Grab a cup of coffee and let me tell you a story . . .

Where to start. Well, our weekends adventures started on Friday morning. Peter and I both had plans to work at The Ranch. I am working there one day a week for the summer - extra cash, a chance to be outside with my dogs -- oh, and to take care of our new horses.

I will back up a few days. Big news, we bought 4 new Norwegian Fjord horses for the Outfitting Business. We bought three from a gal in Bozeman and 1 from a family in Park City, MT. They are wonderful and we are equally excited and terrified by the commitment of horse ownership.

Friday morning Peter and I were taking the familiar drive to Bridger Canyon - I kept looking at him, at the incredible scenery, and soaking in the new sounds of our truck. Thinking to myself "wow, our lives have really changed... I never could have imagined this in my wildest dreams." All this change, we are stretching ourselves emotionally, financially and physically by taking all of this on. But as I sat next to this wonderful, wonderful man I realized how truly calm and hopeful I am for our future - the business, the horses, the schedule we are about to take on - it all feels easy with Peter. He has that affect on me. I trust him, believe in him, and know he has our best interest at the center of his heart.

So the day started out normal. It was about 8:30am when we pulled into The Ranch. My duties for the day were to re-stain part of their log house. Peter and Heidi decided to take her horse trailer (which she is graciously letting us borrow until ours arrives soon) and pick up 3 of our new babies and take them to Ennis. This round trip outing was planned to be an all day deal.

A little more background here... Our friend / business parter Storrs gave Peter 2 of his horses to "work with" for a few months. These two mares our NOT ours, just on loan to Peter to see if he can work with them and get them ready for fall hunting season. They haven't had much work done with them and it was hoped that they'd be ready to pack by the fall and they would be used in camp. We were considering buying one of them eventually. Emphasis on the were. So, these 2 gals have been at The Ranch for a week or so and are still pretty skittish and crazy acting. Peter had made some progress with them, but they were still really jumpy and nervous acting. These two have happily been living in the high meadow / pasture at the Ranch, but the day before Peter had moved them lower to the log barn and smaller paddock to get them off grass. Things seemed to be all ok.

As I was about 4 hours into huffing stain and shivering in the 40 degree JUNE weather in the mountains, a call came in that the two borrowed horses were 1 mile up the road and across the highway . . . somewhere in a 40 acre area . . .

Sure enough, I check out the log barn and the fence and it is broken . . . Horses are nowhere to be seen.

Now remember, as this is going on Peter is picking up 3 of our new horses. Welcome to horse ownership I am thinking. Can I tell him to just leave them and take them back?

Well, when Pete gets back we drive up to Arnie's house to see if we can see the 2 wild beasts anywhere. We huffed up about 1,000 vertical feat of wet, soggy hills and see them. They wanted NOTHING to do with us. After about 1.5 hours of traipsing around (me in my old running sneakers which are now water shoes) it begins to snow again, the once somewhat domesticated horses are now full blown Man From Snowy River wild horses, thrilled to be running free in 40 plus acres of new land.

It was 6pm. Peter and I still needed to drive 2 hours to Billings to pick up our 4th new horse and drive him all the way back to Bridger Canyon to the Ranch. These wild horses would have to wait till morning and we only hope that whatever made them break down the fence in the first place and dart for over a mile won't spook them and make them run again.

Peter and I have been up since 6:00am, driving since 7:00am. he has already driven from Livingston to Bridger Canyon, Bridger Canyon to Bozeman, Bozeman to Ennis and back. We still have a 4 hour round trip ahead of us. The McLoughlins demanded that once we got our new horse from Billings and back to the ranch that we stay with them and that way we could wake up early there and look for the missing two again early. So, it was off to Billings . . . For the second half of our long day getting ready to start at 6pm.

The road trip down was great. I counted cows all the way there. Making it clear in my mind that if the livestock in this state decided to grow opposable thumbs, talk and take over, we humans would be completely out numbered. I love Montana. More cows than people.

