Bluebonnet

First of all, apologies to my readers as well as to ANDI for leaving her hanging on a bad training day. She is coming along nicely and I'll get caught up with her posts shortly.


In other news, What a fabulous time we had at the Bluebonnet ride this year. Due to "life" (and such), I hadn't been able to attend an endurance ride in about 14 months, and, as they say, that's too long.

It sure was great to be back in the saddle and back on the trail. GWAIHIR had an excellent ride his last time out (not counting the rider option pull last April due to the weather and his wimpy rider) with a 1st in our division and a 3rd overall on the tough Hill Country trail.

Saturday, he never missed a beat. Other than being a little more overly ambitious than usual, I couldn't tell he'd been out of the game for so long. He ate and drank better than ever and, as always, was eager for the trail. We had a great finish, I haven't seen the official results yet, but I think in the top 20.

If I read the photographers captions correctly, these photos are at about 47 miles. I love having happy horses at that distance.


Courtney rode ELBERTH (Beri), a smarter ride, letting us run, she slowed down for an easy day, just missing turtle by a couple of riders.

Beri finishing another 50 is a real success story for us as she tied up at the Bandera ride last year. We researched all our options and treated and brought her back conservatively.

We looked at everything, exercise, conditioning and fitness level, nutrition and even her heat cycle. I'd changed feeds and so I changed back. Over the course of the next weeks and months, we did a course of selenium and a very slow, structured work schedule, a period of rest and then a repeat of the very gradually increasing work, bringing her up to a regular riding schedule.

And it paid off. She's been doing light trail work and arena work, including winning the AHA OEIP National Mounted Shooting Championship for 2009, but this was her first long distance ride since her tie-up.

I couldn't resist adding this one. We're racing no one for ... I figured 30th place ... turned out to be in the top 20.... but I just love to let them run across the finish line. It feels good to have that much horse left. I didn't know Jim Edmondson (the photographer) was there, but got excited when I saw him get out his camera. I thought I'd get a real good photo of GWAIHIR extended and working, I love those with the nostrils flared and all that going on...

*sigh* It's a fun shot, but the son-of-a-gun doesn't even look like he's breathing hard. I love having that much horse, but he's going to have to work a little harder next time out so I can get one of those dramatic finish line photos that I love.

First Week

Little ANDRETH is a week old today.

Here is she with my mom who's President of my Fillies Fan Club. Thank goodness for moms who will come out and gush over each new colt and filly, no matter how many we've had over the years.

Andreth has proven herself to be sweet, sane and sassy, all in the same package and we're delighted with her. She's friendly and curious and loves being scratched.

I like to get the babies turned out on pasture as soon as I can, but even with a good sensible filly like Andreth, it's always a little scary to let them out into the big, wide world.


Of course, she did fine with it.

I turned them into the small pasture and they snorted and bucked around before taking off to the Wild Blue.

They had a nice run-around and tucked back into the comfort zone in their pen, took a longish nappy, and went exploring again.

Andreth will likely be my 'next' endurance horse, her dad and Beri may be ready to slow down by the time she's ready to go, so this is an excellent start for her.

Best laid plans...

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, we had high expectations for our two days of riding in the Hill Country State Natural Area outside of Bandera, Texas.

It was not to be.

We got out of town right on time early Friday morning and had an uneventful drive. Set up camp, exercised the horses a little and just generally got ready for Saturday's ride... braiding manes, packing fanny packs, making final adjustments on the tack and such.

Saturday started great. We trotted out at a moderate pace in the middle of the pack, down a park service road and then up into the beautiful rugged hills.

But very shortly my little star mare, Beri started slowing down. Her rider thought there was 'something wrong', but I couldn't see it. She had a bright expression and was walking freely, just didn't want to trot. She's a fairly well seasoned endurance horse and so I thought she was just being smart and conservative on the hills. We slowed down for her, then slowed down again and finally stopped for a real exam -- as good a one as I could do on the trail. I was looking for signs of colic or tying up (Equine Exertional Rhabdomyolysis). Her heart and respiration were normal, she was hydrated, had gut sounds and her butt was jiggly. But when I went to check her capillary refill, I knew we had trouble. Her gums were darkening and that's a sign of toxicity. I didn't know WHAT was wrong, but I did know we were definitely in trouble.

I sent Courtney on ahead on GLAMDRING to ride the best ride she could and I stayed with Abelino while he walked Beri down out of the hills and to a spot in the trail were we could cut through to a road. I flagged down a park ranger who drove to the base camp and let them know we were walking in with a sick horse. Beri's gums seemed to lighten a bit with the walking and her attitude perked up enough that I even wondered if it had been some minor upset tummy or thing that she had worked through. But we weren't taking any chances and so when ride management arrived with the trailer, we loaded her up and hauled back to the vet.

Her gums had darkened again by the time the vet examined her, but her other signs were not too bad so he recommended trailer rest and a close watch. But by the time we got her to the trailer, untacked and filled her hay bag, she'd started to tighten up and show all the classic signs (hard butt muscles) of tying up. We got her back to the vet and started on treatment.

