I turned the horse trailer into my feed station so it was all in one place and out of the rain. A bale of grass hay, half a bale of alfalfa in the bale bag, and a trash can full of grain goodies, beet pulp, EGM pellets, the works.

Chatting with neighbor, Carol. She and her husband are from So Cal but were allowed and so grateful to join the northern California CHSA club, and collected armloads of mileage awards at the ceremony Friday night before the ride meeting.

My amazing husband made meatballs Thursday night and we brought them and cooked some pasta and had ourselves a mighty fine hot and strengthening dinner Friday night in our Arabian Nights tent:

There was drizzle in the evening but it had mostly tapered off by 7 or so and we went for one last evening walk before retiring. I put her boots on for the walk and decided to leave them on for night like I did at Cuyama. I am way too jazzed on ride morning to be screwing around with boots, especially if Desire gets silly.

Awww so cute 🙂

It got cold quickly and was in the 30s overnight. I slept well enough, the hooded sweatshirt top layer was a great and essential choice, keeping the hood on made a world of difference for my poor cold ears and face while my body was toasty in the flannel lined sleeping bag. J’s alarm didn’t go off at 5 as promised but camp started stirring and I gave up on sleep in time to check my phone at 5:30 and jump up to get ready. The 25 and 50 was due to start together at 6:30.

 I broke out my polar fleece lined Kerrits breeches for the first time this ride and they were AMAZING. So warm and SO grippy, I felt like I was glued to the saddle. My legs were never cold and my feet stayed toasty too. Turns out having your legs encased in polar fleece is quite cozy!! I also wore a long sleeve, the ride shirt they gave me coz it’s sweet, and a polar fleece. I’m a chronic over heater and was quite content in that despite the cool morning.

I was once again glad I had booted the night before as I had to put my cantle pack on, sort out all my waters, make sure the old girth gall was well lubed up and all the rest. I heard the ride manager shouting and the main pack starting at 6:30 but we didn’t head down and out the start until closer to 6:45.

Riders up!

Riders, sort yourself out!

And we’re off! Desire is really glowing as we head off alone from the start

The first loop was the same for 25s and 50s and was the same first loop as last year’s LD that I did with Blaze, so I felt pretty confident that I knew where we were going. Not even a handful of miles out there was the start of a climb up the road I remembered from last year but also three ribbons signalling a turn and ribbons heading off down a trail to the left. My gut told me go up the road but my OCD detail oriented parts said follow the turn signal. I took the left hand trail but only a few hundred feet when I decided it couldn’t be right and turned around, went back to the fork and headed on up the hill. Some other riders had come along at that point and were going up the hill so I knew my gut instinct had been right. Unfortunately for *many* others, they took the left hand turn and didn’t figure out the mistake for a few miles. I heard as many as 30 riders took that wrong fork but I don’t know if that’s an accurate number. I did hear a lot of bitching about it in camp and truly all it would have taken to avoid the the situation was In and Out signs.

Desire started out the ride pretty calm because we were alone but in maybe half a mile we caught 3 riders and she started jigging and losing her brain. I hadn’t remembered to raise my stirrups to Jigging Length and I knew from Cuyama what punishment it was on my knees to try to ride it out with longer stirrups, so I juggled the reins and jigging mare and somehow got each one raised from her back. That made life so much better!

I remembered the narrow single track climb through the woods well from last year. There are very limited spaces to pass anyone and some of the spots were a bit damp and pretty hairy with a significant drop off to your left. My friend D and her riding buddy made it up from Oroville in the rain after all and were doing the 25, and they came trucking up behind me before the narrowest part of the climb and I let them pass thinking they were “I’m Late/Lost!” 50s, but before long we caught up with them again and re-passed them when we got to the summit of the climb and broke out onto the wider, winding trail along the ridge. It was our first view of the valley with some fog still lurking far out, and the blessed promised sunshine!

