I don't think that my goals this year are going to be horse show focused. Unless I'm borrowing horses, I won't have an animal that will be ready to do anything significant. I'm mentally mapping out my stress points for the year and right now there's a giant wall in February and March and it makes it hard to see past those months to properly determine what I can commit to or how much it'll burn me out.
In 2023 I finally stuck with tracking and posting to PonyUp100 on Facebook and rode or worked with Gwyn 105 times over the course of the year. I've rejoined that group because I like the accountability it provides. These may not be all horse related, but I'm going to include them here for general tracking of things.
Because of my various neurodivergencies, I'm always so wary about goal setting for new habits. Some of these will be continuations of things I already know are possible with my current schedule.
1. I am aiming for 100 working sessions with Gwyn in 2024. Working session can mean many things. It could be groundwork, grooming her, riding her, handwalking. I'm trying to temper my goals with the knowledge that we're still not all clear from the vet and that she may be borrowed as a therapy horse at some point this year.
New Years Eve ride
2. I am aiming for 100 working sessions with Leche in 2024. This one may be more challenging because I'll have less months to achieve my 100 with Leche but I still think it's worthy and possible.
3. Sit on Leche by my birthday. She'll be over 3 at that point. I think it's a low stakes good goal to have.
Reported as "Very challenging and very rewarding. Weird combo of feral and spoiled with BIG FEELINGS. Smart as hell and an innately good disposition"
4. Maintain my DuoLingo streak. I've got a 566 day streak currently while working on Swedish. I want to keep that up.
Colorado river just downstream of the Hoover Dam, Nevada on the right, Arizona on the left
5. Volunteer for at least two horse shows.
6. Pony Leche on three trail systems.
Like Bridle Trails (From New Years Day)
7. Purposeful movement at least once a week.
8. Solo stretching at least once a week.
9. C2 Horse Management Rating: This is a stretch goal, I think, and fully dependent on my burnout. Definitely a later in the year type of activity.
There are five different colors of spots on this mare. Also, she camoflages mud easily.
Love me that bright bay tho...
Despite having a very uniquely colored horse now, I'm a HUGE fan of a good bright bay. Honestly, I like most coat color and it'd be a shorter list to write out which coat color I'm not a fan of (Buckskin, chestnut and Gray, though I'd be a fan of gray if they stayed that fun dappled gray but they all go white in the end)
What has been fun is learning about coat color genetics. Appaloosa is funky, splash can get you a dead foal, gray is dominant and sorrel and chestnut are the same don't even try that here.
Sorry, I really can't wax poetical on coat color. This is all you get. I'm going back to making my brilliantly orange quarter sheet for hunting season riding.
I have been itching to ride. After Brighton my attention when at home turned to getting our garden beds in order. Any outside time was spent working on that (and BOY was it a huge project, but it's finished!) But with those finished and knowing I wouldn't have work, I felt it was reasonable to take a day and get off property to ride. If we could get chores done the first part of the weekend, riding would be reasonable.
The first ride of the season in Michigan is the Brighton CTR (Competitive Trail Ride). This is the ride that I dipped my toes in for Michigan endurance and took a weekend to go camp as a volunteer with total strangers one month after arriving in Michigan in 2015.
The Michigan distance riding group is pretty small. You see the same people at all the rides. It's nice, in a way, because you really get to know them. They're a wonderful group of people and I'm so glad I found them.
Last year I was due any day with Hazel and didn't make it out to Brighton, though I really wanted to. This year I swore I would be going with Gwyn. I wanted to camp, but Eric disagreed (because it's April and might snow, plus kids) so we compromised and I day tripped. Brighton is not far, about an hour and 15 minutes away and on pretty direct highway!
