BTW my camper is NOT in JayEm

I'll probably have to twist arms if I want it off this weekend. In fact I probably cant twist that hard since its supposed to be ugh hot. Oh well I did enjoy the leisurely ride with Naomi monday morning instead of trying to rush to JayEm and unpack my camper.

I think Lady has figured out she belongs to the girls

Wednesday I was thinking maybe I should catch her and take a quick out and back ride to see if she needed another tune-up on standing to be mounted and she walked off. On reflection, she's always done that but I decided I should do more cleanup on her pen instead. Mom mentioned this morning that the girls had been out to ride and they hosed and scraped Lady off afterwards and then Lady rolled when she got back in her pen. Thats pretty standard and I have found that they don't grind in dirt doing that so I just call it sand toweling and bug protection. It means she was good enough they could get on and ride her and then stood and let them hose her off which is something she has been learning. I'm sure the hot weather has helped as well as N's very slow and gentle approach with her.

I do think Lady has figured out she has new people and these nice girls are not just going to visit a few times. I sure hope things work and they take her permanently; it feels like a pretty good fit so far. I was kind of worrying over my weekend trip that Lady had blown it on monday, July 21 but I think it was just the heat and transport logistics that made them not come out again until that weekend, and then no one at our place seemed to know they had been out; which they don't have to ask for permission, I just didn't know if they were comfortable yet to just grab her and ride her, luckily they were and are.

Real "Endure"ance weekend

94 degrees and humidity. I don't know exactly how humid. The vet from eastern? Oklahoma said it was pleasant to him, but then they usually don't hold rides in July where its expected to be hot AND humid. Couple that with a course with lots of hills and being Shades first ride back after her virus, then my misdiagnosed allergies and it was extra tough. I knew I was not picking an easy ride going in and planned to just complete it, taking close to the full 12 hours allowed for official completion.

The ride manager had changed the course this year. I was all excited we would not go up and up on the last leg of the ride like last year. Joke was on me, the replacement loop had its own big old climb and then a good bit of the down from that was over slick rock. I'm not a geologist, but I suppose it was shale, it was flat, and very slippery to a shod hoof, so the horses had to pick their way down and it was neither fast, nor very restful for them. I was extremely lucky that Donna lost the trail on the first couple mile sub-loop to start the 2nd half of the ride and we wound up riding together when she caught up to me as she was doing it the 2nd time. She was on a fitter mare but hung with me and Shade and she did most of the navigation, and initated leading down the long rocky downhill stretch in the last sub-loop when Shade was tired and didn't want to move. I didn't remember it being that rocky, I don't know if thats just selective memory because Shade was happy to boogie down that hill last year, or if they had some road washouts and put down new gravel, using lots of very coarse stuff to not wash away easy.

We finished with only 10 minutes to spare, 9 horses and riders behind us finised with seconds rather than minutes to spare. Tough day to be riding a horse ready for completion only but all the horses finished in good health. Dr Self was sure a blessing. He is used to seeing horses being heat stressed and advised riders who needed to do extra cooling and how to get it done. I hope he and his friends have a wonderful vacation trail riding in the Big Horns now.

And I sure hope the next ride is just a ride, My steel magnolia came through this tempering in good form but I don't think we need more hardening for a while.

Now you be good Lady

I decided I would dink with Shade tomorrow before or while the leasors are here to ride Lady. I grabbed Lady and rode her just a short ways but with LOTS of mounting practice. She was being quite good even when I clumsily mounted from the off side by the end of the ride. I hope that sticks for a while now. and I will explain to Natalie about backing Lady until she is stopping and then MAKING her back another several steps when she has declined to stand still for mounting. Mom and dad are going to drive their pickup to Jay Em with stand jacks borrowed from Stanley, they are SUCH good neighbors and railroad ties (also from Mason's they just took out an old fence that had paired RR ties at the corners and replaced it with pretty white vinyl rail fencing.

So I will still be leaving my camper at Jay Em on the way home from my ride in SD, but wont be avoiding an extra pickup trip altogether. Oh well, its only diesel/money, and it sure makes my life simpler, which is good as I am not achieving much packing and prepping. And I'll be without my camper so I'll have serious incentive to get a hitch put in my pickup and get my new trailer ready to live in during the 2 weeks before the Happy Jack ride. Sometimes I need to not have a cushy safety mat to fall on to get myself going.

Here's your sign

Saturday before the grass fire excitement I was killing time on the computer while cooling off before cleaning the 3rd pen that needed attention and when I tried to go to the chat board where I spend too much time I kept getting re-directed to the pro-boards home page instead. And their status page showed the server for that board was fine. That gave me quite a bump, After I finished up cleaning I was able to get to the site but I had been logged off when I should have been logged in until sunday evening, and no one had posted about weird board behavior. So I did a six hour default login and after the fire I was typing it out to decompress and when I sent it I had hit the login time-out, except that I thought I was under 5 hours not over 6.

