Hoof Abcess

A few days ago, I went out to do morning chores only to find JB very very lame. At first, I thought it was his front right, and my heart skipped a beat but when I asked him to move off he looked lame on both fronts. His paddock was very muddy and he was slipping around so it was hard to tell exactly which leg he was lame on. I checked him over, no swelling, no cuts, no heat. If I had to give the lameness a grade, he was probably somewhere between a 2 and a 3. The mud and bad footing made it hard to detect much of anything definitely and since he didn't act like he was in any large amount of discomfort, I threw him his hay and headed into work for the day. I would have to address it more closely later. That was Wednesday.

That evening I checked him over more thoroughly and was able to determine it was not his front right, but instead his front left. Still no swelling, hheat or cuts that I could fine anywhere, however, he was holding his heelup, keeping his fetlock cocked so as not to put weight on the back of hhis foot. At first, I thought well, he must have slipped in the mud and ttweaked something. I had a vet appt scheduled on Saturday so I decided to jjust keep a close eye on it and if he got worse, I would have to vet check the leg out. Ofcourse, he got worse.

On Saturday, JB had a pretty strong pulse in the front left. The vet hoof tested him, checking for a bruise, inflammation (laminitis) or indicators of an abcess but nothing revealed itself in those areas. We ended up doing xrays to check for a broken coffin or navicular bone. Nothing, which was good news. We decided that the only possibility was that it could be an abcess in the coronary band or a bruise in the heel that was fairly deep and undetectable. We wrapped his foot in a poultice and they sent us home with instructions to keep him contained (in case it was a soft tissue injury in the hoof or leg), keep his foot wrapped for 48 hours, give him bute that afternoon and see how he did.

By the next morning, JB was even more lame and the back part of his lower cannon (just above his fetlock joint) was hot and swollen. I gave him 1 gram of bute for his discomfot and spoke to the vet late that morning. He wanted us to pull the bandage off and repack it because he was certain it was an abcess. Ofcourse, my med kit had everything but what I needed to repack the foot properly. I had to run into town anyways so I planned to stop at the vets to get some Magna paste (way better for a drawing salve than Icthamol)and wrapping material and then get the foot rewrapped later in the afternoon.
By the time I got home, JB seemed to be feeling better so I let him out into his pasture to graze for a while. He took off running and bucking, sans a bit lame yet but he seemed better. I planned to repack the foot after a while when he had a full belly. When I finally got the bandage off Saturday evening, I noticed a strong putrid smell, something I recognized as pus. I looked the foot over and sure enough, there it was. The abcess had obviously erupted, which would have explained JB feeling better earlier in the day.

The abcess was on the left heel bulb and things were still looking a bit swollen and tender. I soaked his foot for 15 minutes in Epsom salt and then repacked the area with a bit more Magna Paste, in case there was still some drainage. I rewrapped everything to keep it clean(with all the mud around) and will pull it off again tomorrow.

It's been a while since I have had a horse abcess and have never had one at the heel bulb . Not sure what could have caused this , possibly he caught himself with his hind foot or it is simply just the fact that it's been so muddy. Either way, JB is already feeling 90% better since it released and I am so relieved that this is all it was...

Leaning

In riding, this is one of my bad habits, born from the days of being thrown into a jumping saddle at a young age, atop a horse much too big for my short legs and flying around a jump course, in two point. What can I say…Old habits die hard… but leaning forward isn’t always a fault.

The 2010 riding season proved to be a storm of challenging winds blowing down on me. A career ending injury to a barely budding endurance athlete. JB had just begun to hit his stride in the Fall of 2009 with his first successful completion of 25 mile CTR ; a most difficult ride as far as terrain, footing, obstacles. JB managed to bring both me and himself through it , not without out struggles but in one piece and healthy nonetheless. It was defining moment for JB and I as partners. We faced some steep challenges but he definitely showed me he was the little horse that could. In the following spring of 2010, some of our first condition rides out, I was pleasantly surprised with this new horse that seemed to be emerging right before my eyes. He strode out with strength, speed and sureness in his step that I had not experienced before. I was overjoyed. After 3 years of struggling to get JB to this point, mentally and physically, we had finally arrived. He was ready to do endurance. It felt like we were on the golden road to many exciting adventures. I was looking forward to the journeys that lie ahead for JB and I.

But the golden road of future success took a hard left for us when JB was injured.

JB’s subsequent rehab from Pastern Arthrodesis surgery has consumed most my time since April. The process has proved to be a windy, challenging course. There have been unpredictable gusts, and alternately, there have been persistent, steady winds. There has been rain, thunder and clouds that loomed.

And we aren’t quite half way yet. There are still puddles to step in, winds to face.

I have tried to limit posts on JB’s rehab, not because I am trying to hide or diminish the challenges we have faced, there have been many; but because I am busy leaning into the wind, facing those challenges as they come at me, and trying to stay the course, stay positive, leaning forward into better times ahead.

JB has been transitioned into a 48 x48 pen now. He’s been there for 3 weeks. He bucks and runs, as much as he can in that space. Physically he’s getting stronger with each day that passes. Mentally, he’s recovering and I see glimmers of the old JB come out. He’s getting less reactive on noises but sometimes, he has bad days and he reverts. I am encouraged however; I can now at least start the lawnmower within a few of his pen without worrying that it will send him into a panic.
We go for daily walks in hand; he wants to trot, but I can’t let him. He wants to run with the herd, but it’s not time. His manners have suffered during his recovery, so I have started asking for him to remember. He’s coming around but it’s a process. Every day is a new day for us.

His old atrophied hoof is still growing out and the new hoof is coming in….slowly. I am not sure what he’s going to end up with at the end of his healing. Right now, his hoof looks very odd. Every 3-4 weeks, we have to rasp his hoof to keep the wall from making too much contact with the ground, in order to keep as much torque off the joint as possible. JB will remain on Farriers Formula until the new hoof is completely formed and hopefully he’ll have a relatively normal foot again.

JB has his 6 month post op anniversary in November. At that time, we will do radiographs. I am both anxious and nervous for that day. It’s the day I’ll know what our future road will look like. Will we find that golden road again where we can cover mile after mile together? Or will it be an easier path that we’ll need to take?

Only time will tell. Either way, as long as it’s a road we can travel together , I am happy.

When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes. ~William Shakespeare, Henry V

Summer 2009 Lupine Lake

Update on JB

A horse can lend it's rider the speed and strength he or she lacks- but the rider who is wise remembers it is no more than a loan.
(Pam Brown, b. 1928)

The photo above was taken 3 days before his accident. He was having an absolute blast tearing around the arena.

Quick update on JB; He has been back at home for almost a week and doing reasonably well with his stall confinement. I will be taking his cast off tomorrow to see how the crush injury is healing. The vet took it off last Wednesday and all looked well then. If everything still looks good with no sign of infection, then he gets the clearance for surgery from the vet.

A Terrible Accident

The above picture is of JB's leg in a cast. Sorry for the quality of the photo but I took it with my phobe. I can barely bring myself to write this post, but sometimes writing can also be healing for me. I am still in a bit of shock and just trying to deal with all the complications of what has happened.

Last Thursday , April 29th something happened to JB. He was in a terrible accident. I was just leaving from work, when I received a call from my husband to get home quickly. The neighbor had just called him and said that JB was caught in a gate and was hanging upside down from his leg and was in big trouble. “ Get home now..” was Tom’s last words before he hung up the phone. Tom was only a mile from home at that point. I was still 12 miles from home, stuck in 5:00 traffic.

As terror ripped through every cell in my being, I managed to think clearly enough to call my vet. Even if I couldn’t get there quickly, atleast the vet could and meet Tom at the house. I knew for sure that whatever condition JB was going to be found in, he would need a vet.

I made it home in record speed. The vet was already there. I ran around the barn to find JB standing at the horse trailer, soaking wet, full of mud and trembling uncontrolably. His front right leg was bleeding and he was not bearing weight. He nickered when he saw me. The vet had already given him bantamine and a sedative and was waiting for it to kick in so he could be examined. I threw a second blanket over JB to help keep him warm and hopefully stave off any further affects of what was clearly shock setting in.

Tom filled me in on the details. Somehow JB managed to catch his front right leg in between the top part of the gate where it is attached to the barn. The problem is that how he did it is still a mystery. There was absolutely no gap between the barn and the gate. We build all of our gates this way to prevent this exact nightmare. And here we were. Needless to say, JB managed to get hung up. His front right foot was up in the air and JB was on his back underneath the gate. It’s hard to imagine, even now. I have probably gone to look at that gate 100 times in the last 72 hours trying to figure it out. My best guess is that he reared up, came down with his front feet on top of the gate, which is 6 and half feet high, and as he tried to get his feet down, his feet must have slid to the left and his right foot got caught in the process... somehow… The weight or angle or both must have been enough to force his foot down between the exterior wall of the barn and the gate. We have no idea how long he was in this position. The UPS driver was who noticed JB in his predicament and alerted the neighbor, who then called Tom.

