It’s Weather and Dogs!

I am now less than ten days out from the Death Valley Encounter ride. So, of course, it's time for things to get crazy!

Mac (last mentioned when he lacerated the roof of his mouth two months ago) managed in spectacular fashion to fracture his upper right canine. Well, that rather turned out to be the tip of the iceberg.

The story starts with our morning walk on Friday (12-17). Fairly early on, Mac, Jazz, and Ash (aka "Team Fluffy") tore off after some unidentified critter. I didn't notice right away. By the time I did, they had disappeared into the rocks and brush. We continued walking and called and called. Roxy at one point heard them and started running ahead to meet them. I didn't like her being alone with her rickety back end, so I ended up running down the hill after her. There were several tense minutes of calling and whistling when Ash and Jazz came running back. But there was still no sign of Mac.

We continued to call and whistle. I thought I heard Mac bark once. He's supposed to make a lot of noise when in pursuit, but this isn't a lesson he's gotten a good hold of. I was pretty sure he was after a coyote, not a critter I'm real comfortable about him dealing with alone. After several more minutes, during which we turned around and headed back up the hill, Mac finally came running back to us.

When he got back to me, I noticed Mac had a little blood on him. I checked him over, finding minor wounds on his chin and upper lip, and a scrape on his right wrist. I lifted his lips and inspected his teeth. I found nothing out of the ordinary. We continued on home, where I fed breakfast and we loaded up Hoss for our ride.

Mac did just fine on our ride. There was never a moment that he seemed in the least uncomfortable or unhappy. He was his normal happy self, chasing squirrels and running ahead so he could torment Ash. Jazz seemed a little less than her usual self. Indeed, I noticed that she has a very slight limp on her right front at the trot. She was staying pretty far behind, and a few times I felt the need to slow down or stop to let her catch up.

After our ride, I had to very quickly get changed and the truck unhitched to get down to the church. My bell choir group was scheduled to perform at Jungle Bells and I was one of the "designated drivers" to schlep bells to the zoo. We arrived at the zoo, got the bells stowed, and went to "high tea" with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, it started raining. Because our bells are brass and our music paper, we were unable to perform. So, we loaded the bells back up and returned them to the church, then headed home.

When we arrived home, I fed the horses their dinners before coming in to take care of dogs. My husband at one point grabbed Mac by the face, something he does regularly, only to have Mac cry out and pull away. Suspicious, I leaned down to inspect him, thinking the reaction was far more serious than the injuries I knew about warranted. I lifted his lips and immediately noticed that his right canine was virtually gone.

I brought him around to show my roommate the injury, whereupon I discovered she'd been waiting to tell me there was a significant amount of blood on the floor and walls in her room. It was immediately clear that Mac had done most of his bleeding in her room. We found a blood trail that led back outside. What happened to cause this we have no idea. We can only guess that he was somehow in her room when the tooth broke free.

It was late in the evening and I knew there was no point in taking him to the vet at that late hour. They would only be able to give him pain control and keep him over night to take care of the extraction of the broken tooth in the morning. I have Tramadol and Rimadyl in the house. I gave him a dose of each of those, plus we applied some Anbesol to the broken tooth. I called the vet's office and let them know there'd be an emergency extraction in the morning!

We took Mac to the vet's office in the morning and left him for his dental cleaning and extraction. They called me some time later to let me know that he didn't have just one fractured tooth. He had three fractured teeth plus two incisors that were falling out! Poor guy lost five teeth!

We don't know exactly how this happened. The working theory is that he got ahold of that coyote and they scrapped. We're hoping there's a very dead coyote out there somewhere!

In the midst of all this, the rain started. I had three days of work scheduled. It rained until late Wednesday night. I had work planned for Thursday, but also an appointment with the orthopedist for my shoulder. This meant we only had about five hours to work! And we couldn't work Friday because my assistant already had something else he had to do. So, we were on the muscle and got four full shoes down, plus three trims.

This, of course, does not mean I'm caught up. I still have those two days that didn't get done. So, when I've finished with Death Valley, on Monday morning I have got to get under some horses. I have four days of work scheduled, and not simple, short days, either. And Warner Springs is the next weekend, for which I am also entered. I am going to be one very tired person!

In the mean time, I am frantically getting ready to go the Death Valley, and stuff keeps cropping up. My daughter is going with me, and we've decided we are taking the two eldest dogs with us. I counted pills, and discovered just today, the day before we leave, that one of the dogs would run out of a critical med before we were done! Not just that, but I wouldn't be able to refill this without doing bloodwork on said dog, first. So we ran him off to the vet's before church, and did a great deal of running around after church with his little butt in the car. We got home late, and I fed and blanketed and had some dinner, then started trying to figure out what I need to pack.

At the moment, I am mildly freaking out about what I may have forgotten or might forget. I keep running through things in my head, and the only stuff I can think of cannot be packed until tomorrow. My worst fear at this point is forgetting pillows. You have no idea how important pillows are until you don't have them!

With any luck, we'll be on the road by 8am. Wish us luck!

Conditioning Ride 12-17-2010

HR: 36

HR Return: 68

HR 10 min: 48

Miles: 7.9

Moving Average: 5.1mph

Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

We went for another quick spin around Hollenbeck for this ride. Seems Hollenbeck is the only place I have enough time to get to these days. I really hate the shorter days! I'll be very happy when the days start getting longer again.

At any rate, I once again had somewhere else to be, so had to make it a quick ride. Since I want Hoss to have ten days or so off before the start of Death Valley, this was also the last day I had to get a ride in.

We did the ride at a pretty good clip, but not too fast. Slower, really, than the last several rides we've done at Hollenbeck. I was working on my new leg lesson thingy. I have to think, "thigh, calf, thigh, calf," as I go along in the trot. This is relatively easy, although my mind will wander as I think about where we're going to go or whatever is playing on my iPod. Well, at the walk, I really need to think, "this thigh and that calf, this thigh and that calf," doing opposites. Not so easy. I can think "this thigh, that thigh," or "this calf, that calf," but not about opposite structures. Much harder. And I discovered that I really didn't get the canter part down as much as I'd have liked, which I had suspected.

Hoss doesn't exactly do his best to tell me I'm doing things right when he's amped up for a trail ride, either. And on this particular ride, he seemed extra amped up. He was acting like he was utterly convinced there was something gonna get him. What's supposed to happen when I do my riding right is he's supposed to lower his head. I'd get him to drop his head for a stride, maybe two, but he'd immediately pop it back up, staring off into the distance. I know I was still doing it right. It's really nice, though, when I actually get the feedback from him!

About halfway through our canter down the long flat, a pair of bicyclists was cruising toward us. Hoss acted like it was the scariest, most horriblest thing he'd ever seen! I got him slowed down and mocked him roundly for behaving that way. I needed to really work on getting what Beth had tried to teach me, so I got him back up to the canter and concentrated on what I was doing.

It feels good to trust Hoss enough to really concentrate on what I'm doing and not feel like I need to be spending a whole lot of energy on what he's doing. In fact, at some points I was draping the reins over my saddle bag and strictly using my legs and seat. It was good practice. At some points I had to pick up the reins and correct him when he just didn't want anything to do with what I was telling him. That happened when we reached a turn where going the way I wanted to go was longer than the other way.

When we got back to the trailer, Hoss was staring hard at something I couldn't see. I wasn't even convinced it was there. He was so spun up about it that when I initially took his heart rate, he was at 80bpm. I didn't believe that was true as a measure of what was going on strictly due to exercise, so I redirected him got his attention focused back on me, and tried again. This time I got 68, which I believed. After I'd untacked and we were waiting the remaining time until I checked his heart rate again, the bicyclists arrived, as well as two people with a tracking dog. Okay, so maybe he had heard/seen them and was freaked out about them. Not that he should have been!

12-15-2010 A Lesson!

I had originally planned to take Hoss for a long ride on the 14^th, but between him having had such a scary fall the day before, and me being unbelievably tired, I gave it up as a bad job and had lunch with my daughter instead. One reason for having a trail ride on Tuesday was to make sure Hoss had his brain together for a lesson on Wednesday.

Despite skipping the ride the day before a lesson, Hoss did really well. We worked on the next step toward our other goal: Dressage. Beth has a lot to fix on me. It doesn't help that I'm not consistent about lessons. I really need to commit to taking two lessons a month at least. So today, Beth worked with me on getting my legs moving properly. My problem has been a swinging right leg. Makes it way harder to control the horse if I can't control my leg! So she's been building up the steps to get me to where I have better control.

The arena is not my favorite place. I've had a bit of "arena-phobia" for as long as I can remember. I think it dates back to horse camp when I was a kid. I can't point to any one incidence, but I've had an aversion to the arena ever since. It's bizarre. My horse can run away with me full tilt on the craziest trail and I just ride it out, but the same thing happens in an arena and I just go to pieces. I must say I'm getting better. In my last lesson I had a total freak out about the whole thing because I couldn't "let go" enough to relax into the canter. This lesson was much easier, and I felt much more comfortable in the arena.

The problem I had in this lesson is that I am just far too literal minded. When Beth gave me an instruction on leg movement while I was trotting, I thought it only applied to the trot. This is how literal I am. If she'd said, "Do this in all gaits," I would've gotten it immediately. As it was, I was getting frustrated because I felt like she was being unclear. Beth then said, "You have to do it at the walk, too." Okay, fine. Applies to the walk, too. Again the literal-mindedness comes into play, and it doesn't even occur to me that it would apply in the canter, too! By the time we got to the canter, I was frustrated and getting a little spun about it. So my freak-out in this lesson was over that.

