training ride

Unseasonal Memorial Day

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

Well, the last 5 days have certainly been an unseasonal but most welcome break. It started raining Thursday, and rained all day Thursday and Friday and Saturday morning, which took the tmeperatures down into the seventies. Unnatural. The only unfortunate aspect to this weather is the fact that the ponies have to stay indoors, which they are not amused by.

We braved the elements on Saturday and went out – it was worth it, as we never got rained on, and it was lovely and cloudy and overcast and 65* out. Kelly finally got to go out again, and she was a happy girl! It was what we call “Kelly weather” – she prefers anything under 80*. Didn’t go far, maybe 6 miles or so, since she’s not in that great of shape. But it was fun for Mimi, too, as it meant she didn’t have to babysit her uber-annoying brother.

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring the camera, as I didn’t trust the still-overhead clouds not to start dumping rain on us. It would have been a pretty day for pics, but I also had my hands too full of fired up pony to risk the camera. She was quite cheerful about being out…she literally trotted out of the barn over to the trailer.

Yesterday the weather was perfect…unfortunately, Beamer wasn’t. He’s been stuck in his stall since Wednesday (irrigation + rain) and he was really pissed about it and throwing a temper tantrum. Which meant that he was acting like he had never seen a trail before. *sigh* Dad ended up walking the first mile. Sometimes, I think that horse gets worse as time goes along, instead of getting better. Some things he’s better about, such as not having a meltdown in the parking lot when he and Mimi are the only horses there, but it’s taken us three years to get to that point…if he takes that long to get his head together, trail-wise, he’ll be retired before that happens! I don’t understand…he’s great in competition, or whenever we go to a new trail. But take him to the San Tans, and he just melts down. And we condition a lot more than we compete, so if he doesn’t enjoy the training/conditioning part, maybe he’s not cut out for this sport.

Mimi got her heebie-jeebies out on Saturday, though, and she was an angel. I got a ton of pics – the ironwoods are blooming right now – and I greatly enjoyed riding her yesterday. She was soft, forward, enthusiastic…in short, all the things her brother wasn’t. :( Dealing with him was the only downer to the ride, which makes it a pretty big thing, since it meant that Dad wasn’t really enjoying himself, either.

Because of Beamer’s brainlessness, I really couldn’t handle dealing with him, even from a distance (since I don’t actually ride that horse), so we elected to stay home today. Mom’s monthly kits are going out Tuesday, so we stayed home and packed kits. Opened all the doors and enjoyed the 75* weather. It’s almost obscene how much I’m enjoying this reprieve from 110*.

Pics from yesterday:

Looking uber-cheerful and ready to go
Ironwoods in full bloom
Nice, sorta packed-down sandwash, best after a rain!
The kind of trail you don’t want to look down…
The rest of the pictures can be found in my photobucket album here.

A fun night ride!

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

San Tan Mtn Park
“The big loop” – main road to Fox Wash to the 4 lane highway to west hills down to backside wash up the trotting road across to the big rock wash and double track road home.

Went out for my first night ride at the San Tans last Saturday…what a blast! There were a group of 4 of us that met up and rode for about 3 hours…myself, Stephanie Palmer-DuRoss, her husband Pete, and friend Denise Martin.

Amazingly, all 4 of us were riding mares, and not a single hoof or tooth flew during the entire ride! We went for the big loop that runs out to the backside of the park and along the back wash. The park has made that into an official trail now! The downside is that means more traffic on it when the weather gets nicer…ick…but at least they’re giving us more trails again! Yay! And parts of that trail really could do with some more improvement. Now they need to fix the north hill climb other than just posting a sign that says “dangerous trail ahead.”

But this was my first time riding down at the park at night, and only Mimi’s second night ride. She did so amazingly well! I’m so proud of her…she had a blast. Stephanie and I took turns switching off leading, and when I wasn’t leading, I relegated the pony to the back of the pack, and she actually did so well back there. I think the fact that we did so much trotting really helped make her happy.

