Whirlwind Weekend: Tire Woes, XC Schooling, & Polo

Prep

I brought Griffin home to my backyard a day before our planned departure for our first big weekend. This involved a bit of work on my part to prep (weed eat, sink T-posts, set hot tape insulators on posts, string hot tape, and setup fence charger), but was well worth it. The idea was that having him home would greatly expedite travel plans as I could simply wake up, put prepped items into the truck, load him, and be off in no time at all.

Griffin hadn't been alone like this before. Unsurprisingly, he did fret a bit, but he eventually settled.
I wondered/worried how his mental stress would affect our weekend though.

My ultimate plan of being on the road early thanks to having Grif at home was fulfilled Saturday AM. Despite Griffin slipping on the ramp and faceplanting hard when loading (no harm done!), he still clambered aboard, albeit shaking like a leaf due to the fall and we were able to head out on our 3+ hour drive around 7.

Travel

Because my trailer is still slated to have some hinge welding completed, I borrowed my welder-friend's trailer to stand in for the weekend. It's older than mine and much more in need of a paint job, but beyond that cosmetic issue, it's in great shape.

...except we got about 30 minutes down the road and this happened:

I should have taken a closer look at the tires it seems. Live and learn!

I was lucky that I happened to be only 30 minutes from home and only a few miles from the closest town. The road isn't heavily traveled, it was early morning, and I still had cell phone service. While the situation would inevitably delay me, not all was lost! I tried to count my blessings and stay calm, but my mind was super frazzled about the whole ordeal.

I dialed welder-friend to let him know I'd be coming to swap out trailers because I had noted one other questionable tire on his trailer. While I was talking with him, a good samaritan pulled up behind me to offer aid. As I filled in my friend on the phone, I waved a greeting to the young coal miner who was exiting his car with a big, sympathetic smile. Still on the phone listening to my friend wax and wane poetically about trailer issues, I nodded a "yes" at the smiling stranger's request to bring a jack to help (again, live, learn, make sure you have the proper tools packed at all times!) and continued discussing options re: trailer swap on the phone.

Eventually, I finished my phone conversation, donned a day-glo reflective vest (I was prepared in some ways...) and awaited the return of the coal miner and his tools. He arrived minutes later with a floor jack and associated tire changing tools often found in a mechanic's garage. He proceeded to quickly change my tire as we chatted about growing up in the area, horses, coal mining, and the act of being a good samaritan.

I thanked him profusely for his help when he finished, then set to the task of swapping out trailers.

As I drove back home, my mind was abuzz with paranoia about traveling and having something else go wrong. The mundane task of backing and parking one trailer and then hooking up the other helped calm me a bit, but ultimately my mind refused to settle.

Fortunately, throughout this entire ordeal, Griffin was a holy saint of a horse. I really don't know how I got so lucky to have a horse with such a solid brain. Before 10am he: faceplanted on the trailer and still loaded, stood patiently through a [very fast] tire change, suffered a small, minor puncture wound from the only possible object in the first trailer, and got off one trailer and onto another. Despite the numerous bumps in the road, he tried his hardest to do everything I asked.

When we finally got underway again, we were 2½ hours behind schedule. Thankfully, wewould have no more complications.

XC Schooling!

We arrived at Austen's barn around 1pmI settled Griffin in his stall as quickly as possible once we arrived. He seemed visibly relieved to be done with travel and in a somewhat familiar scene and promptly dug into his hay.

I sat in a chair by his stall decompressing from my own mental anguish about the trip as I awaited Austen and Jenny's arrival.

Once they appeared, we ate food, I had a beer, and we chatted for a bit. Or rather, they chatted and I mostly listened. My brain was still recovering from the morning's activities and couldn't quite handle forming thoughts and sentences yet. Oi vey.

Eventually, we set a game plan for getting Pig and Griffin prepped and loaded to head down the street to school some XC! It would be a first for both Griffin and I and I was So Excited.

