Jazz and I did it, we accomplished our goal of completing
two 50 mile rides back to back at the Shanghai Trails ride! For this post I
thought I’d share how our conditioning/training schedule went for the 6 weeks
between our last ride at Old Glory and the just-completed Shanghai ride, then
I’ll share some of the memorable moments from the ride itself.
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| Great action shot! From a previous ride courtesy of John Nowell |
Jazz’s pre-ride
conditioning - less is more when your horse is fit
Previous to this ride Jazz (13 yr old TWH mare) and I had completed 10, 50-mi rides between last year and this year, so generally speaking Jazz is a very fit horse. Despite being fit, she still needs training work in certain areas, specifically picking up the left lead. I only rode Jazz 4 times in the 6 weeks leading up to this ride and we specifically focused on the left lead. Here is what we did:
Previous to this ride Jazz (13 yr old TWH mare) and I had completed 10, 50-mi rides between last year and this year, so generally speaking Jazz is a very fit horse. Despite being fit, she still needs training work in certain areas, specifically picking up the left lead. I only rode Jazz 4 times in the 6 weeks leading up to this ride and we specifically focused on the left lead. Here is what we did:
Feb. 10-11 Old Glory Ride (80 mile weekend, prev. blog post)
Week 1-3: rest and recovery
Week 4: 1 hr arena work, 5 mi trails
Week 5: 4 mi leg stretch easy ride, 15 mi trails
Week 6: rest prior to Shanghai Ride
Week 1-3: rest and recovery
Week 4: 1 hr arena work, 5 mi trails
Week 5: 4 mi leg stretch easy ride, 15 mi trails
Week 6: rest prior to Shanghai Ride
I will note that Jazz has the fortune of living on a
spacious TX ranch with 7 herd mates. They roam around the couple hundred acres
along with 2 mini donkeys, 4 cows and wild pigs. Generally they are not confined to stalls
or small paddocks and get lots of social interaction.
Audrey’s pre-ride conditioning - do not neglect your own fitness
My own conditioning is far more involved than Jazz’s. Since most days I am chained to my desk reading, writing papers, analyzing data, banging my head against the wall trying to make experiments work… I purposefully schedule in time for my own conditioning. I’ve also found that if I don’t run 2-3 days a week I fall into negative mood states and depression. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise can be just as effective as anti-depressant medication, so I encourage everyone to exercise not just for the physical benefits but also for mental health. I also condition/train other horses on the ranch (some trotting, some gaited) which helps work different muscles. Here is what I did in the 6 weeks before the ride:
Week 1: 3 mi run, 17 mi ride (half on a trotting horse, half on a gaited horse), 10 mi gaited ride
Week 2: 4 mi run, (rainy weather = no riding)
Week 3: 5 mi trail run w/hills, 3 mi run, 11 mi trotting ride
Week 4: easy arena riding, 3 mi run + hip exercises, 8 mi gaited ride, 8 mi run
Week 5: 3 mi run, ~6 mi riding, 3.5 mi run, 15 mi gaited ride
Week 6: 8 mi run
As you can see I only get to ride 1-2 times/week and I try to make the most of it. So you can compete in endurance distances without riding 5 days a week. I also incorporate yoga stretching to increase my flexibility. In addition, I’m trying to be more mindful of my posture at work and avoid collapsing my back/shoulders while being figuratively chained to the desk. I try to take walk breaks and strive to get 6000 steps every day (though I think it’s recommended you reach 10,000 steps/day). Now that you have an idea of what we did leading up to this ride, here’s how the ride itself went!
