An Adventuresome Weekend

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! 

32 Miles

Got treats?

It's begun!  The roads are clear enough to do some serious conditioning, and my endurance season has officially begun.  Our first ride is MnDRA I on May 7 & 8, a mere 5 weeks away.  I always plan on riding Limited Distance (25 miles) at that ride, because our spring weather is so fickle here in the Northland.  It's hard to predict how much conditioning I'll actually be able to do in preparation for this first ride.  So, I plan for the first ride to be 25 miles of conditioning, and a really fun time catching up with everyone I haven't seen since Point Chaser in October.

We've had a great week of rides.  Rhio and I did a total of 32 miles this past week, in rides of 9 miles, 9 miles, and 14 miles.  Our first 9 miler was Tuesday, 3/29.  We have had lovely afternoons for riding, with temps in the 40s and sunshine.  We set off with Kelso, heading toward our closest significant training hill with the intention of doing a little hill work and heading home.  Just as we turned to head up the hill, here comes Jodi & Rana down the hill toward us.  Well met, pretty mare & fine friend!  The horses were both in full spring mode, spooking and trying to race, and we rode up & back along the clear portion of road (hemmed in by shady/icy sections and paved roads without good clear shoulders) enjoying each other's company and lamenting together about the fact of riding spring-fresh horses.  Rhio had been pretty unmotivated riding out alone, but of course as soon as we met up with a buddy, he was overwrought with energy & the inability to disperse it efficiently into useful forward motion.  As a result, I was riding a stiff board of a horse with a rock-solid neck jutting up in front of me, head-tossing & neck-snaking his way along at a stilted canter, hooves slapping the ground and jarring my internal organs in a most unpleasant fashion.  I have to say, the experience really wasn't all that enjoyable.  But, it was fairly reminiscent of the start of an endurance ride, so in its way it was a useful training situation.  He did not buck, rear, bolt, or lose his mind.  In past years, it would not have been unthinkable for him to do all those and then some in a situation like this.

Still a little fancy footwork required to negotiate the remaining icy patches on the road, but it's totally doable!

Our second 9 miler was two days later, and Gesa & Paco joined us for more road riding.  This was our first time booted for the year, and also we attempted to use the heart rate monitors.  I never got a good signal on Rhio's monitor, but Paco's worked pretty well.  I presume that the still-present winter fuzz was preventing good contact with the electrodes.  I usually just wet my electrodes with water upon application, and rely on my sweaty pony to keep them sensing well.  With all the extra coat, I should have used some electrode gel (which solved the problem perfectly on ride #3).  The Gloves are still working nicely on his hinds, and I used fetlock boots as well to prevent any interference wounds.  The Renegades on his fronts actually seemed a little tight, and I'll have to figure out how to loosen the cables before I use them again, I think.  I did not notice as much forging as he usually does in boots (well, he does it all the time, but the boots seem to make it worse, though it may just be more noticeable).  We had a nice ride, mostly covering the same ground as I had with Jodi on Tuesday, though we also ventured through the softening snow pack on the closed portion of the road.   The boys did wonderfully together, as they always do; we did not have to contend with race-brained, spring-crazy horses and allowed them to set the pace as they chose.  Rhio led 99% of the time, as he prefers, and Paco followed, as he prefers.  The horses clearly have some lines of communication which are a mystery to us, as they nearly always put themselves in the same positions and are completely at ease with one another.  Rhio can be really reactive to other horses (especially mares) when we are riding in groups, and we tend to do a bit of skittering around as he tries to keep a "safe" distance from the other horses' bubbles of personal space (whether they are projecting obvious "get away" body language or not).  With Paco, there is none of that.  Our average pace per my GPS was 5 mph for this ride - not too shabby considering we had to walk the whole snowy section, and found ourselves walking & chatting a bit more than we sometimes do (although we do it, it's not as easy to carry on a shouted conversation at the trot).

