Bee Gees Us

Wednesday March 12 2008

The house is now full of boxes of food, the fridge is stuffed... Connie is back for a couple of weeks of riding!

I was taking the dogs for their evening walk and we were halfway up our little Tevis trail when we heard her arrive. We turned around and went back to see her and Zico - they were already visiting with the horse herd who'd come up from somewhere - Finneas must have heard Connie's voice. Connie didn't even recognize her beloved Finneas at first - he's now brown (between coats) and not so chunky. It wasn't until she checked out his back leg owie that she'd read so much about that she knew it must be him, and when he started kissing her on the lips (begging for carrots) she knew it was definitely him.

We unloaded her truck - boxes and ice chests of food - the fridge is stuffed to the gills - and tubs of clothes and Sun magazines (hmmm... maybe she is moving in), and then, since she and Zico had been in the car for 9 hours, we took all four dogs on a walk. Up Pickett Creek as it got dark, we caught up on things and talked horses and cougars - like the old cougar poo in the yard, the possible cougar kill (a deer) up the creek in December.

It was a nice night - cool, no breeze, and a sliver of a moon just making it light enough to see that we were following the road. As we neared the entrance to the canyon 1 1/2 miles down, we were yakking away - the cougar thoughts still in the air - it happened very rapidly - we suddenly heard this Big Thing right behind us, and as we wheeled around this Huge Black Thing was right on top of us, and the adrenaline shot down my legs and up my spine and made my scalp prickle and we both screamed!

It was the whole horse herd, scaring the Bee Gees Us out of us, having run up behind us - soundless on the sandy road, Finneas - looking very black in the dark - in the lead.

AHHHHH!

The horses stopped short because we scared them with our screaming, Finneas looking rather mortified, not sure if he'd done something bad - he usually gets kisses and hugs when he comes up, not screams.

After we recovered our senses, but with legs still shaking from the adrenaline rush, we petted them all, and turned around to go back - continuously glancing back over our shoulders.

There COULD be cougars out here, you know.

Captive Rider

Sunday March 9 2008

Isn't it great when you ride with a doctor or dentist or lawyer - one of those useful sort of people? (Me being of the use-less variety). Be it kindness, ego, or resignedness they will likely answer your questions when you want to pick their brains, because that's their lot in life, being one of Those People, and, they are in a rather captive situation when you ride with them for 5 or 10 or 50 miles. What are they going to do, pretend they can't hear you for 50 miles?

Riding with Karen S, a Newly-Retired bird biologist is great; it's like having a captive doctor along. Instead of, "So, Doctor, I've got this problem..." it's "So, Karen, I have this feather/nest/skull..." and "What bird is that we're hearing?" and "When will the owls begin nesting?" and "Do the eagles prefer a tree or a cliff for a nest?"

Carol and I rode with Karen twice this weekend. While doing a loop toward the Snake River one day, and doing a loop toward Brown's Creek the other, we girls discussed birds and things. Like: the intricately woven hanging nests made of horse hair and baling twine, hanging in the bare poplar trees, waiting for the orioles to come back in May and the leaves to come out in March or April; Hoss the Raven and his girlfriend and how young ravens will nest (earliest known by Karen is two years old, and Hoss is 3 now); and the possibility of scouting eagles' nests from horseback in two weeks.

And, today, fittingly, we saw two golden eagles, and a high swirling column of at least 13 ravens.


Meanwhile the boys established Who's Boss Today of the trails. My horse Mac, usually low man on the totem pole wherever he goes, showed some gumption and enthusiasm on the Snake River day, pinning his ears several times at both easy-going August and cranky Gil, bulling his way to the front several times and merrily zipping along ahead in his big easy trot.

The boys had a couple of good rides, and I had some good rides, soaking up the bird info. I highly recommend riding with a captive Bird Biologist.

Four Queens

Thursday March 6 2008

The snow is gone (down here), the cold wind eased, the ragged coughing fits have ended - we're back in the saddle again!

The Four Queens headed up Pickett Creek, aiming for the southeast upper flats. Plan A was to avoid the half-broken gate Carol had to jerry-rig closed the other day, to keep the cows out and our horses in. "Let's go into the canyon and head up on top that way."

There's a nice amount of water flowing at the upper part of the canyon here, and the horses waded their way through the creek into the canyon. It was quite brushy and overgrown in places since the last time we'd been through there in October.

