OK, so consistency isn't really Riyah's thing yet. Today was not like yesterday. Today was a new day. She did not want to play the trailer game at all. I stayed very low-key and didn't hurry her, but she wasn't having it. At all. The only difference I can honestly think of was that I saddled her first today. Yesterday since I was riding alone I saddled up when I got out to the trails. Since I was riding with Tammy today and didn't want to make her wait for me, I saddled Riyah before I headed out. It took 15 minutes to get her to load. Sigh.

When I got out to Tammy's I unloaded her and she jumped right in Tammy's trailer. Of course the fact that JoJo was waiting inside makes a huge difference.

We went out west and rode an exactly 10.0 mile loop according to the GPS (which is actually pretty hard to plan!) JoJo might be considering himself an endurance horse these days since Tammy is thinking of taking him to Hell's Kitchen next month. Both horses had a good ride. But Riyah was a little peevish about JoJo, even snaking her head toward him like she'd like to nip his speedy little butt a couple of times. That was a first, since she's always very pleasant with other horses.

We did the ten miles in two hours at a fairly relaxed pace. Lots of trotting and letting them walk where the footing got too rocky or when they needed a break. It was very windy, but warm when the wind died down. We did have a couple of bigger-trot stretches getting up to a 10 mph trot for a mile at a time. Riyah barely broke a sweat. She did get to pulling on me a couple of times, though.

Tomorrow's weather isn't predicted to be very good. I am planning to do hooves in the barn. They both need a good trim or they soon won't fit into their boots!

I could never ask for a more gorgeous day! Mother Nature has redeemed herself. It was cool and quite windy in Dog Valley, but Riyah and I had a wonderful ride in glorious sunshine. We went alone, and although she hadn't been ridden in a week, Riyah was perfect. We played the trailer game before we left for ten minutes, but she didn't pull against me; we just loaded and stood there, turned around, unloaded, reloaded, etc. Finally I closed the panel and off we went.

I had to be back in time for a dentist appointment, but I can say that I came very close to calling and telling them I couldn't make it. (SO tempting!) I would have loved to ride for several hours! We rode to the top of the Lower Sugar Loaf hill and took in the view, rode back down, watched a couple of deer go bouncing through the sagebrush, and then we trotted in a relaxed 7-8 mph fashion for the next 40 minutes. I did give her one short walk break so I could stop and take a couple of pictures.

Riyah was not even breathing hard when we came back to the dirt road leading to the trailer. We walked and leg-yielded the last quarter mile. She totally remembered her one-and-only leg-yielding lesson from a couple of weeks ago! She leg-yielded (is that really even a word?) to the left, we walked six to ten steps straight, then leg-yielded back to the right, six to ten steps straight, and repeat. She really impressed me, I must say!

Her breathing was completely normal when I dismounted and walked the last 30 yards to the trailer. She was only a little sweaty under the saddle and girth area. I do need to start taking regular accurate P&R's. (Pulse and respirations.) My gut feeling is that her recoveries are very good, but I don't really know for sure since I haven't got any recorded P&R's to go by.

The Easyboot Gloves that "don't really fit" (see post from March 27) have worked flawlessly every ride. I never tape her hooves with athletic tape anymore. I just pick out her hooves and slip the boots on, do up the velcro and away we go. (I am going to order her a pair of her own, since Keno needs his back boots back, though.) She is due for a trim and Keno is due again also; I can't believe how much hoof they are growing right now! It's crazy---seems like I just trimmed them both!

Riyah loaded into the trailer just like a big girl and we headed home. I love rides like that!

I made it to my dentist appointment which causes me big-time stress, but I had zero cavities! Woohoo! So to reward myself I saddled Keno (and booted him, of course) and rode through town to the outdoor arena. We had a fabulous ride--gotta totally love that boy! So willing. So easy. So reliable! So slobbery! Gobs of slobber all over his chest and front legs!

I plan to ride with Tammy tomorrow. Hopefully a 10+ mile ride. Gotta be ready for our big ride on May 14!

Riyah and I have been playing games between thunder/snow/hail/rain storms. This is one crazy spring weather pattern! Very frustrating. But Riyah is still having to think about things. Things like backing over trot poles, figure eights over a raised pole, backing out of the barn (that was confusing to her!), getting in and out of the trailer, backing up in the trailer (!), and standing tied to the rail while Keno free jumps nearby. She is probably wondering what is going on--she hasn't been ridden in a week.

