Planes! Fish!

One of many ponds at Murphy-Hanrehan

On Sunday, I left my husband and son to their own devices (football) and trailered Rhio to a nearby park, Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve.  It is only 14 miles from the new barn and offers a nice amount of varied trail with some hills.  It's what I think of an "urban" park, as it's located within the greater metropolitan area of the Twin Cities.  When you are out on trail, however, it feels quite rural, with the exception of the planes.  We were obviously in one of the flight paths being used that day, as there were countless big jets flying over on their way to or from the international airport.  And, it must have been as nice a day in the sky as it was on the ground, as I noted at least 5 small recreational planes flying as well.  Rhio didn't seem to notice the planes, but I definitely did.  It's not something I'm used to while riding, as the majority of my hours in the saddle have been in much less populated (quieter) spaces.

The very start of our ride, up a hill from the parking and group camp area.

Rhio and I met up with our new friends Sparrow and T. for some conditioning miles.  Sparrow and T. are new to endurance and we met earlier this year at a Mock Ride hosted by our local endurance group.  I'm trying to get T. to come to a ride this year, and we've ridden together several times this summer.  The horses seem to enjoy each other, as do their riders.

T. aboard Jack Sparrow, bay horse of mystery lineage (but a very good boy! and he likes this trotting/cantering stuff!)

Hydration is important! Sparrow already knows how to drink on trail. 

Boy, nothing beats the view between these ears, no matter what they're pointed at! 

It has been unseasonably hot and humid these past few days, beginning on Sunday with highs in the 80s and full sun.  We received about 5" of rain the previous week, and all that water on the landscape has to go somewhere - so it either was saturating the air or standing on the trail!  Every water body was rushing and/or overflowing its banks.  Luckily the soils here are excellent in wet conditions, and it was not at all muddy.  We trotted most of the first 8 miles, with the exception of the flooded trail segment around a small lake.  For this 1/4 mile section, we walked through knee-deep clear water, which provided a first for me - fish on the trail!  Rhio was in the lead, and at one point a whole school of minnows darted off the trail and into the grass along the side.  That was a surreal experience!

The flooded section of trail, where I saw the school of fish.

The larger portion of ridable trails is on the "prairie" side of the park. We enjoyed nice vistas of blue stem grasses turning their pretty red color for fall, waterfowl and snowy egrets dotted the many ponds and small lakes, and  I even spotted an Eastern Bluebird, goldfinches, and some species of wren (kind of hard to do quality species identification at a trot!).

Blue stem turning red

We met many other riders, and several hikers & dog walkers, out enjoying the day, and everyone seemed to be having a most excellent time.  We did our last 3 miles on the other side of the park, on a narrower trail through tall oak forest.  There are more trails on this side, but they are closed and inaccessible.  We were forced to do an out-and-back style ride on this segment, as at the bottom of a hill, the trail was completely obscured by a pond full of duck weed.  We'd ridden through water on this section of the trail earlier in the summer, but the bottom was not solid like near the lake, and we didn't want to chance it.

Woodsy side of the park 

Overall, we did about 11 miles in 2 1/2 hours with 1100 feet of elevation gain.  It was fun, and Rhio feels great!  I'm thrilled to be so close to this park, and I imagine many more conditioning miles in our future at Murphy-Hanrehan.  I'm looking forward to our 30 mile ride at Run for the Ridge this upcoming weekend.

Post-ride snacking

A New Home for the Horses

In the outdoor arena

After 6 months at a big boarding stable only 10 minutes from the house, today Red and Rhio moved to a small private barn (4 horses total) about 20 minutes away.  They were champs for loading, hauling, unloading, and settling in - but of course I didn't expect anything less!

Enjoying the yard grass

Sampling the hay in the outdoor feeder (and making a crazy face because of the mosquitoes!)

They will have stalls at night, and be out in the pasture during the day with hay.  For the first few days, they will be in the outdoor arena to get to know the other two horses across the fence.  I love that I will have the ability to change Red's feeding strategy as needed to account for his dental issues. That will be another post of its own, but this summer we confirmed that Red's all-important chewing teeth (the premolars and molars) are pretty much out of commission.  While he's not technically missing any teeth, the majority of them are so loose that he can't really use them.  The move to this barn will provide him with better quality hay, that he hopefully can successfully eat, as well as twice a day meals of senior feed and beet pulp mash.

