Horse Time

It seems whenever I blog less, I am riding more; which is a good thing! The past weekend didn’t give us much of a break from the high temperatures, but the humidity wasn’t quite as heavy. On Saturday morning, I took Ginger to Two Rivers and rode safety for a 4H Poker Ride being held there. It wasn’t a big ride; maybe 20 riders, but felt great to get out. The bugs weren’t bad and it didn’t start heating up until closer to noon.

Windy didn’t make the cut that day because she was in time-out. On our Wednesday ride with the Platte River Riders, she was obviously in heat and zeroed in on one particular gelding that night and made my ride rather difficult. Heat cycles have never bothered her much, but that night the hussy was raging! I didn’t want to take any chances riding safety if her mind was still on her hormones.

On Sunday, we officially started prepping the trail for the Trail Challenge and Scavenger Hunt. I met my co-chairs, Sheila and Shari, out at the trail head early that morning and we started riding the trails, planning the obstacles and GPSing for mapping purposes. I took Blue out on this day; his first trail ride of the year! Blue is a big boy; a foundation bred quarter horse resembling the old QH type build. He stands just 15 hands high, but is all of 1,300 pounds or more. Whenever I ride him, I feel like I am really riding a horse. He is a rough ride; no sitting the trot with him and he has a tendency to cross-fire when loping, but except for the trucklike ride, I forget sometimes what a good boy he is. He is the horse who taught me how to ride again as an adult. Riding him is like coming home, perhaps on the dirt road, but home nonetheless.

At last count, we have 48 or the 50 rider spots filled for the Trail Challenge and expect the last spots will be filled with entries from today’s mail. Since this is our first time hosting such a ride, I had hoped to get perhaps 25 to 30 riders. The fact that it is filled long before the deadline has thrilled me! And we have lots of work to do to make this happen. John and I loaded up Blue and Ginger last night and went back to the trail to continue clearing for the event. We got a good section of a trail done that was previously pretty much unrideable unless you were a caveman. The trees hung low over the trail and if you looked up too soon, you were apt to get clothes-lined off your horse. But it is a pretty stretch of trail and if we can get it open for this ride, I am sure our guests will enjoy it, too.

When I went to fetch the horses from the pasture yesterday, before I even got close to Windy, I noticed her knee was swollen. It seems to have a small contusion above it with some swelling in that area, too. There is heat around the knee, but she doesn’t appear to be lame on it. I put her and Butter in the corral last night so I can keep a closer eye on her. I don’t think it is anything serious, but it’s only four weeks away from Cowgirl Weekend. In need her well. In the meantime, I’ll keep putting some time on Blue. He could lose a pound or fifty.

The weather has taken a turn for the better. It was actually “sweatshirt” temperatures when I was putting the horses up last night. I hope we have seen the last of this gawd-awful heat wave, but with the weather patterns all out of whack this year, it is anybody’s guess what will happen next.