Burr Season

I am not ready for these colder months.  Even when it is not that cold, I am cold.
Why do we feel so much colder in the fall at the same temperature than in the spring?
Kevin Joy (a content editor for Michigan Health Lab) says, "When seasons change, our bodies know to react. But we can perceive the same thermometer reading differently at various times throughout the year."

“When you’re exposed to a lot of heat outside, basically there’s an adaption going on that your body will get used to and lower the threshold at which you start to cool off,” says Laure Rittié, Ph.D., a research assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan.
"After several months spent in the hot summer sun, that first colder-than-normal encounter will shock the system a bit because a person has developed a tolerance for heat."
Whether the mercury is falling or on the rise, the process of acclimation usually takes a person 10 to 20 days to adjust to a new season. Rittié says.

Saturday 10/17 - It was 30° out when I walked Maggie at 6am.  An hour later, the seven doe down back did not look cold, just hungry.  Their coats have darken (and surely thickened) as they adjust to the fall season.

It was a lazy, relaxed, time-wasting morning.  I was trying to get front head shots of my cats to compare with Britney and Jean's (Fran and Mae) cats.  But was not having great luck (especially trying to capture their eye color).  They move so much, only holding still when sleeping or in a trance watching something.  But I break the trance when getting in front of them with my phone camera.

Stevie on the left and Mama Styx on the right.
Once I get the photos I want, I will post them.

My forehead temperature was 94.4 when I got to the gym.  Burr, I told the attendant I was cold.  After a two hour workout and a hearty lunch, I headed to the barn.  What is up with Zorro's mane?  All our horses are coming in (covered at times).  It is burr season.  Look at all the different types of burs!

Amiga and I were ready to ride about the same time as Patty, so we met up at the first bean field and then followed Patty and Zorro through the Ghost Town and to the larger field.

It was absolutely gorgeous riding weather.

We got some photos of each other.  Notice we are wearing our 'don't shoot me' orange.  Lately we have been hearing gun shots a little too close for comfort.

Patty headed back on Zorro, since he is not used to (conditioned to) going out for very long.  Amiga was quite up-set that we weren't heading back to the barn with them.

But soon, we saw the trail ride (way off in the distance) coming under the power lines.  We joined up with them at the little bean field and basically followed them (at a long distance) back to the barn.

Joe had picked up soup and sandwiches for us for dinner and we ate fairly early.  That gave me extra time to work (and play) here at my computer, with my feline friends near by.

 
Sunday 10/18 - My whole day was spent at Christie Riek's for a Barb Gerbitz Natural Horsemanship clinic that Jan, Babs, and I were auditing.  I had had Amiga in a similar clinic back in 2017, and needed to review training tips.  I ended up picking up several new ideas as well.

It was a cold morning with little sunshine and a strong wind blowing.  I sat wearing my coat, hat, and gloves, and wrapped in a blanket.  There were nine riders and they did two, three hour sessions, with an hour lunch break in between. 

Time was spent on the ground each session with halter work, and then in the saddle.

Even though I had not exerted myself or accomplished anything all day, I came home feeling quite tired.  I think being out in the cool air all day wore me out.

Monday 10/19 - The weekend had been quite cold, but it actually started warming up on Monday, and was unsusally balmy (for fall) the rest of the week.  A few days it was actually warmer outside than in the house, and until I stepped outside, I didn't realize how warm it was.

Mama Styx at the food dish I keep in the sun room.

I was still trying to get face shot photos of my cats.  Babe is the most difficult to capture because she is constantly on the move and rather shy.  By the time I click the camera when she is looking at me, she has diverted her eyes.


I finished my book, returned it, and picked out two new ones.  My two hour workout at the gym was finally getting easier, and I was able to increase the weights or the reps on several of the machines.


Jan had given me her cat tower she no longer needed.  When I brought it into the house, all the critters were quite curious.

I pulled the cat tower out of the bag, and realized it needed cleaning up.  It was stained and kind of stinky.  So I took it out front and scrubbed it good with carpet cleaner to remove stains and deodorize it.  I left it sitting in the sun.


I went to the barn for my (what has become almost daily) ride.  I got photos of one culprit plant (evident during burr season) which looks to have two different kinds of burs.  Amiga was walking away from me at the time.  She isn't always real willing to be caught.  LOL

I decided to ride bareback one more day because Amiga's saddle sore was looking so much better and I didn't want to regress the healing process.


I rode in the little arena across the street, working on several things I had seen at the clinic.  I was very pleased with Amiga's responsiveness.  We later rode in a few of the fields, did a lot of walking and gaiting, and even two short canters.

A new horse (Breeze) had come into the barn just before I rode out on Amiga.  Here she is looking out her stall (in isolation) as I left.

I have been trying to cut back on the popcorn,  but had some for dinner, after two nights off.

 

Tuesday 10/20 - Another cute feline face.  Monita sitting by the refrigerator hoping for some food.

It was overcast most of the day, but fairly warm, and got sunny and hot by mid afternoon.


I went to the gym for the second day in a row, and accomplished more than I expected.  I had gone an hour earlier than usual, and it was still quite empty. 

I tried to do extra protein at lunch and then dinked around in the yard with bird feeders, picking up sticks, and watering flowers and new grass seed. 



I met Jan at the barn at 2:30.  This time I saddled up Amiga because we were going to do some cantering.  Pat lent me a felt cover for my girth, and after two hours of riding, Amiga's saddle sores were still okay.   Yay!

Jan riding out of the creek and up the hill.