It is sometimes (often) difficult to manage the varying issues that crop up in senior horses. Red has pretty significant arthritis in his front legs, from his 2015 left front injury and just normal wear and tear throughout life.  Arthritis is best managed with full-time turnout, so that the joints stay mobile and lubricated as best they can.  His dental disease, however, necessitates special feeding, which is easier accomplished with individual stalling.  So, we will see how things balance out in the new barn and how the change of living circumstances affects both his mobility and his body condition (which is basically his ability to take in and utilize calories).  I have no doubt that they will both be much better attended to in the small, private barn.  But it will be mighty strange to A) not see them every day for feeding and B) not have an entire feed room of supplies, buckets, bins, tubs, etc in our garage anymore!

Stall boy! I do think they may really like their stalls.  They have in the past at other barns. 

Beware the Pay Box

It was a lovely late afternoon! 

Saturday afternoon, and I can have a couple hours to myself to ride.  I head over to pick up my friend C. and her mare Phoenix, and we decide to try out a local county park that is only about 20 minutes from her house.  We've heard that it's a pretty popular place to ride locally.  We pull in to see the camping area pretty full, including with some horse folks.  I take this as a good sign, that the trails must be pretty decent.

Rocks are good for mounting!  The vehicles you can see are the camping area, and at least 3 rigs were there with horses. 

We get ready to ride, and I head over to drop some cash in the pay box for our "suggested donation" to the park.  It's one of those metal posts with a skinny slot at the top for sliding money in.  I crouch down just enough to see the slot (it has a little overhang, presumably to protect it from rain getting in the hole) and fold up the bills to push them in.  Just as the bills begin to slide through, out fly angry wasps (or something related).  Luckily they actually weren't too aggressive, as I took a couple quick steps back and they didn't really swarm me.  I am stung on my left wrist, but it is only a single sting.  And I'm not allergic.  But getting stung always makes me mad!  Especially when I wasn't trying to aggravate them, and in fact didn't even know they were there.  I get that they were defending their nest, but I was not happy.  And I didn't get the cash in there, it fluttered to the ground. I retrieved it about 10 minutes later, after they were all safely back inside the box, waiting for the next unsuspecting human.  Sorry, Sibley County Parks, no donation for you today!

The stung wrist.  Red mark with white around is the actual sting.  It swelled from the base of my hand about 1/3 of the way up my inner forearm. 

We didn't have any ice, but I did have a bucket of cold water I'd brought for the horses, and I stood with my entire arm submerged for at least 5 minutes.  It felt good, but didn't really seem to help the rapidly spreading swelling and redness.  I didn't have any Benadryl with me (note #1 for the day: put some human meds in the horse first aid box!) but I figured I'd survive.

This park (High Island Creek County Park) is situated on top of some bluffs, with the park area straddling the creek on both sides.  Basically, what was too steep or flooded too much to farm, was designated as park. This creek drains into the Minnesota River, and descends from the former prairie (now cropland) to the west into the river valley.  The trail went directly down from the camping/parking area to the creek.

Trail down through a 2nd picnic area and to the creek. 

We last had rain 4 days ago, but the water was still completely opaque with silt and had a decent current.  We could see hoof prints across, so we knew horses had been crossing there today.  I urged Rhio in, and after a good drink, he started somewhat reluctantly across.  He veered downstream, and suddenly we were in water up to my knees (while mounted).  He didn't care for that too much, but handled it calmly and just turned toward the bank and got out of the river.  Now he was convinced it was not safe to cross, and refused to reenter the river.  I figured as I was soaked through up the knees already, I might as well just get off and lead him across.  That way I could check the footing and the depth as I went.  So I did, at one point getting crotch deep, and he followed me willingly, with C. and Phoenix right behind.  Now I'm wet-wet, and have a swollen throbbing wrist.  This is starting to sound like endurance riding!

