My Falcon no longer flies

Falcon has an injury of unknown origin. I am hosing it out everyday, putting betadine on it and some other wonder dust or something....I wish he would heal, but he has so much movement in this area, it keeps breaking open.

Helloooooo I am back...

Wow! It has been a long time since I have blogged. Ok, well, Long Story Short!

My friend Karen and I went for a ride in April. A lovely warm day. Falcon was fairly well behaved.

we had a nice canter up a short hill and did a lot of walking and trotting since it was our first day out in a few months.

I was just recovering from a stomach bug too and was fairly weak. We were just about a half mile from Karen's house when a small red truck came blowing up the gravel road.

He slowed down and stopped while Karen passed. Falcon and I were farther behind, the fella inched towards us and waved me to pass. As I came up even with his truck he stepped on the gas....spun out and sprayed stinging gravel on me and falcon.

Falcon went straight up the steep embankment to my right and I turned him back I thought to myself...yippee, I stayed on! BUT my hip was out of wack so I kicked my foot from the stirrup. Falcon was still slipping on the slick gravel road. He dipped and splayed out and I flew over his right shoulder.

My foot was stuck in the stirrup and I remember reaching up with my hand to loosen it and seeing Falcons belly and legs and I hadnt even hit the ground yet!

WHAM I went. Falcon went straight up in the air and took off bucking like a bronch up the road.

Karen didnt seem to know what to do...help me or get the horse. I was stunned, breathless, I told Karen to leave Falcon, that he would come back.

Sure enough....galloping back he came when I called him. He wouldnt have if there had been other horses to follow.

I climbed back on, but man did my right side hurt. I got off, I got on, I got off. I couldnt decide which was more painful, riding or walking. That was the longest half mile I have EVER walked.

I didnt go to the E.R. until the next day. My whole back/right side was ripped up and bruised and my right knee was as big as a grapefruit.

X-rays did not show any breaks so they gave me vicoden and two weeks off from work.

two weeks later the pain was worse then ever. So I took another week off. The Ortho surgeon pushed on my ribs and said....ohhhh you have broken ribs no doubt...non displaced ones don't show up on first x-rays...it takes 2-3 weeks.

8 weeks later, I still have some aches and pains, but all is improving....BUT NOW....OHHHHHH dearrrrrrrrrr.....Falcon must have gotten got in some downed trees or something and has ripped up his back leg.

Bad time of year with all of the flies....I am hosing his leg everyday, betadine, flyspray and antibiotics....OHHHHHH BOTHER....and I move to CA in two weeks. Now he can't be ridden by the lady who was going to keep him conditioned for me.

Falcon will have to go back to training if he ever gets better...he has had wayyyyyyy too much time off from school!

Sweeping out the Cobwebs

Today was beautiful! 61 and sunny, BUT very windy. I decided that I would take a ride on Red Dog and let Karen ride Dakota. We headed down through the woods as usual and made the 0.5 mile loop up to the driveway.

At this point, Griffin, the labradoodle decided to attack the hens and I had to make Red trot over and threaten Griffen. The hen squawked as she was freed. Hit the pasture fence and bounced through...and hit the ground running.

I decided that maybe it would be best not to take Griffin since there were new calves in the pasture. I locked him in the kennel while Karen went to the barn to get a breastplate for Dakota.

The woods were barron, the leaves damp and moldy and the ground squishy from the thaw.
We reached the open field and gingerly trotted around the edges. Everything was muck. The field had been plowed and replanted with winter rye which was peaking its little green shoots through the mud.

It wasnt a very good decision of mine to slop through all of that mud. The horses ended up with muck all over their bellies and girths.

The open grassy pasture was a welcome site. I hopped off and did the gate duty. Red did not want to stand still for mounting..but I worked with him a bit on that and then we trotted and cantered around a small part of the field, crossed the stream and skirted the larger part.

The cows and calves were all huddled in a hummock trying to get out of the wind.

Karen didnt seem too interested in more cantering. She was tired from shoveling gravel all morning and stressed by her car and family.

Red was pulling to go home, so I pulled him back towards the west and cantered him up a hill away from Dakota. I circled him several times and as we neared the pond a huge gust of wind came and blew up waves in the pond. At the same time Gemma came up over the hill and Red spooked and took off running at full speed and gave two big bucks. I managed to stay on and hauled back on his reins. I was really unbalanced after the second buck and was so totally glad he hadnt given a third one.

