Specialized: cautious success

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

Time constraints the past few weeks have essentially taken our theoretical training schedule and thrown it out the window.  Instead of our 6-8 mile rides, we’ve been doing speed rides 2-3 miles long and on pretty flat terrain.  I’m asking for that big power-trot the whole way out and back, minimal walk breaks and occasional canters thrown in for good measure.

The verdict?  Right now.. on the flat terrain and by ourselves, we can sustain about a 6.4mph average over 2.5 miles with few-to-no walk breaks.  Our mile-splits are faster than that on the way home when she’s pushing herself rather than me pushing her.  Even without trying hard and throwing in more walk breaks, we can hold a 5mph average over that 2-3 mile section.

The Eurolight is holding up nicely and I’m reasonably happy with it.  I’ve made some modifications and I’m not 100% sure I like how it’s fitting her, but it’s ‘good enough’ for the moment.  Later this year I’ll see about getting a rep to come out and take a look, I think, since she’s giving me headaches trying to figure out where ‘good enough’ should be.  Acquired girth loop, have various girths to choose from, a pile of English pads.. switched to leathers rather than the fenders, and I have leather covers ordered that will hopefully show up soon.

Our next 25 is in four weeks.  We’re not quite where I had hoped we’d be, but we’re not in a bad place.  Our downhill walk is markedly improved about half the time.  Our regular walk is still generally atrocious.  Our downwards transitions are still equally atrocious – come to think of it, I imagine those are likely related, so that will take some work.

7.44 miles last Thursday in the heat.  Just about a 4.5mph average – I didn’t ask for much speed, we walked half the downhills, trotted where she was willing.  Confetti was sweaty afterwards, but I never felt like I ran out of horse.  I asked, she went.  Occasionally I didn’t ask and she went anyway.

The Eurolight puts me in a more forwards/upright seat, rather than sitting back.  If I don’t actively lean back going down hills, Fetti walks because I’m putting weight on her forehand.  Soon as I lean back?  She’s willing to go again since we’re balanced.  Problem solved.

Slow 6.5 mile loop on Saturday, brisk 13 (just about a 4mph average!) with more downhill than up and a fair bit of gravel on Sunday, slow 6.5 again on Monday.  Pony got Tuesday off with how overwhelmed work has me right now, and may just do pony rides for a friend on Thursday.  Goal is to get at least one good ride in this weekend, and at least one next week, and whenever I have my week off we’ll do our long out & back to Wilder (with boots!) to see how things are holding up solo.

Arena work.. or not.

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

I am all for taking lessons with various people and keeping an open mind.  I think there’s something to be learned from lots of disciplines.  A past jumping trainer of mine has an excellent sense of body awareness and getting me to put myself in the right place – actually, I’m way overdue for a lesson with her! – and there’s a local dressage trainer who’s been great about addressing whatever issues I’ve had, giving me something to work on, and sending me off for a few months.  They know where my goals lie and they’re happy to work within that to help me achieve them.

I went into the lesson/clinic/thing on Sunday with the hope that it would be a similar experience.  I want to improve Fetti’s walk.  I have a zillion trots, two canters – though whether I can choose between a big forwards canter and a prim and proper little one is totally irrelevant here! – and generally a pitiful little walk with no impulsion whatsoever and no motivation to improve it regardless of what I may do to ask it of her.  I’ve tried nagging with alternate heels.  I’ve tried pushing with my seat.  I’ve tried getting off and leading.  I can accept that she may never do a big flying walk downhill, and that walk has improved somewhat since I started her on Cosequin ASU, but goodness!  It wouldn’t kill the pony to give me a better walk.  I know she’s capable, because she’ll do it from time to time, but I absolutely cannot get it on request.

We walked around the arena to warm up.  Fine.  I asked for a little trot.  Hissy fit and mild explosion – she wanted to bolt and buck and run and make it very clear that she did not want to do this.  I was not asking for a frame.  I was not asking for a bigger walk.  I just wanted a trot.  I yelled at her, held her, brought her back to a walk.  Trainer stated that she’s mad because I won’t let her go forwards.  Um.. okay?  I know this horse.  I’m not letting her go forwards because she wants to bolt and buck.  She won’t buck when she’s cantering, you say?  She’s bucked me off when cantering before.   In hindsight, that’s the only time she’s bucked me off.