Audrey’s pre-ride conditioning - do not neglect your own fitness
My own conditioning is far more involved than Jazz’s. Since most days I am chained to my desk reading, writing papers, analyzing data, banging my head against the wall trying to make experiments work… I purposefully schedule in time for my own conditioning. I’ve also found that if I don’t run 2-3 days a week I fall into negative mood states and depression. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise can be just as effective as anti-depressant medication, so I encourage everyone to exercise not just for the physical benefits but also for mental health. I also condition/train other horses on the ranch (some trotting, some gaited) which helps work different muscles. Here is what I did in the 6 weeks before the ride:
Week 1: 3 mi run, 17 mi ride (half on a trotting horse, half on a gaited horse), 10 mi gaited ride
Week 2: 4 mi run, (rainy weather = no riding)
Week 3: 5 mi trail run w/hills, 3 mi run, 11 mi trotting ride
Week 4: easy arena riding, 3 mi run + hip exercises, 8 mi gaited ride, 8 mi run
Week 5: 3 mi run, ~6 mi riding, 3.5 mi run, 15 mi gaited ride
Week 6: 8 mi run
As you can see I only get to ride 1-2 times/week and I try to make the most of it. So you can compete in endurance distances without riding 5 days a week. I also incorporate yoga stretching to increase my flexibility. In addition, I’m trying to be more mindful of my posture at work and avoid collapsing my back/shoulders while being figuratively chained to the desk. I try to take walk breaks and strive to get 6000 steps every day (though I think it’s recommended you reach 10,000 steps/day). Now that you have an idea of what we did leading up to this ride, here’s how the ride itself went!
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| Jazz receiving her pre-vet BEMERing. I used it on myself at night. |
Shanghai Trails Friday
camp set-up
This ride was about a 4 hour drive and I packed everything the morning of and had no troubles driving. I was once again crewless, since the horse owners Bobbie and Kenny have a long list of ‘to-dos’ to accomplish before they head to New Mexico for the summer months (Bobbie has a great article series in Equus magazine detailing building a ranch from scratch). I wasn’t too worried about not having a crew since I had done well the last two rides on my own. The first big decision was where to park at ride camp? At this particular ride I was cognizant about camp safety since it was this time last year that there were loose horses and some horse deaths due to a ride camp accident (see last year’s blog post). I found my friend and fellow greenbeaner Kirsten L. (who I met at a previous ride a few months ago) and parked near her. We were just a short walk away from the vetting area which turned out to be really helpful since I didn’t have a crew. On Friday it was very windy and I had one heck of a time getting my tent set-up safely without it flying away. This was an almost impossible task to do by myself and I was imagining my tent flying around camp like some oversized kite, spooking all the horses and resulting in pandemonium! Luckily Kirsten helped me get it set-up and there was no impromptu kite flying this day. I used extra fence posts on the corners to further support the little ground tent-pegs which helped anchor everything down.
This ride was about a 4 hour drive and I packed everything the morning of and had no troubles driving. I was once again crewless, since the horse owners Bobbie and Kenny have a long list of ‘to-dos’ to accomplish before they head to New Mexico for the summer months (Bobbie has a great article series in Equus magazine detailing building a ranch from scratch). I wasn’t too worried about not having a crew since I had done well the last two rides on my own. The first big decision was where to park at ride camp? At this particular ride I was cognizant about camp safety since it was this time last year that there were loose horses and some horse deaths due to a ride camp accident (see last year’s blog post). I found my friend and fellow greenbeaner Kirsten L. (who I met at a previous ride a few months ago) and parked near her. We were just a short walk away from the vetting area which turned out to be really helpful since I didn’t have a crew. On Friday it was very windy and I had one heck of a time getting my tent set-up safely without it flying away. This was an almost impossible task to do by myself and I was imagining my tent flying around camp like some oversized kite, spooking all the horses and resulting in pandemonium! Luckily Kirsten helped me get it set-up and there was no impromptu kite flying this day. I used extra fence posts on the corners to further support the little ground tent-pegs which helped anchor everything down.
