111 cubed

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Annual Trail Rides: 111/200 (Bareback 5/12)

"Can you take me out for a trail ride tomorrow? I really need it." said a fellow boarder to me. Her wife had a stroke a few weeks before, and she was struggling with the tension, anxiety and worry that comes with having your SO suddenly become ill.

The morning of our ride I was in trouble. I had not slept, and had been packing a cocktail of anti-inflammatories and painkillers to dull the ache of my sciatica. I thought I would cancel, but I just thought I could power through. I almost cancelled five times that morning ... but eventually I found my way to the barn, tacked up and heading for the mounting block.

Fellow boarder had invited another boarder to join us. We were three.

When fellow boarder suggested she would like to canter today, I winced.

I then fessed up that I was drugged and sleep deprived and I just didn't know what I was capable of.

A few minutes of warm-up and I prompted us into a trot. A few minutes of that and I was feeling ok. So, I started doing pony club drill work with the ladies on trail. Side by side, paired transition walk-trot-walk. I coached them through the basics, of looking at me, timing the transition, and managing their gait. We switched a few times, did a ravine and then I brought up pony club drill work #2 ... the leapfrog. We started at a walk, with the caboose passing us at a trot to take the lead. We did that several times, then did another ravine, and then we took it to a more advanced level ... the leapfrog at a trot. The ladies were doing fantastic!

We started heading back on the uberwide trail, and I suggested we do paired trotting three abreast. We had to work through some adjustability of gaits of one of the riders (notice I didn't say horse) but eventually we got in sync and did about 1 km like that. We ended in a pretty big sandy intersection, and we did pony club drill work #3 ... having the lady who wanted to canter to do circles around us as we stood in the middle. Switch direction and do it again.

And then she cried.

All the tension and anxiety of the last few weeks was released like a dam breaking, as her horse was absolute perfection and pulled her into living in the moment. We cried.

We did another ravine ... and then I pulled out pony club exercise #4 ... the trotting race. I explained to the lady that our fellow friend had failed this test earlier this week as her horse busted into a canter halfway through. So we started slow, I lagged just slightly behind her and egged her on. Her dressage horse started to extend. She pushed. More extension. 

And then I started to let Q go ... easily pushing into the lead with lots of stride to spare. I egged her on. And our boarder friend behind us was already cheating into a canter.

She did great. I was in no pain.

When we got home we realized with the help of all those friendly trail apps that we did 111 transitions in 1hr11 mins. Now that has got to be a new record for me!

And Im starting to get pretty confident about Q's new party trick ... the bombing trot and my ability to control it.



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