'Tude

Glad yall liked the last post. :) She is a sweet horse, just... opinionated.

Yesterday I wanted to bring Cersei, so I had to keep the ride short again. I went out midmorning, when it was still in the low 50s (OMG I can't believe it's in the 50s in June, this place rocks!) and did the 5 mile loop by the lake. The grass is still green, so we stopped pretty often and grazed on the way down to the lakeshore. I let Cersei splash around in the water while Dixie grazed until the clouds of mutant overgrown mosquitos found us. We turned to walk back up the short path to the levee and Dixie wanted to dash for home... and when I turned her right to keep going instead of left to head home, she tossed a buck at me!

I immediately yelled "Oh no you did NOT!" and kicked her in the ribs. This is not an approved method of handling a buck, I'm sure, but it worked. I knew she was just being pissy and mare-ish and resistant, not actually confused or hurting. The nice laid-back grazing ride was over and the "get your mind on the job" ride began.

I had her trot the entire way along the levee, except for twice when we stopped and I offered Cersei a chance to jump in the lake. She kept trying to balk down to a walk, so the first four times I just said trot and gave her some leg. The fifth time in about 100 yards she broke gait, I whacked her on the neck with the over and under. She was madder'n hell and started really slinging her head, but she trotted and quit trying to sandbag.

Actually, after the whack she was quite good. I usually let her canter the path beside the road on the way home, but not today. I kept her in a rack or a fast trot the whole way home, and she didn't even pull and ask to run.

A block from home she saw a mini horse and about came unglued. She froze, got huge underneath me, and started snorting. I slipped off and encouraged her to walk to the fence and get a whiff of the mini, then walked her on home. She's definitely seen minis before, but it's been several years.

You really can laze along quite a bit and still hit 5 mph average. I've spent a lot of time obsessing over 5 mph, which is about the slowest you can average and still finish an endurance ride. At first I thought it'd be easy, then I thought it was impossible, then it really was easy and all my times started creeping up in the 6-7 mph range. Now I'm more "whatever" about the short rides, and I'm still riding 5 miles in an hour.

Distressingly, Dixie can trot 9 mph now. She used to max out at 7 or so and then slip into a rack if we went faster. Now she racks and trots at the same speed. I really should take her to a good gaited clinic, but that's a three-part plan: 1) sell yellow trailer, 2) buy slant trailer, 3) magically load calm horse, attend clinic, learn something. I wish she'd rack more, but I'm very happy that she'll just switch between rack and trot on her own - the whole reason I don't discourage any gait is that I figure it must give different muscles a different workout.

Tomorrow there's a brand inspection clinic at the arena. I figure I'll ride over, let her dig holes to China / practice her patience til we get inspected, then head out on a long ride. I think I can find the Moonshine trail again. That's about 15 miles with a lots of hills, a few rocky sections, and some long straight roads to canter on the way home.

Slurp

The wind was blowing absurdly hard this afternoon, so I skipped riding to hang out with Dixie. She's in heat, and she's very sweet this time. She was mutally grooming with another mare when I got there! I don't think I've ever seen her groom another horse. She's way too bitchy and standoffish to consent to something that affectionate.

I fed Dixie and Billy an assortment of treats: cherries (Dixie approves, Billy disapproves), cheerios (both disapprove), pecans (both approve) and carrots (Dixie approves, Billy doesn't care). When I ran out, I hung out with the other humans for a while, then wandered over and hung out with Dixie. She snuffled carefully at my hand, then licked it for a while. I scratched around her ears a bit, which is something she'll sometimes tolerate. Then she twisted her head around so that I was scratching an eye. And she made the happy wiggly-lip face! I think I've owned her for two and a half years, and that is the first time she's made the happy grooming face for me. I don't know if it's just hormones or if she's decided it feels good to be scratched, but I'll take it.

Dixie really does have a lovely soft mouth. Her lips are very gentle when she takes treats, and she likes to lick my hands. She's still Dixie, though - she'd lick for a while, then she'd "bite" as my fingers with her lips, so I'd "bite" back with my fingers. I watched her carefully while she was doing this, and she was giving me a very calculating appraising gaze, like she wanted to make sure the line was where she thought it was.

