Guess what I found when we cleaned for Christmas

So I wanted the table cleared for Christmas dinner rather than eat around the piles of paper.  Waaayyy at the bottom was my p/u tag that I thought had been mis-delivered.   Oh well,  it was only a few bucks for the replacement and things that needed done at work did get done so that lost hour didn't cause any big crash.

It was a really nice Christmas present that Dad and I gave to each other to get the house cleaned up.  I need to get back to my de-cluttering.  I'm so tired of not being able to find what I want because there is so much junk.   I'm not organized enough to keep the stuff/junk cataloged when there is too much of it.

Its been too cold and snowy for me to miss riding yet.  I put Sadie and Lady in with Razz and Shade and CJ in by himself.   If Lady gets thin I'll toss her in with CJ I guess.  Sadie and Tanza are doing lots of visiting over the fence. 

yaay y-key card

Because I can work in the stupid meeting I have been able to wrestle through several iterations of stupid bug where I can't have more than 34 or 35 sites in a cluster.  I don't want to raise the max variable to allow that because I expect to be moving to single station processing in a few months so no sense making special executables just for 3 months.

Soooo, bro/family blew me off or USPS didn't deliver

I'm too tired and full up with stupid work crap to worry about it right now.

I am stuck sitting in a meeting and the funding agency that made us have this meeting doesn't have their shit together.  WTFF, do they need to have a meeting here before they can be fussed to think about details?   They should be letting us know what they need and be working things out amongst their various branches and not hashing things out at what they called a readiness review for us. 

If THEY need these meetings to figure out what they need to do, they should call them planning meetings so we know not to spend over much time making slides to show them where we are.  Thank you Lord for letting me have a job where meetings are not a large part of my normal work months. 

more whinging

Tanza and Grey have decided they don't care much for their hay and are going to hunger strike to get the hay the other horses are getting.  After getting their teeth done yesterday there is a bunch of hay scattered on the ground instead of eaten.   Maybe this bale was a bit off,  I'd feed them the other hay but some of those bales are grody and I'm leery of giving Tanza all his feed from that field even of the nice bales because of his allergies and me not knowing exactly what grasses are in it.  

He and Grey are both in pretty good weight right now so they can survive a few meals of just picking at their hay.  Ornery buggers,  I will have to out stubborn Tanza on this. 

I got Christmas cards ordered with a picture from our summer trip.  Yay Walgreens.  I used a mail order outfit before but this year they did not seem to have any option to put a personal picture on a card.   Walgreens will print them up this morning.  Hopefully they turn out fairly nice, I ordered quite a few, but maybe we will send to more of the cousins this year and not just older generation.  Decided I can postpone going to the DMV to get replace tags for p/u until tomorrow.   I wrote checks for my brother and family, just have to write them a quick note and pop that in the mail.  Guess I will have to request he let me know it arrived with the rash of non-delivered stuff I've been having. 

Arghhh

I'm getting overly invested in work because I really do want my one boss to successfully win a contract bid/proposal  we are working on.

So today when equine dentist was done quite a bit quicker than I had figured it would take I schlepped on to work instead of taking planned PTO.

It is good in some ways.  I'm found that something I thought I had fixed last night wasn't and am launching some processing which is easier than trying to do from home.  But our big data provider who has had really great uptime for 3-4 years or more that I've been grabbing their data is down, again, after a days long outage over the long weekend at end of November.    Now this is probably not directly going to clobber us on the bid but it doesn't make us look great so I'm just about to have a  head desk minute. 

And I am about ready to go rogue on my other project.  Must remember that I need the job so I can shell out over a grand to get the horses teeth worked on w/o having to sell a kidney.  

Time to do other stuff that I've been procrastinating on.  Time to kick my  inner grinch aside and get started on end of year giving + fandamily shopping and gifting. 

take two fokitalls and don't call me in the morning

Not really, but I need to not have any angst over stuff at work.  No sense in me stressing if the bosses don't care enough to even check/respond to emails and are going to yank my chain with "suppose we should meet today" and then blowing it off 10 minutes later w/o even bothering to let me know xe changed its mind.   Heh I could used to that for gender neutral pronoun even if I think they are brainwashing kids with the BS gender fluidity crapola.  

It was cold the whole 4-day weekend to the point that I not only did not ride, I did not do usual weekend laundry because I don't like to run extra grey water into the horse pen when temps will not go above freezing so its likely to make it icy.  I'd rather the grey water did not run out there at all but  most of the time its fine and I have no desire to do a bunch of retrenching to divert the water to somewhere else.  

I did some work from home but was not too productive.   Did find that ginger tea made with fresh ginger IS nice to make me feel a bit better when dragging with some kind of cold gunk.  That and garlic earrings to clear clogged sinuses feels like its saving me from a minor issue blowing up into a miserable infection.  

shuffling some schedule to ride a bit

I decided to go in and work yesterday because while it was supposed to get warm I didn't think the snow would be melted and nice footing enough before dark to ride.   In exchange I will ride today and tomorrow morning and take 2-3 hours flex time for the weekend effort.

It is supposed to snow on Thanksgiving and be cold the whole 4day weekend so I may drive in and work one of those days too.  Or maybe I'll see if they will give me the VPN software for our home CPU.   I can work better with the the big monitor so I can have multiple screens and check things and copy/paste easily.  There is also the fact that I don't tend to have a work mindset at home, but maybe I could do better at getting one if I was in the home office at the big monitor. 

Still Alive

I even wrote a couple of posts but I was venting and couldn't scrub enough detail to make them public.  

I rode Tanza twice this weekend.   He was pretty good, so I rode him out on Sunday.  We were both pretty tense.  I was trying not to be but he was full on energy and a bit nervous about going out alone and since last time I took him out I fell off I was holding him up and trying to send my tension away but not succeeding all the time.   He is a good horse and the schooling work in one of the pens is good for him anyway.  I made an appointment with an equine dentist.  I'll have him do Grey, Tanza and Sadie and 2 of the other horses TBD.   Shade doesn't need done.  Probably CJ and one of the minis or 2 of the minis. 

Work is busy but not in an Aack way for me lately.   I was moody as a teen last week and now seem to be fighting a cold/sinus thing trying to start.   Trying a new sinus remedy,  putting garlic in my ears.  It seems to be helpful.   Yesterday I was trying to decide if I had only tension headache or some sinus pressure and after buying garlic on way home and using it the headache went away.  Today I have some stiff/sore neck muscles but no pain in front of my head.  

I should change my nic to falls2much

I came off Tanza again Sunday.   Grrrr.   All he did was wheel and bolt and I should have been able to sit through that and pull him up.   And I should have been able to head off the spook completely but I think I projected my concern of his reaction to wind blowing the corn to him so when I decided to turn around rather than have him being goofy he was like "and lets get out of here FAST" 

I'm not quite feeling like I have to sell him and get a fuddy duddy horse, but am quite annoyed with myself.  I might have realized he was going to be very high energy hanging with Grey and getting extra food and not ridden in 2 weeks so maybe I should just stay in the paddocks to begin with but nope, off I went on my still fairy green 5 year old like he was one of the old solid horses.  I keep conflating how well he has done doing LD and the family trail ride as being the same as a lot of wet saddle blankets and training, but I was very careful with him on the trail ride and have even recorded frustrations with his baby mind "aaack I'll die if I get held back from the group" mindset right here on my blog.  

Oh well "horses gonna be the death of me,  BUT WHAT A WAY TO GO"   I ride as a break from mental concentration of work and that is why I trail ride vs showing but I have got to learn to do a bit of thinking with the riding.  I'm getting too old and don't bounce when I hit hard ground.  

Sadie is doing OK with 'slow feeder' hay bag.   It does not seal at top so she is not slowed all the time I don't think and will not be until I add some clips or something so she has to only eat through the netting.   I've been feeding Sadie in hay bag and Lady just in trough, mainly because the 2nd trough keeps getting shoved way away from the fence and I was tired of having to walk out and move it back but I think its also good for Sadie to have to work on her hay so she is not done right away and then just being shooshed from the 2nd hay feeder.  

Now I should get snow tires out and on my car.  It is supposed to snow Thursday and I don't want to drive twisty mountain roads to PITA work review (with tiny 'retreat' aspects) on the "all" season tires that do not have a whole lot of tread.  

well darn it

Looked up Tanzas official record and the ride I thought gave us a completion has us overtime.  I am ridiculously bummed by this right now.  I shouldn't be, but after being called as a completer at the ride it was a bummer to find they changed their minds when they sent results in.  

Perspective, perspective,  He got the # of completions to get his name called at local region's convention, this last ride would have been an extra and he was not pulled with lameness, he is both sound and healthy.   Unlike the poor gal whose horse was having a bad colic, getting treated at ride with vet saying she need to move on to treatment at a horsepital overnight.  I still have not heard if the horse pulled through and it is not a given that he did, although I have the impression that IVs and gastro drainage in his situations are pretty successful, just $$$, but that is if it was not a deal with the horse having an unknown tumor or something.   THAT is a having a bad day, and the gal is one of the best horsewoman I know.  It is a reminder that shit happens,  the sport is strenuous, but one has to remember that shit also happens to horses who are just at home in an idyllic pasture paradise setting.  

lazy weekend

And it feels so good.   I did pull up some goat heads on Satruday and went to the area morondezvous.   It was OK.  I have a hard time with venues that have music blaring most of the time but it was good to see people again.  Everyone was a bit subdued, but with the GOPe showing that they fear the tea party and people wanting more conservative smaller government in general and are fine with the commie Dems what can be expected.

