I Survived and Have the Brown Boogers to Prove it.

As nervous/excited as I was to work for Compass, it was a relief for Sunday to actually get here.  While I've known Compass for years, I've never actually worked for her.  We hang out sometimes when I'm at the lodge, we go for rides on ocassion, and I help out scooping poop when it needs done, but she's always managed to have her rides covered and hasn't needed me as a day rider in the three years she's been Barn Boss.

This year, her wrangler pickins is kind of slim.  Three weeks into the season and she's already fired two wranglers and had one walk out.  Which left her with her one full-time kid, Packer.  Packer's a rock star and I hope she can keep him for the season.  The problem with rock star wranglers is that they get burned out; new people always coming and going, having to train new people and pick up the slack when they get fired or walk off wears on a person.  Packer hasn't had a day off in three weeks and he's been busting his ass every day since he got there.  He's obviously no stranger to hard work and loves working for Compass (I heard that from his own mouth).  I'll do whatever I can to ease his burden, and subsequently, Compass' burden, because I want him to stay.  He's good with the horses and guests and works from sun up to sun down.

Compass has changed things about the livery - mostly how the horses are treated.  They're happy horses and I love that.  But each Barn Boss has their own way of doing things, so I was pretty much in the way at barn call.  I eventually got the hang of the new routine, but I was definitely a third wheel.  She and Packer have it down to a science.

She offered to let me come up after barn call, but I insisted on being there.  I *hated* day wranglers who just showed up and took out rides and never had to do any of the actual work of the livery, so I was up and on the road by 6:00 am to make barn call.  I was ten minutes late because I couldn't remember where all my stuff was, but I did make it in time to throw a monkey wrench into their routine.

I love the physicality of working the livery.  I love the grooming, feeding, saddling - all of it.  Call me crazy, but I feel like I've accomplished so much by the end of the day.  There actually aren't many people who get to do what we do.

Compass had a private ride scheduled for me at 10:00: three semi-experienced riders for a three-hour ride.  Estes' feet aren't ready and I don't have a saddle that fits her, so, darn, I had to take out Eli.  I like to ride Eli because he makes my butt look small.  Seriously.  Ride a draft - they're good for your self image.

My ride showed up almost an hour late, but we got to go out.  Remember how I said Eli makes my butt look small?  Well, that's pretty much all I love about riding Eli.  He's huge!  Mounting from the ground is an issue for me, but I did it.  Repeatedly.  He's also twice as wide as Estes.  Add in the Western saddle and he's closer to three times as wide as Estes.  My ass told me about it for the first thirty minutes of the ride.  It's still grumbling a little bit, to be honest.

Funny story: Compass' legs are longer than mine.  I know, it's no surprise.  So I made sure to mount up before my people got there to adjust the saddle to fit me.  I had to raise the stirrups all the way to the last hole.  Again, not surprising.  Only, even with the stirrups on the last hole, they were too long for me.  That didn't bother me so much because I only use stirrups for mounting and dismounting anyway and since I ride bareback 99.9% of the time, not having them wasn't a big deal for me.  Anyshortlegs, my ride got there and we got mounted up and as I was leaving the yard, Packer asked me if I wanted help getting my stirrups.  Poor kid thought I dropped them and couldn't recover them on my own.  I had to admit that they were too long, so he started to offer to shorten them.  About halfway through his offer, he must have seen the look of amusement on my face because it dawned on him that they were as short as they would go and he sent us off with a laugh.

The ride was amazing and the guests were fun.  We passed a pile of Moose poop and I told them about how I'd never seen a Moose in real life on the trails, but that we'd been seeing piles of poop for the last year or so.  I told the story about how I went on a "Moose hunt" last year and finally saw one over Trail Ridge Road.  I told them about how Beel had seen one just a few weeks ago at breakfast.  But not me.  Poor GunDiva, moose repellant.

