The saddle itself fit well, it gave me a nice even sweat mark and no soreness at all after the ride. He still has a little pink spot on his back from when he rolled before Gold Country, I gooped it up for the ride today but I think the flies are re-irritating it in the pasture and stopping it from healing entirely so I’ll  keep after it with the Trail-rite Magical Goo, my go-to for the persistent bug bite spots on Desire’s belly.

While chatting with N at the trailers, I suddenly noticed 2 or 3 bumps along Scrappy’s “arm pit” girth are and some small black spots of rubbed off hair. He was flinchy to the touch on bumps on both sides of the girth area, so he clearly didn’t like the synthetic cinch on the saddle and the pinned ears may well have reflected pinchy moments! I felt pretty bad about it but c’est la vie. I can but try. Next it’s wool/fleece or mohair girth for him..and Desitin is my friend..

So a win on the S Hack and hoof work, a possible win on the saddle fit, and a major lose in the girth department. The western saddle didn’t seem to move at all today, I may not need a crupper after all if I use this saddle, but we’ll see. Work at solving the Great Tack Puzzle must cotinue!

Scrappy looks like a lil cow pony in the western saddle I think!

 The Tack Puzzle is on hold for this weekend, however, as I leave Friday morning for Robie Park and will crewing for Karen Chaton and Bo again at Tevis! I am very much looking forward to it and wish the best of luck to all horses, riders, crews, vets, and volunteers participating in this amazing annual event. See you there!

This was almost a post full of inappropriate, barely veiled wiener jokes, but fortunately after giving everyone a good show of it Friday afternoon, Scrappy kept it in his pants the rest of the weekend. And therefor this will be a totally serious, no nonsense write up with just the facts–and the facts are, the ride vet actually opened his part of the Friday night meeting with a wiener joke! True story.

Anyway, the long and short of it–HAH–is that I have myself a seriously wonderful new horse. Rushcreek Tracer, “Scrappy,” is smart, sweet, quiet, engaged, cute, forward, smooth, and loves to eat and drink. He also apparently finds buckskin Mustangs rather inspiring, and as such went for our short ride Friday afternoon with his flag flying High! Keep in mind I’d had him for a week and have never taken an essentially unknown horse to a ride right off the bat like that. I didn’t know if he was going to mount something or WHAT was going to happen, but I did know that the scandalized ladies walking by whispering, “OMG, that horse had an erection!!!” had me almost as entertained as I was concerned. Despite the grand display Scrappy never escalated from there, he gave some throaty little stallion  nickers but would then see a horse or something else and wander off to eat. We rode the LD Saturday with N and Willow with no parts dangling in the breeze, so go figure. We’ll see if this is behavior only reserved for (very flirty) mares, but it was definitely ride camp entertainment of a different sort!

To backtrack, we left Friday morning, but barely. Thursday night my husband and I went out to feed together and found my 2 yr old, Sheza, dead lame with a super swollen left hind leg and mildly swollen right hind leg. We immediately set her up in a stall with fans (this was the end of a week straight of 105+ degrees), and hosed and iced her leg that night and the next morning. Sheza was cheery and eating but VERY lame, though this was also a dramatic 2 yr old’s first ever lameness so it may have looked worse than it was. She took to the hosing and ice boots impressively well, thank goodness, as neither of us had the emotional or physical energy left to be battling her to help her in the nasty heat. The swelling decreased slightly after hosings Thursday night and the lameness improved by Friday morning. I was a hot mess trying to decide if I should go the ride on my virtually unknown horse and potentially die or stay home and stare at my lame filly tragically. My husband reminded me my vet was gone til Monday anyway and told me to take a deep breath and go to my ride already, promising to keep on icing and hosing Sheza’s hind legs. Thank goodness I listened to him, grabbed Scrappy from the field, and went for it.

Hey guys, I just got here, am I leaving already?

 It was an uneventful 2 hr drive out to Georgetown and the shady Dru Barner ride camp, where we found J and Sedona already arrived and saving us a spot in the sturdy permanent camp corrals.

 Scrappy backed out of the straight load beautifully (his 2nd time in a straight) and went right to work on whatever food I would put in front of him. Here’s Scrappy settling in and Sedona the sexy Mustang lurking at the fence, saying “come here little boy, I’ll give you some candy!”

 Another local riding buddy, C, camped next to J and eventually N found us and moved her rig over next to us, too. We were all set up for another fun ride weekend!

