August 2008

August 1:

We drove down to Florida to see my dad and family, leaving our farm in
some very capable hands while we were gone.

We had a pretty fun day here on my dad's birthday! We went to see "Swing
Vote", which Donnie and I loved! It is the first movie we have been to in
awhile that the audience actually applauded in appreciation at the end! Of
course, Donnie and I brought down the average age of the audience by 20
years or so . It's a fun flick with a very good message during an election
year.

Then we went to a Cajun restaurant sitting on the side of a canal or swamp
or some kind of body of water. We ate on an outdoor porch over the water.
The place looked like a shack with lots of character, Cajun music playing,
and pretty authentic Cajun food. I had an alligator tail BBQ burger with
fried okra and Donnie had red beans and rice with alligator sausage in the
beans. The gator was good to the end and the end wasn't bad either! I
think my dad had a pretty good birthday. We drove over to the beach after
dinner and watched the sun set.

Strangely, I found out today that my friend who I got Ivan from's father
had his birthday today also. And he was born the same year as my dad! My
dad said he had never run across anyone who was born on the same day as he
was. I guess now he has.

I called home and the animals are all doing well...thank goodness! Ivan
hasn't had his flymask on since I left, but otherwise is doing okay with
his caretakers.

August 4:
On our way back north we stopped in Ocala to meet the sire of our foal.
He is an Spanish Andalusian stallion who is just gorgeous! We
discovered not only is he beautiful, he is also very talented and has a
mellow personality. All this bodes well for Speck!


August 5
The weather was very hot and humid down there, but as we came back north
the next day, it was much hotter and just as humid in SC! Yikes, it was
97 degrees there. Today here it was 84. Felt great .

I think Ivan missed me. He has been all over me every time I went down to
the barn. He wouldn't let our farm sitters put on his fly mask and
practically threw his head into it when I put it on him this morning. He
has nickered at me several times today and wanted to work this evening, so
we worked on the going forward signal on the ground. I need him to
understand it so I can get him to go forward when I get on him. He seems
to be catching on.

The snack factory is back!

August 7:

I have had a slug afternoon. While cleaning up the barnlot this morning, I
HAD to go back up to the house (2 cups of tea, you know), and just as I
was getting ready to walk out the door to go back down to the barn, the
rain suddenly poured down. It hadn't even sprinkled and I didn't think it
was going to rain so soon, although it was cloudy all morning. The rain
caught the horses and goats by surprise, too, and they got soaked as they
dashed back to the barn in the deluge. For once they were wet and I
wasn't. It rained for about a half hour and then I went and finished up
the barn work. I spent the cool afternoon reading a Hamish MacBeth book
that I have been trying to get to all week. A good slug afternoon.

Our little horse club is sponsoring two obstacle course classes at the
Newport, VA county fair on Saturday morning. Kazi won her ground class
three years in a row, but won't be going this year, so they have made me a
judge. Yikes! I would much rather be taking Kazi! The classes are the
first in the show, so we have to be there to set up at 8 a.m. It will be
the last appearance of the Noodles of Death. We are sort of sick to death
of them . Now that Ivan goes into 'seek and destroy' every time he sees
them, we can't leave them up to play with anymore. He now plays with
plastic 55 gallon barrels and 10 foot long plastic drainage tiles. He
hasn't figured out how to destroy them yet.....yet.....

August 9:
I found a great arrowhead this afternoon as I was cleaning the barnlot!
We think there was an Indian village right where our barn is and we find
lots of arrowhead pieces where they seemed to be making them. Most have
goofs in them, like they chipped off the tip or something, but this one
was white quartz and the best one we have found so far. It is fun to
think of how life must have been hundreds of years ago where our horses
live today.



