As for miss Sheza–what a difference a year makes!

Love this one:

Onto the lunge line, remembering our manners and cues, and boy has she gotten GREAT, attentive, responsive since we started last fall.

The photo below looks ordinary BUT it’s just simply not. Desire spends 98% of her time on the black mats in the cross ties tap dancing, stretching, leaning, just generally expressing her impatience and displeasure. Some combination of being ready to get going and hating black mats, as per her previous owners. So this photo, showing my wild endurance mare *snoozing* on the black mats, is simply priceless. She was so mellow that I got totally sidetracked and took a good 45 minutes to tack up while she just kicked it in the cross ties. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

I felt the needs for braids today. Awww ain’t she precious..

This is the kind of day it was. How can you not just be stoked on life with this kind of scenery, the sun on your back, riding a good horse..

I didn’t quite manage to capture it in the photo but the flowers pictured below were this intense, vivid, almost *glowing* ruddy pink color, it was really something.

The creek was up quite a bit from last ride over! Good news.

I rode down to and then skirted the Bangor Wildlife Area, and continued on the dirt road as I had when I rode over to my friend’s to feed his chickens a while back. I hadn’t gone to the end of the dirt road before so I cruised about another mile past our friend’s house and turned around for home right at 6 miles out. We were just cruising, we trotted maybe 3 times the whole ride. Today was just about having a nice relaxing ride, as Desire so clearly has the conditioning and speed under her belt what she needs now is calmer work, more on fixing her race brain than priming her race body.

Okay, so I gotta say, she was SO responsive and light on the bit today, Bahahha! I can’t help but laugh because last time I rode her she was pulling my arms out of my sockets for 105 miles and slapping her feet down in a bouncier-than-usual pissed off trot. Today was light as a feather to the bit and the smoothest 6 mph jog when I asked, it was more effort to post than sit. Really something.

We had an exciting moment on the way back. We were trotting up a pretty steep short hill on the dirt road but were well over on the grassy shoulder, out of the road, and a car came around a blind turn. They were going slow and were well on their own side but Desire decided to slam on the brakes and start to surge right away from the car. My automatic bad-horse noise flew from my lips, a loud harsh “EH EH,” and it was enough to stop her surge so I could right myself and not hit the dirt. I was well over her left shoulder and clinging on her neck with my right arm and back with my right leg, so that instant she stopped at my correction was just enough for me to pull back into my seat and continue riding like nothing happened while the girls driving by gaped out the window at the almost-tumble. The balk was pretty unnecessary but she did listen and snap out of it and I didn’t come off, so I’ll call it a win-win. She was really good about listening to the EH EH today, whenever she started to get crazy eyes at a rock or stump I would voice it and she would straighten out and continue forward. Ooo so responsive, me so likey!

I didn’t see a very big patch on the ride but I just love California Poppies, the contrast against the new green grass is just something. So here’s a couple:

Okay so I was on a flower kick. Again, photo didn’t quite get it but, the bush below was on FIRE with orange blossoms.

Random balloon caught on our fence line..

We woke Joey up from a nap as we strolled up the driveway!

 mom has a good roll:

Not so small at her side anymore!

Sheza is about Blaze’s size now, but not quite as big as mom–yet!

Some definite blonde coming into Sheza’s mane!

Stopped by the cozy stall to say hi to our buckling, now named Hector, but formally Count Hector Goatula. My best friend from high school came up with Count Goatula on Facebook and I am still laughing about it.

Here we are:

The Bay Boys! Aww those two just warm my heart, they are toooo funny but so kind and gentle. A great antidote to pushy mares.

We left the house pretty early this morning and did some errands and necessary evils, then stopped at a local spot to pan for gold for a couple of hours. We got some nice little chunky pieces and some finer material too. I really got into the panning today because I found a nice gold little chunk in my first pan and got fired up. MAN is it physical work, after a couple of hours I was done. I was also already sore from my last few days of teaching greenie beenies to lunge in the arena, but yep no doubt, gold mining is hard work.

Working away:

When we got home we were counting goats and found there was one more than when we left!

Bit smaller than last year’s baby. Speaking of, she isn’t much smaller than mamma these days:

Hooo boy that could mean SO many things, the prospects of where I could take this post are sinfully delightful. Fortunately for all (and perhaps my marriage) what I am coveting of my neighbors are: round pen panels! A whole big friggin stack of them sitting out in their back field, untouched for the year+ that we’ve been neighbors. I think I’m going to leave a note on their gate with my phone number, see if they want to trade/sell any of the panels. As my work with Sheza–and now Joey–moves forward I am jonesing for a round pen more than ever. To be sure I have an arena, which is a hands down luxury, but I just know how convenient training in a round pen can be, especially with a hot horse that needs to go around and around a few times before the brain returns. Turns out that description applies to Sheza AND Joey, though I won’t say yet that Joey is “hot”, per se, but he is definitely energetic and has surprising stamina for his outward physical condition.

