Ember's On Fire

12/09/2025

12/08/2025

Celebrating Ember’s 5th year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. I could never have made it without you. I’ve enjoyed all the connections formed through sharing Ember’s journey! Even with the long pauses in updates, you all never fail to offer support and helpful feedback! Hoping big things are coming once Ember is conditioned and back under saddle! 2026 IS THE YEAR!!! Stay tuned!

10/23/2025

Ember and I have taken some time off… a whole year off from endurance riding, and she has just been hanging out in the pasture other than a couple trail rides (literally two I think all year). But yesterday we went on the first ride in months! She isnt exactly well groomed and looks a bit disheveled 😂 but i gave her a good check over and she was good to go. This is my friend Nancy (to those who don’t know… my name is ALSO Nancy🤪). We had a great ride on her property!

I got some bad news last spring about the lump in Ember’s neck. All this time I’ve had her (since Sept 2020) I’ve thought that lump was an old scar tissue muscle knot. She did live in the wild for 9 yrs prior to gather. Body workers, chiropractors… all tossed their speculations in the hat and Ember has been worked on accordingly to help free up that stiffness in her neck. With prescribed specific stretches I was able to achieve a better level of mobility in her neck so it all seemed to align she had this horrible muscle knot!

August 2024 I was riding her in the round pen, and we were loping and she FELL! Whole hind end went out and she went down onto her side! My leg was banged up but I was able to scramble out from under her once she rocked onto her sternum. She looked embarrassed. I felt bad because I thought she must have tripped. So I let her trot a bit without me on her, she was completely sound… so I asked for a lope and she got about 3 strides and down she went again! In the same place! The round pen is not used often and had some clover growing over the loose sand and all I could figure was the wetness of the clover made her slip? But it definitely rattled me!

We were set to go on the Redwood Endurance ride in Otis CA in just a week after that. I was worried I missed something so I was able to get her an appt with a chiropractor before we headed south. He noted she had an odd ‘base narrow’ stance in the hind and said she was possibly not as free in her pelvis as a ‘normal’ horse would be. But at that point he couldn’t find anything sore or off and said forward motion on my ride would be fine as long as she didn’t have any other issues.

Off we went and it was a WONDERFUL RIDE (see the post from last year).

Fast forward to this spring… a veterinarian chiropractor (we had seen her for veterinary care once years ago prior to her obtaining her chiropractic license so she had not assessed any soundness questions on Ember) was coming to do a satellite clinic and I got Ember in. What she immediately identified under that thick mane was NOT a soft tissue scar mass… but instead a boney calcification of her cervical vertebrae (c5/c6)!!!!! 😩😭 My heart sank! 💔

Instead of a good throrough adjustment, Ember ended up getting a neuro exam. And she failed. She has poor proprioception in her right hind. Likely due to pinching of the spine which strangely she said the further forward the injury the farther back on the body the neurological deficit can show up. She basically doesn’t know where that leg is in time and space.

Traveling forward at a pace of a walk/trot, she manages very well. But traveling at a lope on a bend, she can’t always get that leg where it needs to be in timing, hence the fall(s).

BUT, along with future further diagnostics, we have a plan!!!!! She has some mild arthritis starting in one knee, and I had questioned the use of Pentosan. Vet’s eyes lit up! “Oh that’s a GREAT idea! That would actually probably help a lot with her neck as well! We’ve seen good results with Adequan and Pentosan in these types of injuries!” So we will start a Pentosan regiment along with a more aggressive approach to our physical therapy (LOOOOOTS of carrot stretches, hill work in hand, pressure point work to stretch the back, etc). Hopefully we can get to a good place by spring and dive back in to endurance riding!

I’ve invested in a nice smaller trailer which will make it more feasible for me to travel more! Lugging the heavy steel framed three horse around with just one horse in it didn’t make sense! Ember will load into anything so I’ve invested in a completely custom little two horse straight load with a nice little walk in front tack/dressing room. Aside from being smaller/lighter, it was rarely ever used and stored in a climate controlled shop its whole life! What a find!

05/11/2025

Ember was the ultimate ambassador for mustangs today! When my daughter brought her new non-equestrian boyfriend on an organized ride, the borrowed mount had other ideas about going on a ride 😂. The perlino (seen ridden by me… but not to be confused for the angel perlino my other daughter owns/rode) is normally ridden by a small child and quickly honed in on this boy’s lack of experience. She kept calmly just turning around and walking back 🤣. Like ‘I’m not feeling it today, I’ll go wait by the trailer.’ This poor boy didn’t know even the most basic riding skills and just let her walk wherever.

