This might be a bit long. I'm trying to cover all my bases!
Here to talk about my 21-mile ride on Saturday off of Jumbo Grade in Washoe, Nevada with the FABULOUS and FUN group NEDA (National Endurance Driving Association). I love this group. So relaxed! So many smiles! No pressure! Just a good 'ol time.
Thank you to Beth Kauffman (Beth is hilarious by the way) and all the others who put in the time and effort to make this ride happen. Truly grateful person here! THANK YOU!
The Thursday before the ride I let Huckleberry run around the arena and get all the bucks and farts and silliness out. I like to do this because he doesn't have a huge turn out and he likes to really stretch his legs and buck and buck and buck! Then SNORTS! He even trots around all proud and flags his tail like, "Look at me! I'm an Arabian! I'm cool! I'm one of them!" Riiight...
Then I hooked him up to the surcingle with his bridle and snaffle bit and lunged him for a teeny bit in the round pen. This gets him using his brain and he gets nice and soft and begins to carry himself in a nice frame and loosens up. We also worked on walk/trot/canter transitions and stopping.
When I bought him he was quite hard-mouthed and had no idea what giving to the bit meant. Nor did he understand stopping! Nor did he understand what listening to a human was. Or at least he didn't care to listen! He was VERY opinionated when I first got him. He still is but less so. I think he's starting to like me. ANYWAY...The surcingle has been a GREAT tool for getting him to soften up and learn to give to pressure on his own without my stupid human hands screwing it up.
Thursday and Friday night I gave him lots of grass hay to munch on. Gotta put fuel in the gas tank and he needs a lot of fuel. He's a big boy and these rides are hard work for him. I also gave him two doses of Redmond Daily Red with his nightly supps on Friday. Normally he just gets one dose a day. Since he sweats A LOT I like to make sure he's really drinking and is nice and hydrated before we head out to a ride.
If anyone is wondering, so far I have not given him any type of elyte powder or paste. I am curious to see if it would make a difference for him on the second loop of future rides. I wouldn't need it to get him drinking as he does that really well at camp AND on the trail. Just curious if the elytes would perk him up a bit. Feel free to chime in on this bit. I'm all ears and always learning.
Friday night after work I got all my gear loaded up in the van and the trailer. I don't want to do any of that the day of. I'm too anxious of a person as is and doing it the day off would just flip me out.
Saturday I picked him up and off we headed to Washoe! I have to say so far this is my favorite place to ride. It has a little bit of everything. Elevation changes. Sand. Rocks. Overnight camping. Arena. A beach! Although by the end of the day Susan and I were cursing the ROCKS. F%!#ing ROCKS! More on that later...
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| Look at that view! |
The ride was set to start at 11:00am and I got there...eh...about 9:50-ish. It's good to have time to settle in. And everything takes longer to do than I seem to think it will take!
I got to park next to my riding buddy and fellow Green Bean Hot To Trot team member Susan Frank Cooper. Let me tell you, she's a hoot! I LOVE riding with Susan! Not only is she a great motivator and superb at keeping us on pace but she has an energetic and entertaining personality that makes the hours fly by! And one of the most honest people I've ever met. Truly love that. No bullshit!
I got to see other familiar faces as well. Sanne! Krystal! Tiffany! Kitty! And there were other curlies there! How cool is that?! No pictures of the other curlies because I'm still so new to all of this that I get tunnel vision and forget. Apologies! I'll work on that.
Ride meeting was at 10:45. Excellent description of the loops. I was still a bit nervous about getting lost but the trails were excellently marked (got a little confused at one junction but had faith and followed the matching ribbons...it worked!). I'm feeling much more confident about following ribbons and chalk marks after this ride. A big THANK YOU to those who marked the trail!
Once everyone started heading out at 11 Susan and I did a few laps around the parking lot to let most of the others go first AND make sure our horses (mostly Huckleberry) had their heads on straight. My first NEDA ride Huckleberry was quite the handful and I was super nervous about it this time. He was so much better this time around. No sideways crow hops! Huge relief. He did want to catch up with horses in front of him but after a very minor argument he decided to listen to me. Good boy. I was (AM) very proud of him for that.
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| Smiling all the time! |
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| I am so pleased with how his tack came out. Colors make me happay! |
The first loop for Susan and I went pretty well. Susan kept us on AERC time and we got a lot of trotting in. Tons of fun. Rocks had not yet become our enemies.
I had a sticky gel pad (Stephens Comfort Gel Eze Gelee Non Slip Sticky Saddle Back Pad)
underneath the saddle pad for this ride to reduce saddle slippage and it did a FANTASTIC job. I felt so much more secure. However, because of how round and sweaty Huckleberry is, the sticky pad could only do so much. On a downhill section my saddle did slip to the left and I was able to dismount safely. Huckleberry couldn't have cared less. He's a doll. I think he likes the breaks :p I know a big part of slippage issue is me not being a very balanced rider either. I'm working on that!
I want to say the first loop took about 2 hours. Maybe? Heck I don't know. I'm sure Susan remembers! Anyway, 11 miles later we got back to base camp. Huckleberry pulsed down a lot faster than I imagined he would. Just a couple minutes! The requirement was 64. I admit this is one point I was very concerned about. No issues though! He drank lots of water while getting his pulse taken. Good boy! After that I tied him up to the trailer and gave him his mash (he didn't want it) and lots of hay (he did want that). I also took all his gear off. Being such a big sweaty guy I wanted him to cool down as much as possible so I stripped him naked!
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| He wasn't really napping. He's just like me and blinks a lot when getting his picture taken. Goob. |
I was really curious to see how Huckleberry would do on the second loop as I hadn't done a two-part ride with him yet. I thought he might be irritated and sluggish. Nope! He was ready to go! Yay!
Our second loop was not as "productive" as the first. This is where our hatred of rocks began. SO. MANY. ROCKS. Our poor horses were getting tired of the rocks as well. Even with shoes both our horses were trying to tell us their feet were hurting. Huckleberry let me know by not responding to my cues to speed up and by lowering his head and shaking it. "No, Mom! Ouch!". We must listen to our horses!
We finished the second loop later than we wanted but that's ok. Nature had other plans and there is NO WAY we were going to put our horses well-being aside just to make the time we wanted. Our horses are our partners. They come first. And we do this for fun!
Oh, I also happened to look to my right at one point on the trail and saw a tick crawling up my sleeve. BLEH! So gross. So creepy. If any of you reading this did that ride, check yourself for ticks! Fortunately I didn't find anymore on me. *heebies jeebies*
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| Finished. Time for noms. |
I made sure he had plenty of hay to eat and let him be. He doesn't care too much about being fussed over so I did a once over, checked his legs, gave him hugs and got some kisses and headed home.
The next day I went to the barn to check on him. He was curled up on the ground catching some zzz's. After some hang out time and massaging he got up and I watched him walk around. No lameness what so ever. No heat or swelling anywhere. He's a tough cookie. Love my big guy.
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| He's such a good boy. I sat down next to him and starting massaging him and he looooved that. He closed his already droppy eyes and flopped over onto his side. Life is good for this horse! |
