Today is Thursday and we're heading into the 4th of July weekend. Summer appears to be thinking about it - I actually took my sweatshirt off for a while during paddock cleaning today. The mud is almost gone now and if we have a few more dry days, the paddocks will be completely dry.
I did get a nice ride in on Galen today. It wasn't a trail ride, as I'm mom the taxi driver right now, but some dressage in the arena was very satisfying. Our crowning achievement today was a shallow loop of counter canter. He held his rhythm and most of his relaxation and I didn't drop the ball either. Big grins all around. I also lunged Danny a bit and will start riding him again very soon. I think he's going to be great fun and arena work doesn't seem to be boring to him (unlike Galen!).
Monica and I are also planning some photo and video days, once we have slightly more sunshine to work with. Have to get some of Scooter before he gets gangly!
I'm hoping our neighbors don't feel they need to have fireworks wars - last year I swear that between 2 neighbors, we had over 2 hours of continuous fireworks. I know small towns without that much! Fireworks don't seem to bother the horses much - they just comment on the weirdness of humans- but they sure stress me out. I guess we'll see!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Working on the website!
I've been taking advantage of our cold, gloomy, rainy, yucky weather to update my website. It's not quite done, but with over 70 pages on it, changes can take awhile. I'm going to add another blog to my sale horse page, so that I can do updates quickly. That way, when we come out with new photos or videos, I can post them right away. Or, that is the theory!
Galen thinks I should be riding him and even though he's out on a pasture with his absolute best friend, he's let me know that I am sorely abusing him. We'll see what he says when we get back to work (probably, 'it's about time!'). Our next planned ride is Renegade and I hear that it's very hilly. This should be a bit of a challenge for us, as Galen prefers flat land. We've done a lot of conditioning this year at Lord Hill, so we'll see what happens. I'm going to stick to the LD, and we'll go from there. The kids are now out of school, so my time is going to be a bit more limited, but I'm hoping to make it to a few more rides this year.
So, off to pick up kids now and that website update should be up in a day or so.
Galen thinks I should be riding him and even though he's out on a pasture with his absolute best friend, he's let me know that I am sorely abusing him. We'll see what he says when we get back to work (probably, 'it's about time!'). Our next planned ride is Renegade and I hear that it's very hilly. This should be a bit of a challenge for us, as Galen prefers flat land. We've done a lot of conditioning this year at Lord Hill, so we'll see what happens. I'm going to stick to the LD, and we'll go from there. The kids are now out of school, so my time is going to be a bit more limited, but I'm hoping to make it to a few more rides this year.
So, off to pick up kids now and that website update should be up in a day or so.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Klickitat Trek, 2010
It's hard to believe it's already been over a week since Klickitat! As usual, we had a fabulous time, although there were a few little blips in the general bliss.
We got there on Thursday, as on Friday we had a date to go see two youngsters that were bred here at Cascade Gold. Suyji was now 2 and Mazaly now 3. We drove down to Glenwood through pouring rain, hoping the weather was going to cooperate for our weekend. We've had so much rain in Western Washington this spring, I think I'm developing webs between my toes. We arrived at camp around 8 pm (had to wait until Wendy was off from work to leave home) and were all set up and in the camper by 9. It was still pouring and we were very, very grateful for the camper. I think tent camping would have been pretty miserable! All night long we listened to drumming rain and the heater coming on. Our horses were out under trees, all with their blankets on. (This is June 3rd!). The next morning, the skies were starting to clear and we got ourselves all ready for our trip to Catrina's place. She and her mother, Mary, came and picked us up, as my truck as pretty tied down with the camper and trailer. We got a tour of gorgeous canyons, rolling plains and windmills on our way to their place. They're in Centerville, WA, which is around 40 minutes from Glenwood. Probably not that far milewise, but the twisty roads make it take a bit longer than you'd think. We admired Suyji, now a strapping young lad and Mazaly, who was telling him where to go and how to get there. All their horses looked as if they were enjoying the huge pastures and after some photo taking, we met a bunch of their goats and learned all sorts of neat things about CSAs and windmills. I expect to see Catrina and her horses out eventing within a few years - they just need to grow up a bit first. We then headed back to the camp, where we vetted in and went for a nice, late afternoon ride.