 Scrappy had never worn boots until I tried them on him the weekend I bought him, so this ride made it his 2nd and 3rd time ever going in boots. I stuck with front Renegades only because I’ve heard so many stories of people trying out hind boots at rides with varying degrees of failure, and didn’t need to add yet another New Unknown to the equation. He had gone great in the Rennys through muck and water and speed and hills on our trial ride, so I felt good about his front boots.

 This was about the time in the tale that Scrappy started flying his flag, and as you know we tacked up and went for a ride in full glory, as it were. Again, barely knowing Scrappy, I just didn’t know what I was in for even riding at camp, let alone the whole surprise wang-dangler thing. Scrappy was just as happy to be out and moving as it appeared he was, and walked out nicely, did all I asked,  and was happy to get back to camp and settle down to eat some more. And eat he did, chowing a half bale of hay, a bag of carrots, and about 6 mashes in the 2 days we were there.

We vetted in with a pulse of 42 and all As but a B for impulsion. Turns out Scrappy is very unimpressed by trotting out for vets, something I clearly need to practice. He unenthusiastically jogged after me for Melissa Ribley who promptly said on our return, “You know, I thought he was lame but he just moves funny!” Be still my heart, I think I lost another year off my life when I heard the word “lame” come out of her mouth, after my week of toting Desire to Loomis and back for lameness only to discover that her filly was dead lame right before leaving for the ride. Scrappy was not in fact lame, he just doesn’t lift his feet very high and sort of paddles, so it does look a little funny, but is incredibly smooth to ride. Anyway we got our number chalked on up high above his big Rushcreek number and I started to breathe again.

Friday night J cooked us dinner–woohoo!–we went to the ride meeting at 8, and then it was bedtime. Well for us, not for all the camp, as there was some hootin’ and hollerin’ of both the horse and human kind for quite a while. I was pretty nervous that night, having no idea what I was in for at ride start in the morning, let alone throughout the 30 miles. He has a nice little record and is clearly a good, kind horse but I’ve been through and seen and heard enough drama in the last few years that I swear I was as nervous as if it were my first ride ever. At that point I was still wondering if he was going to go 30 miles with his junk out!!

 As usual I slept like total shit, but I could hear a fleece blanketed Scrappy steadily chewing away most of the night and that was reassuring. The 50 started at 6 am, while the 30 mile LD started at 8 am and at least one of the Ride N Ties started in between, maybe both, not sure. Camp on ride morning was the usual mix of pockets of frantic activity and moments of peace around the rigs where horses had already left. Sedona wasn’t happy to be taken away from Scrappy for tacking up but she settled in, and fortunately Scrappy was great. I tacked him at the trailer and he called and looked around if I walked away but if I was with him he was totally quiet and sweet and engaged with me. Really just a phenomenal heart and brain on this guy!

 After chatting with N about what sort of ride we both wanted, we agreed to ride together again and after letting the majority of riders head away out of sight, we hit the trail for our first AERC ride together!

Scrappy is quiet but he LOVES to go, just ask his perky ears 🙂

 I swear this photo could be Desire, especially since he’s wearing her gear

 They had switched the order of the loops this year but the trail was the same, so much of it was familiar to N and I, as we rode it together last year on Willow and Blaze. A lot of shady forested dirt road, some great single track, minimal technical footing, but a fair amount of grades. Not to say it was a steep or hilly ride necessarily, just that you were going up or down perhaps more often than you realized, with a few very short, steep sections thrown in as well.

 Trail marking was phenomenal, very clear with ribbons, plates, signs, and chalk on the ground. Water was plentiful with troughs and natural streams available and there were even a few standing puddles out on the trail between water troughs in the first half of the ride.

 We had a hard time finding a spot to ourselves for a while as we caught a few people but mostly people were catching and lingering ahead of us. Scrappy was happy to trot along or do his incredibly smooth, powerful little canter. He really is a powerful little engine and uses his hind end so naturally and well. We les, went beside, or tucked in behind Willow and at one point were literally cantering in a pack of horses and he seemed fine with it all. He only pulled at the bit a little when he wasn’t allowed to escalate to race mode but I think I only gave him one firm “Knock that shit off!” about anything, all day.

