Time flies when you're having fun or even if you're not, and it looks like it's been a while since I've been here. Work, which had been worrisomely slow, suddenly picked up in January and left me with little time for riding or blogging. But winter is letting up and we have gotten a few really nice days in the last few weeks. Not right now--it's been cold and rainy, and we can see snow on the nearby hills, which only happens about once a year. But we have been able to get out on the trail several times in nice weather, which has been a treat. Cowboy's saddle fit problems may be solved but it will be some time before we know for sure.

A new feature on Rift Zone trail at Pt Reyes is the great blue heron that has taken up residence near the trail. He's been there the last couple of rides, posing motionless until you approach, then taking off like an enormous prehistoric bird. The first time we were pretty apprehensive about how the horses would react to this but they were completely nonplussed. Probably helped that the bird was flying away from us rather than toward us. I suspect we would have had a different outcome if it seemed the heron was attacking!

Here are Dexter and Laura on Sky Trail close to the Mt Wittenburg summit a couple weeks ago on a gorgeous spring-like day. We happened upon a group of women enjoying the sunshine close to here and struck up a conversation. Turns out two of them live down the street from us and we often see one of them out walking her dog. Small world!

One thing I got done during one nice weekend was videotaping Cowboy for our Parelli Level 3 Liberty audition. And unlike the last time, it got edited and uploaded to YouTube in just a few weeks rather than the 6 months it took to get the last one posted. Unfortunately, the quality was a bit poor to start with because of the sunny and shady spots in the arena, and when it was compressed to upload to YouTube the quality degraded further so it is a bit difficult to follow. But it's called "Joan Cowboy Parelli Audition" if you want to take a peek. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRvnikcIZlQ

Looks like the cold and rain are here to stay for a bit so there probably won't be a lot of riding going on. Good opportunity to catch up on the mountains of paperwork in my office that have gotten away from me.

Happy New Year!

It's a new year, which for some reason seems to mean new opportunities even though it is just a flip of the calendar page. But we all love the idea of a fresh start and we love to write "1/1", especially when it's really "1/1/11". It's also a time to take a look at last year's hopes for the year we just finished and be either amused or appalled by how things turned out compared to plan. For example, just looking at last year's entry on this blog, Cowboy and I were both going to be ever so much fitter by now. Hmmmm. Well, at least I don't think I actually gained any weight. Can't say the same for Cowboy, but he needed to gain some weight, so I guess that was a success.

Fitness aside, there were some "missions accomplished" this year:
-Parelli Level 3 online achieved
-I got published! That was a biggie, something I had wanted for years, and amazingly easy once I made the effort. In fact, I see by the masthead that I am now the "editor at large" for the Sonoma County Horse Journal. I don't have any idea what that means but I hope it doesn't involve too much work. Running amok, dotting "i"s and crossing "t"s with wild abandon, I guess.
-Got my business website up and running. Not quite as spectacular as I had wanted but functional. www.inbalancebk.com.

Laura and I started out the new year in a couple of equine-inspiring ways. On New Year's Day, we, along with Laura's friend Tina, visited the nice folks at Black Sterling Friesians in Sonoma and got to ride 3 of their fabulous horses: Macho, Magnifiek and Sterling. Tina went for the lively Macho, while Laura and I traded off on the more mellow Magnifiek and Sterling. Sterling is the venerable namesake of the stable and the first horse the Goldmans bought several years when their daughter wanted a horse. Laura and Tina are below on Magnifiek and Macho.

Then on Sunday evening, Laura and I went to the city to see Cavalia! We had each wanted to go but were reluctant to spend the money--but last week we both got, from separate sources, the word that if we loved horses, we HAD to see this. And the show was extended a few days. So we got last-minute tickets and found our way through the city like a couple of country bumpkins to the parking lot next to AT&T park. Once we were in the general vicinity, it was hard to miss the pristine white tents glowing in the night. The tent city alone was almost worth the trip. It's mind-boggling to think that this is put up and taken down for each venue. The procedures manual must be impressive! But nothing like the show. The stage was a bit smaller than I had imagined but what a lot was accomplished in a small space. The show is a surreal combination of horsemanship, showmanship, costuming, set design, choreography, acrobatics, lighting, music...the complexity and sheer beauty of the production is astounding. There were two or three teams of horses ridden Roman-style at a gallop around a tiny track up and down a ramp in a tent in front of a thousand or more cheering spectators with music blaring. Acrobatics tethered to bungees dropping from the ceiling onto the horses. A woman working eight white horses completely at liberty, including having all of them do simultaneous pirhouettes. And ending up with a pretty spectacular display of rodeo-style trick riding. Fifty two horses in all--all of them male. Twenty three stallions, the rest geldings. I'm sure there is a discrimination suit there somewhere. Although in reality, if you have 23 performing stallions stabled together, you probably don't want to throw a mare into the mix. It would be like, well, your average office building.

