Today I waited for nearly an hour at the DMV place because I was tardy getting my renewal card mailed in and I didn't want to risk getting a ticket if I take my little trailer on a day trip sunday. When it was finally my # I walked up and told the clerk "nothing like forgetting to mail this" and she said I would have been safe from ticket as they give a month grace. I nicley told her "that is good to know for next time" and thanked her, she WAS nice and quick with my transaction but I WANTED to howl over that hour, and then the topper was that the staff for early primary voting was on lunch break when I got out. I should have grabbed a # and voted rather than waiting in the DMV waiting room I guess, but so much for not having to make an extra trip to vote as I was not going to wait around for an unknown amount of time.
I have not called ANYONE to try to set up a conditioning date for tomorrow or sunday. It really is nicer to have someone else to ride with to encourage a good pace, but I've been putting up mental excuses why A or B wouldn't work out without even calling them. WHY am I such a NINNY about picking up the phone and making casual plans?
I need to call the brand inspector for Sadie --at least I found the inspections for Cindy,Grey and Shade. so I guess I better quit venting and at least get that done.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
It'll cure us or kill us
And I have no idea which way things will go. I am talking of course of God letting the commies/progressives get this amount of power in 2008. I still believe that squishy McCain going along with much of what they wanted + the progda media we have might have led to even greater power in the progs' hands in 2012, and too late for a tea party movement to do anything then. But the GOP has enough progressives or at least RINO's who liked being the minority opposition, winking and nodding at the progressives while 'opposing' them just enough to keep their voters content to keep sending them back to the beltway that it is not at all a sure thing that conservatives will get the wins we NEED to restore and keep America functioning as a republic that respects the rights of its citizens.
I don't so much care about the governors race in CO. I don't consider myself a citizen of this state, its just a temporary place because I have a decent job here so I don't care too much if they blow it and Hickinlooper hurts the state. The effing yuppies and beggars deserve any pain that comes. But I don't have any sense that the GOP is helping Angle in NV; they may likewise leave it entirely to the "those uppity tea-party twerps" to help with the senate campaign should Buck win the primary in this state. I don't see much indication that they have a plan to take back the state congress, or support the GOP candidates in the 3 districts that I think the GOP could reclaim from the DNC. etc. etc.
Oh well I guess I will just keep on keeping on. Trying to plan for some worst case possibilities, mainly enjoying life as much as possible while the things I like are still allowed and affordable. I know the Sierra Club would dearly love to ban horse trailers from public lands or at least have $10/gallon fuel to deter us and so on and so on, and the NBPP and NAACP probably thinks the gub'mint should seize all money from any 'filthy rich whiteys who can afford horses' and give it to the 'poor downtrodden' inner city yutes so they can buy the latest sneakers and hi-def TV's + drugs to keep them in the ghetto's where the DNC masters want them.
I don't so much care about the governors race in CO. I don't consider myself a citizen of this state, its just a temporary place because I have a decent job here so I don't care too much if they blow it and Hickinlooper hurts the state. The effing yuppies and beggars deserve any pain that comes. But I don't have any sense that the GOP is helping Angle in NV; they may likewise leave it entirely to the "those uppity tea-party twerps" to help with the senate campaign should Buck win the primary in this state. I don't see much indication that they have a plan to take back the state congress, or support the GOP candidates in the 3 districts that I think the GOP could reclaim from the DNC. etc. etc.
Oh well I guess I will just keep on keeping on. Trying to plan for some worst case possibilities, mainly enjoying life as much as possible while the things I like are still allowed and affordable. I know the Sierra Club would dearly love to ban horse trailers from public lands or at least have $10/gallon fuel to deter us and so on and so on, and the NBPP and NAACP probably thinks the gub'mint should seize all money from any 'filthy rich whiteys who can afford horses' and give it to the 'poor downtrodden' inner city yutes so they can buy the latest sneakers and hi-def TV's + drugs to keep them in the ghetto's where the DNC masters want them.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Hot ride this morning
It was hot sunday also, never trust the weather forecast that says the temps will be moderate when you live in Colorado. Sunday I rode about 7 miles. Shade did pretty well but was feeling the heat for sure. Today we did about 5 miles. I did extra hill work, I just love cantering up the hills. Shade was a trooper and felt balanced and strong. Ole enjoyed the section we did alongside the irrigation ditch and back. He took multiple dips.
Sunday was redneck fun. --while we were going along the irrigation ditch a mile to the next road and back some folks from the area drove up to corner where there is a sand bump to discourage driving the last .4 miles to the ditch (4 wheelers from ATVs to SUV's just love going over the bump and down the sandy hill.) But these folks just had a minivan so they walked to the ditch to splash in the water. I was surprised to see people splashing, especially since they had to walk thru the sand to get there and were going to have to walk back up the sandy hill to their minivan. Shade acted like wet kids were horse eating aliens LOL, I made her go past them on the road though so we could do our extra mile. I got down and sponged her off in an extra shallow spot --thought she might get brave and get a sip to drink but she was not interested in getting close enough to even spit in the water. Ole took advantage of the shallow spot to cross the ditch and chase around in the prairie dog town on the other side. I had to double back to that shallow section and call/leave/double back and call again to get him to leave his dogs amusement park and come back across the ditch and home with me.
The pesty stray dog has not been back. Perhaps someone where I took it 'back' WAS home the 2nd time and was just ducking me; as I did not get around to taking any other actions to notify any owner that the dog was headed to the pound next time; but I think I said out loud (but my voice is not very strong, ever) to the dog that I didn't know if he lived there but if he showed up in my yard again I was calling animal control before I drove off. We have been good about keeping Ole on his tire tie-out when he is outside while we feed horses or whatever. Saturday I was quite lazy but my one project I did was braiding some twine where I had just had a single strand. I was worried the twine would break + I made it longer and its easier for me to move the tire for Ole now. Someday we will get a harness for Ole or a find an extra lightweight tire so that he can move more easily but will be enough to deter him from ducking through the back fence. Actually I kind of want to have 'more' fence before I work to make it easier for Ole to get around. He is adapting well to being tied and I am so much more at ease knowing he cant slip off.
Sunday was redneck fun. --while we were going along the irrigation ditch a mile to the next road and back some folks from the area drove up to corner where there is a sand bump to discourage driving the last .4 miles to the ditch (4 wheelers from ATVs to SUV's just love going over the bump and down the sandy hill.) But these folks just had a minivan so they walked to the ditch to splash in the water. I was surprised to see people splashing, especially since they had to walk thru the sand to get there and were going to have to walk back up the sandy hill to their minivan. Shade acted like wet kids were horse eating aliens LOL, I made her go past them on the road though so we could do our extra mile. I got down and sponged her off in an extra shallow spot --thought she might get brave and get a sip to drink but she was not interested in getting close enough to even spit in the water. Ole took advantage of the shallow spot to cross the ditch and chase around in the prairie dog town on the other side. I had to double back to that shallow section and call/leave/double back and call again to get him to leave his dogs amusement park and come back across the ditch and home with me.
The pesty stray dog has not been back. Perhaps someone where I took it 'back' WAS home the 2nd time and was just ducking me; as I did not get around to taking any other actions to notify any owner that the dog was headed to the pound next time; but I think I said out loud (but my voice is not very strong, ever) to the dog that I didn't know if he lived there but if he showed up in my yard again I was calling animal control before I drove off. We have been good about keeping Ole on his tire tie-out when he is outside while we feed horses or whatever. Saturday I was quite lazy but my one project I did was braiding some twine where I had just had a single strand. I was worried the twine would break + I made it longer and its easier for me to move the tire for Ole now. Someday we will get a harness for Ole or a find an extra lightweight tire so that he can move more easily but will be enough to deter him from ducking through the back fence. Actually I kind of want to have 'more' fence before I work to make it easier for Ole to get around. He is adapting well to being tied and I am so much more at ease knowing he cant slip off.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Well the stray was not in our yard this AM
Of course now I'm wondering if he'll show up on sunday and I'll have to deal with him for 24 hours for animal control or until an owner shows up. It sucks that I am now checking the windows multiple times before letting Ole out in the morning; plus feeling I need to have him on lead JIC. Darn dogs/neighbors.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
ugh, no cool breeze this morning
So dropped down to only 4 miles and went directly to and from the irrigation ditch so Ole wouldn't be exercising in the heat as much. I could have beat more of the sunshine but the last 2 mornings a stupid red border collie has been in our yard. Our dog Ole who is Mr. friendly, oh another dog to play with 99% of the time wants to rip the BC's throat out it seems and I'm not willing to stand by to find out if he would just hold BC down for a few minutes until he gets a good UNCLE., yesterday I had a time getting Ole to his tire and then he still chased the BC and after Ole had the rope wound around a post and was effectively tied up the BC kept coming INTO OLE's space I even threw BC out of our yard and he climbed right back in --we have a horse gate there which holds Ole and Mia but not smaller dogs.
