RHR: 40
HR on Return: 52
HR at 10 minutes: 40
Distance: Approximately 11 mi
Avg Speed: 5.5 mph
Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
As you may have already guessed by my approximation of the distance we went, I forgot to get batteries for my GPS again. Well, I got the batteries, but I left them in the truck. By the time I realized I hadn't installed them, I wasn't going to turn around to get them! We were riding at Hollenbeck Canyon, close to home, and an area I am well familiar with.
It can get a little wearing to ride in the same places over and over again. This is especially true if those places are small with limited trails. At the same time, familiar trails can feel like the miles go by faster. At Hollenbeck, the trail choices are limited, but it's possible to do different permutations of the same trails. On this ride, I happened to notice a trail that runs along a ridgeline that I'd never taken. I suspected I knew where it came out, so I decided to make my way around so that we could explore it.
We used the trails in our usual manner, running up a nice hill that's not too steep. Coming down through the back part, we flushed up four black-tailed deer. One of my dogs, Mac, was terribly interested but decided he was too tired to give chase. I feel like I'm beginning to get through to him on the whole don't-run-off-after-interesting-things idea. We continued on, and made the turn to come back to what I refer to as the shortcut trail. Shortly after making said turn, a coyote started hollering. And it was close! Very close. It couldn't have been more than 50 feet away. Fortunately both Ash and Mac have learned that coyotes are to be utterly ignored unless they're on home turf! We came back around, covering a mile or so of trail we had already done, and arrived at the junction to the ridgeline trail.
This trail was very interesting. It runs right along the ridge, bisecting the open-space area. It's a nice trail, neither too hilly nor too rocky. Coming off the ridge is a little thrilling, as it is steeper than I normally like, but Hoss handled it like a champ.
Then I lost the trail. I wasn't sure exactly where I was in relation to where I wanted to go. One of my faults is that my spatial relations ability is poor. I typically know where I want to go, but not always can I tell how I need to get there. My direction sense is fine, except that I don't know north, east, south, west to save my life. I can point out the way I want to go, almost without fail. This is one of the reasons I like to have a GPS unit. Having it makes it a whole lot easier to find my way. I did learn some rudimentary tracking skills from my father. I can track reasonably well. I have used that skill to track myself back to where I've been. The only time this skill failed me was riding for the first time in an area of heavy underbrush where the trails were riddled with horse tracks. It made it a great deal harder to find my own horse's tracks. The scenery was pretty much unchanging, too. One area looked just like another!
Back to this ride. Once I lost the trail, I had to make a decision. I had to decide which way I needed to go around the hill. I had passed a place I suspected might be the trail, but up the hill looked just as likely. So we headed up the hill. And, oh, my, what a hill! It was steep and the ground treacherously soft. I knew right away there would be no going back down that slope! Well, we reached the top, and there was no longer trail heading in the direction we needed to go. At this point I could see clearly where we were and which way we needed to go. Since I could see where we needed to go, I simply aimed Hoss toward the area we needed to go, and mostly allowed him to pick his own way. What a great horse. Nothing much bugs him. He pushed his way through any obstacle he came to. Hanging vines, tree branches, he just shoves it away and keeps going. I do have to pay attention, because he will walk right under things that I might not be able to make it through. He hasn't quite figured out that I'm higher than him. He has figured out that my legs stick out, and mostly pays enough attention to get us both through. This is probably due to getting his butt kicked every time he's rammed my knee into a post, rock, or tree.
We found our way back to the shortcut trail and made our way back to the trailer. I was very happy with this ride. Hoss was compliant and happy and go. I did bit him up for this ride, but I don't think I ever really used it. I was truly pleased with his heart rate when we got back to the trailer. If he can come into vet checks at endurance rides with a nice, low heart rate like that, we'll be on easy street! One of his challenges has been that he doesn't come in down, and it takes up to ten minutes for him to come down. Interestingly, he's more likely to have a high heart rate and come down slowly the shorter the distance between vet checks. When we ride at home, usually about 3 miles, he's typically breathing hard and his heart rate is high when we come back, and it takes longer for his heart rate to come down than when we ride, say, 11 or 12 miles at the same average speed. I think this is starting to change. At ten minutes on this ride, his heart rate was back down to match his resting heart rate when we started. That's a very nice thing!
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