We did a short fast ride today - no one will ever know how short or how fast, because the GPS was out of juice. And the iPhone GPS was sure it couldn't find any satellites. The iPhone also had an adventure on Saturday - when I got out of C's truck, I dropped it, stepped on it, and didn't notice it was missing til I got home. S had visitors over that night, and somehow none of the 5 pickups ran over my poor phone! It was muddy but seemed to work ok when I found it Sunday. Except it just would not lock on to a GPS signal today - I suspect the antenna got frozen or something.
ANYWAY. We rode along the hill toward the Mines, cut down to the Road to Nowhere, then gaited up and down the road a couple times. Saturday I couldn't get Dixie to gait, which was weird. Today I couldn't get her to trot. She was either racking or doing that annoying thing in between a trot and a canter. I'd really like to get my posting groove back, which requires some practice!
It must have been the footing. The Road to Nowhere and the trails back to S's are gravel or deep sand, with a good bit of wet snow on top, but nothing's packed down - just some hoofprints from traffic. The roads at the ride Saturday were gravel, with deep, cold, packed down then churned up snow. I think she sinks right through the wet stuff at home and gets good traction on the ground.
Dixie was kind of a horrible monster on the way out. I didn't have the heart to be really annoyed, though - she did so well Saturday. She spooked and bolted from Cersei at one point and made it three strides before I one rein stopped her. She was really glad to get to gait FAST, and she was really attentive on the way home. I use the last 1/4 mile to work on contact - I try to get her to stretch out and chew the bit and slow down a bit, then pick her head back up and walk faster with more energy, then repeat. Some days she's just not willing to participate, but today we got a very nice dialogue going.
My Princess will eat beet pulp if it's not too gooey and it's got some bran on it. I'm going to cut back on the bran slowly, maybe add in an apple sometimes. And I rasped a bit on that wonky front toe, smoothing out the foot she paddles on.
I want to do something different Wednesday. Maybe we'll head over to Palomino Valley and do some riding on the roads over there?
Ha, iPhones really can take a beating can't they? I have dropped mine more than a few times on tile and rocks and it's fine.
ReplyDeleteYou should see the look on Klein's face when I wanted to see what she thought about beet pulp. ROFL.