The Squirel Factor is High.....

We decided to take advantage of the day, cool but no precip....I did my usual routine, tack up, rump rug...and so forth....Garry decided to join us on Hawk, that was great, because both would get some time. Well I never really gave the term "Froggy" much thought, until today when Buffy crow hopped most of the way around the pasture, the two of them demonstrated the theory known as "Potentiation", which simply means that what one does, the other does as well...Hawk is a quick little devil and likes to spin.  At the end of the pasture (of course) he went into the death spin and eventually lost his rider, who hopped up and promptly said "go get that #$%^ horse!" yea so I did, and boy was he in trouble, I always say, "if they want to do something, make them do it alot"....needless to say, it was a good time had by all, especially for the neighbors who commented "Thankyou for the rodeo !" (while handing me a plate of cookies!!!).....

Goals for 2013

As we suffer the cold, Buffy and I are contemplating our goals for 2013, but that is really hard to do with so many things up in the air....I have applied to the University of Arizona doctorate of nursing practice program in Tucson Arizona...I pray constantly that I get in...but I will not find out until March...If (when) I do get in, my plan is to relocate to Tucson, it will take a while to get rid of my junk, and make plans..Meanwhile there is a ride season to plan for...We were going to go for a 100 miler this year, but with the ride season so short here, it would mean that we have to miss several of our favorite rides...another cool thing about Arizona, you can ride year around!  woo, hoo!  So I guess that we will concentrate on increasing our multiday riding...Buffy has a new little sister, she came from Texas...She is young, only three.  They have the same granddaddy....the evolution of WMA Desert Deer will be the start of a new blog...be sure to follow along! It should be a beautiful ride...

A New Project.....

I have a new project, his name is Waite Hawk...I have had him since Pink Flamingo, started riding him and just did not like him...I kept comparing him to the Buff, but then again no one can compare to the Buff..
After all, its life through chestnut ears right???? He really is a nice boy....

He certainly is bred right, all CMK... maybe he deserves another chance...Besides....
he comes when I call, and licks my face...

A season of mysteries

Our ride season was kind of strange, we had hoof trim issues, saddle fit issues...Got pulled at the last Pink Flamingo ride (sniff).  Old Selam was our saving grace, rode both days.  Due to school, I was unable to go to Moab (sniff,shiff).  A family member had surgery, so I missed Halloweenies (sniff,sniff,shiff).  But like a well respected friend once said, ride less now, ride more later.

I ended up getting a new saddle, I think Buffy likes it, I love it, very comfortable!

My Arabians are not crazy!



I have heard it said that Arabians are crazy and difficult to manage, but I suspect the people who say those things do not posess the sensitivity required to manage a horse with a heart the size of the universe!  The 4th of July weekend brought personal trials rather than celebration, but as always, magic happens!  The older mares and one gelding were in a different pen so that they could graze on the field grass, and the Arabians were in their normal corral.  At approx 2200 the fireworks went off,
it was so loud, it was like we were being bombed from all sides!  Flashes and booms almost constantly arching over our house and pasture.  After the initial shock, I stood in the middle of the driveway just marveling at the horses.  The "broke" "seasoned" saddle horses were running round and round their corral, I stood there talking to them when I noticed what Buffy and Hawk were doing.  Those two were standing there calmly WATCHING!!!! it was so amazing! these are not crazy, flighty horses!  They were observant and curious!  After a while the noise ceased, and the light show disappeared.  Then we were treated to the most beautiful moon rise....Perhaps a gift, or a sign of hope of good things to come!





Eagle Spring Fling 75-The ride

One has to question the wisdom of endurance riders, there is really nothing gained except the satisfaction of bonding with your equine partner to achieve the unthinkable.  We all have our individual reasons as to  why we do what we do. 
I ride because it makes me feel peaceful and alive.  I have a stressfull life; I am the soul source of income for my family, I am in school persuing a doctorate, and I have a job where people are so sick that if  my concentration happens to waver for a split second, my patient could die. 
When my mentor Karen suggested that I do the 75 with her and Tamara, I jumped at the chance to break through one of the barriers that existed in from of me.  I tried to go to bed early the night of the ride, but being a chronic insomniac, I just could not.  I am always organized, I had all of Buffy's boots on, I slept with my clothes on, and our food was ready to go...