Given that I really haven't ridden much this winter, I opted to do the 15 mile intro ride, especially since hoof protection is recommended, there are a bunch of hills and we'd be doing it barefoot. Lots of factors. I also opted for the tutored ride that they offered for new to the sport people. I figured it would be a guaranteed group to chat with on the ride and I might learn some things, especially about CTR which is a bit different from AERC rides. Plus the intro had a later start time, which would make day tripping easier.
Sometimes I feel I cheat at hooking up the trailer...
Saffron started braying AS SOON as I was backing the truck up to the trailer. She knew. She knew.
The next morning Gwyn came trotting down to me. I put on her halter, grabbed a lunge line and gloves and prepared to argue about her getting into the trailer. I had the lunge line because she sometimes tries to rear and twist and run away, and the gloves so I could hang on and I wanted to school her if she tried that. Instead, I stood to the side she normally ducks out on, pointed to the trailer and in she hopped.
I kind of stood there in shock for half a second, wondering if that really just happened, then I hopped up and attached the butt bar and gave her a scritch for a job well done. She munched on some hay while I closed the rest of the trailer up and grabbed the last of the things I needed. Then I gave her a carrot because DAMN. That's the first time that's ever happened!
I think I channeled Dom for a moment...
We got to the ride with plenty of time to chill. The intro ride groups were going out starting at 10 am and my ride group of 4 was going out at 10:50. So Gwyn got a good grooming and I rebraided her mane since I was expecting the day to warm up and her mane is thick.
She vetted in wonderfully. Mary was the vet and she is fantastic. The vetting is really thorough for CTR. That's where a lot of the points can be lost.
Warm up walking around the day tripper parking/ride office camp. The actual campers were up on the camp sites in the loop nearby. It's a really nice park for equestrian camping.
Gwyn was really relaxed, even with horses leaving in groups.
In CTR you go out in groups of 3-5 riders every 10 minutes. Instead of having a maximum allowable time and no minimum, you have a time window to aim for where your speed would average to 5-7 mph. We had 2h40m to ride 15 miles. Our window was 2:25 to 2:35. If we came in before 2:25 pm or after 2:35 pm there would be points deducted. Everyone starts at 400 points and you want to lose as few points as possible!
This was my first time riding the trails in this park and it was just absolutely fantastic. While they were certainly no Mount Spokane steady mountain hills, they were rolling and STEEP. Gwyn was a powerhouse. She got frustrated being behind the horses we were with because they didnt' get up the hills fast enough for her and we'd end up in another horse's butt, which obviously was not a good thing. I did my best to manage and we only got a raised butt once and she backed off after that.
Our tutor was Mindy, who was on a half-arabian. The lady in front of me was on a welsh pony that was too big to be a pony. The person behind me had a quarter horse mare who was WAY out of shape and could barely handle the hills.
New helmet! I haven't written about my previous ride, but I did make an unplanned dismount and a cracked helmet was involved. So this purchase had to happen FAST.
This is probably the best creek crossing I've ever been through. It's been shored up to withstand horses and the ground through the water is wonderfully solid and non mushy. We crossed it twice, and it made for a good drink stop for the horses. No hesitation from Gwyn, she charged right in and after drinking her fill she thought splashing was most fun.
There was a spotter to make sure we did the lollipop loop here. She took our numbers.
Up behind the tutor rider. We also led for a bit, which Gwyn fully enjoyed. She had no trouble keeping pace with the fit Arabian. That's my girl :D
So, also on CTR, once you hit the 2 mile mark to camp you MUST maintain forward motion on your horse. You also may not dismount at any time on the ride and walk beside your horse. Once into camp you are given a rider card and a time 10 minutes from when you get there. That is when you get pulse and respiration checked. You are not allowed to sponge in that 10 minutes. All cooling must be done with hay/water/grain/air. If we were going back out on another loop, 30 minutes after that P/R would be our out time. Since this was effectively our final vet check, after getting that P/R we went to the vet for our final inspection and trot out.
