Praire Fire

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

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

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

hooboy could be a long week

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

We survived the weekend but I'm much poorer

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


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

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

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

quick training note

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

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

training log update

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

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

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

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

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

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

Non training stuff:

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

Kind of Lazy 4th at home

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

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

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

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

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

Not going to Wyoming this weekend

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