• Thursday - 1 March - Cold Pones / New Schedule (Again) / Yoga
• Friday - 2 March - New Shoes for Roo / GPS Idea / Loin Rubs
• Saturday - 3 March - Trailer Heater / Riding Along Andy Wolf
• Sunday - 4 March - Working / Cronin
• Monday - 5 March - Smooshing in Rides
• Tuesday 6 March - Powerlines
• Wednesday 7 March - Anacondas
• Thursday 8 March - Getting Ready for RoM
• Friday 9 March - Coggins / Riding from Overlook
• Saturday 10 March - New Pad, new cinch, new stretches
• Sunday 11 March - Jack's First Ponying Lesson
• Tuesday 13 March - Bath Day
• Friday - Sunday 16-18 March - Rides of March 50
• Monday 19 March - Leg Filling?
• Tuesday 20 March - Wild Blue! Leg-Filling-B-Gone
• Sunday 25 March - Spring Cleaning, Spare Shoeses, Rally Driving, pft Riding, 
• Wednesday 28 March - Wild Blue! Roomba and Runnin'
• Friday 30 March - Spring is Here! Riding in the canyon
• Saturday 31 March - Chiro on Zini and Roo

Back to February 2007 • Forward to April 2007

Thursday - 1 March
Cold Pones

The snow didn't melt off overnight, or even during the day, so we still have a couple of inches of very crunchy covering. Where the snow did melt, it has turned into treacherous black ice which is most amusing to try and walk on - not.

This morning, Provo was shivering. No idea why, since they still had hay in front of them (must completely overfeed) and he was in the barn, nice and dry. The only thing I can think is that he's coated in crud, so maybe his hair isn't trapping warm air like it should. I'm going to have to attack him with a stiff brush tonight and get his hair standing up again. In the meantime, I put a blankie on him (he'll bake during the day) and gave them all hot BP slurries - which he seemed to eat the most off, having bullied everyone away from their’s.

New Schedule (Again)

• Rides of March 3/17 (then 5 weeks to)
• High Desert 4/21  (then 6 weeks to)

Crysta just wrote to me and suggested:

• NV Moonshine Night Ride 6/2  (then 4 weeks to)
• NASTR 75  6/30 (then 6 weeks to)
• Eastern High Sierra Classic, 8/11 (then 5 weeks to)
• Virginia City 9/15

then to finish off the year:

• High Desert 10/20, 10/21
• DVE?

Seems like a good idea (esp. since I wanted to do Washoe). Have to see how Roo feels. It seems like a lot at this point, unless he just takes it in his (slow) stride. Right now I'm having a mild panic attack at having only ridden him (seemingly) three times last month due to bad weather and flu. 

He will be fit for Rides of March in three weekends time, he will... <gulp>

Yoga

Every morning, I slither out of bed and flail around on the floor for 30 mins of yoga with my buddy Priscilla from South Carolina (she's on PBS every morning). It does seem to be working, although first thing in the morning is my least bendy time of day, so I'm glad Chili and Skræling are the only spectators (yoga while helped by dog and cat is entertaining - can you hold that position while being licked/petting the cat?).

While listening to one of the talks at the Convention over the weekend, I sat and stretched the whole time and by the end of the talk was able to get my forehead on each knee, which caused great internal applause. It's a shame it doesn't stick.

Friday 2 March
New Shoes for Roo

In the tradition of making sure Farrier Ted comes to my house at least once a week, today Roo got new shoes. We'll have to see where he is in the interference department after this cycle's efforts. One thing I did figure out after minutely inspecting the calendar to see how Crysta's idea of shoe-horning Washoe Valley into our schedule would work - Roo will be on 4 week shoes for that ride. Hmm. OTOH, if I shoe him every five weeks, he'll only ever be on 2-3 week shoes for every single ride I have planned, which is quite clever.

What a difference a couple of days makes (compare to photo above)

The snow is just about gone and my house is a complete tip from never being home and awake. I either need a maid and a secretary, or perhaps a squad of fairies to come in overnight. A week of getting home late, mucking the barn, feeding the pones and then collapsing into bed is definitely reflecting badly on the state of the house. Why can't it just keep itself clean while we're gone??

