Haiku Farm

In which we damn the sn*wpedoes, and head to the regional conference

2012-01-26T18:46:00.000-08:00

Despite a bunch of that nasty white gunk on the roads, Jim and I were determined NOT to miss the Party of the Year. We packed up our stuff

Not photoshopped. There really are 3 floofs in my bag.

and hit the road!

When we got south of Seattle, we saw evidence of the ice storm that didn't make up to our northern climes:

Tree at Maytown Rest Area

But we arrived safely in Portland, just in time to join our friends at the Used Tack Sale.

Used tack sale

I managed to off-load enough of the stuff we weren't using anymore to cover the cost of our hotel room! (We had a LOT of stuff).

Susan and John Favro have run "Healthy as a Horse" for many years, but they want to retire now. Their prices were fabulous, so I stocked up on a bucket of electrolytes and some other long-lasting stuff.

Get yer bargains here!

(They are still holding a retirement sale at their website, click HERE to visit!)

Floofs can attend the meetings, but they aren't allowed to vote.

After the shopping is time for the meetings. The hotel is "dog-friendly" so the floofs attended most of the meetings and lectures with us.

Jim is in the audience. I'm secretary for the organization, so I have to sit up front during meetings and take notes. Gail helps identify people--she knows everybody, and when the group has a really good squabble, sometimes things go too quickly so she makes sure I get everything documented.

We never waste an opportunity to goof around.

We had great speakers this year, too! Susan Garlinghouse was the headliner. If you've never heard her speak about nutrition or anything else, go make a hole in your schedule so you can. She's adept at making scientific research available and understandable by non-scientists.

Show up. Learn stuff.

And then, of course, there's the DANCE! We dressed up in our finery. Jim wore his kilt, and charged $5 to anybody who wanted to see if he was "traditionally clad." (He didn't make much money, sigh).

It looks like Jim is wearing a bustle in addition to his kilt;
really, we're just standing in front of a table with a black tablecloth!

Nice tiara, dude.

PNER Prez Paul Latiolais, also known as Jim's evil twin.

Here's how to tell them apart: Jim wears the kilt; Paul wears the tiara.

Here's one of my evil twins:

Pink Fish, wearing red and rhinestones.

Patty sure does clean up purty, doesn't she?

And check out how big my grand-junior is getting:

Ashley Ann scored at the desert table!

Ashley Ann is almost 5 years old already--and her new baby sister Tembra is due to be born in March. I can't wait to meet my new grand-junior!!!

Before the dancing started, we gave out a bunch of awards, and raffled off some stuff. They asked me to talk up the sales of raffle tickets for a really nice set of corral panels...so I did...

I told people--entirely truthfully, you understand--that the panels in question were impossible for a horse to break out of, that they had been blessed by the pope, that the horse who slept inside the panels would grow a luxurient mane and tail overnight, and that any person who didn't buy tickets would not only probably go to Hell, he or she would also discover that for the next 3 years, photographers would only take pictures of their butt.

For some reason, we sold bunches of those tickets....hmmm. Imagine that. It sounded like such a good deal, I even bought a ticket for myself, and I don't NEED panels. But hey.

Life is good.

In which we've lost Waldo, the chickens sink, and Pickles has some good fun

2012-01-18T16:44:00.000-08:00

It's like one of those "Where's Waldo" pictures:

Where's Haiku Farm?

Being stuck at home isn't all bad. We didn't lose power until late afternoon, so there was plenty of time to write like crazy on the books.

About an hour before sundown yesterday, the sky cleared up and we got realio-trulio sunshine--which makes for some awesome photos:

I am still absurdly happy to have a barn!

Sunbathing in late-afternoon January

Postcard

lower pasture

Snow on alder trees. I had to be careful shooting this--
those branches are heavy and inclined to break and fall!

Lisa

Lisa and Will (and Luna) enjoy rolling in sn*w...

Will and Luna

...but chickens don't. In fact, chickens sink.

Her legs are short and her body is heavy. She sinks like a rock.

I had to stomp down a scratching area for the hens so they could eat their dinner and not get stuck in nearly a foot of white stuff.

Hen party.

Jim did a little higher-tech sn*w-stompage to clear out the driveway...

Jim and Tootles the Tractor

...but here's the view of our road:

No WAY am I driving on this!

The county plows as often as possible, but they only need to make sure that emergency vehicles can travel safely. More than an inch of compacted snow and ice is NOT safe for civilian cars and trucks. So, we stayed home.

Fascinated.

Fiddle was fascinated by all the goings-on. The dogs can't get enough of playing in the white stuff. Even Luna, who is normally quite sedentary, romps around like a puppy.

Luna and Mimsy

but the one who enjoys it most is Pickles:

Picklefish!

Yesterday, the drifts were bigger than Pickles, and she had fun porpoising around the yard.

Pickles the Porpoise

Today, she learned to find the shallower spots near trees and vehicles, but she still enjoys playing in it for as long as I will let the dogs stay outside.

When they come inside, they flop down beside the woodstove and sleep like a pile of dead things.

I'm not the only one who dislikes the Winter Wonderland:

"I want to go back to little grass shack/ In Kealakekua, Hawai`i;
I want to be with all the kanes and wahines/ That I used to know long ago..."

Today, the blue-sky went away, and the wind blew away a lot of the white stuff.

Rain is forecast for tomorrow.

Where's the MOUNTAIN???

Me? I'm ready for rain. Now would be just fine.

In which the weather continues on with whiteness, to which I say "BAH."

2012-01-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Fiddle's paddock and pasture, covered in white stuff.

Not much to say about the weather today, except: BAH.

Yes, it's pretty. But truthfully, it's always pretty here.

Mostly it's pretty green, especially the mossy, moldy, mildewy bits.

I don't know what these red berries are. They're pretty, and they aren't green. Also, the birds won't eat them, not even the chickens. The plant, like many other things around here, "came with the farm" and I haven't been able to kill it with neglect or the truck so far. If I ever find out what it is (readers? any ideas?) I'll go get a bunch of them: a bush that I can't kill is worth having!

I'm not the only one who dislikes the cold wet stuff.

Can you sense the disapproval of this apple?

(it's the only one left on the tree, because Mimsy can't reach it!)

I got them to sit still for a photo...briefly.

The dogs think this stuff is pretty fun, but it makes Pickles sneeze!

"Ahhh. Ahhhh. Ahhhhhh-------"

Big sneeze + little dog = she frequently gets blown off her own feet, and then has to go chase a chicken to compensate.

If plastic owls could speak, this "snowy owl" would be saying something rude.

The plastic owl in the chicken coop seems to share my opinion of the weather.

Not a big fan of sn*w.

Hana: "Why go outside? There's plenty of food RIGHT HERE!"

wearing her heaviest blanket--it's nice and warm under there!

Fiddle: "I don't care either way, as long as that's a cookie in your other hand."

Pirate flag today should say "Shovel or shut up."

The bright side of bad weather: plenty of time to write.

I've got drafts of Chapters 1-4 done for the Endurance 101 book, and finished some editing on the Introduction and Chapter 1 of the other book.

And of course, I wrote a blog post...on a Monday.

Silver linings, right?

In which the best-laid plans are somewhat waylaid by the stupid weather

2012-01-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

I really shouldn't complain too much about the weather this year. It's been wet, but not any wetter than usual, and it mostly hasn't even been very cold. The trails are a mess, of course, but the logging roads have been just fine for riding.

As usual in winter, Fiddle and I have been taking lessons.

A lesson on one of the warmer, non-rainy days

We had a big set-back a few weeks ago, and it was almost entirely my fault: instead of asking Fiddle to do something in the arena, I was ORDERING HER TO DO IT NOW. The whole thing turned into a spitting contest, and nobody ever really wins those things.

Sigh. I should know better. She really does TRY very hard for me, and when I get impatient it always takes longer. So, it was two steps backwards, and we regroup and try again.

The problem is that, although she's forgiven me for MY bad behavior and I've forgiven her for HER bad behavior, she still worries that I'm going to start spitting again, and she's defensive. And when Fee gets defensive, she gets nasty: she throws those back feet around, pins her ears...in other words, she exhibits all the bad behaviors I saw all the time when I first got her.

She never gave those up entirely, but she has learned other, better behaviors. And now the badness is back, and it's my fault and my responsibility to fix it (again).

I know (because I have been through the process with a lot of animals) that she will return to better behavior. I know that getting good behavior will be easier now than it was five years ago. I also know that my best option with this mare is to not react when she has a defensive tantrum, but instead to continue asking (not demanding and not punishing) her to move forward. When she's in her defensive mode, she can't listen to me very well, and the thing that works best is soft hands, soft legs, and a steady, calm, asking posture that makes "going forward" the easiest thing to do. She also gets lots of praise for doing things correctly and calmly.

Dory coaches me on "opening my hips". Lisa is riding Guy in the background.

One of the ways that I wanted to practice all this with her was to take her to our first dressage show! I've never showed with any horse, so this would be a new experience for both of us--good practice, I figured, in "being a beginner", since that's the audience I'm writing for in the Endurance 101 book.

(UPDATE ON THE ENDURANCE BOOK: the publisher who expressed interest is still on vacation, but I'm writing like a mad fiend anyhow. I hope to have at least half of that book in rough draft by the time she gets back in mid-February. Meanwhile, the proposal spawned from my other blog has been offered a book contract by VOYA Publishing. So I'm also frantically writing that, as well!)

It's been a long time since I've been a beginner at a horse sport. I've done what I've been doing for more than a decade now. I'm familiar with the process, and it's comfortable for me. I'm comfortable taking dressage lessons--I trust Dory to challenge us without facing us down impossible roads.

Dressage shows, by contrast, are completely new, and now I remember what starting out in endurance was like:

Did I fill in the form properly?

Did they receive my entry?

What if people are mean?

What if I do things wrong?

Oh yeah, NOW I remember all those emotions. Urgh. This really IS good practice for me.

So, I was all set to go to the show this morning: last night I set out my clothes, packed my lunch, hitched my trailer, and cleaned up my horse (and was glad that she's mud-colored, btw). I set my alarm for 5am and went to bed early....

And this morning, there was THIS:

Swamplanders really don't like sn*w.
Also, our roads become treacherous really quickly, because we don't have
good equipment to clear them properly.

I called the ride manager, and was pleased to learn that she isn't mean. She's nice! And she totally understood why I didn't want to drive my truck and trailer on icy roads. Apparently, a lot of people had already called her to cancel, but she was still nice to me...at 6:30am. That's impressive.

So now I have an entire day to write stuff on both books....

...but first, maybe I'll go back to bed. At least until the sun comes all the way up.

Life is (unpredictable) Good.

In which your lucky wishes are probably helping (so keep wishing!)

2012-01-09T21:14:00.000-08:00

This morning when I got to work, I discovered that one of my delightful co-workers had left a charming little gift on my desk:

I had no idea, and I think she had no idea, that this little bauble is just slightly magical and more than a teeny bit lucky.

But it definitely IS.

How do I know?

Well.

Funny you should ask!

The library was busy enough today that I barely glanced at my "personal" email during the morning shift, and I took myself for a quick walk during my lunch hour and didn't read any of it then. It wasn't until mid-afternoon, when the rush slowed down a bit, that I glanced at my phone, expecting to see a few post-Xmas ads and maybe a note from Facebook saying that Patty was kicking my butt in Words With Friends.

There were, in fact, a few ads, and a note about WwF. But there was another message, too.

