I took a bad fall at work on Friday. Landed on my right elbow and hand. I finished my shift, but ended up staying home on Saturday due to the pain in my right wrist and hand. Ouch.
Later in the day, against my better judgment, I met my farrier, Audrey, down at Kings Mountain State Park for a short ride. I’ve been wanting to ride with her for a long, long, LONG time and decided I didn’t want to miss out on the chance to ride with her. I figured if the pain from my fall bothered me too much, I’d just turn around and come back home.
We made great progress with Trophy. Audrey is a fantastic barefoot trimmer and an even better horse trainer. I had been having trouble keeping Trophy in a trot. Apparently this is something that has been going on for a long time now. He’d trot faster and faster and faster and then break into a canter. He loves to run, but running isn’t going to condition him as he needs to be in order to be ready to do limited distance endurance races this coming spring. What we did was position Trophy behind Audrey’s horse. She held her horse in a good, steady trot and every time Trophy tried to pass him, she cut him off. Of course, I can keep him from passing, but in the past, it been a constant fight keeping him where he should be. Previously, I tried doing one rein stops whenever he broke from a trot into a canter, but that wasn’t having the desired effect. Instead, Audrey told me that every time he broke into a canter, to stop him completely and back him a few steps. About five times of doing that and he settled down considerably. He kept looking back at me as if to say, “what’s the deal?” By the middle of the ride, I was trotting him on a loose rein both behind Audrey’s horse and in front with very little breaking. We ended up doing about 12 miles at an almost constant trot. Needless to say, I was exhausted when we got back, but the sense of accomplishment dulled the pain.
In addition, I rode Trophy barefoot and he did fine. Because the ground is soft from recent rain, now’s the time to start to ride him barefoot more and more to toughen up his feet so that I will have to use boots less and less. I even managed to remember to bring food for both me and the horse. Forgot water though.
I don’t know why it is, but I can find my way to Kings Mountain and South Mountain, but unless I follow someone else out, I always get lost coming home. Very odd. I have the GPS in Wally’s truck and you’d think that I’d be smart enough to turn it on when I head out, but I usually forget. Once I get going and figure out I’m going the wrong way, I frequently can’t find a place to turn around so then I’m stuck. Eventually, I always get home, but it’s frustrating.
We got a hard freeze last night. It will be interesting to see how the seedlings fared under the Agribon row cover. Wally and I are going to go to a benefit barrel race this afternoon. The race is to benefit a couple that lost their house and their belongings, their barn, vehicles and two horses to a recent tornado. I hope it’s a good turn out and they are able to race a lot of money.
As I write this, Wally is napping in the living room. I envy men: they seem to be able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime. I’d love to take a nap too, but I doubt I’d be able to sleep. Maybe I’ll give it a try.
Until later …