2010 Jamulfest Gymkhana!

Oh, what a weekend! It feels like I've been in motion for two days straight. But it was a lot of fun!

I got up this morning at 5am, and started on cooking my breakfast and taking care of indoor animals. It's too dark yet at that time to go outside and feed the horses and let the goats out. Besides, they think that "walkies" start immediately after feeding the horses, so I didn't want to confuse the dogs and goats!

I noticed that only one of the cats had come in over night, and the other hadn't been seen since the previous evening. That was a little disconcerting, but I wasn't overly concerned. It's not unusual for the cats to take the occasional "all-nighter."

When my soft-boiled eggs were ready, I started to open them. Well, the first one I took out promptly slipped from my fingers and fell between my leg and the cabinets. I instinctively tried to "catch" it by using my leg. Oops. That just resulted in squirting the yolk all over the front of the cabinet! Fortunately the little dog helped me clean up the mess

After I'd fed the horses and taken the dogs and goats for a walk, I began preparing to load the horses. I'd awakened my daughter, who was getting dressed and ready to go after a long night of her own. She hadn't gotten home until almost 2am! While I was fussing in my truck, I heard the missing cat meowing plaintively. It sounded like he was inside something! It didn't take long for me to realize he was trapped in the back of my truck. I had had the cap open to remove some bags of feed, and didn't close it until I was ready to go back inside last night. Clearly, he'd hopped into the truck and that was where he stayed all night! I opened the cap and he darted out and headed straight for the house. That was one very unhappy kitty!

We got the horses loaded and I drove them to the arena. Once there, my daughter took over getting them set up, and I took off in the Jeep for church. I play with one of the bell choirs at our church, and we were performing in service this morning. I got to church, changed clothes, and warmed up. We played right before the sermon, and instead of sitting back down with the group, I scooped up my stuff and headed back out! I changed back into my riding gear before leaving the church, and was back on my way to Jamul by 10am.

On the way back, I stopped at the bank for cash and the grocery store for ice. While at the grocery store, I realized my daughter hadn't eaten, and remembered that she'd complained that she hadn't had any worthwhile food all weekend. She had been at a water polo tournament from Friday to Saturday, and ended up eating a lot of fast food. So I picked up a medium fruit platter. When I got back to the arena, the fruit platter was greatly appreciated.

My daughter and I perused the list of events. There was barrels, single stake, pony express, speed barrels, and speed ball. I signed up for all of the events with Hoss. My daughter signed up for different events with each horse. She did barrels, single stake, pony express, and speed barrels on Phoenix. She did barrels, single stake, and speed ball on Tahoe. We were a team for pony express.

Barrels with Hoss was interesting. He thought he should run right at the barrels, rather than around them. I was very carefully and intently not looking at the barrels but around them. Still, he didn't believe me! It resulted in quite the discussion. Still, not bad on that event.

While my daughter was riding Phoenix in barrels, that little pony was bucking like mad. It was funny, because the announcer said something to the effect of, "That horse looks like he really wants to pop up!" I hollered, "He is bucking! That's him bucking!" Phoenix's buck isn't much. It's a little like riding a hobby horse in a mild earthquake.

While waiting for our next event, I noticed that Phoenix's girth was loose. And I mean really loose! I told my daughter she ought to tighten it, and when she asked why, stuck my arm between the girth and the horse! Well, that might explain why he was bucking!

Single stake was somewhat less difficult, but Hoss was hoppy and strung out. I absolutely refuse to let him run like a maniac in anything less than a balanced manner, so I kept him slower than he could have gone. In single stake, you just run down to the end and turn around a stake and run back. They made it a little more challenging by setting up two poles in the middle of the arena that the horses must pass between on the way out and on the way back.

Pony Express was a kick! In this event, two riders are a team. The first rider carries a saddle bag all the way around the arena (going as fast as possible, of course!), then passes it off to the second rider, who proceeds to race around the arena as well. Hoss and I went first. He was still less than cooperative, so I kept him down to a trot. We had to stay inside cones set up in the corners, and I was not sure I could reliably keep him in them if we went faster. Additionally, since we didn't get much chance to warm up, he was still acting like every little thing he could see was going to leap out and get him. Going past the announcer's booth, I ended up side-passing him! I didn't want to take the time to do a proper correction, so we just did something he'd rather not do and still go in the direction we needed to. I passed the saddle bag off to my daughter and Phoenix, and they darted off like they'd been shot from a cannon! Unfortunately, in the second corner, they took out a cone, but my daughter was paying attention and circled around to take it again. Our time was a little over one minute. Most teams were closer to forty seconds. Still, we took sixth place, largely because so many teams were disqualified for knocking over cones and not circling back.

Speed barrels was a little better. In speed barrels, three barrels are set up in a line. You weave through, turn at the end, and weave back. Simple. By this point, Hoss was beginning to get the picture that it wasn't free-for-all time. I had a hard time getting him through to the left, but our hard turn at the end was great! A perfect barrel turn! We didn't get a great time on this one, but I was happy with it.

Speed ball is a tough event. You ride down to a cone on top of an upside down milk crate and drop a golf ball in it, then ride back. Sounds easy enough, but that cone sure is a long way down, and the hole in the top seems so small, despite being a good four inches or more across. Hoss was not at all thrilled about being asked to stop next to the cone on a crate. He kept turning to face it. I was just really not going to put up with not getting what I wanted, so I kept reorienting him and correcting until I got a better, if not perfect, alignment, leaned down, and dropped the golf ball in! That felt like a real accomplishment, considering the last time I couldn't get the ball in. Our time was 69 seconds, and we still got sixth place. Again, the disqualifications worked in our favor.

