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!

Belesemo Snow Dude

December 11 2016

It's our favorite time of the year. Cooler weather for Belesemo Dude (Dudley), and WINTER and SNOW for me, The Ice Princess.

Call me nuts, but you'll at least agree that this video is fun and the country is beautiful and the beast I'm riding is magnificently marvelous.

Hallelujah!

or video link:

https://youtu.be/Y1fs-oYA8q4

We're Not In Idaho Anymore

Saturday December 5 2015

Steph's in Heaven, I'm in Scottsdale. It's totally true for Steph, down south in the warm sunshine in the place of a cold Idaho winter.

Not complaining, mind you. Sure, I'd rather be wallerin' around in the snow and hoar frost, wearing 5 layers of clothes, but this is a nice road trip in a fascinating part of the country. And I'm sure glad I'm not here in the summer!

We got out on the horses today on a little corner of the 100,000 square mile Sonoran desert. Jose and I both enjoyed the scenery. He's spent a winter down here before. 

The Four Peaks of the rugged Mazatzal Mountains and wilderness line the eastern horizon, 

and the alluring Superstition Mountains and wilderness lie to the southeast, with Weaver's Needle poking up in the melee. Legends abound of lost gold (particularly the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine), and a hole that leads down to the lower world. 700-year-old cliff dwellings in the Tonto basin, between the Mazatzals and Superstitions, leave behind an intriguing mystery of a vanished ancient people.   

Jose and his desert reflection

Yep I like to hug trees, but I'm keeping my distance from this saguaro. 

Pretty much anything out here, you don't want to run into or touch, particularly the cholla!

this was a cool old monster. With the right conditions, they can live to be 150-200 years old.

Wet, Wintry, Windy, Wonderful

Saturday November 3 2014

I like a good cold rain while riding on a horse who possibly has a stick of lit dynamite up his butt as much as the next person (oh - wait - I am the only person I know who likes the good cold rain while riding, though I could do without the stick-of-lit-dynamite-up-his-butt part), but the thought of waking up before dawn with the cold rain already falling, and going out and saddling up in the rain for a 90%-chance-of-rain-and-45*-and-wind day is a bit daunting, even for me.

But when my alarm went off for the Owyhee Hallowed Weenies, the last ride of the season, and it wasn't raining yet, I was pretty happy. And when Carol and August, and Dudley and I found a bubble at the start (and in fact, the entire day - it was like we were the only ones out on a 50-mile training ride), with no riders in sight ahead of us or behind us, all day, and Dudley never had a stick of dynamite in him, it turned into an awesome ride.


It was an awesome ride, even when, middle of the first 15-mile loop, I decided to put on my rain jacket right before the rain started coming down, and I reached in my saddle bag and pulled out… my rain pants.

Hmm.

I tried sticking my arms in the pant legs - no go. So I knotted the pants around my neck like an unfashionable rubber scarf for a while, till Carol remembered she had an extra raincoat with her. (Note to self: spray paint your black rain pants bright orange, so you don't get them confused with your black raincoat).


It was an awesome ride, even in the rain, that continued all day, and the cold, which was only mild at 44*, and the wind, which you were shielded against with your proper raincoat. It was an awesome weather day for a horse and rider who don't do so well riding in hot weather (Dudley and me).

It was an awesome ride, because the Raven, dressed as a cardinal for Halloween, rode along as usual!


It was an awesome ride, because it was Dudley's fourth 50-mile ride of the year, an awesome accomplishment for the big beast I fondly call, among other things, a Recovering Obesaholic. He's come a long way and accomplished a lot this year.


He'll keep up the diet and the exercise this winter (in between his Trick Training) and aim for an even better endurance season next year!


For a ride recap, and results and more photos, see
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2014OwyheeHallowedWeenies/

Owyhee Bonanza

Sunday January 6 2013

The only thing better than being in Owyhee is the good fortune of being in Owyhee in the winter after a gorgeous snowfall on a good horse.

Jose and I ride in the snow so you don't have to!

[movie here]

or link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMQMg5DGb7I&list=UUWERhXYLV3K12Q96SneAADA&index=1

2011 Fire Mountain

Tuesday January 25 2011

If you want to feel a little like a wimp, ride for 50 miles beside a guy in shorts and tank top when you've got 4 layers on and your hands are numb. However, he will wear extra clothing once in a while: "I'm getting older and sometimes get cold at rides so I have to wear gloves." Once in a while he might wear a sweatshirt, and there is one photo known to exist of him wearing actual jeans on a horse, though none of us have ever seen this extraoardinary phenomenon in person.

If you want to feel humbled, ride 50 miles beside one who has ridden 50,000 AERC miles. (He's second on the high mileage list.)


Riding with Hall of Fame endurance rider Dave Rabe is a bit humbling, but it's also enjoyable. It's also nice to watch his handsome white gelding move down the trail. Dave and 10-year-old White Cloud have racked up over 4500 miles together, in just 3 seasons of endurance riding. "He's a nice horse. He's been very sound."

