getting excited yet?

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

It’s that time of year again…the time when my excitement levels regress back to that of a kindergartner just given half a box of sugar cookies. No, not Christmas.

Tevis.

The gremlins are determinedly making their rounds, causing Incidents and Things That Always Worked to Suddenly Not Work, leading me to beat my head against a wall at least several times a week, but we will prevail. Did I mention that I’m not even riding? But apparently crewing and rider coordinating is enough to attract the attention of the gremlins.

More details the closer we get to Ride Day, but I’m super-excited to be doing Renegade rider coordination ahead of time again, and this year, crewing for one of my best friends who will be riding…both her and her horse’s first Tevis!

For Father’s Day

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments
And for always. Thank you to my father for so much.
For passing on a love of all critters, exploring the great outdoors, and loving roadtrips and travel.

For being the one to first pick out my pony and encourage me to consider her.
For being an awesome show dad, wrangling heavy saddles, a sometimes-twitty pony, and a teenager.
For being the best riding partner.

For being a fantastic role model and friend.
I love you, and thank you.

Stewart Mountain Loop

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

So, I tend to look at the entire endurance process as one big training opportunity that’s all building up to my eventual go at Tevis. Today, I practiced getting up early. I was up at 3:30, dressed in my riding gear, drank my coffee and a (pre-made) breakfast smoothie, and was out the door by 4:00.

I met up to ride with my friend Lancette, and she brought her horse Khan for me to ride.

meet Khan

I realize at this point that my readers have probably given up trying to track all of the different grey horses I’ve been riding of late. It’s okay. I can barely keep track myself.

first view of Saguaro Lake

Our destination: the Stewart Mountain Loop by the Salt River near Saguaro Lake. I’d ridden this loop years and years ago on Mimi with some friends, but to be honest, the only part I really remembered was the area that’s like a sandy beach and provides easy river access for horses.

trail traverses a ridgeline with a view of Saguaro Lake

I also remembered the part that goes up to a ridgeline and gives a great view of Saguaro Lake for a bit — this section I’d last ridden just a couple of years ago.

splish-splash

Because it’s a loop, the trail can be done in either direction. We chose the way that meant getting the longer section done first and getting to the river towards the end of the ride, when we’d be hot and sweaty and the cooler riverfront section of the trail would feel really good.

The spot on the river that’s easily accessible for horses is a nice sandy mini-beach, and the water is slow-moving and clear enough that it’s easy to see how far the sandbar goes out into the water before the drop-off starts. 
We didn’t go any further in than knee-deep, but that was enough for Khan to have a great time splashing and pawing the water. He never tried to roll, but he figured out that pawing the water made it splash up onto his belly and chest. I wasn’t complaining about the overspray, either.

Salt River, looking upsteam

Salt River, looking downstream

Running the loop the way we did, counter-clockwise, the trail that heads back to the trailers from the river is this fantastic section of technical single-track. There are a couple of slightly “hairy” areas that involve a bit of clambering over some rocky outcroppings. The whole trail traverses the area between a vertical cliff and the river, and while you’d probably still be in one piece if you fell off the trail at that point, it definitely wouldn’t feel good.

I did put the camera away and ride thru the worst sections

Fortunately Khan is very experienced and has a lot of trail savvy, and never put a hoof wrong. So much so that I whipped out my camera and was happily snapping away, putting it away only through the worst of the rocky sections that required two hands and ride attention.

Lots of loose, sharp rock in this section, too…Khan goes in Renegades and I was glad for it. (Pretty sure he was too.)

good overview of the river section

I wish more of the trail ran along the river, but all too soon we were back out in the desert, and back to the trailers. 

me-n-Khan

The loop is just about 8 miles, and we covered it in about two and a half hours. We were out for an enjoyable ride, with only one of the four horses in our group in full competition shape, so it was a good day to take it easy and enjoy the trail. Khan was a fantastic ride — very sweet, happy to go, cooperative, and darn near unflappable, the kind of horse who is trustworthy with the greenest of beginner, but a smart and active ride for an advanced rider.

