travel

2017 Year-In-Review

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Sleigh bells, hot cocoa, Santa hats on saguaros…and my annual year-in-review.

January

A wet, wet winter start to the year. The Bumble Bee ride got postponed to April…which was fine because I spent a lot of time concentrating on my trail running during the first quarter of the year.

Managed to log 90 running miles for the month, and actually keep a mileage/activity log for the month.

February

More running. I paced Mel at the epic mud-rain-hypothermia-fest that was the Black Canyon 100k. I ran the Elephant Mountain 22k. That race, for whatever reason, was where things really clicked for me and things like hydration, eating, shoes, and apparel all came together. And then I capped off the month with a training run at Mt Ord — 7 miles straight up and 7 straight back down.

I also squeezed in a day at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show…but I brought the pups along, so spent more time wrangling them and failed to get any decent pics. Eh, we know the drill. Ridiculously pretty Arabians…some of which made my fingers itch to deck out in endurance gear and tote their butts out to the trail.

March

I feel like I was gone for a good part of the month. Oh, wait, I was. First down to Florida to be the Renegade rep at the FITS ride, then to Dallas to run the Renegade booth at the AERC Convention. And sprinkle in last-minute prep and lead-up to my first 50k.

A cool thing AERC did for badges (both vendor and attendee) — provided stickers you could put on indicating how long you had been riding endurance. For me, as a vendor I found this a useful “validation” tool — it said “I’m not just hawking a product, I’m an active rider who beleives in and uses what I’m advertising.”
Friday evening BBQ with a wonderful group of endurance women. I’m still laughing at some of the stories.
Annual drool-fest over my Favorite Saddles Ever. Really dialed in what I want, now I gotta go shake the Money Tree and see what falls out.

April

The biggie: my first 50k finish at Crown King Scramble! And then the Dam Good Run 26k, just for fun. (Although “fun” is debatable when it hits 95° on the course.) I attempted to do the Bumble Bee ride, but due to truck issues (not mine, mercifully), Liberty wasn’t able to be brought down to the ride for me. So I volunteered. Which, long story short, had an end result of me being nominated to run for the position of one of AERC Southwest Regional directors at the end of the year.

May

Mimi’s birthday month (24!), and we actually got to get out and ride. Dad and I ran the Renegade booth at The Mane Event expo in Scottsdale (yay, a convention thing in my own backyard!), and I got an invite to do the Tevis Educational Ride in July. A day trip to Prescott to hike and take in some cooler temperatures rounded off the month.

June

June kicked off with the Horse Expo in Sacramento for Renegade, which was a fun experience.  Then I proceeded to get a lot of saddle time in around the barn in an attempt to be somewhat saddle-fit and ready for the Tevis Ed Ride. Pony was quite happy, as it was hot. The hotter, the better in her world.

Taylored Tack

July

This would kick off a roller-coaster rest of the year as far as endurance/horse activities go. The highlight was obviously the Tevis Educational Ride with my friend Cathy on her Al-Marah horses Tempest and Dean. I floated on the high from this weekend for most of the month.

AM Loves Tempest

August

Crewing Tevis. Although Lucy didn’t finish this year, it was a really fun time with a lot of laughter and the chance to hang out with good friends. Once home from Tevis, I was offered the opportunity to tackle the Virginia City 100 the next month, so spent some time and rides getting to know Beeba.

September

My first attempt at a hundred-miler with the Virginia City 100. We didn’t finish, but it was an amazing experience and I feel really good about how the whole endeavor went. Artemis’s birthday is this month (4!).

October

Beeba and I took a crack at the 50 at Man Against Horse…and got pulled at the finish. Disheartening, to say the least. I retail therapied my way through eBay and scored a ridiculously good deal on a set of Hought Tack…because a girl can never have too much tack. Sofie’s birthday month (6) and “gotcha” month — 2 years with me now. Also Mimi’s “gotcha” month — 21 years!

Hought Tack

November

Highlight was being asked to ride my friend Cristina’s little Al-Marah gelding Atti in the 75 at Lead-Follow @ McDowell…and finishing! That was a major, much-needed win, and a great way to wrap up the 2017 season. It also put me at my 500-mile mark for endurance miles. Artemis’s gotcha month (4 years!), thus proving that I have a tendency to acquire my animals in the fall, apparently. Did some more catch riding on my friend Barb’s horse Junior, with an eye on some rides with him this upcoming season. Thanksgiving weekend, we did a family hike up at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum to admire the fall colors in the desert.