The trails up there were lovely, good footing and fun to trot the winding path at a steady 7-8 mph. Desire was travelling great at this point as we were alone with no horses in sight though I could hear voices behind us every few corners.

 We pulled over to let some 50s that had taken that wrong turn go by, and even stuffed in an awkward corner on a slope Desire immediately stretched out and took a seriously epic pee. I don’t even know how she had traveled that far (maybe 8 miles) with that much pee in her, to be honest!

 The trail was a series of tight switchbacks back downhill and as we cruised along the flats again a couple of pairs of riders passed us. Desire was in great form alone but any time we caught up with or were passed by anyone she got all jiggy and silly again. She was definitely better all around than she was either day at Cuyama, as much as I love riding with A I think that Desire really fed off of Alamahn’s energy quite a bit.

I was expecting a stop with a water trough in a grassy field like the LD last year but I could tell we were starting to head back towards camp again without seeing it so I jumped off for a minute and smeared more Desitin on Desire’s girth gall and tied my shoe. The girth gall looked great and not newly chafed after about 12 brisk miles, many more miles to go but it was a relief to me as I’d never ridden any great distance at speed with a girth sore before.

We leap frogged with some more folks along the flats and then began the rocky climb back up again.

A few miles later on one of my boot checks I saw that my left hind boot was gone. I was on a narrow single track trail again with no way to turn around and little real interest in turning around since my boot could have been anywhere in the last few miles and I had a spare on me. I rode a few more turns hoping for a wider spot I could pull off the trail to put the spare on but it was narrow all the way and I didn’t want to risk her bruising it in the meantime so I decided to just go for it on the narrow trail. It was a tight squeeze, sliding off and crossing my fingers she didn’t get silly and try to swing around. The boot popped on and I was back in the saddle in seconds, though I did have 2 people trot up on me and called out to warn them since they clearly didn’t see me. They followed me back up to the spot the trail had widened that morning and I let them pass for the downhill which was a mistake. They were moving out quickly and Desire got all hot and silly about them leaving on the steep, slippy, cliff-edged descent back down the forested trails from the morning. Her hind legs slid over the edge at one point but luckily she is quick…oy vey. She was in a snit the whole way down the hill and back down the road, and thought about calming down as we reached the split for the 25s and 50s, where we turned down the trail taken erroneously by others that morning, but saw two riders trotting ahead of us and immediately went nutty again. They stopped to drink at the water crossing and I hoped she would copy them but she was fired up and just pawed the water. We all started to leave at the same time so they ended up going ahead and Desire chomped and danced and was a brat for the next half mile until they stopped for a booting issue and I passed them. After she chilled out from that after a few turns I let her extend her trot out to 10 mph when we reached the wide road again and she was pleased as punch to be moving out like that. About a mile from the vet check, literally one turn after a volunteer had pointed me in and told me I was on the right track 2 50 milers heading out from the hour hold passed me and said “you’re going in the wrong way if you’re on the 50!” I’m like…Uh, No I’m Not. Maybe YOU did. It was very random. I knew I was on the right track from my own past experiences, let alone the flippin volunteer who just told me. Trust your instincts, listen to no other rider about where you are, EVER. That’s kinda my motto.

I jumped off and pulled her bit 1/4 from the vet check and she finally drank deeply at the buckets set out on the walk in. We came in at 65 first check but after she drank and I loosened the girth some more, maybe 30 seconds tops, she was below criteria and we were good.

It was a 1/2 hour hold with tack on, so I went straight through to the vet, which went fine. I think we got a B on gut sounds which was expected since she hadn’t eaten a bite on the first 20 mile loop. There was little to no grass to be had and she wasn’t interested anyway. She ate the grass hay they provided and gobbled lots of carrots and drank a couple more times but when I took up and tied her to the trailer to get something to eat and swap out water bottles she was flipping out at the trailer. None of our neighbors were around and she wasn’t having any of it so I grabbed my water, granola bar, an apple and chunk of cheese, and took her back down near the vet check to eat and hang out. She calmed down and started eating hay again and in no time it was go time again.

