No Divas

Friday October 19 2007 NO DIVAS "Can my friend Tamara come here too?" Connie asked. "She rides! She rode with me in Honduras!" "Sure, as long as she's not a diva!" In other words, no whining about accommodations (no four poster beds here), food (how could you, with the Trader Joe's delicacies and a fridge full of food in the house!), horses, or scenery. "Oh, she's not! We've travelled together, camped together, she rode with me in Honduras, she's done the owl job with me." Ah - if she's been on some spotted owl hikes, she must be pretty tough. So, Tamara jetted in from Seattle this morning, we picked her up, and brought her to the Owyhee Boonies. While she didn't check in four bags - two of them full of food (she was on a prop plane), she did manage to smuggle some more Trader Joe's goodies in her one checked-in bag (eark chocolate edamame, wild rice, tortellini, dried fruit, ginger snap cookies!). Despite the dark heavy-laden clouds (we hadn't seen the mountains all day) and the 80% chance of rain, we bundled up, and saddled up three horses, throwing Tamara up on Quickie, who is maybe the best guest horse. Tamara was having a wee bit of trouble at first... didn't really know how to post, her legs went way back, toes went down, was pitched a bit forward, was kind of hanging on to the reins for balance, was stiff, and was getting thrown about at the trot. And Quickie has a big trot. Tamara didn't look too worried, but Connie did. She gave Tamara a few instructions, had her trot around a bit more, then we lit right out on the trail, Connie leading the way on Finneas, Tamara next, me following on Jose Viola. I was kind of wondering why we left so fast when Tamara wasn't quite that comfortable... and Connie later said she thought she heard the door open and was afraid Steph was going to step out and say, "Hey - I think you better not take Tamara out on my horses!" So she wanted to get out of there and on the trail fast. Once we got down in Blonde Cow Wash, Connie didn't look back for a while - she picked up a trot and kept going. I was watching Tamara ahead of me, but very soon she looked like she was quite comfortable in the saddle, and I said so. I think it was only about then Connie dared to look back. She said later, "I was thinking, Ohmigod, I've got three days left here to ride and I'm going to have to WALK the whole time!" We didn't hear any whimpering from Tamara, so Connie kept up a brisk trot on Finneas up ahead. Really, from my view, Tamara had adjusted quickly to riding. "So when did you ride last?" I asked her. "In Honduras! Two years ago!" "That's it?!" "And once more, for about an hour, a month ago." Oh! Tamara must have been starting to hurt very quickly, because really, you don't use some of those horse riding leg muscles doing anything else, but she never uttered a complaint, about her horse (we didn't tell her till we got back that while Quickie may have been the least complicated horse to ride, she was the very roughest), or the stormy weather, strong cold wind and some spitting raindrops. Well, she did ask once, "Is it okay that my legs are numb?" "Oh, sure! I wouldn't worry about it!" She really looked quite comfortable in the saddle. I think there's a real horsewoman in there. We took her about 12 miles and we trotted much of it, no mercy for the person who hadn't really had her legs beaten on like that except for one day two years ago. And she really looked like she enjoyed it. We took her along the Rim Trail, great views down into Hart Creek, with the stormy, snow-covered but still mostly obscured Owyhee Mountains in front of us. Wait till we put her on a smooth horse and take her on a ride on a beautiful warm sunny day, which is what Sunday is shaping up to be! Of course, we'll have to see if Tamara can walk in the morning.