But it wasn't always easy riding White Cloud. The horse had been dropped off at an animal sanctuary 4 years ago, and when the woman there tried riding him, he dumped her. She gave the horse to Dave. It took Dave a few times of getting run away with and dumped before he figured White Cloud out. It's usually when he mounts White Cloud that he bolts and runs. "Last time he dumped me at a ride was Death Valley over a year ago...." Amazing what wet saddle blankets can do for a horse that nobody else could ride, although White Cloud still has that bolting trigger inside him.

Dave is known for riding difficult horses and turning them into good competitors. Dave made the AERC Hall of Fame in 2009, and when accepting his award, he said, "I suppose I really like a horse that bucks and runs away with me. That’s why people give me their horses.” Dave is also known for going out of his way to help at rides. He'll arrive at a ride a few days early to mark trail, and he'll stay afterward to unmark trail. If you need any help applying easyboot glue-ons or gloves, or fixing your tack, or repairing your truck or trailer, he'll do that before a ride, or during a ride when most of the rest of us are sitting down to eat lunch.


Gretchen and I rode her two horses Spice and Kav with Dave and White Cloud on the 32nd annual Fire Mountain ride. We survived attack jackrabbits (just ask Kav and White Cloud about those), and

a jeep with a dubious driver in Nazi Canyon. (For some reason, the driver had decided to attempt to drive over a 4 foot high boulder. It didn't work.)


The Fire Mountain ride was almost called off the week before due to low entries. When 38 signed up, the ride was declared on; ultimately about 75 riders took off into the desert sunrise on Saturday morning, the boulders and cholla glowing golden and our long shadows stretching toward the pink Sierra Nevada mountains.


The Farthest Traveler Award went to Amada Rayner from West Australia. She and her husband Jared were coming to the US on vacation and she wondered if she might fit in an endurance ride. Finding the Fire Mountain ride on the schedule, she contacted ride manager Sue Benson, who put her in touch with local Jackie Bumgardner, who offered her home-bred Fire Mt Odyssey to ride. Amanda was all smiles during and after the ride - Amanda's first US endurance ride and completion. Amanda is not the first foreigner to be carried to a finish by Fire Mt Odyssey. The 14-year-old mare carried Japanese ride Hiromi KItake to a Tevis finish in 2007.


Often this ride is done in near-gale force winds, but Saturday had only the slightest pleasant breeze with temperatures in the mid-70's - unless you hit that long climb on Loop 3 around 2 PM. Then you were wishing for some of the "W" word. Not a single puff of air disturbed the sun beating down on our winter-coated horses on that sheltered climb. By the time we got to the top of the hill, the horses thought they'd died and crawled through Death Valley in the middle of summer. The water trough was almost empty at the bottom of the hill, but since we could see Mike Montgomery coming with a refill in the water truck, we used the rest of it in the tank to douse our hot horses. We let them rest and eat hay a while to recover there; and at the same time, a nice cloud cover took over the sky, enough to make me pull my sleeves down and for Dave Rabe to put his tank top back on his bare back (though he said "It's so I don't sunburn.")


The Fire Mountain ride isn't an easy one - we finished in about 8 hours, and we had moved along all day. We measured exactly 50 miles on our GPS, and each loop had some fair climbing up into the Rademacher hills, and our horses all had minimal winter clips. But all the loops had great footing, awesome views - and great company.


Next time you're doing a ride out West, try tagging along with a Hall of Famer. You might feel a little insignificant... but if Dave Rabe's the Hall of Famer, you'll be glad you did.

Quest: Wagon Wheel Homestead

Monday March 1 2010

The Wagon Wheel Homestead on Brown's Creek was our destination today.

We'd approached it from the north side of Brown's Creek one day last year, but we'd come to a locked gate and were only able to look down on it. There are no locked gates on the other side, so we thought we'd try to get there from the south side.

We did our reconnaissance on a map and planted the route firmly in our heads, then lit off southwest toward the Owyhee mountains. Karen recalled some of the way from the June Almosta Bennett Hills endurance ride that used some of this trail.

Close to the mountains we turned southeast on a 2-track road near the base of them. The snow had just melted off this road. Horse hooves slipped and sunk in the mud, and we did a lot of walking. We crossed the three big drainages: Little Hart Creek, Hart Creek, and Brown's Creek, (we think we named them correctly - the little ones can have deceptively deep canyons at some places) and several little ones, all of which had varying amounts of running water from snowmelt at this time of year in these mild winter temperatures.


We knew we had to turn left after we crossed and climbed out of Brown's Creek (in fact I'd seen a road on the ridge in the distance)... but somehow we missed any turnoff. By the time we'd crossed another couple of drainages, we knew we'd gone way too far, and we were going to end up on Bachman Grade road, a main gravel road that climbs up into and crosses the Owyhees.

But, no matter. It was new scenery, a completely new trail for me, and the horses were getting a good workout in that mud and from the climbing out of all those drainages. Coming back down toward Oreana on Bachman Grade road, we had some long steady miles of trotting. The skies were clear and it was cool and breezy - a perfect winter day for riding.


