Riyah and I headed up the canyon solo today. We are late getting up there this year due to the rough spring weather we have had. I decided to try out the Corral Road which I have been avoiding since last summer when the county road department hauled in tons of rock to "improve" the road. Actually it wasn't as rocky as I expected. It's a three mile hike up the mountainside, but so worth the climb. Terrific views, beautiful early wildflowers, a great workout, in addition to the snow covered mountain up ahead.

Riyah felt great; she powered up the road like she was on level ground. She was looking around at the new trail, thinking about spooking at something, but we just kept climbing. I was freezing, having decided I wouldn't need a jacket. Ha. Altitude lowers the temperature dramatically! We still had a blast. It was a stunning day, and I was on this lively enthusiastic mare that I adore.

See this picture? That is how I feel today:

School's out for the summer!

Hooray! I am done for the year. I closed the library down and took off. I may go back for a luncheon tomorrow afternoon if I am back from my ride. (That is a big if, too.)

I celebrated the end of school (and the sunshine!) by taking Riyah out for a solo ride in Dog Valley. A perfect ride. It was warm, sunny, the flowers were blooming, and I was on a lovely, sweet horse.

We rode about six miles at a relaxed pace. Lots of easy trot, walk aways, and trot some more. It really was just what the doctor ordered. Riyah enjoyed it, too. I love a horse who likes to take time to smell the roses. We were trotting along at a nice clip on level ground when Riyah suddenly slammed on the brakes, arched her neck, and leaned down to check out a big clump of blooming slippery elm! Beautiful flowers, but they sure as heck weren't there last time we came this way!

The visiting sheep herd scattered in the sagebrush watched us trot past. Riyah is very good with sheep, you know! A very long blow snake crossed the trail in front of us and we took time to watch him and admire his bright yellow patterns. I gave Riyah time to nibble the grass, and we took in the view. Like I said, it was perfect.

Well, an entire week of rain is getting me down. The horses are tired of it, too, I'm sure. We got drenched again tonight. (I'm not seriously complaining---too many people have had much worse weather recently; I can put up with our rain.) Tomorrow is supposed to be better though, so if I can find a dry-ish place to park I will finally get Riyah out for a ride!

(Lest anyone think I have been moping around inside waiting for sunshine, I want you to know that besides planting a garden (soaked and hail-pocked now!) and working feverishly in my studio, I have been playing games with the horses. Riyah can load in the trailer with me standing way back! She still doesn't like the slant panel closed--she starts fretting and pawing, but she loads great! We have been doing the seven games regularly.

Keno has tender feet again, poor boy. This is his yearly "seasonal laminitis" I believe. The only fresh grass he gets is what tiny bit he nibbles through the fence line where he can squeeze his lips through--not much at all! He is eating the same hay I have fed him all winter. He is not terribly over weight. He does this every spring. Sigh. Double sigh. Wearing boots he is comfortable, but when I remove them, he is quite ouchy. I have been keeping him booted in his old Old Macs most of the time. I rode him booted in his Gloves for 30 minutes at a walk on Saturday. He puzzles me. I am going to call a couple of experts tomorrow. Before I ride.

EasyBoot Gloves on Riyah's First Ride

Booted up and ready to go!

Here is the boot report from our ride last weekend. I have been using Gloves on my horses since they first came out, and although Riyah's hooves are about a centimeter wider than they are long, they still worked great. She has never been shod and has only recently (the last couple of months) been booted, and only on her front hooves until two days before the Hell's Kitchen Canyon ride. I booted her back hooves for a short trail ride to test out the new size 0.5 EasyBoot Gloves I had bought for her. None of her hooves actually fit into a Glove size parameter according to the EasyCare size chart, but I have still had great success with them. See the March 27 post: The Boots That Shouldn't Fit.

Last Saturday we successfully completed Riyah's first 25-miler in four EasyBoot Gloves with no problems whatsoever! The Hell's Kitchen Canyon ride is extremely rocky in places, incredibly steep in other places, and slick shale slopes in a few other places. Riyah had great traction and was sure footed all the way. I booted her the morning of the ride. The lower half of each hoof was wrapped with three wraps of Mueller's Athletic tape, then the boot was slipped onto the hoof and seated with a couple of good taps with a rubber mallet.