We follow the "trail," which at this point is just a narrow path barely wide enough for horses with jungly, creeping, and often thorny/pokey vegetation nearly obscuring it.  It turns out, after talking to a pair of riders who are very familiar with it, that this is the "main trail" (the stem of a flower is how it was described to us.)  We reached what seemed to be its terminus in a more open grassy area with a sand-filled wash ahead of us.  I could see hoofprints ahead, so we kept going.  We had previously passed one or two turnings to the right which also had hoofprints, but were even less of a trail than the one we were on.  This was no exception, dwindling into a deer path rather quickly.  We continued on until encountering a Private Property sign, and a fence.  We then turned along the fence to our right, as the creek was to the left.  We continued to follow the barest hint of a path, bushwhacking around numerous deadfall and the like.  Eventually we were faced with a huge, steep climb to get back out of the creek bottom land and up onto the bluff.  We did the first half, and the horses were working hard, huffing and puffing pretty good.  After a little leveling off, we turned into what was clearly another washed out gully packed with sand and debris.  (Have I mentioned that our area has been flooded and/or inundated with excess and heavy rainfall pretty much since the temperatures got above freezing?)

I scouted up this barely-even-a-path on foot and decided after looking around at the top, that there was no better way to get up.  But there was another sorta-obvious path up top, heading back in the general direction of the truck and trailer.  We opted to hike up on foot due to the incredible steepness (I used hands AND feet a couple times on my first foray up it) and the questionable footing (mud, sticks, etc). I tried to tail Rhio, where he leads and I follow, grabbing his tail for extra power to get up the hill.  He wasn't at all sure that UP was where we should go, so I had to mostly lead him.  C. had great luck tailing her mare up, though!

We set off attempting to follow this "trail," and encountered the western park boundary and more deadfall obscuring the trail.  After bushwhacking around, we again found something that looked much more trail-like and followed it back down nearly to where we'd started up the steepest part.  Geesh!  I guess that was an exercise in futility...or just good hill work for the horses? We also found a slightly rusty horseshoe in the trail, so I guess we weren't the only ones who'd made it up here, and I guess that it was actually a "trail."

The steep hill.  I'm only about 2 horse lengths in front of C., further up the hill.  See how tiny she looks!  Very steep indeed!

With much backtracking, fumbling around, stepping over logs, and ducking under branches, we made it back down the entire hill to the sandy wash we'd originally started in.  I suppose we'd just completed a "loop."  There was a nearly impenetrable wall of super thorny shrubbery between us and the main path, so we kind of just bulled our way through until we were back into the grassy area.  Rhio for sure knew the way back to the trailer, as he was eager to move out down the path back to the water crossing.  We retraced our steps from there, despite running into the riders who explained the "trail system" to us and told us that another portion was particularly good.

This is the "good" path.  Note the jungle-like vegetation. 

I would term these paths "social trails," as they're clearly just paths worn into the landscape with use. There was absolutely no trail planning, construction, maintenance, or maps.  It was quite the adventure.  I am very glad I had Rhio, who is so incredibly steady and willing when I point him into the woods and say, "go there, no wait, go this way, oh, hold on, turn around here!"

Bushwhacking

The biggest bummer - my phone app didn't function to capture our route, speed, time, or distance.  I know we rode for about 90 minutes.  We climbed up and descended the bluff twice.  We crossed the river both going and coming.  We rode through spider webs too numerous to count.  And my little and ring fingers were only mildly tingling from the swelling in my wrist impinging on the nerves!  It's a win in my book.  And, nope, we won't be back!  But soaking wet leather boots are a very good excuse to clean and condition them, which they've desperately needed.

High Island Creek

Hiatus

So, it turns out that having a (human) baby greatly reduces one's available free time for writing blogs (and many, many other things!).  It's been  2 years since I last posted - our son is now almost 20 months old.  We've moved, the boys are back in boarding, and Daria returned to her breeder's herd.  I'm going to just pick it up where I left off, writing posts as I can and sharing my horse life with my readers.

Run for the Cactus 50 mile Endurance ride, August 17, 2019

Rhio is 19 and still going strong!  I guess an old(er) rider and horse team can learn new tricks, as I changed a couple things with his protocols for the ride and he scored better on his vet card all day than he has in the past few years.

Ride prep starts the week before the ride.  Unfortunately, a new batch of hay at the stable gave both boys a bit of diarrhea and "gurgly tummy," so I started them on a new-to-me probiotic ASAP.  It was wonderful!  It really seemed to make a difference, and I kept Rhio on it all week and through the ride weekend.  I have used probiotics frequently over our years of competition, but I haven't felt that I could decidedly tell a difference with prior ones.  With this product, he was eating extremely well, and even ate most of a flake of alfalfa-grass mix hay in the trailer on the way to the ride on Friday night!  That is a very rare thing for him, as he is not a good eater on the trailer.

