it makes me have night mares.

I am loving a new facebook page that is all about horse people helping horse people in an emergency...

I have signed up for NC, and will make my place available to anyone in need during fire, storm (hurricanes) or other natural disasters.

I have also learned MUCH from this page and added a few things to my emergency list, such as paint! yep a spray can or FLORESCENT paint.   While I use rope halters ONLY leather is good in a fire/ emergency as it will not melt into your horse as nylon will, cotton will go up in flames as well!

copied and pasted...WHEN marking horses for identification - don't use anythign plastic, nylon, or metal.  Plastic and Nylon melt and burn. Metal will get hot and burn. Spray paint livestock using livestock marking paints- phone number and last name on both sides of each animal. Large enough to be read from a distance.
  re- typed due to copy issues.

When marking horse for Identification- don't use ANYTHING plastic, nylon, or metal.  Plastic and nylon melt and burn.  Metal will get hot and burn into your horse.   Sray paint or use livestock marking paint- PHONE NUMBER and last name on both sides of each horse. Large enough to be seen from a distance...


 

Estate... update.

While I've made it public how silly I was when Jerry came to the barn with me a while back.  almost a month now!

I was off my normal routine with him there and left the water running all night long.  loosing at least 2000 gallons of water.

I have to say I've got about 1000 gallons in my little container again, so all is well!   I am likely to take water over to the barn on weekends only to save more of my water for this winter.   The more water I have the less likely it is to freeze!

onward we go!

RAIN

Rain in the cold is going to be my worst enemy as far as my own ability to deal with the weather.

I enjoy, my horses enjoy riding in the snow, as the body creates a barrier and slowly gets adjusted to the melting and numbing of snow through my riding layers.

I am planning to take my love's motorcycle rain gear with me for such occasional I am just not sure how it will hold up to the rubbing of real leather, or the friction of the horses rubbing up against me from time to time.  Sweet Pea has yet to stay off of me as a pack horse and Navarre is safer to ride as a road horse, so much more training  in the future as always.

I believe Sweet Pea will either get better or loose her mind.  This trip will make or break our relationship!

I can only hope it makes it stronger.

one of those days.

Its days like today that even I think I'm a little crazy for doing this ride.

The pain is all over.
I knew it was going to be one of those days when the pain was so bad I could barely make it down the stairs first thing in the morning.
runs from my jaw up to my temples
down the back of my neck
my back
my hips down to my ankles.
fingers swollen, and hurting up to my wrist.

getting old SUCKS but letting it stop me from doing what I want... not going to happen.

we all have our aches and pains, I just have days like today when it gets away from me, and I feel like I've got the flu.  The meds will catch up by tomorrow and I'll be a normal 40 something year old.  While today I feel like I'm in my 90's

What a crock!

Hoping your day is better than this one.  We all have them, we just don't all put it into words.  ME I'm journaling everything good and bad about this ride. This is just another day in the books.

Toilet paper!

Yep!   I have a roll, but what of the shovel?
I need a light weight shovel, as there is no promise of my being able to tie up the horses, go into some place and SIT down to relieve myself.

I know it is a normal body function but no one speaks of it!  You cant just GO where ever you want! Human waste is TOXIC, it contaminates grounds and one has to be respectful!   So I need to find a shovel as I do not want to carry my waste with me.

One good book ... How to Shit in the Woods... sounds horrible, but a good, funny read!   Jerry got it for me a year or so ago as I was going into Yellowstone with Daddy, and I dare not contaminate such a beautiful place! It worked, but so did the park system of having plenty of compost toilets around!  

Oh well on with the list.
On with the issues I will see, or cause along my route.
Route? no answer yet! I'm going to have to drive each to choose!
So on in the car I go ASAP.

oh how we spoil ourselves.

In preparation of my horse riding, camping trip to Nashville TN in the winter!  I have to get not only my body, mind, and horses in shape but... I'm having to get my stomach and taste buds to deal with the changes ahead.

I know!   Laugh all you want but I have had a french press for my coffee sense I left home on my own.  Even my father knew its importance when he gave me a camping press for Christmas one year as I was camping off Sweet Pea years ago.

Having said that I've picked up my instant packs at the grocers and forcing myself to drink it black.  For those who know me I always drink my coffee black, but when its bad coffee I drown it in cream.  No cream on this trip! It would be frozen at night, or spoiled by the heat of the horse in the day and too much weight for the trip.

Oh how I have spoiled myself without realizing it! Coffee?  who would have thought it was such a luxury?

NO  don't mention Starbucks to me!  I can't stand their normal coffee... taste burn to me, ALTHOUGH I crave their espresso.  I remember the days of living alone in St Louis, stopping by and getting two or three shots of espresso on my way into work.  THAT was pure luxury!   That I would be likely to kill for on the trip this winter.... Wonder if they have a place for me to tie up the horses as I pass through Chattanooga or Knoxville... which ever it might be.

No still haven't made up my mind on a route... I know! I'm working on it!

much love to the world,
and Much love to my missing french pressed coffee this morning... uggg to the ( no names given) instant single servings I now carry!

Amber

Thoughts!

OK, so I have a FEW things taken care of...

Now I have to worry about how much of my supplies I can get into my little two man tent in order to keep it dry and know its with me not where the horses are tearing into it, or someone else taking it as I sleep.

So I figure I can take one sleeping pad, use the horse pads as another layer leave the saddles on nose all night and I'll have to put the feed in small enough bags I can lift them up and down several times a day.  I can't leave them on the saddle as I get it off and on.  I am sure at some point I will unsaddle the horses during the day, allowing them a rest, a feed, and get them some water.   So all of this has to come to play

Dad has suggested my sleeping bags be in river bags as well.  One is down, one is synthetic... the synthetic can handle more moisture than the down, but if the down gets wet! I'm up a creek with out a paddle.

