I think I mentioned in my previous post that the horse masseuse and I pulled apart my saddle yesterday after the session and realized that one panel was flexing loosely and the other was nearly rigid which was causing some wear on Blaze’s back. I wanted to ride him this evening so I took a look at it this afternoon; there was a sort of spiral “bolt” for lack of a better word that seemed to control the angle of the panel so I got a pair of channel lock pliers and tried turning it. It screwed back and forth quite easily so I checked where the one on the other side that was flexing easily was sitting, which was nearly all the way screwed in, only one thread showing. I wrestled with the pliers at first but finally got it situated right and got the other bolt screwed in pretty quickly considering I’d never messed with it before. The panel that was causing the rub now flexed equally as freely as the other side. A pretty simple fix really! I rode out up the hill past our gate to the top of the ridge this evening and the saddle felt great! Its hard to explain because while it never felt particularly “un-even” before, now it just feels SO even and centered and I can feel his back muscles under me more. The one rigid panel was canting the saddle up just slightly and I know that wasn’t good for either of us. Blaze seemed looser after his massage and we did some good hill gallop sprints. Unfortunately more cars than usual passed us and we got dusted out a couple of times but it was still a great ride. As we were about a mile from our front gate the moon was high in the sky and there was just a little pink light left to see bats flitting around and I think I even saw an owl. Such a wonderful time of night to be riding.

My truck is in the transmission shop getting a new clutch and u-joints so I am stuck at home for a couple more days but I am so glad there are dirt roads to ride out from and we aren’t truly stuck riding on the property. My mom is bringing my little nieces over from the coast on Wednesday for the first time. They live in town and haven’t had quite all the fun country experiences so I will be giving them riding lessons, or at least little rides, on Blaze and taking them fishing with the husband and all that fun country stuff. Bless Blaze for being such a patient soul that he is off top 10’ing LDs one weekend and teaching little girls to ride the next!

This morning the equine massage gal came out at 9:30 and worked on Blaze. I had used a horse chiropractor once last year when I thought my then-horse, a big Foxtrotter, was having some back issues. The chiropractor, also a woman interestingly, came from Redding and seemed to do some good for the Foxtrotter but said Blaze was in fine alignment. Of course I can’t hold her to her word now, when Blaze and I have been riding farther and harder than ever in the last 4 or 5 months. Anyhow I was interested to see how a massage person worked on a horse versus the chiropractor. I liked her energy around Blaze and he mostly stood quietly though she found a tight spot behind his right shoulder and it took some circling for him to relax into it and relieve the knot finally. She showed me two great stretches for getting him to stretch his back upwards, like a cat stretching after a nap. One point on the sternum and two points rubbed simultaneously on his rump. I tried it lightly on the mare tonight as well and she responded instantly. We also pulled apart my saddle from all its fleecey wrappings and discovered one of the flex panels is flexing loosely while the other is nearly rigid and that rigid side is causing a slight rub/knot on Blaze’s back. I’m really not sure how to adjust the panels and I have a sneaking suspicion the saddle may have originally come with the right tool to adjust it..but I have no proof of that as I bought it used. The husband was getting home this afternoon and I got distracted by other things so I will have to really turn my attention on it tomorrow and see if I can get that other panel flexing better.
This afternoon I geared up for the usual filly haltering rodeo but miracles of miracle she came right to me and let me slip the halter on with no hesitation!!! I pulled Desire first and took her to the cross ties as usual but instead of Sheza galloping around madly whinnying she saw me coming and cantered right to me, got haltered, and was out that gate and heading for momma in about 10 seconds flat. It was SO gratifying and fantastic! As a friend pointed out, who knows if she will act the same tomorrow but at least it all finally clicked in her brain again. I know she is very smart and likes to play games too but I swear I saw her little brain say “mom is out there, through the gate..here comes the lady through the gate, I gotta get in that halter and out that gate!” and out we went. She did great being groomed and picked up all her feet–she is really getting ace at that. I didn’t spray her off since she didn’t run around and get all sweaty for once! I am cleaning and spraying Desire’s hooves with Vetericyn every day and hopefully the Hypozin thrush treatment I ordered from her former owner’s will arrive soon. It makes me really unhappy having something awry with her hooves and she is still slightly off on the right front at the trot. I think I will call my farrier and have him come take a look at her too. I hate for my horses to be ailing in any way shape or form. And it adds so much more anxiety when its something I have no experience with, like thrush. Well I will just keep at it and figure it out.
My husband just walked by waving a big bag of chocolate left over from the Lake Almanor ride, I hear a Reeses cup calling my name!

