Can You Find Them?

Mom, Rachel, and I went out on a girls' only ride on Saturday and we ran across four big horn sheep and two mule deer.  My camera isn't very good, so we'll play a game of "Can You Find Them?".

(You'll probably have to bigger-fy the pictures to even have a chance of seeing them.)

It was a great day for a ride, with great company, and amazing views.  I'm pretty sure that Rachel's a wildlife magnet.  I hadn't seen any of the sheep in a couple of years, and rarely do I see any deer.  She comes in from Washington, and suddenly we're tripping over

Meandering

With special company coming later in the week,
I decided to go through Estes Park.
The mountains are stunning with snow.

By the time I got to the Lodge,
clouds were building.

Luckily, the sun stayed out long enough for a nice ride.

Looking to the east, it's absolutely beautiful.
I tried to forget what was building behind us in the west.

I let Her Highness decide where we were going today.

She chose up.
And off the trail.

But she found a pretty place to stop and look.

Looking west on our way home,
the clouds started moving our way.

Not sure if there's rain or snow in those clouds.
No matter, it meant extra hay for Her Highness tonight - just in case.

Maybe rain.
Maybe snow.
Probably rain.

Estes: Mom, can I come in for a treat?
GunDiva: Not today.  I hooked up your lead rope.  You can come in for a visit
when our special guests are here later this week.

Just Me and My Mare

Her Highness and I went out today for a leisurely ride all by ourselves.  I know you're always supposed to trail ride with a partner, but I have to tell you, there's nothing quite like being out on the mountain alone.

I love riding with Mom and Bill. Love, love, love it. But I also love going out on my own.

Since the season is over, the trails are quiet.  I'm pretty certain that we were the only ones on the mountain today.  I didn't hear or see anyone else, not even hunters.  Which is good, because I forgot to put my orange on.  We just meandered around - it didn't feel like we were gone very long, but we were gong long enough that Autobot and Kyzzer got worried.  They thought we were just going around Ski Road - they were pretty relieved when we wandered back home an hour and a half later.

Besides being so peaceful, it's a great tune-up.  Going out by yourself requires you to communicate with your horse - there is no doubt about who your horse is responding to.  If you have a more dominant horse with you out on the trails, your horse might be responding to the dominant horse instead of you.  If your horse is the dominant one out on the trail, it has more to focus on than just you.

Ida does something with her horses that I don't believe a lot of people do.  When her horses are young, just a couple of years old, she turns them out by themselves for a few months.  When I say by themselves, I mean, alone.  No other herdmates.  They run "wild" with no one to depend on.  I know it sounds horrible, awful and mean.  However, it instills her horses with a sense of independence and confidence that is unmatched.

Mom and Bill took their horses on vacation - Estes was left behind and she didn't care.  She's absolutely relaxed being by herself.  She earned that confidence when she was young - it was an amazing gift that Ida gave her.

In fact, Estes is so relaxed by herself that she could give a damn if I'm there or not.  The only time she looked stressed at all today was when I took her out of the pen and tied her to the rail.  She was pretty certain that the rest of her herd has been magically tied to the hitch rail for the past week, so when we got to the rail and her herd wasn't there, she bitched me out a little bit.  After a couple of good bellows, she calmed down.

The damn livery had our gates and the access trail blocked (again), so we had to ride up through town to get to the highway.  Estes took the change in stride, and marched on out.  Once we hit the switchback, she called for the herd once or twice and then gave up once she realized we were alone.

Then she kicked back and we just meandered.  It was awesome.  I love that she is confident enough to go out by herself and wander with me.  I think we'll need to do it more often next summer, if she's up to it.

Estes is a fairly aloof horse, she doesn't cuddle much, not like some horses I know.  She'll show affection to people she knows, but she's not a cuddle bug.  Because of this, I was pleasantly surprised with the really long, big hug she gave me when we got back from our ride.  She'll tolerate hugs from me.  On ocassion, she'll even relax enough to rest her head on my back.  Even rarer, she'll wrap her neck around my shoulder and give a hug.  Today, I got one of those lovely hugs.

Of course, she might have been looking for treats.

How To Make Me Happy

Say fabulous, wonderful things like, "Don't worry, Estes is amazing, she does whatever GunDiva asks her to".

