February 2008

Friday 15 February
Riding Uno Again

Well, as it turned out, I did manage to get out later this afternoon - luckily there were no "re-dos" of the work that I had to get done, so I was done by 3:30. Yay!

Uno and I did a nice 6 miles at Cool, had a good time, and he was a good boy and didn't have any excitable moments <g>.

Saturday 16 February
Zinnet Gets a Go

Leslie and I did an easy six miles at Cool this afternooon - that's the first time Zini's been ridden since early November (I looked it up); and before that she'd done 5 miles in early October when Hopi first arrived; and 3 miles in early August. So she's not exactly being over-used at the moment :)

Since she's barefoot, I put her in two size 1 Epics on the front and she was sound the whole way - until we trotted a short stretch on the intersecting road to the Coffer Dam and then she was her standard gimpy lame... and then we turned back onto a dirt trail and she was totally sound again. So that was very inconclusive. Not sound enough for endurance, but needs to be ridden to get the arthritis in the knee to fuse, so pft might as well ride her while I'm turning Uno into a brave horse ("ta da, you're a brave horse!")(<snort>)

I think I'm going to buy Zini some comfort pads to go in the bottoms of her EZ boots (she's not going to get shod, that's for sure). I might have to buy her some Epics for the back as well because she kept disappearing up the side of the track to try and walk on the grass. I'm guessing she'll need a pair of 0s.

Zini munching her way through a bag of oat hay after our ride.
She's marginally less colourful than Uno (see pic from Tuesday 12th)
because she doesn't roll like him. Oh, and the paddock she's in
has had "improved soil" (i.e. it's got more old manure mixed in
with the red dirt from over the years' and so its more diluted
than in the paddock that Uno's in).

She was so grungy by the time we got back that the crud had oozed through the holes in my billet straps (euwww). She is also shedding liberally which is always fun.

See her booties that didn't rub (had to remove all the bobbles of mud off her fetlocks before putting the boots on).

Sunday 17 February
Lesson With Hopi

Here's ten minutes of Hopi and my lesson from this afternoon (Ann, Charlotte and Leslie heckling in the background):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-b_mHHXB4w

Notice at the very start when I'm trying to get on - normally I signal to Hopi to move over to me by flicking at his far
shoulder with my rommel - only the reins I was using didn't have a rommel on them, so I had to use the trailing end of the strap off my pommel bag - all of about three inches long, but Hopi's so well trained it worked! (amazement).

Ann took the video with her new apparatus - nice job!

Tuesday 19 February
Lesson with Hopi, Trail Ride with Uno

Hopi Lesson:

My lesson today with Hopi went well. The funnest thing was convincing my body that in order to get Hopi over to the rail to the right, I needed to use my inside/left leg, not my right rein. Determined not to use my rein, I froze my hand, so (without my say so) my body instead tried tightening my elbow to get the same effect. Sometimes you feel like you have to tie those rogue limbs up and half the time I think I'd do better to ride without reins, since I seem to want to do the wrong thing with them.

My right leg's tendency to try and apply pressure at every opportunity - regardless as to whether it helps or not - is starting to fade away more. It's still definitely dominant and I can feel in the lessons that the left leg is much less clever than the right one.

Also fun was something I'd never quite appreciated before: horses are narrower in front than behind, so when walking along the rail, their hind-quarters tend to drift inwards, so you have to actively move them over to get them completely parallel to the fence.

What's *so*cool about the stuff she's teaching us - when we get it right, we're rewarded by the horse doing *exactly* what he's supposed to. Often it's very fleeting, but hopefully we'll get better and better (I say hopefully - I have a hard time riding as well when out on the trail, and certainly haven't figured out how to isolate various muscles so they aren't being used needlessly - like my lower back. f'instance... although my lower back pain could be from working so hard with Hopi using my [imaginary] abs.

Uno Trail Ride:

After our two lessons, Leslie and I took Eagle and Uno down Canyon Creek. It was cold down there and I was glad of my gloves (compare to Sunday when I was riding in a t-shirt).

Had fun, didn't get lost, although we couldn't get on the trail we were aiming for because of a locked gate, so we went exploring. Uno did a couple of interesting maneuvers, including one where he leapt unexpectedly down a 10' bank to a paved road because he thought the fence was attacking him - thank goodness he's barefoot or he would have done the splits when we hit the road.

For a split second before we went over the edge, I really wasn't sure *what* he was going to do and wondered if we were going to go over backwards, but then he re-engaged his brain and just went straight down the bank. I didn't do much except to just sit there and go with it. Once we got to the bottom and were both still upright, it seemed a lot less traumatic than I was expecting.

We went about 10 miles, plus the hour lesson with Hopi first thing, so afterwards I was quite tired and stiff.