PC: Austen

A short 15 minute drive brought us to the schooling area where we made quick work of tacking the horses and headed over to the field. Austen verbalized from the get-go that Grif and I would be the main focus and she and Pig would just be out there having some fun since they do have some past history with XC.

Jenny instructed us to head immediately over to the water complex and let the horses figure that out. She encouraged us to let them take their time, assuring that as soon as they figured it out it would quickly become a nonissue. Both Pig and Grif are barefoot and I honestly think the gravel around the water was more of an issue for them both than the actual water! And sure enough, both boys made their way into the water with little issue after a moment or two.

Off we go!
PC: Austen

After making sure the water was less of an issue, Jenny instructed us to warm up by trotting and cantering around the perimeter of the area to let them see the jumps. Austen and Pig quickly set about this task going one way while Griffin and I headed another.

Grif was very looky at first, but settled into a rhythm in no time. Despite usually being so game for jumping, I quickly found that Griffin was pretty damn sluggish!

I've only had Griffin off property alone like this once before - last summer for the Stephen Birchall clinic. He was very sluggish much of that weekend, which I blamed on the oppressive heat/humidity at that time. As I had a sample size of n=1, I couldn't draw conclusions from that weekend alone and chalked up his sluggish nature as a fluke. However, I'm realizing now that his slow behavior seems to be a product of being off property as he continued to have more whoa than go all weekend this go around, too! I've never felt the need to carry a whip with this horse at home, but I absolutely plan to when we travel in the future.

Receiving instruction on position
PC: Austen

Once warmed up, I trotted Grif to Jenny for further instruction.

She pointed out the different types of jumps and asked what I thought was the simplest to start with on a green-to-XC horse.

"Something with minimal contrast to the surrounding environment and that is also rather uniform in it's appearance and low to the ground," I replied, taking into account all of the things that have ever caused Q or Griffin to spook. Jenny confirmed my answer and then proceeded to point out the first two obstacles we would focus on: a plain log on the ground and a hanging log with a little more height.

Further instructional conversations
PC: Austen

Griffin and I set off and tackled both jumps a time or two with some instruction from Jenny throughout about my position and how I should modify it for XC: two point with a very solid lower leg, a more upright upper body, and elbows bent at my sides. She instructed that the idea was to keep myself off of the horse's back so he could rise up to me as we moved/jumped.

This instruction confirmed a lot of my observations/readings. I did my best to fulfill it, but I definitely need to build some strength back and get my bum right ankle (thanks, mountain biking!) healed so I can properly bend it to lower my heel.

Griffin balked a little as we approached those first two jumps but still jumped them without stopping. After our first go at each, things got smoother.

Once confirmed with those two jumps, Jenny instructed me to jump them in succession, then go up and down a little hill constructed at a bank complex (but not jumping the actual banks yet) and then wrap around and jump another hotdog log.

We did this with relative ease, Griffin once again sucking back before jumping over the new-to-us jump at the end.

From here, we looped around and practiced over a slightly larger and more natural looking log (bark still on it vs. the telephone pole look of the others).  Griffin had zero problem with this as we've played around in the woods jumping downed trees a bit over the years.

PHOTO BIG LOG

With success at several jumps and our confidence and comfort built up, Jenny set us to practicing up and down banks.

My mind was a bit hesitant about the up, but it rode smoothly enough. Jenny assured that horses find the down banks pretty natural and that I shouldn't have much of an issue with them either. Because I have tackled things like that on trail plenty of times before, they rode even easier than the up bank and we quickly advanced to the larger of the three down bank options on the complex we were practicing on.

Wee! Griffin and I tackling the larger of the two "easy" down banks.
PC: Austen

As Jenny began setting us up with some jumps before/after the banks, I called for a timeout and struck off across the field to the woodline to pluck a switch off a tree.

