Vedauwoo:
One of my favorite places

Nico chowing down
in the pens at Vedauwoo.

Just a couple of hours from Boulder is one of my favorite places to ride, camp and hike. The fires were still burning in Colorado, and the temperatures high so getting out of town was a great idea. From our campsite looking south to Colorado you could see the plumes of smoke from the High Park fire, 11,000 acres and growing. Fortunately the winds were not blowing in our direction, but Cheyenne looked to be getting some smoke. 

The horse camping and riding in this area of Wyoming is endless—whether you stay on a road, trail or simply head off cross country. We were fortunate to get the pens (total of 10) for the duration of our trip. It is a first come, first serve campsite so be prepared if the site is full when you arrive to find another gorgeous site and tie to your trailer, picket line or set up your own corral. The nice thing about this designated site is the spring and cattle tank, but this time around the tank was dry because of a broken valve and connection. So I set up a drip bucket at the main line to collect some water.

Cheryl, Mary, Lee and Camy smoke
from the High Park fire
in the background.

I arrived Thursday and had the site to myself, two other horses were there and their owners had their RV nearby. The site shows some wear and tear but the pens have been nicely maintained by the Backcountry Horseman's Association (thank you). After settling in Nico and I went for a lovely dusk ride and came face to face with a handsome antelope buck. That evening after dinner I relaxed in my hammock as the darkness revealed a cosmic wonder of stars. Friday morning was perfect, I tacked up Nico and off we went exploring. My goal was to discover some new routes through the aspens to the Beaver pond, we succeeded! Later that day my friends Lee, Cheryl, Mary, Hal and Pete joined me at the site, and later that evening a local couple, Crystal and Billy (Lee and I met them here a couple of years ago). Bill managed to fix the tank, thanks Bill, I am sure all the other day and overnight riders, along with the cows, moose and other critters will appreciate that! 

Saturday after breakfast we all saddled up and rode out for another great ride. Crystal and Billy knew all the trails from years of riding in the area, she ponied her 1 1/2 year old filly, what a cutie she was (you too Crystal)! Climbing up gently to Devils Throat and dodging the ghosts in the Haunted Forest was all part of the fun ride.

Sunday morning a moose passed through camp and Mary got a good shot of it. I was sound asleep, missed it again! The girls tacked up and explored more trails to the South. Rolling grasslands, aspens and some bogs were part of the ride before we packed up and headed home to Colorado.

TIP: go during the week for less crowds, and have a water tank in your rig just in case!
NOTE:  This is a popular area for locals, so don't think you will be alone up there on weekends.
It can be somewhat crowded with RV/ATV use (designated roads only), but there are plenty of places to ride your horse without feeling too much pressure from other users.

Love to trail ride and feeling competitive?

Love to trail ride and feeling competitive?

Try a NATRC Competitive Trail Ride.

This past Memorial Day weekend a few of us decided to head down to the NATRC Region 3 One-Day Competitive Trail Ride at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. A short haul for us from the Boulder area. I myself had never ridden there and heard the trails were wonderful. Myself and Nico, and Mary and Spear registered as Novice. This entailed a 17 mile total mileage day on this one-day ride (often these are two-day rides). My other friend Jill and Goldie have been doing this for years and they rode Open which entails about 27 miles in one-day. To prepare for this ride we just put in the miles and the hills for a few weeks. Condition....condition...condition. We arrived Saturday afternoon and set up camp (horses must be tied to the trailer) then a Vet check in which involves trotting out your horse and lunging to access gait and any lameness. A fun potluck that evening with about 70 other competitors and volunteers, a briefing and to bed early. Up at 5:30 AM to feed and get the horses ready for a start at 7:30 AM.

So how does the judging go?

Competitive trail is a bit different then Endurance—you are judged not only on time (getting to points on your map), but also on horsemanship and horse. During the competition you will be judged by both a Horsemanship and Veterinary Judge. The Horsemanship Judge will have prepared obstacles such as logs and side passes, off-side mounts, in-hand work, crossing water, etc. They are also looking on your body position while going up and down hills. Are you off your horses back or grinding your butt into the saddle? Sore backs on your horse will cause you to lose points. Along the way you will also come across the Veterinary Judge and Pulse and Respiration (P+R) stops to access other aspects of you and your horse. P+R stops are usually placed at the top of a good climb. When you arrive you should receive a card with your arrival time. At this point you should calm your horse and loosen your girth a bit. After 10 minutes a volunteer will take your horses pulse and respiration and record it on the card. Good conditioning leads to good numbers and no points lost.

The two-mile mark.

The two-mile mark is the last place to access your time. You must arrive in camp at the finish within a designated 15-minute window of the time recorded on your divisions map. So you may need to slow your pace or speed it up to make this happen. Once in camp you settle your horse back at your trailer, clean him/her up and wait for the car horn in order to do the check-out Vet check. The Vet checks for any back soreness or lameness issues. Be prepared to trot along a line, and teach your horse to lunge it saves you from running (you are pretty tired at this point, especially on a two-day ride). 