I just randomly decided to add up the mileage Blaze and I have done in conditioning/LD endurance rides since I started keeping track on this blog in April. In 4 months we have gone 334.6 miles! I have no clue how that compares to other people doing what I’m doing but it sounds like a lot to me and I’m proud of us 🙂

Got an email notification that ride results were posted from Lake Almanor (one week turn around on results with 4 different distances, impressive) and I went to check just to see how many people had completed the 25 and turns out we got 3rd rather than 4th as we were told! We barely convinced the gal at the registration table to check our results before we left so I was just grateful for an answer but I guess when the figuring was all done we were 1 place better than reported. Kinda cool! Oh and 13 ppl started the 25 and 12 finished.
Yesterday it only took me 10 minutes and an assist from my fence-line running Shepard mix top catch Sheza. Down quite significantly from the 2 hour long catching attempt just this last Tuesday! I worked on the usual stuff: grooming, lifting feet, fly spray, fly mask on and off, bath with a hose, then decided it was time for some fun so I got out an old saddle pad. She sniffed it quite thoroughly and eye balled me like I was crazy when I was rubbing it on her neck and body but in about a minute she was wearing it calmly and I led her around in it, no big deal.

I’m postponing my usual morning filly chase–I mean filly haltering–til this evening because for the second night in a row I didn’t sleep well and once that happens I am essentially a very grumpy zombie. I can feel that my patience level isn’t up to par for the filly’s antics this morning so I will wait til the cool of the evening. Desire has a slight case of thrush, I re-checked her hooves for rocks yesterday and discovered a small amount of black discoloration and a slight smell. I’ve never dealt with thrush and was under the impression they only got it in damp messy conditions so my theory is having manure in her hooves and then the extreme heat made a sort of damp nasty condition in there?? I cleaned her hooves thoroughly and sprayed Vetericyn in there yesterday and ordered the thrush-busting Hypozin from the folks I bought her from, they import it and swear by it. Hopefully it will all clear up quickly.
Yesterday I FINALLY got rubber mats for the concrete wash stalls. I’ve been sortakinda meaning to do it since we moved in (a year and a half ago) because I know its safer but since I was only dealing with adult horses who don’t prancey-dance in the cross ties I just didn’t do it. Now with Sheza learning to be in cross ties and doing rather a lot of tap dancing on the slick concrete during her bath I decided it was definitely time so we got 4 mats at the feed store and put 2 in each stall. I set them up yesterday afternoon so haven’t tried it out yet but I’m sure it will be better and safer. I was actually always surprised the horse trainer we bought the property from didn’t have them in since the concrete in there is completely slick and smooth, but who knows.
The masseuse/body work person is coming tomorrow morning to work on Blaze so that should be interesting. Maybe they can work on my sore body too, lol. My gung-ho free weights and running sessions yesterday felt great at the time but I am definitely feeling it all this morning.