Today I put Ole in the garage so I could get outside and get the BC into my car that I left out last night and take it "home". Both days I have run the BC back to the house I had last seen it at but I am not at all sure it lives there. They have 3 dogs that don't roam and are super friendly. They have not been home to answer the door. Today I got to wondering if some trouble maker in the neighborhood is taking the BC to our place (which since he can get under the gate so he could take himself home anyway but does not - the stupid cur ) but perhaps some trouble maker thinks they can get the BC killed by Ole and get Ole killed as a dangerous dog. UGHHHH I hate living near people! We have a lot of good neighbors but life would just be simpler if the closest neighbor was 3-4 miles away. If I see the BC in our yard again I will tie him up in our 'house yard' and call the county animal control to fetch him. I don't care how he is getting in our yard he either needs new owners or the owners need a big wake up call that they better invest in a dog harness and tie-out kit unless/until they put up a BC proof fence. And if someone is trying to bait Ole into trouble they can find out that we will take steps to get LE on our side first.
Today I put Ole in the garage so I could get outside and get the BC into my car that I left out last night and take it "home". Both days I have run the BC back to the house I had last seen it at but I am not at all sure it lives there. They have 3 dogs that don't roam and are super friendly. They have not been home to answer the door. Today I got to wondering if some trouble maker in the neighborhood is taking the BC to our place (which since he can get under the gate so he could take himself home anyway but does not - the stupid cur ) but perhaps some trouble maker thinks they can get the BC killed by Ole and get Ole killed as a dangerous dog. UGHHHH I hate living near people! We have a lot of good neighbors but life would just be simpler if the closest neighbor was 3-4 miles away. If I see the BC in our yard again I will tie him up in our 'house yard' and call the county animal control to fetch him. I don't care how he is getting in our yard he either needs new owners or the owners need a big wake up call that they better invest in a dog harness and tie-out kit unless/until they put up a BC proof fence. And if someone is trying to bait Ole into trouble they can find out that we will take steps to get LE on our side first.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
took advantage of monsoon to ride this morning
Heh, that sounds weird doesn't it. But the trickle of monsoon moisture (from Mexico/Arizona summer monsoon) made for a pleasant morning with a cool moist breeze and cloud cover to ward off the hot sun. The breeze is probably what made it nice versus feeling all muggy but Shade and Ole and I enjoyed 5 miles again. Ole dragged a leg/bone part way home. Maybe someone butchered a youngish steer, the bones seemed about too thick to be a goat or deer but the hoof was smaller than a grown cows.
Ole is so funny with these leg bones he finds. (they are usually 3-4 bones still connected at the joints but coyotes or something has already picked the meat off of them. Ole and Mia like to chew on them though. Ole likes to hide them in the ditch sometimes rather than bringing them right home where Mia will get a turn at the bones. He is such a dufus and the canine embodiment of Clem from Rose is Rose.
Ole is so funny with these leg bones he finds. (they are usually 3-4 bones still connected at the joints but coyotes or something has already picked the meat off of them. Ole and Mia like to chew on them though. Ole likes to hide them in the ditch sometimes rather than bringing them right home where Mia will get a turn at the bones. He is such a dufus and the canine embodiment of Clem from Rose is Rose.
Feeling down
I feel like a blog killer. I know that is ridiculous vanity; people don't stop blogging because of one lurker who occasionally makes a lightweight comment but I was following a few blogs that have dried up recently and I'm bummed about no longer getting to read little notes about how the author's lives are going.
Politics --its a messy business, that's one reason I always avoided having much involvement but I am depressed that my state seems to be rolling over on handing the 7th district to the D's. I like the conservative candidate but I'm not hearing much about him --of course I barely follow any traditional news because its so biased...... The candidate I thought was a lock for GOP gov nomination and likely winning the general election has a plagarism issue now. The shocker is the progda local papers ran with the story in early july instead of sitting on it until after the primary. I just don't know much about the other GOP candidate, and a local talk show host was saying he didn't think that candidate could win. Well he is not a genius -- he didn't acquit himself that well during Katrina aftermath. Now I know in hindsight the media wanted to beat up on Bush but still -Brown was not that great as FEMA director and although I had enjoyed some of his radio shows if he is just going to go "we have to fight the good fight, but we'll only make inroads at local level GOP areas in terms of getting more conservatives in power" I don't need the negativity.
Politics --its a messy business, that's one reason I always avoided having much involvement but I am depressed that my state seems to be rolling over on handing the 7th district to the D's. I like the conservative candidate but I'm not hearing much about him --of course I barely follow any traditional news because its so biased...... The candidate I thought was a lock for GOP gov nomination and likely winning the general election has a plagarism issue now. The shocker is the progda local papers ran with the story in early july instead of sitting on it until after the primary. I just don't know much about the other GOP candidate, and a local talk show host was saying he didn't think that candidate could win. Well he is not a genius -- he didn't acquit himself that well during Katrina aftermath. Now I know in hindsight the media wanted to beat up on Bush but still -Brown was not that great as FEMA director and although I had enjoyed some of his radio shows if he is just going to go "we have to fight the good fight, but we'll only make inroads at local level GOP areas in terms of getting more conservatives in power" I don't need the negativity.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Its raining its raining -the hay is snoring in the shed
OK that is terribly lame. But its so satisfying having the latest batch of hay taken care of and knowing its not getting rained on.
Oh No, my friend's horse died friday
I didn't even see the email until now. Lord give me some wise words to reply to her. I have been very blessed to date with horses having long lives. Sixteen can still be prime time for an arabian; what a shock for B to suddenly lose her mare. Life is so harsh sometimes.
I come by the $$ foolish bent honestly
Helped the parents pick hay up out of their hunting buddy's field this morning. Hay is relatively cheap this year and whomever put up his hay made really light bales. He offered $4.50 a bale and mom just wrote him a check. We picked up hay that was at LEAST 150% this weight for $5 a bale last month from a gal that is doing hay as a business vs J who is getting a break on property taxes, *I* was thinking giving $4 for J's hay this year would be pretty high per ton vs the market rate as I was lifting those lightweight bales and he only needs to cover whatever he paid to have the hay put up -- but he didn't get rich by giving anything away and mom and dad apparently let friendship outweigh value in agreeing to pay that much.
OH well its mom's money and was only 125 bales --since I have 4.9 barrels of diesel that I am skeered to put in my pickup and it possibly can't even be used for the tractor based on the tractor stalling last night....... I sure can't say anything.
OH well its mom's money and was only 125 bales --since I have 4.9 barrels of diesel that I am skeered to put in my pickup and it possibly can't even be used for the tractor based on the tractor stalling last night....... I sure can't say anything.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
well at least got a little saddle time this morning
I rode Shade 5 miles and Ole got some exercise and lots of cooling dips in the irrigation ditch. He was STILL wanting to go out everytime he thought I might be heading out. Well he was in the little house yard or tied to the tire every time he was out and I did finally get the parents informed that this is absolutely necessary to keep him from getting shot. Not sure how serious that neighbor was but if it keeps the parents serious about keeping Ole home its good. I am worried that about some dog or worse person getting injured if Ole were to wander and then have a dog aggression moment.
FML I put some of my 'stockpile' diesel in the tractor and went to disk goatsheads in the arena and it quit after running just a few minutes and would not restart. I probably have a lot expensive heater fuel if I buy a kerosene heater, if it will even burn for that. Durn, I thought diesel keeps for a few years in a closed container. Hope the tractor doesn't need expensive repairs.
