First ride with Ground Controls...

So, I gave Strider 3 days off to adjust to his shoes with the plan of doing a very gentle and easy walk-only ride on Wednesday.

Best laid plans and all that...

Let me summarize and say: It was NOT a walk only ride.

I did make sure to take photos of his shoes.  My goal is to take photos of them at least once a week to keep an eye on wear pattern and to show how the Ground Controls wear here in Texas.

For point of reference; Strider is kept in a large pen which is primarily dirt with some sand.  No rocks in the pen.  Riding terrain varies from rocky sand to loose sand to hard pack dirt.

Here are his shoes after the 3 days.

Shot of his fronts:

Shot of his rears:

Strider's left front:

Strider's left rear:

Strider's right rear:

Strider's right front:

Saddled up and I lead him over to the Pecan Grove side of the property.  This side has lots of trees and shade with a section of some hills.  Which means we will be riding over a little bit of hard pack with some rocks mixed in, some loose sand, some slippery mud, and thanks to recent rains, some puddles. 

To get him there, I must get him to walk down the alley between the many pens at the barn. Traditionally, Strider drifts to the shoulder where the grass is because it's soft.  He attempted to do so again on Wednesday, but I held him to the center of the alley and made him walk on the rocky ground.  He seemed to gain confidence as we travelled. 

I mounted up and away we went.  He tried his usual antics of trying to turn around, "ping pong"ing down the trail.  I want to note though, at the start, he limited it to about 2 bunny bucks.  Usually I have a handful of them to sit.  I am not sure if his anxiety about impending foot pain led to the bunny bucks, or if it's still neurological or what they're about, but I did notice that they decreased in number for this ride.

He was eager to move out, though was a little "lookey-lou" at things.  Thankfully they'd left the gates open for the Pecan Grove side so I was able to easily move through the entire piece of property from what I consider the "upper" section to the "lower" section.

When we got to the hill section, he begged to go.  Okay then...so I let the reins out a bit and let him stretch his legs out.

And he FLEW.  POUNDED the ground and took off like a bullet from a gun.  And didn't want to stop.  He seemed to have zero regard for his safety as he shot around the curves and turns, down the hills and up them again.  He seemed to resent my grabbing his mane for extra "safety" as he charged ahead.

It was exhilarating.  I won't lie.  I was whooping with laughter (and sometimes whoa'ing him out of concern for his safety), and enjoying this new-to-me horse.  We did all the trails down there.  Then did them in reverse.  Then headed back to the hills where he again asked to fly and I gave him his wings to go. 

He is now brave on his feet, and entirely fearless about the terrain. 

There's a dirt track at the upper end of the Pecan Grove side.  I almost always try to make 1 or 2 laps.  I noticed on our second lap, the imprints from his feet seemed very deep.  So, is he "digging in" more now?  Or are the shoes responsible?  The ground on the track is only loose dirt on the top layer, the bottom is usually fairly packed.

My take away from my first ride with him in his shoes; he truly IS stronger.  As I've mentioned previously, I'm riding without my Endomondo.  I semi-regret it for this ride because, while I'm not utterly confident, I feel fairly certain he was moving faster than our normal conditioning speeds.  Usually we average at a conditioning speed of 5.5 to 6.  I feel we were doing a solid 6.5 to 7.  And he was itching for more. 

However, I will say this.  I wasn't wearing my helmet (I couldn't find it, and after already NOT having ridden as much as I need and want to, I wasn't going to let it COMPLETELY stop me!), and I hadn't realized now how much more confident I feel wearing it.  I used to be completely okay riding bare-headed, but now that I do endurance and it's just the "norm" to wear your helmet at a ride, it's become my norm at home too.  So, I was feeling a little anxious without it on, ESPECIALLY as fast as he was wanting to go.

So, final thoughts and assessments?

He does, in fact, appear to be stronger in shoes.  I will know more as we get more and more miles in them. 

In which we get our dancing shoes...FINALLY!!!

Well, we FINALLY got it done!!

