Author: WeAreOnTheLoose

After years of borrowing horses, working to ride and catch riding, I finally have my own horse, a spicy chocolate mare...but also a demanding day job (who doesn't?), a nerdy husband, a soccer loving kid who needs to be parented (by me, duh), and the ultimate trail buddy, a chocolate Labradork!

The road to Tevis

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Update since I typed this up: I’m posting this from the Point S in Klamath Falls, as my front driver side wheel was making an absolutely awful, metal on metal sound when we were driving out of camp. It disappeared once we made it over 30mph and was quite all the way into town, but […]

Read More

How many feet you meet

.Reading time 12 minutes.

As with anything related to endurance, futzing with feet is a long-term process for most. For myself, I’m super-duper stubborn and man have we been on a journey without quite an end in sight with Tarma’s feet and hoof protection for endurance rides. To start with, let me list my priorities, so you know partly why I’m […]

Read More

Signals

.Reading time 8 minutes.

The main reason I haven’t written an actual blog post since April is thus: Aside from one camping trip to Cow Camp in Sisters, every horse related event I had planned or signed up for has been cancelled, either due to other people’s circumstances or horse injuries. I was so excited to take Kade to […]

Read More

Eyes Open

.Reading time 8 minutes.

Everything is moving too damn fast, and by the time I get my jumbled thoughts written down, edited, typed up, linked to other better sources and more coherent writings than mine, and finally posted…the event I had such strong thoughts about is way in the rearview, everyone has already moved on to the next Biggest […]

Read More

March Blues

.Reading time 2 minutes.

As I wrote in my editor’s letter for the PNER newsletter, late February through late March (until my birthday) is the toughest time of year for me, emotionally and mentally. We’re so close to the end of winter and signs of spring are starting to pop up, but work gets really busy and the spastic […]

Read More

Teenager Riding

.Reading time 10 minutes.

Welp, I declared my Tevis goal (or at least, Tevis curious goal) and am already facing an immediate pivot…but I’m not super sad about it. The road to Tevis is long, and Tarma’s only 10 (ish) this year, so a few more years to prepare (hopefully) won’t hurt. What has derailed me is delightful! One […]

Read More

Bad Bosses

.Reading time 11 minutes.

Thank you to everyone who approached me at the PNER convention and appreciated my writing. I wish this was a happy post focused on the amazing time Kade and I had there. Alas, a steady diet of doom scrolling while fully sick wasn’t helpful at all. It did help clarify some things for me. As […]

Read More

Graveclothes

.Reading time 8 minutes.

One of the (many) reasons I never pursued anything that required me to write for pay is when I’ve got something going on, I can’t write about anything but that thing. The words will only flow or come together if I’m writing about whatever that thing is. It’s a specific form of writer’s block: I […]

Read More
.Reading time less than 1 minute.
Read More

Roll On, Columbia, Roll On

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Wake up and make coffee, scroll Facebook while the household wakes around you and flinch at every other story, send some positive comments to friends to try to stem the tide of shit we’ve been buried in all week. Put on all the layers, hitch up the trailer and don’t think of all the Federal […]

Read More