Some places, there was no way around, so Justy just bulldozed her way through thick branches and screens of brush, Carol fending off branches; and after everything snapped back into place, Quickie did the same, bulling her way through while I threw myself down on her neck to avoid getting ripped off of her backwards.

There was more ducking and dodging till finally we came to a downed tree.

We four queens stopped and looked at it. Carol got off to try to pull the tree out of the way, but that wasn't happening. But we didn't want to turn around and go back to That Gate.

Plan B. "Let's try going through the brush back there, up on the bank." The 2 mares hopped up out of the creek and into a thick stand of 5-foot tall sagebrush. Which ended in a solid wall of quailbush. Carol and Justy tried to bull their way through that but after 5 yards Justy had enough and turned around.

Plan C. I hopped off Quickie and bushwhacked around the other way, and came to a wall of rock and impenetrable quailbush. No horses going that way.

Plan D. Carol got off and tried the Plan B non-path again to stomp a path through the quailbush. We just had 10 more yards to get through and we were in the clear! But that wasn't going to happen. We four looked at the thick brush barrier. "If we were real cowboys, we'd get through that." "If these were real cow horses, they'd get through that."

But we are not cowboys, and our horses are not cowponies; we are queens, out for an easy ride. So, though you just hate to turn around and backtrack, we did just that, and headed for Plan E, the bad gate.

Which, after all that thwarted bushwhacking , sure was pretty darn easy to open. It's all in your perspective.

Through the gate, up onto the flats, we cruised through the miles on perfect trails in the cool sunny day, with snow-covered mountains framing our view in front and behind, the horses seeming to enjoy being back on the trail as much as we enjoyed being back in the saddle.

It felt great!

Spring For Sure

Thursday March 6 2008

You know it's spring when:

You see:

As the sun rises over the east rim and begins warming up the earth, the horses all passed out. Usually at least one stays standing, but not this morning. It was too perfect.

The contours of ridges and south facing slopes of the Owyhee Range slowly emerging from their blanket of winter snow.

A Swainson's hawk - back from South America - warming up in a bare tree - tiny shoots just thinking about starting to emerge - near an old nest, overseeing the valley.

Two Ravens chasing a sharp-shinned hawk.

Killdeer running and flying low to the ground, looking for a good place to nest on the ground.

Long white and black and red winter horse hair stuck all over your fleece jacket and tights after each horse comes up to you to be brushed, especially in those hard-to-reach-and-scratch places. They itch and they are ready to start losing their coats.

Little fresh green shoots of irises and strawberries coming up in the flowerbeds, underneath the last autumn coating of leaves.

Batches of mayflies buzzing around your head on a hike with the dogs.

You hear:

A Northern flicker laughing in the morning sun.

Two kestrels screeching at each other, discussing where their nest might be this year.

The burbling and babbling and bubbling of Pickett Creek over rocks up the canyon, where it's now fetlock deep, each day slowly making its way further down canyon.

The same female screech owl hooting, every night.

you taste:

A glass of Celestial Seasonings Imperial White Peach Tea - iced tea REALLY made in the sunshine.

Horse hair in your mouth.

Spring Without Me

Monday March 3 2008

Winter's retreating, spring is moving in. Nothing like spring - and a case of the flu. I'm knocked out as the new season arrives.

I think we are done with the snow - I'm going by the birds. Besides the nighthawks and killdeer, robins are here now, bright blue mountain bluebirds have migrated in. Every night starting about 11 PM, a screech owl shows up (or does she hang out here sleeping all day, too?) and starts hooting for a mate. Night after night, all night long, she hoots. Last summer I heard 3 screech owls at once, a male and female and another - baby? It seems the female has returned - without her mate, so far. I hope she finds one.

The horses have free run of the canyon now, so they get their exercise every day, wandering up the canyon to pick at the fresh grass coming up, then once a day, sprinting back down to the house. Usually they're winded and panting and sweating when they get here after running from the top of the canyon. Although yesterday, I saw them moseying down, and only when I stepped outside and yelled at them, they started sprinting in, Finneas in the lead to make it look like he'd led the herd the whole way down. Uh huh.

Then Finneas takes his time taking a long leisurely drink at the water trough, then parks himself there so nobody else can drink. The others have to wait, and wait, and wait, till His Highness gets tired of standing at the water trough. Diego thinks he's SUCH a butthead.

The dogs are just miserable that they aren't taken for a walk every day. I'm here, why don't I take them? You should see the painful look of abject anguish Austin gives me when another day passes and I don't take them on their W-A-L-K. I did dare to take them out today, me on the 4-wheeler, buried in layers of clothing against the cool breeze, which I shouldn't be breathing.

