Sensibility training

Meeting a helicopter is my go-to example of sensibility training.  Aarene posted about that ages ago and it's stuck with me ever since.  After all, when would a horse ever need to deal with a nearby helicopter, especially in my neck of the woods?  Never, I thought.  It'll never come up.  I should know better.

It's hard to see in the picture, but there is a helicopter on the left and a fire truck on the right.

The answer is that Fetti looked at the field and stopped.  She thought really, really hard about it.  She wasn't thrilled, but she was tolerant and once we could no longer see the helicopter, she was willing to trot on.  Good mare!

Downtime

It's been quiet around here lately.. not too much to blog about.  Work is keeping me busy, we're done with serious pony-conditioning for the year, sometime soon the rain will start and winter-mode will kick in.

For now, we're doing shorter rides.  The evenings are getting shorter.  I'm having fun playing with speed work and sprints rather than rehashing the same trail loop three times a week.  Although with the sprints we're doing the same section of trail most of the time anyway.. but it FEELS different.

One of my goals is to really improve our canter work.  I want to use the canter to help improve her fitness, even if we never canter in a LD.  My seat needs to improve to ride her canter when she's not totally balanced.  Her stamina needs to improve so she can canter more than one tiny trail section or two.

Given last week's ride, it's time to mark that last one accomplished.  Tracking app was broken for the day, so no log.. but we cantered most of the last half-mile of trail headed home.  And a good few chunks on the trail prior to that, too.  Pony feels GOOD.  [Although a thought occurs to me: I'm not getting her turned out in the arena very much, so I think for once I'm actually channeling that energy rather than fighting it. Probably time to let her have a good run without me.]

My balance feels vastly better.  I'm weighting my heels like a proper English rider and doing it to feel comfortable, not because I think I should.  Two-point is a work in progress.  Sitting back at the canter is, too.  The knee is totally fine on a horse and mostly fine off.

Another winter goal: jog on the trails with Fetti.  I'd like to get back into C25K once the knee agrees, and at least jog the flat bits once the rain kicks in.  We'll see how that one goes.

Taking flight

Yesterday, we flew on the trails.

I decided she'd had enough time off when she tried to trot away from the mounting block on Tuesday; it was too dark then for a proper ride.  Thursday would have to suffice.

You know that feeling of bubbly joy and anticipation and happiness all rolled into one?  That's where I was when I got to the barn.  I am still on such a high from how well she did this weekend.  It was clear I'd have a lot of horse yesterday.  There were no reservations, no concerns anywhere in my head.. just the knowledge that we needed to go and do something and let her run off some of that steam.  (Okay, it helped that I knew she'd been turned out the day prior and did a lot of running by herself!)

Six miles where we genuinely negotiated on the pace.  I didn't really push, but I'd ask; she'd offer speed, she'd ask to slow down.  Tracking shows a lot of quick bursts of speed followed by slower breaks.  It's what she wanted to do, and I was happy enough with that.  We galloped and cantered bits of the way home even on the flat sections, or a big trot in other parts, and a walk where she asked.  No fear, no worries that she wouldn't stop.  I'd sigh and sit back and pick up the reins and tell her it was time to slow down: she slowed down.

Pony's come a long way from the horse I couldn't take out by herself and certainly couldn't canter on the trail for fear she'd take off with me.

I am so in love with this horse.

Pre-ride. Probably the best shot of her clip.

View from the trail.. nice wide open spaces.  Bit dry, though.

Happily inhaling hay at the vet check.

Back at the trailer afterwards. 'More hay, please?'  Bright-eyed and alert!

Back at home: staring contests with deer.  Fairly frequent these days.

Right after the rain a few weeks back.  I love my forest, too, especially through these golden ears.

Fall Classic

Earlier in the year, a friend offered to drive me and the pony to the Quicksilver ride.  Naturally, I took her up on the offer: I'm still truck-and-trailer-less with no one at my barn heading off to rides (yet).  Be forewarned: this is a long, detail-filled post before I forget the little things.

I packed nearly everything for 'Fetti on Thursday night. That was smart.  Not so smart: I did not pack all my stuff til Friday morning, and nearly forgot a pillow for myself at home as a result.  Oops!  Lesson learned, I need to quit procrastinating on such things.

Pony loaded well, trailered well, settled into ridecamp well - all things I've come to expect.  If she has a haybag, life is good.  Camp was surprisingly pleasant and breezy on Friday, despite the forecast high of 88 and calm for Saturday.  We set up a large bucket of water and bungee-corded it to the trailer in hopes that last year's performance of knocking over water buckets for fun could be avoided.  

