Hours Before Winters Return

I took one horse, and the dogs up on the ridge east of our place. I saddled up around 3:30pm. High the day before had been near 80 degrees, but the prediction was for rain by late afternoon, so I had been watching a bank of clouds that had been building in the southwest. I scurried around, finished mowing the lawn then loaded up for the 3 mile drive to the launch sight.

I unloaded everyone then rode about a mile along a dirt road that runs just below the crest of the main northeast southwest ridge Then we left the road for a grass covered row of hills that string together to form a lower branch ridge.

The dogs were pointing pairs, and small covies of gray partridge along the way. I was heading for the far end of the ridge to where it drops off into the rolling hills of the Palouse. This would give me a nice view of town, and our little ranch.

When I got to the crest of the last hill, I dismounted, hobbled the horse, and removed the bit so he could graze while I looked over the view.

I could see three plumes of dust from tractors were my neighbors doing some spring farming ahead of the next rain.

I called Marylou on my cell phone, told her were I was, and she said she could see me, a dot 2 miles away on the nearest foothill.

After 15 or 20 minutes I caught a flash of lighting out of the corner of my eye in the cloud bank to the southwest. I also noticed rain streaks under the clouds. Between me and the clouds was my barn where I needed to be before the storm got to it.

The warm T-shirt afternoon, soft breeze with distant lighting, and an occasional low moan of thunder all gave the feeling of comfort with a slight backdrop of drama. Ten minutes after I had gotten the horse unsaddled and fed the first few drops of rain rattled the barn roof.

 This was the view of our barn and house.

   

Spring Feeling

We have had a few days in the last couple months that hinted  spring was on its way, but today and tomorrow will be by far the best so far this year.  I feel like I may once again have something to offer in my blog.

I have been riding almost every day all winter. On some days I have been confined to a 30 X 30 ft. open area in the middle of the barn. At least it is out of the wind and rain. I often worked on leg pressure control. At one time the bay could pivot on his front feet 360 degrees, and side pass reasonably well. He could also stop hard, and haunch turn pretty fast. This was ten years ago when I thought team penning might be in his future. I took him to a few pennings to get the feel for a congested noisy arena, but I never did compete on him. Things changed and trail riding became the focus of our adventures together.

For the younger dun, all this turning, circling, stopping, and backing was a new experience. He was pretty confused by it all at first. Just when we were making a little progress, a stretch of better weather would come along and we would head back outside.

To stay out of the mud, we were usually limited to back roads, or abandoned railroad grades. The farthest we could go in one direction was two miles. So out and back would give me about an hour and a half in the saddle. A little less than half the time I would just lead the horse so that I could get some exercise myself. Much of the time I would take both horses and both dogs. Yep, a real dog and pony show. When the trip included a visit to the bank or the post office, which is a half mile away in town, we could cause some commotion. My youngest dog made it clear to the teller window a couple times before being chased out of the bank.

After April 1 it is illegal to have dogs in nesting habitat. That's when I started hauling the whole gang up to McCroskey State Park. It is probably the least developed state park in Idaho. It is, in essence, a gravel road that runs 17 miles down the ridge line of adjacent wooded hills. There are three small campgrounds and three picnic areas scattered out every so often. It may be the only state park that will allow wood cutting and dirt bikes.

When the snow melts back enough to open the road, it gives me a nice place to hike and ride. I never go up there on the weekends, because that is when the iron horses ( ATVs and dirt bikes) show up. It is like going to a music festival where there are all different kinds of musical experiences to be had, and they all seem to co-exist simultaneously, then the rock band shows up and cranks it up wide open. While they stay, everyone else leaves in disgust. In other words, it is very hard for any other nature experience to be very meaningful within two miles of a two stroke engine at 2500 rpm.

Near Spud's head you can see Farmington, WA, lying at the base of what the locals call Jack's Mountain. That little clump of trees above his hip is our place along the east-west road that runs out of town.

 This picture is to show what is in the shotgun scabbard. It is one of those grabbing divices which are usually used by people with a limited range of motion for picking objects off the floor, or high overhead shelves. For me, it is used to collect discarded pop and beer cans along the roadside. I can often fill both sides of my saddle bags with crushed cans in an hour. It is great training for the horse. I stop, dismount, draw my weapon, ground tie the horse, walk away, bag my quary, compliment my horse, put my weapon back in the scabbard, gather up the reins, and climb back on. Someday the grabber will be replaced by my shotgun, and I will be putting a gamebird in my saddle bag.

The McCroskey Park road runs along that ridge that is skylined in this picture. By the way the name of the road is Skyline Road.

Today was Saturday, so I went to the ridge that is on the northern end of the park, but just outside of it. This area is more open and offers a good view of the town of Farmington and our house with the barn.        

Waiting For Spring

At the end of last week, off and on, for three days it looked like the Arctic around here, with snow and 50mph winds. Then it warmed up, rained a little, and then over the weekend we received this beautiful snow that I got some pictures of today. This was the first time that I've worked with a horse for two weeks. The weather had me staying close to the fireplace. The wind was the worst part.





Our birdhouse/mailbox combo.



Looking east into Idaho.


 

Looking west over the Palouse with Steptoe Butte in the distance.

  



This is our house and barn.



Practicing, Getting Ready for Spring

Riding one while leading the other gives all of use a chance to get out. For awhile now I have been experimenting trying to find the best way to handle the horses while in a camp setting. In the past I've picketed both horses with a single hobble on the left front foot, attacked to a 30 foot rope that is in turn fastened to a stake driven into the ground.

I've tried both horses double hobbled, also one picketed with the other one loose. I've also tried varies kinds of rope on the picket.