Regaining control we circled the pond and met up with Karen and Dakota and rode to the gate. This time Karen hopped off and did gate duty.

Red was chomping at the bit and tried to race for home. I whirled him around and whacked his butt. He was MAD and kicked out wildly to the right then pranced sideways angrily...I made him STAND and calm down then allowed him to walk towards Dakota. From there we mostly walked until we reached the driveway and there I let red trot out.

He really was mostly a very comfortable ride. I told Karen that he is better without shoes on. She didnt think it would make any difference...but she hasnt ridden him unshod...so maybe tomorrow....

It was GREAT to be back on a horse!

A paradox

The short days of winter really are VERY LONG! quite a paradox. I have not been motivated this winter to even think about endurance riding. And, I have only ridden twice...short rides at that.

There is quite a mindset for Endurance and I must say that after the initial week long adrenaline rush high that I had after the Fort Valley LD in October...I had a state of depression going on for a few weeks.

In January, I had the opportunity to fly to Sacramento, Ca. There was a professional archer/hunter on the plane in my row of seats and we talked about the adrenaline rush/depression syndrome. He gave me some good tidbits of advice that he had gotten from an Olympic runner.

He said to make a plan for your next goal/quest. Put it in writing...in easy to follow steps and make an effort to start attaining the simple goals.

I have yet to make my list...I figure I might be too far gone at this point...BUT if I do manage to motivate myself to get back on the horse, I might have my starting point at least. IT is sunny, warmer today...maybe today is THE DAY!

White Oak Canyon ride.

Wow, a week gone already since the LD. Where does the time fly!

Last night I hooked up the horse trailer and took Falcon to it. He stopped 6 ft from the trailer and wouldnt budge. I climbed on and put steady pressure on his lead rope and asked him to "load up" or "step" Finally he stepped and nosed the trailer.

More rebellion, more pressure, then step, step, one foot on the trailer. Finally, up he came. I made him stand there for about 5 min. then backed him off. He was tenative and hung balancing on the edge of the trailer before finally stepping off.

I repeated the process 5 more times until he was loading without hesitation again...YEAHHHHHHHHH!

So today, when Karen came, I asked her to keep her distance with Red and not to crowd us. Falcon loaded right up. Then Red.

We drove up to Skyline Drive and looked for parking....Were we crazy? It was a weekend during PEAK LEAF season! Finally we found parking at Skyland in front of some of their cabins.

We hadnt checked the horses feet before we left and Karen promptly found that Red was missing his right front shoe and pad! DARN! Ok, well, coban and duct tape it is. His foot was too wide for the Easy Boot.

That done, we wandered around looking for the trail that our map showed to no avail.
Finally we headed down Skyline Drive towards the stables where we knew the White Oak Canyon trail was.

The Trail started out on a fire road down crossed three creeks that paralleled each other and then turned on to a leaf strewn rocky trail down into the canyon to the creek. Unfortunately I dont have any pictures of us CROSSING this creek because it was quite tricky and narrow underwater with large slippery rocks.

Falcon and Red crossed like champs and we continued for a short distance up the otherside. Then decided that the day was short and we better head back since we couldnt make time with Red's lack of a shoe.

This time, Red crossed the creek first. The creek became muddy and Falcon managed to step up onto the large slippery rock under water. He kind of lept foward to regain his balance, only to freak out at a tiny waterfall on the left and two barking dogs on the right.

Mid stream he whirled around and lunged out. Oh great. No amount of coaxing would get him to reenter. I dismounted and tried to walk on dry rocks while leading him through the water...He chose to attempt to follow me on the rocks and promptly slid hither and yon.

Quite a crowd of tourists were gathering to see the outcome....most of them had seem him cross initially.

Karen attempted to get Red to come back across so she could lead Falcon, but Red wouldnt budge from the opposite side!

Finally a young man pointed west and said "hey, there is a foot bridge up there"

I said, "that is for people, big sign says, horses not allowed"

He said, "I won't tell if you wont tell!" yee hahhh...

So I walked Falcon up a narrow foot path, up 4 narrow steps onto a NARROW metal bridge. Falcon put one foot on the bridge, CLANK! another foot on the bridge CLANK!
foot 3 on CLANK, foot 4 on CLANK! Ok, this is going to take a LONG TIME!

