Bare Bones- The Trail Ride

Cartman and I headed up to Olympia this morning to do the trail ride at the Bare Bones Endurance Ride.  I am planning on attending the Santiam Cascade ride next weekend so wanted to get a nice hard work out but not over do it.

Since this ride is only one hour from our house I was able to drive up the morning of the ride- good thing because I ended up working until 11pm Friday night :( 

I did come home from work briefly to do chores, so I was able to get everything ready to go early this morning.

We vetted in and hit the trail about 1/2 hour late, but hey, we had all day!!!!

C was ready to go:)  This trail is really fun if you have a sure-footed athletic horse.  Pretty much every step on the 15 mile loop was either up, down, turning, or avoiding roots and rocks.  We had a blast.  It was a bit warm and in some areas the terrain blocks any breeze so it can get a bit hot.

Luckily it wasn't too humid today and every time he started getting really hot and sweaty we would pull out into an open area and the slight breeze cooled him right back down. 

If you want to train bridge crossings the Capital Forest is the place to go- I think I quit counting at bridge 6 or 7.  They are all in good repair and have safe approaches. C is good on bridges, but I had to keep pulling him back to walk as he just wanted to blast right over them.

We ran into several people we know and visited a bit, but kept a brisk pace and before I knew it we were back in camp!  Cartman had no interest in water out on the trail despite the plentiful water sets.  Once back in camp he drank really well though.

I manage to get off trail in camp- seriously..... They had re-routed to the finish line and blocked off the trail we went out on.  I missed the sign and just wandered around until I found a way close to where we usually come in on this ride.  Oh well.

Cartman vetted through well, with an A- overall.

I let him eat for about 45 minutes then we wandered through camp to check out the Rein rescue horse and try and catch up with a few people but it was starting to get pretty busy at the finish and I didn't want to leave C tied too long at the trailer, and was too lazy to pull out the hi-tie, so we loaded up and headed home.

first bridge?

starting up the big hill

Yes, that is a vacuum cleaner.  sigh.



Some riders we met along the trail

Not touching that lovely clean water....

pretty trail

We managed to find some mud!

I'm blaming my off trail stunt on photo taking and not paying attention.

Ft Stevens Beach Ride

Today I really needed to get out of town for a ride~

We deliberated whether to go to Camp Wilkerson or to the beach.  I wanted to get a good hard ride in, as it is two weeks until our next endurance ride at Santiam Cascade, so we decided to go for it and brave a summer Sunday at the OR coast.

The drive down takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes, unless you have the misfortune to get stuck on Hwy 30 due to wrecks or road construction.  Today we cruised straight through and were tacked and on by 10am.

We decided to head right to the beach, in hopes it wouldn't be as crowded this early and the gamble payed off.  We had the North end totally to ourselves!!

I didn't get any pictures right at first as I was uncertain how C was going to react to all this open space, and ocean, and excitement.  I don't think Tucker had been to the coast before as he was pretty concerned about it in the beginning.  He was sucking right up to Cartman and C kept turning his head around as if to see what was wrong.

We walked about 2 miles down to the wreck of the Peter Iredale and then decided to pick up the pace on the way back.  Both horses were awesome, no shenanigans whatsoever.  We trotted back and the turned around and loped back a mile. 

By the time we'd made it back to the approach for the second time we had gone almost 6 miles.

We then climbed to big dune back to the trailer, offered water (no takers) and then headed out on the dune trails.  The trails were more overgrown than the last time I'd been through there two years ago, but Cartman picked his way through with little direction from me. 

It always seems the dune trails go on forever- they are hard to navigate at speed as they are basically a long narrow groove worn into the sand and going through a lot of Scotch broom and tall grasses.

We finally crossed over the asphalt road and to a trail loop in the forested area. You can see from the pictures that we had a real variety of trail conditions today.  Parts of the forested trail we were able to long trot for a mile or two, then there were sections with tons of roots, narrow openings between trees, and stuff that the horses had to really pay attention to.

At the end of the day we rode for about 4 hours and covered 16 pretty tough miles. Even though we had to walk probably 50% of the ride I think the sand really put a good conditioning effort into the day.