From a publisher.

Now, before you go all squee, I'll tell you that I don't have an actual acceptance of the Endurance 101 book proposal...yet.

What the publisher said was that, although they are acquiring horse titles slowly right now, she is interested in my book proposal. She called it "strong, appealing, and well thought out."

(At this point, I did squee. Also, I did a teeny little dance in a teeny little circle around the library workroom.)

Then she said that she is going on a 4-week vacation (envious!) and won't be able to discuss it with the publishing committee until mid-February....

...BUT...she asked me to email her after February 10th to remind her to look at the proposal again, once she's back from her vacation.

(insert: more squeeeee and more dancing!)

It's a long time to keep our fingers crossed, but Haiku Farm readers are strong. I know you'll help me out on this. We are on the right trail towards getting the book published!

Life is good good good good good!

In which it's that time again already: time to go shopping for PROM!

2012-01-08T22:53:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun wearing our thrift-shop prom dresses at the Pacific Northwest Endurance Rides' convention last year that we decided to repeat this experience...

One rack in one store. We hit SIX thrift stores today in search of fancy frocks!

And, off we went.

Note that this is a HORSE-RELATED post: we met up at Fish Creek Farm, and van-pooled to thrift stores together. If you look carefully, you will see a horse through the front windscreen of the van.

Say "hi" to Rocky as we drive past him!

Our plan is always quite simple: try on everything that looks interesting.

Dory looks awesome.

Me, in the same dress, looking piratical!

We tried on dresses of all shapes,

What is the best part of the outfit? The sports bra? Or the socks?

...and sizes...

I was sooooooo sad that this purple dress didn't fit me!!!

For the really good dresses, we all squoze into them.

The gold dress didn't fit. Too bad!

We did stop for lunch. Then...back to the thrift shops! We still needed to find shoes

Cute, but perhaps not seen to advantage with sport socks?

Not much in the world more fun than red shoes.

We also found some, er, supportive foundational garments.

A lovely example of a holder-upper/squisher-inner

Who knew that you could find such a wide variety of squisher-inners, holder-uppers, strapper-downers, smusher-flatters, and fluffer-uppers at thrift stores? Amazing!

Last stop: accessories.

Patty's hat is pink leopard print. Mine has skulls and crossed bones.

Hats, gloves, and tiaras. We are going to be fancy ladies, fer shore.

Fortunately, we still have two weeks until the event--there's plenty of time to recover from our marathon shopping trip!

We are 'sausted.

Life. Is. SHINY!

and also, good.

(if you're going to be in the Portland, Oregon area on January 20-22, consider coming to the PNER Convention. Speakers and vendors are free! Details HERE.)

In which skill is important, but we don't refuse wishes for good luck!

2012-01-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

This must be what it feels like to send your first-born child off to university.

The lady at the post office kissed it for luck!

I hammered at it, scribbled on it, re-hammered and re-scribbled for more than a month.

Finally, I printed out a clean copy, slid it gently into the mailing envelope, and steadied my hand as I wrote the publisher's address on the front.

Then I went to the post office and handed it over the counter:

A book proposal for Endurance 101.

I figure that if you want to wish us luck, now would be a good time.

Also, if you want to rave on-and-on about how you can't wait to buy your very own copy of it, perhaps the publisher will notice if you write your raves in the comments.

(What the heck, it couldn't hurt!)

What do you do to bring luck?

In which our "holiday card" is sent out just a couple of days late

2012-01-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

You know those annoying "Holiday Cards" that folks send out, listing their unbelievable achievements in the past year?

This post is my annual substitute for that. Hopefully, it's not completely annoying.

(Typically, I'm sending it out after most folks consider that the holidays are over.)

January 2011 brought the biggest change yet to the farm:

Barn-Roof-Raising party looks a lot like Whack-a-Mole

a barn roof!

barn frame with roof, January 2011

Working on the barn took most of our time in the winter, but it finally got finished. Hooray!

Jim makes walls, despite the weather

assembling the gutters

barn! Complete with horse and lights!

We met up with bloggers this year, too.

lytha from the HorseCrazyAmerican blog, visiting from Germany!

L-to-R: Monica from Horsebytes, me, and Laurie from Evensong

We hung out with friends (mostly horse folks)

PNER Convention, Portland OR 2011

Duana on Hana

Sky with Cricket

Standardbreds and their riders!

and, I went riding.

riding, January 2011

riding, February 2011. Bah.

blue skies over Home on the Range, March 2011

riding, April 2011.

Mt. Adams Endurance Ride, May 2011

Renegade Rendezvous Endurance Ride, June 2011

riding, July 2011

with"I'm a Pocket Picker" at the
Standardbred Game Day in Canada, August, 2011

In September, our weather changed suddenly from summer

Sky and Cricket, the day before the Bare Bones Endurance Ride

to winter.

Bare Bones Endurance Ride, September 2011

but I kept riding.

riding, October 2011

riding, November 2011

We did some practical farm-stuff this year, like put in the garden and deploy a new Chicken Tractor.

the Tiny White Van

We took a little time off to visit the water slides.

Lisa always screams right before she hits the water

In August, we acquired a new "family member"

Pickles Marie Tinydog's first day on the Farm

We celebrated some holidays.

I wrote Endurance 101 stuff for NaNoWriMo

Endurance: crazy is okay, dummy isn't

and then, I went riding.

riding, December 2011

It's a good life.

Thanks for hanging out for a whole year of it!

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with a Bre'r Rabbit tale

2012-01-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

A lot of folks make a big fuss about Christmas dinner--goose, turkey, ham, or whatever, with all the fixin's.

To me, though, the best dinner of the year is served by my mom on Christmas Eve: Carrot-Cauliflower Soup. It's warm. It's comforting. It's delicious. And it's an easy meal to fix, so we can all hang out together, rather than leave one or two cooks stranded in the kitchen making food for the rest of the herd.

Since it's one of the best celebratory foods in the world, I was sure that Brer Rabbit would make it for his dinner, too. I've included the recipe at the end of the story.

Brer Rabbit’s Christmas Dinner (American South)

One cold winter morning, when he knew Brer Rabbit wasn't home, Brer Fox sneaked into Brer Rabbit's garden. He helped himself to every last one of Brer Rabbit's carrots and cauliflowers and left with his bag so full it was bursting at the seams.

When Brer Rabbit got home and saw his garden with nothing much left to admire, he was mighty angry. He sped off directly to Brer Fox's house.

The door was bolted and the shutters were closed tight.

Brer Rabbit couldn't hear anything except the sound of the north wind blowing and his own stomach rumbling. But all around was the sweet smell of soup cooking.

Brer Rabbit knocked on the door.. "I know you're there, Brer Fox," called Brer Rabbit. "Now you open this door."

Brer Fox didn’t answer, so Brer Rabbit knocked harder. "I know those are my vegetables in your soup," said Brer Rabbit, "and I want them back. Now open this door!"

Finally there was an answer from inside. "Too bad," said Brer Fox. "I’m not opening this door. I'm making enough soup in here to keep me till Springtime."

Brer Rabbit tried knocking the door in. He kicked at it and hammered on it, but that door didn't budge.

Now you know that Brer Rabbit was the best at tricking, and when he was mad, watch out. It didn’t take him long to think of a plan to get his carrots and cauliflowers back.

On Christmas Eve, Brer Rabbit heaved a sackful of stones on his shoulder and climbed up on Brer Fox's roof. He clattered around making plenty of noise.

"Who's that up there?" called Brer Fox.

"It's Santie Claus," said Brer Rabbit in a Santie Claus voice. "I got a sackful of presents for you."

"Oooh, you got presents for me?" said Brer Fox. "Well, you're most welcome here, Santie Claus. But ain't you supposed to come down the chimney?"

"Sure I am," said Brer Rabbit in his Santie Claus voice. "But I can't. I'm stuck in the chimney.”

"Well, don't come down then," Brer Fox hollered up at the roof. "Just drop the presents down the chimney and I'll catch them."

"Can't do it," answered Brer Rabbit. "The sack is stuck too. But if you do what I say, I'd be mighty grateful. Climb up into the chimney. Then catch hold of this piece of string and pull the sack down yourself."

Brer Fox was only too happy to help. "That's easy," he said. "Here I come, up the chimney." He started clawing his way up.

Fast as lightning, Brer Rabbit leaped off that roof and into the house.

There were his carrots and cauliflower in a pile, and on the stove was a big old pot of soup, all fragrant and bubbling, and on the table were some biscuits and mince pie, and there in the middle was the biggest, fattest Christmas pie he'd ever seen.

Brer Rabbit didn't waste much time. He grabbed up all of that food, stuffed it into his sack and took off running.

Meantime, Brer Fox was struggling to get up the chimney.

He couldn't see any string, but he felt it hanging down. So he gave a pull. The sack opened and out tumbled all the stones right on Brer Fox's head. My goodness, he went down that chimney fast.

That rascally Brer Rabbit laughed at how he'd taken care of Brer Fox.

He kept out of Brer Fox's way for some time afterward.

But Brer Rabbit surely did have a fine Christmas dinner that night, and plenty of carrot and cauliflower soup left over for him to eat until Springtime.

Carrot-Cauliflower Soup

Cut into chunks about 1" square:

some carrots
an onion
a cauliflower

Sautee all these in butter until the onion is clear. Then, dump the vegetables into a soup pot with

some broth (chicken broth or vegetable)

Let the ingredients cook together over a low heat for at least an hour. Then add in

some cream or half-and-half or milk

This will cool the soup down a bit. While it's cool, run the entire thing through the blender until it is a smooth, pretty orange color.

Heat the soup back up gently, and add any of the following just before serving:

cilantro
fresh grated ginger
parsley
dried dill

Serve warm, preferably with fresh bread and butter, and a glass of nice wine.

Enjoy--and Happy New Year!

--Aarene and the rest of the gang

at Haiku Farm

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with a Norwegian tale

2011-12-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Boy Who Went to the North Wind (Norway)

Once upon a time, an old widow sent her only son out to the barn to fetch some meal.

Just as the lad was walking out of the barn with it, the North Wind blew up fierce and wild. Huffing and puffing, the North Wind caught up the meal from the lad's arms, and off it blew, far, far away.

The lad turned around and walked back into the barn. Once more he walked outside, carrying his bowl of meal. Again the North Wind came along, and with a huff and a puff, it carried off the second bowl full.

The lad shrugged and returned to the barn a third time. Once more the North Wind made off with the meal. Now, the lad stomped his feet.

"I'll go off and speak to him about his thievery," he said to himself. And so he did. The lad walked and walked, and finally, after the sun had set and the moon began to rise, he came to the house of the North Wind.

"Good evening, North Wind," he said politely.

"Good evening," said the North Wind. "What do you want?"

The lad politely asked the North Wind if he might return the stolen meal. He explained that he and his mother were very hungry, and very poor.

At last, the North Wind answered the lad. "I do not have your meal," said he, "but since you seem to be in need and you have traveled so far, I will reward you for your trouble. I shall give you a cloth that will fetch you any food you wish. All you have to do is say, 'Cloth, spread yourself,' and the cloth will serve up delicious food to eat."

The lad was well pleased, and he thanked the North Wind and set off for his long journey home. At last he grew weary, and spotted an inn at the side of the road.

"I shall rest here tonight," he said, and walked inside.

"Welcome," said the innkeeper, "but I'm afraid we do not have enough food to share with you."