Beet pulp mash with electrolytes and probiotics in the week leading up to the ride. 

I also started syringing him with plain kaolin-pectin (the pink stuff - it smells like bubble gum but the flavor is pretty mild/bland) a couple days before the ride, to get him used to the taste.  It's a buffer used to help make the electrolytes less harsh on the stomach.  He hates being syringed and in the past has refused to eat after I've given him electrolytes via syringe at rides.  I'd decided to pre-mix my powdered electrolytes with the kaolin-pectin at home in the blender, then add a bit of liquid electrolyte solution at the ride, and dose before and during the ride via syringe.  I'd been just putting the powder into his mashes, which he typically doesn't consume very readily during the ride,  anyway.  So the few days of just the pink stuff did acclimate him to it, and dosing during the ride was easy-peasy!  And, even more important, he kept eating!

Kaolin-pectin 

Besides getting Rhio ready with diet/supplement tweaks, I also washed my girth, saddle pads, and half chaps.  Packed everything needed for 1 horse, 2 dogs, 2 adults, and 1 toddler to camp, eat, sleep, poop, and ride for the weekend.  Prepared food to feed all said beasties, two- and four-legged.  And completed various other myriad packing and prepping tasks.  It truly takes me all week, in between daily life, working, and being a toddler mom.  We had a plan to leave immediately after my husband finished work (i.e. I'd be all loaded and waiting for him in the back alley with the truck and trailer, since work is 30 minutes from home in the direction we were headed.) It was going to be a 4 hour drive, and we'd be getting there at or after dark.

And then, my carefully constructed plan imploded with both hubby and I getting late patients, and then hubby deciding he and toddler and 1 dog would stay home, after all.  So, I hurriedly unpacked a bunch of the stuff, fetched the toddler from daycare before they closed, went to the stable to load Rhio (with a small meal of Outlast and a handful of senior for his tummy prior to hauling), and meet hubby back at home to hand off the toddler.  Whew.  Ok.  Ready to go.  It's only 6:45 pm, 1 hour and 15 minutes after I'd planned to be on the road.

The trip was uneventful, with Rhio hauling calming and quietly as he usually does, Smokey riding shotgun, and little traffic.  I pulled into ride camp at 10:30 pm, having no difficulty finding it (whew! my night vision is TERRIBLE) and even saw a spot to park right there next to the entrance drive.  I pulled in, trying to be as quiet as possible, and proceeded to get Rhio's electric pen set up, his mash made, hay and water fed for the night, the tent set up, and my contacts out and teeth brushed in exactly an hour, under a beautiful full moon.

11:30pm Friday night, all settled in for the night

I slept poorly, as I usually do the night before a ride, and "helped" by the extremely bright moon keeping the inside of my tent nearly light enough to read without a headlamp.  I checked my phone many times, worried I'd overslept my 4:20 alarm.  When 4:20 rolled around, I got up and got dressed in my riding clothes,  put Rhio's hoof boots on, and then walked up to the office area (in a building with electricity! how nice!) to get my ride card and a map and a quick run down of the vital information for the 50 miler.  One of the vets was ready to vet me in, so I traipsed back to the trailer to grab Rhio, and vetted in, still in the dark.  I'd lugged my vet check stuff up with me as well, so I quickly got that set up for myself, and went back to get ready.  I remembered to eat something, I forgot to take my ibuprofen, and I was ready to head out pretty much at start time of 6am.  It was 6:05 when I left camp, the last 50 heading out on trail.  I knew Rhio would catch up to the next horse in no time, which he did.

We rode briefly with the second-to-last horse before Rhio decided he had more horses ahead to catch, and we proceeded to catch and pass the next group of 3 riders.  He wanted to keep going, so we stayed just a little ahead of them until the first water stop.  As we arrived, the next group of riders was just leaving, and so Rhio set his sights on those horses, and didn't want to stop, drink, eat, or relax at all.  We caught and passed that group as well, but I knew we weren't going to sustain that pace for the rest of the long first loop (22.5 miles) so I jumped off at the second water stop and waited for the group behind us to catch up.  From then on, all 5 of us rode the entirety of the rest of the ride together.  Which is shocking to me, actually, as I typically do not like riding in groups larger than 3.  But all the horses and all the riders got along so well all day, with zero disagreements or even crabby ears, that it was fun and relaxing to ride together.

