Trotting Down the Trail

Not again!

2012-01-11T13:14:00.002-06:00

With a tiny bit of guilt, I rescheduled my Subaru's service appointment to Friday (weather forecast: COLD!) and played hooky from my responsibilities for a little while yesterday afternoon. You are getting tired of me saying it, but the winter heat wave was still with us and driving home from an early afternoon patient, my car thermometer read 48 degrees! If you guessed I threw on riding clothes and headed to the barn, you'd be exactly right.

As a side note, I have been finding dressing appropriately this winter to be extremely difficult. I'm used to piling on the layers, and this winter's warmth has befuddled my wardrobe. I've been hit or miss with choosing correctly; for example, on Monday afternoon, Gesa and I took Cricket and Sefi for a handwalk around the neighborhood just at dusk. I had a single polarfleece top plus my winter jacket, silk long underwear bottoms beneath my winter riding tights, and my lightweight winter boots. I was steaming - unzipping, unbuttoning, unsnapping, and even shedding layers just while grooming. With that in mind, yesterday I dressed a little lighter, with "fall" tights instead of winter over my long underwear and two thin layers on top plus a light jacket. I rode around the same time we'd walked the day before, and it was about the same temperature. Yesterday, by the time I returned to the barn, I was very much on the chilly side and looking forward to cranking the heat in the car.

I was loading my tack into the car at Gesa's, on my way up to Red's barn, when I realized that, like Sunday, I'd forgotten Red's bit at home AGAIN! Geez! I leave it there so it will be warm for him, and I can't seem to remember to bring it. It doesn't matter that it's warm when it's sitting at home. Planning a road ride, I knew I needed a bit not just his rope halter, so I threw Cricket's bridle into the car along with saddle, pad, girth, rump rug, and reflective vest (for me) and leg bands (for him).

It's amazing how different Red looks in Cricket's bridle! He has the longest head of my three, as I had to let it out a bit to fit him. Also, Cricket's curb bit is a 4 1/2" and a 4 3/4" bit fits Red better. Despite the strange bit that didn't fit, he seemed perfectly content in this bridle. I have never ridden him in any other bit besides his snaffle, so I don't know if he has any experience in a curb bit or not.

Ready to go and mounted up in no time, we set off down the edge of the icy driveway. I had high hopes for the state of the gravel road, given our streak of spring-like weather and sunny days to melt the road surface, but, alas, I was wrong in my prediction and we ended up with a short 2 1/2 mile walk. The sunset was lovely, and we enjoyed being out, so I didn't really mind. Who can complain about riding in January like this?

This shoulder was the best footing of our whole ride.

Beauty!

Tradition

2012-01-08T23:09:00.000-06:00

I always celebrate my birthday with a ride. More specifically, I ride Red, my first horse. Being that my birthday is in January, this is frequently a very short ride due to weather conditions. This year, I was able to ride as long as I wanted and we wandered around all over the farm trails, neighbor's trails and hayfield, and the other's neighbor's gravel pit. Kelso and Killian accompanied us, and we had a grand time. See the story below in photo essay form.

The cows observing us on our way back to the trails.

Whee! Killian and Kelso are so happy to be running off leash.

Checking out some of the trails that Dave has been using to get wood.

We are being stalked by a wild beast! Oh, never mind...just Killian's shadow.

Crossing the hay field toward the frozen bit of swamp that we can utilize to get to the neighbor's gravel pit.

In the gravel pit.

Red's a little afraid of these stumps. Every time we see them. You'd think he'd get over it.

My crazy set up, because I'd forgotten his bit at home. I attached my reins to the noseband of his rope halter instead of knotting the permanently attached leadrope back on itself. It looked ridiculous, but it seemed to give me more control than when the "reins" are the leadrope attached under his chin. He didn't like it much when I held him back, though, and tossed his head (not used to pressure on his nose.)

Carol took our picture after our ride! (I am a little overdressed - it was 33!)

He's searching my pockets for treats.

After his post-ride drink, just making sure there aren't any more treats.

Pinch Me

2012-01-06T23:37:00.003-06:00

45 degrees. January 6. Duluth, MN. Yep, you did read that right! (And actually yesterday was even warmer... what a strange winter!)

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I found a convenient hole in my schedule this afternoon, and took myself directly out to the barn. This is my first ride of 2012! The wind was really blowing when I was saddling up, but I didn't much care as it didn't have the usual icy bite to it and I needed to RIDE! Rhio and I set off solo, winding our way around the pasture and the neighbor's pastures to the cut-through in the woods which dumps us out on the dead-end gravel road just to the north of the farm. I figured the footing might still be too icy on the road, since it is heavily shaded and gravel roads compacted by vehicle traffic don't melt easily in my experience. Luckily we've had so little snow that the plows have left bare scrapes along the edges of the road and that gave us some non-slip surface. And, actually, day two of balmy temperatures did have even the center of the road pretty soft and therefore not icy at all.

Rhio objected mildly to leaving alone, and offered to turn around and head home pretty regularly for the first mile or so. I was prepared for this, and had a stash of treats in my saddle pack so that I could reward him when he was going forward and relaxed. He remembered this lesson immediately, and anytime I moved from using both hands on the reins to having one hand relaxed at my side, he'd turn his head watching for a treat. Silly! And very food motivated.

We headed up the steep hill and emerged onto another portion of the same gravel road, which also had some dirt showing along the shoulders. The footing was good enough to trot much of this portion, and we stopped briefly to chat with a lady and her small dog out enjoying the day as well. She admired my horse, and that always feels nice! She was curious about his blaze orange rump rug, but quickly agreed that it was great for visibility when I mentioned that as its primary use.

My goal, if it was doable, was to ride all the way to our favorite local snowmobile trail, which I had scoped out by car on my way to the barn to make sure it was rideable. Not only was it rideable, the footing was perfect! It had been packed by a handful of snowmobiles, so the snow was firm enough to support a horse with enough softness of the top to give us grip. YeeHaw!

In order to get to the trail, we had to ride about 1/4 mile along a very busy county road; Jean Duluth Road is a major local route for getting to and from town and is very well travelled by not only passenger vehicles, but county road work vehicles (including plows and sanding trucks - not much call for those today!), school buses, semi's, and the like. It does have pretty wide shoulders and is very popular with the road biking crowd, so drivers are somewhat used to sharing the roadway - but of course bikes don't spook at random or unexpected things. Rhio is (now) really traffic safe, and I felt comfortable heading down the shoulder against traffic. The footing continued to be excellent, and for much of the distance we could actually get down into the ditch. At about 3:00 pm, the traffic was fairly light and I'd say about a half dozen vehicles passed us. Rhio didn't flinch once, and as soon as we hit the last section of gravel road to get to the trail, he seemed to know where he was and launched into his smooth and ground covering big trot. We turned onto the trail, and headed up the big hill, both of us working hard enough by the top to be puffing and sweating a bit. We continued along, trotting and cantering and even a little galloping, enjoying the silence and solitude of the winter woods without frozen cheeks or frosty breath. The late afternoon sun and gathering clouds accentuated the naked trees, and I lost myself in the moment with my horse.

My GPS battery conked out just shy of 5 miles, so we went a little farther and then turned for home...and the lessons began. Rhio started channeling his anxious, rush-rush-rush self (last seen at the Kentucky Diehards endurance ride in November... I don't like this Rhio very much!) and head tossing violently while cantering/galloping on the edge of control. Well, this was PERFECT! What a training opportunity. I spent the trail portion of the return trip insisting that he relax, and trot. And, guess what? It worked. Without the added emotional craziness of a ride, and other horses, he was able to listen to me and although he continued to attempt to start cantering, pressure-and-release on the reins and verbal "No" resulted in good behavior. He wasn't perfect by any means, but I was encouraged by his response.

He even seemed to realize that the time for antics was past when we hit Jean Duluth Road again on the return trip, and he walked along obeying my leg and rein cues to move over as I micro-managed our position relative to the road to deal with footing and traffic. Now, closer to 5:00 pm, the traffic was heavy in both directions. Horse-eating monsters were in the mix, including a propane-delivery truck with air brakes (really? did you have to?), a truck pulling an ATV trailer, and a obnoxious pickup without a muffler, and Rhio kept walking along calming, just an ear and an eye on them clueing me in to his slight worry. I would (will) ride this section of road again, but only on a really road safe horse and preferably in the middle of the day.

We walked most of the three miles home, for safety reasons as well as to get him cooled out well since his winter coat was soaked with sweat and evening was nearly upon us. It might be crazy warm out, but not warm enough to put a wet horse out to pasture at night! And, I didn't want him to have to stay in the barn unless absolutely necessary.

Two hours, and ten miles, later, we rode in the way we'd left. I was admiring sunset, and he was grabbing at grass (!). Both of us were pleasantly tired and utterly content. It was a good ride, a really good ride.

Keeping Track

2012-01-01T19:36:00.000-06:00

When it comes to my horses and endurance, I've learned not to set many yearly goals down on paper. So many variables about my competition season are completely out of my control that I have to just take whatever opportunities I have to compete and enjoy them. That said, I do have some career goals in this sport. I would like Rhio and I to achieve Decade Team status, which means we've ridden and completed at least one endurance ride of 50 miles or more each ride season for 10 years. 2011 marked year two for us on this goal, although we completed our first 50 mile ride together in 2007, we did not do any in either 2008 or 2009. I believe the ten years need to be consecutive, but I may be mistaken about that. I can't wait to compete together for at least another eight years!

Another goal I have for Rhio is to make 3000 career endurance miles in competition. We are 1/10th of the way to that goal, having now 300 endurance miles to our credit. He's also got 180 limited distance miles for rides between 25 and 35 miles in length. I expect he and I will continue to do some limited distance rides mixed in with endurance rides as seems appropriate at the time, although I do think that the shorter rides are too easy for him and he does not learn to pace himself because he can "race" them. We have a lot of work to do in the area of "pacing" and "listening to rider even when other horses are in front of or passing us." I will use the LD rides as conditioning/training for him, and hope to concentrate only on having a calm, easily controlled horse whenever we do ride them.

I've mentioned previously that I would also like to ride in competition in every state where competitions are held (which is not all 50 states; conveniently there are none in Hawaii, since getting there to ride would be extremely difficult!). So far I have 5 states on my list: Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Kentucky. 2011 was a great year for this goal - I added two states this year!

Living where we do, with long winters and wet springs, we do not have as much opportunity to accrue miles, either conditioning or competing, as we would if we lived somewhere with a longer riding season. I expect it will take us a long time to reach these goals. And that's ok, because I plan to be Rhio's partner for many, many years to come!

Red's log is the one on the left (obviously!); Rhio's is the one on the right

I keep a log book for each of my riding horses. I usually ride with a basic GPS and try to record distance, time, speed, and a little bit about each ride in the log. This has been a really interesting exercise, as it has been invaluable as a "reality check" when my sense of "we've been riding a lot" or "we've hardly been riding at all!" kicks in. In 2011, Rhio and I did about 200 miles of logged conditioning rides, not counting lazy local rides with friends or arena work, and 150 miles in competition (two 50s and two 25s). For comparison, in 2010, we did about 300 miles conditioning and 205 miles in competition (three 50s, one 30, and one 25). In 2010, I rode him on 93 days for the year, and in 2011, I only rode him on 65 days.

I also have a good record of the weather via my log books; for example the first time the roads were clear enough of snow and ice to ride out was March 7 in 2010 and March 16 in 2011. Our first ride that we hauled out to trails in 2010 was April 11, to Dago Lake (south of us and sandy), and the first time I was able to ride local trails was May 10. Our first time to haul to a trail in 2011 was technically February 15, as we went to the local snowmobile trail because the footing was perfect for horses but too soft for the snow machines. I didn't ride a local trail in 2011 until June 3; we tried on May 17 and it was still too mucky for the horses. Despite not being able to get out on the trails until after the first Minnesota ride of the year (the first weekend in May), I seem to manage to get about 100 miles of conditioning in between March and May, all road riding unless we get to go somewhere south of here.

Similarly, I can see how far into the fall we were able to really ride each year, and at what point our riding became walking through deep snow (otherwise known as "resistance training," or sometimes I call it merely "mental health therapy"). In 2010, our last "real ride" before winter settled in was November 7. In 2011, we still had open roads and trails through December and do not yet have any deep snow. We do have some ice, and that's been constraining our riding, but we are not yet doing any "resistance training."

A Peach

2011-12-30T20:26:00.002-06:00

Rhio was an absolute peach today. It was my first ride since the 18th, with a trip to Arizona (wonderful, though unfortunately horseless) over the holidays curtailing my December riding schedule. Our unseasonable, yet delightful, fall weather is spilling over into winter and we have been incredibly mild and snowless. I will confess some disappointment, as I really do like winter and find riding in the deep snow to be quite fun. However, the opportunity to get the horses out moving with the lack of snow has been hard to resist and their level of enthusiasm somewhat larger than I would normally expect in the winter.

Today, Rhio was really responsive and light without any of the rushing that he tended toward on our last ride. It was a short ride and nearly all walking, but he seemed to be just enjoying it as much as I was. After we turned for home and asked for a tiny increase in pace above the walk, instead of a trot he gave me a lovely walk-canter transition and continued on in his relaxed easy canter. I was in my bareback pad, as I nearly always am in the winter (warm tushy), and riding that 100 yards was bliss. The rest of the ride wasn't too shabby, either, and I was really proud of how carefully he negotiated the steep downhill with about 2" of powder snow masking the uneven ruts in its surface.

The following photos are from our ride on the 18th, which I didn't have time to write up before leaving on the 19th.

It was nearly 40 degrees!

The neighbor's horses, Missouri Fox Trotters.

Can you see how high he has his tail? The accelerator was a hair trigger this day and the brakes were a little sticky.

Gesa & Paco were lovely companions, as usual.

It looks wintry, but not to the usual degree for late December!

A Little Scare

2011-12-18T23:20:00.000-06:00

After riding this afternoon, Gesa and I had Rhio and Paco out hand grazing (which meant first clearing the 1" of snow away with their upper lips, then munching the still-a-little-bit-green goodies hidden beneath) and Cricket knew he was entitled to come out as well. I took the opportunity to give him a thorough grooming and check him over good, and then reblanketed him for the night. We put the horses back in the pasture with a little hay to tide them over until the evening feed, and said our "Merry Christmases" early as I'm heading to Arizona tomorrow to visit my parents for the holidays (and trying not to dwell on how nice the weather is, still, and how much riding time I'll be missing!).

I filled up my beet pulp and grain bins, and refilled Cricket's soybean oil jug from the big container, so that Gesa would be all set for the week, and handed out my chewed apple core to the first horse to come to the gate in the deep dusk (Sefira) before heading home to find some dinner for myself and the dogs. All was well, and humans and critters were all settled and content. Not a minute after I'd finished my last bite of dinner, my phone rang and Gesa's husband popped up on the caller id. I answered cheerfully, only to hear that Cricket seemed to be colicky and I needed to get back out there pronto.

It was easier and faster to let Kelso and Killian jump into the back of the car, and away we went. By the time I arrived, Gesa said he was fine and it didn't seem to be colic. I had wondered on the drive over if he had another incident of being down and unable to get himself up. This has happened once in each of the previous two winters, and sure enough that was the case.

There is a tiny slope/knoll area of the pasture behind the barn (barely discernible, really, really insignificant) and Cricket had laid down there only to get himself stuck. Wearing a blanket restricts his shoulder and foreleg motion just a bit, and when his legs are pointed uphill instead of down, he seems to have trouble rising. He had evidently been struggling a bit, and both his neck and his blanket were soaking wet.

The most interesting thing is Sefira's behavior. Apparently she was extremely protective of him, and quite upset, and didn't want to let Gesa get near him. I am not sure what exactly ensued, but he was standing in his stall looking extremely worn out when I arrived. A quick physical revealed that everything was normal, although his heart rate (28) was a little low and might indicate some mild shock. He wasn't interested in eating, but was interacting with me and did take a few treats. I gave him a pain medication (Banamine) and put a dry blanket on him. He is staying in at night anyway, and had a full bucket of water, his yummy mash, and plenty of hay already in his stall. Gimi across the aisle was munching away, content to be the buddy horse for the night.

He is ok, and I'm obviously going to check on him tomorrow, but unless Gesa calls me, I will go in the middle of the day when it fits into my schedule rather than get up extra-early to go first thing. It is nerve-wracking to have an old horse, even more so than any horse, and I am very glad this happened tonight, while I was still in town, rather than tomorrow night, when I'll be stuck on a plane.

This evening is an example of how quickly things can go wrong with horses, and how invaluable it is to have someone you trust caring for your horses if you can't do it yourself. I try not to worry.

Therapy

2011-12-13T18:27:00.001-06:00

Sunday was balmy, really and truly balmy - over 40 degrees on December 11 and sunshine. It won't come as a surprise to anyone that I spent the day outside, with my ponies. I haven't had a horse day in a few weeks, and I was severely in need of one. I did forget my camera, though, so I didn't take any pictures.

The day began with a long, leisurely walk with Cricket and Sefira. Sefira is Gesa's youngest, a homebred filly just a few months past her third birthday. She is not under saddle yet, and needs to start getting out and about to get used to the wider world. Cricket loves her, and with his age and wisdom, is a perfect buddy horse for her adventures outside of the home farm. He also loves to go for walks. He struts. And poses a little bit, ears perked, neck arched, and tail up. He is the picture of a happy, engaged horse and no one would guess he is a mere 3 months shy of 30.

We were out for over an hour, walking along the shoulder of the paved road briefly, with a couple of vehicles and a large pile of rocks to get used to. We continued up a dead end gravel road, again with a couple of vehicles, wind blowing in the dry grass, a barking dog, etc. Sefira was a little upset by the new things, but Cricket was unfazed and his calmness really helped her. She was not brave enough to lead, but was happy to follow.

We also stood and observed a neighbor's herd of minis and llamas. Even Cricket was on alert when they all came up to the fence and stared back at us, but relaxed when one of the minis whinnied. We continued onto a bit of trail and Sefira handled that like a pro. On the way home, we saw some people with kids and ATVs - yet another good thing to be exposed to. We let the horses "graze" on the dormant grass outside the pasture as a reward, and all the while we'd been chatting, catching up, and generally just enjoying each other's company. It was truly a lovely way to spend some time.

I rounded out my horse day with a fantastically fulfilling ride on Red. It was our first bareback pad ride of the year, and I decided to ride until I got cold (a common method I use to determine how long to ride in the winter) and after nearly an hour and a half, with dusk quickly falling and only my knees a little tingly with chill, I decided it wasn't going to be an appropriate measure for this particular ride! I could easily have ridden twice as long. We traversed all over the immediate neighborhood, taking in two gravel pits, some woods trails, and a nice trot up the road about 1/2 mile and back. I am a little out of shape for bareback riding with speed, but it's just a pleasant ache in the thighs.

The horses all give two hooves up for their new treats, "German Horse Muffins" made in St. Paul, MN. They came free from Valley Vet with my recent wormer order!

Kentucky Diehards

2011-12-04T10:20:00.001-06:00

November 16 - 21, 2011
Duluth, MN to Harrodsburg, KY and back, via Madison, WI

Candy invited me to come to a late-season ride with her in November, and we chose the Kentucky Diehards ride held at Shaker Village (http://www.shakervillageky.org/), near Harrodsburg, KY the weekend before Thanksgiving. Wow! That meant I not only got to add another state to my list of states-in-which-I've-ridden-an-endurance-ride, but I also got to experience my first out-of-region ride. Kentucky is in the Southeast region of AERC (http://www.aerc.org/), while all my previous rides have been in my home region, Midwest. It seemed only fitting to be extending my endurance season by nearly a month this year, as our fall has also been extended nearly a month with unseasonably warm and beautiful weather; it was 50 degrees on Thanksgiving Day, for heavens' sake!

Once we'd decided when and where, our plans began to disintegrate with truck and trailer issues. Candy's big truck was in the shop and not slated to be finished until the 17th, while we needed to leave on the 16th and our 3rd companion, Tom, had an electrical fire in his trailer and the living quarters was gutted, so we didn't have any camping accommodations. Being endurance riders, we persevered and prepped plan C (or was it D by then?). Candy and I would take her husband's little truck and her stock trailer for the 6 hour trip to Tom's place in Madison, then we would take his rig the 9+ hour trip to Kentucky but stay in guest rooms at Shaker Village. Ok, that seems workable although a bit of a drain on the pocket book. Well, at this point I'm not going to let money be the reason that I can't take advantage of this amazing opportunity, so, I'm in!

Instead of having Rhio's shoes pulled after the Point Chaser ride, as I would have normally done, I kept him shod and kept riding him, so that we would be ready for another 50. Luckily we had such a nice fall, as steel shoes on frozen ground, or even worse in ice and snow, are supremely slippery and very dangerous. Wednesday the 16th was cold, gray, and we'd gotten a bit of snow overnight - certainly weather that made a trip to warmer climes pretty darn desirable. I'd packed as compactly as I could, knowing we had only the bed of the little truck plus the backseat for all our gear (bins are wonderful things!). We didn't have to bring hay, as Tom was supplying all our hay (and boy was it nice hay! the boys loved it!), and that was what saved us and allowed us to get all our stuff in the little rig. We joked about how much stuff we had for our horses (I had 5 bins plus my saddle and saddle stand), but we each only had a small duffel bag for ourselves.

Candy's horse Windsor, a gray gelding with tons of miles and endurance wisdom was going to be the leader, voice of reason, and good example for the other two less experienced horses. Rhio climbed aboard Candy's trailer smoothly (insert sigh of relief here...it is always nerve-wracking when I know I have an "inconsistent" loader and someone comes to pick me up; it can be quite embarrassing to have a horse that is difficult to load, a bit like having a misbehaving child in a public place I expect) and the boys settled in for the trip, all bundled up in winter blankets. I'd even wrapped Rhio's legs and put bell boots on, which I don't normally do for our typical shorter trips, but I thought the extra support and protection was a good thing, and I was a bit paranoid about him stepping on himself and yanking a shoe off before we even got there, as we were close to the end of our regular shoeing cycle.

Ready to head south!

Settling in for the start of our drive, I asked Candy for Windsor's Coggins paper (proof of a negative yearly test for a certain virus which is required for traveling out of state) so that I could write a health certificate for him, which is required for out-of-state horses entering Kentucky (and most other states). Oh no. She'd left it at home, since it was always in her big trailer...but we didn't have the big trailer! This was not an auspicious start to the trip, as we had to make the 45 minute trip back across town to her place to pick it up; we would have hated to get all the way there and be turned away from the ride for lack of proof of a negative Coggins. As it turned out, we were never asked to produce our paperwork at all.

Finally, we were on the way and the roads were clear, so we made good time heading south through Wisconsin. Each time we stopped the horses seemed content, and warm enough, and Rhio was even eating some hay! This was great, as he hasn't been good about eating in the trailer recently. They were tied to the side of the trailer, as if in a slant, but chose to stand facing mostly forward it seemed, with Windsor standing in the middle of the trailer and Rhio beside him along the driver's side. I wonder if they were able to lessen the wind in their faces this way? We made it to Tom's place after dark (which comes so early these days!), loaded our stuff willy-nilly into the cavernous husk of the living quarters portion of his trailer, gave the boys their nighttime meal of beet pulp with all the fixings, and settled them into the paddock behind Tom's barn with lots of hay. They both ate and drank well, and seemed to be best buddies already without any squabbling.

I met Tom, his lovely wife Connie, and their two dogs Sam and Willy, and then we went to a local brewpub for dinner. Being Wisconsin, I had to have the burger topped with fried cheese curds and avocado (yum!) but they were out of my first choice brew - a Belgian style ale - though my second choice - a "red" ale - was quite tasty as well. We hit the sack as soon as we got home, planning for a very early start on Thursday.

The horses knew something was up as we appeared out of the darkness at an ungodly hour, and started wrapping legs while letting them eat their breakfast. Rhio and Windsor did not eat well, being a bit anxious at the strange routine (I knew better than to do anything but let him eat! Do I ever learn?), but loaded up just fine into Tom's trailer, which is open stock style in the horse area. We put his horse Express, a very handsome young chestnut gearing to do his first ever 50 miler, up front, then Rhio in the middle, and Windsor last. The temperature was in the low 20s, and we didn't know how quickly it was going to warm up, so we kept their winter blankets on at this point. Settling in with Tom driving through the darkness, Candy and I got to relax and even nap just a little. Our goal was to make Louisville, KY before 3:00 pm, as the Ohio River bridge there is under construction and we'd heard the traffic for rush hour was unbelievably bad.

The sun came up, and we kept heading south, then east, expecting to see the outside temperature reading start creeping up...we waited, and waited, and waited, but to little avail. The thermometer was stubbornly stuck in the 30s all day, topping out at a mere 37 even once we'd arrived in Kentucky. Huh. Glad I packed warm clothes! The drive was uneventful, the horses travelled really well with zero issues, and we crossed the Ohio River by 2:30 pm with no traffic to speak of at all. Patting ourselves on the back, we thought, "Hey, that wasn't bad at all! What was everyone talking about?" Well, we would pay our dues on the way home...stay tuned.