That’s right, after I finished up the mowing today, Joey (re?)learned to lunge. I’m not 100% clear on what was done with him at his previous owners, and anyway choose to approach things with a new horse as if it’s a clean slate and we’re learning together from Day 1. At least with a greenie as green as Joey. After his loose-blanket-strap-cinching-down-on-hind-foot-cue-blanket-ripping-half-off-and-chasing-him extravaganza that my husband rescued him from while I was away at Cuyama XP, he is more sensitive than ever to having his hind legs handled, not to mention feet being picked up. He did keep his head quite admirably for the situation and let J help him out of the crisis, and still lets me put on and remove the offending blanket without being haltered, so he really does have a good head on his shoulders. But like I say–stamina! After the initial “This is how We Lunge” discussion just on the lead rope, I followed the same progression as I did with Sheza yesterday, but he lasted quite a bit longer on the still-sensitive, send him off for more circles and repeat thing. He was stickier going to the right but did eventually lunge and stop and face me in both directions, and I called it quits after he stood quiet and let me run the dressage whip over his rump and down his hind legs without lifting either hind foot (or taking off, as previously).

He was very sweaty by the end of the 40 or so minutes in the arena and I broached the topic of hose showers with him, but in a very minor way. First just turned on the hose and let him watch the water stream and snort at the moving hose, then slowly approached him with it and he stuck his nose down in the light spray. He snorted of course, then stood and let me lightly spray his front hooves and up his front legs and I called it a day at that. He was in a good place and stood for scratches after I took his halter off. and he got another beet pulp mash since he worked so hard and isn’t quite up to the weight I’d like yet.

Blaze was next and got a good workout in the arena, he was a little punky and crow hoppy but was obviously just feeling good and worked as hard as can be expected for a little horse that is deeply bored by the arena. The Specialized with his fitting cushion set up left a nice even sweat mark and I gave him a thorough hose bath afterwards. It’s a treat to run through and work all the horses and end with Blaze, who is so quiet and tolerant. Definitely a good plan to start with the hot nutty ones and work my way down to Blaze who by that point looks like a saint, if he didn’t already!

There is war in the Kingdom of Goat, the boarder goats are unimpressed by the subtraction of Sheza and addition of our two goats in their pasture, but there is plenty of space and grazing to be done so I’m not very worried about it. Eh, goats.

My Cuyama ride photos from Lynne Glazer should be coming home in the mail with my husband this evening! Can’t wait to ogle at their splendor 🙂

And it isn’t pretty! I could have told you that well before the fact, but it had to happen sooner or later. Of late Sheza has declared herself High Queen of Goat & Turkeydom and has been getting QUITE an attitude on her little red self. When I threw hay for evening feedings she would spin and kick the hay, and was getting a little too vicious herding the goats around, not to mention a rather serious go she had at one of the turkeys the other day. She stomped him and he hid in the bushes for the rest of the day, luckily he came out alright but what a blazunhaat biznatch she is!

I had a confidence boosting talk with A on the drive home from our Cuyama XP trip re: handling Sheza’s Wild Red Self. I do have quite a bit of horse “training” if you want to call it that under my belt, but tend to doubt and question myself to the point of hopelessness lately. I want to do right so badly that I get a little cuckoo in the head about methods. And I find watching/reading things and then trying to translate it to a working scenario not always the easiest. My hang up with Sheza was worrying about lunging her too hard as a youngster, but with her becoming wild with energy it seemed like one of the next steps in getting her to focus and move forward instead of existing in Spazzdom as she naturally does. She IS intelligent, and sensitive, and I suspect slightly bi-polar…I mean. Anyhoo A and I agreed that at yearling age (Sheza will be 1 in about two weeks, day of Whiskeytown Chaser!!) she could surely stand up to 20 or 30 minutes of lunging in conjunction with focusing and learning new things.

My kingdom, my kingdom for a round pen! I know, I know, I should be able to voodoo-whisper my filly into submission without the security blanket of a round pen, but BOY does it make it easier to teach lunging and join up with a young horse in a pen than on a line. The first 10 minutes of our lunging expedition was a comedy of errors. I had sorta-kinda taught her the basics on her lead rope as a youngster, just getting one or two circles out of her, so she started out with a glimmer of an idea of what I wanted, but definitely was getting stuck in reactive mode. I started with her on a lead rope so I didn’t have to juggle my (way too bulky) lunge line while she re-grasped the basics. I used my dressage whip as an extension of my arm and rubbed her all over with it and then used it as pressure behind her to move her around. There was some literal lunging and generally spazzy behavior but she got her right circle down pretty darn quickly. I moved her to the lunge line as the short lead rope was starting to impede her forward momentum, and she trotted some nice circles around me. I worked on stopping and facing me some, sending her around again if she didn’t turn in and pay attention to me. She has the rope jiggle back-up pretty much down, I had to turn my cues way up the first time and then half again that much in further attempts.

I found her to be much stickier going to the left. When we were doing too much fighting I sent her back around to the right and she went right into it and it seemed to refocus her on what was at hand instead of just going BLARGH at the dressage whip aid. We got the left hand circle going pretty well after that and after a few successful circles I asked for and got a satisfactory stop, back up, and THEN she went off my point  and just a suggestion with the whip back to the right! I mean NICELY. It was sooo thrilling.

