Backwards

Two days of great riding and a break in the storm system! Although it was supposed to get up to 76 degrees on Saturday--it did not. No matter--it was a great day of riding. We decided that it would be slick on Hennessey, so we rode Underwood. Just as we came over the first trail to the road, Lynn stopped and said, "Wanna ride it backwards?" Heck, yeah, we answered. Here we are at the "Tippy Turn." :)

It is so pretty! There are spots where we go uphill and never look back that are just beautiful trails. Everything looks so different. The horses were like, "Sheesh, I didn't realize how steep these downs are until we have to go up them!" Of course, Jupes thought, "Wow, grass grazing break already! I like this!" Well at least until we didn't stop there. :)


Lynn said a couple times that it was going to be sunny on the top--it looks lighter on the top and we'll see some sun. Not. It was misty and foggy. Still pretty and didn't "dampen" our fun, but it was cold.








Sunday we rode the ranch. It was gorgeous with all the fall colors. Again we rode it backwards--going down the meadow to the barn and then up through the woods towards the back of the mountain and then out into the meadow and back up to the top. I really like the woods east of the ranch--it was another cool day without sun, but it makes the fall colors pop.

 Cows ahead!

It was a bittersweet ride because we may not ever get to ride there in the fall again. The property sold and the new owners plan to put in several huge green houses. :( That beautiful ranch will be destroyed.

It's supposed to rain again this week. I hope it does, but I hope we get to ride again next week. I sure makes my work week a lot better. Happy trails! :)

A Shooting Star

A great weekend of riding, but bumpy, too. Saturday, we were down in one of our small meadows on the Hennessey. Lynn had to go to the bathroom, so she and Zigs went off into the bushes. Shirley and I sat in the clearing and waited. Jupes and the dogs each got a bite of granola. Star--either because one of the his ducklings was missing or because he thought bear or something was in the woods--got freaked out. He backed into us and stared into to the woods.

Then he began twirling. I know you can hear Shirley, "Star! You old fool! Star! STAR!" I yelled at Lynn to talk to us. It didn't matter. Star could no longer think. He was a whiling dervish. Shirley rode the requisite 8 seconds, but her pickup ride wasn't there and she slid down the side. That was enough to make Star stop.

She's fine, but she probably strained her right arm as she hung on to the saddle horn. She's walking slowly and carefully, holding that arm--probably a little sore all over. She's okay. By the time she landed on the ground, she was pretty close to it and she landed on a slope--relatively gently. Still scary for all of us because we don't want her hurt.

We switched saddles and Lynn rode Star and she rode Ziggy. For awhile. Then Star started limping pretty good. He too probably strained a muscle. Rather than have Lynn walk while we both rode, I got off and she and I walked back to the trailer. Shirley commented that Zigs was certainly not as smooth as Star to ride, and he stops all the time (he must have peed at least twice).

I, too, put on show. We were walking the road and I saw something in the woods. I couldn't figure out what it was and I was staring at it. Then I stepped down into a deep hole filled with water. I stumbled into Jupes who nudged me even more. Thankfully I didn't get caught up in my spurs or his legs and fall INTO the mud puddle, which would have been hilarious, but it was pretty funny anyway as I sloshed and lurched through it. (Lynn laughed so much, SHE almost ended up in it, too--which would have been even funnier.)

Lynn lost her camera in the scuffle earlier. But on Sunday, we found it--pretty much right where she figured it had come off her saddle. She didn't have it in her bra at the time because it had already fallen out of there! Hmm. What's up with that? :)

Sunday, it was just Lynn and I riding and we had a great day. We rode the same trails in order to find the camera, but it was fun. Both boys were ready and willing and we took the trails pretty quickly and did some trotting and zooming around trees. We didn't see a single soul. It was great. That's what gets me through the week!

