6 miles today

I had hoped to go farther and L was actually perfectly willing but it was so invitingly cool that Ole had come along and was not just going to hang at the irrigation ditch so *I* cut things short when we were in the big field I rode around yesterday and suggested we needed to double back to the dog.  Then we did take the north 1/2 mile bit and went by the road machinery, they were taking the day off so it was fairly tame for the horses but this was good for boosting L's confidence so I think she'll be more on board for longer rides from home into new spots going forward.  We did double back down that hill to fetch Ole as he had found someone's discarded lunch or something and then was snooping around that spot looking for more and not coming and I didn't want to chance him trying to play with other dogs out for a walk or in their own yards instead of heading home on his own, want to keep the neighbors happy.  So only about 27 miles this week counting from Mon-Sunday.  

Trying to remind myself that exercising often is the current big thing in endurance so taking 5 rides to rack up a decent weekly total is not so bad but I need to get some 3 to 4 hour rides that include trotting and canter in to feel like Sadie is ready for an AERC LD plus have exposed her to more of the stuff we'll see on the rides so that I can have confidence I won't have to get off and lead her half the last loop if we end up by ourselves vs able to tag along with a horse or small group.

7.5 miles today, took a couple of hours.

I called it heat training although the temp was not real high it felt pretty warm except a few patches of nice breeze.   They are putting in a pipeline next to the dirt road I usually start my ride on.  Pipeline will start 1/2 mile into ride.  Today it was road graders and stuff out there.   They were working a bit north of us, not on the eastbound stretch right next to my normal path but Sadie was good going to that corner.   I turned her south through the long grass rather than staying on the road.   There was no reason to risk possibly getting spooked into the old, downed wire fence right along road.  Sadie was very happy as going south through the long grass meant she could do some snacking. 

Went across the paved road to that field again.  Checked out where I can ride this fall and winter after the wheat is harvested but decided it would be NOT be good to try to between the field edge and the fence around the new subdivision,  on a green horse a high probably of her spooking into the crop.

But I want to get a longer loop going since I'm just riding at home so often so when we got back to the pavement we crossed the irrigation ditch and rode the field east of the ditch and south of the paved road.    That made a good loop and I can be ambitious and lead Sadie on a path through the neighborhood or get brave and ride her but I'll probably lead her the first time. 

L wimped out on meeting in Aurora so I won't get trees and water crossing work tomorrow.  She made a time excuse but meeting in Aurora is a shorter drive for her so I think its really nerves.  I told her no problem on just riding here.   Trying to force her would do me no good,  she'd be nervous which would translate to Lady being a bit spooky and I would not have a calm horse in front of Sadie anyway.   If I can't get hooked up with the endurance rider that is tentative for July 5th or some other endurance folks I'm going to have to either go out with dad if he'll come after I called Razz a spazz, or just go by myself.  I would not be too nervous going to Sharptail alone because it is miles off the highway.   At worst, if Sadie dumped me and bolted and then did not hang at the parking lot she'd probably hang at the fence of some horse places off the dirt road.   

I am determined to get Sadie exposed to trail situations.   She does so awesome trotting and cantering through the rough fields.  She feels so efficient and she does not get winded,  I think she has potential to be good at the endurance and the thought of her potential is a good motivator to get me back into a riding groove; I've gotten pretty lazy the last few years or so. 

4.5 miles today

Had to push Sadie that we are riding, not grazing a couple times but she is doing quite well.   It was cooler today but felt a bit muggy to me.   Ole was pretty energetic though.  He took a diagonal short cut home instead of staying along the ditch and taking more cooling dips.   I didn't see him shortcut so I doubled back for him on the ditch just a little ways and made Sadie do the little hill 3 times.  I like to repeat the hill anyway so making sure Ole was not lagging was just a convenient excuse.

Only about 4 miles today.

