Misty's Monday Muse - Half Baked

Hello there. I haven't had much to say since my little buddy went to a new home. It's been kind of boring and lonely without Marley, but I've handled it well and I'm enjoying the extra attention from MyLady.

On Saturday, MyLady and I went into the country for a riding lesson with Sir Cowboy. Sir Cowboy called me a "half baked cake". He says I'm half baked because I'm 7 years old and am not a finished horse and MyLady has been dabbling with my training for 3 years. He says we need to turn up the heat and get me fully baked. MyLady has to raise the bar for both of us. She has to get brave and move beyond her comfort zone.

So on Saturday, we started out with groundwork in the big roundpen. I had to do a lot of trotting and loping. Then MyLady got onboard and we did exercises at the walk and trot (more trotting than walking). Sir Cowboy put two barrels in the roundpen with an orange cone on top of each barrel. He gave MyLady 3 rings. She was supposed to trot me around the barrels and place a ring over the cone, then switch rings and reins to the other hand and drop another ring over the next cone as we trotted around the 2nd barrel. Even at a standstill MyLady was all discombobulated trying to practice switching rings and reins between her hands, so Sir Cowboy took the rings away. We did the exercise without rings so MyLady could practice switching just the reins between hands and using her leg aids to move me around the barrels. It wasn't pretty to begin with, but we did pretty well. Then Sir Cowboy decided to raise the bar on us. He told MyLady to move me into a fast trot around the round pen and "kiss me into a lope".

A lope!!! MyLady has never asked me to lope before! And if you read her last post, you know she recently just loped on a school horse herself for the first time in 25 years. Sir Cowboy told her to be brave and trust me. He told her to put me into a lope for just 1/4 of the way around the roundpen, then pull me up to a stop and we'd talk about it. We trotted fast, and then moved into a lope for just a little bit and then MyLady asked me to "whoa." It went pretty well, but she was a little surprised because she felt something unexpected as we moved into a lope. She felt an extra hitch in my giddy-up, as she describes it. She turned to Sir Cowboy and asked, "DID SHE BUCK?!" I didn't really buck, but I did kick out a back leg. Sir Cowboy said it is not uncommon for a horse to do that the first time it lopes with a rider because it can be a bit of a surprise to us. (I had a Pro lope me under saddle once, over a year ago, but I haven't done anything like that since.) He told her to put me into a lope again. I didn't kick out this time because I knew what to expect. We stopped again to talk and think about it and I got lots of pats on my neck and was told I was a good girl. I was glad to rest and relax and catch my breath. Loping is hard work. The last time we loped we went 1/2 way around the roundpen before Sir Cowboy told us to stop. My Lady didn't want to stop, but she did because she is an obedient student. My lope felt really nice to her and she was enjoying herself. Sir Cowboy said that on that last lope, I was very relaxed, loping nicely, and that MyLady was perfectly in sync with me.

We rested for a few minutes so I could think about what I had just accomplished with MyLady on my back. Then Sir Cowboy had us end the lesson with some trotting exercises. He says it is good to end with an exercise I'm very confident with after having moved forward into a new challenge, like loping. Next week he plans to have us work up to loping 2 times around the round pen.

We have some homework to do this week. MyLady is to get more aggressive with our groundwork and has to make me lope in a roundpen or on a lunge line while she is directing me from the ground. Sir Cowboy could tell that MyLady has been stuck in her comfort zone and hasn't been asking me to lope during groundwork.

We also have to work on my stops. I'm pretty good at stopping, but Sir Cowboy wants me to come to a full stop more quickly when MyLady asks for a "whoa". He doesn't want me trotting for a few strides, then walking a few strides before coming to a stop. There is a difference between transitioning to slower gaits and a "whoa". I need to have a good "whoa" from any gait. He said that someday MyLady and I may need a good, solid stop and wouldn't it be better if I stopped sooner, rather than traveling several mores strides....right over a cliff? Then he told us this funny story:

One day a policeman pulled a motorist over for running a stop sign. The driver argued and said, "But officer, I slowed down!" The officer took out his billy club and started hitting the driver over the head. The driver yelled, "Stop! Stop!" The officer asked, "Do you want me to stop? Or do you want me to just slow down?"

Whoa means whoa, not slow down.

