Horse Camp and Russell's Adventure

A quiet mountain evening can turn fast when you live off-grid with horses at 9,300 feet in the Colorado Rockies. We start with a real update on Merlin, who’s holding steady but having more frequent spins and spills, and we talk about the seasonal grind of fly management when summer finally kicks in. Even the weather shows up with us this time, as a rainstorm rolls through while we record.

Then we shift to the best kind of tired: kids horse camp week. We break down what we actually do all day with campers, from catching and grooming horses to goat herding, riding games, and creative projects like painting horseshoes. The week builds into daily demos for parents and a Friday finale where every camper tries vaulting, gymnastics on horseback, including standing on a horse’s back with no saddle. It’s equal parts skill, trust, and courage.

We also share what’s next on the ranch: a women’s weekend horse camp planned for the last weekend of September in Eagle County (Colorado River Road, out past Dotsero), plus ideas for a Saturday night get-together and live music. Finally, Russell tells the story of running the ranch solo, building a massive log fence for mustangs, and a tense “last check” where Merlin goes down with a hoof stuck in a 20-gallon water bucket, followed by an unexpected bear sighting on the road.

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Transcript

Welcome To Life Off Grid

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome to another edition of Off Grid with Horses. I'm Russell.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

And I'm Alex. Russell and I are going to share two-life adventures of our lives with horses on our Colorado mountain ridge.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

We live way off-grid at 9,300 feet above sea level, high in the Colorado Rockies.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Where the air is thin. But the breathing is easy. And life is hard.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

But the living is good.

Merlin’s Update And Fly Season

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Hello, it's Russell and Alex for another Off-Grid with Horses episode. When we last left, Merlin was doing okay, but struggling now and then. So Alex, why don't you give us an update?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Well, Merlin is okay, but struggling now and then. It's kind of the story of this part, this chapter of his life. He's doing pretty good. He's had a few more spins than he had in the prior little while, month or two, and a few more spills. But he is he is chugging away, doing okay. And right now his greatest enemy is the flies.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah, the flies haven't been too bad this year because it's been so dry, but now they're starting to come out in full force.

Kids Camp Highlights And Vaulting

SPEAKER_00 1:25

And at the last episode, you were talking and telling us about the camp that you were going to put on, and that camp took place. Why don't you tell us what happened? How's it going?

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Well, we had a wonderful camp. It was absolutely fantastic. All the kids enjoyed it, all the parents enjoyed it. The horses all enjoyed it. I think they were all getting pretty tuckered out the last day, though. There were there were a few thrills and spills, but that's okay because that's all part of learning. You're not really, you may have heard out there sometime in the past, you're not really a good horse rider until you fall off. And so we try to take care of that element of it, at least occasionally as well. Only when the appropriate moment presents itself.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

What did you do in the camp? What kind of activities?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Oh, we did a variety like we always do. And it always is kind of dictated by the individuals that we have in the camp and the dynamic that gets made up. But this particular time we did goat herding and we did catching horses and grooming horses and see chasing chickens. We did some artwork. We had the kids paint not only horseshoes, but also some images of horses that everybody enjoyed doing. And we, of course, also had leading and riding games. So we had the kids do some you call it. We had them make up some choreographed events. We only gave them a few minutes to put them together and using particular obstacles, making sure that they utilized certain things that we had been working on. And so we ended up having the most lovely combination of horse and gymnastic and track type events going on at this camp. You wouldn't, you just couldn't imagine. One of the funnest parts though was every day, um, so the camp was every day for a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And from 4 to 5 p.m., the parents, those that were available and family members, came and would watch as all the camp participants would demonstrate what they had learned that day. And the week culminated in parents and family event from 3 to 5 p.m. on Friday. And the kids actually, campers all actually, in addition to presenting things that they had worked on and been practicing throughout the week, they actually presented a demonstration, every single one of them doing vaulting. And if you're not familiar with vaulting on horseback, that is gymnastics on horseback. So every single one of our little campers, from seven years old up to 17, and actually Lily's 19, even though she was a camp counselor, she still did it as well. I believe, well, every single one stood up on the back of a horse without a saddle to hold them up, without holding on to anything. And I think every single one stood up on the back of the horse with only one foot. It was pretty amazing. And so we had a a great time with festivities and all kinds of fantastic activities. And I've gotten some text sentence saying, This is the best camp I've been to ever.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So we're thrilled. Well, that's

