'SPA DAY' for the equines today

Shade likes chiro work. She didn't get as much into the zone today, probaby because she was only needed minor tweaking but I got to calling it her spa treatment last couple of visits when she was getting floppy lips and ears and all the other horse body language for aaaaaahh yesssss, right there. CJ got the full effect today. He started out not wanting his poll touched --he is such a laid back horse an earlier owner or trainer must have been really rough with him to cause that. But once he figured it out he was licking and so on for the most part. A couple spots were kind of tender when they came free, but overall he thought this chiropractic was a GOOD thing. Grey also got a little work, he is so funny, he was really showing eye whites when his neck was being adjusted but he didn't fight or anything.

M came in the late morning to ride AJ, arrived right as I was getting grain ready so I went ahead with pulling Sadie out so I could spray her and put some swat in her ears. I hope she develops resistance rather than allergies, she gets bite lumps; I think I remember Shade did too when she was younger and Shade is fine now. Then I did some trailer loading practice with Sadie. She is not quite ready to step hind feet into the trailer but was really relaxed, munching off the hay bale I had sitting in there, ready to load into the front stall with the stud divider --which makes it the feed and stuff securing divider for me AJ was good for M and later C came and rode RazzMo, I did some goatsheads removal while she rode.

After recovering and it cooled off I got my overhead tie 60% installed. I would have been able to finish but I managed to lose one of the six 2x4 by .25 inch pieces of iron bar. Sighhh, now I have to find someplace that can cut off a short length of bar stock and drill the holes for me. I might swipe a piece from my other tie on the bumper pull trailer so I can close up my project sunday.

Shades Mtn Mettle

Rode Shade in a 30 mile distance ride saturday. The ride name was Mountain Mettle. I have done a few conditioning rides in the area so I knew the name was accurate and since I haven't been conditioning seriously and this was the first ride of the season for us I fiugred the wise course was ride the 30 rather than have both Shade and I having to dig really deep to finish the 50. It was a beautiful ride. The RMs did a great job organizing things. There was one spot where we REALLY could have used some reaasurance ribbons and as I was picking up my t-shirt the RM was trying to decide how to deal with a report from a 50 miler that had gotten off trail and got straightened out by some mtn bicyclists. They didn't have any way to know if there might be other people who followed that persons tracks and was off trail too. So next year I predict they will double the amount of ribbons they use. wink.

Shade let me catch her just fine but did not want to load in the big trailer. I have taken out the rear tack so she has a roomy area but its still a lot less than the stock trailer. I had to get the long lead and run it through the tie ring and back so I could stand at her hip and keep her nose pointed the right direction. Its only her 3rd trip in it so I think she'll get better with more practice. I turned too sharp out of the driveway on to the gravel road and hit our mail box post with the trailer fender. So then I had to take the tire iron and get the fender off the wheel before I could get going and was properly paranoid of clipping anything when turning the rest of the drive.

I'm not sure if Sadie thinks she should start traveling already or what but she was running and bucking in the paddock while I was getting Shade loaded. Gave me a smile. I think I may have me a tough little mountain pony --the string test says she isn't likely to get over 14.1 hands.

eh, I'm due for a political/media vent

Mostly the media (televison). I've been cynical of politicians most of my life, but only recently realized that the media are not just leaning liberal in their opinions on the news, they are very much filtering and distorting the news to fit their viewpoint.

So the new names behind the initials:

Need Baracks Cooperation (GE, gets big windfalls in 'green' stimulus projects and was bailed out)
Always Baracks Comrad
Carrying Baracks Spin
Concealed Communist Network
Mostly Swooners that Need Baracks Cooperation.


Yes I do fill just a little bit better. I rode Grey Moun this morning. What a bouncy horse he is when he is wound up. But he was a good boy. I love that I know he'll be fine with meeting the road grader and stuff like that. Mia was hot and tired when we got home. Oh and I better call and make sure someone let or lets Ole out of the backyard. He rolled in stinky so I 'scrubbed' the spot with some wet sand when I dumped and scrubbed the big tank and made him go in the yard to dry off. Mr friendly was chasing a stray cat that was in there and I really thought he would hurt it, surprised me, he is soooo good with our cats. They were at a standoff finally when the cat felt he had to turn and be prepared to fight and I was able to grab Ole, then the cat jumped on a dog house roof and into a tree branch with trees trunk on the outside of the fence so all he had to do was make sure Mia was not going to get him when he came down and get himself out of the farmyard. He wasn't going to have any problems outrunning her or slipping through the field fencing.

