Cob Jockey

As if moving out of my house wasn't enough to do right now, Connor and I did our first intro endurance ride last weekend.

I've always wanted to try endurance - I ran competitively myself from third grade through my senior year of college, so human conditioning for long distance stuff is second nature to me. But there seemed like so many mental barriers to entry - time and effort spent conditioning, learning how/when to do vet checks and ride meetings and all that, and the fact that I 0% trust my hard-to-catch and mischievous pony to still be there the next morning if I tied him out or put him in a temporary corral.

I have no chill when it comes to bragging about my trailer backing skills, lol. I'm good.

So when new friend Barb told us about a local endurance ride an hour away that has permanent stabling and three intro options as short as 6 miles, plus is a charity benefit for that trail system, it seemed perfect. Yes, 6 miles is not really endurance, but what with moving out, I've ridden twice in the last month (although others have been riding Connor for me, to be fair) - a trail ride with a vet check was exactly our speed right now, and would help us figure out the mechanics of how the sport works without worrying about the distance.

In short - everything went perfectly. I camped in my truck bed tent and had the best night of sleep I've gotten in a long time thanks to perfect weather. Connor settled right into his stall without a care in the world. And the ride itself was a blast, with two of my barnmates joining me.

This setup was so incredibly comfortable, I can't even tell you.

The only hitch? I forgot my stirrups, which are on my other Dressage saddle (see previous statement about riding twice in the last month!) so Connor and I did the whole 6 miles stirrupless (and blockless, since I took the blocks out of the Patrick a while ago and never looked back).

Oops.

While I knew I'd be a goner if a deer jumped out at us, I also knew I'd be totally fine without them outside of that, and I was. Even on the steep hills, I just changed my balance to accommodate him and Connor dutifully put his hind end underneath him and picked his way up and down like he always does. I really could not love him more.

You could describe my not-planned-out color scheme as "10 year old girl"

It was our first time rolling with Scoots on all fours thanks to Megan K sending us Spicy's old pair of 4 slims, and Connor was so comfortable. It's not like he was uncomfortable without the hinds last time we did these trails, but he was striding out confidently and purposefully the whole ride this time.

Unfortunately the only slight downer was that we did experience some of that "intro isn't real endurance" attitude I've heard so much about. At the ride meeting the night before, someone asked the organizer how many were going out the next day. "8 in the 50 mile, 12 in the 25 mile, and 19 in intro," she said. I'm not going to try to quote the organizer or the participants, but there was quite a bit of shocked and displeased murmuring and feeble attempts to understand out loud why so many people were doing intro as opposed to the "real" distances. Finally my college professor, who knew we were there to do intro for the first time, shut it down by saying "And it's the most fun way to make a donation to the trail system, don't forget this is a charity ride."

It wasn't the only moment I felt vaguely "Uhhhh why are you here?" vibes when I would have expected "Wow, thanks for coming out, I hope you enjoy our sport enough to do it again!", which is unfortunate. It won't keep me from doing it again, because I did enjoy it, but I almost want to do only intros out of spite now, lol. 

Ivan the Wonder Pony and his emotional support tree branch. It was his owner's first time trying endurance after wanting to try it her entire life! (She's nearly 70!)

I do have to say there were also some wonderful people who put up with our stupid questions and general lost-ness when it came to vetting etc, so it wasn't all bad, but still. For a sport that requires so much to get started (time, access to conditioning areas, ability to travel and camp, and with no "lesson programs" to help you dip a toe in), they ought to be a lot more welcoming to anyone who dares sign up, no matter the distance.

He came home and promptly fell asleep.

So all in all, I had a blast and am looking forward to doing it again someday. I'm still so grateful to Barb for giving me the confidence to try it, and for my barnmates for being game to go with me! And with that, Connor gets to check a fourth sport off his bingo card (driving, eventing, Dressage and endurance).

I realized yesterday that I've taken trail riding for granted. Both my access to good trails, and my solid little trail pony. But it crossed my mind as I cheerfully rode along in the sunshine on the buckle for two hours yesterday with friends on beautiful trails, and I was so grateful.

And this made me giggle too.

Yesterday FIVE of us (wow!) got together to do a 6 mile ride around Deam Lake State Park, which is about an hour away from the farm. Our haul-in endurance friend Barb offered to give the folks without trailers a ride and to be our guide since none of us had been to Deam before. 

Part of the reason we chose this place and this trail is that there's an endurance benefit ride there at the beginning of June that (according to Barb) is a perfect introduction to the sport for those of us who have never done it before. They have a 6 mile intro ride that is not timed, so you can walk it if you really feel like it, but you still get to do the vet checks and go out with everyone. If you know anything about endurance, you know 6 miles is laughably short, which makes it perfect for a first ride IMO - the distance won't be an issue so we can focus on learning everything else we need to learn about the sport.

This, but make it a sport

We ended up covering the 6 miles yesterday in about two hours, and that was with about 90% walking and 10% trotting. The horses were outstanding, including Ivan the Wonder Pony who went out with Mary partially because his owner was out of town and partially because I wanted to see how he was on trails with Mary before Deb took him out.

Turns out this was Mary's first proper trail ride EVER (which I didn't know) but she trusts me enough that when I was like "Hey, you're going to ride the new guy without a bit and in a treeless, flapless saddle on trails we've never been on before and I don't really know how he'll be but I'm pretty sure he'll be fine" she signed right up, lol.

Mary: "Okay, I never liked knee blocks before going down a steep hill on a horse for the first time but now I get it."

He was amazing, like a trail professor, gently guiding Mary to just the right spots on the trail and never putting a foot wrong. Can't stop being grateful to have him in my barn.

For my part, I was looking to just get Connor out, assess his fitness and do some minor gear tests. Everything passed with flying colors, including my saddle bag held onto my saddle with twine and his Scoot Boots.

Never been here before, couldn't care less

Connor is out of shape, but still covered the 6 miles no problem. He's just so good on the trails. This was the first trail ride I've ever not managed him at all, quite literally rode him on the buckle nearly the entire time, and he just...goes. Straight through creeks and puddles and mud, carefully picking his way around to find the best and safest footing on hills. Happy to lead, follow or be in the middle, not affected by what the other horses are doing. He's just...fun.

Pony in the lead

And pony not in the lead

So I'm excited for June. Excited to try a sport I've always been curious about. Excited to have friends to do it with. And excited to check another sport off of Connor's bingo card.