Fun on a different note

Two of my kiddos came to visit me last week
1 with her SO from Virginia
1 with himself from Portland OR.

We had so much fun!

Hiking at William Pond Park along the American River

Making and eating the best ever cheesecake

Snowshoeing at Donner pass...

Hiking to Vikinsholm




Sleeping at Squaw Valley...and swimming too *in a heated pool!

Driving all of the way around Lake Tahoe


Dabbling in the Raging Truckee River

Kayaking on Lake Natoma and visiting the Heron's Roost...blurry shots
moving kayak and flying bird!The 5 days went far too fast.
Then all was quiet
The husband in NYC for 10 days
just me and the dogs

Itchy Itch....SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH!

That Side Swipe noted in the previous post?
Yah
That was POISON OAK...
SCRATCH SCRATCH SCRATCH
for
TEN (10) days
and I still have an occasional SCRATCH!
AGHA!

Side Swiped

Nevel and I  decided to try a new trail.
In all the years we have been at the barn
we have never taken the Horseshoe bar road loop.

I hand walked Nevel down the road.
Then also up and down the hills on the dirt path
Until we reached the gate through to the real trail.
A large flat rock presented itself for me to utilize
as a mounting block.
Nevel wouldn't stand still
It took numerous reminders

Numerous repositioning
with help of my trusty crop

Finally aboard we headed left towards Rattlesnake bar.
Nevel was acting antsy
Some hikers came our way and asked how to find Avery's pond.
I pointed them up the trail and turned myself around to head towards Sterling Pointe.

A mucky section of trail
Downhill
Flanked by mossy rock on one side
Steep embankment on the other
Gave Nevel pause and he wheeled around
Heading back for Horseshoe Bar road.

I turned him back around and encouraged him to cross the muck.
He snarfed
He blew
He looked for other ways around...
Finally he decide to leap upwards on to the embankment
So much for letting him have his head to decide the best way...
My neck got sideswiped.

No worries
We continued onward

More hikers
with a silently aggressive dog

They pulled to the side of the trail
which was narrow
caving in towards the steep embankment downwards...
Nevel didn't want to pass the dog.

I chirped
He slipped in the weakened trail
Made it through yet another obstacle....











Aahhh. Finally....8.4 mph trot
Then
SLAM on the BRAKES
A large hewn tree
plenty wide for us to pass through the split sides...

Not Nevel....wheel around again...
STOP!  WHOAHHH!
I get off
We hike up to and through
He acts like it was no big deal...no hesitation at all.

Attempt to remount
Slippy saddle cuz he's all sweaty
Tighten girth
Attempt again...he misbehaves and won't stand still
AGHA!
Back on....up the trail we go
He behaves all the way to the rubber covered bridge
That used to have that Realestate sign

Dances sideways across
Then Good boy all the way home.
I've decided the main issue is that saddles just roll around on him
I'm not balanced
And both of us just wobble up the trail

How Slow Can I GO?

According to the GPS...
2.3 average mph. over a 4.5 mile trail.
WOW NEVEL....REALLY?
The short 9.4mph trot didn't last long.
Low hanging branches or muck kept shortening our lope.
And Trail making decisions...Which way should we go...

We ended up going right and picked up the Forest Lake Trail for a way down to the lake.
But my nifty idea of attaching my camera to my water back pack failed.  The velcro stuck to
my saddle pad and then somewhere on me and in the midst of untangling Nevel whirled around
and headed back up the trail.

At the top, I hopped off to stretch my aching hip
and decided that the flowers were worth a stop.

.

At Sterling Point Nevel perked up when a horse trailer rolled in to the parking area

Here you can see that I took off the "halter" part of his halter bridle and am using his rope halter instead.  I snapped the brow band around both the halter and bridle and it makes for a less cumbersome combination.
Persee's saddle is comfortable...I shortened the stirrups in the arena yesterday for better balance, but
that simply made my knees hurt and my hip out of whack for the up and down on the trail...perfect for trotting though...
On the way home we had to pass back by the large fenced area that has a Kuvasz guard dog.
The dog is still young and very beautiful, but intent on barking viciously at us.  The owner-a nice young man came around today and made her behave a few times on the way in and out.
I used to have maremma and Great Pyrenees dogs which are similar in look to the Kuvasz with the Kuvasz being more territorial.

Our next obstacle was the rubberized "bridge" that Never was attacked on last week by the Realestate sale sign.
This week going to Sterling he refused to cross the bridge and went out in the road.
So coming home I hand walked him over it and he sidestepped on it and almost fell off.  Silly silly
horse!
So we turned around and did it two more times and then sauntered to our lane.
I tried to remount, but with Nevel not standing still and his saddle slippy sliding sideways and my
out of whack hip I couldn't get back on.

I threatened him with the crop a few times until he stood still, but the saddle kept sliding since I couldn't pull my self on.

We walked further to a suitable rock...had more "arguments" over standing still.  I tightened the girth one more hole, hopped up on the rock and managed to mount with minimal slippage.
NEvs then eagerly trotted for home with only one minor spook at the mounting block by the gate because the wind was blowing plastic hanging from a nearby building.

Back home I could barely get off due to pain in my knees.  I hate getting old!  But guess I will lengthen the stirrups again as that seems to help.
It made me second guess my goal of doing a 25 LD next year and also a 50 by the time I am 60 which is only 3 years away.
Im determined to at least do a 25 again though before my life ends..so I am counting on Persee to carry me through with a spring in his step!

Never doesn't care about goals unless it has to do with eating GRASS!

Cool Saturday

Saturday

A beautiful cool day.  The 95 degree days of last week are gone.

Maybe a warm up in the arena would be a good way to spend the day.
And so we did
Nevel and I
But first I had to move my trailer.
A new gate installed
Hits my trailer when opened.
Why didn't they ask me to move the trailer first before installing a gate?

I moved the chock from one of my wheels and found thissssssss
A SHNNNNAKE!  A red tipped baby garter.  Quite cold in 57 degrees.

Then Never and I spent some time in the arena and visiting with S & M....ok that doesn't sound nice
but they are wonderful ladies!  : )
Then I walked Nevel to the stumps that he thought would eat him last week.
They were worth his SHNUFFLE this week.

It was a pleasant morning...
Finished off with the sweet aroma of FRESH Strawberries being sold just off of Horseshoe Bar Road!