Enter Ember! We swapped and it took all but 5 seconds to get the perlino in order, and from the time he got on, until we were back at the trailer, Ember plodded along sweetly like an old dude ranch trail horse! She was such an angel and took such good care of him. She gave him the opportunity to enjoy the ride without having to know how to ride. And to think she lived wild and untouched for NINE years and is such a sweet kind soul to humans despite the experiences she had before I got her. She is AMAZING! I love her ❤️

04/21/2025

Dear Ember followers,

My sincerest apologies! Ember and I have been on some amazing adventures! Probably the most amazing to date! And I haven’t shared many of them. It looks like her page has also been consumed by spam ads!

I will work on page clean up today in addition to catching you all up on all that’s been going on in the last couple years!

Some highlights are; we have found our calling under saddle, we have moved facilities, we have new herd mates, we are promoting new horse equipment, and we have grown closer she and I!

Please stay tuned for a big page makeover and increased posts! Let’s get the news out about how amazing mustangs are!

(Ember in the background all bundled up bc desert horses don’t like rain! and shiver like there’s no tomorrow in the Oregon coast wet winter weather😩)

08/17/2024

For whatever reason this graphic depiction of our tracked ride back August of 2024 didn’t post with ANY information! I think I’m techy… but clearly I struggle with this type of page.

This is the trail in pink that we rode! I believe it was 32 miles in all. Ember came in 24th? (I think?) out of 42 horses! First time we actually truly competed for a time and to qualify! She is an absolute beast on inclines! Struggles with declines/downhill (see current post from November 2025 for new info on that). The weather and climate were more our style with fog in the AM, and easy to tolerate temps in the upper 60’s all day! The amount of elevation gained during this ride was insane! A true test for an endurance horse… and thankfully EXACTLY like the training rides we already do 😂.

08/17/2024

Another delayed post… or maybe premature?…

Ember and I did something big! Well, the biggest thing we’ve done yet.

We went to California for an endurance race and came in 26th out of 41 entries! We were solo on the THIRTY mile race! We completed with plenty of time to spare and she did great at all her vet checks! For the final, third, vet check she had the lowest pulse the vet had to that point! 36!

Thank you to Bianca for taking me under her wing and even welcoming my own tag along, Macey! She excitedly introduced me to all her acquaintances and helped to integrate me into this already VERY accepting community of people🥰.

And then… she took FIRST in the race! 18 minutes ahead of second place rider! But also won best condition AND high vet score!!! The ‘Triple Crown’ of an endurance ride! Great job Bianca and Quasar!!!

🔥Ember🔥 and I completed this insanely technical ride in 5 hr, 45 min! 16.3 miles in 3 hr 35 min, a 45 min hold after the mid-ride vet check, then the STEEP technical climb and descent to the finish!!! With 45 min to spare! Not bad for our first ride solo!

I only wish I’d have taken ride pics, but I was determined not to mess anything up, and a dropped phone wasn’t going to happen if I could help it!

I’ll post professional pics once I’ve made my selections! Amazing photographer📸, Dominique Cognee, on site who actually got some candid shots by hiding in the forest! I’m starting to get the hang of this… see the photographer? POSE or give a victory waive! I gave a timid waive on our way to the finish… I should have thrown my arms up in celebration 🎊!!!

07/14/2024

Started out in sweater weather and jeans in the Coos…

Finishing the night in the Ochoco Mountains thinking how nice it would feel to be hiding from the heat by floating in the river 😂.

My big red pony cleared vetting and we are settling in for our first big competitive ride tomorrow morning!

TWENTY-FIVE (and 1/2) miles in 6 hrs or less!!! We will head out at 6:30am! Let’s pray we beat the heat and come in strong!

Even got a cool (literally) new haircut just for the occasion!!!!

04/15/2023

I have reached 100 followers! Thank you for your continued support. I could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉

04/15/2023

Yesterday was another FIRST!!!

