This Standardbred Can Canter!

March 6 2025

I’ve let Hillbillie Willie pick the gait he wants going down the endurance trail, which, despite him being a pacer on the racetrack, is mostly a nice trot on the trail. Over the years he’s rounded up and balanced out to have a smooth trot, and even his pace now is a smooth gait.

One of the conditioning methods I use if for some reason I can’t ride, or for a change of routine, is liberty in the arena. Willie works hard solo, but he can be especially enthusiastic if he’s competing in the arena with/against his bromance bro DWA Barack. They both get some serious workouts in, because Willie always has to be in front, and sometimes Barack will sneak-and-squirt by him just to mess with him, and Willie has to work hard to get ahead of him again.

With the round circles in the arena, Willie’s started shifting into a canter more, (and often some other gait like a spinaroonie pacealope - oh, if I could just bottle that!), so over this winter in the arena (when/if it was dry) I started asking him for a canter. He’s gotten the right lead canter down so well he can do several loops in a canter and even slow it down. We’re still working on the left lead… I figure that since pacers on the track are discouraged from breaking gait, and they race to the left, it’s just harder for him. That’s my theory anyway.

The other day we had a good conditioning ride out on the trail, and at two different places, where Willie likes to pick up speed anyway, he slipped smoothly into a right lead canter, and both times he held it easily (and not speedy) for at least a quarter mile. I swear that horse was so proud of himself that he could show it off so well!

 

 

It’s a Wild(life) West Out There

June 21 2023

Hillbillie Willie and I regularly see wildlife on our rides in the Owyhee desert: deer, the periodic pronghorn, the occasional coyote (two were sunbathing on the peak of the ridge this morning).

But - whoa! - what was this creature!

Trotting at a brisk pace along a two-track, we came around a bend and two never-before-seen-by-Willie furry creatures were stepping onto the road ahead of us, then suddenly bombing away from us down the road. Willie slammed on his brakes as the two badger butts, a bigger one and a smaller one, ran away as fast as they could. But sensing big danger to her baby, Mama Badger stopped to face off with the super tall creature with an even taller creature on top. She’d probably never seen a horse and a human before, and despite the fact that combined we were more than 20 times her size, she challenged us, holding her ground, stepping behind a sagebrush for protection, then stepping back out to hiss.

Willie and I had a quick conversation:

SCREECH TO HALT

Willie: “Whoa!!!!!”

Me: “Ooof” - as I adjusted to the sudden change in pace.

Mama Badger: “Hisssssssssssss! I’ll kill you!”

Willie: “!!!!! Should I be scared?”

Me: “Ooooh! It’s a Mama Badger and that’s her baby running away! Badgers are fierce!” 

Willie: “I might be scared! Dudley told me about these things!” (Dudley was scared of badgers.)

Mama Badger turned to run after her baby. Overcome with curiosity, Willie started to walk after them. Mama whirled back at us and stopped in the middle of the road, hissing. We stopped. Mama even charged at us, posturing, snarling, “Come on, I’ll take you on!”

Willie planted it: “Um…. not me. Uh uh. Not messing with her.”

Me: “No, we don’t want to tangle with a badger!” Baby Badger was still running down the trail. “We’ll go around so the Baby can stop running and Mama can get him back.”

So we detoured far around the trail (Mama Badger stood her ground still hunched up in a big fight posture), far enough to get ahead of the Baby Badger. 

You never know what you’ll ride upon the Wild West. What a treat that was, and Willie can mark Badgers off his bucket list!

Justify’s Owyhee Mustang C Herd Available for Adoption!

May 14 2022

From the family of sire JUSTIFY, this "C" crop of one-of-a-kind all-recycled** hand-made-with-love Owyhee Mustang siblings are recently-rounded up off the Owyhee Range. They are tamed and gentled and halter broke… the rest is up to you. They are easy keepers - won’t eat you out of the hay barn and are happy with just sunshine and admiration. Each has its own unique personality and conformation!

By adopting an Owyhee Mustang you are an owner of an authentic Wild West bronc, made of genuine recycled baling twine fresh off hay bales, so in addition to owning a very unique objet d’art, a piece of The West, of course you’ll also be helping to save the planet from choking plastic or toxic burn fumes.

Owyhee Black-Blue Nose

Owyhee Black nose

Owyhee Black-Purple nose

Owyhee Dark Blue nose

Owyhee Lime Green Nose - yes - it's a mule!

