Last day of February

Had a great ride today. Started out alone and met up with Heather on Last Chance road. The weather was awesome, sunny and mid-50s. T-shirt weather, and I even got to wear some normal socks today (bye bye wool)! Probably because the weather was so perfect, everyone was out and about. Lots of traffic, and we saw numerous cyclist - Sinwaan hates those because they sneak up on us. I feel his haunches gather up underneath of him and he is ready to BOLT when they come up behind us.

Heather and Quincy set a great pace, a nice easy steady trot that kept Sinwaan's HR in the low 90s. That was just what we needed after our solo stop-and-go start.

On what must have been the end of Valley Chapel, Sinwaan had another good spook over the same type of dark mound that sent me airborne last weekend. I stuck with him this time although my calf again got pulled pretty darn good and even my hip hurt for a couple of minutes. It's better than the alternative, however, and it was soon forgotten.

On Stateline Road we saw a cow giving birth. That was probably the most noteworthy visual on today's jaunt.

Heather had mentioned adding on a couple of roads to my loop last week that would add a couple miles. I was game and off we went. From Beet we added on Springdale Road to Old Milton Hwy over to Bussell and that put us back at Mission. Sinwaan took the lead on Bussell, and sensing we were headed the "right" direction, gave me his power trot which put his HR up into the 120s.

Heather turned back and headed for home shortly onto Mission. Sinwaan did his power trot most of the way, pulling on my arms and asking for more speed. He slowed down on his own towards the end of the road and did well for me going over the Last Chance bridge, with its strange echoes, it is unlike other bridges in the area. We had a bit of a canter or two heading home on Stovall and I walked him the last 1/2 mi in.

I dismounted, let him grab a bite of grass, took off his bridle and let him scratch all over me, and then checked his HR. 49. Yeah! He got some more time to nibble on the spring greens coming up and then I turned him out to his paddock. He went and had a good roll, as always, and then settled into his 'lunch' that I had unkindly removed him from earlier.

12.9 miles in about 2.5 hrs. Yes, it was a good day for riding. I can't wait for the ride. I am confident now that we will do just fine.

Sunday ride

Today we went 11.2 miles. Our time was 2 hr 15 min.


It was a great day to be riding - the sun was shining and the temperature fantastic (46°). Not t-shirt weather, but not so cold that you are uncomfortable.

I think the HR monitor was fairly accurate today. Sinwaan was in the low 100s (110) at the trot (with fairly good recoveries when we slowed to a walk), until we headed back towards home (Beet Rd). He had a spook at some dirt (of all things!) and I went flying off (I believe that is the first time I have come off him). I was glad to have landed on soft ground, but it felt like I pulled both calves pretty good. I stood and stretched them out a bit before remounting. After that he was really moving out and his HR went up to the 120s. Finally, working.

All in all we had a great ride. I feel like I need to step it up to have him ready and continue to do this loop, or one similar to it in distance, every weekend between now and the ride (5 weeks away). He seemed a little tired when we got back home today. In the past when we were done he still was ready to do more. I was able to walk him in on a loose lead the final mile or so to cool him out a bit. He also seemed a little fat today so his caretaker and I had a conversation about cutting back slightly on his night time feeding. It would help if he wasn't carrying any extra weight.

A great 7.8 mi solo ride in 1 hr 35 min. The weather here today is 55°F

Solo ride on the road

Today was a good solo ride for Sinwaan and I. We rode out from the barn and headed east this time up Stovall. The first mile Sinwaan gave me a little snort, prance and head tossing - but overall I have seen worse, so I think we made a little progress today.

Going past Jenee's is always interesting, Sinwaan finds plenty of things to look at that he thinks are going to jump up and get him - the creek, and agility equipment in particular, so we walk past.

Then it was back to trotting, around the bend and then thankfully we had slowed to a walk again because I saw a plastic bag in the bush...thought Sinwaan must have seen it, but no! At the last minute he notices, jumps and whirls around. I lost a stirrup on that little antic. Nerves slightly rattled we continued on. More trotting and then he even wanted to canter, so onward we went for a short stint to the stop sign.

Decisions, which way to go today? Heading south would have put me on our usual loop, only going in the opposite direction. I decided to turn left, and an immediate challenge was the bridge. Sinwaan balked away from it twice so I dismounted and led him over. I did not want traffic to come upon us at 40-50 mph when he is acting senseless.

Mounting up once over we headed on our way, down to Mission road and here we headed west. I heard a chain-saw in the distance and noticed a man trimming his tree. He was not running it as we went by, thankfully. Back into a trot, and Sinwaan was really extending himself today, it felt like he was moving out much better than usual with a nice long stride. Then I glanced down and saw a piece of carpet in the grass on the shoulder. Sinwaan saw it too. Another leap sideways and again I lost a stirrup. That will get your heart rate going! We walked then, for a short section, as there was a horse in a pasture across the street trying very hard to get our attention.

More trotting.

Down at the bend we were approached by three noisy dogs. Hmm. I am never sure what to do. Sinwaan stopped to check them out and the two larger ones stopped coming towards us although they kept barking. I talked to Sinwaan a little and we walked onward to the intersection.

Turning right now onto Majonnier we had about 1/4 mile until we came to another bridge. This one we crossed without a problem. Just after that we had a motorcycle come at us, but Sinwaan wasn't bothered. This road turned into Frog Hollow and just before the historical cemetery we had a large blue heron rise up on our left. It was really neat. I love encountering wildlife on my rides.

Half way down Frog Hollow to our turn, I heard something coming up behind us, so I pulled Sinwaan over to the next driveway so he could turn around and have a look. It was two men, one on a 4-wheeler and one on a 3-wheeler, driving side by side (taking up more than one lane) and each of them with a beer in hand. This must be a country road. They were not going very fast so I gave them a couple minutes to get ahead of us since we were going the same direction.

We also passed an orchard, and heard lots of voices from within and saw a lot of cars but did not see any of the people.

Heading back down Last Chance and then back onto Stovall completed the lollipop portion of our ride. Sinwaan was doing great, he was still moving out with a big trot and we even interspersed some cantering. No acting up, we just had a really nice ride at our own pace. All told we covered 7.8 miles in about an hour and a half.

Next weekend I am planning to put the saddle bags back on and use the HR monitor so I can get a better idea of where we're at, and how much I need to step it up to have him ready for the Home On The Range ride, our first of the season, March 27th.