Today I read a book by a horde author.  It was quite good and I left him a review.  I bought another book of his but it didn't deliver to my kindle right away.  I had several books I had bought that had not delivered (I have not been wanting to start a book when I should do stuff so was only taking vague notice that I couldn't see titles I thought should be there) but I went online to get all of them delivered now. 

One of the mome attendees has written some history about Islam.  Not on kindle which initially bummed me out but if I get the dead tree versions I can put them in the library at work so that might be good.  I often have good intentions that I should read such things but only get a short way through anyways. 

I did laundry, dishwasher, and made waffles for supper tonight so was not completely a slug today.  Just have a pretty good list of things I should do.  Unhook trailer,  continue trying to get to garage shelves and general decluttering and searching for the Shade/Lady size hoof boots I'm sure I have but cannot find.   Get my tank dumped,  do some more yard cleanup and so on. 

I did not ride at all.  Feels ok to take a break there too.  Last weekend I took DL, R and Rs friend trail-riding and fetched Lady home from her summer in Golden.   Tanza was pretty good and Grey was good for R's friend.  They were both reluctant to cross a bit of mud at the start of the ride but were good otherwise.  R's friend seemed to have a blast, she really liked trotting and cantering Grey. 

sleepy saturday.

I have some things I want to get done, so even though there is nothing critical I do need to summon some energy and get a few little things going.

I should decide I can read books and then leave the book/kindle aside.   I have been better than when I was younger but I still have a tendency to think "can't start a book, I need to do stuff in a bit", and then I surf the web but find myself irritated at drama llama stuff and bored and feel like I deserve to be satisfied before I shut the screen down and do stuff.    If I could give myself a magical power I'd use it to shut down drama llama posting modes on the boards and FB.   I enjoy hearing about life snippets, just stop trying to turn everyday hassles into your heroic drama tale. 

TGIF

Work.  Still pretty busy and I am trying to get some things in place for proposal we will write to expand ground based processing.   Very weird feeling, yesterday my boss for ground based walked into my office and announced he will put out an ad to hire an associate scientist.   He has extra funds from current project that needs to be spent and there is much work to do.  Letting me know so I don't go WTFFF when I see ad.

Okaaayyy, so I am going wtfff now instead.  I was not slammed on the main project this summer and could have done work on the ground based if informed there was funds available and tasks he wanted done.   Oh well,  I am trying to remind myself that I have long thought that I would dearly love to go to about half-time in 2-3 years so it is a great thing if I get made redundant in a couple of years and they only need me to continue on a part time basis to allow for people's vacations and extra stuff that comes up and so on.   Frankly I will not be shocked if the global doom hits in that time frame although things could very well totter along for another decade or 2 before math and reality assert themselves.  I have no feel for timeframe, just a big gut feeling that economies around the globe are not sustainable and since our own is now on top of that list there won't be any rescuing when bubbles start bursting.

Had appointments or errands 4 days this week and was running slow in mornings so didn't get to office very early even though I didn't even think about riding.   I have got to do better at decluttering around the place and being more organized,  I'm tired of feeling like everything is on the verge of boiling over before I get to that pan to use a cooking allegory.

There is a lot churn in the office, as well as overall company lately and I hates it.  I don't do workplace intrigue and politics and I am  unfortunately hearing bits and pieces because of where my office is located and don't have the full context and don't want to gossip or go interrogative on the folks I am overhearing to get the rest of the story.  YUCK.   I'm feeling like one of the newer hires is stirring the pot and at the same time feeling guilty for thinking that because its a stereotype that I have formed based on a few novels and I don't have any evidential basis for it.  Just a vague impression that she is twisting some things in a way that is escalating some ill feelings when she could be soothing them.

I should shuffle horses to put Sadie and Shade together to be on more diet rations and Tanza and Grey for extra calories and I keep resisting making the move.  But Tanza and Sadie need to be less attached to each other and I need to simplify the horse keeping so I'm not having to pull horses out for extra feed.   Lady is coming home on Sunday so everything will be shaken up then anyways so I really should do the calorie sorting as well.

I MUST check my calendar,  I may be late on giving Tanza his allergy shot.  This is going to be a pain remembering with the long intervals but I must find a system to make that work.

There is a good note.   I started jogging again.   Wed was tough,  I went short and slow just to do it since I missed Monday and Tuesday had volunteered to join on staffing a table to showcase our group at the overall company trustee meeting.  But last night felt good,  I think I will be able to get more fit over the winter and be able to do 50s with Tanza next year.  This year I felt like he maybe wasn't ready and I certainly wasn't.

Learning Distance ride with Tanza yesterday

I found he has a big issue with separation anxiety, and on trail this comes up if I even ask him to slow down and not keep with a group he's been with.   I need to find a way to get him to key onto me for when I need to slow him down.   All horses have a bit of "NO, I must stay with the herd",  but my previous horses would get over that within 10 minutes and just go into a conserve my energy mode until a horse behind them caught up.   Tanza stays keyed up and wastes energy fighting to go faster.  Really caught me by surprise because in Basin on Labor day weekend he was a bit tired and was like 'nah I don't have to keep up'.   But last two rides I thought he was having some minor lameness so I was pulling him back when he was not tired.

I also decided he does a skipping thing that feels like lameness when he is wanting to go faster and I'm holding him back a bit.  I'm not positive that was the only gait issue either ride but now I know he does this and he was fine on trot outs at vet checks both rides. 

And I have been just ignoring him stomping non-existent flies whe he is crabby and yesterday he escalated to actually doing threat kicks (not connecting but definitely waving in people's direction).  Of course I got after him for that, but now I know I should have been telling him to knock it off with the stomping.   I've had so many horses that were just sweethearts that I didn't realize I was creating a monster by not correcting the milder naughtiness.

But they called our name as completing (we were down to wire on pulsing down to stop the clock which is the finish time for LDs, and then he failed his CRI at when I tried to vet him just several minutes later and I was not sure I was within the hour limit when I got him back for recheck.)  He was fine on the recheck.   He was doing a pogo act the last bit into the vet check with first place 50 passing us and a train going by a 100 yards or so away and had been wasting energy most of the loop so in retrospect not surprising he was all stressed; but at the time I was very worried he had a lameness issue even though the vet hadn't said she saw anything.

A VERY excellent horse woman had her good horse colic.  So scary.  I know there is the shit happens at rides, but seeing it in person with someone that I know is top notch about taking care of their horses was a reminder that it is a demanding sport.  I had to remind myself that shit happens to the horses that are only in easy work or even just pasture paradise too; so not having any aspirations would not be any guarantee of avoiding a sick horse.  

Just call me the pet apothecary

I often think "I did not envision myself becoming a pet apothecary" but seeing Mia still be playful at 11 with a pin in her leg and Ole also 11 moving pretty good since I changed his mix to include turmeric along with devils claw and just a bit of MSM makes it worthwhile.

That was the FB snapshot.    When I'm hand filling capsules with MSM and the devils claw and turmeric I do feel like "oh boy I'm living the life of an old timey apothecary, but doing it for free for the pets.  I do take turmeric myself in capsules also.   I take my MSM dissolved in tea instead of in capsules cuz cheap and not wanting to swallow a bunch of horse size pills.  But the dogs don't get wet food other than the odd bit of table scraps so they get everything in capsules and wrapped in american cheese to make sure they swallow them.   Mia needs the cheese, she will work pills out if I try to use old weiners or something like that. 

I also use a lot of herbs for horses.  CJ really seems to do better if he gets his "liver herbs", mainly milk thistle with some dandelion and nettle.  Shade gets devils claw with some extras for her arthritis + the previcoxx and turmeric and now Sadie is getting turmeric (supposed to help with horse blood sugar/insulin resistance) + for now valerian root to keep her from overdoing.

Ah yes,  I neglected to post about the vet visit.  No worries of cellulitis but Sadie has a lesion on her superficial tendon.  Probably did it when she did the initial scrape to the inside of her leg, not a bandage bow but she is no riding for 5-6 months and supposed to not race around for 1 month.   Well the first week was a bust for the not racing around.  Having her with CJ was a bust,  she was trotting the fence line and he lunged at and bit her when I gave hay (I thought he was a mellow boss but he was being mean to her)

So I put her out with Tanza and Razz and did that for about a week but in the big pen she runs with Tanza or when he is gone so I put her and Tanza together in CJ's smaller pen and put CJ in with Razz staring on Monday and Sadie is getting the herbal valium type supplement to keep her more quiet so the tendon can do the initial healing w/o her constantly over-doing it.  --I HOPE.    I'm thinking I may drag her along to the ride too to keep her calm although it will be a PITA and she'll probably pace on the high-tie while Tanza is riding.   But she'll be happy when he is at trailer and won't have room to get going fast which is supposed to be the big straining thing on the darn tendon injuries.  

bending my vets advice with Sadie

My vet is good and usually if I call him out I follow is advice exactly and I pretty much did for Sadie with the cellulitis to start but I stopped the Tucoprim after 9 doses because it was close and I came home really tired on Tuesday.  Wed I took her wrap off and left it and went to work and returned home to hot and swollen leg so I gave her a differenent oral antibiotic that another vet gave us for CJ for a suspected internal abscess that had made him colicky and CJ went off food on it.

