Horse Updates

Q

 Mike bareback on Q working on her sidepasing skill

• Doing well. Has dropped almost all of her winter coat in favor for her summer one. Yay! However, she still has a couple bald patches from where the shedding winter fur was rubbed off by tack during the ride. Seasonal alopecia is bitch. Hair is sprouting in both of these locations already. I'm not worried about it as this tends to happen every year with horses up here. Two years back most of the horses were bald in large patches for nearly a month because the weather cued their coats to shed out before the new hair was ready to come in. Our vets calmed everyone down, but only after there was mild panic about some strange skin disease. Its tough riding with anything that moves anywhere on our horses at this time of year though because that winter hair is SO eager to come out. Its not a matter of ill-fit necessarily, things as simple as reins along their neck cause it.
• She's gained all of her weight lost during the ride and more back. She had just over a week off. I try to stick to 1 day off for every 10 miles traveled and usually end up giving more time off - especially if I notice a drop in weight as I did after this ride. Fortunately though, in addition to gaining that weight back, her musculature is really looking better. We went into that ride pretty slender in comparison to how she went into Fort Valley last October. While I believe she performed better at this ride, I wasn't as thrilled with her conditioning for it.
• Mike got her out for what we estimate was probably 12+ miles on Wednesday. The GPS app wouldn't work on his phone. I am going to recommend another app to see if it helps in the future. He reports that she was very well behaved for the most part.
• Mike has also been working with Q on side passing. She has an inclination to do it at certain times when she tries to resist the direction her rider desires; Mike is harnessing this to hone her skill. So far, so good!
• Mike also reported that Q reared up on him Wednesday. -_- However, I'm not very surprised. She's added this maneuver to her evasive routine to enter the trailer lately AND she's really been throwing her head up as an evasive maneuver on the trail. Ask her to go somewhere she doesn't think is a good idea, or ask her to slow the eff down and she'll enter giraffe mode. The degree of giraffe-ness depends upon how averse she is to the request. And thus, Q is getting a running martingale. Don't fuck with me, mare.
• Q seems to be in heat more than OUT of heat. Her love of the geldings is so strong its really hard to tell when she's in true heat and when she isn't. Its kind of absurd. I'm doing my best to pay more attention to her and figure out if she has a real problem or if she's just overly social.
• Mike has been working more with Q to get her accustomed to gunfire. He wants to be able to shoot from her back. I told him if he could do that with her without her bolting away in fear or acting out, I'd give her to him. We'll see how that plays out...

Griffin

• Coming along quite well. His first ride back after 2 weeks off was...entertaining. He was a spazz about silly things, tossed in two bucks, and gave some refusals to requests that didn't give him a second thought before. He's a greenie and he's making certain I don't forget it.
• I am LOVING the mohawk on this horse. LOVING it. His mane is healthier than its ever been, too. However, you can see insane split ends and fraying on the top tips of his mane throughout. His mane hairs are just super brittle and get beat up once they reach a certain length it seems, which accounts for why he always had a thin, scraggily mane. His coat has shine to it though, and his tail is really healthy!! I'm not sure if there is another mineral deficiency that lends itself to manes? Anyone?
• He's up to 14.3hh!! He string-tested at 15hh when I got him almost 2½ years ago. He's really bulking up lately. The onslaught of grass is not only lending him weight, but supplementing his

  

  Oh hey there beefcakes. When did you find time to bulk up?!
  (Wet because I sponged him off after a ride.)

  growth in all other places. He's really turning into a stunning horse. I'm quite thrilled.
• I walked and trotted him over ground pole jumps in the jump field the other night. He was totally focused and cool about it. I plan to slowly introduce him to the idea of jumps and small courses this summer. We'll start with walking and trotting over all of the ground poles through a course, then progress to cantering over them. I'm not in a great hurry to have him actually *jump*. But the knowledge of how to maneuver in and around jumps will be beneficial. In a month or so I'll provide him with 3-6" standards and cross rails. We'll see what happens from there. He has a natural affinity for jumping and really, truly enjoys it. I'd like to entertain his love for it!

Music on the Trail: A New Solution

During the No Frills ride, I had a small battery-operated speaker I'd purchased years ago and my iPod in the top pocket of my pommel bag. It was somewhat tedious to get the damn thing in and out to turn on, but it worked well. I could hear my surroundings and hear my music.

However, I recognized that others on the trail probably wouldn't care for the music (I'd seen some front-runners with earbuds in to be less intrusive to others...and not hear surroundings?). As a result, I turned my speakers on and mostly off throughout the day. The most I listened to music was the last 5 miles or so when I was alone and really whooped mentally. I needed the music to get me through, distract me, give me something to focus on and give Q a nice beat/tempo to move to.

