Trail Riding - Inside & Outside

Choctaw Lily No Responses »
Nov 292009

This weekend, the skies were positively celestial.

This weekend, the skies were positively celestial.

Lily and I have been out at Mt. Pisgah riding further each time on a rather little used trail, number 3. It starts at the north trailhead and crosses behind a small hill, then along the west side of the mountain to the back entrance of the park, crossing the main hiking trail leading to the summit. Once you pass the hiking trail, it is not used much and fades to a, sometimes washed out, single track. The views are well worth the challenge.


Fabulous blue skies in late November ... what a treat!

Fabulous blue skies in late November ... what a treat!

On the way back, I was coming down the trail to an intersection and heard, “It’s a horse!” Three girls about the same age waited, while the adults and a couple other kids moved on. I heard an adult say, “Careful! Stay out of the way.” Lily had popped into a canter by that time. The girls were so focused on Lily, rapt with attention. I stopped and invited them to come pet her. It was quite magical and reminded me how much I take for granted. And also how special the touch of a horse can be.


This video is the switchback portion of #3 through the woods, where there is the most elevation gain and also where the footing was the most slick. In the open, the sun had dried it out pretty well, aside from the portions that are little streams. Those, the midday winter sun turned into gleaming silver threads, inviting me on.

This is one of my favorite shots. That's Sky (Trakhener/Arab X), Diamond (Kiger) and my Lily.

This is one of my favorite shots. That's Sky (Trakhener/Arab X), Diamond (Kiger) and my Lily.

As well as having a blast out on the trails lately, we hauled to the Oregon Horse Center to practice inside on their National Championship trail course. Yes, inside. I met Romina and Megan there to practice.

Lily was wonderful and got past several of her issues, from ditches to water with weird, man-made footing. We can now walk, trot and canter through any of the ditches, as well as back down and up. The only thing still to work on there, is backing in without walking through forward first. We played follow the leader with Lily in front over the whole course. I practiced backing and sidepassing in all different sorts of places.

Lily helped Sky and another horse past their water issues when I ponied them. And she got several inquiries from bystanders. And, of course, a few people asked what kind of horse she was. A couple of old timer types watched her very carefully. One commented as we were leaving on what a tough horse she was. That made me smile.

Our favorite part was trying the course at speed! We did a fast run of one side of the course, cantering through ditches and jumping logs. If I can save the $$ for entry fees, I could see taking her in the speed competition next year, along with entering a division or two.

All the photos of the OHC practice are here.



I have to say that I find riding out on the trail truly sublime. Being out alone with just my mare, I can be taken to a timeless place, where human and horse are one, like so many times throughout history. Then to switch gears and try our hands and hooves at the technical challenges of a championship course … what an interesting balance.

And here are the rest of my Pisgah shots… with some more sky images, among other things.

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Posted by Simrat at 9:33 pm Tagged with: , ,

A Day of Thanks

Thankful Thursday 5 Responses »
Nov 252009

Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.

I am thankful that I have these things in my life…

Awareness
Understanding
Love
Intuition
Prayer
Guidance
Peace
Inspiration
Joy
Insight
True Friendship

Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.

How:

  • Sit back and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.
  • Post about gratitude on your blog. If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments here instead.
  • If you blog, please link back here or leave a comment.
  • Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.
    • Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:

  • Tired Dog Ranch
  • Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
  • Earth Dancer Spanish Mustangs
  • The Pony Expression
  • From the Horse’s Back
    • Posted by Simrat at 1:39 pm Tagged with:

    Heavenly

    Choctaw Lily 2 Responses »
    Nov 232009

    This is about where we turned around.

    This is about where we turned around.

    It was supposed to rain all day yesterday. Instead the sun shone and I had no problem picking up a ton of hay across town. Hargobind came along for company and Gurunam and Shabd met us to help stack. In time, I will be able to take one of them out riding with me. Vinnie needs a bit more under saddle time first. The rest of Saturday’s photos are here.


    My helpers left and I went for a ride! Lily is so game to get out that it makes riding 100% more fun. I ran into Lisa and Laura, so we swapped my camera for photos. I’m really having fun with this new point & shoot. That it takes video is an extra bonus.