Well the vet left a message to keep on with tucoprim and wrapping but I kept with the other antibiotic, because I figured I wanted to give it for at least a few days to kill of most of the bacteria that would have some resistance to Tucoprim after I stopped it before they were all dead.  I guess since Dad was out or sleeping and they only left a message and I did not give the antibiotic change in my message vet may not have known I had switched ABs and might have confirmed doing that anyway.  Especially since I'm also giving Sadie some probiotics and she is maintaining good appetite. 

Sadie is feeling really good and trotting and cantering around in the wrap so I don't think she has much tendon damage.  I sure hope we can get the cellulitis defeated and I can get the little wild wench back into some work.  She is so chunky.  

Garden of the Gods weekend trip.

Lots of really pretty red rock formations for backgrounds riding at Garden of the Gods.  Lady is not into getting her picture taken nor standing still for DL to take pictures.  

I must file for reference that it is too stressful to take a big trailer into the Garden of the Gods park.  I won't go again unless I'm only towing the smaller bumper pull trailer.   We did get in and out without any crunched metal or tickets though so all is well that ends well.

J canceled on coming so I only had 3 horses to haul and I got to ride Grey Moun myself.  Grey probably would have preferred the 14 yr old with great balance but he handled me fine; he got a bit sore on his left loin so I was not perfectly centered.  

DL and R were great sports when I got a bit lost and had to turn around, and back up etc.   I ended up doing most of the horse care but DL cooked supper so it was much like camping with Sis.

Tanza got his 5th LD completion on Saturday

I keep forgetting to get a new picture scanned or taken so I guess I'll write the post and maybe add a pic later.

I went to the Beaver Meadows Classic ride on the weekend.   I thought I might ride two slow rides but it was a pretty tough ride.   Tanza was actually a bit lame about 2/3rds or so into the first loop.  I pulled him up and led him a ways and then got on and mostly walked; or at least tried to, Tanza did lots of jigging and up and downs wanting to race back to camp or at least to buddies.   I don't know if he was spooked by the mountain setting or what.  He was fine riding him alone at Shamrock although I led him away from base camp because I knew he'd be unhappy to leave his buddies especially w/o any other horse company.   And Sunday at Basin after the first loop he was a bit tired and decided he had no need to keep with the other horses on the second loop.    But he was sure not happy to have me slow him down and lose the group this time.  But we survived and made it back to base camp.  A couple of riders behind us caught up and I let him stay with them rather than have another fight as I was not feeling the lameness as much on the trot anymore although I still thought there was some gait unevenness.

There was a long line at the vet check so he got a lot of rest on  his leg before we got to the vet and she pronounced that she did not "see anything."  I had told her he was off and which leg I thought he was favoring so she would be watching extra close.   So we went on and did the second loop.   I pulled him up from the people I started with when she was trotting through a section of road that I thought was too rocky and again had the anxiety and we have to hurry so it was a wash at best for his legs since he then went prancing in some spots through serious rocky trail sections.  Oh well good mental training overall I guess.   We ended up catching back up to them and I made them do the loop correctly where we almost cut off a big chunk of trail (we blew over a red line but thought it seemed off when we got to trail intersection and had not seen any ribbons so I took out my map and saw what we had done.)  The red line was plain as day when we backtracked, but then the folks with me kept doubting if we were correct even though we had ribbons and paint until the very last little bit.  But we made it back to camp.

We were 30 minutes overtime for a 25 mile ride but I thought the RM might fudge the time or change the ride distance because it certainly felt like the ride was long to me.   Some entrants with GPS showed her where the distance was 28-29 miles so it should have been sanctioned as 30 miles and she made the change.  Love a RM who does not get stubborn if shown that a ride is long and should be changed to the longer distance.   In fact the RM did a great job overall.  They had a huge number of entrants and the treatment vet who was intended to be a 3rd control vet to manage the big crushes at the checks was pulled away treating horses but they had volunteers offering people cold water, lots of hay and beet pulp for the horses as well as volunteers who would hold a horse so riders could have a potty break or grab snacks etc.    I was thinking I would pull and did not get my snacks out; and I know better, but with thinking I'd probably end up pulling while we waited in line plus some plain old DIMR I still whiffed that after all my years of practice.  Oh well I was able to ride the last loop OK and even kept the rookies with me on track after that one instance of riding over the line to block the trail segment we were not supposed to take and that was a less than 1/2 mile detour.

Tanza vetted through fine at completion but no way was I going to go out again after the temporary lameness. Those things usually mean there is still a little something wrong and little somethings that will self heal with a bit of rest can become a serious injury with months of lay-off with a second day of fairly hard riding.   I quit while we were ahead.

I went to ride Sadie Sunday night to see if her leg should be OK for trail-riding next weekend so I can  give Tanza serious rest and she had injured the other front leg.  Stupid little wench.   I thought it was just a minor scrape and bruise of the tendon, grabbed RazzMo to see how he would do.  Razz was fine but I am undecided on taking him or Tanza yet.   Sadie's leg was very hot and swollen Monday.   I called my vet and he was able to come out today.   I guessed right on treatment, had started her on antibiotics and a Furazone wrap and she got a shot of penicillin and a tetanus booster today as well as a new wrap from him and instructions to give the oral antibiotics for 10 days and call to get an ultrasound if the tendon is still tender after we get over this cellulitis skin and soft tissue problem or if the swelling does not go away in few days as it should.

What a way to go...

Ray Kennedy song from the '80s.  The songs refrain is "women gonna be the death of me but what a way to go"  I remember back when it came out I thought one could substitute horses for women and it would be perfect for me and endurance riders in general.

The song popped into my mind this weekend because I came off of Tanza on Saturday and wrenched my back.  I think he stumbled and then did his Grrrr and deer hopping that he has been doing a bit.  Well this time I got off balance with the stumble and ended up coming off even though it was just deer hopping.   Landed on my back, or at least hit my back on the bank we were next to and wrenched my back pretty good.

But it did not hurt for riding, only for bending over and some twisting movements so I was able do finish the ride and ride again the next day and Tanza did complete both days and it was not too sore driving home either so I guess my playing hooky worked out OK.     Need one more completion on Tanza within the MRER rides and we'll get a little award at the convention this winter.  It is fun to get those so hopefully mr crabby pants completes at least one day this weekend when I take him again.

I have no sympathy for working fairly hard in just a one month period with my back still giving little twinges throughout the day even though I've been taking ibuprofen and rubbing arnica on it every few hours during the day and taking naproxin at night and using heat wraps the last couple days too.   Luckily my every 4 weeks chiro appointment was set for tomorrow and my chiro does a lot of muscle work so I have hope that he can break up the spasms and get me feeling much better.   I'll probably schedule an extra visit for Monday for any needed mop up.

I experimented with two different pad changes after Tanza had dry spots and white hairs after the IKYR ride a few weeks ago.  The Supracor pad in the Skito liner ended up with a bit of soreness in the middle of Tanza's back.  I'll need to do some tapering of edges and trim to have the pad not so close to the horse's spine in the middle of the back but it looks hopeful for using under the treeless saddle for Sadie and as a spare pad for Tanza.

Cutting up the old Skito memory foam and making a shim from the front part to use with his Skito pad seems to have worked quite well.   The vet dinged him one point for withers on his BC score but I didn't see or feel any problem,  I think it was residual from the IKYR.  

Tanza also told me that the old CMC I was mixing with electrolytes is not cutting the potassium salt bite.   I was not happy with his stubborn redhead self but then if he had not been protesting I would not have considered and realized that yes I need to toss that old bottle that had separated and find a better way.   Sadie just figured I'm mean and took the stuff but Tanza gets stubborn if he thinks something is unpleasant.    I bought some banana baby food which has worked good to cut electrolyte tang for me in the past.  I may just give Tanza a little electrolytes in his food this weekend though so I don't have to get some plain applesauce or molasses into him a few times to get him over thinking stuff in the syringe is nasty while my back is whinging.

gulp, someone really does want to start a race war

Investigating another Texas cop's homicide.   This one killed in his home*.  Hopefully the good folks of Texas have worked with each other long and well enough to resist such provocations.  But if very much feels to me like if the Sheriff Clarks (WI) are not able to shut down the thugs and string pullers trying to start up a race war soon the string pullers may get their evil wish and the thugs will become the 21st century equivalent of cannon fodder.   *killed in his home may mean it was cupidity and he just happens to have been a cop.   I hope it was in this case and the truth comes out quickly, times are scary enough with China's economy staggering, our own still not doing well -- I think (because I now read media reports and government stats that say things are ok, or better than last year, or whatever and think "lies, its all lies from you lying liars")


 To all the idiots who refused to publish or re-publish all the accounts of what sleaze ball Barry did before he ran for president and the ones who learned some of it and voted for him anyway to advance racial healing -- you stupid idiots have hurt us all, and reflexively giving him a pass on his horrible moral character was and is the exact opposite of MLKs dream.   Shame on you for being closet racists -- except here I am now remembering the alternatives.  Hillary of the crime family,  Edwards.  And then R primary voters letting themselves be tricked into voting for "the maverick" because it was the only way to counter Bush hatred even though the experienced voices were warning against that, and myself who had no clue back in that primary season and did not even switch to a party affiliation in time to vote in that caucus/primary, and truth be told if I had I was one of the suckers who had fallen for the maverick bullshit as an R leaner.

lazy weekend. rode Tanza and did errands today so will be a late day

I felt like I could barely cope with the heat this weekend.   Even if I didn't have the crowd phobia I'd have to forget about ever trying Tevis because the heat would knock me for a loop.   Luckily Big Horn can have some heat but is more likely to have some cold at start/end and just have to be thinking and take off the extra clothes before overheating so if I get myself and Tanza fit for riding the distance hot temps are not too likely to take us out.

