25 in Galena: a novel-length post

I cannot figure out what to call this post / this ride. We went up Thomas Creek to the trailhead, then over to Jones/Whites Creek, then over further to Galena Creek Park. So I'm just going to call it the Galena ride!

"You wanna do what?"


All these parks are in the foothills of the Sierras, just north of Mt. Rose Highway, southwest of Reno. A short 40 minute trip from my house, and we actually rode out from C's house! C rode Diego, S rode Taz, I was on Dixie, and despite our best attempts, Jess The Dog busted loose three times to come with us, so C let her come.

We went exploring on the way up - we followed the singletrack along Thomas Creek, then detoured off of that and explored some fire roads, but we couldn't find a horse-safe way to cross Whites Creek. There were some lovely little trails, but they meandered back and forth across 12" wide footbridges. So we kept ending up on boring fire roads and eventually made our way west to the trailheads. There's three trailheads, pretty much in a line running north-south: Galena is the biggest trailhead, with decent trailer parking, just off of Mt. Rose Highway. North of Galena is the little Whites Creek trailhead - good for cars, but not really trailer parking. And maybe a mile north of that is Jones Creek trailhead, which also has trailer parking.

So there's three major trails that run west from those trailheads, along the three creeks then switchbacking up the ridges. There are shorter north-south connector trails between the three creek trails, and there's a few spur trails higher up. We rode south, to the Galena trail, and followed it west and up into the mountains. Our plan was to take the trail over the ridge and then follow the Whites Creek trail back down most of the way to that trailhead, then cut north again to Thomas Creek and follow THAT all the way back to C's. That's probably clear as mud - it's so hard to describe!

The first 10 miles were all new to me. We got to the first good water spot at 10 miles, and I vaguely recognized it - I'd hiked part of this trail, a week after we moved out here! I know you will find this hard to believe, but there was a time when I didn't blog every damn thing I did. :o Anyway, here's some good pictures of the trail from August '09. A lot of this:


The water spot was a creek crossing, ankle-deep on the horses, with some logs for people to walk across. Dixie didn't want any water. I didn't even try to coax her to drink. A ride like that is the perfect opportunity to let her learn from her mistakes - we weren't going fast enough or far enough for her to REALLY get hurt, metabolically speaking, by not drinking right away.

We tackled the climb to the top of the ridge. About 2 miles of switchbacks, not too steep but certainly not easy. (I sure as hell didn't hike all the way up it in '09! Oddly, now that I've been here for two+ years, I think there's plenty of air to breathe, but back then I was gasping just walking across flat ground.) Jess The Dog does not have a firm grasp of the third dimension and was pretty confused by the first couple of switchbacks. Taz would round the hairpin and head on up the trail, then Diego, then Dixie, then Jess would turn around at the hairpin and start back down the trail. I proclaimed her to be The Simple Dog, but after a few switchbacks she figured it out and I had to take it back. She's the Not So Simple Dog.



Near the top, there's a spur trail that leads off to a pond about a mile away, then the main trail continues over onto the north side of the ridge and down to Whites Creek. Dixie was licking her lips and acting pretty regretful on the big climb to the top, so we took the spur toward the pond. There was a little snow patch that the horses calmly squished through, then a slightly bigger snow patch with a hiker on the other side. He said it was only 5 minutes to the pond so we headed across... like dumbasses.

That 50' of snow on the trail was very quickly belly-deep for the horses. It was Taz in the lead, then Dixie, then Dig, and the horses were too close together - once Taz was committed there was no way to stop Dixie or Dig and turn them around. They went leaping through the snow like giant antelope with us trying to keep them where we thought the trail was and somehow we made it to the clear patch safely. We immediately realized we'd fucked up and decided to turn around, but Diego was having none of it. Every time C turned him to face the snow he was like "oh hell no I'm not going back in THERE" and he'd spin back around to face his buddies. The trail was way too narrow for me to try to squeeze Dixie past a spinning Diego, and I don't think any of us really wanted to RIDE it again anyway, so we got off. C lead Dig slowly through the snow - slowly, because if you stepped in the horse prints you sank past your knees, and if you stepped on the tops of the snow you sank slowly to your calves.