One thing I learned at this check was that I should have left the saddle and/or saddle pad on Nico for about 10 minutes prior to removing. His back developed a temporary, non serious, edema (heat bumps). I did not lose points but learned how to avoid this in the future.


TIP: a good way to learn about the sport and see if it is right for you is to volunteer to help on a ride in your area, they always need help. I helped manage two rides in Granby at Snow Mountain Ranch before I decided to compete. And when I did at the Grand Mesa ride we placed (awards are given for up to six positions and breed)!


To view pictures of the ride please click here.
For more information on Competitive Trail, upcoming 2012 rides, and more information on this fun sport please visit NATRC.org or NATRC3.org.

Custer, South Dakota

Nico and Linda enjoying a wooded trail just off camp.

This is the second time I have been to the Custer area to ride and I just love it! In late September of 2011, the girls headed off to Custer, South Dakota to ride and see the Custer State Park Buffalo Stampede. For late September the weather turned out to be spectacular and no bugs! We booked ahead to stay at the Broken Arrow Horse Camp just four miles outside the city of Custer. The location was perfect. Nice covered pens kept the horses happy, and a wonderful bathroom and shower kept us clean. There are all levels of sites with full hook-up, fire pits and water, and very nice cabins for those who do not wish to sleep in their rigs. The owners thought of everything, even golf carts to easily transfer tack and feed.

Razzles of wild turkeys wondered through camp along with deer just off in the woods behind our site. There is plenty of riding trails right from camp so you don't have to travel far to get in miles of good riding. The trails from camp are all treed, with lovely high canopies, sunlight beaming through onto tall grasses. and lovely rock formations, mica and quartz. The footing on most trails was just perfect. The map supplied by Broken Arrow was not the most accurate, so be aware of where you are as you travel along.

The day of the Stampede we unhooked and drove out early, lots of traffic getting into the park, wild burros stopping traffic and lone buffalo along the way, including lots of people (about 10,000 in fact) come to see this event. The Longriders round-up the buffalo and drive them over the hills into holding pens where they innoculate, cull out some for sale and castrate the young bulls. It was fun, worth seeing once, but most likely I would not sit in the traffic again.

Custer State Park is huge, lots to see and do, and next time I think I will just haul over and strike out in a direction. The very friendly rangers we spoke to said you can just pull over most anywhere and head off for a ride. I have also rode to Mt. Rushmore, that is a fun ride, and in other lovely areas around Custer. It is surely worth a look!

Travel Information: Easy 6-7 hour haul from Boulder, Colorado

Bear Creek near Morrison

For a nice ride, sometimes urban, other times wooded trails along a meandering creek is Bear Creek Park near Morrison, CO. A few of us headed over there last Sunday to get 'outta' Boulder. A small $5 fee gets you into the Park. There are several locations to park your rig and plenty of space to turn around. We went over to the arena near the stables (closed for the season) and accessed the trail system from there. The arena is also a nice place to warm up or do some work. Cleaning up your manure is also made easy there is an area contained by railroad ties just next to the port-o-pottie.

We saddled up and headed out, the footing was perfect fro trotting and cantering. Keep in mind there is one big hill that you might want to avoid in the winter, it's north facing slope can be iced over. Early in the season we found some icy spots but crossed safely. Looping back to the trailers we passed by a golf course, several creeks, ducks, runners, hikers and cyclists. There is also and area of large logs to work your horse on. Back at the trailers we got the horses settled and heated up some hot cocoa. Shared a few more stories and loaded up back to Boulder.

Check it out, its a nice spring, fall and winter ride in the front range.
I have been there later in the winter and the creeks can crisp over with a so light of an ice sheet.
Some horse find the sound a bit unsettling when crossing.

Try a Cow Clinic

Peeling out a calf, the white one was fiesty!

Looking for something fun and interesting to do, try a cow clinic. Nico and I thought it might be interesting to learn a bit more about moving cattle. Not only is it good for your horse, by desensitizing them to cattle, but it also improves your horsemanship.

We headed over to Marty Martens place early Sunday morning for something different. Jody Marken, Marty's main squeeze, greeted us and directed us to the parking area. The clinic began with Marty and Rich Scott, and about eight other participants with a brief introduction about cattle, and what we could expect for the next three hours. We also practiced the basic movements involved in turning your horse, side passing and backing up. The goal was to influence the movement of cattle without stressing them. Simple movements, perhaps just a step by your horse one way or the other was enough to direct them. We also learned to identify Learning the "bounce point" to which they react and when to back off from the cattle. We tend to think we need to charge at cattle to get a reaction, and we also tend to get too close.

Horsemanship is also very important, your horse should know how to side pass and back up. The rider should understand how to ask their horse for these movements. I noticed many of the individuals participating in this clinic needed to work on these skills. They did not understand how to use their sit bones, crossed their hands over the center line of the horse, twisted their upper bodies and also lifted their legs instead of weighting their feet into their stirrups and pressing with the lower leg and rolling the upper thigh. In order to teach these movement to your horse you need to know the basics of these movements and how to use your body correctly. There is always something to work on!

