Looking at the Numbers

This evening I spent a little time in our hard packed grassy arena doing very brief intervals of straight line cantering.  The distance all the way around this thing is only one tenth of a mile...so not much room to work.  So I chose one side of it which is one twentieth of a mile (woo hoo).  But it is a starting place, and the point wasn't actually distance at all tonight but to get a clear average of what her working canter would be on the flat.  Here are the numbers from about twenty mini intervals:

 

Max Speed
10.6
9.6
9.7
9.3
9.9
9.8
9.6
9.6
9.4
9.5
9.3
9.6
9.9
9.3
10.1
10.1
9.4
10.2
10.1
9.9
9.7
9.7
10.1

 Journey ended up doing a half mile of cantering, broken into these little mini-segments.  It is at least a start.  The next time we will trot the interim (this time we walked).  When that is working well, we will take it onto the trail and try to lengthen those segments gradually until we can string them together to get a 1/4 mile interval in each lap.  I have a place in mind but the grassy road needs mowed to assure we won't go stepping into a hole.  Someone's tilled up field would be optimal, but getting anyone to let you in a world of litigation is unlikely.  There is also a buggy racing track in town.  I'm not sure if I could rent the use of it for that type of work, but worth checking into.  Best shot is the grassy road that pulls gradually up into the woods.  I think I can get a 1/4 mile there okay, and it is free.

As far as her behavior she was good.  Gave me mare ears when I asked for a few extra strides past her quitting zone.  She thought about dropping her head to possibly buck once, but I checked that with the reins and that was the end of it.

  I know we can't accomplish the goal  by TOR, but it gives me something to work towards by the end of the year.  The whole summer may be over time.  I hate to have that on Journey's ride record.  So if TOR becomes another training ride, we may have to shoot for a September ride next and just work on speeding up the rest of the summer. It definitely hinges on our ability to canter a few of the flats... We'll see.  

Anyone going to TOR?