My farrier showed up earlier than expected, which was nice since its only going to get hotter this afternoon. He was surprised at the dings Blaze had managed to inflict on that poor hind leg but as we know, Blaze isn’t the most graceful guy in the world. With his constant itching and rolling, and the interfering in the way he travels, it was definitely just time to get the steel shoes out of the equation, at least in the hind. I definitely hope to be going all Easy Boot all the time with both horses by next season but for now I will go front shoes with Blaze and hopefully be able to finish our endurance season safely and happily that way. It really stresses me out to see a scratch on Blaze, let alone two cuts caused by something I technically did to him by shoeing him. I feel better just having the hind shoes off and hopefully things will start healing quickly now. I noticed that his mane was a little greasy and its wicked hot so I decided a thorough bath was in order (for him, not me–though I pretty much get a bath giving him a bath!). Cowboy Magic shampoo and conditioner works such wonders, though I have the darndest time trying to wash his head and forelock, I usually just end up wiping his head with a damp cloth and I haven’t managed to soap up his forelock, it seems like a soap in the eyes and ears waiting to happen. Blaze puts his head high and rolls his eyeballs to look at me like I’m nuts when I put the hose high up on his neck, so getting soap and water near his forelock and actual face is a challenge waiting to be conquered I guess. De-worming was in order as well so we took care of that, and with the shoes off, a thorough bath, and a handful of carrots, it was nice to spend some time loving on my Blaze!

All Clean!

Oh and when I was walking him back to his paddock he always likes to stop and roll on the barn lawn on the way, but today he took it a step further. He was actually grazing while dropping to his knees to roll, tried to graze sideways while rolling, then got his front feet out in front to get up but stayed that way grazing AND shook off before he finally got to his feet. What a dork! The green he was so frantically grazing at was mostly just weeds and thistles, but the pastures have dried up all yellow and dead so I guess any green is good green to him at the moment! And all the hay and carrots and Bar Ale feed of course isn’t enough for poor starving Blaze 🙂

Okay, I technically didn’t go anywhere, aside from to the lake, or into any other nearby body of water, but I didn’t update the blog for a while so I’m saying I’mm baackkk. We’ve just had a 5 day run of 100+ degree weather and as I say I wasn’t doing much beyond surviving, playing in any and all water, and hiding from the sun. I went out in the evenings to think about going for a quick ride but when its still 90 degrees at 8 pm its just no fun.
I had plans to ride this morning at the lake with a friend but I postponed it to Friday because I want to get Blaze’s hind shoes pulled before I ride him again. The old catch-22 interference mark is just not resolving and keeping it wrapped in 100 degree weather is insane. He also somehow managed to get another little cut just above the previous one and has slight filling in that hind leg now. Its maddening because I didn’t have a single problem until I put shoes all the way around and its just been an endless pain in the butt ever since. I was very glad to have all four shoes, and pads, at Hat Creek Hustle as the rock was so nasty, but I am going to try to finish our ride season with just front shoes as we had been doing before. I don’t *think* we have any more truly rocky rides on the agenda, but we’ll see. I haven’t had problems covering miles of gravel and/or fairly rocky trails at Lake Oroville with only front shoes so I think I can swing it. If I remember correctly Mendo Magic ride might be requiring hoof protection all the way around but the ride managers are my old friends and ex-co workers so I will email them directly and see what that is about. I have ridden most of those trails and the only bad footing I can think of is some gravel road, which is doable. I’m not riding Blaze to win anyway and I walked almost all of Whiskeytown with only front shoes due to extreme rocks and was just barely over the time limit, so if I see some rocky conditions I will just slow down and accomodate, because having hind shoes is not working out for Blaze and I. I am thinking transitioning him to Easyboot Gloves next season will be the thing to do, because I will absolutely need all four hooves protected for Whiskeytown and Hat Creek. I am definitely planning to stick with the Gloves with the mare since her hooves are so nice and un-spoiled by steel, so maybe I will get going with them on her and then figure Blaze’s out next. My farrier should be making it up this afternoon to pull the hind shoes and hopefully things can start improving from there.
The forecast only calls for 97 degrees today! Miraculous. Its supposed to be in the low 90s by the end of the week and into the 80s next week which will be great, I actually have a chance of going for some fun rides without dying of heat stroke 🙂 Call me a chicken, but remember I’m a redheaded endurance rider, so my endurance toughness is somewhat tempered by my skin saying “AHHH I’m melllttinng and fryyingggg” And I should really just buy stock in Coppertone already.
Hope to be posting stories and pics of more riding soon, as the weather cools!

I rode Desire bareback this evening and had Sheza along in the arena while my husband did sort of a “photo shoot” of us which was great, I never have photos of me riding my horses because I usually ride alone. Also my husband is a great photographer, even with just our little point and shoot digital camera. Today was the first time that I corrected Sheza and she immediately fell into line! Usually she tries at least once more (if not many more times) to get away with whatever she is doing but today she planted her feet while leading and started shaking her head like she was going spazz (like a fish on a line, I say) but I said my “eh eh” No noise at her and she immediately jumped forward and started walking again like miss manners! It was a very pleasant surprise. She is a smart and beautiful little gal.