I love that area around the Salt River. It’s definitely an oasis in the middle of the desert, and a real treat for us otherwise parched desert rats. Makes the hot days a little more bearable, and the early morning wake-ups worth it.

warm weather warriors

/ Ashley Wingert / 2 Comments

It’s summer here. It’s been summer since April. But now it’s really summer, which typically means oh-dark-thirty wake-ups to get in a semi-decent ride before your brains gets baked out of your head.

even Tevis crew needs heat conditioning

But that’s just kind of a factor of Arizona life. I won’t say I love it…but I’m used to it. And I object to the idea of shoveling myself out of 5′ snow drifts even more than I object to convection-oven summers.

And I get Tevis heat conditioning just by existing, and doing things like doing my short-distance errands without air conditioning. (Seriously. I drive a Suburban. Sometimes the drive time is shorter than interior vehicle cool-down time, which makes running the a/c pointless.)

“Mom, I’m sleeeepy.”

Yesterday, I had to make an impromptu barn visit to drop off my monthly board check. It was a busy work day, so I waited until the evening hours after dinner to make the trek down there. Yes, it was hot…but darn it, if I’m going to drive half an hour each way, I’m sure going to get more out of my trip than just sticking an envelope on a cork board. So along came the saddle.

I also needed a live-model photo demonstration for a boot-fitting concept as well, and it just so happens the pony is an excellent hoof model.
By the time I got down to the barn (fighting rush-hour evening traffic, yay) and took the photos I was after, the sun was hanging lower in the sky, a nice breeze was blowing…in fact, it really wasn’t too bad out. 103* without direct sunlight is much more pleasant than 103* with full, blazing sun.

ride off into the sunset…

However, I don’t know how some endurance riders ride in shorts. It was hot and I was lazy, which meant I stayed in my running-shorts-t-shirt attire all day, including down to the barn. I figured I wouldn’t ride for long, and I have a full sheepskin on my saddle…it would be fine. It was fine…but not comfortable. For one, I felt weird without my tights. Two, that sheepskin isn’t as soft and fluffy on bare legs as it is with a fabric layer between skin and sheep.

I spared y’all any photos of my dayglow-white legs, but suffice to say, I’ll be sticking with my ridiculous tights.

“Oh, look, activity next door.”

My little warm-weather night-owl pony was downright sassy. She really does prefer warm weather, and she hates early mornings even more than I do. She’d been snoozing all day long, so by the time evening rolled around, she was ready to party.

I’d barely swung my leg over the saddle before she was striding off. Ummm, excuse me??? Standing still to mount is one of my cardinal rules of horse behavior, and last I checked, that hasn’t changed for the past, oh, 16 years. Ahem. 20 years old and still testing the limits…

shadow chasing

While we just did arena work, she was in very cheerful form, lapping the arena with her perfect 7-8mph endurance horse trot. A couple of times, I tried to slow her down into a Western pleasure jog, and she was having none of it. Nice to know I took my perfectly trained show horse and turned her into a perfectly trained endurance horse.

for warm weather survival, add e’lytes

And I finally tested the Purina Electro-Ease paste. Response? Meh. I think I prefer being able to mix my own custom doses with powder and whatever base I choose. The paste sticks to itself really well, but it doesn’t squeeze out of the tube very quickly or easily (fast syringe work is the key to the pony), and because it sticks to itself in a big glob so well, she was able to just spit it out onto the ground. 

Plus, the taste is very, very concentrated. Yes, minty flavored, but once the flavor and coating wore off, the saltiness was very strong. I was able to syringe enough into Mimi on round two, after knowing what to expect from the consistency, that she got enough to thoroughly taste test. Her reaction? Initially, okay, since she loves mint. But the saltiness lingered so much that I had to rinse out her mouth before she was willing to take a bite of apple afterwards.
So, overall, probably won’t be adding this to my e’lyte regimen. Jury is still out on the powder form…that one isn’t as strong and mixes well in liquid bases.
Pony says, “No thank you for making me your guinea pig. Pick on someone else next time.”