Maybe I should go ahead and put Lady on the Chaste berry herb I got a few weeks ago and then decided she didn't need.   Maybe I should have chiro out for her too.  She probably buggered herself up a little bit when she set back and cut my finger memorial day.   I have had little sympathy for the little idiot but last year she was a help to keep Shade motivated and now she is holding Sadie back.   I need to fix things so that having L come out and ride Lady is not "oh shoot, we have to limit the ride today."  and I think there is little bit of Lady component to that and its not just L being wimpier than last year and the year before.

jingling curb chains that I can meet up with an endurance person on July 5th for a training ride.   L is tentatively on board to go to Aurora where we rode last fall this saturday.  I'm hoping there is some water to cross on that trail and it would be good tree work for Sadie if L/Lady don't go all jumpy on me.   L is remembering how well Lady did there just last fall so it might be a good ride for her to get some groove back on Lady and Sadie has been there before so she should be pretty solid even if Lady is not as bold as she was last fall. 

I'm sort of wanting to offer to meet up with an internet person that doesn't have a trailer.  I had thought I could get a solid lead horse out of the part draft or could put this fearless girl on Lady and have a great lead horse for Sadie --and maybe I still would but its a teen rider.  Last year I thought she was completely fearless,  she was riding bareback all the time and the draft goes through water going to and from his pasture to the barn and loves water anyway....

 But just a couple days ago her mom posted that she is having some jitters this year so if I go, I'll take Grey to ride and Lady for the mom or brother  or I'll just ride Lady and I'll be the lead horse and need to do it just to be nice and not have any resentments if there is no confidence bounce where I get a solid riding partner to go out with me and Sadie. 

I did have a fun little ride this morning

Went 5.5 to 6 miles (should revive one of my GPS units I guess) and Sadie was good, mostly cantered or trotted in the summer fallow field again, was not ouch footed after the monday trim -she is being a great little ride this year.  I am Clinging to this because trying to connect with a distance rider to meet at a trail head and ride with them is so frustrating right now.   Thought I was lined up with some folks near Ft Collins and 1 from quite a ways out east but now the Ft Collins folks are planning to meet someplace that is an hour or more northwest of Ft Collins and I'm reluctant to drive that far for just a day ride even if they are willing to start later so I could get there. 

 So now trying to connect with the out east rider, asked her about the day the Ft Collins folks are riding was she meeting with them or would she like to meet somewhere closer --and she replied back that she is only free on Sundays.  So I messaged back would she like to meet somewhere on Sunday and have not heard back from her to that.   I'd like to get a yes or no because if I can't find someone to meet that is a closer drive to me I might bite the bullet on the longer drive if that group are willing to start later where I could get there w/o taking off at the crack of dawn.

Our neighbor that has been mostly doing our chores is going to be gone over the 4th and weekend after and with the difficulty I'm having getting training in between my sluggishness and not being able to connect with anyone since the June 15 ride with the endurance mentors I've been having cold feet about going the endurance ride so I took that as a sign I should just abort going to the ride. 

Unfortunately I did tell dad that part of that reason was that his horse is a spazz and not a good lead horse so now he is in kind of a pout that "I am blaming Razz and he doesn't do anything bad"  Well true Razz is not disruptive if there is a  lead horse -- he follows well through water or brush or whatever -- but he won't assume the steady lead horse role if the green horse is nervous so I don't want to ride my greenie with Razz if I have not had her over the trails the day before so she is not too nervous unless I would know that there would be someone else to be the lead horse and that cannot be counted on.

I'm STILL stewing about L being such a wimp.   I should have known she would be useless for being the leader.  She was a big wimp about a tiny bit of sheet lightning way in the distance,  then she was a big wimp about riding in a bit of heat and oh needed to take umpteen snack breaks when I took her riding last year --but she was better the year before when I took her and Lady to a place I hadn't been to in ages that had some seriously technical trails and I forgot about her wimpiness last summer.   

Even at home she is a big wimp about OMG snakes even though they are just harmless bullsnakes, so I really really should have realized this is not a personality that can be useful to babysit me when I'm on my green horse even though Lady is pretty good about trail stuff but I'm so ignorant when it comes to reading people that I flat missed it.   I should have known a Baracky supporter would be useless when it cames time for her to be the one helping me out instead of things just being easy peasy for her while I did the work and took the lead on everything.

Two days off in a row for my chunky monkey.

