April 2007

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April 28, 2007

Last weekend was busy.  I didn't have time to get back on and give the re-hash of everything I did.  Let's see what I can remember...

Saturday, I got up early and met the twins for breakfast at IHOP in Warrenton.  Hadn't seen either of them in months so that was a real treat.  It was great catching up and hearing about what they've both been up to.

After that, I drove to Haymarket to ride Justin.  Lori and Topper came out with us.  It was a gorgeous day.  I did a little more trail trimming.  Nifty nature finds were a turkey egg (I had to look it up on the Net to figure out what kind it actually was) and a snake, which now that I think about it, I think Topper accidentally stepped on him and killed him.  I'll know when I go back out there tomorrow.  Oops!

After our ride, I drove through McDonald's my usual weekend fare and headed to Charlottesville to teach some little girls how to braid.  The drive was amazing.  They actually live in Earlysville.  I've never been out that way -- the countryside is phenomenal.  The girls picked up quickly and I taught them some great tricks.  They had a show the following day and their mom said they did a great job with their braids.  I got home about 6:00 in time for dinner with Bob.

The next day, I rode out on my own.  I did a short ride on a different route.  Justin was pretty fired up because we galloped (well, he chose to gallop) past some neighboring horses.  So, he was Mr. Prancy after that.  But all in all, we enjoyed our ride.  Lori and I went to Saddlery Liquidators after that.

The rest of the week, the weather was either sketchy or I had stuff to do after work which kept me from the barn.  But I was glad to get Justin out Fri, Sat, Sun. 

Today, I went to the Katie Monahan Prudent Clinic in Columbia, MD at the Columbia Horse Center.  I met Dani and her clients there.  I brought the new camera Bob gave me at Christmas.  I'm bad and haven't even used it yet.  Here are some of the pix I took:

I took a ton but I'm still figuring out the whole software thing with the camera so getting to them is a bit of a hassle.  These ones, I'll pulled off the camera and stored in a file to email to the owner.  Other than these, I don't feel really comfortable posting pictures of people that didn't give me their permission to.

As always, the clinic was informative.  I like Katie and her message is very similar to George Morris', however, she isn't nearly as tough as he is.  It was fun to see her get on some of the tougher horses and to see how they went much better for her.  Everyone's horses improved throughout the clinic.  Of course, the whole thing just left me DYING to get on and jump something.

I'm working on it!!

April 20, 2007

Got to work early today so I could leave early and headed out to ride Justin.  Hadn't gotten to ride him for the past two weekends so, needless to say, I was in need of my equine time. 

Beautiful day.  Best we've had in some weeks.  We've had so much rain and high winds.  The trails reflected it.  There were a few fallen trees today where there once were not.  Two are directly blocking our trails.  I'm going to have to go in and do a little maintenance.  None are so large they can't be moved and luckily, one is low enough that Justin can step over it. 

Saw some HUGE turkeys today.  Had I not been peering through the woods while we were riding along, I'd have missed them.  Turkeys are really quite shy!  During my ride, it was neat to look down and see footprints of deer, raccoon, horse, all side by side.  I spotted that once along the creek.

It was so nice and quiet.  At one point, though, I could hear Topper wailing off in the distance, calling for Justin!

I took some pictures along the way with my PDA.  I particularly like to get Justin's ears in every shot, so, that is intentional when you see them.  Enjoy!

Bluebells

Buttercups

Bull Run Mountains

Concrete bridge

On the bridge

A creek in sight

Safely across

Last creek

Headed home

These beautiful bluebells blanket the banks of the creek we walk along, just behind Lori's property.

This was a huge field of buttercups. Just moments after I put my camera away, a sizeable herd of deer lept along the edge of the field like ballet dancers and slipped quickly back into the woods. I was so sorry I missed capturing them.

This is the view from the long grade that leads down to the creeks we cross towards the end of our ride.