Any other ideas out there?

Any one have suggestions on tying up the horses? keeping them from running away? ANYTHING to allow me to sleep a little better instead of worrying every time I hear one from outside the tent?

FEED and weight, what to do?

Wow! have you ever read the bag your feed comes in?   While I make sure to read it more closely than most foods I purchase for myself... it is astonishing how much weight this is going to be on my trip.

Navarre can not eat  complete feed, they are too high in sugar as most use molasses to bind the pellets together. Therefore I can't allow Sweet Pea to have any either as they tend to fight over each others feed no matter what I do to separate them.  I can lock Navarre in his stall and sure enough Sweet Pea will have left something behind as she decides hay is more her taste.  Then as I let him out they both rush to the others bowl to see what is there!   Just like two kids that get a slightly different diet, the other is always better.

Navarre is an EASY keeper! Thank goodness!  It is only his medical issues that make his feeding more difficult and demanding.

Sweet Pea is a HARD keeper! But she is food smart, as where Navarre is not.  HE will eat himself to death.  SHE will piddle around eat till she is full and go on to something else.   She prefers hay over a large portion of  feed.

Hay is going to be an issue on my trip!
With Navarre's medical issues I can't just accept hay from anyone!  Such a quick change in diet is enough to throw him into a colic. So I am going to have to add a hay stretcher into their diet!

I do not like doing this, but at this point it appears to be my best option.
Hay = HEAT in the winter.  so I will try to carry some alfalfa cubes as well, but they require being soaked in water and that alone creates another issue.  Water is going to be a problem in the winter no matter how much I plan.

SO Heat! .... hay stretcher to keep their gut going, Alfalfa cubes to give them more heat, and OIL!   YEP!

Right now my kids (horses) get rice bran oil every day...
Navarre gets one to two cups a day!
Sweet Pea gets only up to one cup a day!

I will replace 1/2 of their rice bran oil with corn oil!   Why! two reasons... Rice bran is EXPENSIVE ... AND it is a cooler burning oil in their body! (so I only feed rice bran in summer to keep them from getting so hot)   So the Corn oil will not only save me 2/3rds the cost but will also give the horses a better heat source at night!   THIS heat is what I am after!

OIL= heat, gut protector, and sugar replacement in horses with PPSM.

Think about it! What is the second thing your vet does if your horse colics?
After checking for stomach for extra acid he puts oil down the stomach to move (hopefully) what ever is blocked in the intestines.  a constant source of oil helps the horse NOT to colic so easily, for a horse like Navarre this is very important.

Sweet pea is on a low carb diet... the weight of 1/2 a scoop of her feed is +/- 2 lbs
Navarre is on a NO carb diet... the weight of 1/2 a scoop of his feed is +/- 2lbs
THEN you ADD the 6 ( yep SIX pounds) of hay stretcher for EACH horse that alone is 4+4+12

they get fed twice a day... 2 lbs each time is 4 lbs
then 6lbs of hay stretcher each is 12 lbs
total of 16lbs a DAY just for basic feeds! This is not including the extra they will need to keep up the demands of the walk OR for HEAT to make it through the night unprotected.  ( yes I will pack rain coats for them but... that's it)
16lbs is not including the weight of all the oil that has to go on that food, OR the supplements that are required  for Navarre and his medical issues.

I will break their feeds into thirds on the trip but that does nothing for the weight of the matter.

so I am figuring the oil will weigh at least two pounds if not just under.  After weighing the supplements that weight 9 oz a day for just Navarre... Then oil on top of that ... I'm adding three pounds a day.

19lbs for ONLY one day!
5 days of feed is going to take up almost 100 lbs! That is a lot of feed, a lot of space! That is a lot of worry!

Not to mention keeping this feed from getting wet! Zip locks are great but they sweat like any other plastic when they get wet, hot, cold etc... I am figuring a river bag is going to be my outside layer!

IF anyone has a or several river bags I can borrow please contact me!   I will need them for sure!

Weight.

Today was a day where getting water to the barn was the first thing on my to do list.  While waiting for gravity to fill the bathtub... I was getting together things to take on my next outing.  Things I will eventually take on my trip but can learn to pack, and get the horses accustomed to all the weight.

Things I put in my pack today.

Feed, hay stretcher, OIL and supplements enough for four days... ( 12 bags of feed) with a cup of oil each for Navarre, and a 1/2 cup each for Sweet Pea.  Body wipes, Facial wipes, facial creams, SUN SCREEN, P-Nutt butter, English muffins, and dried camp foods.   I will soon add the bulky... my socks, my under garments, my sleep wear and an emergency change of clothes.  ( only if I get wet in freezing temperatures will I change while on the trip.) Otherwise I'm will be bathing in deodorant... so you are forewarned! stay up wind if you come see me.

I have decided to take wipes to clean the bridal and only pack one.  I will take some emergency repair parts for saddle, etc... but not much.  

I did however learn I am going to have to carry a shoe hammer, and at least two a shoe full on nails in case one starts to clank on me again.  I will also carry ONE front and back boot for each horse in case I completely loose a shoe. I can't have them wearing their feet down to nothing!  I have them already for Sweet Pea but Navarre's size will be special order his feet are so large... I will get Stacy to help me with that!

Of course my emergency first aid kit is already at the barn, in the bags.  But soon I will have to start adding a LOT of weight to get the horses more used to their new jobs...

I am making my plans a little tighter day by day...
Keep the suggestions coming!

September

September: from septem, Latin for "seven"