Unfortunately, while I read the pony-tude as meaning “I don’t want to work in the arena right now, and I certainly don’t want to do it before I finish my breakfast!”, the trainer took this as showing a bigger problem.  Not only does Fetti not like arena work, but she’s not moving off my leg.  She’s resisting the bit!  There must be something in her past – maybe her most recent rides in the arena? – where she had bad arena experiences.

Here’s the catch.  When Confetti and I head on the trail, we have an initial discussion where she says she doesn’t want to go; then she gets over it, and after that, a verbal cue is often sufficient to ask for a trot.  Sometimes I’ll ask with a light leg cue, and occasionally I’ll get louder if I am convinced that I’m right in that she should be going faster/a gait up and I’m making a point to overrule her refusal. 

Actually, as I’m typing this out, I’m realizing I probably over-cue in the arena.. but I’m not sure if that’s out of necessity, habit, or what.  Hm.
And her most recent real arena work?  That was in dressage lessons with an experienced college student who’s likely to do lessons with her again this fall.  Pony was absolutely fine and has no problems with her.  She and I don’t do well together in the arena asking for Real Work.  I won’t deny that.

Trainer phrased it as me avoiding the problem, though.  I take her on the trail because I don’t want to work her in the arena, or at least that was the implication.  We do trail because we LIKE trails.  I don’t feel obligated to make my horse want to enjoy arena work when it’s not something I particularly enjoy at this point.  Circles?  Meh.  Can we do it?  Yes.  We’ll meander in the arena, I’ll work in there when other folks are in there on occasion.  I don’t feel like I can never go in the arena.  We’re just happier out on the trail.  It was simultaneously frustrating and entertaining to have her trying to talk me into doing more arena work.  I know she’s looking for more clients, but ugh!  I thought I made my goals pretty clear here… 

There is value in arena work.  Evenings where it’s too late to go on the trail, or winter days where it’s too muddy or whatever, or some summer days.. we’ve done some arena work, we’ll keep doing more, and Fetti will get herself weekly dressage rides this fall.  Neither of us particularly desires to do a ton of it, and I’m OK with that.  There’s a vast difference in gait quality and responsiveness between our arena work and our trail rides.  While our trails are still good and viable, I’d rather work her primarily on the trails and focus on those goals.  This winter, when that’s not an option, we’ll work in the arena and we’ll do more finesse and who knows, maybe throw some flying changes at her if we’ve fixed my canter issues enough by then.

Back to the goals, though.  I wanted a better walk.  The only improvement on my walk she was willing to make was to ask her to go on the bit and to improve the rhythm.  Speed should come last, she said.  I’m not sure if she understands that I have no impulsion as well, but frankly by that point it didn’t matter.  She thought Haflingers were gaited, so my confidence in her as a trainer was pretty well shattered.  It’s not like there are no Haflingers in dressage, or that she had no warning of the breed or whatever.  I was just generally so unimpressed.

On a more positive note:  I had a very limited ride time on Tuesday, so we headed out just for the initial flat section.  The way our trails go, it’s about a mile and a half of flat trails, then nearly all hill work but varying options from there on out.  We rode about 2.5 miles in total.  Average overall speed: 6.4mph.  We did a Big Trot nearly the whole time, pony broke a bit of a sweat.. that’s a ride we can aim to repeat once a week or so.  I am very, very pleased.

More and more tack

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

I just finished getting my western-y endurance saddle all set up.  New woolback girth, sheepskin seat saver, breastplate that fits the saddle properly.. all sorts of fun stuff, the first two of which I’d been putting off for months.

Then I found a Specialized at a ridiculously reasonable price, I threw the budget out the window, and bought the saddle sight unseen.

I now have a brown Eurolight, fleece seat, with western fenders and dressage billets.

The sheepskin cover won’t work – the seat isn’t big enough to give me that kind of extra room.  I have a sudden, major incentive to drop weight to make the saddle fit me a bit better.  I pulled my English saddlepads out of my storage box – the lovely, wonderful Woolback pad makes the saddle too narrow.  Two dressage girths came out of the same box, only to find that the 24″ girth has buckles a bit too small to comfortably work, and the 22″ (I think? It might be even smaller) girth needs a bit more length to comfortably go on.  Neither has D-rings, so I found one on Ebay at a reasonable price that appeared sufficiently small, fuzzy, and equipped with a D-ring in the center.  I bought a nylon D-attachment for the girths at Horse Expo, but that adds 3-4 inches to the length of the breastcollar, which makes it REALLY loose at the bottom strap.