It was a little after 3pm when we were done. Three hours at the gymkhana. It was hot, somewhere a little over 100 degrees. We had to wait for someone to leave so we could pull our trailer out, but we still got out by 4pm. My daughter left a little ahead of me in the Jeep. By the time I got home and unloaded and fed, she had collapsed on her bed for a nap. Poor thing was hot, tired, and just beat from a weekend of activity.

I do not know what happened in the trailer, but Hoss and Phoenix came out bloody! One of the dividers is out of my trailer, creating a large stall in the front. My daughter had hung the hay net in the space Hoss and Phoenix share. I now know why people refrain from using hay nets in trailers. Phoenix has a number of small cuts. Hoss has a small cut on his nose, and had somehow managed to get his head into the net, from which I had to extricate him before he could get out! Fortunately the injuries are very minor, especially to Hoss, so I'm not worried about either of them. I cleaned them up and put them away.

When my daughter woke up, we went out to dinner, where we ordered enough food for four days and ate close to half of it. We do have leftovers, though, which was sort of the point. All in all, a great day! My daughter's boyfriend apologized to her for not showing up, but she told him it was okay, she had a great time with her mom. What better day could there be than that?

Back in the Saddle, Take 2

Since the last time I rode, I got my right foot stomped on and my back wrenched. Both by horses that were being less than cooperative about having their feet trimmed! The result was no riding for about six days. I was finally able to ride on Thursday, and took Hoss to Lakeside for a lesson. Since we're going to the gymkhana tomorrow, our trainer gave us a lesson on Things That Will Help in a Gymkhana. With any luck, this will give me a fantastic post for tomorrow! After Thursday, it was like I had done a week of never stopping, so I took all day Friday off. Just sat. And my back was bugging me, because I had bucked 16 bales of hay out of my trailer. Not something I'm supposed to do, anyway, much less with a back injury! So today I finally was able to get out there for a trail ride!


RHR: 36


HR on Return: 60


HR at 10 minutes: 56


Miles: 6.9


Avg Speed: 3.9mph


Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes


It was pretty hot out there today. I didn't really notice until we'd been out for a while, but it was warm. And Hoss is putting in his winter coat, so he was particularly feeling it. He was feeling pretty good when we first struck out. He really wanted to go! I let him canter along until it got to the point where it wasn't really safe. Then we just trotted on up. I took us up some challenging, steep trail today. Since we are doing the gymkhana tomorrow, I wanted to tire him out physically and a little bit mentally so he's not a complete nutcase in the arena. Not that he's particularly bad in the arena, just that the atmosphere tomorrow may be charged enough that he can't concentrate.  I also have a few hang-ups about the arena, but I think I'll address that further in the post about the gymkhana.


I thought for sure he'd drink at the river crossing. He'd spent an hour in the hot trailer before we got to the trailhead. I'd had a bunch of little errands to run (post office, gas station, pharmacy, bank) before we rode, so he was in there longer than usual. When he got out of the trailer, he was a little sweaty, so I know he was hot! But, we got to the crossing, and he just watched the dogs drink and licked a log.


After we crossed, Hoss trotted on up out of the river bed and I could feel his anticipation of running on the road when we got there. I turned him up on the road and gave him the signal and off we went! He loves to run a little bit now and then! At the top of the rise, I turned him up into the hillside for some more steep work.


About three quarters of the way up the hill, Hoss stopped. He just stopped. Only once before has he just quit on me like this, on a very hot day when he was in full winter coat, and he stopped in the shade. This was different, though, because I noticed pretty quickly that he was shaking, too. He also promptly stuck his nose on the ground and was scratching his nostril pretty enthusiastically. I jumped off and checked him over. Other than he was breathing very rapidly and dripping sweat (not unusual, really, with Hoss), I could find nothing wrong. Outside of a little dirt in his nostril (gee, wonder how that happened?) his nose looked fine, too. Other than the rapid breathing, he looked fine. Eyes were shiny, ears pricked forward, mucus membranes looked good, jugular and capillary refills were fine, even skin tent was okay if not ideal. So I just stood there with him and waited for his breathing to improve. 

After about three minutes, Hoss relaxed and it looked like he was feeling okay. I started walking up the trail and let him follow me. I don't know how far I walked, but I stopped several times and let Hoss rest. At the last spot I let him rest, he started eating everything he could find. Not that he wasn't looking for food before, just that he was more in earnest about it. So, once we'd topped the rise with me on foot, I mounted back up and let him carry me.


At this point it was pretty much all downhill. By the time we got to the bottom, it was clear that Hoss was feeling much improved. He trotted out in a few places. But, once we crossed the wood bridge back toward the trailer, I made him walk. I could tell that he really wanted a drink, but there wasn't anywhere I could get him to water safely. So I got him back to the trailer and got him untacked and loaded as quickly as I could and still get my data. 

Hoss came back to the trailer with a heart rate of 60, which is really good considering the conditions. In 10 minutes, he was down to 56, which I think would have been better had he been able to get a drink.


It was a slow ride, but I'm okay with that on this particular day. Pushing faster wouldn't have made any difference in his long-term conditioning, and might have harmed him. Once he got home and in the pasture, he went straight for the water and took a long, long drink. Now he's waiting for his bath in preparation for the gymkhana tomorrow!

The Equipment, Part 1: The Rider

Today I am going to talk about equipment. It turns out there's so much to say on this particular subject that this will be broken into two or three posts. From my helmet to my boots, from the bit in Hoss's mouth to the saddle pad on his back, every choice I make affects our ride.

