How The West Was Spun

Trail Ride: Hidden Lake

It's been a long time since I had a horses/trail ride post, hasn't it?  Most public use land around here is open again, so D and I decided to take the new boys out on Sunday, and our friend, Corry, played tour guide for us, with her horse, Flame.   We trailered up into the Carson National Forest, to do a sort of intermediate technical trail, with a lot of elevation gain, up to a set of three lakes right around 11,000 feet.

Neither of our boys had done a lot of single-track, through-the-woods trails, so it was good practice for them.  The trail climbs up in a series of switch backs to Hidden Lake, and it was lovely and green and cool up there.  Flame and Zel took turns leading on the way out.  Our boys hadn't been out in about 5 weeks, since the fire, and they were a bit zippy, but they were keen to trot uphill where we could, and walk the sections with loose rocks. 

An added bonus was that we had to do a bunch of trail obstacles neither of them had encountered before.  A lot of downed trees and rock to navigate, some muddy sections, and a bunch of creek crossings.  Fargo hates HATES HATES water.  Seriously low on his list of things he has interest in doing, and he's got a stubborn streak, so we had some dicey times getting him across the first few (which consisted of my getting off, standing in the creek, but far enough ahead of him that when he finally decided to launch himself, I didn't get run down with 900 pounds of horse).

D had an easier time of it with Zel.  Zel was nervous and didn't want to cross the water, but other than the very first crossing, he trusted D enough to either follow Flame across or try the crossing himself.  We didn't get Fargo into the big creeks without a support/helper horse, but we did get him to cross the small ones (like the 1 or 2-step ones, very shallow) on his own, and he was willing to let me ride him across the deeper ones.  He also did great trying the muddy sections, even on his own, on the way home, when we let him lead.

 

I still have to talk him thru (think QVC host on speed) all the scary stuff, which for him is about 98% of the stuff in the woods - downed trees, large boulders, stumps, weeds across the trail, but he did do it at speed with his little nose out front by himself. This is a really big deal for him, as he's very unsure of himself and not confident at all on trail (being the ex-show horse), so as long as I give him a little twitch of the reins on the side the scary thing is living and tell him it's over there, and I see it, so he should see it and we are both going right by it with no big deal, and then tell him he did great!, he is confident enough to try things for me. 

Anyway, the lakes are beautiful.  We stopped and had lunch at Hidden Lake and took in the scenery.

 

At this elevation, there are a ton of mountain wildflowers in bloom too, and everything smelled clean and fragrant.

 

The boys really did well - it's very hard having had an experienced trail horse for the last 5 years in Bhen, who, while not keen on getting his feet wet either, does just fine with pretty much anything that's in front of his nose.  I'm really happy that Fargo did so well and made progress as we went along.  Another 10,000 miles or so, and he'll be stellar!

 

All for now....

More Caldera

Can you stand more pictures from one of the prettiest places in the US?  I hope so, because you'll be getting more today.  (WARNING - VERY PICTURE-HEAVY POST).

Late last week, Deb, who managed the Caldera ride, emailed me and asked if D and I would like to bring the horse boys back up the hill and ride one of the loops we (well...mostly D) hadn't ridden and pull the trail marking flags for them.  We jumped at the chance, particularly since I hadn't gotten to see much of the trails, and I wanted to get Bhen out for a ride to check on that leg of his, which has been quiet with no puffiness or owies for the last week (although he's also been mostly off - just coyote patrol a couple of nights).

We hauled up very early Saturday morning, so we'd be there when the gates to the preserve opened.  It was beautifully cool and sunny, but because of rain the previous night, the caldera itself, which is very bowl-shaped, was filled with whipped-cream clouds lingering in the basin.

 

We got to the gates about a half-hour before they were officially open, but since we were on the magic list, the park rangers let us through and we started the hour-long haul back to the base camp site.  The entire basin was still shrouded in the fog, although we could tell it was going to burn off quickly once the sun got over the upper reaches of the mountains.

And OMG!  The elk!!  The elk were EVERYWHERE.  They were down in the nice cool, wet green grass, feeding.  Lots of cows with their youngsters.

 
 
We got to base camp and got the boys tacked up and went out on our assigned trail - the orange loop - which was the first loop the 50-milers rode on days one and three.  This loop left base camp and had over 2000 feet of elevation gain, topping us out about 10,000 feet along a ridgeline.  The scenery is breathtaking up there. 

We rode out along the buried gas-pipline "road" which is a wider grass strip which is marginally maintained for the service trucks (although if you didn't see the pipeline markers, you would not know this was anything other than an open grassy area), and then turned up into the woods. 

