PNER Convention

This weekend was the PNER convention in Portland, OR. Sinwaan was fortunate enough to be awarded the Rookie Senior Horse of the Year for completing three consecutive rides. I imagine in past years the competition for this award has been tougher but I was really thrilled by both the acknowledgement and the actual award.

Carlene Bensen is the sponsor for this award and personally called me before convention to ask me about color preferences (red of course) and if I would be there to receive it. At the time I was not planning on going but since she called me and I had an award, I got the plan in motion to go.

Matt and Levi and even mother joined me in driving over Friday after work. We always look forward to a chance to spend time with brother Wes and wife Joanie.

Saturday morning I attended the seminar about the Top Ten Mistakes Endurance Riders Make and I found it to be very informative. Afterwards I ran into Candy Schrader and had a very nice visit with her and talked a little with Ernie also as he came and went from the table.


Saturday night Matt and Levi and mother and I attended the awards banquet and I went up to receive the award from Carlene. They displayed a large photo of me on Sinwaan on the projector screen. I thought it was neat how they did this for most people, and during dinner there was also a slideshow of ride photos.

At our table were three ladies I did not know and had never heard their names before, and Laura Applegate and friend Robert. It was nice to meet Laura after so many months of e-mail correspondence.

It would have been fun to stick around and dance and listen to the DJ afterwards but Levi was not very agreeable to sitting still through the awards so Matt had to take him out to the lobby and chase him around for a couple of hours.

Thank you to PNER, Carlene, and my family and friends for their support in attaining this award.

Visit from the farrier

Had the farrier out today to pull shoes. Should have had it done back closer to Thanksgiving but with the crutches it got postponed. Sinwaan was quite overgrown and I am sure he was glad to have them off. Chad said he wasn't going to trim off as much as usual because the ground was so hard (14 degrees with crunchy snow) and didn't want him to be sore.

After he left I spent some time trying to get a comb through his mane again and put his blanket back on. His tail was all frosty. I also fed him a little grain for a treat and hauled some water as his trough was looking low. He seems to be in good spirits.

Barn chores

For the past week I have had the luxury of seeing Sinwaan every day, twice a day. The prospect of this was very exciting to me. I should have known better. Barns are WORK :) - not to mention even more so in the winter. I am there from about 6:30-8 am and again about 7 pm for feeding. I also work full time so this means I have barely been home. And because there is so much to do out there I hardly see Sinwaan at all. Sure, one day I was able to pick the ice balls out of his feet and put on his blanket. I am sure he appreciated that. But not much more in the way of attention, grooming, etc.

Now that I am about ready to try riding again, however, it is much too cold - and the snow! 12 1/2" yesterday! More to come! Low tonight of 0 to -17. Yeah, riding is pretty much out right now.

A nice December day

This morning we (the family) decided to go out and visit Sinwaan. I took him some apples and thought maybe if I got lucky I could hop on and ride him bareback around the arena. So I put my helmet on in preparation. Sinwaan was easy to halter and enjoyed the first apple thoroughly. I led him out of his paddock and tried to get him up alongside a fence so I would have some height to get on him. (I have never been able to spring up onto a horse with no stirrup or mounting block). He would swing his butt away from me every time I tried. So Matt came out and tried to help me by standing on the other side of him. Sinwaan was wary of the Matt/Levi combination as Levi was up on Matt's shoulders.



After two attempts I was able to get on board but only for a second, Sinwaan jumped and I slid off the back. Oh well. I thought it better to give up for today. He has had too much vacation to behave without some round pen work and the proper tack. So I took off the leadrope and encouraged him to get some exercise. He took off and ran around the enclosure with his tail up over his back in a long springy extended trot. He even cleared a jump someone had set up out there. He snorted and blew and did some sliding stops and showed off.



I felt bad about his condition, he needs a extensive grooming as his mane is now all tangled in a couple places and he had a bramble in his tail. His hooves look ok for now. I was worried about needing to pull his shoes fairly soon but I think they'll be fine another couple weeks. It is supposed to be as bright, and maybe warmer tomorrow so I hope to get out there to at least give him a thorough grooming and try and reconnect.

Contest!

In The Night Farm - a great informative blog about a fellow endurance rider here in the PNW - is having a contest. Be sure to stop in and check it out!

For Lease (temporarily)

Due to my knee injury, I would like to offer Sinwaan up for a care-lease short term. (6 mo to a year). I love this horse and have no interest in selling him but finances are tight and I can not ride now anyway.

14.3 hh, 11 yr old, AHA registered
AERC record - MSF Sinwaan - three consecutive LD completions this year for a total of 75 miles for 2008

Super trail horse, easy going, trained english.

Email me for more info; starfroggie@gmail.com

Trail ride with Ruth and Heather

Today Ruth and Heather and I had planned a ride out from Darold's place about 1:30. I was running slightly behind schedule as I rushed about the house at 1 pm getting dressed, taking dogs out, filling water bottles. I got on the bike and decided to take College Ave. to the highway today instead of going past Wal-Mart on the slower roads. Matt followed me in the Camaro since he wanted to check out something that direction anyway. I saw a glimpse of Ruth's horse trailer ahead of me and was glad they were not too far ahead of me. However they got two lights green that I did not, so that put them at the barn at least five minutes ahead of me.

They took a look in the barn as I pulled up and then we tacked up the horses. We were all ready within minutes of each other. Unfortunately today while I was grooming Sinwaan I noticed he was oozing a little from his belly where the flies have been gathering. I will need to get something for that asap. Heather, and later Lara, suggested Corona ointment.

Well we headed out today to Elliot and rode the 8 mile loop. We saw about seven harvesters in one field. The horses did great and didn't seem too bothered by them. Once the horses were warmed up at the walk we set out in a trot and trotted until we got to the harvesters. I asked Ruth if she had told Heather of her plan to do this ride all at the trot (jokingly) and she said no, but she could. We did a lot of trotting on Elliot and some on the dirt road but the dust was pretty bad and Topper started acting up a little so we walked some more. There were sprinklers going over the road at the end so we opted to ride in the field instead. It used to be wheat and now it is just stubble so we figured no one would mind.

Out onto Telephone Pole road and we did a lot more trotting. I was impressed that the other two horses were doing so well barefoot on the gravel roads. We got to the intersection at the end of that road and went right into the field edge back to Elliot. We did more walking and the dust was bad again. Back on Elliot, Sinwaan knew he was headed for home and set off in the lead in his power trot until I pulled him down to a more friendly speed for everyone. Lots more trotting heading home, and back past the harvesters with little trouble.

I really enjoyed riding with Ruth and Heather today, they are great company and Heather on Quincy led the way most of the time and kept us to a nice steady trot. Good conversations and nice weather, although a bit warm, high 80s (I know, I can't complain, really!) It was nice to have the additional motivation to get in those extra miles that I don't normally do alone.