Tights and Jacket by Evelyn Allen

Most of what I wear or use for myself I have down. I can buy a brand new pair of boots and ride fifty miles in them the next day, because I have found the brand and style that works best for me. It helps that they are of a type that really doesn't require breaking in. Similarly, I can purchase a new helmet of the brand I'm using and expect to encounter no troubles. My riding tights are made by Evelyn Allen of Just For Horsin'-Round (http://www.justforhorsin-round.com/), and I could buy a new pair on ride day and be fine. She also makes a wonderful sport-type bra specifically for riding that I use. T-shirts are obviously not a big deal. Jackets and sweatshirts I have to be careful about. Since my shoulder injury, it is extremely difficult for me to remove a sweatshirt over my head. This is complicated by trying to do so while riding a crazed maniac horse! I fixed the sweatshirt problem with a zipper version that Evelyn made just for me with green and yellow flames. It's awesome. I use a windbreaker jacket when I need to, which I had the foresight to buy a bit large. I also got a hooded zip up sweatshirt, which is a little warmer than my awesome green and yellow flames (although I find the hood a little aggravating most of the time). So I only have to work around the troubles I have applying enough force to remove the arms of a jacket or sweatshirt.

T-shirt with "Team 91" logo

It's important that I, as a rider, be comfortable. If I'm hurting for any reason, it will affect the way I ride. If I'm not riding in a balanced manner, I could potentially harm Hoss. Fortunately it's pretty easy to figure out what works for me, at least in terms of what I am wearing. I am, after all, within my own body. I know pretty early on what's working and what's not. It's usually not horrifyingly expensive to experiment. When trying on boots, I know if they're going to work or not based on experience.


There have been times that clothing that has seemed to work have turned out badly. The most memorable was our ride in January, our first 50 miler. I'd been using everything the same the whole time I've been riding Hoss in Limited Distance, so I had no reason to suspect there'd be a problem when we bumped up to 50s. Well, turns out that the underwear I was wearing was too worn. I removed them about halfway through the ride, but it was too late. I ended up with a sore in a truly inconvenient location that plagued me for some time.


Saddle bags are something I feel should be covered under equipment for the rider. Unless a saddle bag is just so badly built or packed that it's harming the horse, it's really a choice based on what the rider likes. I like a cantle (front) pack. The one I have has two water bottle holders, two large side pockets, and a large top pocket with smaller zipper areas. It's great for keeping a minimal first aid kit, stethoscope, sunscreen and bug spray, spare sunglasses, my phone if it's bouncing too much, an Easy boot to act as a "spare tire" in the event of a lost shoe. It even has a little loop for a tube of lip balm, although this can be tough to manage if Hoss isn't on his best behavior.


I do wear half-chaps.  Strictly speaking, with the Western fenders on our saddle, I don't "need" the half chaps.  However, I use short boots, and I hate A) ending up with sweat and horse hair on the back of my calf; B) all the crap that falls into my boots as we ride along narrow, overgrown trail; and C) even with the fenders, I get a little rub from time to time. So the half chaps are a nice addition.  I've ridden just fine without them, but I'd rather not!

Hoss wearing his halter-bridle with bit

Bridles and reins are generally more of a preference of the rider sort of thing. I really like the synthetic halter/bridles. Synthetic is easy to keep clean and hard to break. The halter/bridle is a halter with d-rings for attaching the bit. It allows me to have Hoss bitted and still have a halter ring to tie or lead him with. I hate the look of a bridle over a halter. It just looks cheap to me. Leather is not my favorite, largely because I've lost so much of it to getting stepped on by the horse! Besides, it requires a lot of maintenance. When I purchased Hoss's halter-bridle, I got a deal in which I got the halter-bridle, reins, and a breastcollar. The breastcollar is rather a bit of unnecessary equipment. Breastcollars are designed to keep a saddle from slipping back on the horse. Since our saddle stays pretty much exactly where it belongs, Hoss's breastcollar is purely a bit of ornamentation.


The saddle deserves a quick mention in this post. It is so important that the saddle fit not only the horse's back, but the rider's butt! A saddle that doesn't suit the rider will result in an unbalanced rider. I've had this problem in the past. If the saddle isn't right for me, I will develop saddle sores, leg pain, numbness in my feet, you name it. And, as previously mentioned, I have to be comfortable to ride well. I do use a fleece saddle seat cover for a little extra "padding."


There's not great big bunches to say about what I, as a rider, use. This is the easy part! There's so much more entertaining stuff to say about the horse's equipment! Still, I think this is worth a mention!

Back in the Saddle

Conditioning Ride 9-11-2010


RHR: 36


HR on Return: 60


HR at 10 min: 48


Distance: 10.5 miles


Average Speed: 5mph


Time: 2 hours 20 minutes


After being unable to ride for more than a week, I finally made it out today! Between the Cowboy fire and a nasty skin infection on the top of my left foot, I've been pretty much sidelined for a week. For a couple of days, I couldn't even put on a shoe! It's still pretty sore, but it's tolerable. I was able to work yesterday (Friday), which was a good thing. During my ride today, I did notice that it hurt, but it would sort of come and go.


As has been mentioned previously, I was unhappy with how Hoss was going in the shoes I'd had him in. He was slow, unsure, and his strides were getting shorter as the shoeing cycle progressed. So I went ahead and re-shod him and my other two a week early. I had ordered a new set of Billy Crothers shoes with clips that are wider than the ones I'd been using. This is meant to be a best of both worlds sort of thing. All the traction, plus width to help keep Hoss's feet on top of the ground. Well, I didn't notice when I first got the shipment (my assistant opened it, so I wasn't checking), but the hinds I'd ordered for Hoss are apparently on back order! Of course, the website says closeout, so I don't know if I'll ever be able to get a pair. I ended up putting the wider fronts and the regular hinds on him.