Muddy legs, muddy boots, and muddy Kelso in the background 

Just mounted up for ride #3 and they're both smiling :) 

Our third and longest ride of the week was Saturday April 2.  Gesa & Paco again joined us, and we planned to attempt the big loop ride, which is mostly road with about 2 miles of snowmobile trail.  I had Plan B worked out in case we couldn't negotiate the half-melted, slushy/icy snowmobile trail and had to turn back, but luckily we were able to complete the whole loop.  Our plan was to increase distance to at least 12 miles (we did 14), but maintain approximately the same pace as our Thursday ride.  Um, apparently the horses didn't get that memo!  Rhio was fired up and ready to go, setting a nice forward pace and moving along on a loose rein right from the start.  That boy was all business, moving along eating up the miles, and occasionally stopping for a refreshing sip from an icy puddle.  Ahhhhh!  Now this is the kind of ride I've been longing for since the snow first fell 6+ months ago.  We had an absolutely fantastic ride for the first 9.5 miles.  Then I landed abruptly on my backside in the snowbank.  Uh, what?!  Ok, turns out poor Rhio had a fright and just disappeared from beneath me (a.k.a. Arab teleporting) - Jodi and Rana popped up over the crest of a ridge in the gravel pit to our left, which was slightly screened by some trees, and Jodi shouted a greeting.  None of us knew they were there, but I expect they heard our hoofbeats on the road.  Anyway, it wasn't a big deal and it was the softest landing I've had, ever.  The worst of it was hopping around on one foot emptying the snow out of my boots before my socks got too wet.  Successfully remounted, Jodi & Rana joined us for a few miles of road work, and again the horses got racy, competitive, and hard to handle (well, mine did at least - Paco had the sense to stay back out of the fray and I don't think Gesa had as much trouble with him as I did with Rhio).  It's like the energy level just shoots up and Rhio can't emotionally cope with it.  I again had the stiff, fighting, crazy horse beneath me.  Not fun.  Again, he didn't do any of the explosive behaviors that I know he is capable of, and we even started to make a little progress backing off the pace and staying behind and he began to be able to listen to me a little bit.  Hopefully Rhio is learning to listen to me even when he gets emotionally overwrought (for that's what it seems to be to me).  We split off from Jodi and headed home, ultimately finishing our ride with an average pace of 5.6 mph.  Yep, we committed the cardinal sin of conditioning, increasing both pace & distance at the same time, but both horses did extremely well and handled the work load easily.  Rhio's heart rate monitor showed completely normal working heart rates for him, and both horses were still full of zip when we turned in the driveway.  The horses drank 4 or 5 times during the ride, which is something Gesa has been working at with Paco, and we ended the day with cold beer & steak on the grill (thanks to Gesa's husband Mike).

Posing on the still-snowy snowmobile trail

I am amazed (and a little jealous) at how quickly Rhio gets back into shape.  Obviously, he wasn't "off" all winter, but the kind of riding we can do in the winter is very different from endurance and our early rides showed me his reduced condition, especially in the hill work we did on the snowmobile trail.  Already he is feeling nearly as fit as he was at the end of the season last year, and ride #3 last week was his best by far for energy, enthusiasm, and drive.  (It's just not fair!  It's taking me WAY longer to get back into my jogging program.)

Argh!  See that white area up by his shoulder/withers?  It's not sweaty because there's too much pressure there from the saddle, not allowing the sweat glands to activate.  This is NOT GOOD! 

The major issue I see cropping up is saddle fit (yet again).  After all three rides, he had dry spots behind his withers on both sides, with the left side being slightly larger & more obvious than the right.  His back is not sore, he is not moving differently, and he is not exhibiting his averse-to-tacking-up behavior (which has been the major indicator of saddle issues in the past), but I am not happy with the less-than-perfect sweat pattern!  More investigation to come on this matter....

Blazing Tamaracks

Rhio was happy to let Paco lead quite a lot of this ride

Third day out of four that Rhio & I trailered out to ride, this time with Gesa & Paco.  This is our last big work before the last endurance ride of the season, Point Chaser on October 22 - 24.  We had yet another amazing October day, riding in t-shirts and summer tights (and sweating) into the early evening.

Due to Rhio's rubs on the outsides of his hind pasterns, from the Easyboot Glove gaiters, I added a couple turns of vet wrap beneath the gaiters today.  We did about 14 miles, fording the Cloquet River twice, and the vet wrap stayed in place and his pasterns looked great when we were done (well, they were a little bit gray-tinged from the wet black vet wrap, but the already-present rubs were not at all irritated).

Rhio's hind boot configuration with vet wrap for pastern protection and interference boot because he knocks himself when booted. 

We didn't see a single person the entire time we rode, including exploring a couple of new trails connected to the trails we found the previous weekend.  We did find evidence of hunters having some success, one pile of exploded grouse feathers being the most obvious clue, and flushed up at least half a dozen grouse.  Kelso occasionally acts like a bird dog, and did some of the seek-and-scare-up for us.  He was more excited about chasing the red squirrels that would dash up a tree and sit scolding us for disturbing their space, though.

