Wildflower Ride In Woody

Our local ETI club had scheduled a ride for Saturday up in Woody, a nearby community. The weather forecast called for rain on Saturday. I am almost required to go to our Natural Food Convention in Anaheim and planned to go down early on Saturday. As it turned out, ETI moved their ride to Sunday and even though I spent all day Saturday at classes and walking the convention floor, we decided to try and make this ride. I'm glad we did.

The time change was tough as we had to get up an hour earlier. We hooked up the trailer. The horses loaded quickly and we were off. Woody is about 70-90 minutes north of town in the foothills. Only the last 12 miles or so are on a windy road. We got there just in time to join the other eight riders.



Jessie still has some issues riding in the trailer. She was sweaty when she walked off the trailer.




We headed off along the rolling hills of green grass and wildflowers. It was in the high 60's or low 70's and clear blue skies.







There were cows grazing on the property and occasionally we had to wait for them to move out. For the most part the horses behaved themselves. Grass nibbling was a problem. The lush green grass was up above their knees in some places and the temptation was just too great at times. There were these little flying bugs in some of the boggy areas and Jessie to great exception to them. She shook her head and swished her tail. They seem to bother her more than the other horses.


Cows laying around in the upper part of this picture.


Don't know why I'm leaning forward here


Wildflower Pictures









We rode for about two hours and then sat around and socialized for about an hour. The club had brought food and drink. We got to meet some new riding friends and spend the day in the sunshine. It doesn't get much better than this.

A Great Story

I listen to a lot of podcasts. One of my favorites is The Moth. It is stories told live in front of an audience without notes. This story by Sam Shepard was great and it involved his horse Roanie. I thought I would share:

Sam Shepard's Horse Story

A Little Groundwork - A Little Ride

I spent most of Saturday removing our old checkout counter at work. The twelve foot coffin refrigerator had to go out in one piece. We finally go it out. There was about four buck in change underneath it. It was like digging through someone's sofa. After the refir was out I called the cabinet guy who brought the new custom-made counter. We put the top from the old counter, which has been our counter for probably fifty years, on to the new counter.












I got home late in the afternoon on Saturday. I moved the horses around so Jessie and I could do groundwork in the small area. We did a bit of LFR I & II some yielding and back-up along with some de-sensitizing. I took off her lead rope to see if she would let me do some of the exercises at liberty and to my surprise she did. As a matter of fact, she didn't leave me once.

Sunday we went for a ride out to the development and did the usual stuff. She didn't act up at all. Her loping is better, but steering her while loping is still a chore. We rode for about two hours and then had to get home and do some gardening. All the rain is making the weeds grow...

More Rain Presents some Training Opportunities

It rained a little more than half an inch on Saturday. For an area that barely gets 6 inches a year, that's a lot of water in one day. Sunday cleared enough to ride out. (We had hoped to head to the river, but the weather was still unsettled.)

There were plenty of puddles on our trail and we got to work on our water crossings. I gave Jess a little groundwork warm up and I do think it helped as we headed down the canal bank. They all tended to be concerned with every new blade of grass or piece of trash that wasn't there a month ago.

About a mile out we came upon a pretty big puddle. It was about 20 feet across by 15 feet wide. Since Jessie goes (or went) through water the easiest in the past the other horses lined up nose to tail as we were getting ready to cross. Jessie balked a bit and we had to work for about 5 minutes before she finally crossed. We then went around and tried to help the others. We played in the water for about 20 - 30 minutes until we thought everyone was comfortable with it and then continued our ride.

Like a little kid with new shoes Jessie and I went through every little mud puddle we came across. We worked our way out to a cinder block fence in a construction zone and did our bending into the fence exercise. She was much better as was the fence to work with.

Next stop was the big square. It was necessary to do a bit of cross country and there was, of course, water to cross. We came to a three foot, 6 inch deep rut only this time there was grass at the edge. I had been letting her drop her head to check out the water water, but now when she put her head down it was to sneak a bit of grass. When I encouraged her to "go", she replied, "Let me check this out again". After the third try (and the third bite of grass) I squeezed and said "Let's go!" She jumped the water, bounded up a little berm on the other side, and the gave a little buck just to let me know how disappointed she was to not have gotten to eat. We went back and crossed it again, then we loped a few circles. I think she lost a pound...

Fresh as Cool Winter Day

The rain was back last weekend. We wanted to get a ride in, but it was too threatening to ride out (yes, we are sissies) so we set up a little trail course out back. The girls wanted to work on some of the things from the Matt Sheridan seminar at EA and I wanted to work on something I saw Craig Cameron do. It was a simple little exercise using the fence. We ride down the fence at a trot and I just bend her nose in and as soon as she turning, I let go of the rein. The idea is to get her a more flexible and working off her back end.