    Lily is out of shape, so we didn’t go to the top of Mt. Pisgah. I did dismount and lead her part way up the gravel walking trail, so we passed lots of hikers and dogs. I think that we were out for nearly three hours. We did quite a lot of wandering around. It’s quite fun to let Lily see where she wants to go. It’s usually farther away from home, instead of back to the barn.

    Mohter & Son - with no time to comb manes

    Mohter & Son - with no time to comb manes

    Sunday, I zipped out of the house when the sun showed it’s face. This time, I took Vinnie out too. He had no issue being ponied down the road with cars passing, including trotting across the bridge. I didn’t want to tackle the single track trail right away, so we rode down below in the gravel road and in the meadow. The road is .6 miles and I wanted to see what pace we could keep at a big trot. We did it in 3 minutes. By my calculation, that is about 12 mph. Not bad, considering Lily broke to a canter a few times. That slowed us down, as it was not as fast as her trot. I also had to contend with Vinnie mostly cantering alongside.

    In the meadow, we had a nice gallop. That’s a rush while ponying another horse! Both of them seemed to enjoy it, though I did see some competitiveness showing up. Not the best thing to occur when one horse really needs to stay behind the other. We ended with some controlled slow canter. All the while, rain drops were starting to spatter down.

    Window

    Window

    Thankfully, they let up as we headed up the hill. The small window of blue that I saw from the meadow opened up to this dramatic sky. Many of the trails there are small streams this time of year. Under the water in most places, it is solid and sound though. Vinnie did well following behind on the single track and through the woods, twists and turns. At the first meadow, I took a break and let them graze. They enjoyed the view at times along with me.


    This all was well worth missing laundry and dishes for. I’ll just stay up a bit later tonight and get that done too. Trail euphoria will carry me though…


    Today’s photos are here.

    Posted by Simrat at 12:02 am Tagged with: ,

    Fulfillment

    Choctaw Lily 2 Responses »
    Nov 192009

    Gratitude creates it’s own attitude. It can give you a new perspective, a new focus. I am going to use this day as my opportunity to see those things.

    Riding in the dusk

    Riding in the dusk

    It’s an absolute joy to have my girl back!


    Tomorrow Lily has an appointment with Dr. Mosier. She will have her teeth checked and likely worked on, we will talk about getting her weight back up and her general health. She’s a bit on the thin side right now. In fact, I think that she has dropped a bit of weight since Rita was weaned last Sunday. Thankfully, the swelling around her udder is mostly gone. The first night it was huge. She still doesn’t want me to mess with it (needs cleaning), so it must still be tender. Usually she loves getting scratched there. Ah, well, maybe that’s too much information about my girl … but it’s utterly true! Ha!


    Monday I was counting the hours until I could leave work to go see Lily. It was just starting to get dark. I pulled her out of the paddock and hopped on. Vinnie ran around and called to her, but we rode and didn’t mind him. I took her on a tour of the neighboring paddock where they will likely expand into. Then we went down the road. Lily only called to some neighbor horses when we got a little ways from home. I think that she was still looking for Rita. Since then, she has calmed down. I think that she is happy to have her cozy stall with all the hay she can eat. She has a smorgasborg right now with four different kinds, including a small serving of alfalfa hay. I’m considering if I should buy bent grass or mixed grass hay this weekend…. The mixed grass sample bale seemed cleaner than the bent grass, so that’s what I will likely get.

    So my heart is full this week with much gratitude that I have such a wonderful equine friend and partner.


    Take a few minutes today to create your own Thankful Thursday.

    How:

  • Sit back and consider what you have to be thankful for. Listing three to five things is nice, but one will do.
  • Post about gratitude on your blog. If you don’t have your own blog, go ahead and write about what you are thankful for in the comments here instead.
  • If you blog, please link back here or leave a comment.
  • Feel free to tag other bloggers, if you like to do that, but it’s not necessary. This is not a meme that obligates you to do anything, but look for gratitude. Oh, and link back, and comment, that’s all I ask.
    • Visit these other blogs that often participate in Thankful Thursday:

  • Tired Dog Ranch
  • Enlightened Horsemanship Through Touch
  • Earth Dancer Spanish Mustangs
  • The Pony Expression
  • From the Horse’s Back
    • Posted by Simrat at 7:33 pm Tagged with:

    Lily is home

    Choctaw Lily 1 Response »
    Nov 152009



    It was another great weekend at Tired Dog Ranch. This post will be a bit long. Even so, I am not capturing all the fun. That would be just impossible.

