How to Start 2013

My morning: Wake up. Realize the forecasters were right and it did get below freezing overnight. Annual reminder of just how cold 29* really is. Realize that there is no way the pony will be happy to get out in this weather. Luxuriate around the house until noon time, the sun is bright, and it is over 50* out. Then go down to the barn.

A horse friend once shared one of her superstitions with me: "Whatever you do on New Year's Day is what you'll spend a lot of time doing the rest of the year."

Read between the lines: Any excuse is a good one to saddle up and ride, right? For years, we had a tradition of riding on New Year's Day, with a potluck gathering at the trailhead with friends afterwards.

Maybe it wasn't the long-ride-and-expansive-spread of yore, but I did ride today.

And I've got the tights to prove it:

Full-seat tights. Great for bareback riding.
Not so great for staying clean.

I've been taking it pretty easy with the pony, sticking with just bareback for now in an attempt to ascertain whether or not my saddle is the cause of her mysterious, tripping-out-on-one-hind-leg incidents that have been occurring since late summer-ish. 

Always happy to get out, even if it's a short ride.

And I came bearing the last of the seasonal treats: leftover peppermints from some of my holiday baking. Mimi loves peppermints. They're probably her favorite treat ever. Just a crinkle of the plastic wrapper and she will mug you endlessly.

Peppermint kisses!!!

"More peppermints for the cute pony, please?"

I love this pony. It's hard to believe she's going to be 20 years old this year.

Herding me back out to the pasture.

Looking forward to a bright 2013 with some new and exciting adventures on the horizon!

Pony Luv!!!

So I didn't ride this weekend...

My pony got to beat the heat this weekend (113* on Saturday!) and stand around in the shade in front of her fan, while I went out and was the one to work and sweat for a change.

("About time," she says.)

My weekend project was helping my parents to consolidate and reorganize our garage.

Today, I'm almost as sore as I am after doing a ride (minus the typical post-ride calf crunchiness), but I got about 10x filthier.

I don't get this dirty at rides.  But I also usually
wear tights or jeans, not shorts, at rides.

Scarily enough, the pic doesn't convey the full level of dirt.

But the garage is (mostly) done, and the pony will just have to settle for getting her barn visit this evening.

To make this vaguely horse-related, I ended up finally cleaning out my crew box, because I wanted that nice large plastic box for storage purposes.  I unearthed buried treasures, including my battery-powered glowsticks and one of Dad's really good lightweight windbreaker/rain jackets.  And BodyGlide.  Never too much BodyGlide.

signs I may be ride-deprived...

click to biggify for the full effect

This is what my backyard currently looks like.

Yes, that's flagging tape attached to clothespins, a la trail marking technique.

(It's actually to deter birds away from our fish pond...but it looks remarkably like an explosion of trail ribbons.)

5 Years!

Happy blogiversary to me...it's five years now that I've been able to keep this going, and considering we're only a quarter of the way through the year and I'm already at my second-highest number of blog posts/year, I might have finally figured out this whole "regular posting" thing.

Ironically, it's during a time when I'm not riding competing, and should in theory have nothing to write about.

I originally started the blog for my own purposes of remembering stuff that happened and keeping myself on track.  I've always loved to write, have been fascinated by others' ride stories, and figured this would be a good place for me to store my own thoughts and memories of rides I've done.

What I didn't anticipate was how this blogging thing would spiral off in unexpected directions.  It's been invaluable in forming a network and introducing me to great new friends.  It's given me an outlet for writing.  And writing was an integral part of how I got my job with Renegade.

So I owe a lot to the blog...and THANK YOU, my readers/subscribers/followers, whether you're new here, or been following me since the beginning.  I value your input, your contributions, and your friendship.  I still haven't met most of you in person...but thanks to blogging, I feel like I know you and can call you my friends.

This sort of snuck up on me...I just happened to be looking at older posts when I realized, "Hey, the anniversary of my first post is coming up."

And I'm actually writing this post a couple days ahead of time and scheduling it to post on the day, since I figured I would probably forget on the actual day.

But next year, I'll plan better and come up with some kind of blog-party or something.

the back-end product of horse ownership

You'll pardon the really bad pun up there.  Been entrenched in all kinds of marketing language for the past few weeks and I couldn't help myself once I read this article:

Norco's Can-Do Proposal: Turning Horse Manure Into Energy

Now that's a "green" movement I can get behind.  (Sorry.  More bad puns.  It's been a good morning and my brain is feeling just a little bit mischievous.)

I hope it's something that ends up working out, both logistically and financially, because that would be good for areas all around the country that have a decent-sized horse population.  Imagine...your hobby (for most of us out there), providing part of your power.  Which means, in a way, the horses are sort of paying for themselves/earning their keep.  Sort of makes the prospect of shoveling that back-end product a little more appealing.

crunch, crunch

A year ago, I wouldn't have batted an eyelash at jumping in the saddle and riding 50 miles.  Sure, my legs might be a little crunchy, but nothing I couldn't walk off within a couple of days.


30 minutes in the saddle this morning, and my legs are grumbling at me.


Hmmmm.


Someone's a bit out of shape, methinks.


Yes, I admit it: I've spent most of the summer hibernating indoors, venturing over to the barn enough to maintain Mimi's feet and make sure she has plenty of her flax/beet pulp mix she gets.  But riding?  Eh, not so much.  One four-mile trail ride a couple months ago.  A couple rides around the neighborhood, maybe a miles' worth of distance.  A handful of arena sessions.


All of this adds up to one out-of-shape rider.  Not that I'm completely out of shape.  I've spent a good portion of the summer helping my father with some of the larger carpet cleaning jobs...not exactly a low-impact activity.  Add to that the frequent petsitting jobs and the walking of said pets, and my cardio isn't doing too bad.  It's just the riding muscles that are suffering.


I'd like to say that fall is just around the corner, and nicer weather will be more incentive to ride, but we're nowhere close to being out of the woods yet.  In fact, I think my rearview mirror thermometer in my truck just might have gotten busted today, since it refused to actually register a temperature for outside on the drive home.  Its poor, overwhelmed little brain was giving me an Ice warning.  Hah!


