Scooter is doing great!

I got an email from Scooter's owner Erin yesterday.  Scooter is Miras - Murgab x Anastasia, 2010 purebred AT gelding born here at CGAT.  She gave me permission to share:

I was so proud of Scooter yesterday.  And so proud to be his person, which he clearly feels.  Every lesson we have had (they are monthly as my trainer comes up from FL) Scooter has just flown through everything we ask of him.  We ask something new & he just sets about doing it with no fight or fuss & he enjoys doing it.  I was cracking up (everyone was who was watching) because while my trainer was explaining the theory behind long-lining & getting the horse balanced & working from the hind end I was holding the lines & his bridle in my hand and hte entire time Scooter was standing next to me pestering the heck out of  me to put the bridle on him.  As soon as I did & clipped the second line he was literally stepping forward to start working.  He just couldn't wait.  After an hour lesson of him offering what we had been asking & watching him experiment with movement & using his body differently, I stopped him & stepped forward to take the lines off & he turned & nickered at me & started rubbing all over me, yawning, blinking, just really processing what we had done...  my trainer remarked "could you two like each other any more?"  It's just really cool to be the person training him.  He is really something else & I hope you take pride in what a great-minded horse he is...  I am truly honored to see how he is blossoming with the slow steady work we are doing together, both his body & mind.

OK enough of my gushing.  Just wanted to share because I get such great positive feedback from him but also the folks at my barn are amazed at his attitude & ethic & how sweet & friendly he is.

 

A good boy!

Erin

 

It is always great when a horse you foaled and raised goes to a loving, happy home.  I'm hoping for great things from the two of them in years to come!

 

Scooter leaping for joy - Karen Wegenhenkel photo, taken in 2012 I believe.

Photoshoots!

Monica and I (Monica Bretherton) did two photoshoots in the past week or so.  Now is the perfect time, with the horses being sleek and shiny and the light staying until reasonably late.  Monica always takes nice photos.

These are of Rocket (barn name still!) 2014 purebred colt by Salam out of Tulah.  Rocket is almost 6 weeks now and is really a nice colt.  Stallion prospect, Fakir Pelvan line.  For sale, $5000, sale pending!

This is Sabyr, aka Stanley, 2013 Salam x Aishet.  Sabyr is just over a year old, and is obviously still growing (look at that butt!).  He's a bit over 15 hands right now and should mature 15.2 or 15.3 at least.  Excellent sport prospect.  $4500

Both boys are lovely horses with bright futures ahead of them!

Off to College

I always think that when a horse heads off to a new life/owner/job, it's kind of like sending your kids to college.  You've done the best you can from child(foal) hood on up, bandaged skinned knees and hocks, taught them right from wrong, put some good ground manners on them and depending on age, sent them through elementary, middle and high school.

All those years of prep work and then one day, you're waving goodbye:

The very fancy 'bus' to Goshen's college.

 

I waved goodbye (after giving him a good lunge and lots of scritches) to Goshen on Wednesday.  He's heading to Indiana to see if he can make it as an eventer with Eron Owens of Greystone Eventing.  I think this is a great match-up, as Eron is not only a talented rider and competitor, but she competed with Goshen's sire, Goklen for many years.

 

 

While here, Gosh has gone through elementary and middle school, gone on one trail ride, done a little bit of a lot of things. This year, he's really grown up in a lot of ways (including hormones, lol), but has really come into his own.

 

He's a little bit thinner than I like ideally, those hormones have kept him moving and moving some more!

 

From what I hear, he will spend a while with the talented Kevin Wallin, getting his mind back to work.  Then we'll see what happens next!

 

Graduate school, perhaps?



Ancient Technology

Yep. You read that right.  Ancient technology.  We used it this weekend and got 'er done.

What did we do?

We moved a shed.

 

Here it is in its old position.  We built this a good 20 years ago, well before we thought we'd put runs on all the stalls.  Once we started adding runs, well, it's in the way.  So, for the past 5 years or so, we've been thinking about how to accomplish this task.  Many theories were floated, many dismissed.

Finally, we decided what to do.  Dig out the entire foundation, put skids on it from front to back, brace and cross-brace, cut the posts (which were sunk 3 feet into the ground) right below the skids, and then put up on round poles and roll and pull.

Larry spent a good three weekends digging out the foundation, with occasional help from others.

Once the entire foundation was dug, we braced and put the rollers under it.

Then, Larry cut the posts off right below the skids.  Sawzalls are really cool.

 

Next, we hooked it up to the truck and the tractor.

There is a whole story about getting the truck here - what you can't see is the VERY tight space I had to navigate to get it where it is here.  I am now qualified to dock starships.