December

Vacation!!! Washington, DC, to be precise…where my best friend and I spent 5 days walking almost 40 miles, getting snowed on, eating excellent food, and engaging in all manner of plotting and planning that’s kept us friends for the past 23 years. On the horse front: although I wasn’t elected as one of the Sothwest Regional Directors, I did get asked to be a part of the AERC Membership Committee in 2018, so I’m looking forward to participating in that endeavor.

 

2015 Year-In-Review

/ Ashley Wingert / 7 Comments

Well, this is one year I am not sorry to put in the rearview mirror.

There’s this little anecdote, the details of which I’m probably horribly butchering, but the gist is, a kid asks for a pony for Christmas, and wakes up to a pile of horse poop. Instead of being all depressed, the kid grabs a shovel and starts digging, and when the parents ask why, the kid’s response is “With all of this manure, there’s bound to be a pony buried in here!”

2015 = manure pile, and I’m still digging.

Granted, it wasn’t all bad…had some fun times interspersed with some other more trying, disheartening times…still not entirely sure how the balance between the two ended up shaking out.

Running

I had one good trail race, and then it all went downhill from there, culminating in an injury-induced pull at my first attempt at an ultra (50k).

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San Tan Scramble 26k on my home trails. Probably my best trail race ever.

I’ve basically sat out of doing any real running since April, and have now gotten totally out of the habit and will have to start almost back to the beginning in terms of fitness and cardio to pick it back up again.

Endurance

FAAAAAAIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLL.

One big ol’ pile of NOPE for the year in terms of riding, and one more  round of Tevis crewing. (I am seriously starting to develop an “always the bridesmaid” complex in regards to Tevis.)

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Travel

This would be the carbon offset to the other areas of fail, since travelling pretty much rocked my year.

It started with a New Years Day trip to Catalina:

 

And then there was a day-trip to Prescott in January:

 

A weekend in Portland in February for my best friend’s birthday:

 

The AERC Convention in Reno in March:

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And then a Grand Canyon backpacking trip in April:

 

Camping trip to Big Lake in July:

 

Tevis in August:

 

And then another camping trip, this time up on the Mogollon Rim, for my birthday in August:

 

And finally, Moab in October to pick up Sofie:

 

Eyes to the Future

I honestly don’t know at this point. There’s a whole universe of things I want to/hope will happen…but planning and getting hopes up too much didn’t do me any favors this past year, so I just might try for a round of ambiguity and winging it with regards to 2016. (And see how long it takes the lack of planning to drive my Type A self absolutely crazy.)

the groundhog lied

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

I’m sorry, but what part of the last several days of dropping down to the 50s in the day and freezing at night can possibly constitute “early spring”?

Oh, and did I mention the rain?

Riding was the fun part.
Clean-up afterwards, not so much.

Still, it was a great excuse to finally do some mud-slinging with my boots. Contrary to popular belief, not every inch of space around here is covered in sand. 

And as much as I sometimes grumble about pulling out every marginally-water-resistant article of clothing I own to function through the winter rainy season…it is good for the water table, especially when the mountains get their fair share of fluffy white stuff.
Still, if the groundhog could be temporarily right for the two weekends following this next, that would be great. Last weekend of February, I’m heading out to the 20 Mule Team ride in Ridgecrest to crew for friend Kaity, riding the 100-miler, as well as be on hand to do my Renegade thing. Southern CA is even more notorious for unpredictable weather during the winter, so I’ve been giving the AccuWeather month-out predictions as much credence as the damn groundhog. (And packing my rain gear.)
Then the first weekend in March, I’m heading down to the Sonoita ride…to ride! 50-miler on day one on a friend’s horse (who I met and rode last weekend…12 miles later, the horse and I still liked each other, so the ride was declared a ‘go’), then the possibility of the LD on either day two or three on another friend’s horse (who I will meet this weekend).
Busy, busy…I love it.
And I’m currently completely surrounded by bits-n-bobbles of various ride stuffs. A sampler pack of various GU products (energy gels, energy chomps, e’lyte drinks) sits on my overflow desk. Two boxes of boots are sitting in the middle of my bedroom. One pair of boots is in the process of having cables adjusted and straps changed out. I’m currently experimenting with tying my own tailing line…see photo below. 
Purple is existing, lightweight yacht rope.
Orange is 4mm climbing rope.
Tan is 5mm climbing rope.

Will experiment with the tailing lines and report my findings later. 

Making things slightly more interesting is the fact I’m flying out for 20 Mule Team, so am limited by what I can cram into a suitcase, versus filling all available space of a suburban. Ah, well. I’m not riding, so that’s easier…and I do love a challenge.