We had waited until the afternoon in the hopes the weather would clear. By the time we got the horses cleaned up we were running out of day. There wasn't much time for groundwork. I yielded and flexed her, called it good and hopped in the saddle.

Almost instantly I could feel her "freshness". We hadn't ridden for three weeks and I got the feeling she could have gone another three weeks and it wouldn't have bothered her at all. She was a bit put out by the whole ordeal. We started with the bending exercise and she was heavy as a sack of wet cement. We worked on that for awhile, then trotted some circles, her tail swishing the whole time.

After about 10 minutes I went over to the fence and began the exercise. As I lifted the rein to turn her into the fence her head went straight up. I finally got her turned and the other direction was about the same. We kept doing it until she didn't just fling her head in the air. It got "okay", but it never got "good".

We trotted over the poles the girls had set up and she was speedy and full of beans so we did some more bending and tried it again. Then we side-passed in an L-shape. That she actually did pretty well.

It had started to sprinkle and I still wanted to do a lope. We went to the wide part of our area and I asked for the canter. She took off fast so I bent her around and went the other direction. She was fast again, and again we changed directions. Then again, and again. When I bent her down to change directions she put her head down and kicked up. We immediately went into some fast hindquarter yielding, then I asked for the canter again. It was slower, not slow and I tried just making the circle smaller. That didn't help much. We kept at it for about 10 minutes and she was starting to sweat up. I did another change of direction and she took off slow enough for me to end on something of a good note.

Ah, yes, I love my spunky little mare...for now...

A little Food Photography

You can probably tell it's the time of year when we don't get to work the horses much. A friend sent us some very nice wine and, after the weekend in Ojai, we are getting more creative with our meals. So, why not try a little food photography too?

This was Ranae's effort last night. Broiled breast of chicken, with roasted potatoes, asparagus, broccoli and carrots covered in some of the handmade feta cheese. She also did some balsamic vinegar over fresh strawberries and sliced apple. Yummy. There was a sprig of fresh rosemary someplace. I think she used in the chicken.


The wine company is 14 Hands and they have a very cool graphic with three horses on it.


Presentation is everything. Our kitchen light is terrible for photography.

A Weekend in Ojai

Our wedding anniversary is Valentine's Day and our favorite place to go is Ojai. We made reservations at this very cozy inn called Su Nido. The weather was bee-you-tea-full. One of the reasons we love Ojai is because you can walk just about everywhere. That means we can both enjoy a cocktail or wine and, because we are walking, there is no danger of getting popped.


Our room was upstairs on the left side

We had a nice lunch on Friday, and then walked around downtown and shopped a bit. We enjoyed a very good 12 year old single malt Scotch in our room in the afternoon and then had a great dinner at Bodee's. Saturday morning we played tennis, stopped by a little coffee place, and grabbed a muffin for breakfast.


The tennis courts

In the afternoon we took a long walk around town. First, we headed to the Humane Society Animal Shelter. A very nice shelter that was clean, spacious, and comfortable for the animals there. There were even a couple of horses. We worked our way through the oak trees along the walking/equestrian path back into town and headed to Bart's Books which is like the largest used bookstore ever. You can always get a book at Bart's. They have shelves outside, so even if they are closed, you can grab a book and leave fifty cents in the little black box outside. (there were a lot of places in Ojai like this. Boccali's had oranges and avocados outside and a little box to put your money in if you came along after hours)


The Humane Society Corrals

Saturday night we walked over to Suzanne's for dinner. A wonderful restaurant. Very attentive and the food was delicious. It was about a mile back to our room and a good thing after I stuffed myself with that triple chocolate cake thingy (I should remember the name, but I think I was in a diabetic coma at the time).

Sunday morning we played tennis again on the courts nestled under the oak trees. We went to the farmer's market with their fantastic assortment of great produce, handmade cheeses, and bread. Some actors live in this wonderful area and we saw a television actress at the market. We recognized her by her voice because she didn't look like she does on television.

After the market, we packed up and went home through Ventura. We stopped and had lunch at a Greek restaurant in the harbor .



At the beach


Cool railroad bridge



Taken with the camera timer. I about broke my leg climbing through those rocks to pose for the picture. Notice who was laughing the whole time.

Once back in our own valley it was back to gloom and overcast skies. The temps were cooler too. We thought we might be home in time to ride, but didn't quite make it. The ferrier was coming out today.


Our overcast valley

All in all it was a very relaxing weekend and a great way to spend the beginning of our 30th year together. We keep saying we want to make it out to Ojai in the summer, but time always gets away from us. Who knows, maybe this will be the year...