Proliferate

Sunday June 19 2011

Every spring, we seem to have some plant that runs so riotous as to become memorable.

One year it was the Indian paintbrush. Last year it was the globemallow wildflowers.


This year it's the cheat grass. Proliferating beyond all sensible proportions. Thick carpets of it, sometimes knee high. The horses like it when it's green; but as soon as it turns reddish brown, they aren't much interested in it.


Which is a shame, because that's when the seeds start sticking to everything. They get in your socks and shoes, and drive you mad with their irritating skin poking. I've heard rumors it can get in a dog's ear, pierce its eardrum and go all the way into the brain. I wouldn't doubt it because it's wicked stuff, able to work its way around to places unwelcome - I expect it has barbs that anchor it from going backwards.

It's an invasive species in many places - sometimes you'll see it called an "infestation". Rapid elongation of the root system and prolific seed production help it elbow out the native grasses. It can germinate in the spring or fall and is very adaptable to new environments.

It comes up earlier and uses up the water and nutrients needed by other perennial native grasses, and it has a short growth period and therefore is highly flammable earlier than native grasses. And it's so thick in this part of the country now - even more reason for me to be afraid of lightning.


And it gets into and sticks to your Easyboot Gloves like crazy. Judy had warned me of it. "I spent HOURS getting the seeds out of my boots yesterday!" Carol had put duct tape over the velcro straps of her horse's Gloves. I did the same, but the duct tape failed and slipped during our ride, making the velcro a super magnet for the seeds.


After some experimenting, where Steph found that taking a scissors blade and scraping it back and forth over the seeds is the best way to remove the worst of it, followed by tweezers for the individual near-impossible-to-get pieces, it still took me over an hour to clean the boots.

Judy suggested I try vet wrap around the velcro straps next time. Anybody else had this problem before?

The Things We Do For Love

Saturday June 18 2011

With the 2-day Owyhee Cheap Thrills endurance ride coming up next weekend, people have been asking about the trails. "Will there be new trails? I don't like to ride the same trails every time." "Will the trails be the same? My horse likes trails he's familiar with." "Will it be rocky?" (Hello, this is southern Idaho with mountains and beautiful rock canyons!) "Will there be a lot of sand?" "Will it be flat?"

I expect that a number of people who have not put on an endurance ride are unaware of the time, thoughts, ATVing, riding, hiking, marking, unmarking, re-marking, re-thinking, agonizing, and more, that go into putting on a 2-day 12, 25, and 50-mile trail and endurance ride. Do you go for easy trails? Beautiful trails? Challenging trails? Stay up near the mountains where it will be cooler and we don't have to haul water? How many loops, how many miles, and where are the vet checks and where is the best place and timing for the veterinarians?

Steph could make it easy on herself and just mark the usual near and pretty trails with all the vet checks in camp, but she is always driven to find new trails and show off more of the spectacular Owyhee country, so she's spent the last 2 weeks scouting new and less-used trail. The prettiest one that we couldn't use in May because of high water in Alder Creek, we can't use now because the cows are late moving up into the mountains and the owner doesn't want us riding through all the cows (with a potential of left-open gates). A shame because the fields of purple and white lupine are lush and stunning right now. Beautiful Sinker Canyon was another possibility, but the water in the creek is too high. Who would have thunk it - too much water in the desert!


Today we bushwhacked up the little-used Pickett Creek trail, to find a route to connect up with the trail that comes home from Booby Rock (yes, it looks like a Booby). We weren't the only ones laboring with love to come up with new trail: Rhett and Mac were the intrepid, brave beasts who carried us up through Pickett Canyon: splashing through raging rapids, ducking under low branches, diving through tree- and vine-covered dark tunnels, bulling through brush that possibly contained Horse Eating Monsters.

Moving up the creek, we came to one spot where a submerged Forked Tree Branch Monster grabbed at the horses' feet; Rhett was nervous scrambling through it, and uncharacteristically, Mac became a little unnerved because he couldn't find a decent foothold while his feet were being grabbed. He thought about where he was going to place his feet, hesitated, thought about turning back; but upon urging forward, he thought about it again, carefully placed his feet, and splash-scrambled through it. He had a big snort afterwards, shaking off the tension. (On the way back, we removed this Underwater Monster.)

At another spot in the creek there was a downed tree, with a trunk the size of my thigh, blocking our progress. I dismounted and held Mac and Rhett down-stream on a small sand bar while Steph plunged into the chilly, knee-high water and, with the little saw she'd brought along, sawed it into pieces.

