A lesson learned the hard way....

It was a beautiful fall day yesterday, so Brenda and I decided to pack the horses up and head over to Alum Creek for a little trail riding. We decided to try the northern trails again as we had a good ride there a couple of weeks ago.

When I got Rio out of the field, I discovered that she had lost a shoe AGAIN! No idea how or where...sigh. There was an extremally twisted nail sticking out of the side of her hoof..this was all that remained. Brenda managed to get the nail out. We tried to see if Brenda's new Easy Boots (bought at QH Congress of course) would fit Rio's foot, but it was too small.
We decided to go anyway as it was one of the last remaining nice days predicted for this week. Rio would be fine as the trails weren't rocky and would most likely be somewhat soft.

Once we got there we tacked up and got ready to head out. Last time we went we got to the other side of the trail by going over a roadway bridge where cars go somewhat fast. This bridge goes over part of the river. We went down to the river to see if there was a way to cross over and get to the other side by going through the water. The water was low and not very deep. We figured we could do it...plus it was a bit of a challenge to see if the horses would cross it without a fuss.

The lesson here is that looks are deceiving...the banks of the river looked to be solid...but the water was down and the sides were essentially deep, sandy mud. We got down to the river and walked over to the side to try and enter the water at the shallowest point. As Rio and I walked over to what I thought was solid ground, she sunk up to her hock....it was like quicksand. Needless to say, she tried to get out of there as fast as she could and headed for the bank. As she tried to scramble up the bank, she sunk deeper. She could not get her back or front legs under her to get up the bank. She tried (for what seemed like an eternity) as I hung on and gave her her head as best I could. At one point she was essentially down on her knees, ready to fall over on her side. This is when I dumped over her right side and landed on the ground.

Rio managed to get up the bank and out of the "quicksand". She was right by me and could have easily landed on me (or fallen on me) but she saw me there on the ground and stopped moving. She stood there calmly, breathing a bit heavily as I got up off the ground. I landed on soft ground and really didn't fall far since she was already halfway to the ground, so I was fine.
Rio was favoring her back leg at that point...not putting too much weight on it. I was worried that she had twisted it coming out of the mud.

We walked her a bit and she was still favoring the back leg. We decided to head back to the barn and see if it got any better with some water therapy and liniment. I gave her Bute before we got back in the trailer. She was still as calm as could be and didn't seem fazed by the incident...what a good horse. The positives are that we were not far from the trailer when it happened and that the barn was five minutes away.

Once we got her home we put water on the leg for 10-15 minutes. I rubbed liniment on it and then turned her out with Doc. One of the other horses in the larger field keeps chasing her around. I didn't want her to be chased around if her leg was injured, so we turned her and Doc out into the side field. They were content and happy when we left.

So the moral of the story is to always check the ground around a stream/river bank before you try and cross it. We really came out of it as positively as possible. If she had panicked, we could have been in big trouble. She could have injured herself in a worse way or have fallen on me trying to get out. It all turned out well..the trail horse angels were looking out for us. I am thankful that we all came home safe and sound. What a weird thing to happen on just a routine day.

It was a Giddy Up Weekend!

Here are the Giddy Up Girls on our ride yesterday at Smoke Rise. I'll post more about our fabulous weekend later.

QH Congress is here!

Congress started last weekend. We are planning on heading down there on Saturday. Most of the show events are Hunter-Jumper so not sure how much of that we will watch. Definetely up for some shopping and gawking at all the bling.

Brenda and I went and rode Alum Creek on Sunday last week. We parked in a different place than usual. There is a little trailhead with parking about 5 minutes from our barn. It is off of 521, in Kilbourne. We saddled up and headed out on the trails East of the river. There were large amounts of downed limbs across the path. The path was pretty overgrown in spots too. I don't think the trail maintenance crew has made it over to that side yet. We traveled a while and then turned back when we came to a fairly steep decline. We couldn't see where the trail was headed and didn't want to start down and then come across a downed tree in our way.