Tom was able to unbolt the gate and get JB free. He said JB jumped right up as soon as he was free but it was obvious his front right leg was not in good shape. It was bleeding and he was not putting weight on it. The vet got there shortly thereafter.

As Tom caught me up on the details, I stood there trying to offer whatever comfort I could to JB, the freezing rain pouring down on us while the vet examined him. His foot and pastern was “sloppy” (sloppy meaning there was too much lateral movement. We needed to get xrays to see what was going on, possibly something broken. We put a temporary cast on him and got him loaded in the trailer.

The xrays revealed , to my surprise, no broken bones. But, nearly as bad, maybe worse. It appeared he had torn his medial collateral ligament (MCL) of the short and long pastern bone, or the proximal interphalangeal joint. This was the reason for the “sloppiness “ of the joint from side to side when the vet first examined the foot. Normally, xrays are not the best diagnostic tools for tendons and ligaments. Ultrasound is the more traditional method but the vet was able to maneuver the joint in such a way that allowed a clear image, showing the displacement of the joint, indicating clearly that the ligament tear.

The treatment:

My vet encouraged me to have the radiographs reviewed by an advisory board at Pullman. He felt that they would be able to give me a more accurate prognosis , because they would obviously see more of these types of injuries than he would . He would be able to email the radiographs over night and have an answer the next day.In the meantime, the vet put a cast on and JB stayed the night at the clinic.

I went ahead and had my vet send off the radiographs and Friday I spent the day waiting to hear back .


The options are complicated. For right now, JB has to be in his cast for about 10 days until the swelling has come and gone. JB also sustained a crush injury to the tissues just above his coronet band. That has to heal. For right now, JB is on stall rest and he has to be on even ground. Since I don’t have a stall, I have him at a boarding facility about 3 miles away. Atleast for now. The plan is to get him home and we started making that happen this weekend (more on that later).

In 10 days, he will be ultrasounded, and recast again. This cast will be more permanent, for 6-8 weeks. JB would remain on stall rest for 3-4 months. Assuming he is healing well at that point, the cast can come off and then he can be moved out to a small paddock. That’s assuming everything is healing as it should and other complications don’t arise along the way. The final outcome of this method,which I'll refer to as the conservative method for now, is that JB would be a horse that might be sound enough for a pleasure but would have arthritis complications for the rest of his life…most likely.Ofcourse, every horse is different so my vet was not able to be more specific than that.

The other option is to put JB through surgery and fuse the two joints. The vets at Pullman that reviewed his radiographs thought this would be best option if JB is to stand any chance of recovering to full use, but as with any surgery, there are no guarantees. They felt that he would most likely be able to go back to work as an endurance horse if the joint was but there is always a risk. Ofcourse, the other down side is that the surgery is very expensive. On a good note, if I do opt to do the surgery, there is a surgeon that can come here from Great Falls, and perform the procedure. The recovery and rehab period would be a total of 6-7 weeks. With a fusion, there would also be no risk of arthritis since the joint is one unit, so to speak.

At this point, I haven’t made a decision yet. I have to consult with my vet further, I have lots of additional questions. Since JB has to get through these first 10 days,I do have a little bit of time to make a decision.

Right now, JB is at a barn about 3 miles from home. I'll try not to over exaggerate but it's a dreadful place. It's noisy and stressful there for him and he hates it. It's dark in the barn and there is an arabian stallion across from JB's stall that is completely out of control. Keeping JB quiet and as stress free is going to crucial to his recovery. That's why I am getting him out of there by Tuesday. It’s killing me to have him away. For the last two days, I have restacked 6 ton of hay to one side of the hay barn so that we can get a section set up for a stall for him. That involved getting my brother to come up with his skid steer to scrape down the dirt floor of the hay barn for an even base for gravel. A truckload of gravel is coming tomorrow. I will then place rubber mats down, section off a 12x12 stall using panels, which will then have plywood attached to the inside of those panels to make them completely risk free.

Right now, I can’t think about 3 months down the road, I am only taking it moment by moment. Getting JB home will help my emotional state, as well as his. I am hoping I can then think a little more clearly. His body is hurting, his nerves are tattered. All I can do is everything for that horse right now.

To all my blog readers, I hope you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We need all the help we can get right now.

Who's on First?

Two and a half more weeks .. before school is done..
Then maybe I can get back to posting something worthwhile on this blog.
I have been riding a couple times during the week, just at home in the arena. Sometimes I can only sneak in a half hour, other times, its over an hour. JB has been laid up, as I mentioned in an earlier post but there is good news. I’ll get to that in a moment.

While JB has been off, I had to shift gears a bit about who would be my mount for the ride in July. Initially I hadn’t planned on riding Maggie for that . I didn’t think I could have her ready and still don’t, but with this recent development with JB, I had to at least work toward that as a goal. I still have faith that JB will be fine but in case he’s not….

I rode her three times last week at home and last Saturday, I made a fast dash with Maggie to Herron Park for a quick 5.5 mile loop. Yes, I drove 16 miles one way for a very short ride but I needed a study break and it did us both a world of good. This was only her second time out on a “real” trail and she did beautifully. She was tired and sweaty since it was all uphill on the way out, but she did learn that trotting uphill might not be such a good idea after all…she also started to really figure out how to travel downhill without crabbing.

Sadly, for safety reasons, I have had to stop riding on the dirt roads near my house for conditioning. After another recent close call of nearly being run into (what appeared to be on purpose by a crazy neighbor who hates the world), I decided enough was enough. I am tired of fighting crazy drivers; I am tired of my quiet horses being given reasons to be scared of traffic. I am tired of assholes… to be perfectly honest. Trying to ride on the roads around here is just creating anxiety in my horses.. and me , for that matter. I can’t say I blame the horses, when trucks and cars come whizzing by at 55mph , kicking up gravel and stones and dust. Anyways, I digress…

Without the use of dirt roads for conditioning, that only leaves me the arena, pasture and my dead end half mile cul de sac for riding during the week, but at least my horse and I are safe. In a couple more weeks, after school is out, I’ll be able to get home a bit earlier in order to load up and get to a trail head at least once during the work week. That combined with long days in the saddle on weekends will have to suffice for conditioning.

On to JB. JB has maintained a level of fitness from last year so even at this point, so even with this setback, I could still have him ready for July assuming this issue clears up. At the same time, I also realize the window of opportunity is closing in on me for that. I’ll only be doing the limited distance but I had really hoped to ride him both days for the limited distance. The ride is less than 11 weeks away, considering I wouldn’t ride the week before. I am trying to stay positive and flexible at this point.

The good news is that the lameness is improving and I would consider it a low grade at this point. The chiropractic/body work lady came out on Tuesday. By then, JB was already making some improvements and moving about 65% better than he was even 3 days prior. I had thought initially it was front left, where he had been kicked but it was a bit hard to tell because to me, he felt off in the front and the back. When she worked on him and watched him move, she felt his soreness was on his front right. My first thought was .. “Oh no, not again”. Of course, JB’s issue 2 years ago was a sole bruise on his front right. I know that he hasn’t bruised anything because he is only ever ridden in boots and none of our paddocks have rocks since it’s old river bottom. Given that, I knew I could rule out another bruise as a potential issue this time. It could also be compensation, for his front left. It’s really hard to tell. Long story short??? I have no idea at this point what I am dealing with. The good news is that everyday he is showing improvement. There continues to be no heat, no swelling, no odd bumps, etc. The chiropractor felt he was certainly sound enough that I should start riding him again. Light riding, of course, no tight circles, or anything like that and see how he does for the next few days. I don’t think I am ready to take him into the vet for a lameness exam quite yet. I know it will end up in doing nerve blocks to identify the area of lameness and that gets extremely expensive.

So last night, for the first time in over 2 weeks, we saddled up and took a spin. He actually did pretty well. He didn’t feel obviously off like he had 2 weeks ago but at the same time, he definitely didn’t have the “gusto” in his trot I would like to see. He didn't do the stumbling thing like he was two weeks ago when I discovered the issue. We worked for about 20 minutes and I put him up. We’ll do the same thing tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that he continues to show positive changes.

With no tests to study for, I’ll be in the saddle most of the daylight hours this weekend.

So many horses to ride, so little time....

Weekend Horse stuff...

