Rainy and icy cold this morning. I'm off to work soon and Phebes will have today off. If weather cooperates I'm hoping for a ride on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Hoping for a 5 mile, 7.5 mile, and a 12 mile. That would get her on track for a conditioning schedule for her first 25 mile ride...maybe in the spring or early summer. We'll see how it goes. It was suggested that I point her to 50 miles from the outset. Even if she was ready, I have doubts of my physical ability to hold up to that distance.
I'm going to try to look at problems as training opportunities in the future. It is so easy to get mired down in the dag-gone-horse blues that you become stagnant. With Phebes it seems one must look outside the box, and sometimes the solution is as simple as just getting off and giving her time to digest her surroundings before her flight instinct becomes overwhelming. She certainly suprised me over the weekend. She did a nice little 12 mile and was in no way fatigued, plenty of horse left to go again had I wanted to. That was very gratifying.
My LSEGH (long suffering endurance granny husband) ordered Phebes an extra-wide tree endurance saddle from Crestridge Saddlery this week. They are making her one on a J bar tree that flares appropriately at the shoulder for the arabian horse. The treeless which worked lovely for her, just rubbed me the "wrong" way. Hoping that saddle #4 will be the last one. I had hoped the treeless would be the answer. I felt very secure in it, her sweat patterns were perfect, and every time I used it I couldn't walk right for about five days from the rubbing. Probably my riding style leaves something to be desired...~E.G.
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