Flax seed, Applesauce, smashed banana, salt, and a few handfuls of sweet feet since my flax supply was limited.
We will see if Nevel will eat them…
Stubborn
it took me about 15 min to load Persee last weekend on the trailer
I think he was kinda shocked when I did that to him.
After all, he’s been going rogue in the pasture
For quite a few months now.
This was 2018
1. Escape from the pasture, big gashes and swelling on his legs
2. Foot abscess
3. Ok, now we are into summer and hot temps.
4. Fires
5. Hot
6. More fires
Insert me hiking every weekend
7. A week long trip to the eastern Sierra -solo backpacking trip-attempt to Summit Mt Langley 14,000 + ft peak I made it to 13,700, not another person in sight all day.Altitude sickness setting in I retreated.
8. More heat and fires
9. 10 day Rhine River trip
10. Holidays and Rain, rain and more rain
Time for 2019.
Persee is off to the trainer…a really good/honest one this time!!! Emphasize Honesty!
In only two sessions she had Persee loading himself on the trailer as the video shows above. : )
Next she’ll have to train me! 😉
I’m stubborn
I’m gonna be 60 this year
And I want to at least do one more LD in my lifetime.
I also wanna climb that mountain again! …
The last of September Sundays
The weather forecast was 75 as a high. The morning started out as 59 but I was slow moving and didn’t make it to the barn (30 min drive) until 10. By then it was already 74.
I hiked down to the pasture where Persee and Nevel came galloping through the creek giving themselves a nice belly/leg mud bath. The usual jockeying of “take me first” took place and “BACK, BACK BACK” commands to Persee who pretty much ignores my demands.
I did manage to get Nevel out without being trampled. Up to the barn we hiked (3/10 mile). Nevel, who is always starving to death, got his pan of food while I attempted to get the mud off of him. I broke out in a full “glisten.” For Northern California it was a humid day. They lied about 75!
Soon we were on the trail. I used to have issues mounting Nevel. Probably because the girth was so tight to keep the saddle from slipping on his round self!
I switched to a thinline girth and that helped. This week his Thinline pad arrived and the combo worked! He stood perfect for mounting and we had minimal saddle slippage.
I wanted to do at least a 10 mile round trip ride, but we got lost in the maze of Mt bike trails trying to find the way to Granite Bay. Next time I’ll take a trail I’m pretty sure will get me there!
It was a beautiful day and we saw plenty of critters…like this one…can you see her blending in?
we did make it to a knoll overlooking the glistening Folsom Lake.
And had a good canter on the way home.
I want to get Persee on the trails, but so far have only hiked a little with him.
I have several trips coming up so will plan to start him in November.
September Sunday with my Golden Boy
I think he blends in with his surroundings! 😆
To Rattlesnake & Back
Sunday appeared bright & crisp…too cold to drag my Eastcoaster turned West self out early to ride.
Initially I had planned to trailer out to Rattlesnake Bar…but I still need air in the tires, plus getting out to the barn later meant less time to ride an ornery beast that needs gulps of fresh green grass to eat first.
Persee is mended from his Orange Orchard thorn wounds but I still haven’t had him on the trail, so I saddled up Nevel to try and regain my riding legs.
I don’t ride on the road anymore so it is about a half mile hike down the road to an access trail to pick up the Pioneer Express trail. Nevel stood ok for me to mount. Not perfect…but I managed to get on without damage. We trotted down to the Horseshoe Bar access and encounter a horse eating cougar jogger in bright clothing. Nevel snorted and froze. So we waited.
GOOD GRIEF NEVEL! Then he tried to turn and follow her home! No way…so off we went at a nicely paced walk.
At the ” Rock Drop” Nevel had his first (and expected) major balk and refusal. He slipped once on a rock there and balks ever since. He was quite ornery, backing me into bushes uphill trying to escape. The trail is narrow here and the other side drops off towards the lake! Grrrrrrrr! Anytime that he stood still I relaxed the reins. But he was mostly beastly and I finally had to crop him several times before he gave in and moved forward.
After that it was smooth sailing. Trots and a few bolty gallops up hill. We passed many more hikers and runners and Nevz didn’t give them the time of day.
We reached Rattlesnake in good time, but I decided it was two late in the day to head to Mormons Ravine and beyond.
Nevz is pretty certain that there is a pony coming up the trail!
He was right…a big Paint ambling along….who quickly disappeared onto a big horse trailer and rode away!Nevz became belligerent after that and gave me a devil of a time when I tried to remount him. He had ants in his pants and barely had I swung on then he was charging through thorny star thistle to shortcut the trail.