The second loop took off from the opposite direction as the first and half of it I hadn’t ridden before which was neat. The sky was blue and sun was out but there was a light intermittent breeze and while I was warm I certainly wasn’t hot. I was still wearing the polar-lined breeches but only because of the amazing grip they gave.

We caught up to some other 50 milers and rode (read: jigged) with them for a few minutes, then the 25s trail joined ours again and my friend D and her riding partner joined us. We all rode together for a couple more miles then the trails branched again for the 25s to head back to camp to finish and the 50s to head out for a hill climb. I remembered this part of the trail well, we headed down a dirt road and across a long bridge and then started climbing the road on the other side for a pretty good ways. We left the last 50 rider we’d been leap frogging with behind on the climb and Desire stretched long and low and trotted up that road like it was nothing. I generally walk the longer climbs but she was moving so easily on a loose rein and wanted to take the hill at that gait so we did. We crossed a lot of water in the second loop and Desire drank out of everything from the rushing river to about a 2″ deep mud puddle, and peed and peed and peed. There wasn’t much doing for eating on the trail again but she was drinking well and pooped too, so I figured all signs were pretty good. A group of volunteers sent us out on trail off the road and there was hairy water crossing and a pretty rocky steep climb about halfway through that had her puffing but before long we came back out on a nice wide logging road that would take us back down to the volunteer and water crossing area again.

I started hearing a tell-tale boot disintegration flopping sound at this point, and couldn’t see an issue from her back so I hopped off to investigate. The gaiter on my right front boot was trying to make an escape and I didn’t have a spare size 1 since I put my new spare from Cuyama into action as a main boot for this ride. I’d already used my spare size 0 for the hinds so I was SOL unless I could make the 4 boots she had on work until we got back to camp. The washer and screw was gone from the outside edge of the gaiter and there was nothing I could do about it, so I decided to ride on and try to nurse it through. I knew if I could get back down the hill, over the bridge and up to the sandy canal trail that takes us back to camp I would be fine, as the canal trail has decent footing and I could move out okay even without a front boot.

The boot held, making a floppy noise at every stride that at least told me it was still there. We turned right at the group of volunteers and repeated a short section of the trail including the somewhat hairy big water crossing, which I managed to get a snap of on the second time through, though it doesn’t truly reflect how deep and quickly moving it was:

I held my breath for the longevity of my failing boot through the crossing but we came through with all 4 and soon were pointed to the trail back towards camp by a volunteer. We made it back down the dirt road, across the bridge, and a few hundred feet farther when I felt her take a funny step and looked down to see the boot off her foot sideways and the gaiter clinging on by only one screw. I hopped off and stowed in my cantle pack and we went in 3 boots from there. Fortunately as I remembered the canal trail had very friendly footing, especially by Whiskeytown standards, and we were able to cruise along the gently winding trails. It’s a fun loop, and it’s only a few miles back to camp from there.

I jumped off at 1/4 mile again and pulled her bit, dropped her girth quite a bit and we pulsed right through for our hour lunch hold. You can see her right front in the air is bootless below..

Fortunately my husband was back from his (successful) fishing trip for this hold and sprang into action fixing my front boot. I brought my blown out old boot for parts, and thank goodness I did. He got the washers and screw off the old boot and reattached the gaiter to my current boot, good as new. Woohoo for handy men with screw drivers! He also retrieved my size 0 hind boot from the Lost & Found, where it had been turned in by my friend D.

Meanwhile I un-tacked, sponged some of the muck off Desire’s shoulders and girth area and took her down for the vet check. She got a C on gut sounds but Ellery said that was fairly typical and that all her other signs were great, he even commented that her hydration level was great which I believe from all the serious stream drinking that had gone on. He asked about the girth rub but saw and remembered it was marked on the card from the beginning and wasn’t worried about it. It wasn’t pink or irritated looking and it got another liberal application of Desitin. Desire had interfered on the inside of her left hind I noticed and while I put ointment on it I should have wrapped it, but I didn’t, fool that I am.

