Biltmore Test Event

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.