Journey has been kind of stuck for a few weeks. Plodding along, getting the job more or less done, but not gaining any ground either. So we had a long slow distance day of 25 miles almost entirely sustained trotting, two days off, then a hill session at the trot that was only an hour long, but had her dripping sweat and blowing for air, two more days off. Yesterday we went out to repeat the hill session and I expected a tired horse. Surprise...surprise! The Spotted Wonder was running on rocket fuel. Trotting bare hooved at 8, 9, and finally 10 mph for short bursts. So I know that underlying all that "I can barely lift one hoof above another" the potential of a horse that moves is under there if I can become smart enough to bring it out in her. If I can get that working it will allow her the luxury to walk up hills on a ride without sending her over-time. I increased her hill session by ten minutes yesterday, and the next one will go another ten...I'll keep creeping until we can complete two hours of hills. Our hill training really could be defined as interval training since we don't have a hill long enough to qualify as a true hill, or sustain heart rate >180 for more than a half minute when you are nearing the top. Our first session she walked the hills in the 140's, the next time we trotted in the 170's, and yesterday we finally hit the 180's by cantering part of the hill. We walk back down, rinse, and repeat. It is what we have, and the best I could come up with, though not ideal...I'm seeing some improvement.
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