Then, we pulled, slowly and carefully, jacking up the shed to put new rollers under it.  The kids helped out and while they weren't exactly excited, they did the work. You can just see Alex, here, helping Larry.  At this point, the shed is almost in its new position.  Here we were taking out a fencepost that was in the way.

Here is a view from where the shed used to be.  It will get some fill and end up being a paddock, until we put runs where it was.

 Here it is, in its new position.  We later put up temp fencing and will end up putting in permanent fencing to make 3 paddocks.

Here is where the shed used to be.  That pile of gravel will end up being the flooring of the shed in its new home.  Maz (the horse looking at me) was very interested in what the crazy humans were doing. 

So, now we need to finish the shed, including the floor and a patio outside it, take down one line of fencing, put up a few more and wah-la, done!  Then, it's on to the next project, which is finishing up the 3 runs in progress. 

All in all, the actual moving time was about 7 hours total, but that doesn't count the prep or the hours of discussion on how to do it without trashing the shed.  We all did decide that we now know how they moved the blocks of stone for the pyramids though...so, ancient technology plus a lot of modern horsepower and lots of muscle power.

After we were done with moving the shed, we went and picked up 100+ bales of hay.  Ahhh...farm life!

We don't need to go to the gym today.

 



Better than Christmas!

To me, the week before a mare foals is better than Christmas.  "Why?" you might ask. 

This is Tulah, Durkkhal x Malikat, here on a foal lease from Kelsey Kempfert.  She is due July 9th, but could foal anytime in the next few weeks.

Well, after doing this for almost 30 years (which is kind of amazing in itself), I've found that the week before the mare foals is full of lovely speculation...that foal is the right sex, the right color, has perfect conformation and is as healthy as can be.

Once she's in labor, the tension heightens;  "Will it be a colt or a filly?"  "Will it be buckskin/palomino/with lots of chrome?"  "Will the delivery be easy?". 

As the hours fly by and the dead of night approaches, some of your foaling buddies give up and go home.  Some stay.

This was a few years ago, from Monica's blog, Horsebytes, http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/ during foalwatch for Cady (a boarder), I think.  Note the helpful dogs as lap warmers.

 

Then, the excitement begins!  Usually a foaling is over within minutes after the water breaks.

 



 



Annie and one of her foals from the Horsebytes blog.  Maybe in 2010?  Is it a filly?

 

 

No, a nice colt. The foal gets up and greets the world, Christmas has come and all is as it should be.

 

This photo is from 2010, from the Horsebytes story "The Foaling Moon" http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/2010/06/02/the-foaling-moon/

 This is Miras, Annie's 2010 foal by Murgab.

 

Farm Chores

It seems to be summer (although today it sure doesn't act like it).  I can tell because we've already gotten 2 loads of local hay out of the field and that ONLY happens in the summer.  I've been dealing with the same family for around 20 years now, THANK YOU Vicky!  Every summer we joke that if the kids get the phone when she calls, they won't hand it to me.

Last year we picked up around 600 bales and I was able to get another 100 or so when I ran out in the spring.  That really helps stretch the expensive Eastern Washington hay I get.  And, last year, the local was so good that it actually was better than a lot of the Eastern WA I got. 

My children and husband have become a well-oiled team;  maybe not the most cheerful during this time, but they do the work. 

This is Callie (in green) my almost 20 year old daughter and Zach (almost 17 year old) stacking hay.  I took this in the trailer, as I was throwing the hay to them.

One of the great things about local is that most bales run around 50-60 lbs, which means we can throw them around.  Those monsters from across the mountains need one of us on each end.  Also, it's cheaper than Eastern, thank heavens!  I have to feed hay year round, so my expenses are not insignificant.

Other things we do during 'summer';  get ready for winter!  This past weekend (Father's Day weekend), my husband and I spent most of it working on new runs off the barn.  Our plan is that we will have almost all the stalls with runs, which makes winter so much easier.  Over the years, we've figured it out; Larry cuts a hole in the barn for a door, frames it in and then we sink posts and put down fabric over the graded run area.  Then, it's drainage rock about 4 inches deep and 5/8 minus over that, another 5-6 inches.  Near the barn, we put in a 'porch' of Hoofgrid with gravel in it(I'm trying a competitor this time called Ecogrid) to keep down any possibility of mud.

The view from inside the stall.  Right now, I have the end of the Ecogrid up in the air, as I need to put more drainage rock under it, but my tractor died before I finished.  Sigh...

