I finally had a chance to take Desire out for a ride this morning, and we had a nice 7 mile jaunt up the ridge and back. It was about 50 degrees and I was cozy in my down vest for the first time this fall! Yes, I can say that, it IS fall now!

Desire still has a semi-perm from wearing braids all summer, I love the wave

 Fall Colors

 My muscley gal checking out the old bridge

  “There, I kinda flexed, can we turn and go home now?”

 We let our solo SuperTurkey, Lex, out to free range around the property during the day and he is having a great time following any and all humans around and alarming the horses with his popping and clucking and gobbling.

“what the sam hell is this thing doing out?”

 Sheza was shoving her nose in my arms at Desire’s halter after I put D away so I considered that volunteering for a pedicure. By the way, Desire’s halter did *almost* fit Sheza, the nose piece is too wide but otherwise fit better than her own once-again outgrown halter. Sheza seemed quite chuffed to be coming out of the pasture on her own, despite mini Napoleon and momma Desire yelling and causing a ruckus when I took her away. She is 18 months old, 14.2 hands, and will be wearing a 58-60″ blanket this winter.

 “This is my mommy’s girth, I smell her on it, I shall EAT IT!” 

 My hoof photos turned out terrible and mostly blurry as usual, so this is all I got. With my cheap dull knife and crappy rasp I worked on getting the dead sole out, drawing her heels back, cleaned up some heel tags, and gave her the best mustang rolls I could without a hoof stand. Her frogs shed off in one piece on both front feet. I worked on her bars as best I could with my mediocre tools as well. Not perfect, but it’s a start. She has lots of toe on the hinds and I need to take care of those asap. My kingdom for some nippers and a hoof jack.

Left front, work in progress

 Left front, drawing back the heels

 Right front, untouched

 Since recovering from the rusty nail incident, Joey has been quite full of himself, tearing around his paddock at speed “WEE LOOK at MEEE I’m SOUND!” and challenging Blaze more and more.

 “who, moi? I am innocent and angelic.”

  Due to his injury and lack of time, the trainer hasn’t worked him in a few weeks. This evening he and Blaze were REALLY having it out over the fence, charging it, rearing, and trying to bite each other’s neck. *ahem* Gentleman. And I use the term loosely.

 When I finished Desire’s hooves I worked Blaze in the round pen and the arena til almost dark. It was his second day of Mighty Mouse attitude and he clearly has energy to spare. He hates arena work, as do I, but he is a bit of a loose cannon sometimes-endurance pony these days and could use a tune up. The weather is cooling and his woolly coat will no longer protect him from work!

Oh, and our giant pumpkin finally stopped growing, but not before getting, well, giant.

I spent Thursday night at J’s in Wheatland and we were up bright and early at 4 am to head to her significant other’s house to hitch up the trailer and collect him and the horses. I have never left for a ride this early but I have to say it was worth it. After a smooth 4 hour haul we pulled into ride camp at 10 am and got about the best camping spot in the place! There were only a few rigs there and we scored a spot with a good spot for the horses and a concrete barrier 10 feet behind them that made it a sort of blocked private site. There was a friendly camper on the grass about 5 ft below the barrier but we had our own little triangle of space complete with a concrete pad which made a great clean hang out spot.

J and her steeds, Sedona the buckskin Mustang and Chief the PintaChief

The 3 amigos: Raider, Chief, Sedona

Concrete pad–score!

We had lots of time to unpack and relax, though since we all slept in the trailer one way or the other, there wasn’t much unpacking/set up. We emptied the bins out of the tack room/goose neck and I swept and set up a cot in the stall area.

Beautiful camp in the redwoods

Steed butts! 

My “bedroom” and yes that is a porta potty in my room, ah thank you. Quite handy since I always have to pee at least once a night! And no, my fellow travelers didn’t treat me to peeing next to me while I was sleeping–that I know of!  😉

Walking the colorful boys in camp

Already drinking! Good endurance newbies

After relaxing and socializing for a while we tacked up and went for a ride. Sedona was pretty forward and perky, Chief was mellow with his friends as usual, Raider was ready to go!

J and B

We rode back into camp to see my mom standing with the parking greeter! So I promptly handed her the camera to get all three of us in a shot or two:

Who knows what is happening here..

thanks, ma!

