A second, temporary, dance partner

Eeek – looks like I skipped out on posting here at all in April. Thought about it, but obviously didn't act on it. May Day, May Day; better talk about the second partner on my dance card before she leaves!

My friend who came off her horse on New Year's Day with disastrous results is almost back to normal. She has officially finished physical therapy, her repaired clavicle has gotten two thumbs up from her UCSF orthopedic surgeon, and she's ready to ride again. In anticipation of this, last month she asked if she could bring her mare over for a week for me to "take her temperature." I was happy to oblige, so I cleaned out and cleaned up our empty stall and Dinah arrived on April 16.

The boys were very interested. Lance and Dinah are old friends and seem to remember each other; Oliver has been ridden with her once but doesn't know how to behave in polite company. He used to act quite 'studdy' when Breezy was in heat, and thinks he has what it takes to impress Dinah, too. 🤔🙄😖😆

Anyway, Dinah is still here, getting schooled six days a week. (Someone was lunging her for Kate three days a week, so she was fit enough to go back to work.) Kate is open to selling her and looking for something less energetic, so one person has come to try her out and I've sent photos and videos to a trainer friend to show to her clients. And as of this week, Kate is getting back in the saddle, too.

Mare ears and LOTS of mane!

I think Kate could handle Dinah just fine with regular riding and attention to building core strength, but Kate's husband is understandably worried about her riding at all. Why she came off on New Year's Day is a mystery; she doesn't remember Dinah acting up so there's a possibility Kate blacked out momentarily. Needless to say, her future on horseback is still uncertain, as is Dinah's departure date.

This means I'm getting LOTS of saddle time. Even though I was riding Lance pretty consistently, he's now getting 5-6 days a week, as it just makes sense to ride both horses if I'm going to 'suit up' and go to the barn. Even though the length and intensity of our rides hasn't changed, the slight increase in frequency has made a noticeable difference in Lance's fitness. Yesterday we went for a ride through the woods, and he marched up the short-but-steep hills coming home like he hasn't for a long time; yay!

The other quiet excitements of our ride yesterday:

The only native dogwood I've ever seen on our hill.

Zoomed in. Just downhill from the NE corner of our lot!

Be still my heart; we found a clump of wild iris. 😍

I think this is my favorite flower; exquisite!

Here are some April photos of Lance that I shared on Instagram.

The horses are now getting a little time each day to graze on that green grass – not just gaze at it – since it's heading out and the days are warm and dry. We have such a short window of good pasture time between when it's shooting up and loaded with fructans and when it's overly mature and infested with pokey foxtail awns. Ah well; everyone enjoys it while they can!

Shades of princes past

On Monday my dear friend and her daughter, back in the area for the summer, came out for a visit. I had promised Hannah she could ride again (she's ridden Breezy in the past), so Lance helped me make good on that promise.

Hannah was a quick study, and after some instruction she was piloting Lance around pretty proficiently, although I walked along with them. Then I had her mother walk with them so I could snap some pictures.

I was so proud of my big red goober; he was nicely responsive to the guidance of a young and inexperienced rider. As I said when I posted a photo of them on Instagram, "Sir Lancelot took good care of Princess Hannah." I have been blessed over the years with a string of noble knights who take good care of visiting royalty. ;-)

No lesson for me and my dance partner today; Julie is out of town. Maybe next week!

A hole in the herd heart

We picked her up exactly six years ago, just in time to take her with us to Cowboy Campmeeting. From the start Brian liked her, but Ollie loved her; Breezy was HIS girl. His high-pitched whinnies and frantic searches around the pasture are making a hard thing harder....

More solid every ride

I'm still riding out and about until we get enough rain to saturate our arena's sand footing; that could be awhile. The good news is that Lance is once again becoming the solid trail horse he used to be, slaying dragons on every outing.

On an early morning ride last weekend, we encountered new dragons who have moved into the neighborhood since our last ride that way:

Although very nervous, Lance managed to hold himself together as we passed their pasture, but was on his tip-toes to the end of the lane and back. By then the steers had moved closer to the road, so I got off to lead Lance by on our return pass. Good thing, too, as the curious creatures came right up to the fence. Time to desensitize!

(I love cows – their big eyes, moist noses, long tongues, curious natures, big hairy ears.... It makes me sad that people kill and eat them.)

This morning we rode that way again, this time with reinforcements in the form of Brian on his bicycle. Lance was still wary, but not as alarmed. Good boy!

In vet news, yesterday morning Rick started Lance on a short-term regimen of dexamethasone to see if that does better at quieting his symptoms. Breezy is still with us, since she seems content and comfortable. And as predicted, Brian got over his intense interest in riding Ollie....