 The LD had one 30 minute vet check at 16 miles, out of camp, tack off optional, criteria 60 bpm. We trotted to the 1/4 mile to Vet sign then I hand walked him in and he pulsed at 48 immediately. The hold had loads of hay and horse mash and human food, and volunteers to stand with your horse if you needed to go pee in the bushes like I did! Melissa vetted us again with As and a 40/42 CRI, and then we failed miserably at the trot out. That is, Scrappy was in snooze and eat mode and was completely not buying this let’s trot for no reason thing. I drug him down and back at a walk, embarrassed, and then trotted him out and back again with the help of a guy waving a big cowboy hat around. The vet seemed sort of amused by him, since she could see by his look and other criteria he wasn’t sick or exhausted, he was just well, lazy I guess. I promised I would practice trotting out religiously at home and slunk back to our grub spot. I *will* practice trotting him out every time I pull him from the field, but I also have suspicions he’ll always be laid back about the trot out. It’s fine with me since he obviously knows to power down and go into conservation mode at checks and camp, but we certainly need to at least do a presentable mellow jog if nothing else, haha.

When we headed out from the hold Scrappy took about a mile to be excited about going again.

Soon enough he was all business again as we headed steadily back to camp, and supposedly past it for a “trot-by” check, though when we went by there was no vet present, then out past camp on the last little 6 mile loop. Scrappy was not amused about being back at camp but not being allowed to go sleep and eat, and with the gravelly footing at the start of the loop we slowed down to a steady meander for a while. I will definitely be booting him in the hind in the future, as he took the occasional ouchy step on the worst of the gravel, but the front boots worked flawlessly once again.

The last loop was beautiful and green and forested, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from this unpleasant toasty moment out on gravel just before it got pretty:

 See, it’s already way prettier!

 Even had a nice view point at a break in the trees

 N and I were sweaty and filthy and happy to be almost done as we both hand walked our horses up  the last hill and out around camp to the Finish. Scrappy’s pulse was 42 at the Finish and he walked quiet as a lamb back to his food pile.

Predictably he barely trotted out for the final check, this time not for Melissa, so I mentioned the crappy impulsion grades even at check in and the vet agreed that he could see Scrappy was a quiet horse who was a little tired rather than a completely exhausted horse who could barely trot. Scrappy did have 2 little ouchy spots under the saddle which I’ll address by rechecking fit but also experimenting with a crupper and remembering to ride with a tighter girth. I had some issues with my saddle sliding around on his short round body and a crupper might be a very good thing, though I’ve honestly never trained a horse to one before. I don’t doubt Scrappy would humor the human and wear a fluffy strap under his tail if he was asked, that’s the sort he is!

We stayed for a delicious ride dinner and I wasn’t feeling my usual impulse to pack like the wind and get home, so I stayed the night again. Most of camp left Saturday night, including J and Sedona, but Scrappy once again impressed me by sending Sedona off with a few whinnies before turning back to his mash and quietly eating and sleeping alone for the rest of the night.

I couldn’t be happier with this little grey horse! He is out in the field right now, still eating like a champ. I just knew we were going to have some funny ride moments together and sure enough there were some serious laughs on our very first outing. I am so looking forward to what’s ahead for us!

LOOK, Wieners!

** In other news, Desire is looking good moving around in her paddock, I am to start riding her and see how she feels in about about week. Sheza’s swelling and lameness have both decreased markedly today, though both hinds are still visibly swollen. Calling my vet at least for a chat in the morning..

I’m generally pretty inclusive on all details of my horsey life on this blog, but now it’s time for a little confession. There was a fairly significant, kind of amusing part of the Wild West  story from a few weekends ago that I left out, and is best explained by the title:

“Is it that Grey?”

The night before I left for Wild West a sale listing for an 8 yr old 14.2 hand grey Rushcreek gelding came up on my local Craigslist. With Desire’s trail future uncertain, Blaze content cruising LDs, and Sheza a few years out from saddle work, I’ve always got my eye out for that just right 6-10 yr old partner to do 50s and multi-days with as my teenagers age and my filly grows up. Joey was a cool horse and great learning experience and I am happy that I set him on a path to his new home where he is well suited and enjoyed daily, just as I am grateful and happy to now welcome Rushcreek Tracer, or “Scrappy,” who I think is the perfect steady partner for me.

Back to the story, I exchanged a quick flurry of emails with the folks selling him and they assured me they would in fact be heading to Wild West themselves and would bring the gelding along for folks to look at. What good fortune! I’ve driven hours and hundreds of miles to look at horses, and here was a great prospect of the right age, size, and experience, being brought to the very spot we were headed! Too good to be true, I wondered? I knew Rushcreek’s had a great reputation for sound bodies and minds, and this guy Scrappy, AERC# H48905,  had a pretty darn solid record with no pulls after 2 LDs, 2 50s, and a successful go at the Virginia City 100 miler last year!