Incidentally, dressage girths do not appear to ever come with D-rings at a moderate price. You start looking at $80-90+ for a 24″ piece of material.  Ridiculous.

 I mostly like how the saddle fits the horse.  Nice sweat patterns, moves out well enough.  The one main difference?  She’s not offering to trot down every hill, only 50% of them.  I’m baffled.  She’s not even trotting down some of that 50% when I ask.  I have no idea if it’s a saddle fit issue, or if she finally figured out that I didn’t actually want her trotting down all the hills all the time, and now she thinks she’s Not Supposed to Trot Down All Hills?  Which absolutely sounds ridiculous, but is a very real possibility.  I’d be a bit happier if she had stuck with the trotting down hills for another few weeks.

I’m hoping to have saddle fit addressed tomorrow, with a dressage trainer who supposedly does all sorts of saddle fitting stuff.  I also have a set of 1/2″ pads coming in the mail, and I’ll probably order a set of shims to play around with.  The crupper is still engaging on any steep hills, and it would be really nice if I could have the crupper at a normal horse kinda loose setting, and not a pony in hills must be snug setting.

But girths.  Back to girths.  The Ebay girth showed up, clearly brand new in bag but without tags, just as described.  Attached breastplate snugly as per my usual and headed out for a spin.  Everything went well heading out, my position at the canter is clearly not sufficient for her to offer one when I ask, but that’s all me and not her.  Our usual loop was blocked by a downed tree; we detoured over to a more hilly out-and-back.  Decent speed heading up the hills, decent heart rate given the heat, and then she took 5 minutes to pulse down to 60 when we paused at our turn-around point.  Granted, we did a Big Trot up the hill to that point, and it was hot – but that was only three miles in, and I’m not sure what to make of that.  Turned around, Big Canter up a hill, walk down, Big Canter up – screech into a spook-at-something-trot – back to a Big Trot when I asked.  Then things started jangling.  Left breastplate attachment, check.  Right attachment, check. Reach down and.. ARGH.  D-ring was no longer attached to girth, only to breastplate.

I have hopes it can be fixed, and I handed it off to my friend with the nice sturdy sewing machine to see if she can work her magic on it, but it’s really frustrating to have it break on the first ride out.

Work’s been busy, and I haven’t gotten in the rides that I was before Fireworks.  I think I’m okay with that.  The focus right now is more on getting that Big Trot more and having her hold it without ramping her HR up to the point where she wants to break to walk.  Our last mile-split before we made it home had a 6mph average.  For us – that is AWESOME to hold that for that long.  Next goal: to get that several times in a ride, in a row would be really nice…

“Any horse can do a 25”.

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

It’s something you hear a lot when you’re just starting out in endurance – any horse can do a 25-mile ride.  Theoretically, they can do it several months after being Pasture Puffs.

The conclusion I am coming to is that, in fact, not every horse can or should do a 25.  Maybe every Arab could do a 25.  But not every horse.

I’m working hard to keep my admittedly forwards Haflinger in sufficient shape to do a 25 and not quit on me partway through.  Her walk?  Terrible.  Her trot?  Decent, and on flat terrain we could probably comfortably sustain 7mph or so on conditioning rides when I’m asking for it.  I know we got a more forwards trot at the actual ride, so I’m comfortable saying she probably COULD do a bit more.  Get near 10mph, and I’m riding a very extended trot, and not one powered terribly well from behind.  She just doesn’t trot that fast.

We’re not conditioning on flat ground much, though.  We have a mile/mile and a half of flat trail, but it’s also heavily populated by hikers, dogs, and bikes.  Then we have some lovely sections of hills. Same with real rides out here – 25s aren’t generally on flat terrain that I’m aware of.  So the pony and I end up booking it on the flat sections, recovering on the downhills (though trotting some in our LDs out of necessity), and power-trotting up the hills as her recoveries allow.

The other thing generally not mentioned, and perhaps that doesn’t occur to most folks with Arabs or riding distance already – 5mph isn’t slow.  It’s a heck of a lot faster than your average trail rider goes.  My rides with friends?  3.5mph or so.  That’s not a sustainable pace for a LD.  My 6-7mph trot is Too Fast for them.  Your average trail rider doesn’t necessarily want a horse with that much go.