Every horse has their own idiosyncrasies and I’m still learning about
Jazz’s. Last ride she had B’s on gut sounds at the pre-ride vet-in because
I had forgot to give her the Outlast supplement and other food options when we
arrived. This ride I found out that she’ll eat the Outlast if I mix it with
sunflower seeds. I imagine that to Jazz sunflower seeds are like chocolate
peanut M&Ms are to me, crunchy and delicious. I gave her plenty of food
options (coastal hay, alfalfa, grain mash w/carrots, rice bran sweet water),
BEMER’d her twice, walked around camp a bunch and at the vet-in she received
all A’s!
The pre-ride meeting went well, and I had everything ready to go for the morning. I just had to mix up the electrolyte ‘smoothie’ to be ready to give in the morning and this is when I had the Elyte Eek! moment. In a Tupperware smoothie shaker I use 6 scoops Perfect Balance Electrolite, ~12 oz kaopectate, top it off with CMPK and mix. But this time something went horribly wrong! It was not mixing right and there were frothing, foaming air bubbles pouring out the top just as if you’d shaken a can of soda, except it kept frothing for 30+ minutes! I fired away some text messages to Bobbie (my mentor who has >20 years’ experience in endurance) to make sure this was indeed not normal and figure out what to do. That morning when packing Bobbie realized we were running low on the Perfect Balance elytes and so mixed in some Apple-a-Day to make sure there would be enough for the weekend. A look at the ingredients showed Apple-a-day contains baking soda (also used to make science fair volcanos!) which I found through some mini-experimentation was reacting strongly with the CMPK but not as strongly with the kaopectate. So we resolved that I would syringe the CMPK separate from the elytes in order to avoid the frothing mess of mixing it all together. It was around 11pm when I finally got to bed. I had my standard wake-up at 2am-ish to go pee and make sure Jazz was eating/drinking as much as possible. Back to bed to wake-up at 5:45am to be ready for the 7:15 start.
The pre-ride meeting went well, and I had everything ready to go for the morning. I just had to mix up the electrolyte ‘smoothie’ to be ready to give in the morning and this is when I had the Elyte Eek! moment. In a Tupperware smoothie shaker I use 6 scoops Perfect Balance Electrolite, ~12 oz kaopectate, top it off with CMPK and mix. But this time something went horribly wrong! It was not mixing right and there were frothing, foaming air bubbles pouring out the top just as if you’d shaken a can of soda, except it kept frothing for 30+ minutes! I fired away some text messages to Bobbie (my mentor who has >20 years’ experience in endurance) to make sure this was indeed not normal and figure out what to do. That morning when packing Bobbie realized we were running low on the Perfect Balance elytes and so mixed in some Apple-a-Day to make sure there would be enough for the weekend. A look at the ingredients showed Apple-a-day contains baking soda (also used to make science fair volcanos!) which I found through some mini-experimentation was reacting strongly with the CMPK but not as strongly with the kaopectate. So we resolved that I would syringe the CMPK separate from the elytes in order to avoid the frothing mess of mixing it all together. It was around 11pm when I finally got to bed. I had my standard wake-up at 2am-ish to go pee and make sure Jazz was eating/drinking as much as possible. Back to bed to wake-up at 5:45am to be ready for the 7:15 start.