We pulled into Shaker Village and unloaded our ponies in the late afternoon; it was great to get there in the daylight. We found the "paddock" reserved for us - it was at least 3 acres! Fenced with the ubiquitous four-rail wooden fencing seen all over Kentucky and green with grass, the boys thought it was horsey utopia. We unwrapped legs as fast as we could and turned them loose; they all rolled and then ran amuk for a bit, before settling in to eating (what is this green stuff? GRASS! they seemed to shout)...while we wondered if we'd ever catch them again.

Freedom!

Oh, yeah. This is the life!

Unhooking the truck, we drove a couple miles to the other end of the property where the guest houses were located and Candy and I checked into our room. We were housed in the East Family Sister's Shop. The main floor was part of the museum exhibits, with unmarked doors shut and locked when we checked in, but we discovered on Friday afternoon that they hid the spinning and weaving exhibits. What beautiful handiwork! It was shame that we never made it over to the craft shop to peruse the goods for sale. Our room was Shaker, all right, with two single beds, white coverlets, white walls, and hardwood floors with a rag rug. Somewhat incongruous with Shaker simplicity and spartanism were the Tempurpedic mattresses on the beds. Oh, heavenly! Both Candy and I slept almost better than at home.

Our room.

Tom had grown up in the next town over, and he stayed with his mother. The four of us went out to dinner at Eddie Montgomery's steakhouse (yes, as in Montgomery-Gentry the country music stars), which was a beautiful soaring log building, and enjoyed our first taste bud-enrapturing (and fat- and carb- rich) meal of the trip (there were to be many, many more...my jeans didn't fit so well on the way home).

Upon our return to Shaker Village, we were barely able to locate our ponies way at the far end of their pasture in the dark, but confirmed that they were fine and happy for the night, threw some hay to supplement the grass, and headed back to crash in bed with our books. Tom left us the truck, and we made plans to meet for brunch on Friday.

Friday dawned very frosty; the low was mid-20s overnight (hey, I thought Kentucky was supposed to be warm!). Candy and I fed the horses and headed into the little town of Harrodsburg to get groceries for ride day, and to meet up with Tom for (it turned out) lunch. We wandered into the Beaumont Inn, a historic inn that served a Southern buffet lunch on Fridays and enjoyed the beauty of the grand old home, the antique furnishings, and the free wifi while we waited for lunch to be served. Filling our plates and our bellies to capacity (and then a little more) with fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, Kentucky hot brown (cheese, tomatoes, turkey, and I don't know what else but it was good!), corn pudding, salad, rolls, and apple cobbler for dessert. Our intention was to ride after lunch, but Groan! I think I ate too much!

Oh, yum.

We did manage to stuff ourselves into our riding tights and mount up, heading off across the fields of Shaker Village to loosen our horses up for Saturday. Candy and Tom already knew some of the endurance greats that were there, but it was the first time I'd met some of the legends of our sport, like Bill Wilson. We rode along at a relaxed pace, chatting and getting the feel for the course, which was surprisingly hilly. We did about 4 miles for warm-up, the horses were feeling good, and I was reminded that the vegetation in these parts isn't overly friendly! Many of the trees, shrubs, and vines have spikes, thorns, prickers and the like, and "brushing them out of your way" isn't as simple as it sounds. I got a real kick out of a strange plant called in the vernacular "hedge apple," but known as the osage orange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera). This plant's fruits are softball-size bright yellow-green spheres which litter the ground (I can only imagine that Killian would be overcome with the abundance of "balls" if he were to ever encounter these), and have the reputation of repelling insects. In fact, you can sometimes find them for sale in the produce section of our supermarkets at home, as natural spider repellant!

After our ride, we completed registration for the ride and vetted in. We were numbers 25, 26, and 27. There were over 30 riders signed up for the 50. The Southeast region has a horse scale which is available at all their rides; we took advantage of the opportunity to weigh our horses. Rhio weighed in at 908 lbs. We had a beverage of choice while getting things organized for the start, and watching our horses just be horses out in their spacious home-away-from-home. We were continually impressed with how easily the three horses got along as a herd, without any conflict that we could see.

The Shaker barn.

At ride meeting, held in the beautiful barn (you could rent stalls for your horses as well as paddocks if you wanted to), we listened to the detailed description of the trail, but without the benefit of a map, I, at least, felt a bit more confused than I would have liked. The 50 had three loops, with loop 1 being 25 miles and having a 10 minute hold out on course (no vet criteria, just stop and wait there for 10 minutes), then loop 2 15 miles and loop 3 10 miles. All holds were 40 minutes, and criteria was a pulse of 64 all day. Ok, that was pretty familiar from rides at home and wouldn't require extra thought (yay). The course was entirely on Shaker Village property, looping around and through the fields (formerly pasture, hay, or crops, but now being mostly converted to natural prairie), and with numerous creek crossings (I am not sure if it is just a single creek that we cross multiple times, or if there are several different creeks). Start time was 7:30 am, and we three were planning to ride together and go out well in the back of the pack, so now all that was left was to try to calm my nerves.

There was to be a catered dinner after the ride meeting that night, so we stuck around visiting with other UMECRA members who were in attendance (also new faces to me). Dinner was once again the full spread of yummy traditional food and I once again ate way too much!

I don't even remember what time Tom picked us up Saturday morning, but it was too early to be forced out of our uber-comfortable beds! The horses pick up on the ride day excitement, and neither Windsor nor Rhio ate well (I think Express ate well the entire time; he might have been the youngest of the three horses, but he seemed the most settled in camp, I would say). We tacked up with rump rugs; it was chilly again but not nearly so cold as Friday morning. We were relieved, as the frost on Friday had been very thick and would have made the grassy course dangerously slick until it dried. We headed out to warm up, going the wrong direction on trail so that the hot shoes could get well out of camp before we left. This type of course is a major disadvantage for Rhio; he is not used to being able to see so much around him with all the open fields, and to see horses ahead of him/elsewhere on course pretty much all the time. It was overwhelming for him, and without our familiar trail-through-a-corridor-of-woods to help focus him, he fell apart completely, mentally and emotionally. The start was actually quite good (we tried to be last, but had to pass another group that had horse trouble; they then had to pass us in turn about 2 miles into the loop), but many (it felt like all!) of the riders ahead of us got lost and ended up coming up from behind us and having to pass (some of them did this more than once). Each time they passed faster and with more agitation (the riders were stressed by getting lost), and Rhio couldn't handle it at all. I was doing serpentines down the trail trying to make him focus on me and work, but it was completely unsuccessful. We could see multiple riders at multiple different places on the course, all at the same time, and he just came totally unglued. I know Tom was fighting Express as well, and even steady Windsor was pretty agitated and worked up. We got to the 10 minute stop-and-go, which just made matters worse as all of a sudden we were with a group of horses, but everyone was coming and going at different times, and the course continued in a loop to pass back past the stopping place on the other side of a rock wall. It was still cold out, and windy there at the top of a hill, and even with his wool rump rug, I was concerned that Rhio was going to get cold and crampy standing still (well, not that we actually stood still - I don't think his feet stopped moving at all, even to pee). He was absolutely drenched with sweat (it was dripping off his belly, as if it were a hot and humid ride), wild-eyed, and completely uninterested in the grass or even a carrot. This really was a recipe for disaster, as Candy and I talked about later; these are the type of conditions that get horses into metabolic trouble really fast. I've never been in a situation like this with either Red or Rhio, and I felt like I'd jumped into the deep end of a cold pool expecting it to be a soothing hot tub. I didn't know what to do but keep going down the trail; I am grateful to have had Candy's wisdom and experience to draw on later in the ride so that I hopefully have some tools to better deal with a situation like this in the future. I know I am lucky that Rhio didn't develop any issues, and we did finish the ride, but it is the first ride I've done (including the one in 2007 when I had the flu and was delirious) where I really wasn't having fun at all, and just wanted to give up.

Loop 1 (before the crazies).

Tom & Express, Loop 1.

Rhio and I continued on for the second half of the first loop on our own, and the only good things I can report is that he didn't buck (this is an improvement, as the first several years I had him, he would buck in stressful situations, especially if I were holding him back) and he did drink out of the stream at least twice. I'm pretty sure this was a scenic loop, but it was a blur to me as I tried to control my screaming, frantic, insane horse. Really. I'm not exaggerating. A little more than a mile from camp, coming down a steep hill, I dismounted to handwalk him the rest of the way (hoping he might graze a little - he took maybe 3 bites). Unlike Minnesota rides, where we get our pulse to start our hold time, but don't have our vet check until right before we go out for the next loop, here we were going to have to pass our vet check immediately after getting our pulse. (This was the same at the ride we did in Michigan in October, so at least I'd had some time to think about a strategy for this, as it's not what I'm used to.) I knew from my onboard heart rate monitor that he was running really high (no surprise given his mental and emotional state) and I knew there was a fair chance we wouldn't pass the vet check. We made it in, walked over to vet check (where my efforts to get him to eat or drink or take a deep breath were for naught), and I waited until he was well down below criteria to get our pulse. We did pass the vet check, though he didn't stand well for the vet (grr!) and had less than his normal gut sounds (no surprise as we'd just run 25 miles in less than 3 hours without eating). He was so amped up that he did nothing but twirl around on his lead rope and completely ignore his hay and his mash at the check. I tried hiding him behind the trailer so he couldn't see the activity around camp, but to no avail. Candy and Tom came in, passed their check, and brought Windsor and Express over to the trailer, which finally got Rhio to eat a little bit. I stayed in camp an extra 20 minutes to go back out with them, and to let him eat and settle down some more.

Wading the stream in the tunnel beneath the highway - loop 2.

Baptist Church - loop 2.

Loop 2 started much, much better, although he was still trying to paying more attention to what all the other horses were doing and not to my requests. You would think he would have settled in a bit better with Windsor and Express, since they were settled down nicely, but, nope. I kept him behind those two, and by about half way through the second loop, I finally had my horse back. We thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of the ride, on a loose rein, relaxed and comfortable. He continued to drink well, and started to graze better, too. We crossed beneath the highway through a tunnel, which is also a stream bed with about 6" of flowing water, and he forged right ahead through that without any hesitation. Finishing out the second loop, we had no trouble with the vet check and he ate at the second hold (although he preferred Windsor's to his own, of course), and we headed out dead last for the 3rd loop. Rhio was starting to feel tired on this loop, and no longer wanted to trot up the hills. I know it was all the extra energy he put into being crazy the first loop that sapped his strength; I didn't have a lot of horse left, which is a new experience for me with Rhio. He has always had lots left in reserve at the end of every other 50 we've done, and that tells me a lot. My challenge with this boy is all mental.

Loop 3.

I was so pleased just to have finished this ride. I know I learned a lot, thanks mostly to Candy sharing all she's learned in her years and miles of experience. I wish I could say Rhio learned a lot, too, but I kind of doubt that, unfortunately. He needs a lot more miles at rides; no training or conditioning situation ever adequately replicates the conditions at a ride. I would love to be able to do multiday rides with him; 50 miles a day, day after day, would teach him a lot. I'm going to try clicker training with him this winter to see if I can get some cued behaviors that will get him to focus on me even in high stress situations. But mostly I just need to get him to more rides! This really was only his 6th 50, so he is still green. As am I.

The topography of this part of Kentucky was surprisingly hilly; nearly all the course was up or down, some of it pretty steep. I think we wouldn't have finished the ride if we didn't live and train in Duluth, where all our conditioning rides are hilly, just some more than others. I am grateful to have that base of hill work on him just by virtue of location.

By Saturday afternoon, it was a sunny 60 degrees and we couldn't have asked for better weather. We heard that Minnesota was being socked by the first winter storm of the year, so despite the challenges of the day, it was still a better day fighting with my horse in Kentucky than it would have been at home not riding.

We finished with a total ride time of about 7 hours, "tying for 25th place" a.k.a. the very last riders. We were pleased with that, and had just enough time before dark to get our ponies settled for the night. We re-weighed the horses on the scale, and Rhio dropped to 846. He lost 62 pounds, which is more than I would have liked. The weight loss is "water weight," i.e. sweat losses, as well as the loss of a lot of the fiber in his gut as he passes it through his system all day without truly replenishing (because he's working, not eating, all day). We got really nice wicking T-shirts as completion prizes, and after much-needed showers, headed out to a pub for yet another satiating meal. It was a mini family reunion for Tom, with a large party of sisters, brothers-in-law, nephews, etc. Candy and I shared our meal with another UMECRA member there on her own, and we split a slice of Derby pie for dessert (holy cow, yum!).

It's even my favorite color- blue!

Sunday morning dawned warm and humid, near 50 and foggy/drizzly. We opted to leave the boys naked for the first part of the trip home, planning to stop as the temperature dropped and blanket them as needed. About 30 minutes into the trip, though, while sitting in a left turn lane to get fuel, the trailer started rocking (oh for a camera so we could know what actually happened back there!). We checked the horses immediately upon pulling into the station, and all three of them where breathing hard with flared nostrils, and trembling. We couldn't figure out why, as everything else looked normal and heart rates and gut sounds were all normal as well. We blanketed lightly and decided to keep going but stop somewhere with grass to unload and graze a bit on the way. They travelled well the rest of the trip, and we never did figure out what the problem had been.

Being Sunday morning, we didn't anticipate any issues with the road construction involving the Ohio River bridge in Louisville. That was a mistake. Instead of following Tom's instincts for avoiding the construction, we decided to follow the posted detour. Too bad they led us off somewhere with a clearly marked detour, then seem to have quit marking the appointed path! So, we ended up driving in a big circle around Louisville, stuck on the east side of the river, for an hour. Ugh. We did finally make it across, and stopped at a nice rest area in Indiana to unload and graze the horses. They relished the time out of the trailer, grazing like crazy, peeing, wandering about with us in tow, and Rhio even rolled. We loaded up again and made the rest of the return trip without anything of interest to report. We were happy to find a snowless landscape in Madison, and settled the boys in for the night in the paddock, leaving our unorganized pile of belongings in the trailer for sorting on Monday morning.

After pizza, wine, and some nice Port, along with conversation, we rolled into bed for our last night on the road. Windsor, Rhio, Candy, and I drove north Monday morning, right into the arms of winter. We got home around 2:00 pm; Rhio was happy to trot off into his pasture (slip! slide! Oh, geez, Rhio - BE CAREFUL! You still have shoes on, and now it's slippery out.) and Windsor was sad to see his buddy leave.

It was a great experience, and I'm so glad I went. I hope to do another out-of-region ride next year, if I can! It felt like a true vacation; we didn't know what was going on in the wider world when we came home, and we left the radio off the whole trip home to prolong that sense of being away just a bit longer.

To see more pictures, go to https://picasaweb.google.com/t.dentinger/KentuckyDiehardsRideNovember2011?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIzyjoPpr8yCpwE&feat=directlink

Not Quite Frozen

2011-11-29T10:22:00.001-06:00

Sunday, November 27, 2011
North Shore State Trail

We'd spent the morning getting a load of hay, and felt we deserved the reward of a ride - despite the overcast skies, stiff east (cold) wind, and mercury hovering in the upper 20's F. Red was my mount for the day (Rhio still had his shoes on and is still "resting" from our big adventure to Kentucky, which, no, I haven't written about yet - but I will soon, I promise!) and he loaded up easily into Gesa's trailer, although he was shaking like a leaf. He has a good winter coat and it wasn't that cold for a horse, so I can only surmise that the trembling was due to emotional factors. He has been described as "claustrophobic," and his last trailer ride involved entering a small straight load slot at the front of a 4 horse trailer with a dark interior - which he did when I asked him, but it was not a relaxing spot for him, I'm sure. This was the first time he'd been in Gesa's trailer, and once he was in and realized that it wasn't dark or scary, and his companion was mild-mannered Paco, he seemed pretty happy, and quit shaking.

It is only a 10 minute ride over to the snowmobile parking lot for access to this particular portion of the North Shore State Trail. Last time we rode this was March (see: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8217460290798186155#editor/target=post;postID=3037237652001337764 ), when the snow was too soft for snowmobiles but perfect footing for horses. We don't come much in the summer as the trail goes through some wet ground and the gate for the parking lot is locked, so we have to park and unload on the road. Today, the gate was open and the parking lot contained a single car. Firearms deer season is over, but archery hunters are still hunting, as well as upland bird hunters and of course other non-hunting and non-motorized trail users. I have to admit I was a little surprised, since it really wasn't that nice of a day, but we are hardy souls up here in the North Country!

We set off and immediately around the first corner, we spotted a sled dog team pulling an ATV. This was perfect weather for dogs to run! Not wanting to cause a ruckus with the 10 or 12 huskies when they saw us, we halted and waited for their driver to get them turned around and headed back up the trail; she never noticed us and the horses were alert but seemed more interested than afraid. Once the dogs had set off up the trail the way they'd come (I presume they came from the other direction, as there was not a dog truck parked in the lot), we continued forward and then decided to take the left hand trail. I'd ridden this trail once before and remembered it getting too wet to pass fairly quickly, but we decided it was best to give the dog team some space, not knowing how fast they were going to travel. The footing of this trail is more gravelly and less grassy than the state trail, and despite our incredibly warm fall, the ground is starting to freeze up. It was slippery in spots, despite the lack of obvious ice, and the horses seemed to figure out pretty quickly that the safest spot was the far edges of the trail which were a little softer and more grassy. We encountered a well-bundled couple and their German Shepherd out for a walk with several cameras in evidence. They had also chosen this trail to stay out of the way of the sled dogs, having heard them coming. Their shepherd was pretty hyped about seeing the horses, so we did not pause long to chat but continued on until we reached an obviously swampy portion.

Some of the open water is frozen, but not quite all of it.

The first wet spots were pretty solidly frozen and the horses had no trouble just walking through those areas, but as we attempted to cross the last 15 feet of low ground, Red and I ended up sinking into a bog and he toppled to his knees with the loss of momentum (we were only walking) and I half-dismounted, half-rolled off him so that he could extricate himself without my extra weight. He plunged forward a few steps, came back around, and plunged several more steps back the way we'd come before he was free of the sucking mud. It was frozen enough for me to walk across it, but definitely not frozen enough for a 1000+ lb horse! He did not panic, but also did not want to be caught and headed back down the trail away from the bog about 50 feet before dropping his head to graze. I walked right up to him, checked him over good for injuries (none, but lots of mud up to his knees/hocks), and then proceeded to hand-walk him through the clear-cut area to the right of the bog, which was higher ground. He was perfectly willing to follow me, and once we'd skirted the wet area and remounted, we continued just a little distance before having to again skirt a bog-like piece of trail (we decided not to find out if it was really a bog or was frozen enough to cross). We had about another quarter mile of nice high ground to trot before cresting a hill to see a wide expanse of bog in all directions spreading out beneath us. Clearly, this was an excellent turning around spot!

Red's muddy legs

The offending bog - looks pretty innocuous, doesn't it?

Heading back the way we'd come we had no trouble skirting the wet spots again, and made it back to the trailhead after meeting up with a father, son, and dog party (Red was afraid of them, for some reason). We'd had to walk much more than trot, and although the horses were plenty warm, even a little sweaty, Gesa and I were pretty chilly. I was not quite on top of my game with the winter gear for some reason and my toes, fingers, and face were too cold for comfort. We decided to head down the main trail and see how the footing was before calling it a day; we knew if we could trot consistently, we'd warm right up.

Yes, indeed, the grassy trail was much better footing and Red was in fine form, trotting out strongly and giving every impression of being ready to go miles and miles. We did a couple of miles, and warmed ourselves up nicely, before turning around so that we would have plenty of time before dark to get home and get the horses cooled out and dry.

Despite the discomfort of cold extremities, it was wonderful to be out riding again; even though my last ride was only 8 days previous, it felt like it'd been a lot longer than that. The day would have ended on a positive note, except that Kelso found some rancid deer bits to roll in and the smell was so overwhelmingly putrid that he had to ride back in the tack compartment; there was no way I was letting him in the truck with us!

A rub-down with a wet towel (I couldn't make myself hose him down at the barn in 25 degree weather) was enough so that I could barely tolerate the stench for the ride home in the car, but we went directly to the shower together and he got scrubbed down with my sweet-smelling body wash twice before I decided he was fit to live in the house again. Ugh. Why do dogs do that?

Friends Old and New

2011-11-15T06:32:00.001-06:00

Saturday, October 29
Amity Creek/Hawks Ridge trails
Companions: Karen & Duke (we miss you guys!!!), Mandy & Moon, and Christine & Blaze

On Saturday, Rhio and I made our way along the road from home to the parking lot at Amity Creek/Hawks Ridge, which I was surprised to find was 2.75 miles. It doesn't seem that far, and so I hadn't left us enough time to get there, since the traffic can be a little heavy on the route and the shoulder is narrow, hence I didn't feel comfortable traveling at a very high rate of speed. We were running late, but conveniently so was one of our riding companions, who was coming directly from work while her barn buddies hauled her horse over for her. With everyone converged and ready, we headed up the Amity Creek trail. Luckily I had a partial roll of vet wrap stashed in my saddle bag, because Mandy and the metal sign proclaiming "No Motorized Vehicles Except Snowmobiles" were in the same place at the same time and her hand suffered mightily from the encounter. After that inauspicious beginning, we were on our way, chatting and laughing and having friendly encounters with the other trail users we met, including intimidating the heck out of a couple of dogs. This is a very popular trail for runners, bikers, hikers, and dog walkers, in addition to being a designated horse trail within the city limits, and so user conflict can be a real issue, but on this day we had all positive interactions (yay!). The weather was marvelous (I'm sure you, reader, are getting tired of this refrain from every post I've written this fall - but I have to keep mentioning it because it has been the most delightful fall for riding in several years, and after the summer of mega insect populations and the spring of wet and cold, we deserve it!).

We made our way all the way up to the top of the trail, took a little side trip at the ford in the creek to get the horses' feet wet (good practice), and turned back down the trail when my companions suggested it might be time to move out a little. Wa-hoo! Rhio was more than happy to take the lead and motor down the trail, but I tried to keep an ear out for any signs of trouble behind me. Everyone kept their heads about them, and we turned up the snowmobile trail toward Hawks Ridge itself, taking a short but scenic detour along the North Shore Trail portion of the snowmobile trail (the out trail for the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in January every year - I come up with my dogs in the winter to walk and find many brightly colored but nonetheless lost dog booties after race start).

Continuing our route in a rough triangle, we left the trail to ride the shoulder of the road, part of Skyline Parkway, up to the main raptor viewing overlook, with a breathtaking view of Lake Superior and eastern Duluth spread out at our feet. The bird watchers gathered here, at the tail end of the migration, were friendly but more than a little surprised to see four horses in their midst. We continued on down the road to an informal trail which cuts back to the Amity Creek trail, then finished our ride back where we started. As we rode into the parking area, a lone woman was walking her sweaty horse to cool out before loading in her trailer to head home. As most horse people do, we had lots in common so took up a conversation, before she and I realized we knew each other. I used to do some vet work for her when she owned her previous horse and I was still doing regular vet work. I should always remember to carry business cards with me, as we seemed to have a mutual desire to become reacquainted and possibly pursue riding together sometime, but I had nothing to give her my contact information with. I hope we are able to locate each other for riding in the future.

She also gave me two tiny lights called "finger lights," which were completely new to me. They are single LED lights with a switch, disposable when they run out of juice, and come equipped with a small loop of elastic so they can be worn around one's finger. Apparently they are marketed for parties and raves, but their usefulness for anyone out after dark is immediately apparent. And, they come in a bunch of different colors! I see no reason why everyone on my Christmas list wouldn't receive these this year. It was getting pretty close to dusk at this point, and I had the road to ride to get home yet. I had Rhio's blaze orange rump rug and he is a gray horse, but I hadn't planned ahead well and didn't have his reflective leg bands on. We placed one light on the back of my saddle and one on the breastcollar, and when I got home and dismounted, I was surprised to see just how bright they were. Many thanks to Theresa for the lights! We made it home safe and sound, and I will be getting some of those for future low-light rides as well as after-dark dog walking.

Tuesday, November 1
Ye Old Stomping Grounds
Companions: Christine & Red, Dawn & Secret, and Pat &... [insert pretty mare's name here - but I can't remember!]

Tuesday morning Christine brought the truck and trailer to pick me, Kelso, and Rhio up at the barn, then we made the short drive to Red's barn and picked him up as well. We were meeting two women at our old farm to show them the riding in the area. Dawn was already waiting for us, and we visited while getting the four horses tacked up and waiting for Pat. It was cloudy and blustery, and threatening precipitation, but none of us let that deter us and off we went for a sedate trek around the farm property, then down the road to the gravel pit.

Christine asked to ride Red because Tomas had just had his shoes pulled and would have been sore footed on the gravel. She'd also never ridden him before, despite numerous invitations to do so. I am still hoping to get her into endurance, and experienced Red would be her perfect introduction to the sport. Plus, Red loves to compete so much, that if I could find someone to do a few LDs on him next year, I would be thrilled. No matter how hard I try, I just haven't been able to keep two horses competition-ready at the same time.

After touring around the farm trails, we headed over to the gravel pit and even ventured down the little-used short trail through the woods off the back of the pit. I think it goes to someone's deer hunting grounds, but I have never followed it past a boggy area that has a sheet metal bridge - not horse friendly. It was very overgrown, and so we all got to practice our in-saddle ducking and weaving ability.

