Mother’s Day

 

 

Last Saturday night, believe it or not, we were in a frost advisory!  I kid you not – on Friday, I was riding in a tank top and on Saturday, I am looking for every spare sheet in my house to cover my yet-to-bloom lilac bushes – which, by the way, bloomed in late March last spring.  I know because I have pictures to prove it! 

 

 

Baby was quite concerned when she came around the barn and found all the “ghosts” lining their pen.   I waited for Blue to make an appearance because he is the King of Spooks and was quite disappointed when he showed little reaction. 

 

 

The tulips had just started to bloom.  We took these bulbs from my mom’s flower garden either right before she died or before we sold her house.  It was very cool that they were blooming on Mother’s Day weekend. 

 

 

I didn’t cover the tulip garden but did cut a nice bouquet to bring into the house.  As it turned out, only only the low pasture got heavy frost and the tulips survived for a few more days. 

 

 

Lilacs are my favorite flower in the world.  Not so much how they look, but how they smell.  The smell of a lilac bush brings back so many memories of my childhood – our house in town, my grandma’s farm, my aunt’s farm in Guide Rock, graveyards and Rod McKuen poetry.  As I mentioned on Facebook, if I live until I’m 80, I have less than 30 lilac seasons left in my lifetime.  I don’t want to miss one. 

 

 

For Mother’s Day, my boys made an appearance and humored me with a picture.  We had a nice lunch, visited with John’s mom and then came home to the horses. 

 

 

The horses had a few chips in their hooves from Friday’s ride and they need shoes before we leave for South Dakota, so John trimmed them a bit and filed out the chips.  Then we saddled and rode over to the trails we cut this past winter along the creek where he cuts wood.

 

 

Most of what we cut was more than enough for horse height and we could follow it pretty well.  There were a few areas where you literally had to jump the creek due to steep sides and John coaxed Fancy, who had lead out nicely, to make that first jump.  She is such a good girl.  Windy wasn’t as thrilled to be asked, but wasn’t keen on her “baby sister” leaving her, so she gave me a nice leap over it as well. 

 

 

Going down in this draw was a really cool part of the trail and the pictures don’t capture it’s depth.  I tried to video it coming back out, but it was kind of hard to keep Windy collected to take this path slowly and run the camera so what I got wasn’t worthy to post.  Maybe next time.   We rode a little over 7 miles; a nice end to a good Mother’s Day weekend.

 

 

And just when you think all the crazy weather is over – remember, we had frost warnings on Saturday – Mother Nature brought a new twist on Tuesday.  Hot, hot weather!  Luckily it only stayed around for one day.  Who knows – it might just snow tomorrow. 

 

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The 13th Annual Friday Before Mother’s Day Ride

 

April showers came in the form of wintry mixes and even today, I am worried about the likelihood of seeing blooms on my yet-to-blossom May flowers.  But it looked like we caught a break for the 13th Annual Friday Before Mother’s Day ride held on that day. 

 

 

To save waking up at the crack of dawn on Friday, my friend, Robyn, hauled over to our place and she and Coda spent the night.  To be clear, she got the guest room and Coda the round pen.  Bo and Pip were thrilled to have company and was most anxious to make it a slumber party!  We stayed up late sharing a bottle of wine and catching up on winter.  I thought I would drop right off to sleep and I almost did... but then something clicked in my brain and instead of a wine-induced slumber, I turned insomniac – much like I do when worrying about getting up for an early flight.  Guess I was just anxious for the ride. 

 

 

I woke up easily and we puttered around getting ready.   A search for Robyn’s keys kept us all active for awhile and just as we were Googling the number for USRider, the lost was found.   We made it over to Valparaiso at our normal arrival – about 8:30.  The temps at this time were still low.  High forties maybe?  If you look at the pictures, most of the riders had on some pretty heavy coats and hats.  I had heard there were fog advisories out, but although overcast, there was no fog in the Val area. 

