Sweatbox Update

Life without air condiioning sucks! The the air conditioner died on Sunday, 7/22 and it took until 7/25 for someone to actually look at it- took them long enough. It turns out that the motor on the compressor is burnt out and needs replacement. The good news is that the motor can be replaced and it won't cost anything. The bad news is that they need to order the part and won't be able to replace it until next week. Great...in the meantime, it's been fun living in an oven, even with fans blowing 24/7.

No Air Conditioning- Welcome to the Sweatbox

For reasons unknown, out air conditioner decided to crap out and it's been misearable. It began Sunday when it became noticeable after awhile that the house wasn't getting any cooler even though I'd been running the air conditioner for about two hours.

I also noticed that the air conditioner was making some loud noises- like straining machinery. Well, we have been running the air conditioner pretty heavy lately and it's probably about 20 years old so it I guess it was inevitable.

Fortunately, we have a home warranty so hopefully we'll not have to pay a lot to get it fixed. I hope it doesn't go the same way that the water heater went- sure the warranty covered replacing the physical unit but we have to do all sorts of "upgrades" that totalled up to $700 (originally it was going to be $1200 out of pocket but we protested and got a second opinion). What I DON'T want to hear is "Oh, you got to replace the complete unit and it's going to cost a bazillion $$$$" That's crap. Don't want to hear it.

To make matters worse, the warranty company will not be able send someone around until Thursday so we get to swelter until then. What crap.

Trail Trial Results

Well, Sunday was Max's first attempt in the ETI Trail Trials and overall, it wasn't a bad first outing although it clearly demonstrated that there are areas that need some serious work.

The competition started at 9 am and several members from EIT Corral 10 participated (although I wound up starting much earlier than my compadres). The scoring system works on each contestant having 100 points to start with and points are marked off for mistakes made in negotiating the various obstacles. A perfect score is 100.

The first obstacle was easy- you were judged on having proper tack to include a hoof pick and lead rope. That one was pretty much a gimmee- any kind of saddle, bridle/bit, and reins are acceptable. Unfortunately the next obstacle was, naturally, a gate. No matter how close I tried to get Max to approach it, Max wouldn't do it so I finally had the judge open the gate and dock me a full 10 points (each station has a maximum of 10 points that can be marked off). This wasn't too much of a surprise since we haven't done much work with this and Max's side-passing isn't the best.

The next four obstacles weren't anything that Max hasn't done before and in fact, followed trails that Max normally rides all the time. Max sailed accross the river crossing with flying colors and I got marked off on the uphill climb because I forgot to check the girth strap and I trotted (you're supposed to do it at a walk).

Max backed up nicely but I forgot to look back on both sides before backing up. Max also handled a tunnel obstacle (I was a bit unsure since we havn't been that way in awhile). Unfortunately, just as I expected, as soon as the course turned in a direction roughly heading back to the stables, Max began to get excited and was expecting to be heading home ("Come on Dad, we're going home! Screw waiting around for some silly obstacles, let's run!!"). I had to keep him moving and he didn't like stopping at each station and waiting for the horses ahead of him to complete the obstable (lucky we were in the front of the pack!).

I lost points on the downhill walk because I didn't collect him enough (hell, I was keeping him from charging down the hill- screw collection at this point!). Max was complete oblivious to the one obstacle where you had to ride accross a sand crater filled with empty plastic bottles and jugs- Max kicked them out of the way and plowed through!

The next obstacle was a set of bars that the horse has to step over (they're designed to simulate horizontal bars that are often installed at trail entrances to discourage bikes and motorcycles). Max refused to walk accross and rather, took his time sniffing them and checking things out. Eventually Max stepped over them. I was marked off 5 points for this, which I really disagreed with- their criteria is that the horse should cross with no question. To me, checking out the obstacle is natural and in fact, I encourage it- you don't necessarily just want to drive a horse through a situation even when he's nervious. Let him check it out a bit first. Of course, if the horse refuses, that's another matter. Oh well, I guess it's a matter of interpretation.

