Unmentionables, Washoe Lake, hooves

So the other day I went and bought quite expensive undies. (Well, expensive for me - I usually just buy six packs of garishly colored Hanes.) I hit REI and found a pair of seamless Patagonias (HT to Liz Stout for recommending them), and a pair of REI brand seamless panties inexplicably marked down to $4.87. All the rest of the purple REI panties were $16.50, but these were $4.87 - and they actually rang up at that price! A 20% off coupon and my dividend made it a very reasonable purchase. I ordered two more pairs of seamless panties from amazon, but those haven't even shown up yet. I wore the Patagonias on today's ride, and they're quite nice. They won't get my official Seal Of Approval until I do at least an LD in them, but so far I really like them.

My friends are putting on a new ride this summer, the Tahoe Rim Ride. They've got a new photographer - not new to photography, but new to endurance photographs. A small group of us met up at Washoe Lake this morning to help her get some practice. We walked, trotted, cantered, and gaited past her in various combinations along a couple of scenic spots in the park.

The taller one with the ski slopes is Slide Mountain. Lake Tahoe is lurking up there just behind that line of mountains.


In preparation, I washed my horse on Thursday! From stinky yellow beast:


To shiny and white:


Ok, to be totally honest, I only washed her mane and tail. It was in the mid-50s, and my well water is also in the mid-50s, and I just couldn't scrub her torso, poor thing. She glared at me and went to sleep while she was drying and getting Cowboy Magic'd, then took off bucking and cantering around when I turned her loose. And she rolled. She rolled FOUR TIMES. Poor put-upon mare.

But it was all for naught! She was still fluffy and white this morning.


She'd just shaken her head - I love the floppy ears.


The pro pics should be up by tomorrow, but I'll spoiler you now: I wore the black tights. I KNOW! But the smileys are very much summerweight, and it was just too cold for that nonsense. I promise, the smileys are going to be worn at the very next warm ride.

My GPS says we went 10.8 miles in 1:45 (moving time - it subtracts out the standing around talking parts). 7 miles of that was dinking around with the photographer. Good practice at being a broke horse - lots of letting others go first, going first, waiting for others, etc. We went in the lake up to her fetlocks and gaited and cantered up and down the shoreline.

Then S and I took off for a little speed work before lunch. S lives down that a way and trains her fabulous racer at the park, so she took me up a seriously winding singletrack through the sagebrush at Mach 10. Well, ok, more like 10 MPH, but it was a blast. It reminded me of exactly why I got a horse to begin with, and how much fun it is to open up on a twisty trail. Dixie racked a bit, but she just couldn't gait quite that fast, so we cantered most of the 4 miles. She wasn't too winded at the turnaround, and she wasn't worn out when we got back to the trailer. This is not the world's most amazing accomplishment, but I'm proud anyway :)

A little sweaty, but not dripping:


We had a very pleasant lunch together - I brought beer and mooched off of everybody else's food. (Sorry I ate all your celery and most of your hummus, M! It was really tasty.) When the wind came up, we all decided it was definitely time to go.

I touched up Dixie's trim yesterday and snapped some pics today, after the barefoot ride cleaned her feet up very nicely. Here's a post from 6 weeks ago to compare photos.

Front left. I guess I could roll the toe back a smidge further. I think (wishfully?) that her heels are a bit wider, and I can't decide if her frogs look better or worse.


Front right.


Rear left.


I will continue on with the purple thrush stuff. Most of her hooves look/smell/feel good, but that one pocket on the outside of the front left is still there. I am pretty tempted to go at her frog with the knife, just to cut back that flap of frog that flops over and covers up the thrush pocket. I knooooow, it's bad and wrong to trim frogs, but maybe this is the equivalent of a hangnail. Hmmm.