A Banner Day

First things first--today was an awesome day! We have a had a great weekend. First of all on Saturday, we went up Underwood. We found Lynn's crupper from when Ziggy broke it crow hopping and bucking in the bees. We walked down through that area and I sprayed a hole where they probably had been, but were no longer in. There was a paper nest on the ground and it could be that it had fallen out of the tree and the bees were still in it at the time. The crupper was actually right where Alisa and I went down the bank as we skirted the bees. So anyway--yay!

We didn't ride far, but it was fun nevertheless. We even got to see Wood Duck boxes that have been recently added to some trees down by one of the ponds we ride by. Picture the last pond we see before we get back to the trailer. It was fun to see them. I hope we get to see the ducks one day.

Today we rode up the Hennessey. Just past the first meadow, as we were starting up the road, we saw a rabbit! It jumped out of the brush and almost ran into Ziggy's back leg. Of course he didn't miss a beat, but the rabbit hopped as fast as it could go down the road away from us. Thankfully the dogs were all way ahead and did not see it, as they are much faster. It was the cutest thing.

Once we got to the top, we turned right and rode down to the big dirt flat that used to be a meadow. We turned right on the road again (always skirting those darn bees that are on our trails) and headed to where we drop down the mountain. However, today Lynn stopped and said, "Hold on. Let's try this." We went off on a trail to the right. She has said before that it leads to a dead-end road, but today she was up for an adventure. And what a great right turn it became!

It lead down and down and DOWN. :) It was a pretty clear trail--only a few near brush offs from swinging branches and thick branches that didn't give enough. At one point I said I had a whole tree in pants which got Shirley to singing, "I've got a whole tree in my pants. It makes me want to get up and dance!" to the tune of "I've got the whole world in my hands . . " Ha! I have a few more lines I'll have to add in later . . .

The trail widened into a meadow. There were upside down buckets on posts for cows. Is it some kind of molasses? No cows, but evidence that they must come up there. We rode to what we thought was an edge to look over, but it was more meadow. There we saw three turkeys run across and lift into flight. They were too far away for Haley, but she quivered as she watched them. We also saw two deer trot up the hill to our right (again too far away to be in trouble from Haley).

We did not see a house, but Lynn thinks it is Heidi Carpenter's ranch. Next time we'll keep going and ask for breakfast! Although it seemed like we dropped down a long way, going back up was pretty quick. We didn't go the whole way though, instead turning to our right along another good looking trail. We hadn't gone very far when it began to look familiar. Sure enough it comes out on one of our regular trails!! The trail we usually all lope up and then stop and eat some grass before heading up the steep, brushy trail that is a detour because of a tree that fell across the tight, wet area we used to ride. (I don't know if you can picture this or if it makes any sense!)

How cool is that? Now we have another loop to add to our trails. It was a very fun day.

Afterward, we shampooed the girls and both of them got groomed. Two beautiful babies.

5 days of good riding out of 10 Firs

I am always thinking of naming my house--like they do in England or Europe. People know a place by its name. In the US, sometimes roads/streets are named by the people who live there, e.g. Easy Street, or the people who have always described the directions to a place as such. For example, on Hennessey Road there is  Old Mill Rd, Our Road, and  Old Moss Mill. I have thought of calling my house something common like: Briar Green or Briar Rose (isn't that Snow White's name?). There's place going up Berry Summit that lots of locals call The Pig Farm (although Lynn never has) and there are not any pigs there that I can see.

When I describe where my horse lives (because everyone asks!?), I tell them he lives at Suzy Q. Everyone knows where that is. (I always wonder who she was. I should probably ask Shirley.) The old brown house that used to stand where Lynn's current house now stands was called The Place. Even though the "funny little house" that Lynn had built stands there, Shirley still refers to the whole property by that name. But one day, I counted the trees in front of Lynn's. There are 10 trees lined up--two rows of five. Her dad planted them I think. The name of the town in my favorite book series is Three Pines. The pines are symbolic of a safe haven to Canadians who were seeking refuge from their civil war. So I told Lynn she could name her house 10 Pines. She corrected me and said they were firs. So there you have it--Lynn's place could be called 10 Firs. Especially instead of Keyes' Peaches.

To be continued. . .

Well--this post was supposed to be about Alisa and Keota coming over to ride and it got off track a little and then postponed for a month. So hmmm. What was I going to talk about? We had fun. We rode our favorite trails. Keota was nearly perfect and as graceful as always loping along behind all of us. I say nearly perfect because he came down off the trail on to the road and bucked around--surprising Alisa for sure, but all of us, too. Alisa rode it out easily and in the process of getting him under control broke off some branches that needed cleaning out of path. So it all turned out good.