The one downside was my Easyboot Bares were giving me fits…her front ones are a little big, and one of them got so filled with sand that the gaiter ripped off and I lost one of the boots. Well, I retrieved it, but that still left her bootless in the front, so I yanked off her back boots. They’re old enough now that they are flexible enough to cram on her front feet, so that’s what I did for her fronts, and we went barefot in the back for the last half of the ride. Fortunately, the second half of the loop involves a lot of sand wash.

It was so awesome coming back through the sand wash with the big horse-eating rocks. She tiptoed by the rocks, then we lead the way back through the sand wash. She was going at her big pony trot, not spooking at anything, on a loose rein. I just did my best “well-balanced bump on a log” impression and she went flying down the wash. Didn’t even use any glowsticks or anything…I had them on my breastcollar, but never used them…those suckers are expensive, and I didn’t want to waste the money when we were out in full darkness for less than an hour. But I felt like I didn’t even need them, which is awesome.

It’s amazing what being on a well-trained horse you’re accustomed to can do for a confidence booster. I’ve got a really good feeling about the night portion of Tevis now…Mimi was less trippy and spooky in the dark than in daylight!

We pissed off a big-ass rattlesnake around dusk. We were all trotting down the wash, came around a curve, and sprayed a snake that was huddled int he corner with a bunch of sand…he was so mad! I was at the back of hte pack, and by the time I reached him, he was hissing and rattling! I don’t know how big he was…I just got a glimpse of him, but he looked big. And mad. Mimi cantered by him. :)

Seriously, though, it was a lot of fun, and I think I’ll be riding at night more often now.

Windy Riding!

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

San Tan Mtn Park
San Tan Trail-Fox Wash-rocky road-Goldmine trail-rocky hill
probably ~10 miles…someone forgot to turn her GPS on…:) but it was all walking, so I’m guessing ~3mph average?

Weeheee…Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore…at least, that’s what it felt like today! It was win-dy! Wow! I have no idea how strong the wind was blowing, but I do know Mimi’s mane was blowing all over the place – and that’s even in braids!

What is this, practice for Death Valley? With the way the wind has been blowing, I’ll be really experienced with picking sand and grit out of my teeth…

Today was a really good ride, though, especially considering the wind. The saddle just gets more and more comfortable, and Mimi is still loving it. Hardly anyone was out riding, and we didn’t run into any hikers or bikers. Yay! I’m guessing half the distance rider contingent that rides down there was at a ride somewhere this weekend…I know Mt. Carmel is going on up in Utah. *jealous*

Got some good “slithering down rocky trails” practice today…walked probably a mile and half on the really rocky road and down the big rocky hill. Rumor has it the park people are looking to fix the road that runs to the top of the mountain – and dead ends. Really fun trail to go up…noy so good to get back down. I call it our Arizona Cougar Rock, and it really is – at least from the pics I’ve seen of Cougar Rock – but it’s not fun trying to ride back down it. So that would be the one trail that I would beg them to get their kicks and “trail fixing” giggles out on.

And so we enter into the week of chaos. I’m graduating Thursday, so I have family coming in Monday and Wednesday. We’re refinishing the satillo tile in the house and repainting bathrooms. I have 2 tests left and 2 papers still to write. And Descanso NATRC coming up in 3 weeks. Funfun…

Weekend Wrapup

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

San Tan Mtn Park

East fenceline – San Tan Trail – over Saddle Mtn – trotting road – San Tan Trail – Goldmine Trail – rocky hill road
8 miles, 3.4mph average moving

Hooray for Epics working for Beamer! About time we didn’t loose any boots. And we did a lot of trotting today, and rode the rockier trail in the park, the one we like to call the “Easyboot Eating” trail because invariably, someone would usually loose a boot. Not today! We did have to compromise and just tape plain Easyboots on his hind feet, cause the gaiters were rubbing at the area where he scraped himself at First of Spring. But they stayed on! And no rubbing on the front Epics.