Once we got the freak-out out of the way, we were able to continue on with the lesson. By now I was working on canter transitions. At this point, I was into it. I wanted to get it down and know what I was supposed to be working on. Hoss, on the other hand, was getting annoyed by the whole arena thing. It's not the arena specifically he doesn't like. I think he just hates doing something over and over again when he already knows it! By the time we got to the canter, he was in full-on "I'm going to do everything I can to ignore/disobey you" mode. It didn't help that one of the things Beth was having me work on was correcting him strictly with my legs and seat. Well, Hoss isn't stupid. He figured out I was supposed to touch his face. He started pretending I wasn't doing anything! I did correct him a couple of times by backing him, which made a huge difference. This is how I know he was just being annoyed and didn't want to play anymore. We got a few good canter transitions. Beth asked if I wanted to keep going or stop at that point. I chose to stop, not because I didn't really want to keep going and try to do better, but because I felt Hoss was over it. If I'd thought we could keep going and not have him get worse, I would have.

So now I have this lesson to work on. This should be an adventure.

Conditioning Ride 12-13-2010

HR: 36

HRR: 68

HR 10 Min: 48

Miles: 5.4

Moving Average: 5.6 mph

Time: 57 min

I was surprised this wasn't a faster average! It sure felt like we were going at a better clip than 5.6 mph. Still, what a cool ride.

We ended up not having a whole lot of time to squeeze in a ride. I had an appointment to keep at 2pm, and we didn't hit the trail until a little after noon. I wanted to get a good fast ride in anyway, but I usually feel vaguely disappointed after rides this short. This was not one of those times.

It was a very hot day. I think temperatures at the house were near 100. I was using the air conditioning at the house! This, I figured, was a real challenge for a horse in full winter coat – even with a trace clip, Hoss has a coat to keep a yak warm -- and three black dogs.

We hit the trail at a good clip, Hoss wanting to move out right away. I had to keep him checked to get that half mile warm up in. Once we were out on the trail, I let him pick up the trot.

Going through one of the rocky dips, Hoss got a foot hung up. He started going down, scrambling to keep his feet under him. I fell forward, caught myself on his neck with my hands, and tried to keep myself upright and out of his way so he could get back up. For several very scary seconds, he continued to scramble. Just about the moment I thought there was no recovering, and started looking for a place to land, he managed to get his feet under him. Once he was back on all four, he headed right back out at a trot. I had to haul him to a halt to check him over. Despite scrapes on the fronts of both front hooves, and some marks in the hair on his legs, he was unharmed.

After making him walk a little to make sure he wasn't hurt, I let Hoss pick up the trot again. During the rest of our ride, he never showed any sign of being lame. We wended our way along, turning down the switch backs rather than going on up to the long hill. When we hit the flat, I let Hoss take up the canter. We cantered along, only slowing for technical areas, all the way past the old cattle corrals. I even let him take the near 90 degree turn at a canter.

Once back at the trailer, Hoss was quite sweaty and breathing hard. I took his heart rate right away and wasn't overly surprised to find him at 68 between the heat and speed we'd done. I got him untacked and started filling a bucket to sponge him off with. Another rider, who had returned before me, asked if I had water to spare. Her 28 year old horse wasn't recovering well from the ride. I filled her bucket and gave her a sponge to cool her horse with. Once she sponged him, her horse's heart rate came right down.

Hoss, too, was having a hard time recovering. He was still breathing hard when I started sponging him. I got plenty of cool water on him before I checked his heart rate again at ten minutes. The cool water was the trick. He'd come down to a very nice 48 at ten minutes.

It was a bit of an adventure, but a nice ride nevertheless.

Conditioning Ride 12-10-2010

HR: 36

HR Return: 60

HR 10 Min: 44

Miles: 13

Moving Average: 5.4mph

Time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

This was a fun, half-exploring sort of ride at Hollenbeck canyon. I have been doing some looking around and have decided there are more trails than immediately obvious. I knew I could get considerably more miles than I have been if I did it right. Of course, I've known all along that I could just do "laps" if it came to that, but that's a little boring. My goal was to cover as many miles as I could without going over the same section of trail in the same direction twice. I was okay with doing a section again if it was the other way; that at least makes it feel different.

The dogs were, of course, terribly happy to get out for a ride. It did become apparent that they were still somewhat pooped from all the riding we've been doing lately!

We struck out on the trail. After the first half mile "warm up," we turned right and started on our way through the rocky dips. Hoss was having a good time, but he wanted to get away from me. I had to check him back several times. He did eventually settle in to work.

At the junction where we usually turn right, I turned to the left and down the section of old ranch road. At the bottom, we turned right and up the single track/washed out ranch road we usually use the other direction. We got some good trotting in on a lot of this, learning to get over technical trail smoothly. At the top of the hill, we turned right onto the wide trail and trotted as much as we could until we got to the long downhill.

When we reached the bottom of the downhill, we were back where we had turned left at the junction. There is a trail that cuts across the top of the ridge here that I decided to include in our ride. I directed Hoss to this trail. He tried to turn left instead. After a bit of a discussion, he finally headed up the ridge trail. This trail turns off to the left and rejoins a trail that acts as a short cut. When we got to the short cut, we turned right, back toward the flat area on the "back" side.

We got to the flat area and I gave Hoss his head for a nice canter back to the first junction. Back at this point, we turned up the hill we had previously come down. When we made the turn onto the second part of the hill, we again cantered nicely up the hill. I didn't really let up on this ride. I expected him to trot every step he could! We turned back down the single track and rejoined the flat area, where we once again picked up the canter.

Hoss was happy to canter past the old cattle pens. I slowed him down, not really wanting to take the nearly 90 degree left hand turn at a canter. After we made the turn, and were back on reasonably straight trail, I let him canter some more. At the top of this section, he was happy to drop back down to a walk for a breather. This made the dogs happy, as they were all hot and very tired by this time. They'd run ahead and find spots in the shade to lie down and pant and rest until I caught up and passed them.

We headed on down through the last mile or so of the trails. On the downhill section, I let Hoss trot out, but when we turned the corner, he wanted to canter, so I once again gave him his head and let him go. When we reached the turn back toward the trailer, I slowed him back down and made him walk back to the trailer.

I was very happy with Hoss's recovery today. He came in with a good heart rate and came down further very quickly. I feel that his cardiac fitness level is improving very well.

Conditioning Ride 12-7-2010

Heart Rate: 36

HR Return: 48

HR 10 Min: 40

Miles: 13.6

Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes

Moving Average: 4 mph

Once again we took the dogs out to the steel bridge. My dogs were sure goofy after a day "off!" It's amazing how fast the rotten things recover. Although I must admit that they were less ridiculous than usual.

Hoss was more enthusiastic about this ride than the day before. He seems to be getting accustomed to this notion of going riding every day. I did have to park a little different than usual, which resulted in him having to move to let cars by. He doesn't like that too much, and boy was he giving me trouble about it! He did not want to move, and told me so. It's a little embarrassing when drivers of cars trying to get in and out of the staging area get to watch me shove and poke at my horse to get him to move out of their way.

Despite the frustration, we got saddled up and headed on down the trail. Hoss was much more energetic today. After two straight days of riding (three if you count zipping around the block) he was starting to perk up about the idea.

This was meant to be a somewhat faster ride. I wasn't looking for all-out run, but I wanted to get in some good trotting time on the flatter parts of this trail area. So this was a combination of heavy hill work and trotting work.

When we got out to an area where he could pick up the pace, I let Hoss have his head a bit and we trotted up to the base of our first heavy hill. He attacked the hill with a will and climbed with quite a bit of energy. He thinks he knows so much. He would aim himself at a section of trail and I'd have to correct him because, no, that's not the best way, even though it looks like it. See, there's a two foot drop off on the other side of those rocks, silly horse! He got a little huffy sometimes about me correcting him, but continued on cheerfully enough.

After we negotiated the SDG&E access road back to the trail down, we were heading down the more thrilling, steepest part of the trail when he decided he's had enough of being made to go over those nasty rocks! There's a place where really the only "good" place to go down is to step on this rather questionable looking rock and then off down about a foot of drop. Hoss isn't thrilled about this. He's convinced there's got to be a better way. Well, I can assure him there isn't. I've ridden that trail many times. All the better ways have been washed away! So he tried to turn around and go another way. We had to have a bit of a discussion, but he decided he'd let me have my way. This time….

Some further way down the trail, someone has built rather the oddest bridge I have ever encountered. I suspect it was built for the mountain bikers to use it as a jump. It sits between two rock outcroppings that are easily negotiable without the "bridge." This is at a slight, short downhill. The bridge connects the two rocks in such a way that the far end becomes a three foot drop off! It also manages to cut off the better of the two trails in that spot.

Hoss was not thrilled about the bridge. He'd gotten back to being energetic enough that he didn't just stop, he tried to spin! It didn't help that I was chatting on the phone at the time. I was able to prevent him from spinning and got him to stop and take a step toward the scary horrible new bridge before asking him to turn to the other trail and bypass the bridge. I have my doubts this little makeshift bridge is sturdy enough to take the weight of a horse!

Once we got to the flat open road, we set out at a nice trot, slowing only to negotiate a couple of wet areas. One of those areas has given us quite a bit of trouble. Some time ago, after some heavy rains, we had ridden here. When Hoss tried to cross the water, he sank into the mud past his knees! There's still dried mud on the back of my helmet from that adventure. We got to and crossed the cowboy gate and walked on up toward the gazebo.

While we were riding along the fence line, I noticed that the Canada geese are back. The Sweetwater Reservoir is a favorite layover for the Canada geese twice a year on their migration. There aren't as many there as there will be in the coming weeks, but it's kinda cool. I tried to get pictures, but really, I need to start carrying my digital camera. The one on my cell phone isn't good enough for this.

We walked most of the way up to the gazebo. It's not a terribly challenging trail most of the way. When you reach the foot of the hill where the gazebo is, though, it becomes quite steep and challenging. That's why I wanted to go that way.

Once we reached the gazebo, I let Hoss and the dogs stop for a rest. There is some nice grass growing on the hillside, so I let Hoss graze while the dogs laid in the shade and panted. I let everybody have about five minutes, then we set out again.

While we were heading along at a good clip, I spied a little motion. I soon recognized a coyote! This made me nervous. I've had a dog killed not far from there, so I was very worried about the three with me that day. Fortunately they were staying close by and listening. When Mac and Ash picked up the coyote's scent, I was able to call them off of it to follow. As we rode along, I realized there was a pair of coyotes. I watched those animals very carefully. I wasn't about to let them lure my dogs away! Fortunately one of the pair was not interested in us at all and led the other away.