Tomorrow she can wonder no more. It's going to be cold but not stormy, and we are riding as SOON as I get off work. Hopefully somewhere with a big steep hill just in case she has stored up lots of unused energy! It won't be a super long ride, but anything will be welcome at this point! Hopefully I can get Keno out in the evening after my dentist appointment. He really needs some exercise, poor boy!

Riyah and Keno are tired of the rainy weather, too, but today they were in the snort-and-run mode! Fresh and full of it! (See video above!) We will be getting out to do some serious miles this week to make up for last week's rainy days.

We have the Hell's Kitchen Canyon ride coming up on May 14, and that means I have to get in some hiking practice myself. I plan to hike down the hold-your-breath steep Hell's Kitchen Canyon part of the trail. Riyah is surefooted but not experienced enough to give me the confidence to ride her down that part of the trail! So my neck will depend on me being able to maneuver on my own feet. Yikes....

I will be practicing for that, and most importantly to have Riyah stay back off my heels. Way back at the very end of the lead rope! We have already begun working on that, but only on the flat. I think I'll go hike the Roller Coaster Hills (gulp!) with her this week.

Well, the weather wasn't great, but, hey, enough is enough! We had to go ride and let the weather do what it will. It rained a little on our way out west, and it rained pretty good on the way back into town, but our ride was dry! It was a great ride--not fast, but lots of trotting, and not lots of spooking, even though Tammy's mustang JoJo was looking for something to spook at! Approximately 6 miles and Riyah was relaxed and not working hard at all; she barely broke a sweat. A little sweaty under the girth at the end, but that was all. She is getting fitter and really seems to enjoy our rides.

The only real problems I am having with her are all on the ground. We were 5-10 minutes just loading in the trailer. The other day I thought we had made great progress. Maybe not. :( She pulls back against the lead rope, flings her dramatic little head high in the air, and angrily stomps her feet about getting in the trailer. (The trying to yank away from me is NOT acceptable behavior. I do not want to resort to a chain on the lead rope, but she can't think that she is able to yank away and run back to the barn when she doesn't want to do what I ask!) We are going to work a lot more on the trailer loading and ground work, and I am going to get Marleen back down here.

The few ground/manners issues I am having are standing in the way of me totally enjoying this horse! I want them solved so we can get on with the fun! I love her gaits! She is a blast to ride! She is gaining confidence and going past things that would have caused her to stop and stare two months ago! She is responsive and enthusiastic. I know she can get past these few issues and become the endurance partner and all terrain horse of my dreams! (In my dreams of course she already is; she never acts up or gets out of hand, hahaha!)

I want to see rest of the world through these ears, so come on Riyah, just get in the trailer like a big girl already!

No riding today. It's spring break but Mother Nature isn't being nice at all. Wind, nasty black clouds, on-again-off-again rain showers, and more wind was the order of the day. Finally about 6pm the sun tried to break through and I headed out to the barn to play with the horses.

Riyah has gotten really good at some of the ground work games we play. She was however feeling quite feisty today and decided to get silly on the lunge line as we were working on some figure eights. She very nearly yanked me off my feet a couple of times! (I sure hope the neighbors weren't watching!) Then she had to work twice as hard at the far end of the arena (farthest away from Keno!) We played several more games and did eventually end on a good (and obedient) note with lots of praise and rubbing. We also played with the Pilates ball which has never been any sort of problem for her.

Tomorrow is supposed to be better weather so I hope to get out and ride both horses. Riyah needs a good long ride and Keno needs to get out, too. He is doing much better after the tetanus shot reaction. Bute, heat, and exercise seemed to have done the trick, thank goodness.

Wow-what a fabulous ride we had today! I took Riyah back out to Dog Valley along with my friend, Tammy, and her mustang JoJo. We rode about seven miles or so and Riyah was great; it was probably her best ride yet! It wasn't a fast ride, although we did trot quite a lot. We even cantered a few strides, too. She kept a forward, even, relaxed pace throughout, with NO spooks! I do believe my little girl might be growing up! (At least for today, that is.) Too bad I was so caught up in the fun that I forgot to take any pictures!