He paced a fast trot mixed with cantering most of the 4 miles home, leaping over small ditches as if they were high jumps, kicking out at a stump and overall making good time and only slowing for the dumb dog who laid right down in the trail and refused to move. The owner made a feeble attempt to drag the 60lb woof off trail. Being barely successful I nudged Nevel on and just barely missed stomping the pups tail. (We did stop completely for these two limp souls!).
With less than a mile to go I slowed Nevz to a walk…but his walk was so fast and jiggly I should have just let him trot.
Reaching the road I attempted a dismount. Nevz did not want to stand still! Grrrr! He was hollering for his barn mates the whole walk up the road. BUT reaching the corner of his home lane dropped his head to eat grass and spoke not another word!
Overall it was a great 8 mile ride. More posts to come on ride paraphernalia!
Still no riding
It seems there were gentlemen at home desiring food to sustain them during a vigil in front of the TV. Several brought various types of food. I made Pretzel Rolls for my Philly Cheesesteaks. (Good luck charm for my hometown team😁)
we had wayyyy too much food…not all pictured here. Now I must fast…right after I have a cheesecake swirled brownie,😁
I did spend the morning with the “ponies” though…an hour ride on Nevel…that ornery cuss likes to turn around and head home the minute I reach for a camera!
Then it I had just enough time to let Persee have a 20 min “Munch!” Loving the California Green right now!
Beau Kiss 💋
Beautiful Emerald Green
Green grass and frightful a 8lb Cat
January, rain, Northern California and EMERALD GREEN GRASS! Spring is on the way!
The Horses fight over who gets out of the paddock first to indulge in that green grass. However, a little ole black and white cat sitting hidden in the brambles was enough to give my 1000lb giants pause!😁
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Time flies
Life continues to get in my way…some good, some bad, but mostly WORK gets in my way of riding, But, without work I wouldn’t have Horses. Maybe it’s time to move back east where the living was cheaper!
2 weeks ago, Nevel broke open a gate and he and Persee escaped and had a lively run through the citrus orchard. Nevel came out unscathed and Persee….well,he sustained injuries 🤭☹️😖😤 nothing a little purple spray couldn’t fix… but he did have a good bit of swelling when all was said and done.
ouchy
Persee moves to CA
Persee started his young life in the Sooner State at Firedance Farms.
http://www.firedancefarms.net His daddy has been a top Pinto Stallion and has done a good bit of endurance. His mum is a Russian bred Arabian.
Registered 1/2 Arab and pinto won’t really mean anything until he proves himself as at the very least a great trail companion and hopefully some endurance treks. He’s got 1 blue eye, that really creeps me out when he looks at me with it! For some reason it looks brown in this photo. Ha ha.
Persee came to live with me in Oct. but we didn’t ride much. Work ALWAYS gets in my way! My mother also became very ill and I went to Montana and spent many days caring for her. Then Nor Cal decided to break its drought by deluging us with rain! 
So in March I sent Persee to a trainer who did some great things with him, but never worked with him on Trailer loading or on the Trail much as I had asked her to do? She was difficult to interact with and I won’t go into that story, so I brought him home literally covered in bite marks from other horses he had been with.
Here is at age 3. I bought him at 3.5. So time is zooming and now he is almost 4.5. Time to start legging him up and getting the Wobblies out.
I haven’t had him out on the trail yet. Once the rain stopped, then the heat came. I have found I am now (in my old age) intolerable to heat. A 10 mile ride on Nevel brought me to heat exhaustion-true it was 100 degrees by the time we got back to the barn.
A view of Folsom Lake on the way to Avery Pond! So lovely to see the lake full again after years of drought!
so I tried a long ride with Nevel again this past Saturday. Unfortunately I was alone when I had a slight asthma attack, accompanied by feeling of extreme heat, dizziness, headache, chilling and sweating. We were only 1.5 miles out. I was drinking in water supplemented by NUUN. It was only about 80 degrees. I thought I was going to die! I didn’t eat all day. The last half mile home I was fine though. Not sure what caused my “attack.”
sooo…on Sunday I rode Persee in the arena for 30 min. It was about 78 degrees and I did not have any “heat” attacks.
Today again, another 30 on Persee in the arena. 90 degrees. No heat issues. But I did get out of breath just mounting him from the mounting block after basically standing still lunging him in the hot sun. So weird! I’ve never had these issues before!
Onward into the dust we trek! Wish us luck!
Sun &Rein 