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The Flagellate Club

Thursday October 18 2007 THE FLAGELLATE CLUB Carol and Linda and I are forming a new winter riding club. It's called the Flagellate Club. We are going to verbally harrass, scourge, humiliate each other into riding every day this winter. No excuses, no whining; we must get out and ride every day. Extreme weather will be the only exception, and that's only if it endangers us, like thunderstorms (I do NOT do lightning), dumping rain, hurricane force winds. "Wah, it's cold!" we decided, won't count unless the ground is icy and treacherous. I'm going to have 4 or 5 horses to ride. Carol has plenty. Linda has only two, I think, so she might possibly have a legitimate excuse for not riding EVERY day. Guest Flagellates are welcome to come ride our horses or bring your own; you will only be subject to utter scorn if you get here and change your riding mind (extreme weather excuses withstanding). We haven't actually set a date to start the Flagellate Club, which is a good thing. Because while Connie is here and is a good example because she wants to ride EVERY DAY, Carol has backed out twice this week. Once because she was working (well, okay, that's a good excuse), and the other, "I'm going into town." Once we start Flagellating, that will be a very questionable excuse. Yes, we do live way out in the Boonies, and sometimes we must go into town (like, say, if I run out of Ben and Jerry's Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream, or half and half for my coffee, no WAY am I getting on a horse), but we'll have to weigh that excuse, when we use it, against the weather to see if that excuse always coincides with cold weather. As for The Raven, he'll ride anytime, anywhere; he never has excuses. (He's not afraid of lightning either.) We might start the club when Steph is gone to warmer climes, when we really must get serious about keeping horses in condition. Or, we could put it off a little longer until the weather gets a little warmer...

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Ice Balls and Big Bunnies

Wednesday October 17 2007 ICE BALLS AND BIG BUNNIES The forecast keeps changing, but there's some form of wet weather heading our way. The rain prophecy has veered between 20 and 40% in the next few days; once it said thunderstorms tonight (yikes!), and now it says 80% chance of rain tomorrow. We woke up to a good layer of snow in the mountains (about 15 miles west), with brisk chilly breezes and clouds picking up as the day wore on. It was one of those Mountain Moving Storm days - when the sun and storm clouds play hide and seek, making the mountains look closer, further away, revealing different shapes that you think you've never seen before. Sometimes the mountains were completely obscured with dark clouds, or whited out with mini snow storms. Connie and I couldn't talk Carol or Steph into riding, and we couldn't shame them into it. They both were busy working, but, it couldn't have had anything to do with the somewhat cold weather, could it? We went out to ride anyway, because Connie is here to ride, and I just like cold weather! We rode up onto the north bluff on Finneas and Mac, with serious clouds hanging over the mountains behind us, and little blue streaking rain squalls sprinkled on the plains around us, interspersed with pockets of sunshine. Mac was at first convinced there were cougars, or Horse Eating Bunnies hiding in the sagebrush we passed, and then when a mini-storm of little ice balls blew over us, he trotted sideways, trying to keep his butt to the wind. ("This is what we do in Nebraska storms!") We went a few miles along the rim of Bates Creek, with the wind, then dropped down and crossed Bates Creek (dry), and returned along Blond Cow Wash (so named after the blond cow in the 6-cow gang out there). Approaching the cows, Mac at first thought they might be cougars, but then he realized they were cows - Beloved Cows!! His head got higher and higher as we got closer. Oh, wouldn't he like to just herd them up and drive them down the cow trail! Instead, we walked with a stately grace right through the middle of them, the girls calmly watching us pass, and headed for NoDog trail. (So named so we can avoid the trail that goes by Linda's property where several of her BIG white dogs like to give chase to passersby). Turning a hill corner - OHMIGOD! Horses slam on brakes. Two startled, big healthy does bounded across our trail and over the hill. We've been seeing scary jackrabbits on our rides here, and those were the two Biggest Bunnies our horses had ever seen! In fact I wondered if Mac's seen very many deer, because he stared, frozen, after them a long time with his heart pounding. Back down to the ranch, where the wind had picked up, and the temperature had dropped. We gave the horses their oats (and a big treatie: carrot covered with molasses!) then turned them loose. They joined the herd that had waited for them, and they all took off up canyon. We went inside for a nice hot cuppa java.