FML I put some of my 'stockpile' diesel in the tractor and went to disk goatsheads in the arena and it quit after running just a few minutes and would not restart. I probably have a lot expensive heater fuel if I buy a kerosene heater, if it will even burn for that. Durn, I thought diesel keeps for a few years in a closed container. Hope the tractor doesn't need expensive repairs.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Hiding from the heat
I am being absolutely lazy today. It is Hot out, but I'm having a couch potato today. Last weekend I took many breaks but kept pecking at the goatsheads. Today I hayed the horses, then grained them and opened the gate between the paddocks. The pasture area is pretty heavily grazed so they don't get to browse unless/until we get some rain and some grass comes back. I should till up goatheads in the arena but have not worked myself up to even sit on the tractor yet today. Not a bad weekend to be stuck being on call since I have no energy to play anyway I guess.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
wafflely wednesday
Actually wafflely week. I have not told dad we need to get serious about containing Ole or get rid of him yet. I don't really want to get rid of him myself. But if I don't lay it out the parents will NOT be serious about keeping track of him. Sighhhh, I hate having so many neighbors so close. I want to be a hermit and only interact with people via internet, except I'd like a mate first LOL. I rode Grey Moun on saturday and tuesday. Just a mile to the irrigation ditch and back. He seems to be enjoying the attention after avoiding any attempts to catch him until I pushed before the WY trip and dragged him up there just to hang out. He did not really enjoy the hunting trip. No honey along just the geldings and N's mare, then the fun with the easy boots that slipped the last day and gouged his heel bulb a bit. Oh well, he lived. Hopefully my farrier isn't sick this year and I can just put shoes on him. I need to call the brand inspection office and find out what docs I need to get brand inspection cards, I really should look in the parents pickup and see if I have cards there. I think I probably threw Grey and Shades cards away. I threw away a bundle of old health certs and coggins that had gotten wet from the stupid Ford glove box that collects water/snow from outside and makes a nice deep pool of water. I should drill a drainage hole and then put stuff that is not super water sensitive in there I guess.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday monday
Cant think of a good title. Probably can't even compose a decent few sentences. I wore myself out this weekend fighting goatsheads and there are still a lot of areas chock full of them. Sighh. Mom is sickly again. Either she got a big relief from surgery to remove the implants through power of positive thinking or she is subconsciously making herself sick. I vary what I believe, she has no reason to sabotage herself now, she loves to garden and with the economy and her age there cant be much be expectation that she will get a practice going now but perhaps she doesn't believe this deep in the subconscious. I know she is not deliberately making herself sick; probably I have read too many psycho babble bits and that is why I wonder about the subconscious possibility. Ole Ole Ole, I cant bear to write much but he is having glimmers of dog aggression and with his habit of slipping off that cannot be ignored. I'm leaning toward sending him over the bridge before he hurts a dog or worse a kid gets bitten trying to break something up but he is not my dog so I will have to discuss with dad - he will probably just want to put of dog fencing on the north side but I will stress to him that the dog probably should be on a leash when exercising him too and if he is not willing to commit to keeping the dog on a lead off property and making damn sure the property is dog proof fenced .....
Well I am going to cry in the shower now.
Well I am going to cry in the shower now.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Shade on July 7, 2010
I think she looks pretty good after her hard working weekend. She was ready to go browse for any nice grass left in the scruffy pasture today.
Shamrock monday -packing and drive home
Sunday night at the bonfire the subject of the 11 mile dirt/gravel road into the ranch comes up. One of the riders is in the guard or reserves and says "the everyday roads in Afghanistan are like this road." I expect that from now on part of the lore of the ride is going to be that "the road into camp is just like Afghanistan" Someone congratulates me on riding 3 days and I reply and it was three days of Angie McGhee "Its not over till I'm over" rides.
It Aint over till I'm over
It was 1 am by the time I gave the horses a last snack while running by pickup to get the furnace working and heat up my little living area. --I am not setting any alarm so I want them to be good until whenever. It was nice and toasty to change into PJ's and I even turned the temperature setting down so it would quit running. Slept well but am awake at about 6:30 from the bright light. So I stumble out, pull Shades wool cooler the rest of the way off of her --the velcro in front had come loose and the back of it was just about at her fetlocks. God I love my 'crazy Ayrab'. I took Grey's sheet off since he has more fat cover and did not work hard over the weekend. Give the horses the last of the alfalfa hay cubes and crawl back into bed, arranging my covers to block most of the light from my eyes. Doze on and off and get up again around 9.
I was very leisurely in packing things up, made myself more coffee, took the horses for a long walk/grazing session, even washed all my dishes and wiped down the counter and stove top. NO I do not clean like that every time, I often just pile rinsed out cups and the coffee pot in the sink last thing before driving home but I wanted to let the road get nice and dry. I have 4WD and it did well getting in but I just have zero desire to see how well I can handle slick roads, I only have about a 4 hour drive and don't have to be back at work till tuesday noonish.
Eventually I pull the horses away from the grass after letting them have one last leg stretch. They would have been happy to just be left to live there --at least until winter set in. I stopped in Cheyenne and dumped my portable tank at the rest area. It was not very full but I didn't want to find out at Buffalo creek if 5 weeks of summer heat overwhelmed the treatment packet ya know. Then I decided to top off the tank at the Loves station, thinking I would save a little time with the pay at the pump option. HA-- I guess I just needed to remind myself how much of a pain it is to fill a rig with a trailer at that station, but eventually we were on the road again.
Driving along I-25 hitting the colorado heavy traffic from everyones weekends and suddenly realize traffic is nearly stopped ahead of me. Have to brake hard and apparently the trailer brakes are not 100% balances as the trailer gave a good whip, but at least just one. SORRY horses, they were pizzed, the trailer was shaking so much a couple of times when the traffic was practically stopped I was wondering if Shade was down and having difficulty getting up, Grey stuck his nose out so I knew he was OK. I am debating pulling onto the shoulder and thinking I had better not in case emergency vehicles had to run on shoulder to get to a wreck. Several minutes of this and we pass a vehicle pulled over by highway patrol. No scrunched fenders, one set of severe skid marks who knows how old. ARRGHH all that stop and crawl just for someone pulled over, no lane blockage, or even damaged vehicle to wonder about? I was annoyed then. Took the next exit in a couple of miles and pulled over on the ramp to check on Shade. She was fine, looked at me like why are we having such a slow and 'bumpy' ride home but was fine. Rest of the drive proceeded with no problems and we got home just a little before 7. The other horses were still in the pasture. Razz came up to say hi, but went back out. Shade rolled and got a drink and was up by the feeders so I gave her and Grey Moun a couple flakes of hay. Grey wanted to browse in the pasture but he wanted to stick with Shade even more.
It Aint over till I'm over
It was 1 am by the time I gave the horses a last snack while running by pickup to get the furnace working and heat up my little living area. --I am not setting any alarm so I want them to be good until whenever. It was nice and toasty to change into PJ's and I even turned the temperature setting down so it would quit running. Slept well but am awake at about 6:30 from the bright light. So I stumble out, pull Shades wool cooler the rest of the way off of her --the velcro in front had come loose and the back of it was just about at her fetlocks. God I love my 'crazy Ayrab'. I took Grey's sheet off since he has more fat cover and did not work hard over the weekend. Give the horses the last of the alfalfa hay cubes and crawl back into bed, arranging my covers to block most of the light from my eyes. Doze on and off and get up again around 9.
I was very leisurely in packing things up, made myself more coffee, took the horses for a long walk/grazing session, even washed all my dishes and wiped down the counter and stove top. NO I do not clean like that every time, I often just pile rinsed out cups and the coffee pot in the sink last thing before driving home but I wanted to let the road get nice and dry. I have 4WD and it did well getting in but I just have zero desire to see how well I can handle slick roads, I only have about a 4 hour drive and don't have to be back at work till tuesday noonish.
Eventually I pull the horses away from the grass after letting them have one last leg stretch. They would have been happy to just be left to live there --at least until winter set in. I stopped in Cheyenne and dumped my portable tank at the rest area. It was not very full but I didn't want to find out at Buffalo creek if 5 weeks of summer heat overwhelmed the treatment packet ya know. Then I decided to top off the tank at the Loves station, thinking I would save a little time with the pay at the pump option. HA-- I guess I just needed to remind myself how much of a pain it is to fill a rig with a trailer at that station, but eventually we were on the road again.