Chinks weather

Yesterday we rode on Underwood. It was sunny and blue sky when we started, but cool. We all "chinked up." :) I even suggested to Shirley that she wear her head scarf. When we got to the ridge, we could tell it was raining in a couple of pockets toward the coast. The breeze was definitely cool up there. By the time we reached the good grass spot down on the bottom for the horses to munch--the sky had completely clouded over and we felt a few tiny little drops. We finished our ride with some nice trots and I saw Ziggy lope along on the good loping trail next to the pond.

We drove to Gary and MaryAnn's place, "The Whole Maryanne Ranch," to see their new living quarters horse trailer. Boy is it nice. It's a two-horse, or in their case--a two-mule, trailer with a really nice interior. The shower has a skylight, which I think is a necessity, and it's large. The kitchen is functional and trimmed with oak; the appliances pretty big considering, and the sleeping area is large. There's an electric awning and an outdoor shower for when you are just too filthy to go inside (and when you have lots of tree detritus in your bra) to shower indoors. :) He showed us cool features for towing and setting up as well. They were really excited and proud of the deal they had made. They've already gone out twice and are looking forward to more adventures. We gave them some ideas and they shared some trails we could go to as well. It was fun.

While we were talking, Goldie and her partner Scooter came down to visit with the boys in the trailer. Of course only Ziggy could see them since he faces that way, but he's all Goldie cares about anyway. There was lots of stamping and carrying on in the trailer. I think it was Star who was not wanting Ziggy leaning over him to get his head out even farther so he could look at his girlfriend. Jupes stomped around because Star had to pee and you know Jupes hates pee splashing on him--even his own! (And my doggone lead rope now has pee on it!) They had a dog and a cat, both from Nancy's animals. They were born on the same day and have grown up together; talk about cute, they rolled around and hugged and bit on each other the whole time we were there. The dog was a blue heeler and the cat looked like Racer. :)

For all that, the best story of the day is about a party on Eagle Rock. Lynn thinks they made up the name, as the place she knows as that is not there. Anyway, we kind of know where they were going because of the tracks on the road. We met LOTS of cars headed down the hill, so we thought the party was the night before. We only met one guy in a truck and trailer headed out while we were riding, but then on the way home, we met a bunch of little cars headed up. Trimmers? Camping party? We don't know, but I bet they were cold--and wet--since it rained half and inch last night and this morning. :)

ANYWAY--there were signs that said, "Eagle Rock" with an arrow at all the junctions on the road. Then Lynn saw the best one:

"Eagle Rock. 

CAREFUL: 

Tippy corner." 

LOL. Happy trails, have a good week, and watch out for the tippy corners!

PS Alisa, you probably ought to ask Lynn for the chinks website and order some before Shirley's birthday--it may be cold and wet! :)

Eulogy of a good friend

I originally wrote the piece below on April 1, 2015, but then things changed. Brady had another year and half with us. He lost his place as boss, but everyone still treated him with respect. Life was getting harder for him, but he stilled called out with that deep whinny to Lynn when she came outside. He came to her immediately when she walked or rode the 4-wheeler to the gate. But it was hard. He was getting so thin and fragile. So this week he went on to greener pastures. The boys are missing him and pretty quiet. Today will be my first day in the field without him--so I'll cry here and promise to hold it together out there. :(

The love they shared was obvious. According to Lynn, although she saved him, he saved her, too. They went through a lot of difficult things together. It's so hard to let go. . .

*****
Today is a very sad day. It is the 20th anniversary of Brady making his home with Lynn. It is also the end of his beautiful life. Lynn fell in love with Brady at first sight. She tried to find someone else, but he was the one. She waited a month longer and finally loaded him up and took him to see Dr. Branch about his warts. Once there she got a chewing out over his neglected condition. Finally she was able to get the doc to hear her say that she was wanting to buy (i.e. save) this boy. So he assured her that the warts could be taken care of. That was all it took. Brady had a new home.

