Renegade Rendezvous 2010

Once again, the time for Renegade Rendezvous has rolled around. Where did the month of June go? It seems to have mysteriously vanished before I could even begin to get a tiny grasp on anything...

On friday afternoon July 2nd we packed the trailer up and headed out for Naches. This time, the weather was very pleasant. On saturday morning it was brisk, in the high 50's - and the rest of the day kept to a pleasant range of 70's and low 80's. Much better than last year, when it was like riding in a 110 degree boiling pot on the top of a mountain.

This is known to be a very technically difficult and challenging ride (nicknamed "the little Tevis of the North"), so I opted to enter Ox in the 25 instead of the 50. I had high hopes of doing his first 50 this year, but I had to seriously reconsider about it happening at this gut buster. It was a good decision, because he was tired enough by the time he was finished with his 25. We also encountered problems with hoof gear, so it was a wise decision not to push it.
Watching other riders ford the creek ahead.

On this particular ride, our two back hind Easyboot Gloves became somewhat of an annoying plague. The very first thing that Ox did was slide down the enbankment into the creek and rip a big piece of the gator off of his right hind boot. It got caught on a tree root that was sticking up out of the bank, and he later proceeded to step on it and rip it even more when we turned around to head back up on top to pull it off. The gator was completely shot and the boot would be of no further use, so I yanked it off and we proceeded onwards. From the previous year, I had seen a lot of people having problems with all types of boots on this ride - and there were quite a few riders that came across the finish line with horses that had a few bare feet. Little did I know, that was to be our destiny as well...

After we had forded the creek and made our way into the ride about 5 miles, the left hind boot started giving us problems. During some steep rocky switchbacks, it wouldn't stay on and was dangling along like a passenger on the back leg. I stopped to clean it up and strapped it on tighter, but it didn't matter. Somewhere along a big switchback climb, it came off and there it remains, lost forever. When we made our way into the vet check at mile 10, we were officially barefoot on both hinds. I have come to the conclusion that Renegade boots are probably going to be the only ones we will use in our foreseeable future. Gotta start shopping E-Bay again...
Craig caught a ride up with Alex Rivas, who was going to crew for his wife Shannon at the vet check. After a few wrong turns, running the truck over a log, and trying to figure out some chicken scratch type of directions - they managed to find their way to the check. I was very surprised to see Craig there, as he has never met me before at a check. It was kind of nice having somebody there to hold your horse while you run to the porta potty. I usually opt to tough it out for the entire ride, and wait on those things until I get back into camp.
Coming into the check.
Getting the sponge. Ox is slowly but surely becoming much better about water in general. We have practiced going across the Umatilla river at home and other bathtime rituals. He is getting much more tolerant of letting me sponge him down at rides, which I'm very happy about. His mother isn't very fond of water as well, so I guess it runs in the genes.

The rest of the ride back into camp went really well. I met several nice new people while riding, including a local gal from Paso astride a 25 year old arab gelding. Since Ox was hoofin' it free as a bird in the back, we slowed down quite a bit and took it easy. We ended up coming in 24th, which isn't too bad. Craig and I enjoyed a really great salmon and pork rib dinner that Gail and her husband barbecued for the entire ride camp, and then we hit the sack. Sunday morning was the start of our mighty trek up north to visit Cathy Leddy and meet Tommy at Cascade Gold Akhal Tekes.
A view of Mt. Rainer state park. The road going up north towards Seattle was very narrow and winding, and there wasn't a place to pull over and take pictures, so I just snapped a few from the cab of the truck. Craig's trusty GPS in the window led our way.
Neither one of us had been to this park before, and there were some really stunning views of the mountain range.
Dropping down onto the other side of the park there was lots of snow - even in July - and there was this really cool lake that was starting to thaw out. I can't remember the name of it, but it was very neat to see.
-Shannon.

"Strawberry Daquiri", a red roan sabino mare. Carol Williams Matriarch resin recently completed in my studio in June 2010. The western pleasure set is part of my personal collection, made by Dawn Brown of High Desert Saddlery. Daquiri is owned by Karen Holland.

