By Patty Wilber
Our 6th annual spring trip was a blast. Last year we camped. This year we glamped!
Mary Ann, Siri and I travelled in Siri’s Big Ass Trailer (the BAT–with fabulous living quarters) to the Gillespie Ranch near Mayhill, NM.
I took Atti.
We had to take the screens off the BAT so Atti would not eat them on the trip. I borrowed a fly mask and we managed to tear that instead, so a new one is on order for Siri–cheaper than a new screen for the trailer!
By Patty Wilber
From last week: an astute epidemiologist and a disease ecologist that read the blog noted that since horses are dead end hosts for West Nile Virus, they cannot reinfect mosquitoes. Only birds can do that. Thus, vaccinating horses doesn’t create herd immunity for this disease; vaccination protects your animal but does not decrease transmission to other horses. The herd immunity concept does apply for many other diseases. For West Nile, I guess we need flock immunity!
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Because it has been so warm and dry, The Pecos Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen were able to complete our first project of the year, a month earlier than usual.
We had a LOT of participation and we able to tackle Box Trail with one group while another group worked on Spruce Trail up to the snow and then Red Canyon as well. All the trails had trees. Lots of trees.
The Box Crew started at Red Canyon. Box Trail is the one mile link from the campground to Ox Canyon Trail.
This year we have started a mentorship program for new members and we billed Box as a fine introduction to BCH. Not steep, not rocky and no water crossings this year since it has been so dry. We also figured it would have a lot of down trees since it goes through an old (2006? 2008? I forget) burn area (all burned trees must fall on the trail) and because we did not get to it last year.
The project matched our billing very well, except the down trees were all before the burn area. We kept busy clearing big trees and small trees at what seemed like 200 yards intervals. It was great practice for mounting, dismounting and having horses tied to trees for long stretches.
I took Penny, and she seemed to really enjoy sleeping during the numerous stops because when I would go get her to move on to the next down tree, she could barely wake up enough to unplant her feet! This was partly why I took her instead of any of the others–she is very relaxed on the trail!
By Patty Wilber
Judith and John Huchton’s Ms. Atti and Indy had some fun last weekend.
On Friday, we hauled down to Peralta to work cows with Ed Krause. Both horses perk their ears when the cows come into the arena. Indy wants to be more aggressive, which can be fun. Atti is more level headed and doesn’t tuck her butt up under her if the cow behaves unexpectedly. Both are making progress.
I am going to start using the flag here at home a lot more often to see if we can increase our rate of progress. I would really like one of those programmable flags so I could just follow it and not have to mess with the controller in my hand while trying to manage the reins. Perhaps an upgrade is in my future!
The flag is on a string and the horses will track it back and forth. A remote controller in the hand moves the flag–unless you have a programmable machine that will run the flag on a pattern for you…I want that right now.
On Saturday, those two horses, plus Cometa, me and Jim, joined the Pecos Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen for a ride in the Galisteo Basin Preserve. We had 19 equine and 16 riders.
Photo by Elisa Bohannon. Indy is the last horse in this picture. Three of us are not in the shot.
I often like to be at the end of the line if I am on a young horse to try to keep out of trouble. This was Atti’s second trail ride with horses she didn’t know and I wanted to keep her comfortable. Turns out I need not have worried. When the horse ahead of her gave a wild spook and later a big buck, Atti barely even raised her head. And as we walked, she poked along back there, not seeming to care that her slow old walk didn’t keep her caught up. We worked on increasing her walking pace, but I often had to suggest that she go ahead and jog to keep up. That is a a much nicer problem than a herd bound horse that coils up in panic if the animals ahead of it get two horse lengths away. Continue reading »
By Patty Wilber
In December, Jim and I went hiking in the Ojito Wilderness. We accessed it via Cabezon Road and hiked the Hoodoo Trail (red dot and line) over by Bernalillito Mesa.
The hoodoos are surreal, like being in a different dimension, but as far as horseback riding, it is a short trail.
So, Tuesday, us ladies in our big trucks (cuz we might be AARP age, but we are formidable, especially in a group) went on US 550 3.5 miles past San Ysidro to the gray road on the map. We went in the green gate and parked right there. Then, we followed that gray road on horseback into the Ojito and saw a different side of it.
Marianne, Siri, Linda, and Lily.
By Patty Wilber
u can tell we are show girls because we keep our tails up!