So I put my post on another, low traffic board that night to get my decompression and blogged it the next day; referred to it only in response to someone else's storm post later on sunday. ONE person followed my link and commented. I know that many people only read the opening of a thread and then throw in their .02 cents and all that but its just like a confirmation that 'This is your sign from the universe that its time to pull back from this board and put your time and energies somewhere else.'

But I'm kind of in mourning, I really wanted and wanted to believe it was true that there were real friendships there, and not just "you can hang on the fringes as long as you stroke enough egos here" But that friendship only exists from 1 or 2 people that are still active on that board. *** Waaaahhh** I'm being so whiny. But I needed the catharsis of writing this out.

trailing log fill-in.

Hmm, freudian slip typing trailing instead of training? .....

Oh woohoo, I got 33 miles within a week. (saturdays 17.5 miles. then 7.5 on monday and 7.5 on thursday.) Sure was easier to get a good training week 11-12 years ago. Not sure what all is different now. I wonder if mainly I can't seem to keep myself from taking on other daily things at home and back then about all I did was ride and go to work. Plus wasting time on the internet. Sunday I woke up pretty early and separated my east horses back into 2 pens and fed everything than crawled back to bed. We got 24 bales of hay from a hunting buddy of dad's that grows it to get a property tax break. Visited with them a few hours, unloaded the hay when we got home and hung in the ac house. Mom and dad took naps but I was not so wise. I took a sunset/moonrise ride. We will call it good mental conditioning. Way too slow for any physical conditioning effects.

Today the leasors came to ride Lady. She was a brat to stand for mounting for N, and was stirred up about an umbrella the neighbor had tried to set up to have some shade for some fencing he was doing. N worked through it, but I sure hope Lady remembers what a good deal it is for her to have these girls and behaves better. I suppose I should give her a mounting lesson tomorrow. I WANT to enjoy a leg stretch ride on Shade and get to work early to catch up a bit.

Praire Fire

Burned right up to the county road that borders our property. TOO close for comfort. I smell like smoke, 11 horses had halters on and the trailers are hooked up JIC, although the excellent fire departments had lots of people at the road and they got it contained. I have 7 horses that are normally in 3 pens in the smallest pen.

I hooked up a trailer after the wind had shifted a bit and was pushing the fire back to the east to where if it jumped the north bordering road we'd be right in the path and as I pull the trailer around the side of the house - YIKES the fire was rushing to the road that borders Shade and Sadies pen.

I RAN to open the gate so they could get into the next pen over then got them and the 4 horse in that pen into the little pen. Went back and got em haltered after the smoke died down. I ddn't have it in me to get up early to ride to beat the heat. It rained for all of 5 minutes and the accompanying lightning started this blaze so I was watching fire and moving horses around instead of getting to bed early like I had planned on doing because I figured the rain would not be enough to cool things but would make it too muggy to enjoy a moonlight ride. Oh well, at least I had a good ride last weekend and everyone is safe. The morning after pics don't look very scary but with the smoke billowing into our yard and Shade and Sadie's pen it was an adrenalin rush for a minute.

hooboy could be a long week

I had to swing by the party selling the trailer -- I hadn't signed my check on sunday. Dad had a meeting this morning but will pick up the trailer this afternoon *I hope*. I reinforced the temporary fence in Shade & Sadie's pen. Its so dry they haven't been getting any shock and have been eying the really crappy moldy hay I threw in there with thought of maybe seeding some grass if we get any monsoon rains. Of course since I put 'food' that is really nasty and I'd cringe if they got into it they've been leaning on the fence. So I added a strand of twisted horse wire between my hot rope strands and connected the horse wire to my ground off the charger. Didn't get it tested. Sweaty and thirsty when I finished but it wasn't that late. So I grabbed Lady for a quick spin, thinking I better not totally ignore her before the teens get on a schedule to work with her 2-3 times a week, farrier is scheduled to come on saturday --not sure Lady needs trimming yet but does have hoof where she could be. Decided to do spa treatment so her feet wont be like cement and test how well easy boots work for her at same time. The right boot did not stay on real well. Ditch still just had puddle in it, no irrigating so I walked her in there. Lost a boot in the mud near the edge. Tied her up and waded in barefooted to find it. Gosh I don't think I have waded since we were at the pacific ocean in WA, for a family reunion -in 98 or 99. Was kind of fun but ate extra time. I was going to grab the spinach mom wants me to use up, got it in a bag but not in my car. I forgot to grab bags when I ran into Safeway so ended up with 4 more plastic bags. And this is all before I even got to work. Other people are fixing cpu's that were down etc. I seem to be twiddling my thumbs. Need to buckle down and think instead of feeling like I need to crawl back into bed before I mess up something serious. Ah well. A day in my life.

