In the Backcountry

Equine Anatomy, big time!

2012-02-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

The blog entry below has photographs of the winter white fluffy stuff and iron-hard temperatures but not this year (at least so far). Instead the 'iron-hard' refers to many people's lethal pasture conditions with ice pockets and ground ice slics. I know, my Cochise Apache I thought was a toast number on Boxing Day after a shoulder split, and after so many amazing coincidences, stunning veterinary care, acupuncture, physio and massage (my bills are truly eye watering, he feels great!), my knowledge input's yanked up yet again. And, given I'm boning up (sorry, very bad pun) on anatomy and horse physiology all over again, this website is terrific. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean - ! Link at http://www.horsesinsideout.com/

Winter - !

2012-01-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a few pics that according to my, er, sometimes erratic filing system! suggest winter time aroundabouts this time of year back in 2010. One of Alberta's typical snow years that one and these were taken at Station Flats near Bragg Creek, one of my favourite schooling grounds for young and new-to-backcountry horses.

Why - ? Open meadows so if a mountain bike or human runner or hiker trots into the field of vision on a trail you can slide out of harms's way through its widely spread trees. There's a wooden bridge to practise over, with the hum of running water underneath. Helicopters, even, landing at the nearby ranger station!

These girls were out for a day that had started at around -10 C. and warmed up, if I remember, to around 0 or just a bit above. Fanny Barrette's the group captain! and took her map reading seriously in the trailhead before legging up onto her elegant grey. They're all wearing different gear, from trad. Western to more Mountain Equipment Co-op but layers work, so do saddlebags and soup-filled thermos containers in saddlebags as well as knives and hoofpicks and all the usual gear. Winter riding really can sing and if you're a photographer in the high wild places, oh yes!

As an extra warming tip, if you wear something around your neck (preferably silk) and ditto something around your wrists, you will be a ton warmer - it's a backcountry survival training tip that one. Socks, wear natural fibres or your feet will initially sweat and then get very very VERY cold (!). The 'Cloud' stirrups Fanny has on her saddle distribute weight load more evenly and no pressure points - a ton of range riders I know of, always practical in their thinking, are now absolute converts.

(Canyon) Creek Trail looped.....

2011-10-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

(CANYON) CREEK TRAIL (parking at the west end of Prairie Creek Trail) and returning on the gravel POWDERFACE ROAD, mid-week (no traffic).

The fall colours when we arrived late, say around the 1 p.m. mark, were THE best I’ve ever ever seen. We parked on the side of the gravel Powderface Trail (by the west end of Prairie Creek Trail), snugged on the cinches and the safety gear and off, five minutes tops. A horse these days who knows his job and thoroughly enjoys the expectation of a ride well done.

I’d heard about this Creek Trail, heard even that years back an endurance race had taken place, started I think even, from this very point, and heard too it was a sod, of pure bog.

Well, long distance international equestrian horse races, the long milers, these days are won on flat or just rolling ground, deserts often as the Dubai sponsorships particularly have come into effect. Endurance rides in Alberta are still taking place in pure bog and muskeg. The finishing times for the Californian Tevis Cup, burningly hot terrain, have decreased fantastically this past decade.

Why?? are Canadian endurance race planners (and riders) still riding in bogs and muskeg??

Don’t get it. At all. Don't get why this trail is marked for equestrian users either, for 11/12ths of any rideable time - ??

So, I’d deliberately chosen CREEK TRAIL after five weeks of ferociously warm weather, no dew even, not a drop.

From the parking place, the maps are a bit deceptive as you have to climb the hillside to the right (east) of the gravel Powderface Trail first before, peering beadily, you’ll see a mostly overgrown entrance to a trail over the small hilltop, with a red diamond well tucked back in.

At day's end I agreed I was right (!). There’s no way I’d ever ride this trail in even ‘normal’ conditions but bone dry, like this glorious day, there were, say, still five bogged creek-type crossings. Some roots. One slatted lodgepole pine crossing, decaying and just about OK for hikers but, one foot into with a horse, a log flipped up so we backed up and bushwhacked around upwards and around and back onto the trail.

Fabulous forests and then dirt sections, the sky overhead cobalt blue, the odd chickadee and a ton of squirrel middens.

Yep, ideal bear country material and I know for a fact it’s a wildlife corridor, respect it too.

We saw a squirrel, another animal I never thought to see, ever, and in such amazing circumstances of just total grace you wonder if the moment, truly, ever happened.

The trail descends again after its mild elevation gain, hardly puff worthy, and then briefly swings right-handed along a creek based valley thick with willows swathing into crimsons. The afternoon light began to slant, just as we crossed Canyon Creek. There you hook westwards (left-handed), and it’s not well marked or well used. No horse shoe tracks, no hikers’ boot treads and one pretty elderly mountain bike’s marking that had gone through a long long time ago.

You kind of follow the very pretty valley, the creek singing its songs to your left, and then there’s a meadow. Don’t, as I did, continue to follow the trail closest to the river (one slightly scrambled rock climb, not difficult but if you’re not confident in your horse, nope) but instead take the higher trail out of the triangular meadow, which’ll end up taking you, about a mile up, to join again together.

Lovely surfaces for riding, dirt, open sections, meadow and soft turf, with some random campgrounds and fire circles.

Because it was a weekday and late and low traffic volume we returned back on the gravel Powderface Trail, the first part homewards back to the trailer a bit of a swinging circular climb that had been, just lovely, graded and not its usual corduroy that has your shock absorbers trembling. After that, there’s actually a good deal of side trails to either side that you spend, in fact, little time on the road itself.

