"Loose" horse?

Today's ride was interesting.  I thought it was going to be a quiet, quick ride.  And it almost was.  On the way back, by "grand central station" I heard galloping hooves coming up behind me.  Zoe and I turned around in time to see a riderless horse galloping towards us and then turned left to go up the ridge to my left, followed by a horse and rider that seemed to be chasing the first horse.  I wasn't sure if the first horse was being ponyed and got away or if it was a rider that rides and lets the 2nd horse go loose all the time.  I've heard that some people do that with their older horses.  I've even run into a man once that was doing that but the "loose" horse stayed with the mounted horse.  I've even done that with foals out on the trail…but the foals tend to stay with their dams.  Anyway they disappeared up to the top of the ridge and I continued down the trail.  I got to thinking that maybe it was a "loose" horse and it could be a rodeo in front of me, so I got off and walked with my horse.  Zoe was doing ok.  She kept looking up the hill towards the 2 horses that ran off, but otherwise she was fine.  As I rounded the corner, the ridge trail mets up with the trail I was on and I met the 2 horses again.  This time the rider had the "loose" horse on a lead rope and was getting her horses arranged to continue on her ride.  I asked her if she was ok and I got a short "yes" and off she trotted.  This time her ponyed horse was trotting behind her-a bit wild but following.  While I was talking to her a bicycle rider and a dog came up behind Zoe and me…they stopped and he made the dog stop and sit next to the bicycle.  Very polite bicycle rider.  Much nicer than the horse lady.  Maybe the horse lady just had a bad experience and wanted to get home quickly.  I'd like to think that was the situation.  If she is one of those people who let their older horse go "loose" on the trail, I'm not too happy with her.  Either way I'm glad the "loose" horse didn't chose to run up to us or blow past us on the same trail.  Seems like a recipe for disaster.  And I'm glad she got her horse on a lead rope.   Zoe was a bit excited so we walked for a while.  After a while I got back on and rode home.

Note to self…again

When looking for your riding pants for a half an hour, you might consider that you're wearing them!

I was riding at 5:30 am and decided to put my work pants on over my riding pants since it is cold at work.  Wore that combination of pants all day.  When I got home and got ready for work the next day I looked for my riding pants…that I was wearing the whole day.

Guess that tells me 2 things.  l-my riding pants are very comfortable  2-I'm getting old and forgetting things.

Ride to Lake?

Isn't this where we sometimes get on the canal trail? Where's the water? 

View from the top of Dottie's Hill.  We found water!  Look, it's Folsom River!   The picture for my blog shows the lake full.  Not full in this picture.  

12th Birthday

Every year on Zoe's birthday I take a picture with her and her foal blanket that I made for her.  She was so small when born that I had to make her blanket.  Now it just looks like a funny blanket.  Jan 8th she was  12 years old.  

5:30 am interesting ride

At least two days a week I ride at 5:30 in the morning.  It's the only time I have those days to ride, I've done it for years, it's just like some people going to the gym before work…only I go to the barn before work.  It's a good thing I work at a horse clinic and not a place that requires a dressy appearance.  Anyway over the years I've had different people join me at 5:30 am, it seems they ride for a "season" and then I'm by myself again.  I don't mind it either way.
This week I had a friend join me (L).  Her horse, Rose, is 6 but is early in its training.  So on this day she decided to lunge Rose in the arena while I was riding.  She was in the middle and I was on the edges.  All was going well.  Rose was giving her a bit of a challenge but it seemed controllable.  Zoe was learning how to pay attention to me and not wonder about what Rose was doing.  Zoe was doing pretty good.  So I decided to just hang out at the top end of the arena and do figure 8s, collected, with a non-posting trot.  Suddenly here comes Rose, loose, running around us.  Apparently Rose bucked, reared, pulled and got away from L.  So the horse, being a herd animal, ran for the "comfort" of the only other horse in the arena.  Zoe was not pleased.  It's funny…Zoe says she's the older, more sensible horse, and "why doesn't this young horse behave itself???"  That's Zoe's attitude, but I remember when Zoe was that irresponsible, young, impulsive horse-and she would have done the same thing-might even try it at 12 too.  Zoe almost kicked out at Rose, but I stopped her.  I almost came unseated, but regained my seating pretty easily.  Now we had 2 horses going in circles around each other with a lunge rope dragging on the ground-who knows where on the ground?  All this time L never said anything-didn't hear a "watch out" or "loose horse".  I, on the other hand, was very vocal…I had some harsh "whoa's" and "knock it off" coming out of my mouth.  When I regain my seat, I was then concerned about the lunge rope.  If it twirled around the horses legs, might it cause one of them to stumble potentially causing me to really come off?  I got Zoe stopped and then Rose stopped.  I was wondering where the lunge rope was when L came and picked it up and I could see it was just in-between the horses, not wrapped around anyone's legs.  Phew.  Adrenalin was still pumping in my veins and before L could do anything with the lunge line I said "wait, just give it a minute to calm down"…probably said it harshly too.  So we had a few seconds to defuse the situation.  I side passed Zoe away from Rose.  Rose tried to follow.  I tapped Rose with my whip as L pulled Rose towards her.  And the whole thing was over.  Probably lasted for less than a minute-but was intense.  L and Rose went back to the center and continued lunging and I went back to my figure 8s.
Interesting.  I was glad Zoe didn't do more to Rose, that I could get Zoe's attention back to me pretty easily.  I told L I would like her to do it again with me in the arena.  It's good practice for Zoe to not be influenced by another horses attitude, maintain her composure and not blow up.  It's good practice for Rose as she will have to eventually work in the arena with other horses.  I didn't want L to not try again so I hope she will join me…she said she would.

New Years Ride 2014

 Every year we go on a new years day ride.  It's been fun.  Some years we go out in big groups but lately we have been going out in smaller groups.  This year our barn manager hung ribbons out on the trail, pink ribbons for a short easy ride and orange ribbons for a longer intermediate ride.  Before we left for the trail a runner/rider came up to the barn and told us that someone from the housing tract across the street was pulling ribbons and complaining about horseback riders.  George (runner/rider) had "words" with him.  Not sure it went well.  We left for our ride anyway and could follow the orange ribbons no problem.  The pink ribbons were probably the ones that got pulled.  And sure enough we ran into some people from our barn that were trying to follow the pink trail and got lost.  They are new to the trails so that wasn't very nice for them.  They were not worried tho…the horses know their way back.  We met them almost at "grand central station" and led them home.

I took a picture of Folsom Lake.  It is very low now.  The first 3 pictures are from previous rides when the lake was fuller.  The last picture was taken from Lookout Rock today Jan 1, 2014.