Tonight we played Trash pandas. With all the kids. Sometimes that’s what’s important. Amanda picked out the game at Walmart. It was cute. A little card game with a competitive streak. There was a little attitude about playing at first from some members, but it resolved. Rob got a picture of a raccoon on his game camera behind the house while we were playing. Coincidence?
This past weekend we drove up to Cornish NH to participate in the VERDA Bare Bones endurance ride. We loaded up Huey, Mojo, Amira and Missy and drove the three hours to the ride on Saturday morning.
For this ride we were all riding the 30 mile Limited Distance. We felt confident that the horses could handle this distance and we had to get back to CT Sunday night for Quinn’s AP Calculus exam at 8 am Monday morning. Rob also had a flight out at 7 am Monday in Providence to go to VA on business for the week.
Setting up camp, we placed Amira and Huey in our hard panels. Huey can camp in electric, but Amira does not respect electric. Missy and Mojo got electric pens set up.
Vetting in was uneventful. The horses were all good. Nick Kohut and Joan Hiltz were the ride vets. Rob was riding Missy, Alex was riding Mojo, Amanda Huey, and I (Anna) on Amira. Quinn is still recovering from a spinal facet joint issue causing sciatica and back pain, so Quinn was the designated crew person for this ride. We set up the crew stuff for the hold, and I made up electrolytes for the next day. I think I am going to start using a blender to make up electrolyte syringes ahead of time at home to make life easier at ride camp. We use Lyte now tubes for some of our horses, but I mix a special mix for Huey and Amira. Temps were going to be close to freezing so we blanketed horses for the night.
Saturday night I woke up around 4 am to the sound of panels clanking, and went out to check on the horses. I found Amira outside her pen, with the panels still standing. Huh. My guess is she pushed under them to reach grass and went too far and barreled through under them. She did not appear hurt, or scratched up. I put her back in, secured the ends to the trailer a bit better and had her checked out the next morning, but she was not hurt.
Sunday morning we tacked up for the 8 am LD ride start. Huey was full of it and tried to buck Amanda off. We took his rump rug off, but he was still fresh. When the trail was opened we walked out on trail immediately to get Huey thinking about other things than being naughty.
This ride had two loops of the same 15 miles with a 45 minute hold after a mid ride vet check. The loop is basically an out and back with a small lollipop loop at the midpoint. Some singletrack trail and some backroads gravel road. Oh and it’s not flat. My GPS says it’s around 1500 ft of elevation gain over the 15 miles, which is comparable to our home terrain, however the course starts by climbing a hill, and then going down hill through the woods and climbing over another woodsy singletrack hill. Then some roads, a covered bridge, wooded trails near water, and back to the fairgrounds.
We rode together for the first loop. It took us just over 2.5 hours. Rob and I had some disagreements and decided it would be best if we split up for the second loop. Mojo and Missy were charging ahead, creating a pace at which Amira either had to canter, and then trot, then canter to catch up and it was resulting in temperamental fits of bucking. Amira does great leading, but worries about keeping up with the herd when riding in a larger group. Amira’s and Huey’s road trot is 6-7 mph, where Mojo and Missy cruise along at 8+ mph. Which lead to me having choice words with Rob (shocker I know, LOL).
At the hold Missy and Mojo pulsed ahead of Huey, and Amira last (she takes about 10 minutes to reach pulse most of the time). All the horses were fit to continue. We decided that Rob and Alex could head out at their out time and Amanda and I would just ride separate for the last loop. When it came time for Amanda and I to leave, Amira was not so sure she wanted to head out again, and was looking for the others as we were leaving, but once past the first couple of hundred yards she was fine. Eventually, we caught up to Rob and Alex at the midway water stop and stayed together for the rest of the loop after that. Missy had lost some if her initial exuberance, but got a bit of second wind once we were all together and headed back.
Our second loop was a little slower than our first. We finished our second loop in about 2 hrs and 40 minutes. We took our time, let the horses graze some, and stopped to talk to one of the land owners gracious enough to put out water for the ride. They wanted to take pictures of Huey. Everyone loves seeing Huey and Amanda out there.
All our horses vetted through fine and got completions. Mojo went over 500 AERC LD miles with this ride. Huey now has over 400 LD miles with Amanda. We all made top ten, because it was a very small ride, I think only 12 or 13 started the LD. Rob decided to stand for best condition, to judge how Missy was doing an hour after the ride, since she is new to us. Based on end pulse, time, and weight reasons the rest of us opted out. We had a good conversation with Dr. Kohut about how the recovery score of the best condition judging is done. I had been curious since I had seen some very low recovery scores on Facebook after the recent No frills ride.
