A Life With Horses ebook!
-
For all of you who would rather read this book on a tablet or your phone,
the ebook version of A Live With Horses has just been released.
Amazon Canada:
h...
Stop Fix #10: Correct a "Vee" Slide
-
*The problem:* The horse's hind legs spread wider as he slides, creating a
“vee” until he picks up one foot to regain balance.
*Why does this problem happen...
I ride. Born and raised on a ranch in Saskatchewan,I rode at a very early age. I have three grown children and five grandchildren but today I live alone with my horses and dog on a small acreage in the Olds area of Alberta... and I ride. Horses, riding and reining and working cowhorse are my passion.
I don't believe there has ever been a time in my life that I
loved my horses more. I begin each day looking out the window at them; I visit
each one in the early morning sun; I breathe in their aura, their acceptance, their love. I tend to their needs
throughout the day – fly masks, meds if needed, feeding in the winter - and I ride. I am "home" when I am on the back of one of my mares.
My view in the morning
A couple of days ago, when I caught Sapphire, I impulsively hopped on her bareback (with the help of a fence) and rode her back to the gate that way as I used to in the Chilcotin when I had to walk to the river field to catch her. Legs wrapped around her, I absorbed the oneness and the world slowed. "You," I thought, "Are my rock. All of you are my rocks. And my heart."
I wish I could have blogged my trail riding vacation in Utah every day (so much I could have written) but time did not allow and, to be honest, my priority was not sitting at a computer at the end of the day. For a time when I got home I thought of writing the details up day by day while they were fresh in my mind but scrapped that too. As the days went by, other thoughts, insights and revelations surfaced and it is those I am putting on paper now.
I have wanted to ride in Utah
for a long time, ever since my husband and I visited the areas around Moab almost 25
years ago. Living alone as I do now and with financial restrictions, it was
almost impossible but last fall I decided I was going to do it. Why? Because,
at 74 years, I wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to. Pushing aside
nagging reminders that I should not be spending money I might need for
something else, I researched my trip looking for the perfect place to go. I
wanted to be able to ride on my own – no guided rides – and I found Paria River
Ranch.
Trading off my trailer for a newer one with larger living
quarters just before I departed increased my anxiety about the cost of the
vacation but I stayed on course, loaded Sapphire and Cameo in the trailer and
Mischa in the truck and got on the road for what would be a three day haul to
Paria. As it turned out, it was four. I drove right into a Montana snowstorm and spent much of one day
parked. Better to lose a day than to be in a wreck though. Horses, dog and I were safe.
Pulled over here when I-15 north of Butte turned to ice.
When I arrived at my destination, settled in and looked around, all my doubts about the wisdom of spending the time and money on this vacation for me vanished.
Revelation #1: This trip was the right thing to do.
A kind of peace settled over me. This is why I came. Let the adventure begin.
Parked at Paria River Ranch.
Paria River Ranch
In the next days, I explored the trails around Paria River
Ranch, one time on Sapphire, the next on Cameo. The first ride I rode Sapphire and led Cameo, not sure how she would be left by herself in a pen at the ranch. They seemed as eager to see the sights as I did.
Sapphire and Cameo take in the sights on my first ride in Utah.
Long Canyon
On the third day, by pre-arrangement, I met with a
cousin I didn't know I had who lived nearby, an opportunity too good to miss and we visited and went for dinner in Page AZ. The next day I agreed to a group ride to ResurrectionCanyon arranged by a gal
who lived there. It was a good group of riders, friendly and considerate but...
Revelation #2: Having
trail ridden by myself or with one other person my entire life, I am not cut
out for group rides. (Can't train on the trail, can't stop to take photos when
I want, etc)
A new friend with a big rig hauled me to the ResurrectionCanyon trailhead and then to Buckskin Gulch trailhead the next day, both rides of which I would not have done since I had not planned to haul out at all. I was so proud of my mares loading into a
side door of his trailer (a big step) beside his geldings! I took Sapphire the
first day and Cameo the second. They hesitated, then stepped up only because I
asked.
My ride to Resurrection and Buckskin Gulch. Note side door.
Cameo and I Buckskin Gulch Ride
Revelation #3: I had been in a rut - always working to make things better at home when there was a world to explore.