Anyway, we are freshly inspired to do fabulous work with the horses again. Assuming we ever get enough time and good weather. We did get to ride this evening. It was the first time in a couple months that I put the saddle back on Cowboy. The pressure sores by his withers have healed and I have re-shimmed the saddle and am trying to work on my sitting posture to shift weight back, so we shall see how this goes. Weather permitting, we are planning on riding on Sunday. My iPhone says good weather so we're probably good to go.

A Visit from Santa Horse

If Jessica thinks it's early for lights, I wonder what she thinks of our early visit from Santa Cowboy and his ReinDexter?

It's a good thing they work for carrots, or they would never put up with this humiliation. But as long as the carrots and hay keep coming, they are remarkably good sports. Cowboy is an incredible ham and really turns it on for the camera. Dexter is usually agreeable, but I did figure out how to use the fill flash, and that had him a bit edgy. Cowboy is willing to put up with the flash as long as he looks good in the end.

Before I get too far into this, that was an "owl" in my driveway last night, not an "own"...

It was nice to see the sunshine today, and I got to not only clean paddocks, but actually ride my horse. Still bareback, but he was moving very nicely. Got the extended trot back, and the right lead is improving. He'll pick it up now with minimum fussing, and stays in it for a reasonable length of time. Maybe after the holidays I can put the saddle back on again.

Got word from Parelli today that we have officially achieved Level 3 On-Line! We filmed the audition in May, then it took a while to get around to transferring the clip to a VHS tape, which I promptly taped over because my VCR, which I haven't used in ages, is apparently broken. Then Laura and I had to figure out how to transfer the video from the camcorder to the computer, and then edit it so that it was compressed enough to upload to YouTube. That learning experience was worth a YouTube video all by itself. But we achieved it in September. After all that, I wasn't really all that happy with the audition as I felt Cowboy looked totally bored and disinterested, and I didn't want to get after him because, after all, we are supposed to look like we are in total harmony. Plus I hated the music I had selected (well, I actually love the music but it was a very poor choice for this purpose). So I put off submitting the audition until a couple weeks ago because I wasn't sure it was going to pass muster. I was quite surprised to find that we not only passed, but we were rated at Level 4 in five areas, including Relationship, Rapport, Exuberance (!), Squeeze Game and Draw. We also had a lot of checks in the Level 3++ and Level 3+ columns. The only area we were rated a straight Level 3 was in Assertiveness. So apparently I should have gotten after him a bit anyway. Anyway, I guess they didn't think he looked as bored as I thought he did, and I'm especially happy with those Level 4s in Relationship and Rapport. So we still have to submit auditions for Freestyle (riding) and Liberty, but now I'm really encouraged that at least we're on the right track.

Here's the link to the audition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmPjssZgQ1A

I need to remind myself to dress better next time, and lose about 50 pounds...

I think that's it for now. Back to work tomorrow.

It's Holiday Time!

Thanksgiving is over and we are officially in holiday mode. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of family and food. Mine was good even with the Incredible Shrinking Family--we lost Dad just a year ago right before last Thanksgiving and my niece was sick, so we were down to 5 people. A generous former client, whose food business grew to the point of hiring a staff finance person, still gives me a turkey each Thanksgiving and this year it was a 20-pounder. For five people. Lots of leftovers and today I made soup for the first time in years.

What am I thankful for? Family of course, good health, charming horses in my backyard, a bossy cat in the house, etc. Also, I am ever so thankful that I got the Christmas lights up today. I must make a note on next year's calendar to check out the lights on November 15 and go buy replacements BEFORE I have ladders set up and extension cords all over the place. This year I had to get especially creative with piecing strings of lights together and we'll see how they hold together. I also light up the blue spruce in my yard. Twelve years ago, it was a cute 3-foot live Christmas tree that I planted outside in the mistaken belief that these were slow-growing trees. I'm not sure exactly how tall it is now, but it uses way, way more lights than it used to, and reaching the vicinity of the top is more challenging every year. This year I used my 8-foot ladder and the extension poles for my tree pruner with a hook fastened to the top. And STILL didn't quite get to the top. Plus it was raining on and off, and the gopher holes add a little challenge to placing the ladder. But, the lights are up and working. Thank goodness. I am also glad I had brandy in the house for afterward.


