Thanksgiving

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment

Happy Thanksgiving, all! May the turkey be moist, the gravy non-lumpy, the pie plentiful, and the alcohol readily available. Said with affection, good humor, and tongue firmly in cheek. ;)

My pies are done and packed up, ready to head over to the family gathering later this afternoon.

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pumpkin and apple…both homemade from scratch, including crust. I have a soft spot for pie baking.

This morning, the pups and I headed out bright and early for the unofficial Aravaipa Thanksgiving Trail Turkey Trot. We did the 5(ish)k…which turned into 4.3 miles, with some extra bonus miles in there when I sorta missed a turn, headed down a parallel track, decided I didn’t actually know for sure if that parallel track ended up where we needed to be (it did), turned around, and backtracked to the trail split where I had gone the wrong way. Yay, bonus miles! 4.3 miles in 1 hour exactly.

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The girls loved getting out on trail again, and although they can be a bit exasperating to run with in trying to get a good rhythm, they are an awful lot of fun, and their enthusiasm is contagious.

This is the second time I’ve done a Thanksgiving morning run (skipped last year, but went with Artemis in 2014, which was the first year for the unofficial race mentioned above), so I guess that now makes it a tradition…can’t say it’s a bad one.

Nothing like catching the most perfect sunrise to start off the morning, and the time out on trail for reflection and thankfulness. Life may not be perfect, but then, it’s not meant to be. It’s fun, it’s messy, it’s a rollercoaster of goods and bads, ups and downs. And it generates an awful lot of stories.

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November 10 Questions

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

Feeling really “content-lite” right now guys…sorry, not a whole lot happening in horsey-ville or running life at the moment.

So I poached Liz Stout‘s “10 Questions” post so there’s at least something on here for November.

How old is the youngest/greenest horse you’ve ridden?
Mimi is the youngest…she was 3-1/2 when I got her. Greenest? Probably Beamer. He’d been to a couple of different trainers by the time we got him, but he was really inconsistent and knew the least in terms of “things beyond the very basics I had to install on him.”

How old is the oldest horse you’ve ridden?
Probably Snappy…he was in his late 20s the last time I rode him.

Were you scared of horses when you first started riding?
I wasn’t…until I got dumped within my first month of riding, and then proceeded to part ways with the same horse a number of times over the course of that first year of riding.

Would you say you’re a more nervous rider or a confident rider?
More nervous. See above. I’ve gone through cycles where I’ve felt super-confident, would climb on and ride most horses without thinking twice, and be really brave and bold. And then there’s the flip side of that, where I’m doubting everything I know, question my own capabilities, have a hard time trusting the horse, and am looking for the boogieman around every corner. I’m really trying to reclaim that confidence cycle again.

Biggest pet peeve about non-horse people around horses?
Probably bad attitudes about right-of-way and trail sharing. I understand that not everyone may be familiar with trail etiquette, and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and educate first — “Hi there, can you slow down or stop while we pass? Can you speak up so my horse knows you’re a person? Hiding in the bushes may not be the best idea, horses might think you’re a predator.” And so on. But I’ve unfortunately run into a few pieces of work (most commonly mountain bikers and some hikers) who have a major attitude problem about trail sharing.

A time you’ve been scared for your life?
I guess it’s a good thing that I really can’t think of anything? Several times where I knew the end result was going to hurt, but if there’s anything else, I’ve done a good job of blocking it out of my mind.

Have you ever fallen off at show? What happened?
Ahahahahahahaha…multiple times. Most memorably? Parting company with the pony in the warm-up ring at the International. Oh, yes. Biggest show of my life, and the most memorable part of it was I got dumped.

What’s a breed of horse you’ve never ridden but would like to ride?
Peruvian Paso. Andalusian.

Describe the worst behaved horse you’ve ridden?
Spooky, ansty, won’t settle, explosively reactive, can’t handle contact, rears under pressure.

The most frustrating ride you’ve ever had? 
This is a hard one to answer. I’ve had a lot of frustrating times/moments along the way. You know I’ve got a passion for horses when a lot of this journey has been an uphill battle, and I still keep forging onward (mostly because the good times have been so good, it’s worth the struggle to get there). I  can think of a number of times when, if pushed, I would say “Yes, that was a frustrating moment” but I try not to dwell on those moments too much, and instead try to spend more time focusing on the positives that happened. So I don’t know if I’ve had one ride that stands out in my mind as “most frustrating time ever.” So I’m going to go with “doing everything right at a show and being under a judge who just doesn’t like your pony.” Because you can’t do anything to change that when your horse moves with impulsion and rhythm and the judge like foot-shuffling peanut-rollers.

Happy 20 Years, Mimi!

/ Ashley Wingert / 5 Comments

 

In terms of major milestones, 20 years is a biggie. 20 years since I got my very own My Little Pony.

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How do you even put into words the depth of the bond and partnership that forms over that long of a period of time? How many tears cried into that choppy, misshapen mane? How many confessions have those fuzzy ears heard that no other soul on this earth has heard? How much delight, frustration, fear, jubilation, learning, growing, changing have we gone through together?

I absolutely know she is my perfect heart horse and there will never be another one like her. Most people don’t get this lucky with their first horse, and I say a prayer of thanks on a regular basis that I did.