"Never mind that," said the lad, "and he laid his cloth on the table and said to it, "Cloth, spread yourself."

A moment later, the table was filled with such a feast as you have never seen before, and everyone ate as much as they wanted to eat.

But that night, when everyone was fast asleep, the innkeeper sneaked into the boy's room and stole the magical cloth. He replaced it with an ordinary cloth.

Next morning the lad set off, carrying with him his cloth. When he returned home, he told his mother all about his meeting with the generous North Wind.

Then he spread out the cloth and said, "Cloth, spread yourself."

Nothing happened. The lad's mother just shook her head, but the boy smiled and said,

"I must return to the North Wind and discover what has happened to the cloth. I am sure he did not mean to cheat us." And off he went.

He arrived at the North Wind's house late in the day. "Please, North Wind," said the lad, "this cloth is worth nothing, for it worked only once. I'd like my meal back."

The North Wind said, "I told you, I have no meal. But I see that you have again traveled far," he said kindly. "For your trouble, I shall give you the cow that stands over there in the pen. This is a special cow. She produces gold coins from his mouth as soon as you say, 'Cow, make money.' "

The boy was pleased with this. Off he went once more, leading the cow behind him.

Once again he stopped at the inn. When the boy saw all the people gathered there, he could not help but show off his good fortune.

That night the innkeeper once more stole the lad’s good fortune. This time, he exchanged an ordinary cow for the cow that made the gold coins. In the morning, the lad hastened home to his mother, leading the cow behind him.

"Watch this, mother," he said delightedly. "Cow, make money," he cried. The cow stood very still and stared at the lad. "Cow, make money," the boy repeated.

Alas, the cow produced nothing at all.

And so again the lad hastened to the home of the North Wind. This time, he demanded his meal.

"I do not have any meal," sighed the North Wind, "and all I have to give you now is this old wooden stick. Now, if you say to this stick, 'Stick, lay on,' it will flap and flail and fly after anyone you wish, and it will not stop until you say, 'Stop, stick, stop now'."

The lad went off carrying his magical stick. Once again, he stopped at the inn.

When he saw the innkeeper, he squinted his eyes, for by this time he had grown suspicious. That night, the lad lay in his bed, but he only pretended to sleep.

Now, the landlord had spied the stick and he thought it must be magical as the cloth and the cow had been.

He tiptoed to the corner and reached for the stick, but just as he was about to take it, the boy sat up on his bed and cried,

"Stick, lay on." The stick began to flail and fly about the ears of the startled innkeeper

"Your stick means to hurt me," cried the innkeeper. "Make it stop."

"What will you do for me?" asked the lad.

"I will give you back your cloth, and your cow too," said the innkeeper.

"Stop, stick, stop now," said the boy, and the stick fell to the ground and lay at his feet. At once, the innkeeper returned with the North Wind's gifts to the boy, and he went back home singing all the way, eager to share his good fortune with his dear mother.

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with a funny old tale

2011-12-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

What His Father Did (Ukraine)

A large fellow went to an inn and demanded a meal.

“No money, no food,” said the innkeeper.

The fellow pounded the table, and stamped his feet and shouted, “If I don’t get something to eat, I’m going to do what my father did!”

The innkeeper got scared, and brought soup, bread and ale for the stranger.

The big fellow ate his fill, and then smiled peacefully and said “Thank you.”

Seeing that he was calmer after the meal, the curious innkeeper approached the man, and timidly asked, “Sir, please, if you don’t mind telling me, when your father did not get something to eat, what exactly did he do?

“What else could he do?” asked the traveler. “Why, he went to sleep hungry, of course!”

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with a Welsh fairy tale

2011-12-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Fairy Reward (Wales)

A man once lived by himself in a cottage on a hillside. One cold and windy night after he had gone to bed he heard a noise outside the door of the house. He opened his window and said, "Who is there? And what do you want?"

He was answered by a small silvery voice, "It is room and a warm place and water we want, to dress our children."

The man went down and opened the door: a dozen small beings entered carrying tiny babies in their arm; they remained in the cottage for some hours, washing the infants and themselves. Just before daybreak, they went away, leaving some money on the hearth as a reward for the kindness they had received.

After this, the man would to keep his fire banked and burning all night long. He would leave a vessel of water on the hearth, and bread on the table, taking care also to remove everything made of iron before going to bed.

The fairies often visited his cottage at night, and after each visit he found money left for him on the hearth. The man gave up working, and lived very comfortably on the money which he received in return for his hospitality from the Good Neighbors. His income from this source was more than enough to keep himself in comfort, so in time, he married a wife.

The wife did not bother about the way in which he got his money before she married him, but after the knot had been tied she became very curious.

The man refused to tell her, and this of course made her more inquisitive than ever. "I don't believe you get it honestly," she said. The man denied by wood, field and mountain that there was anything dishonest about his means of livelihood.

She gave him no peace, however. "Nine shames on you," she said, "for having a bad secret from your own dear wife."

"But," he said to her, "if I tell you the secret, I'll never get any more money."

"Ah," she said (she had already had her doubts about his nightly preparations of fire and hot water), "then it's the fairies."

"Drato," said he, "yes,the fairies it is."

With that he thrust his hands down in his breeches pocket in a sullen manner and left the house. He had seven shillings in his pockets up to that minute, but after telling his secret, he found they were gone. In place of them were some pieces of paper, no good even to light his pipe.

From that day the fairies brought him no more money, and he had once more to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, which is a more scriptural but less pleasant method of earning a living than gathering up fairy money.

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with another fire tale

2011-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Firebird (Whullemooch People, Puget Sound)

Very long ago the people had no fire. They had heard of fire but they had never seen it. They ate all their food raw, and on cold days sat shivering and unhappy. They had no pleasant lodge fire to gather around on wet nights.

It happened one day, while the people were sitting on the grass eating raw meat, a beautiful red bird suddenly flew above their heads. It had shining feathers, and bright eyes like jewels, and its long, waving tail gave out rays like the Sun.

The bird hovered over the heads of the people, and flew in circles around and around.

"Bird, what do you want?" said the people.

"I come," replied the bird, "from a beautiful country far away. I am the Firebird, and I bring you the blessing of fire. The rays you see shining about my tail are tongues of flame."

"Oh, pretty Bird," cried the people, "give us the fire, so that we may cook our food and warm ourselves!"

"If you wish the fire," said the bird, "you must earn it. I cannot give it to anyone who has done a bad deed or a mean action.

“Today let each of you get ready some pitch pine. Tomorrow I will return, and then you shall see who will get the fire." So saying, the bird flew away.

The next day it returned. "Have you the pitch pine ready?" asked the bird.

"Yes! Yes!" said all the people.

"Very well," said the bird. "Here I go! Catch me if you can. Whoever puts some pitch pine on my tail shall get the fire to warm himself by, and cook his meals on, and to be a blessing to the people forever."

Then away flew the bird close to the ground. And away went all the people running after it.

At first, they ran laughing and shouting. Some tripped on stones, others caught in bushes and scratched themselves on thorns, and others fell into water-holes. By and by, some of the people went back angrily to their lodges, but the rest kept up the chase.

But no one could catch the Firebird. When one man tried to grasp its tail, the bird cried out, "You are too selfish, you cannot have the fire." To another man it cried, "You are a thief," and to still another, "You tell lies."

At last the bird flew toward a lodge. In the door was a poor woman taking care of a sick old man.

"Pretty Bird! Pretty Bird!" called she. "I cannot follow you now. Will you not come here and give me your fire?"

"What good have you done?" asked the bird.

"I have done no good at all," answered the woman sadly. "I have had no time for that. I must stay here and care for my sick father, and look after my little children."

"Kind woman," said the Firebird, "you do your duty, so you are doing good. Bring some wood and put it on my tail, and take the fire."

The woman hastened to fetch some wood, and when she laid it on the Firebird's tail, the flames blazed up. Then all the other women of the tribe brought wood and got fire from her, and ever after they were able to cook their meat and warm themselves

As for the Firebird, it flew away and they never saw it again.

That is how the people say they got fire.

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with a Maori tale

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Origin of Fire (Maori) Fire had disappeared from the world. Mahuika, the mother of fire, lived in the underworld, and each of her fingers was a child of fire.

Maui the trickster, didn't wish for fire to come back to the world, so he asked Mahuika to give him one of her fingers of fire. When he returned to the world, Maui extinguished the flame by pouring water onto it.

Maui went to Mahuika again and told her that he had lost the first finger. Maui returned to the world again with the second finger and extinguished the flame.

Returning again and again, Maui eventually tricked Mahuika into giving him each of her fingers except for the last one.

Finally, Mahuika realized she had been deceived and threw her last finger into the forest of the world, causing a great fire to spread through the forest. Mahuika pursued Maui into the burning forests.

Fearing for his life, Maui took the form of a forest eagle and prayed to Tawhiri-matea, the god of storms, to bring forth rain, and a great flood fell upon the earth.

Knowing that she would perish if the fire were to be extinguished, Mahuika ran into the world to save her child.

Realizing that she was losing the battle against the great flood, Mahuika hid in the kaikomako tree with her last remaining finger of flame. There she perished while her finger slept.

To this day, Mahika's sleeping child can be woken by rubbing together the dry wood of the tree, bringing forth once again the fire of Mahuika.

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories with an ancient Greek tale

2011-12-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hestia (ancient Greece)

Hestia, goddess of fire, had a place of honor in the great Hall of Olympus, but Dionysus, the god of festivals and feasting, had none.

When a giant came to Greece, the gods could not overcome him, until Dionysus stepped forward with a wineskin that never emptied. Dionysus and the giant got so drunk together that that, at last, the other gods could capture the giant and throw him into the sea.

As a reward, Dionysus asked for a seat at the table of the gods, but none wanted to give up their own places, until Hestia stepped forward, and offered her place.

"I can give you my place,” she said, “for people will always come and bend to worship me. Long after you are forgotten, people will come with hands clasped before my fires on a cold night.”

When next you sit close to a fire, remember Hestia, who warms your hands.

In which we celebrate the Gift of Stories : "The Place in the Forest"

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Place in the Forest

Whenever the Jews were threatened with disaster, the Baal Shem Tov, (a great and righteous Rabbi) would go to a certain place in the forest, light a fire, and say a special prayer. Always a miracle would occur, and the disaster would be averted.

In the later times when disaster threatened, his disciple would go to the same place in the forest and say, “Master of the Universe, I do not know how to light the fire, but I can say the prayer.” And again the disaster would be averted.

Still later, the student after him would go to the same place in the forest and say, “Lord of the World, I do not know how to light the fire or say the prayer, but I know the place and that must suffice.” And it always did.

Five generations after the Baal Shem Tov, there was danger. The Rabbi of the time sat by his kitchen fire and said to heaven, “I do not know the prayer, nor the place, nor the way to light the fire. I know only how to tell the story, and it must suffice.”

The story was enough, and the disaster was averted.

Remember the story, tell it, pass it on.

In which the Gift of Stories begins with a new story from Skookum

2011-12-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

A Skookum Nativity

Up the hill two blocks from the main street of downtown is the Skookum Community Church—an ordinary-looking church building most of the year. In December, however, the church becomes a destination for visitors from all over Pilchuck County and beyond.

The reason that hundreds of people each year visit the little church on the hill is a unique vision that began with a preacher and a chainsaw.