I'm now hugging the a/c back home and downing an iced coffee.  When I left Pony, she was employing the do-it-yourself swamp cooler method: standing herself, still wet from the shower I gave her, in front of her stall-mounted fan.  And nibbling on a cool, salty, bran-and-beet pulp sloppy I gave her.  Not a bad life.


But it's this time of year that fish pond in the backyard starts looking real attractive.  That, or I contemplate why my parents though a fish pond over a swimming pool was a good idea.


As a final random aside: I know my last number of posts have been completely picture destitute, and as a result, probably kind of boring.  I'm working on changing that.  I have pictures, i just need to get them uploaded/sorted/edited.  But as a preview, Happy!Pony:

That was from our ride out at Estrella Mtn Park in March...still a lil' fuzzy from winter, but looking so chipper and happy.

The Absentee Blogger

Not promising anything regular by way of posting, but just a quick note...yes, I'm still around.  I've become a very good 'net lurker these days, and a pretty bad blogger overall.  Several reasons:

- I haven't had much to blog about that is interesting and positive.  I went through some major upheaval and changes in my life when we sold Beamer and the trailer several months ago.  Long story short:

Dear Economy,
You suck,
No Love,
Ash

Beamer went to what we feel is a great home where he will be able to continue his endurance career in a way we currently aren't able to do.  Horse and trailer actually went to the same place, so Beamer gets a little bit of home and familiarity with him.

- Consequently, I've been in a sulking funk most of the summer, and have ridden Mimi maybe half a dozen times, and only one of those times on a proper trail ride.  I hate not having a trailer, and I really hate bumming rides off people, because then I feel obligated to ride with them in a style that is very much not my own.  I'm a control freak with a healthy dose of Slavic guilt complex.  Means I'm sort of a pain to deal with in these kind of situations.  So I feel somewhat like a neglectful pony mom...but I'm still going down to the barn and keeping up on her feet (ironically, they look the best they've ever looked now...I have all of the flare completely gone), she still gets her regular supplements, and she's turned out with the herd in the 3+ acre big pasture for close to 14 hours a day.

- I don't like whining too much on my blog.  I tend to approach much of my "public" life with a "If you can't say something nice, don't say it" mentality.  I figure that most people have enough of their own problems, concerns, and drama to deal with.  They don't necessarily need to be hearing all of mine heaped on them as well.  Couple that with the fact I try to be an optimist (boy, is that getting put to the test this summer), and I just haven't felt a whole lot like blogging this summer.  Each post would have essentially looked the same: "Went to the barn.  Trimmed feet.  *insert photos here*  Rode around the arena.  Wilted in the heat.  Gave pony a bath.  Went home and hugged air conditioning."  Lather, rinse, repeat.

And just a quick life update:

- I took the summer off of school.  I needed the break, mentally.  And I noticed that I suffered fewer nervous breakdowns and stress headaches over the last few months.  And I still have plenty to be stressed about.  That lead me to the conclusion that, when the fall semester starts up this coming Monday, I don't believe I will be sitting in that classroom.  At this point in my life, I don't know if court reporting is for me.  Yes, I put a lot of time and effort into it...yes, it seems a shame to quit now.  But I don't feel like incurring further student loans debts while I figure out whether I want to continue this or not.  Maybe I'll come back to it.  Maybe I'll figure out something to do within the field that isn't the level of a certified reporter.  There are options, so the past four years isn't a total waste.  But right now, mentally, I don't have it in me to throw more of myself into that program.  If it hasn't happened by now, I don't know if it ever really will.  And I don't want to give up more of my life trying to figure that out.

- I did find a new hobby/time-occupier over the summer: I'm learning to play the guitar.  At the moment, I'm self taught, since lessons take money.  But there are a lot of videos on youtube that are fabulous resources, and I'm slowly learning.  Turns out I do have an ear for music, after years of wondering if I was tone-deaf.  Not tone-deaf...just untrained.  I still don't know what I'm doing, but I know when something sounds right or not.  And I'm definitely leaning towards a more countryish flavor with some of the tunes I'm managing to pick out.  Not like that's a surprise with a guitar, but whatever.  I've sort of come full circle with music...growing up around barns and horses, I was always a country girl.  Expanded my music listening repertoire in high school and especially college, but have recently re-embraced the country thing, especially some of the newer, up-and-coming artists that are more than just traditional country.  (My new favorite artist of pretty much any music genre is Christian Kane -- he does a great blend of rock and country with a ton of energy, great vocals, and he writes most of his own material.)

- It's summer in Arizona.  It's hot.  That mitigates some of my lack-of-riding guilt factor.  And makes it really easy to, while giving Pony a bath, turn the hose around on myself.  Long hair holds water for the next couple of hours and keeps your head cool. 

So, anyway...if you stuck with me for this long, my hat's off to you.  I can't promise regular updates, but I will say this: At least I have an interest in blogging again, and reading other's blogs.  For a couple of months, I was completely incommunicado and not even looking at blogs.  So this is a step in the right direction.

The Times, They Are A'Changing

It's certainly not what I wanted, and was never part of my "Five-Year Plan."  But I know it's the right thing to do.  Barring a sudden miracle age-reversal process, it's time for Mimi to retire from competition.

I had already made the decision to retire her from 50s earlier this year.  In a way, that was the toughest decision to make.  Giving up 50s meant giving up on even bigger dreams...Tevis, 1000 mile medallion, multi-day rides.

But for her sake, I think that retirement, even from 25s, is the right decision.  I've always said, albeit jokingly, that I have to be the sensible one of the two of us.  She will just goGoGO until she drops, and doesn't quite have the good sense to know when she should slow down and take it easy.  So the voice of reason has to step in a say, "No, you're done."  That voice of reason would be me.

She is still a phenomenal trail horse and riding companion.  I'd like to keep her that way.  I know my rides are numbered...I'm getting down to the last stretch for school, and once that is over with and all my certifications are passed, Real Life is going to take over for quite a while as I start working, and hopefully relocate.  (105* at the end of September?  Relocation can't come fast enough.)  I know there's not going to be a lot of time to condition an endurance horse, let alone go to rides, while I'm doing all of that.

But I'll need the escape therapy that riding provides.  Rule Number One for court reporters: Have an outlet.  We get to hear about the dregs of society, and it'll turn a person bitter and cynical very fast, unless there is some kind of a mental release/escapism available.  For me, that's riding.  Even if it means just jumping on the pony and riding out for a few miles.