I followed, trying to keep Dixie on the trail and not get stepped on, and S brought up the rear. She let Taz go when he started leaping, so I let Dixie go as she got panicky, and both horses charged past Dig and C at the end of the snowbank. I grabbed Taz's lead on his way past me, and S went off at a fast walk toward Dixie. She went about 20', then changed her mind and came back toward us and I snagged her lead too. GOOD HORSES.



We checked them over. Everybody's boots stayed on - Dixie had a toe strap undone. Dixie had one nick halfway up her rear left cannon, but that was it. We were so lucky to do such a dumb thing and get away with no injuries.

Since we were at the top of the ridge anyway, we checked the trail heading down the north side, but we almost immediately ran into a tiny patch of snow on the trail and decided OH HELL NO. So back down the switchback, back to the creek crossing, where Dixie decided that the water was DELICIOUS. A loose stray dog, a pack of day trippers, and a guy on a mountain bike weren't enough to stop her from drinking.

(Another '09 picture)


Dixie led on the way down the steep bit of the trail. She's got a nice fast downhill walk and she usually watches where she's going quite well. Except once, where she tripped on a tiny rock and almost went down. I put out a hand on the dirt to roll off (to the right, for once), realized she wasn't going all the way down, braced everything and leaned back, and up she came again. I sort of shook out my shoulders and thought "did that just happen?", but yes, it did happen - S and C saw it.

We took the same route back north to Whites Creek, then headed west up the Whites Creek trail toward the cutoff to Dry Pond and Thomas Creek. The signs said 0.7 miles to the Dry Pond turnoff, and we'd gone about 0.6 when we saw some hikers coming down. We asked them how far they'd gone, and they said they'd just turned back at a big tree across the trail and they hadn't passed the Dry Pond turnoff, so we turned around.

Back down to the paved road, a quarter mile or so to the Thomas Creek trailhead, a stop for a drink in the creek, and we headed down the singletrack along the creek back to C's house. Once Dixie started drinking, she drank at every opportunity. All the horses enjoyed the early grass. Taz lost a lot of boots going up the switchbacks at high speed, and Dixie lost one for no discernable reason a couple miles from the trailer. We all got pretty sunburned. Jess the Not So Simple Dog was still chasing rabbits at the very end of the ride!

A lovely ride with great company. I got 23 miles on my GPS, but I didn't start the timer immedidately - S got 24.something on hers. So glad I went!

Third time's the charm - longwinded

Yesterday's ride has been really unexpectedly hard for me to write about! I'm super tired, but in many ways it was the best of the three rides, so I'm not sure why this is so difficult.

We did almost 8 miles in 3 hours - we were truly just ambling along in no hurry at all. Here's the map - zoom in and check the terrain and satellite views! I don't really trust my GPS in the trees, but it looks pretty accurate.

View Thomas Creek ride in a larger map

In a delightful change of circumstances, I went and picked up ~C and Diego and we hauled up to a trailhead by her house, off of Thomas Creek. Look at that, it's my horse and my truck and MY TRAILER! Tough call, but I suspect my horse is the prettiest thing in the picture.



We wound slowly up the creek canyon. It was very dramatic - very much what you think of when you think "riding in the Sierras." (And minutes from Reno!)


There was a crappy road and a scenic singletrack trail. We switched back and forth between the two - the road had a more boring view (bad) but fewer horse-eating monsters (good). The trail is popular with hikers and mountain bikers - our horses did just fine together, but I don't think I'd want to ride it alone any time soon.


I quickly braided Dixie's mane in a running braid, just to see how it'd do. It had mostly fallen out in 2 hours, but it was substantially quicker than the viking braids I do for races. Here's the other thing - you see those ears?


