Time with Lena

Katie and I spent the afternoon with Lena yesterday, complete with goofy Lena faces.

Lena was pretty feisty, and we did lots of running and circles and lead changes. I tried to ride her as fast as Steve does, but I can't tell if I succeeded. The dust makes it look like I got close.



Lena has gotten much better at walking over things since we started trail riding with her, and she will even go over the low jump, now. Sometimes she goes over it faster than other times, and sometimes she will step calmly over it. It kind of depends on her mood and where we are in the workout.



She also goes over the poles on the ground, which is good for her back and abdominal muscles.



And, yes, Katie and I did manage to match - totally by accident, I promise. Katie is the one with the helmet, much to her dismay.

One more silly Lena face.



I was rubbing Lena's neck when Katie took these pictures and apparently it felt good. Must have hit a spot that needed some attention.

Actual horse-related injury

It's amazing how fast it can happen, actually. One minute you're riding along like normal, the next you're hoping you can stay in the saddle long enough - and well enough - to get back to the trailer.

Steve and I went out yesterday and had a great ride. We went on a steady uphill trail that really worked the horses, then stopped to have some lunch. Doc and Lena were enjoying the workout and each other, and - since it had been over two weeks for both of them - just being out.



Then we went up the trail a little more to explore, dead-ended at a fallen tree and turned around. I was up in front on Lena when I realized I didn't hear Steve and Doc behind us and I turned back.

Steve was hunched over the saddle horn and in obvious pain, though he really wasn't sure what had happened. Doc had lost his footing a little and Steve says he felt something 'pop' in his hip joint as they both caught their balance. We were at least an hour away from the trailer still, so Steve got off and walked a little, then got back in the saddle and rode pretty silently all the way back to the trailer.

It's a good thing Steve is as healthy and fit as he is, or it would have been a lot harder for him to stay in the saddle on the way back. He had to ride in the way that makes your knees sore, to brace pressure up and off the hip joint. I used to ride that way and my knees would ache for days, but I know it was the lesser of evils in this case.

Today, there is swelling and a considerable amount of pain, but he's keeping it stretched and moving. We've even been into town to get grain, cookware, and have lunch - plus taken a deposit for the van, no less.

It looks like I'm in charge of horse riding for at least a little while. How boring for poor Lena to have only one rider!

Two Truck Family

Howdy, Sports Fans.

I'm back from OSCON and Steve is back from his backpacking trip. Both were good trips, though in very different ways.

Steve decided two things on his trip: He needed a new camping vehicle and he'd rather have a horse do the heavy hauling.

Steve has had a 1991 Previa van since 1993. It has served him - and me on occasions where the Volvo failed - very well. It has traveled up the Continental Divide and hauled more lumber than any of the fancy trucks I see on a a daily basis. It holds lots and lots of camping gear, and 7 passengers if we ever really needed it to. Vanzo, as he came to be known (sorry, Grandpa, it just fit - Vanzo the Van,) is up on Craig's list, now, because Steve's long awaited small pick-up has finally made his debut.


Gus is still the towing machine - and no worries, folks, the Mustang will never leave the family - but the new pickup could come in handy in a pinch for towing, and is certainly a more nimble and powerful backpacking and camping vehicle for Steve alone, and for Steve and me. The most likely name is currently "Sam." Gus is much wider than Sam is.


And he's very fun to drive. I actually squealed tires, though I didn't spin him around the way I did Wanda the first time I drove her.

As to the horse doing the heavy work, we may actually get around to horse number two in the next year or so, which is very exciting. I do of course promise to keep you posted.

Happy Horse-Owning Anniversary to Us!

Today marks two years since Lena officially came into our lives. Well, okay, technically she entered before that but today is the two-year anniversary of when she came into our care.

Week one: Here is Lena learning how to lunge. Little did she know how very little we would bother two years later.


