Unplanned events

Todays midweek trail ride was not quite what I planned for, but was interesting.  When things don't quite go right I have 2 choices...to focus on the negative....or....even tho the unplanned happened we (Zoe an I) learned something and usually come out better.  I usually take the second view.  I tend to think that way about anything that happens in life.  Anyway I figured Zoe needed some hill work, and something to keep her mind busy as she spent alot of time calling as we left the barn.  The barn was a very busy place that morning.  We had 3 farriers working at the same time and a trailer had pulled in.  We went up beginners hill and managed to NOT eat the poison oak hanging over the trail-YAY!  By this time calling had stopped and we were well on our way to having another loopy ride.  I made a few loops and Zoe did great.  I decided to go to Enchanted valley.  The last I heard it was very boggy in the valley part and the hill I was told was full of ruts.  Getting there Zoe spooked at 2 deer bounding away in the bushes.  She spun but did not bolt--YAY.   She did spin me into a tree branch, but I got to practice staying on a spinning horse and dodging a tree branch.  I stayed on great and was only slightly scraped by the branch.  Enchanted valley was mostly fine.  The valley part was plenty dry and the trail up the hill wasn't too bad until you almost get to the top.  Yes the trail is very rutted, but you can skirt it to the left.  However almost at the top you have a choice-a large rock slanting towards the rut is there...step down into the rutted trail to avoid the large rock, or try to step over the rock-it would be a big step, or go to the left even more-into the bushes.  I chose over and to the left.  I was not sure about the ground in the rut.  Now I should have remembered Zoe and slanting rocks-can be a dicey combination.  Zoe did not step over the rock and did not go to the left enough.  She stepped right on the rock and her feet slid out from under her and she fell into the ditch and I went down with her.  She did not panic.  She tried to get up but I stopped her because I wanted to get my left foot out of the stirrup.  She listened very well and waited.  Then I told her she could get up, she heaved herself out of the ditch and walked around calmly.  She didn't seem to be bothered by the experience and was not lame so we walked around at the top for a while.  I want to try that trail again...need to make it work better...because it is one of our favorite trails.  I got on and off we went.  She was pretty calm for all of that.  We saw a few other  riders out on our ride and she did not get worried about them.  One pair was behind us on the way home and they were moving along faster that we were.  So I pulled over and let them go by.  Zoe was interested, but not too worried.  I was almost at the point to get down into the cow pastures.  So I decided that she needed something else to think about. Now I don't usually do this, but today it seemed like the right thing...I got off and allowed her to eat.  She was very happy.  We waited for a while, I got back on and we walked nicely all the way home.  She did spend some time looking around for those other horses, but they were not in sight.  The road home she only called twice, nothing like on the way out.   So the ride had some unplanned events but we came out okay.  5.64 miles, max 9.51, avg 3.85.
That last ride was on a Wed.  On Thurs went out with a friend to practice not eating on the trail.  We both needed practice on this.  One of the places that we stopped at was the place I allowed her to eat on yesterdays ride.  I wanted to see what she would do.  She didn't even try to eat there.  Phew!  She did manage a few bites in places that I couldn't disciple her very well....too hilly or the ground was slippery and steep.  But all in all she did better and my friend did very well with her horse too.

Tired of being limited

So last Thursday I went on a ride with the idea of seeing where I really could go with my horse.  I knew the drier trails, but wanted to try some of our other favorites.  I also knew that this ride would take us on some challenges-going thru muddy places.  This is also my first attempt at posting pictures with my blog.  I've been inspired my a friend.  I went towards Inspiration Point.  I didn't take the turn off to the left thru the boggy place to get to the top---so that was as far as close as I got towards Inspiration Point.

 I remember in the past we used to ride thru the boggy place and we made it so I might try it later.  After that I took the trail to the right up the hill and to the right again (away from Look Out Rock).  I knew at the bottom of this trail was a really muddy place that I was hoping that we could pick our way thru.  Otherwise I would just have to turn around and go back the way I came.

So here we are at the mud---ew!

And here we are looking at what we just came thru.

 Looking back at the cow pasture on our way home. 

I hope to have more fun trying all the trails.  I know of a few that I want to wait on--way too muddy and boggy.  But it's nice to get out and try these, and Zoe doesn't seem to be bothered with mud-as long as it's not too boggy.   The only problem I found was that my GPS stopped tracking me 1/2 way thru my ride.  Maybe I hit the wrong button as I was taking pictures.  So I have no GPS for this ride.    

....hmmm..to eat or not to eat.....

Well today I combined 2 items that I wanted to work on with Zoe.  The last 2 posts mentioned eating and being more comfortable on the KBB hills.  So I headed for the KBB hills and stopped every once in a while over some really green lush yummy grass, or next to poison oak, or next to pine trees (yes she likes pine trees).  At the first stop in the cow pasture she didn't eat anything, didn't even try.  She had a questioning look on her face "why are we stopping?"  So I moved on and the second time she thought "since I'm stopping I might as well....." That turned out to be the wrong decision.  After being over and undered, spun in a tight circle, and having my spur dug into her side, and her butt whipped....maybe eating wasn't a good idea after all.  Afterwards she just stood there..waiting for what I wanted to do next.  And on we went.  Her attitude was really good getting to and coming back from the KBB hills.  I went up and down some of the same hills many times and she probably thought she was in trouble.  On one of the hills just as I was starting to trot up, she tried to grab a bite of poison oak....which got her the same treatment as I described earlier. Then we were back to work trotting up the hill.   So of course we had to go back down that hill again and see if she would remember not to eat as I asked her to go back up it.  She didn't eat.   She didn't even try the pine trees today.  So today turned out really good.  The past week I have been working on the eating problem at the barn just walking in hand.  She has been doing really good on the ground work - hopefully it has transfered to being ridden.   5.53 miles, max 8.39, avg 4.14

