Happy trails!

Our new home has some trails out in the back.

Thursday 8 November
We can easily spend 45 minutes in the woods and it's mostly easy going. As you can plainly see this a most beautiful sparkling pleasant fall day. No bugs!

And..on the other side of the woods...

Treats!
L knows the field is on the other side of the woods! She really enjoys these trail rides! On the other side of the field, beyond the trees are power lines. I used to ride those power lines 25 years ago. There's been a lot of construction out there in the past 20 years. Entire neighborhoods with 30 and 40 houses sprang up almost overnight. Said really. People still think of this as being "out in the country" but it's not at all like it used to be.

But we can still ride for hours out under the power lines!

Corn 2014

Corn's in!

The corn is late this year after the cold wet spring. I had an ear of corn Friday from Hadley. I had heard the Hadley corn was pretty good and ..it was ..ok. Not great. Not bad. The corn from Hadley and Deerfield usually comes in a week or so ahead of the nearby corn.

But yesterday I had my very first ear of native (local) corn.

Saturday 19 July
This corn is from Hanson Farm not far from here. It's good but clearly it's early in the season. I love everything about the summertime. Of course I know all about greenheads but nothing says summertime like corn and watermelon. And clams. And lobsters. And sangria. I could go on. And on.

My first (and last) ear of corn are notable days in my year. Since the season started late I wonder if it will end late? I never noticed before. I'll have to notice this year.

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Look what we found yesterday!

Out in the middle of nowhere. A passing bird must have dropped some sunflower seeds. This is a *huge* sunflower ...bush. It's going to have dozens of sunflowers on it. It was a really pleasant find.

A sunflower bush. Out in the middle of nowhere!

Trail ride followup

Watch out for these guys.

A deer tick
I've picked as many as 6 of these little stinkers off of me after a trail ride in the woods. You do *not* want to get Lyme Disease. The volume of deer ticks that carry Lyme Disease isn't that high but it's a very bad thing to have. The good news is a tick has to be on you for more than 24 hours to give you Lyme disease. So. If you're in the woods at all, even for just a few minutes, check thoroughly for ticks! Of course...it can great fun to check close friends for ticks :)

Trails?

My trainer, earlier in the day yesterday, on seeing us emerge from some swampy brush, commented on what a confident trail horse L is. L is a most *wonderful* trail horse!

This is a great time of year for bushwhacking. The foliage is just coming in and the ground is clear enough for us to make our way through the woods. It's great fun!

We don't need trails
We can pick our way through here fairly easily. Although it does have its challenges. It really is a pleasure being out here in these woods.

Yes I know. I need to do her bridal path.
I especially love the ferns. It's all so green!

I heard a Wood Thrush. I hardly ever see them. The Wood Thrush song is a quintessential New England summertime woods thing. I don't think I heard a Wood Thrush last year. Not once.

I am *completely* lost. She isn't.
I used to get a little anxious about getting lost out there. I start out knowing exactly where we are. And I'm pretty good in the woods. But after a few spins and finding our way around downed trees and not paying attention to where we are - it just takes a minute and I really have no idea where we are. But L knows *exactly* where we are. All I have to do is let her go where she wants and she'll bring us back to the barn. How cool is that! It's never failed us yet. I hardly give it a thought anymore.

There are trails out there. And we can make a few trips over the same paths this time of year to make new trails.

All training All the time

It often appears I'm enjoying a simple pony ride around the property with my L. But the fact is we're *always* training. I started doing this many years ago with my thoroughbred. We'd be out in the fields and I'd make imaginary obstacle courses around distinctive rocks and brush. We'd run those courses and I practiced making the decisions. I decided where he'd put his feet, when and how he'd bend, when he'd turn and when he'd halt.

I've taken it just a little further with L by making obstacle courses around the property. Here I call this one our Hill Climb trail. The reason is obvious:

And this is our Bridge Trail. Bridge Trail because there's a "bridge" in there. A pallet with plywood nailed on top.

This is a favorite. It's a continuing challenge for both of us! I call it the Bank Trail. It's hard to see but there's a very short steep bank in the brush. It's tight quarters and it's a little tricky with that tree in the way. We go up the bank but I can't let her hop up because she has to twist and make a tight turn at the top. And I have to duck under the low branches.

Coming out from here can be a challenge too!
We work our way through the brush. Make no mistake - this can be dicey. There's thorns all over the place out here!

Even along some old paddocks abandoned ages ago. The biggest challenge here is to have her focus and ignore all that yummy looking grass!

The idea is to find something to challenge us. L needs some mental challenge to stay engaged. She needs some physical challenge to use muscles she might not otherwise use. I need to stay in charge. To decide where we go and when we go there. For me to have her putting her feet where she'd rather not is all it takes for us to stay tuned up.

She's become so good at going through these obstacle courses last year I started putting her through them backwards! Try doing figure 8s around a pair of pine trees out in the brush backwards! It takes a lot of patience. It's such a crazy thing to do from her point of view it wasn't at all clear to her what I was asking. Now all I have to do is point her butt where I want her to go and she goes through these things backwards as freely and easily as she goes through them forwards. Have I mentioned lately Canadian Horses are known for being smart? Finding things to challenge her is a challenge!