Water rushes over this slab of concrete. It allows vehicles to cross over it and makes for a nice passage for Justin as well.

Justin pays close attention to his job.

The ears just can't get any cuter than this. It is hard to tell but Justin noticed there was a big branch blocking our way into the creek. He ended up thumping it out of his way.

Here he is, with his alert little ears, safely on the bank on the other side. Ahead is the tree we used to step through. A newly cut path sends us around that.

Justin is knee deep in the water here, navigating his way across the last creek before home.

This is the last stretch of woods before we come to the drive that leads us home. Justin is always eager to get back to the barn. Look how cute his mane is, bobbing in the breeze. I love the optimism of those ears.

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Bluebells

These beautiful bluebells blanket the banks of the creek we walk along, just behind Lori's property.

April 2, 2007

Augh!  All kinds of excitement but not enough time to catch you up.  So, I'm just going to ramble here and there.

My nifty-cool cantle pack came in.  Totally dig it.  Has a little pocket I use for treats for Justin and a big pocket I use for my handy-dandy folding saw (no, I'm not kidding) and another holder for a water bottle.  The one it came with was pretty cheesy, but I figured out what size water bottle straight from the store fits in there and that'll be what I slide in there. 

I mentioned the folding saw.  I had Bob help me pick out some pruning snips and the nifty folding saw.  There was actually one bigger than the one I got but I wasn't sure it would fit in the pack.  The one I got ended up being quite effective.  I left the office early today and beat Lori home.  So, rather than tack up Topper for her (she's only half-kidding when she tells me to do this), I walked down the newly forged path to the creek at the back of her property to do a little reconnaissance work to see if there was a good crossing to this little outcropping of land we saw on the weekend.  It appeared to be the best way out of the water to walk the bank of the creek.

Because I could not find a rocky enough crossing to take me across with my boots on, I had to take my boots off, roll up my cuffs, and wade across and that's exactly what I did.  I have to say, I haven't been barefoot in a creek in a really, really long time.  I was most likely a teenager.  So, I did take some pleasure in finding my way across, even though the rocks were slippery and the water was cold.  It actually felt great. 

On the other side, I shoved my boots on without the socks and started hacking away at stuff that would impede our safe passage.  My nifty saw worked like a charm and those pruning snips could definitely take a finger off.  I was thrilled to carve out an easy path to this new trail that we found which skirts the backside of Lori's neighbor with the indoor arena and follows the curves of the creek.

Once back at the barn, Lori had just shown up and she and Paul teased me and called me Paul Bunyan.  Of course, armed with what I kept referring to as my machete and my snips in their handy holster, I had to put on my redneck persona several times throughout the ride.  People who know me know how I love to talk like that.  I actually dated a guy one time that absolutely hated when I did that.  I think it reminded him of Deliverance.  Needless to say, he is gone.  To know the redneck in me is to love me.

Lori and I headed out to try out our new 'loop'.  Everything went great!  We did miss our crossing point from the Sanders Lane side back over to our side but found it and were on our way.  Justin walked into that water like he'd done it a million times.  Very happy about how brave he's gotten.  Anyway, the whole ride took about an hour.  We had some stops along the way while I stopped to snip stuff.  I got pretty snip happy.  And, at the end, instead of traumatizing Lori and Topper by jumping the forked tree that Justin just walks through, with machete and snips in hand, we dismounted and cut a good path around the tree (this area has a lot of under brush and saplings), then, mounted and caught the stuff you don't notice or can't reach while you are on foot.

Yay!!!  So, we have a nice, safe path.  The weather was just perfect and it was such a nice evening ride.  Just can't wait for the warm weather to be here for awhile!

This, of course, does not cover my weekend, which, as you know, tends to be quite eventful.  Nor does it cover my ride on Friday or my ride on Wednesday.  But, you also know that I tend to go on and it is 9:30, which yes, is my bedtime so I must go.  In short, I had a blast, as usual.