Week two: Right after the nasty colic incident. She was still not allowed to eat and thought that was quite unreasonable on our part. The other thing I notice in this picture is that her mane has completely switched sides.


A year ago, we had been at Peter's for about 9 months and were even taking lessons off and on. We didn't have the trailer, so we were in the arena all the time, sometimes frightening other folks. Oh, well. Lena's weight was (finally) getting where it needed to be. This picture is her very sexy Mick Jagger imitation.


Fast-forward to now, two years after she climbed out of Ike and Cheri's trailer and sniffed the air of her new home - though our time at that barn was short-lived. We have:

• bought a trailer
  
• taken her to the beach
  
• barrel raced
  
• taken her for a cutting lesson
  
• bought saddles and bits and wormers and fly sprays
  
• had the dentist out
  

I've taken farrier science and massage classes, but avoided nutrition classes, lest I get even more obsessive. Her coat has become more roan-y, her mane and tail are sun-kissed and long, and she grew a little more just in the last year. We think she's finally stopped growing up, though, and now we have to keep her from growing out any more. We all continue to grow and learn in any case.

She's beautiful and we love her - even when she's being ornery. Happy anniversary to us!

National Day of the Cowboy

So I'm up in Portland at our Open Source Conference, and lo and behold, I find out that this coming Saturday is National Day of the Cowboy.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in parallel universes. Geeks by day and horses by night. Or something like that.

One of the cool things that's happening - both from a horse and parental standpoint - while I'm away is that Katie is going to come up and tend to Lena since Steve and I are both running around elsewhere. This may seem logical on the surface, but it's not just because she's my daughter and is now mobile. It's that there are only a few people I trust to handle Lena the way we think she needs to be handled and Katie is in that (very) small handful. I'm so proud to know a young person who has such a good head on her shoulders, and really glad she's my daughter.

Learning with Lena

Riding Lena is a constant learning experience. Constant. I just read a short blurb in Western Horseman magazine from Linda Parelli where she talks about ways they've altered their training methodologies a little in regards to softening the face. It was heartening to read an expert saying that sometimes you have to change things up a little as you learn.

We are definitely learning. I like what Parelli says about using your butt and legs first - though I think she said it nicer - and hands/reins as the last resort. Both Steve and I have been doing that with Lena already, mostly because it seems to work better with her. The more you pull on her face, the more she wants to fight you. And that's just not a battle to get into with 1,200 pounds of stubborn, opinionated, muscle. Well, you can try, but nobody will win.

Pictures and video can help, too. Like this one of me, where I'm sitting up straight but my feet are somewhere up north - using Lena's head as North, of course - of where they should be. Not to mention my toes, which are pointed northeast and northwest.

At least my heels are down! I also don't look particularly relaxed, though I do look balanced. I'd like to work on softening my hips, getting a little more movement and roll in my pelvis, with less stiffness in the leg.

It's like learning to dance with a whole new partner. In this case, though, it's okay for me to lead.

Afternoon ride and driving lessons

Katie and I went out on a ride Thursday afternoon and learned lots of things. We learned that sometimes off road trail riding can be a little hazardous to one's skin - branches can scrape, don't you know - and that there are rude drivers out there that really don't understand at all what it's like to haul a trailer, let alone a trailer with friends in it.

We started out up a trail at one of our favorite places, and a place that Doc has been many times before, so when he started off on a side trail, I thought he knew a new way to go. It was new, and it was a trail, but it wasn't quite clear enough for those of us whose butts were 14 and 15+ hands in the air. There was a lot of ducking and laughing as we went along, and I even got off and moved a small tree to one side. Unfortunately, it dead-ended at a creek with no way up and over - at least not on horseback - but it was beautiful and peaceful and funny nonetheless. Katie hasn't quite forgiven me for accidentally sending a thorny tendril back into her face. Oops.


