Post of the Week: The Barb Wire - What's Stopping You

I may try a new segment on recommending weekly a fellow blogger's post I valued. To kick this off, here is a most excellent post by Tamara at The Barb Wire:  What's Stopping You

My day job requires me to make occasional visits to public schools around the state.  Usually, I’m there to discuss matters of data, finance, and governance, but I sometimes find myself observing classrooms in action. During one such visit, a teacher asked me to share with her class of middle school students some advice for achieving success ...  Read More

NEDA New Year's Day Ride

NEDA New Year's Day Ride by dreammakker at Garmin Connect - Details
This was the maiden voyage for my new Christmas present GPS.  I bumped the timer and stopped it first thing in the morning after leaving, and didn't notice until 3.5 miles or so later...

Had another wonderful time this past weekend at the NEDA New Year's Day Ride, hosted by Steve Thompson out in Silver Springs, near Lake Lahontan.  Diego and I have done several of these rides now.  They're a great local and inexpensive way to introduce a horse to the sport of distance riding.  A very fun, low-key group that is totally focused on having a good time.  In November, I brought my friend Ronda and her new Quarter Horse gelding Quik out to join me for their first ride.  We did the 9-mile "short ride" loop together and then Diego and I went on to complete the 11-mile loop for the "long ride" solo.  That worked out well for everyone and was a perfect start for Ronda and Quik into the sport.

This weekend, Ronda wanted to try doing the full 20 miles with Quik.  We've done quite a few shorter rides together, and as long as there are no big hills, Quik keeps up very well at a moderate pace.  Luckily, Silver Springs is nearly totally flat, so Quik wouldn't have to worry about anything much resembling a hill to go over.  ;)  We actually had a few people over for New Year's Eve, including Ronda and her hubby, so she brought Quik and we all had a sleep over and they spent the night, since she lives across town.  Got up in the morning and made breakfast for all the crew, and then we headed out, getting a bit of a later start but still feasible on time.  Arrived and got checked in and to the ride meeting, and were fiddling with some last minute stuff when the ride actually started, but no rush or worry.

Diego has been handling these starts very well recently.  They're not "small" rides, the past two have had between 40-50 people/horses and everyone pretty much starts at the same time on the same loop.  Once we were ready, we headed on down the road, only to make it about three houses down before we heard the jingle of harness behind us.  Turning to look, a 4-wheel cart pulled by a pair of cute mules was headed our way.  Not 100% sure on how Dig was going to react, and knowing from last time that Quik doesn't like the carts, we quickly pulled over and dismounted.  Thankfully we did, as Quik's eyes got huge and he bolted backwards as the cart continued to approach.  Ronda was fast on her feet and determined to hang on, running with him as he went.  The cart stopped and we all stood around for a bit, before we encouraged them to continue on.  The plan would be to catch up to them and hopefully ride behind for a while, to give Quik some more moderate exposure and hopefully let him get over his fear.

Dig was doing great and still walking along after remounting, until a group came of 8 riders came along and passed us.  He got worried and tense, wanting to rush along as they were approaching.  We pulled over to let them by, and to Dig's chagrin I insisted that he continue to walk jig WALK (or attempt to) until he could/would actually walk on a loose rein, which only took a bit over a mile or so.  Once he proved he was indeed capable of walking on a loose rein, we picked up the trot and passed 5 of the horses that had initially passed us.  We continued down the beach and had our photos done by Kitty with Projections Photography.


Mr. Diego cruising along



Ronda and Quiksilver aka Quik

From there we continued on until catching the evil-mule-wagon having a potty stop at one of the restrooms along the beach.  We waited behind until they got moving, and then used the rest of that loop to slowly work Quik closer and closer to the wagon.  At one point, Diego would have happily trotted along next to and past it, but I looked back and Quik was debating if it would be worth possibly running through a barb wire fence or not.  We decided not to chance it and just continued along behind.  In fact, that team of mules was moving out so well, that eventually they got ahead and then out of sight.  Diego went past a crazy chained up snarling dog like it ain't no thang, then decided the cavorting mini-horses in the corral next to the dog were the devil incarnate and had to wait for Quik to come lead him by.  Made it back into camp from the 9 mile loop around 1:30 pm as I recall, so 2:15 total time for that loop.

Both horses met the pulse criteria of 64 and had a good drink of water at the trough.  We took them back to the trailer and let them eat for another 15 minutes or so before leaving for the next loop.  We left the same time as Dr. McCartney DVM and her group of 4 (5 total) so were a fairly good sized pack heading out, bringing up the tail-end of the ride.  The next loop was a series of 90-degree turns that wound us back out and along the perimeter of the lake property along some sandy/dirt rural roads before turning and taking a fairly straight course back through the neighborhood and around to camp.  Both horses were still moving well, but Quik was starting to slow some so we took it easy and only trotted a moderate pace and took several walking breaks as needed.  There was one point where we were trotting along, and I think I was scolding Diego for something, when he suddenly let out one huge giant buck!!  I got after him a bit and then Ronda and I both laughed, he was SUCH a teenage boy at that moment "But I don't WANNA do that!!!" 