And that's what I want her to still be around for.  She's a safe, trustworthy trail horse that can sit around for a few weeks (provided she gets turnout), and not do anything stupid when I climb on her back again.  Saving her now means I will hopefully have a lot more casual trail miles left in her for years to come.

Easing the sting of all this is my father's very generous offer to start riding his horse Beamer with greater frequency, and taking him to rides.  It works well, really.  A lot of Dad's time is being taken up with work, and Beamer has been sitting around, not getting used all that often.  He's a working performance horse, and needs a job to do.  So he's without a rider half the time, and I'm now without a competition horse.  Seems to be a good match...

So we're going to start instituting a "horse-sharing" plan.  I'll still ride Mimi, primarily, but on the days Dad isn't available, I'll take Beamer out.  And we'll share Beamer for rides.  This works particularly well for multi-day 50s, when we can each ride him for at least one day.  One-day 50s...well, we might have to flip a coin.  ;)

Beamer and I are going to do our first ride together at the end of October, at the AHAA Halloween Ride at McDowell Mountain Park.  We're going to do the 25, for several reasons: 1) Beamer has had most of the summer off.  Granted, he's an Arab and keeps his conditioning, but there's no sense in pushing it.  2) Need to make sure my saddle really does fit him for distance.  It appears to work, at least in the arena, as long as I have the proper saddle pad set-up.  But the distance is what will be really telling.  3) Need to make sure Beamer and I get along for at least 25 miles.

Despite the fact we've owned Beamer for almost six years now (!), I've spent very little time on his back.  I put about 60 days total on him when we first got him, then handed him off to Dad.  I've spent a lot of time working with him on the ground, and more recently, with his hoof care and tending his various injuries acquired over the summer.  But I haven't ridden him all that much.

All I can say is, this should be Interesting.

I've got a lot of catch up on, blogging-wise.  Friend Kaity came out for a week, and we had a grand time visiting and riding.  A lot of pictures from our ride, including a day trip to Payson, and my first ride on Beamer on trail in about four years.  Look for those to go up, as well as grand tales for the telling.  (Blogging off my laptop at school at the moment, so don't have access to all my pictures.)

Also to come is a new blog.  I can't very well talk about Beamer antics on Mimi's blog, so I will have a secondary blog that covers Beamer, and some more general aspects of my life.  I'll still keep this one going for reporting Pony antics.  This, too, should prove Interesting, as we all know the trouble I sometimes have with just maintaining the one blog.

Once I have that up and going, I will post a link to it here.

Peaks and Valleys

First off, I would like to offer an apology for my long absence from blogging, and correspondence in general.

Like the toughest endurance ride, 2010 has been a year of ups and downs for me -- and it's only May.  My absence from blogging is both a long and short explanation.  The short version is that I lost a lot of my enthusiasm and momentum after a disheartening start to the ride season, and before I could regain my footing, my personal life came along and knocked me for another loop.

In trying to deal with life and the turmoil, I'm afraid I've very much retreated from one of the things in life that was always my refuge -- the horses.  When your refuge is one of those things causing so much discontent and unrest, it becomes difficult to find your balance again.

After many weeks of soul-searching, I feel like I'm finally starting to gain some peace in my life again, and I'm ready to offer an explaination for what has been going on for the past four months.

The best place to start is probably chronologically, which would be at the start of the ride season -- the Land of the Sun ride in Wickenburg.  After being postponed and rescheduled due to foul weather and flooding in January, the ride was held in the beginning of February.

The ride started out very nice, but ended for me at 35 miles when I pulled Mimi after she started to tie up.  Rather than typing out the whole explaination again, this is the email I sent to one of the endurance e-mail lists I'm on.

So, I'm sure as most of you saw on Facebook, I pulled from Wickenburg yesterday when Mimi went weird on me at about 35 miles. She had been doing fabulous all day, pulling my arms out in her cheer and enthusiasm during the whole first loop. About 10 miles into the second loop, she really slowed down, to the point where I was having to peddle and cajole her -- definitely not normal for her, as she normally is very free-moving, and all it takes is a loosening of the reins to get her to move out at a ride.
Then she stopped to pee, and she peed very dark urine. :((( Never a good sign. We were very close to a water stop at the point, so we proceeded very slowly up to the water. I tried to get her to drink, but she wasn't interested, so we sat at the water trough with me syringing water into her mouth, making her drink one sip at a time. She also had no interest in food -- VERY unusual. Her respiration was super-high, and she her flanks were really tucked-up and doing this weird fluttering thing with her rapid breathing.
Her pulse dropped down to 36 within about five minutes, but then spiked to 44 a couple minutes later. And she just looked very unhappy. She's not a subtle horse by any stretch of the imagination, and can be a drama queen, so it's very easy to read her expressions and emotions. And she looked very sad and worried. Her mouth was tight, and her eyes very worried.


With all of those factors combined, I wasn't going to continue, so I pulled her there. Fortunately, we were at a place where it was very easy to get a trailer in and out, so we loaded up and got the quick shuttle back to camp. When we got back, I had one of the ride vets look at her, and all of her metabolics checked out with all As -- good gut sounds, normal hydration, loose muscles.


She never got really tight in the back end, but she did look stiff when we stopped. Both Dad and I walked her out and trotted her in hand after we had been at the water stop for about 15 minutes just to see if she would "snap out of it." She wasn't moving as well as she could, especially since her earlier trot-outs at the VCs had been beautiful, so I didn't think 15 more miles -- and the toughest part was still to come for that loop -- would do her any favors.


It's a maddening situation, as I don't really know what to call it or what she did. I don't think it was a true tie-up. I think it could have gotten to that if I pushed her. So what do I call that? Pre-tie-up? I've been researching my brains out this morning, and I'm no closer to pinning down any one cause.


There's potentially several factors at play:


-The weather turning cold, windy and rainy as we were heading out for the second loop. She did the same pre-tie-up thing at a Wickenburg NATRC ride about four years ago, but that was within 5 miles of the start, and due to insufficient warmup. However, she's also done a couple cold, rainy rides since then without a problem.