The final obstacle was located in an area with heavy vegetation know as the "ponds". The obstacle itself consisted of the horse having to cross a muddy/sandy area that's under about two feet of water. Nothing major. However, by the time I got there, there was a bit of a wait and I was behind four horses. The trail itself was narrow and walled in with vegetation and there were horses to the front and rear. Basically, we were trapped with nowhere to move to. Max increasingly became agitated and while I was able to move him about a little bit, it wasn't good enough and eventually he blew up by rearing and them charging into the underbrush on the left side of the trail. I have visions of Max screaming "You horses are obviously too stupid to see that you're going to get eaten! I'll make my own trail and get out of here now! Opps...maybe not..."

Needless to say, I was a bit scared, especially since Max was pinned by all sorts of branches and the like. I was having nightmare visions of him either impaling himself or injuring an eye (or all of the above). Fortuantely, Max stopped thrashing when he got pinned and I quickly thought up a plan. I gently backed him up and got him back on the trail. I then dismounted and checked him out- there were a few cuts and scratches but nothing major (I also found out later that he'd loosened up a shoe). I got back on Max and we were immediately able to negotiate the obstacle (I basically told the grader that either we take the obstacle or I go around- no more waiting). We then quickly got ourselves on the trail heading back to the start point and at the same time exited the woods.

I was a bit bummed out over this incident but I can't blame Max and it's clear that he probably felt threatened- probably because of the confinement of the trail and the fact that other horses were moving off and he couldn't joining them. Who knows? I'll have to work more with him on this.

One of the disadvantages of working in a familiar area is that the horse has certain expectations of when it's time to go home, etc. and when we didn't meet them, he got anxious or just plain obnoxious. The waiting at each obstacle was the worst part- this might improve if I were to do a trail trial at a location Max is not familiar with. Worth a try.

In the end, we placed 17th out of a field of some 48 and if it wasn't for the gate, we would have come hom with a ribbon of some sort. Oh well, time to start training more...

The final obstable

Horse Anatomy - Part I

For the curious, here's an illustration of basic equine skeletal system.

ETI Trail Trials

As part of the Equine Trails Inc. (ETI) annual convention, they're also sponsoring trail trials and it looks like Max and I will be participating on Sunday, July 22. For those who may not know, trail trials is a competition where the riders are scored on how well they handle a series of obstacles spread along a trail circuit. The average time for completion is about 2-3 hours and it's not a speed contest.

This ought to be interesting and a good test for Max. I viewed a video from ETI that describes the various obstacles and rules and most of it appears to be things that Max and I have done before. The only catch is that we'll be with other horses and there will be all sorts of external influences. Fortuantely, the event will be taking place not too far away from where I board so Max and I can simply ride over (starting point is in Gabriellano Park which contains Orcas Arena). Perhaps we'll have a little "home court advantage"...

There are some things that we HAVEN'T done before such as opening and closing a gate on horseback and dragging something along with a rope. A group of us will be practicing some of this stuff tonight after work. This promises to be an interesting and busy weekend.

Horse Anatomy - The Hoof

Since we've been discussing hooves, here's an anatomical view of the typical equine hoof:


1. Coronal band

2. Walls

3. Toe

4. Quarter

5. Heel

6. Bulb

7. P2 (small pastern)

On The Trail Last Night

With the days now so long, there are many opportunities to go trail riding during the week after work. Last night two friends and I went for a short ride, following the usual loop down the wash, up to the beginning of Hansen Dam and then return home the same way.

This was good opportunity for Max to trail ride with other horses since most of my trail riding has just been me riding alone. It's always a different matter riding in a group than when riding alone and often, horse feed off of each other and things can get a bit dicey.

Max's equine companions were a Tennessee Walker and a Standardbred so the pace was little faster than what Max is used to. Every so often I had to trot him a bit to keep up.

The only moment of drama was when a group of riders went galloping down a trail parallel to the one we were following. The Walker got a tad excited and was prancing around. Max didn't seem to take too much notice but I was still pretty vigilant- sometimes Max can get excited. Fortunately, Max was pretty calm.