Loop 1, about 11 miles in, 7:30am 

Sweet, clear, cool water 

The river! 

Single track - note the yellow and blue ribbons for trail marking. 

Loop 2 - water stop next to a bean field.

The bridge coming and going to/from camp.

The best part of this ride was the river! We stopped here on every loop, and it is undeniably the best water access/drinking/sponging place I've ever seen on a ride.  The water is perfectly clear, the bottom is perfectly firm with zero rocks, and it's level and mostly shallow.  By the third loop (hottest part of the afternoon), we were spending 10 minutes here sponging our horses and letting them cool down.  I'm pretty sure the horses looked forward to the river as much as we did!

The trails were great footing, and a nice mix between knee-knocking single track and two-track were you could easily move out and cruise along side by side.  The only difficulty we had on trail was an irrigation contraption that was spraying water about 15 feet above us, from the other side of a row of trees.  So we couldn't see the machinery, but we could first hear it (what's that noise?) and then see the water spraying through the tops of the trees (!!), and then feel the water hitting us and the trail (!!!!).  Wow, that was an "obstacle" that I had never dreamt of seeing.  Basically, we had to run through a giant sprinkler on our quivering horses.  But, we did all survive.

Loop 3

We finished in great shape with a ride time of 7:36.  All five of us completed with happy, sound horses.  Rhio ate and drank like a champ all day, took his syringed electrolytes without much fuss, and had the best vet scores he's had in forever (all As on hydration parameters and gut sounds the entire day!).  We had a few rubs - a slight girth rub after loop 1 which caused me to switch from mohair to fleece and add a coating of zinc oxide ointment to his armpits, and a very minor amount of rubbing from sand in the gaiters of his hind hoof boots, so that I pulled his boots and did the last loop barefoot.  I got a few rubs myself, more than Rhio actually, and am still nursing along a very bad rub on the side of my neck from my hydration pack (see my last post on the blog, from 2017!).

Overall, I absolutely loved this ride and can't wait to come back.  I'd forgotten how much I love to ride 50s.  And I am very proud of my pony.  We are within 1 year and 1 more endurance ride of both our Decade Team and 1000 Endurance Miles with our national governing body, American Endurance Ride Conference.

And, hubby and toddler survived their boys' weekend at home just fine.

The morning after

Completion prizes - first aid kit for the diaper bag, big hook for the hay bag (or whatever), and a new jelly scrubber (I've lost all my other ones).  I couldn't have gotten a more perfect bag of stuff! 

Gear Review: Source Outdoors Dune 1.5L Hydration Pack

During a snack break.

I thought it might be of some interest if I posted a review of new gear as I try it out.  Perhaps this comes from overhearing the reviews my hubby listens to about trail running gear.  Many items can successfully cross over from trail running to trail and endurance riding.  I recently acquired the Source Outdoors Dune 1.5L Hydration Pack, a backpack-style water bladder carrier designed for trail running.  A few days ago was my first ride with the pack.

What did I love about this pack?  It was comfortable and highly adjustable.  Although my back got a little sweaty wearing it in fairly humid conditions, it really was an unobtrusive presence during my ride.  The straps are all attached, so there are no dangling ends.  This is great, as there is very little chance of catching the straps on a piece of tack or tree branch.  And it's great for those mid-ride potty breaks - ladies, no worries about getting your straps wet by accident.  I did not have to remove my pack to take a "nature pee."  The fully loaded bladder and pack are still very lightweight, and sat very close to my back, therefore not interfering whatsoever with my balance in the saddle or while mounting/dismounting.  I had no problem using the tube, reattaching it to the magnet, or drinking.  I definitely drank more water, more consistently throughout my ride than I do with just bottles.  I did carry a single bottle of electrolyte-supplemented water in addition to the plain water in my pack. 

What did I not love about this pack?  Near the end of my nearly three hour ride, I couldn't get any more water out of the drinking valve while riding.  I assumed the bladder was empty.  In fact, I think the bladder had kinked in the middle as it lost volume and I wasn't able to get water until I'd removed the pack and manipulated the bladder a bit.  I am hoping this tendency will decrease as the bladder gets a little more "broken in."  As the volume of water decreased, the pack got lighter, and had more of a tendency to bounce on my back at the trot and canter.  However, I really didn't find this to be an annoyance at all (contrary to what I'd expected).  I did have to tighten the straps considerably once I began posting trot, compared to what was comfortable at the walk.  The waist strap did tend to ride up, but it was comfortable at the higher position so I let it remain there.