Good thing: she drank!  She'd eat some hay, drink some water, eat some more hay, grab some more water.  Convincing this horse that she needs to drink has been a perpetual problem, and I think we're finally through it.  The 2" hole haynet kept her occupied for just about six hours with two flakes in there.  Not great, but not terrible either.

We vetted in easy enough, front Renegades on, no comments.  Unfortunately, no initial pulse given either.  (Luckily, it was substantially LESS thorough than last year!)  'Fetti fell asleep in the moderately-long line when it was just about our turn, so I'd been hoping they would.. ah well.  I skipped a pre-ride and walked her about a bit instead.

The calm, relaxed horse got a bit lost by the time I tacked up the next morning.  I allowed myself extra time to make sure I got the electrodes and the saddle in the right place.  I fiddled with the placement of the under-saddle electrode a few times, finally got a reading, and called it good enough.  That electrode has never been a problem before.  Last year taught me that I really do want a HRM running on her, especially in the heat, so I can keep a better eye on how hard she's actually working and taper off as soon as I think she might need it.  I hopped on, we walked around a bit, and the pony made it very clear she thought we should be back at the trailer with the haybag, not standing around with all these people and dumb fired-up horses.  We did make it over to the start at a reasonable time and with some forwards momentum.

Unlike our previous two LDs, this time I had no one in particular I was planning to ride with.  We alternated groups a lot, tried some riding by ourselves, and ended up riding with our camping neighbor for probably half of the first loop if not more - just not all at once.  I knew I had to make time in the morning when it was cooler; even clipped, Fetti's not a horse used to high heat and that gets hard on her.  We stuck behind her for a bit, passed when I thought Fetti had a brain, and promptly discovered that she wanted nothing to do with riding by herself.  She'd go, all right, but it was a go spurred by the knowledge that there were horses in front of her! and she wanted to catch up to them!  and it was absolutely awful learning that we were not going to get a polite, relaxed walk on the trail by ourselves.

So we trotted, and trotted, and walked whenever someone ahead of us walked, and trotted and trotted and BIG POWER TROTTED some more.  I tried to keep her slow, she threw a minor hissy fit, and I decided I was not willing to ride out potentially dangerous antics on this trail.  So I rated her a little less than I had, and a lot more than she would have liked, but just enough that she mostly tolerated it.  In part, this was based on the knowledge that we had to make time, and dangit if the horse was going, I guess that'll help us make time so long as she pulses down and I still have horse left.  Luckily, we met back up with our camping buddy two or three miles out from the check, so we trot/walk/trotted that section with her.  (I made it clear to her at the outset: you do what your horse needs to do, I'm not asking to ride with you the whole ride, I just need a horse with a brain to follow for a few minutes! and she was fine with that, and we both rode our own rides that happened to intersect fairly often.)  Oh, and somewhere in that first half of the ride we ran into ground bees.  I'm pretty sure Fetti got stung, she was clearly head-tossy and uncomfortable right after, but no worse for the wear after another mile to forget about it.

Somewhere in that first half of the ride, the HRM quit working.  I was baffled, but not concerned enough to try to fix it given how impolite the pony was being.  I walked her in to the vet check at pony-walk speeds, pulled tack and gave her a couple minutes to drink, and at that point she was down to 60.  Just about 13 miles in, 2hours 40 minutes.  (In hindsight, my tracking shows it was closer to 13.5 miles, but I forgot to turn it off until she was all vetted in with alfalfa so I'm not exactly sure).  I looked for wires once everything was off the horse - and discovered that one of the HRM wires was entirely gone.  That explained a lot!  Unfortunate, but okay, I rode this last year with no HRM, I will make do.

 Unfortunately, our camping-buddy's horse got pulled here.  Also unfortunately, I was a little fuzzy on where exactly the trail was supposed to go immediately out of the check.  It's likely a sign was moved or relocated or something after the ride started.  I kicked and swatted the pony out of the gate.. started trotting along.. looked at the map.. sighed and reversed to ask where the heck I was supposed to go.  I probably left the check five minutes after officially leaving the first time, following two bays for the first little loop until I could get my bearings back.  I sent her ahead of them after a bit, and eventually caught up to two local-ish riders, one of whom knew the trail.  I think I ended up riding with them for pretty much the rest of the ride.  I knew timing was going to be close, I wasn't sure how much trail was left, and they were doing enough walk breaks for me to be comfortable with it.  When they got off and walked down a long hill towards the end, I got off and walked at pony-speed.  Hopped back on at the water trough, finally got the silly horse going FORWARDS and not trying to turn around (seriously!), and trotted down another hill or two.. only to see the nearly-the-end gate and hop right back off to walk her in.