The Passing Of A Fellow Artist

Yesterday I learned of the passing of a dear model horse hobbyist, Kathy McKenzie. I was floored to hear the news, to say the least. Kathy was such a warm person and a true pleasure to deal with. She gained notariety in the model horse hobby a few years back for her airbrushing skills and a talent for handpainted very detailed realistic eyes.
It is such a small hobby that we are a part of with almost everybody knowing everybody else, so when someone is lost - especially such a wonderful artist - it is a major blow for everyone. Her Dragonflight Studio homepage with all of the wonderfully painted models that she has done can be seen here: http://www.dragonflightstudio.com/

There is also a really great Youtube documentary video that has some footage of Kathy and her husband Greg at a midwest show in 2007. It is my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68hEto84Cu4

A tribute video that another hobbyist has made. I have a very hard time making it all the way through this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUWl48F5Bho&playnext_from=TL&videos=5Q02SZ0OmlU


Kathy and Jet. Photo courtesy of Dragonflight Studio.

Above is a picture of "Dragonflight Beureguard" that Kathy painted in November 2004. I bought this guy on E-Bay from Kathy when he was couple of days old - brand new, fresh from her studio. He stands roughly 4" inches tall. I thought that this guy was UBER cool when I first seen him, because he's the top mount of a trophy originally sculpted by Gladys Brown. Remember the old horse show trophies from the 60's and 70's with the plastic horses on top? This guy is one of those! I couldn't resist adding him to my collection. I thought that it took great inspiration and a very adventurous spirit to cold paint one of these guys. Kathy did an excellent job on him. I'm very proud that he is part of my collection, and a great momento of a very talented artist. Via Con Didos Kathy.

-Shannon.

"Kitchi Esger", turkmen for small soldier. Maggie Bennett's pewter micro mini trotting Teke completed in early 2009. I slightly customized the tiny mane and tail and made him into a mealy bay sabino gelding. (As an interesting side note: I have a pair of Japanese models that are half of this fellows size that I'll hopefully be painting later on in the year.) Micros are a challenging test of skill, but oh so much fun!

Klickitat Trek 2010

June 5th and 6th was the weekend of the Klickitat Trek two day endurance rides.
A view of the Colombia river from the Biggs bridge halfway in between the Oregon and Washington border. There are some great views on our way to the ride.

A photo of the Klickitat River coming down the road from Goldendale, WA. The canyon that the road follows into Glenwood is really cool!

Camp Mayfield. We have a tradition of barbecuing either steaks or lobster tails the night before the rides. Our little cheapo Walmart charcoal barbecue does a bang-up job of sizzling dinners. Craig is keeping a watchful eye on our meal.

Camp Leddy. From left to right: Cathy Leddy, Monica Bretherton, and Wendy Connell. All three ladies rode on Saturday. Cathy did the 30 miler on Galen, Monica went on the fun trail ride with Wendy's horse Taz, and Wendy did the 50 miler on Alpowa. Saturday afternoon I stopped by Camp Leddy and chewed the fat for awhile with all three of them. These gals are great, and I really enjoy visiting with them when we attend the same rides.

The weather was great on Saturday, the first day of the two day rides. Sunny and dry - very nice! =:) Nettie and I set out in the morning for our 50 miler. I decided to try the horseboots out on her to see how well she would like them. She seemed to take to them alright, but unfortunately at around mile 20 she ended up getting a big chunk of gravel stuck in the right front boot. I very quickly proceeded to dismount and yank all of the boots off as we rolled into the first vet check. She vetted through in good shape and I made a decisive plan to proceed at a much slower pace into the next vet check. I was concerned about the rock having a lasting stone bruised effect on her, so I made her go slower until I felt that there was no danger of her getting gimpy. Nettie usually doesn't need any hoof protection at all, and she let me know right away that she was much happier without the boots on for the rest of the ride. After the second vet check I found a very nice lady on a gaited black mare that was chugging along at a slow running walk and we kept pace with her for the rest of the way back into camp.

My main goal on any ride is to try and manage to never get pulled. It would be my own personal "walk of shame" if I could not continue on with a horse. If it means snailing along at a much slower pace, then I'll do it. Nettie vetted through the final check in good order and we unofficially came in 39th out of 60 or something other riders.

Mile 18 of the 50. Photo by Jessica Anderson.

I couldn't help but take a picture of this little outfit on Saturday afternoon. Brenderup trailers are soooooo darned cute! What an adorable little camp.

Wendy and Alpowa taking part in a scientific experiment. There was a lady drawing blood for an educational study of muscle "tying-up" in endurance horses. She had a little table by the rodeo arena and people would come by and let her take blood samples.