So, obviously, the speaker in the pommel bag probably wasn't a good solution for my must-hear-surroundings-in-addition-to-music desire.

Fortunately, Funder and Mel commented on the No Frills gear post and shared about some headphones Funder discovered on Amazon that they've both been using during their outdoor pursuits. They don't go *in* your ears. They sit in front of them and use bone conduction technology to help transfer sound. You could hear music and your surroundings and not be obnoxious to others.

I didn't hesitate - I bought some.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, I had them within 2 days of ordering.

I whipped them out of the box and put them on, their maiden song "Destination" from the new Nickel Creek album. Hrmmm. Spiffy. I could hear small rustlings in my immediate vicinity AND hear my music. Most excellent.

Last night I took them out to the barn for the first time. Listened to music on them on my drive over - very much like the radio, but more localized to my ears. Surrounding noises + music. Awesome.

Got to the barn and spent the whole time tacking and prepping Griffin with them on, too. Mike showed up from a 2½ hour ride on Q while I was doing this and I was able to hold a conversation with him while still listening to my music. Kickass!

Mike decided to go out with Griffin and I as a chaperone for a couple more miles (2.15 mi.), so I didn't take the headphones on the trail this time. Tonight though, I plan to use them while I do a jump session with Qbert.

First Impressions

Love them! They don't pinch my head too tightly, so I don't think they'll cause me grief after wearing for any length of time. I love that they aren't in my ears because my ears always sweat and earbuds always fall out. Additionally, the super high east coast temperate rain forest humidity makes keeping earbuds in a crapshoot without the addition of movement and sweat!

I could hear what was going on around me AND hear my music. The main objective of this whole thing: fulfilled. Additionally, the little volume up/down/off controller I can clip to my sleeve makes changing volume/turning off a breeze!

Standers-by can hear the music, too, but its muted in comparison to the speaker. Someone will have to ride right up to me to hear it, and even then, with the hustle and bustle of moving horses, footfalls, tack, etc., I think the noise will be negligible.

Overall, I am VERY pleased and very excited to be able to have the best of both worlds, music - or a book on tape!!!!!! (imagine how fast 50 miles would pass!) - and the ability to hear my immediate surroundings so that I can anticipate and be aware of other riders and horses + things that may alarm my horse and cause them to spook or be on high alert.

WW: Mike Made Me Cavalettis

You know you're an endurance rider when...

 At the last minute this morning, I needed to find a container to take some creamer to work for my hot tea. I've been out of creamer at the office since early April in anticipation of being gone for most of the month; I haven't remembered to buy more yet, life being what it is. The carton I have at home I wanted to keep at home and there was no time to shop for another before work.

I rummaged through my tupperware shelf in the pantry looking for something small enough to hold cream for 2 or 3 cups of tea. Nothing was quite small enough and I felt silly taking anything larger than necessary.

I scanned the drying rack by the sink and spied the syringes I'd cleaned from the endurance ride that had held Q's electrolytes. Hmmm....

Yep. Perfect! I'm certain my coworkers will think I'm borderline crazy, but oh well. It really is the perfect solution to take creamer for the amount of tea I typically consume through a 10 hour day at the office! (4 10s, baby! 3-day weekend er'ry weekend.)

Goals: April then May

April Goals

Q

• Stay healthy, sound, and fit approaching our 50 at the end of the month COMPLETED
  
• Taper accordingly WE DID
  
• Have a safe 50 miles at No Frills IT WAS. 10TH/12 COMPLETIONS, 6MPH AVG. PACE
  

Griffin

• Build more miles onto his base COMPLETE. I WAS GONE FOR 14 DAYS THIS MONTH, BUT GOT ABOUT 20 MILES IN ON THE GREY HORSE
  
• Spend time in side reins FAIL. COMPLETELY FORGOT.
  
• Advance skill US with bridle. FAIL. DIDN'T PUT A BIT IN HIS MOUTH AT ALL IN APRIL.
  

: : : : :

May Goals

Q

• Bareback ride 1x week (dressage emphasis)
• Hill sprints 1x week
• Reintroduce jumping regularly
• Would like to try to get a total of 50 miles on trails/otherwise in prior to her next race on June 14
• Successful May 27 with elementary schoolers (more on this later)

Griffin

• More trailering away for rides/events
• More miles
• Time US with bridle, you know, since I didn't put a bit in his mouth at all in April.

As you can see, I'm not making hard and fast goals for the little grey guy. Miles are doing wonders for him all around right now. I'm noticing his increased fitness each day and he is finally bulking up a lot throughout his body. Miles for him aren't many and they aren't over crazy terrain, but they're really helping him develop a brain and conditioning.