We finally FINALLY got our dancing shoes applied.  Despite the drizzle and rain, we got it done!

I get to the barn at 8am, grab Strider out of his pen and wander over to the barn with the wash rack and hitching rail.  Tie him off and ignore him dancing around and being a general jackass as he occasionally calls for Dakini.  When he gets impatient as I switch grooming tools to clean him up.  When he thrashes with that left rear and tries to jerk it out of my hand.  So I hang on.  And hang on.  And hang on.  When he finally settles down for 10 seconds, I gently place it down on the ground.  Give him a pause and do it all over again.  Little bit better.

He had mud and dirt packed in all 4 feet and it was NOT willing to let go and fall out.  I at least wanted all 4 feet somewhat clean before the shoer showed up.

I finally managed to get all of that done, then I just kind of sat down and let him dance around for a bit. 

This is the "calmest" he was all morning long.

He got particularly frustrated/annoyed/anxious when the young lady who feeds on the weekends came and got the grain for all the horses while he stood there.  He wasn't allowed to have any, so he was being a larger jerk than normal as she drove off in the mule to go feed. 

I just retied him while he pawed and danced and made a general nuisance of himself.  And kept an eye on the clock.

As 9 am rolled around, I grabbed some gloves, rechecked the instructions, then went to give him the meds.

I was genuinely concerned about how I was going to get this syringe under his tongue, except I just stuck my thumb between his jaws, he opened his mouth wide, and with his tongue up, I just squirted it in.  Quick and easy!  He licked and licked and I could tell he didn't like it, but whatever.  The deed was done!

And then I stood back and waited.

While he pawed and pawed and continued to dance around.

The young lady who fed came back so we stood and chatted while Strider kept up with his antics.

15 minutes.  Still dancing.  Lots of shifting around.  In the back of my mind all I can think is "This isn't going to work!  What am I going to do?  The shoer isn't going to shoe him if this doesn't work!"  My anxiety is slowly starting to spiral while I'm trying to keep myself together while carrying on an innocuous conversation.

20 minutes.   He's not dancing anymore.  Now he's standing still.  Maybe this is going to work?

30 minutes.  Rear foot cocked.  He's looking a little sleepy.

35 minutes.  His head is drooping and resting on the hitching bar as his eyes close.  He's got that "drunk" look to him.  Swaying slightly. 

Drunk pony is tasting the color blue....

What a relief.  It worked!

Oh man...this is some gooooooooood stuff....

Shoer showed up a few minutes late (weather related...no big deal).

And we get to work.

Nip, nip, nip and get those crazily overgrown feet cleaned up.  What a relief to see that. 

Get the shoes out, they're too wide, so he just cuts some of the excess off, and we get to work.

No lies, when he set that first nail to the hoof, I had a moment of panic and almost said "No, wait...is this REALLY what I want to do?!"  Then the nail went in, and I was fully committed to this course of action.

4 nails to each side.  First foot was quickly done.

Then over to Strider's right side.  Again, quickly done.

Second shoe going on...anxiety level for owner..decreasing.

Fronts done!!!  Well, the shoer WILL remove the excess nails once all 4 feet are done!!

LOOK AT HOW BLUE!!!!

Rear left...well, Strider, even dopey Strider, is still a little titchy with those back feet.  So he wriggled a little bit.  And wriggled some on the left rear too.

And then, we were done.  All 4 dancing shoes applied and on! 

Mother, you have denied me food for near unto over 2 hours.  This torture can NOT be borne any longer!!

We did decide when I order the next set, go down a size for his rears.  No problem.  CAN DO!

I then turned him loose after a few minutes to make sure he really was steady on his feet (he was).

Now to wait a few days and then see what I have!

Front dancing shoes:

Rear dancing shoes:

Who can ride my horse(s)....?

So, The $900 Facebook Pony posted a blog hop, but couldn't remember where she saw it. 

Who Can Ride My Horse?

To quote her directly:  "...the premise was asking who can ride your horse - both ability wise and "allowed to" wise."