Even with pulling tack right when I got in and sponging perpetually, it took ten minutes and a spot of shade for her to come down to 'right at 60'.  That was pretty impressive.  I still have visions of hosing down Fetti in the sun and doing everything possible last year, and it still took a good 20+ minutes for her to pulse down to 60.  I have no illusions about ever walking right in to a check and having her down, but it's nice to have the time drop!

A barn friend found us shortly after she pulsed down and helped me move tack to the trailer, sponge her off, and even trotted her out for me - which was really nice, since my feet were hurting and my knee was a bit sore.  I could have done it, but with someone fresh willing, it seemed silly not to let her do it instead.  All A's at the finish.  Yay!  Relocated pony to the trailer where she happily went back to inhaling hay and drinking water.  She was much less tired than she looked after Fireworks; I'm not really sure how that worked.  Total ride time minus 45min hold: just about 4h45min.

So, good things:

1. I clipped before this ride.  Forecast was for 88; when a friend left around 3 or 4 it was 91, so I'm thinking possibly even a bit warmer than that.  'Fetti has a lot of her winter coat already and I am SO glad I clipped.

2. Camelbak is the best decision I made for me on this ride, no contest.  I just about never had two hands free to open a water bottle, we walked a lot less than usual, I fought with her a lot more than usual.  I think I was dehydrated by the end, but I can't imagine how much worse it would have been without the nearly hands-free drinking at the trot.  At home, if we're riding in 90 degree weather, we have shade and river breezes.. not full sun.  That's tough on both of us.

3. Carrots!  Funder, I remembered your suggestion last year of giving carrots on a regular basis.  Her gut sounds were a B at the out vet check, but most of a bag of carrots later, an A at the final check.. even without letting her inhale hay back at the trailer.

4. We've done a lot of our little 6-mile loop at home almost entirely at a trot.  I know she's capable of trotting that much without walk breaks and won't wilt at the end.  Tired? Yes. Exhausted? No.  We've never ridden this fast aside from Ride Bear last year where I know I pushed her a bit more than I should have.  I think our conditioning is finally starting to pay off.  All but three of our mile-splits are over 5mph, and I never pushed for speed, only growled at her about which direction she had to go in.  I spent most of the ride hauling on her face.  It's a very different feeling to our usual.

5. We rode our own ride.  I won't say it was MY ride, because it wasn't the one I was going for.. but it was a Fig/Fetti compromise ride.  I thought it was quite dumb of her on a regular basis - but she proved she can do it at that speed even if I think she's being an idiot, so it somewhat balances out.

6. 'Fetti drank at nearly every water trough.  Words cannot express how happy that made me.  I had some very real concerns that she might not, and with the forecast heat, that would have been Very Bad.

7. I had horse left at the end.  She wasn't exhausted. Her walk that evening was better than the walk the afternoon before the ride - pony feels GOOD.  I'm not at all sure why, but I'm very happy with it.

Not so good things:

1. No ride photographer. :( First ride where I felt like we did particularly well, too!

2. Pony lost her usual Haflinger-brain and kicked into herdbound running brain.  We're doing rides solo at home and she's generally fine - but then there aren't thirty other horses ahead of and behind us.  I know she prefers to be with others.  I can live with it being a preference.  I'm less happy with it being a necessity in her head where she will run off with me otherwise, and that's how it felt.

3. I did not eat nearly enough, even accounting for a migraine both days (likely heat/dehydration-induced), and I absolutely have to work on that.

Overall? An absolutely spectacular success.  We're starting to get this thing figured out!  Photos coming whenever I can get them off my phone.

** Extra bonus success: the key to fitting my Specialized appears to be.. the 1" fitting cushions, rather than the 3/4" or 1/2" I have and was using.  Problem potentially solved.  Needs a ride to confirm, but looks much improved that way, go figure.

Hello there, LD gremlins!

Last Sunday I added the new, lovely sheepskin leather covers to the Specialized.  Yay!  Original plan was to do the 18-mile out-and-back in the afternoon to do a fullblown tack check before our next LD.  I re-adjusted the plan when I ran into two local endurance riders and ended up tagging along with them: total mileage around 12 miles, but with more trotting than I would've gotten otherwise.  Plenty sufficient.  Pony and I went back out on a short 3 mile ride when we returned to the barn, nothing major and very flat.  I noted that my knee was sore after all that and wrote it off to my knee flaring up a bit.

