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Last week, we had a surprisingly large amount of rain. For most of the country, it would have been viewed as a light shower, but for us, half an inch is one-twelfth of our annual rainfall, and we got it over three days. I couldn't ride for one of the days because it was actually pouring, and the next day I had a late meeting, so I only did buckets. It also rained hard that night, so I figured I wouldn't be riding the next day either.  When I got to the barn, I discovered it wasn't as soggy as I had expected it to be, but I was tired, and I figured the arena would benefit from a day of rest. The afternoon was so bright and pleasant though that I couldn't waste the daylight. I decided to hack around the ranch.  My loop for the past month has been the same. I start at the barn (the green dot above) and then head toward the river, circling the lower pasture. This is the prettiest place on the ranch, but it terrifies Izzy. He can't stand the babbling river. There is a large grove of trees between the trail and the river, but he is certain there are sea monsters lurking and lying in wait for some juicy horse flesh. No matter how many times I ride this stretch, he's nervous every time.  As we leave the river, I circle around the smaller paddocks. Speedy lives in the middle section, on the left. We ride by Izzy's paddock, the largest one adjacent to the barn, and then we head up towards the arena.  On the second loop around, I rode into the arena to check the footing. The top half of the arena is always drier than the bottom half, so I only needed to check one low spot; that's the tear drop shape in the photo above. From the arena, I like to ride out to the paved driveway and then head back toward the barn.  I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but for this ride, I turned on my Map My Run app. I've timed this ride several times, and it always takes about 10 minutes per loop, and I usually do 3 loops. From my endurance days, I know that a slow, ambling walk is about 3 miles an hour. A slow easy trot is about 5 miles per hour. Even knowing that, I was shocked to realize that one loop around the entire ranch is half a mile. The app tracked us for 1.56 miles.  While I always say "up to the arena," it turns out that I was right. Despite looking very flat, there is a wee bit of elevation gain from the river up to the driveway, about 20 feet. I started at the barn - where the elevation tracking in red starts in the screenshot above, and then headed "down" to the river. The elevation tracker clearly shows each of my three passes by the river - the lows, and then the top of the driveway - the highs.
What started out as a pleasant ride in the bright sunshine after a cleansing rain quickly turned into a geek fest of technology-driven analysis. I've learned that endurance and dressage riders have a lot in common. Both are very driven, detail oriented, and gluttons for data. I've been both. To complete the trifecta, I'll need to move on to eventing. HAHA. Please no. Our weather has gone wonky which means fall is finally here. We went from mid-90s a week or so ago to snow in the mountains yesterday just a few miles to our east. With cooler weather, I've actually wanted to take a break from arena riding, so on Wednesday, I spent 30 minutes hacking around the ranch. If we walk, the loop around the ranch takes about 10 minutes, so three loops is a solid half hour of riding.  Whenever we start to school something that Izzy finds challenging, like flying changes, I know that it ramps up his tension. If I am not careful, he starts to worry about everything which is why I thought a hack around the ranch would be a good break from the hard stuff. Another benefit is that it affords me an opportunity to work on just the tension without worrying about geometry or straightness or being on the aids. When we walk, my only expectation is that we head forward with ears that are below my waist. I would love a level neck, but he can't quite give that to me the entire time. Yet.  That's the Kern River. For this week's hack, Izzy was really good. I've been doing this ride for the past several weeks, and despite having ridden this exact same loop for years, he is finally showing some relaxation. We've had enough conversations that include me enforcing the rules that he occasionally remembers that I am up there talking to him. Of course, yesterday, he was super spicy when we did real work, so it would seem that we're going to need a few more chats about the rules.