I'm sure licking is on some list of Things You Shouldn't Let Your Horse Do, but I don't care. I know when her body language is telling me she's going to bite me. I've really emphasized to her that it's ok if she interacts with me, or with other things when I'm around. She was so wary when I got her - just waiting for me to do something that she didn't like, or whack her for no reason that she could understand. We both know the difference between a nuzzle and a head-toss, or a lick and a bite. I'm happy that she's relaxed enough to lick me or play with the lead rope.

A different kind of endurance event

So I'm back from Vegas, and I feel almost entirely human again!

Ok. I can't hack the humidity anymore. I just can't. It was blisteringly meltingly hot in Vegas and disgustingly humid and the air was so thick and smelled so gross. There was nothing more wonderful than getting out of the Reno airport and smelling the cool, clean, thin mountain air! Of course my friends are from the rainy lowlands so they thought Vegas was just hot and I looked like a total wuss... but ~C and Zach would understand, it was nasty and humid and hot!!! down there!

(It was in the low 100s, so I haven't gone totally soft on heat. Just humidity.)

Anyway. We drank a lot of beer - nobody ever got stupid-drunk, but we drank pretty much nonstop. Saw the Mandalay Bay aquarium, the Bodies exhibit, rode the roller coaster at NYNY, ate at some Thai place in the Aria and Bouchon at the Venetian, watched the NHL game, played poker one night, and walked til I thought I'd die. The heat was awful, plus I got an enormous blister. I'm sure I looked pretty wussy, but oh well.

Sunday, after I got back, I napped all day. Yesterday I got a quick ride in with my brand new Toklat Woolback pad. I got the contoured barrel pad with 1/2" wool, so it's a total of 1" thick - about as thick as my old pad. I ordered it (from Sierra Feed) the week before last, and it came in on Friday while I was out of town. Dixie is somewhat suspicious of it - it doesn't smell right, and it's not purple - but it doesn't seem to bother her. More miles will tell, but for now I really like it. I ordered it with velcro openings to hold foam pads if I need more padding, but for now I'm not padding it up.

Our mid-80s heat wave should break tomorrow and it's only predicted to be 71. God, I love this town. I know I should be hoping for hot weather so I can get my horse properly conditioned for it... but just for tomorrow, I'll be glad to ride in the cool.

June conformation

I managed to take proper conformation shots for once! Look, her feet are square. Well. Pretty close to square. As square as they ever are. ;)

I love the look on her face - it's both quizzical and sleepy.


Billy did not approve of me taking Dixie.


Dixie did not seem to care.


Here's a picture of her back. It looks even to me? Her right rear foot is slightly forward of her left rear, and I think that's why her hips are uneven.


I did wash her gross tail after I took the pictures, but I forgot to take more pictures post-wash. Trust me, it was much whiter and fluffier.

* I'm going to Vegas with my BFFs for the weekend, so I've scheduled a couple of posts for while I'm gone. Have a lovely weekend, yall!*

Mountain-orial Day

For Memorial Day, Graham and I took Cersei to a pristine mountain lake, then headed on to Sacramento for some Chick-fil-a. There are a few drawbacks to Reno, and lack of CFA is one of them. :(

Here's the lake we went to:


View Larger Map

It's a hydro dam lake with fishing and camping access. Because we waited til Monday, the crowds had mostly left, and we had a pretty secluded time. Really, we just picked it off a map, but I can't imagine a better lake!

For reference, here's Nevada:


Then within a mile of crossing into California, there's trees!


And that June snow.


Cersei thought the lake was wonderful!


We set up near an intake waterfall.


The whole lake was like something you'd see on a postcard.


Cersei skinned the callous off of her left front pawpad, probably doing something like this. She's much better two days later and I anticipate her release to normal dog duty early next week.


The trees were enormous.


Anyway, we eventually left and headed down to Sacramento. It's the first time I've been back at sea level (well, 500' elevation) since we moved to Reno, and it was very strange. As we went down it got hotter (from 55 to 80) and thicker and ickier. I clearly remember thinking - and complaining! - that there's not enough air up here in the mountains, but I acclimated. Now I think there's too much air down there. Nobody needs that much oxygen. Ick!

The chicken was, as always, the most excellent fast-food chicken you'll ever eat. But we were really glad to head back up into the mountains and back home. As the air got cooler and the temperature dropped, I felt more and more at comfortable. And when we finally did make it through the last 5 miles of one-lane interstate traffic to pop back into Northern Nevada, it felt wonderful to be home again.

