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Sep. 11th, 2007 08:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickOn Sunday, La and I went out. Phantom came out of the field on three legs, back left was sore and hot. We soaked his leg in a bucket for fifteen minutes and then caught Mariah for La so that she'd have something to ride.
At Lynn Ann's, we got the horses ready to go. We were just about to mount up when Melinda called and said Tahoe wouldn't get on the new trailer, so La went to go help with that. I kept the horses and they ate grass in Lynn's yard. When La got back, we got on the horses (about noon -- we'd planned on starting at 8 AM) and rode.
The planned route was to head up Betsy Road and out Bark road to Rock Oak / Jackson and then go down Jackson and across to Akersville Road, pick up Roaring Run, and take that to Pittman and back up to Bark, down Betsy, and home again for fifteen miles. That was the plan. It was a good plan. However, it failed.
We went up Betsy. We headed out Bark. We found Rock Oak / Jackson. We headed down Rock Oak / Jackson. We found where Jackson splits off of Rock Oak. We headed down that. And then we got to a large, open grassy area and lost Jackson at the crossroads sign that was not particularly informative. (Judge not lest ye be horseback and confused at some later point in your life. The finding of trails is sometimes not obvious or easy.) We wound up on Roaring Run Trail (not Roaring Run Road, which will make an appearance later in this post) and since that connected to Pittman, we figured it would be better than bushwhacking across country to find the missing (presumed dead) Jackson Trail. In hindsight, it was probably NOT better than bushwhacking across country.
Roaring Run Trail (and I just typed it "trial" which is a fairly accurate assessment of things) is made out of dry creekbed. It contains the loose rocks and exposed tree roots and hidden sinkholes that you might reasonably expect to find in a dry creekbed. Roaring Run Trail contains less than 5% horse-friendly footing and it is about a mile long. La and I went along at a slow and careful walk for the entire mile. Nick went to her knees once (suddenly, so I fell off) but sustained no apparent damage. We got to the end and headed up Pittman without incident, but we are NOT doing Roaring Run Trail ever again.
La and I feel that perhaps trails ought to be marked like ski trails are... you could have the green dots, blue squares, and black diamonds for each class of trail user. (The Roaring Run trail is not technical or challenging for walking humans, but it's pretty tough for horses.) Until such time as the Buchanan State Forest people (Rays Hill and Sideling Hill division) institute a rating scale like that, I am keeping notes on the Never Again trails so that we learn from our past mistakes.
Last night, Cass and I went out (without the grey idiot, who got a day off because of his injured status, but he can walk and we'll be dragging him out again on Wednesday) and did fourteen miles, part of which was scouting for the Ride Before the Ride, since Jackson was such a wash. We went up Betsy, out Bark, down Pittman to Roaring Run, out Roaring Run to Akersville Road, and then came back. Roaring Run ROAD (not Trail) is lovely footing for horses and a delight to ride. We covered the distance in two hours and forty minutes, 5.25 mph (unless my math sucks), which is right on target for alloted ride speed. (The Ride expects 5.6 to 5.2 mph.) I reckon we'd have done better on time were it not for repeated "hop off and check Casper's feet" episodes.
See, the last time Casper had shoes on, she had had them two days and extended the trot and bloodied the backs of her front feet. Because this is a known issue, we've spent the summer carefully progressing from front-shoes-only to front-shoes-with-back-easyboots to all-four-with-bell-boots-on-front to (today) all-four-no-bell-boots. The progression was intended to give Casper (who does NOT clip at all, ever, when barefoot) some time to adjust to carrying herself safely with shoes on. We had one minor clipping episode when she first got the front shoes, but since then she's been clean every ride. I still make Cass check at regular intervals because clipping is NOT something that can be *cured*, only something that can be *managed*, every time, every ride. Since this was the first no-bell-boots ride, I made her check feet every three miles or so. I've also tried to impress on Cass that gait degrades with fatigue, so that Casper might start out fine but have problems later in the ride. Clipping needs to be watched for with Constant Vigilance.
Also we dawdled at the creek and practiced sponging from horseback. That was kind of fun, though I'm starting to think that "tired and damp" is the general state of affairs for the distance rider. I'm not sure why it's fun, but it is.
We were also delayed because we met a man looking for his six lost beeves, which we hadn't seen but might have heard down in the hollow amongst the rhododendrons. The horses certainly felt there was something interesting thataway. We sent him that way after he sprung from the bushes suddenly and sent Nick skittering sideways in alarm. Apparently English saddles are more secure than they look/feel because I didn't come off. (She spooks so darn seldom that it's an occasion for laughter. Meatly was a spook machine in her younger days so I learned to sit 'em, no problem, if they're just the lateral-teleport kind.)
Nick also threw me one (easily-stopped) buck when I pulled her back from a canter coming up Roaring Run Road. She wasn't terribly rude about it, just more slightly irritated. She didn't try too hard to pitch me off. Going up Pittman, she did not wish to stay in a flat walk and kept offering to pick up the trot. I kept pulling her back and insisting on a walk until I won. Yay me.
