Whisper Whinnies

Last Wednesday I took Zoe out by herself.  Sometimes she whinnies as we are going away from the barn.  When she was younger it was whinnies and a not quite so calm attitude.  Now it's just sometimes a whinny.  I usually ignore her and we keep on going in the direction I want to go.  Sometimes I say "hey, hey, hey-none of that".  Well today she tried to whinny, I said "hey" and she ended up with a whinny under her breath- a whisper whinny.  It was so funny I had to laugh out loud.  She does have personality.

Our ride was a practice of our riding lesson that we had the night before.  Yup we started up lessons again. Boy did I miss them.  There were just 4 of us and we mostly worked on getting our horses to listen to us just by using our seat-in various ways for various things.  Anyway it was a chance to use the lesson out on the trail.  So I didn't go very far...did a variation of the hour loop.  She did good at paying attention to what I wanted-just using my seat.  I usually use my seat to convey my directions but was even more conscious of it after last night.  We did need some work on trotting-staying in the slow trot after going faster.  At first she will stay there for about 10 strides then kick it up to a faster trot without me asking.  Maintaining the same speed without me getting on her case (either faster or slower) would be good.  She finally did it much better and we stopped working on that one.

There was a tree down on the trail.  As usual-most horses do this-she gave it the evil eye...it wasn't there last time we were here.

Separation, deer and a runner

Today's ride, Thursday, was a good ride.  I love it when my horse does good and she has done good for the last 2 rides.  I went out with a friend - who rode Sky.  Yesterday my friend saw a mountain lion at the top of Beginners Hill...she was there in the afternoon.  I was there that morning and saw nothing...but I did notice that it was very quiet and I thought that was unusual-don't know if the 2 are connected.  Anyway today we stayed away from Beginners Hill and went all the way thru the cow pastures to the KBB Hills.  I wanted to try some more separation.

On the way there we saw 2 beautiful bucks, 4 points on each antler, still in velvet.  They didn't seem to be in any hurry to leave the area.  I could sense that something was up ahead on the trail and Zoe did too-her ears were different.  So I made some noise, didn't want to catch something unawares and have them jump out in front of me.  So as we rounded a corner going uphill, there they were.  The horses didn't seem to mind them either.  They stayed around so long that I could have gotten a good picture...but I didn't get to it.

The horses did great with the separation.  We only did it at a walk and only 2 times.  At the top of one of the hills where we met up again, we met up with a runner-one of the vets from work.  It was nice to talk to her for a while-about 30 minutes.  She and I are going to met up and go riding sometime.  She was out checking out the area by running.  She seemed to be okay with her direction and she separated from us.  We did another separation only this time it was different.  My friend was unsure of her direction on her trail so she backtracked and came up the trail I came up on.  It was okay...it was still a good separation  practice.  But she did take longer to get up the hill to us.  In the meantime Zoe did a good job of just standing and waiting.  She didn't get upset or impatient.  I was proud of her.  So together we went back down the hill and got to have my friend lead the way up the hill so that she could be sure of herself the next time we do this.  I tend to take things slowly with my horse.  I've seen too many people get into trouble trying to do things too fast...skip steps.  If I can think of a way to break something down into steps, do the steps, then eventually I will get the task accomplished.  So today we walked for separation.  Next time we will trot some.   These are great hills to get this done.  When my friend and I were separated she could not hear the bells on my saddle....so I don't know how much good the bells do.  Animals hear better than we do so maybe they are doing some good to warn the wildlife that we are coming.  However the last 2 days they didn't worry the deer any....they just stop and stare at us.

We were on the main road before heading down to the cow pastures when we met up with the vet again.  She had parked her truck across the street from FLEC and had entered the forest thru the narrow twisty trail.  Now she had just ran down to the cow pastures and was unsure of herself.  She didn't go thru the cow pastures to get to the KBB Hills so she turned around probably trying to find something familiar to get her on the the right trail back to her truck.  The only problem was that she was headed in the opposite direction....and sure she might have found something that looked familiar....but she admitted that she was lost.  So we took her to her truck.  Good thing we ran into her again.  It would have been a long run back to her truck.   We did some trotting on the way back, after all the vet was out for a run and wanted to continue running so we trotted some.  This was interesting because the horses could have said "home, fast, okay.....faster, faster, faster."  But they didn't.  They were quite willing to slow down and sometimes wait for the vet to catch up.  Good ride.

