Which is, of course, subject to change!
Two months 'til Fireworks. Taper off real work two weeks prior, and try not to do real rides over 4th of July weekend!
Once weekly: 3-4 hour ride, ask for Big Trot as much as possible. (Ideally, Pogonip) [Probably on my full day off!]
Once weekly: interval training. Ask for speed (canter/Big Trot) 3-4min, recover 1-2min, rinse repeat. (Initially, hill loop for about an hour round-trip) [One weekend day]
Once weekly-or-so: 5-10 miles at moderate pace with a running friend.
Interval training is actually pretty similar to what we did once or twice last week, except that I was working on more of a 40/60 split speed/rest and calling it a mental exercise. Time to shift that!
This leaves my 4th dedicated riding day fairly open; my fifth is hit-and-miss and will inevitably be very low-key by necessity.
Pony's ribs are visible when the sun hits her just right... so she'll get some grass pellets/vitamin E on days I ride, and maybe some I don't.
All of a sudden, July feels really, really soon...
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Onwards and upwards!
Somewhere in the last year, the pony grew a brain.
When we left off last fall, Fetti and I had made it out by ourselves a small handful of times. Nearly every one involved a decent amount of fighting and not much pony in front of my leg. Not much fun. In the past few weeks, she and I have been out by ourselves several times, and we're not yet totally traumatized.
Thursday, April 25th: 4.43miles, 1h 18min. 3.37mph. Slow ride with a friend's Walker.
Friday, April 26th: Trot poles in the round pen! Normally, one thinks of trotting raised cavaletti. Fetti thinks it is much more fun to canter and/or jump them. I dutifully set four up in a row, sent her out, and watched her prick her ears and canter through. She then trotted some (SIGH, STUPID HUMANS MAKING ME WORK!), I raised it up slightly. She cantered partway around.. looked directly at me.. and went to a BIG canter stride two strides out. Canter, canter, JUMP! across the first three trot poles. Impressive. Totally not what I was asking, and I am positive she knew that. We did, eventually, get her brain back into trotting (part of) the poles.
Saturday, April 27th: New boots arrived for Fetti's hinds. I booted up all four feet and went from the logical decision of doing a few laps in the woods, to the crazy idea of going out by ourselves and seeing how things went. No one else was around that would be interested in going with, so why not?
Out and across the river we went, with only very minor fussing. Forwards trot, forwards trot, do you really want to do this?, forwards trot, forwards trot. Not even a half-mile out, we saw horses walking towards us. Naturally, five horses and their riders walking home to our barn.. and the final two were two of the other Haflingers, Fetti's herd-mates. I have described Haflingers as "magnetic" in the past: where one goes, the others generally want to be, too. Throw in 'heading home' and 'one pony all by herself and not very confident about it' - and I'm pretty sure there were some not-very-polite things said when I figured out what we were getting ourselves into.
I fully expected Fetti to spin and follow when they passed us by. She tried to turn her nose; I hauled it back around facing forwards. There is a time and place for finesse, and that sure wasn't it. We stood for a few minutes. She wanted to turn, that was very clear, but when I finally asked for forwards, she gave it to me. We ended up doing 5.7 miles in 1h 39min, not quite 3.5mph, but a brisk enough pace when she was willing to trot. All things considered, I was exceedingly pleased with my crazy little horse.
..then we went back to the barn, picked up our Walker friend, and headed back out for another 4.58 miles in 1h 25min, 3.2mph.
Sunday, we did approx 2 miles in the morning to show another Haflinger rider the basics of the trails. Definitely a slow ride, an opinionated ride, and a few attempts at spooking. Not too bad.
We headed back out in the evening with Mr. Walker and Fetti's mom. 6.51miles, just out to the Deck and back. 2h 6min, 3.1mph. I'm not sure why this ride was so much longer than the Deck ride Fetti and I did in 5.7miles... except that aha, the tracking was started/stopped further out on the trail when I went the first time.
Monday I unexpectedly had the day off, so Miss Fetti got worked a FOURTH day in a row! Back out with the pair from Sunday night, we wandered down another trail to the river. Lots of downhill to deal with, so Fetti was slower on the way out; lots of uphill heading home, so we slowed down for the others to keep up. I was, however, happy with her forwards marching walk for the last hour heading home. 7.05miles, 2h 37min, 2.68mph. 3mph walk, you say? I don't think we can pull that off.