The trees rustled and twirled their pinks, their fluorescent yellows and even touches of reds this year. Back at the trailer, The Fox munching his cubes and thinking pleasurably of his haynet for the homeward journey, and by now seriously almost dusk, two young men arrived, unloading backpacks. They chose the Prairie Creek Trail going eastwards, a valley that in five minutes would be in shadow and with a temperature dropping like crazy. Interesting.

Will We See Bears - ??????

2011-09-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

Man, I've heard that comment as we set out from trailheads so many times if I charged $5 a time I'd be holidaying in Mexico. And, reading the Alberta Equestrian Federation's latest e-newsletter, with berries and lush raspberries gloriously thick and ripe, experts'advice on encountering bears is dutifully mentioned to their trail-riding members.

Well, with The Best I've stood downwind of a few bears so unbelievably rank my eyes stung and I seriously wondered what they had for breakfast earlier that morning. Carrion, prime carrion, had to be. And these were encounters in September and October, three different locations, one a just gorgeous silver tipped grizzly - actually, there were all grizzlies so special occasions there.

The Fox gets a tad twitchy without his cool-as-cucumber girlfriend but he's pretty OK, and the pinto couldn't give a damn.

Moose, though, ah, moose. And, pulling out of Mesa Butte and flicking on the CBC's 1010 AM program as the rig crunched through a few potholes, oh joy, the newscaster had on the world-renowned 'Dr Moose', handily live from a cellphone in northern Manitoba.

The man obviously adored moose. He told stories. Anecdotes. He mentioned the males' noses will be deepening, darkening now from the colour they've shared over the summer with Mrs Mooses, as their hormones prepare to open the floodgates. In three weeks, he remarked, velvet from the antlers will begin to be scraped off, the males will start to express opinions about territories even though their rut won't officially be in, er, full thrust for a few months yet.

A magnificent moose, in his prime, once fancied The Best and we darned near had a near-death experience, cascading down a scree slope in saner moments I would have described sincerely as absolutely unrideable. He really did have his antlers in a twist, I mean, have many pure white lady mooses have you seen in your lifetime?

Horses, you see, find it difficult to 'read' moose. Moose stand still, no body language to read, are they a threat, these large, almost black animals - ? Better to be safe, let's run-for-home and that nice-safe-trailer, eh? On foot, hiking, yes, I'm bear aware but having read a stack of park wardens and biologists' accounts, annoyed moose have stomped, chased and treed more than their fair share of humans. If you're riding along willows, muskeg, streams (West Bragg Creek, ah, has some wonderful areas of precisely these ingredients, another is the section by 'Moose Pond' before it elevates into the spectacular Eagle Hill Trail too), watch your horses' ears, perhaps a sudden 'dragon's snort' or a jolted halt, high headed. It's a great opportunity, too, to learn to read landscapes, practise developing the mountain people's amazing peripheral vision, drag your own vision away from tunnel vision on your trail line only, listen to ravens discussing the deal - then, as Andy Russell once described, each day in the mountains begins its moments of magic.

Scratches Update

2011-09-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

I am very bored with scratches (also known as 'cracked heels' apparently in Ontario and as 'mud fever' in the UK and Ireland. The Best is EXTREMELY bored with them too. It's taken nearly two weeks, eventually ending up with a new application of veterinarians' Moore&Co 'Scratches Ointment', covered up with plastic, then padding, then a carefully applied bandage of equal pressure, both hind legs to level out any favouring of one leg (and its ligaments and tendons). Every day. Yawn. We almost got there, no puffiness (ie, no poulticing which went on for a whole darned week) and I left the bandages off for 14 hours and we were back to square one.

Eeeargh. So, we resumed. One hind leg (she's black skinned, as are all pure-bred and part-bred grey or white Arabians) has, guess, a white sock (hard black foot though) and that's the one that's cranked my back into major creak zones.

So, with the drier weather forecast for a week to come, do I or .......? ....... cross my fingers and hope, this time, we're OK - ? Decisions, decisions.

Scratches.......

2011-08-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

Unreal sometimes how the world works! An experienced horseman told me just three days ago of how a lot of horses are getting scratches suddenly this month, I nodded and poof! two days later my white mare (hard hard black feet) has them on her near hind on the fetlock. I slathered on Vicks last night (old country remedy I've used often, something in the camphor is the active ingredient plus the gel - I am guessing something like Vaseline? - keeps the area soft). This morning the infection's backing up her leg, so will be poulticing the swollen affected area from hock to fetlock in a couple of minutes with hand-hot kaolin (trade name is UPTITE, huge plastic tub of the stuff costs under $20) plastered on thick, then a sheet of Seranwrap to keep the heat in. The deal works on the theory of osmosis if you remember your science lessons - ?! - and then a good wrap of what are now old-fashioned tail bandages. Which can be re-cycled and re-washed. Vetrap's fine but getting equal pressure (try doing an example model on your wrist say and you'll be surprised at the torque) can be the devil, and it's a one-use only product. Fine in some circs, yes, I agree. She's also getting a shot of Bute as she's definitely not sound and will stop Miss Cranky biting everyone's ass in the field.

I'll be giving that until late this afternoon, pull the lot off (normally for UPTITE poulticing I aim at 12-18 hours tops and see what miracles have happened), scrub down with antibiotic soap and hot water and see what's improving. The Best pulled this stunt too once in 2004 where her leg came up in 24 hours, and she needed major antibiotics for 12 days in total - plus a heart-starter emergency shot when she reacted big-time to the vet's first intra-muscular penicillin injection aimed at getting antibiotics into her bloodstream and into gear. My heart too just about seized at how quick that reaction set in that day...... but in 20 minutes she stabilized and was amazingly nonchalent about the whole life-death deal.