All told we were in the arena for probably 30 minutes. She was in a much better frame of mind at the end though we did do a couple of slow walks back and forth through the arena gate as she still likes to squirt through gates like a spazz if she thinks she can get away with it. Unfortunately she did when I brought her out to work since you have to squeak through the gate and get it closed again before the goats escape! But after our little session I turned her out with Desire and mini Bandito who had their gate open and were out grazing all around the barn in the fine grass. Now the other goats can go out in a goat and turkey herd and no one’s lives should be in danger!

I’m hoping Bandito and Desire will teach Sheza some herd manners and take her ego down a peg or two. I did see Sheza trying to nurse from  Desire this evening and mare was even cocking a hind leg back like she used to but every time Sheza made contact she got a squeal and pinned ears. Hopefully that won’t last long!! What a DORK.

In addition to our lunge session I battled it out with mowing two ft tall grass through a couple of our lawns and cleaned the hay barn and stacked the bales of beautiful grassy alfalfa we got today at the feed store. Oh yeah and spin class this morning! I have my ankle brace on and my dogs are barking!

Hoping for another decent weather day tomorrow so I can work Joey 🙂

*This is going to be looonng, because it was a long, amazing, unforgettable experience that included many firsts for me. You’ve been warned!!


Saturday PM–Catching up

To begin from the beginning…We met A at the Hwy 20 and I-5 junction in Williams on Wednesday around noon. We were there 10 or so minutes before her and let the dogs and horse out for a walk about. It was breezy and chilly but that’s much preferable to straight up rain.

It was sad to say goodbye to my noble little pups, but i knew I would see them soon.

Soon A arrived and we threw all my junk into her rig.

We’re ready for the road!

It was about a 10 hour drive to camp near New Cuyama, but you could have fooled me, the drive went by really quickly even as a passenger. We stopped and let the horses out to graze and relax, made a fuel stop and a food/water tank filler stop (“Oh yes, we’re just filling a few little buckets” I assured the gas station guy when I asked to use the spigot and hose outside the station.) And then we were there! We pulled into ride camp at about 11 pm Wednesday night and parked just inside and to the right of one of the gates, figuring we’d find a better spot in the morning. The horses went out on their Hi-Ties in blankets with yet more food –Desire ate non stop the whole trailer ride and was round as a little piglet when we got there!– and we crawled into our beds. 

Ride camp, Thursday morning:

Thursday we had all day to get sorted out, relax, and say hullo to people. Turns out our parking spot was actually kinda perfect, since it was near the porto-potty (we had a toilet in the much-beloved borrowed LQ trailer but wanted to save water for as many showers as possible), a big trough was right across the from us, and A’s stallion had his own sort-of private spot made by his side of the trailer and a screening row of bushes 10 or 15 ft behind him. A few of the older ladies *coughbusybodiescough* thought we were too close to the gate entrance and would block the larger rigs getting in but we confirmed with the Duck’s wife that we were fine and many a large rig fit past us as more riders arrived throughout the day and evening.

We saddled up late Thursday morning and took the horses out for a leg stretcher. A’s stallion, Alamahn, is such a handsome guy and he moves beautifully. He is a really quality horse citizen as well as being a beautiful stud, A has done an amazing job with him. We rode side by side on mare and stallion and chatted away, no issues. They camped great together too.

Out for a leg stretcher

After our mellow ride, maybe 5 miles of walking and a few short trots, we spent the rest of Thursday eating, getting our crew bags ready, eating some more, relaxing, and maybe a little more eating. Sharing all the good stuff out of your respective coolers is part of the joys of camping, I think. A made these little pita pocket situations with hummus, cheese, peppered turkey, and lots of greens, and they’re frickin amazing, I have to buy hummus and pockets and replicate it at home. 

I hadn’t gotten a spare size 1 Glove for Desire before the trip as I had intended, but we were camped across from Trailwise Tack and the nice lady there sold my a Glove and let me borrow her fly spry–major oversight, there were gnats and should have brought our own–and also gave me a sample of her homemade fly deterrant/healing salve which I’ll have to try. Desire gets sores on her belly from the bugs in the summer and I have to keep something on it at all times. I usually use War Paint but I’ll try this stuff too!

Ride camp Thursday afternoon:

We vetted our horses in in the evening, which was of course very different than a regular AERC vetting in. I got to meet the infamous Duck at last, and the vet check was a gums check, skin tenting, gut sounds, and a trot out away, with an “Okay” from the Duck you were vetted in and good to go. No rider cards, we filled out our name and horse’s name on index cards at ride meeting and put them in a box as our official entry for riding the next day. On the back of the index cards was a little mock-up vet card with all the criteria filled in with As, lol. We got maps at ride dinner and I was a little unnerved when Duck said things like “after that, there’s no more ribbons, just go with it” but A assured me we would find our way. We dropped off our crew bags at the meeting, and that was my first use of my snazzy Snugpax crew bag that I’ve had for a year now, haha. I had filled it with alfalfa and grass flakes in the hay compartment, Desire’s cooler, more water bottles, duct tape and vet wrap, Ziplocs of two different kinds of grain, and some granola bars. I clipped my small bucket to one of the outside zippers, too.

