Ouch!

Well, we're back.  We left Wendover, NV at 4 a.m. Pacific Time (well, it was really 5 a.m. Mountain Time, but since you enter Pacific Time about 20 feet west of Wendover, I'm going with Pacific Time) and streaked across Nevada and California with the minimum possible pit stops to arrive back home at 2 Tuesday afternoon. Getting away is great but getting home is even better. Got unpacked and re-acquainted with the cat, who was happy to see me, and with the horse, who was not quite as enthusiastic. Vacation over for him too! I'm easing back into work--I had planned to hit the ground running but easing back seems a lot more friendly.

I got (more) saddle shims while in Colorado in my never-ending quest to get the saddle fit right. We now have not only white spots on his shoulders but actual rubbed-raw spots. NOT good! I'm at my wit's end trying to figure out how to make the horse comfortable.  I tried the suggest shimming and was met with pinned ears and bucking when I requested a canter. I finally had to drop the whole project as I was on the verge of losing it completely.

Enter our veterinarian, who visited on Wednesday to administer rabies shots. A quick eval of Cowboy pointed the problem, not at the shoulders, but at the back end of the saddle. Most saddle fit today is geared toward allowing a lot of freedom at the shoulders and is designed to allow a lot of room for wide horses all the way from the front to the back. Cowboy is not wide, in actuality is quite narrow, and the back end of the saddle tends to float when the front end is shimmed correctly. All the saddle fit suggestions are geared toward allowing enough room for movement and don't address excess movement from a saddle that is actually too wide.  So this may (or may not) be the problem. Yesterday I tackled the problem again with Tere's suggested shimming, and was again met with pinned ears and bucking. Changed the shimming. Same result. Finally, in frustration, took off the saddle completely and hopped on bareback. Same result. Hmmmm.....perhaps this is behavioral and not related to saddle fit.  After a few corrective measures, I got a happy relaxed canter, ears forward, no bucking. Sort of a good thing but doesn't solve the problem of why he is getting white spots and rubbing on the shoulders.  So I remain flummoxed about this.

But Tere did suggest laser therapy and body work for Cowboy, so today Laura and I started working on that. His head should be down for the body work, so we took him out in the pasture. Cowboy is a horse who likes to move his feet, which can drive you a bit crazy if you are trying to keep him still. I followed the suggestion to just let him move around, and we took quite a journey around the pasture. Until he finally jammed his foot in a yellow jacket nest. Talk about exciting! I was trying to apply pressure to his belly to get him to lift his back at the withers, and suddenly the horse was airborne and heading toward me. This was a bit disconcerting but while I was trying to figure out what the horse was up to, I suddenly realized that something tiny was squirming around high in my blue jeans. That was my first hint that the problem was bee-related. OUCH! So now I am trying to control a completely frantic horse, who doesn't know if he should run or roll (opted for rolling) while dealing with a fiery set of stings to my person in a very inconvenient location. We headed toward the barn at high speed and bucked our way through the barn with Laura trying to shut the barn doors on the angry swarm.  We exited on the other side and Cowboy dropped and rolled again. Meanwhile, I am still fighting the bee in my jeans. Laura grabbed Cowboy and I made my way to a nearby stall to drop my drawers and tend to my wounds. Ken conveniently showed up with more beer but he was directed away from the stall I was occupying to honor my modesty, which frankly I didn't much care about at that point. The beer was medicinal though. Cowboy and I both got topical Benadryl and we'll see how we are tomorrow. But if I am sighted wearing baggy pants with absolutely no visible panty line, there's a reason for that.

Tomorrow night I am headed for Dressage in the Wine Country to cover the event for the Horse Journal. I requested, and got, a press pass--my very first press pass! So I get to attend THE horse event of the season for free. Woo Hoo! I guess I better start figuring out which baggy pair of pants I should wear for the occasion.

Last Day in Colorado

Today was the last day of the Parelli Summit. We'll be heading home tomorrow eager to inflict our new learnings on our blissfully unaware horses. As always, the Summit was inspirational, motivating and emotional.