And I have not heard any more for the endurance group on FB about plans to ride this Saturday.   I hope that does not fall through,  I really need to make some connections to some ride buddies so I'll get my greenie out and about and so on.   I've been too much of a slug when I should have been riding her and hooking up during off season when more folks would be content to go slow. 

I had the thought that when I had Grey Moun I would often ride him 10-14 miles in the morning before heading to work.   That slipped some with Shade, didn't have as good options to make longer loops from home at the new place etc.  Now I have a horse that I think is a better raw athlete and it took me riding 6 out of 7 days to get in a 30 mile week on her.   I've got to do better than that. 

farrier work today so no riding

I figured I would skip shoes because Sadie's hoof wall is kind of thin.  Picked D's brain about it anyway.  He said he'd probably have to use race nails because her wall is thin or maybe skip where the normal third nail goes and nail closer to the heel --he said that would stop the flaring and also limit the flexing of the hoof.  I  do not want to limit flexing on the hoof, what I have read is that flexing is a big part of their shock absorption.   Its a reason I prefer shoes is I feel like the hoof boots must by their design limit the flexing more than ideal whereas a normally applied shoe won't do that, but I would worry that a shoe nailed closer to the heel on both the inside and outside hoof wall would limit flexing and at least with a boot that flexing is unaffected when the boot is off.

I am having a hard time with early afternoons at work feeling sleepy.  I need to start making a do list every night so I have projects in mind, maybe that will get the juices flowing.  

seven plus miles today

L came out and rode Lady.   Lady was a good girl and led the way past the tree grove on the way out when Sadie was being a dufus about it.   On the way back I asked Sadie to trot by it.  She did that well but was going to take off when she was past it --couple of bouncy, high air canter strides and I lost a stirrup but she did let me slow her right down to a trot.     We did an extra little bit to the north today and then Sadie and I did some serpentine in the field while L and Lady just stayed near the irrigation ditch where it was smoother so their total was only 6 miles. 

  I grained while we saddled and plumb forgot that Lady likes to drink after her grain  She was Thirsty when we got back so that may have been part of her languor.    I'm pretty happy with Sadie,  she was a little annoyed at the start in the summer fallow but got over it quickly and did a good amount of extra canter and trot.   I think she is a natural for the distance riding if her feet hold up,  she did not get winded doing the work in the field.   She is such a natural, figures out how to move efficiently and not work harder than need be.   Which is good, as I am not some super rider that can really help a horse with something like that. 

A good 6 miles today.

6 miles, still not the distance I should be getting but with riding 4 or 5 days a week it is getting Sadie into pretty good shape.   Today I asked her to cross the road where we usually turn around and we did a couple miles of work in newly worked summer fallow field. 

 I love this little mare,  it was safe but not nice footing with some big clods.  Sadie does this awesome careful, balanced slow canter when the footing is uneven like this.    I might have to get my butt out and do some serious conditioning the next few years to not be holding her back.  Sire and grand sire raced on the track so she is bred for athletic potential. 

Just 4 miles today. Rode with L and Lady

I guess I have still not completely accepted the limitations of  L/Lady.   I suppose I should have been coaching L more the past couple of years.  She was getting along fine when she had more confidence though.  And I was somewhat projecting what I wanted instead of seeing what was there wrt to having a buddy horse for taking Sadie although there was definitely backsliding this winter.   So I was kind of crabby at situation when L was not doing anything new today, just that the little stuff she does like saying "MOMMY I'll have you check Lady's cinch"  was (extra) annoying to me today.   I am not Mommy to my horses --they are horses -- NOT substitute children. 

But Sadie did pretty good.   She is now yielding to my desires to ride alongside or in front of Lady and maintain a decent pace with no fuss and only minimal attempts to just go back to ducking right behind Lady.   Its not been many rides since I decided to make that change and starting asking her to come alongside &/or go out in front and she is getting into the swing of being the leader pretty quickly.   Pretty good considering Sadie was only 20 months when I got Lady so she's been deferring to the little white Paso Fino more than half her life.

I have to decide what to do to get conditioning work this weekend.   I think I'm going to just have to extend my ride from home although possibly dad would be up for hauling out somewhere.  But we have to stack some hay and he was off shooting the last 2 weekends so he might want to just take it easy. 