The trails up here are fantastic.

Solidly packed dirt footing, nice and cool under the shade of old-growth trees.  (The bugs, however, were incredible.  At some points, I swear the horses were levitating straight up, just trying to get away from them.  Horse flies the size of my thumb.  Poor Sammy, who tends to sweat a lot, actually had blood drawn several times.)

We wound our way uphill, and although we didn't see all of him, we heard and saw the movement of a huge bull elk bounding away from the trail, through the undergrowth.  After a brief stop for some snacks for the horses in the grass, with a drink of water from one of the fast-moving creeks, we headed down through a gorgeous aspen forest (dodging the worst of the afternoon thunderstorms moving along the ridge behind us), and came out into a gorgeous open meadow with views of the caldera basin off to our right. (If you click to embiggen you can see the orange trail marker D and Sam are headed for on the tree.)

Lest you think this was all fun and games (although, trust me, we had a FANTASTIC time), this was a working ride.  We pulled an entire bucket worth of orange flags from the 18-mile loop.  Here's Bhen, decked out in his working horse gear: Orange flags and clothespins, shoved into three different bags, plus more flags attached to his tack, and our long lead line, so I can get on and off him and pull ground flags without undoing my reins each time (that's the turquoise blue rope on the left side of his neck).

Sammy was covered with blaze orange by the time we got back to the trailer too.

We had a great time getting the boys out on such beautiful trails, and got to spend the entire day riding in complete solitude, just the 4 of us.  We'll keep our fingers crossed the AERC ride gets sanctioned again here next year!

PS - Bhen's leg?  After 18 miles of sections of technical/rocky terrain, over logs, thru marshy sections, trotting up and downhill to keep up with Sam's power walk, totally quiet.  I found no swelling, nothing tender in his leg after we finished.  I let him stand for about 20 minutes at the trailer, to see if he would stiffen up, and then had D take him and trot him out while I watched.  Other than being somewhat confused about why exactly he was trotting out with D, he tracked nice and straight, ears perked up and forward, and nothing to show he was having any problems at all.  Cool. :)

All for now...... 
 

Training

The boys and D and I are trying hard to stick to a training schedule so they will be ready for another endurance ride (us too!) at the end of the month.  You know... in between building barns and work and our usual insane schedule.

Saturday, we were up extra early to be sure we beat any afternoon thunderstorms and zipped down to the Caja for a quick 19-mile loop.  We have one 12-mile loop we generally like to ride, but we have found some add-on pieces to get us closer to 20 miles.  The boys were feeling pretty zippy, and the wind was up so we were hauling along pretty good for most of the trip.

Here's us on our way back from a 2-mile spur to the 1100 well.  I should explain that there are several wells dug out in the Caja for the rancher who runs his cattle out here to water them.  This one happens to be 1100 feet down, hence the "1100 well" designation on the map.  We do have to thread our way thru a bunch of cows to get in to the water, but both our boys do fine with cows, and now that there are actual gates (as opposed to jury-rigged sticks and barbed wire "gates"), it makes it pretty easy to take a water stop there.

Please note, while it appears something awful happens at the end of the video (like me coming off Bhen), all was fine.  I just cannot switch off the video aspect of my camera using just one hand, so I have to leave him to steer on his own for a few paces, and at the speed we were going, I was trying to not drop anything, including myself!

 

All for now....

Tall Pines Endurance Ride - 2010

Friday a.m. under a dark sky, D and the horse boys and I trailered down to the Silver City, NM, area for the Tall Pines Endurance Ride.  The weather forecast hadn't been so good and it was in the upper 20s when we left our place in northern NM.  The winds on the way down were AWFUL.  Lots of steady wind and a lot of high mph gusts, which made pulling the 12K or so pounds between the trailer, the horses, and the camper not a lot of fun, but we made it down to ride camp by about 2:30 and got camp set up and vetted in.

I have to admit, that I was a poor photo blogger for y'all.  It was our first ride of the season, and we rode the 55-miler, so I was a bit distracted and every time I thought to get the camera was somewhere about mid-loop and away from the trailer. 

However, here's base camp looking up the trail that ran into camp for loops 2 and 3.

 

Loop one was 16 miles.  It ran out of camp between those two peaks you see above, up a nice, packed sand, 2-track and looped around the peak you see on the left-hand side of the above picture.  There was a bit of a climb, and then back down to skirt the fenceline of a private ranch that borders the BLM land where ride camp was located.  The boys did great on this loop - and we sort of trailed our friends, Pete and Judy (so they got to open most of the gates for us!) - back into camp in about 2-1/2 hours.  The horses checked thru with the vets with all As and we got some food into them and some electrolytes at our 45-minute hold.

