Saturday, March 7, 2010

Well, I settled for free lunging and wind sprints today. Not enough hours in the day. Still, for the week, Belle got ridden 3 times and free lunged twice, and I can’t recall when she has had that consistent of work schedule! Still, I need to get her doing the miles – so next week we take the Garmin along and track the week’s totals!

 

Sunday, March 07, 2010

So, I am fighting a virus of some sort today and I feel crummy. So I am going to take it easy, since tomorrow we have our long ride with Robin. It did rain last night, so Belle is out in the pasture with her blanket on. Maybe tomorrow I will get some photos of her for a good ‘before’ reference. I am calculating that I will want her competition shoes put on the last week of April. So that means we need our first set put on in about 2 weeks. Belle has never had shoes, so she needs to get used to the added weight on her feet. And the terrain of the race is going to be rocky, so I think competing bare footed would be too risky. So, two sets of Urethane shoes are in the budget. I am going with the urethane as they are lighter weight, work almost like pads by covering most of the sole of the foot and yet they give you access to the frog to keep it clean. They also provide exceptional traction on hard footing. I will probably have to use bell boots on her when free lunging to keep her from grabbing her heels. And I will consult with the farrier to see if we need just fronts or shoes all around. Hey, it might make her seem a little taller! I still feel a bit odd competing on a pony, but Robin has assured me that Lots of the racing Arabians aren’t much taller, so we will not look too out of place!

 

Monday March 8, 2010

 

Monday morning Mileage.

 

Hauled over to Robin’s place in Lake LA – I bragged about actually working Belle 5 times the past week. She only got Aries out on Sunday as she had been swamped at work – so he was a wound up idiot for her yesterday. So we opted Not to ride up her street today, and instead loaded him into the trailer and hauled both horses the mile up to the base of the Buttes. Belle was pretty goofy as I tried to tack up, swinging around trying to see the dogs and anything else behind her. But I jumped aboard (literally doing a moving mount up) and we got moving up the trail. She still hadn’t learned that jigging is a waste of energy, but at least she is smooth doing it. Aries was being stellar and setting a good example, but she wasn’t taking the hint. A little up the road, I remembered that I had the Garmin in my pocket, but it wasn’t turned on, and I needed to reset the trip data. Doing that one handed on a jigging pony is a bit ‘interesting’ in the Chinese curse form of the word!

 

It was Not nearly as ‘interesting’ as using my cell phone to snap a couple photos as we slid down a trail on the backside of the butte. The view was irresistible, but it also was risky enough that I quit attempting it after just 2 shots. Belle did a very good job navigating down the slopes – and I am pretty sure that this was her very first time doing real terrain! I got Belle as an unstarted 4 yr old, in trade for training another horse. She got all her training at the ranch – very little hauling out – and Sweetwater Ranch is in the middle of an ancient lake bed – really really Flat! But with a little guidance from me, Belle realized that she needed to keep her haunches tucked and directly behind her – so she didn’t do any of the young horse side ways stuff. She also had sense enough not to jig on the down hills, which was a good thing, as the very first long downhill was a narrow trail with a fairly steep drop off the right and dangerous rocks on the left! This was no Dressage Queen hack! Which of course was why I HAD to get at least one photo! (which I will attempt to upload)

 

The trail continued with a series of up and downs, which is excellent for building muscle – especially the quarters. I allowed Belle to canter up several of them, rather than fight her. About 30 minutes into the ride, she finally settled into a walk. Then we had to climb a long grade to get up and over the buttes again, and she managed without seeming overly stressed. Robin and I talked about checking heart rates. She has an on board heart monitor, and I decided to buy a stethoscope. We finished the ride with a long walk down a sandy wash (well, ok, Belle was back to bits of jigging) which helps strengthen tendons for work in deep footing. Eventually we will be trotting in that sand, and we do not want to risk a bowed tendon. Anyone who has jogged on the beach knows how much harder it is to work in deep sand.

 

When we got back to the trailer, I pulled out the GPS and was a bit disheartened to see we had only gone 3.8 miles and 1 hr 15 minutes. Allowing for the fact that I didn’t set it right at the start, I will call it 4 miles in under 1 ½ hrs. On the up side, we did do Much harder terrain and neither horse was overly fatigued. We are going to have to step it up pretty quick. We have 9 weeks left for serious training – as the final week should be low-key work to allow the muscles to recover for peak performance at the race. Next Monday had better be a 10-mile ride.

 

I was sorry that I couldn’t wash Belle down after the ride – but there was a cold wind, and predictions of rain. So, I just let her roll and put her blanket on before dark. We are supposed to have warm weather on Friday, so we will hose down after a ride then and get rid of the deep down grit.

 

I haven’t reported on my plan to lose a pound a week. But the truth is, dispite TRYING to be good, in the face of it being Girl Scout Cookie season, I haven’t lost anything, and might have gained a little. But I also have been out of my thyroid pills for over a week, so I went to Wal-Mart to get a renewal. While I was there, I spotted a stethoscope for $16, AND a rather cool looking purple and black tee shirt! So, I added that to my shopping cart. Little by little, I am getting prepared. 9 weeks is going to fly by!

 

I made an album with the trail ride photo, and a couple pictures of little Belle - just to give everyone an idea of who she is and this is a view of the trail ride yesterday, with Robin and Aries in the lead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


IMG00107-20100308-1303

Views: 42

Comment

You need to be a member of Barnmice Equestrian Social Community to add comments!

Join Barnmice Equestrian Social Community

The Rider Marketplace

International Horse News

Click Here for Barnmice Horse News

© 2024   Created by Barnmice Admin.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service