Road Trip Planning

Things are getting real! My friend Cheri has purchased her flights to come to Michigan and drive with me out west. The dates are settled. It's now time to figure out where we're stopping each night.

The trip is about 2400 miles total and I'm dividing that over 5 days of about 470 miles each day give or take.

First Leg - Dryden, MI to Madison, WI area

https://www.blackforeststables.com/Default.aspx   485 miles
Black Forest Farm, LLC
2132 County Rd F  Barneveld, WI  53507
Ph: 608-437-4905
or

Showtime Arena, LLC, Pamela Bound                            3845 Oak Park Road Deerfield, WI  53531 Tel:  608-764-5555 or cell 608-692-5050

Second Leg:  Madison WI to Mitchell, SD  453 miles

Hobby Horse Overnight Stables 815 West Spruce Street Mitchell, SD  57301 Tel:  605-995-1581 Web Site:  http://www.hobbyhorseovernightstables.com/

Third Leg: Mitchell SD to Sheridan WY  512 miles

W/D Hossienda
www.horsemotel.com/Wyoming.html#wdh
183 Upper Road
Sheridan, WY 82801
Tel: 307-752-2468 or 4202

Fourth Leg: Sheridan WY to Superior/Missoula MT 547/484 miles

Rugg's River Ranch, Ray or Kip Rugg                         10697 Southside Road Superior, MT  59872 Tel:  Primary - 406-822-2062; then 406-822-2061 or 406-822-4240 http://www.ruggsoutfitting.com

Or to Missoula MT and the Big Sky Horse Park

Final Leg: Superior/Missoula, MT to Duvall WA (hopefully) 408/485 miles

I've got a soft landing spot for both Gwyn and Saffron. I haven't found a place to board yet and I plan on putting that off until I'm in the area. For now I'm focusing on trimming this trip and preparing the house and property to be put on the market.

I've been struggling focusing on any one thing and I'm constantly fighting the urge to curl up every day and just watching how to draw videos from Pub Draw. Gwyn is  covered in mud and I need to clean my saddle because we're going to a dressage show again on Sunday! This time Kaylee is coming with me and we got permission from the judge to do a leadline intro A test with her. She's excited too.

And so this isn't all words and totally boring content...

Hazel walked Gwyn back to the barn for dinner and Gwyn was VERY well behaved. She's the best horse.

Zebra at the Detroit Zoo last Friday

New baby camel, Tula!

ca 1995 drawings by me

Art I've had forever that I need to finally frame and hang up

Way Back Wednesday: 5 years ago

When we lived in Washington, the final barn I boarded at was a wonderful place run by some really fun people. It was a family friendly barn, multi-disciplinary, and truly truly a relaxed place (for me). There was some drama with boarders, but overall it was pretty great.

One thing that I appreciated was that the person who ran the place, Dani, (she leased the property) was a pretty good groundwork trainer (I loathe to say natural horsemanship, but it would apply, she used her own amalgamation of methods). One of the boarders, Beth, was also a good trainer who reminds me a lot of Dom, if Dom primarily rode western. Both of them had some good horse sense and I really respected their opinions.

Dani decided that she was going to host a groundwork clinic every wednesday evening for anyone to attend. It was something like 10$ a session and was open to anyone and she would even provide a horse if you didn't have one or couldn't trailer one in. Gwyn and I did pretty much every session.

What was really cool (for me, again) was that the things I was doing in those clinics were also things that Dom was talking about on her blog at the time, while she was working with Booger, I think. And I also super respect Dom's opinion on horses so to have the ideas reinforced just really made the whole thing very impactful.

At one point, Beth came in to teach us about round penning. They set up the roundpen in the covered arena and used participant horses to teach us about body language and pressure and allowing the horse to come to you and also guiding the pressure release to get them moving where you wanted them moving. At some point, Gwyn got pulled in to use as a demo.

So Beth was working Gwyn and Dani was narrating from the side of the roundpen. She's short, so she was sitting on the top panel pole. I'll quote my livejournal entry for the incident

we were just listening to Dani talk about how some horses will look for any way to escape before giving in and with these big horses they know they're big and might try to head for a panel so we should make a lot of noise to keep her away. 5 minutes later, Gwyn is heading straight for me. I tried to push her off initially, but she was determined to go over, so I went sideways.

I was standing at the gate to the roundpen and Beth put pressure on Gwyn. Gwyn, having had enough of circles, decided that -I- was the way to the escape and jumped the panel, folding it as you see in the picture. I remember having my hands on her chest and ducking out of the way and then just praying that she got her legs free from the panels. She had a small surface scrape, but never took a lame step and what I thought was drips of blood on her hooves was just red paint transfer from the metal.

I look back with laughs now. It wasn't even the first panel gate she jumped over.

 

 

For Fun: Favorite Ooops Picture

I saw a facebook post about what happens when you try to take a panoramic of a horse and rider and the results were obviously hilarious and it sent me looking for my own example. Google photos helpfully tried to stitch together a series of photos I took while lunging Gwyn.