So, once the tractor is running again, I'll put in more of the big drainage rock until the whole area is smooth and flat and then put the grid down and fill everything in with 5/8 minus.  When this is done, you will barely see the grid, but the horses will not be able to dig or paw.  Presto!  Dry runs no matter how wet it gets.  (right...presto...so far it's taken about a year to get to this point).  The horses love it, as they can go in and out all night long, there is no mud (here anyway) and if they like, they can poop and pee outside only and keep their stall clean.  Win-win all around! 

Now, why haven't we done this sooner?  Besides the large amount of work involved, it is NOT CHEAP.  Each normal size run costs us around $1500 + or -.  This is a double run (otherwise, there would be a slice of useless area and we can't have THAT) and I think it will be well over $2000 by the time we're done. 

We are also moving a shed.  We started looking at the projected runs and realized that if we ever wanted to move this shed, we had better do it now.  When it was built, over 20 years ago, we had no plans to put runs on.  Well, times change and this shed is built so strongly that I can't imagine trying to take it apart (or, at least MEANING to take it apart).  We will see what happens when we actually go to move it. 

So, this coming weekend, we are planning to shovel out around the posts and put runners on each pair, along with cross bracing.  We will cut each post off and then the idea is that we will hitch up the truck and tractor (when it's working again, argh) and just pull the whole shed to it's new position.  Sounds easy in theory; we'll see how it works in practice.

Oh and actual horsey stuff?  Well, not so much right now!

Klickitat Trek, 2014

Monica and I headed down to Glenwood, WA for the Klickitat Trek endurance ride this past weekend, May 30- June 1.  We had originally planned on riding both days, but after the long ride the previous weekend (where I felt good afterwards) and then a very short ride the day after (where I didn't feel good afterwards), I decided not to push it.  Having catastrophic ankle failure 5 miles from anywhere wouldn't be pleasant.

So, we pulled into camp around 3:30 or so, found our spot that was saved for us (thank you Aarene and the Pirates!) and vetted in without incident.  We went for a short ride that evening and tucked ourselves into bed.  Thunder and lightning woke us up, but the little bit of rain just kept the dust down the next day.

Monica was going to ride the LD on Danny with the very early start time of 6:15.  My departure was at 8:30 for the Trail Ride.  Galen wasn't terribly happy that everyone left, but he dealt with it. 

Monica and Danny before heading out.  He wasn't quite as relaxed when he started!

Galen telling me that he should be tacked up and heading out!

 

Galen and I headed out around 8:30, after meandering around the camp, looking for the out timer.  Looks like the Trail ride is MUCH more relaxed than even an LD, as I didn't see anyone else heading out at the same time.  In fact, I saw several people heading out as I came in a few hours later.  We were on the Red and White loop, which was fine, as I've done most of those trails before.  I knew that neither Galen nor I was really all that conditioned, so I had a game plan.  Slow, steady, enjoy the scenery and have fun.  We headed out of camp at a walk on a loose rein (big improvement!) and started some cows along the way.  We did do some trotting and my deal with him has been that if I can sit it, he can do it.  Amazing how even the atmosphere of an endurance ride can bounce up a horse!  Usually, Galen's trot is so smooth I can sit all speeds.  Saturday, we had to slow it down a bit, as there was much more bounce to the ounce than usual.  That was ok, as it was already getting warm, and we really hadn't trained in heat very much. 

We came into the vet check and took a minute or two to pulse down, which made me realize I needed to slow down even more.  We took some extra time at the vet check, although I knew he wouldn't drink anything (he never does before around 20 miles).  We didn't need to pass the vet, just be pulsed down, so after 15 or 20 minutes, we headed back out.  We did some leapfrogging with the Ride and Tiers.  I did help a few of them find the trail.  Mostly, we were by ourselves, which was fine.  The trails were lovely, the weather was gorgeous, my horse and I were happy.  I did some singing, admired the gorgeous lupines and finished in about 3 hours.  Not our fastest by any means, but that was ok.  I went into this as a conditioning ride and to see how my ankle felt. 

By the end of my ride, I was very glad I hadn't done the LD - my ankle was swollen and I could feel the fluid squishing around in it (lovely image, isn't it?).  Galen was willing, but definitely not ready for much more.   We did get lots of nice trot on a loose rein, which was the goal. 

We got back to camp and Monica trotted him out.  Dr. Jen noted that he was travelling a little bit crooked, no doubt because of my bad leg.  Not enough to be lame, but certainly enough to be noted.  Sigh...  But, it's wonderful to have an experienced eye to tell you that you need to work on stuff.  We probably won't do any more rides for awhile (maybe Bare Bones later on), but will work on arena work, trail riding and I will see if I can get my ankle to behave better.  Summer is coming which means foaling, breeding, hay season, fix it up season, kids, etc.