We un-tacked and took the horses over to the troughs while visiting with my mom, when suddenly Sedona rearranged the faucet on the trough for us! Her halter caught on the spigot and she panicked and broke the pipes off to the ground! We had a fantastic geyser spouting about 30 feet in the air just in front of the windshield of a big r.v. (glad their windows were closed!) There was some panic and general profanity but the water was shut off pretty quickly and J’s man, B, started digging down to the pipes while my mom assured him we could get parts in Fort Bragg, about 15 miles away. A Cal Fire guy showed up before long with a prisoner worker from the Conservation Facility across the street and they quickly repaired it. Oops! If it wasn’t her it would have been another horse, crisis averted!

the calm before the storm

My mom stole a horse! jk, she walked Raider back with me and Chief while the geyser drama was happening

Vetting in went well. Sedona was a little squirrelly as she really doesn’t enjoy being handled by strangers. Chief was actually more restless about it than I thought he would be, constantly trying to itch on me or sidle away from the vet, but his pulse was 40 and he got all As.  Chief and Sedona had good first vetting trot outs while B’s Raider needed a little encouragement. Hey, he isn’t an Arab, give him a break! His mild trot out got lots of smiles.

New friend I always see at rides now on the left, the first vet I ever used vetting in Sedona, and on the right another friend from the valley! Ahh, endurance is a small world & home town rides are great 🙂

Vetting Chief in

Enjoying endurance already!

Houston, we have numbers! 

After saying bye to mom, more socializing, walking and tucking in the ponies, we headed off to the ride meeting, got our instructions, and were soon off to bed.

 Ride start was at 8 am but we packed our saddle bags and drinks and sent off the crew box Friday night and it’s a good thing we did as we ended up chatting over coffee and tea at a leisurely pace Saturday morning and it was 7:30 before we knew it! I even managed to eat some breakfast which is pretty unheard of for me. I usually manage a yogurt but I had hot tea and a small breakfast burrito and felt great! Fortunately we weren’t looking to be anywhere but back of the pack and after a quick tacking up we were on the road walking the approx 20 minutes from camp to the start. It was a walk on pavement with a potential for light traffic and I think it was a very responsible choice to have the start out a ways so people weren’t racing away on the pavement.

Walking to the Start, Saturday a.m.

Off they go on their first ride!

The trail was beautiful, shady, the footing fantastic, just as I remembered from years ago. The morning was cool and I think the high was around 80 or so, but we never really hit any sun until the last few miles. We did some climbing but the trail was all very friendly, mostly wide, with virtually zero rocks or technical footing. Basically an ideal first ride for new horses and riders and I am really glad we chose that one and am happy to say it went well!

We cruised through the first 15 miles and B and paint Raider came into the first vet check ahead of us. Raider got excited and he went on ahead, but they came into the check a little briskly and were cautioned by friendly ride staff and vets to take a more conservative pace before checks. It’s really nice to have information imparted kindly to new folks. I was doling out every bit of wisdom and ride advice I could come up with while out on the trail but it’s good to hear from multiple sources and people of authority.

Chief and Sedona pulsed right through (Chief @ 52), their pulses taken by an old friend of mine, the gal who sponsored me through Chamberlain Creek as a junior some ten years ago. She is also the wife of my first ever farrier, who I also had the pleasure of seeing at the ride.

Mugging at the hour hold

N and Willow were on the LD and finished nicely ahead of us! Congrats!

Chowing at the hour hold

Sedona and Chief vetted through with all As! There was a lot of interest in our Renegade boots throughout the weekend and I was surprised to hear how many people hadn’t seen them before! Sedona and Chief both went in Renegades this weekend absolutely flawlessly, no issues, no rubs, no messing with boots. Hallelujah.

4 mile climb out of the 15 mi vet check

The trails were very well marked with dolomite, ribbons, and plates. There were warnings for the vet checks and for the photographer of course. I don’t know if anyone got lost but I do believe it would be quite hard to on that ride! With the shade, temperatures, footing, plenty of water, and great trail marking, it was a luxury all around!

We climbed the hill out of the vet check which I must say, after Trinity River Challenge a few weeks ago, seemed like nothing! The trail was wide and the footing was nice, Chief found a  fifth gear trot like he never had before, and we were having fun!

N is heading toward us out of the vet check while we are heading in, I just got out my camera randomly and she appeared around the corner!

There was a vet check and 15 minute hold at 22 miles, since it was the last place they could haul horses out and wanted to be sure all handled the climb well. Raider and Chief gave very lazy stock horse trot outs but pulses were good, in fact Chief was a 44/44 and got all As which seemed to surprise the vet and scribe after his lazy/tired trot out. I did feel him start to slow down before that vet check, but he was still eating and drinking. pooping etc just fine–I sort of think he was getting a reality check on the distance about then!