And then we rounded a curve and were able to overlook some beaver ponds.  I was pointing out that shortly we'd be riding down through the beaver ponds and I saw something move.  No way!  I just been talking about moose and there were two of them, about 300 yards away down in the ponds just as happy as they could be.

For such big critters, they're hard to spot

Does this help?
One is broadside to us, the other is facing us head-on.

I'm so glad that I learned years ago to always take a camera with me.  The guests didn't have a camera with them, sad day for them.  They weren't quite as excited about seeing them as I was, but whatever.  I'm the first one to have seen them while out on a ride, nanner, nanner, nanner.

Since we saw the moose in the first hour of the ride, the rest of it was pretty ho-hum.  At least for me.  The guests loved it, even once their knees and ankles started hurting.  All I can say is thank God the scenery is so breath taking.  If it wasn't none of the wranglers would make any tips at all; the guests would be too busy focusing on their sore bodies.

We got back to the livery dead on time - something I've always prided myself on being able to do after the first and only time I've ever gotten a ride lost.  There were no other rides on the books, so Compass had called it a day while I was out, to give Packer a break.  A half a day off is better than no day off, I suppose.  It all worked out, because once I got my horses broken down, I still had time to hang out with the family for Nebalee's belated birthday celebration and spend some time with Her Highness, who was P-I-S-S-E-D that I was working with Those Horses.

Back in the Saddle

And I mean literally.  I'm going to be doing some day riding for Compass at the livery this summer, which requires riding in a saddle.  Wonder how that's going to go after riding bareback for the past few years? Last year, I saddled Estes exactly one time and that was for HCR (which, by the way is coming up the first weekend in August).  Wait...I might have saddled her twice last year.  No matter, the fact is, I haven't had to ride in a saddle in a very, very long time.

Estes isn't ready to lead rides; her hooves still need trimmed and I have to find a saddle that fits her, so I'll be using one of Compass' wrangler horses.  I'm nervous/excited about taking out rides tomorrow - I always worry about all of the things that can go wrong on a ride and can't relax until we're safely back in the yard.  Wish me luck.  Hopefully, the rides will be so uneventful that I won't have anything to write about.

Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week 15

It's Thursday!  That means it's blog hop time.  The rules are simple: Answer any or all of the following questions, add a question of your own and link up.  Dreaming over at Living a Dream runs this little party every week and I just love it.

1. Tell us about something you experienced which began with a countdown.  I can't believe how timely this question is, as tomorrow starts Camp NaNoWriMo.  We're actually in the countdown stage right now...I have three hours and fourteen minutes until I can start writing on my novel.

2. Count.... What counts for you? Or what do you count?  For the next thirty days, I'll be counting words.  I'll be writing 50k words in thirty days for Camp NaNo.  I've been participating in the November event, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the past three years, but this is the first year I'll be participating in Camp NaNo.  My first year I wrote what was supposed to be a romance, but ended up being a wrangler how-to.  It was a lot of fun, though.

3. Down.... What is a downer for you and what strategies do you use to overcome a depressing situation?  Also a very timely question, as I have a very negative student who contributes to her own depression.  I've assigned her to come up with four positive things for every negative thing she says.  It's something I started doing with my kids when they were younger and have used it myself.  When life sucks, you have to look on the bright side.  Sometimes that's incredibly hard, so by listing four things that are good, even if it's just "I woke up this morning", it can change your attitude.

My question for you: In the spirit of NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNo, if you were to write a novel (or if you have) what would it be about?

I've written - or started - four novels.  The one I'll be working on for Camp NaNo is actually a revision of one I started a couple of years ago.  I'm hoping to have my first book, a compilation of stories I wrote about being a wrangler, published as an e-book by the end of the summer.  It still has to go to the copy-editor and I have to have someone convert it to all formats, but I think I can have it up and ready to go by the end of August.

Queen Estes is Home!

First, Fat pasture worked!  Just look at the difference between her in October when she went to her other mommy's and when I brought her home yesterday.