Loop two was 26.5 miles.   This was the long one.  It headed back out between the peaks you see above, and then went out and around Montrose Peak.   This was a little more technical trail.  More rocky sections and a lot of sections where you'd trot 2 strides down, then trot 2 strides up, and repeat.  We walked a few sections through here, and somewhere we didn't see a water stop, but there was so much run-off from the spring melt that the boys just drank whenever we got to pooled water on the trails.  The end of this loop comes down a rocky canyon (more water opportunities) and lots of lush clover, so we let the boys have a few bites, and then turned and scooted down a long sandy arroyo back into camp.  Bhen was feeling perky enough when we turned into the trail immediately outside camp, he kicked it up into a canter for a few paces before I asked him to calm down and walk in.

After another 45-minute hold, we went back out on the last 12-mile loop.  This one followed the first section of loops 1 and 2, but then turned towards the right to loop around the right-hand peak you see in the picture above.  The second half of this loop duplicated the last 6 or 7 miles of loop 2, so after we stopped for water at the place that loop 2 and 3 came back together, the boys knew EXACTLY where they were and headed off for camp at a brisk pace.  We stopped a couple of times for water and munchies along the way, but made it back into camp even a little faster than we had thought we would.

D and I, of course, rode together, so when we got in and found out we were in 10th and 11th place, we argued for a while about who came in "first".  The regional director suggested to D that it was really in his best interests to let the wife half of the couple come in first, so D was the gentleman and did.  (I told him he should come in before me so he could top-10 his first 55-mile ride with Sam.)  He's probably sorry he did that, since prizes for the top-10 positions were a really spiffy belt buckle to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ride.

We got the horses checked thru the vet.  Both did really great in terms of their vet scores.  All A's and 2 B's for gut sounds for both of them.  They got a big dinner with lots of calories - grain plus their free choice of hay and a lot of fresh water - and D and I enjoyed the dinner the ride managers provided (there was a TON of food!).

A great start to our 2010 ride year.  We really enjoy the Tall Pines ride group.  We got to see some old friends and meet some new folks as well, which is always fun.  The cow mafia were back again this year, although subdued and did not try to take Sam's dinner from him this year.

The boys finished healthy and happy (although they both are having BIG naps in the sun today), which is really our main goal.  D and I had a really good time and we are looking forward to the next ride of the season already!

 

 All for now....... 
 

Trail Ride: White Rock, NM

One of the reasons we looked for a house where we did is that we knew there were some local trails that we could ride from, straight from the house - no trailering.  This is really a bonus on the weekends I work (like Saturday of this weekend), because we can just get the horses tacked up and ride out straight from the house.  We have a local friend, Corry, who we had ridden with last year so we sorta knew where to find a trail that'd give us about an 8-mile fairly technical loop.

We got the boys tacked up just after lunchtime and headed off to the trail head. The trails closest to the house are an intercrossing network of single-track dirt.  Some have some rocky areas, but we just trot where we can trot and walk anything that's questionable footing.  The area closest to the house has mostly dried out from all the snow, since it's got almost day-long exposure to the sun.

Since we hadn't been out on these trails in about a year, we did some poking around to find which ones interconnected to places we recognized, doing a little scouting and back-tracking where we needed to.   Here are D and Sam looking west and slightly south off towards Santa Fe.

We rode out towards the west until we hit the Rio Grande gorge.  You can just make out the verdigris-colored water down at the bottom.  (click to embiggen).

Not exactly horse-friendly footing, so we turned and headed south for a while.   There's a single-track cut into the rock in this area that goes up and over an escarpment.  We climbed up over that and were stymied a bit as a large rock had fallen down into the single-track and there was no other way around, and no place to turn around with the horses, but D climbed down over some boulders while I held the boys, and pushed the rock far enough along the sluice-gate that is the trail in that area so we could continue. 

We sort of recognized the trail after we clambered down over the rocks.  Or at least I know Bhen did, as he was banking into corners at his trail-speed trot fast enough he almost lost me a couple of times as I wasn't aware we were going to need to turn, but he sure remembered the trail.  My favorite part of this trail runs down along the arroyo.  There's a wide, 2-track that's packed sand under the pine trees, and we trotted along that for quite a ways.  Unfortunately, it's still a little early in the season to be riding on a north-facing trail under trees, as there were still snow packs and lots of boggy places, so we did have to slow down after a while, and we missed where our turnoff was to loop back around towards the trailhead.