Crew bag maiden voyage:

Ride meeting, Thursday PM:

My cooler went out with my crew bag so Desire borrowed a sheet from Alamahn. What a ladylike bite of hay!

After dinner and meeting we walked the horses again and went to bed pretty early. By this point I was bouncing back and forth between being really nervous and feeling really jazzed and ready for my first 50, it was kind of a mercy to quite the emotional yo-yoing and get to bed in my cozy flannel lined sleeping bag. P.s. flannel lined anything is EPIC.

 Evening ride camp:

A and I were up at 5 Friday morning though there wasn’t really much to do before the 7 am start. She fed both the horses early so they were munching away and our saddle bags were already packed so we had some hot tea in the trailer and I tried not to hide in the corner and breath into a paper bag. Lol, I wasn’t really that bad, but I definitely had that squirmy feeling in my stomach. We tacked up at 6:30 and rode out to warm up just before 7. A mentioned sometimes the starts didn’t happen exactly on time and that was the case this time. 

A’s game face, Friday morning at ride start:

Desire was fired up, jigging in circles and absolutely unable to stand still so we rode around the meadow like everyone else, keeping moving. We let the majority of the riders head out on the start first, looking for a good spot to start in. You know, scoping for horses going bananas and letting them leave first! Of course Desire wasn’t exactly the picture of composure either, but she wasn’t terrible, just prancey and sometimes more sideways than forward. We finally decided to join the stream of riders going out, but then the “we’re late!” people started passing us right away and as they trotted by Desire got more and more pissed off at being held back.

Leaving from the start:

 It was all I could do to keep her in a straight line as they trotted past, since she wanted to swing sideways which would have put her butt in the passing lane. Things were feeling a little dicey when a lady on a REALLY nutty horse came trotting/jigging/shimmying up behind us. The energy of the two horses clashed horribly and Desire was instantly worse. I turned her around to face back towards camp so she would see A and her stallion not far behind us, just in time to see the other jazzed horse as it started backing at speed up over the bank and through the rough ground behind it, then surged forward past us back to the trail and suddenly, where a broken sharp culvert and chunk of rusty fence went under and to the right of the trail, the horse just threw itself sideways off the trail and fell heavily, the woman riding him hitting the rocks and screaming bloody murder the whole way down. It was DRAMATIC. She quickly got up and apologized for screaming while her horse, a Mustang, trotted around loose at high speeds. A couple people moving out ahead of us stopped and blocked the way and there were 4 or 5 of us blocking the other way, and the horse was quickly caught. The lady led her horse back to camp and I guess that was that. A little disconcerting, to say the least. 

We headed out again and Desire was still jigging, then she got worse again as a couple more pairs caught up and passed us. She kept trying to go sideways as we were next to small but significant drop offs from the edge of the trail and it was seriously pissing me off. That’s just part of riding a competitive Arab though, yes?! Due to weather concerns the trails for the day had been switched so that Friday was the hardest day, with the biggest hill climb, an approx 5,000 ft  switchback ascent to a Duck-worth awesome view.

 View from the trail before the mountain climb:

A got a great photo of us:

 Desire and I had a pretty much non-stop battle up the mountain, she wanting to race everyone and everything in sight and me wanting her to take it easy up the hill, and trot out at around 8-9 mph on the flat spots. Far too rational a plan for miss mare, she jigged and sidled and was just generally a pain in the ass. One gal that passed us early in the morning on the trail said, “I’m sorry, been there!” as she rode past. I was definitely frustrated BUT it was so exciting to be at a ride, in my first 50, my first ride with Desire, there was lots to think about and see besides my silly mare. A was riding with us and we leap frogged with a few pairs up the mountain and finally out of the fog–there was even some tiny patches of snow on the climb!–to an awesome view:

At the top the leaders started passing us on their way back down the hill, and Desire got totally confused. For the first time she wasn’t pulling to go-go-go, she was walking as briskly as she could, sometimes stopping of her own accord to look behind her, then in front again, hesitate in total confusion, and then walk on when I queued her. LOL. It was tooooo funny, she was obviously conflicted on which direction we should be taking to effectively pass everybody. Of course in reality we were near the very back of the pack but in Desire’s brain all morning we were racing for first. I enjoyed the walking, and was pretty amused by her confusion, but we made our way steadily along the top of the mountain and it was nice to finally enjoy a normal gait on her after our jiggity jig all the way up.

Finally walking, looking for imaginary people top pass, focused ears:

 People started saying “not long now!” as they went back past us and soon we came around a corner and saw the run around spot. We called in our names to the Duck, gave the horses a bite of grain, and that was that, time to head back down the mountain.

Below, Karen Chaton is in Renegade orange to the left of the truck, and the Duck is standing in front of the truck! Got to meet some XP legends 🙂

Heading back down the mountain, photo evidence of So Cal snow!