So basically, when I wasn’t riding 2 LDs or joshing around camp I was making endless circles around the Wild West camp with J or N going, “is that the grey?” “wait, is THAT the grey?” There were actually a few Rushcreek greys there that weren’t him, and then there was this cute, stout little guy with a smushy smeared illegible maybe-brand? standing next to a clearly branded Rushcreek. N and I thought we had found Scrappy on Friday night, but we were never sure until Sunday when I saw the young couple walking by with a Rushcreek grey and piped up. Turns out that little stout grey from Friday night WAS Scrappy, and yes his Rushcreek clover is terribly smudged. Just gives him character, right! 🙂

After liking the look and air of him at Wild West, we made plans and met at Spenceville last Saturday and rode 6 or 7 miles with a few nice hills in 100+ heat. Scrappy had never worn boots and gently, non-dramatically tried to lay down when I put a boot on his front hoof. We said NO and he stood right back up politely. After a firm word the Renegades went right on nicely and he stepped out in them with no issue.

Scrappy decked out in a hodge podge of gear, but it worked! 

We went through a few streams and some majorly sucking mud and trotted and cantered hills without a single boot issue. Got to love Renegades! Scrappy was a steady, mostly confident, but non aggressive ride. He has a very kind eye and Blaze’s zen-like air to him, but is a business-like mover and really steps out at the walk and gets er done at the trot. He liked to cut off the other horse in close quarters but wasn’t mean about it, and he jog-trotted away from them happily on a loose rein. His movement is efficient, non flashy, not a lot of knee action. Comfortable to ride and feels like he’ll go forever. He has a short neck and is very good with his feet, so I seriously need to learn to sit back and relax instead of being up in his face steering like I do on my other horses. He uses his hind end as a surprisingly powerful and steady motor of his own volition and is a pleasure to ride. I finished the ride in a halter with no bit. He looks at things and will smoothly slide away if he thinks the footing isn’t great, but there was not a single spook to be had, hallelujah. He ate everything he could and drank at the stream crossings, and was thisclose to drinking out of my water bottle back at the trailers. He likes to sniff everything and likes goodies, for sure!

After the ride we cooled the horses in the creeks and I gave them a deposit. 🙂

 

 My appointment this morning with Desire was at the new Loomis Equine Vet Facility in Penryn which was in fact a few streets over from where Scrappy lived. The plan was to spend a few hours at the vet, load Scrappy in with Desire, and head home. It was hot, like 105+ hot.

At Loomis facility, it’s very clean and nice! 

Yeah well, that’s why there are plans A, B and C, right? Turns out they had me listed under the wrong doctor, so in fact the lameness specialist that I needed was busy until tomorrow and would most likely get the extent of the exam and work up done Wednesday morning. Board including feed and mashes was reasonable at $28 a night, we’d hauled this far, and considering the worsening heat of the afternoon I didn’t mind her getting worked with earlier in the day instead.

Desire checking out the barn

 It was incredibly weird to leave her there but leave her we did, and they promised to call regularly with updates as the doctor got to her and the work up progressed. The vet we talked with did watch her walk and trot out and did a quick evaluation confirming a definite deterioration in her left flank and some short striding/lameness in that left hind. So, the wait continues!

Bye Desire, be good. She promptly took a huge pee and crap in her stall, btw, classic 🙂

 We picked up Scrappy pretty non eventfully. He had never been in a straight load and was certainly concerned about it, but totally willing to try when the gal asked him to go in. He stepped in, out, in, out, and with futher encouragement made it cautiously all the way in and started gobbling hay. All right, good boy!

On the way out we noticed we were leaking what looked like transmission fluid and we had a rather tense haul home, to say the least! The tranny is definitely leaking and the truck is going in first thing in the morning but THANKFULLY we made it home safely.

Here’s Scrappy checking out his digs, currently in the big front field with the goats, and the Blaze/Sheza/ mini herd sharing a fenceline.

They were all enthusiastic to see him, then noticed maybe it wasn’t Desire and paused a good while before continuing down to meet him.

 This is very flashy for him, I sent this to his previous owners and she said she had never seen him so animated. Go guy!

 Surprised and swerving away from the white lurking goat

 Sheza has decided it’s time to go say HI

 They hung in the shade and then came charging back up the hill when they saw me in the pasture topping off the troughs. Pretty picture seeing he and the filly power trot up the hill. towards me!

