Been a couple days of silence here on the ole blog, time just flies when the weather is warm and the sun is out! I gave Blaze Wed & Thurs off after our 20 mile ride Tuesday, and was planning to ride yesterday, but got awful food poisoning Thursday night and was pretty much out of commission yesterday. My husband and I went out gallivanting fishing and enjoying some beautiful peaceful time by the river on Thursday but we grabbed a quick lunch out and I think that was what caused the nasty episode that night and into the wee hours of Friday. I can’t recall the last time I had food poisoning..actually I honestly think it was WAY back when I was a kid and my step dad cooked up mushrooms he had picked (he actually really does know his mushrooms, in general). The entire household was sick as dogs that night, with the exception of my step dad. Figures! Anyway that was years ago but may indeed have been the last time it happened to me. Yesterday I felt like my insides had been scoured out with a bristle brush! I feel just fine today and its a bit cooler day, though still plenty warm when working out in direct sunlight. I just mowed up the last big lawn so we are once again caught up, though I’m sure it will have to be done again a few more times. Today I moved all the horses over to the east side of our property which has 2 big pastures and a smaller paddock all grown chest high with grass and flowers and weeds..yikes..we were planning on getting it mowed, then we attempted just weed whacking it..well anyway, its a bit of a mess this year but today was the day to move everyone on over and see what, if any, dent they make in it. I would have moved them over ages ago and had it more in control but it rained for a couple of weeks and the horses pretty much live in their sheds when its raining, so I left them in their paddocks with sheds for the duration of that. There is one shed on the eastern side of the property and trees in each pen, but its mostly open pasture. I like having them over on the house side because they are essentially in the front yard and easy to interact with, also easier to catch in a paddock than a big pasture if they decide to be punks! Anyhow they are all moved over and waterers set up so they are busy eating as fast as they can possibly eat. I think I’ll take mom and filly out for a stroll down the dirt road this evening, as long as the husband will help, and then put them in their paddocks for the night so they don’t just explode with grass eating madness! They have all been on enough grass in the last few months that they aren’t in danger from all the grass but for my own peace of mind I will stick them back in their “dry lots” for the night. Also that way they can all get their appropriate grain without any complications or more rearranging.
Tomorrow I am meeting the same friend I did 20 miles with earlier in the week at a new riding spot! I am pretty excited. She already checked out these trails last week and said they were nice and nearly no one knows about them so we should have it all to ourselves which is nice. It will be great to ride in a new spot as well, though I have only trailered out the once since the virus so for the moment I am still ready to ride anywhere, any time, as long as its off this property! This time next week, fingers crossed, Blaze and I will be out on the trail at the Hat Creek Hustle race up by Manton. It seems like forever and a day since the last ride beginning of May but it also seems like it was just yesterday. Blaze’s feet were done up with pads on Tuesday before we rode so they are looking just fine. I am a little nervous about the interference mark on his hind that I am still keeping wrapped, he is completely sound and going down the tail fine but I don’t want the vets to think its something bad. I am thinking I will bring him to vet in with it wrapped so we can trot out without him hitting it, then unwrap it and show it the vet so they know what it is and can notate it on my card so I don’t have to keep unwrapping it for each vet check. I will probably have to re wrap it at lunch time anyway since it did slip significantly more on our ride Tuesday when we were really trucking than it has on my shorter rides here. I’m sure it will work out I am just always a little gun shy about new things at a ride, especially a ride I don’t know, and vets I don’t know. I have been on the receiving end of some pretty brusque, assuming vets who weren’t very kind in the past so I’m a little skeered! That’s about it for now, hoping to take some photos of the new trails tomorrow and will share them here if I do!

Yesterday I met a new friend at the lake to ride. I met her at the Cache Creek Ridge ride, though we didn’t officially meet. She was crewing for the gal I rode the last 6 miles with and I connected with them on good ole Facebook. Come to find out she lives right here in the area so we hooked up for a ride. I had no idea how long we would ride since usually when I join others its a much slower and shorter ride than I would do, and her horse is green. The weather was so beautiful (sunny, 75) that we just kept on jamming and rode pretty much the whole length of the trails, except one short loop on the parking lot end we deemed too short to bother with. It ended up being a 20 mile trail ride in 5 hours riding time. We stopped for 10 minutes grazing and recovery at the top of the big hill but otherwise were pretty much trucking. Her horse did well especially for a greenie, as we encountered horses, dogs, hikers, bridges, stream crossings, deer in the bushes, and an air compressor turning on behind us that neither horse enjoyed. Blaze was his usual steady self and gave his usual heavy eye balling to every rock we passed. He grazed at the top of the hill; he didn’t drink at the stream crossing (surprise..not) at about 12 miles but the less scenic stream we crossed only a mile or two from the trailer he found quite appealing and took a healthy drink. He peed about a mile from the trailer, which is funny because he never pees while I’m mounted so he must have really had to go after tanking up at the stream, he couldn’t even wait to get back to the trailer! I had brought my upright Igloo cooler of water (though no ice and drinks in it, I didn’t realize we would ride so long!) and to my surprise and delight Blaze drank heartily TWICE out of his blue bucket. Maybe he really is getting the hang of this self preservation thing. I suppose he doesn’t drink on our usual training rides because he just doesn’t need to. Riding hard yesterday with some heat (compared to the cold rain we’ve been having) he chose to drink quite a bit before we got home, so good on him. It was a really fun ride and great practice for Hat Creek which is the weekend after this one. Can’t wait!

