It’s a bit wild to be able to ride so much in the sunshine in January! I can’t say I hate it, aside from what it means for our changing climate and what kind of summer we’ll be in for if we don’t get some solid cold and mountain snow soon. It is nice to only have to put on two or three layers, instead of five or six!

Our first conditioning ride two weeks ago was solid, until Tarma ripped the gaiter of one of her EasyBoot Gloves. Our boot woes shall never end it seems. I just need to be able to get through a ride of up to 15 miles or so without flinging, ripping, or having a boot rub. Is that really so much to ask? Sigh. Today was also pretty solid, at least as far as Tarma’s fitness is going. We didn’t have quite enough time to go as far as I wanted, I was aiming for 12-14 miles, but 9 miles in an 1:50 with some boot adjustments isn’t the worst. Add speed or add distance, not both at the same time, so the saying goes.

I chose a section of trails that would give us a longer warm up today. With the weather all topsy turvy I wanted to ensure Tarma was ready to go before I asked for speed. I also wanted to get the Renegades wet and muddy and see how they fared. Welp they came right off, one after another, as soon as we trotted a bit. So I hopped off, tightened the lower strap for the gaiters, and off we went. They stayed on this time but I felt like I had a flat tire, and Tarma didn’t want to charge forward as per her usual for the first 6 miles. Off I hopped again and loosened the gaiters and raised them up a tad higher on her heel bulbs. That seemed to be a sweet enough spot, as they stayed on and she was happy to motor out again. They stayed on for several miles of trotting and cantering, whew!

I think the heat (it was around 52 degrees) and how winter shaggy she was slowed her down a bit. I saw someone’s posting about taking a break for 30-40 seconds, letting the horses catch their breath, and then asking them to pick up speed again to see how they are recovering. We tried this several times and each time Tarma moved right out strongly again, so that’s another little trick in our repertoire. It also helped me to be able post more with a little break in between, though I’m still not as consistent as I’d like to be. At different points during the ride she kept drifting to the right side of the road, and I had to keep asking her to lift her right shoulder, and reminding myself to lift my right hip too. This is an ongoing issue, so I think I’ll have the chiropractor out soon and see if she’s out a bit or if it’s mostly me. It wasn’t consistent but it didn’t entirely go away, one reason I need to go for a longer ride to see if we can warm up through it.

We ran into some friends towards the end, and got to practice our trail manners of walking, saying hello, passing politely and picking up speed once we were far enough away not to cause them problems.

I let her canter up the last hill back to the trailer, and by the time I loosened my girth and grabbed my stethoscope (I haven’t figured out what heart monitor I like so we’re doing it old school for now) she was at about 62/64 BPM, not too shabby at all! Unfortunately while untacking her I discovered she had gotten a cut on her rear leg, and her left rear Scoot boot had rubbed right in the middle of her heel bulb. I think that’s where the most movement is for her hoof, so I’ll play around with keeping that protected. Maybe that was the slight flat tire feeling along the way? Endurance is always adjusting and playing with gear, I assumed the trouble was the new Renegades, not the tried and true Scoots. One more trim cycle and then she’ll be back in shoes and I won’t have to worry so much about rubs.

Once I had her untacked and rubbed down (I use Coat Defense powder to help her dry off this time of year) and she was slurping up her wet Outlast, her heart rate was down to the 40s. Once I figure out all these boot issues, we’ll be unstoppable!