Yes it has. Here it is, already July 2nd and I haven't posted since Reggie was born. Reggie is doing well, growing like a weed. We'll get some new photos of him soon. I think I have a 'real' name for him, haven't totally decided. I'm thinking Sazanda, which means 'musician' in Turkmen. Good name for a competition horse!
Me, Wendy, Monica and Julie went to the Renegade Rendezvous endurance ride last weekend.
We had several Tekes at the Renegade Rendevous over the weekend. This ride is known here in the Pacific NW as the ‘Little Tevis’ and I had never done it before. Now that I have, I understand the nickname! The ride itself is absolutely gorgeous, in the foothills (or higher) fairly near the WA-OR border. It was almost all up and down, through gorgeous stands of trees, through some pretty fast rivers, on logging roads and with some vistas that were made for photo ops. I rode Galen in the 25, along with our friend Julie, who borrowed a mustang mare from Shannon Mayfield, Wendy rode Allie (NP mare) in the 50 and we took Danny (Magdan) for the experience and Shannon brought Tommy (Asil Tumay) along for the same.
We all went out for a nice ride Friday evening, probably about 6 miles up and down and the two young er boys, Danny and Tommy, handled it just right. The rest of our horses had no problems and had vetted in fine.
We woke up Sat. morning to frost and Wendy headed out on her 50. Julie and I left at the very back of the pack around 8:15, as there was a pretty hairy water crossing right at the beginning and we waited until the crush was gone. Our first 11.5 miles was (it seemed) straight up. Both horses did it, but I know that was way more hills than they are used to. We came into the vet check with only 2 people behind us (as planned), vetted through fine and headed out. There were quite a few pulls at the vet check – they had a trailer running up and down the mountain with lame and tired horses. Happily, it was mostly downhill from then on. There were miles of hard packed road that neither horse liked, so we walked quite a bit. Both Julie and I got off and walked too and enjoyed the scenery. Our two followers passed us and the trails were ours. We did run into a whole bunch of people shooting guns (sounded like a whole army), but they did stop…for about 5 minutes as we went past them. Galen wasn’t so sure about that, but Julie’s mare, Nettie, couldn’t have cared less. We were glad to be out of there, as we were still on those hard roads and that bunch was a bit alarming. Even with the guns, the horses didn’t want to go faster. We figured by this time that we were going to be overtime, but that was ok. The horses were doing well, the trail was gorgeous, and my goal was both horses passing the final vet check. We came into camp and the final vet check around 3:15 and yes, we were overtime, but our horses got better vet scores than at the first check (after that 11.5 mile climb!), so it was all good. They both were pulsed down as we came i n, they trotted through sound and then we took them back to the camper and fussed over them. They both looked perky, although a bit tired. Wendy came in from her 50 not too long after us and Allie looked great. Tommy and Danny greeted them all with their in-camp tales and we humans settled down with well deserved beers. Monica was our fabulous camp and young horse sitter, as well as photographer, so I’m sure we’ll have some gorgeous shots soon.
All in all, a very satisfying weekend, an excellent first exposure for our youngsters and tons of fun. Our next ride isn’t until August, and if the weather cooperates, we’ll be able to get some real conditioning in. If we do Renegade next year, we’ll probably have to pad under shoes and I was even thinking about pads in our Easyboots. Those roads were murder!
We all went out for a nice ride Friday evening, probably about 6 miles up and down and the two young er boys, Danny and Tommy, handled it just right. The rest of our horses had no problems and had vetted in fine.
We woke up Sat. morning to frost and Wendy headed out on her 50. Julie and I left at the very back of the pack around 8:15, as there was a pretty hairy water crossing right at the beginning and we waited until the crush was gone. Our first 11.5 miles was (it seemed) straight up. Both horses did it, but I know that was way more hills than they are used to. We came into the vet check with only 2 people behind us (as planned), vetted through fine and headed out. There were quite a few pulls at the vet check – they had a trailer running up and down the mountain with lame and tired horses. Happily, it was mostly downhill from then on. There were miles of hard packed road that neither horse liked, so we walked quite a bit. Both Julie and I got off and walked too and enjoyed the scenery. Our two followers passed us and the trails were ours. We did run into a whole bunch of people shooting guns (sounded like a whole army), but they did stop…for about 5 minutes as we went past them. Galen wasn’t so sure about that, but Julie’s mare, Nettie, couldn’t have cared less. We were glad to be out of there, as we were still on those hard roads and that bunch was a bit alarming. Even with the guns, the horses didn’t want to go faster. We figured by this time that we were going to be overtime, but that was ok. The horses were doing well, the trail was gorgeous, and my goal was both horses passing the final vet check. We came into camp and the final vet check around 3:15 and yes, we were overtime, but our horses got better vet scores than at the first check (after that 11.5 mile climb!), so it was all good. They both were pulsed down as we came i n, they trotted through sound and then we took them back to the camper and fussed over them. They both looked perky, although a bit tired. Wendy came in from her 50 not too long after us and Allie looked great. Tommy and Danny greeted them all with their in-camp tales and we humans settled down with well deserved beers. Monica was our fabulous camp and young horse sitter, as well as photographer, so I’m sure we’ll have some gorgeous shots soon.
All in all, a very satisfying weekend, an excellent first exposure for our youngsters and tons of fun. Our next ride isn’t until August, and if the weather cooperates, we’ll be able to get some real conditioning in. If we do Renegade next year, we’ll probably have to pad under shoes and I was even thinking about pads in our Easyboots. Those roads were murder!
Today, Monica and I are heading out for some more trail experience. Danny now has Easyboots all the way around, so we're going to Mann Road fairly early, before the heat of the day and before anyone is out with fireworks. She took some more photos of Mahri and Scooter in the last few days, so I'll post some on the sale horse blog. I will post some photos with this blog post that Monica took at Renegade. We should have some more coming from Julie after she gets everything unpacked (she's moving this weekend).