 Enjoying the shade

 The dorks coming to say hi, but Sheza had to spook at the water trough on the way by, Haha

 Blazer looking good after his multi day experience

The horses are still striding around checking out who’s who and I’ll check on them again in a few at feeding time. Not sure I’ll make Gold Country ride this weekend as planned, my priorities now are getting the truck fixed and getting Desire home hopefully Wednesday but maybe Thursday at this rate. We’ll see!

Hey–Welcome home Scrappy!

After 2 days of steady rain, everything has been washed clean and more importantly–rock hard summer hooves have all been miraculously softened for a day or two! I seized the opportunity to trim Desire’s hooves this morning and Ah, yes, despite her maniacal mare machinations–think constant lean, twist, turn torque–it was *much*easier to whip through all four hooves. I was pretty pleased with my trim so of course forgot to take photos! D’oh. She did have some stinky thrushy areas in each foot which is par for the course for her. Even without the damp factor she is constantly shitting like a brontosaurus and standing in it. I clean her hangout areas and feet as often as possible but she really is a piglet. Anyway I sprayed good ole Vetericyn in there which so far has made a difference quickly on the thrush.

If I close my eyes, maybe she’ll disappear 

 After major mare spa time I called Loomis Basin Equine Clinic and got us an appointment for next Monday at 11 am. I told them I thought I needed ultrasounds on her left hind leg with a brief overview of the situation. Because really, I’m not totally sure what I need. I’ve detected that she is intermittently lame/short striding on her left hind, and after flexion tests it was clear to my vet as well. She seemingly has muscle wasting in her left flank but was negative for EPM. Her hind legs creak and crack and she seems to have some difficulty holding herself up for trims, or at least will teeter on the toe of one hind hoof when I work on fronts, and sort of fall out from under herself even when the hoof is let down very slowly. I have used various joint supplements on her in the couple of years I’ve owned her and she is currently on Smartpak Smartflex III.

Ugh, boring, feed me or point me down a trail

 So that’s the lay of the land. I’ve never hauled a horse in to a vet for anything before, honestly. I’ve always had vets that came out to the barn, and have been really lucky on injuries/drama (knocking on all available wood). Desire and Blaze are my first horses that I’ve had at the time of aging into their late teens, and I have no experience with hind end/leg issues like Desire’s. So as much as I am terrified to find out from ultrasounds or xrays that there is all sorts of Wrong in there, I am also incredibly ready for answers. The forecast for Monday calls for 102 degrees, so I may be breaking out the electrolytes as if going on an endurance ride, with the stress and heat!

Gawd, she still isn’t gone is she, I’ll just rub my leg and squint real hard and maybe then POOF! she’ll turn into a big bucket of mash

Quick note, Blaze is looking and feeling great and is back bossing his mini, filly, and 2 goats around like that 55 miles never even happened. 🙂

 I had never been to the Wild West Pioneer 3 day ride before, or even Skillman horse camp itself, despite it only being about an hour and a half haul from home. I’m very glad I’ve rectified that and have now discovered what a beautiful camp Skillman is and how much fun Wild West is. After a turbulent start to the year and ongoing soundness issues with my mare, this ended up being my first ride of the 2013 season. I was so incredibly glad to be back in a ride camp and saddling up for an AERC ride or two, and all the shade and gorgeous scenery only made camping with friends and my little pony that much better.

To begin at the beginning, here’s Blaze and I, ready to head out for ride camp on Thursday morning:

It was just Blaze and I, and our little crew gremlin, Georgia:

I met up with J and her niecewith their rig  at a convenient gas station on the route and we followed each other the short drive up past Grass Valley to Skillman horse camp:

woohoo!

J was planning on 2 or 3 LDs and I planned on Friday and Sunday’s LDs. Our good trail buddies N and Willow arrived that afternoon too with plans to ride Friday and Sunday, and we soon had a neat little camp made up with our three rigs.

$5 olive barrel+spigot+length of hose= this simple camper doesn’t haul water buckets! Love it.

J & S setting up camp

Camp was beautiful and shady and I was glad I didn’t need the canopy I hadn’t brought. I know everyone places value on various features of ride camps (proximity to water, bathrooms, etc) but lots of natural shade is *the ticket* for this redhead to be happy!

Parking ended up perfect so that I had about the only flat spot to set up my tent, Arabian Nights lite edition:

N has arrived and we’re all cozied in a great camp spot, complete with picnic table

And here is where the title comes in. Starting on Thursday afternoon,  Blaze decided he wanted absolutely nothing to do with his own hay. The flake of hay hanging in the bag you see below, on Thursday night, remained there until we left Sunday night, while the flake of grass hay in front of him in the picture is from J, who together with N, kindly fed my horse all weekend!  I know the old “endurance horse wants everyone else’s food” thing but really, this was a whole new level. I think he took 2 bites of the hay I brought, and ate half of J’s bale and flakes of various types from N.