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Connie in Wonderland

Sunday October 14 2007 CONNIE IN WONDERLAND "Hey, these fall colors look great through my goggles!" Connie's doesn't have sunglasses with her so she's wearing her racetrack goggles, which are tinted red. On this spectacular fall day, Steph, Connie, Carol and I rode way up Pickett Creek Canyon toward the mountains, doing a bit of exploring on a loop. The first part we had to literally bushwhack our way through the creek in the narrow canyon, where the last two floods (2003 and 2006) tore through the canyon, ripping out some trees, washing out bridges and roads downstream. In fact Connie and I waited with the 4 horses while Steph and Carol sawed and dragged big limbs out of the way so the horses could get through. We still had plenty of close passages to duck under and big logs to step over. We made our way through the creek bed to where the canyon opened up, rode above the creek bed on the cliffs above the gold mine, then back into the creek bed. Downstream near the town of Oreana (where the creek is dry now) the trees and bushes have already turned bright autumn colors. Up here it must not get quite as cold yet, because they are just now turning: the cottonwood trees yellow, the quail bush orange and red, dried up poison oak a beautiful maroon-red ground cover. Not a good place to get bucked off in the pretty, dead-looking poison oak, because they can still carry the active oil for 5 years, even if dead. "Wow, these colors look even better without my goggles!" We climbed out of the creek up onto the flats and cross-countried to Bates Creek road, followed the road back down through Pickett Creek, where a herd of cows were hanging out, on their instinctive annual fall trip down from the mountains. A rancher in Oreana breeds these cows, and every new generation follows their elders down from the mountains when the weather starts to turn. Discoveries: possible new trails for next year's rides along some new washes and chalk cliffs, an unusual mysteriously positioned and uniquely female-anatomy-shaped rock formation, one big 4-point antler (heavy!) that Jose carried back home in his saddle pad (I always wondered what that short little pocket in the saddle pad was for - too small for a water bottle, but now I know it holds a deer antler just right!). Connie of course brought her Goodie Bag that we all snacked from, including the 4 horses. Rhett and Jose really liked Trader Joe's dried pineapples and strawberries. Another great ride on a perfect fall day in Owyhee...

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A Hoss With No Name

Saturday October 13 2007 A HOSS WITH NO NAME The big black horse came to the Teeters last fall from neighbor Carol with the name Blackie. Ugh. When I was here back in May, I thought I had the perfect better name for him: Hoss. The name came from the orphan Raven, Hoss, that neighbors Linda and Carol raised last year (after he and his siblings fell out of their nest), and who still hangs around here. He's John's horse. After I left, John changed his name to Cap'n. "Uh oh," said Carol, "that's not a good idea. He'll start thinking that way." Indeed, Cap'n is now captain of the 7-horse ship here... or he thinks he is. He's actually a step below Rhett, who doesn't flaunt his high seat, but he will put Cap'n in his place if necessary - but Cap'n avoids these showdowns to keep up the appearance of being Bossman. Cap'n is big, a boss, and is used to having things his way. If everything you ask him to do is his idea, well, that's great. If you ask him for something that is not his idea, well, he throws little tantrums. On the ground, he gets in your face, he gets in your space, he'll plow you over if you're carrying, say, a handful of alfalfa that he'd like. On his back, he wants to go, he wants to be in front, and he doesn't want to stand still. (He doesn't yet appreciate the Kodak Picture Posing Moments.) He's not at all mean; he just treats you like all the other horses, where he's the boss and naturally always gets his way. Apparently, Carol said, his former owner was intimidated by him. Connie rode him on an LD at the 5-day ride with Carol and I. I was riding Mac, and Cap'n and Mac seem to have a thing going on. Mac seems to hang out a bit with Cap'n's girlfriend Quickie, and Mac is at the very bottom of the totem pole. Mac would probably rather not be on the same planet as Cap'n, especially riding with him, and Cap'n would rather always be in FRONT of Mac, not behind him, as Connie sometimes asked him to do. We changed his name to Deckhand that day, to take him down a notch or two - to have to prove himself and earn his way up before he could be called Cap'n again. Cap'n also accidentally gets called Mac. You know how your mom sometimes calls you your sister's name? And calls your sister by your name? For some reason we just get Mac and Cap'n confused a lot. I'm sure Cap'n doesn't appreciate being called the name of the lowest horse on the totem pole - what an insult! As to his domineering status, inspired by some Clinton Anderson DVDs that Steph and I have been watching, I took Cap'n out to do a little ground work with him. I am no Clinton Anderson, and it didn't go so well at first, because Cap'n knew what was happening - he was being asked to do things that he would rather not do - and he didn't like it. His first responses were just to bull his way past me. We did finally work things out: when I asked him to move - forward, backward, front end or hind end - I expected an immediate respectful response. (He'd obviously learned and been asked to do all this ground work before.) He eventually agreed to this, but it was with such an aggrieved expression it made me chuckle. Yesterday Connie rode Cap'n for the first time since the ride, and when she started with spurs on, he knew she meant business. She only had to touch him once with them, and he was immediately on his best behavior. In fact, she took the spurs off right away, but again he had SUCH a chagrined expression, I had to laugh again. He's got quite the Personality - he's a Big Black Boss on the outside, but a big soft marshmallow on the inside. And today, while riding him and Quickie, Connie and I decided all his names just were no good. Blackie, Hoss, Cap'n, Deckhand, Mac - they just weren't working. Cap'n IS John's horse, but John isn't here. We used to come up with great names for my horses at the racetrack, when I groomed and Connie galloped. We tried on a few new ones for Cap'n during the ride: Truman, Berrick, Saalish (better for a mare), Capote, Winston, Sven... then came Finn - Finneas. The more we used it, the more we liked it. Quickie and Cap'n went out on the ride, and Quickie and Finneas came back to the ranch. So, John, you'll have another new horse when you get back.