And then I got home and didn't want to move.  My knee is frequently sore, a low-level semi-chronic thing at this point.  I don't normally find myself limping the day after rides, though, let alone the evening of.  The next morning, going down stairs was absolutely miserable.  I have never hurt that much after a ride: the LDs leave me maybe a bit stiff and sore, but not genuinely *hurting*.

My conclusion at this point is that the added bulk of the sheepskin under my thighs (since the 18" length does put them allll the way to the top of the leathers and under my entire leg) must have changed my position enough to add torque to my knee.  I didn't notice anything major during the ride - I did note when I first got on that it felt odd with that much sheepskin, but again, I frequently take a mile or two to adjust into any tack changes and figured that's all it was, just different.  In hindsight, I need to cut down the leather covers several inches so they don't start until after the fleece Specialized seat ends.

All that said, I'm still left with a fairly sore left knee.  I rode a few miles Tuesday (definitely made it more sore), didn't ride due to schedule conflicts on Thursday, and it's still only at 70% or so.  I made the decision to piece my western-endurance saddle back together in the hopes that will keep things from getting any worse.  I do think I can resolve the leather cover issues and get the Specialized comfortable for me, but my knee needs to heal first.  In a perfect world, I'd take time off riding and any kind of impact til it heals completely.  It may be dumb, but I don't think I'm willing to wait the few months that would likely take.

Switching to the western endurance is a plus primarily because it has very stiff, very bulky fenders.  The Eurolight has English leathers and allows my leg to move freely.  The fenders will force my leg to stay in one place, hopefully minimizing the odd things I do with my legs and minimizing the damage I'm doing by continuing to ride on it.  Seven slow and muddy miles today have me still sore, but not substantially worse than before the ride.  I'm crossing my fingers that holds.  It helps that I know I've ridden two LDs in this saddle already with no problems, so I know it won't cause either me or Fetti any problems for long rides.  Whatever pain I get is specific to the knee and would come up no matter what saddle I'm in.

I *will* be spending the week prior to and half the week after the LD riding a gaited horse rather than Fetti, so trotting will be a non-issue and that should help with the healing as well.

Things not to do during one's time off work

Generally, my work schedule lets me ride four days a week: Tuesday afternoons, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays.  This month, I'm putting in extra hours for a handful of reasons and my routines are all out of whack.  It's not great, but it is what it is and I know it's only temporary.

Our next 25 is the first Saturday in October.  I had hoped to get in one or two good, solid long rides this month - specifically one this week where I really do have time to ride.  Eighteen miles should be a good trial run for the tack setup and let me know what I need to change, plus see how our speed has increased in the past few months - the last time we did that particular ride was in June.

Things not to do #1:  While putting up lights in my new tack room, I was a bit of a klutz and the drill relocated from the screw (intended target) to my finger (not intended).  Drill bits hurt, y'all.  Finger is bandaged up, not seriously wounded, but definitely going to take some time to heal up properly.

Monday night we went out for a brisk few miles.  Tuesday she got off.  I figured I'd work her lightly today and do our long ride tomorrow.. and then plans changed and I rode with a friend for our usual 7-mile loop today instead.  Right around mile #5, headed home and walking down a steep hill, Fetti took a funny step and asked me if we should stop; I told her she was silly and no, of course keep walking.

Unfortunate event #2:  Maybe 20 feet later I reached back to check on the crupper and discovered that actually, the crupper and the saddle were no longer attached.  The pony earned major sainthood points for that one; the crupper ring and the leather that held it to the saddle just came right off, but the crupper was still sitting on her hindquarters with the loop around her tail.  This is the same hill where she bucked me off once before in a separate crupper incident (though then it was too loose and kicked in HARD and FAST, so not really her fault).

Our local shoe repair place will sew the piece back in, and barn friends and I will then go off and attach screws to help hold it in place some more.  Unfortunately, I won't have the saddle back til Friday morning.  I may be able to fit 12 miles in before work Friday.. but 18 is not going to happen.

Unless I manage to get off work earlier than usual in the next week or two, that 18 may not happen at all before the ride.  I know Fetti is more fit than she was this time last year.  I know our speed is doing better.  I'm just not sure how she'll handle the distance.  I'm looking forwards to finding out.

Specialized: cautious success

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.