It was a short ride, and the weather held out for us. We enjoyed each other's company, meeting new horse people, and I especially liked seeing Christine enjoy Red so much. I also relished being back in the old neighborhood; I certainly do miss living and riding out there.

Lucky

2011-11-13T22:51:00.001-06:00

Saturday, November 12, 2011
Bird Sanctuary, Solon Springs, WI

I got up altogether too early for a Saturday, in the pre-dawn freezing dark, to get the dogs all situated for their day alone. Walking, feeding, and medicating accomplished, I headed out to drop the oldster off with family for "daycare" while the whole neighborhood still seemed to be snoozing. Then it was time to head out to the barn, getting Red caught up and our stuff ready. A new horse friend, Dawn, picked us up and we set off, with a few stops along the way (mmm, caramel rolls) to meet up with our riding companions, Deidre and Kay, at a wildlife management area about an hour south of us, in Wisconsin.

It is lucky for us that the firearm deer season in Wisconsin starts several weeks after our does in Minnesota. For those of us close enough to drive across the border to ride, it gives us a safe place to enjoy this incredible fall riding weather we've been fortunate enough to have this year. The archery hunters are out and about, but I don't find that prospect terrifying as I do the thought of being in the woods with trigger-happy rifle hunters (who seem to shoot first, ask questions later in too many cases).

We humans were all shedding layers before we even mounted up, but our poor horses were stuck in their thickening winter coats while we all sweated in the near-60 we had in the glorious afternoon. Despite the weather, and the great trails, we were the only people in the park for the entire day. I am so surprised at this, as a Saturday like this is the fall should entice riders to saddle up over just about any activity I can think of - no bugs, no wind, sunny blue skies, and perfect footing, what more could you want?

This area is set up for horseback field trials, with about 2 dozen dog kennels, 2 separate sheds with stalls, and a healthy handful of paddocks. There is no water, but a pond is accessible. There is also a fire pit, an outhouse, and a covered picnic area. The trails are a mixture of designated horse/dog trails and ATV/snowmobile trails. Many of the non-motorized portions are grassy and sandy two track winding through an open, slightly rolling landscape, maintained with prescribed burns; we began our loop riding through a blackened area. The motorized segments we rode were mostly road-like, and had a few rocky sections, but were still a sandy base. This will be a great place for early-season training as it won't be muddy. It'll also be a good spot for speed work, as the footing is really just about perfect everywhere - which we took advantage of with several good gallops and lots of moving out.

Red wanted to lead right off the bat, but of course we had no idea where we were going, so we had to settle for the rear guard for a while. This proved advantageous, as Dawn's mare Secret was possessive/protective of the other two geldings and kept giving Red the evil eye/snarky face/cranky ear look.

About two miles into our 13 mile loop, we encountered the native residents: a flock of birds erupted from a shrub and the four horses scattered in four different directions. I somehow managed to cling to Red's left side, from which position I was able to dismount rather than land unceremoniously in the dirt as I usually do, and the rest of my companions stayed aboard as well. It would have been a very funny sight, I expect, to see us all careen off every which way.

We had some nice gallops in the open, a little bit of weaving between close pine trees and ducking the overhanging boughs on one short section, and lots of room to move out, slow down, pause for this and that, chatting all the while. Red and I were itching for our favorite long trotting, and a few miles from the trailers, we took the lead to show the others how it's done. Dawn is thinking about trying endurance (yay! another one to addict!) and her mare seemed to pace well with Red's extended trot; well, that is until she decided to take a huge chomp out of him! Red evaded her teeth, and Dawn put her to work immediately, so no harm done. But, shame on you, Secret!

We arrived back at our trailers a few hours later, and untacked our very sweaty horses then refreshed ourselves with a smorgasbord of munchies while conversing as only horse women can. Red didn't eat or drink, but stood with a foot cocked. This was not normal for him, and I was slightly uneasy about that, but I'd ridden with the heart rate monitor all day and it hadn't shown anything out of the ordinary. All his other signs were good, so I guess I chalk it up to "I don't know." He was 100% when we got home, enjoying his treat of oats while I curried a cloud of dried sweat out of his coat before turning him out into the chilly night. My eyelashes were frosted with the sweaty dust I'd created with my vigorous grooming, and I realized just why people who work their horses into a significant sweat in the winter like to keep their horse's clipped!

I am so lucky to have places like this to ride, horse friends new and old to ride with (and who will pick me up!), and of course a good horse to enjoy an incredible day like this one with.

Sweaty Eyelids

2011-11-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

Ride #4 of my last-week-before-deer-season riding binge was yet another unseasonably lovely day. Red, Sir Fuzziness himself, and I took ourselves down the road on our well travelled training route. A few houses still had Halloween decorations on display, and Red was quite certain the pumpkins, ghouls, and ghosties were extremely vicious horse-eating monsters, liable to attack the minute you took your eye off them. Somehow, we survived them and quite enjoyed our trek down the minimum maintenance road. As I only had a limited amount of time, I rode out for 55 minutes, then turned around for home. I estimated we'd take 35 minutes to get home, for my target of an hour and a half ride. Red had other ideas, and we made it home in 30 minutes, which would have been 20 minutes if I'd let him. Whee!

Red stares at the sheep we can see through the brush.

And the sheep stare back at us.

Getting home, I slid off to give him a hug and was delighted to see his eyelids were sweaty, but the rest of his head wasn't. This sounds crazy, I know, but I think his sweaty eyelids are absolutely adorable. See for yourself:

Red is going to be needing some new hoof boots for next season. I noticed that he has worn a small hole in the toe of one of his hinds (Easy Boot Bare), and the other is getting quite thin at the toe. I wish I'd started keeping track of the miles I put on these boots, but that is one detail I haven't been recording in my training log (I will from now on, though!). One of the front boots (Easy Boot Epic) has a broken buckle and the gaiter is nearly torn as well, but the boot still seems to be in decent shape. Is there a Hoof Boot Fairy that will bring new boots if I put the old ones outside Red's stall one night? I will replace his hind boots, keeping the less worn Bare as a spare, and for now probably just replace the gaiter & buckle on the one Epic. Frugality is the name of the game these days!

If this weather continues, Red and I will probably get out at least once during the week for a blaze orange-emblazoned road ride. I know my days are numbered by the imminent arrival of snow, ice, subzero windchills, and lack of daylight, and I will yearn all winter for mind-emptying, meditative long trots with my boys. So, I make the most of every opportunity I have now, in this glorious season called autumn.

Count 'Em

2011-11-02T22:28:00.001-05:00

The little green dot at the top of the hill is Gesa & Paco.

Fall is absolutely the premier time to ride here in Minnesota - there are no bugs, the footing is good, and the weather is (usually) pretty nice. This fall has been outstanding, as we are into November now with days still approaching 50 up here in the north. D-Day approaches, however, as the gun-toting Deer Hunters will infiltrate the woods at first light on Saturday. So, I've been spending a lot of time in the saddle this week, trying to eek out every bit of daylight from our dwindling supply and ride while I can.

Today's ride was uneventful and unexceptional, except in that it was perfect (well, ok, I will admit to slightly windburned cheeks and mildly uncomfortable chafing in an unmentionable location due to a poor pairing of undergarment + winter tights). Gesa and I loaded up after the horses all got their feet trimmed (except Rhio who is still shod), and trailered the brief distance to our favorite local spot. We had about an hour and a half of daylight left, so set off on our normal route up & down the rolling hills of the snowmobile trail. Both boys seemed a little pokey to begin, and we allowed them to take it easy while we chatted. With all the leaves off the trees, the trail looks wider and the landscape appears almost foreign. Around a bend, we met a bird hunter with a pretty little Vizsla dog (who was stunned by our appearance on the trail, froze, then whipped around to join his person, and thence commenced barking from the safety of Dad's embrace), and after that the horses seemed energized and we continued along at a nice pace to the bridge, our turn around place.

Headed for home. I always ask Rhio to cross the bridge before we turn around.

Heading back the way we came, we spotted a snowshoe hare dashing across the trail; the horses took notice of her as well, due to her unfortunate luck to be already sporting her winter white coat. Luckily Kelso was sitting this one out, and she was safe from unwanted canine attention.

Working our way up.

Not quite to the top yet!

We mixed things up a bit by continuing across the road where we access the trail, which takes us a brief distance through the woods, past a loud-barking Newfie who challenges our right of way, and onto a short open section up, and then down, a big rock knob. The trail is grass covered, but with large expanses of flat basalt here and there, and a particular hollow sound to our horses' hoofbeats. It is a tiny bit of trail, but well worth passing the doggie "gatekeeper," especially in the fading rays of sunset when the light is magical shining off the rock and filtering through the pines.

I guess my grin says it all.

Returning to the trailer, the boys munched hay while we threw their coolers on, and I counted Rhio's shoes. The last time we rode here, we came home missing two. I'm pleased to report all four of his shoes are present and accounted for!

Tomorrow is Red's turn!

Coyote Serenade (Point Chaser 2011)

2011-10-29T23:34:00.002-05:00

What a fantastic day for a fantastic ride on a fantastic horse.

The last distance ride of the year in Minnesota is called Point Chaser, for obvious reasons if you are a rider who rides for points/year end awards. Someday I might be a rider like that, but for now, as I have a pretty inconsistent competition calendar, I pay exactly zero attention to points. I ride because I love it and my horse loves it. I especially love to see new trail, and this year Point Chaser was held at a new location, Zumbro Bottoms horse camp in the Richard Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest, in southeastern Minnesota. I had never had the pleasure of being in this forest before, and I already can't wait to go back. This is one of the most beautiful spots I've ridden in Minnesota, bar none. It was stunning, even with little of the fall foliage remaining, and I can only imagine how breathtaking it would be about two weeks ago.
The landscape is limestone river bluffs surrounding the Zumbro River, and incredible vistas encompassing the river and the surrounding farmland. I will apologize right up front - I have hardly any pictures from the ride. We were going too fast to take pictures. Really.

Standing corn and harvested soybeans following the contours of the land.

Point Chaser is a three day ride, but Gesa and I were only able to drive down on Friday afternoon to ride Saturday (and I was vetting on Sunday). It was a nice day for hauling, which we are especially thankful for now that we have a open stock trailer to haul with, but we still put sheets on the boys before leaving home, as the morning temperature in Duluth was only just above freezing. Rhio was a little hesitant to load, although loading has been going really, really well since we discovered he likes to go in second instead of first. I opened the front of his blanket, and that solved his hesitation and he jumped right on. With fly masks and hay bags in place, and Kelso already snoozing in the backseat of the truck, we were off!

It was an uneventful trip down, although Rhio did eat pretty well from his hay bag, which is unusual for him (but very good!). It is a long trip, as once we leave the divided highway, we are winding our way down into the river valley between ever-steepening hillsides and the going is slow. We hardly noticed, though, as the scenery even just along the road is very pleasing. I spent the boring hours of interstate driving working on attaching fabric loops to a pretty plaid wool lap blanket, in the hopes it would become Rhio's new rump rug.

This camp is huge, and it seemed there were rigs as far as the eye could see. We were able to snag a little space fairly near the vet check area, and next to Chip, her wonderful dog Ruby, and her horse Dezi. There was space left on the high (really, REALLY high - we "height challenged" types had to really work to get our ropes over them) lines for Rhio and Paco to settle in. After food, water, and a walk for the boys, we vetted in for Saturday's events and got our own accommodations set up: my newly-waterproofed old tent with many layers of blankets, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads - the nights' lows were to be slightly less than tent-comfortable so we were basically making ourselves a nest to burrow into. Even Kelso had his own "jammies" to wear, his own sleeping pad, and his own wool blanket - all my attempt to keep him from stealing mine!

We stayed up "really late" (10 pm) with Chip, visiting and snacking, until we were too cold, then snuggled in for the night. As we were waiting for our body heat to warm up our nest of blankets (which it did nicely; we were toasty warm and perfectly comfortable all night), we heard the first of the coyote song which was going to sing us to sleep each night, and rouse us again in the pre-dawn dark. A few owls joined in the chorus for good measure.

Gesa and Chip were going to ride the 30 mile Limited Distance ride together, and Rhio & I were ready for our first 50 mile Endurance ride of the season. I hadn't managed to locate my headlamp (it's still misplaced, actually) and so was breakfasting myself and Rhio, and getting us ready, with my little flashlight in my mouth. It's small enough that it doesn't make me drool too much when I do this, but the metal was really cold! I really must find my headlamp...

Rhio was calm but excited to go, and I was up in the saddle only about 10 minutes before our start time. He gets more riled up the longer we have to wait once I'm mounted, even if I keep his feet moving, so I've found he's best left tied as long as possible. I was a little chilly, which usually means I've dressed just about right for the exertion to come, and was glad I'd chosen wicking layers throughout: my silk long underwear beneath "fall" tights, "performance" top with polarfleece and a light jacket, little stretchy gloves (a little warmer than my summer riding gloves but not so much that my hands would get sweaty), and just a bandana covering the tops of my ears beneath my helmet. Rhio was wearing his new wool rump rug, and the sun was just rising over the eastern bluff with the promise of a perfect riding day to come.

As soon as they called "Trail's Open!", we were off in the lead, on a loose rein. He is such a beast when there are horses in front of him that I decided just to try going out in front. This is not a place I'm used to being, but it sure worked for Rhio. We were cruising down the trail, with plenty of forward motion but totally relaxed. By the time we hit the river bridge (we were to cross this bridge 6 times during the course of our 50 miles), a small group of riders was with us and Rhio only gave up the lead to sacrifice another horse to the scary bridge monster so that it wouldn't eat us. After a few more miles, the pack of six settled into two groups of three, with myself, a guy, and a gal staying together in the lead. The three of us ended up riding the entire 50 miles together, and happily so. The three geldings seemed to get along perfectly well, and we traded off leading, though Rhio and the guy's horse did the majority of it.

Our first loop was 20 miles, and it was a pleasant mix of wide 2-track and single track trail, going up, down, and around the river bluffs with some flatter areas for cantering. Rhio seemed to have a blast with the trail and felt just as fresh finishing the loop as he had starting it. We passed Gesa and Chip on the trail in, as they had started only 15 minutes behind us and were doing a shorter loop. I thought maybe Rhio would want to stay with Paco, his training buddy, but he barely paused long enough to say hello as we cantered along a lovely bit of flat trail and kind of left them in the dust (sorry, guys!). We came in with a loop time of 2 hours 6 minutes. Rhio pulsed down first, but the other two were right behind us, and we all scattered to our respective trailers for our hour hold. Gesa and Chip arrived about 15 minutes later with Paco & Dezi, and the three horses got right to the business of eating and resting. We riders tried to do the same, but there are always a million little things to do, find, adjust, etc plus a walk to the outhouse to accomplish, so even with a whole hour, I barely sat down.

At our exit CRI, Rhio's pulses were 12/11, which was nice to see as we'd never done a 20 mile loop at 10 mph before, but it was clearly well within his abilities. The three of us who had ridden together were out basically together, and so we set of on our second 14.5 mile loop as a threesome once again. Again, the loop was a lovely mix of climbing & descending, with twisty single track and some deep sand to keep us focused. We were beginning to run into trail riders now, as it was approaching a reasonable hour to be out riding for fun and the day was in fact shaping up to be positively gorgeous. The groups all seemed courteous & friendly on both ends - the competitive riders and the trail riders seemed to be sharing the trail easily.

The big descent on loop 2.

One hour and 33 minutes later, we found ourselves back in camp - it felt like the blink of an eye. The competitive drive had begun by this time, and we had to pass several carts on our way in. I was riding with the heart rate monitor, and although Rhio didn't give any outward appearance of being bothered by the carts, his heart rate shot up over 30 points each time we passed one. He was pulsed down by the time we walked from the trail through camp to the timer, and we headed back to the trailer for more eating and resting. Rhio preferred grass this check, but still finished off his beet pulp & goodie mash from the first hold. It was warm enough to shed a few layers and leave the rump rug behind for the last loop.

Yep, that's ride camp down there.

Loop three took us up the eastern ridge near camp, and gave us a breathtaking panoramic view of the valley, the river, and ridecamp. I very much enjoyed it as we flew past, really I did! A trail rider on a cremello mare started tagging along with us, and was full of questions about endurance (hopefully a new rider for next year!). Her mare kept up with us and she seemed to be having a blast. Rhio did not care to have her directly behind us, however, and I kept him in the middle or front of our group of three. About two miles from the finish, just as we'd crossed over the river bridge for the last time, the horses started speeding up on their own. I could feel Rhio's competitiveness really kicking in, and I just kept telling him (and myself) that we were NOT GOING TO RACE! NO RACING! (Actually, I think my exact words were, "Knock it off! We're not racing! Settle down now! Quit!" repeated in various combinations as required.) It helped that we had to stop a few times for groups of trail riders, and pass a few carts, and just generally deal with some "traffic issues." Each time we had to slow, Rhio had to think about my directions a little bit more and settle down a little bit. It was hard, as it was really fun to be flying along at a hand gallop and I didn't really want to slow him down, but safety was my number one priority and I kept my head about me, and checked Rhio down when my companion in my weight division took off in a sprint about 1/4 mile from the finish. Boy did I have an unhappy horse for that last 1/4 mile to camp! He was doing an excellent impression of a pogo stick, and when that didn't work to make me let him run to catch that horse, he started shaking his head so forcefully I was afraid he was going to throw himself onto the ground. He was NOT HAPPY with me holding him back, but he did listen and we came into camp with the gal (a lightweight) we'd been riding with all day, and 1 minute behind the guy (a fellow heavyweight). I've never thought I'd ever come close to winning a ride, so I was thrilled to pieces with a second place on a strong horse. Rhio felt like a million bucks all day, eating and drinking like a champ, never tiring, and cantering or trotting along on a loose rein the entire 49 3/4 miles (yep, we were NOT on a loose rein that last 1/4 mile).

Trotting out.

And back.

The last loop took us 1 hour 20 minutes, and Rhio still felt as fresh as a daisy. We stood for Best Condition at 30 minutes after our finish time, and Rhio looked absolutely fantastic. He out ran me back to Dr. Dean on his CRI and was just the picture of a happy, fit horse. I knew the guy had a decent amount of weight on me, but I was just thrilled with how well Rhio did all day and what a great time I'd had riding him. To my surprise and delight, Rhio's vet score more than made up for the weight disparity, and Mr. Rhio, My Most Awesome Boy, WON BEST CONDITION!!!!! It was his first BC, and the prize was, very appropriately, a bag of horse treats. Rhio will enjoy his winnings very much!

Rhio's Best Condition treats and our ribbon. Yes, I still like to get ribbons!

About an hour after we finished, Gesa, Chip, & I decided to saddle up again and head up to the overlook to take in the views and take a few photos as well. I mistakenly thought that I could take Rhio out in just his rope halter after doing 50 miles in less than 5 hours ride time, instead of putting his bridle on, and ended up having to hand walk him on the way back because he wanted to catch all the horses he could see in front of him. It was well worth the short walk up the very steep hill to enjoy the magnificent panorama.

Paco & Dezi enjoy the view.

I wonder what the horses think when they gaze so intently at a view right along with us.

Before I knew we'd won BC, and you already can't wipe the grin off my face.

We all slept well Saturday night (I was a little too warm, actually), and in between vet duties Sunday morning I helped Gesa get everything packed up, horses loaded, and saw her & Kelso off for the long & lonely drive home. I was able to snag a ride home with another Duluth rider, and eventually made it home, exhausted but euphoric, well after dark Sunday night. What a way to end the season (though, sadly, I feel as though my season only just began with being able to do a single ride back in May, and now two in October, as my only rides for the year on my own horse).

I am so proud of my super star horse. It was such an incredible feeling to ride him all day, and just feel like I had so much horse there and he was so happy flying up and down the hills, weaving in and out of the trees, and basically doing a darn good impression of magical winged Pegasus with nothing but wind beneath his hooves. My horse is awesome.

My "poor, exhausted" pony - not exactly!

How to Lose Two Shoes, and Other Adventures

2011-10-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

Wednesday October 5, 2011
North Shore Trail

Rhio still has all four shoes here.

We had just enough time for a fast ride on our favorite local snowmobile trail, which has FINALLY been mowed; we blame the MN state government shutdown for the lack of trail maintenance this summer, though I don't know if that is the real culprit. Last summer the trail was mowed the entire season, but this year it was only just mowed sometime in September. This is a big bummer for us, because it is impassable when not mowed due to the belly-deep grass.

We tried a new arrangement, loading Paco into the trailer first (the first stall has more length and he is longer than Rhio so is a bit squeezed in the back stall) and I was skeptical that Rhio would load, given his past performances being asked to load into small spaces. Well, was I surprised and proved so, so wrong! Rhio walked right into that trailer without even a pause! What a good boy! And it wasn't even a one-time wonder, as he did the same thing loading to come home, and again on the next weekend when we went overnight camping (see upcoming post).

Just starting out - still shod all the way around.

On the way back - you can see only the top of Paco's rump is dry, everything else is drenched in sweat.

Rhio is definitely missing the right front shoe, and maybe the left front as well by this point.

It's only about 1 1/2 miles down the road to the spot we park the trailer to ride this trail, and in no time we were unloading, tacking up, and getting Kelso equipped with his bell. Rhio had been missing a nail on his right front shoe since before our trip to Michigan (I discovered it too late to call my farrier, so crossed my fingers and had no trouble), but this was the first time I could tell that the shoe was a little loose. Hoping for the best yet again (although I had tossed in a boot just in case), we set off around the gate meant to keep ATVs off the trail (which it doesn't do at all) and headed up the hill. I felt a little bobble about 20 yards up the hill, kept going, and at the top finally decided to look - sure enough, that right front shoe was no longer with us. The way my farrier applies shoes allows them to come off cleanly, without tearing any hunks of hoof off, and Rhio was unconcerned about his single bare foot. We backtracked to the bottom of the hill (while texting the farrier for an appointment ASAP!) but weren't able to locate the shoe. Oh, well - off we went on the remainder of the ride. The horses were on fire, and we had a fast and joyous ride up and down hill and vale, enjoying the brilliant fall colors whizzing past us as we galloped on into evening. We crossed the river bridge, went a little farther to find some puddles for drinking, then turned for home. Poor Kelso was keeping up but it took all he had and his tongue was practically hanging on the ground, especially in the heat. I know it's unbelievable, but it was about 70 degrees even at 6 pm!

Both Kelso & Paco look a little tired!

We finished up close to 10 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes (nice pace!), and lo and behold! - Rhio was now missing BOTH front shoes! I didn't feel him lose the left one, and had no idea where it might be, so we didn't even consider looking for it. Both hooves were in perfect shape and he was 100% sound (it's a grass trail with few rocks), and I already had the farrier coming for one shoe, so no matter to do 2 (actually, we'll probably do all 4 since he's about due for a reset anyway, and Point Chaser is only 9 days away now).

Right front - notice anything? Not only is the shoe gone, but if you look at the shiny bit on the right side of the photo between the sole and the hoof edge - yep, that's a nail minus the head stuck in his foot. Ran however many miles on that without a problem (kinda lucky).

And a still-shod hind hoof :)

The horses were dripping wet after their exertion in the unseasonable temperatures, and we covered them with coolers against the oncoming chill (this is how you can tell it's October and not July - it may be 70 while the sun is still up, but the temperature drops fast once the sun goes down) for the ride home in the open trailer. They got a snack of beet pulp at home, and we left them in stalls with their coolers on to dry a bit before being turned out. Here is where I made a big error in judgement - I just wasn't thinking. Rhio's cooler was already soaked through, but he was toasty warm and comfortable beneath it. I knew better, but instead of switching the wet one out for a dry cooler, in order to continue wicking the sweat away, I just left the wet one on him. Poor Gesa went out several hours later to find both horses still soaking wet. They were warm, but still wet. One of those little mistakes that you kick yourself for, and hopefully learn from, but didn't turn out to be a problem for the ponies, thank goodness. She walked them a little and threw them out, and all was well.

Next stop on our fall riding tour - Stony Brook Horse Camp for an overnight and a long conditioning ride. Stay tuned!

Pine Marten Run

2011-10-09T21:18:00.004-05:00

October 1 & 2, 2011
Hiawatha National Forest
Upper Peninsula, Michigan

Pine Marten Run

Theresa lives about three hours from me, yet she was willingto go out of her way to pick me up so that we could drive across the UpperPeninsula of Michigan together to attend the Pine Marten Run enduranceride. Many, many thanks to Theresafor driving the extra miles (through some seemingly endless construction on the way home, noless) to pick me up! I had a greattime and was thrilled to ride new trails and check another state off my list.

Speaking of my list, one of my career goals for endurance isto ride an endurance ride in every state that has one (there are none inHawaii, for example). So far Ihave only ridden in the Midwest; my state list is now Minnesota, Wisconsin,North Dakota, and Michigan.

