Thursday, April 20, 2017

Always Shenanigans

Well hopefully you’re getting your goat fix on my Instagram, because my blog needs to get back to horses in the few spare minutes I can scratch together to write (although I will admit the goats are a little cute – I still think they’d be cuter in someone else’s yard!). 


The girls have a temporary boyfriend.....
Last week before the great goat invasion, I managed to get Ruby out two nights in a row for good hacks. The weather was perfect, we had good company, and we did so much trotting! I don’t have access to a lot of trails in terms of distance riding, so my options are limited to hauling out (not really feasible on weeknights with my schedule and kind of time consuming on weekends), or just using the same few trails built together in different loops to increase the distance. What I DO love about my current trail access is the nice mix of hills, footing types, creek crossings, and the big fields to canter in! 

The woods smelled HEAVENLY!
Both nights Ruby worked up a light sweat, but wasn’t hot or breathing hard coming back in. I tried to mix up the walking and trotting to teeter on the edge of what she’s fit for while also pushing a little so we can keep building the fitness. I also have to manage to fit all this into not very much available free time for training, so we’ll see how things go as she gets (hopefully) fitter this spring). 

Random barn cat photo.
And no entry is complete without a photo of at least one of my teeny dogs.

Unfortunately, I didn’t pay enough attention to using my tracking app, so I’m still not sure on distance/mph. Plus, the app I currently use tracks in km instead of miles, which I find horrifically annoying. Anyone out there have a suggestion for a free app that would track my distance and MPH? I don’t think I need to invest in anything fancy while we’re just toying with the idea (shhhhh don’t look at my endurance saddle and hackamore, haha), but surely there is a free app out there that would help give me an idea of how far and how fast we’re going? I feel like I’ve seen some mentions of Endomoto, is that a good one to use? 

Grazing ponies are excited for spring!

Everyone got the weekend off between donating most of my day to photographing at our GMO’s spring show (which will hopefully pay off with selling a few photos to offset my time there -- can you say, Rolex shopping money?) and then spending time with my family for Easter. Monday I had my GMO meeting in the evening, so no time to ride then either, boo.
I only managed to take one photo on Easter -- this is me with my "baby" cousin. I swear I am completely normal sized, he is just insanely tall.
Tuesday I got back in the saddle for an extremely fun trail ride with several other boarders from my barn. Everyone else was on stock horses in western saddles, so I made Ruby ride in the back of the pack for most of the trip (which she was unamused by) -- she made her feelings about that very well known when I finally let her stretch her legs a little in the hay field. 
 

I should have gone to the barn last night too, but DH was off taking a proctored final and I've been battling insomnia (that basically makes me tired all day) so I did chores, and then vegged out on the couch alternating between folding laundry and packing for ROLEX. I have a feeling content will be a little light here through the end of the month (although who am I kidding, when is the content not light? haha) while I try to wrap everything up and then head to Kentucky!

22 comments:

  1. Trail rides in perfect weather are the best! I have to laugh a bit at your frustration with km, I've been annoyed before at apps only using Imperial units ;-). Which app are you using? I might need to download it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's called OneHorse -- it's Danish I think? I have Android, so not sure if it's available for Apple, if that applies to you.

      Delete
  2. Whatever. You're teeny.

    ROLEX ERMEGERD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ERMEGERD SHOPPING AND PONIES AND ADULT BEVERAGES 😁😁😁

      Delete
  3. Trail rides! Ugh, I'm still trying to work up the courage

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can do it! Find a steady, confident horse to ride out with as a buddy, that helps!

      Delete
  4. One of my friends uses a fitness app I think- she's able to select horseback riding as the activity and it tracks her location and can plot it on a satellite map (from google) and gives duration, distance, average speed, max speed, altitude, energy burned, and does heart rate monitoring (but she doesn't use that part. I don't know what it's called though! She's always posting pics of her rides from cell phone screenshots! Hopefully that will help you find it in the app store!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It also stores your "workouts" and lets you give them a name.

      Delete
    2. There are just so many fitness apps haha. It's kind of overwhelming!

      Delete
  5. Eeeeee rolex! So fun! Your cousin is a giant :O My brother is 6'9" so I feel small next to him (I'm 6 feet tall)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've used Endomondo for years. I did ultimately buy the cheapy version of it. But That $3-5 has been WELL worth it for many years. I also upload all of my Garmin stats onto my Endomondo account since getting a Garmin last spring. Gab at me at Rolex for more details haha. You'll have several days to pepper me with any and all endurance questions you can think of!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, picking of the brain will definitely be going on πŸ˜‰

      Delete
  7. I had an app called equi track for a while and it was pretty cool. You could create profiles for multiple horses and add notes about weather conditions etc. it was a tad glitchy tho

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Apple or Android? I can't seem to find any decent Android apps that work long term. I had one called track my hack but it permanently glitched out on me ughhhhhh

      Delete
  8. I am so scared to see what you guys come back with from Rolex.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I can't wait to live vicariously through you and your trip to ROLEX.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So jealous of all your trail ride adventures! And I can't wait to meet the goats on Sunday hahahahaha

    ReplyDelete