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| Zach's first ride on Dewey |
Zach liked Dewey before but after he rode him last night, he loves Dewey!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
A picture is worth 1000 words
Zach liked Dewey before but after he rode him last night, he loves Dewey!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
West Valley Trail
The West Valley Chapter of OET has been trying to make a trail system near Mac. Rachel and I decided to check it out. Let me say first of all it is not ready to ride unless you are very adventurous.
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| Looking ahead on the "trail" |
Here are some examples of the condition of the trail at this point. Some areas are OK but others you can't even tell there is a trail if we didn't see the flags.
The trail at this point is very steep and has a creek crossing. These pictures were trying to show how steep some parts of it were. Rachel and I are two of the most adventurous riders I know and even we got off and walked our horses a couple of times.
Two very tired horses after 2 hours of trail blazing! I was so proud of them both. We had several hairy situations but Brownie and Tango handled it all.
Introducing Dewey
I have to apologize I have not been in the mood to update my blog since we lost Drover. He was Zach's and it was just hard for me to let him go so soon. Because he was Zach's the decision was made to keep our eye out for a new horse to replace him.
So far we have been really lucky, all our horses have fit in great and I was a little nervous about starting over again. Since we are looking at the cheaper side of the market we have had our share of misleading adds and interesting trail rides. I should say Rachel has had her share of interesting trial rides :) Rachel has been very kind to try all the horses first since she is the most experienced.
Dewey was found on craigslist. His ad had the worst blurry picture and he didn't seem like a great prospect but since he was a Tennessee walker we thought it might be fun to go take a look anyway. After we saw him Rachel and I both thought he was meant to be ours. He is a little over 16 hands and nice and sturdy. Since he hadn't been ridden for several months he was a bit excited but we could both see a diamond in the rough and we quickly decided to bring him home for Zach.
So far we have been really lucky, all our horses have fit in great and I was a little nervous about starting over again. Since we are looking at the cheaper side of the market we have had our share of misleading adds and interesting trail rides. I should say Rachel has had her share of interesting trial rides :) Rachel has been very kind to try all the horses first since she is the most experienced.
Dewey was found on craigslist. His ad had the worst blurry picture and he didn't seem like a great prospect but since he was a Tennessee walker we thought it might be fun to go take a look anyway. After we saw him Rachel and I both thought he was meant to be ours. He is a little over 16 hands and nice and sturdy. Since he hadn't been ridden for several months he was a bit excited but we could both see a diamond in the rough and we quickly decided to bring him home for Zach.
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| Rachel and Dewey at Forest Park |
Zach
Many of you who read the blog know I have a son but he doesn't appear here very much. He is a 12 yo camera shy boy. I did get him to come out with Rachel and I to forest park the other day. He loved it! It was his first trail ride so he road Rachel's horse Tango.
Forest Park is one of our go to places. It is about 45 mins away and can be ridden almost any time of the year. There are easy forest roads or more difficult single track trails. It is heavily used by bikers and hikers so make sure your horse is comfortable with other traffic.
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| Tango is confused, is his colour red, blue, pink??? |
Forest Park is one of our go to places. It is about 45 mins away and can be ridden almost any time of the year. There are easy forest roads or more difficult single track trails. It is heavily used by bikers and hikers so make sure your horse is comfortable with other traffic.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Drover's Last Chapter
As a friend to Tina and someone who's continuously popping up in the storyline of this blog, I've taken on the responsibility of telling this portion of our story. Let me introduce myself, I am Rachel, mom to Tango and Henry, trainer to Jessie and Zach, and good friend/riding partner to Tina. I may post here and there when I'm called upon for a differing view or if I feel the need to make a statement to one of Tina's comments (sometimes our opposite point's of view lead to lovely heated debates, some may call them arguments, but no grudges are ever held so I feel they're debates :) )
So, as I was saying, I decided to take my sisters on a New Year's Eve ride at Stubb Stewart State Park. They had yet to go trail riding with me even though they have both ridden but I felt the experience would be a nice bonding time for us. We matched everyone to their comfort level with the horses, I would ride Tango; Justina would get Turbo since she's a little hesitant about the horses due to having an abnormal amount of "untimely dismounts" with previous horses, and Michelle would ride Drover since she's lighter then the rest of us and has her own horse with plenty of riding experience.
After picking the girls up, Tina called and informed me she coaxed her way into getting the rest of the day off work, so she would join us on this trip and get to ride Brownie. Now, at this point I must inform you that Brownie and I have a fond dislike of each other, we don't see eye to eye. I want to ride peacefully on a horse that does what I say, and Brownie doesn't feel the need to listen all the time and is stubborn as hell when it comes to getting his way, which you can imagine has led to some scraps between us. Neither has won in our ongoing fight but I've chosen to never put myself in the position having to ride him.
