training ride

other people’s horses

/ Ashley Wingert / 7 Comments

There are all kinds of entertaining quotes and applicable life lessons out there about “other people’s money.”

I think the endurance rider version is “other people’s horses.” Otherwise known as “my game plan for the 2013 ride season.”

The thing is, a lot of endurance riders have multiple horses, and someone always needs to be ridden. So thanks to some generous offers from several friends, I’ve already done my first ride of the season, and I’ve got rides scheduled to at least get me through the first third of the year.

First there was Kody at Fire Mountain.

What was fun about Kody was that I first met him when he was a fuzzy little guy, less than two years old, and got to track his progress growing up, so to ride him as a mature, experienced endurance horse was quite fun.

Two weeks ago, I met Junior and we did a “let’s get to know each other” test ride. I’ll be riding him the first day of the Old Pueblo ride in Sonoita in two weeks.

No photos of Junior…yet…because it was off-and-on spitting rain the day we rode, I didn’t bring my camera, and I was riding two hands most of the way. Hopefully there will be ride pics after Sonoita.

Today, I met and rode Rocco.

That’s me and Rocco on the right. This pic — with the tongue sticking out — sums Rocco up perfectly. He’s a little silly, and a whole lot of fun. We’ll be doing a day at Sonoita…his first competition.

True, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind for my “perfect” ride plan…but as I’m very quickly learning, what you want doesn’t always happen in the way you expect. And if you sit around waiting for everything in life to be perfect, you’re going to be waiting a very long time.

Better to seize an opportunity that’s presented, even if it wasn’t according to your plan, because you can never really be sure about what it is you might be passing up. Just because something doesn’t happen the way it’s “supposed” to — at least by your definition — doesn’t mean that wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.

Right now, I’m enjoying the opportunity to get to know a variety of different horses, and find out what I really like in a horse. And riding multiple horses is never a bad thing for improving one’s riding skills.

(Oh, and lucky me: So far, my saddle has fit all of them, so I’ve been able to ride in something familiar and secure.)

Ringing in 2010

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

First off, I’d like to apologize to my faithful readers for being such an inconsistent blogger during the last couple months of 2009.  It’s not for a lack of material to blog about, but rather a life set on “overwhelm” mode, coupled with multitudes of computer issues.

I have all sorts of good intentions to blog about a 2009 recap, and maybe get my VotS Turkey Trot story done while I’m still on winter break from school.

Short version of the 2009 recap: While it was an up-an-down year in many ways, I had a very good ride season.  I might not have gotten to near the number of rides I would have liked, but I was grateful to be able to attend the four rides I did, rack up 175 miles for the season, and have the opportunity to ride a differnt horse at one ride.

Every New Year’s Day, my father and I have a tradition.  There is a saying, that whatever you do on New Year’s Day, you will do for the rest of the year.  Five or six years ago, we applied this to the horses, and determined that if we spent New Year’s on horseback, hopefully that would correlate to spending lots of time in the saddle during the course of the year.  It mostly works, in that I do spend a lot of time riding, but the correlation hasn’t crossed over to spending a ton of time at endurance rides.  For it to be really effective, I guess I need to be attending a ride on new Year’s Day, but I work with what I can get.

So, back to the tradition.  We ride at the San Tans in the morning, the ncome back to the trailhead for a potluck with other horsey friends.  Every year, we manage to add another person or two to the group.  I believe we had about a dozen people show up this year.  Friend Sheryl was the one who organized the start of this tradition five or six years ago, and still continues to be the driving force behind it.

This year, we had a substantial potluck, as both Sheryl and I properly cooked.  She made meatballs and wings, and I made chili.  Other people brought salad, chips, and brownies.  Just to brag a bit…I make good chili.  The fact that the large stockpot was reduced to only being a wuarter of the way full is testament to that, I think.  :)

I’ve been off of school since December 12, a five-week reprieve from what my life normally revolves around, and I’ve been using this time to get some extra conditioning on the ponies.  We’ve been able to go out three times a week, and do the big loops of 12-15 miles, averaging about 35 miles a week.  Most rides, we’re getting an average speed of 5-6mph. 

The plan is to be able to up the speed at Wickenburg.  That ride was our first 50 ever, two years ago, and we completed with a ride time of 8:10.  I’d like to try to take an hour off that time.  We finished just after 5:00pm the last time, and I’d like to finish by 4:00 this year.  The reason for the increase in speed?  Preparation for 75 miles at Scottsdale’s Dynamite Dash at the end of February.  More about that as we get closer to the ride.