It was a long day, and we have a long recovery and a slow rehab in front of us, but she's going to be fine -- which is the best possible news.

Courtney and GLAMDRING had a good ride on the 50 that day. He was tired at the finish, it's a tougher trail than he's been on before, but he still had some horse left and so we cleaned him up with the expectation of another 50 on Sunday.

Since Abelino didn't have a horse for Sunday and Beri was napping comfortably, he partnered with Ross Carrie to take a first place in the 12.5 mile RaT! They had a great time and I think he's definitely hooked on the sport.

GLAMDRING made it 25 miles on what was day 2 for him, before he started showing some strain (for a total of 75 for the weekend) and so it was up to me and GWAIHIR to bring it home.

It's not the kind of trail you can make a lot of time on, but I let GWAIHIR pick his pace and he likes to canter, even barefoot on this tough, rocky trail. I love this horse, he just keeps getting stronger and we so gained time over the last 25 miles to come in 3rd overall and take a 1st in our division.

So what else to say? We had some good rides in spite of the trouble and it's always a good day -- keeping in mind how fast things can go very wrong -- it's always a good day when you bring home a horse that pulled through some trouble.

It Needed Killin'

Gwaihir the Valiant has been enthusiastically and diligently rehearsing for the upcoming sequel to his hit video short on youtube.

As you can see, he has perfected the killing of the medium-sized orc.

First we have the kill -- the stomp and bite.

The follow-up bite and the toss away. (A gentleman always cleans up his messes so the ladies aren't subjected to the trauma of faux orc bodies.)

Jolly Balls...

So everyone reads about Telpe's tire and Miree's hay habit and wonder why I don't just buy them 'jolly balls'. (for those that don't know, they're big rubber balls they sell for horses to play with). I've tried that and found a couple of problems with them. I liked them overall, and the horses liked them well enough. But I thought, for the price (they aren't cheap) the horses didn't enjoy them *that much more* than say, a rubber feed pan or an empty milk jug.

The bigger problem I had with the balls was that they roll *head desk* ... I know what you're thinking .... it's a ball forcryingoutloud... right? But they roll under the fence and I'm the one playing fetch. (I'm not that bored). And not only do the horses toss them through the fence, but the wind blows them around. So in the summer time, the west pasture has all the balls, and in the winter time (we only have two seasons here) the south pasture has all the balls.

The obvious answer (obvious to me) is to wash out a milk jug, dribble a handful of grain in it and toss it out for them. But they don't last very long. Hours at most. And even my family doesn't drink that much milk. And then (again) I'm chasing them down and picking them up to throw away.

I thought I had a brillant idea and a break through when I finished off a jug of laundry detergent. It has a handy dandy kind of spout that doesn't allow backflow or drips and I thought it would work nicely to keep the grain snacks from pouring out too quickly.


As you can see, that part worked well. Grain goes easy in, but only sprinkles come out. Perfect for encouraging play. (as if they needed encouragement).

Not only did I like the spout, but I was excited by the heavy feel of the plastic. I thought it might last a couple of weeks.







The jug itself was a grand hit.


















but, alas, it didn't wear as well as had been hoped -- this photo was taken less then ten minutes into play and it had been completely demolished within a few hours.

New Arrivals

I've been remise in posting again, but (here comes the excuse) it's been a lot crazy around here. Between the kids and work and writing - and, of course, the horses - time flies by and a week or more has passed before I realize.

We've had a couple of new arrivals in the last week. ...well, one isn't mine, not really, but I still get to brag on him because he's GWAIHIR's only foal this year.

Introducing AELFLEAH AL AZRAQ ("The Grey"), otherwise known as "Chewy". He'll be available for sale once he's weaned. Contact Aelfleah Farms directly if you're interested in raising a top notch performance gelding.

He's friendly and curious, as most foals are, but more than that, he's bred in performance proven lines that have great (steady, trainable) minds to go along with their athletic abilities. As bad as the market is (and getting worse), I know how tempting it can be to go after those 'bargain' horses. And I know a lot of people enjoy those challenges. But if you want one that's bred right and raised right - give Aelfleah Farms a call about this little guy because he's both.

The other 'new arrival' is mine. Not a foal though, we have a new mare.

DB RIANNE pulled in, after a long drive, about 4am this morning.

She's 10yo with a show record in hunter/jumper and endurance with a jr rider and we're pretty excited about her being here.

We owned her dam, DB RIFIAMA, for several years (as an older mare) and were very disappointed that we were never able to get a foal from her.

So many times, these wonderful little mares go into family homes, or performance homes (as they should), but then they are never preserved, replaced, to give future generations the benefit of knowing their daughters. Of course, the often unpleasant flip side of that is too many generations bred without performance testing, but that's a post for another day.

In any case, RIANNE is a case of how well it can work when people come together for the good of the horse and we're extremely grateful to the Schotts for their concern and generosity and working with us to get her down here where we'll continue her performance record, as well as breeding her within her rare group and sub-group to provide good-minded, athletic little mares to another generation of young riders.