We did have a short cantering session once we turned towards camp.  Quik, who normally has awesome "this direction is home/the trailer" radar and goes 2x as fast when pointing that way, was too confused (or possibly tired) by all the right-turn, left-turns and didn't seem to catch on to where we were.  He actually did very well, only really slowing down the last 3 miles before camp.  I had told Ronda that Diego pretty much did the same thing I took him that far.  Dig even stopped a 1/2 mile out from camp, where we could SEE THE TRAILERS and insisted that he needed a break.  Once I got him to actually look up and notice where he was, he happily decided he could make it that far.    Quik did better, happily plodding along and even trotting a bit to catch up and finished in fine shape.  We managed to pass two people in the last few miles, who finished about 30 seconds behind us so we weren't dead last, something Ronda was happy to avoid.  ;)  I didn't look, but I think it was a bit after 4 when we finished, maybe even a bit before, so a total of about 5 hours to do the full 20 miles, including the 25 minutes or so we were stopped in the middle.  Not to bad for a first venture!!!

Bringing new people into the sport is probably my # 1 most favorite thing to do, so I'm glad that we all had such a great time and that everyone (well... maybe not Quik, LOL) is looking forward to doing it again!

2012 Goals

Aaahhhhh.... The start of a new year.  The time when we start to look ahead and plan what we want to accomplish.  I've always been a goal-setter and planner by nature, always looking ahead and striving to achieve that next milestone, whether in my career, personal life, or riding.  But January is the time when we get to publicly declare to all what we're intending to accomplish, for better or worse.  ;)

1. Complete a 100-mile ride with Diego.  Kind of a big one, considering we just did his first 50 last season, but I have a sincere love and passion for the distance and I feel that we should be able to accomplish this just fine with some determination and steady training.  Dig is already shaping up to be a wonderful endurance horse, this next season will be about fine-tuning the smaller things and teaching him to shine.
2. Track training/ride mileage for Diego.  I started an Excel spreadsheet last year and that has been working well for me.  As a very unexpected but totally awesome Christmas surprise, my parent's bought me a Garmin Forerunner 405!!!  I just need to get the heart rate belt adapted for Diego, and now I can REALLY and accurately track our training miles.  Need to figure out the best way to charge and store it so that I'll always have it handy and ready to be used.
3. Work on my own personal fitness.  I found a workout buddy at my office, and we had been going out at lunch and getting some activity in, although we slacked off this past month.  I also bought myself a couple of DVD's for Christmas to hopefully get motivated.  I'm SSSOOOO not a morning person, so doing something at lunch time seems to work best for me.  Now to just DO it and not find excuses to continue sitting at my desk.
4. Continue eating better, strive for less unhealthy carbs.  Dinners are still hard for me to cut carbs too much, since I'm cooking for my husband and son as well, but perhaps to offer a second vegetable choice, and to use more meat and veggies and less pasta/rice as fillers for the meal.  Looking for recommendations for easy, quick, grab-and-go breakfast ideas that are low/no-carb and high in protein, but lower in dairy.
5. Blog more.  I love reading them, but don't always take the time to WRITE them.  =)  Got to continue to work on that.  Maybe I'll try to start some sort of weekly feature(s) that I can find and schedule in advance to help drive my postings up a bit.

Hope you all have a wonderful and successful New Year as well!

Looking Back - 2011

Back in January I posted some Resolutions for the New Year.  Now is as good a time as any to take a look back on how the year turned out:

1. Finish a 50 mile AERC ride on Diego. This can be considered a success, we not only finished a 50 at Rides of March but also a second one at Cooley Ranch in July.  Honestly, I was hoping for a bit more this season, but factor in the pull at NASTR in June and our successful second-day LD at Cooley, things didn't turn out too bad.  Mainly it was time and money that prevented me from attending more rides this season.


2. Eat "better", make smarter food choices. Buy and consume more fresh produce, especially veggies, and watch my portions better.  I'd probably rate this a success as well.  I was thinner this year than I have been in a while, mainly due to watching what and how much I was eating.  We still eat a lot of pasta, and occassionally rice, as the basis for our dinners, but I have cut down on the amount of potatoes and other simple carbs I was consuming.  Fast food pretty much makes me sick now so I consume very, very little of that.


3. Track my training miles better. I started an Excel worksheet with the date, distance, and duration of nearly all of my rides.  While I've been trying to update it after every ride, or at least weekly/monthly, I know that I've forgotten a few in there somewhere.  Overall though, it's a big improvement over not having anything formally recorded.  Diego is finishing 2011 with a little over 500 total miles for the year, not bad, but I hope to at least double that number, if not more, in 2012.


