Luckily where we rode we were still up out of the valley high enough that it wasn’t smoky, but it was certainly hot! No dawdling in the sun, horses, save that for the shade!

D on Launi

More of my love affair with WA trees

This particular WA has The Big Hill as I was calling it, though turns out it has a proper name, Daugherty Hill. The trail winds along for quite a while up that hill, we don’t actually ride straight up it under the power lines. It’s quite the climb, especially on a hot day!

Launi is still green and getting his true endurance conditioning base going, so Desire and I trotted ahead and climbed the hill alone for the most part, except when she did a power/slip move that popped off a hind boot. Just as I remounted from circling back and jamming it back on,Launi and D appeared for a few minutes but Desire still wanted to trot trot trot up that hill at a steady jog, so away we went.

up up up

At the top I dismounted, loosened the girth, and let her catch her breath, thinking D might be along but when I didn’t hear her coming after a few minutes I figured Launi might have had enough hill lower down, so we headed back down to find them.

Catching our breath at the top 

We found them a little lower down and headed on down the hill together. Launi is about 16 hands and 1100 lbs so he has a lot more mass to cool down than Desire, aside from the conditioning.

I hand walked Desire to the bottom and remounted and in another 1/2 mile or so we were back to the wonderfully deep, cold, creek crossing. I re-wet my bandanna, helmet, and Cool Medic vest, ahhh, heavenly.

Good endurance “pony”   😉

Hot and tired, headed back to the trailer: Smiles like this are why we do this!

Both horses handled the hot, steep climb quite well and it was a good workout for both, no doubt. Desire seemed to be fine with Launi, there was no squealing and very little ear-eyeballing when they were side by side. She even let Launi lead sometimes! 😛

Showered and stuffing her face:

 Met J at Lake Oroville for a ride today, with the notion of riding the 6 mile loop, hanging at the trailers, and doing the loop again in the reverse order. I wanted to make the horses leave the trailer and work again, in prep for their first LD at the end of September (so soon now!). Unfortunately by the time we finished the first loop around noon the smoke from a big fire a ways north of us had blown in. It was oppressively hot and smoky to the lungs and we couldn’t get un-tacked and out of there fast enough.

I’m in the middle of boot rearranging as usual so I didn’t end up with boots for Chief today, but the footing on the horse camp loop is such that he traveled comfortably. We did a couple of trots and for the first time Chief didn’t break to the canter! He is definitely getting more fitness in maintaining the trot. I only see him once a week so I see him with relatively fresh eyes each time and when I saw him today he definitely looked like a horse that gets ridden as opposed to a plump pasture pet like when we started. Huzzah!

Unfazed by me riding Blaze around him in the arena, I snapped the lead rope on Joey from Blaze’s back and away we went, ponying calm as could be. Joey stopped and followed quietly and only needed one reminder to stay behind us. He and Blaze rated (meandered) well together and Joey dropped his head to graze whenever we  stopped on our little “trail ride” ponying around the big pasture. I love smart Arabians.

We ended by going to the other side of the property to say hello the mini and his ladies. Sheza couldn’t make baby mouth at these two studly bays fast enough..

Desire vs. hilarious donkey creature: Stare Down Round 1 of 7. The donkey kept running and bucking along the fence line next to us and it was blowing Desire’s mind

Desire vs. irrigation water canal: Stare Down Round 1. Concrete gives good stare

Desire vs. caution sign: Stare Down Round 1

I finally unearthed my Cool Medics evaporation cooling vest–at the bottom of my crew bag, Watah! It’s lovely and feels like I’m encased in ice cubes. I also dunked my helmet, wet my bandanna under it, and brought two icy water bottles. Chapstick, sunscreen, snacks, camera, phone–READY!

I hadn’t decided if I would ride into the Wildlife Area itself or just keep riding on the dirt road towards our friend’s house a few miles away. To get into the WA I have to have my horse step over the cross bars of the cattle guard to get around it. Cattle are actively run in the WA and there is solid barbed wire fencing around the perimeter and right up to the edges of the cattle guard. It takes a steady brain and hoof to neatly step over the cross bars. Fortunately Desire was much better today than yesterday, still eye balling everything of course but overall just much steadier and more like her normal self. I deemed her capable of safely crossing the cattle guard, and positioned myself on the guard, blocking her so the only way forward was to step over the bars. She did it nicely and I thought we had conquered our only obstacle for the ride. I was WRONG!

As I said, cattle are run on in the WA. The fencing is remarkably intact and the only access is through two small unlocked, but closed, gates. I dismounted, marched up to the gate, swung it open, and lead Desire through. Ouch, suddenly thought I felt a thorn, but no it really hurt–ohshitcrap it’s a bee! Actually many, as they poured out of a tiny hole in the metal gate I had just enthusiastically swung open. I got stung on the leg and the arm and took off running with Desire, who fortunately somehow escaped getting stung.  Now we had ourselves a conundrum. First of all, I had to get the gate back closed since I couldn’t in good conscience leave it and risk cattle getting out. I tied Desire off to a tree a ways away and  she circled it irritably but also stopped to pee, which is always good. Meanwhile I ducked back through the barbed wire fence and kicked the gate closed before fleeing back through the fence and to my horse. The real  problem of course was that that gate and the other next to it (also covered in bees, turns out) were my only way out, so when I was done riding I had to brave the Bee Gates to get home.