I knew I didn’t want to jig down the mountain for the longevity of my body and I was pretty sure that was going to be Desire’s plan, so once we got back on the downhill trail A and I both got off to lead our horses on foot. She took off jogging and with her and Alamahn’s longer legs they were soon a few turns ahead of us. Desire and I jogged along, with me playing helicopter with the end of the reins to keep her from charging past me. She doesn’t have the best ground manners even at home, it’s a constant work in progress, and on the ride she was ahead of my shoulder and well on her way to dragging me if I didn’t keep on her constantly. I saw a flat and short uphill stretch coming and was getting tired of the helicopter game so jumped back on and trotted til we rounded the corner to the next downhill section. I caught up with A here and we passed Dave Rabe and the Renegade riders a little in front of him, A still jogging and Desire actually moving nicely at  a slow jog downhill, very under herself for once. 

Out of the blue I heard a big diesel engine revving and turned to see the Duck barreling down the hill with horses and riders jumping out of his way. He was calling “emergency, I’ve got to get by!” out the window and luckily we came around a corner then and had a big spot to pull off into as he flew by. That got everyone worried of course, no one wants the vet/ride manager in a panic over a mysterious emergency. After A remounted and we set off at a slog jog down the hill, we soon heard a helicopter and a rider we passed said they saw it landing down near the lunch stop. We were concerned but also enjoying the trail, as there were some wildflowers to be seen and luscious grass beside the trail on the way down, the horses had a bit of the edge off and could be talked into stopping to snatch big bites every few minutes. Near the bottom we saw the helicopter take off and when we reached the bottom of the mountain again we trotted along the flat at a good clip toward the 25 mile mark and lunch stop. I caught a glimpse of the tail end of an ambulance pulling away as we rounded a corner and sure enough a few bends later there was a fire truck turning around and the ambulance driving out. Not good signs! 

Getting closer to the bottom and lunch stop:

We got to the spot where we had to dismount to go through a gate and then walked the horses into the lunch stop, once again playing helicopter with the reins to keep Desire from charging away in front of me. We came in at 12:05, so just over 25 hard miles in 5 hours.  At the lunch stop we heard rumors that the helicopter etc was for a rider who had been hurt by an out of control loose horse.   😦

There was no vetting in, we just gave our names to a gal at the water troughs and then collected our crew bags and found a space out of the way to park ourselves. A watched the horses while I retrieved hot dogs, chips, and lemonade for both of us. My GOD, a burned hot dog never taste so good as after 25 miles up and down a mountain on a fresh mare!

 I was feeling really good though, and ready for another 25 miles, which was exciting as this was going to be the true test. Up to that point I had only been doing Lds so would have been done or 5 miles from done. I felt good and ready for more, especially after eating. Desire hadn’t drunk a lot at the couple of water stops on the trail but she tanked up at the lunch stop and ate a little grain and a good amount of alfalfa. A and I pooled our grain and hay resources so we were offering both horses every sort of grain and hay. They both ate well and when we saw a lull at the vet line we took them over for a quick skin tenting, gums, trot out, “okay” and we were good to go. At 1:05 we’d returned our crew bags, put bits back in, tightened girths, and were heading back out. 

Leaving lunch:

We had come into the lunch stop bunched into a group of 6 or 8 riders so just out of lunch there was a little passing and then A and I were settled into a quiet pocket again in no time. The trail got a little hairy for a few minutes, it was quite brushy and narrow and wound around, next to, and through a stream with big hoof+ sized rocks to go over. Desire was excited to go but was clever enough to realize this wasn’t the sort of ground to try to trot over so we picked our way through it successfully and then came around a corner and up a little hill to some wider dirt trails out in the open again. A was a little behind us and we trotted the flats and power walked the up hills, steep short little hills where I grabbed mane and got up off her back. 

Lunch stop falling away into the distance as we climbed and wound through some more short hills:

Desire started getting squirrelly suddenly and I looked back to see a guy on a paint coming for us at a good clip, so I chose a little hole in the bushes to tuck miss D into and he called thanks as he jammed by. I could see him off and on as we alternated climbing and descending in the wide open desert spaces, it was reassuring that I was on the right track though there weren’t really any confusing spots and all turns were well marked. I had the map but hadn’t needed to get it out at all. From that point on, probably about 28 miles out, it was just Desire and I for a while. A was behind us somewhere and the guy on the paint had disappeared in front. Desire was moving out really nicely, walking briskly and trotting whenever I even thought of asking her to. We wound around the hills for a while and then came down onto the flats again in sight of ride camp. Desire was pretty interested in the whole ride camp situation but the trail turned off to the east and we headed away from camp again. 

She seemed a little confused but was willing enough, and then got snorty and spooked at the water trough at the turning point, which was full of weird oily water and bees. Not very appetizing! But I made her walk up and sniff it since it was so scary at first. On the last descent into the flats I had seen a group near the trough that had then trotted away out of sight, so again was comforted that I was on the right track. After the oily trough we trotted out along the flat dirt road at a good clip, and I started to get the first pangs of a head ache. My hair is so insanely thick it’s like an insulating layer and that plus the helmet in the baking sun are a terrible mix. I have to figure out something to help with it, some sort of super skinny cold pack I can put in there or something because without fail my head cooking gets me into trouble every time there’s  a ride with lots of sun exposure. It resulted in heat stroke at Patriot’s Day at Lake Almanor last year and I could feel my head starting to roast on the trail now too. I sampled my water bottles again to reaffirm which had the electrolytes–the saltier one!– and started pounding that and my other water like it was going out of style. I was determined not to have my XP experience ruined by heat stroke or a migraine. 

