The Fast and the Furriest Food Drive

    I was hanging out in the bathroom at work when I noticed an article in the Backcountry Horsemen Association's (BCHA) newsletter about the Redwood Unit's annual Cowboy Canned Food Convoy coming up.  The BCHA is a non-profit organization dedicated to educate, advocate and maintain the use and enjoyment of horses in America's backcountry and wilderness...which we have a lot of in Northern California.  For the Canned Food Convoy, the group collects canned food donations which they pack into saddle bags on their horse or mules.  The group then rides through town to deliver their donations for the Food For People, Holiday Spirit Food & Fund Drive. 
     Visions of Autumn getting spooked by cars or skate boarders or even worse...the hippies with their Medusa dreadlocks snaking out of their heads trying to send her out cosmic vibrations...have kept me from joining the event.  But this year, I knew we were ready for anything...including patchouli. 
     I called my wing-girls, Cindy and Diane, and when Saturday rolled around we loaded our horses into the trailers in the rain and we unloaded them downtown under dry skies. I was unsure if the BCHA, which are a group of riders that are not the type to worry if the shirt they are wearing clashes with their saddle pads, was ready for the Margaret and Autumn bling extravaganza.  It took me a half hour to get Autumn, Syria and Tinker decorated in ribbons, flowers, garlands of leaves and bows for the ride. 

Cindy on Syria & Me on Autumn stopping traffic in the streets of Old Town



Diane & her little guy Tinker

     After the horses were decked out, we stuffed our saddle bags and baskets with food.  At high noon our group of a dozen riders on horses, mules and with some folks leading miniature horses and mules, set out through the Victorian streets of Old Town Eureka.  

The Backcountry Horsemen out of the woods and into the city!

Autumn and I were second to last to leave the dirt parking lot by the harbor. When we got to the curb Autumn stopped.  She eyed the transition from dirt to pavement and couldn't quite figure out what to do.  I had to call in the help of my husband, Casey, to assure her that it was safe.  Now, Autumn is not afraid to pull a horse from Snowy River move like sliding off the side of a mountain but this city curb thing was all new to her.  Casey guided her with the reins at which, point she rocked back on her hind legs and jumped off the curb.  It was pretty cute.  Syria took Autumn's lead and leaped off the curb too.  Cindy worried that maybe this was going to be a bit too much for Syria to handle.  We didn't have much time to worry because one of the little miniature horses decided we were going to slow.  He revved up his little engine and snatched up his lead rope to sling shot away from his owners to catch the lead horses.  Autumn and Syria watched the mini Mario Andretti in complete fascination as he ran laps around the bigger horses.  It took about ten minutes for fifteen of us to catch the little lug nut. 


We need your license and registration.

    As we continued down the street people came out of the shops to see the horses clip clopping down the street.  It was fun riding down the streets that held memories of the days before cars. 

Old Town Eureka Parade c.1925
( Lynette's Nor Cal History Blog)

We arrived at the warehouse and unloaded the donations.

Autumn supervising the handing off of the food.

Cindy adding her donations in front of Autumn-zilla

 

    Autumn, had a chance to work the camera which got her a spot in the Sunday Newspaper. 


Autumn Kardashian posing for the newspaper photographer

Autumn striking pose

   The ride was great.  The people were great.  The horses were great.  Best of all, it was all for a great cause.  I can't wait until next year.  In the meantime, Autumn and I are going to work on walking off curbs.


The Redwood Unit of the Backcountry Horsemen's Association at the
2013 Cowboy Canned Food Convoy
standing beside the Humboldt Bay Harbor 

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Copyright (c) 2013 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com November 20, 2013

 

Drive Down Memory Lane

     Recently, my mom and sister left the east coast to come out for a visit with me in the wild west.  I took the week off from work and decided that there was no way we were spending our entire vacation in the land of redwoods, rednecks, weed and hippies.  We rented a place down in Sonoma County the land of wine and yuppies. 
     On our trip down we stopped in heart marijuana growing country, Mendocino, to get some gas.  The station was packed  and we had to wait for a pump.  When it was our turn, some lady blew right past us and stole our pump.  That's when the back seat erupted with good ol' New York road rage.  My sister, Katy's, hands were reinforcing her four letter word assault.  The lady in the dented piece of crap pickup truck scowled at us with her what are you going to do about it look.  Now, I don't have a problem standing my ground but I like to pick my battles.  I sized up my opponent, who was smaller then me, and decided to shut my sister up.  This lady probably had more loaded guns under her seat then the four teeth in her head.  There was no doubt that she could pull me out of my car and kick my ass into next Tuesday while stuffing her lower lip full of chew (chewing tobacco). 
     When we pulled out of the gas station, alive, I thought about our old family road trips.  We would head up to the mountains in Upstate New York which equated to about eight hours of my sister and I fighting and beating the crap out of each other in the back seat.  Dad would threaten to pull over or turn the car around or the one that really got us to stop fighting... he would attempt to smack us while driving.  His arm would sort of  spastically bang in between the front seats, with no chance of hitting us.  We couldn't stand how hysterical it was and would stop fighting. 
    When we grew bored of fighting we would sing songs that we made up or heard somewhere.  I never really thought about it until we were on this recent road trip that maybe our songs were not your typical kid sing-a-longs.  We weren't singing karaoke to Raffi's songs about bubbling bubbles or about 99 bottles of beer on the wall or some cliché fart songs.  We created songs that were real.  Real like hemorrhoids, yeast infections and the Summer's Eve Douche commercial theme song. 
    Twenty five years later we still knew every word.  Just like old times we serenaded our Mom on the open road.  "I'm dreaming of summer, cool breezes fresh air.  When I think of summer, Summer's Eve takes me there.  That clean, fresh, feeling keeps the good times on my mind.  Summer's Eve, brings back freshness every time."   It was like we were five and ten years old again, wearing sweat pant outfits with kittens on them except now, I was in the driver's seat.  
     Why would a couple of kids dig the Summer's Eve commercial theme song so much?  Two things: 1) We couldn't resist the farty commercial of the extremely happy lady swinging around on her tree swing to the tune  2) A story our Aunt had told us about a road trip with her beagle who had a not so fresh moment.  My aunt had to make an emergency stop to buy some feminine deodorant spray to restore the summer breezes and fresh air to her dog's derrière. 