GPS Idea

I'm really looking forward to riding RoM with Crysta (except for that nagging "Roo won't be ready" fear) and discovering how to pace for 6 mph in a consistent fashion meaning that you just troll along. Hopefully I'll avoid making any stupid, going-too-fast mistakes again. And with my nifty GPS to tell me "<slap> why are you going 12 mph?" how can I fail? <snort> (I wish it had an alarm on it, like the HRMs do - one for going too fast, one for going too slow, and when you stop, the alarm will go off every two minutes to remind you to stop dawdling... I could patent this and call it "The Ride Tevis GPS".)

Loin Rubs

I was just pondering on my "everything happens for a reason, even if it takes a while to figure out what" philosophy - and I figured out that last month's enforced lack of riding from illness/weather was so that Roo could grow back some loin hair!

Saturday 3 March
Trailer Heater

Finally, we got the catalytic heater installed in the trailer on Saturday. It just took a leap of faith drilling four holes in the walls of the virgin wall (and a minor panic when I thought I'd positioned it so the gas line would have to go through one of the cross-braces, only to find I was an inch clear <phew>). The resulting heater looks very spiffy and chucks out tons of heat - Nevada/Death Valley here we come!

We opted to rotate the heater 90 degrees because it meant that the gas line was better hidden and protected against bumping, plus now the dial is easy to get at. The propane bottle sits on the other side of the wall in the back corner of the tack room - a location formerly filled by a bucket with rope in it, so it hasn't really caused any trouble. The propane bottle cost $11.20 to fill - have to see how long it lasts.

Better and better, Ann brought me some foam mats from Lowe's. They are like 2' x 2' puzzle pieces that fit together. I pulled up the carpet and just plunked them underneath. Ta-da - insulated floor. Prior to this, the floor was always quite cold and poor Chili who sleeps down there was never very happy.

So the combination of insulated floor and the mega-heater should mean that I'll never leave the trailer again on a cold ride morning.

Riding Along Andy Wolf

Roo and I did a quick spin along Andy Wolf and onto the ranch at the end late Saturday. February seemed like a wash out, riding-wise, so I'm trying to do better. Roo was very cheerful and convinced that we should travel everywhere at Mach 5. So we worked on bush trimming and, lookit, there's a big hill to go up.

Sunday 4 March
Working

Somehow I backed myself into a corner telling someone I'd have some work ready by Monday, and then booked myself up by promising something else by COB Monday. Ack. Tons of work overflowing off the table. So I worked all morning trying to get as much done as possible, with Grizzle to help. This meant that I didn't get to go riding until around 2 pm. Just as well - I decided that Cronin would have the best non-slippery footing, and by 2 pm most riders had been and gone.

Zini was napping in the barn when I went out. Unfortunately, she was napping in the only stall I hadn't gotten around to mucking out, yet, so is now covered in green stains (why didn't she pick the other stall??)

Luckily Roo is all clean - all the better to show off his rubs. The hair is definitely growing back in on his shoulders, but I'm still not convinced about his loin area, despite liberal application of baby powder every time we ride:

Cronin

So Rupert and I did our training ride. I told myself I'd like to get 15 miles in, but would be content with 12, and in a fit of amazing precision, we managed 15 exactly. We zigzagged back and forth across Cronin, Roo once again going Mach 5 every time we headed in the direction of the trailer, and then when we headed away turning into a drunkard, incapable of staying on the trail, tripping, forging, and stumbling along at a crawl. If I hadn't seen the "we can canter most of the way along the ridge" performance, I would have been quite worried.