The Confidence Booster

Quite by accident, I came across a horse for sale that sounded interesting, so I called the seller. The seller, whom I'll call Sir Cowboy, is a professional team roper/cowboy/trainer. Sir Cowboy trains roping horses, gives roping lessons to people as well as teaches beginning riding lessons to children and adults. He suggested I come to his ranch and take some lessons and he'd put me on this horse he has for sale.

I've taken 2 riding lessons on this roping horse and he's been a big confidence booster for me. On my 2nd lesson, I loped for the first time in 25 years. It was wonderful!

I wish this were the horse for me, but I'm trying to be wise about this next purchase. He's 15 years old and has been a performance horse. He has a big knot on his knee; looks like it might be a capped knee, but I don't have much experience with equine knee issues. He's been perfectly sound when I've ridden him. He moves nicely and is comfortable to ride. But the knee worries me and I'm afraid it will become a problem down the road. The protrusion on his knee joint feels hard, like it must be calcified, and that worries me. So I guess I'll keep looking. My farrier advised me to "ride 10, buy 1". Ugh...do I really have to ride 9 more horses before I recognize the right one? This is harder than finding a husband.

I think I can learn a lot from Sir Cowboy, so I will continue taking lessons from him. He is a traditional cowboy - encouraging, yet firm and won't put up with any weakness. Here are some words of wisdom Sir Cowboy has spoken during our lessons:

"I know you got hurt recently, but if you want to ride, you gotta dig down deep and be brave. You gotta control your motor (as he taps on his chest over his heart)."

"There is no such thing as 'pleasure riding'. Riding is work and if you aren't riding, then you are just hanging on."

"You are training your horse every time you ride. You keep training him until you bury him."

During lesson #2 when Sir Cowboy told me he was going to have me lope, my eyes got big and I said, "Ohhhhh, but...." He stopped me and said, "I don't want to hear that. I told you you've got to be brave...or get a bicycle."

I look forward to more lessons with Sir Cowboy. He pushes me and corrects my riding, but he also tells me when I'm doing everything right.

Finally a Truck Purchase

My old Ford truck failed me and I was grounded for a couple of months while Mr. OnceUpon and I considered repair/replacement options and test drove several used trucks.

We chose to replace the old Ford F250 diesel with a new 2010 GMC Sierra 2500 HD SLE Z71 4x4 with the 6.0L gas engine. (If that isn't gibberish to you, then you know trucks and I'm impressed.)

I've never had such a difficult time narrowing down a vehicle choice. Ford, Dodge, Chevy, GMC...then there are the different engine options and trim levels and this and that. It was becoming overwhelming so one Saturday we decided to get in the old Ford, drive to a dealership, and "Get 'er Done!" Eight long hours later, we drove home in the GMC.

We went back and forth about gas vs. diesel and everyone we talked to had a strong opinion one way or the other. We decided on the gasoline engine for a couple of reasons.

1. The diesel engine is a $7,000.00 option. Ouch.


2. A diesel engine is overkill for the amount of towing I do, which is less than 2,000 miles a year (3,219 km).

This new truck has the power to haul two horses anywhere I want to go. Sure, it will be less fuel efficient hauling a trailer up a mountain pass, but I can buy a lot of gasoline for many years to come before I'd reach the break-even point on a diesel purchase.

The new truck is a pleasure to drive and it is nice to have a positive occurrence after the recent string of truck & horse issues.

LESSON LEARNED: Get the facts - the Carfax (or AutoCheck report) when you buy a used vehicle.

When someone wants to make their problem your problem...buyer beware! (That goes for horses too.) We got ripped off on the old Ford which we bought based on the seller's word and a pre-purchase check at a local diesel specialty shop; both of which turned out to be a bit unreliable.

We spent a lot of money repairing that truck, but kept finding more and more problems. It was time to be rid of it. We received a clean title when we purchased it, but when we went to trade it in, we discovered it had been salvaged early in its existence. It originally came from Canada (the tire pressure info on the inside of the driver's door was in French). Apparently it was wrecked at 15,000 miles, rebuilt, sold, and the title got washed as it passed through several states in the U.S. If we'd pulled a Carfax or AutoCheck, we would have known better because all the details showed up in the report. We didn't get much in trade at the dealership because of the salvage history. As they say, "Live and learn."

