So I have been riding Lucy up in Pescadero Creek Park. Very nice place to ride, my current favorite! I went by myself last weekend and with Carolyn this last weekend.
Its a really nice place to ride. But try as I might I can’t seem to ride there without seeing how perfect it would be for endurance riding. I can’t seem to enjoy my rides anymore with all of this hanging over me.
The next couple of weeks are going to be difficult.
So I had this whole blog post all ready in my mind (yes its sad, but I plan out my blog posts in my head!) but now I am not so sure about what I was thinking.
So what I had accepted was that neither of my mares are ever going to be endurance horses. Lucy has never really enjoyed being worked, she is not a horse that needs or wants something to do, nor is she the kind of horse that needs lot of attention. All she really wants out of life is to hang out in her pasture with her friends.
So for the last couple weeks Lucy has been very anti-social, I am not even allowed to touch her in her pasture. I am pretty sure she is just mad about our last couple of rides (one very long and hot one that I don’t blame her for not being happy about, and one rather short ride with another horse that she was just a brat on!) and doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.
And of course Kezi is lame and I am concerned that this is not getting any better.
So instead of riding on Sunday, I hiked, and was very happy with it. I was deffinatlly considering just hiking over the next couple weeks and not riding much, just spending time with Lucy in her pasture and brushing. But then yesterday I went by the bookstore and picked up two books on trails in California (California’s State Parks, a day hikers guide by John Mckinney, I do not recomend, not a fantastic book. And Peninsula Trails, by Jean Rusmore, Exellent book, really like it a lot for trail in my area!) and browsed through them last night. While looking through them I was thinking about how Lucy does seem to enjoy, or at least has more energy, when we are out riding on other trails rather then at home. I always assumed this was because we were riding with other horses and she gets a bit competitive, but then I realized that I have never taken her to a new park (or a park we don’t ride in often) by herself. So now I am going to spend some time at other parks rather then at our trails at home to see if this makes her any happier. My current plan is to hike at the trail on the weekend so I can asses parking and such then ride there during the week.
I am still of course deciding what to do with Kez. I am hoping to hear back from my local vet about when she is coming out so I can get her some anti-inflamitories and also talk with my vet about her oppion on Kez (she has met Kezi once last fall).
I am also thinking about that if I do rehome Kezi if I want to look for another endurance horse. Lots of big decitions.
I am really posing this question to myself so it helps to get it down in my blog where I can read it, and I am also open to suggestion.
So I haven’t mentioned it yet since its a bit upsetting but Kezi is lame again. Very very lame. Like she can hardly move on it kind of lame. The weird thing is that she was being very lathargic in the days leading up to when she came down lame, like she didn’t injure the same thing. But her shoulder is swollen and there is no heat in her leg at all. I could have Luke test her feet but I really don’t want to drag him all the way out for that. Maybe I’ll have Kacie do that when she comes out.
Russ feels like we shouldn’t overlook the possibility of another injury, but I think its highly unlikely on the same leg to not be the same injury. He also thinks I should have Nancy come out and look at her but how she can tell if its the same injury when I cannot is beyond me. I like Russ a lot but sometimes he has too little faith in my ability to know my own horse.
So anyway I am having a hard time keeping up beat about her now, but I feel like I would like to continue trying to get her sound. Put her back on anti-inflamitories and keep her calm. But once winter comes I need a different place to keep her. Even if I can get her sound by winter I am not sure I will be able to put her out in the pasture.
So my idea:
Trade her for a temp home over the winter. I would take a young horse that needs conditioning on the trail and she would get a suitable place to live for the winter. When spring comes I get Kezi back (hopefully still sound) and the people who kept her get their horse back in shape.
I like the idea of taking a horse to ride over the winter since I think it will help Lucy and I too. That way I can slow down and spend more time with her not on the trail while still getting to get out on the trail conditioning.
So now I am trying to decide if I want to start looking now or wait a bit longer since I wouldn’t want to initiat the trade until latem November early December, but it might take that long to find someone.
Also do I know for sure that if I make the deal now I will still feel comforitable sending her away for the winter if she goes back to being sound fairly soon.
So lots to think about on top of a really busy week with work and the hike-a-thon this weekend!
I got my new sidepulls last week! So I rode Lucy in hers on Sunday (will post about that later, it was an ok ride) and tried Kezi’s on in her paddock since taking her out just seemed cruel. So I gave her some grain and then took some pictures, but she wasn’t really cooperating very welll!
So Lucy:
And miss Kezi!
She looks so pretty in Blue!
Although I wouldn’t really say I made bad decision, just one that didn’t turn out so well!
So I was rather excited about my ride on Sunday, I chose Sunday because it would be not as hot. I fed Lucy extra hay the night before and extra rope and ride both the night before and the morning of. I bought snacks for myself for out on the trail, I made myself eat breakfast and I had new easyboots to try out.