All in all a fun time, peeling out a cow or two, leading them out and around the group and into openings was a fun time. For more information on these clinics and other obstacle clinics offered please contact Marty and Jody at 720 201 4363 or 720 494 9898.

Veedawoo

Well it was late June and the girls were off on our annual trip to Veedawoo with the horses. Mary and I left Thursday to try and get a couple of backcountry pens but when we arrived they were already full. We decided to camp just South of the spring and set up camp. Mary had one of those portable electric fence contraptions (don't waste your money on one of these) so we set it up but could not get the electric to work. We put Nico and Spear in the corral all day and kept an eye on them to see how they would do. They seemed just fine and content.

We went for a nice ride in the afternoon exploring the rolling meadows filled with Indian Paint Brush and baby antelope. Late that afternoon while we were in the trailer, one of our camping neighbors spotted the Bull moose, his route was just to the South of camp. We missed him but heard he was magnificent. As Mary and I were getting ready to hunker down for the evening we discussed whether we should tie the horse to the trailer overnight or leave them in the temporary corral. We opted for the corral since they seemed to be respecting the boundary lines.

My exhausted Abanico!

Early in the evening, before dusk, one of those wild Wyoming storms arrived with wind, electric and hail. We put the horses in the trailer and rode that one out. After the storm passed the wind continued but we put the horses back on the pen and checked them throughout the night. I think my last check was about 3:30 am and about 5:30 am I got up to take care of business and peeked out to a trampled corral and no horses, something must have spooked them, we guessed "Bullwinkle".

Those naughty boys escaped and were no where in site. I woke Mary, who at first thought I was joking, and we began to track the horses by foot. We realized that we needed a plan so we went back to camp, grabbed water, snacks and unhitched the truck. We reported the lost animals to the area Forest Service and proceeded to search and wait for other campers in the area to wake so we could leave our phone number and contact information in case someone sited them.

Mary found some tracks so we began driving the two tracks and climbing hills to get a better view with our binoculars. We discussed heading into Laramie to fill the tank with gas and decided to search a few more minutes than head out. On the way we saw one more camp and stopped to leave numbers with them. They hadn't seen the horses but were going to ride around in their truck later and said they would keep an eye out. We asked them where the road went where they were camped and they replied, "out to Happy Jack", so we decided to take it. It was a gorgeous two track which followed a creek and low gully, we spotted two set of hoof prints. I asked Mary to stop and I climbed up out of the gully. There he was, my beautiful, naughty grey gelding Abanico standing magnificently on the far ridge like a wild horse on the horizon. Spear was no where in sight. I whistled his call, his head turned and Spear ran up behind him. They were both safe, not a scratch, we breathed a deep sigh of relief. Three hours later and about four miles from camp they were found and we ponied them back to camp from the pickup.

The corral group saw us and come over to offer us one of the larger pens, they could double up. That was so generous and enabled us to get a good nights sleep the next night. The horses hung there heads, exhausted from their "all nighter", as we were from ours.

My suggestion: Don't waste your money on one of those portable pens. Get a Spring Tie and attach it to your trailer, it is more secure and the horse can move around even lay down. If you must have a pen get a sturdy metal portable one. Have binoculars, they were invaluable, don't panic have a plan of action and search methodically. Call in and report a description of the animals to the Forest Service in the area.

Ho Hum

It's June and the Western states are still recovering from the EHV-1 outbreak and facility quarantines that have been in place. From large boarding facilities to backyard horses we have all been extremely compliant with state and local veterinarian recommendation so as not cause this outbreak to explode. As summer is unrolling we are all going stir crazy wanting to get on the trail, out camping and showing, and for those that run shows—on with the business. Everyone in my area of Colorado has been using caution and limiting trailering to other areas.

If you are going to be showing or traveling with your horses here are some simple things you can do to prevent the spread of any disease:

Before traveling check your horses temperature. A normal body temperature is 99-101 degrees F. Environmental factors can cause a horse temperature to vary by 3 degrees. Horses tend to have higher temperatures in warm weather and during/after exercise. If your horses temperature is over 102 F. degrees you should call your veterinarian.

Bring your own buckets for water. Don't let your horse drink from tanks at other facilities. Find a hose and fill your own buckets. Provide a secondary bucket at your facility for others to use to fill buckets. This keeps the fill tank from becoming contaminated.

Instead of using stalls at fairgrounds when traveling tie your horse to your trailer. To make your horse more comfortable you can also look into a device called a Spring Tie which bolts into your trailer frame and allows your horse to move about freely and lie down.

Even thought being social on the trails is nice, keep your horse from touching others.

Keep your horse from grazing along the sides of trails, move off the trail a bit where it is less likly another horse has been.

Let's stay healthy!