It dawned a lovely morning, and promised to be hot, I was worried about this because Buffy and I are from the north and not used to the heat.  The first loop was murder, Buffy was strong and fought me the entire way.  I realize now that I need to ride alone or with someone that will let her be infront.  The subsequent 3 loops went better, although I could feel that Buffy was starting to flatten out.  Dr. Ruble assured me that I was riding her smart which made me feel better.

I cannot remember what loop this was, but as you can see we are all happy and energetic!  When we finished the third loop, I knew that Buffy was tired, so I told the vet that we were going to do alot of walking and go slow.  I let the other girls leave first, and gave Buffy a little extra time to rest and eat. 

The hills seemed so long and steep, and I am not sure that buffy appreciated my singing!

This is the color of victory, our last loop of the 75, wow really???? My horse is amazing, all heart!  She gives me courage and hope!

This was the most beautiful sight in the world, ride camp after 75 miles!  We did it, Buffy and I were sore, but earned a completion!  I am so proud of her, she carried me such a long way, with no complaints!!!!!

We passed up the opportunity to go to Karens house the next day, instead we visited with friends and I helped at the vet check.  Buffy had some visitors, and now has a fan club!

She allowed the children to pet and stroke her, and of course accepted several cookies! 

Can't wait for Camas Creek!

Eagle Spring Fling-ride camp

It is time for the next ride, I am excited and look forward to the next challenge!

I thoroughly enjoy the drive, it is long but beautiful, especially Hells Canyon!

This is one of the places that I stop to get everyone out for rest and water.

 I decided to bring Grace with me this time, and she was great, an awsome companion! It took us about 11 hours to drive, but I do stop to rest the weary!









I like to arrive to camp early, normally before anyone else.  Buffy is leaning that it is ok to be the only horse in camp.

Here we are all set up, it took a while but I finally got it done.  It was in the 90's, so I had to take a couple (lots) of rest periods..

While I set up camp, Buffy decided to take a nap.  The corral is nice, but she is an escape artist, and I found out why, she lays on the corral and just steps over the panels.  So, instead of taking the entire thing, I am only going to take three panels and let her stand tied to the trailer. 

Carrie Johnson was the ride manager, and worked very hard to ensure we were comfortable and had a good time!










I do not have a camper or LQ horse trailer,
therefore I sleep in a tent which has some draw backs.  Here are some friends that managed to keep Grace and I company in our tent, I really did not mind them, at least they did not slither!!!
I am however rethinking our sleeping arangements, and will create a nice bedroom in the back of the trailer, negating sleeping on the ground!





It is nice to have friends!!!!

My personal camping space is always evolving, I try and come up with better ideas that will make my set up quicker and easier. One of the things that I miss is the ease of taking a shower! I did bring along my solar shower and thoroughly enjoyed it, I will admit that it is primitive at best, but I come to these rides in part to escape from the stress in my life, so what is a little inconvieniance????

Even though Carrie had the ride camp area mowed, there was still alot of cheat grass.  Poor Grace was a magnet, who needs velcro when you have a poodle!!!!

Breaking down camp is kind of sad, the weekend has come to an end, and I always drag me feet knowing that I have to return to my fast paced stressfull life, but we always look forward to the next ride!

Eventhough I have traveled this part of I-95 many times, I wanted to take these pictures....

Pretty cool huh?????

Day three, Buffy the "ride slayer"....

When ever I go through new areas, I have a tendency to day dream, and try and pretend what it must have been like for the first people to see a particular place.  This trail was very special and beautiful!! I found it amazing that the waggon ruts were still there, it must have been very slow going, some of the ruts were very deep!

Buffy is pretty sure that she does not want to be a pioneer horse, she enjoys being the pampered princess!

The alfalfa fields were really cool, we stopped for a bite, Buffy was quite sure that she wanted to wallow......

  

One of my favorite places was when you entered the back gate to ranch and rode by the little lake, it was so pretty!

The vet check was at the ranch, near the corrals.  The grounds were so green and well cared for!  It is an actual working cattle ranch, we even saw some of the hands who worked there.

  Upon our arrival to the vet check, a rain squall broke out, I quickly put buffy's cooler on to keep her from getting wet.  But I was not very worried, because I could see blue sky in the area we were headed to!

               

 

Buffy liked the first vet check at the ranch, I think that she was longing for more alfalfa. I am proud of her, she ate all of her feed, and sampled everyones hay.

It was so amazing to top the ridge and see the snake river canyon!!! So big and rugged, I cannot imagine what Evil Knievel was thinking!