 He also unenthusiastically ate all of 2 mashes while we were there, and only deigned to finish the second because N poured it in one of her buckets for him to eat! We decided to experiment after that and sure enough he wasn’t wild about the same mash now poured back in one of *my* other buckets of the same brand and color as N’s. I swear I wasn’t trying to poison my horse at any point! Well besides the awful salty crap (Endura-max Plus) that I syringed into his mouth Friday and Sunday morning, but boy, he sure drank phenomenally all weekend thanks to that! Blaze is a picky eater at the best of times but he was in full mooch mode at this ride. I am just so glad and grateful I was camped with generous friends!

I slept great Thursday night and had hope I might be creating a new ride camp sleep pattern, but no, only that one night. Still, that 9 pm-4 am hard sleep Thursday night was glorious! I was super toasty in my tent under a blanket and sleeping bag with my little gremlin crew dog on my feet. There were rigs arriving and departing until midnight every single night of this ride, which wasn’t exactly peaceful, but I generally sleep like crap at rides anyway, so oh wells!

Friday morning the 30 miler started at 7:30, and having been wide awake since 5 am and with the shorter distance I had plenty of time to get ready with what little I needed. The one vet check was about halfway through and was back in camp so I only grabbed a few saddle bag snacks that I never ended up eating, but did bring my bottle of Redmond electrolyte capsules and did my best to take one every hour, in my continuing search to balance my hydration and eating and avoid headaches and feeling crappy as I’m prone to at any ride, LD or otherwise. 

Blaze ready, Friday morning

J and Sedona ready to head out on the Friday LD also

As I said I syringed half a tube of Endura-max Plus into Blaze at the start, and again at the vet check back in camp. It worked GREAT and he drank the whole weekend, whether out on the trail or hitting the troughs on our frequent walks around camp. He even drank from a stream which isn’t usually his style!

Heading out, Day 1 LD

Trail marking was great, with ribbons and very helpful arrows on neon signs. The trails were a mix of awesome single track, some wider dirt road, and some really really rocky, nasty stuff. I always train and ride Blaze barefoot in the hind as he is a little narrow back there and has an old injury, about a 1″ bulb, on the inside of his left hind fetlock that makes interference even more likely and painful when booted or shod. He has done rocky rides like Whiskeytown Chaser while barefoot in the hind without issue but this ride I was definitely nervous on both days with the amount of rocks and gnarly footing. Let me say, the footing was generally not bad at all, especially if your horse was fully booted and protected, but in his case, in those bad sections, I was nervous. I haven’t had success putting anything on his hinds without interfering though, so I just put on his hind splint boots and prayed, and luckily we came through all right.

N and Willow and Blaze drinking, on the trail Day 1

Blaze was a bit of a giraffe for most of the LD, sticking his nose in the air and just generally giving me the horse finger when I asked him to slow down and pay attention while behind Willow. His terrible farm plug walk made him instantly fall behind at the walk, which resulted in constant jigging/trotting to catch up. N and I switched off leading and it did work pretty well, aside from the giraffe horse trick which is rather uncharacteristic for him and did lead me to wonder about his teeth. To be sure he was more UP than usual, and hasn’t been to a ride since Gold Country last year, but I thought the nose in the sky was a bit severe even for those circumstances, and N agreed. I didn’t feel anything sharp in his mouth but I’m no dental expert and may just see if he needs one as it’s been a while.

We came into the lunch vet check in good form and timing, where Blaze took a few minutes to pulse down as usual, we had a clear A’s and no worries vet check, and then headed back to the trailers to take care of whatever quick things we could in a 1/2 hr hold. J’s niece was super helpful and had a turkey/veggie wrap all made up for me to eat when I got there–score!

Soon enough it was time to go again!

I didn’t really get a good photo to capture some of the nastier rockier bits as I was too busy trying to steer my giraffe safely through, but here’s a rocky patch in the afternoon of Day 1:

N and I are generally conscientious of giving space at troughs but Blaze and Willow quickly became best drinking buddies and shared troughs for the rest of the weekend.

Love those arrows marking the trail!

Most of the trail was shady and we only got a little warm in the afternoon, but nothing uncomfortable. I continued to take my Redmond capsules and N was kind enough to give me a spare bottle of water when I had drunk all of mine.