4. Blog more. Um.... okay, maybe not such a success here.  My issue is I only want to post interesting articles and/or stories, and not just document what I've been doing.  But then I realize that some of my favorite posts to read from my Blog Buddies are just that, small quick updates on what they've been doing.  I have some wonderfully humerous stories about my horse-shopping for a friend adventures from this summer that I need to write down and get posted.

Other big accomplishments this year include:

• Overcoming my fear of riding Diego, and finally learning to LOVE riding again
• First successful solo trail ride
• Getting Diego out on my one-and-only training trail from home, including finding a way to skirt the dicer first section by going down the quiet residential street
• Riding on the Tahoe Rim Trail with my mom
• Managing Diego's hooves and trimming on my own, and being mostly successful in that venture (NASTR was certainly a case of learning what not to do)

Fitness Testing - Kind of the same but different

At some point after the horse has developed good strong connective tissue and bone, the quality of the exercise is more important than the quantity. A young horse starting out need lots of long slow miles on a regular basis - preferably every other day. Working up to slowly adding more distance and more speed ( more trotting and less walking). This is a slow process and should not be rushed. The time required will depend on a lot of factors, the age of the horse, experience of the horse, conformation of the horse, etc.


Conduct a Standard Exercise Test

Put the horse at as close to a fixed rate as possible on the heart rate monitor, such as 140 beats per minute (BPM) for a fixed distance, say 5 miles and see how fast they do it. Record the time to complete the circuit at that set heart rate.  This is always done on the same stretch of trail. As your horse gets into better condition, they will be able to complete the circuit faster, in a lesser amount of time, still at that same heart rate. Conversely, if they start to take longer to complete the circuit, then you are probably over training or have some other issue brewing, so more rest is indicated.


Adapted from a post by:
Truman Prevatt

http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp/archives/past/04/35/msg00098.html

New Book about Tevis

I haven't had a chance to read it yet, my copy arrived in the mail yesterday, but who DOESN'T love a book about everyone's *my* favorite endurance ride?

Tevis, From the Back of My Horse
by Sharma Lynn Gaponoff

An action-packed true story about riding the most difficult 100-mile endurance ride in the world.  It is a story about triumph over adversity, about courage, teamwork and knowledge.  Join Sharma and her horse Tahoe on their journey through the rugged and scenic Sierra Nevada Mountains of California during their 24 hours of the 55th running of the "Tevis Cup 100-Miles-One-Day Trail Ride."  You will read about the "spills, thrills, and bumps along the way" in this compelling, entertaining and instructive chronicle.  Mount up and enjoy the ride!

http://www.sharmagaponoff.com/

Fitness Testing from Recovery Heart Rate by Gayle Ecker

Gayle Ecker, one of the foremost researchers on equine exercise physiology, strongly advocates periodic "fitness testing" to see how your horse is doing--getting stronger or weaker, etc. The way she did it was on a treadmill; which is impractical for most riders, however, she sent an EXCELLENT program that can be done on the trail. Do this fitness testing before the scheduled Endurance ride, give the horse a couple of weeks off, and do it again. That will give you a more quantitative measure of how far the horse has recovered.


Fitness Testing, from Gayle Ecker

Recovery heart rate test

Need a stethoscope and stopwatch or heart rate monitor.  Measure off a known distance that will remain fairly constant in footing from one repetition to another. A 5 mile section of trail, a one mile gravel road up a gradual slope, a 5 mile distance around a series of fields. Use a ATV, dirt bike, or vehicle to measure off the mileage (or kilometers).

After a warm-up of 15-20 minutes that includes walking, trotting, a bit of cantering, until the body temp of the horse is warm, then start the fitness test. Trot your horse over the distance and using the stopwatch time your duration over the chosen trail. You can trot some, canter some, even walk some, according to the fitness level of the horse. The overall intensity/duration should not be harder than your general training miles.

At the end of the distance, record the time to complete the circuit in a little notebook that you carry in a pocket. Start the watch again at the stop of exercise. At 2 minutes, take the heart rate using the stethoscope for 15 seconds, record this number. While dismounted, walk the horse along and re-take the heart rate for 15 seconds at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes. Record these numbers. Cool out your horse (or continue with training miles, depending on the fitness level and your targets for training).

Once back in the barn, construct a graph (purchase graph paper from a stationery store to make this easier, or use a program like Excel if your good with computers):
On the bottom of the graph (the x-axis), put the time (0 to 15 minutes).
On the upright axis (the y-axis), place Heart Rate.
Record the heart rates above the appropriate time (HR at 2 minutes, 5, etc.). Connect the dots. Note the slope of the line.

Repeat the same test periodically, keeping the distance and duration as much the same as before. In other words, you are testing recovery heart rate, not the speed at which you can complete your circuit, try to aim for the same time as prior tests.  If you start this now, and repeat it periodically, you will have an objective measurement of how much conditioning has been gained or lost based on how quickly your horse recovers from a set level of exercise.  Keep in mind factors such as temperature and humidity will also affect results.  Best to record the date, temperature, and humidity as a footnote for each session if possible.

Modified from:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/new100milers/message/303