Dog Valley was spectacular--quite green, in fact. Sage green, cedar green, with just a little grass green thrown in. It won't last long, but we'll enjoy it as long as we can. By summer things will get pretty dry out there. But today--blue, sunny skies and warmish temperatures. Riyah was barely sweating, but I had on a jacket and got too hot! How cool is that? Spring might actually get here and stick around.

Poor Keno is not feeling so hot at the moment. He has had a bad reaction to the tetanus shot he received yesterday. His chest muscle is horribly swollen and tender at the injection site, and he is extremely sore and more than a little cross. I just gave him two grams of Bute and will hot-pack it, too. Tomorrow I will hand walk him to help work the soreness out.

Riyah has decided this is her preferred method of trailer travel!

I know many horses prefer riding facing backwards in a trailer. I have a friend with a four-horse designed to lead a horse in, turn them around, and close the gate. My trailer is not designed that way, but Riyah really likes to go in, turn around, and wait for me to close the panel. She rides in a much more relaxed fashion this way. She can see a lot more and obviously feels less claustrophobic about the ride. Her head is not stuck behind the high end of the solid panel. Maybe this is what she has been telling me all along? I'll give her a couple of weeks to ride this way and see if the improvement sticks. (when I trailer her with Keno, he's always in the front (heaviest horse closest to the hitch) and she readily jumps in the second slot.) Anybody see any safety concerns with this method?

Keno saw the equine dentist today and both horses had tetanus and West Nile shots. Riyah had her teeth done two months ago. Hopefully I will get her out for a long ride tomorrow---the weather is looking good!

Welcome to Dog Valley!

Solo again! Today I decided to show my best girlfriend one of my favorite riding areas--Dog Valley. It's a bit farther out than I have gone before when riding alone for obvious safety reasons, but equipped with cell phone and SPOT, I decided Riyah has earned the right to see this place. I think she liked it! We climbed the lower Sugar Loaf Hill and took in the incredible view. It's a very rocky trail, and she handled it like an experienced trail horse: she lowered her head and dug in, pushing from behind till we conquered that long steep hill and came out on top. And boy, was it worth it! The wind was howling up there, but it was gorgeous! You can see for miles and miles. Mt. Nebo looked pretty spectacular with the bright white snow. It's going to get another coat of white paint tonight according to the weather people.

Is there any better way to see the world than from between those ears?

Dog Valley is a wide open expanse where you can pretty much ride forever. Sage brush and cedar trees are in abundance, and believe it or not spring flowers are coming, too! I saw some tiny white flowers already in bloom and Indian Paintbrush is just starting to show some color. I promise I'll post pictures in a few weeks--it can get pretty impressive out there in the desert!

Riyah and I did a slow ride. Lots of walking with about 30% trotting. We even threw in a few canter strides for fun! Mostly I worked on: getting her to soften in the bridle, transitions, backing, and I started asking for leg yields. On the way back to the trailer I had her leg-yielding from one side of the dirt road to the other and back again. She was catching on really fast, but if anyone sees our tracks, they'll think I was DUI!

Riyah is quite sensitive and tends to think if I add even a little leg pressure that I want more speed, so I took a lot of time letting her understand that one leg by itself can add a little pressure and it just means "move over, please." She caught on pretty quickly. I have been pretty lax in asking her to do some of these basic training skills on a regular basis. Many of our rides have just been about "trail skills" and sometimes that's been plenty for the moment, but I need to not neglect other important training. She needs it all!

She wasn't great at standing still for me to get on ( but that's OK 'cause Judy is going to help me teach her to stand still like Sam does, right, Judy? Oh, boy!), but she stood perfectly still for tacking up, unsaddling, grooming, taking boots off, etc. No pawing. No fretting. No dancing around. She was better that she is when other horses are nearby!

We rode for about six miles, some on the trail, some winding in and out of the sagebrush and around trees, and some crazy leg yielding back and forth. Riyah was great through it all! I really think my girl likes Dog Valley!

Check it out! Sunshine! It was a beautiful day for a ride; Tammy, Sharon, and I went out in the hills--it wasn't even too muddy after all the snow and rain on the weekend. It was great. Riyah was very good. She is getting much more confident about water. She actually walked up to one cattle tank and stuck her nose in the water, which she hasn't been willing to do previously. We came to a small pond with boggy mud all around it, and she willingly walked through the little stream and across the bog. (The green spring grass may have been the encouragement she needed!) She also walked through most of the puddles (big ones) and stopped to taste the muddy water in one.