A litte over 5 miles today. Kept a good pace.

I really should find an old notebook to be Sadie's training log but this is better than nothing.   I skipped riding yesterday, it felt hot and muggy so instead of riding I  set up fly bait stations because I've been seeing flies on the horses.  I  also sprayed Grey and Shade down pretty good and hit Sadie with a good dose of the Rio Vista which has not been doing much to deter the flies.    I have gone some years almost until August before breaking out fly bait, but I'm not sure if the flies are that much thicker or if its just that they think Sadie is a prime landing spot and with her skin allergy scare last year I am hyper alert to every bug and bug bite on her.

Today I went just over 5 miles with Sadie.   It was much nicer than yesterday,  Ole came along and probably went 4 miles.  He was feeling good and enjoying being able to hop in the irrigation ditch to cool off.    I asked Sadie to maintain a steady trot quite a bit today and she obliged.   She is coming on great.   We did the sandy hill just twice as Ole was not lagging much at all. 

Under 4 miles today but we did our little sand hill 3 times

I decided to head home to keep Ole from over-doing it but turned around at the top of the little hill (probably 200 yards) and went down and back up 3 times.   Sadie spooked hard at the clump of wild iris.   She is so goofy,  she was trucking along not worried about the big grader that we were meeting until it was quite close and then she was not real fussed but I let her turn around and retreat a little bit and got off and led her past it but she has decided that the clump of flowers in the middle of the road needs a reaction. 

4.5 miles on Sadie today

Well I should log the rides in some fashion.   I did not keep her to much of a working pace but it was a pretty good ride.   I got off and led her past the scary tree grove rather than going around it.  I'm going to have to commit to getting off when she is being silly and I'm not willing to do a big battle of wills about going by something.  Going around is teaching her that she must be correct to say "its too scary to go that way" 

Have to send the endurance mentors a nice thank-you email and figure out what I want to do for training ride next weekend now.

Sadie's training log

Lets see.   I rode TH-Sunday last week 4 or 5 miles each ride.   Then Tues, Thur, Friday this week 4-5 miles each ride  --riding at home pretty flat.    Today I hauled her out and gracious endurance mentors in the area babysat her through a foothills trail ride with trees and stuff.   8 miles, 2.5 hours riding time,  a bit over 3 hours total.    She loaded w/o much fuss and was wonderfully calm riding in the trailer.  

Behaved pretty well,  a couple times she went in front on open stretches but she was skeered when the trail went back into trees and had to have another horse lead the way then.   We all dismounted and led quite a ways down a rocky section of trail and Sadie was quite good about not crowding me,  a couple times she went off trail looking for grass or to take a shortcut but overall very nice, its something the trainer who started did with her a little bit but I have only ever led her a short ways when something was scary so I was very pleased that she was so good, did not get ancy when the pair in front was walking faster than me and so on.   

Well I'm riding Sadie more often, now need to add in more longer rides

I loaded her in the little trailer today.   She was pretty nervous.  I am half tempted to cart Grey Moun to the trailhead tomorrow just as a mellow hauling buddy in the trailer.   But I don't like leaving a horse tied at the trailer while I'm off riding so I think Sadie will just have to deal with being hauled by herself when I go meet the endurance gurus that graciously agreed to babysit her tomorrow for a trail ride.

I rode her Th-Sunday last week and Tues, Thurs, Friday so far this week and the frequency and having higher expectations instead of babying her is showing results.   One silver lining to Shade being lame.  I sure hope Shade gets good relief with the previcoxx though.   Yesterday I thought she was walking better but today it looked like she is scuffing the outside of her hoof again.

   I need to soak that foot overnight with wet cotton in an easyboot and do more rasping to even it up.  Farrier isn't scheduled until the 24th and I need to keep that foot balanced.   I was thinking about trying to keep it in a pressure wrap for a month and I still think that it might be helpful if I could stabilize the knee for a good length of time - but my initial wrap job was sliding down after just two days and I don't want to bow a tendon trying to help her knee and the hot weather is not helpful in keeping a wrap on so I shelved that thought for now. 