Horses, just totally in the moment! After that she had antibiotic powder (not penicillin!) mixed with water in a mouth syringe and became amazingly canny at anticipating when I had just oats in my pocket or that dratted gunk! ...but for her, yep, it took a good two weeks before the scratches cleared out and she was sound and really right again.

Some horses, I can remember one that stayed a summer for mountain work, had eye-watering cases of scratches and not her I-am-dying-and-my-legs-are-swelling-and-infected reaction at all. Interesting that, as The Best has one of the highest pain tolerances I've ever known in a horse.

Another experienced trainer and breeder has just emailed in recommending a product called T-Zone (which includes tea tree oil as one of its ingredients - always useful for the first aid kit that oil!), and which is stocked apparently at The Horsestore in Kensington, Calgary.

Any other remedies, thoughts, yep, please post a comment!

Horse feathers!!.....well, actually, horseFLIES..........

2011-08-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

Dragonflies are out, mosquito count down but darn, even down here in the southern ranges of Alberta's shining mountains, the horse and deer flies are a right pain. I'm using Repel-x (which Rachel Carson and her thoughts on DDT I doubt would have approved of) but she's not sitting on 1200 lbs of equine thinking that a good buck, get rid of The Human and run like the wind will solve the problem.

Well, if anyone has anything that really DOES repel this monsters, please please write in, OK - ?

At home on Horse Creek, and along the local open grassed ridgelines, we're putting in fitness hours (no bugs, we like this)...........if I was a four legged I'd think life was pretty OK if this could be like year-round (!). Graze, shelter, wander down to the creek for a drink, roll in a muddy spot as a fly deterrent, graze, snooze....yep, you get the idea, my horses are pretty happy these days.

But.

If you read some punchy material coming out on Complex-PTSD (a longer term version of Post Traumatic Stress) with animals, Gay Bradshaw is right out there with her meticulously researched book on mind-altered both tame AND wild (national African parks) elephants. Just out is Project Nim, on humans and chimpanzees and anyone after that who isn't profoundly affected could be just a tad closed down on what sentient animals that can experience, in their format, joy, fear, pain, stress experience.

And, so on to horses. Where ARE horses going in recreational fields? Dominique Barbier remarked recently that up to 80% of competition type horses in Europe under the age of eight had either had had significant surgery or euthanization. Stifle and hock injections because of arthritis, many variations really...........the German vet Dr Gerd Heuschmann's book "Tug of War, Classical versus Modern Dressage" now has a DVD out with an English translation that's stuff filled with precise anatomical info.

Remember the high-end technology needed for the nasty Hobbit, where a human had electronic sensors attached to his anatomyfor the initial filming, and then the studio team superimposed the Hobbit's image atop the movement - ?

Well, THIS is effectively the first time I've seen this concept applied to a horse movement informational piece. The 'camera' is above the spine, or alongside, or in/with movement, stripped of hide and outward muscle, pared down to bone, ligament and tendon. It's OCD watching material! Highlighted areas of slack tissue get highlighted, and major stressor points that develop either with hyperflexion (rollkur) often seen with 'modern' dressage tactics, show jumping and sometimes Western reining training.............and, too, as eventing (cross-country jumping)has gone a slightly alternative quick-fix route, horses around the six-year old mark are developing into the 'terrible sixes'in often fairly high-headed 'compressed' outlines without the boring muscle-building initial phases of topline stretch, flex and build. A really interesting phrase, eh? - heard for the first time a month back.

I admit, my jaw dropped on that one! In my years eventing, six was when the youngsters started to really sing and hit stride, not hit pain, stress and arthritis....and, eventually, either hitting enormous and chronic vet. bills - or bucking and behavior problems.

In its own analysis, yep,a human-induced form of equineC-PTSD, particularly if on a high-protein, high acidity diet while cooped up in a 12 x 12 foot stable for hours on end. The recreational horse OWNER perhaps needs to look at horse welfare - ? The emotional and pyschological well-being kind - ? - and think hard, long and reflectively - ?

Bogs trap trucks AND!! a Horse Trailer ONE MILE IN on West Bragg equestrian trail - different!

2011-07-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

Here's another report emailed in from a regular and adventurous couple riding backcountry, who encountered this interesting situation at West Bragg the other week. The recent heavy rainfall has some serious bogs and muskeg here, even on the extremely extensive 'new' trail plan being developed and this combination of a truck and horse trailer adventurously up past say three boggy areas and a good mile and a half, say, along an equestrian trail were all up to their axles.

Be interesting to listen to what K-Country conservation officers and the trail building specialists have to say on this one, eh - ??! Here are the comments from the riders' email: "Here are the pictures we took yesterday while on a day ride at West Bragg. You can choose whichever one you want. I believe the sighting of the trucks and horse trailer is on the “Iron Springs Trail”. You would reach the site before you reach the man made gate. I’m guessing the gate would be about 1 kilometre further south."

Feedback on the TOM SNOW TRAIL.........

2011-07-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

This entry will be posted on 'Trail Updates' at www.pamasheton.ca in a day or two but for those of you heading to the foothills here's a report emailed in from a backcountry rider rated on the Intrepid-Plus scale (!).

Here goes: "We rode Tom Snow from Dawson last fall (Sept and Oct) and it was lovely. All the deadfall removed, some new sections of trail and we really motored. I love that trail. If you want to ride it fast I’m in, but walking that thing would kill me [see what I mean? - the Queen-of-Speed, grin]. On Tuesday last week we rode Tom Snow from Station Flats and again it was in good shape.

