Thursday April 22

At some point, riding lots of miles starts to feel a little redundant. Today, Robin and I rode around the buttes – we mixed it up a little by going over the steep pass down to Ave Q, then across to 130^th Street East, where we turned north and went over Ave O and up towards the microwave towers. We know most of these trails, although we went further west than ever before, and we lengthened the loop by going to the far side of the buttes. But I can understand how Lynne got a bit burned out. Conditioning is lots of doing the same old same old.

We started out pretty slow and easy walking for the first 30 minutes due to the terrain. Then we did hit the gas a bit and we really traveled, covering an estimated 5 miles in just about half an hour – so much closer to the desired 10 mph. Belle kept the trot going, matching Aries Huge over step trot. That horse puts his hind foot 8-10 inches beyond the print of the front foot when he trots. Belle can only keep up by trotting with a quicker tempo. But she did manage for quite a while. Then I let her canter a bit to rest the hard working trot muscles. And when we came back down to trot, she took a fairly serious stumble – indicating that she was getting weary. So, we slowed down a bit, and even took a break to reset Robin’s saddle. Since she was already dismounted, I decided to get off also and we hand walked for half a mile – good change up for us and the horses.

When we remounted, we picked up a nice trot again, but Robin was feeling a fair bit of neck pain, leading to a serious headache. She had a life threatening fall 30 years ago, with two broken ankles and feet and a fractured neck that wasn’t discovered until 10 years later. So basically she has ‘compression induced scoliosis’ in her neck. And if she doesn’t see the chiropractor often enough, she gets migraines. Well, I had a couple of those recently, so I sympathize. We slowed down to a walk and mostly walked the rest of the way home. We allowed them to trot, and then canter up the final grade back up over the butte – I could feel Belle struggle just a bit near the top, and I actually had to encourage her to keep her momentum. So, she isn’t quite as fit as I would like. We need to do more Long rides like this one. In the end, we covered about 12 miles in 2 ¾ hours.

On a bright note, Belle loaded well both times, and she has picked up just a little weight. She is getting grain when she rides in the trailer, which helps with Both needs.

We want to get in an actual 25 mile ride in the next week or two. We are still thinking about going up to Jackson Lake, possibly Monday. Another option is to ride from my place to hers! That would be about 17 miles and sort of fun to GO someplace instead of just riding in loops. We will talk about it on Sunday evening.

Addendum – Robin called. She now has chills and body aches. She thinks the headache was an early warning of the flu!!! And she had plans to visit Death Valley this weekend to see the wild flowers and sight see off their Harley. She is going to bed and taking every viral support herb she can think of. She may not be up to riding on Monday. If not, then the Jackson Lake ride will wait even longer!!!! I swear, I am looking on a map – I think this lake is a mirage, or a snipe hunt!

Saturday April 24

My 4 H girls are getting ready for a trail trial. So, I have set out a collection of trail obstacles. We did a short trail ride and then schooled crossing logs, and tarps and opening mail boxes. I rode along on Belle, just to give her exposure to riding in a group and also the obstacles are good mental training. It didn’t rack up many road miles, but any saddle time is better than no saddle time.

Monday – April 26

Robin has a colicy horse, and I just feel overwhelmed. Good news is that her flue actually truned out to be serious allergies, so she was able to take her trip to Death Valley, living on antihistamines. I settled for a double free lunge session, giving Belle a solid 10 minute gallop. I have calculated that if she is traveling at 12 miles an hour, then each 5 minutes of free lunging is equal to a mile. So, we got in 2 miles at speed.

Tuesday April 27 – This is going to prove to be a tough week, I can just tell. I wonder if it is like a dieting plateau – after 10 weeks of solid training, it just gets wearying. I did ride Belle for 30 minutes, but it was mostly light arena work. But we are into a serious wind pattern for the next 2-3 days, and I figured I had better get what I can while I can. I am a little unhappy with Belle’s body condition – she is thin in my opinion. I am already giving her 5 lbs of grain daily, and while she is in group pasture, so I can’t monitor her exact hay intake, I am feeding them so much that it takes them all day to eat breakfast. So it is very close to a free choice feed situation. But the last batch of Barley hay was less than ideal, according to my picky horses, so it may be low in nutritional content. I know I can’t expect an endurance horse to be fat, but I would rather see a little more muscle on her. I think I am going to add some corn oil to her diet.

Wednesday, April 28 – trying to rush working all work into just a couple morning hours, before the winds really hit. Sicne Belle has gotten more work this week than most, I again settled for a Free lunge session. I ran her with two different horses, because she basically wears out one running partner pretty quickly. She can fly, no question. I just worry that we won’t have enough depth to make the full distance.

Thursday, - April 29 – Belle’s favorite kind of day again – just a bucket of grain, no work. Robin is still feeling a bit off, the winds are terrible, and I had the 4Her’s over for a review of Trail trial rules.

Friday April 30 – I knew this would be a tough week – somehow the day got a way from me, and I again settled for a 10 minute free lunge session. Tomorrow is the trail trial – I am taking Belle as an outrider horse. We should be able to get some serious schooling in then.

*******Posted May 1st