Tuesday was mainly arena work riding around with Fetti's sister. Her rider eventually had to head home, so I figured I'd head out for a short ride. Out to the ranger station we went: 1.16miles, 13min, 5.28mph. GOOD PONY!
Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to think we might be able to actually get in proper conditioning this year. I am so, so pleased with this crazy little horse.
When we left off last fall, Fetti and I had made it out by ourselves a small handful of times. Nearly every one involved a decent amount of fighting and not much pony in front of my leg. Not much fun. In the past few weeks, she and I have been out by ourselves several times, and we're not yet totally traumatized.
Thursday, April 25th: 4.43miles, 1h 18min. 3.37mph. Slow ride with a friend's Walker.
Friday, April 26th: Trot poles in the round pen! Normally, one thinks of trotting raised cavaletti. Fetti thinks it is much more fun to canter and/or jump them. I dutifully set four up in a row, sent her out, and watched her prick her ears and canter through. She then trotted some (SIGH, STUPID HUMANS MAKING ME WORK!), I raised it up slightly. She cantered partway around.. looked directly at me.. and went to a BIG canter stride two strides out. Canter, canter, JUMP! across the first three trot poles. Impressive. Totally not what I was asking, and I am positive she knew that. We did, eventually, get her brain back into trotting (part of) the poles.
Saturday, April 27th: New boots arrived for Fetti's hinds. I booted up all four feet and went from the logical decision of doing a few laps in the woods, to the crazy idea of going out by ourselves and seeing how things went. No one else was around that would be interested in going with, so why not?
Out and across the river we went, with only very minor fussing. Forwards trot, forwards trot, do you really want to do this?, forwards trot, forwards trot. Not even a half-mile out, we saw horses walking towards us. Naturally, five horses and their riders walking home to our barn.. and the final two were two of the other Haflingers, Fetti's herd-mates. I have described Haflingers as "magnetic" in the past: where one goes, the others generally want to be, too. Throw in 'heading home' and 'one pony all by herself and not very confident about it' - and I'm pretty sure there were some not-very-polite things said when I figured out what we were getting ourselves into.
I fully expected Fetti to spin and follow when they passed us by. She tried to turn her nose; I hauled it back around facing forwards. There is a time and place for finesse, and that sure wasn't it. We stood for a few minutes. She wanted to turn, that was very clear, but when I finally asked for forwards, she gave it to me. We ended up doing 5.7 miles in 1h 39min, not quite 3.5mph, but a brisk enough pace when she was willing to trot. All things considered, I was exceedingly pleased with my crazy little horse.
..then we went back to the barn, picked up our Walker friend, and headed back out for another 4.58 miles in 1h 25min, 3.2mph.
Sunday, we did approx 2 miles in the morning to show another Haflinger rider the basics of the trails. Definitely a slow ride, an opinionated ride, and a few attempts at spooking. Not too bad.
We headed back out in the evening with Mr. Walker and Fetti's mom. 6.51miles, just out to the Deck and back. 2h 6min, 3.1mph. I'm not sure why this ride was so much longer than the Deck ride Fetti and I did in 5.7miles... except that aha, the tracking was started/stopped further out on the trail when I went the first time.
Monday I unexpectedly had the day off, so Miss Fetti got worked a FOURTH day in a row! Back out with the pair from Sunday night, we wandered down another trail to the river. Lots of downhill to deal with, so Fetti was slower on the way out; lots of uphill heading home, so we slowed down for the others to keep up. I was, however, happy with her forwards marching walk for the last hour heading home. 7.05miles, 2h 37min, 2.68mph. 3mph walk, you say? I don't think we can pull that off.
Tuesday was mainly arena work riding around with Fetti's sister. Her rider eventually had to head home, so I figured I'd head out for a short ride. Out to the ranger station we went: 1.16miles, 13min, 5.28mph. GOOD PONY!
Slowly but surely, I'm beginning to think we might be able to actually get in proper conditioning this year. I am so, so pleased with this crazy little horse.
Monday, April 22, 2013
Track my Hack: excellent for over-obsessing in times of boredom
In the past few weeks, we've been pretty well stuck for various reasons - not much riding in the park via the road, and the river was still too quicksand-y to get safely across. It's not just boring, it has even led to minor panic about 'how will I get the pony in shape in the next three months?!'