Each 20 mile loop took me just over 3 hours so by this time it was afternoon and really warming up. I about gave myself a stroke bustling around in my polar fleece lined breeches and had to stop and change into my thin Irideon pair and pour some water over my head to get myself back together. My husband made me a delicious turkey sandwich, promptly devoured, and I refilled my 3 water bottles I had drained on the second loop. In no time, it was time to tack up again!

Thanks to J we left for the third loop with all necessary boots and a spare on board!

 Bye, see ya in a few miles!

The third loop was a short one, only 8 or 10 miles. It took off in the same place as the second loop but then we took a different fork in the trail, onto what had been the 25’s second loop. I remembered it from the LD last year and it was nice cruising along some sandy trails with the odd stop for rocky footing or muck then rejoined the canal trail loop and it was the same nice windy cruise back to camp as the end of the second loop. There were spots of the canal trail that were underwater and we splashed our way through, after much convincing on my part. Desire resented her every step splashing her all over..if she didn’t walk so aggressively it might not have been so bad, really! It was kinda funny.

Same routine at 1/4 mile from the finish and vet check, only a surprise awaited us at the finish. I had no idea how many riders had started the 50 but I was sure I was middle to back of the pack, since I started late and didn’t pass very many people. The timers took my number and then told me I was in eighth place! They told me to get a CRI and show for BC, and my jaw about hit the floor. Later I found out only 22 riders completed (of 30 starters) so it wasn’t a far journey to get to Top 10, but it was still pretty sweet! My third 50 on Desire and we get to show for BC 🙂   When she trotted out for the CRI she was back at 60 for the check, I know that’s criteria but I wonder, were the front runners and BC winner’s pulses below 60 at their CRI most likely? Curious.

I wanted her to be much more presentable for the BC vetting, though it was just for the experience I still felt it was respectful to clean her up. All the sand and dirt and splashing had left the undercarriage pretty messy and I had to resort to the scrubby mitt over the sponge for sticky sweated-on mud in some spots.

Bribing her to love me again with carrots..

We headed back down for final/BC vetting with a much cleaner horse. She checked out great, no back tenderness or issues and her gut sounds were back up from lots of mash and hay since we had finished.

I had to trot her straight out and back and then around in a circle each way for BC and she did it though her ears were back. She was in good shape and healthy I would say, but definitely tired. Afterwards the vet mentioned to me that she looked great but seemed slightly off in her left hind on the circle on a few steps, which I confirmed with the interference mark on that leg. I had felt her knock it once on the last loop and take an “owie!” step and I thought that might come up. I really should have wrapped or splint booted it and I learned my lesson as she obviously hit it at least once more on that last loop.

Showing for BC:

 Ellery wanted to teach a volunteer to take a pulse so we stayed after our vetting for him to teach her. Desire was very quiet and stood so politely. Amazing what 50 hard miles will do!

We had a great chicken dinner and a nice brief awards ceremony, I scored another jar of Quench electrolytes for my 8th place finish. I got one last year from the LD and haven’t tried it yet…hey I’m building up a supply for a rainy day, or something. My body started to stiffen up as the evening wore on and I was really glad I brought my ankle brace this time. I took Desire for another walk and gave her a second  warm beet pulp mash since she had devoured her first one.

This photo showed up dark my camera screen and I didn’t know until I adjusted the contrast that N’s Willow was sticking her tongue out! Funny!

The night wasn’t near as cold as the previous but we were feeling indulgent and made some hot chocolate to dip our Mint Milano cookies into. Ooohh it was good!

It wasn’t long after that this happened..