On the flip side, I do have a friend with a horse whose trot is closer to 8-9mph without her pushing him at all.  I think he could probably complete a LD just fine in a few months.  I know they’re out there.  But at my little barn, there just aren’t that many of them with that much forwards momentum.

Related: I made some point on the AERC facebook earlier this week somewhat to that effect.  I wouldn’t buy a Haflinger for endurance.  Would I buy a Haflinger as a lovely all-around horse and do endurance if it seemed suited?  Sure.  I love my pony and enjoy riding her, ‘slow’ finishes that we may have, and we’ll do LDs as long as she’s sound and happily completing them.  But looking specifically for my next endurance prospect?  Probably not a Haflinger. 

Fireworks 25

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

I am so, so happy with this horse.

Trailered over Thursday night, socialized (!), and hopped on bareback on Friday to evaluate how much horse I had.  Answer:  fire-breathing dragon.  Once I tacked her up, we headed out with a few Arabs to do something along the lines of 4-6 miles.  Fetti was a bit excessively forwards at the beginning.  In hindsight, I think she would have been fine with a horse in front of her, but was ready to explode going in front.  We did a FAST ride out to the river crossing, and then another gal and I headed home at a sedate walk.

More chatting, more socializing, attached all boots to all four feet, and finally off to vet in.  Comments: ‘windpuffs (hm, that’s a new one), grade 2 lameness RH.’  Er… what?  “I’d like to bring her back later when things quiet down for you [vets] and have you take a look at her without the boots, just for good measure.”

One mild panic later (what the hell happened to my horse?!), I pulled boots, wondered if I was totally nuts to ask a 17 year old horse to start doing LDs, and dutifully killed time for an hour or so.  We finally headed back over, boot-less.  Comments: ‘she looks fine now!  Must be something with those back boots.’  “If you have another minute, can I zip back, put the front boots on, and have you take one more look?”  I know these trails.  I know she can do 80% of it barefoot, and I know she will not trot the remaining 20% without boots in front.  Ran off, added front boots, still totally fine.  I don’t get it.  Five days later, I still don’t get it.  (Luckily, they’d changed the rule requiring hoof protection on all four feet to apply only to the 50s.)

One entertaining ride meeting later, fed the pony dinner, told her to quit trying to beat up the mares in paddocks next to hers, and sleep.

..which, of course, meant that I woke up the next morning to Fetti kicking at the pipe corral and other horses.  Mares!  In hindsight, I should have fed significantly extra dinner, and I’m pretty sure she was in heat.

Tacked up Saturday morning and hopped on, despite the pony not inhaling as much of breakfast as I had hoped.  I fully expected a fire-breathing dragon.  Instead, I had a fairly polite fire-breathing dragon who appeared perfectly sane and felt like a firecracker.  While standing around/walking in circles at the start, I heard someone tell their rider “She rides these trails all the time, ride with her.”  Mildly baffled that they were referring to me, I figured word had gotten around, who knows.. I told the rider I was aiming for slow and non-eventful.. luckily she was too.

The controlled start was more of a problem for K’s mare, who was convinced she was Racing and Should Be In Front!, but Fetti amazingly had a brain and settled for trotting politely as long as we stayed in eyesight of the horses ahead of us.  Eventually horses spread out.  K and I stuck to the back of the pack to save her mare’s sanity – I’m pretty sure Fetti didn’t care.  This was one of the few parts of the ride where I probably could have asked for more speed, but knowing the uphills that were coming, I intentionally chose to stick with Speed Slow.  We actually tucked in behind Julie Suhr for a bit, walking the downhills and trotting up, and generally letting everyone pass.  I discovered that the mare’s owner (not K) was a local instructor who knows the Haflingers, so she really did know what she was doing putting her rider with me.  K kept trying to apologize for slowing us down, and I kept explaining that we were fine with it.  It wasn’t really that much slower than I wanted to go – just slower than Fetti wanted, and this time, she didn’t get to choose.  The mares paced well together, anyway, and Fetti’s happier with another horse nearby.

The oh-so-terrifying river crossing that people worry about?  Total non-issue.  Fetti and I have crossed that river numerous times.  K’s mare followed us in.  Good photos, no drama, lots of smiles.  It’s uphill from there; we trotted most of it, walked either when Fetti asked or her heart rate looked particularly high, trotted again.  My goal was to get to the trot-by around 9.  I think we made it around 9:15, passed a handful of folks on and off in the process, and generally re-acquired sanity. 