In the meantime, I'm finally getting out & about with Misty; taking riding lessons and getting training help.

Misty is faring well as a lonely-only, but I do want her to have another stablemate one of these days.

I heard from Marley's owner that "he is happy and doing well."

I'm shopping for a 2nd horse now and I wish I could pull a Horsefax on prospective ponies. I hope I can be smart about this next purchase. I'll be sharing some thoughts on that in an upcoming post.

Horse shopping is even more portentous than truck shopping!

The Littlest Swallow

It's very nerve-racking when children begin to exercise their independence.

We have our first family of Swallows nesting in our barn.

This was taken a couple of weeks ago:

I love how the parents decorated with equine tail hairs.

Just this past Monday evening when I went into the barn to feed Misty, I discovered the babies had left the nest - all five of them. Three were on the floor and two were precariously perched on a board about 10 feet up the wall.

I shut the stall doors so Misty couldn't come in and step on anyone. She would have to spend the night outside, but that's ok; she's an outdoorsy kind of girl.

One of the babies on the floor flew upward and tried to land on the top of the inner stall wall, but it couldn't find a perch and quickly disappeared as it fell behind the wall, down to the bottom and became trapped between the inner stall wall and the outside wall of the barn.

Gasp!

I couldn't bear to think of the poor little guy stuck back there. He wouldn't be able to get out unless he could fly straight up, like a helicopter, for about 8 feet. So I called my husband down to the barn and we went over the options.

1. Let life (or death in this case) takes its course.
2. Rescue the little guy....but how?

We opted for option 2. We knew the barn builder did a good job when he constructed our barn. We were about to find out just how good a job he really did. We wish our home was built as solidly as this barn.

First, Mr. OnceUpon removed the trim so he could get to the boards.

Then he began prying the edge of the bottom board loose a little bit, working the nail heads out enough to get the hammer claw around them and pull them all the way out. This turned out to be quite difficult, as the nails were about 6 inches long and strongly embedded.

With a lot of struggle and grunting, Mr. OnceUpon pulled the last nail out, but alas, the board wouldn't budge. That's when we noticed that the two bottom boards had additional tacks in the center of each board. Those two boards weren't going to come out at all. So Mr. OnceUpon repeated the process of prying and removing the nails from the 3rd board up. Again, a difficult and time consuming task...and not how he had planned to spend his evening.

The third board was finally loose, but there was no way to dislodge it completely. It was wedged tightly in place by the boards on the corner wall. And from what we were discovering about our barn, the boards are probably nailed in on that end too.

We scratched our heads, wondering what to do next. We couldn't pull the board out far enough to reach the baby swallow. Should we get destructive and cut the board? Oh, why not. We've already been at this for a couple of hours and we're so close.

Mr. OnceUpon asked me if I had a block of wood he could use to hold the board out far enough so he could cut it with a saw.

Hmm? A block of wood? I looked all around the barn. No blocks of wood, but I do have this collection of cow bones I've found on our property.

Mr. OnceUpon fired up his power saw and started cutting. And here's why those two bottom boards were too secure to pry loose. They are tacked to this extra support piece. The baby was to the right of this support board.

And here's the reason for all this trouble (click the picture to get a good look at that face):

I tried to reach down to scoop the baby up in a dust mask, but my arms weren't long enough. Fortunately, Mr OnceUpon has longer arms than me and the baby swallow was finally freed. Hurray!

It was getting late, but the lights were on in the barn and the little trouble maker started flying around, looking for a place to perch. He managed to make his way up to the board where two of his siblings were perched. The three of them huddled together and spent the night on this board.

During all this drama, one of the other two had managed to fly back up to the nest, leaving the youngest sibling on the floor, looking very pitiful. This baby, the littlest swallow, must have been the last egg to hatch and was not ready to leave the nest this day. It reminded me of something my dad used to say when I was a kid, "If all your friends jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, would you jump too?" In the case of the littlest swallow, the answer is yes. I placed some hay around him so he'd have something like a nest to surround him.

It was 11pm by this time. All the birds, including the parents, were in the barn and seemingly safe for the moment. Mr. OnceUpon quickly glued the board back together and secured it in place with long screws and we called it a night.

What a nice man I married. He never got angry or cranky once; not even when he bonked his head on the stall door while prying those long nails out of the wall.