This was the first weekend in some time that I was able to focus almost entirely on horses and horse related tasks. Let me say this...it felt good. No errands, no family obligations, no other things to I must do. I forgot just how good it feels to just say no to all the other demands on my time .
It started out with JB getting his scheduled trim. His feet continue to be doing very well. I curried, curried and pretty soon had another layer of his winter coat off of him and onto me. I booted him, saddled him, and off we went. It was a bit chilly so we started out slow, doing lots of bending, leg yields, circles, etc at a walk. I had decided to work him in his bitless bridle Tom recently made for me (another post maybe) and this was only the second time I had ridden him in it. He was responding nicely, much better than the first time I put him in it. I decided to ask for a trot after about 15 minutes of warm up work. He hesitated.. "well, it has been a while and it has been cold..." , I thought to myself. I asked again , this time a little more insistent... He picked up the trot, although he pinned his ears a bit . He offered three or four strides and then he was back to a walk. I thought that was odd but since Tom had just left with his gelding maybe he was being a bit barn sour. I gave him the cue to trot again, and he obliged , but clearly wasn't happy about it. The trot he gave me was choppy, slow and then he started stumbling all over the palce. Then I knew something was definitely wrong. When he had foot trouble 2 seasons ago, that was one of the most noticeable symptoms, he stumbled over nothing. I got off him, pulled his saddle and bridle off, and made him move at liberty in the arena. There is was, a definite front left gimp. Tom came back out about then and asked what was goin on. He watched him too, definitely front left. His previous foot issue was his front right and was due to a stone buise of the sole. His soles have thickened and he also had his boots and comfort pads. Besides, his trim was only a small amount of rasping. No sole was taken and JB hasn't even sluffed his winter sole yet. So I knew whatever this lameness was , it was unlikely that it was foot related. I caught him up again, ran my hands down both front legs, no swelling, no bumps, no heat, no nothing. I pulled the boots, no soreness in the heel bulbs, no rubs, no nothing.

Hmmmm. Maybe he just strained himself playing with Brego.


Right about then, Tom said..

"Didn't you say the other day that you noticed he had some hid missing on his shoulder?" "Which side was that?"

It was true. He did have a good sized scrape and indeed it was his front left shoulder. Initially I assumed it was a bite when I first saw it because he and Brego are constantly playing and biting one another. I looked at it again, it could easily be a scrape from a hoof, without a doubt. So,JB is mildy to moderatly lame.

My plan? Give him a week with some slow easy walking work and see if it goes away. If not, called the chiropractor , if still no improvement, off to the vet for a lameness exam. Initially at the discovery of this, my stomach flipped as I envisioned my already short season being ripped away from me. Howevewr, I was encouraged when I turned him back out to his pen when he was rather playful and willing to jump around. At the very same moment, I decided it was time to separate him from Brego for the time being. He is now in with just Rebel. They don't play and JB usually bosses Rebel. His chances of getting injured further would be far less.

As for Maggie, well.. Maggie and I are at a bit of an impass. Maggie is learning that she can go as fast as she wants to and I will still be there. Here's the thing, Maggie gets anxious and travels around tense and thinks that if she just goes, faster things will be better. That combined with that fact that she is terribly herd bound. Fighting her with half halts isn't working, its just frustrating her more. She's too strong willed. Maggie needs to learn to let go of that anxiety and if she needs to move her feet to do so,then that is what we will do. Think about it, have you ever tried to run a mile holding every muscle in your body tense?? How tiring is that???? Could you travel 25 or 50 miles like that? Maybe but not without a high likelihood of injury at some point.

So, today, we started out slow and as predicted she wanted to go faster. I let her and pretty soon we were moving around the arena (and eventually the pasture) at a big trot or a canter if she felt the need. As a disclaimer, I should mention that while we are moving at a quick pace, she isn't in runaway mode. So I let her go, while directing her a bit with circles and changes of direction. Then, every so often, I offer her a good deal, asking her if she would like to maybe slow down a bit, using my seat and reins, If she responds, we slow up a bit. If not, we kept on moving at the speed she feels the need to move at. sometimes it was a canter and sometimes it was a big fast trot. We continued this pattern for some time. Pretty soon, when I suggested she slow up, Maggie listens and her pace slows, maybe just a bit, but that's a try, and that's something... Pretty soon, Maggie is trotting quietly around and eventually she slowed to a walk. several times, this walk only lasted for a few minutes before she decided that she needed to go quickly again. We repeated this process and I rode her for quite a long time. At the end of it, she had made some progress. We could trot a lap or two around the arena at an easy pace with out her trying to hurry. Better yet, I could ask her to slow to a walk and she willingly walked and stayed in a walk. I ended the lesson at that point.

Some might read this and say, sure, you just tired her out.. and I would say that that is a wrong assessment. Believe me, this mare was far from tired. It's crucial that Maggie learns that she doesn't need to travel so fast and tense. I can see that I am not going to be able to make any training progress on anything until she lets go of this anxiety and tenseness and I refuse to be in a horses mouth constantly to get them to slow up. In order to do that, I need to put her in a physical bind to get a mental change. Remember , I didn't ask her to move quickly or choose the pace we traveled at. I let her decide and continually suggested..... "We can slow down now if you would like" . When she did , I rewared her, and let her slow down. When she left quickly ,I let her but directed her feet. I am a strong believer in presenting things and then letting a horse work through all the possible options. Eventually she'll figure out that she doesn't need to work so hard. I know this process will need to be repeated several times before we get it perfect but it's a good start to a long road ahead.

Conditioning, Compromises and Questions

How do I make compromises and keep an endurance horse in shape?
Riding and training for endurance is a huge commitment, especially in the time department. It seems that a large number of people who are really serious competitors in this sport have the luxury of time to commit to it. I am not one of those, especially right now. As Spring weather is arriving, I am going a bit crazy. I work full time (+) and, until May, I am also going to school. Time in not in my favor but I still want to keep my thumb on JB’s fitness level. We are slated for a limited distance, our first ride of the season, the weekend of July 17th. By May, school will be out, but until then, riding time will continue to be limited. So how do I accomplish my goal? and keep my sanity? (I do need at least a few hours of sleep)

For now, I am just trying to do as much as I possibly can because I am a firm believer that doing a little is better than doing nothing at all. But how little and how often? Can I realistically keep a horse fit enough on these time restraints to be ready for my first ride of the reason on July 17th? I’m planning to do the limited distance. I had hoped to have both JB and Maggie ready for this ride so I could ride one horse each day, but that is one compromise I have already come to terms with. I am only going to be able to have one horse ready and that needs to be JB.

Here’s my Plan: I would love to get some feed back.

Session 1:
From now until Mid May – 8-10 miles rides on Saturdays and Sundays, every weekend. Two days a week of 1 hr sessions in the arena of trotting/cantering and dressage exercise. It seems this would at least serve to keep JB legged up and in halfway decent condition.

Session 2:
May 15 – July 12- I can probably manage a ride 2 evenings a week consistently of 8-10 mile from home (since it’s the work week and I won’t have time to haul anywhere after work) and then either Saturday or Sunday as my long day in the saddle away from home. Maybe 15-20 miles, depending on the terrain.

Here are my questions:

For session 1, would 8-10 mile rides back to back from now until May be too much if it’s fairly flat (at 7-8 mph trot)? JB seems to have handled 6-7 mile rides really well right out of the gate a few weeks back after being off for 3 months.

For Session 2- Is one weekend day of longer miles enough when combined with the shorter rides during the week?

For my goal of the July 17th ride, What’s too much? What’s not enough??

Am I being reasonable in my goal to have him sufficiently ready for that date?

Also, to keep in consideration, JB tends to be of the “hardy” sort and seems to recover from a long day in the saddle quite well. In fact, I can see him excelling at multiday rides more than one day 100 milers…but I also don’t want to take advantage of that fact and risk over conditioning.

I realize so much of this depends on the individual horse, but I am looking for guidelines from those of you with the experience that I lack. So, please… share some of your thoughts, experiences, suggestions.

Velcro Butt

I am not sure where the last two weeks went but quick comes to mind.

Before I realized it, too many days had slipped by without so much as even a short condition ride. Between work, work travel, school, and few other family obligations, the horses have slipped a bit.

This past weekend, I did get back in the saddle and was able to get at least a few miles on both Maggie and JB. Tom and I headed out Sunday to scout some of the trail areas. Along with us was another rider/horse. The plan was to ride one loop that she had plotted out on the map and attempt to begin marking potential trails for the July Endurance ride that is being held here.

After an hour and half drive to get to the riding area, rushing to get saddled up , we were all anxious to see some new country. GPS in one hand, map in the other, we headed out , ready for a new adventure.

After over an hour of fumbling around, backtracking and bushwhacking to avoid the massive sheets of ice that blocked large sections of trails, we ended up just riding on the forest service roads, realizing it was still a bit early to be out, unless you had borium shoes on. The roads didn't make for a real scenic ride but there was not traffic and it was a beautiful day. There were long straigh sections and it made nice conditions for long trotting. We did end up doing some unexpected hill work when we couldn’t cross one section of ice and the only safe option was to point our horses nose up the embankment. The steep embankment no less. Thank goodness for breast collars!