Top: The lollipop tree in the distance Middle: South Fork of the American River Bottom: One of them pink rocks lurking in the undergrowth, waiting for unsuspecting pones to troll past (this photo reminds me of a sled-dog photo... only there's no snow and only one dog in the picture). In terms of consistent pacing, it was a lousy ride, but we got it done and I only came close to falling off once. There are numerous portapotties down by the river (for the rafters, who lunch there) and I live in dread of someone popping out of one as we draw level with it. Well, today it happened - I heard the click of the latch and out sprung a lady. To give him credit, Roo only jumped slightly and I was well pleased with him. ...well pleased, that was, until we trotted past the next batch of portapotties and he did a massive spook at one of them for no reason, leaving me dangling sideways off the saddle, leg hooked around my pommel bag (who knew how handy they'd be for staying on the horse?). I was wearing my new !BLUE! (safety on the trail) lycra tights and I'm pleased to report that, no, they aren't that slippery. :)

This is the hill I used when crupper training Roo to make sure it was going to work. We came down the right hand side. He never even seemed to notice...

Monday 5 March
Smooshing in Rides

I had a moment of "ack" on Saturday when I thought "hey, if I'm scheduled to try NASTR 75 and VC 100, why am I not doing Square Nail 50 for the Triple Crown?" and consulted the schedule.

The reason is, because I can't do Square Nail and High Desert I... and I have to do High Desert I, so's I can do High Desert II and III in October and get the pinky-n-perky blankie like what DnD are going to get, so we can all be sisters together.

So then I wondered if I could smoosh Square Nail in as well and decided that I'm already pushing my luck with all the rides I think I'm going to do (where in reality I'll only manage about 30% of them), and I'm much more likely to be able to finish three days of [reasonably easy] High Desert 50 rides than I am to finish Square Nail, NASTR 75 and VC 100 [where I'd be lucky to manage the 50, let alone the other two] :)))

I managed to ride Roo 23 miles this weekend - 8 on Saturday, 15 on Sunday. Today I am walking like a crunchy thing and can't get my legs to go to-n-fro. Yoga this morning was most amusing with me spending most of the session lying on the floor grizzling. Some of this might be due to trying to avoid falling off by hanging onto the saddle with my ankles.

Roo's legs were a little filled on Sunday morning, after Saturday's ride, but felt fine at the end of Sunday's ride. This morning they are filled again. :( This could be because he's ankle deep in mud at home, which doesn't really encourage scuttling about to get the fluids moving. I'll check him this evening and see how he feels.

Tuesday 6 March
Powerlines

As I was slithering down the powerlines trail late this afternoon with Roo in tow, it occurred to me that maybe I was feeling crunchy because I'd run half a mile down off the ridge at Cronin on Sunday. I haven't run since... er... maybe last May? Half a mile isn't far, but when you haven't done it in a while, your quads will alert you to their displeasure.

That's the first time I've GPSed the powerlines and I'm pleased to report that it is 450' up in 0.5 miles. Coo. We should do this more often.  Tevis 2008 here we come.

Having whined about Roo's lack of power feeling on uphills, he put me to shame going up that stupid hill - he was willing to try and trot it, which I suggested was a bad idea, so he power-walked it instead. And then insisted on speed-trotting 8 mph up Becky's Hill (a short but steep 120' up in 1/4 of a mile). He was definitely on form (even if it was mostly because we were heading home). It was a good fun 5.5 miles, which I finished off by doing a cooling walk back from Brumarba barn, so he was dry and comfy when we got home.

(Come to think of it, our driveway goes up 100' and is 500' long. Funnily enough, he never wants to trot that).

The top of the powerlines looks down on Greenwood Rd far below and as we started down I was musing on the idea that if pft happened to be coming home, he could look up and see us on the trail... and about half-way down that's exactly what happened :)   He waited for us at the bottom and took a photo of us, with me in my new tights (trying them out to see how they worked - luckily Roo didn't spook at anything, because these ones are a bit slippery, but feel really nice). You can see the miata in the background.

I also switched to using the blue rope reins which have a nicer feel to them than the (crunchy, stiff) black ones. Maybe washing them would make a difference? Either way, we're definitely ramping up to get ready for Rides of March - I also ordered a new 20" girth from On The Buckle in Shingle Springs. They don't carry the Thorowgood ones any more, so I'm going to have to go with a Wintec one with stretchy in the middle. Not sure about it, but being on the top holes with the 24" girth makes me nervous. Skito Tom emailed me to say our new pad is due to ship on 12th, so it's going to be tight, but should be here before the ride. Given the different inserts, it's going to be thinner than the other pads, so a short girth is going to be a must <gulp>.