Of course I met people at the ranch, some of whom I will
keep in touch with. A couple from Las Vegas are
planning a trip to Alberta
next year. As occasionally happens to me, she and I had an almost instant
rapport and I gave her a copy of my book because, as I told her, "You will
get it."
After two days of riding with someone else, I was ready to
be on my own again. I had intended to ride Nautilus but seeing a group ahead of
me, I changed to an exploratory ride down the river, eating lunch at the end of
CopperSlotCanyon. We crossed the Paria a couple of times being ever vigilant of quicksand, and I re-centered again.
My cell phone was my connection to home and a way to post
photos of my adventure. Unintentionally, I took several people along on my adventure.
Also unintentionally, I seem to have inspired a few to do something like I did. Reading the comments on Facebook, it was heartwarming to know most were happy for me. A few made their presence known by NOT commenting which in itself spoke volumes.
Revelation #4: I refuse to feel guilty or privileged for taking this vacation.
Revelation #5: This holiday trumped any vacation at a beach! That being said, I recognize it would not be for everyone. It can be physically demanding and the added responsibility of horses and dog daunting for some. For me though - perfect!
For the last three days a good friend joined me, one of only
a few that I would allow to ride one of my mares. Marion flew down the day before I booked out
of Paria River Ranch. We rode once from there then left to ride the old Paria
Townsite on the way to BryceCanyon.
Sapphire and I at the Paria Townsite
Marion and Cameo along Paria River (Paria Townsite ride)
The icing on the cake was BryceCanyon, my last Utah ride. No photo can possibly capture the
grandeur and to ride through it, on my own horse was, well, the experience of a
lifetime.
On a final note, kudos to my mares, who accepted, with grace, everything I asked. Neither one had been on any kind of extended trail ride like this before. They were sure footed, trustworthy and trusting. They did buddy up of course but that could be expected.
Did I make any mistakes, do anything stupid, on my trip? Yes. I'm still a country girl at heart and I tend to trust too easily. Or is it that I just don't think that there are people I shouldn't trust? On the way home, when I was looking for a place for my horses to overnight, I stopped in a little town thinking there would be a rodeo grounds there. Not much was open but I asked a couple of fellows chatting on the street. The one in the truck said he lived there but the rodeo grounds was privately owned and he knew of no other.
"I have a little patch of ground you can use," he said. "Jump in and I'll show you." So I did! What was I thinking? In today's age, one should not ever do that. He truly was a nice man, showed me the little pasture but I chose not to use it as it seemed unsafe to turn them in at night. Only later did I think how stupid that was to get in the truck with a strange man...
Revelation #6: I underestimated myself. A lifetime of always trying to do better, to be better had allowed doubts to creep in (sometimes by others but mostly by myself for allowing it to happen) that I still did not do things as well as I should. But a ton of experience behind the wheel and on the back of a horse had prepared me for this trip as it has done in the past. I don't scare easily and I don't stress and that has saved many a potential dangerous situation. My horses will
do anything for me if I ask nicely and I can still hold my own physically on a
long day in the saddle. I cannot ask for more.
And I did gain insight into myself and others and what makes us all tick. I now have a better understanding of that part of the country, too, and its people. I always learn when I visit some place new but there's questions unanswered too, like "What makes those rocks that colour?" and "Why are the lines in the rock" and "How did the early settlers survive?" I'll be looking for answers.
And my new motto (borrowed from Nike on the advice of a friend): "Just do it!"
It doesn't take much to make me happy. Four new tires on my
horse trailer will do it.
A couple of days ago the guys at Fountain Tire
installed tires all around on my Sooner and although the bill stung a little, I
was on a high for the rest of the day. It's the little things.
For many this might not seem like much of an event but for
me, travelling alone with horses I love, it is. Only two other times in all the years I've hauled horses have I bought four new tires for my trailer. I clearly
remember both.
In 1974 I was on the rodeo circuit with my good barrel horse, Duchess, and hauling her in a two horse straight-haul Miley (a
step up from hauling horses in the back of the truck). As the tires wore out one by one, I replaced them with used ones, always travelling with
extras in the back of the truck. But Duchess was winning money every time and finally,
on the way home from a race in southern Saskatchewan,
I made a decision. I had enough money to replace the tires. So I stopped at
Canadian Tire in Moose Jaw
and bought new rubber all around.
