I have a ride THIS weekend????

Did you know I had a ride this upcoming weekend?

Me neither.

I mean I DID know. Since, you know, I was the one that filled out the application, wrote the check, mailed the envelope, and somehow found the time to schedule a Health Cert appointment.

But there is knowing, and then there is KNOWING.

Work continues to be insane. My health is improving (thank goodness). Matt got a new puppy, which I got to spend the weekend playing with. My vet application got done a mere 6 days before the deadline (3 months after starting it….). Amid all this hustle and bustle, I just sort of….didn’t INTERNALIZE that I had a ride THIS weekend, even though I even mentioned it on the blog.

I have a ride FOUR days from now.
*sigh*

It should be fun. Funder has graciously offered to put me up, I have plans to stop into Cabelas, Sierra trading post, and see some Nevada landscape (which I love BTW).

Even though we haven’t been doing any specific ride or conditioning training, Farley remains in excellent shape. We’ve done a couple of longer trail rides (10-15 miles) and she remains in a regular dressage and hacking out schedule. We are 10 weeks post Tevis, almost 7 weeks post tye-up, and she is feeling GOOD. In fact, I’m a bit nervous about her fitness/energy level. She’s gained a bunch of weight (in a good weight), and that, combined with a change in the weather has made her a bit high energy. And knowing her track record in regards to desert ride (naughty) this should be rather…..”interesting”. I’m really hoping there’s a really big hill to point her at early on!

Plan is to get her out every day Monday-Friday this week, either for a 30-50 minute arena/dressage schooling, or a trot/canter canal session (40-60 minutes). Last night (Monday) we had a beautiful bareback arena session – the swingest walk EVER, the best stretchy trot EVER, and then some beautiful walk-canter transitions. Life is good.

Plan is to do the ride in strap on renegades (of course), possibly shorts for me (if the weather is good), and switch to a hackamore half way through (if she’s really really really really good….).

It’s my first time crossing state lines with livestock so I’ll report on any lessons learned!

I’m hoping for a fun, uneventful ride. If we complete, it will be a personal accomplishment – the first ride after a 100 is still a big deal to me, and especially since we had a tye up in the interm.