Snow? Yes, Snow!

It doesn't happen that often, but sometime snow does stick for a little while--at least as long as it takes to pull out a camera and find a good location. I photographed the mountains to the north of the San Fernando Valley from the parking lot of the Performing Arts Building at Pierce College. The snow level was at about an elevation of 1500 feet. It's pretty amazing how it just stops at a particular level. This was on Thursday morning at about 8 a.m. Most of the snow melted before noon.
This photograph was taken from the parking lot near Victory Boulevard on the Pierce campus, again looking north. I just love the juxtaposition of palm trees with snow-capped mountains. I'm just glad I didn't have to drive in it.

Fire Season, Part 3

Ace had a lot to say about his current living arrangement and kept calling to me when I left the barn last night. The winds keep shifting, but so far things are north and way west of where he is. The air, however, is a different story. I wish there was a mask we could put over their noses to keep them from breathing in this smoke.

I had no trouble getting to him last night, even though the news report talked about heavy street traffic. I went to his boarding facility and picked up his Strongid and snack, which I took to him and then cleaned out his stall. It's a good thing he's gotten used to the goats at FEC--he hated the Boer goats when he was at Pierce and now two of them are in the pen next to him. Ally, the Arabian filly that boarded near his stall at Ranch at the Falls was in the Arena at FEC--that barn had a mandatory evacuation yesterday morning. Fire was my big fear the entire time Ace lived there, because it was right on the hills and there have been bad fires there in the recent past. If the FEC horses have to evacuate, they will be going to the Ventura County Fairgrounds, because there is no place closer with space, including here at Pierce.

The air is not as bad as it was yesterday morning, nor as good as it was when I left work yesterday. I didn't hear the winds pick up until early this morning, but they were bad up in the hills. In addition to the uncontained Porter Ranch fire, the flames moved east to Granada Hills and one of my co-workers discovered the house where she rents a room was being evacuated as she started to come to work at 5. I think she's happy that most of her personal property is in storage somewhere in the south part of L.A. She says she grabbed both of the first edition books she had that were signed by Bill and Hillary Clinton and got out.

Len and I discussed where the artwork is that will pay for a new house (above the insurance pay-off.) My computer and hard drives where I keep my digital images is packed and ready to go. If we had to evacuate, I'd also try to get the four drawers of the file cabinet housing my 20 years of portraits of science fiction writers and artists into boxes and into the car. They are my most valuable assets, much more valuable than my saddles, which can be replaced. Harlan Ellison called last night to let us know we can go to his place, along with Michael and our "two dogs." Harlan missed the memo that there are three of them again.

We're going to be all right. Our house is going to be all right. There's 7 miles between us and the fires. It's Ace's lungs which may not be all right.

Fire Season Part 2

What a difference a few hours makes. Porter Ranch is up in smoke, very close to where Ace is. I'm having my trainer move him to be with her horses, in case of an evacuation. I got a call saying they could bring him to Pierce, but I don't want to do that--yet. The news reports have the fire skirting Chatsworth and heading down into the canyons on the way to Malibu. The evacuation area is north and west of where Ace is--and includes the barn he was at 18 months ago. I'll get to him in about two hours, unless traffic is blocked. I'm a lot more stressed than I was this morning.

Ranch Antics

The wind kept up all weekend in Chatsworth and, with the temperatures dropping today, I wonder if we'll still have wind when I go for my lesson this evening. Right now I'm watching a heavy breeze out my window, although that's not necessarily a clue as to how things will be 7 miles north of here.

Even though we couldn't ride, Ace did get quite a bit of turnout time on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, I let him out with Mini, the miniature horse owned by the other attorney at the ranch. She owns Beau, a thoroughbred, and Reina, who may be a quarab. The attached video shows Ace in a few moments of actual interaction with Mini and then a brief look at Jake (Ace's neighbor on the north side) and Reina, who has the trimmed tail. Ace is more into parallel hanging out rather than actual play.

As you can see from the video, the arena is bordered on one side by the stall runs, so the turned-out horses can get up close and personal with the ones left behind bars. I tried, but failed, to capture Ace getting back at Sebastian, the huge thoroughbred in the stall to the south of Ace's, as Ace would trot down the row of stalls, lunge to nip Sebastian, and turn tail and dance out of Sebastian's reach. I think it makes up for all of the times Ace has gotten nailed by Sebastian with no place to escape if he fights back.

On Sunday, after Tim had finished Ace's feet and I was getting ready to let him back into his stall with fresh water, shavings, and a snack waiting, I saw that Sebastian was getting caught up in his blanket. Sebastian had managed to unbuckle one of the fastenings in front (my friend Melinda's horse Vento is a genius at this) and had pulled the blanket partially off his prodigious rear end, so as he stepped forward, he was stepping on the blanket and blocking preventing further movement. All of the other clips were still in place, so the elastic bands were wrapped between his legs.

The horse's size intimidates me and I had no intention of trying to go into his stall to fix things. He's not terribly fond of me, because I keep waiving him away from me and my horse when we're in the run. Nevertheless, I got him to come over to the rail where I tried to get the blanket back in place. He stood while I adjusted it and then promptly ripped at the front and got it off his butt again. Not that I could blame him. At 11:45 it was probably close to 90 degrees and he was definitely overheated.

I had no idea when or if his owner would come by that day, and neither of the phone numbers on her contact sheet work (I've tried to reach her before), so the only safe solution was to get the blanket off. I got him to come over to me at the fence again and I unbuckled the fasteners at the side of the blanket and the one back-leg fastener I could reach. Then I got the other fastener in front, which he had been frantically trying to work open. He stood remarkably still while I pulled the blanket off his back and dropped it to the ground, where I hoped he would just step out of the last elasticized fastener. It caught on his leg wrappings, but I managed to reach to get it to the ground (I'm amazed he didn't kick at me) and then he did step out. The yellow blanket is pretty filthy, but at least Sebastian didn't break a leg.

Ace acts as if a blanket is going to eat him and he would probably have been in the next county if that was the way I took his off. We need to work on that (even though I don't have to blanket every year, which is why he acts as if he's never seen one most of the time) and bicycles. Every one that rolled by while we were doing his feet on Sunday was grounds for a startle. I had warned Tim to beware of motorcycles, but Ace barely blinked at the several that went by the gate. Those bicycles were a different story entirely. Since I'm planning to take biking up for Bike to Work month in May, I'm thinking we may need to desensitize him to those silent monsters.

Wind, Again

Over the past 16 months, I've lost more riding time to the wind than in the previous 8 years combined. At least, that's what it seems like. We had to cancel my lesson yesterday because of high winds in Chatsworth, and that was after waiting all day to find a different window than my 11:15 scheduled time. Gayle gave thought to canceling Friday evening as well, since she had to cancel most of the lessons during the day, but my barn isn't as bad as hers is sometimes, so Friday worked out.

I'm up earlier than I would be on a Sunday because my farrier called to say he could do Ace today if I had the time. Since Ace has really worn down one of his shoes over the past 6 weeks, I thought it was a good idea. Tim has been attempting to even out Ace's shoulders with a little corrective shoeing, and it seems to be having a small effect. If it works, it might help curb his habit of dropping that shoulder and spooking to the right. I've gotten a whole lot better at stopping the move as my seat and hands have improved, but he's amazingly fast.