A ride of different things...

It gets hard to write about rides when they all seem the same.  I enjoy riding and I like to try new things out on the trail to make things different for me and my horse.   So today was one of those days of trying different things.  Next weekend we are going camping so I wanted to try bells on Zoe.  Sometimes at camping I like to have them on to "scare" the wildlife away.  I also use them sometimes at home for the same reason....however Zoe is more used to the wildlife at home (except for mountain lions).   I did it last summer and it was no big deal so I put my bells on again.  They are jingle bells, large ones, like you see at Christmas time.  Zoe didn't mind the bells and neither did Sky or Skippy.  We all went off on a ride.  I put the bells on my saddle bag.  They slightly jingled at a walk, more at a faster walk, and made more noise at a trot.  It was interesting at a trot...the sound was a consistent cadence-only changed by a slight trip or jumping over a ditch or log.   We did manage to scare a young buck.  
The other different thing as a new cell phone holder.  The zipper on my old one broke.  I couldn't find another case like it so I settled for something different.  I wasn't sure about this one, it has velcro holding the flap over the phone.  I was concerned that as I would go thru the brush, the flap would open.  But that did not happen today...but it is still a concern for me.  Maybe I could add some more velcro to it.  I also need to fix the part that wraps around my leg...just some extra sewing should do it.
The last thing that was different was a different way to play "popcorn" or "leap frog".  Usually we are riding in a single file line-at a walk or a trot- and the last horse comes up the side at a faster pace and takes the lead.  It's a good exercise on passing horses, having your horse get passed up, and going from back to lead and also practice traveling in the middle.  What was different today was how we changed places.  I read about it last night and it was sooooo simple I wondered why we hadn't tried it before.   It starts out the same-single file line, at a walk or a trot....but now the lead horse circles to the back of the line to take the last place.  Now the 2nd horse finds itself in the lead.  It helps everyone if the lead horserider calls out "changing places" or "circling back".  It was interesting because it seemed at first like  the lead horse was just going off in a different direction...away from everyone else....would that horse come back or just keep going off?  And the second horse wanted to follow the first horse, but no...it had to keep going straight.  It was different....works on different ideas that the horses might have.  After a while they all got used to it.  But at first keeping the second horse going straight was a challenge, having the lead horse go in a different direction was a challenge....and you could tell that they thought we were playing the game all wrong.  Crazy humans.

A trip back to "the rock"

So today 4 of us went back to "the rock" where Zoe and I saw the mountain lion.  All the horses did fine.  I thought they would.  My info people told me that mountain lions rarely stay in the same place for more than 3 days.  Just in case we all kept up a good chatter, and walked up the hill.  We went to Inspiration Pt and stayed up there talking for a while.  While we were up there we saw a small plane flying very low to the water on the lake.  It was interesting...never have seen that before.
One of the people I went out with has the same GPS that I have on her phone...Endomondo.  We started the GPS about the same time--maybe 30 seconds difference--and we followed each other on the trail.  However the readings at the end were not the same.  Mine was 5.25 miles, hers was 5.  My average speed was 2.9 and hers was 2.75.  And none of the lap times were the same for the miles.  Interesting.  I came up with an idea (I can just hear a friend say "nerd") what happens when the one person takes both phones, starts them up at the same time so the phones are always doing the same thing at the same time on the same horse, and stop them at the same time---would the readings get closer?  Hmmmmm.