-Dehydration? She could have drank better overnight (she's drink better if she didn't poop in her bushel bucket...grrr...I'm going to start putting out multiple buckets for her at night). She ignored the two water troughs out on the first loop, and didn't drink until VC1 at 13 miles. Kind of normal, kind of not. She typically drinks within 10 miles. She drank really well at the VC, then again on the way back to camp. At VC2, she drank well as soon as we got in, but didn't drink at all back at the trailer during the hour hold.


-E'lyte imbalance? I e'lyted her with small doses in the morning before starting, at VC1, and at VC2. It was a breezy, cool day, but they were sweating a lot, especially in the beginning.


-Unaccustomed climbing? There were a lot of ups and downs and hills, but we train in terrain that's very similar to Wickenburg.


-Fighting me too much? She was feeling really, really good, and just wanted to GO in the first loop, so we spent a lot of time having "discussions" about not pulling my arms out and not running over the steep, rocky ups and downs. Don't know if she got herself too worked up doing that? She was feeling very competitive and forward. Our last two rides, we've had a space bubble since early in the ride, and she was happy to tootle along on a loose rein. This time, we were riding a bit faster, and there was always another horse within visual range. Both she and Beamer were being very competitive, but the trail was such that we had to make time where we could, because of the slow, rocky sections.


-Food at VC? I actually had a crew this time, but I'm wondering if her intentions were too good...in trying to get our ponies to eat, she was plying them with a lot of alfalfa and the ride-offered bran mashes, plus some oat hay. Mimi, being a protein-and-insulin-sensitive pony, is on a limited alfalfa diet, and a no grain diet. My fault for not communicating to our crewperson. I don't know if something like that could be a contributing factor? Too much protein?


Or maybe it's something I'm totally missing, or a combination of a lot of factors. I'm going to call my vet and see if he can come out tomorrow and if a blood panel will still be good at that point.

And after the visit from our vet the Monday after the ride:

Well, I got Mimi's blood panel back from the vet today. Her AST and CK levels are elevated -- 3016 for the AST and 8030 for the CK. Everything else falls within the normal range. Per my vet, she did have a tie up episode, but probably a minor one, as her muscles never got tight and crampy.


Best I can figure, after all the theories have been banded about, is that she wasn't drinking enough and we need to work more on actually drinking at rides.

The vet had several recommendations, but no real answers.  After cogitating on this for the past several months, I think there were a few other factors at play: the six weeks or so leading up to the ride had been very wet and rainy, and they didn't get out as much as they should have.  Quite frankly, I think it comes down to she was ill-conditioned for the ride and what I was asking of her.

She's 17 this year (in less than a week, actually!), she's not an Arab, despite how much she tries to act like one, and because of that, she's not going to hold her conditioning the way an Arab in their prime (like Beamer) would.  I feel bad, coming to that conclusion, because it puts the blame squarely on my shoulders where it belongs.

It is also leading me to the conclusion that maybe it's time to retire her from 50s, but that's another topic for another post, as this one is getting long-winded enough.

The following is the other side of the story -- my personal life, something I tend to leave out of this blog for various reasons, mostly because I figure that people come here to read about my adventures with my pony, not listen to me whine.  But I'm going to temporarily lift that moratorium, because that is a major part of what is going on right now.  To anyone that might feel uncomfortable with the subjects, death, dying, and personal religion are going to come up.  Several things have been happening, all kind of at once:

- As everyone knows, the economy sucks right now, and like a lot of people, we're feeling it, financially.  As such, going to rides isn't really a feasible thing right now, which is more than a little bit depressing and tends to cut down on one's motivation to go out and train.  I don't like admitting to this -- never an easy position to be in  -- but it's one of the reasons I've not been showing my face around the local rides.  Let's face it -- even though endurance is one of the cheaper equine sports out there, it still costs money.  And ride entry fees aren't going down.  And with very few truly local rides, travel expenses quickly add up, even to show up and volunteer.

- Right about the time Mimi should have been getting out again,  I came down with pneumonia and spent a couple weeks down for the count, and probably about five weeks away from riding.  Naturally, this would happen at the prettiest time of the year.  It's been about two and a half months since that happened, and I'm only now starting to feel like I'm recovering.  (Not helped by the worst seasonal allergies I've ever had.)

- Finally, I've experienced a lot of pain and turmoil in the last couple months that has put me on a path of a lot of questioning and bewilderment, and as a Christian, I'm not proud to admit this, but I've spent a lot of time being very angry at God and wondering why all of this is happening. 

First, I lost a dear friend to cancer in March.  She was only 26.  I still can't understand why someone that young, vibrant, and full of life could be taken so soon.  She fought to the end, and I will forever admire her grace, determination, and positive attitude.  I don't know if I could have done the same.  She's my newest guardian angel watching over me, and I'll always cherish the memory of our friendship and her encouragement.  Miss you, Siobhan, but I know you're using your performance talent and sense of humor to entertain all the other angels in Heaven right now.

On the heels of this, I just returned from a very difficult trip back to Pennsylvania for one last visit with my grandfather.  He has been fighting a very long, difficult battle with prostate cancer that then moved into bone cancer for the past two years, and about a week ago, his hospice nurse told the family she was giving him maybe two weeks to live.

Despite it being a painful, emotional trip, I'm glad I went.  There's so much about the situation I'm still confused and angry about, and not even going to begin to try to delve into here.  I've got questions that could probably even make theological scholars scratch their heads, but I know they'll likely always remain unanswered.  The biggest question, of course, that everyone asks is, "Why?"  I haven't figured that out, and maybe I never will. 

This is also the first grandparent I'm losing, so I feel particularly raw and vulnerable, having been relatively sheltered from the whole notion of death and dying up until now.  I know that the inevitable end is very near now, but I feel a lot more at peace after this trip than I was before I went.

It's been a lot to take in over the past four months, and I feel like I've spent a lot of time wallowing in the valleys, managing to scale a little peak, only to quickly slip down the other side.  Now, I feel like I'm gradually starting to come back again, thay maybe the next slide isn't going to be all the way to the valley floor again.  There's that saying, something about "darkest before dawn" that I think is very applicable at the moment.  Things will get better, it just might take a bit more mountain-climbing to get there.

