Too Smokey to Ride

So I was horrified to see that horse shows in the area were still going on this last weekend! The air quality started not looking great last Tuesday night. My last ride was Tuesday at 6am when the air was still good, by Tuesday night, the AQI was in the low 100s where TC is and I immediately made arrangements to stop riding. By Thursday, the air quality was pretty horrible, so our Friday show (21st) was cancelled. We then got a message about this coming Sunday's show (30th) too. The moment the air turned bad, I knew we were out for these shows and very likely out until October or November.

Meanwhile some dressage people in Sacramento and some hunter jumper people in Woodside proceeded to show through the whole weekend. I didn't check Sacramento, but there were legit people jumping in air that you could barely see through at Woodside, all weekend long. What was the excuse by management? Some of the horses couldn't go home due to evacuations. So sure, keep them in bad air (200+ AQI when it's only safe to ride below 100) and make them work instead. At least they cancelled the Grand Prix and there were legitimately people complaining about that.

I can't believe people are willing to put their horses in situations like that. I'm taking note of the trainers thinking this is okay. I get that we're all going to lose money right now. I totally get it. This year has SUCKED as a horse trainer. I'm lucky that I teach remotely and that I have another job to help support me, but this month, like the early pandemic months, was impacted like crazy. But that's why I operate with only 65% of my business income, and that's why I keep an emergency fund. So that I never have to decide between money and the wellness of horses.

Literally horse showing in this
area, wtf

Anyway, rest assured that TC and I are listening to the guidelines for smoke inhalation put out by UC Davis a couple of years ago.

It takes 4-6 weeks after the air clears (like fully clears, we get some early mornings where the air isn't bad, but I mean like 24-48 hours of clear air with no return to bad air quality) for the horse's lungs to recover from smoke. The vets recommended slowly going back to full work.

Last time we had bad air quality like this, I gave TC the full six weeks off, but we had also had issues with the footing at our barn, it was basically winter, and we were moving so it wasn't a big deal to just give him extra time off. I also had him on a supplement called coughfree throughout that time and afterwards.

This time, I'm a little more eager to get back to work because of how well things are going! I think it'll be good for him to actually kind of reset with ulcers and all that this fall, but I want him back to work when it's safe so we can continue. It's less about showing and moving along and more about both of our mental health. He misses riding and so do I!

Here's my plan:

- fully off with minimal hand walking until the air quality is consistently decent
- tack walk the first two weeks of good air
- trot work for two weeks
- light canter work for two weeks
- back to full work at six weeks

In addition:

- while the air quality is bad, he gets two scoops of coughfree
- when the air returns to normal, he gets one scoop of coughfree for the full six weeks of coming back and potentially beyond
- I bought a nebulizer and two solutions for it, one is just saline and the other has some herbs in it I think. He'll get that as recommended every day until the smoke clears, and probably for at least a couple weeks after that.
- also Rico, Riot, and Sunny are also getting these treatments too, as a thank you to my mom for housing my terrorist during this time!

He's the most helpful animal

I'm planning on monitoring him for signs of lung issues. Last time he had a bit of a cough for a while when riding at first, so until that's gone, I may nebulize him before work to help moisturize those airways.

This is definitely a more conservative approach than a lot of people are going to take. I know I'm being very cautious. But I have a heavy breed of horse who I've got FEI goals with, he needs his lungs functioning perfectly! And it's just not worth it. We cannot finish All Breeds this year without showing on September 6th, which is out, so we may as well not rush back into work.

I'm honestly happy with this show season apart from All Breeds. We proved ourselves absolutely ready for the level and I'm happy to have four blue ribbons and four scores above 67% from two different judges. Whether I decide to go back out at Third this winter to snag All Breeds for next year or just move on and do Fourth level instead, I don't know. But we've got all the time in the world to do that once TC is back in full work, we have no agenda for moving up. My primary agenda is having a rideable horse!

Lightning Dodged

From Sunday midday to Monday midday, we were hunkered down at the ranch waiting for lightning to hit, but it never came! There was a bit of rain over us, but no real storm, and then midday Monday, the warning was lifted, no dry lightning was scheduled to be in the area. So the SO and I went home and breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't all bad though, we decided that we definitely wanted to get some kind of camper type thing eventually (they're expensive my god) for camping, so we talked about that a lot while we were staying in my parents' RV (it's a fifth wheel actually).

