Todd said that the swelling in Chico's leg finally went down today. It'll be one of those mysteries where you never find out what was actually wrong. There was no sign of a wound, no heat, and he wasn't lame on it.

I haven't been able to go out and see the horses since Saturday. I've been quite busy with work. We have a scientist from U of Virginia visiting the lab to learn and do the genetics portion of her PhD project studying coyote habitat use in New Mexico. I am teaching her the lab techniques and she's never worked in a lab before (other than in chemistry classes and such). I enjoy teaching and working with others, but it is quite stressful. Stressful in the sense that you have to be very organized in your thoughts and explanations, and you must relate everything to how much they understand about the topic. This student is very sharp and easy to work with, but I still end up talking for at least 5 hours straight when I am working with her. My poor vocal cords are not used to that, and right now they are aching. I think a good night's sleep will help...which means that I am not going to write too much about my horses. I planned to do another installment from back in 2005/2006 with the baby mustangs, but I can't muster the effort.

Countdown until my horses leave Idaho (with my Dad and I): 15 days

I'll try to document our trip with photos and blog updates when I can. We plan to stay at a horse hotel in central MT the first night, then the second night we'll arrive at my friend's place in the very SE corner of MT. We plan to stay there for a whole day (and hopefully ride on their ranch). We'll probably also stay at a horse hotel in NW Iowa (even though we'll only be 5 hours from home at that point). So it'll take us 5 days to get home. What a long trip!!! It'll be just my dad and I, so I think it's going to be a great bonding experience.

I get almost 2 weeks to spend at home, fixing fence, settling my horses in, playing with my neice and nephew, and visiting with family. Then I have to fly back to ID to finish up work and get myself ready to relocate to Wisconsin.