Sinwaan

What can we get into now?

2011-08-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Otherwise known as Three Blind Mice.

Thanks Doug for the photo and the captions!

Sinwaan, Ali and Andy at the watering hole.

Bennington Lake

2011-08-21T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ruth, Heather and myself had a great ride at Bennington Lake today. Weather was great, horses did wonderful and it is exciting to see how thrilled Heather is with her new Standie! We did lots of trotting today and even had a canter up a hill.

Thursday ride

2011-08-18T10:52:00.000-07:00

Matt had been talking about going to the model train meeting tonight and the kids got all excited about going with him. He usually takes Levi but this would be a first for Ellie. So that meant I had the evening free to go riding! I asked Ruth if she was also game to go out on a ride and she was, so she hauled Sinwaan and we went out to Madam Dorian.

We had a great ride with a lot of trotting but the sand was quite deep and Sinwaan tired out by the time we turned around to head back on the gravel road. Blue is a little trailer-sour (or sweet?) and took off in this awesome floating speedy trot. Man that mustang can move! Sinwaan would trot along at his own pace, then canter a bit to try and catch up and tire out and need a break. He is still overweight and a bit out of shape, but we're working on that. Hopefuly with being worked/ridden twice a week he will get back in shape by the end of next month for Bare Bones, should I be able to do that ride.

In one section the mosquitos were really bad and I was shooing them and killing them and knew I could be in trouble since I have bad reactions to their bites. I usually get a welt that lasts about a week. I had some itching on my back thighs but tried not to scratch it too much.

The sun was setting as we rode back toward the trailer and I ran over a snake. I am certain it was dead, about a foot+ long but it could have been a baby rattler by the markings. Then Ruth spotted two bucks - we had seen a couple deer here and there but these bucks had some racks - maybe 3 points or so, and it was neat to see them. They vanished as quickly as they appeared and we later saw them about 1/2 mi down the road ahead of us again, bounding and bouncing and jumping fences into the orchard next door.

Weather was perfect today for riding, not too hot. Probably mid 80s in the middle of the day, cooler by the time we were finishing up.

Bennington Lake - 7 miles

2011-08-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today I met up with Ruth, Heather, Laurie and Annie for a ride at Bennington Lake, thanks to the graciousness of the Fleischers who let me use their older Dodge to haul my trailer. My truck is out of commission at the moment.

I parked at the bottom and saw Ruth drive by to park at the top. I tried calling her but my phone had a problem. So I tacked up and hoped I would take the right trail to meet her. I decided to go along the water that borders Rook's Park since last time I saw Laurie I thought she had mentioned that she rides over the bridge there to get to Bennington.

I didn't see Laurie but when I reached the spillway I did catch a glimpse of two riders approaching. I waved and they waved back. I couldn't tell yet if it was "my people." As they got closer I could tell it was Heather astride Bunny and Ruth riding Blue. I had seen a couple photos but never met their new horses so it was nice to see them in the flesh. We talked for a moment about what to do and decided to head back towards the bridge to meet Laurie and Annie. We saw Laurie on Otto first, proudly donning her life vest. She has a protective riding vest en route in the mail but until it arrives this one works well to keep her safe should Otto launch her. It was only a moment longer until Ruth saw Annie galloping towards us down a distant hill.

All together now we headed out on the trails around the lake. We mostly walked, given this was Bunny's first time out and Blue is recovering from a fetlock injury that had him in a cast the past month! I had remembered my GPS today and watched as the miles ticked by. Eventually it was time for Heather to get back home so Ruth and Heather dismounted in the upper parking lot, we all chatted for a bit and then I continued on with Annie and Laurie. We picked up the pace and trotted and cantered down the path back to the spillway. It felt good to let Sinwaan out as he enjoys a brief gallop.

All told we did about 7 miles in two hours today. It was so nice to ride with all the ladies and I look forward to doing this again soon.

Thursday

2011-08-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

I had Cassandra ride Sinwaan today. Because I didn't report on it the day it happened I can't remember what she reported back to me.

Bennington Lake ride

2011-08-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

I hauled Sinwaan out to the Lake today for a real 'trail' ride and we had a great time. Although most of the ride we did solo, we did come across Laurie Lodgsdon and her friend Julia at the top of the dam. We rode together and chatted for about a mile or two. It was so nice to be out on a dirt path instead of the road.

Thursday work

2011-08-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

I had Cassandra ride Sinwaan again today since I knew I wouldn't be out until this weekend and he's already had a good three weeks off recovering from his fall. He is sound now and recovered nicely.

She said she used her own bit on him today and said he was responding well to dropping his head down, but was dropping it too far and was still heavy on the forehand. He was tripping a bit. It sounds like she has more things to teach both of us to make riding out on the trail more pleasurable. We talked about farrier dates and different types of shoes to look into to increase our safety on the roadside (grip). He is way too fat still but hopefully with some more work in the near future he will start losing some weight.

Camas Creek Canter

2011-07-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I didn't have a horse with me, but Matt and I did make the drive over to Potomac and hiked the "blue trail" - which was 9 miles of the LD distance. I took a ton of photos so I will have a story and report on the 'ride' soon. :) I MUST return with a horse for this ride in the near future!

Decision Time

2011-07-20T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well today was the last day to observe Sinwaan before deciding if we would be making the trek to the Camas Creek Canter in Potomac, Montana.

I have been religiously going out twice a day to soak and hose down his legs and reapply the oiuntment to both help him heal and to keep the flies off his banged-up knees.

Thankfully, Cassandra Berube was out to the barn to work with some other horses there and Cindy offered to trot Sinwaan out for her to get another opinion. Cassandra has completed Tevis and understood what I was up against in making this decision.

I got the phone call at work and saw Cassandra on the caller ID. I held my breath, but knew deep down what she would say. She hesitated and told me she had some sad news.

Trotting straight, she said he looked sound but as soon as Cindy turned him to the left she saw a misstep. So she asked for the same thing again. Sound going forward, and another misstep to the left. She then took the lead and lounged him in a tight circle to the left and it was obvious to both of them that he was lame.

I had felt some heat in his left fore that morning when I was out to soak his legs, so I was already thinking I wouldn't be taking him, but I hadn't trotted him out.

Cassandra related to me that Cindy had told her "you be the one to call her, I'm not delivering the bad news!" Ha ha. I had to laugh over that, and assured both of them that it was really not the end of the world for me, I wasn't surprised at their conclusion.

I am appreciative to everyone who has come by and looked at him for me and offered advice and support. Thank you all, I love you ladies! :)

Oh, and I quit the team. Call me superstitious but this is the third ride this year that hasn't worked out since I joined a team. There are still a handful of rides I could try for. Here's hoping...

Bummed out

2011-07-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

This morning I went out the barn for a last conditioning ride this week before we head to Montana on Thursday. I had planned to work in the round pen for about 10 minutes before the ride but because it took me so long to get my saddlebags back on and the HR monitor on, etc, well - time got away from me and we just headed out for our usual 6 mi ride on the roadside. I wanted to be back before it got too hot.

I started working with him right off the bat as we headed down the drive, asking him to bend and soften and I did feel a little progress already, he was very willing and wanting to please me today. It was easy to ride out on a loose rein.

I had brought out my GPS and was wearing it so I know that not even a mile in, 0.89 mi to be exact, Sinwaan tripped, slipped, scrambled and completely fell down, in a section that I would consider easy. I don't know what happened but it was not good. I was trying to decide if I needed to bail off or stay on, well I ended up staying on him and he got back up to his feet quickly but then he was holding his left fore off the ground and not wanting to put weight on it. I dismounted immediately to look him over and he still was just hanging his foot out in front of him. I was pretty worried about him now. We were close enough to home to walk back, but would he do it?

I waited for a car to pass and then turned him back and started off on foot, leading him. He came along willingly and started putting weight on his leg. I was relieved by that. After a couple steps he seemed pretty sound at the walk. His knees were banged up pretty bad, and he had a spot on his fetlock (on the hurt leg) that was bleeding - I suspected he clipped it with a hind when he fell down and that is what was causing him the pain.

On the walk home I realized my heel was hurting pretty bad, I guess after 4 years it's time to replace my ride shoes!

When I got him back to the barn I hosed off his legs and he looked ok. I trotted him out and he was favoring the left fore still. Cindy came out and I showed her his wounds and she had a better ointment then I did for them so we doctored him up and she promised to keep me updated. She noticed some swelling on his knee.

At this point I am so discouraged. He could be sound by Wednesday, but then will the long trailer ride to Montana make him lame again? It is a lot of money to spend on gas to haul him there only to have there be a question of if I get to ride. I was so looking forward to this ride!

The day started off so well. His HR was 37 when I tacked him up. I have been working on getting everything together. I had Matt help me with his electric fence charger last night and got that working again. I replaced the worn out shoelace on my boots and washed out my buckets. So much prep and so little time.

Now we wait and see...

Preparations...

2011-07-14T11:28:00.001-07:00

Predicted weather for the Camas Creek Canter, looks pretty good!

Today I printed out the PNER entry form and AHA form, filled them both out, wrote out my check to the RM, printed the directions and information for the ride and started thinking about what to unload from my horse trailer to make room for the things I will have to have.

Cassandra and AVMC

2011-07-13T15:06:00.001-07:00

Today I met Cassandra out at the barn to see her work with Sinwaan. She showed me some techniques to help him bend and flex and soften up on the bit. She was glad to see he had retained what she taught him on Monday and said he was doing much better today. Everything she showed and taught me was very helpful and I plan to apply it as soon as possible to see what kind of difference it makes for us both on the trail.

After the lesson, I hauled Sinwaan in to AVMC for his traveling papers. Dr Sarah Campbell met us for the appointment. She took his temp and drew blood for a coggins and her assistant worked on a health certificate and I was happy that it was under $100! My mom's Explorer did a good job hauling my trailer and I am really getting excited now about the Montana ride since it is looking like it will happen!! Still more details to work out but the major part is looking positive.

Trainer

2011-07-11T23:13:00.001-07:00

Today Cassandra rode Sinwaan for the first time. I think she has some things to show me!

Early ride

2011-07-08T14:35:00.001-07:00

It's been hot here this past week but high winds yesterday cooled everything off. All was still and calm this morning at 5 am so I headed out to the barn for a ride before work. It was chilly enough for me to wear a jacket on the ride. Sinwaan was slightly mischievous the first mile (as expected) but soon settled in and set a good pace. We did our 6 miles in 1 hr 10 min and had no trouble. Not a lot of traffic that early in the morning, which was really nice. The sun was coming up and it was a real treat to see it from horseback.

After I got back to the barn and un-tacked a breeze kicked up. Quite the timing!

I am currently trying to work out all the details to get Sinwaan to Potomac, MT for a ride the end of this month.

4th of July

2011-07-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July ride! Cindy thought I was nuts for riding on this holiday but since I went out in the morning on back country roads I wasn't too worried about fireworks.

I got out to the barn later than I had planned in the morning and it was already getting quite warm.

We did encounter a large semi-truck coming at us on the first hill climb. The shoulder in that section is very soft and a drop-off so I didn't waste any time dismounting. The driver of the truck was very polite and crept towards/past us at about 5 mph. After that I got back on and we continued. At the end of Forest Rd Sinwaan spied two deer in the pea field and we watched them bound away.

We had another big truck barrel towards us at the end of Froghollow but we had ample room to get off the road so it wasn't a problem there.

We had a nice ride but I got a sunburn on my shoulders since I wore a tank top today. I hosed Sinwaan off and let him graze until he dried.

6 miles

2011-07-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Rode the 6 mile loop this morning and enjoyed the cooler weather. Sinwaan did great.

We had a Raccoon sighting as one ran towards us in the road a couple hundred feet but soon noticed us and scampered off into the bushes.

He is getting fat on all the growth in his paddock. Starting to develop a dimple above his tail. So my goal is to ride 2x a week up until our planned endurance ride on July 23. At the moment we have some questions about transport so I hope it all works out! Even if it doesn't, I guess the exercise will be good for him to work off some of that weight.

Thursday Morning Adventure

2011-06-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

So this morning I decided that if I am going to get any riding done this week it would have to be before work.

I got out to the barn about 6:30 am and saddled up and decided to do the 6 mi loop on the road over there. We headed over to Forest and up to Froghollow and everything was going well despite the wind and occasional sprinklers to avoid. Shortly after we passed Locher we encountered an onion field with field workers slaving away. Sinwaan was not too sure about all that. He was not really wanting to go at all (just standing and watching), so I dismounted and led him for awhile. All was going quite well until I got too close to the edge of the very soft shoulder and I slipped down the embankment about 4 feet, I saw Sinwaan’s head go up and I lost the rein and then had to focus on my own feet. I scrambled up the slope and got up in time to see Sinwaan galloping away. Groan.

I started running and soon he was out of sight he was moving that fast. I got hopeful when I saw he had taken off through a dirt field to the left before the corner of Froghollow and Last Chance. He must have discovered a fence because he had turned around and was heading back towards Froghollow. I was still too far away but started hollering at him, well that didn’t work. He went down through the new driveway there to the house they have been working on and I hoped it was fenced so I could catch him. No dice. He popped out on Last Chance and kept going. By now there is some traffic, people headed to work and I was just terrified he would get hit by a truck, he was swerving all over the road in his floaty trot.

When it was obvious I wasn’t going to catch him I called Doug because I knew he would head straight for home (and breakfast) and I didn’t want them to be scared if he showed up without me.

After that a very nice guy stopped and asked if the runaway horse was mine (he had passed him coming the opposite direction) No buddy, I just run with a helmet on for fun :) He offered me a ride to catch up with Sinwaan and we got close, I jumped out and he took off again. Agh! So the guy gave me another ride and after Sinwaan turned down Stovall (at least he knows where to go) we were able to get around him and then Sinwaan just stopped behind his pickup and I caught him without any more ado.

I noticed his one fastener to the reins had broken, so I just clipped the other side of the rein under his chin and led him all the way home from there (2 mi) walking/jogging as I could. Shortly after I had control of him and was jogging home Doug showed up to make sure we were ok. He offered to go home to get the horse trailer and I decided no, we were out here for the exercise, I would just be getting more than I bargained for LOL He ended up following us home (at a distance).

WOW what a morning, my adrenaline was so high I was thinking I should go out and do this every day!! I felt great LOL Now I am thinking maybe not, my shins are starting to hurt pretty bad. Heheh

Road ride

2011-04-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Heather and I rode 14.2 miles today. Great ride. Met her at Mission and rode south to Stateline, over to Beet and back around. Nice weather.

No ride

2011-04-16T20:06:00.001-07:00

Didn't ride today. Picked up manure for a couple of hours and then decided I was too tired and it was too windy to ride alone. Wimped out.

Solo ride

2011-04-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I was out of town. Last weekend I was sick and the weather was sooo windy I decided not to ride. Today I had no excuse. Mid-50s weather and sunny, it just doesn't get any nicer! I had my hesitations about riding by myself on the road when Sinwaan had a bit of time off. I thought about going to Bennington Lake but that is a long way to haul when you only average 6 mpg. So I took Sinwaan over to Heather's and rode behind the water treatment center. It was beautiful.

In the beginning we had a really good spook at a Mallard, but after that Sinwaan would just stop and look and then the craetures would appear - we first saw a small herd of three white tailed deer bounding away. Then three wild turkeys. Then three more deer. Then a herd of 8 deer. Then a raptor flew overhead. Sinwaan was really feeling good and once we had warmed up and gone about a mile he wanted to canter. Forget trotting, that was too slow for him. As long as he behaved himself I let him go. It was really glorious.

We rode for about an hour and 15 minutes, enough for him to work up a good sweat with all that racing around. We finished our ride with a steady trot all around the trees, it only took 15 minutes so it was probably not more than a mile or two. On our walk to cool out a red-winged blackbird flew right across in front of us and I got a good look at him. So pretty.

15 mile ride

2011-03-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today we did a road ride. Heather and Ruth rode down and I rode out to meet them. We connected on Mission and turned around. Sinwaan had been very good to that point. Now that had turned and were heading back towards "home" he wanted to GO. I did not let him go and instead put in in the rear of the group of horses and he had a fit. We worked through our disagreements and settled into a nice pace for the remainder of the ride. It was really nice weather although we did ride through one rain shower over on Beet road. I calculated my milage at the end and as it turns out we did a whopping 15 mile ride today! The other ladies are headed to Home On The Range next weekend and I am flying to Tennessee for my dad's wedding.

Ride on the dirt trail

2011-02-27T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today the weather was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday. The bank said 49 at noon but it didn't feel quite that warm!

After lunch I went out and hooked up my trailer. It was really windy out at the barn so I was glad not to be riding on the road today! Loaded up Sinwaan and trailered over to Heather's.

Ruth, Heather and I did the loop(s) around near the water treatment plant and young trees. There is a short loop that we did about six times, 3 each direction. The horses were slightly better behaved today. Sinwaan seemed really happy overall, although there were a couple times that I had to fight him for his head, he just wanted to run!

The interesting thing I have noticed about him this winter is that he is no longer content to just follow along. He used to be the sort of horse that I could envision in a string of pack horses, just follow the one ahead of you. Lately he wants the lead, he will fight for it and even cop a slight attitude about it. I don't know if he would be this way in other company, but that is the position he intends to hold with these two geldings. His movement is even more extended, really covering ground. I made him follow a couple of times to force him to slow down and try to collect and he hated every minute of it. But we dealt with it and I think it's good for him to listen and slow down when need be.

We tackled the BIG HILL again today. Last week I got off and led Sinwaan down it. It looked pretty steep, not to mention narrow. This time I rode him down behind Otto. He did really well, until the end. It widens out and Otto had stopped to relieve himself. I rode Sinwaan around him since there was plenty of room. At the very end of the hill there was a steep bank. I told Sinwaan "easy," and gave him his head to see what he would do. I was hoping he would sit back on his haunches and ease down it. Nope. He jumped off of it. I had put a hand back behind me to hold the cantle and keep my balance. We hit the bottom and Sinwaan had a buck or two. I am not sure if that was because he was trying to regain his balance or because my position in the saddle bothered him. It was awkward and I am glad I stayed on.

We rode around the grid of trees multiple times, really enjoying the trail, weather and company. It was a really nice ride.

I checked the time when we got back to the trailer: 4:30. We had aimed to tack up at 2:30 but I think I was a couple minutes late. Even with a time allowance we still had a solid 90+ minute ride. Hard to know what the milage is (forgot my GPS again) but I would guess 7-8 miles today.

New trails

2011-02-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

There was some concern last night about Sinwaan not eating his hay at feeding time, but I was relieved to hear he dove right into it this morning. When I drove out to the barn he was laying down taking a nap in the sun but when he heard the truck he got up and shook himself off and watched me hook up the trailer. I grabbed his halter and headed to the gate. "Sinwaaaan! Hey buddy, want to go someplace today?" He came galloping up to me. He was eager and ready for a change of scenery!

We trailered over to Heather's and met she and Ruth for our weekend ride. This time they showed me the trails that they frequent out back by the water treatment plant. They are double-track dirt roads that wind around through a grid of trees. It is really neat back there! Footing was great and it was probably mid to high 40s today. It was so glorious in the sun that I only wore my t-shirt and breeches, although at times I wished for my jacket.

The horses were really feeling good today and Sinwaan was testing me quite a bit. On one hill I let him go into a collected canter and heard a shout behind me, Otto was bucking and Ruth gave it a valiant effort but did eventually come off. After that we did more walking and trotting all around and trying to get the horses in a better frame of mind. One loop we did three times and then reversed and did it another three times going the other direction. There was a bit of a hill so it helped to work the horses.

The trails looked so inviting that Sinwaan was pulling me really hard. A couple times I wanted to just let him run but with the earlier misbehaving figured that wouldn't be very polite. :) So we worked on slowing down instead. My arms got a work out today for sure!

Beautiful ride, beautiful trails, and by the end of a solid hour the horses were all doing much better so we ended on a good note and walked them home.

Road ride

2011-02-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Road ride today, new loop from the barn, lots more rock/gravel and harder on the horses without shoes. Thankfully Sinwaan has a new set so he wasn't affected but the other horses were getting tender by the end of the ride. 9.5 miles today. Great weather.

Sunday ride with a blizzard

2011-01-30T21:50:00.000-08:00

Today Ruth picked me up and we went out to Heather's to fetch the trailer. We hauled Otto and Quincy out to Sinwaan's crib and tacked up and left from there. Ruth had a plan for a new route today that would take us down some new roads and be a longer distance. It was pretty cold out so we weren't sure we would make it.

We headed up Forest first, since Otto had some time off, we thought doing a little hill work would be good for everyone. There wasn't snow when we started out but soon into the ride the snow started falling, quickly. There were flakes coming in at us sideways, much like a blizzard. Sinwaan turned his head into it since going along on the edge of the road had the snow hitting him in the right eye. We had planned to turn right onto Froghollow but we didn't really feel like tackling all that snow head-on so we turned left instead and had it at our backs.

From there we went up Locher Rd, which I had never ridden on. We turned onto Stateline Rd and at that corner is the Grape Vine training facility. One of the horses in the paddock got so excited to see us ride by that he galloped along and slid and fell down, not once but twice. We were worried about him and we were just walking by. As we passed the large field adjacent to the indoor arena we saw a lot of horse trailers. We saw a large group of people doing what appeared to be a trail clinic complete with lots of obstacles! Later I learned it was the Mark Bolender clinic.

We turned north on Valley Chapel, then left back onto Froghollow and right on Last Chance and another left on Stovall to head home. Sinwaan led most of the way home, a nice big trot. His hooves have been holding up really well but I am concerned that they are wearing down quickly with all this road riding barefoot.

All told we did 10.1 miles today! I mapped out the other route we would have taken had it not been a blizzard and that would have only been 9.5 miles.

Road ride

2011-01-22T21:20:00.000-08:00

Trailered over to Heather's and we did a bit longer ride today. It ended up being about 9 miles! Horses did great, and we had a nice time catching up and learning more about each other. The weather was amazing for late January!

I only took one photo today. We saw a beautiful large owl take flight and I marveled at the intricacy in the gold and black pattern in his feathers. We also saw a large Blue Heron. Came across two other horseback riders on Valley Chapel as well.

Road ride, the conditioning continues

2011-01-16T19:48:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately last night Ruth came down with a fever, so today it was just Heather and I planning to ride. It poured rain all night, and was still raining fairly good when I let the dogs out around 8 am. I made breakfast for the family and wished for the best. 10 am - no rain! I called Heather and she was excited to ride, so I drove out to get Sinwaan about 10:30. On the drive over it started raining again! Boo! Not to be deterred, I hitched up the trailer and as I got Sinwaan the wind picked up. Great! Rain AND wind today!? Oh well, I am an endurance rider and this would be my only chance to ride all week. I got to Heathers and groomed and tacked up in the rain. Mounted up and what do you know? The rain stopped! Happy day!

We had a great ride, taking Mojonnier to Bussell to the Old Milton Hwy, then down Springdale to Beet which put us on Frog Hollow back to Mojonnier. This was a six mile loop. We could have gone a bit farther today but I had to be back by 1:00. We chatted the whole way and it was really enjoyable to have some "girl time" this weekend!

Road ride

2011-01-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

Today Ruth and Heather trailered out to where Sinwaan lives so we could all start out together for a road ride. We were anticipating very cold temperatures so I was dressed in an undershirt, t-shirt, two sweatshirts and my winter coat. Also a snug hat that fit under my helmet. As it turns out I was overdressed and started sweating not long into the ride, although my feet were still cold.

Sinwaan was really feeling good today (seems to be related to the colder temperatures) and ended up in the lead, or close to it, most of the 6 mile loop. He was supercharged and eager and set a nice fast pace for everyone. Ruth and Otto took turns playing leapfrog and riding in all different positions in the pack.

About a half mile from our destination, Ruth dismounted when we saw a herd of deer. There were at least 8 does and a buck not far from the road. Otto handled it well and Ruth decided to walk him the rest of the way as we cooled out all the horses.

We got lucky on our return, Doug was home and willing to take our photo. I just love how great we all look in this shot! All the ears are up! :)

Madam Dorian adventures

2010-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today I saw the sun and got excited. I stepped outside for a minute to check the temperature. The snow in the front yard was melting. That could only mean one thing - it was warmer than the predicted high of 24 today! I texted Ruth about riding. She was also excited at the prospect of riding so we planned for her to meet me at 12:30.

Gail came by before then and said her outdoor thermometer read 34 in the sun.

Ruth picked me up and then we went to get her trailer and Otto. Then out to collect Sinwaan. We reached Madam Dorian without delay. I was on the shade side of the trailer and it was c-o-l-d getting tacked up and ready so I put on my gloves. I was excited to finally swap out my saddlebags for the new red ones that I got from my mom for my birthday!

As we were tacking up an ambulance went by. It did not have its siren on but it was really moving over the rough gravel road, every part of it jarring as it drove past. Ruth and I both thought that curious. Madam Dorian is remotely located and we rarely see other people out there. It is used a lot for duck hunting however so sometimes we see men working their bird dogs, or hiding out waiting for a duck.

Not long after a helicopter flew overhead, going the same direction as the ambulance. Hmmm. We were thinking maybe someone was having a medical complication, or maybe shot by a hunter and needed a life-flight out of there.