I rode Ivan this evening! This is the first time I have been on him since
his first two 'rides', but this time, we walked around. He thinks he is
supposed to stand still, which is what I spent weeks teaching him to do
before mounting him. So I had to wait him out today until he decided to
walk off. (John Lyons method) So I waited for several minutes until he
was bored with me sitting there and moved a little. I praised him,
thanked him for not blowing up, and waited some more for him to move.
Then when Ivan moved off and walked in a circle, I praised him and gave
him a mint. He liked that! So he walked off again in another circle and I
gave him another mint. We made a few more little circles and I got off. I
bet he will move off easier the next time. He is like Kazi in that he
thinks things over and improves on them the next time we do it.
I used my better fitting leather saddle this time, not the synthetic one
that throws me off balance. It seems to fit Ivan and is so much more
comfortable for me. It makes different squeaky noises than the synthetic
one, so we had to work on all the noises before I got on him. It didn't
seem to bother Ivan at all. Such a sweet boy for not killing me!

If I can't be anything else, I can be color coordinated!
I decided I would do Ivan in purple since he is using Kazi's stuff and her
colors are blue and purple. When he greys out, it should look nicer on
him.

August 10:
I rode Ivan again today. The weather has just been incredible the past few
days, just cool enough. Ivan was very agreeable again. He doesn't seem to
mind me crawling around on top of him, although doesn't have a clue why
I'd want to . He is picking up on moving more, but we have no directional
control yet. I am only using his halter and lead rope and letting him
choose the direction so far. That worked fine until he walked us into a
corner by the fence and didn't seem to understand I wanted him out of the
corner. I had to dismount on the off side and lead him away from the
fence. But he never got upset over anything, not even having the breast
collar on for the first time. He really has been good lately!
Donnie took a few pix this evening.




Ivan does seem to be learning to balance me. I can remember Kazi having
more problems with staggering around at first than Ivan has had. Ivan has
a shorter back than Kazi, I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
I can't get over how great the weather has been the past few days. It was
only 75 during the horse show last Saturday, it is usually in the 90s
then. Today it is a sunny 74 degrees with a light breeze and it won't be
much different they predict all week. My kind of weather!!!

Aug.14:
Well we are now gearing up for the new endurance ride being held about 50
miles from here the weekend of Aug.22nd. Donnie and I have volunteered to
do radio communications for them and Donnie has been gathering other ham
radio operators to help during the 2 day rides. This weekend we are going
down to make sure radio signals can be heard from the different check
points. I may end up riding the water truck and being the radio contact
for that. The area is very mountainous and cell phone coverage is
non-existent in many places, so radios are needed. So far they have 180
riders registered!! Pretty good for a brand new ride. Two drag riders just
called me and they are amateur radio operators, too, so will trail the
last riders on their horses and make sure everyone gets back to the camp.
This could be fun. Hope the weather cooperates!

Aug. 16:

I didn't get a chance to ride, it was too late before we got home and
then the farmer guy came to get the manure trailer late, and I didn't
have time to spend with Ivan with a saddle. So I crawled all over him
bareback and he stood still and let me mount on one side bareback and get
off the other side without moving. He was just so darn sweet!

We spent the day running around finding the vet check locations and
figuring out which radio frequencies could make it over those mountains.
The Va Highlands Endurance Challenge is next week and the trails are
gorgeous! If they could have held it today, the weather would have been
perfect. Mid 70s, low humidity, sunny skies. Just beautiful for August. I
think it is going to be fun to help out with this ride.

Aug. 17:

I got on Ivan bareback this evening and rode him around (at his
directional discretion) and he never acted up and didn't seem to mind me
on him at all. This is good since he could easily have tossed me. I didn't
even have a bareback pad on him. I flop around quite a bit while getting
on him and he puts his stoic face on and just stands there. He seems to
have an allergy to something in our pasture. After he comes back from
eating grass, he snorts for quite awhile, spraying me with assorted horsey
liquids....


Donnie and I spent another day getting the radio frequencies figured out
for the endurance ride this coming weekend. We went back to the ridecamp
and the vet check points and had contacts with a couple of guys thru
different radio repeaters until they figured out which were the best for
covering the mountainous area the ride is in. There are several folks who
have now volunteered to help out! The communication plans are coming
together, but we sure discovered some holes in the ride management's
overall plans. They hadn't contacted any rescue squads yet! So tomorrow my
job it to get all the contact info for the volunteer rescue squads in the
three counties that this ride goes through. The radio folks will want this
info in case we have to contact a rescue squad for help. I think I
volunteered Donnie for more work than I realized, I thought we would just
stand at check points and call info back and forth to one another. Nope.
There is a lot of planning and legwork that goes into the communication
aspect of a ride. Donnie seems to be having fun with it, thank goodness!