We had a beautiful day for the finale after 2 days of cold, clouds and light rain. This is the view from the covered arena, with a balloon visible in the background.

A moment of silence was observed for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. This was followed by a ride by one of the top Parelli instructors, Kalley (the Cowgirl) Krickenberg, a former firefighter, carrying the American flag in a pattern around the arena at a high gallop. All without a bridle, by the way, as the theme for this Summit is Bridleless Riding.  Not a dry eye in the place after that. At least mine weren't.

I always come away from the Summit red-eyed and emotional. In addition to Kalley's ride, we heard from Lauren Barwick who rides with the Parellis and won gold and silver at the 2008 Paralympics in Hong Kong. Lauren is paralyzed below the belly button and has overcome tremendous challenges in her quest for gold, and is going for more gold in London next year. And Pat's son Caton, who has faced challenges since birth and was not expected to ever walk, now rides with the best and competes (and wins) in spite of serious physical and other impediments. Today he and Pat, along with several other Parelli pros, gave a demonstration of working cows during the lunch break. Caton is the closest rider in the picture. He's in his twenties now and riding well. We've been watching him for several years and used to be terrified watching him ride. I still wish the Parellis would endorse helmets.

So after 3 days of hearing about damaged riders and damaged horses who have overcome the odds to become inspirational success stories, I have to say their strategy works. I'm inspired to be a better person, to, if I may borrow the Parelli mission, to make the world a better place for horses, and also for people. I signed up to volunteer for the Parelli Foundation, which offers aid to rescues, therapeutic riding centers, and offers scholarships to Parelli students.

I just hope the inspiration can last as we start our journey back to Normal tomorrow!

Living Large at Parelli Land

It's been a whirlwind last few months, mostly related to work, but Cowboy and I did manage to pass all our Parelli Level 3 assessments and are (well, at least I am) eagerly awaiting the coveted green string. Meanwhile, I've managed to get work (barely) under wraps and am now blissfully on vacation in Pagosa Springs at the Parelli Summit. Laura and I had an uneventful 2-day road trip to get here and are now hanging out in the Rockies surrounded by horses and crazy horse people. Weather has been cloudy and cool with sprinkles of rain occasionally but it's still gorgeous here, even if someone did seem to steal all the oxygen.

The mood here seems to be a bit more subdued than in previous years. The effect of budget cuts are evident but why should the Parellis be any different than the rest of the world? The horsemanship is still top-notch and is, as always, inspiring and motivational.

My neighbor Ann is watching after Jasmine, and Laura's husband Ken is home tending the horses. Cowboy and Dexter are vacationing across the fence at Laura's place to make things easier on Ken at feeding time. Apparently they don't miss us at all since there is no riding, breakfast is considerably earlier than at my place, and Ken is an extremely good carrot supplier (locally famous as Carrot Man). We miss them terribly though. Although we did have to scope out the Atwood Ranch yearlings. After all, our horses are not getting any younger and it might be time to start looking for replacements.

Speaking of which...Here are a couple new friends of ours, Big Ben and Ladybug, who we think would make fabulous additions to the herd. Ladybug is a Dexter twin, a striking strawberry roan, and Big Ben has Cowboy's exuberant and cheerful personality. They are NOT coming home with us but wouldn't it be great...

Two more days of horse heaven and then time to head back home. My cell phone, which rarely rings, has been busy. Apparently I have clients who DO miss me after all.

The Horse Journal is out, and is even posted online, with my article on a local mustang training project the featured article!

http://www.sonomacountyhorsecouncil.org/content/sonoma-county-horse-journal

What the??????

I am trying to respond to comments and am being directed in an endless loop of logins. Huh? Anyway, the whole trophy wife thing is just a joke! Obviously I will never be, and will never strive to be, a trophy wife! But it would sure be sweet to have a trophy hubby with deep pockets!