We didn’t end up using the easyboots but that is really not part of this story.
So this was our projected ride:
(the blue line is the route I was taking)
Long, but I felt we were up to it, I felt that coming up Howard King could be a bit strenuous but that we could take it slow.
So I turned my GPS on at Sandy point (after walking down my road, and then riding up Gazos) and did a lot of trotting down Whitehouse Canyon Road. She was really good about keeping up a good pace, although for her it was rather slow.
Turning off onto Henry Creek was the first time in a long time we have gone on a trail we didn’t know out in Big Basin! It looked a bit foreboding, as it was pretty steep and along a ridge.
Here is the view at Henry Creek Trail:
Very pretty!
So I walked down the Henry Creek trail and was pretty much cursing it as the most horrendous trail ever by the time we finally got into the shade! It was one of those roller coaster trails, that goes up and down a lot! And for some reason Lucy was not into going downhill that day, go figure! She also thoroughly enjoyed walking really close to the brush and swiping herself on it. I allowed it figuring she needed to itch herself until I found that she had caught her saddle blanket on something and pulled half of it out from under the saddle!
I was rather surprised to find that when we got to Henry Creek there was no bridge! I’m not used to that, usually in my local parks little baby creeks that dry up in the summer have bridges over them! This on the other hand was a substantial creek that was rather deep for late summer. Creek crossing is not a problem for Lucy, unless of course the creek bottom is all very slippery bedrock! I let her go in before crossing to cool herself off and she almost slipped and fell in several times. She seemed glade to get out. So how to cross was a bit of an issue. I decided against riding her in case she fell while crossing, at least then only my saddle might sustain injury. So I lead her across, or my like we both slipped and slide across! It was refreshing to be splashed though!
So at that point we were on the Skyline to the sea trail. I have been on this trail before, but not for many years. We followed the trail up to where I assumed the Howard King trail was. There we got a bit of a surprise, the Howard King Trail was not open to horses! So looking at my map the trail says it allows horses further up so I assumed the whole trail was open to them.
So now I had three choices:
Go back up Henry Creek Trail ( I really didn’t want to have to experience that trail twice in one day!)
Go down to the McCrary Ridge Trail which would take us a couple miles out of our way.
Go way down almost to the ocean and take the trail that goes up to chalk mountain (which is a couple miles down the trail from where I turned on to Henry Creek.
I choose the McCrary Ridge Trail.
So we went trotting the two miles or so back down the Skyline to the Sea trail , which was fun, its a nice flat trail.
When turning onto the McCrary Ridge trail its posted that its recommended for horses only as it has steep climbs, nice to know! But hey I am on a horse and therefore should be fine, right? Right!? Um yeah. We would have been fine if the trail had stayed in the trees, like the first half, and if it hadn’t been such a hot weekend, and if I hadn’t decided to get off to spare Lucy the extra weight (yeah 130 lb is so much to a 1050lb horse!) and if I hadn’t poured most of my water into my odwala to water it down after the creek and then refilled the bottle with creek water. Creek water is bearable when cold, and I would rather go 10 miles without then drink it hot! This coming from the girl who grew up and still lives off creek water, but I guess its all in what your used to!
So I didn’t drink until the creek on Gazos, bad idea as it gave me a headache.
So anyway, the McCrary Ridge trail was nasty! Steep, hot and unbearable. Before I even managed to get to the top I was desperately wishing I could be home! And considering I could see close to where my ridge is from there, way across the valley, it was a bit disheartening. Because I felt like hell I assumed Lucy did too, although other then slowing down and taking lots of breaks she didn’t seem that bad. I managed to drag myself back up on top of her at the top when we got to Hihn Hammond Road.
Nice views though!
Hihn Hammond road would be a lovely ride under other conditions. Lucy didn’t like going down hills at all so I had to get off to keep her pace up.
It was so wonderful getting to Gazos! I turned my GPS off at this point since it was close to being out of battery.
Gazos was easy peasy! Lucy recovered quite well, especially after she drank and we trotted most of Gazos. She drank again at Sandy Point (oh did I mention that she drank at Sandy Point on the way up? Very impressive! She is learning drink before we head out!)
Down Gazos and up our road was also very easy, although we still ended up getting home really late!
So all in all we were out for nine hours, we road between 22 and 24 miles and amazingly recovered well! Lucy seemed fine, and I just needed a good night sleep!
But we defiantly won’t be going on that ride again for a little bit, even though Lucy recovered well I want to make sure we don’t get caught in the heat again! But it is a good ride for working up hills, that long ridge is a good workout then at the top it stays mostly flat until back around at Sandy Point. Maybe in a couple months when the weather is cooler.
I need to make up my mind if I want to continue with distance on our rides or stick with 10 mile rides and up our speed.
So here is the route I ended up taking:
And here is our GPS, I turned it off at gazos so we do continue in an arch around the next ridge back to Sandy Point.