early monday blues

I rode Shade today, that was OK, 9 pretty good road miles. Been raining every day and we had about .4 inches yesterday. I think the field roads or going somewhere to trail ride would have been OK footing but I was too lazy to want to trailer anywhere and decided it would be a good opportunity to ride the roads for a change of pace. I don't like to ride roads when they are baked hard as asphalt later in summer. A stupid little dog followed me home. Would not let me check for a tag with an address and I tried to hollar at him to go home but he ignored me so I decided I'd go home and then run him back with the car. Mia was patient with him, whew. I was trying to get him back where I noticed him start following us, and his owner noticed him runnign behind the car (he would not let me catch him in our yard any more than he would let me check for collar when I was off Shade right after he started following us) She was just very relieved to find him and didn't give me any grief for not waiting and/or doubling back (I had actually tried doubling back but the little dog nor Ole would backtrack when I turned around, durned dogs)

I did not get a ride on Grey Moun -- it rained again today about .3 inches. Helped mom pack crap up and then the neighbors came and moved the furniture out of the basement room so the mold experts can pull out the carpeting. I pitched in but I was kind of annoyed that mom didn't start on the packing on her own. I know she is sick but it still feels like a case of wanting to ensure she didn't do more work than anyone else. I also ran out of steam and did not ask dad to help me start mounting my high tie nor try to do it myself --pretty sure I need someone to hold it so I can pick the spots to drill. Maybe I could just measure from my little trailer though.

I'm almost done being on call, knocking wood that an SV that is normally good, but was missing data last download will be back to normal this download. I'll know in 40 minutes. I am trying not to be a big baby, wanting other people to make me happy, but am feeling like I'm being brushed off on a few minor fronts and having a hard time with it. That is silly so I probably just need a really hot shower and a longer nights sleep tonight.

CJ and AJ got worked saturday.

I was riding CJ, his leasor switched to her DHs insurance and has been stuck waiting to make sure she is covered. She had mentioned riding to a co-worker. M has background in jumping and had leased a TB right off the track before so she is a good fit for AJ. She was out last week for the first time and AJ was good but was the energizer bunny, not wanting to walk; but he was really good riding with CJ. Good to know that having another horse being ridden in the small arena probably calms him down and certainly doesn't wind him up.

I'm going to schedule chiro for Shade after next saturday. Doing a hilly 30 mile LD, and then if things work out doing a 55 two weeks after. I'm going to have the chiro work on CJ while he is out. He does NOT want to take the left lead. He was grumpy about being asked to canter at all to the left but I pushed him through but he took the counter lead every time but got much less grumpy when I just let him canter a bit and then drop to trot to make a corner instead of trying to correc the lead.

I also noticed when he is going clockwise his body seems to collapse to the center, then I was playing around trying to get him to flex and he feels really sticky to give his head to the left and ribs to the right (having trouble describing concisely) but feels like I can't open him up to be in position to take the left lead so no wonder I cant get it.

So hopefully a chiro adjustmet will unstick whatever is stuck. If not its not a crying disaster. He is a pack horse and sometimes mom's mount for annual hunting trip for my parents and his leasor just wants to play with a horse. I bought a no-name treeless saddle last week and tried it on him. He seems to think its pretty comfy so I'll ask his leasor to use it, the little barrel saddle was not really hurting him but it just didn't feel like it was right.
The new treeless is definitely NOT the quality of the Barefoots, but it set-up for easy tweaking. It has zips for pommel, cantle and a vecro seam in the fleece underside. So I could put closed cell foam inserts in for extra spinal relief. Right now it works for CJ (I did replace the cantle piece with some soft stuffing) and I think it would work for Grey Moun to let someone ride him if they were not comfy with the thought of the LJ so its meeting my needs. Today I must try to ride Shade and Grey, The ride in 3 weeks is having an 11 mile poker ride on sunday and I want to do that with Grey after I do an endurance ride on Shade saturday.

