Wrong Turns

Some rides I can’t wait to get home after taking care of Tarma, shower and share the photos for all my friends to see. Other rides never get shared, for reasons ranging from a tad too short to too much time passing and life happenings. Others, like yesterday’s, I’m compelled to share, but only after […]

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Moments in the Mountains

Now that I’m home and showered, time for my favorite thing: a trip report! The short version: a magical and relaxing time in the mountains with a good friend. More below the photo dump! We were planning to go to Whitefish horse camp, father south, as I was hungry for those epic mountain views and […]

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Pink Ribbon

I happily blame everyone who actually reads this random blog and sends encouragement in any form for this crazy ride with Tarma for what happened this last weekend. Ya’ll are put on notice for being generally awesome, and partly for helping Tarma and I get so far so fast. Of course I take some credit, […]

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Soulscape

In the series of books I’m named for (The God Stalker Chronicles, by PC Hodgell), a major plot point is something called “the soulscape”. This is a weird dimension the reflects an individual’s soul, such as a garden, a walled keep, something that sits at the deepest level of the character’s psyche, and the race […]

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Now and Then, Trailer Edition

I started to write this while sitting at a truckstop waiting for my best friend caravan down to the Oregon Horse Center with me. For the first time ever we will have almost matching trailers, which differ only in the details. In the span of three years of actually owning horses I’ve gone from a […]

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Tarmageddon

On some days Tarma is sweet and smart and relatively chill, riding out on the buckle and easy. Today she had a different feeling, so my friend called her Tarmageddon and it fits. Even when she’s at her worst, just not checked in or throwing shade, it never feels dangerous, just a different shade of […]

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Short sleeves in November

At one point during today’s mostly successful trail ride, I had to take off my jacket as I was so hot. In November! I say mostly successful due to the fact that my Nemesis Hill stuck again. There’s this one hill at Battle Ground Lake State Park that is perfect for a good long canter […]

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Step by step

Having animals that folks compliment for their smarts and beauty never sucks. On Saturday I had a body worker come out for Tarma, as a second and slightly different opinion (the first one a few weeks ago was a full vet with a focus on chiropractor work, and this second lady was more focused on […]

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Spicy Fall Ponies

I finally rode my horse again this Sunday, but maybe I could have chosen a better day than Halloween to break our dry spell. We putzed and futzed all day, and finally hauled to the trail head in the mid afternoon and took our time tacking up. It was my second time hauling with my […]

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When In Doubt, Ask A Friend

Remember when I was moaning about The Great Truck Hunt? When I was wracking my brain, hunting CarGurus and Craigslist and trying to figure out what aspect of my equestrian hobby I needed to compromise on, in order to afford a new truck or stick with my current one? Well that’s old news now. A […]

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