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Hi List !
Have to rush off here.....going to take pictures of a great
UNDOCUMENTED Petroglyph site very near our house. We " found " it when out on a
road trip
near the Parowan Gap ( very popular site ) I saw a boulder that had a small
pecking on it, near the road and sent one of my kids up the huge rock hill,
only to find 4 huge panels filled with undisturbed glyphs. Big horn sheep, a 2
headed deer
( very rare ) Fremont era style Shaman with broad shoulders and huge fingers
and feet, lots of feet, snakes
( hint hint ) water symbols and tons of unknown creatures, squigles and
totally without evidence of modern man : graffitti, beer bottles ect. This site
is
not in ANY of my many books, and is a total thrill to a Petroglyph nut like
me.
ANYWAY......Search and Rescue went very well last week and
yesterday. My saddle is still not here, was supposed to be delivered yesterday
but no
show, so Im sore ( knees, back ) but thrilled at how well Ayla did.
Last week I took the new friend / Catherine Lundgren from Canada, who
after pronouncing her hot TB totally unsuitable for trail riding, borrowed
Kaiser to ride with us. Hes our " perfect gelding " in a sea of mares, who does
it all at age 16, and he stepped right up to the task. We did some tracking
from footprints training, and followed 2 riders who left ahead of us. Not easy
to
ride and look down at sand with tons of prints, but we did manage to keep on
task until the prints left the creek bed and headed up a very steep shale /
rock filled hill.
Up we went and it was a bit hair-raising from the get go. Ayla
dug in and scrambled with shoes on the bare rock, but for the most part was
very sure footed and picked her way around the catcus and sharp stuff. I just
hung on and tried to stay centered on her. Once up at the top, the view was
awesome, but we soon picked up the tracks and down we went, slightly farther
along
the hill. DOWN is even more scary for me. I Prayed.
We repeated this nonsence 3 times until we realized ( DUH ) what
the game was.....and then we just rode along the creek bed until the tracks
appeared back down.....HA.
Ayla was puffing and happy. Ears up, very interested in " finding "
the missing team members, in fact the horses " found " them before we saw them,
letting us know that they were close. The girl who has the mustang led the "
missing group " and boy does that little guy set the standard for mountian
climbing ! After we joined back with the 2 other riders we headed back towards
the trailer camp. The horses, dispite their climbs were soon fresh, and several
others let them canter a bit, so soon Ayla was pulling a bit on me. She has a
typical bone jaring Fjord trot in a fast gait, so between the gravity and
soreness, I asked her to pick up a canter. We were riding alongside a big QH
named
Taffy who was doing a nice collected canter and Ayla ( with a spur now at her
side ) finally " broke " into a nasty bouncy gallop, almost right away back
to her bone breaking huge trot. I asked again and again, she pushed into the
same wild canter for 2-3 strides. I told her "CANTER " and finally she
realized
that she wasnt being naughty ( driving horse ) and let loose with about 20
good canter strides. It felt GOOD and after I found that she was still very
light comming back down to my hand if I asked, we let loose and joined the rest
of
the group, now waiting and watching Ayla and Taffy come galloping into view.
Many cheers and whooping followed, as we NEVER gallop, even in our
drills we take the inside wheel, so some teasing and good natured jokes
followed. I asked Ayla to canter 3-4 times more after that, and she picked it
up
with a touch of my heel and seemed happy to go forward.
I will stick to walk ( HOLY COWBOY does she have a mighty long
swinging walk now ) and trot ( YUK ) but it is good to know that if needed, she
will
take me out faster without tripping and staying fully in hand. What a good
girl.
Catherine had a good ride with Kaiser as well, and shes very
pleasant to watch, being an equation rider, and made her boy look great. Fun,
fun
day !
Yesterday, we did grid search's on a steep hillside for 2 "
victims ", A toddlar and a man who had wandered away from a care facility. We "
found " both, and both were VERY hard to spot under juniper trees, again some
hairy riding ( for me ) with up and down steep rocky hills, but we did well.
The
" man " was a CPR 1/2 rubber dummy that I had donated to the group, and he
was dressed up in a cowboy bandana, vest and hat.....nothing else ! YEEEEE
HAAAAAA. I pulled him up and tied him off to the back of Ayla for the ride home
which was another cool thing to do as he was heavy, scary and frightened some
of the other horses. After Ayla decided that he wasnt a food product she could
care less so back with " Mr. Johnson " ( without one ) we went.
2 good weeks, I gotta run now....glyphs to go photograph !
Lisa Pedersen / Pedersens Fjords * 70 degree Cedar City,
UTAH http://www.cedarcitysidewalk.com/pedfjord/