We trotted again when we got back to the long flat road, this time doing more trotting, even in the muddy parts. I let Hoss walk for a bit of this area, dropping the reins on his neck and listening very carefully to the podcast I had on. It was very engrossing, an interview with the hold out on the Rod Blagojevich jury. So I didn't hear the bicyclist come up behind us. When he asked me if he could pass, it startled me just a little bit. Well, that was enough of an opening for Hoss! He tried to bolt. Laughing, I caught hold of the reins and stopped my not-even-remotely-frightened horse to let the bicycle by. Hoss was so not frightened he took the opportunity to graze.

While we were coming back in to the meadow, my daughter called to ask where we were. When I told her, she asked if we could have lunch. So after getting Hoss back to the trailer and cared for, I loaded the dogs and met her for lunch. We parked the truck and trailer right in front of the restaurant and sat at the window where we could see everybody. It was a lot of fun watching my dogs. To me, they look so cute and non-threatening. To people who don't know them, though, they look downright vicious! I'm pretty sure Ash was seeing us in the restaurant and knew it was us, too.

Conditioning Ride 12-6-2010

HR: 36

HR on Return: 52

HR 10 minutes: 44

Miles: 19.5

Time: 6 hours, 15 minutes

Average Speed: 3.3 mph

We had to leave the dogs behind for this ride. We headed on up to the mountains, Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Unfortunately dogs are not permitted in the park at all. And, after a couple of rides, they weren't terribly in need of exercise, anyway. They were more than ready for a day off. I wanted to get a long, slow ride in.

I parked at the Merigan parking area. After grooming and saddling, Hoss and I headed out for our nice little slow ride. I had plenty of podcasts and a book loaded on my iPod, so I was good to go!

Hoss was feeling a little confused. Didn't we ride yesterday? What the heck are we doing riding again? Well, that's sort of the point. Death Valley Encounter is four days. There are a couple of goals here. I need Hoss to get used to going out on long rides pretty much every day. He needs to get his back toughened up to having the saddle on every day. He is showing a little skin soreness from all this riding we've been doing! And I need to get my butt toughened up to many days in the saddle.

Once I got him saddled, Hoss was starting to show interest in going on a ride. This wasn't such a bad idea, after all! It was a nice cool day, which he really likes. Although I have trace clipped him, he has one of the fuzziest winter coats I've ever seen on a horse. Poor guy needs to live in Iowa or something. He's got a coat to make a wooly mammoth proud. I, on the other hand, needed my heavy sweatshirt and was still a little cooler than I'd have liked to be. I did forget to bring my half chaps along as well, which meant my lower legs were cold and exposed to trail hazards. I've got quite a few bruises and scratches because of that particular error!

I started us on up the Merigan Fire Road at a nice walk. Since we had ridden the previous night, and gone at a pretty good clip, Hoss was more than happy to do a calm, sedate walk. Yeah, we were doing the rent-stringer walk again. Oh, well. I'm hoping someday he'll start to walk faster.

I was planning on doing the trails that are used on the 25 mile Descanso ride in June, except to cut out about three miles. So off we were, and turned up the Sweetwater trail. Once we got up this trail a little way, I realized that we hadn't used this trail at the last Descanso ride. It had been cut out and we used the Blue Ribbon Trail instead, due to conditions on Sweetwater not being the greatest. Oh, well. We were going slow anyway, so it didn't much matter.

Yeah, it was a slow nice ride. When we got to South Boundary Fire Road, I ran into a client and her riding buddy whose horses live at a local ranch. We stopped to chat for a little while. It was quite funny, actually. For a moment they didn't recognize me! My client asked me who told me I could have a day off. We had a nice visit before we got on our way again.

The rest of our ride was across the highway, to West Side Trail, to West Mesa Fire Road, to Harvey Moore Trail, to East Side Trail, to some fire road the name of which completely slips my mind, to Saddleback Trail, to Merigan Fire Road. We saw a lot of deer. One pair stopped and watched us ride past from a distance. One deer bounded across the trail in front of us. I was so proud of Hoss. He didn't try to turn and bolt, instead he just stopped and asked me what it was.

Cuyamaca is such a lovely area. When we topped Harvey Moore, I could see all the way to Point Loma. What a view! I sort of understand why people like that sort of thing. I did take some pictures, but they don't seem to have come out very good. Personally I don't care much about a single view. I like to go around and see lots of them. So the view from my house doesn't really matter much, except for that which is my horses in the pasture.

While we were negotiating the East Side Trail, I realized that a) it was later than I thought, and b) I had forgotten about a section of trail. The result? I was going to be late! Oh, dear. I figured I'd be back to the trailer by 3:00 or 3:30, plenty of time to get home, take care of all the animals, and get on the road to bell choir rehearsal. Boy, was I ever wrong! At 4:30 I was still a good fifteen minutes up Merigan Fire Road from the trailer. I wound up emailing my bell choir director from the trail to let him know I was not going to make it. And this, the last rehearsal (aside from the dress rehearsal we will have this Saturday) before Service of Music! Oy! Of course, I don't miss much rehearsal, so I don't feel like I've done any serious damage to my ability to get through Service of Music.

By the time we did get to the trailer, the temperature had dropped considerably. My little weather station was reading 48 degrees. And there I was in my riding tights and a sweatshirt! My fingers and toes had started to tingle from the cold. At least I could switch my hands on the reins and stick one in a pocket to warm up. There was nothing I could do about my cold toes. So I got Hoss untacked and brushed out as quickly as I could, collected my data, and got him loaded up. I cranked up the heat in my truck and got us home, long after I should have been on the road to get to bell rehearsal. My wonderful husband had already fed the other two horses, and had Hoss's dinner set up in his pen for him. He also had a nice hot dinner waiting for me. It's so nice when he's home! He had even made me lunch for the trail.

All in all a good ride. Hoss did very well and looked pretty good at the end. His ears were perky and he looked like he was a little disappointed it was over.

Conditioning Ride 12-5-2010

Heart Rate: 36

Heart Rate on Return: 56

Heart Rate 10 minutes: 44

Miles: 9.04

Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

Moving Average: 5.2 mph

After church, I got the trailer hooked up and quickly loaded Hoss and Team Fluffy. We didn't have a great deal of time to accomplish a ride. It was time for a nice, quick ride anyway.

We rode at Hollenbeck canyon. I took the option of doing the flatter side first. I wanted to do a good canter on the long, flat area. So I kept Hoss to a trot on the earlier portions, sparing him for the longer run later in the ride. When we turned the corner and hit the flat area, I asked Hoss for a canter, and we took off! I didn't want an all-out run. This was meant to be a "breezing" speed, so I wanted a controlled and even canter. Hoss was very obedient and gave me what I asked for. The only area he has a problem with is where the seasonal creek crosses the trail. There are largish rocks and different colored dirt here. He finds it suspicious, and has to slow down in order to negotiate it. You'd think by now he'd have it figured out, but clearly he either doesn't or has decided he doesn't. Once we trotted through that, I asked him to canter again, and we continued until we reached the next hill. I asked Hoss to walk up the hill here.

At the top of this hill, you have two choices: either continue left up the hill, or go right and back toward the staging area. Hoss figured we should head back to the trailer. I disagreed. He tried to turn right, and I corrected him with a short backing, then asked him to go left. Giving me a mild huff, he headed more or less cheerfully on up the hill. I pushed him into a trot, and we trotted up to the sharp left. After the left, we like to have a good uphill canter. I gave Hoss his head and urged him forward into a canter.

This is another hill where Hoss likes to slow down early. Today, though, he managed to get through it and canter all the way to the top and not slow down until I asked him to. Once we passed the somewhat questionable section that's become slick and nasty from the rain, I asked him to trot some more. I pushed him pretty hard on this ride, looking to get some speed and push the envelope just a little bit.

Once we reached the apex and turned back down the hill, Hoss started moving out a little more enthusiastically. He likes going downhill! We made our way back down, rejoining the earlier trail at the bottom of the first hill. I turned him back up the hill and asked him to trot to the top. We encountered another group of riders at the top, spelling their horses. Hoss moved on easily enough. At least he's beginning to pass up other horses without wanting to join up with them!

We headed back down toward the staging area, trotting as often and as far as possible. Once back on the last half mile section to the trailer, I slowed him to a walk. We made it back to the trailer in good time and good shape.

While out on this ride, I did encounter one hunter. He was a very nice fellow and seemed like he might actually be reasonable and have a brain. The dogs sure seemed to like him, even Jazz, who has shown much skepticism about strangers. Running into hunters makes me nervous, no matter how nice and smart they seem. I think the dogs will be getting orange vests!

Ride 12-4-2010

I'm calling this a ride, rather than a conditioning ride, because we just zipped around the block. I didn't even bother taking Hoss's heart rate or collecting any of the usual data. I was doing this more for the benefit of the dogs than the horse!

Of course, there is no such thing as a "junk" mile. Every time I ride, something is accomplished, either to the positive or the negative. Riding "at home" has been something of an issue for Hoss. We have ridden quite a lot around home, and much of that was done while he was young and silly. So every time we ride here, it's like we've reset to young and silly. Additionally, there's a long hill that we always run up. The result is that he wants to take off and not listen to me very well. The downhill on the way home is another problem. Hoss wants to run home! This is the result of having once – once!—run home in response to the panicked barking of my littlest dog which was home all alone. The last time I'd heard the dog bark like that, he was under attack by coyotes. Running home, under those circumstances, is quite understandable.

So, aside from exercising my nutso dogs, I decided this would be a bit of a "lesson" ride. It's past time to start addressing these issues seriously. I need Hoss to be responsive and obedient no matter the circumstances.

The loop we take is about three miles. We set out at a nice pace. It's not until we get to the road with the running hill that Hoss really starts to get silly. So when we made the turn on to that road, I knew it would be time to start expecting him to actually respond and be obedient.

