Conditioning Ride 8-19-10 or Wow It’s Hot!

RHR: 36

HR on return: 56

HR at 10 min: 40

Distance: 9 mi

Average Speed: 4.5mph

Time: 2 hrs

Terrain: Easy to Moderate

This week has been bad for riding. It's just too hot! Too hot for me, too hot for the horse. The humidity has finally dropped some, down to something more southern California-ish. Still, I felt that it wasn't worth it to take Hoss out in the heat and humidity we were experiencing at this point in his conditioning. Next year, I'll be looking for horribly hot days to ride the heck out of him in, but not yet.

I headed out with Hoss and the dogs for a quick ride at Hollenbeck Canyon today. I was optimistic that we'd get a good amount of speed on this ride, as it's a generally easy area where we can go fast! We've finished this ride in about an hour and fifteen minutes in the past. But that was not to be today. It was HOT! It's been pretty brutal out here, not just 105 degrees or more, but relatively high humidity. But it wasn't on account of Hoss that we had to slow down. No, those two, black dogs were having a heck of a time on this ride. Several times they stopped in the shade and caught up with me later. I even had to stop and wait for them for about 10 minutes while they drank and cooled off. Hoss, however, was feeling fine and would've kept going at a good clip.

Hoss was in a good mood today, feeling really good in spite of the heat. He didn't even want a drink when it was available. He looked good, too. I just love it when I get him out of the pasture and he all but drags me to the trailer! Not a whole lot of high spirits, but he did decide that the weeds that have grown up in the middle of the trail in places are suspicious. Fortunately I've gotten much better at maneuvering him with my legs, and kept him from getting too silly. Again, I think it may have been a ruse to get to go faster. I didn't want to do a whole lot of cantering, as it was very hot and I don't want him to overdo it.

The positive behavior I was getting from Hoss is a good sign that he'll do well at a ride like Tevis. The temperatures over the course of the day can be in the 30s in the morning, up to 125 in the canyons during the day. So, he needs to be able to handle extreme changes in conditions. This year's ride was particularly humid, which is unusual.

I would really have liked to get my 6mph average on this ride, but it wasn't in the cards. Nothing to do with the trail, or with Hoss, but with a couple of dogs who were just too hot to keep up today!