Back to It After the Fires

“Summer always overstays its welcome by about a month. After the Fourth of July, which has its charms, nothing but a stretch of relentless heat lies ahead, reaching toward Labor Day, and I begin to yearn for fall.”  Elizabeth Bruenig, “If Only This Could Last Forever,”

Wildfire. Smoke. Extreme heat. The triple whammy. No saddle time. 

Until, finally, today. 

Tumbleweed did great on the obstacles and on the trails, too, especially for having a month off and getting way out of shape. 

But we have some ground to make up. 

We had three blips in our trail ride:

1. He didn’t want to lead out, and away, and I allowed him to follow. Big mistake. I should have got right on that and told him to lead. It set me up for more “refusals.”

2. Going down the steep hill he wanted to speed up and get sloppy. It wasn’t as bad as last year, but something I tried to nip in the bud by doing more hills today. 

3. He tried to canter up a hill that led back to the trailer. Most of that was exacerbated by him being out of shape and wanting to avoid powering from behind. But I can’t help but think that first refusal contributed, too. 

He took the lead going home, so leading wasn’t a problem, leading out was.  It was like he sent a message to the other horse, fall back, I’m taking over, and she did and he did. He just plowed forward confidently setting a faster walking pace than the other horse. 

The three things he did weren’t that big or bad, and my friend didn’t even notice them. They were subtle and, I think easily fixable. 

My trainer Katie was down there riding a horse for another client and I told her I’ll need her help getting him back in trail shape starting Tuesday. 

At any rate, it felt so good to be with him again. When he tried to get into that canter up the hill, I decided to go up, but then take another trail away from the trailer and continue our ride. 

It was my gentle way of teaching him a lesson, and he got the memo.  Don’t rush back home or you get more work. 

That last leg of our ride was our best. He softened up and I tuned into him more and patted him, talked to him. It was like we got on the same page again. (One of the issues with riding with a partner is that we can get distracted from our horses when they need more support, and I think that happened today.)

When we got back to the trailhead we did some more obstacles and he was trying so hard for me by then. I jumped off after the last one and made a big deal over him. Really loved him up and then walked him back to the trailer. 

It was a good start towards getting back to normal. 

The forecast is decent this week, 70’s and 80’s and even a few days of rain. It has been so long since we had rain. 

We need it. 

Bring on fall!

Spokane Fires

(Photo taken between equestrian area and Morin trailhead, day after the fire)

If you watch the news, you may have seen our city on fire. Everything hit at once: hot day, dry conditions, and strong winds. We don’t know what started it yet, but some people are saying arson. That has not been confirmed. (Update: a man has been arrested for arson. Witnesses saw him light grass on fire with matches and butane. His felony was for homicide in Arizona. He also had investigations for previous arson.) Although, I wouldn’t be surprised since so many are started that way. 

It began about a mile from our house, and we saw the initial smoke, late morning, but assumed they’d get it out quickly. That didn’t happen, and we began to see more and more smoke. 

We packed all of our important papers and items, hooked up the horse trailer, and began the watch. The wind was blowing it away from us with gusts up to almost 50 mph. We didn’t know if the winds would shift, but they weren’t predicted to, so we weren’t evacuated. Friends of ours were. 

In fact, one friend who evacuated was going to meet me for a ride that day, almost right where the fire began. (Same road) We canceled because of the winds and high fire alert. 

The fire tore through the park where I always ride and that you’re familiar with if you follow the blog at all. You might also remember all the tree thinning they were doing that worried the horses. And the chipping. And the fire trucks they’d have in there. 

I’m sure that helped. But it still tore through there and then jumped the Spokane River (you’ve also seen many, many photos of from trail rides) and then ripped up to residential areas and the VA hospital. So far, over 600 structures have been lost. Many people lost their homes. Our city is devastated. 

We were up all night, the night it broke out, taking turns listening for updates, in case the wind shifted and we needed to run. I’m exhausted. We all are. There are still hot spots and fire spots and smoke as 3 fires have almost merged into one. 

The Old Trails Fire, named after the road Old Trails where I was going to ride that day, grew to 3,619 acres. The Autumn Lane Fire along Long Lake (that is where we boat) is roughly the same and still growing. 

Our equestrian area was spared, but barely. 