I rolled this around in my head and realized that my horses are really kind of the "whores" of the equine world.  I'll toss just about anyone up on any of them ASSUMING that they have a general knowledge of riding and aren't afraid of getting tossed off or falling off.  My horses aren't confidence builders by any stretch of the imagination.

Socks USED to be.  Then we did that LD together and he's been zoomy ever since.  The one time after that ride that I lead-lined him for my sister's grandkids, I was having to constantly pull on his halter because he wanted to go.  In his defense, he hadn't been ridden in who knows how long, and I pulled him out, tossed him in the round pen and did some basic fundamental ground work exercises with him (and to ATTEMPT to get any zoomys out).  STILL ended up with sore arms. 

The truth is just about anyone can hop on Socks or Dakini (when she's having a good day...Wednesday night showed me that the girl needs to stay in constant work or EVERYTHING is terrifying to her) and they just pull typical horse 'crap'.

Strider on the other hand, I've let people up in the saddle.  But always with the warnings that he is rude.  He bunny bucks.  All of those traits and quirks which make him uniquely "him".  They also all make him annoyingly "him" sometimes too.

Any of my girlfriends (B, H, L) can ride any of my horses anytime. 

H, in fact, has ridden all 3.

B has ridden Strider, and as mentioned further back, she put the first refresher ride on Dakini.  And, to my chagrin, it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that she finally saw Socks live and in the flesh while he was at H's house.  In typical fashion and like EVERYONE who meets him, she loved him.  I haven't had a single person tell me they didn't love him.  :)

L has a lovely mare who she prefers to ride along with a gaited gelding and another mare, so she hasn't needed to ride any of mine.

I've also loaned them out when a big group gets together and someone's horse is either sick, they can't haul or need a horse for a husband or a friend.  Usually that horse is Socks.

And, of course, I've allowed Joe to ride Strider.  Like once or twice.  He's ridden Dakini a few times as well as Socks.

So, the truth is, if you, yes you, reading this, are confident, or at least don't mind getting tossed off a horse, I'll allow you to ride any of mine.  It's not like you can screw them up.  They're not finessed nor really educated for much of anything except trail riding and go-faster trail riding.

Well, Dakini and Strider know the "Come Pick Me Up" cue, so there's that.

So, next time you're in the CenTx area and want to try out a glide ride Paso Fino, I have two you can choose from.

So feel free to come Ride my Horses.  :)

Couch to 5K; or "How I Joined The Herd"

So, for the past year or two, I've been following a few different equine-based blogs; primarily those with an endurance focus, but a few others which don't.

Overwhelmingly I've noticed MOST of these equestrians are as serious about their own workouts as they are about their horses.  I mean, some of these people are out there running marathons and stuff!! 

And, for months I've read those posts, said "I hate running.  If I'm running, you should too because there's something chasing me."

Now, I've been trying to modify my eating habits since October of last year.  Food tracking, drinking more water and all of that.  Just trying to be more aware of what I was putting in my mouth, trying to make better choices, but not beating myself up if I "fell off the wagon" for a day or even two.  And, until recently, that's all worked out okay for me and I've had some weight loss.  I stalled at about River Run and started bouncing up and down anywhere from 2-4 lbs.  And I've fought that battle for the past few weeks.

And then, once again a new person said that they were doing Day 1 of the Couch 2 5K app. 

By this point, who hasn't heard of this app?

You?

Well, here's the most basic of breakdowns about what it is from the website c25k.com:
"C25K, is a fantastic program that's been designed to get just about anyone from the couch to running 5 kilometers or 30 minutes in just 9 weeks."

Since Wednesday of last week, I've done this every night (excluding Friday night and Saturday night), repeating days 1 and 2 (which is really just the same workout).  Tonight I will do day 3.  I am unsure if I will repeat day 3 on Wednesday and then begin week 2 on Thursday or not.  My gut says that's probably what I will do.