Also on Saturday afternoon I made a trip over to Katrin Leaverman's camp to introduce myself and to visit Akpai. Katrin borrowed one of Kerri-Jo's purebred Akhal Teke mares to use in endurance until some of her younger arabs become old enough to compete on. Katrin and I talked for awhile about the differences between the two breeds of horses. Katrin is an arabian afficianado and has 12 horses of her own in Idaho. Unfortunately Akpai had to be pulled on Saturday in the 30 mile ride for a muscle injury. Later on the second day, Katrin borrowed a different horse from another person in camp that unfortunately had some issues as well.

Happy as clams, despite the crummy weather on day two. The start of Sundays ride was rainy, soggy, and very boggy. I strapped the hoofboots on extra tight that morning. The mud on the trail was slippery, yet managable. I was thrilled to learn that I had never been on this particular loop before - it was brand new! What little views of the scenery that I did get to see were spectacular.

Octopelle decided that the two ladies on the arabs in first and second place ahead of us were not going to get away scott free without us breathing down their necks a bit. We hummed along at a great clip of around 10 mph into the first vet check. I waited for a few minutes longer past the hold time for him to eat and get a big gut full of water. Then off we went. I was pleasantly surprised that he kept the same pace back to camp as we had left at, even though there wasn't anybody in front of us for him to lay eyeballs on.

By the time we got back to camp I had rainsoaked tack, clothes, and soaking wet soggy heavy boots from the rain. But it was fun! Photo by Jessica Anderson.

We came in 3rd and tried for BC, although I seriously doubt that we got it. Overall, it was a really great weekend. =:) Photo by Jessica Anderson.
-Shannon.

Prineville 2010

Saturday, May 8th was the 39th annual Prineville ridge riders endurance ride. It was a lovely sunny day in the high desert! Below is a photo of us in front of our rig right before we left camp for the ride. It was in the mid 50's with a nice cool breeze, so not enough to really worry about sponging very much. (Octopelle "the chicken liver" isn't fond of the sponge....)

Despite having a rocky start at the beginning of the race, we managed to finish quite well -coming in 10th in the top 10 for our ride. Octopelle decided he was going to be a real jerk at the beginning, and we left behind everybody else - dead last. Once we climbed the first big hill he lined out and started behaving himself much better. We passed lots of people that we had seen leave before us. There is a lot to forgive when you ride a young colt over many miles, and I chaulked it up to inexperience on his part and learning to tolerate juvenile idiocrities on my part. By the end of the ride everything was hunky-dory between the two of us.

Last month I made the grueling decision to purchase horse boots - (as shown in the photo above). Ugh. I had some major stomach ulcers deciding which types to buy. I don't like horseboots at all, but I dislike steel horseshoes even more. My mustang mare Nettie can do several rides in a season going barefoot without any shoes on at all, so I'm a little bit spoiled when it comes to going without hoof gear. But my younger gelding doesn't have those rock hard feral types of hooves - in fact, they are just the opposite - dainty throughbred type feet. They are great hooves for the pasture and CRP patches, but he tends to get gimpy over gravel and loose rocks.

So I bucked up and invested in some horseboots for him. Renegades for the front and Easyboot gloves for the backs. (I waited until the right auctions came up on E-Bay and won both pairs for considerably discounted prices.) I conditioned quite a bit in the boots before this first ride, but I was still stressing out about how each set would hold up. My nerves were shot worrying about whether they were rubbing, or if I had not strapped them tight enough, or if they had twisted, or were too loose, or if there was a rock stuck in them, ect..... Argh!!!! (A nuclear bomb could've gone off that day, and I would've been more concerned if the damned boots were working right or not.....)

But everything worked out great. The boots didn't rub at all and his heels and hooves were in fine working order by the end of the ride. I'm going to try not to worry so much about what's going on with the hoofboots at the next ride, and just enjoy the scenery.

-Shannon.

More Lambies!!!!

The rest of the lambies are here for the year. Wahoo!! We had a good crop of purebred soay lambs produced this year. All of the ewes did very well. We only had one ewe (Electra) that didn't lamb, but that wasn't her fault. I purchased her late in the year and she didn't spend enough time in with the ram. We'll give her another try next year.

Brooke with her little ewe lamb.

Opal with her little ewe lamb. She has a really cute little fuzzy patch on top of her head!

Glitter with her little ewe lamb.

Luna with twin ram lambs.

Antares with her dark little ewe lamb. She has a nice big star on her forehead. Antares twinned, but didn't want her little ram lamb - so I'm bottle feeding him. He is a regular lighter colored mouflon with a small star on his head.

Cupid with her twins. The lighter one closest to her is a ram lamb, and the darker one is a ewe lamb.

Phoebe with her ram lamb.

-Shannon.