Ruth and I walked for awhile to warm up the horse and let them settle in and get the crazies out of their system. The trail was a little frozen, which surprised us, because it is primarily sand out there. We would be moving along and Otto would see a little ice on the trail and jump sideways but Ruth kept her seat.

After awhile Ruth commented "I haven't seen that helicopter leave, I hope we don't run across it and have it spook the horses." No doubt. We rounded a turn and saw a line up of vehicles across the ridge where the gravel road was above our sandy trail. I think there were three big pickups, a cop car with lights on, and the ambulance. Perhaps one other response car. No helicopter. We had taken the low way around a hill so I asked Ruth if she wanted to climb that hill to get a better look at what was going on and maybe see where the helicopter had landed.

We climbed up the hill and saw the helicopter, just starting up. I asked Ruth if she wanted to go back down the hill. She said she would dismount. I thought that was a good plan. The horses didn't seem to notice or care about the helicopter, they were looking for grass to graze on. You can see in these photos how close we were to the helicopter. Thankfully it didn't fly directly over us, and it didn't scare the horses.

After that bit of excitement we continued down our trail. I was tempted to ride up and talk to the people gathered with the response vehicles but the policeman looked kind of busy. Ruth thought she heard one of the guys say something about how 'you can't beat yourself up.' So that made us think it must have been someone shot accidentally by a hunter.

Oh man that made us a little worried about riding out there. We heard a couple of gun shots and saw a lot of ducks.

Towards the end of the first half of our ride, I looked over and saw the most beautiful majestic owl flying alongside just staring at us. The horses must have sent some vibrations through his den. Otto saw it and spooked sideways. The owl decided we were trouble and flew away. He was so silent it was really amazing.

We also saw a couple of hunters. One of them scared the horses half to death on the ride back to the trailer. Ruth and I saw him briefly and knew he was headed up towards us from the lake, but then lost sight of him. We were riding along at a walk and then Otto caught sight of him and jumped and then he was recovering when Sinwaan caught sight of the man and spun around so fast and tried to bolt but realized he was kind of aimed at a big sagebrush and by the time he gathered himself I had a handle on him and was turning him uphill to slow him down. It was a little amusing. Horses afraid of a man but not a helicopter. In their defense the hunter was in cameo and very quiet and carrying something. Never said a word to us but we were a little far for a conversation.

We rode out to the end and back again today and barely made it back to the trailer by dark. It was glorious being out on the trail again and in the sunshine! I have been getting a little cabin fever being in the house so much over my Christmas break from work. Thanks Ruth for the adventure!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*UPDATE* Article from the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Teen shot while hunting

by Alfred Diaz

WALLULA JUNCTION - A 15-year-old Kennewick boy is recovering after being shot in the arm while hunting with friends.

According to a Walla Walla County Sherriff's report, four teens were duck hunting near Madame Dorian Park on Thursday around 1:30 p.m., when one of the teens checked the safety on his shotgun and then set it down.

When the butt of the shotgun hit the ground, the weapon discharged, hitting the upper right arm of another member of the hunting party, according to the report.

A Tri-City Herald article reported the injured teen waded to a nearby log and waited, while his friends called 911 and gave him first aid.

Firefighters from Walla Walla County Fire District Five provided basic life support until a Northwest MedStar helicopter took the teen to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland.

The teens, whose names were withheld were all reported to be from the Tri-Cities and had hunting licenses.

Ride at the Fairgrounds

2010-12-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Today the Blue Mountain Riders had the indoor arena at the fairgrounds from 2-3 pm. I had called Heather to see if she wanted to join me. I think we were both excited about the prospect of riding.

The morning was beautiful, bright cheery sun, and all the snow melted - it was nice and warm. I drove out to the barn about 1 pm. I hooked up my Suburban to my trailer and had a problem with the trailer brakes locking on. I called Heather to tell her I was afraid I would have to cancel. By now the weather had taken a nasty turn and it was cold and raining big drops! I was so discouraged. I called Matt and he asked me if my headlights were on. Sure enough that was the problem. As soon as I turned off the lights the trailer brakes released. Not wired right! I called Heather back after checking to make sure I had blinkers and brake lights. She was willing if I was, so I loaded up and drove over to her place, taking it easy.

Because of the rain the roads felt a little slick and there were a couple times I could really feel the trailer pushing my truck but I just went really slow and gave myself plenty of room to stop for the intersections. We made it to the Fairgrounds on time to groom and tack up before 2 PM. It was still raining really hard and it was miserable outside so I was really glad to have the indoor arena to ride in!

Sinwaan was really well behaved considering he hasn't been ridden since October! His girth even fit in the same hole as before. He looks fat but I guess it's mostly winter coat. Awesome! We rode the full hour, doing a lot of trotting and a little cantering and walking. Sinwaan seemed to tire out a bit after the first half-hour but we kept going. Heather and I both agreed it felt great to be riding again! She tried out her new bridle that Ruth had ordered her. It was a great raspberry color and matched her jacket perfectly!

Dee Dee was also there today with both of her horses. I didn't really know anyone else. I counted 10 riders today and probably 12 horses.

At 3 'o clock when we went back out to our trailers the sun had come out and it had stopped raining. What a crazy day!

Short video

2010-12-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

A video of Sinwaan grazing in the snow, testing out the camera phone.

Snow!

2010-11-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

I can't believe all the snow we got for Thanksgiving this year. Sinwaan is quite adept at nudging it all aside so he can graze.

Round Pen

2010-11-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

Even though I haven't been riding, Sinwaan has gotten some exercise. Once a week I go out to see him and we work together a bit before I let him graze on the good stuff.

Foothills of the Cascades

2010-10-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

*FRIDAY*

The hardest part about endurance rides lately seems to be the act of actually getting to the ride! Friday I took the day off work, I had been cleaning and packing and getting everything ready all week after work so I wouldn't feel so rushed on Thursday night. Friday morning I was running right about on schedule - leave town at 10 am to get to Molalla before dark. Well Matt had been filming all night long and had taken the station-wagon, which refused to start after he made a stop at a gas station on the other end of town. We couldn't just leave it there all weekend, and we didn't have the time to wait around for it to feel like starting so I talked to the guys at Beeline and sent them up on a rescue mission. As it turns out they were able to get the car going without requiring a tow, but in the meantime I already had the camper loaded, hitched up to mom's car, and had taken the dogs to the kennel.

Ruth called me to say she had loaded up my horse and all my tack as well! Wow she is so awesome! Ruth met me at the kennel so I could do a visual inspection to make sure I wasn't missing anything important and off she went. Just a couple minutes later I heard from Matt that he was home. I decided to run down to Milton-Freewater for gas and propane. Had I been using my head I would have picked up Matt first so we could then continue on through Pendleton. But no, I had Hwy 12 stuck in my head so we took the journey south and then north again to get Matt. Well by now the kids are cranky and hungry again because it is almost noon so we had a short pit stop outside of our house to refuel the people and then finally, finally we got on the road about 1 pm.

We drove and drove and my mom said she can usually make it to Portland on one tank of gas. Well, that is without pulling a big camp trailer. We got down to a 1/8 tank so I pulled off for gas at Rufus or Biggs. The price seemed too high so I only put in $20. Back on the road and we still had hardly any gas (1/4 tank). I figured we would stop at the Dalles after that but they were having a lot of construction so we went on through. I was watching the road signs (mileage) and it seemed like we could make it to Troutdale but we got to 11 miles from Troutdale and the car said we had 4 miles until empty. Uh oh. Moment of panic. Then we passed a sign that said the next exit had gas. We took the exit. The next sign said that gas was 1.5 mi up the road. UP being the significant word. The car's computer now said we had 2 miles to empty. There was a 10% grade UP the mountain to get to the gas station! I was white knuckled driving up that STEEP windy road. 1 mile to empty. There was no shoulder and I could just imagine the car puttering out of gas and the trailer dragging us backwards down the mountain until we jack-knifed and flipped over. 0 miles to empty - beep! We barely made it to the little grocery store with one old pump out front. We had to turn around to pull up to the pump. My mom put in $15 - enough to get us to Troutdale to top off. Matt took over the driving from there and got us back down the mountain safely. We stopped again in Troutdale (Stop for gas #4) to fill up and then took the Fairview exit to drop off my mom with her cousins for the weekend.

At that point I texted Ruth to let her know we were leaving Portland, and she replied that it was about an hour + 15 min drive from there down to ride camp. We took 205 south to I-5 and the traffic was horrible. We were doing 10 mph for awhile, and then 40 mph until we got father out of the city. In Molalla we almost missed the little cardboard sign on a stop sign at Molalla Ave ("RIDE" with an arrow to the right). At this point I called Ruth to make sure we were on the right road. She assured us that we were. It was another 15 miles from there to camp. We pulled in at dusk. Sinwaan's corral needed to be set up. The trailer had to be leveled before we could turn on the gas and get the heater going. Brrr it was chilly there in the woods. Ride camp was smaller than some others I've been to but there were probably about 60 combined entries in the LD/50 mi rides. We had just enough time to get Sinwaan vetted in before the ride meeting.

This was the first time I had vetted in in the dark. I started out solo with Sinwaan but he was acting up, spinning around me and hollering for his buddy, so I went back to get Ruth and Otto. Ever since our halter show incident I have a fear of him tripping me and breaking my leg again during the trot out. So I play it safe if I can! He vetted through with all A's - wonderful scores except for his heart rate which was high - 64. I was a little worried about that but it was cold and he was excited and amped up.

Riders meeting was short and sweet. We (25 mi) were going out at 7:15 AM with the Ride-And-Tie people, just ahead of the 50 mile riders at 7:30 AM. Hold was 30 minutes. I had never ridden with Ride-And-Tie people so I was worried about that. And I was worried about the 50s being hot on our tail. We were starting with the 10 mile loop. I worried that my mental capacity would not be as good after the hold with the shorter loop first. Can you tell I worry about everything?! I heard something about a keyhole loop mentioned but wasn't really sure which loop it was for, or if it was even our distance.

We went back to the trailer and Ruth put up my electric corral (what a friend!) while I helped Matt level the trailer. It wasn't high enough in the front corner so I had to go bug Anna for some wood. We were able to get what we needed and finally that was done. We tucked the horses in with blankets, hay and water, and had dinner in the camper (haystacks). At some point in there I had to assemble my saddle, breastcollar, pad, rump rug, saddlebags and make sure all was ready for the morning. We called it a night before 10 am. It was pitch black. The kids went to bed and to sleep right away. That was a first!

*RIDE DAY*

Ruth's alarm, and mine, went off at 5:30 AM. We quietly got up and got ready. Threw some hay to the horses, had breakfast (I went with an egg/cheese/avocado on an english muffin, and split a banana with Levi when he got up) and started tacking up in the dark. I finally got to use my helmet light (3 green LEDs) - I had to, in order to see what I was doing. I was thrilled when I could easily cinch Sinwaan up to his old hole on the girth and I was happy when I saw my HRM was working and his HR was 40. I thought about wearing gloves - my hands were really cold - but in the end I left them at the trailer.

We were ready to mount up about 7 AM as planned and started riding around, we rode over through the first gate and down through the pasture and to the second gate where we called out our numbers. That 2nd gate was the start so we could not go through until start time. We milled around and found a gal, Laura, that Ruth had ridden with at Elbe. Ruth knew her mare was fit and steady and wanted to try riding with her and her friend to set a good pace. Ruth had also told me that had she not held Laura back at Elbe, she probably could have top tenned there. So that is what we did. The trail opened and off we went, behind other riders and runners.

I think there must have been at least 10 people ahead of us at the start but one by one we passed most of them. We were moving out at a brisk trot and the horses were feeling good. New trails, cold air, the excitement was contagious. We passed by a lake and there was fog lifting off of it and it was so magical and beautiful, I really wanted a photo but at that point I could not take my hands off both reins to get the camera out. Later Sally told me it was called Dragon Lake.

We rode on double track trail for awhile and then cut into the woods, We went under a canopy that was really neat and then into dense forest. The trail turned into single-track and it was twisty, windy, watch-your-knees-on-the-trees kind of a trail. Sinwaan was trotting through it really well and keeping up with the other horses. It was fun! A couple of times I snagged my leg on a sharp branch as we passed too close but I don't think I tore my pants.

We did a lot of climbing up and down and there was a variety of things to see out there in the woods. We crested a hill and set a moderate pace and I was finally able to get the camera out for some photos of our little group, as the sun was coming up over the hills and we were riding through an area of reforestation.

At the first water stop the horses were not all that interested in drinking, and I was in awe of the steam rising up off of them. In this photo (above) most of the fog is probably on the camera from the heat coming off of Sinwaan. It was enough to fog up my glasses every time we slowed to a walk. This is Laura (left) and her friend Jennifer (right) on their horses.

Laura and Jennifer's horses were obviously used to really moving, and we seemed to follow a "canter when you can, trot when you have to" motto for that first 10 miles because it just flew by in a blur! I was a little worried about using up my horse too early in the ride.

We came into ride camp at 8:24 AM - an hour and six minutes for 10 miles. I could not believe it. The other crazy thing I noticed was that I did not see more than one person ahead of us. How was that possible? Matt asked me in the camper, "Now how are you going to catch that other guy so you can win?" I laughed at him. It's not possible for me and my fat old horse to win a mountain ride. But it sure is beautiful out there!

Sinwaan took a minute or two to pulse down, which I expected after that fast loop. Our out time was 9:05. Way too early for lunch, which simplified things. We vetted the horses through, Sinwaan again scored ALL A's, yeah! We gave them a chance to eat and use the restroom and pick up a snack for the saddlebags, then it was back out on the trail. As we headed out we saw two people ahead of us. We eventually caught them. The one guy fell back for some reason. Laura and Jennifer fell behind at the vet check, I think they were having some trouble pulsing down, but Ruth called out that she was sure they would catch us quickly.

We got back into our groove and continued with the fast pace. Another gal caught up with us on her gray gelding, so it was us four ladies for a lot of the 15 mi loop. The gray was a QH and the black-bay mare was a STB/Arab X. More single track twisty mountain trails - good footing but watch out for stumps and holes! Sinwaan had both front feet go down in one but recovered quickly. We did barely any walking on this loop, and when we did it was perfectly timed with when Sinwaan needed it to recover.

There was one monster hill, very steep and very long, it reminded me of the mile climb at the VA Highlands Ride. Actually lots of things about this ride reminded me of that one. There were a lot of rocks here too.

The one disadvantage to going so fast was that there was not a lot of time to see everything or take photos! The scenery was constantly changing and I tried to capture some of that.

At one water stop we saw a mounted Ride-And-Tie guy coming from the other direction, he had lost his runner and was confused about the trail. There was a sign that said "OUT" and our ribbons on the right going one direction, and ribbons on the right going another direction so we had a moment of confusion about which way to go. We finally decided on a direction and after coming around and back in we realized that was the keyhole loop that had been mentioned at the riders meeting. There were a couple of other times we almost missed a turn (thankfully the people ahead of us saved us some time) but overall I felt that the ride was well marked and offered a great variety in terrain (technical levels) and views.

There were some awesome trails about 3/4 of the way through that we just galloped on. I kept thinking 'this horse of mine is going to quit, he can't possibly be fit enough to keep this up' but he would prove me wrong and ask for more speed. Ruth would ask me "Who is this horse?" I think he loves to run and the cold weather helped with that.

At the end it was Ruth leading us in, and me following her, with the gray and black-bay horses right behind us. I told Ruth at the gate I was getting off to walk in, she continued riding to the check-in gate. I flew off, loosened his girth and took out his bit as we walked to try and give him every advantage to pulse down. I knew now it would be a race to meet criteria. Sinwaan hung in the 80s for a minute and then the 70s and then 66... I had a pulser come over but he was not ready. I gave it another minute and the seconds seemed like hours. We were so close to a win I could taste it. I loosened his girth more but I was using my HRM to determine if he was down, so I didn't want to take all his tack off yet. I was also using the rump rug to prevent cramping. Nope, still not there. Otto was also hanging. Then I heard that the black-bay mare had won it. Sinwaan was close - I had a pulser come over again. She told me he was down but didn't call it out, she was looking for her pen, when she did call it out the lady with the clipboard said the gray was down also so we would be third. Aagh! Well I was happy, third is a great way to end the season and we were only a minute off the first place horse.

Now that I could stop stressing about that, I turned my thoughts to Ruth, how was Otto? He was still not down, and at this point they said to keep an eye on him for the vet, now they were concerned that something could be wrong. Ruth went over to see the vet and discovered that he had lost a front shoe, and was also lame on his left rear. Oh noooooo. What a bummer! No completion for them today. Hard lesson learned. He was not shod in the rear and the terrain was just too rocky for barefeet on this ride. He never once let her know that he was in pain, he just kept going, and strong!

I almost cried. Out of happiness for myself, and sadness for Ruth, the combination of all those emotions just welled up within me. I could never have made this ride without her. She packed all my gear, hauled my horse, and then on Sunday hauled him back home and put all my stuff away! She is the closest thing I have to crew at these rides, always helping to look after Sinwaan.I wanted to see her do well, she sure deserved it.

I went ahead and showed for BC since we finished in the Top Ten. Sinwaan got A's on everything except for his back, which was a C; he had some swelling on his right side behind the saddle. The vet told me that anything that looks like pain really docks you the most points in the BC judging. I will have to try and figure that out now. Always something! His CRI was 12/13.

The veterinary score sheet gave us a 10 on recovery, a 5 on hydration, a 0 on lesions. Movement was 5 on soundness (B- on completion) and a 10 on Qual. Mvmt. Subtotal 30 and total score 300.

Ride management score sheet was ride time (us) 3:37. Ride time of the winner was 3:36. We scored 199 there.

Weight factor. The heaviest rider was 228. My weight (with tack) was 173. I was 166 at the Idaho ride so I guess I need to lose some weight!! My total weight score was 72.5

Total score of A+B+C=571.5 (higher than my Idaho score). The winner for BC was the first place finisher. Her score was in the 700s. Wow! Well earned!

I went back to the trailer and my whole family was asleep. I should have taken a nap but I was too wound up. I took a sponge bath and started some lunch because I was famished. One by one everyone woke up and we hung out for the afternoon. I took the kids for a walk around camp. Levi found a horseshoe. I talked to Bob Westergard and Dean Hoalst (also from Walla Walla) and they had placed 2nd (Dean) and 3rd (Bob). Dean and the winning rider had come in just an hour later than we did. Twice the distance!

There was a potluck at 6 pm and awards at 8 pm. I made some brownie bites in the camper oven but I haven't really used it much before so I kind of burned the cookies. There wasn't much on the tables for the potluck that I could eat (vegetarian) so I got some hot rice and some zucchini/tomatoes that were really good and went back to the camper. We had soup for dinner. It was getting cold so anything warm was really good.

Ruth and Ellie and I went to the awards at 8 pm. They were pretty quick. There were a lot of trail riders including a 3 1/2 yr old girl on her pony. There were 29 LD riders and 30 fifty mile riders and 4 Ride-And-Tie teams. The lady that won the 50 also won BC and it was said that she and Dean did this ride an hour faster than the rider that won last year. I'm thinking that was probably because of the beautiful weather this year. Usually I guess it rains. I think Laura finished in the Top Ten also, although the people 4th-10th were quite a ways behind us. The completion award was a pretty blue glass with the ride logo on one side and the ride name on the other side. It is really nice, but I also was hoping for a t-shirt. The Top Ten awards were horseshoe hook hangers.

I really enjoyed this ride - I would come back to do it again! Ruth and I can't wait for next year. Now we know there is no reason not to try for Top Ten. Heather will be on board with us then too so we will be a force to reckon with! :D Ha ha. Maybe I'll try a fifty at the end of the season. We'll see. I feel ready now, although I do wonder how Sinwaan will take it. I think he is getting the hang of the 25s now.

*SUNDAY*

Frosty morning! We got up at 8 and packed up camp. Ruth took the horses home and put my gear away. THANK YOU RUTH!! We stayed in Portland for a couple of hours to visit with my mom and brother.

Weather for Foothills

2010-10-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

This ride has been known to be rainy at times, with it being so late in the year and closer to the west coast I guess anything can happen. I am excited! We head out tomorrow morning!

Ride in the RAIN

2010-10-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

What a day! Most of the morning was spent at Matt's grandmother's memorial service. It was really neat, they had the horse-drawn hearse with the team of black Percheron's. The weather was perfect for it but the forecast called for rain.

At 1:30 DeeDee picked me up and we went out to get Sinwaan. Loaded up and it was looking cloudy. We drove out to Madam Dorian and by the time we got there it was really raining. DeeDee said "well, I don't mind getting caught in the rain, but I don't like to start out in it" and I agreed with her. We sat there for a minute in the truck and it really didn't look like it would let up any time soon so we turned around and drove back to Bennington Lake, where it was still dry.

We tacked up and I put on my cheapo rain jacket ($1 at WalMart) since I had never tried that before and wanted to see how Sinwaan would handle me in a trash bag. He did really well. It was breezy and it flapped around but he did fine until I got it caught on a thorn bush next to the trail. He spooked a little but couldn't go too far since DeeDee and Navajo were right in front of us. We had some good times, galloping all out up some of the hills. Sinwaan got a little competitive which was fun.

About 15-20 min into the ride it started sprinkling but it wasn't unpleasant. Half way around the lake it started coming down harder. Still bearable. DeeDee took me up a trail I had never been on, to show me the view. The footing was good and we galloped the horses all the way up that too. I got two photos of us up there.

After that we took the gravel road back alongside Rooks park to the trailer. The rain was just pouring down upon us. It got so bad heading into the wind and the rain that the horses' heads were down almost to the ground, they were not too happy. DeeDee told me "Ok, it's not fun anymore." Call me completely crazy but I loved all of it. Something about a new adventure, the experience of something you haven't really done before, I just love it. I was so glad to have gotten a ride in today even if it was mostly in the rain.

When I turned Sinwaan loose in his pasture he went over to his shelter, and tucked tail to the wind, and stood next to it, not in it, like he always does. Crazy horse!

Lone Fir, again

2010-10-02T21:58:00.001-07:00

Had a good 3-hr ride today with Ruth, we went about 11 miles so you can see we took it fairly easy. Otto had a loose shoe on one hind so Ruth duct-taped it at the start but he wore that off pretty quick.

We tackled Lone Fir Road and wouldn't you know it today we saw a lot more traffic, probably 5 cars and a dirt bike (twice). The last truck of the day was the nice man who gave Sue a lift to catch Quaker last weekend. He talked to us a bit as we passed him and he said his daughter used to ride endurance, now she is a vet in Montana. He said it was good to see neither of us had come off today, and some other mention of "crazy Arabs." Well he seems really congenial overall and I thought it was down right cool that he "gets" us, what we're doing riding out there on his roads.

I don't know what's going on here (in the photo) but it was better than the other one. After Ruth took this with my cell phone she said "Uh, he's bleeding from his nose." Panic. It was not a lot of blood but there was some there. We came to the conclusion that he must have poked it from diving his head into the cut wheat chaff. It looked fine by the time we reached the trailer.

His midsection is getting ever so slightly smaller. I just may have the girth back to where I want it by the time of the ride. Only one more weekend of riding between now and then!

Lone Fir Road - and adventures with Sue

2010-09-25T19:34:00.000-07:00

For one reason or another Sue and I have not gotten an opportunity to ride together again until today. Sue had done some scouting and thought Lone Fir Road might be a decent place to ride. We met at Cottonwood and Hood roads and went about a mile from there to Lone Fir to park. The road turns to gravel there and it is wide enough to park on the shoulder. It is not a road that sees much use either, which was nice.

We rode up and found that many surrounding fields had been wheat which was harvested, so we were able to ride on the edge of the field for better footing. Quaker, Sue's horse was barefoot so it was easier on him than the gravel, although the gravel was not bad compared to some I've ridden on.

Once we got up a ways and could see over the valley we took some photos.

Sinwaan is already sweaty in this photo and it is only a couple miles up.

There was a lot of climbing but it was more gradual that Cache Hollow, and there were more level areas as well.

This photo was probably about 4 miles up and you can see the road is harder-packed and more dirt than rock. It was great footing. The views (to the left) were spectacular. Sue pointed out other trails that she had ridden on from a neighboring ranch for the last ACTHA ride that she had helped with.

Another view of the road heading up. It was addicting, to keep going and see what was around the next bend. I felt like a kid again, exploring.

A couple of times we started trotting and I sensed Quaker lagging so I asked Sue how he was doing. She thought he was feeling a little off, so we stopped to put on his boots. After that he did better, but we still turned around once her GPS said we had done a little over 5 miles.

The only drawbacks about this area that I experienced today were 1) The bees. There were a lot of them in the last mile as we gained elevation. They did not bother us but I could see a lot of them on the edge of the road and flying around.

2) The stickers. Heading back down the trail Sue had Quaker on the edge of the road in softer footing. It looked like just weed grass growing along the edges. I stopped to wait for Sue and as she walked up I looked down and saw Quaker had lots of little stickers/burrs on his boots and fetlocks. Trying to remove them by hand was tough because they would stick into your skin! It hurt, and then you couldn't get them off yourself. I dug a tool out of my saddlebag and it had a plier-type end on it that Sue was able to use to get all those darn stickers off her horse. While waiting, Sinwaan tried to eat them. All I could think about was him depositing the seeds in his paddock and having a new weed to deal with next year, NO THANK YOU. So I pulled them out of his mouth, crazy horse.