The only time that Max got a bit excited was when a jogger with a Chihuahua (jogging with a Chihuahua- go figure!) came running up on us from behind- Max sometimes gets a bt nervious when things come up on him from the rear. I spun Max around to see the jogger and he immediately calmed down. It also helps when you can get the jogger to talk- then the horse classifies the jogger as "human" therefore OK.

It was a good training opportunity and was a welcome break from the usual stuff.

Sunday

Sunday found Max and I participating in another group lesson with four other horses. It pretty much built on some previous lessons in that we did a lot of "follow the leader" exercises but this time we worked in pairs and even did some quadrille work.

This is definately a good exercise in that not only do you have to work your own horse, but you also have to pay attention to the other horses and maintain distance, etc. This is especially important in that a couple of the horses got spooked at something at the one end of the arena and as a result, shied away. This in turn made the other horses, including Max, a bit anxious- fortunately Max took a look and immediately went back to work.

It was also interesting working with other horses with varying gaits- I had to alternately hold Max back and urge him forward. I look forward to more of this.

Saturday Update

Today, I decided to take Max on a bit of a trail ride. Due to committments the night before, I didn't make it out to the stable until about 10:30 but the heat wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

After a short warm-up consisting of trotting and cantering around the track, I decided to go for a relatively short trail ride. I decided to take the short cut behind the nursery and go to the Orcas Arena first where we did some more cantering combined with some transition drills. Max likes the sandy arena so he definately perked up and since there were other horses around, he also used it as an excuse to show off a bit.

Afterwards, we headed down one trail that heads towards the river that's shaded with various trees. The footing is especially good and it's all sandy but not too deep. There's also a small stream crossing the trail which is nice also.

We took a drink at the river and then crossed. On the opposite bank is a steep hill that we have to climb but Max had no problem with that! We then made our way over to where the actual Hansem dam begins and rose around there for awhile.

Finally, we took another trail that took us home and crosses the river at another location.

So why all this talk about footing and such? Well, for the past two weeks or so while cleaning Max's hooves, I started to notice a 1 inch hairline crack running horizontally along the inside of Max's front left hoof. Because it's been so dry, I've been putting on hoof dressing almost every time after riding. Normally I might apply the dressing once weekly but with the extreme hot weather, I'd stepped up the schedule to the point where it was three or four times weekly,

For any horseowner, what you don't need is major cracking in the hooves, especially running vertically into the Coronary band- if that happens, you'll need corrective shoing and run the risk of lameness. Sometimes, you can even apply a sort of Bondo that's formulated for hooves (you literally trowel it on, just like cement). In extreme cases, wire is used to keep the hoove together along with Kevalar strips wrapped over the wire sutures.

For Max, it appears that a 1" x 1 1/2" chunk was separating. The shoe appears to be sound and there's no lamness. After talking with my trainer, it appears that it won't be a problem and should eventually grow out with a couple of shoings. It's kind of scary though, especially since we do a lot of trail riding over rocks and hard surfaces.

It kind of gave me a scare and although the consensus is that it's nothing to worry about, I'll keep an eye on it. I also plan on giving Max a few days off this week so that should also help- better to play it safe.

For the hooves, I use Valentine's Hoof Ointment (it's a strange mix of fish oil, beeswax, and some other stuff so you have wash your hands after using it). Here's what it looks like:

Henry VIII - A Full Service Monarch

While Henry VIII will always generate controversy as to the man and his achievements, I still believe that he was quite the well-rounded monarch who did much to bring the renaissance to England. Writers claim that he pursued a wide range of interests to include writing sonnets, playing musical instruments, swamming, hunting, jousting, acting as a patron of arts and scholarship, et al.- at least before he became too enamored of his power and grew increasingly frustrated over the lack of a male heir.

And yes, there was the matter of the reformation and seizure of the monasteries...truely a mix of good and bad, depending on your point of view.