Women’s Weekend Camp Plans

SPEAKER_00 4:46

great. And for those of you who are listening, if you heard a little rumbling, we are actually in the middle of a rainstorm, which is just wonderful. It has been extremely dry here. And today, of course, since we're uh recording this, it started to rain, and we didn't have any thunder until just now. And so if you hear rumbling in the background, that's what's happening. We're having some thunder and lightning. And Alex, you mentioned when you came back that you're thinking about putting on a camp for adults or families. What's your vision for that?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Well, what it's turning into is we're gonna have a weekend camp for a women's weekend horse camp. And so that is going to have two days of camp from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., having all kinds of horse and ranch related activities. And I don't even know what it's gonna entail yet, but I bet there's gonna be some stuff that none of these women anticipated doing oh, in the last 20 or 30 years. So I'm thrilled that that's gonna be happening. And we're also gonna be having an event on Saturday night to bring all of us ladies together. And I haven't told anybody else yet. It's just an idea in my head, but I'm gonna try to get a few of my friends from the old days to come and do some live music for us.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

And is that going to be still this year or are you looking for next year?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yep, that's gonna be this year. It's gonna be the last weekend of September out in out on Colorado River Road, out past Dot Cerro in that part of Colorado and Eagle County.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

So if you'd like more information on that, contact Alex by just simply sending an email to info at offgridwithhorses.com. That's info at offgridwithhorses.com. Or if you have any other questions or comments or anything you'd like to hear, let us know at info at offgridwithhorses.com. And are you planning on then doing a family camp or is that just a ladies camp?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

That one in the end of September is gonna be a ladies' camp. We'll see what develops in the coming years. We can only put together so much at a time, but yep, that's our next extension, and we're kind of excited about it.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

And you have another kids camp coming up, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

That's gonna be August 10th to the 14th.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

All right.

Running The Ranch Solo

SPEAKER_00 7:12

And what happens to the ranch when you're gone?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

You take care of it.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

That's right. I take care of it. And so I've been riding solo, taking care of the ranch, and I always thought that taking care of this little ranch of ours was really a three-person job. You can do it with two people, but you have to work hard. Four people is actually excellent. When we have volunteers, we had a volunteer this week that made things a lot easier. And we had Lily up here last week, which made things easier. But I'm not sure that's actually true. I discovered that as long as you don't eat or sleep, one person can do it fine, just all by themselves. And that's what I did mostly this week. I did eat and sleep some, but from about five in the morning till 10 o'clock at night, I was riding solo and going through trying to get everything done. Part of the projects that we were doing this week, well, I was doing this week, we are building a fence. This ranch was originally homesteaded maybe the late 1800s, early 1900s, and it had a lot of fences up, and they were all made of full timbers. And so we are building a fence in a lot the same way that that the original homesteader did. We're using whole logs, and it's going to be a little bit taller than their fences. Our our fence is going to be about five and a half, six feet tall because we have Mustangs here. And some of the Mustangs, when they come, are wild. And so you need a strong, tall fence. So this is gonna, it's it's actually quite massive. And we're working on that, and I was working on that while Alex's was gone and was doing the morning check. I would start at about 5 a.m. and maybe a little bit before that, but about five o'clock, I'd try and get out and start working on the grains by 5:15, 5:30. And as you may recall, some of our horses have to have masks on because they are sensitive to the sunlight. Marty doesn't have any injuries, but he has blue eyes. And since he has blue eyes, he's very sensitive to sunlight. So we always put a mask on him that works like sunglasses. And then Karma has an old injury that's healed about as much as it's ever going to heal, but the sunlight bothers that as well. And so she has a mask. And then I would do afternoon grains, feed everybody, and Merlin, of course, gets a lunch as well. And after everything is done, around oh, 8:30 to 9 o'clock, then I would do what we call last check. And last check, the purpose of that is just to make sure everybody's okay. We check the gates, we check the water, make sure everything is ready for the night, and basically tuck all the horses in.

