Rode Sadie today, not sure her popped splint is fully healed.

Just walked most of 3 miles and she volunteered to trot some up the hill.  She was possibly a bit off after that wee bit of extra exertion.  I'm not positive, decided not to ask her to trot anymore to get a definite yes/no.  I'll have to ride her slowly again this weekend and see what happens.  She may end up getting another 5 weeks or so completely off or if she seems ok with very light work I will keep the pace and distance way down and not try to do any LD rides on her until next year.   Hopefully Tanza continues sound.  I am so glad I bought him last year.  

If Sadie can't be sound for even a few LDs a year I probably should try to find her a home where she just has to look pretty.   Hopefully it won't come to that.  Maybe (big maybe) I could get the horse collector I vaguely know to do a feed lease exchange with one of the underused horses she has for a year or 2 and see if Sadie grows out of it and get to ride more in meantime.  She would have to at least think she'd want to ride or sell in future and want to get the experience on her horse while being willing to just pet and look at Sadie since Sadie can be a little punk sometimes under saddle.

Tanza has his first completions after this weekend

He did two fairly tough 30 mile rides. I am very pleased with how he did. He camped very well, ate and drank like a pro all weekend and only had a few race brain and baby brain moments. I rode with Janet and Ladybug and her friend Kitty and Kitty's foxtrotter mare both days. Janet suggested I should put a German martingale on him and I think I will for a few rides. Apparently this high head carriage is not just something that has happened passing the photographers. And I was not pulling him up to increase spacing on this day so the picture should be representative of how Tanza was traveling. He needs to drop his head and make things easier on his back.


It turned into a sad weekend on Saturday when we learned the RMs son had died Friday night. Apparently he had some health issues and forgot to take some medication from the 3rd hand information in camp. They of course canceled the Sunday ride day. The volunteers, head vet and ride secretary kept everything flowing well to finish up the ride on Saturday and organized folks to pull ribbons on Sunday. I did not join in that since they had enough help. I helped with gathering up water tanks, breaking down tables and so on at base camp and called it good before driving home on Sunday. I was planning to skip the last day before we heard the news anyway. It was pretty tough trail so I felt like 2 days was enough stress on my youngster.

Now I am back at work and yawning as I didn't have a coffee after lunch plus I'm still wiped out from the driving and riding in fairly warm weather. I have quite a way to go to get back into the shape I was 4-5 years ago when I would ride 75-80 miles in a weekend, doing a 50 one day and then an LD the other ride day on the weaker horse. But it feels good to at least finish two LDs in a weekend.

Lazy weekend, did ride 6 miles on Tanza today

It was blazing hot yesterday but I went out and pulled some goatheads anyway.  Perhaps should have thought better of the idea though.  Today its much nicer and I'm being lazy, had to force myself to even ride Tanza.   It was a pretty good ride,  only went 6 miles but a decent amount of trot and canter so I don't feel too under-prepared for going to the ride next weekend.

I washed one load of clothes yesterday should wash a load today and pack clothes and stuff for the ride instead of wishing there was more to read about on my main blog sites.

riding update.

I rode Tanza 4 miles Tuesday and again on Thursday.   He was so good trail riding that I kind of forgot that I have the *"Whoa I have a lot of horse under me" feeling riding a bit faster to condition at home.    He was a bit nervous about the wind blowing over the corn field we were next to on Tuesday.   Thursday I considered going the other way but the grass/sand burrs were so thick with no clear tracks that I went "Ugh, no way"  besides I need to avoid the trap of trying to limit exposure to common things just because Tanza gets a bit nervous.   He needs to learn that we can handle anything that comes our way.   He was good both days,  but I had no worries that he might jump and lose me on Thursday.   Tuesday he had not been ridden for a couple of weeks and it showed.

Sadie should be at the end of the 30 days off the acupuncture vet recommended with her popped splint so I'll probably try to take a slow easy ride on her today.   It is supposed to be cooler on Sunday so that should work for getting a longer working ride on Tanza.    This week I am no longer feeling like I can handle heat better than last year or two and have been feeling wilted after a bit of work in the warm sunny mornings.   Maybe the humidity is higher.   More jogging this fall and winter is needed so I can be ready to really ride my athletic horse next year and hopefully keep Sadie in light distance work as well.    I am so thankful that she showed her limitations last year and I was shopping at the right time to snap up Tanza.  

*This is a riding term,  Tanza is not a lot of horse either in height or weight -- to riders the term usually means the horse can move powerfully or quickly or both.  

I did enjoy riding the MaahDaahHey trail

Forgot to write that with my whinging. 

slide show of trail ride pics 

 It was a rough start for me as my saddle which has never bothered me before is apparently a bit too wide in the seat (which is my fault,  I took the widest of my measurements of seat bones back when I ordered it because I had it in my head that a too narrow saddle would be uncomfortable.   Well just WALKING SLOWLY for 11 hours in jeans rather than tights with the seat a bit wide ends up rubbing the very tops on ones inner thighs raw.     After I got my riding tights and my wonderful sis got my fleece cover it was more comfortable.

Yes the walking slowly is another whine.   The first day was almost 30 miles and except when I was getting Tanza to lead it was a stupidly slow walk because dad is too lazy to make his horse walk out when he is in the lead. Tanza would be skeered of something and hesitate and if dad took the lead I'd end up passing him after half a mile or so because the slow slow walk would chafe worse than a normal walk.   Sis makes her horse walk out a bit in the lead but her mare is also still a bit green and wasn't real fit so mare was burned out on leading too and did not have a really good walk either.   

It is so much easier to ride endurance style (completion only especially) and be using all three gaits as the terrain permits.  

Well if I'm not going to ride I should spray more weeds

I suppose I could ride, could possibly slip out of house w/o dog coming but the weed obsession feels stronger even though I must make the effort to switch spraying hands as my wrist is getting sore.  I want to have fewer goats heads next year.   I will be bummed if they seem thicker than normal rather than less next year.

  Must research pasture management options too because having a weed patch with a bit of grass is bugging me.    I know the big thing I should do: find a way to get more help, either hiring hourly or getting a relationship with someone who would do stuff to increase the future sale value and to make me happy.   I can't expect a quite senior citizen who is lazy to begin with to be much help and I must stop the futile wishing that that was different. 

Welcome back to the same old same old

Call me when you get home.   Everyone is fine?  yawn equivalent.   me "ok I'll let you get some sleep" click.  

I know she has been going and going but dayum I get tired of feeling like no one has any appreciation for the fact that I took even more time off from work and from trying to get the paddocks cleaned up because I figured it takes 2 people to babysit dad thru a long ride.   I must admit I did enjoy the riding, I just wish we could have hired someone to move a vehicle so it didn't have to take so long that the goatheads took over after all my efforts earlier in the year.   And dad said he appreciated us girls taking him more than once but right now I don't believe it.   He expects it of me and always seems to figure I probably had nothing better to do.  He appreciated her doing it and managed to be polite enough to say girls rather than just thanking her.  

   I am so effing tired of feeling used by every damn person in my life.  I don't want to be a taker rather than a giver but it gets old feeling like people only give me lip service politeness just to keep the gravy train rolling and don't give a tinkers damn about me beyond the horse taxi service and whatnot.