Driving along I-25 hitting the colorado heavy traffic from everyones weekends and suddenly realize traffic is nearly stopped ahead of me. Have to brake hard and apparently the trailer brakes are not 100% balances as the trailer gave a good whip, but at least just one. SORRY horses, they were pizzed, the trailer was shaking so much a couple of times when the traffic was practically stopped I was wondering if Shade was down and having difficulty getting up, Grey stuck his nose out so I knew he was OK. I am debating pulling onto the shoulder and thinking I had better not in case emergency vehicles had to run on shoulder to get to a wreck. Several minutes of this and we pass a vehicle pulled over by highway patrol. No scrunched fenders, one set of severe skid marks who knows how old. ARRGHH all that stop and crawl just for someone pulled over, no lane blockage, or even damaged vehicle to wonder about? I was annoyed then. Took the next exit in a couple of miles and pulled over on the ramp to check on Shade. She was fine, looked at me like why are we having such a slow and 'bumpy' ride home but was fine. Rest of the drive proceeded with no problems and we got home just a little before 7. The other horses were still in the pasture. Razz came up to say hi, but went back out. Shade rolled and got a drink and was up by the feeders so I gave her and Grey Moun a couple flakes of hay. Grey wanted to browse in the pasture but he wanted to stick with Shade even more.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Shamrock sunday
Saturday night I bought all the pictures Deb and Paschal had taken of Shade the first 2 days since they were planning to leave after Deb rode the 30 and camp in Lusk overnight before driving the rest of their way home.
Sunday morning the alarm went off and it was drizzling, Ugh. I stumbled out and got the horses more alfalfa hay cubes soaked up, then went in to see what I could eat and drink. I added some water to the tail end of my coffee and did my common thing of mixing instant coffee and instant cappacino mix. Straight cappacino mix is way too sweet and instant coffee needs quite a bit of help but together they go down pretty decently. I did not even heat my bacon but just had a peppermint chocolate luna bar and a bit of trail mix and put an extra luna bar in my jacket pocket to munch on later. Neither Shade nor I like cold OR wet. But since Bobby and Tice had helped us get through the day saturday I figured I should not just wuss out, but if the vets had any hesitation I would and they could ride with Ralph and Joann or Scott and Laurie.
Since it was just drizzling but chilly I grabbed the cabelas jacket that was our MRER award for doing at least 5 rides last year. A windproof water resistant jacket with polar fleece lining. Walked Shade over to the vets, told G "it will not hurt my feelings one bit if you have any hesitation about this horse going out today". Alas she gave Shade mostly A's on everything and sent us on. It was actually fairly decent on this first loop. Visibility was very short at the start and one spot on the trail we milled around not knowing where to go. Bobby kept her head and walked over to the left where no one had looked yet and found a knocked down marker. We hollered out for Ralph and Joann and another couple who had been looking for trail also. Ralph and Joann came up quickly and we sent them ahead since they were riding a bit faster than us. The other couple didn't show but we figured we had hollered loudly and they could figure it out.
Shade was feeling good and got into a power trot wanting to catch up to Ralph and Joann's horses. I thought Tice was keeping with us and then I looked back again and he was nowhere to be seen. Pulled up, turned around and back-tracked. Shade was hollering and wanting to run and catch the horses in front but not fighting me, just letting me know she did not want to be out there all alone in the mist. We met Bobby and Tice coming after a bit and Bobby explained that he had to canter to keep up and then he had gotten too wild and she had turned around and walked the other way to get his mind back. I told her to just call out if I needed to slow down and we rode on.
We looped around and got to 'Salvation hill' --Bob says if you don't have salvation at the start of it you will when you get to the top. It is pretty true if you feel you have to tail your horse up the hill to spare them when doing the loop clockwise. I got off to lead Shade down to spare her legs a bit. When I am not fighting gravity I will help her out but I don't walk UP many hills at all. Shade was setting her hind feet down a bit oddly and I thought She had lost her left rear shoe and asked Bobby to stop and wait, had to pee first, then I took my gloves off and untied her spare boot. Picked up her foot and she still has the shoe it was just hiding with the mud. We walked on to the water tank, a nice big platform for me to mount from. Shade had a great drink, Tice swished his mouth out. We went on and after a couple of hundred yards I realized I did not have my gloves. They were NOT in my jacket pockets :( How stupid of me not to tuck them in pockets when I was wearing a jacket that had nice deep pockets. I figured I had probably left them on salvation hill and maybe a volunteer would spy them and bring them in when pulling ribbons and if not they were only $10 and I was NOT going back to look for them, we did not have time nor energy to spare. I was not going to sunburn my hands in the last few miles back to camp anyway.
I stopped at the pickup and traded Shade's saddle and rump rug for her wool cooler to make sure she didn't chill getting vetted. That worked well she had her best CRI of the weekend with 48/48 and mostly A's on things. The jacket had worked really well on loop 1 so even though it was drizzling again after having almost completely quit out on loop 1 the only thing I changed from what I did on loop 1 was changing into dry shoes and socks and adding some semi-disposable shoe covers to head out on loop 2. Bob laughed at my duck feet as I walked over to check out with the timer before we set off on the loop.
Well the rain came back, stronger than a drizzle during this loop. It overwhelmed my jacket, but my feet did get only damp. A little rain snuck down my legs where the elastic was not very tight. We made it through the loop in about the same time as saturday so not too bad. I was started to chill and shucked my wet jacket and L/S shirt I had over my cool max tank top, and put on a polar fleece vest and my duster before going over to P/R and do the vet check. They had moved the vet check into the barn. That was sure nice they could do that. I wondered if they were taking odds if I would fall on my face trotting out the horse in my floppy yellow 'overshoes' but they were a bit hard to get over my riding tennies so I left them on and just took care with my feet; I made it and figured they should give ME an A on gait for not tripping. Shade and Tice were okay to go out, so we headed back to the trailer. It was not raining right then so I left Shade with only the wool cooler, got her and Grey more hay cubes and got into the trailer to get changed into dry clothes. I also made myself eat some trail mix and drink some juice with elytes in. I had used up all my pre-made stuff but the juice worked well.
Since Shade's rump rug had also soaked through I decided to add my old rump rug with is not lined but would keep out any more rain and would block the wind. The rain started to pick up as I walked over to check out, wondering where Bobby and Tice were since I could not see them. They were in the barn and gestured us in. Jill checked her timer sheet and said you're out, just as the rain started coming down in sheets so I replied "like Hail we are" We waited in the barn for 20 minutes and the rain slacked off to just a strong drizzle about 5 pm so we sucked it up and headed out to finish up the ride. The front-runners probably made it in ahead of that sheet rain, but all the other non-turtles were out in at least some of it, some came in while it was still pouring.
We actually got sunshine after about 30 minutes of drizzle. I pulled Shade's polar fleece rump rug accordian strings up so she would not overheat, the other one has a tail string so I left it. A few miles later she was trotting and the neoprene tube I had put over the tail cord on the other rug got to swinging and annoying her so I stopped her and reached back and put it over her tail, so now she had some airflow as well as no more irritation. I do a lot of crap like that on my 'wild ayrabs' ;)
We were trying to keep up a decent trot everywhere the footing was good but we were still around 7:30 pm by the time we finished. The ride had started at 6:40 so we had to be done by 7:55 to complete. Both horses vetted out and got their completions. YAY --Shade has done her first multi-day ride, something Grey never could do, he was always a little lame after 2 days, got completions but was not good to try for a 3rd day. Got back to the trailer and pulled the rain sheet off Grey so he could roll if he wanted. I brushed the worst of the mud off Shade while it was still warm enough to not need a blanket, and put poultice on her legs but did not try to ice them at all this day. She hates icing anyway although she did not seem to mind the pro-choice ice cells under medicine boots as much as she hates actual ice slurry so I think I will order 2 more so I can just do that for all 4 legs in future.