Gwyn got a PERFECT vet score. No soreness or interference marks, lots of pep and energy left in the trot out. The only point off we got from our 400 points was because her P/R was not the minimum they set. But when you compare her recover P/R to what she had at vet in, she was down to baseline, her baseline just isn't what would get you 0 point deductions.
I'll take that win.
Sweaty at the end. We came in perfectly in our
We got 5th place in the heavyweight rider category! Yay!
There was just a slight discussion about loading, but she self loaded AGAIN. Then it was home we were bound.
Where she had a touching moment with Kaylee before rolling.
Despite a niggling throat itch that was requiring frequent coughing, I got up early Saturday morning to load Gwyn up and head over to Kensington Metropark. It's about 1hr 15 away so it isn't a place I've been able to explore yet, though I was aware that it had a great network of trails.
Today, by stark contrast to my ride on Tuesday, was absolutely glorious! The deer flies were minimal, I saw about 10 and we didn't have a swarm following us whereever we went. The trails were groomed to perfection, nothing was below face height and the paths, even the more 'wild' ones were wide enough for at least 2 horses side by side.
Additionally, despite the park having multi-use trails, mountain bikes never shared an equestrian trail. They crossed paths multiple times, but no sharing. I can't tell you how safe and happy that made me feel.
Anyway, today I almost didn't go. I woke up and everything looked wet outside. Then I checked the weather, and while the forecast listed cloudy and cool (mid 60s F), rain wasn't even being considered until the afternoon.
So Gwyn got loaded up and we repeated the routine, dropping Kaylee off, practicing grocery shopping, then drove over to the park. It was a little bit further away from gymnastics, but only about a 20 minute drive (max).
The parking lot was completely empty! I was super excited. Of course they also have camping here so there could be campers using the trails, but this was 9 am on a weekday, unlikely, lol
Gwyn was concerned about our location. Golf carts of park staff were going by regularly. When I went to put on her bridle she 'took off' toward a bunch of facility staff in a VERY up walk. It felt like she was evaluating for spooking, but never actually spooked. I eventually got her bridle on in the middle of that parking lot and took her back, very embarrassed.
The park has this gorgeous facility for rental for weddings and other events. It's well taken care off.
Everything is nicely marked too! You know if your trail is a horse or bike trail.
I got a water bottle holder and tried it out today. More on that later. I did keep my park map, camera, phone and a small pair of clippers in case I came across face level branches that needed trimming.
The trail started out with a low grade climb. It was PERFECT to make Gwyn walk up. She was huffing by the end. We need to do this more!
Once we got past the scary pavement, she settled into a very forward working walk, loose rein, happy ears.
Occasional hay field. At the time my thought was, I wonder if I can ride in that for some cantering?
What I think these pictures don't accurately capture is how -pretty- it was this morning. Everything was still wet from the rain, but it wasn't humid. The wood was dark, nearly black, while the green was super vibrant. It was magical.
Half wet, half dry
Pond just off the path
Then we got to this field. And the path went ALL THE WAY AROUND IT! WOOOO! We totally cantered.
At one point the field dipped down and came back up. We cantered down and I guess Gwyn felt really good because I felt her hind end come up a bit. Nothing unsettling, I laughed at her, but she had to get a wiggle out!
Heading back to the trailer. I'll mention here that she was great on the trail, and has been great on all the trails. But crossing black pavement was almost too much for the Goober Pony. It was the ONE spot we had a discussion about going forward. She did go, but it took a bit....
I can see the trailer! And my mounting block boulder, lol
When I got off and looked at my gear I was horrified to realize that I was literally 3 threads away from losing my phone, camera and super nice Fiskars trimmers. WTH TOUGH-1?!?!?!?!?! Not really living up to your name. Now I need to figure out a different way to attach it for my ride saturday if I want to use it. Grrrr. The company WILL hear about this because that's ridiculous. One use and it falls apart?
See? Held on by THREADS ALONE
Loaded up while I went to pee since we had a lot of time before we needed to leave. But better that than to be late.
