Huh, more crap on my head!

Is he not GORGEOUS?

 Moving out to think about his bit:

Next it was time for the bareback pad, but he’s such a diminutive fellow that she had to put a saddle pad under it to make it close to fit, and it still slid around a little..good desensitization, right!

hehe look what I got for ya Joey

Huh, okay, something on  my back..

Girthing up, no big deal..

Added the pad for a somewhat better fit:

Realizing he can still move with this stuff strapped on..

Just being beautiful, like he does:

B worked on lateral flexion for a few minutes and he circled and circled and circled as she patiently moved with him until he finally stopped, heaved a sigh, and touched his nose to his side.

Hmm, really? Not sure I want to says Joey

Well shoot, I guess you win, human…

Yielding on the forehand…

She returned to the leg and hoof handling briefly at the end. I think the steady flow from one thing to another really kept Joey interested and inquisitive, he never checked out or had a chance to check out, and did really well.

Ropes around the legs..

Then B did the darndest thing. She stepped back about 10 feet from Joey, let out some line and said, “yeah, watch this.” I had no idea what to expect, when she suddenly started bunny hopping up and down, just a few inches. It totally blew Joey’s mind! He startled and spooked away and kept trying to flee from the Crazy Hopping Human. B said his was the strongest reaction she had seen but that it spooked most green horses. What a GOOD thing to discover and work on before ever trying to ride him! And you never would have guessed it would spark such a reaction from the way he was behaving. Fascinating!

Joey says, “WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM LADY?!?!?!”

Checking each other out after the hopping incident..Joey just isn’t sure what to make of it

More hoof handling:

Touching those touchy hinds:

His “precious,” the right hind Leg That SHall Not Be Handled. Except, B is. A little more today than last time! Good stuff all around.

She is still doing her stompy feet below as we head off, hates the splint boots on her hind legs but she has nicked her left inner fetlock enough times for me to need to be preventative at this point. The Haf splint boots I have are in terrible condition after light use and they’re too big for her skinny lil legs. Think I’ll get some short fetlock boots since I only need to protect that specific spot and she seems annoyed by the tall splints.

 See ya in a few hours!

I rode out from the base of the dam, looped around to Sycamore Hill from the railroad track side, climbed the Hill, and looped back around to the trailer area, but was only at about 6.5 miles so crossed the road and climbed partway up the dam before crossing back over the road and sneaking down the bike trails back to the truck and trailer. I walked the downhill bike trail on foot and it was longer than I remembered, but good to stretch my legs. Loose gravel on top of pavement is officially the crappiest footing ever! Slippy slidey, break your necky! I would NOT ride down it.

Beautiful morning alone on the trails:

Climbing Sycamore Hill:

View from the top of the Sycamore Hill:

And back down we go, past the horse eating rocks:

Sneaking across a parking lot to the bike trails…coz a bright white horse with it’s tail to the sky crossing an empty parking lot doesn’t stand out AT ALL..

2 fat noggins in one picture! yes!

Just enough water and mucky moments in the trail to make hooves and boots totally filthy. One of my fronts popped off on an uphill power move and when I remounted after cramming it back on my (metal) right ankle rolled pretty good, like the worst I’ve done since I broke it 2 1/2 years ago. It started to sing immediately but not too too badly and what was I going to do about it anyway, so I rode on. I felt it a bit on the long walk down the hill back to the rig and when I got home I strapped one of Desire’s ice boots on my leg for a while and am wearing my ankle brace now. It’s sore. My right knee is starting to ache too, I think I tweaked it a little. I’ve worked 40 miles with 4 different horses in the last 5 days, I won’t be slowed down! Got to be careful though. Big plans for Hat Creek in a couple of weeks and all that..

Mucky toes:

Sweaty stinky mare:

And I DO mean stinky. She got sprayed by a skunk! Or rolled in grass that was sprayed, or something! Her head smells the worst. I’ve been thinking it for the last few days but also wondering if it was just lingering in the air around her pasture when I go out there. But my husband smelled it on her head today!  My girl dog eats feces like candies and my girl horse gets sprayed by a skunk..stinky, gross chicks!

I scrubbed Desire with Cowboy Magic shampoo and blued her mane when we got home, even let the hose pour over her head and scrubbed her face as well as she would tolerate. Surpisingly she does like having the hose up between her ears with the water flowing over her face. I would have thought she would HATE it, but you just never know and I tried it the other day with good results.

A little cleaner…

My unicorn glowing out in the farthest field, there’s an evil mini lurking in the shadows behind the stump, too:

Joey training session in a couple of hours..it’s HOT today, the first real day of hiding inside with the swamp coolers blasting during the hottest hours..guess it’s just about summer, really!

Just love this pic!

 Wide open spaces for trotting and cantering:

 Pose-off! Yeah, not bad

Spotty butt! Went through 4 or 5 gates and between J and I we managed to open and close just about all of them from horseback:

Here J comes, trot trotting on her mare! Her mare was great and kept calm when we trotted away/out of sight.

 Ahh, somce cool greenery and shade near a pond, ready for a break:

 Lunch stop! Complete with picnic tables:

 Hey there we are! Feeling chipper after some snacks in the shade:

Surefooted pair making their way carefully along:

Chief has such cool markings! I could look at pictures of him all day

 Can you spot the trail obstacle? I didn’t at first and I was about 10′ away!

