The hay is in the barn - Take 3

Three more sleeps until Team Luba leaves for Vermont. This will be our third attempt at completing a 100 mile ride.

Luba and I started riding 50s in 2009 when she was 6. We have completed three 75s - one each year since 2011.  But that 100 mile completion has been elusive.  Third time's a charm?

What I learned from our Pine Tree 100 attempt is that I need to ride my horse every other day once she is fit. The trip to Florida for NAETC taught me loads about how to manage my horse when travelling long distances.  I am sure Vermont 100 will teach me something too, I just hope that it also involves learning how to wear a belt buckle ;)

Vermont 100 endurance ride sees both riders and ultra marathoners sharing the trail. It is my favourite ride of all time for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the cheering crowds along the trail!

Coming off the Stormont 50 where Luba finished feeling good with lots of gas in the tank (HVS and BC to boot!) we are both feeling fit and ready to attack the hills of Vermont.

Team Luba

Starring Luba aka Serious Moonlight (Earl Grey X Crown Serazzima) 2003 grey Arabian mare

Photo by K. Somerville

Supporting cast

Nancy Grayhorse - rider trying not to get in Luba's way too much on trail

VT100 Crew - Deanna and Veronica

Teacher - Sonja Koch of Horses of the Sun and Super Uwe who can fix anything and Heidi who rides Luba for me when I am away.

Navan Veterinary Services - especially Dr. Jenn Hubbard

Mike's Performance Hooves for expert trimming and gluing of Renegade hoof boots!

Look how young and rosy Luba is in this picture! Mike gluing on Renegades for the first time before heading to a  mileage ride at Seoul's Corners, Sharbot Lake, Ontario in 2009.

Mike also produces great meat, eggs and honey in his spare time at Roadapple Ranch.

Renegade Hoof Boots - always there to support us with their great products - boots and saddle bags.

The 4th Gear - Power up your Endurance Horse The Summers have great advice. If you are a distance rider, this will be the BEST $9 you ever spent. Buy it now!

And last but definitely not least, my family........

photo: J. Griffin-Scott

.... and my endurance family! You know who you are. Thanks for being the best cheering section anyone could ask for!  Always there to offer a word of support and advice.

Now I am off to ride Luba. Riding first, packing second. Giddy-up!

Riding is hard work

Luba and I have been too busy riding to do much blogging. Hooray for us!

After a bubble-wrap 55 at Cayuse Canter on the May long weekend, we have been preparing for the Vermont 100.

Next stop is a depletion 50 miler at the Stormont ride on June 29.   We went to pre-ride the Stormont trails on Sunday with Denise/Gem. Lovely kind of hack that we used to do every Monday morning.  Luba trailered over and back without any fuss and babysat Gem who was on his best behaviour. She likes him. No mare ears at all! Wish I had brought my phone. All I have to show for it is the GPS tracks and lots of great memories, like the picture in my mind's eye of Gem and Denise softly cantering down MacMillan road....

I headed to the farm for an early morning workout this morning.  Here is Luba all tacked up and ready to ride the driveway in her Renegades! Plus got some cool shadow shots.

Apparently, this was very hard work! Uwe sent me these great shots of Sera and Luba sleeping with MissT keeping watch. 

I love my horses 

These heads are heavy...

All work... no rest.... must stay awake...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Cruise and recover

A few people lately have asked me how I use the heart rate monitor on my horse.

I have found it to be a useful training tool to get to know your horse. I use it a lot at the beginning of the season, so I have another source of info to know how fit my horse is after having the winter off.

However, it is just a tool. Sometimes it gives wonky readings. Sometimes it will make you worry when there is nothing to worry about.  So this is why I don't usually use it in competition. Too much information! I would rather just enjoy the ride.

My goal today was to do steady trotting at about 8 mph or 13 km/h for about an hour and get some readings. We did not do any cantering -  only a bit of walk to warm up and a bit more to cool down.  This ride happened about an hour after our group lesson in the sand ring, so it was a bit like riding a loop, having a hold and riding again.