And for the blog, the bridge on Wildhorse has been repaired (by Howard Creek) and is highly recommended. We tried the old alternate way to the west of the bridge on the way back and the bog is really nasty now. Whoops, judgement error on my part. Did I mention the moose????"

Good Trainers are Goldust

2011-07-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Back during the five years I crafted the Equestrian Diary column for my local newspaper the Cochrane EAGLE beginning in 2002, I wrote just about everything related to horses. Blanket repairs, shelters (a unexpected favourite that one!), horse behaviour…….and clinicians.

A LOT of clinicians. The horse ‘whisperers’ known across North America, Canadian home-bred versions, specialists, generalists ……. in the end I just about out-clinicianed (not proper or correct English but it’s the most apt way I can think of describing the situation!) and many of them near talked-you-to-death.

I can remember interviewing participants on a couple on those Master World Talkers' courses who, frankly, went into mental hypnosis overload by the end of day two. Oops, when you’re dishing out fairly serious $$$, eh - ?

Many clinicians were amazing, some had moments, most were superb horseman, others were superb horseman but lousy teachers (I can remember attending a British clinic given by an Olympian I had waited, dreamed of for months and she couldn’t have taught a donkey to trot – an unbelievably disappointing day where I had anticipated all my cross-country questions would be answered succinctly, like before breakfast).

There are born teachers, as there are rare naturally gifted athletes, and those you can teach to teach, or to ride who have to work, work, work to find all the right tools, muscles and independent balance (right up to Olympic, I know, I’ve taught that deal).

And, last weekend, B.C. based Jonathan Field breezed through five blisteringly hot days with humour, very real interest in every single individual human and horse during both Horsemanship 101 and then 102….. and then Jonathan atop a chance ride on a big bay gelding with just a tad of attitude showed me three very neat techniques that went into my mental “could be useful” drawer.

They were, too, just a mere two days later! Isn’t ‘coincidence’ just wonderful - ?!

Jonathan was teaching at Patty Martin’s Twin Springs Ranch (tel 403-932-7817 or www.twinspringsranch.ca - the website’s still developing). The ranch’s atmosphere’s positive plus here and they specialize in competent pasture boarding, with both indoor and outdoor arenas – plus immediate access to wonderful backcountry trails.

Patty and Jonathan, I know, were talking about the possibility of another clinic later this year

Listening...........

2011-02-17T11:46:00.000-08:00

Horse language is the language of the flight animal, you know, the one that gets chased and chomped as seen on the Discovery Channel. To really get horse-think it's a bit useful if you sit and watch horses at pasture, big horse herds, those kind of dynamics.......

Something that, initially, seems inexplicable may suddenly click a brain cell. What horses do loose they'll most definitely click into, under stress, when ridden. Obvious really, that one!

Like this morning here, when The Best, as alpha as they get, decided the back pasture (where the water is) was highly dangerous. The ferocious high-headed dragon's snort and her three companions cascaded to the very furthest eastward line of the corral's fencing around the back of the shelters and the old red wooden barn.

Watching through the kitchen window, I sighed, heaved on four layers, lumbered outside and filled up the ancient sliced-in-half propane tank (alias their water tank), tidied up a bit.

Nope, they weren't moving. Glued, high headed, adrenalin high, along the corral's ancient timbers.

Another sigh. Grab a halter and slid it onto the white girl and led her into the horse eating back paddock, a tad exasperated at how seriously she takes her herd guarding responsibilties at times.

The others followed, slid up, one at a time, drank deeply and then began picking, still a bit snorty, at the hay piles I'd organized.

She and I stood there, we've been together now a decade and more than any other, she's taught me horse-think subtleties. I breathed slower, my feet imagining they were tree roots and thought peaceful thoughts, idly drifting through why she was so revved up and guessing her one big fear factor, moose, were in the thick thick western woodlands nibbling on willow branches.

The raven couple, in their prime and stunningly blue-black against the hoar frosted trees, croaked their odd warning language and the white head went up again. Something, definitely in there, and the ravens croaked and cawed and flew around before, finally bored, circled away further up the valley for more morning amusements and diversions.

So, still she and I stood there, me waiting again for the white head to go 'level-headed' (see where the expression comes from?!) and then, ah, magic.

A huge bald eagle, really massive wing span this boy, flying straight up the Horse Creek Valley northwards, my first viewing this year of the earliest arrival perhaps pathmaker of their annual migration of bald and golden participants that's a documented 11,000 years old. They, hawks and many others, follow the ridgelines of the 'shining mountains' the far more appropriate name given by native people to the 'Rockies'.

The mare, finally, dipped her head, deigning to slither in a few morsels of sweet meadow hay. And then, with their ironic cosmic humour, the Land Gods said, I am imagining, OK, The Human's being a bit perceptive this morning so let's give another little gifting. In the far wood came a faint rattling drum of a woodpecker drilling but the mare, this time, twitched just an ear with a muzzle now deep in timothy and fescues .

And the very first of the young male ground squirrels popped his head out of a burrow, scampered across to the fenceline and, carefully perched erect atop the crusted snow, surveying the bright sparkling world of springtime-just-around-the-corner.

Supple. Horses AND humans..........

2011-02-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

Working with a new competitive minded rider the other day, halfway through the session they started to laugh. I glanced across, questioning and quizzical and they exclaimed, “we were told you were expensive.”

