventurous aspects of our ongoing road show.

My standards for what constitutes acceptable night lodging for the horses is extremely high – not quite as high as the woman in Butte who (we were told) would not stay at the rodeo grounds because the shelters were not “sterilized.” I don’t

know what she meant by sterilized – I think the facility manager was exaggerating. But I will never put my horses in a dirty pen or an enclosed stall because I too am concerned about the adverse effect of contaminants.

It’s a plus if there is a hose close by, picnic tables, and shower facilities.

And so I was apprehensive about our staying in Prince George, a big town.

We pulled in to a scene of controlled chaos. Horse owners were getting ready for tomorrow, walking, bathing, and riding horses. A woman driving a living quarters trailer was in front and to the side of us. She was having a difficult time backing up her rig. I suppressed my impatience for it was by now very hot and I just wanted to get the horses out of the trailer and into a pen. We finally got out of the truck and asked the first friendly person we saw about accommodations. She gave us the phone number of the facility manager who appeared shortly thereafter. Once again, we got lucky. I asked, and was told that I could put the horses in the furthest back corner enclosure. As I again told Pete, this way, the horses would not have contact with any of the others.

Pete was anxious in unloading the horses – I could not blame him – he wasn’t up for being told we had to go elsewhere. And being the only guy around, well, there was that. I simply let him take charge.

There were at least 100 horses on-site at the Agri-Plex – for the simple reason that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday have been designated as show days. There were two main stall areas that I suspected held the local boarder horses. These animals were blanketed and standing up to their hocks in fresh sawdust. They were, when I checked them out, quietly munching on alfalfa hay.

The rest, which I called the riff raff, were outside, housed in several rows of paneled enclosures, each one with a combination shelter/run in shed. All the pens were clean – most had sawdust in them. And there were, scattered about, numerous live in trailers and a handful of campers with attached smaller trailers.

After considerable discussion with Deb, we all agreed that it would be best if we parked our trailer directly outside the facility. I said to Pete that this wasn’t perfect, but it would do. We had to open and close a large gate in order to get to our rig, and it was a bit of hike. And I lacked a view of the horses.

Pete went grocery shopping after we set up our quasi by the side of the showgrounds camp. It was to be another night in the truck. In his absence, I thoroughly groomed the horses. I did a tick check – there were no bumps or bruises, although Hrimmi’s back did have some pack saddle related lumps. I also cleaned everyone’s hooves.

Next: 218. 8/8/19: The Smithers, BC Rodeo Grounds