No boots today--she is fine, of course, without them, but she seemed maybe slightly less enthusiastic. Not unenthusiastic by any means; it was just a feeling I had. Or maybe she was just more relaxed since we didn't split her away from her buddies! It's hard to tell with just one ride to compare, but it is something I will be sure to be aware of in the future.

I do need to work on getting Riyah to stand still for me to get on. She tends to move around and worry about the other horses, etc. I want her to stand like a rock! Some days she has done better, but it's totally inconsistent. I can just see us trying to mount up at an endurance ride while another rider's horse is heading off! It wouldn't be fun or easy! Maybe even dang near impossible!

I did spend 15 minutes doing ground work and games before I left to ride. We also played in the trailer--going in, checking things out, turning around, eating a cookie, getting out again, etc. Riyah just walked in when I was ready to go. Way to go, girl!

She will probably have the day off tomorrow, so I can get Keno out, but on Wednesday I will do another solo ride with her.

A repeat of last weekend! It's pretty. Pretty wet. Pretty cold. Gotta love the Utah spring time!

Oh, well, it's supposed to be looking better later in the week. I will try to get in a long ride on Monday. Riyah needs to see some new trails so maybe we'll be able to get out to Dog Valley if it's not too wet. Parking can be a real problem if it's too muddy out there!

Today I need to do some touch up trimming on Riyah's back hooves, so I can remeasure her. I need to order boots; I'm going to go with the EasyBoot Gloves since they are working just fine even though they "don't fit!" I forgot to mention that the last ride we did on the Roller Coaster hills, I didn't bother with the athletic tape at all. I did slip a pair of thin Comfort Pads into her boots, though. The boots worked perfectly, even through all her separation anxiety antics! (See April 5 post)

Well, we've got nasty weather all over the state apparently. Judy emailed me from down south and said I made a good choice as she has a couple of inches of snow (!) along with generally cold and wet weather. And it hasn't quit precipitating here all day. OK. Fine. I am feeling a little better. I was not in a happy mood about staying home this weekend, but I'm starting to feel good about the decision. Plus, I'm getting in some serious studio time.

I hope the brave riders and horses are surviving down at the Color Country Ride!

Ok, it's official. :(

I am not going to the Color Country ride after all. The weather forecast is predicting rain/snow for southern and central Utah all weekend with wind and mid-thirties temps. I think Riyah will be much happier at her first ride if we at least have a decent chance of decent weather! I hope all the riders will be careful and stay warm and watch out for flash floods! I do kinda feel like a wuss, but looking outside I can see that the wind is picking up here and the rain is already coming down.

I guess we will set our sights on the Hell's Kitchen Canyon ride on May 14. Maybe it will actually be spring by then. Hopefully I can at least go south for a road trip with Riyah in a week or so if Mother Nature will just co-operate! Another road trip adventure will be good for her. I will also work on getting all four feet booted in time for that ride.

Well, Riyah took the day off and happily stayed home munching her way through a flake of hay while I took Keno out to Dog Valley with a couple of friends. We rode hard, trotting and galloping and trotting some more. It was my first time out there this spring and wow--it was like coming home. Keno loved it, too, and was feeling quite good!

The weather forecast for the weekend is not looking good. Central and southern Utah is going to be wet and very cold. Things are not looking good for this ride, unfortunately. I don't actually mind riding in a little rain, but the idea of driving four hours in rain/snow and 40 degrees with stock windows on my trailer doesn't sound great. Also, I think that Riyah will be experiencing lots of new things with the travel, ride camp, etc. and I'm not sure I really want to deal with the newbie in adverse conditions. Am I a wimp? I don't know, but I really want my girl to like the adventure, and not be cold or miserable her first time out.

I'm crossing my fingers that the weather forecast will make a dramatic change by the time I check it again tomorrow.

Today was our "group training ride" aka "some friends going riding." Gail, Sharon, and I rode out from Sharon's ranch to hit the hills. It was warmish and mostly sunny but windy.