I don't know that I've ever had the flu, but I know I don't want it again. I do know it's so tempting to just go hop on a horse and take off on the trails I haven't been on for 2 months now, but I can't risk a relapse. While the dogs lay around and their girths expand, I lay around and mine shrinks from no appetite.

And so, I wait to get better, the dogs wait for me to get better, the horses wait for me to get better so we can start riding again, and spring advances onward without me.

Springtime in Oreana

Wednesday February 27 2008

It seemed to officially start yesterday.

The starlings arrived to inspect their usual nesting spot on the front porch, behind the light fixture by the door.

The killdeer and nighthawks have arrived and are busy zipping around and calling out to each other. The nighthawk doesn't build a nest, just lays egg on (preferably) sand, or a tree stump, or old robin nests. The killdeer lay eggs on the ground in the open, on soft ground offering camouflaged stones. We had a killdeer nest near the finish of last May's ride, and we changed the finish line to leave the bird alone. But this year, good luck to any killdeer or nighthawk trying to maintain eggs or babies anywhere within a mile of Girlie the cowdog. She chases everything.

Two Ravens were hanging out together in our tallest tree this morning - could one have been Hoss?

Some owl - must be a long-eared owl - has taken up a post in a tree right on the creek out the back door, and hoots incessantly all night for a mate.

New green grass is just starting to poke out of the ground, giving the horses a busy challenge of trying to nibble the tiny blades for some fresh greens.

Then of course the Raven is ready for spring, and was out visiting with Diego today, hopping on his back for a quick ride. (Diego was quite excited about it.) You can just see the new spring sheen on the Raven's velour coat if you look very closely.

Meanwhile, I rode the 4-wheeler 2 miles up the canyon to check the far gate, to make sure I could turn the horses out. Lard-butt Austin had to follow me, as did Girlie, and they ran enthusiastically all the way up the canyon after me. I slowed down for Austin, who I thought might have a heart attack since he's done nothing but lay around for 5 weeks, but he insisted on running the whole way - and back.

Far up the canyon, I found in the soft sand 2 different cat scratches where they buried their poo! Alas, it was just bobcats (small buried piles, small cat tracks) and not a cougar. I had to then return up the canyon with my camera to get a picture of the cat scratches. In the picture you can see a little cat track at the bottom right. All 3 dogs followed me this time. They were definitely slower this time around, and tongues were almost dragging the ground.

And speaking of cougars, I did get a belated report of a likely cougar kill - up our canyon! - in late December. I wonder if that was the night Austin was scratching at the front door to come in in the middle of the night - he never does that at night. Three nights ago I dreamed an old decrepit cougar walked into the yard and I had to go out and touch it. I think I did touch it just before the dream ended. And late last night, all three dogs were going absolutely bonkers on the porch, barking, yipping, howling (and normally Quincy never joins in). It was so frantic I stepped outside, but couldn't see anything. Our dogs were yipping and panting so loud I couldn't hear anything over them, but I suspect it was a pack of coyotes in the yard. But... you never know. : )

And now, the dogs are absolutely passed out in the warm spring sunshine. A quick 4 to 8 mile dog run in one day - nothing like working the extra pounds off all at once.

EMS 3-Day Ride Part II

DAY ONE - Saturday February 16 2008

"...Into the back of the Teeter's Big Blue car seat for a few hours of snoozing before a 7 AM start time..."

Uh huh.

I'm not that tall, but I was two feet too long to snooze in the back of that car. I couldn't leave the doors open, because the lights stayed on. I lasted till about midnight until my constant squirming and discomfort made me sit up and say, This is ridiculous; I'll never make it till morning. Endurance is fun. Right?

What was better, warmer in the car with no sleep, or cold outside on the ground and a real sleep? It was 36* now out in the desert... but I like it cold. So, I got up, drug my sleeping bags out onto a flat spot on the sand with no cactus nearby. I stretched out in my bags and fell asleep under a bright moon and didn't wake up till my alarm went off at 5:30 AM. There was ice in the water buckets and a little ice on my sleeping bag.

Ann had her small trailer - just tiny enough for one human and 2 dogs; but she squeezed me in and fired up her camp stove to boil water for my coffee. Now, I like Starbucks with half and half. This was instant black Sanka or something, and it was some of the best pre-ride coffee I've ever had! Plus those godawful powdered donuts I picked up in desperation at the last gas station (no grocery store for a hundred miles in either direction) were about the best pre-ride breakfast I've ever had.