 

We rode across the road to the winter pasture, where we did several passes up different parts of the fields, checking the footing first and then trotting or cantering.  We rode away from each other, towards each other, passed each other at different speeds, and were out of sight from each other a few times.  Amiga was being difficult when she couldn't see Cash, or we were going away from him, or he was 'leaving' us.  At faster speeds she was quite the handful.

I did finally get a nice slow canter while following Cash who was doing the same thing.



It was a quiet evening at home, except for the political racket Joe was listening to in his Mancave.  I have not been subjecting myself to all the negative crap both sides have been slinging at each other, which basically means watching no news coverage.

 

Mama Styx (left) and Stevie (right) check out the dog bed mattresses that are missing their covers.

I did some weed whacking down back and along the creek to knock down some of the four foot high growth.  Not surprisingly, I did unintentionally pick up some burs in the process.

I had cut out the center part of our old wheelbarrow tire and used it to replace the other tire I had on the floor.  I have plans to mount the other tire on the wall.

Monita then proceeded to do her 'pole' dance on the pallet wall.

 
I met some of the ladies from the pool out at Lake Dartmoor for their beach day.  Joe came with me and laid on the beach.  I sat and chatted with the girls (at a safe distance).  The sun was actually too hot at times.


By 2pm Joe and I were headed to the barn to go work on the Holly Trail.

Maggie helping clear sticks.  Actually I would throw sticks off the trail and she would retrieve them.  I had to convince her to play with them at the side of the trail.


I raked leaves, sticks, and rocks off the trail and Joe cut stumps out (using Jan's sawsall).  After about 90 minutes, he and Maggie headed back to the SUV.

I continued walking the Holly Trail towards the power lines and then took the livery trail towards the barn.  I trimmed back brush and removed larger rocks as I went.  Jan rode by to check out our work, and later rode back past again.

Joe and I enjoyed dinner at Stonehenge, treating ourselves after an afternoon of hard work.

Thursday 10/22 - At 8am, Maggie was sitting on the deck bench while an insurance contractor looked to see where the issues with our water damage are coming from.  He is the forth guy (a different contractor, window replacement company, and insurance claim water inspector) in the past ten days that has been here.  He, like the other three, is stumped.  There's just no way to know for sure until we start tearing into the wall.

I moved the 'new' cat tower onto the porch to let the girls check it out and see how they reacted to it.  They explored it for a long time, sometimes getting a little combative (video), but all-in-all it went very well.  I wanted to be sure any old smells remaining from Jan's cats wouldn't trigger fighting or 'marking' by my cats. 






Here is another series of photos I had taken before I took the video.  Stevie is on the top, Mama Styx in the bottom hole, and Babe exploring.  In the last photo, Monita arrived on the scene.

Eventually the cats settled in, in various places on the porch and then Maggie joined the scene.

I went to the barn before noon to join Shirley, Patty, Judy, Jan, Carol, and Michelle for lunch (we each brought our own food).  We used the time to visit and chat.  We also gave Shirley her memorial gift for Gov.

It was another absolutely beautiful day, getting up into the mid 70s.  Our visit lasted a few hours and then I went to get Amiga for another ride.  Almost every day she comes in with a new hairdo because of how the burs have tangled her mane. 


I tried a different girth cover that Pat had given me, and rode out to check out the Holly Trail.  I had difficulties getting Amiga to go down the second part of the hill to the creek, and had to finally get off and lead her part way down.  Once to the creek, I decided we needed to do it again.  We went all the way back up to the top of the hill and turned around to go down again.  Amiga got 'stuck' at the same place the second time and I had to keep pushing her to go, with me still in the saddle.  The footing on the hill was much better.

I also rode in the fields by the ghost town, and had a great canter (well it was actually a fast gallop - I can't help myself, I love the speed) down the length of the large field. 

Zorro coming up to see us at the back gate.

When I untackd at the end of the ride, Amiga's saddle sore had started bleeding again.  Shoot.  She was also very sweaty, so I hosed her off.  Then I let her out in the dry lot where Scout spends his days.  She enjoyed a good roll (video).  The photos below are before she got dirty. 


I talked with Courtney at dinner time, and texted Val to plan for this coming weekend.

This photo and this quote were posted on Facebook by Rhonda Towe Reyes the day before.

"Riding horses is in the blood. It is a passion we are born with. No one can really understand this passion but other horse people. Even when life events temporarily take us away from riding, the passion is still there.  And, when we can, we will get back in with horses again. Im not sure who this little girl is in the photo, but she lives inside all of us. The love of a large animal... the power we feel under the saddle, the wind in our hair, the adventure in our spirit!  This passion is a gift from God."    How true for me.

Friday 10/23 - My morning view, once the sun finally came up, which doesn't happen until nearly 7am.  The fall colors have really progressed.


I gathered up stuff for our weekend trip to Nashville and then went to the gym for two hours.  My workouts are progressing nicely. 


After lunch I followed Joe to town to drop off his scooter.  We shopped (primarily at Walmart) and were home with everything unpacked and stowed away by 3:30.

The barn was next on my to do list.  I wanted to check Amiga's saddle sore and see if her legs were sore after the hill work the day before.  She seemed fine in all regards. 


I rode Amiga bareback around the barnyard fields, garden plots, and arena.  She handled beautifully during our whole ride, only getting strong willed once I had returned to the barn.  To get a photo of me on my horse, I had to take a picture of our shadow. 

Chester and Boz were with us when we rode out to the power lines and back (video).  Poor Chester is really showing his age.  He has slowed way down and is sore most of the time. 


The usual evening chores were accompanied by packing and cleaning veggies to take to Nashville. 
Rain moved into the area overnight and burr season has returned.