It was a goal-fulfilling weekend, as I’d set a few goals forRhio for this ride, including riding alone (which we did not accomplish) anddoing a 3-hour 25 miler. Well, myactual trail time (not counting the time to pulse down, so this won’t concur withmy official AERC time, but I have always kept track of my trail time) was 2hours 40 minutes (!) and we took 4^th, only 10 minutes behind theleaders. Not bad for not havinggone to a ride since May, and only having done about 6 conditioning rides inthe past 2 months. I was really,really happy with his performance, and the only thing I regret is not doing a50! I was hesitant to ask him togo 50 miles with the two long trailer rides (7 hours) sandwiching competitionday, and so little competition this season. He was full of himself the entire ride and trotted out atthe final check looking like he hadn’t done a thing.

Theresa & her mare Queen arrived in Duluth Thursdayevening, and got settled in at Gesa’s for the overnight. Friday morning we loaded up and were onthe road before 9 am. Rhio loadedwillingly, actually surprising me by just following me onto the trailer withoutthe slightest hesitation. He suremakes it clear that he has a strong preference for big trailers! Friday was a cold, windy, on-and-offrainy day as we drove east along Lake Superior to Nahma Junction, MI. The only problem with the drive was theunending vistas of blazing hillsides covered in maples in all their fallsplendors, and of the impressive waves crashing into the shore; we wanted tostop and enjoy the beautiful fall vistas around every bend, but we knew we hadto keep marching on for ride camp.

Pine Marten Run ridecamp

We found ride camp in the Hiawatha National Forest easily,and drove in gingerly, having been warned that it is “just a big field.” Well, it’s more like an area thatformerly had trees and no longer does, but their remnants (stumps and holes)are still very much present. Themajor groundcovers are lichen and a woody-stemmed plant called “sweet grass”which was about 12” – 14” high. There were also small trees and shrubs scattered about, and we trompedaround looking for an acceptable place to park without doing major damage totruck or trailer in the process. Thinking we’d found a spot, we unloaded Queen and Rhio and Theresaproceeded to back through the humps into a “spot” of sorts. Unfortunately, something under the hoodof the truck didn’t much like this, and she was smoking pretty good by the timewe were situated. Oops. (Just so you don’t worry, the truckseemed to be functioning normally on Sunday and the smell of scorched whateverwas mostly dissipated, and we made it home just fine. I’m sure Theresa will be having the truck looked at,though.)

Rhio's side of the trailer

Queen's side of the trailer

Although Rhio and Queen had had the entire day in thetrailer to bond, we gave them each their own side of the trailer and got set upfor the night. I had brought a fewstep-in posts and a rope (borrowed from Gesa) to make a “fake” electric pen forRhio, as I know he is much happier in a pen than being tied. Obviously this is not a securecontainment method and I only allowed him to be loose in his pen when I wasthere to supervise. Overnight, hewas tied to the trailer.

We vetted in and marked the first differences from theroutine at MN rides – the vets didn’t have scribes and had to do their ownwriting on our cards! Speaking asa ride vet…that sucks! They didn’tseem to have the line-up of horses waiting to vet in that we are accustomed to,either, so the extra time it took for them to fill out the cards didn’t seem tobe an issue. Also, though, weriders weren’t immediately aware of how they’d scored our ponies, as we are atMN rides because the vets are verbalizing their scores as they go. Our horses remained unmarked, as theyfelt the rump rugs (it was going to be pretty cold at the start) would just rubthe grease paint numbers right off their rumps. That would have been too true, I’m afraid! I actually rode Rhio the entire ridewith his rump rug covering his hindquarters, as he is pretty easily chilled andI have learned from experience that it is much better to err on the side of alittle too warm with him. It wouldbe nice, however, to finally get around to finishing the wool rump rug I’mmaking for him, as Red’s polarfleece one is really too big for Rhio and hangsway off of him.

Theresa set up the camp stove and cooked us hot &satisfying tortellini for dinner (I contributed salad), then we were off to theride meeting. We were not givenmaps, as everyone does the same trail – pink out to the out check, and blueback to camp. The pink trail is 13miles, and the blue trail 12 miles, so the 25’s do it once and the 50’s do ittwice. We packed up our hay, waterbuckets, and various sundries for the out check, put our stuff in the trailerhauling everyone’s junk out there, and walked our ponies before bed. Here we noted another big differencefrom ride camp in MN – no one besides us was walking their horses. Walking your horse before bed, andperiodically at all times while camped, is practically religion at MN rides(and, also a major social event.) There was no horse walking and no socializing that we were aware of,although to be fair we were camped way out on the fringe of the rigs, and wediscovered Saturday morning that more rigs had parked in the open area on theother side of the road.

Kelso was happy to come along to ridecamp

The weather forecast was for lows in the 30s, so I layeredRhio up with 2 polarfleece coolers beneath his rain sheet (why didn’t I justbring his winter blanket? That wasdumb.) and slept in 2 layers myself. I stayed warm enough, and because I was wearing my riding clothes tosleep in, I didn’t have to dress in the frigid pre-dawn. Theresa & Queen were doing the 50mile competitive ride, and they left at 8 am (sunrise occurs sometime after 7am). My start time was 8:30, andtrying to get Rhio saddled turned out to be an exercise in frustration. He was spinning around, completelyunsettled watching all the other horses warming up and leaving camp. My saddle fell off him no less than sixtimes before I was able to get it all situated correctly and his girthattached. You can imagine I wasn’ttoo thrilled with him – and, frankly, I wasn’t too sure I wanted to geton! I hand walked him briefly, lethim “lunge” himself in frantic circles around me for a few minutes, thenfinally mounted (he stood still!) and we were off warming up. He settled down immediately undersaddle to a controllable trot (walking was not an option) but had a fit everytime I asked him to turn in the direction he thought was away from thetrail. He didn’t actually have anyidea where the trail was, however, so this was kind of comical as he thoughtthe trail was the other direction. Anyway, we got going and quickly overtook the few horses in front of usat the start. He was demonstratinga pretty solid case of race brain, and we had to catch and pass thefront-runner before I could ride on a loose rein. That woman stayed with us, and we were joined by another,and the three of us cantered (mostly) and trotted (a bit) our way through thefirst ¾ of the loop before being joined by a fourth rider. Once Rhio decided these horses were in“his group,” we were able to follow as well as lead without any fuss. I didn’t catch these gals names, but reallyenjoyed the loop with them and chatted back and forth a bit about our hometrails for conditioning, rides we’d done, etc.

Rhio in an extreme state of alertness as he watched all those other horses get ahead of him on trail (or so he thought)

About a mile from the out check, we passed Theresa andQueen, and sailed into the check cantering. Oops. I don’tnormally do that, but it was more stressful to fight him than to just let himstay with the group. He normallypulses right down, so I wasn’t too worried about that – although I’d left myonly stethoscope at the finish and would have to guess when he was down at thecheck. I found the whole out-checkto be pretty chaotic. There was amethod to the madness, I am sure – and it seemed to center around a guy namedBruce. Unbeknownst to me, he waskeeping track of EVERYTHING! It’simpressive, really, but I didn’t quite get the flow of things and didn’t getmuch rest myself as I was a little stressed trying to figure out thesystem. The vets took our pulsesfor our hold time (40 minutes) to start but then immediately had us do a trotout for our CRI and did the rest of the exam. I was happy that Rhio’s CRI was 16/15, but thought it was anodd way of doing it, as we are used to doing the vet exam at the end of ourhold, when the horse is rested, fed, watered, and no longer in theadrenaline-fed “up” state that they are when they first came in off trail. When that adrenaline is high, they willlook great even if they aren’t. The exam after they’ve rested is much more indicative of their truemetabolic and mechanical fitness to head back out on trail. At the end of the hold, we have to do atrot-by for the vets and then are released to head out. Theresa and I were out within a minuteof each other, so we decided to ride together. It was great to be out there just the two of us, and Rhiowas no longer trying to win but was happy to move out relaxed and enjoy the trail. I still didn’t get many photos, as we weren’tdallying around, but believe me when I say these trails were GORGEOUS!

Rhio enjoying some of his beet pulp at the out check

Theresa and Queen getting ready to trot out at the out check

About 2/3 of the way back to camp, three other LDers passedus, and Rhio was prancing, dancing, and kicking up quite the ruckus – he doesNOT like to be passed! I decidedto let him go, as fighting him was no fun for either of us. We stayed with that group of three,finally passing two of them in the final half mile and coming in to vet checkwith TJ and his lovely mare Tara, a Wisconsin rider we frequently see at MNrides. Tara pulsed down justbefore Rhio, and we finished the ride by standing for Best Condition. No surprise given the weight differencebetween TJ and me, but we did not win BC. I was proud of my pony, though, and he looked great at histrot-out. Again, the exam was doneimmediately after finishing, unlike what I’m used to, and his gut sounds were alittle down for him (but, he hadn’t had anything to eat since the check, asthere wasn’t a whole lot of grass on the loop).

the one trail picture I took

Settling him into the trailer, I had the afternoon to relaxwhile Theresa & Queen finished their ride around 5:15 pm. I pulled my chair up in the sun outsidehis pen and settled in with lunch and my book for an hour or so, then Kelso,Rhio, and I took a long wandering walk around the sandy roads in the area. Rhio found a great place to roll, drankdeeply out of several puddles (he does have a fondness for puddle water), andKelso ran back and forth chasing squirrels until his tongue hung halfway out ofhis mouth.

Rhio relaxing in his jammies

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon but the wind was prettychilly; I was layering and unlayering constantly. After our walk, I left Rhio’s cooler off as he seemed to bebasking in the sun. Shortlythereafter, I noticed a tiny bit of either shivering or muscle twitching in hisquadriceps. He was either cold(common with him) or low in electrolytes (possible, as with all the commotionat the out check he did not eat his entire beet pulp mash and his normal doseof electrolytes were mixed into the mash – so he got less electrolytes thannormal), so I treated both possibilities and covered him with his warm coolerand gave him a dose of e-lytes. Heloved standing facing out of his pen watching all the activity in camp, andKelso & I crawled into bed for a little nap (ah, the luxury!).

The view out the trailer door after my nap

Theresa & Queen finished looking good, although she’dhad some muscle cramping at the second out-check, and we worked to get hersettled in before potluck. Being aU.P. ride, lovely pasties were served as the main course and as always ourplates were bulging with good food. Theresa & Queen took first, and got a lovely handpainted mug. I chose a roll of vet wrap as myplacing award, and a tote stenciled “Pine Marten Run” as my completionprize. I love to have stuff thatis personalized to the ride.

It was getting very chilly as the sun set, and we were againone of the only groups out walking our horses. We were both pretty happy to be crawling into our sleepingbags, although those first few minutes before the slippery cold nylon liningwarms up with body heat are never enjoyable. We knew we wanted to get a pretty early start on the 7 hourtrip back to Duluth, as Theresa would be continuing on back to her homedirectly. But, we also didn’t feel like setting our alarms and getting uppre-dawn again – so we didn’t! Wewere in for a surprise when we did get up Sunday morning, though, as there wasfrost on the inside of the trailer! There was ice on the water buckets, a heavy frost on every surface andleaf, and it was in the low-middle 20’s! Brrr!

Theresa & Queen walking in the morning frost

Luckily, the switch from Eastern to Central time was in ourfavor this direction, and we pulled out of camp just after the riders allheaded out on trail. It was anuneventful and again extremely scenic trip back west across the U.P. The horses traveled well, although Rhiodid not eat much hay at all on either journey. On the way across, I dropped Rhio’s hay onto the floor (weleft the horses untied in the trailer) instead of leaving it in his hay bag andthat seemed to appeal to him. Queen was able to snake her neck beneath the divider and steal much ofhis hay, but with a big enough pile of hay this wasn’t too much of aproblem. Rhio did refuse to drinkon the trailer, and I fed him a wet beet pulp mash at our rest stop. We had hoped to find a safe spot tounload on the trip, but we did not and were only able to stop and let thehorses rest on the trailer.

Kelso zonked in the backseat

Rhio does internalize his stress, but even so he seemed tohandle the trip well. I will betrying a few things in the future to get him to eat and drink better on thetrailer. Neither one is a problemas soon as he’s unloaded, though! I had started him on his probiotic product about 10 days before the tripand continued through the weekend. He also received an acid-reducing supplement, which I have not usedpreviously. He exhibited niceformed manure the whole weekend instead of his typical loose manure in stresssituations, and I was quite happy with that. I will continue to use both, and in fact have continued himon his probiotic daily through the end of the ride season.

Overall, it was a most excellent weekend and I would go backto Pine Marten Run for the beautiful 95% single track trails and the friendlyriders, vets, and management. Twothumbs up!

Rhio at home in the pasture, getting directly to the business of eating!

First Test Run - Mohair Endurance Girth

2011-09-29T00:30:00.001-05:00

My friend Vicki weaves beautiful mohair girths and cinches (Traditional Mohair Cinches) and has made me a gorgeous endurance girth in Rhio's new colors, turquoise and black. Rhio and I are charged with thoroughly testing this new girth, and giving our input for future endurance girths. Tonight was a great night to start putting this beauty through its paces!

Gesa, Paco, Kelso, Rhio, and I found ourselves pulling into an occupied parking lot at Boulder Lake tonight around 5:15 pm. It's grouse season, and with the gorgeous weather today, everyone and their uncles were out enjoying the evening. Two of the three hunters we met freely admitted that they were really out for the fall colors, balmy air, and beautiful trails - wearing blaze orange and carrying a shotgun was just their excuse.

Having done nothing but admire my new girth so far, I took a few pictures of it in it's pristine loveliness before tacking up. It will never look like this again!

Taking a page out of its creator's book, and documenting my new girth's loveliness while draped over my horse.

Oh so pretty! Note it's clean, bright, unsullied appearance.

Vicki made this one nice and short for me, so I can utilize different holes in my saddle billets than my other girths do. This is a great thing to do to extend the life of your billets. I was immediately pleased that the buckles rolled easily over the leather billets, and I had no trouble getting it latched into the first holes on each side. I did have a moment of reservation when I saw just how short it was, but I remember Vicki telling me it would stretch at least an inch and I know the foam in my Skito pad takes a minute or two to warm up to body temperature and allow the saddle to settle down correctly. Sure enough, I was able to get the girth comfortably snug at the third hole on each side after just a few minutes (my regular girth is correctly tightened at the fifth hole, in case you were wondering.)

Of course I had to take a few more pictures to fully document how great this girth looks - and how terrible the rest of my now-mismatched tack & accessories look in comparison!!! I hope the weather stays nice so I can ride, otherwise I fear I may be spending too much time online shopping for turquoise and black stuff!

Beauty and function!

We set off with the goal of doing the loop (about 7 miles) in an hour, which would put us back at the trailer in the last bit of light for the day. Rhio was a little doggy to begin; I found I was having to push him into a nice trot and he didn't feel very free or forward at all. Just about the time I was considering being worried about it, he clicked into his normal forward, happy, moving out mode and all was well. We walked where the footing dictated it, but otherwise had a grand time cruising along at a steady trot or nice canter, shouting bits of conversation back and forth as we went.

Pausing for a drink for the dog, and a nibble for the horses.

Not the best light for illuminating me & Rhio , but a particularly lovely piece of the trail.

Rhio shied at boulders or broken tree stumps a few times, but maintained forward motion the entire time so I had no trouble staying with him. We had a harrowing encounter with a fallen-at-an-angle tree situated just around a tight corner, but Rhio responded beautifully to my leg and I managed to duck under the high portion as he took the corner faster and tighter than we'd planned. That was a bit of a rush; it occurred to me as I continued flying down the trail that smacking that tree with my head at a very forward canter would have been a BAD thing, even with a helmet on. Throughout it all, the saddle was rock solid, no slipping of the girth noted. We paused once for water (Kelso) and grass (ponies) and photos, but otherwise kept to our pace and achieved our goal, finishing right on the money as the sun vanished. What a ride! It's been too long since we've had a ride like this, just good footing and clear trails to sail around, seemingly without a care in the world. We were "in the zone."

After completing the ride, the girth is, expectedly, a bit grungy with the sweat/dirt combination that comes off Rhio when he's working (& hasn't had a bath recently) and I can see that it developed a little crease behind the elbows on both sides where his girth groove and movement obviously want something a little less broad. I should have measured its dimensions before use, but I didn't. The leather buckle-backers did a great job - no evidence of rubbing at the buckles. Rhio did look like he developed a tiny rub on the left side about an inch in front of where the girth sat at rest. I will be interested to check that out in daylight tomorrow to confirm. If I remember correctly, this has happened with other girths as well, probably until they get broken in and molded to his particular conformation.

Looking at the girth in situ, left side, after 7 miles of mostly trotting and cantering.

The girth on the hood of the truck. Note the darker line about 1/3 of the way from the top on both sides - this is the spot that is bunching or wrinkling behind the elbows. The top of the picture is the side toward his elbows.

So far I am pleased with the new girth, and plan to continue its testing this weekend at a 25 mile limited distance ride in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - Pine Marten Run, here we come!

Leaden Skies

2011-09-22T22:32:00.001-05:00

Shall I carry a big sign that says "See us! We are here!", or do you think I've got it covered?

For our first solo ride from the new farm, Rhio & I had a very chilly, dreary day to contend with. It was technically still summer today, but I sure couldn't tell by the thermometer (46 degrees), the heavy clouds, or the three layers I was wearing. As the day was so gray, and I knew we'd be riding much more heavily travelled roads than we used to, I decked us both out in bright and reflective gear. Rhio sported his blaze orange rump rug and reflective fluorescent leg bands on each leg, and I wore a safety vest with "Caution Horse & Rider" emblazoned on the back (though if anyone were close enough to be reading that, I would be pretty upset).

This is the first time I've ridden Rhio off the property since moving the horses three weeks ago. I was very pleased that he didn't balk at all about riding out the driveway, and that Cricket wasn't calling for him but seemed to be content with Paco.

We started up the road, riding against traffic on the (narrow) shoulder. As it was midday, and mid-week, the traffic was light. About half the vehicles slowed & moved over, and about half didn't. Rhio is very traffic safe and didn't bat an eyelash, but I was considerably less relaxed than riding on the quiet gravel roads we used to. I also worried about slipping every time we crossed the paved apron to a driveway, as he is shod now and pavement + steel shoes are not the best combination. He had no difficulty, however, and once I got more comfortable with the road, off we went at a nice trot.

We travelled several miles north along the road before turning east along a gravel road. The first house had a German Shepherd which gave us a single fairly uninterested woof, and the second house had a Golden Retriever cross on a tie-out that was really giving us the eye. Sure enough, after we all made eye contact and Rhio started moving off, the dog lunged to the end of his rope, completely silently, and Rhio spooked and spun. By the time we made it 360 to look at the dog again, it was cowering up on the porch. This dog could be trouble if it were ever loose, so I'm notching it in my memory banks for sure.

The road ends at another paved road, so we turned south along the shoulder until we reached a second gravel road, which we took back west to join up with the farm road, making a "P" shaped loop ride. I had forgotten my GPS, but drove it after we were done, and it was about 7 miles. I have to say, despite the less than ideal road riding, the views are spectacular. This photo doesn't even do it justice, even on a gray day, and the fall color is just beginning. Looking back south along the road, with Lake Superior and the rolling terrain spreading out before us, it reminds me why I live here.

It is hardly noticeable on horseback, but we've been climbing the entire 2+ miles from the farm. The slightly deeper blue to either side of the "peak" (Hawk Ridge? I think so) is the lake, with the heavy clouds pressing down and blending their gray-blue with the water's blue-gray.

It was a pretty successful ride, and Rhio did great. I will keep investigating to see if I can come up with a route that has more quiet gravel roads and less shoulder riding.

Returning to the farm.

Upon returning, he & Cricket got some free grazing time while he cooled out beneath his cooler and Cricket got his "lunch" meal. The old man has gained about 50 pounds since I began adding oil to his diet in mid-August. I'm thrilled!

Cricket seems to be thriving on his 3 meals a day plan, and finally settling in with the herd. Yay!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

2011-09-17T23:31:00.001-05:00

Charity Cup 2011, September 10th-11th, Pillager State Forest

photo courtesy of Bob Zimmerman
Lynne & Niso in the lead, Jutta & Gandolph as "buffer," and me on Rolex bringing up the rear

Yay! I got to ride! Although Rhio didn't get to enjoy the weekend, but stayed home babysitting Cricket and continuing to recover from his monster case of scratches, my friend Jutta brought me a horse to ride. I had the privilege to take Rolex, a big bay Paint gelding, on his first 25 mile Limited Distance ride. Rolex used to be owned by DeAnne, who just moved to Florida, and now lives with Jutta, while her husband Leo rides him for pleasure. Within 10 minutes of my arrival, Jutta pulled in with Rolex and Gandolph after a long 7 hour haul from the middle of North Dakota. Lynne & Donna had their horses Niso and C.J. settled into their pens, and a spot saved for Jutta's rig, and we commenced the unloading/unpacking/setting up chores. Rolex walked off the trailer, took one look at Lynne's mare Niso in her pen, and immediately started "talking." Rolex is a gelding, as far as anyone knows, but you sure would have thought he was a stallion by the big boy talk he was giving Niso, complete with visible physical accompaniments (if you know what I mean).

A little walking to stretch their trailer legs, a nice big drink for both of them, and we were ready to vet in. Rolex has actually done a couple of novice fun rides, so it wasn't his very first time through the vetting process - but you sure couldn't tell by his behavior. He though vet Nicole was entirely out of line wanting to look at his gums and check anal tone, but mostly he was completely distracted by the other horses; just in case there were girls in the melee, he made sure to announce his studliness repeatedly and vociferously.

Rolex screaming

Mr. Stud Muffin got a few lessons in backing and ground manners on our walk back to camp, which didn't actually seem to make much difference in his behavior, although he is a quick learner and started to back up as soon as he screamed after the first two times I backed him when he did it. He didn't stop screaming, but he was nimble on his feet, hitting reverse every time before I could ask. Given his behavior, he got tied to the trailer within the electric pen, and continued to scream periodically *all night long* -- many apologies to everyone camped near us; we didn't get any sleep either!

Tacking up, booting, and getting ready went smoothly...until I realized how far out of my foot-stretch range my stirrup was on this 16 hand monster. I found something to clamber upon to get up on the beast, and then started getting the feel for him. He was still screaming, by the way, but was responsive to cues and walked or trotted as I asked to warm up. The ground was pretty far away compared to what I am used to, but he felt really controllable and safe and I wasn't really concerned at all, despite his atrocious behavior in camp and his less-than-stellar ground manners. Lynne, Jutta, and I were planning to ride together for the day - so my concern was his ongoing stud behavior and riding with a mare. We let everyone get down the trail before setting off, earning ourselves some cushion space, and headed off with Mr. Stud Muffin in the rear, his buddy Gandolph in the middle, and Niso in the lead. Neither Niso nor Gandolph seemed to have much interest in leading, so we switched up with Rolex in the lead. This worked great! He had no concerns about the mare being behind him, but was entirely focused on the trail ahead. This continued for the rest of the ride - Rolex leading with Niso behind or beside was fine, but anytime we tried to put Niso in front of Mr. Stud Muffin, I had 1200 pounds of studly, bit-chomping action beneath me. Not good!

Gandolph & Niso at a water stop

The trail was beautiful, as usual, winding up and down hills continuously through mixed hardwood forest with some leaves just beginning to turn color. We passed numerous small lakes and ponds, several of which we have horse access to for drinking and sponging. Rolex was a great drinker, walking out knee deep (or probably deeper if I'd let him) at every water stop and taking great gulps. He wasn't fazed at all by my sponge dropping into his field of vision, then being hoisted back up and the refreshing water being squeezed all over his neck. I have to say, my experienced endurance Arabs are both still a little freaked out by the sponge when it is in the water with them or going up & down within their field of vision (I guess I don't do it enough!) - but only while I am sponging from their backs - and I was very impressed all day by Rolex's calm, cool, & collected behavior on trail. He did absolutely great at trail stuff, and never spooked the entire ride. He was easy to rate, responsive and light. As long as he wasn't looking directly at a pretty mare posterior, he was perfect.

Lynne & Niso

Both Jutta and I started the ride with front boots on our horses; both boys wore Easy Boot Gloves with Powerstraps. Both Jutta and I had booting issues, destroying our right front boots within a few miles of each other on the first loop. I think Rolex stepped on himself, which tore the gaiter completely off the boot (it was brand new, just purchased from Silver's Equestrian Outfitters' mobile tack store at the ride!), and we're not sure exactly what happened with Gandolph's boot. Luckily we didn't lose either boot, and were able to take the damaged boots with us for replacement. Both horses continued with just one boot on; this is always a debate, as they were now uneven in the front. However, the thickness of the boot was very minimal and we both decided that having one foot protected from the ample supply of rocks on the trail was better than having neither foot protected. Both horses did just fine with this arrangement, but at the hold we put both boots on Gandolph and let Rolex do the second loop entirely barefoot. Neither horse had any foot-related issues, so we were relieved.

