NCC Warm Up Day

It was clear when we woke up on Wednesday morning that the cold weather in Raton had followed us to Nebraska. Rain clouds skidded across the sandstone bluffs around the fort and a cold wind got the horses kinda snorty. Our first activity of the day was a staff ride through the surrounding hills. This is a tradition at the NCC and it allows horses and men to get acclimated to the local area and learn a little history in the process. The ride was beautiful if a little cold. We only had our thin red baseball jackets to keep the cold out so we pretty much relied on the horses to keep us warm.
We rode along a fence line and saw a buffalo on the other side watching us. He laid down and started to roll around in a dirt bed just like a horse would do. Our horses had never seen a buffalo and were mighty concerned about it. They kept both eyes on the buffalo until we had ridden a sufficient distance away from it. The buffalo didn't seem to be at all concerned about the horses. All the different Army horse detachments participated on the ride. One unit, for some reason, let their riders run up and down the line like they were trying to police the column or something. This activity continued until one of the horses in the line kicked one of them. The injured rider fell off and got kicked again by his own horse. To his credit he never cried out or made a noise...except "thud" when he hit the ground. We eventually made it back to the fort without further incident except for a small ruckus when one of the units tried to cross a creek and found out their horses were not used to water. I didn't know it at the time but this little incident would become a big factor later on. After returning to the fort we attended a "school of the soldier" clinic in which one of the historians discussed and demonstrated how equipment should be put on a horse and which drill maneuvers were correct. We practiced drill maneuvers for a while and then went to lunch. Our lunch consisted of PB&J's as we hadn't been there long enough to figure out where the food was. I did find the food source after lunch in the form of a "sandwich lady" by the USCA Headquarters who was selling sack lunches. After lunch we all went to our favorite training activity, the jumping clinic. The clinic began with the instructor telling us we were all stupid. He was referring to the fact that we weren't wearing helmets but the remark came across as a general indictment. Nevertheless, we all lined up and practiced jumping over various obstacles. My Wonder Horse was engaging in his usual jumping style which requires him to clear a two foot jump by about 20 feet. I have to request reentry procedures on the way back down. I am no longer shocked by this behaviour and have learned to ride it out but not necessarily keep the stirrups on my feet after touchdown.
To make things more interesting Wonder Horse was engaging in a wee bit of bucking after clearing the jump just to make sure I had my seat. I did not notice the other guys in my team experiencing this phenomenon. After we had enjoyed this abuse for a while we put the horses away for the evening and returned to our Victorian cabin to have a beef chub barbecue. We invited the Fort Irwin guys to join us as we would be joining forces during some of the team competitions later. It was then that we learned that we had purchased everything but lighter fluid to start the briquettes. Not a problem though as our resident smoker, Pete, began lighting small twigs and leaves in the barbecue to get things going. We eventually had a roaring fire big enough to cook the giant beef chub we had purchased the previous night. Cooking the chub was like roasting a pig except there were no legs (although there may have been a snout). We cooked up a giant pot of beans and were soon dining like kings...or like some other lower ranking public official such as a dog catcher. After eating as much chub and beans as we could we bid our guests goodnight and stumbled off to bed.