Now, I am a helmet nazi. I wear a helmet every time I get on a horse. I do have one problem. I tend to forget my helmet when I'm riding close to home. Whether it's because the majority of the time that I'm handling horses at home I'm not riding, or because I'm so sure I'll remember if I step away at the time I'd usually get my helmet, it's a bad thing. None of my horses are on their best behavior when we're riding at home. The point of all this: I got about a mile and half into my three mile ride, and realized my helmet was still in my trailer.

After getting over feeling stupid over forgetting my helmet, I knuckled down to finish my ride as safely as possible. Knowing I was without head protection probably made me more careful than usual.

By this point we were on the part of the road where Hoss starts to get excited about running up the hill. I asked him for a nice, even trot. Hoss was not real interested in the whole nice, even trot idea. I used a few one-rein stops in order to keep his brain with me. He was still going with his head very high, but that I will address once I've got the rest of the problems handled.

Once he was with me, at least enough to listen, I made him give me several strides of what I wanted, then asked him for a canter. Of course, he wanted to hand gallop! Since it's a hill, I have a better time of keeping Hoss checked. Still, I think he got in a good twenty strides of hand gallop before settling in to a proper canter. One of our issues on this hill is he wants to slow down much sooner than I want him to slow down. So I wanted to get him into a canter he could sustain as soon as possible. Once we achieved that canter, I was able to keep him moving until I decided it was time to slow down. One problem addressed!

Once past the hill, Hoss knows we're on our way home. I wanted to pick up my newspapers, though. So, rather than turn down the road toward home, I wanted to keep going to the next road where my papers are delivered. Hoss didn't want to go straight, he wanted to go home! We had a little discussion about that. It didn't take much to get him to do what I wanted.

When we reached the newspaper boxes, I started maneuvering him so I could pick up mine. Hoss is a stubborn fellow. I'd done something he didn't like, to wit, forcing him off the "expected" path. He knows how to side pass and he knows how to pull up next to something. We've done this many times. But today he was not going to do what I wanted if he could help it! I directed him up to the boxes, and he immediately decided they were scary. I didn't fall for it. Hoss isn't afraid of much, and it was clear he was bluffing. I backed him as a correction, turned him about and tried again. This time he was nearly there, and turned his hind end out. Yet again the backing as a correction, turn and come back. This routine was repeated three or four times before Hoss decided I wasn't going to give up and aligned himself next to the box. I reached in and pulled out my papers without incident.

After successfully recovering the newspapers, I tucked them under my arm and we turned around to head home. This was the next issue to begin aggressively addressing. I'm a little over the whole jigging down the hill toward home thing. So, when Hoss slipped out of a normal walk and started either nazi trotting or doing this strange gait he does that feels something like he's trying to trot without trotting, I stopped him and backed him. I was somewhat hindered by the three newspapers I had tucked under my arm, but managed to lodge them between the pommel of my saddle and myself, only needing to support them a little to prevent their loss. At one point, Hoss decided he would back into the ditch along the road in an effort to force me to stop backing him. It didn't work. I just made him back out of the ditch! After about three of these corrections, Hoss walked reasonably home.

All in all a good ride. I was happy with the issues we addressed, and the three dogs – now nicknamed "Team Fluffy" – got their much-needed exercise.

2011 Ride Season Goals

A new ride season has begun! I have been perusing the ride calendar and I am quite excited at the prospects. Of course, not all the rides for the year are yet calendared, which makes planning my season a little more of a challenge. Still, I have a rough plan and my goals in mind.

1. Complete 500 miles in 50+ mile rides
   
2. Complete two multi-day rides
   
3. Complete one 75 mile ride (or greater)
   
4. Have Hoss's heart rate coming down to criteria within five minutes of entering vet checks
   

So far, I have a rather grander set of rides laid out than I have a goal of completing. I am planning to do Death Valley. Initially, I planned to do the Limited Distance, and that is how I entered the ride. Since then, I have been giving much more thought to doing the endurance distances. At this point, I'm thinking of it as if I am going to do the endurance distances. Should we actually do that, and complete all four days, that will give us 200 miles toward our 500 mile goal before the first month of the ride season is over. I have also mailed my entry for Warner Springs, which is on January 8, one week after Death Valley. If we complete all four days of Death Valley, I have no doubts Hoss can do another 50 in a week. That's really not too much to expect.

I put into my personal calendar the Twenty Mule Team ride. There is a 100 mile ride at this event, and it's a reasonably flat, easy ride. It's not really where I want to attempt my first 100. I'd like to do that at Git R Done. Git R Done is not on the calendar yet. I anticipate that it will be calendared, and if it is, we will either forgo Twenty Mule Team altogether or do the 65 mile ride. Git R Done is an elevator ride. That being the case, if we do that, I will enter the 75 mile ride with aspirations of elevating to the 100.

I have two other multi day rides, the Cuyama Oaks Pioneer and Lost Padres rides. These are a three day and two day ride, respectively. Whether I do either of these rides will depend upon Git R Done. Cuyama is in March, Lost Padres in April. Git R Done, at least insofar as I have seen, has been done in April. If we do Git R Done, we will forgo both of these multi days in favor of attempting a 100 mile ride.

With the rides I have on my calendar, I have 655 miles planned out before June. I don't expect to actually do all of the rides I have listed. That's a bit much! If we were to actually keep on that pace, we'd do over 1000 miles this season. Well, Hoss is just 6 years old. I'm not ready to push him *quite* that hard yet. I will therefore have to continue to tweak my calendar to stay in line with my goals as rides are posted.

Completing two multi-day rides should be highly doable. Death Valley will be our first multi-day and our first ride of the 2011 season. After that, the next multi-day is yet to be decided for certain. I do want it to be at least three days.

Getting Hoss's conditioning corrected so that he comes down to criteria more readily is my biggest challenge for the year. I will continue with the strategy of long walking trail rides with shorter, faster ones in between. The real challenge is in finding the time to get enough hours in. Adding to the problem, I am very likely facing surgery to repair my left shoulder. How much that will limit me, how long I will need to recover, I have yet to know. I am hoping, however, to work that in to my schedule! I can always have somebody else ride Hoss while I recover!

It’s Fun to Ride with Friends

After many months, my friend, Sandra Fisher, and I were able to get together for a ride. She and her horse, Max, haven't been getting out much lately. Her work keeps her busy much of the time, and it seems like the weather has been conspiring against her. Anytime she has had time to ride, it's been raining! I suffer from that this time of year, too. I'm not going to be out shoeing horses in the rain, so if it's not raining, I'm working. Fortunately it seems like Mother Nature is going to give us a little break.

Hoss just loves his cousin Max! Sandra and Max had arrived at Hollenbeck before we got there, and she was still grooming when I parked. When I opened the trailer to let him out, he hopped out and walked over to say hello to Max. These two guys just really seem to appreciate each other.

I have no data for this ride. Since it was planned to be a slow ride, and I was riding with Sandra and Max, I chose not to bother with it.

Max was his typical self on this ride, kind of a nut. He's one of those horses you really wish you could lunge the stupid off of, but it doesn't seem to work for him. He tends to sound like a freight train when he gets going. His flat walk is fast enough Hoss has to jog to keep up. Which just feeds Max's anxiety! He hears Hoss's trotting feet and wants to speed up.

In an effort to get Max wore down a bit, we went up the hills first. Hoss hadn't been out in a week, either, so he was a little silly, too. I still hadn't fixed his hackamore, so I was riding with the reins on the halter, fully expecting that this might be the first time in a long time he's succeeded in running away with me. Both horses were like overwound springs during this ride!

When we hit the single track, I spotted some hunters. Now, I'm pretty sure the hunters aren't allowed to be in that particular part of the recreation area. It was more than a little alarming. I had all three dogs with us, too. Mac, one of my boys, likes to run far and wide. I was very worried they'd accidentally shoot him! Fortunately he seemed to get the message that those people weren't to be trusted and stayed close to me and Sandra while we passed them.

Sandra is still recovering from an accident with her other horse, Lily. As a result, she doesn't quite have her horse trust back, even with Max. So she asked that we not canter on this ride. I could feel Hoss bunching up underneath me. He really wanted to run! But, I knew that he could deal, and I didn't want Sandra to be uncomfortable.

On the way up the first section of the long hill, Hoss was quite willing to trot, and even asked to slow down. I let him slow to a walk, since this was supposed to be a slow ride. Once we turned the corner, however, he wanted to take off! You can always tell the areas where we usually run. The dogs get completely wacko, fighting as they run along. I managed to communicate to Hoss that we needed to just trot, and he settled in and trotted up the hill just fine.

Once we turned about and were headed back down on the way "home," Max started getting even sillier. He's one of those somewhat barn sour types, although he's really not what I'd consider truly barn sour. I suspect he just needs more slow work. Max ended up leading down much of the hill back toward the trailers.

When we got near the flat, I heard Mac doing his excited high pitched bark, and spotted him pelting off after something. We stopped and I kept calling the rotten dog in the hopes he'd return! He finally did. Sometimes he really worries me, taking off like that. I couldn't tell what he was after.

Once Mac was back with the pack, we continued on our way. We didn't get much farther when we heard gunfire! I guess those hunters found something to shoot at. It was the only time we heard anything, but it was spooky enough by itself.

Once out on the flat, the horses really wanted to move out. I let Hoss start trotting. He's decided that this area is really for running, so I had to keep reminding him, no, today, I want you to just trot. I realized today Hoss has decided he can lead! Usually he's more than happy to let Max lead. This time, though, he wanted to do the leading. This is the first time he's ever put himself in the lead.

We ended up with a really nice ride, but a little faster than we were after! Our moving average was 6mph. That's okay. It was a short ride, and short rides can be a little fast!