Anyway, back to the story. We loaded up and headed off to Stubbs. The day was beautiful and even though there was still snow in the ground up there we chose to go on with our ride. It was a bit tricky getting the truck and trailer up the steep him to the parking area and we didn't even making it to the designated horse area but we found a pull-out to stop at and we saddled up.
The ride was gorgeous, the hills were beautiful and the views were great, we were able to get up to Unfit Settlement view where the snow capped mountains went on for miles. We had some issues getting Drover over the mini creeks that had carved their way down the side of the hill in various spots but the rest of the ride went perfect.
As we were returning to the trailer we made our way along the ice covered road. We were almost to the trailer when disaster struck, Drover slipped and went down. My sister came off but wasn't hurt in the process. We all jumped off to see why Drover refused to get up. After several attempts to get him to stand up he got too close to the edge of the bank on the side of the road and he slid down into the crevasse, there he lay, completely stuck. Several cars stopped to help and the park ranger finally called the banks county fire department. Everyone made all the attempts to help him up but it wasn't enough. After every attempt he would collapse and lay back down. A vet was finally called after about 30 minutes of rescue attempts and the vet gave the ominous news, Drover had either dislocated or broke his hip falling down. His only option was euthanasia. This choice is the hardest decision for any horse owner, making the decision to give peace to a loyal friend. Even though Drover wasn't with us long his final months were with good pasture buddies, really good food and a final beautiful ride that made up the last chapter of his life.
We will miss you Drover and won't forget your sweet personality and friendly nickers for everyone.
-TBtrailrider
So, as I was saying, I decided to take my sisters on a New Year's Eve ride at Stubb Stewart State Park. They had yet to go trail riding with me even though they have both ridden but I felt the experience would be a nice bonding time for us. We matched everyone to their comfort level with the horses, I would ride Tango; Justina would get Turbo since she's a little hesitant about the horses due to having an abnormal amount of "untimely dismounts" with previous horses, and Michelle would ride Drover since she's lighter then the rest of us and has her own horse with plenty of riding experience.
After picking the girls up, Tina called and informed me she coaxed her way into getting the rest of the day off work, so she would join us on this trip and get to ride Brownie. Now, at this point I must inform you that Brownie and I have a fond dislike of each other, we don't see eye to eye. I want to ride peacefully on a horse that does what I say, and Brownie doesn't feel the need to listen all the time and is stubborn as hell when it comes to getting his way, which you can imagine has led to some scraps between us. Neither has won in our ongoing fight but I've chosen to never put myself in the position having to ride him.
Anyway, back to the story. We loaded up and headed off to Stubbs. The day was beautiful and even though there was still snow in the ground up there we chose to go on with our ride. It was a bit tricky getting the truck and trailer up the steep him to the parking area and we didn't even making it to the designated horse area but we found a pull-out to stop at and we saddled up.
The ride was gorgeous, the hills were beautiful and the views were great, we were able to get up to Unfit Settlement view where the snow capped mountains went on for miles. We had some issues getting Drover over the mini creeks that had carved their way down the side of the hill in various spots but the rest of the ride went perfect.
As we were returning to the trailer we made our way along the ice covered road. We were almost to the trailer when disaster struck, Drover slipped and went down. My sister came off but wasn't hurt in the process. We all jumped off to see why Drover refused to get up. After several attempts to get him to stand up he got too close to the edge of the bank on the side of the road and he slid down into the crevasse, there he lay, completely stuck. Several cars stopped to help and the park ranger finally called the banks county fire department. Everyone made all the attempts to help him up but it wasn't enough. After every attempt he would collapse and lay back down. A vet was finally called after about 30 minutes of rescue attempts and the vet gave the ominous news, Drover had either dislocated or broke his hip falling down. His only option was euthanasia. This choice is the hardest decision for any horse owner, making the decision to give peace to a loyal friend. Even though Drover wasn't with us long his final months were with good pasture buddies, really good food and a final beautiful ride that made up the last chapter of his life.
We will miss you Drover and won't forget your sweet personality and friendly nickers for everyone.
-TBtrailrider
Monday, January 10, 2011
Self Portrait
Jessie took this picture yesterday but she likes it better sepia .
What do you think?
How about the artistic version?
What do you think?
How about the artistic version?
Thursday, January 6, 2011
MMMMMM Lunch?
Sometimes after looking at a series of pictures I find myself imagining what my animals were thinking. Jessie took these ones in her room and this is how I imagine it went.
ALRIGHT, I am out of my cage. Where are my treats?
"What did you bring me? Is this my lunch?"
"Funny He doesn't smell like Lunch."
Maybe I can at least play with him?
How about I roll over and you rub my tummy?
Well that is not working, don't you feel me nudging you?
I guess if you are not going to do anything for me
I will just sit here and pretend you don't exist!
These last two I found so cute I had to post them! Jessie has a great eye for pictures.
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