Looking at the Positive

I am one of those people that is affected by the weather.  I dread the onset of winter every year by spending every possible day of fall outside.  When spring comes, I am sublimely happy and upbeat at the promise of nice weather and sun.  I am constantly outside and often have trouble sitting still and studying indoors, as my mind often wanders to the trails I could be riding.

Here in Pullman, we've had a few false-starts at spring.  Every time I think the weather is going to finally make the commitment, I am disappointed.  This morning, I awoke to 6 inches of snow.  Snow always puts me in a foul mood, but snow at the end of March makes me indescribably frustrated and sour.  Last night while driving through Pullman while big, wet, sloppy snowflakes splashed my windshield, I genuinely felt like throwing a no-holds-barred temper tantrum.  This really is not fair--some kind of cruel joke.

However, being a naturally optimistic person, I try to look at the positives.  I have three exams next week.  If the weather was nice, I would be less motivated to spend hours in my windowless basement study room learning about pigs.  

If the weather was nice, I would probably not be catching up on housecleaning and laundry.  I would continue to ignore them by just going outside.

If the weather was nice, I probably would have spent all day yesterday in the sun, and would be suffering from sunburn that would be really itchy and uncomfortable right now.

If the weather was nice, I would probably be on extra antihistamines to battle my allergies and would be really sleepy and groggy all the time.

If the weather was nice, Jasper and I would probably go on a nice, leisurely stroll through the "neighborhood" admiring the pretty spring flowers and deeply breathing the delicious spring air.  When we got back to the barn, I would probably lay in the sun-warmed green grass gazing at the clouds while Jasper ate his fill and then napped nearby.

Oh, phooey.

Gasp! Home on the Range--CANCELLED?!?!?!?!

I was just bopping around on the internet and happened to check the ridecamp archives from this week where I saw an email from Gail, the ride manager, stating that HOTR has been CANCELLED!  I'm so disappointed!  It sounds like there's some drama going on between her and the land owner.  

Well, crud.  On to plan B.  I was already playing with the idea of going to Tough Sucker, which unfortunately, involves some fancy scheduling on my part.  I have an exam on that Friday at 2, which means the earliest I'd be able to arrive at ridecamp would be about 9pm.  I talked to Wayne and asked if he'd be willing to come up here and trailer Jasper down ahead of time and do all the footwork involved (vetting him in, etc).  He said he was at least open to it, which is great.  So now I think that's what I'll do.  It'll be busy and hectic, but I'm sure tons of fun.  And it'll be great to catch up with my more local Boise friends!

I guess I could use this as an opportunity to do some more conditioning and to even better prepare Jasper for his first ride.  Sigh.

Condition update...

Both of the above pictures were taken today, and show the effect of how different he can look standing in different positions. I think he's in pretty good condition now, he could stand to gain a little more weight, but I'm happy with where he's at. I can feel his ribs, but not too easily. They're really only visible when he's breathing deeply or moving out. Body condition score wise, he's about a 4/9, which is within the acceptable range. As Skyla says, he's just not built to be one of those nice, fat little arabs. I'll take it.

Bruneau Dunes Camping Trip

Day 1:

Most of the day Thursday was spent running around trying to get everything together for our trip. The learning curve for RV care isn't too bad, but it was a lot to remember. Having to learn it while we did it definitely slowed the process, too. All that filling, sanitizing, emptying, and refilling of the water tanks took a lot of time! I had wanted Wayne to install our Spring Ties on the trailer before we left, but we ran out of time. It ended up being a non-issue, as Bruneau had corrals and we were the only campers in the equestrian area for our whole trip.

Wayne's picture from our "real arabians in the desert" pictures we took while we giggled.

We finally got on the road about 3, and arrived at Bruneau after a nice 1.5 hour drive. It was sandier than I had expected, but there was a little bit of grass making an effort in the campground. We unloaded the horses and set out for a quick ride before dinner. The trails were all marked very well, and wearing boots was pretty optional. Some areas of the trails were rockier than others, but the rocks were wind-worn and mostly small. Both horses were feeling good after the trip, but everyone behaved themselves really well.