With all the confusion in the beginning of the ride, JB was about as irritated and frustrated as I was and then the fight was on. Everything became an issue. We crossed a small running creek once, not a big deal but then, when we had to cross it again, (last in line of 3 horses) he thought he was going to be left all alone and proceeded to launched himself like a pole vaulter, nearly landing on top of my husbands horse and almost swiping me out of the saddle by a huge branch on his less than graceful landing.

I was thankful for three things in that moment, to have been wearing a helmet , sunglasses because the branch hit me directly in the head and lastly that I had a long background in jumping. As JB landed and I got hit with the branch , I was not exactly centered. I scrambled to right myself, just in time, before he jumped a log and scaled up a muddy hill. For a moment I was having a flash back to being on a cross country course…

I finally got JB to WHOA (dammit), gathered my reins back, straightened my helmet, took a deep breath, turned JB around and headed back the way we had just come..

....to cross that damn creek one more time …

and hopefully do it a little more appropriately. Training opportunities don't always come when you want them too.

As I passed my friend, who was eyeing the bits of pine needles and twigs sticking out of my helmet, I heard my husband quietly say... take a deep breath….in a kind but firm voice...

hhmmphh....I thought to myself...

Honestly, my husband is my rock and grounding rod. I tend to flare quickly at times and that never works with a horse, especially one like JB. He was right and I knew it.

So I heeded his advice, took a few more deep breaths and after about 10 minutes of me asking with gentle squeezes with my leg, and encouragement with my voice and seat, JB eventually ran out of dry ground and inched all four of his toes into the creek. He stood there for minute.. I pet him , took another deep breathe, told him he was a good boy and we quietly exited.

Mission accomplished…

....and apparently, I have a new name… Velcro Butt.

My friend , not having known my previous life in riding, was apparently impressed with my ability to stay in the center (sort of) of the saddle through all that…

What can I say?? This ain’t my first rodeo…(hope I am as lucky next time….)

Legging up again...

I did stick to the plan and get out out with JB for our first real "condition" ride of the season. A friend came over to join me with her horse , also her first ride of the season. JB was being pretty well behaved considering. He got a little ramped when Rena, the friends mare, starting jigging. Both horses were feeding off each other's energy and it would not have taken much and they would have been at a full run. Note to self, first few rides out, go it alone maybe....

It took some time but he did settle back into a walk, a fast walk, but a walk nonetheless. It wasn't the warmest day but I had bundled up well enough , only my feet got a bit cold. We ended up turning back at 2.5 miles up the road, since we started running into ice. Besides, 5 miles for the first time out was probably sufficient. I was pleased with JB , he felt quite strong after being off for a solid 3 months. He could have gone another couple miles with out any trouble but we'll take our time legging up and getting back into condition. I didn't get to use my heart rate monitor because I was so excited about just getting out to ride, I completely forgot. Next time though. It will be a busy week and I likely won't be doing much riding until next weekend again...

darn it.....

"Objects in Mirror are closer than they Appear"

The ground is snow covered and the footing isn’t fit for much unless you have skis on, but I am making my game plan for the 2010 ride season. Before I looked ahead, I had to assess where I had been…a look in the rearview if you will. Did I accomplish my goals? What did the conditioning schedule look like? Where were the gaps in my program? What do I need to change?

So for today, I will outline my goals and tally the numbers… the review of those will come in a follow up post , as time is a bit tight.

My goals for 2009 were pretty straightforward:

1) Continue to build on his responsiveness to aids
2) Lateral work, lateral work , lateral work ; to develop the muscling and structure to carry himself and a rider correctly. (this will always be on going as part of our training)
3) Continue with steady dressage lessons to improve my communication with JB, and develop discipline in him, working towards collection and lightness.
4) Finish one 25 mile ride in competition with JB, successfully with no health or soundness issues.

I began to calculate my miles out and realized I had not been very good about tracking things accurately. I am not sure what happened but I think part of it was that my focus was not really on getting miles, at least not early on. I remember taking JB out on the first couple of spring rides out and I realized , rather quickly , that I had a few “training” issues that JB so kindly presented to me. More than once, I ended up hand walking him home because of his behaviors and once, I sustained a kick in the shin when I was trying to adjust a hind boot. To me it was more important to have a well disciplined horse to ride, and handle/ I did not want to become known as the endurance rider who rides that “cute but out of control horse” To add, I was dealing with a stallion at the time and I knew I had better get things handled pronto…so, it was at the point I decided, I would address those things early on, at home, in the arena, and worry about miles later..

Back to the numbers....

I am not sure that I can really count the hours we worked in the arena as “conditioning” . My initial thought was I shouldn't but then I thought.. why not? While a good endurance horse has to be aerobically fit, with a strong heart and lung capacity, he also needs to have the opportunity to developed the musculoskeletal system, in order to carry himself and a rider over many many miles. Without a good foundation in strength, structure, and muscling, horses risk more injury and/or a shortened career. While it’s not a guarantee, it’s my belief that correct lateral work, and ground work excercies a nd time spent doing dressage, can only improve the horse and rider long term. So, for fun, I decided to give myself some credit for that.

The next obstacle I ran into was just how to give myself credit. It’s difficult to give arena work miles….

Here is what I ended up doing: I know I can cover 2 miles in 30 minutes with JB and while I know that number is conservative, I did not want to inflate anything. We’ll call it ....RSD (really slow distance). I used that as my guideline. Each 30 minute session was about 2 miles of conditioning or 1 hour of arena work was approximately 4 miles.

Since I intermixed the ride time in the arena with actual miles , atleast once in a while, I took an additional step and broke out between actual miles and Arena miles.

**Of Note:
May- I am pretty sure I probably rode more than just twice in this month but I did not record any additional since I didn’t have the data and therefore, I only recorded the two days.

June and July- These two months are kind of tricky so I had to use an average here. On one calendar , I did mark down that I rode an average of 2 x per week in the arena with a few weekend easy trail rides for June, In July, I have journal entries that indicate that I began upping my endurance miles, but didn't actually record these miles... (must have been a time thing) . So I improvised. I calculated 16 arena miles ( 2x week at 30 minutes each= 4 miles /week) and 12 trail miles,(4 miles each, 3 times that month). These numbers are probably on the conservative side but, again , trying to avoid inflation.


Here is what we accomplished, give or take:

Month Arena Miles Actual Miles
February- 8 0
March 4 19.5
April 38.5 7
May 5 0
June 16 12
July 16 12
August 10 42
September 4 102
October 12.5 40
November 12.5 0

TOTAL 126.5 234.50

Combined, it 361 miles...not too shabby....


So, did we accomplish our goals? I can honestly say we put a good dent in them. I accomplished #4 for sure and still tickled about how well JB did on that ride. We continue to take dressage lessons and JB is really coming together in the lateral work and flexion department. He is getting softer and softer in the bridle.

I have some additional thoughts on the numbers /miles that I will share in another post.

In the meantime, 2009 will absolutely go down as a very successful year for JB and I.

Feel free to comment on your thoughts/opinions of counting arena time, or what you think of the conditioning that we accomplished.

Winter training Journal 1

It's not officially winter yet, but I am so grateful that we have not had snow ( of course I may have just jinxed myself) because I have been fortunate enough to remain riding in my arena. I hope to continue to be able to do that into December.


It thought I would try journal my training sessions here , with the hopes that it will keep me accountable. Ofcourse, they may be spotty as the we get further into winter but we'll give it a go nonetheless.
Last evening I arrived home a bit early and saddles in a fury, knowing that I had just an hour to spare before dark. Once in the saddle, I spent a good 15 minutes at a walk, working on ...what else.. getting a JB soft and responsive through bending, lateral work, and maintaining long and low. Most of this was to warm JB up sufficiently, as the temperature was dipping. Hard to relax with cold muscles.
When we were were ready I asked JB into a trot. We worked on traveling in a long and low frame to start but after a few trips, I began to ask for him to soften through his poll and jaw. At the same time I encourage him for a bit more impulsion with a slight squueze and release pattern with my lower leg. For brief moments, the shape of JB's neck changes, his back lifts ever so slightly and his trot feels "springier". This is the beginning of him coming together into a frame. He doesn't hold it long, but it's definitely improved from even 3 months ago. We work on this as I move him into a figure eight using half of the arena. He is bending nicely into his corners (Ha!) without the resistance I had on Sunday.

I move him back down the straighline of the arena, and ask for a transition down into a working walk, working my finges gently on the reins to encourage him to "chew" the bit down so we do not drop into a walk with him bracing his back and popping his head up. JB partially hesitates and gets a bit bracey for a mement, but with a little squeeze of my leg and a little feel on the rein, he comes right back and is soft in my hands.

By now, the sun is down and the temperature has dropped. I spent a few more minutes working on walk, halt, trot transitions.

To be continued......

