Living life in pursuit of ten feet tall, still!
For years now, I’ve been tormented by the annual reports from Aarene Storms, as she and her beautiful mare Fiddle tackle the John Wayne Ride. This ride follows the Palouse to Cascades Trail in Eastern Washington, moving to a new camp each night and riding all day. I’ve been fascinated and eager to get back […]
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Cadence is my word of the year, inspired by a song I haven’t listened to in a decade. Harder Better Faster Stronger, by Daft Punk. It has a super long intro, and we did a dance routine at a summer camp I was a counselor at one summer. I was always too quick to the […]
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I tend to be either the type of person who is totally prepared, with checklists and training and thoughtfulness galore, or caught totally flat footed. There’s no in between for me really. Case in point: my ride a week or so ago, I hopped on with no saddlebags, only anticipating a quick spin through the […]
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As I sat in my truck, waiting for the big diesel engine to warm up enough to haul to the barn, I hmmed and haaad and made a decision. I balanced the training and time I’ve spent with Tarma over the past year, how she’s been on our past few rides, and Benny’s training level […]
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Each time I head out to the pasture with my halter, I keep two ideas in mind; either we do whatever it is I’m planning, or we don’t and we try something else. Tarma tells me even before I put her halter on what she’s capable and willing to handle that day. It’s probably too […]
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Quite a few things went just right today, though I still made two big mistakes. I had a limited amount of time today before my parents holiday party, so I saved myself some time by leaving the trailer hooked up and loaded. All I needed to do was grab the mare, hose her legs down […]
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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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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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Yesterday I joined several other OET (Oregon Equestrian Trails) members in some vigerous leaf raking, followed by an excellent but too quick solo trail ride. We rake big leaf maple and other leaves off the trails so they don’t turn into a slick, muddy, boggy mess in the winter. Tarma stayed tied to the trailer […]
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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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On the loose 