What’s up with Willow

When I left off a week or so ago Willow was lame, well not much has changed here with regards to that. The vet was out today and it appears that she may have some soft tissue damage on her left fetlock. We have her set up with a sweat wrap and she is on a regime of anti-biotics and some bute so hopefully we will see some improvement over the next couple of days. It seems that maybe she has a cactus puncture or some bruising on the bottom side of the joint. We are hopeful that it will work itself out given a little time. But as I find out you will find out, so on to what we have been up to.

This weekend was gymkhana weekend here in Thunderbird Farms and seeing as how Willow is my secret weapon, she actually knows the barrel pattern, I was horseless for that event. I did take old Blue up and get him a little exposure but as it appears the timer in the arena times things down to the thousandth of a second but has no calendar feature so we opted out of running any of the events. So the photo’s below are some of the quicker folks who ran there.

TACC Gymkhana VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

As I was proof reading today’s offering I noticed that the young lady in two of the above photo’s was TACCs Queen and coincidentally Sundays ride captain, CC.

Sunday was TACC’s Poker Ride so Blue and I headed out to join that ride for the day. Took us about three hours on the ride and then another hour for eating the great pizza lunch they brought in.

We rode out Vekol Wash and back from the arena so we didn’t have to use the trailer as Dogpound South is just a five minute lope away from the start.

Alamo Lake State Park

This Friday we were off to Alamo Lake State Park to join a bunch of our AZBCR friends on a little ride on the weekend. It was a pretty long haul out there, took about 3.5 hours. This park is pretty close to the middle of nowhere here in Arizona but there seemed to be a bunch of bass fishermen heading here to. We found our spot and got things set up so the horses were comfortable and then sat back and watched the rest of the folks pull into camp.

Brenda had whipped up some of that good Taco soup and we shared a bowl or two with the Rogers and Modahl’s as the sun set over our camp.

Saturday morning we were up early and enjoyed watching the sun rise before getting ready for our day’s ride. Then life intervened, Brenda’s horse Willow was a little lame so riding was out of the question for her. I stripped the saddle off her and put her back on the highline.

Here she is looking like she is being left behind

Brenda decided to stay in camp and Blue and I had a training ride as he gets a little agitated when his buddy is not there. Took a couple of miles to get him settled down but eventually he straightened out and the rest of the 19.5 mile ride was pretty enjoyable. We saw a lot of country and went around the lake crossing the NE end at coincidentally “Brown’s Crossing” and heading back along the north side looking for a slot canyon we had heard was over there. We ran out of time before we found it and had to head back to camp for another great potluck dinner, this one with a little Thanksgiving flavour, turkey, ham and all the trimmings.

Alamo Lake State Park Ride VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are a couple of pictures of our friends “K” on the paint mare

and our leader of the day Dave and his mule Earl.

Sunday with Willow out of the lineup we let the others go on a short ride while we broke camp and headed back to Dogpound South. Looks like Willow will spend a little time on the injured reserve list and we will have to see how things turn out before our next ride.

For those who like to look at all the pictures of the ride here is a link that should take you there.

Alamo Lake State Park ride

Beaver Creek Trailhead

This weekend we headed north to Beaver Creek, just a few miles from Sedona. We were meeting a bunch of our horse folk friends there and planning a ride out on Saturday. The forecast was for cool and rainy weather, but luckily we got the rainy part out of the way, for the most part, on Friday evening while we were sleeping.

Saturday morning dawned without a cloud in the sky and not even a breeze blowing. We got saddled up and ready to go and although it was a cool morning we looked to be in for a great day. Our trail boss, Frank, led us out onto the Bell Trail and over a saddle into Beaver Creek and the headquarters of the V Bar V ranch. We passed up that beautiful valley and then took a hard left onto the White Mesa trail. It was a fairly steep, especially for our slightly fat horses, and rocky trail that led up another beautiful draw. Eventually we scrambled out onto the Mesa. It looked like a great spot for a ride, scattered junipers and long grass waving in the breeze. Well pretty soon the sun went behind the clouds, the breeze picked up speed and became a pretty stiff and cold wind and that grass was growing in a bed of rocks and cactus that made for tough footing for the horses. We headed generally back towards camp looking for an old trail that would lead us down off the Mesa. We did manage to find a warm sheltered spot to break some bread and once we warmed up a little we got back on the move. Eventually we did find that old trail, although we had to ride through a short snow squall, and started to drop down into the valley again and out of the wind. It was a little warmer but by that time Brenda had got quite a chill so she spent the rest of the day trying to thaw out. Great scenery and wonderful company as usual though!

