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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Reynolds Creek, Owyhees

On a whim this afternoon, Emily and I saddled up and took a drive out to Reynolds Creek.  (Check out my newly turned stirrups!  My knees thanked me.)


Kahlua was donning her fancy new blingy breast collar.


A shot out the window while I was driving.  Those are the mountains I was headed to.  Doesn't look like much from here.


Reynolds Creek is really nice, and there are miles and miles and miles of trails to explore. There were lots of big horse-eating things out there, but the horses managed to keep their heads about them, despite the fact that Emily's horse was sure that we were riding her out to where we were going to make her into dog food.

Jaenne and I walked the dogs through this canyon one time, and I thought to myself then how nice it would be to bring Kahlua through there.  And it was! 




Oh, big scary horse-eating rock.




It's hard to take photos when the sun in out and really bright (I am not complaining!), so what I get is what I get.  LOL!  Lots of ear shots.

These are the Oxbow stirrups that came with my saddle.  They are very heavy, made of iron, and I heard a terrible story about someone getting hit in the head with one of these when they fell off their horse.  I wish I'd never heard that.  LOL.  I love these stirrups though.  So comfortable, and my feet do not get hung up in them at all.


Got a bit of sunburn today, and it feels great!  Tomorrow I'm headed to Boise to drop a few sheep off for someone who needs walking lawnmowers, then to sushi for lunch with a friend.  Friday, we might head out to ride again, and then Saturday morning is a ride out at Succor Creek.

The Questionable Decisions are going to start questioning their decision to come live with me!


Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Holy Heights!

On Monday, Emily and I went for a ride out in the Owyhees.  We were meeting up with a small group of folks, but shortly into the ride, we found ourselves waiting for the rest of the pack so we rode off on our own.

What a gorgeous day!  And these photos will do this area no justice.  This was absolutely one of the coolest rides I've been on.  We kept going up ... and before I knew it, we were at the top of this mountain with beautiful views everywhere you looked.













Despite our best attempts to find an alternate way down, we finally accepted the fact that we would have to go back the same way we came ... which was fine.  The whole area was very steep and I was a little bit un-nerved, especially after the two of us almost running right into a very large prairie rattlesnake that, thankfully, made his presence very known.  The horses didn't care, but it got out hearts pumping.  A good reminder that we are in the heart of snake season, and hitting these remote areas ... we are bound to run into them. 

I took my saddle to the saddlemaker down the road today, and he turned my stirrups, and put in proper breast collar rings for me.  I have a really nice breast collar and haven't been able to use it yet.

I have another ride scheduled for Saturday, if I don't ride again before then.  Too much fun!

J

Monday, May 21, 2012

Diabetes Ride 2012

Fun ride! Got there nice and early Sunday morning, and met up with Cindi and her daughter, and one of the other gals, Mary, from the Just Horsin' Around group, and also found Don and Dustin and his wife (whose name I don't recall). When it was time to ride out, I wasn't sure where Cindi and her group were, so Jillane and I took off with Don and his group. We did the short ride, which later on turned out to be a good thing because Dustin's horse started hitchin' his back left leg toward the end of the ride. I didn't take any photos on the ride itself, but for an organized ride, it was fun. The horses behave differently on these rides. Jillane (who rode with me) and one of the other people in the group had endurance horses, and they stayed out in front of the pack. Since Kahlua was in the trailer with Jillane's horse, I worked the entire time to hold her back so I could stay with the rest of the group. Don showed me a couple of things, so I turned it into a training session, and hopefully I can communicate with Kahlua a bit clearer. We went up over quite a few hills, and the horses got worked pretty good.  

I took my camera with me, but never took it out of the bag.  Here's a few photos from my phone, although I didn't think to take any on the ride itself.


Don and Dustin


Lunch was awesome!  I don't know who it was catered by, but here was the view when you were putting together your plate.

Pulled pork sandwiches, really good potato salad, regular salad, beans, rolls, etc.  They even had coolers full of rock solid frozen ice cream.  There were quite a few people there, so hopefully the foundation made some good money.  When I was hanging out under the food tents, I hear, "Jodi?"  I look at this person who had come over and was looking right at me, but it was one of those things where if you see them in a place different from where you normally see them, you recognize them, but can't place who it is.  It was Debbie ... Jack's girlfriend.  I haven't seen her in at least a year ... and have only seen her at stockdog trials.  It's amazing how many people I run into at these horse events because of the dogs.  Anyway, it was nice to see her, and hopefully I can get her and Jack out for a ride in the Owyhees soon.

There was a raffle that I didn't stick around for, but they were selling feeders (inside out tractor tires) for $25.  When I bought one, the woman told me to take two.  I love free stuff!