When we got back to camp, we set up the horses for the night and got our stuff ready. It took no time compared with tent camping, and we were making dinner (Johnsonville brats--living up to my german heritage) on our super delux stove within 15 minutes. We had parked the LQ so the awning was overlooking the corral to the horses. It was so nice to relax in the warm breeze on our "porch" sipping cold beer after our nice ride!

Day 2:

I hadn't slept very well the night before, but really didn't expect to considering. I got up in the middle of the night to check on the horses, and they had both dumped their water buckets. Although we brought water in our hay-rack water tank, Wayne hadn't known to flush this tank and so it tasted like plastic. Luckily, the campground had a few spigots, but they were about 100 yards away. Lugging water at 2am in the pitch dark with coyote yapping and howling in the near distance wasn't super fun, but I was happy I had when I returned and both horses took deep drinks from the buckets. I refilled both hay bags (Jasper had ripped the last remaining strap off his and stomped it in the middle of the pen--that was fun hunting) and went back to bed.

We awoke to a beautiful blue sky and a bright sun and enjoyed breakfast with the horses. Both horses had obviously settled well and were sunning themselves in true "dead pony" fashion on the warm sand. We decided to go for a quickish ride out with plans to return for a late afternoon lunch. We saddled up and headed out on another trail, which ended up being the trail we'd partially completed the night before except backwards. A lot of this trail was through very deep sand, so it was slow going for us. We stopped along the way to take pictures and wait for Bongo, who had gotten himself lost after chasing a rabbit into the bushes. After the deep sand we turned up a nice trail that took us to a hill that overlooked the dunes. About 3/4 of the way up we got off the horses to give them a break, and quickly appreciated why they'd been huffing and puffing up the trail. It was much steeper and the footing much deeper than it had appeared from the saddle. When we reached the top, we allowed the horses some time to graze (and us some time to catch our breaths). We remounted and finished the trail at a nice, brisk pace and got back to the trailer for some serious relaxing. I dug into a book and Wayne started through a horsey magazine we'd just received. The weather was perfect: about 70 degrees with a constant, gentle breeze to keep us from getting too warm on the sand.

Since we'd taken the afternoon relaxation more serious than we'd planned, we decided to call it a night for the horses. Cricket had been showing his fatigue towards the end of the earlier ride, and two days of riding 7-8 miles is fairly intense for him at this stage of his conditioning. I let Jasper out at dusk to graze some of the grass, as I knew he'd come when called and would stick close to Cricket. This, of course, led to a serious temper tantrum from Cricket who wanted to graze, too. We let him out after Jasper, and he exceeded my expectations by staying close.

Day 3:

I slept like a rock, probably because I voted Wayne the designated "middle-of-the-night-horse-checker" since I'd done it the previous night. We awoke to stormy, dark skies that looked as though they were going to threaten rain. Wayne made breakfast of eggs and sausage, and as we were eating, 6 trailers pulled in with multiple horses for a trail ride. The horses were very excited by all the activity, and Jasper kept whinnying and half-rearing while we were tacking up. When the group left, he was beside himself with worry. Cricket, on the other hand, stood by the trailer like he'd been doing this all his life. Once the trail riders were out of sight, we mounted and headed off on another trail.

Not far out on the trail (about .45 of a mile--ask me how I know), we decided to pick up a trot. All weekend we'd been working on playing leapfrog, and when I went to pass Cricket, he came unglued. He sort of scooted off the side of the trail and started spinning. Wayne came off in short order, and then the little spotted devil took off for the hills! I jumped off Jasper lest there be TWO runaway horses, and the three of us took off after him on foot. He ran 2.6 miles away (again, ask me how I know!), and only stopped because of a barb wire fence. Wayne caught up with him and remounted in time for him to attempt to pull the same stunt again. This time, Wayne dismounted himself. When he'd walked a ways back towards us, he remounted again, only to have Cricket take off at a canter with him. I saw him pitch forward and Cricket came to a partial halt. He got off again, and the two came walking towards me. When Wayne got close, I saw he had a cut and bleeding lip and a look of utter heartbreak on his face. I didn't say a thing.