Brockett Trailhead to White Mesa and return VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once we got back we got the potluck dish ready to go and then headed down to Frank’s camper and his propane campfires, no woodfires allowed here, where we had a feast as usual. Folks think we are a riding club but we are really an eating club that rides. Who knew that there would be so many fabulous cooks amongst all those riders.

Sunday we hooked up and headed home and boy that heat felt good as we came down the hill into Black Canyon and the north end of the valley. Now to get loaded up for next weekends adventure.

On the non-riding front I found a pool in Chandler that is open for a couple of hours a day just for lane swimming so I am managing to get in a swim or two every week.

If you would like to have a look at all the photo’s I took on our ride this weekend follow this link

Brocket Trailhead to White Mesa

Week One @ DPS

Well I left off last week as we ran out to get some dinner and connect to the internet down the road at our local Bar and Grill. After using Rand’s internet and devouring our dinner we headed home for a good nights rest. Monday was time to get ahold of our own internet provider and get things rolling there. We also brought in some feed for our horses to hold them over the winter. We had some trouble with our Canadian Satellite dish so had the Directv folks hook us up to their system. Holy Smokes! After only having the TV hooked up for a couple of hours we were already sick of the political commercials, I can’t imagine our friends having to watch that nonsense for months on end. Makes a fellow appreciate the short election cycle back home. Maybe the best reason ever for non-fixed election dates.

Halloween night we delivered some candy to our neighbours kids and then headed down the road to Paula and Harvey’s Feed Store for a little community gathering, great food and even better visiting with our Dogpound South friends.

The rest of the week was spent just loafing about and getting a few miles on the horses.

Blue at DPS VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Friday we got our Canadian Satellite up and running so now we officially have 500 channels of TV from two of the wealthiest countries in the world and still there is nothing worth watching except maybe for Heartland on Sunday night.

Brenda has been scouring the country for “bargoons”, as our friend Rick calls them, and managed to find a trunk that we couldn’t live without from Tanya’s 4G Ranch and a morning spent hitting the garage sales with Jill and Stasia brought a few more things to our place. Our home is looking a lot homier now and we have re-homed a bunch of stuff that we apparently couldn’t live without.

Sunday our riding friends the Modahl’s and the Roger’s arranged for a little ride through Desert Hills to help with our conditioning. Pretty flat but a little sand, some rocks (it is Arizona), and some fellowship. The horses handled it fine and I am sure that now Brenda has a new hat she will be better next weekend when we head north to the Red Rocks of Sedona for another ride.

		Anthem Trailhead to Pioneer Village VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Last night a disaster of epic proportions hit our place and Brenda’s Macbook up and quit. No big deal I thought, we have a spare PC netbook along with us, so I figured no problem, WRONG! Apparently if you are a Mac person you are unable to transition up to the PC platform without a lot of wailing and remonstrations. After discovering that the Apple store is closed at night and doesn’t have an emergency service number, the nerve, we managed to wait until the door opened at 10AM this morning. We were there at opening and luckily they were able to fix it up and get Brenda back on line without to much delay.

On the Road to DPS

We headed off on our annual migration to Dogpound South last Wednesday. The last couple of years we have stayed at the Horse and Hound a place just out of the Coutts, Alberta border crossing the night before we cross. We have to stop in Sweetgrass, Montana for a vet inspection of our equine friends and first thing in the morning is the best time to do that as they have a lot of liner loads of cattle there as the day goes by.

Thursday after the vet check we headed for McLeod, Montana and our friends, Mike and Janna’s place. They live up the beautiful boulder valley, an absolutely stunning location, populated by the rich and famous and many thousand deer, as well as some elk and a few antelope, and by a few I mean that only in relation to the number of deer as we must have seen a few hundred antelope during our visit.

Once again we enjoyed our visit with these fine folks and especially Janna’s fine country cooking.

Friday they took us for a drive over the West Boulder road to Livingston where we stopped at the Rib and Chop house for some more great food, after a stop at a local wine store where we picked up some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Below is a picture of our hosts at one of our picturesque stops along the way.

Saturday morning as the dawn broke in the valley we slipped down their driveway and headed off on the balance of our journey. That journey took us through beautiful southern Montana and across the foggy flatlands of southern Idaho and then into the central basin of Utah and past the Great Salt Lake, and it’s neighbouring city of Salt Lake then after 11 hours on the road we stopped for the night in Fillmore, Utah. After the long day behind the wheel, once we got the horses fed and watered as well as bedded down in some stalls at the racetrack there, we hit the rack ourselves. Once again morning came early and we were off on our final leg of the journey. This led us through the high desert country of southern Utah and across the extreme northwest corner of Arizona then down the Virgin River gorge and into the desert north of Las Vegas. We passed this colourful establishment in Boulder City, Nevada

The temps were rising from our morning temperature of 26F to a high of 91F by the time we were well into Arizona and getting into the Valley of the Sun.