Conditioning Ride 11-16-2010

HR: 40

HR on Return: 60

HR at 10 min: 40

Miles: 7.34

Average Speed: 3.7mph

Time: 2 hours

On this day we all went down to the steel bridge for a good slow trail ride over the hills. Once again I had to keep an eye out for Jazz. The staging area is right next to the highway, so I was concerned she'd run out on the road. Fortunately she once again took her cue from my dogs and didn't go near the highway. She may not have much "trail" sense, but she's savvy enough to follow the lead of more experienced pack members.

My original plan had been to cross under the bridge and ride the hills on the other side of the highway. However, after we'd crossed the bridge, I realized the water level in the river was alarmingly high. Hoss certainly could have crossed, but I felt it wasn't worth attempting. He's still learning to cross water confidently, and I was worried the water was so deep the dogs would be forced to swim. I really didn't want to have Jazz forced to swim when I would be in no position to help her if she got swept away. So we stuck with the hills on the same side of the road.

Hoss was more willing to walk, although he asked several times if he could speed up. I gently said no, and he continued to walk nicely. I saw quite a few deer tracks on this ride. Since the 2007 fires, it's clear they're starting to repopulate the area. This means the mountain lions will be around, too. So far, I've only ever seen mountain lion tracks one time.

When we crossed the river, the dogs all got a good drink. Hoss wanted to stop and eat grass and lick the dead tree limbs in the river. I got him across and once the dogs all caught up, I let him have a run before we went up the hills on our left.

At one point, some small creature started making a distress call, which caught the attention of Mac and Jazz. Mac fairly quickly realized he wasn't going to be able to root whatever it was out and left it. Jazz, on the other hand, still has a ways to go on realizing when something is attainable and when it isn't. I was just beginning to think I'd have to get off and go back and force her to come on when she finally gave it up as a bad job. Having watched her spend half an hour trying to dig up a bunny, and spend a few days convinced something was hiding in the dead tree stump, I consider this major progress.

It was nice to actually get a slow trail ride. While we didn't get as many miles as I would have hoped, it was relaxing and low stress. Hoss's recoveries are also getting better, which is the whole goal here.

Conditioning Ride 11-13-2010

I've managed to misplace my data for this ride. I do know it was at Hollenbeck Canyon, so we went about 9 miles or so. I know his recovery was good; I'd have remembered if it wasn't. So there wasn't anything particularly remarkable about this ride, except it was a week after Wind Wolves, and Hoss hadn't been out of the pasture in that time.

This was the first time I took foster-dog Jazz along for a trail ride. I had ridden Phoenix the day before, to see if she'd picked up enough to follow along on a trail ride at home. She went along quite well, taking her lead from my boys, and I declared her ready to come along. So when I hooked up the trailer, I invited her into the truck to come along with the boys.

Jazz is a very sweet dog. She's a cross between a border collie and probably Labrador. About 60 pounds of fuzzy dog who wants nothing more than to lick all the skin off of you. She belongs to a deployed soldier and will be with us for about eight months. She's integrated with our pack pretty well, and we've gotten her trained not to leave the property without us. My biggest concern when she moved here was the lack of a fence, but she learned quickly. Didn't hurt that my dogs won't leave, either. That was the biggest thing that got her taught not to leave.

So after saddling up Hoss – all the while watching carefully to be sure Jazz didn't take off – we headed off down the trails. Hoss was in high spirits. I wasn't using any bit. I haven't replaced the lost part on his hackamore, and I felt that the Kimberwicke was more than I really needed. So I just hooked his reins to the sides of his halter and off we went.

Our first obstacle was four sandbags that have been placed in a row about two feet before the cowboy gate. It's clear that the recent rains had washed the area in front of the gate out, and a repair was made to render it safe to pass. Hoss was very suspicious of those sand bags! He clearly wanted to go through the gate and get on with our ride, but boy! He did not want to step over those sandbags. I let him investigate them for a few moments, but decided he was probably going to use it as an excuse to be stupid and just pulled his head up and kicked him over. Problem solved.

I decided to go "backwards" on this ride. This way we hit the easier trails first, the harder ones farther along. I had planned on a relatively slow ride. It was Jazz's first time out, and I knew I was taking her farther than she'd ever gone. Her soldier mom runs six miles every day, but we were going nine, and following a horse who, if he chose, could outrun her mom any time. In addition, she was not on a leash, allowing her to do the typical dog thing. I'm pretty sure that most dogs end up going two to three times farther than the horse, they rove about so much.

Well, Hoss wasn't having the slow thing. He needed to run! This was one of those moments when I really wish I had a large arena to turn out in. As it was, I managed to get him around the ninety degree turn in the trail before I let him take off. And did he ever take off! If I'd managed a look at the GPS, I'm sure we were going 20mph or more. This was an all out race horse run, pure unbridled joy at being out and on the trail.

We got the ya-yas out reasonably quickly. Hoss is starting to pick up on the slow-is-not-bad thing. Slow is kinda nice, considering how much pressure there can be at an endurance ride. Still, when we got 'round to the flat on the far side of the recreation area, he wanted to run some more. I let him go and got more of that goofiness out of him. Boy, did we have fun doing that!

When we turned left off the wide road to single track trail, Jazz continued on up the road for a ways. Concerned that we'd lose her, I started calling. Some dogs seem to know that they can turn back on a trail and pick up where the leader turned off, or head out cross country. Others can't. Jazz is one of those who can't. She has spent much of her life getting her exercise at the end of a leash. Some of these discoveries about the properties of the world she simply hasn't had the opportunity to make. She stood up on the ridge of the road, at about eye level with me, and waved her tail in confusion for a moment before taking the plunge and coming to me cross-country. It may take some time, but I'm sure she'll catch on. She sure had a good time. She did start to look like she was getting too tired, but she bucked up and made it the whole way.

During that early part of our ride, I realized, as we ran full tilt along the trail, reins loose in my hand, easy in the saddle and a smile on my face, that we have truly become partners. To that limit that horsemen can, I truly trust this horse. He will not deliberately do anything to hurt me, and will do his level best to keep us both safe. And he trusts me, too. He knows that I won't ask him to do something I don't know he can do, and that I will do my best to direct him to the safest crossing, the best path, the ideal footing. I can't imagine a horse running with such wild abandon without trusting the person on his back.

2010 Ride Season Recap

The 2010 AERC ride season is coming to a close. Wind Wolves was the last ride I will get to before the 2011 season starts. For whatever reason (I may have known sometime in the past, but I've forgotten if I ever did), AERC starts its ride season on December 1. This is a good time to review my season goals and accomplishments for the 2010 season.

Of course, I did not start this blog until more than half way through the season, so I didn't post the original goals for 2010. When I set out for 2010, my goal was to get Hoss through four 50 mile endurance rides. We have accomplished that and then some!

In 2010, Hoss and I completed five endurance rides, for a total of 255 miles. We completed the following rides and distances:

Warner Springs Endurance Ride 50 in January

Git-R-Done 55 in April

Descanso Endurance Ride 50 in June

Manzanita Endurance Ride 50 in October

Wind Wolves Endurance Ride 50 in November

I am very pleased with our results. I feel that I had a simple and attainable set of goals. Well, I suppose it was a goal, specifically the number of miles I wanted to get.

There were many lessons along the way. At Warner Springs, Hoss kept tripping. Tripping doesn't seem to bother him at all. He just keeps right on chugging along. So I thought during the ride that he was being lazy. Of course, hind sight being 20/20, I should have realized that that much tripping was likely more than just laziness. A few days after the ride, I found the truly huge girth gall he had developed behind his right elbow.

Git-R-Done presented another set of challenges. The terrain was nice, deep sand in most places. Hoss mostly encounters hard, rocky surfaces at home. He found the sand a challenge. Again, he tripped a lot. If I let him look around even a little, down he'd go. Luckily he never hurt himself, but it was a clue that I needed to look for another shoeing solution to keep his feet more on top of deep footing. In pursuit of this, I found a wider shoe of the same brand I have been using with him. So far, so good. He has not tripped in deep footing since.

Descanso was pretty easy, but Hoss pulled a front shoe on the second loop. There was no farrier, and my daughter and her friend brought my daughter's Jeep up. My truck and tools were at base camp. So, I continued in the hopes that we'd be okay. It didn't take long for his foot to be dangerously short. I was fortunate in that some other riders had an Easyboot that fit quite nicely, and we completed with that. I have since purchased my own Easyboot to use as a spare tire.

Manzanita was a challenge. I always knew that the odds were I'd be confronted with electrolyte issues. My previous horse, Phoenix, never had a problem. Just give him a dose of electrolytes in food the night before, and he was fine. Hoss, however, presented a learning experience. I brought with me his regular food with electrolytes mixed in, which I gave him the previous night, plus another bag of bran with another dose of electrolytes. That was all I had taken with me. Manzanita presented us with hot, muggy weather. I knew at the first vet check that we were doing the ride on the ragged edge of disaster. I was very careful with him, and got him through, but I sure won't be leaving home without electrolytes ever again!

Wind Wolves was effectively perfect weather for a ride. I had read an article in Endurance News about an electrolyte study that suggested the most effective method was the give electrolytes the night before and morning of an endurance ride. This is what I did at Wind Wolves. The result was that he drank well and his recoveries were quite nice. At the end of the ride, his heart rate was 52, despite rain and cold, and without a rest period before seeing the vet. I also confirmed that he's just a tough guy. Despite having to remove his saddle in cold wind, and put the saddle pad back on cold and wet, he never showed the least discomfort.

The new ride season starts in a few days, and we will head out next month for our very first multi-day. The 2011 ride season should be interesting!

Wind Wolves Endurance Ride Part 2: Saturday

I left Roxy tied to one of the tent stakes with the tent open. She laid on my bed and settled in to wait. At this point in her life, she has no interest in following me down the trail.

The ride started at 6:30am. This being before the time change, it was still pitch dark outside when I mounted up on Hoss and headed to the trail. I don't see very well in the dark. While I'm not night-blind, I'm just this side of it. So it was very nice that the trails in the Wind Wolves Preserve are really more like single-vehicle roads. And that the trail we started on was pretty idiot-proof. There really wasn't anywhere to get off trail, in spite of a shortage of glo-sticks. The biggest problem I encountered was being able to identify that yes, that is a horse up ahead, before Hoss ran up its butt.