I must say I slept great, bone tired as I was. I’m not sure I reflected in this ride story how truly rocky and challenging the terrain was. There were plenty of nice spots for trotting but there was a serious amount of rocks, as well as mucky footing, spots where the trail was underwater, loads of water crossings, and narrow trails next to real drop-offs. It was a much more challenging course than either day at Cuyama, but that’s understandable as I don’t think I’d want to do multiple days of courses as hard as Whiskeytown. Well maybe once. Desire was quite good but she is very forward and I had to really pay attention to the footing for her and direct her attention to what was coming when things got hairy. We got our communication down pretty well, I gave a light sponge of the reins when I wanted her to slow and pay attention, and we reached a good compromise of me saying “oh shit, slow down!” without jerking her attention and therefore feet so quickly that we ended up sliding or getting in trouble. We had a total ride time of about 9 hours, including the hour lunch hold. It was long and challenging but I felt physically and mentally up for it and my mare was too. I’m proud of her as always and glad I scraped through, boot and leg issues and all!

I think everybody felt about like Willow this morning:

She really is cute!

We broke down our Arabian Nights tent and camp in about an hour and were pulling out of ride camp by 9.

Happy camper headed for the barn and showers:

A very uneventful 3 hour drive found us home to a gorgeous warm spring day and lots of critters happy to see us. A huge shout out and thank you to our friend L who fed the herd for us while we were away. You are an invaluable part of the Redheaded Endurance pit crew! 🙂

Sheza was VERY happy to see her momma again. You can see a little mini nose pushed up against the gate there too.

Sheza quickly proved TOO happy to have mom home and was harassing the ever living shit out of Desire, following her around nibbling her and trying to nurse and just generally being extremely obnoxious. The momma mare seriously deserves a rest! Desire was literally walking in circles looking for a place to roll but Sheza wouldn’t back off to let her do it so I managed to close the gate quickly behind Desire when she walked through it, shutting her off alone in the big back pasture and leaving Sheza with mini Bandito in the paddock.

Sheza then put on a big show about the separation for a good twenty seconds until the grass got more interesting again. She turned 1 on Saturday and is quite a big muscular girl, I must say!

Desire seemed much happier once the filly was off the attack, and rolled and rolled.

A small black dog was VERY happy to see me, there really is nothing like the Welcome Home from your favorite dog after you’ve been gone. She is definitely coming to the next ride.

All is well, everyone is fed and cleaned and content. I foresee bedtime coming at around 7 pm…

Joey’s opinion seems to be that a lime green blanket is most unsatisfactory. Maybe he knows his color is going to be yellow, and considered the green a poor substitute. In any case, this is what remains of his month old blanket after yesterday:

This blanket was doomed from the start. It’s a “Tough 1” from Horse.com and proved itself anything but tough. The outer waterproof material was cheesy and flimsy and the belly buckles didn’t stay buckled worth a damn, which caused the Great Hoof Trapped in Cinched Down Strap Cue Rodeo & MacGyver Rescue escapade while I was at Cuyama. That resulted in one belly strap being cut off and a rip having started where the strap attached under the side of the blanket from the struggle. Joey still tolerated it being taken on and off, but clearly wasn’t a huge fan…

Yesterday we pulled in and Joey was naked but there was something looking suspiciously like stuffing scattered around his paddock. As an owner of 4 dogs who enjoy shredding new toys and leaving stuffing around the property like snow, the sight is rather familiar. As we pulled in, sure enough Joey reach down, picked his blanket up off the ground, and shook it at us with a very, “Eehhhh, whatcha gonna do about THIS?!” demeanor about him. Well, I never, as my grandma would say.

You can see from the photo above that he didn’t just snake his way out of it, shed it like an old skin, and leave it at that. I’d say there was rather a lot of stomping and biting going on after this blanket hit the ground. He wore blankets without issue in a sizable herd at his last owner’s, so I’m not sure what to conclude here. He’s bored? Had an official standing vendetta with the blanket after the Escapade? He knew it was a cheesy knock-off and wanted a Schneider’s blanket like everyone else? Or just knew green wasn’t his color.

