And first ride in a month, boy is my body yelling at me!! I can’t believe how quickly I got out of shape!
I was so excited to get to ride, it was a really nice day despite the early forecast of rain.
But when your horse is Lucy, the good never lasts. Lucy didn’t want to be touched. While I am used to this (and having to bribe her with grain) it really puts a damper on your ride. I almost didn’t want to ride just because it was upsetting how much Lucy didn’t want to be ridden.
I did end up catching her and trailering her down to one of my favorite trails that I haven’t ridden on since last spring.
I had a ton of new stuff to try out so tacking up took a while, luckily Lucy is patient!
Heart Rate Monitor:
Yea! I got to use my new heart rate monitor! It was a little confusing since I couldn’t get to work the whole first half of the ride, but then I decided later that was because her coat wasn’t wet enough (I wet it down with a washcloth, but I don’t think that was the best). I will deffinatly see about getting the gel.
Once it did work though it was pretty cool to see what her heart rate was! The only annoying part was that it was preset with limits and the low limit was 80, so it kept beeping at me on the way up! I ended up turning it off on the way back down since it wouldn’t stop beeping. So I need to change the presets.
I also learned that its a bit temperamental! Get the watch too far away from the monitor and it will not pick anything up (and really I wasn’t that far away!) and get it too close (like inches) and it starts going haywire!
Other then that is was pretty cool! Can’t wait to use it for actual conditioning, right now I will be using it to monitor Lucy’s condition as she comes back into work.
Easyboot Bares:
Worked quite well actually! I thought for sure that Lucy’s huge ground covering trot would throw them off, but no problems. This was the first time we had ridden in them. I had tried them on before but wasn’t confident about using them. However since Lucy’s last trim I think her hooves have been changing shape (for the better) a little bit, and that she will fit into the 1’s longer now.
One of the boots did squeak, which was unbelievably annoying! However after watching Lucy walk for a it (and surprisingly not tripping and falling as I was walking too!) I determined that that boot was looser and that I could tighten it up a bit and that would probably (hopefully!) fix the squeak!
Outback Saddlery leather saddle bag:
Was a little bit of a disappointment. I got this for Christmas. It’s really pretty and of really nice leather. I like that I can put it on either a western or English saddle (my endurance saddle is very western) and it can hold a lot. However, its nearly impossible to get into from the saddle, it just hangs too low. So for carrying lunches and stuff you won’t need while in the saddle its great, but deffinatly needs to be paired with something with easy access.
Lucy was pretty slow on the ride and kept wanting to turn around. We trotted a couple times but only very briefly. I have to admit, the ride wasn’t really all that much fun. Lucy is a great horse, but she just isn’t that much of a riding horse anymore. I think she will be great for rides now and then, and as a second horse for taking my sister riding, as she is much more willing to go out with other horses.
I meant to go for another ride this weekend, but I was still sore from our ride on Thursday, and really wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with Lucy. It kinda takes the fun out of it when your horse really doesn’t want to be there.
I am still planning on getting her in shape for Shine and Shine only, but we will see if I don’t give up from lack of enthusiasm.
Here is a map of my ride:
Stats:
Name:
Butano 12/31
Date:
Dec 31, 2009 1:43 pm
Distance:
6.75 miles
Elapsed Time:
2:16:12
Avg Speed:
3.0 mph
Max Speed:
8.6 mph
Avg Pace:
20' 11" per mile
Min Altitude:
10 ft
Max Altitude:
1,040 ft
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