TGIF, friends, TGIF. It's not like I should be surprised that it is STILL the temperature of the sun here in Bakersfield - and believe me, we get the joke: BAKEersfield; but I am. Surprised is probably not the right word; frustrated is more like it. It has been in the low 90s every day this week. I did a quick weather search to find someplace place, ANYPLACE, hotter than it has been here. Know I found? NOTHING! Even Baghdad is only a few degrees warmer. Thankfully, today should be our last hot day of 2022. We will still have some warm days, but the arrival of Halloween usually marks the end of the real heat.  Since we had a show last weekend, I gave Izzy Monday and Tuesday off. On Wednesday, I did a short ride - some quick walk, trot, canter in each direction. As sweat was pouring down my face yesterday, I looked over at my winter-coated big brown horse and knew that it just wasn't fair to ask him to work hard in the heat. I made the quick decision to just hack around the ranch instead. There are lots of trees, so the ride is partly shaded, and frankly, he could use more hacks anyway.  Izzy is happy to trail ride with a buddy, but alone, not so much. Even though we're walking around all of the dry pastures and he can see his friends, he still acts as though there are boogeymen behind each tree and stump. I made the entire circle, poking him with my spur and giving small (and sometimes big) jerks on the rein to get his attention back on me. The second time we started the loop, he was much better behaved but there was the occasional lapse in judgement. By the third time, he still held some tension in his body, but he agreed to get to work. I cut off the last half of the loop and praised the heck out of him. If it is just as warm today when I get out there, we just might do it all again.
Hey! We're back. More on our trip in a day or two ... A few days before we left for Nashville, Izzy and I met up with MC, my endurance mentor and riding partner. MC and I rode thousands of miles together. MC has been an endurance competitor since at least the early 1980s, and is one of AERC's highest milage riders. What she doesn't know about the sport isn't worth knowing.  The weather was FANTASTIC. The Central Valley of California regularly experiences 6 months without rain from March through November. Occasionally we'll see some rain during the monsoon season (July or August), but it's rare. Last Wednesday, we had a record setting rainfall with thunder and lightening. The weather was cooler than normal - high 80s, but the footing was perfect with no dust. We left MC's place right around 8:30 a.m.  While Izzy has turned into a pretty reliable trail horse, this was the first ride where he did not jig even one single time. He was a bit of a camelephant here and there, but after the first 30 minutes, I was able to ride him on the buckle.  MC on Gem. The Panorama Vista Preserve covers 936 acres with the Kern River flowing through the middle. Thanks to the efforts of a lot of different people, the area contains miles of equestrian trails and has been planted with hundreds and hundreds of trees that now provide shaded trails over many parts of the river bottom. For many years, I boarded my horses in the area and rode through the preserve daily. Over the years, the trees have matured, and what was once a pretty desolate area of the river is now a lush habitat for birds and other wildlife.  With MC leading, we covered most of the preserve. MC's gelding Gem is a well traveled endurance horse with quite a few miles under his girth. Since he doesn't have a race until fall, MC kept the pace slower for Izzy but that doesn't mean we poked along. We did quite a few long stretches of trotting which was just what Izzy has needed. In the beginning, he was pretty high headed, but before long he was willing to trot in a more level frame.  I normally don't ride for quite that long, but Izzy really needed a good solid day. We rode 9.41 miles in two hours and thirty-five minutes - definitely not an endurance pace, but it was fun.  I was really proud of the big brown horse. He didn't do a single thing wrong, and he was very rideable. Once we got going, Izzy settled into the rhythm of the ride and never showed any resistance. We even crossed the river twice. The first time it was belly deep and pretty reedy, but he plowed right across and even stopped to drink both times. By the time we finished up, he and Gem were good buddies.