I’ll have him know that yellow blankets aren’t easy to find, and if I invest the time and money to get one, I expect it to receive better treatment! Of course, we all know how much horses care what we expect of them when at liberty in their own paddocks. “No, not the [fence, blanket, shed, etc]!”

********************

Raining and windy all night here..hoping it subsides for a few minutes this morning to get the camping gear in the truck for Whiskeytown this morning. Rumor is that Funder will be joining us at Whiskeytown as High Desert Classic was re-scheduled this weekend due to poor weather. Here’s hoping the storm wasn’t too bad and the Nevada passes are open for her journey!

It poured here all last night and into this morning, but has currently settled for a cold blustery wind and grey skies. We’ve got an 80% chance rain predicted today, tonight, and tomorrow, and about the same for the Redding area where Whiskeytown Chaser takes place. Saturday, however, ride day AND Sheza’s first birthday, is forecast as sunny all around, with highs in the low to mid 60s. Totally doable!

I’m hoping it doesn’t shower too vigorously tomorrow, as I’m back to the reality of camping in a tent next to my horse tied to the trailer–ahh the days of LQ and high ties at Cuyama! Still, my wonderful crew husband J will be along and he always makes the camping situation livable.

As far as I know A and her wonderful stallion Alamahn will be at the ride as well as my regular riding buddy N and possibly even my friend and trimmer, D. To the best of my knowledge N and D are planning on the LD while A and I will hopefully have a Cuyama revival together in the 50. I’m SO excited to see her and ride with her again, she is so frickin awesome and we are so scarily alike–2 redheaded Taurus’ with a passion for horses, music, and adventure–ah endurance, always bringing people together.

I just started packing this morning after the rain quit, a minor operation since I left the majority of my misc ride supplies, vet stuff, extras, etc all packed in the big tote that it had been stored in for travel to and from Cuyama. Just unpacked the tote into my trailer tack rooms, laid a few things inside to dry, popped the GPS on the charger in the house, and added a few necessities to the trailer, you know, like saddle and bridle. A is supposed to be bringing my mohair girth with her and N offered to bring one or two of her own as back up, plus the new one I ordered so I’ll actually have 2 functional girths for Desire swears it’s on the UPS truck for delivery to me today. There shall be a plethora of mohair girths, rather than a shortage! As we like it.

Going to pick up a few odds and ends for the ride in town today and be ready to pull out early in the morning! Huzzah!

I’ve had this blog going for about a year now, so it must be time to progress from epic ride stories and picture novels of my herd to the other great endurance blog gift: product reviews. I’m a big believer in try and use whatever works best for you, your horse, and your unique situation, but I also really value insights, experiences, and recommendations on products for the horse and rider that come from outside. I horde tips and knowledge from other blogs and websites, and damn it, it’s time I start contributing too (totally just heard that last bit said in my mom’s voice in my head..and then couldn’t spell “heard” other than “herd” for a good four attempts..)

So, my first product review, because it’s current in use and mind, shall be for Trail-Rite‘s Magical Ointment.  I bought an Easyboot Glove for a spare from the very nice Trail-Rite Tack lady at Cuyama XP end of last month, and then sheepishly asked to borrow her fly spray since neither A nor I had brought any and the gnats were driving Desire nuts (there was a gnat warning in the ride paperwork, that’s my bad). When I mentioned that D gets sores on her belly from the persistent biting bugs in the summer and I have to keep ointment/fly prevention on them at all times, the Trail-Rite gal threw in a 2 oz. sample jar of the Magical Ointment with the boot. I was told it works wonders for cuts, girth rubs and abrasions, and also repels flies.

I was appreciative, threw it in my crew bag, and didn’t really think about it again. After the rainy, muddy, sandy, sweaty, Sunday Day 3 50 miler, I noticed that Desire had a bit of a girth rub on her left side under all the mud and sweat. She has pretty sensitive skin, I had to buy my first mohair girth for her as any other girth I tried seemed to rub little pink spots; I hadn’t had an issue with the mohair previously BUT mud, sand, sweat, and sensitive skin= issue, no doubt.

