May 2008

Sunday 4 May
Barefoot Rasping

Since Fergus came to us barefoot (never ever been shod) and has nice rock hard barefoot feet...

- and since pft is supposed to be continuing to rasp him...

- and since Farrier Ted charges $35 each time he trims one of the 7 barefooted horses - even the ones that are standing around doing absolutely nothing... (I alternate them on a 5 week schedule, so each group gets done each time Roo is shod. Trouble is, that means they are waiting 10 weeks in between, which is too long really)...

I kind of volunteered pft and me to try and start rasping their feet ourselves. With the two of us, it doesn't seem so daunting.

Saturday we started with Hopi since he stands relatively still and his feet are currently at six weeks and quite long and chipped.

pft rasped off all the long, sticky-out hoof (which is what takes the main strength - I poop out long before I make any noticeable progress), and then between the two of us, we rasped a bit here and a bit there to balance it all up.

We managed to get Hopi's front feet reasonable looking, but were wiped out by the time we got to the backs, so I just rasped off the worst of the chips and he'll get finished off later this week.

Seeing as we're rasping, we're not taking large amounts of foot off, so presumably can't do too much damage. And we're leaning on the conservative side - not taking too much off at this point. 

Then Sunday I decided to get Jackit out for some refresher ground training and decided to work a bit on his feet as well. It's like trying to trim a squirming 400 lb toddler. I resorted to clicker training and that helped a great deal - focused his attention better and persuaded him to give me his foot, rather than insisting that he couldn't possibly stand on three legs. It feels like it's taking longer, because you have to stop every 30 seconds-1 minute, to click and treat, but it's much easier to deal with when you're underneath him since he stands still and doesn't wriggle so much.

The fact that he's only 2' tall means you have to bend way over because his foot just doesn't come up that high, and the foot is so small and there's so little room to work in his armpit, it's actually hard to do.

So I was quite proud of my results. Again, I didn't get to the backs, but the fronts look pretty good if I do say so myself. As with Hopi, his heels still need to come down a bit, but at least what's there is balanced. 

pft got the Pete Ramey book, which is good, and from reading that and knowing what I'm looking at to some extent, at this point we sorta know what we're doing and like I say, erring on the side of caution.

Actually doing it, of course, is hard work. :))

In theory, if we do it more often, it'll be no more traumatic than picking out their feet, since all we have to do is touch up here and there. But if you leave them six weeks... gah...

It's like starting to ride long-distances again. Today my quads are aching, as are my hands. :) Phew, this is hard work. Talk about making you sweat.

Tuesday 6 May
REI - Elyting - More Rasping

pft and I visited REI last night to buy resealable tubes. Of course, you can't go to REI without buying socks as well, so we came home with some of those too. And some rope. You have to buy rope. And a travel alarm clock (the clock in my trailer is the most temperamental thing you ever met). And a snap kit (like a grommet kit, but for snaps). 

And then we window shopped knives and forks in the hope that maybe I'd get some for my birthday (we've been using the Trumbull picnic knives and forks for 14 years now and they are lousy at chiseling out ice cream without snapping in two)..

At home, I filled one of the tubes with applesauce. These are the tubes that have open bottoms that you seal with a clip thing. The idea was that I could fill it full of elyted applesauce and squirt it into Roo's mouth on a regular basis. Unfortunately it didn't work because Roo wasn't that interested in applesauce, unlike Uno. Uno thought it was most excellent to the point where he nearly bit the end of the tube, but not Roo. Uno spent a lot of time licking applesauce off my hands, but not Roo. Roo was too reserved for that kind of behaviour. So evidently that approach isn't going to work with him. Back to the drawing board.

I finished off Hopi's feet this evening. First we had to spend time doing clicker training. Despite the fact that Hopi's been here over six months, he's still convinced I'm going to beat him with any implement I happen to have in my hand (this evening - the shedding blade). So we did the "touch the target [shedding blade] and get a click-treat" game. He did finally figure it out, but remains suspicious. My guess is that I need to spend five minutes with him every day, clickering and convincing him that we're just doing "stuff", not intent on "beating Hopi".

I started a "rasping diary" because I seem to be writing quite a lot about it and taking lots of photos right now.

