Montana Road Trip

My sister Laurie and I drove to Montana yesterday.  It was a day filled with smoke, more family, beautiful horses, deer darting across the road, picture taking and some good visiting. 

We went to Ravenwood Arabians in Ronan, the source from which a growing number of our horses and those of friends have come to Idaho during the past few years.  

Considering the fact that Ravenwood horses also end up in Dubai and Saudi Arabia, the Bohns provide a fascinating place for admiring Egyptian Arabians and plotting possible futures for them within the family herds.  

In my case, I was looking for a husband for Lily or more specifically a father for her firstborn, which, if all goes well, will hit the ground in 2017.  I picked one.  He's a handsome black stallion, pictured below.

We also looked at a couple of possibilities for Laurie and Barbara along with a whole lot of other horses.  As always, the babies are cute and just as tempting as young Border Collie pups. 

Along with the horses, Ravenwood serves as home to a myriad of other animals.  It's a place where chickens and horses get along just fine, thank you.  Add to that harmony, a menagerie of cows, ducks, peacocks, pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, burros or whatever else finds a welcoming place to call home. 

It's always fun visiting with Jane and her sidekick Jenn who both claim NOT to know just how many horses live at Ravenwood or the exact number of mares which have been bred for next year's foal crop. 

The two definitely function as a well-oiled team. 

Laurie and I met our brother Kevin and his wife Joyce at the National Bison Range before going to Ravenwood and then dined at Dairy Queen before parting company.  

The drive was pretty smokey on our way over to Ronan, but skies had cleared considerably on the way back.  Plus, we stopped several times along the way to catch some dramatic images where smoke once again heightens the brilliance of the sun. 

A long assortment of relics parked above the road near the Idaho-Montana border attracted our attention on the way over and our camera lenses on the way back.  Quite the line-up of classics, to say the least. 

We dodged a few deer and reminisced about the good ol' days when the family took drives to count the deer rather than avoiding them.  

Horses and their futures, of course, dominated much of the conversation, and we agreed when it was over that yesterday's visit to Ravenwood and the drive through Western Montana turned out to be one fine day.  

Enjoy the photos.