Anyway. I still don't have a map for the Ride Before the Ride because I need twenty miles and I'm having trouble getting that many. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
(Persons wishing to follow along with the mapping or anyone who would like to see a diagram of where we ride are welcome to check out the Google Maps thing I've made up. It's here
At Lynn Ann's, we got the horses ready to go. We were just about to mount up when Melinda called and said Tahoe wouldn't get on the new trailer, so La went to go help with that. I kept the horses and they ate grass in Lynn's yard. When La got back, we got on the horses (about noon -- we'd planned on starting at 8 AM) and rode.
The planned route was to head up Betsy Road and out Bark road to Rock Oak / Jackson and then go down Jackson and across to Akersville Road, pick up Roaring Run, and take that to Pittman and back up to Bark, down Betsy, and home again for fifteen miles. That was the plan. It was a good plan. However, it failed.
We went up Betsy. We headed out Bark. We found Rock Oak / Jackson. We headed down Rock Oak / Jackson. We found where Jackson splits off of Rock Oak. We headed down that. And then we got to a large, open grassy area and lost Jackson at the crossroads sign that was not particularly informative. (Judge not lest ye be horseback and confused at some later point in your life. The finding of trails is sometimes not obvious or easy.) We wound up on Roaring Run Trail (not Roaring Run Road, which will make an appearance later in this post) and since that connected to Pittman, we figured it would be better than bushwhacking across country to find the missing (presumed dead) Jackson Trail. In hindsight, it was probably NOT better than bushwhacking across country.
Roaring Run Trail (and I just typed it "trial" which is a fairly accurate assessment of things) is made out of dry creekbed. It contains the loose rocks and exposed tree roots and hidden sinkholes that you might reasonably expect to find in a dry creekbed. Roaring Run Trail contains less than 5% horse-friendly footing and it is about a mile long. La and I went along at a slow and careful walk for the entire mile. Nick went to her knees once (suddenly, so I fell off) but sustained no apparent damage. We got to the end and headed up Pittman without incident, but we are NOT doing Roaring Run Trail ever again.
La and I feel that perhaps trails ought to be marked like ski trails are... you could have the green dots, blue squares, and black diamonds for each class of trail user. (The Roaring Run trail is not technical or challenging for walking humans, but it's pretty tough for horses.) Until such time as the Buchanan State Forest people (Rays Hill and Sideling Hill division) institute a rating scale like that, I am keeping notes on the Never Again trails so that we learn from our past mistakes.
Last night, Cass and I went out (without the grey idiot, who got a day off because of his injured status, but he can walk and we'll be dragging him out again on Wednesday) and did fourteen miles, part of which was scouting for the Ride Before the Ride, since Jackson was such a wash. We went up Betsy, out Bark, down Pittman to Roaring Run, out Roaring Run to Akersville Road, and then came back. Roaring Run ROAD (not Trail) is lovely footing for horses and a delight to ride. We covered the distance in two hours and forty minutes, 5.25 mph (unless my math sucks), which is right on target for alloted ride speed. (The Ride expects 5.6 to 5.2 mph.) I reckon we'd have done better on time were it not for repeated "hop off and check Casper's feet" episodes.
See, the last time Casper had shoes on, she had had them two days and extended the trot and bloodied the backs of her front feet. Because this is a known issue, we've spent the summer carefully progressing from front-shoes-only to front-shoes-with-back-easyboots to all-four-with-bell-boots-on-front to (today) all-four-no-bell-boots. The progression was intended to give Casper (who does NOT clip at all, ever, when barefoot) some time to adjust to carrying herself safely with shoes on. We had one minor clipping episode when she first got the front shoes, but since then she's been clean every ride. I still make Cass check at regular intervals because clipping is NOT something that can be *cured*, only something that can be *managed*, every time, every ride. Since this was the first no-bell-boots ride, I made her check feet every three miles or so. I've also tried to impress on Cass that gait degrades with fatigue, so that Casper might start out fine but have problems later in the ride. Clipping needs to be watched for with Constant Vigilance.
Also we dawdled at the creek and practiced sponging from horseback. That was kind of fun, though I'm starting to think that "tired and damp" is the general state of affairs for the distance rider. I'm not sure why it's fun, but it is.
We were also delayed because we met a man looking for his six lost beeves, which we hadn't seen but might have heard down in the hollow amongst the rhododendrons. The horses certainly felt there was something interesting thataway. We sent him that way after he sprung from the bushes suddenly and sent Nick skittering sideways in alarm. Apparently English saddles are more secure than they look/feel because I didn't come off. (She spooks so darn seldom that it's an occasion for laughter. Meatly was a spook machine in her younger days so I learned to sit 'em, no problem, if they're just the lateral-teleport kind.)
Nick also threw me one (easily-stopped) buck when I pulled her back from a canter coming up Roaring Run Road. She wasn't terribly rude about it, just more slightly irritated. She didn't try too hard to pitch me off. Going up Pittman, she did not wish to stay in a flat walk and kept offering to pick up the trot. I kept pulling her back and insisting on a walk until I won. Yay me.
Anyway. I still don't have a map for the Ride Before the Ride because I need twenty miles and I'm having trouble getting that many. Back to the drawing board, I guess.
(Persons wishing to follow along with the mapping or anyone who would like to see a diagram of where we ride are welcome to check out the Google Maps thing I've made up. It's here