Mylar balloons

Today's ride was pretty mellow compared to last week's ride.  Last week Zoe was in a hurry to get home and it was bothersome to constantly be asking her to slow down-last week we started out moving fast.  This week she was in no hurry to get home.  I tried not to be in a hurry to get out on the trail and although we did trot at the beginning, I didn't ask her to trot her fastest.  So I guess we started out pretty relaxed and it transfered to the whole ride.  We even met up with 2 other riders and followed them for a little while then turned on a different trail.  Zoe was fine with that too.  I ran the GPS on this ride and our fastest was in the middle of anything that we have ever done.  I think I will like to work on going faster and being calmer on the way home.  I would like to figure out if last week was a fluke or if I need to be working on something. 

Anyway on the way home I found a mylar balloon.  It had been sitting on the trail by the green gate for some time now so I decided it needed to come home with me.  I had fun with Zoe and my other 2 horses and the balloon.  No one horse decided that they couldn't stand it.  So that was good.  The only reaction I got from any of them was from Zoe.  She decided that she didn't like it up by her ears--she didn't panic only raised her head and looked at me like "WHY?" and "REALLY?"  I could put the balloon everywhere else though....I even tied a baling twine to it  and pulled it between their front legs and back legs, under their tails, over their backs.   The balloon was slightly flat so I could roll it between my hands and it made a wonderful crinkly noise....that didn't seem to bother them.  I should try it while I'm riding Zoe....I guess details will follow.  

Friday's ride

     We got the opportunity to ride with a friend today...one that we don't get to see too often.  It was fun.  We only went in the forest, but did many different things.  There were 3 of us.  We changed places, walked, trotted, up hills and down hills, separated some, backed up hills.    

     One of the things I liked was being 2nd or in the back while we were going faster.  Zoe needs practice at this...doing it without tossing her head or breaking into a lope when she could just be extending her trot.  My friend's horse has a nice big trot so we got to practice this while she was in the lead.  

     Zoe usually doesn't like being in front, but I put her in front on so many rides that she is getting used to it.  Today when she was in the front she sometimes spooked at silly things, but went back to work.

     We did a little bit of separation-almost forgot about doing it.  At the KBB Hills Zoe was watching my friends horse go off in a different direction and she almost wanted to run up the hill to catch up with her, but I made her walk.  We need to do more separations in the KBB Hills.

     An interesting thing we did was to back up out of the creek by the green gate.   I've never thought of doing that in that place but it was a good thing to try.  Zoe did good, she hesitated a little 1/2 way up the hill....but with just a little urging continued to back all the way up.    I will have to try that again.  

     All in all a good ride.  

     Back at the barn another friend was playing with a big American flag in the arena while another friend was lunging her horse.  It looked like fun to try the flag...so I asked if I could do it.  The answer was yes but not in the arena...the horse in the arena was scared of the flag.  So they said it would work best in the barn yard.  I was okay with that.   So Zoe was fine with the flag.  I could put it over her head, drag it on her head, wave it wildly over her head, walk in any direction...didn't matter which side of the horse the flag was on.  But......the horse in the arena-didn't like me playing with the flag.   He took off, ran away from his owner, took the lunge line with him.  So I decided the flag could wait for another time.  We seemed to be doing fine with it anyway.   Another day.  

      

