A Beautiful Ride, Until it Got Weird

We haven't ridden in this meadow for quite a while. The horses love it. I love it. It's relaxing and uplifting at the same time. We saw a family of elk and several good sized deer.

The meadow part of the ride is about a mile.

I'm going to come back to this photo in a minute.

After this there's some nice forest riding along a pretty good-sized creek (Big Creek) where Huckleberry was a bit surprised to find himself swimming, not wading.

Then we crossed the creek and a short jaunt on the road and we were going to make a loop of it but the loop has been ruined by logging, so we took another way and figured we'd just eventually go back the way we came.

Not far down that soft logging road Sawyer started sniffing the ground, then itched his foot. Not that weird. He doesn't usually sniff the ground, though. A little ways further he put his head way down again to sniff the ground, or so I thought, but he laid down! I jumped off as fast as I could in case he rolled, but he didn't. He laid there for a bit, sternal, and then got up. We walked him back. He seemed tired and he kept nudging me & stumbling. He stuck his nose in a hollow stump and parked himself there for quite a while. His gums were wet & pink and his capillary refill time was good. His heart rate was a little high at one point but after standing still for a minute or two it was normal.

Now, we had only done just over 2 miles on level ground when he laid down. It was warm in the sun but probably not over 75 at 8:30 in the morning. But look back up at his neck in that last picture. After only a mile in the meadow he was that sweaty?

This isn't colic, he was pooping nice wet poops. No gas. No dehydration. Maybe he's just too old? Maybe he does have something wrong internally? Maybe his toes are too long? He's due for a shoe re-set in 3 days but his hooves grew too fast. Aarrgh. Horses. I might have the vet run some blood. I'll definitely ask my farrier about his hooves.

Bits, Anatomy, Britchen and Donkeys

I just thought I'd share this video that came up on one of my riding donkey forums today. I've watched this trainer's other videos on bits before and he really gets down into the nitty gritty details. I really like his videos. This one is even better because you can see the anatomy on the skull and he explains it well. (Note the difference between wolf teeth and canines. A lot of people do get confused by this and want canines removed. Not possible or necessary.) I didn't know the details on those nerves in the face until now. Good info!

Also, Buster's fancy new britchen from Outfitter's Pack Station came in yesterday. Happy Birthday to me from John. It doesn't look as pretty on him as it did on those shiny, well groomed mule butts at the show, but it is a very nice piece of equipment. I love the pretty buckle covers with hearts.

This wasn't our final adjustment, but you get the idea (and turns out we did still need a flank cinch):

View from the saddle:

I wasn't sure I could figure out the buckle covers, but they sort themselves out when you adjust things. And all the buckles are real roller buckles! Yay! No Conway buckles! I hate those things!

Miss Juniper Joon Junebug Jones is almost shed out and I forgot how beautiful she is. I'll get better pics but this is the best I got yesterday.

She is soooo starved for attention. Most of the time. Other times my guts stink and she won't come near me (usually when I'm trying to bring them in from the pasture. Or wearing a hat. Or gloves. Or she saw the hoof trimming tools. :) )

She's a spicy jalapeno.

Thoughts From Corral-side

Heyburn State Park

It probably looks like I just screw around all the time. Super self-indulgent. Yeah, maybe. But one could say I'm desperately holding on to happiness. Which sounds desperate. Which isn't quite right. More like I'm making my happiness and health and enjoyment of life a priority. I don't believe we were put here to suffer. We need to make the best of what we've got. I am sick more often than not with migraines. A lot of the time I sleep, thanks to that darn sleep disorder, and the rest of the time I need to keep my butt moving! Especially when the sun is shining! Forget having a pretty garden or a nice lawn, I'm going to do what I love.

I do know how privileged I am to be able to live a life I love. I wish everyone in the world lived in their own personal paradise.

I wrote the above yesterday as I was sitting with the horses in camp while they enjoyed their breakfast. I sat waking up with my coffee, listening to the birds, watching the sun on the leaves. I tentatively thought I had just ended a 5 day migraine. It started up again a few hours later.

Today is one of the dark room, ice pack, and ALL the pills sorts of days. I'm having trouble making technology or my eyes work so I'm going to just load some pics, leave them all a little small (click to enlarge it you like), and probably not say much about them. We had a nice weekend despite the pain. Probably would have been better today if I hadn't pushed through the weekend, but it was lovely.

 What do you think this is? We've narrowed it down to a bird with the beak missing.

I'm going to nap now & hope to spend time with Buster later. Have a good day!

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Colic

For Father's Day all John got from me was a Papa Bear mug and a trip to the wilderness. He was happy. :) He doesn't drink coffee anymore, the weirdo, but he still likes his mug. Henry, my step-dad, went with us too. We had fun.