About 5:30 the next morning, Mr. OnceUpon put the trim back in place while Misty supervised. She's still banned from the barn so she enjoyed her breakfast outside.

The babies all survived the night in their various sleeping spots. Before I left for work I was surprised to find the parents and the four older kids all sitting on the pasture fence just outside the barn.

But what of the littlest swallow?

Thank goodness I emptied the automatic waterers the previous day!

He looked pretty safe in there and while I was snapping this picture one of the parents flew into the barn to check on him.

When I came home from work that evening, I found the four older siblings all back in the nest and the littlest swallow was on the ground in Misty's paddock. He flew a little bit and managed to perch on the pasture fence where he was joined by his parents. They fed him dinner and then went to the barn and called for him. He eventually made it back into Misty's stall, but he couldn't gain more than about 4 feet in altitude and was stuck on the floor of the stall again while his siblings cuddled together in the nest above. I put a 2-foot tall wire shelf in the stall and he flew up onto it and settled down for the night. He was still perched on the shelf this morning. I left for work wondering how they would fare today and hoping the littlest swallow would find his wings soon.

I'm happy to report this evening that all the kids, including the littlest swallow, have found their way into the nest for the night.

A Big Decision & Change

I've had to make a difficult decision, but I think it is for the best.

I decided Marley needs a stronger, more confident owner than me. He is now owned by a professional trainer with 30+ years experience training carriage horses, including 6-horse hitches. He's gone to the best home he could possibly have, but I cried buckets on the night his new owner picked him up.

I feel like I failed Marley, but he is in better hands now and will get the regular and consistent work he needs. He is a very strong and willful hunky chunky pony who needs to be worked often or he gets too full of himself, inviting past vices to rise to the surface. With my increasing work load at my job, I have less time this summer than I had last year to devote to two horses that need a lot of training and it was beginning to show in Marley's behavior, leading up to the bucking incident (even though it was triggered by fright and not obstinacy). That incident really shook my confidence in my ability to ride or drive Marley.

I miss Marley. I know Misty misses him too.

I worry about Misty being lonely during this transition phase, but she isn't acting nutty or afraid. She is turning to me for attention now and that could be beneficial for both of us. She nickers loudly as soon as she sees me and follows me around like a puppy dog.

I will be focusing more on Misty, working with a professional instructor to continue her training. She still needs a companion and I need a confidence builder. So I'm looking for another horse to become Misty's new barn buddy; the kind of horse I should have bought in the first place - a gentle, seasoned, consistent, bombproof trail horse with no vices.

Just a Spoonful of Sugar

Sing it with me:

A Spoonful of sugar...or Dove Chocolate...helps the medicine go down
The medicine go down-wown
The medicine go down
Just a spoonful of sugar...or Dove Chocolate...helps the medicine go down
In a most delightful way!

I took my first spill off of a horse in more than 25 years.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I wasn't expecting it to hurt so badly and warrant a visit to the hospital.

Yesterday I took a day off work so Marley and I could go on our first trail ride of the season. I was looking forward to this ride, as I'd heard of this nice park with thoughtfully planned trails designed for equestrians. Unfortunately, we didn't last 5 minutes.

I went with a group of four other ladies. We had been on the trail for only a few minutes when we rounded a bend in the trail and discovered a big open space before us, surrounded by trees and buttes. We were all exclaiming how beautiful it was, when suddenly a loud, low-flying helicopter came swooping over a nearby ridge, down into the valley where we were riding, and buzzed right over us, scaring all 5 horses who were fresh from just starting the ride.

Marley started to bolt and run. I tried to employ the 1-rein stop I had been practicing, but he got his head down and started bucking repeatedly until he dumped me.

Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet. I put it on every time I ride, thinking I'll never really need it, but being sensible and cautious. I'm so accustomed to wearing it now, I would feel uncomfortable without it. But here is a case when I really did need it.

I always thought the visor on my helmet was just decorative or to provide a little bit of sun shade, but I discovered it has a more important purpose. I would have done a face plant into the hard ground, but my visor made impact first, sparing me from even a tiny scratch on my face. However, I did smack my head pretty hard and had an instant headache followed by dizziness. I'm sure it would have been much worse had I not been wearing a helmet, because I basically landed on my head.