Overall, I like to think of him as a "full service monarch"- he does it all: joust, hunt, wage war, sing, dance, write poetry, wrestle, swim, and just be an all-round dude. At least this was the ideal early in his reign...unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse and when he died in 1547, he left a bitterly divided kingdom with severe economic problems ruled by a weak, sickly monarch- Edward VI. Still, it could have been a lot worse...

Edward VI (reigned 1547-1553)

Thomas More- the King's First Servant and notable scholar. Unfortunately, he ultimately fell a victim to Henry VIII's ambitions.

Best Wedding Wishes To Henry VIII (Or 6th Time's The Charm?)

Katherine Parr, 6th Wife of Henry VIII

Today marks the 464th wedding anniversary of Henry VIII's marriage to Katherine Parr. Katherine Parr was Henry VIII's 6th, and last, wife and they were married from 1543 to 1547 and had no children. However, unlike her predecessors, Henry doesn't appear to have held this against her.

And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself

Although I've seen this movie numerous times, last night I once again watched "Starring Pancho Villa as Himself". I'd almost forgotten what an excellent movie it is. While the story is largely fictional (supposedly Pancho Villa did have a contract with a film studio to make movies of the revolution), it still captures a bit of the life and times of Villa. More about the movie can be found HERE.

Here's another recent "version" of Pancho Villa:

Interesting Quote

Here's an interesting quote that I completely agree with:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

The one thing I always love about the typical pacifist types is that the only reason they CAN exist is because someone else risked their neck so they can spout their drivel.

Last Night On The Trail...

After some pretty miserable hot days, things finally cooled off some so I decided to take a short trail ride last night. With the longer days, there's excellent oppotunities to explore trails that I would not be able to ride except on the weekends.

I managed to make it out to the stables pretty early (for a change!) and by 6:30 we were tacked up and heading out. I decided to do a varient on riding up towards the electric lines/cowpens (i.e. heading north up the wash), a ride that took roughly an hour and a half.

Basically, I followed north along the wash until I hit the picnic tables. Then, I started on the Doc Larsen Trail and headed to the east. About a half mile up, there's a fork in the trail so I took the left fork which heads towards the cowpens. Either fork of the trail will take you to a fire road, it's just a matter of where.

Following the trail, I eventually made it to the fire road. The trail crosses the fire road and if you follow it long enough, you'll get to the bathtub (mentioned in previous blog entries). However, because of time constraints (I really don't want to be out on the trail at night) I turned right and followed the fire road until I reached the other fork. I then followed this downhill until I reached the fork again and then retraced my steps home.

Overall, it was a nice not-too-demanding ride. Going out, I forced Max to do a mix of trotting and an occassional canter (when there was enough clear space to see if anything is coming). Max wasn't too wild about having to move fast but he eventually got over it. Naturally, his gait was much animated going home so I did a mix of walking and trotting. Occassionally, I'd stop him on the trail to take a small rest and to emphasize to Max that I make the decisions on when we go and at what speed. No barnsour horses here!

The weather was warm but not obnoxious and there was a nice breeze to keep things relatively cool. What was even better was the deer we spotted on the way up the Doc Larsen Trail (well, Max spotted the deer first and it took some careful viewing before I saw it). Pretty beautiful site and Max was completely laid back about the situation. Good boy!

Disney Meets Dickens

Just when it looked like things couldn't get more stupid, they have. Apparently someone has opened up a theme park devoted to re-creating the world from Charles Dickens' novels- without all the nasty bits such as poverty, disease, starvation, etc. So we get the sanitized version..."for the children". For more, click HERE.

Makes almost want to throw up. Over the years, I've been an active participant in various first-person living history receations and such (Rennaissance Faire was my first) and there's always been a tension between portraying everything "warts and all" and watering down the approach. Some things you can't re-create due to legal, health, or other considerations and perhaps this is for the best (wading through raw sewage is NOT my idea of recreating history), BUT we've always been aware of what really was, as best as we could.