Mixed bag ride

Today we went out with 4 other horses.  Sky, Skippy, Daisey, and ? - can't remember the name.  I knew Zoe, Sky, and Skippy were okay,  Daisey was just coming off a leg injury, and ? seemed a little uneasy.  So because of Daisey and ? and  seeing it was windy and we had 5 horse out we just walked the whole time.  We did play popcorn out on the ride.   It was interesting because Zoe usually likes the lead and can sometimes take a while to calm down being in the line.  What was interesting was that Zoe did okay with any place in the line.  It was a nice thing to discover.  She did lay her ears back at 1 of the horses but after a few reprimands  she did fine.  In fact we walked all the way home with that horse behind us.  None of us ever got to take the last place in line in popcorn because ?'s rider wanted to stay back there.  One of the trails turned out  to be VERY muddy and Zoe did not like walking on that one--it was going down hill too.  She seemed a little panicky and was glad to get out of there.  I will have to remember that that trail is too muddy.  I knew it was muddy, but today it seemed to be worse than the last time I went thru it.  Maybe too many horses have been using it and it's just getting too stirred up.   Zoe did one thing I didn't like....eating while on the trail.  So my next ride won't necessarily be a long one but a ride where we get to practice NOT eating.  5.56 miles, max 6.15, avg 4.08

I love hills

Wednesdays ride was a work out for Zoe.  We saw 2 other riders on their way home and Zoe thought she was going home too.....oh well.  We turned away from home, and away from home again and ended up at the KBB hills.  Zoe was not happy with this plan and showed her displeasure by grabbing bites to eat-poison oak! and breaking into a lope up hills when only asked for a trot, and not walking down hills-but trotting down them.  And since there are many hills out that way we had plenty of opportunities to practice going the speed I wanted-up and down many hills....over and over again.  Usually it only took 1 try of turning around to do it again-then she was good....until she forgot and went the wrong speed either up or down a hill.  That's okay we just turned around and did it again.  When we got closer to home she listened to me better.  I don't know if that's because we were closer to home or because she finally got the message that I get to decide on speed issues.  I wanted to take her out there on Thursday and try it again, but had to get my car fixed.  Oh well, something to work on next week.  On our way home on Lomida she only called out 1 time.  Much better than last time when she was trying to answer the upset horse in the wash rack at the barn.  Forgot to set GPS.

Sunday ride

My goal for today's ride was to make it to the KBB hills and we made it.  Yesterday in my mind I tried to figure out the driest way to get there and it worked.  There was only 2 boggy spots but we were able to go thru them without extreme sinking.  The other 2 ways there have alot of mud to them.  I had fun showing my riding partner the various new streams that are now running, along with all the new waterfall sounds that they make.   We saw turkeys and Zoe was watchful of them but not spooky...yay!   We only trotted some and spent most of the time walking.  I hope that Zoe's butt heals okay....it seems to have some proud flesh forming.  I will be using some Panalog on it, it's supposed to deal with the proud flesh and has an antibiotic in it.  It is an ointment so maybe it will be more soothing to her.  5.86 miles, max speed 7.83, avg 3.92  

No rest for the Hamburger Butt

So on Wednesday I decided to go for a ride anyway....put some antibiotic ointment on the butt to help with the possible chaffing and off we went.  She didn't seem to be bothered by the ride, no tail swishing or kicking at the area.  Still ALOT of water on the trails and many areas impassable due to the 4-wheelers stirring up the mud....but I could still get around.  A friend tried to go to the enchanted forest and found it was too muddy and the trail going up the hill was very eroded.   I want to try going to the KBB hills next week,  hopefully things will dry up some more because almost every way I can think of getting there will have some mucky spots to navigate....and hopefully will be passable.  Our ride ended with Zoe calling many times on the way home.  At first I thought it was just because she hadn't been out by herself for a week-and that may have been part of it-but I found out some more information when I got back to the barn.  My trainer had a horse tied up at the wash rack and it did not like that and was calling out...alot.  So Zoe was hearing him call and felt the need to answer back.  I could hear him better as we got closer to the barn.  It was a good opportunity to practice walking backwards when calling happened.  It felt like we were taking 2 steps forwards and 1 step backwards all the way down the road.  Maybe next time will be better-we can only hope.

Hamburger Butt

Zoe's new name-Hamburger Butt.  It seems that scratching is very important....so important that it doesn't seem to matter at the time that you might be hurting yourself.  But in retrospect it might not be a good idea. I think Zoe is learning that one big time.  She did it in the area that gets all sweaty when she gets ridden for a while.  No need for stitches, but lots of skin missing in long open scratches to the skin.  Some of the skin I had to cut off as it was dangling.  She was unhappy when I first put the water on it, but calmed down and let me rub some chlorohex scrub on it and rinse it.  Afterwards put some spray on it that is an antibiotic/soothing/no rinse off spray.  I can put it on as often as 3 times a day.  So I guess no riding for the week as I suppose it will be uncomfortable - especially when she works up a sweat.  :(