I was embarrassed and disappointed and hated adding drama to a ride that had barely begun. My kind friend escorted Marley and me back to the parking lot, while we wished for the others to go on and enjoy their ride.

I was really hoping this would be a summer filled with trail riding with both Misty and Marley. We've been preparing, but you can't anticipate everything that can happen on a trail ride. How on earth can you prepare to be buzzed by a helicopter? That is just a freak thing. I hate to think someone would do that deliberately, but I do believe this was a mischievous, mean-spirited pilot out joy-riding and getting his kicks by scaring horses with his helicopter. He was flying way too low and flew right over us.

My friend graciously gave up her trail ride and drove Marley and me home. I was still dizzy and had an aching head, so my step-daughter drove me to the Emergency Room where I was examined and given a CT Scan. The radiologist found no bleeding in my brain and no indication of a serious problem. The ER doc said I got my bell rung, but that my helmet was my saving grace.

I still have a slight headache, my back is aching, I've pulled a muscle in my abdomen, my legs are sore and I'm hobbling around kinda funny like. This ole body doesn't bounce like it did in younger years. So I took a sick day from work to recover from my vacation day, intermittently napping and watching TV, and chasing my regularly scheduled Percocet pain killer with Dove chocolate. I figure if the Percocet doesn't do the trick, the chocolate will.

Now comes the challenge of getting back in the saddle, working through the fear, and trying to learn from the experience so I can handle future riding challenges better. I wonder if I could have done something different. I probably need to be more aggressive with my 1-rein stop. Maybe I need to swap Marley's snaffle bit for something with a little more leverage. I don't know. It happened so fast. But next time I hear or see a helicopter, I'm going to dismount immediately.

And now it is time for another nap.

I'm grateful for well designed riding helmets and good friends and family who looked after me.

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...

...except my husband, because he was there with me this time.

We had quite an ordeal hauling the horses today.
(Don't worry, all are safe. No gory accident story follows.)

I had a lot of trouble pulling the horse trailer in the mountains with my crappy old 1994 F250 turbo diesel last summer. I experienced overheating and extreme loss of power going over the mountains. It received major repairs at a diesel specialty shop after that trip, but I've still been having repetitious problems with the truck. Lately, my eyes have burned as I get fumigated with diesel odor while driving. It needed to go back to the shop, but I've lost faith in my diesel specialist.

I said to my husband last week, "I don't want to take the truck back to So-and-So Diesel Repair because it always costs us $1,000.00 to go there and I think they are missing things. Let's take it to the Ford dealer."

Ha ha ha. Famous last words. $2,550.00 in repairs later and I still have a crappy old truck; however my eyes aren't burning anymore. I'm happy with the mechanic and what he did. But dealer service prices are outrageous! We can't be doing this very often.

The mechanic found my fuel leak. Turns out the fuel leak was likely caused by So-and-So Diesel Repair. When So-and-So Diesel replaced all of the injectors last year, they didn't bother to replace the o-rings at the same time. Most of the o-rings around the injectors were leaking fuel.

The dealer mechanic also found excessive and large slivers of metal on the rear differential plug. Not a good sign. He had to take apart the rear diff and replace the pinion and carrier bearings. Of course, there were other things that needed repairing, but the leaking o-rings and the rear diff were the biggies.

We had a long talk with the the service adviser at the dealership and he was hopeful that repairing the fuel leak and a few other things might have fixed the poor towing performance. He suggested we do a test and pull a load up into the mountains and see how it does. My husband agreed.

This morning, we loaded Misty and Marley in the trailer and headed out for a long drive in the mountains with me at the wheel. It was a beautiful, warm day, and I've been wanting check out a dude ranch where I would like to go camping and trail riding.

We made it up a steep mountain pass with better performance than I expected, gaining hope that maybe the recent (and obscenely expensive) repairs did the trick. But as we passed through town, we started to experience some power loss.

We stopped at a red light. When it turned green I began to accelerate, but had no power. I had to shift down to 2nd to get the truck to slowly creep forward. We had watched the transmission temperature rise as we climbed the mountain and it was still high. Not in the yellow zone, but getting close at about 200 degrees.

So we stopped for a bite to eat at Taco Bell while the transmission cooled.

