Forty degrees hotter

Look, yall, I try not to rub it in about the weather here. Nobody wants to hear my first-world Pacific coast weather problems. But I do live where it's about 60 degrees 24/7, and I did just get home (58F) from Almaden Quicksilver (96F) and let me tell you buddy it totally sucked.

Here is my Strava:


Long rides, for me, are a microcosm of all the emotions. In four hours, I ran through feeling proud, smug, bored, elated, resigned, despairing, and back to triumphant. The tl;dr version:

It was so hot. I drank all my water. I didn't electrolyte Dixie enough and she ran out of go-juice at 16 miles, so I got off and walked the last two miles in. I let her graze, and she wasn't in any distress, and when we finally got back to the trailer she dove into her mash and drank a couple gallons of water and pulsed right down. I got blisters on the bottoms of both my heels and a heatstroke-headache.



Before the last two miles, it was quite a bit of fun. Dixie was a perfect angel to meet a random kid in the parking lot. She plugged on up the hills and trotted/gaited the flats and the downhills. Bikes and hikers and dogs didn't phase her, but she had to stop and stare HARD at a kid with a butterfly net. I had him wave it around and she eventually decided it was ok.

I have got to get my shit together and ride with people. I do great on solo 10 mile rides, and I do ok on 15 mile rides, but 20 miles all alone is just so hard mentally. And it's not like I don't have any choice - I have at least four endurance people I could email and meet up with! I just didn't get around to talking to them this week and then last night I was like "must go ride 20 miles tomorrow." Ugh.

I took a bunch of little videos on my phone but splicing them together and uploading them is WAY MORE EFFORT than I can put forth tonight. Here's some conformation shots of my incredibly ripped horse. I think I'd be happy if she was a little fatter, actually. Thoughts/feelings?

That face. <3 that horse.
 

Shameful dirty.


Oh my god, Becky, look at her butt. It's so muscular and veiny. Wait, that's not how it goes at all...


I just hope Gold Country has troughs every five miles for me to stick my head in. I do ok if I can stick my head in a trough.

June conformation

I managed to take proper conformation shots for once! Look, her feet are square. Well. Pretty close to square. As square as they ever are. ;)

I love the look on her face - it's both quizzical and sleepy.


Billy did not approve of me taking Dixie.


Dixie did not seem to care.


Here's a picture of her back. It looks even to me? Her right rear foot is slightly forward of her left rear, and I think that's why her hips are uneven.


I did wash her gross tail after I took the pictures, but I forgot to take more pictures post-wash. Trust me, it was much whiter and fluffier.

* I'm going to Vegas with my BFFs for the weekend, so I've scheduled a couple of posts for while I'm gone. Have a lovely weekend, yall!*

Argh!

She's GROWING. Again. (Surely she's growing, and not just stuck in an awkward weird conformation?)



Click on the picture for the bigger version, if you can't see the lines. She's not standing square, but even if she was standing square she still wouldn't be balanced. And that's as square as it gets with Miss Impatience.

I've actually suspected it for about a week, and I ordered a front lift pad, which should be here soon. When I saw her standing silhouetted like that today, I realized that she IS downhill. Of course, that made me much more conscious of how the saddle is flinging me forward, which was both worse and easier to ride. I knew what was happening, so I wasn't just puzzled about my lack of balance.

I got the fenders yanked around to where the buckles are down by the stirrups, too. Vetwrapped them in place, and it looks like it should work out.

We had an interesting ride. Dixie really wanted to stand in the corner of the arena where she could look out the open doors at the front of the property. I really wanted her to please go where I said. I think I won this round!

She kept trying to bolt for the viewing corner whenever we'd circle to where she could see it. I just calmly kept her head pointed where I wanted it to go and pushed her forward, in my direction. She was happy with my hands, not fighting the bit at all, just trying to blow through me and go stare at the front pasture horses. I kept my hands very nice and kept insisting we do what I wanted. After she *finally* started listening, it was a really nice ride. Aside from sliding inexorably toward her withers.

She racked, too! Just up and offered a pretty little rack. Yay.

And I put baby sunscreen on her pretty little pink nose. Lordy mercy she hated that, but she didn't come unglued about it. And it really is for her own good - last summer, in Como, her poor face got so sunburned. The BO will keep sunscreen on her nose, which is really cool. I like boarding at a civilized barn!