Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Spring rambling

We're back in a period of absolutely beautiful weather here, and I've had two more lovely rides. A few thoughts:

I love that pommel bag. I've started carrying water for the dog in one bag and the camera in the other bag. And I figured out a clever way to strap the GPS on the pommel with some carabiners and the bag straps! Carabiners are just as important as vet wrap and duct tape, and they don't get enough credit, IMO.

I think the boots are working out ok. She seems to move ok in them - up and down hills like a mountain goat, and she can canter in them. I made sure the pastern straps were way looser today and didn't have any rubs.

I've been looking through the USGS maps, and I have some names for places. Today we went up in the Coyote Hills. Here's a view back over the lake toward Peavine:
More Peavine



This picture from over the weekend is of the Petersen Range. It's just west of Red Rock Road, right on the CA state line Apparently the easiest way to get there is from Hallelujah Junction, California, and you can dig for opals and smoky quartz. Cool, huh?
Petersen Range

I've been taking pictures of the wildflowers, too. It's amazing how the greeny-grey boring sagebrushy desert has exploded in blooms of different sizes and colors. I'm going to keep adding to the set - there's a blood-red shrub I haven't snapped a picture of yet, and a bright purply-pink flower with blooms the size of pencil erasers.

Still haven't remembered to work on the trot-out. Oh well.

6 comments:

  1. LOVE the wildflower photos! Nice! And I like how you arranged them into a set. I'm going to have to figure out how to do that for my prairie flowers.

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  2. Great flower pix--and mountain pix too!

    Caution about carrying the camera in a saddlebag (even on a gaited horse): the "jiggling" can really scramble the mechanics of a digital camera. I've bolluxed two cameras that way.

    They last a lot longer in a fanny-pack attached to my bum, which apparently jiggles in an electonically non-threatening way.

    WV: nonaliza
    she ain't smiling

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  3. I would love to have landscape like that to ride on, and flowers like those to snap pictures of.

    Your pictures are always so gorgeous!

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  4. You live in some beautiful country!

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  5. Neat Fund.. Good rides..liked the loop on the one. So glad you have Spring..she is elusive here yet...wettest in 30 years the say..great!
    Your flowers are cool! I keep thinking i will do that for my trails and I have been so lazy, not wanting to stop!

    Can't remember what boots you are using again? Went out yesterday, road riding was a dream(I have Delta boots on backs) and then got to the trails...I almost took pics'(again lazy) of the foot long slides she now does in her hinds. I may consider..Easywalkers...all around!She is so much more relaxed.
    Have a great wkend!
    KK

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  6. A good pommel bag is useful. Mine is an import (Snug-Pax) made in your part of the world.

    Karabiners are good, but baler twine is the best thing. It's held up the trousers of generations of farmers!

    I've got through a couple of digital cameras on a horse. I think that being kicked really wasn't good for the first. Now I try to wrap them up well.

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