Since Roo's been studiously avoiding me if I go near him with a halter, I've been ramping up the food bribes. Today it was a handful of carrots: "kiss kiss - first pony in the barn gets a carrot!" and within seconds I'd caught myself three ponies... none of them were the one I wanted, but we did some carrot stretches anyway, Provo and Jack shut in one stall, Zini in the other. Finally Rupert ambles up looking slightly shifty. I lure him into the stall with Zini and work on carrot stretches. Either he's not very bendy or he can't be bothered, as he really doesn't try too hard. I got his blankie off and then went to the next door stall to scoop the poop and release Provo and Jack before taking Roo up to the trailer to tack up. Provo promptly walked over to the other stall gate, opened it and let the nekkid Roo out, who scuttled off, quick as can be, heading towards a mud pile to roll in and causing me to have to tramp through the mud in my sneakers to fetch him. <grrr> I could throttle Provo sometimes for being so blimin' clever.

Today it was nearly 70 degrees and I wore shorts. Remember that it was snowing not a week ago. Too weird.

Wednesday 7 March
Anacondas

In South America they have 20' long anacondas that eat entire cows. Here we have racin' snakes. I saw  this guy in the barn his evening and thought he was a worm that needed to be rescued before the chickens get up in the morning.

(nice winter fingers, Luce).

The Iditarod is going on, so I'm fully immersed in watching that right now.

Did carrot stretches with the pones this evening (in a continued effort to get them to come a'runnin' when called). Roo still isn't keen on the concept, although he did try. Jackit, OTOH, has learned to literally double himself to get that carrot. Shame he ruined it by whacking me in the head when Zini sniped at him.

Thursday 8 March
Getting Ready for RoM

I finally got my entry to Rides of March sent today - had it all filled out and ready to go yesterday, only to find I had no stamps. <grrr> So we dropped by the post office in Greenwood on our way to work this morning and off it went.

Tomorrow we get our Coggins done, and I have to phone Skito Tom about my new pad - there was a message when I got home saying it was ready to ship, but that they didn't have the correct credit card #. Ack. I hope it gets here in time for me to do a quick test drive with it, otherwise I might have to break that golden rule about trying new stuff - can it do more damage than the other pads have already rubbed on his loin?

And tonight I got another email from Dionne saying she has my rump rug. I have no idea *why* she has it (I thought it was in my trailer)... question is, will it be toasty next weekend, or will the wind get up and I'll wish I had it? I might have to try and get it back from her next week.

Last night I filled up my water tanks and wrestled a hay bale into a bag and into the trailer, so I've done the worst of the heavy lifting (heavy coolers notwithstanding) and will try and get the rest done this weekend - which will be a first. But I'm tired of being totally wiped by loading everything the morning I leave and then suffering from back ache the whole way to the ride.

I'm pooped from trying to watch the Iditarod online and not getting enough sleep because of it - and it's really busy at work at the moment <sigh>.

Friday 9 March
Coggins / Riding from Overlook

Roo's WNV shot and Coggins went without incident. Larry Goss asked me if he was "fit" and I said I hoped so, and then Larry went to plunge the syringe into his butt and said "Oh yes, I can feel his muscle tone!". I explained that Roo hadn't really done any hills before coming to live here, so that's what we'd been working on. Evidently it shows. <beam>

Afterwards, we went for a quick 5 mile jaunt from the Tevis finish line to just past the bottom of the Black Hole - 1,100' down and then up. He was pretty unmotivated (after doing so well on Tuesday) so I don't know if he was stiff from Tuesday's steep climb, or just pouty because it was supper-time. Either way, it gives me something to fret paranoidly about - did he do too much on Tuesday? is he too tight in the back, etc...? Although when I think about it, 1,100' of climbing in that short a ride is pretty good going, so I'll shut up now.