Then I tossed the wool cooler back on Shade and took the horses out to walk and graze. Shade had little interest in walking. She'd find a good stand of grass and stand and eat. Well that was fine after going ~160 miles in 3 days. The rides are sanctioned as 55 miles but the AERC rules are that the distance has to be at least 50 miles but is rounded to the nearest 5 mile point after that so RM's tend to set about 53 miles of trail for a 55 mile event. When the light was almost gone I pulled Shade away from grazing and tucked her and Grey back in their pen, got them more hay hay and soaked hay cubes, a mash, topped off water, put the rain sheep on over the wool cooler for Shade ... pretty much tried to get them set so I could go over and find left overs from the ride dinner and hang out at the bonfire. This day I had to settle for tee-shirt for completion and the leftovers were getting sparse. I did not see any meat and didn't dig in coolers or fridge but just wanted out to the fire with my red beer. But Jill got me a plate of food a little later. Getting married and having kids has brought out a bit of mother hen in her, or maybe it was there before but I never saw it when she was a front runner and I was a putzer on Grey Moun. I had to turn my p/u on to get my furnace to kick on so I could warm the trailer up before crawling into bed. It is not a terribly loud engine, certainly a lot quieter than dad's noisy generator. I felt a little bad about doing that at midnight or after but not enough to crawl into a cold bed after that weekend. I got the horses one last bit of hay cubes and beet pulp while the p/u ran than turned it off and got ready for bed. The furnace kept running after it had had some extra juice to get started, so I was nice and toasty to get into my PJ's before I turned it off and crawled into bed with out setting my alarm :P
Sunday morning the alarm went off and it was drizzling, Ugh. I stumbled out and got the horses more alfalfa hay cubes soaked up, then went in to see what I could eat and drink. I added some water to the tail end of my coffee and did my common thing of mixing instant coffee and instant cappacino mix. Straight cappacino mix is way too sweet and instant coffee needs quite a bit of help but together they go down pretty decently. I did not even heat my bacon but just had a peppermint chocolate luna bar and a bit of trail mix and put an extra luna bar in my jacket pocket to munch on later. Neither Shade nor I like cold OR wet. But since Bobby and Tice had helped us get through the day saturday I figured I should not just wuss out, but if the vets had any hesitation I would and they could ride with Ralph and Joann or Scott and Laurie.
Since it was just drizzling but chilly I grabbed the cabelas jacket that was our MRER award for doing at least 5 rides last year. A windproof water resistant jacket with polar fleece lining. Walked Shade over to the vets, told G "it will not hurt my feelings one bit if you have any hesitation about this horse going out today". Alas she gave Shade mostly A's on everything and sent us on. It was actually fairly decent on this first loop. Visibility was very short at the start and one spot on the trail we milled around not knowing where to go. Bobby kept her head and walked over to the left where no one had looked yet and found a knocked down marker. We hollered out for Ralph and Joann and another couple who had been looking for trail also. Ralph and Joann came up quickly and we sent them ahead since they were riding a bit faster than us. The other couple didn't show but we figured we had hollered loudly and they could figure it out.
Shade was feeling good and got into a power trot wanting to catch up to Ralph and Joann's horses. I thought Tice was keeping with us and then I looked back again and he was nowhere to be seen. Pulled up, turned around and back-tracked. Shade was hollering and wanting to run and catch the horses in front but not fighting me, just letting me know she did not want to be out there all alone in the mist. We met Bobby and Tice coming after a bit and Bobby explained that he had to canter to keep up and then he had gotten too wild and she had turned around and walked the other way to get his mind back. I told her to just call out if I needed to slow down and we rode on.
We looped around and got to 'Salvation hill' --Bob says if you don't have salvation at the start of it you will when you get to the top. It is pretty true if you feel you have to tail your horse up the hill to spare them when doing the loop clockwise. I got off to lead Shade down to spare her legs a bit. When I am not fighting gravity I will help her out but I don't walk UP many hills at all. Shade was setting her hind feet down a bit oddly and I thought She had lost her left rear shoe and asked Bobby to stop and wait, had to pee first, then I took my gloves off and untied her spare boot. Picked up her foot and she still has the shoe it was just hiding with the mud. We walked on to the water tank, a nice big platform for me to mount from. Shade had a great drink, Tice swished his mouth out. We went on and after a couple of hundred yards I realized I did not have my gloves. They were NOT in my jacket pockets :( How stupid of me not to tuck them in pockets when I was wearing a jacket that had nice deep pockets. I figured I had probably left them on salvation hill and maybe a volunteer would spy them and bring them in when pulling ribbons and if not they were only $10 and I was NOT going back to look for them, we did not have time nor energy to spare. I was not going to sunburn my hands in the last few miles back to camp anyway.
I stopped at the pickup and traded Shade's saddle and rump rug for her wool cooler to make sure she didn't chill getting vetted. That worked well she had her best CRI of the weekend with 48/48 and mostly A's on things. The jacket had worked really well on loop 1 so even though it was drizzling again after having almost completely quit out on loop 1 the only thing I changed from what I did on loop 1 was changing into dry shoes and socks and adding some semi-disposable shoe covers to head out on loop 2. Bob laughed at my duck feet as I walked over to check out with the timer before we set off on the loop.
Well the rain came back, stronger than a drizzle during this loop. It overwhelmed my jacket, but my feet did get only damp. A little rain snuck down my legs where the elastic was not very tight. We made it through the loop in about the same time as saturday so not too bad. I was started to chill and shucked my wet jacket and L/S shirt I had over my cool max tank top, and put on a polar fleece vest and my duster before going over to P/R and do the vet check. They had moved the vet check into the barn. That was sure nice they could do that. I wondered if they were taking odds if I would fall on my face trotting out the horse in my floppy yellow 'overshoes' but they were a bit hard to get over my riding tennies so I left them on and just took care with my feet; I made it and figured they should give ME an A on gait for not tripping. Shade and Tice were okay to go out, so we headed back to the trailer. It was not raining right then so I left Shade with only the wool cooler, got her and Grey more hay cubes and got into the trailer to get changed into dry clothes. I also made myself eat some trail mix and drink some juice with elytes in. I had used up all my pre-made stuff but the juice worked well.
Since Shade's rump rug had also soaked through I decided to add my old rump rug with is not lined but would keep out any more rain and would block the wind. The rain started to pick up as I walked over to check out, wondering where Bobby and Tice were since I could not see them. They were in the barn and gestured us in. Jill checked her timer sheet and said you're out, just as the rain started coming down in sheets so I replied "like Hail we are" We waited in the barn for 20 minutes and the rain slacked off to just a strong drizzle about 5 pm so we sucked it up and headed out to finish up the ride. The front-runners probably made it in ahead of that sheet rain, but all the other non-turtles were out in at least some of it, some came in while it was still pouring.
We actually got sunshine after about 30 minutes of drizzle. I pulled Shade's polar fleece rump rug accordian strings up so she would not overheat, the other one has a tail string so I left it. A few miles later she was trotting and the neoprene tube I had put over the tail cord on the other rug got to swinging and annoying her so I stopped her and reached back and put it over her tail, so now she had some airflow as well as no more irritation. I do a lot of crap like that on my 'wild ayrabs' ;)
We were trying to keep up a decent trot everywhere the footing was good but we were still around 7:30 pm by the time we finished. The ride had started at 6:40 so we had to be done by 7:55 to complete. Both horses vetted out and got their completions. YAY --Shade has done her first multi-day ride, something Grey never could do, he was always a little lame after 2 days, got completions but was not good to try for a 3rd day. Got back to the trailer and pulled the rain sheet off Grey so he could roll if he wanted. I brushed the worst of the mud off Shade while it was still warm enough to not need a blanket, and put poultice on her legs but did not try to ice them at all this day. She hates icing anyway although she did not seem to mind the pro-choice ice cells under medicine boots as much as she hates actual ice slurry so I think I will order 2 more so I can just do that for all 4 legs in future.
