what day is it?

and why is everything I need to do on a computer? Well, not everything. But it sure feels like it on a Monday. No wait. This week started on Tuesday. Monday was a holiday. So Tuesday was Monday, and Wednesday was Tuesday. No wonder this week is all fuggled up!!

The very first day of this very New Year was odd.

It was a Monday, not a Tuesday. Our year started by helping neighboring Hylanders find the way back home. Over one saggy wire. The fellow down our road said "I called them and they were coming home". That's nice. Four bulls were loose, for who knows how long.

I keep finding treasures in new places on our land.

evidence

My son said I should thank them. We didn't even have to pay for the extra fertilizer.

I didn't bring my camera and instead kept my focus on helping. Obstructed phone photos it is. Taken from the safety of our side-by-side.

I was tasked with blocking field escape routes
1/1/24

Our new side-by-side sure is coming in handy. Vroooom! We were there in a flash to help. When I couldn't go any further, I was able to head back and zoom drive across our property to the road. It was an adventure! I took the longest driveway on our road, to alert the owners. We have informally met, but do not know this couple. I was greeted with "they already know". Including about the lack of appropriate fencing. I have seen them in that pasture many times. "I didn't know the one bull was going to cause trouble" One? Four of them were out touring the neighborhood. 

Our horses were all ears and alerted us to the alien invaders.

Thankfully the bulls were friendly. One even came up to Brad and licked him.

Maybe he thought Brad was a salt lick?

They all walked back over the fence. Humans included. Their solution was to keep the bulls in a different pasture. Not sure how that "fixes" the unbroken fence, but whatever. They are not my cattle. 

tracks

The visiting bulls added interest to our walks. There are tracks all over our place. I found it interesting that the bulls stopped at the edge of our Enchanted Forest. Apparently without grass, the bulls didn't find the woods very enchanting. 

Jameson and Tank knew something was different
1/1/24

The bulls live on the other side of the light green field above, fairly close.



added this photo from today of the herd
1/5/24

The field in the forefront is the same light green field mentioned (not our property).

1/4/24

I always feel bad leaving Hope behind. Someday she will get to come with us on our adventures! When there are no bulls running loose. It might be on a Monday, or a Tuesday.

Cierra watching in the distance

I reminded myself that Brad is retired. We could go most any day. Let the adventures begin!!!

First, we have to figure out what day it actually is.

crickets and creeks and steps ~ oh my!

Before we bring Koda & Nemo home, and the show season goes into full swing for our trainer, we wanted to take in another trail ride. We couldn't find anyone to join us, so Brad, Patty and I headed out to White Mound - and once again found an adventure!

It was a warm sunny 86 degree's. The trails had opened four days earlier. I wasn't sure what we would find on opening weekend, having only ridden these trails once before. We arrived to find only three trailers, not bad. One group was at the camp site/unloading area, we never did see the other's or anyone on the trail. Their horses were saddled and grazing, and loose...pretty darn bold if you ask me. They grabbed two of them after we unloaded, but let the other two wander around. Whatever. We tacked up, did a short lunge warm up and headed out - starting off with a challenge. Someone had set up camp in an undesignated spot. We had to walk past their tent, scary outhouses, and right next to hanging blowing clothes, bags, and a mirror on a clothes line. The recent fire that was put out got wonky looks from the horses too. Let's just say we all got off. Brad & Nemo eventually rode around the outhouse/tent area. Once past the scary stuff, Patty got back on Lena  (a young Haflinger in training) We went right from the scary campsite, to the road. Great. Falling off while road riding was fresh in my mind. Starting out with Koda ready to jump out of his skin at the campsite, shot my nerves. I opted to walk the road. This wasn't how I wanted to start my ride.

Brad & Nemo led us onto a trail that was varied, and beautiful. Parts of it looked familiar, and we were happy to find they had marked the trails a bit better then our first visit. We rode the trail now occasionally marked as number 7. We rounded a corner and suddenly found ourselves surrounded by thousands of crickets ~ the ground was alive!! The crickets were making noise and hopping everywhere, the trail was completely blanketed with them. Koda looked down the entire time trying to figure out what the heck those jumping things were that engulfed his feet. We had a good laugh, none of us had ever experienced cricket-land. It was surreal.

We all took turns leading, and rode in and out of different terrain - forrest, grassy plains, across park roads, and very hilly woods with steep declines. We came upon the same hills we had dismounted on our first ride at White Mound, due to the slippery wet conditions. All the horses took the hills slow, and did great. There was a lot of down hill riding. One would think what goes down must come up, but we went down far more then we ever went up. 

At one point on the grassy open trails a huge Tom Turkey jumped out of the bushes right next to Lena and Nemo, all three horses jumped and spun around. I thought, here I go again...I grabbed my horn and this time managed to hang on and regain my balance. Patty was delighted, but in all honesty I didn't do anything different then the last time this happened. I looked up, Brad and Nemo had already walked up the hill. I didn't think anything of it, but called out for him to wait.

