Photos from the Los Altos Hunt's Hunter Pace at Piers Ranch, Portola Valley, on Saturday April 2, 2011.

Hi all!

Yesterday I moved to a "cabana" on a ranch in San Juan Bautista. I'm at about 100 feet in elevation above the flat lands of the farming fields of San Juan Bautista/Hollister/Gilroy, right in the very edge of the foothills on the south side of the valley. The foothills behind me go up to Fremont Peak where there is an observatory.

The cabana is a large studio with an entry room, bathroom, large common room big enough to have 3 different "areas" in the room (office, bedroom, living room). I have a carport parking spot just outside my door. To the west of the cabana and carport is a large patio with 2 large BBQ/fire pits, to the west of the patio is a building that has a kitchen and I can use the kitchen. To the south of the patio is a pool. To the north of the patio and carport is the main ranch house, which is empty most of the time (the owner lives in San Jose, visits maybe 1 weekend a month). To the south is another house where the ranch manager lives. He takes care of all the animals, fixes things, etc.

There are 2 horses, 3 llamas, many goats, sheep, chickens, and a male peacock. If there is a female peacock I haven't seen her yet, just the male. I will be moving Venus to the ranch later this month, after I get everything else settled. There is an empty 10-stall "mare motel" type of barn with 12x36 stall/paddocks with pipe fencing and a roof over the center. There are 3 turn-out paddocks (about 36x48 each) and a small unfenced sand arena (about 54x66). There's ample room to ride in the fields and around the trees.

The ranch is about 100 acres, ~70 in pasture and ~30 in cherry trees.

The cabana has 2 large windows, one looking east-north/east at pastures with farm fields beyond, one looking west-south/west over the patio and pool with the pasture rising up in the foothills behind. I saw a beautiful sunrise from my bed this morning. I'm really looking forward to looking out that window and seeing Venus grazing in the pasture!

There is a massive oak tree that spreads over the cabana and patio. Right now it has no leaves, so I get lots of light. In the summer it will provide lots of shade, helping keep the cabana cool. It can get pretty hot in this part of the valley!

No photos yet. I'll try to take and post some soon.

jc

Venus knows how to jump. I've done a lot of work with her jumping at liberty. She can jump up to ~3 feet, and can do a 1 stride in-and-out. But she hasn't done much jumping with a rider on her. The trainer rode her over a wee X jump a few times in one training session about a month ago, and that's it.

I haven't jumped in a long, long time. The last horse I jumped was Belles, over a few wee logs, on a trail ride with Eileen at Buck's County Park, ~3 years ago. Belles was a saint (as always) for putting up with me because I was pretty rusty!

Today the arena was setup with a grid of 5 jumps (with bounce and 1-stride distances) down the middle, and a single oxer off to the side. I broke the oxer down to 4 cavelletti trot poles, and broke the grid down to a placement pole to an x, then broke the second jump to poles (all together, so like one "big" pole), the third jump became another x, the last 2 jumps each became a stack of poles. It looked somewhat like this:

| X | X | | |

I warmed Venus up at the walk, then the trainer rode her at trot and canter, practicing staying straight (not dropping her inside shoulder), and forward. The it was my turn. (The trainer was also there, riding another horse, so I wasn't alone in the arena. This was important - for my confidence!) We trotted, we cantered, we trotted the cavelletti. Then I sent her to the first X, and we went over the placing pole, jumped the X, and went over the stack of poles that followed, then I curved her off the line before the second X. I was a bit worried that the jumps were too low and she would just lift her legs high (which she does sometimes) but she jumped. Good Girl! I wasn't really with her over the jump and didn't want to ask her to jump again which is why I curved her off the line so we didn't go over the following x and poles. We went back to the rail, we cantered again, then I curved into the line skipping the placement pole and first X, so we entered over the second "jump" (a stack of poles) in the line and then to the X, then finished by going over 3 more baby stacks of poles. Venus was a STAR. She went straight, no wobbling, no hint of refusing or running out. She's easy to ride in at an angle, or to take her out of the line in an angle - she listens and does what I ask.