We survived the weekend but I'm much poorer

Friday. I left work extra early, taking PTO as the teen girls were coming out to trial Lady. It was windy, I was glad cuz that was cooling things off nicely but decided to relax and eat something before they came. I fed horses, giving Lady a flake of hay she likes better, mom had dragged herself out and fed when I called as I was leaving work. She has a sinus infection now. I'm sooooooo tired of her being sick all the time. I just cannot accept that she can't help it. I think she could be much healthier but she doesn't work towards it beyond taking some supplements in addition to the prescriptions she gets for dis dat & t'other. The moldy carpet is still in the basement and she still sleeps down there quite a bit, she wont try TCM etc, she doesn't even wear a painters mask when she handles the dusty hay and she cant stand to rinse her nose out .... BUT my diplomacy skills are way lacking so I drop a few hints that perhaps she should try 'other therapies' but I haven't tried to sit down and really hash it out with her. The family was late getting here, so I had saddled Lady and got on her to make sure she wasn't too jazzed in the wind. She was really good for the girls and she is now on a lease to own. YAY!


Saturday I met an endurance buddy and her friend at Chatfield. I think we rode 17-18 miles. It was all pretty flat, but I really enjoyed the day. I have Sadie & Shade together and I just left Sadie in the pen. I didn't think she would fret a whole lot. When I got home the water tank for the bigger paddock was empty so I opened the gate right away so horses could drink out of the 50 gal tank in the Sadie pen. Lady and Sadie ran and ran, having a blast. When it was time to separate horses for evening feed I was not getting cooperation so I left Sadie in with Lady.

Sunday morning Sadie was colicky after first hay rounds when I grained. I pulled her out of Lady's pen when I grained. She laid down instead of eating any grain. I fretted and watched for a while and she didn't pop out of it like last fall when she had ulcers so I called my vet. He stopped on his way home from another sunday call and although she was happier and eating and drinking good when he got there she had very little gut sounds so he went ahead and sedated her & tubed 1/2 gal of mineral oil into her. That was not too bad. $191. I put her in an empty stall/run where the the mini's are so I could monitor input and output. She could only get a handful of hay at a time -she wasn't thrilled about that. But by evening she was much better. Dads friend Jim came over and he and dad rode their motorcycles and mom and I drove and we all looked at the weekender LQ horsetrailer nearby that I had spotted on craigslist. I had not been shopping hard for a trailer but have wanted to get a gooseneck that could haul 4 horses and had some LQ. This trailer is not exactly what I would have got, ordering something new, but it had all the features I wanted. Propane heat/stove/fridge. holds 4 horses. No pass thru door but has a toilet and shower so no need to set up cowboy shower and portapotty in the horse area. Has a side tack/dressing room + the LQ area and a collapsible rear tack which I will take out. I wrote an 'earnest money check last night and got a bank check for balance today. So now I am trailer poor in addition to being horse poor. We agreed on tuesday giving him the balance and fetching the trailer.

I rode Shade this morning, it felt really hot and muggy to both of us but we slugged out 7.5 miles with a good amount of trotting and some cantering. Then I hosed her off and gave out late morning hay to the 7 I spoil that way, before showering for work. Sadie scared me as I was pulling out to head to work. She was napping in the sun after breakfast. I didn't really think she was colicky and I had to get the check at my bank + I want to keep my bosses happy since I just spent $$ on a trailer but after sunday I called to get a parent to check on her. Dad is home today unless he had to make a local delivery. No answer on the 1:30 call, when I tried again at 4 I dragged poor poor mom out of bed when she was sooooooooo exhausted since she actually dragged her butt to 'work' this morning to their 2x/monthly meeting. Sadie was fine but I am a an evil demanding hag for wanting her checked on ............

quick training note

Rode Shade 8 miles on wednesday. V long-lined Lady today and then I popped on her and walked her around the small arena a bit. I asked her to step up close the mounting block and stop and then used it to dismount and we called it a day. Hopefully have a 17 yr old coming to try her tomorrow. Also had a call this morning from someone in Col. springs area expressing interest.

I don't have as good a vibe from 2nd one. Doesn't sound like as much horse experience and I think would not have mentors. But I'm not writing them off at this point. Since they are south I guess I have to suck it up and drive Lady to the fun show in Kiowa on sunday that would be a good place for them to try her and exposure to some other word of mouth to get her a home. Ugh, I hate toll roads, driving more than 1 hour, and showing. But since the toll is way the best route and I don't want to own this mare for life I have to suck it up and do it.

training log update

Close guesses since I didn't track as I went.

saturday June 28 the Chatfield ride with Lynn and Mari. Rode 2.5 hours, mostly walked after first hour so probly only 3.5 mph pace overall call it 8.5 miles.
Sunday June 29 just 3-4 miles lots of cantering --- testing front hoof boots which passed.