Patty says: Our first show of 2018 is Jan 7. We are going to the New Mexico Buckskin Shaggy show and we are bringing three mares. One of them likes other horses. The other two…depends. Hope they all survive the trip down and the day tied to the trailer, near each other.
The three suspects are:
Penny, Indy and Atti (short for Attitude…)
Here is what they have to say.
Penny:
i am 11 this year! i am not quite as long in the tooth (literally) as cometa who is 21 this year. but back to me. sydney came home over Christmas and that really helped to get me closer to show shape. jordyn helped this week, too. lori is the one that gets to show me tho, and i have not decided if i will make her life easy or not. it might depend on where i have to stand tied. i might try to kick indy at the show if she is tied too close to me. i am her boss in our pen, but she is bratty.
By Patty Wilber
There is a real danger of over kill (uh, well, maybe that is a bad choice of words for this topic) when it comes to safety recommendations for riding in the backcountry. It is impossible to be prepared for every possibility, so the trick is to be reasonably well outfitted without having to take the kitchen sink and the inflatable helicopter.
At the end of a 20 mile ride!
Here are some ideas.
By Patty Wilber
Riding high country trails is a goal of many riders. I understand that goal because it sure is fun to be way out there on a good horse. “Way out there” can mean far from help, also, so here are some things to think about (in the form of a checklist) when considering a back country ride. Understanding what you are up for can help you pick when and where to ride.
I can hike backcountry terrain at elevations over 9 thousand feet.
Hiking??? I thought we were horseback! We hope to be, but in the case of emergency or a lost horse, can you get out? If I lost my horse, most of my gear would be gone as well….but that is a different problem!
I love hiking on cliffsides. Not. And this was at sea level, but still.
I can lead my equine:
By Patty Wilber
While a good number of my Appaloosa cow horse friends were at the Appaloosa World Show (doing a great job! I hope Indy will be good enough to go in 2019), me and my own cow horse turned trail horse for this week, LT, Jim and my BCH buddies Peter and Mary Ann went to clean up a junky, litter-strewn hunting camp in the Pecos Wilderness, for the Forest Service.
Mary Ann and I made a first run at it Friday Oct 23, but only made Beatty’s Cabin (14 mile round trip) due to unforeseen minor, but delaying, complications. Since the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder, we wanted to check this box before the snow froze the high country off for the season. October 28 looked like it could work for the 22 mile round trip. A little cold, but no chance of precipitation
We saddled up in 23 degree F weather
“who’s bright idea was this? we had to get up at, like, dark o’clock, and btw, it is cold,” says Squirt. Longshot agrees.
We left Jack’s Creek at 840 am (left home at 545 am).
Tulip (with Mary Ann up) says, “cold grass is still tasty!” Cometa is in the foreground pack- saddled and waiting.
By Patty Wilber
THE GREAT GROUSE ADVENTURE
in which
PATTY BAGS TWO GROUSE
and
PENNY PACKS TENT POLES
Well! I am finally a “real” hunter! I brought home two spruce grouse and I did it with two shots of Jim’s 20 ga shot gun. I am a fan of the 20 ga shot gun. It is light (under 5 pounds), thus easy to tote around the wilderness. Since I was shooting shot, which has a spray, I hit every time. I have not a clue about the “choke” on the gun and it is late already, so I am not going to try to figure it out, but the pictures below give an idea of the pattern the pellets make.
I got one from about 15 yards (on the ground) and on from about 25 yards (in a tree) and did not have a “shot” at an on-the-wing bird, for the trifecta. We had green chile grouse enchiladas Thursday pm and they were delicious. (Thanks Kay Coen for that cooking idea!)
Me and my first grouse!
By Patty Wilber
We are heading to Camp Kingsbury (well, Jim and Richard already left) this weekend! Jim has a bull elk tag and I am going to tag along as spotter and aim (again) at grouse hunting. I have been on two elk hunts where I had the tag, five or six javelina hunts, a deer hunt and one grouse hunt and so far I have harvested…nothing. We will see what happens this time.
Jim and Richard are setting up our back country camp. I hope Jim gets a picture of Richard with his string of five pack animals! Jim will be riding Cometa and packing Penny. I thought everyone would be happier if LT did not go without me and Indy is still in OCD rehab (and doing well).
To prepare for this year, we got a new muzzle loader, a Thompson Triumph.
Last weekend we went to sight it in with the Kingsburys. They brought all the cool toys to help with that!