The horses couldn't quite see her, and they warily eyed the sounds of cracking branches around the bend in the creek. "Big floater, coming down!" Steph yelled. "Uh, you might want to hang onto the horses!"

Rhett saw it first, a big - Loch Ness Creek Monster bobbing along the creek on the water's surface, approaching us. He snorted and scared Mac, and got ready to jump if it was necessary. I kept talking in a normal voice, and the log passed without incident. No problem, until, "Here comes another one!"

Rhett snorted again at the next Loch Ness Creek Monster floating down at us, and all was well... until... one of the branches from the log grabbed his leg as it floated by. Rhett ripped a loud snort and leaped straight up in the air; Mac couldn't see what Rhett was snorting at but he was sure it was some kind of Water Death; he crouched down like a cat; I tripped over a rock and fell over backwards on my butt. Luckily the horses didn't jump forward and I didn't turn them loose.

Steph waded back past us to saw loose this log and branches (sawing by feel, under the water), which had now become hung up on a curve in the creek; and after pussy-footing around and trying not to get my feet wet (I hate wet feet!), I gave up and walked into the creek too, and helped pull the logs out for easy passage.

We slopped back up onto our horses, and worked our way up the creek, climbing out when another big downed tree blocked us (too big to saw). Steph sawed through the branches to make a path above the creek. Mac couldn't see her - only saw the tree moving and making funny noises - and he worried about a Tree Monster that might jump out and attack.


After some more bushwhacking, we reached the beginning of the Booby Rock trail, and we turned around and test-rode the trail back (in the direction the ride will be going).

We'd done it - found and marked the final few miles of loop 3 of Day 2, and and Rhett and Mac had been on a great adventure.

It was deemed a success, and the horses proclaimed very Lionhearted Souls for their brave bushwhacking.

But, after much thinking, all the riding, sawing, clearing, bushwhacking, marking trail, re-thinking, and agonizing, Steph decided to not use that trail because of some technical sections and all the water coming down the creek.

But that was okay, because the riding and exploring adventures are all for the love of endurance riding.

[Slide show here]

Golden Success!

Thursday June 16 2011

It's time for a final check on the golden eagle nests to see if they were Successful.

Golden eaglets fledge (leave the nest) at around 63 days (9 weeks) of age. A golden eagle nest is considered "successful" when the young reach 51 days of age, or about 80% of days to fledging.


Two weeks ago we checked on the Brown's Creek cliff nest. The two young were still on the nest, and now estimated to be 56 days of age - therefore, a successful nest with two young!


At this stage the eaglets may be larger than their parents. They have longer feathers than their parents; the theory being that it will help cushion them for when they crash into things when they actually fledge - and they will crash into things. Additionally, the parents stuff them with as much food as they can, because the young don't know how to hunt yet on their own, and they may get a bit hungry as they try to figure that important part of their lives out.


Today I checked on the Bates Creek tree-nest eaglet. He/she is about 2 weeks behind the Brown's Creek pair, but as of today, the eaglet is approximately 57 days old - therefore, a successful nest!

Ma and Pa Eagle still like to perch on the distant ridge, which gives them an eagle-eye view of their nest, and presumably doesn't draw attention to the nest tree, which 3 adult-sized eagles sitting together would easily do.


After failing while brooding on the nest last year, this year the Bates Creek golden eagle pair are proud parents (if I may so anthropomorphize - WE are proud anyway). Here's hoping they'll return again next year!

Missed

Wednesday June 15 2011

I was gone only a week from Owyhee, but it was a whole week. I missed the busting out of the locust tree blossoms. I missed the baby Raven fledging down the crick. I missed a week of riding. I missed the horses.

And they missed me!

Stormy doesn't always notice when I leave, or particularly get excited when I get back. He doesn't always stop his eating to come up to me, because he knows he can keep eating and I'll come up to him. This time he was happy to see me return, and he walked up to greet me. And it wasn't just about treats. He had some serious bug bites on his chest and belly and armpits that he couldn't reach and needed some serious scratching.

Jose always notices when I'm gone, he always misses me and he's always happy to see me when I get back. He walked up to me to say hi, to get some neck hugs, to nudge me for treats, and get some scratches for his bug bites.

And when I walked away from them, they kept following me.

It's good to be missed!

The Colonus Family

Monday June 13 2011

"You sang your face off tonight!" Jevetta said to Sam.