It looks like my filly Sheza is shedding out into a nice deep red chestnut! Everyone was pretty much assuming she would turn gray and told me to look for white eyelashes/hairs around the nose and eyes. She has never had white hairs around either, her eyelashes are red, and she is shedding out red! I will of course love her no matter the color but MAN will she be a beauty if she does stay red and grows up with all those flashy white markings. I’m sure her color will vary with the seasons etc but at the moment she is almost the exact color of my hair! Redhead power! Oh and I am speaking up about this finally because my friend, a horse trainer who grew up on an Arabian breeding farm, and the gal that helped get me back in the saddle after my accident, came over today and seconded the redhead opinion. I was pretty sure but figured I wouldn’t make any statements until I had a second opinion!
I woke up to blue skies this morning but by the time I showered and went out to feed it was all gray and cold again. This is such a cold, wet spring! We are supposed to get another storm this weekend and not see the sun until Tuesday. Of course who knows, the weather is very changeable around here. The only thing I’m sure of is the rain! That never fails to make an appearance when predicted lately. Anyhow I was planning to trailer to the lake for the first time in three weeks (due to the virus) but the weather was hardly encouraging so we just went for a shorter loop ride here from home. There is one loooonnng stretch of the dirt road that is wide and flat and you can see way in front of you for cars so we like to stretch out and do a little sprinting there. That’s a rush! Blaze is so responsive, when I would gallop (or canter, sometimes) on my old mare Angel it would take a “landing strip” as I called it, to stop her!! I mean she went into nutty race mare mode and on more than one occasion we were doing a 1 rein stop. Blaze will stretch out and haul ass but the lightest touch or word and he is slowing instantly. He is getting better at relaxing into a more mellow canter too, I say “easssssyyyy” when he starts trying to go race horse on me and ask him to round and supple and he is getting better at relaxing into a nice rocking canter. His interference cut is looking better, the wrap is staying up and on and the cut is starting to heal over, so that is great. I am going to be overly cautious with it and keep it wrapped a few days longer, its just now healing and if he hits it with his shoe once it will be raw again. He cracks me up standing out in his paddock with his dress, I mean blanket, on. It is the right length for him but he is so short you don’t see a whole lot of leg coming from underneath the blanket, and he has bright purple vet wrap on his leg. Ahh what a cute fellow.
Made myself run another mile today! I say made because I started to jog next to Blaze and it wasn’t one of those running days where it feels gooooood, it was one of those where the body is already sore and jogging feels more like “ow eee oo ah” than anything. I forced myself to push through that initial discomfort and then loosened up and felt better finishing the mile. And of course afterwards I am just glowing hot and exhilarated, and posting actually feels easier, as my legs are all warmed up and feeling loose.
Well here comes another weekend of rain. Blaze is blanketed so he doesn’t get cold and stiff after our gallavant today (we didn’t do many miles but did enough “work” in it to count). Monday the farrier comes and Tuesday I am riding at the lake (hooray!) with a new endurance friend (hooray!). Time to get my sweatshirt and fuzzy boots on!

The morning forecast had been 30% showers when I looked last night but this morning it showed 70% rain and thunderstorms. Of course that didn’t stop me, though I did decide not to trailer out and just ride from home in case the skies did open up. My husband’s friend came up with his son for a few days, from Santa Barbara. His son had never been on a horse before so before I left for a ride we put the little boy up on Blaze and walked him around the yard. Blaze is such a saint, he was perfectly behaved and calm, then when the little boy got off and was petting him B had his head all the way down to the boys level and was being so quiet and cute. Then when I head out on the trail he is Mr. forward, trot, canter, anything you like. Pretty awesome qualities to be in one little horse!
We had a good ride, almost 7.5 mile loop up to the top of the ridge and back down and home. I jogged a mile (mostly) downhill next to Blaze which felt great. Its so much easier to go for a run when your horse is with you, I find! He does a lovely little controlled jog and we just truck down the hills. I ran a flat and one uphill too, just to see if I could. I haven’t been running since I broke my leg a year and a half ago and I do miss it, so its nice to mix some jogging in with the ride and give Blaze that break as well.
We made it back in the driveway just as rain drops started to fall and made it under the roof of the wash/tack area as insane HAIL started pounding down. I am SO glad we weren’t out on the pavement walking home when it started hailing, good grief. We were literally in time by seconds! I put Blaze’s waterproof warm blanket on since its pretty chilly today and now intermittent rain. I think we found the only sunshine of the day and now its time to bundle up and hide inside!