We wound up popping out on Rt. 4, so we just followed the paved road back into town, which was a little less scenic with the tarmac, but still has some great rock formations to look at.

 

I'll have to check with Corry for a landmark to catch the dirt trail that we rode with her, but I think in another month, once everything really dries out, we'll wind up using this as a nice mid-week training loop.  It's always good for the boys to work really technical stuff, as it makes them pay attention to where they put their feet when they are on a trail with good, easy footing.

All for now.....

Trail Ride: Firehouse Road Trail

Saturday, D and I put the boys in the trailer, and hauled down to the La Puebla area (just north of Nambe, NM) to meet our friend, Deirdre and her horse, Buddy, so she could show us some nice trails on BLM land there. 

We parked at a little pull-off near an old Catholic cemetary and got the boys tacked up:

 

This area winds along several intersecting single-track trails with great footing, and packed sand/dirt through some really cool sandstone formations.

 

Deirdre and her semi-retired endurance horse, Buddy, (and by semi-retired I mean in his early 20s, but thinks he is 10 still and although he hadn't been ridden in 7 months, still could walk most horses into the ground.  HE certainly doesn't think he is retired) were great tour guides for us.  Deirdre pointed out landmarks so we could come back by ourselves to ride without getting lost, and showed us different trails we could take.

We worked our way along the single-track trails down to where they intersected with the very large and wide Arroyo Seco.  Deirdre and Buddy then hung out and D and I, with the boys, went and did some trotting in the sand.  Bhen currently has his yearly case of spring stupids, and I was sort of hoping going to work in hoof-deep sand at speed would sweat some of the stupids out, but he's in good enough shape still from last season that apparently he needed way more sweating.  (We're working on that.)

The video is kind of choppy.  Sam was doing his HUGE walk and when he's in that zone, Bhen can't really keep up with him unless he trots at least part of the time, so he was walking as fast as his (much shorter) legs would carry him and that's bouncier than his usual trail walk. 

 

 

After a tour out the arroyo a few miles, and then back, we met up with Deirdre and Buddy again, and headed home.

 

We had a really nice ride - the first really long one we've been able to take this season with all the snow we've had - and we out for about 4 hours.  This area, while probably not the best to ride in during the summer, because it will be HOT, is perfect for right now and for winter-riding months, so I know we'll be heading out to ride the arroyo again in the next few months to get some good miles on the boys.

All for now.....   

Back in the Saddle

We finally had gotten enough boxes unpacked and pictures hung, and things tidied up around the place that D and I decided to take the boys for a quick ride on Saturday.  They also got new shoes nailed on by our farrier, James, on Friday afternoon, so they were ready to go.  Most of the trails are still covered with snow - even the ones to the south of us, so we just toodled around the Acres, riding next to the paved roads, and explored a bit.

 

It's actually a good training session for our two to go out and have to deal with all the weird stuff in people's yards:  Barking dogs, cars going by, signs moving in the wind, electric transformers humming.  They really did pretty well with everything except for one incident where a gentleman on one of those reclining bikes came towards us.  It had a plastic windguard/windshield and a flag behind it on a flexible pole.  They definitely did not like that, but at least he was coming towards us, so after they had their little freak-out (he very nicely stopped and I got off Bhen), I walked Bhen over to him to see the scary monster and the gentleman was very nice and told Bhen it was okay and spoke gently to him.  

Interestingly, we ran into the same man later on in our loop, this time coming behind us and since he apparently is a VERY NICE GUY, he hollered forward that he was behind us, so we had time to stop the boys and let them see what was coming up behind them, and he talked to them as he rode by.  They still weren't 100% sure that thing wasn't going to eat them for lunch, but they didn't spook at it either.  That guy should be nominated for best trail manners EVER.

We got them home after a nice leisurely 4-mile loop, and did some grooming.  The pasture is a mud pit right now with all the snow and precipitation we've had, and it really shows on Sam.  He is still a handsome boy tho, under the muck and grime.

And Bhen?  He's my sweetie.  There's a reason we call him Bubba tho...... as in Bubba Gump.  Check out that lower lip.

 
 
 All for now.....

A Nice Surprise

I have been avidly tracking Bhen's mileage totals through the AERC (American Endurance Riders Conference) website.  I had hoped to get him to his 500 non-limited-distance mile plateau this season, which ends at the end of November, but we didn't quite get there.  I know we've got many more seasons together, or at least I hope we do, so not a big rush; we should be able to easily get there next year, and maybe even get him closer to his 1000-mile limited distance plateau (he's at about 725 limited distance miles).