A problem to be dealt with later! We headed off into the WA to explore and test our gears.

Stream is low at this time of year, but enough to sip and some green grass, too

Shallow but better than nothing! Always nice to see green in August

Grazing and staring, pretty standard

After crossing the water my boots were thoroughly soaked and squelchy and I took off at a high power trot to see if they’d stay on.  I stopped to check them and noticed the flapping gaiter, so the leather string came into play and held it closed wonderfully the rest of the ride. There’s tape under all that filth on her hoof, too.

 Also in that pic, she’s wearing her new blue Griffin’s Tack ankle boots that I bought at Tevis this past weekend. She tolerated them passably well and they really are my favorite sort of splint/ankle boots. The deep cup makes the fit great and they last longer than any other brand I’ve tried, also the boots are not quite splint length but longer than average ankle boots, a perfect length that keeps the boot in place but doesn’t cover/heat as much leg. Blaze’s green boots are Griffins so now Desire has an appropriately colored pair as well. Unfortunately Henry Griffin isn’t doing very well and as per his wife they are planning to sell out of the tack business, though she thinks they’ll continue making the splint boots. If you ever saw Henry at a ride you know how friendly and dedicated he is and his wife mentioned that he would love to get emails from folks who remembered him fondly, including your name of course, and where you met him. I sent an e-mail to: Henry@GriffinsTack.com and ask that anyone who remembers him send him a little note too. 

Anyhoo, the WA is a fun spot because there are wide open spaces and with no vehicle access you can safely tear around at some speed. This is my favorite stretch where I usually stretch out into a canter or even hand gallop:

So many gorgeous trees in the WA

Moon power!

After flying around at a brisk trot and some short canters, with boots intact and my mare sound, I headed back for our scary exit, the Bee Gates. I dismounted and attached my reins to Desire’s halter, left her far away from the gates, and kicked it back open and fled as the bees reappeared. Yeah kicking it wasn’t popular but I wasn’t going to stick my hand in there to try to move it gently. We waited another five minutes til the bees quieted some, waited for a moment where the least bees were visible, and ran like hell through it. Neither of us got stung and we didn’t stop running for a good 1/4 mile, which Desire thought was great fun. I was running at my max to keep up with her huge trot but we escaped the damn bees unscathed! The rest of the ride was a nice meander home, being passed by and waving at lots of cars and a motorcycle or two, endless barking dogs, surviving the donkey fence-runner again, and home at last!

Desire really felt like her old self today. There was no question she was sound and feeling good as we did about a 12 mph trot along the dirt trails in the WA. It’s a great thing and it was just a bonus that her brain was mostly back today, too. Pretty encouraging! And the scheming continues…

So after getting some more photos I put Desire in the padded Easyboot Epics in front and the taped Gloves in the hind, swapped the Specialized to her set-up, and went for a ride up the ridge. I was already sweaty and dirty and it was getting hotter by the minute but Desire was being a complete fool and I wanted to get her out and moving.

Right out of the cross ties she about trampled over top of me, stepping on my heels and then on herself and tripping with all the forward momentum she had going already. I had my husband hold her head so I could get in the saddle and then heading out from home up the ridge my horse who couldn’t stand still is suddenly walking like a farm plug and trying to turn for home if I took my attention off the reins for even a minute. She wanted to walk on the opposite side of the road that I wanted her on, and when we did trot she either did a ridiculous dog trot or flew into a spazzy 9 mph trot blowing and snorting and spooking at nothing.

In the end we made it the 3 miles to top of the ridge and then turned and I hand walked her the mile+ back down to flatter ground. The dirt road with round gravel on top can be really slippy and she was such a ditz today that I didn’t feel like riding the slip-slide down. On the last little stretch of dirt before we hit pavement again we were trotting and she suddenly jumped to the right and slammed on her brakes simultaneously. As quick a move as it was it was almost slow motion as I was *certain* I was going to eat dirt for the first time since I broke my leg 2 1/2 years ago. I went way forward on her neck and barely saved myself from falling, catching the full weight of my forward momentum on my palms on her neck which sent a fantastic pile driver of pain into my shoulders and all down my back as my weight was suddenly stopped hard. I kinked my back pretty good and it’s still sore, but at least I didn’t hit the ground.

She was spooky the rest of the way home, I was “eh ehing” her about once every few minutes. When she got all snorty and wouldn’t go forward past a friend’s van parked in the driveway I decided she needed to go down to the arena for some more work as she certainly hadn’t earned an easy pass back to her paddock. The arena footing is pretty deep and it was getting hotter still so we only worked about 15 minutes down there, just transitions, figure 8s, making her pay attention just a little. I can’t claim it did anything as she was a pill for her shower and snorted and wouldn’t step over the hose going back to her pasture.

Standing next to Joey while mounted on D, he was interested and alarmed to see me up so high on her

So I pretty much had the worst ride on Desire–I dunno, maybe ever? Sometimes it’s hard to believe she is turning 16 next week! Clearly she is ready and waiting for lot’s more work–and the occasional slap up side the head. We did more trotting this time and she was sound as a dollar the whole time, so that’s a plus.