Hoss was, in typical fashion, very excited about the ride. He gets really amped up by the whole ride thing. The funniest part is, he'll be fine right up until somebody says "go," and then he just sort of loses his mind. If I get to the start line after the ride has started, he's just an idiot the whole time rather than waiting until after the "go" word is spoken. There's a certain level of competitiveness that he's started to show. He not only wants to catch up, he wants to pass. Unfortunately, he still wants to be able to see other horses close by. If he doesn't think there are any more horses to catch, he'll slow down and let the horses he's already passed catch up, then take up their pace.

This ride has a lot of elevation change, so I was much more careful than usual to pace Hoss. Usually I don't have to worry too much about him using himself up. This ride, we were warned, there is a very steep uphill on the second half of the ride, a section dubbed "Tevis Trail." It is aptly named, but more on that, later.

Shortly in to the first loop, we passed what's called Dorothy's House. This is an old "shack" (if that house, in its heyday, is a shack, then what am I living in, a hovel?) that was used in the filming of a sequel to the Wizard of Oz. After Dorothy's House, the terrain becomes more rolling and we started heading up into the foothills. On the first loop, thirteen miles, you climb up about 2500 feet, but do it in relatively short order.

The whole area is absolutely spectacular. I don't think I can do justice to describing it. The landscape is lush and was very green for the time of year. I didn't get to see any interesting wild life, but I am assured it is there. Having seen some of the prints, I am confident of it.

The dawn was beautiful over the mountains as I fought Hoss to stay at a rate I knew he could handle. I like him to walk up many of the hills at this point in his career. Hill are tough for him, and I want to get him very well conditioned to it before we go flying up the hills like Phoenix used to do. I figure that will come. He's just not there yet.

Just prior to the first vet check, the photographers had set up. The area is sort of a little dip, and they'd set up at the far crest from where the riders come into it. Well, the wind had picked back up, and wow, did it get bad here! I'm sure my pictures look very interesting, with squeezed-shut eyes, arm thrown up, etc. At one point, a wind gust came through that was so hard, for a moment it felt like Hoss and I were held suspended by it.

We came in to vet check one feeling good. Hoss was hot headed and not ready for there to be a vet check yet, dammit. It took a few minutes for him to meet criteria, which was set at 60bpm all day. He did not take as long to come down as he did at Manzanita, though, which I was quite happy to see. It really does seem that my strategy adjustment has already paid off.

The biggest obstacle we had to overcome was the shortage of vets at this ride. With only three vets and three vet checks, there was but one vet at each check. We were told this at the ride meeting, but that didn't make it go any faster. By the time I got Hoss to the vet, our hold time was over. I got him checked over and off we went.

I switched out the bit for the hackamore at vet check one. He was being very good, all things considered. Also, he still has a heck of a time creating a seal around the bit when he drinks. It sounds like he's drinking through a broken straw. Concerned that might be part of why he wasn't drinking much, I decided it would be just as well to continue in the hack.

We didn't get very far down the trail when I realized I should have availed myself of the available facilities at the vet check. Now, this area is beautiful, but it suffers from a lack of brush. It's pretty much all grasslands as far as the eye can see. There are, however, plenty of large water holding tanks. So, I took Hoss off the trail behind one of these tanks and took care of business.

There is a lot of water available on these trails. There are stock tanks every few miles through much of the ride. Hoss drank pretty well, not taking huge drinks but drinking frequently. The temperature was comfortable without being overly hot and the wind was strong but not cold.

At some point not many miles out from vet check one, I noticed that the chin chain on the hack was swinging merrily in the breeze. I stopped Hoss to figure out what was going on. One of the quick links was missing. And I had made sure they were tight before I put it on him! Well, nothing to be done about that at this point. I undid the remaining quick link and removed the chain. Wasn't going to help me, anyway.

About seven miles into the second loop, I realized I needed facilities yet again (what, my kidneys work overtime now? Really?). Fortunately, we passed right by vet check 2 on our way, so I cruised in. Oh, you should have heard the uproar! Coming in this way, I caught up with the leaders. Well, I explained that I was just there for a quick stop, not claiming I had finished the loop. I don't think I've heard so many people so outraged. Well, I took care of that, hopped back on, and we went on our way to finish the loop. Not cheating. Really.

Vet check two was an hour old. The vet in charge of this check insisted on saddles off. Oy. Not really what I wanted to deal with. With the wind, taking the saddle off allows the horse's back to chill. And, I realized when I was resaddling, the saddle pad, rather than being warm and wet, is now cold and wet. Not to mention that saddles had to be placed on the ground! Fortunately Hoss has a rather thick winter coat, and while I had trace clipped him, I hadn't clipped his back. So, despite not having a cooler to hand, Hoss did just fine. By the time the air got down to his skin, his coat was dry and he wasn't chilled. Of course, I still had to put the cold wet saddle pad back on him! Not that he seemed to suffer any ill effects, it just seemed a little unfair.

It didn't take long at all for Hoss's heart rate to come down at this stop. I think it was on the order of four minutes. The weird thing was, if I stopped him eating, his heart rate would spike. Normally, if a horse is eating or drinking, that will cause a spike in the horse's heart rate. Stopping them from eating will cause the heart rate to drop. Well, his heart rate didn't go down until I allowed him to drop his head and eat. Of course, as quickly as he came down, it's hard to say if my observations have any validity!

At this point I decided to go to riding with the reins hooked into the sides of Hoss's halter. The hackamore had no chin chain, and I was worried that it was worse than useless. If it rode up on his face, I'd have even less control. Besides, by this point he was actually listening to me. So riding this way didn't seem like much of a risk.

After a nice little rest, off we went for loop three. This is the part of the ride where they had used Tevis Hill. And wow, is it a doozy. I don't think we've ever surmounted a hill quite that steep and long. It's not really appropriate for tailing, unless your horse is very good at it. Hoss has not had a lot of practice, so he ended up carrying me up the entire hill. At the top, Hoss felt pretty good. He wasn't real thrilled about having done the hill, but he got it done.

Going back down, Hoss picked up the pace from time to time. He likes to trot downhill. I've been working on him doing this in a collected manner, and he's doing far better. I'm not getting the "Nazi trot" anymore. But, as we went down the hill, he started dropping his head like he had an itch. After a moment or two of this, he stopped. It wasn't an itch. He wanted grass! He cropped up a mouthful of grass and continued on our way, munching away on the grass. A little bit later, he repeated this routine. He must have been really hungry!

When we got close to vet check three, I hopped off and loosened the girth. Hoss felt he was surrounded by far too much yummy grass not to be getting some of it. He would stop, crop up a mouthful, and then walk on down the trail. I think it took us nearly three times as long to cover the remaining distance to the vet check than if he'd just walked along with me. But, I figured it was okay. Gave him more time for his heart rate to come down. I finally got him in to the check, and over to the water. But he just wanted to eat grass! This time, if I let him eat, his heart rate would not come down. So I walked him to an area without food, and stood with him. I listened to his heart rate until I was getting 60bpm, then called the PandR person over. He got 56. Cool.

The vet line was long, and there was no hay left at the vet check anyway, so I got in line to get him vetted. He cropped grass the whole time. By the time we got to the vet and checked, we had two minutes until time to leave.

This is where things got interesting. An ugly front of huge black clouds was moving in. There were reports of rain. Now, we were still in the sun, but I could see, I was in trouble! I hadn't brought a jacket. I just had my t-shirt. Fortunately for me, a very kind lady offered me the use of her jacket. She was switching to a rain coat, and just didn't want to see me suffer. I was very grateful.

After vet check three, there's just eight miles to go. We had enough time, so we headed on out, and ended up hooking up with the lady who had loaned me the jacket and her friend. They were quite pleasant trail companions. They were funny, too. I imagine they thought of me as somewhat dull, but I was distracted. I was watching those clouds. I was thinking of my dog and my tent and my clothes. My tent was open. My tent had no rain fly. My tent – and everything in it – was going to get wet.

Well, we got about four miles, and the rain hit us. This was no gentle rain. No, it was more like a downpour. Fortunately it wasn't a particularly cold downpour. I still got utterly soaked. Poor Hoss was completely soaked. There was thunder and lightning, and I worried about Roxy all by herself in the tent with no place to go to get out of the rain.

Rain makes those last few miles feel like forever. The trail was slick and slightly downhill, so it was strictly walking. Hoss is heavy enough that areas that don't give under the lighter horses were giving under him. I felt his feet break the surface and create holes in more than one place as we walked along. We finally – finally! – crossed in to base camp at 5:45pm, 45 minutes to spare.

Coming in, we had to pass by our camp on the way to the vets. Roxy was out of the tent and under my truck. She looked very wet. She wanted to come with me, but she seemed to get it when I told her to wait. I rode the rest of the way down and got Hoss checked before heading back to camp. When the vet checked Hoss, he commented that Hoss's heart rate was 52bpm! That was awesome.

The lady I borrowed the jacket from made a move to reclaim her jacket before heading back to her tent. Her friend, utterly shocked and scandalized, said, "You're not going to make her give it back NOW?!?" She didn't. I was so sure I would find her later that I didn't worry about it.

When I got back to camp, I discovered my worst fears realized. My tent and all my clothes were wet. My sleeping bag and memory foam were soaked. Even my book was wet. I was very fortunate in that the young man camped next to us did his best to protect my belongings. He moved the little bits of electronics I had so they wouldn't be in puddles, and helped Roxy find her way under the truck. I am very grateful to him for doing what he did for my dog and me.

Fortunately, I had left my sweatshirt and windbreaker in the truck. This meant that I at least had something dry to put over my wet clothes. So I removed the wet jacket I was wearing and put on my sweatshirt and windbreaker. Since everything was wet, it was evident I would not be able to stay another night. I was going to have to make the drive home after that ride. Not exactly something I was looking forward to, but I couldn't stay in the truck with nothing dry. I got Hoss untacked and under a cooler and fed, then broke down camp.

