Distance: 7.92 miles
Avg Speed: 4 mph
Time: 2 hours
I was planning to do a long ride this time. Unfortunately I got hung up doing all sorts of other things I needed to do and it got too late to squeeze in more than Hollenbeck Canyon. I had dropped off the cat at the vet's in the morning, and Mac had an afternoon appointment to get staples removed. He had gone dashing into the brush on a morning walk and ended up with a wound in his side that had to be stitched up.
So I finally got everybody loaded and we went down to Hollenbeck. It was a much warmer day, so we were going to be moving much slower. Ash and Mac overheat pretty easily once the temperatures exceed 90 or so. Hoss couldn't care less. He'd canter eight miles at 115. But there again, he's a horse, and they're black dogs.
Once again my stethoscope hadn't made it back into the trailer, so I couldn't get heart rate data for this ride. I have purchased a heart rate monitor for Hoss, but have yet to figure out how to use it.
I decided to go the opposite way around, going through the meadow first before climbing up and coming back down. We got some trotting in through the meadow, and cantered just a little bit on the long flat on the back side. We had to slow down and let the dogs catch up several times. Ash took to running on ahead when he knew there was likely to be water available. Smart dog. If he's ahead, he gets to rest until everybody else catches up!
We walked about half our miles. Coming down the single track is more of a challenge than going up. Good for Hoss's mind, though.
We were trotting along trying to make time because I was going to be late getting Mac to the vet, when Hoss took several bad steps. I pulled him to a stop and hopped off. He was holding his left front off the ground. I picked it up and inspected the foot and found nothing. I suspect what he did was step on a rock that rolled under his foot. I gave him a few minutes, then got back on. We walked for a while, and I asked him for a trot just to see if there was lasting lameness. He trotted clean. I slowed him back down and we finished our ride at a walk. With the severity of the bad step he took, I didn't want to take any chances.
Once loaded up, we took off for the vet's office. Mac got his staples removed and we picked up Tiger, the kitty. I let Tiger out of her crate so she could ride around comfortably. She and the dogs get along well, so I had nothing to worry about. Driving home with two dogs and a cat in the truck and Hoss in the trailer felt sort of Noah's Ark.
On another note, I saw my doctor again to figure out where we are. All my tests came back normal. My doctor now thinks my pain is acid reflux. It's a diagnosis that doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the symptoms. I'm willing to try just about anything, though. I don't have much interest in having surgery yet again! I suspect if she'd told me to go home and wave a chicken over my head three times a day, I'd have tried it. So now we're treating this as reflux. So far there's no difference. And when I first got that diagnosis, I decided I didn't need to stick to my very strict diet. Well, I went ahead and broke the diet, with what can only be called disastrous results. I was in an awful lot of distress for a couple of days, before going back on the diet seemed to help. I have to say the reflux treatment so far is not helping. I'll give it more time, but I doubt very much this saga is over.
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