Wednesday ride

Well lets start with the simple stuff, it was a lovey day, wonderful weather I wore a tank top the whole time! It was sunny and beautiful out on the ridge. And I had a very good ride!

So lets try to break it down into sections so its easier to read:

General info on ride:
Unfortunitly I don't have all the general info on the ride since my GPS crashed when I tryed to take a picture on the way back!! It had said previously to that that my ride had been close to 9 miles but I belive it to be over 10. I went at least 2 miles further then the last time I rode up there and that time my GPS had said I had went 7 miles, so my ride should have been around 11 miles. Our average speed was 3.3 miles per hour, but I think that is mostly because Lucy went so slow down hills that her trotting didn't make much of a difference, also I am not entirely convinced that thing is always right! I parked at my gate, walked Lucy up Gazos and then road out Johannsons. My goal was to reach China Grade before turning around, but I am happy with our ride.


Lucy's Fitness:
Lucy's fitness was good. She got pretty out of breat going up Gazos but did ok with me walking. It seemed like the more we trotted the better she did even though it was off and on. I don't think she could have gone a lot further, at least not without a rest first. I chose Johannson because of its soft terrian for Lucy's hooves but forgot that it tends to be more up and down then the other roads, so it was a littel bit of a harder ride because of that. We had to walk most of the ups and downs and only trot on flatish areas.

Lucy's hooves:
At first on Gazos she was having a hard time, tripping a bit over the large rocks, but after we got past those she did absolutly fine not an issue at all. Of course I did pick Johannens because of its soft terrain.

Lucy's attitude:
Well, um.... Cough, Cough.... .... Lucy was her normal bitchy self! She kept finding reasons to turn around and kept acting like she was all tired but then would spooked at me coughing! We did finally agree on our old standby, Lucy walks down all hills unless I say otherwise, then picks up the trot on her own on flats and slight uphills, sometimes she chooses to trot up a hill and I will be ok with it, sometime I am not and sometime I ask her to trot up the hill when she chooses not to. It was a little bit more trotting then I have asked her to do in a while, but it was pretty low key, no steep hills or extended periods at the trot. I am pretty sure that Lucy just needs to get out on the trail and be made to go farther distances and at higher speeds to reconcile herself to it and start enjoying it. Oviously if she can't find a way to enjoy our rides I will have to retire her from any endurance, but I would like to give her a shot since I know she could be an excellent endurance horse if she could just like it.

Rider fitness:
Its funny that this should come up during my ride since Mel just put up a post about it. After reading the blog she linked I do and don't agree. I do agree that riders (particularly endurance riders) should be in good shape. I do agree that endurance riders should be able to get off and run with their horses for a while. But I do not agree that in order to be a good partner that the rider needs to be in almost as good of shape as the horse. A partnership is created because each half has a talent but needs the other halfs talent to do what they want. In this case its the horses job to carry the rider to the end of the ride, the riders job is to make sure the horse is properly prepared for that ride, properly outfitted (saddle and bridal), properly hydrated, properly shod (or booted), properly fed, keeping a good pace and keeping the horses sprits up. If both parts of the partnership could do the same thing, what would be the point of the partnership?
This came up during my ride becuase I get off and walk Lucy up and down Gazos. This is a steep 2 mile stretch that takes us to the top of the ridge. Its not that steep, but it helps Lucy that I get off and walk. I have found that Lucy does really well with me on the ground. The problem? I am not a runner! I can walk up any hill and walk just about anywhere, but I CANNOT run! I am not in wonderful shape (even though I do look it!) but neither am I in bad shape, but when I run within 20 seconds I feel like I am going to stop breathing and that my legs are going to fall off! I just don't run!

Oviously this has to change! I had started running with Lucy in the mornings, what we really did is I would run until I felt like dieing, walked until I no longer felt like dieing then would run again and so on and so forth, but lately I have been too tired to get up early in the morning for these runs ( my job has been overly stressful). I also need to be taking Kezi out for walks (who by the way is very happily not lame currently, and has been that way since early May) which would help me prepare for running. But any way I look at it, I don't like to run! But I will do what I must do!


Overall assesment:
I am still not sure what my overall assesment is. I think she will be absolutly fine at the clinic this weekend, but beyond that I don't know. If I keep on top of a clear conditioning rutine, I think we could do the July 18th ride, which would be the best to actaully get me into doing endurance. I picked out a couple other rides to consider, but the thing that is so great about the Fireworks is a) I will have been to the camp after this weekend b) I will have met several people who will be riding in it this weekend and the ride manager and c) its not that far away from home so I will only have to camp one night, plus being closer to home is less scary!

If I can get Lucy on board with wanting to be out there doing endurance then I think we will do great, but there is no way I can push her to do something she doesn't want to do. And if that is the case then everything lays with Kezi, who's recovery is still very unsure.

Only time will tell but I sincerly hope I can do endurance with Lucy, she would just be so good!!