When we got back to the trailer, I hugged him and asked him if he was okay. He said he was. We untacked the horses and loaded our stuff and left. It was such a crummy end to an otherwise really good trip. Wayne's decided he's going to give Cricket until early August, and if he can't ride him at a ride, he's going to sell him and get something more suited for him. I understand the way he feels, since it was hard for me to decide I needed to sell Cricket. I know he doesn't really believe it now, but I know he'll find another horse he loves just as much as Cricket that won't try to kill him on a regular basis. I'm crossing my fingers.

Things I learned on this trip:

1. Jasper needs a trim--his flares are JUST long enough to make putting his hoof boots on impossible.

2. Deep sand is not our friend--even walking through it seems exhausting (at least for humans).

3. Jasper is ready for camping at his first 25! He's been taking such good care of himself, he makes me so proud.

Things We Need for Future Camping With Horses

1. Bigger, less tippable water buckets.

2. Spare hay bags that can be swapped in the middle of the night (rather than groggily searching for torn-down ones in the dark)

3. Less hay--four bales is waaaaaaaay too much for two horses and three days.

4. Fly spray. No matter how cold it is where you start, it may be warm enough for knats where you camp.

I'll get around to it...eventually.

I have pages and pages to write about our camping trip to Bruneau Dunes, along with dozens of really great accompanying pictures, but I've been short on time and having trouble with my home internet connection.  I'll start working on it all tonight and may have something posted later, but no breath-holding.  I'm still aiming for tomorrow...

In the meantime, here's a teaser:

Oh, and I've finally uploaded a couple of pictures from our ride in the Owyhees last Tuesday.

My Horse is Back

Skyla, Karen and I had a fabulous ride in the Owyhee's today. The weather ended up being perfect, the horses were great, and the company terrific. I did take pictures, but am having technical difficulties (ie, I can't find my camera to laptop cord), and won't be able to upload them until later. (ETA: they've been uploaded!)

We ended up doing the longest ride Jasper's ever done--16.16 miles! The three of us headed out and logged 9 miles, and Skyla and I ate a snack and did another 7. Karen's new horse, Scarlet, is just getting started as an endurance horse and called it a day after the 9 miles. It was great to have the opportunity to do a ride with a middle bit back at the trailer, and Jasper proved himself as a professional once again by devouring his hay and gulping down two buckets of water. He even drank from the slimy water trough we found during our first loop!

I think the best part of the whole day was just before we headed out on our second loop, Skyla offered to let us use her Vosal. I was skeptical, but he was acting more his normal self and decided I could still pack his regular bridle if we encountered any hairy situations. We absolutely didn't need it. He seemed to really like going bitless, and listened very, very well. Although we led a little, I did feel like the lateral control was lacking and so we settled in behind Tempo for most of that loop.

I am so very happy with my horse today! Skyla thinks it may have been that Jasper just didn't mesh with the horses on our ride the other day. He certainly has never acted like that before, and I hope she's right!

Trailer Brakes...

...are fixed! Turns out, something was fishy with the plug. A mere $75 later and we've got a working truck/trailer combination again! Hoorah for cheap and easy fixes!

I'm off tomorrow for a ride down south in Oreana with Skyla S. and Karen S. I'm crossing my fingers for excellent weather, and will try to get some good pictures. The Owyhees are supposed to be gorgeous this time of year, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Elly

Two Days of Terrible

I should have been very suspicious on Friday morning when my packing and loading were way ahead of schedule. But no, I took it as a good sign and merrily hit the road whistling along with Oscar, excited to dig into another book on CD. Everything went really well until we hit Whitebird pass, which is a fairly long and steep downhill where it's common to see overheated trucks and cars on the shoulder of the up side. Suddenly, when I would hit the brakes, the trailer brakes would grab, I'd hear a terrifying "chunk" as the trailer hitch engaged the truck, and the truck would lurch backwards. I immediately stopped, although the process of stopping involved more of a horrible lurching forwards and backwards motion reminiscent of my early stick-shift learning days. I got out, checked Jasper (who looked no more than concerned for my driving skills), got back in the truck, re-adjusted the tow module and chalked it up to a freak accident. Everything seemed fine again until we got to Cascade, where suddenly and spontaneously it got much, much worse while turning out of the Subway parking lot. I stopped at an auto mechanic to ask for help, and he really tried to help but didn't know a thing about tow modules. I stopped at the feed store, hopeful that someone inside would be able to lend a helping hand. They gave me the number for the Dodge dealership in town. When I called, they told me, "Sorry, we don't have anything that would be able to test your trailer. Good luck!" I was terrified and feeling alone and Wayne had his phone turned off for a work function. Poor Jasper was really getting sick of being tossed around in the trailer, so I did the unthinkable and completely unplugged the trailer for the drive back into Boise. It took FOREVER and we annoyed dozens of drivers, but we made it safe and sound.