We fed the horses, walked them, huddled around the little heater and our coffee cups in the trailer, then saddled the horses up in a beautiful chilly desert sunrise, and made our way to the start with 99 other endurance riders. It was great to see again Les Carr and Tulip - now over 19,000 miles for that gelding and still going! That's just incredible.

We lagged behind the cluster at the front near The Duck, who was watching people trot on out for the start; my gelding Razzy and Ann's mare Envy were so well behaved and ready to set out across country. Razzy was just great - from the beginning, he was steady and responsive, and he was eager to go, but he didn't pull on me once. It wasn't too cold or hot and it wasn't windy or rainy - a perfect day to tour 50 miles of the 'barren wastelands' of the Mojave National Preserve on horseback!

We made our way up to the foot of the Mescal mountains, paralleling the I-15 - saturated with frantic holiday traffic - then turned south into a thickening Joshua tree forest and cactus gardens - barrel cactus, cholla, yucca, creosote bushes. The Joshua tree forest along Cima Road is the largest in the world. There were a few Ravens keeping an eye on our progress throughout the day.

It's after about 10 miles - when you haven't ridden for over 2 months - that you start to notice some increasing pains, like your back, inside your right knee, your kneecaps - not knees, but kneecaps - and your feet going to sleep in the stirrups. At 15 miles, you forget the pains and begin thinking of Annie's lunch waiting for you at the lunch stop in another 10 miles or so.

It warmed up as we slowly gained altitude, riding alongside a wash, weaving through the cacti on little cow trails. Razzy had quite a bit of hair, and he slowed down to a walk when he needed to cool down. Ann and I had hooked up with Jackie and Mary, and Frannie from Mississippi, and we headed up onto Cima Dome as a group for lunch.

A wind picked up and it got cooler as we climbed; and at lunch, it was cool and breezy enough that the lunch stop was shortened to a half-hour hold. Just enough time to stuff the horses with food, chow down ourselves on a delicious sandwich, and get ready to go back out.

Aussie Jay Randle was at the lunch stop, waiting on three of her Aussie riders. "So, what do you think?" I asked her. "Well, it's different! I'm learning a lot!" Australia and the US are probably most similar in the way we do endurance rides... but then a Duck ride is definitely its own unique experience. That's why they are so popular.

After lunch, Razzy is even stronger. He wants to go faster, though he still doesn't pull on me at all. Our group loosely stays together, and he hangs back, then lengthens to an extended trot to move out front, then he slows back down. He decides he does NOT like the gray gelding that Frannie is riding, and he keeps trying to turn around to give him a Meany face, though I doubt he would ever kick at him. He just wants to intimidate him with a stare-down.

We're headed back to basecamp by the interstate, but it's a long way back... those trucks just don't seem to be getting any bigger!

As we try to avoid a deep sandy wash, we zip through the desert on little trails - or on no trails, weaving and leaning and dodging cactus and Joshua trees. I'm grabbed and stabbed by a few Joshua trees - wicked trees they are! I don't want to rip my tights so I shield them with my arms. The Joshua trees leave long scrapes, and once I get a hard stab in the shoulder. There's not really anything in the desert you want to grab onto, ever, for any reason.

The last 10 miles is like the first 10 miles... I can feel those pains, a lot stronger now. I can't bend forward in the saddle because my back has seized up, and I won't be able to walk at the end of the 50 miles. (But I could keep on riding another 50 miles if I had to!) The pain is worth it, because Razzy has been a blast to ride, and it's a beautiful day out in the desert in this riding club with a hundred other friends.

Ann and I dismount to walk in the last half mile, and I almost collapse to the ground. I manage to hobble in, we vet through fine, Razzy gets his 1000 miles, and the Raven is happy because he had a great ride.

The horses have a good roll and get their legs bandages; we join Shirley and Billy for another good hot dinner, and go to the ride meeting. The Duck actually does call out the names of all the 93 finishers, (from 101 starters) and if you're very quick you can holler out "Woohoo!" after someone's name.

Two of the Aussies finish their first American endurance ride. Woohoo for them!


DAY TWO - Sunday February 17 2008

Razzy's left front is a little sore this morning - it actually looks like he might've gotten poked by a cactus because there's a little scab in the center of the filling. It's sore to the touch, though I couldn't feel any cactus spines in his legs yesterday.

Ann saddles up Envy to ride with Shirley for the 7 AM start, and I volunteer to help pack the trucks and trailers and go to the lunch stop with Dr Q (Bruce W), Kim from Australia, Cheri, and Nancy.