About this time there was a few forks in the road/trail and I got out my map for the first time, which promptly resulted in total confusion and worry as maps often do. I checked and thought I was on the right path and then just gave up and decided to follow my instinct as it was much less alarming than my map. Around another corner we spotted a group at a water trough a half mile or so ahead so I was reassured of the trail once again. By the time we got there they were out of sight, but Desire was so worried about looking for them and if anyone else might be coming behind her that she only took a little sip at the trough and half chewed one handful of grain. We set off again and after a long trot came to a right hand turning up a hill and a little wire gate you had to get off to open and close. I’d been chugging water and trying to ignore the niggling little headache and by that point had to pee which I did without shame next to the trail after closing the gate. Ahhh, feeling better and ready to fill the bladder back up again as soon as possible. 

We headed off on another short section of winding on a narrow trail and then came to another gate to open and close. I saw a couple of riders out ahead of me a few turns after the gate on the big open road trail again, but they were soon out of sight. We trotted along the road where acceptable and walked a few more hills, then came to a spot with some really nice grass and I made Desire pull over and she grazed immediately. I had done the math and was thinking I had 4 hours to do 17 miles and it was (relatively) hot and I needed to be smart. I sucked down more water as she grazed and then a trio of ladies came around the corner and passed us after stopping for a few bites of grass for their horses. Desire was surprisingly calm about them passing her, I think she was still slightly confused as to what the situation was and would take a bite, stop chewing and stare around her, then take another bite, try to leave, and repeat. Once she lost any interest in grazing we continued on.

After a few miles I caught site of A’s pink helmet coming around a corner behind us and between her coming toward us and the three ladies in front of us we would see once in a while, Desire was again stumped as to who to worry about. We were at about 37 miles by that point and I was glad to have company again, so I pointed Desire back the way we had came and waited a minute or two for A to catch up. It was good to ride with her again and soon we were winding through another narrow, rocky, brushy section, Desire following behind Alamahn. I had to make sure she was actually paying attention to the challenging footing instead of just locking onto his butt and blindly rushing forward, but that was doable. We came to a big metal gate and A jumped off and opened and closed it for us, and at the trough just past it Desire finally drank long and deep. 

The gatekeeper:

We had some fun trotting blasts away from the homestead and around the narrow, open, dirt trails, following ribbons on the bushes. The horses broke into an easy canter at one point and we caught sight of a group of riders climbing a short very steep hill ahead of us so we slowed to walk up it. We passed a guy ¾ of the way up who was NOT happy about climbing the hill, his horse was clearly tired and apparently so was he. At the top of that hill there was another super steep short section that the group of 4 or 5 riders we’d seen were now heading up on foot, and we climbed it easily and then passed them for a minute but as soon as they remounted they charged past us at a way faster trot than we were interested in. After that little leap frog session Desire and Alamahn were both fired up and even as we were nearing 55 miles they were both strong and fresh and wanting to charge it. I was both tired by and extremely impressed with my mare, considering this time last year she was heavily in foal with Sheza, and this was only her third endurance ride ever. Sure she had been proving a challenge but there was no doubt she had the toughness and fitness for it. 

The ride photographer, Lynn Glazer, got a flat on the long drive up the top of the mountain we rode up so unfortunately there weren’t any ride photos from Saturday. A played ride photographer for me for a minute though! 🙂

We realized we were back on the trail to go back into camp and almost on auto pilot I almost turned left at the gate for camp but the ribbons actually told us to loop out and around for a last half mile or so and then we were finally there! A bunch of ribbons told us we had finally done it and were heading into camp, so we jumped off, took off bits and helmets, and loosened girths. We pulsed right in at the finish and had a successful trot out and that was that!


 We had successfully completed our first 50 with no real issues, no boots coming off, and a happy, healthy, eating, drinking, pooping, peeing horse! And a mostly fine, very happy rider with a sore ankle! We finished at 5 pm so had a 10 hour go of it. At ride dinner we found out it had been a 55 miler and it sure was a variety of pretty tough terrain but it was beautiful and awesome and rewarding and my horse is a rock star!


Happy campers after 50 miles:

Desire was still pulling me around on her evening walk, fresh as can be. Ride dinner was freakin delicious and we found out A finished 69th and I was 70th  out of 86 completing riders (though not sure that’s totally accurate, have to check results). We finally found out about the whole helicopter, ambulance incident, apparently a horse had gotten loose and taken a guy out and he was taken by helicopter to the hospital. We were told he had no broken bones but some sort of bleeding and was being monitored at the hospital. Hopefully he is doing much better by now! There was an injury due to a loose horse at the last XP too, pretty scary. We saw so many people getting dragged around camp by their horses, it’s pretty interesting to see the different horse and rider relationships and lack thereof. Desire is by no means perfect but she was certainly manageable and wasn’t a danger to anyone else, aside from me at times! 

