Pre-Fandango: Thursday

Thursday May 22 2008 That's it! I'm not looking at the weather report anymore! Now we're up to 70% chance of rain on Friday - which would actually be nice, for the dusty trails and the thirsty wildflowers - and no wind, which is great. However, now thunderstorms are added to the mix Saturday and Sunday, and you all know how terrified I am of lightning! Steph said, "You better ride fast!" We decided to stop looking at the weather report during the day, because it kept getting worse. But no matter what, it will be cool, in the 60's and 70's, great for the horses. UPS and Fed-Ex are making trips several times a day 5 miles down the dusty road to the Teeter Rancho to drop off boxes of ride awards and glow sticks. John Favro is fine-tuning the lawns, and the rakes are still flying on some of the riding trails around basecamp. More arrivals today: Christoph Schork's gang from Utah, Belgians Caroll and Leonard (whom I stayed with a lot last summer), Tony and Diane Dann from northwestern Idaho, with their cool gelding Strike I may get to hop on tomorrow. John and Deb, the ham radio operators are here to set up for the ride; this has become an annual event for their radio club. Tom Cerino, a massage therapist, is here. I bet he will be busy on Monday evening! Blue Moon caterers have filled the outdoor refrigerators for the meals starting tomorrow night. Leo and I rode with Bev on her 3 horses; True Colours is a nice strong little gelding that Bev has her eye on for Tevis this year. Caroll rode with us on Jose. Caroll and I will ride the 50 on Sunday, Leo the 75, and Bev the 100. And the wind blew on, and the trailers kept pulling in after dark. At least a dozen people gathered around our dinner table for a meal I made especially for Leo and Caroll, who cooked me so many great meals last summer in Belgium. This is again what I like so much about endurance: people from around the world getting together because of a common interest - horses. USA, Scotland, Belgium, Spain, El Salvador clinked wine glasses. We were actually missing a couple from Argentina, and a Shaikha from Dubai, but they are due in tomorrow. And all the foreigners were very impressed with the local wine from the Sawtooth Winery. It's Connie's birthday on Saturday, which she's celebrating by riding her beautiful black horse Finneas. She also made her special famous fabulous cake, and we had an early celebration piece for dessert.

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Pre-Fandango: Wednesday

Wednesday May 21 2008

The sum of today: wind and more wind!

Candace Kahn, who blew in yesterday evening with her horse from Medford, Oregon, stayed ahead of the wind and rainstorm. She brought shorts to wear because it was in the 100's the week she left. It continued today - 20 mph with gusts to 37 - and tomorrow it will be even stronger. Great clouds of dust are whipped up from bare fields, and there's a fire burning 8-10 miles from here (going the other way).

Starting Friday, the winds will die down, but now, there's a solid chance of showers through Monday - some front stalled out in the Pacific. Normally it doesn't rain here in Oreana unless it says 100%, as we're in a rain shadow of the Owyhee mountains. But, you never know. As long as it doesn't say "thunderstorms," I'm good.

Today John and Susan Favro industriously went after more weeds around the house. It's really looking very park-like around here. Some of the near trails were raked by some ambitious rakers. Warning: don't take raked trails for granted, and don't let yourself get spoiled by this!

Dennis and Joyce Sousa pulled in from Hydesville California; Henry Griffin arrived sans his trailer, but with a pickup-load full of gear. He got a tail wind from Nevada. Bev Gray pulled in late evening from Utah with a trailer full of horses... one is for Belgian rider Leonard Liessens (due here tomorrow morning, with Caroll Gatelier) in the 75-mile ride, and one just might be for me on the 50.

Today I picked up a car-load of wine cases (we may not have a great number of riders, due to the exorbitant gas prices, but we will have fun), and I flagged our Tevis Trail. It's our one little steep hill-climb going out from the ranch about 15 feet long, then a narrow trail with a slightly steep dropoff that runs for another 50 feet.

Almost all the trails have been flagged... just a few more miles to go.