Owyhee Orange nose

Owyhee Pink nose

These Owyhee Mustangs are available for adoption fee of $75 (add $5 for shipping per horse, USA only). 

contact theequestrianvagabond@gmail.com

See the gallery of past siblings horses here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5KMJVHCTnVzrf3KPA

**100% recycled… made of baling twine, used buttons, stuffed with used horse magazines

***And thank you to the soooo many of you who have sent me your baling twine instead of burning it or throwing it away! You are contributing to beauty and hilarity in the world!

#trashtotreasure #trashtoart #trashintoart #balingtwine #bailingtwine #balingtwineart #bailingtwineart #recycledart #repurposed #reclaimed #recycledbalingtwine #recycledbailingtwine #recycleme #wastetoart #waste2art #trashintotreasure #recycled #recreated #fiberart #buyhandmade #buyusa 

#owyhee #owyheeart #wildwestart #wildwest #owyheemustangs #idaho #onlyinowyhee #adoptawildmustang #adoptamustang #justify

The Owyhee Green Desert

Monday May 2 2022

I've never in my 15 years out here seen the Owyhee desert so outrageously verdant. We've had the craziest spring, with temperatures swinging wildly between 79* one day and 26* the next night. Waves of wet weather have come through, just enough at just the right time to send the flora into a frenzy of growth.

The desert grasses and shrubs and wildflowers are soaking up the moisture as color - all shades of green, carpets of knee-high yellow mustard, fields of purple flowers (blue mustard?), phlox, arrow leaf balsam root, Indian paintbrush, and myriad other flowers I have my own names for because I don't know the proper names for them. 

It's awful hard to get a good training ride on Hillbillie Willie, because all he wants to do is eat this spring's rare Nature's bounty while it exists - and who can blame him! If we do a 2-hour ride, that's because 1 hour is spent training, and 1 hour is spent eating.

As I told a friend, Let us bow our heads and remember this lush spring in a few months, when the flora is withered and gray, and the skies are brown with wildfire smoke that burns our lungs and stings our eyes. Amen.

This Standardbred Likes Pigs

 

December 3 2021

After a sunny winter ride, Willie and I dropped in on Linda and her Menagerie for a friendly visit.

Our last visit was more of a training visit, and Willie was on alert.

This time, he was much more relaxed, hanging out with his friend dogs and pigs and horses and mini-donkey and mule, and way more interested in the pigs, Porker and Pig.

Linda has trained Porker to sit for a treat. She says, "Sit," and Porker sits and opens wide for Linda to insert a treat (watch out for those porker chompers!)

Willie was fascinated with the beasts and the spectacle.

He got a treat from Linda too, because he's so handsome,

but ooooh those pigs are intriguing!

How could you not love this face!

The Umpteenth Owyhee Fourth of July Parade

July 4 2020

Way up a crick from a tiny little town in Owyhee the best little July 4th parade in America takes place. 

For the umpteenth year, rain or shine (it’s always shine), Parade Mistress Linda and her random Critters put on a homemade parade for a few select guests. 

Each year, you never know quite what the parade will bring (neither does Linda…). Linda may have plans, but her horse, mule, miniature horse, a randy mini-mule (who was gelded shortly after that one year’s parade), donkey, jackass, dogs, etc, get dressed up, but they all have free choice to participate in whatever capacity they choose.

This year Linda, aboard Ted the Wonder Horse, carrying Our Nation’s Flag, ponying Hattie the Spotted Mule, led the procession of assorted dogs, and was joined by our dog Luna and, briefly, my horse Stormy until Hattie the Mule kicked him and he left, no longer interested in parades. Linda’s goats didn’t come all the way up this year, (we missed them!) and the pigs simply refused to leave Linda’s driveway.

But as usual, it was the best parade ever, the best kept secret in Owyhee.

Tales From The West: Four Seasons in the Owyhee Country - My Newest E-book!

January 2 2020

I’m thrilled to share with all of you the release of my latest e-book: Tales From The West: Four Seasons in the Owyhee Country.

It’s a collection of essays that take place in the present day Wild West: Southwest Idaho.

You’ll get a taste of four seasons of a unique outdoor life: with nature, animals, local history, and horse rides and hiking adventures in the Owyhee country. The photos accompanying each essay give you a visual glimpse of the area.

From experiencing wild thunderstorms, flash flood and wildfire, to horseback riding on cattle drives, among wild horses, along trails of old gold miners, and through a biblical swarm of Mormon crickets, to startling and entertaining encounters with cows, birds, rattlesnakes, and cougars, you’ll see that a life in the West nowadays isn’t that far removed from life as it was 150 years ago.