After I saddled up and headed Hoss across the bridge, it dawned on me that he was striding out much more surely than he had been in previous weeks. Already this seemed like an improvement! His trot started to feel smoother and more regular as we went along. Going over rock faces, he didn't slip around. When he hit the first area where he'd been having difficulty, he slowed way down and took it very carefully. It will be very interesting to see how he feels about it the next time we ride there. It was pretty clear he figured out that his life was better!


I pushed pretty hard on this ride. I would have liked to get a higher average, but that didn't happen. Still, I got him cantering up a few short, steep hills to help with his conditioning. He hates it when I want him to canter uphill! That's probably the hardest thing he has to do. It's important because it helps build his cardiopulmonary quickly, and at rides he will get "pulled" by other horses up hills  that he would otherwise not take so fast. Being "pulled" means he's following another horse that is moving faster than he is, and he instinctively works harder to keep up. In an effort to prepare him for this happening in rides, I try to push him up hills that he would typically prefer to walk up.


This was another day that I didn't use a bit. Hoss had been in the pasture for over a week, a condition under which I would normally not take the chance of riding him bitless. Especially since my control is strictly his halter without the bit. But, he was so awesome coming out of the trailer, and was so calm, I decided it was worth it. And wow, was it ever a good ride! I think he really likes not having a bit, and is on his best behavior when I let him go without. I really am going to have to invest in a horse-sized S-hack and extra bit hangers. This is the horse I want to ride!


Once again, he was slow on this ride. And that's partially due to the terrain. Still, he *could* do this faster. He's a very slow walker, which is a little aggravating. That just means he's going to have to learn to trot over more varied terrain. So from now on, I will be encouraging/forcing the trot on every surface imaginable, only slowing him when it's clear that the risks of trotting are too high. This will be my new approach. I recall at one of my early rides, a horse/rider team that finished in third place. They left camp last, half an hour after the start of the ride. They trotted pretty much every step of the way. They weren't even trotting particularly fast. Now, that's the way to get it done!

Even the Farrier's Horse gets the Blues

Hoss has run hot and cold with the shoe thing.  At his first ride last year, he pulled his right front shoe.  Twice.  He pulled it on the first loop, and I got it replaced at the vet check.  I don't think we got five miles back out on the trail before he had the replacement off.   He finished the ride and vetted out just fine, although it was clear the foot was a little sore.  Since then, I think he's lost one or the other front shoe at least four more times.  It's aggravating.  It's frustrating.  It doesn't reflect well on his farrier.


I think a number of my clients will find it refreshing that I have problems with my own horse, too.  All the time I spend getting their horses "dialed in" so that they're going well, not stepping off shoes or stepping on themselves seems a little more justifiable.  At least one of my clients with a chronic shoe puller feels bad about getting me out to replace lost shoes.  No matter how much I reassure him that it's my job to keep the durned shoes on, he just persists in not calling me.  I can think of other clients, though, who will find the idea that I can't seem to keep my own horse reliably shod shocking.


A few months ago, I decided to try taking Hoss barefoot again.  That was a mistake.  He was utterly miserable.  Even in the pasture he was lame.  He was lame just standing still.  I lasted a week before I nailed a set of shoes back on him.  Experiment over.  He'll wear shoes the rest of his life, in all likelihood.  I just don't have what it takes to watch him suffer through toughening his feet back up.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with barefoot.  I like barefoot.  I just can't watch my horse endure the process when I know all I have to do to relieve his discomfort is nail on shoes.

For the most part, I have shod Hoss with Billy Crothers concave shoes. This has worked splendidly for him. At one point, I did use a set of St. Croix rim shoes, but they wore out pretty fast. Recently, though, I've decided I need to play with the shoes a little bit.

At the Git-R-Done ride in April, Hoss had a tough time in the deep sand areas that are so foreign to him. He must have tripped every 50 steps or so while trotting. At one point, he tripped so hard he nearly went down on his knees, throwing me halfway out of the saddle and nearly ending our ride right there. Other riders with us gasped and asked if I was okay and if Hoss was okay. He answered for himself by continuing on with nary a bad step. Once he took about three bad steps, but I think that was a trip over a rock rather than over his own toe.


It doesn't bother Hoss in the least to trip. He just gets his feet back under him and keeps going. I suspect that if he cared about tripping, he would've found a way to knock it off. But he doesn't care. He was more apt to trip if he was distracted by another horse. I felt like I spent the entire ride twiching the reins to keep his head in the perfect position. If he turned his head slightly, or lowered it below his withers, he'd trip. The only places he didn't trip were when we were on hard surfaces, areas that were in short supply at this particular ride. At one point we were on about 2 miles of paved road. He wanted to stay on the blacktop, and I just let him. He never tripped, not even once, on that surface.


So the last time I shod my horses, I put St. Croix X-tras on Hoss. This shoe has less traction than the Billys, but is wider. My thinking was that, to go over sandy areas, he needs more "float." The wider shoes keep his foot more on the surface of sand than the Billys do. I wanted to get a sense, though, of how he would do with less traction and more width. It hasn't gone well. He doesn't like these shoes much at all. Going over rock faces, he slips. As the shoeing cycle passes, he's been increasingly tentative and his strides have been shorter during the period he's had these shoes on. Not only that, but less than five weeks into a six week cycle, his shoes are worn out. The Billy Crothers shoes are thicker, and therefore last longer.


