February 9 2008

Today the Backcountry Horsemen - the Purple Sage Riders chapter from Tri-Cities, had a ride planned at Madam Dorian. I had heard of this place before but never seen it, so I was really excited to have the chance to ride there this early in the season. Matt and Levi joined me today which was a special treat. The temperature today in College Place was 47 degrees. T-shirt weather! We got to the barn at 9 am and the horses were all clean because Kittee had the novel idea yesterday to blanket them overnight (wahoo!) Sinwaan still needed some brushing on his head and legs but overall it was a timesaver.



Madam Dorian is about 30 miles from College Place so it was not too far from home while also being an adventure at the same time. The parking lot was large and everyone was able to get a spot without being crowded. There were a few fire pits and picnic tables and a bathroom building although there was no running water or flush toilets. Just two stalls in the women's end which had a seat that lead to a hole in the ground. The wind here was very strong and I noticed it throughout the ride. I think it helped in keeping Sinwaan cool, as with his furry coat he does sweat to some degree, but it also battled me as I tried my best to hold up my video camera like a torch.



Everyone was saddled up and ready to go by 11 am and we headed out. Matt took some photos of us leaving and heading up the first hill. The trail was dirt and sand with lots of sagebrush. Reminded me quite a bit of our Lakeview Ride experience. There were some elevation changes, I distinctly remember two large hills the horses powered right up and lots of little mini hills as we wound around and through the sagebrushes. It kept things interesting.



I took a video camera with me this time for two reasons. The first reason being for my friend Lara who I know would have loved to have been along on this ride. The other reason is because I wanted to see how it looked from horseback - how still would I be able to hold the camera? Is this something I could do on a regular basis of different trails? Matt had put a stabilizer post on the base of the camera which really only added weight and about ten minutes into it I was already feeling muscle strain in my forearm. But I taped approx 49 min of footage, which we will probably cut down to 30 seconds. :)




This trail consisted of mostly single track but some double track toward the end. The double track section was really awesome footing and I let Sinwaan out here and he just ran to his heart's content. It was glorious. You can drive a truck on the upper road from one end to the other, and the trails for the horses are between that and the lake. [In the above photo, the upper road is to the right of the building in the top right of the frame] There is a main trail or two but some people made their own. I saw a skeleton of something alongside the trail.



In this photo above, I am leading, all you can see is me and the camera. Where's my horse?

The group of us made our way about four miles out. The leader said the main road for the cars (gravel) went about another mile and then dead ended. So we all rested there for a little while and then we turned toward home since half the horses there were not shod (Sinwaan included). Once we got back to the double track I just let Sinwaan out again and really enjoyed the speed. A gal on an Arab mare (later learned her name was Allison) kept up with us for awhile and we talked a little. She wants to get into endurance and also lives in College Place. She was very friendly and apparently the two of us led about 1/3 of the group into our own dead end. I am not entirely sure how that happened but finally the leader caught up with us and we asked him where to go and he said "well, we need to be over there" pointing across a dry lake-bed full of dried weeds and live weeds and all kinds of natural piles of weeds, "so we just go this way" and he led us straight through all of it. That was probably not my favorite part of the ride, but it was pretty crazy. The horses charged on through and made their own trails there. I was worried about what sort of creatures might jump out at me in this very strange place. Then we got to the Wall Of Weeds. These weeds were golden with stalks the size of corn or larger, as high as me with little branches and some sort of asthma-inducing pollen dried flowery things on top. Allison looks back at me and says "I do not want to go in there!" And I felt her pain. But our leader didn't seem to mind this challenge, and took it head on. The sound of the stalks cracking as his horses trampled them was loud and echoed throughout the valley. I was in awe of this man, who rode his horse in a halter and ponied another horse in a halter with a young rider. So into the Wall Of Weeds we went. I had to make good use of my left arm in there, pushing the weeds away from my face. It was probably about 40 feet of this that we went through. And on the other side was more of the same dead and live and lumpy weed piles. Finally we did find the trail!



At this point Allison and the leader took off, and Sinwaan and I joined the company of a woman who's name I do not know. She rode what appeared to be an older gray Arab. I think I remember her saying earlier in the ride that her mare was in her 20s. She set a slower pace, a fair amount of trotting with walking interspersed. At this point Sinwaan is just screaming out for his barn buddies. Every so often he would stop and look back for them but they were not there. They were smart enough not to follow us down the wrong path and into the weeds but they were still a little ways behind us due to all the galloping we had done earlier.

We had a lovely ride back to the parking lot, and then we could see someone had built a fire in the pit. Within two minutes Kittee and Dale were back to the trailer as well and we all untacked and offered the horses some water and hay. Sinwaan said no thanks to the water but was happy for the grass hay. Everyone busied about and the food for the potluck started appearing. I had made a cold pasta salad with baby corn and artichoke hearts and olives. It was a little bland and I am realizing now typing this that I forgot to add the parmesan cheese! Dale made potato salad and it also was quite tasty. Someone brought a chili that Matt really enjoyed, and there was hot rice to go with some sort of sauce with meat balls in it. A green salad, real fudge, peanut butter cookies. A nice spread and variety from everyone.

So we ate our food and afterwards Levi had fun learning how to walk down a hill. Well, it was a slight incline. New sensation for him to be sure.

During our ride (which was 3 hours to go the 8 miles) Matt had taken Levi to the model train and hobby stores in the Tri-Cities and enjoyed himself as well.

As for me...well approx 10 miles of riding this week is a great start to the season! I am hoping this weather keeps up and I can put in that many every week! March is right around the corner and the HOTR ride will be here before I am ready for it.