Aug. 18:

I jumped on Ivan this evening, and I do mean jumped! He is getting so good
about letting me thump around on him. He is getting better about
understanding that I want him to walk, it seems to be easier for him
bareback than with the saddle on him and he doesn't seem to mind me being
there. Of course, we don't go far and he gets lots of treats for his
efforts....

Aug. 19:

I have been running errands or talking on the phone all day. This
endurance ride is turning out to be bigger by far than anticipated! They
now have over 200 riders registered . It is turning into a who's who of
the eastern US in the endurance set, lots of nationally known big name
endurance riders. (At least well known to the endurance folks.) The good
news is, they have downgraded our chances of getting rain from the
tropical storm from 80% to 30%. So maybe we won't get soaked for 2 days.
The radio operators are having a time getting emergency info from the
powers that be, part of what I have been trying to work on. With a ride
that is in parts of 3 counties, there is jurisdiction overlaps in
everything...They had thought about the horse emergencies, even have horse
trailer 'ambulances' all set up for each vet check, but hadn't thought too
much about the rider injuries, the part our group thought about first
since hams tend to help out in people emergencies.

Stay tuned. This will either be great for a first time ride, or you will
hear about it on the news .

Aug. 20:

Speaking of endurance rides: Ivan and I had our first last night!! It was
all of about 300 feet long, but he went the direction (almost) that I
wanted him to go, saddled and bridled, the length and width of the arena
and back. He still can't figure out why we are doing these things, but is
happy to go along for the snacks.

Aug. 21:

I have a busy day. I have to pack up stuff for my car and Donnie's truck
to keep us comfy for a couple of days in the woods. I am sure we will be
at different check points, so will need both vehicles. Our poor animals
are going to feel neglected Friday and Saturday, no mollycoddling, just
basic feeding and such. We will be gone before dawn and back well after
dark both days, and tonight. Then Sunday we have the farrier coming to
change out Kazi's and Trinket's clogs and trim Ivan....AND it is Donnie's
birthday on Sunday. I suspect it will be a strange celebration. He will be
trimming Cactus Jack's feet .


Aug. 22:

What day of the week is it? I am soooo tired!

We have worked like slaves today from about 4:30 a.m. when we got up until
9 p.m. when we got all our animals fed and bedded. The endurance ride is
great, we just don't have enough radio folks to cover all the areas so are
having to work the entire event. We will be back at 7 a.m. in the morning
for the next ride and back by about 8 pm tomorrow. It is fun, just very
tiring. The campground is an hour away from our house.

The people riding are having such a great time, which is very nice. The
ride management expected a couple dozen riders and there are about 220!!!
Considering the huge amount of work facing them, they are doing a pretty
good job. The weather had been incredibly kind and the trails are
beautiful. We have had temps in the high 70s with low humidity, sunny with
a light breeze. Perfect riding weather. The basecamp is at Jubilee Park in
Ivanhoe, which is right on the New River and extremely nice. It is also
free to campers with horses and would be a perfect place to practice
camping when they aren't having an event. It is right at the New River
Trail and Virginia Highlands Horse trail. VERY nice!

Next year I would love to have Ivan ready to do the 30 mile trip. If
little kids can do this, which there were a few, then surely I can do it!
These horses are extremely fit. I own butterballs. It is mostly Arabs, and
some very nice ones, but I am still prejudiced enough to think that Kazi
is the prettiest, . Donnie, wisely, agrees with me..

This has been a good experience, except for the exhaustion, and we will
probably help again next year. There is already talk of adding a 100 mile
ride to the 30 and 55 mile rides they have this year, and having it as a
site of a national championship sometime because it is centrally located
on the eastern side of the U.S. for the different AERC regions. Hopefully
with a year to work on it, we can get many more amateur radio operators to
help. Cellphone coverage is very spotty to non-existent and we helped
quite a bit today with arranging horse transportation for horses who were
unable to continue and for keeping track of where all the riders were. The
ride management didn't realize how hard communications would be and would
have had more problems than they needed if our group hadn't volunteered.