It was a beautiful afternoon, totally quiet and Katie and I didn't run into anyone else out there. Doc and Lena got a great workout racing each other up the hills - he does a good job of keeping up with Leggy Lena. Actually, the two horses have a funny pattern. Usually when we start out, Doc is the confident, calm one. Then at the end, Lena will relax and get up ahead of Doc, her head up, those big ears pointed ahead of her. He'll get worried if he can't see her and will trot to catch up if we get too far behind. Of course, sometimes Lena will get nervous about something and stop to wait for him to catch up. Like the scary fawn that leaped out at her. You would have thought it had fangs by the degree of spin that occurred. After that, Lena stuck closer to Doc and me.


I had an awesome parental moment watching my daughter and my horse drift in and out from behind redwood trees, soaking up the solitude of the afternoon and the gentle rhythm of the world around us.

Then there was the drive home. Katie wants to learn to pull the trailer, so I let her drive. She's a relatively new driver in any case and it was her first time pulling the trailer loaded with horses, so she was being very cautious and driving a bit below the speed limit. She said she was chanting "eggshells" to herself the whole time.


Someone got behind us and didn't like how slow we were going and decided that tailgating and then honking every time we got to a place he/she thought we could pull over was a good thing to do. We even moved over in an area where we could get over and they could pass and they didn't, so the honking was really, really uncalled for.

Now I understand getting stuck behind a trailer can be irritating, and if you're in a hurry, even more irritating. But it does no good to act that way. It is not easy to pull any trailer, let alone one with live creatures in it. You can't stop fast, you can't maneuver quickly, and you can't pull over any old place on the side of the road. There has to be a lot of planning involved in any maneuver, especially for someone learning.

We did finally pull over and Katie was so angry I almost had to switch with her and drive the rest of the way back to the barn myself. As wrong, rude, and inconsiderate as that jerk was, getting mad at him/her instead of getting the horses back safely is not where her energy needed to be focused. It was a good lesson for her - there are always jerks out there and people who think they are more entitled to be on the road than you are. It's best just to let it go.

I admit it did make me wish for my poo flinger, though.

Cutting practice

Steve, Katie and I took Lena up to Healdsburg for some cutting practice today. See? She's wearing her cutting saddle again. :-)

She - again - loaded fine and we let her ride in the back part of the trailer today since it was just her. It was a balmy 102 degrees when we got to Healdsburg, so it's good it's a short trip!

We unloaded and she checked things out as we led her into the barn to tack up. Mostly - except for a little chewing on the wall in front of her - she was pretty calm. Must have been all the correctly-sized horses she saw. (i.e. cutting sized.)

We warmed up in the outdoor arena, full sun of course, and across from the Dun stallion on the property. Initially, Lena ignored the Dun but finally noticed him when he whinnied at her while I was doing circles on her at his end of the arena. The first horse she really noticed was a Friesian gelding, Mister tall-dark-and-handsome-with-great-hair. Below is her noticing him. There was also a Friesian stallion there and both Katie and Steve introduced themselves to him. I'm not sure the world is ready for a spotty Friesian, but Katie and Steve already dubbed it "Legs." Sheesh.



Meghan - the woman I coordinated with and pictured below - has a beautiful palomino gelding named Hollywood. We worked with a trainer up there named Rob Ringrose who was riding a nice little sorrel mare he called "Shorty."


Lena was definitely the moose on the block, but she did an awesome job after a little initial trepidation about the flag. It flapped, don't you know. She moves so fast and she's so aggressive that even when she would get beat on turns - mostly rider error - she could catch up.



Most of my cutting pictures are of Steve and are dark and crooked - as is often the case indoors and with me shooting. The one above is the clearest, but I'll work on the others and post them later. We all got at least one try with Lena - Steve and I got two - and Katie got to try Hollywood and I got to try Shorty, too.

It was a blast. And Lena enjoyed it, too, which is always cool to experience. It was was the first time in a long time that I've seen Katie enjoy riding, which was also pretty cool.