The blazing orange of the tamaracks was breathtaking against the dark green of the pines and the bare branches of all the other deciduous trees which have already shed their leaves.  Tamaracks are plentiful in this area, and really do look like trees ablaze, especially in the fading light of evening.  They vie for the top spot in my list of favorite trees.  Also, their needles are fine, soft, & silky and not at all unpleasant to brush up against while riding.  I brought home my share of tamarack & pine needles in unmentionable places (how do they get there?).

One of the magnificent tamaracks we passed by following the winding 4-wheeler trails.

We were forced to turn back after riding out an hour and a half, knowing we were losing light quickly and not wanting to get caught on the old logging road through the woods in the dark, with its plethora of low-hanging branches threatening to cut, scratch, and poke.  We were heading down as-yet unexplored trail (another old logging road, or as I grew up calling them, tote road) and I hate not being able to find out what's around the next bend!  It's also somewhat ironic that we didn't want to get caught in the dark, since riding at night is something I've developed quite a desire to do (and there was conveniently an article about it in Endurance News this month, full of advice from experienced night riders).  But this was not the place for night riding - I would definitely recommend picking a trail that is mostly free of face-threatening branches! This trail requires a fair amount of acrobatic skill to crouch over your horse's neck for the thick, immovable obstacles and dodge-and-parry the smaller ones with hands & arms.  

We got back to the trailer as the sun was setting, loosing hues of lavendar, pink, orange, and yellow on the world and highlighting the fingernail of moon rising.  

Postscript: Rhio was once again a bugger for trailer loading on the way home.  We had the big, open stock trailer (very horse-friendly) and he completely refused.  This time, he wasn't showing any anxiety, just calmly standing by the trailer with a hoof cocked, making no attempt whatsoever to load.  I was fairly aggravated.  With Gesa leading him onto the trailer, I waved a convenient stick at him and he hopped right on.  ARGH! I guess it's nice to know he's not perfect :)  

New Ground Beneath Our Hooves

Ah, new trails to explore!

Gesa, Paco, Rhio, and I had a weekend of fun planned, starting with more exploring at the Mother Bear Ski Trail, which we rode once earlier in the year.  Upland bird hunters, and archery deer hunters, are in the woods now, so we adorned ourselves appropriately with some blaze orange bedazzlements, and Rhio wore his rhythm beads (I sure hope most deer don't tinkle with jingle bells - Santa's reindeer excluded, of course).  We began our ride traversing the top of a glacial esker, common in this area and affording us plenty of stunning views of the boreal forest in its fall finery.

Overlooking a spruce bog fringed with aspen, birch, and pines.

Doing our best to NOT look like something to shoot at!

We came upon several interesting discoveries throughout the day, including this cute resting place (tea and crumpets, anyone?) and the Cloquet River with a good spot to ford and miles of trail on the other side! 

the Cloquet River

Gesa & Paco crossing the river

The trails we followed varied from old logging road (well packed, somewhat rocky, a few overhanging branches to dodge or duck) to wide, sandy ATV/snowmobile trail (perfect for cantering) to narrow, winding ski trails and spots where ATVs have just blazed their own routes through clear cuts and dense trees - these have to be travelled with caution on horseback because we are much taller than the ATVers and eyeball-poking branches abound.   The terrain is quite hilly (those glacial eskers) and gave the boys a good mix of technical trail and long trotting.  We eventually met a gravel road and turned around to retrace our steps.  We met a couple of nice fellows on ATVs who were able to tell us which road it was, so we hope to be able to trailer back there for more exploring and hopefully some spring riding when our home trails are all deep muck.  We completed about 16 miles, although the batteries on my GPS went dead about halfway through. 

Trotting down the snowmobile trail

Rhio sporting a festive red maple leaf in his mane (I braided it the wrong direction so it's upside down, showing the pink underside). 

Paco sporting his handsome new cooler

Back at the trailer, we relaxed a little and let the boys cool out a bit before loading.  We were using a 2-horse straight-load trailer, and I believe it was the first time I'd hauled Rhio in such a trailer.  He did not load well, to put it mildly!  It took about 30 minutes to get him in the trailer, and he appeared to be very anxious/afraid.  Paco was awesome, walking right on the trailer and standing there patiently the entire time, contentedly munching his hay.  Rhio would half-load, putting his front feet in, then suddenly panic, fling his head up, and rush back out of the trailer.  He would repeat this over and over again.  Once he did load, he stood quietly, ate his hay, and trailered just fine, so he didn't appear to be anxious of the trailer itself, just loading onto it.  I really couldn't figure it out, except that the following day I tried loading him on the left side instead of the right side, and it went much better (after trying for 30 minutes on the right side) and the second loading of the day he went in the left side after only 8 minutes.  I can't figure this out, and I wish I could practice at home with that trailer.  Was it really the side of the trailer that made a difference?  

