Sunday Ride in the Park

I bundled up in Cuddl Duds to take a ride with Kellie and K.d  Biscuit didn't give me any trouble catching him.  I put him on the wash rack and got the trailer.  Loaded him up and off we went.  I stopped and got lunch at Subway and picked up cookies for everyone.

I got there first and started tacking up Biscuit.  He was a very good boy.  It was cold but not as cold as it was supposed to be.  My legs were stiff though from the cooler weather.  Kellie and K.d arrived after I did.  Elan made a b-line for me and was rewarded with some treats.  He is so cute!  Aladin got a few treats too.  Such a pretty boy he is.

K.d held Biscuit for me because my legs were so stiff it was hard to go up the mounting block steps.  Ugh...hate that.  We tried to go into the woods as they didn't look as wet.  It was hard to get the horses to go...we got to the left/right of the trail and decided it was way too wet.  We went out of the woods and around the park road to the trail to go behind the golf course.  The horses were moving slow but they went.  We went all the way to the gate which is now impassable.  :-(    The horses passed the huge crane this time with barely a look.  We did see a pretty good sized hog on the other side of the bayou.

We turned back from the gate and went down by the side of the golf course and to the front of the park.  We stopped and had a cookie break.

We rode down in front of the community room and decided to cross the road into the wooded area.  We found a small new trail!  We then rode down the side of a green and back to the road.  We rode 5.4 miles.  It was a great ride but my legs were stiff getting off.  

Solo Ride

I went on my first solo ride in more than a year.  I went and got the Brenderup this morning, stopping to give Sarge some carrots and kiss him up.  It was overcast and had a good breeze blowing.  I hauled the trailer up to the front and parked it by Brutis' pen.  Biscuit was behind the kennel and when he saw me coming he turned and walked off.  He kept walking to get away from me and I kept following him.  He finally stopped after going around me 2 times in a circle.  I reached out to pet his face and talked soft to him.  He let me put his halter on and I loaded him up and  hauled to the park.

I tacked him up and mounted up.  He stepped off before I sat my butt down but I didn't lose my balance.  I walked him over to the trailhead and the little patootie wouldn't walk though the mud.  He didn't want to go and I kept urging him to go and finally after about 5 minutes he did.  He wasn't too thrilled about the mud but he went.  We went to the left after a pissy moment .  We kept going and passed up the new trail entry.  Just passed there was a downed tree.  Dang.  I couldn't go further then.  It wasn't on the ground like it looks in the pictures.

I turned him around and we went down the new trails and back the trail entry by Cattail Marsh.  Biscuit did pretty good considering he doesn't like mud at all.

We walked by the road all the way around to the stable.  I did wash him off because he was sweaty from struggling through the mud.

My Brenderup Ramp Problem

Today I called the ASAP Trailer in Tomball about repairing my Brenderup.  They said they no longer repair them as they can't get the parts.  Used to get them from El Paso but it is now in New Hampshire.  I told them my problem and asked it they could fix it because I didn't need parts.  They said no.  Ugh.

So I called the place in New Hampshire Mountaintop Trailers and spoke to Andy.  They do have parts and can get me new graphics.  He said it would cost approximately $2000 to order a new ramp.  OMG.  He did say that repairing them is not difficult.

So I called Duvall's.  I spoke to Danny and told him my problem.  He said to bring it by and he would look at it.  I took Barry with me out to the barn to pick it up.  Hauled it over to Duvall's and Danny took a look at it.  He said yes he could repair it.  He will have to take the door apart he said.  We looked at the soft spot and dang...it is blistering all across the bottom.  He said he would have to take it totally apart, get marine plywood and some sort of coating that is what they use on RV's.  It will run between $1,000 and $1,300.  Ugh.  He is kind of busy but I will take it the Monday after Thanksgiving and it should be ready Friday, December 6th.

I can haul Biscuit because he is on the left side not the right side.  If I have to haul the weekend of December 6th and it isn't ready, I will have to get someone else to haul me.

I will take pictures of it once they get it all apart.  Not a happy camper about this.  It is only 4 years and 7 months old.

Retraining a Biscuit

I went down Monday to see the horses.  I was actually going to ride Biscuit but he seemed to "know" and refused to come in.  I sat out there for an hour hoping he would come in.  No such luck.  Lee Ann and Miss Jean came on the Gator - they were worming horses and they wormed Sarge but of course, couldn't catch Biscuit.  Dang.