Two months after her sand colic attack,
still way under weight,
even with her winter woolies

Six months of fat pasture
(if I knew how to photoshop myself out, I would have)

With Ranger being so concerned about Estes coming home and eating all of their food, I thought it might be a good idea to take a quick trip around Ski Road just to reacquaint them - let them start to sort it all out.

I hopped into my sort-of cowboy-girl clothes (bending over to change my socks and put boots on was far too much work after the BolderBoulder), slipped her headstall on and loaded up.

Hear ye! Hear ye!
Queen Estes has arrived.
(attitude and all)

We were just going to take a walk around, but she was feeling good, and I was numb pretty much all over, so I let her trot off a bit.


We'll work on manners again starting next week, which makes me a bad horsey mommy.  I should be a clear "Captain" at all times, but it just felt so good to be up on her that I just enjoyed it.

Putting her in with the herd went better than usual.  I'm pretty sure it was helped along by the fact that she's in season and not putting up with anyone's shit.  She's got some bites or hoof marks on her back from one or the other gelding, but Ranger's got a swollen jaw from pissing her off.

They might be back on normal feeding terms in just a couple of days instead of a week or more.

Damn it's good to have my girl home!

She needs a trim, which is way beyond my ability right now.  She's got a lot of hoof wall that needs to come off.  Fat pasture, while good for her weight, was not good for her feet.  Being back in the rocky pen with the others will help to knock off some of it, but I'll have to bring up our "guy".  Once she's trimmed up, I'll do my best to keep it maintained.

Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week WhoKnows?

Before we get on to the Blog Hop...

Estes is coming home!

Now that I've got that off my chest.  Wait...not quite...

Estes is coming home!

On Memorial Day, my baby girl comes home.  This is the longest she's ever been at winter pasture, but between my schedule and waiting for the weather to be "normal", she's been away from home for a long time.

Ok, now we can get to the blog hop, hosted by Dreaming over at Living a Dream.  The rules are fairly simple: answer any (or all) of the questions she posts, add a question of your own, and link up.  Pretty painless, really, and a lot of fun.

1. Imagine that you are once again 8 years old. You have just received the best present, ever. (Ponies and pets are not included on the gift list!) What is it?

Just looking at this makes me want to re-read them

2. What kinds of toys do your animals enjoy playing with?

Toys.  Estee doesn't do toys.  The dog has a stuffed giraffe that she carries around sometimes and the cats love plastic bags.

3. I know you have seen some sort of recreational activity on TV, or in real life, that you would just love to try. What is it?

I so want to do all of the cool stuff they do on Top Shot.  I would pay a lot of money - a lot - to get to do all of the cool stages they do.  Hell yes, strap me into a revolving do-hickey, give it a spin and let me shoot at targets.

My question:  What were your favorite childhood books?

Mine, obviously, were The Black Stallion series and The Trixie Belden series.

Hobby Horse Blog Hop - Week 13

It's time for the blog hop, hosted by Dreaming at Living a Dream.  The rules are simple:  answer any or all of the questions, add a question of your own and link up!  The linky-thingy is at the bottom of the post.

Dreaming recently was able to attend a Buck Brannaman clinic, so this week's questions are based on what she learned at the clinic.  Incidentally, Buck is at CSU this weekend, Friday - Monday.  I offered to take Mom to that instead of Julie's clinic, but she chose Julie.

1. As Buck was working with a horse and throwing a rope so it touched the horse all over its body, and tickled its legs, Buck commented that we must prepare our horses for the unthinkable. What 'unthinkable(s)' have you tried to prepare your horse to deal with, and how did you proceed?

Estes was 18 when I bought her, she'd pretty much already "been there, done that".  Her other mommy did an amazing job with her. I've yet to run into anything that has spooked her - I think a lot of it is due to the way she was raised/trained and the fact that I *expect* her to be bomb-proof.  It rarely occurs to me that she should be afraid of anything, so if I'm not afraid that she's afraid, it works in our favor.  Does that make any sense at all? I guess that's yet another way I'm spoiled with my baby girl.

