Destiny

We were riding in the Hoosier National Forest in South Central Indiana. A beautiful and wonderful place to ride. On our third day, we began much as any other day horse camping; feed and water the horses, stoke up the fire from last nights embers, cook breakfast, prepare to ride. On this morning, Buck was a pistol so Vic took him over to the round pen to have a discussion. I went along to watch.

When she was done, and Buck had settled into acceptance, we head out on a new trail for a moderate day of riding. We went to Ghost Town and the one steep hill I feared from our visit the year before. The trail was washed out and closed. It didn't look nearly as steep as I remembered it, but it was a moot point since it was closed anyway.

We got off the beaten path and spent the better part of an hour lost along a beautiful creek bed, climbing over fallen trees, losing the trail and finding it again. Eventually we backtracked to a marked trail, wound around and headed back to camp for a late lunch.

I had ridden most of day looking at the ground immediately around April as we walked along. I was looking for a feather. It created an odd sensation concentrating on what was right below me as opposed to constantly looking down the trail. It is not the best of trail riding practices, but I was totem hunting. About a half mile out of camp, there it was. A beautiful hawk feather at the base of a tree off to my right. I recovered the feather, stuck it in my hat band, and we proceeded on.

A little further down the trail we could see a woman walking towards us. "where is your horse?" I called out, regretting it almost immediately. As we closed the gap between us, I could see the woman was extremely distressed. "have you seen her?" she asked.

Turn out that while we were over at the round pen, our neighbors tacked up and got ready to ride. This woman was thrown as she was mounting, and her horse ran away. She ran around the camp and then high tailed it into the woods and down the path we were now riding.

We turned around and joined the search.

As we got back to where I had found the feather there were two crows just off the trail where it took a sharp left. As we approached, they did not fly away as expected. They just sat there and cawed loudly at us. Very strange.

After a mile or so, the trail went along a ridge with a sharp drop on the left and a more gentle drop down to the right. We rode the ridge until it turned down the gentle slope to the right. We noticed that another trail went on ahead. It was not a marked trail, or a much travelled trail, but we surmised that a scared horse running along the ridge was more likely to proceed straight than to make the sharp right hand turn. We rode on.

We had to ride around several trees as the woods closed in reclaiming the untravelled trail. Since the view was so beautiful, we decided to ride a little further even though the futility of the search had sunk in.

I looked ahead on the trail, and about twenty yards ahead, there stood a little sorrel horse, stock still, watching us come down the trail. We dismounted, and I held both of our horses as Vic slowly approached Destiny. Destiny had her reins back through her front legs and around one back hoof making any further travel very difficult. She stood still as Vic got a hold of her and sorted out her gear.

Now what? Here we were a coulple of miles from camp with our two horses and a frightened horse that we didn't know at all. We decided that I'd take Destiny and Vic would pony April off of Buck. Ponying another horse is not all that difficult with practice, but through the woods it is a real challenge. I tried walking along side Destiny, but she was not about to be left behind and wouldn't walk at an easy pace. After a short way, I was out of breath and it was obvious that I should at least try to ride back. I tightened the cinch and climbed on.

She was a Tenessee Walking horse and moved out much different than my quarter horse mare, April. Scared and high stepping we followed Vic down the trail.

That is how we captured destiny lost in the woods of South Central Indiana.