Saturday morning dawned...sunny! Although we had our rain gear along, I'll take sunshine anyday. I get enough rain at home! Wendy went off for the 50 with our camp neighbor David LeBlanc, and I headed out two hours later for the 30. Until I figure out my problems, I'm going to stick with the shorter distances. We made it about 200 ft and I heard, clink, clink, clink. So, back to camp to change out an Easyboot - the cable had broken. We left again and started our ride. Klickitat is mainly on nice, sandy trails, with some logging roads, very scenic. Quite quickly, I linked up with a lovely lady named Chloe (never did get her last name) and her horse, Monty. We were chatting so much, that we missed a pie plate and probably did an extra 6 miles or so...woops. We weren't the only ones though. No matter how well those trails are marked, I seem to get lost there! At least I didn't do a whole extra loop this time. So, we backtracked and had a very lovely ride, with Monty and Galen moving out very well. We came into the first vet check at 17 miles in a bit less than 2 1/2 hours, so if we did an extra 6 miles or so, we were flying. We pulsed down right away and did our hold. I didn't see my bag there, so Chloe shared her stash and Galen just helped himself to everyone's food. We headed out of the hold and worked on rating Monty a bit, which he accepted. He and Chloe are still pretty new to endurance, so are still learning lots. I had fun being the 'mentor' this ride. We ended up back at camp around 1ish and unfortunately, Galen must have stepped on a rock in the last little bit of trail, as he was just the tiniest bit off. The vet gave us the chance to do the trot out again in an hour, but he had rubs from his Easyboots on both fronts, even with my wrapping and was still just the smallest bit off, so I didn't go back. I felt very badly, as he had done a fantastic job - we found out later that we were about 17th out of 55 or so, so if we hadn't made that detour, (and vetted through!) we might have top tenned.
Wendy came in a bit after 2 pm and while Allie was fine, she was hurting. Monica and Taz had a wonderful time on the trail ride, but we decided that with Galen's soreness and Wendy's knee, we'd forget riding Sunday. We didn't feel too badly though, as the rain started up again.
All in all, a very good weekend, although I wish we hadn't met that rock, but that is endurance! Our next planned ride is Renegade, over the 4th of July weekend.
We got there on Thursday, as on Friday we had a date to go see two youngsters that were bred here at Cascade Gold. Suyji was now 2 and Mazaly now 3. We drove down to Glenwood through pouring rain, hoping the weather was going to cooperate for our weekend. We've had so much rain in Western Washington this spring, I think I'm developing webs between my toes. We arrived at camp around 8 pm (had to wait until Wendy was off from work to leave home) and were all set up and in the camper by 9. It was still pouring and we were very, very grateful for the camper. I think tent camping would have been pretty miserable! All night long we listened to drumming rain and the heater coming on. Our horses were out under trees, all with their blankets on. (This is June 3rd!). The next morning, the skies were starting to clear and we got ourselves all ready for our trip to Catrina's place. She and her mother, Mary, came and picked us up, as my truck as pretty tied down with the camper and trailer. We got a tour of gorgeous canyons, rolling plains and windmills on our way to their place. They're in Centerville, WA, which is around 40 minutes from Glenwood. Probably not that far milewise, but the twisty roads make it take a bit longer than you'd think. We admired Suyji, now a strapping young lad and Mazaly, who was telling him where to go and how to get there. All their horses looked as if they were enjoying the huge pastures and after some photo taking, we met a bunch of their goats and learned all sorts of neat things about CSAs and windmills. I expect to see Catrina and her horses out eventing within a few years - they just need to grow up a bit first. We then headed back to the camp, where we vetted in and went for a nice, late afternoon ride.
