68 Years Ago Today

Today is the 68th Anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. While to many, this may seem like ancient history, it will always remain etched in this nation's history and served as a wake-up call that things in the world that needed dealing with.

Although there are those conspiracy theorists who will argue that President Roosevelt purposely ochestrated events so as to provoke a Japanese attack and cause America's entry into the way, I really don't think so. We were on a collision course iwth the Japanese Empire for some time and if the attack on Pearl Harbor hadn't occurred, then it would have happened somewhere else.

At any rate, below is the usual picture I post on December 7, the USS Arizona in better days because that's the way she should be remembered.

Max & I Hit the Trail into the Mountains

You might think that I haven't done much riding of late but that's not the case...actually, with a pretty full schedule (and some unexpected plumbing issues around the house), I've been struggling to keep up my training with Max.

For the first time, the weather here has started to really cool down and today, I awoke to find it cloudy with occasional sunny patches and a brisk wind. Not that THAT was going to stop Max and I from getting out! :-)

I was supposed to have a lesson (the first after a three week hiatus) but my trainer was a bit under the weather with the flu bug so the lesson was canceled. I'd been working Max for about a hour and a half with various transitions, flexion exercises, side passing, leg yields and just plain galloping down the track at Warp speed (with Max, that's about Warp 1...) so we were both pretty limbered up.

Just about that time, a couple of friends rode by to let me know that they were planning on riding the Audry Trail. Cool!

Now, in the wake of the fires last August, the National Forest Service had pretty much closed all the National Forest area, which contains the majority of trails that I ride on. That pretty much left the Hansen Dam Basin and to be honest, that gets real OLD after awhile, espcially since it's all flat and Max has not gotten any serious hill work since early August.

I was a bit concerned since there's a stiff fine for riding in the closed area ($1500 or so) but it turns out that most of the Audry Trail is on private land so it wouldn't be an issue (it also turned out that our subsequent ride to the Sheep Pens was also on private land).

So anyway, I jumped at the opportunity- jeeze, it's been forwever since I've been on some real trails up in the hills and since my friends were going, well screw the National Forest Service. By this time, the wind was definately getting cooler and the sun had disappeared- I was dressed pretty warm but then decided to also put on my Army rain jacket (it's one of those new Gortex EWACS thingies) and that turned out to be a good decision- kept me warm all afternoon.

We soon headed out and made our way towards the trailhead with no issues. It threatened to rain but unless it actually started raining, we pretty much didn't care. One of my friends had been out on the trail the week before and indicated that there shouldn't be any issues (I haven't been on the Audry Trail since June or so).

We gardually made our way up the trail- it's amazing how much has grown back since the Marek Fire last year. This trail doesn't get a lot of equestrian use so we had to clear branches here and there.

Finally ,we got to the one tough part of the trail where you ascend on about 500 feet on a number of narrow switchbacks and then when you get to the top, you have to make a sharp right turn (the drop-off is something fierce!), go about 20 feet and make a sharp left turn. You a literally balancing on the spine of a steep, narrow peak. After that, the trail improves and there's no more mountain goat tracks, although the trail was faint in a few places and we had to adjust our course every now and then.

After about an hour or so, we wound up at the end of the trail, which borders Little Tujunga Canyon Road. We crossed the and then decided to make our way up the old cross country course, which borders the sheep pens (unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures).

After some time, we made our way up to the old cross country course (it's a course of eventing-style jumps that haven't been used in 20 years and have fallen into disrepair) and checked it out. Where we were was basically on the Western edge of the Station Fire and it was interesting to see the landscape with almost no vegetation (you can also see where hills have begun to slide and erode). Pretty interesting.

We then followed one of the trails that we had followed on a previous ride in July but we'd had to turn around because of trail erosion and thick vegetation. However, that wasn't an issue this time with all the vegetation burned off and we were easily able to pass but in retrospect, it was a wise decision- it was impossible to see the footing and it would have been easy to take a wrong step and fall off the trail (it's about a 100 foot drop). Very instructive.

We finally made our way home and throughout the entire ride, Max was well behaved and had no physical issues. I think the cool weather made him a bit more energenic (but not to the point of stupidity). Moreover, I think he actually liked getting out on a real trail for a change. Max knew my friends' horses well and they all seem to get along well and have no issues- that always makes for a pleasant trial ride.

For me, it was good to get out and spend some hours in the saddle. I can't being to tell how much it improves my mental outlook of being able to roam- I think Max and I, in our own ways, hate to be tied down. Anyway, it was an excellent ride and I promptly followed it up with a couple shots of Port and some cheese. :-)

and we were able to see where we'd turned around the last time we rode this trail (there was extreme erosion and thick vegetation which had forced us to turn back

Join the Cavalry!

Came accross this today- I thought it was pretty neat so here it is!