Dark red is fire, red is evacuation order, yellow is evacuation
warning, so that's cool, I live somewhere in the middle

TC has settled in at the ranch. He's still weird about the cross ties and walking in the front yard, but he's happy in his paddock and in the wash rack, so we've just been hanging out there.

It's been so fun having Rico and TC together. Rico is definitely a bit brighter when TC is there, I think they really like each other. Rico and Riot get along fine but Rico and Sunny have had some arguments, Sunny is a bit mean to him and Rico is getting older and probably not interested in having mean friends anymore. TC gets along with everyone and made fast friends with Rico.

Rico has also been way more interested in me. I managed to be part of both horses' lives when TC was a baby and only being ridden a few days a week and when he was on rehab. But once I started my current job with the insane commute and riding TC every day, I didn't have as much time for Rico. Don't think that Rico minded though, Rico has made it very clear that he's over being ridden. You'd take him out of his stall for anything but a trailer ride and he'd be immediately annoyed. That's just life with two jobs I guess. Rico sees me occasionally, and I always go in and give him a hug and a cookie at the very least, but it's my mom he looks forward to seeing now, she feeds him after all.

But now, I don't know if it's that he's envious of TC's attention or if it's just been enough time where he knows I'm not going to ride him (not that he hated being ridden, but remember that the last time he was ridden seriously, his life was hard, the Grand Prix did not come super easy to him, or any horse, really). Whatever it is, Rico has been really sweet and interactive with me, which has been so fun.

Ruby came to hang out with us in the RV, this is her couch

My barn put out an email saying that the evacuation order had been lifted, but I haven't seen that on Cal Fire just yet (maybe I'm not looking in the right place though). When it has been lifted, we are definitely heading back to our barn!

And from now on, any time I talk about having my own facility or having my horses in the back yard, just send me to the ranch to clean paddocks when it's 100 degrees and the air quality is 150+ because it was fun the first day he was there and now it's exhausting and I can't wait for someone else to take care of the feeding and cleaning.

Not that I'll be riding though. The air quality gets better and worse over the days depending on the wind, but it's been long enough where TC's lungs are for sure impacted. I'll write about my plans to deal with that soon. For now, he's just going to be walked and I've decided that if I can't obsess over his muscle development, I will probably be obsessing over his coat, which was a little rough due to the ulcers. He's been getting lots of currying these days, which he loves, so it's a win win!

Evacuated

On Thursday morning, my barn was put on an evacuation warning list. We were right at the edge of it, so we figured we'd be fine.

Saying goodbye, hopefully temporarily, to TC's wonderful
paddock

I went to the barn and washed TC's tail with some anti-itch shampoo because he's been rubbing it a little bit, then I took my tack and put it in the trailer. Around 2pm, I let one of the trainers at the barn know that my tack room was unlocked with TC's evacuation plan written inside, the truck keys were in the trailer tack room, and we made sure we had each others' numbers just in case. Then I went home. The fire was rather far away from the barn so we figured we'd be okay.

Then the wind picked up.

I drove home and unbeknownst to me until 6pm, at 3pm, our barn was upgraded to the evacuation order list. So at 6pm when I saw it, I flipped out a little bit. The SO and I quickly packed overnight bags and zipped down to the barn. I had him drop me off at my truck and then go do a Target run to get something I forgot. Then I grabbed the rest of my stuff that mattered, including the horse, and hauled to the ranch.

The air was thick with smoke. Very thick, to the point where I had to have my high beams on for much of our drive for me to be able to see far enough ahead of us.

The little white dots through the smoke is the Lick Observatory,
which has yet to burn. It doesn't float in space, that's how thick
the smoke is from the fires. This was on our way down, SO was
driving!

We got to the ranch and quickly got TC situated in the far stall next to Rico, we strung up no climb wire and electric wire so he was stuck in the stall and on the porch. He pitched a fit but he settled when I was out of sight.

The SO and I stayed in my parents' RV because hey, even though the state is literally on fire, there's still a global pandemic in play too. It also allowed me to be right next to the barn just in case something went wrong.

The next morning, I texted my job saying "I have to put up fencing all day, sorry for my absence" which no one cared about because one of the fires is running rampant through the mountains on the other side of the school, displacing many of my coworkers.

We spent the morning setting up a larger space for TC with no climb and electric wire. By the time we were finished, we all felt like crap from the smoke, but TC was so happy to have more space that he walked into his stall and then squealed and cantered out several times.

