Idaho's sugar beet harvest is in full swing. Our country roads roar with loaded trucks. The fields are dotted with migrant workers, tractors, and bizarre machinery that chatters and clangs from dawn 'til dusk. Fallen produce litters the roadsides. It all adds up to a very ...um... confidence-building environment for green horses.
Saturday morning, I took Acey out in hand. She looked impossibly cute in my Stonewall saddle and Indian bosal, her wee bay ears flickering amid a great billow of forelock.
We walked and trotted along the road, returning waves and smiles from the Mexican workers. A pair of women paused to ask whether I was trying to make the horse tired. I explained that I was mentally preparing Acey to be ridden out in the great, wide world. Jogging away with my little mare, I called back, "But it's certainly tiring me out!"After riding Acey in the round corral and taking a quick lunch break, I saddled Consolation for the first ride that appears in her new endurance conditioning log (see sidebar). Our fourth mile saw us trotting along the same field. The workers waved again, grinning.
Two hours later, Aaruba and I flashed by on the last of thirteen miles, during which we averaged a blazing (for us) 10 mph. The workers had reached the far side of the field by then, but I swear I heard them laugh and holler. I just shook my head and cantered on. Yes, it's me -- the crazy lady, passing yet again with a taller, greyer, faster horse.
On Sunday, we repeated the drill, except that Aaruba and I swapped our sweaty workout for an hour's hack along the irrigation canal, enjoying a ravishing sunset and periodic stops to mow down clumps of autumn grass.
Exhausted I may be, but I'll never get tired of this.
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6 comments:
Sounds like fun!
Sounds like a more perfect Saturday couldn't have been had!
Elly
It was a blast! :-) Oh, to hold onto autumn forever...
So when I get back in the saddle in November and it's a struggle to get around the arena after fifteen minutes, I'm going to think of you and kick on. What an example you are.
Maira will be in great shape, and I will, uh, not be. I wish there was a conditioning program (on horseback) for humans. I'd like something to follow religiously, that I can't weasel out of.
I wonder if your conditioning schedule can be applied to older, overweight and out-of-shape women with disk problems?
I'm going to have to paste a photo of you and one of your horses on my pommel for moral support.
Oh I can related to all the fun of it! Acey is a beautiful horse! Is she a Barb too, or an Arab?
Kim (EH) -- Yikes! That's a lot to live up to! I'm sure I can find you a photo in which my leg is out of position, or my wrist is overbent, or I'm making some other obvious error. Just for moral support, you know? ;-)
Esther -- Thanks :-) Alternating Current (Acey) is a Barb out of Chiripa by Marawooti, who goes back through Jesse James and Eliza Jane to Doby, Blue Corn, Wyoming Kid, Yellow Fox, Sooner, etc. Chiripa's side goes back to horses like Scarface, Coche II, Smoke Balleau, Sourther Pride, and Cricket.
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