Lee Ann B. came down a little later riding Rogue in a snaffle!!!  Woot!!!!  We visited a while and then she rode him back to the barn.  I tried "walking Biscuit down" in the pasture but I could see after a while that wasn't going to happen.  Ugh.  I headed for the barn to talk to Lee Ann about moving him to a different pasture.

I spoke to Lee Ann P and B all about the 50 miler Lee Ann P and Legato did on Saturday!  It was so exciting to hear about it.  I so want to go!!!  Aziza ran in the 25 miler and did great.  I always knew Aziza would be the bomb one day.  She was such a little cutie when she was foaled right after we got to Plum Nearly 4.5 years ago.  I spoke to Lee Ann about moving Biscuit to a smaller paddock so I wouldn't have such a problem catching him.  She said to ask Miss Jean.  I went into the office and discussed it with Miss Jean.  I told her all the issues I was having and that this just started 3 weeks before my surgery.

She suggested putting him in the kennel area where we used to soak the horses feet.  I got the Gator and went down there with food and he finally came into the corral, I shut the gate and he happily let me put his halter on.

I took him up to the front and Lee Ann P wormed him.  He wasn't real happy about it but he got over it.  Someone having his nose in a pinch had a little to do with it.  Lee Ann told him he could do it the easy way or the hard way :-)

I put him in the kennel and he walked around and I caught him several times with no problem.  This will be something I have to work on.

Wednesday I took them to the vet for their rabies shots.  It was the first cool/cold day of the season and it was freaking 38 degrees.  I had to be at the vet at 9:00 so I was at the barn before 8:00 AM.  Biscuit was standing at his gate, he'd already been fed but he just stood there while I haltered him.  I put him on the wash rack and went down to get Sarge.  Jamie was coming with feed so he helped me hook up the trailer.  He is such a doll!  I loaded Sarge and put his feed in and went up to the front and loaded Biscuit.  Biscuit wanted some of Sarge's feed so I used the trailer tie to keep him out of Sarge's feed or to keep Sarge from busting a gut all over Biscuit.  Hauled out to the vet and Doc gave them their shots in the trailer...didn't even have to unload them.  Got a copy of Sarge's Coggins.  I have lost his somehow.  I thought maybe it was in the truck but Barry said no.

Kellie was at home so I stopped and visited with her for about 30 minutes.  It was cold so the boys were just fine in the trailer.  I stopped at the new doughnut place on Hwy 124 and OMG their bear claws were amazing.  I took some doughnuts to Jamie and Edgar for being such sweeties to me all the time.  Biscuit went back into his kennel and Sarge down the road.  Poor Sarge!!  He is always getting fricked over by sick or misbehaving pasture mates!

My plan for Biscuit is to bounce him between both pastures.  I will get him at feeding time on Friday and put him in the kennel.  I will turn him back out to the big pasture on Monday evening.  I am hoping that a few months of this will get him back in a routine of me catching him in the pasture.  It is worth a shot.

Here is Biscuit in his new digs...including one of his new roommates.

My Brenderup ramp has a rotten spot

I was putting up my Brenderup after my ride and looked up and saw the bottom right of the ramp was buckled.  I thought someone had backed into it and damaged it.  Ummmm.... NO.  A big negative there.  It was peeling.  It is rotted there!

OMG it is not even 5 years old.  What the heck is up with that?  I will have to have it repaired.  I spoke to a guy that has information on redoing rotted areas.  He said it is generally the floor not the ramp!  I will have to have that area excised and replaced.  I hate that my B-up will have a gouge in it.

Here are two pictures of the problem.

Here is a link to the Brenderup Help Blog  http://brenderhelp.blogspot.com/
The new parts distributor for the US Brenderup Parts from Mountaintoptrailer.com

2% Biscuit on Sunday

Kellie and I were able to go riding Sunday.  I made us lunch for a picnic.  I went to get Biscuit and he wouldn't come into the corral.  Thank goodness I got there early.  I had to go get the Gator and then he came into the corral and I was able to halter him with no problem.  I am sure it is a game to him.

He made me a smidgen late but that is ok.  Kellie was already there so I tacked up.  We went out through Cattail Marsh.  Some nice biker ladies held the turnstile open for me.

We got out on Willow Bayou and we saw an alligator.  Not a huge on but good sized all the same.

As we went along we were looking for my lost phone but didn't see it.  We crossed the Willow Bayou Bridge and kept going.  Here are some pictures of the bird box houses we saw last week.  Lee Ann P said they were probably to attract wood ducks.