I'm thinking I may play hooky to go to a ride I had originally planned on skipping this weekend.  I'd talk myself out of it if the end of Sept ride had not been canceled but since it was canceled maybe I should be talking myself into having a seize the day outlook.

Rode Sadie today, not sure her popped splint is fully healed.

Just walked most of 3 miles and she volunteered to trot some up the hill.  She was possibly a bit off after that wee bit of extra exertion.  I'm not positive, decided not to ask her to trot anymore to get a definite yes/no.  I'll have to ride her slowly again this weekend and see what happens.  She may end up getting another 5 weeks or so completely off or if she seems ok with very light work I will keep the pace and distance way down and not try to do any LD rides on her until next year.   Hopefully Tanza continues sound.  I am so glad I bought him last year.  

If Sadie can't be sound for even a few LDs a year I probably should try to find her a home where she just has to look pretty.   Hopefully it won't come to that.  Maybe (big maybe) I could get the horse collector I vaguely know to do a feed lease exchange with one of the underused horses she has for a year or 2 and see if Sadie grows out of it and get to ride more in meantime.  She would have to at least think she'd want to ride or sell in future and want to get the experience on her horse while being willing to just pet and look at Sadie since Sadie can be a little punk sometimes under saddle.

Tanza has his first completions after this weekend

He did two fairly tough 30 mile rides. I am very pleased with how he did. He camped very well, ate and drank like a pro all weekend and only had a few race brain and baby brain moments. I rode with Janet and Ladybug and her friend Kitty and Kitty's foxtrotter mare both days. Janet suggested I should put a German martingale on him and I think I will for a few rides. Apparently this high head carriage is not just something that has happened passing the photographers. And I was not pulling him up to increase spacing on this day so the picture should be representative of how Tanza was traveling. He needs to drop his head and make things easier on his back.


It turned into a sad weekend on Saturday when we learned the RMs son had died Friday night. Apparently he had some health issues and forgot to take some medication from the 3rd hand information in camp. They of course canceled the Sunday ride day. The volunteers, head vet and ride secretary kept everything flowing well to finish up the ride on Saturday and organized folks to pull ribbons on Sunday. I did not join in that since they had enough help. I helped with gathering up water tanks, breaking down tables and so on at base camp and called it good before driving home on Sunday. I was planning to skip the last day before we heard the news anyway. It was pretty tough trail so I felt like 2 days was enough stress on my youngster.

Now I am back at work and yawning as I didn't have a coffee after lunch plus I'm still wiped out from the driving and riding in fairly warm weather. I have quite a way to go to get back into the shape I was 4-5 years ago when I would ride 75-80 miles in a weekend, doing a 50 one day and then an LD the other ride day on the weaker horse. But it feels good to at least finish two LDs in a weekend.

Lazy weekend, did ride 6 miles on Tanza today

It was blazing hot yesterday but I went out and pulled some goatheads anyway.  Perhaps should have thought better of the idea though.  Today its much nicer and I'm being lazy, had to force myself to even ride Tanza.   It was a pretty good ride,  only went 6 miles but a decent amount of trot and canter so I don't feel too under-prepared for going to the ride next weekend.

I washed one load of clothes yesterday should wash a load today and pack clothes and stuff for the ride instead of wishing there was more to read about on my main blog sites.

riding update.

I rode Tanza 4 miles Tuesday and again on Thursday.   He was so good trail riding that I kind of forgot that I have the *"Whoa I have a lot of horse under me" feeling riding a bit faster to condition at home.    He was a bit nervous about the wind blowing over the corn field we were next to on Tuesday.   Thursday I considered going the other way but the grass/sand burrs were so thick with no clear tracks that I went "Ugh, no way"  besides I need to avoid the trap of trying to limit exposure to common things just because Tanza gets a bit nervous.   He needs to learn that we can handle anything that comes our way.   He was good both days,  but I had no worries that he might jump and lose me on Thursday.   Tuesday he had not been ridden for a couple of weeks and it showed.

Sadie should be at the end of the 30 days off the acupuncture vet recommended with her popped splint so I'll probably try to take a slow easy ride on her today.   It is supposed to be cooler on Sunday so that should work for getting a longer working ride on Tanza.    This week I am no longer feeling like I can handle heat better than last year or two and have been feeling wilted after a bit of work in the warm sunny mornings.   Maybe the humidity is higher.   More jogging this fall and winter is needed so I can be ready to really ride my athletic horse next year and hopefully keep Sadie in light distance work as well.    I am so thankful that she showed her limitations last year and I was shopping at the right time to snap up Tanza.  

*This is a riding term,  Tanza is not a lot of horse either in height or weight -- to riders the term usually means the horse can move powerfully or quickly or both.  

I did enjoy riding the MaahDaahHey trail

Forgot to write that with my whinging. 

slide show of trail ride pics 

 It was a rough start for me as my saddle which has never bothered me before is apparently a bit too wide in the seat (which is my fault,  I took the widest of my measurements of seat bones back when I ordered it because I had it in my head that a too narrow saddle would be uncomfortable.   Well just WALKING SLOWLY for 11 hours in jeans rather than tights with the seat a bit wide ends up rubbing the very tops on ones inner thighs raw.     After I got my riding tights and my wonderful sis got my fleece cover it was more comfortable.

Yes the walking slowly is another whine.   The first day was almost 30 miles and except when I was getting Tanza to lead it was a stupidly slow walk because dad is too lazy to make his horse walk out when he is in the lead. Tanza would be skeered of something and hesitate and if dad took the lead I'd end up passing him after half a mile or so because the slow slow walk would chafe worse than a normal walk.   Sis makes her horse walk out a bit in the lead but her mare is also still a bit green and wasn't real fit so mare was burned out on leading too and did not have a really good walk either.   

It is so much easier to ride endurance style (completion only especially) and be using all three gaits as the terrain permits.  

Well if I'm not going to ride I should spray more weeds

I suppose I could ride, could possibly slip out of house w/o dog coming but the weed obsession feels stronger even though I must make the effort to switch spraying hands as my wrist is getting sore.  I want to have fewer goats heads next year.   I will be bummed if they seem thicker than normal rather than less next year.

  Must research pasture management options too because having a weed patch with a bit of grass is bugging me.    I know the big thing I should do: find a way to get more help, either hiring hourly or getting a relationship with someone who would do stuff to increase the future sale value and to make me happy.   I can't expect a quite senior citizen who is lazy to begin with to be much help and I must stop the futile wishing that that was different. 

Welcome back to the same old same old

Call me when you get home.   Everyone is fine?  yawn equivalent.   me "ok I'll let you get some sleep" click.  

I know she has been going and going but dayum I get tired of feeling like no one has any appreciation for the fact that I took even more time off from work and from trying to get the paddocks cleaned up because I figured it takes 2 people to babysit dad thru a long ride.   I must admit I did enjoy the riding, I just wish we could have hired someone to move a vehicle so it didn't have to take so long that the goatheads took over after all my efforts earlier in the year.   And dad said he appreciated us girls taking him more than once but right now I don't believe it.   He expects it of me and always seems to figure I probably had nothing better to do.  He appreciated her doing it and managed to be polite enough to say girls rather than just thanking her.  

   I am so effing tired of feeling used by every damn person in my life.  I don't want to be a taker rather than a giver but it gets old feeling like people only give me lip service politeness just to keep the gravy train rolling and don't give a tinkers damn about me beyond the horse taxi service and whatnot. 

Dear Lord grant me serenty

How does that go.   Grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change,  courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference.

Reminding myself that cuckoo for cocoa puffs PockEEston has already had nuclear weapons for decades is not enough to tamp down my angst over EarLeader, ValJar and HorseFace giving Iran billions of dollars to advance their nuclear bomb program whilst slashing U.S. readiness with funding cuts + attacking troop morale and capability with BS PC regulations.  

And meanwhile attack American domestic values with outrageous fines on Christians who don't want to bake gay wedding cakes instead of telling the aggrieved couples to put on their big girl panties and visit the shop down the street.  Give illegal aliens a pass not just on being here but on following any of our laws so its more expensive for everyone who drives, or wants to keep stuff they paid for and cripples honest businesses who pay all the taxes and workmans comp insurance.   Keep letting NEA and racist teachers get away with not teaching blacks kids that might want to not be stuck on welfare any useful skills.  

And lets distract the population with BS about the CBF and oh noes we have to be nice to transenders and do mutilating operations on teens that cant even vote yet.   

arghh. Perhaps mostly I should have made time to ride this weekend

If I had known it would rain Saturday night I would have skipped spraying weeds and maybe gotten Sadie out for a ride but thought it would go around us.  

I was >< close to a toddler level meltdown over stupid trying to switch insurance today.   I may yet punt and stay with my old company.  I really dislike feeling like I've been bait and switched and the jump in premiums is very much feeling like that.  "oops- but oh we have to have same liability and UM coverage as your dad has and that + being on group policy with his vehicles versus just you adds over 200 to the quote from Friday"  Seriously that is fucked up shit.    I do not want to hope we are both accident free for 3 years and I can start getting 25% of the premiums back.    Which would put me just a little below what P charges if they don't jack up the rates more and more as dad ages.