So here it is, from one of my favorite places I've boarded (25 acres, huge fields, trails, access to more trails, and access to the Snohomish River, just had to deal with occasional flooding, now it's an A level H/J place, I had to leave when it got sold to them)


Emma has a Brontosaurus with Charlie. I have Sleipnir minus two legs.

Picture ca. May 2013 

The Way Back Machine: Mount Spokane Endurance Ride, September 2014: PART 2

Where last we left our intrepid heroes...

Due to the pull, we decided to start our trail ride earlier. Cortney was going to ride Major (Randy pays her to train his horses), Randy was on Asaad (who was also going stir crazy from being cooped up and needed the exercise), I rode Gwyn, and Trudy and Alexis rode Snoopy and Tiger. 

Most of us with two in the distance.

We did the 15 mile, which was gorgeous trails all over the mountain on the nordic trails that are used by cross country skiiers in the winter. The footing was amazing with minimal rocks. The views were spectacular across the countryside. 

Water stop!

Idaho in the distance.

Meeeeee!  RIP that awesome pink jacket. And the camera I used. All lost to time. But not on that ride.

Gwyn was an idiot leaving ride camp but settled down once we were moving. She really liked leading. We eventually split the group, Gwyn and the two Arabians, Asaad and Major, left Snoopy and Tiger at the second water stop. The horses did really well. Cortney and I decided to both do a slow 25 on Sunday. Cortney would ride Major, who had only been in training a month, and I would take Gwyn. 

On the trail we saw 5 deer, a horse eating puddle, a horse eating chipmunk smaller than Gwyn's spots and Idaho. 

Mileage markers back to camp.

We got back to camp and vetted in. Everyone got good scores (Asaad did not do an official trail ride due to the previous colic) Gwyn pulsed in super low at 48 bpm. We did 15 miles in 4 hr, so about 4 mi/hr. While we were up at camp, we vetted in for the 25 the next day. 

We skipped the provided dinner and had tacos at camp with more family friends, then headed back up for ride meeting. Sunday's 25 had a change in course from Saturday's 25. The 15 mile loop was first for Sunday, and running clockwise on the path we'd ridden today. Then we were going back out on the same trail, but counterclockwise, and taking two different trails that would cut 5 miles off. This meant that Sunday's 25 would be easier than Saturday, because the more technical 10 was now only for the 50s. 

A super adorable kid did the 25 today on a tiny grey pony. She came in last for the Saturday 25 and so got the "Speed Up" award AKA the Turtle Award everywhere else I've been. 

My fit bit recorded 40,820 steps and 17.32 mi distance, and 5197 calories burned and 219 flights of stairs climbed over 268 active minutes. I had done 10k and 36 flights on foot before I ever got on a horse. That damn hill up to ride camp. 

Then, bedtime!

Day 3 - Sunday

I was up early again and helped feed horses. I tacked Gwyn up, who was confused since she was the only one getting attention and then headed up to ride camp where Cortney was getting Major ready. The 25s left at 7 am. Our plan was to mount up as the main group was leaving camp and head out after that so the horses would stay calm and not have to deal with the cluster of people finding their pace. We just wanted a successful ride for Gwyn and Major, we didn't care about placings.

No actual ride photos taken during the endurance ride. Everything on horseback was technically taken on Saturday. I was too distracted Sunday. But it's the same trail.

The ride started out well. We headed out and at Junction 2 took off on the clockwise 15 mile loop (We'd done the counterclockwise 15 mile yesterday) It was helpful being familiar with the path to have an idea of how far we were going. I was sore 5 miles in. Cortney ran her phone and app that tracked pace and distance. Oi. We were aiming for about 10 minutes per mile, which, while not fast, was definitely faster than I was used to!

Gwyn did well, and her appy was very self preserving and she regulated her own pace. This horse will never run until she drops dead. She stop if she's tired and walks, then picks up the pace again. She figured out pretty quickly that I was willing to let her trot out and pick the pace. She LOVED the low grade downhill canter we did on the logging road, even if I felt like my legs were turning to jelly and that I was one misstep away from just sliding off. At one point Gwyn leaped up the hill into a bounding canter and I lost both my stirrups and was laughing/crying from it all. 

Major had lots of go. He'd only been purchased a month prior and had come incredibly obese. But he was being ridden quite a lot and was very fit now. He and Gwyn matched strides well, however, which was good! Major preferred to canter a lot when tired, while Gwyn wanted to trot. 

The weather was chilly. The mountain was covered in clouds and we were riding through those clouds. The views of yesterday were hidden. The clouds (and elevation), sadly, irritated my asthma for the first time in years. 

Used with Purchase Ride Photos from Sunday.

Right after this photo both horses spooked.

At the quarter mile to camp mark we dismounted and handwalked in to camp for our 45 min hold. Gwyn and Major pulsed down right away, within seconds of each other. Gwyn pulses down while eating. We had beet pulp and alfalfa waiting for them, as well as lots of water. After about 20 minutes, we took them to the vet check, where both passed with As and Bs. 

