I have very little time to write a blog post, but I want to to a quick post about River’s current fitness as I pack for her first LD at the Fire Mountain Pioneer Ride. In short, River is fit and feisty!
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River’s state after her last endurance ride
Bringing River back after a long break
Our last training ride
What’s next?
River’s state after her last endurance ride
River’s last ride was Montaña de Oro, on June 1st. I rider-optioned after 25 miles, because River was simply not right. (Read about it here: My first Rider Option at Montana de Oro) At the time I didn’t know if she was colicking or about to have the worst muscle spasm of her life. At least, that’s what I imagined. She had been pulled for lameness four weeks earlier at the Cache Creek Ridge ride (read about it here). My vet had given me the go-ahead to compete, after an extensive workover. That turned out to be bad advice–River was lame the day after Montaña de Oro, and got worse for several days.
I don’t blame my vet! The fact is she was not lame the Monday after Cache Creek Ridge. I should have known better myself.
We did every diagnostic tool short of MRI. My vet’s best guess, based on lack of finding any injury lameness, and history, was that she pulled a pectoral muscle. I had suspected in shoulder. Either way, she would need several months off. My vet said two months, then start bringing her back slowly. I opted for six months. She spent four weeks in stall rest, then I gradually increased her turn out area. (Read about River mid-lay-up in a blog post from early September: What’s going on with my horses.)
Bringing River back after a long break
I put River in the round pen on November 24th to see how she was moving. She was full of herself! (See a video here.) On December 1st, six months after Montaña de Oro, I rode her. We started in the arena, walk, trot, lope, with lots of head-slinging and associated orneriness.
Above: River shows her custumary silliness loping while Fantazia waits. I always take Fantazia out when we do arena work. I pony her 1-1.5 miles at the trot, then she practices ground-tying while I work River.
On December 15th, River did her first serious conditioning ride: 4.5 miles, 1,360′ total elevation gain. Since then I’ve been gradually adding miles and elevation gain. I am also letting her go a lot faster than I did last year, always on our shorter 4.5-5 mile loop (the one we did first, on Decemebr 15th).
Above: River is sweaty in her winter coat on our first training rides. I’ve clipped her neck now.
New season, new training approach
Last year I went very slowly with River. I wanted to keep her mind calm. To avoid having a horse rarin’ to go and eat up the competition, I avoided speed in training. I did not want her cardiovascular system to be anywhere near peak. Remember, she had raced 17 times over three seasons on the track. (Read about River’s past: Meet my new mare River.) I did not have to worry about legging her up. Her hard and soft tissues had been prepared for hard work, and as long as I conditioned her cardiovascular system appropriately, I didn’t have to worry about breaking her.
In fact, it would have been easy to get River very fit very quickly. I chose not to do that, instead opting to slightly undertrain her. She went into every ride fit to do slow 50s. We successfully completed 50 miles at Fire Mountain, 50 at the Western Mojave xpride, back-to-back 50s at Cuyama Oaks, and a 50 at the new Treasure of the Sierra Madre ride. 250 slow endurance miles. Other than a stone bruise and a corn (River has to be reshod within 5 weeks), she was perfectly sound.
Then came Cache Creek Ridge, a complete mudbath. Even as I was riding down the trail and River slipped, I thought, “I should have trained her for this.” Jazz and Fantazia would have had no trouble in the mud. In fact, Jazz and I won the Fire Mt. 55-mile ride to the Trona Pinnacles because he was sure-footed in sloppy terrain. We did not go fast, but everyone else went slowly!
River was not ready for the steep muddy mess that was Cache Creek Ridge last May. That was my fault. I won’t make that mistake again. River’s current fitness reflects a new approach: let her get good anf fit!
River in enjoying the freedom to move
This means that I am letting River trot fast on the flat and attack the hills with gusto. She loves it. She knows the terrain where we ride well enough that I can trust her to make her own decisions. (Within reason!) If she wants to charge up a hill, I let her. She stops when she’s tired to huff and puff and grab some grass. Then she surges on up to the next “resting place.”
I can feel her cardiovascualr system responding. No, she’s not ready for a 50 yet, fast or slow. (Well… she could turtle ONE 50 in the desert just fine, but I want to ride two days if possible!) We won’t be able to go that fast even over 25 miles in the desert this Saturday. But I won’t force her to turtle. If she does as well as I expect, we’ll do the LD on Sunday as well.
Above: River cantering along a ridge, effortlessly changing leads with every bend. She’s loving the freedom to go faster than a long trot!
Our last training ride
Last Sunday we did our last serious training ride, and the toughest River had done since last spring. (Ideally it would have been Tuesday, but sadly the semester is starting and I have to work!) We completed 15 miles in just under four hours. Yes, slow, but with some very steep climbs and a total of 3,914′ total elevation gain. You can listen to my narration in the video below for my on-the-go take of River’s current fitness and progress.
Above: Towards the end of our 15-mile ride last weekend. I had taken many prettier videos in theory… but had not taken the lens cap off!
What’s next?
AS mentioned above, River is entered in the 25-=mile LD at Fire Mountain on Saturday (Day 1). If she does as well as I expect, we’ll do the 30-mile LD Sunday. After that, if all goes well, we will head to the Eastern Mojave xpride the first weekend in February for back-to-back 50s. Maybe I’ll finally complete the 65-mile ride at 20-mule team after that!