William “Dub” Williams supported himself in college and seminary by working for the Park family, a gregarious clan headed by grandmother Halmoni Park. The mothers, aunts, and girls of the family spend hours each week combing the forest for mushrooms, ferns and barks, which they dry and sell to gourmet restaurants as far away as New York City. The men of the family work with chainsaws, salvaging fallen trees, rolling huge log rounds into the beds of battered yellow pickup trucks to be split into woodstove-sized pieces and stacked neatly for firewood.

Dub’s job was to carve bears with a chainsaw.

In 1990, one of the Park grandsons had seen a chainsaw-carving contest at the Pilchuck County Fair, and he convinced Halmoni that the carved bears would be a good sideline for the family businesses. Halmoni agreed, and soon the demand for carved wooden bears was so high that the Parks hired three additional carvers to create them…and for ten years, Dub Williams was one of the Park bear carvers.

“I made each bear unique”, Dub says now. “I made standing bears, sitting bears, waving bears, and bears with funny hats. I got so I could create just about anything with a piece of wood and a chainsaw, but it wasn’t what you’d call intellectually challenging. When I finally graduated and was called by the Community Church, I drained all the fluids out of my saws and swore I’d never carve with them again.”

And then, one day…

“It was during Vacation Bible School a few years ago—one of those hot sticky days when we just couldn’t stand to keep the kids inside the stuffy church building. One of the volunteer teachers took her group under the shade of the big maple tree in the front yard of the church. I remember that they were singing an activity song where you have to stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down really fast as you sing. It was the teacher who caught my eye. The way she held her hands out to invite everyone to join the song, the smile on her face, the light in her eyes, even the stars embroidered on her scarf: it gave me shivers, because she looked for a moment exactly like the Christmas angel in the little plastic nativity set we got for my daughter Emily when she was little.

“But here’s the thing: the plastic angel had long, flowing blonde plastic hair…and the teacher was bald.

“She was in the middle of chemotherapy, and she’d lost all her hair, even her eyelashes. She had that tired look that cancer patients get, you know? And yet, when I saw her there with the children, my ears heard “The Grand Old Duke of York”, but my heart heard “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.”

It got me thinking about angels, and about nativity scenes, and when I went home that night, I fueled up my chainsaws and I carved the nativity angel the way I saw that young woman: bald from the chemo, scarred from the surgery, but singing to the people around her, getting them to sing along with her, and reminding them to fear not.

“The angel carving got me thinking about what a nativity in my town would really be like. We don’t have any camels. An angel in Skookum wouldn’t find many shepherds, either…but there are plenty of loggers, and fishermen and dairy farmers who would come to see the newborn king. I also wondered why, in the traditional nativity scenes, the stable is full of men? Every new baby I’ve ever seen in Skookum is surrounded by women.

“So that’s what I decided to make: a nativity scene for Skookum.

“I started carving more figures, all bringing gifts, all coming to make sure the parents know how to change a diaper and burp the child properly. I carved a bunch of animals: some dogs, a few cats, a mule. No camels. I carved a few cows using VanDamagen’s dairy herd as models, and a couple of horses, just because it didn’t seem right to have a scene in a stable without them.

“The model for Joseph is my friend Howard Park. He lived in California for a long time, but when he and his partner Matthew adopted twin boys, they moved back to Skookum so that Halmoni and the family could help raise the kids. The boys are half-grown now, and starting to bug their dads about learning to run chainsaws like all the other family men. If ever there was a man willing to raise up a kid to his full potential, it’s Howard.

“There was no doubt in my mind who to use as the model for Mary,” the preacher says, pulling a worn photo from his wallet. “My Great-Aunt Rae took me in which I was just a baby, after my parents were killed in a car wreck. She was 45 when I landed at her doorstep, and never had a baby of her own. She loved me as if I was her own child, and when I was half-grown she took in some of the neighbor kids who were being neglected by their own folks. She probably raised 20 kids before she died, and most of them weren’t even related to her. That carving took the longest of any of them, because it needed to be exactly right, down to the blue headscarf that she always tied over her hair when she worked in the garden.

I couldn’t think up three men who I thought were wise enough to advise the new parents, so I carved the three wisest women I know. I figured that if Mary had given birth in my town, she wouldn’t want a bunch of star-crazed kings at her bedside; she’d want Lulu Rubidoux from the high school, and Miriam James from the Pilchuck Tribal Council, and my wife. They are the wise ones around here.

The manger in Skookum’s unique life-sized nativity set is deliberately left empty. Dub explains why:

“When I set up the chainsaw nativity set on the front lawn of the church, I asked for families to take turns bringing real babies to lie in the manger, and there were plenty of volunteers.

“What I didn’t count on was what the community did with the creche: they brought folding chairs, blankets, and picnic dinners, and they didn’t just put the baby in the cradle, they added themselves to the scene. And none of this “adore him in the manger” business, either: each infant is passed around for the hour or two that he or she is the designated “Baby Jesus”, until every single person has held the child, touched the hair, and admired the fingernails.

“At first I thought that they were wrecking the whole thing, but when I really looked at it, I realized that they had, instead, gotten it exactly right. Those shepherds didn’t come down out of the fields with their flocks and then hang around outside in the parking lot. They came into the stable, they talked to Mary and Joseph, they played “got your nose” with the baby.

That’s the whole point of the nativity, after all: that God joined us here on Earth, as one of us.

And in Skookum, becoming one of us means being surrounded by the good wishes of all of us.

The Skookum Community Church Participatory Nativity is open Fridays through Sundays in December from 5 to 10pm. Donations to the Skookum Food Bank are gratefully accepted.

If you are unable to attend the Participatory Nativity in Skookum this year, your local food bank would still appreciate a generous gift of food or funds.

In which every speck of sunlight is precious to us on Solstice Day

2011-12-22T19:52:00.000-08:00

Almost everybody celebrates (consciously or not) the return of the sun following Solstice.

I got curious about how much sun and how fast it returns. So, I looked it up:

Dec 22, 2011	rise 7:55 AM	set 4:21 PM	hours 8h 25m 23s	how much? < 1s
Dec 23, 2011	rise7:56 AM	set 4:21 PM	hours 8h 25m 29s	how much? + 05s
Dec 24, 2011	rise7:56 AM	set 4:22 PM	hours 8h 25m 41s	how much? + 11s
Dec 25, 2011	rise7:57AM	set 4:22 PM	hours 8h 25m 57s	how much? + 16s

Every second of light is precious, especially at this time of year. Tomorrow, we get 5 additional seconds! Wahoooooo!

To celebrate, Fiddle and I headed up the Dark Side of the hill...

the frost on this section of road won't thaw until it rains again
(tomorrow?)

blue sky: ahead!

view of the mountains from the Dark Side of the hill

It's warmer near the top, which is counter-intuitive. Shady, but not frozen.

Folks talk about "the difference between night and day."
Here's what it looks like...at noon...

Top of the hill, overlooking Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.

Looking south over the sound, towards Seattle

Returning to the trailer via the Sunny Side. Ahhhh.

Two days hence will start up the week-long Gift of Stories, posted annually on this blog.

If you wonder why I do this, there's a story about it, posted HERE.

Otherwise, just stay tuned and the Story Machine will kick into gear on X-Moose Eve with a brand-new original Skookum story.

Happy Solstice, everyone!

In which I'm not a huge fan of Xmas, but I do love silliness!

2011-12-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Having holidays in the middle of winter just seem to me like Bad Planning.

Here's the last thing in the world I like to do in the middle of winter: anything.

Except, perhaps, be a little silly. Therefore, in the interest of silliness, I bring you:

"I tolerate the weird outfits because I know
she's got cookies in those pockets."

"Cookies....remember the cookies..."

The same old "Yes, I did go riding today" photo, with a little twist.

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells"

If there's one this this mare knows how to do,
it's how to pose for the camera.

Shade: "You SWEAR I get a cookie if I wear this thing on my head?"

Arianna to Shade: "Dude, I look sparkley. You look dorky."

Happy XMoose, everybody!

...and to all, a Good Night!

In which I haven't forgotten how to write about farm and horses

2011-12-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

I've been writing a lot lately: working on the book proposal for Endurance 101, working on the annual Gift of Stories booklet, and writing a brand-new Skookum story, which I plan to post here on Christmas Eve.

I haven't been riding as much as usual because it's winter. It's cold, it's wet, blah blah blah. I've been riding once each week for the last month, usually in a lesson.

This week, though, I am determined to ride twice, so I saddled up Miss Fiddle this afternoon and took her for a ride down my own road. We haven't done this since last February.

Up the road we go

Fiddle was hyper-aware of all the Weird Stuff going on around us. She is fine with cars and trucks zooming by on the road--she sidepasses nicely to the shoulder and stands still until the vehicle is gone. Regular cars and trucks aren't even vaguely scary compared to the logging trucks that she isn't afraid of, so normal traffic is no big deal.

What IS this thing?

However, there are things in the pastures beside our road that are Just. Too. Strange. Like, in the photo (above), what is it, exactly? Looks like maybe a carnival ride truck...or a sculpture...or ??? It looks solid, not like a shell. And it's definitely weird.

There are also neighborhood horses watching us walk down the road.

This big palomino was very curious. As soon as I took the picture, the two greys went back to grazing and never looked up again.

Highland cattle

The Highland Cattle didn't even look up, although one was "mooing" in a kind of "snoring" kind of way. I don't think she was asleep, just sort of mumbling.

The gate to the electrical tower trail

The path around the gate has been trompled down recently, but the trail beyond it (running under the power lines) has NOT been maintained at all. The last time I was here, I saw evidence of the power company's weed spray. That stuff is all gone, and the blackberry vines are now growing up and over the access road. Still, we were able to wiggle through, until we got to the

"MOO, d*mmit!"

Bovine roadblock.

In case you can't tell from the photo, the large bovine person in the center of the picture is not a cow, nor a calf. He is not a steer.

He is, rather, a 2,000+ pound BULL.

And he would really prefer that Fiddle and I not take a shortcut through his pasture.

Ever.

He was exceptionally clear in his communication about this, and his "moo" sounded very similar to a boat horn. On a ferryboat. A ferryboat on steroids. On, like, a LOT of steroids.

We turned around.

Fee was tremendously steady in the face of this bull and his homely harem. She Doesn't Approve of cows, despite her admiration of cow-horses like Hudson.

Someday we will go learn some cow-moving skills. For today, the better part of discretion involved a simple manuever called "reverse thrusters full, turn the heck around and go home."

So we did.

All this amounted to only a 4-mile outing with my horse in the sunshine.

But hey: I went four miles in the sunshine with my mare. In December.

It's good enough.

In which an entire endurance ride can be seen in just twenty minutes

2011-12-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101: a real ride (in 20 minutes)

Some enterprising riders in Texas decided that they were not only going to put on a new ride, they were going to make a little documentary film about it!

This video is just the thing I needed to watch on a gloomy December afternoon here in the Swampland: dirty, happy riders, crew, ride management, vets, and oh-so-many lovely horses in the sunshine of an endurance ride.

Click the logo to watch the video in a new window

I noticed some differences in the Texas ride from the events we hold in our region:

· Most (nearly all) of the horses in the video are Arabs or half-arabs. (I did see some lovely appaloosas, though). The folks in the video also said something about “all the pretty Arabians”. In the Pacific NW, we have a lot of Arabs, but there are also a lot of gaited horses, some quarter horses , mustangs and appaloosas, and a growing number of standardbreds--plus a few "I don't know what he is, I got him for $50 at the auction last summer" horses.

