Trust your horse

We're going out. It rained a lot last night, and the paddock feels too wet. After yesterday's taxing work out I think that a lot of walking would do us good.

My core strength feels good and engaged from the start, albeit somewhat sore. I imagine Crownie must be feeling the same. She is definitely stiff, and finds it hard to go down hill on the slippery surface.

We trot up one of the roads, then take a track I have never been on before. As we alternate between walk and trot I realise that I am exhausted, and so is the horse. Neither of us has eaten enough yesterday. I kick myself that I didn't think of it, but it's obviously all part of learning. On top of that Crownie is stiff. I am hoping that it's just stiffness of the muscles and not shin soreness.

The track weaves down hill towards a creek. I can see the crossing, and it looks a bit rutted but fine otherwise. Before the creek crossing, the track gets a bit steeper. Crownie slips and slides a bit, and refuses to go down it. I think she's a wuss, and so I jump off. The clay underfoot is as slick as ice, I slip and slide and grab onto Crownie for balance. Four legs good, two legs bad. Crownie turns away from the creek. I stop and take another look. I concede defeat. We retreat.

For the rest of the ride we mainly walk and trot. We do a nice canter/gallop up to Dead Cow, and then head home. I am really happy with that canter - it implies that she is not shin sore.

Back at the ranch, I double the size of Crownie's feed, and put her out in a grassy paddock. After two eggs, a sausage and two slices of toast I feel like I've eaten air. I decide to double Crownie's evening feed too.

Core strength

I feel very inspired by last week's discovery of the importance of core strength. I am keen to play with this concept while we're out on the trail.

From the minute I hop on, I assess the strength of my core, my back, my legs. By "core" I mean all the muscles in the stomach, from the pubic bone, right up to the ribs, as well as the lower back. What troubles me is that they feel floppy. And I can't seem to engage them.

We go into trot, we walk at Dead Cow, then trot again, canter through the pine trees. Trot, walk down the side road, trot, then canter to the other plantation. During the canter I finally seem able to engage that core strength. At the same time, Crownie feels more balanced. It appears that the warm up is just as much for the rider, as for the horse. I seem in some control of my stirrups as well.

We're on a new track, and we spend a few kilometres just walking and trotting. After we cross a creek, we canter. I stay in three-point position and focus on keeping my core strong, yet supple. We canter like this for about 8 minutes (approximately 4km).

As we head back home we get a nice mixture of walk, trot and canter, but I can feel that the flame in Crownie is gone. I have hit the boundaries of her fitness. This is essential in order to improve fitness. We often call it "hitting the wall". Once you've hit the wall, you need to keep going to actually improve your fitness.

Crownie's August Training Schedule

This is Crownie's proposed schedule for August.

This is Crownie's actual training schedule. Looks like a month of disasters.