Superride Sunday

Today is Superbowl Sunday, and the agenda for my husband and I exactly reflects our excitement about that fact: he went fishing and I went riding! We both thought, "Hey, people who care about football will stay at home today!" thus making both riding and fishing more peaceful and enjoyable for us.

I got to do one of my favorite things today and that is to ride a horse for an actual purpose. I love any time in the saddle but riding from place to place with an actual agenda to accomplish intrigues me; for example I always wished I lived where I could ride my horse to school and back. That wasn't to be but today I got to ride and get something done. We've been feeding and checking on chickens for the neighbor who's goats we are boarding and my husband was going to drive over and feed them on his way out to the river but I had a brainwave and decided to ride Desire over instead. It's the same route as I take to the Wildlife Area, and the house I had to go to is just over 2 miles farther up the dirt road from the Wildife Area turn off.

Heading out

The neighborhood cemetery--no, seriously!

It was a beautiful ride, blue skies and sunshine, and pretty peaceful. A few cars passed us and there was the usual endless dog barking as we passed some houses, but traffic was certainly down.

I took this from her back--ninja! 

A COW. A SCARY COW.

See one ear going in each direction at the scary water crossing? hehe

I was able to trot the 2.2 mi dirt road stretch up to the house, which had a couple of steep little hills and had Desire puffing when we got to the gate. She couldn't figure out what I was doing when I tied her off to a tree and went to feed the chickens, she was very antsy and trying to keep her eye on me at all times.

My ride, parked at the neighbor's  

Chickens were happy to see me!

 "Srsly, what are you doing in there?"

I gave her a grazing break before we left the neighbor's house but Desire was fired up to get going and kept snatching a bite, circling, snatching a bite, so off we went. We trotted back down the dirt road toward home, with the occasional quick stretch into canter when we reached a clear flat spot--she was really moving nicely!

munching

Walking a downhill we saw a friendly guy taking his trash can to the end of his driveway, and he said hello and admired Desire, earnestly asking "Oh, is she a Mustang?" It was tooooo funny because Desire was being snorty about the trash can dragging noise and was at her tail-in-the-air, arch necked Arab best. Yup, that's my ole Mustang. Hey, I give the guy points for being friendly. It's a funny area, people are either waving, smiling, even wanting to chat when I ride by, or they just stare at me like I have 3 heads.

Heading home

I tried to take photos of the palomino again on the road home but he is always just out of camera range these days.

 Boot fit: I tried one of the gaiter rub solutions I found on the Easycare website. You're supposed to take knee high nylon stockings and pull them on over the hoof and up like you'd pull a stocking on your own leg. Apply your Glove and fold the stocking down and tuck up under the gaiter, thereby eliminating rub risk AND keeping your gaiters from getting filled with horrendous stickers which happens to me pretty often here. I didn't have knee high stockings but I did have some tights. Now of course just cutting tights meant that the cut top of each didn't have elastic in it which resulted in some sagging down, but they didn't actually come undone especially with the ends tucked up into the gaiter and it was freakin awesome to pull them off at the end of the ride and see clean, un-rubbed fetlocks and heels--not to mention clean hooves!

I tucked them in for the ride but pulled them up for the photo 

coz they looked so funny

The tights didn't hold up to it and had little holes tearing in the hoof spots, but they were cheesy cheap tights so hopefully actual nylon stockings will hold up to more than one use. I only murdered one pair of tights today so she only had stockings on her front feet, as they had been the ones getting the worst of the rubbing. I did the slick n' baby powder trick to her hind legs and here is what I noticed. The gaiter that was snug gave her a rub. The gaiter that was slightly looser (we're talking 1/4") didn't rub.


 Saddle fit: I cut one of the long flat shims in half and put that under the saddle over the stirrups leathers, one half on each side, rather than one whole one per side as I had it the other day. The matching dry spots in the back were gone today and it was overall almost an even sweat mark, with only one small dry spot on one shoulder. I also collected her more today and had her work in frame..so. The saddle journey continues.

 I finally had enough warm daylight left today to give Desire a much needed (warm) bath. I didn't get crazy with the shampoo and conditioner but mostly just scrubbed and rinsed her down, though I did wash her mane. It was so yellow it driving me crazy.

 Shake it off!

