Well as it tends to happen months have flown by since my last blog. Christmas, a trip overseas to Canada and the new year brings tonnes of riding adventures ahead. It turns out however that the Tuesday (and now often Wednesday) riders don't have to go too far to get themselves into trouble or find adventures.
Myself, Rhonda and Chris ride without fail and weather permitting every Tuesday. The last few months of rain and humidity has seen several of the good riding tracks overgrown with lantana, a weed that has a life of it's own and is spiky as hell! Along with the weeds we have grass that is well over the horses belly as you ride through.
We set off a couple of weeks ago to ride through the 'cutting'. Well I went first and there was no way Roxy was getting through so we turned around and tried the track from the other end. With a cry of 'the bush pony will get through' Rhonda gave blazing a trail a good hard crack, only to find herself reversing out fairly soon after. After making a promise to bring pruning shears next time, we headed home.
The next day however we discovered that hundreds of ticks had hitched a ride home with us and Nev and Roxy looked like bubble wrap! The bush pony Monty however had once again returned unscathed.
Deciding that there were too many problems heading out that way again we attempted to float to Yellow Rock where a lovely mountain bike track heads up the steeps of the escarpment. This all fell on its face when a horse in the paddock needed a vet so we had to wait around. We did some flat work instead and I did some float loading practice with Roxy.
As things go with Roxy these days she was a legend and was self loading with confidence.
The next day, Wednesday, we attempted to float out again. This time I had to put Roxy on a different float and assumed that she would just walk on...what is that they say about assuming? Well after a few attempts and refusals, Roxy was made to go backwards for a very long time until she finally realised if she just got on the damn float it would be less work.
We floated out, saddled up and headed up the hill. Lots of traffic for a Wednesday but these horses are becoming seasoned professionals and traffic is really becoming a non-issue.
We start on the track and quickly realised that again lantana has taken over. Just as we reach a dead end, Roxy put her head down to scratch her leg and then exploded! As she lurched forward she ran into Neville who proceeded to hump up and let rip with a double barrel, luckily Roxy sensed it and spun out of the way to face the other direction. Somehow I stayed on.
Roxy was snorting and fidgeting and I hopped off and checked her. I thought maybe she had stuck a branch up her nose when she put her head down? We turned out of the there and I was back onto the track, when Neville decided to not move and start reacting badly as well in the same spot that Roxy had. Christine tried to push him on but he was freaking out. She jumped off and pulled him out of there, when she realised that her legs were stinging. At this point we are all assuming we have come across the plant from hell!
Christine had what looked like red dots on her legs (yes pants came down, there is no shame in the bush in an emergency situation!) but she said the stinging was going and the horses were fine...we continued on and planned to get a sample of the plant on the way back.
When we returned, I took Neville and Christine took gloves and pruning shears (yep we finally decided to carry some) into the bush to check it out. She was also considering a bathroom stop and in hindsight I am glad she looked for the plant because not long after we heard a cry of, 'I know what the @#%$ it is!' quickly followed by her phone ringing...and she returned to us at speed. It was a wasp nest and she almost put her face in it!
Rhonda almost fell off Monty laughing, I couldn't stop laughing at Rhonda and the comic timing of the cry of terror and the phone ringing. Christine headed back out apologising to Neville and all of us understanding that the poor horses had been smashed by wasps!
We continued our ride chatting about how much worse it could of been and shaking our heads again in disbelief at the things that happen to us on our rides. If there is a postie bike, we are there. If there is a huge bus on a narrow street, we are there. If there is a wheelchair attached to some high speed road device, we are there. If there is a bird crapping from a tree, Christine is there. And as it turns out, in hundreds of acres of bush we have the ability to track down and ride over the smallest wasp nest as well.
These are skills that can't be taught, they are skills that come with months and months of Tuesday rides and unless you are with us, you and your horses will never be capable of doing what these three amigos can do!
Love Lorrie and Roxy