Our first solo trail ride! 🐴

Reflection…

June 2021 Ember choked (a pretty BAD and prolonged choke with bad local vet care compounding the issue until taken 2.5 hrs north to competent vet). No surprise, she developed pneumonia and spent 5 days 4 night at the university hospital 3 hrs north. Lots of antibiotics, tests, and a bout of colic while there and she came home for a month longer of oral antibiotics and rest rehab on green moist (no dust) pasture. We slowly started asking a little more of her… but when this occurred she was still quite green and learning the ways of domestic life.

By the summer of 2022 I felt we were at our max for recovery and took on the goal of fitting her up and getting those trail miles on her along with dabbling in some local shows and starting her arena training. One would think trail miles could translate over easily to arena work but they truly are 🍎’s and 🍊’s. She has anxiety in arenas with horses passing and we don’t do a lot of collection on the trail for a few specific reasons… one being her suspected collapsed thoracic sling (note her ‘sway back’ appearance when I adopted her) and the rehab for that (another post and story). We also do not canter/lope on trails just as a habit, but also because those we ride with are there for (like us) a peaceful relaxing trail ride. Hard to take in the beautiful Oregon coastal trail scenery when you are flying by it!

We had a few lessons for arena work and furthering our training. We don’t do regular lessons as the tools I’m given at a lesson are then taken as homework… worked on until mastered, or until I hit a roadblock and need further instruction. That being said, we have only had a total of 4 (maybe 5?) one on one lessons with LOTS of distance advice and instruction given by others as well. We have also attended 2 or 3 group lessons specifically to work on introducing the group arena environment in a safe controlled way (adults only with horses that were already fairly well trained).

Back to the present…

The weather here yesterday was WONDERFUL! For anyone not familiar with the southern oregon coast… we are a temperate rainforest by definition and as such, we literally get rain ~9 months a year😩😓

🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧🌧☔️💧💦🦆🌊

The 🌞 came out, 🐦’s were chirping, sunglasses 😎 were required for driving! It was irresistible! With my daughter’s highschool equestrian team (OHSET) practice being held at a facility with a mountain trail system (accessed by well groomed logging roads) literally out the back gate, I decided I would take advantage of the wee hours of this lovely evening and hack out alone… FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!

I use a gps app for hunting (onX), and a couple with my two teens as well (Life360) to keep tabs on everyone’s whereabouts as we all seem to be going in a million different directions any given day. Ember and I would stick to the main logging roads for our adventure. I left my daughter’s phone and app with the group of moms and kids there at the arena and I have cell service up the entire way so tracking me down wouldn’t be an issue (although the ultimate goal would be to NOT have that need to occur at all 😂).

Elk, bear, deer, coyotes, cougars… they all call the area I was entering home and have all been seen up there at some time or another so one can’t rule out an external force causing an issue with dismounting even if I have confidence in my own horse’s typical behavior.

My phone/tracking device would stay on my person… I see this a lot where people keep their phone in a pommel bag or elsewhere on the saddle. What happens when your horse dives left or right and you come off? There goes your horse! AND your phone!

Ember had been on a ride a few weeks ago… first in a while, to Bullards beach with a group of ladies and was spectacular! She was so well behaved and fit in well with the group! I rode in the dressage saddle as I have limited her riding to the occasional trail ride while rehabilitating her back (a long LONG tedious process with daily ‘exercises’/stretches, but mostly being turned out on unlevel ground/hills). The saddle slid back despite appearing to have a nice fit over the scapula, clearance over her shark fin, and sit nicely along the spine. These are the trials and tribulations of a changing confirmation from rehab. Muscles develop in places they weren’t before, horses move/carry themselves in different ways, and fit needs adjusted to accommodate. Thankfully she wasn’t sore acting and had good sweat marks. I may have just over padded her adjustable half pad (necessary before due to atrophy behind the shoulders) and the extra bulk compressed and allowed the saddle to slip back (my girth was SUPER loose when we got back😬… thankfully she was a good girl!)… saddle fitting issues TO BE CONTINUED…

Back to the recent ride! 🐿!

We tacked up in the western saddle but,… how to pad under it knowing what happened a few weeks ago? (See, you thought I was squirreling and it wouldn’t lead into anything!)

I opted for the grippy reinsman pad with the grippy EcoGold shimmable English half pad UNDER the Reinsman. This sounds SO weird I’m sure! This was my own version of a ‘sway back pad’ as she’s not truly sway backed and those pads don’t work… but she needs something more. This has been the process of trial and error that we have been through to sort out what does and does not work. We still have some bridging that happens if I don’t have the extra bulk in the two central quarters, but mostly the 2nd front quarter under the saddle. It leads to a cranky Ember when the saddle applies friction and pressure over the loins. I have used a foam front riser directly under the bars of my saddle before but that doesn’t seem to quite balance out along the spine and we end up with dry areas on both sides along the center of the tree. Yesterday’s ride was a new combination of pads and it worked nicely!