· People in the video repeated referred to their event as a "race." Around here, we mostly call them "rides." This may be a cultural difference that can be seen as a contrast between front-running riders (who really are racing) and completion-riders (who mostly aren't).

· That amazing, charming Texas accent. We mostly don't have many of those here. Too bad.

· Sunburned faces and tank tops on Memorial Day weekend are not impossible, but are pretty unusual in the Pacific Northwest.

· EMT’s are not common in my region (unless they’re on the trail competing with us!). As some of the riders in the video mention, the primary focus is on the well-being of the horse—technically, you could strap a dead body to the saddle and still earn a completion as long as the horse vetted through okay.

· Did you notice the fellow running alongside a horse and rider? That wasn’t part of the endurance ride—that was a Ride and Tie team competing in an event that was held at the same time as the endurance event. We have RaT’s here; they are extremely cool, but not very common.

· The heartrate criteria was quoted as “64 beats per minute.” This is the basic criteria used by AERC, but the heartrate criteria is pretty much always 60bpm here.

To all the experienced endurance riders reading this: what similarities did you see between events you attend and this event in Texas? What was different?

Did you notice the name of the ranch and the names of the people who own the ranch? Did you notice the similarity between THAT name and MY surname? Do you suppose they would adopt me? Just for a few weeks each year in late May? Me and my non-Arabian horse, perhaps?

In which Endurance 101 presents a list of skills (for riders)

2011-12-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” -- Seneca the Younger (ca. 4 BC – 65 AD)

Does anybody still play The Game of Life^TM?

The board game was popular when I was a kid: you would roll the dice to see how many spaces to advance along the board, you would make decisions (go to college? buy insurance?) and you were subject to random chance via the Life Cards, which told you that you had gotten a promotion, wrecked your car, or become the parent of twins.

I need to warn you now: endurance is a lot like that game. You can prepare like crazy, trying to anticipate every possible circumstance, and random chance will still have a huge influence on your ride season.

You may feel like you’ve got a talent for “rolling sevens”: your horse is awesome, your saddle fits great, the trails near your house are perfect for training, and suddenly, BAM! The universe rolls snake-eyes against you, and instead of trotting down the trail, you find yourself fixing multiple flat tires, hiring a new farrier, or trying to splint your own broken finger.

Knowing that stuff like this happens to everyone is not always a huge comfort.

But, as Seneca the Younger reminds us, it’s possible to load the dice in our own favor. The following is a list of things to consider while getting ready to compete in distance riding events. Like the list of useful horse skills posted previously, this list is not comprehensive; however, you may find that the more of these events you plan for, the luckier you become.

· Look at the list of“horse-skills” posted previously. What items on that list do you feel are most urgent to address with your horse?

If you don’t feel confident teaching or practicing a particular skill set, what are your options?

· Your easy-going horse suddenly starts bucking on downhills. What’s going on with him? How will you figure it out?

· Watch of video of yourself riding your horse. Does your horse move freely under you? Do you see something on the screen that you don’t like?

Send the video to a friend or two who can give you some advice. Outside eyes can be very useful.

· Look at your horse’s foot and estimate how soon he will need a trim and/or a new set of shoes.

What is your plan for a horse who has lost a shoe or boot before or during an event? Can you put a shoe on a horse? Do you carry tools with you everywhere? Have you ever applied a boot? Has your horse ever worn one? Do you have the right size(s) on-hand for your horse?

· Look at your normal feeding regime, and figure out how much storage space will be needed to transport feed for your horse for a long weekend.

Figure out how to store it all in containers that a horse can’t break into if he gets loose in camp.

· Look at your tack and identify any parts of it that would benefit by being cleaned, repaired, or replaced.

Brainstorm ways that tack repairs might be accomplished “in the field” if you were away from home and unable to access professional help. HINT: the cable-ties used to keep computer cords from octopussing all over the house are excellent emergency tack-repair items. Duct tape and Vet Wrap are also extremely useful.

· Walk around your rig, and identify items that might be problematic on a long journey with a full load. Focus on structure (tires, frame, floors) and electrical (lights, brakes).

Ridecamps often set up in open fields and away from modern conveniences. If you blow a tire on your truck, can you change it with the equipment you have on-board? What if you blow a truck tire and a trailer tire? In the dark? If your battery goes dead, do you have jumper cables and can you use them without electrocuting yourself?

· Look at your equine first aid kit.

You do have an equine first aid kit…right? Identify the items you would need if your horse was colicky. Identify the items you want on hand for a horse who scraped up his knees, and the items you will reach for first if his head is bleeding. If you aren’t comfortable putting on leg bandages, ask a knowledgeable person to show you how to do it before you are confronted with a wounded horse.

· Look at your first aid kit for humans

My human first-aid kit hangs in the trailer next to the equine kit. Point to the items in this kit you will need for a bee sting, a foot blister, a sunburn, a sprained ankle, and a wire cut. A lot of items in the equine kit can also be used for humans, and vice versa. Remember that the only difference between a digital thermometer for humans and one used for horses is flavor.

· What happens if somebody else has to take your horse back to camp? Does your horse know how to pony? Does your horse accept other riders? Do you carry a leadrope or a detachable rein that can be used as a lead?

· What happens if somebody else gets hurt on the trail? Can you administer first aid?

· Do you know how to pony a horse back to camp?

Do you know how to teach a horse to pony?

· Are you confident about riding on terrain that is significantly different than your home turf? Can your horse handle deep sand? Steep hills? Slick mud, sticky mud, sandy mud, or boot-sucking mud? Can you?

· Can you saddle your horse in the dark, or without sufficient light? How about when you are very, very sleepy? Or really really cold?

· What would happen if your stirrup fell off? Could you continue on safely? My riding instructor makes us warm up without stirrups. We complain about it, but it’s good practice!

· Can you saddle your horse and mount up with a sprained wrist? How about a broken toe? What happens if you lose your contact lens or break your glasses? You aren’t required to start a ride with any of these impairments…but sometimes things happen on the trail and your only other option is to WALK back to camp.

· Is your riding gear sufficient for bad weather? Rain? Sn*w?

· Do you know what to do if a thunder/lightning storm rolls in while you’re on the trail? HINT: get to low ground! Get off your horse and tie him to the shortest shrub you can find. Hunker yourself down into a shallow ditch (not a gully that might fill with flash-flood water). Crouch down, feet together, hands over your ears. If you can hear thunder, you are within strike distance of lightning!

Prepare yourself to be “lucky” by figuring out –in advance—how you will cope with unlucky circumstances.

What else can you add to this list? The comment box is open!

In which Endurance 101 presents a list of skills (for the horse)

2011-12-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101 : Skills you will want a horse to have

This list is NOT a list of “must-have” skills. It is, rather a list of “ideal-world” excellent skills to have.

Don’t feel badly if your horse doesn’t already do a lot of these things. I competed for many years on a horse who wouldn’t allow himself to be caught promptly in a pasture, who couldn’t be trusted inside an electric corral, and whose idea of “rating” consisted of pulling my arms out of the socket for the first 60 miles and then trotting on a loose rein for the rest of the day unless he saw a scary cow…or a scary leaf…or a scary air molecule. I completed a lot of miles with him, but I knew that he was missing some skills that would make my life easier; at the time, I lacked the knowledge and support to teach them.

This list was created so that riders can use it as a starting point. If there’s one thing that endurance riders have a lot of, that thing is time. Learn to use your time to improve your horse’s training in ways that will make your life easier!

At home

· Enthusiastic eating

I’m not sure you can teach this, but I find that finicky eaters are incredibly frustrating. If your horse is a “picky eater” even when he is thin and/or working hard and the feed is accepted by others in the herd, ask your vet’s advice. Blood work, dental work, or an endoscopy may find something that, when remedied, will make your horse eat…like a horse!

· Wait patiently for food without running over the person carrying feed buckets.

My pushy mare is obligated to stay three steps away from the feed pan until I say “okay.” The less-pushy horse doesn’t need this practice. Horses get hungry in camp, but still need to mind their manners!

· Easy to catch, halter, and lead

Practice, practice, practice. It may be convenient for you to open a stall door and release him into a pasture at home, but if your horse doesn’t walk politely on a leadrope, consider moving him from place-to-place on a lead every day for a few months. When the skill becomes routine, you will be glad you took those extra minutes each day to teach and practice it.

· Stand still for brushing, tacking up, de-worming, and other routine activity

Endurance horses get fiddled with a lot, often by strangers. If your horse is goosey, wiggly or impatient, teach him to stand quietly as you perform routine stuff around him.

During a competition, your horse may be examined or handled by 10 or more people in a single day, so prepare him for this by recruiting people he doesn’t know well to pick up his feet, apply a stethoscope, draw numbers on his bum (I use my thumb for practice, it feels the same to the horse), poke at his gums, and sponge him with water.

· Load into the trailer promptly and ride in it without fussing

Again, practice is key. If your horse is a reluctant loader, consider feeding all his meals inside the trailer for a month or two. If he is a fussy traveler, borrow a calm “teaching” horse to ride with him. Vary the length of your journeys, so that he doesn’t come to expect a trip of a specific length and then grow anxious if you keep driving longer. Put the loveliest hay you can find into a haybag for him to snack on as he rides. When you stop for a break, offer some carrots or apple slices.

· At home and away, stand quietly while tied to the trailer or hitching post.

You really want to know that the horse you tied to the trailer will still be there—standing calmly, rather than twirling around, setting back, or trying to commit suicide with the rope—when you walk away from him for a few minutes or longer. Practice tying to the trailer for long periods only when your horse has learned to stand quietly in the barn at home.

· Stand quietly while blankets, sheets, and tack are taken on and off.

· Accept being hobbled.

Hobble practice is also useful if a horse should become entangled in vines or wire: a hobble-trained horse will stand and wait to be freed from the entanglement and will not panic or thrash around.

In training

· Walk flat-footed away from the trailer

A horse who will do this at your normal training grounds may still be very light-footed at the start line of ride, but a horse who isn’t expected to walk calmly away from the trailer at home will never spontaneously walk calmly to the start line of a ride in an exciting ride camp!

· Trot at the speed you ask, extending or collecting as needed

This is called “rating.” Here’s where arena practice will help: rehearse your communication and balance skills in a flat, controlled space without any strange obstacles to distract you, and then apply those skills on the trail where you encounter changes in terrain and footing. Teach your horse to save energy by keeping in-gait while adjusting the length and speed of the stride with minimal cues from the rider. You want to avoid situations where you can only slow him down by yanking on his face or running him into a tree. Practice on the trail by varying your routine—if you “always” canter up a particular hill, periodically walk up it instead.

· Step or hop over fallen logs

· Tread carefully through rocky areas

· Choose good footing when it’s available

Some horses seem to do this instinctively; others learn by watching more experienced horses. If necessary, hop down from the saddle and lead your horse on foot, asking him to follow in your footsteps through brushy or otherwise iffy terrain. The ideal endurance trail is free of rocks, brush, and other barriers, but the ideal endurance trail is a very rare thing. With practice, your horse can learn to choose the best footing available on the trail. I sometimes train in areas that are professionally logged, a process that sometimes leaves a weird tangle of branches atop the trails; because of this practice, my horse has become very good at picking her way through branches without worry.

· Cross water without incident

Horses don’t have the same kind of depth perception that humans have; to their eyes, a mud puddle might possible be bottomless or full of alligators. Practice crossing as many kinds of water as you can find: clear puddles, murky puddles, running creeks, etc. If you live in an arid climate, you can practice walking over tarps, which partially re-creates the experience of a weird sensation underfoot.