We had to do a bit of bushwhacking on the way back, because a new fence has just been put in across our usual trail back > : (

...but Jose's Homing Compass was working just fine, and he had everything under control.

The horses had worked up a good sweat with the workout and their hairy coats, and by the end of the day I was whooped. I felt like I'd done an endurance ride today.

And come to think of it - we did! We'd made a 25 mile loop. Nice jaunt on a winter day in the Owyhee desert.

Eye Spy

Wednesday February 10 2010

I like to say that Jose has Elf Eyes, because he spots things while out on the trail that I'd completely miss. He always sees deer herds before I see the white butts turn and bound away. Once, on an endurance ride, he spotted a coyote on the side of a hill as we were trotting along. I couldn't see anything. Jose kept wanting to stop and look. I even let him stop and look and I didn't see anything. I told him there was nothing there, and I urged him along the trail, and he agreeably trotted onward while he kept looking at the hillside. The coyote blended so perfectly into the brown brush and dirt, and I only saw it when we were within a hundred yards of it and it moved. Jose's found deer antlers and feathers and obsidian. He even found a GPS once. I've got a box of his Owyhee treasures.

On today's ride, he first spotted twenty sage grouse when they flew up from the sagebrush. Must be a new lek there!

Next: a cow in the sagebrush... a cow? Perhaps it was a bull? We didn't want to get too close, because that's probably what it was. Some bull obviously didn't read the cow-lander to realize he should have come down out of the mountains four months ago.


Next: the mother of all deer antlers - and two points are even broken off.

I strapped it on the back of Jose's saddle pack, but as we trotted, it would poke him in the butt and make him swish his tail. I ended up carrying it the rest of the ride. It was heavy enough to know I'd get one big headache if I had to wear a pair of these on my head all the time. No wonder they shed every year!

Next - a stash of calcite crystals. We've ridden by this spot many times, but only now, after a certain amount of snows and rains, the mud has eroded and crumbled away and the crystals have chosen to reveal themselves. I picked a few up for Jose.


And, of course, always, Jose notices and treasures the views of this spectacular country that we ride in (particularly from high spots). I always wonder what goes on in his head as he gazes at the world spread out around him.

Too Ride

Sunday February 7 2010

Our horses weren't too motivated to be out on the trail today.

They hadn't been ridden for a week, so both of them let us know just how slowly they could stroll on the way out, and, that they just might feel like bucking under the right circumstances. Whichever horse followed let the rider know there could be a cougar somewhere behind us, and, well, what do we humans know? We can't smell what horses smell. Perhaps there was something in the air or on the ground.

We did a slower ride to cut down on the bucking potential, but added hills and sand washes for a good workout.

Despite our horses not being particularly in the mood, the day was not too hot nor too cold, too wet nor too dry, too windy nor too foggy, too muddy nor too dusty. A perfect day for Owyhee riding?

Too right.

Fresh new badger hole!

Bass-Ackwards Badlands Trail

Sunday January 17 2010

Normally we ride the Badlands loop counter clockwise.

"Let's do it backwards today."

We headed out to the east, along Dog Trail (dogs used to spring out here and surprise our horses) to Four Corners (four trails intersect), down Blond Cow Wash (saw a blond cow in there once, among a herd of red ones), cresting Tamara's Hill (we took Tamara this way on her first ride in 10 years), and took the back road to the Badlands. We call it the Badlands loop, because the eroded hills are the feeble Owyhee imitation of the Badlands of South Dakota.


Steph's horse Rhett LOVES to gallop up this dirt road; we had a nice trot and canter down it to the fence along the potato/corn field. (Some years it's scary corn, sometimes it's potatoes.)

Lots of goodies in the fallow field to tempt Ravens. Lots of rice grass along the trail to tempt Jose and Suz to stop a spell and dine. Lots of enticing scenery to occupy the eyesight. Some mysterious dried flowers we don't remember seeing before popped up in bunches along the trail. New hills seem to have grown in these Badlands - an entire trail, when you are used to riding it one direction, looks like a whole new trail when you ride it the opposite direction.

The Badlands Trail skirts the base of the low eroded bluffs; today, for the first time, we rode right up into some of them. Miniature hoodoos stood where the bluffs had eroded away. A weathered mound of a different type of dirt/clay/sand indicated what once must have been a geyser. Miniature gullies showed the ultimate power of water that has done so much to carve this high Owyhee desert.


Jose, who has Elf Eyes ("Legolas. What do your Elf Eyes see?") - he can spot interesting things far sooner than I do, and he really does seem to appreciate views - paused to look at the hoodoos and the take in the sweeping views over the Hart Creek drainage.

We meandered back along this low ridge, the Owyhee mountains a beacon ahead of us under low gray skies. The horses trotted back all the way up Blond Cow Wash, finishing with a good workout and a little sweat.

It was a good ride in the Bad Lands of Owyhee in the dead of winter.