That day was the beginning of a love affair. Although Lynn has laughed and said many, many times that he was rough and never did the same gait twice, if she could, she would still be riding him. She recalls once and only once, they hit the perfect gait. It was like floating. He never did it again. But it didn't matter, he was her go-to guy forever. He took her up sand dunes in one leap; he slalomed like a downhill racer on a tricky hill at Buck's Lake; he ran so fast that tears streamed from Lee's eyes, which helped him to realize why Lynn loves to ride as much as she does.

He was patient; he was kind. He and Lynn understood each other. Lynn could raise her finger and tell him, "Put your head down," and he would. She'd whisper to him to "be tough" and he'd handle whatever life threw at him--just for her. He rode all the way to Montana to work cattle. Once he got out of the trailer, his head was high the whole time--he'd never been able to see so far! Lynn's uncle wasn't impressed and tried to get her to ride one of his horses. Lynn wouldn't have anything to do with that.  By the time the cattle drive was over--her uncle wanted to buy Brady from her. But we all know he's priceless.

He knew the word, "hat." He would instantly stop and wait while Lynn got off and retrieved it. (Of course this was back in the day before helmets.) He knew he had to stand and wait while Lynn trimmed trees or took pictures. When she didn't pay attention to him after he tried repeatedly to get her to look at him--he knocked her hat off and made her turn around to see the saddle had slipped around him while they were walking. The two of them had a perfect partnership.

He knew how to be a good herd boss. He was never mean, but if Lynn told him to bring the boys down, he got them down. He kept them back if she needed to have some space. He let anyone eat with him, no matter where their place in the pecking order was.

He's the reason she keeps looking for a new horse. She wants another one just like him. Brady had that spark--a fire--that's hard to describe, but you know it when you see it. She doesn't have that with Ziggy. Yes, Zigs is a good horse. He, too, would do anything for her. But he's not Brady. He's not high-headed and jigging sideways down the trail. He'll never knock her glasses off in his excitement. Brady just had attitude.

My turn came to ride him. She told me, "He's not a 'dude' horse, but listen to him--he's smart and he won't get you into any trouble." He taught me to be a rider. We went through bees and I zigged when he zagged. But he waited for me. The saddle broke and I fell off below the trail; the saddle slid back on his butt and he just stood and waited for us to fix it. We went too far and then walked out together. He essentially make me feel like he was saying, "Just stay in the saddle--I'll get you there." He had a heart that wouldn't quit. He gave everything his all.

On this saddest of all days, I know Ed is in Heaven with a supply of Oreos and red licorice waiting for him. Silly Indy is probably there and already getting on his nerves. But down here, we are mourning the passing of a family member and good friend.

Turkey Trot

Last Saturday we decided to ride even though it was the second week of hunting season. We left the dogs home with Lee and headed out. We parked and started going through our usual readiness routine: load up granola bars, water, and cameras. Put on helmets and chinks (it had rained) and spurs. It was at this juncture that I realized I was hearing something out of the ordinary. I finally listened to try to identify the sound. I stood up and saw the horses, Jupiter and Star, were staring intently toward the noise as well. I took a step backward to look down the road. The sound stopped and suddenly I was looking into 18 pairs of turkey eyes!!

The turkeys were standing in the middle of the road in a large cluster between the parking spot and the trailer house just below it (less than 20 yards away?). The sound I had been hearing was them walking up the road and talking to each other. When I moved, they realized we were there and they stopped. I got Lynn and Shirley's attention, but before Lynn could get her camera, they began to move again--this time southward across the road and into the woods right there. It was really cool.

We rode up Hennessey to the top and met not one, but two trucks road hunting. We told them a general direction we were heading (left road, up over the ridge to the pond). We just did a short loop to get the kinks out and have a little wind in our helmets.

Buying our chinks was such a good, good thing. It was nice to not be soaking wet from the thigh down. Every now and then, I would hear Lynn laugh as she got a wet branch across the face and Shirley and I told her to keep doing her job making it less wet for us. All of us had wet boots and the bottoms of our jeans were wet, but no one was cold. The top of the mountain was fogged in and it was a glorious way to begin the weekend after a long, hard week.