May 2014 Ride Calendar

April is here.

And May is here:

May looks a lot better on paper than it did in my head!  I knew we hadn't made our 4x/week average and between that failure and the LD that wasn't after the winter that very much was, I've been feeling kind of bummed and aimless and doing a lot of second-guessing my desire to attempt the 50 at Moonlight as a result.

We're heading to GMHA for 25 miles of CTR next weekend and I have a visit to the rail trail penciled in for two weeks after that, but then we're into the month pre-event when I figure it's too late to add any fitness and I just...I don't have any reason to think that we won't be ready, you know?  The entire plan is kind of a hail Mary, but there are at this time no huge glaring red flags.  I had just hoped to have a few more completed rides or high-mileage conditioning days in the fighting-chance column instead of one big question mark and trusting my gut.

(For the record, what my gut says is: might as well try.  My gut is not at all certain that we’ll finish, but likes how the horse is feeling these days and doesn’t think we will humiliate ourselves and/or die.)

So I’ve been thinking about those missed rides and about all that dressage and thinking, Maybe next year.  And then I would remember, Except there may not be a Moonlight next year.  And then I would think, UGH.

But this calendar is not actually so bad!  Those rides were missed for good reasons – rider not physically present in New England, the travel day to Bare Bones and then a few days off after, rider dying of plague – and the month has kind of a nice shape to it when looked at as a whole: couple-day stretches of working hard interspersed with active rest and genuine time off.  If we’d done the full distance at Bare Bones, I would be super super happy with this calendar, but what can you do?  But we had a couple of good conditioning rides and when I do the math, we probably traveled ~90 miles this month.

Which feels respectable!  Projecting forward, if we complete the CTR and get done what I’d like to get done at the rail trail (do not panic, friend who may be along for that ride! I am not planning to drag you the full distance; assuming you and your pony are able to join us, I have multiple crazypants ideas to make this work for all involved!) and ride conservatively in between, we’ll record another 90 or so in the first three weeks of June.  And then the plan is to take my foot off the accelerator and coast until Moonlight in mid-July.  Tucker is a little tricky to taper in that he does not profit from standing around; he is a sounder horse in work than he is out.  (A lot more pleasant to be around, too; out of work, he tends to make his own fun!)  Part of me is tempted to see if we can get to the Fryeberg ride on 4th of July weekend that I have heard so many good things about, but I’m not sure the cost/benefit ratio of joy-riding a 25 two weeks out for Moonlight makes sense even if I could work the logistics.

tl;dr: Day ~4,380: All still not lost.

(Just realized I first rode Tucker a little over 12 years ago.  I will have owned him for 12 years exactly as of this coming -- August, I think?  That is crazy, you guys.  There are hardly any humans who have been in my life for that long.)