So far, this is a fairly simple time investment and far healthier for me than 30 more minutes of Candy Crush (yes, I DO still play, thank you very much) or 30 minutes of mindlessly looking at Facebook or even trying to get caught up on some show on Netflix.  Right now I'm listening to Spotify while I do my workout, though perhaps tonight I will listen to a podcast.  I find that the beat of the music really helps my footfalls and rhythm, so I'm loathe to give up the music, though we shall see.

Week 1/Day 1 was hard.  I hadn't figured out how to listen to music while doing the workout, so I spent the 30 minutes listening to my feet hitting the road, my puffing, my internal dialogue of "What the HELL am I DOING?!  I'm to fat for this crap!!  But, I HAVE to do this!  Strider is doing his part, I'm not doing mine."

I started projecting myself forward on my runs to keep moving "You can keep running until you get to that truck up there.  Then you can walk if you want."  "Just keep moving, come on, run to that stop sign, then you can stop and take a breath!"  USUALLY by the time I'd gotten to that object, I was able to stop running and start walking again according to the app (Run/Jog 1 minute and then walk 1.5 minutes).  I wasn't very sore when I finished, and actually felt good, though all 8 of the runs (excluding the first one) were an exercise in torture.  But I stuck it out and did all 8 without quitting during any of them.

I actually felt so good after day one that I repeated day one the next day.  I had only planned to take Saturday off, but I was so tired Friday night that I gave myself permission to sleep as I had to be up early the next morning for Strider's shoeing appointment (which was a disaster.  See previous post).

Looking ahead, week 3 intimidates me right now.  Quite a bit.  So I'm tempted to repeat week 2 once I finish it the first time just to get a more solid base.  Right now I have a very solid route I follow every night that ends with me right near my house.  Each week is going to shake that up.  I guess perhaps I shall start my warm up around our block before heading off.

Any which way, all of this is to say that the world of Endurance/Distance riding has already changed, in so many ways, how I interact with my horse.  I hadn't counted on the ways it would impact how I interact with myself.

For months now I've been following the blogs of fellow endurance riders and noting how many of them run or bike.  Really it seemed to feel like it was about healthy living and better eating and adding in exercise to boot.  I never ever planned on joining that cadre. Except that a few of the people I ride with at endurance rides are healthy people.  They inspire me with their own dedication to being active themselves.  And there's only so long you can watch that and realize as the weeks tick by "Huh, if I had JUST started this a few weeks ago, I'd be much healthier than I am now."

So, after someone in the North American Green Bean group posted about wrapping up week 1 of the Couch 2 5K, I realized "You know, I really should join the masses and get to work on me now."

So, I went ahead and just bought the premium app.  And that night after Joe went to bed, I went out for my first time around 11pm.  I kept it to myself the first few days. 

Except, I know that I'm more prone to continue if I have some kind of accountability.  So, after repeating the first day, on my third time out, I mentioned to my "Bishes", B, H and L, that I was going out to do it.  And I tracked it with Endomondo.  And posted that to my Facebook.  Thus building my accountability network.

I don't think I'll ever run a marathon.  I really and truly don't enjoy running.  But, once I feel solid doing the 5K, I believe I will spring for the Couch 2 10K app.

Because, while I tell people I'm doing it for my family....the real truth is I'm doing this for my horse.  I mean, he IS the one who has to pack my weight around.  It's only fair that if I require HIM to be at peak athletic performance, I start working on my own.

Frustrating....

There are days when I get so annoyed at my boarding facility that I just want to move immediately.

Saturday was one of those days.

So, I have a normal route I drive out to the barn (don't we all if we board?)...things went a little bit sideways when, as I go to pull off to the back road I usually take, to find it blocked by 2 Sherriff's cars. 

They tell me to keep going straight and take a left at the stop sign.

"Huh, I wonder what on earth is going on down there?" I wondered as I drove on.

So, as I proceed down a main road, I notice another Sherriff's car on the shoulder, lights also on, and I see traffic is backed up.