A New Adventure

Sunday was opening day for big game season here in Montana. As it turns out, JB and I got the opportunity to participate, another opportunity that allowed us continue to build miles, experience and conditioning while getting to ride in some of the most beautiful country in the west, in my humble opinion. As a second bonus, since the freezer is looking grim these days, an opportunity to refill the freezer for the winter. Kill two birds ( no pun intended here) with one stone, if you will.
****If your not into hunting, I will give you the heads up, this post will feature a story about an elk that was harvested. Nothing gruesome but feel free to pass on reading if you must.

Normally, Tom travels many hundreds of miles out of the immediate area to go elk hunting and is gone for several days with wall tent, stove, two head of horses, panniers, pack saddles, the whole shebang… I rarely go since someone has to stay behind and manage the farm ! This year was different. This year, there was no week long hunting trip planned and Tom is staying close to home. Nonetheless, there is still hunting to be done. He made some plans with my dad and brother go huntingfor opening day and I got to say yes to the invite. (any excuse to ride and be in the outdoors with my horse!)

The alarm went off at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning and I popped out of bed excited for the new adventure. (ok, maybe not popped but rolled would probably better describe it) We fed horses and packed a few last items for the day while sipping coffee and grabbing quick breakfast. We loaded the horses into the trailer and JB was on his way to his first elk hunting assignment. The weather was supposed to be beautiful but the morning was cold, 18 degrees! It was an hour or more drive to get to our destination, along some rather rough dirt roads. The goal was to be in the woods and have my dad and brother in their post before first light. Since Tom and I had the horses, our main job was “bird doggin” for the on foot hunters. Basically we would be putting on “drives” which involves traveling along in a wide birth with the goal to kick up some elk and drive it in the direction of my dad and brother. If we were fortunate enough to get an elk, then we would also have the added advantage of packing it out with the horse.

We were a little behind schedule but not terribly. My dad and brother set off while we finished saddling up. We would catch up shortly. JB was quiet as could be. I was fighting cold fingers as I tried to get the saddle cinched, gear secured, orange ribbon tied to JB’s mane and tail, and trying to hurry! Finally, everything was in place, now I just had to figure out how I was going to get on. I had so many layers on, it was difficult to have the flexibility to climb on. Tom held JB and my saddle while I crawled into place, all the while glad for a short horses!

We headed out and followed the arrows my Dad had so creatively made out of sticks showing us which way to go. We had to go a little slower than we had hoped because the ground was frozen underneath with a top layer of frosty grass. The horse were having a tough time keeping their footing. We slip-slided our way and finally found our hunters. We quickly headed out in a Northwesterly direction to begin our first drive. Luckily there were several nice wide logging roads to follow as we climbed up the mountain. The sun has started to come up and I was finally able to get feeling in my fingers once again, despite a good pair of gloves.
The frozen air nipped at my nose and bit at my cheeks. Frost particles in the air fell down upon us as we rode along and as the sun came up , they shined like little diamonds, falling gently, silently to their resting place on the ground. We rode along , lullabied by the muffled thumping of the horses hooves. There wasn’t another sound to be heard. The horses whiskers were frosted over and looked as thought they had dipped their muzzles in a bowl of milk.
As we rode along, the first rifle shot ripped through the air, bouncing off the surrounding mountains and jolting us a bit. The shot was not that far off from where we were. We carried on and made our way up to a clearing where we came across two other hunters, a man and his daughter. They asked if we saw the elk that was just taken down below. We must have ridden right past it. Apparently , an older man got a 7 x 8, which in hunting terms…..is a big elk. That means 7 points on one side and 8 on the other. Apparently the rifle shot we has just heard only a half hour before was this same elk. We rode around for a little while longer and eventually made our way back to see if we could get a glimpse of the man that was now the envy of every other hunter on the mountain.
When we back tracked, we realized that yes, in fact , we had ridden right by the first time without seeing him. We would have ridden right by again but this time, the wind was blowing just right and snapped our attention off to our right. Anyone who has ever been around elk knows that there is a distinct smell. This time, the strong odor of elk caught my attention and JB's as well. It dawned on me why JB and Cassidy went on high alert when we had passed through here earlier. They had picked up the smell that we were not previously able to. Our noses led us over a little knob in the landscape and sure enough there was the older man with his elk of a lifetime, just out of sight. He had already finished gutting the elk out and was getting ready to go get help. We talked to him for a bit and apparently, when he took his shot, there was a herd of about 20 elk that had come through here. This particular elk was a bit behind the rest of the herd. The lucky hunter told us that he estimated there were approximately 5-6 bulls as big or bigger than the one he took. He said they were moving so quickly, it was hard to really tell He was very humble about the whole thing. He said he was just in the right spot at the right time and was nearly run over by the herd. His hands still shook from the rush of adrenaline.
I rode over to the lying elk with JB as I wanted to see how he would respond to it. He looked at it, stepped closer to sniff it and lost interest quickly, not in the least bit concerned about the smell. Many times, horses will get very funny about the smell of blood or the sight of a dead deer or elk. JB acted as though he had seen a dead elk a thousand times before. The man asked if we could pack the elk out but Tom had not brought any of his packing gear along with. We offered to help him if he could find someone with pack saddles . The man said he had some friends camped below that had all the needed gear so he would just walk back out and get them. So, we parted ways and we headed back in the direction to where we would meet up with my dad and brother, wondering if we might happen upon that herd again. Doubtful, since the elk were probably well spooked by now, but hopeful nonetheless..
We made our way back to the meeting spot and told our “elk” story to my dad while we waited for my brother. Apparently news travels fast, even without cell phones and technology because every group of hunters that came by us asked if we heard about the big elk that was taken just above where we were sitting. It seemed everyone knew of the big elk in record time and everyone was trying to find this elusive “herd”. Good luck … Elk aren’t called the Ghosts of the Rockies for nothing….and with all the pressure from all the hunters, I was sure they were likely miles from here by now, being several hours later…
We made one more little drive and then called it a day. It was already after 3:00 p.m. We still had to ride back to the trailer, load up, help my brother fix the flat on his truck he got on the way in , and then the hour and half drive back home..

We had beautiful weather and got to ride in some beautiful country. JB proved to be a quiet calm hunting horse, even with gunshots and the sight and smell of a freshly harvested elk. As for the freezer, we’ll try our luck another day….

Riverslide Glide -First 25 miler

We'll start by posting proof in the photo below because I have to remind myself we finally accomplished our goal. This photo was taken towards the end of the ride. I had about 5 miles to finish. It's the only photo that was taken of me actually on the trail!We arrived Thursday evening in Spokane in just enough time to set up camp, get three horses settled and all of our gear organized(not an easy task when your sharing space with two others!) before dark. Friday morning came with rain and wind but we busied ourselves with hours of reorganizing gear, resting, taking photos and we even took a short ride to stretch our horses legs a bit.

Friday evening was riders meeting. It was held way later than I had hoped. I listened in and took notes. Usually meetings are pretty straight forward; you get your map, the ride manager points out things of special note, you ask questions and you walk away feeling like you have a good grasp of what your day will look like…. Well, that isn't exactly how this one went...I have to back up a bit before I tell you the next part:

Flashback:
Before I made the decision to commit to going to the ride, I inquired as to the terrain and level of difficulty of the ride . I had been conditioning JB but we had not had enough time to condition on a lot of hills so I wanted to make sure it wasn’t beyond our condition level. I was assured that it was not very hilly at all but the footing was challenging because of the rockiness. No problem with that, I had easyboots on the front and shoes with pads on the back…JB would be well protected…So my decision to go was made.

Flash forward:
Meanwhile back at the ride meeting, the ride manager and her gaggle of volunteers went through the map section by section explaining the terrain and suddenly I realized her idea and my idea of " not difficult” were worlds apart. There were bluffs to climb, switchbacks to conquer and ledges to teeter along on. Challenging and surprising as all of that might be (considering I was told differently), it wasn't my main concern. Apparently we would have to cross what was referred to as an ORV section of the trail, or Outdoor Recreational Vehicle area. That translates to dirt bikes and 4 wheelers riding in sand dunes. In JB’s eyes, dirt bikes are the devil himself. Ok, major red flag for us. JB is deathly, I mean deathly afraid of dirt bikes. When I asked for details, I was assured by the volunteers that there were never very many dirtbikes out there and those that were, were always very courteous… The lastpiece of information aout the trail was that we could also expect to run into our fair share of hikers, runners and mountain bikers…

Ok…. this wasn’t sounding at all like a Novice ride anymore….gulp….

Don't get me wrong, hikers, mountain bikers and mommies with baby carriages can all be a bit of a hazard but for the most part JB was ok with these things. It was the dirt bikes that had me concerned and the fact that the trail no longer sounded like a novice trail, given the amount of climbing we would be doing and the rocky footing.

Needless to say, by the time the ride meeting was over, my nerves were a bit tattered and my anxiety levels were definitely up.