After facing my angst and worry about cantering, my next worry was about jumping. Even though it was just trotting to 2 wee X rails, I feel much better about having jumped and feel I can do this on my own now.

jc

I spent the weekend in Death Valley. Here's one of my favorite photos from the Rhyolite Ghost Town.

Here are my photos of the Solstice Total Lunar Eclipse on December 20, 2010:

http://portfolio.jcdill.com/Landscapes/Solstice-Eclipse/15390318_2hXb6#115178...

I'm trying to decide between photos that zoom in on the moon, and shots that show more stars and not just the moon. Which one do you like best, and why?

The cobbler's children run barefoot, and the photographer rarely has an opportunity to get good photos of her own horse. Yesterday rec.eq'er Jeannie Hobbs came out to the stable to see Venus, and she helped me get some great photos!

Jeannie first met Venus when Venus was about 4 months old. I need to dig out and post my photos from that day. Even though she was still a nursing foal Venus was HUGE, about 14 hands. Jeannie isn't very tall, and she looked pretty small compared to Venus. Now that Venus is all grown up, Jeannie looks even smaller! But it's not that Jeannie is really *that* small, it's that Venus is really That Big, LOL.

First, we spent about 30 minutes washing off mud (caked on her lower legs and hoofs, and giving her mud-dreadlocks on the end of her tail), grooming off mud, combing her mane and tail, and getting out the saddle and bridle[1]. Then Jeannie and I took turns holding and taking photos of Venus in the grass area near the tack room.

Venus wasn't really sure if this was a good idea at first, because she figured she was brought to that grassy area to EAT the grass. But with some corrections and a few apple treats and carrots she got with the program and posed very nicely. Jeannie took photos of Venus and I together (I'm the one in the red sweater and black breeches) and I took some photos of Jeannie and Venus as well. (Jeannie is wearing the gray sweater and blue jeans.) Then we moved to the arena and Jeannie took photos while I rode. Then Jeannie rode, and I got to enjoy watching my horse go, and taking photos. :-) I managed about a dozen strides of canter a few times in each direction. Jeannie got Venus rolling along and got her canter to last a full lap and a half of the arena! Go Jeannie! To finish up, I showed Jeannie how Venus jumps "in hand". (She's still not quite balanced enough at the canter for me to feel comfortable trying to jump her, even out of a trot. I'm going to give it another month or two.)

Photos here:

I'm great at culling photos for other people, but when it comes to culling photos for myself I get stuck, stuck, stuck! So tell me which ones you like best!

jc

[1] I bought a used bridle (and saddle, and pad, and clippers) from a tack shop that specializes in consignment of used tack. Since I didn't have a 6" bit, I didn't attach a bit when I tried the bridle on her prior to finishing the sale. Then when I got a bit about a month later, I discovered that the buckle that holds the bit on one side was damaged - the hook was pulled out and the leather strap that has the slot that goes over the hook was also torn. :-( The shop loaned me the brown cheekpiece you see in the photos, so that I can continue to ride until the damaged cheekpiece is repaired. Hmmm, actually it doesn't look all that bad! Maybe it will be the start of a fashion trend?!

It was only a few strides, and it was over a week ago, but I finally rode Venus at the canter. She was great. Me, I'm a bit of a wreck! I don't know why I'm getting butterflies about cantering her, but I am. I've never been afraid to canter before. Venus has never put a hoof wrong at the canter, never offered to buck, never been "naughty". (Not that I believe horses *are* naughty, but you know what I mean.) And I've started lots of young horses on my own, with no problems.

