Hello folks,
Ride season is officially underway for this endurance
nut...we went to our first ride of the season, the Little Manistee Memorial Ride
in Luther, Michigan. This is one of my favorite trails in
Michigan. Jay Grams does a helluva job marking this trail and due to
logging over the winter months, there were plenty of treacherous areas to
traverse through. In spite of some areas not even having a TREE to paint
or mark or put a plate on, we had no trouble following this trail and I am sure
it was not an easy feat for Jay.
This ride was very educational for me...I went into it
with a horse definitely on the muscle and a cocky attitude (me) of
hoping/wanting to top ten. Malik has been getting better and better, week
by week as evidenced by a working heart rate that has continued to come down and
almost instantaneous recoveries, even after a fast gallop. We got there
late in the day and saved a spot for our friends and team mates, Shannon and
Cameron Wood (yes, some of our Michigan rides are going to try the team concept
this year!) and they arrived a couple of hours after we did. Malik took an
immediate dislike to Cam's horse, Khomytt, who was placed in between him
and MaeDae, Shannon's Standardbred mare (an AWESOME horse) who Malik happens to
be in love with. Bay mares are his favorite! Malik vetted in with
all A's and comments of FRESH for gait and SASSY for attitude. :) So
Malik spent a night pacing and complaining about the injustice of it
all...unusual for him as he will usually lay down and sleep. But it was
our first ride of the year, very cool (hard frost over night) and he was wound
up. We lunged him, bucking and kicking, first thing in the morning because
he was absolutely quivering with excitement and I prefer to stay IN the
saddle. We held out and started in the back of the pack and Malik
all but ran away with me for the first 25 miles...he had me faked out with his
good behavior at home and even at trail rides just using the Little S. I
used it all last year with never a problem. Yesterday his brain was out to
lunch and all he could think of was GO. I have never had that much horse
underneath me. It's pretty scary. By the halfway point, I felt as if
I had already done 50!! Didn't help that I was coming down with a chest
cold and could hardly breathe! Or that I smashed my knee into a tree
"discussing" pacing with Malik. He was not into "discussing" anything with
me yesterday (at least not for the first 25 miles). I was glad that we
were doing 50 miles though...Malik needed to be taken down a peg or two.