The excitement of the start was almost more than my young inexperienced mare could handle. But despite her many acrobatic maneuvers, we made it through, and she settled (more or less!) into a good forward trot over the rough terrain. The Gloves never moved. No twisting, no stumbling. Riyah was well protected and comfortable, and her boots were the least of my worries, thank goodness! I removed her boots at the end of the ride and her hooves were in great shape. I might add that the boots were harder to take off than they were to put on thanks to the tape. The left front boot actually required two people, a hoof pick, a screw driver, and a fair bit of elbow grease to get it off. Hmmm. Maybe only two wraps of athletic tape would be better in the future!

Gotta love those Gloves!

All four boots nice and snug at the vet check.

The Ride Analysis

The adrenaline has finally left my system and I have been able to spend a little time thinking about the ride and Riyah's experience on Saturday. I am encouraged. I know she had moments I was not comfortable with, but I feel she showed great promise! The good, the bad, and the ugly are analyzed below:

The Good: Riyah was relatively good when we arrived. Anxious, yes, but not totally frantic. Despite the rough start, after the first five miles she settled down into a sort of rhythm at least, and was fairly sensible if you don't count spooking at trail ribbons and rocks. She was forward and enthusiastic, even if not necessarily for all the right reasons. She ate and drank on the trail, which is a great attribute in her favor. A lot of anxious horses simply refuse to eat and drink. She was (mostly) OK with being behind another horse, and she was quite happy to lead out in front. She recovered very quickly and easily from the ride. It certainly did not stress her physically. She looks great!

The Bad: OK. The start was bad. Quite bad, actually. But for a young (mentally very young!) horse who was seeing her first endurance start, it wasn't totally unexpected. She has not yet learned to control her emotions and deal with the anxiety. Anxiety, frustration, and even anger at being held back resulted in her upset behavior at the start. I saw exactly the same behavior at the end of the ride when the horse took off and left us behind. So she is emotionally and mentally very young. I can help her grow up and we can work on helping her deal with these issues.

The Ugly: There is just not much I can do about that trail. Hell's Kitchen Canyon has been there forever and it's always going to be a scary, steep, take-your-life-in-your-hands trail. Don't stress over what you can't change. The sheep stampede was pretty ugly, too. Maybe not to Riyah, who handled it well, but it was to me. I guess it just wasn't my time to go!

All in all, I have to say that the good out-weighed the bad at this ride. Riyah showed promise. If she had never settled down and continued out of control and over-emotional the whole time, then maybe I wouldn't say that. But I have confidence in her ability to learn and grow. She is going to be a good endurance horse, maybe even a great one. Just give us some time to work on a few things.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Riyah's First Endurance Ride

We did it! Riyah and I survived the Hell's Kitchen Canyon Ride. I will admit that survival was the word for the day, though.

This blog is about Riyah's journey into the world of endurance, honestly put and nothing held back. So honestly, yesterday had some good points, some bad points, and a few downright ugly points. Read on.

Sharon and Gail arrived promptly at 5:15am as planned. I had booted Riyah in the barn that morning wrapping each hoof with three wraps of athletic tape before slipping the EasyBoot Glove onto her hoof and seating it with a couple of good taps with a rubber mallet. She was very good for this even though she was surprised to see me at 4:30 in the morning! I blanketed her with a flannel sheet since it was cool, but not cold.

As soon as Sharon and Gail pulled up and loaded their things into my truck, I loaded Riyah. Yes, in the dark even. She just loaded nicely although she was a little wired about the early morning activity. I ran into the house to tell my sleeping husband good-bye, ran back out and we took off. I didn't know that while I was in the house Riyah scrambled in the trailer.

She must have gone down, or very nearly so, because when I unloaded her 45 minutes later at the ride camp in Gunnison, I noticed the slant panel had a big dent. I removed her blanket and saw that she had taken a big chunk of hair off her hip. No blood, luckily. Sharon said she and Gail had heard her scramble earlier.