Some of the fields were seeded, and we stayed out of those, but the fields that looked barren we did ride along the edge of. We were making better time on the way back because the horses knew they were headed for the trailers, and it was downhill. We walked a lot on the way up, we did more trotting on the way down.

When we were about 1 1/2 miles from the trailer we were moving out pretty good, Sinwaan was cantering but I had him fairly collected and Quaker was not far behind us at the trot. I slowed him down because I knew a culvert was coming up to our right. We passed it and Sinwaan did not seem to notice but then he started bucking! I ATT ATT growled at him and got him back under control only to hear Sue yelling also. I turned him around and saw Quaker in the midst of bucking and Sue falling to the ground. Yikes! Thankfully she landed in nice soft dirt and quickly was up on her feet but Quaker.... ah he was hightailing it OUT OF THERE. I don't think I have seen a horse run that fast, that far. He ran full throttle until he was just a speck in the distance. Of course this upset Sinwaan and he started spinning around. I heard Sue say "you better get off" and I had the same thought but was waiting until it was safe to do so. Finally he stopped for an instant and I took the opportunity for a quick dismount. Sue commented that she hoped Quaker could find the trailer!

We started walking together through the field, trying to keep an eye on Quaker. Sue said "He's found the road" and then "Oh, there's a car." (The first car we'd seen all morning). Thankfully there was no collision and the car (a pickup) kept coming up the road towards us. It pulled over when it reached us. The driver and his companion said "Did you lose a horse?" and then offered Sue a ride. She asked if I would be ok on my own. I said yes, go catch her horse! They continued on up the road until they could turn around and then came back past me. Sinwaan was being a little anxious - after all his new buddy just galloped off like his tail was on fire. We walked a short distance and I decided to get back on.

Sinwaan was controllable, and I think glad to be trotting once again. Another half-mile or so and I saw Quaker, still running, but not to the trailer, away from it, along a vineyard. Not far behind the pickup was 4x4'ing it into the field, bouncing and speeding along. Just then Lone Fir turned left and there was a steep bank in front of us. By the time I found a low spot to get into the field, I saw the truck had passed Quaker and had stopped, Sue was out walking towards him, and he had slowed to a walk himself.

Sue seemed to catch him without any trouble and led him back along the vineyard the way he had raced in. We trotted to catch up and walked along with her back to the trailer.

Sue said the people in the truck were the Nibblers and that they owned most of the land here. She had been worried about the speed he drove through the field, commenting that "there's a ditch around here somewhere, hope we don't run into it." She was glad for her helmet.

Despite the rodeo adventure at the end, I had a great ride and look forward to going out there again. I've made a discovery - I am a bit of a mileage junkie now, 10 miles didn't feel like much and I want to go back, ride farther, see what is around the next bend. I might get into riding 50s yet. First I have to be competitive at LDs, but a longer distance doesn't scare me anymore.

Mountain Ride

2010-09-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

I got incredibly lucky this weekend and fit in two rides in a row!

Today Ruth and I trailered out to Cache Hollow Road, my old stomping grounds, to have ourselves a mountain ride. It was 3 hours of long slow distance (LSD) as we climbed up up up Cache Hollow, stopped at the top for a breather and to enjoy the 360 degree view of the surrounding valleys. Onward to the connecting Kinnear Rd and more climbing... hmmm I remembered this road as being flatter than we experienced today.

Our horses seemed a bit tired from the sandy ride yesterday but they gave a good effort. When it seemed Kinnear would never end, finally we spied cattle, and the stock/holding pen with the cattle chute, meaning we had reached the intersection with Lincton Mountain Road. I told Ruth it was all downhill from here. Well I ate those words as we turned left towards home and had to climb another hill before the road took a turn downward.

It was a hard ride, I quickly went through both of my water bottles before the end. When we were about a mile from the trailer it started to rain, just cooling little sprinkles, but a warning of what was to come. Hooray, we finished just in time! I told Ruth I thought I had mapped this ride out before at about 10 miles but in doing the math once I got home I found it was either a 10.9 or 11 mile loop.

Cache Hollow Rd 2.7 mi
Kinnear Rd/Lincton Mtn Rd 3.6 mi
Lincton Mountain Rd. 4.6 mi

The math above adds up to 10.9 but if you draw out the loop on Google maps it comes up as 11. My GPS has a dead battery currently, I'll have to ride it again and try it out to see what it says.

Friday Ride

2010-09-17T20:14:00.000-07:00

Today Matt was gone most of the day to film the 100th anniversary parade in Pendleton, so I took off work to look after the kids. It was a good day, and when Matt got home Ruth and I loaded up and went riding at Madam Dorian!

We probably did at least 5 or 6 miles, hard to tell without a GPS. The sand was pretty deep in places and Sinwaan wore himself out fairly quickly. I shot two photos of Ruth and Topper on the way back to the trailer as the sun was setting. (We rode back on the gravel road). A beautiful ride and what a way to end the day!

And it's a 1.2!

2010-09-07T00:07:00.000-07:00

Checked out Sinwaan's Achievement Award progress on the AHA site tonight. Looks like he earned 1.2 points for our Klickitat placement. That is exciting. I don't know what I will do with .2 points but it's better than .0! :)

We still have a long way to go to get to 75. Not for sure we can do it in his lifetime, but it's a goal. Next year we are planning to be more competitive, aiming for Top Ten placements instead of just going along, so perhaps we can pick up more points that way.

Bennington Lake, Labor Day

2010-09-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Ruth picked me up at home and we went out to where Otto lives. I helped her hook up the horse trailer and we had him loaded up in no time. Went and picked up Sinwaan and I was astonished by the tight turning radius of her truck + trailer. I loaded the tack and she fetched the horse and we were soon on our merry way.

We decided on the good ol' Lake today since it was nearby and would be a good workout for the horses with the occasional elevation changes. Safer than the road also.

It was gorgeous weather and I was surprised to see no other horse trailers there at that point in time. The boys were well behaved today and we had lots of good conversation and it was just really nice to have a friend to ride with again. I forgot how much I missed chatting it up on the trail!

We rode up from the bottom and around the lake, then at the parking lot turned down and came back on a dirt trail closer to the water. We probably rode close to 2 hours. It was a great ride.

Road ride, Saturday

2010-09-04T23:31:00.000-07:00

Today I was determined to ride since the weather has been so nice lately - the days are getting shorter and my horse is getting fatter! Although plans at the moment are really up in the air about the new Elbe ride, in order to have a prayer of going and completing, he has to be in shape, so there is only one way to do that - ride!

I saddled up and - wow - he is fat! Hard to get the billet through the buckle initially. I thought about riding our 8 mile loop. It was pretty windy out and usually the wind doesn't bother us too much but he has had a lot of time off lately so I was ready for anything.

Heading out from the property he was good, walking and attentive. We made it about a 1/2 mile down the road and he zoned in on a gas tank in someone's yard. Then the wind picked up and we were next to a half-dead cornfield so it was rustling. Sinwaan froze and did not want to move. Then far off in the distance - a gunshot? He jumped in place. He had barely recovered from that when bam bam bam bam, a cluster of gunshots. They sounded miles away but that was all it took. He spun around and bolted, faster than I ever knew possible. before I knew it we were galloping down the center of the road for home. Well, I was ready for it, even though it happened that fast, I still had a deep secure seat and was able to bring him back down quickly. He halted and then refused to go forward. I had thought after the bolt that we really didn't need to be out in the road if he was going to act this ridiculous. So I urged him onward, back towards home. He started backing up. He was acting so psychotic that I dismounted. I really don't know what was in his head. Normally he loves heading for home. He was out of sorts and I wasn't going to take a chance riding him in that state. So I got off and led him.

I decided to try and see if I could get him past his fears and continue on the direction we aimed to go in the first place. He was being very bad, not respecting my space and surging past me and then trying to circle around me. If nothing else, it was a good opportunity to remind him who the boss was - ME! I had to pop him in the nose a couple of times (I have a popper on my reins) but once we worked that out he walked calmly next to me and regained his brain. Once we got past Jenee's he was being really good so I mounted up and we rode on. We did more walking than usual - there were some weird howling sounds coming from a pipe next to the telephone pole, and he had to look twice at things he usually doesn't see, but it was progress.

We went down the usual way until we got to the T intersection at Frog Hollow. Usually I go left for the "lollipop" of our 8 mi ride. Instead I turned him right, for a shorter (distance) but tougher (elevation changes) ride in a large country block. Even though the road was headed uphill, he took off in a big trot and I let him go. With the wind in our face, it felt like we were going 40 mph. There was flapping plastic, and a running tractor at the roadside but he barely gave them a second look. He was on a mission. I wasn't sure where all that gas in his tank was coming from. I talked him down to a slower trot a couple times but he was really wanting to go, and I find that with a outlet for his energy he is easier to manage. Give and take, like any relationship.

The road is up and down and up and down, significant hills for a back country road. I was glad that there was minimal traffic today. The roadside is rougher than I like to ride on for part of this block, especially at speed.

As we turned back down the road leading towards home, he started pulling on me again and even went into a collected canter. It was comfortable so I let him go through the field headed for the barn. When we got close, however, I turned him without allowing him to break gait, and made him canter back the other direction, towards the road. He wasn't too happy about that and fell down to a trot. I kept him to the trot the length of the field and then asked for a walk on a loose rein to return to the barn.

All told, it was a good training ride. 5.8 miles.

Bennington Lake, Aug 22

2010-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we trailered out to Bennington Lake. Matt and the kids came along. While I saddled up, Matt got the double stroller ready and the kids buckled in. They went on a walk while we were out there. I rode out alongside the river and saw two Blue Herons.

I had to use the restroom so I dismounted when we reached it 1/2 mile in, and I looked around for someplace to tie Sinwaan. There was a post in some tall grass with a hold in the top so I went over there and was trying to poke the lead through the hole when I felt something crawing on my finger. Yikes! I shook it off and decided perhaps I should look in the hole since it didn't feel like it went all the way through. What did I see? A wasp nest complete with wasps! I hightailed it to the other side of the restroom.

Luckily there was a hole in the top of the supporting wall. I unclipped Sinwaan's reins and ran it around and back to his chin ring. He seemed content.

It was such nice weather that it was a very busy day at the Lake. I saw a lot of foot traffic and a couple of people I knew on bicycles. Sinwaan did awesome. I wasn't confident that he would behave since he's had so much time off and last time he was so bad. He had a couple of nervous moments, little spooks at this or that but nothing major and we had a great ride.

The trails had been maintained and some were even still green.

We came across DeeDee on her new gelding, he is a really pretty horse and I hear doing well on the trails despite being an arena horse all his life.

Matt called me about 40 minutes in and we decided to meet back at the truck in about 30 minutes. On the ride back I saw them picking (and eating) blackberries!

Summer ride

2010-08-07T16:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've ridden, perhaps only once since pulling his shoes after our last endurance ride. Today we had a break in the weather, a slight breeze, so I planned to ride a short bit before helping to move a ton of hay. He was eager to go and met me at the gate. His hooves were very hard packed and it took a bit for me to even find the frog. He has put on a little weight (as expected) and I found his english girth to be a hole larger than average.

We headed out to the field and I mounted up. He walked to the end willingly but as we turned east the acting up began. It was just as I'd expected and experience before. First I had him back a couple steps every time he acted up but that soon led to him balking and then spinning and all while his head was high up in the air. There was probably a couple of minutes when I was not sure if I would win the battle but I worked to get him moving, to give him an outlet to channel his energy and eventually we worked through it. He wanted to run for the barn, so I worked to keep him to a slow trot (or jig), then made him move out (faster trot) heading away from the barn. Back and forth a number of times. When I could finally ask for the walk heading back and get it, then we called it a day and ended on a good note.

Lazy summer

2010-07-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

Weather has been in the 100s. No riding lately for us. Sinwaan is getting fat and I think misses the trails. I did spend some time with him last Saturday just grooming and getting tangles out of his mane. The farrier isn't scheduled to come out until Aug. and I still don't know if I can go to Elbe for sure. I can't ride on the roads barefoot with him, and have limited time/funds to trailer out to softer ground. Hopefully soon we will go out again.

Riding again

2010-07-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

Went for a ride at the lake today. Not sure how long we were out there or how far we went but it was a great ride! Perfect weather. We saw three deer. The last one was right along the edge of the trail and we were right up on it before it realized we were there. Fun to watch it bounce away! I worked on some transitions with Sinwaan, from trot to canter, a couple of times he tried to act up a little so we tried again until he got it right. At the end of the ride I noticed he had a small spot on his rear right inner fetlock where he may have been interfering. He is still barefoot so I am not sure what is happening there. He looked pretty fat to me today, three weeks off and his waist goes up a size (so does mine) LOL I did not have the girth up as tight as usual and I wondered if the saddle was slipping a bit on all those hills.

All weekend we have had perfect weather, I should have ridden on Saturday when I had the opportunity but I just lacked the motivation. I decided to make chocolate cake instead. I think that is my depression about not having ride money kicking in. When I know a ride is coming up I have the motivation to get out there and get Sinwaan fit so we are both ready for it. When my bank account is empty and I am just pleasure riding it is not the same. At this point I don't know if I will have the money for the ride in Sept. I hope so. It would be nice to train for one more (new) ride before winter.

Worms

2010-06-21T11:09:00.001-07:00

Saturday Cindy took in a fecal sample for me as I was out of town. Turns out Sinwaan has strongyles and small strongyles. Perhaps this is the reason he has been rubbing the hair off his rump? I hope so, as it is treatable. He was last given Strongid in March.

ACTHA Ride

2010-06-13T13:37:00.000-07:00

A while back Dale had asked me if I would like to go for a ride the end of June up near Tollgate. It sounded lovely but I wasn't sure I could get away from home for as long as it would take to make a trek up there.

Thursday, I believe it was, Dale posted a link to ACTHA on facebook, with some details about the ride he was participating in. I checked out the link and realized it was a competitive trail challenge. It sounded like a lot of fun. I forwarded the link to many of my local horsey friends and Cheryl came over to talk to me about it, and she was really excited, having seen all about this organization on RFD-TV.

It was advertised as the Largest one day gathering of horses and riders in history, and encouraged riders to show up and be a part of the Guinness®World Record for The Largest Trail Riding Competition!

Having used up all my money on the last endurance ride, I told Cheryl I didn't think I could afford to go. She said she could haul me up there and to try and work it out. So after talking it over with Matt, I signed up online. This ride was pre-entry only, and entries for the Sunday ride closed at 3 pm on Friday.

The neat thing about ACTHA is that by becoming a member ($25/yr) you are then given $25 back in "ACTHA bucks" to spend at any of their sponsors businesses. I wasn't sure what I would want, and didn't want to spend any additional money so I was suspicious. However, I did find that Trail Blazer Magazine allows members to spend their bucks on a yearly subscription ($35 value). Oh man! I felt like I was ahead by $10 already!

Cheryl wanted to pick me and Sinwaan up at 7 am in order to make it up in plenty of time for the 9 am rider's meeting. So I got up at 6 am and tiptoed around the house so I wouldn't wake up Levi. Success!

When I went to halter Sinwaan I noticed his rump fur looked kind of messed up. Oh no. I tied him to the trailer and went back to inspect. Darn horse rubbed hair off the top of his rump again! What on earth is causing him to do this? I don't think it is quite as bad as last time, however now there is no added "shock value." I knew I didn't have a lot of time until Cheryl showed up, and there were no refunds for the ride. I knew it was a cosmetic problem and not a physical one so I pulled out the hose and cleaned him up. I added Aloe Heal to it and just then Cheryl pulled in. We loaded up horse and tack and helmet and away we went.

The drive up was fairly uneventful except that we didn't have directions and were not for sure where we were going. We got lucky and saw a horse trailer go on ahead of us while we were parked at the Spout Springs Chalet trying to find someone to ask. We continued up the road and found the ride to be incredibly well marked with two large signs out on the main road (highway 204).

We unloaded the horses and groomed them and tacked up, then I went down to the registration desk to see what else needed to be done before the 9 am ride meeting. I ran into Dale and Kittee (who gave me a big hug) and Sue Webb and her friend. We chatted for awhile. Everyone had to check-in and they gave me a number to pin on my back. Cheryl put mine on, bag and all! We also had to pay a $3/person trail-use fee. I paid mine in dimes. They also asked us to sign up on the form which time we wanted to head out. That was kind of a no-brainer, the first time available!

Shortly after 9 am George Ehmer wanted to start the meeting, so I walked up towards our trailer and shouted that the ride meeting was starting. George got up on the bed of a truck and told us the rules. He also introduced the EMT for the day. Most of the stuff George said was common knowledge for endurance riders. He had marked the trail with pink ribbons, on the right. Three colors of ribbons together meant a turn was coming up. Rider should carry water. He explained all six obstacles, the rules and deductions for each. Pleasure and Junior division riders rode at the same difficulty level. The open division riders had the same obstacles, but their execution was a bit more complicated. Due to some wet areas along the bottom of the canyon, the trail had been changed so instead of it being 6-7 miles, we were actually going to be riding closer to 10 miles today. Wahoo! Bring it on! Annie spotted me at the meeting and ran over to say hello. We were both wearing Mt Adams ride shirts.

Sinwaan doesn't have shoes now, so I had brought his red EZ Boots and I was very glad to have them as probably half of the ride was on hard dirt roads with a fair amount of rock/gravel. I put them on before we rode out.

Finally at 9:30 the first group was ready to head out. We rode down to highway 204 and waited. A gal was there to check us out, asking for our numbers (I was 132) and our names. When there was no traffic coming a man in an orange vest walked out into the road to help watch for traffic and we were allowed to cross.

In the first group was Cheryl and myself, Dale McKain and Kittee Custer, an older man named Jim on a spotted mule from Idaho, two women on Appaloosas and also two lead riders. I did not realize there were lead riders. I must not have been listening when that was mentioned at the meeting because I did not recall hearing anything about it.

The lead riders, Dale and Kittee, Jim and the women on Appaloosas got out ahead of us at the start. Cheryl's mare "Perfection" was chomping at the bit to go as she does not like having horses out ahead of her that she can see. So I suggested to Cheryl that we get up ahead of everyone when it was safe to do so, so we wouldn't have to worry about going slow. We caught up to the group shortly before we came upon Obstacle 1. So we waited our turn in line.

Obstacle One - "Trot and Stop" There was lime on the ground marking the start line and lime on the ground marking the stop line. After you call out to the judge your number, name and division, you then trot your horse (open div. canter) and then come to a smooth quick halt before crossing the stop line. Cheryl wanted to do this one first (before me) and I didn't really care so it wasn't a problem. The large group ahead of us was kind and they waited while Cheryl did the obstacle. I am sure I got docked points on the halt because Sinwaan was wanting to get to Perfection so he was a little hard on the bit. They dock you for open mouth, head up in the air (Sinwaan's always is), etc. Our score: Sinwaan (9), me (10).

We were able to get past the large group of riders after Obstacle 1. We trotted on by and didn't think twice about the Lead Riders. When we reached Obstacle 2 I think the judge asked us "Are you my lead riders?" and we were like "Um, sure, we're in the front I guess, right?" Cheryl did have to specify that we were competitors so that should have been a clue right there.

Obstacle Two - The Box Turn. Make a 360° turn and continue on. (Open div - turn on haunches). This seemed too easy. I will be curious to see my score on this obstacle. Our score: Sinwaan (9), me (10).

We trotted onward together down the trail, enjoying the perfect weather and beautiful scenery. Cheryl pointed out some little flowers and other plants that were just coming out.

Obstacle Three - Turn on the Forehand 180°. I knew this one would be tougher for us, although I thought we could do it. Cheryl attempted it first and actually did quite well. When it was our turn I got Sinwaan's front feet in the box and asked him to move his hind end over and he got kind of confused and bumped the log and it moved and we had to start over again. I was thinking we had failed but the kind judge reminded me that we had 60 seconds for each obstacle, so I kept at it. We were able to complete the obstacle on our third try and by then I actually had him going around it really well! (The Open Div had to do 360°). Our score: Sinwaan (2), me (5).

From this obstacle the trail went off into the woods and turned into a single track trail along the rim of the canyon. It was gorgeous! Lots of deadfall trees had been cleared from the path. It was a bit damp and Sinwaan slipped a couple of times. I was not sure if that was because of his boots but at times it felt like we were both going for a ride and not just me. Perfection had a nice gait going and Sinwaan trotted at a medium pace to keep up. We crossed mountain streams at least 6-7 times. In some places the snow melt had caused the whole trail to be wet and marshy. I could hear Sinwaan's boots squashing and squeeking after we schlepped through some of the mud and wetness, but they stayed on.

After a turn off the single-track and a short climb up we reached Obstacle Four - Cavalettis. There were four or five small dead trees laying across the trail and the Pleasure division had to walk over them, the Open Div. had to trot. Easy! Although Perfection clipped one and moved it slightly, and Sinwaan also clipped one but didn't move it. The judge commented that she was not expecting us that soon. Were we the lead riders? Our score: Sinwaan (8), me (6) (WHAT?)

This photo is right after we completed the obstacle. Shortly after we had a woman on horseback riding towards us. She asked us if we were the lead riders. We said yes, we are out front. She said she was rushing over to get photos of people doing the obstacle and we said oh well, we already did it. She told us her partner would be shooting photos at the last obstacle. It didn't matter much to us since we both were carrying our own cameras.

Obstacle Five was the L-Back. When George announced this at the riders meeting my heart sank. I know for a fact we are no good at this obstacle. My spirits rose a little when George said that the Pleasure riders only had to back in, and not back through the whole L with the corner. The Open riders had to do the corner. So I thought maybe we could do it after all if all we had to do was back in a straight line. Ha! Cheryl and Perfection did a nice job so here is a photo of them at the obstacle. When it was our turn I lined Sinwaan up and asked him to back. His rear went to the left and his foot clocked the log and knocked it over to the right. I moved him forward and tried again. I could not get him to back up in a straight line for the life of me. He kept going over to the left, even with leg pressure on the left. I guess we need to work on this when we get some arena time again. We used our full 60 seconds and still could not get it. I am sure we scored a big fat 0 on that one. Our score: Sinwaan (0), me (0).

From that obstacle we headed down a hill and back up a hill, the whole time climbing over fallen trees and around little trees and watching out for holes. Cheryl found the way and I followed her. Later we were talking to George about that spot, it is the only section that had no real established trail to follow, and he said he marked it on foot. He was careful when marking that if you could see one ribbon, you could see the next one too. The whole trail was that way, so all you had to do was look around to keep from getting lost.

After that spot we went through a little meadow. I asked Cheryl if she would like to pose for a photo and she said yes so I took her photo. Then when I was trying to line Sinwaan up for his photo he decided it would be a good time to have a pee break. So after that I moved him to a different spot and Cheryl got this nice photo of us.

We had a pretty good lead on the other people due to all our trotting so when we came up on the last obstacle there was no judge. The photographer, Sibbea Browning chatted with us and explained that they were short on help for the ride and the judge for #6 was also the judge for #1, so once she was done with the first obstacle she would come down to this one. So Cheryl and I waited. I let Sinwaan nibble on what grass he could find. After a solid 20 minutes the group of others descended upon us. One of the ladies said "we didn't think we'd ever see you two again" and Cheryl said "You wouldn't have if the judge would have been here." Then Cheryl got to looking at the woman and noticed two of them were wearing the same shirts and she asked her "Are you the lead riders?" The lady said that "yes they were." We apologized as we had not realized that when we passed them. They were just glad we were having a good time and had not gotten lost.

After waiting around some more Sibbea asked if we would like a group photo, so we all lined up and she took some with her big lens and then agreed to take one for me on my camera.

Dale and Kittee got tired of waiting so they crossed the obstacle and headed back to camp without a score.

I figured we had waited 30 minutes we might as well keep waiting and sure enough within 5 minutes the judge showed up. Obstacle six - Tarp. Perfection did pretty well going across the tarp and while we were waiting our turn Sinwaan got very naughty. He started acting like a little kid having a tantrum; stamping his feet, tossing his head, trying to take the bit, just being very bad. I thought that was strange since we had gone over enough obstacles by this point for him to know that Perfection would wait for him. (Which she was, standing patiently at the other side) When the judge said ok we moved across that tarp like the wind. I don't think he even saw it. He only had eyes for Perfection. I will not be surprised if we get a low score due to his behavior at the start. I don't know how much of that they judge. Our score: Sinwaan (9), me (10).

Once over that obstacle we trotted onward down familiar trail back towards camp. We caught up to Dale and Kittee and passed them. Shortly after that we had a nice little canter and Cheryl turns back to look and says "You lost a boot, I can tell by the sound" So we turned around to go back and look for it. Dale and Kittee hadn't seen it, I must have lost it right before we passed them. We found it there in the middle of the trail. Thankfully it was easy to put back on and I hopped astride and off we went again. Caught up to Dale and Kittee and passed them again. When we reached the last natural water source we paused to give the horses a chance to drink and they were not interested so we continued on. The man in the orange vest was waiting to help us cross the highway and that was easily done. The gal at the finish was there to check us in.

Riding into camp it was eerily quiet, kind of like a ghost town because we were the first ones back in. Too bad it as not a timed event! LOL There was a great turnout for this ride, about 40 entrants. We took the horses back to the trailer and got them untacked. I put some water on Sinwaan to clean him up a bit and got his boots off. Cheryl and I went down to the registration table and we both got a certificate of completion and a little participant ribbon. There was also free samples of Vetericyn so Cheryl grabbed one for me. Maybe it will help with his rump. We decided not to stick around for awards because they were scheduled to be after lunch (after all riders were back in) and it was already close to 1 pm. I had told Matt I would be home by 1! Oops... we still had about an hour drive home.

