Monday, May 14, 2012

Our first 10 Miler of the Year

It's in the 90's here already which means the best time to ride is in the morning.  Dusty still has issues and Ranae was going to stay home and ride with our friend Susan, so Jessie and I headed for the City Farm on our own.

The City Farm is about 1 1/2 miles away and maybe 3/4 of a mile wide.  We rode through it on our way to the home of the woman I bought Jessie from.  It was an impromptu thing, and I hadn't called ahead.  I was just going to say hi if I saw her working outside.  I didn't.

Most of the ride was at a trot.  We did a fair amount at the canter when I could find some good footing.  Most of the roads were pretty hard.  Jessie was on alert most of the ride, although I thought she did well for being out alone so far from home. 

The ride stats according to my GPS were 10.77 mi over 2 hours 20 minutes averaging 4.7 mph.  That's a good workout for early in the year.

I am hoping to get another early morning workout in this week. 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

An Early Morning Ride

Got up at 5:30 threw the horses some grub, then went back in the house and played with the dogs.  Cleaned the pens and then saddled Jessie for a "ride at daybreak". 

I love my work, but that doesn't mean there aren't rocky times and the start of the week wasn't going my way and I knew exactly what was needed to get some perspective back.  Jessie was happy to oblige.

It had been quite some time since we went out alone.  She moved out willingly.  I'm not sure, but her shadow was very long and she kept looking to that side.  I wondered if she thought someone was riding with us.  I had my ipod on listening to a podcast with the comedian Kevin Nealon.  I finally had to change it and listen to music because every time in our long trot he would say something funny and I would laugh, Jessie would stop.  So then I would try not to laugh, only that made it worse, cause I'd stiffen up and then relax and she would feel that and stop.

We rode for about an hour and did a lot of transitions, worked on picking up leads, and two-tracking.  It was a great morning - a little hazy and mid-60ish.  It's likely to be a hectic day at work.  Bring it on.  I'm ready now.