We were both too tired to even bother showering Friday night and were in bed in no time.  I still had a nagging light head ache and it persisted into Saturday, but I slept pretty well and was up to see A off and take Desire for a walk, as Desire was *pissed* to not be heading out with the other horses and was going bananas on her Hi-tie. She calmed down after a long walk and a drink at the trough and then was pretty mellow back at the trailer so I crawled back into bed. It was foggy and really cold in the morning without a horse pulling your arms out of your sockets! I bundled up and went back to bed then woke up abruptly a while later to see blue skies and a hot sun, so I scrambled outside shedding layers as I went, and pulled Desire’s blanket off. She was a little sweaty underneath and I sponged her and cleaned her up some more from the ride. As I was brushing her out A came in for her in-camp lunch stop.

One of her shoes had slid so she pulled it off and reset it real quick, hey that’s a bad ass girl folks! 

After eating and taking care of things she headed back out and I did a few things like scrubbing my Easyboots for Sunday and then retired to my chair in the trailer to write up the ride. Here I am now! It’s going to rain tonight and in the morning and hopefully taper off throughout the day, so I’ll be busting out my super stylish camo rain suit I stole from my husband for the ride tomorrow. I’m thinking about putting my boots on tonight so I don’t have to try to wrestle with them and getting her hooves clean and dry in the rain in the morning.  

Sunday PM

I put the boots on last night and boy am I glad I did. A finished her Day 2 50 in great shape and after dinner and a ride meeting where we found we wouldn‘t know what trails we were riding until morning, we walked the horses, I put on the boots with loose gaiters and passed out hard in bed. I had a light nagging headache all Saturday that wouldn’t quite leave and I mostly just hid in the shade in the trailer and elevated my sore ankle. I knew if I slept hard that night I would get rid of the headache for Sunday’s ride. Fortunately my body cooperated there!  

It got windy Saturday night and by early morning was raining pretty good. The rain kept starting and stopping, giving us hope that it wasn’t going to be too persistent. Unfortunately that wasn’t quite the case. I put on a long sleeve, polar fleece, breeches, sneakers, and my husband’s camo Frog Togg waterproof jacket and pants. Suuuper sexy! We tacked up in the rain and threw the waterproofs back over the horses as quickly as possible after the saddles were on. Desire was looking about as happy as a wet cat and had a definite cranky mare nose curl going on but was more than ready to get moving when it was time. 

Sunday morning–bbrrrrr! So unpleasant her halter is trying to jump off her nose and leave, apparently! 

Stylin’

When it was time to go and A jumped on Alamahn,  they got out of sight walking around the corner in camp before I was mounted, so we put on a little show for camp. As I had my foot in the stirrup and was stepping up off the ground Desire’s love disappeared around the corner and she straight up took off after him with me barely managing to swing myself into the saddle. The waterproof pants were baggy and I almost got hung up on my cantle pack as I swung my leg over clinging for dear life. I saw a few surprised faces but hey, I didn’t come off, lol. 

We headed off in the same direction as a few other riders, 15 minutes after the 7 am start. Most of the (small) pack of riders had already left though we leap frogged with a few small groups through the first few miles as usual. It was raining lightly but steadily and when we came out of the dirt trails onto the dirt road we had just ridden on the previous days which had been wide and sandy with great footing, this is what we found:

It was a slippery, soggy mess. Desire was as fired up as she had been on Friday and the slippery footing made that all the more unnerving. We came across two stuck pick up trucks and a pretty bitter ranch hand walking on the mucky road and slip slided our way by. The rain was on and off and Desire was being quite a jigging little nutter butter, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable situation. I jumped off and ditched the rain pants in a matter of miles because they were too baggy and kept riding up to my knees which didn’t make them very effective and was insanely annoying. We moved along dry river beds for a  while and could do some trotting/jigging and a couple more pairs passed us, then we crossed under the highway and avoided some quicksand to cross a shallow stinky river and climb up for a nice long trot on a dirt road with nice footing. We ended up doing some slow cantering when the pounding pissed off trot became too much, and I’m not lying when I say I was cold, wet, and pretty irritated with my mare. Well, going back and forth between really irritated and pretty impressed. I didn’t know just how much fuel this mare had in her tank and  now I do! She probably could have done all 3 days but I know that I couldn’t have taken another day in the sun with no shade on the trails. As miserable as the cold rainy windy day was today it was much more suited to our complexions! 

We crossed another dry river bed and not long after under a tunnel under the highway that was just higher than our heads when mounted. It was a little unnerving jigging along under there with your head tucked down just to be sure, but it was a short tunnel and no harm done. A few miles later we got to do our trot-by poses for Lynn Glazer, though A and I both ended up cantering by. I’ve never had a cantering ride photo, thought it was worth a shot! We dragged into camp pretty soggy, cold, and hungry for the lunch stop and vetted right through. The horses got their coolers and blankets back on right away and Desire drank but didn’t eat very much, she had a few bites but mostly was napping.

