Conditioning Ride 5-5-11

I finally made it up to Laguna Mountain Recreational Area! It was the first time I've ever been there. I have always heard wonderful things about the area, but had never had the opportunity to get up there.

I loaded Hoss up early in the morning, along with his breakfast. Being a Thursday, I had to first go to my physical therapy appointment. Parking there is entertaining. There are several shady spaces, but they are highly sought after. On this particular day, there was but one shady area left. I had to pull in and back up to put Hoss under the tree.

I got through my physical therapy appointment. My physical therapist is very happy with my progress. She says I'm farther along than she would expect at this point. From my own perspective, if this is as far as I got in terms of range, it would be satisfactory. Yes, it would be great to get better than this, but I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't get further.

The Laguna Mountain Recreation Area requires a pass. I stopped at a store to pick up a pass and a map. I'd been told the map for the area is pretty poor, but I figured a map with basic identifiers was better than nothing. I asked the guy running the store where was a good place to park, and he indicated a place on the map.

I parked in a turnout at the trail head for Penny Pines. Once I saddled up and put Hoss's front boots on, I led him across the highway and onto the trails.

We started on Noble Canyon Trail. My plan after looking over the map was to head down Noble Canyon to Big Laguna Trail. Unfortunately I missed the turnoff. I wound up riding quite a way down Noble Canyon before I realized I must have missed the turn. Looking at the map, I thought it must be far longer than it was. So I wound up turning around and heading back until I found the turnoff I was looking for.

While I was riding along, I was making a point of marking waypoints. I even remembered to mark the trailhead where the trailer was parked. It would certainly have made finding my way back had I gotten lost quite a bit easier. I really need to get in the habit of marking waypoints on the GPS.

We found the junction to a trail to Big Laguna. Coming along this trail, we came to a gate. What I would think usually would be a cowboy gate (a short gate at the top with a low bar across the bottom to prevent motorized vehicles from entering the trail) was placed a small bridge. It was obviously not suited to horses. Aside from being made from far to light wood, the planks were spaced, which would fool Hoss's eye into seeing a hole rather than a bridge. It's the same principle as cattle guards.

Next to the mini-bridge is a different type of gate. It is constructed of wire. This one uses a T-post to close the gate to the stud. There is a wire wrapped around the T-post at the bottom and top of the post. In order to open the gate, I have to squeeze the top end of the T-post to the stud to remove the top wire, then pull the post out of the bottom loop, releasing the post. Then I get to move the "gate" aside far enough to lead Hoss through. Once he's through, I had to reverse the procedure to close the gate.

We came around a corner into the meadow. What a spectacular area! The pictures really don't do it justice. Big Laguna Trail circumnavigates the two lakes and the meadow. I decided to ride around the meadow and back. I took the turn off to the right to head around the meadow.

The trail is largely flat and rock free, lending itself to good trotting. As much as possible, we trotted, but that darned tripping!

We made it around to a water crossing. Hoss had been in the trailer for some time, so I expected him to be thirsty. When we got to the water, he was being weird about it. Of course, the last water crossing he'd made probably felt a little threatening, having been at the steel bridge and quite deep that day. He stopped at the water's edge and dropped his head for a drink. What a ridiculous position he put himself in! He refused to step into the water before drinking, and the banks were quite steep. I tried to encourage him to step into the water to get a better position, but he wouldn't do it. I could feel one of his front legs shaking. Once he was done drinking, he crossed the water, but gave me a bit of a problem about it. He kept trying to step off into areas that were not good for crossing. He did finally do it my way.

Most of the trail was uneventful, other than trying to help Hoss through the tripping.

We reached another water crossing, and Hoss was giving me a particularly hard time about it. I knew he wasn't afraid of crossing the water, he just didn't want to. He would stand there and tell me he wanted a drink, then try for a bite of grass. I finally managed to boot him through the crossing. He's such a pill sometimes. I know he knows what is expected of him, he just chooses to sandbag me about it.

Once through that crossing, the trail was a little hard to discern. By watching for old bicycle tire tracks and hoofprints, I found our way through. It was clear it went along the fence line.

There were several places where trails headed off Big Laguna that were not on the map. I began to understand why I was told the map was poor. I didn't mark the turns, figuring I'll do it when I'm up there to check out where the trails go. The trails are reasonably well marked with posts identifying where they go. It's not much help considering they're not on the map. Makes it a bit difficult to determine where they are in relation to the trails that are marked. Still, it'll be fun to figure it out.

We arrived at another water crossing. Once again Hoss was being a pill about it. I spent quite some time convincing him to cross what is really a very straightforward water crossing.

After crossing, I got Hoss back up to a trot. The whole left hind tripping thing was really bothering me. The last time I'd ridden, he hadn't had the problem at all, despite being on the steel bridge trails, which are far rockier and trickier than what we were on. I noticed that he did okay if I sat the trot, but as soon as I started rising, he started tripping.

On our previous ride, I had slipped my fingers between the saddle gullet at Hoss's withers. While the gap wasn't awesome, it was enough. Even at the trot I wasn't getting my fingers pinched. It would be nice if the gap was larger, but it was acceptable. On a hunch, I tried to slip my fingers through again. I could barely slip a finger in there, and at the trot, there was no getting a finger in there.

Now I think I know what the problem is. If I don't get the saddle placement exactly right, every time I come down in the post, I'm slamming the gullet into Hoss's withers, causing him to trip on the hind. So next time I ride, I'll have to make sure I get the saddle farther forward and see if it makes a difference. If it does, I'll adjust my breast collar to fit, so I can't get the saddle too far back anymore.

We were headed back toward the trail head we'd entered on. The rest of the ride was uneventful. I did stop and let Hoss graze while I switched out my empty water bottles for full ones. I like to let him eat from time to time on a ride. After I let him rest and eat for about five minutes, I mounted back up and we made our way back to the trailer.

It was a nice ride. In the end we got just under 12 miles at an average 3.6mph. Considering the tripping problem, that's not a bad average. I was pleased with the ride.

Additionally, Hoss's boots stayed on throughout this ride. I had put them on opposite of how I had last time. These boots are supposed to be switched from side to side (end to end, if the horse's feet are all the same size) in order to extend their wear, much like tires on a car. It appears that won't be possible with Hoss. Considering how toed in he is on his fronts, I'm not surprised I can't switch them easily. If he were straighter, it would be easier. Because of the toe-in he has, though, he wears a heavy breakover to the outside. When I switch the boots, he has to wear them the opposite direction when they've already been worn. With the wear already in place in one direction, it makes it harder to wear in a different breakover. So it's really no surprise that his heels wanted to pop out. Due to the wear being in the "wrong" direction when I had the boots switched, the boots tried to force him to break over that way, resulting in his heels popping out. I now know he has distinct right and left front boots, and that's just all there is to it.