Come along with me on my morning ride

It was COLD out there this morning! You may see Blue sliding on the slippery slope, and at one point I allow him to take a little breather.

morning ride

I did manage to be on my horse, Blue, at 8 A.M. and rode for over an hour. As you can see, the river bottom looks pretty desolate and forsaken. Can you make out the purple shading on those weeds? That's henbit, and it will be bright purple before long.

A couple of balloons from somebody's party are hooked up in a tree ahead. Click to see them better.
What's that sign doing on this shack on Farmer Steve's property?
Ha ha. Who's the joker? When Blue and I got back to the barn, Adam was loading up his two horses and taking them to Blue-Gray park to ride. He said he rides one for awhile, then the other. I wish him good luck with Sassy; she was being totally crazy, even for her.

Great morning for a ride, and we got back before all the Harleys hit the highway; Blue handles most vehicles quite well, but when we are passed by a large group of motorcycles (especially Harleys), he gets a little panicky. One or two is just fine. Several, not so much. I think he feels he's under attack.

An early-morning horseback ride

I had intentions of riding yesterday, but it started raining before Cliff and I got halfway through our daily walk, and then the winds were so awfully strong the rest of the day that I didn't fight it.

Cliff sleeps until at least 10 o'clock: that's six hours sleep for him; and since I get up shortly after he gets home from work at 4, I have lots of time for myself in the mornings. I noticed when I took Sadie out this morning that it was unseasonably warm; time for a ride at daybreak!

At 7:30 A.M., Blue's shadow had long legs.

I took it easy on poor Blue, since he's bound to be out of shape; I haven't ridden much this winter. We made it to the Missouri River banks.

Blue saw something moving up ahead.

Perhaps if you click on this shot to enlarge it, you'll see the two turkeys.

Winter wheat presents a nice patch of green in the midst of a brown landscape.

I arrived home with time to spare.

Blue saying "hello"

I went for a brief ride today; for some time I've been trying to get a video that includes Blue whinnying. Today I was successful.

Early in the video, it appears that I'm falling off my horse. Not so. A dog jumped out of the weeds and spooked Blue a little (because I was making a video rather than paying attention to the ride). Blue jumped sideways about two feet and I instinctively reached for the saddle horn with the hand holding the camera. I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to show you the beagle that scared us.

Blue isn't bothered by dogs; it was the surprise element that made him jump.

With that said, here's a three-minute horseback ride that includes Blue shouting a greeting to some horses.

Blue's getting a workout

I'm back to making an attempt to ride Blue three times a week again, as used to be my rule; I'm trying to get some weight off him, after all.

I haven't figured out why it is, when the horse is doing all the work, I'm the one that's so worn-out and grumpy when I get back from a ride. Oh, and my knees are so stiff! Cliff and his sister laughed at how I hobbled across the room last night when I first got out of my chair.

Nevertheless, riding is fun, and I'm glad this little wake-up call has gotten me out and about.

Cliff and I had agreed last night that we should take a brief motorcycle ride today, just because that's something a lot of bikers do (no matter what the weather) on New Year's Day. We re-thought the idea, though, while taking our morning walk and getting a feel of the frigid wind. Call us pansies, but why be miserable just because everybody else is doing it?

Oh well, Blue was due at least one more workout this week. So once it got above 40, I headed out. I've had more pleasant weather for horseback riding, but I stayed warm enough except for my toes, and they weren't bad until the last half-hour or so of the ride.

Blue had no problem with the cold; in fact, he was pretty sweaty by the time we got home. It's muddy on the bottoms... thawed on top, frozen underneath. So he got plenty of exercise just maneuvering the mud. That boy may be overweight and under-exercised lately, but he has plenty of get-up-and-go.

I've been turning him out to eat hay with the others for one hour each morning (with a timer on to remind me), then giving him a couple flakes of hay in the evening. I never give my horses grain, except for a treat sometimes.

Here, we're headed toward the Missouri River, which is just beyond that tree line. Not very pretty scenery this time of year.

This is as close as we got to the river; since the last flood, there's so much trash (dead trees and limbs) that it's impossible to get right up to the bank.

Not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on New Year's Day.

From yesterday's ride

Birds, hundred of birds! (Click to see them better)

I stopped to admire Farmer John's cattle...

and noticed that little guy has scours (that's diarrhea); see his pasty tail? I've lost calves to scours before.

Nice place for sale. Anybody need a little spread with room for some horses?

This is where I crossed 24 highway to get to the outer road, otherwise known as Santa Fe Trail road.

Now, when I left the house, my original intention was to get a video that would let you hear Blue whinnying to a herd of horses we had passed the previous day. He really knows how to trumpet a greeting. But after taking these pictures plus the fifteen-second video in a previous entry, when I turned on my camera to get the whinny I saw this message:

"Replace memory card."

Foiled again.

Checking on local crops

I haven't ridden my horse nearly as much as usual, this summer. So it had been awhile since I went down near the Missouri River to see how what was happening with the crops on the rich bottom-ground.



On the way there, I noticed someone planted some winter wheat. This crop will go dormant during winter, but at the first hint of spring it will green up again and grow. It can often be harvested in time for the farmer to plant soybeans in the same spot, thus getting two crops off the same bit of ground in one growing season.


There are still plenty of soybeans left to harvest.