"What fresh hell is this?!" as I brake, getting agitated as my schedule gets thrown off.

And then I see big banners a flapping in the breeze.

"Warrior Dash".

"Oh no.  Oh no no no no no no no!!!!!"

Oh yes.

At our barn this Saturday morning, there was a WARRIOR DASH!  People EVERYWHERE, the main road to get to the horse pens blocked off by tape, loud, thumping music, and lots of pop-up awnings, and the coup de grâce? 

The FIRE STACK that signaled for the runners to go.  That they shot off multiple times.  Which caused EVERY.SINGLE.HORSE to lose its damn mind and run around and around in their pens.

Video of the fire stacks

After chasing Strider around for about a minute or so, he finally stood still long enough for me to catch him.  It appeared like Dakini had a cut on her nose and one on her chest, but I couldn't get close enough to get a good look and certainly not close enough to catch her.  No blood, just cuts.

I did manage to lead Strider to the wash rack and pen him up in there, where he pretty much lost his damn mind.  Screaming and hollaring, and I just stand there in rage and frustration and near tears when the shoer calls.  One of his other clients warned him about the Warrior Dash thankfully so he didn't pull in. 

We decided to call it and NOT attempt to put the shoes on.

Look, I understand that the barn owner has every right to make extra money.  He is the land owner, and as such, I would never begrudge someone that.

What I find annoying and what CONSTANTLY happens is that he does these events (Warrior Dash, Dirt Bikers [competitions and just people out to ride for fun], some kind of strange run/Burning Man thing) and the boarders aren't told.  There's no public calendar, he never mentions it on his Facebook page, no one calls the boarders and there's certainly NO warning for people who are hauling in for the day.

THAT drives me insane.  If I had KNOWN about the Warrior Dash, I could have made arrangements to have the shoer meet me somewhere else (like my farrier's house, I know she would have happily allowed us out there).

Instead, I went out blind, wasted 1.5 hours just in DRIVE time to have my whole morning a wash.

It's infuriating.

However, I've noted on my calendar that for next year, I will pull out all my horses for the Warrior Dash weekend and take them to H's house for 2 nights to keep them away from the insanity.

Friday afternoon ramblings...

We are a GO for Saturday morning for Strider's dancing shoes!!

9:30 am is our go time.

The plan is for me to get to the barn around 7:30.  Since I cannot really do much with him, I shall groom him and get him cleaned up.  If the weather will cooperate, he can have a bath before the shoer comes.  Except, looking at my weather app, the weather isn't going to cooperate.  In fact, it's going to be disgusting.  100% chance of rain all day.  At our appointment time, I'm looking at a 35%-435 chance of rain.  Lovely.

Thankfully, we have a barn and a covered area that we can go to if it's wet out.  There's even a wash rack if I need to coop him up in that (not sure if that would work, but hey...will do what I need to do!).

Depending on the weather, and how he's feeling, I MAY hop on for a quick jaunt around to see how he's feeling.  Heck, I -might- just even try him out on the rocky side of the property to see how he's feeling!! 

Slowly.  We'll go slow.

And, having talked with my farrier (not the shoer), I think I'll alter my plans for Shanghai at the end of the month.

Back to back LDs again.  As she pointed out, lots of angle changes, and keep an eye on that suspensory just in case.

And, we're probably not QUITE fit enough for my big goal of 50/25 for end of March.  But we'll be there for April.

So, much as I want to chase the points at a place I know I can do it, and do it well, we'll hop on board just to fine tune and make sure we're REALLY all the way back.

And, to be honest...while he would have done it.  While WE would have done it...maybe we're not where we need to be just yet.

Not 100% on the Back to Back LD track....but about 96% sure that's what I'll be doing.

Feed Spreadsheet

Feed Spreadsheet

So, many months ago now, I realized I had to feed my endurance horse better than just hay except for ride weekends.  He had lost his fat (reference a post a few back of him and I at our first ride and then at a ride a little over a year later), and he would drop weight after a hard ride and it was taking him longer than I was comfortable with to get back to a healthy weight again.

