Horse sweat, heat and ....photographs!

Eagle Hill called again, this time with newly married Lara West (Kruger??!) after her dreamtime wedding in late August back out on her beloved backcountry trails.  Lara was riding her character ex-outfitter gelding who has a definite gleam in his eyes these days; one supremely happy horse with a good beat and rythym to his stride that just keeps going.  Lara's an artist, illustrator and now working weekends in a Canmore photographic gallery - and yes, she took these pics.  In focus, large files, well framed, thank God for people who understand digital cameras!

It was heaven of a day too - the trail dry and its mostly dirt surfaces kind on the horses.  The Fox wasn't too happy with his feet the night before so the Apache-horse signed in, in my ever despairing hope that perhaps a pound or two might sweat off.  What a metabolism this horse has!  He thinks backcountry is 'OK' but his love is Liberty and long-line work where the chrome really gets strutted, he's a complete natural - now, more money so I can take up Combined Driving then, grin.

Meanwhile, a few of Lara's photographs of that gorgeous day - enjoy.

More clearcutting photographs from the Ford Creek Trail

One day I will get my head wrapped around multiple photographs pasted into this blog! Meanwhile, to follow the just-earlier blog entry here are the remaining photographs taken that day...........

Clearcutting on the Ford Creek Trail

The Ford Creek Trail is one of my favourites, sliding through old growth forests as it climbs away from the Little Elbow campgrounds. Earlier October had temperatures running around the 15-18 degrees mark and a mild breeze, perfect - ! And, then, from subtle shafts of angled sunbeams round a corner and wow, bright blinding sunlight and acres and acres of clearcut. The Apache-horse stopped dead, seriously perturbed and then actually craned his neck right around, looking behind him and then looking across the stripped hillsides. No doubt at all he had trouble wrapping his mind across the two landscapes - and which one he preferred. I've written about clearcut before, noticeably in the COCHRANE TIMES in the weekly ON THE ROAD HOME column which generated a storm of email comments. Selective logging I can get my own brain cells around, this kind of massacre is old-style thinking and way outdated - for anyone wanting a seriously deep book on the subject, try accessing the beautifully descriptive and photographed book of forestry biologist Herb Hammond. The trail higher along just running along treeline, where the fall-line is way steep, is still gloriously thick with mosses, lichens, the bright reds of frost touched strawberry and wild geranium leaves, cinquefoils and juniper pungent in the mid-afternoon sunheat. Mountains are snow tipped now, underfoot crunchy in northly pockets and where a keen eye is needed to work out frost-slide potential.

Smart New Bridge!

Finishing off a ride down off Cox Hill a few weeks back (wouldn't recommend riding that now! the snow and ice settle into the north-facing switchbacks), the smart new bridge over the Jumping Pound Creek is a masterpiece. Sound, stout, strong. I am guessing, too, from its layout that if that Creek ever hits the incredible surge of another 200-year storm, there's the capacity to 'lift' this off its bases either side and cantilever it onto the bank for safety until the run-off finishes. In 2005 when I photographed the old damaged bridge, the structure was much lower and closer to the creek. This one now has stout cement bases, and also an option with good glacial stones leading down to a creek crossing if your horse happens to be claustrophic with narrowish bridges. The Apache-horse took one look, yawned and walked calmly over - the ultimate backcountry laidback attitude, confident these days, lovely.

High above Treeline

Updrafts of warm winds whispered against sun-hot skin. The smell of horse sweat and leather. And mountains caressed with green and brown velvet textures that were outlined with cobalt blue highliner. Backcountry days like this you treasure for the memory of visual overload. Of views that start way down on the Jumping Pound Creek and then through thickly forested slopes of pines - lodgepole, jack and higher rarer examples of limber and whitebark. Tiny spruces as finally the trail goes into sub-alpine meadows that are what's known as 'kruppelholz' or 'crippled wood'. They may look like baby trees but are mature, sometimes ancient specimens. Hikers and mountain bikers had left their footprints and tracks but all, on this fragile terrain, were meticulously and carefuly on the trails here, sometimes of shale powder. And, once we heaved (on foot I was puffing like a steam train and personally producing enough steam myself, grin, at that........) to the summits, my, the panoramas up here are........well, simply, you can see for miles onto every terrain going. And the quiet. Absolute total aching silence through the trees, and even atop the ridgelines only mere whispers of wind. An incredible day along the Jumping Pound Summit Trail.

The Fox and Caroline and Little Elbow

Here's a few pics of the now go-to mountain horse The Fox. He's twelve now with literally thousands of hours under his cinch and flashy as ever with all those uncountable spots (!). An endurance girlfriend was asking the other day about sharing her horse with other riders and my take is, I don't. Kind of like sharing husbands really, they just don't come back the same. But, as one of about four people who've ridden him over his lifetime and to show the exception to the rule, here's the gelding with an English girlfriend and just amazing stalwart suppporter over years as we hit 'The Perfect Day' (mind, unlike Lou Reed no heroin needed, grin) at the Little Elbow. He liked the fact she wasn't as bossy as I am and, eeargh, lighter too. A true horsewoman she asked how he liked to be ridden, and about twenty seconds later we were splashing through the Little Elbow River heading out

- I don't know if I would be so trusting on a strange horse, in a different country and riding THROUGH different terrain to England's countryside and bridleways.

Equine Anatomy, big time!

The blog entry below has photographs of the winter white fluffy stuff and iron-hard temperatures but not this year (at least so far). Instead the 'iron-hard' refers to many people's lethal pasture conditions with ice pockets and ground ice slics. I know, my Cochise Apache I thought was a toast number on Boxing Day after a shoulder split, and after so many amazing coincidences, stunning veterinary care, acupuncture, physio and massage (my bills are truly eye watering, he feels great!), my knowledge input's yanked up yet again. And, given I'm boning up (sorry, very bad pun) on anatomy and horse physiology all over again, this website is terrific. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean - ! Link at http://www.horsesinsideout.com/

Winter - !

Here's a few pics that according to my, er, sometimes erratic filing system! suggest winter time aroundabouts this time of year back in 2010. One of Alberta's typical snow years that one and these were taken at Station Flats near Bragg Creek, one of my favourite schooling grounds for young and new-to-backcountry horses.

Why - ? Open meadows so if a mountain bike or human runner or hiker trots into the field of vision on a trail you can slide out of harms's way through its widely spread trees. There's a wooden bridge to practise over, with the hum of running water underneath. Helicopters, even, landing at the nearby ranger station!

These girls were out for a day that had started at around -10 C. and warmed up, if I remember, to around 0 or just a bit above. Fanny Barrette's the group captain! and took her map reading seriously in the trailhead before legging up onto her elegant grey. They're all wearing different gear, from trad. Western to more Mountain Equipment Co-op but layers work, so do saddlebags and soup-filled thermos containers in saddlebags as well as knives and hoofpicks and all the usual gear. Winter riding really can sing and if you're a photographer in the high wild places, oh yes!

As an extra warming tip, if you wear something around your neck (preferably silk) and ditto something around your wrists, you will be a ton warmer - it's a backcountry survival training tip that one. Socks, wear natural fibres or your feet will initially sweat and then get very very VERY cold (!). The 'Cloud' stirrups Fanny has on her saddle distribute weight load more evenly and no pressure points - a ton of range riders I know of, always practical in their thinking, are now absolute converts.