Good Chiefy drinking. He drank 4 times in 10 miles!

Chief says NO and I say GO up that hill..

..And up we went!

Cruising on Chief:

 Riding the nice road back to the trailers:

Recruited some passing hikers to get us both in a photo, and it’s in focus! Score!

Oh yeah, wading, wading in the water!

Chiefy drinking again, like a star:

Just two cool cats cooling off:

Someone else was enjoying the water this afternoon, too:

See the trailer in the distance? The horses did!

Mare says “Hoo yeah, trailer in sight! Pep in my step!”

 Chief after 10 miles, still eating as usual:

 We un-tacked and took them back down to the first water crossing to cool down:

I couldn’t resist the water so waded in and scrubbed their sweaty saddle marks:

The mare wasn’t sure about this random person in the water scrubbing her, but decided it was kosher enough to stand for!

Working on deciphering her brand..so far we are reading CA, 1998, and 2110?5 Can’t tell the second to last mark on registration #…Anyone good reading these? I know it’s darn hard from the picture but give it a shot!

Another awesome ride with a good friend and fun horses! Another session with Joey and the trainer scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, looking forward to it.

Ooops, some horsey pictures slipped in. I resurrected this fly mask yesterday during the tack room restoration. It was housing a giant, incredibly nasty looking spider. After flicking it onto the ground with a stick and power washing it, it was once again functional, and though purchased for a tiny 13 hand Quarter Pony 2 years ago, it fit Mr. Blaze passably well:

This year’s pumpkin starts. We also have the sister plant to a 1200 lber from last year (not ours)…we’ll see how big we can get one this year!

It was a beautiful evening on the ranch. I love warm evenings with a light breeze. My husband and I threw the ball for the persistent wiener dog, the big dogs wrestled, the cats stalked each other round and round, and Georgia browsed for unsavory things to eat. I do love my life!

I like this once coz you can actually see a little of one of my forearm tattoos! That one says, “No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle,” a quote that I love, attributed to Mr. Winston Churchill.

Desire really dogged it on the ride out, she *almost* had me fooled into thinking she wasn’t feeling too sprightly, but I know the ways of tricksy mares and barn sour buttheads, so I pushed her into a few working trots and otherwise we maintained a brisk walk up the 3 miles to the top of the ridge.

Cruising the mile of pavement before the steep climb…

Top of the ridge:

When we did our stop, flex both directions, and turn for home, Desire suddenly turned in PerkyPants and was all ready to barrel back down the hill she had protested all the way up minutes before. We did 5 or 6 or 8 or 10 of the trot attempt, rein back, back her uphill, go forward and repeat and repeat..sometimes she is a bit of knucklehead. Still, part of me was glad to see she was indeed feeling hale and healthy after her big chiro adjustment and getting back to work under saddle in the last few days.

Sheza protested mightily when we left since we rode up the road past her pasture, and she was waiting at the fence line when we returned:

I scrubbed Desire with warm water and my beloved gel scrubbed mitt, covered her in fly spray, resurrected her fly mask from last year, gobbed Trail-Rites Magical Ointment on the gnat bites on her belly, sprayed Vetericyn in her hooves, and then let her have a bite of grass in recompense for all the above mentioned torture:

This is how I mow my front lawn…

My Garmin Forerunner 305 mysteriously died, by the way..worked for my hike with Joey on Saturday and now just won’t turn on or charge. I’ve been pretty brutal to it, used it hard for 2 years. Don’t know how long they’re supposed to last but oh well..that model is discontinued now but I did find one with the heart monitor set up too for a decent deal so I snapped it up. I really like that particular model so was glad to find it despite the discontinued status!

Riding Chief again this week in the Wheatland area and meeting N for a lake ride as well. Training session with Joey again Thursday and and and!

A arrived around 11:30 and we pale folk sun-screened up and went to catch our steeds. I wanted to work Blaze a little in the round pen first to make sure he was feeling good and moving well since his chiropractic adjustment on Monday. He lunged nicely, aside from a few testy moments (I swear Blaze only gets testy with me in the arena or round pen), and I tacked him up and put A on him for a few goes around the round pen to figure out the controls and settle in a little. She has ridden him one other time just in the arena and was ready to see a little countryside.

Test ride:

Figuring out the Controls:

I worked Desire in the round pen to make sure she was fine after her rather drastic adjustment and I must say that working her in that little pen is like trying to test drive a Ferrari on a Go-Kart track. Yeah, it might be doable, but the corners are a little tight and it would go nicer traveling at higher speeds in open spaces for longer distances. Still she moved out well so I swapped the Specialized over to her fitting set up, tied on a lead rope just in case, grabbed the camera, and we headed out on the dirt road for a short trail ride.

 Crossing the bridge:

Viewing the world from between Miss D’s ears again!

Love this pic!

Keeping up that good posture:

Blaze tested her a little and does walk MUCH slower than Desire in general, but painfully slowly if you don’t boss him a bit. After a mile or so I put the lead rope on him so I could control his speed and she could just relax and get used to the feel of being in the saddle. Things went smoother then and it was a nice mellow ride, perfect for Blaze and Desire to stretch their muscles after their adjustments but not strenuous.

Sweet Blaze:

A’s husband had gone off fishing with mine, so after riding we drove down and met them for a good dinner at the local brewery. A great way to spend a Sunday!