We also used our new Myler combo bit/hackamore as she TRULY seemed to love it when we used it the first time a few weeks ago (on the previously mentioned ride). She is so relaxed and responsive in it! It would be considered ‘illegal’ in an arena class, but we’ll cross the bridge of what to use for that when we’re ready.

I haven’t been on this trail in a LONG time! It was the first ‘trail’ I went on with Ember! Look back through her posts and you’ll find it! The road is STEEP for about 3/4 of a mile!!! Just UP UP UP! Given that Ember’s stamina had previously seemed to be poor, and she has historically been a ‘huffing puffing’ low headed pokey trail horse even on the flat rides… I fully anticipated needing to stop a LOT to let her regroup. We did a short little ride around the facility to let her nerves settle, which they did rather quickly. After about 5 minutes of leisurely walking around the turnouts, parking lot, and barn, her head dropped and she was licking and chewing with a point and go mentality but perky ears and upbeat gait. She seemed HAPPY 😃!!!

So off we went! This girl covered some ground! She had a ground gobbling walk UPHILL! No huffing or puffing (or groaning… something she will start doing on rides… sounds like she humming- super weird). We stopped about 1/8 mile. Normal respers and I didn’t feel a pounding heart under my legs! Cool calm! Off we go. Stopped another 1/8 mile… no change! Looked like she did when we left! WHO IS THIS HORSE!!!???

She didn’t break a sweat until about 3/4 mile near the top! Kept her ground eating pace on a loose rein, took advantage of said loose rein to grab nibbles of grass as we used the grassy areas alongside the road to avoid rocks (I forgot her boots and she lives on green lush pasture and in a dry stall so her soles aren’t tough like they use to be). It was wonderful!!! She was SO SOOOOOO HAPPY!

We crested the top and took advantage of the short flat last 1/4 mile of road/trail before it took a change and went downhill. Went just a few hundred feet down, turned and headed back.

Typically, this is where a horse goes… ‘YAY! We are going back!’ And has an increase in stride or pace. Not my steady Eddie!!!! She took the given opportunities to nibble on the roadside grass, and just duplicated her exact pace and enthusiasm on our way back! I even used the flattest segment to ask for some trotting (I wanted to test if she was going to be one I can’t ask to trot on the way back without causing excitement… also knowing I planned to dismount anyways once we started to descend due to the rocks so no harm in testing 😉). She had a split second moment of excitement with a good head tuck and grunt 😂… no buck, just feeling GOOD! But then off we went in an even paced posting trot for about 1/4 to the point where the road sharply descends. Walked a bit farther down the hill on the grass while we had it and she was a rockstar. Would stop and calmly stand at any time she was asked. No jittery excitement, no anticipation. Just a lovely mare who was just happy to be out and about. When we ran out of grass on the shoulder of the road, I dismounted and walked the last 1/2 mile and she poked alongside🥰❤️.

I love this horse so much!!!!

People who’ve seen her here and there back at the barn made comments of astonishment about how much she’s ‘grown’… and they were speaking LITERALLY. 😂! Much to their surprise when I tell them she’s 14! and I doubt has grown (I know she hasn’t as I stick her bum and withers to see progress with the thoracic sling rehab). But, I can say, I do agree something has changed. She has turned a corner and is back where she was with her development prior to being sick almost two years ago!!! It’s taken THAT long to recover from that illness!!! She had no coughing, no snot draining from her nose, no groaning/humming, no huffing/puffing, no pounding heart under the saddle, no sopping wet sweaty horse. It’s been an unexpected turn of events that has just reignited my fire for moving forward! I had relinquished myself to having a horse who needed to have extra considerations when riding due to her physical deficiencies. But, I was ok with even that! I love trail riding and she was good for the little rides I do around here so she was still a good horse for me. But I am so happy to think of all we can do if she continues to improve or even stays this well!!!!

*****Not a lot of images caught on camera… turns out it’s harder to do when you’re solo and trying to ensure you don’t drop or break your phone for safety reasons 😂. Going to have to get the GoPro back in action!!!

