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.