Ok tuesday Jul1, went only 1 mile, slow this was the failed hind hoof boot test.

Thursday Jul 3. 4.5 miles.
Friday Jul 4 3 miles walking with mom and Razz
Saturday July 5 5.5 miles lots of canter and fun

monday July 7 8.5 miles walking and trotting with just 1 mile of mixed canter towards end of ride.

I really should try to ride with someone who will keep our pace up about 20 miles this weekend. Who should I call?

Non training stuff:

I cleaned my trailer floor sat/sunday.
Lady was long-lined monday and did well
There is a 4 hours trailswest Sierra with weekend LQ for sale, private party near me. It does not have much storage inside the LQ, and the horse part has mangers so not as flexible for extra horses. But with a 4-horse that is not such a big deal. I must look at it again, maybe my pics show it for how dividers work (can they be tied open) I'm thinking mangers interfere with that. decisions decsions.

Kind of Lazy 4th at home

I am home instead of riding in WY like I thought I would be this spring. But I had fun. Took very short rides on 4 different horses and ponied Sadie off Grey one of those so I got pretty good horsey time today.

A highlight is when I ran in the house for a drink before catching Shade for a morning ride I asked mom, sitting starting breakfast if she wanted to join me and she did. So I waited around, drank some efferC instead of just a quick slug of water etc, caught RazzMo for her and we went for a 3 mile walking ride. Razz was pretty good for mom, a bit lazy, well it WAS hot, and then just had to jump into a canter when we were headed home. Silly boy. Shade was good, she figured since she kept getting well in front she had the right to stop for grass. I urged her on some. I want her to eat under saddle with the endurance but not turn into a grass diving pony on me.

We got some breeze in the afternoon so I grabbed Lady. Rode her up to where Stanley had his crane and huge flag parked. Dumb non arab, she was boinking along, wondering about some ATV noise she heard from the subdivsion, and got closer then her comfort zone before she noticed the flag. So then I made her stay somewhat close, actually looped around it and headed home with some breaks to turn and stand and look at it. She was not great for mounting when I started out so when I got to the ditch I got off and did another practice mount and she was good then. I guess she had worked enough to stand for several seconds, even asking her to stand in the soft vee next to the road. She is short enough to just hop on, but with using the LJ I like to have a boost and its good for her to learn to stand at a mounting block or in a low spot anyways.

I separated Lady and Sadie too. Lady is pining about it but she has lots of over fence company and no big horses to push her around so she'll live. She was getting too joined at the hip to Sadie. I grabbed Grey Moun and ponied Sadie after a long hydration break for me. OMG, Sadie is such a pretty mover. I dare not have her started early, aprart from believing that is not the best thing in general because I think once she is started I am going to want to ride her A LOT. On the way home I asked Grey to go on the fence side of the blue plastic that blew into the ditch. Might be a from a mail type carton. All the horses have been snorty about it. Sadie was on the close side to it. She looked, then she had a bite of grass, then Ole tromped over it to demonstrate the noise it makes, then Sadie sniffed it and walked right next to it. What a good girl. Slight defense of the grown horses is they go that way all the time so the plastic changed what they see but gosh I loff my Bayrab yearling.

Then, just because I could, I grabbed 26 year old Cindy for a twighlight ride and watched some of the fireworks from her back. She wanted to rush home but she is a fire breathing dragon and want to do that anyway. She never has been skeered of much of anything. Even though I rode less miles than 1/2 an LD I was a bit sore and had to use arnica and even took an aleve after I woke up after about an hour. Mia was barking away at all the fireworks etc, and I just tune her out, but at one point I thought I heard hooves on gravel so I had to check all the horse pens. Everyone was in place so either I heard V's mini's on the plywood I have where they are fed or possibly there was livestock on the road but there wasn't hardly any whinnying so I didn't even grab a flashlight to shine out on the road.

Not going to Wyoming this weekend

I worked and worked and have a solution for front boots that held well with lots of canter testing on sunday. But the easy brand boots are way too wide for Shade's narrower hind feet. I looked at some Bosana boots I had, designed to go over shoes and they were more narrow inside I thought so I worked and worked filling around a raised teeny horseshoe area they had --I suppose for stability using with shoes but it would have been a bad pressure concentration. Wasn't ready to test till yesterday and they WONT work, blech. So rather than go to the ride and pick our way around the LD course one day while I worry about picking up a stone bruise or getting a deepish hoof split, or trying to get emergency shoeing appointment I am going to just stay home and ride places with easier footing.