This morning saw another attempt at catching little miss Sheza filly. It was a cooler morning and today is only forecast to get to 88 so it was as good a time as any. Sheza decided to play catch-me-not yet again so I had to recruit the husband to help tire her out and make me and the halter area the quiet happy place again. It only took us 20 minutes this time instead of 2 hours so I guess that’s an improvement. I really can’t wait til she gets back to stuffing her head in the halter like her mom always does. Desire is a horse who truly sticks her head INTO the halter and says “take me with you!” Even Blaze is more like okay, yeah, catch me, whatever. And if he is out in pasture with one or more horses he will absolutely run to the far end of the field like a punk. His herd stallion tendencies come out in that situation which is why I prefer to keep him next to but separated from the other horses.
Anyhow I finally caught Sheza and had to pull stickers out of all her legs because she dashes around through the remaining thistles in the field like a nutcase during the haltering extravaganzas and ends up looking like a porcupine so I always clean her legs and cold hose them afterwards. Desire wore my flex panel saddle and her beta breastcollar and bridle today for the first time (I had been riding her in my western saddle because she is still so plump) and I put the new mohair girth on her as well. She looks downright dandy in the fully endurance set up, despite her momma belly. After some quick lunging and ponying practice in the arena I decided to head out on the road through the neighborhood for the first time. I have been holding off doing it because I didn’t feel it was safe or wise to head out my first time alone but I just don’t have anyone to help me and waiting around for my husband to decided to want to ride/help is rather a losing enterprise. I have been riding the mare and ponying the filly enough that I was as comfortable with it as I was going to get and I am also sick of ponying the filly around the arena and want to expand her horizons so I decided to just go for it. Sheza did quite well, she walked/trotted alongside us and was very interested in all the new sights. She does a little dance/spazz whenever car goes by but its not unmanageable from the saddle and I’m sure she will get over it with more exposure. Unfortunately Desire was slightly off in her front right so I didn’t go very far at all but at least I took that first step out the gate and I can’t wait to do it again. I dug a rock out of Desire’s hoof that was well wedged in there and I think that’s why she was slightly sore on that hoof on the gravel road. I will be keeping an eye on that but I’m fairly certain it was just the rock. We were only out in the neighborhood for maybe 10 minutes, got passed by four cars and made it home again safely so it was a good start for all involved I think. Once Desire is comfortable on that hoof again (hopefully like..tomorrow?!) we will start adventuring farther.
I am working on giving Sheza baths with the hose and she is slowly getting accustomed to it. She’s so funny because her first reaction to thing is white-of-her-eyes “terror” but after about 10 seconds she just gives in and is over it. This happened again today with the hose: I hose off Desire (who has hose-fear in her family line according to her previous owners and tolerates baths but is always suspicious of said hose) and then move to the baby, starting by just spraying the ground in front of her to let her see and hear it. She snorts and tries to move away, then quiets. I start spraying her hooves and lower legs and she prancey dances and snorts and acts like she’s melting, then quiets. I started moving up to her chest and she has a total filly tantrum like I’m trying to kill her for about 20 seconds, then heaves a sigh and stands quietly as I hose the rest of her body off. LOL. The drama, the drama! I had to find her discarded fly mask in the field this morning and pull about a hundred stickers out of the fuzzy parts and then stuck it back on her after her bath, gave everybody carrots and turned them back out. Whenever I put Desire and Sheza away Sheza goes to the milk bar like she just crossed a desert and has never seen anything so beautiful. She absolutely guzzles the milk and usually has it pouring on the ground and down her chin. Our 14 foot tall corn is now ripe and super delicious and they both enjoyed eating the husks off an ear I pulled; Sheza still has little teeth so she was eating the corn off the ear sideways like a person does, it was hilarious.
So another mostly successful filly session in the books. I can’t wait til the day I sit down at the computer and type “Today I walked up to Sheza and haltered her with no issue.” LOL!

Yesterday morning around 10 I got it into my head that I would go halter the filly and get her fly mask on for her first turn out with it on. I had gotten her used to it previously and she wore it in her grooming sessions but I knew she wouldn’t let me just sling it on her in the pasture like the adults do. Unfortunately my “quick haltering” idea turned in a TWO HOUR LONG BATTLE. Or GAME, I should say. Sheza was clearly having a great time. She is a serious character and so full of herself. She would stick her nose in the halter but as soon as I tried to pull the crown piece over behind her ears she would squirt away from me. I removed mom and had her tied just outside the gate so the filly’s focal point was fully on me, the gate, mom since they are in a big pasture and I wasn’t going to just chase her around and around in circles in there. In the end that was the only thing that worked: any time she turned from me and didn’t want to be haltered she had to run run run and the only quiet resting place was next to me with the halter. Once we started that method she was haltered in about five minutes. This being my first foal experience I am feeling my way along and figuring out what works with foals and Sheza in particular. The good news is she wore her fly mask out in pasture yesterday and the mask makes a great “handle” on her head so I think haltering her may just be a lot easier with that on! She is always friendly and curious and walks right up to anyone who approaches but she just has to remind us all that she is a precious, wild, untamed filly once in a while!

Naughty princess in her fly mask