We ended up with some girth rubs on Missy, which her previous owner said has been a career long issue for her. We are going to try a mohair girth and crupper, and change to a biothane billet/dressage girth set up to see if that helps. We were already doing y style rigging with a toklat woolback western cinch.
Mojo unfortunately also had rubs, not evident until the day after the ride. We have a new Skito saddle pad for him and the construction on the pad is slightly different leaving the half n half mid seam more proud right under the stirrup leather causing welts on both sides from the heat/ friction. He also had welts/rubs from the back biothane billets due to the saddle pad being shorter. May have to pad the strap or get a longer pad or girth. I put some caladryl on the affected areas and it was a lot less swollen that night. Sigh. On the good side, it seems the mohair girth has stopped the rubs he used to get in his arm pit area.
Our goal was to ride and get completions for all the horses we brought, and we accomplished that goal. What’s next? We will have to see how the next week goes in the recovery for Mojo and Missy. College finals, high school AP exams and finals, and Rob’s travels are taking a toll on the family schedule and gas and diesel prices are on the rise. We may have to take a step back and breathe for a few weeks.
We would like to say thank you to the VERDA ride management, the ride vets, and volunteers. Especially the volunteers. We were happy to see Sierra volunteering, she is who has Teddy now, and she let us know he is all good. Lovely trail marking, which is much appreciated. I hate getting lost on trail. Thank you to Jamie and Ranelle for sharing photos with us. Prayers and well wishes to the rider who came off her horse and got hurt at the ride. We hope you have a full recovery. Congrats to our friends completing 50s at this early ride, it is an accomplishment.
Ride on friends, doing what you love, with special people you care about, it is what matters!
Hot dogs and smores by the fire for dinner.
This is a public service announcement.
If you leave your electronic key on the roof of your car, the car will still run, but at some point on your way to work that key will lose it’s battle with friction and find a new resting place. In the road. But you probably won’t notice until you get to Dunkin a few minutes from the office and go inside to get a muffin. That’s when you will realize you can no longer re-start your electronic ignition because you forgot the key on the roof, and it clearly isn’t still on the roof. Luckily, one of your coworkers will be able to pick you up (thanks Rob H) and then your wife will bring you the spare key from home. You will be able to get home and go running after work to look for the missing key. You will probably find it, about a half mile from home just after the first 90 degree turn.
Keys that come of the roof of a car on a road where people drive 50+ mph will get run over. When you find the key, it will be in pieces. On both sides of the road. Spread out over 50 yds. And it won’t work anymore. And that is a $500 mistake, because electronic keys are stupid expensive.
This morning Rob and I loaded up Amanda and Huey to go to the UCONN 4H Tolland Agricultural Center for the annual CT State Horse Show. Amanda mostly wanted to go for the costume class. She loves to dress up that pony. But, I made her sign up for some walk trot classes too, and everyone has to do a showmanship class.
We had a discussion about whether she was staying with walk trot or doing walk trot canter classes. Considering Huey’s potential antics in a ring full of cantering horses, I lobbied we give Amanda a “glory year” and have her just stick with walk trot. We do not ride in the ring a lot and Amanda spent last week at 4H camp, leaving her a little tired still.
Saturday night Amanda and I washed Huey, first with Dawn soap (because he was filthy from all the rain lately), then with Zephyrs Garden Calm and Clean shampoo. That shampoo smells amazing!
Huey was great for warm up and Amanda did just fine at showmanship. The most hilarious moment was when Amanda forgot she was not supposed to move Huey’s legs like with a goat. She reached back and picked up his out of place foot and moved it into place. He tolerated it too! I guess she has been practicing with her goats a lot…
The walk trot classes went great. Amanda has matured as a rider and controls Huey better these days. He can be a challenging pony at times. Huey was a little bit impatient standing, hated the bugs and wanted to eat grass, but Amanda had no major issues. She got a first in Equitation, a second in Pleasure and a third in Discipline. She did win Walk Trot Champion overall. Time to move up next year!
We had a short break while WTC classes were going on after that and then we dressed Huey for the costume class. Amanda was a dragon rider atop her fire breathing dragon. We did buy the wings and viking helmet off Amazon, but the rest of the outfit was stuff we had laying around that we altered and put together. A sleazy, a rump rug, some felt from another project, some green cotton fabric, a sword and some additional things from previous Halloween costumes. Huey is such a good sport for allowing us to do this. They won the costume class.
