Housework and Horse"work"

I have been struggling with creativity on my post titles lately; I keep trying to use "tails" and "tales" in some clever way for a post title, which in itself should tell you just how impaired my creativity is at the moment. Fortunately said impairment is thus far limited to typing, as we've been quite creative on the home front lately. This past week we installed a new hardwood floor in the kitchen:

We also*finally* cleaned out and redid the long planter box running along the side of the porch that has mostly been a weeds/large dog hangout station since we bought the place. It is now currently full of lovely rich dirt and will soon play host to whatever shade-loving plants we decide upon. We are also in mid-repair on the corner of the lawn next to the planter bed where a single small plastic pond liner had been sitting, now turned into 3 small ponds with a waterfall effect, soon to have a retaining wall and and some landscaping in to complete it:

Working on the home base is always a good thing, but so is riding horses! Yesterday morning Desire and I headed to the lake to meet N and Willow. 

My dignified mare..

 Where we live in the foothills, only about 20 minutes haul from the lake, we often have different weather than down in the valley. I had heard about fires burning a few hours north but up at our house there was no visible sign of the fires. At the trail head the sky was mostly blue, but looking out through the tress over the lake: Smoke!

 N said the smoke was pretty bad where she lived; it's scary that it's barely May and it's already so dry, with fires, heat, and wind already making headlines. I'll freely admit I'm not adjusting all that well to getting stuff done in the near 90 degree temps. The forecast calls for a 20 degree drop and a chance of showers in the next few days though, just enough to really confuse everyone's systems!

Yay, Willow is arriving!

 Peeking Willow and N's awesome new tights

 Out on the trail the sky started out blue but smoke was obscuring the foothills looking out over the lake. Not good! Still the trails were beautiful as always..

 The spillway is really flowing! 

 Desire was *starving* this whole ride and could barely be bothered to walk or trot for the trying to eat

 Yes I am bribing her with a carrot to get anything besides listening-to-spillway-roar-behind-us ears--semi successfully, I might add

 Neither of the mares drank until we climbed back up to the visitor center but was only about 11 miles in 3 hours, so not an unreasonable span. Still there was a lot of sweaty, foamy, stinky grey mare to go around!

Desire is still shedding out the very last of her winter goat disguise and the combination of shedding hair, sweat, sunscreen, fly spray, dirt, etc we were both covered in...well. Most of the time I am okay with being grungy especially when dressed and prepped for the occasion but there are still moments that it's all a bit much. Also, the flies are particularly bad all of a sudden and Desire has already started getting little sores on her back and belly from the bug bites. Apparently it's time to up everything to full summer heat and bug protocol! But wait it's going to rain in 3 days..

Ah, Northern California :)

 Moving the hay net in the trailer manger uncovered this contribution from our chickens. Omelette anyone?

A Friday Ride

This morning Desire and I headed south about 45 minutes to our friend J's house. I loaded my tack and Desire into J's trailer with her mare Sedona and we headed for Folsom Lake! It was a beautiful cool morning but was probably at least 85 by midday. Not hot but continually surprising for April! The trail head was fairly busy when we pulled in but we backed into a nice spot and saddled up to cruise the trails together for the first time in months.

Steed: ready

J kind-sorta knew where we were going, but the lake was higher than when she was last there so we sort or meandered and wandered and turned around a few times, eventually settling on a route out to Avery Pond and back that we had ridden together last year sometime.

So I think we go over here and..wait..well maybe..hmm, let's check around the corner.. ;-)

 Folsom Lake is just gorgeous this time of year! The Lupines are vibrant against all the bright green and deep blue. The trails were shady which is always ideal, and that route from Sterling Pointe trail head is pretty friendly footing overall.

 Through the Lupines..

 Happy :)

Winding along next to Folsom Lake

 Desire did really well today! With my tumultuous last few months I hadn't hardly ridden her, but she was looking fantastic cruising around pasture showing off when I was mowing the barn field yesterday. She her usual business-like but eager self, cruising down the trail with a peppy clop-clop in her 4 Renegades. After riding uphill after crossing a mucky spot we had one hind boot twist today, but that was it and pretty good considering they were a random 4 boots (her size but not adjusted), she hasn't been out in a while, and there were some tight spots on the trail for a fast moving, clumsy mare. There was lots of heavy stump, stone, and culvert eyeballing as usual, it really makes me laugh that she is still so persistently Snorty at 17 years old! She makes me roll my eyes a lot, but also smile a lot.

