Conditioning Ride 12-7-2010

Heart Rate: 36

HR Return: 48

HR 10 Min: 40

Miles: 13.6

Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes

Moving Average: 4 mph

Once again we took the dogs out to the steel bridge. My dogs were sure goofy after a day "off!" It's amazing how fast the rotten things recover. Although I must admit that they were less ridiculous than usual.

Hoss was more enthusiastic about this ride than the day before. He seems to be getting accustomed to this notion of going riding every day. I did have to park a little different than usual, which resulted in him having to move to let cars by. He doesn't like that too much, and boy was he giving me trouble about it! He did not want to move, and told me so. It's a little embarrassing when drivers of cars trying to get in and out of the staging area get to watch me shove and poke at my horse to get him to move out of their way.

Despite the frustration, we got saddled up and headed on down the trail. Hoss was much more energetic today. After two straight days of riding (three if you count zipping around the block) he was starting to perk up about the idea.

This was meant to be a somewhat faster ride. I wasn't looking for all-out run, but I wanted to get in some good trotting time on the flatter parts of this trail area. So this was a combination of heavy hill work and trotting work.

When we got out to an area where he could pick up the pace, I let Hoss have his head a bit and we trotted up to the base of our first heavy hill. He attacked the hill with a will and climbed with quite a bit of energy. He thinks he knows so much. He would aim himself at a section of trail and I'd have to correct him because, no, that's not the best way, even though it looks like it. See, there's a two foot drop off on the other side of those rocks, silly horse! He got a little huffy sometimes about me correcting him, but continued on cheerfully enough.

After we negotiated the SDG&E access road back to the trail down, we were heading down the more thrilling, steepest part of the trail when he decided he's had enough of being made to go over those nasty rocks! There's a place where really the only "good" place to go down is to step on this rather questionable looking rock and then off down about a foot of drop. Hoss isn't thrilled about this. He's convinced there's got to be a better way. Well, I can assure him there isn't. I've ridden that trail many times. All the better ways have been washed away! So he tried to turn around and go another way. We had to have a bit of a discussion, but he decided he'd let me have my way. This time….

Some further way down the trail, someone has built rather the oddest bridge I have ever encountered. I suspect it was built for the mountain bikers to use it as a jump. It sits between two rock outcroppings that are easily negotiable without the "bridge." This is at a slight, short downhill. The bridge connects the two rocks in such a way that the far end becomes a three foot drop off! It also manages to cut off the better of the two trails in that spot.

Hoss was not thrilled about the bridge. He'd gotten back to being energetic enough that he didn't just stop, he tried to spin! It didn't help that I was chatting on the phone at the time. I was able to prevent him from spinning and got him to stop and take a step toward the scary horrible new bridge before asking him to turn to the other trail and bypass the bridge. I have my doubts this little makeshift bridge is sturdy enough to take the weight of a horse!

Once we got to the flat open road, we set out at a nice trot, slowing only to negotiate a couple of wet areas. One of those areas has given us quite a bit of trouble. Some time ago, after some heavy rains, we had ridden here. When Hoss tried to cross the water, he sank into the mud past his knees! There's still dried mud on the back of my helmet from that adventure. We got to and crossed the cowboy gate and walked on up toward the gazebo.

While we were riding along the fence line, I noticed that the Canada geese are back. The Sweetwater Reservoir is a favorite layover for the Canada geese twice a year on their migration. There aren't as many there as there will be in the coming weeks, but it's kinda cool. I tried to get pictures, but really, I need to start carrying my digital camera. The one on my cell phone isn't good enough for this.

We walked most of the way up to the gazebo. It's not a terribly challenging trail most of the way. When you reach the foot of the hill where the gazebo is, though, it becomes quite steep and challenging. That's why I wanted to go that way.

Once we reached the gazebo, I let Hoss and the dogs stop for a rest. There is some nice grass growing on the hillside, so I let Hoss graze while the dogs laid in the shade and panted. I let everybody have about five minutes, then we set out again.

While we were heading along at a good clip, I spied a little motion. I soon recognized a coyote! This made me nervous. I've had a dog killed not far from there, so I was very worried about the three with me that day. Fortunately they were staying close by and listening. When Mac and Ash picked up the coyote's scent, I was able to call them off of it to follow. As we rode along, I realized there was a pair of coyotes. I watched those animals very carefully. I wasn't about to let them lure my dogs away! Fortunately one of the pair was not interested in us at all and led the other away.

We trotted again when we got back to the long flat road, this time doing more trotting, even in the muddy parts. I let Hoss walk for a bit of this area, dropping the reins on his neck and listening very carefully to the podcast I had on. It was very engrossing, an interview with the hold out on the Rod Blagojevich jury. So I didn't hear the bicyclist come up behind us. When he asked me if he could pass, it startled me just a little bit. Well, that was enough of an opening for Hoss! He tried to bolt. Laughing, I caught hold of the reins and stopped my not-even-remotely-frightened horse to let the bicycle by. Hoss was so not frightened he took the opportunity to graze.

While we were coming back in to the meadow, my daughter called to ask where we were. When I told her, she asked if we could have lunch. So after getting Hoss back to the trailer and cared for, I loaded the dogs and met her for lunch. We parked the truck and trailer right in front of the restaurant and sat at the window where we could see everybody. It was a lot of fun watching my dogs. To me, they look so cute and non-threatening. To people who don't know them, though, they look downright vicious! I'm pretty sure Ash was seeing us in the restaurant and knew it was us, too.