This spring has some interesting weather! Last year it rained last as well but I know we had had some actual heat by now as well. And I remember last year being more BAM big storm and then moving on, as opposed to this month which is lots of gray and cold, with intermittent rain, and no heat. I can, and will, ride in the cool gray, in fact that’s better than riding in 100 degrees, its just a little strange and the garden isn’t loving it. I wonder how its affecting first hay cuttings etc, I know last year it rained and hailed late and ruined the first crop but this year has been more sedate and spread out rain, so maybe its not so bad? Who knows. I’m no hay farmer.
Yesterday we got the hot fence working! After everything it turned out it was the box, again. I have no idea why a 3 month old 20 mile fence box would be not working again, already, but we busted a 10 mile box out of the package (woohoo for having a random spare!) and plugged it in and man does that baby have power! It clicks really loudly like it means business. The horses definitely got shocked some time between last night’s feeding and this morning, because Blaze wouldn’t even come near the hot wire to see me this morning and the filly ran from me like I was the devil and it took me about 10 minutes to get her to let me touch her. She was very wild and scared and Josh said he heard thundering hooves earlier so I’m thinking she got zapped and is still freaked out.
No sun in the forecast and a new endurance friend got injured coming off her horse last night. Come on, rally spirits, is it spring or what is happening here?

Today was beautiful, if a little chilly. We planted the rest of our veggie garden so we will be expecting quite a bounty (including LOTS of watermelons!) this summer. Next year we really have to get our stuff together and put some more fruit trees in as well, I can’t wait to grow my own peaches! Ahhh peaches off the tree are the most amazing thing in the world, not to mention the mere smell of them growing on the trees. There is a straightaway on Hwy 70 towards Marysville that is peach tree orchards on both sides of the road, it is absolutely divine to drive that stretch in the summer with the peaches ripening. Anyhow our veggies are now in the ground and will hopefully get off to a good start. Unfortunately tomorrow is cool and sunny but the rest of the week is a chance of rain. Very very cool weather! We haven’t had a hot spell yet. In fact I think the hottest its been was that week or two in January! The avg temperature this time of year in the valley is 90 and this year the avg temp is 70. We are a little different being in the foothills, but the same general idea. A cool wet spring for sure.
After cleaning paddocks and doing some other work around the place I was taking a break and reading my book in the chair in the front driveway (I like to sit there as I get a view of everything and can watch the horses) and Blaze started trotting and cantering around his paddock. He was really showing off and looking lively so I figured he was inviting me for a ride! Lol. Maybe not but he did walk right up to me, nickering, to be haltered. He seems to really enjoy going out these days, his codependent “run away with my herd!” thing has definitely gone away..of course he is currently in his own paddock so he doesn’t have a herd technically. But he still used to trot to the far end with his next door neighbor. I think the piglet mare and foal who are so people friendly and looking for treats are a good influence on him, he doesn’t want to miss out on whatever they are getting, and they are getting lots of human attention. Anyhow I put my Garmin on for the arena session just to see how long I actually ride in the arena (I always forget to check the time and then can’t tell if I’ve been 10 minutes or 40) and it turns out I worked Blaze 40 minutes and went 2.6 miles! I was actually pretty surprised I went that far just going round and round our little arena. I did leave the arena (he is getting better at opening and closing gates) and walked down to the bottom of the big pasture and trotted back up, just for fun. The mini lost us in the tall grass and was squealing like a stuck pig until he located us again. He sounded like he was going to keel over dead after running all the way to the top of the hill! I don’t even give him hay and he is just a fat little tick. Lively little bugger though.
Blaze did pretty well in the arena, he tried to push the pace of course but making him circle every time he tries to break gait eventually got the point across. I did get really sick of doing the circles but had to stay consistent. I got him to do a fairly slow collected trot without too much trouble, but the canter was like wweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee lets haul ass around this little arena! I got him to his working point when he finally uses his brain and starts to round and collect, he always starts snorting softly on each stride like he is really working hard.
I tried another method of wrapping his interference cut tonight, well really its the same method I just wrapped the vet wrap way higher than I have, at least 5 or 6 inches above the mark itself to try to keep it from sliding down. It survived the arena workout which no previous wrapping job has survived so that is a good sign. I just want to get this thing healing and looking better before Hat Creek Hustle in a few weeks.
Hmm, time to figure out whats for dinner!