Conditioning Ride 8-31-2011

HRR: 56

HR10Min: 40

Distance: 8 miles

Avg Spd: 4.7mph

Time: 2 hours

The past few days have been a bit of a trial. On Saturday, coming home from camping with some friends from church, I struck and killed a mastiff on the road. She was a very large dog out in the pitch black dark. I didn't have a chance to avoid her. By the time I saw her, I hardly had time to get my foot off the accelerator, much less brake. The dog was taking up the entire center of the lane, so there was simply no way I was getting around her. The long and the short of it is, with less than two weeks to my next ride, my truck needs a new front bumper. I can't just leave it. It's really badly crushed in, and it could cause my transmission cooler not to operate properly. So my challenge is to get it fixed before I have to leave next week.

Definitely did not come out of that unscathed

For the dogs, the heat is much harder. All three are varying shades of black. This is where I rant a bit about the shaving of long haired dogs. All three of these dogs have different fur coats. Jazz has a long coat. She needs more care than a short haired dog, but her coat really is quite nice now that it's grown out completely (she arrived shaved down). Ash has a thickish short coat. His coat isn't super short, the hairs being about an inch to an inch and a half long. Mac has a super short coat. His hairs are less than an inch long. When we go out in the heat, you might imagine Mac does the best, but in fact he is the most negatively affected of the three. He spends the most time hiding out in the shade, and he pants hardest and longest. It's mostly for him I have to take long breaks in the shade so he can cool off. Jazz is the least affected. Of the three, she recovers the fastest. The lesson here is, just because a dog has a long coat, doesn't mean it's hot. That hair serves a purpose, specifically to insulate the dog. Leave it alone!

Okay, back to riding. I had originally planned to head out to the steel bridge for this ride, but it turned out my son needed to get down the mountain to go to work, and since our other car is in the shop, he needed my truck. So I had to do a slightly shorter ride. In addition, to ride at the bridge, he really needs hoof protection. I ordered him a pair of hind boots, but they sent the wrong size. Now I'm going to have to nail on shoes for our ride. This close to the ride, I don't want to ride him at the bridge without hoof protection. I didn't have time to shoe him before we left.

Hollenbeck makes a nice place to ride, although I will admit to being a bit bored with it. Predictability has something to be said for it. At least I know for sure how quickly we can get through a ride here!

Before we got to the "real" part of the trail, we passed through the grove of oak trees. Yet another has fallen. These trees burned in 2007 and have been dying ever since. Once again the trail is blocked, but we were able to get by without trouble.

I should mention I've started riding with spurs. At our last lesson, Beth had me start using them. It's important to note they're not torture devices. I'm not talking about those huge roweled spurs with the spikes on them. These are blunt ended spurs, although I did order a pair of slightly less aggressive ones like the ones Beth had me use. The real purpose of spurs is to increase the reach of the rider's heel, and allow the rider to use a lighter touch to deliver a cue. The problem I'd been having was using just the crop was not getting Hoss to move appropriately. The spurs allow me to deliver a correction or cue in a more appropriate place and get more correct movement.

We got out with a good trot and making good time when I heard a coyote bark. I called the dogs to me and kept up a good pace, then Mac shot up the hill after the coyote somewhere. Jazz wasn't far behind him. The last time I needed to go after a dog, I couldn't get Hoss to go off the trail to go after the dogs. This time, with the spurs and improved leg positioning, I was able to turn him up off the trail with little difficulty, and he trotted across the grasslands easily enough. I was able to get the dogs back and off the trail of the coyote. We resumed our ride with the sound of the coyote barking and trying to get the dogs to come back. It gave up after we'd gotten half a mile or so away.

There's a coyote hiding on that hill!

After we ran up the hill, the dogs were really hot, and Mac in particular needed a rest. Mac and Jazz had gotten ahead and were laying in the shade cooling off. I let Hoss stop and we gave the dogs five minutes to cool off. This allowed them to reenergize a bit and we were able to set off again.

Mac and Jazz take the opportunity to rest in the shade

We got to the shady area with some water, and had another five minute rest before pushing one. From this point on was where we made the majority of our speed. I didn't let up on speed any more than absolutely necessary. We got some good cantering in on the flat part, and trotted most of the rest of the way in. We stopped at the old water trough and let the dogs cool off for a few minutes before heading more slowly in.

Mac heading toward the end of the trail

After untacking and taking my statistics, I loaded Hoss up and we drove home. We arrived home just in time to unhook the trailer and let my son head off for work. I gave Hoss a nice bath before putting him away and giving him dinner. It's been far too long since Hoss had a bath with real soap. He sure seemed to enjoy it!