July 18, 2009

Deam Wilderness Area / Blackwell

It was a fantastic day to be out on my horse. Chris Eickleberry and Stacie Johnson met me at the trail head and we covered 15 miles at an intermittent trotting and walking pace. I was a little worried about our first group sojourn since that is what creates most of her behavioral melt-downs. The first couple of minutes were a little sticky, though not so dangerous as rides past. She then settled down and followed in either second or third position for most of the day. She didn't break gait!!! We had "mare ears" a few times, but otherwise she was a good girl. She had plenty of impulsion following, not so much leading. She drank at the first water stop, and later she drank out of her bucket at the trailer for the VERY FIRST TIME! I'm sure Chris thought I'd lost my mind as I'm in the trailer doing my little happy dance and pointing at Phebes. She urinated three times and it was the right color. She also walked into Lake Monroe which was very brave, she has never seen a large body of water before, but she was not sure about the little waves coming in, and was not about to drink of it.

So the WORK IN PROGRESS SCORE:

Work ethic = A

Impulsion = B (great following , hesitant leading)

Pulse = A (two minute pulse to criteria after 15 miles)

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like it went well. Good for you guys!

    Michelle Detmer

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  2. Glad the hear things are looking up for you both. What a great way to spend your day! Do you plan on attending another ride before the end of the season?

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  3. Sounds like you had a great ride. I'm sorry I missed it. I am really looking forward to meeting and riding with you some day. I've been enjoying your blogs and I am sure I will learn a lot from reading them!

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  4. Lida,

    Be sure and check out some of the links, lots of good info there. Also my favorite blogs have some good stuff in their archives especially. Karen Chaton(Karen's Endurance Musings) and Tamara Baysinger(The Barb Wire)inparticular have really informative blogs. Karen is well known for her barefoot endeavors, and knows more about booting than just about any other resource out there, because she's done it! Tamara's blog is very well written, and covers a broad area of topics related to her horses, distance riding, and endurance fitness for the rider.

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