In my mind, I’ve got all kinds of plans for 2010, but I’m being deliberately vague and noncommital at this point in an attempt to ward off the endurance gremlins and fly under their radar.  Specific plans will be unveiled as the months progress, but blanket goals for 2010 are pretty much getting to as many rides as I can afford (I’ll be happy with a ride every couple months), and happy, sound horses.

And as a casual aside, 2010 Tevis Cup Ride applications are now available online. 

Going Solo

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

Circumstances are such that it looks as though I will be going to the upcoming McDowell Mountain Turkey Trot by myself.  Beamer has been marginally off in the right shoulder for the past three weeks, and it’s only this week that he’s no longer showing signs of discomfort when the area is being massaged, and Dad isn’t entirely comfortable with taking him to a ride that involves a lot of hardpack trail and gradual downhill trotting so soon after having the last three weeks off.

I totally respect and admire his decision.  It’s not easy saying ‘no’ to a ride, especially one in our own backyard.  And I’ll definitely miss my trail partner out there, and I’m pretty sure Mimi will miss her “brother.”  Maybe.

But seeing as Beamer was on hiatus, and Mimi needed exercise, our last two rides have been hitting the trails by ourselves…something we haven’t done for quite some time.  Dad came along and hiked while I rode, and we met up at one point along the trail, where he was able to snap a few shots of us.

She did fabulous by herself, zooming through 13 miles in two hours on Sunday.  It was definitely a good cardio workout, which she will need for McDowell.

I was so proud of how brave she was.  She starts out slow, offering up her little 5-6mph trot, and then gradually warms up into her 7-8mph trot that is her mainstay.  I’m actually pleased to see this, as it gives her a chance to properly warm up before blasting off at full tilt.

She’s also showing quite a bit of maturity and responsibility out there by herself.  She’s much more aware of her surroundings, but actually less spooky.  On several occasions, she would slow down from a trot to a walk, and moments later, there would be hikers or a biker coming in the opposite direction. 

She also showed some amazingly good judgement when it came to negotiating around some blind turns.  We’d trot nearly to the turn, then she would slow to a walk, wait for me to look around the corner, and once I told her it was okay, she would start trotting again.  She also would stop and walk down steeper inclines on her own, and while she was very forward and eager to go, anytime I would ask she her to come back down, she willingly would.

I’m looking forward to seeing how she does on her own for 50 miles.  Chances are we’ll have a riding buddy, but it won’t be a horse she’s familiar with, so essentially, it’ll be her and me out there.

Back in the Saddle

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

Two weeks post-Man Against Horse, and the ponies are feeling fabulous! We took them out for an easy stretch today, all walking, about 6-7 miles. One nice hill to climb to stretch out those muscles that really got used at the ride.
They were both very forward and happy to be out. Both also went barefoot in the back and scampered over the rocks like there was nothing there. Mimi’s come such an amazingly long way from the pony with foundered hooves, paper-thin walls, and such tender soles that just stepping on gravel barefoot would render her lame. Now, she trots and canters barefoot over gravel without a misstep.

Steps in the right direction

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

Success! Today, for the first time ever, we were able to do a proper training ride going barefoot in the back! 9 miles, walking and trotting, only having to slow down over the worst of the rocky sections. Apparently the combination of using Renegades and doing my own trimming in between farrier visits is working.

In the past, the most I’ve managed is a couple miles before Mimi started acting flinchy. Today, she didn’t flinch once, and did a great job of maneuvering around the rocky sections of trail. If I can start going bare in the back for rides at the San Tans, that’ll really extend the life of my boots even more.

It was also trimming day after riding, so Mimi’s feet are nice and pretty again. She only got one tiny chip on her hind feet from going bare today, which was excellent.

It was hot, hot, hot both days this weekend, which was excellent for heat conditioning. Fortunately, there was a very nice breeze yesterday. Today was warmer, but I wore the CoolMedics vest and that made it a lot more bearable. Yesterday was an excellent ride. We did the 14 mile big training loop in just over 2 hours, doing a nice trot for a good part of the way. Some of the time, Mimi was happy to do her relaxed, 6.5-7mph “100-miler trot” and then other times she was much more eager to move out at her 9-10mph “power trot.” She’s feeling so good right now, which is encouraging and motivating enough to really keep up a religious training schedule during the brutal summer temperatures.