By four o’clock we were opening the gate at Dogpound South and then it was just a matter of getting our horses fed, watered and settled before we headed over to the Raceway for a bite to eat and a visit with some of our neighbours. Thanks for coming over to welcome us home, Bobbie and Skye.

A panoramic view of Dogpound South, Ray and his crew have done a great job of keeping it weed free.

Packing and Reloading

Over the last week or so we have been unloading and reloading the LQ to get ready for our departure. Up till Friday the weather has been pretty good here. Fall but still light jacket weather. I got a few more rides on the horses and the field work got all done so the farm is looking ready for winter.

Bob was working up the old hay field and brought a scraper in to re-channel an ephemeral creek that usually runs just in the springtime, and causes us to have difficulties getting the crop seeded, so hopefully this will control it a little for next year. Blue and I just rode and watched, our usual activity when the work is going on.

Saturday was a horse shoeing and trimming day and with the eight head we have around here it takes a good part of the day to get them all done. We only have shoes on the two that are heading south, Blue and Willow, but the rest needed a trim to keep them in good shape for the winter to come. That activity was done in snowstorm so we were glad to have our new (2006ish) barn to work in. After we got that completed the majority of them headed back down into the pasture along with Blue and Willow who are enjoying their last few days of wandering around on real grass till the spring.

Sunday morning Brenda headed up to Rocky Mountain House to pick up Ella and Alle and bring them home to spend a night with us before we leave, but they had a birthday party to attend before they could come and that party went so late that she stayed up there and came home first thing this morning. Guess I will have to rely on Lacey to send me pictures of the girls over the winter.

Back last Thursday I had our local vet out to do some blood tests and a health check on our horses so that they can cross the border going south, so that is done and I need to head into the city tomorrow morning and meet with the government vet to get his signature and stamps all in the right places. Once that is done it is haircut time and then I am officially ready to roll. Well except for taking off my long john’s and stuffing some clothes in the LQ or the Jeep.

The plan is pull out of here sometime mid-day on Wednesday and overnight at Coutts/Sweetgrass so we can cross the border and get the vet stuff done there early Thursday morning. Then we are heading south of Big Timber to make sure that Janna has healed up from the bruising she took on the healthcare topic a week or so ago on her blog.

What’s up at Dogpound North

Well it has been a pretty good fall here at Dogpound North. OK we’ve had a few skiffs of snow but nothing that sticks around. And in between those little blasts of winter we have had great warm days. I have taken advantage of that warm weather to try and get our horses legged up a little for their winter in Arizona. What with the trip to London and Gay Paree’ as well as a week out on Vancouver Island, all topped off by Brenda’s knee surgery the horses have had a pretty cushy summer. Today I was finally able to take the latigo extender off my saddle and the ponies are looking ready to hit the sand soon.

Fall Ride VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

A few miles in the sand of Vekol Wash will bring them up to snuff pretty quickly I am thinking.

Other than some riding we are getting all our visiting done before we head south next week. We had the whole family out for Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. Remember us Canadian snowbirds actually get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice, once here at home and once down with our southern neighbours and friends. Only fitting that we give thanks twice cause it is a pretty nice lifestyle (att. Chiklet). When I said the whole family was here I meant for supper, but a couple of them met on the road into our place so we missed out on the big group picture. To date I have got a bunch of those kind of photo’s but there is always somebody missing so we tried a different tangent this year.

The Whole Fam Damily VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Nobody was allowed off the farm till we got some photos of them. I think they turned out pretty good too.

Since that big event we have just been tinkering around getting ready to roll south. Today once I got back from my swim I emptied the storage on the horse trailer and sorted through it, Managed to get rid of a few things but as usual I managed to find a few more things to take their place and I am sure by the time we leave I will have refilled it to capacity.

The last few days their have been spirited discussions in the comment sections of Janna, Rod, and Rick’s blogs and I actually learned a lot from the exchanges and it drove me to do some more research so that I had a better grasp on some of it. So ‘they’ say any day you learn something new is not wasted so I didn’t waste my weekend.

But learning aside I think I enjoyed my time with Blue and Mack and Meg out in the hay field just as well. Sure clears your mind anyway.