Sedona 22 mi vet check, still peppy and an all As check

B and I were ahead of J for a few miles then decided to stop and wait for her since we weren’t sure if there were even any other 30s behind us. Chief had snoozed for a few minutes until he heard trotrottrotrot here comes Sedona!

Here they come around the corner! Looking good at about 26 miles

We all three had a nice gradual descent with some good trotting stretches to the Finish. Chief was flying along at a nice trot with Sedona which was good since we were starting to push the clock a little.

Almost to the Finish line of their first AERC completion!

With a 3:15 cut off time we pulled into the Finish at 2:59 and Chief pulsed in at 3:01. We had been trucking to the Finish to make sure we made cut off and I was pleased he dropped so quickly despite being tired. Sedona pulsed in immediately and after a few minutes Raider did as well. They were all eager to suck down water and gobble mashes and hay provided.

Final vetting went well, Chief was definitely tired and had to get a clipboard smacking encouragement from the scribe on the way out, but trotted briskly enough back toward his buddies. He had great pulses and took care of himself through the day, I think finding that big gear of trot and maintaining it got him muscularly tired. We had a mile and a half walk from the Finish back to ride camp, again to prevent people from racing across pavement, and we could smell ride dinner cooking the whole way! MMMM BBQ

These boys are plum tuckered 

Sleepwalking Chief

The chomping didn’t stop for hours!

I think we finished something like 27-29 out of 32 completing riders. N finished, as did valley friend D and her Foxtrotter mare, and some other coastal friends. I got to see and hang with my redheaded soul sister A, she of the gorgeous stallions, but unfortunately she felt a little something off in her stallion on the 50 and wisely pulled. Risking our horses is never worth a completion and I applaud her horsemanship as usual.

I had a pretty rough night after the ride, I fell asleep a few times but the horses banging or pawing and shaking the trailer woke me up every time and then around midnight I started feeling sick and had a weird bug for about the next 8 hours. I would feel okay and then get the hot sweats and throw up, even when there was nothing to throw up. Not fun! It wasn’t all that bad but any illness feels a hundred times worse when you’re cold and filthy camping, so I was glad to get on the road for home.

I slept a few hours on the ride home and woke up feeling fine, though it was another system shock to be back in the hot valley after the gorgeous weather in the Redwoods. J and B had a great time and are already planning what their next ride will be. I’ll consider that and our completion certificates and great ride photos proof of success! 🙂

Pro Photos

It’s finally the last weekend in September and time for Chamberlain Creek ride, J’s long awaited AERC debut. J has been interested in getting to an endurance ride since we started riding together in 2008 and I am very excited we’ll get to experience her first AERC ride together. We’ve been conditioning them for the last few months, getting J’s gear and tack dialed in, horses hooves transitioned and going in boots, etc. Sedona and Chief are in great shape and are eating and drinking machines; J took Sedona to the Camp Far West fun ride for some ride camp/trail experience, but Chief hasn’t been in such an exciting setting before so let’s hope the gelding/stock horse part of him prevails over the Arab 😉

J and Sedona

 J’s significant other and his big friendly paint gelding are also coming along for the camping experience, and lots of my endurance buddies are going, so it’ll be a party! This is my home town ride, the first ride I ever did as a junior, and I am really looking forward to being back!

 Packing for the ride this time is easy for me, as I am just tagging along as rider for Chief, in J’s rig with her camping gear. I’ll be sleeping in the trailer on a cot and just have to bring my tack for Chief (Desire’s tack), the bucket of Renegades, and personal stuff. Oh and Sedona is borrowing Blaze’s waterproof blanket as it’s going to be chilly over there and she doesn’t have one of her own yet.

I’m heading an hour south to J’s tonight so we can hit the road early tomorrow. It’s a long windy haul on the 20 towards my old hometown. I’ll be within about 40 minutes of where my family lives on the coast but doubt I’ll get to see any as I’m just along for the ride. Have to wait til Thanksgiving for that! Still, I am very excited about this ride and experiencing a ride in a very different way, and so glad J and I will be out adventuring together for her first endurance experience as we always hoped. Cross your fingers for us!

Me n Chief

If Blaze were a human teenager, I could have accurately said that he was acting his age on our ride this morning. OHMYGOSH. But I don’t wanna. Are we there yet? OMG, I’m going to be dramatic now. Since he is a horse teenager, I foolishly expect more out of him. Coz you know, he’s been around for 15 years, seen many things and places, has “worked” in many disciplines, gone hundreds if not thousands of trail miles–and those last three are only in the last 3 years, since I bought him. Still, I think we all know our horses often don’t give a fig (or an apple) what we expect of them, and in keeping with such, Blaze treated me to a full fledged Green-and-Balky ride this a.m.