Despite all of this, I have been maintaining Mimi's bare hooves myself still.  Her feet are looking fabulous, and I'm mroe and more happy with them with each passing month.  I bought a loop hoof knife, which makes trimming her bars a lot easier.  For the first time ever, I was able to take her on several rides entirely barefoot.  Granted, it was only about 6 or 7 miles, with very little trotting, but she was totally sound and comfortable.  Also more on this subject to come, since it's enough to make a whole seperate post.

Thank you, all of my readers, for hanging in there and listening to my very rollercoaster life.  I can't promise an immediate turnaround in my blogging habits, but I will say that I aim to try for slightly more regular postings...in other words, no more abandoning you for four months.  :)

Welcome to the Future

This will mark my 100th blog post.  A huge THANK YOU to all of my readers...you are the reason I keep blogging!  I started blogging due to the fact that I enjoy writing, and this would be a good outlet for that, as well as wanting a place to catalog my accounts of rides and pony antics.

I started blogging in April of 2007, so it's taken my this long to reach that milestone.  I can be an erratic blogger at times, mostly due to the fact that when life gets crazy, writing/blogging is the first thing that gets temporarily shelved.  I've been getting better at being more consistent, and one of my goals for the upcoming year is to blog every several days at least.

That being said...READERS...I'd like your input for some of what you'd like to see appear in the future.  I'm going to be starting a new blog focusing on the use of hoof boots and barefoot trimming, so those that are less interested in those subjects won't be innundated on a regular basis on this blog.

Thoughts for upcoming subjects: I can start doing tack/product reviews.  As it is, most of my blog consists of stories, anecdotes, and antics.  There are ways I can make it more of an educational blog, although I still consider myself to be a "baby" endurance rider, still largely figuring this thing out myself.

I can dig into my past and start relating some of my show experiences with Mimi.  I have tons of pictures (that need to be scanned) and quite a plethora of experiences from which to relate.

Another aspect I can delve further into is breed education.  Both my father and I ride breeds that are fairly unique, both to the endurance world and the equine world in general.  There is a lot of history to be passed along for both breeds, Shagya Arabian and POA.  While this blog is called Go Pony, and is largely supposed to relate to Mimi, Beamer is a part of our riding lives, and he deserves his chance to headline my blog every so often.

I keep a lot of my personal life out of this blog, because I have a personal blog for that, and don't feel the need to impose some of the more stressful aspects of my life on my readers.  However...if there are questions about me you're dying to ask, you can always comment, and I'll more than likely answer.  Quite a bit has changed in my own personal life since I started this blog, so look for a "me update" post showing up in the near future, just to give people a glimpse of the girl outside the tights and riding helmet.

Please pass along your thoughts, opinions, and comments!  If you want to see something here, let me know.  I know I've been slacking on pictures of late...chalk it up to the fact that after my laptop crashed, I lost a lot of my pictures (most can be found on my Facebook profile, if you're Facebook friends with me) and haven't had a chance to restore them to my hard drive.  And Mimi has been a bit of a handful lately, so I haven't been bringing the camera out on rides.  Hopefully that changes after 50 miles at Wickenburg this weekend...that should get some of her pony antics out of her system.

Rain Check!

I think I really  understand and appreciate the term "rain check" now.  Having grown up and lived here in the desert all my life, I've never fully appreciated the full extent of a true, multiday storm system.  Sure, I know all about flash floods, and not driving your vehicle through more than a couple inches of running water.  That's pretty par for the course in Arizona monsoon season, although someone always has to test it.  ("No, no, my insert vehicle of choice here can handle it, it'll be fine.")

At the San Tans, the trails drain so quickly that, unless it's pouring rain at the very moment, it's nearly impossible to get "rained out" from riding.  And even on the few occasions we do, it's due to the aforementioned flash flooding of the washes, and not the actual trail conditions.

So to have Wickenburg cancelled for this weekend due to weather wasn't something I was really expecting.  Granted, it would be cold and wet, especially Friday, but the trails shouldn't have been a problem.  And they weren't.  It was the roads. 

Arizona infrastructure is coping very badly with the current weather conditions, so much that major highways have actually been temporarily shut down.  I didn't really grasp that notion until I pulled down AZCentral's Road Closures page and realized that there's almost no way to get into Wickenburg.  Good reason to cancel, if a) half your riders can't get out of their house and b) the other half can't get to the ride.

The ride has been rescheduled for February 6th.  Here's hoping for lots of sunshine, for us and our surrounding states.

I think I've gotten off lightly from this storm -- the worst we've had at my house was that Dad had to pump some excess water out of the fishpond to keep it from overflowing.  That, and there's a corner of the roof over the dressing room on the trailer that's been leaky, and it dribbled in one corner of the trailer.  Fortunately, I anticpated this, and there wasn't much actually in the corner to get wet.

More rain is predicted for this afternoon, but right now, it's blue skies above.  The wind is picking up again, so those grey clouds on the horizon could move in...eventually.  It's a good day to curl up with a good book or movie, a steaming cup of your hot beverage of choice, and a cookie.  Sounds like a good idea to me...

Ringing in 2010

First off, I'd like to apologize to my faithful readers for being such an inconsistent blogger during the last couple months of 2009.  It's not for a lack of material to blog about, but rather a life set on "overwhelm" mode, coupled with multitudes of computer issues.

I have all sorts of good intentions to blog about a 2009 recap, and maybe get my VotS Turkey Trot story done while I'm still on winter break from school.

Short version of the 2009 recap: While it was an up-an-down year in many ways, I had a very good ride season.  I might not have gotten to near the number of rides I would have liked, but I was grateful to be able to attend the four rides I did, rack up 175 miles for the season, and have the opportunity to ride a differnt horse at one ride.

Every New Year's Day, my father and I have a tradition.  There is a saying, that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you will do for the rest of the year.  Five or six years ago, we applied this to the horses, and determined that if we spent New Year's on horseback, hopefully that would correlate to spending lots of time in the saddle during the course of the year.  It mostly works, in that I do spend a lot of time riding, but the correlation hasn't crossed over to spending a ton of time at endurance rides.  For it to be really effective, I guess I need to be attending a ride on new Year's Day, but I work with what I can get.

