What Noam and I Have Been Doing . . .

2003

blogging saddles

I Passed!, October 27, 2003

On Monday, October 27, Sandi Parker came out to the ranch to do my official Parelli Natural Horsemanship level 1 test. We passed all of the tasks, despite a slight argument just before Sandi arrived about whether it is possible to get in the trailer, even when it is dark. I won the argument, but not without a bit of rope burn. Stupid daylight savings time! Anyway, its official now: I'm not normal, I'm natural!

Top of the Hill Hunter Jumper Show, October 26, 2003

Confident from our Halloween costume contest success, Juliet and I ventured to a schooling show at Arriba Vista ranch in Sunol, CA with Noam and Joann in tow. (Actually, Joann towed us with her son's spiffy new truck. Thanks Joann!) In a nutshell: I fell off, sort of, and I won a championship, sort of.

Juliet started the day with the apparently stressful task of trying to figure out how to eat out of a hay bag. Though it was tough at the beginning, she persevered. I think ultimately the trauma of figuring out how to get the hay out bolstered her confidence in the show ring, because she tried very hard at the show, even though she was clearly startled by some of the jumps. In two cross rails classes that I entered just to school, she pinned second and third despite geeking at the jumps. Here is a picture of us over the cross rails:

Our "division," the Modified division, consisted of three over fences classes over towering one foot six to one foot nine jumps, and two flat classes. In two of the over fences classes, I was the only rider. Accordingly, in one class, we won even though Juliet stopped at two jumps and missed every canter lead except one. Juliet was not a particularly gracious winner of that class, as on the way out I leaned over to hand Noam the ribbon and she spooked at it, causing me to roll off in slow motion and land on my feet, to the shock of everyone at the in-gate. The two flat classes were filled with people. My greatest triumph of the show was one of those classes, where Juliet won on account of two perfect canter departs from the walk on her bad lead and a flawless hand-gallop-to-halt transition. (If there is one thing she does well, it's halt. Her favorite gait!) Thanks to our three blue ribbons, we won the modified division. Here we are, the champions:

These pictures crack me up. Its oddly comforting to know that after all these years, I still look down and let my leg slip back. Of course, I could not have achieved such a great triumph of taking ribbons away from eleven-year-olds had it not been for the expert assistance of my two show moms. Thank you Joann and Noam! Here is Joann, preparing my boots for the show ring:

Indian Hills Ranch Halloween Costume Contest, October 25, 2003

With horses named Sonny and Juliet, there are really only two choices for Halloween costumes. Though Romeo and Juliet may seem to be the obvious choice, Noam and I decided to go with Sonny and Cher. Which is to say that I decided to go with Sonny and Cher and after minimal arm twisting got Noam to agree to dress up in whatever crap I found for him at thrift stores. After consultations with Hannah, who is apparently the family Cher expert, and a bit of procrastination-time at work spent studying a web page dedicated to Cher's tatoos, I hit the thrift stores. God bless the size 12-14 hyper consumers of the bay area, who provided me with a nice tight sequined jacket and leather skirt in my size on my first trip. Noam's outfit was a bit more difficult, but with a little perseverance, we eventually ended up with a sweet, hideously outdated leather jacket and a pair of painted-on tight faux snakeskin bell bottoms, no doubt previously owned by a fourteen year old girl. (I know, I know, it should have been a suede leather vest. If I had started my costume shortly after the fourth of July, as some of my friends at the ranch are rumored to have done, I may have been able to track one down. Lessons for next year.)

Juliet wore a lovely sequined "dress" over her rump, and of course, fishnet stockings. The whole darn costume was designed around those fishnet stockings on Juliet. Surprisingly, the first time I put them on her, she offered now reaction at all, prompting Hannah to speculate that deep in her heart, Juliet feels that she was really meant to be a glam rock star. We had completely run out of ideas by the time we got to Sonny the horse, so we stuck a red, white, and blue hat on him, decorated his breast collar to read "Future U.S. Congressman" and called it a day.

On the day of the contest, it reached nearly 100 degrees, lovely weather for wearing a Cher wig and faux snakeskin pants. To keep the dust down, the site of the parade, the front arena, had been watered. The wet sand footing proved too tempting for Cher the horse, thus there was an unfortunate rolling incident during the middle of the parade, which popped off one of her fishnets. All was not lost, as many spectators commented that had some cuts from Cher's last album been playing in the background, they would have assumed it was part of the act. Here we are, as Sonny and Cher:

After each of us had sweat about a quart, the judges made their final decisions. Early buzz had favored a mermaid and a headless horseman. Lucky for us, neither showed, and Noam and I emerged victorious in the "funniest" category. Perhaps it should have been in the "most frightening" category, but either way, victory was sweet. Several people commented afterward that they had no idea we were Sonny and Cher, instead they figured we were a politician and a lady of the night. Whatever, that works too!