The loop in Wilder was very pretty and comparably nice and flat.  We trotted a good chunk of that through about 15 miles – at that point, we hit some slightly more significant uphills, Fetti didn’t know where we were, and her enthusiasm was waning.  We’d walk a minute, I’d push for a trot, we’d trot a bit, repeat.  I never had to push particularly hard, but I did have to push.  It didn’t help that we missed a turn and probably lost 15-20 minutes on this loop, backtracking to figure out where we’d gone wrong, and finally finding the turn. 

Both mares ate and drank well at the vet check, 16 miles in.  We probably could have cut a few minutes off here if we’d pulsed down right away, but we left promptly and I don’t think we lost all that much time.  We pulsed in precisely at 11, 15 minutes past what I was hoping.. so aside from our detour, we were pretty much right on target.  (I’m guessing we were at the check around 10:50-10:55.)

I knew the final eight miles would be heading home, so Fetti had a bit of a second wind.  I’m not sure she would have been quite as thrilled if we were headed in some unknown direction.  We trotted the slight downhills, walked the technical stuff or when the pony wanted a break, trotted again.  As planned, I hopped off and jogged the one major downhill, hopped back on at the bottom.  Front boots had both stayed on so far, so I took K’s advice and just left them on.  Should be fine, right?

Wrong.  One of the hills after the river crossing, I let her canter.  I looked at her feet at the top of the hill and saw one hoof, one boot.  Frankly, I would have left the boot there and gone back for it later in the week if the riders coming behind us hadn’t pointed it out not far back from where we were.  Jogged down the hill, attached boot to saddle, pulled other boot off and attached it to saddle.  I knew we were a bit closer to time than I had hoped, but I also knew we both had horse left.. so we powered on and trotted all the uphills, walked the steep downhills, and decided it wasn’t the end of the world if we came in over time.

We trotted our way in through the final section, coming into the finish at 1:19.  I pulled tack, sponged her off, and stood her in the shade; she came down at 1:29.  K’s mare pulsed down promptly at 1:30.

Slower than I wanted?  Sure, slightly.  But Fireworks was a more challenging ride for the pony than I anticipated, with all the steep hills.  Had I pushed a little more and had we not missed the turn, I think we could have been in at 1 – right on target for what I had hoped.  Fetti kept her brain, took care of herself, never quit, and never put a foot wrong.  She stayed manageable for the controlled start (a polite fire-breathing dragon indeed), tolerated horses passing, passed horses, and showed nearly no reaction to K’s mare cantering sideways behind her for a fair bit of the ride. 

Tack issues: my boots rubbed the back of both heels.  Trotting a lot of downhills made my already-sore knee even more sore.  Other than that, I was actually quite comfortable all the way through.  I didn’t send anything to the vet check, and that was fine.  Carrots don’t quite stay in the side of the pommel bag when Fetti shakes, so I need to remember to keep it zipped and/or keep my vet card in another pocket that stays zipped. 

Fetti was good and tired afterwards.  It actually had a few people concerned.  She was happy to eat everyone else’s food, but wasn’t hugely interested in her own.  She kept walking in circles in her stall, and finally dropped to nap.  (Apparently she did it again later when I wasn’t around, too.)  I’m reasonably confident nothing was actually wrong with her, just TIRED and ready for a break.

I hopped on her bareback on Sunday and again yesterday (Tuesday) – she feels GOOD.  She’d like to go out and work some more.  Time off is not easy.  We’ll do a brisk loop of some sort on Thursday, just to get both of us out and moving again.

We came in a little closer to time than I would have liked, but she pulsed down in 10 minutes, so.. we’ll work on speed.  I can live with that.

Pre-ride rest, and why I struggle with the idea

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

Part of the reason I’m trying really hard to blog all my rides is to get a better sense of how much I’m actually asking Fetti to do.  Also.. because we have all these oddball moments that really should get written down before I blend them all together.