Saturday morning dawned...sunny! Although we had our rain gear along, I'll take sunshine anyday. I get enough rain at home! Wendy went off for the 50 with our camp neighbor David LeBlanc, and I headed out two hours later for the 30. Until I figure out my problems, I'm going to stick with the shorter distances. We made it about 200 ft and I heard, clink, clink, clink. So, back to camp to change out an Easyboot - the cable had broken. We left again and started our ride. Klickitat is mainly on nice, sandy trails, with some logging roads, very scenic. Quite quickly, I linked up with a lovely lady named Chloe (never did get her last name) and her horse, Monty. We were chatting so much, that we missed a pie plate and probably did an extra 6 miles or so...woops. We weren't the only ones though. No matter how well those trails are marked, I seem to get lost there! At least I didn't do a whole extra loop this time. So, we backtracked and had a very lovely ride, with Monty and Galen moving out very well. We came into the first vet check at 17 miles in a bit less than 2 1/2 hours, so if we did an extra 6 miles or so, we were flying. We pulsed down right away and did our hold. I didn't see my bag there, so Chloe shared her stash and Galen just helped himself to everyone's food. We headed out of the hold and worked on rating Monty a bit, which he accepted. He and Chloe are still pretty new to endurance, so are still learning lots. I had fun being the 'mentor' this ride. We ended up back at camp around 1ish and unfortunately, Galen must have stepped on a rock in the last little bit of trail, as he was just the tiniest bit off. The vet gave us the chance to do the trot out again in an hour, but he had rubs from his Easyboots on both fronts, even with my wrapping and was still just the smallest bit off, so I didn't go back. I felt very badly, as he had done a fantastic job - we found out later that we were about 17th out of 55 or so, so if we hadn't made that detour, (and vetted through!) we might have top tenned.
Wendy came in a bit after 2 pm and while Allie was fine, she was hurting. Monica and Taz had a wonderful time on the trail ride, but we decided that with Galen's soreness and Wendy's knee, we'd forget riding Sunday. We didn't feel too badly though, as the rain started up again.
All in all, a very good weekend, although I wish we hadn't met that rock, but that is endurance! Our next planned ride is Renegade, over the 4th of July weekend.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Busy Week!
Last week was quite busy here at CGAT. Annie was getting ready to foal and we were really hoping she'd do it in time for us to get to the Klickitat Trek endurance ride. My cut off foaling date was Tuesday, as we were planning to leave Thursday. So, on Monday, I checked her and things were very promising. Her milk was starting to become white and sticky, the foal was in the proper position and she was cranky. I turned her out in the grass field and within the hour she wanted back in. So, we did 2 hour checks all day and by around 4 pm, she had waxed up. Whoo-hoo! We're having a baby! Monica made plans to stay the night (her first foaling!) and we told Annie we'd like to be all done by 10 pm at the latest. Monica and I hung out in the barn until around 11ish, watching Annie have contractions, timing them, getting everything ready. At that point, I headed into the house and just peeked out the window every half hour or so. Around 2 or so (I think - I was pretty tired by then) Monica came in the house and I just kept looking out the window. At about 6 am, my husband was out in the front yard throwing a ball for the dog, when he yelled "I see feet!". Annie had tried to sneak it past us. There was a mad scramble out to the barn and Alex and I caught the foal, as Annie decided to foal standing up. While I'd been hoping for a buckskin filly, we got a bay or smokey black colt, with lots of chrome and a definite urge to get up. He scooted around the arena for a bit, until he figured out his legs and then we moved mom and baby into the foaling stall. Scooter has stuck as his barn name and I suppose I'll need to get moving on a real name soon. He's a nice little guy, very friendly, well put together and FOR SALE.
Annie retained her placenta (probably from foaling standing up!), so we had a vet visit that morning. That turned out ok, except for the bill and they're both doing very well. Annie has a date with Salam fairly soon and I'll do my filly dance again, as I'd sure like a buckskin filly!
Annie retained her placenta (probably from foaling standing up!), so we had a vet visit that morning. That turned out ok, except for the bill and they're both doing very well. Annie has a date with Salam fairly soon and I'll do my filly dance again, as I'd sure like a buckskin filly!
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