In which we walk and ride and ride and ride...and that's a good thing

February 08, 2016

In which we walk and ride and ride and ride...and that's a good thing

Fiddle is doing fine. Bored but fine.

She will be on stall/paddock rest for another two weeks, and then we can start hand-walking 5 minutes per day for a week.

Therapeutic eating

Obviously, this amount of activity isn't nearly enough to keep me out of trouble. Fortunately, I have alternatives.

Lessons, and lots of them!

I've ridden Ariana three times this week. On Thursday, I rode her in Patty's (Very. Wide.) saddle, and I couldn't get comfortable--it felt like driving a stolen truck wearing somebody else's shoes.

On Friday (for a lesson) I rode Ariana in Santa Jim's saddle, which is a very old version of mine. That was MUCH more comfortable, and felt more like driving a stolen truck down a dirt road in bare feet with a friend and a cheese pizza.

Today I rode Ariana in Jim's saddle again, tied down the clanking D-rings and wished for the sheepskin cover on my saddle, because those old-time Specialized Saddle seats are ROCK. HARD. So today felt like driving a stolen truck with dead shocks down a dirt road and hitting all the potholes.

But today we went faster. I even cantered! Badly, at first, but then (with coaching from Patty) not-as-badly.

But first

Who loves Ross more, Patty or Sirie? 28-year-old Ross doesn't care,
as long as the women admire him.

we went walking.

I'm not comfortable about sitting out even part of the endurance season while Fiddle is healing, and so I've decided that to kill time I, and whoever wants to join me, need to train for a 5-k.

This is not quite as crazy as it sounds. The last time I had a lame horse was 2006, I think...and Jim and I trained for marathons that year. Walking, not running, but still.

This year, I'm still re-learning how to use my legs post-surgery, so a 5-k is a good achievable goal. Hopefully my horse won't be lame long enough for me to prep for a marathon!

We're hoping to stage our own, non-sanctioned, fun-only 5-k in April at Fish Creek Farm. We'll mark off a course, yell "go" and twirl ourselves around for 3.1 miles before returning to the Party Room at the farm for a feast and t-shirt exchange. But first we gotta train!

So, we walked around Fish Creek, supposedly measuring routes, but really just as an excuse to get the dogs

Connor and Angus: water dogs!

plus Ross, of course

He's 28 years old, and still figures that he's
All That And A Bag of Chips AND A PICKLE!

out and walking around under non-rainy skies.

And then, we rode. Ariana and I are still figuring out how to communicate, and Patty wanted to try out a saddle with a tremendously wide twist, so there was a lot of "no, not that, do this," and "oh, hey I like that!" going on in the arena.

Also, Crystal is visiting briefly before deploying back to The Sandbox, and we wanted to hang out with her. We like Crystal. She likes us, and she likes playing "ponies" with us.

Crystal is one of those amazing, lovely, annoying people who can start off with a horse being slightly knuckleheaded