Today I'll go put some scary things out there. I have a whole shed full of stuff. Pool noodles. Flags. Wind socks. Plastic ducks. Those spinny things on sticks. I have dozens of those. We pole bend through them on windy days.

We're always training. It doesn't always look that way.

Lazy Days

The past few days have been downright uncomfortable. Not so much hot, although it's been hot, it's the 70 degree dew point. You can't do much of anything without being soaking wet in minutes.

A couple of weeks ago we enjoyed the most perfect summer weather. I like this picture a lot.

Saturday 21 July. Lazy Summer Day
And finding our way back through the brush. L always knows where she is!

She always looks so much better than I do
Nice as it was the bugs were ferocious. I tried her new Bug Out Fly Hood. See?

Product Review!

One thumb up. I think they run a little big. It's a Large and it's a little big for her. I think when I bought it they said a large would be for say a Quarter Horse. I imagine an X-Large is huge. It has a couple of springy cords to tie the neck off to a saddle which works well. It doesn't work so well bareback. It slides all over the place and the neck slips upwards when it's not tied off. It's open under the cheeks and I think bugs could get inside. Which I think would suck. But it seemed to work well enough. You wouldn't use this for turnout. It wouldn't last 10 minutes. This is strictly for riding.

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I'm done with nice glasses. I had this really beautiful art glass martini glass.

I broke it. Long time ago.

Now today I broke this nice crystal one that I've had for nearly 20 years.

From now on it's dollar store glasses!

Colors of Spring

Spring may have been early but it sure changed its mind this week! It's been cold and dreary all week long. Last weekend was green! Rain earlier in the week followed by some sunshiny days made everything burst overnight.

29 April - Everywhere it's green.
I don't know when we'll ride in the woods again. There's a lot of damage in the woods from last year's storms. One can plainly see how treacherous it can be in there. It's just not worth one of us getting hurt over.

We've spent most of our trail time touring the fields. It's a challenge keeping L out of all that beautiful grass while we're working. Before things got out of hand I poked her with my spurs every time she started to drop her head with that sense of purpose that says "I'm going to snatch a mouthful of grass!". She caught on pretty quick and she's happier when she knows the rules. Really. Not to worry - she can behave while we're working. I read something the other day: You're either training your horse or you're untraining your horse. You're always doing one or the other. That's a fact. Besides. I make it worth her while!

I just love all the shades of green and yellow this time of year.

I'm taking a liking to Long Trail brews. Every one I've tried so far I've found to be excellent! Just the thing after a nice ride.

Treasures

I was enjoying a nice ride in the woods with L when we happened across these!

Antler sheds
Apparently these are called sheds. Deer shed their antlers this time of year. A fascinating story really. Apparently after mating the buck's testosterone concentration diminishes. The diminished testosterone concentration causes the antlers to soften and shed.

We see a lot of deer around here. L and I first found our way around the woods following deer trails. Here in west suburban Boston these are of course from a white-tailed deer. I think they're a pretty good size. They're bigger than my forearm. And a nice souvenir of a pleasant day in the woods.

Milestones

I always think of milestones with L on Thanksgiving.

There are milestones. The "firsts" with your horse. Whether you're training a baby or just brought home an old "been there done that" trail horse. These are big things.

L's very first saddle ever - 14 February 2004

Backed, first time ever, 18 July 2004
Holy crap I've lost a lot of weight!

It's easy now, years later, to forget the countless hours of training it took to bring a young horse along. Tying, manners, lungeing, round penning, showmanship. L didn't even know what an apple was when I brought her home.

Long lining

Giving and Bending

Flexing
I kept good notes. Our very first bareback ride was 4 August 2005. I have something of a sentimental streak.

And I have lots of pictures.

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And then, sometimes, you have milestones of a different sort. Things that change your whole understanding of what you do and after which there's no turning back.

I remember the day after Thanksgiving, 2005 like it was yesterday. It was cold and damp and the fog was so thick you could barely see 40 feet. I saddled up L and we'd been leaving the ring for weeks so I felt she'd outgrown being lunged before every ride. So off we went into the fields. A very short time later a truck came by out in the street. It rumbled and rattled in the fog and L just melted down. She leaped and she spun and she was outta there. My very first thought was to bail and hand walk her back to the ring and lunge the beans out of her but she let go a couple of bucks and started another spin. I really didn't think I'd get to the ground safely and then I realized I wasn't going to stop this. And trying to stop it was just going get someone hurt. She *needed* to do this and my only choice was to get us both through this safely. So I pushed her. Hard. I put her in a circle to get a little bit of lightness in her front and after a couple of big circles I put her straight out in the field and I pushed her hard. If she wanted to act like a nutbag, fine, but we have to do it my way.

I knew she could do this and pay attention too. When we made the tree line I turned her around and we went back the way we came.

That completely defused the situation and we went on to enjoy one of the best rides ever.

No place I'd rather be

And nothing else I'd rather do.

20 August 2011
I can't think of a better way to enjoy a beautiful Summer day.

Sweet

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What's this? Beer? In a glass?!