MC and I have a mutual friend who has been riding on Fridays with MC as she and her horse attempt to get fit enough for a fall endurance ride. I am hoping to tag along with the two of them at least a few times this summer. Even though Izzy and I have done a lot of trail riding every summer, I think he is finally ready to learn from the experience. I just might need to check next Friday's weather ... A month or so ago, a Facebook friend asked about trail riding, so I volunteered to set something up. I immediately texted my friend Wendy who, besides being a fellow dressage rider, also barrel races and trail rides - all with the same horse! It took a few stops and starts - finding a date where three horses and three riders are all healthy and sound can be difficult, but we finally met at Hart Park this past Sunday morning.  Our loop. With Izzy still being body sore, I crossed my fingers and asked Speedy if he were ready. I had given him a good bath the day before and was pleasantly surprised by his energy level. He has always loved to go places, but I was worried about his fitness level. The loop we do is nearly eight miles, but it's flat, and even if he doesn't get ridden anymore, he lives turned out. Speedy and Izzy play hard nearly every day, so he keeps himself fit enough for light work.  Ruby, Speedy, and Beanie. I wasn't a hundred percent sure who I was going to ride until Sunday morning. I hooked up the trailer and then went to check on both horses. Izzy looked just fine, but I just didn't want to fight with him on the trail. He's not scary, and I don't worry about coming off, but Wendy and I were riding with someone who I've never ridden with, and I just didn't want to ruin her day. Speedy still looked quite interested, so I loaded him up.  Wendy on Beanie Wendy arrived at the Barn first; Hart Park has a fabulous staging area for trail riding. Many years ago, the big barn was remodeled, picnic tables were installed, and corrals were built. The barn is really just for parties as it's not actually set up to house horses. The parking is somewhat limited, but three trailers fit easily. As I was pulling into the park, Wendy called letting me know that a bunch of trailers were already there. Yikes! She scoped it out though and determined that Lisa and I would be able to pull through without blocking the first group.  Me on Speedy. Horse people can be incredibly rude or incredibly polite. The gentlemen who arrived before us were the latter. They managed to park four or five trailers so far out of the way that we had no trouble parking. They headed out on the trail just before we did, and despite mentioning that we had food, we never saw them again.  Lisa on Ruby. The weather was a tad warm, but we were blessed with some clouds that kept the day quite pleasant. While Lisa is an accomplished reiner - Ruby showed us some pretty fancy moves, she had never done any trotting or cantering out on open trail before. Knowing that, and knowing that Speedy was pretty out of shape, we spent the first hour just walking and chatting.  Beanie was the bravest. Just before we got to the lake, we did do a small stretch of trotting, and from that point on Lisa was game on. We ended up trotting the entire back stretch of the lake. We threw in a bit of canter, but Ruby got a bit strong for Lisa's liking, so we kept it to a trot. From the lake back to the barn, we spent our time chatting and trotting when the footing was nice.  Ponies and friends - what could be better? We finished the loop in about two and half hours. There were so many families at the park this time of year that we felt compelled to stop for every group of children and every family who wanted a photo. That tends to slow down the riding, but being good ambassadors for the equestrian community benefits us all. Once we got back to the barn, each of the horses got a cool shower - there's a wash rack at the barn, and a bucket of water. With all three horses resting comfortably, we dragged out chairs and a table and enjoyed chips and guacamole, meats and cheeses, pasta salad, and Wendy's famous chocolate chip cookies.
Given how blue I've been feeling, it was much a needed day. Many thanks to old friends and new! |
About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. 
Photo by Lori Ovanessian
About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
July 2020 (PC AJSK Photography)
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
March 2021 (PC Tess Michelle Photography)
Bakersfield Dressage approved!
My favorite breeches!
FOR THE SMALLER EQUINE ATHLETE
I love her stuff!
Watercolor Artist and Friend
National Rider Awards
USDF Bronze Medal - 2020
USDF Second Level Rider Performance Award - 2018
USDF First Level Rider Performance Award - 2015
USDF Training Level Rider Performance Award - 2013
State Rider Awards
CDS Ruby Rider Award - 2018
State Horse Awards
Speedy G - 3rd Level Horse Performance Award - 2020
Speedy G - 2nd Level Horse Performance Award - 2018
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2023 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic 2023 Show Schedule
TBD 2023 Completed … Pending 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying Training Level 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Score 3: Archives
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