Saturday’s ride: Big Basin, attempting redemption.  My navigational skills clearly need work.  I would argue that the ranger that gave me directions to the trail could have done better, though.  Verdict on Big Basin: not particularly great for horses unless we’re really missing something.  Parking is limited-to-nonexistent for a three-horse slant.  We were informed that in future, we should be riding not on the human trail eight feet from the road, but ON the (not park-only) road where cars frequently speed by.  Umm, no?!? 
We were out for at least four hours and on-trail for probably half that.  We spent a good hour trying to find the fire road, in the process going through most of one busy campground.. complete with unruly children who all wanted to see the pretty ponies.  Comes with the territory, kids won’t wander up to us if we keep moving, it’s fine.  Except they DID run up to us, they dragged a scooter or two (not with wheels on the ground, either!) over in the process, and they did pet the now-nervous ponies on the legs when we said we had to keep going and this wasn’t a good time to get close.  Yes.  Legs.  WTF, children, WTF.
Normally I am not a huge fan of children, but this was the first time seeing them running towards us actually made me nervous.

On the bright side, we did eventually find our destination, we made it a bit further out than originally planned, and we returned to the trailer before we ran completely out of daylight.  Yay!

Sunday, Fetti and I moseyed around.  We went for a short 30-minute trail ride, her brain was not with me, and she got mistaken for an Arab.  No real work.

Tuesday, even shorter but more intelligent trail ride.  Mile in under 20 minutes?  Still not real work, we were at Western Jog for most of it.

So.. to the original point.  Thursday through today, we probably did 30 miles at the most.  I think that’s probably a fair estimate for most weeks, 25-30 miles or so.  My plan had been to stick with roughly that mileage and taper off to Not Real Work the next two weeks.  I may be revising that due to a combination of Mel, Funder, and the weather.  It’s supposed to be in the 90s this weekend, so rather than riding 4 miles to and from the obstacle challenge, Fetti and I are getting a ride (we might still ride over in the morning, but NOT back in the afternoon).  Sunday I’ll mosey around and if the heat sticks, not do much.  She’ll get trimmed Tuesday, so either Tuesday or Friday we’ll go trot some Big Hills to make sure the boots stick.. and then we are simply moseying around until the 13th, if I get on at all.

I grew up in a horse world where all the horses were used in an hour or two of lessons 6-7 days a week.  I rode Fetti 6-7 days a week for my last two years of college, and I am well aware she is much better behaved since I put her in regular work.  There’s the catch, though.  Am I equating ‘better behaved’ with ‘has less energy’?  Could I productively use that energy now?  Her Big Trot used to scare me – can I get more of that Big Trot now with less of a workload?

Could I, theoretically, condition for a 50 with lots of moseying rides* and a small handful of longer workouts?
*Moseying rides qualifying as shorter rides where 1. I can sit the trot and 2. I’m not hauling on her to slow her down – so either entirely at a walk or behind a horse whose speed she respects.

Maybe.  Maybe not.  I’m really happy with how well she handled the 18 miles by herself, so if we can make time and get good recoveries at 25… maybe my pony will surprise me with more left at the end than I expect.

To Wilder!

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

Thursday’s goal: ride to Wilder and/or ride out for 5-6 hours. 

Furthest she’s been (aside from the LD last year) with another horse: 14-15 miles or so.
Furthest she’s been by herself: 12 miles.
Amount of Pony Attitude and Energy noted on Tuesday: exceptionally high.

I booted up all four feet, attached heart rate monitor, and we took a quick spin around the back trails with another Haffie.  Discovery #1: Slow Jog was not an option.  Fetti wanted to GO.

Okay, pony, you want to go?  Let’s head out by ourselves then and let you move.  Cue 15 minute discussion about forwards down to the river.  “Discuss with a mare, pray if it’s a pony”?  Yeah, I’ve got both, and sometimes she lets me know it.  Once we finally made it down the tiny downhill, all was well in the pony’s world.  Totally over it.

Decent clip for the first few miles, but nothing spectacular.  She doesn’t move out as well without other horses, but there aren’t many that I ride with that will keep up.  Trot where she would, walk break where she asked, ask for a trot again at 90-100bpm. 

Discovery #2: LF boot coming off was not a fluke on Tuesday.  Hopped off, fixed it, led her up the rest of the hill and down the (long, steep) other side to the river..
Discovery #3: Fetti promptly drank at the river.  GOOD MARE.  Not just a little bit, either, but quite a lot.  Pony is learning, if slowly, to drink when it is offered. 

Crossed the river with no problems, walk/trotted up the hill.. and the hill.. and crossed the road.. and up the hill.  It’s a lot of uphill all at once.  Pony was well-behaved and reasonably forwards.. looks like we stuck to a nearly-4mph pace through that section. 