I went down to get something to eat and to return the jacket. Dinner was barbecue chicken. It was quite good. I don't even like chicken. I hadn't had much to eat on the trail. While I had been prepared to bring my own lunch, I decided not to make a sandwich as I didn't think it would hold up well in my saddle bags. So all I'd eaten was a couple of granola bars.

I wandered around at the dinner area carrying the soggy jacket for a while before I decided I had missed its owner while packing. So instead I wandered around camp looking for her. It was once again quite dark. I couldn't see a thing. After a couple of circuits, I gave it up as a bad job. I wasn't going to be able to find my butt with both hands in these conditions. So I brought the jacket home, washed it, and I've emailed its owner in hopes of returning it to her.

Overall, a very nice ride. I certainly won't miss it if they put it on again. And I sure hope they do put it on again.

Wind Wolves Endurance Ride Part I: Friday

*I'm splitting this in to two posts. There's just too much to say for one post!

It seems like the minor disasters that have been striking all week just couldn't find a way to knock it off. I got most of my packing done Thursday night, so all I needed to do was get together the hay and feed, and load everything up. I was already planning to take my elderly dog, Roxy, with me. She can be a little difficult, and needs to be pilled twice a day. I didn't feel it would be right to leave her with my roommate to deal with. Besides, presented with the choice, Roxy would spend all day in the truck just to be with me rather than stay at home.



So I got up reasonably early on Friday morning and started on morning chores. Despite having recently ruptured the cruciate ligament in her right hind leg, Roxy still wants to come on the morning walk. She does okay. But I knew this couldn't last. She would eventually do the same thing in the other leg. Roxy is 11 years old. She has permanent kidney damage, chronic bronchitis, ulcers, and arthritis. It's very unlikely that she's a surgical candidate. Not only is she older, her health issues create much greater risk of her dying on the table. Not only that, with the extensive arthritis, it's very likely she would have extreme difficulty recovering from surgery. Anyway, all of that leads up to this: during our walk Friday morning, Roxy ruptured the left cruciate ligament. At least, that's what it appears happened. It's hard to say for sure without x-rays and diagnostics, but that's sure what it looks like. She was unable to walk home. Since I can't carry her that far – although I'd've tried if I had to – I called my roommate and asked her to drive out to pick Roxy up. So my morning walk went long, and my dog was now unable to rise well on her own.



Once we got back I started up packing again. Poor Roxy was becoming upset because she knew I was preparing to leave. She got up and tried to hobble outside to make sure she didn't get left behind. My roommate was able to intercept her just outside the door and keep her calm until I could come back to the house and reassure her. I went ahead and just put her in the truck. That way, she would feel secure and wouldn't continue to try to follow me around.



I had everything together, the truck hooked up and the horse loaded and was on the road not much after 10am. That much was pretty much as planned. I stopped and got gas and what groceries I still needed, and headed up the road.



The drive was brutal. This ride is north of LA and I made the critical error of attempting to take the 5 straight up. I'd forgotten how stupid an idea that is. It's been a really long time since I've needed to drive through LA. Most of the time, I'm further inland. In many places through LA, the 5 is downright scary, especially with a trailer. I felt like I was going to make contact with vehicles in the other lane more than once. By the time all was said and done, what Google maps predicted to be about a five hour drive was more like seven.



I arrived at ride camp just before 6pm. I got Roxy out of the truck and resting comfortably in the grass. I then went to unload Hoss. I don't tie Hoss in the trailer, and I pin the back-most divider open so he has the back two sections of the trailer to move about in. So I opened the door and called him on out. Well, he got his front feet out, realized he was standing up to his fetlocks in fresh grass, and started grazing! He didn't even bother to get his hind feet out of the trailer. I had a good chuckle over this, then encouraged him to finish unloading so I could close the trailer door. I got him set up with his alfalfa hay, beet pulp mush, and a bucket of water.



I set up the tent and got out my twin size air mattress. I brought out the air pump, which I had charged overnight at home, hooked it up and started it. It petered out after about three minutes! The new charger I spent all that time at Radio Shack to buy Thursday? Didn't work. So instead I was reduced to folding my memory foam in half and using that as a bed. I've done this in the past, and while it's not as comfy as the air mattress, it's livable. I put my sleeping bag, pillows, clothes, and an extra sleeping bag for Roxy in the tent. Then I put Roxy in the truck and took Hoss to vet in.



Hoss's heart rate was a little higher than I'm accustomed to seeing when he comes in to a ride. He was at 44 bpm. I suspect this has to do with the stress of the trailer ride. It was long, arduous, and loud! I'm sure the sound of all those tractor/trailers could not have been reassuring. I also was unable to find an appropriate place to unload him on the way and let him rest, so he spent the entire time, pretty close to eight hours, in the trailer.



After vetting, I took Hoss back to the trailer to finish his food, fed Roxy and heated up a can of beef stew for myself. The wind started to pick up just a little bit, but it was nice and warm. By this time, it was time for the ride meeting.



I headed for the ride meeting. At the ride meeting, it was mentioned that the weather report predicted cooler, or as warm, or the possibility of rain. Basically, who the heck knows? The weather report I looked at said cooler but no rain, so I decided to go with that, depending on the morning.



By the time the ride meeting was over, the wind had really started to pick up. I walked back to my campsite, where I found I needed to break down my camp stove before it blew over. I secured everything that could possibly blow away. I got Roxy out of the truck and into the tent, gave Hoss more hay, and crawled in to go to bed.



It was still quite warm in spite of the wind. I read my book for a while, then decided I needed to get some sleep for the upcoming ride.



Not long after I turned out the lights and lay down, the wind really picked up. I had the windows open on my tent, and despite this, the tent was being whipped about by the wind gusts. I had left the rain fly off, which was probably a good thing, since I really did not have any intention of visiting Oz. I got absolutely no sleep while that wind blew. It did not get better fast. Indeed, it got to the point where dirt was blowing in through the mesh of the window. I tried closing the window, only to discover that this caused the wind to push the tent down essentially right on top of me. I was very glad that I had used every tent stake option I had. So I had to leave the window open, and keep my sleeping bag tugged over my face to prevent myself from being sand-blasted.



I got up a few times to check on Hoss. He was handling things okay, if not with his usual aplomb. I did notice that he wasn't eating. Upon looking, I realized he was out of hay. This seemed unusual. He usually doesn't eat that fast. On closer inspection, however, I discovered that his hay had blown away! I collected it back up and he was happy to have it back.



About 2:00am or so, the wind finally died down and I was able to get some sleep. I woke up at 4:00 am, about half an hour earlier than I had planned, and went ahead and fed Hoss. I went back into the tent and caught another hour or so of sleep. Once I got up for good, I dressed and made sure I had everything I needed on my saddle. The weather looked good. It was still pitch dark, but I could see there were no clouds. And it was warm. My little miniature weather station said 67 degrees. So I simply wore my riding tights and t-shirt.



I got Hoss groomed and saddled, and we were ready for the start!

It’s Just Been One of Those Years This Week

I have a ride this weekend. This is normally a stressful thing for me. For the entire week before a ride, I'm freaking out. I have no real reason to freak out. It really doesn't take much to pick up and leave for a ride. After all, the trailer is my tack room and all my camping gear is stored in my truck. All I have to do is fill the water tank, load up hay and bran and beet pulp, and get my clothes and food together. Easy, really. Couldn't hardly be simpler. And yet, the week before a ride, I am as stressed as I can be.



And now, there's this week. Because of all the rain and wind last week, I got behind on work. The real kicker was the horrible sinus headache I developed on the one day I could have worked last week. I expect that, had I tried to get under a horse to shoe it, I would have puked on the foot instead. Normally I take the week before an endurance ride off. This helps reduce the stress level. Unfortunately, I got way behind due to the weather. So, instead, I've been working. And I'll be working tomorrow (Thursday), too. Hoss and I need to leave as early as possible on Friday morning. The compromise is that I'm only working a half day. However, considering my luck so far this week, it'll probably turn in to an all day sort of thing.



This has been a week of not much going my way. My plan to get ready for the ride has been to get things done in the evenings. So far, this plan has not worked. I'm beginning to feel like the universe is conspiring against me.



Monday I scheduled a passel of trims to get done on my own. This would lighten my load for the rest of the week. But, it turned out I needed to work in getting the Jeep to my daughter at my mom's house. So, my husband drove the Jeep down while I made my way in that direction via one trim in a rather unlikely location. I made it to my mom's house about 1pm. I spent some time talking to my mom, then my husband and I left so I could take him home and head off to the rest of my trims for the day. We stopped at a local favorite taco shop for some lunch. In a cruel twist of fate, I ordered something that they evidently had to go out back and kill to prepare for me. It took nearly half an hour to get our food! We finally ate, and left as quickly as we could. The result of this was that, by the time we got back home, I realized I was out of time. I need to leave from our house by 5pm in order to make it to bell choir rehearsal. So, rather than get the trims out of the way, I fed and cleaned and took care of all the animals before leaving. By the time I get home from bells, it's time to shower and go to bed. Ugh. One day lost.



Tuesday I had work scheduled. I had a full day planned, we'd just get under everything until we had to quit from exhaustion. Well, it turned out my assistant had to take his daughter to a doctor's appointment that morning. Normally her mother does these things, but she wound up taking an extra shift at work, and it fell to her father. It wasn't supposed to take long, just in and out. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan, and we didn't get started on work until 10:30am. To complicate matters further, the wind was brutal! Under most circumstances I would've called it a day. But, I was behind, and I needed to get caught up before we got any further behind. So we got to work. We got four horses shod and a few trims done.



After finally arriving home, I started feeding and cleaning the pasture. We had been kitten-sitting some friends' kitty, and they had arrived home and would like their kitten back. So I needed to drive down to take their kitty back to them. It's very difficult to drive up to our house, especially if you have to do it after dark. There are few street signs and no lights and dirt roads. So I was happy to driving down and meet them. Unfortunately, this took up the rest of my evening. No ride prep occurring this night, either.



