Our original plan called for me to ride Shyla and pack with Takoda--a plan we hadn't cleared with either horse. Shyla was taking longer to heal from her check ligament injury that we had hoped, so we had to come up with a back-up plan that involved using just Takoda in case she was unable to go. But we also had to train Takoda to be a pack animal, just in case she could go. Takoda had his own ideas about that . . . and he expressed them vigorously! The first time we put the panniers on the pack saddle, we had a rodeo on our hands. But after several training sessions, he got used to the idea, even if he still wasn't too thrilled with it.

#2014PCT