The jumping was easy. What I was having a hard time with was the fact that Griffin was SO sluggish. He simply wasn't showing up for the work the way he usually does at home! All parties agreed I should absolutely carry a whip with him in the future. (I had small blunt spurs on but those were also making minimal difference.)

Once I had a whip, Griffin showed up and started actually working and staying more in front of my leg. (Though I need to add for myself that while improved he was still not as forward as he is at home.)

We practiced over a small ditch, too, just for the sake of Doing All The Things.

A little more certain over the ditch
PC: Jenny

Griffin was more uncertain about the ditch than anything else, but so was I! I know how attuned he is to my hesitations so I'm sure I am to blame somewhat for his hesitation. He never stopped, but he did give it a very good look before bouncing over it the first two times. The third was much smoother.

Once we conquered the ditch, Jenny asked me if anything "scared" me. I looked around at some of the larger jumps and mentally noted that none really "scared" me, but I didn't think Griffin would be capable of them at this point. I shrugged, turned back to Jenny and said, "Eh. What do you think we should do?" She pointed out a larger hotdog jump, noting how approachable and well it should jump and we tackled that a few times.

Tackling the bigger hotdog like NBD
PC: Jenny

We called it a day after the larger hotdog and I took Griffin to the water one final time before leaving to walk around. He drank a little and spent awhile walking hither and thither smelling the water. I eventually had to boot him out of it because he was not interested in leaving!

PC: Austen

On the whole, I think it was a really successful first outing. XC is every bit as fun as I always imagined it would be. I think a time or two more over jumps such as those and Griffin will be happier and more enthusiastic about it, too. He knew the answer to the jumping question, but the jumps were so different in appearance from our current normal that I'm not sure he put everything together as "wee fun" like he typically does when we jump.

Jenny's commentary and coaching was wonderful to have and I gleaned a lot of insight from her teachings. I'm so grateful she was willing to head out and help us for the afternoon!

The biggest positive takeaway for the day was how honest Griffin was about everything. When we jumped in an arena during our last visit to DC, he had some refusals. I think the color of the jumps played a large role in that and made a point of incorporating some bright orange into our home setup.

Ever since, Griffin has been more than reliable at home. I have complete trust in him when we jump at home. In fact, this XC outing was the first I've jumped with a saddle in over a month! We've been exclusively schooling in the bareback pad at home over 2'6" and 2'9" for awhile now. This has taught me that I won't fall off when we jump a 2'9" oxer from a near-standstill! While that moment was a Major Oops, it taught me that I really have nothing to fear so far as staying mounted through some less-than-perfect jumps.

Our main issues during our first XC schooling were:

• Griffin's sluggishness, 
• my current positional weaknesses, and 
• my total lack of being able to see a distance. 

The first two items are totally fixable in a short amount of time. Heat conditioning isn't easy, but we can focus on it when we have the weather to do so. (We're from an area much higher in elevation with temperatures that are regularly 10-15°F cooler than the DC area.) My position will get better as soon as I can get back to my workout routine.

The third item is trickier to improve upon without more knowledgeable eyes on the ground to help us. However, I can absolutely start measuring distances from jumps and placing poles to train my eye better. I plan to do this as soon as I have Grif settled in his new home.

We're getting there! I think we did great considering we'd never tackled something quite like this before. And most importantly, I know what to focus on moving forward. 😀

Polo

We left the XC schooling area and headed back to the barn where we quickly got ready for the polo match we would be watching.

I was surprised to find Emma at the barn when we returned! I had left my phone in my truck throughout the entire XC schooling and totally missed messages Emma had sent about rendezvousing with us. Sorry, girl!

Austen and I changed clothes and our group of 5 rolled out of her barn and down the road 15 minutes to the site of the polo match.

I have copious polo photos, but I shan't bore you with all of them.

I've always wanted to watch polo and was pretty psyched for this outing.

I tried to pay attention to the announcer and the game, but ultimately just ended up conversing with our little group about all things life and horses.

Shenanigans were had:

PC: Austen

The polo match continued. And a good time was had by all.

