May 18, 2012
The Spotted Wonder's Vacation Ends Today
We have thirteen days between now and Top of the Rock. Though I've ridden the Clark State Forest a handful and a half amount of times, this time it will be different. The tornado that went through there has caused the trails to be rerouted, which I'm assuming we will be using some trail that normally we have not. Someone said there will be "out and backs" rather than loops. Don't know if that is true or not, but I do know Journey has not experienced hills like those before. We have a lot of hills here but they are steep up and downs without any long climbs, kind of "mole hills." Clark has long climbs of about a thousand feet or so which is a big hill by our standard. Nothing to you folks living out west, or in the Appalachian chain. At any rate I expect Journey's eyes to bug out ,her tongue to hang from her mouth, and for my fat fanny to be hiking down some hills on foot. Journey is like a kamikaze pilot on a steep downhill. She is taking a dive and she doesn't much care into what! I suppose she will eventually figure that out, but right now my chances of survival on a steep downhill is better on foot. If it is muddy steep downhills, ya' all can come sing hymns over us when the worst of the crying is over. (okay a little over-dramatic) (maybe...). If horses will share the same out and backs she is going to have a whole lot more commotion going on in front of and much worse behind her. I'm just kind of mentally bracing myself up here. Going into the last ride I had a reasonable amount of confidence that we could finish. That it would be "close" but we'd likely manage. I'm still kind of reeling from it actually (I know I said I'd move on) (I'm moving...I'm just not moving away from it as fast as I had hoped) (it sucked) (it really did). So now my confidence has been again laid low into the endurance gutter. I have not been riding my horse. Have been "thinking" about riding my horse. But not riding my horse. So thirteen days to go I'd better start wiggling her around if I'm going to bother going, and cleaning my horse trailer out from the last adventure might be a good idea as well. So this afternoon I suppose we shall go climb and descend some hills if I can make my feet walk across the driveway to retrieve my horse. ~E.G.
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Oh, I am so sorry your confidence is shaken.I would bet I know a little about how your feeling. You might remember but I pulled JB out of his first2 attempts at rides... and almost his third.. and it did suck.. it totally sucked. I remember feeling like I was totally in over my head,he was too slow(I guarantee he is slower than you girl!) and I was ready to throw in the towel. But I entered that last ride and we knew right off we were in way over our condition level (even though the ride manager had guaranteed me that it was not hilly or very challenging) To give you an idea of how bad it was, the lady I went over with had done the Tevis twice. She struggled on her horse who was quite fit and felt that the terrain and footing were atleast as challenging as some spots it the Tevis. It was a rough ride for JB and I but he pulled through what seemed like the impossible. We conquered hills we were not ready for but he did it, and with smart riding and management on my part. So, my advice to you (unsolicited maybe!) is give your girl the benefit of the doubt. She isn't as delicate as you might believe.. she might jsut surprise you.. like JB did for me..good luck ... hang in there and hold your head high..you'll get through it..
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonna...we are trying. Journey was full of energy when I rode her last night on hills.
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