After years of borrowing horses, working to ride and catch riding, I finally have my own horse, a spicy chocolate mare...but also a demanding day job (who doesn't?), a nerdy husband, a soccer loving kid who needs to be parented (by me, duh), and the ultimate trail buddy, a chocolate Labradork!
During the course of my first office job, I wrote several chapters of a book that will never see the light of day. It’s titled “Through the horse’s ears” and was pure escapist prose, where the heroine proceeds onto her equine based adventure with utter surety and smoothness. Seriously, I reread this a few years […]
Happy Second Birthday Benny!!!!!! With the thick of endurance season upon us, I’m actually riding Tarma less than I do in the winter. She gets the standard week or two off after each race, and then a few tune up rides before the next event. This leaves me with lots of free time, and also […]
I always like to wait a few days to do my official ride write up. This gives me time to stop groaning every time I get up, clean out the rig, and really see how Tarma is doing after we’re back home. Today she had a chiropractic appointment with the ever lovely Dr. Sammons of […]
Last weekend’s ride was not without its bobbles, for both my friend and I. Unfortunately her horse, Cody, found a tunnel under the trail and stumbled to his knees and she had to bail. Both are fine, though she did bust a rib, she is otherwise upright (just don’t make her laugh for awhile!) Of […]
Endurance is such a tough sport in multiple ways, but also utterly fulfilling…as long as your equine partner is willing. Limited distance rides are fun, a good training ground, and can be hard in their own ways…but you don’t quite know the answer until you hit 50 miles or more. Does your horse like endurance? […]
The true measure of endurance for me isn’t just completing on time, or having the vet declare my horse fit to continue at the end of a long day. It’s the week after, especially the first few days after you get home. Do they stiffen up? Look off in any way? Dip any weight? Do […]
After last weekend’s ride, I’m pretty set on a 50 at Grizzly. There’s a lot going into this, so let’s dig in: Our last conditioning ride went swimmingly; the Octos stayed on and both horses were thrilled to move out without feeling the rocks as much or dealing with rubs, we got several up and […]
With just over a week to go until we load up the trailer to (hopefully) haul over to Central Oregon for our first endurance ride of the year, the to-do list gets rather busy. I save myself a lot of packing by leaving most things in my trailer year round, but I still have to: […]
Once again, I’m bouncing back and forth between posting straight to Facebook and here on the space I actually pay for. Folks don’t always follow a link to a blog, but they usually take a few moments to read a full FB post. I value the blog as a much better way to search and […]
My gear has changed quite a bit since my last check in, and heading into endurance training season it’s a good time to dig into what I’m using this year. My previous gear did manage to get us through the Cross State Ride (not well, as it turned out), a full summer of adventures and […]