Jasper was ecstatic to get out of the trailer, and seemed none the worse for the wear. He celebrated being back "home" by taking numerous happy laps around the field, bucking and tossing his head for good measure.

The trailer's going into the dealership early tomorrow, and hopefully it will be a quick and easy fix. Wayne's convinced it's a dead short (????) on the trailer side of things, so we'll see. It's pretty scary, and we've been driving around with the trailer unplugged, which is always exciting and illegal.

...........................................................

I was looking forward to getting out for a training ride with a couple friends yesterday, since Jasper had five days off due to the horrible Pullman weather and his dental. We loaded he and Cricket without incident and headed out for Eagle. I was a little anxious since Jasper and I usually only ride alone or with one other person, but remembered he'd been fine in the past and figured yesterday would be no different.

When we started out, Jasper and I were in the lead and I was fighting him HARD not to canter the entire time. His lovely extended trot powered up the long incline at the beginning, and when we reached the top I assumed he would settle back down into professional mode and allow my upper body a break. Once again, I assumed wrong. He spent the entirety of the two hour ride fighting me to canter, and within 25 minutes or so, I'd already worn blisters on the ring fingers of both hands. The biggest concern, however, was when we were not in the lead. He would suddenly morph into a fire-breathing dragon with his jigging, head tossing, side-ways cantering and threatening to bite the horse in front of him when they were not going nearly fast enough for princess Jasper. "Uh-oh," I thought. I've got a really, really well conditioned horse that's had five days off and plenty of food in front of him that's suddenly decided this was a competition that he needed to win, with or without me. Numerous times when we were in the back of the pack and he decided to break into the sideways canter, he got turned and trotted away from the group. Unfortunately, this only served to amp him up even more, and it was quickly turning into a battle I didn't think I could win. We regrouped and decided Jasper would be put into the middle of our pack and we would try to take it easy. We were trotting down a really fun and windy sand wash that, under normal circumstances, would be a blast to ride. Although he was behaving better, I was still having an incredibly hard time holding him back. At this point, I was essentially a passenger who was attempting to communicate "DO NOT RUN" through seat and bit aids and was only being marginally successful. I half-halted him every other stride and tried to talk him down from his competitive mindset. Ugh, it was exhausting.

When we finally reached the end of the trail, we gave the horses a break to nibble grass and drink from a puddle. I was shocked when the princess deigned himself to take a deep drink from the water, and relieved when he temporarily gave up the race to eat grass so I could catch my breath and re-evaluate. When we headed back towards home, we did so on a dirt road and allowed Wayne and Cricket to lead. They did a really great job, and I was happy to see that the two of them seem to work really well together while in a group. Jasper was slightly more well-behaved when we were in a clump rather than a line, although I was still fighting to keep him behind Cricket so he could have a turn being leader. When we were finally on the home-stretch, we took a walking break which only seemed to revitalize Jasper further, and he started jigging once again. I pulled him over to a parallel trail and started working him away from the group, side-passing and bending and doing small circles. All was well until the group decided to trot, and Jasper short circuited once again. We walked for a little longer and when I was moderately certain he would maintain a nice trot, I asked him to do so. Quickly, though, he was back doing the side-ways canter, and we circled and had other discussions. Almost immediately he began again--this time, though, he was heading towards a group of three rock chuck holes. I told him he'd better stop and kicked him forward rather than sideways, but it wasn't to be. He side-pass cantered and both hind legs sunk into the unstable dirt surrounding the holes. He went to his knees, and I went partially over the side. I decided it would be easier for me to set myself on the ground, and did so while Jasper righted himself, shook himself off, and took off at a break neck gallop towards the group of horses. I dusted myself off and calmly walked after my horse. Sigh. I remounted after checking him over, and he seemed none the worse for the wear, other than a renewed desire to gallop home after his little break.