The sternum strap has a whistle built into the buckle.  I used this to signal my dog.  I forgot, however, that I'd never blown a whistle from Rhio's back.  He handled it just fine, but did have a little startle response.  The integrated whistle turned out to be a great feature!  But I do recommend you try it out from the ground around your horse first.

The water bladder is unique in that it is shaped to reduce sloshing.  It has a "hole" in the middle of it.  Between this design, and turning the filled bladder upside down and sucking all the air out before you put it in the back, I had very little water sloshing noise at all.  Rhio did indicate he could hear something weird up there when we first started trotting (perhaps just the motion of the padded, ventilated back against my tank top) but he quickly got used to it.  The pack did not make my tank ride up, which has been an issue with some hiking packs I've had in the past.

The drinking tube is fabric-covered (UV protection according to the manufacturer) and this makes it really easy to handle.  As with all bladders, the water that remains in the tube gets warm, so your first sip is always warm to hot (kinda yucky).  The water in the bladder stayed fairly cool, but not cold.  The drinking valve comes with an attached cover, which is nice.  However, I did find that I needed both hands to get the cover off and twist the valve open.  This may be a skill thing, and perhaps I will be able to operate it one-handed with more practice.

The waist belt has a small pocket on both sides.  I could *just* fit my iPhone 6 SE with a LifeProof case in this pocket - it was a bit tight. I prefer to have my phone on my person, and having it accessible for photo taking was nice.  I typically use a running waist belt for the phone if my riding tights don't have pockets (none of my summer tights do!).  It was perhaps slightly easier to get the phone out of the pack pocket than out of my waist belt.

There is also a slim pocket along the length of the pack, and a bungee-cord outside attachment (you could put a lightweight jacket in this I think.)  I did not use either of these features.

Overall, with just one pleasure/conditioning ride with the pack, I am happy with it.  I will hopefully be trying it out on a 50 mile endurance ride very soon!

P.S. It does come in a few colors!  I got mine for about $100. 

Happy Herd

The boys are comfortable enough to nap while Daria keeps watch.

All is well in our little herd!  Daria is lice-free and her new summer coat is growing in all glossy and black; neither Red nor Rhio got lice, and no one has had any ticks yet, either.  The EquiSpot topical I started for the lice is also a tick preventative.  My pasture doesn't have any brush or long grasses, so it's relatively unfavorable tick habitat, but the ticks are out in force already and having some protection on the horses (and the dogs!) is paramount. 

Daria, during a 8" spring snow storm just over a week ago.

I am now able to leave Red and Daria home alone - even overnight! - with no "extra" help for Red (i.e. not even a titch of tranquilizer required.)  Rhio and I have put on about 115 miles since January, and with his brand new shoes put on today, we are ready for the first ride of the season, in about a week and a half!  But before that, we are hosting a distance riding clinic this upcoming weekend and Rhio gets to 1) mark trail for our short practice ride 2) be a demo horse and 3) lead the group of riders on the practice ride!  I guess we've been having a busy spring.

Some of the views through Rhio's ears on this spring's rides.

My handy husband built me a hay box last week.  I wanted to be able to feed hay in nets to reduce waste, keep more hay in front of them all the time, and allow us to go away for a weekend camping without needing to have someone come feed the horses.  I have a full-bale size net, and because Rhio wears shoes (which could get caught on the net), I can't put the bale-in-the-net directly on the ground.  So, we designed this small hay box so that he can't catch his feet on the netting (ok, I suppose if he decided to stand IN the box - and horses do the darnedest things sometimes!), but that is still small and low enough to the ground that little Daria will be able to eat from it!  With two half-bale nets affixed to the board portion of the fence, and the box full with a full bale, and probably some loose hay as well, they should be good for 2 days. 

The box is just big enough for 1 bale, sits about 4" off the ground, and has solid sides but a slatted bottom (for drainage).  We used eye bolts so I can secure the net into the box, but they protrude too much and get caught on the net when I am putting it, full, in the box.  So, we are going to move the eye bolts to the top instead of the inside surface.