Discovery #4: With four boots and a bit of encouragement, Fetti is perfectly content to trot through gravel.  Yay!  Well worth the cost, then.  Mostly trotted all through the gravel sections, no problems whatsoever.

Nine miles out from the barn, we arrived at the vet check spot for Fireworks.  We hung out in the shade for a minute or two waiting for her to pulse down to under 60, then turned around to reverse course and head home.  She knew we were headed home and was happy to trot when asked.  I asked for several full stops in hopes of getting the silly horse to pee.. with absolutely no luck.  Sigh.

Discovery #5: I hopped off and jogged down the long, moderately-steep downhill.  Fetti.. trotted with me most of the time.  Clearly she was still feeling good, since the few times I’ve tried that I’ve been practically dragging her behind me.

She drank again at the river crossing, drinking well again, headed up the hill and pulled the LF boot again doing a Big Trot uphill.  Sighed, hopped off, fixed, got back on.  Pony wanted to fly up the hills; I kept glancing at the LF to make sure the boot was attached.  Good thing, too, because on yet another Big Uphill Trot the LF boot came totally off.  Sighed, hopped off, walked back downhill and retrieved the boot from the side of the trail.  At that point I pulled the RF, tied both to the saddle, got back on, and let her move out with no fear of losing a boot.

And move out she did.  Fetti was still feeling good enough to gallop up several different hills when I gave her a verbal OK.  She walks at the top, walks the downhill or most of it, then eagerly awaits the verbal OK to tell her she can go again.  I’m sure it’s probably terrible to let her do that, but she is clearly having SO MUCH FUN.  It also dashed any thoughts I might have about her being exhausted or worn out.  We did a brisk trot most of the way home and she pulsed down reasonably well once we got back to the barn.

Discovery #6: I went through both my full Nalgene bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade.  I did not get a migraine.  I sense major electrolyting for myself in the future.

I’ve emailed back and forth with Renegade and have a few things to try to keep that LF boot on, though being 6 weeks out from a trim is likely contributing.  Optimistic that it’s fixable.

18 miles, 4mph average.  I love this horse.

Lessons learned

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

Yesterday’s ride: 6 miles, 3mph.

Lessons learned:
1. There is such a thing as ‘too slow’ for the pony.  Walking/slow jog: tooooo slow, when she never gets to move out.
2. Fetti will not tell me when she pulls a boot off and is brainfried.  Pastern strap stayed on, bottom of the Renegade came off.  She was happily trotting up a hill, thankyouverymuch.  I’m betting it came off when she spooked and ran up the side of the trail.
3. Fetti will, however, stand nicely and wait for me to fix said boot and get it properly attached to her foot again.

Group rides may be off the table, at least for the most part until we’re done with our rides for the year.  It’s not fair to spend 95% of our rides either at a moderate speed (4mph) or asking for more trot, and the other 5% asking her to spend the entire time at a pitiful Western jog. Especially when the windy weather has her pretty well wired to start with. 

Hills vs flats; are we prepared?

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

On Saturday, we went to a local endurance club meeting about an hour away.  Lucky for me, another rider lives quite close to my barn and was willing to give Fetti and I a ride over.  We were on the ponies by 10:15 and headed out for a moderately brisk ride.

We rode here at Calero with the same club last year, actually around this same time of year.  It was hot, but we did 11 miles or so with a 4.5mph average moving speed.  Sure there were some major uphills and downhills.. there were also a lot of flat sections where we could move out.  I finished that feeling like I had some horse left and given a break, she would have kept going.

This year?  I feel like she ought to be in better shape.  I know I need to put some weight back on her, and I’ve nearly doubled her hay as a result (the horrors, the pony might get FOUR flakes of hay in a day rather than two!).  Otherwise, though, we’re training at a faster speed on a regular basis and I would like to think it has helped.

There were a lot of hills on the loop we did this time.  It was just me and the other rider – with her Arab in 50-miler shape – and we kept to a pretty comfortable trot whereever Fetti was willing.  I think our average speed was 5mph or slightly over for the first part of the ride.  Then it got warmer, the hills kept coming, and Fetti asked for a few walk breaks.  Looking at my phone-GPS climb stats, there really wasn’t much in the way of flat sections.  Total elevation gain: 2,450ft.  We walked a good chunk of the last two miles heading back to the trailer.