At this point I've decided he needs to be back in the Billys. I ordered two sets of shoes. They are a wider shoe than the ones we were using before. I think that having the wider shoe will help Hoss go over deep sand, but having the traction will return him to a happier state. 

We did shoes this past week.  Unfortunately, the shoes I had ordered didn't quite make it.  I got the wider fronts I was looking for, but not the hinds.  So I had to shoe Hoss with the wider fronts and the regular hinds.  The fronts look very good on him.  I got him shoes with clips, which help hold the shoe in place and take some of the stress off the nails.  Since the hinds I wanted didn't come, I don't have clips on his hind feet.  It sure would've been pretty if he did!  Also, the regular width Billys are just a hair too small for his hind feet, making it hard to get a good fit that will last for six weeks.


We will see how this works.  I have high hopes.  If they do work, though, there's one minor problem: I ordered these shoes on closeout!  I need to find out from the supplier if that means that I won't ever be able to get them again.  If they work, I may have to buy every pair the supplier has and hope I can find something else that'll work as well before I run out!

More of a Nuisance than a Thing

I have four blog posts stacked up, waiting for completion and pictures. I even have a ride report ready. But, I am a very linear person, and it's hard for me to post things "out of order." Still, I decided I'd better get something up.


I've recently encountered a couple of rather minor but inconvenient health issues. Truly, one led to other. Both interfere hugely with being able to ride or even exercise more than minimally.


A week ago on Sunday, I experienced sudden extreme pain on the top of my left foot. I had to remove my boot and sock and roll up my pant leg. My foot was hot to the touch and red and angry looking. I didn't really think much of it at the time. My daughter and I were at a party at the time, so I had to get the boot back on to drive home. I got the animals fed and cared for, showered and went to bed as usual.


On Monday morning (Labor Day), I got up and got dressed. I noticed that my foot hurt, and the skin was a little broken. I put some Neosporin on it and attempted to put my boot on. I say attempted, because no sooner did I get my foot in the boot than I was doing my level best to get it out in record time. It was immediately clear that I wouldn't be wearing a shoe of any kind that day. So I made my daughter feed and walk the animals, and proceeded to spend my day inside. This of course resulted in me screen-sucking on the Internet all day, so I posted a status on Facebook about my foot. I wasn't particularly worried about the rash. To me it seemed like a minor thing. I was mostly bitching because I had planned a long ride in the mountains, and that was clearly not happening.


My Facebook friends weren't quite so sanguine about what I was describing. After receiving many comments about my situation, I had the hell scared out of me enough that I called my doctor first thing on Tuesday morning. Well, she wouldn't be able to see me until Wednesday. I continued to bitch about this on Facebook, as I had work scheduled, and it's a little difficult to shoe horses if I can't wear a shoe! By this time, I could get a very loose shoe sort of on my foot. I did take some Ibuprofen, which made a difference in the swelling. To me, it looked reasonably normal except for the redness and pain. It hurt all the time. By mid-day, I decided that I'd better just take myself to the Urgent Care.


 By this time my mom had been seeing my Facebook thread, and she called me to make sure I was seeking medical attention. She called me when I was about a block away from the Urgent Care. I assured her I was on my way, and that I'd call her when I was done.


At the Urgent Care, I felt a little foolish being there. I'm the sort of person who feels stupid going to the emergency room if I have a six-inch gash in my leg, so this felt really silly. All misgivings were cast aside when the nurse looked at my foot and said, "Wow!" That was all the confirmation I needed that I had made the right decision.


The doctor looked at it and was more than mildly concerned, as well. If it had been oozing, he would've cultured it, but it wasn't so we left that off. He determined it was probably a skin infection caused by an allergic reaction. He gave me Prednisone and Augmentin, a very high-power kick-ass antibiotic that'll kill everything ever. I started on the meds, and in a few days, I was able to get in a day of work and even ride on Saturday.


After my ride, it became evident that something else wasn't quite right. Now, antibiotics are a great thing. They've done huge good in the world saving lives and controlling disease and all that. But, sometimes they have some unintended consequences. That is what I am dealing with now. The antibiotic has done its job and killed everything. And I do mean everything. Even things it wasn't aimed at. This antibiotic is like killing cockroaches with a shotgun. In the house. The result has been a hostile takeover in a rather more, shall we say, delicate body part. This means I won't be riding until I get that under control.


The other interesting aspect of this antibiotic is that it's completely wiping me out. I got up nice and early this morning, feeling good about life, got all the farm chores done, and went into town. Picked up the Jeep for my daughter, traded her back for my truck with the intention of going for a ride, went to the grocery store, the tire store (screw in a tire), bank, back home by noon. And out like a light in my chair. For four hours. That was the end of that. I had to feed and run out the door to make it to bell choir rehearsal.


A week later, and my foot is still uncomfortable. I can get around okay, but for the first time in my life I can't wait to get my shoes off. It's far better than it was last week. Probably the forced no riding will help speed it along, because the foot problem is not bad enough to force me not to ride. I can ignore it way better than I can the "other" problem!


This shouldn't interfere too much with my ride plans. The Manzanita Endurance Ride is on October 2, less than three weeks. At this point, if Hoss isn't fit enough to go, there's nothing else I can do to get him there. I'm not overly worried about making it through the ride, but I would like to be able to ride Hoss some so that he's not a complete maniac at the endurance ride! At this point, though, I don't expect to get much riding in at all, and will have to deal with whatever comes of that.