We rode up Underwood one of the days and we came down the steep trail near the pot growers, which always makes me nervous, but my pistol of a horse was really good and waited on Keota to come down. He didn't even care where Zigs and Buss were. He stopped and turned sideways and looked up the  hill until Keota was in his sight, then he would turn and head back down again. Lynn and Shirley rode off quickly so the dogs (mainly Haley) would stay close and not go over that way. I so wish those people would leave.

A side note on the downhill is that Lynn went over to Quincy and rode for a few days last week and Alisa let Keota have  his head and I guess he really moved down the hills at a quick pace. Zigs wasn't sure if he could keep up and that boy is downhiller.

I'll keep thinking. . .

It's a good thing riding is a reward in itself. . .

Shirley is off to Montana, so we decided to go to the arena in Junction City. You know Star would've been too bored with this adventure. First things first meant riding up a steep, I mean steep, trail/road above the arena. It just kept going and and going. There was no top to that hill. But the idea was to "take the soup out of them" as Lynn says, before we took them into the arena. Jupiter especially.

We went into the arena and practiced opening and closing a very heavy gate. Lynn and Ziggy did it twice on one end and once on the other end, but Jupes and I were never successful (we only tried a couple of times). Then we trotted and walked around in circles. I practiced figure 8s and turning where the barrels would've been. Lynn worked on side passes. I went over and she showed us how. Jupes was like, "I do not understand what you are asking of me." I didn't work on it very long.

White barrels outside of the arena are very scary. But Jupiter got used to them. Then Lynn brought in the barrels and set them up. While Ziggy was still tied up and Lynn was out of the arena, we did the cloverleaf successfully at least twice; albeit, the corners were too wide, but we did it on a slow trot. Then Lynn rode Ziggy around them. Ziggy took the barrels tight and easy and they loped back to "the finish line." It was pretty. Jupiter never did the entire cloverleaf in one easy, fluid motion again. He fought and fought and we had to walk and swing out into nothing close to turn. Somehow, we lost his left turn and he only wanted to go right! He'd had enough, I guess. If Shirley would've been there, she would have made me work harder--I should've used my spurs more or something.

I attempted to trot him around the area and then go into a canter, but when he started into it, once again I grabbed at the reins instead sitting back and he quit. I hate that it scared me for a second! I have lost confidence with him ever since he attempted to buck the last two times I let him go fast. Darn it. We never tried again. I wanted to, but then he started acting up--being stubborn and just stopping or fighting turning to his left at all and wanting to just go back to the trailer and eat some grain. I guess I have created a monster. Dang it. I have to work harder on both of us. Going off in the arena wouldn't have hurt as much as in the woods, so I should have just done it there, but we quit. I am sure it's frustrating for Lynn to have to watch my ineptness and his spoiled nature.

In contrast, watching Ziggy and Lynn was like poetry in motion. They looked good. He was stretching his long legs out and she just sat effortlessly on him. She didn't make him run like I thought she would, but they worked on stuff by the fence. I think she only did the barrels about 1/8 the speed she used to do them and I think she only did them once. We rode in circles  side by side trying to get Jupiter to focus on something other than the trailer a few times, but only at a slow trot. With Ziggy on the outside, it forced Jupes to keep turning.We only did it a couple of times and never got fast enough to canter. Later, we found some poles after we decided to quit and we were going to set them up, but their bottoms were broken. Lynn got Ziggy to go into the bushes and let her drag out the pole. When she let go of it, I dragged the pole a little so Jupiter could get the feel of it, too. Lynn does stuff like that all the time when we are riding, but I haven't ever attempted to pull something or carry something big on Jupiter. We would simply fail trail trials.

The dogs were cute. They ran and jumped along the outside of the arena--sort of mimicking what the horses were doing inside. They were both good and stayed close, even though there were dogs barking somewhere over the rise.

So that was our day. We didn't ride very long and I don't think either of us accomplished or even attempted what we had hoped to do. I'm not sure either of us even worked very hard to reach our goals. It was kind of a bust. Good thing Star wasn't there.

Beating the heat

Well, it's time to catch up again! We rode in Orick one Saturday and it was a beautiful day. The temperature was in the middle 60s and the sun was shining. You can't ask for more than that. Well, I guess Lynn can. She had a very disappointing ride--there had been sightings of two mama bears, one with triplets and one with only one, and although we heard a bear, we did not see it. Lynn's latest thing has been, "You know, if I see I bear I'm gonna run it!" No more just looking it at and being happy to see it--it is all about running as fast Zig can to chase the bear. As much as I used to enjoy seeing bears, I was very happy we did not--Jupiter is always as wound up as he possibly can be when we're at Orick and I am not sure I would be able to hold him if Lynn and Shirley took off as fast they could go. I would definitely be over the edge, impaled on a redwood and he would kicking his heels as high as he could and running like a wild man, free of my excess weight, trying to catch up.