Then I tossed the wool cooler back on Shade and took the horses out to walk and graze. Shade had little interest in walking. She'd find a good stand of grass and stand and eat. Well that was fine after going ~160 miles in 3 days. The rides are sanctioned as 55 miles but the AERC rules are that the distance has to be at least 50 miles but is rounded to the nearest 5 mile point after that so RM's tend to set about 53 miles of trail for a 55 mile event. When the light was almost gone I pulled Shade away from grazing and tucked her and Grey back in their pen, got them more hay hay and soaked hay cubes, a mash, topped off water, put the rain sheep on over the wool cooler for Shade ... pretty much tried to get them set so I could go over and find left overs from the ride dinner and hang out at the bonfire. This day I had to settle for tee-shirt for completion and the leftovers were getting sparse. I did not see any meat and didn't dig in coolers or fridge but just wanted out to the fire with my red beer. But Jill got me a plate of food a little later. Getting married and having kids has brought out a bit of mother hen in her, or maybe it was there before but I never saw it when she was a front runner and I was a putzer on Grey Moun. I had to turn my p/u on to get my furnace to kick on so I could warm the trailer up before crawling into bed. It is not a terribly loud engine, certainly a lot quieter than dad's noisy generator. I felt a little bad about doing that at midnight or after but not enough to crawl into a cold bed after that weekend. I got the horses one last bit of hay cubes and beet pulp while the p/u ran than turned it off and got ready for bed. The furnace kept running after it had had some extra juice to get started, so I was nice and toasty to get into my PJ's before I turned it off and crawled into bed with out setting my alarm :P
Shamrock -saturday
Bobby asked me if I wanted to ride together on saturday since R was taking a day off from riding and Tice (pronounce TC) and Shade were going well together. I said sure, any time I have a chance to ride with someone with 5000 miles of experience I take it. Bobby wanted to get 5000 miles on Tice (he needed 130) so had to ride all 3 days. She is dropping him in Utah on her way home, he will have a retirement from endurance with her stepdaughter who is a good rider and will enjoy trail-riding with him. I picked a chair for my completion award on friday. Bob Atherton teased me that I must have a LOT of chairs. I told him mine keep disappearing. Otherwise I would be up to 5 chairs now, which would not be so many if I was ever a trailer that other folks flocked to but I don't have the hospitality gene I guess. I just wander off to wherever other people are gathering. Saturday's ride was not starting until 7 am but I figured I should get up even earlier to allow time to vet in in the morning before tacking up. They were letting folks vet with tack I guess but I went over at 6 without tack to vet in. Shade was good to go again. I got her easy boots on the front feet again, got over to roll call on about the 2nd call of our # and we set off with Bobby and Tice towards the end of the pack but without worrying about being passed by any later starters. It felt quite hot the first loop. It had been just as warm on friday but with a stiff breeze that made it feel nicer at least for us riders. We took just under 4 hours to do the loop. Shade had decided that soaked hay cubes were 'da bomb' so that is mostly what she got. I decided to leave giving her mash to eat until I was tacking back up so Grey would not gobble too much while Shade was dozing rather than eating.
Loop number two was going fairly well but about 1/2 through Shade hit a rock and knocked the clamp loose from her left easy-boot. I had been having trouble with the saddle slipping when I mounted so I decided to ignore it, I figured I would hear the silence instantly if it came off so I would not LOSE it. Well Shade stumbled and knocked the boot off. It must have flown way off to the side because it was not visible. We walked back a bit in case it had come off earlier but after 3 hundred yards I told Bobby I knew the boot had been still on at that point. We were past the rocky area and I had another boot in the trailer so I did not try to search the very brushy hillside for the boot, but instead took the right boot off so Shade was even and we continued on. S and L passed us when the boot came off and stayed ahead into the vet check. Shade vetted fine again, we ate our preferred goop and tacked up for the last loop. It was threatening to rain again. I grabbed my duster in hopes that being really prepared for rain would ward it off. Bobby chose to just use her short rain jacket again. We got rained on again and again it quit after 30 minutes. I had grabbed twine to tie my duster on and decided to just tie it around my waist rather than trying to get it re-tied to the saddle. FYI this does not work real well, especially for getting back on after you get off to open a gate and pee. We passed Scott and Laurie on this loop by just a few minutes so we were not the tail enders. Bobby had wanted to finish by 7, we did not make it until 7:10. I had hoped not to need any of the extra 75 minutes from the ride being a 55 rather than a 50 myself but I was not willing to push much since we did have the extra time and the trail was wet in spots and had some rock to pick through in other spots. They had the dinner and awards shortly after we got in. I chose to keep taking care of Shade, I knew they had plenty of ribs and chicken to mostly feed everyone again on sunday and since I had gotten my chair I was content if I just got a tee-shirt for completion after everyone had picked out what they wanted.
I drank a ND red beer every night with dinner on this ride. This not a Killians type beer, but putting tomato juice or my case V-8 in the beer. V-8 has more electrolytes than gator-ade, it was really refreshing with the supermarket Busch beer. I had beef ribs and chicken for supper on saturday, plus pasta salad with lots of veggies and french bread, I could barely eat any of the chicken. I walked up and grabbed a baseball type cap for my completion. I have quite a few caps now, but I always need a cap to put on over the helmet hair after riding and they tend to come into the house when I get home and not make it back to either p/u or trailer so its nice to have a bunch and leave some in the big trailer and some in the p/u for when I'm taking just a day trip with the little trailer. The horses barely got any walking around to graze and scavenge food this night as I was out of daylight after eating. People had lobbied the RM to start at 6:30 or as close as possible on sunday to beat the heat. I overheard her telling a volunteer 'and its only supposed to get to 70 tomorrow but this way we will be done a little quicker --you know that Scott, Laurie, Bobby and Teresa are going to take until 8 pm tomorrow to finish (well a 6:30 start would mean we only had until 7:45 maximum time to complete.) I blanketed the horses, with Shade getting her wool cooler under the HIB rain sheet again, made 2 pans of soaked hay cubes for them, boy am I glad I bought the bag of hay cubes they really like tuesday before our weekend, brushed my teeth and wished I had brought floss --we didn't even have corn on the cob but it felt like I had something that brushing didn't quite get out of my gums in one spot. Bobby wanted to ride together again on sunday and I said --'as long as Shade vets good in the morning'. Gave Shade her last thing electrolytes again. It seemed to be working really well giving her the elytes at night, before the ride and at each vet hold so I figured I would stick with this.
Loop number two was going fairly well but about 1/2 through Shade hit a rock and knocked the clamp loose from her left easy-boot. I had been having trouble with the saddle slipping when I mounted so I decided to ignore it, I figured I would hear the silence instantly if it came off so I would not LOSE it. Well Shade stumbled and knocked the boot off. It must have flown way off to the side because it was not visible. We walked back a bit in case it had come off earlier but after 3 hundred yards I told Bobby I knew the boot had been still on at that point. We were past the rocky area and I had another boot in the trailer so I did not try to search the very brushy hillside for the boot, but instead took the right boot off so Shade was even and we continued on. S and L passed us when the boot came off and stayed ahead into the vet check. Shade vetted fine again, we ate our preferred goop and tacked up for the last loop. It was threatening to rain again. I grabbed my duster in hopes that being really prepared for rain would ward it off. Bobby chose to just use her short rain jacket again. We got rained on again and again it quit after 30 minutes. I had grabbed twine to tie my duster on and decided to just tie it around my waist rather than trying to get it re-tied to the saddle. FYI this does not work real well, especially for getting back on after you get off to open a gate and pee. We passed Scott and Laurie on this loop by just a few minutes so we were not the tail enders. Bobby had wanted to finish by 7, we did not make it until 7:10. I had hoped not to need any of the extra 75 minutes from the ride being a 55 rather than a 50 myself but I was not willing to push much since we did have the extra time and the trail was wet in spots and had some rock to pick through in other spots. They had the dinner and awards shortly after we got in. I chose to keep taking care of Shade, I knew they had plenty of ribs and chicken to mostly feed everyone again on sunday and since I had gotten my chair I was content if I just got a tee-shirt for completion after everyone had picked out what they wanted.
