More Fun

My daughter rode with me yesterday! I decided not to take her out into hunting-land, so we rode at home, which turned out to be less than super fun.

I saddled up both of the older horses, Ruger (my dad's horse) and Coy. Ruger seemed pretty worked up so I rode him. He really wanted to be with Bella and Scout. We had a nice little ride just cruising around the property, but both horses were a little magnetized to their friends.

Ruger went back to his big herd at the boarding stable after that. I think he likes it better over there, and we won't be riding him now. Liam's interest was short-lived.

Late in the day I went back out and trimmed Coy's hooves, fed him, let him graze in the yard, then rode again. Mind you, these are short rides.

Everyone posed for a nice picture for me:

So, as to Coy's name. I can never remember it when I need to. And I don't really like it. I do like its meaning: a quiet place, a woods, or a forest. But I'm constantly calling him Cal by accident. A product of either my head injury or my migraine drugs, I'm sure.  So if his name changes, that's why. I'm trying to call him Coy, but it's not working well for me. And even though he's an older guy and he should know his name, he doesn't respond to it, so I'm not sure he does know it. We'll see. I can't just keep calling him, "My horse."

First Ride

Oh my gosh I had so much fun with my new buddy yesterday. We hauled out to go on a trail ride but it ended up being a hike for me. We weren't planning on snow, and Coy kept getting giant snowballs in his hooves. But it was a lovely hike even with the bad footing. It smelled so good, pine trees and mist rising off the snow. Perfect.

John LOVED riding Scout again. So I guess we know whose horse is whose.

After picking out the billionth snowball, we turned back. I wanted to actually ride, and for that we had to go home. Coy is a blast to ride! We rode over tarps and into hiding grouse who spooked up into the sky. Nothing seems to bother him except the idea of leaving his new horse friends. And even that he's not terrible about.

I can't wait to ride again today.

A New Friend

I'd like to introduce you to Coy. He is such a cool old guy! He fits right in here with the gentle herd (Juniper and Duncan). He's totally all about food right now.

He was out to pasture with some sheep at his previous home, which his owner thought was quite good food, but the pasture has dried up. He's a bit thin. Not that his owner didn't love him, he very much does love him, but his wife has cancer and he wants to make sure Coy gets all the love he needs while the family deals with more important things.

Coy is a traveller fore sure, he really likes to move around and explore. He doesn't look for boogey men, he just goes. No drama. He's supposedly 18 years old, been-there-done-that, and my farrier likes him (he's known the horse for years), which is a big plus. His hooves could be better, but they could be a lot worse too. I've started him on my good vitamin supplement (HorseGuard) and Farrier's Formula double strength, which has excellent reviews online, and am gradually increasing his equine senior. Plus LOTS of grass hay. He's a happy camper. I love feeding them up, so I'm happy too. I may have to buy more hay though...

I looked at a couple other horses before I looked at Coy, drove a long ways, had a funny feeling about the first seller, and it was just a weird experience. Too iffy. The second horse I didn't even ride. Fighting the bit, really raring to go. This horse that you could supposedly put anyone on. Horse shopping is such a strange experience. They all sound great in their ads.

We should be taking the horses out for an easy trail ride today. I woke up with a splitting headache though so I need to get that under control.

John hit an old cow elk (the size of a horse) with his Prius last night. I'm a lucky lady to have my husband unscathed. It killed the elk and may have totalled the car but he's fine. 

Pictures

I love the tiny rain ripples in the water in the photo above. We got a little wet on that ride. I didn't even carry a jacket. Whoops.

The total barrenness of post-harvest Palouse sometimes makes me think of Mad Max. But I was kinda in a funk that day.

Glorious view! On top of the world!

Yesterday we drove up to Spokane to help my parents with ripping out their deck. I tried to help remove nails. Nope. It caused a headache. So I had an enforced day of rest.

Today I have to go up again to see the neurologist, so more driving, which causes headaches, but if I can I'm definitely gonna ride later.

Lots of saddle time

Photo taken by my sister

We had a lovely ride yesterday. The fall color is so glorious & the temperature is perfect. It was windy but that's never quite so bad once you're in the mountains.

Scout kept kicking and bumping his butt up and I found a bunch of small houndstongue burrs on him and thought it was strange that he was being so sensitive. I picked them all off and went on, but he was still upset, so I checked again. He had one way up in the sweaty crease of his groin. Ouch! I guess that's a good argument for making sure your horse lets you touch his underbits.

Other than that it was a relaxing, uneventful, gorgeous ride.

I was going to share photos from three other rides this past week but blogger is being difficult.

I got to ride with John and Ruger on Monday, and a baby deer almost ran me down, it was so weird! I heard something galloping straight at us through the brush and got ready for trouble (maybe a spook), kind of confused because it didn't sound very big. The wee thing realized we were there at the last instant and stopped short, stared, and took off in another direction. Poor thing. There are hunters in the woods right now stirring things up. Scout got excited and wanted to go after it.

I also rode on Tuesday with my sister and a couple of her boarders, and Wednesday with Cindee in the farm fields near her house. We are making the most of this good weather!