Tonight Lara picked me up at 5 pm and we went out to get Sinwaan. We trailered to Bob & Sues place, Lara tacked up their horse Rocker and we rode up to Bennington Lake and met Heather on her mustang Quincy and Ruth on her solid Paint Topper. I put on the heart rate monitor tonight and was pleased that before heading out Sinwaan's resting HR was 42. We had a very nice easy ride around the lake. We did a lot of walking with some trotting. Topper is a young horse and hasn't quite learned his speeds yet but he was content to follow the pack, albeit at his own pace (slowly). This was a good opportunity for Sinwaan to work on collecting himself although I could tell he really wanted to move out.
After one lap around the lake we parted ways and Lara and I rode back around the Lake the opposite direction. The idea was, once back on the trail and away from the other horses (there were a lot tonight in the parking area) we would do some cantering. Well we let them out and Sinwaan just flew! So it was more of a gallop. I was concentrating on watching the trail and on the lookout for bunnies, so I forgot to check the moniter but we were on the flat. We had a really nice fun run down that flat stretch. We also tried to do more trotting on this lap, at a faster rate, as the horses were warmed up and the sun was going down. We probably did walk half of it however. Siwnaan's walking HR is low 70s. Lara told me to try and get it to 160 at a canter. Well we ended up revving up to a gallop again and I was so busy watching the monitor that I didn't realize when we went up a small incline and I said Wow 186! Lara said the hill probably helped with that. He came right down within seconds.
We went home a different way tonight and ended up crossing a bridge, it was wooden planks with metal sides arching over an empty concrete canal. Rocker went right on over and Sinwaan had to think about it. He was having a little trouble so Rocker came back over and he followed her over the second time. It was a noisy bridge, very hollow sounding with little squeeks too. Walking home Sinwaan's HR was down to 64-68 so I was glad to see that also.
Back at the house we untacked and hosed the horses down, offered Sinwaan some water and he didn't want any.
Tonight he gave me a little trouble with the trailer trying to load him up to go home. It was starting to get dark out so maybe that had something to do with it, I don't know. I had Lara tap him with the lunge whip and we got him in without too much trouble. It is not one of his strengths though, that is for sure. :-P
We rode 2 1/2 hours tonight and as a (guesstimate) covered 5 1/2 miles.
No comments:
Post a Comment