When I got home on Monday (ok, probably more like Tuesday morning, coz Monday it was late & I was exhausted) and really got to clean her up it was already scabbing over and healing. I used my usual cut/abrasion treatment, Vetericyn–btw, mini product review though I think everyone already knows about it, I LOVE Vetericyn, it took care of Thrush in Desire’s hooves and has healed many a wound of varying size and severity in my horses and dogs, including the mountain lion claw and bite marks our black lab once ended up with, and seriously nasty hot spots our 100 lb lazy hound got last summer.

Last Friday I finally got around to riding Desire again for the first time since the XP, and discovered I had left my mohair girth in A’s trailer. D’oh. She is going to Whiskeytown this weekend and promised it would come with her, but that left me with no mohair in the meantime. The Vetericyn had done well and the rub was pretty well healed over, so I decided to risk it, wise or not. I chose my smoothest neoprene girth, lubricated the healing girth spot some, didn’t tighten the girth down too tight, and went for an easy 12 mile meander with minimal trotting and moving out. On return I found that it indeed probably hadn’t been wise, as the girth had rubbed the healing skin off the previous rub and it was now raw again, with a week until our next 50 at Whiskeytown. Shiiiiit.

Here enters, at last, Trail-Rite’s Magical Ointment. I DO find a way to make everything wordy, don’t I? Just trying for full disclosure but good grief, get on with the review already lady. Because the rub was now raw and I wanted it protected as well as coated with something healing (the Vetericyn just sprays on clear and the bugs are beginning to come out here at home, so I didn’t want it further irritated) I dug out the little Magical Ointment jar. The ointment is a nice sherbet orange color with an unoffensive, slightly fly repellent-esque scent, and it easily gooped onto Desire’s rub, providing full coverage to the small rub without having to smear things around a lot and get too messy. The progression was thus:

Friday p.m.: raw, fresh, pink girth rub, apply goop
Monday: a little crusty but lot’s of new healing skin growth, apply goop to lubricate it and keep up the healing
Wednesday, this a.m.: almost fully healed, in fact almost invisible, a little crusty so I gooped some more on there to keep things supple.

From fresh, raw girth rub to almost fully healed and invisible in 5 days, I’ll take it! I am confident it will be fine by Saturday for the ride and I did order a back-up mohair girth that will be here tomorrow (thanks for the insanely fast shipping, Distance Depot).

The ointment isn’t smelly, is easy to use, and a 4 oz jar is $12.50 or the largest offered is 16 oz. for $38.75. I used maybe 1/4 of the 2 oz sample jar in this girth rub healing project, so I’d say it does go a long way. The ingredients as per the label are White petrolatum, lanolin, sulfur, zinc oxide, oil of Thuja, scarlet red, and phenol.  Last summer I used War Paint on Desire’s bug bites but it’s sticky, runny, and really difficult to use in the heat and I personally don’t like the deodorant-like application AT ALL. I’m definitely going to be using Trail-Rite’s Magical Ointment on the bug bites this summer and I’m quite happy to have discovered it! Thanks for the sample, kind Trail-Rite lady! (totally should know her name, but don’t.)

Hope this helps someone, somewhere! Get gooping.

Love that trot…

Sheza was a Sheza Good Girl today! I really was impressed with her. This was my first time catching her since she rejoined her mom and I wasn’t at all sure how she was going to be. So far she had been very friendly and in my face at feeding time, since Desire always is. Happily this morning they all crowded around me (even the shy mini! The piglet girls must be motivating him) and Sheza bowed her head into her halter and let me tie it without even a head toss! Shocking. I figured she would be fresh and cantankerous as usual and I didn’t relish my arms getting yanked trying to lunge her so fresh, so I turned her loose in the arena thinking she would burn off some steam. Again she surprised me by trotting and cantering around a couple times (as I clicked photos furiously as you’ll see) and then coming right back to me. 