    Saturday, I ponied Rita from Lily and took her on a short walk through the woods. Romina and Megan worked with Abby, Luna and the mini-donk sisters, Tallula & Pebbles. Since I don’t have a horn on my saddle, I had to lock my hand to my hip at times to pull, not so little, Rita along. She got the idea and did really well through the woods. Meanwhile, Sally and Megan were mushroom hunting with Pebbles and Tallula in tow.

    Towards the evening, I got Luna out and took her to the round pen. I ended up getting on her bareback for a few turns and a short trot. I had tried a Wintec dressage saddle on her, but we didn’t have a short enough girth to use with it. She was fine bareback, though she did want to stay by the gate. It was getting dark and plans were made to ride again in the morning with Luna and Lily. The evening progressed with much talking and eating and enjoying of eachother’s company. I was tired from a busy day and retired to the Cowboy Cabin and a warm wood stove. I think I was in bed by the unheard of hour of 10 o’clock.

    Sunday morning arrived overcast with a slight threat of possible rain. We convened at the lower pasture sometime late morning and gathered our crew of equines, Lily, Luna, Luis, Pebbles and Tallula. A different saddle was tried on Luna and a sidepull bridle. Romina tried her out in the round pen first, then I got on. She’s been a mom for a while now and could use a little tune up. She was good with both of us though, so I took her out in the meadow. Romina tried Lily and we had a good few rounds. Luna has a very nice trot, smooth and with energy. We all ended up taking the woods trail. When Romina and I got ahead of the other with Luis, Luna’s colt, she got a little anxious and called for him. She was still wiling and did as asked. It was a very fun and productive ride, even though we did get rained on.

    On our return, Luis and Luna were put back in the pasture. Lily came with me up to the parking area and my trailer. I’ve had loading issues with her since last year after she was leased out. I was prepared to take the rest of the day to calmly work on it. The day before, I had asked her to load. I had a bale of alfalfa hay inside that I’d just bought at the feed store. This turned out to be far too tempting and before Lily knew what had happened, she had all four feet in the trailer! Previously, she would put her front feet in, but the back feet took a lot of work. Today, she had second thoughts about loading a couple of times, but got over that pretty quickly. I took her in and out repeatedly, closing the door once too. It was a pleasure having her load well. If it takes having a bit of alfalfa in the manger, that’s fine with me for now!

    As I drove out, Luna, Luis and Rita were huddled by the front gate. I felt sorry for Rita the most. She looked a little forlorn. On arriving at my barn, I put Lily out with Vin. He nickered and pranced up to her and was very happy to see her. After checking out the paddock, Lily kept watching the distance for every horse that she could see. She didn’t call once though, just watched. I brought them into their stalls to see how it was with the wall between them partially removed. It was fine. They ate dinner and then I put them out again. They both scarfed up the alfalfa crumbs I dumped from cleaning the truck out. Sarbjit and Hargobind stopped in to help. That was nice.

    By the time I left, Lily was allowing Vinnie to groom her withers. She even groomed him back a little. I think that his gregariousness might just make Lily less aloof. Her udders are quite full, of course, and I’ll be watching for any sign of mastitis. She seems to understand what’s happened and is accepting it so far.

    It was a very wonderful weekend and I am tired! To my friends, Romina, Megan, Amy Jo & Sally, Thank you all for being part of Lily’s departure and homecoming. It was very helpful for me to have the support of my friends, even though it might not have seemed evident. Now I get to let the dust settle on this move and get used to having my two horses again.

    See all the photos on Flickr here.

    Even hanging back on the lead, Rita has a killer trot and look at how big she's getting!

    Even hanging back on the lead, Rita has a killer trot and look at how big she's getting!

    Posted by Simrat at 10:28 pm Tagged with: ,
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