(I think they cost me $50 each.) I remember to this day how good it felt driving away worry free. Those tires
lasted a long time until – you guessed it – I replaced them one by one with used ones with extras in the truck box.
After the Miley, I bought my first living quarters, a used, two-horse
straight haul Roadrunner with a bed, stove and icebox in the living quarters, not much compared to the living quarters trailers of today but a real jewel then. I paid $3500 for it and traded a
nice little mare for part payment. That trailer would be part of my life for
many years. I hauled to horse shows of course, the beach for weekend get-a-ways with the
kids, moved my horses to BC with it and pulled it up rough mountain trails to trail ride. I got it stuck and
unstuck more times than I care to remember and of course I had flat tires. I replaced them with used ones and became a regular visitor to the "tire man" in Armstrong. He knew what I wanted when he
saw me coming and supplied me with used tires for both the truck (a beat up
1978 GMC) and the trailer for several years (extras in the back of the truck).
1992 - The Roadrunner at Larch Hills before it was painted.
Enter a man in my life. The living quarters trailer
got a paint job and made even more trips to the mountains as well as everyday use for my business training
and showing reining horses. Don made fun of my load of 'extra' tires and even lug nuts (but that's another story...) but I was always struggling to make ends meet and could not afford new tires for the trailer.
1995 South Country Slide In, Cardston AB with my granddaughter
In
1994, with my new partner's blessing, I paid up a horse in the NRHA
Futurity in Oklahoma City.
We would be driving the long drive in late November and Don had changed a few tires on that trailer.
"I'm going to buy you tires all around for the
trailer," he told me. "I don't want to drive all the way to Oklahoma wondering how
many flats we're going to have. Go see your tire man."
And so I did. Tim saw me coming and he knew what I wanted –
or thought he did.
"I want four tires for the trailer," I said.
"You know the size."
I could tell he was already thinking about what he had. He
started to turn back to his pile of rubber and then realized what I said.
"New ones?" The look on his face was so funny I laughed. I think I enjoyed telling him that just a little too.
He was not quite sure he had heard correctly but I assured him I did want
new ones and again, as I had so many years before in Moose Jaw, I drove away with confidence. I would not have to worry about flat
tires for a while.
1994 The trailer painted and with new tires in Oklahoma
And so, when I drove away from Sundre with new rubber all
around on my trailer, it lifted my spirits just as it did those other two times.
Canada's 150th has got me back to blogging! For sure it got me wandering back though the years...
In the July 1st post (Oh Canada) I shared an excerpt from my mother's book - the story of my great grandfather and great grandmother (Louis and Rachel Giauque) arriving in Canada 120 years ago. What about 100 years ago? The story continues...
Exactly one hundred years ago, 1917, the eldest son of those pioneers, my grandfather, Leslie Giauque, left the homestead in the elbow of the Saskatchewan River to establish with his family a ranch in the Coteau Hills. Still in the family and now called the Diamond Dot Ranch, it is 100 years old this year! Here, from Mom's book again, is what life was like for grandma and grandpa and their young family in 1917 - a hundred years ago!
…. But the beginning of the end had
come for the ranch at the elbow of the river. Leslie's younger brothers, Hoy
and Hubert, had enlisted for active service in World War I. Both had lost their
lives. Before enlisting Hoy had homesteaded a quarter section of land in the
Coteau Hills about sixty miles upriver from the elbow. Now the land reverted to
the government and my father acquired it along with other lease land in that
area. He bought, also, a quarter section of deeded land from a discouraged
homesteader adjoining his lease. There he brought his family and there we
continued to live for the thirty or so years that Leslie operated a horse ranch
in the Coteau Hills. The first winter away from the old
Giauque Ranch at the elbow, however, was spent on Hoy's homestead quarter. There
was a dugout barn and a house sheltered from the wind by Maple Butte which
towered to the north of them. That first winter at the new ranch
must have been a nightmare for the young mother. She was city born, not of
pioneer stock. Regardless, no one ought to be expected to bear the isolation
which she was to experience.