Juliet nearly knocked me over in an attempt to escape from this costume on my dear friend Sarah's horse Monty. Not surprisingly, Sarah and Monty won "most elaborate." Sarah even had rhinestones glued on Monty's splint boots.

Yosemite, October 11 and 12, 2003

Mom had never been to Yosemite before and Noam and I had not been in years, so we left (an hour late) Saturday morning for Yosemite. We met Kitty and Randy at the cabins where we stayed, then ventured in to Yosemite Valley. The weather was really pleasant for both days. Actually, reading through some of my previous entries makes me realize that I must be in for a string of crapola weather. Although, it makes up for that hellishly hot week I spent at Jack Brook. Anyway, on Saturday, we hiked from Curry Village up to the emerald pool at the top of Vernal Fall. Actually, Noam and I hiked to the emerald pool, mom and Kitty got duped by Randy into thinking that a lesser pool they reached was THE emerald pool. Click here for a relevant map. Here's a picture along the trail that Kitty dubbed "Noam's crack:"

Here's a picture of all of us on the trail:

After the hike, we buzzed around the valley a bit, including a stop at the Awahnee where we just barely managed to talk Noam out of stealing a bunch of little ramekins of butter from a catering cart, and stops at a couple of other vista points on the way back to the cabin.

Sunday morning we checked out Bridalveil Fall, stopped at a couple of vista points, then stopped at Glacier Point, where we met a fellow Wisconsinite with a very cool hick accent. Below is a picture from one of the vista points. Isn't Yosemite so beautiful that it almost looks fake?

Glacier Point was mom's favorite. We could see most of the valley from one side, and Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall on the other. Kitty busted out her binoculars and pointed out a few rock climbers climbing the rounded side of half dome. After a few hours of enjoying the views and making fun of the other people at Glacier Point, we drove down to the southern entrance of the park to picnic in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias.

Half Moon Bay, October 4, 2003

Noam, Becky, and I managed to make it to the beach despite overwhelming odds favoring chickening out due to weather concerns, fog concerns, wind concerns, and tide concerns. We were rewarded with a lovely, sunny, warm day. The waves were breaking, resulting in a lot of noise and a lot of frothy water creeping up on the beach, both of which are apparently troubling to horses. I was so concerned that Juliet would be a raving lunatic that I actually wore my helmet even though we were working on the ground. She wasn't bad, but she wasn't keen to just dive in. At first, I attempted to get Juliet in the water without getting wet myself. Unfortunately, I seem to have a pretty crafty horse who is a big believer in quid pro quo. She would have nothing to do with the water until I proved to her that it was just water by dragging her out into the surf.

After maybe an hour and a half on the ground and about a pound of sand in each boot, I squished back up to the trailer and saddled up for a ride with Becky and Noam. We rode up the beach awhile and lived our galloping-along-the-beach-like-we're-at-club-med fantasies. For about five strides that is, until our horses had to pull up panting and gasping for air from running in the deep sand.

Sonny surprised us all by being the most adamant about not going in the water. Sonny has been to the beach many times with his previous owners, but he apparently likes to keep his tootsies dry. Since I was the only one whose underwear was already wet, I was given the honor of demonstrating to Sonny that it wouldn't kill him.

All three horses got in the water, we managed not to stomp on any barefooted children or dogs, and Juliet's legs were so white after being scrubbed by the sand and salt water that I barely recognized her. I'd call the day a success.