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend!

Mt. Adams Endurance Ride, May 17, 2014

This was my 'come-back' ride after several years of surgeries and depression (at my slow recovery from said surgeries) .  I've been doing conditioning rides, although not nearly as many as usual and not nearly as long.

For newcomers to my blog, here it is in a nutshell:  breast cancer surgery in 2011 led to not much conditioning for the 2012 ride season. 4 rides (teeth gritting, pill popping after tearing a tendon in the first ride of the season) in 2012 with each ride being more and more painful on my ankle with the torn tendon.  I did top ten most of them though...figured faster was better.  At the last ride of the year that I did, where I had to walk my (very disgusted) horse the last 10 miles because my ankle hurt so badly, I decided to try surgery (and we still top tenned).  Surgery in August-September of 2012, VERY slow recovery.  I'm afraid I expected to have 6 weeks of PT and recovery and then be back to full power.  Ha.  Silly me.  I didn't compete at all in 2013 because I could only ride about an hour before the pain was pretty bad.  So, I volunteered. 

I have been upping my 'game' over the winter and had gotten up to almost a 3 hour ride without too much whining, so I decided that Mt. Adams was it!  My comeback ride!  Except, unless you are totally flying, you can't even do an LD in 3 hours...

So, I adjusted my attitude and decided that if I could mentor a newbie or two, I could justify (to myself, no one else cared) doing a, gasp, Trail Ride.  I'm afraid I've always been a little 'above' the trail ride, thinking there was no reason to do anything less than an LD.  I kept repeating (in a bit of a whiney voice)  "But I've done 50s!".  I'm pretty sure there was a bunch of self-pity there. Well, the old gray mare just ain't what she used to be.  So, I firmly tamped that down and hauled to Mt. Adams with my friend Monica.  She decided to come on the trail ride too, mostly to make sure I was ok. 

We drove down  and got talking so much we missed the first bridge over the Columbia and had to go over the one between Hood River and White Salmon.  I HATE this bridge.  I'm not much for heights anyway and have actually smashed my truck side mirror on an oncoming truck's mirror on this bridge a few years back, so I have reason.  I did make it over the bridge and no one actually honked at me...going 15 miles an hour is probably not the way to make friends.  I also halted in the middle of the bridge when a big truck came at us.  I think I did breathe somewhere along it...but I won't guarantee it.  One lady in an oncoming car did point vigorously at me to move over to the edge of the bridge - I think I was pretty close to the center line.

Anyway, we made it to the lovely camp with plenty of time to spare, vetted in, etc and met up with our friend Keiko, who was doing her first endurance ride ever with her mare Cady.  We went for a nice few mile ride on Friday and both Galen and Danny were great.  Cady was a bit jazzed, but settled by the end.

Next morning, the very civilized start time of 9 am.  Hmmm, this is definitely in the Trail Ride's favor.  We got Keiko and Cady and left after pretty much everyone was gone.  Cady and Keiko were a bit nervous, so we went back and forth a bit and then Keiko got off and walked for a while until a big hill convinced her to remount.  We sandwiched them between Galen (in front) and Danny behind, which seemed to help Cady.  We walked along, singing silly songs and getting relationship updates.  After a bit, we asked if we could trot 20 steps and then walk.  We did this for a while until it was boring and then started trotting the easier parts (no ducking low branches, no downhills, etc).  By now, Keiko was starting to enjoy herself, as she and Cady had both relaxed.  We made it clear that we wouldn't do anything more (ok, maybe just a touch more) than she was comfortable with, which I think really helped her.  We had the whole day to enjoy the beautiful Ghost loop and if it took the whole day, so be it. 

(I do have a ride photo, but for some reason, my computer refuses to load it, so you just need to imagine the lovely scenery and Galen's orange butt)

We did spend a little time going back to find a boot, but we found it quickly.  We finished around 12:30 or so, but that was fine.  This was a 13 mile loop, and my ankle still felt pretty good.  This was the longest mileage AND time I have done since June of 2012.   I have been working on changing the way I ride - much more sitting trot; thank goodness for the Teke glide, much more muscle instead of letting my ankles absorb so much.  It's very different from how I've ridden before, but Galen seems ok with it, so I'll call it good.

I ended with thinking that I could probably do more mileage, but I was kind of glad I didn't have to.  Once the horses were taken care of, I cracked a beer, took some more Advil and socialized.  Hmmm, another plus in the Trail Ride's favor...more time for beer.  Anyway, we are planning on heading to Klickitat, where I might ride a 2 day LD.  It could be a new thing - the weenie version of the 2 day 100.  If that goes well, maybe I'll be up to an LD before the end of the ride season. 