Here’s Beamer being a sweetie to Dad. He is such a touchy-feely horse. Whenever he gets scared, all you have to do is touch him on the neck and he calms down. It’s been a rocky start, but I think we’re finally getting somewhere. He’s done 2 NATRC rides this far, with a 3rd one planned for a month from now. We’re planning his first 50 mile endurance ride for this summer, either hte Devil Dog 50 in Williams in July, or one of the days of the Bryce Canyon XP in September.

It was a really nice weekend to be out, overall. It’s starting to get warm – mid 90’s yesterday and today. But it’s still cooling down at night and is really nice early in the morning. The heat conditioning is important for the horses, and us, as well. A lot of the desert plants are blooming right now – hedgehog cactus, the last of the ocotillo, greasewood. Those are pretty, but par for the course. What I love about right now is the saguaros and ironwoods are starting to bloom!

Mimi was really, really good today, too. She was such a pill yesterday, that today was a nice chance. She was kind of goofy early on when I hopped off to lead down the hill that goes over the saddle. It’s a nice single track that goes down, does a switchback, then goes down some more. Well, she decides that instead of walking down the trail, she’s going to climb on the pile of granite next to the trail. :) That really didn’t work so well, and she almost face-planted, something I haven’t seen her do in a while. Hopefully she learned her lesson about staying on the trail.

I finally remembered to get a picture of my new mascot:
This little fellow has been living with me since the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. He was my companion at Arizona Girls State, one week of sheer political hell and way too much estrogen in enlosed spaces. You know you’ve gone crazy when you start talking to a stuffed animal.
So on a whim, I stuffed him into my bag to go to First of Spring. I had been closet cleaning and found him. Well, he’s been living in my pommel bag ever since. He doesn’t have a name yet, but as is readily apparent, he’s a long way off from the African safari!
I like to think this is also a way of honoring Merri Melde’s Raven, who is MIA somewhere in Brisbane, Australia right now. While I’ve never had to opportunity to meet the Raven (or Merri for that matter…maybe when she gets back from all her traveling!), I follow their blog adventures. Merri, may you someday get your traveling companion back!
Ride countdown: 4 weeks until Descanso, aka the NATRC Region 2 Cuyamaca Benefit Ride. This is my idea of how to spend a holiday weekend!

Saturday ride + Dust storm

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

San Tan Mtn Park
Scary Rock wash – up Cliff wash – back down Cliff wash – trotting road – San Tan trail
8 miles, 3.2 mph average moving

Oh, what fun…a PMSy horse and PMSy rider…my poor father. He had to listen to us bitch back and forth at each other all day. Well, actually it was rather one sided, since pony doesn’t really say anything…

Did a lot of wash work today, mostly trotting in them. Would have been a mostly good ride except for Beamer lost an Easyboot down in the big sand wash near the cliffs, and we didn’t discover it until about a mile later…whoops.

So we walked. And walked. Got my exercise in! This would be in a rather deep sand wash, of course. Found the boot. Have to say, it was getting a little warm by this time. That’s 2 rides in a row now, same boot each time. Tomorrow, Epics. Beamer’s heels will just have to get over it.

By the time we got back to the barn, there was quite a thunderhead forming out to the southeast, and by the time we unhitched the trailer, cleaned and waterers out, and played with Kelly, there was a huge dust storm heading our way. Scrambled and brought Mimi and Beamer in from the pasture, quite literally just in time. Mimi and I were jogging into the barn at the same time the first wave of dust hit…

It’s still blowing outside. There’s been a few spittles of rain, but not enough to even get the ground wet. Hopefully those clouds do more than just blow some dust around…we need the rain to cool things off!

EDIT: Forgot to add…found the saddle pad that works! Plain Woolback, nothing on top of it or anything. I think the problem with the others was they were too thick, and this saddle doesn’t need a thick pad…it’s very well cushioned and has a nice wool felt flocking in the panels.