Knock on wood--we have been bee free. Two days we have been around the Hennessey Ranch meadow and one we rode up the hill, skirting the trails with known bee pockets. Star went both days this weekend and I did not hear Shirley yell, "STAR!" once. Jupiter was a little tight yesterday, but managed to do some hard trotting without kicking his feet out and threatening to buck (I thought he outgrew that, but he did it again twice this month). Today he was awesome, even cantered a tiny bit. Ziggy was Ziggy. He did everything Lynn asked him to do, even though he pooped his way down the steep trail that makes him nervous (5x maybe?).

News on Alisa's side of the mountain--Keota went off the side of hill, but she stayed on and he climbed back up on the trail. Pretty darn scary! I am glad both of you are okay and I can only imagine how frightening it would have been to be your friend who powerlessly watched you. I think it is worse sometimes to be the one who is watching because the one it happens to is too busy concentrating on getting to safe ground to be afraid at the time. Maybe later, not usually right then.

I have been trying to find that cartoon car that careens around the corners and I cannot find it anywhere. This is the closest I can come to how Ziggy takes the hairpin turns. He swings out and comes back in like that old red car from possibly Woody Woodpecker. We went on two trails in Orick that had those corners cut into the hill. They are so fun to go on; of course they are not steep canyons like up at Granite Lake. Anyway it's in my head and want to find that car because it makes me laugh when Lynn describes Ziggy's long, tall self taking the curves.

It's 100+ outside, so everyone is inside. Dogs are sleeping and sewing machines are running. Lynn is having much more success than me--my latest project is quite disappointing.

I love summer.

Skunked

Well today I broke in my new-had-to-have-it pink bucket. At 5:30 this morning, I was screaming like a banshee as Ziva first stuck her nose in the behind of a baby skunk and then chased the mama all the way to backyard patio. Oh yeah, she did. Then  she came to me with her head hanging and I dragged her into the bathroom where we promptly took a bath in Tecnu. Lynn suggested Listerine, so she also has had Listerine on her face all day. Later I remembered I had some stuff called "Odormute" so I made a bucket full of it and I have been washing her down with it every little while.

So, yep, we stink; but I'm happy I had my bucket.

Do you know this one?

I have always had a record player and when I was little: 5? 6? 7? this was my one of my favorite songs. I had it on a 45. I was singing it to Ziva yesterday and couldn't remember the words. . .

First weekend in July

We have met our match on our lower trail--bees in two places! Lynn, the allergic one, went tromping up the trail where we got into bees last weekend with long distance killing foam; she could hear them, but couldn't find them. So she took her handy-dandy clippers and opened up the other entrance to the trail and we skirted by the bees. Just about where the stump step up is, just short of the first uphill little jaunt begin on the same trail, Lynn yelled, "Go Vicki! We're in bees! Keeping going!" We took off and with Zigs thundering behind us I heard Lynn again, "Don't buck, Ziggy--please don't buck." He got stung on the nose for sure and I'm not sure where else. Possibly under his belly. I think Star got it on the neck because he had a little welt, but I never heard Shirley say anything.

The bees took a little of the enjoyment out of the ride for awhile for me as I kept looking at the ground instead of enjoying the ride. I was worried about the two other places we've seen bees, but thankfully there weren't any. We walked across the tarp again, although only Ziggy will do the shiny one, Star and Jupiter walked on the other one. Coming off the top of Hennessey on the new steep trail, Shirley had her hands full with, "Star! Star! Quit that you old fool!" He went down jigging a little sideways off the very top. I am not sure why--we were all right there. (Although, Shirley did have to get off a couple times because her saddle slipped either forward or backward and had to be adjusted, so maybe that was it.) We bypassed our bottom trail on the trip back and came out on the road, but otherwise we had a fun ride in spite of the bees.

Sunday Lynn asked, "How about we go across the river?" Cool! We haven't been there in awhile--so we drove over to the Denny road and climbed that mountain. Those trails are pretty steep, but it isn't brushy at all. There were no bees, but there wasn't much water for the girls either. I thought it was a fun ride.

We were back by 10, so Lynn opened up her grooming box and two hours later, both the girls were looking beautiful. It's been a nice three-weekend and since summer school is only Tues/Thurs, I get tomorrow off, too! Summer is good.