     The other song was a masterpiece we created all on our own.  We called the little ditty "Hemorrhoid Flare Up" and it goes a little something like this...  "Hemorrhoid Flare Up.  Sitting on a doughnut.  Lady behind us sitting on a doughnut.  Yeast infection, getting lots of itches, getting lots of kisses kissing up to you too!"   Yeah, we made that up, all by ourselves. 
    Over and over and over again we would sing those songs in the back seat.  I asked Mom what she thought about our cherished childhood songs and if she thought that maybe they were a little unique.  She bluntly answered "Yeah they were weird but you would stop fighting and kicking the seats".  And that folks, is a childhood trip without a DVD player in the back seat.


Looking for some wedding singers that know only two songs? 
Call us, The Summer's Eve Sisters. 

 

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Copyright (c) 2013 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com November 13, 2013

In To The Woods

     My horsey kid is a bully.  She is 2,000 pounds of horsey snipping, chicken chasing, dog nipping, cow terrorizing estrogen on four legs.  A blue jay perched itself on the rail of her stall a few mornings ago and started to squawk.  Autumn swung her head around, pinned her ears back and with glaring eyes told him to shove it. Thank goodness Autumn doesn't know how to use Facebook because I know she would be outstanding at cyber bullying.  

Autumn and her main squeeze Morrisimo...she apparently is not happy with him at this moment.

This chicken thought she might be able to catch a little bit of Autumn's grain as she ate...
She just barely survived becoming a nugget.

Autumn the Task Master

Move along little doggies...or else

     No one wants their kid to be a bully.  You don't want them to be mean to anyone and you don't want to see them that upset.  Autumn doesn't do it because it makes her happy.  Sometimes, I can see fear in her eyes and I think she just acts that way to protect herself.   Other times, I can see that Autumn is just fiercely protective over me.  She does not like seeing me spend time with other horses.  She will give another horse the six feet under stare the whole time I am tending to them.  She is also very sensitive to my attitude.  If I'm exhausted and a bit burnt out on my work she picks up that vibe and that's when she really lets everything around her know that she is not pleased.  I have been sort of at a loss as to how to make her nice and happy to everyone.   

    I took her for a ride after work last week.  It was just Autumn, myself, and the ranch dogs, Lilly and Shep.  It was a gray night, with not much light left in the sky.  I walked Autumn up the hill as the leaves blew around us with her ears up and happy.  I got on her when we passed through the pasture gate.  She walked calmly past the spot where I had seen a young mountain lion cub a few days before.  As we walked into the darkness of the woods I was really surprised at the echo coming off the highway at the base of the mountain.  It sounded like a big truck was driving through the woods.  Well, when I saw head lights I realized there was a huge dump truck driving out of the woods.  Bill, the ranch owner, was hauling some stumps to sure up the road's off slope.  This was a new one for Autumn.  I would bet that a majority of horses would have to be committed after encountering a situation like this... in the dark, being the only horse around, with a threatening sent of mountain lion drifting in the air as a monstrous truck roared toward them with blinding head lights... But Autumn was fine.  She walked up to the truck and wanted to say hi to Bill.  After a little chat we said our good byes and we walked deeper into the woods to the sound of giant stumps tumbling out of the back of the dump truck and crashing off the slope. 

     On that night ride, Autumn and I settled into each other, trusting each other deep into the darkness.  Autumn may not be warm and fuzzy to other animals but she loves, protects and listens to me. She takes me to places and shows me things that I would  never see without her and gives me with a life full of memories.  I am so lucky to have her.  In the past week Autumn added the below vignettes to our story together.

Twilight  outside the forest

A sunrise that stopped everything.

Standing before heaven

Bareback on Autumn under the Moon & Venus with last light fading from the day.

As I cantered Autumn down the beach I looked up and saw rainbow that encircled the sun. 

 

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to send this on to your friends.  My stories are available for publishing.  If you would like to contact me or be added to my mailing list please email me at Jacksonhillhorseygirl@aol.com.

Copyright (c) 2013 Jacksonhillhorseygirl.com November 5, 2013