We are back to rainy weather again. At a time of year when people are planning outdoor graduations and weddings, I'm curling up with hot cocoa instead of firing up the grill. And there is not much riding going on.

So instead of riding, I've been tuning in to RFDTV's horse programs, hoping to at least expand my knowledge base. This morning, Craig Cameron did a segment on developing a brave horse. That seemed like it was made for me after last week's ride on my shrinking violet. So I checked it out. The new princess, who has now been named Jasmine, was in the room, playing with her various cat toys, but when Craig Cameron came on, she was riveted. Seems she likes horses, too. I hope she got some hints so she can help me out.

Jasmine is getting much more comfortable around here and is turning out to be a live-wire. Patches never liked to play with toys, and the few I did get for her have been hidden away for years, as her reaction to them was total disdain. I swear she rolled her eyes whenever I tried to get her interested. Jasmine, on the other hand, loves all of them and gets full mileage from them, and if there are no toys around will chase her tail instead.

This has turned out to be a problem since she is very nocturnal. So am I, usually, but I do like to get to sleep by 1 or 2 in the morning. Jasmine is just warming up about that time and is ready to play. She tries to engage me by patting and licking my face as I try to sleep. She's determined, too. If I pull the sheet over my head, she pulls it off and resumes. After 2 weeks of getting virtually no sleep, I finally resorted to putting a squirt bottle by my bed and spritzing her, which seems to be working and I actually got some sleep last night. And although she is clearly traumatized by it (the horse is not the only drama queen around here), she has not resorted to living under the recliner again.

The sleep is at least as good for the bags under my eyes as the Preparation H or the eye roller. Seems like almost everyone has heard of that Preparation H trick. It is still causing some mascara smudging though, so I'm focusing on using the eye roller. I got the CVS brand rather than the Garnier one as I figured the difference was probably packaging, but I found out that one should not dismiss good packaging too lightly. The roller ball is falling out of the tube--fortunately it's too big to go down the bathroom sink drain but it's pretty annoying.  I also checked out Lifestyle Lifts as I know someone who had this done and thought it might be worthwhile. It seems a bit price-y--average price nationwide is $5,900, and of course it is more expensive here. And that does not include the optional eye lift which I would need.  Now I know that this will not turn me into a true trophy wife due to that baby thing, but I'm willing to settle for being the runner-up award if the price is right. Jessica helpfully noted that even with a lifestyle lift, I am probably not trophy wife material due to some sort of attitude issue, but if I can pony up several thousand for plastic surgery, surely I can kick in a little extra for some sort of immersion program in a good charm school. Hopefully one that involves brainwashing as I don't think I could pull it off without it. Although really, I don't know what the *#^!&(% is wrong with my attitude.

Everyone stay warm and dry!

Happy Memorial Day!

Well, it's Memorial Day and we got out on the trail today. Seems like this should be the beginning of summer, but it's cold and windy and seems more like winter. I've had 4 days off from work, at least in theory, but it sure doesn't seem like enough.

The kitty is settling in, but I took her for her initial vet checkup on Saturday and it seems like I have breached her trust in a big way. She is pretty healthy but she has been scratching her ears, so they cleaned her ears and prescribed ear drops. That seems harmless enough, but between the trip in the kitty carrier, the ear cleaning, and the ear drops, she went over the edge and went into hiding.  This is Monday night and I have had to do a lot of coaxing and kissing up to her, and she is finally out of hiding and back to her vocal self again. What a drama queen!

Speaking of which.....

We took Dexter and Cowboy today. Cowboy's feet are healing and I put front boots on him. But it was windy, and he has been overfed and he went into full drama queen mode. Getting him by the Morgan Horse farm at Pt Reyes was a challenge and had me on foot for a bit. I did get back on him but we put Dexter in front. Usually Cowboy leads the way and Dexter follows, but today Dexter had to pony up and become lead horse, which he did admirably albeit very slowly.  Dexter is in no hurry to go anywhere. Turned out this was good for Cowboy as he was forced to slow down and think a bit.  We did well until the very end portion of the trip, when Cowboy was once again in the lead as Dexter was setting an excruciatingly slow pace, and we got to the Morgan Horse farm and, heaven forbid, some of the Morgans were getting their feet trimmed. Apparently more than Cowboy could bear and we had a major meltdown at a very narrow portion of the trail. He finally backed into a nettle patch and I wound up getting off and leading him as I was not up for a jackrabbit retreat.