Carousel group lesson by nancyzed at Garmin Connect - Details

Luba trots effortlessly at about 8-9 mph with a heart rate of between 110 and 120. This is what I call her cruise control. She could go all day long at this speed. As you learn to rate your horse, your heart rate monitor will help you to figure out your horse's cruise control at trot and eventually at canter. Every horse is different.

You can also figure this out by just riding and being aware of that sweet spot when you and your horse are in the zone and everything is smooth and easy and you could go all day long.

But most importantly, a heart rate monitor lets you know how quickly your horse recovers.  You can also do this with a stethoscope, but unless you are incredibly flexible, you would have to dismount ;)

Luba was on cruise control today, riding up an down the lane way in the drizzling rain. We stopped after about a half an hour to help Charlotte untack Sera, and her heart rate fell to 64 in under a minute. We continued on for another half an hour and when we stopped, she recovered to 64 in less than a minute. This is good.

So cardiovascularly, this was not a hard ride for her.  Neither was the hour-long ride in the sand ring. But it is all important stuff early in the season. Make sure her brain, feet and legs are just as ready to go as her heart and lungs.  The cardio fitness is relatively easy to put on your horse. The soft tissue between the ears and toughening up the feet and legs takes more time.

Steady trot, steady drizzle by nancyzed at Garmin Connect - Details

And here are some random spring pictures from cool down on the lane way...

budding leaves

pussy willows

fiddleheads

If a tree falls in the forest....

...does anybody hear?  Luba does :)

The rain finally stopped so I headed out to do some canter intervals this evening. Luba stood stock still while I strapped on her Renegades and tacked up. She is happy to be back in work.

Sera wanted to come along. She called out and cantered and trotted up and down the length of the paddock until Luba and I turned the corner to go down the rest of the lane way to Forced Road. After a brutal winter, the old lady is starting to put on some weight again with the green grass and warmer weather.

All is going well, until on our way back on the 3rd interval, when I hear a strange cracking sound from the bush. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I see a big tree starting to fall towards us!

We were already cantering and Luba did a righteous bolt into the 4th Gear!  According to my GPS, we hit 18.2 mph.

Giddy up!

The Tree

On the road again

Last weekend marked the start of Luba's spring training in preparation for the Vermont 100. We spent the weekend in Millbrook and had a couple of great rides in the Ganny with Chrystal, Deanna, Bob and Michelle.
Chrystalfest by nancyzed at Garmin Connect - Details

The trip was uneventful. Luba loaded without any hesitation and travelled like a horse that has been to Florida and back. She even pooped on the trailer.

Now that it is light until nearly 8pm, I am back on the regular Wednesday night ride schedule, working to have Luba ready for a 50 on the May long weekend at Cayuse Canter.

After spending the whole day today in a stuffy conference room and eating too many donuts and biscuits, I was in need of some farm time.  On top of everything, there is only one month until the Ottawa Half Marathon and I have seriously fallen off the running wagon.

So I put on my runners, strapped a pair of Renegades on Luba's front feet and we headed down Forced Road.
Run with Luba by nancyzed at Garmin Connect - Details

Feels good to be back on the road again.

Kick to go and pull to stop and the sound of one hand clapping

This is how lots of us learned how to ride. Kick the horse to go and pull on the reins to stop.

Uwe cleared the snow out of the sand ring for riding season which begins in April at Horses of the Sun.  The inaugural group lesson of 2014 was on April 6.

Luba has a love/hate relationship with the sand ring. Boogey men (and geldings) live in the far end which borders on the grove (See Safe in the Circle).  And we there was still so much snow, we had to ride through the geldings' paddock to get into the sand ring.

I debated about hand walking Luba through the paddock and into the ring, but everyone else was mounted up, so I just rode on in.

Luba was fine. We had an easy first lesson of the season, walk, trot canter (first cantering since January 5, but hey, who's counting?). All the horses had some spring fever, so Sonja told us to ride like we mean it.  Ride your horse straight. Ride the top line. Ride into the corners. It is the first ride of the year, so start off the way you mean to continue. Use some energy to go forward and let the rest go.