I drank a ND red beer every night with dinner on this ride. This not a Killians type beer, but putting tomato juice or my case V-8 in the beer. V-8 has more electrolytes than gator-ade, it was really refreshing with the supermarket Busch beer. I had beef ribs and chicken for supper on saturday, plus pasta salad with lots of veggies and french bread, I could barely eat any of the chicken. I walked up and grabbed a baseball type cap for my completion. I have quite a few caps now, but I always need a cap to put on over the helmet hair after riding and they tend to come into the house when I get home and not make it back to either p/u or trailer so its nice to have a bunch and leave some in the big trailer and some in the p/u for when I'm taking just a day trip with the little trailer. The horses barely got any walking around to graze and scavenge food this night as I was out of daylight after eating. People had lobbied the RM to start at 6:30 or as close as possible on sunday to beat the heat. I overheard her telling a volunteer 'and its only supposed to get to 70 tomorrow but this way we will be done a little quicker --you know that Scott, Laurie, Bobby and Teresa are going to take until 8 pm tomorrow to finish (well a 6:30 start would mean we only had until 7:45 maximum time to complete.) I blanketed the horses, with Shade getting her wool cooler under the HIB rain sheet again, made 2 pans of soaked hay cubes for them, boy am I glad I bought the bag of hay cubes they really like tuesday before our weekend, brushed my teeth and wished I had brought floss --we didn't even have corn on the cob but it felt like I had something that brushing didn't quite get out of my gums in one spot. Bobby wanted to ride together again on sunday and I said --'as long as Shade vets good in the morning'. Gave Shade her last thing electrolytes again. It seemed to be working really well giving her the elytes at night, before the ride and at each vet hold so I figured I would stick with this.
My recollection of the Shamrock weekend -Th and Fri.
Wednesday night driving home I thought -I don't have much food to pack and I have to feed myself supper one day and lots of breakfasts and I don't have any beer or anything so I better swing by Safeway. So I bought beer, bacon (regular and turkey) 2 boxes of Kashi granola cereal cuz I went through a bunch of that at the Mtn Mettle, some yogurt smoothie drinks, Mikes hard lemonade, some sweet and salty bars and some tp. I had string cheese, trail mix, luna bars and miscellaneous left over from MM . Then I made my lemonade ice tea mix and some grape kool aid with my special electrolytes before I went to bed and also gave the horses extra hay I like to top off their tanks the day before a ride. Thursday morning I pre-cooked the bacon --btw turkey bacon deep fried in regular bacon grease is delicious :) Then Idid the last minute packing of my igloo cooler, got beer, V-8, my e-lyte drinks etc packed in the fridge in the trailer. I had decided I would try to leave a little early and let the horses eat the lush grass in WY rather than let them out on our ratty pasture and have more work catching them. Caught Shade with no problem about 11 am.
Grey was running around teasing me and I was thinking "WHY am I messing with this when I don't even WANT to ride him this weekend, he is just a consolation 11 mile poker ride if Shade can't do all 3 days of the endurance ride and I could just volunteer or possibly ride someone else's spare horse so I don't need to have him along --BUT I thought Shade would enjoy his company plus I decided I should not let him decide whether he was coming or not so I asked dad to help me catch him and after another 10 minutes of running around Grey let dad walk up and put his arms around Grey's neck and stood while I walked up with the halter. Loaded both horses with no problems and we were finally on our way about noon.
I stopped in Chugwater at the rest area to dump my portable holding tank, wanted to make sure I had plenty of capacity. Parked and walked it over and dumped it and there was no water to rinse it out, there was a basic horse type hydrant there with a hose but lifting the handle produced zilch. Fiddled around, looked at the signs and decided it was just not working rather than me needing to turn on a valve or something. As I was stowing it back in its spot the caretakers walked over and set the sign to Closed at the dump station. Well at least I did not miss a Closed sign by hand walking the tank over rather than driving through like a full camper does.
The drive into the ride is 11 miles of private road. The rancher does have a bobcat and maintains the road to stay passable but they have had a lot of rain this year. The road had some muddy spots. It was really not BAD but I was stuck behind people who were taking an excess of caution so it took ages to make it to base camp. One of the ride vets was stuck behind me behind the cautious folks. We all made it to base camp eventually and there was still about 3.5 hours of good light left so I got busy and set up a good sized *electric tape fence for the horses, got them some hay out while I worked because Shade seemed to think she needed more than just the nice grass ..... Walked over and signed up, the RM said I could just wait and give her a check at the end rather than messing with a check for each day as I went. She knows where I live :) I took both horses over to the vetting area so Shade would not be carrying on. Grey carried on, while being tied 30 feet away and able to see her clearly while she was vetted. He is such a spazz sometimes.
Back to the trailer, fetched the horses water plus extra for the next day, gave them their grain/BP/complete feed ... mush; soak up some alfalfa hay cubes for them and put on their blankets. I had some of my bacon and one of the smoothies. Realized I had forgotten my string cheese. So I would have to heat bacon in the mornings to get any serious protein, figured oh well, the salt should help me drink and stay hydrated, I made coffee so I could just heat it in the morning since I never feel like I have time to wait for it to percolate when I am trying to get ready to ride by 6:30 (or whatever time the ride starts) gave Shade some electrolytes last thing and crawled into bed for 30 minutes -- Aired up my mattress for the second time and put duct tape over the valve, I also had to do this at Mtn Mettle. The bed holds air good but the relief valve bumps on the window or something and lets out air unless I have it taped. I think I will try to get a bed that is a bit shorter than standard. I really like sleeping crossways in my trailer rather than having my head (or toes) up in the nose but the full length air bed barely fits this way and that having to tape the valve cover after airing it up is one more thing to remember.
Friday morning the 4:30 alarm goes off, it is still dark and I peek out and see that Shade is munching so I can get some coffee in me before venturing out. It was fairly mild overnight and I don't need to run the furnace to take the chill off to get dressed or anything so that is nice. I tack her up, complete with putting easy boots over her shoes on the front feet since I know the first loop of this ride is ROCKY, and putting splint boots on her. She never needs anything normally but the boots stick out a bit so I figure the extra protection is warranted. I get mounted up, see Mary and Dorothy Sue and ask if they are riding easy -they reply yes and I ask if I can ride with them if the pacing is working. They say sure, they have 4 people and I'm welcome to join in. We start out, walk the first 1.5 miles because that road is very rocky, with lots of 2-3 inch rocks that are just perfect to strain a tendon if the horse lands wrong moving at any speed. Shade is not wild about being in the group and as we start the first gradual climb she is huffing and puffing at the pace they are going so I dropped her back after a few miles. Hooked up with a gal doing her 2nd 50 on her Grey horse. Shade enjoys hooking up with grey horses and the pacing is working better so we go ride the rest of the 25 mile loop together.
At the vet check C is worried that her horse has yet to eat or drink. Shade vets fine, goes back to the trailer, where I untack her and she tucks into the alfalfa mix hay and soaked alfalfa cubes. I eat some trail mix and drink grape 'rider ade'. I make up some mash which Grey eats most of. Re-tack, try to get the easy boots off because I have not ridden much with them and the first loop is the really rocky one. Jam my finger twice when the screwdriver slips as I am trying to pop open the clamp and I decide "These boots are not hurting anything!, I will find my vice grips and take them off during the second hold" I am a few minutes late from my P/R and I dont see C, I am not sure if she is going on so I head out alone, but after a few minutes L catches up to me on her horse and those two work well together. About 5 miles into the 2nd loop we hit a stretch that is really rocky and I am glad to have the easy boots on. S and C catch up to us and we all 4 ride together most of this 18 mile loop.
I am late again getting out of the 2nd vet hold, I did get the easy boots off easily with the vice grips to lift the clamp. It has clouded up but does not look really ominous, I don't have my rain parka, just my oilskin duster, I don't feel like messing with the duster so I just tie my windshirt on. Well Shade and I get out about 1 mile and it starts to drizzle. I decide to see if this just fizzles before dragging out equipment. It does not, I put out Shades rump rug and go to untie the strings around my wind shirt. Shade is not wanting to go in the rain, I am having a heck of a time getting my shirt untied from the saddle. Finally I give up on the left side tie and work the sleeves and then the rest of my shirt out from the still tied loop, then I have to remove my helmet to get the wind shirt on. I am pretty wet by the time I get the shirt on and the two turtle riders catch up to me. WooHoo it is R and a friend he is riding with. J is riding the 30 on her young horse today. R and Bobby and I get pretty wet but the rain quits after about 30 minutes and it gets nice and sunny again. My nylon Kerrit tights have dried but the wind shirt has soaked through and the flannel lining is staying damp. I don't want to mess with helmet off and the too sticky saddle strings though so I just take my arms out of the sleeves but leave it draped around my neck. Aaah, my coolmax shirt dries off quickly now. We come into camp around 5:30 pm. Lots of light to take care of horses, make the ride dinner and awards, take the horses for a nice long walk to enjoy the grass and poach some BP mash that someone had thrown out. I swear horses get a guilty pleasure in eating other horses food, I had started worrying during the day that I did not have enough BP along, nor alfalfa mix hay since the horses are BARELY touching the grass hay. I had thought they liked this grass hay best at home, I relax about the food situation since I know that there will be lots of leftover hay and mush starting saturday from folks that leave early so I tell myself to just feed as much as the horses need of what they will eat now and we will scavenge later if we need to.