Boy, have we got College Boy fooled, but it was a nice compliment anyway and it made me all proud and smiley.

On Sunday, Compass decided to have a photographer/videographer come out and take some promotional shots for her website/facebook page.  Estes and I just tagged along behind everyone else, not really a part of the ride (especially since I was bareback and they don't really offer bareback rides to guests), but helping out where we could.

One of the areas we were able to help was with ponying the photog's horse while he was moving spots and setting up shots.  He had his camera set up and wanted to take some video of the horses' hooves as they crossed what little water we have.  He asked us to take the horses back and forth across the creek a couple of times "if it wasn't any problem".

That's when College Boy piped up and bragged on my horse for me.

Yep.  It still makes me smile that someone else thinks my horse is perfect, too.

Tired...

Long, tough ride today.

Estes is just getting over a cold and her stamina is lacking; I bet she's as exhausted as I am today.

Vet comes tomorrow to float her teeth - I'm sure she'll love that.

I'll write more about the ride once I've had time to process it and put it in some semblance of order.

Missing My Mare

Can't ride.

Too many things on my plate.

Yes, I'm pouting.

Oh Boy

Today's ride kind of sucked.  Not sucked-sucked, but not as fun as the last one was.

I braided a neck rein using bailing twine (I love that stuff) and intended to use it for most of the ride, while using the halter/rein as back up.

I totally stole the adustable idea from Julie Goodnight.

On the upside, my favorite wrangler went out with us as far as the switchback.  He was waiting on a four-hour ride to show up, but wandered out with us until he saw his ride pull into the parking lot, then he had to turn back.  College Boy's got a great way with horses and Estes loves him very much - she just buries her head in his chest whenever she sees him.

That's College Boy on Cinchy in the back.
Yes, it's hunting season, time to break out the orange.

Estee was going so well that I seriously considered taking off her halter/rein and stashing it at the top of the switchback.  Good thing I didn't.  We had lots of discussions.

Lots and lots of discussions.

At every trail that headed home.

Estes is pretty light in the mouth, it doesn't take a whole lot of mouth pressure to get her to do anything.  However, she's not so light when it comes to nose pressure.  One of my "steps" to going bridleless was to switch out to Mrs. Mom's halter and Ashee's barrel rein to see how she would do without a bit.  Let's just say I got a total body workout today.  She's starting to get the idea of nose pressure, but she's also figured out it's a whole lot easier to eat without a bit in.  I've got to get that issue figured out.

We stopped for a picnic at the pond again.  Mostly so I could look around to see if I could find my knife that I lost last week.  Ranger Danger really enjoyed the dessert aspect of the picnic.

"Beel!  What is in yer hand?"

"Beel!  Want I should taste that for you?"

"Whoa, that's a wobbly rock.
You're not gonna fall, are you Mom?"

In between the discussions, we did enjoy the views.  The aspen are turning and it's hard to believe that just last week the pond looked like this...

This is what the same area looked like today...

Fall is pretty amazing.

After the picnic, Estes and I continued to have discussions, though they were fewer than on the way out.  I'm guessing that would be because I had come to my senses and we were headed home.

When we got back to the Lodge, Estes very nicely parked herself at the tackroom door for me to dismount.  This time, she didn't go up onto the steps.  I eventually slid off (hey, I was tired and the ground seemed like an awfully long way down) and lead her to the hitchrack, but I didn't bother tying her up.  Once she's "parked" at the rail, she's there until I move her.

Without a second thought, I went into the Lodge through the tackroom door and she followed me right in.  No hesitation like last time.  She just wandered in like she owned the place.

"Last time, there were treats Mom."

Man, I love this mare!

She was showing an interest in all of the people barn this time and headed toward the living room, so Bill hustled out with the video camera.

"Hey Beel, are the treats in there?"

It didn't take much to encourage her to cross the scary rugs once she saw me standing on them, and I'm really glad her little skitter on the hardwood was with her unshod back feet. I'd still be on my hands and knees sanding the floor if she had scuffed up the floor with her shoes.

You'll be happy to know that when she went back to the rail, I actually hooked her up. I might have created a monster.