Pre-Fandango: Tuesday

Pre-Fandango: Tuesday Tuesday May 20 2008 Steph took off toward the north on the 4-wheeler to mark trail, and Carol and I took August and Mac to the south to flag the Hart Creek trail. Rushcreek Mac, a former Rushcreek ranch horse, is not sure he wants to be an endurance horse over a cow-pony yet, but he's for sure still a great gate horse and he's now a great ribbon horse. You just have to point him at a gate and he knows how to open it, how to position himself; and it took hanging two ribbons for him to figure out trail flagging. He'd stop as close to a bush as I wanted, and not move a foot, even when I leaned and hung off of him sideways like a trick rider. Though it's been a terribly dry spring, there are a few little canyons of bright flowers. At the far end of Pickett Canyon, there are a dozen shades of Indian paintbrush, and just overnight, asters and penstemmons have popped out. Back at the ranch, John and Susan Favro were giving the yard a last mowing and weed-eating. A weather system started blowing in by afternoon, winds kicking up dust so thick you couldn't see the Favros' trailer out the front window. The mountains were whited out by a rainstorm and it smelled like rain... but the rain never made it to the house. The temperature dropped twenty degrees, so it will be in the 60's and 70s for the ride, perfect for the horses, but we'll all be kicking up huge clouds of dust from the dry trails. Neighbor Carol's last mare had her golden foal at 1 AM Tuesday morning... when you pass by Lost Juniper Ranch just before you get to the Teeter ranch, check out the 3 golden babies by her cremello Quarab stallion in the pasture to your left.

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Pre-Fandango: Monday

Monday May 19 2008 The first Fandango-ers have arrived... Two-time World Endurance Champion Valerie Kanavy pulled into the Teeter Rancho ("the boonies," Valerie chuckled) early Monday morning with two horses and two grooms after a cross country drive from Virginia. Both horses are half-qualified for the World Endurance Championships in Malaysia in November - they've each completed a 100-mile ride under 12 km/h (13 hr, 20 min ride time) - and she plans to try to get the second one under their girths on this trip. Originally she'd thought Steph was putting on an FEI 100-mile ride each day of the May 24-26 ride, and she was willing to ride a hundred on the first and third day (diehard!), until Steph told her we had only 1 100-miler. So after the Fandango, Valerie and her crew are heading to Fort Howes in Montana for the other hundred mile ride for her other horse two weeks later. She hasn't decided yet who she'll ride where. Valerie and her groom Laura Vilaregut - from Catalonia, Spain; last month she won the Junior Catalonian Championship - took the horses, King Ali Gold - who won the December 31 2007 New Years in New Mexico 100 miler, and Flash Flame - who won the 2005 Arabian Nights 100-mile ride here with Danielle Kanavy, out on a trail ride to get the kinks out after their long haul. After dropping their horse trailer full of goods off earlier last week, then heading to California for the weekend, Susan and John Favro of Healthy as a Horse returned and set up their trailer and mapped out their shop set-up, and John played his mandolin for us while I fed the horses that are now penned up. Ride manager Steph spent a long time on the phone finding a feed store that had hay for sale; John T went to pick up all their bales - only a small truckload, and a stock of gas for the 4-wheelers. He also dragged the arena that will be used for the trot outs and set up the pens that some riders will use. Debbie and John Knapp of the Boise amateur radio club had already shown up over the weekend to mark off an area for their radio set-up to cover the ride. Wildflowers are mostly wilting in the dry heat on the trails, but Steph's vibrant garden radiates with colorful exuberance around the house. The locust trees have finally obligingly busted out in their new spring leaves, so basecamp is a green oasis in the high desert, awaiting the arrival of some serious endurance riders for the Memorial Day weekend.

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Countdown to Fandango

Saturday May 17 2008 The 3-day ride here, the Owyhee Fandango, is one week away. Trails are getting marked, pens being set up, weeds being pulled, road being dragged, horses are getting ridden, and we are keeping an anxious eye on the weather. Right now, depending on who you talk to it feels: numbingly hot enough for a nap (the horses), Great! (Steph), or stunningly hot enough to crawl in a deep hole lined with ice (me). If you ride, you want to do it earlier in the morning, finish before 11 AM, or much later in the evening, after 7:30. Jose wasn't too excited about his 9 mile ride with August today. Neither of them were too enthused, so we didn't rush through it, instead doing a little bit of work and a little bit of grazing along the way. May as well take advantage of some of the green grass before it all withers. Trails are deep and dusty - April was the 2nd driest April on record ("an eighth of a millimeter" of sprinkles), and May, so far, we've had nothing. The few flowers that have struggled out are now strangling with the dryness and the heat. The snakes are coming out, (fortunately haven't seen any rattlesnakes yet), and the birds feeding their young pause to pant in the shade between worm-fetching jaunts. It hit the 90's this afternoon. Belgian rider Leonard said he wants a warm ride but scenic snow in the mountains. At this rate the snow may be gone by next weekend. Pickett Creek is running a little higher each day - enough to sweep the dogs off their feet if they cross it, and the snow is visibly retreating higher up toward the mountain peaks. It is supposed to cool down by next Friday, into the low 60's, and depending on who you talk to, it will feel: great! (the horses in the ride), Brrr! (Steph), or just about perfect! (me).