This event was a lot of fun and I have some specific areas to work on now. Cheryl and Perfection were fantastic riding partners. (She asked some questions about endurance while we were out on the trail too). I appreciate how close it is to home and how fun and family are encouraged. I think George and all his helpers did a fantastic job putting on this ride. I hope to attend another one soon.

Later Annie told me she had placed 3rd in the pleasure division, and Cheryl emailed George and found out she had placed 20th. I will post all results once they are available online.

Rump update

2010-06-09T22:32:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Sinwaan's hair has grown in really well and you can hardly tell now where his rub was.

I had his shoes pulled today. He'll get some time off this month.

Klickitat Trek I & II

2010-06-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Klickitat Trek I & II
June 5 & 6, 2010
Glenwood WA
Managed by Marilyn Milestone

For story with photos visit my website

FRIDAY
I did as much packing as possible on Thursday night since I wasn't for sure what time we would be leaving on Friday. As it turned out, Ruth had to work until noon so I went in for a couple hours myself, heading home about 10 am to finish last minute details. I almost forgot my suitcase, thankfully as I went around closing doors I saw it on the bed and it registered that I needed to grab that!

Ruth called me shortly after noon and already had her trailer hooked up and horse loaded. She met me out at Sinwaan's barn and had gotten there long enough before me to have my stuff loaded too! Is she awesome or what?

We discussed which route to take and headed out (about 1 pm), Ruth in the lead with the horse trailer and us following with the camp trailer. The wind was mighty and we were heading right into it. Not good. The first thing we noticed was that we had burned through 3/4 of a tank of gas by the time we reached Umatilla (57 miles). So we stopped and filled up both tanks. Gas was $2.91 a gallon, thankfully less than I budgeted for since we obviously were not getting the milage I had planned on. Both tanks were $96 to fill. The kids both fell asleep after that stop.

Last time Ruth had come over this way she had taken the Hood River bridge, which is narrow and frightening and a toll bridge at that, so we had come up with an alternate route through Goldendale.

I had some reservations since I have driven there before and knew about the steep climbs but we braved it. It was a tough haul. Slow going! We got to Goldendale at 3:51 pm. Gas was $2.99/gal there and we again filled up ($40). Once through Goldendale we took the Glenwood/Goldendale highway which was gorgeous, long, winding, also steep in parts, and watch out for rocks!

I don't know what time we finally arrived at ride camp because I was too excited to check the time. I could barely see all the trailers through the trees. It was a lovely camp, so many trees, it had a real "forest camping" feel.

Glenwood has been getting a lot of rain lately, so there was a giant puddle in the entry to camp.

Fording that, we slowly drove around until we found an open spot amidst the trees that was suitable for both rigs. I unloaded Sinwaan and noticed right away a blemish on his back leg. I had put on his front shipping boots but not the back ones. Horrors! I helped Matt with the kids and then when they were settled in I set up the portable corral for Sinwaan and got him settled in with water and hay. Then Ruth and I walked down to the building to get registered.

This ride is unusual in that they did not accept any pre-entries. So there was no requesting my favorite number and I was really curious to see what number I would end up with. I also like pre-entries because once I have my paperwork together I can mail it off and not have to worry about it again. This time I had to keep track of it, lost it once and had to print it out and fill it out all over again the day before the ride. We paid and turned in our paperwork and I was assigned #52, Ruth was #53. They told us the ride meeting would be at 8 pm and I think it was just about 6 pm at that point so we went back and got the horses.

Ruth and I walked over together to vet in. Marilyn was a pulser and checked Sinwaan in at 48. She also applied his number (only to one side). I was trying to stay with Ruth for the most part so the horses would be calm (buddy system). I saw an available vet so I went over to vet through (All A's!). I think Ruth was talking to someone.

I pointed out the blemish on his leg to the vet but since it wasn't swollen and he wasn't lame we vetted through just fine. I did the trot-out and when I was done I looked around and saw Ruth walking off. I figured she had vetted through simultaneously and was heading back to camp. So I headed to camp. When I got to camp she was not there. I could not figure out what happened. It was a mystery. So I went in the camper to talk to Matt about getting dinner started and while I was in there I looked out the window and saw Ruth with the vets. So I took some photos.

When she got back I asked her what happened. She said she noticed Otto was missing a shoe and someone there was able to put one on him so that is where she went. We were both ready for the ride.

We had our usual camping meal of haystacks and when we were done eating it was about time to head over, so I took Ellie and left Levi at the trailer since it was about his bedtime anyway.

Before the meeting I went through my saddle bags and made sure everything I needed was included. I also packed my out-bag because the one vet check at this ride was away from camp. I crammed a flake of hay, a bag of carrots, 2 water bottles (one with frozen gatorade) and 2 hotdogs into a tweed overnight bag.

The ride meeting was interesting. Probably the strangest one I have been to. Everyone was in pretty good spirits because the rain had finally stopped for a day and the forecast for Saturday was looking great. Marilyn talked a bit about the trails, ribbon colors and distances, and got a couple of people (myself included) thoroughly confused. She said they had been marked in the most logical way (to the people marking). A woman who had tried to do a pre-ride could not make sense of the plates and when she asked about that Marilyn told her "Honey, you just follow the ribbons." The woman replied that she had tried and couldn't figure it out. So there was more discussion, explanations and 'honey's thrown around. It still didn't make sense to me. Towards the end I thought maybe I was starting to understand that what she was trying to say but still was not very clear. When she started talking again about the ribbon colors she flat out lost me. I was glad it was not my first ride, even with all the confusion I was not stressing out, and when Marilyn said "Just go out and ride and it will all make sense if you just follow the ribbons" I believed her.

The hand-out was very brief. Ribbon colors for the loops, 45 min hold, and vet criteria. Not much else. No ride map. I like to see the map so I can kind of have a pattern in my head so I can anticipate turns and which direction they are going to be. No such luck here. We were all assured that even though there had been days of heavy rain, the trails (footing) were fantastic and there was nothing to fear. One of the difficult areas from last year's ride had not been included to the relief of many people.

We all went to bed but I didn't get much sleep. I'd like to say I did not get any sleep but I must have dozed off at one point because I remember having a dream about coming home and finding my washer and dryer out in the yard.

* * *

RIDE DAY

Ruth slept in the camper this time (since my mom did not attend) and she set her alarm for 5:45 AM so we would have plenty of time to get ready for our 8 AM start. I was partially awake when it went off. I was exhausted. My eyes were dry and it was hard to get going. After I took Levi to the bathroom I started breakfast - wheat pita pockets with scrambled eggs and griller crumbles and a little cheese. Levi wanted blueberry oatmeal so I made him some of that too. Ruth had already fed the horses so I didn't have to worry about that.

I went out to groom and tack up about 7:30 AM. I was right on schedule. Ruth had taken Otto away to work with him so Sinwaan was a little hyped up the first couple of minutes but he settled down until Otto walked past us and then he got antsy again. I had not ridden with my saddlebags recently so it took a little extra time getting them attached and adding the other extras that I don't normally ride with (sponge, etc) The HR monitor was working and I think his HR was 47. Everything was looking good. I left him tied while I went to use the porta-potty one last time (7:45).

Walking back to the trailer I saw Annie on Ernie's bay Arab mare, Riyadh. She was chomping on the bit and had a hard time standing still. I told her I was ready to mount up and she was glad since her horse needed a buddy. We walked down the trail to warm up and found Ruth on foot leading Otto. We followed her back to the trailer so she could put on his bridle and from there we all rode to the start. People were warming up and milling about and some were just hanging out waiting for the trail to open. We kept our horses moving, at a walk. Annie wanted to Top Ten and we didn't want to ride that hard so she left us to chase her dreams. (Annie had skipped her high-school graduation this weekend in order to ride)

It was an amazing ride. Our first loop was 17 miles, we headed out on a dirt road, crossed a creek, and powered along with Sinwaan leading. We reached the out-vet check at 3 miles in and a woman asked for our numbers and then told us we had to walk through the check and then we would see our trail on the other side. The check was packed with 50 mile riders and people and horses were on both sides of the trail. We also had a group of four ladies come up on us just before this. So the six of us walked through the vet check and then found our trail and took off again at a trot, the other ladies passing us.

Sorry I don't have any photos from the actual ride this time, I really need to get a little digital camera for my saddle bags!

Otto took the lead once he settled down and he was a great trail partner for Sinwaan. He motored right along and Sinwaan happily followed. This trail had great footing all the way along, some parts were logging roads, some were narrow forrest trails that wound around through the bushes and trees, and all of it was fun! The views were fantastic too. The 17 miles went by quickly, and not just because of good company, the horses had really been moving. We definitely were only walking when we had to, which was not often, with spurts of cantering thrown in for good measure. That tells you how good the trails were!

We came upon a sign that said "VC .10" so we dismounted and led the horses in at a walk. I hopped off before Sinwaan had actually stopped and to my surprise my legs felt like jelly under me as I tried to trot alongside. "Sea legs!" Sinwaan pulsed down right away (9:53 AM) and Otto a minute later. We searched for our crew bags and found them near Annie. She was in good spirits. We gave the horses a chance to eat before vetting through. 2 reasons: there was a line at the vets, and we wanted to give them a chance to get their gut sounds going since they had not eaten anything on the trail so far. Sinwaan had not been drinking either but I had been sponging and dumping some of my drinking water on him throughout the ride. Sinwaan found all kinds of good stuff to eat left over from the 50s on the ground and I swapped out my water bottles and ate my hot dogs. They were good and I was already hungry. When I noticed there was no longer a line at the vets, I told Ruth we should get over there while we could. She agreed.

Sinwaan scored a B- for gut sounds which I didn't like, but A's on everything else, so he was good to go. I overheard Dr Jen talking to Ruth about Otto's gait so when they were done I asked her about that and she said Dr Jen thought he was inconsistently slightly off on one foot. It happens to be the same foot that he lost his shoe and had to get a new one on, yesterday.

I heard a cow bell and someone said "there are cows over there!" I looked over and saw a huge bull surveying the vet check from his knoll. Thankfully he followed the cow and moved on, away from our trail out.

Annie's out time was just about 10 minutes before ours, so when we saw her leave we took the horses back over to the water tank, I put Sinwaan's bit back in and we mounted up. We were out right on time.

At one point we missed our turn and were going along (on an incline) until a group of people came riding at us and said they were off course. So we waited where we were until we saw them find the trail again and then we knew where to go. "Bless them!" Ruth said. Who knows how much time they saved us, not to mention the uphill climbing.

Another time I thought we were off trail but it turns out we were not. Those were the only times I felt confused about the trail all day. There were a couple of sections in the ride that were wide dirt roads. We did a lot of cantering on those.

We had a big water crossing on the second loop. And I did not realize this until almost the end of the ride, the second loop was also kind of a lollipop with common trail, so we crossed this water twice. The boys were not sure they really wanted to cross at first, finally Otto took the lead. The water was fast and dark (muddy, all stirred up so we couldn't see the bottom) but we didn't have any trouble getting across and I don't think it was higher than the horses' bellies.

Somewhere in the middle of the second loop we came to a rocky road. We had to walk on this section and I could see mosquitos hovering and landing on the horses. My jodhpurs are kind of short so a fair section of my ankle is exposed. I got bit pretty good but I killed that darn mosquito!

I can not say enough good things about this ride. There were ups and downs and flat sections. There were wide trails and narrow trails. Straight ones and twisty ones. A really nice mix of everything. Wooded areas and open areas. Just all kinds of things to look at, it never gets boring. One section the view opened up and we could see Mt Adams in the distance, it was just breathtaking!

We had been told there was a photographer (Jessica Anderson, Darlene's daughter) but we didn't see her until near the end when we were good and sweaty. We were riding up a hill so Sinwaan was falling behind, wanting a break, so I let him set the pace. He was walking slow and Otto was trotting which was perfect because I knew once he lost sight of Otto he would canter to catch up and if I timed it right we would have ourselves a captivating ride photo. The trail flattened out in a clearing where the photographer was and she was very visible. Sinwaan noticed Otto was gone first, he started cantering on his own. Then he glanced over and saw the photographer so he shifted down to a trot and went off the trail. I was trying to smile at the photographer but I soon gave that up and focused on getting him back on trail and back into a canter. He was just all over the place so I gave up on 'posing' and just started laughing. Thankfully that is when she took this! She couldn't have timed it better.

Photo by Jessica Anderson

Eventually we caught up with Annie. She said the people she had been riding with wanted to go 'balls out' and she couldn't do that to this mare. She gave up on Top Ten and focused instead on finishing strong. We rode together for a couple of miles and when she got between Otto and Sinwaan, Sinwaan started lagging. The trail was getting narrow and visibility was not great. So I think he just wasn't paying attention but he stopped and started looking around. I think he lost sight of Otto. So there went his motivation. I kept him going but I was having to push him more than I liked. He whinnied a couple times but did not receive a satisfactory answer. When it opened up and I realized they had really lost us, I pushed him a little harder. His HR was looking good. We caught Annie, but not Ruth, before the finish. Annie and I walked for awhile and then we trotted a bit and then walked again when we saw camp. Dismounted and let the horses drink. Sinwaan FINALLY started tanking up. He had not had much all day, maybe a couple swallows at one tank and maybe one other swallow at the deep water crossing on the way back in. I watched my HRM as he was drinking. He was down to 71 and as he drank it went up up up to 82. I had heard that eating could do that but I didn't realize drinking would also. We walked down to the finish and the woman there was saying that we tied but one of us would have to be before the other. I don't know what she was talking about since we were LD riders and our time ends when the horses pulse down. After talking to her a minute we walked in to look for a pulser. A lady came over and asked if I needed a pulse. I looked at my HRM and it said 65. I told her he was close so she could try. It may have been two minutes and she called out "52 is down" the other person called back "1:03"

I did the math quickly in my head. Left at 8 AM. In at 1 PM, that's 5 hours but subtract the 45 minute hold and we just did a 30 mile ride in 4 hr 15 min (approx.) Awesome!! I know it is tack off for the completion vet check so I asked someone if I could walk him back over to my trailer to remove it. They told me I had 30 minutes to vet through for my completion and the lines were very long. I went ahead and walked him back to the trailer anyway. We came back minus the tack and stood in line with Ruth and Annie. I looked down and noticed Sinwaan was missing a shoe!! What!? I have no idea when that happened. He never felt 'off' the whole time I was riding him. I hoped he would not be lame for the vet.

Ruth and I did our vet checks almost simultaneously which worked out well for the horses. I pointed out the missing shoe to the vet right away. It did not cause a problem, he scored all A's again with one B for gut sounds. I got my vet card back so when Ruth was done and she did not get hers I asked her what was wrong. She said everything was fine. So then she asked about the card. The lady took my card at that point since she said that is what they do, we could have them back after awards.

Once I had Sinwaan settled back into his paddock, I went into the camper to check on Matt and the kids. Matt had a rough day with them so he was not in a very good mood. I took a quick sponge bath, changed my clothes, took Levi to the bathroom, and started working on lunch. I was famished, even with the mid-ride meal. We had vegeburgers and fruit and after that tried to get the kids to take a nap. Levi fell asleep pretty quick but woke up crying because his nose was stuffed up. Ellie finally also fell asleep. I was trying to nap with her on the sofa but it was too narrow and horses kept whinnying, dogs were barking, generators were running...you get the picture. The breeze was nice coming through the trailer so I got a little rest but no real sleep.

Ruth stopped in to tell me the photos were ready and that mine was awesome. I couldn't wait to see it so I left the sleeping kids with Matt and hiked back down to the building. I was still tired so I sat in the chair near the photographer while I waited my turn but it wasn't close enough apparently as a couple of people walked up and stood at the table. So I stood up behind them. Finally it was my turn. Since Ruth had been here already Jessica had her photo flagged and was able to quickly find mine as a result. She had taken two, the first one was kind of soft focus and not a great pose but the second one was awesome! Darlene walked over to see it and said "Wow, look at your posture, your back is so straight and your heels are all aligned properly, your dressage instructor is going to be so proud!" LOL I don't have a dressage instructor. It was a nice comment. It almost made me cry. I get so darn emotional after a ride.

After that the kids woke up so I decided we needed to go for a walk around the camp to kill some time. I took Levi in hand and Ellie on my hip and we made the rounds. We saw a really cute girl riding a really cute pony bareback so I had to point that out to Levi. Ellie loved seeing all the horses but she got heavy pretty quick and I was kicking myself for not bringing along my backpack to carry her in. After our short jaunt I was sure that Levi could still use more exercise (he usually plays all day outside the camper, but since we were so close to The Trail I don't think Matt was comfortable having him out there). Matt took Ellie. I grabbed Missy and the camera, and Levi and I headed back out to 'go exploring.'

We headed down The Trail, so I could show Levi the way I had ridden out that morning. He was excited to see everything. He wanted to hold Missy's leash, and she kept stepping over it, so it was slow going as he wanted to untangle her every time it happened. I pointed out the flowers and had time to take in all the scenery that I was too excited to see earlier in the day.

We walked until we got to the first water crossing. Levi was super excited about that. He wanted to cross it but I told him not this time. He wanted to know where the cows were (there had been cows in the creek earlier, but were gone by the time we rode through). After awhile we turned around and headed back, this time taking a different way back into camp, coming from the other side of the vet check. We moseyed all around the campground and finally went back to the camp trailer.

I asked Ruth if she knew anything about what time awards were supposed to start. She didn't. Our camp neighbors across the horses' corrals said they thought they heard 7:30. I hauled Sinwaan some more water and tossed him some more hay and carrots, and did who-knows-what to kill some time until it was finally about 7:30. Matt decided he would join me so we headed over with the kids. We ran into Marilyn and she said she thought it would be in a couple minutes, but then later in the conversation she commented to "give me 45 minutes," so we packed up the kids and went back to the trailer. I rustled up my AHA form so I could remember to have her sign it at awards. So we killed more time, somehow. We walked back over and picked out a table in the building so we would have a good place to sit and we waited a bit more. Well nothing was happening. Levi started getting into trouble, being a kid, restless, and then he said he had to pee so Matt decided to take him to the bathroom. While they were gone I noticed people setting up their chairs outside. So I went out to see what was going on. Sally and the guy she was sitting near said that the weather was just so nice that they decided the meeting would be outside, and sure enough all it takes is a leader, before long everyone had their chairs set up outside. So I moved my stuff.

Matt came back and decided it was getting too late, Levi needed to go to bed soon, so they headed back to the trailer. Ruth showed up about then and set up her chair next to mine. We waited a bit and then Marilyn started talking. Darlene told a story about a loose horse that had won the BC in his division (50s?), and it became obvious that they were all trying to stall. There was kind of an intermission so I went up and had Marilyn sign my form and Dr Jen also put herself down as the vet for the ride. We left the placement and entry number areas blank for now. Finally Marilyn announced that there had been a problem with the computer and she was sure we did not all want to wait as long as it would take for the results and she knew we had all ridden and we knew we all wanted our shirts, so if everyone was ok with that we could just get in line for our shirt and she would have the results posted the next morning. Everyone stood up and went up to the building for their sweatshirts. They had a couple of color options - black, brown, and mustard that I could see. Ruth got a black one and I picked out a brown one. They were soft and snuggly and a wonderful completion award.

After all that we headed back to the trailer. Levi had been up in his bunk but I made dinner so he got down and ate and played around a bit longer. We had haystacks again for dinner since even though I had packed spaghetti and sauce and vegetables, I had forgotten the strainer and spoon to get it out with. Doh!

Time for bed. We all settled in for the night. The kids went to sleep fairly well. Until however Levi woke up about 11:30 crying and screaming and just all out of sorts. When he has a cold he freaks out about his nose running. His top lip was chapped and he was very sensitive. I don't know if he was still asleep or if he was awake and out of sorts but he was just frantic, screaming and crying and howling for probably a solid 15 minutes. He woke up Ellie and she was confused and upset and she started crying and screaming too. They were both so loud that I am sure all the neighbors heard within a 2 mile radius. I don't think I have ever had such a hard time getting the kids to calm down before! Poor Ruth, if she was bothered by it she didn't say anything. I think we finally got them quiet again and back to sleep before midnight and then I slept pretty well after that. Levi woke up a couple times sobbing about needing a tissue but Matt took care of him.

** SUNDAY - DAY TWO **

Sunday morning I heard the rain coming down before I heard the horses warming up for the second day of riding. It was light for awhile and then it really hammered our camper. All the wind from our drive over on Friday had ripped off one of our vent covers on the roof so it was starting to leak over the kitchen, even though Matt had put on a temporary fix by using a tablecloth. Ruth had put a bowl down to catch the water. She said she wasn't getting wet, thankfully!

All the whinnying had started once again as horses were left alone as their partners headed out for another day of trails. It was pretty noisy at 6 AM. I sensed the excitement as I heard the 50s trotting past our camper but we didn't get out of bed just yet. Ruth went out and took care of the horses after a bit. I got up and got dressed, took Levi to the bathroom, and then we started breakfast. We had fried egg sandwiches. I really am liking my gas range in the camper! It is so convenient.

Yesterday Ruth and I had both decided not to ride the second day. Now with the rain coming down and the horses looking soaked and miserable, I was glad that was the case. We started packing up after breakfast. Before taking the corrals down we took the horses for a walk around camp. We also looked around for results but could not find any at the building, and did not see Marilyn to ask. I figured she was busy with the Day 2 ride details.

It didn't take long to pack up the trucks and before long we were heading out. We took a different route home this time, turning the opposite way out of camp and heading down towards the Dalles. When we reached the Goldendale exit we turned off for gas since it was so cheap there and topped off. We lost Ruth at that point. I tried to call her but the phone was dead since it had been searching for reception all weekend. We did not have the charger with us. Doh!

We had to make another stop at a rest area to give the truck a chance to cool off and build oil pressure. Matt thinks he can solve this reoccurring problem by adding an oil cooler to the truck. We may even have one on the black truck that we could move over. Things to work on between now and September, when I hope to have the funds together to make the Elbe ride.

Ruth got far enough ahead of us that by the time we pulled into the barn, Sinwaan was settled in and all my stuff had been put away. What a great friend! Thanks Ruth!! We headed for home and saw her leaving her barn. We connected and chatted for a minute.

Now I have to get a hold of my farrier and figure out what to do about that missing shoe. I think his other shoes are probably worn down enough from the road riding I have been doing that he may be off balance by adding a brand new one to one hoof. I think I may just have all his shoes pulled and give his feet a rest for a couple months. I will have a couple weekends that I will not be able to ride coming up, and I want to be competitive at Elbe should I be able to make it, so I plan to start conditioning harder in August and could put shoes back on then.

* * *

As of June 8th, we still don't know how we placed. But we do have a clue - we know Aarene placed 18th out of 52 with a completion time of 1:36 PM. My completion time was 1:03 and Ruth's was 1:04 - even though she came in well ahead of me she had some trouble getting Otto to pulse down with all the excitement. Sounds like we weren't too far off of Top Ten.

There was a lot more whinnying at this ride then I have ever noticed before. I finally came to the conclusion that since it is a two-day ride, some people must bring multiple horses and the ones left behind make all the noise.

May 25

2010-05-26T16:09:00.000-07:00

Due to Matt having obligations this past weekend I did not get a chance to get back into the saddle until tonight. I headed out after work. Sinwaan's spot is looking so much better, it is nice to see the hair re-growth there instead of a big bald patch!

He is looking a bit round to me. Cindy reports that she has cut back on his hay but since the grass is growing in his paddock he is getting extra calories there, which is great, I would prefer that he graze all day when possible.

We did our 8 mile (flat) loop tonight. I checked the time as I headed out but soon was distracted and forgot what it was! I do know I shaved 4 minutes off my driving time on the motorcycle to get there.

I had heard reports of a cougar killing three sheep at the pasture we ride past on Stovall. Tonight I noticed they had added two llamas to the flock. Sinwaan was not sure about these mysterious creatures! It took a bit of encouragement and bravery to get past them. Crazy horse, he lives with two llamas!

When we got close to the bridge I called Matt and he loaded up the kids and drove out to meet me to take some photos. I will post a couple of those up later. It was a good ride and I think we made decent time. Jenee' saw me ride past both directions and she thought it had been about an hour, so that would be right for six miles.

I am hoping to get in at least one more conditioning ride before Klickitat - with the long holiday that could be tough as we are visiting family. I don't want to tire him out before the ride either. Typically he gets the whole week off before and after a ride. We'll see. This road riding is not easy on his feet. I am noticing a rear hind hoof chipping a little above the shoe. I would hate to go out for another road ride and lose a shoe or have him come up lame a couple days before the big ride. I don't know if my boots will fit over the shoes, and I have never booted him in the hind either. Things to mull over.

May 18

2010-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had a break in the rain so Matt agreed to let me go out and ride on a week night. I took the motorcycle out so I called him upon my arrival to let him know I got that far safely.

I had not made it out yesterday to check on Sinwaan's rump so tonight I was really pleased to see that the hair is growing back in really fast - that MRT is amazing! He probably has about 50% of his hair back already in 3 days time.

