The Best Tough Suckers!

Saturday April 28 2012

Saturday's Tough Sucker II 50-mile ride was one of The Best Ever! Jose is just The Coolest Horse Ever! 

We rode with Jose's buddy Rhett and Steph. 

Rhett finished the ride and got his 6000 miles. Think about that: it would be like riding from Seattle to Miami. And from there on to Los Angeles. Oh yea - and he's turning 21 this year, and still looks fit and powerful going down the trail.

Steph's making a video of the ride from the shots from the GoPro helmet cam I wore; I'll put the link on here. Meanwhile here are a few shots from the ride.

Following Karen and Rusty, and Amanda and Nero to the Snake River (they tied for first).

Steph and Rhett.

Jose, The Best Horse Ever, also known as The Coolest Horse Ever, calm as a cucumber at the vet check.

Always like the shadow shots : )

more pix from the ride, and videos of Friday's vet in, and the Tough Sucker I ride here:

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012ToughSucker

Tough Sucker II Vet in Day

Friday April 27 2012

On Friday, Steph and I saddled up Rhett and Jose to ride the 12 miles over to Regina's place, base camp for Saturday's Tough Sucker II endurance ride. (Here Mrs Sir Edmund Hillary supervises the saddling.)

Jose would be riding the 50 miler with his pal 20-year-old Rhett. Rhett reached 5000 career miles in the Tevis Cup in 2010, and if Rhett completed this ride, he'd have 6000 miles!

This is Steph and Rhett Friday after vetting in. 

I made a fun video of the vetting in. Check it out here on Endurance.net!

Freak Goes for Record 20 in a Row

image from Blackcaviar.net.au

Friday April 27 2012

Black Caviar, the Australian sensation, will run Saturday (that's Friday night, US time) at Morphettville in Adelaide, Australia, in the 1200-meter Group I Sportingbet Classic, seeking her 20th victory in a row. She's currently tied with Australia's with Desert Gold and Gloaming at 19 consecutive wins. She's only 5 years old.

She had a short break since her last race February 18; she had a 'jump-out' at Caulfield on April 17, an unofficial work as a simulated race of 800 meters out of the gate against several horses, where she 'won' by 8 lengths.

Black Caviar has been called 'the world's fastest racehorse', 'the best sprinter in the world', 'the number one rated sprinter of all time', 'the mighty mare', and a 'freak,' and who can argue with that?

While Trainer Peter Moody will see how she comes out of this race, he's already looking ahead to her next possible race at Adelaide in the Group I Goodwood, which would be her last start in Australia before heading to England to run in the Group I Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 23, and at Newmarket in July. It is hoped that she will meet the sensational unbeaten European champion, and world's top-ranked Thoroughbred Frankel there (he's nine for nine), but at this point it looks unlikely.

Really, I'm done with horse racing, and it still makes me hold my breath if I ever watch a race live, but some horses just grab your attention and reel you in for one more taste of Sensational. Black Caviar is one of those!

Birthday Boy

Wednesday April 25 2012

Sadly, I missed my horse's 21st birthday.

On the Big Day, April 13, I was in the throes of the flu, did not even go out to see the herd a few of those days, and frankly, would not have cared if Big Foot strolled through my back yard.

So today, Stormy and I went out on an Owyhee Birthday Ride!

Here Stormy shows what he thinks of an Owyhee Birthday Ride, as this is probably not what he would have chosen to do on his birthday. (Standing around eating is his first, middle, and last choices, always.)

"Smile, Stormy!"

"Uh - why?"

"Smile, Stormy!"

"Uh - why?"

And it wasn't just a Birthday Ride, it was an Educational Ride - Professor Stormy is escorting a young student on the trail. (the horse, not the rider!)

We stopped to check on the Great Horned Owl nest on the way. (look closely, and you can see an adult, and 2 babies in the pic)

The old man has to put out a little effort climbing up the ridge…

But the Birthday View is worth it.

Happy 21st Birthday, old man Stormy, The Most Beautiful Horse On The Planet! ♥ ♥

In the Blood

Monday April 23 2012

I come from farming stock, where, back in the old days, horses were commonly used, to plow, pull wagons, get from here to there if'n it was too far to walk and you didn't have a car.

That's my dad, up top, with his 3 brothers on a farm horse. He's the one looking at the camera. Maybe he's saying 'Get them off my horse!' or 'Get me off this horse!'

I grew up horse-less, though I dreamed and schemed ways of getting a horse that never worked. As a compromise, my dad would squire me around our little town every weekend, so I could visit the town's horses - I knew where every one lived, and I even named them all. I never thought to ask my dad what he thought of horses. Did he ever have his own horse? Did he like working with them? Were they just another part of the farm chores?

I did think to ask my mom about horses in her life once; she said she used to have a horse named "Maggie," and when she'd be late getting home in the evenings, she'd run Maggie across the fields to get back home in time, and it was a wonder Maggie never stumbled or broke a leg in those fields they raced over. I got the feeling that my mom got a bit of a thrill out of it, but… I never really asked.

Is that where my obsession with horses comes from? A farm boy sitting on a horse, and a farm girl racing her horse home before dark? 

Or am I a throwback to some ancestor who grew up knowing horses like the back of her hand, galloping saddle-less and bridle-less across the mountains (I'm sure I got the mountain gene from some ancient being), speaking, thinking, knowing Horse?

The scant details - the photo, the one vignette - are tantalizing.

She Waits

Thursday April 19 2012

Sitting low on her nest, she incubates the first egg she laid on March 7 or 8 (and perhaps subsequent eggs, laid 3-5 days apart). The golden eagles on Bates Creek started nesting on one of those two days. Incubation is typically 43 to 45 days, which means possibly today, and through Sunday, the first new golden eagle could be born on Bates Creek.

Waiting nearby is the other adult (females and males both incubate the eggs, though the male does it less, and only during the day - in the photos I'm assuming it's the female on the nest).

Last year, this pair produced one eaglet that successfully fledged. Perhaps this spring will bring one, or two new ones. 

She sits and waits.

Anxiously, we all wait!

Thunderous

Monday April 16 2012

There are some sights and sounds that make no mistake of the arrival of Spring in Owyhee: green grass, snakes on the road, birds on nests, the shrinkage of glistening white on the mountains, a thunderstorm…

and Stormy, in a thunderous run with the herd down the canyon.

My, that old Thoroughbred can still run. ♥