We sang country music, soaked in the fact that we are outfitters now. Our little family of 5 went just grew exponentially. I was enjoying the romantic fantasies in my head of my cowboy husband, the expected fruits of our labors, and all the adventures that lie ahead for this city girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We met Olie's mom (the new baby) at the gas station in Park City and we followed her to her little ranch. Olie (pronounced O-Lee) was all slick and groomed and so darn cute. I immediately fell in love and felt a deep connection to this 2-year old Fjord. Peter laughed at me. Knowing that I am now addicted to horses as he suspected might happen. Linda cried when we loaded little Olie in our trailer, gave him some treats and asked us to send her some updates on his new life. I promised, got in the big truck and we headed home with a new member of the family.

At about 11:00pm we were about 10 minutes from Livingston, but we weren't going to Livingston that night... we were headed another 45 minutes to the Ranch to get Olie acquainted with his new brother Deamo (our other gelding). Then a nice night's rest at the McLoughlins.

I had just drifted off, our newly hairless dog Oliver sleeping curled up on my lap (still looking like the Taco Bell dog). Peter breaks the night silence with "I just lost all our fuel." "What?" I ask half asleep. " I think we just lost the fuel pump." We quickly pull the car over on I-90. Sure enough. No way this big ol truck is starting. There is NO fuel getting to the engine.

11:00pm. Peter has been driving all over the state since 7:00am. Filled up the dodge duelly with diesel (at $4.53/gal) 3 times. Chased horses through the hills for a couple of hours already, now stranded on the side of the road with a young scared horse behind us in a trailer.

"Who do we call?" We have a 1-ton pick up and horse trailer with a 1,000 lb horse in the back. Nearly in unison we shout our answer - "Mike and Laurie!"

Sure enough, our ever sacrificial and amazing friends answered our 11:15pm call on the first ring. Peter tells Mike we are broken down at the White Sulpher exit 10 minutes east of town. Mike's first words are "Under one condition will I come and get you . . . You have to take back all the things you said about Ford Pick-ups last week." Ah, the irony and humor of it all!

Peter tells Mike he is his hero and that Fords are better than Dodges and he is on his way to our rescue.

Now, if you have never seen a Ford pick-up towing a 1-ton dodge pick-up and horse trailer with a 3 foots tow rope down the interstate at 11:45 at night ... Well, I hope you never do.

Miraculously, we made it to a parking lot in Livingston where we dumped the broken down "new business investment," kept Mike and Laurie's truck and drove another hour to the Ranch where we deliriously dreamed of fluffy pillows and sleep.

Finally, we pulled through the gates, I got some hay ready for our new kid, and Peter tried to get the little freaked out Olie out of the trailer. It was not happening. Peter yanked and pulled, pushed, shoved, rubbed, pleaded and cried for this young horse to get out of this trailer. Still not happening. I think at one moment as Peter was rubbing on Olie and showing him that he had nothing to be afraid of he actually fell asleep standing.

One hour and 15 minutes later . . . Olie backed his cute blond butt out of that trailer. Now he was afraid of the shadows he saw. Another 15 minutes . . . He is in the paddock with new brother Deamo - happy as a clam and so happy to be out of that scary white box that transported him from one life to another.

Peter and I stumbled to our room at the McLoughlins at 1:30am, were asleep before our heads hit the pillow and slept like babies. At least I did . . .

Peter laid awake and rose at 6:00am again, now that OUR new horses were where they were supposed to be, the truck was broken down, it was time to turn attention to the missing borrowed horses up the road and try to figure out what had spooked these calm, well natured horses enough to break through a very secure rail fence and run a mile up the road and STILL not want to have anything to do with humans.