Eventually we packed it up and headed down the road for home.

The accumulation of morning travel stress, time spent in the sun, and a long day of horse-related fun had me totally and completely beat. I was excited about the dressage show, but not too excited to sleep. I crashed hard once we were home, wishing I could have about 3 extra hours in the night to sleep before our early morning the next day.

Stay tuned for the run down of our first dressage show!

A Weekend of Firsts

Wow. WHAT a whirlwind of a weekend!

I've got a lot of media to sort through before I can give proper recaps on the goings-on, but suffice to say it was a GOOD weekend.

Many first time experiences were checked off the list:

First shredded trailer tire:

First XC schooling:

First polo match:

First dressage schooling show:

First satin:

Yes, a very good weekend indeed.

Hopefully I can sort through the media in a reasonable time (20+ GB of photos and numerous videos). Tune back in later this week to hear all about our first official foray into a world of new disciplines.

Finding Balance: A Griffin Update

We're ~10 days out from our first dressage show. It is both very exciting and very intimidating!

Our recent work feels really good though. Grif is giving me his best each time we ride. Perhaps not the whole ride, but pieces of each ride display really wonderful moments.

When I look back on our first work that was loosely dressage-focused two years ago and compare it to now, the differences in Griffin are striking:

He is so much more balanced through his body, steadier in the contact, and working through his hind end more than he once did. Funny what a little bit of time and focused effort will do.

I was honestly surprised watching the video after this little workout. I knew he felt better and his transitions were relatively fluid and he was steadier in the contact than in the past. But despite knowing those things, some part of me just figured I was inflating the good feelings to be bigger than the reality.

Trotting...

Cantering...

But then I watched the video. My jaw didn't drop in total shock, but my brain did stall out for a few moments as I watched Griffin's movement. He was so much more solid and balanced than I ever fathomed! And while my position absolutely needs work, I was also surprised at my own riding. We looked like a pretty good little team.

Walking...

And more trotting...

I've discussed the video this post's media revolves around with Austen to glean pointers and homework. We've been focusing on those things since and I definitely feel improvements in the short time since.

Down transitions...

Up transitions...

I don't know that we're ready for the show. But I don't know that we're not ready either.

See, I'm an endurance rider first. My background is all in conditioning for endurance. Feeling "ready" for an endurance ride meant that I was confident my horse could complete the distance with plenty of "go" left in the tank at the end.

Dressage - especially at the level we are pursuing - definitely isn't the same as endurance! Griffin doesn't need to be in the absolute most peak condition. He needs to be attentive and have a good mind that is ready to work; he needs to be responsive to the aids when I use them; he needs to be able to maintain a steady rhythm within each gait; he needs to show some semblance of bend in his circles; he needs to demonstrate straightness; his transitions should be calm.

When I rearrange my thought process to check in with each of the above points, Griffin is very close to achieving all of those things right now. So, uh, I guess we're ready?

And even walk to canter departs sometimes....

The biggest wild card with our entry into the world of showing is simply the time and miles that come with travel.

Grif has traveled very little so far in his career. He's been to a small local show, a few endurance rides, and one dressage clinic. As with most horses, when you plop them down in the center of a formerly-unknown environment, he's a bit frazzled! Things that aren't scary at home are scary at the new place, horses he doesn't know he MUST talk to and try to make friends with, and the general hustle and bustle around him garners more of his attention than he'll give to me.

None of these things are surprising and none are too crazy. They're very typical of a horse who has spent most of his time working from home.

And so, knowing Griffin won't be the horse he is at home, I have very low expectations for the actual show.

Counter canter may unintentionally debut in our tests...

I'm confident he has the pieces needed to succeed, but I have no idea if he'll be able to be present when the judge is watching to put those pieces together when I ask.

And you know what? That's okay. We've got to start somewhere. It probably won't be pretty at first, but if I ever want to achieve my goals, we have to get out there and give it our best. I know from experience with Q at endurance rides that it WILL get better. Time and miles (both literally and figuratively) fix most problems.