(Which, for the record? Totally irrational. Fetti has a perfectly good base of fitness to at least complete another slow 25 by July. Speeding it up much may not happen, but completing ought to be fine. Three months: exactly how much time folks recommend for a pasture-fit horse to leg up for a slow 25.)
I did what any crazy conditioning rider would do: I headed out to our tiny little back trails, trotted a few loops at a brisk pace, tracked the whole thing on the iPhone, and figured out how many laps would be a mile. From one entrance to the woods over to the other is approximately 0.2 miles. It's about half real-singletrack type trail with twists and turns, and half wider, vaguely flat trail. Throw in a fallen tree to navigate over and the inevitable barn sour pony wanting to trot INTO home and not back away? Definite challenge. A reasonable average speed here is probably a bit quicker than absolutely necessary on the trails, and thus excellent training grounds.
Our first time out (April 14th): 0.4 miles, 4 minutes, 4.93mph (one *full* loop, back & forth to starting point).
April 16th: 1.07miles, 14 minutes, 4.35mph (accounts for additional tree-crossings and discussions about not going home just yet)
April 18th, we made it out on a Real Trail Ride! Two gaited horses, one golden pony. Total distance 7.91miles, 2h29min, 3.18mph including a break midway through and walking the last two miles home.
April 20th: jump school in the heat (woohoo! nothing like watching a younger rider hop the pony over a few jumps - and yes, I jumped Fetti a bit too), then into the woods for good measure. 1.17miles, 13 minutes, 5.09mph. We worked bits of canter into this mile.
April 22nd: across the river we go, and no sinking ponies! 4.68miles, 1h19min, 3.55mph. Distance and time starts prior to the river.. and includes Fetti going backwards initially, sideways when I asked her to pass, and generally being a brat about going forwards. (In her defense, I'd pointed her across the river 2-3 times prior to the Real Ride. She thought she got to be done after that.)
(Which, for the record? Totally irrational. Fetti has a perfectly good base of fitness to at least complete another slow 25 by July. Speeding it up much may not happen, but completing ought to be fine. Three months: exactly how much time folks recommend for a pasture-fit horse to leg up for a slow 25.)
I did what any crazy conditioning rider would do: I headed out to our tiny little back trails, trotted a few loops at a brisk pace, tracked the whole thing on the iPhone, and figured out how many laps would be a mile. From one entrance to the woods over to the other is approximately 0.2 miles. It's about half real-singletrack type trail with twists and turns, and half wider, vaguely flat trail. Throw in a fallen tree to navigate over and the inevitable barn sour pony wanting to trot INTO home and not back away? Definite challenge. A reasonable average speed here is probably a bit quicker than absolutely necessary on the trails, and thus excellent training grounds.
Our first time out (April 14th): 0.4 miles, 4 minutes, 4.93mph (one *full* loop, back & forth to starting point).
April 16th: 1.07miles, 14 minutes, 4.35mph (accounts for additional tree-crossings and discussions about not going home just yet)
April 18th, we made it out on a Real Trail Ride! Two gaited horses, one golden pony. Total distance 7.91miles, 2h29min, 3.18mph including a break midway through and walking the last two miles home.
April 20th: jump school in the heat (woohoo! nothing like watching a younger rider hop the pony over a few jumps - and yes, I jumped Fetti a bit too), then into the woods for good measure. 1.17miles, 13 minutes, 5.09mph. We worked bits of canter into this mile.
April 22nd: across the river we go, and no sinking ponies! 4.68miles, 1h19min, 3.55mph. Distance and time starts prior to the river.. and includes Fetti going backwards initially, sideways when I asked her to pass, and generally being a brat about going forwards. (In her defense, I'd pointed her across the river 2-3 times prior to the Real Ride. She thought she got to be done after that.)
Saturday, April 20, 2013
A (brief) photographic interlude
Looking back through the photos from those first few rides, every photo with me riding the pony has a HUGE smile on my face. I am not good in front of a camera. I never noticed the camera those visits. It took all of 10 minutes, if that, for me to be absolutely convinced that I did indeed want to lease her.
I started off with this belief that I'd just get her in shape for someone else to buy. I'd give her a job in the meantime. I wasn't going to be able to get a horse anytime soon.
