velessa: (Horses - Bo & me)
velessa ([personal profile] velessa) wrote2010-04-17 08:56 pm
Entry tags:

Trail Ride + The Most Disgusting Thing EVER

Today Bo and I went on a nice long three hour ride, which is the longest one I've done with him thus far. We went with [livejournal.com profile] greenanimal and her new friend Kathy from the barn across the street, an endurance rider with two Arabs. We walked pretty much the entire time, did a teeny bit of trotting on the way back home. We went out in the park to an area I'd never been before, next to a small lake.

We went through a cattle grazing area to get there, and Bo gave the cows a distrusting look; I don't know if he's been around cows before or not, but I kind of thought he had since he was a ranch horse. He especially looked askance at the bull we passed close by, but the bull was too busy grazing to care anything about us.

Out by the lake there are some pretty steep hills, and it's also an area hang gliders and para gliders use. The first time a para glider came in for a landing near us, Bo was quite startled! Thankfully his idea of spooking is to sort of jolt in place and take a few steps away from whatever it is. After a while he got used to all the things sailing through the sky near us, though he did keep a close eye on them. We went partway up one of the steep hills to one of the jump off points for the gliders, and we hung out while a few of them got ready to go, letting the horses graze and chill. There was a very nice view of the lake up there.


Para glider




Hang glider


[livejournal.com profile] greenanimal and Magic stopping for water, para glider landing behind them


Kathy and her horse Beau also in this one. You can see how close the gliders get to where the horses are, we walked right past their landing area to get to this trough.


View of the lake, cities in the valley beyond


Bo checking out the view and gliders


Taking a snack break


And now for THE MOST DISGUSTING THING EVER


You see all those little black dots in the bucket? EACH ONE IS A TICK I PULLED OFF OF BO'S LEGS AFTER THE RIDE!!! D=



How disgusting is that?! I don't think I'll be going out on the trails again until tick season is over! *puke*

I pulled a shitload of them off with my fingers after I gave him a bath, then I went down the hill to the pet store and bought a flea comb and went back over his legs a dozen times each and got even more of them. Ugh, I just hope there aren't that many left on him that escaped!

So I got the idea to drown the little fuckers in hydrogen peroxide. >:D After all, we use it to kill other kinds of bugs, why not these?




Of course now every time I feel a tiny tickle on my skin, I think it's a tick crawling on me. *shudder* Nasty little buggers!

[identity profile] greenanimal.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
HAHAHA at your tick death bath - I love the label. I posted about it in my LJ. So GROSSSSSSS!!!!
lurath: teephs (Default)

[personal profile] lurath 2010-04-18 05:03 am (UTC)(link)
Beautiful green California hills! Wish I could have been there...

[identity profile] thumpystowaway.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 06:51 am (UTC)(link)
what a pretty day it was for a ride today! great pics, and ew for so many ticks!

[identity profile] aurorastar420.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
So I'm all like "Ooooh! Gorgeous! OMG PRETTY! Soooo jealous. Ooooh...ahhhh...OMFGWTF TICKS!" LOL Death Bath WIN.

[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/blitzen_/ 2010-04-18 09:11 am (UTC)(link)
OMFG MY SKIN IS CRAWLING~!!!! i so was not expecting that, and the first photo looked harmless enough until you explained what they were. GROSS.

*faints* i would need someone else to do it, i'd cry! YUCK. i can't believe there are so many ticks just in the grass. wtf is that about? so if you were WALKING thru the grass you'd get them on ur legs too? omfg *gag*

oh AND mouse has the exact same bridle as greenanimal's boy, except hers is red.

[identity profile] blauereiterin.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 11:05 am (UTC)(link)
yikes! those TICKS! i love CA at this time of year when everything is green for about 6 seconds. i used to think the hills in your area looked like sleeping dinosaurs from the freeway. :P
ext_38010: (Default)

[identity profile] summer-queen.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Whoa. I never even thought about ticks in CA. When I lived in SoCal, I don't think I ever saw /any/ kind of bug (too dry?)

Looks like a gorgeous place to ride, though!

[identity profile] harnessphoto.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
What beautiful riding! The landscape is SO gorgeous. I am totally jealous.

Not jealous of the tick situation though. Holy crap. Laughed pretty hard at "Tick Death Bath". Ew.
lurath: teephs (Default)

[personal profile] lurath 2010-04-18 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, and the ticks make me shudder. I hope you didn't get bitten -- CA ticks is why I now have lyme disease for life, and it sucks :(

[identity profile] bluepony0628.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 03:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought ticks were bad in New England, ew. This makes me miss CA though.

[identity profile] wastedrock.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
LMAO Tick Death bucket!
Pretty trails though!

[identity profile] k7point5.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
EW!!!!!!!!!

[identity profile] beybladesabre.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
EWWWWWWW!! I am SOOOOO glad that ticks are very uncommon around here:P

Your ride looked like fun though! Obi has the same halter as the arab, lol:)

[identity profile] coanteen.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Haaaaaa! I had to de-tick myself after riding in Tanzania (horses got some kind of foul tick-killing goop smeared on their legs).

[identity profile] offside-element.livejournal.com 2010-04-18 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh God. I hate ticks. Hate hate hate HATE them.

Beautiful photos - what a great place to ride!

[identity profile] donnajean2277.livejournal.com 2010-04-19 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Hahaha! I love the bucket!

[identity profile] 89rodeogirl.livejournal.com 2010-04-19 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Looks like a really fun ride! The tick thing though?
N-A-S-T-Y! I always get the creepy crawlies if I find a tick anywhere in my house, on my b/f or dog etc...

[identity profile] ernestinewalker.livejournal.com 2010-04-19 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
The scenery there is gooooooorgeoussssssss!!!

But I agree: ticks= beyond nasty.