".....anyone got a shot glass??? oh hell, just give me the bottle! "

Ride morning arrived sunny and bright. The rain and wind that was predicted had not shown up. This was a good sign. Sleep deprived, I stumbled out of bed, got JB his morning beet pulp and hay and got myself dressed while Sherrie and Debbie got ready to leave for 7:00 a.m. I didn’t have to go out until 9:30 so I had more than enough time. My minimum ride time was 7hr and 30 minutes and maximum time of 9 hours. (there is so much math to do in CTR's.....)

At 7:00a.m. , Debbie and Sherrie were safely out for their 35 mile day. They were running the same loop that I was, but with an additional 10 mile loop. Before I was even scheduled to go out, they were already back in for their first of two P&R's. They gave me some advice that I think was supposed to be helpful; the time was appropriate given the terrain and to be careful of the footing, it was awful.

GREAT.. I had successfully convinced myself into believing the ride manager was just exaggerating the night before….

9:30 a.m. arrived and JB was calm but ready to go. I walked him in a large circle and around the campsite to warm him up and keep his mind from wandering.

We set out. The trail started out really nice with good footing as it meandered through a wooded area. We ran into a couple of the trail judges as we climbed a hill or two. I had to remind myself this was CTR , not an endurance race. Must watch out for sneaky judges...

In the first 3 miles, we topped out onto a rim where the trail began to get quite rocky, an old abandoned railroad track. I was able to get off to one side where the footing was better. We followed that for a while and JB was walking out nicely and feeling strong. I wasn’t in a hurry because my game plan was to walk as much as possible in the first 12 miles because after that point, things would begin to get tricky in elevation and footing.

We climbed back down off the rim, hopped down a few ledges (literally) and onto an open flat area where I could let him trot out a bit. JB was anxious to stretch his legs and wanted to go faster than I thought he should. After an initial discussion about which speed we were going to go, he finally found a decent pace. Before I knew it, we were taking a turn to the left and faced with our first steep up hill climb, along with some tricky shale footing. JB had to stop and step carefully over them. He did a great job thinking his way through it. I was a little concerned about the boots staying on, but they did. We topped out again and the trail opened up again, back into some nice open wooded trails with nice footing. We walked and some other riders caught us. We rode together and I was glad to have some company , as well as the added support of other horses because before I knew it, we were approaching the ORV area. I could hear the irritating winding up of the motors in the distance and so could JB. We made our way through it without too much incident other than JB trying to rush a bit. I thought we were home free and breathed a sigh of relief. JB was nervous but manageable. We crossed through a gate and the trail went back into the woods, leaving the sound of the giant bumblebees in the distance. I took a minute to glance at my map and nearly died when I realized we hadn’t even gone through the worst of it. We had to loop around and come into it from the other side. We had only been backside of it and now we would be going right into the middle of it. OH CRAP.....

As we approached, and the footing turned to deep sand, I could feel JB’s body becoming tenser and tenser as the dirt bike riders revved their engines through their course, the “ ehring, ehring ehring” of the dirt bike motors was now getting closer and closer. The trail ran along a fence line and the sand dunes were right there. If there weren’t 20 dirt bikes buzzing around in the distance, there wasn’t one. My nice calm relaxed horse was now a ball of trembling tension, head in the air, ears pricked, and eyes as big as baseballs. How was I going to get him and myself through this in one piece?

I talked softly to him and tried to remain as calm and relaxed as I possibly could but my heart was ready to fly out of my throat. I was scared for both of us. I felt like I was astride a ball of energy about to come uncorked. And I was….

As we approached, the trail took us through a fence , dumping us right into the middle of their course. Just about then, two dirt bikes came around the corner , over a jump and flying through the air as they passed us.

Well, that did us in. It was too much for poor JB’s brain to handle. He wheeled and bucked and before I knew it we were at top speed in a couple jumps heading back the way we just came. I got him turned and we stopped. As we stood there and watched them disappear into the distance, JB's entire body was trembling in total fear…

With a shaky voice and my own pounding pulse I tried to reassure him and calm myself …”Easy boy, I’ll get us through here safely....I promise” but he was mentally shaken.

I had a passing thought of turning back the way we came and bagging the whole thing but we had some too far. I had to get him through this one way or the other. I decided to dismount. In a CTR you are not supposed to get off your horse and have any forward motion. You could be disqualified if you do. At that time, my last concern was being DQ’d. I didn’t care at this point. Besides, they did say safety is the #1 priority and keeping my horse safe was my main priority at the moment.

I walked him for a bit as we looked for the flags to get us out of our own version of hell. He circled around me, hyper vigilant to the whereabouts of the motorcycles. The flags suddenly were no where to be found., the flags simply disappeared. So, we turned to following hoof prints. They went way out, up and over the hill, right where all the motor bikes were circling like flies. Ofcourse the trail went that way…. Why would I think otherwise…

When I saw how far we would have to go across the sand dunes, I thought better of being on the ground and trying to lead JB through this. If he got out of my grasp, there was no telling where he would end up. So, I climbed back onto my trembling steed which was less than easy since he would not stand still. I felt pretty confident I could stay in the center of him better than I could manage him from the ground in the mental state that he was in.

We made our way across and JB was difficult to manage to say the least. I rode in between the other two riders, in the hopes that it would help support JB a bit but it didn’t really seem to help too much. We wasted a lot of time trying to find our trail but we made it across and up over the hill. Bikers were everywhere. One would think they would just hold off and let us pass by… but no.. they seemed to be enjoying the fact that they were causing us difficulty. Where was the courtesy I had heard about in the riders meeting? JB charged and leaped his way up the hill, ready to make another break for it at any moment.

Trying to keep my head about me enough to get my horse and myself safely through this and at the same time fighting back a streak of red anger at the ride manager for taking the trail through something like this.. HOW STUPID!! It was dangerous, no other way to describe it. At the very least, there should have been spotters out in that section making sure the bikers didn’t harass the horseback riders, which they did… winding their engines as we passed.

By the time we exited the ORV area, JB was drenched in sweat , I was drenched in sweat and both of us were still trembling and mentally shaken…. I was now concerned about his hydration and energy reserves since he had just dumped most of it in those 15 minutes of hell to get through it. I took a few deep breathes and attempted to collect myself, glad that we had survived.

We approached the next road crossing and the ride manager met us there. I am not sure why she showed up there but she took one look at me and JB, and she knew we had had trouble. She said a lot of riders were having trouble and she was very apologetic. She didn’t know there would be so many dirt bikers out there, turns out , the bikers were having a “rally” that day….

……at the moment, I didn’t really care to hear about why or what or the apologies. I just wanted to get through the next few miles, get to my P & R stop, get my horse some water and food and make sure he was at criteria to continue. I wasn’t sure he would be at this point.

JB was ramped up and now the real climbing was about to begin. We were climbing up to the overlook bluff. This was one area that we were warned heavily about, the trail condition was poor and several areas of the trail were falling away… she wasn’t lying… it was a narrow trail and in spots , didn’t seem suitable to a mountain goat even. JB picked his way carefully through as he struggled up the switchbacks. We stopped several times so JB could catch his breathe but he wanted to rush up the hill and wasn’t listening very well at this point. Still traumatized by the bikes so I wasn’t too critical of him.

We made it into the P & R and I threw his cooler on because he was fairly sweaty and the wind was blowing. JB pulsed in at 72. They wouldn’t allow us to get water until after he met criteria. This irritated me even more. I gave him his beet pulp with carrots and apples and emptied both my water bottles into the bucket of beet pulp for him to drink. Atleast it would be something. He slurped it down and went after his hay. I was glad to see his appetite was still good. At the 10 minute recheck his pulse had gone up a beat or two. This was not good. I got very concerned so I immediately pulled his cooler and tack off and we held for an additional 30 minutes with a pulse recheck in 20 minutes. I knew his high pulse was up because of the ORV section. It completely threw him into a huge state of fear, dumped a bunch of adrenalin into his system, heated him up and overall threw him out of sorts. To add, we had our hardest climb right after the ORV event which didn’t help matters. I was finally able to take him over to the water tank but he wouldn’t drink…. Great…
The other riders that I came into the P&R with went on alone. They also had their fair share of trouble getting their horses to drink and pulse down initially but were doing better and headed out. I was happy to have the extra time but I was very concerned about JB’s pulse being so high and the fact that he wasn’t drinking. On the other hand, everything else was good, he was eating, pooping, peeing, no lameness… his gut noises were a little quiet coming in but had improved as he started eating a bit. Our 20 minutes was up and they rechecked…a sigh of relief… his pulse had come down to criteria of 60. It was still higher than I wanted but much improved at at criteria. The vet felt he was okay to go on. I did at this moment seriously considered pulling. I didn’t really know if I should push it. I still had 10 minutes to decide so I let JB continue to eat and slurp beet pulp and talked to the ride manager about the terrain for the next 10 miles. She reassured me that it was mostly flat or downhill accept at one spot. The only thing I would run into was more rocky footing. I was concerned with his unwillingness to drink combined with the amount of fluids he had lost with his sweating. The ride manager told me that I would come to a couple spots along the river where I could access andoffer JB water. I was relieved to hear that because I knew he stood a good chance of drinking running water.
JB had cooled off and was looking like he was feeling better. So, I made the decision to go on.

