Redirection

Warning: There will be whining

The farrier came out wednesday evening for the regularly scheduled trim. I had already pulled the horses in earlier since I was going to be out looking at commercial properties for my new business. He immediately told me he was concerned with Gwyn's feet and wanted me to stop riding. Period.

Let's talk about a heart dropping moment there.

I was confused, because she had been foot perfect on varied terrain the previous weekend and wasn't acting sore or off at all. There was what I considered to be her normal chipping and flaking as she naturally wore her hoof down. The farrier wanted to put her in shoes.

He told me why and it made sense at the time but the more I think on it and the more research I do, the more I really REALLY am unhappy that I agreed to shoes. I don't think it was the right choice for Gwyn. She has always had a hard time keeping shoes on and I fear that I'm just asking for more wall damage the next time she yanks them off her foot.

Well, she has aluminum shoes on now, which so far look good. But I was told to not do my 30 mile  rides I had planned for this past weekend at MetroPark Express and then in two weeks at Oak Leaf Run. Also no hunter pace on the birthday weekend.

I AM GRUMPY

I've been reading up. On Friday I changed up Gwyn's feeding. She's no longer going to get grain, just some timothy pellets and beet pulp pellets, soaked. I'll use up what supplements I have but from this point on she's getting moved to CA Trace (it's been ordered).  I bought some soaker boots for her feet since it looks like there's a bit of thrush so she got to soak in 1:1 water:apple cider vinegar for a bit.

Back in bell boots again too

The vet is coming out tuesday for fall shots and I'm going to ask her to test for any kind of IR. Gwyn is plump, and I want to make sure we don't go down laminitis or cushings territory. Xrays in June showed a beautiful coffin bone but thin soles. We are still, apparently, dealing with thin soles.

I'm getting a second opinion on her feet later in October, which is when the nearest barefoot trimmer around me is available. She doesn't normally come up to my area except for that weekend so I jumped on the chance. She's also a boot dealer.

My plan is to get the shoes pulled and put her in hoof boots and pads only if we're riding. She should be fine otherwise in the pasture barefoot. She's BEEN fine in the pasture barefoot.

So I'm grumpy. My fall/birthday horse plans fell apart.

A cold, foggy morning at Metropark

I did try to get a grazing muzzle on her to limit the fall grass sugar high but that was a fail. It's lying, wet, in the middle of my pasture like a giant FUCK YOU AMY. She was SO pissed when I put it on her.

I did have a great day Saturday timing at Metropark so that was great and then Alicia rode on Sunday still and got FIRST! So that's AWESOME for her and I'm super happy for her! It's only her second ride, the first was at White River with me. She's hooked, it's official.

I'm going to ride on my birthday weekend. And I'm taking her to Oak Leaf but I'm not doing the 30. Probably just the Intro, so long as it's offered on Sunday.  Ugh.

So that's mainly what the radio silence has been for (aside from being totally inundated with starting my own business, but that's a WHOLE other post)

Metropark Express 2016

One of my goals was to get to this event and I did it!  Originally I think I wanted to do the LD but upon reflection of the respective fitness level of both me and Gwyn, I decided it was better to do the intro. Plus, I really didn't think me being away from Hazel for long was a good idea. As it was, I was out 7 hours with travel and she didn't eat THE WHOLE TIME.  Silly baby.  But she was good for Eric, so that was good.

It felt like she was up every hour to fuss and feed the night prior and so when 4:30am rolled around and my alarm was set for 5, I just said fuck it and got up.  I pumped, finished getting things ready, and went to load Gwyn in the dark. Then I chased Gwyn around the property before she gave up and got on. It took less time than last week.

Kensington Metropark is an hour and 10 minutes away. If I take the highway, it's 70 miles, if I take backroads, 55miles. I took back roads. Bonus, I got to avoid construction.

I've arrived!

I'm friends with one of the organizers on facebook and she messaged me to let me know that the other rider doing the intro was planning on leaving with the LD riders (there were no 50s on day 2)  I decided to join them. The start was really low key and Gwyn did great. She wanted to go go go but was listening really well. My goal was to ride an average 6 mph pace for the ride. A 12 mile ride meant I would be done in 2 hours. Achievable!

The day was beautiful. I had a tech shirt on with a fleece vest while I was tacking up. The saturday ride had been brutal thanks to heat and humidity, but today was just spectacular and great for my draftie. I wore just the tech shirt on the ride.

This park sprays for bugs so there were NONE. It was so nice. And the forest was cool and pleasant with occasional spots where the trail was in the sun.

The one other intro rider was bringing a new horse along. He was totally down for my pace plan and we had similar views on how to ride the ride with our horses. It was nice to have someone to chat with. Last year I rode with a mom and daughter but they walked nearly the whole thing and it was brutal. It was so nice to actually move and cover some ground with purpose. My ass didn't get nearly as sore.

We had less dramatics over the water crossings this year, haha.

And I remembered where the trail went so I didn't get lost this time!

There's a water slide and lake over there.

On the I-96 trail (so named because it's an out and back down to the highway) you have to sign in that you got there so they know you didn't cheat the distance. I asked if I could just take a picture of me there. Ride management was a little stunned at the idea. I mean... I don't think I could get Gwyn close enough to write... or get off and get back on. Thankfully my buddy checked me in.

But I still took a picture for proof.