The line of trees in the distance marks the bank of the Missouri River, which was my original destination.

But I didn't make it, because I found a flurry of activity on the way there.

Farmers are combining soybeans!

The combine is creating quite a cloud of chaff and dust. What do you suppose this farmer thinks of a lady on horseback taking his picture? He isn't one of the farmers I'm acquainted with, but at least nobody told me to get off his property.


One truck is loaded with soybeans, one is waiting to be filled.

Now that's a lot of soybeans. Perhaps some of them will wind up in the next bottle of vegetable oil you buy at the grocery store; although the largest portion of soybeans is used as protein in livestock feed. It's mind-boggling, though, the many uses for this crop.

It was a good two-hour ride, and a perfect day for it.

Nice day for a morning ride.

I've not ridden my horse as often, this summer, as I normally do. Sometimes Blue will stand at the spot in the pasture that's nearest to the house and look at me, and it makes me wonder if he thinks I don't love him any more.

Once temperatures get in the eighties, it's uncomfortably warm. After all, most of the places I ride are in full sun.

So morning is the time to ride. However, I have such an established morning routine, it gives me no time to ride before the sun is beating down with a vengeance.

Yesterday I told Cliff I was going to skip our morning walk and use that time to ride. I need the walk, and I miss it; but I'm tired of putting my horse at the bottom of my list of priorities. I was in need of seclusion, so I headed toward the Missouri River bottoms, my favorite haunt.


Cliff and I have been noticing lots of egrets lately, running with herds of cattle and horses. I spotted one on my way to the river road, but didn't think to take a picture, so I googled one from the Internet. I did remember, once I was home, to look up some information, and found out these are Cattle Egrets, and are relatively newcomers to this country. Recently we've see flocks consisting of dozens of the herons, interspersed among the cows; after reading about them on several websites, I now assume they were migrating toward some warmer climate.

That railroad worker was beside the track where Blue and I cross, spraying weeds. Upon seeing him ahead, I wondered how Blue would take to passing beside such an unusual sight and sound, but he wasn't bothered by it at all. Once across, I turned back and took this picture.

Every time I ride by this dead tree near the river, it catches my eye. It's just so white, in contrast to the grapevine-laden, living trees around it.

I seldom ride more than ninety minutes these days; my aging bones nag me if I'm on the horse too long. But even in that short length of time, I can feel myself rejuvenated; I'm thankful to have a good-natured horse to ride, and so many secluded places to ride.

An early-morning ride

With temperatures most days going into the 90's, it's been too hot to ride Blue during the main part of the day. Last night I put him in a pen near the barn so I could enjoy the early-morning hours today.


The sun was just coming up as we traveled the road to the river bottoms. (I need to trim Blue's bridle path; he's looking a little bit "punky".)


We had to wait for a coal train to pass.



Then we headed east with the sun directly in our eyes.

We've had an abundance of rain this year, and there was still water standing in some areas; the egrets enjoy these places.


Hopefully if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see egrets in the water and also flying away. You can also see my little town's water tower in the distance.

Shadow against the wheat-stubble.

Can you see the tiny new soybean plants?

Heading home, I enjoyed the verdant landscape: Tassled corn in the foreground, dark green soybean field in the distance.

I rode today

I took my usual road to the river; saw a sign ahead, "road closed at RR crossing".

Oh, they're working on the track. Blue can step over that stuff.

He's thinking, "Something is different here."

The winter wheat is doing well.

But the rest of the river bottoms are barren; not a sign of any farmers working. It's time, too! Time to plant corn.

I'm not doing too well at reading everyone's blogs, what with making plans for our mobile home to arrive. I'll be back full force before you know it.

I found some green!

After Cliff went to work, I saddled Blue and went for a ride to the Missouri River, my favorite destination. Alas, the world is still brown and dreary-looking.

Blue is bored with the river. He's seen it enough.

There's the green! The winter wheat is doing its best to grow. Wind took a lot of the fun out of riding; it gets tiresome, fighting it all the time.

Blue saw the train in the distance and tried his best to get to it. For some strange reason, he loves moving trains.

The turkey vultures are back from wherever they spend their winters.

They're nasty birds, but I love to watch them flying and gliding in the sky.

A sure cure for cabin fever

Finally it was warm enough to ride my horse. I headed off with no specific destination in mind; not a quarter-mile from home, there was a crew of people working on the road, filling in the potholes.

This guy was sleeping when I first passed, but by the time I decided to turn back and take his picture, he'd heard me talking to the guys (and one gal) in the picture below and was wide awake.



Any other horse I've owned would have totally freaked out at all these goings-on. Not my Blue.

Although he wasn't exactly crazy about the signs and traffic cones.

Down by the Missouri River, they're doing some work on the levee where it gave out last spring; Blue was quite alert.

Me and my shadow.

Looking back, that's Blue's tracks. It's still pretty darned muddy in the bottoms.

I guess that sign up there is for the barges, but it's aimed in the wrong direction.

There's a little chair-like thing at the top. Hmmmm.


The speck in the middle of the above picture is an eagle who soared above me for at least ten minutes. Sorry, that's the best my camera can do...

unless I clip the picture. Now you can tell it really is an eagle.

----------------
Now playing: Doc Watson - Tennesse Stud
via FoxyTunes