LOVE this one:

Sheza Good Girl, all sweaty and docile after some lunging:

Pretty head:

Her mane grows in so nice and straight!

I sprayed off her front legs and chest and she didn’t seem to mind very much. The benefits of getting them hot and sweaty and tired first!

I ninja’d her with the de-wormer, rubbing it all over her face and muzzle and nostrils until she kind of liked it and then slipping it in and depressing the plunger like lightning so she didn’t have time to spazz. I pride myself on my de-wormer ninja skills, it almost always works. She wasn’t very bothered by it and just chomped at the wormer like, “Hmm, tastes like shit, hmm..”

Sheza thinking about that bath and that nasty taste in her mouth…

She was pretty polite on the walk back to her pasture and she bravely went under the Scary Branches of Doom that are just low enough to brush the top of her ears–she balks at them every time without fail. Good girl for removing the halter, no trying to rub on me like she sometimes does. She really was a satisfactory filly today!

She is 14 hands and 600-something pounds, and will be one year old next Saturday, the day of Whiskeytown Chaser! Time has FLOWN.

Then it was the bay boys’ turn.

I took a little video of him lunging at the trot to show my husband. See, the other day my husband made the mistake of saying, “I don’t think Joey will ever be an endurance horse.” I’m a pigheaded redhead, and I took that as a bit of challenge..so we’ll see where it goes. I’m not saying he’ll be the best thing ever or claiming any great future, but he does have potential and seems quite naturally athletic with a good mind. Time will tell!

After he had trotted and cantered, listened to my verbal cues pretty well for transitions, switched directions a bunch, and let me pick up both his front feet and run the lunge whip over his rump and all down and inside his hind legs, we called it a day for arena work.

Sweaty boy:

He is starting to look good! 🙂

He was very sweaty so I decided to give him whatever sort of shower he would tolerate, too. To my surprise he seemed very curious about the light spray of the hose, so I put the hose right in front of him and let him sniff the nozzle itself. He quickly stuck his gums in the water and was actually playing in the hose spray! I never would have guessed that would be his reaction, I expected him to tolerate it but not like it so much. So that was a nice surprise!

Snorfing the spray:

I sprayed off his shoulders and back but left his hind end alone so it was a fully pleasant experience for him.We’ll get to the hind end in time. He left me pick up and tap on his front feet again in the cross ties. Oh, speaking of, since last time he charged forward in the cross ties and tried to *ahem* hang himself, this time I put a rope across the front to give him the box stall sort of idea, then only attached one cross tie so it was like he was hard tied, which he does well from his previous owner. He seemed pretty okay with that and then started leaning over the rope to clean up spilled grain from Sheza so I attached the other cross tie to keep him in line and he was fine with that too, aside from trying to eat the rope cross tie at first. The other stall has chain cross ties with hose over the chain, he will graduate to that, especially if he persists in nibbling the rope, but that stall is also the more enclosed of the two and I like to start them in the more open tie stall. He threw a couple big yawns in the cross ties too!

 After he dried off, definitely starting to fill out some! His fitness continues to surprise me:

My cruise on Blaze was just perfect, 4 miles or so meandering on the dirt road, he had a few Oohh Aahh Arab moments at the cows and a particularly large and terrifying rock, but was mostly just plodding along . It was relaxing and perfect after focusing with the greenies. I gave him a little of Joey’s post-workout mash and he gobbled it up in no time. He is on regular maintenance rations, no extra goodies as he isn’t doing mileage or working too hard, and isn’t exactly a slender type. He will be my good pony horse for Sheza and Joey, and is doing just fine as he approaches 16 yrs old. Next month he’ll have been with us for 3 years! Wow.

Finished off the day with a great dinner date with my husband, now that’s a fine Easter Sunday!