Lynne & Niso

We were riding pretty slow, and nearing the end of the second loop became aware that we did actually have to watch the time a bit. We wanted to make sure we had close to the maximum 30 minutes available to pulse down, as it was an unseasonably hot day (upper 80s, a bit humid) and our horses were working hard (this course is all hills - either ascending or descending nearly 100% of the time). Once we get our in-time, the time we come off the trail, we have only 30 minutes for our horses to reach the pulse criteria of 60 beats per minute. But our "ride time" clock doesn't stop until our horses reach 60, and our maximum ride time for the course is 6 hours. Since our start time was 7:30 am, we had to have our horses' heart rates to 60 by 1:30. We came off the trail just after 1, so with an adequately conditioned horse this shouldn't have been any trouble at all. Mr. Stud Muffin, however, had other ideas besides relaxing and letting his heart rate decrease. Gandolph was down & vetted in no time, so Jutta (thank you!) came over to help me with Rolex. He was quite hot, and we found a shady spot to sponge on cool water and scrape it off again, thereby pulling heat out and helping his body cool. It took several buckets of cool water to get him cooled, but the problem wasn't the heat, but rather was his emotional/mental state and his hyperawareness of all the other horses in the vet check area. We did manage to get his heart rate down to 60 with only 3 minutes to spare, I think mostly by luck as we had a little window with only a few horses in the area. I tried to vet him right away, but more horses had crowded into the vet area and his pulse was up to 88 at the beginning of his final check. Yikes! We wouldn't pass with a heart rate of 88 - it still has to be 60 or below when you see the vets to pass the completion criteria. So, off we went to our shady spot for a little more sponging and to wait for a quiet moment without any other horses in the vet area. We caught a lucky break in horses a few minutes later, walked calmly over, and proceeded to vet out like a champ. Whew!

Jutta & Gandolph lead the way in off the first loop along a section of single-track trail

Despite the nerve-wracking end (frankly, I expected to be pulled at the end for his high heart rate, which was entirely mental and had nothing to do with his physical fitness), I couldn't have been happier with my ride. Rolex was a lot of fun on trail, easy to ride, and I think has a lot of potential in this sport. His weakness is his behavior and studly attitude.

Lynne & Niso in the lead near the end of the 2nd loop.

As you can imagine, Rolex's behavior was our central topic of discussion most of the weekend, and we spent Saturday afternoon sitting in the shade outside his pen experimenting (and enjoying beverages of choice with our well-earned junk food, of course!). Donna had a bark collar along for her young Aussie, and with a little baling twine, it fit Rolex just fine. Bark collars definitely work for calling horses! He was smart enough to figure out when he didn't have it on, however, and went straight back to "talking" to Niso (who, I might add, didn't want anything whatsoever to do with him the entire weekend - thank goodness she's not one of "those" mares that goes into flamboyant heat at a ride!). Jutta's second brainstorm was a splash of cold water on the tender parts when they were being displayed inappropriately; this did result in the tender parts being packed away in short order, but didn't serve to deter his behavior one bit. The most effective thing we found was tying him to the trailer, at which point he would mostly focus on his hay. Also, 25 miles of exercise had helped reduce his enthusiasm slightly over Friday night, so we were hopeful we might have a peaceful night Saturday.

A rare moment of peace & quiet with Rolex - I think he had the collar on here.

After potluck, where Rolex and I were awarded our completion tank top (luckily I don't have to share with him - it wouldn't fit him anyway!) as the very last LD completer, Donna saddled up her youngster CrackerJack (who also finished the LD - in 6th place!) and I saddled up Rolex (who thought - what?? Are you crazy?? We already did this for, like, 6 hours today! What do you mean you want to ride me again?), and we ambled off into the gathering dark for a moonlit ride hosted by the ride manager Angie and her mighty assistant Roxi. I find night riding to be a real thrill, and, although I don't have much opportunity to do it, I take every chance I can get. This night, with the full moon and open trail chosen for the short amble, it was bright enough to see pretty clearly and I would have even felt comfortable trotting. Rolex was great, except when we fell in behind a mare in the group, and the ride was all too brief for me. Donna had some trouble with C.J., but stayed calm and completed the ride as well. It was actually the perfect way to stretch our horses' legs, as both were very slightly stiff when we started, but nice and loose when we ended.

He's a handsome guy, but camping with him was a nightmare! You can see the strap of the bark collar up near his throatlatch.

I think Rolex decided he'd better shut up after that, or I might come saddle him up again! We had a calm night, and I don't think Rolex made a single peep the entire night. He did, however, viciously bite Gandolph in the back twice, right in the saddle area, so Jutta wasn't able to ride a second day. That boy did not earn any points for camp behavior this weekend, but was so great on trail I wouldn't hesitate at all to ride him again if given the chance.

Rolex is still whinnying as Jutta finishes packing up to head home.

Thank you to Jutta for bringing me a horse to ride, to Lynne for a spot to sleep in her trailer, and to Donna for a great moonlight ride. It's been a long season of staying home from rides, and I was ever so happy to be riding. And congratulations to Rolex (Watch Me Ima Big Star is his fancy paper name) for his first 25 AERC miles.

First Ride

2011-09-08T23:15:00.001-05:00

Isn't it a cute little rig?

For our first ride since moving the boys to Gesa's, we headed out to Lester, a mere 5 minutes away. We met early at the barn, loaded up our tack into the new trailer, and tried to determine what the best option for Cricket would be while we were gone. He does not like to be alone. He really does not like to be alone. He has not yet been introduced to the rest of the herd, so there would be no horses he could be left with (Rhio & Paco, the two he knows, are the two that we ride...). We settled on putting the pony Belle in the round pen, which is within the pasture Cricket was in, and putting his hay near it so he could stand by her. I removed Rhio to the front paddock, along with Paco, and Cricket immediately started screaming and pacing the fenceline. He wasn't being "stupid" about it, meaning he didn't seem to be in any danger of injuring himself, but it certainly doesn't help his weight situation to be A) not eating (while he's pacing and upset) and B) expending all those calories pacing. I am now glad to be riding a friend's horse this coming weekend at the Charity Cup ride and leaving Rhio at home. I need to devise a plan for Cricket when I take Rhio away overnight, and I need to give Cricket some more time to get settled in to the new farm, and hopefully be introduced to the rest of the herd so that they can be his buddies too.

Worried Cricket

Knowing we weren't going to be gone too long, and satisfied that Cricket at least wasn't going to get into trouble while we were gone, we loaded the horses (Rhio did much better for his second time loading in the new trailer - I think he likes it!) and mere moments later were unloading. It was early enough, even on a holiday-weekend Sunday, that there was only one vehicle in the parking area and we saw only one dog-walker while we were tacking up.

Seven Bridges Road

Trails (still green, though fall is upon us and the intense green of summer has given way to the faded green of early fall just on the cusp of brilliant fall colors)

Setting off across the top bridge of Seven Bridges Road, Kelso was our companion for the first time since the cool weather of spring and we were both in jackets. Fall is here! I love, love, love fall riding - it is the best. The horses seemed eager, and we covered the trails with ease for the most part. One large culvert has been totally washed out, and the cavernous ditch left behind seemed impassable, but a trail leads around that portion via the gravel road, so we were able to make a loop of it without having to turn around. We mutually surprised and were surprised by a runner on an obscure, little used ski trail loop, but she was extremely polite and praised our horses' beauty (always music to our ears!) and we each continued on our way. After completing the loop once, we determined that we had enough time to do it again, so turned around and retraced our steps, modifying the route slightly. Our second time around was in the direction that skiers traverse the trails in winter, so it seemed much more familiar to me, and we could see the lettered loop markers. Coming to the nude beach overlook (yes, really - an informal nude beach on Lester River. I have been lucky enough to find it deserted almost every time I'm at this spot.), we decided to stop for a photo and came upon a mountain biker also stopped. He seemed quite happy to meet us, and we chatted for a bit before he took a photo of us, and we were on our way. He reassured Rhio that his bike was as scared of him as he was of it. That is pretty funny as Rhio was actually not at all scared of the bike.

thank you Mr. Friendly Mountain Biker for this shot

Finishing our 8 miles the horses were quite sweaty despite the cool temperatures and nice breeze; we threw light coolers over them for the first time in months, and let them relax a little at the trailer before loading up for the extremely short trip back to the farm. Cricket was indeed pacing when we returned, and I can only assume he paced the entire time we were gone. He was not sweaty, though, so maybe he only resumed the behavior when we pulled in the driveway (I hope that is the case). Belle did not prove to be a useful companion, however, as she threatened him every time he came near the round pen fence by the hay. Oops. I guess we won't try that again.

Chatting with the friendly lady and her huskies while the boys chill out for a bit.

With my horses living at Gesa's, we are actually able to do these short rides together without requiring an entire day, basically, of coordinating schedules. It gets harder and harder to find a long enough and mutually free block of time to schedule to ride, and hopefully the new housing arrangement will make it easier.

Going home

The neighborhood goes for a ride

2011-09-06T20:02:00.001-05:00

Woo-hoo! He does water!

Neighbor Kim acquired a new horse, bay Arab gelding J.D.,and we decided to ride together one morning last month. Red hadn’t been out in a while, so wesaddled up and met on the road, then went to play in the gravel pit alittle. J.D. seems to be a greathorse, calm and well-trained, and happy with his job. We took them through the water – Red for practice as wateris one of his least favorite obstacles, and J.D. to see how he handled it(perfectly, by the way). Red waswearing his hoof boots, and due to the extreme fly year we’re having, Iliberally coated him in Wipe before leaving the barn. As soon as we emerged from the water, he started stompinghis feet, mostly his hinds. Itseemed to be a fly stomp type thing, but he didn’t have any flies. I hopped off to check his boots, evenremoving & replacing them to make sure there weren’t any foreign objects ordebris in them or beneath the gaiters. All appeared fine, but the behavior didn’t stop until his legs had dried. This was odd, but as he seemed fine, wecontinued on.

Heading up the road, Becca passed us on her way to the barn,and we found out she & another neighbor Katie were going to ride togetheras well. Instant pony party! So, Kim and I did a little meander downthe road & back while Becca & Katie were getting ready, then we all metup to ride together.

Becca, Katie, & Kim

We headed back to the gravel pit, with Becca’s & Katie’shorses both a little hot – blowing the stereotype of “crazy Arabs” right out ofthe water yet again! The two Arabsin the bunch were the calm ones. We did the water again, and the exact same thing happened with Redfiercely stomping again as soon as we emerged. I removed allfour boots and continued the rest of the ride barefoot and with no stomping. The only explanation I can rationalizeis some reaction or irritation between the gaiters and the oily Wipe flyrepellant. He has certainly beenthrough water with the boots/gaiters on many times in the past without everhaving a reaction like this before. Red does have a history of some skinreactions to fly products previously, although to my knowledge it has only beenproducts with citronella in them. I am very careful to only buy products without citronella for him. His skin appeared normal, and evenafter the ride and the next day the skin continued to be normal without anyflaking, hair loss, swelling, or any other obvious sign of a reaction. I guess I won’t be using Wipe on himwhen he’ll be using boots and potentially getting wet!

Becca & Kaos

Tischer Creek Farm

2011-09-03T22:01:00.002-05:00

The digs @ Tischer Creek Farm as viewed from the pasture

On September 1, Rhio and Cricket moved to Tischer CreekFarm, Gesa’s place. Gesa came topick them up in the evening, with her new little 2 horse bumper pullstock-combo trailer (yay! Wheels!). Rhio had to be convinced to load, but load he did without anundue delay (I didn’t expect it to beworse than it was, but for the first time he’d seen that trailer, it could have been a lot worse), and Cricket walked right onafter him. It’s been 2 ½ yearssince Cricket was trailered anywhere (Wow – we’ve been at Meadowbrook thatlong? We were all so happy atMeadowbrook that time flew by without notice, I guess.) but he thought jumpingon to go somewhere was a good idea. When he was wandering loose to graze and a trailer pulled in, he usuallycame over to investigate and I think, given the opportunity, he might haveself-loaded into one. My horseswho actually travel for rides & events are never so eager to load – itwould be convenient if they were.

As the dogs & I followed the trailer over to Gesa’s, thestorm clouds building in the distance got ever closer and we began to seecloud-to-cloud lightning. Hmm,this maybe isn’t the best time to be moving horses and introducing them to anew home! We pull into thedriveway with the clouds pressing down, thunder rumbling, and the first dropsof rain in the air. We did whatprobably any expert would advise against, and just turned the horses loose inthe pasture as the thunderstorm broke. I did not have my camera with me (plus it would have gotten wet had Ihad it along), but of course the horses put on a show for us, running withtheir tails flagging in the wind and their necks arched. Even old Cricket looked the part of amovie-star Arabian!

Cricket keeping one ear on his buddy Rhio

Gesa had finished the fenceline dividing the twopaddock/pasture areas, and her young ones have the left side while Paco was onthe right side waiting for his new friends to join him. Of course Paco & Rhio know eachother well and have camped together with no issues many times. Paco & Cricket have also met whenPaco came to Meadowbrook to have his dental work in July. Upon being set loose, Rhio took alap around the paddock area with Cricket flanking him like a pair ofsynchronized swimmers before finding the open gate to the pasture and headingout there. Meanwhile, the youngones galloped along their fenceline and Paco hovered near the shelter stayingout of the fray.

Paco wondering what to do about his new roommates

With the rain, there was some jostling for use of theshelter and Cricket was left standing out, as I would expect. The shelter is plenty large and has twodoors, so it shouldn’t be any problem for three horses to share – but that willcome later once they’ve settled into a cohesive herd. For now, they only stayed in the shelter briefly and thenmade the choice to go graze in the warm rain anyway, and it was anon-issue.

Rhio says: "Where's the treats, Mom?"

We left them to their own devices in the thickening darkness(luckily it only rained for a little while), and unloaded the food I’d broughtover, and got their meal plans all set up for morning. I left without any worries about theircare, which is such a huge thing when you are dependent on boarding yourhorses.

Sefira, one of the young ones, *very* interested in the new boys across the fence.

The next morning, I stopped out bright and early on my wayto finish packing my own belongings and cleaning the farmhouse, as I am alsomoving on. They were happilygrazing and Gesa reported no problems with the morning feeding routine; Rhio& Cricket acted like they’d done it all before a million times. This is great, as sometimes trainingthem in to a new routine can be a challenge, and Gesa brings each horse into anindividual stall to eat versus their old routine which was to be fed in thepasture (well, right outside the pasture as Cricket was allowed to eat atleisure and then wander off to graze at will). There will be some adjustments for all the horses, and forGesa in her normal routines, but so far things seem to be going incrediblywell. It will be great to have achance to do more riding with Gesa, as we’ll have the opportunity for just a quickride here & there now (we hope), as opposed to always needing a half orfull day to trailer out somewhere to ride.

Geocaching on Horseback

2011-08-26T08:37:00.000-05:00

Carmen came to visit, adopting barn kitties Max and Maggie for her barn. She happened to introduce me to geocaching (there's a cache at the town hall, 0.17 miles from me! Who knew?!) and now I'm hooked! Being a fellow endurance rider, of course we made time for a ride. What better to do than to combine riding and geocaching?

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear! See Red in the mirror? Yep, we "ponied" him from his barn to mine.

Red is thoroughly unimpressed with this mode of transportation.

We plotted out several potential caches to ride to, loaded up the coordinates into our GPS units, and got the horses ready to ride. Carmen had brought her Specialized saddle along for me to try, meaning she was going to get to try my Synergist. I am still trying to sell my second Synergist, the one that no longer fits Rhio, and I'd like to replace it with a Specialized when I do. This was a great opportunity to ride enough miles in a Specialized to really get the feel for it. To sum up briefly - I loved it! Of course it took the first mile or two to get used to it, but after that I just felt comfortable and no longer was conscious of it being "different" than my saddle. I was very secure in it, and best yet Rhio seemed to like it also. We moved out, especially on the way home, using all three gaits, and he & I felt good in every gait. I hadn't done any shimming or adjusting of the saddle, and I did have a little bit of dry area on either side of the spine behind the withers - it was just a teensy bit too wide for him - but that would be easily adjusted with the saddle fitting system Specialized uses. Best of all, Carmen liked my Synergist as well!

Carmen and Red made a great team!

Now to the riding and the caching. Carmen rode Red, and they spent a little time getting used to each other in the outdoor arena. That was successful, so we headed out down the road. I hadn't realized that a major road nearby was closed, and so the route we rode had a lot more traffic than normal. It also has pretty narrow shoulders and the ditch is swampy - so probably not the best choice of places to ride, but we survived. Luckily my boys are traffic safe, but with the excitement of a fast ride going home, both horses got a little goosey with the big trucks whizzing past. Carmen is a great rider and handled Red's excessive enthusiasm very well. It was NOT a ride for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

We did make it to the normally quiet gravel road which had 2 geocaches along it we could hunt for. The gravel road wasn't quiet at all, with many vehicles passing us. Geez! Talk about bad karma in the traffic department! The horses were both happy to move out, and Red can out-trot Rhio by a mile, so I spent some time eating Red's & Carmen's dust. Rhio didn't seem to care, though he usually much prefers to lead.

Our GPS units told us we were getting close to the first cache, and the description had said it was back in the woods, so we dismounted and led the horses into the woods, then tied them to trees and set off on foot. I love having horses that I can tie to the trees in the woods and walk away from! They would have preferred a grassy meadow to eat in, but they patiently waited for us to return and didn't get into any trouble.

That fly mask kind of makes him look like he has mule ears, don't you think?

I love this look as he peeks around the tree at me.

Finding the cache didn't turn out to be the successful portion of our ride, unfortunately. Number one rule of geocaching in northern Minnesota in the summer - bring bug spray!!! It was a bit difficult to concentrate with all the slapping and hopping around (oops). We found the indicator marker and decrypted the clue to finding the cache, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Boo! You'd better bet I'll be going back there later in the season, hopefully with fewer bugs and more time, and finding that darn thing!

Looking at our timeline, we realized we didn't have any more time to spend searching, headed back to the ponies, led them out of the woods, mounted up, and headed home. It was such a fun ride, despite its challenges, and I was so happy with the saddle. I wish Carmen lived closer so we could ride together more often!!

Best of luck to Max & Maggie in their new home, and thank you Carmen for coming to visit me :)

Even Cricket got in on the action, see him half in the corner of the shot? I love that Carmen & I are both kind of cocking our heads the same direction, obviously responding to Becca who took our photo, while the horses are all focused on each other.

So Where Does That Trail Go?

2011-08-25T18:26:00.000-05:00

Yep, way behind on blogging again! You may think I haven't been riding, but that's not it. Luckily, I have been riding and enjoying my ponies - so these next few posts will be "catch up" posts about rides over the last few months, and I will try yet again to get back on track and keep up in more "real time." Do forgive me, gentle readers.

Several weeks ago Gesa & I had the opportunity to head back to one of our favorite riding spots up in Brimson, about a 45 minute drive from the farm. This was only our second time to ride up there this season. Last time we rode here, in May, we followed an old logging road that petered into a well-travelled ATV path. It was so well-travelled that we assumed it went *somewhere*, but we didn't have the time to explore, so we vowed to come back and find out where that trail went.

Deer flies were still in full force, and our boys sported their fly masks for the entirety of the ride. Even with the masks, we also needed rider-applied fly control to keep our mounts happy. Rhio & I employed several leafy branches (it took me three tries to find a good one!), and Gesa found her crop to be an excellent fly swatter. The flies swarmed the lead horse, and switching off leading was a welcome relief for the following horse.

For those of you who don't ride ATV trails horseback, here's something to note: humans on horses are much taller than humans on ATVs. That translates into lots of ducking and dodging for us riders! Our helmets & sunglasses are employed as branch-control devices, and we must stay alert for the next face-slapping twig. This trail was much like other user-created ATV trails I've ridden in that you must be loose & limber in your saddle and your horse must be instantly responsive to leg & rein. Rhio and Paco were very good all day, and we emerged after our 15 mile ride with only a few superficial scratches and no major mishaps. We did have one large tree crosswise across the trail which was too short to ride under, but our little horses were able to walk under it once we dismounted. Whew!

We kept following the trail, eventually emerging at a minimum maintenance road and a set of railroad tracks. To my knowledge, Rhio has never crossed tracks before, and he did very well. The minimum maintenance road was smooth, level, and relatively soft - begging for a long, easy canter. We took advantage and cantered the boys quite a ways, with a few scoots to the side when we crossed a large cement culvert and passed by a monster pile of logs. Eventually the road ended at the county highway, and we crossed it briefly to explore further ATV trails, which were clearly on private property (though it wasn't signed as such) and led only to deer stands. We made the turn for home, retracing our steps, and the boys were, as always, very motivated to head back to the trailer.

Both boys wore boots for this ride, Paco on his fronts only and Rhio on all four hooves. Paco's boots only lasted the first few miles however, as one of the gaiters finally bit the dust (it had been on its last legs anyway) and Gesa had to carry the boots on her saddle the remainder of the ride. Paco seemed to do well barefoot, though he did seek the side of the trail on some of the rockier sections. Rhio's boots worked well, as usual, though he has been battling scratches (a skin infection) on both his hind pasterns, and one front pastern (all his lower legs with pink skin instead of pigmented skin). I was concerned about the gaiters rubbing on this raw skin, so I outfitted him with some old socks from my sock drawer; it turns out his feet are a bit bigger than mine! It was a little bit of a struggle to get them over his hooves. The socks stayed in place, and because I used non-cotton they seemed to perform well even when wet. Upon removal of the boots & socks, his pasterns looked just the same as they had pre-ride - no rubs! I was dismayed to discover about 15 minutes returning to the trailer and removing his foot & leg wear, that all of his affected legs swelled! His right front is especially prone to swelling, and I can only presume it was due to using the socks & boots over already compromised skin. He didn't seem sensitive, sore, or lame at all - he didn't seem to notice he was swollen at all. After the trailer ride home, the swelling was reduced and he remained completely sound. How frustrating!

It was a great ride, though - one I wish I could repeat more often. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures as my camera has died the true death - have no fear, however, the new hand-me-down camera is working well and future posts will be adorned with my usual assortment of photos.

And, as a side note, Rhio's trailer loading was very good this time - walking onto the trailer instead of leaping, and only having to consider the big scary box for a moment or two. I hope this trend continues!

Plan B

2011-08-08T23:39:00.000-05:00

Friday was our first opportunity to ride together in nearly two months, and despite the high dew point and stifling humidity, Gesa and I loaded the boys up for the short trek to our local snowmobile trail. This spot was a favorite training trail last summer, and the footing was great, barring a couple of dodgy culverts, for about 3 1/2 miles (giving us a 7 mile round trip). Early this spring we discovered a side trail that will make it a 9+ mile training ride, and we can do it at speed, and it has hills. Did I mention it's only a few miles from Gesa's farm? Yep, pretty much perfect for a quick ride... Except not this summer! We haven't been over there at all since our difficult ride in the spring (mucky with frost coming out of the ground), and were dismayed to find that it has not been mowed at all. The snowmobile trails are usually mowed to maintain their condition for winter use, as well as having trees cleared, etc. The great state of Minnesota endured a government shut-down for nearly all of July, and I wonder if this was one of the many tasks set by the wayside. I don't actually know who mows the trail, but the belly-deep grass was not conducive to a training ride, though the boys did enjoy munching at chest-level as we traversed the first long hill in hopes of discovering mowed trail at the top. So, we decided to move on to plan B....which we didn't have in our back pockets, but the ride back to the trailer yielded one!

Good thing we left our skis at home!

We would drive just a few more miles, parking at the base of the Amity Creek trail, and utilize both the Amity trail and Lester Park trails for some conditioning in the heat and, we presumed, bugs. Rhio has never been there, so it would be new to him, and neither of us had ridden there in over a year. It is an extremely popular spot for hikers, runners, bikers, and dog walkers, but as it was a weekday morning we were in luck with just one car in the parking area. It is designated as a city horse trail, but it's brevity (3 miles total) and inaccessibility for trailer parking (our one little rig takes up the majority of the available parking) means it's mostly used by locals with horses near enough to ride to the trail. The non-horse users are somewhat used to seeing horses, though, and that makes for generally pleasant encounters.

Rhio says, "Really, Mom, you want to ride in this weather? Shouldn't we just stand here in the shade and eat hay?"

The poor horses were dripping sweat just from a 10 minute trailer ride, it was that hot & humid. We tacked up for the second time, applied more bug spray, and headed up the trail. This trail was formerly a road, so it is a very solid gravel - dirt base and includes two stone bridges at its base. It is entirely shaded, tucked into the backside of Hawk Ridge, and with the Amity Creek rushing (lots of rain recently, usually by August it's more burbling than rushing) along the other side, it stays relatively cool and fresh. To our utter amazement, it was also virtually bug-free. We didn't need the fly masks we'd put on the horses, and I think I only had to swat a half-dozen deer flies the entire ride!

The tip of the trail, near the ford

Given the other trail users, we kept our speed to a slow trot and just enjoyed our surroundings. The boys were eager despite the heat, and once Rhio figured out that the noise was rushing water (we couldn't really see the creek at the beginning), he was constantly asking for more speed, ears pricked ahead to see what was around the next bend. We stopped for a cooling drink at the ford used by a local riding stable, and got back to the trailer feeling great and ready for more!

Standing on the bank of Amity Creek

Heading back to the trail-side of Amity Creek

We had about 1/4 mile of paved road to travel to get to the lower trails, and being out in the full sun with the heat radiating up from the pavement was a whole 'nother world! It would have been an extremely unpleasant ride in the sun, but was a magnificent ride in the shade.

