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. 

Gullivair’s Travels

“One world is marked by a bland forgetfulness, where we do not permit ourselves an openness to the simple, graced beauty that is always with us. The other is marked by attentiveness, aliveness, love. This is the state of wonder, which is commonly treated as a passive phenomenon—a kind of visitation or feeling that overcomes us in the face of something wondrous. But the ground of the word, the old English wundrian, is very active, meaning “to be affected by one’s own astonishment.” (Mozart’s Starling, p 75)

I continue to be astonished by my little starling, Gulliver. I’m pronouncing it Gulli-vair, just in case he’s a she. 

I’m beginning to think Gullivair is going to be my pet, but I also found out we aren’t allowed to have them as pets in my state. I’m reading the book, Mozart’s Starling, written by an author in my state who raised one in order to help write her book, and that is how I found out they aren’t exactly legal, but they also don’t enforce it. They only want to discourage the import and / or release of starlings. 

It is an excellent book if you want to find out more about how they got here and how they have affected the continent since they arrived. There’s also a lot on the history of the starling in Europe, with Mozart and others. Since they’re native there, they don’t face the same level of despisedness. 

He is growing so fast, I will need to start figuring out next steps. Cage. Grown up food. Etc. 

He is still being hand-fed every 20 minutes during the day, which has left me no other choice except to take him on the road with us everywhere. He’s been to my mom’s house, a baseball game, my son’s house, and several places in between.

He enjoys hearing me practice the flute next to him. I’m hoping that as a song bird he will decide to learn one or two for himself. 

Here he is today. I am so glad he’s not bigger. He looks like a mini-velociraptor. 

Born to Be a Trail Horse

(A few minutes after coming across deer)

As our trail riding and lessons with Katie have progressed, my daughter and Katie will usually take Tumbleweed’s hour as an opportunity to ride together. Daughter on Epona. Katie on Tweed. 

Yesterday, however, my daughter couldn’t come to the lesson, so we spent the entire two plus hours on a trail ride, me on Tweed, and Katie on Epona. I was super excited to see Epona in action on the trails, and since she has, apparently, been good, so far, at following, we wanted to shake it up a bit and have her take the lead.

We got an early start, as it was going to be a hot day and, since it was hot, decided to ride to the river and play in the water.

You’ll remember from one of my last posts that we came across a herd of deer crashing through the trees on one ride. Well, in that same area we ascended a heavily wooded hill to get to the bluff and, as we cleared the trees, came smack dab onto a doe nursing her fawn. 

It was the prettiest sight I’ve ever seen, and mama and baby did not seem fazed by us. Baby continued to nurse. 

The horses, however, were unsure, and Epona, who was in the lead, gave them a wide berth. Tumbleweed was snorting and looking for an exit route, probably thinking they could come crashing at us again, but he stayed with me. 

That area is, indeed, a deer sanctuary. For whatever reason, probably the density of trees there, they have chosen that spot. Good to know for future rides.

It took two hands to guide him, so no photos of mama and baby. 

The horses calmed right down and I was able to get the photo above. 

Our next “obstacle” on the way to the river was a group of kids, about 10 of them, who were on a hike and running free, chasing each other, through the trees we had to also go through. I called out to them to please stop and when they finally heard me, they did.

As we rode by we rested the horses and talked to the kids. We explained why we had asked them to stop. Thanked them. Then moved on.

Finally, we got to the river after a number of descents and more people, bikes, and scary graffiti. A lot is thrown at them at Riverside State Park. It is a mix of wildlife, water, campers, fishermen (the casting of the lines also scared the horses), hikers, bikers, and fill in the blank.

This would be the first time Epona was introduced to the river. Tweed was there last fall. Both were very unsure. 

We dismounted and brought them up to the edge. 

Tweed pawed around and took a drink. Epona did the same. 

Then Katie remounted and asked Epona to walk into the water forward. She didn’t want to at first and Katie didn’t push her.

Instead, Katie turned her around and backed her in slowly.

Once she got used to the water, she backed in much further, stood, then walked out forward. 

And voila—we got this! (That’s Tumbleweed snorting in the video as water was splashing him.)

As we were riding back we talked about Epona and how she doesn’t like round pen or arena work, but loves the trails. She is smart, level-headed, and when the trail is unsure, she walks slowly and takes very careful steps. She has great foot awareness, and I’ve always known that about her. She has her mother’s fearlessness. 

In other words, she was born to be a trail horse. 

We also talked about what a good trail match these two horses are. Tweed went into the water after Epona splashed him enough times. I was able to ride him along the shallow end and reward him by leaving. 

Later, there was a burnt log he refused to go over, but followed Epona when she did. 

The two of them really love each other and gather courage from each other, too. It works both ways. There are many things that Tweed does more confidently and Epona follows. 

At only five years old, though, Epona is shaping up to be the kind of horse you can put anyone on and head down the trail. Which is a good thing. 

Because someday she is slotted to be grandson’s horse. 

Cowgirl and my daughter were pregnant at the same time and gave birth a few months apart. They even have pregnancy photos together. We always felt that Epona and grandson were destined to have an intertwined journey. 

It’s looking like that may happen. Time will tell.