So, back to the tradition.  We ride at the San Tans in the morning, the ncome back to the trailhead for a potluck with other horsey friends.  Every year, we manage to add another person or two to the group.  I believe we had about a dozen people show up this year.  Friend Sheryl was the one who organized the start of this tradition five or six years ago, and still continues to be the driving force behind it.

This year, we had a substantial potluck, as both Sheryl and I properly cooked.  She made meatballs and wings, and I made chili.  Other people brought salad, chips, and brownies.  Just to brag a bit...I make good chili.  The fact that the large stockpot was reduced to only being a wuarter of the way full is testament to that, I think.  :)

I've been off of school since December 12, a five-week reprieve from what my life normally revolves around, and I've been using this time to get some extra conditioning on the ponies.  We've been able to go out three times a week, and do the big loops of 12-15 miles, averaging about 35 miles a week.  Most rides, we're getting an average speed of 5-6mph. 

The plan is to be able to up the speed at Wickenburg.  That ride was our first 50 ever, two years ago, and we completed with a ride time of 8:10.  I'd like to try to take an hour off that time.  We finished just after 5:00pm the last time, and I'd like to finish by 4:00 this year.  The reason for the increase in speed?  Preparation for 75 miles at Scottsdale's Dynamite Dash at the end of February.  More about that as we get closer to the ride.

In my mind, I've got all kinds of plans for 2010, but I'm being deliberately vague and noncommital at this point in an attempt to ward off the endurance gremlins and fly under their radar.  Specific plans will be unveiled as the months progress, but blanket goals for 2010 are pretty much getting to as many rides as I can afford (I'll be happy with a ride every couple months), and happy, sound horses.

And as a casual aside, 2010 Tevis Cup Ride applications are now available online. 

Cliffnotes on McDowell

I'm way behind on all things blog-related, mostly due to 1) my laptop crashing again and 2) life is insane.  The cliffnotes version of the last 2 weeks is:  I fell off Mimi for the first time in a couple years, the Sunday before going to McDowell.  Not how to go into a ride.  However, we went to McDowell.  Dad and Beamer also went, as Beamer's sore shoulder cleared up a week and half or so before the ride.  We all finished, and in fine form.  Tough ride, and despite being the same trail as February, it seemed harder this time, but the ponies looked better at the end.

Details will follow in a later post, as I was writing the ride story when the computer crashed.  Photos will be up later, as mine were on my computer, but not backed up when it crashed.  Granted, I only took about 10 pictures throughout the day.  The photographer got some beautiful pictures of us, and as soon as the digital copies go up online, I'll post those.

Quiet Happenings

So the blog has been quiet of late because not much has been happening. Weather has cut into our riding time...it's been so hot and humid of late that we've not been very motivated to get the ponies out, and as such, have lost a lot of conditioning time. When it's 110*, plus 40-50% humidity, there's no sane time to ride. Even at night, temps have stayed in the high 80s/low 90s.

That, combined with rather tight finances (no thanks to school raising tuition...) means we're skipping Man Against Horse this year. I'm sad about it, but it's such a difficult ride that I'd feel guilty putting Mimi into it with the amount of riding we've been doing over the summer, especially since we haven't done a ride since February. If she was 50-mile-over-the-summer fit, then having the last month of spotty conditioning probably wouldn't be so bad, but that's my paranoid ride making itself known.

Still working on my Tevis crewing story...

I did get a couple new pairs of tights in from Evelyn at Just For Horsin-Around. I've been a good girl and basically worn my current tights to pieces, so it was time for new ones. (I was down to one pair of publically acceptable tights for rides, and one semi-acceptable...the other are in various stages of disrepair and sheerness.) I got on pair of nice, sedate, plain purple cotton/lycra, which should be good for hot summers. The other pair, I just told Evelyn I wanted a nylon/lycra pattern with lots of purple and black in it.

I LOVE them!!!

I'll be hard to miss at rides now...as if the rather memorable little white pony wasn't enough, I'll be sporting these wild numbers come ride day. I don't think I'll have to worry about running into myself out on trail. I just might have to worry about spooking my pony...

And I just got new insoles or my Terrains again, so we'll see if I can make them work. They're my favorite shoes, overall. My hiking sneakers are great for hiking, and good for riding, but can be narrow in the toes for riding and make my feet go numb after too long a period of time, especially downhill trotting. My Ariat Endurance (meshy, lighter-weight version of the Terrains, kind of) are great for riding, but my little toes jam into the sides in a weird fashion if I hike for more than half a mile in them. Overall, I've found the Terrains to be the best for riding and hiking, even if I think they could sometimes use a little more traction...observe as I slither rapidly down the loose granite hills and try not to fall on my bum...

Of course, looking at the underside of the Terrains, I cam to the realization that they are about seven years old...no wonder they're a bit worn.

Coping Methods

Just reading through Merri Melde's account of her Tevis ride -- and finish! -- I had to smile as she mentioned singing as a way of getting through the seemingly endless California Loop...apparently her music of choice is from "The Sound of Music."

I smiled because singing has always been my coping method of choice for those endless stretches of trail, or when I get uptight on squeak-inducing sections of trail (areas of Man Against Horse in Prescott). My current selection comes from "Phantom of the Opera" and particularly the new movie version of it...they have a couple of songs that are exclusive to the movie (end credits) and for some reason, "Child of the Wilderness" stuck in my head and it's easy to sing softly, even if I keep forgetting the exact order of the verses.

Mimi seems to like my singing, even though I'm pretty much tone-deaf. It cheers her up, and I've learned that as you're singing, you have to breathe, so it's pretty much impossible to stay tense and uptight in the saddle.

Anybody have any other music suggestions? I'm very eclectic in my music tastes, but not all of it translates over well to being sung going down the endurance trail. Something cheerful or melodic is good, or happy, bouncy, and a little bit silly. I've also been known to spout Disney music while trotting down the trail (is this scaring anybody off from wanting to ride with me?) from my favorite Disney offerings: "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," and "Robin Hood." "Anastasia" and "The Swan Princess" have given me a few good ideas, too. Sensing a trend here that I like animated movies? :)

(Just a hint: Chanting, "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date" ["Alice in Wonderland"] while trying to make time can or cannot be taken as humorous by one's riding partner, depending on the circumstances.)