"Slow feed" nets are a big deal right now - rightly so, as they are very helpful for lots of "easy keeper" horses in reducing/slowing hay consumption, keeping them busy "grazing" more hours per day, and help keep small amounts of forage moving through their digestive tracts all the time (healthier horses.) My nets are not truly "slow feed" - because the diameter of the holes isn't small enough for the horses to really be slowed down, once they figure out how to use them. Red and Rhio have net experience, and they were thrilled with the box-o-hay immediately! They were actually preferentially eating out of the box, instead of loose hay I also put out. Daria has been skeptical of the whole thing, and has been scrounging for dropped hay beneath and around the nets rather than trying to eat from them, once the loose hay is gone.  I have every confidence she'll figure it out.  

Red uses the net like a pro.

Why don't I use true "slow-feed" nets, with all their health benefits? This is a purposeful choice on my part, because in the past Rhio has actually not been able to keep enough weight on if he is fed exclusively with a small-holed "slow feed" net.  My nets have 1 3/4" openings, the "slow feed" versions from this company (Hay Chix, www.haychix.com) are 1 1/4" or 1" openings.  The horses must learn to pull the hay through the holes, without biting the net (which just lifts the net off the hay, and doesn't result in a mouthful of hay.)  I don't know if Rhio just doesn't/won't spend enough time eating with a true "slow-feed" net, or if it really just limits his consumption too much.  At any rate, we will see how it goes with these nets.  Although the horses spend a reasonable amount of time "grazing," my pasture is very sparse in grass (our soil is too sandy) and it's not really come in well yet. They have reduced their hay consumption from winter, but I know that even in the summer, the majority of their feed will be hay.

Just 'cause he's so handsome!  It was recently his 22nd birthday (April 13th.)

Late afternoon light made this a great shot!

Quality Couple Time

My hubby and I have similar sport interests - he is a trail runner and aspiring ultramarathoner, and I do endurance.  Our sports are parallel in so many ways.  A few times in the past, we have trained together.  Today was one of those days.  He needed a 10 mile run today and I'd previously scoped out a quiet road nearby (unfortunately it's paved) - so Rhio and I joined him for a ride/run training session.  And it was great!

Rhio loves to have a buddy, and it turns out a human will do just fine.  We kept a nice, steady, slow trot for much of the ride, and hubby kept up his nice, steady jog pace.  We got some funny looks, especially when we decided to take the last few miles home along the shoulder of a county highway.  But, it was fun!  We got to spend time together, and we all got our miles done.

My hubby has recently acquired a spiffy new GPS watch with a heart rate monitor and a whole slew of fancy functions.  I use a tracking app on my iPhone to track all my rides.  We were within 0.01 miles of each other's elapsed mileage for the entire workout - which I find pretty impressive for my free app on my phone! And it was a nice way to validate my app's functionality - at least along a road with no tree cover.   Rhio and I did 9.4 miles in 2 hours exactly, with an average speed of 4.7 mph and a maximum speed of 8.1 mph (ok, so lots of steady slow trotting, a tiny bit of medium trot, and a sprinkling of walking - this is great early spring conditioning ride!)  So far for 2017, we have 33 miles of conditioning - not bad, considering the weather.  In comparison, my husband has 30 miles for this week alone!  But he does have the advantage of doing many of those miles on the treadmill, so he can work out no matter what Mother Nature throws our way.

Rhio's and my first competition will be May 6 and 7; we are planning back-to-back 25 mile rides.  My husband's first race is a 50K (32 miles) along the Superior Hiking Trail on May 20.  We all need more miles under our hooves/feet before May, so let's get cracking!

Even on a Sunday afternoon, there was little traffic here.

About a mile from home.  Rhio wore his hoof boots on all four feet because the majority of our route was asphalt.  I won't train much on asphalt, due to the concussion, but occasionally it will be fine. 

Almost home!  It was a "balmy" 18 degrees, but with little wind.  More sun would have been nice.  But, we did manage not to totally freeze.  Such is life trying to put on miles in northern Wisconsin in March.

Coming down the driveway - Red and Daria (can you spot her?) are waiting for us.  Red had a little extra calming help from a bit of tranquilizer, but he is doing great with Rhio leaving!  This was the second time in three days that I've ridden.

Post-ride, looking fine!