A and I hid in the LQ with the heat on and changed as much of our clothing out for dry stuff as possible. I switched over to a sweatshirt, my down vest, and my Irideon waterproof jacket but didn’t bother with dry socks since my sneakers were soaked and coated with mud and I didn’t even want to get as filthy as dealing with my socks would have required.

Soggy sneakers..note the coating of white hair at the top of my shoe heel..yeah Desire is still shedding..lol

We gobbled soggy day old egg salad sandwhiches like they were steaks but the real treat was a cup of hot tea and a chocolate bar apiece. Ahh boy nothing was ever so good as that combination on this day after that morning of riding!!

Due to the rain and it’s effect on the trails our second loop was going to be the same one as the morning. When I pulled Desire’s blankets after our hour hold was up she wasn’t shivering but within the time of losing the blankets and walking to the vet out she was shivering pretty hard. It was alarming and the vet cautioned me to warm her up slowly with lots of walking. Hardy har har, I wish. She did walk out of camp fairly nicely but then a mother daughter pair that had taken the wrong trail appeared in front of us and we were quickly back to jigging. They moved out past us and Desire and I led the way through the narrow trails and then slowly jigged our way along the mucky awful road again.

Below, a short stretch on pavement to get out of the soggy footing, wish you could see A better, with the rock-on sign and tongue sticking out!

 By the time we reached the dry river bottoms again the rain had ceased and the sun was peeking through for a minute here and there and Desire was finally settling down. We had some nice controlled trots though the good footing and she even settled to a nice, very brisk walk when I asked. My right front boot had popped off once in the first loop and did it again twice in the second loop, it’s very worn out and actually has a hole in the boot wall that I had noticed on Saturday but is much bigger after today’s ride. Luckily I bought that size 1 from the Trailwise Tack lady so it’s ready to step up and replace the worn out one. All my boots are super worn already, I’m surprised I’ve gone through them so quickly but I guess they’ve all got over 300 miles in the last few months. 

The rain had stopped, see I was feeling a bit cheery:

We had a nice mellower ride under the highway and out across the good trotting road again, every time a pair of riders would pass us Desire would get all cuckoo and jig sideways again so they really must have thought she was a nut job but when they got out of sight she would settle down some. Not a lot,  but some. She sure is strong and has that competitive spirit! 

I was down to my sweatshirt as we crossed back under the highway through the short tunnel and we were only a few miles from camp when the rain started up slow but steady again, and then a nasty bitterly cold wind blew up. Before I had time to put them back on my rain coat and vest were soaked in their respective spots on the saddle so I was down to just my sweatshirt in the rain and wind. The last few miles were brutal, I must say,  but also exhilarating because we knew where we were and knew we were close to camp. As cold and damp as we were we knew we were going to make it and complete our respective goals and soon would be warm and dry! 

We vetted right through with happy healthy horses and headed straight for the trailer to settle them in and get ourselves warm and dry. The rain had stopped again by the time we vetted through which was a mercy for the untacking/cleaning up process. Desire had drunk well all afternoon and dove right into and finished her feed tub and munched a bunch of alfalfa too. As soon as she was settled I went inside and got into warm, dry clothes and fuzzy warm socks and made more cups of tea for A and I. 

Woo, another 50 miles down for the 4 of us!

My Easyboots after the fact:

Once in the LQ we cranked the heater up and basked in the feeling of miles well ridden. A had completed 155 miles and I had done 105! In just a matter of days. What a truly cool thing. I had moments where I was absolutely furious with Desire, and felt tired, hungry, cold, wet, too hot. But she was a champ all weekend, ate and drank really well, peed and pooped like it was going out of style, and was full of spice at the finish line each time. She had a good roll on our evening walk tonight and both horses did some grazing before going back to the trailer for even more evening grubbing. A had some grass hay that they weren’t eating much of so we each bedded down the mucky area around our respective horses so they could lie down in style if they wanted. Then it was a delicious ride dinner, a kick ass ride t shirt and sweat shirt, and shower and bed time! 

We slept hard and woke up to blue skies and sunshine Monday morning. We had things cleaned and packed up within an hour and were ready to hit the road. As A said, we were like barn sour horses, ready to gallop home!

Desire cleaning up scraps, Monday morning:

Snow on the mountains! Not many folks left in camp:

 Was obsessed with this tree for some reason:

Driving awaaaayyy!

We had another fun, uneventful drive back up the I-5 and pulled into the gas station at Williams around 4 pm. We spotted the bright orange Bomber easily and there was my husband waiting with the little dog greeting committee and some hot chicken and potato strips! All three things were equally welcome, as I had (and still have) an appetite like a, well, horse from the weekend. We loaded up all my stuff in our trailer, put the protesting Desire back into her humble straight load, and it was off for home! 

Desire was walking and trotting all around her pasture and up and down the hill this morning, grazing busily, and seems in fine spirits. She sure is an awesome mare, it’s pretty amazing that she is this tough and fit when she is turning 16 this year and this time last year was heavily pregnant. I’m really proud of her and us as a team and forever grateful to A for including us in this amazing experience! 

Cuyama–I’ll be back!!