Brad and Nemo leading the way

We crossed a swampy area, and came upon a creek. Nemo and Koda have never crossed water. Patty thought her mount had, but wasn't sure. Our boy's didn't want anything to do with getting swallowed up by the mud that preceded the water. Brad dismounted and walked though the small creek, but Nemo jumped it! He encouraged Nemo to trust, and eventually rode him through the mud and creek over and over. The haffie followed him and walked right through it, funny how they all have different strengths. I just didn't have it in me, so I dismounted and held Lena while Patty rode a shaking Koda. With the help of Nemo, they eventually convinced Koda it was okay. We switched, and I rode Koda through the creek too. He took it slow, and did a good job. Later in the ride, we all crossed a different creek with ease.

As if all that wasn't enough of an adventure, we found ourselves on a different challenging part of the trail. While riding through the woods we came upon large blocks of hardwood timbers strategically placed on the trail, to stop erosion. At that point Patty was leading, her mount wasn't too keen on the wood blocks. I decided to take the lead, Koda and I hopped up the first one (it was a big step) and maneuvered around others. It changed into a narrow path with barbwire on one side, and a small patch of scrub trees between us and the campers. What we found next, stopped us in our tracks. You couldn't see the end of a steep rocky downhill narrow winding path, with more large blocks of wood - did I mention it was really steep? Once again fearless Brad and Nemo took the lead, Koda and I went next, and altho Patty thought about dismounting she chose to ride it. It would have been hard to lead a horse in hand. Once again all the horses were rock stars, as we worked in teams, slowly weaving and maneuvering the advanced rugged terrain. Definitely not a trail for the faint of heart, horse or human.

A few paths later, Brad and Nemo led us back to the trailer. How does he do that? I'm married to a GPS, good thing too - I need all the help I can get!  We were a happy thirsty, sweaty, and tired bunch.

My sweaty boy, Koda

After letting the horses graze and cool off, we headed back to the barn. They were pretty happy to be going home. I wonder if they liked the adventure as much as we did?

Patty and Lena getting ready to load

We unloaded the trailer, and tucked our boys into their stalls. On the ride home I found out why Brad and Nemo uncharacteristically rode away after the Tom Turkey scare. He said he was pissed. Huh? He had been thinking about my saddle. Firmly stating "it's not you Aurora - I know what I saw, and it's the saddle (fit). When the horses justifiably spooked, said he easily saw 4-6 inches between my butt and the saddle...and I never should have caught air". Nobody else did. I never used to catch air during anything similar. The horses turned and went sideways, there was no hill or lift. I know why, I am perched. I've been saying this since day one. Nobody's fault, but my own. I gave in, and stopped mentioning things like the way the cantle pushes me forward. I'm fighting it. I really needed a saddle and had been on a very long search so I payed for it, and still am (in other ways). I've tried to change the way I ride...and am very far from an expert, but it's throwing me off balance. It's all okay, until something goes wrong.


In the past, I never gave saddles a second thought - I rode in whatever. A person shouldn't have to change the way they ride. Now I'm always consciously thinking about it, the whole dang trail. Not much relaxing going on. Imagine how Koda feels. All the carefree stuff I loved is gone. Maybe someday I'll find "it" again? My saddle tree is narrow, it's comfortable, it's pretty and yep it makes me sit up real nice and straight - not so important on the trail. It stinks, I really like everything else about my saddle but I'm stuck with it for now. I'm tired of thinking about it, and surely your tired of reading about it. We have other rides planned. I'll just have to keep my guard up. Not sure why, but for some reason my husband's comment made me feel better.

mini-adventure

Last weekend we took the boys on a mini-adventure…it was probably a good thing I didn’t know we were taking one ahead of time. A change in the weather pattern found us with a cool, crisp breeze that morning – the kind that gets the horses all wound up over nothing. Add a trailer, and hungry horses – and what the heck, lets go for a short walk first to get them listening?! But hey, the walk worked and got them to focus.
Trailer loading went well, feed had never tasted better. Doors closed, lets take ‘em for a ride…something they have done only once - last Labor Day to be exact, when we brought our boys home. We didn’t go far, destination was…..our house - not exactly a location frequented by horses. I was impressed; Koda & Nemo were handling everything so well.
Did you know our mini-adventure was going to include our dogs? Me neither. We have two ½ Australian Sheppard and ½ Labrador (read as wound-up) brothers, Mack and Sam, with complete opposite personalities. We let our dogs out of their kennel, but kept Sam on a leash (even though he met the horses once before) it was a good thing, the “giants dogs” arrived on his property and he didn’t know what to make of it…“can’t they just stay down on the scary farm”? Before you think we are completely crazy, know that our horses are frequently exposed to two other dogs that live on the farm. Mack had never seen a horse, but did really well with them. After running circles and exchanging nose-to-nose greetings, Mack didn’t want to leave his new horse friends, or us - so he came with us when we took the horses back to the farm.
Wish I had a better conclusion to this adventure, but just when we thought all was a success - Koda had his second trailer meltdown (yes, I’m counting) while backing out of the trailer, down at the farm. It really wasn’t his fault (human error) he panicked, and ended up with a couple minor leg scraps. Nemo however regained his composure, and exited like a champ. Of course we felt terrible, but ended on a positive note. Koda reloaded several times. Shortly after, Mack escaped from the truck and ran around the pasture before joined Koda and Brad in the trailer…maybe he thinks he’s a mini-pony? Note to self; work with Koda on “pulling-back panic-mode” before going on the next mini-adventure!