This is what I think I've learned so far. Keep the dominate horse picked, and the other one will not run off too far, but put a double hobble on the loose horse and he stays close enough that the picketed horse reminds quiet. Stiff rope gets tangled less often around feet.

I think that for awhile the training will follow the pattern of today. Saddle one horse to ride, put the pack saddle on the other one. Load on a folding chair, the picket equipment, take along binoculars, maybe something to read. Ride for an hour or two then find a spot to settle down. The more time they spend out picketed, and hobbled the better we will all get at it. This also helps me get more comfortable with the whole program.




Some day I hope I can feel confident enough to leave them like this through  night. If we ride into Hells Canyon there may not be any tree to put a high line on.

 

Try to Stay Out of the Mud

The weather is warming, which means that the ground is thawing. In the last couple of days I have been riding on some abandon railroad grades. Other than a puddle now and then the solid footing is much preferred by the horses.

The dogs find birds along the way, which they enjoy. I try to walk about half the time. I need the exercise more then the dogs, and horses do.









This is part of the "John Wayne" trail. It starts in the western side of the state then ends 12 miles north of where I live. We covered just the eastern most three miles yesterday. It is part of the state park system. I think that I read some where that it is 145 miles long. I know that it goes over the Cascade Mountains, but of course snow has it closed in winter. During the rest of the year many of  the tunnels are closed. I will find out more later. 





This was taken today on a piece of old railroad bed closer to home from a different horse obviously.



You can see that the weather was beautiful; clear, little wind, with the temp. in the low to mid 40's.

The Last Day in January

Beautiful unexpectedly warm day. I took the younger dun horse out in the morning. At this point in his life every second of such a ride is important training, and not conducive to relaxation. I wouldn't say it isn't enjoyable. When you are able to present an idea to a horse and see him accept it, it is rewarding. Right now he is trying to get comfortable with the idea of being away from the barn and his buddy. As long as we are moving away from the barn all is well. Turn towards home, and he gets very excited. The the closer we get to the barn the more he winds up. It is like a car load of kids going to Disneyland. By the time they get in view of the castle they are out of their minds with excited anticipation. He isn't that bad, but he would be if I let him.

After lunch it was the bay's turn. It was a short mile and a half to " Mountain View Cemetery". When I got there I hobbled the horse, and set on a marble bench with a view of the Idaho hills. Someone on the original cemetery committee must have moved here from Kansas and labeled them "mountains".

I could not figure out whose guest I was. The etching on the bench included a nice inspirational poem that was pretty devoid of any spiritual meaning. It seemed to be dedicated to someone who was a  father, and a brother, and was nicknamed " Worm". Obviously it was written for someone other than me.

Now that hunting is over for me, I can attempt to get some good pictures of the dogs on point without the pressure of trying to get a shot with a camera, and a gun at the same time.

 They hunt year round, mostly for birds, but when that gets slow they turn to field mice. They don't point the mice. For them their approach is more direct. Pounce then dig!!

Waiting on the Weather

Pheasant season is over,but quail and gray partridge are still legal. Right now the issue for me is the weather. Some snow is great up to a point. What we have going on now, is weather that is hard on dogs, guns, and hunters. I guess I'm just not tough enough. Here are some pictures to show what is going on here.

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Last Day of the Season

Over the last couple of days we have gotten three or four inches of snow. Aside from making the countryside beautiful, it seemed to slow the birds down. I got all three of my birds after good solid points, and they were shot within thirty yards.



We started out in a tree farm which was on the way to the real hunt. We did flush a large covey of quail, and Rob, my partner for the day, got one. I sprayed some shots around to no avail.



This abandoned railroad grade runs across the countryside for a mile or so with access at only the two ends.  We left a pickup at the other end  to make it a one way hike.




This picture and the one below were the same point.




Soon after I took this picture, and got my camera put away, a rooster flushed from the right where the dogs are pointing. It flew to the right and dropped to the ground in short order.





All three doge were on point a couple of times here, but I missed the picture. It turned out to be a hen.




We really got four birds, but I lost one. It must have fallen out of my vest somewhere. I plan on going back to look for it tomorrow. There are dogs in those round openings. That's my homemade kennel. Rob reported that on his way home he got two more birds. So that day we both got oue limits. I just don't know where one of mine is.



Down the Railroad Grade

We still had a couple days of hunting left, but the younger horse needed to take a turn. He has been around shotgun noise, but I want him to ground tie better before I get real serious about making him take on that job.

So we went for a nice ride down an abandoned railroad grade with everything but a gun. Sure enough the dogs got good points on two roosters, and a couple of lone gray partridges. As it turned out, that was our last day to shoot pheasants. We can still go after the partridge for a while longer.

The weather was cold and clear, with a 5 to 7 mph southwest wind. I didn't last very long in the saddle.



Spud practicing ground tying.



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Ronnie's Place

This is an area that I have been wondering about for years. The season will be over in a few days, which in some ways will be a relief. The main thing that will change will be that when I am trying to choose a place to ride, weather I think there are birds there or not, will not have to be a consideration. Of course if I find some good hunting prospects along the way, so much the better. Today's ride was starting the off season early. I took my gun, but it didn't surprise me that I didn't get to use it. I think it was too high elevation for this time of year.

This trip will involve driving to that finger of timber on the left , riding through some woods, then hunting the CRP that runs just below the treeline out to the point above the grain elevators.




Yesterday I was hunting the hill on the  left horizon.

 


This is the city of Farmington, with Steptoe Butte in the distance.



We got a couple inches of snow day before yesterday. With the brilliant sunshine, every limb, or blade of grass was beautiful.