Tapering

I feel like July got away from me there at the end -- we leave for GMHA on Friday to tackle the 25/25!

When I stop and really think about it, I have no idea whether this is a sensible next step or whether we're biting off more than we can chew.  But Tucker handled the 25-miler in June so comfortably that it made sense to try another rung up the ladder, and I confess that on some level I enjoy (and have missed!) that nervous fizzy questioning.  It's those last few seconds in the cross-country startbox, or the first hand onto the rockwall to try a new route, but even more so.

I am control-freaky in the sense that I want to know and prepare for everything.  But every bit as important to me as lining up the dominoes with care is that moment of knocking the first one and giving over to whatever comes next.  A blog that I read posted a poem the other day, Emily Hasler's "Cartography For Beginners," and this line would make me a pretty good motto for life...

Dedicate your life
to the twin and warring gods of Precision
and Wild Abandon

We're fumbling through a taper made up of extra rest days and shorter thinkier rides.  I've been taking the opportunity to zero in on our transitions and on canter work kept a bit more rocked-back with the hind legs tucked under -- we'd gotten a bit sloppy and sprawly -- and that effort paid off in a very nice bareback dressage school the other night.  Today we had a short snappy ride around the park.  On a hunch, I switched back to just a square pad under the saddle and yes, Tucker moved and acted a bit better than under the coolback, so fine, horse, have it your way; I will stop trying to give you nice things!

(Spoiler: probably I won't.  Sigh.)

I'm trying to stay more upright while hacking, and to sit in the saddle a bit more than is my current inclination.  Sit lightly, yes!  But I can feel, sometimes, how my tendency to maximize the athleticism of my position -- to ride closed-up and aerodynamic, to spend a lot of time up out of the saddle -- can be an asset but also is not exactly energy-saving and might not be in anyone's best interests if and as (and if) we attempt longer rides.  So I've been working on developing a more efficient style, too.

Watching Tevis drove home that yes, this is a different sort of sport.  For one, I'm used to following people on live scoring and having them be done for the day by dinnertime, if not lunch!  Intellectually I understood how long it can take to ride 100 miles, but I was still a little shocked to realize that I could go to bed, sleep my eight hours, and wake up with one of "my" riders still out there on the course.  I was also fascinated to watch the video of the Haggin Cup judging.  The horses mostly moved differently than I'd expected, even accounting for some fatigue, and I'm still chewing over that.

Think good weather thoughts for us, please.  The South Woodstock forecast for next weekend looks pretty perfect right now.