Mounted Patrol second week

There's not much to report. Mounted Patrol is going well. The course is challenging to us first timers. We've had a few issues, but I expected that with a nervous horse and a novice rider. At least we improve each night and for now Amigo's navicular is not a problem.

Elk Ivory

It's like a scene out of the old west...the crusty cowboy comes across a skeleton while riding his horse through the untamed desert. Except the crusty cowboy is only me, and I'm not on a horse but rather my mule. And we aren't in the untamed desert, only the sage brush country not too far from home looking for antler sheds...but it appears the die hard antler hunters have beaten us to it. And the skeleton is nothing more than an elk cow carcass that was the victim of a hard winter. But look, she still has her ivories...and they are mine, all mine!!! And they are nice ones except I ruin them with my leatherman getting them out. Dang!

Sara shows she ain't affraid of no dead animal.

She gives the elk skull a good sniffing.

Ivory, glorious ivory!

The main purpose in driving an hour to go riding through the sage brush was to get some fat off of my mule. There's still too much snow at home. Antler huntinig is so popular (and so profitable) out here that they actually have to close large tracts of land to human entry to protect wintering wildlife. People have been known to chase elk down with snowmobiles trying to pull their antlers off with a lariat. So the land I was on this past weekend opened up April 1st. It is no wonder I didn't find any antlers....they are usually all found the first day.

I did see some wildlife on Sunday. I saw Sharp Tail Grouse, Sage Grouse, Elk, Mule Deer, and a Moose. Sara gets very excited about big game. She is very curious about them. She even sniffed out an elk bedded down in the sage and led me right to it. Just like a hound dog. I coudln't believe it when she made a bee line for this bush and an elk popped up behind it and ran off.

All and all it was a good time. I learned that not only is Sara a snow machine, but she eats up the desert too. Just don't pull a crinkly bag of candy out of your pocket or you are going for a ride!

April 10 2008 images

Here's the mailbox I built out of found junk scrap metal last spring (well, I actually bought the box itself, but the rest is recycled). I designed it to be snow plow proof and it worked pretty good!

Winter Images

More of The Same

We are having another blizzard with snow predicted through Saturday.

Last weekend was nice. The roads were clear and started to dry up so Amigo and I had a nice outing. I spied some llamas hiding out in a hay barn at the Robinson's horse ranch down the road and decided to see if Amigo was bothered by them. For some strange reason, horses are innately afraid of llamas and more than one rider has been thrown from their horse when meeting a string of llamas on the trail. I asked permission of the caretaker that was out there doing some chores and she asked me if I could round them up and herd them away since they belonged to the neighbors down the road anyway. Not knowing what was going to happen, I pointed Amigo at the llamas, gave a good kick along with some clicks and he went straight in after them. No fear. I get the feeling this is not the first time this horse has worked livestock. He seemed to know just what to do and how to keep the llamas headed out and from going back into the barn. In fact he became more than a little excited and I had a hard time checking him up when I decided the llamas were headed home and there was no reason to chase them any further. He really wanted to go with them.

That's one more step in my confidence with him. In fact, all three (Amigo, Smooch and Sara) are making good progress with their gun training. All three are not bothered by my shooting while they are eating and stand there while I fire off whatever I feel like bringing out. The only thing I haven't tried yet is a high powered rifle. The next step will be to start some separation training so I can get them alone and work on getting them used to gun fire and loud noises while being tied up. Amigo, I think, is ready for me to shoot off his back. I've already tried 22 pistol blanks while riding him and he is fine. I also know that he is fine with a rifle being fired off in close proximity while I am on him. So I think I will try shooting the 44 mag (very loud pistol) off of him soon. It is a two handed gun, so we probably need a little more work on getting him steadied with the reins dropped so that he doesn't take off on me.

Last Saturday was also vet day. It was a good thing I got up early for my 10 am appointment. The gang (specifically the horses) was a little difficult to get loaded into a trailer by myself and it took some doing. Next time should be better.

Still Winter

Yes, I still have lots of snow. Here are some photos from this weekend.

Caught napping

More snow.

Mounted Patrol - 1st day

I attended the first Mounted Patrol class last night. I found a place to board Amigo short term in Jackson for only the cost of hay, so it looks like the logistics will work out. He only needs to get clearance from the vet so that I am reasonably sure he won't hurt himself during training. Classes don't start until the end of April, so I have plenty of time to see how he's doing this spring and make sure his foot problem isn't bothering him. The meeting went well. The instructors, who are experienced mounted patrol sworn officers, seem to be nice. They went over all the requirements, what is expected, etc. The training is a total of 40 hours, two sessions a week for five weeks. Then you have to pass a test to get certified. I also need to be certified in CPR, which is this weekend. In return for the training, each student needs to volunteer at least five times throughout the summer, or as often as they want thereafter.

The one thing I am worried about is that my equitation skills aren't developed enough. Strictly speaking I am a novice. I hold my own the trail or whatever, but when it comes to equitation I am lacking. I kind of put off lessons for the sake of money. There are only a few areas I feel I am defficient in, so we'll see where I'm at next month when I show up for the first class. For some reason I still have problems side passing, and they do a lot of that stuff while riding in formation. Also, Amigo doesn't like to whoa, at least not without a correction bit in his mouth (with a correction bit I can get a 10 foot slide out of him!). In mounted patrol, much of the training takes place in a rope halter with no bit. Should be interesting. The last time I tried riding with out a bit, I fell off. But I was bare back and it was my fault so that's another story. In the mean time, I'll work on what I can.

Wish me luck this weekend. The CPR course is a law enforcement course, which means it is abbreviated and it has been 20 ahem something years since I was last certified in middle school.