Today is packing day! Sure I’ve made lists and obsessed over everything for the last week but today is the actual day to get things together. We will be meeting my trailering partner, A, at the Hwy 20 & I-5 junction in Williams tomorrow and loading myself, Desire, and all our crapola into her rig. The amazing thing is, well everything about this trip is kind of amazing but still…one of A’s hoof clients lent us a LQ horse trailer with stove, showers, and it comes rigged up with it’s own solar panel system to recharge everything during the day! What! We just got a SERIOUS upgrade people!!

Soooo..last minute items to be done today include picking up a couple sacks of Desire’s Bar Ale Esteem Distance feed, and some Elk Grove rice bran/forage pellets, as well as human groceries & snacks. I signed up for ride dinner Friday-Sunday so will only have to fend for myself Wed and Thurs night. I believe we’re camping/stopping at a boarding stable tomorrow night and getting to the ride on Thursday, since it’s such a loonng haul from the Humboldt area for A and her stallion.

A and I are going to share a big bag of unopened rice bran she has and we’re going to pool our hay resources so we should end up with 4 different kinds of hay options for our two steeds (3 different grasses and an alfalfa). With the LQ horse trailer at our disposal things are really pretty simple..in fact I was just thinking about what I was going to fill my cooler with and remembering we’re going to have a frickin fridge! Sweet! As long as I bring myself basic attire and hygiene necessities I can focus my energy on remembering all of Desire’s stuff–we’ll see how I do!

My friend from the coast, C, who puts on the Mendo Magic and Cooley Ranch rides with her partner, will be at Cuyama and I’m guessing/assuming she is bringing Desire’s full brother, Pico. If she does it would be neat to get a sibling picture!

I’m so freakin excited and my husband is still asleep for some odd reason, I want to go jump up and down on the bed and throw small dogs at him..WAKE UP I’m GOING ON AN XP TOMORROW! 😀

 Joey has been here for 2 weeks now and it’s hard to say if he has gained much weight, that’s really not very long after all, but he’s been socking down the hay, grass, and warm mashes twice a day. Since the sun is finally shining after a very soggy week I decided to take a few pics for comparison down the road   🙂

Leaving for Cuyama day after tomorrow!

This is Joey the day he arrived:

and Georgia says, “Hallelujah, it finally stopped raining!” 

We’ve got it bad! It’s been raining almost non-stop since Monday, which is the most rain we’ve actually gotten for this entire very strange “winter.” We need it, could be worse, all that jazz. But still. I want to be riding right now sooo badly, instead I am inside for yet another day while my herd are all loafing it up in their nice dry stalls. They’re kinda like, “Hey, I’m dry, you’re delivering me quality viddles twice a day, what’s the problem?” I’m kinda like *TWITCH* another rainy day…I’m definitely going to the gym today so I burn some energy and don’t go totally cuckoo.

Joey’s blanket should be here today finally, then Blaze can have his back and they’ll all have waterproofs, so I can be mean and turn them out into the rain if I want muahahaha!

Yeah packing that gym bag now..

Leaving for Cuyama XP in 5 days!

I’m just saying. I’ve never been to a multi day ride of any sort, let alone a popular XP ride like Cuyama. Pshh I’ve never even done a 50! I’ve never trailer pooled, or traveled that long with horses, or been around a stallion! All things soon to be rectified! I’m super excited and..not gonna lie…nervous. It’s going to cost just about at the point of Too Much but I just can’t pass up this opportunity.

We leave in a week..

p.s. somehow the fact that my adventure partner in this journey is another redhead makes this all more awesome!

Well the weather looks like utter crap for ROM this weekend, so as of now I have the go-ahead from the ride manager and a spot in a truck and trailer for Desire and I to go down to the Cuyama Oaks 3 day XP ride next weekend!! I can’t frickin’ wait, to be honest! ROM forecast is calling for rain, wind, and snow, and even if we could get over the pass to the Reno area–brrrrr! I was so excited to get to a ride I figured I’d tough it out if possible, but this option of a 3 day XP experience down South just cannot be ignored! A gal we camped next to at last year’s Cache Creek Ridge Ride–and fellow redhead, look out!–mentioned she was going earlier in the month but I was planning on ROM. She mentioned it again this morning when I was whining about the forecast on Facebook and viola, a plan is in the works! My husband J is all for skipping the snowy/rainy Nevada adventure and getting to stay home and tend the critters–and fish!

Speaking of, J and I went on another impromptu fishing/riding afternoon at the lake trails, but this time I brought Desire–and a saddle pad! I wanted to take her up Sycamore Hill since I hadn’t gotten to yet;  I don’t park near that trail anymore after my truck got broken into on that end, so I’m always approaching Sycamore Hill from way over the ridge and just hadn’t gotten that far yet. Today I was only a few miles away from the Hill so we headed for it straightaway.

We cruised nicely along the flat water-side dirt road for the most part, but the second time Desire went from a 9 mph trot to a dead stop because of a rock alongside the trail I broke a stick off a tree. A warning little smack on her rump when she started to get googly at the next rock kept her going forward nicely. Brat. Two kids on dirt bikes were tearing around the trails right before Sycamore Hill, which is of course completely not allowed and really irritating, but they quickly disappeared and we got to the base of Sycamore Hill without further issue. We power trotted up the steep hill full of switchbacks and to my surprise Desire jogged right past the green grass at the summit and wanted to continue on down the other side without pause! Last time I did Sycamore Hill was on Blaze and let’s just say he was A-okay with stopping for a breather at the summit! Desire was certainly puffing but she just kept on trucking, and when the bike we passed on the way up passed us on the way down she got extra peppy and competitive to get after that bike.

Since it was already afternoon and the skies were darkening and wind picking up, I decided to loop right back to the trailer after the hill work. It was only 7 miles all told but it only took about an hour and with Sycamore Hill included it felt like a great little adrenaline-rush ride, and in truth was a good little speed/hill work session.

Sweat marks from the saddle looked great today and I had my new cantle pack on and it rode nicely and didn’t both me or Desire at all.

My husband took a couple of cool pics of us again, including the one at the top of the post, which I love!

I LOVE this wine colored vest I’m wearing in the pic below. N was kind enough to pass it on to me when we rode the other day. It’s a true down vest and soo comfy, and *ahem* matches, so yeah, my new favorite article of clothing!!

Rain and wind forecast for most of the rest of the week, skinny Joey and old man Blaze are happy spoiled stall neighbors 🙂