Parental milestones

My darling daughter has her first car and I had the odd experience today of meeting her at home after she drove up here from her dad's.

Weird. And terrifying.

Mountain Bikes and Horses

Let me just say that I am all for multi-use trails. I think we can all learn a lot from each other and that there is a lot of open space out there we can share IF we can all respect each other.

I understand the thrill of mountain bike riding, maneuvering your bike on hard-to-traverse trails and the thrill of controlling your speed - just barely - as you fly down a trail.

I'm also a horseback rider and one of my biggest trail fears is a bike rider coming up behind Lena too fast and ending up kicked from here to eternity. And then some.

The thing that I'd like to impart to bike riders is that we can't control this animal 100% of the time. They are prey animals and they react to a threat in a strictly fight-or-flight way. And here's the thing - it is all over long, long before human neurons can begin to fire and direct the situation. And if she doesn't hear you until it's too late, there's no way I'll have heard you before then. No way at all. Her ears are much, much better than mine are.

The thing I'd like to impart to horseback riders is that the bike riders really enjoy their riding as much as we do and most of them really are decent humans who don't want to scare you, your horse, nor do they want to get hurt themselves.

So how can we work together, folks?

Trail ride with friends

On Sunday, Katie D., Karen and I went out on a trail ride. This involved not only coordination between the three of us but me taking my first solo journey with Lena and the trailer!

Exciting stuff!

I got to the barn ahead of Steve and even managed to hook up the trailer all by myself. It just takes a little longer and a bit more patience - and a lot more getting in and out to see where your hitch is positioned.

Lena loaded fine, though she really - really - doesn't like the front compartment. Too narrow, though it's not really. We immediately found out what it was that would make the trailer rock so much when we put her there in the beginning. It wasn't tricky, just the natural physics around 1,200 pounds of horse slamming back and forth between the front wall of the trailer and the divider. But, since I was picking up Karen and her horse, she had to be in front because I was *not* unloading her and reloading her at a strange barn.

So I drove through Sebastopol, out Highway 12 and onto 101 South all the way to Petaluma without running myself - or any of the other idiot drivers out there - off the road. Why people getting on the freeway dawdle is beyond me. No, I'm not hitting the brakes with 1,200 irritable pounds of animal behind me, so GO for crying out loud!

Anyway.


Karen's horse Bobby is an ex-racehorse and so much like Lena it's a little scary. I took one look at his head and realized why people don't think Lena has any quarter horse in her. Because she looks like a spotted thoroughbred, of course. There were some definite dominance squabbles between them that are not quite ironed out, even though she thinks he's totally adorable and wonders why he doesn't want to nuzzle after she struck at him. Nothing like a horse playing hard to get. Especially when you're between them. Oops. No major injuries, thank goodness.



Above is a picture of her peeking around the back of the trailer at him - since we couldn't actually tie them up next to each other or anything silly like that.



Katie brought Bee and he had a blast. He had gotten relegated to second horse status when she had Fenway, but since she is between show horses at the moment (a story for her to tell), Bee got to go out and be an only horse. He loved it. Lena always loves only-horse status, and is not very good at sharing her carrot-and-butt-rub-giving mom. (Me, that is.)

It was a great day for all of us and I felt really good that I could haul the trailer - and Lena - on my own. Including having to pull into a driveway and turn around on the tiny, windy road Karen's barn is on after I drove past her barn on my way there. Without dumping either Gus or the trailer (and Lena) in a ditch, no less. Not to mention avoiding running over any of the Sebastopol pedestrians who decided to meander across my path on my way home. Silly people.

I do have to note that every time we went past a cow pasture, I could look in my rear view mirror and see that spotty nose poking out the screen. We're going to do some cutting practice on Thursday, so I'm excited to see how she does - even if there are no cows.

And here is the obligatory over-the-ear photo, with no one in front because Lena got to blaze the trail this time. Check out those ears, folks. :-)

View at the end of the day

The driver gets to see the noses that occasionally push against the window screens, but I like this view at the end of the ride, too. Everyone safely back in the trailer as we're headed home.

