Monday, September 24, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Making a Comeback
Alright, I'll be honest....dropped off the radar here for a bit. So I'm trying to make a comeback and get better about updating this thing. My cousin started his own blog recently (pretty much about his random thoughts), so I figure if HE can do it, I can do it.
General updates: This season, my focus has been on a few things. I bought my first horse, Fine Ali Bey, in February 2012. She is adorable and has been super-easy to bring along. Her breeding is a mix of Crabbit, Polish, Spanish, and Egyptian. She's very small, maybe 14'2'' and delicate so I've been bringing her along very slowly so as not to hurt her growth or cause an injury. Recently we've put her and Helo on rice bran along with their normal food to try and bulk them up a bit. She carries me no problem, would just like to see a little more on her especially as the weather cools off. My first ride with her will hopefully be Fort Valley in October.
Helo has had a bit of a trying year. He started very well, but also began to get nervous traveling to rides and not holding weight well. Pretty sure he was developing some ulcers. He also came up off of Foxcatcher with a Fistulous Wither, so he's been pretty much left alone these past 6 months. Sarah (his owner) has been slowly bringing him back. His back needs to build up some muscle again and we've got him on rice bran with Ali. He seems very relaxed and happy to be back out on trail with a job again. She and I have both switched to Specialized Saddles; it's the only treed saddle out there that you can adjust with your horses back as it changes. Helo has a weirdly prominent wither that comes back very far; Sarah tried a multitude of different saddles and liked this one the best. Of the other saddles, she felt closest and most secure in this one, and we knew for a FACT that it would stay off his spine (you can see down the entire channel from butt to wither). For my switch, Helo wasn't the only horse I had problems with. I also had pressure points with Kricket (Farah's Testamony) and Ali also got a bad wither rub, even after I purchased an Equipedic pad to help bolster support for them. So I went Specialized, having used it before and loved it. I'm very happy I made the switch; these saddles are great and I will be able to change and customize the fit as she grows and changes fairly easily. For anyone that's interested, their website is www.specializedsaddles.com. You can also order them through Global Endurance (www.globalendurance.com); Christoph and Dian are dealers and can help answer any questions you have.
Kricket has been having an awesome year! Amy is still focusing a lot on Remington, so she let me bring Kricket along for her to get her mileage for National Championships at Biltmore next week. Then in a surprise move back in February, Amy said I could take her! So I'll be racing down in Asheville in TEN DAYS!!!! So excited, and stressed. We're going to be letting Kricket put some speed on and just see where she places; not going to be pushing for a top spot but would like to be in the upper end of the pack. Amy has told me that if I go faster than 6:30 she will kill me. Of course, she also said if I lose in a race-off she'll kill me (we practiced, I clocked Kricket at 27MPH and she still had a gear or two left). So we'll just have to see how the day goes.
Speaking of Champions...Heather and Jeremy both went to the World Championships in London this year! Not to be confused with the Olympics (endurance is not yet an Olympic Sport), the WEC is definitely a big deal. The US Team placed 4th, finishing 4 out of 5 starters. This is a great showing for them and they went super-fast! We are all very proud of our team. You can read about their experience on Heather's blog here.
That's all I have for now. Tonight is Sandy Point night with what I am informally calling the Central Southeastern Virginia Endurance Team (ie pretty much all of us not up in the mountains). Sarah and I are going with Helo and Ali, and we'll be bringing Sarah's daughters on their ponies Aleah and Silver. Will be posting some Garmin Reports on training routes here. I'm registering Ali with AHA and am going to be looking at the different types of competitions they have (one is recording training mileage so I have to be better about that habit). Stay tuned.
Alright, I'll be honest....dropped off the radar here for a bit. So I'm trying to make a comeback and get better about updating this thing. My cousin started his own blog recently (pretty much about his random thoughts), so I figure if HE can do it, I can do it.
General updates: This season, my focus has been on a few things. I bought my first horse, Fine Ali Bey, in February 2012. She is adorable and has been super-easy to bring along. Her breeding is a mix of Crabbit, Polish, Spanish, and Egyptian. She's very small, maybe 14'2'' and delicate so I've been bringing her along very slowly so as not to hurt her growth or cause an injury. Recently we've put her and Helo on rice bran along with their normal food to try and bulk them up a bit. She carries me no problem, would just like to see a little more on her especially as the weather cools off. My first ride with her will hopefully be Fort Valley in October.
Helo has had a bit of a trying year. He started very well, but also began to get nervous traveling to rides and not holding weight well. Pretty sure he was developing some ulcers. He also came up off of Foxcatcher with a Fistulous Wither, so he's been pretty much left alone these past 6 months. Sarah (his owner) has been slowly bringing him back. His back needs to build up some muscle again and we've got him on rice bran with Ali. He seems very relaxed and happy to be back out on trail with a job again. She and I have both switched to Specialized Saddles; it's the only treed saddle out there that you can adjust with your horses back as it changes. Helo has a weirdly prominent wither that comes back very far; Sarah tried a multitude of different saddles and liked this one the best. Of the other saddles, she felt closest and most secure in this one, and we knew for a FACT that it would stay off his spine (you can see down the entire channel from butt to wither). For my switch, Helo wasn't the only horse I had problems with. I also had pressure points with Kricket (Farah's Testamony) and Ali also got a bad wither rub, even after I purchased an Equipedic pad to help bolster support for them. So I went Specialized, having used it before and loved it. I'm very happy I made the switch; these saddles are great and I will be able to change and customize the fit as she grows and changes fairly easily. For anyone that's interested, their website is www.specializedsaddles.com. You can also order them through Global Endurance (www.globalendurance.com); Christoph and Dian are dealers and can help answer any questions you have.
Kricket has been having an awesome year! Amy is still focusing a lot on Remington, so she let me bring Kricket along for her to get her mileage for National Championships at Biltmore next week. Then in a surprise move back in February, Amy said I could take her! So I'll be racing down in Asheville in TEN DAYS!!!! So excited, and stressed. We're going to be letting Kricket put some speed on and just see where she places; not going to be pushing for a top spot but would like to be in the upper end of the pack. Amy has told me that if I go faster than 6:30 she will kill me. Of course, she also said if I lose in a race-off she'll kill me (we practiced, I clocked Kricket at 27MPH and she still had a gear or two left). So we'll just have to see how the day goes.
Speaking of Champions...Heather and Jeremy both went to the World Championships in London this year! Not to be confused with the Olympics (endurance is not yet an Olympic Sport), the WEC is definitely a big deal. The US Team placed 4th, finishing 4 out of 5 starters. This is a great showing for them and they went super-fast! We are all very proud of our team. You can read about their experience on Heather's blog here.
That's all I have for now. Tonight is Sandy Point night with what I am informally calling the Central Southeastern Virginia Endurance Team (ie pretty much all of us not up in the mountains). Sarah and I are going with Helo and Ali, and we'll be bringing Sarah's daughters on their ponies Aleah and Silver. Will be posting some Garmin Reports on training routes here. I'm registering Ali with AHA and am going to be looking at the different types of competitions they have (one is recording training mileage so I have to be better about that habit). Stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
