Friday the 13th

I've never been a superstitious person at all, although the thought crossed my mind yesterday while I was loading to head down to Hell's Gate for a ride with my friend Jane.  I had a busy morning--an exam at 8 and a lab from 9-10:30 (where we learned to pull calves--cool!).  I left directly from school to hook up the trailer and load Jasper as fast as possible, and made plans to meet Jane in the parking lot of Arby's so we could transfer her horse from her trailer to mine and leave for Lewiston.  The day was sunny, bright, and crisp, and since Lewiston is usually warmer than Pullman, I knew we'd have some pretty nice riding weather!

When we arrived, we were the only trailer.  Soon after unloading, another truck and trailer pulled in, and she ended up recognizing us as endurance riders and we chatted for a bit before hitting the trail.  (I forgot her name almost instantly, of course.  I'm SO terrible at that. I'm better if I mentally spell their name, but I never remember to do that when I'm on my horse while he tries to pace while I'm trying to have a conversation. She did shake my hand while I was mounted, which was good practice for Jasper.  Practice for what, I'm not sure. But I thought it was good just the same.)  Jane's horse, Cravin', was a stallion for a few years before she got a hold of him and gelded him and set about convincing him not to kill her regularly.  She's got a lot more in the way of cohones than I do--her horse can be pretty scary at times (he loves to rear and buck, and has flipped over on more than one rider--no thanks).  They've been together for 8 years now, and she still has to fight with him sometimes.

Jane had been down the park only twice before, but both times she had taken different trails than Lacy and I had been on.  We did TONS of hillwork, lots of technical rocks and other terrain, and a nice water crossing for practice.  The horses were still feeling really good after we turned around to head back, so we worked on leaving and being left, and doing circles every time he wanted to pick up a trot when I had decided we were still walking.  Eventually he settled down, and while Jane and Cravin' worked in similar issues, we played around with different obstacles--weaving between barrier rocks, backing, cantering up hills, looking at scary things, etc etc.  

After our ride, we headed into "town" so I could pick up another compressed bale of timothy from D&B.  Of course I couldn't leave without getting a small manure fork for the horse trailer, some extra vetwrap, a biothane curb strap for Wayne, and a scrubby groomy thing for Jasper.  Jane treated me to a fancy lunch at Wendy's for driving to our ride, and we had a wonderful time chatting and catching up.  It was a really fun day!

So far this week, Jasper and I have done a little over 22 miles.  I'd like to keep it up like this for the weeks leading up to the ride, but still worry a little about overtraining.  I was more worried before I went out to the barn today.  When I turned Jasper out into the pasture, he took off at full speed bucking and tossing his head and just ran and ran and ran.  I am no longer concerned that this week was too intense.  I think it helps we've been keeping a really moderate pace--our fastest ride this week was a little over five miles at 6.7 mph average.  Our ride yesterday was only a 3.7 mph average, since we did a lot of walking and stopped at the riverside for a quick pee (Jasper, not me) and a drink.  I'm really working to do physical conditioning as well as mental conditioning, and it seems to be working really well.  Jasper has become a lot more confident on trail lately with scary looking obstacles while he's leading.  Overall, I'm extremely happy with his progress, and am really looking forward to our first race.  Only 7 weeks to go!

I've just now decided to start putting our miles on the sidebar.  I already keep a very detailed record between the GPS data and an Excel spreadsheet, but want to put it up in case anyone has suggestions.