All cleaned up and having some mash

 Me and my dorky chihuahua, Georgia, hanging out waiting 

for Desire to eat her mash

 Georgia grazing (literally)

After I put miss D away I decided to finally clean up my tack room. Well it's outdoor so it's not really a room, but you know what I mean. Since it's outdoor it gets realllyyyy grungy and full of random crap and it had been a good 6 months since I last cleaned it. I got about three 5 gallon buckets worth of trash and junk out and hosed it down, ahh it looks so much better now.

Tidied up

You should have seen it before...ahh much better!

Another Gorgeous Day

Hey, February is only 3 days old and I've ridden every day, for a total of 33 miles! Hmm well written down it doesn't look like that much but I can tell you for a fact that that's more than I've ridden in 3 days in February than ever before. Guess how it breaks down? 30 miles on Desire and 3 on Blaze! Hahaha. 

What a perfectly gorgeous day it was at the lake. Like N said today, "I can't do anything about it not raining so I'll just enjoy it while it's sunny."  Agreed, and boy am I enjoying it! We took the same route up over the ridge that C and I took Wednesday, though actually went farther and took some of the pretty trails on the dam side of the road, but since C and I had to backtrack looking for my boot the other day the mileage was pretty much the same. It was a beautiful relaxing ride with some nice trotting stretches. Desire was looky-looing at the wood materials as usual--you know stuff like trees, stumps, logs, branches, twigs..she is such a desert horse, Lol.

For whatever reason I had two matching dry spots on Desire's back today after the ride. The same exact set up as I had on Wednesday for the same amount of miles, but that time it was even nice sweat marks and today it was two dry spots that were slightly sensitive! WTH. N mentioned the difference in behavior from that day to this, that being that on Wednesday Desire spent a lot of the time collected and up under herself, whether we were doing that at my request or because she was pitching a fit. Today was long, low, and loose. Hmmm? The dry spots were just behind where the stirrup leathers run, toward the cantle. I noticed two matching dry/matted areas on the saddle pad, SO. 

Gaiter rubs, gaiter rubs. Can a gaiter be too tight? I was under the impression that they should be fairly snugged up. I've got an inquiry out to Global to see if she ever got gaiter rubs before/ideas to deal with them. 

I didn't pack myself a lunch today, per se, but I did bring an apple so hey, that's an improvement. But a word to the wise..don't eat an apple with the hand that you just pulled mucky/thrush-y Easyboots off with. The smelly hand doesn't enhance the apple eating experience in any way, shape, or form.

A little annoyed with my local feed store. They've been out of my EGM pellets for two weeks now and keep swearing it's coming in but then haven't gone to get it yet. I was told my 250 lb barrel would be in today, but it wasn't. End of next week. Grrr. I got a bag of the Bar Ale Distance feed that I fed Blaze all last season because Desire needed a warm mash tonight, darn it! On the plus side I got the okay to park at the boarding ranch that the feed store owners also own, so I can attempt my big loop ride from town to a friend's house and then back around up a huge hill and back out to the road and town. This weather we've been having is PERFECT for that ride because there isn't a whole lot of shade on the dirt roads, so it wouldn't be any fun in the summer. I may just have to have a go at it next week.

 Have to make a decision that will affect the herd and Redheaded Endurance's future here in the next day or two..to add or not to add, that is the question! The mental gears are grinding.

Horse & Friend Therapy

Had a great day out with a good friend that I haven't seen in a while and came home, jumped on Blazey boy bareback and took a relaxing stroll through the neighborhood. Had my camera along to get some pictures of the skinny palomino but the neighbor across the street told me that the very day that I was there talking to the landowners the guy had come over and turned the palomino out into the giant pastures across the street with the 10 other horses that live where HE, the owner, lives. He has a small house by the barn and I know it's not his land or horses, but he lives there and it's taken him this long to let the poor sucker have some chance at grass? The pasture is giant but well grazed down by the horse, llama, and cow herds residing there. I saw the palomino far out on the hillside but couldn't have gotten a picture without a telephoto lens. He was getting chased by one of the horses and kept out of the herd perimeter. Poor sucker. 

It was a beautiful evening. Screaming wind tonight, was blowing even the Bomber around the highway. I hope it dies down for some more miles at the lake tomorrow. 

Is he cute or what!