I think that Buffy was impressed as well, because she stood still long enough for me to take pictures! I was looking forward to getting to the bottom of the canyon so that I could see real petroglyphs!

The ride along side of the river was awsome, exept for the bugs, but a small price to pay..  People were fishing and boating, and staring at the strange people on horseback flying along the path.

The river was flowing pretty fast, I am very sure that I would not  have been in that boat!

These are the clifts above the river trail, I had intended showing pictures of the trail that decended down into the river bottom, but the chip in my camera malfunctioned and alot of the pictures did not turn out.....but it is not hard to imagine the drop and subsequent climb out.  I did walk Buffy up the steepest part, but she was soon running over me so I figured I was waddling too slow.

The turn around point was the petroglyphs and they were really something!  I wonder what they mean? Perhaps some ancient person was  marking their territory!

The trip back to the ranch was just as beautiful as the trip to the river, and even though I had seen the trail before, I saw all kinds of new things as well!

I wanted to get a nice picture of the sign at the entrance to the ranch, it is historic, one of the first to be settled on the Oregon trail.  But, by now, Buffy smelled the vet check and I had to settle for a slightly off center picture.

This pasture was amazing. There were boulders scattered all over it, I can imagine a volcano eruption spewing the rocks all around. Or it could be that God placed them all around in a seemingly random pattern.

The last vet check went very well, Buffy eagerly ate her "gruel" and we headed out.  The sun was starting to go down, and I was filled with an overwhelming feeling of peace.  I think that this is my favorite picture of all

This was our first 60 mile ride, and the longest that we had ever been out on the trail.  I would have thought that Buffy would have been even a little tired, but true to form, she pulled and pulled the last 15 miles home.  When we hit the Bates Creek road and saw camp we trotted gleefully into the vet check.  Buffy got a drink and immediately pulsed down to 44 bpm, and got all A's.  I was elated, and even though my knees hurt, I trotted her out.....Buffy the "ride slayer" strikes another one down!!!! We cannot wait for the next one!

Fandango 2012 Day #1

The morning was not promising, it started out rainy but I had high hopes for the day.  I started to become a little concerned when Buffy started shivering, I don't want her to get sick, but we went any way.  We decided to try a new tactic and begin in the back to keep Buffy calm.  This time we had a couple of friends along.  Linda and her steady mount Ted, Tamara and her fiery little Barb Acey.

All went relatively well, I was not really worried about losing a boot, because Garret and Rusty from Easycare http://www.easycareinc.com/showed me a cool way to use a product called Sikaflex to glue the boots on.  Sooooo.....we got up on top of the ridge above Stephs house and started to motor along.

That is until Acey started loosing boots.  She has really small feet and could not wear gloves.  We stopped to allow Tamara time to replace and retape the boots.  Buffy and I were out in front, and all of a sudden I heard Tamara shout, then Acey and Tamara came flying by demonstrating a buck that would earn her honors at the NFR. Unfortunately Tamara lost her seat, but ever the horseman Tamara climbed back on, and we moved on....with the exception of Linda's Ted, we did not lose any more boots.  The rest of the 12.5 miles to the vet check went beautifully, ground was wet, and there was a little slipping but the trail was so cool, especially the part where we went through the tunnel of brush leading to the creek crossing.  The vet check was awsome, flat with lots of help.  I was so proud of Buffy, because for the first time, she ate her "gruel" and sampled everyone's hay. 

We rode through the area where the "horney donkey" lives, I was hoping to see him, but he was hiding.  The canyons were so pretty, with little oaisis in them.

I really like the terrain of todays trail, the technical portions are really good for Buffy, it forces her to think about where she puts her feet, rather than mindlessly trotting down easy trail.  One of my favorite portions was the Crazy Woman Mine and the stone corral.  I really wanted to take pictures, but the stupid camera ran out of batteries, I will take extra's from now on.  We finished the 25 mile loop in fine form, and happily approached the last vet check.  All of the horses passed with flying colors, and we picked up a junior because her sponsor's horse was pulled.  We we gathered everyone up and started out of the vet check.  I heard a shout....and here comes Acey flying by in that great big buck of her's...Once again Tamara gave it a valliant effort, but lost her seat, that girl will hurt in the morning!  The rest of the ride went smoothly, Linda and Ted were so awsome, they took care of our junior and got the gates for us!  They were definitely the hero's of the day....