So, I put him on Nutrena's Performance feed and mixed in alfalfa pellets.  And he was putting on weight and he looked okay.

Then MM at the barn and I were talking about feed one day (I can't even remember why) and when she heard I was buying both she said "Why not switch him to the Nutrena ProForce Fuel?  It's more expensive per bag, but you can feed less.  And it's got the Omega 3 and 6, biotin and other good things!"

So, I looked it up, liked what I saw, and of course I like the idea of paying less per bag!!  So, I found a local store that will order it in for me, and I ordered up 4 bags.

But, in typical horse owner fashion, I had more input from other people.

And so there I found myself one day switching back and forth between screens trying to compare the guaranteed analysis of multiple types of feed and realized "Well, this is ridiculous!"

So, at first I just did a table in Word.

And then it started to grow.  And grow.  And grow some more.  So then I re-did it in Excel.  Then shared it with some friends who LOVED it.  But, one of them has her horses on a mix of a few different things, and so she asked me to add one of the things she's feeding.

Done and done.

Now, by no means is this comprehensive nor does it cover ALL types of feeds.  I also didn't do ALL of the variations of the different types of feed from each of the companies. 

But, this is either directly from a bag tag OR from the company's website.

The guaranteed analysis list is LONG because I hit every single field on every single type.  But, as you know, not every type has EVERY thing in it.  I've left those fields blank.

However, since Blogger doesn't play nice with Excel, I copied it over to my Google Drive, so I'm hoping against hope that this works!!  If you would prefer, I can also email you the Excel spreadsheet for your own use.

Is there a type of feed you'd like to see added?  Send me a screen shot of your bag tag, or a link to the company website where I can find the guaranteed analysis and I will get it added to the list!!

Mail fairy delivers the goodies!!!

This won't be a long post. 

I got NOTHING done with the horses this past weekend.  Literally NOTHING and I'm mildly vexed by that.  It seems like life keeps kicking me in the crotch whenever I make plans to get riding done.  So, this week, no negotiating with the hostage-taker named "Life", I -will- go ride Friday.

Well, I guess life took me hostage Mon-Thur. 

I digress.  FRIDAY I SHALL RIDE!!!

Why?

Well, because BOTH of these showed up on the same day.

Ground Control shoe on the left and Scoot Boot on the right!

Close up of the bottom of the Ground Control shoe.

The screams of joy as I opened up the box of my Scoot Boots and the big envelope with my gorgeous turquoise shoes bounced off the walls.

The GC APPEARS so flexible to me in the photos online.  Don't ask me WHY I think that, but I do!  But, while there's some "give" to it, it's really fairly rigid. 

I was also HAPPILY shocked that when I got my Scoot Boots, it comes with ALL the colors of pastern straps!  Well, ALMOST all.  They've JUST introduced orange and red.  So, I can make "rainbow" boots if I so desire (guess what?  I desire!). 

I was going to go riding today, but...I haven't been sleeping well the past two nights and I'm kind of a zombie at work today.  Now, I literally was going to get my saddle "Just in case", but I realized, when I'm this tired, I'm a poor rider.  Well, worse than normal.  And that's just not fair to my horse, now is it?

So, tonight I will go to bed early so I can go riding tomorrow.

Haven't heard back from MM's shoer to confirm our Saturday morning appointment for Operation Shoe Installation.  But, I'm still on track to assume that's what we're doing.  Which means an early morning Saturday for me as I go out there well over an hour prior to the appointment to pull Strider off all food.  Then somehow figure out how on earth to get Demosedan under his TONGUE (how on earth does one achieve that?!). 

As long as it takes the edge off of him, I do so hope that this will be successful.  I'll leave him be on Sunday (unless I can sneak away in that brief amount of time I have before Joe has to go to his Sunday work gig), but will go ride him on Tuesday to see what we've got.

Tomorrow, I pull Dakini out to slap her Scoots on then go for a jaunt!!