March 9 2008

Well it is that time of year again, change your clocks and set them forward for spring. Matt had a list of things to do today so was hesitant to let me go off and ride around the countryside but because the time is pressing in upon me for the endurance ride I knew I had to put in my hours. We came to a compromise; I would go early so I could be back at a reasonable time for him to work on the roof (he wants me there in case he falls off) and do the finishing work on the trailer lights on our camper as well.

So I set my alarm for six a.m. Well at six a.m. it was still dark as night outside, I decided that would not do and I reset my alarm for six-thirty. Well at six-thirty it was still very dark outside so I went back to bed. I woke up about seven a.m. and was relieved to see that the sun did indeed intend on coming up today :) I got up and got ready and took the dogs out and was just about ready to go and I heard "ma-ma" from Levi's room. So I went in and got him changed and fed him some yogurt and cereal and then got Matt up so I could leave.

Kittee was up and ready to go when I arrived, she had thrown hay out to the horses and it looked like they were about 1/2 through it at least so I told her to take another 10-15 min and eat some breakfast. I tinkered with my saddles. I have an extra saddle in my trunk from Kim and I thought today would be a good day to try it out, while someone else is along riding with me in case of trouble. I had gotten the stirrups moved over and was about to move over the breast collar when I noticed that Kim's saddle only had one D-ring in the front (one had been there at one point in time but was now gone). It had two D-rings on one side in the rear but that would not help me today! Blasted tack! Well I will have to have that fixed if I intend on riding any hills in that saddle for sure. So I moved my stirrups back over and packed my front pack with water and a granola bar and looked through my bag to be sure I had everything about ready.

By then the horses were about through and Kittee came back up to the barn and we got out our boys (she rode Derby today) and started grooming. They weren't too bad off. We got tacked up and while she tinkered with Derby's boots, I tinkered with Sinwaan's HR monitor. I thought today would be a good day to use it and see where he is at on the hills. Well the first time I got it all in position it didn't work at all so I thought I didn't have enough goo. So I put on more goo and then I was able to get a HR but it took longer than usual. A nice resting HR of 26. He was half asleep!

We headed out and up Cache Hollow, the boys did fairly well together. Derby is the head honcho in the pasture so Sinwaan wasn't crazy about walking next to him or just ahead of him, but they did alright. We did a fair amount of trotting once they were warmed up, and had a great gallop when the footing allowed for it. We reached the 2 mi point in no time. We then decided to take the horses into the harrowed field and rode them along the edge since THE HILL there is so rocky and rough. It was hard going for them, a lot of work through all that deep dirt but a great workout nonetheless. We made it to the top and let them rest and graze a bit before continuing on down to Kinnear.

Forgot to mention that I must have jostled my HR monitor loose when I mounted up because I never did get it to work right after that and on the way home my snapper rein even pulled it up from his girth area, so I think his new girth does not work real well with it, the velcro doesn't stick and hold it in place and his girth just isn't tight enough right now either to hold it there. So I will need to figure out something else for that for our ride, because I will really be wanting to use it then.

Kinnear was lovely today, great footing that allowed for lots of trotting and some cantering. We saw two lovely little blue birds that were just singing us a song, and staying just ahead of us by playing leapfrog over each other from fence-post to fence-post.

We probably did about 9 1/2 miles today in a solid 3 hours which I think is pretty good taking the elevation changes into account. The plowed field walking slowed us down some also. Kittee took off Derby's boots half-way because they were starting to rub and he did fine on the way home.

It was a fun ride, and I felt I got in all the fast work that I needed to do today.