· When riding with a group of horses, take the lead position, the tail position, or a middle position

Many horses have a preferred “marching order”, however, you may not always be able to give your horse his preference. Teach him to accept various places within a travelling group by trading positions during each ride with your riding partners.

· Leave a group of horses and move down the trail without them

This can be very difficult for horses who are very herd-bound. Practice separating from a group in slow stages; at first, you may only be able to walk your horse away to the far side of a tree. Gradually lengthen the separations until you can safely leave the group or be left behind by them.

· Move down the trail solo

Again, this is sometimes very difficult. For other horses, however, going solo is a preference, and these horses will be much happier when allowed to leave the group. No matter what your horse’s preference, be sure to practice solo work and group riding.

· Allow other horses to pass on the trail

Some horses become anxious when other horses pass them on the trail; others become aggressive. Know your horse’s tendencies and learn to keep him moving forward politely and calmly as other horses move around you.

· Pass other horses on the trail without incident or misbehavior

As with the situation of being passed by horses, your horse may become anxious or aggressive. Practice this until you are confident that he will behave properly.

· Grab bites of grass or leaves when directed to do so by the rider

In stark contrast to everything we learned in 4-H and Pony Club, endurance riders encourage their horses to eat along the trail when directed to do so. Don’t make the mistake a friend of mine made by allowing her mare to grab bites of food any-old-time, or you may find yourself sailing over your horse’s head when he slams on his brakes to grab a bite of grass between his feet. I use the verbal cue “Oh look: food” when I want my mount to turn to the side of the trail and take a few bites of grass. It’s a stupid command, but my horses all know what it means: we won’t be moving forward until their mouths are full.

· Drink out of buckets, streams, puddles, or a water scoop

A normally-fastidious horse will learn this skill very quickly if he gets thirsty on the trail.

· Take treats politely from your hand while you are mounted

This can be a convenient way to allow your horse a snack of carrots of apples on a long ride. Some riders are even able to administer electrolytes from the saddle, and I know at least one mare who will drink Snapple out of a bottle held in the mounted rider’s hand.

· Stand quietly when the rider is dismounted

There is nothing more distracting than having a horse use you as a maypole when you’re trying to pee by the side of the trail. Practice this!!!

· Stand quietly to allow a rider to re-mount

I am short and my horse is tall, so I’ve also taught her to sidle up to any stump, rock, or man-made artifact that I can scramble up to use as a mounting block. She allows herself to be placed into a ditch if that’s the only “low ground” I can find. Finally, I taught her to stretch out one or both front legs on command, an action which drops her back down by about 2 inches—which makes mounting from the ground possible for me.

· Stand quietly while the rider chats with other riders, checks the map, fixes helmet straps or unwraps a sandwich.

· Transition between activities smoothly and without debate

Practice trotting down the trail, and then stopping for a bite of grass, followed by more trotting. Practice walking, dismounting, remounting, and then walking again. Your horse will learn that he may be asked to change activities at any time. Do some bending practice, or work on laterals while you’re on the trail. This will keep his mind engaged, and his body limber.

Looking at this list, I see a lot of words and phrases repeated: “Stand quietly,” for example. Also “without fussing.”

Endurance horses need to save strength for the trail ahead, and not waste your time and their own energy by being knuckleheads during absolutely routine activities. For many horses, this can be an enormous challenge. For others, not so much.

Help your horse to remain quiet and calm by keeping your own demeanor quiet and calm, your movements smooth and deliberate, and your voice low and friendly.

Practice calm, quiet behavior at home and in training in order to encourage that kind of behavior in a ridecamp!

Coming soon: Skill-building for the rider.

In which Endurance 101 takes a break: meanwhile, back at the Farm

2011-12-05T20:25:00.000-08:00

Usually, Ryan brings hay over from the Dry Side to Haiku Farm.

Ryan's in college and needs tuition money, plus all of his coolest friends are on the Wet Side, so he's usually eager for any reason to get paid to visit us....

Unfortunately, he got sidelined recently,

Ryan at Harborview Hospital in Seattle

not by a horse-related accident (which is what most of us expect when we hear he's in hospital) but by a sinus infection that "went bad" (I'm thinking Marlon Brando, here, or that bad guy in True Grit, maybe).

The hospital in Yakima got scared and sent him over to the Wet Side in an ambulance WITHOUT A SINGLE BALE OF HAY.

I know, I know. Outrageous. The good news is that Ryan is completely hilarious when he's on painkillers. Heh heh heh.

Anyhow, Ryan's back on the mend again, but meantime I had a day off from work that was forecast for good weather on both sides of the mountains.

That's like, highly statistically improbable in my state in December, and not to be ignored. I didn't ignore it: I hitched up the rig, and headed over to the Dry Side to get some hay!

Two tons of Ellensburg's Finest leafy green

It's not as cheap or convenient as when Ryan delivers the stuff to my barn. And I had to stack it all myself (twice, although Paul The Hay Guy helped load it and my kids helped unload the last half of it when they got home from school).

But, a roadtrip? with Luna? in December? in SUNSHINE?

Luna at Indian John rest area, Mt Stuart in the distance

Priceless.

Coming soon: more Endurance 101.

In which the Bad Idea Fairy writes an Endurance 101

2011-11-30T11:14:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101 – The Bad Idea Fairy’s Endurance Ride Diary

The Bad Idea Fairy and trusty steed "Holdmybeerandwatchthis"

Intro: I am the Bad Idea Fairy (giggle!) and my horse is a super-special Lipizzan-Morgan-Mustang Stallion. I started the registry myself online and Fuggles is my foundation stallion. His registered name is “HOLDMYBEERANDWATCHTHIS” because that’s what kind of registered names LipiMorStangs will have. They are beautiful and have the best of all the breeds, and they have special gates, too: the Trollop™ and the Cantelope™. His breeder called him “Fuggly”, which I think is adorable, so I call him Fuggles because he’s my Snuggley-Wuggley-Fuggle-Boo. We are going to be beautiful together and win every race.

Friday, 2 pm

Finally I’m ready to pack the trailer and load Fuggles and go to our first endurance race! I thought that nail artist was going to take all night, but I couldn’t imagine going to such an important event without getting my fingernails painted in our barn colors—PINK and GREEN forever!

Friday, 3:30 pm

No more room in the trailer. I tried to decide between bringing the PINK fleece cooler or the GREEN fleece cooler, and finally decided to bring them both. Same with the saddle pad: PINK or GREEN? Both! So excited.

I hope ride management will give me some hay, there wasn’t room to pack any in the trailer with all my special gear. I bought a brand-new pink-and-green saddle on eBay, and it arrived today, hooray! Just in time for me to pack it for the ride!

Friday, 5:30 pm

Getting dark. I guess I’d better load Fuggle. He’s my Sweetie-Oogy-Poo-Bear, and I just wuvs him so much!!!! I hope he gets right into the trailer so we can go…he hasn’t been in it for two years, but I’m sure he’ll be fine, despite what happened last time.

Friday, 6:30 pm

He’s almost in the trailer! I’ll give him another pound of sweet feed to encourage him! He has two whorls on his head: that means that he needs lots of encouragement to reach his potential.

Friday, midnight

I thought endurance people were supposed to be nice to newcomers. Everybody here was really grouchy when we came into camp a few minutes ago. Even the ride manager was a grump when I knocked on her rig door. They’re going to make me wait until morning to do my vet check—don’t they understand that the ride starts at 6am?

Saturday morning, 1:45am

It was sweet of that couple to come out of their tent and set up my metal corral panels for me after I dropped them that third time. I guess endurance people are nice. I’ll give Fuggles 15 pounds of grain for dinner so he’ll have lots of energy tomorrow, and then I’ll drink some whiskey to help me sleep….

Saturday, 4am

Wh-a-a-a-a-a-t??? It’s not time to get up yet! Just stay clear of my horse! Don’t you understand that he’s a STALLION?!!! I’ll get up in just...a little…more…time… (zzzzzzz)

Saturday, 6:15am

Stupid alarm didn’t go off! If it weren’t for Fuggles kicking down his corral panels when the other horses left camp, I’d still be asleep. Now I’ve got to see the vet and tack him up and catch up with everybody on the trail. It’s a good thing my horse really likes to gallop!

Saturday, 7:00am

That vet is ignorant, he was so busy pretending that Fuggles was going to bite that he barely admired him at all! Vets are such sissies about stallions. I guess I’ll show them all when I win this thing. I’ve seen that movie “Hidalgo” about a million times, so I know all the tricks to win.

Saturday, 7:30am

On the trail at last. We’ll gallop and catch everybody! Go like the wind, Fuggles! We are soo bee-yoootiful with the wind in his mane and the wind in my long, flowing hair. Helmets are so ugly, don’t you agree? And they make my hair all icky. I hope the ride photographer gets lots of pictures of us. Maybe we’ll be on the cover of that magazine they have.

Saturday, 8:15am

No, Fuggles, we don’t have time to stop at the water tank. We have to go FAST!

Saturday, 9:30am

Found the trail again. It’s harder to watch for ribbons when I’m texting two people at once. Must remember to only text important people.

Saturday, 10:30am

Found the trail again. I must have missed that turn when BFF called with the news about her and Bradsome? So upsetting. It would be okay if he was single, though…cute-o-potamus!

Saturday, 11:am

The vet says that Fuggles is Grade 2 lame, but she’s an idiot. They obviously don’t teach vets about the special gates of LipiMorstangs. Apparently I don’t get 6 hours to finish the ride like everybody else, just because I got started late. Now I only have an hour to get back to camp and win this thing! Quit eating, Fuggles, we have to race and win now!

Saturday, 11:50am

Whew! We made it to camp just in time. Now they will take Fuggles’ pulse and we will be done. We didn’t finish first because we got lost so much. When I told the manager that the ribbons were confusing, she said that the other 54 riders didn’t have any trouble. She’s really a grump.

Saturday, 12:30pm

What do you mean, that because my horse’s pulse is still 82 beats per minute I’m disqualified! THAT’S NOT FAIR! WE RODE THOSE MILES JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE! I WANT A DIFFERENT PULSER! I’M NOT GOING TO STOP YELLING! WHERE IS THE VET? I WANT TO TALK TO THE MANAGER! I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE OFF MY PRETTY SADDLE HERE IN THE DIRT, IT’S NEW AND NICE AND YOUR VET CHECK IS DIRTY! YOU ARE MEAN! MY HORSE ISN’T AN ARAB SO YOU STUPID PEOPLE DON’T WANT HIM TO WIN!

Sunday, 1 pm

Well, that ride manager certainly knows how to treat people if they stick up for their rights, but I’m still outta here. All I get for all this work is a stupid tee-shirt, no points or anything, meh, it isn’t even pink and green so it won’t go with any of my outfits.

The vet doesn’t want me to leave camp because Fuggles’ heartrate is still higher than 70, but whatever, I’ve got to get back home and get my nails re-done. These people don’t deserve to have a great horse like Fuggles around here.

I’m sick of endurance and these stuck-up people.

I think I’ll do reining with Fuggles instead. I saw a pink-and-green western saddle on eBay that will look really cute on him!

In which Endurance 101 covers food and fluids for riders

2011-11-28T23:17:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101: Human fluids + food, and why you need them

Here’s a topic that I totally overlooked when I began riding endurance: taking care of myself!