This was as cool narrow bit of trail between the trees! N and Willow enjoying the afternoon on Day 1’s LD

After riding along the top, we dropped down into the trench briefly, very cool trail! 

After being pretty confident on our trail routes for most of the ride we got concerned in the last few miles. We knew where we were but weren’t sure by the signs if we were on the right track or had missed a turn for a few more miles before the Finish. We were close to the Finish and had about an hour and by my GPS should have had a few more miles to do, so we decided to ride into the Finish and see if we were in the right or needed to head back out and find what we missed. N and I were both kind of ready to be done after being mentally done and then suddenly questioning if we needed to go back out, but luckily the volunteers at the Finish line assured us we had followed the trail correctly and were in fact done! Both horses pulsed in, drank well, and it was off to untack and get our final Vet check.

drinking at the Finish, Day 1

Blaze did great, got A’s, and was ready for a nap. This was my first AERC ride since becoming my horses’ full time hoof care person and it was really nice to get that first completion with Blaze sound as a dollar!

Blaze’s gf Willow

N and I were already planning to sit out Saturday and after a Top 10 Finish Friday, J decided to join us chilling out on Saturday. We were already twiddling our thumbs by mid morning when a volunteer rushed up and said someone needed to drive one of the ride vets to the hospital and someone needed to trailer a horse in trouble to the out vet check since the sick ride vet was unable to check the horse here at camp. N was kind enough to bail her bed and camping gear out of her trailer and take the tied up horse out to the vet check while we offered to drive Dr. Lydon to the hospital but he said he didn’t want to go.

N gone to help

Fortunately the horse was fine and Dr. Lydon was fine as well, in fact rode with us some on the LD on Sunday! N came back and got resettled in and Blaze helped out by grocery shopping in her truck some more:

The vetting area in camp was super dusty and powdery and Blaze rolled there every day. He loves to roll and was very fond of the vetting area!

Dusty man

Friday and Saturday night’s Blaze was anything but quiet. Rigs were arriving and departing until the wee hours and Blaze was pacing around at the trailer, yelling, for most of it. Saturday night I even went out and stood there talking to him and trying to chill him out. The downside of my cozy nest in the tent next to the trailer was that I could feel his stompy steps in my very bones as I tried to sleep! Fortunately my camping buddies said he didn’t bother them and I chalked it up to just more standard crappy sleep at ride camp.

Sunday’s LD didn’t start until 9:30 and the morning dawned grey with a promise of rain to come. I was awake early as usual and after another night of crappy sleep I decided to get everything packed before the ride started so I could head home after the ride. By the time I needed to tack up my tent was down and the only thing left to pack was Blaze’s buckets.

Tacked up and ready

What, you didn’t know Blaze was part mule? Ready to go, Day 3 LD

J headed out with the front runners on the LD and N and I followed, farther back in the pack.

The trails on Sunday were just gorgeous. A few miles of absolutely terrible rocky footing before the lunch vet hold, which I mostly walk/jogged down, but otherwise lovely forested trails and great footing.

We caught up to the much recovered Doc Lydon on his 21 year old stud and he cruised along behind us for a while until his pace jogging on foot down the rocky hill took him on past us. It’s always fun to chat with him and we were so glad he had recovered enough to be out riding!

the lovebirds drink

Blaze in the lead with N and Dr. Lydon behind, enjoying the gorgeous forest and cool grey day

hey there they are! Over the shoulder shots are almost always blurry but I had to put this one in. Love to see N’s smiling face and Lydon’s awesomely dapper duds

I could tell by his sloppy feet that Blaze was a little tired as we headed down to the 1/2 hr vet check. He had never done more than one day before and was clearly questioning my sanity on the whole thing. Still Willow was trucking along in front of us and kept us going.

Walking down to the vet check

hearing riders coming in both directions

The vet check was in a huge meadow in beautiful Bear Valley. I didn’t get a great shot of it because it was raining lightly by then and N and I were both concerned with our horse’s getting cold and shivery. Fortunately both Willow and Blaze ate from the second we got in the hold until the minute we left, and neither shivered. They had hay and carrots and people water and snacks at the hold which was great.

munchmunchmunch

Heading back out from the vet check Blaze was really not amused. I noticed one of N’s hind boots had broken a cable as we left the vet check, so she ended up finishing the ride barefoot in the hind like us. Fortunately we were almost done with the nastiest footing by then and all was well.