Grey was running around teasing me and I was thinking "WHY am I messing with this when I don't even WANT to ride him this weekend, he is just a consolation 11 mile poker ride if Shade can't do all 3 days of the endurance ride and I could just volunteer or possibly ride someone else's spare horse so I don't need to have him along --BUT I thought Shade would enjoy his company plus I decided I should not let him decide whether he was coming or not so I asked dad to help me catch him and after another 10 minutes of running around Grey let dad walk up and put his arms around Grey's neck and stood while I walked up with the halter. Loaded both horses with no problems and we were finally on our way about noon.
I stopped in Chugwater at the rest area to dump my portable holding tank, wanted to make sure I had plenty of capacity. Parked and walked it over and dumped it and there was no water to rinse it out, there was a basic horse type hydrant there with a hose but lifting the handle produced zilch. Fiddled around, looked at the signs and decided it was just not working rather than me needing to turn on a valve or something. As I was stowing it back in its spot the caretakers walked over and set the sign to Closed at the dump station. Well at least I did not miss a Closed sign by hand walking the tank over rather than driving through like a full camper does.
The drive into the ride is 11 miles of private road. The rancher does have a bobcat and maintains the road to stay passable but they have had a lot of rain this year. The road had some muddy spots. It was really not BAD but I was stuck behind people who were taking an excess of caution so it took ages to make it to base camp. One of the ride vets was stuck behind me behind the cautious folks. We all made it to base camp eventually and there was still about 3.5 hours of good light left so I got busy and set up a good sized *electric tape fence for the horses, got them some hay out while I worked because Shade seemed to think she needed more than just the nice grass ..... Walked over and signed up, the RM said I could just wait and give her a check at the end rather than messing with a check for each day as I went. She knows where I live :) I took both horses over to the vetting area so Shade would not be carrying on. Grey carried on, while being tied 30 feet away and able to see her clearly while she was vetted. He is such a spazz sometimes.
Back to the trailer, fetched the horses water plus extra for the next day, gave them their grain/BP/complete feed ... mush; soak up some alfalfa hay cubes for them and put on their blankets. I had some of my bacon and one of the smoothies. Realized I had forgotten my string cheese. So I would have to heat bacon in the mornings to get any serious protein, figured oh well, the salt should help me drink and stay hydrated, I made coffee so I could just heat it in the morning since I never feel like I have time to wait for it to percolate when I am trying to get ready to ride by 6:30 (or whatever time the ride starts) gave Shade some electrolytes last thing and crawled into bed for 30 minutes -- Aired up my mattress for the second time and put duct tape over the valve, I also had to do this at Mtn Mettle. The bed holds air good but the relief valve bumps on the window or something and lets out air unless I have it taped. I think I will try to get a bed that is a bit shorter than standard. I really like sleeping crossways in my trailer rather than having my head (or toes) up in the nose but the full length air bed barely fits this way and that having to tape the valve cover after airing it up is one more thing to remember.
Friday morning the 4:30 alarm goes off, it is still dark and I peek out and see that Shade is munching so I can get some coffee in me before venturing out. It was fairly mild overnight and I don't need to run the furnace to take the chill off to get dressed or anything so that is nice. I tack her up, complete with putting easy boots over her shoes on the front feet since I know the first loop of this ride is ROCKY, and putting splint boots on her. She never needs anything normally but the boots stick out a bit so I figure the extra protection is warranted. I get mounted up, see Mary and Dorothy Sue and ask if they are riding easy -they reply yes and I ask if I can ride with them if the pacing is working. They say sure, they have 4 people and I'm welcome to join in. We start out, walk the first 1.5 miles because that road is very rocky, with lots of 2-3 inch rocks that are just perfect to strain a tendon if the horse lands wrong moving at any speed. Shade is not wild about being in the group and as we start the first gradual climb she is huffing and puffing at the pace they are going so I dropped her back after a few miles. Hooked up with a gal doing her 2nd 50 on her Grey horse. Shade enjoys hooking up with grey horses and the pacing is working better so we go ride the rest of the 25 mile loop together.
At the vet check C is worried that her horse has yet to eat or drink. Shade vets fine, goes back to the trailer, where I untack her and she tucks into the alfalfa mix hay and soaked alfalfa cubes. I eat some trail mix and drink grape 'rider ade'. I make up some mash which Grey eats most of. Re-tack, try to get the easy boots off because I have not ridden much with them and the first loop is the really rocky one. Jam my finger twice when the screwdriver slips as I am trying to pop open the clamp and I decide "These boots are not hurting anything!, I will find my vice grips and take them off during the second hold" I am a few minutes late from my P/R and I dont see C, I am not sure if she is going on so I head out alone, but after a few minutes L catches up to me on her horse and those two work well together. About 5 miles into the 2nd loop we hit a stretch that is really rocky and I am glad to have the easy boots on. S and C catch up to us and we all 4 ride together most of this 18 mile loop.
I am late again getting out of the 2nd vet hold, I did get the easy boots off easily with the vice grips to lift the clamp. It has clouded up but does not look really ominous, I don't have my rain parka, just my oilskin duster, I don't feel like messing with the duster so I just tie my windshirt on. Well Shade and I get out about 1 mile and it starts to drizzle. I decide to see if this just fizzles before dragging out equipment. It does not, I put out Shades rump rug and go to untie the strings around my wind shirt. Shade is not wanting to go in the rain, I am having a heck of a time getting my shirt untied from the saddle. Finally I give up on the left side tie and work the sleeves and then the rest of my shirt out from the still tied loop, then I have to remove my helmet to get the wind shirt on. I am pretty wet by the time I get the shirt on and the two turtle riders catch up to me. WooHoo it is R and a friend he is riding with. J is riding the 30 on her young horse today. R and Bobby and I get pretty wet but the rain quits after about 30 minutes and it gets nice and sunny again. My nylon Kerrit tights have dried but the wind shirt has soaked through and the flannel lining is staying damp. I don't want to mess with helmet off and the too sticky saddle strings though so I just take my arms out of the sleeves but leave it draped around my neck. Aaah, my coolmax shirt dries off quickly now. We come into camp around 5:30 pm. Lots of light to take care of horses, make the ride dinner and awards, take the horses for a nice long walk to enjoy the grass and poach some BP mash that someone had thrown out. I swear horses get a guilty pleasure in eating other horses food, I had started worrying during the day that I did not have enough BP along, nor alfalfa mix hay since the horses are BARELY touching the grass hay. I had thought they liked this grass hay best at home, I relax about the food situation since I know that there will be lots of leftover hay and mush starting saturday from folks that leave early so I tell myself to just feed as much as the horses need of what they will eat now and we will scavenge later if we need to.
We survived the big weekend --Shade did it!
Shade went all 3 days of the endurance ride, and looked pretty good at the end. We rode with Bobby Wong and Tice (Bold Letice) on saturday and sunday. If we had not hooked up and rode together saturday with the horses working well together and Tici going for 5000 lifetime miles before retiring to be a for pleasure trail horse with Bobby''s sd I probably would have stayed in camp on sunday. It was drizzling when I woke up and I was tired after only 4-5 hours of sleep. I told the vet at the pre-ride check "It wont hurt my feelings one bit, if you have any hesitation about this horse going out today". Bobby could have paired with someone else after all. But Shade vetted fine so we set off, with me wearing a water resistant jacket and her wearing her water resistant rump rug both lined with polar fleece. The trail that was marked super well the previous 2 days was a bit tricky to follow in one spot; the visibility was only 1/10 mile and a key pin flag had been knocked down in an area where there was not a ranch trail and riders had picked multiple paths between flags the first two days so no new trail had been worn to follow. Bobby found the downed pin flag after we wandered around for a bit, I'm VERY THANKFUL I was with her at that spot, I was wanting to veer to the right of where the trail actually went. I expect I'll eventually write up a big post and put in a scanned picture from ride photographers but I better feed the horses and get to work now.
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