Once again we arrived pretty late to camp. I did get everything set up and prepped in time to make it to the ride meeting, although Hoss didn't get vetted. This isn't generally a problem when we're going to Duck rides, as Dave feels he's seen him plenty of times and is perfectly happy to see him trot off down the trail in the morning.
Come morning, I tacked up and we headed on out. Dave was sitting in his Jeep at the trail head. I trotted on over and made sure he was happy with letting us head out. While I was talking with Dave, Hoss decided to pitch a fit about not being allowed to leave. The whip came out, and I backed and whacked him a bit until I had his mind back with me. Another rider said something to the effect of "That's the way to do it!"
Once we were under way, I let Hoss trot out. At this point in a ride, it can be difficult to keep him from overworking himself, so I spend an awful lot of time holding him back and correcting his way of going. He was doing pretty well this morning, though, and we were pretty quickly able to more or less get into a pocket by ourselves.
We caught up to another horse, which didn't really like having him behind her. Both my horse and the other horse tend to do better alone, so it became a bit of a challenge to get away from each other. Eventually I got Hoss moving out away from the other horse and we were briefly in our own pocket again.
Hoss was pretty fresh on this day. Which can make it even more of a challenge to get him through a multi-day ride. I had to do very little encouraging him, and more managing of his forward speed. Over all, he was pretty good on this first day.
We came into the vet check in good time. He drank well and we found our crew bag. Both of us had our lunches, and I vetted him through with some time to spare so he could rest and eat a little more before leaving.
When it was time to leave, Hoss did his typical, but-the-food-is-over-there thing. I don't think I've ever known a horse that could eat so much. So when it's time to leave the vet check, he's pretty sure he's gonna starve to death before we get back to camp. And he'll drag his feet leaving. It'll take a good mile for him to give up on the idea of turning around and going back.
Once Hoss got going again, we kept up a reasonably steady pace until we turned to go over the hill back to camp. The trail was pretty rocky and horrid, so we mostly needed to walk. We trotted as much as we could, but once we got to the really steep stuff, I decided to get off and tail. There was not much point in riding him up, as we had more days ahead and we'd only walk anyway. It was just as good for me to get off him and walk a bit.
After we topped the hill, we'd come halfway from the vet check back to camp, so I gave him his electrolytes before getting back on. Re-energized, he trotted well through the more flat stuff until we came to another uphill. We walked the uphill and were able to trot at a good pace most of the way back to camp.
I've been so busy trying to get DC trained and riding the hair off Hoss I haven't even had time to keep the blog up to date on rides, let alone the rest of life. So I'm going to try to squeeze all the interesting stuff into this post to make up the difference.
I'm still taking both horses out every Tuesday for lessons. DC is coming along very nicely. I've had her on a couple of solo rides around the neighborhood. Our most recent ride we worked on crossing water, which she got down pretty quick. She did try to convince me that, since she had stuck her face in the water, she shouldn't have to stick her feet in the water. She also had to pass a pair of dollies (the sort used to move furniture and appliances, not children's toys) which were new on the trail. It was not easy but she managed it. Eventually she decided the dogs would probably not be next to the dollies if they were about to attack. There's an abandoned trailer out there she still doesn't like. As we approach it, she looks for all sorts of reasons to go another way or turn around. But, there's only one way through, and that's past the trailer, and she will do it. I also got to take her on her first trip out in the trailer for a trail ride. My friend, Wendy Turner, came along and rode Hoss.
This brings us to another bit of news. Five dogs now call Chalice Ranch home. In mid-December, a friend from church, Ruth Turner (Wendy Turner's mom), emailed me. She sent a link and commented, "Wouldn't this guy fit in nicely at your ranch?" The link was to a picture of a very sad and scared-looking brindle dog in the shelter. Ruth works with a local rescue. The rescue pulled this fellow from the shelter.
Of course I didn't think I needed another dog. Then I got to looking around. Roxy recently had her third or fourth bout of pancreatitis, and is now getting home-made chicken and rice for her meals. Ash is starting to show intermittent lameness from his bilateral hip displaysia, and I've started hearing his hips pop on walks. Even Mac is starting to show age, limping more often on the torn cruciate in his hind leg. Both of the "younger" dogs will be five this year. I always said when they were four or five it would be time to get another dog. I thought by this time Roxy would have passed (I'm happy she hasn't), so I'd still be at the four dog level.
It didn't take much thinking to say yes. Ruth brought the new dog, dubbed "Cliffy" by the rescue, out to the ranch. Wendy came along as well, and we had a short trail ride while "Cliffy" started acclimating to his new surroundings and spent some time bonding with my daughter.
The dog was sweet and bonded easily. He wanted nothing more than to be close to a person. That night, when I went to bed, all the dogs came into my room, including "Cliffy." He discovered Uh-oh the Goat on the deck outside my bedroom, standing halfway out of the sliding glass door to stare at her. He followed Tiger the Cat around until she jumped up on the cat tree. He cried a lot, wanting to be close to me. At one point I woke up to find him staring right into my face.
"Cliffy" didn't stick. Somehow it just seemed like the wrong name for this brindled sweetheart. Besides, when we got Mac and Ash, we decided on a formula: the dogs would have "bad-ass" names. This really started with a dog we lost in 2006, Mauser, so named for the firearm. Mac got his name from the Mac-10 rifle. Ash is named for the Bruce Campbell character in the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness. So this new fellow needed a name. We ran through several before my daughter came up with Sam. It was an appropriate name. Once again, we are using the name of a character. Yet another Bruce Campbell character from the USA TV show Burn Notice.
Sam got to go on his first trailer-out trail ride the same day DC did. They both had a very positive experience. I did learn Sam is shy of every horse *except* Hoss and DC. This isn't really a negative, but it does make passing other horses more interesting.
We're quite pleased to have added Sam to our "pack." Although young he's not a terribly high energy dog. He's sweet and easy to teach. And, of course, he's adorable.
Here's video of Sam playing with the other dogs on a morning walk about three days after he came to us.
Also in mid-December, the week before Death Valley, I took Hoss to see the vet. My trainer and I were concerned he was developing some hock and stifle issues. At a lesson a few days earlier, his stifle was popping a bit so we were quite worried.
After an exhaustive exam, the vet felt the stifle popping was meaningless. It was gone by the time of the exam, and was not apparent on a short trail ride a couple of days earlier. The vet did find some fibrotic myopathy, basically scar tissue in the muscle, in Hoss's ride hind leg. It's probably the result of a fall he took in the trailer in late August. He will short-stride slightly for the rest of his life, although I can say he can sure reach forward when he wants to.
As a result of this exam, we decided not to inject Hoss's hocks, but to put him on a round of Pentosan. He had his first four loading doses and my trainer and I watched him in the arena. I hadn't actually watched him move on his own the entire time (how do you watch a horse you're riding?), so I really had no basis for comparison. My trainer, however, was very impressed with the improvement she saw. While I didn't really feel a difference in the saddle, the difference in how he moved and especially in how he stopped was noticeable. I don't feel like I'm riding an especially different horse, but I will be keeping him on the Pentosan and may have his hocks injected sooner rather than later.
That's all that really fits into this stage of the blog. Stay tuned. Lots more to get up to date!