So, so far, so good....stay tuned. My animals couldn't believe their eyes
when I showed up at 5 in the morning to feed them this morning! I had to
wake up Cactus jack and Trinket and tell them to go out and eat some grass
. I don't think I have ever caught Cactus sleeping before.

Aug. 24:

Today was a momentous day, Donnie turned into a SENIOR CITIZEN! He now
qualifies for the senior drink prices at Bojangles and Hardees: he is
55years old!!! Looks darn good for a senior citizen .

We are soooo tired. The endurance ride ended successfully and we did our
part with the radio communications, but we could really have used another
6 people to help out with that. It was great to see the camp and ride and
all the pretty horses! At the end of the ride, I am sure I feel nearly as
tired as some of those riders.....maybe more. They were in great shape. I
enjoyed looking at all the tack and the riders' clothing styles. There are
some crazy looking outfits out there! One lady who rode a loudly spotted
leopard appaloosa, wore an even more loudly spotted pair of giraffe spot
tights . The ride was deemed a success and as far as I know, there were no
bad injuries. One horse colicked, but seems to be recovering now, and one
drag rider got thrown from her mule when a bee or horse fly bit it under
his crupper and the mule parted ways with the crupper. The rider had some
good bruises, but walked away okay. The weather was perfect for the entire
weekend. It isn't usually quite as nice as this in August, so the riders
had a nice impression of August in Virginia. They were from all over.

Donnie got birthday cake and ice cream this evening. Our farrier was here
today and changed out Kazi's clogs and took Trinket's completely off. Kazi
still has something going on inside her bad foot, there is still a small
bit of abscess type drainage that hasn't gone away completely, but her
feet are in much better shape now. The weird angles of her hoof walls had
grown out and her feet look pretty much normally shaped now. The bit of
abscess drainage is worrying and Dave is going to ask Gene Ovnicek if
there is anything else we should be doing. Trinket's white line disease
problem was completely gone! Ivan got a trim and was pretty well
behaved....for Ivan..

Aug. 25:

Donnie is off to his radio club meeting. I am home still recovering. The
club is apparently all fired up to work the event next year...we could
have used some of those folks this weekend...sigh...but the work got done
and everyone seems happy about it.
Where I was stationed part of the time was at Vet check 1, a very nice
commercial horse riding stable. They had very nice facilities marked in
horsey related ways. I was a bit embarrassed to discover later that there
were many people listening in on our radio transmissions for the event and
I had announced to the world in general that I had been off visiting the
little "mare's room". I thought it was just our little group who could
hear those transmissions, but it turns out that the repeater we were using
goes way down into NC and sw Virginia. Lots of folks commented later that
they had followed the race progress both days. BTW: the men's room was
labeled "Colts, Stallions and Geldings". I guess only they knew for sure
where they fit in that grouping....

Aug. 28:

It has been drizzling here all day with a few showers, but supposed to
finally clear up tomorrow. It has rained for days, the mud is really
slick and deep. I had to keep Ivan out of the barn enclosure with the
mares, the footing is just too slick for Kazi or Daisy to chase him
around. I sure don't need any more leg injuries.


Aug. 30:

We have been taming up a stray tomcat who visits at dinner time most
evenings. When he first showed up, he was bony and had hide removed,
perhaps from boiling water or being rolled under a car. His ears are
split from fighting with other cats and he has that thick tomcat neck. He
was pretty pitiful at first, and wild as a hare. We named him Spooky Cat
since he is solid black like a Halloween cat. Today he saw me coming out
the door with his food and he meowed hugely, rubbed against my legs and
let me pick him up to put him on the porch table where I put his food. I
think we have been adopted. We needed another cat, seven wasn't quite
enough We will get him neutered soon and perhaps he will give up his
wandering, fighting ways. All our neighbors have herds of dogs. We have a
herd of cats.