Actually, Steve and I did a funny thing when we got back to the barn. We are able to park our trailer without either one of us getting out of the truck because of the parking spot I commandeered after one of our barn-mates left. We very carefully backed the trailer into our spot, evenly spaced between two other trailers, angled to give all of us enough room to tie horses to those trailers as needed, far enough back to keep the hitch out of the way - in other words, a perfect parking job.

Except our horses were still in the trailer and probably wondered what on earth we were up to.

Luckily, the perfect parking job hadn't taken very long. We chuckled at ourselves, pulled out again and unloaded them in a jiffy. Doc returned to a very happy Taffy and Lena went back to her pen, no doubt to roll around in the dirt. Steve and I went to the grocery store, out to Sushi, and are now home sitting in our pajamas on the sofa.

All in all, a positively fabulous sunny Saturday in Northern California. Even with the spaciness there at the end.

New trail

We took the kids out to a new place today, very private and quiet, and with a nice sea breeze to keep things cooler than they were inland. The shot above is from the ridge we got to after the climb up. Yes, that's Lena's butt in the lower left corner. Oops.

Of course, it wasn't all that easy to get rolling today - Doc wanted to run around the pasture for awhile first, even after I took Taffy out and tied her to the trailer. Steve waited for the circles Doc was running around in to get smaller and Taffy got a massage and beauty treatment from me. Lena spent the time tied to the trailer, calmly munching on alfalfa.

Eventually, Steve got Doc and we turned Taffy back out in the pasture - much to her dismay - and got on the road without any fuss from Doc or Lena about actually getting into the trailer. Sheesh.

Doc and Lena have a little contest on the trail when it come to who gets to go first. She usually likes to, unless we come to something scary, then she'll let Doc go ahead -- just in case the mountain lion is hungry. But then she wants to be right back in front. Here she is attempting to pass on the outside:


This picture seems to echo a theme for me - the rider in front over the ears of the horse in back. Big ears in Lena's case. Hm.

The trail in is a nice steady climb up, then it opens up into grasslands and a ridge with a great view of the valley below and out to the ocean. Plus a really cool Douglas Fir with ferns growing in (on?) it.



And look, here's a picture of me! From the front! Our new little camera has been great on the trail, but Steve would prefer if it had a view finder. The LCD screen on the back is great, until you're in the sun, then not so great. Have to add that to the wish-list, I guess.



We also decided we need to get a collapsible water container and bucket to leave in the trailer to water the horses in places like this where there isn't any water system set up.

And finally - here is Steve in what I like to call the "Cowboy" shot, complete with waving grasses. He said it's not really a cowboy shot because he isn't wearing his cowboy hat. Oh, well. I like it anyway.

Lena gets a massage

I know what you're thinking - how kooky is this? You get your horse a massage? Don't you need one?

Well, yes I do, but my friend Karen offered to give Lena a massage because I've referred some other customers to her and I wanted to see how Lena reacted to a full massage.

Here's proof that even horses like body work:



The yawning is a really good sign that she's releasing the tension and the toxins that have built up from her normal workouts and routines.

Karen is great with horses, and Lena responded pretty positively to the treatment and the handling. Just like any athlete, she has spots that need a little more attention than others. Her neck got a lot of attention - we're working on collection a lot these days - and we learned a new stretch, too.

The other thing that was really a bonus for me was Karen's response to Lena. You know we get a lot of comments about calming Lena down. Steve says a lot of that is probably jealousy and I should just disregard it, but it's hard not to let it get under my skin sometimes. Karen was full of compliments about how much wonderful energy and spirit Lena has and to embrace it and enjoy it, not try to squash it. Since that is how we feel, it was refreshing to have reinforced for once.

May have a cow work connection now, too, so more on that later. Lena would love to chase cows and not ravens.