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| Kirsten and Cali leading the way! |
Sat. 55 mi ride - slow
vs. fast pace is all relative
Saturday my strategy was to ride a ‘slow’ pace in order to make sure we still had energy for Sunday. Kirsten said she wanted to ride a faster pace since this was her 2nd 50 on her ‘new-to-her’ experienced Arab mare. We compared previous ride times, paces and speeds and decided to ride together since my ‘slow’ pace should match her ‘fast’ pace. We rode the entire 55 miles together, Kirsten led most of the way and we waited for each other at the holds. At the first hold Jazz pulsed in right away and had a B- and C on guts, though she was eating so I wasn’t too concerned. In contrast Kirsten’s horse ate like she was starving at the holds and had no problems with gut sounds. On the 2nd and 3rd loops I made sure to stop every few miles to make sure Jazz took a few bites to eat. I knew that if Jazz became uninterested in grass then we’d have to go slower and change tactics. Luckily this didn’t happen and we maintained a steady pace gaiting and cantering (picking up the left lead!) throughout. I wasn’t worried when riders passed us and I had to curb my own competitiveness constantly thinking that I’d be doing this all again tomorrow. We were just shy of the top 10, Kirsten came in 11th, and I got 12th out of 18 starters. I thought we were going slow but it turns out we were 12 minutes faster than our time at this same ride last year! (Ride time 8 hrs 5 min., avg speed 6.9 mph, avg HR 123 bpm). Having Kirsten and her mare as a riding buddy really helped both Jazz and myself physically and mentally. We had some great conversations about training, our experiences with marathons, and why more people don’t ride 50’s. I think it’s because a lot of endurance riders are >50 years old and it’s just more work to get yourself in shape to complete the distance. If we had more rider fitness programs or clubs (similar to how there are many different community based running groups, couch to 5K programs) I think we could increase the 50 mile participation rate.
Sun. 50 mi ride
Ride strategy: Strive to stay above 5mph at whatever gait we’re doing in order to overall average 5mph (which includes water/sponge/eating breaks along the trail and pulse down time at holds). There were only 8 starters and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t last in order to have the possibility that another rider could come up behind us during the anticipated 2nd half lull to provide motivation. I started in the middle of the pack and for 8 miles followed two Arabs that were riding smart in the higher heat, taking walking breaks and stopping for sponging at the water tanks. Everything was great until I realized we had tack problems. Within the first few miles the scrubbie/dixie midnight pad was slowly but surely sliding back out from under the main skito pad (despite the girth being tight enough, I think I finally learned that lesson). Over a very frustrating few minutes, I was able to tie the front of the skito pad to the dixie midnight pad to keep it from sliding further back. Of course, Jazz was not about to stand still during the 1st loop with other horses leading the way, so I had to do it very carefully while gaiting along at 8-9 mph. It’s good to be able to multi-task at speed.
Saturday my strategy was to ride a ‘slow’ pace in order to make sure we still had energy for Sunday. Kirsten said she wanted to ride a faster pace since this was her 2nd 50 on her ‘new-to-her’ experienced Arab mare. We compared previous ride times, paces and speeds and decided to ride together since my ‘slow’ pace should match her ‘fast’ pace. We rode the entire 55 miles together, Kirsten led most of the way and we waited for each other at the holds. At the first hold Jazz pulsed in right away and had a B- and C on guts, though she was eating so I wasn’t too concerned. In contrast Kirsten’s horse ate like she was starving at the holds and had no problems with gut sounds. On the 2nd and 3rd loops I made sure to stop every few miles to make sure Jazz took a few bites to eat. I knew that if Jazz became uninterested in grass then we’d have to go slower and change tactics. Luckily this didn’t happen and we maintained a steady pace gaiting and cantering (picking up the left lead!) throughout. I wasn’t worried when riders passed us and I had to curb my own competitiveness constantly thinking that I’d be doing this all again tomorrow. We were just shy of the top 10, Kirsten came in 11th, and I got 12th out of 18 starters. I thought we were going slow but it turns out we were 12 minutes faster than our time at this same ride last year! (Ride time 8 hrs 5 min., avg speed 6.9 mph, avg HR 123 bpm). Having Kirsten and her mare as a riding buddy really helped both Jazz and myself physically and mentally. We had some great conversations about training, our experiences with marathons, and why more people don’t ride 50’s. I think it’s because a lot of endurance riders are >50 years old and it’s just more work to get yourself in shape to complete the distance. If we had more rider fitness programs or clubs (similar to how there are many different community based running groups, couch to 5K programs) I think we could increase the 50 mile participation rate.
