Best Laid Plans

What's that saying, "If you wanna hear God laugh, just tell Him your plans?"

Last Tuesday (9/21) I took Diego over to a local arena and let him run around and really stretch his legs. He loves to do this and I enjoy watching him clearly having a very good time. Even though it was dark (7:30 pm), I saddled him up when he was done and rode around for about 30 minutes or so. He did excellent and felt really good, very forward and wanting to go, but soft and listening. He did a few little boingities, but nothing much, which I was glad for since I've been riding in my Solstice (an english saddle) lately. Made firm plans to ride with Funder on Saturday (9/25) and do the 25 mile ride out in Red Rock, to check everything and make sure we were good to go for our first 50-miler at Comstock this coming Saturday, 10/2.

Well... so much for plans. Saturday I got Diego all booted up and ready to go, loaded into the trailer, picked up Funder and Dixie, and when we got to Red Rock, Diego came off the trailer lame. =( Pretty obvious consistent head bob on the left front, especially on a circle to the left. He felt good, and still wanted to "go", but I wasn't going to ride with him like that obviously, so instead he got to hang out in the convienently located cow corrals and I did P&R's. As it worked out, Dixie got a bit unmotivated as well, so Funder cut her ride short and didn't do the full 25. I have withdrawn my entry to Comstock.

While Diego looked better as the day wore on, and has continued to improve, I'm certainly not going to stress him with a long ride this weekend. As for now, I'm hand-walking him daily and will probably do a short ride on Thursday if he continues to look good. I'm thinking about maybe entering a ride later this month, but want to take him out for a ~20-miler at some point first in order to judge his continued soundness. We'll just take things easy for now and see how stuff develops. No more firm plans...