Archives for 2019

As promised, I did the same loop I did last Friday backwards, trying to beat our time record, but Flash was a bit more sluggish in the beginning so we didn't quite make it, though we did do some longer stretches at a faster gait later on. Still 18.5 miles is a good workout! Once got back, Hubby and I sat by the pool for a bit, waiting for our local vet to come to give both horses their annuals. They were a bit late, but we got it done before dark, thank goodness. I asked her to check out Flash for any problems, explaining I wanted to train him up for endurance rides, though more urgently for the OTL ride at the end of the month. She found one small area of his left front leg a bit swollen, but said to just rest him and walk him, and wrap it when we got back into our training schedule. She also said his heart sounded different, some kind of flutter in between beats. She had a name for it, but I couldn't pronounce it, but again, she said it wasn't anything to worry about. Hope she's right! Once she packed up and left, we once again settled down for the evening.

Wow, what a ride! Today's goal was to increase the distance stretches of our faster gait, and Flash behaved beautifully! We started out crossing Indiantown road and following the canal down to the Loxahatchee Slough canal, but rather than go into the Slough trails, we kept straight on to the main canal. I've been trying to settle on a regular loop so that we can use it consistently to increase our speed and time, and this is a good one, the only road I have to cross is Indiantown where it is two-lane. From the main canal we cut into the north end part of the trail at Riverbend, then through the tunnel under Indiantown and straight back home through Cypress Creek. Now this is living! A beautiful 18.5 mile ride without traffic and without having to cross any roads except one! I think this will become our training loop for the time being, at least until I get thoroughly bored with it (which probably won't take long 🙂 ). The only complication was that there was a tree down along the last section of canal before getting home, and I tried to break enough branches off to get around it, and managed to get Flash around it on foot, though we had to step off the edge of the canal in order to make it around. Still got back in plenty of time to get Hubby to his dialysis session, and I went to Carson's Tavern for a quick Guinness before picking him up. It's kind of a pain having such a late appointment at the dialysis center, by the time we get home it's half past eight, and dinner after nine. We're hoping we can get earlier chair times eventually!