Not, as they hastily explained, for value for money for the session time itself but because about, I am reckoning, a good 90 per cent have a saddle that simply doesn't fit (so, yes please, buy another saddle that does), and usually the horse is as crooked as hell besides so in my opinion, what's the point of running a marathon if you can't touch your toes - ?

In the past I've been crunched big time by horses, plus one major skiing number and almost three years back a whiplash number on a wet veterinarian's office floor. I thought I was pretty clued up on getting back to functioning but that day's soft tissue injuries opened a whole new bag of, er, a learning curve which, sideways, can be applied to horses too.

With movement comes core strength and elasticity, without it, one displaced rib or hip alignment just compounds into everything going out of whack.

So yes, I advocate chiro work but not the kind where you go back, week after week, month after month. Nope, my girls (the horse fixer and the human one too) get it in one or two sessions, max, and then after that it's conditioning work.

The Colorado clinician Mark Rashid (his book HORSEMANSHIP THROUGH LIFE runs totally along the same line of thought, you end up with a different – and supple – human being after he takes up the mental and physical discipline of martial art training) seems, uncannily, to run and write along similar railway tracks of parallel thought sometimes to my own. Ah, the old synchronicity thing again.........

Chiro work, saddle fit and if you click onto his website at www.markrashid.com and then onto his blogs, there he is covering my thoughts almost exactly, onto issues on slaughter and the latest, about teeth and TMJ and jaw flexion.

Nowhere near mountain fit or any type of competition fit level, my appaloosa The Fox has hit major I-am-very-happy horse-time. Conformation wise back at the knee, finally again his feet are balanced just right. He had chiro work done about two months back because he'd 'braced' himself for so long because of the jar and displacement correspondingly in his shoulders and tightened up in the stifle big time. And, finally decided he likes one bit after six years of trying nearly everything under the sun! He rides on rein pressure as light as feathers, he's tracking up, punch! from behind and the shoulder and stifle are smooth and supple on the circle with 'self-carriage' – ie, self balancing. THIS is the basis of great classical foundation work, wherever you end up riding.

And, on that note, a great classicist who follows along the line of the great Master Nuno Olivero, is giving a talk/seminar at Weedon Hall. His name's DOMINIQUE BARBIER and for a book of insights – and stunning line drawings – please, treat yourself to his just gorgeous DRESSAGE FOR THE NEW AGE.

No Foot, No Horse

2011-01-21T12:03:00.000-08:00

That heading, that expression, is centuries old and it's absolutely right. If, though, you're reading this blog for backcountry advice in deepest Louisiana (I had a call from Oregon last week, if anyone fancies ranch backcountry time down there and a beautiful website too) this locally based blogged information, to-within-say-50-miles-radius of Cochrane, Alberta probably won't be much use (at all) to you. Smile.

But to a rider (and their horse) a perfectly balanced good foot is a big deal. Trimming, shoeing, all take expertise and given that horses have different shapes, different shapes of feet then experience kicks in.

The angle that somehow just seems right, the heel elevation, shoes for cross-country eventing (with stud holes, try unlocking the studs afterwards from their screwed into the drilled holes that are threaded, when your 1200 lb athlete is prancing around high on adrenalin.....). Character forming, definitely, that one.

And then for this snow-laden province right now, another ton of options. Ditto racehorses with aluminum plates, show jumpers landing hard down from 5' elevations. Ponies knee high to a grasshopper where your core back muscles need to be super-flexi.

This kind of expertise comes from the experiential. This means your farrier has done it. Preferably lots and lots and lots of times, over years. Someone that notices how a horse may not like holding up one foot in a certain way and thinks lateral about why, or why the skeletal frame may be out of kilt, these experts are worth gold dust.

My own horses (near Cochrane) are now benefitting from the skills of a young man, Bryan Schoures, who's headed west for the love of a good woman (and now girlfriend), and building a business where multi-talented horses are part of the deal. Poor man, he even listens to me yakking on about chiro work done the week before on, say, yet another tweaky horse, which leg, or shoulder. Neat thing is, he also translates that into a horse with a tight stifle, or a shoulder that's had injury.

And. My! The horses definitely pick up on that thoughtfulness.

On a colt with a seriously low attention span in a Chinook wind one afternoon...... the speed those feet were trimmed - and trimmed well - had the colt not quite realizing he'd even picked his feet up. I didn't time it but it was at world record speed. I had to grin that particular day at the colt's amazement, mine and Bryan nonchalently taking another layer of clothing off from his orginal four thermals.

So, for a personable young man, experienced, who knows to handle horses with respect, trims and hot-shoes, his name's Bryan Schoures, his email address (it's the Blackberry thing) is bryanschoures@yahoo.ca - and (cellphone of course!) is 403-613-5770.

The Best's Christmas gifting to you

2010-12-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Relationships with horses in my life have always been working affairs – partnerships that took me competing cross-country courses, slithering scree slopes researching or for whatever competition best suited that particular horse. 'The Best', the now pure-white mare who features on the front of the backcountry guidebook, is undeniably the most difficult horse I've ever re-started. Hot-headed, angry, she was probably the first horse that I couldn't 'see' where she was going to shine. At all.

The backcountry trails and something-to-do, a purpose, eventually changed her. Immeasurably. My idea of hell, right from when I first ever swung a leg over the back of a horse, has always been 'to go out for a ride.' I may school horses in arenas or those apparently pointless circles on wind-blown prairie wool pastures but in the back of the mindset is always something to be geared towards.

