Camping in the Rainy and Nasty Weather

What do you do when you get a rainy day and you are out camping? Do you all sit around the fire under a tent or   awning ? Or do you get out and ride anyway.

I do not like to ride in the rain. I have had too, when we were looking for a lost animal or it started raining when we out on the trail. But if it is raining before we go I will not ride in the rain. I don’t think the horses like it and I know I don’t.

We carry one of those portable screened rooms to set up and use it for having guests come in. We will play music or games and lots of times just talk and tell stories. There are always stories of fun and not so fun things happening on a horse.

Just awhile ago our neighbor came up and asked us to help find her horse, it got out and she could not find it. We got ready and went out to look for the horse. We had been out about a half-hour and it started to pour down hard. We got soaked to the bone. We were out about an hour in the rain and cold but we found her horse and got it home safe. This is an unusual event.

On another occasion, it had been raining and the ground had puddles all around. We started out on a trail and my horse got her foot caught in a vine. It startled her and she reared up, I slid off her back and onto my back in the mud puddle. I did not get hurt just wet.

The rain on the leather makes a mess. Bruce has to put conditioner on it when it gets dry and it just makes a mess. Naturally he has to treat the leather every now and then as usual to keep the leather supple. But getting it wet in the rain is not usual.

Normally, on rainy days we will play card games or board games to pass the time away. You can come up with a lot of things to do in camp when it’s raining. If you have a dry place to stay you can play musical instruments. I play the banjo and a friend of mine plays the guitar so we make good bluegrass music.

It is a lot more fun if you are in a place where others are camping. You can all get together and have a pot luck dinner and sing songs around the campfire.