I studied and researched and queried and did all kinds of thinking about what (and when, and how) to feed, water and electrolyte my horse during a ride, and gave absolutely no thought whatsoever to my own metabolic needs.

And guess what? That strategy didn’t work out nearly as well as you might think!

Endurance is hard. To finish your event, you will want every scrap of extra energy and every single grey cell the Almighty left in your custody; you can’t afford to compromise any of those tools. Your horse is depending upon you to take care of yourself so that you can make good decisions on his behalf!

Hydration

Where I live, we don’t think much about a need to consume water. It falls from the sky pretty constantly 11 months each year, for one thing, and it seeps into our boots pretty constantly for those same 11 months. There’s not enough time in our 4 weeks of “summer” to bleach all the moss from Swamplanders' bones, so we really don’t think about our blood drying out.

However, when Swamplanders like me travel to rides on the Dry Side of the Cascade Mountain range (which is where most of our region’s rides are held) we encounter a totally different environment: a place where the sky can rain down for two hours in the morning and the ground will be bone-dry by noon.

Guess what happens to Swamplanders when they travel to dry regions without adding a lot of extra fluid to their diets?

The word shrivel comes to mind.

If you live in a drier climate, or if you won’t be changing weather systems when you compete, your experience may not be so extreme. However, as I discussed in the post about DIMR, 1% dehydration is enough to affect mental acuity, and not in a good way. At 2% dehydration, your aerobic endurance performance is reduced, and this is exacerbated if you continue to exercise in a hot environment.

Dehydration doesn’t just impair your reflexes and gross motor skills, either: it directly affects your mental acuity and alertness, and YOU ARE GOING TO NEED ALL THAT STUFF on the endurance trail!

Sports drinks aren’t usually necessary unless you are exercising very hard in an environment much hotter than your normal training conditions, or if you are extremely sensitive to heat. If the flavor of sports drinks will encourage you to drink more fluids, consider splitting an 8-ounce sport drink between 4 large water bottles, and topping up the bottle with water. Most sports drinks contain a bunch of sugars which can cause a severe boink when they wear off, especially if you are still an hour or two away from the vetcheck.

So. Drink your water. Start consuming extra fluids two days before the ride if possible. I understand that this makes driving long distances a bit awkward…consider, however, that your rest-stops are also brief breaks for the horses in the trailer, and that’s a good thing. Remember that if you aren't peeing, you aren't drinking enough fluids. Drink your water. Drink your water. Drink your water.

Food

Every rider is different and has different preferences and needs during a ride weekend. On the evening before the ride, I strongly advise you to avoid excess alcohol (which contributes to dehydration, among other things you don’t want to cope with on ride day) and carbonated beverages (because those bubbles are really unwelcome on the first leg of a ride when the horses are all fizzy).

Other foods that riders remind each other to avoid include chili and anything spicy. Suffice to say that my friend Aimee and I were very glad that we had only signed up to ride a limited distance event the day after we snacked our way through a large bag of dried gourmet wasabi peas. Save the gumbo, the greasy sausage, and the coconut rum drinks for the night after the ride. Trust me.

Here’s my go-to list of foods for ride weekend:

Friday (day before the ride) – lots of protein, lots of crunchy veggies and fruit, and lots of water. I try to have

· a tuna sandwich and/or

· a hard-boiled egg for lunch with

· an apple and some

· snap peas or broccoli

for dinner, I like

· chicken + pasta + veggies for dinner (recipe below),

and I keep a ziplock bag of salted almonds and cashews in my pocket for snacks.

Saturday (day of the ride) –

· oatmeal + applesauce for breakfast, plus

· some yogurt and

· a banana if I can choke it down (I often have a nervous stomach before the start line)

At the vetchecks, I seek out

· V-8 juice (an excellent source of electrolytes!) and

· an apple or

· some string cheese

At the lunch stop, I like

· peanut butter + banana sandwiches

· more V-8 juice or

· a bottle of iced tea if the weather is hot.

I carry Belly Timber bars in my pockets during the event, because they are easy to chew, swallow, and digest, and they don’t turn disgusting if they get hot or squashed.

I “decaffinate” myself the week before a ride because I can never choke down a whole cup of tea on ride morning, and the headache at miles 7 is unbelievable if I’m accustomed to drinking 2 or 3 cups of caffeine each morning.

After the ride –

· PROTEIN! This is the time that I really want meat and beans and cheese, and lots of ‘em!

· FLAVOR! My buddy Paul’s amazing Cajun gumbo is the best post-ride food I’ve ever had. Lots of spice, lots of flavor. Absolute bliss.

· CRUNCH! Once the ride is over, I’m willing to spend the energy to eat crispy vegetables again. Celery, fresh snap peas, and broccoli always taste extra-good to me at dinner time.

· A beer. Nothin’ nicer.

For your first few rides, pack a variety of foods to eat in camp before and after the ride, and a wide variety of stuff that you think might appeal to you at vetchecks. Don’t forget that you will get tired—and cooking and eating seems like hard work to a tired rider. Be careful to avoid foods that sometimes bring on allergies and sensitivities during a ride weekend—the excitement and exercise may make your reactions more severe. Bring things to eat that are “easy.” I even know several riders who pack little jars of baby food or applesauce in their coolers.

Keep track of what you eat and what you don’t. I pitch all the food-trash back into a cooler, and then take notes about which packages and peelings are empty at the end of a weekend so I can figure out which foods I actually ate and which foods I ignored during the event. The list of “foods eaten” becomes the shopping list for the next event.

“Green Stuff”: Pre-ride Pasta and Pesto and Veggies

Chop:

Fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, and whatever veggies look good at the market

Mix these with:

Pesto, either homemade or from the store

Pre-cooked bite-sized chunks of chicken, beef, pork or shrimp

Then, boil up a bag of

Fresh or frozen ravioli

When the ravioli is cooked, drain away the water and immediately add the vegetables and serve. “Green Stuff” is the only food I’ve ever given to my young cowboy friends and had them come back and ask for another serving of vegetables.

You can toss the veggies into the water with the pasta if you like your veggies slightly softened, and then stir the pesto in after you drain away the water.

This is also very nice served cold.

In which Endurance 101 considers post-ride recovery

2011-11-27T21:50:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101 : after the finish line, you aren’t done yet

Congratulations, you’ve finished your first endurance event! Time to kick back with a cold one and socialize a bit with the other riders…right?

Uh, no. Not quite.

Your horse worked hard all day, and you took good care of him on the trail. This is no time to quit watching out for him! When the excitement and adrenaline of the day’s event wear off, your horse may start feeling a little tired and sorry for himself. In most cases, that means he’ll sleep really well through the night. Set him up for success by anticipating his needs for the next few days.

After you finish your finish-line vetcheck, return to your camp and un-tack your noble steed with care, looking for any scrapes, bumps, swellings, rub-marks or other oddities. If the weather allows, sponge his entire body to remove the sweat crust from his hair and skin. Scrape off the excess water, and allow him to dry in the sun if you have any available. If the weather is cool, cover him with a fleece or wool sheet; if the weather is cold, clean him as thoroughly as you can without chilling those hard-working muscles and put a blanket on him.

It’s not necessary to use liniment, but it won’t do any harm. (I love the smell of liniment, don't you?). Avoid applying alcohol-based cleansers to scraped or rubbed hide! Remember that, even if your horse is not normally blanketed at home, an extra layer may be a welcome layer for fatigued muscles.

Make sure he has plenty of food and water available. It’s okay to make his hay “free-choice” at this point, and if he’s a fan of beet pulp, go ahead and fill the bucket full. Equine nutritionists like Susan Garlinghouse, DVM recommend that endurance horses not eat a full grain-meal before a long-distance ride, but some grain after the event is okay. I take a normal grain meal and divide it into three or four portions for ride day, feeding one small portion with breakfast and the others at vetchecks and after the ride.

Wait until he’s stopped stuffing his face to administer a dose of electrolytes. Many horses dislike the taste of electrolytes so much that they’ll quit eating for a while after a dose. If your horse loves to eat, you can sprinkle some electrolytes into the beetpulp if you’ve practiced this ahead of time and know that he will eat it. (If there’s any doubt about how your horse feels about electrolytes, wait until he’s had plenty of food to give him a dose of it.) Keep an eye on the water bucket, also: eating hay encourages horses to drink water, and hydration is a condition devoutly to be desired.

What about alfalfa? There’s a bit of arguing back-and-forth about alfalfa as a feed for endurance horses, but in general after a ride, I throw a few handfuls on top of the hay pile. I tend to think of alfalfa as a “garnish,” like whipped cream and a cherry, rather than a food, like a plate of spaghetti. If you want good information about feeding alfalfa to distance horses, I recommend an article written by Susan Garlinghouse, posted here: http://bit.ly/um0dk8 If your horse seems picky about food after a long day of work, by all means offer a flake of alfalfa to re-ignite the appetite.

If your horse is a picky eater, or seems disinterested in food after an event, seek out some fresh green grass. A horse who is not interested in good grass may be experiencing early symptoms of colic, so if he turns up his nose at grass or alfalfa (especially if he is the kind of horse who normally loves his food), listen with your stethoscope (or your ear) to his gut sounds. If you don’t hear noises that sound like the “scrub” cycle of a clothes washing machine, it’s time to ask for some veterinary advice. Early intervention is the best kind.

Take your horse for a quiet stroll after he’s been back in camp for a few hours. Make a point of visiting all the water tanks, walking slowly enough for your horse to grab a bite of grass every few strides. Stop and talk to people as you meander through the camp. Ask other people about their day, and be ready to talk about yours. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to walk around camp; the important point is that you allow your horse to stretch his legs and un-kink his muscles before he settles down for the night.

Some folks swear by a mud poultice after a long ride to cool the legs, support the tendons, and reduce “stocking up” (puffiness in the lower legs) following exercise. I have never needed to poultice legs thus far, and I can almost always find a deep spot of cool creek water to stand my horse in, or a hose, or even a deep rubber bucket. (Please note that my horse is abnormally tolerant of my strange requests, including a request for her to stand with her hind legs in deep rubber buckets of cool water).

If you would like to apply a poultice, there are excellent instructions posted on Karen Chaton’s blog here: http://enduranceridestuff.com/blog/2011/08/poulticing-wrapping-horse-legs/ She very-correctly cautions that if you haven’t applied leg bandages before, get somebody to teach you to do it properly.

Ice boots are a good alternative to a poultice. Ice boots are strapped on like shipping or splint boots, using Velcro. They are generally filled with gel-packs designed to be frozen and thawed many times; I buy replacement gel-packs inexpensively at the marine supply stores near home that serve sports fisherman.

Some horses like to be fussed over and groomed after a ride, and others prefer to be left alone. The gelding I rode for years was a social butterfly, and would happily follow me everywhere through camp as I did a million little tasks. My current mare prefers to turn her face to the trailer, cock a hip and ignore the rest of the world while she naps. She doesn’t want me to bother her unless I am bringing apples and carrots. Fiddle doesn’t even want to look at her best buddy/pasture-mate when she’s tired; instead, she kicks the hay around so that she can eat with her back facing Hana. Learn what is normal for your horse, and try to abide by his preferences whenever possible.

Before you go to bed for the night, take a quick walk around camp with your horse. Does he seem interested in the activities of others? Does he want to eat grass? Does he try to grab the food on the ground spilled by other horses? Does he stride out eagerly, and will he keep up with you as you stride briskly along? Those are all good things.

