Tag: NaBloPoMo

Ok…be prepared for a very boring entry. Ready? Here we go:

None.

I’ve fallen off Her Royal Highness more times than I can count. Most of those times I have landed on my feet. There have been two times I can recall my head lightly bumping the ground resulting in getting a new helmet and one time where I bruised my butt pretty badly. Thankfully though with all the tumbles I have taken I’ve been able to get back on and continue riding. This is really important since the majority of my “emergency dismounts” have occurred out on the trail far from the trailer. It would have been bad indeed if something more serious had occurred.

Since we are on the topic though, I’d like to take a bit to discuss riding safety beyond the typical “wear a helmet” conversation. (Seriously, though. Wear your helmet.)

I ride alone most of the time. Not because I am that antisocial, but because I like to ride at the butt crack of dawn or late at night and normal people seem to want to ride at a more cozy time such as 10 am or 2 pm. Go figure. My background is in trail riding including endurance and hunter paces, both of which occur at speed over varied terrain, and that meant that I needed to condition along the same lines.

When out on the trail alone, especially on days I wanted to get 20+ miles in, there were some key things that I always made sure I did to make it as safe as possible:

• Wear my helmet
• Make sure all my tack fit Gem appropriately and was in good functioning condition
• Have my cell phone on and charged
• Have a “grounds person” aka Dusty around or if he isn’t able to be present then create a plan and stick to it. If I can’t stick to it, then update him via text

The first three are self explanatory, but the last I feel is very important and very often ignored. Just like a lot of cross country places required a grounds person for you to jump, when I went out alone on the trail I always tried to make it at a time Dusty and Wyatt could come and either hike or play in a creek/mud pit while I rode. This way, even if I was 10 miles from the trailer, if I got hurt (and remained conscious) I could have texted or called him and he would have been with me in a few minutes. While I never needed to take advantage of that, it made me feel much more comfortable knowing he was at the trail head.

One time I was riding a new system and got horribly lost. Gem and I were 15 miles into the ride and turning around was possible, but would have put us at 30 miles without food or water and that idea made me a bit sick. Thankfully Dusty was there hiking with Wyatt and the dogs and when I hit a service road, I called him and he looked at the large trail map (the paper version I had with me was awful) at the trail head and was able to talk me to an access road which he drove down to meet me.

I know this isn’t always possible to have someone waiting for you to finish. In that case, I always pre planned my ride. I then told Dusty which trails I planned to take in which direction (red going clockwise to green then back to red going counter clockwise etc…), the length I was planning on, and the time frame I hoped to finish in. I then texted him once mounted so he would know I was off and going.

I’ve read so many complaints about how this isn’t practical because the trails are sometimes blocked or you change you mind or your horse isn’t up for it so you go a different route. All lame excuses for sure. I mean, we all have cell phones, right? It takes 15 seconds to send a text saying “not feeling it, changed from green to yellow” or “trail blocked have to re route to blue”. Sure your person may not be sitting on pins and needles to read it, but if you fail to return in a reasonable amount of time, at least they have a clue where to look for you.

I’m new to the entire arena based riding, but I’ve still kept a lot of my paranoia with me. I don’t ride at home when nobody else is around. I take Dusty with me when I ride at the barn outside of a lesson.  I no longer feel the need to text him my every move, but I do make sure he knows what my plans are even when I’m going to a lesson or out with a friend. I feel safer knowing that if something were to happen at least he would know where I was and when to start worrying.

Most of my day to day rides occur at home in my front pasture. We rent a small farmette and have access to one pasture with potential riding in the hay field however the guy who maintains it doesn’t really and it is way too overgrown to safely ride in. Plus it is a 5 acre open field without any fencing and borders a busy road. I can only imagine the nightmare that could occur if I fell off and Gem ran into the road. No thanks!

Trainer’s barn is more exciting to write about and that is where I get the real work done. The barn is actually property of the city as part of the rec program (along with several water parks and trail systems). Before Trainer came along to lease it, the facility was sitting empty and quickly going to disrepair. Now Trainer is there and leases out the barn for boarding and runs her lessons. The fact that the rec department owns it means that the place is public and anyone can ride there during the posted open hours. I take advantage of this to go up and ride on the weekends a couple of times a month to get work in a real arena. It is really nice to have that option.

Media is always preferred over lengthy words, so lets take a picture tour!

There are three arenas (though I only have picture of two as the third was built specifically for warm up and we never use it in lessons) with the main arena having stadium lights.

Beyond the arenas and barn are the pastures and woods with trails. I haven’t ridden the trails yet, but I think it is a bout 2 miles or so. Trainer has used the space well to include a variety of solid obstacles to play around with. Her most devious plan was adding coops to the pasture fence line so that once you jump into it, you have to jump back out over the coop. It helped scared little ole’ me because I was stuck and had to do it.

And that is about it. It is a really great barn and I am so glad I found it. I’m not sure what the future will be if we ever move as it will likely double the time to get there, but thankfully Trainer will travel to me too so lessons can continue.