I do hate to say thanks but no after calling and taking so much of the lady agents time and supposedly P pushes the commie agenda politically but dayum it is really annoying to leave cheaper rates and known great service in event of an accident.   I probably will have to use a different company so I'm not charged for the very senior driver.  I should not have to be when he has his own vehicles and insurance on them.

Went to Shamrock ride over the 4th

It was not a success by conventional measures.   Sadie was a bit off on the right front after completing the LD on Friday even though we went quite slow.    She was a little punk at the start -didn't want to leave base camp and Tanza and Razz and even late in the ride when asked to stand still she was doing some jumping up and down and being obnoxious.   Hopefully she'll get through this phase fairly quickly.

Tanza's turn was saturday and I had expectations that he'd get into a go with the herd flow and be fine for any water crossings and whatnot that he'd otherwise have hesitations about.   But after leading him out at the start to avoid rodeo he lost a hoof boot on his right hind leg right after I got on.  So after leading him back to the trailer so I could tie him to replace it (and I had to get a new boot as the old one was torn by that time if it had not been right way when it came off)  there was only two other people in sight and they were only still in sight because he was leading his green horse because she had been very wound up.   Tanza would not pass them and go on his own and they graciously let me stay with them.

Then Tanza would not cross water even when their horses crossed nicely in front of him.  I had to get off and lead through water.  He lost a boot in mud at one point and I could not find it and the spare I had grabbed was the next half size that was a bit big even for his front feet.   So it did not stay on long; and I decided to just leave it when it came off.  Tied it on my saddle but it came off sometime on the loop.   Sigh I hate hoof boots, I must see if I can get D or someone else out to shoe him.

The couple that babysat me were riding very slow as they thought their green horse was also not fitted up and they were going to just to the first loop (they said) --not sure if they would have rode both loops if they had not been extra slowed down waiting for me with Tanza through the canyon part with the water crossings he would not do.    Tanza was ready to pick up a decent trot the last 3 miles to camp on road we had ridden out on after drinking at the trough so I had him do that and I did do the second loop.  

We would have been on time if we rode the loop in 2 hours and 20 minutes and I think Tanza was fit enough he could have done that but with going out by himself as green as he is I figured  I'd have so much leading and slow at start and leading through at least first few water crossings that we'd be over time, and my watch was trying to get itself back to Central time I think so I took it off and decided I'd just ride Tanza at whatever pace felt safe for his physical and mental state.   I was correct and we were OT although he did finish the loop in 2 hours and 40 minutes which was not bad after the slow start.   He gave me a nice trot in spots and was walking through water with me on him after a few of the creek crossings and even stopping and drinking out of the creeks by the end of the loop so it was a really good training ride for him.

I was way tired plus felt that no more miles than I've put on Tanza it might be overreaching to try to ride the 30 again on Sunday so thought I would do the fun ride with Dad on him to reinforce the water crossing.   But Tanza tripped himself on the high tie Sunday morning and bruised his right front tendon in the splint bone area.   Thank god folks were still in camp and a gentleman loaned me his knife so I could cut the halter to free T.   I have got to find a sheath knife that I can carry around my neck or waist all the time.   I often don't have pants pockets and fairly often not shirt pockets so I can't get myself trained to carry a pocket knife even the times I do have a pocket of some sort.

I rode Sadie on the fun ride since Tanza had that fresh tendon bruising.  She seemed to work out the glitch in her RF leg after walking a few miles and was being fresh and wanting to prance and trot the last part of the ride when I was asking her to walk so Dad could walk on RazzMo.   So that worked.  I could have rode Grey who I dragged along at the last minute because he was ADR thursday morning when I fed hay, but it was good that it worked out with Sadie.   Grey was fine later thursday morning when he got his soaked senior feed; I think he's been having problems chewing the new hay we got and I am working out what kind of soaked hay cube or pellets he will eat and if other hay will work better for him.   I will have to have him by himself when we are gone so he can eat.   Hopefully he'll be OK with visiting over a fence, he does not do well with separation but I can hardly ask the neighbor do come over 4 times a day so they can feed him extra and then put him back in with Shade.

So much blind belief in lies.

" so many Xtians posting hateful things after the S/C ruling"  -- oh yeah prove it.

"Secession was not about slavery"  -- hmmm SC and Missippi articles of secession beg to disagree, in fact Texas was the only state that stated good reasons other than slavery.  Many of the ones I read didn't give any coherent reason just said "we are out of here" but 2 of 3 that stated reasoning spelled out keeping slavery as a right and  a couple others say the Republican (abolitionist) party that has replaced the Whigs is invalid.

 Yes almost all of the Southern men who joined the Confederate army were only fighting to defend hearth and home and I'm good with making that distinction.  But nope, the confederate politicians and their media agents do not get that pass.

Marijuana, grape seeds ..... will kill cancer and all kinds of stuff and GMO food kills butterflies and poisons us.     Not so much.  Marijuana is useful for some medical stuff and I sure wish it was being studied and purified for that use.  And as a libertarian leaning person -- go ahead and toke if you want.  I'm not in favor of government protecting you from falling for bullshit that the MJ does not have a lot of the same tars and carcinogens as tobacco but when you copy/paste junk science crap you are not helping make the case that people can look after themselves.

But then I think a huge factor in that is that we have set up so much government nannying that people have regressed towards being naive children.  I do think if you take away the safety net people will learn to balance and use the guard rails etc.

 and I am mean enough to think that if they cannot then it is a good thing if life leaves them too destitute to pass on their genes or even if cruel nature kills them off unless family, clan, or "sisters of charity" take them in.

riding journal update

I rode Sadie Saturday about 5 miles.   I did a figure 8 on 1/2 of road 35 and road 6 to the ditch do get a bit more hills with a short ride.   She did pretty good.

Sprayed twice too and made supper did laundry usual stuff that has to be done, plus took off my punctured tire from the vet trip off the little trailer.   That was a SNAFU to get off.  First I ran up on the trailer jack before loosening lug nuts.  No biggie.  Then the flat tire was so flat and the lug nuts so tight that the tire was just spinning.  Ran up on 2x6.  Tire still spins.  I do not want to drag heavy air compressor out.  Ran up on 2 2x6s.  Top one wants to slip out.  I am able to get another bit of board and stand on it and get 3 nuts loose  -- with the use of 6 foot cheater tube slipped over the wrench.  Finally ran the flat tire up on the trailer jack and got the remains nuts loose.

 The tire is damaged.  I thought I could fix it and use only as a spare but maybe I will replace it with prepper mentality in mind as I do think that some table shaking may happen soon with the global economic house of cards collapsing.   I also got my big trailer hooked up so could haul out and ride Sunday.

Sunday hauled Tanza and rode with Dad on RazzMo.    I was moving slow and dad was moving slower and no help whatsoever for getting going, was after 12 when we finally pulled out from our place.  

A slow ride but very good mental training for Tanza and showed me I need to use smaller hoof boots on Tanza's front feet this weekend.   It rained when we got to the top of the mesa for about 5 minutes and was a bit of thunder mainly to west but a bit overhead cloud to cloud.   But then it cleared up and we had a nice ride.  I had made appointment to see chiro to fix shoulder neck from coming off Sadie on Wed and realized riding that I was also very stuck in my lower back.

We just got home and didn't even get horses unloaded and it started raining and was pouring so hard before we got horses unloaded that we just left them in trailer for 15 minutes till it slacked off.  Stupid Sadie and CJ sat in the rain because their buddies were in the trailer and not back in pen to so in the shed with them.   I am thankful that it did not rain hard for any longer than that.

I sprayed goat heads this morning and then showered and went to chiro to fix all the stuck spots.   Drove to brewery w/o stopping in office since I was late for the planned celebration and no one was there.   They decided this morning to postpone until Wednesday cuz project manager is closing on house or something this morning.    They may have even actually called to let me know but my phone battery is dead.  I doubt they did though as they think everyone can do email on their cell phones but I'm being a luddite and refusing to get a smart phone.  I don't want apple or google tracking my every movement + fat fingers and teeny touchscreen "keyboard"   + older eyes I don't think I would use the "smart features" anyway.

 Trying to remember how and typing on the touchscreen to see emails on the office smart phone I had for being on ops over weekend would have been as slow as swinging by office.

I am leaning towards not going to the ride in Shell next weekend.   I don't enjoy driving and I'd be stressing about all the weeds not getting sprayed at home and whatnot before we will be gone for 3 weeks.  It just does not feel worth it just to show Tanza some of the trail for next year when I want to enter the long ride.  I'm clinging to the belief that if I can just keep after the goat heads this year I will be able to control them next year with 1/2 or less of the spraying and will have a lot more time to play with the horses and be conditioning for endurance riding.

riding journal update

Rode Tanza 4 miles on Tuesday.   He was more anxious then he has been lately but we got through the ride.

Rode Sade 5 miles on Wed.   I came off when she did a sideways spook.

Thursday took them to the acupuncture/chiro vet.   Sadie was better, traveling evenly on her feet and stuff but still touchy on her back.   Tanza was needle shy but got a little blood injected to help boost his allergy shots.

Today I only sprayed weeks, did a bit of laundry and picked up my car before work.   I actually feel better about the possibility of defeating the goat heads as they were present but not thick at all in mini's alleyway and not real thick in ditch and still not bad in Grey and Shades pen that I can see.