Okay I’ve had about 6 false starts on this post now, for some reason I can’t quite phrase what I am trying to say. Maybe coz its 5 pm and rather warm for thinking. Yep, I’ll blame it on that. The gist of what I wanted to briefly write about is the contrast in focus between having a mare and foal to work with and then having a horse (my gelding, Blaze) that I am actively pursuing endurance riding (at least LD) with. On the one hand I have my filly who I try to at least spend time with 3 or so times a day, in addition to the halter, ponying, tying, etc work. She is so fickle and can’t decide if she wants to be friendly about half the time, so its all about slow, quiet patience with her. Then I have her mom, Desire, who is being an absolutely fantastic mom but is ready and willing to transition back to a saddle horse, and I am so dying for her to become that again as well! She is a really smooth and exciting ride and I am so looking forward to our future trail miles. But I have to be patient with that drive as well, since my filly isn’t even 3 months old yet and I can’t quite whisk mom away yet! Then there is my steady fellow, Blaze, who I have come so far with in the last 2 years, and I am sure will go many more miles with yet. In his case my focus is pretty much just on miles at this point. I do little tune-ups in the arena (almost said I like to do them, but really I never quite LIKE time spent going in circles, though I know how important it can be) to keep him attentive and not just going into ra-ra-race mode every ride, but for the most part we saddle up and hit the trail, whether its here out our front gate, at the lake, alone, in a group, doesn’t matter. Of course when it comes right down to it, my approach to all three animals is basically the same, and slow quiet patience applies to them all, and myself, at some point during almost every interaction we have. Its just a re focusing of energy depending on which horse I am dealing with. I have to digress a little here and say I feel quite fortunate that I am able to experience this rich diversity in my own little horse herd and I am really looking forward to the coming years, hopefully spent with all of them. I was telling my husband this morning that I think its almost better that little girls who love horses don’t get them when they are young, because that awareness and appreciative feeling for the great gift of a horse just isn’t there as a kid. I think we all know of parents who get their little girl a horse or pony and then end up shouldering the burden of it. Of course no one generalization applies to all horsey girls, but I know I spent my childhood playing with horse toys, pretending I was a horse, and treasuring my one riding lesson a week that my mom, a business owner and single mom of four, somehow managed to get me to. My riding horizons opened up even more after moving from Maine to California when I was 10, as my next door neighbor had a FAT old Arabian mare (seriously, never seen such a big hay belly before or since) who I spent hours and hours riding. I got my very own first horse in high school and as much of a blast as that was, I know I didn’t fully appreciate it and sometimes whined and didn’t want to go muck her stall where she was boarded, but hey, that’s high school right? Anyhow, looking at the halters on their hooks in my own tack room next to my own wash racks and then turning to look out at the fields and my sweet gelding, gorgeous mare, and stunning little filly–well, I guess I just feel darn lucky and grateful!!
All that aside, I’ve done 20 fun miles of riding on Blaze this week, as well as riding Desire bareback for the first time which was such a blast. I plan to do that again tonight when it cools. Tuesday it absolutely poured and yesterday it was cool and cloudy, which was a really nice break from the heat. Forecast for 4th of July weekend is 100+ degrees and lots of tourists so my horses and I will be laying low and staying cool for the next few days!

That’s right, I’m really starting to looooooove my momma mare, Desire. She is so funny and has a very interesting attitude and personality. She is calm and quiet about things I think she might potentially be bothered by (jumping on her bareback, having the baby spazzing around her with the lead rope when I pony, etc) but gets nervous about random things, likes the hose. She is going on 15 this yr and has been an endurance horse so I know she has had endless hose baths and she always lets me spray her, but the sight of the hose still makes go into her ‘tense stance’ which is really funny, she sort of parks out and eyes it like its going to eat her, but stands perfectly still and lets me do what I’m going to do. Trailwise, I’ve only ridden her on the little loop inside our big pasture and she definitely eyeballed some things and snorted a little but hasn’t shown any real spooks. She has a rub from my stupid girth (ordered the mohair string girth and some wooly covers for my stirrup leathers today) so I decided to ride her bareback this evening. I was a little hesitant to jump on her bareback, just because it was the first time with her and since my accident that initial moment of swinging up on a horse (aside from Blaze) makes me a tiny bit anxious. I used my mounting block and had to do the tiniest hop up to get on her and she stood like a rock and was very unimpressed. Which was great! The filly started trotting after us while she was at liberty, though not all the time, and she seems to be getting the idea about ponying along beside us, even without a lead rope. For some reason Sheza decided as of last night and today that when I get on Desire (this is holding Sheza’s lead rope, to practice ponying) its very terrifying and she needs to freak out, which makes mounting safely a little bit difficult. I don’t have anyone to hand me the rope once I’m mounted soooo. I worked on it this evening, first I just stood on top of the mounting block and let Sheza get used to that, then I leaned forward and acted like I was about to mount and the filly spazzed backwards like I had hit her or something. Very weird. Once she stopped doing that I finally eased onto momma’s back without any more drama. Who knows what little whispers in Sheza’s ears tell her that these things are scary! She seems to get over it and learn everything quite quickly though so I am just taking everything in stride and so far really haven’t had any issues. The most frustrating thing so far in my first-foal experience was Sheza pulling her touch-me-not shenanigans last week, but she got over that and it really wasn’t so bad. Overall I am enjoying it immensely, and really falling in love with my girls!

P.s. riding Desire without a saddle is really comfortable and her trot is sooo smooth, even bareback! Yay!

I have a friend visiting for the weekend so this will be brief BUT, big news, after a week of being a touch-me-not, Sheza filly stuck her nose right into the halter this evening!! She tried playing scared-y cat for a minute or two and then suddenly I showed her the halter again and she just put her nose in it! So rewarding. We rode all the horses together tonight for the first time, my friend rode Blaze and I rode momma Desire, with the filly ponying and then loose for a while too. We stuck to the arena for safety but we had a great time and put away the horses at dark. I love getting in from playing with ponies at 9:30 pm! Summer days 🙂

OH and Desire trots like a BEAST, I can’t believe how fast and smoothly she can trot, I can’t wait to be going down the trail on her!!