Cool Car

Obviously, I love my horse, but I also have another fetish - cars. Steve shares this with me and we regularly buy car magazines and contemplate how large our garage would have to be if we ever struck it rich and could buy all the cars we like.

As much as I think the hybrid and electric cars are great, they don't fit the criteria of cars we'd like to drive all the time. I know that is incredibly politically incorrect of me, but I love driving. I have a visceral connection to my vehicles - usually from the moment I meet them - and thus far I haven't met an alternative fuel vehicle that does that for me.

Until yesterday.



O'Reilly, my employer, is hosting FOO camp, our annual gathering of interesting and eclectic and influential folks. One of them - sorry didn't get his name because I was too busy staring at the car - brought my dream electric car. 0-60 in 3 seconds, baby. Hoosier tires, no less. I admit that I may not have all these specs, facts and figures exactly correct, so please excuse any errors. I must be in love. Or in lust at very least.

The lines are clean and beautiful, and even if I don't necessarily understand all the engineering, I can certainly appreciate the results.

Of course, it's two years and I think $150,000 out of my reach, but this is an electric car that would get me onto the freeway at the speed I need to be at. And then some.

Of course, because I turn into a crispy Irish potato in the sun, I might have to have a roof on mine.

Favorite rides so far

Here are some links to our favorite places to ride so far:

Bodega Dunes
The ride through the dunes to the beach is a great warm up for the horses and on a day that's hot inland, that sea breeze is very welcome. Parking is great, easy to pull into and out of with a trailer and easy access to the trail head.

Shiloh Ranch Regional Park
Another great trail that has a nice steady uphill to warm up the horses. Not too rocky, though a bit here and there. It's a good climb up and then a really great loop back on the Pond trail, I think, that brings you back level and in the shade.

A great beginning ride, or just a quickie, is Riverfront Regional Park in between Forestville and Windsor on Eastside Road. It's a nice flat loop with good parking for trailers on the road in.

Armstrong Woods has a more challenging trail, but it's also nice when it's really hot inland because you're nestled under redwoods for a lot of the ride. It's strenuous and a little technically difficult in some places. When we went there, one of the women in the information booth told us she didn't take her horses on it, but Lena and Doc both did fine even on the stairs and steeper parts of the trail. Parking can be tricky - go early if you want to park in the free lot and try to get one of the pull-through spots. Otherwise, it's worth it to pay the fee and pull into the picnic area so you have ample room for the trailer.

Back to the beach

I have my computer back and free time to post, so I'll continue on with the blogging about the last trip to the beach. I know you were all hanging on the edge of your seats in anticipation, right? Just like Katie is hanging off the left side of the saddle in the above picture. She didn't believe me until I showed her several shots with same amount of, um, off-ness.



Each time we go out, it gets easier and easier to load Lena - both before and after the ride. I think she really enjoys our excursions and, hey, anything is more fun than circles in the arena.

Doc discovered the loose corner in the new window screens Steve installed a couple weeks ago. I looked in my side mirror on the way to the beach and there was this brown nose poking out. Luckily, he couldn't get his whole head out and Steve tightened that corner down after we got back. Here is Steve installing the screens with superior skill and equine assistance (I know, it's crooked, I'll fix it later):



We succeeded in getting them closer to the water this time - much closer - but they still thought getting in was for crazy horses. We did see a couple horses get in up to their knees, but when we were going back and saw them on the trail, Lena decided that they were too silly to follow and went the complete other direction.



I managed to get us out to the beach without any major mishaps and Katie and I found the picnic area with hitching posts - after we'd already had lunch, of course. I need to get a map because I'm not sure we can find it again. Ha!

Beach Ride two

This time, it was Katie and me - and Doc and Lena, of course. We got a little closer to the water this time, Lena even got wet!

Doc and Lena get along so well, it's really cool. Doc tried to take a bite out Katie's sandwich soon after this picture was taken.