We parked close beside some friends and Riyah was relatively (!) relaxed standing near their horses. She looked around with flared nostrils and a high head. I tied her to the trailer with a hay bag, and went to sign in.

When the vet arrived, we headed over to vet in. Riyah was happy Diane kept her horse nearby. She needed a security blanket! She vetted through just fine and was even pretty good for the vet. She had a pulse of 44. Back at the trailer we saddled up and watched (since we were parked right by the start!) the 50-milers head out. It's easy in this wide-open country to watch the riders go out for the first half mile or so. That was exciting to Riyah! She wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew it was something BIG!

Diane and I had previously decided to ride together. She has a very nice young half-arab gelding who is remarkably quite and steady. This was his second 25 mile ride, and with his calm nature he seemed like a great riding buddy for Riyah. We mounted to warm up for a few minutes before our start, since horses were gathering. (Thirty or more riders had signed up for the 25-miler.) I dismounted a couple of short minutes later, as Riyah's behavior suddenly became totally wound up. Wound up enough that she tried to buck! She has never done that before! I decided to let the main pack head out and get out of sight over the hill. Luckily Diane was kind and patient enough to stick with me.

When there were just a couple of small groups of riders heading out, we tried again. I had quite the rodeo on my hands. Riyah was beside herself with excitement/anxiety. She trotted sideways down the trail. She threw in a couple of bucks. She jigged sideways. She bumped into Diane's horse, Sammy. She jumped from one side of the road to the other. It was bad. So bad that I twice had second thoughts about continuing. I did not want to get hurt and I did not want to end up on a run-away causing other people to get hurt. Maybe Riyah wasn't mentally fit enough for this yet. Finally I got in the front of a little group of riders--about six or seven of us. Riyah calmed down enough to trot along in the lead. She was nowhere close to relaxed, but she was going forward in a relatively straight line at least. I decided to continue.

We continued trotting up the jeep road. Riyah could see horses way ahead, but she stayed fairly manageable, until a couple of riders wanted to pass us. I let her out a notch and kept her ahead of them. Not because I was racing, but because she was going to go ballistic if they pulled away in front of us. Diane's horse stayed with us and our group continued. Four miles into the ride, I thought there might actually be hope. She was calming down. She had a couple of good spooks at the trail ribbons, which made me laugh. (That was a good sign, too.) She even kicked out at one of the ribbons as we trotted past. Crazy girl.

A young man named Rollin took the lead as we left the road and headed onto a single track trail. He led at a good pace and eventually Riyah relaxed and followed him nicely with Sammy close behind. We walked where the trail was too rough and strewn with boulders. We wound up and down through the gully, twisting through cedar trees, sage brush and boulders. Riyah suddenly scooted forward and sideways as a two-foot long rattler coiled and rattled menacingly at us. (Smart horse!) The trail was steep in places, and I was glad. Riyah needed a big hill! She was really starting to settle down since she was having to work and sweat a little.

All of a sudden we were at the top of the hill looking down into the Hell's Kitchen Canyon. Gulp. It was time to dismount and hike down this treacherous, steep, rocky, shale-covered, slidey, UGLY, trail. This stretch of trail is tougher than anything at Tevis. I must say that Riyah was great as I led her down that horrible stretch. It was terribly steep, so steep I could barely balance. I kept my eyes on the trail and concentrated on staying on my feet. Riyah did not crowd me. I kept my stick handy, and I did shake the lead rope at her once or twice to tell her to back off and slow down, but she was very good about it. Our whole group of five riders made it safely down the mile-long stretch. Thank heavens it wasn't muddy!

A few miles later we faced one more very nasty section to lead down. This one was shorter, but every bit as nasty--very slippery shale and loose dirt and rocky ledges. Whew! We made it. We were home free. Next stop: the vet check. Diane and I, along with a lady named Carolyn, dismounted a hundred yards from the vet check and walked in. Riyah pulsed down well. She was well below criteria (60) when we came in. Sharon and Gail were glad to see us! I'm sure they wondered if I was going to survive after they got to see our rather exciting start.