By the time I graduated in June 2012, it was pretty well determined that the pony had decided she was mine. I was lucky enough to get a full-time job straight out of college. Some folks get cars for graduation; I got a pony a few months after I graduated. Certainly not swimming in excess money, but the bills get paid and I make do.
We did our first 25-mile ride in September 2012. It was a case of fitting the sport to the horse. She needed a serious job, so she got one! As best I can tell, Fetti loves going new places and thrives zooming along on new trails. She may never do a 50, and I'm okay with that. We can do years of 25s instead until she tells me she's done. If she ever gets comfortable doing conditioning rides solo, who knows - maybe I will manage to get her in shape for a 50!
I thought once that maybe in my 30s I'd be able to afford a horse, probably some low-level hunter or something along those lines. Now? I love my pony, I love our trails, and I wouldn't change a thing.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Feeding changes: revised game plan
I spent most of the past week hacking around bareback for one reason or another. My motivation tanked, my energy was shot, and I couldn't talk myself into trying a solo trail ride complete with walk along the road. Said week is thus declared my mental break from real riding, and I can proceed on full-speed ahead from this point onwards!
It doesn't happen often, but there are days where I just plain don't feel like riding. I know I need to ride, at least let her stretch her legs (ah, the joys of paddock-only boarding!), but real work? Meh. I'm finally learning to just let it go and not stress over it. A week off from real work at this point in the season won't hurt anyone.
The good news: our river access is once again open. The not-so-good news: the other side of the river trail is barely passable if that. The even-worse news: the river sand itself is boggy and deep, with ponies sinking to their hocks at least twice. We might be able to do it (we aborted partway through an attempt when the lead pony sunk and decided she was quite done with rivers trying to eat her), I've heard that at least one rider and horse have made it to the other edge of the river and then turned around to come home, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable asking that of Fetti. I'd rather jog on the highway than risk tendon injury in that kind of sand. This could be rather problematic for our conditioning plans.
Right now, Fetti's getting a flake of forage hay in the morning, and a flake of grass/alfalfa at night. No grain, no supplements. She has a salt block that as far as I can tell, she really doesn't touch. My goal for the next week is to acquire a large back of loose salt and put up some sort of salt-feeder in her stall, hoping that she'll be more inclined to eat it then.
Vitamin E has been highly recommended (thanks Mel of Boots & Saddles for the detailed suggestions!), so if I can find tablets/capsules, I may give that a try for the next few months. Natural vitamin E, not just the synthetic. I know I can give her a handful of grain with capsules 4 days a week when I'm at the barn - possibly all 7 if I juggle my schedule and feed it at odd times. It's a start!
Hopefully, there will be a followup post in a month or two noting if I see any changes of not. Basic pony-photo coming this weekend to have a good baseline for comparison.
It doesn't happen often, but there are days where I just plain don't feel like riding. I know I need to ride, at least let her stretch her legs (ah, the joys of paddock-only boarding!), but real work? Meh. I'm finally learning to just let it go and not stress over it. A week off from real work at this point in the season won't hurt anyone.
The good news: our river access is once again open. The not-so-good news: the other side of the river trail is barely passable if that. The even-worse news: the river sand itself is boggy and deep, with ponies sinking to their hocks at least twice. We might be able to do it (we aborted partway through an attempt when the lead pony sunk and decided she was quite done with rivers trying to eat her), I've heard that at least one rider and horse have made it to the other edge of the river and then turned around to come home, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable asking that of Fetti. I'd rather jog on the highway than risk tendon injury in that kind of sand. This could be rather problematic for our conditioning plans.
Right now, Fetti's getting a flake of forage hay in the morning, and a flake of grass/alfalfa at night. No grain, no supplements. She has a salt block that as far as I can tell, she really doesn't touch. My goal for the next week is to acquire a large back of loose salt and put up some sort of salt-feeder in her stall, hoping that she'll be more inclined to eat it then.
Vitamin E has been highly recommended (thanks Mel of Boots & Saddles for the detailed suggestions!), so if I can find tablets/capsules, I may give that a try for the next few months. Natural vitamin E, not just the synthetic. I know I can give her a handful of grain with capsules 4 days a week when I'm at the barn - possibly all 7 if I juggle my schedule and feed it at odd times. It's a start!
Hopefully, there will be a followup post in a month or two noting if I see any changes of not. Basic pony-photo coming this weekend to have a good baseline for comparison.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Woo, technology!
