I suppose I still love you, but I wish you wouldn't act like a psycho after I tell the whole Internet how awesome you've become.
Thanks, your adoring human
I really didn't feel like doing the enormous ride I should've done. I dawdled around grooming piles and piles of hair off of her. Then once I finally dragged my butt in the saddle I realized I didn't even put on her breastcollar or crupper, so no hills for us. I thought "well let's just do a peaceful short ride in the flat part of the valley. It'll be fun. It'll be a bonding experience."
Dixie was a total terror. We had a huge fight for 2 miles - she wouldn't walk anywhere, she wouldn't trot anywhere, she wouldn't even rack anywhere. She was constantly trying to bolt and she didn't care whether we were pointing towards home or away from it. She was ready to explode. I'd get maybe two strides of trot and then she'd leap off into a wild canter.
Finally I said fine, be that way, and we cantered off toward the arena. She got a little sticky at the entrance to Hungry Valley - she wanted to go investigate the parked trucks and dirt bikes, then came completely unglued when she saw the back of a sign that she's only ever seen from the front before. Really. Horse. You live in a three dimensional world. Things have fronts and backs. You have ridden past that sign hundreds of times. Get a grip.
I coaxed her past that and we headed out at a surgey trot/halt-and-stare/trot/halt-and-stare. Eventually she leveled out and started steadily trotting for me, so we turned for home. We roared along for three more miles at 11 mph. She just rolled along between a race-pace, a rack, and a canter, with a few trot breaks. Just so we weren't "running straight home" I took a different path - looped down almost to LV Drive, then cut across to the bottom of Matterhorn.
I didn't dare unbridge my reins long enough to drink, much less eat anything. That horse is fit. I wonder how long you have to leave an endurance horse in the pasture before it loses conditioning, and I wonder why humans are such wusses in comparison. I have to ride more often - her head is better if I ride more.
Boomer did his (and my) first 50 miler in late Nov 09. Then had the winter mostly off with about 3 rides (30 minutes in the arena) per week through the winter and was fit enough to finish another 50 in mid March with no extra conditioning. So, at least 3.5 months to lose condition!
ReplyDeleteHe has been out of work for about 5 months now, and is definitely not the same shape as he is when he is fit! He seems to be missing his topline and having a little extra padding around the ribs!
She was just keeping you on your toes! Constant vigilance! It's all for your own good, didn't you know?
ReplyDeleteIt must be something in the air. Ozzy was so bad at EVERYTHING today that he didn't get dinner. I wanted to cry.
ReplyDeleteI think she just thought you were getting all soft and marshmellowy with that last post - she said it was time to toughen up! (Good riding on your part to deal with all that.)
ReplyDeleteThat sounds fun...not! Sure, she was just looking out for you both, in her head. Hate it when they do that, but hey, you sat it out!
ReplyDeleteYikes! Well, at least she's feeling great.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say....at least you were brave enough to put it in gear and go. When I let Phebes go like that she'll end up doing a 180 degree roll back and leave me eating dirt. We had session 2 today in the round pen with a round of wild stallion rearing antics in the mix. Grabbed control of that pretty fast though, and then she acted sensible. GEEZZZZZZZZZz.
ReplyDeleteThey've GOT to make liars of us, don't they...
ReplyDeletesounds like maybe a 50-miler is in your (near?) future.
ReplyDeleteHeh heh heh.
Spring fever must have hit. :( Not fun!
ReplyDeleteSee, this kinda ties in with the previous post. Sometimes Dixie goes too fast and won't listen and feels like a powder keg, but she's never trying to eject me. I'd be much more scared if she bucked into canter transitions, or if she dropped her shoulder in a rollback. But she doesn't seem to want me to fall off. I've learned to hang in there mentally. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that I wasn't the only one with a psycho pony yesterday! Yesterday must've been National Crazy Horse Day. Good job, yall, now let's get back to normal?