We headed up the road to a lake home owned by relations of Gesa's, which is an old Finnish homestead.  What a great old place!  It has been shut up for several months, since the last visitors used it, so we had a little work to do getting the water turned on, etc.  We set the boys up with a pen for daylight hours and a high line for the night, and Gesa got a fire going in the wood stove in the sauna for later.  I threw some venison stew in the crock pot, and we enjoyed some wine, bread, and cheese while waiting for dinner and the sauna to heat up.  We got the boys settled on the high line in their winter blankets just after dark, as the forecast was for temps well below freezing overnight.  Rhio was acting much more stressed than is his normal, eating and drinking but less than normal.  He also stocked up severely in all four legs.  The sauna was lovely and relaxing after our day of riding, and we crawled into our comfortable beds ready for sleep.  

I slept on the second floor, beneath a beautiful quilt and with a window overlooking the high line and another overlooking the lake with a small deck.  

The view from my window of the boys. Paco is quite the macho gelding, sporting a pink blanket and hay bay! Gesa reported she peeked at them during the night and Rhio was laying down taking a snooze - that is good, since it is his normal routine.

The house is a lovely mix of modern conveniences (central heating, shower, laundry) and family heirlooms, including several photo albums full of old photographs and paintings on the walls done by one of the original owners.  The original part of the house is hand-hewn square logs and hardwood floors; you can tell it did not originally have central heating because every room has a door.  The kitchen is dominated by a combination wood-electric cook stove, which is fully functional.

The wood-burning side is on the left; the electric range is on the right.

The lake side of the house.

There are several original wood outbuildings, including a barn and a wood shed, which are filled with the various accumulated items typical of a family homestead passed down through the generations.  It is a beautiful, secluded spot and rich in so much family history.

One of the barn doors

Barn walls

Wood shed

Old rotten wooden rowboat

The lake

The boys seemed quite happy in the pen after a handwalk down to the public access picnic area/boat ramp where Rhio took a big drink out of the lake and both of them walked out onto the pier.  I figure, why not use every opportunity for training?  The pier was wide, wooden, and very sturdy - so count it as bridge-training and trust-building.  (Yes, I want you to follow me out onto this bridge that clearly goes nowhere.)  Rhio layed down to munch his hay and seemed totally at ease, despite his mild stress indicators from the day before.  

Ah, this is the life!

Waiting for us to finish packing up.

We took our time making breakfast, cleaning everything up, shutting the house back down, and heading out to another trail for an afternoon ride before heading home.  We tried the North Shore State Trail (snowmobile trail, so no guarantee that it's passable during non-frozen months due to frequent crossing of swampy areas) north of Two Harbors, and had a very successful 8 miles.  Our boys handled the terrain well, flying along at a pretty quick clip for the most part, feeling fired up and coping with the uneven ground and squishy areas with no complaints.  We crossed a couple of challenging bridges that looked scary due to extra boards running length-wise in addition to the cross boards and some with steep approach ramps.  We flushed up about a dozen grouse over the course of the ride.  

State Trail

I did land unexpectedly on the ground once, and have the bruises to show for it.  We were taking a break, I had dropped my reins on his neck and was drinking out of my water bottle when something behind us in the woods startled both of them, and Rhio just scooted out from under me.  I was so hoping to have an entire season without an unplanned dismount!  Alas, it was not meant to be :(  We found more trail in the area to explore, but had to cut our ride short in the hopes that Rhio would load and we could get home before dark. 

I rode most of the weekend in 4 boots - our usual setup of Renegades on the fronts and Gloves on the hinds.  We covered various terrain, including some mud and a river crossing, and the boots stayed in place and he didn't seem to have any trouble on the rough ground with tripping or otherwise having boot interference.  He does wear hind fetlock boots when booted, as he will knock himself.  Also, I discovered on Monday a small rub on his left hind from the gaiter, so I will have to try something to alleviate that.  I am hoping to ride a 50 miler on Friday and a 30 miler on Sunday in 3 weeks, our last ride of the year in Minnesota, and know I will have to use boots for some or all of that, just due to the distance.  I want to make sure I have any rubbing issues (or other issues!) dealt with before that. 

The end of a beautiful weekend