Maybe it's because I'm older now. I'm on the far side of 50 (eeks!) and the idea of hitting the ground from an unscheduled dismount of any type is really starting to be something I fear. The last time I had one of those, it was when I got bucked off by Peggy, Venus's dam (when she was in foal with Venus). Peggy was 18.2 and 2020 lbs, she was a BIG horse. She got spooked (which I stayed with) but being spooked spooked her (chain reaction) and then she bucked. When she bucked it was a long way up and an even longer way down. I ended up spending 6 hours in the emergency room to verify that nothing was broken but that I did have a separated shoulder. I had to sleep sitting up (leaning against pillows) for about a week because it hurt too much to lay down flat! After my shoulder healed, I found I didn't have the courage to ride Peggy again on my own. I sent her off for 30 days training with Richard Winters, and she was going great when she came back home, but even then she still had holes, still had things that would cause her to spook unpredictably. I did ride her in the canter at a Mark Rashid clinic the following spring, but never did ride her at the canter after that. I focused on riding Breeze, then later (after I sold Breeze) focused on ground work with Venus. Since then I've only ridden sporadically. I had intended to start Venus under saddle 4 years ago (at age 4, she was way too gawky to start at 3) but she had a very serious injury to her hock, and it took over a year to heal and another year to R&R (on pasture) before I would even consider having her started. I had a horsemanship trainer put a week on her (and she was perfect) but then I couldn't afford to board her at an appropriate facility to keep up with her training and she spent another 2 years out on pasture.

When my finances improved enough that I could move her to a riding stable and pay a trainer to work with her, she was great. The trainer has been riding her at the canter, and even jumping over cross rails. But when I got on, I was OK at the walk and trot but had serious butterflies even thinking of cantering.

Then, last week, it suddenly all came together. Venus was very nicely forward off my leg (instead of a bit sluggish, still working on that Go button) and staying fairly straight on the rail (instead of trying to cut the corners), and I just sent her forward, and more forward, and then we had a few strides of canter. Then we did it again, and again. We only managed perhaps 8 strides in a row before she fell out to the trot, but it wasn't because I froze up or pulled her up, it's just that her canter is still really not all there yet, and *I'm* not all there yet (still really rusty in the saddle) and so I didn't push it. Maybe we will canter again the next ride. If I can keep these darn butterflies down!

jc

Finally, a holiday video that speaks to me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8-0WVfj76bo#at=151

If you don't like it, your name must be Scrooge. :-)

I had two photo shoots yesterday, one from 8-11 and the second from 11:30-2:30, followed by lunch with the clients. As a result, I didn't get out to the barn until after 4 pm. I wanted to give Venus a trace clip yesterday, and I only had time to clip or ride, but not both. I figured I'd go ahead and clip while she was dry.

"They" say you should never clip a dirty horse. I just bought a used clipper set with used blades that need to be sharpened so I wasn't going to "ruin" the blades by clipping her dirty so I figured I'd just dive in. My summary - it doesn't matter if the horse is dirty. You can't get a horse really clean down by the skin (where the blades are clipping) anyway, and the blades only go thru the dirty top hair a few times when you make a first cut into an uncut area. Just avoid making that first cut in an area where the horse is covered with mud and you will do just fine.

The barn had limited light, and it was past sunset by the time I had found a working electrical outlet. Venus has never been clipped, but I just fed her a few apple treats as I turned the clippers on, then touched her shoulder with them vibrating, etc. and she just stood like the good girl she is. So on we went with the clip.

She stood like a ROCK. Good girl! Lots of apple treats.

The clip probably looks rough, it was too dark to give it a good review when I was done. I'll touch it up later this week before I send the clippers in for cleaning. I'll take photos on my next visit. I LOVE the color of a clipped black horse - it's a shimmery charcoal gray color. If I were rich and could afford unlimited blankets and sheets and paying someone to add and remove as needed I'd clip a hunter clip just so I could enjoy looking at her in this color.

I hope to get to the barn in time to ride today. I'm looking forward to test riding my clipped horsie. :-)

jc