Good half day at the show today, next year Amanda wants to show Huey driving as well, so that would be a longer day.
Meanwhile, at home, the teens took care of chores and did a long ride of 13 miles on Amira and Eli. They elected not to show and to spend time conditioning the horses instead
Sunday we went to Arcadia RI for a WGHA Cross Country Pace. Anna rode with the kids and Rob helped volunteer at the ride. Teddy is still recovering from his EPM diagnosis and is not in shape for a long ride. The loop was 8.5 miles and we rode it in an hour 39 minutes or so. The horses were feeling good and we didn’t worry about being fast, because we wanted to ride a second loop. Anna came in fifth and the kids came in second in the junior division. Their time was indeed the fastest in the open division and the closest to the average time wins…oh well.
Anna and Amanda went out on a second loop with Amanda riding Mojo. Huey got a break, he needs a clip, he got sweaty with his new fur coat on, and Amanda likes to ride the big horses. Eli just came back sound from his injury at the endurance ride, this was his first longer ride, so we are just playing it safe with him. Amanda cantered Mojo down the Midway stretch and thought it was great. Mojo really moves out with no weight on his back! But he was good.
Fall colors are out! Go enjoy the outdoors.
A few weeks ago, I was moving a load of manure to a family in Lisbon. When I dumped the load, I saw a soft shelled egg sitting on top of the manure pile. I did a little digging and discovered 9 snake eggs (the size of a small chicken egg). I collected them and brought them back home to show the family. A little investigating around the edge of our manure pile revealed another 8 eggs, for a total of 17 snake eggs. Earlier this year, we had a black rat snake that was about 5′ long hanging around the manure pile. Apparently, she decided the edges of our pile were a good place to lay eggs. I thought I took some pictures at the time, but I guess I didn’t get any. Since Anna wouldn’t let us keep them in the house, we buried them back into the manure pile.
Today, Amanda went to investigate where we buried the eggs, and we found 3 juvenile rat snakes. We stopped digging to prevent disturbing any unhatched eggs. Anna still won’t let the kids keep one as a pet, but all 3 kids took turns holding the baby snakes.
Last week we spent time at a military campground at Great Pond in Aurora, ME. We took our travel trailer and drove up to Maine for 5 days.
The first day there, Monday, we rented a canoe, kayak and a paddleboard. We chilled out at the campground.
Tuesday we went to visit Acadia National Park. It was about an hour drive from the campground. It was very crowded and besides lots of hiking and woods, we do not really see a reason to return there. Check the box and move on. We had a really yummy lobster lunch in Bar Harbor before seeing the park and swimming at Sand Beach in the ocean. It was cold!
Wednesday was spent back at camp hanging out and doing a bit more boating on the lake. Rob and Amanda did some fishing in the evening.
Thursday started with some boating and then we went to do go karts and mini golf. Ended the day with sunset boating and s’mores.
Friday we left the campground to go home. It was a nice get away, but we were ready to get home to our farm friends. We had a quiet relaxing time and would love to go back.
Today we found out that Nike had to be put to sleep earlier this month. Everyone in our family is a little sad. Nike was a very special pony we had on lease from 2014 to 2016. He was the ultimate little hunter pony, but dabbled in hunter paces, 4H, games and eventing while he was with us. He was an awesome match for Alex at the time, because while he had the go that our family likes, he also had a “just do it” attitude. Nike certainly was no kick ride, but was able to adapt to his rider and he and Alex made a great team. Nike seemed happiest out hunter pacing, often out in front leading the way. Alex named him “the wonder pony” and it was pretty fitting.
Video of Alex and Nike in 2016:
RIP Nike!
Today I went for a trail ride with my three kids. I feel blessed to be able to, to share the experience and bond with horses with them. It’s about so much more than riding. It’s about work ethic, caring for something other than yourself, even when you don’t want to or it is 20 degrees outside. It’s about going out there in the 90 degree heat and deer flies and going anyway. We went for a pretty slow 12 miles just out the back into Pachaug. It was not perfect, it was buggy, but we managed a long stretch of canter and only a few whines from Amanda about getting peppered with rocks from Amira’s feet (Amanda and Huey are just the right height). Rusty came along and found enough water to stay cool. We rode for about 2 and a half hours and I am truly thankful I get to do this with my kids.
A few of the pics in the gallery are from yesterday. Amanda and I went for a hike to Heron Marsh and “the waterfall “(which only had a trickle). 2 miles in an hour and a half. Hills and bush whacking, climbing rocks and dogs swimming in the pond.