Then CLANK CLANK CLANK CLANK....right across he scurried and then tackled 10 semi-wide steps down the other side and back on the trail.

Shooooo weeee and clapping and exclamations were heard how amazing it was for such a big horse to walk on such little steps....yeeee hahhhh.

Back up the trail we went, completing just under 6 miles in all quite uneventfully after the creek crossing...until we arrived at the trailer....DUMB PEOPLE parked a CAR RIGHT BEHIND the trailer.

Thankfully, the car ahead of me was just leaving and I was able to pull forward to board the horses. Falcon clambored right on, with Red close behind and we headed home having had a great day.

Squishy Squishy Ride Day

The ride manager invited all to come and ride the Fort Valley-describing beautiful fall foliage, etc.....


October 25, 2008


I didnt want to crawl out of my nice warm sleeping bag. I didn't even want to ride. I was having pre-ride jitters.
This would be my second LD ride if I managed to get on my horse.


My friend Karen had fed the horses at 6 a.m. and so I all had to do was decide what to wear and to saddle my horse.
The fine misting rain made everything all drippy, including the horses and I told Karen that 'we don't HAVE to do this' and she retorted 'we didnt do all of that conditioning for nothing, we are going to do this ride!'


I took in a long slow deep breath and turned my focus on getting Falcon ready. The darkness quickly turned into daylight with omnious clouds hovering overhead. By 7:30 we were mounted and warming the horses up. Falcon, a 5 y/o arab/paint cross was fairly relaxed/if not sleepy.


At 7:55 we checked in and waited for the start. A "controlled" start?!!!! NOT what I considered controlled. We started out in the middle of the pack. Horses were prancing and cantering and trotting along behind the lead vehicle and I had a major panic attack as I saw some horses slipping on the sleek wet pavement. We crossed a cement bridge and thankfully Falcon was more focused on the other horses.


Falcon, by this time was almost out of control, prancing and dancing sideways like a dressage horse as we all swept up the pavement...then aaah, a right turn onto a gravel road, much safer footing...and we cantered and trotted and moved our way towards the front of the pack.


Soon Karen and Red caught up to us and we went single file up a rocky trail over Milford Gap. The trail down the other side was rocky, wet and narrow. A rock ledge bordered the right with a sharp incline. Falcon maneuvered the trail well, head down, looking for rocks. Several times he stumbled and I flew up out of the saddle, losing my right stirrup and noted to myself that I needed to shorten that stirrup at the next water stop.


The rain began to deluge us now and water squished out of my moisture wicking tights everytime I hit the saddle. Yeeee Hah!
We came apon a wonderful grassy road and Falcon took off at a canter, on and on we went taking the lead for a while. He wanted to gallop, but we had miles to go and so I tugged on him to slow down (with little success) When we reached the gravel road along the Shenandoah river he set in to a more steady pace.


Soon we reached the ascent back up the mountain on another narrow and rocky trail. We climbed slowly and were soon overtaken by 5 other riders who we let pass. The warmth and steam rising from the passing horses made a great cloud to settle in over us. I thought we would never reach the top.


It was on this trail that we saw the BEAUTIFUL FALL FOLIAGE that ride management had spoken of. It was absolutely breathtaking. Then as we crested the top, the view of the Shenandoah valley once again took my breath away.


Once again a downpour enveloped us then lightened as we crossed back in to Fort Valley. We sped back down the trail and ended up at the first Vet Check in 7th place and all A's.


Karens daughter brought us hot Chicken Noodle Soup while friends took care of the horses for us. Karen's time out was about 4 min. later than mine, but since she was riding my horse and she is my friend, I waited for her. Karen needed some motivation to get going again, but soon we were back out on the trail at 1201.


Up the road we went, trot, trot, trot, squish, squish, squish. And DARN we missed the first turn and had to backtrack what seemed to be a mile. After that we stayed on trail. But I hated that loop for the most part. All winding through the woods and taking so many turns that my mind was in a whirl and I couldnt place what direction we were going in my head.


Up steep hills, down hills, more rain, trotting, galloping, squish, squish, squish. At a creek, Falcon stopped to drink and drink, then led 3 other horses up the rock creekbed, surefooted as ever. Man, I am glad he takes care of himself.


Finally Red took the lead with some urging from Karen. When we reached the hayfields Falcon decided it was time for a good buck or two, but I quickly caught on and yanked his head up. From there we had a belly deep water crossing. We LOVED that. Falcon didnt want to get out of the creek...as if we werent wet enough already.