Santa cruz fires, not my photo

The SO and I left and I felt pretty good about the situation. The fire hadn't moved too much closer to my barn overnight, I kept telling myself that the only reason why we're leaving the barn is that it's along one of the few roads that leads up into the open space so they'll need that road clear for firetrucks eventually. TC settled in well and I can help my parents out with the barn more with him there, cleaning paddocks and dumping wheelbarrows is the toughest thing for my mom to do so I can now do that.

Then on the ride home (the wonderful SO drove me down and back), I made the mistake of looking at my phone, which told me that there was going to be yet another lightning storm coming for us this weekend. I'm surprised I didn't lose my shit right then and there, but this is getting RIDICULOUS.

No, FUCK THIS SHIT

Look, the global pandemic is a huge pain in the ass. But I have to admit that since the end of April when it was apparent that my family had recovered from getting it, it hasn't affected me that much. Don't get me wrong, it's been awful, as you've seen from my posts, but I could still do everything I wanted to do aside from visit my friends overnight or see a movie.

The heat wave during the last couple of weeks wasn't great because then we're stuck inside a bit more. Not being able to hike was a bummer because other than riding, that's been the one thing we've been really enjoying quite a lot.

Then we have the lightning storm, which was scary and cancelled one of my clinics, what a bummer. And now we're dealing with fires, leading to the evacuation of my horse. Still not the best, but knowing he's safe and that he can hang out at the ranch until it's safe to go home makes me happy. I do want to get some pictures of him and Rico together, even if it's a bit smokey.

Santa Cruz fires, not my photo

Now we have another lightning storm on the horizon. During the first lightning storm, it was just weird and kind of scary because we just don't get lightning like that here. But we had no idea what the effects would be, so it was easy to be in the now in that moment.

However, with another lightning storm coming, we know what can happen. This lightning storm sparked so many fires. There are currently 364 fires in the state, 23 of which are considered severe. Four of which surround the bay area right now. One has destroyed Big Basin State Park, where the SO and I camped in June and fell in love with. Another is destroying Henry Coe, where I trail ride regularly. Another is making a move toward destroying Napa, where we camped in July. And the fourth is down in Salinas, displacing friends and family in that area and growing rapidly. None are under any kind of control. They're just burning.

Where is the lightning going to strike this time? There's a ton of open space behind my parents' ranch. There's a ton of open space just south of us. What if we have to evacuate the ranch and there's literally nowhere to go? Or no roads to drive out on? So many what if questions are going through my mind right now.

On top of a global pandemic. On top of an administration that refuses to send help to the state because we're a blue state. Stress on top of stress. I'm glad TC is on ulcerguard and doesn't follow politics. I think I need to follow his lead and get myself some omeprazole and turn off my phone more often.

Apocalyptic Aftermath

Remember how my clinic on Sunday was canceled due to a completely random lightning storm overnight? Well, this story is similar.

Once again, I woke up yesterday morning at 5am ready to ride my horse. I've been getting up early all week to ride before I start teaching/working so that I could avoid the heat. I sleepily put in my contacts, started getting dressed, then thought to look at the air quality app I downloaded the night before. I then put my pjs back on and went back to bed.

We are surrounded here in the bay

So, the lightning over Saturday night struck mostly out in the Pacific, but apparently about 10,000 lightning strikes struck ground. Some of those started fires. There are now 364 fires burning in California, most from lightning strikes. By Tuesday night, the fires in the bay area were growing rapidly and we started seeing the effects in the areas that were not directly burning: smoke.

On Tuesday evening, the poor SO (who had moved here when there was no global pandemic and when the state wasn't on fire) got to experience smoke for the first time. He walked outside and told me that our neighbors must be barbecuing. I said no, that's the smoke. The air quality index was already in the mid 100s where we lived, but I looked where TC was and it was still around 60. That's okay to ride in, we stop riding and exercising over 100.

I hoped for good winds, realizing that my barn was legit surrounded by fires so there was no place that wind could blow to keep the smoke away.

Not sure if you can tell because he's gray, but
TC was covered in ash on Wednesday

Wednesday morning at 5am, the AQI was 160 where we live and 195 where TC was. Which is why I went back to bed. I chatted with my client I teach in the mornings and her lesson was obviously cancelled. I did go down and take TC out, gave him his ulcerguard, and gave him a bath. As I drove home, I got an email from the show this weekend saying that it was cancelled. I also chatted with my clients and we basically decided to cancel my clinic this weekend (second one in a row).