Saturday 10 May
Creak

Had a nice day yesterday - Gary and Laura Fend and Brenda Benkly came to do the Tevis Fun Ride. With our Patriot 100 entry in the mail for next Saturday <gulp>, I didn't want Roo doing too much but thought that the Foresthill to Michigan Bluff and back stretch would be a good  workout, so we drove over in the afternoon and joined them.

Roo was a bit slug-like on the way out, but perked up considerably on the way home. When we got back I trotted him out for them and they pronounced him sound (particularly as he was leaping along during our "trot out"). He's still resting that left rear a lot, though <angst for next weekend>. I've been giving butt massages all week, but was foolishly concentrating on the right side, since I found a "divot" in the muscle on that side. But today finally realised (stupid) that the left side needs the work more. He felt a little tight in the hamstrings from yesterday's climbing.

Chili came too, so we took it really easy (it was quite warm). I was worried it would be too much for her, but she was still frolicking at the rolling horses when we got back and there were lots of dogs back in camp for her to play with. And best of all, she wasn't that creaky today...

This morning I spent two hours wrestling Jack, tempers flared, but his feet are finally more or less where I want them. I think Ted might have to do Uno on Tuesday, despite me saying I wanted to do him - I'm super-creaky now...

When I was finished with Jack, being a sucker for punishment, I spent ten minutes investigating the inside of Hopi's mouth to see if I could find any sharp teeth. I did find some [what I think are] wolf teeth, so maybe that's the problem? (he was throwing his head around sometimes and Jeannette wondered if he needed his teeth floating). 

I also got my finger bitten for my troubles. I think the trick is to feel the teeth on the same side as you're pulling the tongue out. My finger is a strange colour and I'm wondering if I'll lose the nail, since it feels all weird.

Ann bought me some moth traps - they are cardboard teepees with a blob of moth-pheromone inside, coated in sticky stuff and. The moths come flocking to see and promptly get stuck. Hah. I caught four moths within the first  minute (I opened the pantry door and out flew a hoard of moths - we have a problem). I think the traps are going to get filled up really fast - I'm up to 20 moths this evening.

We gathered up some "e-waste" to take to Greenwood - a TV set (has been living on the back deck for seven years), two computer monitors, four old dead computers, two laser printers and the old microwave! Yay.

Last night I thought I'd blown a fuse in my trailer - all the "domestic" lights went out right as I was loading Roo up, but at least the running lights were still OK. Then this afternoon I think I blew a fuse in the lawn mower, as it suddenly stopped working while I was mowing. Perhaps I have a magnetic or kinetic personality? Next I'll be setting fire to people and making pencils move without touching them. It's an annoying skill to have, though, as I don't know where any of the fuses are to replace them.

Huh. As it turned out, no fuse to be found in the trailer, but pft did find a loose wire. And when I went back to the lawn mower later, it started fine. So whatever that was all about has passed.

My finger hurts.

Sunday 11 May

Light Switch Cover - After our experiences with Shrimp on the Spring Tie turning the lights on and off, and after having the lights stop working, I decided it was time to Sort It Out. I press-ganged pft into doing so and took a trip to the hardware store to see what stuff they had that we could use. The result is a very spiffy new light switch cover that I'm heartily impressed by.

At the hardware store, I also bought some lodge poles with which to make a tie rail on the front drive. pft dug the post holes while I was gone at Buck Meadows and the sooner we cement posts into the holes the better (I know in the back of my mind that a horse will get loose and put its foot in the hole and break its leg... guaranteed).

Edema - Predictably, Roo has a lovely edema on his belly - presumably from a tick bite. I'm not looking at it, with only a week to go before Patriot 100. La la la... you can't tell me about it and I'm sticking my fingers in my eyes so I can't see it either.

Rasping Uno - He's a good boy and stood nicely. His soles are flat

Packed trailer - I was a good girl and got all my packing done. The trailer looks like we're going for a week. Does Roo really need two and half bales of hay to be gone for three days? Of course he does! And he needs 15 lbs of LMF-Gold and 8 lbs of LMF-Super-Supplement (which you're only supposed to feed at a rate of 1 lb a day... I'm sure he needs that much...)

Surprise Hay - I was opening a bale of 3-grain the other day and it seems like it was straight rye... and really nice rye at that! Usually if you open a bale and you get something unexpected in it, it's something bad like dead snakes or straight crunchy alf. But this was "pay $12.50 for a bale of something that costs $18.50"... OK. I can do that. I bagged it all up quickly for Roo for the weekend, but some of the other bales have been similar. The pones are in heaven.