Pretty sure Sadie was having bug bite itchies rather than worms. I noticed a lot of bite bumps on her so I've been adding some garlic to her feed and spraying her. She doesn't like the tickle but is getting used to it pretty quickly. I was using one product that is just a repllenent and the spray is more tickly from that one I guess as she really gets antsy with it, so I'll just use the endure brand that is also supposed to last a few days between applications. She still has bumps but I haven't seen her scratching so perhaps she is not getting itchy new bites.

random maundering

Not sure if I'll find someone to ride with this weekend. I think I'll go to Waterton Canyon if I have to go alone, or maybe I'll just ride at home, I got one sky hook off my old trailer and got my bulk fuel tank back against the front wall of my p/u bed. Need to get the drill out to anchor the tank and mount the overhead trailer tie on the big ass trailer, should worm mom's horses, do some packing for the endurance ride on the 20th, Razz and AJ's riders will probably be here at the same time together tomorrow. It has been raining every night on my drive home, but has dried up by 11pm so I could feed, but tonight its thundering still. I should probably move hay on the weekend and mom wants to pick out flooring. Well if we can go to Lowes and I can give an example of this color and design works fine but I don't want to waste hours and hours. Heck I don't even know whether to go for light color or darker. I think light, a dark color would probably not work with the dark stained waterbed frame. I am having to fetch some surface met values from a website and do several editing steps because I couldn't find the raw data files archived anywhere.

wormed the 6 east paddock horses today

I don't even want to go back and count how many weeks since I last wormed. I was going do to it tomorrow but Sadie was rubbing on the gate today. I think the poor think is reacting to bug bites though, when I let the crew out she had bumps on her neck. Guess I'll have to spray her on a schedule for a while and try feeding her garlic. Shade was sensitive when she was younger but seems to have grown out of it, I never notice bite bumps on her anymore, so I hope Sadie will do the same, but I want to limit things now, they can go the other way and become more sensitive as they age.

Big Blessings and minor annoyances

I went trail riding with an endurance riding friend and her co-worker on Q's older horse yesterday. Blessing, I was running late and they graciously waited for me for over an hour, annoyance -I was running late and Shade and Grey decided it was the day to run around for 30 minutes before being ready to be caught. Blessing -the weather was wonderful, they had wanted to get an earlier start because it got hot on saturday but it stayed overcast and a cool breeze all day riding --and then last night on the news they were talking about all the tornado activity. I haven't seen a map but I think we both might have been driving home through surrounding storms if still a bit out of the tornado track if we had been on their originally desired schedule.

Blessing Shade was pretty good and felt fairly strong going up the big hill. We climbed 2500-3000 feet. There is an endurance ride in two weeks on those trails. I am entering Shade in the 30. That was my thinking before doing this training ride and I think its the wise choice. We went about 20 miles and I still had a willing horse but she was tired, she was alternating betwen dozing and eating back at the trail-head. Minor annoyance Shade had a very 'mare' day. She was opinionated a couple times I asked her to lead and was trying to take over Q's gelding from Q's mare --this with Grey Moun back at the trailer.

Big blessing, as I pulled up to our driveway gate to take off I realized I had not locked in my bulldog hitch. This is also a minor annoyance that I didn't do that right away but its a big blessing that I did not have to find out how well the trailer chains work. Minor annoyances -dad had found a magnetic mount antenna for me to use for hooking up my gooseneck, he figured the magnet was too weak to leave it in the bed --he was right, now I have to buy a guide at an auto suppy or someplace. Another minor annoyance. My in bed diesel tank shifted -blessing I had wired it so it couldn't go very far but now I have to get a pry bar sometime and shift it back where it belongs and secure it better.

weekend plans?

Was a friday Q on a forum. I didn't have any set plans yet on friday though. Well I should be getting something ready or at least quick drinking my coffee today instead of typing here; I'm meeting an endurace buddy to ride in less than 2 hrs and its at least a 1 hour drive. Yesterday C was out to ride Razz and the gal came out to try AJ. She is going to get along fine with him but mom was guilt tripping and throwing negativity after the ride when M was signing the lease form. Sheesh, I know summer is kind of light on the sports she likes to watch on TV but she is dragging about being sick again and she seizes any excuse to skip riding, cant miss arena football. She should be thrilled to have someone riding AJ so he'll be ready if she gets better and wants to go back to week night lessons. We have plenty of other horses that could use work if she gets to a point of wanting to really get after toning her riding muscles, and she feels like it would be too much work for AJ. Its just the reality slap in the face I guess but I wasn't pushing AJ for lease, CJ's leasor mentioned riding to M, they work together and I wasn't going to turn down the chance to have him getting some work again. I'm the one who will be stuck trying to place horses if mom ends up dead or in a nursing home and I've seen enough sad ads on CL that I didn't want to start from "Hasn't been ridden in years, or for CJ/Razz, green broke never been ridden regularly.