“In case you’re wondering, it’s the southwest corner of Idaho I’m talking about. It’s nearly 7700 square miles of high desert sagebrush, rabbit brush, the Owyhee mountains, pronghorns, deer, cows, and a few herds of wild horses.

If you’re charmed by the ways of the Old West, it’s easy, when you’re out riding a horse or hiking, to imagine you’re still part of that time period. Squint your eyes into the sunlight, and you’ll see the dust from the old cowboys chasing the cows or rounding up the broomtail horses.

Life in Owyhee means a life steeped in Western lore, Wild West adventures, horses, Ravens, and nature. It means beauty in every corner, under every rock, in every storm, spring, summer, fall, and winter.”

Tales From The West: Four Seasons in the Owyhee Country is available on Amazon as an e-book at:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0838Z7C5Q

A soft-cover option will be available in the new year. 

Happy reading!

Hillbillie Willie's Hallowed Weenies

October 28 2019

Saturday, October 26, would be Hillbillie's last ride of the endurance season, 50 miles at the Owyhee Hallowed Weenies. For the last week, the weather forecast had been fabulous, still and cool. Two days before, weathermen predict godawful winds, to start Friday night. I was sure hoping they'd just made a miscalculation, or a Halloween prank.

The winds woke me in the middle of the night. I looked at my clock: 3:41 AM. That's it, I'm not riding, I thought. I don't have to ride. Staying in bed. Problem solved.

I didn't sleep, for the wind, for the next 3 1/2 hours, when my alarm went off. When I poked my head outside, the gales weren't as terrible - down here in the canyon anyway. I knew they'd still be bad up on top, but, if you don't have to saddle up and start in the wind (or rain), then it's not so bad when you actually ride into the weather.

So of course I saddled up Hillbillie Willie, and we followed Connie and That Guy (trick riders for the Halloween costume contest) aboard DWA Saruq for a 50 mile jaunt in a hurricane across the Owyhee desert. 

And lordy, was it a hurricane. It was Stink Windy. It was Cussin' Windy (yes, I said a few choice words at times.) It was so windy, that it wasn't even dusty, because any dust kicked up by a horse's hoof was already in the next county before the next hoof fell. It was so windy, Connie may or may not have tried talking/yelling something at me, but all I could hear was the wind roaring in my ears through my bandana. It was so windy, that much of the time I felt completely disconnected from Willie, who, bless his Standardbred heart, just kept trucking along like it was nothing. He was a superstar! Although he did uncharacteristically bolt 3 times throughout the day - from the odd, loud flapping of my heavy jacket, even though it was zipped up and snug on me. Neither of us had ever heard that sound before!

Likely there was a high vehicle wind warning for the day, because up on top of 17-hand Hillbillie Willie, yea, I felt it! Especially up on the Hallelujah rim trail, it knocked me about, and had me leaning into the wind at times so I couldn't get blown off Willie and over the edge of the rim. At times we got a welcomed treat of a wind-blocked wash, where it was practically balmy for a few minutes (and hot), and then we'd creep back out into the chilly gale-force winds.

Our vet check was back in camp, down in our canyon-hole, where it was just breezy and almost pleasant. Loop two was a reverse of loop one - different scenery but the same wind. Oh, there was some more cussin' from us humans, but our horses motored along like it was no big deal.

Hillbillie Willie finished up fabulous and strong and sound, making a clean 5 starts in 5 finishes this year, 255 miles. That included his first 3-day ride at City of Rocks where he couldn't have impressed me more!

Now it's time for a winter of getting lazy and fat… though I'm still waiting for the day Willie carries any extra poundage!

For more stories and photos on the ride, see:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019OwyheeHallowedWeenies/

Hillbillie Willie and the Mormon Crickets

Wednesday May 1 2019

GAAAAHHHH - a new mormon cricket hatch, a swarm of millions! 

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the ground starting to move ahead of trotting Willie - we'd powered up the Rim Trail and rejoined Spring Ranch road, heading toward the Owyhee mountains when it began. But it wasn't the ground moving; it was a million little inch-long crawling jumping flopping things - baby mormon crickets!