Jack Brook Horse Camp, September 6, 2003

While Noam was in Israel, Joann and I took Sonny and Juliet for a day ride in the parks near Jack Brook Horse camp. Joann and Dennis let me drive the trailer, my first time with horses in the back. I guess I did fine, since both horses arrived in one piece and, more importantly, both horses consented to get back in the trailer to go home:

Since I am not creative and not particularly adventurous, we rode my friend the Brook Trail Loop. Sonny was pretty startled by a couple of horses coming up behind us on the trail. The only explanation for the magnitude of his reaction was that he was actually sleep walking. Joann and Sonny in the trees:

Backpacking in Sequoia National Park, August 30 - September 1, 2003

What on earth possessed me to actually schlep my own weight up a big hill at high altitude rather than let my horse do it is a question I cannot answer, particularly in retrospect. It was extremely unpleasant at times, particularly during those times when we were actually wearing our backpacks and moving, and filled with harrowing constructions of band aids and moleskin. Despite the pain and suffering, we got the usual payback, nice views, humorous (at least to us) tales of pain and suffering, and a rare opportunity to justify the purchase of macadamia nuts. Click here for a map of our starting point on Saturday, Big Meadows (click generally to the right and down to see our entire, heinous path). From Big Meadows, we hiked over Poop Out pass and down to Jennie Lake. Here's Mike, pointing at our estimated location of Jennie Lake:

This is what Noam did the entire weekend. I'm surprised he didn't run into a tree:

On Sunday, we left Jennie Lake and embarked on what was promised to be a short but steep hike over JO Pass to Twin Lakes. Sadly, the hike was actually rather long and extremely steep. Also, Noam's GPS tends to lie about where you are and how far you have come. It prefers to do this in ways that are most damaging to your self esteem, for example by saying you haven't walked as far as you have. By the end of the trip, I hated the GPS with a fury rarely bestowed on inanimate objects. Twin Lakes was pretty though:

Monday, we slogged downhill to Lodgepole. I hiked mostly by myself and mostly in tears because I was so irritated and in pain by then. There were some really beautiful meadows along the trail Monday:

The trip ended on a sane note: after hiking to Lodgepole, Noam and I checked out the public horse camp just down the road from Big Meadow. No self-schlepping next year!

Ford Ord, August 16-17, 2003

We loaded up and drove to Fort Ord on Saturday morning, before Starbucks had even opened *gasp*. My impression of Fort Ord is a huge, run-down playground totally lacking in adult supervision. The directions the army gave us were terrible, so we ended up driving around a bit before we ran into the guy who was delivering our porta-potty and was able to direct us to the old army travel camp. Thanks, porta-potty guy! The army left in 1991 but still owns the travel camp, so no maintenance has been done since 1991 and the place is pretty beat up. There is eerie, death-trap looking old playground equipment all around, beckoning you to come and play and break your ankle. In the center of the camp is a boarded up building that looks like it was a little store of some kind. We set up our portable corrals and high lines near an old brick fire pit on a concrete pad surrounded by broken bricks. Thanks Becky for letting us use your portable corrals:

Most of the trails we rode were across the street from the travel camp, on land that is now run by the BLM. The trails are pretty well marked, though several times we rode past signs that said something along the lines of "do not enter, explosives" in a pretty half hearted manner. These signs tended to be on roads next to gates that were open, leaving one to stand there pondering whether they were serious or not. In the end, we concluded that they were not serious and merrily rode past all the signs. When we stopped for a break, Noam found some hollow point rounds and I noticed some shell casings, but thankfully no anti-personnel mines or bunker busting bombs. We rode above a fake city built by the FBI for urban warfare training that our local host referred to as Impossible City. Here is a picture of Sonny's ears, Becky, Frank on his beautiful Missouri Foxtrotter, and me on the first day. Impossible City is in the distance:

The trails were pretty flat and wide. We rode mostly on fire roads through low scrubby brush, but we did find a few single-track trails through taller trees. Many of the trees were covered with bright green moss that was very beautiful. On the second day Noam and I rode in a different direction and found a little canyon. We also saw tons of extremely polite bikers. One slightly creepy thing about riding in Fort Ord that several people in our group noted was the lack of critters. After seeing barely any animals, not even birds, for two days, Noam and I ran into a coyote a few hours before we left on Sunday.

Ed Levin Park in Milpitas, Minnis Ranch Trail, August 3, 2003

Noam's horse Sonny has a sore right under the saddle that refuses to heal. Even though I am tempted to think that he is faking it as part of his "I'm an old man, leave me alone" routine, the sore and our plans to do some backpacking this fall prompted us to hand walk the trail by the Minnis Ranch in Ed Levin park with Sonny and Juliet. Juliet was saddled so she could carry all our junk, and in case I got a blister or otherwise felt I couldn't take it anymore. Here are Sonny and Juliet on the trail:

Click here for a trail map of Ed Levin park.