Bill, however, is a firm believer in bugging the shit out of the horses preparing our horses for the unthinkable with pretty much anything and everything.  And then if Ranger so much as flinches, Bill invokes the dreaded "touch" command. 

2. Buck suggested that his assistant "rub bald spots" on the horse. He asked us to think about how a mare would comfort her foal by nuzzling and licking him, and how that might feel. In addition to rubbing your horse, have you found ways to comfort him/her when he or she is tense or needs reassurance?

Again, the beauty of an older, confident mare raised by someone who did an amazing job.  Not much causes her to need reassurance.  If she's testy, rubbing her forehead, under her forelock usually calms her right down.

3. When asked how to make a horse stand still, Buck replied that you really can't. He suggested that the rider "use the energy for a worthy cause" and make the horse move his feet; make the horse 'do' something. Then, after doing that for a time, the horse might be more inclined to stand still. Does your horse stand willingly? What types of exercises might you ask your horse to perform instead of standing still?

All of our horses have a "stand" command. I don't remember if it was Mom or Bill who came up with the idea of giving our horses the stand command, however, it was a life-saver when we were running the livery.  It's invaluable to be able to "park" the lead horse in the string if there's a guest who needs help. 

However, if I keep Estes tied at the rail and she gets bored, sometimes she'll paw at the ground, but a smart spank on the offending leg with a harsh "stand!" usually fixes it.

My question - thanks to the wildfire raging out of control nearby - is:  Do you have evacuation plans in place for your animals in the event of an emergency?

I've written in the past about our plans, but I'll throw them out there again: we turn the horses loose on the mountain.  Last year, Nebalee made us a stencil with the Lodge's phone number on it.  Since no strangers will be able to get close to the horses once they're out free, the plan is to spray paint the phone number on the horses prior to turning them out.

Visiting the Triple Creek Ranch

Mom and I went to see Julie Goodnight at Triple Creek Ranch for a one-day Horse How-To clinic focusing on:

• Ground Manners for Young or Fractious Horses
• Advanced Groundwork and Liberty Work
• Riding Right: Balance Rhythm and Feel
• Training Solutions

I'm always so impressed when I get to watch Julie work.  She's hilarious in person and is so down-to-earth.  When I work as part of the crew, there are so many things going on that I can't focus on one thing.  Taking Mom as her birthday present was totally an excuse for me to sit in the audience and focus on what Julie had to say.  (I did feel a little guilty about not working, though.)

What astounds me is the immediate difference in the horses.  I know that there are some nay-sayers who don't believe that change happens as quickly as it does on the TV show.  For those people, all I can say is, audit a clinic.  She takes horses she's never seen or worked with before and in a few minutes produces dramatic positive changes that the owner can reproduce.  To me, that's the most important thing: to be able to reproduce the results the trainer gets.  It doesn't do me any good to send my horse to a trainer if I don't learn how to get the same results at home.

What I noticed was that the horses - all of them - immediately responded to Julie's take-charge attitude.  When she says, "Horse, this is your Captain speaking", they listen.  It's been my observation that as soon as the owners take the same attitude and expect their horse to behave a certain way the horses take notice and toe the line.

Mom had a big ah-ha moment and put it into practice the next day with Jesse, apparently with positive results.  I'm pretty sure she'll get around to writing a post about it, so I won't blow it with a spoiler. 

As for me, I hadn't realized how close Estes and I are to being able to do simple at-liberty work and bridle-less riding until I watched the Advanced Groundwork segment.  Poor Estee has a lot of learnin' to do when she gets home.  First, we'll work on my million-dollar idea (I haven't posted about it yet) and then move to at-liberty work and bridle-less riding.  I'm not certain I'll attempt bridle-less out on the trail, but I'd love to.  I just don't know if I've got the stones required to try it outside an enclosed area.  Baby steps.  Gotta work on my million-dollar idea first and go on from there.