Beer in a glass
I'm trying to acquire a deeper appreciation for beer. By noticing things like...what it looks like. I drink my beer out of a bottle. And honestly, last May was the first time in 30 years it occurred to me to drink beer out of a glass. Since then I've had beer in a glass a couple of times and I've liked it.

Here I've been drinking beer for 40 years and I still don't know what my favorite beer looks like. I imagine it's kind of straw colored.

So. To bring more depth to my experience I have made the commitment to have at least one beer from every 6 pack in a glass. I still can't make even a wild guess about what beer may taste like based on what it looks like. But I find the appearance of that nice frothy head on that Long Trail IPA somehow...satisfying.

I love these woods

This picture reminds me of a paint by number (remember those?) I did when I was a kid:

20 February 2011
The adjoining property is wooded. I have no idea how big the property is. I know the neighbor's lot is 630 something acres but I don't know where the property lines are in the woods. There are some stone walls out there.

But for all I know they were abandoned a hundred years ago. I don't think there's more than a thousand acres out there, but there could be. I've walked those woods for years and L and I ride in there for hours.

This has to be my single most favorite picture from the woods:

28 November 2010
I was sorting pictures and the picture immediately before this one had no sunbeams. And the picture immediately after had no sunbeams. On a cold November afternoon, for just a few seconds, a mist rose and the sun through the trees caught it. It's one of those things that really tickles a photographer.

There are trails.

We have to work our way through a couple acres of brush following deer trails to get out there. It took *years* of training to gain the confidence to do that. It can be a little treacherous in the brush and I'd never forgive myself if L got hurt out there. I have confidence in her being sensible but sometimes she absolutely positively has to do what I tell her to or someone could get hurt. She knows when I mean it. And when I don't. Of course I know I have to mean it all the time and I'm working on that.

I've always had a fondness for the outdoors. Being outdoors and feeling close to natural things is one of the (many) reasons I do this horse stuff.

Here. One afternoon. Following a deer trail on horseback. How cool is this! Does it get any better? It looks like a diorama in a natural history museum.

August 2008

The other Autumn

Ride now?
L usually enjoys our rides. But I'll have to lunge her today. She was awfully frisky yesterday! She really wanted to cut loose and I had to hold her back. I like her to be careful when we're going bareback and while I would like to have had us charge around like a couple of nutbags - careful is a good habit for her to have!

I made it up to her. When we were done riding I led her off to hand graze the best grass I could find. She really enjoyed that!

It's actually just as well. I saw two chuck holes out there right where we like to charge. I'll have to mark them. I don't think I would have seen them at warp speed. Shouldn't the chucks be asleep for the winter by now?!

When we think of Autumn, of course, here in New England anyway, we think of the brilliant colors we're famous for. And apples! It's harvest season and we go get squash and pumpkins and make pies and drink cider. I really hate the wintertime but I love comfort food!

But as the season wears on it gets more like this:


We ride out here and this time of year, especially when it's overcast, the wooded paths look like something out of a creepy fairy tale. I could have sworn I left a trail of bread crumbs out here.

There are miles of trails in the woods but getting out there is a challenge. It really does look like this:

We have to bushwhack our way through a couple of acres of brush to get out there. The footing is quite good but winding our way around can be a little dicey.

And then here, look at the contrast. This is basically the same picture as this one, from a slightly different angle.


I didn't plan that. What I mean is I didn't go out of my way - it just struck me as a way to see the change within the season. The same place a few weeks apart.

No surprise here. Yes Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!

Colors of Fall

We had a few days of color!


The seasonal changes here in New England tend to be bold. Every season I like to get that one picture that I feel best reflects the season. Because of the dry summer this year the foliage season was late and the colors were expected to be dull. The colors were late but we did have a couple of days of brilliant color.

Here, I think "Fall 2010" has to be one of these:



Trail tip!

If I should..oh.."lose my seat" on the trail I really don't think L is going to go far without me. But just in case - one never knows, I have a dog tag with an emergency phone number on her bridle. Oh, and those are little pieces of reflector tape on her browband. There in front of her ears. Sometimes we ride in the dark. Not in the street. But still.



And of course Fall in New England is time for apples!


Have cheddar cheese with your McIntosh apples. I think this is actually called an "orchard lunch" or something like that. Carr's Whole Wheat crackers are delicious with McIntosh apples!

Got my baby back

Sweety's got her mojo back!

After warming up and schooling we had a nice charge down the hay field:


Then we chased some turkeys around. The turkeys are everywhere this time of year.

Then we made our way through the brush...


Into the woods.


L is a most awesome trail horse! Trail riding is mostly what we do. And by now I think she knows her way around these woods better than I do.

I remember, early in L's training, 15 minutes in the saddle felt like a couple of hours. It was real work. And sometimes I thought I'd never get it.

Now I often lose all track of time. When L is attentive and fully engaged she's beautifully balanced. She's light with a lift in her stride and a swing in her barrel and a little push off her hips. It's just the best thing ever. Darned near puts me to sleep sometimes and a couple hours can go by like nobody's business.

This really is the greatest thing.