The Origins of Team 91

All my pictures seem to show Hoss and me in our team colors. Green and yellow may seem a little ridiculous, but there's a story here. 


It's not common for a horse and rider to have a team name. It's not even particularly common for people to choose equipment that matches. Most people simply go out and do endurance rides. I have chosen to create a team name and a team look. I wear green and yellow, Hoss's tack is green and yellow. We are so color-coordinated that everybody knows we're coming! I joke that I wear such bright colors so I can be found if I fall off.

There's a deeper explanation for the color scheme and emblems I've chosen. That explanation is my father. You see, my dad was a fan of auto racing, and particularly liked older race cars. In 1982, he purchased a 1967 Lotus 51A, an early Formula Ford race car. He raced it in historic races and had a wonderful time with it for many years before hanging up his helmet in 1995. Since he purchased the car, he did a great deal for the advancement of vintage Formula Ford racing. It is largely because of his efforts that vintage Formula Fords are racing. My father passed away in 1998.


When I first started endurance riding, I didn't give much thought to color schemes or team names or the like. I just got out there and rode. Over the years, I thought about my dad and conversations we'd had. He often said he'd be more impressed with horse racing if it were more of a challenge. If the horses had to do multiple laps, it would mean they were really getting a challenge. He saw traditional track horse racing in much the same light as he saw drag racing. Not much of a thing. Additionally, he realized that traditional track racing allowed some drugs he would consider cheating. Sort of like using an illegal engine in a race car.


When I found endurance, it slowly dawned on me that I had found precisely the model that would have impressed my father. Hey, there's pit stops! Drugs aren't allowed (at least not in the horse; nobody cares if the rider is drugged out of his or her mind). The similarities between endurance riding and auto racing – at least in its street racing form – are striking. The horse must pass inspection to enter the ride, there are pit stops (not voluntary as in auto racing, but still), and there's an end of race inspection, as well. I realized this was a type of horse "racing" that my father would approve of.

 
I chose my color scheme based on the Lotus colors. My father was fond of saying that all Lotus's are British racing green, regardless of color. Dad used yellow contact paper to make his numbers. Yellow is the secondary color for Lotus. His wheels were yellow as well.


The number 91 has an interesting origin. Because the car model is 51A, my dad wanted to have 51 as his racing number. Fabulous idea, but it didn't end up working out. He would arrive at race tracks only to find that some other 51A owner had beaten him to the number. This would necessitate him changing his number. The easiest thing to do was to add another line to the 5, transforming it into a 9. After a while, he gave in to the inevitable and took up the number 91.


Dad at some point acquired the race team name of "No Rush Racing." The story goes that he'd gone in for car parts. The gentleman who runs the shop asked him how soon he needed the parts. My father replied, "No rush." The shop owner laughed and said, "You should call your race team "No Rush Racing." It stuck. A line drawing was created, depicting him stretched out atop the race car with a hat drawn over his face and cobwebs on the wheels. This became his racing emblem.

It had slowly occurred to me that I could use my endurance riding as a venue for honoring my father's memory. I just needed to do it. When Hoss came into my life, I had already decided my next horse, no matter his color, would wear our team colors, and we would ride as "Team 91" as an homage to my dad. Hoss is a beautiful buttermilk buckskin. He looks absolutely striking in green and yellow. Yellow, in particular, is a good color for him, so my bridle, reins, and breastcollar are mostly yellow with green overlay. I can hardly wait to get ride pictures of him in his spiffy tack.


When I registered Hoss with the AERC, I registered him as NRR Team 91 Hoss. NRR is for No Rush Racing. I've decided that all my horses, from here forward will be NRR Team 91 followed by their names.

I have green and yellow riding tights and green or yellow t-shirts. On the t-shirts are the emblems I've created for our "team." On the chest is the memorial sticker that my mother had made after Dad passed away. She used his No Rush Racing emblem, added a cloud and "In Memory of Vern Jaques." The race car still bears one of these stickers. I scanned it into my computer and colored it in (that took a long time) and made iron-ons that I used to create our shirts. On the back is an oval with "Team 91" in it.


This is the origin of Team 91, and why I have all that green and yellow. It's really quite fun! I get a lot of compliments and comments on my choices, and I'm recognized from afar quite easily.

Of Dogs and Fires

Life is such an adventure. The day after our last ride, one of my dogs, Ash, came up with a nasty swelling on his face. I was scheduled to get out to shoe some horses at 9am, and just knew when I saw the dog that I was going to be late. Our vet is in exactly the opposite direction from where I needed to go, and of course there's no way of knowing how long it would take. Would the vet give him Benadryl and some anti-inflammatories and send us on our way? Would Ash be staying?

Upon examining the swelling, I quickly determined that I really couldn't be sure what it was. There was no puncture wound or bite mark of any kind. It just looked like somebody had stuffed a racquetball in the poor dog's face. On top of that, there was a lot of edema, which had succumbed to gravity and filled Ash's hound-like "wattles." Poor dog looked like a pelican! It was also clear that, although he didn't object to it being poked or squeezed, the swelling was making Ash very uncomfortable. He would start to shake his head and stop. On our walk, he stayed right beside me or behind me, unusual in that he normally runs ahead with Mac.


I loaded Ash up and let my client know what was going on. I am very fortunate that I have very understanding clients. Since all of them own animals themselves, they know what it's like to find something wrong. I drove Ash the 45 minutes to the vet's office and waited to be seen. The vet examined Ash quite carefully, even feeling and looking in his mouth trying to find some sort of entry tract. She immediately suspected an abscess, but was very concerned because of the location. It was very close to his airway, and it's size prevented her from palpating different structures. Just could not be sure what or where it was. So I left Ash to be treated and headed out on my way.