"When Jearlyn let out that piercing cry during the mourning scene, it hit me, right here," said her brother JD, thumping his heart. "I had tears running down my face."

"You were on tonight, Preacher!"

"You were working it tonight, Carolyn!"

Even after 20 years, or in some cases 30 years, the Gospel at Colonus performers are impressed with and moved by each other. Every night, I am floored with aural awe. And I am a relative 'newbie', having been sound engineer with the show for only 16 years. : )

And it's no wonder they are awed by each other. The Colonus cast and designers and crew are talented enough to have, over their years and individual careers, worked with: Prince, Sam Cooke, Ben Harper, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Stevie Wonder, George Clinton, Donald Fagan, Kim Carnes, Carol King, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards, Laurie Anderson, Bobby Womack, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Marc Anthony, Frank Zappa, Paul Simon, Miles Davis, Natalie Merchant, Natalie Cole, Justin Timberlake, Eryka Badu, New Kids on the Block, The Manhattans, Garrison Keillor, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, David Letterman, Conan O'Brian, Spike Lee.

I like to say that the big names listed here are talented and lucky enough to have worked with our company. The Steele Family from Minneapolis, who sings in the Gospel at Colonus, has sung with Prince a couple of times. They say he's brilliant. No offense to Prince, but I think the Steeles are pretty brilliant and he is lucky to sing with them.

We are such a varied group of people from around the country (and world) - Argentina, Pennsylvania, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Indiana, Minnesota, Virginia, New Jersey, North Carolina - and Idaho. The musicians and singers and actors all have extraordinary talent spilling out of their fingertips. Some of them are Grammy winners. Some should be. There are American Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards, a Dramalogue and a Helen Hayes Award, an Obie Award in the bios. A couple of them are teachers. One hosts a radio show. One is a preacher. One is stage manager for the Lion King on Broadway. (Me - I'm just a horse person!)

Maybe it's once every year, or two - or maybe it's five years between shows - but we all drop what we are doing to get together to put on the show one more time. Theatre really is magical, when the lighting and sound technology blends with the artistry of diverse actors and musicians and singers to create a piece that never fails to touch people, every time it's performed.

I am so proud to say that I am a part of this Colonus family. I am always awed and humbled to be working for them. I love this job. I love these people, I love this family.

And so ends another epic Gospel at Colonus adventure, at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Now we go our separate ways, each heading back to our normal lives of stage, studio, classroom... or a saddle. : )

Carla and the Khid

Friday June 10 2011

For someone who just accomplished the rather elite endurance riding status of 5000 miles for herself and her horse SS Kharady Khid, it's rather hard to believe that just a few years ago, Carla Richardson was afraid to give the sport a try. "I'd ridden all my life," Carla says, "and I did 25 and 30 miles in CTR (Competitive Trail Rides) for a couple of years, and I could ride all day, but I was intimidated by endurance. I thought I wasn't good enough."

But once she started, she confesses, "Then I got addicted!" That would be an understatement. Of the approximately 220 horses that have reached 5000 miles in their endurance careers (and only about 700 riders) - Carla and 'Khid' have ridden every mile together - they accomplished this mileage in just 3 1/2 years.

It's also hard to believe that Carla bought Khid off the internet, without seeing him in person or riding him first. Then there's the fact that he was six years old and had never worked outside of an arena and had never seen a trail. SS Kharady Khid was a dressage horse. It was his full sister who had caught Carla's eye at a CTR, and when Carla found out the brother was for sale, she did, at least, see a video of Khid before she bought him. "They said he had no vices, and he was doing well in dressage." That was good enough for her.

There was still that hang-up about endurance, though. Carla did a lot of studying before she ever set foot on an endurance trail. She soaked up all the information she could, and she observed endurance riders. "I tried hard to learn before I started, I read everything I could get my hands on, I got a saddle, and I WATCHED people. That's one thing that endurance riders should know: New people are watching them. I watched Dave Rabe, Karen Chaton, Christoph (Schork) and Dian (Woodward), to see what they were doing. I WANTED to talk to them to learn, but I was often intimidated by them - not that they are anything but friendly and helpful - but that's just how I felt. I think that's how a lot of new riders feel."


She'd read about Dave Rabe, and when she went to a ride and saw him, she thought, "Wow, that's Dave Rabe!" Dave is sort of an endurance celebrity, though that word probably doesn't exist in his vocabulary. He's a long-time endurance rider, with the second highest mileage ever at over 50,000 miles; he was recently inducted into the AERC Hall of Fame, and he's known for always helping before, during and after rides, and for wearing shorts at rides, no matter what the weather.

