Archives for January 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!

The day was windy today, so I was expecting a bit of trouble from Flash today, but hoping for the best, of course. I decided today to do one of my previous loops in reverse, heading out towards Cypress Creek first, where we reached the Mack Dairy Rd. Intersection just as a very large, old noisy truck arrived as well, and it kind of freaked Flash out a bit. I had to fight with him to get him across the road, even having to dismount to accomplish it in the end. We traveled quickly to the tunnel under Indiantown road, and continued through all of Riverbend, where Flash once again decided to rush his way all the way through it, almost all 4.5 miles of it. I almost get the impression there's something there that bothers him, maybe spirits from the old battlefield there or something freaky like that. I don't know, he just loves to go fast through there, don't know if it's because he loves it or hates it! He shied quite a bit because of all the waving palm fronts and windy litter that kept him anxious, and when we got to Jupiter Farms Road, he started to refuse to cross over the bridge, insisting on going across the road instead. Fortunately, the traffic around here is very good about slowing for horses, so once again I had to dismount and get him past the trouble spot. The construction was even more intense today, so I led him through it until we were clear of it, then finally mounted and headed back west along the canal. We once again did quite a bit of his nice cordo gait, so we made good time, and when we finally reached the crossover on Indiantown Road, it was clear of traffic and he was cooperative. In the end, the 15+ miles were done in less than three hours, so he's obviously getting fitter, as am I! A few chores and then we settled down for the evening.