Our city is covered in smoke. The fires are not contained. The wind has stopped. It looks like the apocalypse. We’re still packed to leave, should the situation change. 

But so far we have been very lucky. 

A Wonderful Summer Update

It’s time for an update. The weather last week was super hot (100+) and smoky, but we showed up for our weekly ride with Katie at a new location with more trees for shade. 

Katie said that at this point she’s not exactly sure she is necessary anymore, (except for accountability and inspiration to get out and ride even when the weather is awful, and that’s no small thing!) She said we have accomplished our goal of teaching the young ones to be trail horses and to ride well together, and she asked if we should end our lessons. 🥹 

We settled on a twice a month lesson, rather than every week, because we are not ready to let her go. We enjoy our Katie Time. And yes, it is making us more accountable and consistent. This week, however, we will be riding by ourselves. 

An update on my starling, Gulliver. 

He (or she) is six weeks old and such a fun addition to our lives. I had my work cut out feeding him by hand the last five weeks, but on cue, he is independent at six weeks—just as they are in the wild.

I made him a special “starling chop,” which he eats everyday, along with live bugs. The chop is frozen into muffin tins which can be removed from the freezer each day.

He is also practicing a variety of very humanish sounds, …and molting. Because of the molting, he spends a lot of his day in his attached bath. 

He has two cages, one upstairs in our living room, and one downstairs in our sunroom where he free flies. The one upstairs is on wheels so that we can roll him out on the deck with us each evening. His bedtime is 8:30 pm and he doesn’t like to eat until about 7:30 or 8:00 am.

Other than that, spending every moment we can with our family—birthdays, U-pick peaches, baseball games, concerts, dinners, and boating. 

Summer is flying by and, despite the heat and smoke (which disappeared today!!) it has been wonderful!

Summertime

It’s hot. The kind of hot that makes you want to fall out of your saddle into some shady spot and fall asleep or wait it out. The kind of hot where you drink half a bottle of water and are like, oh my gawd, I’m still thirsty and should have brought more. But there’s never enough.

It’s just…So. Damn. Hot. 

If you’re riding, you try to get an early start and stick to the trees. 

Or, head to the water. 

But let’s face it, this is officially boating season. 

It’s jump in the Columbia River, at the base of Whitestone Rock, and swim season. 

It’s sit on your deck as the sun goes down and visit with your friends and family season. 

Summer is in full swing here, and though it’s not, and will never be, my favorite season, it sure has started out to be a good one. 

Monday Missive

Hello everyone. Happy Monday. I’m writing this blog post and watching the US vs Belgium in the World Cup with my husband and our grandson. Soccer is kind of like watching paint dry, so I can multitask. (As I wrote that last sentence the US scored their first goal!! Woot! Woot!) (and Belgium scored!)

So much for watching paint dry. 

However, my last ride with Katie really was like watching paint dry as we left the trail head. I figured we’d liven them up by trotting the first bit, and that seemed to work. I wanted to get them to the section where Tweed saw the deer running alongside us. 

When we arrived at that point he tensed up and began looking for them. Katie was following on Epona and she said Epona also got reactive, but we made it through and the rest of the ride was easy and uneventful. 

The care of Gulliver (and grandson who is out of school for the summer) is making it hard to do trail rides, but Gulliver, at least, is becoming more and more independent very fast. 

And I’ve decided to keep him. A friend rehabbed a baby bird only to release it and watch a hawk swoop down within the very first minutes and snatch it. That was enough to convince me that I am now a starling mama—longterm. 

Also, he bonded with me and thinks I really am his mama. I was the first thing he flew to when he learned how to fly yesterday. Here are some videos, the first of his practice on July 4th, and then his success on July 5th. 

We are only at three weeks, so there’s no guarantee he will make it yet, but he seems to be thriving. 

I transferred him to a cage yesterday. That has also gone well. It’s on wheels so that I can move him to wherever I am. If I have to go on the road, I take him with us in a carrier so that I can continue his hand feeding every 20-30 minutes. He has been lots of places and travels like a champ. He was even on a boat again, and was happily preening, eating, and sleeping. Didn’t miss a beat. Now that he’s flying I won’t take chances traveling, but he should soon be foraging for food on his own. His diet is …interesting.  Live mealworms, berries, and softbill food.

So that’s my crazy life for this Monday. 

Never a dull moment when you embrace the bounty that is life.