There was a lot of water damage to some of the trails from our recent torrential rains, with deep fissures in the red clay which Paco was pretty wary of but Rhio barely seemed to notice (so much that I was worried he might step in one!), as well as multiple areas where the vegetation was swept all in one direction, showing how much water had flowed overland to get to the creek and river. We crossed a metal snowmobile bridge, which was covered almost completely in run-off clay and made hardly any clanging noise because of it, and were off for another 5 miles of hill work.

We did a lot of walking the whole ride, with our overall average speed a mere 3.8 mph. But, with the weather conditions and the hills, the boys were both panting when we finished our total of 9 miles, and had begun stopping at every mud puddle for a sip or three.

Does it taste like chocolate milk, too - or just look like it?

I was very pleased with Rhio's loading on this trip, since it's been a few months since we've gone anywhere. He walked on each time, calmly, instead of his customary leap into the trailer. It still was not a shining example of trailer loading (like Paco), but his hesitation was probably only for 2 minutes each time. I hope this was a sign of permanent improvement!

Looking ahead to a 50 miler in two weeks (fingers crossed that the logistics all work out to get there), I need a few more good rides on Rhio to feel confident for that competition. After Friday's heat, humidity, and hills, he got Saturday off, and Sunday we went for speed work. We did half the distance at more than double the pace, 4 miles at 8.2 mph - whee! He feels great, now if only the last of his scratches will clear up and his leg will quit swelling up at every little thing...

The boys rubbing each other's heads after sponging.

Mouths to Feed

2011-07-30T20:00:00.001-05:00

G & her family have been gone since July 5. Her three horses, two cats, and one pony are pretty self-reliant, but needed a human caretaker for the 3 1/2 weeks the family was away. I gladly volunteered my services, and, as always, things did not go 100% according to the plan, but everyone fared well and I hardly know what to do with myself now that the family is home & I'm not making my twice- or thrice-daily visits to Tischer Creek Farm.

The plan: Belle the pony stays in the barn during the day due to her allergies, and goes out into the "dry lot" paddock with a shelter and hay for the night. The horses, Paco, Gimi, & Sefi, have free grazing in the back pasture at night and are locked in the paddock area during the day. All the equines get a handful of vitamins and a sprinkling of grain in the mornings. Cats get fed twice a day and can stay either in the house or out as they prefer. It sounds so simple!

The reality: The weather was ghastly, with oppressive heat & humidity for nearly two weeks. The horses were dripping sweat by noon, and even the pony's stall was stifling (though at least shady). Oozing horse fly bites needed doctoring, and stinky feet needed thrush treatment, and overheating horses needed hosing and fans to stay comfortable. My planned twice a day visits quickly morphed into three times a day so I could check on everyone more closely in the dangerous heat, and I kept the horses stalled for all or part of the days as well, which meant 4 stalls to clean instead of 1, 4 water buckets to dump, clean, fill, & haul instead of 1, and very appreciative horses (which makes the effort so absolutely rewarding)! Several mornings Paco, Gimi, & Sefi had to be chased out of their stalls to go back outside for a few hours, when they would have preferred to stay in the barn (though the mornings were the most tolerable part of the day).

Gimi and Sefi, the "little ones," are just three year olds and have minimal experience with hosing. The several days that I attempted to cool the horses down by hosing were interesting, to say the least. Paco seemed to enjoy it the most, and Gimi quickly figured out that he liked the cold water on his chest and shoulders, and *really* liked flipping his nose through the spray and splashing me, but Sefi wanted nothing at all to do with the scary water-spouting snake. Belle didn't really like it, either, and so I left those two to sweat (you'd think they'd figure out how good it felt!) and concentrated my efforts on the more appreciative boys.

After their hosing, I scrounged around to come up with enough fans for everyone and managed to snake extension cords through the barn aisle so each horse had a fan for his/her stall. Sefi was of course afraid of her fan, and I don't think ever really got used to it, as she mostly stayed on the half of the stall away from the fan. Gimi fell in love with his fan, and stood blissfully in front of it with his forelock blowing in the breeze. Paco & Belle seemed somewhat indifferent to their fans, although both of them managed to knock their fans around when I wasn't there and cause a bit of a ruckus. I was a bit apprehensive on leaving them to their own devices after my first attempt at "be-fanning" the barn, as Paco's & Gimi's fans were floor fans balanced on the garbage can (!) and the mounting block, respectively. I was nervous about the multiple extension cords, and the capacity of the electrical circuits, and flammable nature of barn contents, though I raked all the loose material out of the aisle, made sure the stall doors to the hay & bedding were firmly shut, and even unplugged the radio and the fencer for good measure. Upon my return that evening, Gimi, who I most suspected of getting into trouble, was completely innocent of any wrong doing, and Paco, who I thought the least likely to bother anything, had managed to knock his fan over (or, it fell over on its own, also a possibility). But, no damage was done and the horses seemed as comfortably not-hot (I can't say "cool") as I could have hoped. I somewhat refined my fan technique on subsequent afternoons, and did finally get a good working set-up which seemed to balance air flow and safety, as well as put fans in the shed Belle uses at night and the big horses have access to during the day, so that even if I didn't bring them in to their stalls, they had some fan action if they wanted it. And you can probably guess, but I found Gimi standing with his nose just on the inside of the bars directly in front of the fan on more than one occasion!

Belle & her fan - gotta love baling twine! She did manage to knock this around a bit but no damage done.

The horses and I came to a mutually agreeable arrangement for coming in, going out, applying fly spray, donning fly masks, administering thrush treatments, and doctoring the oozing fly bites, and our visits slipped into an easy routine. The cats got progressively more desperate for attention (I did pet them & talk to them! Every time I came! Really!) and got to the point of following me everywhere, meowing pitifully, except when I would bring the dogs along and they would fluff up, hiss, and run under the porch (poor kitties - so traumatized!). The strange little insects called fly predators arrived in the mail as promised, and I let them hatch before spreading them about as directed. This was my first experience directly with fly predators, and I have to say, I do think they make a big difference in the leg-biting fly population, although they don't seem to have an impact on the deer or horse flies (which I think makes sense, as those flies breed in water and the fly predators eat the eggs laid by flies in organic matter like manure, moist ground, old hay, etc).

Gimi, Paco, and Sefi wondering if I am going to feed them.

Luckily the weather broke, and I was able to quit all the hosing/fans/stalling rigamarole this past week. I did a little temporary fence repair where two wooden posts had broken and the whole fence was leaning precariously, and after the initial look-see (Gimi studied it pretty carefully), the horses left my handiwork alone (whew! I don't think the fence was packing much of a punch as far as I could tell with the fence tester, but I will fully admit I was too chicken to touch it). I "fixed" the gate with a bungee, and found the little red wagon to be a real back-saver when it came to hauling the buckets of manure around.

The broken wood fence and my "fix" with T-posts. Thank goodness I was able to find posts, post pounder, caps, insulators, electric rope, screws, and a drill that worked! Nothing like nosing around in other people's stuff :)

Ah! The barn aisle all neat, clean, and tidy - I love that! Now imagine this with blue extension cords & fans all over the place, some balanced on things they probably shouldn't have been... not such a pretty or satisfying sight (and why didn't I have my camera that day?!).

So this is what it's like to have your own place? I think my McGyver is ready to roll - bring it on!

Dental Day

2011-07-30T15:00:00.000-05:00

Well, the dentists (a two doctor team) came to town, and Meadowbrook was the place to be! We had several horses haul in, including two that came down from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and I fetched Paco over from Gesa's as well.

The crowd of horse owners, one tag-a-long husband, and two pre-vet students congregate outside the dental rig.

It was a whole day affair, but my only "victim" was Cricket this year. He is nearing the end of his dental care career, however, as most of his teeth are worn to the point of being minimally useful for munching anymore. I figured this was the case, but I wanted to be sure that none of those almost-expired teeth were loose or infected or otherwise needing attention. There is not much to be done when a horse uses up his teeth, other than feed him lots of healthy food that doesn't require much chewing. So, his summer diet of lots of green grass is perfect, but winter will be tougher this year than last. He will continue to eat beet pulp, senior feed, and alfalfa pellets, and I will likely add in a fat source for extra calories. He eats hay, and actually doesn't drop, or "quid," at all that I'm able to tell, but at this point he's probably not masticating the hay effectively enough to extract all the nutrients & calories out of it that he could. And, he packs hay/grass into the spaces between his old teeth ("diastema"), which so far isn't a problem but can lead to infected gums and/or teeth, so I'll need to watch carefully for any changes in his eating behavior or a putrid odor emanating from his mouth.

I hate to say it on a steamy late July day, but it is already time to start thinking about winter, at least for Cricket. Now is the time to get some extra weight on him if I can - he is too thin for my taste already with his ribs slightly visible, BCS 3/9. These few weeks of awful heat and humidity that we've had, plus the record hordes of flies & other nasty biting insects, have really taken a toll and I've seen some weight drop off many of the horses this month. Every afternoon that the horses spend in the barn to escape the unrelenting sun, heat, and bugs, I put extra food in front of Cricket and so far he's doing a good job of eating most of it.

Unless a problem arises requiring more dental work, such as pulling an infected tooth, this will be Cricket's final dental "maintenance." I didn't get any pictures of Cricket's session, but here's one of Paco getting "tuned up."

Dr. Bowman works on Paco.

My zoom is broken, but this is Paco, Rhio, & Cricket hanging out like best buddies. Cricket & Paco had never met, and they sniffed noses for a long time as if saying "Hey, I've heard all about you from Rhio!", "Yeah, me too!", "Let's go graze." The introduction was a complete non-event.

Killian supervising the goings-on with an expert eye.

Sleepover!

2011-07-19T12:00:00.000-05:00

I was a bad horsey mom for most of June. I barely had any time for my boys at all, and Red drew the short stick just by virtue of not living right out my backdoor. So when this past weekend turned up without any plans, I decided it was time for a pony party!

Saturday morning, before the worst of this horrid humidity we're currently sweltering through hit, I tacked Red up and took him for a spin. As I had with Rhio, I found that I needed a tree branch fly switch to make the ride at all tolerable, but with that at the ready, we had a lovely ride. I think his right hock might be bothering him again (already!), though, as he seemed a little off at his slow trot. Of course, at his big trot he felt fine, as all that momentum "hides" the little hitch in his giddyup. We lucked out and the skies stayed cloudy for nearly all our 7 1/2 miles, but as soon as that sun came out, it was way too hot!

You can see the foaming sweat coming through the mesh of the fly mask ears.

Red is not my heat-tolerant horse, and he was extremely sweaty upon our return. The first of the pampering pony party began, and Red got a full bath with shampoo and I even did his mane and tail. He quite enjoys baths, at least when it's hot, and was then very happy to go stand in a stall in front of a fan. I brought the rest of the crew in to escape the heat and flies for the afternoon, and left them all contentedly munching hay while their forelocks blew in the fan-generated breezes.

Red spent his nights grazing down the tall grass in the round pen, and the afternoons in the barn trying to beat the heat. He got his feet treated for thrush (seems to be all cleared up from spring, but a maintenance treatment seemed like a good plan), his bridle path clipped, his mane braided, and just generally preened, petted, and pampered. He loved every minute of it! I worried a bit that the boys back at his farm would ostracize him upon his return, smelling sweet and looking all shiny and clean. My fears were assuaged, however, when Peepers and Jimmy came running & whinnying to the gate to meet him last night.

It was so hot that the thought of riding him the 1 mile home was completely unappealing until about 8:30 pm last night. It was still hot & humid, but at least the sun was mostly down and it's slanted rays didn't have the power of midday anymore. I jumped on Rhio with the bareback pad, still in my bathing suit from my swim in the lake earlier in the evening and with sandals on my feet (kids, don't do this at home!), and ponied Red home. The flies were terrible, and I was trying to swat them from my bare legs & feet, and both horses' heads, while holding Rhio's reins in one hand and Red's lead rope in the other. You can guess how well that went! Out of desperation to get away from the flies, I let the boys trot their big trots and we went flying down the middle of the road. On our return journey, Rhio & I were trotting home beneath a red sky and it was somehow magical.

Red & Rhio enjoying the fans.

A July Cool Front = Time to Ride!

2011-07-14T15:29:00.000-05:00

This week has been gloriously cool and breezing, giving us all a respite from the unrelenting heat & flies. The horses seem so relaxed, and of course it has been lovely riding weather. On Tuesday, Rhio and I headed out for our first solo conditioning ride in a very long time (almost 6 weeks!). It was only in the upper 60s and mostly sunny with a light breeze, so I thought we'd be pretty safe from flies for the most part and off we went.

Heading out the driveway

The neighbor's are cutting hay, which is now in our indoor arena awaiting unloading.

Rhio argued, and then moped, about going out alone, but pretty soon was merrily trotting along with his ears pricked as usual. We were trying out the attempt boot repair on the Renegades, and a few miles in to the ride he suddenly seemed "off." His right front boot had turned on his hoof, so I hopped off to fix it. At this point, I realized the adhesive I'd tried to repair the boots with was clearly not up to the job and the cracks were already bigger & badder than they'd been to start. Quickly revising my route, we opted to do an out-and-back just on gravel roads rather than the "big loop."

After that one boot adjustment, and many, many glances down over his shoulders to check boot status, we had no additional difficulties and completed our 9 mile route easily. The boots are definitely in worse shape after those miles, though, and I am debating whether to attempt another repair with some other kind of adhesive, or just give up on them.

Poor boot

It turns out I was partially correct in my assumptions about the fly situation. Along the open road, the flies were minimal and neither one of us was bothered. As soon as we hit a stretch of road with trees along the sides, however, it was a deer fly frenzy. Poor Rhio did not have the fly mask on (my fault) and was being driven progressively more insane by the flies. I was doing my best to slap the ones I could reach, but they have a nasty habit of landing somewhere where I can neither see nor reach them, and my only clue to their presence is Rhio's frantic head tossing. Slowing even to a slow trot was miserable, the flies were swarming & biting us both, so I broke a bit of leafy branch off as we passed by a likely looking small tree and proceeded to "beat" my horse upside the head with it. At first he thought I was offering him something to eat, and kept turning & trying to grab the leaves to munch on. He quickly realized the utility of the branch, however, and seemed to welcome my waving it around & bonking his face with it. The rest of our ride was much more peaceful, fly-wise, and I discarded that branch only when we got home to the barn.

Rhio's opinion of being gooped, daubed, and slathered with various ointments before being turned back out (SWAT for his bitten sheath, sunscreen for his sensitive pink nose, and desitin for his scratches-prone pasterns)

24 Days

2011-07-08T00:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's been 24 days since I've ridden a horse. My last ride was our camping weekend back in early June. Since then, we had a run of very bad weather, I was in a wedding, and I spent a glorious week at the cabin with family. Today was the day to break my "fast" and Rhio seemed as pleased as I was to be out.

We began in the outdoor arena, as I knew the flies were incredibly bad. I figured the arena was probably the least buggy place to ride right now. Rhio had other ideas, however, and was incredibly distracted during my attempt to work on "skills.". I abandoned that rather quickly and gave in to our mutual desire to just get out there and move. We headed down the road, and sure enough the flies were horrible. We could only tolerate them for about two miles, but we were both so happy to be "going somewhere" that it made it worthwhile.

And by the way, don't believe it if you are told that a horse will go where its nose is pointing. Rhio had no trouble trotting in a straight line while biting at the fly on his shoulder.

After our brief but strangely fulfilling jaunt, we spent some quality time with the hose, the barn fan, and a mane comb plus some detangler. My horse doesn't look neglected anymore, and he discovered how nice a fan blowing can be.

An Adventuresome Weekend

2011-06-16T00:22:00.000-05:00

Gesa & I found ourselves with a coinciding schedule for this past weekend, so we tossed a bunch of stuff (but not all the right stuff, though we got by with what we had) into the truck & trailer and loaded horses for a weekend of horse camping. Kelso & Berlin came along, too, and we had a full load with horse gear, dog gear, and human gear (we pack nearly as much for a weekend trip as we would for a week long trip - just less hay).

Our original plan was to camp & ride at Wild River State Park, which neither of us has ever visited before, but along our way we stopped for gas (and Benadryl for poor Berlin who was a bit carsick) and decided to change plans at the last minute and head to Tamarack horse camp in the St. Croix State Forest. I had been there once before as a day trip (it's about a 2 hour haul for us), but never camped there. Pulling in to the horse camp (you have to know where it is to find it - we ended up in the "regular" campground on our first attempt), we drove around the loops to discover that we were the only people there. Hmm.... this might have been our first clue, but instead we took our time choosing just the perfect campsite (a double so we had lots of space) and as we were backing in, another rig pulled in. They picked a site on an entirely different loop, so we did pretty much have the place to ourselves.

We set up camp in a flurry, putting up our fake electric pen for the boys around the base of the permanent high lines and pitching a tent for me & the dogs. Gesa brought her camp cot and was excited to try out sleeping in the trailer (cleaned out, of course, and with a tarp down over the shavings) - luckily the trailer has screens on the windows so she could have ventilation with minimal mosquito invaders. Rhio & Paco are pretty respectful of a non-electrified pen (Rhio was very wary after getting his big shock from Donna's pen back in May at MnDRA1), but we didn't leave them unattended in it and we tied them to the high lines at night.

Rhio & Paco settle in Friday night

With my little propane grill, I cooked us up some marinated chicken breasts & zucchini and we ate dinner by headlamp, tired from packing, loading, traveling, unloading, setting up camp, pumping & hauling water (pumped by a poorly-functioning hand pump which stuck at the top of every full stroke, and hauled by wheel-barrow back to our campsite - let me tell you, that water was precious!), dousing ourselves in copious amounts of bug repellant (oh the clouds of mosquitos!), and all the various other tasks that come with setting up camp for 2 people, 2 horses, and 2 dogs. Why is it that we willingly work so hard to have fun?

I slept great (except for 3 or 4 times I came awake with a start, feeling crawly and pulling ticks off out-of-the-way body parts), snug in my sleeping bag with the snoozing dogs snuggled up in their beds next to me. Very early in the morning, just as it was getting light, I heard wild turkeys gobbling off in the woods somewhere, but the horses were still quiet and content on the high line (so different from ride camp, where as soon as the first horse is fed in the wee hours, all the horses in camp are clamoring for their breakfasts), and I happily rolled over and went back to sleep. We all got up around 7, and Gesa & I thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely morning with our respective mugs of coffee and tea. We took the horses for an amble down to the day parking area, to check out the trail map and plan our ride for the day. We were very pleased that the hordes of mosquitos of the evening before were gloriously absent, but still applied bug spray to ourselves & the boys and tacked them up with their riding fly masks.

Around 11, after settling the dogs in the trailer, we mounted up and headed off on our adventure. The first marked horse trail we took directly out of camp was twisty, heavily overgrown, and difficult to follow in spots. Interesting. This one must not get used much, we thought. We popped out on the gravel road that leads to the campground and decided to follow it for a bit, as we couldn't quite make out where the horse trail was supposed to go and I'd noted on the map quite a few ATV/snowmobile trails, which I knew would be wide and easy to follow, if nothing else. We hit a parking area for motorized users, and stopped to consult the map again, determining that with a mixture of ATV & horse trails, we could make a long loop (loops are my favorite!). While we were map reading, a small group of ATV riders, followed shortly by two rangers also on ATVs, passed us & continued along the trail in the direction we were headed. We also met a couple of geocachers with their beautiful collie, who was staring wide-eyed at the "big dogs" we were riding. Off we went, with some idea of where we were going and plenty of get-up-and-go from the horses.

The ATV trails proved to be a sandy dirt base with plenty of mid-sized rocks both embedded in the surface and strewn about, and a healthy population of mud holes to either balk at, drink from, or trot right through (which ones fell into which category was a mystery to me, but the horses clearly knew which type was which!). Just going based on what I'd memorized from the map and my sense of direction, with periodic map-checks when we came across them, we made a few wrong turns and trotted a few sections of gravel road in leu of trails I wasn't quite certain were going in the right direction. It was a nice mix of moderate trotting & technical work on the ATV trails, with some nice long canters and long trotting on the gravel roads. The horseflies & deerflies were definitely making themselves a nuisance at grazing stops, but while we kept moving they were pretty tolerable.

Eventually, we found our goal - the Gandy Dancer State Trail, a former railroad grade that is now a gravel-surfaced ATV and snowmobile superhighway. The horses really enjoyed moving out & we handily covered a few miles at a good clip before reaching the St. Croix River bridge (hello, Wisconsin!). This is one impressive bridge! It's a wooden former railroad trestle, resurfaced with tightly abutting wooden planks and a central rubber matting and with tall, secure railings. But this thing was high, and quite long - I've never ridden across such an imposing bridge. It was prominently signed "Bridge Closed to Vehicles over 1000 lbs," and we debated whether we counted as "vehicles," since horse+rider+tack was a bit over 1000 lbs each. Deciding to play it safe, and not wanting to get caught on the bridge with an ATV crossing at the same time (it was too narrow for any passing), we only ventured about a quarter of the way out onto the bridge, to take in the view of the St. Croix River way down there below us. I was perfectly happy out there snapping pictures while leading Rhio, but decided to mount up for a photo and immediately felt the insecurity of realizing I was taller than the railings. It was a little unnerving sitting up there on top of my not-very-tall horse on this bridge, and I decided right then that I was going to make myself ride off the bridge (back the way we came, not across it) and that I probably don't ever want to cross No-Hands Bridge at Tevis (as if I thought I'd ever be riding Tevis anyway!). I'm not exactly afraid of heights, but I was definitely not feeling super comfortable up there, and breathed a sigh of relief when Rhio stepped hoof back on solid land.

We were both very happy to have our hoof boots for this ride, as the rocks & gravel would have been tough to cover at speed if the horses had been barefoot. I was using Red's Epics on Rhio's fronts, and his own Gloves on his hinds. Paco sported a pair of Epics on his fronts, and was bare behind. I was very pleased with the traction provided by both styles of boot, as some of the muddy spots were slippery and we crossed some wooden bridges and a hill made of cross-wise cement "timbers" later in our ride, with both horses being completely surefooted all day.

The few ATVers we met along the way were all very considerate, slowing down to pass us and even a few giving us a jaunty wave. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Gesa spotted the horse trail branching off the Gandy Dancer trail, and we set off into the woods to complete our loop. We'd done about 12 miles at this point, in 2 hours. Little did we know we had 6 miles and 2 more hours of riding ahead of us before we'd finally make it back to camp.

The horse trails are in very poor shape currently. I don't know if it's budget cuts, or just the long and brutal winter & wet spring we've had, but the trail was horribly overgrown so much that it was hard to follow at times. There were numerous trees down that we had to skirt around, and the insect population was pretty spectacular, combined with our forced walking speed, and I would say it was a fairly unpleasant situation. At first the horses thought the single-track trail was fun, but they quickly lost their enthusiasm when it became apparent we weren't going to be able to do much more than walk, and walk, and walk. We crossed rickety bridges, or in places had to clamber down & up small ravines where the bridges had been completely washed out. Some of the hills had originally had horse-friendly stairs for erosion control, consisting of 5' or 6' square timber "boxes" filled with earth, such that the horses could have all 4 hooves on each "step." Many of these were washed out completely or had the dirt eroded out of them such that they were obstacles and hindrances rather than helping the horses negotiate the slopes. Our boys were wonderfully brave and willing the entire time, with the exception of Rhio refusing to cross a flat plank bridge with no sides which was elevated about 8" off the trail surface. Gesa & Paco had to ride out of sight before he would follow me across it, and even then he crossed it in two big leaps, knocking me into a patch of stinging nettles (in case you were wondering, summer riding tights are NOT thick enough to protect from stinging nettles! Yowzie!). Rhio did perform an interesting feat of acrobatics, in which he managed to chew on his right hind pastern on a single-track trail with me still mounted (can you say Gumby?), and we only had one tree-encounters-riders-leg incident despite the narrow single track trail winding through plenty of knee-knocker trees, so all in all it was a successful though mentally and physically taxing last third of our ride.

We returned to camp, released the hounds from their confinement, pulled our camp chairs up to the pen to watch our sweaty, filthy ponies happily munch hay (er, well, actually I guess they were frantically swishing, stamping & biting at the hordes of flies), and reveled in our ice-cold beverages. Once recovered, we grabbed our sponges and headed down to the Tamarack River to cool the horses and clean them up a bit. Both boys willingly walked into the river, and as I was sponging the dirt and sweat off Rhio, I realized that many of the "dirt" spots on his legs were really ticks! Ai - yi - yi! The horses danced out of the river and up the trail, antsy as all get out as they were being mobbed by horseflies. I quickly washed up our hoof boots in the river (can't waste any of that precious camp water we sweated & huffed to pump by hand!) and we high-tailed it back to camp to apply tick-killing fly spray and then pick the nasty buggers off our horses' legs. For once I was grateful to have a gray horse, as the ticks were very easy to spot. We each got about 30 ticks off our horses, with most of them being the regular dog ticks and just a few being deer ticks.