Sun. 50 mi ride
Ride strategy: Strive to stay above 5mph at whatever gait we’re doing in order to overall average 5mph (which includes water/sponge/eating breaks along the trail and pulse down time at holds). There were only 8 starters and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t last in order to have the possibility that another rider could come up behind us during the anticipated 2nd half lull to provide motivation. I started in the middle of the pack and for 8 miles followed two Arabs that were riding smart in the higher heat, taking walking breaks and stopping for sponging at the water tanks. Everything was great until I realized we had tack problems. Within the first few miles the scrubbie/dixie midnight pad was slowly but surely sliding back out from under the main skito pad (despite the girth being tight enough, I think I finally learned that lesson). Over a very frustrating few minutes, I was able to tie the front of the skito pad to the dixie midnight pad to keep it from sliding further back. Of course, Jazz was not about to stand still during the 1st loop with other horses leading the way, so I had to do it very carefully while gaiting along at 8-9 mph. It’s good to be able to multi-task at speed.
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| The long and lonely road. |
I had not previously ridden this loop, so I was vigilant to follow trail markers and Jazz and I were mostly alone on trail. On Pierce Ranch where the ride was held, they have rice patties and use large sonic blasts that sound like distant gun shots or small explosions, used to keep birds from eating the crops. This loop went closer to the blasts and while I’m not sure what Jazz was thinking, I thought they were great since every time a sonic blast went off Jazz got a bit of adrenaline rush and picked up speed. There was more wind to help cool her and her HR was great from this point on. I cantered some and asked for the left lead, but either because I was tired or Jazz was tired (most likely both) she would only pick up the right lead. I also discovered Jazz has a lovely 8-9 mph trot that she would pick up instead of cantering. I decided trotting was fine since she was still gaiting well if I asked and I wanted to stick with my >5mph strategy. We passed a bunch of the Intro riders who probably thought I was crazy as I explained this was our 2nd day of 50 miles. We passed over the scary metal bridge without issue (I was told that other horses had a lot of trouble with this and had to be hand walked) and headed back to camp into the 1st hold.
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| Jazz only eating when being hand-grazed = more work for me. |
It was at this time that I really wished I had a crew. Despite the smorgasbord of food offered to her, she would only eat if I held the feed pan for her, handed her mouthfuls of hay or hand-grazed her. This means I could only a eat protein bar and some carrots that I shared. I guess Jazz is just a high maintenance horse at the 1st hold. The rest must have done her good because on the 2nd loop, without another horse in sight Jazz had all kinds of energy. Usually there is a dip in motivation around mile 30 but Jazz had a job and she was happy to do it, going along without any prompting from me. I had to make her stop every few miles in the shade to offer her a chance to eat, which she would take a few bites and off we went again, gaiting steadily onward.
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| Ride selfie. I had 0 time to take picts | on hold. |
At 2nd and last hold Jazz
was an eating machine and her gut sounds were better than ever. Thank goodness,
because while she was getting better vet scores and taking care of herself, I
was fading. The crew cart was useless because I forgot to refill buckets and
replace the hay bag, so in the future I’m
going to come up with a ‘Crew Cart Checklist’, but luckily camp was close
by. I had to force myself to drink and eat as much as I could. I watched as all
the 25 milers were done for the day and packing up to go home. Ride camp was
getting more and more desolate and I realized I still had one loop of 13-14
miles to go. I was the last 50 miler since 2 people had rider optioned, 1 was
pulled for lameness and the others (all on fresh horses) had finished long ago.