After a yummy breakfast at Hotel Ellie, Peter, myself, Heidi and Michael saddled 2 of Heidi's horses to take with us to find the missing Emma and Diera. We were prepared for a Rodeo. We knew this day would not end soon. Good thing we brought the horses. As it snowed STILL, we rode ALL over this 40 acres up to the ridge, through the tree lines, along the creeks, through the meadows. Looking for tracks, blond horse bodies, ANYTHING that said "these horses are still within the vicinity." As minutes turned to hours, Peter was panicked (and he does NOT panic, EVER). If these girls got out a weak fence and into the Forest Service land, or other private property for that matter, there were hundreds of miles of country they could be in. Were they hurt? I am not sure which is worse . . . missing forever or found and injured?

We knew they were not domesticated horses at this point. They were wild and catching them was not going to be easy, if we ever found them. Peter has been rehearsing through his mind "how do I tell Storrs that 2 of his $7,000 horses are GONE!?" "Do I just offer him 2 of the ones I just bought?" "What have we done?"

As we are all riding and walking through the hills, frustrated beyond belief, covering our heads from the HAIL that is falling in JUNE I am thinking, "Wow, those romantic thoughts of horses riding in the hills... THIS is real horse ownership. Oh S*#@!"

Finally, I take one last run up the far ridge and faintly in the distance - another mile away I see 2 blond blobs in the middle of a green field. "They are on Taylor's property!!!!!" It takes us another 1/2 hour to all meet up again, as Peter is 1.5miles away on the other side of the hill, Heidi is looking on another ridge. We finally corral the search team back to the trailers, drive down the road and hope we have the two beasts cornered again. But, we knew they got IN to this property somehow and surely they could get out again. These horses are smarter than they look.

These mares spooked at anything. From 150 yards away they would start to run from us. Peter took grain and a treat bucket out, treading lightly, willing them back to him. One hour later, we (Peter really) had somehow moved them to a corner of this field where there was an old run down corral. They were in it. Now, to keep them in it.... We rushed halters and ropes over, Michael got the trailer stuck, everyone is cussing and cursing at this point, our riding horses were acting up and acting like idiots, the snow was coming down again.

But, the girls were finally tired. After 2 days of running, dodging and living like fugitives in new territory, Peter and walked them back through the field and to the trailer. Victory? Not yet. Small problem. The fences were LOCKED! "Who locks their fences?" we cursed a dozen times. The owner of the property is nowhere to be found. Rumor is that he was driving his cattle on his other property - can't be reached.

We now have 2 spooky horses that could flip out again at any moment, tied to a rail, within a pasture that we cannot get them out of. Now, there are many unspoken rules in Montana. One of them - you DON'T mess with anyone else's land or fencing.

Well, our options were slim to none and we had to cut their fence and just fix it, explain it to them and hope they wouldn't care. And that is what we did.

Finally at 3pm the runaways were back in a 9 foot tall round pin - something that we HOPE they can't escape. We are NOT buying either of those 2 nutty horses. That decision was easily made at that point. Peter stumbled around completely emotionally exhausted, physically exhausted and both of us laughing and crying inside about the last 2 days and the rodeo that 2 horses just put us through! We were starving. Time for lunch in Bozeman.

From the escaping horses, the exhaustion, the abuse on our checkbooks, the driving, lack of sleep, broken down trucks . . . The day was redeemed when we went down to play with 2 of the actual horses that were now ours. They were wonderful. Olie and Deamo (D-Mo) followed me around like little curious dogs and friends as I cleaned out their paddock. They snuggled and nuzzled, loved to be around us and it was like they were telling us. . . "Don't worry . . . we'll be good to you . . . You've still made the right decisions. Those girls are just crazy!"

I looked at my husband across the horses backs that we were petting and after all of that we still had smiles on our faces. We were grateful that no horse or person was hurt, that we have incredible friends that pick us up on the side of the highway at 11pm (heroes), friends that let us sleep at their homes, help us chase horses (more heroes), we have each other and we still have faith in our future 110% . . .

Whew... We went to bed at 6:30 last night. The dogs did too.