And he's capable of a flying change...now to do it on purpose?

I participated in 4-H shows as a kid, but this will be the first show show of my life. And while I'm nervous, I'm also really, really excited to debut my little mystery horse of questionable breeding next weekend.

Grif, let's just strive to stay inside the sandbox - anything else is gravy. Can you handle that?

Journey as a Rider

As I have recently done for Q and Stan, I intend to also write a specific post about Griffin and where we're at with things. But then Emma had to go and pose questions that really got me thinking. So, sorry, Grif, but I'mma write this out first.

: : : : :

Do you define yourself as a rider by your goals or ambitions? Are they inextricably linked to your specific horse? Or maybe instead, your preferred means of deriving enjoyment are defined by the horse you have currently? 

I'm a rider first and foremost because I love horses, being around them, training them, caring for them, and everything in between, good and bad. Horses scratch an itch that none of my other hobbies can. I can't explain it better than that. Secondary to this love, however, are goals and ambitions. I'd say that most simply, these goals and ambitions are to be the best I can be while helping my horses to be the best they can be.

The life of owning, riding, and competing three horses of my own wasn't what I envisioned for my journey with horses. However, it is where I AM. And in an effort to live fully in the present moment and make the best of it, I'm doing all I can to help each horse find success within jobs they enjoy that I also enjoy. I include the caveat, "that I also enjoy" because there are a few disciplines I have zero desire to ever dabble in. Fortunately, those are so few that I shouldn't have a problem finding other fun things to occupy my time (and money)! It is also fortunate that each of the horses I have right now is athletic and capable of pursuing many disciplines.

The first lesson pony: Rocky. Also, there are horses all along the bottom of my t-shirt. Obsessed

From the moment I sat on a horse, I wanted to do more than walk. For a time, after a bad first fall, the canter scared me, but once I moved past that I wanted to canter lots. I wouldn't necessarily say, "I wanna go fast" because I don't have much desire to gallop hither and thither, but I DO like feeling like I'm going somewhere and doing something. While I always dreamed of jumping, the opportunities to do that in my area were slim growing up (and now, too). Trails were easy to come by though! Before I ever knew endurance riding was a thing, I spent hours out on trails every week trotting and cantering up and down mountains, through creeks and rivers wherever I could find to go. So it's no surprise endurance makes me happy. And now that I'm coming to a point in my life that I have the time and the means to travel to event, I'm finally pursuing that, also.

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Have you had to make decisions about buying or selling a horse based on its suitability for your goals or purposes?

Orion. The first horse I owned for 5 months in 2011.

Horses that I've spent time with in life have largely come to me through serendipitous events. I borrowed horses growing up and didn't own one until 2011. That horse, documented shortly during the beginning of my blogging time, was a crash-course in Conformation 101 for me. He was NOT suited for anything I really wanted to do (endurance or some sort of jumping) and ultimately I sold him because I didn't want to spend time and money on a horse that I couldn't pursue what I loved most with.

Yep, hard to believe that's Griffin nearly 5½ years ago. 

Griffin came along a few months after I sold my first horse. He was an ugly little 18 month old intended to be a learning project for me for groundwork. I took him on in order to learn something and maybe keep him. I learned a ton, decided to keep him, and we continue to learn together. Fortunately, his "ugly" was only a phase and he grew into a really nice critter with the best personality ever. He loves jumping the most, puts up with dressage, enjoys the trail, and is very "gamey" in the way that cutting horses are when allowed to chase/herd dogs. As chronicled on the blog, we've pursued jumping, dressage, and trails so far. I hope to put him on cattle and see if he'll work a cow some day, too.

The second morning with Q the weekend I met her. I was leaning heavily toward buying her.