Early in December, by team and
sleigh, Leslie left for the elbow homestead. He wanted to see that his mother was
all right for the winter ahead. Also, supplies were needed for this own
household. He planned to be away for ten days at most, but it was a little more
than three weeks before he returned. It was the tail end of the year 1917 and a
dreadful epidemic of influenza was beginning to take its toll. There was no way
to get word to his wife that he had been stricken. She could only wait and
worry, alone with three children. What would she do if he never returned? There
were neighbours three miles away, an old man and his wife who never left her
house. The man came once a day to feed and water the stallion in the barn, a
chore that Gertie was afraid to do. Every day that Leslie lay sick he worried
and far sooner than he should have done he left his bed and started back to
Maple Butte. The sixty miles that would ordinarily have taken two days now took
three for he was weakened by the illness.
It was Christmas Eve when my father
opened the door of his house and said, "Hello! Did you think I was
dead?"
Outside in the sleighbox there was
a gift for everyone. I remember only mine – a little wooden trunk. Chewed now
by mice and discoloured by time, it is still somewhere in the old bunkhouse at
the Maple Butte Ranch.
The following year the family moved
to a new and permanent location a little closer to High Point Post Office and
to school but still a long way from nowhere. The nearest school was still seven
and a half miles away.
….
Like settlers everywhere, there was
a great deal of visiting done during most of the year but the winter months were
a lonely time for some of them, especially for the women. Everywhere the male
population outnumbered the female. Also, the men were usually more mobile than
were the women. Some were excellent riders as were the Giauque girls, but many,
like my mother, never learned to ride. Neither did she ever learn to drive a
car so her life on the ranch was very restricted. Most important to her was a nice
home, something she yearned for all her life and never got until the last few
years she lived. A dry roof over his head and three good meals a day sufficed
for my father. Other than that, warmth and cleanliness satisfied his
requirements in a home. Even so it had been with his mother, Rachel. Gertie and
her children picked up dried cowchips to burn in the castiron cookstove and she
hated every single minute of it. She polished the stove top to a lustrous sheen
using the cloth with which she had wiped the greasy scum from inside her
dishpan. But in most ways she refused to copy the ways of the women who lived
out their lives in the west. She had come from a more cultured background and
could not, or would not, adopt the new ways of the frontier. Consequently she
was often lonely.
Gertrude and Leslie Giauque on their wedding day 1912.
Remember that little trunk that grandpa brought home on Christmas Eve for my mother? I still have it. Several years ago I rescued it from the bunkhouse and refinished it.
Before....
... and after!
A hundred years ago, December 1917, a father bought this trunk for his daughter and it made its way by team and sleigh to a little ranch house in the Coteau Hills and into the hands of a little girl, my mother. Today it has a place of honour in my home.
A hundred years ago, in 1917, the ranch known today as the Diamond Dot Ranch was established by my Grandpa and Grandma. Today that ranch is owned by my brother.
A hundred years ago, 1917, Canada was a mere fifty years old! A few days ago, the nation celebrated Canada's 150th! How things have changed in a hundred years!
Today, on the 150th anniversary of the confederation of Canada, I reflected on my heritage. I knew of course, like most Canadians, many of my ascendants were not born in Canada. But where and when were they born? And when did they or their descendants come to Canada? My great grandfather on my mother's side was actually born in 1867 - in Holland. But the story that appeals to me most is this one, taken from my mother's book "Back to the Coteau Hills". I am so grateful that she took the time to document this history, the details extracted from her father and grandmother. My grandfather, her father, moved to Canada in 1897 on Canada's thirtieth anniversary. Here is that story, an excerpt from Mom's book:
Louis Napoleon Giauque descended
from French Acadians who fled persecution in Acadia, not the Maritime
provinces of Canada,
to relocate in the southern part of the United States. But later, with his
parents, he migrated back north, finally settling in the state of Michigan. He married a
young Irish-Welsh girl named Rachel Jones and together they started a family.
They were both small of bone and short in stature but they were hardy people
from strong, courageous stock, sprung from families who knew what adversity was
and who knew how to survive in spite of it. Louis, black haired and blue-eyed,
was quick and high spirited; Rachel, more quiet and deliberate but with a
certain look in her grey eyes that boded no good for those opposed her. She
walked with a decided limp, since her right leg was an inch or so shorter than
her left. On the way to a dance on her sixteenth birthday a runaway team had
upset the sleigh throwing everyone onto the ice-packed snow and pinning
Rachel's leg beneath the overturned sleigh.