I tried to practise the "trot where you can, no matter how short a distance" concept advocated by Becky Hart at the AERC Convention, asking Roo to trot 20' at a time between blobs of rocky footing. Hopefully, if we do this enough times, he'll just get into the habit of doing it so that when we're coming in on Tevis after riding for 23 hours, he'll still do it automatically (OK, I admit, I am a poor, sad, obsessed person).

The forecast is 70°F for RoM next weekend. Hmmm.

I might do that (although, I have zero clipping experience, so would probably slice open his jugular, or something). He's just a little hairy on the underside of his neck, so I'd just clip that part if I did it. Have to see what it feels like up there on Friday. With my new regime of packing the trailer early (which, of course, will automatically translate to being ready to leave VCs on time and never dawdling where I shouldn't <grin>) I will try and get up there as early as possible (not natural - I usually can't manage to leave before 2 pm).

Saturday 10 March
New Pad, new cinch, new stretches

	My new Skito pad arrived!! (that was quick). Now I have to ride Roo tomorrow to try it out. It's not nearly as thin as I thought it'd be, but equally not as bulky as the other pads. It has half-inch equalizer foam, with a half-inch laminated strip along either side of the spine, and then quarter-inch felt underneath it all. I'm not sure how much it's going to solve the rubbing problem (although it does feel airier back behind the saddle) but it is jolly spiffy and actually fits the shape of the saddle. I like the way it's so peaked over the withers, since I've been having some problems with the pad getting off-center and thereby making the saddle go off-center. I think the peaked-ness will help it stay in the center as I put the saddle on. I also bought a 20" girth (a Wintec one with stretchy elastic in the center). Got it home and discovered that it's about 8" shorter than the 24" one, so something's not right there. It's not going to work at all, since it puts the buckle right in his armpit where he already rubs. I might save it for Jackit, or take it back (the store is ordering me a Tipperary helmet and some curb hooks, so I could exchange it). So I ended up punching some extra holes in my billets (I'm less concerned now I see that the new pad isn't as thin as I thought it might be). The store did have a nice book on stretching exercises, so I came home with that and practised on Roo this afternoon. He's not entirely convinced, but was OK with it. It has both "active" (riding) and "passive" (pulling the pone's arms and legs around) exercises.

And what with going to NV n' all, I rigged up a yellow plastic scoop for the saddle - let Roo eat munchies out of it first ("the scoop is your friend") and then hooked it on his saddle. He was a bit leery of it, but didn't totally freak out. I trotted him up and down in-hand and he did some nice shoulder-ins trying to eye the bouncing scoop while trotting. I'm not sure if I'll use it or not - we'll see how he is tomorrow with it.

Trotting out, he looks really good (and I can see how his pad/loin interact to rub - I was thinking it was more side- to- side, but it might be more front-to-back as his loin and saddle area sort of hinge there (hard to explain).)

Sunday 11 March
Jack's First Ponying Lesson

Today I wasn't supposed to ride Roo, but I wanted to try out the new pad, the new scoop, and a new rearrangement of my sheepskin cover (needed because my stirrups are now shorter and therefore no longer holding the sheepskin tight, so it was rucking up under my calves), so I had to take him for a quick jaunt.

And since we had to do that quick jaunt, we might as well take Jack out for his first ponying lesson around home. He wasn't bad, although not terribly cooperative at times - nipping at me, nipping at Roo, eating Roo's reins, eating his lead rope and chewing on my saddle. Think he might be going through a mouthy stage? :)  He also had one leapy-jumpy attempt which made me realise I should probably wear gloves when doing this with him, as otherwise I'm going to get some good rope burns - boy can he move fast.

When we got out into the real world I think I'll leave Chili at home the first few times, as he was a bit jumpy when she ran up behind us. He'll get used to it soon enough (everyone else has to), but it'll be easier if I don't have to deal with him leaping ahead when he gets startled.

Here's a gallery of Jack demonstrating his ponying skills.

After the short lesson, Roo and I went and did a couple of miles along the lane. I put the scoop on his breast collar to start with, so he would be able to see it easily and he did gawp at it for a bit, but once he stopped taking any notice, I held it down behind my leg while trotting, bonking it on his sides, before clipping it to the back ring on my saddle - by which time he didn't care any more.

