ClickMini
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Started out bright and early yesterday morning, heading out on the 4-1/2 hour trip to McMinnville to get my new mare and filly. Things were going fine but the traffic was a little heavy, seems the Seattle to Portland bike ride was on, There are thousands of people who make this journey each year. CRAZY! Anyway, seems there were thousands of extra travelers on the road yesterday. Got a little south of Portland when suddenly one of my trailer tires blew! There was no where to pull over...for those of you familiar with the area, we were on the Terwiliger curves...so scary! I limped along at about 10 mph for three miles until I could get off the freeway. I was thanking god I didn't have any horses on board. A good samaritan helped us out and got the tire changed and we were back on our way, now a couple of hours later than we'd planned.
Of course you can't go to that farm without looking at the herds of horses, so we passed a nice afternoon looking at all of them, and then decided we had to hit the road. We loaded up my new mare Stepper and her baby, I had bedded a big box stall in the trailer deep in beautiful straw for them. We headed down the road, only to be caught in horrendous traffic, it was taking about twice as long as normal to get where we were going.
Just north of Centralia, still a good couple of hours from home, I saw in my rear view pieces of my trailer heading the other direction down the highway! ANOTHER BLOWOUT!!! And of course now we have NO SPARE!!! It is late on Sunday evening, and all I can say is THANK GOD for USRider Roadside Assistance Program for Equestrians. They managed to locate a service that would bring us two new tires and mount them for us. The bad news is the person was way up in Tacoma, and it would be a while before we would be "rescued." Well to make this sorry story a little shorter, we ended up sitting on the side of Interstate 5 for 3-1/2 hours dead in the water. At 10:30 p.m. the service showed up and got us fixed up. It took about 45-50 minutes all told, so by the time we actually got back to the house it was 2 a.m.!!! Those poor babies had been in the trailer for 10-1/2 hours!!! I was so distraught I can't even tell you.
Anyway, here we are none of us the worse for wear. I have no idea what caused both tires to blow...they were not on the same side, in fact it was a diagonal pair...drivers side rear tire and passenger side front. The service guy seemed to think it was because the tires were older, they were year 2000, but only had less than 10,000 miles on them and looked to be in good shape. I would never have known to replace them, but I guess the moral of the story is you should change your tires every 6 years no matter how many miles.
I took a few snaps of my new babies today, they are so beautiful and I am thrilled to have them. Here is a little web site I put together showing some photos of them from this afternoon. They are still a little wild, they do not want a lot to do with me yet although we are on our way to becoming friends. That is, once Stepper told me once and for all with a set of three double barrels to my thigh that she would only do it on her own terms, LOL! Here is my site: http://www.finchmeadowfarm.com/photogaller...Filly/index.htm
I also found out that Quail Run Minis owns a daughter of my new mare Stepper, her name is Sundance LB Something to Talk About, and she is an accomplished show filly, obtaining a reserve champ Jr. Mare in her first show as a yearling. You can see her on this page. http://www.quailrunminiatures.com/Mares.html I feel very happy and lucky to be able to purchase a mare that produces as well as she. Plus I think she is a nice addition to my pastures on her own merits.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics and remember everyone to CHECK YOUR TRAILER TIRES!!!
Of course you can't go to that farm without looking at the herds of horses, so we passed a nice afternoon looking at all of them, and then decided we had to hit the road. We loaded up my new mare Stepper and her baby, I had bedded a big box stall in the trailer deep in beautiful straw for them. We headed down the road, only to be caught in horrendous traffic, it was taking about twice as long as normal to get where we were going.
Just north of Centralia, still a good couple of hours from home, I saw in my rear view pieces of my trailer heading the other direction down the highway! ANOTHER BLOWOUT!!! And of course now we have NO SPARE!!! It is late on Sunday evening, and all I can say is THANK GOD for USRider Roadside Assistance Program for Equestrians. They managed to locate a service that would bring us two new tires and mount them for us. The bad news is the person was way up in Tacoma, and it would be a while before we would be "rescued." Well to make this sorry story a little shorter, we ended up sitting on the side of Interstate 5 for 3-1/2 hours dead in the water. At 10:30 p.m. the service showed up and got us fixed up. It took about 45-50 minutes all told, so by the time we actually got back to the house it was 2 a.m.!!! Those poor babies had been in the trailer for 10-1/2 hours!!! I was so distraught I can't even tell you.
Anyway, here we are none of us the worse for wear. I have no idea what caused both tires to blow...they were not on the same side, in fact it was a diagonal pair...drivers side rear tire and passenger side front. The service guy seemed to think it was because the tires were older, they were year 2000, but only had less than 10,000 miles on them and looked to be in good shape. I would never have known to replace them, but I guess the moral of the story is you should change your tires every 6 years no matter how many miles.
I took a few snaps of my new babies today, they are so beautiful and I am thrilled to have them. Here is a little web site I put together showing some photos of them from this afternoon. They are still a little wild, they do not want a lot to do with me yet although we are on our way to becoming friends. That is, once Stepper told me once and for all with a set of three double barrels to my thigh that she would only do it on her own terms, LOL! Here is my site: http://www.finchmeadowfarm.com/photogaller...Filly/index.htm
I also found out that Quail Run Minis owns a daughter of my new mare Stepper, her name is Sundance LB Something to Talk About, and she is an accomplished show filly, obtaining a reserve champ Jr. Mare in her first show as a yearling. You can see her on this page. http://www.quailrunminiatures.com/Mares.html I feel very happy and lucky to be able to purchase a mare that produces as well as she. Plus I think she is a nice addition to my pastures on her own merits.
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics and remember everyone to CHECK YOUR TRAILER TIRES!!!