Louis was a violinist, an
accomplished ventriloquist, a natural entertainer, also, perhaps a gypsy at
heart. He was never really satisfied in Michigan,
so after a disastrous fire took their home and all their possessions, he
decided to leave that state. In the spring of 1897 he outfitted two wagons and,
with Rachel and their six children, some horses, cattle, a pig which was to
farrow along the way, two geese and a few chickens, they started north and west
to the Canadian border beyond which, they had heard, was good land free for the
taking. Behind them lay the charred remains of their first home; before them
lay their hope for a brighter dawn.
Louis drove the lead wagon loaded
with tools, the pig and the chickens. He had his rifle and his shotgun in handy
reach and there was seldom lack of fresh meat for the supper meal. Tied to the
tailboard of his wagon was a team of horses, spares in case any of the
harnessed ones became footsore or trail-weary. Rachel followed with a covered
wagon. Hers was loaded with the necessities of life – bedding, a stove, a few
dishes and pots and pans, the barest of food staples and clothing. Four of the
six children rode with their mother or, except for the baby, took turns riding up
front with their father. Nellie, the oldest of the family and Leslie, a year
younger, were on horseback. Their job was to herd the loose horses and cattle
along the trail. One cow was led – "Bossy", their milk cow and the
only one to lead. She was supposed to serve as leader for the others, most of them
not at all anxious to leave the green fields of Michigan. So Bossy plodded placidly behind
Rachel's covered wagon, providing a meager supply of milk each morning and
night, not really enough for the family of eight but better than none at all.
Leslie (my grandfather) was only
twelve years old but already showed signs of becoming a fine horseman. His
father mounted him on a little brown mare, pretty to look at but unbroken. The
first day on the trail she bucked the boy off repeatedly until, finally, bruised
and shaken, Leslie asked for another horse to ride. His father's answer was
matter-of-fact.
"Jest keep getting' back up
there. She'll geet tired of buckin' after a while."
In the last post, I tried to put into words how I felt about moving to my new property in Alberta. The best I could do was to say I just didn't feel like starting over. I had been in B.C. 30 years and was living the dream on my own property - I would miss the mountains, the people.
I may not have been the only one with those feelings.
I knew long before I moved I didn't feel the joy I should have to be re-locating. When someone congratulated me on the sale of my property, I had to hold back tears. As I went about daily chores on my property, it hurt to know I had to leave it. As the time approached though, I was too busy to think much. There was a job to do, a big job, and that took all of my energy. The animals, of course, (or so I thought) were oblivious to pending changes. Mischa happily hopped into the truck thinking we were going on an adventure and the horses loaded into the trailer thinking clinic, trail ride?? For sure they all thought we would be returning.
On the property in Alberta, Mischa was not happy. She didn't eat for a few days and did not want me to leave her in the house even for a few minutes. Finally, she accepted what she couldn't change.
It took Silk longer. When I turned her and Mistral into the pen under the trees, she spent a lot of time gazing off in the distance, like she was thinking deep thoughts, which I'm pretty sure she was. At eighteen years, she apparently did not take change that well. Although Mistral seemed only a little displaced, Silk was sad.
Since she is so connected with me, I had assumed she would be fine with the new property as long as I was with her. But she was longing for something that I couldn't provide. I didn't get it.
Or did I? Wait a minute. Connected to me. Of course. That was the answer. She mirrored my mood as she always had - the pensiveness, the lethargy! It was like looking at myself... And is it a coincidence she stood looking west? No, I think not.
It was not the first time or will it be the last that Silk will pick up on feelings I think I have hidden, like another time she tuned in to me in She Breathes on my Heart. As a friend of mine said to me after watching Silk in a Working Cowhorse competition, "What a mare!"
And so this post is for Silk, my little warrior and my heart. She never lets me down, even when I do. Although she is truly a talented mare athletically, it is her intelligence, grit and telepathic abilities I love. She picks up more from one meeting with a person than a psychiatrist could in ten! And she ALWAYS knows what I am thinking. Every horse person should have one like her.