So now we wait for the fires to get under control, the smoke to clear, life to go back to normal. And by normal I mean pandemic normal. I mean, can I just go outside and not get covered in ash and smell like a campfire.

AQI in the south bay looking terrible
on Wednesday

We are very lucky to not be directly effected by the fires though and for that I'm grateful. It makes complaints about ash, smoke, and having to take time off of riding seem so trivial. Having to evacuate in general is no fun, but for this fire season, we're in a global pandemic too, meaning that the number of places to evacuate to is limited.

2020 has been an absolutely horrendous year, even just with the pandemic. But add into that the heat waves, the lightning, the fires, the smoke... it's just a bit too much at this point.

Spreading Like

On Sunday afternoon, I was riding in the covered arena when I saw smoke pouring upward from just a couple of properties away from the barn. I stopped TC and watched as flames engulfed the hillside by the barn and begun to spread rapidly.

Flames on the hillside next to us, there are
mountains behind that smoke

The good news is that the fire ended up passing our barn while we all watched with bated breath and talked about what barns had room for the horses and made sure enough rigs were hooked up to begin evacuating. We were all glad we were spared from having to evacuate.

It was pretty terrifying, watching the fire spread in real time, seeing the flames so close and leaving nothing but black hillsides behind it. But let me tell you, Cal Fire is absolutely incredible. Literally seconds after I noticed the smoke, they were dumping red flame retardant on it from planes and the firetrucks were whizzing down our road ready to fight it. If only our publicly funded police were as good as our publicly funded fire departments.

I have to say that my horse is an absolute trouper, I had a decision to make when the fire began, do I finish my ride or do I just get off. I chose to finish my ride and he handled the sound of planes, helicopters, and sirens blasting overhead and down the road by the arena just fine. I then walked out and he let me video and take pictures of the fire from his back.

The fire started over there, view from the covered
arena

Even though we didn't need to evacuate (this time), I still wanted to put together a fire plan and print it out for my trunk. It's been a long time since I lived this far from my horse. Honestly... I can't remember being this far from my horses ever. But the SO needs to live on the peninsula and other than the barn situation up here, I like it way better than living down near my horse. So I'm a solid 45 minutes door to door to the barn. That's a bit scary when I watched this fire cover so much ground so quickly. If it were only up to me to get him evacuated, I might not make it.

Luckily my rig is hitched up and at the ranch, so even if I'm not there, my rig is and TC gets in that easily. So any one of my barn mates could snag him and another horse. However, my truck keys are in my locked tack room, so I think during fire season, I'll find a different place to put the keys. When I figure that out, I'll write that into the fire plan, as well as any directions for how to use my truck.

My next step would be, where to take him. My parents place currently has an open stall, so when the fire broke out, I told my mom to brace for the most obnoxious monkey horse to come stay for a while. In my fire plan is going to be the address to my parents' place, the gate code to get in, both parents' phone numbers, and I'm also going to print out a map with directions just in case.

My parents know what he eats well enough to take care of him and even if I'm not there, I will probably be on my way and able to meet them there. But I'll probably print out care instructions for him to leave at my parents' place anyway. Just on the off chance that the SO and I are somewhere without signal, it's good for my parents to know how to take care of TC without me being there.

The amount of smoke was insane

One of the things I'm very happy about is how easy TC is to trailer. The fire made me realize how unbelievably important it is to have a very easy to load horse. I have another slot in my trailer and access to three additional rigs for a total of 13 horses that can be taken off the property. Obviously my helpfulness has a limit, it'd be silly to waste 45 minutes trying to get a horse in the trailer when others will load right up and it would hopefully not come to that, but it could be life or death, right? The easiest to trailer horses are the ones who are going to leave the property first. I'm glad that mine is in that group.

TC self loads easily, even under pressure, even if someone has no idea what they're doing. You point him at a rig and say the words "load up" or even just gesture toward it, and he hops right in quietly. I'll be putting directions in the fire plan to help people know how to put him in and to assure that he loads easily so he is not left behind.

Headed away from us, phew

Generally it was a bit scary, but knowing I had a place to go, a hitched up trailer, and a horse who loads easily gave me such peace of mind. I knew I could be off the property in ten minutes if necessary.

I'm so grateful that it didn't come to the barn, but it's still such a bummer that it happened at all. So far, no one has been hurt and only two structures have burned. We watched it get dangerously close to two houses in those hills but it passed them both. Not sure what happened on the other side of the hills as it moved south. When will people learn that fireworks are illegal in this county FOR A DAMN REASON.