In some cases, baby animals can be ugly-cute (think warthogs)… but there is NOTHING cute, at all, about any-sized mormon crickets. Disgusting creatures. Mormon crickets can't hop straight; they just flop, in all directions, sideways and upside down. When one dies, the others swarm and eat it. They can make highways dangerously slick when they get run over (then the others swarm to eat the dead ones, and get run over, etc). There are never just a few mormon crickets, which one could cope with, but swarms. They get big and bulbous and they are uncoordinated and ugly and creepy and gross. Even horses think so - just ask Hillbillie Willie!

Willie's spook is more of a duck-jump, and when he saw the ground begin moving beneath him with these strange crawlie-jumpy things, he began duck-jumping back and forth and back and forth, because he didn't know which way to spook! He lowered his head and shook it in aggravation, and the durn crickets bopped him in the nose when they flopped upward, and he really disliked that!

I urged him to keep up his trot - I mean, he for sure wouldn't want to walk through those things, and *I* was for sure not getting off to walk, and I was for sure not going to fall off - can you imagine the horror! Most scary were the bushes with clumps of flopping crawling crickets beneath them, making the leaves shudder and shake. 

We rode through at least a mile and a half of these creatures, and every single one was a baby - not an adult in sight anywhere. Where do they suddenly come from anyway - spontaneous combustion??

They reminded me of the White Walkers, the walking dead in Game of Thrones - they just kept coming on and on, swarms of them. I've heard of the crickets dying and making bridges of the dead bodies to keep moving onward across a creek. (Like Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, where the dead made a bridge to cross the burning barrier - creepy!)

While I gagged and bemoaned out loud this dreadful event, Willie bravely kept up his trotting through the incessant pool of mormon cricket babies. When we finally left their territory, Willie was still shaken up a while - trotting along and lowering and shaking his head as if to shake off the daytime nightmare!

above photos is Hillbillie Willie on another ride…. not pictured are the mormon crickets. If only I'd had a video camera!

Hillbillie Willie's National Geographic Moment

Sunday April 21 2019

"Get off the web and into the wild" is the campaign of the PNTS - Partnership for the National Trails System. PNTS is encouraging people to "pledge to turn your gaze from your phone and computer screen to your natural surroundings and explore a park, trail, wildlife refuge, or forest near you - even your backyard. You never know what you might discover!"

Easy for me - Hillbillie Willie and I get into the wild on a regular basis. We're surrounded by BLM high sagebrush desert, 6 miles below the Owyhee mountains, in the southwest corner of Idaho, in one of the least populated counties. On just about every ride we see some kind of wildlife: deer, antelope, sage grouse, chukar, coyotes. Willie - the off-the-track Standardbred racehorse - is quite sensible and doesn't get alarmed: he enjoys encountering the wildlife too.  

The very day I took the PNTS pledge, Willie and I had a fabulous National Geographic moment.

As we started riding down the narrow and at-places-steep Tower Trail ridge, we surprised a herd of 8 mule deer in a fold of the hills below us. We stared at each other momentarily, till the deer decided to evacuate. However, instead of moving downhill away from us, the lead doe angled straight ahead and up, aiming for the trail we were on. As we popped around a little corner, the herd had just reached the narrow trail 15 yards ahead of us; their sensible option was to run on down the trail, or to seemingly irrationally leap over the precipice down the 80-degree cliff.

There was a moment's hesitation before the lead doe committed: then she hurled herself over the edge. One by one the others followed unquestioningly - like a waterfall over a cliff - catapulting, catching air, landing 20 feet down the slope before touching ground again. The adrenaline enveloped the herd as they hurtled downward; when one stumbled she'd leap and fly another 30 feet downhill; when another almost fell down she sprinted faster down the hill with the others rocketing recklessly after. The herd's mad charge left dust curling down the cliff and they were gone before Willie even got to their leaping platform.

If I can anthropomorphize here a bit, there may have been a touch of prey-fear in the deer, but what I really sensed was arrogance - their utterly unrivaled and untouchable grace and speed, knowing that, even if this little human had wanted to, I did not have the capable mount, nor the guts, to follow them; and even if I was the Man from Snowy River and gave chase over the cliff on my horse, I could not have gotten anywhere close to them. The deer picked the steepest cliff - because they could.

A camera would have gotten a fabulous video, but I had my hands full with an excited horse! Willie gave off his own excited Deer Snort and I had to use a bit of focused riding to keep him on the trail.

It was an extraordinary deer encounter neither of us will ever forget!

#getoffthewebandintothewild

#natgeomoment

Story Behind the Photo: A Cowboy's Work is Never Done

February 26 2019

A cowboy’s work is never done: neither snow nor rain nor barbed wire fences nor rank bulls interfere with the work of a cowboy or his cow horse or his cow dog. Here in the West the cowboy is a common sight, any day or season of the year. We occasionally help them move cows, but whenever a bull moves in and takes up uninvited residence, we call in the experts to remove them!