Snack break!  We took brief snack breaks for the horses and always let them drink from the streams we encountered. This trail is nice because there's a lot of water on trail that's good for the horses.

We took turns leading.  Both horses were fine. Yay!

Chill pony.

This sign was concerning for Gwyn, lol

Huron River

Out onto the blue loop, which we apparently didn't need to do. They changed it on us last minute, since blue had trees down after the storm the night before. Oops.

Easy tree to get around.

HARD tree to get around.

Crossing the river.

And into the river!

We played in this river last November, when I hand walked Gwyn on the trails with the Distance Derby folks. This time I got to ride in!  Gwyn walked right and took some nice deep drinks. I think going in right before we did vetting really helped her cool down. 

Proof! Yay!

 Vet card: Gwyn was a little muscle sore on her left front shoulder but nothing that impacted her gait. Her pulse was spectacular. We could have gone out for another 10/12 I think. I'm glad I didn't push it though.

I got a sweet t shirt 

4.63 miles on the Polly Ann Trail

Next week is the Metropark Express aka Huron River Ride that was run by Rusty Toth who had a MAJOR falling out with the Michigan endurance community (like, holy shit drama) He moved back out west and ended up competing in Tevis again, but that left managing the ride to somebody else. I rode it last year, right after I found out I was pregnant but before the blood clots ruined everything and I wanted to ride it again this year.

My over ambitious plan was to do the LD at Metropark Express but given how plump Gwyn is and how little I've been riding and how anxious I am at leaving Eric alone over night with the girls, I figured doing the intro ride again is perfect. It'll be a day trip, rather than an overnight so I won't be gone long.

Anyway, the point of mentioning all that was that I needed to refresh Gwyn on her trailer loading manners and get out on the trail to evaluate our fitness AND to give Eric a dry run on solo Dad'ing it.

Gwyn... was an ass. She tore away to go gallivanting all over the property (and now Eric is in agreement with me about gating the driveway)  So we did a bunch of groundwork, which admittedly I should have done to start. I wanted her to know that I move her feet and the only time she can rest is if we're standing in the trailer. Reading Dom's views on trailer training has definitely influenced that, on top of the groundwork clinics we would do in Washington. It didn't take long after that where she walked in and stood in the trailer while I closed everything up. And of course, once she's in she's fine. It's just a power struggle.

I was a little worried about her behavior because we were going to a public park with waterpark and I wanted to be sure that I could get her back into the trailer without trampling kids. When we got there, she was just calm as could be, unloaded nicely and stood a the trailer, sweaty, but not anxious. I quickly tacked up and hopped on. Then we were off!  We got there shortly after 11am, which is when the water park opened. The water was running but there weren't a lot of people making noise or splashing. She didn't care. There was something in the woods I couldn't see that was more concerning to her.

Walking down the road to the trail access was a non event, even when a car drove past us. You guys, this is a HUGE thing for us. After a car incident in Florida I've worked super hard to desensitize her and get some good experiences with passing cars and trucks and being passed. I think vehicles at speed are still an issue, but she's fine with cars that are slow!  This means that I still can't ride down our street to be able to access this trail, but it's improvement.

I decided to turn south this time and see how far I could get in 15 minutes. Ha....

Happy Pony Ears

Happy human smiles

I rode in a Kerrits ensemble :D   I had my Icefil tights and a tech shirt. It was perfect. Weather was around 75F with 80-90% humidity. It was cool enough that I felt comfortable doing a ride without health risk thanks to the combined temp+humidity factor. Alas, the deer flies were persistant and I got nabbed.

We quickly reached General Squier Rd and crossed that, no traffic. People were likely still in church, given the area. I made sure Gwyn maintained a nice steady trot and she was comfortable barefoot on the occasional gravel.

We were riding early enough that we had shade, not overhead sun in the woods. It was so pleasant!

It really reminded me of the trail rides I did as a kid in Connecticut. There was a rails to trails trail that I could connect in with and rode on frequently. It was a really pleasant way to remember that.

At 15 minutes in I had reached the furthest point I've traveled to on the trail on foot. I wanted to see new trail. So I kept going and decided another 10 minutes or until I reach one more road crossing. Gwyn was willing and eager, moving out easily and really only bothered by branches that extended low onto the trail. The few bridges we encountered she crossed without hesitation.

I did finally reach one more road crossing just as a bicyclist was coming from the other direction. Gwyn was a tad unsure about him going past but he said hello and commented on the great day to be out and about, which I agreed with wholeheartedly! I texted Eric that I was turning around and followed the bicyclist. Here's where I laughed.

Gwyn BOOKED it after the bicyclist. It was a race, it was on. Her trot got big big big and we were flying, though not catching the biker. He finally pulled away around a corner and we didn't see him again. And she resumed her steadier pace. I loved it. It makes me encouraged for riding this trail with Eric. She had no problem following this bike.

Bye biker!

New construction

Pretty field

Stella, Gwyn's mom, was so dependable and she would always investigate new things and touch them with her nose. Gwyn does the same thing.

Back to the park

Waterslides? Splash fountains for kids? No biggie, mom.

Our average was around 5 mph with walking. Her trot was between 6 and 10 mph. If I can average 6 then I'll be done with the 12 mile intro ride in 2 hours and get back home sooner to my baby :D I think I could do this for 12.