There’s simply nothing like a squinty eyed, Elvis-lip curling, ear pinning, squealy mare! God bless em they drive me nuts and yet they’re always my favorites. Desire wasn’t quite that bad today but she did pull out a new squealy mare trick that wasn’t appreciated or encouraged by me but was *kinda* funny in that eye-roll-inducing sort of way.

We joined D and her gelding Bob at the lake again this morning, and a friend of her’s I’d never met, C, also joined us with her very cute gelding Jasper. Jasper was rescue bound last year but fortunately D got him to C instead and they seem like a great match. Jasper hasn’t had a lot of trail time but really seemed to enjoy himself today. D’s Bob was also a “salvaged” horse and has really turned into a cool little gelding. He is the quintessential cute, compact QH in build and proved himself to be a little competitor on the trails today.

D on Bob on the left, C on Jasper on the right:

The weather was weird and unsettled this morning, gusty wind and very chilly when the sun was behind the clouds. You can see my windblown lady in her Gloves before I tacked up:

We started out on the 6ish mile horse camp loop since it’s the friendlier ground for a mellow trail ride. Desire walks like WOW and I spent most of the first loop out in front with the other’s trotting to catch up or Desire stopping for grass breaks til they caught up. Whenever they caught up and got right behind us with the potential threat of passing us (at least in Desire’s kooky mind) she would do her usual hairy eyeball and ear swivel but on top of that, today she also squealed each time! Total witchy brat! She has never done that before and I wasn’t having any of it. Towards the end of the loop we realized it was mostly Bob that was getting the squeals, as he is also a front-runner in attitude and was being cranky about being behind. Desire behaves very differently from horse to horse and apparently she was feeling the heat from Bob because the squeal thing is a new level! She can be quite mellow and even loving if a horse is non threatening, even another mare, as she and N’s mare Willow are quite good buddies. Desire is always tenser and more competitive with C’s athletic gelding Sonny though she has never pulled the squeal trick around him. Mares just never stop surprising us I guess!

The sun kept trying to come out for the day but then the clouds and wind would kick up again…it was a sweater shirt on, sweat shirt off, sweat shirt on, sort of day.

Had a ride photographer moment and caught D and C both coming around the same corner:

D & Bob:

C & Jasper:

Aww, Bob is such a cute little QH man:

We rode down to the water for some drinking/splashing/grazing:

We finished up the horse camp loop and ran into my friend, B, the horse trainer gal we bought our property from, back at the parking lot. She was heading out for a ride ponying her Arab the way we had just come from. C’s Jasper hadn’t had a lot of trail time as I mentioned and she had a longer drive home than us so C loaded up and headed out; D and I took little a little break at the trailers and then got back on the horses and headed out to climb the ridge to the visitor center. Desire’s snotty behavior had left something to be, well, desired, and D is always game for more riding so away we went.

Desire (alertly) chilling before the second part of the ride:

 D and I trotted up the long hill to the visitor center and decided to call it at a day at the water trough at the top, Bob was finally looking tuckered out after the long trotting climb–not bad for a QH!–and
Desire had been behaving better–besides, the humans were hungry! We chatted and were riding side by side on the way back down the hill, there was some serious eye balling and walking races going on between the two horses but they *did* go side by side on fairly narrow trails and the squealing had almost entirely subsided.

lovely flowers…

All in all we did almost 13 miles in 3 hrs and 40 minutes, a nice relaxed ride on what turned out to be a beautiful day. D and I stopped for a quick lunch on the way home and the horses were quiet and chomping away at their hay in their respective trailers which was nice. Note to self: don’t be too lazy to reopen the annoying, hard-to-open trailer tack door and end up throwing the sweaty saddle pad in the truck cab to cook while eating lunch..it smelled a real treat in there when I got in the truck to drive home!

Cleaning up when I got home and noticed my bridles and breast collars were looking a little grubby..Nothing like washing your tack, boy, it’s arduous 😉

Good luck to Funder and Dixie  at Washoe this weekend, they’ll be riding in the 50 on Sunday! Happy trails to all, should be a beautiful weekend for horse play.

I know, this is supposed to be an endurance blog, or at least a horse related blog..well, it’s my blog. So here is what we got up and running tonight after rummaging through our storage yesterday and unearthing a big glass treasure:

That’s how our fish roll:

In horsey news, did a fun, relaxed 13 miles on Blaze today at the lake, joined by C and Sonny. N was supposed to join us and and meet C but her mare wasn’t feeling well this morning. Fortunately she is feeling better as of this evening!

