Horse
- Zini thinks travelling in the trailer is fun, since when you
stop, you get fed carrots and BP slurries.
- Travelling is
interesting, since you get to look out of the window.
Travelling takes a long time, though.
- Zini thinks stopping at rest stops is nice, because you get to
eat grass. And watch 18-wheelers coming in. Jake brakes aren't
good, though.
- Zini thinks camping is fun, since you get to watch all the
other horses parading past all day long, and eat incessantly.
And mum feeds you slurries at least twice a day. And you get
to eat three times the normal amount. And you don't have to share.
- Zini shakes her head going into the wind/rain.
- Zini will lead quite cheerfully going into the wind/rain.
- Zini also likes to tuck her nose into Color's tail to keep
her face out of the rain.
- Zini will still move forward at speed when it is sleeting
into her face.
- Zini will leave camp on Loop 2, even when it is raining.
- Zini will go 25 and 30 miles with virtually no food and no
rest stops (the two 30 minute holds we were supposed to have
were eliminated because they didn't want horses standing
around in the weather, so we just did a quick VC and then
carried on. Poor Zini, no rest for her).
- Zini probably isn't that impressed with the concept of
distance riding.
- Zini will drink from puddles and running washes.
- Zini doesn't care that camp is 300' away when we are coming in,
she will still stop and drink from big puddles anyway.
- If you are a semi-gaited horse and you get a bit tired or
fed up, it's best to resort to hopping on the front end
every few paces. This causes mum to have cardiac arrests
and report your lameness to the vet at regular intervals.
- When you've gone 55 miles, you can still gait and jump around,
and leap sideways such that mum (in her slippery rain-trousis)
nearly falls off and squawks in an entertaining manner.
- If you wrap the horse's legs, they will not fill.
- If you don't wrap the legs, they will fill.
- When it's pouring with rain, you are unlikely to feel like
squatting in the water next to the horse to attach some
soggy quilts to her legs.
On the Trail
- Polarfleece is still warm even when soggy.
- When you tuck your polarfleece neck gaiter up around your nose
and inhale, you get a nose-full of water.
- Smartwool socks will keep your feet warm, until your boot
is filled with three inches of water.
- Once your boot is filled with three inches of water, you can
no longer keep the water warm enough to keep your pruney
feet warm.
- You can take off a boot and empty the water out of it while
sitting on the horse, although you have to stop moving.
- When you stop moving, find the two-millimeter long grass for
the horse to graze on. And turn the horse's butt into the
wind/rain.
- When it rains that much, you will need to empty your boot
twice during a 25 mile ride. Next time duct-tape your rain-trousis to your boots to stop
them letting the rain dribble in.
- When you discover an inch of water in the HRM pocket on the
top of your pommel bag, do not empty it out onto the horse,
as it pours down the gap under the pommel of the saddle and
the horse doesn't think it's a funny joke.
- Wet sheepskins are not pleasant to sit on.
- Nubuck leather saddles soak up water really well.
- Wet sheepskins or new nubuck leather saddles leak dye onto
the white parts of your horse.
- Leaving your woolly gloves in the pommel bag so that they
"don't get wet" doesn't work.
- It takes approximately 60 miles to dry out a pair of woolly
gloves if you duct-tape them to the dashboard over the heater
vents and turn the heater on full.
Equipment
- When your HRM reads 207 while trotting along a straight,
flat trail, it's probably time to tighten your girth a
couple of holes.
- Do not try and mount the horse when your girth needs
tightening a couple of holes.
- If you mount and it feels lumpy, the saddle is probably
twisted 45° to the right.
- When your girth needs tightening a couple of holes, it is
very easy to twist the saddle back to center.
- My prototype rump-rug worked really well, except for the
part where I had to wring out the ends. But remember,
polarfleece is warm even when wet.
- I can roll - well, "scrunch" - up my prototype rump-rug and
snug up the elastic straps while trotting at speed in a
group of horses (not something I'd ever even attempt with
my gelding, Provo).
- My rump-rug does need a tail strap for 30 mph side-winds.
- Wearing six layers is many too many when you are walking
down a long rocky hill in bright, bright sunshine.
- I need more dog-collars/snaps/bits of string on the saddle
for attaching four of the layers of clothing when I take
them off.
- Hoof-it will stay in for 55 miles, although if you try
and add a layer to it a day after putting it in, it will
fall out.
- Your horse will not automatically go lame if the Hoof-it
falls out.
- My Amish blanket doesn't leak (after five years of use),
although the mending tape across the butt didn't last
the whole week.
- Insulating the trailer will mean that the temperature inside
never drops below 40 degrees.
- A switch next to your bed to turn on the outside light next
to the horse is a fine thing when it's pouring with rain and
you want to check to make sure she's still there/not shivering.
- When it rains a lot, water pours down the inside of the back
doors of the trailer. Some sort of gutter is needed.
- When it rains a lot, don't park in the dip.
- Mesquite trees have thorns on them.
- Mesquite trees are inedible (Zini checked, just in case).
- If you park the front end of your trailer in a mesquite
tree, the wind will blow and the branches will make
scritchy sounds on the roof all night.
Supplies
- A hot water bottle is the best possible thing to take with you.
Next time buy several.
- Three fleece coolers is enough when it only rains two days.
- Two bales of hay was too many.
- One bucket of beet pulp was only just enough.
- Other people take 50 lb sacks of carrots to rides.
My 5 lb bag seemed mingy.
- Ramen noodles and instant stuffing make good camp foods.
- Taking 15 times more food than you need means that you
can pick your meals carefully and choose ramen noodles and
instant stuffing from the choice of gourmet foods.
- I did not need four boxes of water.
- I did not need four bottles of gas.
- I did not use my Zodi shower.
- I did comb out and braid my hair every two days whether it
needed it or not.
- I did not need the 53 gallons of water I took with me
(used about 10 gallons, since there was a water trough
20' away at Valley Wells and we had running tap water
15' away at Panamint).
- If I'd emptied the remaining 43 gallons of water, my trailer
would have been lighter, but the three 6-7 gallon water carriers
in the manger cupboard are too heavy for me to lift out.
- Next time park next to someone strong and ask them to haul
the water carriers out to empty them.
Travelling
- Travelling at 65-70 mph down the freeway into a head wind (with
one horse, two bales of hay and 53 gallons of water) the truck
gets ~9 mpg. Without a head wind, I got over 10 mpg. The truck
will go 215 miles on a tank of gas at over 10 mpg.
- Gas stations on I-5 are a rip off and I had to pay $2.39 for
a gallon of gas.
- The gas station at Panamint Springs is an even bigger
rip
off and I had to pay $2.99 for a gallon of gas. Needless to
say, I only bought $10-worth, just to make sure I could get
back to Ridgecrest.
- Travelling back on hw-99 is much better - more rest stops
and the gas stations are priced normally (i.e. $1.89 a gallon).
- It is 455 miles and 9.5 hours to Jackie Bumgardner's
house in Ridgecrest.
- It is 550 miles and 11 hours from Panamint Springs to home.
- When driving for 11 hours and you get sleepy, calling your
husband at home on the cell phone for mindless chatting
wakes you up.
- Having a flask of hot tea is also good.
- Do not attempt to pour out the hot tea while driving.
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