Dave Rabe became Carla's roll model. "I wanted to be like him - I wanted to ride a lot of rides. I noticed he usually didn't ride fast, but he rode a lot - I wanted to be like Dave Rabe. It's all his fault!"

Carla and Khid first tried CTR, and two Limited Distance rides before their first attempt at a 50-mile endurance ride, hauling 800 miles from Delta, Colorado, to southern California, for the 4-day Death Valley Encounter. It might well have been their last.

"He was terrible!" Carla recalls. "We got there at 1 AM the night before Day 1, got up at 6 AM, and off we went down the trail. He pulled all morning, pulled and pulled and pulled, then when we came in for lunch, he thought the day was over.

"It was hard to get him back out on the second loop; he was like, 'I hate you!' He didn't want to leave camp, he trudged around the whole second loop until he could see camp again. We were both exhausted, and I was beat."

That might have caused some lesser mortals to rethink their purchase and pack up and drive home and go back to riding CTRs. Or maybe dressage. But Carla and Khid sat out Days 2 and 3 of the Death Valley Encounter, and headed back out on the trail for Day 4. It was a completely different experience. "We had the best time! We rode the last few mile in the dark with someone, and afterwards I thanked The Duck (the ride manager) for my first 100 miles!"

It all snowballed upwards from there: 765 miles in 2008, 1750 miles inn 2009, 1595 miles in 2010, and already 1000 miles in 2011. It was day 4 of the Mt Carmel XP in southern Utah on May 7th of this year where Carla and Khid hit 5000 miles. She posted a note on her Facebook page, "We did it! My wonderful horse and endurance champ Kharady Khid and I reached 5,000 miles..."


It's Khid's very sweet personality that is endearing. "In one word, 'Honest' is how I would describe him," Carla says. "He's got no tricks, no ploys. Once in a while he'll get upset a little and act humpy, but he's never bucked. He was really well trained. When I got him, he'd never been on a trail - only an arena and around his barn. The first time I took him down a trail - I hadn't realized this. I took him to the mountains, down single track trails and across rivers. He was scared at first - he used to be afraid of mud puddles - now he'll walk into a raging stream and stand there and drink. Now he loves trails."

Along the way, Khid has learned to relax and take care of himself on the trails. "He really likes rides that have grass, because he likes to nibble along the trail." And he drinks well - in camp, he likes to sample every water bucket set out around a water trough. On the trail, "He drinks out of hoofprints!"

"He's gotten so much better about competing with other horses. He used to fight me to go faster; he used to have to lead. Now, he doesn't care if horses pass him. He doesn't like horses following him and finally relaxes when they pass. He's happier alone." That's a good thing, since he and Carla often 'win' their share of Turtle Awards, for finishing last.

Carla laughs about their pacing. "Sometimes people will ask, 'Can I ride slow with you? I'm on a young horse.' They'll ride with me a while, then they get tired of going so slow, and they go on. I don't know if it's a habit? Or just what we do?" Whatever the reason, it works for them. "I'm probably much more treating him with kid gloves more than I need to, but he's never been hurt, never lame, no scratches... I truly want him to last a long time. Now I want to get him to 10,000 miles."

They've had a couple of overtime pulls, and a couple of Rider Option pulls when Carla wasn't feeling well, and only one "lameness" pull last year, when he got a cramp. "He'd never been off, so it was shocking." Another rider pointed out to her it was probably a cramp - it was a cold morning. "He was fine the next day; and the next week he finished the 5 days at Mt Carmel. It was just freaky, just like Tevis."

Tevis: Carla's and Khid's only attempt at a 100 miler, and Khid's only metabolic pull. "Tevis was my screw up," Carla lamented. "I didn't ride him 2 months before Tevis, my saddle was getting repaired, I dilly dallied around, I entered at the last minute, I took 2 days to get there, it was hot in Ely where we spent a night, and he just wasn't ready. We hadn't done any heat training. At Red Star (28.5 miles from the start) he drank, and immediately tried to go down. It was a stress colic, cramps. He probably would have been fine, but I had them put him on fluids just to be safe." Khid recovered from this colic episode just fine, going on to finish 900 more miles (900!) in 2010. Who needs 100 milers anyway?