The ranch I was working at is a cellular phone dead zone. I don't think any services work there. I warned the vet's office before I left that I wouldn't be reachable until I was finished with the horses. So I went to work and finished up as quickly as I could. It was after 1pm before I left the place.


As soon as I got back into a service zone, my phone lit up like a Christmas tree. I stopped at a restaurant for lunch and started checking voice mails, text messages, and emails. The vet had called to inform me that Ash had a truly monstrous abscess, and please call back to authorize further treatment. There was an email from East County Magazine reporting a fire between Potrero and Campo.


Well, that's not good news! I ate lunch while researching where the fire – dubbed the Cowboy fire – was in relation to home. About twenty miles north-east of home. The winds were low, but all reports indicatied that the fire was burning hot and fast. Adding to that problem, the area in which the fire was burning was inaccessible to ground crews. The fire was being fought entirely with air support.

I returned home as quickly as possible. The smoke from the fire was a huge black cloud, highly visible from my front porch. I had planned to go to the YMCA to take a core training class, but ditched that idea against the possibility of the wind shifting and/or kicking up. I needed to be here in the event – however unlikely -- the fire shifted. I would still have to make the trip to pick up Ash from the vet.


When I arrived at the vet's office, I immediately said that I needed to get the heck out of there as quickly as possible because of the fire. They had no idea there was a fire. Ash was still groggy and out of it. The vet doesn't like to send dogs home unless they're completely alert, but the staff knows me well. I've taken home dogs that were completely out. The staff convinced the vet (she's new to this hospital, so she doesn't know me yet) to let Ash go before he was fully alert. We got Ash out to the truck with the aid of a towel wrapped around his midsection and shoveled him into the truck. He looked completely ridiculous. I took the e-collar off him pretty early in the ride home, which seemed to help out a great deal. I hate e-collars….

Before we got home, Ash was alert. Still tired, but alert enough to get himself out of the truck and go find a place to pee. I got him in the house and gave him his medication. He's got three drugs. Tramadol, Rimadyl, and Clavamox. Painkiller, anti-inflammatory, and antibiotic respectively. He's been a very happy camper on these drugs. He's not easy to pill, unfortunately. I tried poking a pill into a piece of hot dog, which he took, started chewing, and spit the pill out. I tried putting it in peanut butter, which he refused. So, I had to shove them down his throat. This may not sound like a big deal, but my whole hand fits in his mouth! It feels a little like sticking my head in the lion's mouth. Not really, he's very sweet and gentle. Still, his mouth is so big I can shove all four pills in at once and get him to swallow them. He doesn't like it, and if he really did not want to take the pills, there's probably little I could do about making him take them.


By this time the fire was well over 400 acres. While it had caused the Campo Elementary School to evacuate, it hadn't threatened any structures and there were no other evacuations. I kept up on the news until I went to bed. In the morning, the smoke cloud was significantly smaller and I felt safe to leave to work.

I couldn't leave Ash home. First of all, he's got this huge drain poking out of his face, and Mac is a problem. While I don't have to worry about Ash messing with the stitches or drain, Mac will worry at them. Also, he needed a dose of Tramadol at 2pm. There was no way I'd be home in time to give him that dose. So, once again I loaded Ash and just took him with me.


Ash has never gone with me to work. He's such quiet dog, though, that I wasn't worried about it. Not only that, but he's pretty heavily drugged! The biggest problem I expected to encounter was that the first ranch we were going to has a no-dogs policy. It's way too hot to leave him in the truck. No problem, I'll just tie him up. Okay, problem. Upon hooking him up to the tie-out, I realized that his collar would interfere with and irritate the drain. I tried putting a horse halter around him. No dice. Same problem. So I let him loose, and my assistant and I just kept our eyes on him and kept on the look-out for the ranch manager. Ash hung out pretty much right where we were, selecting bits of horse hoof to chew on and laying in the nice cool grass. The only people who saw him didn't care. Got through that!


Over the course of the day, we learned that the Cowboy fire was burning back on itself and that weather conditions were expected to stay favorable. That felt like a bullet dodged! Ash got lots of attention and fawned over by everybody who met him. He had a great day, and was absolutely pooped by the time we got home! He sure slept well that night.


Ash looks a great deal better now.  The abscess swelling is nearly gone, but we still have to deal with the nasty drainage!

Conditioning Ride 9-1-10 or A Nice Leisurely Ride!

RHR: 36

HR on return: 60

HR at 10 min: 48

Distance: 5.6 miles

Average Speed: 4.5mph

Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

As the title suggests, this was essentially a leisurely stroll! The current heat wave was just starting and I was tired. Exhausted, really, or very close thereto. I wanted to get a little bit of a ride in to exercise the dogs and keep Hoss from getting too fresh. I also wanted a nap before choir practice! I was very fortunate to get both in.


We trailered out, and I was getting a little sour on the Hollenbeck area, so we went a little farther to Horsethief Canyon. The trails here that I know are pretty short, but it's beautiful. It's a nice place to go with some challenging areas to keep our minds alert. In the winter, there's a lot of running water and a pond.

We started out by heading down the fire road into the open space area. Once it was relatively flat, I asked Hoss for a trot, and we hotted along for a couple of miles. Once we turned down into the trails, however, it became harder to do much trotting. Many of the trees have become over grown, and some have fallen. This area burned in the Horse fire a few years ago, so there are dead trees that have started coming down in the last year or so. As a result, we just went at a leisurely pace for most of the ride.