The grass was kind of high but we kept going.  Went down the side of the bog and up ahead we saw a pig....then another one with its back hair raised, ran across, zigzagged back and into the brush to the right.  The horses stopped and watched.  One pig went across the water but the other one didn't that we could see.  We were careful going by there but the little pig was not seen again.  We did see another hog on the left side just a little ways from there.  I got a little happy with Photoshop Elements.

We got to the back to the bayou and saw water ripples where a boat had gone by...actually the guy was right at the bottom of the lookout in a boat fishing.

Last time we rode back there Barry said the little trail had branches down so we backed out of it.  This time Biscuit and I led the way through all kinds of brush over our heads and stepped over some things but nothing we couldn't go through!  Way to go Biscuit Man!  He did give the evil eye to a little log on the ground.  He always thinks it is going to eat him.  We made it though but it was pushing through heavy brush.  It is a very narrow trail and we haven't been down it in ages so hopefully with winter coming on and riding it frequently it will be back to normal.

We went all down the bayou and up the bog.  We did some trotting and my balance was pretty dang good.  We crossed the big bridge and we could see Lisa and Helen coming towards us.  Helen's little mare Ruby is a cutie patootie.  Evidently she doesn't like light colored horses or horses with light colored legs!  She let Elan sniff her nose with no problem.   A little later Biscuit wanted to get a little closer and she bellowed at him.  LOL  I used a little leg pressure to side pass him to the right and I didn't need to ask him twice.  He quickly side passed closer to Elan.  We visited with Helen and Lisa for a while and then headed out.  We came up to the Cattail road and decided to go down to where the woods were.  We did some jogging trotting and I am glad to say I didn't lose my balance.  We went through some stuff that was taller than our heads and was grabbing at our feet it was so thick.  We got up to where the woods entry would be and I was letting Biscuit have his head to see if he would know where the entry was - and he certainly did!  He turned in and it was full of water.  We went through it, got snagged by blackberry vines and went to the left.  Standing water but we went.  Using leg cues I asked Biscuit to go through the middle of the water and he did.  OMG that is a BIG PICKLE as Biscuit is not a fan of mud!  Some areas were dry and some wet.  It was wettest up in front of the trail.  Biscuit was glad to get out of the mud and water but he was very well behaved during this part of the ride.  He doesn't like real spongy areas but this was just muddy not spongy.

We rode 7.7 miles with the top speed at 8.4 mph.  I took his tack off and hosed him off.  He had dirty water marks on his legs and under his saddle was sweaty.  He was hosed off and scraped off and given treats.  I put his long rope on his halter so he could graze and got our picnic ready.  We each had a 1/2 Pimento and Cheese sandwich and a 1/2 a homemade chicken salad sandwich, pita chips, satsuma's and biscotti and Diet Coke.  Biscuit was all up in my KoolAid.  He wanted to join the party.

He ate some biscotti and a crust of bread.  He wanted more so I gave him a bigger crust of bread with Pimento Cheese and after pulling a Tom Hanks in "Big" eating caviar scene I finally got him to just graze.

We had a wonderful ride.   I told Kellie that Biscuit is 98% of the time just a doll and 2% of the time he is a pill.  But, since he doesn't bite, kick, rear, buck, spook, bolt or in otherways act like a fool I will just have to work around the 2% of the time he is a jerk.

Rasping Biscuit's Hooves

Last Thursday I went out to the barn and was able to catch Biscuit.  I walked him up to the barn and got out my rasp and knife.  I did all of his feet with the rasp and he was pretty good.  I gave him treats with each hoof.  I rasped them from the bottom and the top.  He still has some cracks in his hooves that I am hoping to get rid of.  If I can rasp his feet every week I may be able to get rid of it.  The back left one is the worst.  I thought they came out pretty dang good.

I walked him back to the pasture and Barry arrived.  I was letting him graze and his feet slid into the ditch.  LOL  I think he was a little surprised but he didn't freak out.

Barry helped  by moving the opening of the gate from the left side to the right side.  It was getting to be a big huge mud hole there and I wasn't liking that.  Biscuit gets all freaky over mud!!!

This is the new opening and it is pretty narrow.  I can drop feed in the bucket and then close the gate.

I had taken Biscuit's bridle home and washed it in the dishwasher. (by itself of course!!!) and it came out pretty dang clean.  The inlay's are what was really dirty.  I have hosed it off frequently but it just got dirty over time.  It looks pretty dang nice now!  It is almost 2 years old and I love it.