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(Goodie) Bag Lady

Friday October 12 2007 (GOODIE) BAG LADY About ten years ago, I flew one way to Colorado to visit friends and relatives, with a one way train ticket back to Seattle. After the visit, my friends dropped me off in front of the Denver Amtrak station. Someone was getting unloaded from the car in front of us. "OHMIGOD - CONNIE!" "OHMIGOD MERRI!" She was also taking the same train back to Seattle. We'd had no idea. And that was the first time I learned the technique of carrying Goodie bags of food with me. She'd come prepared against those Amtrak meals, which in those days were expensive and not so great. She had bags of Goodies - popcorn, fruits, veggies, crackers, soups (we bummed hot water off the kitchen), etc. That extra food came in very handy when our train was delayed 36 hours because of one of those common Amtrak winter delays in those days. Second lesson on the Goodie Bags: doing spotted owl work with Connie. That work involved a lot of driving, and a lot of time spent waiting, much of it in the dark, all of which passed better with good CDs and bags of Goodies to munch on. When I rode in her truck with her, there was barely room for me to squeeze in around the maps and big Goodie bags. I outfitted my truck the same way: always a big Goodie Bag within reach. You never knew when you'd be stranded out in the Boonies for hours, or days, and the thought of being stranded without food was the most worrisome aspect of the whole, sometimes scary, job. And being a Vagabond, and often living out of reach of big cities with cheap groceries, I tend to carry boxes or bags of food with me wherever I go, especially if I pass a Trader Joe's. Those of you in the West and Northwest know what I'm talking about. When Connie came to Owyhee for the 5-day ride 2 weeks ago, I'd told her we lived out in the Boonies, far from a store (well - only 45 minutes). It triggered that Panic Alert in her, and she brought a big box of groceries, most from Trader Joe's, (that we never got through) with her. Since she immediately got addicted to endurance riding, and said she was coming right back for another visit, she stored the food here. And she immediately bought a plane ticket back. And took orders for pick-ups from Trader Joe's. Seeing Steph and I are out in the Boonies, far away from a store (well - only 45 minutes), and very very far from a Trader Joe's, we gave Connie our special orders. We were kind of serious, but kind of joking, but when I picked Connie up at the airport last night, she was standing at the curb with FOUR bags (fly Southwest! They'll let you check 3 bags!) One of them, big enough to stuff a pony in, was full of food (and heavy enough to be a pony) that Steph and I had ordered, and more food that Connie had brought, JUST IN CASE we ran out. Connie's cache did not take into account the entire car trunk full of food I'd just bought at the local store, on her orders, before picking her up. "I'm NOT leaving the ranch while I'm there. I'm there to ride. I am NOT driving into town!" She brought so much food, and so many DVDs to watch, that we may not have time to ride. Or we might just get too heavy to ride.