Approximately 2 hours and 8 miles, so a rough 4mph average.  Pony was willing to trot again heading home, but really just had to trot to keep up with the Arab’s walk.  Once she gets her walk breaks, she seems to recover pretty well (although I’m not entirely sure she drops to 60-70bpm all the time…) and is willing to trot on.  She drank well every time the opportunity was given to her.  She was quite sweaty by the end of it.

Lessons learned: Pony does need her walk breaks.  Serious Hills are still not our thing.  I need a scoop of some sort and really ought to order it ASAP if I’m buying one.

The fact that we’re not consistently clocking 5mph training rides scares me.  I’m not sure it should, but there you go – it does. We weren’t last year, either, and we still finished (albeit barely).

Fireworks has more in the way of Hills than Ride Bear did.  I know this because we’ve ridden them.  That will make things both harder and easier: we know the hills, we just don’t LIKE the hills.
Fireworks ought to be cooler.  That is a HUGE plus in our favor.
Starting at 7:30 or whenever the nice early ride time is?  Huge plus as well.  That puts us at what I anticipate being the worst hill (for us) by 9 if not waaay earlier, still plenty cool. 

Our moving-trot is a bit over 5mph, and I can get that trot even going solo.  With other horses and (hopefully) a bit of race-brain, 6mph should be doable.  If I can get enough speed in the first few miles, slower for the hill, trot through UCSC, and if our time doesn’t look godawful at the vet check?  I think we can do it.

I think we can, I think we can, I think we can.. I feel like the little train that could.  I hope.

Back to the Deck

Topaz Dreams Posted on by

When Mel wrote about having some heavy-mileage weeks and some low-mileage weeks, I briefly wondered how I’d manage the latter.  Answer: life!

After our 12-mile ride last Monday, we took it pretty easy for the rest of the week.  We went out for a slow two miles on Thursday, then back out with gaited horses for a moderate-to-slow five miles.  I switched to another pony for my third ride that day – it just didn’t seem mentally fair to ask her to do ANOTHER slow ride where she would have to be in front.

Horse Expo was Saturday, so Friday’s riding consisted of walking around the arena bareback in the early morning.  Expo was HOT HOT HOT for this redwood-adjusted girl, and it reinforced to me that I do not handle sudden heat well.  How will I handle that this summer?  I’m not sure yet.  Electrolytes, maybe.  Lots more water for me, definitely.

Saturday’s ride was maybe a mile or two in the semi-darkness.  Nice and uneventful until Fetti spooked at a housecat when we were just about home.  Sigh.

Sunday we trailered out, tried a new place, asked the ponies to do some stuff they probably shouldn’t have, discovered just how much my poor pony will do if I ask (although she’ll make it clear she’s less than thrilled about it when water crossings try to make her miserable), missed our turn, and hit some very, very not-horse-friendly trail.  We turned around and aborted the whole thing.  It was the most stressful ride I’ve had in ages and none of it was the pony’s fault.  

Bareback again on Monday, not doing much.  Short trail ride on Tuesday, where Fetti felt totally OK even after Sunday’s disastrous trail, and the other pony was a bit stiff. 

Thursday?  Thursday, we went for the first Real Ride in a week and a half.  Off to the deck by ourselves with only minor fits!  6.48miles, 4.3mph average, which includes stopping briefly on three different occasions for children to pet the social pony.  We also encountered a skunk, but I paused the tracking for that one – I wasn’t about to rush past the skunk.  I still have no idea what the correct way to proceed is for that.  I’m pretty sure that’s our best speed yet, and she was still happy to trot home.  No HRM – it was hot, and I didn’t really want to know, just wanted her to go if she was willing – but I’ll add that back on for our next ride.

My main purchase at the Expo was a sheepskin cover.  I’ve been riding with a seat cover pretty much since I got the saddle, but the edges on my seat-only non-sheepskin one were starting to get irritating.  I went with the partial-fender cover since it bugs me when my lower leg slides around much.  So far, I do like it, but it definitely puts me in a slightly different position.  It’s also not very comfortable for walking around since there’s not enough cushion at the seat itself.  The flaw there is definitely in my saddle, not so much in the cover, and I’m not sure if it’s going to be an issue long-term or if I’ll end up getting used to it. There’s some adjusting yet to be done before I’m 100% satisfied with the fit and my position in it.