I have to go back over to Ann's to mend the fence - Hopi was so frantic with relief that Uno had returned when we got back from our ride that he tried to fit through the gap between tree and rail that wasn't big enough for fat horses. Fancy putting the fence right next to the tree in such a way that it just *lures* a fat horse into thinking he can squeeze through the space?

Oh, and Uno nearly leapt and landed on me just as he was getting out of the trailer at home - Chili rustled in the undergrowth and he caught it through the window behind him and *leapt* out where I was standing (blithely expecting him to climb out like a normal horse).

He can definitely be "quite exciting" to be around at times. :)

He's just a little over-reactive - I mean, wouldn't it have been more reasonable if he could have just jumped slightly and stopped and gawked, instead of taking such evasive action?

True to prediction, the rain arrived this evening and it's currently pouring out there. I moved Mouse into her very own shelter/paddock, so she gets to eat-eat-eat and stay dry. I'll have to go and check in a second, because I bet poor Uno is being made to stand in the rain by bully Hopi, so I might have to blanket him.

...Nope, I just checked - Hopi and Uno are squashed together in the 6' x 12' shelter, Mouse was snug and warm in her 12' x 12' shelter, and Provo and Jackit were in the barn, each in a 12' x 12' stall with a 6' overhang.

Roo and Zini, OTOH, chose to stand out in the rain instead of in the barn. At least they'll be nice and clean in the morning.

Saturday/Sunday 23/24 February
Lots of Rain, Lots of Work

Had to work all weekend - but luckily it is still pouring with rain, so I didn't have any reason not to. Watched the
pones out the window and even greedy Hopi decided breakfast just wasn't worth it and went and stood under the shelter while a bad bit passed through.

We dashed to get hay Saturday morning during a rain window - had to go to Singing Springs which wasn't my first choice, price-wise, but we didn't have time to go down to Penryn.

Current hay prices:

I decided to blanket both Uno and Hopi this afternoon. I got the blankie on Uno with no trouble at all, but had to chase Hopi around the paddock a bit before I managed to buckle the blankie on around his neck. Then it all became too much and he had to run off again, showering my hair with wet mud. Thankfully the blankie stayed on despite him doing a lap of the paddock and I was able to get the rest of the buckles done up.

What was interesting, was that even though he was scareded because of the unfamiliar rustling blankie (that's only the second time I've blanketed him) and the banging straps, it only took one lap before he stopped running from it. As I told pft, if you ever rides him, keep that in mind - that if he gets scared, it'll be very short-lived and he won't go too far.

And I sent my entry in to Rides of March. I'm planning on taking Hopi along to practice camping - ride manager, Tami, said it was perfect for that, since all the loops come back to camp and her mares will also be there.

I looked at the calendar and the current plan for Roo is to try:

• at least a hand-walk on Tuesday 26th night
• 5 miles on Sunday 2nd when I get back from the Convention
• 7 miles on Tuesday 4th
• 15-20 miles on Friday or Saturday or Sunday 7/8/9th (just to make sure his legs are still properly attached)

Tuesday 26 February
Citizenship Interview

It was a little angst-ridden - trying to get to the building with no parking nearby and having to make sure I didn't take my cell-phone along or be denied entry (so how am I going to call pft to ask to be picked up?), but I didn't have to wait long (compared to when I first applied for my green card and had to spend literally two days at the INS office) - in fact although there were about 20 people waiting, I was the second person to be called in, ten minutes *before* my interview.

The guy who interviewed me had a strong asian accent, which was a bit worrying (I was scared I'd misunderstand something he said and answer wrong), but it all worked out OK. He was actually more empathetic than I expected (not like previous INS staff I've dealt with who treat you like a bug to be tolerated).

I had to write my name on various pieces of paper, re-answer all the questions on the application (am I a terrorist? have I ever been a member of the communist party? have I ever smuggled drugs?) and then write the sentence:

"We live together in a big house."

Then answer the tricky civics questions:

• "How many senators are there?"
• "What is the Constitution?"
• " Who is the Vice-President?"

etc...I think they are supposed to ask you ten questions, and you can get three wrong, but he got bored after seven and didn't bother with the rest.

He said that he has to review my case one more time, but didn't see any problems with it and that I should get another letter in a few weeks telling me to appear to pledge the oath. The next "pledging" is on March 26th. He said expect to wait around for 3-4 hours while they process all 2000 people who will also be pledging that day (bring a book he suggested),

...and that will be that.

<phew>

Thursday 28 February
Hay Shuffling

It has been a crazy week. We dashed out Saturday in between the rain and got 10 x 3-grain and 10 x beardless-wheat from Singing Springs. I was feeding the 3-grain this week, but it's all mildewy and the pones won't eat it (unsurprisingly), so last night when we got back from woodwork/welding around 9:30, we loaded up 7 bales and I'm going to call later and take them back and swap them for the beardless wheat, which is nice hay.

The weather has turned glorious - nearly up to 70 today.