Q is the only horse I have intentionally purchased with some semblance of a plan to do so. I knew I needed a "riding project" in addition to Griffin as a "groundwork project". I'd been hunting for Arabians for a month or two online. I'd found one mare in Kentucky at an Arabian re-homing facility that I really, really liked, but I was too hesitant about the financial burden of two horses to bite the bullet on her (ultimately, the guy in charge of that place kept her for himself because she's so nice). When my riding club went to a horsemanship and trail ride clinic, the cowboy had Q and was looking to get rid of "that crazy psycho". She was super comfortable to ride, jumped neater than any horse I'd ridden prior, and had the build/breeding to stand a chance competing in endurance. I adored everything about her after 2½ days with her and the rest is history.

4 year old Stanley!

Stan, with whom I spent many years during HS and college with, fell into my lap last summer when his owners decided to "get out of horses". I always knew this would happen at some point and had no hesitation telling them I'd take him. He's an athletic horse that, to this day, hates working in arenas and loves being on trail. While I plan to do an LD with him in about 6 weeks, I don't know that I will continue to pursue endurance with him after that. It will largely depend on how difficult it is to manage him metabolically as I really don't have a great desire to micromanage that aspect of endurance much more than I have in the past. I don't feel the need to compete Stan to feel fulfilled.

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Do you feel like there's something bigger out there, something more overarching in your own journey as a rider, independent of the horses that may come in and out of your life? Or maybe you feel the opposite - that it's less about striving forever for something, and more about enjoying each good moment as it comes?

I try to enjoy the good moments as they're presented. Have a horse that likes trails? Pursue trails and endurance. Have a horse that likes jumping? Pursue that. Have a jack of all trades? Do it all!

That being said, I am a competitive person and do enjoy working toward goals. As my horses have expressed their opinions on favorite jobs, I have stretched us both forward to see how far we can go within those jobs. I enter with cautious optimism about achieving what starts as an easy goal and move upward from there if success is found. I don't believe that I must achieve a certain level within endurance or eventing to feel fulfilled/successful. I will pursue the sports within my horse's realm of ability and enjoy every moment along the way.

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Have your opinions or thoughts on this matter had to change over time due to different circumstances? Or maybe you've never actually thought particularly deeply about it at all? 

I hadn't thought deeply about it until these questions. 😉 But now that I am... yes, my thoughts and opinions have changed over time as life has presented options to me.

Once I learned it was a thing, I wanted to do endurance. I didn't know at what distance though and was honestly intimidated about each longer distance until I became confirmed at the one below it. Q succeeded at LDs, so we tried 50s. She succeeded at 50s, so we did a 100. I'd still like to do more of that if she still wants to tackle it. If/when she doesn't want to, I absolutely WILL one day find another horse who wants to. I'd love to be able to pursue more 100-mile rides and participate in 3 to 5 endurance rides per year. I have zero desire to win any ride, but have every desire to complete the rides with a sound, happy horse.

Griffin loves jumping and doesn't mind our dressage work. I'm pursuing eventing and fulfilling a childhood dream to jump and go fast in the process. We're also pursuing dressage because as an adult I am fascinated by it and see huge value in it for myself and the horse. If my summer competitions at the elementary division go well, I'd like to pursue beginner novice in the fall. (We regularly school 2'6" and 2'9" at home, so if I can get our dressage to a good point, BN seems more than achievable.) If BN goes well, I will absolutely dabble at higher levels within eventing as long as I feel comfortable and the horse can handle the questions.

Conditioning in Canaan

Stan has been home in Canaan for a little over three weeks now.

While my riding frequency has unfortunately not increased much, the quality of our conditioning rides has increased ten-fold. In May, we managed to fit in five conditioning rides for a total of 30.6 miles. In the first half of June, we've managed to fit in four rides for a total of 41.2 miles.

Before having Stan in Canaan, we were only able to fit in one or two rides a week due to: juggling two horses in full work, living 50 minutes from the barn, work sucking, life responsibilities. These few rides were limited to the big back field and a hill for sprints because of the new douchecanoe new neighbor forbidding access to trails we enjoyed for 5+ years.

