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.
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