One more short steep climb, then good trails to home. YEAHHH!. We had done the 12 miles in less than 2 hours. I walked Falcon in to the Vet, but he was too excited to be back 'home' and whinnied at anyone who would talk to him...not getting his heart rate down to 60.


Judy Ricci, his trainer was close by and came over to help...stuffing some electrolytes in his begrudging mouth and sponging him down for me. Then time for the vet. I was so excited, since we had come in next to last in the Virginia Highlands ride. We finished in the middle of the pack this time and could have placed a little higher had we not left 6 min. late and then gotten lost. And to think that I wanted to quit just because of a little rain!


It was an AWESOME ride.


And the sun came out just as the Vet called out 'overall A'! What an AWESOME AWSOME DAY!

Lunch Time

After setting up camp, we walked over and checked in. No waiting, we were early for the Saturday ride and todays riders were still out on the trail.

Walking back we mosied around at the two Vendors that were there and I hungrily eyed some black stirrups with cages. The other stirrups on my black plantation saddle creak with every move and the pads are quite worn out.

The plantation saddle had been basically a last minute decision when I found that my tree was broken on my Tucker Cheyenne and a pad was missing from my Tucker Endurance saddle and my stirrups were not interchangeable.

But, by then Betsy and "her" Ed had arrived at camp with lunch...Yummy turkey wraps with chipolte mayonaise, Cilantro potato salad and cranberry bars along with a selection of sodas, beer or water.

Betsy used to run Jordon Hollow Farm Inn and now just Inn sits, so she has a multitude of yummy recipes up her sleeve.

After lunch we wandered around camp. Betsy is also a past endurance rider and so she knew lots of people at the camp. I took this time to head back to the Vendor to splurge on the stirrups.

Taking that back to the saddle, it seemed that the bars were too wide for the leathers, so Betsy, Ed and I went back to see if they had a narrower bar, but alas, I already had the smallest one. The vendor said "They will work, I sold some to a friend with REALLY NARROW leathers and she didnt have ANY problems. I garantee that they will be fine"

Betsy mumbled...mmmmmmm, I don't know, I don't know about THAT!. Well, I decided to go with the vendors words and trudged back to the trailer to put them on.

Karen also bought a pair of endurance stirrups with out cages for her Aussie. She had been riding in english irons....not good for 30 miles in the mountains and expected rain.

Then it was time to vet the horses in. They had had plenty of time to eat and drink and Falcon vetted through with an overall of A- due to relaxed skin, but I believe he is just like that, he just isnt really tight skinned.

Then we relaxed around camp. Betsy had talked to the first place finisher on the 30 mile ride and got the scoop on the trail conditions...not that it would totally help us since he rode on dry trails and we were expecting wet ones. But at least he told us where we could really move out and make up some time if necessary.

By then it was almost 5 and I decided that I better head 10 miles back down the road to check in at Fort Valley Stables where I had reserved a cabin for two nights.

Just then "my" Ed drove up, so I hopped in his car and we took our stuff to the cabin which turned out to be cozy with a tiny t.v. and a GIANT microwave oven. I think it must have been the first one ever made!

We threw our sleeping bags out on the bunk beds and then headed back to camp for a supper of baked ziti, rolls and salad and then pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. I had the vegetarian baked ziti. Man it was good, but I harrassed the man for serving me with the same spoon that he had dished the meat version with...hheeee heee.

I told him that I didnt mind since I wasn't even a vegetarian, but liked the plain version better.

The young girl that took our meal tickets was quite creepy, very straight faced and quiet until the guy in front of us tried to get his meal with out his ticket, she frowned and said "no ticket, no meal"! yikes....so he dropped out and ran to his truck for his meal ticket. Turns out that they had like 5 big pans left over and could have fed like 50 more people!

A fine misting rain started to settle in as the ride meeting started. A great indicator of the day to come!

The ride meeting over, we went and blanket the horses even though it was around 60 degrees. Most horses were blanket and we figured the temperature would drop with the rain.

From there Karen opted to sleep in her truck to be close to the horses and Ed and I drove back to the cabin where we both crawled in to our bunks.

I didnt sleep well...pondering the next days ride, the weather, and the fact that I just didnt even want to do this ride at all. Pre-ride jitters for sure.