We discovered our steaks were still frozen, so we had vegetable medley (carrots, potatoes, asparagus), hard boiled eggs, and bread for dinner, with s'mores roasted over the campstove for dessert! Completely bushed from the day, we rolled into the sack and one again slept well, though it was pretty chilly this night, possibly getting down to the high 30's. Berlin woke me up in the middle of the night, so I had a chance to enjoy the brilliant stars on display and listen to the coyotes' song before discovering that he couldn't sleep because he was cold. Instead of getting out of my warm sleeping bag yet again to fetch a horse blanket, I simply emptied all my clothes on top of him in a heap as extra insulation (he was already wearing a polarfleece doggie jacket) and fell straight back to sleep. In the morning, he looked amusing, adorable, and slightly ridiculous buried in his mound of clothes, but at least he was warm - and of course I didn't have my camera in the tent!

One of many maps we encountered throughout the day

Gesa & Paco approaching the massive bridge

Gesa enjoying the magnificent view of the St. Croix River

Ok, so it doesn't look very scary in the photo - but I wasn't thrilled.

Berlin, a happy 16 year old, still has the camping mojo!

St. Croix River, Minnesota on the right and Wisconsin on the left

Our little camp

The ATVers obviously love their mud - we saw a group dressed head-to-toe in rain gear, which seems like a good wardrobe choice if you're blasting through mud puddles, I guess.

I made myself ride my horse off this bridge. Next time I'm there, I just might force myself to ride across the whole thing...... or maybe not!

That's Wisconsin way back there across the bridge!

Probably the best piece of single-track trail we saw all day.

Hand-walking down the steep hill which is stabilized with cement "timbers" like a boat ramp at a public water access.

A close-up of the cement we were traversing - the boys' hoof boots were excellent on these, and I absolutely would not have taken a horse in steel shoes on this hill - it would have been horribly treacherous.

The Tamarack River

Rhio looking for more goodies, like the wasabi peas both he & Paco developed a taste for. Yes, you read that right, our horses LOVE wasabi peas!

We had a quick breakfast on Sunday, tacked up, and headed off to try the ATV trails heading in the opposite direction. We had about 2 hours to ride, and set off happily enough, only to discover that the trails in this direction were in rough shape with many more rocks & mud holes than Saturday's trails, and an even greater army of horse- and deer-flies on a mission to suck every last drop of blood they could from us and our horses. We made it about 4 miles, then hit a gravel road which we thought might be better - though it was better footing and allowed us to outrun the bugs at a pretty handy canter, the flies were actually worse out in the sunlight than they had been in the shady woods. We detoured to a small lake and let the boys have a little grass (the least buggy spot of the day, actually), then turned back for camp. We started to run into ATVs at this point, and this trail was not a good place to encounter them, as it was so twisty-turny that we could never get to a spot with a good long sightline for them to see us before bursting upon us. As a result, we surprised nearly all of them, which can be a bad situation for all involved. We, of course, knew they were coming because we could hear their engines, but they had no idea we were there. The horses didn't care one whit about the ATVs, but *hated* having to walk or, heaven forbid, stop, as the clouds of buzzing flies descended upon us, driving the horses absolutely nuts. All the fly spray in the world couldn't have helped this situation, because although they would land & fly off again immediately (I was using Endure fly spray - little product endorsement here - and it really did keep them off Rhio, but of course it doesn't stop them from buzzing around), they were still causing immense mental distress for both horses. I didn't even try to hold Rhio back, but let him run everywhere I possibly could, as it was the only way to deal with the flies. I can't think of a time I've been so grateful to get off a trail as I was when we finally burst out of the woods and hit the gravel road leading back to camp. I let Rhio run home, a bad habit but an utter relief to us both. In the end, we'd done about 10 miles in an hour and half of mostly desperate trotting & cantering to escape the bugs. I have to say, big kudos to Rhio & Paco for keeping their cool, mostly, and not simply dumping us & high tailing it out of there.

Grace Lake

Amazingly, there was hardly an insect here at the boat landing, and plentiful grass, so we took a welcome break on our Sunday ride.

Paco

We packed up in record time, loaded the horses into a horse-fly infested trailer (Rhio was extremely reluctant to load - perhaps because of the flies?), and climbed into the truck only to hear click-click-click instead of the expect va-room! of the engine. Oh, no! Dead battery! Luckily for us, Gesa was prepared with a jump pack thingee, and we were able to jump start ourselves and be on our way in under 5 minutes. Since we had the drained truck battery at MnDRA 1 and required a jump, we've known there's a short or something in the trailer or the truck which kills the battery when the truck & trailer sit hooked up. We'd unhooked the lights for the weekend, and only plugged them in just as we were loading horses. Somehow in the 10 minutes it sat with the trailer lights attached to the truck, it drained the truck battery - and we'd even started the truck prior to plugging in the trailer to make sure it started! There is definitely something not right in the electrical systems or connections of either the truck or the trailer or both, but at least we were well prepared for the situation (many thanks to Lynne for showing us such a thing as a jump pack thingee even existed!).

Thankfully the trip home was utterly uneventful, and I loved every second of my hot shower, complete with a full-body tick check (no ticks!), when I finally got everything unpacked, cleaned up, and put away. The next day I found one deer tick on Rhio, and he had a couple of minor rubs from the Epics gaiters in the front (I'd forgotten to put vet wrap on his pasterns), but mostly he was just pissed that he hadn't been able to go to the cow pasture to graze when we got home but had to eat boring old hay all night instead.

It was really a great weekend, and overcoming adversity makes it all the more memorable. But I do think I'll avoid Tamarack horse camp during bug season in the future!

Pasture Paradise

2011-06-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

Rhio in his ugly-but-UV-protective fly mask, coming when he's called despite the acres of lush green grass he's turned out on!

Next to the horse pastures is a huge field that has been completely untouched this spring. It is normally the cow pasture, but there are no cows this year. It is fenced with 5 strands of barbed wire, so it's not ideal for horses. But, all that beautiful grass is going to waste just sitting there while our horses are still eating hay... so yesterday we began the "Pasture Paradise" program here at Meadowbrook.

My two, Rhio & Cricket, can both use the grass, as well as two other boarders, Levi & Quick. These four horses get hand-walked over to the cow pasture in the mornings to stuff themselves in the knee-deep green goodness all day long. This leaves 2 fields with 1 horse each, so those 2 horses get to spend the day together for company. Then, at the end of the day, everyone is put back into their original fields for the night (with shelter and safe fencing). These four are now getting a pittance of grain in the mornings, and no feed at night except some hay.

Cricket ready to "go home" at the end of the day

Day one, yesterday, went pretty well, considering. I had an internal debate regarding my level of comfort with the barbed wire fencing, after walking the fenceline the evening before (in shorts, and without bug spray! not my most brilliant move, I must admit). The fence is intact and in reasonable repair, but it is not perfect. The lushness of the grass and the vastness of the pasture, however, give me some assurance that the boys will have absolutely no reason to even go near the fence. I decided my desire for them to be on good grass far outweighed my concern over the fence, and so I was pleased to watch them behave beautifully all day yesterday and to find them without even a scratch in the evening.

Quick (grey) & Levi also enjoyed the day on grass

The other element which could have been an issue was horse dynamics. Rhio & Cricket are buddies, and Levi & Quick are buddies, but the two pairs do not know each other at all. Quick can play pretty rough at times, and is a bit of an "enforcer" in his pasture. I expected that Rhio would protect Cricket, and that is exactly what happened. Rhio & Cricket were turned out first, took a bit of a run about, then settled to munching. Levi was next, and walking him past the goat/alpaca pen was a big challenge. We made it to the gate, and I turned him out, causing quite the stir across the farm. Winston & Tomas were on alert, watching intently from the furthest pasture, while Quick & Duke were trotting the fenceline and whinnying for their missing companion. Rhio & Cricket came over to investigate Levi, and they all trotted off together for a bit, then Levi made a beeline for the fenceline nearest his buddies in the other pasture, and Rhio & Cricket resumed eating. Quick, while also afraid of the goats & alpacas, was very motivated to join his buddy and galloped off as soon as I released him. Now for the scary part! How were the two groups going to interact, and was anyone going to get hurt? (And, why didn't I bring my camera at least, or a video camera, which would have been even better?)

As you might expect, the four horses ran around for a while, with the two greys (Rhio & Quick) herding their two buddies around, and keeping them away from the others. In very little time, each pair seemed to have a declared "territory" and they all settled down to the knee-high buffet. Throughout the day, Quick & Levi remained together along the fenceline closest to their regular pasture and in the front corner, which Rhio & Cricket also remained together and wandered about the middle and back of the pasture, evidently enjoying the wooded area as well. There were zero altercations, and almost no interaction after the initial brief period. All the other horses on the farm are now in pairs as well; I find the symmetry of the pairs of horses very pleasing, somehow.

In the evening, Rhio & Cricket came running when they were called (good boys!), while Levi & Quick refused to walk along the fence near the goats & alpacas to the gate, so had to be fetched. I expect in a few days they'll be completely unconcerned about the scary ruminants and will also (hopefully) come when they are called. Replete with fresh green grass, none of the four minded missing their usual grain supper at all. They did all drink immediately, however, which means they probably didn't use the nice, clean tank I'd scrubbed & filled for them in Pasture Paradise, despite the fact that I led each one to the tank to show it to them before turning them loose in the morning. The grass is plenty wet on its own, and I assume they'll start using the tank as they get used to the whole plan.

Operation Pasture Paradise was a resounding success!

And what a beautiful evening!

Pants on Fire?

2011-06-04T21:59:00.000-05:00

Red was channelling his inner racehorse today, apparently. I walked out to get him this afternoon, and every other horse in the herd walked up to me; Red, however, took one look and galloped off. Oh, boy. It's one of those days, is it? He conveniently galloped himself into the adjoining, and currently unoccupied, pasture, so I closed the gate on him and watched him gallop & whinny & snort & fart his way around me in huge loops until I could see his sides heaving & his nostrils flared as big as they go. At that point, he slowed to an extended trot and continued for another while. He sure was pretty running around like his pants were on fire, and I did kind of enjoy watching him. I wasn't in a hurry and didn't have an agenda, so I just waited until he'd had enough. Finally, he quit putting on a show, and walked calmly into the barn with me for saddling. What a weirdo. He wasn't worked up, or hyper at all. It was almost like I was just an excuse to run around & show off or something.

Red looking as cool & calm as a cucumber despite his earlier period of insanity

We set off on a nice short road ride, and stopped by to pick up a few extra companions on the way home. The first official Meadowbrook trail ride of the season was a hit! Leah rode Rhio (who was a perfect gentleman), Christine rode Tomas, Kristi rode Winston, and Red lead the way. It was a gorgeous evening with enough breeze to keep the mosquitoes mostly at bay, and we had a grand time.

Kelso supervising while Leah & Rhio got to know each other.

Looks like this pair is a hit!

Setting off

A grand mini-adventure

My Pony & Me

2011-06-04T00:02:00.000-05:00

All suited up for a summertime ride (though yesterday still felt like spring, & early spring at that!)

Despite the oppressive humidity, Rhio & I geared up for a nice, long, sweaty, and, it turned out, buggy ride. I had difficulty convincing him that we really did want to leave the lush green grass he'd been grazing for the previous couple of hours (lucky boy got a pre-ride treat today, and was happily stuffing himself full of the green grass in the round pen when I so rudely decided it was time to work), but once we'd passed the 2 1/2 mile mark, he was eager to move on down the road & trail.

Our route was nothing fancy - the same loop we've done a few times already this year, although the last time we did it there was still snow on the ground! You never know what you'll encounter, however, and this day that included a bulldozer in full dirt-moving mode. Rhio barely batted an eyelash at the thunderous, stinky bulldozer and, although I had him walk until we were past it (we were moving much faster than it was), there was really no need to do so. Crossing the busy road, we made our way through the closed gravel pit (I had an alternate route all planned, as I'd expected the pit to be open & working on a Friday) and Rhio was able to pick out our cut-through trail, which I was completely unable to locate through the new foliage - he knew where we were going, and I just let him go. We did surprise a few deer, does with fawns would be my guess as the trail we pop out onto is very infrequently used and the area is pretty secluded, shady, and seems like a perfect fawn nursery to me.

The bright green of spring has finally arrived here in northern MN.

We pass the halfway point of our loop somewhere on the snowmobile trail; I like to think of the 1+ mile of gorgeous trail with excellent footing, steeply rolling hills, and big mature trees as the whole point of the entire loop - the best 10% of the ride by far. Sadly leaving the trail behind, we have two less-than-stellar dog encounters but with no harm done to any party. A collie burst out of the woods at us and proceeded to attempt to chase us, and at first Rhio was thinking full-flight mode was a good idea (could be a big scary! must run!), but I got him turned to see it was a dog and he immediately agreed with me that we should chase it instead of run away from it. I used my best growling "Get outta here" and the collie chose the safety of barking from the woods. A mile later, one of the bulldogs on the corner raced out the driveway with what appeared to be full intent to bite Rhio's leg. I'd stopped and turned to face it, as I am familiar with the two bulldogs that live here - one is horse friendly and wants to say hi, the other just wants to bite legs - and an associated human yelled at her and got her to leave us be. I know Rhio didn't see her as a threat at all, and I actually think she is more likely to be a problem than the collie that chased us, who was clearly afraid of, or at least leery of, the horse. The bulldog is not at all afraid.

We had to pause for traffic before crossing back to "our side" of the busy road, and there was a guy on a bike waiting to come our way. He was extremely polite and waited to see that we were mostly across the road before crossing himself - again bikes are not an issue for Rhio, but it was really nice of him to be so considerate (and it seems somewhat horse-savvy). At this point, we were faced with the long trot down 2 miles of straight-as-an-arrow shoulder with a somewhat busy road. This is the spot where Rhio was acting up on our previous rides of "the loop" this spring, wanting to race home and not listen. Today, he was perfect - giving me a huge but perfectly steady trot, not faltering once even with big trucks, trucks pulling boats, and multiple cars whizzing by.

We continued the rest of the way home along our familiar quiet gravel roads, and came on home with an overall average speed of 5.6 mph, distance 10.8 miles, and ride time 1:56. It was a great solo ride, despite the bugs (mosquitoes the size of 747s, plus deer flies & horse flies ALREADY!) and the incessant clicking of the loose buckles on his front boots (I had to use Red's Epics instead of Rhio's Renegades as the Renegades are in need of a little repair - see future post!). Rhio got a much-needed thorough hosing when we got home, his first of the year, and he *was* shiny & clean when I put him back in the pasture (you all know how long that lasted!).

Look! Wash your horse's legs and what do you find? White stockings!

And if you look closely you'll see he has a blaze hiding in there somewhere, too. It's actually in the shape of a ?.

The boys having some free grazing while I chatted with my barn buddies

Clean boots, ready for our next adventure!

Multitasking

2011-05-25T23:32:00.000-05:00

The boys having a chat about how crazy I am.

Yesterday I couldn't decide which horse to ride (they both needed to get out) or if I should go jogging before or after riding, or at all. I didn't have enough time to ride them both AND go jogging. So I hatched this plan...

I saddled Rhio up & headed over to Red's barn via the back woods trails, with Kelso in attendance. We popped out of woods and I had to dismount to open the gate, as the cows & calves are in new pasture along the fenceline of where I ride through. Conveniently, Rhio chose *after* I'd dismounted and we'd gotten through the gate (2 hot wires) to freak out about the baby calves running about. He's pretty ok with the cows, but those cute little buggers tearing around with their tails straight up were just a little bit of Arab overload. He snorted and stared, and I could see his heart pounding in his chest. But luckily he didn't try to bolt or to trample me, and we were able to hand walk along the fence to the barn. The calves were much more of a concern than Dave & the rattly tractor/disc that were plowing up the area alongside, which is funny because of course the machinery is much more likely to cause us harm than the calves are!

Once in the barn, I put Rhio in Red's stall, stop to admire the days' old new kittens in the shavings cart, and head out to fetch Red. I get him booted up for hoof protection on the road (Rhio was sporting his, too) and we head out cowboy-style for a little experiment.

I have ponied Red off Rhio before, just as a means to get him from his barn to mine, for example, and it has gone well in the past. I've never tried to pony for an outing before, though. Five o'clock in the evening probably wasn't the best time to choose, as the traffic was a bit more prevalent than I would have liked. Both boys behaved beautifully, however, even with a truck pulling a huge boat with flapping bits passing us none too slowly. We walked the entire shoulder of the paved road, then turned and walked along my road until we were past the house with the semi-aggressive dog who often tries to pester Kelso. She did, and I did my best low, growly "Get outta here!" - I surely didn't need the dog going after Kelso while I was trying to stay in control of two horses - and luckily she listened (she doesn't always). Past this house, we tried to trot and it went quite well. I did discover that I had way too much rope on Red - when we were trotting he'd stay right up next to Rhio and I couldn't figure out what to do with all the extra lead I had (looping across my lap? hanging down a bit on Rhio's side? coiled up in my hand?). Rhio tried to turn in at our driveway, but I was able to redirect him and keep going up the road.

With a few other distractions, we made it trotting about a half mile and then crossed the road onto the far part of our road. I wasn't sure how far we'd get, but I figured it was going well and so I'd keep going. We were walking up the first hill, as I'd discovered Red's enthusiasm for the endeavor was growing while Rhio's seemed to be waning; this led to Red being slightly in the lead, and then trying to cross over in front of Rhio, and that just seemed like a wreck waiting to happen. At the walk, Red would stay back just behind Rhio. Suddenly Red started tossing his head and acting strange, so I turn and see a bicycle coming up behind us. Really?!? Why this night would we see a bicycle? And coming up behind us? Well, both boys earned gold stars for bicycle bravery, standing still and watching the guy pedal past.

That seemed like a good turning-around point, so we head for home. Uh oh. Both boys decide they would really like to go home, FAST! I decide that we are most definitely NOT going home fast, and have my hands full containing two prancing ponies on the return journey. We did make it home, intact and sane, and I've decided a few things about ponying: 1) the road is probably not the best place to pony 2) I need a shorter rope and 3) unless I grow a third hand, there's no point in bringing my camera!

To finish off the night, I decide to drop Rhio off at home and jog Red back to his barn, thus accomplishing everything on my to-do list in one fell swoop (kind of). Red's actually quite good in-hand, and jogging with him certainly requires me to pick up my pace a little! I jogged home all by myself, Kelso having chosen to stay home when I left Rhio, and got home just in time to put on muck boots and feed the horses. Whew! I'm exhausted all over again just thinking about it.

Our running shoes

Oops!

2011-05-24T10:23:00.001-05:00

Maybe I shouldn't reveal my most recent air-headedness, but here goes. Last night I was feeding horses a little later than usual, and let Cricket out into the mostly-enclosed area behind the barn to graze while I was setting up the morning feed. I got set-up done, closed up the front barn door, and went inside. Yup. Left Cricket out - all night!

I didn't even realize I'd done it until I was feeding this morning and went to grab his halter from the rack so I could bring him in for his beet pulp/senior mash. I stared dumbly at the empty hook for a moment before realizing why his halter wasn't there - because he was still wearing it, and I'd never put him back in the pasture last night! Oops!!!!!

I hustle out back and glance around - no Cricket to be seen. He clearly hung around the fence for a bit (2 piles of manure), wandered into the front section of the shelter (hoof prints), enjoyed some hay that was left out (now scattered about), and was now off somewhere. Annie & Mo were looking toward the back woods, and the only direction he could have gone was to follow the alley between the fencelines that direction. Sure enough, the wet grass revealed hoof impressions, and just over the rise where his pasture fence turns, there he was merrily munching the lush grass. He glanced up at me as if to say, "Mmm! Grass!" and was happy to follow me back to the barn for breakfast.

Of all the horses to be left out all night, he was probably the perfect one to "choose." Luckily we've had tons of rain and the grass was lush & wet, as he didn't have any access to water. He's been free grazing about an hour a day since the grass really came in, so he's even used to its lushness. And he's really level-headed and not particularly independent, so freaking out or wandering off weren't likely. And, he's not too much of a trouble maker, so he clearly didn't find snooping around the barn wreaking havoc to be a tantalizing option (I shudder to think what the barn would have looked like had Rhio been left out to his own devices for 12 hours!). Whew! Of course I'm knocking myself upside the head for my absentmindedness, but all is well that end's well, right?

Was that the Loch Ness Monster???

2011-05-21T15:27:00.000-05:00

Or perhaps just a really big snapping turtle?

It was SO NICE on Thursday that Red & I had to get out for a ride. I was planning to do his right hock injection (meant to do it a month ago, but, well, stuff happens...) but we went riding instead (and he got his hock done on Friday).

We wandered over to the gravel pit and had to trot in the woodsy areas because the gnats were swarming every living thing in vast hordes (anyone ever ridden with a head net over their helmet? I think I'm going to try it). Poor Red's gait is pretty asymmetrical due to my delay in getting his right hock done, so the trot was not that comfortable to ride - he kept lurching me to the left. But, he was all go-go-go and would have gladly moved out if I'd let him. Luckily there was enough breeze to keep the gnats at bay in the open area, and we wandered around enjoying the scenery and scaring up a few deer.

Red watching the white deer butts disappearing into the woods

Headed out of the main gravel pit, I decided to take the scenic route around the backside of the neighboring, private gravel pit. As we got close to the large pond in this pit, I spotted something which appeared to be a head or just eyes sitting on the water surface. I just had time to form the thought, "Huh? What is THAT?" when it disappeared with the smooth easing of a confident predator, not the harried & surprised, ripple-making splash of prey. Hmmm.... this is not Florida, so it couldn't have been a gator... but I just had the sense that whatever it was, it was BIG. What I saw was just a tiny part of what seemed to be massive beast just under the surface. Logic tells me it had to be a big snapping turtle (right?), but it did give me pause to wonder just how deep that "pond" really is and what Nessie might be doing inhabiting it.

Looking for Nessie

We finished our ride traversing the shoulder of the road, not making our customary turn at the gravel road, and Red decided that meant "new territory" and therefore required hypervigilance for any possible dangers. I do appreciate his concern for our (his) safety, but, seriously, a walk down the road is generally not fraught with multiple life-endangering encounters. The lady gardening, the neighbor's horses (& one funny looking pony mule), and the procreating turtles aren't likely to attack (well, actually, in the mule's case...). Red required lots of reminders to walk on the way home, but I think we both enjoyed our little outing.

The curious horses + mule

You Shall Not Pass

2011-05-17T21:46:00.000-05:00

Impassable trail

I thought about putting sunscreen on this morning before we loaded up to check out our favorite portion of the North Shore Trail... but didn't do it. My "farmer's tan" is well-started now, unfortunately, though with the added marks of a wrist GPS and riding gloves it should probably be called "riding tan," which is my perpetual state in the warm months, I'm afraid. I'm thinking self-tanner may be my ticket to looking halfway normal in dress-up attire for my cousin's wedding in June!

Pre-ride, before we knew what we were getting into!

This particular section of snowmobile trail is only a few miles from Gesa's place, and is all rolling hills and high ground. We hoped it would be dry enough by now to ride. We were wrong. The low spots which looked mucky & muddy were exactly what they looked like, but they were not the problem. The problem was the unexpected sucking mud pits hidden beneath what appeared to be solid grassy ground. Paco could pass through a section in the lead and not have a problem, while Rhio stepped just a few inches to the left or right of Paco's hoof prints and we found ourselves sucked in hock-deep. We realized in short order that we wouldn't be able to do anything but walk, at least then when we hit the horrible bits the horses were able to scramble out. At a gait faster than a walk, those sudden squelching, clinging, seemingly bottomless mud holes would have been disastrous.

A pretty pond we didn't know was there!

Spring in the Northland - see that faint tinge of green in the trees? Yup, if you've got dirty sunglasses you can't see it - but that's spring, for sure!

Given the circumstances, we took the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy the weather - blue skies, a light breeze, flooding sunshine everywhere - and the slowly greening spring. We spotted pretty little ponds and trail off-shoots that are all but invisible when the forest is in full-leafed glory. We followed a well-travelled ATV path and found ourselves in the back lot (culvert storage, apparently) of the county road maintenance depot. This was the best, firmest footing the entire ride and we got about 2 miles of trotting & cantering. The boys enjoyed gorging themselves on the newly green grass, and Kelso had a ball sniffing, snuffling, and snorting his way through last fall's dead leaves and the new spring sprouts.

Oh I know where we are! (and the horses weren't at all fazed by the huge shiny metal tubes)

Our muddy souvenirs of the day

The boys enjoying their hay while we soaked up some excess sunshine in our lawn chairs before heading home

This ride wasn't particularly fast, or long, or difficult, but it was glorious to be out there on a mini-adventure on such a day as this.

MnDRA I - What a Weekend!

2011-05-15T19:22:00.000-05:00

Loop 1, about 11 miles into 15 miles (photo by Henry)

Gesa & I had an uneventful trip to Sand Dunes State Forest for the very first distance ride of the season. Before loading up, however, I discovered Rhio in the pasture with a bloody leg. Of course, he manages to hurt himself in the four hours between morning feeding & time to go! The wound was small and high on the inside of his left front forearm. Wounds always look quite dramatic on a grey horse, but after cleaning it up I decided it wasn't anything to worry about, and a quick trot confirmed no lameness, so he climbed aboard Christine's trailer (thanks for the loan, C!) and we headed over to pick up Gesa & Paco.