Merlin Falls And The Herd Reacts

SPEAKER_00 10:16

This last check was a little interesting because I started out the way I normally do. Start with the ponies and checked all the ponies, made sure they were okay, and checked their water, or made sure it was okay. Then I climbed the fence and got into Karma's pen and checked her water. And Karma was a little upset. She was anxious. She was standing over by the fence, the far side of the fence. And Fern was very anxious and was pawing at the ground and pounding on the fence. And she does that from time to time when she wants to have her mask taken off, her feeding mask. She doesn't have a mask for sunlight, but she fern is quite fat. And we she's been on a diet for a long time. We're trying to get her to lose weight, but she just eats too much. And so we have a mask that fits over her nose and her mouth, so that she just can't eat as much. It's she can still eat, but it's just harder. And we take that off in the evenings, and then she basically eats all night. And so it's not unusual for her to be pawing and a little anxious, but she was particularly anxious this night. And I looked at her and her eyes were wide, her ears were up. She was just really, really excited. And so I walked over to her and I took off her mask and I said, just relax, just calm down. And when I went to put her mask away, I saw that Merlin had fallen. He was on the ground, and he had one hoof in the water, in his water bucket. We have 20-gallon water buckets. So Merlin's hoof was in the water bucket, and he was on the ground, he couldn't get up, he was pushed up against the fence. So I was not sure exactly how I was going to get him up because with the fence behind him and his hoofs in front, he's even though he's old and and he's relatively thin now, but he's he's still probably five, six hundred pounds. And so it's not like I can just lift him up. So I texted Alex and hoped that she would respond, that she'd be able to be at a place where she could receive the text. And I texted her and just said, Merlin's down. And she responded back quickly. And what we did is she said, well, she can see through the cameras. We have Arlo cameras all over the place so that we can always look at the horses. She said she can see what's going on through the cameras. And she told me to see if I could open the paddocks up a little bit more, which I did. I undid the ties that were holding some of the fence panels and was able to move one of the fence panels back to give Merlin more room. I also pulled the water away from Merlin so he his hoof came out of the water, and so he was just lying there. He wasn't struggling, he wasn't really in distress, but obviously he was he couldn't get up. And so when I pulled the water out and opened the fence up, then I moved the other fence out. I started to move the gate out and started just taking apart the fence completely so that I could try and get behind him. And when I did that, then he started to struggle, and he he stood up. When he stood up, all the horses just got all excited. He started winning, all the horses started winning, and they they all just started cheering for Merlin. I thought it was so sweet that all of them were staring at me and and and watching me trying to get him up and try and working with him. All of them were just all huddled around as close as they could get. And then when he got up, say it was very cute. He he he whinnied when he got up because he was excited. I clapped, and all the horses started winning and running around because they were all excited because their their buddy had had gotten up. So that was my week with Merlin.

A Bear Comes Down The Road

SPEAKER_00 14:29

He uh got up, and as he got up, the horses started staring up the mountain. And when they stared up the mountain, I could see that our bear, not our bear, but the one of the bears was coming down the road. And so I had our little white dog with us, and so I I ran and took the little white dog in. He never saw the bear, which is lucky because he wouldn't do well with the bear. And I got my my rifle and came back to try and just shoe the bear away. I wouldn't shoot him, but I if the bear was gonna, if the bear attacked me, obviously, I would I would shoot. Or if the bear attacked the horses, I would probably put myself between the bear and the horses and would defend myself as well as the horses. So I walked up the driveway a bit and looking for the bear. I never did see him again. So he he took off. He decided there was just too much activity. But between Merlin falling and then the bear coming down, it was quite an evening.

Wrap Up And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 15:40

We're about out of time. Alex, is there anything more you want to say? Oh, tons, but we'll have to keep it for the next episode. All right, so that was so ends another episode of Off Grid with Horses. Be sure and subscribe. And if you want to contact us, contact us at info at offgrid with horses dot com. That's info at offgrid with horses dot com.