Climbing a neat single track switchback trail

Looking back at Bear Valley

The trails that afternoon were beautiful and as the rain let up some sunshine even peeked through here and there. Blaze perked up after another rider passed us and was really jamming through the good footing.

Just. So. Pretty.

Drinking at a creek, yay Blaze and Willow!

Unsettled skies but the weather was pretty kind to us

We reached common trail I recognized before long and were almost done. Blaze was still moving out nicely, even breaking to a nice canter in our last nice flat footing before the short climb down to the road in to the Finish. We pulled bits and loosened girths as soon as we got to the road and Blaze gobbled the entire Ziploc of carrots I had. It thrills my heart when he gobbles like Desire does as it’s so rare! Both horses pulsed right through at the Finish line and that was that!

being ADD at the Finish line with his ADD buddy Willow

who? where? horses? camp? Are we done? 

We vetted through with a B on guts and all A’s otherwise, and his CRI was 40/44! I was really really happy with that. He was absolutely tired, and by the time I was done fussing with him he was pretty cranky and telling me to back off so he could eat in peace. Fortunately his version of cranky is a light Elvis lip curl and moving away from me, pretty mild.

Leave me alone Human. seriously.

Okay, I left him alone eventually, but I had to take one last picture with Blaze before leaving him in peace to eat. Those that have met him know how cool he is, and words can’t totally express it to those who haven’t, but here are some words just the same.

Blaze is barely 14 hands tall and now 17 years old  +/-, with no papers, and almost zero info on his history before I bought him for a few hundred dollars 4 years ago. He doesn’t eat or drink well without serious intervention and is a very tiring ride with his lofty trot and clumsy feet.  But more than that he is lovable, incredibly zen, and just Good. He was the first horse I ever transitioned from steel shod to barefoot, so it’s exciting to see him completing challenging rides with bare hind feet and booted fronts! Blaze and I have gotten ribbons at gymkhanas, team sorted cows under the 3 minute time limit, given many kids and a few adults their first ever horseback rides,and spent many many hours and miles on the trail together. We now have 190 AERC LD miles and while that may not be grand or impressive to many, it means the world to me. We’ll never win or dazzle, but we’ll always have fun and have each other’s backs. I just love the silly, picky, dusty little bugger.

Ride dinner, farewells, and the sunset on the drive home…

 Erm, not so nice on the faded green, Sheza! 

 I cleaned up their hooves today and got a few pictures of the redheaded filly beast, since it’s been a while. Sheza is 26 months old now:

 Looking at her mom in the paddock next to us and wondering why I’m lurking behind her with a flashy thing

She hasn’t been gaining much height in the last few months but she is certainly getting nice and stocky for an Arab her age! Her neck is even filling out some and remember, that’s Blaze’s halter her fat head is filling!

 Sheza was pretty good for her trim again, a few hoof pulls but no hugely dramatic spazzing. That makes 2 trims in a row without Major Spazzes! When she did pull her hoof or hop around a little Desire always nickered at her. The tender side of me says she was telling her to stand quietly but the realistic side knows it’s Desire so it was more likely, “Yeah kid, jump around, get crazy!”

Blaze has general contempt for being clean and tidy. Actually even if you halter him,walk out, turn in a circle, and put him right back in the pasture he will roll and roll like he’s been contaminated. Certainly keeps him flexible and well adjusted!

 Ah, dusty with some hay in my hair, much better!

 Blaze’s topline has improved a LOT since earlier in the year. He carries himself pretty well naturally and does collect well without playing giraffe too often, and all this riding has brought his back up again nicely. Love it! Also this is Blaze where you can just slightly feel/see his ribs, and he still has “belly.” For all you haters out there who have to declare to me that my horse is “just FAT!” as some lady did at the trail head the other day!

 “I tell ya kid, it’s a hard life”

 The gang of 3, and Sheza is the tallest at 14.2! Haha

 Loving her solid build! She doesn’t need to get a whole lot taller, really!

 Blaze marched over and nosed my head saying, “hey, stop taking picture of her and scratch my withers!”

Gear is starting to pile up in front of the tack room for this weekend. Heading out early Thursday and will be home either Sunday night or Monday, depending on how it all goes. Our plan is the LDs Friday and Sunday. The ride isn’t far from me and Sunday’s LD is only a 25 and starts at 9 so I could realistically pack up in the morning before the ride, do the 25, and be home for supper. Then again I think there is a banquet Sunday and as it’s the only dinner at the ride I wouldn’t want to miss all that! My crew husband is going to stay home but will probably run up one of the days with the dogs to say hello. Can’t wait for the ride!