Veteran's Day

Although the above doesn't directly apply to the First World War, I think it applies anyway. This verse is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 -1958), and is thought to have been inspired by the epitaph written by Simonides to honour the Greek who fell at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

This epitaph is part of the 2nd Division Memorial commemorating those who fell in the Battle of Kohima in 1944. Here's some more detail:

The Kohima 2nd Division Memorial is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on behalf of the 2nd Infantry Division. The memorial remembers the Allied dead who repulsed the Japanese 15th Army, a force of 100,000 men, who had invaded India in March 1944 in Operation U-Go. Kohima, the capital of Nagaland was a vital to control of the area and in fierce fighting the Japanese finally withdrew from the area in June of that year.

The Memorial itself consists of a large monolith of Naga stone such as is used to mark the graves of dead Nagas. The stone is set upright on a dressed stone pedestal, the overall height being 15 feet. A small cross is carved at the top of the monolith and below this a bronze panel is inset. The panel bears the inscription:

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,

For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

The words are attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875 -1958), an English Classicist, who had put them together among a collection of 12 epitaphs for World War One, in 1916.

According to the Burma Star Association the words were used for the Kohima Memorial as a suggestion by Major John Etty-Leal, the GSO II of the 2nd Division, another classical scholar.

The verse is thought to have been inspired by the Greek lyric poet Simonides of Ceos (556-468 BC) who wrote after the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC:

"Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by,
That faithful to their precepts here we lie."

Veterans' Day Parade 2009

This last Saturday, I participated in a Veterans' Day parade in Long Beach as part of the Great War Historical Society. Every year for the past five years or so, we have participated in the Long Beach Veterans' Day Parade (usually on the Saturday closest to November 11). This year, we provided the color guard for the parade and were placed towards the front of the parade.

This year, it seemed that there were far fewer parade participants than there's been in former years and even our group attendance was down- we have a VERY tiny color guard. We usually have people representing all of the combatants and this year we featured some three Americans, one early war Frenchman, two Germans, one Austro-Hungarian sailor, and one Austro-Hungarian soldier. It was a pretty polyglot group. :-)

The parade actually went pretty quick (the parade route isn't that long) and we were done by about 11:30 am.

Overall, it was a nice salute to those who came before and put their lives on the line for this nation.

On the march- not the best picture but still pretty good. We were just reaching the end of the parade (thank god!).


Group shot of the Great War Historical Society


Another group shot...

Working with Max

With having classes three days a week (more about that later), my time with Max has been somewhat limited so my riding days are usually Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and occassinally Monday (depending on how the furlough day falls).

Of late, I've been working a lot on making Max more sensitive to my leg in general and working on my transitions and collection. It hasn't been easy but it seems that Max is coming along although he does have his days. Usually it takes a few minutes to get Max sufficiently "woken up" so he's paying attention and not just going through the motions (he's good at BSing his way through work if you let him).

Also, I've been working hard on collecting up Max and making him work on his haunches more. Sometimes it's really tough and he doesn't seem to readily get the message- this is especially noticeable in collected canters. No doubt, it's more about where I'm positioning my body than anything else but sometimes it feels like I'm holding him in with tight reins against the bit. When things are going well, he seems to pick up on the idea so I don't have to maintain constant pressure or use as much pressure. The key is to not use any at all except for a light contact.

I guess the best analogy is that when transitionin into a collected canter or trot, it's almost like reeling in a fish and you're progressively shortening the reins and using half halts to collect him up. When everything works right, you can feel the back shorten up and it feels like more "energy" is coming up through you rather than forward. It's a weird feeling and very hard to describe. Sometimes I hit it and sometimes he simply isn't slowing down that easy (hence the use of more pressure). I have to remember to release on the half-halts!

Last night we had a pretty good workout and I focused heavily on transitions, especially between the walk and the trot. I also worked a bit on forcing Max into the extended trot for long periods (typically along the straightaways on the quarter-mile track here at the stables). Max doesn't like the extended trot but I've been having increasing success in making him do it for sustained periods of time and it's pretty awesome when he gets into the groove- we'll make a Standardbred out of him yet! :-)

I also worked on the slow sitting trot and then transitioning between that and the extended trot and the canter. I also made sure that I did this going both ways on the track. Overall, it seemed to have worked out fine. It also helped that the wind has died down considerably and it was cool last night so it put Max in a good frame of mind to work.

I may not be putting in the long hours as I was in the summer but I'm doing what I can to work better with the time I have.

Morro Bay 2009

At last!

Somewhat belated but here's a picture of Max adn I at Morro Bay this year. Unfortunately, I don't have a good camera so I'm dependent on the kindness of others and sometimes it takes a bit...but here it is! The day this was taken was a beautiful day and we even managed to gallop down the beach to Morro Rock. Max was quite the horse that day!

Max and I on the beach!

Getting ready to ride out...

On the beach....