Here's the evidence that the lights are working. I used my Nikon SLR that has pretty much been abandoned since I got the ever-so-convenient iPhone, but I was pretty sure the Nikon would do a better job of this. Which fortunately it did because I couldn't find the manual and just blindly messed with the settings to turn off the flash. As I was packing up the tripod, an own started hooting very very close--on top of the utility pole at the end of my driveway about 30 feet away. I could see him outlined against the sky. What a photo op! But do you think I could figure out how to turn the flash back on? Nope.

I did find the manual eventually, for which I am also thankful. I now have flash cards made up to keep with the camera so that I can perform a few basic operations. Stuff that I used to be able to do blindfolded with my 35mm but I am reduced to tears trying to figure it out on the digital. Must practice until it becomes second nature. Must be time to start on New Year's resolutions.

Tomorrow is supposed to be clear so the plan is to at least ride in the arena. The year of health and fitness is ending up about as usual, but I'm back to working on Cowboy's saddle fit. This year, we did make progress in that his entire back did not roan out, but he did roan out pretty spectacularly right behind the withers and he is getting very cranky about cantering and going down hills. His right lead has completely disappeared, which is concerning to me because he never had trouble picking up either lead. I've been in discussions with the saddle maker and am trying different shim patterns to try to lift the front of the saddle and get the pressure off those spots. The hair is actually rubbed off in those spots. I finally decided to just leave the saddle off completely until the hair grows back and the thickened skin areas heal. Then at least we'll be getting a fresh start. Meanwhile, he gets massages and ridden with the bareback pad.

Terri's visit

Terri visited Dexter this morning, and I used my iPhone to capture it on video. My first video experience--at least, the first intentional one!
Ignore the audio, I was pretty excited that I was using the video camera on purpose! I seem to be able to create and upload video but I can't see that I have an aplication where I can edit it.

What season is this, anyway???

It's really been hard to tell that this is autumn, as we never really had summer. Seemed like winter all summer long, and now that the leaves are starting to fall, we are getting sunshine and temps in the 100s. The horses are really confused as they started growing winter coats early, and now they are wishing they hadn't.

After the last post, with the chilly foggy weather, we took another try at Pt Reyes, this time on a Friday, which meant we could ride on the Bear Valley trail (closed to horses on weekends and holidays). After several years of cautious riding, we are finally getting a teensy bit bolder and are pushing the horses more. Not that they are breaking much of a sweat. But we got a fabulously beautiful day, and decided to try Glen Trail, a trail we hadn't ridden before as it starts out a bit steep. But in our new brave frame of mind, we headed up it anyway, and it turned out to be a gorgeous trail that wasn't all that steep after the first stretch. Cowboy always loves exploring new territory so he was ecstatic even though it was certainly more strenuous than our usual routes. We passed Glen Camp and got to the beach side of Stewart's Trail, just as it drops down to Wildcat Beach. It really does drop, too--almost a mile of steep downhill. But it ends up on a gorgeous beach, especially when you get a fabulous day like we had. I think this was 3 weeks ago.



Wildcat Beach

Cowboy looking none too pleased about his beach experience, with Dexter in the background.

Of course, what goes down must go back up, and that steep downhill turned into an even steeper uphill on the way back. We took mercy on the horses and led them up the really steep part. It was steep enough that we climbed for 5 minute stretches, then took a 1 or 2 minute break to catch our breath.

The next Wednesday, Dexter got a trip to Davis to check on his "clicky" hip. He has had a definite click in his hip or stifle, hard to tell which, and frequently has a sort of skipping gait that he often warms up out of. It seems to be getting more pronounced, so Laura decided to try to get to the bottom of it and see if there was some treatment he should be getting, or if he should be on restricted activity.


Dex was a real champ and took his exam and all the waiting in stride. He got poked, prodded and trotted around. Of course he seemed perfectly sound for quite a while, and then finally he did a little skipping for the head of orthopedics, who had apparently never seen a horse move quite like that. Very reassuring. So Dexter earned a hip x-ray, which meant that he got his right hip shaved. Also that he got sedated, so he is probably still wondering why the right side of his butt is cooler than the left. The x-ray didn't show much according to the reading, and after a full day of hanging out at Davis during a heat wave, they concluded that it was more of a gait abnormality than a lameness issue, and that the best treatment was to get him really fit, so more strenuous work was the answer. Dexter wants a second opinion.