I had paying-attention-to-me ears the whole time. She was the calmest, sweetest, most obedient pony I've ever ridden.


I just realized, as I was writing this up, that I hadn't brought Miss Thing her nightly carrots. Sometimes I run out of carrots and bring her apples or pears, and sometimes I have nothing to give her, but most nights, I bring her a couple of carrots.

I don't think I've ever told you this - well, maybe I did at the very beginning of this blog, but I think Sara's the only person who was still reading that long ago. Anyway, I had no good reason to buy Dixie - I had three perfectly good horses and she cost more than all three put together. My friends tricked me into looking at her - Jen said that Jody wanted her to buy one of Jody's horses and let's go look at her. We walked in the stall with this absolutely wild-eyed spazzed-out show horse and I immediately knew that Jen didn't need or want this kind of horse. And then I realized that it was a setup, and they wanted me to look at her, but it was too late for me to walk away. Dixie gave me this fearsome glare, the kind that said "You! Human! Get me out of here." I've told yall that before, but here's the part I never told: I scratched her neck, and her face softened and she made silly faces for me. So I bought the stupid horse. It took almost three and a half years for me to pay her off. It took almost four years for us to get comfortable with each other. I've ridden her almost a thousand miles. And now, this year, she's finally started making the silly faces for me again.



It's not for lack of trying, either. She doesn't like to be touched, and for years every time I'd scritch her withers or her neck or her tailhead she'd move away. Or she'd purse her lips and endure it. It was heartbreaking, over and over. I started to think I'd imagined her ever wanting to be scratched. Finally, slowly, in 2011, she started to warm up to me a tiny bit. She'd lick my hands and, I swear, give me a hopeful look. I am dense, but I finally realized that maybe she would permit me to scratch her withers? Yes. Yes, human, you may scratch me.



So yesterday, after two hard scary days of riding, I went and haltered Dixie and loaded her in MY TRAILER and took her off with Diego. And she gave me "what next?" ears, the whole time. We led Dig past scary mountain bikes and scary dogs, and he led her through scary rushing burbling running creeks. We walked up tiny singletrack along steep canyon walls, through old snowbanks. I hopped off and led her whenever I felt like it, because I knew she'd stand still (just long enough) for me to remount. And the whole time I felt like she was listening to me and asking "what next?"



And tonight I brought her carrots, and she gave me the hopeful look, so I opened the gate and slipped inside to scratch her. It's freezing (literally! IN MAY!) but her mane kept my fingers warm. I spent a good twenty minutes scratching her. She is a jealous beast - she charged Cersei and ran her off from us - but so gentle and polite with me. I love that horse.

I can canter and eat

Had a lovely long ride on Dixie today with the Reno Endurance Bloggers Coalition. You know how with a horse you slog along without making any discernible progress for months or years, then all of a sudden you realize that you have been making progress? Today was one of those days. Dixie was such a pleasure.

She was easy to catch and patient while I braided her mane. She still hasn't quite gotten the hang of my at-home mounting system (a 5 gallon bucket), but she was ok with it. She quit acting a fool and got to work almost immediately, within a quarter mile. We rode over to the arena, where a couple of western riders were cantering in the small pen and the flag team was doing something in the big arena, and she didn't spazz out. I hopped off, tightened her girth, led her over to the short fence I use to mount, and she lined right up at it.

Then we rode out and met up with Zach and ~C, and she acted a terrible fool and got their horses all riled up, but we got everybody settled again. Z and C had set out from Palomino Valley that morning, and I met them at the far south end of their ride and rode back up the valley with them. I'd whacked the button on the GPS when I got back on at the arena and I didn't notice for about 3 miles, so my GPS info isn't complete. My GPS shows 20.13 miles in 3:35, but let's call it 23 miles in 4 hours (5.75 mph).