Monday 12 May
Last Minute Panics

Crysta and I had a last minute "are we *really* going to do this??" moment, but rallied on Friday morning. I can't say I'm terribly confident that Roo and I will finish, but we'll give it our best shot. I was thinking today, I think Farrier Ted is going, so if I get pulled, you'll still have someone to ride with, since he rides at the back like us. We'll have someone to vie for turtle with. Awk.

The forecast for Sacramento is 100°F on Thursday... Ack! I was mentally trying to figure out how slow we could go during the day, to speed up at night when it cooled off and if we could still finish in time...?

At least the worst of the heat will be on Thursday, so the pones will deal with that and then and be all acclimatised, so Saturday's mid-80s will feel cool, right?

Getting Ready for Patriot:

[ X ]   Double Prozac dose
[ X ]   Admire Roo's new large edema on his belly from a tick bite
[     ]   Wait for the edema to sink into his legs
[     ]   Get Roo reshod Tuesday morning
[     ]   Check that the battery-powered glo-sticks work
[     ]   Get more electrical tape to attach said glo-sticks
[     ]   Sew weights into rump rug
[     ]   Restuff newly-washed pad and put in trailer
[     ]   Fiddle with headlight
[     ]   Practice elyting from the saddle <snort>
[     ]   Practice syringing something yummy in
[     ]   See if he'll eat bits of apple dipped in salt
[     ]   See if he'll eat grain laced with salt
[     ]   See if he'll eat hay spritzed with salty water
[     ]   Buy a spritzer

Tuesday 13 May
Shoeing and Riding Uno

Roo is all shod and ready. Farrier Ted spent ages on him, tapering the fronts of the shoes to give him a faster breakover (he was forging at Buck Meadows) and rounding off the edges of the back of the shoes so he wouldn't catch himself on them. So his feet are all beautiful now.

Uno's ad on Endurance.net expired today, but filled with cheerfulness from a nice ride we had on this evening, I was able to re-write his ad in a more positive light:

Ride - After losing my spiffy new yellow sponge the first time I took it out when Leslie and I rode at Balderston Corrals, we went looking for it by retracing out steps from that day. Sadly, we never found it, but it was a good ride with Uno, Fergus and Ann n' Jess. Nice and mellow, fun trails.

Except for getting a bit squirelly about Jess and Mecca trotting/cantering up behind him (who can blame him), and then being worried about Chili back there (OK, so that's more stupid), he was *perfect* and excellently behaved - very relaxed and comfy to ride. I was very happy (and it is going to get harder to sell him).

It's nice to know I'll have a fun horse to ride when Roo is on his break after completing his 100 <snort>.

Wednesday 14 May
Continued Angst

Saturday 17 May

Patriot 100

Sunday 18 May
Post Ride Highs

Debbie on new100milers List wrote:
So now we have another first 100 miler to add to the study of
"Does completing your first 100 make you yearn for bedtime at 7pm?"

How was that left leg/muscle during the ride?

During the ride, he felt great, although in the last hour or so he started to feel a bit lumpy, but I couldn't tell if it was true lumpiness or lack of impulsion that just made him feel that way. When he did trot with impulsion, he felt fine, but it was hard work riding with Rosalee keeping her going.

At the finish, he looked really lumpy - nothing specific, just not right, but he trotted out "sound" (you know how it is).(I suspect if we'd had to do a "real" check, he might not have been).

But I think he was just getting really stiff. By the time we got him untacked, he hardly wanted to walk at all. We grazed him for a bit and he kept kicking his legs like he was getting colicky (scared the crap out of me), but it was only when we asked him to take a step, so eventually we decided it was just crampy legs, so we hung him off his Spring-Tie and let him settle down. He flopped down and was fine - just tired.

And by the time I woke up, Crysta (bless her) had walked him and Sinatra and he was fine again. Today he's spent the day outside his paddock, wandering the property, eating anything he can find (lots of hay strewn around), and looks very contented.