 

 

Still, I noticed the numbers appeared to be down and when we rode out at 10:00, Mike A, the counter, said there were less than 30 in the first heat.  Counting some late comers, fog & other reason, we believe total numbers were around 60.  Considerably lower than the previous years.  Certainly not a disappointment in my book; the lower numbers made it easier to visit with more riders. 

 

 

We had one accident, that I know of.  There is a horse in a pasture along the trail that came up to the bridge as the trail horses were passing and a rider’s horse spooked.  Windy watched him pretty close when she passed him, as he had his nose through the panels on the bridge.  We usually see him whenever we ride this trail. 

 

 

I had a fun ride.  Started somewhere in the middle, made my way to the back and by the time I got to Loma, was back up front again.  I took my “good” camera and played photographer.   I admit, it wasn’t the easiest having to use two hands to take pictures.  Windy was a bit high early on.

 

 

By the time we got half-way to Loma, the sun burned off the low clouds and it was a beautiful spring day.  The plum bushes were blossoming and fragrant, the sky was a gorgeous blue and the wind was mild.  Riders were all smiles. 

 

 

It was quite unusual to see the green grass and blue skies against the trees which still have not produced buds.  Many of the horses still had what was left of their winter coats.  I really think the numbers were down because many riders have just not had the opportunity to get any time on their horses this spring; the weather has been so unstable. 

 

 

In the early 1990’s, a movie production company came to Loma for the filming of the Patrick Swayze movie, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.   The fictional movie town was called “Snyderville” and you can still see some of the graphics they did on the worn buildings.  Before long, all evidence of that movie will be gone. 

 

 

After lunch in Loma, Robyn and I decided we were going to have a faster ride going back.  Not that we were in any hurry, just because we wanted to.  Corie and Diane joined us and we quickly covered those seven miles in long trotting and loping; thankful for the tank tops we were wearing under the layers we had put on that morning.  Windy got a little hot in the open areas where we would lope –even threw in a buck which caused me to keep her reined in a little more than usual.  When we got back to our trailers, a gal that who was waiting at the trail head asked Robyn and I if we were endurance riders.  No, be we felt like we were!

 

 

We enjoyed potluck around the trailers with friends.  Several of the riders went to Branched Oak to camp for the weekend.  I trailered out there and hung out for an hour or so but came home for the night.  My lack of sleep the night before was starting to catch up with me and we have a pretty heavy schedule of graduation parties today so I called it a day.

 

I know I he-hawed about changing the date of this ride, but after yesterday, I decided to leave it as it is.  I like the early ride, the weather, for the most part, has been kind.  It just works. 

 

Thanks, everyone, who came and shared the day with me.  It was a lot of fun.

I Wasn’t Kidding…

 

 

In my last post, complete with the camping, sunshine and water pictures, I mentioned the “s” word.  Snow, that is.  I wasn’t kidding.  We woke up Thursday morning to this (insert other “s” word). 

 

 

As I mentioned many times, I will not cry about the moisture.  We have been in drought conditions since early summer of last year, but doggone-it!  It’s so hard to stay positive when winter just goes on and on and on like the Energizer Bunny.  Can we please dial up the temps a bit?  It dropped to 31° overnight on Thursday which may have just froze our first cutting of alfalfa which we badly need because of said drought.  That I will cry about!  For the love of God, we just can’t catch a break!  I won’t even mention that I hold out little hope for my flowering crab trees and lilac bushes. 

 

I have blankets back on Windy and Butter.  Windy, because after last weekend, she is totally shed out and Butter, because the others won’t let her in the barn.  Wind chill is at 21° degrees this morning. 

 

 

I did sneak a ride on Blue boy this past week – on this 17th birthday.  He has been in my life since he was four and I trusted him enough to get over my riding fears a decade or so ago.  He served as a trusty mount for me and both of our boys.   He and I need to get out more often.  If the snow will ever quit!

 

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