The Duck is already out on the trail in his jeep, keeping an eye on riders, turning them the right direction, checking on flagging. Annie is in 15 places at once, directing loading, checking entries and finishers and gathering lunch items and working on making awards (Tshirts, cups and coasters according to each rider's requests), and everything else under the sun. I don't see how she keeps track of everything, but she does, and remembers everybody's names on top of it all.

Out at the lunch stop at Cross Rocks off Cima Road, we unload gear bags and food and water buckets, and set up lunch tables... and start making sangas (sandwiches, in Aussie talk) - 120 of them for the 90 or so riders. Ham, turkey, egg salad (I snagged one of those delicious sangas for myself), and tuna, though I miss out on the tuna-making as I go down the trail a ways to take pictures.

As lunch is trickling to a close, 3 riders are unaccounted for. One, it is determined, turned back after the start and went back to camp. Two girls, Amber and Frannie, are missing. Robert Ribley had gone back once and found them off trail, and he went back a ways to look again, but didn't see them. Maybe they went back to camp also? Because The Duck came from that direction in his jeep, and he said nobody was back that direction for hours. Kalina has been hauled to the lunch stop with a horse to pull ribbons from lunch back to camp after the last rider.

After the last horse leaves, we head back to camp and I am able to spend a little time visiting with friends I haven't seen for a long time, and to give Razzy Skittles. He loves Skittles.

The bulk of the riders start coming in around 4 PM - a little later today, since it was a 55-mile ride, (and it felt like a 55-mile ride, say many of them).

As if putting on a 3-day ride with 100 riders a day is not hard enough to run when things go smoothly, it's now dark, and a handful of riders are missing, including Kalina. The Duck has been out searching; finally 3 of the riders come in, but they know nothing of anybody behind them. Kalina is located. It's 7 PM, dinner is being served, but the ride meeting is postponed. Out in the desert, Kalina comes upon 2 riders, one of whom is Blaine, who has broken her arm out there. Annie, calm as ever, is planning resuces out with horse trailers and cars even while she's pulling food out of the oven for the dinners.

Blaine is eventually brought in and is attended by a number of endurance riders who are either nurses or doctors. She will have to go to a hospital in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, another search is planned for Frannie and Amber, still missing. There's much discussion on where they could possibly be, and the best places to even begin looking. The Duck gives a late, very brief, riding meeting for tomorrow, then discusses with some people on where to head out to search in the dark. He debates about calling out a helicopter.

Finally about 10 PM, the two girls make it back to camp, after making it to Cima road, flagging down a car, and one of them catching a ride back to camp to have a trailer come pick up the horses. The girls were in good spirits, just worried about the horses having been out there so long without water and food for a long time. They'd gotten off trail, and then gotten behind Kalina... who had pulled the ribbons in front of them.

All in a day's endurance ride...


DAY 3 - Monday February 18 2008

Bev offered me her horse to ride half an hour before the start... but I was still in my pajamas and wandering around with my camera, bumming coffee (Ann's little stove had run out of fuel), and visiting with people and saying hi's and bye's. I think I was a little wimpy, too - Bev said her horse beat her up yesterday, and I was still a bit sore from the first day. Wah!

So I took pictures while the riders headed out into the sunrise, then visited with the Aussies before they headed off to Sin City - Las Vegas. Lela had gotten to ride 2 days on Kat Swigert's horse, and the plan is for her to ride the horse in the 20 Mule Team 100 in a couple of weeks, if all goes well. The Aussies enjoyed the EMS ride and the hospitality of the US riders - many offered the Aussies places to stay and horses to ride during their month tour of the US. At the Eastern Mojave, many people shared bunks and food and horses with the Aussies; Bruce Burnham not only provided a horse to ride, but gave up the bed in his trailer, while he slept on his dining table. He's planning to return to the 20-Mule Tea ridem, to provide a base for the Aussies to operate from. Jay was overwhelmed with the generosity they'd encountered.

So while the ride didn't turn out quite like I'd planned (3 days of riding), I did get to ride one day on a lovely horse, in the scenic desert with good friends and great weather, I got to visit with people I hadn't seen in a long time, I got to meet some new Aussies, and I left with invitations to visit them. That's what's so great about endurance riding - as I already found out when I went to Australia and other places last year - there's riders like you and me all over the world, who will happily and freely offer you a horse to ride and a roof to sleep under, and you know you'll be able to return the favor along the way.