Broken Saddle!

As I reported in the last blog post, I broke my saddle last week.  I wasn't doing anything exciting, we just hopped over a log (we being Galen and me).  I heard a crack and realized what had happened back at the trailer.

Yesterday, I took everything off my saddle - stirrups, seat savers, shims, etc (boy, it's light without all that stuff!) to box it up and ship back to the manufacturer.  They are being great - the tree is guaranteed, so all I need to pay is shipping and labor.  Way cheaper than a new saddle.  Anyway, after I took everything off, I realized the tree was broken in 3 places, not just one!

The underside of my saddle - you can see the dimples in the leather in the middle of the pommel.  Also, if you look below the stirrup leathers on both sides, you can see breaks at the narrowest point of the tree.

Close up of one of the breaks below the stirrup leather.

Close up of the pommel break. 

 

So, they will replace the tree and send it back asap, as of course, ride season has started!  It will be interesting to see what is different with the new tree.  I was told that this break (pommel, at least) has been known to happen on these models.  No idea about the other breaks.

 

I guess I would rather have my saddle break than my horse!

April Fools Ride

Yesterday, it was gorgeous.  So gorgeous that I couldn't stay home and do the usual (clean sheds and stalls, work with the young horses).  I loaded up Galen and off we went.  As I had a limited amount of time, we went to Lord Hill Park, which is only about a 20 minute drive away.  Lord Hill can give a really good workout in a short time, because, as the name says, it's all hills.  Even walking can leg up your horse pretty quickly.  My yardstick of his fitness is how far up a hill he will trot before he drops back to a walk.  When we trot all the way to the top, we're ready to do an LD.

When I got to the parking lot, there were two other ladies in the parking lot, both on QHs, with one extra being ponied.  Nice ladies, we all exchanged good mornings and off Galen and I went. 

The light was very beautiful and it made me think of cathedrals of trees.  I'm sure there is a poem somewhere with that, but as I'm not much of a poetry buff, none came to mind.

We continued along, greeting the occasional dog walker.  This time, none of the dogs had ever seen a horse and you could almost read their minds:  "That is the BIGGEST dog I've ever seen".  Galen ignored them.

We went down the Quarry trail to the river and were trotting through the trees down by the river when a dog rushed up behind us, either nipped Galen's legs or just crashed into him and then took off at a dead run.  We were both a bit startled, although I think I was more than Galen.  As I had no idea where the dog was, I headed back to the road.  I met the person who had the dog - now, Lord Hill is pet friendly, but all dogs are supposed to be on leash.  Not everyone does this, although most people catch their dogs and at least hold them when they see a horse.  I told him (I did say please) to keep his dog contained and what the dog had just done.  He didn't believe me, saying "THIS dog did that?".  Like, the dog is gone for 5 minutes and he couldn't imagine it was doing anything remotely naughty.  I told him "Yes, YOUR dog did that".  Then, I continued on.  We went up the first loop of the Competitive Trail ride we did back in January - no idea what the trail is called.  It has some very steep climbs, some rather iffy trail (sides are falling away), but it's sure challenging.  There was a log down across the trail, no biggie.  Galen went to step over it, saw that it was much too wide and so hopped it.  I heard a crack, but figured it was him hitting the log with a hoof.  We continued on, meeting some more well behaved dogs and their excellent owners, until we got back to the parking lot, where there was...a flock of sheep.  Galen was looking at them, indicating to me that this was NOT where sheep belonged.  I agreed, but couldn't do anything about it.  I untacked him and put him in the trailer and then went to see if I could find the break in the fence to shoo them back.  Didn't find the break and I'm obviously not a sheep whisperer, as they all headed away from me.  I also looked at my saddle as I was taking it off Galen - the pommel was cracked in two!  That crack I heard on the trail was my saddle tree breaking!  Now we'll see how to fix THAT!  I gave up on the sheep and headed home.

The big thing (besides all the adventures) is that I rode for over 2 hours and had forgotten to take any pain meds.  I finished reasonably sound, although I walked in the last 1/4 mile.  Met a very concerned dog walker who asked me if I was ok, as I was walking my horse.  I assured her I was just walking in for my benefit and all was well.  Good people!  My ankle was sore, but not screaming, so maybe, just maybe, there is a possibility that I'll be able to ride longer and longer.

So I got home and posted a short version of this on Facebook and had someone ask "This is an April Fool's joke, isn't it?".  I reread it and could see why they though that, but nope, all true.  Wish the saddle tree breaking wasn't!  Galen took everything in stride, I assume he just figures that humans are weird and whatever I say, goes.  Yeah!