We decided to split up--Sharon and Gail taking a side trail, and me continuing with Riyah. It was only a half mile or so till we met up again, but to Riyah it was a little (read: a lot) disturbing! The first time she kept going, but whinnied and fretted and tried to jig. Overall she did alright, but she was super-relieved to see that Mikey and Janey had not totally abandoned her when we met up againl. A little later we decided to try it again. This was a little more upsetting to her and included a fairly wild "leaping-laterally-off-the-trail-and-down-the-mountainside-into-the-deadfall-cedars" episode. Luckily I didn't come off and she didn't tumble down the hillside. (Gotta love that Aussie saddle!) Anyway, we got back up to where we were supposed to be and continued on. She was unhappy about being alone, but for the most part she managed to walk (fretfully) up and down the hills, around the big bend in the road for a mile until we met up with her two security blankets again.

Riyah was stellar as long as she was with her buds. She passed the power plant, cows, scary gates and horse-eating rocks, and even the UPS truck. So there were some good parts to the ride, too! It's interesting to me that if I take her out totally alone, she's fine, but if we start out with buddies, she gets upset about leaving them. Have to think about that one a bit.

Back at Sharon's I set up my electric fence corral. We tied Sharon's older gray mare nearby with a hay bag for company and let Riyah chill in the corral for a few hours. She did OK--didn't try to escape or jump out or anything! I left. Poor Keno was very distraught when I pulled up at home without the trailer or his girl! I made his day, though, when I went back to get her after dinner!

The weather outlook for the weekend is not good. Winter storm warning for southern Utah as well as our central Utah mountains. I'm hoping it's a false alarm. I want to leave here Friday afternoon for the Color Country ride (25 miles on Saturday), but I'm a little worried about the freeway travel over the mountains if it's stormy. :[

It was sunny but quite cold today, so we put off the group ride until tomorrow when it should get back to being spring. It was 19 degrees this morning! Why, oh why did I think I could disconnect all the de-icers? We definitely had plenty of ice!

I did a lot of ground work with both horses, groomed shedding hair until my arms ached, and did a touch up trim on Riyah's front hooves. I also spent time loading and unloading her in the trailer--leading her in, sending her in, and letting her eat grain from a bucket. I really want her to learn to like the trailer; I'm still having a few loading arguments on occasion.

Riyah is looking good. Both horses were quite full of themselves and feeling frisky this afternoon. Tomorrow's ride should be fun! I am going to set up a pseudo camp tomorrow after our ride at Sharon's place to test Riyah's respect of my electric fence corral. This will hopefully help me to see what kind of camper she might be. Color Country is coming up quickly! I have a lot to do to get ready!

What is this? Mother Nature simply refuses to give up on winter! 4" of snow fell last night, the wind howled, and the power went out! (I planted lettuce, carrot seed, beet seed, and onions yesterday, of course! Poor little lettuce plants shivering away under all the snow!)

Hopefully the sun will come out and melt this away; all our riding trails will be wet and muddy again. I'm sure glad I got Riyah out in the sunshine last week---it seems to have been an unusual experience! Crazy Utah weather!

Riyah looks great today after yesterday's tough twenty. She ate four flakes of hay in in the night as well as her beet pulp/grain feed after the ride. She is sound and bright-eyed. Her left hind pastern is a little puffy (wind-puffs?) but nothing serious, and it certainly doesn't seem to bother her. She had today off of course, and will have the weekend to rest up as well. I am hoping to get her out in a group on Monday. Three or four of us are planning to do an easy ride---weather permitting.

Today was warm--actually warm! Like 70 degrees! I hosed the horses down. Riyah was afraid the water would eat her! I started slowly on her legs, gradually moving up and eventually she tolerated it fairly well; I was careful not to frighten her with it. HaHa! Come summer, when it gets really HOT, she will love it!

She got to stand quietly tied to the rail as she dried. Keno was beside her; they were sharing a hay net quite happily until Keno pinned his ears and told her to back off. She did and pulled back on the rope and broke the snap on the lead. Dang! Keno owes me a lead rope--the bossy old meany!

While they were drying, I did a partial spring cleaning on the horse trailer. Too scary to face that job all in one day, but I got a lot of stuff (you know you know the stuff I'm talking about!) cleaned out and hosed off and dejunked.