We had a lovely ride up through Hungry Valley to Palomino Valley. About a third of it was totally new territory for me and Dixie, and about half of it was further than we usually ride. We rolled along at about 7 mph, with lots of stops to think about drinking from mud puddles, pick up lost boots, stare at cows, etc. 7 mph is a tough speed for me - it's too fast for Dixie to walk, and too slow for her to gait, so it was allll trot. But it's very sustainable for her, so it's good in groups.

It was a beautiful warm-ish sunny day, so there were lots of people out recreating. Mostly dirt bikes, but we saw some four wheelers and a few target shooters. The horses were all quite calm about the zooming bikes :) The cows, on the other hand... We were riding in between a little hill on the left and a range of big hills on the right (I am sure there are technical terms for hills but I don't know them) and I noticed some cows just hauling ass on the other side of the little hill. A little herd of cows just full on galloping, for no reason that I could see. We kinda shrugged, then stopped to pick up a boot that had come off, and the damn galloping cows came galloping around the other side of the hill. Everybody froze. The cows stared at us with their beady cow-eyes and the horses stared back with huge bug-eyes. ~C was the hero of the day - she calmly walked up behind the cows, leading Diego (who was only very slightly bug-eyed), and purposefully pushed them on out of the road. I convinced Dixie to go with her, because I really think if she ever realizes that cows will run from her she'll be much more happy around them. The cows snorted and trotted across the road and up into the big hills and all was well again.

We chugged on up to pretty close to Zach's when I decided I should turn back. I'd been watching the clock and the sun, and I figured if I turned around there I'd just make it home before real-dark. I said bye to Z & C, turned Dixie around, and said "take me home!" She trotted off without a second glance back at the other horses :)

I have been lead to believe that it is also important for the rider to take care of herself, so in an effort to do that I a) ate 3 eggs before I left and b) brought some cheese and salami (and of course fruit roll-ups) with me. I was too busy talking to think about it before, but when I turned around to head back solo I thought I should eat some food. I was noshing on cheese and trotting along quite merrily when Dixie suddenly realized she was alone. She let out an enormous bellow and broke into a canter. I stuffed the rest of the piece in my mouth and thought "Man this is way easier than eating while trotting." Apparently I have an iron stomach.

Dixie got a little nervous being in a completely strange place all by herself, but she seemed to realize that we were actually headed for home. She got a little choppy in the "new" part of the valley, but she didn't fall to bits being all alone and tired and surrounded by cows wolves with horns. We just plugged along, a bit slower than the trip out. I was really kind of proud of her for trusting me. :)

There's a big fence dividing the northeast half of the valley from the southwest. There are a couple of coops over it, for the hunt, and at least three wire gates that I know of. When we'd headed out, we'd come through the middle gate, which was open, then cut downhill / east to the main road. I came back down the main road and the gate by the road was closed. I just couldn't face getting off and opening the gate there, because there are no convenient boulders and my horse is at least 17 hands after 10 miles of riding. So we turned and headed up the hill to the open gate.

The problem with that plan was soon apparent. More demon cows. Hornéd monsters! There were four on my side and two on the side I needed to get to. Dixie froze. The cows froze. I kept talking to her, then cussing her, then finally I had to whack her with the over & under I carry to get her feet unlocked. When she finally took a tentative step toward the gate, the cows took a tentative step back. I kept talking and cueing her to walk for each step. The cows backed up then fled, and Dixie made a really uncertain dive through the gate and took off. I guess the cows were running from something even worse that was sneaking up behind us? Ahh well, it was progress.

We steadily rocked on home and the sun steadily sank. I had a couple of moments of "what normal person would do this? What's wrong with just a trail ride??" but mainly it was totally blissful. The shadows get so harsh at sunset, and the birds were singing, and everybody else had left so I felt like I was the only person on the face of the planet. I was "hearing" when Dixie got tired or caught her breath, and suggesting that she walk or speed up, and she was just moving along on a loose rein, all in tune with me. Right as the sun dipped behind Peavine, we came to a crossroad we've ridden through a million times before and Dixie realized exactly where we were. All of a sudden she kicked back into gear, and we roared the last couple of miles out of the valley in this awesome nonstop shifting combination of trot, pace, rack, and canter.