The pad feels fine and the sheepskin is sorted. Other chores completed:

• put shavings down in the trailer
• washed the spare pads and reins
• finished putting feed, buckets and blankies in the trailer
• mending the lining on Roo's blankie

Still to do:

• wash a couple of fleece coolers and a halter
• mend some stitching on Roo's splint boots
• buy baby powder and a flat of drinking water bottles
• wash some elyte syringes
• give Roo a bath on Tuesday...

otherwise, we're ready to go.

His loin area seemed sore while I was washing him, which gave me palpitations, but once he was dry it went away. Perhaps that's the definition of "cold backed" since I only had cold water to wash him with and he wasn't very impressed <g>.  I also wonder if the skin had gotten a little bit sunburned since I unblanketed him this week to let him "breathe" and it has been so nice?).

I put so many "potions" on him, he'll probably get a chemical burn: greeny shampoo to try and get his tail white-ish; purple shampoo when the greeny stuff didn't work; "Avocado Mist" de-tangler; ShowSheen on his rubs; "Wow" [get rid of green brass stains] tea-tree cleaner; and finally before blanketing him again, Repel-X to try and prevent him getting any more tick bites (he's covered in them, poor guy).

Whoo! pft came home with this stashed in the miata boot this evening - a 50 lb bag of horse carrots - only $10! I predict carrot stretches in the horses' future.

And we dug out pft's gaiters for me to wear in NV on Saturday - without them, riding in running shoes, I'd never get off, since my shoes would just fill up with sand immediately.

Friday - Sunday 16-18 March
Rides of March 50

See Rides of March for the full ride story. 
See also Photo Gallery of the ride, including photos taken during the drive over to Reno.

Going to the ride was the first time I got to try out my new heater. The first night I just had it on while I was awake and turned it off during night, and got a little cool at night. The next night I left it on low all night. Mind you, it seems like I had all the windows open for fear of asphyxiation, so it never warmed up *that* much. 

That said, in the morning, there was frost on my crewbox that was left outside - while it was 50 degrees inside the trailer, so it did do the job. They say in the instructions that it's "radiant heat". I installed it on the diagonal wall to keep it out of the way, and it predictably radiated heat out towards the wall, not into the main part of the housie, so I may have to relocate it next to the mirror. Trouble is, I'm not sure if it didn't get super-warm in there because it was radiating in the wrong direction, or because I had all the windows open. :)) I need to get a CO₂ alarm so I can close some of the windows without worrying about dying in the night and then try it again.

Monday 19 March
Leg Filling?

After the 2.5 hour trip, Roo's legs felt really good when I unwrapped them when we got home around noon on Sunday. But when I checked him at 11 pm last night, I could feel some puffiness in his left leg at the bottom of his tendons. At the time, I just pretended to myself that I couldn't 'really feel it, you're just imagining things...'

He wasn't exactly running around once we got home - mostly standing and stuffing yet more hay into his mouth. :) (I think he looked fatter when we got home), so I left all four pones in together this morning, so that they'll run around more (even if it is because Provo's lunging at him with bared teeth).

If it was both front legs, I wouldn't be too concerned, but his right leg is fine and feels good and tight, while the left one (the one I tend to post on <sigh>) is puffy. It's not super-bad, but given my past experiences with tendon injuries, I'm completely paranoid about it.

It was still there this morning, so I tried to get him to run around to see if he looked lame, but 

a) he wanted to eat his breakfast and 
b) the paddock is so uneven I wouldn't have been able to tell anyway. 

He doesn't seem sore on it and there's no appreciable warmth (other than what my own paranoia suggested was there), but I put ice boots on him and will see how it looks this evening when we get home.

In the meantime, I'm going back on my anti-depressants "just in case" (I'll cope better with any trouble if medicated ).

Tuesday 20 March
Wild Blue!

The new Wild Blue satellite (“Wild Blue 1”) is due to come online during the last week of March/first week of April (allegedly - we'll believe it when it happens), so in preparation for this momentous event the men from "Black Sheep" - the local satellite dish installer - came round today and put $400-worth of [currently] useless hardware on the roof. We now have a satellite modem, complete with flickery lights, and a dish - all ready to go.