* I'm going to Vegas with my BFFs for the weekend, so I've scheduled a couple of posts for while I'm gone. Have a lovely weekend, yall!*

Attack of the boot

Sunday I was way too sunburned to ride again. I did go out and braid Dixie's mane. I wanted to see how they'd last overnight. If I go to Cooley Ranch - or any ride, for that matter - I'd like to braid her mane the day before we leave, when she's still sleepy and laid back and ho-hum about everything. One day ridecamp will be ho-hum, but it's not gonna be this year.

She's mad at Sassy, the bay in the background. How dare that wicked mare stand so close to Her Highness!


I even gave her a Bam-Bam topknot. She was skeptical.


I took the topknot out and left the poor thing to her own devices.

On Monday, my husband and I took Cersei up to a beautiful lake in the Sierras - I'll post pics from that tomorrow. Tuesday I went back and the braids were still in! They looked "slept in" and wouldn't have passed at any show, but the hair was contained and off of her neck. Woohoo!

Then I took Dixie and we did some deliberate conditioning work. We did trot sets up a not-too-steep and not-too-long section of hill. I let her pace downhill, and once she actually hit a fantastic running walk. After we finished the last set and were headed back towards home, a boot attacked! It sprang off her foot and rolled in front of us, clearly coming out of another dimension to attack her. Dixie startled, bucked!!, and tried to bolt off. I hollered and pulled her up, then hopped off and led her back to the boot. She let me strap it back on and stood at a rock for me to remount, but she was hot and spooky on the way home. Poor girl.

I kept meaning to deliberately cause a boot failure in a controlled situation, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I still need to strap one loosely around her pastern and lunge her - I bet that causes another buck!

* I'm going to Vegas with my BFFs for the weekend, so I've scheduled a couple of posts for while I'm gone. Have a lovely weekend, yall!*

Suburban explorer

Hope everybody had a lovely Memorial Day weekend!

Saturday I had a Gillian's Island ride - what was supposed to be a short cruise ended up being twice as long. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I thought I'd take Cersei and go for a quick 5 mile ride down by the lake. I got Dixie to slog through the mud by the lakeshore for a bit, and her boots got totally covered in muck. They stayed on, but we bailed up to the levee pretty quickly - there's a lot of mosquitos by that lake. And I'm not saying that in the "I moved to Nevada and now I'm a wuss about mosquitos" way, I mean that in the "I'm from Memphis and damn, dude, there's a lot of mosquitos there!" way. Those mosquitos are slow moving critters, so if you stay at a trot you'll outrun them most of the time.

We did the usual quarter of the lakeshore, then crossed LV Rd and came back up a hardpacked 4 wheeler path that parallels the road. The footing was pretty terrible but Dixie managed to rack most of the way up to Nectar. There was a lady pulled off the road there, clearly waiting for us, so we rode on up to see who she was. Turns out it was D, a friend of a friend (friend of several unconnected friends, actually), and she realized that I must be me because I was all tacked up in mismatched endurance gear racking on a big spotty horse. There just aren't very many people who fit that description around here ;)

We talked for a bit, and she was like "oh you should come to my house and get the animals a drink of water; it's two blocks up the street; just follow me." I agreed! I'd even been by her house once, with ~C, and I vaguely knew what it looked like. So she drove off and we followed, and then she turned but I didn't quite see where she turned, and I spent the next 45 minutes wandering up and down the streets of the subdivision. It's not even a very big subdivision, so I'm pretty disgusted that I lost her like that. Sigh.

Pro:

• My horse is awesome. She was cool as a cucumber about the dogs, kids, other horses, loud peacock, and general aimless wandering.

Con:

• My horse is kind of a tard and spooked hugely, twice, at cracks in the road. Cracks that looked to my untrained eye exactly like every other crack, but clearly contained a portal to hell or something. Full stop, arch neck, WHUFFFF noise, evil eye.
• I'm kind of a tard and got really sunburned.
• I never found D's house. All the houses started to really look the same after a while. I thought I had her phone number, but I have it somewhere in email, not saved to my phone. I even called ~C to ask her where D lived, but C was off in the boonies of Nevada and didn't answer.

Eventually, the dog and I got really hot so we gave up and headed back to Dixie's subdivision. Once I got on her street, I got kind of confused again - there were tons of trucks parked on the street! And trailers. And some dude riding an Andalusian stud down the street. And ... cows? Turns out the neighbors a block down were having some kind of backyard cow event - roping or cutting or something. It was surreal.