Many of the trails in Ed Levin are wide fire roads. On the trails we were on, there was not much shade, and it was hot! We picked up the Agua Caliente trail on the right hand side of the map, by Chaparral ranch (in the notch on the map above the golf course). The trail goes straight uphill from the first gate. Just as I started to think I was ready to give up and jump on Juliet, the trail leveled out and we were walking along the side of the hill above Sandy Wool lake. Its pretty up there, there is usually a breeze, and you can see San Jose in the distance:

A little further along the trail, you can see the salt flats at the bottom of the San Francisco bay. The trail follows the side of the hill in the sun, occasionally crossing those creases in the hill where there are some nice, big shade trees. In two of those treed creases, there are water crossings that are usually all of a foot wide in the summer. Juliet will sometimes leap the first crossing, but on this day it was too hot so she just plodded across. Sonny doesn't leap for anything. After the first water crossing, we were sweating bullets so we stopped for a rest under a tree:

We left the Agua Caliente trail for the Calera Creek trail, which takes you down the hill, past another golf course, down to the level of Sandy Wool lake. On this section of trail, Noam's feet started to hurt a little so he rode Juliet. He did one of the gate crossings on horseback. I was impressed by how quickly he did it. Once we reached the lake, I got on Juliet and we took the Tularcitos trail back up to Chaparral ranch, and back out of the park.

Team Penning at Thorsen's Arena in San Martin, July 3, 2003

Joann and I went to the usual Thursday night team penning at Thorsen's, Joann on Belle and me on Sonny. The woman that sold Sonny to me told me that Sonny has won saddles and belt buckles and all kinds of stuff team penning, so I couldn't be on a better horse. She also said he might get a little excited when he saw the cows, which had me worried. He was perfect. I swear when they said "flag is up" he would cock his head and listen for the number, as if he would find that cow himself. We never once got all three cows in the pen in the allotted time, but it was a lot of fun. Here's a picture, sort of. I am the chestnut smear just to the left of the middle of the picture. I like this picture, because this is how team penning felt: fast and confused!

Jack Brook Horse Camp, June 2003

I spent a week with my Parelli study group at Jack Brook horse camp in Sam McDonald county park near La Honda. It was our first significant trip away from home. Besides giving me a little grief about getting in the trailer, Juliet behaved nicely. Noam drove the horse trailer and I followed in the car. It was a little nerve wracking to watch Juliet in the horse trailer because she sure moved around a lot. Despite all this dancing, she managed not to hurt herself and did not seem too irritated when we stopped on the way for lunch and didn't even offer her a sandwich.

As I said, this was our first significant trip away from home, so I was worried that Juliet would somehow lose her mind and be a totally different horse. Thankfully that didn't happen, she didn't even whinny much and seemed to be thinking "okay, I guess I live here now." Woohoo for Parelli! I had class for two hours a day with Sandi Parker, then the rest of the time was spent sitting still pondering how it could possibly be this hot in La Honda, and trail riding.

From Jack Brook you can reach trails in Sam McDonald park, in Memorial park, and in Pescadero park. Click here for a map of Sam McDonald park and here for a map of Pescadero park. On all my rides, we took the Towne fire road left out of horse camp and up to the top of a small hill where we picked up the Brook Loop trail, a single track trail. Both directions on Brook Loop are in the woods and very beautiful. To the left, the trail is flat but cliffy. To the right, the trail goes downhill to a set of switchbacks. There are a couple of wooden bridges that didn't bother Juliet at all (what a champ!). Brook Loop was narrow with no escape route in some places, but not scary because there was no traffic. I think in the five days we were there we only saw two small groups of hikers besides the people in our own group. Here is a picture of Juliet at an overlook off Towne fire road (by the way, big ears are a sign of intelligence, so be quiet):

Every one at camp was buzzing about a swimming hole where you could swim with your horse, so I think a vast majority of the trail rides heading out of camp that week were in search of this watering hole. I finally found it on about the third day, riding in a paint horse parade with the Schmidts. It is right near Shaw Flat trail camp (on the Pescadero map), in fact you ride through the trail camp to get to the water. We rode down the switchbacks on Brook Loop, then wandered around extremely confused until we happened on a sign directing us to the Shaw Flat trail camp. The hole had changed a little since the folks who had been there before last swam in it, so it was no longer deep enough to really swim. Even so, I had never taken Juliet in water that deep before. She walked up to it and plopped right in. She seems to enjoy making giant, splashy messes:

Thanks to Jeanne Schmidt for these pictures.