Music: No Secrets
Musician: Lacore Diamond
Site: https://pixabay.com/music/-lacore-diamond-no-secrets-109098/

01/21/2023

It’s been so SOOOOO long since we posted!!! 🕰

Ember has been living the life of a pasture pet up until the last few weeks with only a few attempts at rehab exercises between our floods of downpours. 🌧🌧🌧🌧

We even attempted a group riding lesson ‘ladies night’ two weeks ago. She did VERY well considering the lapse in any riding for months except one trail ride. The group lesson is good to expose her to the situation of riders coming up from behind and passing (I’d say this is her biggest anxiety under saddle). She started out very nervous with lots of scooting forward when riders would pass, or just freezing in place. Both very appropriate reactions for her level of exposure and what we’ve worked on. She even ‘loped’ (more like a motorcycling gallop) around during our turn! This was the first time ‘loping’ in a group setting and only the 4th time under saddle! She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she was easy to direct and figured out what I was asking pretty quickly!

As much as I love her and had these glamorous ideal ‘Mustang Nancy’ dreams of her being my bff horse who sought me at liberty when I’d come out in the field, if these last few months have taught me anything, they’ve taught me that she is no longer wild. But, her 9 years of living wild won’t be something she can let go of. She is still sweet as pie and very obedient, but I now see the more I ask of her (even if done carefully and patiently) the more I see a change where she would ‘rather not’. So I am less desirable of a companion than her equine friends it seems. It was a reality I knew could happen if she finally decided they were safe enough to form bonds with… and she has. It took a LONG time, but she trusts them which, given all her scars and lumps and bumps, I suspect was not such an easy thing to come across in the wild… friends.

This realization has allowed me to let go of an ideal that was holding me back in a ‘stuck’ place of not wanting her to ‘dread’ me, so I held back asking for more. And to give perspective, she has regressed even with leading so I am starting over at square one. I know how smart she is and that with a refresher she will advance quickly… which she is but not with the same compliance. With the comfort of domestic life comes the rituals she has grown accustomed to. Like daily turn out, rain or shine… she loves to go out. But now while leading she is wanting to stop when passing the gate, not keep walking past… pulling toward the gate, etc were all signs she is much more comfortable forming her own opinions. As frustrating as this can be… it is also a GOOD sign! It means she is more free in her brain and doesn’t fear me and that ‘it’s ok to say no’. She’s not fearful like she was before.

A lot of the liberty training follows the idea of allowing them the ability to ‘say no’ but finding ways to get them to ‘want’ to say “yes”! I tried this… I tried and I TRIED. I got less ‘no’s and more ‘I’d rather not’s but that was the plateau I’ve been stuck at and lately have had more behaviors like having to walk clear down and out to the far end of the pasture to get her (where she will stand staring at me while the other horses come in). She doesn’t walk away or turn away… in fact she will walk up to me once I’m within 20 feet… but she’d ‘rather not’ come in so has stopped coming when called despite her friends doing so🤷‍♀️. When being turned out, we had worked VERY hard on learning to stand quietly while being unhaltered until I turned away. Lately she has been turning to excitedly run off while I am trying to undo the halter (a couple days ago dragging me through ankle deep mud while I hung on so I didn’t have to go out to the ends of the earth to undo it in the field… 30+ acres!).

Nothing has changed but the lull in ‘training’ during a rather busy time of the year. So here we are… starting over but with a different more assertive yet kind and well thought out approach. She is a SMART horse and I just have to be one step ahead.

So thankful she is kind and not stubborn. If she just ‘fell in line’ and just did it all… I think I’d feel sad. Sad that I’d broke her spirit. Sad that I stole her freedom both literally and figuratively. So these stages in development with our relationship is important for our long term connection. I want to know the ‘real’ Ember🔥. I want to teach her about me and what I would like. So, hopefully together we can muttled through these bumps in our growth and come out feeling more confident and comfortable with each other… and happy.😌

Our topline strengthening exercises consist of slow intentional (not sloppy) steps downhill. She quickly became bored of doing this at my side… so we implemented some ‘off course’ lunging on overgrown hillsides. Keeping her brain 🧠 engaged… she gets the reward of stopping to eat the grass 🌾which also gives her the big stretches. She chooses her path through the tall grass and weeds… I ask for the direction and speed. Hoping this makes ‘therapy time’ fun and engaging.🤓