We got back out on the trail the following weekend after the fog rolled back in, and instead of being hot, we were back in our winter garb. The higher we climbed on Horse Trail, the colder and damper it got, until we were finally in the cloud bank. As we headed for Sky Trail, a stiff breeze came up and that was the final straw. We headed back down the mountain to Bear Valley where it was at least dry, and took a short ride down Rift Zone trail.

So this weekend we headed to Five Brooks and we are now back to summer again, with temps in the 90s inland. Fortunately, it was only in the 80s at Pt Reyes. We've been wanting to ride Alamea Trail as it looks like a good alternative to Stewart's Trail if you want to go to the beach, so we took that trail just past Firtop. Turns out to be a beautiful trail, not too steep, but it is single track and hugs the side of a steep mountain. It's fine if you can focus on what's ahead of you and not on the steep drop-off to your left! Just keep that horse moving forward, no spooking allowed on this one. We made it to Old Out Road, which is another nice trail, and rode that a bit until it, too, dropped steeply toward the coast. Apparently it meets with Coast Trail and from there you can go to Wildcat Lake and Wildcat Beach but we didn't have time to go that far. Coming back, we went back to Stewart's Trail instead of Alamea, but that was such a steep climb that we'll just brave the cliffs of Alamea next time.

View from Stewart's Trail.

We were running later than usual by the time we headed back and came down Greenpicker trail instead of Stewart's, saving ourselves about a mile and a half. Greenpicker has some really steep and rocky stretches and we usually avoid it, but it was dry and like I said, we were feeling brave, and it was really a kick. The horses were anxious to get back to the trailer and just charged down that trail, never putting a foot wrong, and we made great time.

Even though we had a long day and a pretty strenuous ride, Cowboy had a burst of energy at the end and decided that everything was scary. He has some abnormal fear of logs and ferns, and every log and fern along the way was cause for snorting and sidestepping. Forget the fauna, my horse is terrified of flora. It's a little disconcerting to be bopping down the trail at a good clip and suddenly find yourself 10 feet to one side because there is a fern alongside the trail.

Dexter and his previous owner, Terri, are the subject of my latest story just published in the Sonoma County Horse Journal, so check it out. It's free at local tack and feed stores, and it will eventually get posted on the Horse Council's website at www.sonomacountyhorsecouncil.org.

Heading into Autumn

Sure seems like it was a short summer and now it's supposed to rain tomorrow. So we planned our ride for today rather than our usual Sunday ride. Dexter got to stay home and Laura rode Lady instead. It was humid and overcast at home, but less humid and not too cold in spite of the heavy fog at Pt Reyes. The fog got thicker and the forest got darker as we approached Sky Trail.

Sky Trail. Spooky.

Laura and Lady on the way up the hill.

We rode to our usual turnaround spot on Sky Trail at a meadow where Sky Trail meets Woodward Valley Trail. The horses usually get to graze a bit there (and everywhere else for that matter), and Cowboy is partial to the thistles that grow there--the kind with the purple flowers that looks so vicious. He has the knack of wrapping his lips delicately around the flower head and nipping it off without getting stabbed by the spines.Cowboy getting his thistle fix.

We're getting photos on our rides now because I finally bought an iPhone a few weeks ago. If I had known that a phone could be this much fun, I'd have bought one a long time ago. I've hardly used the phone feature at all, but the camera is handy and the e-mail feature is great. I've also downloaded the Audubon Bird Guid App so we can identify the birds we hear on the trail. This earned me the title of Geekiest Rider on the Trail by our fellow riders last week.

Laura, Debbi, Rhoda and Diane at our Pt Reyes Rift Zone trail ride last week.

Nevertheless, I will probably be downloading the Wildflower Guide next. I also have the Handy Level and the Time Tracker. Hey, I also have Facebook and Youtube, I'm not a completely lost cause. No games yet.

I need to change the ring tone, though, because it is currently set to bark at me. I actually got a call today while we were out on the trail and got a little freaked out, fearing a wolf invasion at Pt Reyes, before I figured out it was the phone. Then the call was coming through Google Voice, which I have set for screening calls which means that I have to press "1" to accept the call, and I couldn't get the number pad to come up on the phone, so I missed that call. Note to self: change that setting on Google Voice to just let the call come through.

Side note: I just read "The Fifth Agreement" and highly recommend it to those on the path to self-enlightenment and authenticity.

Ciao for now.....