More later, Katie wants my computer.

Sand and Surf

Let me preface this post by saying I'm officially fired as the family photographer.

However!

I still took some great pictures of our beach adventure today. So there.

It all started with Lena rather calmly tied to the trailer while Steve attempted to catch Doc. For an old guy - Doc, not Steve - he moves pretty fast when he wants to. Finally, using carrots and some sibling rivalry between Doc and Taffy, we captured him.

We actually decided to load Doc first, to see if that would make Lena easier to load. It sort of worked. We only had to wave the stud chain at her instead of using it. Doc was in and that was good, but the space to maneuver was now smaller than she was used to. She did get in, though, and we were off - with me driving to get my hauling practice. Steve is pretty good for a back-seat driver, but it's still a new experience for me and takes some getting used to.

Doc is older and a much more experienced trail horse, but Lena watches over him, too. We let her go first, dealing with scary yellow-flower bushes and rust-colored ice plant, all the way to the beach.



Here is the scary yellow-flower bush:



We got to the beach and things were okay, though both horses seemed a bit concerned with the large and energetic body of water they could see.

We took off their bridles and tied them up to have some lunch - sandwiches in the sand - and gave appropriate carrot rewards. Lena pawed in the sand, then she and Doc inspected the hole she had made.



Then Lena decided to go over the log she was tied to, get her lead rope tangled around her front leg and get a little freaked out. In the moments that followed, half my ham sandwich - rather than the camera - ended up in the sand, but Lena listened and there was no major mishap. Phew.



After I let Steve eat his sandwich, he took Doc and Lena - not Doc O'Lena, to whom they are both related - down to the water while I finished the rest of my non-sandy sandwich.

They were less nervous and more curious being led than they were with us riding, but the ocean being big and powerful, there was some amount of trepidation on the part of our equine buddies. Here they are inspecting the rather circuitous route they took to the water's edge.



And here is Steve managing to stay out of the way of eight horse feet - a feat which takes a lot of talent most days.



All in all, a great day. Good exercise for the horses and for us and a beautiful day all around. Except for trying to get Doc's fly mask on after taking off his halter. Didn't happen, sorry Carey! Next time: fly mask, then halter removal!

Horse thoughts from Portland

So I join you this evening from lovely Portland, OR, where I will be working the O'Reilly booth at our Rails Conference for the next two days.

It's was beautiful here today and on the way from the airport I saw some really cool horse statues made of driftwood - kind of like this one.

Yes, I am so horse crazy that not only do I notice driftwood statues, but I see horse trailers at every turn. Though not in downtown Portland, at least so far.

I am ready to tune out, now, after dutifully getting our booth set up - even managing to not fall off the table - and going through my email. No fires, phew.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have enough energy to talk about making sure your horse's gate is really latched. Of course, that would require confessing the truly deep nature of my ditziness, but if I can accurately portray in words the look of mischievous triumph on Lena's face, it may be worth it.

I also want to write about getting to watch Fenway get a really great massage from my friend Karen, really cool to watch. I was so busy watching, though, that I didn't think once to take pictures of it. I know... I'm fired.

And then there was Doc trying to tell us we are not done with our trail ride until we get to the top. We should have listened to him, says Phil, Doc knows what he's doing. Phil, Carey, Doc and Taffy are off on a 3-day overnight trip up north and I can't wait to hear how that went for them.

Quiet hotel rooms are great places to remember the things you keep forgetting to write about.

Trail ride

I finally got to experience the Doc and Lena show last weekend, and I have to say she's a much calmer horse when she has a buddy. And Doc is a great trail horse, as well as a nice calming influence on the dancing spotty horse.

Yes, I know. They are herd animals, of course she's better with a friend, but I don't think either of us realized how much better she would be.

We took them up to Armstrong Woods and on a pretty challenging trail. Doc chugs along like a compact little tractor and Lena was just happy not to be crossing drainage pipes by herself.