Sonny and Blaze were SO laid back today it was too funny, especially considering the jigging jigger Sonny was less than a year ago. He is a very different horse these days! My butt hurt by the end of the ride just from all the slow walking today. Defying the “crazy Arab” stereotype, those two were! Though Blaze did a couple dramatic spooks and had one mini bucking fit when Sonny got to canter up a hill and he wasn’t allowed to join. Blaze’s “bucks” just make me smile.

Some boot issues and jerry rigging in that department today, mostly because I need to stop being cheap and just order a new gaiter for Blaze’s Epic already..I’ll get there..

Some VERY unsavory new neighbors have moved onto the proverbial block as of last week. It’s a local horse rescue with a well deserved bad reputation but a scary amount of uninformed financial support. They moved into the big empty dairy property on the corner and we’ve been treated to the sweet sounds of their donkey yelling all day for the last 4 days since they arrived. And there are now about 20 horses in a few tiny cross fenced areas on the corner, all turned out in ratty halters. Oh. Joy. The place is notorious for Strangles running rampant among un-quarantined rescue horses, and I’ll be keeping me and mine as far away as possible when being almost immediate neighbors..UGH.

LOVE this one, she is so gorgeous (and I don’t mean me!):

Second loop, charging it in the afternoon. Would make a cool Easyboot ad, no? I have a more zoomed out one where you can see the rocks and boots even better, just sayin’ 😉

Look at that tail behind me!

 Wilbur wiener has the need, the need for speed! He ran and ran and ran and ran up the hill until his little stumpy legs couldn’t run anymore, and then joined my husband in the driver’s seat:

Beavis and Butthead  Tady and JJ. These are two very happy, dorky dogs. J has had them since before I met him and they are reflections of what an engaged, adventurous, happy dog owner/trainer he is:

JJ is part Catahoula and has the spotted tongue and bizarre yodel:

The road winds away back down the hill in the distance..what a great place we live in for riding and fishing and all our adventures! I just love it.

Crazy-eyes-thumbs-up pictures are kind of a family tradition. No, seriously. In keeping, (and conclusion) I’ll share this:

I’ve known them for a few years now but they used to live up the hill in Paradise and we didn’t often see each other, and in fact probably hadn’t crossed paths in reality for about a year now. We got back in touch via good ole Facebook the other day and scheduled this ride.

 Last time I saw little T she wasn’t too keen on the whole horse situation, she would participate some but wasn’t horse-crazy like her mom had been hoping. What a difference a  year makes! As I mentioned T was riding Emmy in just a bareback pad today, and has become a real little cowgirl. Emmy is a really smooth nice horse but has a bit of a mare opinion at times, but T did really well with her and we walked, trotted, and cantered on the “private” trails. At a snack break we were all dismounted relaxing and D said, “Hey T, show her your trick.”  I had no idea what to expect as T put her hand low, Emmy dropped her head to her hand, T grabbed Emmy’s neck just behind her head in a bear hug and Emmy *tossed* T up over her neck and onto her back. Then T turned around to face the right way, Ta Da! It was a *slick* trick and I so wasn’t expecting it.

The connector of the loop was underwater and T was dead set on getting in there, so in she went! D joined her but Blaze was content to graze on the shore and play photographer’s mount.

Gotta love kids:

Yeehawww!

Gotta dump those boots after a good swim:

Lots of flowers today:

“Hey Mom, let’s canter to dry off!”  and I quote 🙂

It was a great mellow 6.5 miles in a couple of hours, totally enjoyable. During a particularly exuberant canter up a hill the gaiter ripped off of Blaze’s Epic as it’s been threatening to (I bought the pair well used) but I took the screws out and can easily put a new gaiter on. His heels have dropped so much he may be able to go in Gloves soon!

Congrats to Irish Horse and Major at Trails and Trials for completing their first AERC LD today at the American River Classic, and congrats to my Cuyama XP buddy A and her non-stop awesome stallion for finishing another 50 at ARC, this time in the tough Pioneer division! Keep it rocking in the free world ladies, what a beautiful weekend for all sorts of riding!

Gate corner After…

and a larger view..

Wahoo! I rock. We really need to buy a rototiller one of these days…just one more thing on a long list! Still, great to have my arena back! Some really nice footing under that compacted top.