Something is coming to eat us, I just know it!

 Desire sure takes good care of herself. Of course I am still attentive to her and takes necessary measures but it's really a load off the mind when your horse naturally takes good care of itself in the important ways. Compared to Blaze she is such a breeze. Grabbing bites of grass, pooping, peeing, drinking out of mucky puddles--and going totally quiet and relaxed when we stopped for lunch and were done with the ride. The important stuff, when it counts! A great mare.

Relaxing at lunch

She drank greedily from this mud puddle

 After a tasty lunch packed by J we headed back for the trailers. There are some nice spots for trotting along the shady trails, it's definitely a close 2nd behind riding at Lake Oroville I think.

 So much bright yummy green!

Actually the amenities are a step above Oroville, since there are not only troughs but a HOSE at the trail head--now that is luxury! Mucky, sweaty Desire, after MUCH spraying and scrubbing off at the trail head:

 An hour later, back home in the barn yard after further scrubbing, and with incautious tiny mutts underfoot..

 Here is my mini Doxie pup Rip, now almost 7 months old! Such a goofy good hearted guy.

 My highbrow ice queen little Kodiak Doxie pup deigned to snuggle with me since I was gone all day :)

 Desire is happy to be home in her paddock with more FOOD on the way..

 When I turn on the hose, Kodiak dives under it, and then runs for the nearest dirt hole and goes muddin'

A Balmy Lake Ride

Blaze and I finally made it out to the lake trails this morning for the first time in literally months! It was a glorious, exciting, nostalgic, familiar feeling to be cruising my rig out to these trails that I've spent hundreds of miles on with my horses in the last few years. Life is definitely GOOD when I'm getting to spend a gorgeous week day on the trails with a good friend and our steeds!

My Blazey boy, eagerly looking for an equine buddy at the trailhead 

 We met up with N and Willow and had a pretty darn relaxed 12 mile cruise that took a full 4 hours. After highs some 30 degrees lower not even weeks ago, today it had to be at least 80-85 degrees, with a hot, sometimes gusting wind that seemed to be coming from many directions at once. Not entirely comfortable weather and certainly not in April! Still, the trails are gorgeous, the sky was blue, and the horses were safeish, sound, and *mostly* moving forward.

N and I caught up over the miles and we had a few nice trots on the shady horse camp trails. Willow's occasional uncertainty and Blaze's lackadaisical--read FarmPlugNearDeath--walk made for a maddening couple of miles after the turnaround that had N and I wondering aloud if we'd get back to the trailers before dark. I think Desire and Willow are a much better combination for trail rides; Desire's bold forward march keeps Willow confident and things moving along pretty efficiently, generally. I hope to have time to ride Desire tomorrow, speaking of, and might be getting out to a new riding spot with a friend on Friday! 

It was great to be back on the lake trails with my Blazey boy, who ate, drank (at the very last water), pooped, and even peed out on the trail, though I'm pretty sure he was trying his best to hold his pee til back at the trailer. About a half mile out he all of a sudden dove into the grass and took a pretty epic pee. He had plenty of chances to do it before then as we stopped on the grass a few times and were generally meandering on a loose rein, but he has that annoying habit of holding it if he can.

I brought a baggie of carrot bites for him to reward his peeing and drinking, and keep his gut sounds going. 12 miles isn't a long ride but he doesn't ever take quite as good care of himself as Desire and I need to get and keep myself in the habit of being aware of that and compensating for it. I figured the sudden hot temps and trailering out after a haitus earned him some snacks, anyway ;-) I do enjoy my Blaze, he's just my goofy fat little guy, so good natured even in the hot winds after time off.

It's great to be back on the trails and I can't wait to get to my first endurance ride of the year. We're tentatively planning on Cache Creek which is on my birthday weekend in early May again this year. It's only a few weeks out though and I'm still waffling..we'll see!