Mountain Lion experience

After yesterday's ride of lots of turns away from home and taking trails in directions that I usually don't go in...I decided that today's ride should be simple.  A short ride on familiar trails.  We did come across 2 sets of riders and Zoe was pretty good about continuing on with our ride and not worrying about them.  I find myself coming up the back side of "the rock"--the rock the 4-wheelers like to climb on, the one that you would go over on the way to Inspiration Pt.  I was trotting and posting.  At the very top, Zoe spooks at something.  She didn't give me any clues that something was worrying her as we approached that area.  Just all the sudden she spooked and was spinning and kept on spinning.  I was on the "up" of my post, so now I was riding my horse on it's side...and I couldn't "spider monkey crawl" and pull myself back up...she kept moving too much.  So I decided to let go and fall.  Once on the ground she was still spooking, not at me but something else.  I would not let go of the reins, so now I'm being dragged thru the burrs and brush.  I dig in my feet for some traction and loose my left shoe in the process.  Finally she stops.  I stand up and look in the direction that she is focused on and see a large fawn colored cat with a very long tail trotting away from us...in no particular hurry.  Mountain Lion.  Great.  I know I need to leave the area...but not without my shoe.  It takes me a while to find it.  I look over Zoe-she's ok, and now she is calm.  I'm ok-just covered in burrs from the waist down and my sock is covered in burrs.  I have a few blisters on my hands from holding onto the reins and lots of stickers in my arms.  I try to brush myself off, finally find my shoe, go to sit down on a rock to put it back on when I notice that the bushes are moving again.  Great-it may be back.  I cram my shoe on-forget the burrs-and start walking-making lots of noise as I go.  Now I'm mad, not scared just mad.  I guess I was mad because I fell off, mad at the mountain lion, and somewhat mad at my horse.   She has seen alot of different wildlife out there, but I'm not sure she has actually seen a mountain lion-until today.  Usually I'm telling Zoe that she is fine in a scary situation, but I can just hear Zoe say-"mom you'll be fine, you don't have to be so mad, I'll be good" I find 2 other riders headed towards the area I just left and told them about  the mountain lion.  They decided to go in different directions.  I get on my horse and we walk the rest of the way home.    Later I was talking to Chris about this.  He had some interesting insights.  He is a hunter, and has also taken classes on mountain lions.  Being a cat they are stealthy and I would never have had a warning that it was there.  This time of year their cubs are old enough to travel some, so it probably wasn't a mom protecting her small little cubs.  Also the size I described to him told him it was probably a male.  Their territory can stretch 50+ miles, sometimes overlapping with other lions.  He was probably traveling thru the area or sticking around because he had killed something.  But I didn't smell anything dead...so hopefully he was just traveling thru.  Anyway next time I go thru that area I will go with other people and make sure we make lots of noise.  Maybe the 4-wheelers will go thru that area and make it not so comfortable for a mountain lion.   I did report it to parkwatch.org.  Later I found out that one of the riders I warned about it...and she went towards Barking Dog Hill....also saw the mountain lion.  Hope her ride went better than mine.

Zoe's view

So I get saddled up...walk out the gate, on the trail...and she decides to go to Barking Dog Hill.  Now any horse knows that that trail is used to go towards home and here we are going away from home.  Strange rider lady.  Anyway I go...we go all the way to Long Bar.  She said something about me getting to eat grass there, but it was all foxtails and we just turned around and went home.  Now this is the direction this trail is supposed to be used for.  Except on the trail back, she decides to take the paved road and go by refrigerator pond.  But now there are big rounds of cotton wood logs on one side of the road and rocks on the other side.  I'm scared, not sure which way to spook when she tells me "just look where you are supposed to go".  Now we are on the big dirt road.  Anyone knows that you're supposed to turn right and go home....but do we do that.  NO.  We turn left.  Over by the jumping log I whinny...but she says "there's no one to save you Zoe" and off we go.  I resign myself to the ride.  It goes pretty well.  We take the trail past alligator rock, go to the cut off from bread rock to elephant rock.  Take the trail along the back side of elephant rock...then she does it again.  She says something about finding a new trail to her that will take us to the left-AWAY from home.  She finds it :(.  We take it and end up on another trail - FINALLY get to turn right TOWARDS home.  She says I did pretty good with all the turns...I got a nice water down at home, snack, and green grass.  I guess I'll survive.