Got a bunch of stuff to do today and then I'm headed out to the Owyhees tomorrow morning for a ride, I think.  If all works out, anyway. 

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Video from Wilson Butte 4-H Ride

I don't think I posted this ... this is the video from the Wilson Butte 4-H ride I did a few weeks ago. This was a really fun ride on a gorgeous ranch.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Sticky Situation

I was ranch sitting this weekend.  I packed up my dogs and my horse and headed out to the Couch Spa for a few days.  Perfect time!   It was lambie race weekend!  The bulls were in town, too, and they were quite ... um ... vocal.  Got to see a lot of different birds, too ... some I could identify and some I'm not sure of ... and there was even a bit of excitement, just to make sure my heart is still functioning.



Look who's not afraid of the camera anymore.  I think this is my favorite shot of her to date.






The weather was gorgeous and the mornings were beautiful.  I didn't normally have my camera with me when I went out to feed, but often times, wished I did.  There are two blue herons that were hanging out in the irrigation canal most of the time that would fly off as soon as they heard me.  There were a couple of large red-tailed hawks that would come visit and soar overhead.  There were lots of birds I hadn't seen before ... little birds ... that would hang out in the standing irrigation water.  Some of them liked hangin' with the horses...


As you can see, I am now able to take photos pretty much right in her face and she doesn't so much as twitch.  Yay!  Finally!


Just like me, she needs her chin hairs plucked.  ;-)


This shot was a one-time deal.  This is Smokey.  After I took this shot, he wasn't sure what to make of me.  I am not sure he's ever had his photo taken.

And I love this red roan, but he has far too much giddyup for me.



Aren't these guys a couple of charmers?
 

Caught a shot of one of the blues, well ... sort of ...
 

I love this view.   This is one thing I don't think I'd ever get sick of looking at.
 

I am not sure, but I think the taller black and white bird is a black-necked stilt.   I'll see if I have a better photo of it.  I don't know what the other bird is.


The water was rising, and pretty soon, where all the sheep were standing would be flooded, so we needed to move everyone to the dry pasture next to this one. 




A few of the mommas would think about giving Echo some grief, but thought better of it when she broke out the almighty powerful tongue action.






I was so enamored with all the little lambies, I missed a momma and baby standing off in the corner, so I sent Echo back to get her.  This can get a little squirrely, but she handled it perfectly.  Beautiful outrun, and backed the ewe nice and quietly halfway down the pasture until the ewe finally figured out that fighting would be futile and she turned and cooperated.  I, of course, being the oh-so-talented idiot, was too busy enjoying watching my dog that I forgot to snap photos until they got to the gate.




She was in no particular hurry to re-join her buddies, so I had Echo push her up a bit.


In a few weeks, when these lambs have had some time to grow up a bit, I'd like to go back and work Reese on some of this large flock stuff. 


Throughout the weekend, despite the fact that the gates were open, there would inevitably be one lamb who was stuck on the other side of the fence.  Working a single adult is fun, but working a single clueless lamb was pretty entertaining.  It's amazing when faced with choices ... either go toward the dog or go toward the open gate ... what they determined was the best course of action.  It was never the gate.  At one point, one of them just jumped right over Echo.  Had that been a ewe, she never would have allowed that.  But she just laid their like a good girl, and looked at me as if to shrug her shoulders before going and gathering that little lamb again.  So cute ...

A few gratuitous lambie photos.  I hung out here for a long time watching their little antics.








Now for the sticky part.

I was walking my dogs up and down the canal, and happened to have my camera with me.  I picked up a stick out of the driveway to toss it into the canal so no one messed with it, but the second I picked it up, Zip gave me a really nice pose.  So I took a couple of shots of him, and then just tossed it to him (knowing he'll give it right back to me) to reward him for staying, etc.  When I tossed it to him, Reese went to catch it also, and Zip snatched it up quicker than he normally would have, just as it was hitting the ground.  And it got lodged in his throat.  To give you an idea of the angle, picture yourself pointing straight into your mouth.  When he lifted his head, the stick was sticking straight out of his mouth.  It seemed like a lifetime before I got to him (probably 2 or 3 seconds) to pull it out, and he threw up a bit of water, but no blood.  I kept a close eye on him that evening, and you knew it hurt, and he was a bit lethargic that night.  I planned on taking him to the vet the next morning, but when I let him out of his crate, he came flying out ready for action.  Without further adieu, here's the stick.


Took some random shots around the place...


And played with the camera ... and bugs.

And shadows:



Found some lettering for my trailer.  How does this look?


And a few of Punkeroo.  His ears have no idea which end is up.





The end!