We'd made it over the toughest part of the drive and decided to press on to the ranch.

And then it happened!

Traveling up the steep dirt road leading to the ranch, the truck began to go slower...and s l o w e r...and s.l..o...w....e.....r, until it came to a halt. We were perplexed. So we put it in 4-wheel drive, hoping that's what we needed on this dirt road. Even in 4WD, I could not get any forward movement. The tires just wouldn't turn.

We were stuck. Stuck and blocking the 1-lane dirt road leading to this dude ranch, on a holiday weekend, during the guest check-in window.

My husband called the ranch and gave them the bad news that we were stranded on their road, with a horse trailer, and blocking access to their place.

I wanted to cry. Breaking down in any vehicle, anywhere is no fun. But breaking down with horses in tow is miserable at best. I find it frightening. And it wasn't long before someone pulling a giant 5th wheel RV came along behind us and had to wait.

The owner of the ranch was very, very nice. He came down in his F550 and towed us (truck and trailer and horses all together) up to his ranch and told us we could turn Misty and Marley out in their arena so they could rest and stretch their legs. I did that while my husband and the ranch hands peered into the truck engine and talked manly truck talk.

Misty and Marley were happy to be loose in the big arena. Marley immediately rolled in the dirt and Misty began eating the manure of strangers. I hate it when she does that! She doesn't eat manure at home, but loves to sample the dried droppings left behind by unknown equines.

After letting the transmission cool for an hour, we were on our way home.

It was smooth sailing down the mountain toward home. And my husband drove!!! My nerves were shot and I was glad to sit in the passenger seat.

But as we were nearing home, on relatively flat ground, we had some power loss again; and this time the transmission temperature was not unusually high.

What do you think it could be? I think the crappy old truck has a crappy old transmission. We've already put more into the truck in repairs than we paid for it. I think it is time to part company and this old truck needs to find a home with a young man who likes big, noisy trucks and likes to get his hands dirty.

I live in Colorado. I want to trail ride. I need a truck that can do mountains.

This old F250 is my first truck and my only experience towing horses. I'm now afraid to haul my horses with this truck. It's not safe and it scares me.

What do you drive? Gas? Diesel? How much load can you pull and do you have any trouble pulling up hills, particularly in the mountains?

Tow vehicle recommendations wanted.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I haven't dropped out of the blogosphere.

I've just been too busy to blog because this is what my job has been like lately:

It's that work-life-horse balance dilemma again. Work has been consuming my life. Something has to give, so I've kept the computer off at home while I squeeze in some horse time before collapsing at the end of the day. But there are a few accomplishments and fun things to report:

• I attended a parade and helped on the ground crew. I love a small town parade.
  
• Marley and I had a nice driving lesson where I received some good instruction and practice using a driving whip and keeping communication with the lines while driving him through big puddles (remember...Marley doesn't like water).
• I attended an interesting rein board training class designed to help driving students learn to hold the lines and use a driving whip, while keeping proper contact...without actually driving a real, live horse. Driving lines attached to weighted ropes and pulleys simulate the feel of a horse at the end of the lines. Here is an example. In our class, we didn't have an actual board that the pulleys were attached to. We tied pulleys onto a hitching rail. It's a good way to practice (without annoying and confusing your poor horse) and see the affect you have when you lengthen and shorten your lines. Then try to use a driving whip and watch what happens to the weights as you "drive".
  
• Marley and I attended a 2 day trail riding clinic. It was a lot of fun and we played with many interesting obstacles. Marley is great walking over a teeter-totter bridge and passing through swim noodles suspended from a frame. And he absolutely loved pushing around the giant soccer ball as I rode him toward it. First he nudged it gently with his nose; the ball rolled forward slightly, then back into his face. How rude of it! So he gave it an aggressive nudge the next time and sent it rolling forward. We followed after the ball and Marley kept pushing it forward like he wasn't gonna let some giant 6 foot tall beach ball get the better of him.
  
• I took a riding lesson on Misty with a new instructor last week and she pointed out many things I need to improve upon. My biggest challenge is to ride with loose reins and get off of Misty's mouth before she gets irritated and starts developing behavior problems.

I hope to be posting and reading more often, as I get a better grip on the stress I'm under at work. I've missed reading your blogs and hope everyone is enjoying their best horse buddies.