I am torn between wanting to haul out to do a better conditioning ride vs attacking the weeds hard this weekend.   I need to see if I can wrangle enough hoof boots that I could take both Sadie and Tanza and pony or have dad pony one and I ride the other on Sunday or if I ride Sadie on Saturday I think I'd take Tanza so he sees some new stuff before Shamrock.  Sadie was doing fairly well last year and has been exposed more.

Ugh, Civil War rehash

The South was just fighting for states rights.

Yeah sure they were.

I know the North was not fighting to end slavery but to keep one union, and whether that was really for fear that France or England would join the south and end up the boss of the country or it was about the power and control of having the bigger country I do not know.

But the congresses in the 1800s went through all kinds of mealy mouth compromises before the confederate states seceded -hello, the fugitive slave act before the Confederate states would let California join the union was NOT hardly about states rights.  Then there was trying to sneak new states in as "slave states"   ---Kansas anyone?  etc.  The South was damn well NOT all lathered up about states rights in general.

They were lathered up that more of the new western states joining the union were pro-ablolishionist and it was only a matter of time before the abolitionists had the needed majority to pass a federal law to make slavery illegal.   And the big money plantations owners controlled the media of the day and managed to convince joe Q public that this was a federal government stomping on individual and states rights issue even though most of the public did not own slaves.   Media organs probably  managed to create a picture of former slaves running wild and killing whites for revenge and probably that the southern economy would crash and I suppose there was a bit of "if we let them take away the plantations' slaves which they paid for darn it, they'll soon come after your few acres, your horses and cattle too etc"

But come on.  THE right the Southern rich and powerful (i.e. the political and donor class of that day)  feared that the feds were going to take away was their right to own slaves.    To own people as property.

And thanks to their unwillingness to find another way to manage their plantations, the country ended up ceding a lot of extra power to the federal government during the civil war and states never got it back.   Thanks a lot, you spoiled rich cads.

Now I know that bureaucracy and centralized power grow anyway so its not like I think "oh we'd have a serious 10th amendment still in play if only those slave owner politicians had not been so pig-headed"  but no, you don't get to claim that seceding was only about wanting freedom from federal over reach in other areas and had nothing to do with slavery.

weekly riding journal update

Monday June 15 rode Tanza miles
Tuesday rode Sadie 5 miles
 W-F  various errands did not ride
Sat rode Tanza 5 miles
Sunday did not ride,  Hot and had accepted invite from Dad to go to fathers day picnic at his rifle club and shoot at some clay pigeons after their event.
Monday Jun 22 rode Sadie 5 miles.

Tanza's allergy shots are going well.

I pulled 1 p/u bed and 3 tractor buckets of noxious thistles out of pasture.  Unloaded p/u this morning.   Gag,  I had some old dog food and whatnot in the p/u bed that got wet and rotten over the winter.   I may ask dad to burn them so I don't have to babysit the fire and can spray goat heads that are trying to take over the big horse pen.   I want to mow pasture.  Maybe mow now and then again in 2 weeks and take horses off it at that time and spray the dam weeds.

Need to get the skid steer guy out to clean horse pens cuz with tilling pens, mowing, and spraying weeds that job is not going to get done by me or dad.  

Wanting to manage the weeds and grass like I own this place is proving to be a whole lot of work.  Life was easier when I just took attitude of "just renting, what do I care if parents are crappy at managing the place with mom spending 100s of hours to plant and water flowers while letting big things fall apart and Dad gone trucking and lazy on his days off"  

I keep thinking that if I just get the goat heads licked one year they will not be such a time sink to control in the future but I kind of wonder if I'll ever get there.   I sure wish I had sprayed the pasture with a pre-emergent herbicide this spring.  Maybe I can do it next year.  

riding journal update

Monday June 8 rode Sadie  3 miles
Tuesday rode Tanza 3 miles

Wed farrier
Thursday had Dr Mike out to geld the 3 minis.  Surgery went fine,  Dad has been conscientious  about exercising them 20 minutes 2x/day with 1 or 2 skips due to rain.
Friday I had to pick up grain and was too lazy to get a ride in as well.

Saturday Tanza 5 miles
Sunday Sadie 5.7 miles and Tanza  got his 2nd allergy shots.  Have to twitch already, he is determined to dislodge the needle which must feel like a biting fly or skeeter and I can't stay with him and get the shot in.  Twitch worked so he didn't even feel the needle, just hope he doesn't get head shy.   Tried the duct tape on the nose trick,  he rubbed the tape off on the trailer in less than 2 seconds.

Today Tanza 5 miles.

Lady went to summer camp yesterday

I am feeling overwhelmed with early goats head eruption and behind on riding the youngsters but it was a good day yesterday hauling Lady up to stay with Mason for the summer and riding Tanza on some rocky hills and through water crossings the first time (well OK I led him over the water cuz I don't trust my balance in case of wild leaps and it just feels easier in my old age to start with leading through water first )  but Tanza did then cross some shallow spots with me on him and was pretty good going through trees and up hillsides and stuff.   He is a good boy.

Now I must feed him and grab a quick ride on Sadie.   I am missing a meeting at work, oops.   Oh well.  I never set any Monday appointments because I'm so bad about forgetting them.  When I saw the reminder email this morning --too late to get there on time I was like Huh?, oh yes I do remember seeing the meeting notice last week; I thought then that maybe I'd ride both youngsters on Sunday and be set for the meeting.   But then DL messaged me and I ended up hauling there on Sunday and forgot all about the meeting.   I'll muddle through w/o getting whatever details they covered. 

I hope we retain enough Celtic roots to stay free

Not sure if Celtic is the right group ID, but I've been reading more historical fiction the last few years and what seems to come through is the Brits were never inclined to just accept being ruled.   The monarch had to be respected and the Brits seem to have ignored laws that were too binding.   The Romans could not tame them and I don't think British nobility ever had a malleable peasantry such as it seems existed in France,  Poland, Astrian/Hungarian/Prussian empire.     I may be wrong since my history knowledge is still quite weak but I do have the impression that even in the days of monarchy the British kings had to mind their Ps and Qs and not piss off their subjects too much.

So with that musing I do hope we have enough ornery Scots/Irish/Anglo ..... blood left in this country to tell the growing bureaucracy to STFU and get out of the way before it is too late.

NO MORE MINI Stallions

I don't care anymore if they are more likely to get laminitis and I don't care that fly season is started so its not ideal time.    I am DONE DONE DONE with the little monsters getting loose and putting my riding horses at injury risk.    Tanza went over the retaining wall and hydrant pipe and my heart was in my throat that he would break a leg.  He is not limping or not much but he may have tendon damage and I'm not risking that again.      I should have had them gelded a long time ago so they'd be safe to give away and safer for IDIOT dad and absent minded me to have around.  

My 5-day weekend

Thursday I packed the trailer with horse stuff and my stuff.  I didn't work fast and didn't even get laundry done or make any kind of rhubarb dessert or rhubarb slushy to go with orange vodka and I also forgot to buy beer.

Friday morning I was nervous getting ready and worried that drive would take longer than I thought after getting mileages from map quest et al, had a touch of dire rear although not liquid.  Got on the road by 9:30 which is pretty good for my history.

The drive up went well until the wheels came off right outside of Worland.  Okay it was only one wheel off of my two axle trailer and I saw it start smoking in the mirror and slowed up and pulled over, it fell off as I pulled over I think, it was 20-30 yards back in the road ditch and sizzling hot but it started raining so it didn't start a grass fire or anything awful.

I put on the ratty old old sweatshirt that had been tossed in my trailer a year or so ago and my duster to retrieve the tire in the rain.   Had a heck of a time getting it into my p/u bed and was bummed that no strong males stopped and offered to help.   If I had left the last horse stall empty I could have put it in trailer but I had not and still didn't want to unload the young horses next to road.  Luckily the thin plank I use to set the trailer jack on so it doesn't sink into soft ground was just barely long enough to serve as a ramp and I was able to get the tire rolled onto the p/u tail gate after a couple of fails.  It didn't help the efforts that I was being careful not to grab the center wheel hub that had come off the axle because I was nervous it might be still hot and burn my hands through my riding gloves even though they were now soaking wet.

Rolled into the Cenex at the edge of Worland and spotted a tire shop behind the gas station part.  They only did tires but the manager was the kindest soul, called a trailer shop place who came out and looked at it but could not do any kind of repair and the three of them brainstormed and found someone with a trailer to haul my horses to the ride camp so I could limp out there with the 3-tired trailer.   My emergency ride had a metal floored trailer -diamond patterned for some grip but still I was nervous of slipping horses.   OMG I am so impressed with Tanza's mind, Sadie was askeered to go in that noisy trailer but Tanza hopped right in with just me giving him light pressure as the guy had his lead rope.  None of the other folks was horse savvy enough to apply any pressure to Sadie so he tied Tanza and came out to give her encouragement to load and Tanza stood tied nicely as can be.

We missed the ride direction sign at Hyatteville and guys in the bar said "its just past town on this road -- we get there and it was two ATV trailers,  I had to dig out my atlas of WY with FS roads and seeing Cold Springs road remembered that Tim had said that was the road and my driver knew that road then.   Got to ride camp shortly before dark and unloaded horses and tied to my trailer.  I had to throw fuel money in the truck when we got the horses unloaded at ride camp to get him and his friend to take it.   I don't know if the bag lady sweatshirt made them think I was poor as a church mouse or what but by gosh I was NOT going to let them go without taking money for fuel when it was almost 100 miles round trip for him to drive to have hauled me.  