To my way of thinking my horses pick that up. Really! Flatwork to them, whether we're on a trail practising balanced transitions from trot to canter, or a still halt to pirouette around a gate fenceline, becomes a means to an end – they know the winter indoor arena work is only a phase, a partnership being fine tuned and then, oh joy! there are jumps or trails or fastwork.

Joy's an important number to horses. Spoken praise to young horses, neck rubs that, as relationships mature, become a sly scratch on the wither even in midst of a difficult dressage test as an acknowledgement, a thanks for a movement well executed.

Gratitude. Joy. The two trot together.

To 'The Best', carefully named as I was asking Fate to make sure she would be the best at something as yet unknown, I owe much. An equestrian column that ran for five years in which she often featured. A guidebook where her ears, often photographed from the saddle, are always pricked and where she even hammed up looking down a rock slide apparently horrified, that she'd nonchalently been down 20 times before.

She's been used in demo-work since for horse language simply because her face is unutterably expressive – 'I am happy,' 'I am darned annoyed,' 'this Small Person is standing in exactly the right place'........... there's never any doubt what mind-frame she's in and for that she's priceless.

And, on winter's night a few years back, she woke me up, so strong now is the telepathy between us. Personally I get a little tired of women romanticizing their relationships with their four-leggeds these days but the bond with the white mare and myself is not that.

It's a respect, a trust hard earned. So, here is her and my Christmas gifting to you – I wrote this small short story, that most difficult of writer's disciplines straightaway after, so almost surreal did it seem. No editing, just straight as it happened.

“Coyote teaching.........”
“Midnight, a whisker before. I wake up, the kind of wideawake with no dreams still lingering. The barn's yard light is on, casting shadows across the old Turkish rug. I fumble for spectacles, none that I can locate in the darkness and right now I want no turning on and off of electric lights.

Binoculars, from bird watching down to the water meadows, are on the old Victorian pine table. Gratefully I flip off their covers and focus through the window. The white mare, sharp as ever, has her head up and scanning; I follow her gaze and for the next five minutes there is enchantment.

Two coyotes dancing on the lawn. Feinting, circling, front paws asplay and crouching, a look cast sideways across a shoulder. The mare's head is up but I notice the frosted plumes of her breath are steady and slow. “No threat just right now,” drifts into my mind from hers and but I notice she has blocked her body between the coyotes and her stablemate appaloosa still picking at hay snippets from their late night feed.

The coyote pair slam dunk, roll over each over, then stand, face to face and noses a whisker apart. One leans forward and licks the top corner of her mate's mouth. They grin, panting foolishly, join shoulders and minds suddenly decided, trot briskly toward the darkness and the creek.

In the morning I stop on the way to the barn and there in the snow are their tracks, a dance still.”

Copyright Pam Asheton @2010

Just a quick scribble about Dawson....

2010-10-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

A few blogs back artist Shannon Luyendyk hissed about the clear-cut from Dawson Equestrian Centre while heading for one of my favourite viewchick bliss points at Eagle Hill.

So, here's a photograph of WHERE the equestrian trail starts from Dawson's campground - if you go out onto the gravel Powderface Trail, then look for this squiggly yellow traffic sign (to the right of the trailer), on the left-hand side of the road - photograph next up - is where your equestrian trail slants across the clear-cut (top photographic image on the top right-hand side again for you, visual works for me every time - click, by the way, on the image and they enlarge like crazy - I just hope you're not on dial-up that's slower than smoke signals!), across Sibbald Flats and then either aim for Eagle Hill or adjoining rides. Frankly, absolutely one of my favourite areas.

So, hope these are helpful!

Down Jumpingpound Summit Trail....

2010-10-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

Oh, and by the way, here's a pic of the exit onto the gravel Powderface Trail and the lay-by car parking. Looks nice and flat, doesn't it?! Well, that's the number that climbs up to stupendous viewpoints and Jumpingpound Mountain itself. This trailhead's located 17.1 kilometres from the turnoff off the #68 highway.

And, one final shot of The Fox, usually only a drinker-of-water-from-home, who guzzled half of the Jumpingpound Creek down as well as getting a good washdown and sweat scraped clean.

This area, by the way, is a definite wildlife corridor - the closest I've ever come to a magnificent grizzly (my eyes watered, the scent was THAT strong - really!) happened one earlier fall riding alphamare The Best. We were, say, 40 yards apart and both just sizing each other up with no particular hassle. Bear spray though recommended here, folks, and not tucked into your saddlebag either (!). Cougars too, up higher, black bears and in winter the tracking in snow are just amazing experiences, one after another - pine marten, snowshoe hares, the brush of a landing owl's wing. Magic.

From the Viewchick.......

2010-10-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! to this gifting of Indian summer right now.

And. Here's a ride that certainly needs a mountain fit horse and also one where you need to be super-aware of weather conditions. Two weeks before The Fox and I clambered atop the Jumping Pound Ridgeline trail a disgruntled hiker had told me he'd have been better off with snowshoes.

“Eight inches of snow, the top crusted,” he grumped. A note down where the rig was parked mentioned on the 15th September a mountain bike race had been scheduled. Did it run? I wonder, because peddling up those steep climbs and slithering three back to one foot gained must have been, grin, a bit character forming.

So, here's a fabulous ride not mentioned in the guidebook, two trailer number if you can manage, are better than one – reasons why later, OK?

Take the #68 Highway (it's paved now until the K-Country entrance, lovely!) and then go along until you slide down the hill towards Sibbald Flats, golden too right now and with the grazing lease cattle due for their move towards home mid-October. Then turn south (or left) onto the gravel Powderface Trail. If you click your mileage timer on, it's 10.8 kilometres to a parking lay-by, where on your right hand side is the Lusk trail (where an obliging cyclist mentioned three horse riders were camped out at the little corrals there a couple of kilometres up through the old growth forests).