Yesterday in the mail, I got an envelope from AERC and I was puzzled, as I knew we hadn't gotten Bhen to the next award distance yet.  Oops - I totally forgot they award riders mileage awards too.

Totally goofy, I know, for only 250 miles of limited distance rides, but I was tickled to get my first rider achievement award.  This will go into my scrapbook with Bhen's achievements, and is a nice way to remember the 2009 season and lots of fun new rides in the Southwest region.

All for now......
 

Spinning Friday: Now With Less Spinning

I have absolutely zip, zero, nada, bupkiss for you in the spinning department this week.  Next week I'll probably also be on hiatus from spinning reports, as we are hauling up to Moab for the last endurance ride of 2009 on Tuesday, so we will be in the throes of last-minute prep and packing most of the weekend.

In lieu of spinning, how about some horse pictures?  These were all taken by my friend, Deirdre, when we rode out with her in the Caja last weekend.  We got to try out some new trails and Deirdre played tour guide for us.

Here's D and Sam, looking show-pony as ever:

Here's me and Bhen, aka the Brick House:

 And what I think is a really cute picture of the four of us!

All for now........
 

Sangre Scenic Ride

Thursday a.m., D and I hauled up to a beautiful private ranch (Music Meadows Ranch) just south of Westcliffe, Colorado, for the fall version of the Sangre Springs ride.  You might remember we had planned to go to the spring version of this ride back around Memorial Day, and it had poured, so we nixxed that idea and stayed home.

Our host, Elin, runs grass-fed Hereford beef cattle on her ranch, and was kind enough to open up the ranch to the endurance riders for the weekend.  The base camp was on a grassy, flat area at about 8000 feet with views of the Sangre mountains off to the west, and gorgeous views of aspen groves that are all golden along the hillsides.

 
Since Sam had been recovering from his ligament injury, and hadn't been to a race since May, we opted to take the boys out on the 35-miler on Friday.  The route consisted of 3 loops, a 13-mile, a 12-mile, and a 10-mile loop, which all came back into camp for the vet checks. 

Loop one was probably the most technical.  There were several rocky sections, and one really steep hill-climb at about the half-way mark. Loop two headed out across the grassy pastures, following a 2-track road, and was a speed loop, and then loop three repeated part of loop one, minus the steeper hill-climb.

A lot of the riding was across open spaces, which meant riding point-to-point along the tape markers.  If you click the above photo to embiggen, you can see the bright pink surveyor's tape on the small bush next to Sam's left front leg.  The trail was pretty well marked, although sometimes, since many of the ribbons were at ground level, you had to look for the flags since they were blowing in the wind and sometimes got tucked up under the plants.  This was the open meadow at the top of the steep hill on loop one.  We headed off into the copse of trees you see to the left-hand side of the picture.

There was plenty of water on the trail - a few stock tanks, but Elin's property has a lot of creeks running through it as well for natural watering stops.  A lot of the trail was easy to follow, dirt single tracks along fenceline.

 
 
The boys' favorite part of the trail was coming in to the back edge of Elin's property (which was duplicated on each loop).  Even though we approached the access road from a different direction on two of the loops, they quickly recognized the gate, and once we were through this, it was an easy trot back into basecamp for each loop.

 

On Friday, we finished in a respectible 4:55 time for the 35 miles, in 5th and 6th places.  Bhen and I even got the best vet card score (tied with our new friend, Lisa) for our weight class, so we got a great saddle pack as a prize!  We also were treated to a wonderful afternoon with Cathy and her husband, M, who came down from Ft. Collins area to visit with us for a few hours before heading on to SW Colorado for a weekend trip.  It was fantastic to see them both, and I blame Cathy for all of this horse business.  No.... seriously.  Totally her fault.

Since the boys had done so well, we got up on Saturday a.m. (after a night of very cold temperatures down in the 20s) and did a second 35-miler.  We slowed the pace down a little bit, and finished up in about 5:20 for this day, in 6th and 7th places.

Even after 70 miles in 2 days, the boys really looked good.  Sam's legs did just fine, and both the boys had great metabolic criteria at all their vet checks. Today, they are both taking it easy, having naps in the sun, and eating some extra hay, while they recharge their batteries. 

This was a really nice ride.  There was great food from the ranch kitchen, beautiful scenery, and we made several new friends who we hope to see at the Moab ride over Halloween.

All for now....