I was very very happy that they pushed the ride start back to 9:00 because of rain so I would have time to check in and vet in the morning.   Saturday I did the 25 mile ride on Sadie.  I was slow getting her out of camp and the controlled start person was doing a trot down the shoulder of the highway.  Luckily Tenesee was starting really slow on a couple of first time horses,  one with front easy boots with snow studs that were not working out very well so Sadie had some company to go by various "scary" stuff but not a big crowd to make her nervous.   T pulled off the boots off a mile or so out because the studs were bothering, and rode slower than she normally would (I  think, even with 1st and 2nd time start horses cuz she has horses well conditioned at home before going to rides.)

I was slow out of the vet check and hold and Sadie had to do the last loop by herself.  She was quite good about it for me after the first 1/2 mile .  She finished sound.  Really sound, not "she is OK to get the complete but there is a little bobble" but fully sound.  YAY.   She was getting a girth rub after the first loop so I put the treeless saddle on for last loop and had to hop off and lead her out because she was doing high rollbacks (baby rears in there) and I was no comfortable to ride out much shenanigans in that treeless saddle; and OMG I did some 50's in that saddle on Shade and multiple 25s but I hated riding 10 miles in it after having used only my wonderful synergist saddle the last couple of years.   I'm going to have to use a crupper on Sadie to keep the saddle from inching forward and irritating her armpit area.  I want to get a trail-wise saddle but I want to wait until Tanza is up to normal weight  to see if Synergist will keep working awesome on him.

Sunday I entered Tanza as "Red" in the 25 so that I could R/O after the first loop and not have the pull on his record.  He did awesome.  They started right at the dot of 7:00 am and I had not adjusted my clock in my trailer and it was 5 minutes slow so everyone was already out.  I walked him out and down the first few hundred yards of highway and then hopped on.  There was a gal on a roan dun mustang that was only doing a slowish trot a couple hundred yards in front of us and I really wanted to catch them as I wanted to see how Tanza rode with other horses, plus I wanted him to have the security first time riding him in a strange place.   He got nervous of some cows next to the highway and I had to hop off and lead him that couple hundred yards until we turned on to the gravel road.

Then I hopped on and asked him to focus on the mustang and "reel him in" and by gum my rare gem did just that.    It was fun riding with W and Diesel.   She was letting him take it easy because she rode a fairly fast paced 50 on Saturday.  We got to the turn around point and she asked Diesel to canter headed for home.  OMG,  Tanza was keeping pace and having a grand old time and it was such a rush but after a couple miles I was like "I can't let Tanza keep this pace for 7 miles, he is not legged up for it" and pulled him up, which he did not want to do -- but thank goodness Diesel slacked off his pace a bit when Tanza was not right there keeping it up so I was able to let Tanza keep D in sight just a 100 yards or less in front and then we caught up and rode faster than going out but not at a pace that had me worried.

Tanza was not a bit tired at the vet check and trotted out with the vet saying "he looks like he could do 100 miles today"  but it had rained quite a bit on Saturday and I stuck to the plan to pull him rather than take him out on slip slidey footing after his first long faster paced ride ever.   Then he slipped and went down on his side just leading him back to the trailer in the wet grass and I was like "its a sign that I needed to pull, I would have gone back and pulled now if I had not already made the decision"  but OMG I am so excited to get him legged up and see what he can do.  I think he will indeed be able to do the Big Horn 100 next year if we avoid injury and I condition him properly for it.  

The RM and trail master at the ride did not seem to be grokking that I had NO cell phone service so I could not call the repair place the  trailM suggested etc.  I did borrow someone with Verizon cell service on Saturday and got ahold of dad to come with my B/P trailer so I could haul the horses home and he could stay with big trailer as it got fixed.    Sunday evening dad was not showing up and I was worried he got lost or something but he had just been delayed by a big mudslide blocking the road through wind river canyon and had to turn around past Shoshoni and go all the way back through Buffalo (he didn't want to try gravel roads after all the rain)  and then late on Sunday heading out of Buffalo 16 was closed from a small mudslide so he had to just get a motel room and spend night in Buffalo.   Monday I unhooked my p/u so I could get out and make phone calls, could not get thru to dad's cell because we both have crappy plans but I set up to take trailer to place Tim had suggested and left message with RM in case Dad would not be able to make it.  Went back to ride camp and Dad showed up about an hour later.  Whew.  Called RM to let her know that but not positive that message went through as the automatic answering service was acting weird.

I was in power drive mode all the way home,  didn't have to stop and pee too much and tried to keep speed down to 70 as I don't like to tow going faster than that but motored right along except the curvy bits of 16 going over the Bighorn range.   Got home about 9:30 pm which was good time.  Ole was gone, had a message that he was running around from one neighbor and then one from another that she had brought him into her yard so he would not get in trouble.  I left the door to the garage open and big door too when I rushed out to fetch Ole and Boots got out, and I had no water as the hydrant had been left on and run the well dry --but I only needed to reset the pump this morning (could have done last night but forgot) and saw Boots this morning and was able to fetch him in from open small shed where we have the old horse buggy parked.  WHEW,  I was feeling so bummed that he might end up killed because of Ole's crap and my lack of attention.

Ole got a run this morning, acted kind of tired but I wanted him well exercised so he did the full mile or so that I had gone out before letting him out of car.   Tomorrow if Mia again decided she does not need to come I will take Ole on foot so I can get my jogging in at the same time.  

nervous about hauling Sadie and Tanza to ride

I'm not feeling like I have such cold feet I'll abort going but I definitely am feeling nerves.  I used to always take Grey or Grey and Shade out of trailer to eat grass and offer them water which they would never drink when I was hauling to a ride but I'm not comfortable to do that with these 2 and no other person along to help reload them and make sure they stay safe out of the trailer.  

It is not a super long trip so they should be fine so long as I give them some wet mush in the trailer but I'm still a bit nervous.  Plus nervous of are they ready for the riding and camping when we get there.

However I really want to get back into endurance and I really really want to break out of my rut of staying home, just taking short field road rides and doing housework on the weekends and resenting the cooking and laundry chores.   So I decided to take the day off work to pack before my hauling so I can be more prepared with wet mush handy,  get an earlier start with them etc.

I did get rides on them on the weekend.   Rainy weather has not helped but has not completely prevented riding for me.   Forecast for the ride location is nice and for home is at least some rain so that tips the scale to "lets go"

Took a quick ride on Sadie on Thursday

It was not the vitamin H break in a rainy period it should have been because she ducked and I lost a stirrup and would have stayed on but she was spinning.  I  had one rein pulling her into the spin and could not get re-combobulated to loosen that rein and snug the other one and ending up hitting the ground on my back hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

But she got exercise that day and I wasn't hurt so we will resume next week as the ground dries out.  The horse pens are sloppy messes.  I'm so annoyed because I just paid to have the skid steer guy out a couple months ago and would have been happy to pay more that day to have him dig out more crap and replace with sand vs having to have him out again already but in fairness to dad supervising for me I have tended to not want a lot of loose sand sifting into what the horses eat and since I thought it was going to be a dry spring following the dry winter how should he have guessed correctly.

Its just so annoying to feel like I should run the tractor as soon as pen is dry enough to allow when I desperately want to get the hell away from the house doing some horse camping on some weekends before I let my "I'm NOT a damned volunteer cook and char woman" feelings overwhelm me.

So today I'm in the office so I can take a day off during the week when weather is nicer, and that will be Wednesday when vet is coming for health certs and giving rabies vaccine shots to my 2 allergic youngsters that I was holding off on vaccinating in case the vaccines stirred up allergies and I will go to WY for memorial weekend ride with the not terribly fit horses and then to Texas ride that I have a free entry to and its 3 days with intro rides so I can take Tanza on a shorter distance.  I don't know what I'll do in WY, just ride him one day, or enter and see how he does and not worry about pulling or what, its an excuse to get away.

Rode Tanza Saturday and Sadie Sunday

It was gray and humid this morning so I decided to skip riding.  Tomorrow I have to drive in to Boulder and run dad home so he can leave his car at dealer to get a new spoiler put on, then drive back to Boulder for work so I won't be riding even if its a perfect sunny morning.  

Both weekend rides went well.  Tanza was a bit balky about going north or south (I didn't care which direction)  when we reached the irrigation ditch but did not take too much to work him through it.  He was uneasy again well before the fence line where I turn around but since it was a weekend I went "ha ha, I'm not in any hurry today so I have time to work through this"  

Sadie was pretty good.   I was going to ride fields and add a couple extra miles but it looked like the field had been planted so I only went a little over 1 extra mile where the ditch road ran and then I did the little hill going up from the irrigation ditch an extra time cuz I love cantering up that hill.

Rode Sadie Wed and Tanza Thursday.

Skipped the other days with week with errands and being generally slow in the mornings.

Sadie was pretty good,  we went 4 miles with quite a bit of canter.  I felt nicely in sync with her.

I was running late and not in mood to lead Tanza while he sped in front and kept making me turn him in a circle when he turned so I hopped on near home.   Riding went fine,  he was a bit of a brat and I growled and kicked him and he went better.   I think he has gotten past being overly nervous so riding him and working through stuff is probably right now unless there is a commotion I need to get past on the first road stretch.   I actually only went about 2.5 miles with him as I was running really late and decided to turn around before he decided it was scary ahead and I had to work him past whatever because I get to decide when we turn around + not rush away.    I taped him today and he has gained 40 pounds since being wormed so getting a lot of extra feed in the mornings is working.   He is looking pretty good too.  He needs another 20-40 pounds over his back and rump but the weight gain is coming along nicely.