My usual route home isn't super-direct, because I need to give a wide berth to the sand pit where the dirt bikes play. But I watched pretty steadily as we came down the slope, and I could only see one truck parked out there, and I couldn't hear any motors. It would save about 15 minutes if we just cut through there... so when Dixie pulled to turn into the sand pit, I let her. We are the champions! We have done what precious few other Lemmon Valley riders have ever done and lived to tell about! We rode the sand pit!

It was actually awesome. Great footing, not wooped out, no rocks or potholes. There's big steep hills, but they can be avoided. I highly recommend riding the sand pit if you think you can get away with it.

Dixie continued her amazing streak of good behavior. I tossed a blanket on her while she ate her handful of grain and I unbraided her mane, then I left her tied while I put hay out in the feeder. She was clearly ready to go - she backed to the end of the rope and turned to stare at me when I headed to the barn for the hay. I yelled "stay there" and by god, she stayed there. No pawing or hissy fits or even lip-flapping to try to untie the rope. Such a lovely horse she's turned out to be.

I am so glad I stayed the course with her.

*Not* hit by a truck!

So ~C and I had a wonderful long ride yesterday. She led us on the Moonshine ride loop, up through medium hills and smallish canyons with killer views of the city and the big mountains. Everything was very green, if you've been in Nevada at least six months. Otherwise I suspect you'd call it "greyish green." I got my first sunburn of the year, and not even a bad one.

Dixie had a major meltdown about a stump. Not even a particularly weird looking stump, but she freaked completely out about it and had a really hard time calming back down. Sigh. Then a couple miles further up the hills, we had a close encounter with a dirt bike, and she was a total rock star. This guy on a blue bike in all-blue gear rode up and cut the engine about 100' from us, then immediately started talking ("Is that Lemmon Valley behind you?"). We rode the horses near him and talked back, and the horses decided it was just another weird thing that humans do. He asked what Dixie would do when he started the bike, and I grinned and said "Let's find out!" What she did was nothing - a tiny shiver, but she stood her ground and watched him ride off. It was textbook-perfect.

Stumps are evil. Blue bikers are cool. :rolleyes:

We did about 15 miles in boots, but when we stopped at the cattle trough, we took them off. They just make for a slightly bouncier, slightly off ride. Dixie's little 8 mph trot is almost a jog without boots, but it's sproingier with them on. She doesn't rack til about 9 mph, and we never went that fast - Dig is still trying to find his fast trot.

My total ride was 19.48 miles - C's was a bit shorter, because I rode to and from the arena. It was a really slow, comfortable ride, and the horses never got tired. I definitely think they could've gone back out after a bite to eat at the trailer, and I'm not at all worried about Washoe anymore.

I was reeeeally tired when I got home last night, so I crashed early. I feel totally fine today. Not like I got hit by a truck at all! The sunburn is pink but it doesn't hurt or itch, my knees aren't creaky, my legs don't hurt - I could ride again. Maybe 2 days isn't such a dumb idea!

I'm back

Not that I went anywhere; I just quit posting for a couple days. I have tons of catchup to do on yall's blogs, but I figured I'd write this first.

Last Thursday, I did the mines with C on Mama. I took Cersei and my gun - I figured two people and two horses would keep the coyotes away, and if not I'd shoot one and then hike home to catch my horse. Fortunately, they'd eaten - we found two piles of feathers from slow moving birds. We didn't see anything and we had a nice ride.

Friday ~C and I trailered over to Hungry Valley and did a nice long ride. Usually you drive through a cattle gate and park off to the side of the open range and ride out from there - but there was a muddy hill down to a very small lake (or very large puddle) then a muddy hill up to the cattle grate, and we didn't think we could make it. As we were riding over to the cattle grate, a guy in a little 2x4 pickup barely made it through the puddle-lake and up the hill, so we made the right call. Buuut... we still had to get through the cattle grate.