Scout looks like he's paying respect to the aspens:

We all appreciated the shade, even though it was early in the day.

Water was much appreciated as well. I love the ripples around Huckleberry.

John was being a dork, try to ruin my picture. I finally got Huckleberry to look at me! What a gorgeous meadow. We found the trail we were told went up the mountain there by following the faint four-wheeler tracks in the grass. The horses were back at the corrals resting.

I wish my camera picked up the yellow flowers better. They're so cheerful!

If you look closely you can see Henry behind John, hiking with his pack.

On our last ride on Sunday we saw a mama bear with two cubs! (Black bears, we don't have grizzly.) At first I wasn't sure if she was a burnt stump but then she stood up and looked at me, then ran off. One tiny cub followed, and the second was a little slow to figure out what was up. It ran the wrong way, climbed a little ways up a tree, then thought better of it and followed mama. 

I just stood where I was on Sawyer at the lead of our group, about 100 yards away, not crowding them, giving them room to decide what to do and where to go. Of course I was making a lot of noise hollering at Huckleberry to LEAVE IT! COME HERE! LEAVE IT! I was so afraid he was going to chase them but apparently he's not totally stupid. Sawyer stood like a rock.

Sawyer... He colicked again a week ago.  I had the vet out to tube him with lots of water and mineral oil. It took him almost 3 days to pass the mineral oil. He was dehydrated at the time of the colic but had super hydrated poop during those 3 days, just small quantities. If I didn't keep him moving his gut noises would slow or stop... I have been giving him salt and such, and he's drinking like a champ. I worry that he either has a partial blockage (the vet ran into something in his stomach with the stomach tube - maybe just dry feed) or his peristalsis isn't working like it should. 

I am over thinking his diet, of course. It might be time to stop feeding hay. Long fibers not well chewed won't help. But he does love his alfalfa. I'm going to try out some Chaffhaye, maybe. It's moist, fermented, chopped alfalfa. Can only get it in Spokane, of course... Also adding soaked chia and flax for mucilage and fiber, to help him poop maybe? He won't eat the senior feed if I soak it, so I'm going to get some sweet feed and see if I can moisten his food if I add that for flavor. Picky dude. Add some probiotics. Maybe Epsom salts for slight laxative effect and magnesium? Tastes bad though, and I'm not sure daily use is a good idea.

I think continuing to ride him is good for him. Movement obviously helps. Within reason, of course. I hike half of our rides if they're very long.

Any suggestions/thoughts?

Camping

This is how Scout rolls

This is how Buster rolls

This is how I roll

This is why we roll

This looks a heck of a lot like a bear was scratching here, just outside the corrals:

Look at those eyes!

I love Buster's eyes. He's a thinker and a watcher.

Camp, all set up.

An evening walk.  John and I were tired.

This is the stuff I dreamed of when I was a kid.  Horses in flowery meadows.  I doubt John was dreaming about the same thing.  And I had no idea donkeys were even better than horses. :)

I made a sweet friend.  The corral was under construction for an hour or two, and the cowdogs weren't supposed to visit, but I snuck in some loving.  Some border collies are just the sweetest, with their tender loving looks & cuddles.  My goodness.

Did you know donkeys are really good at guilt trips?  Buster was bored and ready to get going for the day.  They know how to let you know what they're thinking when they want to.

We got going, and eventually I mounted up and rode a bit in a big field, then Buster carried me over this water crossing.  What a good guy!  He carried me over another deep water crossing, but mostly he hiked.  It was too slick and he got nervous carrying me in the mud.  I don't blame him.

We spent a lot of time on a dark, narrow trail in the woods, then stopped here for a snack break.  Not a bad spot.

Eventually John let me steal his horse.  I kept him for the rest of the ride.  John had lost his glasses and we had to back track rather than finishing the loop.  I offered him his horse back but he figured walking was his penance.  We didn't find the glasses.  I hope they didn't fall to the bottom of a puddle.  We'll go back & look again.

He looks like he's scowling, but that's resting John face.  

Next morning we had to get going, but we got in a nice little ride/hike.

Buster saw some cows!  (You can see the reddish brown dot to his right in the trees.)  I think the cows thought we didn't see them.  They were WILD and stampeded twice the first night we were there, but this time they stayed really quiet until we were out of sight, then they all started bellowing their relief at not being spotted.  Silly critters.

Buster and I got a little riding in back at camp. We're making baby steps.  I adore his ears.

Boy am I still sleepy.  I begin to wonder if this drug can have an opposite effect and make me tired.  Or maybe I'm just wearing myself out.  Also, I had a migraine yesterday, so that doesn't help. I have so much to get caught up on at home so we can go have fun again!