The morning after the ride is a repeat of the evening routine. Supply plenty of food and water, run your hands over your horse's body to note any tenderness or swelling, note his eagerness and interest in the activities around you. Take him for a walk to loosen up his muscles. After he’s finished his breakfast, a dose of electrolytes may help him maintain hydration during the trailer ride home.

Break up your camp, and get everything ready to load your horse. Take one more quick walk around camp with your horse and stop at the water tank to give him one more opportunity to drink some water before you leave. Then, load him up and head on home!

If your drive is more than 4 hours, try to stop every 2-3 hours for 15 minutes or so to give your horse a break (these rest breaks can be re-fueling and potty-break stops for you as well!). Offer water or a few bites of sloppy beetpulp, or a handful of carrots and apples. My horses travel with hay bags in the trailer, so they often “eat their way home” from an event, arriving home just a little fatter than when they left for a long weekend of hard riding!

For the next 3 or 4 days, keep a closer-than-usual eye on your faithful steed. Make sure he continues to eat and drink normally. You may want to continue providing electrolyte supplements for a day or two after returning home to encourage your horse to drink plenty of water.

Monitor his enthusiasm for being turned loose in the pasture, and compare his post-ride behavior with his normal behavior. If you see anything that seems abnormal, call your vet and explain what you see. With experience, you will learn how quickly your horse “bounces back” from an event. He may seem a little quieter for a few days, or he may seem especially bossy when he is turned out with his usual herd.

After a few days, you might want to work him lightly, beginning with a short arena session or even a hand-walk down the road. I usually wait a week to ride after a difficult 50-mile ride to return to our normal trail-riding routine; the time off after a shorter event may be shorter depending on the experience level and fitness of the horse.

When I see my horse trotting around the pasture and chasing the goats as she did before we left for the ride, I know it’s time to go back to work.

In which Endurance 101 endeavors to prevent "bewildered"

2011-11-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

Endurance 101 : Trail markers, route-finding, and avoiding bewilderment

“I can’t say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.”

--attributed to Daniel Boone (1734-1820)

The last thing you want to be, on an endurance trail, is “bewildered.”

Actually, that’s not right.

The very last thing you want to be, on an endurance ride, is “bleeding, cold, alone and bewildered.”

It’s up to you (and whatever gods of luck you ascribe unto) to avoid the blood and cold and solitude.

In this post, I will do my best to keep you from getting irretrievably bewildered on the endurance trail by describing some of the commonly-used trail-marking conventions. The ride manager (or “RM”) is not obligated to follow the convention, but if the trail-marking system is unusual, the RM will certainly discuss it at the ride meeting—make sure you are there, and take good notes!

Ribbons on the right

At the ride meeting, you will be told what color to follow on the trail. Pay close attention! When trails criss-cross or run together, you may see as many as eight or even twelve differently-colored ribbons hanging on a tree branch or fence post. To avoid going off the designated trail for your event, keep track of the color you need to follow.

AERC rules stipulate that riders must do all loops of an event in the correct order, so take steps to ensure that you are in the right place at the right time. When I’m riding a long event with many loops, I write the loop colors on my arm with a sharpie marker. I’ve been known to lose the map and the information sheet along the trail, but thus far I’ve always been able to keep track of my left arm.

Trail markers are commonly made from long strips of surveyors tape, tied or attached with clothespins to branches, fenceposts, or even posts pounded into the ground by the trail crew. The ribbons are hung on the right side of the trail; if you see ribbons only on the left side of the trail, you are going the wrong direction.

blue+white-striped ribbon with solid pink ribbon

Three ribbons mark a turn

This is a trail-marking convention but it is not universal: as you approach a turn, you will see, instead of a single or pair of ribbons, a trio of ribbons. That means “slow the heck down and look, because you’re going to change direction!”

Three ribbons = slow the heck down and watch for a turn!

Some ride managers find that a long, wide strip of bright-yellow or bright-red CAUTION tape is easier to alert riders if a trail has many turns. Whichever system is in place, learn it, and watch for it so that you don’t wander off-course!

Common trail

Sometime you will encounter a stretch of trail where riders will travel in both directions. These “common trails” are marked with ribbons on both sides of the trail, so that you will continue to have your ribbons on the right side of the trail no matter which direction you travel. This can be confusing at first! Slow down when you see common trail, check your map, and make sure you’re heading in the correct direction.

The RM will often use ribbons that are not only different colors to mark different parts of a trail course, but also different patterns, for example:

Loop 1: blue+white striped ribbon, paired with a pink ribbon

Loop 2: white with orange polka-dot ribbon, paired with a green ribbon

Loop 3: solid red ribbon paired with a solid white ribbon

Ideally, while travelling at a trot, you will be able to see either a ribbon on the trail ahead or a ribbon on the trail behind from any point of the route. The amount of ribbon needed for this kind of marking varies dramatically, depending on the terrain. A prairie ride may need 20 ribbon-markers per mile, because the sight lines on the open prairie are long, with nothing to disrupt them except sometimes a ground squirrel. A route in deep forest may take 100 ribbon-markers or more per mile, depending on the twistiness of the trail and the size of the trees.

Trail tape is often a victim of wind, rain, and sun. A strong wind will blow the ribbons to Kingdom Come or wrap them tightly around a tree branch so they no longer dangle in plain sight. Rain will drive the ribbons to the ground, and sun will bleach them until they are all a uniformly unhelpful greyish-white color.

The weather isn’t the only element to plague ride managers: humans can be just as much of a pain in the patoot, either intentionally or in ignorance. “Teary-eyed tree huggers” are a common breed in our local wilderness. These are the city-dwellers who visit the trails once or twice each calendar year, and expect the trails to be perfectly groomed but with no obvious sign of humans (or horses) upon them. They want the trails clear of eye-poking branches and blowdowns, but they don’t want the sound of chainsaws to mar their pristine wilderness experience, and they really don’t want to see the manure left by a trail crew’s pack animals. TETH are well-intentioned folks who lobby the state legislature for money to maintain trails and trailheads; we are grateful for their efforts and never wish to alienate them…however, we do wish that they knew a little bit about how the trails are built and maintained, and we definitely wish they would leave trail markers alone. More than once a RM and trail crew has had to load up horses, trucks or quads to re-mark a trail that has been “restored to pristineness” by a TETH on the evening before a ride!

Even more annoying and potentially dangerous are the Pranksters in Jeepsters, who find it amusing to re-route a marked trail into a dead-end or into an area that may not be passable by horses. These weekend warriors don’t like to get out of their buggies—they prefer to yank down markers and place them elsewhere on a road, so if a RM knows they are in the area, a quick check of all the jeep-road/horse trail intersections may be needed on the morning of a ride to eliminate Prankster damage.

Even if every human within hundreds of miles is aware of the ride markers and supportive of them, the trail may still be sabotaged by cattle and their cousins. For some reason, ruminants wild and domestic find trail ribbons absolutely delicious. Nobody has ever explained why this is so, yet on many occasions I have observed elk, deer, and cattle meandering down a trail, stopping periodically to snack on the colorful delicacies.

If RM’s know that these plastic-eaters (or the human vandals) are nearby, they will usually put out plenty of extra ribbons with the hope that some will still be in place on ride day. If you are riding in elk territory or have been warned that there are bovines eating the markers, check the ground periodically for clothespins—elk love to eat ribbons, but they always spit out the clothespins. Finding those little wooden markers on the ground can be a challenge, but they will let you know that you aren’t lost…or bewildered.

Pie plates: not just for dessert anymore

Pie-plates or paper plates are handy trail marking devices commonly used at intersections or confusing points, because important information can be written on them with indelible ink markers.

For example, a pie plate for Loop 1 might read:

Loop 1: blue/white/pink 2 miles to vet checkà

It would be splendid if RM’s had the time and energy to color-code their pie-plate markers, but usually a black marker on a white plate is easiest to read, and that’s the most important thing.

Many of the RM’s in my region are strong proponents of “confidence ribbons”. Confidence ribbons are the extra markings added to the trail after a confusing turn or intersection. For example, after making a sharp turn from an elk trail onto a logging road as directed by a pie plate, the rider will see several ribbon markers ahead leading along the correct direction. These ribbons are cheap insurance to keep as many riders as possible on the right trail.

Clues on the ground

RMs will also put trail markings on the ground itself, using white lime powder, chalk, spray paint, and at one recent event I attended, pancake mix!

Red-ribbon trail goes left. Blue-ribboned trail goes right. Any questions?

These substances can be carried easily on a pack horse and then used to draw arrows or even write brief messages on the hillside beside a trail.

Getting bewildered

If you are trotting along the trail and cannot see a ribbon, and cannot quite remember the last time you saw a ribbon, you may be off-route.

Before you panic, look at the ground. Do you see a lot of hoofprints on the ground in front of you, from horses travelling the same direction? Do you see fresh manure on the trail? Those are all signs that many riders from your event have been here and you really ARE on the right trail. Look carefully at the ground where you think a ribbon marker should be…can you find a clothspin left behind by a marauding elk?

If you’re still not convinced that you’re in the right place, look up. You may not see ribbons hanging from branches, but can you spot a clothespin or stub of ribbon? Cattle can’t reach as high as deer or elk, so they “spaghetti” the ribbons that they can reach, and then stop sucking in when they get to the clothespin, leaving orphaned clothespins high overhead on tree branches. If you can see those clothespins, you’re probably in the right place. You may also be able to see that the trail has been “brushed back” and trimmed by trail crews with loppers. If you see recently-trimmed branches at eye-level for a rider on horseback, you are probably not really off-trail.

But what if you ARE off-trail? A few words of advice:

· Don’t panic. Before you go anywhere, stop for a moment, take a drink from your water bottle, and breathe. Check your trail map, and try to figure out where you are. Think about the last time you saw a trail marker.

· Mark your location. Tear up a bandana and tie a strip of cloth to a tree branch, stick a scrap of paper under a rock in the middle of the trail, make a pile of rocks or branches on the right side of your trail to mark where you are now, or partially break off a branch beside the trail and leave it dangling. This gives you a landmark that you can return to if you can’t find the trail. You do not want to get more bewildered!

· Look in all directions for clues to the trail. Remember that your trail is marked for RIDERS, so if possible, stay on your horse so you can see the markers 6 to 8 feet off the ground.

· Backtrack your trail, if possible. If you aren’t sure you’re going the right direction, mark the trail as you go with strips of cloth tied to branches, piles of rocks or dangling branches. Scuff an arrow into the dirt with your boot to indicate the direction you travel to backtrack.

· Listen for other riders. They may not be talking, but you should be able to hear their horses’ hoofbeats.

Don’t worry too much about taking wrong turns, it happens to everybody. In my first few years of endurance riding, I took a wrong turn at least one time at every event, but usually discovered my mistake within a few minutes. Stay alert and watch your trail markers, and you will always find your way back to camp.

There are a few ride managers who pride themselves on not “over-marking” the trail. This attitude is not a secret—anyone who has ever attended at ride managed by “The Duck” will attest to that manager’s steadfast refusal to make an endurance ride easy by making the route easy to find.

If route-finding is a concern for you, find another person to ride with, preferably one who has ridden the event in past years. Although some trails change from year-to-year, due to the effects of changing riverbeds, logging operations, and even urban sprawl, the basic “shape” of the trail will be familiar to some of the riders in camp, and one of those is bound to help you.