As a side note, I have been looking into an alternate career as a trophy wife. It certainly seem easier than working for a living. I actually found an online test to see what your potential is, and sadly, I scored 22%. It seems that 97% of all those who have taken the test scored higher than me. I guess that is not surprising, all things considered, but it is still discouraging. I think the only thing I have going for me is that I wear sunglasses with plastic rims.  Working against me:
-staying in shape
-not wearing makeup to run to the corner store
-a complete lack of interest in cooking and entertaining
-and, most convincingly, a total lack of interest and ability to produce trophy children.

That last one is really the kicker, because it doesn't matter what you have surgically lifted or cosmetically spackled, it's pretty hard to argue with that biological clock.

Still, it does seem like there must be some middle ground out there somewhere.  There must be a tycoon out there somewhere who does not have the urge to spawn. So I'm looking into ways to just look better without actually needing to reproduce. Enter Doctor Oz, who did a show the other night on ways to fight aging. Amazingly, one of the options for combatting undereye bags and dark circles is, believe it or not, Preparation H. After all, it does shrink tissues. Many years ago, almost 40 years ago in fact, a coworker of mine confessed that her mother used Preparation H to combat wrinkles. It was the source of much hilarity at the time, but now it seems that her mother knew her stuff.

Since undereye circles and bags are one of my biggest challenges, I am rising to that challenge to conduct a controlled test. I purchased 2 products: an undereye roller  under the CVS pharmacy label, and also their version of Preparation H. I do tend to go with store brands whenever possible because they are usually cheaper. Although the undereye roller has already literally dropped the ball, and I'm wondering if the Garnier version might be more tightly put together. But I did apply both products this morning, one to each eye, and they both appear to be somewhat effective. I was rooting for the Preparation H camp as it's cheaper and so ludicrous that who could resist it? But on the Preparation H eye, although the bags and circles did decrease, it also caused my mascara to run. So I am sad to report that the undereye roller may be more effective, although Preparation H may be effective as an eye makeup remover. I will keep you posted, and please let me know if you know of a potential trophy husband who does not want to reproduce, likes women with a little meat on their bones, and is in favor of the earthy look.

And if you doubt the power of Doctor Oz, when I went looking for Preparation H (which I am happy to report that I have never needed to purchase before), the shelves were practically bare. Lots of empty shelf space devoted to Preparation H. I felt privileged to obtain the final tube. I hope Doctor Oz gets a commission for this. Or maybe there is just a massive outbreak of hemorrhoids.

Everybody stay safe on the trails, and keep up the efforts to look Marvelous!

There's a New Princess in Town

The empty house finally got a little too empty, so today I adopted a cat from Forgotten Felines. I've been checking her out online at their website, and she has been fostered at Animal Hospital of Cotati, so today I went to check her out. She's listed on the website as "Hyacinth" but has been re-named by her fosters as "Princess Chatty Cathy" because she likes to talk. And talk. And talk. So this should be interesting. Not sure if that name will stick, but I haven't come up with a new one yet.

She is settling in nicely, although she did not take over the house quite as quickly as Patches did. But she arrived home about 3 this afternoon, and now, 8 hours later, she has been released from the quiet back bedroom and has toured the rest of the house and is pretty comfortable at this point. We'll see how the first night goes!

Tomorrow we'll (not the cat) head to Pt Reyes. Cowboy got his hooves trimmed a few days ago and it seems he got a little over-trimmed, because he is sore-footed. So he gets the day off and I'll ride Dexter and Laura will take Lady.