Tacking up didn't take long and we headed out as soon as possible. I turned on the GPS but did not check the time on my phone. I figured we could get in our 8 miles with the amount of daylight we had left. I wanted to double-check Google Maps against my GPS reading on the milage anyway.

The ride was fairly uneventful. I had to push Sinwaan a little at the start but there was no bad behavior. I tried to pay attention to where the sun was in relation to our position on the road, changing sides when I saw traffic and realized they probably couldn't see me. Heading west towards home is when Sinwaan really likes to move out, and this time we were riding right into the sun. I think because of the time of day Sinwaan couldn't see as well and therefore had a couple of little spook-in-place moments so I was on my toes. We had a couple of nice gallops on the way home and within two miles he was going along really nicely on a loose rein.

We pulled into home just as it was getting dark. I could see well enough to untack, check hooves, and apply more MRT. I had a chat with Cindy and then called Matt to let him know I was done and heading home. During the ride my GPS had shut off three times, I think perhaps because of cloud cover? I don't know how long it took me to notice so I lost time on that and some milage. The milage it told me was a little over 7 1/2 miles so I figure the 8 mile estimate is accurate. My time was 1:20 so I think I may have lost about 10 minutes with the malfunctions. All told, a great ride!

May 16

2010-05-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Today I took Sinwaan out to Bennington Lake. My first solo ride out there. We parked at the bottom and I remembered my GPS this time. We walked up the path along the road to the dam, trotted across the top of the dam, (to the building is 1 mile), then took the double track trail down to the trail closest to the Lake (also known as Meadowlark Trail if I am reading the map right). This loop is fairly flat but the trail was overgrown and half of it we were riding through swarms of bugs which were hovering over the green plants that had consumed the trail. Sinwaan hated that, tossing his head. It was very warm. We came upon some people and I slowed down, they finally got off the path so I could go past. The child wanted to pet Sinwaan. His mother commented "he is working" so I didn't stop. We crossed the water and things seemed to be cooling down, finally some cloud cover! We did more walking when the path got close to the water, as there were lots of people set up for fishing and lots of things to see. I offered Sinwaan a chance to drink and he was not interested.

After that trail we headed back up to the dam and down the other side, connecting with part of Whitetail Trail, we had a nice canter on the flat and then downhill to the trees. We trotted quickly through there, winding back and forth on the twisty trail. Exiting the trees I was undecided which way to go - left or right? Both were uphill. We went right to go back up to the top of the dam and continued on Whitetail Trail all the way around the lake. I had forgotten how many hills there were at the Lake! When I ride with other people we are usually talking and the time goes by quickly and I don't notice the hills. Sinwaan was working hard today and a couple times I let him stop for a breather and to graze. We were not making very good time.

After crossing the water a second time we headed back towards the trailer along Mill Creek. We took the little spur trail for fun. Across from Dean's place I again gave him an opportunity to drink. He waded around in the water for a couple minutes but no drinking. Back to the trailer. GPS reading said 8.6 miles in exactly 2 hours. Wow that is horrible, but I think Sinwaan got a really good work out on all those ups and downs. It was a nice ride, although a little lonely. I was hoping for more miles in that amount of time, so I decided that unless I have a riding partner I won't bother taking the time and gas to trailer out when I can ride about the same distance from the barn in less time.

8 miles

2010-05-14T21:36:00.001-07:00

Tonight I got out for a ride. I should be at Mt Adams but it wasn't in the cards for us this weekend. Good luck to Ruth and Otto, I hope they do great!

I rode the motorcycle out to the barn. It took me about 20 minutes to get there. I am getting more comfortable on the bike but still not there yet for taking corners at a decent speed.

Upon inspection I noticed that Sinwaan's rump has been peeling. I was able to remove a big patch of old dry skin and it felt like paper. It was really odd. Underneath I could see fuzz of little hairs already coming in. That was a relief. He is looking much better up there.

I had been out to Bordertown and luckily they had the right size english saddle pad for me so I picked up a new one and replaced it under my saddle. Tonight I removed the saddle bags and rode bare bones. No GPS, no HRM, no water.

The first couple of miles were brutal because of the heat. It was really warm today (in the 80s) and I forgot sun-block. Sinwaan was very good, no tricks. Thanks to the last three weeks on vacation he was ready to go - no pushing him tonight - he went along really well for me at a fairly steady trot. He did not feel off or bothered by his bald spot.

We saw three dead raccoons on our journey, in varying stages of decomposition. A hippie hanging out at an intersection compete with a guitar and VW van. Not a whole lot to report on. Heading for home he started pulling on my arms pretty good. I may start using a martingale to try and get his head out of the clouds. I let him have a good gallop when it was safe.

According to google maps we did about 8 miles. The ride time was 1:35.

After the ride I hosed Sinwaan down and applied more MRT to his spot. I started using this yesterday at the recommendation of Cheryl. I hand grazed him a bit while he dried and of course as soon as I turned him loose he had a good roll. I am thinking a little dust on his spot will help keep it from burning.

Sinwaan update

2010-05-11T15:24:00.001-07:00

Went out today at lunch with Jenee' and his rubbed area was looking really good. Still clean, and the redness was gone. Today we applied Panalog® and he was much less sensitive to the area being touched. Still a little jumpy about it but an noticeable improvement.

Major Rub photo

2010-05-11T09:07:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Jenee' for the photo - here is the rub as it looked last night. Almost like a hot spot on a dog. He hunches up and really rounds his back when we try to touch/clean it. He is very sensitive.

Injury?

2010-05-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I was way too excited about riding. I had an awesome breakfast with my family and then we all headed out with Ugly to the gas station to check the air pressure in the tires. Everyone please take the time to do this on your tow vehicle. As it turns out the front tires were way off, one only had about 10 lbs and the other one had over 40. The rear tires were all off too. None of them had the little caps so I was able to get six of those for $1. Once we had everything balanced Matt said it handled way better and couldn't believe we had driven it as far as we did in it's condition.

Matt helped me hook up the horse trailer (I was heading out for a solo ride at the Lake) and I went to fetch Sinwaan from his pasture. He had been laying down taking his morning nap in the sun but got up and waited for me to halter him. I led him out of his paddock and he was acting and walking normally. Once he got through the gate he dropped his head to snatch some grass and I went behind him to shut the gate and as I turned back towards him and raised my eyes my mouth dropped open and I could not believe the huge bald spot above his tail. What on earth has he done now!?

I tied him to the trailer and Cindy helped me fetch some warm water in a bucket and a washcloth and I started sponging the area down. He was very sensitive to any sort of touch but eventually I did get him cleaned up. As I was working on him, Matt and Doug went with the kids to have a look around the paddock and they found a spot where it must have happened. There was a tree limb that he had really rubbed hard on, and his feet had made a big hollow in the ground at the base.

He has never exhibited any behavior like this before so we were all mystified by it. Our best guess is that he got bit by a bug and was trying to get rid of it. He was wormed about a month ago. I would think if he was itching from slight discomfort he would not have ripped all his hair off.

From rinsing the area I saw a couple small spots that started bleeding slightly but not too bad. I applied a lot of aloe vera salve for horses and once he was dry we turned him back out to pasture. He spun and galloped off. He doesn't usually do that.

Sad to say my plans for riding were cancelled yet again. I don't know what kind of shape he'll be in next weekend for the Mt Adams ride. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Official Results - MRRT

2010-05-05T22:08:00.001-07:00

Well I decided to check out the AERC site tonight, and what do you know the MRRT results are already posted! We did place 37th out of 41 (two tied for 40th) with a ride time of 4:43 which is our slowest to date and our lowest placing to date but hey we did it and it is great to be back in the saddle!

I think it is most important not to ask more than my horse is capable of, and I also strive to have longevity and completion my priorities. So far Sinwaan has not been pulled from a ride. The last ride we technically never started due to the trailer leg injury. Our very first ride we were over time (and did an extra 3 miles). Other than that it has been 100% completions. To me, that is more important than a Top Ten, although I'd like to aim for those eventually too.

Today Chad came out and reset his shoes. We are good to go. I am hoping to get in a nice long ride this weekend. Having Mother's Day in the mix could complicate things. It is kind of a personal struggle for me to not spend Mother's Day as a mother. But there has to be "me" time too, especially since Sinwaan had last weekend off.

Yikes!

2010-04-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well on Wednesday Sinwaan got his vaccines. The vet came out and gave them. He got a Ft Dodge WNV and a Prestige 5-way.

The next day at noon Cindy noticed him walking funny. Doug told her to wait to call me and by that evening when she haltered him to take him out for a grass snack he looked ok again.

Friday morning he was walking funny again so she called me. I got out as soon as I could, about 1 pm. Sure enough, he was moving very oddly. Very slow, and putting his front legs out wider than is normal. Also stumbling a bit. Kind of what I've heard laminitis looks like. Well I was freaked out so I called the vet clinic. They were booked but if I brought him in they would get to him when they could. Since the weekend was coming up I wanted to have him seen during normal business hours.

Doug and Cindy were very kind and trailered him down for me so I could get back to work. The next hour and a half went by slowly and I was having a hard time getting much done. After work I went to the clinic and they thought they would see him at 4:30 so I left to do some errands. I came back and the vet was able to examine him while I was there. Well they put him through a number of neuro tests and he passed every one of them with flying colors! He looked completely normal to me. His temp was normal, heart rate was good, nothing out of the ordinary. While I was relieved, I was also very frustrated! I prefer to have an answer, but that was not the case. Doug and Cindy came back to pick him up and monitored him all weekend. I went out on Saturday to see him and groom him and pick up his paddock a little. No riding for me this weekend. Whatever the deal was, I figured he could use some extra rest.

I got a lot of feedback on both the PNER list and endurance ridecamp and the general consensus seems to be that it most likely is a reaction from a vaccine. Since he got both it makes it hard to narrow down what exactly he is reacting to so next time I will give them separately, if I give the WNV at all.

Milwaukee Road Rail Trail - To Finish Is To Win

2010-04-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

After trying very hard to sleep all night long and not succeeding, I noticed it getting bright outside. I got up and checked the time on the phone. 5:33 AM. How could that be? The alarm never went off on either of our phones. I peeked outside and Sinwaan was eating, it looked like Ruth had gotten up and thrown him some hay. I woke Matt up and started some water on the stove for his oatmeal. My first priority was getting Matt ready in time to get photos of the people at the start and then getting him in the truck with Gail so he could be out at the tunnel on time.

The kids woke up and my mom got up to help out. I got together a poncho (just in case of rain), two bottles of water and the oatmeal for Matt and the camera bag. We walked together over to the start, found Gail and made introductions. We stood around in the cold and waited for the clock to say 6 AM for the trail to open. Matt was freezing, even in his sweatshirt, so I gave him my red jacket to wear too. As the front runners went out, Matt took some photos as they went past and then up the hill to the rail trail above. I then left Matt and went to use the bathroom, and headed back for the camper to eat breakfast and get ready for the ride.

Ruth was lounging Otto when I heard Faith say "there are sheep over there."

What's this? Sheep? I had heard reports of sheep but not seen, nor heard any until now. I overheard some ladies saying that sheep will really scare the horses if they were near the trail. I wasn't too concerned about it since Sinwaan grew up with sheep. I pointed them out to Ruth and then grabbed the camera (Ruth was kind enough to loan me her digital camera for my saddlebags today).

For breakfast I had my usual 2 scrambled eggs with added cheese and vegetarian sausage crumbles (thanks to my friend Lara for this idea), only today I put them in a whole wheat pita. I packed my trail mix and granola bar and water bottle and gatorade in my saddlebags. I put my GPS on one arm and my HR watch on the other. Tacking up didn't take very long and we were soon ready - on time. I decided to lounge Sinwaan a little bit this morning since I had some extra time to burn. Even though Sinwaan does great in the round pen, the lounging is completely different and we weren't communicating very well so after about ten minutes of that I gave up. Mounting up about 7:45, we walked about to warm up. It was cold, and although I suspected it would heat up during the ride I was glad for my fleece (I just wish it was red instead of blue). My hands were freezing so I rode over to the camper and called out to my mom and she brought me my gloves. She is such a great crew. Most of what she does involves child care and cooking but I couldn't do it without her or my husband, thanks guys!! I must have been whining about the cold air because Ruth said it was only 39 degrees.

As I was riding around to warm up, Sinwaan was acting up like he usually does before a ride. He is not terrible, just a bit of a handful. I did my best to challenge him, tight circles, side-passing, backing up, just making his mind work as well as his body. Ruth noticed and commented that he was sure "ready to go," although when I brought him back near Otto he calmed down immediately and started grazing. Mr herd-bound. Ruth didn't think it was a good idea for us to ride out together because Otto had bucked her already and she wanted to head out slowly at the end. We had talked about this ahead of time and I was fine with whatever she wanted to do. (We subscribe to "Ride Your Own Ride"). I prefer to get going as soon as possible because I don't like to waste the clock at the start, plus moving out gives Sinwaan a mission and he stops acting ridiculous when I can propel him forward.

So I left her and walked over towards the trail. There was still some time before 8 AM so I walked him back and forth with the other horses and even though he occasionally called out to Otto, he realized quickly that his buddy was not going to be joining him. I saw Sally at the start and thought about asking to tag along with her but as it worked out when the trail was open we headed out behind about 12 other horses. Gail hollered out to me as I went past "Your husband is at the turn-around point, I didn't get him to the tunnel in time." Yikes! He was planning to walk back to camp when he was done shooting, the tunnel was about 4 miles out vs. the turn-around point was about 8.25 miles for Loop 1.

Sinwaan put forth a good effort for the first two miles and then started slowing down. I let him pick his pace as much as possible in the beginning because he takes care of himself and is not competitive, nor as fit as I would like to be able to run in front. He was trotting along in the 130s which I knew was really working him. The view was awesome from the trail. Footing was great and plenty of room for everyone. We were passed by a lot of people and eventually fell in with someone going about our speed. I introduced myself and asked if she could use some company. She was friendly and both our horses were ready to walk so we chatted and had a nice time going down the trail.

My new trail partner was Christine, astride the Morgan gelding Gus, and they were good company the entire first loop. We came upon the little Iraq training ground before I realized it, and I was not able to get a photo of the "roundabout" sign in Arabic. Although you can almost see the building and concrete barriers making up the roundabout ahead of the horses in this photo.

I did not see the train tunnel as we turned left and went uphill on the detour around it. We rode along the top of the ridge before turning right and going down a steep incline back to the rail trail. There was a lot of mud at the bottom. As I stopped and waited for Christine I looked back and at that point I did see the tunnel entrance. At some point my HRM went on the fritz, telling me Sinwaan's HR was over 200 at the walk. Grrr. As wonderful as technology is, at times it can be very frustrating. I eventually turned it off for the rest of the ride.

There was one part of trail that was my favorite of the loop. Sinwaan was feeling good and we did a lot of cantering. I think it may have been directly after the tunnel. There was a 2.2% downhill grade heading for the check point. That, and the wind at our backs, made this a most pleasant section of the ride.

After the tunnel the railbed wound around and we went over two small bridges with no sides. That was a little scary for me but Sinwaan didn't seem to notice. It was neat to be able to look ahead and see horses on a bend in the trail far ahead of us. The scenery was wonderful, big rolling hills dotted with sagebrush.

Most of the rocky sections of trail were in the cuts made for the train to go through the mountain. Someone pointed out basalt. You really needed to walk these sections or risk a stone bruise to your horse. Some of them made me wish that I had pads in addition to shoes.

We started seeing front runners come towards us and we realized we were getting close to the turn-around point. Sally went by the other direction and hollered "Bundle up, the return trip is really cold and the wind is bad!" As more and more people went by the other direction I could see their chins tucked into their necks and tears streaming from their eyes. It would be a challenge to be sure.

There was a volunteer at the check point who asked me for my vet card so she could sign it to verify you had done the whole distance. There was also water for the horses and a toilet for the riders. Matt was there in his orange vest snapping photos. I was kind of bummed out about his location because he was at the end of another cut in the rock, so it was rocky heading up to him and I was planning on walking in. I was right alongside Christine though so I went ahead and asked for a trot for a short section so I could get my ride photo.

I tried to talk to Matt but the ladies working the check-point had him running back and forth to get photos from both sides, as the longer distance horses had gone through here to a different turn-around point and were far enough ahead that he had not gotten photos of them initially. Christine and I parked our horses at the water tank and dismounted. I held her horse so she could use the restroom and then she returned the favor. I had brought my sponge along but decided against using it since the wind had kept Sinwaan dry and cooled, and getting him wet just didn't seem like a good idea.

We headed back the way we came, and the trail was fairly quiet as we were towards the back. I was a little concerned about Ruth though, I hadn't seen her yet. Our paths finally crossed about 2 miles out from the turn-around point, putting her about 4 miles behind us. Other than a 'hello' and 'it's really windy going this direction' there wasn't much said.

Heading back we did more walking and numerous times Christine pulled ahead of us for awhile while Sinwaan walked and then he would trot and canter to catch up and then fall back again. Sometimes he would tense up and look back and I would see 50s coming at us, they were all really moving, a fast trot or canter, and their energy would recharge Sinwaan for a moment and then he would slow down as they faded into the distance. I used the (walking) opportunities to recharge myself - digging out my trail mix or guzzling down some partially-frozen gatorade.

At one point we saw a woman up on the bluff above us. She was heading towards us and back down to the trail. I wasn't sure what she was doing up there and as she got closer she commented that she was looking for the trail over the tunnel. I told her she wouldn't see it until she could actually see the tunnel entrance, then the ribbons would be obvious. She sped away and I later saw her heading back uphill - far before the marked trail to do so.

When we got to the tunnel Christine led the way up the hill to bypass it and I held Sinwaan back a moment to give her some room. When I asked him to go forward through the mud and up the hill he lunged and jumped the mud and scrambled up the hill. I lost my seat and could feel his haunches with my heels. It was a bit exciting!

Finally we could see I-90 and then Ride Camp again. I wasn't really sure where to turn off the rail trail to head down towards camp, although I knew there was a dirt trail for the return to the finish line. Just about then Bob Westergard came along with about four other riders and passed us. Great timing, they saw the ribbons and turned just ahead of us, making it easy to stay on-course.

As we rode down the hill we saw a truck ambling up behind us. There was a water stop at the bottom so Christine and I pulled over to let the truck go by. I looked in the cab and saw Matt in the front seat - OH GOOD, he got a ride back to camp! But then - OH NO - Ruth was in the back seat!! And Otto was in the horse trailer! I pouted and gave her a thumbs down. She responded by nodding and returning the thumbs-down. So sad! I wondered what had happened.

Sinwaan must have smelled him, or maybe just sensed he was nearby since we were almost back to camp, and started calling. They were both whinnying for each other as I rode him in. About 1/4 mi from the finish I got off and walked him in. I called out for a pulser and the guy who took his pulse commented that "He sure has a nice strong slow pulse!" "21 is down! In time 11:07; out time 11:52 (45 min hold). Ruth came over with Otto and we talked a little bit - she said he was feeling off and just didn't seem to be himself so she pulled him at the check-point. She had Dr. Dick take a look at him and while Dr. Dick agreed that he was a little off on the rear, he wouldn't have pulled him. Oh well, Ruth wants what is best for her horse so she was done for the day. I lost Christine as I vetted through and took Sinwaan back to the trailer for some food and rest.

Ellie was asleep on my mom when I quietly stuck my head in the camper door. I was starving! I think I ate a blueberry muffin while chatting with Matt and Levi about the ride. Then Ellie woke up so I fed her. When I walked over to use the restroom I saw Sally and she asked me if I was done. DONE? No, I am just about to go back out. Was she done? Yep, 2nd or 3rd place. WOW! Before I knew it, my hold time was over. Better get back out there! Ruth took over as my crew and helped assist me with getting Sinwaan ready.

As we headed for the out timer I looked around and did not see Christine. I hoped she had gotten back out on the trail on time and not lingered around waiting for me. It was after 12 pm when we hit the trail. I was glad to see about five other horses heading out the same time as me - someone for Sinwaan to follow.

This time we followed a short double-track dirt trail to the gravel parking lot, then down the road we drove in on, walking under the I-90 overpass, then turning and going through a gate and up a steep climb to the irrigation canal pump house. This was a scary part. I didn't realize how scary it was for Sinwaan until I had my hands full of reins and camera trying to take a photo! I finally had to put the camera away and focus on my riding. On the right was a wide irrigation ditch, on the left was a channel for the water to cascade down the mountain. We were on a path only as wide as a truck with a steep incline on the left. (The pump house is the little white dot in the photo above the horses on the left in the photo).

Once you got over the water intersection (all below the dirt path) you headed back down hill and under the train trestle. Gail had told me to look up for the Owl's nest but I did not see it.

This was another enjoyable section of trail as once back to the bottom of the mountain the double-wide trail was between two irrigation ditches and it wound around through bushes and some colorful yellow-leafed trees. I wanted to really move out here but was a little worried about what might be lurking. Sinwaan had lost the other horses by this point and was lagging. As he was deciding if he should graze on the edge of the trail, along came a mule, trotting right past. Sinwaan took interest so I urged him onward, follow that mule! We tailed the mule to the next water stop, probably about 3 miles. I was very impressed with that little mule, such work ethic! A steady trot, never wavering, sometimes cantering at the same speed, he ate up that trail and helped us to put the miles behind us as well. I was so thankful for that man and his mule. It was an ideal time to have someone to follow. It was also nice to experience an energetic horse beneath me at this stage in the ride, he cantered when I asked and kept a nice steady trot the whole time we followed that mule.

At the water stop the other horses were just leaving and the mule was not interested so the man asked if he minded if he left. I told him thank you and to please go on ahead. Sinwaan drank a bit which I was glad to see, and then we turned and followed the group up another hill which put us back onto the rail trail.

The other riders were presumably 50s, or faster than I was on the 25 distance so they were soon out of sight. I let Sinwaan pick his pace which was mostly walking. After while I urged him back into a trot so we could try and catch the person I saw ahead of us. The rider was Marie and she was very nice. She explained that she was doing well until her ankles started hurting her, and she was sure glad her husband had talked her into doing the 25 and not the 50 mile ride as her first attempt. Her horse was a beautiful Arab gelding named Lazarus, and he was her first Arab. We shared stories and had a nice time on the trail back to camp.

The view from the top was very pretty, rolling hills and snow-capped mountains in the distance. We could also see the highway but somehow it did not detract from the ride. The footing on this side was very similar to the the first loop.

Before we knew it we were almost back to camp. I almost forgot to take a photo - so my apologies about the ugly power lines in the way on this shot. We walked down the hill and then it was a mandated walk on the road back to camp so I was sure Sinwaan was pulsed down and I walked him over to a timer right away. #21 is down! I removed his bit and took him for a drink and overheard some people talking about how it is tack off for all completion exams, and the one lady was saying she was going to clean her horse up before presenting him, so I decided to do the same thing.

I took Sinwaan over the trailer and un-tacked him, put on his halter and groomed him really well. He was sensitive on his right side under the saddle and upon a closer inspection I saw where the girth had rubbed him. Oh no! Poor boy. I think the saddle must have slipped forward on the hill(s) and that could have been what rendered my HRM useless also. So far every ride has been a learning experience and this ride I learned that it is worth it to double-check all your tack during your hold. If I had taken everything off, or even adjusted it to fix the HRM I probably could have also prevented the girth rub.

Once he was presentable I took him over to the vets and prayed he hadn't cramped up in the meantime. There was a bit of wind but I was comfortable so I figured he should be too. Dr Dick was our vet and he didn't miss a thing. He scored Sinwaan a B on his back and talked to me a bit about saddle fit and pads. In the past I have replaced my saddle pad every year and I don't think I have done that yet this year. He thought perhaps I could benefit from an open-cell pad or even a thicker one than what I am using. It's tough though since I have a dressage saddle, often the flaps on typical pads aren't long enough. We have never had trouble at past rides so I will start by getting a new pad like the one I currently use and go from there. The scribe noticed his girth rub but wasn't sure at first if it was freckling or a rub. We talked about that too, since that could have also had something to do with his sore back. It was an educational and informative chat and I thank Dr Dick for that. On the trot out Sinwaan had great impulsion and no other issues so we completed!! YAY! Our first completion of 2010, and this 25 added to our other rides gives Sinwaan a lifetime milage of 100 miles in competition.

All of us agreed that we didn't want to spend another night here but I insisted on giving Sinwaan a rest period to recharge before hauling home. My mother and I bartered on the time, I started with 4 hours and I think she talked me down to about 2.5-3. Sinwaan took a nap and used the time wisely. We ate lunch and again mother fed us well. She had potato salad (can you believe she makes two different kinds, one with mayo and one with Miracle Whip because she knows that is what I like!? How awesome is that?!) and fresh asparagus and shoepeg corn and black-eyed peas warmed up on our trailer stove. We also had fresh strawberries. I ate and ate and ate, I was so hungry. Ellie was so cute, she was next to me in the booth and she grabbed a strawberry off my plate and looked at me. I didn't tell her "no" so she put it to her mouth but to my surprise she did not bite it. She held it out towards me and then back to her mouth and then finally she took a tiny little bite. She had a lot of fun eating that strawberry, as it's the first time I have let her have anything in 'whole' form. When she was done nibbling on the strawberry she thought it would be funny to rub it on my arm and then on the table. What a mess she made!