Yesterday we installed our new wireless router (like I even knew what one of those was) and pft ordered himself a laptop. His current old computer sounds like it's taking off every so often, and the screen has a habit of spontaneously restarting itself at regular intervals, so it's time.

So not only did we get a DVD player this winter, we're now poised to join millions of other high speed internet users. Sorta.

Leg-Filling-B-Gone

Roo's "iffy" leg looked fine last night when we got home (OK, so my paranoid super-powers could detect a minute amount of filling, but nothing a normal person would feel) and this morning they are completely back to normal - cold, hard and tight, so I'm very happy.

Sunday 25 March
Spring Cleaning

Roomba n' me spent the day spring cleaning. I hate spring cleaning, but my office/Chili's room had gotten so bad I didn't even want to go in there any more, which is a sure sign that things have gotten out of hand. Roomba worked so hard that I had to empty him four times and the last time I looked, the brushes had been *ripped* off his little blue arms underneath <aghast>, so he can't reach into corners and whisk out fluff any more. 

I'll have to get him some replacement arms.  (Background: Roomba's Arrival)

In the meantime, I tried to use the upright vacuum - you know, the one you have to push and pull? <ack> It felt really heavy (and I was thinking "blinkin', I know I haven't vacuumed in a while, but I don't remember it being this hard") and it was doing a lousy job - so I turned it over and realised that the belt had broken, so the thingy wasn't spinning. The belt was broken because it had perished from lack of use. Hmmm.

Also cleaned the bedroom windows. Do other people's windows have a fine coating of mud on them? Why don't I have better fairies?

Rally Driving

The other "good deed" I did this weekend was mowing the bottom of the property. The grass has started to come in with avengence and I wanted to get a jump on it. I probably mowed about two acres on the riding tractor and had large amounts of fun murdering the poison oak that was just starting to come up. Hah. I've gotten much better at driving that thing, which has a definite technique to it when mowing hills and loose footing. Of course, now I've also got slightly itchy dots all over my arms and legs - poison oak revenge, no doubt.

pft Riding pft hasn't ridden since Zini went lame in the summer. We lunged her again yesterday and she's still lame (although on the third different leg since the summer). She ran around totally sound for a bit, before remembering she's supposed to be gimpy, so started hopping along. The chiro is due next Saturday to see if she can figure anything out. Anyway, Roo's "on break" until next weekend, but he's allowed to go out for putzes, so pft and I went out for a putz around home late this afternoon for a couple of miles. pft said Roo felt like he didn't have great brakes (this was as they took off through the bushes out back), but he's very responsive to legs and is really easy to move around. He was a good boy and didn't show off any of his evasive manoeuvers.
Think it's time for Provo to get a bath? Here we view the different versions of "white". Being modelled here are: "white with a hint of peach" and "white with a hint of blue"... This is the first time Provo has been out since Roo's arrival in September - and didn't we notice as he demonstrated how he can canter at walking pace, and I even got to do an impersonation of that woman on the front of Angie's book when he leapt up the ditch behind the house. All things considered, he wasn't too bad, so hopefully we'll get to repeat the exercise again in the near future. That said, although he can be the most fun horse to ride, I'd forgotten how much hard work he is <grin>.

Wednesday 28 March

Roomba Wear-n-Tear - not only are Roomba's arms broken, this morning he stopped working because the brush guard (thingy that holds the brushes in place) had worn through completely and one of the wires had broken and was digging into the carpet. Ack. I got online with iRobot and they are sending me a new side-brush and brush guard right away. In the meantime, I may just cut off the broken wire and run him without it... it's got three other wires to hold the brushes in. It's only when something breaks you realise you can't live without it.

Runnin' - finally, running for 2007 commenced last night with a flourish - one mile completed at 6 mph - and today my quads feel it, which is a little sad. Good that I started with such a short distance, eh? The last part of the run went over No-Hands Bridge, so I got to inspect the bottom part of the trail that they recently renovated.