Just plain musicals are good, too..."Phantom" as aforementioned, and "Wicked" are the two that I know really well. Mind you, I seem to have issues remembering the entire song, so I tend to string together a couple verses here and there from various songs. I'm a one-woman variety show. :)

I will learn all the lyrics to "Modern Major General" from "Pirates of Penzance." It has a certain bouncy rhythm that would go well with the eggbeater's trot, although that same quality can sometimes make it grate on other's nerves. I try to sing quietly, and only when it's my father and I, but I fear even he can only take so much. "It's A Small World" is strictly forbidden.

What "coping methods" do others have out there?

Honest Scrap Award

Thank you Crysta at Go Diego Go and Danielle at If the Trees Had Ears for both bestowing upon this blog its first award ever, the Honest Scrap Award. Both are fellow endurance riders whose blogs I've been following for a while now, and I will have the opportunity in a few weeks to meet Crysta in person while crewing at Tevis.

When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:

- Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.

- List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not know.
- Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
- Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

My honest scraps:

1. I think I'm destined to be a professional student for the rest of my life. After grumbling my way through high school and ranting my way through my bachelor's degree at Arizona State, I went back to school yet again for the (seemingly endless) task for getting my certification in court reporting. It's a long process, but for the most part, I enjoy it.

2. I've been very blessed to have my "once in a lifetime horse" as my first horse. I can't imagine having another horse that I'll have this kind of close, bonded relationship with again. I was so fortunate to have been able to spend so much time together when we were both growing up, especially since our partnership of green rider + green horse was an equation that never should have worked.

3. I'm a slightly OCD control freak. Lists and post-it notes dominate my life. The upside of this is it means I can have my horse trailer packed and ready to go to a ride within a couple hours. The downside of this is everything has its place, and only I know where that place is. My patient father has learned to just pull down the heavy stuff and hand it to me to do with what I will. Beware, anyone that volunteers to crew for me at Tevis...there will be pages of instructions.

4. I'm a very eclectic person with lots of various interests besides horses to try keep my mind occupied and prevent OCD fixation on any one topic (it doesn't work). These include writing, photography, reading, jewelry making, sewing, and travel.

5. I'm a former show person who used to be scared to ride outside of the comfort of the arena, since Mimi was "so bad" any time I'd ride off my trainer's property. (In the mind of a very cautious [read: chicken$#!*] twelve year old, outwalking the other ponies and "looking" at the garbage cans was cause for great concern on my part.) Now, I hate riding in an arena unless I absolutely have to, and have a goal of doing Tevis on this same pony. :) How far we've come. I think my former trainer's jaw hits the ground every time I email her one of my ride stories.

6. My biggest goal and obsession of endurance is Tevis. It's probably so cliched by now, and I'm hardly the first person to come up with this goal, but it piqued my attention when I first started in distance riding, and grabbed hold of me after my first year crewing at there in 2004. Not to jinx best-laid plans and all that, but if the stars align and the distance gods are feeling gracious, my goal is to make it to Tevis 2010.

7. I'm an Arizona native, which means I can theoretically handle heat well. I do, but not without complaint. However, I die in anything over 15% humidity. There is a reason I want to move to San Diego, where it is 70* year-round.

8. I'm an only child, and still live at home. This works out very well in several ways: I work for my parents, out of the comfort of our home; Dad and I ride together; I can concentrate on school an not have to be a Real Adult yet.

9. As mentioned above, Dad and I ride together. Mom and I are what my Dad calls the "creative geniuses" of the family -- we both have creative, artistic endeavors that we do together. Riding is Dad's and my thing. We've been "returning the favor" back and forth for years -- I was the first one to get into horses...Dad followed suit. He wasn't interested in the show ring, though, and started trail riding, which turned into competitive trail (NATRC). He got me out of the show ring and onto the trail. After a couple years of NATRC, I turned my sights on endurance, at which point, Dad bought a new, endurance-suitable horse. Now, we're both focused on Tevis, although I'm far more obsessed about it.

10. I'm a self-admitted geek in the sense that I love sci-fi/fantasy, computer stuff (although I'm bad at it), reading, writing, the works.

The ten bloggers list is going to be difficult, mostly because a lot of people in my immediate blog vicinity have already received the award. The problem with running in a small group of people, we all follow each others blogs, and I was slow on the draw to get working on this.

- Horse Stories Illustrated. Cristy Cumberworth is a friend, fellow distance rider, and amazing photographer. She was the photographer at my very first NATRC ride eight years ago, and she very graciously allowed me to be her photo assistant the following year. Her talents as a photographer are beyond amazing...check out her blog and see if you don't agree!

- Here, There & Everywhere. Christine is working toward her first distance ride with her Standardbred Bling and done-a-bit-of-everything mule, TAZ.

- Between Golden Ears. Lei and her Halfinger pony Mitch are both fans of trail riding, and working towards the possibility of competitive trail. Mitch is one of the cutest ponies ever!

Brownie Points

Instead of riding on Sunday, I got to spend 15+ hours helping my aunt pack up her house and load the moving van, as she rather spontaneously decided to move...back to her home town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, after living on the West Coast (CA and AZ) for the last 32 years.

Lots of familial brownie points were earned in the hefting of boxes, and my ability to pack fragile things and make boxes for pictures. Never knew those years of working in the packing/shipping/mailbox center would come in so handy. This ought to get me off the hook for family obligations for a bit.

Equally spontaneous was my father's decision to jump in the moving truck with his brother, who is helping their sister (my aunt) with the move. Coincident to this is my grandparents will be moving out of their house and into a retirement community the same week their kids (my dad, aunt, and uncle) are going to be back there. Well, maybe not so coincident, as that was the hope that was how it would all play out, but very handy to have my aunt's house and grandparents' house sell at essentially the same time and to be able to time the move in such a way that they can all help each other out.

Mind you, Dad made the decision to go with them this morning. They're leaving this afternoon. So much for careful trip planning. The entire morning has been spent running around helping Dad get stuff together, clearing and reuploading music to my iPod shuffle for him to borrow, ironing, and getting the last of the newly-inherited items out of my suburban. That's why I don't mind helping people move, since I tend to acquire new things. Among the new toys accumulated: a scanner (score! don't have to go buy my own once I move), little bureau-top mirror and jewelry drawer, two picture boards (I adore these...they're the fabric kind, with ribbons stretched across to slide pictures under...I have one that is hopelessly full already). and a rusty iron display shelf. Might not be able to use a lot of stuff right away, but I'm slowly gathering it all for my own eventual move.