My dedicated, helpful crew!

Riyah was relaxed for the entire half hour hold. She drank, ate, and rested. And she went out in a relaxed manner when we headed out at 10:33! The three of us (Diane, Carolyn, and I) walked and trotted easily for the next few miles. Shortly we came to the last steep down hill stretch. We dismounted again and headed down. This hill was long and very steep, but it was open and not as rocky as the canyon. Riyah snatched a few bites of grass on her way down, and she was patient as I slowly made my way to the bottom. Again, she didn't crowd me or walk on my heels. Yay! Our lead training paid off! Easy, open trail from here to the end of the ride! We were home free! (Not.)

As we rode across a long open grass-covered valley, we were suddenly confronted with a herd of 800 stampeding sheep! I don't know if the sheep herder was making them run or trying to stop them. His palomino horse was alongside and his three dogs were working the herd. The sheep were neck and neck with us 100 yards to the right and quickly closing the gap as we flew down the trail at a good trot. They were going to cross the trail in front of us! No way. We would choke on the dust! We kept going, and the sheep finally ducked behind the three of us riders. Carolyn's horse who was in the back was beside himself with fear. Diane and I stopped and let her get him under control again. Riyah was looking around like she couldn't figure out why we stopped. It was just a bunch of sheep--no big deal. Little pink trail ribbons are terrifying, but stampeding sheep are OK. Go figure.

We carried on. Less than two miles from camp, Carolyn suddenly raced ahead of me and Diane. She just let her horse go and never looked back. Now I know it's "ride your own ride" and all that, but Diane and I had let her use us as pace horses, and we had babysat her through a couple of rough spots, so we thought it was a bit unsportsmanlike of her to do that at the end. Riyah basically came unglued as her horse raced away. She spun, ran sideways, ignored the one-rein stop, flung her head and bucked. I got off. We were too close to the finish to get hurt now! Diane, bless her, agreed to get off and walk the last mile to the finish with us. Our horses calmed down immediately, and we let them grab some grass on the side of the trail and munch on our way in. They were happy and relaxed as we crossed the finish line, and both horses' pulse were below criteria at the finish.

Both Sammy and Riyah vetted through in very good shape. They both drank lots of water and headed for their food! They looked good and felt good. I was happy to be in one piece and felt pretty good, too! It was touch and go a few times, but we made it!

The EasyBoot Gloves were flawless. A short detailed report will follow. A post analyzing the ride, our preparation, and our homework will show up soon. Stay tuned!

In one piece at the finish line!

Happy to be back at the trailer!

Once again I was having so much fun I forgot to take pictures! Yesterday Sharon picked up Riyah and me, along with Gail and Star, and we headed up the canyon. It was our first ride this spring in our beautiful mountain canyon! We rode up the Pole Canyon dirt road, an easy ride, but it was warm and sunny and spring-like even though there are no leaves on the trees yet. The snow pack on Mt. Nebo is amazing as were the water levels in the creek and reservoir. Lots of water this year!

We did work on "coming and going" type exercises. Sharon rode ahead far enough to get out of sight, while Gail and I stayed behind. The first time we did this Riyah was pretty put out about it. She trotted sideways up the road, tried jigging, and just generally got a little upset. After we rejoined Sharon and let Riyah relax again, she and I trotted off and left the other two horses. She was better at this, although we completely lost the rhythm of the trot since she kept trying to stop and wait for them to catch up! She did go when I asked, though. We did these games several times, and I do think I saw improvement. Who knows how it will be at the ride tomorrow?

Riyah's four booted hooves were great! The rear Easyboot Gloves stayed on just fine, even through the creek crossings and trotting up the gravel road. I think they will be great for the ride. I will boot her up before I go to bed tonight so she will be ready for our early morning drive.

I am packing the truck and trailer this afternoon and trying to have everything ready for the morning. Then I can just load her up and go. The weather is looking good, and so is my girl!