There was a tiny space on the left where a horse could probably squeeze through, between a wooden post and a steel post and over a small boulder. Crysta investigated it throughly... and Diego decided it was a trap. He was totally convinced he couldn't squeeze through it. She asked if I wanted to try it, so I hopped off and confidently led Dixie straight up to it and through it... taking the wooden post with us. It got hung on her stirrup and broke off at the base - it must've been dry rotted pretty badly. Woops.

With his buddy on the other side - and the opening enlarged - Diego came through pretty quickly. ;)

We mounted up and rode pretty slowly toward the hills on the other side of the valley. The roads through the valley were pretty sloppy - that nasty sand and silt that gets slimy when it's wet. And they were wet! At one point I was riding on the left, just off the slippy road, when Dixie decided to drift over onto the road. I cued her to please turn left and get off the road, and she did that super annoying thing where she turns her HEAD left and her FEET keep going right. I was just getting ready to kick her in the ribs when wham down she went. She turned her neck and gave me this look like "WTF just happened?" and I said "You idiot, that's entirely your fault!" Then while I was trying to decide if I should hop off she scrambled back to her feet. She seemed fine, so we kept on keeping on.

Both the horses got excited when they saw the cows. Diego got all tense and spooky and Dixie's head came straight up and she got tense. I rode Dixie in tight little circles around the sagebrush til she quit worrying so badly and we proceeded on. Most of the cows wandered off when we got to the edge of their flight zone - except for the friggin longhorn who didn't want to stop licking salt! We had to ride between her and the rest of her herd! I think we were both ready to run if she got upset, but she didn't.

We rode up a hill and took pictures. Looking south:


Crysta and Diego:


Me and (dirty) Dixie:


The skeleton of a couch menaced Dixie on the way up - it was hiding behind a tree, waiting to eat her. I made her show no fear and walk calmly past it, and it didn't pounce. When we got to the top of the hill, we got off and walked down - it was a steep descent, still snowy, and pretty wet.

On the other side of the hill, we saw a bunch of junk. It made me feel at home! There's rednecks everywhere :) There was a modern art display of one new tire (on a rim), one old CRT computer display (with a bullet hole in it), and one 80s deep freeze. The horses didn't look twice at it, but Crysta and I both got kinda creeped out by the fridge. There could be a zombie, or a murder victim, or 400 lbs of rotten elk, or who knows what in that thing. We got by it as quickly as we could walk. A few yards down the hill, we passed a pile of dead TVs (with bullet holes in them). Near the bottom of the hill is apparently a popular place to shoot - there were hundreds of casings and broken clay skeet.

Once we got off the hill, it was back to untouched high valley. We decided the roads were too sloppy and wandered cross-country back to the truck. And Dixie got lost! You know how horses usually know where the trailer is? She lost it. We could see the truck and trailer, but she didn't notice it or something and kept wanting to head further north.

When we got back to the (broken) fence, Dixie did not want to go back through it. After all, it grabbed her last time - and we weren't even going to the trailer (according to her)! I let Crysta go first then managed to sweet-talk my brave girl through. I gave Dixie her post-ride apple as soon as she was through - I was very proud of her.

I thought it was a beautiful ride (scary chest freezers aside), and I'd love to go back when the trails dry up and we can move faster than a walk. We did 9.64 miles in 3:22 - sucky, I know, but that includes conquering the cattle gate both times, and only walking.

I gave her the weekend off, then did hill work today. Dixie rocks - I let her walk down hills and pushed her to trot or walk fast up hills, and she did 5.82 miles in 1:30, a 3.8 average. (That includes moseying the last half mile home very slowly and then forgetting to turn off the GPS til after I wormed her and fed her an apple. It's closer to 4 mph if I discard the last lap.) She was sweaty as all get out, but it was (relatively) warm and sunny and she recovered nicely. I let her trot down some slight inclines - I don't want to strain her legs, but I want her to start to figure out how to keep her balance at speed going downhill. So we trot down slight grades on sand. Our total elevation change was about 2500', so it was Serious Hill Work.