Over all my years riding, I have won 7 ribbons I believe. Endurance isn’t big into the ribbon scene. When you complete a ride they give you a hat or a water bucket or a bag or a flashlight or a t shirt or a ride photo. Pretty much anything but a ribbon. Not including those non ribbon awards, I can think of two that really stand out: my year end hunter pace 6th place ribbon for 2015-2016 season and the 4th place I got at my first CT this past June.

Of those, I think the hunter pace award is my favorite.

What makes this 6th place ribbon mean so much is the work that went into getting it. The 2015-2016 Hunter Pace season had rides scheduled every other week from August to May with a two week break for the holidays. That was a lot of rides to attend. Compare that to this season where several rides have bailed out and I believe there are 6 fewer  rides on the schedule than in 2015.

Each ride is based on the secret optimum time and I was really stoked to get in the top 5 multiple times. Finishing the ride gets you 2 points, but top 5 gets extra points that really help boost you in the rankings. I had hoped to make it to every single ride that season and win the coveted framed professional photograph, but I missed the last three due to timing with the Biltmore 100 mile endurance race I did that May.

In fact, I didn’t even bother going to the year end gathering (I believe it was at Biltmore that year, but i could be wrong) because I figured I was out of the running by that point. Low and behold I found out I placed 6th out of over 150 riders!!! I was so excited!!!

So many weekends were dedicated to hunter paces, so much effort went in to trying to maintain a good pace and make that elusive time and a lot of arguments on pacing occurred out on those trails. Wyatt was a ride camp staple that year with his dump trucks and diggers playing in the mud and arenas. It was a fun season and one I hope to repeat again someday hopefully with a built in little trail buddy on his Wyatt sized pony. Maybe next season?

Tack hoarder I am not. I own one bridle, one saddle pad for schooling, one for shows, and two low end but functional saddles. On my part I own two pairs of schooling tights and one pair for showing. My tall boots are synthetic and my paddock boots I bought on consignment for $15.

I’m not really sure I have a favorite of anything. My stuff is functional and safe.

For breeches I tend towards tights instead of real ones due to fit. After spending hours trying on different breeches only to find that none fit me in all the places, I gravitated towards tights and haven’t looked back. My brand of choice is Irideon. My issential tights have taken the abuse of all my conditioning plus competition miles over 5 years and still look brand new. You can’t beat that for longevity.

I tend to ride in whatever shirt I feel like putting on and none are riding specific.

My saddles are both Thorowgood T8, part synthetic and part leather. They fit Gem well and take the abuse I throw at them. It’s not like I don’t want a better saddle, but Gem is 19 and insanely hard to fit. I don’t see the point in buying anything more expensive at this point in our lives since what I have fits her well.

Um, that’s about it. I do adore all my endurance gear which took me several years to perfect, but that is all now sitting in storage.

Oh wait! I do love my cross country vest. It’s an Airowear Mesh vest. That reminds me. I need to do my review of that.

Clover Ledge Farm is hosting this challenge for the month of November and since I’ve had so little to write about lately I figured I’d jump on in. And because it is the day after Halloween, you get a picture of Wyatt!

When and why I started riding.

Wow. Starting off with a bang here. For me this question is easiest to be broken into two separate riding “lives”: my younger years and my return as an adult.

I’m not sure if riding was a conscious decision or not. My aunt and uncle owned a horse farm two hours south of where I lived and my mom would take me there as a little girl. Pictures of a blonde haired, blue eyed miniature version of myself are floating around somewhere.

I loved everything about the farm. The animals, the dirt, the room to explore. My aunt began by giving me pony rides until I began begging to go faster. Faster. Faster. At that point my uncle threw me up in his big western saddle in front of him and we raced around the pasture on his saintly TWH mare.

It was only a matter of time until they added a pony to their herd for me which was later upgraded to my own horse. I adored my time spent there, begged my mom to let me spend more weeks with them and cried when I left. We rode from sun up to sun down, swam in the river and conquered mountain trails. It was a dream of a childhood.

Then the usual happened. I grew up into a teenager and became interested in more local endeavors. High school and then college came and went. I got married. I started medical school. Those were the horseless years.

In my third year of medical school something changed. I was doing a month long stint at the VA hospital and an attending was talking about her new horse. One thing led to another and I found myself invited to ride with her. That was beginning of the end.

The moment my leg swung up I felt like I was back home. I missed the feeling of horseflesh under my seat. The smell of horse sweat in my nostrils. The sense of freedom being on a horse gave me. Like I could fly. Like anything was possible.

The reason I started riding is because it was in my bones to do so. I can come up with no better reason. I never had competition goals. I never dreamed of running my own boarding or training barn. I just knew I felt at home in a barn, on a horse.

The reason I keep riding is the challenge to grow as a person, as a steward of these wonderful animals and as a rider. Even the bad rides make me yearn for me. For a redo. The good rides leave me riding a high for days. It’s an addiction. Its in my blood.