One might wonder what the secret is to her and Khid's success: "We don't train," says Carla. At all. Khid only gets ridden at rides. It might be a bit unconventional, and that didn't help at Tevis, but it hasn't hurt before or since. It's what works best for him. If Carla could change one thing, it would be to have more time to get to the rides a day early. "Horses are so fragile. Hauling is harder on them than riding. I usually get to a ridecamp the night before, often late, and then ride the next day. But I never leave the same day I finish a ride; I always stay overnight and leave the next day. I just wish he could drive!"

Another factor that has likely helped Khid is that all but about the first 900 miles of his career have been shoeless, and it's been Christoph Schork, one of those 'intimidating' endurance riders, that's responsible. "I think we did around 5 rides using Easyboot gloves," Carla says, "but the rest of the miles were in Easyboot glue-ons.  Christoph always found time to do Khid's boots for me."


Throughout their relatively short time, but many miles together, several highlights come to mind for Carla. "Our first 100 miles at Death Valley were really a thrill to complete!" Another is the first time they completed a 5-day ride. "It was the Grand Canyon XP in 2008. It was so cold, I was sleeping in my tent, I had frost on my helmet, and my reins froze. It was just great! You ride, you freeze, and you're so relieved to get back to camp alive, and you go out and do it again!" (Khid has completed five 5-day rides.)

Then there was the time Carla drove Khid all the way to Wyoming for a ride, but got her truck and trailer stuck on the road 5 miles from camp. "The 4-wheel drive wouldn't engage, I couldn't get up this one little last hill, and it was midnight. So we camped right there. We didn't make the ride, and I finally got unstuck the next day - and drove back home. It was a sad thing." Maybe it wasn't the best highlight but it was certainly memorable!

Most significant is accomplishing that first, modest goal she'd set for herself: finishing one 50 mile endurance ride. Now she just has one more goal: to get to 10,000 miles with her Khid. "Only 940 miles to go til 6000!" she said after Mt Carmel. "Hopefully we'll get it this year!

"That's the thing that's so cool about this sport. You can approach it so many different ways. There's the FEI rides for the faster riders; you can be a middle of the pack rider and go a lot of miles. But to me true endurance is: to have a horse that goes for many years. There is an art and science to it; horses aren't machines. Horses are different, rides are different, people are different. Some horses and riders don't go together. In someone else's hands, Khid might have been a fast horse..."

But he fell into the right hands and became a long distance, long career horse. At 11 years of age, he's in the prime of his life. Already since Mt Carmel, Carla and Khid are up to 5110 miles.

And somehow, 10,000 miles doesn't seem that far away.

Photos top to bottom:
At the 2010 Owyhee Canyonlands
At the 2009 Strawberry Fields Forever
At the 2010 Hells Kitchen (photo by Orly King)
At the 2011 Mt Carmel ride, day 4, 5000 miles (photo by Carla)

One Hot Gospel

Thursday June 9 2011

98*F and 98% of heat and humidity slapped me upside the head as soon as I stepped out of the Charleston, SC airport. Mortifiyingly hot. Staggeringly unbearable (for the Ice Princess). I am sure now that the word "sultry" originated in Charleston.

But most of the time here was spent in the dark theatre, prepping, setting up and teching for The Gospel at Colonus. Actually there wasn't much 'tech' at all (meaning rehearsing with full lights and sound and stopping and reworking pieces when necessary) - it was all setting up. Usually a show gets a couple of days of tech before a couple of previews before Opening. At a Festival where things are on a tight schedule, you get but a couple of days of 'tech' before Opening. This time we spent every single minute setting up, and we didn't have but one run-through the afternoon before Opening night. One and a half days of setting up is cutting it very tight for a show to open, especially when you have the usual sound tech problems of, say, your 14 wireless mics not working, and your help liason in Germany stopping returning phone calls for help, and the next set of microphones delivered not compatible with the receivers, and one of the three 'transistor cards' on the mixing board not working, and the guitar and bass amp cases being delivered - without the amps inside, and on and on, and everything behind schedule...


But as always, Ron the sound designer pulled a couple of rabbits out of his hat, and by 7:30 PM of Opening Night, everything was working (almost) seamlessly, the performers were brilliant, and the show a rollicking success.

After all these years, the songs still knock my socks off and the voices never fail to move me.


Even if the weather is stultifying, I am so lucky and grateful to be together with the talented Gospel cast and crew once again.

A couple of videos from rehearsal:

that's a couple of the Blind Boys of Alabama


That's the Missionary Baptist Choir, and (among others) the Steeles and Soul Stirrers