I tacked JB back up and we headed out. The next several miles we just walked and took our time. JB surprised me. He felt strong and was walking out well but I knew it would be crucial to keep him as slow as possible if we were going to make the next 10 miles. We made our way and the trail was mostly flat or easy downhills as the ride manager had said. I was very relieved. We meandered along the river edge and I enjoyed the scenery. We had to pass by a rifle range where a fair amount of shooting was going on but that startled me more than JB. We met several hikers and mountain bikers on this last section of trail and it was kind of funny to see their faces as they came around a corner to see us right there. Most times, I knew a minute or two ahead that something was coming simply by watching JB. He could hear them long before I could. We would be standing there waiting for them to appear and they never saw us until last minute and nearly laid their bikes down trying to get stopped. JB was fine with all of this. I think he kind of liked watching them just about wreck trying to get stopped. I know I did!

We made it to the spot in the river where we could access the water and JB drank and drank and drank. I was so relieved. We hit our last CTR judging spot after coming through an exceptionally rocky area. The judge stopped us and asked for my ID, which I did not carry with me. (oops...)He also asked for a hoof pick, which I always carry. I honestly thought he was kidding about the ID… but I did ask if I got bonus points for carrying a Leatherman and treats for my horse! He didn’t see the humor in it and just gave me a funny look…We continued on; 4 more miles to go. Right about then I am not sure if I was suffering from fatigue, dehydration or what but we were riding along and right about the time I was wondering where my next flag was, I hear one of the volunteers yelling my name telling me I am off course..

OFF COURSE??? How could that be?

The judge was the one that told me to turn this way!!

I got squared away and continued on down the trail. .... murmuring to myself how dumb I was to just assume the judge told me the correct direction. I suppose it didn't help that there were no obvious flags that would have caught me attention anyways.

JB and I are meandering our way down the trail, emjoying a slow easy walk and taking in the scenery when all of sudden I hear a crash , bang and hoof beats coming from behind. Out from the woods appeared the two women who I had previously been riding with.

How in the world did I get past them?? They left a good 10 minutes before me out of the P&R!!

Apparently the judge who guided me the wrong way also did the same thing to them except they went an extra 2 miles the wrong way. They were way behind time now and went on by us. JB wanted to catch up to them but once they got out of sight he settled into a quiet slow walk. I knew our ride camp should be coming into view anytime now. We walked along for what seemed like forever. I guess I was anxious to be done so JB could get some needed food , water, and rest. I could tell he was now getting tired. I spotted the two women up ahead in the distance that got off course and now they were heading back toward us… hmmm. They must be lost again I thought. Then I panicked for a moment.. am I lost??? I checked my map quick and looked around, remembering I had just passed a flag. I was on course..(sigh) They must have just gotten past their trail a few feet and had to backtrack because they ducked down between a few trees and were gone from sight again. I would be sure not to make that mistake.

When I got to that spot, I could hear horses whinnying and it perked JB up. We dropped down that same trail the two women had initially missed and trotted for the last little bit into camp.

Home sweet Home…. At last we had made it.

I jumped off of JB , loosened his girth and waited to pulse in. He pulsed in a bit high again. Debbie cheered us on as we arrived and had a bucket of soupy beet pulp and hay in hand for him. JB nearly took out one of the volunteers trying to get to it. He sucked down the water and slurped up every lick of beet pulp he could get. They rechecked his pulse in another 10 minutes and he was down to criteria of 60 but the vet felt he should be much lower. I was released to head back to the trailer, take care of JB and the final vet out would be in approx one hour. JB drank a bucket of water in between taking him for short walks to make sure he was properly cooled out. He gobbled down more hay and beet pulp and rested quietly at the trailer for the next hour. He seemed to be acting as I would expect, everything was normal. It was beginning to get dark since we had come into camp at 5:40 p.m. It was finally our turn to vet out , in the dark now along with wind and rain.... Fabulous….
He vetted through and was much better about being handled . By now the rookie vet helper had figured out how to approach a horse nicely. JB was very wary of her but gave her a second chance nonetheless. Wouldn’t you know it? No problems with the shoulder pinch…. She was much gentler this time and I was thankful. I am sure JB was as well. This poor horse didn’t need any more trauma today. We got lots of compliments on how well he was still moving, with plenty of animation on the trot out. I was tickled.

His pulse was hanging around 60 and the vet was still concerned as she expected him to be down in the mid to upper 40’s for a resting heart rate. However, once again, he seemed fine otherwise… She passed us through and wanted me to watch him through out the night. I took him back to the trailer and took his pulse about a half hour later myself and he was down to a normal resting rate. In looking back , I think his pulse was higher because of two things. The ORV situation which set things in motion for the rest of our day and the fact that the vet and vet helper didn’t exactly get off on a good foot with JB. He didn’t forget and it may have caused some anxiety for him, therefore keeping his rate up when he was being handled by them.

So, there you have it. The adventures of our first 25 miler completion. It wasn’t easy and we had some pitfalls but the bottom line was that JB has what it takes. The trail conditions were much more advanced than I would have like for his condition level and yet, JB just kept going.

Lessons learned? JB is a tough little horse.

Would I have changed a few things? Sure but overall it was great time with my horse, I learned alot and got to spend a nice weekend with good company.

JB did me proud and I am looking forward to next season. For now, he is resting and glad to be home with his pasture buddies.

Rest easy Peanut… you earned it….

Happy Trails….

Gliding in at the Riverside

Just a short post for now...

......... .......WE DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!

We completed our first 25 miler. It was a rough go with the terrain, but JB really pulled through for me. Amazing little horse. I am so proud of him!

I will post the full story soon!

Stay tuned!

Riverslide Glide

I suppose it’s safe now to let you all in on a little secret I have been keeping....

I will be attending the Riverslide Glide CTR with JB the weekend of October 3rd. I am going over with two friends who are riding two days of 30 miles. I will riding in the Saturday 25 mile Novice adult division. While it’s not an endurance race, it’s still a distance ride.

If you had asked me about attending this a month ago, my answer would have been a quick .."no" . Debbie and Sherrie, who are friends that I ride with , have been planning to attend this ride for months. One day while out on a ride with them, they asked me if I wanted to come along. At first my answer was a quick no, thinking JB would never be ready in time but then I got to looking at my riding log, considered how well JB had been doing and considered the time I still had to get him ready. With some of the weekend miles we had been putting on lately, I could see that JB could be ready in time. So for the last 3 weeks, we have been putting on the finishing touches.

Debbie and Sherrie are going for AHA championship points. I will be attending for a totally different reason; to finally cross a bridge that has been just out of our reach since last season. JB is moving freeer, better and faster than he ever has. His feet don't bother him and he is in the best condition he has ever been in.

.....It's time friends; time for all the tears shed, the set backs, the frustrations, and doubts to step aside and let us have our moment. JB has earned it and he is ready. I couldn't have asked for a better friend on this journey that we started almost two years ago. He has taught me more than I could have ever hoped to have taught him and I am forever grateful.

So, there is much to do to get ready – Coggins, health certificate, finding JB’s brand inspection, tack cleaning, packing …. And a couple more rides this week!


Stay tuned for the ride story…!

JB Conquers Lupine Lake ; A Mega Climb

For the last several rides, I have slowly been asking JB for a little more , a little more distance or a little more speed, or tested him in challenging terrain. Each time, he is meeting that challenge and surprising me with his abilities. For whatever reason, he is really coming into his own and all the doubts I was having even just a few months ago, are slowly fading with each ride.

This past week I didn't get to ride but once (a six mile speed run) due to hours at the office . This weekend I joined a friend for a hill day workout. We would be heading west of town to Ashley Mountain and Lupine Lake trail. This was new territory for me but it offered some great technical training trails along with some serious hill climbs, water crossings , great scenery , and the opportunity to run into Moose or possibly even a wolf or two. (hopefully not!)

The first 1/2 mile of the trail decended us down, down , down into a creek bottom. Going downhill is hard enough on a horse, but add in large rocks, stumps , a sharp corner with a shear drop off,and it makes it all the more a challenge. There were areaa on this part of the trail that made me thankful I had JB responding to leg , hand and seat aids effectively. JB hasn't figured out that going downhill is easier if he gets on his haunches but he took his time which is the first step. There were spots where he had to drop off a ledge of rocks. He would stop to look at the footing before he stepped down. Exactly what he needed to do.

After the initial steep decent, the trail leveled off for a while before it started a gradual climb up to the lake. In various spots, it opened up enough to do a little trotting. We reached Lupine lake, about 3 miles into the ride. JB was already pretty sweaty.