On the left (or east) side is the easily found start of Jumping Pound Ridge Trail. Pop over the stout wooden bridge, across a little meadow and then, it's climb. And climb and climb. It's switchbacked and initially underfoot is mostly dirt with the odd stone but as you hit the higher elevations, it's more rock than dirt; this is NOT a ride for barefoot.

I actually rode this with The Best in 2005, and up-here-high we hit shin deep crusted snow so I guess we didn't notice the rock outcroppings (the photograph opening this Tuesday's blog on the right-hand side was taken here). This is akin to riding the high backcountry in Banff and tough going - the map says 2.5 kilometres but it feels double that.

Then, magically, suddenly you're out in sub-alpine meadows, coming to a T-junction with a Kananaskis Country map. Hoik left and you're heading towards Cox Hill. Go right (or south if you've that kind of mind-set) and the 2.5 km section here runs along the base of Jumpingpound Mountain (2,240 metres or 7,349') with knockout views towards the Don Getty Wildland Provincial Park.

The Fox, not super-fit as I'm spending kind of a lot of time with money-making marketing and media consulting I'd reckoned would be ready to call it a day so we knocked down the Jumpingpound Summit Trail (more lookout points, yum) onto another parking lay-by area jammed with hikers' cars. Those little brown lines on the Gem-Trek map said, yep, it was steep in places, rocky too (these are places to check your saddle isn't edging forward or your saddleblankets haven't dropped off backwards miles back).

One group of efficient pole-wielding hikers just back down said they'd ascended to the mountain's summit easily in 50 minutes; heck if I managed that I'd think a gold medal was in order but just to give you a perspective on what two-leggeds can do.

Here's where the second trailer and a friend reading the Sunday papers, came in handy – it's exactly 6.4 kilometres back along the gravel Powderface Trail to where my rig was parked. Pretty much a single track deal with passing places, and on this Sunday a fair amount of traffic (those gold dusted poplars and aspens had every photographer in Alberta out, let alone the hiking and mountain bike crowd). Not much corduroyed, a lot of loose gravel on the edges with the road itself hard packed – to ride back on? Not much fun, no shoulders to ride away from gravel spray would be my take.

If my horse had been fitter, well, I'd have stayed high and continued southwards, past Canyon Creek (gorgeous too) and then hit another lay-by parking slot at the end of the Prairie Creek Trail, which adds another 10.2 kilometres to your ride time. (If, by the way, you want to do this trail combo going northwards, the Jumpingpound Ridgeline trail actually starts around the corner northwards by, say, 600 metres from where the little 'P' marker dots on the Gem-Trek map right by Prairie Creek Trail. There's a red diamond nailed up on a pine set backaways from the road, but once you find that, you're on your way!

POINT TO CONSIDER: The gravel Powderface Trail by the Mount McDougall Memorial, by the way, is steep. You need a powerful rig to power up its gradients (I once had to take horses out, tied them to trees, drove up the slope, legged down and then hiked back up to re-load before going on southwards. I was, I admit, seriously hot that day......)

Mud, rain and Snow forecast by this weekend .....!

2010-09-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

It was a daisy of a ride.

Dirty clouds scudding eastwards for the last two days, slam-dunking into the Eastern Slopes and soaking up moisture like a sponge on overdrive. The Tank was in four-wheel drive from the beginning of the trail and it and the trailer slick cascaded with mud slurry. One pothole sucked us in and only just spat us out the other side.

The leopard-spotted appaloosa The Fox, saddled and bridled snugly inside, looked out from the trailer's back door vantage point and was noticeably unimpressed.

Mountain horse, fine. Mud slog, nope.

Tough.

Checked the safety gear, cinched up and swung on board with three layers inside the Drizabone coat that stretches down to your kneecaps. Moved on, our aim that day to confirm details on a trail that's “allegedly” (yep, you can tell I've had the formal legal journalism training!) had a bit of ATV and OHV use and riparian damage issues.

By mid-afternoon the heavens opened, the kind of rain you see Gene Kelly twirling his umbrella, you know, that infamous film sequence 'Dancing in the Rain' where the stunt-coordinators are sluicing water-on-a-serious-mission. From hosepipes.

Five miles still back to the trailer and the Drizabone began to leak, the way a cranky old Waterton outfitter'd told me it would years back (and whose pithy comments I remembered one after another, and he'd gone on, I remembered even more wryly, for paragraphs too) first at the shoulder seams and then spreading soggily, the three layers underneath gradually absorbing. Gloves saturated for the first time ever, rain dripping off the hat brim.........yeah, it was getting to the character forming stage.

The Fox, his spots now merging into mud splashes chest high, was cheerfully now on a mission to-get-back-to-that-trailer.

Until.

Mrs Grizzly sauntered left into view, saw 800 yards or so generously left handish of our route.

He's never been bear phobic before, aware yes, but definitely not thrilled as I velcroed in, yep, I remembered, he's always been with his girlfriend The Best who's not remotely interested, or with another pinto girl I had in one summer of a similar mind-frame. Veins standing up, the hair around his withers standing on end (yeah, really!) and of course it's the one time that special bit of his didn't have a curb chain on (which I'd taken off to use on another horse the day before, duh) so it was like trying to get the attention of a Spaceship Shuttle's pilot about to land by someone waving a headscarf somewhere to the right of centre.

Not cool.