We packed up camp and then I headed over to get my t-shirt. There were some really nice deep purple and teal choices but I took the one left that was kind of a sage color. I thought it was kind of an ugly color for a shirt but it was so different I had to have it. It kind of reminded me of the colors of the ride too, the sagebrush and trail footing blended together. I went into the RV to ask about my placement. Gail was in there and said #21. I told her she knows my number better than I do. She replied "Well, you always want #21!" It's true, but since I have only entered 4 rides requesting that number and she was not the ride manager for all of them I think that is pretty impressive that she knew that. The lady with the computer told me I was 37th so I thanked her and headed back to the trailer. Then I saw the orange vest on the seat so I had to return that.

By then things were pretty well packed up so I tied Sinwaan to the trailer and started taking down his electric corral. Levi came out and helped me roll up the tape and then pull out the posts. He was a good little helper and pretty happy about having a project to do. Once all that was done I put on Sinwaan's shipping boots and we loaded up the horses and then we loaded up the kids and we headed out of camp.

We had a direct and uneventful trip home, arriving by 8 pm. We unloaded Sinwaan and he looked really good. I took off his blanket and boots and turned him out in his paddock. He seemed hungry so I tossed all his hay from his trailer bag into his bucket and he dove into that. Ruth helped me unload the rest of the trailer and then we went and dropped off Otto and her trailer and that was it.

Next ride: May 15 at Mt Adams. I am excited, it's another one I have never been to. Here's hoping I can get more conditioning in so we can place a little better next time :)

Milwaukee Road Rail Trail - day before

2010-04-25T15:15:00.000-07:00

Friday morning I got up with the kids and made breakfast. I wanted to make some great pancakes from scratch. Levi had gotten into the strawberries in the fridge while I was getting ready - taking a bite out of about 12 of them. I found a recipe online for pumpkin pancakes but soon realized I was missing brown sugar, so I switched to plain pancakes. They were ok, not great. We had them with the strawberries (washed and cut) and some whipping cream from the freezer that was about a year old.

I had packed as much as I could the night before and thrown it out into the camp trailer. There was not too much else to do Friday morning. I checked in with my mom and told her to come over at 9:45 AM so we could get the camp trailer hooked up to her Explorer. The unfortunate part about this weekend was that I did not have my List so at times I felt a bit overwhelmed. I knew I was forgetting stuff but I didn't know what. I was sure to pack both kids coats this time since last month I had forgotten Levi's coat.

I checked in with Ruth and she sounded like she was pretty well on schedule as well to meet at our house at 10 AM. When she arrived I loaded up Ellie and myself into her Avalanche and we went out to get Sinwaan. (She already had her trailer attached with Otto loaded). In the meantime Matt drove the camper down to Milton to get gasoline.

Sinwaan was ready for an adventure and curious to see who was in the trailer. Ruth helped me load up my gear - basically all we had to do was unload it from mine and put it into hers. I put on Sinwaan's shipping boots and loaded him up. We talked to Doug & Cindy a bit as we waited for Matt to meet us. Finally it was time to go.

We stopped at the Touchet gas station because where Matt fueled up there was no air for the tires and my mom had a low tire on the car. I heard Sinwaan banging around a little bit on the trailer getting onto the highway so I checked on him. He had one rear boot too low and on the same side the front boot was flipped up. I don't know how he did that but he wasn't injured so I started out by trying to fix his rear boot without unloading him. I had about half the velcro undone when I felt a sensation on my arm. At first I thought maybe Matt had snuck up and touched me but then I quickly realized it was raining large apples from the sky. Sinwaan was crapping on me! YUK! I backed away as fast as I could and saw a big streak on my arm. I got a baby wipe out of the diaper bag and cleaned up but I could still feel something warm and damp. I turned my sleeve around and there was still some on my sleeve. YUK! So I ran over to the camp trailer and changed my shirt too. After that I unloaded Sinwaan so I could redo those boots without the danger of more dirty laundry. Ruth cleaned out the trailer, and he loaded back up without much trouble - on our way to Kittitas!

We stopped only once at a rest area so everyone could use the bathroom. I had told my mom we could probably stop somewhere along the way for lunch but Ruth went a different way that was (for the most part) flat, although devoid of towns, so there was no where to buy lunch. We had apples and granola bars at the rest area to tie us over as we were not all that far from Ride Camp.

Driving along Interstate-90 Ruth told me "You will see ride camp before we get there, it is right along the highway." True to her word, we drove right past it. It was the strangest sight I have seen in some time. Right next to I-90 there was ride camp with about 50 horse trailers all lined up. It must have looked very curious to passer-bys. We had to drive down to the next exit (115, Kittitas) and then turn what seemed to be the wrong direction and then go through a little town and back around and along the interstate on a parallel road until we finally crept up on it. Gail had done a nice job putting up signs and ribbons at all the turns. We had a huge trailer ahead of us that we followed in with Montana plates. Ruth and I wondered where in Montana they were from but didn't get around to finding them again to ask.

The weather was fantastic! 70s with very low wind. We were hopeful for tomorrow, although heard people say it was predicted to be 60s with a bit more wind. Ride camp was very much like Home On The Range, with lots of grass and tall bunches, although it was right next to I-90. I didn't hear the traffic after awhile but some people complained about it. There were lots of little holes and it didn't take long before I saw an occupant - a tiny mouse. They were all over the place and very brave. One came up in the middle of Levi's "dirt valley" ran across and went down another hole. I didn't mind them because they were so small and cute.

I don't recall what time we arrived but it was in the neighborhood of 3 pm. I have never gotten to ride camp so early the day before. It was awesome! We set up camp (not too far from water and the porta-potties) and had a fantastic lunch prepared by my mom.

After that we went over to get our ride cards and the information station was an empty slant-load horse trailer. There was a big map of the area taped to the front and a couple of tables inside with all the ride info. I was glad to see this ride was divided into two loops for the 25s - and the first loop was considerably longer. Mentally it is easier for me to get a long loop out of the way and then go back out after the hold for a short loop. We vetted through and both horses looked good. I was pleased when the scribe walked over with a red grease stick to mark Sinwaan with his number - #21. Ruth was #19.

After all that was done we saddled up and went for a ride. My first pre-ride! Matt was going to hike along with us but he was so tired he took a nap instead. Ruth showed me the way since she had done this ride the year before on Topper. The rail trail was wide and sandy and had great footing and good views of the surrounding hills. Leaving camp you went out on a dirt road and then climbed up to the rail trail which gave you a prime view of ride camp - but I forgot to take a photo. We went down about a mile and then turned around and went back down so we could check out the other loop. To get to that one you had to walk on the road, which took you under I-90 and over to a cattle guard. The gate was not open and we didn't want to take the horses over the guard so we turned around and went back to camp. I was glad that Sinwaan experienced the overpass because I have never ridden him under one before. He did just fine.

On the way back to the trailer we ran into Gail Williams (the ride manager) and talked to her a bit about where/when Matt could go tomorrow morning to take ride photos. She thought if she dropped him off at the tunnel (about 4 mi out) shortly after 6 am he should be able to get photos of everyone within 3 hours coming through there. Oh boy, I knew he would not be thrilled about such an early start. Gail said any time a car drove out there she had to call the Army and let them know who and what and when and for how long since there is a training base out there due to the terrain being so similar to Afghanistan. Matt would also have to wear an orange vest. After chatting with her it was getting close to 7 pm and that is when the ride meeting was scheduled so we untacked and put the horses up for the night. Sinwaan settled right into his paddock and ate.

Just before the ride meeting Levi met another little boy named Aiden who was a year older. They played chase for about 10 minutes and got too far away so I had to go and round Levi up. After that we told the kids to stay close and I talked to Aiden's mom, Andi. When ride meeting started I told Levi he had to sit with us and be quiet so everyone could hear. He was not obedient and made quite a bit of noise which made everyone disgruntled so I finally sent him back to the camper with my mom.

During the meeting Gail and Dr Jen talked about the tunnel. They explained that you could go through it if you wanted to, but only westbound (coming back), and that if you had never been through it, don't try it now. One man asked 'If I have never been through it, how am I supposed to get that experience?" Gail told him to come back another weekend when there was not a ride, or pre-ride it the day before. Dr Jen explained that she was not very gentle with people that needed treatment. I also heard that pigeons have built nests in the tunnel and they like to fly out and spook your horse, there are rocks to trip over, sometimes concrete falls from the ceiling, you just can't see in a large part of it because it is pitch black, etc. There was a lot said about how dangerous it was and how there have been wrecks in the tunnel the past two years that resulted in people being taken out by ambulance. Well that sealed it for me. I don't need to try the tunnel. I had bought glow sticks and even a fancy green light for my helmet. Oh well.

It would be an early morning so I headed back and gave Matt the news. He set our phone alarm for 5:15 AM. My mom set her phone alarm for 5:15 AM. I talked to Ruth and she said her alarm was set for 5:30 AM. Satisfied that we would not sleep through the start for the 75s & 50s (going out together since there were only 3 75s) I went to bed.

Since I didn't have a List this time I forgot our pillows. I also forgot any kind of serving spoon or spatula for cooking.

Levi could not go to sleep. He whispered and fidgeted and got up and down until about 11 pm. That kept us all up (except Ellie, who somehow managed to fall asleep right on schedule and she slept all night long). When he finally crashed then the wind picked up and the front shield on our camp trailer squeaked and banged all night long. Then it started raining and there were a couple of really big gusts and I laid in bed and prayed that Sinwaan was ok. I hoped he was getting some sleep and I hoped his pen wouldn't blow away. I worried about Levi's plastic toys and our camp chairs all outside. I worried that our front shield wold get caught just wrong in the wind and rip off and land on Ruth's tent. I worried about everything. Needless to say, I didn't sleep one wink. My mom didn't sleep either.

Trot Down the Trail...

2010-04-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you to my auntie Kim Patton for the following;

...With a SWISH of the TAIL
SEEKING the WONDER of
The HILLS out YONDER.

May you reach your GOAL
May no goblins take their TOLL

Onward
FORWARD

TROT down that TRAIL
With a HAPPY SWISH of a TAIL : )

Best wishes to my girl and her horse!!!!!!!

The girls

2010-04-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

Today I rode Cindy's Arabian mares, Midge and Ali.

Midge was first. I worked her a bit in the round pen before tacking up, asking for the walk in both directions, and then a trot. She was very responsive. When I put on the bridle she was very busy with the bit the entire time so they are going to look into getting something different for her. She stood very quietly for me to mount up but once astride she acted up a bit. Granted, she has not been ridden for a year so I expected a bit of trouble. She is also very green.

Ali was more excitable being led over but once in the round pen she mellowed out and also was very responsive when I worked her from the ground. She took the bit easily and didn't fuss with it. Mounting up she tried to swing away from me but I went with her and quickly hopped in the saddle. I had to dismount after a couple minutes because the saddle was loose. I had walked her and tightened it before mounting up the first time but it still need adjustment. She is supposedly trained Western but she did not respond to neck reining so I switched to direct pull with her and just the lightest touch moved her. She was a joy to ride, I felt much more comfortable on her after only a couple minutes in comparison to Midge. I warned Cindy that if Sinwaan gets injured she may find herself without a horse. ;)

After riding her for a bit at both the walk and trot I asked Cindy if she was ready to get on. She was, but worried about mounting up. I stood on the opposite side of Ali and held her. Cindy found that if she put her weight in the saddle from the mounting block, instead of from the stirrup initially she would stand still. Something to work on, but it was progress. Cindy rode a short time and it was great to see her astride.

After that I didn't have much time for riding Sinwaan so he was treated to a day of pampering, he did not complain! I used the clippers on his bridle-path, and trimmed his ear hair so it isn't so shaggy. I also used a shedding blade on him to try and pull out the rest of his winter hair. I didn't get it all but it's better than it was. I still worry about him getting too hot at the ride next weekend. He got a bit of grain before returning to his paddock.

Saturday ride

2010-04-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

A lovely day for a ride, and if anything perhaps a bit hot for spring. Matt and the kids went out with me to help hook up the truck to the trailer. I figured I would be out there forever trying to do it myself. I pulled out Sinwaan's new shipping boots and put those on him this time to try them out. I only put them on the front and he did well. I dropped the family off at the house on the way to the Lake.

I met a lady there today, Sue Webb, and her horse who is a TWH/Welsh cross. Sue is wanting to try endurance so I invited her along today to see how we condition. She was ready to go when I pulled up but patiently waited for me to get Sinwaan ready. We talked a little about endurance and as I was about ready Ruth and Heather pulled in. Ruth said it would take her a little while to put on Otto's new Renegade boots so Sue and I rode down the trail to warm up our horses while we waited. Using the GPS I discovered the 'outhouse' on the trail is just about a half mile from where we were parked. Ruth and Heather were riding out to meet us as we headed back.

They are doing a lot of trail reconstruction on the main trails, adding culverts and over that black material and gravel on top of that. Rolls of black material were laying around, lots of new and scary things for the horses to look at. Because of that we did a little more walking than I envisioned. Ruth led and set a steady pace the majority of the way around. It was such a gorgeous day, I was so glad to be outside riding! I did wish I had thought to put on sun-block as by the end I felt a little crisp. I had to leave by 4 pm and just barely made it back to the trailer by that time.

According to the GPS we did 7.31 miles today in 1:35. The first two miles at least were walking.

Our next ride is Milwaukee!

April 4, 2010

2010-04-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

Today was windy but the sky was clear, no rain. Heather and Ruth and I made plans to head out of town at 1 pm to ride at Madame Dorian. I left the house early because I needed to go down to Milton-Freewater to fuel up. Halfway down the block I realized I had forgotten both my GPS unit and also a measuring tape. I was worried about the time so I didn't go back for them.

Ruth and Heather beat me to the barn. Heather came up the drive and helped me back up to the trailer. It is tricky with a manual, I would get close and chicken out and hit the clutch and the truck would roll forward. Finally we did line it up and Heather helped to hook it up. All my stuff was still loaded from the ride last weekend so all there was to do was load up the horse. I think Sinwaan likes his new trailer, he doesn't give me any trouble, although he does always want to follow me in. If I try to push him in it doesn't work as well. Something we need to work on (self-loading).

The drive was about 28 miles west and we had to pull a pretty big hill. Ugly truck did well, we maintained about 50 mph going up and kept it there heading down the other side because I didn't want the trailer to get away from me. The rest of the time we traveled at 55-60. I have sure taken for-granted all the times people have done the hauling for me. Many times I had to tell myself to relax and breathe as I caught sight of my white knuckles clinging to the steering wheel. It was my first time hauling out to a ride and it was stressful!!

We arrived without incident and traveled up to the viewing station to park. Ruth commented on how this location was no where near the bathroom. I hadn't even thought of that, so next time I imagine we will park closer to them. We all tacked up and rode the horses at a walk down to the restrooms. Sinwaan was eager to go, I could tell he'd had a bit of a vacation. He had a nice stride and really moved out at the walk.

After the restrooms we found a single track trail and Ruth took the lead, I followed her, and Heather fell in behind. Ruth set a nice pace and we trotted through the sand and the sagebrush. In many areas the wind was not too bad, as the trail followed the base of the dunes and we had a wind break. One portion however put us near the cliff to the water and we could see the white caps on Wallula Lake and suddenly I was stung in the face with blowing sand. Sinwaan shook his head and tried to turn tail to the wind but we pressed onward and were soon out of it. The horses all did well and we reached the end of the trail this time. I have heard that it is 4 or 5 miles from one end to the other. It is still a question since I did not have my GPS to give me the answer.

We had a bit of a rest mid-way and then headed back for the trailers. Sinwaan had a couple moments where he seemed tired so we slowed to a walk in the deeper sand. I did not hook up his HRM today, I probably should have. When the ride was over I closely inspected his leg and the injury from last weekend has scabbed over. It seems a bit thick, probably because of the blood and his winter coat matting a bit. There was a slight crack along one edge but it did not seem to bother him today.

He will have another short vacation & rest, we will ride again on the weekend of the 17th before our next scheduled LD ride on April 24.

He loaded up easily and I drove him on back to the barn. This time the big hill was harder to climb. I found myself slowing down to 45 mph even though the accelerator was floored. I expect more out of such a large engine but Matt has pointed out to me that it is OLD, and does not benefit from newer technology like fuel injection, etc. Even though it is a 454 it is not as powerful as the engine that was in Matt's Camaro. He also told me he thought 45 was too fast for that hill, I guess next time I will know to slow down and down-shift into 2nd to climb it. (Ugly is a 3-spd) Live and learn.

I was pleased to see that Sinwaan had no trouble in the trailer today on either trip, he unloaded at the barn with no injuries, hurray! I borrowed a tape measure to get the size of his legs anyway and ordered him some shipping boots for the next major ride. I thought his front leg was about 17" and his rear 21" but maybe I didn't measure correctly. I ordered him 16" and 18" boots. We'll see how they work. They were on clearance at Dover.

Home On The Range : Ride Day

2010-03-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

Up at 6 am and getting ready. I ate some scrambled eggs with vegetarian sausage. I had my checklist so I brought in my saddle and started loading up my bags. My disposable poncho seems to be missing but it didn't look like rain today so I didn't worry about it. In fact the weather was awesome. A bit chilly, but the wind had died down and it had the makings of a beautiful day! I carry a spare hoof-pick, a knife/pliers, a compass/whistle, my HRM, a GPS, chapstick, toilet paper, my vet card and map of the ride, granola bar, trail mix, dried apricots, 2 water bottles, a camera for trail photos, an emergency 'blanket' which folds up to the size of my hand. I forget what else. What I need to add to my collection is a first aid kit! I also attached my rump rug, which I had been awarded for Rookie Horse in 2008. I was looking forward to using that and my GPS on my first ride out since obtaining them.

We were all ready to go by 10 minutes til start time. Hope and Ruth had both lunged their horses. We rode over to the start at a walk and I dismounted to have Sinwaan trot out for the vet. There was a line already because of the 75 and 50 milers coming in for their first vet check and hold (they started at 6 and 7 am) Our start time for the 25s was 8 am so it was a busy area to be in. I trotted Sinwaan out for Dr Jen and did not notice anything but she said "He is favoring that leg." I asked her "What does that mean?" She said she could definitely see it and I needed to think about it being the first ride of the season, she didn't feel like he would warm up and work through it, she anticipated it being worse after the first 16 mile loop. I don't think she was telling me that I couldn't start, but it was a warning about what it could mean if I did. All this work and preparation and anticipation and now it's over before I even begin.

With a heavy heart I told the timers that #21 was rider-option pulling at the start. They said their apologies, and I waved the other girls onward. "Bye," I told them. "Have a great ride." It was hard not to sit down and just burst into tears at that point. Matt had come along to take photos so he rushed over to ask what was happening. I was crying a bit as I told him what the vet had said. It was a very sad moment.

I led Sinwaan back to the trailer and untacked. Settled him back into his corral and then went in and hung out with my kids for awhile. Since I hadn't gotten any sleep I was pretty tired so I laid down for a bit but with a 10 month old crawling around on you, sleep doesn't come easy. I kept an eye on the time and when I expected the girls would be coming in I headed out with a chair and the camera.

I hiked up a hill and down the other side and not 5 minutes after I got there I looked up and saw three riders coming at me. It was them! I snapped some ride photos for them and then ran back to the vet check. I gave Hope some pointers since this was her first ride, then seeing the line for the vets, ran to the trailer for some hay. I did a small amount of crewing and watched them all trot out. Otto and Quincy were cleared to continue but Dr Mike noticed that Jules was off in the right hind. He got a second opinion from Dr Jen and sure enough when he went over her she flinched and jumped away when he touched the area. So Hope's ride was over for the day at that point. I told Hope "we're 2 for 4, that's no good!" A most unfortunate turn of events for Hope as well. The vets recommended she use electrolytes. Bob Westergard was crewing for his own horse ridden by Joe, so I talked to him a bit about what he uses.

The 45 minute hold for this ride went by in a flash, thanks to the lines at the vet area. I asked Ruth and Heather if they wanted me to get some food ready and they said they didn't have time to sit around and eat, their out-time was only 10 minutes away, so they decided to eat when they were done. I headed out on foot to get ahead of them with the camera. I jogged and walked and jogged some more as the trail followed the road and then crossed over it. Riders would come by and I would take their photo since I was out there anyway. I just kept going and finally got up on a bit of a knoll. Ruth and Heather trotted by and I took their photo. I headed on back to camp but people were just pouring past me, so I took photos of all of them. I was worried about running out of card space! One guy hollered at me "I'll buy it!" so that gave me the idea that perhaps I should sell these and make some money to buy SHIPPING BOOTS for clumsy Sinwaan.

I had just plugged in the camera to the laptop in the Quonset hut when Matt walked in. I had been gone a long time (I really did get a ways from camp). So after downloading the camera we walked back to the camper together. It was nice to hang out with the family and be leisurely. Matt wanted feedback on his driving. I told him he had done a fine job. There was one turn that I noticed the trailer bouncing a bit and that is probably when the injury occurred. But it's a fact that Sinwaan doesn't travel very well. I don't blame Matt, or the trailer for this. I just need to take more preventative action any time I trailer him.

Hope headed over to crew for the final check and a short time after she left, I grabbed the camera and went to get the final photos. They were in line when I got there. The horses were eating well and looked good. Quincy had pulsed down first but during his trot out the vet commented that he looked tired. He is an older horse and he was just done for the day. But he did complete! Otto probably could have gone on and done more miles.

We headed back to the trailers and got lunch going. It was probably about 1 pm. They had made good time on this ride considering they walked the first two miles out. We ate hot dogs, potato salad, pasta salad, fruit and cookies. Sensational!

It was a restful afternoon. Dinner was from 6-8 so the other gals headed over to eat about 6. After the dinner everyone piled into the Quonset hut for the awards meeting. It was packed but we had gotten there early enough that we had our chairs against the far wall. First there was a drink contest between the teams. The pirates had a grog, and there were two other entries (including a pomegranate martini) but the grog was the winner.

Gail started with the 75s and some of them were still out on the trail. Then the 50s. It was a very long awards meeting because there were over 70 entries in both the 25 and 50 mile distances. Ruth and Heather placed in the 30s (mid-pack). There was a very small % of non-completions in all distances. There were a couple of injuries to riders.

Everyone seemed excited about the new ride location. We look forward to coming back next year.

Home On The Range: Friday

2010-03-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

We all arrived in ride camp at about 5 pm on Friday afternoon. The wind was blowing pretty hard. Ruth parked and then Mr Williams came over and told her that the trail was right there and she was the last truck in the row allowed to park there. So we all moved to the next row and lined up.

We unloaded the horses and Sinwaan had an obvious bloody spot on his leg. CRAP! All the other horses looked good. We took turns running to the restroom (the closest porta-potty was about 3 or 4 rows over) and then set up camp. I put up Sinwaan's hot tape paddock between Ugly and the camper to try and help block the wind and also to make it more secure. I also like to see him out the camper windows. I was thinking it would probably be a good idea to get him to the vet sooner rather than later due to his leg in case they had any advice or ointment.

We all headed over together. First we had to go into the Quonset hut to get our paperwork and vet cards. We took turns holding horses and going in. I was able to get my lucky (?) number #21 so I was happy about that. There were a lot of handouts and I grabbed all of them for reading later.

There was not too much of a line so we were able to vet through fairly quickly. Everyone looked great, and I think this was the best score Sinwaan has ever gotten - A's for everything, including gut sounds (usually after trailering over he scores a B). He also had the lowest pulse rate of all four horses. Dr Mike took a look at his leg and told me I should keep it covered to help keep it clean but that it didn't look too deep. He wanted me to come back and trot by in the morning to make sure it wasn't swelling or otherwise getting worse.

Back at the trailer I used some vet wrap to cover it and then took him back to have a vet check my work. I have never put on one before and didn't want it to be too tight. Dr Jen checked it for me and said it looked fine. So I led him back to the trailer and settled him in with 2 buckets of water, a pan of grain and his ration of hay. He ate the grain, wasn't interested in the water, and stood at the far end of his paddock where he could watch the horses out on the trail.

After that we quickly made up our dinner of haystacks and ate before the ride meeting. As it turns out we were a bit late for the meeting and the room (in the Quonset hut) was PACKED, it was standing room only at that point. Gail went over the particulars of the ride and introduced us to Mr Beckley, the landowner. He showed us the 10,000 acres that we would be riding on and also pointed out multiple other sections of land on the map that will be available to us for future rides. These land owners are encouraging people to come out and use the land for "recreating;" hunting, mountain biking, horseback riding, anything really. He was pleased to see so many of us show up. Gail described the trail as being easy to follow, barefoot friendly, and a lot of it along the ridge tops. One loop also took riders past a grave, that is Mr Beckley's father. The wildlife was deer and badgers, with warnings to watch out for badger holes. It sounded fantastic and I couldn't wait to ride.

During the meeting there was a cry of "loose horses!" and the response: what color? "Three (or four?) of them, one is a gray Arab." Well just about everyone has one of those. One of the horses was caught and tied to a trailer. "What color trailer?" "White." That was the running joke of the weekend since just about everyone there also had a white trailer. This is the primary reason some people are against using hot tape for portable corrals. There are many varieties of corrals, and I meant to take photos of them as an example. Horses can run through hot tape if spooked, ornery, or if they discover it isn't on (hot). Loose horses can be dangerous and no one appreciates that. I am thankful that my horse has always done well in his and it gives him a little more freedom to move than being tied to the trailer.