Our final leg was the 10 miles, counter clockwise with some short cuts from what we'd just ridden. Gwyn was VERY confused. She thought she was done and she wanted to go back to her delicious food. She was also a bit slower to start out. 

I was numb. My period had been pretending to start since Monday and it finally came in all its glory on Friday. Fuck me, right? I had my heaviest day Saturday for the trail ride but managed it well. Today, I did not manage as well. My girly bits were being rubbed raw from the products I was using and I ended up leaking onto my underwear and riding pants. Boooooo. Thanks Aunt Flow. 

The 10 mile loop we were riding ended up being WAY easier than the 15 mile. The short cut we took at the first water stop cut out a TON of elevation change that we dealt with on the 15 mile. The grade was nice and gentle. We had a faster average pace. It was still hilarious to have Gwyn enthusiastically canter up a hill, turn around the corner and kind of double take that there was still hill and promptly drop to a walk, stretch out, then resume trotting after she'd recovered. 

The weather was a bit better, with the sun trying to come out. We had some views, but nothing like the day before. Also, not as much wildlife despite some riders having claimed to have seen a bear. 

This time we rode into camp at the end and again, Gwyn and Major pulsed down to 60 within seconds of one another. I was worried about Gwyn's fitness. Cortney kept reassuring me that I was not giving Gwyn or myself enough credit. 

We passed no one in the 25 and saw no other 25 riders. We knew we were last and didn't care. 

I took care of Gwyn and she passed her vet check. The weather was very good for cooling off after that ride and I curried the sweat away as Gwyn dried. Gwyn took a nap in the sun while Cortney and I chatted with Shari. Gwyn did not want to go back up the hill to vet, I didn't either. My legs were shot. 

We were treated to lunch in the lodge, which was nice, then headed back down to our own camp. Splendid was thrilled to see Gwyn, as she'd been left alone while Trudy, Randy and Alexis went on another trail ride. The day stayed cold and the sun never really stayed out. It was crazy windy. We socialized a bit and Trudy's cousin visited for dinner (ribs!). He lives in Spokane and was so cool. Lots of stories, very nice and funny man. 

We went back up the hill for awards. This time I got the "Speed Up" award for the 25. Cortney got 11th place, 'taking her sweet time'. And I was introduced as 'taking my sweet time with Cortney on that draft-thing' for 12th place. 

At Sunday's award night. The man in the hat is the one who wrote my last place prize book. He came in first for the 50. His wife is sitting next to him. She came in second on the 50. They had a super fast time. Apparently, they are also the Royalty of Endurance out here in the PNW, the Summers.

The award was a free ebook written by the 50s first place winner on how to speed up your endurance ride. I kind of already have an idea of what I need to do and that is 1. Lose weight 2. Do trot sets and 3. Ride LOTS MORE. We rode to my fitness, I am fully aware of that. Gwyn could have gone much faster. But I don't care for this first one, because I completed, and that is crazy to me. It always felt so much more difficult to achieve. And I'm kind of hooked. I think harnessphoto could have told me that, too.

The sky was clearing as the sun sank below the horizon and the cold just seeped into our bones. We all huddled in the camper to chat for our final night on the mountain. When we went outside again, it was perfectly clear and the stars were gorgeous. You could see the milky way stretched out across the sky, the big dipper was clearer than I'd ever seen it and I even saw a shooting star and two satellites. 

Sore and exhausted, I popped a few ibuprofen and crawled into bed. 


Day 4 - Monday

We slept in a bit, and packed up camp. We were among the last rigs to leave. Most people had been leaving on Sunday and early early Monday. One lady rode the 50, didn't complete, and her horse was on the trailer 45 minutes later on a 4 hour trip home. Poor thing :( 

This trailer has since bit the dust. They have a fancy new one now.

For us, we had a nail biting drive down the mountain hoping we'd make it to a gas station since the climb up had guzzled more diesel than anticipated. Then we made for Trudy's cousin's house. He was giving Cortney the family heirloom saddles, including one that was over 100 years old and absolutely gorgeous with hand tooled leather and mexican silver coin conchos. 

House sized boulder

Columnar Basalt in a coulee!

I really really miss this fucking state.

Then it was on the road again, headed west and eventually back over the Cascades to home. The drive was uneventful, thankfully. We dropped Gwyn off at my barn, reloaded the other horses and headed for their home in Duvall where we unpacked and separated everyone's stuff. Splendid continued on to Cortney's house in Snoqualmie and I loaded my car up with all my stuff and said my farewells. I got home well after 10pm, sore and exhausted.

Thank goodness for Desitin.


2018 Notes Looking Back:
That saddle I had was awful. As Gwyn's hair shed the next spring I found pressure point marks on her back that I directly attribute to this ride. I immediately ditched the saddle and began to ride bareback while on a saddle hunt until I found the one I have now, which was fit to her. (Note: I need to get the fit checked, it's been a while)

I've ditched the all leather gear for rides like this. It's really super nice to just dunk and go with the biothane.

I got hooked. It's such a fun sport. I'm looking forward to this year's ride season!