Thursday 22 May
Sleepy/Cool Burns

I'm not much creaky, but very, very sleepy. Thank goodness pft drives us to work and back, because I'm out cold after about 15 minutes in the car. The adrenaline wore off some time mid-afternoon on Monday and I've been about as useful as a wet noodle ever since. This evening I managed to stay awake for the entire ride home   :) Today was windy and somehow the brush at Cool caught fire. :(  Scary. Luckily, they were able to get it contained to 100 acres but the old oak trees are looking very sad in places:

Sunday 25 May
On 100 Mile Food Intake

Ann:
Lucy is fine, just whining.  If she had, say, three Hundred Mile Horses, 
she could do 100's every weekend. 

Actually, I'd be ecstatic if I had two 50-mile horses.

btw, I do have a 100-mile horse. I do, you know. Out there. In the paddock. a 100-mile horse. Mine.

Henceforth, all sentences shall start:

"Well, when my 100-mile horse does that, I..."
"When my 100-mile horse did such-n-such..."
"My 100-mile horse has that problem...", etc...

(Ann suggests I'll be insufferable. <innocent> I don't know what she means)

I mean it when I say your next 100 will be easier - both on you and on the horse. Nothing has been as hard as my first 100 mentally and physically (although Tevis was - well - different :)).

I don't know. Doing DVE was actually harder - both on body and mind. I was exhausted at the end of each day. But it might have been harder because there was just me to deal with everything - no one to help with the horse, having to move the rig, etc.... And it was in the 20s. Dealing with heat, although it takes it out of you, it was much easier on the muscles - you're not permanently stiff.

Swanton will be way harder. We'll have to go a lot faster, there are lots more *long* climbs (Farrier Ted said there aren't many places to move out, so when you find one, you have to get on with it). So when Roo gets off his break, I'll be concentrating on climbing with him.

It's possible your queasiness is being caused by Gu and Ensure.

Everyone is different, but I can't keep those things down and could not sustain the necessary energy level from them. I found whole food (apples, bananas, sandwiches, cashews, dried apricots, yoghurt, cold chicken) worked much better for me at holds.

I had dried mangos (courtesy of Eagle - they are his favorites) in the trailer, but of course forgot about them and never ate them.

I had yoghurt but couldn't face it.

I had sliced meat, but getting it open was too complicated.

Next time, I should just fill a little cooler with baggies of little bits and then I can pick out what appeals. I've done that at rides in the past and it worked well. That's what I mean about preparation - I didn't do a great job of it on Friday.

The apple I had was good, but I didn't have time to eat it.

And Ann spat on it. What kind of crew does that? Steals food from the poor rider and spits on it... And then takes away all their stuff, so they're destitute at 1 am?? 

(gosh, the mileage I'm going to get out of this... <eg>)

I avoid mixing up the intake too much at once - a combo buffet is not a good thing.

At lunch, once I'd got Roo sorted out, I ate several slices of turkey and several slices of cheese.

That's part of the problem as well - I don't feel like eating until I'm settled and stopped - and you don't get to be settled and stopped much on rides. Hmmm.

Then I keep healthy protein bars (not the gas station type) to eat during the loops when I feel hunger begin to set in.

At NASTR I had bite-sized brownies in the saddle and they went down really well. I had some in a bag somewhere at 60 miles, but again - too much effort to dig them out and get them in my mouth. <sigh>

As for post-ride blahs, I have a theory that much of that is related to dehydration. I've experimented with drinking inhumane amounts of water in the days following a ride and it really seems to help with the physical and mental blahs.

That's definitely possible. Dehydration *and* lack of sleep, though. I was up until gone midnight the Sunday afterwards and still haven't quite got my eating/sleeping regimen back on track.

So what's the schedule for the rest of the year?

So right now, it's Swanton 100 on 14 August. I'd still like to do Bridgeport, but it's only a week before and I'm not sure of the wisdom of trying to do rides that close together (it's about a five hour drive) - plus I'd need to have Uno ready to do 50s to take him and, like I say, that isn't going very fast...

I mean Honestly, how many Gu can a person eat without feeling like puking? 

I have to pull all the dead wrappers out, but I think I only ate five or so over the whole day. I could have done more (esp. if they'd been vanilla)(the funny thing was - I noticed yesterday that one of the ones in my pack was vanilla, I just never got to it.).

And Ensure is gaggy too after a bit. 

So Lucy, time to work on your own intake now that you've got the pony sorted out.
Do you think you might've drunk more e-lite type of stuff (Gatorade) instead of just water?
I wasn't watching what you were drinking.  Are there enough in gu and ensure to make
up for what you were losing with the heat?