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Let's Go! (by Jose Viola)

Thursday May 15 2008 They all call me the Social Director wherever I go. Well, why not? I always stir the pot and lead the activities with everybody. Let's play! I can get anybody to play with me. Even my half brother Kazam. Let's kiss! Rocky is a good kisser. Let's bite! You can see why I have so many bite marks all over me. Let's roll! I find the best soft sand spots for everybody. Let's take a morning post-breakfast nap in the sun! Let's run! I always lead everybody, running in the Arizona desert or up the Owyhee canyon or running back to the house. Let's go faster down the trail!

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Guilt Trip (by Finneas)

Tuesday May 13 2008 GUILT TRIP (by Finneas) Connie is bribing M to ride me while she is gone by offering to bring her many dark chocolate treaties from Trader Joe's. M bribes me while out riding with carrot treaties. Only today she lost my carrots. We did the Three-Cheese-Dip-Layer Ride. The first Cheese Layer is going miles up the Training wash, and I trotted all the way up it, because I am such a tough strong horse, and I got to eat some grass up on top as always. Then M said "OK, Finneas, when we finish the second Cheese Layer, at the bottom of Spring Ranch Road wash at the water tanks, I'll give you your carrots!" OK, so, I cruised miles down to the end of this cheese layer, bold and brave, and we got to the water tanks and stopped, and I waited, and she zipped open the half-broken zipper of my saddle bag - I heard the zipper and I know what that means - but instead of the sound of a breaking carrot, what did I hear? "Uh oh." I didn't like the sound of that. M rummaged around in the saddle pack behind her, then she dropped my reins and turned around in the saddle and scrambled in it with both hands, and, again... "Uh oh." I KNEW what that meant, and I stood there, stoically, (handsomely,) while the cruel reality of what she'd done sunk into her. She'd lost my carrots out of the broken-zippered pack, and I had been SUCH a good boy, and she had NOTHING to reward me with. I didn't let M forget it, all the way home. I kept walking slowly toward the third Cheese Layer, Blond Cow wash, turning my head first one way, then the other as I walked along, glancing back at her, to let her know I was still being a VERY GOOD BOY and I was still looking for my carrots. I could tell it just killed her. And I just kept looking back at her. When we got to Blond Cow wash, I continued to perform brilliantly, trotting and cantering more miles up it, even though I was getting tired and running on empty with no carrots in my gas tank, making M feel more and more guilty with every bold stride I took, that she lost my carrots. She kept apologizing, and I kept letting her. M felt so terrible that she let me eat grass from the Tevis Hill all the way down toward home. I was really milking it, not even grabbing grass to go but parking myself and eating it until I felt like moving on to the next batch, and she didn't even make me move on. If she tried, I just looked back at her, reminding her that she never handed me a carrot, and she let me be. I finally made my way out of the Little Tevis Canyon, and then we get to The Gate. Now, The Gate is where I usually have temper tantrums because I don't like being asked to open and close The Gate (I KNOW how, I just don't WANT to do it unless it's my idea, and it's usually not). M had gotten off me to open and close it when we went out, and here she was going to get off me to let us back in. Well, I wanted to keep her feeling so guilty, before she could get off I moved right into position to open the gate without her asking me, and she opened it, and we walked through, and without being asked, I moved into position to close it. M was just overwhelmed, I tell you, and what I did next REALLY blew her away. I just stood there. Usually I blast off to get back to the house and the other horses (I sometimes have Standing Still issues) and my Happy Meal and carrots, but I just continued to stand there. And, what could she do but pet me and hug me and admire me and promise me many carrots when we got back, and I still just kept standing there looking great and being marvelous, and she had to keep petting me and hugging me and admiring me! (I mean, who wouldn't?) Back at the house, I milked her out of 2 carrots BEFORE my Happy Meal, (can I give a Look, or what!?), 1 carrot DURING my Happy Meal, and 3 AFTER. Then when M turned me loose after my Happy Meal, none of the other horses were around, so I followed M. She turned to leave and I followed her, so she had to turn around and pet me some more. She kept trying to leave, and I kept following her. And she had to keep hugging me. And guess what - I stood at the fence, giving her such a Look, I made her give me one more carrot before she finally did leave! And then, after she went in the house, I kept standing at the fence, looking at the house, and she had to come out AGAIN and give me one more carrot! And, THEN I got MORE carrots for being a model! Both M and Steph came out to fetch me to be a model in this beautiful big black robe fit for a (Drama) King (like me), and boy did I look gorgeous in it. What a privilege and blessing for everybody around here that I'm such a good boy (when I want to be), and a great gorgeous Movie Star (-to-be) like my grandpa Cass Ole, and a great model (just plain killer-handsome), and a great actor (especially at acting stoic and laying on guilt trips) and a great kisser and a great huggee. A colossal package of talent rolled into one big black beautiful horse. Does a horse come any better? I bet M doesn't lose my carrots any more on our rides.

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