Back on trail once again, I hand-walked Jazz for a half-mile out of camp in
order to stretch my legs and because I didn’t want to chance having to fight
with a stubborn mare who didn’t want to leave camp by herself. I don’t think I
had to worry about too much because Jazz was in a pretty good mindset of just
getting the job done. We stopped at all the mud puddles and water tanks for
ample sponging and eating breaks, keeping an eye on our overall average speed. I broke up the boredom by singing such songs as 'Hallelujah' (both the Leonard Cohen version and the Handel choir version), 'Jingle Bells', and 'The ants go marching 2x2' etc. Everything was great until about mile 43. It
was here that we had to turn left back to camp, but Jazz was convinced we
needed to go right (which we had done on a previous loop, but that was the looong
way back to camp). A short struggle, some swear words and flailing around by me
and eventually we got going down the trail. My legs were jell-o (not the tasty kind) and my left foot kept
getting caught in the stirrup cage, so I’d have to wiggle/flail that leg around
to get it unstuck. My upper abs were burning since to pick up the pace I’d lean
back and drive with my core. With 2 miles to go we trotted
down the long hard-packed farm road. I got paranoid and thought she might be
slightly off and I’d be crushed if after all this we were pulled for lameness.
We had plenty of time so I hand-walked her the last mile coming back to camp to
cheers from the ride manager, timers and few remaining volunteers. She had the best gut scores all day (A-),
an A on muscle and as expected was a little reluctant to gait out, but she did
and was sound. Our ride time was 9 hr 26 min., average speed 5.2 mph, average
HR 110 bpm. We did it! Yay for turtle awards!
Post-ride recovery
While we officially finished, mentally I was kind of a mess, unfocused, disorganized. I was worried about Jazz, she had a bump on her right tendon area below the knee that was swelling and seemed warmer to the touch. I iced her legs and put on Equi Flexsleeve compression socks. The vet (who was fabulous all weekend) came over and assured me it probably wasn’t a major injury (like a suspensory or torn tendon) since she didn’t react with poking or prodding, no obvious signs of lameness and Jazz was dutifully taking care of herself, eating everything and drinking well. It looked to me like a popped splint, which I’ve dealt with before with another horse and I had done everything I could for the moment. I had to force myself to sit down and eat because I kept trying to pack things up so we’d be ready to leave first thing Monday morning. I eventually got to bed around 11pm.
I’ve heard of people experiencing pre-ride anxiety but not post-ride anxiety. I experienced a moment of panic at 12am when I must have been half sleeping. I thought I heard thundering hooves and a crash and was convinced Jazz had gotten loose and was galloping around camp. I sat bolt-upright in bed and yelled ‘Jazz!’ (thinking she’d hear me and calm down I guess?). I got my shoes on as quick as possible, stumbled outside and there Jazz was staring at me with pricked ears wondering what the silly human was so panicked about. I don’t know why my anxiety was so high after the ride, I blame the dehydration and overexertion. The next day we packed-up and drove home and Jazz acted and looked like she could do another 30 miles when she got off the trailer. The vet had recommended 3-5 days stall rest for the possible leg injury but Jazz was having none of that. She gaited out ok in hand and Bobbie couldn’t see any obvious signs of lameness, only slight diffuse swelling along tendon area. Jazz wasn’t going to ‘rest’ peacefully in the stall area or upper paddock, which she proceeded to trot all around wondering where her buddies were. We let her out into the large paddock so she could go out with the herd and brag to everyone what she did over the weekend!
While we officially finished, mentally I was kind of a mess, unfocused, disorganized. I was worried about Jazz, she had a bump on her right tendon area below the knee that was swelling and seemed warmer to the touch. I iced her legs and put on Equi Flexsleeve compression socks. The vet (who was fabulous all weekend) came over and assured me it probably wasn’t a major injury (like a suspensory or torn tendon) since she didn’t react with poking or prodding, no obvious signs of lameness and Jazz was dutifully taking care of herself, eating everything and drinking well. It looked to me like a popped splint, which I’ve dealt with before with another horse and I had done everything I could for the moment. I had to force myself to sit down and eat because I kept trying to pack things up so we’d be ready to leave first thing Monday morning. I eventually got to bed around 11pm.
