Sunday, November 06, 2011

Happy Trails to Me

And Chance, Of Course

I took Chance out for a short trail ride (hack) today. The weather was nearly perfect and he was quite a happy camper. He'd made it quite clear yesterday that he really wanted to go out of the arena on an adventure, so I decided to indulge him.

We walked the whole way except for a little bit of trouble in the cornfield. A huge tree had fallen at the edge of the woods,blocking the dirt road. I had two choices: to go around it from the woods side through the underbrush, or go around it through the uncut corn stalks.  I decided on the corn. Maybe that wasn't the better choice since the darn stuff flapped and wrapped itself around Chance's legs and body, riling him up a bit. He wanted to run, but held back to a bouncy trot as he hurried along. He settled back down as soon as we were out of the corn, so no big deal.

There were a number of trees down in the woods as well, but they were not hard to get around. Chance was totally calm about them, even though they changed the landscape quite a bit. He just moved along at a nice forward walk and enjoyed himself.

When I got back home, Tucker had knocked down a rail to get into the arena and was working on getting through the gate out into the woods himself. Toby was on the other side of the arena fence, running back and forth, whinnying hysterically. He was sure he was forever separated from Tucker and that Chance had simply vanished into the trees. He is very herd oriented and really worries if he doesn't know where the other Boys are. He could have easily stepped over the low rail where Tucker had gone into the arena, but apparently, it never occurred to him. To him it was "fence" and "barrier" not to be crossed.

Once I was back, and he was able to join up with his pals, everything was again quiet and calm at Follywoods.

My trail ride was lovely, but strangely enough, I was really tired afterwards. I certainly didn't think I was doing very much, just sitting on a horse for 20 minutes or so, but I guess riding, by nature, requires a lot more physical effort than I think it does.

Good ride. Good day, and once again, a good horse.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:55 PM

    That's a great outing! Glad you got out and a fun time was had by all - it does take some time to get your stamina back.

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  2. Tucker! Be a good boy!

    Interesting - that 20 minutes mostly walk was tiring. I think we do use a lot of muscles riding that we aren't aware of. However that means that you can get back into shape for riding by riding. What a happy coincidence!

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  3. Riding is an isometric exercise ^-^ I only understood it a couple of months ago. It means that it is teh tonus of your muscles that change, not the length of your muscles.

    So yes, riding is more physical than one thinks.

    For example the plank exercise is isometric. Here a video how to do it:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHQmRINu4jU
    How long can you stay in that position?
    It usually is a good indicator on how riding fit one is, as the core muscles are enaged ...^-^
    When fitter I could do 3 x 1 minute with 30 seconds rest. Ms Savoie can hold it for 4 minutes ...

    Have a go, it is very revealing ^-^

    Chance is a star ^-^ But you already knew it!

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  4. It was a beautiful day for a ride and I'm so happy you could take advantage of it. Chance is such a good boy. I think we don't realize how much stamina it takes to even walk for 20 minutes but it will build up. I think we're going to have a great week weather wise. Hope you get to take advantage of it.

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