We took about a fifteen minute break here at Lupine and there was one fisherman in the background. I shared my sunbutter and apple lunch with JB, who ended up getting most of it... Oh well, I was happy to share! He also got a few carrots as well, which he knows I pack along with on every ride!! I offered him a drink but he wasn't interested.

We headed out and JB took the lead. For the next 3 miles or so, the real climb began. He wanted to rush a bit on the uphills but since it would be a long climb I had to check him back and make him take his time. At about a 1.5 miles of steady , slow but steep climbing, I jumped off and led JB for a while to give him a break. As good as he has been going, I did want to over do it with him.

We finally arrived at the top, and JB was definitely tired. I am not sure what the elevation was exactly but high comes to mind. We popped out onto an old logging road. I loosened JB's girth , let him graze, and offered him a drink out of my water bottle. He wasn't too interested but was definitely hungry. While taking our rest, some hikers came along with a blind dog. We visited with them about the area and even got some information about some other trails in the area. After about 15 minutes the horses seemed to be recovered and we headed back down. We both led our horses down the steepest parts.

The decent we made in the first 1/2 mile of the trail was now a steep climb out as the last hurrah before our day was over. I wasn't certain JB would have enough gas in the tank to climb out of there but to my surprise, he scampered up that hill like a champ. He had definitely figured out how to push himself off his hind end in climbing.

It seems JB is really coming along and proving himself not only as good endurance prospect but a tough little mountain horse as well! It's been a long road for us and I couldn't be prouder of this little horse. He just keeps getting better each time we go out on a ride. I only wish it was the beginning of the season instead of the end!

****By the way, we never did see any moose or wolf, thankfully.

Bittersweet Weekend

Well, the weekend sure didn't go like I had hoped, or atleast start out like I had hoped. Friday night, one of our last remaining two dogs took a turn for the worse . We have been battling urinary issues, bladder issues with her for quite some time and knew that is was only a matter of time. Saturday morning found us at the vet clinic with Morgan, our 14 year oldBorder Collie/heeler cross. While we waited for the xray to come back, I couldn't believe that it was just a few short months ago I was in the same room with our Samoyed, facing the same heart wrenching decision.. The prognosis was not good and there was nothing left to do. Saturday came and went with many tears shed but there was also much work to do as well. We had another load of hay coming, unexpectedly. So, with the wind out of our sails, we grunted and sweated our grief away over the 5 ton of hay staring at us, with a dark gray cloud looming in the western horizon. It was ominous looking and fitting for how we were feeling. We finished , barely in enough time before the rains came in a fury. We spent a quiet evening at home, lost in our own distant thoughts. The day had turned out so different than we had planned.

Sunday, I did a quick ride on Maggie in the arena and went to visit the parents, and planning my ride for today. I was meeting up with a couple of friends, hubby and his good friend was also coming along.

The plans found us riding in new found territory so we set out and I was excited for the new adventure. We found some great new conditioning trails and several of us decided that we would definitely be heading back , maybe as soon as next weekend. Unfortunately, it's about a 45 minute drive for me to get there. There were several tricky water crossings. JB and I had several good training "opportunites" and finally , he realized he didn't have to be a grand prix jumper over water crossings. I was very thankful for my jumping background and ability to stay with him as he launched us over several cricks, that did not exactly warrant that kind of effort! By the last water crossing, he was crossing much easier, still uneasy about it but no more sky rocket launches, thank goodness!!

We had one potentially bad situation where Sherrie's horse suddenly kicked at JB while we were all standing there trying to decide which way to go. The loud Thwack it made and JB's reaction , I thought for sure, he balsted JB's knee in two. I jumped off immediately and looked him over... nothing.... We were farily close so maybe it wasn't as hard as it seemed but it sure sounded hard. What may have happened was the horse may have caught the front of JB's easy boot but I was sure the kick made contact much higher. JB was no worse for the wear and seemed fine , after the initial stun , so we went on our way and he continued to be fine.. I guess these Barbs are tough because a hit that like that should have hurt more than he was letting on. Needless to say, I didn't ride next to Sherrie for the rest of the day... I wasn't going to take any chances. The last thing I need is for JB to get kicked and injured now!

We kept on riding and we estimated, although it was hard to tell, we covered atleast 12-15 miles. JB never really seemed overly tired, and we did trot and canter in several areas. Overall, JB was a real trooper, in spite of the fact that he got blasted for no good reason while he minding his own business. Poor Guy.. he got extra apples and carrots tonight..

Crane Mountain Lookout Ride

Today, I ventured out on the trail with a friend who is a Tevis and all around endurance veteran. In fact, she finished the Tevis in 8th place on one of the two times she has ridden and competed in the race.
I met her at her ranch in Bigfork and then we trailered to the trail head that would take us out to the Crane Mountain Overlook. Crane Mountain looms high above Flathead lake. It's steep, rugged beautiful country. We parked the trailers at the parking area , saddled up and headed up the road for the first 3 miles, an uphill climb along a gravel road until we hit the trail head that would wind us up , up and up to the overlook. It was only about 3.5 miles to the overlook once we started on the trail head but it was alot of up and down with alot of sticks, stumps , rocks and roots along the way. W e also had two narrow wooden bridge crossings over rushing mountain creeks. One month ago, the area was on fire but today , you wouldn't have known it. The forest and all it's greenery was heavy with dew, dripping and soggy from all the rain . Everything smelled so clean and renewed. There is nothing like the smell of a fresh mountain forest after a rain.
JB crossed both bridges like a champ , which I expected he might since I have done alot of bridge work on our obstacle course. The approach to the second bridge was a long steep down hill ride and the trail was rather narrow with a steep drop off to the right. Normally I would have preferred to get off and walk portions of trail like this but by the time I realized it , it was too late and there was no room to get off without putting us both in danger of coming off the trail. The recent rain caused the footing to be very muddy and slick and it had caused much of the edge of the trail to be very soft. JB nearly gave me a heart attack once when his back right foot got a little close to the edge and the trail fell away underneath us. Luckily he caught himself and we were fine but my heart was in my throat for a second!v I was rather happy to get to the bottom of the ravine, get over that bridge and scramble up the steep climb out of there.

We made it to the overlook and let the horses rest a bit before turning back. It was beautiful and if you looked straight down you could see the trees just below that had burned from the fire. As we made our way back the same way , I could sense JB was growing a bit weary from all the tough climbing. If he is tired and has to travel down hill, he gets a bit stumbly so several times I would get off and walk him to give him a break. We had a lot more down hill to ride yet and I wanted to spare him where I could.

We finally popped back out on the gravel road, and JB perked up right away. It was like he had a second wind and we walked along at a pretty good clip until we arrived back at the trailer. We rode for about 4 hours total and went approximately 10 miles, most of it uphill or downhill.

I was very pleased with JB today. He handled himself very well, even during the times when the youngster getting ponied got away from Sherrie and turned around on the trail , heading right at us! This was one of the most difficult terrain I have ever taken JB on. I can see that he definitely needs some work on being patient when he is behind another horse because he gets rushy and doesn't pay attention to the trail. He likes to lead the pack and set the pace. I was also able to see that he needs alot more time on more difficult terrain to help him strengthen and leg up.

We were both glad to see the trailer but today was definitely a good day, even if I am exhausted. Better yet, I got time to bend the ear of an endurance veteran.

Bloomin' Things

JB and I have slowly been venturing out again for distance conditioning. Even though we don't plan to be attending any rides this season, I still like to get out of the arena and work the endurance muscles a bit. Having taken this season off to focus on getting JB feeling better and moving better should give us a jump start for next season. JB improves in his gaits with each ride we go on. He is able to maintain a consistent speed and I am no longer working so hard to keep him going forward. WOOHOOO! Now that he is reaching forward in his gaits, his trot is by far one of the smoothest I have ridden and I am getting a canter out of him that I could envision traveling at for miles on end.

Today, we returned from a 7 mile ride hot, dusty and sweaty so I hosed JB off instead of sponging, then took him for a walk to finish cooling out and drying. As we walked I couldn't help but notice how the grass crunched with each step we made. The grasshoppers bounced off our legs as we momentarily interruptedtheir feeding frenzy. August is here. Things are beginning to dry out . We finished our walk and I put JB up with a few flakes of hay. I went in the house to grab a cold drink and washed a layer of dust off my face. I watched him from my kitchen window as he rolled , now completely caked in mud but seemingly content with his handy work. I realized how pleased I have been with the horse he is blooming into these days.

Thinking of blooming things, I decided I had a few flowers to water. I took the opportunity to take a walk around and snap a few photos. Even though it's drying out, much of the landscape is still in full bloom.

Lovely Lilies

Heraldson Apples

Grape vines, for winemaking

Daisies in the Pennial Garden

Cascade Hops for Homebrew

Some people are thinking fall and winter as soon as August arrives. As for me, I hope to enjoy the the blooming things for as long as possible, including JB, who appears to be blooming into a fabulous little horse.

What's blooming at your place?