We made it back to the trailer without another incident (well, other than another huge spook at a horse eating comforter), and I was exhausted and dissappointed in my horse. We have a LOT to work on in the next three weeks, or else I'm going to be stuck with this fire breathing dragon at our first ride. I'm heading out to the barn today to do some arena work, which is an area we've been neglecting since the weather's been nice and Lacy has been more than happy to go riding.

The good news is, yesterday's 8.5 miles with a still-fresh horse let me know he's definitely physically ready to do our first 25. Now we need to do some major work on the mental and disciplinary side of that. It's never good when devil-horse Cricket looks like the most perfect angel in comparison to my normally well-behaved horse. I am happy, though, that Cricket was good.

Honestly.

Positive Thoughts....

I saw that Endurance Granny has also posted something, but I wanted to make sure anyone that reads this keeps Tamara of In the Night Farm in their thoughts and prayers. Her horse, Aaruba, is in the hospital again with another potentially complicated colic and things are looking not-so-great.

I know I'll be thinking about both of them and sending positive, colic-clearing vibes their way.

Birthday Ride

Wayne and I celebrated my birthday this past Sunday by visiting Hell's Gate for a ride. I hoped and prayed that Moscow Mountain would thaw as a birthday present from Mother Nature, but it wasn't meant to be. On top of that, it started blizzarding Sunday night and has only temporarily let up this morning. Oh, well. Maybe when I return from spring break we'll have had miraculously warm weather. The extra good news is Boise is predicting weather in the 50's and 60's next week when I'll be home, so I'm going to try to get in a ton of mileage while I'm there.

As promised, I took a TON of pictures of Hell's Gate on Sunday. Although it was a little chilly, the sun was out and everything was beautiful. The ride was fairly uneventful save for the fact that we startled a deer and sent it swimming into the river. Jasper spooked, of course, but recovered very quickly. Wayne rode Gandolf, a Fresian/Paint cross gelding that belongs to Lacy.

Can you see the deer? (Hint, Sammy is looking straight at it.)

The deer swims away.

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Yesterday, Sarah Metcalf of Equine Performance Dentistry came out and floated/corrected Jasper's teeth. It turns out his incisors are malaligned and long, which causes his molars to be further apart than they should be. She corrected it a little, but he'll need more frequent dental care in order to get on top of the problem. He needed to be drugged five times during the procedure since he'd act really sleepy until she'd start to do something. He wasn't bad, he just didn't want her grinding around in his mouth! After the sedative wore off, he dug right into his food and water which made me feel happy. I'm hoping this helps with his lack of weight gain, but we'll see!

Jasper's Condition

Thanksgiving

Today

He still looks peaky in this picture, and I swear he's more round in the tooshy area. Again, I took this picture with my blackberry, so maybe it did something weird. Or I'm in denial. He does look like he has a bit more muscling down along his butt.

The fancy-pants big money equine dentist is coming out next Monday, so hopefully we can get any underlying tooth issues taken care of right then. She comes VERY highly recommended (Sarah Metcalf, DVM) for those of you who may be interested. She travels....

Senior Paper....thoughts?

Before being allowed to graduate, all DVM candidates must write a paper and then present their topic in front of an audience of professors and whoever else decides to wander in.  I've been back and forth about topics, but have finally decided I want to do something endurance related.  However, the possibilities within this are endless.  I've started the process of researching research to get a feel for what's out there, but the more I see the more interested in EVERYTHING I become.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?

Pictures from our ride today

These were taken with my Blackberry, so the quality is not the greatest, but you get the idea that Hell's Gate is incredibly beautiful.  One of these days I'll take my real camera so you all will be able to see better.  So many of the scenes along this particular trail look like something out of a fantasy movie.  Lacy and I kept expecting trolls or leprechauns to pop out all over the place.

As you can see, Bongo's fluffy butt managed to get into most of the pictures. :)