Sometimes she would go in front and sometimes Doc would - it depended on how unfamiliar something looked to her.

We got down to the picnic area and had a snack, and Doc got a massage. Lena was too busy sniffing and looking around, though she did let me work on her a little and stood mostly patiently while we ate. Mostly.



One of the really interesting side-effects was how many people came up to us and asked about the horses, asked if they were ours and wanted to know about them. One woman - after checking with us and watching Lena for a minute - picked up Lena's front foot to show her young son how big and heavy those feet can be. Lena was cooperative and calm, even though she and Doc were both anxious to get on the trail.

Back to Things Horses Have Taught Me

So I was reading back into the archives and came across this post, which is just as true now as it was when I wrote it.

I am small!

I got stepped on again today and we had more blanket trauma, too. Mornings like this always serve as reminders - rather painful on occasion - of all the things I learn and forget on a daily basis when working with Lena.

Maybe someday I'll remember in time to watch her feet instead of just her head.

Equine Massage and Accupressure Class

I just took the final last night, but Sunday really was the highlight of the whole class.

It was a lot of information crammed into three 3-hour classes and one all day session - especially since I missed one class to go work a tradeshow.

The morning started out with a discussion of other available resources if we want to delve deeper into either massage or accupressure. There is actually not a ton out there for horses, so Diana Thompson, the instructor, is actually working on a pretty comprehensive and horse-specific set of texts.

Then we actually got to meet and touch real horses. Now, I'm lucky enough that I have Miss Lena and had been practicing on her over the last few weeks. Actually longer, since my friend Karen MacDonald came out to give me some pointers a few months ago.

Now, Lena does respond, but nothing like the way some of these horses did. Of course, most of these horses don't dance in circles around you, either.

I actually fell in love with one of the horses I got to work on. He's a Boy Scout horse, though I don't know exactly what that means - except that he'll go away at the end of the summer, I guess. His name was Stone and he was a bay paint gelding with some seriously sore hip muscles.

What drew me to him was his energy - he actually reminded me of Lena because of the heads-up, alert attitude. The young woman who worked with the horses at the JC's farm didn't think he'd work out for the class because he was a little too antsy. Apparently he bucks, too, which when I felt his hips and back, made complete sense. I'd probably buck too if someone got on me when I was that sore.

I won't say he became putty in my hands, but he would calm down and respond to me even as he got truly bored at the end of the day. I could even get up close to his ears and use the pressure point on his forehead.

The highlight was when we did the circle-touch method on his tail. I went down the sides, then started down underneath on the skin. He shook his whole body then started with some jaw-splitting yawns. These are good signs, by the way. It was really cool.

Lena could take some lessons in relaxing from Stone, but maybe if I'm patient, I can get her there.

New trail riding buddy for Lena

Not sure if you all remember Phil and Doc from the day at the dentist, but Steve and Phil worked out a pretty cool agreement that might work fairly well for all of us.

Phil and Carey - Doc's owner - and Phil's horse Taffy needed a bigger trailer. We, as you know, would love to do more trail riding, but needed a second horse and aren't ready to buy another one just yet. Phil, Carey, Taffy, and Doc tend to ride during the week. We trail ride primarily on the weekends.

So far so good. Phil and Taffy took Steve and Doc out on Friday to introduce Steve to Doc and his trail gait. Then Katie and Steve took Lena and Doc out on Sunday to the same place to see how the two horses would do. Apparently it went great, though there are no pictures of either event. Katie, Steve - you're both fired.

Where was I during all this? Well, Friday I worked but did get out and ride Lena at lunch time. She had a distinctly baffled look when I got there and kept looking out of the arena at Steve's car, obviously wondering where he went with those "other" horses and why he left without her.

Sunday I had my all-day session for the equine massage and accupressure class so spent six hours massaging and touching other horses. No, I didn't take pictures of that, either. I know. I'm fired, too.