Fortunately, we had a good ride on Saturday. I think I have a hot-weather pony, because she has been unnaturally cheerful for the past couple months. Either she loves the weather, or she's feeling so good because her hocks aren't bothering her anymore. That in mind, I had no idea they had been bothering her for that long, if that's the case. She acts like she just turned six, not sixteen. She's power-trotting up hills and through sand washes, playfully spooking at Pony Eating Birds, asking for more speed (um, no. we're not trotting at 10mph through the sand wash) and in general, acting like a very cheerful, mischievous pony.

I can't even get aggravated about her antics, because I'm just so happy to see her feeling so good and acting so happy. Makes me believe we might actually have an enurance career that spans beyond a handful of rides. She's pretty good at telling me when she's happy or not, and I figure, as long as she's happy, sound, and healthy, we're going to keep going until she says "enough." Half of our time together has been littered with the echos of the phrase, "you can't do x." But that's a whole other topic that deserves its own post. :)

Saturday was hot, Hot, HOT. 95* by the time we were pulling out of the trailhead after the ride. Still experimenting with packs and various and sundry. This time it was trying to find a way to carry loaded elyte syringes, and if I had a little bag long and narrow enough to carry them seperately (I don't.) I have visions of applesauce/elyte-loaded syringes exploding all over my saddle packs...I might be able to put together something, but I don't know if my mom's sewing machine is strong enough to handle tough, cordura-type of material.

The other thing I was experimenting with was carrying my Camelbak waist pack. Apparently I'm a Camelbak collector and am determined to find something that works, sinceI have three of them -- two of the backpack-style, and the waist pack. The smaller backpack I'm not too fond of, as it's more of a nuissance than it's worth for the amount of water it carries. Plus, it grabs at t-shirts and pulls them up underneath it. The larger backpack carries more water, but that makes it heavier, and it doesn't shuffle around as much.

The waist pack carries about 45oz of water -- two bottles worth, essentially, and doesn't seem too heavy. It interferes a tiny bit with the cantle on downhills, until I figured out if I shifted around a bit, it rests against the cantle and I can lean back on it like a back rest going down hills. Trotting, it doesn't seem to interfere, but I have to keep tightening it as I drain the water out of it. I like that I can carry more stuff in the pack, like more food for myself, and a mini first-aid kit. And with Mimi feeling so good lately, she's been a little more "looky" and spooky...bad time of year to get dumped in the desert without water on your person.

My lower back is sore today, but I don't know if that's a function of the Camelbak, or of spending all day yesterday moving boxes. I noticed a tiny bit of muscle soreness Saturday night, but that could be just needing to acclimate my back and ab muscles to carrying more weight. All in all, definitely worth experimenting with, even if to only use it for the hot part of rides. I do drink more than if I have to fish around for bottles.

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

My wonderful pony turns 16 today! I've been so blessed to have had twelve and half wonderful years with her, and God willing, am looking forward to many more!

Things Ashley is Not Allowed to do at Tevis

I'm theoretically on a two-week break from school right now, although it's been anything but a break. My computer once again crashed on Tuesday night, for reason still unbeknownst, other than the vague, "bad hard drive." So much for warranty work.

Fortunately, I was able to get it fixed with overnight service Wednesday, and one new hard drive later, I got my computer back this morning. But by yesterday evening, I was drained from all the stress and trauma associated with yet another computer crash (at least I managed to keep about 85% of my data this time). Dinner was an interesting affair, with me chattering on and on (I babble when I'm tired), and this time, the topic was the impending crewing at Tevis this summer. My long-suffering parents humor me with listening ears and bemused grins. My father, too, wants to ride Tevis, but he doesn't have the same depth of obsession that I possess.

All of those elements combined to produce, in good humor, the following list:

Things Ashley is Not Allowed to do at Tevis This Summer Whilst Crewing:

- Max out credit cards on tack and gear.
- Bring back more suitcases than I left with.
- Buy a horse.
- Enter the ride last minute. (Like this would happen, since I don't have my qualifying mileage.)
- Move to Auburn.
- Buy anything too large to fit in my suitcase and thus have to ship it home.
- Buy a new saddle.

In my mother's words, "Are you there to crew or shop?"

All of this was in good humor, but it is true. I'm somewhat prone to impulse buys as it is, and tend to get caught up in the excitement of Tevis fever. To give myself credit, the largest impulse purchase during the two times I've been up there was an aluminum S-hack. Besides, that what shopping lists are for, right? Just stick to the list...

Odds 'n Ends

Not a whole lot of new happenings to report around here...I'm down to the last week and half of school before a three-week break between spring and summer session, so that's kept me busy. Short rides last weekend, as the ponies were a bit sore from trimming. *growl* I rasp Mimi for six weeks and she's perfect, my farrier comes and trims her, and she's sore. Wonder what it would take for me to get good enough at rasping to not have to bring the farrier out.

Vet was out today for spring shots, and to get Beamer's teeth done. For once in my life, I escaped with the lowest vet bill of the whole barn. *happy dance* Mimi, miraculously, only needed 4-Way and West Nile shots. So they'll probably get another weekend of taking it easy coming up, since I want to give their bodies time to get the shot toxins out of their systems before working too hard in the heat.

Shoring up details for the summer...looks like I'll be going out to help crew for friend Lucy at Tevis...I'm to be Roo's Official Boot Person, since apparently I've got the most experience using Renegades. Time to make the list of things I need to stock up on from Tevis vendors. Need: new Zilco halter, collapsible water bucket, and riding tights. Want: Lots of frivolous things that I can't afford. Just keep telling myself that I have to be able to pack all this stuff in my suitcase to take home. I did tell Dad I'd find him one of the nice scrubby sponges and bring that home for him.

Aside from that, the non-horsey part of summer includes at least one San Diego trip (my journey in escapism and regaining my sanity after weeks of schooling) in which I accomplish little, save for a lot of beach time, come back red as a lobster, fade to a suntan for about three days, then go back to ghost-white. Of course, that last part can also apply to crewing at Tevis when I inevitably forget my sunscreen.