Ride 3 of 4th of July weekend

Today I went out with 2 friends...one wanted to go to Inspiration Pt.  Then on the way back we tried some more trail exploring.  Zoe seems to like this.  We went on the one that we did yesterday...small trail to the right.  I think yesterday I posted that I  just needed to stay in the valley and I would not have gotten lost....but now I know better.  You can't stay in the valley...tree down blocking the way we used to go.  I need to go up to the right and around and then head back down to find the trail.  I also tried out the trail Jim and I looked at yesterday...one of those trails you go by and say "I wonder where that goes".  So today I found out...it's hard to describe.  It connects the trail that goes behind Elephant Rock to the trail that was very mucky...guess I need to name the trail that was mucky.  Anyway  I love going on a new trail and having that "wow" moment when you realize where you come out.
I tried the auto pause feature on Endomondo and decided that I don't like it.  It's not the talking that I don't like.....it says it's "pausing" when you are standing still and "resume" when you start going again.  The reason I didn't like it was because it was wrong.  I was traveling down the trail...MOVING...and it said it was pausing.  Then it started up again.  It kept doing that 3 or 4 times.  I said enough...and changed it back to tracking me all the time.  Weird.

Ride 2 of 4th of July weekend

Today just Jim and I went out.  He didn't want to go as far as yesterday so we did some trail exploring.  At the top of enchanted valley we took the trail to the right...down the other side of  the rocks.  It was doable...met up with some poison oak, but it wasn't too bad.  We worked our way over to the same trail we were on yesterday...the road with the downed trees on it....but we didn't take that road.  There is a small trail to the right that winds thru some marshy areas in the winter.  The summer time is ok but due to the late rains this year I wasn't sure how it was.  It was ok, the trail isn't very visible and we lost it once, but found it again.  The ground was only a little mushy, but passable.  On the way home we decided to go thru the middle of the cow pasture and that was passable too...a little mushy in some spots but doable.  Zoe and I took the lead on the way out and half way thru we switched...Skippy in front and Zoe in back.  Skippy was having fun with her big trot and Zoe was able to keep up without breaking into a lope and she had good manners!  Phew!

Nice hot 4th of July weekend-ride 1

Nice ride today...done before it got too hot.  3 of us met a friend that just moved her horse.  2 of them weren't sure if they could find bread rock...they did it the day before but it seemed strange to them.  So today they rode in front  and found it.  I love it when people find their way around.  From there I was to show them a different way into Enchanted Valley...which we did.  In the valley, trees have fallen so we had to go around to the right, then were able to go up the hill.  At the top it was nice to see that people have ridden the trail so much that it is pretty well established and easy to stay off the rock Zoe and I slipped on earlier this year.  I was out this way a few days ago and found that a 4-wheeler had found their way to one of my favorite spots and I said this outloud...so we had to ride that way.  It was a nice loop.  The trail is called the "I don't know trail"  because one day last year we were on that trail and the other riders with me wanted to know where it came out.  I knew where it came out but to tell them....it wouldn't have made any sense.  It comes out in a place Jim and I call Deer Valley.  Anyway it  was just easier to say "I don't know" and hence it got the name "I Don't Know".  Anyway the 4-wheelers had found a way to get up there...they haven't destroyed anything yet, but you can see their tire tracks.  From there we went into Deer Valley, then followed the road to the KBB Hills.  They wanted to go futher, so we did a few loops in the KBB Hills.   We headed back home on the road that goes next to the trotting trail--the one that we can't go on anymore :(  Anyway I was on the big road last week and it is passable!  So I wanted to show Jim that we could do it, because about 4 weeks ago we tried but we were unable to use it.
My friend wanted us to ride with her to her new barn so we did.  I wanted to ride Zoe in the lead up Prospector until we got past the green gate.  In the past she really doesn't like going up to the green gate.  She used to stop in her tracks and won't go forward..... so we had to resort to sidepassing up the hill, or backing up the hill....there's no way I'm going to let her get out of it.   Anyway today she just walked up the hill to the gate.  She looked really funny at the rock next to the gate, almost stopped, walked sideways a few steps, but was able to continue forward and make it past the gate.  I was sooooo happy she did this.  It's a big deal for her.   Maybe next time --if she looks funny at the rock---I might let her go up and sniff the rock.  Maybe it will help.
I looked up all my data today on Endomondo and I really like the web site.  It tells me alot about all of my rides.  I just need to remember to use it all the time.  So I will...starting today.