There was a group of nine of us who went. Ruth and Hope camped out in Ruth's tent. My mom slept in her Explorer. Her foster girl Faith slept in our truck. Matt, me, and the kids, along with Heather slept in the camp trailer. I also took along one of my dogs, Missy, and she did incredibly well. It was chilly Friday night and we were sure glad to have the heater working faithfully all weekend. The last time my dad visited he helped with fixing up the beds so they were all functional and we could fit more people in. He added a 2x4 railing to the bunk so Levi wouldn't fall out, and also helped to fix the sofa bed below it so that Matt and I would have a little more room. Ellie slept on me, so Friday night I did not get any sleep, the excitement combined with the nerves prevented any hope of that.

At one point I heard coyotes howling and it was really beautiful. The moon was full and bright - so bright I did not need to use a flashlight to find the toilet. Sinwaan was cozy in his blanket. The stage was set, everything was in order... except for that leg. What would tomorrow bring?

Poetry

2010-03-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

May Sinwaan toss his head and make a great start,
keep a steady pace and do his part....
take Shana to the finish line Sinwaan!....
Top Ten it KIDS!!!!!!
At the very least be able to say...
WOOOO HOOOO what a RIDE!

--Kim Patton

Home On The Range : the pre-ride story

2010-03-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

March 27, 2010, the Home On The Range endurance ride has a new location just outside Washtucna WA. This ride is the nearest location to my house of all the rides in the PNW this year. Straight north about 85-100 miles. I had been excited about it since last year when I realized I could start riding again. I rode all winter every weekend - no excuses - to prepare. I felt more ready for this ride than I did in 2008 when I last attended this ride.

This year there were four of us that had set our sights on attending. Ruth, my co-worker and ride partner. Heather, who was pregnant and realized she probably could not make any other rides this year, and Heather's sister Hope. There was only one minor problem; Ruth was the only person among us who owned a horse trailer and it was a 2-horse. How to get 4 horses to the ride? It was a predicament. Even if we could find a trailer to borrow, what would pull it? I had the Suburban, but it was badly in need of tires and beyond that the 6" lift caused more wear and tear than average - we've replaced the front end on it twice since we bought it.

As luck would have it, Matt uncovered an ad on craigslist for the truck of my dreams. Yes, it was old and ugly, but it ran and it was a crew cab dually with a 454. Even better, the guy wanted to trade it for a motorcycle! We just so happened to have a motorcycle. So that worked out just a month before the ride. We hurriedly made a list of everything that needed to be fixed in order for the truck to be tow-worthy. A new radiator, tailpipe, additional welds to the hitch and adjusted the clutch, to name a few.

Now how to solve the problem of the horse trailer? I have been wanting my own since I first got a horse and it just never worked out. With the addition of a truck to haul one, I started browsing craigslist myself looking for a trailer in my price range. I should mention my price range is just on the border of what is acceptable for hauling horses! From all my browsing I came up with a list of what I wanted in a trailer. I needed escape doors on both sides, head doors for the horses on both sides, tack door on both sides, and it had to be extra-tall and big enough for a horse that isn't easy to load. I found a couple. Some did not meet my criteria and others were just a bit more than I wanted to spend. When I had lost hope in finding a suitable trailer for this ride I got an email reply from ad ad I had inquired about earlier. The trailer met all my criteria, not only that it was a one-owner trailer that had been maintained. The owner was a PNER member to boot!

Matt had a motorcycle he wanted to look at in Yakima so I sent him and Levi on a mission to pick up my trailer in Washougal afterwards. They left at 10 am. They got to the trailer about 5 or 6 pm. After two hours of driving back towards home Matt called me and said he was having two problems: the trailer was bucking an awful lot and the oil pressure in the truck was dangerously low. So he stopped and rested for an hour to let the truck cool down and then started out again. After 15 minutes of driving he called me again to say the oil pressure was too low. He also felt the axles on the trailer and it seemed to him like one brake must be locking up because it was much hotter on one bearing than any other. At this rate it would take him days to drive the remaining distance (which should have been another 2 hours). So, at approximately 4 am I told him to drop the trailer and come on home. He needed to sleep and we could set out for it the next day.

Monday I took some time off work and we drove back for the trailer. In the meantime Matt had talked to his dad and thought the bucking could be from the brake controller being adjusted wrong, and perhaps fixing that would help the oil pressure in the truck. We held our breath as we approached the rest area where Matt left it. My biggest worry was that it would be stolen, or someone would take the tires. It was there and all in one piece! Relief! We hooked up and Matt made some adjustments. It seemed to be pulling much better, but the oil pressure was still lower than Matt would like it to be. We stopped at Boardman for gas and food (and a diaper, I had forgotten the diaper bag!) and ran into Dale McKain at the eatery there. He was driving the bus for a girl's softball team. Because of all the girls it took us about 40 minutes to get our food, and another 20 minutes to get the rest of our order (Levi's grilled cheese and a chocolate cherry milkshake). So the truck had plenty of time to cool off. We also purchased a quart of 30 weight oil which Matt added.

We ventured out again. It pulled well for about 15 minutes and then again we had to stop. We pulled off at a truck stop, Matt was hoping to buy an oil pan and heavier weight oil and do an oil change right there at the truck stop. He came out of the store empty handed, no pans of any kind for sale and no heavy weight oil either. Unbelievable.

So onward we drove. Matt's blood pressure was visibly high over the state of the oil pressure but somehow we made it to Pendleton, and then Milton-Freewater and finally home. Whew! I went back to work for a couple of hours and when I came home Matt went to bed, so I took the kids and the truck and trailer out to Heather's. Her husband Gary came out to take a look at the floorboards. Ruth was also there and offered some feedback. I left the trailer there and headed back home.

Did I mention this was all happening a week before the ride? The trailer went to Heather's on Monday. Tuesday Gary did his research on replacing trailer flooring, Wednesday he got started and noted that the screws were rusted into the frame pretty badly. He was able to get the center board out and agreed that it was lacking in integrity. Thursday night Gary and Eric and Matt all worked hard to get my floor replaced and they got it done!

Thursday afternoon Matt changed the oil in the truck. We went with SAE60, a racing oil, hoping that would solve our problems. No time to test it out.

Also on Thursday night my father-in-law came over to work on the propane furnace in my camp trailer again. He had spent a couple of hours on it about a month ago but didn't get it working. So this was the last chance he had before the ride. After Matt got home from the horse trailer, he helped his dad on the camp trailer and I went to bed after a very busy evening of packing.

Friday morning dawned upon us and I worked all morning getting everything together and ready. I had hoped to go out and give Sinwaan a bath but it was far too windy and cold for that. I left the house shortly before 11 am - went by the bank for gas money, went by and picked up my horse trailer after admiring the new floor and putting the mats back in, then out to get Sinwaan. I loaded all my stuff and then loaded him and took him back to Heathers. Dropped him off and went home to meet my mom. We both drove down to put gas in the rigs. On the way there my mom noticed that the blinkers on the trailer were crossed. When I put on the left turn signal for the truck, the right turn signal on the trailer would come on. AAGH!

We got back to the house and hooked up my mom's Explorer to the camp trailer. Immediately the trailer brakes came on and I couldn't move it. We did not have time to deal with all of this! Our goal to leave was by 1 pm. It was already 1:45 by now. So we unhooked the lights. It was decided that I would drive the Explorer with the camper in the center of the convoy, Matt would drive the Ugly truck and horse trailer in front, and Ruth would follow up behind in case one of us had a problem.

We loaded up the rest of the horses and tack and misc. stuff for the weekend and we were off!! Heading out we took Highway 12 through Waitsburg and Dayton, and then 261 through Starbuck. Crossing the terrifying bridge before Lyon's Ferry was the worst part of the journey, I don't think it was meant for anything other than compact cars. However there was so much curvey winding up and down roads, it was not my first choice for hauling horses. At one turn I saw the trailer jumping a bit and I knew Sinwaan was scrambling and I hoped he would be ok on arrival. We took 260/261 into Washtucna and then followed 26 over to Beckley Road (promptly missed the turn, despite the ribbons and sign). So we had to turn around. I am not sure where Matt turned around but I found a spot to back into off the highway and made fairly quick work of it. By the time I was set to head back the other direction Matt was coming up the road so I fell in behind him.

Another big climb and we were there, Ride Camp! What a journey!

Washtucna weather

2010-03-25T10:55:00.001-07:00

The endurance ride this coming weekend is in Washtucna, WA. Here are the weather predictions. The rain on Sunday worries me just a little. I would rather have no rain in the forecast at all.

I have my list(s) and keep adding to it/them. Hoping not to forget anything important.

March 20 2010

2010-03-20T22:54:00.001-07:00

Today was the last chance I would have to ride Sinwaan before our first LD of the year, next weekend. I decided an easy ride would suffice. We did the short loop which incorporates a lot of hills. Today I did not bother with the HR monitor. Instead I wore my GPS unit that my brother got me for Christmas, year before last. It is the first time I have tried it out. (It's about time! But last year my excuse was a broken leg and then a pregnancy)

It was fun using it now that I am figuring out how to work it. I still need to read the manual to learn all the settings but basically the big number at the top is our total ride time and then the smaller numbers at the bottom are distance and rate per mile. I am going to have to get better at math because looking down and seeing 15 min per mile (walking) or 4 min per mile (gallop) requires me to translate that into MPH and let's face it, I am not great at that!

Sinwaan did fantastic leaving the barn, he seems to be over his herd-bound attitude which is great! He does still want to run for home once we turn down "his" road but he is very manageable and I enjoyed our time together today.

We stopped in for a visit at Jenee's today and I was proud that I got Sinwaan to sidepass over to her gate opener on the second try.

Our ride today was 6.11 mi and we came in at 1 hr 15 min even according to the GPS. Can't wait to use it on the ride! ;)

March 14 2010

2010-03-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

Today I got a real treat - Ruth trailered us out to Bennington Lake for a ride.

Our earlier plan was to ride on the road. Three of the ladies - Ruth, Heather and Hope had mapped out a ride from Heather's house out to her mom's which was approx. 13 miles. They had planned to rest the horses and eat lunch there, and then ride back, making the complete ride 26 miles and a good test of if the horses were ready for our endurance ride coming up.

I knew that would be too much time to be away from the family on a weekend so I planned to trailer out and meet them after lunch and ride back into town with them.

Heather got sick - and Hope had homework - so with both of them canceling, Ruth and I decided to do our own thing.

The weather was perfect and we parked at the bottom. We went out and did about two loops around the Lake and an additional trail on the other side of the dam. Otto had a good spook which sent Ruth up on his neck but she stayed on and we had a nice ride together. I could have stayed out there all day!

It's a beautiful day

2010-03-07T00:13:00.000-08:00

It was a high of 57° today - a fantastic day to be outside!

We repeated our short 5.8 mi loop today with a new saddle. Ruth loaned me her spare Wintec endurance saddle to try out. It took me a couple of months to track down a girth that was the right length. (It's a weird 38")

Sinwaan is starting to shed out (but not enough for the weather lately)

The saddle was interesting. As soon as I mounted up I felt like I was riding a much taller horse. It has a soft seat (and I have been drooling over all the d-rings) but something about the flaps are more slippery than I am used to. I felt my stirrups riding forward frequently. On the first hill I had to stop and tighten the girth - I had not added the breast-collar or bothered with the HRM today.

My rhythm was all off and it affected Sinwaan too. We just couldn't get into our groove today. I spent most of the ride concentrating on my form and felt like I was failing miserably. At the canter there was an odd 'whooshing' sound and Sinwaan let me know he was not happy about me bouncing around. I just couldn't sit deep and ride him out the way I normally do.

We finished the ride at 1 hr 10 min and I was happy with that given the elevation changes on that loop. We also had a slow start, a lot of stop and go as we tried to figure it all out.

After the ride I spent about an hour doing some dirty work - removing manure from his enclosure. Sinwaan was so cute, as soon as he saw me coming in with the bucket and the pitchfork he came walking briskly over to see what this was all about. He then proceeded to hang around and watch over my shoulder. He is quite a personable horse. It is nice to have the opportunity to just hang out with him and learn more about his personality.

I am feeling good about the upcoming ride. Only three weeks away now.

Last day of February

2010-02-28T00:43:00.000-08:00

Had a great ride today. Started out alone and met up with Heather on Last Chance road. The weather was awesome, sunny and mid-50s. T-shirt weather, and I even got to wear some normal socks today (bye bye wool)! Probably because the weather was so perfect, everyone was out and about. Lots of traffic, and we saw numerous cyclist - Sinwaan hates those because they sneak up on us. I feel his haunches gather up underneath of him and he is ready to BOLT when they come up behind us.

Heather and Quincy set a great pace, a nice easy steady trot that kept Sinwaan's HR in the low 90s. That was just what we needed after our solo stop-and-go start.

On what must have been the end of Valley Chapel, Sinwaan had another good spook over the same type of dark mound that sent me airborne last weekend. I stuck with him this time although my calf again got pulled pretty darn good and even my hip hurt for a couple of minutes. It's better than the alternative, however, and it was soon forgotten.

On Stateline Road we saw a cow giving birth. That was probably the most noteworthy visual on today's jaunt.

Heather had mentioned adding on a couple of roads to my loop last week that would add a couple miles. I was game and off we went. From Beet we added on Springdale Road to Old Milton Hwy over to Bussell and that put us back at Mission. Sinwaan took the lead on Bussell, and sensing we were headed the "right" direction, gave me his power trot which put his HR up into the 120s.

Heather turned back and headed for home shortly onto Mission. Sinwaan did his power trot most of the way, pulling on my arms and asking for more speed. He slowed down on his own towards the end of the road and did well for me going over the Last Chance bridge, with its strange echoes, it is unlike other bridges in the area. We had a bit of a canter or two heading home on Stovall and I walked him the last 1/2 mi in.

I dismounted, let him grab a bite of grass, took off his bridle and let him scratch all over me, and then checked his HR. 49. Yeah! He got some more time to nibble on the spring greens coming up and then I turned him out to his paddock. He went and had a good roll, as always, and then settled into his 'lunch' that I had unkindly removed him from earlier.

12.9 miles in about 2.5 hrs. Yes, it was a good day for riding. I can't wait for the ride. I am confident now that we will do just fine.

Sunday ride

2010-02-21T16:38:00.000-08:00

Today we went 11.2 miles. Our time was 2 hr 15 min.

It was a great day to be riding - the sun was shining and the temperature fantastic (46°). Not t-shirt weather, but not so cold that you are uncomfortable.

I think the HR monitor was fairly accurate today. Sinwaan was in the low 100s (110) at the trot (with fairly good recoveries when we slowed to a walk), until we headed back towards home (Beet Rd). He had a spook at some dirt (of all things!) and I went flying off (I believe that is the first time I have come off him). I was glad to have landed on soft ground, but it felt like I pulled both calves pretty good. I stood and stretched them out a bit before remounting. After that he was really moving out and his HR went up to the 120s. Finally, working.

All in all we had a great ride. I feel like I need to step it up to have him ready and continue to do this loop, or one similar to it in distance, every weekend between now and the ride (5 weeks away). He seemed a little tired when we got back home today. In the past when we were done he still was ready to do more. I was able to walk him in on a loose lead the final mile or so to cool him out a bit. He also seemed a little fat today so his caretaker and I had a conversation about cutting back slightly on his night time feeding. It would help if he wasn't carrying any extra weight.

2010-02-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

A great 7.8 mi solo ride in 1 hr 35 min. The weather here today is 55°F

Solo ride on the road

2010-02-06T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today was a good solo ride for Sinwaan and I. We rode out from the barn and headed east this time up Stovall. The first mile Sinwaan gave me a little snort, prance and head tossing - but overall I have seen worse, so I think we made a little progress today.

Going past Jenee's is always interesting, Sinwaan finds plenty of things to look at that he thinks are going to jump up and get him - the creek, and agility equipment in particular, so we walk past.

Then it was back to trotting, around the bend and then thankfully we had slowed to a walk again because I saw a plastic bag in the bush...thought Sinwaan must have seen it, but no! At the last minute he notices, jumps and whirls around. I lost a stirrup on that little antic. Nerves slightly rattled we continued on. More trotting and then he even wanted to canter, so onward we went for a short stint to the stop sign.

Decisions, which way to go today? Heading south would have put me on our usual loop, only going in the opposite direction. I decided to turn left, and an immediate challenge was the bridge. Sinwaan balked away from it twice so I dismounted and led him over. I did not want traffic to come upon us at 40-50 mph when he is acting senseless.

Mounting up once over we headed on our way, down to Mission road and here we headed west. I heard a chain-saw in the distance and noticed a man trimming his tree. He was not running it as we went by, thankfully. Back into a trot, and Sinwaan was really extending himself today, it felt like he was moving out much better than usual with a nice long stride. Then I glanced down and saw a piece of carpet in the grass on the shoulder. Sinwaan saw it too. Another leap sideways and again I lost a stirrup. That will get your heart rate going! We walked then, for a short section, as there was a horse in a pasture across the street trying very hard to get our attention.

More trotting.

Down at the bend we were approached by three noisy dogs. Hmm. I am never sure what to do. Sinwaan stopped to check them out and the two larger ones stopped coming towards us although they kept barking. I talked to Sinwaan a little and we walked onward to the intersection.

Turning right now onto Majonnier we had about 1/4 mile until we came to another bridge. This one we crossed without a problem. Just after that we had a motorcycle come at us, but Sinwaan wasn't bothered. This road turned into Frog Hollow and just before the historical cemetery we had a large blue heron rise up on our left. It was really neat. I love encountering wildlife on my rides.

Half way down Frog Hollow to our turn, I heard something coming up behind us, so I pulled Sinwaan over to the next driveway so he could turn around and have a look. It was two men, one on a 4-wheeler and one on a 3-wheeler, driving side by side (taking up more than one lane) and each of them with a beer in hand. This must be a country road. They were not going very fast so I gave them a couple minutes to get ahead of us since we were going the same direction.

We also passed an orchard, and heard lots of voices from within and saw a lot of cars but did not see any of the people.

Heading back down Last Chance and then back onto Stovall completed the lollipop portion of our ride. Sinwaan was doing great, he was still moving out with a big trot and we even interspersed some cantering. No acting up, we just had a really nice ride at our own pace. All told we covered 7.8 miles in about an hour and a half.

Next weekend I am planning to put the saddle bags back on and use the HR monitor so I can get a better idea of where we're at, and how much I need to step it up to have him ready for the Home On The Range ride, our first of the season, March 27th.

Ride daze

2010-01-30T14:53:00.000-08:00

Today DeeDee picked me up at 8 am and we went out to Madam Dorian for a ride. Linda met us there. We had a very nice ride in the dunes and even saw an Eagle up in a tree! There was less gunfire today, although it is the last weekend of duck-hunting season.

At one hill DeeDee pulled over so I could go up it first. She wanted to walk up and I figured I would let Sinwaan trot up it. Well he really wanted to bolt on up and I let him until about 1/2 way it felt like he was bucking, so I verbally scolded him and slowed him to a trot and we made it the rest of the way up without incidence. As Linda came up I said "Rodeo!" and she replied 'No, I think he was slipping, I don't think he was being bad intentionally.' That section is more dirt than sand and it has been wet lately. She commented that she could see his skid marks as she came up behind us.

We did some trotting and some cantering, which is really fun, I hadn't realized how much I had missed that. I don't canter on the road rides and haven't lately with Ruth either since her horse is a youngster. Sinwaan was full of it, he was second in line and wanted to GO. Once in front however he was not very consistent in his gait. Trot, spook, stop to poop, trot, canter, spook. Oh brother. So we didn't lead much. He does best in the middle, where he doesn't have to worry about being on the look-out.

Almost to the end (going out) we encountered a man setting up fake people and contraptions for training hunting dogs. We rode on out to our end point, took a break to feed the horse treats and give them a breather and then headed back the other way. We stopped to talk to the man and ask more about his equipment. The contraption was remote-controlled dummy launcher to throw out a 'dead duck' in the training process. We took the horses over to have a look and it wasn't really a duck it was just a dummy. Sinwaan walked right up to the fake person, it didn't phase him at all.

Had a nice ride back and all told we were in the saddle about 2.5 hours today. Weather was a little gray and overcast but clear on our level, saw the sun trying to peek through in spots. Rain is predicted the rest of the weekend so I was very thankful to get in a ride now.

* * * *

Forgot to blog about last weekend. Sunday five of us went out to Madame Dorian - Ruth, Heather, Hope, Cheryl and myself. We also had a nice ride, with Otto leading a lot of the way. A couple of the gals had never ridden out there and were glad to discover it. It was a gorgeous day for a ride. We did not make it all the way out to the end because we ran out of time, Ruth had to be back so we turned around early. Sinwaan did some leading on the way back to the trailer and we did some trotting and then he broke into a canter for a short spell and I was just pulling him back down to a trot when I heard someone yell and I turned around and Ruth was on the ground. Unseated, but landed on her feet. Naughty Otto. Needless to say he is now at the trainers.

This old horse

2010-01-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

Today I logged into the AHA site to record our past rides for the Frequent Rider Program. I saw Sinwaan's birthdate - March 10 1997 so I pulled up the calculator (that's right, I am not that great with math in my head). Apparently my horse will be 13 this year, not 12!! I guess I lost a year somehow, all this time I thought he was still 11. Oh well.

Yay! Two days of riding!!

2010-01-23T19:35:00.000-08:00

How have I not blogged yet about last weekend? It could be that I was too busy riding! :)

Saturday DeeDee picked me up from the house at 10 am and we went out to get Sinwaan. We then trailered out to Madame Dorian at the Wallula junction. This is a fantastic place to ride in the winter because the footing is usually always great (sand) and the trail takes you out about 5 miles from the parking lot. DeeDee parked in a different spot, so I would guess we did about 7-8 miles. We really had a great ride, most of it I even got to shed my coat and was in just a t-shirt - in January!! It was phenomenal.

Sinwaan did great. He had one little spook at a white bush and was slightly edgy when we got close to the hunters and the gun shots were going off at the ducks but I have no complaints. He worked hard for me. We did a variety of walking, trotting and even some cantering. At the end (half-way) we stopped to let the horses take a rest before turning back around. DeeDee busted out the goodies. She fed the horses all kinds of treats, including Good & Plenty. I never would have thought to give a horse that, but Sinwaan loved them. So did the dog!

DeeDee's dog, Shiloh was a great little tour guide. She ran ahead of the horses and knew all the trails. DeeDee could tell her "right" or "uphill" and she knew just which way to go. The only drawback was that she ran herself into some sticker bushes and we had to stop so DeeDee could pull them out.

Coming back Sinwaan was feeling lively, leading at the trot, and there was a tumbleweed in the trail. He JUMPED over it. I was not expecting that! Kind of fun! A short time later he jumped another one. Silly horse.

I had a wonderful time. The horses seemed to get along great. I am thankful to DeeDee for the transportation and good company! Weather report said 60% chance of rain, but we never saw it on the trail.

* * * *

Sunday I met Leila and we went out to Sinwaan's pad for take-off. When we got to the barn the sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day, Very promising! I was expecting Sinwaan's usual shenanigans riding out from his home, but saw none. Must be tired from the ride yesterday! Leila and I got out about 2 miles and it got overcast. The sky started spitting a little. It wasn't horrible so we kept going. At about the 1/2 way point it started raining. Too late to turn back now. We did a fair amount of trotting. As we walked by Jenee's place she came out to wave hello. I hollered "Isn't this wonderful? Don't you wish you were riding with us?" Jenee' shook her head Nooooo way! :) We were pretty well soaked by the time we got back to the barn, but I didn't mind. It was a good ride, very refreshing. Hee hee. Another 5.8 miles!

Goals, and weather

2010-01-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

I recently had 10 days off work for Christmas vacation. So I set a goal of riding four times during this extended break.

I did my first solo ride on Monday, Dec. 28th. This means that I rode Sinwaan from his barn, out on the shoulder of the road, around a large country block of 5.8 miles. He did well. Better than I expected. Oh, he had his moments, but overall I can't complain.

Since I was also doing the feeding and general care of the animals during break, I learned a little something about Sinwaan. His issue is not that he is barn-sour. No, he is herd-bound. Armed with this new knowledge, it is easier to deal with his antics when riding out from the barn. It is so basic and simple I don't know why I didn't figure it out before. Leaving 'his herd' he has anxiety (even when riding with other horses), and once we make the turn back towards home he tries to pull my arms out of their sockets, wanting to go faster faster back to his fellow equines. So we have some new things to work on.

I planned to ride on Wednesday with a friend at Madam Dorian, however Tuesday night the snow started falling and made it too dangerous to trailer out on Wednesday, so we cancelled. I could have done another solo ride that day but with all the stress I was dealing with I decided I better not. (I had gotten dressed for riding and then had a small breakdown and stayed home).

I attempted to ride on Friday, even had the saddle on and was cinching up (in the rain) when suddenly big gusts of wind started blowing hard and whipping all about, and a big black cloud covered the sky and I decided, nope, not today. I am crazy enough to ride in cold temps, or light rain, but not that crazy. (I am a mother, after all) I feel fortunate that it all happened as I was tacking up, and not after I was a mile into a ride out on the road.

Sunday, Jan 3rd, I finally got in another ride, my second of vacation. Not nearly enough, but I'll take what I can get. Another solo ride, this one another success, a little bit of acting up from Sinwaan but overall nothing to worry over. I would never put a beginner on him, but it's nothing I have not been able to handle. He seems to be doing better with each time out, esp. now that I am understanding his issue.

