So our first longer ride since Lucy was sick!

So we got to ride yesterday, yeah!

And it was a fabulous ride! I am very excited about it, well I would be if I could move very much, haha! But I will explain about that later.

 

The ride set up:

So my plan was to ride from home, up Gazos to Johansons. Then Johansons to Middle Ridge Road, back to Gazos and then home.

Here are my estimates on mileage:

Home to Sandy point 3.9 miles

Sandy Point to Middle Ridge Road, via Johansons 2.5 miles

Middle Ridge Road to Gazos 3 miles

Gazos to Sandy Point 5 miles

Sandy Point to Home 3.9 miles

Total: 18.3 estimated.

I can’t say for sure how long we took since we stopped to talk several times and I did not check the clock as soon as I got home. But I left the house at 11.30 and got back in the house at 6pm. So I would say that total ride time was about 5 hours, maybe less.

Prep:

Well obviously I took Lucy! And her normal tack, Marciante saddle, Parelli hackamore, I had to use my baby blue breastplate on her since I left my good one in town :( It hangs too low on her shoulders I think. I packed the back saddle bag with a bottle of water, sunscreen (after applying two times!), hoof pick, map, twine (always in there), craisins (also always in there and probably a bit old at this point!), stethoscope (which I never use). But I defiantly need a new saddle pack as this one bounces around too much.

I got to ride my my trail stirrups! I hadn’t done so before because the fenders were wider then the stirrups, and I didn’t want to stretch out my fenders. So I wrapped my stirrups in cardboard then taped them so that the top part where the fender sits was wider. It worked pretty well but then my fenders could slip sideways a bit and not say straight on the stirrup, but I think that help my stirrups sit straighter and made it more comfortable for me.

Then I put my english seat saver on my endurance saddle, I don’t have one that fits it yet and seriously needed it! I was determined not to have a sore bum.

Here is Miss Lucy all ready to go! She looks annoyed.

 

So the breakdown of my ride!

Home to Sandy Point:

I walked her down my road as usual, its just much easier not to have to fight with her since she will try turning around to go home until we get a certain distance away from home. I think we were making pretty good time up Gazos until we met up with this guy and his dog, who I ended up talking to for a while. Lucy was happy since we stopped right at a big bunch of grass! She is defiantly doing better breathing wise going up that hill, I am very pleased!

At Sandy point we met up with Eric ( I bought Lucy from him when she was 5 months old). This was the second time I had met up with him I think Lucy is one of his nicer horses that he bred. I won’t go into  how he breeds his horses all that right now since it doesn’t have anything to do with our ride.

Sandy Point to Middle Ridge Road, via Johansons:

So at this point we started trotting some. Pretty much only on flat but I did start pushing her up a few small hills. I have been letting her walk up all hills even little ones so now I am reminding her that she is capable of trotting up the hills. I  think we did this in about 20 to 30 minutes. I did make her trot quite a bit, all flat spots at any rate.  Although Johansons is rather hilly, I knew it would be nothing compared to what was coming on the next trail!

Middle Ridge Road to Gazos:

So the middle ridge road is pretty much all up and down. Mostly down, but some up (going south east anyway). I got off and walked it all. I let her stop and eat quite a bit. I figured it would be our time to settle down and get our energy back for Gazos, or at least for Lucy to get her energy back for Gazos. I let her eat since it would help keep her hydrated, put some food in her stomach and give her a chance to stop and rest (and me too!). We met up with a rather large group of hikers on the middle ridge road.  I would say we took at least an hour on the middle ridge road.

Gazos to Sandy Point:

This was probably the best part of our ride, the walking and resting on middle ridge road really paid off  as Lucy was really refreshed and ready to go! Gazos is more or less flat so I knew we would be doing quite a bit of trotting. At first it was a little too downhill to do a lot of trotting, then it evened out and we started picking up our speed. We came up on the creek that I had remembered from before just when the trail started to flatten out more. I filled my water bottle and let Lucy drink. She did drink but not a lot.  We pretty much trotted at least 50% of the time if not more until we came to the open areas. Lucy was more into trotting at this point and would spring into the trot at the lightest touch, but I let her choose more or less when we walk again. She is still learning to trot longer distances.

When we came to the open parts I doused her with water and reapplied my sunscreen. She was trotting gaily when we got back to sandy point, I think physically she could have done more, and possibly mentally too. At Sandy Point Eric had water for us, she drank a lot more there!

Sandy Point to Home:

I walked her down Gazos as is my norm, mostly to save my knee which was killing me from my stirrup. The pain had gone all up into my hip! I got back on after the gate and figured we would walk up the hill, even though  Lucy felt like she could do some trotting. I let her choose what to do and she choose to trot a bit. I was ok with this because she was energetic and breathing well. We met up with my father, brother and his two kids at the spring. The kids of course wanted rides, Tyler as finally gotten over being afraid of the horses, and even remembered Lucy’s name! I was really surprised. So they got a short ride (was impressed that Lucy was ok with turning back around away from home) and then Kylie got to ride on Lucy up to the house. This is where my story goes a little bit downhill, not for Lucy or Kylie but for me. Lucy was a gem, I love having a horse that can go out and do endurance training so well and then come home and be safe for my 5 year old niece!

While Lucy did great going up the hill, and Kylie had a blast, I literally almost passed out! Lucy walks very fast, and Kylie kept talking with me so I got really out of breath. When we were almost to my driveway was when  I realized that I was in real danger of passing out. I have never passed out before but came really close once when getting stitches out. I made myself walk her up to the pasture then sat down  my the feed bins while Lucy munched on hay. If I had stood up at all I would have pass out for sure. A couple times when I sat up more my vision went all black. I sat for quite a while so my brother came up with Tyler to let him sit on Lucy while she was eating too. It was pretty cute, but I was too out of it to really care. I have no idea how long I sat there but even when I did get up to take Lucy down to be untacked I had to sit down on the ground every 50 feet or so. I had to drag myself into the house to get a piece of bread so that I had enough stangth to unsaddle Lucy. I was pretty weak the rest of the evening and even this morning I am still weak and my legs still really hurt.

So why did this happen? Very simple, I never remember to eat before going out riding. I ate like four pieces of cheese before I left at 11:30 then walked at least 5 miles on our ride which was rather long! I managed to keep myself hydrated but not fed. Loren was a bit mad since he keeps telling me I need to eat before riding. I am a bit strange in that I will often not eat even when I am hungry. I would probably have more energy and less breathing problems if I ate more.

I am defiantly going to buy some little packets of nuts and dried fruit for packing in my saddle bag for next time.

I think Lucy could handle a ride like this every two to three weeks.

I had some thoughts on interval training. I was thinking that I should work her up hills a bit more before doing much IT, use that as our IT for now and not higher speeds. We shall see what happens.

 

What did I learn on this ride?

I need to eat before and during my rides! I take better care of Lucy then I do myself!

I need sports bra for riding (I had some bra strap issues! hehe)

I need a better saddle bag, preferably one that holds more water bottles.

And Lucy is in great shape! Yeah!