Rhio's wound on Saturday

Driving into camp, we spot Lynne & her horse Niso set up just across from vet check, so swing in by them, since we were planning to camp together. Paco & Rhio settle in to the high line, with Niso next door in her pen. In no time, Donna, Salma, & CrackerJack arrive and set up with us as well. Yay! We haven't all been together since last August, so mile-a-minute talking quickly ensued, though I had to excuse myself and begin vetting horses in for Saturday's events. Dusk set in with some beautiful clouds prompting us to preemptively cover the boys in their rain sheets. A couple laps around camp to stretch everyone's legs (and the horses almost always drink when we get back from a walk, so that's a nice bonus), with the horses thrilled to munch the plentiful green grass (none of that at home yet!), and we were ready for the night. Camp settled down quickly Friday night, with most everyone planning to ride Saturday (except all of our contingent - I was vetting & Gesa volunteering as scribe Saturday, Donna's CrackerJack is a few days shy of 48 months old - the minimal age to compete an LD, and Lynne & Niso didn't feel conditioned enough to compete). We had munchies & conversation in Donna's trailer before splitting up for bedtime - Donna, Salma, Kelso & I in her trailer and Lynne & Gesa in Lynne's trailer. Gesa & I loved the luxury of a mattress over our usual tent!

Ready for bed!

Saturday "morning" (yes, technically 4:40 am is morning, but it sure doesn't feel like a reasonable time to be awake - the major drawback of my chosen obsession is the wee hour wake-ups) came all too quickly, and I piled on a few extra layers, refilled the boys' hay bags, and dragged myself over to vet check for the rider's meeting and to vet in a few last minute starters. By the 6:00 am start for the 50 milers, the sun was up and it was clear the weather gods were smiling upon us this day.

I was able to see Rhio & Paco on their high line all day from vet check, so I was able to assure myself they weren't getting into any trouble. Gesa spent a lot of the day helping, but also did all the pony care while I was working (thank you Gesa!!!). In the afternoon she saddled up for a little ride, and Rhio was unhappy to be left behind. Besides making a pitiful racket calling for his buddy, he was good while Paco was gone.

Aww! My lovely pony.

It was a tough day on course for a lot of competitors, with temps in the low 70s and the perennial deep sand that Sand Dunes is famous for. Six of the 11 starters in the 50 were pulled, mostly for lameness. A few LDers and competitive riders didn't complete, either, and one horse had to be treated for a tie-up after completing the 25 mile ride. I think there has been a horse treated at this ride almost every year; I think the course is deceptively challenging with the deep sand, especially when coupled with a slow, late spring that really cut in to most rider's training time. Add to that the warm temps, which we haven't had a chance to accustom to yet this year, and it was a recipe for hot, tired horses. Many of the horses had tight hamstrings from the deep sand, and sore shoulders were also a common finding. All the riders did a great job of taking care of their horses whether they were pulled or completed the course.

Paco & Rhio vetted in with flying colors Saturday evening, with Rhio's heart rate at 32. He must be getting used to ride camp (he should be, I think this is his 4th year of attending rides), as 32 is his resting rate at home, but it is typically 40 at a ride. After getting our 52 inked in green on his rump, we settled the boys into CrackerJack's vacated pen for the night (thanks Donna! our boys LOVE to have a pen to relax in) and I watched as Rhio proceeded to immediately zap himself on the electric tape. I felt a little sorry for him (he looked *very* surprised), but I was also pleased that he'd touched it and felt much more secure in leaving him in the pen overnight. This is the first time he's been in an electric pen at night, without direct supervision. I would have to say I think he much prefers a pen to any form of being tied. He was very leery of exiting the pen, though, and Paco had to be brave one and lead the way through the gate every time.

Loving the life of freedom in the pen (but Rhio's staying safely away from the fence.)

Potluck & awards were held in our campsite, so we had front-row seats and our horses seemed to enjoy observing all the commotion as well. Rhio was probably scoping out the potluck dishes, hoping for a taste of the left-overs! I don't know about anyone else, but I quite enjoyed my potluck plate - dominated by delicious tacos provided by ride management.

Potluck!

Pre-potluck relaxation with Donna (have I ever mentioned that 60 lb Kelso is a lap dog?)

Kelso's safe spot

Beautiful Salma

I think we all tried to stop visiting and hit the sack a little earlier Saturday night, as Gesa & I were riding in the morning! Ride weekends need to be 3 days, so we could have a whole day to relax & visit with all our ride buddies. 4:40 rolled around way too early yet again, and as I was fumbling around in the dark to get ready, trying not to wake Donna, I managed to drop a contact somewhere in her trailer. Of course it was utterly impossible to find the tiny but vital item, and I hadn't packed any extras (won't make that mistake ever again!!!), so I was forced to use my glasses for the day.

This turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated, as the prescription in my glasses is not the same as in my contacts. Also, as anyone who wears both will attest, the difference in peripheral vision is quite dramatic between contacts & glasses. My exhausted, too-early-roused brain was very slow to adapt to the different visual input, and as a result I couldn't exactly "see straight" for about half of the first loop! My glasses would jiggle a bit at any gait faster than a walk, and I had to attempt to focus on whatever horizon line I could find ahead on the trail to keep myself steady. It wasn't as challenging as riding in the dark, but I did feel that I had to give over most of the decisions to Rhio and I knew the trail well enough I didn't need to spot ribbons or read plates (whew!).

Group shot! Early on Loop 1, and Rhio is all business getting us past these horses without a backward glance. Notice Rhio's forward ears (as long as I'm in front, I don't care about the other horses!), and Paco's inside ear tipped to the other horses (um, this ok guys? Whatcha doing over there?)

The start of a ride is always a little intense with equine emotions running high, and riders' following suit (or is it the other way around?). Gesa & I waited to let the hot shoes get out of camp, and well down the trail. One disadvantage of the early portion of the trail at this ride is that you are able to see horses in front of you on a long straightaway not too far out of camp. This makes life a little difficult for most of us with horses who want to catch those in front of them. Rhio was very good, though, and we walked calmly out of camp, picking up a nice trot and all was well...until we caught sight of horses in front of us. Bear in mind that my vision problems are peaking right about now, as Rhio's speed increases and my brain pretty much can't compensate for it yet. Lots of half-halts (surprise! Rhio presented me with a new behavior - a chin-tuck in response to a half-halt. Previously he has always thrown his nose up in the air if I half-halt him and he doesn't want to listen. The chin-tuck was new for him, but he was still listening and staying controllable so I left him alone) and Rhio, while anxious to catch & pass horses ahead of us, also stayed in his trot and said "Ok" every time I said "No" to a speed increase. It was by no means an easy, relaxed first 5 miles, but it was pretty good. Five miles is the magic point at which he becomes my easy, responsive boy again, instead of a barely contained rocket ship.

We crossed the highway bridge, manned by a caffeinated cop & a cruiser with flashing lights at either end, and made our way through the housing development to reach my favorite section of trail at this ride. The new obstacle for the day was a lawn sprinkler on full blast, spraying an arc of water & mist into the air and across the road. Unless he encountered one before I bought him, I can attest that Rhio has never seen a sprinkler before. I simply asked him to move to the opposite side of the road, and we passed it with no trouble at all. Good boy Rhio! Paco followed suit, though the guy riding behind us had more trouble I think. Shortly after the sprinkler, there was a house & a living room picture window barely containing a frenzied dog barking & barreling into the glass; I'm quite sure there wasn't anyone left asleep in that house!

Having a bite to eat midway through Loop 1 - in our coveted pocket of space!

And onward through the sand.

By about half way through the first loop of 15 miles, the horses were spread out enough that we had our own little pocket and were no longer catching other horses or being caught. It is my favorite part of a ride when we have our own bubble of trail and have no interaction with other horses on the trail. I know for sure in such instances that we are "riding our own ride" and not being pulled or pushed by another horse's position ahead of or behind us. Rhio & Paco have done so many miles together now that their trail relationship is effortless, both for them and for us. We are free to chat and to enjoy the scenery, soaking up the joy of time spent on the back of a good horse with companionable trail partners.

Both Photographer Bob & Photographer Henry (volunteers! wow!) were out in various spots on the trail capturing our horses' beauty in action for us. I can't even adequately articulate how much I love having pictures of my horses at a ride. I am incredibly biased, of course, but Rhio looks absolutely fantastic in these photos; they are the best photos of him doing his job and loving every minute of it.

Loop 1, about 4 miles from camp (photo by Henry)

Walking in to camp at the end of loop 1 (photo by Bob)

Gesa & Paco eager to go at the start (photo by Bob)

Riding with heart rate monitors was really helpful at this ride. Gesa & I know how the boys' usually run, and we were able to monitor them closely during a markedly more challenging exertion level than we've asked of them yet this spring. In the deepest sand, Rhio's heart rate ran about 10 points higher than normal for whichever gait we were in. He recovered into the 80s within moments to a minute of dropping to a walk, even in the deep sand. Paco, however, would not drop below 100 while walking in the deep sand, but would immediately drop once we hit firmer footing. This was especially useful information to have as we came in the last mile of the first loop. Rhio would have been fine trotting the whole mile, and the walk from the end of the trail through camp to the timer would have been enough recovery for him to be at criteria by the time we handed our card over for our in-time. By watching Paco's monitor, though, we knew that Paco was still working hard enough to keep his heart rate just above 100 bpm and therefore we walked the whole mile and he was able to recover to criteria just a few minutes after arrival. I think if we hadn't used the monitors, we would have trotted more of that mile and Paco would have taken longer to pulse down at the check.

After our hold, we completed our exit exams with flying colors. Rhio had an astounding CRI of 9/10, meaning his heart rate was 36 bpm before trotting 250 feet, and 40 bpm one minute later. Both 36 & 40 bpm are normal equine resting heart rates. He was exhibiting pretty much complete recovery from the first 15 miles. I do not push my horses, but I do kind of wonder what he is capable of. I don't train *that* much - this is mostly his natural athletic ability.

Last minute adjustments before heading out on loop 2

Off we go on loop 2, scuttling out of camp at a good clip to maintain our little bubble of trail as a pair of LDers and the first group of novice competitors were set to head out just a minute or so after us. We did a lot of cantering, which my horses seem to prefer in the sand - and taking off on loop 2 at an easy canter with forward happy horses is such a rush! Gesa & I were both grinning & laughing with glee, and that feeling persisted throughout the 10 miles (well, actually only 9 according to my GPS) of the second loop. We mostly trotted & cantered, with both horses drinking long & deep at a muddy puddle, and before we knew it we were done! We could have been the only two out there, as we didn't see anyone the entire loop.

We finished in 6th & 7th positions, though we were 1:40 behind the winner. We stood for Best Condition anyway, knowing that we had no chance of winning the award, but as good practice for our horses and because neither Paco nor Rhio had ever stood for a BC exam before. Unfortunately, it did require the dreaded weigh-in, which I detest, but I just claim a heavy saddle. Rhio looked good, but Paco was a little muscle-tired. Both horses ate, drank, and rested while we started to break camp as the increasing clouds began to sprinkle and finally out-and-out rain on us just as we were loading horses & the last few items were being shoved into the tack room or truck. Why is it that our neatly organized bins, bags, & boxes are always in compete disarray and the whole lot of it barely fits back into the rig when we leave?

All done! The boys are resting while we hustle to get camp cleaned up & packed before the rain really starts.

The truck battery was dead, but the ride manager was able to give us a jump (thanks, Theresa!) and we were on our way home, slightly damp and a titch smelly but oh-so-proud of our ponies. I had so much fun at this ride, despite all the small troubles like a lost contact and the usual sleep-deprivation. Thank you to all the ride managers, volunteers, fellow vets, riders, photographers, and everyone else involved in this incredible sport. Here it is a week later, and I am still feeling the euphoria.

Packing for MnDRA!

2011-05-05T22:26:00.000-05:00

The first ride of the year is here! Yippee! I *think* I have all the essential horse & human items packed, and I know someone in camp is bound to have an extra of whatever it is I forget.... so it's time to finish up food prep & get Kelso's stuff ready to go and the rest of the dogs' stuff organized for the doggie care crew (thank you Kristi & Christine for watching the fur balls while I'm gone!).

Rhio and I are going with Gesa and Paco to this ride, planning to ride a 25 mile Limited Distance on Sunday. It will be Gesa & Paco's third LD ever, and I am vetting the ride as well (Friday night & Saturday), so we will ride together Sunday. The weather forecast is amazingly good (all appendages duly crossed), but I've got tons of layers and lots of outerwear packed for all of us. And sunscreen.

Rhio & I have been riding mostly 50s last season, and I intend to do the same this season. However, this ride is the first of the year, and I never know what kind of spring we'll have for training. Since I have to commit early to which day I want to ride (because of the vetting), and we only have 50s on Saturday, I usually think of MnDRA 1 as a conditioning ride exclusively, and plan to do 25 conditioning miles. This year, according to Rhio's log, he's had 95 miles of trail/road work plus arena work. He's looking and feeling fantastic. He could probably do a 50. But, we are having saddle issues, so that alone is enough to make me want to keep our effort to a 25 this ride. Plus, this way Gesa & I get to ride together, and that will be so much fun! And that's the point of this sport for me - to have fun and enjoy the day & the trail with my horse.

We had another lesson with Abby last week, and I have to say that Rhio is already improved. He is using his body better, and we even worked in a snaffle bit, and it went GREAT! I was happy. I used Red's bit, at Abby's suggestion, which is a Myler comfort snaffle. Rhio has worn it before, and as with any bit, he was always tense & unhappy with it. Abby suggested I adjust it more loosely than I typically adjust a snaffle (no wrinkles), so that it provides zero "contact" when he is just carrying it. A normal adjustment, with a wrinkle at the corner of the mouth, is in effect a mild contact all the time, regardless of what you are doing with the reins. Rhio does not like that at all, and it was very interesting to note that when I first mounted, he was tense, worried, "hunchy," etc - basically telling me in no uncertain terms that he was *not happy*. After a few minutes of just letting him walk around, he settled and relaxed, and was never tense or worried again for the whole session. We did a whole bunch of different things, keeping his busy Arab mind engaged, all of which were designed to get him to move his body. Rhio goes straight really, really well. Rhio doesn't bend very well at all. He doesn't get his hind legs underneath himself to drive, and he doesn't move his shoulders laterally. He's never been asked to, and frankly, it's easier to just go in a straight line. It's been such a learning experience for us both - me to learn to ask for these things, and what it feels like when he does it, and him to gain confidence that he *can* do it.

My childhood riding instructor would have been appalled, but I spent an hour looking at my horse, not keeping my eyes up and looking where we were going. GASP. Thanks, Abby - we had fun & learned a lot. And what's more, we were even able to repeat some of it on our own!

I know we'll both enjoy the trail on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to working on our "yoga," too.
Next post will be a ride report!

Musings and Observations

2011-04-23T10:52:00.000-05:00

We have four groups of horses pastured separately, each pasture with a run-in shed. For the most part, all the horses stay outside 24/7, blanketed as needed. This is a great way to keep horses; it's very healthy for them to be outside in the fresh air and moving around at will, plus they have all the social/psychological benefits of being part of a herd.

During particularly inclement weather, however, we have found that we need to manage these groups a little more, including bringing some of the horses in to stalls. Each run-in shed is plenty large enough for the number of horses (max:4) in each group, but none of the groups will use the sheds in such a manner that all individuals can be under cover at once. Each shed is configured a little differently, but I think one of the big factors is the number of entrances. Two of the sheds have two doors, and two of the sheds have a single opening. With a single opening, one horse can stand just inside or outside the door and block all the other horses out. With a double opening, one horse can only block one door, and so the other is still available.

Living on-site and observing the horses in different group configurations (our current herd structure seems to be the best we've ever had) and in the different pastures has been really interesting. In Rhio's group, which is four horses and a single-door run-in shed, any two of the horses can be in the shed with hay at any time, but if a 3rd horse is added to the shed, the lowest ranking of the three will immediately leave and stand in the alleyway or paddock. This pasture also has the poor luck to have the run-in shed facing east, where we get a lot of lake wind (read: icy cold), so standing in the alleyway or paddock provides no windbreak whatsoever. In this group, we often bring the two lowest ranking horses (Cricket & Tomas) into the barn overnight and feed hay to the two highest ranking horses (Rhio & Kaos) inside the shelter so they can stay out of the wind. This arrangement works really well and all the horses seem happy with it (although the humans are less happy when we have to clean stalls the next day, or go out late at night to put out fresh buckets of warm water to the stalled horses in the winter).

Another group (3) has a two door run-in shed with a large protective overhang, which also faces east. They have excellent protection from north or west winds, but not as much protection from an east wind. There is ample space both under the overhang and in the shed for at least twice as many horses as are in the group, yet only the two geldings get to utilize the shelter and the mare is typically standing just outside the overhang. This group does a better job of sharing the overhang if their hay is placed well outside the protected area, so if we feel we need to feed hay in the shed/overhang, one of these horses must come in to a stall as well.

Our smallest group is two horses, and neither of these horses tolerates being stalled very well. The mare, however, stands in the doorway of their single-opening shed and does not allow the gelding in at all. This shed faces south, so even standing in the alleyway, the gelding gets protection from the wind most of the time and does just fine with this arrangement. It is extraordinarily frustrating, however, as a rational being to see a huge shelter being occupied by a single horse, with the poor old pony standing with his head down out in the elements just outside the doorway.

Our final group is three geldings with a south-facing, two-door shelter. The two top geldings usually each claim a side of the shelter (this one is actually divided with a gate in the middle into two "stalls"), and the third is left to stand in front of the shelter. Sometimes there is some wind protection in front of the shelter, depending on the direction. This field has zero wind breaks at all, however, and in very bad conditions we must put the hay inside the shelter to prevent its blowing away; at those times, we have to bring one of these geldings in to the barn as well so that the other two can each claim a side of the shelter & a hay pile. Imagine my surprise this morning to find all three of these horses in the shelter! I think I've only seen the 3 sharing once before.

You may wonder why we have shelters that don't face south, as would be typical for our climate. Three of the shelters are built into existing buildings, and there were no options with the pasture & building layout but to face two of them east.

Last night was a night of pretty inclement weather, with a cold east wind and rain to begin, which switched to snow overnight and we woke up to 2" of wet snow on the ground. Most of the horses were wearing waterproof sheets or light blankets, but I still brought Cricket & Tomas in the barn for the night and fed everyone else in or near their shelters. In the fresh snow at morning feeding, I could see how each group had behaved over night. Rhio (& Kaos? or maybe just him) clearly spent time wandering all over the pasture, as there were tracks and trails leading to & fro everywhere. The pasture looked to be a parquet floor of muddy hoof prints interspersed with white snow. Cody, Winston, & Centaurus hadn't come out of their shelter much at all, other than to get to the hay piles just in front of their overhang; the snow was pristine & undisturbed. Mo & Annie (both? just one or the other?) had wandered just out of their alleyway in a small loop and right back to the shelter - a single foray out into the snowy landscape. Duke, Quick, & Levi had done a good amount of wandering around, with tracks leading every which way in an indecipherable maze, although all three were tucked in to the shelter when I brought their feed out.

I don't know why horses do the things they do, exactly, but I am thoroughly enjoying observing how each individual's personality plays into their herd dynamics and behavior.

How We Lost & Then Found Ourselves Again

2011-04-15T11:43:00.000-05:00

Last week Gesa & I planned another long training/conditioning ride and set off to do our 11 mile loop once again. Both Rhio and Paco were particularly lazy heading out from the farm, and this continued for a while. It's actually pretty typical for Rhio to be unmotivated when we head out, and then we reach some unseen threshold and he is suddenly ready to GO! I suspect it may be a certain distance from the farm - prior to hitting that magic place (I know right where the switch happens; it's pretty consistently in the same area), I can barely get anything more than a tiny jog-trot and he's dragging his feet (literally). Once we cross that line, however, I have my forward-trotting, offering-to-canter-every-chance-he-gets Rhio, and grab mane for the ride home, because once we turn around, it's a race! This is actually an annoying habit, and one I can't seem to conquer. It doesn't happen at all if we trailer out somewhere else to ride, but almost always happens on rides from home.

Posing in the gravel pit.

We decided to cut through the big gravel pit to see what the footing was like in there, and for variety. Doing something a little different always seems to perk the ponies up a little. First, we had a nice long drink at the first icy puddle we came to, then a little canter up a hill until a big spook at the top because of the boulders lined up there. They are the very same boulders that have always been there, and Rhio has been through this pit numerous times. Ah, spring! We head down into the "belly" of the pit to do a little hill work climbing back out again, and enjoy the views from the top.

Gesa & Paco at the top.

Ready to go on with our loop, we try to find the little path through the back of the pit to the trail in the woods that leads to the snowmobile trail. This is just a trickle of beaten down ground through the aspen saplings which has been made by repeatedly cutting through, and although I had trouble getting my eye on just the right spot, Rhio remembered where he was and led us through the brush. Once we hit the trail, we were surprised and disappointed by just how much snow was still on the ground in the woods. It was grainy, soft, and slid around easily, making for very slippery going for the horses. Rhio especially seemed to have trouble with his hoof boots; I have found them to be incredibly slick on snow. We carefully picked our way along, sliding down the hills, and both horses did a good job of keeping their footing and moving cautiously. The snowmobile trail was in slightly better shape as it had been packed & groomed all winter, but was still walking-only. After all that walking due to the footing, our average speed for the ride was pretty slow, around 4.3 mph. We picked up a trot down the gravel road starting the "top side" of our loop, and soon found ourselves waiting to cross the busy road.

Paco picking his way carefully down a little hill in the slippery snow.

Once across the road, we have about a 1 1/2 mile stretch along the shoulder of a fairly busy road. The shoulder is wide & flat, but when the ground is dry we can actually ride way off the road in the ditch. We had to stick to the shoulder now, but I am pretty comfortable riding here. It is a long straightaway, however, and we are heading home. Rhio & I started to argue at this point - he voted for an all-out gallop down the road towards home. I voted for a nice controlled trot. We were not able to compromise, and both became increasingly frustrated. Every time a car would pass, Rhio would start to canter, sometimes in place if he was halfway listening to me and sometimes feeling like he was going to buck. I was growling at him, yelling at him, trying to make him work (leg yields, circles) - but every time I put any leg on him at all, he took off. Anytime I released pressure at all, he took off. It was a very unpleasant ride, and once we got off the straightaway, we continued to argue pretty much the entire 5 miles back to the farm.

It was not a good end to our ride, though we had done the 11.6 miles with an average pace of 5.2 mph and he had done some things really well, like being careful on the bad footing. It felt like we were really at odds with one another and not functioning like a team at all. Part of the trouble could be the fact that I was very sleep-deprived and exhausted, and he is already starting to get bored with doing the "same" ride all the time. Also, I know that we have some saddle fit issues, and soreness will definitely make a horse out-of-sorts. At any rate, I turned him out for the night and went to bed early!

The next day we went out for a solo ride to get our heads together again. His back was a bit sore from the long ride (surprisingly, the saddle is not starting to fit any better on its own!) and he had little rubs from the gaiters on his hind Gloves. So, I left him barefoot, tossed the bareback pad on, and we set off for a little wander with no purpose other than to enjoy ourselves. A zero-pressure ride was just what the doctor ordered.

We picked our way through the trails out back, where the footing is pretty bad with alternating areas of mud and ice/snow. The little stream which usually runs through a culvert on the trail was flooded and rushing over the trail, but a little lookie-loo at that for a bit and he walked right on through it (good boy!). We sank through snow & hit water beneath several times, which surprised him but he again stayed calm. One section of mud was particularly deep & sucking, and that was no trouble either. In fact, I would say the whole ride he was a model citizen and seemed happy, relaxed, and very willing. I was happy & relaxed, too. There was the little incident of the grouse, and then a little later the ducks - but besides a quick shudder in place at those frights, he just kept right on moving without any balking about being out alone or rushing to go faster. We made a loop out of it, passing through the farmyard at Red's barn and home along the road. He was so good we even cantered along the shoulder of the road, all nice & relaxed. He didn't even break stride when we came even with the hayfield at the corner and saw a man dressed in a green sweatshirt lying prone in the grass. Both Rhio & I did a double take at that, and I shouted "Hi!" and got a response of "Hi!" back, so at least I knew the guy wasn't dead or something. But it was a very odd thing to see - why would you lie down in the middle of what was probably a cold, wet, muddy field?

So now you know how two rides can be so very different in tone & emotion; one was not fun at all, really, and the other was bliss.

Sweet Sixteen

2011-04-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

Got carrots?

April 13, 1995 was a great day. It's the day my boy Red was born on a farm in Wisconsin. To celebrate, Red got a bunch of carrots, his favorite, and a hock injection with a special add-on service of sheath cleaning. What a lucky birthday boy!

Still sedated post-hock and post-sheath cleaning

A friend sent me the following email, which I just had to share because it's hilarious!

"Dear Taryn (notice I am not calling you mom anymore),

Please take me off your birthday present list – I don’t like your birthday presents. I was hoping for a hot bran mash, a full grooming with a massage and 50 lbs of carrots (that is to share with my friends). Since your presents are not really to my liking I think I will celebrate my birthday by myself. Good luck catching me? I am going to go stay with the cows!

Red aka Pincushion"