We went over the bridge on the roadway and went to the West side of the river. These trails had clearly been tended to recently. (thank you Delaware County OHC). They were very nice, wide and clear. The trail went through woods and some field. We had a little creek to cross, some fairly good ups and downs and a wooden bridge to cross. Doc and Rio did it all without a fuss. It was a VERY nice ride...hardly any mud. I would label this an "easy to intermediate" trail because of the creek, wooden bridge and the roadway bridge crossover from the parking area. It is also my guess that it would tend toward the intermediate side after a good rain. We came across several other riders who seemed to be enjoying the day and their ride.

Rio managed to pull her shoe off halfway. It was still on her foot but she had bent the nails so the shoe was somewhat off over to the side. I figure she caught it on a root or something. We decided to turn around and go back since we didn't want to come across any hard obstacles with a shoe half off. As we got further, the shoe got twisted even more. Finally I dismounted and pulled the shoe off by stepping on the part that was sticking out and lifting her foot. She showed some tenderness on that foot but seemed to be much happier with the shoe off.

Monday we went over to Terry Myers and had him trim both horses and replace Rio's missing shoe. Got to ride some as Doc was being trimmed. Rio was a complete angel that night. She stood still as a statue in the cross-ties in the barn. I thought that was pretty impressive considering she was in a strange place surrounded by strange horses. We took the horses back to my house to spend the night since it was pretty late by the time we were done.

Not much else going on horse-wise. I haven't been able to get back up the barn all week due to all the kid running around I had to do this week. We are busy getting ready for the GiddyUp Girl Roundup at Smoke Rise Ranch next week. Imagine I'll get some quality horse time in then!

My Favorite Things-1

In no particular order

My Justin Boots--I bought these in 2007 in Chicago at Alcala's Western Wear. It was boot heaven there.

I love these boots. I wear them all the time. They never hurt my feet and my feet don't get that "tired" feeling if I have to walk around all day. These have seen me through days and days of walking at Equine Affaire, horse shows and other marathon, on-your-feet occasions.

Pics from the weekend

Turns out I don't have any pics on my camera of myself. Guess I ought to give the camera to someone else every once in a while. I have enough of me anyway but it would have been nice to get at least one! I'll have to check and see if the KCHP has any.

I did get some good pics of Brenda and Doc and a lot of various random people that I don't know.

Brenda and Doc getting ready to go

Off they go...

Up the last big step

This is my friend Carla on Rio...she was riding her around for a while. Note Rio looks half asleep.

Okay, maybe fully asleep...doesn't she look sweet?

Fall is coming!

I always approach fall with mixed emotions. I love pulling out my sweaters and my favorite jackets. I love the crisp air and the change of colors. Football, pumpkins, Halloween, no bugs, chili, cider, candy corn...ahh, fall.
What makes me shiver in my boots is that fall means winter is close behind around here. Uck. The holiday's are great..Thanksgiving and Christmas and all they bring but then BAM! here stays old man Winter for four more freakin months. What a drag. That means ice storms, slush, grey skies, cold toes, runny noses and a woolly beast that used to be a horse.
We still ride in the winter come rain, sleet or snow. Our barn owner thinks we are nuts. We are very grateful for the indoor arena in those months even though going in circles makes us a bit crazy.
The first Annual GiddyUp Girls Roundup is in 16 days. Plans and organizing are already underway. It is going to be a great trip. The leaves should be changing by then. We were down there last year in the fall and it was quite spectacular.
Not much horse stuff to report other than that we ran the Cowboy Challenge on Saturday. Both or our horses did quite well. Doc did better than we could have hoped for and took it all in stride. Rio hesitated and tried her spin around techniques at least three times toward the woods. I just stuck with her and got her to move forward without too much of a fight. The rest of the way she took willingly. The gate proved to be a problem. I am still not quite sure why.
I'll post some pics I took when I get them loaded onto my computer.