All work & no play tomorrow then back to Versailles Saturday

I'm counting on Nicole and I getting together on Saturday. We will attempt to stretch Arabee up to 15 miles in distance, while I work at trying to keep Phebes in a sustained trot (maybe I should splint and tape my nose....foot ball helmet with face guard comes to mind). We are looking at the A loop X 2 this Saturday. If all is well we will spend a full five hours the next weekend and stretch the girls up to 20 miles of LSD doing XYZ loops + A loop. In the meantime I'll do hill work here at home in five mile sessions to continue building those slow twitch muscles. Since I'm only wanting a completion, I'm working as hard as I can away from cantering. It may not pan out on ride day, but nobody can claim I didn't give it my best try. What happens after The Chicken Chase will depend on how Phebes is that weekend. If she has metabolic issues because she won't take care of herself, I'll have to consider how to plan and fix that. If she blows it behaviorally then we will sit out the rest of the rides this summer and work on some lessons if I can find someone close. If not, I'll just do the best I can with her and continue to trail ride while encouraging a calm mind set to build her confidence while holding her base conditioning, and try the last two rides of the year. So we will see. Past my bedtime (yeah after 8:00 pm) have to get up about 4:30 in the morning, work, come home, let the dogs out, drive to Mom's, come back and get the horse ready to haul out next morning. To bed I go! ~E.G.