One of the reasons I eventually walked away from doing Rennaissance Faire (besides having to deal with a boatload of unstable personalities and just plain assholes), was that there was the constant pressure to "Disneyfy" (is that even a word?) everything and basically dumb it down for family consumption. Granted, some of the participants used to be a bit over-the-top with the sexual innuendos and pushing the earthy peasant thing more than it should have (to be expected since Rennaissance Faire got its start during the 1960s as a hippy-dippy event).

I believe that attempts to sanitze the past are ultimately harmful, especially when the sanitizing is done to avoid "offending" someone or otherwise pandering to "political correctedness" (a somewhat overworked term but I'll use it anyway, so too bad!). History- it is what it is and all the wishful thinking on the planet cannot change what has been. Perhaps the interpretations may change but it's always dangerous to look at the past through out 21st Century sensibilities.

Ft. MacArthur 2007

Last weekend found me attending a timeline event at Ft. MacArthur located in San Pedro, California. Since my WWI living history group, the Great War Historical Society (GWHS), attended the event, I went with my Co. H, 2nd US Cavalry, circa 1918 on the Western Front impression. I even managed to briefly borrow a buddy of mine's horse (I'm still working on getting Max out to one these events- maybe next year (yeah right, I've been saying that for four years!). I wasn't able to really ride him much since he was having problems with his rear left foot but still it was something. This event is more of a social mixer for reenactors than anything else.

The GWHS set up a German trench display (since there were more Germans than Allies) and we were located by the front gate. Overall, it appears to have gone pretty well. Here's a panoramic view of the German trench display. I'll have more posted soon.

For more information on Ft. MacArthur, click HERE.

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Me and my compadres waiting for the parade to start.

Well, it's the Fourth of July again and for the second year running, I spend a good part of the day marching in a Fourth of July parade that's held every year in Huntington Beach, California (aka "Surf City" for all you Beach Boys fans).

This is the second year that I've personally participated but our WWI group, the Great War Historical Society, has been participating in it for some years. Unlike last year, the day started off and overcast with a bit of humidity (to be expected since we're so close to the ocean). As usual, parking was a real pain to find but I succeeded to in wedging my van into a space not too far away from a high school (Huntington Beach is typical of most California beach communities in that the streets are rabbit warren of miniature-sized strets, parking is always in short supply (even on a good day), and the houses are all postage stamp-sized.

After meeting up with six of my compadres, we then proceeded to wait for almost an hour from the beginning of the parade before we actually stepped off (no joke!) and this was definately one of the slowest parades I've ever marched in. I was hoping that we'd be placed next to a marching band that had travelled all the way from Baja California (they were playing traditional marches) but as luck would have it, we were stuck behing some float blaring out Beach Boy music with some other stuff thrown in.

I guess it was better than last year when we were stuck in front of a marching band that played nothing but two Santana songs...boy did that get old fast.

Here's us and the Mexican marching band from Baja California

Because there are so few of us marching, we usually deploy in a loose "patrol" formation and sort of "mosey" our way down the parade route. Bascially we were in two loose "V" formations and I was somewhow made the point man (maybe it was because I was the only cavalryman sans horse).

Here we are on parade...

I did all I could to get as much distance from the music-blaring float in front of us until I started getting nasty looks from the parade marshalls. But I was somewhat successfull. At least we didn't get upstaged by a skateboard-riding Bull Dog like last year (no joke- some idiot decided he'd join the parade with his skateboarding dog until the Police escorted him away).

Marching for an hour down paved roads in period footwear definately began to make itself felt and by the time we finished, my feet were turning into burger meat. And then there was the hike back to the van to look forward too...

My Compadre Chris

Overall, it was a nice experience and the crowd was pretty good-natured about the whole thing. We then retired to my compadre Chris' place in Orange to hang out for awhile and have some drinks.

Later on, I left Orange and drove out to the stables. I managed to get in a good ride with Max (even though it was a bit more hot than Huntington Beach!) and then went to a barbeque that the stable owners put on and watched fireworks (the house is on a hill behind the stables so it was a convenient walk). Overall, it was a pretty busy day for me and by the time I was done, I was dead tired.

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post soon. Now off to bed I go...