Conditioning Ride 5-20-2011

HR: 36

HRR: 56

HR 10 Min: 44

Miles: 8.75

Moving Average: 4.1mph

Time: 2 hrs, 13 min

I really hate it when I get this far behind on the blog. I forget the details of what we did! This was a ride at Hollenbeck Canyon. That we ride there frequently lends to the tendency to forget what we did.

Since the loss of the Easyboot, Hoss has had little option but to go barefoot. Okay, I could shoe him. But I promised myself I'd give this a year before I re-evaluate. I still haven't been able to get him hind boots. That's been due to unexpected expenses that keep cropping up on us. He's getting less footsore, but I can tell he'd be happier with hoof protection.

The idea on this ride was to get some speed going. While we got some, Hoss didn't really want to move out very quickly. The ground is hard and there are a lot of rocks. Still, I pushed him enough to get some speed, but I mostly allowed him to walk.

It's getting close to the Descanso endurance ride. At this point, there's not a whole lot of conditioning we could gain. There's not a whole lot of point to pushing particularly hard. Keeping him going is a good thing, but pushing him won't gain us anything between now and Descanso.

One of my interesting observations is, as soon as we turn back toward the trailer, Hoss suddenly discovers his feet don't hurt quite as bad as he was telling me. Hoss has always been a bit of a sandbagger. His preferred avoidance is what I like to call, "anything but forward." Our motion may be primarily in a forward direction, but he's not moving in a forward manner. I've developed a strong ability to feel when he's on his forehand or otherwise doing the "anything but forward" thing. Now I've started correcting him immediately upon noting he's doing it. It's started to work. Of course, now he's starting to figure out "my feet hurt" may be just as good an avoidance!

It was a pleasant and uneventful ride. There was one incident toward the end of the ride. Three riders were heading the opposite direction. Once we were nearly passed them, Hoss spooked. I was a little exasperated, but I found it a little funny and laughed at him. Hoss is not a fan of being laughed at. He spent the rest of the ride (all one mile of it) actually behaving himself.