Rode both Tanza and Sadie on Saturday

I almost whiffed riding Sadie on saturday because it got gray and a bit windy but I knew it was supposed to rain on Sunday and the wind let off a bit.   Ended up having a nice enjoyable ride, did only go 5 miles instead of bumping to more of a conditioning length ride but quite fun.

Really enjoyed Tanza on Saturday morning.  I'm still leading him out the first .4 miles.  I'm using the excuse of needing to get some walking in on weekends anyway but mostly it is just a nice way to avoid stress.   Once I got on he wanted to canter right away and I was 'ummmm.... yeah we can see how this goes I do like to canter'    I did slow to a trot when we got to the downhill slope because I don't want to find out if my balance is good enough to handle a downhill crow hop.    Trotted a bunch on the way out and then walked heading back because he was willing to trot out, then was a bit worried that some boogie was behind him and than when he relaxed and wasn't feeling like he was wanting to rush away from a boogie I decided relaxed walking was a good thing anyway.  Then I asked him to trot and he offered canter instead up the gentle hill towards home.

 He is a lot of fun and has gained 20-25 pounds according to the weight tape since I taped him to get the wormer dose a few weeks ago.   He needs to gain at least another 25, maybe even 50 but its moving the right direction and gradual gain is safest.

Sunday it was indeed rainy, I think we got 1 to 1.5 inches over the 24-30 hours from Saturday middle of night to monday morning.  I did a bunch of laundry and treated myself to a Sarah Hoyt novel.  I have not quite finished it , decided I could savor the last bit and be happier than if I stayed up extra late and started the week being tired.    Finished up Quicksilver early Sunday morning and decided I'd read some fun shorter and faster novels before starting on 2nd book in the series even though I really enjoyed the side dish of history and character descriptions of various 17th century  math/scientists or natural philosophers as they called themselves.

Need to resume posting

Even if it is only short riding diary snatches.  

On that front I had 2 good rides on Tanza last week.  He is acting more relaxed going out solo and I am gaining trust in him.  I'm still keeping to walk/trot to keep things calmer but have had some good, longish trots.

Sadie has been a ping pong ball a lot lately but I know there is no blow up after the sideways jumps so am enjoying riding her regardless.  She was better Monday when I rode her, not perfect but not as many side jumps.

Sunday it was chilly and windy all day and I just read for several hours.  I should decide I can read in a disciplined way and read an actual book for a few hours every week.

I am 4.5 weeks into my I will jog or walk every M-F.   I've been a bit more brittle in mood, not sure if related.  It does feel like its becoming a habit.  I'm trying to decide on skipping Weds. to give the knees recovery time or go every day for the mental habit reinforcement once the 6 weeks are up.

I bought 4 pairs of tennies yesterday at Payless.  Hopefully that will hold me for 1.5 years or so, I hate making a special stop to buy shoes, even at Payless where its easy to find the sizes I need and no irritating clerk hovering insisting I should buy ladies extra wide instead of just using men's and then having to run to the back because they only have the cute teeny sizes out for display.  Monday I noticed the pair I was going to wear had one shoe ripping across the sole,  I didn't want to try to use them and have it rip clean thru and leave me hobbling home on my jog.  Tossed them last night.   Wore one new pair a bit in office last night and they are so comfy.  The intact old pair is going to become infrequent in the rotation if that comfy feeling holds up with the new shoes.

Mia is back to normal, getting antibiotics

Whew,  with the level of panting and lethargy that night even though she was better the next morning I figured she was in serious decline.   The vet checked her over and 'heart is good, lungs are clear ...'  He figured she had an infection.  She had a patch of raw skin on her neck.  It didn't really look like an abscess underneath but she is much better after the first few doses of antibiotic she is to get for 2 weeks so his diagnosis is probably correct.   She was panting and lethargic again the night after going to the vet so I gave her another dose of prednisone but then the antibiotics seemed to kick in and she got back to normal in couple days. 

Mia is not doing well

She is quite old for a big dog but just a week ago I was thinking how well she is doing.  Well that is better than a slow painful decline but I still haz a sad. 

I gave her an aspirin and a 10mg of prednisone last night and she was up and eating and drinking a bit  after I went out to feed horses this morning so I guess that helped.    Thank goodness.    It was a full George Carlin last night getting home at 11pm and having Dad announce Mia is not doing well and of course he had not tried to get her to a vet or called the former vet tech sister for advice on what we could give her from home supplies or even called me at work earlier in the evening so I could suggest something or tell him to call sister and get advice before it was too late to call anyone.  

Federal taxes done except looking up tax due

I got everything filled out just with the sidebar directions and looking at my last years' form so I didn't even pull up the huge instruction sheet yesterday.   Need to pull it up to get the amount due and then I can move on to the state forms.   I think I could do the ND one right now but I need to figure out what donations I gave last year since I can deduct them on the CO state taxes w/o having had to itemize the federal one which my standard deduction is higher since no mortgage insurance or other big ticket deductions and I will want to take whatever I can for the CO taxes since their rate is plenty high.


I've been riding Sadie and Tanza and having fun with it but not really in a conditioning for endurance rides yet mode.   Canceled tentative plans to go to a charity ride w/ open miles next weekend and volunteered to be on call at work instead.   Kind of bummed but I think I need to ride more at home before Tanza is ready for traveling and I'm just not ready to pack up trailer and stuff yet.

Went almost 3 miles on Tanza today.   Not very far but he was pretty good and we did some trotting for a pretty good stretch w/o me feeling like he was getting too wound up and might try to bolt for home or shy hard and dump me.   Went 5 miles Saturday on Sadie.   She was plenty wound up but I'm confident on her that I can sit out any spooks and that she wont bolt.  

I wish I didn't feel so stressed when I spread a little truth

But for my overall self-respect I need to keep up with the truth spreading, maybe the clench in my guts when I push back against a lie that a casual friend is reposting on FB will go away with practice,  it is hard to be a happy warrior when one is worried about friends going "ow my eyes" when you yank back the curtains but they need to learn to be skeptical of the MarxSpewMedia and like the pupils of a person who has been holed up in dark room will adjust and they can see the pretty colors they were missing ...... 

On the personal front I'm still doing the jogging and walking.  I had to force myself to go out yesterday but it felt SO good when I was putzing down the trail.   I do need to be sure to have allergy meds because my spring allergies are flaring.  I may even need to use the treadmill at work but I don't think I'd enjoy it so I'm hoping I can just use modern drugs and enjoy the great outdoors.

I'm pretty low on mileages but have been riding both Sadie and Tanza.  Life is not too bad, just need to keep working on finding the balance between overloading with negative information vs letting the media lie to me,  limiting time in comments sections helps a bit with not feeling over-run by the doom.  

Trying to get myself in shape, fun 4 rides in last 4 days

I rode Tanza Friday and Sunday and Sadie Saturday and this morning.   Sadie is acting like a snorty goofball these last two rides.    I'd put her on raspberry leaves except she got hives when I tried that last summer.  I don't know that its hormones anyway.   If I was one to quickly blame feed for every little thing I'd think the equine senior is giving her too much molasses or something but I tend to think that is BS.

Tanza was fairly good.  I am still thinking OMG I am just getting too old for a green young horse.  He is pretty good but he gets to rushing on the way home and I get overly tense about it.   Oh well I think we'll get through this stage.  I had similar misgivings with Sadie w/ extra bonus of "since I turned the saddle on her, she is never going to trust me"  and that passed with some tincture of time.

Friday I went "I have GOT to start exercising and boost my metabolism, I cannot stand how fat I'm getting and I have not been eating that badly."

Two times jogging/walking  -Friday and today and Sunday I led Tanza out to get a good walk in + not be worried that a 4-wheeler would surprise him.   I also did quite a bit of hoeing grass and pulling out the dried up stalks from last years hollyhocks in mom's gargantuan flower bed both weekend days.  

There are a few crocus blooming and the tulips are up and looking healthy but don't have any flowers yet.   There are a few spots where it looks like I should dig the bulbs and replant them for better spacing.  I may have to ask the gardening folks when to do this.  Or even try to find the info in one of mom's old gardening books.

I need to keep up the jogging and make it into a habit rather than dropping after just a few times so I am trying hard to not overdo at the start and feel like I'm getting sick which has been a common thing I do when I think I'm going to start exercising.   I never get back to it when I take a week or 2 off to make sure I don't end up sucking infection deep into the sinuses.   This time the plan is to still take walks if I feel like I might be getting sick to try to keep it up for the six weeks or so they say it takes to get it into a habit.

Pretty good ride on Tanza today

I took him out solo.   He was a bit nervous but did not feel like he was on the verge of getting overwhelmed.   I had so do some "ha ha ha" and singing when I realized I was overly tense in my body.   I was half expecting a 4-wheeler to pop over a hill and send Tanza into a spook and bolt but tense rider is not helpful.  Thankfully I remembered the ha ha ha and then singing from centered riding clinics and was able to relax enough to ride halfway decently.    Feels good for getting him going and having a good mount although I may have to scale back some tentative early season rides I had thought I might try to go to.   How did it get to be mid March already?