I got a few bucks in the first canter or two, but nothing that I couldn't handle. And she even managed to pick up her left leads.  Bucking in the canter is an old trick. It doesn't scare me anymore, so the novelty soon wore off for Luba and we had a lovely ride.

Next trick - Where's my mother?????!!!? We encountered Charlotte riding Sera leading a group of beginners down the lane way while we were cooling out. Luba screamed out to her mother, who was unimpressed by her grown daughter's lack of composure and barely looked at her, so great was her disdain. I kept calm and carried on and soon the novelty wore off for Luba.

Fast forward to this weekend. I put Luba's Renegades on and we went up and down the driveway ad nauseum. I focused on sitting. Really being connected through my seat. Using my manipura chakra (solar plexus) to rate Luba. Lots of sitting trot. Leg yielding from one side of the road to the other. We had a lovely ride. Luba seemed to appreciate me getting out of her face. Letting the energy move forward and then catch it gently with my hands and give it back softly.

This seems so simple but it is the hardest thing in the world to do when you learned to ride by kicking to make the horse go and pulling on the reins to make the horse stop. And when it happens, it is magical.

Today, Charlotte and I took the mother/daughter into the sand ring for a walk and some quiet time. Sera was with the program, but Luba had other ideas. Acck! The sand ring! OMG shadows! I can't go to the scary corners near the grove! Even using Sera as a shield was not working.

After about a half an hour, I gave up (and I was getting pissed off so my inner Hulk was awakening). Charlotte put Sera away and I grabbed a lunge line and brought Luba back into the sand ring. By this time, I had calmed down. Luba, however, still had a bee in her bonnet.

She started cantering right away and bucked up a storm for what was probably only a few minutes, but which felt much longer. I just let her buck, but kept moving her forward on the lunge line. Soon, she was walking and trotting calm circles in the scary end of the ring and we were walking calmly around the whole school.  I got on, and she tried to shy away from the side of the ring.  I pretended that I didn't care, sat deep and pushed her forward. Oh, say, it is so much less fun when you don't fight back.

The wonderful sound of one hand clapping, hey Luba?

I put her away and spent the afternoon cleaning and pressure washing the trailer. Then Luba loaded on without any hesitation and started to eat supper.

Hallelujah!

Then suddenly she realized she was on the trailer. She started to tremble and stopped eating. I stayed with her, but left her on for about 10 minutes. Then she calmly unloaded and finished her supper beside the trailer and went for a big drink.

Me too when I got home.

not fast, just steady

en·dure

enˈd(y)o͝or/

verb

verb: endure; 3rd person present: endures; past tense: endured; past participle:endured; gerund or present participle: enduring

1. 1.

   suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently.

   "it seemed impossible that anyone could endure such pain"

   synonyms:

   undergo, go through, live through, experience, meet, encounter; More

2. 2.

   remain in existence; last.

   "these cities have endured through time"

   synonyms:

   last, live, live on, go on, survive, abide, continue, persist, persevere,remain, stay More

   antonyms:

   fade, short-lived

You can't change the weather. Spring follows winter. This too will pass.

This was my mantra for the past 3 months. And I was one of the lucky ones who escaped to warmer climes. Running in the Ragnar Relay in Arizona in February gave me a fitness goal, but I have fallen off the wagon since Spring Break. Spring snow storms sent me diving back under the covers on Saturday mornings as I abandoned the running club. The snow never really froze to the ice and the horses have been landlocked in the paddock since January so no real riding to speak of.  Woe is me!

So March goes out like a lamb. The snow is melting fast and spring has sprung. So why am I still enduring?

Yesterday morning, I saw an old man running. Not fast, just steady. Reminded me of my Gedo. No, he wasn't a runner. He was a storekeeper in Lenswood, Manitoba. He got up every morning and went next door to open the store. Sweep the floor. Stock the shelves. Serve the customers. He did this for over 50 years. Not fast, just steady. 

Today I decided to embrace Spring. Got home from work, put on my runners, put a leash on Karma and headed out the door.  We ran 2 miles in the hood. Not fast, just steady.

This is my strategy for riding the Vermont 100 this year. Not fast, just steady. Make haste slowly. And the gods willing, get around with a happy horse!