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.