Oh deer

Today was our first ride out after camping.  I should know better than to go out fast and expect a slow ride back.  Zoe was more than willing to move out and to keep moving out.  It was like riding Skippy-the sportscar.  The way back she was in a hurry to get home...was listening somewhat.  She didn't break into a trot but was walking fast.  So we played with the slow down ideas.  I wish I had more time to work on it today, but I had to get back home by 1pm.  She will probably be fine the next time out by herself.
Our title today-deer.  We did come across 1 young buck trotting up the trail behind Elephant Rock.  Zoe did a few steps to the side and stopped to look as the buck bounded off into the bush.  She usually does pretty well if she can see what it is that is bothering her.  (Except for mountain lions)  Once we saw that deer and she figured it out we picked up our trot and continued on.  On the way back we were on the road that parallels  the trotting trail.  We were just coming up to the places where the ruts are bad and the trees are down.  We were working on the "slow down the walk" idea when we heard loud crashing sounds to the left.  Zoe stopped to look and it was fine with me to stop.  Next thing I see are 2 deer- a fawn with spots and it's mom- frantically running down the hill and heading straight for us.  Now there are alot of thoughts that go thru my mind in just a few seconds.  Heals down.  Both hands on reins.  Stand my ground...if I move my horse will probably think it has to run also...the deer will probably go around us.  However they didn't look like they were going to go around.  So I decided that talking would help.  So to not bother my horse too much I say-in my happy voice-"Oh look deer are coming".  As soon as I get those words out of my mouth, they swerved at the last second and passed in front of us about 2 yards away.  I say "Oh look the deer are going" again in my happy voice.  Part of my talking was for Zoe's benefit and the other part was for what had spooked the deer in the first place.  Maybe my talking would scare that away too.   So now the deer are bounding off to the bushes to the right.  And I'm looking to the left to see what - if anything- is coming.  Nothing else was coming.  So again in my happy voice I say "Well that was interesting, let's keep going down the trail".  Zoe all this time was really good.  She didn't jig, she didn't get tensed up.  She was very much aware, but not spooky.  Phew!  We continued on our trail ride and still had to work on the "slow down the walk" idea.  

Camping

This year's trip to Euer Valley was great.  We brought 3 horses:  Sky, Skippy and Zoe.  They all did great. There was no sillyness or rushing or competition among them.  Every ride out was calm.  Sometimes they were unsure of things, but managed to "deal with it".  The creek was running higher and the way around the bridge with the metal road was not clear....so we got to ride across the bridge.  Horses were unsure at first.  I decided to get off and walk Zoe across and we lead everyone else across.  The rest of the time we all took turns at riding and leading across the bridge.  There was only 1 time that Zoe didn't want to lead- on the way back, and there was 1 time that Skippy didn't want to lead - on the way out.
The rides were great....we managed to get 2 in a day.  When we got up high the scenery was terrific.  We only had cameras working part of the time so pictures of views from up high are scarce.
Zoe did a good job leading on one of the rides....it was a ride up a ridge where you could see the next valley over-Carpenter Valley.  The last time we lead up there she balked alot....but this year she was a real trooper....just wanted to keep going.  On that ride were 3 steep hills to go up...ones that you don't want to look back down where you came from-just keep looking where you want to go.  Zoe lead up one and did a great job.  After a while we switched places and Skippy lead the rest of the ride and up the next 2 steep hills.  While going up one of the hills I almost lost my cell phone-the holder on my leg was holding on by a thread-literally.  I just happened to look down and see my problem-phew!
I was able to use my GPS on some of the rides.  I had to wait until we got home to see the maps but it gave me a greater map than what the managers of Euer Valley had to offer.  
We did have bears in camp everynight.  I managed to sleep thru all of their visits so I was told what happened...but apparently the horses did fine.  They acknowledged the bear by getting slightly worked up...moving of feet was heard.  Only one night did Skippy snort.
The bugs in the Valley, especially in the afternoon, were numerous.  Sometimes flys on the trails in the afternoon were bad.  I guess it was the result of such a wet long spring.  The last day the breeze came up and the bugs weren't so bad on our rides.  Our camping place was fine...we are up above the valley so the flys and bugs weren't so bad.
Everything was soooo green and the flowers were beautiful.  Again the result of the long wet spring.  Apparently Euer Valley opened up July 4th-a full month behind scheduled.  Nice on the rides with all the green and flowers.  Nothing was mucky.  I remember in years past that some of the vegetation was dried up and when the wind blew thru it it sounded like a rattlesnake...made the horses nervous.  But not this year.
I forgot how much the horses liked grazing in the meadow.  Zoe LOVES to roll and roll and roll.  They all rolled but I think Zoe did the most.  I could see the joy on her face as she rolled.
I think this is our 7th year there.  It is Zoe's 5th year.  I can see how Zoe has done better each year we go.  She is used to it now.  There is something nice about seeing her and the other horses be so relaxed....a true vacation.  I can appreciate the "sameness" of the place we go...it truly leads to a relaxing vacation for horses and humans.  We will try another place someday...we are talking about saving up our $'s for Point Reyes. 

View of the valley from our camping spot

      Zoe leading up one of the trails
                                              

  Jim and Mario ahead of me....nice, green, and flowery this year

   Georgie came to visit one afternoon.      

       A different view of Euer Valley

                          Zoe and me

            Zoe loves that meadow grass

              Carpenter Valley