Back from my ride, tired but happy. I think Shade is too. She was being a mare today, nobody could get very close behind her, especially the other mare, she cut the gelding some slack. At one point she seemed to be claiming posession of the gelding, LOL, from the mare that lives with him. But Shade was pretty good, she set a decent pace when we led, not fast but not dogging much. She stopped dead a couple times and insisted Cimmaron must lead though. I think we went about 20 miles total. It was just as well my friend Lynn couldn't get away to ride I was pretty tuckered by the time we were done, + I was running really late this morning. The friends I had arranged to meet were waiting nearly an hour for me and we didn't get done until about 3:30 (Q and originally wanted to finish by 1, but she wanted to keep going as we were heading up the trail, I hope she gets her stuff done for her trip w/o having to stay up till all hours.

Well I'm riding Shade moderately

Not sure if any of the other horses can be said to be getting even light work. Rode Grey just a bit saturday when Razz's leasor was out, and probably will do the same tomorrow. Didn't get on either CJ or AJ last weekend. I need to get on AJ if mom is not going to be up to it. She talked a good game driving home but what energy she has is just going into landscape stuff. If she did more permanent stuff I would count this a good thing but she is VERY light on pruning, or ever fixing anything. She does do some weeding but spends too much time planting MORE stuff. She is talking about putting in astroturf where the lawn is dying so perhaps she is coming around though.

I DID have good ride on Shade today. Short, barely 5 miles but it was pretty fun. I was a task master and kept her trotting and cantering quite a bit after we got to road 33 and I tied Mia up. Ole got hot and went home before I came back past the prairie dog town. Mom was complaining that last night the dogs insisted on going a bit and he swerved off to play. I told her my theory that he thinks prairie dog towns are doggie amusement parks.

I need to write 'my' soldier this weekend. I didn't get his package off till tuesday but had meant to keep the letters on friday evening schedule but I don't have a card along and I just am not in the mood to write right now. I never am, I cheat a bunch and borrow from my blogging, its incredibly difficult to write one-way letters. He's probably bored stiff hearing about horses and dogs but I don't know if he has any interest in a sport. I could blather a bit if he was, I used to read the hockey write ups when I still lunched with the co-workers but I'm not going to do that without a known interest in football,baseball, nascar or whatever. No politics, and one can not whine to someone serving in sweltering heat, away from their family so that leaves me with horses, dogs, and the occasional rambling about work which I'm sure is mind numbing, its numbing for me just to type out what the all the danged abbreviations stand for.

give me wisdom

I love Shade, rode down the graveled road today. She was a bit of a drama llama meeting a large skid steer booking down the road (well he stopped when he saw the melodramatics, nice guy) But she was good overall. I had a couple miles of lovely cantering, dogs got exercised on the 1.5 mile warm up and cool-down stretches around that, then I tied Mia to make sure she didn't go in any farmyards and Ole played in prairie dog town while I had my canter work. I swear that dog thinks the prairie dog towns are canine amusement parks.

So on to the need for wisdom. I have a 2 yr old BayRabAcres filly I just loff, but she is SHORT, probably not over 13.2 right now. The person who bought her 3 yr old 3/4 brother (same stud, dam is is grand-dam to Sadie) really wants to sell him. If he was only 1 state away I'd probably already have this gelding but he's on the western tip of Washington state. Transport would be pretty high, plus I really don't have time to keep two young horses worked. Sadie is 10 years younger than Shade because Shade being 9 years younger than Grey resulted in both standing around too much while Grey was still going fine and Shade could have been getting going more seriously. I would have had even more age between Sadie or Shade or waited and bought an older horse but I wanted the bloodlines and figured I better act. --that was the wise choice, Sadie is the last foal from this breeder. So the only way it makes sense for me to think about Sadie's brother is if Sadie is going to be a child's size horse. I should figure out the string tests to predict height I guess, and see if that suggests Sadie is just a slow arabian. I wanted a short horse, only about 14.2 or 14.3, and if Sadie develops into the brick chicken house build common to these bloodlines 14.1 will feel like plenty of horse. Well -see this is helpful, I am feeling less tempted to pursue the gelding for now.

And I had to come away from a board I used to be active on and now mainly lurk. I quit following some posters there and learned to skip threads that sounded like melodramatics, but I've been tempted to look at a thread that I'm sure is heavy on the melodrama. Be strong T, stay away from that web version of reality TV.