 I had been avoiding taking Blaze off the property recently as I didn’t want Joey spazzing about on his bad foot, but since Joey was running laps around his paddock for breakfast this morning I concluded he was sound enough to be left on his own.

Out into the neighborhood

 OHMYGOSH DONKEY

 He did the usual stop, spin, stare at the approaching donkey. But then the herd of creep little sheep started running toward the fence line too and Blaze about lost his shit. Closest he has ever been to completely going nuts and bolting, which I only let escalate to shrinking and back pedaling with his nose to the stars, before smacking his neck and getting him to move forward. I had to snap him out of it a few more times and he got so ridiculous at the cows running down from the neighbor’s top fields for morning breakfast (bad timing there!) that I actually dismounted and led him through it. He froze stock still, neck like stone, quivering, and I could feel his heart hammering under me! I said THAT’S IT and got off.

Looking all serene–bullshit I say!

 Hand walking Mr. Spooky Pants

 He mellowed out some after we passed the cows but it wasn’t til 3 miles in that he really relaxed at all, despite his cool gaze in photos!

 Turning around at the water crossing, nice to wade in and lots of great grass for the horses.

 Shiny boots!

 Yum

OH THANK GOODNESS YOU’RE BACK, says Joey

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 These are Blaze’s left front and right front, respectively. Please feel free to say any and everything about them, any readers who maintain their own hooves. My camera literally died and shut off as a snapped the right front, so these are the only hoof shots I got today.

See how on the left front the frog kinda collapses down into the grooves? Pretty separated white line at the quarters?

Left Front

And by that I mean I’ve been reading blogs, articles, whole websites, until my eyes hurt. Watching and photographing my trimmer (good hoof photos are impossible, btw), saving diagrams, asking questions. Then I pull Blaze, make a few timid swipes at his front hooves (he is SO unimpressed), and retreat back to the house to study some more. I’ve done that 3 or 4 times now in the last two weeks. It all makes so much sense when I’m reading and watching it but putting it into practice without guidance on hand is difficult. Still, I *am* learning and grasping more things, and I know it will just take time and experience.
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This morning there was cloud cover. Hallelujah! I’m an outdoorsy type and all but shoot, I’m a redhead, and sun exposure-wise it’s feeling like a  loooonngg summer at this point. Cloud cover and cool air makes me want to run around my pasture and buck! Or, pull all the horses, groom them, and rasp their damn feet already!

 I am shameless, and asked my husband’s friend to take a few pictures of me working on Sheza’s feet. Hey, it’s another First with my Filly. First time I ever worked on “trimming” her hooves! She was GREAT, by the way. Absolutely none of the shenanigans she usually tries with D. More than me being a horse whisperer I think she was just plain boggled that *I* was rasping at her hooves. It kept her paralyzed with confusion just long enough to have a go at all 4 hooves, and I finished just as she started getting impatient.

 Hoof shavings fly and Georgia dog supervises

 Maizie goat kept a sharp eye on things. Funny thing is I had no idea she was there! I was so focused on the hoof and not falling over..

 Sheza tried to be a snot about her de-wormer but I paralyzed her with a lip tickle and Ninja-plungered that apple goodness down her gullet before she realized what happened. She chomped thoughtfully. Desire has had practice taking electrolyte syringes in the last few months and actually took her de-wormer quite politely, she who took me off my feet the first time I tried it with her.

 I took Desire’s braids out finally and she turned into Rasta Mamma!

Sheza and I laughed and laughed at her. But this afternoon I looked out to see her cleaning up scraps in the filly pasture…hmmm..escape artist eh. I went out to rearrange things and she didn’t want to lead back just by her flowing locks. She even pretended she was too wild for that lovey dovey joined up nonsense, but I poked her in the hip and she grudgingly followed me back to her pasture.

Sheza walks at my shoulder and walk, trot, and stops with me, at liberty in her pasture. Maybe someday we will be very good at vetting trot outs 🙂

Oh yeah, working on the hooves: I sweated like a beast and my back hurt, and my hands now permanently stink from using gloves that previously were worn to apply Thrush medicine. Yuck. But awesome.

Joey is SOUND and galloping the fence line making snarky faces at Blaze today. 4 days out from the nail and the antibiotics continue.