It’s hard to distill down the best of 20 years into a handful of photographs (and I’ve got a ton of photos). So many different experiences and activities, from show ring to endurance trail, and a whole bunch of everything in between. This is just a small handful…

Running gymkhana. She never faield to scare me just a little bit with her blazing speed and fast starts.
POA International, 1998
First mountain trail trip. Summer 2001.
Silly mare.
First show together, only 2 weeks after buying her. Oct 1996.
Jumping. Also never failed to unnerve me with the “Will she or won’t she?” when it came to jumping and not spinning out at the fence.
Training ride in our favorite slice of the Sonoran Desert. Sometime in the mid 2000s.
Las Cienagas Ride, Dec 2006.
POA Worlds, 2001.
First POA Worlds, 1997
Man Against Horse 50. Our favorite ride. Oct 2009.
Pre-moonlight ride. Summer, mid 2000s.

Just a few of what amount to a lifetime of memories and experiences, learning and growing. Heartbreak, disappointment, success, joy. All wrapped up together in my best heart horse and best friend.

Javelina Jangover 7k, Redux

/ Ashley Wingert / 3 Comments

After taking a year and half off from any trail races after my DNF at Crown King (healing not only physical injuries, but the mental ones), I hit the “restart” button last night at the Javelina Jangover 7k. Appropriate, as it was my first trail race two years ago.

I hadn’t planned on going. My running fitness is not the strongest it has been, although my overall body fitness is better. It’s a long drive (about an hour) up to McDowell for a short race. But a friend was planning to go, and I could hitch a ride with her, so I made the impulse decision on Friday to go. And then some Saturday morning Facebook conversations resulted in another friend coming down from the Prescott area to run with me in her first trail race.

We had a blast. Finished about 2 minutes slower than I did two years ago, but felt way stronger, nothing hurt, and I could have gone further. Goal: Finish without injury and not looking like roadkill. Goal more than met.

The shorter distance meant I could be a little more minimalist (yay, just a handheld bottle!), but still gave me a good platform for things like shoes. I’m going to tentatively go with two thumbs up for the Pearl Izumis, one of the few I’ve found to have a wide forefoot, narrow heel, and a rock plate. Now to stock up on a ton of them before they discontinue them or change the style.

Nothing changed from 2014 on the course, save for no pre-race monsoon storm, which meant it was a little bit warmer. It’s even more popular than two years ago, with over 300 over the four distances offered. (125 in the 7k. And we still  managed to find a decent little space bubble for ourselves.)

Since it was night, and I wasn’t running with my phone, I have no photos…once they have race photos online, I’ll add them here.

Gear Rundown:
– InkNBurn “Run or Tie Die” singlet
– InkNBurn Healing Mandala shorts
– Anita DynamiXstar sports bra
– Pearl Izumi EM Trail N2v2 shoes (with SuperFeet insoles)
– Keen merino wool socks
– copycat “Buff” headband + “can’t be bothered with my hair” ponytail
– Black Diamond Spot headlamp
– Amphipod handheld
– a couple of preventative strips of RockTape on my pesky hamstring area (that didn’t end up bothering me one bit)

No gear issues, no rubs, no chafing, no blisters. Love it when things work out.

It felt really good to be back on the run trail again, and to get the mental confidence back from a successful finish. Interestingly enough, I feel like I came off my hiatus stronger, and certainly with an appreciation of how to train smarter (and the value of cross-training), not necessarily harder.

I got another glass to add to my drinkware collection, and another race shirt…theoretically, I shouldn’t have to buy too many clothes or drinking glasses between my trail runs and endurance rides and the various completion awards.

Degrees of Perfect

/ Ashley Wingert / 3 Comments

I doubt there’s such a thing as a truly “perfect” ride, whether it’s an endurance ride, a dressage test, a jumping round, or a schooling session. Every step, every moment, all perfect, nothing out of place? Not exactly realistic…

But degrees of perfect? Moments that end up seared in your brain forever for their feeling of absolute rightness? Those absolutely exist. For me, a good ride is one that leaves at least one of those moments as a permanent impression.

I actually had one of those moments last week riding Mimi. We were just doing some arena work…after almost 20 years, our arena work has become a pretty ho-hum, common-place thing. We both know what we’re supposed to do, but the motivation levels aren’t always there (from either party), and we have nothing to prove.

But I was feeling good after my Tahoe Rim completion (not even sore a week later), and she had obviously missed me after me being gone for a week (ran over to me from the pasture…even after only having been turned out for about 20 minutes before I got there), so things were just working.

We’d only been riding for maybe half an hour at that point, but we hit a moment where she gave me the most perfect trot ever. She was stretchy, balanced, had light contact but self-carriage…and I felt balanced, not fighting her, not flopping around, not a posed mannequin.

We finished our trot circle…and we quit while we were ahead. :) Like I said, nothing to prove anymore…and with a pony who doesn’t exactly love arena work anymore, what she gave me was a gift.

So she got a bath, and a roll in the sand, and a peppermint.

I don’t know when the next time will be I’ll get a moment like that from her, but she’s given me so many good ones along the way, if I take all of those moments and smush them together, they add up to about as close to perfect as a pony can get.

(And I’ve been fortunate enough to have some of these moments with other horses as well. Mimi’s my heart horse, but that doesn’t mean she’s the only one who can make me feel this way.)