Wednesday was yet more work. The wind was worse up in the mountains, so I had scheduled horses living at lower elevations so we wouldn't blow away. We also had a reconstruction to do on a horse with part of its hoof missing. Reconstructions can take a long time. There's a great deal of prep work that goes into it, and you have to stand around and wait for the stuff to cure before you can finish the job. Fortunately the reconstruction went well, the horse was immediately happier, but it took us longer than I'd've liked. At the next stop, there is no shade. This gets us moving pretty quickly, but it was inordinately bad this day. It was really, really hot. Beyond normal summer hot. We went through a lot of Gatorade! The last stop has shade, for which we were eternally grateful.



Between the reconstruction and the next stop, we had stopped for lunch. When we got to lunch, I realized I'd left my phone in the back of the truck. I wasn't too worried about it. Some days I'd like to leave it in a water trough anyway. So it wasn't until we got to the next stop that I got the messages. One of my dogs, Mac, had gotten into something and was in severe distress. He vomited blood and was hacking and coughing and choking. This alarmed my husband and our roommate quite a bit. They tossed him in a car and rushed him to the vet. I got the message when we got to our stop and unloaded the truck. Now, by this time, my phone was just about out of battery. I had forgotten to grab my charger on the way out of the house. Still, I had to call the vet and find out what was going on. I called them, and let my husband and roommate know that I'd spoken to the vet.



By the time all was said and done, I had to drive down and pick the dog up from the vet before going home. It turned out he'd managed somehow to lacerate the roof of his mouth pretty badly. I suspect he'd done it with a stick. He's one of those dogs that likes to throw sticks up in the air and catch them on their way back down. I imagine he tossed one up, and it came down in such a way as to jab the roof of his mouth. This particular dog is a bit of a wuss. The least little thing causes him to cry and whimper like a big baby! Sixty pounds of pure muscle and he screeches like you're killing him if you even look at him in displeasure. Not that the injury isn't significant. It was badly swollen and bled like crazy, which prompted the vomiting. He's now on pretty heavy drugs to control the pain and swelling. Long story short, though, another evening, down the tubes.



And now we come to today, Thursday. Having not gotten nearly enough done on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was once more out to get some horses done. I tried to schedule more of a half day than a full one, so that I'd have time to get stuff together. Ha. Keep dreaming! We didn't get done until 3pm. Later than I'd hoped, but not too late.



After dropping off my assistant, I headed on out to get some grocery shopping done for the ride. I also needed to replace the charger for the rechargeable air pump. Since I like to sleep off the ground, this was really important to me. I needed to go to Radio Shack to accomplish this task. There are no Radio Shacks particularly close by. The nearest one is something to the tune of 25 miles or more from home. But still, I headed out and took my air pump in to get the new charger. When I walked in, a couple was in the process was purchasing a new cell phone. Fabulous. That's one of those transactions that take forever. I wandered around the store, air pump in hand, checking out what else they had. I ended up picking up a miniature pocket weather station (it's so cute) and a book light (now that I'm home, I see the old one, right in plain sight, that I thought I'd lost). I was still wandering around the store a good twenty minutes later when another employee came out from the back and helped me find the right charger. Then I was stuck still waiting for the cell phone purchase to be finished! Finally, after I was in the store for close to forty-five minutes, the second employee sort of pushed the other fellow out of the way, rang me up, and sent me on my way.



I got home near dark. I got the horses fed, but the pasture didn't get cleaned. I haven't cleaned it since Tuesday. This means I will have to clean it tomorrow morning before I leave. But, I did get some stuff done in preparation for leaving tomorrow. I got my bag packed. I got the truck cleaned out, which was interesting. I suppose someday I may need ten ratchet tie downs all at once. All I need to do in the morning is get Hoss's food together, hook up the trailer, and get the heck out of here. We'll have to stop for a few more groceries for me and gas for the truck, but with any luck at all, we'll be out by 10am. And now, my bitchfest is over!

Phoenix does a Ride and Tie!

Last weekend, my retired endurance horse, Phoenix, got his chance to shine in a new sport. He got to do a ride and tie!



For those who don't know what ride and tie is, it's two people and one horse. One person sets out on foot (typically running/jogging) while the other sets out on the horse. At some point, the person on the horse gets off, ties the horse, and takes off on foot. The person who initially started out on foot catches up to the horse, unties it and gets on. The horse and its new rider pass the first rider, and at some time the second rider gets off and ties and the process is repeated. There's typically a vet check in the middle, often more than one.



The series of events that led up to this opportunity were somewhat interesting. A young lady I know from church, Wendy, had decided she wanted to try the sport. She had found a partner, Michael, who had done ride and tie before but hadn't it a good decade. They found a horse to borrow. They tried it out. Then, the day before they were leaving for the event, the owner decided not to let them use the horse.



On Thursday night, therefore, Wendy called and asked if Phoenix was still available. I had told her the day she was to try out the other horse that I had one I'd be willing to let them use if the one they were looking at didn't work out. I said, of course, you can use him. Just let me know where and when to bring the horse. I even said I'd crew for them.



I spoke with Michael and we got the particulars straightened out. Phoenix needed to be at Los Vaqueros camp in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park on Friday afternoon.



So, Friday morning, I loaded Hoss for a quick buzz around Hollenbeck Canyon. I knew I needed to get Phoenix up to the ride, so we went pretty quick and I didn't do anything interesting. I also knew that I was low on gas, so I planned to stop at the Perkins Market on the way up to get a few gallons.



After riding, I got back home, unloaded and bathed Hoss, and started getting everything together for Phoenix. Got him some food, hay, blanket, made sure all his tack was there. Then I got Phoenix and loaded him up. He sure seemed to know something was up. When I got his halter, he was watching me intently, and came walking up to get loaded. Most days, he plays games with me when it's his turn to get out.



On the way up, I forgot to stop at Perkins. Oops. Oh, well. I figured I'd stop on the way back down. So I proceeded on up to Oakzanita Ranch, where I stopped to lunge Phoenix, having decided that Wendy and Michael didn't need to ride him quite that fresh. After lunging, I reloaded and we headed on up the hill.



But we didn't get far. We couldn't have driven more than a mile or so when the truck just quit. None of that sputtering or anything. It just was done. I got no warning whatsoever. Fortunately, it quit just as we topped the rise before the West Mesa parking area, meaning I was able to coast it over to the side of the road and park it safely.



Well. This was not a fun development! I tried my cell phone, only to find I had no service. It was getting on toward 4pm at this point. I realized we were close to the access road that goes by Oakzanita Ranch. So I took Phoenix back out of the trailer and threw his saddle and bridle on, and rode him at a pretty good clip back to Oakzanita.



Once at Oakzanita, I called my husband. My husband promptly left from the house with a gas can to bring me a couple of gallons. I called Michael and let him know what was going on. Our plan had been for him to ride Phoenix a little bit when I got him up there, but this was getting farther and farther from being a possibility.

After about an hour, my husband made it up to the truck and we put two gallons in the truck. We continued on up the road and delivered Phoenix safely into Michael's care. On the way back down, I definitely did not forget to get gas!



On Saturday morning, I headed back up to crew for Wendy and Michael. I also needed to be there to tack Phoenix up. They wouldn't have had much luck with the little creep, I'm afraid. He was all excited about this new adventure! But they did brush him out and pick out his feet. Once he was saddled, Wendy and Michael took a turn at riding Phoenix. Having never ridden him before, they needed a little instruction in his peculiarities. Wendy was instantly impressed with how responsive and quiet he is. Not that he couldn't have behaved better. I was actually a little embarrassed by how he was behaving. Still, he was pretty obedient and responsive to cues.



Most ride and ties allow a "hand tie" in the first mile of the ride. This simply means that a crew person meets the horse on the trail and holds it while waiting for the runner. I was supposed to go out and perform this function for Wendy and Michael. Trouble is, I got led astray and walked nearly a mile in the wrong direction before I (and the person who led me astray) realized I had gone the wrong way! Well. By that point, there's not a chance in the world I'm beating them to the hand tie point. So I found Michael's wife and daughters and we headed down to the vet check point.



It was a cold, rainy, windy morning. It was cold enough I was a little worried that Phoenix wouldn't be warm enough on the trail. Fortunately I needn't have worried. Wendy came trotting in to the vet check on Phoenix, who looked like he hadn't gone a mile, much less seven! He pulsed in to the vet check at 48 bpm! For ride and tie, criteria is set at 72.



Michael came in on foot a few minutes later. Since it was Phoenix's first ride and tie, they didn't want to tie him and leave him where one of them couldn't see him, just in case he got loose. Michael asked me if I thought they were overriding Phoenix. I assured him that, no, they weren't overriding him. Indeed, he looked a little under ridden!



Once through the vet check, Wendy set out on foot, and Michael rode off on Phoenix. Michael's family and I headed back to the camp to wait for the finish. I sat in my truck and read my book. There's very little more boring than crewing for somebody who's out on the trail!



The team came in some time later, Michael aboard Phoenix, and Wendy afoot. The girls and I applauded them in. They finished in third place!



Both Wendy and Michael were very grateful to get to use Phoenix. By the fourth tie, Phoenix had figured out what was going on, and it was pretty clear by the time they got done that he enjoyed himself thoroughly. Phoenix was good throughout the ride, although it sounds like he could use a little more patience with being mounted on the trail.



I must once again give Beth Smith, my trainer, her proper due.  Phoenix has spent the better part of the last nine months doing a whole lot of nothin'.  And yet, he went out and did fifteen miles with a pair of perfect strangers in a completely new sport on a day of crappy weather and didn't look like he'd done a damn thing.  He can do this, and do this well, because of the training and conditioning that Beth put on him lo those many years ago.  The training has served Phoenix well over the years, allowing him to participate in many activities.  And the conditioning has served him better.  Nothing else can explain doing pretty much nothing for nine months, then going out and zipping out 15 miles and looking like he's done nothing.
Phoenix is officially a ride and tie horse!