I got an email with no subject on Saturday. The body of the message said, "Do you want to go to Aprilfest?"
So after a few phone calls, I am going to Aprilfest with my Fairy Godmother Lynda. Yellowhead will also be going, so Lia and Luba will travel together in a nice big stock trailer.
With any luck, we will get some riding in on Friday, 12 mile set speed on Saturday and 25 mile set speed on Sunday. The trail at the Dufferin Forest is pretty sandy, not too much rock or road, so we will probably ride naked. I will take my Renegade strap ons just in case.
Hoping that Luba will be in a good space for her first big road trip of the year. She has been giving us some attitude lately. A little bucking and rearing in our lessons. A little separation anxiety about being away from Mama Sera. Add her heat cycle and a nearly full moon for good measure.
Luba is more fit this spring than she was last year at this time. The 12 mile on Saturday is Bronze set speed, so we will aim for the maximum of 7mph. If all goes well, then we will put the pedal to the metal and aim for closer to 10 mph for the 25 on Sunday. She hasn't seen much hill work lately, but we did an awful lot of plowing through knee deep snow this winter. So it will be interesting to see how things go!
Regrettably, I am not going to Biltmore in early May for the endurance ride. But a whole bunch of my friends, including Lee, are planning to go. Lee wanted to see if her mare, Jazzy is ready for the 75, so she decided to ride two 20-mile loops this week.
Lee was cool with me and Luba joining her for the first loop, so I took the day off work. I wanted to see how Luba would do on her first long ride of the season. With 6 weeks of LSD under our belts, it was time to open up a bit. Aprilfest is a bust for us, so we have now set our sights on the 50 at Cayuse Canter on the May long weekend with a 6 mile ride n tie as a warm-up.
Wednesday was glorious. Sunny day with high of 12 C. Luba self-loaded and we arrived in Berwick with lots of time to get settled and tacked up. Christina/Keira joined us as well.
The trails were too soft, so we stuck to the roads and the old railway bed. Good company and good horses made short miles. I even managed to push Luba's heart rate into anaerobic zone at least once.
Around 17 miles, Luba seemed to prefer cantering to trotting, so I got worried about tie up and tried to keep her under wraps most of last few miles home. Turns out she was just fine. Lemonade pee back at the trailer. Still had gas in the tank and was none too happy to be left behind when Lee/Jazzy and Dessia/Parker set out for the second loop. She recovered to 64 within about 3 minutes and was at 44 when I checked her after the other horses were back on trail. All A's. Here are Lee's GPS tracks.
Luba ate and drank a bit on trail and when we got back, but not as much as I would have like to have seen at a vet check. About 45 minutes after arrival, she had a couple of big drinks and started tucking into her hay. So if this had been a real ride with only a 30 minute hold, maybe it would have been a good idea to stick around a bit longer until she started eating and drinking in earnest?
I experimented with an electrolyte from Omega Alpha called Equisel-Lyte. Luba got 25 cc of PnW in her breakfast as well as 60 cc of Ulcer Therapy Plus. She got three 50 cc scoops of Equisel-Lyte on trail and another 60 cc of Ulcer Therapy Plus, 25 cc of PnW and a dose of homemade BCAA at the end.
We hung out in the sunshine until the girls got back. All the horses looked great! The Friendly Neighbourhood Trimmer came by to buff up Luba's feet and it was time to go home.
No point and load on the way home. But after moving the partition off to the side and leading her on a couple of times, I was able to put the partition back and point her on for the trip home.
There's no place like home.
Oh yeah, and always wear sunscreen. I got a sunburn that makes it look like I am down a quart.
Especially if the amount of horse hair in my car is any indication.
We spent the month of March putting in as many long slow miles as we could. 74 to be exact. All of this on the same 2 miles of road and driveway, the half mile paddock track and the trails in the bush when the footing was good. And sometimes even when it was not so good. We are itching for some new scenery.
So I decided that it is time to tackle my bad karma for loading Luba in the trailer. I enlisted the some on-line help from Parelli trainee Kellie Sybersma. After about 2 weeks of almost daily practising without actually going anywhere, Luba is self-loading like a pro. I tried to take some video evidence of this last week, and she got on so fast, I barely had time to start the video :)
Today, my friend Andrea invited me to go to St. Lazare to ride the trails. Andrea has a lovely two-horse straight load Sundowner with a ramp. I figured with all the loading practice lately, that this would be a piece of cake.
However, Luba was of a different opinion. She would get her front feet on the ramp, but was worried about going all the way in. I kept my cool and we kept trying for about a half an hour before Uwe came to help us out.
His firm no-nonsense approach and some encouragement from me and my carrot stick behind got Luba convinced to load up into that metal cave on wheels. Backing out was a bit exciting, as she is not accustomed to a ramp. She kept expecting the big drop off. We loaded her 4 times and each time was less exciting.
The trip was uneventful. Both horses calmly unloaded and stood quietly tied to the trailer while we tacked up. Luba boldly led most of the way on the slushy, icy trails. The sun even made an appearance!
For the return trip, Luba let me lead her on the trailer without fuss. But Skye was not so keen. Luba stood quietly on the trailer while we all took turns trying to convince Skye to hop on. After a while, we unloaded Luba. This seemed to work, as Skye loaded, and then I again led Luba on.
What I learned today is that is it good to load your horse on as many different trailers as you can. Sometimes on the right stall. Sometimes on the left stall. Step-ups. Ramp loads. Slant loads. Rear facing. By themselves. With another horse. First to load. Second to load.