As far as Q goes, she's into her first *fingers crossed* full season of endurance. Maintaining her fitness, tweaking it here and there, and keeping her sound and healthy are my main goals. The introduction of the cross training is so we can have fun things to keep minds active and build muscle that will aid us moving down the trail for endurance rides. If she's going to have to move down the trail for hours at a time every 7 weeks or so, I don't feel the need to cram in so many miles that way in our in-between time. Jumps, dressage, and hills sound like way more fun for both of us!

Some Sunday Stills

Mike's first time jumping.

Blogger PSA

Recently, several of my blogging friends have noticed that they had word/#/captcha verification on their comments - and they were unaware of it. I was once in this boat, so I decided to put together a really brief post with the steps to disable it (you, too, can Google these steps).

This kind of verification is an extra step in the commenting process for those commenting on blogs. I disabled mine ages ago and moved my comments over to Google+.

While having verification on your comments can help save you from spam, it also makes it more difficult for those commenting. One example for me, my phone really hates the verification box. I, like many of you, spend a lot of my time on a mobile device instead of a computer. The problem is, it takes me multiple times to sometimes get the damn verification to go through for commenting on posts from my phone. As a result, I will read a post, then mark it as unread in my Feedly to later go back and comment on. As you can imagine, this gets tedious and ultimately my comments are never as good as they would have been on the first go around!

Additionally, if you're anything like me, you can't even READ the damn verification letters/numbers half the time. And then you have to do it AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. UGH! And, lately the damn verification codes have been including DECIMALS? What the fuzzy bunny?!

I understand protecting yourself from spam comments, but from my experience with spammers of late, they're going to happen anyway. It seems companies are paying actual people to get out there and share spam comments because people can overcome the verification hurdle with little difficulty.

So, to help you out if you're too lazy to Google a step-by-step on your own:

To Disable Word/Number Verification:

1. Make sure you're signed in to your blogger account.
2. Go to the Settings from the left pane.
3. Now hit on Post and Comments option
4. Move to the Comments option. 
5. Find Show Word Verification. Select No.
6. Hit on Save Settings.

If you know you have a captcha verification on your comments and you like it that way, so be it! But just in case you were unaware, I hope this may have served helpful to someone.

California Photo Journal IV

The valley from Inspiration (Artist) Point

Florida boy can't get enough sun. I frolicked about taking photos while he basked.

I love this shot.

Manzanita (I think)
Mike loved the red-orange striations on the bark

I leave him alone for one second and he's walking the top rail of the bridge over the Merced

The Merced, tossing and turning as it descends after dropping Nevada and Vernal Falls

Looking upstream toward Vernal Fall

Vernal Fall - MUCH larger than it appears in the photo!

Enjoying the view, and the mist

Over the edge she goes! This is the waterfall 3 people died going over accidentally last year.

And *poof* you'd be GONE.

Rapid right above the falls.

Emerald Pool with the Silver...curtain? I think that's what the slabby rock leading to the water's edge was called.

*Wading* not swimming.

Mike did a really awesome job with this shot. He nabbed my camera without telling
me why and instructed me on where to stand then snapped it.

Bridalveil Fall

Mike on Cathedral beach with El Cap in the background

Yosemite Falls as seen from the swinging bridge

Little chapel in the valley.

The Ahwanee. The big beams that appear to be wood are concrete.

A stunning structure nonetheless

Mike climbing on El Cap
We had to say we'd "climbed" it. More like climbed *on* it.

Trying my hand on El Cap...in flip flops.

One final parting shot of the valley as we headed home. Bridalveil Fall is the waterfall in the photo.

California Photo Journal III

Waking up in Yosemite to this towering over us was humbling to say the least

Smiles! And obviously still very sleepy. El Cap in the background.

El Capitan is also the photo above this one, blogger won't let me caption it for some reason.

Gooooood morning.
Valley View.

 

Tunnel View of the valley

And then there were big trees.

Fence and pathway for scale. BIG TREES.

Oh, and some cars for scale, though the distortion from the lens screws with the scale
in this photo a bit.

We woke up.
I would later regret having that jacket on our hike. Mike would also regret the sweater.

I'm 5'6" and my wingspan is something like 5'9", BIG TREE. =)

Clothespin tree on the right

Fallen Tunnel Tree

Towering giants around the Fallen Tunnel tree. Look closely and you can see Mike striding all sasquatch-esque
within the fallen tree's base.

I leave him unattended for one moment and this happens. Sigh. lol

I loved the vibrant green moss that grew on many of the trees. So pretty!