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Owyhee Canyonlands - Hart Creek Day Five

Saturday September 9 2007 DAY 5 - HART CREEK Day 5 of the Owyhee Canyonlands ride was a day of laughs and cheers and tears - all good. The morning started out blustery and cold - hard to get out of that warm bed in the morning - but beautiful and sunny. No rain last night down here in the canyon, but a very light powder-dusting of snow on the Owyhee Front Range mountains, with remains of a few storm clouds hanging over. 56 riders, 38 on the 50 and 18 on the 30, braved the cold winds - which lasted throughout the day and could threaten to blow you off your horse on the ridges - bundled in layers of clothing, some of the horses wearing butt blankets, warming up well before the starts. Connie rode Cap'n again, and I rode Rushcreek Mac again, on the LD. The first loop took us up out of Pickett Creek onto the eastern plateau, along the beautiful Rim Trail overlooking Hart Creek. We hadn't gone more than 5 miles when Mac went ouchie on some rocks, more than once, so I abandoned the trail, turned off and took a shortcut home with him. Being a Nebraska ranch horse all his life, he's been barefoot till he came here - apparently Nebraska does not have rocks. I was bummed to miss the rest of the trail, down along Hart Creek, back up a steep, narrow ridge, and another rim loop trail for loop 2, but I've been lucky enough to see these trails already. Besides, it was just as well for Connie and Cap'n, because Cap'n (aka Deckhand), who always wants to be the boss, was having FITS because Mac, the lowest horse on the totem pole, was allowed to go in FRONT of him for a while. Connie reported later that as soon as we parted ways, Cap'n was the perfect gentleman to ride. Mac and I had a nice stroll back to camp. He stopped to take in the view a couple of times, one of which was Steph on the 4-wheeler far below on Bates Creek Road, leading a rider-less horse back to camp. Uh-oh. Apparently rider and horse had parted ways up on the rim to the west, and the horse had taken off east a few miles, perhaps thinking he'd head back to his barn in Elko, Nevada. Both horse and rider were unscathed. 13 riders completed the 30, including Connie, and Gretchen Montgomery who accompanied her friend Debbie on her first endurance ride ever, and Bruce Worman, riding Steph's big old great gelding Nature's Khruschev. Krusty is a former international competitor, now semi-retired and a riding horse for Bruce's daughter. 53 riders finished the 50, 9 of them having gone all 5 days. It's quite the accomplishment to ride one horse 4 or 5 days in a row, the horse looking as fit to continue at the finish of the last day as he did at the beginning of the first. Many people had left ridecamp for home, so they missed out on another good home-cooked meal by the Blue Moon Caterers Deborah and Al, but those people remaining still had a lively time and enjoyable evening. One of the finishers, Vicki Archer, was especially proud to have completed all 5 days. 5 years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two weeks after finishing up with chemo and radiation, she was here for an Owyhee endurance ride, her husband Jim helping her on and off her horse. Today, getting on and off her horse without help (but with Jim crewing, or riding with her) she celebrated her 5th anniversary of being cancer free, completing one day of an Owyhee ride for every year. As usual, there were plenty of awards handed out, all finishers getting awards and a hand, and there was Best Condition in the 30's and 50's, highest vet scores, and fastest overall time for the 5-day riders. But there was also a special Vet's Choice award given by Dr Michael Peterson. He was impressed with all the riders and horses that completed the feat of all 5 days, "but there was one horse and rider that just stood out. If it were ever necessary to grab a horse from someone to escape from the law, I know which one I'd take, and that would be Tom Noll and Frank." A terrific cheer went up for one of the coolest endurance horses in the Northwest, and one of the most deserving riders to ever put foot in an endurance stirrup. Tom wasn't the only one with tears in his eyes this evening - I expect everybody knows how proud Tom is of his little bay horse. Tom was speechless with the honor and recognition, and we were all just as pleased for the both of them, who do all us endurance riders proud with their ever-optimistic attitudes and admirable accomplishments. Way to go, Frank and Tom. It Just Don't Get No Better Than This. : )

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