We stood. She wandered off to stuff down her daily hibernation intake around now that equals about 64 BigMacs (I'm serious!) worth of berries, carrion and whatever's around.........and I was left with a horse running enough adrenalin win the Kentucky Derby just right then.

Another mile and he remembered to breathe again.

So, a tip for you riding backcountry – do your schooling and training at home (the nutcases that take a green horse backcountry, nope, not a cool deal.......!), make sure you're riding with a bit your horse respects when the pressure's on (some horses, sure, it might be a neckstrap, a snaffle, whatever works) so you can still engage in a horse-to-human communique...... and as for the Drizabone, well............ situation there definitely under review.

Head for the Hills!

2010-08-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Tons of new updated information on the 'Trail Updates' as trails are drying out and all those damned mosquitoes finally disappearing. Noted wildlife and equestrian artist Shannon Luyendyk poured over maps with me last week - the girl's determined to ride every single spare moment! She'd recently ridden southwards of the Little Elbow trailhead on the main cobbley exploration road (the Big Elbow Loop intro-section) and then up onto the Three Point Mountain Trail.

Steep that one, in places, and you need fittish horses but once you get high, well, even your horses admire the views. Seriously! Turning around after a lunch-break, and back at the valley's bottom floor, the girls took the softer-on-the-feet earth track that runs parallel back to Little Elbow.

Well, I rode it last year and the last section had a fair amount of deadfall with old growth forest all around. I had an experienced mountain horse and one who'd packed besides in his youth (they learn to go 'around' the tree and your kneecaps get to stay intact, nice) but if I'd be riding something a bit more skittish, well, it could have been interesting.

Shannon's comments were sharper, as now apparently part of that trail is undercut from the river running in sections underneath and definitely they felt adrenalin nasties negotiating some of the sections. Oops. From the southerly point descending from the Three Point Mountain trail, there was no indicating this could possibly be a not-safe trail - although there is, apparently, helpfully a notice at its northerly 4-way join up onto the Wildhorse Trail.

And, here's a photograph for the records. Safety means taking an up-to-date map and knowing how to read it besides! Here are the girls at decision time, saddlebags filled with lunch, safety first aid kits and waterproof layers. Perfect.

Stolen Horse protocol re-issued

2010-07-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

The last ten days have seen three emails land on my computer detailing stolen horses. One's distressingly akin to the Okotoks 'Mandy' pony case of a few years back, this time though when a ranching family down south along the foothills had one of those super-special bombproof horses that are invaluable to kids learning, disappear – and their own suspicion – very possibly 'taken to order.'

Back in an earlier version of the Alberta Equestrian Federation's quarterly newsletter ALBERTA BITS back in January I wrote a piece entitled “Going, going, Gone.”

It was an information piece about procedures to take if you suspect your horse or pony has been stolen – from the initial stages of discovery, to contacting the RCMP, then LIS (Livestock Inspection Services).

As an article, it was one of those nightmares to write to a thousand-word deadline (three pages would have done just nicely!), but here, again, in PDF format, courtesy of the Alberta Equestrian Federation, is the methodology to set into action if you suspect theft. If you scan and click this into your address bar, you'll get the PDF (mind, if anyone knows a faster method,please, suggestions welcome! but yep, this does work, believe it or not, smile) - https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B9LFqcriXZCgZGY4NjA1ZDMtMmU4OS00ZjNlLWIxOWMtODZjYmQzODA2OTQ2&hl=en

And yep, the main key is knowing the steps, and then speed – really step on getting the information out to all sources – media, websites of any equestrian publication going, radio, the RCMP, LIS, the AEF and the Alberta Horse Board all have far-reaching, well constructed methodolgy developed over years and years.

Sunshine! and 2010 Trail Updates.........

2010-06-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is The Cochise Apache, checking out my handbag hanging by the front door's spruce trees (he was on lawnmower duty that day) in case humans sensibly ever think of putting oats in there. And yes, doesn't he have a great metabolism!....more on that below.

Now, this is IMPORTANT! Trail Updates and Reports 2010 will be updated WEEKLY - either my own rides (this year heading south, often on undesignated trails, between the Sheep River and southwards of the Livingstone Gap), or through those being contributed in. So, not just the Kananaskis area but also the Ram, Hummingbird, Wilmore, Jasper and others - if you've ridden an area and there's knockout views, deadfall a giraffe would have problems hiking over, or your own special notes on river crossings, please.........share your treasures; they may be invaluable.

The Best and The Cochise Apache have the kind of metabolisms where one blade of grass translates into half the front field, devils to keep weight off. So, they are on starvation rations (their opinion) and the hotwired electric fencing moved in tiny increments each day. Cunning sods, they've learned to 'listen' for the electric 'click' and where it weakens on the far end of the current; she slides underneath and he jumps overtop - he also jumps over the corral fencing (4'6"), barbed wire (about the same) and also the cedar poling gate fencing when feeling grass deprived. Int-er-est-ing.

Dieting alone's not an option for these types, exercise has to factor in. So, they're both on grassed cutlines, mild slopes right now and long outline trots - where the topline muscles and diaphragm muscles work into lung expansions. Another month and they'll be ready for the backcountry, that's about the timeline I work on, hardening up muscles, respiration rates and rock-hard leg tendons and ligaments.

The muskeg, which is squelching well right now, should be drier then too. I had a report from one experienced backcountry couple who report the TOM SNOW TRAIL needs the equivalent of water wings. I'll give that one a try out with The Fox soon after next weekend, notebook stuffed into a pocket and camera gear for close-up details, so that'll be up on the TRAIL UPDATES - if it gets real interesting (!), the blog too.