At one of the stops (lunch?) I did drink a whole Gatorade. I drank a good amount of water - maybe a bottle every five miles or so during the heat of the day, less during the night.

I really don't like many flavoured drinks, though. I've found in the past that water + Gu seems to do the trick for my elyte-ness. And although I was, er, "distracted", I still felt pretty sharp all day. Except for that hot Loop 2, I never felt zoned-out.

Lack of Fun Ride - We were supposed to do the Fun Ride today but it poured with rain yesterday, so they closed the trails (just as well, I still haven't done Friday's work yet and have some other stuff that needs to get done - like concrete in the posts for the tie rail before the concrete in the bag turns solid in the rain (if it hasn't already).

I'd even rasped Uno's feet on Friday so he'd be all ready. <sigh>

<barefoot stuff alert>
He has very flat feet (not surprised he got ouchy last summer) and the theory is, according to Pete Ramey, so long as you keep the hoof-walls short, the sole is carrying more weight which puts less stress on the hoof+coffin bone relationship and allows the coffin bone to rise up in the foot, making the sole more cupped. It'll be interesting to see if it works - it certainly makes sense. 
</alert>

Monday 26 May
Knives and Forkses

For my birthday this year, I asked Mumma to get me some real live proper knives and forkses so we wouldn't have to eat using the Trumbull Picnic Set (circa 1980). Considering they were just a picnic set, they survived remarkably well, but it was time to join the adult world. 

On the way home from work the other day, we perused Bed Bath & Beyond's selection of cutlery and agreed upon a nice innocuous set that had a good shape to it. Mumma ordered it for me and today it came. All the bits are now in the drawer and being used. 

It's quite strange having spiffy new cutlery...

Tuesday 27 May
Mouse Update/Riding Uno Barefoot

Mouse's leg is doing good. She was fine with me trimming it yesterday. There's a great big bulge right where the wound is/was and that leg is still filled, but maybe that's how it'll be permanently. I haven't trotted her, but she runs around on her own OK, so can't be in too much discomfort. It just looks ugly).

Tonight went for a spin around Cronin and pft had a lovely ride on Fergus. I rode Uno who's only indiscretion was deciding to do an eventer impersonation over a 2' wide creek. That horse can jump - even when he doesn't need to. I wasn't quite expecting *that* big a leap. T'was funny. 

Ann rode Hopi who was cheerful and wanted to chase her new pasture buddy, Fergus and couldn't care less about Uno being close by. But he did good and Ann was quiet and patient with him while he jumped around.

On Sunday I'd rasped Uno on Friday ready for booting. But I rode him unbooted last night and he was ouchy. :(  I think I got a bit too enthusiastic with the removal of hoof wall. He's pretty flat-footed, so I wanted to make sure he got god sole pressure... maybe a bit too good. :(

To date, I've now rasped Jack, Hopi, Uno, Provo, Mouse and Zini - with some good-looking feet at the end and some bad ones. Hopi and Jack are ready to be rasped again.

I'm not sure if it's possible to toughen up their feet properly. They're on dusty paddock dirt with some rocks, but not enough, evidently, to toughen their feet much. And the ones that aren't being ridden much (Hopi, f'instance) aren't getting tough at all. It's early days yet, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be with that aspect of the barefooting.

Good to know is that by rasping 7 out of 8, at least I'm saving $250 every 6 weeks or so.

I just might have to invest in more boots, though. I've only got two-pair of EZ boot Epics in Size 2 - and last night Fergus, Hopi, and Uno got ridden - and they currently share that pair of boots - so no-one wore them.

Saturday 31 May
Hay Prices

Echo Valley wins again with their yummy, clean 3-grain...

Echo Valley
Orchard - $16.50 (105 lbs)
Rye - $16.00 (115 lbs)
3-grain - $14.50 (110 lbs)
oat - $16.00 (125 lbs)

Dave's Hay Barn
Orchard/Pasture - $14.50
90/10 grass/alf - $17.00
3-grain - $14.50 (108-1150 lbs)
Oat - $13.50

Singing Springs
Orchard - $17.50
grass/alf - $17.50
oat - $15 (110 lbs)

So, how is Roo recovered after Patriot?

 And how are you feeling?  Out of "wet-noodle" mode? *grin*