LOL. I shared an NSA joke pic on FB and no one knows me today

Well I have just a limited # of friends anyway and they are all from horse forums but its still a bit like no one wants to poke the NSA bear after I mentioned them by name.  

I rode Sadie every day Thursday-Sunday.   Friday she was quite good,  we passed a road grader on the way home.   He had stopped but had the grader started and his backup lights on so I got off Sadie even though she was not fussing at all because I didn't want to deal with a startle if he started backing up towards us.   He was not moving so I got back on her to ride the last few hundred yards home and only when I dismounted I noticed he was behind us and then he passed us.   He was going slow and keeping the motor at low revs not to startle I guess since I had got off before.   Very nice of him,  Sadie had no reaction when he passed and probably would not have had much if any if I was still on her but I'm getting old and cautious.

Saturday and Sunday she backslid on the brave horse thing.   She was snorting and doing rollbacks about going past the clump of trees right by the ditch road and I just took her around it on Saturday --probably a mistake that encouraged her to do the rollbacks.    Sunday she would not go up the road on the way home.   I think she was bugged by the shadows,  I have done few if any late evening rides on her.   I was not in the mood to lead her up the sandy hill and didn't want her whirling into the old fence lines so we just went the longer way home that had few shadows.   I'll have to work on it later when I know I might have to trudge up the hill to convince her that she needs to stop swapping ghost stories with Lady and just trust me when I say its fine to go somewhere.  

I've set up with some endurance folks who are not competing this year so don't mind not riding at conditioning speed to babysit us on a trail ride on Saturday so Sadie will hopefully learn from their horses that brush, bikes etc are no big deal.   I'm still kind of bumming that Lady and L turned out to be a anxiety raising influence rather than the calm older horse buddy I thought Lady could be, but in a way its good for me to be forced to network with more people, I'm so bad about doing that. 

Sadie is getting to be a decent ride

It was not until Sunday that I put a more streamlined bandage on my finger that I could get a glove over instead of using the thicker gauze pad and multiple wraps of gauze roll like the HMO doc had done on Thursday.   Probably was OK letting my finger heal more before using it to ride but I was getting cabin fever by Sunday.   

Saturday we went to the Wildlife Sanctuary and donated money from the ND memorial.  Dad wants to get a plaque on their walkway with mom's name.   Sounds like a good idea and I think I'll offer to pay all or most of that.   I haven't bought flowers or anything but paying to get the first batch of memorial folders printed up.    But that took most of the day after the morning wind died down and I had not had the duh idea to streamline bandage yet and could not find any glove that would go over the bulky bandage so I didn't try to ride that evening. 

Sunday L was going to Colorado Springs to a big cat sanctuary there.   I think it was good that I got a ride in on Sadie w/o Lady and L's presence.   I was pretty cautious, but did take Sadie down into the irrigation ditch where it was dry, but did not push her to step into the puddle a ways down the ditch,  was out of horse cookies and didn't want to start a fight and then not want to finish it.

Today we rode that way again.   Sadie went down into the ditch w/o me having to dismount.   Lady was being a baby again (no surprise since L has gotten so nervous) but I had plenty of cookies so I got off and led Sadie into the puddle a little bit, then mounted and walked her into it with me on board and Lady managed to follow Sadie into the water.   If Lady was being her normal, water is mundane for me, self of last year I could of just had Sadie follow her but no biggie getting off as long as I'm able to get back on and the saddle has been cooperating with not slipping and Sadie has been standing decent so we'll call it progress with accepting me as herd leader.    

I'm also making good progress with the little S hack when I want to ask Sadie to come to the side instead of just gluing her nose to Lady's tail.   This is necessary to get a little trot work in, especially on the way out.   Lady will speed up if she thinks she might be passed but if Sadie is behind Lady does a slow little Largo and then slows to a walk when Sadie drops to a walk because she can't trot quite that slowly.   I am not wanting to push  L to keep the pace faster than Lady is volunteering,  because about that time Lady would do another duck like she did memorial weekend trail riding and L will get too nervous to even be having her on Lady.