Strider's Second Conditioning Ride (1st REAL Conditioning Ride)

Saturday conditioning ride

Goal:  8 miles in 1.5 hours

Actually done:  8.54 miles in 1:27

Fastest mile: 8:28
Slowest mile: 12:34

Average speed: 5.86 mph
Max speed: 11.77 mph

**UPDATE**
Heart Rate
Average: 116
Max: 170

I changed up how I approached the ride this week.

One, I got to the barn at about 7:20ish with the goal of having my foot in the stirrup before 8 am.  This meant that even if it took us close to 2 hours again, we would be done with riding by 10 am.

Two, I figured getting to the barn early enough would allow me to beat the dirt bikes to the side of the property I wanted to ride on.

Both goals, SUCCESS!!!

Now, he does know which direction the barn is, so when his nose is pointed in the direction, he certainly will move faster.

But, he's so obvious when he's engaged in something.  Instead of acting like a sullen child being made to do something, he's head up, ears forward, and all of his energy is forward and in motion.  He just wants to go.  I love riding THAT horse.  The sullen, sulky child isn't a lot of fun.  And the ride is just a grind of mileage under our feet.  And the time just drags along.  It really just isn't fun for either one of us, but we do it because I say we MUST. 

I know on conditioning rides, at about 4 miles in, I'm on the downward slope of "We've only got 4/3/2/1 more mile(s) to go!!  Let's get it done!"  I'm not so much bored as I'm eager to see how we've done.  I do need to get an mp3 player to carry with me so I have some tunes to listen to while we ride. 

This ride I also carried a crop.  Some days he just needs a little flick of it in his vision to move forward.  Sometimes he needs a little tap on the shoulder or butt to move forward.

He seemed to want to go swimming, or at least plunge in to the stock tanks as well.  We went in to the two (I wanted to give him a chance to drink), but he just went in belly deep, appeared to want to keep on going (Uhm, no thanks!  I'm not dressed to swim!), but when I turned him back to keep him from going, he just crawled out.  Okay then.

We did pop in once where I made him take a break in the water to cool off.  He wasn't over sweaty or blowing hard (I have his HR written down, but forgot to bring it with me), but I just wanted to give him a brief break. 

So, while last Saturday was a conditioning ride, this is the one I'll count as our first one.  I need to start trimming time off as best as I can now for the next 3 weeks. 

Breakdown of miles:
1: 10:27
2: 9:24
3: 10:24
4: 10:47
5: 11:56
6: 9:29
7: 12:34
8: 8:24
.54: 4:00

We were on our way to mile 9 being our fastest.  I know why.  There's a dirt track in the large open pasture across the road from the barn.  Strider KNOWS that the barn is "over there" so he picks it up.  And I was having a screamingly good time booking it around the track as he gaited and cantered around and around. 

I should have allowed him to finish off the mile, but...I also don't necessarily want to encourage his bad habits.  He already gets away with too much because...well, he's Strider.

I will say at, I think it was mile 2 or 3, the damn stirrup just gave way.  Oh was I pissed.  I was going down a hill, and all of a sudden, my left stirrup was a LOOOOONG reach for me.  I look down and see it's barely hanging on.

WTH?!!  Someone tell me how a Blevins Buckle flaps up enough to allow the straps to give way and let the stirrup drop free.  So SO furious.  I was technically out on the trail for 1:45 or so, but I paused my timer while fixing that issue and doing a brief training session of "Strider stand STILL so I can freaking get ON!!  No, you damn horse, stand THERE in that depression so I can stand on this slightly HIGHER area and get on you.  IDIOT HORSE!!!  DON'T MOVE!!"

Okay, so there's two things I wish my horse did; side pass so I could open/close gates...and stand freaking still where I put him (including by a mounting block) so I can get on.

I should see what a trainer would charge me just to teach him those two things.  Seriously.  Because it's an annoyance.

He's freaking lucky I love him.

Jerkhorse.