Biscuit isn't Sponge Bob

I went out to the barn to get Biscuit Saturday afternoon for a ride.  He wouldn't come into the corral and when I walked into the pasture he walked away.  Ok....so not chasing you, Dude!  I went up to the barn and got the Gator.  I drove back to the pasture and started filling up feed pails.  He came into the corral, I dumped a little feed in both buckets.  While he was snacking I shut the gate.  Take that Biscuit Man.  I have opposing thumbs and a slightly higher IQ!  hahahaha.  He tried to evade me a few times but I got the halter on him with no problems.  I tied him to the trailer, turned the Gator around and got him and he trotted all the way to the barn.  I tied him up on the wash rack, got in my Rav and went back for the trailer.  I pulled to the front of the barn to take out Barry's tack and drop the ramp.  Biscuit fussed about getting in because of a puddle.  OMG get your butt in the dang trailer!

We hauled to Kellie's and I backed into her driveway - woot!  I didn't have any trouble and that is a long driveway.  Elan gave us a little fuss loading up but not much.  He just isn't used to the ramp.  We hauled out to Tyrrell and tacked up.  I was going to leave Biscuit's girth a little loose because he is always swishing his tail and yesterday he was stretched out like a TW.  I said "hey dude, what is with the parking out?"  I went to mount up and told Kellie to stand in front in case it slipped.  OMG it slipped and my foot missed the step and I dang near toppled over like a moron.  So much for that - the saddle was tightened and I mounted up.  We walked across to the arena area and OMG Biscuit was walking like the ground was going to eat him.  He hates walking on spongy surfaces.  We went around the road at such a slow pace it was crazy.  We went behind the golf course - took forever to get over there with the two grocery store ponies we had.

3 years of Biscuit

On November 1, 2010 I paid Kenny for Biscuit.  We negotiated a price that worked for both of us and the deal was done.   I had bought a little yellow fellow named Goose.  I changed his name to PAC that stood for Piece of Cake.  He was a Piece of Cake to ride.  But, that didn't seem to fit him well.  I liked Nick Nolte as a name because his mane was as blonde as Nick Nolte's hair.  OMG Randy DeMary had a hissy fit - he didn't like that name and insisted that NN was not a good name for a bunch of different reasons!  We went back and forth on that one and I really liked the name Nick!!  I thought about Tucker - I like that name but it didn't fit either.  I called his "the other horse" for a long time.  I was riding with Susan, Kellie and Lee Ann B one day and Susan suggested Biscotti, Kellie suggested Scottie and Lee Ann B said Biscuit.  I liked Biscuit so it stuck.  A cake friend of mine just suggested I was Butter because I sat on a Biscuit.  hahahaha   I thought that was freaking funny.

Biscuit was underweight and full of worms when I got him.  Sarge ended up with worms as a result that I had a really hard time getting rid of - way harder than getting rid of Biscuit's worms!  Biscuit started putting on weight immediately - good food and free choice hay started him on the road to good health.  It took a year to put shine in his coat though.  Now Biscuit is filled out, in shape and looking like a million bucks.

Here is what he looked like the first time I saw him.  Esther was riding him.  He flopped down in the water three times while she was mounted on him.  He stuck his face in the water and was swishing it back and forth.  I took this picture of him. 

This picture was of the first time I rode him to try him out at Ebenezer in mid October of 2010.  He was a good boy but his ground manners needed some serious work and he was extremely fidgety too.  

Randy taught him to load up in my Brenderup.  The night before he had gotten scared and came flying back out of the trailer and hyper extended Barry's fingers.  Ouch!  I think he actually cracked his fingers.  They hurt for a year when he'd play golf!  On this day we took him from Kenny's and down to Kellie's where we gave him a bath.  The next day she and Randy hauled him to Houston where we rode at the Airport.  He was pretty good - sometimes gave me a little trash about slowing down from a trot but over all he was good.

Biscuit started putting on weight when I got him to Plum Nearly.  He had a thick heavy coat that winter because he was so thin.  It took an entire year of good feed to put a good shine to his coat.  Now he is shiny as he can be with soft hair, good feet, not perfect; they are tender on rocks! 

He has made a wonderful trail horse for me and he is worth his weight in gold.  He doesn't spook or act stupid.  He is pretty dang level headed.  He's my Biscuit Man.