San Tan Mtn Park
East Fenceline – Saddle wash – San Tan Trail – Moonlight Trail – Grey Fox wash – hill climb – main road
8 miles, 3.1mph average moving

We have our trails back! They cleared the debris out of the washes, pulled the “Area Closed” signs, got ride of the “Service Road” signs, and in general are letting ride wherever the heck we want again! Yay!

We promptly celebrated by riding one of our favorite not-yet-marked trails that parallels the east fenceline of the park, looped back down and took the “Moonlight Trail”, aka the one that runs parallel to the big mountains in the middle of the park. Had to “educate” a few bikers that were under the misguided impression that they were on what they thought was a “bike exclusive” trail. Um, no. Try hell no. Multi-use trails. Which means you move for us.

One of our favorite sand washes, a nice little single track where we actually saw a grey fox once, has been reopened! Yay! We took that down, then climbed the big hill. Need to work on the hill trail – people haven’t been riding it, and the rocks have been trying to reclaim it! I love my new saddle – my legs didn’t swing back and hit Mimi in the stifles for once!

Took the main service road back, but when we reached the trailer, Dad discovered Beamer lost an Easyboot (again), so I hopped back on Mimi and we took off at a fast trot down the service road again. She was so happy – I let her fast trot and canter until we found the boot (about 3/4 of a mile back down the road), then we trotted all the way back to the trailer. I wanted to see how fast it took her to come back down to pulse-down parameters after fast speed work like that.

I’m pleased to say that after trotting and cantering anywhere between 10-12mph for 1 1/2 miles, she came into the parking lot with a pulse of 104, and pulsed down to 60 in less than 4 minutes. Granted, she only had done 6 1/2 miles prior to that, but I think it’s a good place to start.

The Woolback worked much better today versus the Supracor. I think the Supracor rubs and grabs too much for her to be comfortable. She wasn’t sore at all today with the Woolback, an today was a much tougher ride than Sunday. I do want to get the shaped A/P pad with billet straps, though, because this one was trying to migrate a bit, especially after my fast speed work.

Saturday, April 21

It’s RAINING! Guess I probably won’t be riding much today…:(

Did go to the barn and do some arena riding, though, much to the joy of the ponies. Of course it turned into a beautiful day without rain after this morning’s downpour. Probably would have had time to hitch up and go down to the park, but the arena was good for all involved.

Dad and Beamer both hate the arena, so doing some work in there is good for them. Beamer likes to really dog it, so it’s good for Dad and learning the trotting thing in a new light.

Mimi got reminded that she does know what things like “collection” and “giving” are…amazing what 15 minutes in a D ring snaffle can do to refresh the memory.

She also got to do wind sprints today – took off her bit and clipped the reins to her halter, and let her sprint around the arena a couple times, reminiscent of our gaming days. That’s practice for our 100 yard dash to the finish at a 50…right…I’ll just be happy to still be alive after 50 miles, let alone having cause to sprint! :)

Still having problems with pad slippage. Tried the ¾” Skito foam with a separate Dixie-Midnight, loopy type of pad on top of it, sort of my own nod to the Skito DryBack, just with an extra payer of pad between. I think the Cordura top on the Skito is the biggest problem, because the loopy pad didn’t move from under the saddle, the saddle didn’t move, but the Skito kept slithering out from under both of them.

Try the Supracor tomorrow. Not my favorite pad, but it’ll hopefully tell me if the skinner, ½” thick pads will work. I’m looking at getting the ½” foam Skito Dryback for this saddle, cut in an English shape with billet straps…no more migrating pads that way, hopefully.

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Sunday, April 22

San Tan Mtn Park
San Tan Trail – Cliff Wash – over Saddle Mtn – East Perimeter Wash
7 miles, 3mph average moving, 2 hrs moving, 4 hrs total

First real ride after competition, all just walking. Went “illegal”, ie off marked trails, for about ¾ of the ride…much more fun that way. Horses were really relaxed and moving out well. They enjoy our old trails much more than the new “highway” the bureaucrats sliced into the side of the hill. Grrr. Let’s put all the trail users on a 7 mile loop. Nuh huh. Sorry. Give me 35-40 miles of marked trails, and I’ll stay on them. But not on one 7 mile loop that I have to avoid hikers and bikers every 2 minutes. Until the situation improves, and I get real trails again, I’m riding where I darn well want to!

Turned towards the trailer, and Beamer thought now would be a good time to experiment with what he can do during competition – trot back towards the trailer. Um, no. *grin* He started throwing a hissy fit, so we got off and hand-walked. He learned throwing hissy fits over not trotting gets him where he’s going even *slower*. Once Dad got back on after about 15 minutes, he was an angel. The horse is a fast learner.

I don’t think the Supracor is the pad for me. Mimi actually had a bit of loin soreness – I think that pad rubs and scrubs harder than any of the wool fleece ones. And it still migrated a bit, so that’s obviously not the answer. I think the scrubbing irritated her skin more than made her sore, cause she was acting like she was ticklish irritated, not flat out saddle sore. And she didn’t come up sore at all after the almost 25 miles at FoS. The Supracor just doesn’t smoosh down as far as any of the foam pads, so I wonder too if it didn’t let it settle as much around her shoulders.

Back to dealing with the migrating Skito and Woolback, at least until I can order a new Skito.