Hillbillie Willie: Snow Rider

Wednesday February 13 2019

Here's something I didn't know about Hillbillie Willie: this California Standardbred loves riding in the snow!

It's supposed to be raining and snowing the next 48 hours - like 100% chance - but it was neither, and the footing was actually good, so we went out on a training ride. I'm sure it's the first time he's been ridden in the snow. He was enthusiastic, forward, fast, and fun!

Exploring Owyhee's Perjue Canyon

November 24 2018

This Owyhee sagebrush flat and canyon had just a bit of a…. cougar-y feel. Not an imminent we're-going-to-get-jumped-on feeling, but… thick brush along the crick, a single path along the bottom of the high-walled canyon, rock shelters and lairs and mini-caves above, the cool stillness of a fall day, pregnant with the feeling of possibility and opportunity springing forth.

And that was before, about 20 minutes into our ride, Karen said, "Did I tell you last time we came here to hike this trail I saw a cougar print?"

Dudley and I had hitched a ride with Leah and her mustang Bear, and Karen and her former endurance horse Rusty, to explore Perjue Canyon in the Little Jacks Creek Wilderness. Rusty charged eagerly ahead on the trail, unafraid of anything (his only nemesis is cows), and Bear followed, completely unflappable (I expect if he ran into a cougar, he'd Stink-eye it away), followed by Dudley. The Dude wasn't nervous, but one time in the canyon he did stop and whip his head around behind him and he studied the brush along the crick a while. Dudley always sees wildlife before I do so I always wait to see what he's spotted; this time he didn't actually see anything. But Dudley knew that here it didn't hurt to check. 

I wasn't nervous, but I've learned over the years, if it feels like cougar country, it is cougar country. Doesn't hurt to keep your eyes peeled at the brush, the rock outcroppings you're riding under, and glance behind you now and then. Cougars aren't particularly numerous out here, but they are here.

While the canyons in the Owyhee country don't have the flair and grandeur of Utah's red canyon country, ours can still be a little bit spectacular, much less traveled, and intriguing to explore, particularly on foot. If there aren't trails down in all of them, there are usually plenty of old two-track roads to get you cross-country and at least above those canyons.

Closer to the cities, the red rhyolite-walled Sinker Canyon can certainly be called spectacular; it's a popular place for ATVs (so if you're going horseback, you want to go mid-week, and preferably when schools are in session), and a side trip on your way to Silver City.

Perjue is further out - a good hour further out, on a good-but-washboard Mud Flat dirt road that is part of a scenic Owyhee Uplands Backcountry Byway over the Owyhee mountains that eventually dumps you out at Jordan Valley, Oregon.

The canyon is named after Frank Perjue, whose old cabin walls still stand near the approach to the canyon. He probably homesteaded cattle (or sheep?) here in the early 1900's, and it was probably his livestock that originally laid the trail that we rode on. Perjue Canyon follows the West Fork of Shoofly Creek.

The Little Jacks Creek Wilderness (over 50,000 acres) is 1 of the 6 wilderness areas in Owyhee County, designated in 2009. BLM, Idaho Trails Association and other volunteer groups worked on developing this trail in Perjue Canyon. It's an out-and-back trail 4 miles down the West Fork of the Shoofly Crick, where it ends at private property (we were hoping for an obvious loop trail, but nothing obvious appeared, but with more exploring, there might be options), and 4 miles back.

At places, cottonwoods crowd the trail, and thick quail bush clusters along the narrowing canyon. We were past the time of golden autumn leaves, but during the height of color, the cottonwoods along the crick must be stunning yellow, and the quail bush deep maroon. And, at the right time of year, you can see bighorn sheep in and above the canyon.

We had a bit of water in the crick that we crossed several times (ice, actually), but the brush looks thick enough that there may be some water puddles year round.

It's an easy day hike for Owyhee hikers (and a BLM picnic area and vault toilet is about a mile down the road), and an easy exploring ride for trail riders. There was enough up and down, and a bit of scrambling over shale at a few places, and long enough to make Dudley sweat, even in the cold, though as endurance riders we wouldn't have minded another 10 miles or so, for the long trailer ride we took to get there.

But it was another cool new checkmark I can put on my Owyhee country map, and Dudley had a good time and a good workout!