Trails were lovely today and the sun was shining. Our trail buddy was very tolerant of trotting up his butt, as I had little control with my phone in hand. I was lucky to not drop my gloves or phone in my filming sequences.
Annual Trail Rides: 200/200 (Bareback 29/40) It was a big lofty goal, but today I did my #200th trail with Q, through all kinds of intemperate weather, discomfort and fatigue. Essentially I did a trail ride 2 out of every 3 days despite ice, scorching heat, wind storms, pouring rain and tornado advisories. We still have another month to go, so I can already consider this goal achieved. I still have my bareback goal to work on, but Im feeling pretty good about that one too. It was just a gorgeous autumn day, slightly warm at 13C with deep blue sky and bright sunshine. Not a cloud in sight. Footing was good too, so we cantered with much delight. We covered lots of ground and stayed out almost 3 hours to snatch some last golden pictures of Fall 2021.
Zoom, zoom ... ouch. Finally one of the coolest days is here. Sunny, blue skies, low humidity and temps in mid-twenties. Perfect riding weather. Particularly after our surprise storm on Wednesday that left tons of debris and fallen trees and branches on the trails. Surprise storm brewing a few days ago. Within a few minutes, there were huge circular gusts of wind, almost like a Tornado. The next day volunteer crews were out removing the fallen trees. But some trails still have significant debris. I was heading out with trail buddy C and her azteca mare to explore section 5. I told her I needed some media for my summer challenge. She was happy to oblige not quite knowing what other objectives I had in mind. Most of the trail was lovely and I even tackled the jump trail, with a series of cross-country log jumps, for the first time. Q was just simply amazing, leading sometimes or in the back sometimes. The two horses have a trot that is simply in s...
Annual Trail Rides: 94/200 Lots of cool riding these days, as temperatures are below normal. Skies are blue, forests are green, but it is a daily challenge to figure out how many layers to put on. Temperatures shift 10C degrees between shade and sun, so in part in depends on where you plan to ride. Q has been acting a little weird in the backend. He started by pooping in his water bowl a few weeks ago. He did it again last week. And then he was observed sitting on the fence. Yes, sitting. Today, he was sitting in the water bowl in the outside paddock. So he got another tail bath, and I covered his tail in green listerine. It seems like the itchiness is coming from the base of his tail, and not the more common top of the tail. I scrubbed the tailbone quite thoroughly, and even washed it twice (and rinsed very thoroughly). However, Im wondering if perhaps the problem is actually not in his tail? Maybe he has a bean in his sheath? And his discomfort is having him behave unusually?
I fell at a walk. My horse took off as I was screaming obscenities at the nearby dogwalker that let her dog chase us through the bush. Unleashed of course. My horse didn’t get very far as he stood twenty feet away from me, watching me with both eyes. The seconds before the fall are very blurry. I remember seeing the dog walker at a distance, but didn’t think anything of it. Then I heard the dog tearing through the bush to get us, the horse we were following bolted off, and I was not paying attention as I was putting on my gloves. My horse spun 180 degrees and literally left me hanging into a dead pine tree. I hit the ground fast but not so fast that I didnt shout six or seven swear words before my back hit the branches on the ground. I think my horse was spooked at his buddy bolting off, and all my screaming and swearing. I was so angry. But I do learn an important lesson every time I fall. Lately my lessons have been about my lack of awareness and my taking my horse for granted. On th...
Its been a rough go these last few weeks between a significant increase in work, brutal cold snaps, icy trails and skating rink parking lots. Ive only ridden a handful of times on those rare occasions where the universe converged. This has made for a spicy pony and while it makes me more prudent on how I engage in speed when the brakes are fairly absent, it also makes me super appreciative that this spicy horse does keep his excitement under wraps most of the time. Clearly Q is fit and feeling good, and his daily turnout with bestie Chester is absolutely insufficient in expending energy. Especially since these two lazybouts just stand in a corner watching the world go by. We went out today after a little snow fell to cover our thick ice. Footing was good, and it was our first outing in over 10 days. The strategy is always the same: long steady trots for 5-10 mins until Q starts relaxing and blowing through his nose in loud bursts. During the first stretch we kept on trotting throu...
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