As a result of not having trails, most of our rides were "easy" conditioning miles (in my opinion) and lacked significant elevation gain and had zero tricky footing. They were also only about 5-6 miles in length because doing laps around the same field gets really tedious for both horse and rider after a point.

I really knew these 1-2 rides/week were not going to cut it for preparing a non-Arab for a 30 mile ride. When I conditioned Stan for our first go at Ride Between the Rivers (RBTR) in 2007, I was 18, didn't have a full-time job, didn't have many responsibilities in life, only had one horse, and thus had lots more time available for conditioning him. We rode 1 to 3 hours a day 5 to 6 days a week. When I was out of town for summer camps, my BO would put in rides on him. We didn't know what the hell we were getting into, so we conditioned the hell out of him.

With RBTR fast approaching, you can imagine how excited I was to get Stan closer so we could get in bigger and better rides on trails - even if they weren't going to be with the frequency that I trained 10 years ago!

The first few conditioning rides I had with Stan in Canaan, he was completely barefoot. This seriously limited our options for places to go. Technical rocky terrain is the norm around here.

Fortunately, my hunches on how to connect certain areas I knew to be mild footing were correct and we gained access to amazing training terrain that was barefoot friendly. We tackled two training rides on that terrain with a good 1,000+ feet of elevation gain on each ride in addition to a shorter "warm up" ride with only 300-400' of elevation gain.

This past weekend following application of front shoes by Dan, Stan got to venture into Dolly Sods for his first time.

Over the course of 4 hours, this old quarter horse tackled 23 miles of trails like a boss, leading the whole time (Lauren came up to train with me).

It was my first ride in the Sods without Dan. This was odd for me mentally, but I knew I could manage on my own easily enough - especially with Stan. And, unsurprisingly, the day went wonderfully. I even tackled some trails I hadn't previously done with Dan but knew were good (read: passable) for horses.

Stan would have definitely benefited from four shoes instead of two, but he did remarkably well with just fronts. If he had four, we'd have been able to maintain a trot in some areas that we walked and would have been able to lessen the time we were out.

The biggest limiting factor in keeping us moving along wasn't Stan's feet though. I accidentally scheduled our training ride for the same day as the annual Highland Sky 40-mile ultra run in Dolly Sods! We intercepted and leap frogged runners for a large part of our day. Fortunately, the majority of our ride wasn't on shared trails, but the parts that were were very slow going!

Typically, ALL trail users should yield to horses, but on this day, I was more than happy to make an exception to that rule for the competitors. We very often  stepped off to the side and gave them room to keep trudging along. Every one of them was very grateful and very amicable toward us.

We also ran into a number of hikers. We only received dirty looks from two and the other dozen or so groups were very friendly.

I made a point to Lauren throughout the day about how important it was to initiate conversation other trail users. It not only helps the horses identify bulky backpackers or brightly clad hikers/runners as humans and not monsters, but also helps shine a bright light on equestrian trail users. I'm all about being a good ambassador for horse folks in areas like this!

Lauren loved the ride and seeing new trails. I think she did get a bit of a shock about the roughness of the terrain at first. Better to learn now than be surprised later! We had several conversations about how our training trails compare to competition trails. Basically, if she can handle what we train on, she'll be able to handily tackle any competition trail she finds herself on in the east (and honestly, probably much of the west, too, if she ever ended up there; the only thing we can't practice that the west has is work at elevation).

Beyond trending toward slower and lazier than Q, Stan was an absolute doll all day. He was absolutely unflappable through everything we encountered on trail. He is as steady as the day is long and more than worth his weight in gold. He may be 16, but he's got a lot of go in him yet. 

I anticipate getting another 20+ miles of conditioning in this weekend through a combination of rides. We won't be going out and winning RBTR in August, but I think this ol' quarter horse will definitely have a solid shot at earning a completion.