One of my goals for this year was to get a heart monitor, and maybe someday pick up a GPS and figure out how far and how fast we actually go. Check and check!
A heart monitor was one of my Christmas presents to myself. Confetti is not an Arab, does not ride like an Arab, does not pulse down like an Arab. Since that was an issue last year, I want to avoid that this time around. I've learned some things about her 'baseline' reactions and how best to use the HRM right now:
- with our current setup, it doesn't actually kick in until my weight is in the saddle. Don't stress before then if I think it's in about the right place.
- 140 is about the edge of her comfort zone. I can push her past that, but left to her own devices, she'll quit trotting at that til she pulses down some.
- Hills are tough. Steep hills are really genuinely tough, and she's not just making it up to get out of work.
- We can, indeed, get a heart rate of under 50 when walking at pony-speed downhill. Going anywhere fast? No. Relaxed? Yep. This is the walk I need to let her have heading in to the vet checks. If I push her into a trot to keep up when everyone else is walking and pulsing down, she's unlikely to get to drop her pulse much in the process.
I also upgraded to an iPhone. With said phone, I promptly downloaded the "Track my Hack" app. GPS tracking, shows your trail, gives you your total mileage and average speed. Woohoo! No more convoluted interpretations of trail signs to try to see how far we might have gone. Now I can definitively know what kind of speeds we're actually working at.
Which, well, was surprising. That 3mph walk I usually figure I can do? Pony can't do.
We did a short loop in the not-raining humidity on Saturday. It was a slow loop, by human choice more than Haflinger choice. 4.18mi, average speed 3.14mph. Much of the ride was at a quite slow jog. Slower than we usually go, definitely. Faster than Fetti's preferred walk, oh yes indeed. Both ponies were sweaty at the end of it. The humidity likely had more to do with that than the difficulty of the workout... it wasn't particularly hard.
I'm looking forwards to doing some faster rides and figuring out what a 5mph average really ends up feeling like, or how briskly we can comfortably go (in company willing to go with us at speed).
A heart monitor was one of my Christmas presents to myself. Confetti is not an Arab, does not ride like an Arab, does not pulse down like an Arab. Since that was an issue last year, I want to avoid that this time around. I've learned some things about her 'baseline' reactions and how best to use the HRM right now:
- with our current setup, it doesn't actually kick in until my weight is in the saddle. Don't stress before then if I think it's in about the right place.
- 140 is about the edge of her comfort zone. I can push her past that, but left to her own devices, she'll quit trotting at that til she pulses down some.
- Hills are tough. Steep hills are really genuinely tough, and she's not just making it up to get out of work.
- We can, indeed, get a heart rate of under 50 when walking at pony-speed downhill. Going anywhere fast? No. Relaxed? Yep. This is the walk I need to let her have heading in to the vet checks. If I push her into a trot to keep up when everyone else is walking and pulsing down, she's unlikely to get to drop her pulse much in the process.
I also upgraded to an iPhone. With said phone, I promptly downloaded the "Track my Hack" app. GPS tracking, shows your trail, gives you your total mileage and average speed. Woohoo! No more convoluted interpretations of trail signs to try to see how far we might have gone. Now I can definitively know what kind of speeds we're actually working at.
Which, well, was surprising. That 3mph walk I usually figure I can do? Pony can't do.
We did a short loop in the not-raining humidity on Saturday. It was a slow loop, by human choice more than Haflinger choice. 4.18mi, average speed 3.14mph. Much of the ride was at a quite slow jog. Slower than we usually go, definitely. Faster than Fetti's preferred walk, oh yes indeed. Both ponies were sweaty at the end of it. The humidity likely had more to do with that than the difficulty of the workout... it wasn't particularly hard.
I'm looking forwards to doing some faster rides and figuring out what a 5mph average really ends up feeling like, or how briskly we can comfortably go (in company willing to go with us at speed).
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Lessons from Ride Bear 2012
The stars finally aligned, and Fetti and I took part in our first 25-mile endurance ride in September 2012. It was a hot, sunny ride where Funder was kind enough to ride with me. We finished, but in hindsight there was so much that could have gone better. It took almost the full half-hour for Confetti to pulse down. She did - eventually - but it took stripping tack + hosing her off + more time to manage it. Clearly, we hadn't prepped as well as I thought.