Hopefully my friends will once again be able to join me this coming weekend and perhaps we can make the ride a little bit longer than the usual 5.8 mi.

Dreary -yet challenging- ride

2009-12-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

Today Heather rode down to Sinwaan's to meet me for a ride. I do not feel comfortable riding on the road alone, so I was very glad for the company! It also meant that Heather put in an extra 10 miles (5 miles each way) of riding to accompany me. WOW! I joked that her horse would be in twice as good of shape and she commented that since he was older, he would need the added fitness for the upcoming ride season. Heather rides a Mustang that she acquired as a youngster and he is 19. They have done dressage in the past, and last season Ruth got Heather hooked on limited distance rides.

Sinwaan was a muddy mess when I got to the barn. In all honesty, I thought I may be riding in the rain today. It had been drizzling all morning and it was foggy and gray. I had been stalking the weather report all week and the prediction was 10% chance of rain Saturday, 50% chance of rain Sunday. Well I was not risking Sunday's weather. I told Heather and Cheryl that I was riding Saturday, even if I did get rained on a little bit. A little would be better than a lot. I only have the opportunity to ride once a week and I can't afford to throw it out because of a little rain. Heather and Cheryl were both in, until Cheryl discovered a flat tire on her trailer.

I took my time grooming because on the drive over I had not passed Heather on the road like I thought I would have. So I was trying to figure out if she was running a little behind, took a different route, or what. I didn't want to ride alone on the road, and wasn't jumping up and down about riding by myself in the field. I had gotten most of the mud curried off of Sinwaan's back and toweled him off a bit when he suddenly perked up. He had caught site of Quincy coming down the road. I hurried then to tack up, but still took care to be sure nothing was twisted or ill-fitting.

Off we went.

Now I don't know what has gotten into Sinwaan. Usually, riding in a group of horses he is content to take up the tail end and follow at whatever speed the leader sets. He falls into line and you could put a beginner on him. Today, and last weekend, riding out from his barn, he has been full of nonsense. Jigging and tossing his head and almost crow-hopping and threatening to rear. I can feel him under me, just a bundle of nerves and energy all tangled up and he wants to explode but can't decide which direction. I try to channel it and keep him moving forward, as this is the only thing that seems to help but lately this means he is in the lead, which doesn't help matters because the lead horse is also the lookout horse. So not only is he bouncing around like an idiot, he is also half-spooking at puddles and mailboxes and stumps and all kinds of scary things that he normally (following) would not even see.

I have, at this point, come to the conclusion that this is how he acts riding away from HIS BARN. We'll see if my theory proves correct the next time I trailer him out, if he is the same challenge. He has been challenging. I had been thinking what an easy horse he had become and how it was almost too easy, how fun a challenge would be. Well, now I have my challenge.

The jig is not so awful I can't sit it and pretend I am riding a fancy show horse in a park class. What gets to me is the antics out on the road. The last thing I want is to come off a horse and land on asphalt!

Heather and Quincy are as steady as they come, so I was glad to have them along, and Heather offered to take the lead for awhile to help settle Sinwaan down. Our first encounter was a donkey in a field who started braying and trotting over as soon as he saw us. Then the Appaloosa came galloping over. They were quite a bit below us and Sinwaan just did not know if he could handle all that noise and excitement. But I talked and eased him through it and we continued on up the hill. Quincy was a bit slow, after all, he had already done 5 miles, so Sinwaan quickly took the lead. After about a mile he settled down into more of a working mindset. He doesn't do a very good job at maintaining a steady gait however, something we need to work on.

We had a nice ride, all-told, with the horses playing leap-frog on occasion. We chatted the whole way and did not get rained on at all! Sinwaan got the lead back when he sensed we were heading for home and went into a power trot. Until he saw cows. Oh my stars, what are those??!? What a moron, he shared a pasture with cows for a couple of years at least before he came to me. What is wrong with this horse? He stops and stares and then wants to leap off the road into the field if they dare look at him. More power trotting until we get to Jenee's place. What is THAT? It's just a dog agility course. Ok, but what is THAT? Just a stump. Once we got past more scary stuff we went back into the power trot. He can really move out when he wants to.

I feel like I am really dogging on him in this post. I don't really mean to. I am so thankful to have him, and I am glad to see he is acting more fit every time I ride. He was just as strong at the end of our ride today as he was at the start (in fact I was having to hold him back quite a bit the last 2 miles), I wish I could have done the loop twice! Just didn't really have the daylight for that, with Heather needing to ride on back home at the end.

He definitely does need more miles and more consistency to get him back into the steady easy horse to ride that I remember. He is too old to be acting this green. It makes me second-guess everything. Is the tack not fitting right? (I always use the same tack every time) Is something hurting him? Is he running too hot from the tiny bit of alfalfa and grain he gets every day? Is he just testing me to see what he can get away with? Is this simply a new trick based off his barn-sour attitude I have always seen? Time will tell. I think once we get out away from HOME he enjoys himself, so that tells me I can probably rule out any pain or tack problems.

Ruth loaned me a Wintec endurance saddle that I am dying to try out but I don't have a girth that will work with it. I am hoping to find one soon. I am also planning on riding 4 times over my Christmas break. I hope it doesn't rain. :)

Ride in the snow

2009-12-12T13:50:00.000-08:00

Today's high of 21°F felt warm compared to the frigid temperatures we had been experiencing, so when I realized riding was an option today I got downright giddy. Ruth picked me up and we headed to Heather's to pick up the trailer. We had planned on picking up Sinwaan and bringing him back to Heathers so we could all ride together from the start. Hope opted out so we trailered Ruth and Heather's horses out to Sinwaan. New starting point!

There were flurries in the air as we tacked up. I had to readjust my stirrup length since my aunt rode last in my saddle. Mounting up, my seat was downright cold! We rode on down the drive and Sinwaan was acting up a little. The way he usually acts when he is being ridden alone. Barn sour? Tossing his head, prancing, pulling at the reins. Itching to go! Although my riding partners saw a different side of him today, I think it did help to have them along, yet I found myself in the lead part of the time, which is unusual for him. We walked a bit to warm them up and then did much of the rest of the ride at the trot along the edge of the road. At one point I could hardly see, the snow coming down was hitting me in the eyes. The scenery surrounding us was beautiful and I would not have traded that ride for a warm spot on the couch! My toes froze, my thighs and knees felt the chill of the air as we picked up speed and yet I felt overwhelmed by happiness. Yes, it's snowing. Yes, it's cold and YES I AM RIDING!

Ruth commented to me "You know everyone who sees us thinks we're crazy."

There was not much traffic to deal with, thanks to the weather I imagine. One person honked and spooked the horses a little. Otto had a misstep and slid a bit anther time. Yet all-in-all it was a wonderful winter ride. All I needed to complete the moment was a jingle bell. :) I checked the milage when I got home and we traveled 5.8 miles today on horseback. Not bad, maybe next weekend we can go farther.

Model project, #4

2009-11-26T20:33:00.001-08:00

The project horse is coming along. I have started painting and have worked 2 or 3 days on him with pattern and shading. Tedious work and I am too much of a novice. I don't plan to post any more photos until he is done and in the mail because I don't want to risk my partner stumbling across this blog and ruining the surprise :)

Riding time

2009-11-26T20:31:00.001-08:00

Getting back on track here with reporting my ride times... lol

Last weekend Ruth and I were able to go out and have a very nice extended ride at Bennington Lake. We did a lot more trotting and even a couple short cantering stints. The boys were feeling really good. We rode a lot of the different trails out there and I would guess that we could have covered 7-8 miles.... maybe?

Now my aunt Kim is in town, she is the one who sent Sinwaan to me, so we are planning a ride with her for this weekend. Just waiting now to see how the weather is the next two days.

Model project, #4

2009-11-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

The little horse is coming along. It has been a real trial and error learning period for me. After that last primer job and sanding I decided to paint him white because Matt had brought home some spray gloss. After that I decided I still wasn't happy with some of the rough areas on the neck where I had done work with the epoxy. Some holes and rough areas. ARGH! Matt showed me how to use putty to fill in the holes and then I had to sand him again.

Here we are into mid-November and I still haven't started painting! I don't want to do a poor job on this model, but I also don't want to drag it out, I need the motivation to keep working on him weekly.

After all that Matt thought he looked like he had gone through a massacre.

As of tonight, he is primer'd gray again. I decided I didn't like the white gloss, I am going to have to pick up some white matte as my base coat and then maybe I can finally get started painting in the next couple of days!?

Model project, #3

2009-11-08T22:14:00.001-08:00

Time for primer! Ah that's much better. However now I could painfully see everywhere that this poor little horse needed to be sanded. I didn't do a great job adding the epoxy, so now I had to sand the edges to get it to blend in better.

Unfortunately I thought he looked too muleish with his new ears and profile, so I broke off the tip of one ear. Now I have to rebuild that. Oh well, I still have to add more epoxy to his rear to fill that hole.

Now I am back to a multi-layered horse again. But he's so much smoother!

*Update, in the process of trying to get his tail down to a more realistic 'tailbone' size, I lopped it off. So I built him a new one out of wire and added epoxy to it.

Model project, #2

2009-11-08T22:07:00.001-08:00

Well as you can see in the last photos on post #1 with this model, the epoxy on the neck was a little rough. I posted some pics on a model horse messageboard asking for tips. I got some! The cocked hind leg needed to be further under the body. So I reheated and moved it under a tad more.

After making some more subtle changes and doing some sanding it got to the point where it was very hard for me to tell what on earth was going on with all those layers.

Riding is a GO

2009-11-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

I have just been doing a horrible job at keeping up with this blog lately. The GOOD news is that YES I have been getting out for a ride once a week. It's not much, but it's something. My friend Ruth has been kind enough to trailer us out with her to Bennington Lake most weekends.

Yesterday was my first time riding Sinwaan around the property where he now resides. It was incredibly windy. He acted up a bit. Typical barn-sourness. We worked and worked and worked. Walking and trotting back and forth and all around. He started sweating on his shoulders and behind his ears. Since it was so windy I thought I had better put a cooler on him and walk him around until he was dry so he wouldn't cramp up or catch a chill. I took him to the other paddock and walked him around and then let him graze for about half an hour. He loved that.

Model project, #1

2009-10-26T00:10:00.000-07:00

This doesn't really belong in Sinwaan's blog but I wasn't sure where else to put it. I am working on a model horse currently for a "Secret Santa" partner. It sounded like fun, so I signed up, and now here I am trying to do a portrait model. Yikes! I looked online for a week trying to find the right "body" horse to build on. I did not have any luck. I remembered that my mom had a model that might work so I stopped by tonight and bought it from her. This model was included in a "body box" of multiple models that needed to be repainted. Someone had even gone an extra step and added a new mane and 'feathers' to this one.

Well the mane was on the wrong side of the neck for my portrait model, so it had to come off. It's been awhile since I ran a dremel. Have to admit it was kind of fun.

The feathers had to come off too because they were positioned way too high on the rear legs. This model I am portraying does have some light feathers so I will have to add them back on with epoxy once I get it cleaned up. I also cut the tail away from the body while I was at it. I drilled out the ears and nostrils and even the mouth to some degree.

Then I heated the horse up with a heat gun so I could reposition parts of him. I wanted to bring the head & neck down a little to a more relaxed position. I also bent his back leg so it looked like he had that rear foot cocked and resting.

As you can see, the heat gun was not kind to him, it really changed his neck and now he does not look very realistic! I also moved his ears just a bit so they look a little more floppy, like a lazy gelding expression.

I added epoxy now and sculpted his neck. I was happy with it at the time, but looking at this photo and how the light/shadows are catching it, looks like I need to do some more work on the muscles to make it more realistic. I built up his head, making it more roman-nosed. I added feathers to all four feet and fixed the ear-tip that was missing. I had a wretched time with the tail and the mane, but I think the mane will be ok. The tail kept falling (gravity) as I had the model on it's side working on adding detail to the mane. By the time I got to it, the epoxy was hardening and would not stick together very well. So I am going to have to start over on that next time!

All in all it was a satisfying evening's work! I have a very limited amount of time to get this model done. Wish me luck!

Trail course and new digs

2009-10-25T00:03:00.000-07:00

Sinwaan and I participated in the second Detour Ranch fun day hosted by the Blue Mountain Rider's ladies club. Even more work went into the trail course this year, it was really amazing!

After that Sinwaan was delivered to his new home and settled right in with no problems.

Will add more details later. :)

Catching up

2009-09-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't been keeping up very well on here. I last rode on the 12th. Levi came out to the barn and rode Ginger the pony on the 13th and Sinwaan had a visit from the farrier on the 15th (long overdue). I had hoped and wished and dreamed of trailering out for a ride on the 19th but after Boston Terrier Meet-Up the weather was a bit windy and damp, and the trailer I would have borrowed did not make it back to town until 6 pm. (It is getting dark now about 7 pm)

The ride on the 12th was....interesting. We rode around again in the fields surrounding the barn. More so in the "scary" field near the snapping crackling power lines. We did a bit of side-passing. Sinwaan was trying to walk around sideways anyway so I thought it best to direct the energy and make him work a little on minding. He had a good spook when the horses in the pasture next to us took off running. Overall he was not very well behaved, as is typical lately. I can't wait to ride on a trail!

One of the other boarders told me about some lessons that are happening out there, I may try to join one if possible. They are on Sundays when Matt is busy filming so it may not work out, but it's something I would like to try and schedule in at some point this winter. I have never had a lesson on Sinwaan and feel it would benefit both of us (and it's something to do on one of those dreary winter days)

I am planning a ride with Ruth at the lake next weekend. She has a new (young) horse so we're hoping they get along so we can boogie. Even if it's a slow ride, at least it will be a change of scenery!! :)

Barn time

2009-08-23T18:59:00.001-07:00

I think I forgot to blog the past couple times I have been out to the barn. Last weekend my brother was in town and I did not make it out. (But I did the weekend before) This affected my overall attitude for the day more than I realized it would have. Wow. So I made sure to get out there today as soon as the kids went down for their nap.

Had a chat with Cindy when I first got there, then pulled Sinwaan out and started grooming. He wasn't too bad but his feet were fairly packed. His frog really shed as I was picking out his feet. Saw a little black and white in one hoof (the one with the shed frog) but it didn't smell too bad and the other three hooves looked normal. So I tacked up and out we went. He stood nicely for me to mount up and walked fine to the field. Then the fun began, as it always does now.

I sometimes feel like I am on an Lipizzaner stallion, trotting in place although without all the hair and properly arched neck. Nay, Sinwaan has his head up in the air, dancing around like a moron, not watching where he's putting his feet. He stops, tries to eat and I don't allow it since he isn't behaving and we aren't on a trail ride training for endurance anyway! He could take a lesson or two from Ernie's horse Spot, who can eat on the fly without breaking stride. He walks sideways without me asking for a sidepass. Needless to say it is a test of my own horsemanship - will he buck for real today and will I stay on?

I think he is just full of beans. We used to go out on a straight road and after a short warm-up walk he could trot until he tired. Now I make him walk until he behaves and sometimes that takes a while. I think it is driving him a little nuts. He wants to GO for once in his life and I am telling him NO. At least for now. I too ache for the open road, a destination, instead of circles in a field.

He spooked pretty good at...what? I didn't see anything...not really like him. Maybe the mailbox? Or the sound of a water sprayer hitting a pole? He acted like the shadows of the leafy trees were going to get him. Who is this horse? I steadied him with my voice but twice had to give a quick pop for really acting up. Once we moved up to trotting he did better, finally a place to channel his enthusiasm. But he stumbled twice and then I thought he was a little off. Felt like the same hoof that shed the frog. Not knowing enough about the natural hoof I decided to call it safe and call it a day, not wanting to add to injury if that was indeed the case. By then he was doing reasonably well - it is important to me to end on a good note. All he really wants is to be done so he can EAT anyway.

He is due for a trim again, starting to chip a little. I have not felt that I am out enough to have him shod, although it would be nice to not have to worry about taking to the gravel roads and getting more miles for my time out there. I used his boots once this year, but they were fairly time consuming to get OFF, and I don't always have much extra time right now.

Ah well...at least I am back in the saddle, trying though it may be.

A long time coming

2009-07-26T16:55:00.001-07:00

Went out to the barn today. Thought about going yesterday while we had some cloud cover on these hot summer days but just didn't make it. So this morning I was feeling determined. One problem: Ellie. I waited for her to take a nap. It didn't happen until about noon! So there goes any hope of riding in cooler weather. Full sun and 89 degrees. Felt a little hotter than that!

Sinwaan heard me open the barn door and came trotting over. Slightly unusual. I think it's because Cindy has been feeding him treats in my absence so he was expecting a goodie. Too bad, he just got me. Because I rode the motorcycle out and didn't want to carry a backpack in this heat I didn't take any carrots. Poor horse.

He wasn't too dirty so grooming went quickly. I gave his bridle path a trim with scissors...horrors!

Tacked up and took a bucket out with me to use as a step-up. Sinwaan stood still as a stump. Hmmm. Well so far, so good. Confidence.

We headed down the gravel driveway and I glanced over and noticed that the surrounding fields didn't seem to be planted with anything in particular and 3/4 of them were mown. So I turned Sinwaan around and headed onto kinder footing (he's still barefoot). Almost instantly Sinwaan started to jig. He had his head up and was all out of sorts, acting like he wanted to just tear around. Yeah, this was the horse I expected last time I rode. Almost a year off is not good for anyone or anything. Although to his credit, riding in groups he is a perfect gentleman. By himself you had better be an intermediate rider. I knew this time I had my work cut out for me.

So I did my best to keep him to a walk. We turned circles. We halted. We backed up. We turned more circles. We walked laps around that field, changing direction frequently. At first I was sure this was the day I would fall off. I could envision being drug around by the stirrup as he bolted for the nearest hay pile. Withering confidence!!

Finally he settled into more of the horse I remembered from regularly being ridden. So we trotted, up and down and all around. Once when I brought him back down to a walk (headed for home) he gave a little faux buck. Bad horse! At least he is too lazy to follow through with most of his misbehaving. And I was still on. Confidence coming back...

After we finally had a solid good 10 minute jaunt I turned him back in to the barn. He's going to take some more work but at this point I don't think it's anything we can't work through. I am just going to have to get out there to ride more often. It's hard to get motivated when my only ride for the year was cancelled...

It was hot out so he got a bath and then I worked on detangling his mane. I didn't want to turn him out damp again (last tine he rolled right away) so I led him out and let him graze while he dried.

All's well that ends well, and we ended on a good note.

First ride

2009-06-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I rode, probably last September sometime, before Sinwaan broke my leg in the AHA halter class. This weekend Ruth and Heather agreed to come out to the barn where I board Sinwaan so we could all ride together. I was really glad to have their company because one thing I have learned is that Sinwaan is a much better-behaved horse with company. He prefers to follow, and when he has someone to follow that works out well.

I got there a little earlier so I put Sinwaan in the round pen and worked on walking and stopping. He did great so I brought him in and started grooming him. Just then I heard the trailer pull in so the girls had great timing! We all got tacked up and were ready to go at the same time. Sinwaan's girth was only 1 hole bigger also. I wasn't sure how much weight he might have gained with all this time off but apparently it wasn't much. And it was closer to only being 1/2 hole bigger but I didn't want to make it too tight. He practically threw his head into the bridle, I think he's missed our riding time together.

I also put his red front boots on him since he is currently unshod. I was glad he had been trimmed recently, they went right on without too much fuss.

I was a little worried about getting back in the saddle, but I used an overturned bucket as a mounting block and popped right up. Yeah! Man it felt good to be aboard again.

We headed down Elliot and we walked until we got to the turn, then we did some trotting to the railroad crossing. We walked more to the dirt road and then did more trotting. It was getting warm but while trotting we had a nice breeze. It was a fantastic ride.

I could tell Sinwaan was out of shape because when I would ask for him to transition to a canter from the trot he would stumble on his hind end. He also was slowing down on the way home, instead of speeding up like he usually does.

The hardest part for me of the whole day was getting that last boot off. The first boot was not as tight and popped off pretty easily. The second boot, man, I had to really work at it and I was glad that Sinwaan was cooperative!

It was fairly hot by then so I hosed Sinwaan down before turning him back out in his paddock. The first thing he did was go and find a good spot to roll. What a pig! He looked comfortable and I was thrilled to have finally taken him out for a ride again.

Easing back into barn time

2009-06-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a very long time but I finally found myself at the barn again. Chad was scheduled to meet me at 1 pm for a farrier appt. I got out there a little early so I turned Sinwaan out in the paddock surrounding the round pen so he could nibble on some greenery. In the meantime I scrubbed out his water tank and started refilling it. In no time at all I heard a truck coming up the driveway so I went out and caught Sinwaan and brought him in. I didn't notice the time then, but when Chad was done with the trim it was only 1:07 so he must have been pretty early. While Sinwaan was getting his feet trimmed, I worked on detangling his mane again. It sure gets knotted up! I gave him a good grooming, trimmed his bridlepath as best I could with scissors (it looks terrible but works) and then we went out to the round pen for a little refresher. Well Sinwaan started out at the trot like he always does but wasn't as frantic about it as I remember him being when I first started working him when he arrived on western soil. It didn't take too long and I had him walking both directions and stopping on command. Good enough! I took him out of the round pen and held his lead so he could hand-graze on some grass...he earned it today. I am looking forward to the day when I can climb back aboard. Seems our one endurance ride for this season might be cancelled, so there goes my motivation to really get him in shape quickly, but we can still enjoy some rides with Ruth once I am ready.

Leisurely Sunday

2009-04-05T00:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday the weather was beautiful. I wish I could have been out riding. A grooming shall have to do... the family accompanied me out to the barn and while Levi chased cats, I gave Sinwaan his spring cleaning. Now that spring has sprung, he is shedding out, I could have made a sweater with what came off of him from just a quick brushing. He was looking good today, no more signs of gas or whatever that problem was a couple days ago. His mane was all in knots again but came out easier this time. His feet looked good but he will be needing a trim shortly. I trimmed his bridle-path as his mohawk was getting quite unruly. Having only scissors it doesn't look fantastic but it will have to do for now.

My mom had given me two boxes of apples so we took one out to the barn for everyone to enjoy. Sinwaan does love apples. It was nice to spend some time with him again, though limited.

False alarm?

2009-04-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of a scare last night. I went out and tossed Sinwaan some hay and he was in his usual spot, behind his shelter socializing with the stud colts. He came around and took a bite, so I went to the opposite run and looked for Norman. In the time it took me to do that I noticed that Sinwaan was acting strange. He was turning around in circles and his tail was lifted slightly. He was obviously agitated and not eating (not like him).

I went and fed the stud colts and Garreth, and came back to check on him again. He was down on his knees with his rear up in the air. He was acting like he wanted to lay down but couldn't. So I went into the tack room and called the vet. My first concern was colic and the sooner we could get him help the better his chances would be. Well it was after hours and there was another number to try. That was an answering service but I had to leave a message. I do not have a cell phone and do not answer the owner's phone at the barn so I left a message that I would try back again in 10 minutes. I went to check on Sinwaan again and he was backed into a corner next to his water tank and the railing, standing still. Hmmm.

I knew I still had chores to do so I went out and fed the other six horses on the other side of the property. I was looking around for Jen because I had seen her going out on a ride as I pulled in. She works at the vet clinic that I frequent and perhaps would have some advice, or at least a stethoscope so I could listen for gut sounds and heart rate. Checking on Sinwaan again he was quiet now but still not eating. So I got back in the truck and told Matt to drive around and look for Jen (it was dark out by now). Just as we made the turn around the driveway I saw her coming in. She came over with me to take a look at Sinwaan and what do you know, he is acting normal as ever, eating away on his hay pile. Jen said she would be out there another 20 min and would check on him again before she left.

I went home and then at midnight before bed, we drove back out to check on him. He was standing in his shelter, sleeping. I tossed him a little more hay and he dove into it with his usual gusto. I am not sure what to make of this mystery.

This morning when I went out to feed he was his usual hungry self and acting as normal as could be. I am relieved that he did not need treatment last night but wish I could have had some answers to what was going on with him. :-/ ...puzzled....

Out at the barn

2009-03-26T22:49:00.001-07:00

Monday I was home sick from work and starting to have cabin fever. It was a nice enough day so I decided to run a couple errands with Levi to get us both out of the house and into the sunshine. On our list of things to-do was to stop by and visit Sinwaan and feed him some carrots.

It was a busy evening at the barn. Jennifer had just left on Phoebe, I could see her riding out across the barren field. One of Garreth's owners was there with him in cross-ties, with a boom box blaring sound effects. Barking dogs, a crowd, fireworks, trying to desensitize him (I guess) as he is still a young horse.

We went out to Sinwaan's paddock and he had drug his salt block base over into the mud so I went over and put that back on his mat under the shelter and then dug his salt block out of the manure. Not sure if he will have any interest in it now but I couldn't very well leave it there.

Levi watched with great interest as I showed him how to feed a horse - it's tricky to feed a round treat on a flat palm!! I offered to let him feed a carrot a couple times but he was shy, or nervous, about those big teeth. He did want to pet Sinwaan and got in a couple of pats on his face and neck. Not sure if he'll be a natural little cowboy or not. "Sinwaan eat carrots mama!"