The boys dove into beet pulp mashes and water when we got back to the trailer.  I wish I had videoed Cartman eating his, he really needed a straw!

Some "Same ol' Same ol' " and Something Exciting :)

Cartman and I have really just been "hanging out" for the last few weeks.  I gave him about a week off after Sunriver and since then have been doing two rides a week.  Our woods finally dried out so we have been doing some trails.  When I run out of time we just jog/lope the 5 mile path or maybe throw in some work in the sand.

Buddy has become obsessed with the horse.  If he sees me bringing Cartman up to the barn he plants himself in front of the stall door and actually starts that German Shepherd yowlie/growly noise.  He does not let me out of his sight until I actually load him into the truck.

As soon as they started cutting the hayfields I brought Cartman up to the house.  I've been monitoring him carefully after our experience last summer with the allergic reaction and coughing that started when I mowed our field.  So far- no repeat!  I also have been wetting his hay as he has always given a cough or two as he eats hay.

He is feeling quite good and has gotten to be somewhat of a turdbutt on the ground when I take him down to the field or to graze.  I think he's just getting really fit but didn't much appreciate the "Hi ho Silver" imitation he did for me yesterday as I was walking him out to graze.  Sigh.  He actually got a foot over the rope and I had to let go.. Thankfully he came back down and just stood there, so I was able to grab it again.

I think my transformation into a 'dog person' is finally complete.  It has been pretty warm here (I love it) and Buddy (who doesn't love it) has the thickest coat ever.  I have been using the furminator as much as I can to take out some of that undercoat but he is still dyin'.

The other evening it really didn't cool off too much even at night and Bud was in the living room watching TV with us, and panting.  So Todd went and grabbed my small fan from the bedroom and put it on the floor for him.  This is what he did:

I haven't had the heart to take the fan back, so we've been burning up at night in the bedroom, but hey, my boy is happy!

Sunday we took a nice ten mile ride on the trail, here are a few photos:

When we got home I have Cartman a real bath.  I tend to hose him off but rarely get the soap out but this time he needed it!  He was totally shiny and slick afterward.  Sadly he has since rolled in the sand and is back to being dusty.

Now for the exciting news...

I have been wanting to do something with Cartman's older brother, Taj, for several years.  I just wasn't sure exactly what to do with him.  He is a lot more typical TB than Cartman is.  He can be a great trail horse but tends to get nervous in groups and can be a bit, um, neurotic might be too strong a description....

I tossed around ideas of sending him to a dressage trainer, but didn'tt think he would like being hot housed in a barn all the time and I'm not sure he would tolerate just arena work.

I thought about sending him to an eventing trainer.  I'm pretty sure he could jump. 

Never really set on one or the other I let time slip by.  Last winter I decided that I simply must do something with him this year. 

As luck would have it I ran into Celena Pentrack of On Track Training at the PNER convention where she was working for RP Saddles.  We talked a little and I ended up getting a saddle from her.  During the process I realized that she might be the perfect person to evaluate and train Taj for me. 

I started thinking maybe there might be a small chance that Taj could do some distance riding.  It would be totally cool to have the brothers and be able to use them in Endurance!

I could tell that Celena knows Thoroughbreds and likes them from our conversations while adjusting the saddle.  She pegged Cartman's personality on her first visit, so I inquired about sending him for training and in the end of May I hauled him over to Prineville.

Last weekend Tajie attended his first endurance event at Bandit Springs!!  He did the trail ride and was reportedly a gentleman:)  It was his first experience camping and being in a ridecamp setting.  I am totally thrilled to get the good report and really like what she is doing with him.  He is a sensitive horse, yet at times needs a firm hand. 

So, a good weekend was had by both boys, Buddy, and I! Thank you Celena for taking Taj to Bandit- this just made my week :)

Odds and Ends

Love this thing :)

trying to get a pic of Cartman's butt....

Dazzby

wrong end C.

Nope, I'm not turnin' around

best I could do, I swear its SO muscley!!!!!

Our completion award from Sunriver,  I love it!