Ride your own ride. I have a pony with a pony walk. She does not walk at normal-horse walk speed, let alone gaited horse or Arab-speed. If they're all walking ahead, she's not going to keep up at a walk - she'll alternate walk-trot. Not only is she working harder, her heart rate is going to stay up, and there is never a true 'break' for her. It's not realistic to ask folks to stay at a slow walk, so Fetti needs to learn to walk politely by herself.
Even aside from the walk, I need to listen to her. She's a smart horse who doesn't want a terribly elevated heart rate. If she's refusing to go above a walk, I need to (for the most part) listen to her.
How do I improve on that? I bought a heart monitor. I will be using it to know when I can push (stubborn, opinionated pony) and when I can't (tired pony). I'm hoping to do our next 25 at whatever speed she wants to go, and not try to stick with a group.
Train faster than you compete. Somehow, I think I missed that part. Most of our rides are done at Haflinger speed, a nice casual sitting trot. That's not 5mph. If I had to guess, I'd say 3.5mph, maybe 4. Riding with our Tennessee Walker friend, we probably do get up to 5mph. I can think of three horses we've ridden with off the top of my head that can go on a ride faster than that - an Arab whose riders and I keep vastly different schedules, Funder and Dixie, and a Thoroughbred/Quarter cross that I need to ride with more often!
How do I improve on that this year? Ideally, we do a lot of training rides solo. Works best if the pony will go above an irritated mincy walk for more than ten steps when headed out alone. Still working on that part.. Currently, I've found that our little tiny back-woods trails allow us to be out by ourselves and traveling at a nice brisk endurance trot. For the time being, it'll have to do.
Train in the conditions you'll be competing in. Duh! It was a hot, sunny ride. Most of my conditioning rides last year were in the evenings and in the forest. Very few were in 90 degree weather.
How do I improve on that? On my weekdays off, I'll be riding in the afternoons this year! Might do an evening ride also, but no more riding only in the evenings.
Clip. I did a small clip job (lower half of neck + chest) about a month after the ride. In hindsight, that might have been wise to do prior to the ride. She was good and furry in October, and I imagine good and furry in September as well.
Ride your own ride. I have a pony with a pony walk. She does not walk at normal-horse walk speed, let alone gaited horse or Arab-speed. If they're all walking ahead, she's not going to keep up at a walk - she'll alternate walk-trot. Not only is she working harder, her heart rate is going to stay up, and there is never a true 'break' for her. It's not realistic to ask folks to stay at a slow walk, so Fetti needs to learn to walk politely by herself.
Even aside from the walk, I need to listen to her. She's a smart horse who doesn't want a terribly elevated heart rate. If she's refusing to go above a walk, I need to (for the most part) listen to her.
How do I improve on that? I bought a heart monitor. I will be using it to know when I can push (stubborn, opinionated pony) and when I can't (tired pony). I'm hoping to do our next 25 at whatever speed she wants to go, and not try to stick with a group.
Train faster than you compete. Somehow, I think I missed that part. Most of our rides are done at Haflinger speed, a nice casual sitting trot. That's not 5mph. If I had to guess, I'd say 3.5mph, maybe 4. Riding with our Tennessee Walker friend, we probably do get up to 5mph. I can think of three horses we've ridden with off the top of my head that can go on a ride faster than that - an Arab whose riders and I keep vastly different schedules, Funder and Dixie, and a Thoroughbred/Quarter cross that I need to ride with more often!
How do I improve on that this year? Ideally, we do a lot of training rides solo. Works best if the pony will go above an irritated mincy walk for more than ten steps when headed out alone. Still working on that part.. Currently, I've found that our little tiny back-woods trails allow us to be out by ourselves and traveling at a nice brisk endurance trot. For the time being, it'll have to do.
Train in the conditions you'll be competing in. Duh! It was a hot, sunny ride. Most of my conditioning rides last year were in the evenings and in the forest. Very few were in 90 degree weather.
How do I improve on that? On my weekdays off, I'll be riding in the afternoons this year! Might do an evening ride also, but no more riding only in the evenings.
Clip. I did a small clip job (lower half of neck + chest) about a month after the ride. In hindsight, that might have been wise to do prior to the ride. She was good and furry in October, and I imagine good and furry in September as well.
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