Disturbing and sweet

Yesterday afternoon I took Lance out for a ride. As we got underway after warming up, he sounded a bit rattly, like he had phlegm in his throat. I thought he'd cough and clear it, as he often does, but it wouldn't clear. It is impossible to dance when your partner has to keep putting his head down to hack, and his breathing worsened from audible to audible and labored with very little work. I hopped off as Brian came down to the arena to check on us, and he was alarmed by the sound, too. I grabbed my camera to document it but messed up my controls and didn't get it recorded; Brian said Lance's breathing had improved a little by the time I tried, anyway. So I led Lance back to his stall to untack him – and that short walk made his breathing worsen again. (His sides were heaving as much as his nostrils were flaring.)

I haven't shown this to Rick yet, but I did tell him about it. Rick mentioned checking Lance out with the endoscope; I'm hoping he does it soon. Something isn't right with my handsome horse, and it is worrisome – and strangely random.

This morning during chores, I found Brian taking a break from cleaning stalls to curry Breezy. He has been avoiding her because of the stench of cancer, so I was touched. He wants to ride Ollie again today, so we are trying to get everything caught up in order to have the time to play. Right now Brian is in a "cowboy phase." It's hard to keep up with all the personas my adolescent tries on; I must say the current one is far preferable to "the punk"!

Lancy-pants fancy-pants

My big red goober gets called lots of things, all terms of endearment. But he does look particularly fancy in his new halter, a lovely gift from Kate last week:

If you click to biggify, you'll see that the beautiful brown leather is lined with a great green, very nice colors for red goobers. ;-)

Last week was extremely busy so short on rides, but Lance and I are back on track this week. I wasn't sure I'd get to dance today, so I turned him out for about ten minutes between ferrying my son to and from activities. What I would have given for a video of what happened! When I turned Lance loose he spun around to take off – and lost his balance, landing hard enough on his side that he rolled completely over. He scrambled up and just stood there facing away from me. He coughed a couple times but otherwise didn't move, making me wonder if he had actually hurt himself. Then, all of sudden, he took off, bucking and running to the far end of the arena. I think he was a bit stunned – or maybe embarrassed!

After my son's fencing class, I did get a ride in – and my son rode, too. He really wanted to ride Oliver, perhaps because Rick has determined that Breezy's cancer has taken off again and she'll need to be put down soon. Brian did really well with Ollie, who can be a nut-case sometimes. We'll see if the interest in riding continues, or fades quickly as it has in the past.

Best buds

Dear friend Kate (doesn't she look great?) is officially cleared to ride again, so this morning she collected Dinah from the trainer's and hauled her to my house so we could ride together. Lance
l-o-o-o-ves Dinah; he kept trying to sidle closer to her and acted downright silly at first.

If weather and family commitments allow, we will probably form another "trail ride trio" with Kate's daughter and Breezy this Sunday and haul to Willamette Mission State Park.

A couple more Plan C photos...

...courtesy of Kate. ;-)

Plans A, B, and on-the-fly C

Since there's no time like the present to make good on "resolutions" (goals, really), Kate and I made a date to ride at the beach today. Actually, we were going to make it a three-some (six-some?) with Kate's daughter and Breezy. But when we checked on the weather forecast yesterday, it didn't look promising. It wasn't supposed to start raining inland until later, though, and after talking to someone at our Christian trail-riding club meeting last night, we decided to head to McIver State Park instead.

So this morning I loaded up Lance and Breezy and drove to Kate's to add Dinah to the trailer-load and Kate and her daughter to the truck-load. Only Dinah decided she didn't want to join the party and refused to load. Of course, trailer-loading is NOT optional, and after working with her for over an hour, she came to see that – but not without protest. Thankfully, the kick she delivered to my right knee only bruised it.  :-/

Once underway, Kate proceeded to pull up directions on her iPhone, only to see that McIver Park was closed. Ack! I pulled over so we could regroup. I decided to call another friend who does a lot of trail-riding to see if she had any ideas, and she mentioned that Willamette Mission State Park – where Kate and I had wanted to ride on New Year's Day – was open again, as was the ferry which provides the most direct access. So I braved the ferry with truck and trailer for the first time (not a problem, since the water is still relatively high), and we got a nice ride in after all.

The light was lousy so most of my photos were, too – until we got back to the rig at the end of our ride. Some guys had arrived to play Frisbee golf, and since it was misting a little by then, they had several BIG umbrellas.

I'm just glad we didn't meet them on the trail!

Round two

I shared a brief update on Breezy over on my farm blog, but will repeat it here. This week Rick injected Breezy's tumors with a different drug. The topical chemotherapy he tried just inflamed her tissues; physical removal isn't an option.

We are watching for signs that the cancer is affecting Breezy's function or quality of life; so far it hasn't. But Rick is not very hopeful about the outcome of this.

I looked back through posts about Breezy the other day; we got her five years ago last July. I can't believe Brian has grown so much in five years(!); Breezy has helped grow his confidence just about as much in that time. She's a good one....