I hate it. Gone is the twisty, lumpy, climb-over-rocks singletrack. Now it's smooth, wide, and slants towards the drop-off where it used to have a comforting berm to keep you from falling over the edge. I guess it'll wear in with time, but it seems so... sanitary? now.

Pones - to round off the morning's activities, I watched Roo double-barrel Zini so hard she stood on three legs for a minute or so. Couldn't find any obvious damage, but as pft says, the chiro lady will come on Saturday and say "Well, I can fix her gimpy left front, but can't do much about her being lame on the left rear". <grrr>

The problem seems to be that the hay which is usually 80-20 grass/alfalfa seems to be 10-90 grass/alf this time around, turning the pones into feeding-frenzy sharks in an effort to make sure they get the mostest. Maybe splitting them into two pairs is a good idea until this batch of hay is finished.

This morning I sent off my entries to High Desert I and Washoe Valley I & II. Roo has to complete HD completely clean (no weirdy filling, no strange eating habits, etc) for us to be allowed to go to WV three weeks later.

Friday 30 March
Spring is Here! Riding in the Canyon

Spring is here properly - everything is so green and the flowers are popping up everywhere. The periwinkle we planted a few years back when Mumma was here has finally taken off and is flowering like mad, and all the fruit trees are in blossom.

The swimming pool is looking a tad neglect. <sigh> 

Ann and I took Provo and Roo down the canyon and back up again six miles via Potato's place this evening. It was so pretty out - warm enough to ride in t-shirts. Provo was as good as gold and walked out nicely and led the entire way. He was pretty tired half-way up Dead Truck hill, so we stopped to let him breathe and when he showed no signs of starting up again, Ann led him the rest of the way up the hill. He was so tired, he then had to canter the next stretch. Woo-hoo.

Saw some newts in the creek.

I rode Roo with the shoulder shims in the pad and the saddle felt a lot better and I was tipping forwards much less. Forgot to put his crupper on, but the saddle stayed put anyway. The seat now has a crease in it under my butt from not being used to bending that way.

Saturday 31 March
Chiro on Zini and Roo

Dawn Ellsworth DMV came over this afternoon to chiro Zini and Roo and hopefully see if she could shed any light on Zini's mysterious lameness.

She arrived a little early while I was still finishing off Zini's bath and mane ShowSheen. Zini wasn't totally clean, but certainly much more pleasant to handle than the green-stained thing she had been. Dawn went all over her, found a good spot on her back that resulted in a curly top lip, but otherwise didn't find anything obvious - she has good range of motion in her front leg and doesn't have any weird tightness or soreness. She's still lame, but it looks like we've ruled out any shoulder problems. Watching her trot, Dawn wondered if it more something in the front of her foot - coffin bone-like, since she seems reluctant to put the foot down. So I guess I take her over the mountains to see Dr Gardner, unless he's coming over this way sometime soon.

While she was working on Zini, Roo and Jack did gallop-bys in the paddock. Finally pft came down so I got him to rinse Roo off and turn him out in the orchard while waiting for his turn. Jack was very sad... no-one to play with.

Roo was a bit more cooperative than Zini (who no doubt thought Dawn was going to stick pins in her). She found he was sore in the loin area and on the right side of his pelvis, so loosened those areas up. She said that this would explain his reluctance to go uphill. She also said that it's easier for them to trot downhill than walk down, since walking requires more swing to the hips (he didn't want to walk down any more hills at Lake Sonoma back in October). His loin tightness would also explain why he tends to rest his back feet a lot. Hopefully he'll be more comfortable now.

She said she doesn't like to do horses more than every three months or so, and if she came back in three months and he was fine, it wouldn't be worth doing more than once or twice a year or so. So I might have her come back out and take another look at him right before NASTR at the end of June, just to make sure he's stayed loose.

Just before she left, she did a little bit on Chili, who was looking a bit stiff after yesterday. Again, a little bit of stiffness in the back and pelvis.

So now everyone's loosened up, we can go and ruin it tomorrow by riding from Foresthill to Deadwood and back. I think I'll walk the downhills with Roo, to give him a chance to use his new muscles without overdoing it.