Foggy Mornings

We have had several beautiful foggy mornings this month. 

It just doesn’t get prettier than this. 

I never get tired of this view. 

 But there is not time to sit around and enjoy it when there is riding to be done.   Today was trotting back and forth across the long bottom for 3 1/2 miles then some light trotting and walking for another 2 miles back to the house. One month down one more to go. 

Conditioning Hugo, Horse Heaven Loop

Joe drove me and Hugo up to Horse Heaven so I could do some trail ride conditioning.  The loop is 8 1/2 miles with a 1100 foot elevation change.  

Hugo is still barefoot.  He has never had shoes even before we bought him.  I am finding however, that he prefers to not trot on gravel. He has no problem walking on any surface but when I ask for a trot, he gets over on the edge as far as he can.  The ride that I am aiming for is all sand, no rocks or gravel.  So that’s good. 

I also think he is a bit lazy.  I had to do a lot of encouraging to keep up any kind of pace.

It was a beautiful day, low 70’s, light breeze, and he didn’t even sweat that much.  

 We finished in just under 2 hours.  That pace doesn’t leave much room for error when we only have 6 hours to do 25 miles.  But at least his pulse was within finishing limits as soon as I got him tied up and was able to check it.  

Hugo’s training is still progressing.  I have ridden him over almost all of the farm.  I have had to stay away from the very ticky areas though.  

And yesterday we ran into a new varmint.  

 It is tough to tell from the picture because I didn’t want to get too close, but that is a skunk.  

And it is not Flower from Bambi.  

10 Days In

It has only been 10 days since I decided to start conditioning Hugo for a possible limited distance endurance ride, but I can already see some changes. One thing that has not changed is how long it takes to catch him.  He still runs around in the barn for 10-15 minutes before he decides to stop and stand still.  I just count that toward getting him in shape. 

Today I went to the outdoor arena to work.  I have been doing some hill work but flat work is good too.  The area where the ride will be in South Carolina is pretty flat. 

But first, in order to be able to use the arena, we had to move the cattle out.   It turns out Hugo isn’t bothered by cattle antics. 

He is not much of a looker, but I think you can already see an improvement.  The picture on the left was August 24th and the right was today, September 1 st.