Today Crysta inspired me to get the myGarmin thingie set up. Here's today's ride and Hungry Valley. I spent way too much time playing with my data on there.

Lazy holiday!

I'm not merely neglecting my blog, I'm neglecting all of my friends' blogs and my horse and the kitchen too.

Thursday we had a private Thanksgiving feast. I thought it was partially really nice, not having to go anywhere or get dressed up, and partially really lonely, for the exact same reasons. My husband loved it - he can't really relax if he's got Something To Do coming up, so holidays are usually very tense for him. (Me? I can sleep on anybody's couch if I'm full and there's football on!)

We didn't do turkey. I have actually never cooked a turkey! Ever! They're so big, and so inherently bland. The biggest bird I've ever cooked was a goose for Christmas a couple years ago. I'd be willing to try a wild turkey, or maybe a small free-range heirloom bird, but not a grocery store turkey. That's because turkey is vastly inferior to the traditional alternative, HAM. I made a brown-sugar ham, mashed potatoes, ham gravy, green beans, and rolls - all homemade, of course. I meant to take a picture but by the time the last few pieces came together I'd forgotten all about it.

After stuffing myself, I promptly fell asleep on the couch listening to the ballgame. Ahhh, now that's Thanksgiving.

Friday's weather was overly dramatic. It was in the 50s when I headed out to see Dixie at noon, but there was snow coming in by 4. WTF? ~C trailered out with Diego to ride with us, which was totally cool for everybody concerned. Diego got to see scary new things, and C got to see my nice trails, and Dixie got a buddy, and I got good conversation. Cersei got to scare the pants off poor Diego, too - SIGH.

I had an internal timer going - I wanted to get back with the horses in time for them to cool down and dry off completely before the wind really picked up, and for me to get down the mountain and headed home before the snow started. I figured we'd have plenty of time to do the Mines slowly, and we actually did. Unfortunately I (accidentally) turned off the GPS at 1.61 miles, but we did about 3.5 miles in maybe 1:20.

Diego started out doing that Arab Tigger thing, and Dixie wasn't exactly modeling calmness either. I think she suspects she can't outrun him. My theory is that Dixie likes having other horses around because you don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than your friends. Anyway, Diego was pretty bouncy so C led him til his tail went down, then rode, then walked, etc. He's doing that green horse thing where he's much, much happier if his human is in front being the bold leader, rather than up on his back. I have walked more miles than I (redneck that I am) care to admit in front of my own silly mare!

Dixie really thought we should run home when we turned the "magic corner." I had to get up in her mouth more than I like, but she didn't actually even break to a trot and I didn't have to circle or yell or get frustrated and get off - she listened! Once I got her attention, it was just miles of constant half-halts, which is tiresome to ride but effective. It was very good for both of us - we both like to go fast, but she is not in TWH race training.

I forget that other people don't ride with small yellow dogs on a constant guard circle. Cersei popped up behind Diego in a canyon at one point and the poor fellow jumped straight up in the air and bucked once. Luckily C was leading him, and to his great credit he settled right back down. I made sure to keep Cersei on point after that!

It was a very good ride. We live an annoying distance apart - it takes about 45 minutes for C to trailer up to Spanish Springs - but hopefully we'll keep riding together once a week or so!

Everything went perfectly according to my timer - we got the horses cooled off before the wind got too bad, and I got home right as it started to snow. I took some pictures of the Overly Dramatic Weather from the grocery store parking lot on the way home - these are like an unstitched panorama.

Looking west:


South:


Southeast (with bonus seagull!):


A snow cloud ate Peavine! Our apartment is at the very base of the peak you can barely see.



It snowed an inch that afternoon, then NOTHING. Graham and I were all excited because the weather swore up and down we'd get 1-3" overnight. We got nothing!

Yesterday was very lazy. I read two books and ate a lot of tangerines. Today I'm getting back in the saddle!