At one point, Mac, being his usual doggy self, was rampaging through the underbrush and flushed up a flock of wild turkeys!  He came bounding out of the bushes, looking utterly shocked.  He's never seen a turkey before!   I asked him if he'd got one, and he looked at me as if he wondered what I could possibly want one for.


When we got to the pond, I was disappointed to see that it had already dried up. I'd been hoping the dogs would have a chance to play in the water. Usually it dries up earlier in the year, but this year it was still there as recently as a month ago. There was enough water left for the dogs to get a good drink, though.


I knew I was tired and that I just wanted to go home, so I started asking Hoss to trot more frequently. He knows where the tough parts are, and he slowed down on his own several times. He was really good about getting me through the treacherous rocks without taking my feet off. We made it back to the trailer after a relatively long climb, so his heart rate was a little high, but truly not bad. Many rides set 60 as the heart rate criteria for vet checks. He dropped nicely, but not as much as I would have liked. I suspect this is due to the short distance and the heat. I didn't have water to sponge him with. The best I could do was brush him out, although I did hose him down when we got home.


All in all, a nice ride. Every once in a while it's nice to get out and ride just to ride.

Conditioning Ride 8-30-10

RHR: 40

HR on Return: 52

HR at 10 minutes: 40

Distance: Approximately 11 mi

Avg Speed: 5.5 mph

Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes

As you may have already guessed by my approximation of the distance we went, I forgot to get batteries for my GPS again. Well, I got the batteries, but I left them in the truck. By the time I realized I hadn't installed them, I wasn't going to turn around to get them! We were riding at Hollenbeck Canyon, close to home, and an area I am well familiar with.

It can get a little wearing to ride in the same places over and over again. This is especially true if those places are small with limited trails. At the same time, familiar trails can feel like the miles go by faster. At Hollenbeck, the trail choices are limited, but it's possible to do different permutations of the same trails. On this ride, I happened to notice a trail that runs along a ridgeline that I'd never taken. I suspected I knew where it came out, so I decided to make my way around so that we could explore it.

We used the trails in our usual manner, running up a nice hill that's not too steep. Coming down through the back part, we flushed up four black-tailed deer. One of my dogs, Mac, was terribly interested but decided he was too tired to give chase. I feel like I'm beginning to get through to him on the whole don't-run-off-after-interesting-things idea. We continued on, and made the turn to come back to what I refer to as the shortcut trail. Shortly after making said turn, a coyote started hollering. And it was close! Very close. It couldn't have been more than 50 feet away. Fortunately both Ash and Mac have learned that coyotes are to be utterly ignored unless they're on home turf! We came back around, covering a mile or so of trail we had already done, and arrived at the junction to the ridgeline trail.

This trail was very interesting. It runs right along the ridge, bisecting the open-space area. It's a nice trail, neither too hilly nor too rocky. Coming off the ridge is a little thrilling, as it is steeper than I normally like, but Hoss handled it like a champ.

Then I lost the trail. I wasn't sure exactly where I was in relation to where I wanted to go. One of my faults is that my spatial relations ability is poor. I typically know where I want to go, but not always can I tell how I need to get there. My direction sense is fine, except that I don't know north, east, south, west to save my life. I can point out the way I want to go, almost without fail. This is one of the reasons I like to have a GPS unit. Having it makes it a whole lot easier to find my way. I did learn some rudimentary tracking skills from my father. I can track reasonably well. I have used that skill to track myself back to where I've been. The only time this skill failed me was riding for the first time in an area of heavy underbrush where the trails were riddled with horse tracks. It made it a great deal harder to find my own horse's tracks. The scenery was pretty much unchanging, too. One area looked just like another!

Back to this ride. Once I lost the trail, I had to make a decision. I had to decide which way I needed to go around the hill. I had passed a place I suspected might be the trail, but up the hill looked just as likely. So we headed up the hill. And, oh, my, what a hill! It was steep and the ground treacherously soft. I knew right away there would be no going back down that slope! Well, we reached the top, and there was no longer trail heading in the direction we needed to go. At this point I could see clearly where we were and which way we needed to go. Since I could see where we needed to go, I simply aimed Hoss toward the area we needed to go, and mostly allowed him to pick his own way. What a great horse. Nothing much bugs him. He pushed his way through any obstacle he came to. Hanging vines, tree branches, he just shoves it away and keeps going. I do have to pay attention, because he will walk right under things that I might not be able to make it through. He hasn't quite figured out that I'm higher than him. He has figured out that my legs stick out, and mostly pays enough attention to get us both through. This is probably due to getting his butt kicked every time he's rammed my knee into a post, rock, or tree.

We found our way back to the shortcut trail and made our way back to the trailer. I was very happy with this ride. Hoss was compliant and happy and go. I did bit him up for this ride, but I don't think I ever really used it. I was truly pleased with his heart rate when we got back to the trailer. If he can come into vet checks at endurance rides with a nice, low heart rate like that, we'll be on easy street! One of his challenges has been that he doesn't come in down, and it takes up to ten minutes for him to come down. Interestingly, he's more likely to have a high heart rate and come down slowly the shorter the distance between vet checks. When we ride at home, usually about 3 miles, he's typically breathing hard and his heart rate is high when we come back, and it takes longer for his heart rate to come down than when we ride, say, 11 or 12 miles at the same average speed. I think this is starting to change. At ten minutes on this ride, his heart rate was back down to match his resting heart rate when we started. That's a very nice thing!