I’ve heard of people experiencing pre-ride anxiety but not post-ride anxiety. I experienced a moment of panic at 12am when I must have been half sleeping. I thought I heard thundering hooves and a crash and was convinced Jazz had gotten loose and was galloping around camp. I sat bolt-upright in bed and yelled ‘Jazz!’ (thinking she’d hear me and calm down I guess?). I got my shoes on as quick as possible, stumbled outside and there Jazz was staring at me with pricked ears wondering what the silly human was so panicked about. I don’t know why my anxiety was so high after the ride, I blame the dehydration and overexertion. The next day we packed-up and drove home and Jazz acted and looked like she could do another 30 miles when she got off the trailer. The vet had recommended 3-5 days stall rest for the possible leg injury but Jazz was having none of that. She gaited out ok in hand and Bobbie couldn’t see any obvious signs of lameness, only slight diffuse swelling along tendon area. Jazz wasn’t going to ‘rest’ peacefully in the stall area or upper paddock, which she proceeded to trot all around wondering where her buddies were. We let her out into the large paddock so she could go out with the herd and brag to everyone what she did over the weekend!
We, as riders always do a fabulous job of taking care of our horses, but I wonder how many of us put that much energy into taking care of ourselves? At the end of long rides like this I’ve taken to completing my own post-ride body exam. What muscles hurt the most, where am I weakest, is there any sharp joint pain, is there rubbing/chafing, did I put on enough sunscreen? I found a mystery bruise on the inside of my upper left arm and remembered I had the same bruise after the Old Glory 2-day ride. After some thought I realized I have a habit of holding my crop under my arm whenever I need a free hand. Such a small act of where I hold my crop, but over 105 miles and of course it’s going to bruise! My upper abs hurt the most, so I’ll be doing more planks and bicycle crunches. My oblique muscles (along the side of the abdomen) also hurt which means I’ll have to do side planks (which I detest and avoid whenever possible, which is probably why they’re weak … it’s a vicious cycle). Of course my inner thigh muscles (groin area) hurt but not as much as after previous rides. This must mean I’m getting stronger and am able to recover better, Yay! But I’m still going to try to do more stirrup-less riding to continue to build strength.
It was a great weekend and I’m very proud of Jazz. Now that
we’ve accomplished this goal, the next step would be to complete back to back
50’s on more difficult, hilly terrain, and/or do a pioneer of 3 days of 50’s!
Fort Stanton might be in our future but I always take it one day at a time and
what will be, will be.
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| May The Horse Be With You! |
Good read. Why don't you tie your crop to the saddle? Also I think you should try a 75 or maybe even a 100... with crew! :-)
ReplyDeleteI have rubbed lesions on my hand carrying my crop (which is why I hardly ever carry it anymore ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, I work much harder these days trying to keep MYSELF in shape than my ponies (who hold their fitness much better)
(iPad is being funky but this is Val)
Audrey,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this post. You give so much information that is helpful and entertaining. I wish I could ride a 50, and I'm not over 50, and that is my goal for one of my horses this year. I've never wanted to ride a 50 until a few months ago. I do not like how so much is emphasized on 50 mile being endurance and LDs are just easy. For some, an LD is the most we can accomplish. My mare Sega is very bouncy and I'm sure she could do a 50 mile, but would I enjoy riding that bumpy 50 miles? lol. I will have to see if riding 50 miles will help her to calm down as well, she is very high spirited and nervous at rides.
I loved that you mentioned conditioning for yourself and that if you don't run 2-3 times a week, you sink into a negative state of mind or depression. This winter has been utterly awful for me. We weren't able to ride at our last endurance ride in November due to my mare's weight. She's gained 100# since then, and I'm working to add more, but with winter weather, and me getting sick, it's been plain sucky. I'm dying to ride and can't wait for Land of the Sun in 20 days. I'll be riding my husband's QH on his first intro ride to see how he likes endurance. So your blog has been my fun thing to read and have an adventure while stuck at home. Thank you for writing! I can't wait to read more of your blogs.