June 10th: Decided to ride at Honey Creek to find the trail I have been looking for to add a good mile to the Honey Do again someday ride. We got close but I have a better idea of where it is for the next trip down. We had another great conditioning type ride she was good easy to rate and only bulked slightly at the first couple very rocky down hills, cannot say I blame her! She was awesome every time we met up with a group of riders we passed some, met some and even had to let one bunch head home while we headed to the pond loop. I got a little confused on this loop as the some of the signs have lost their arrows and we did a lot of it twice she even handled that perfect. 11.6 miles / 5.5mph June 8th: Decided to ride at the Caves had not been there since we took ribbons down and I thought maybe part of Haily’s issue on Wednesday at home was she needed a good workout. We did two loops got in some great conditioning, the streams are dried up so we did not go as far as I would have liked but did not want to push too hard since I had electro lighted her. She was very well behaved and I did not fight with her at all we still need to work some on who decides when we trot! 13.3 miles / 5.3mph June 6th: First ride at home in a while I wanted to get to the trail near Marty’s and see if we could get any father then the ditch crossing. Elway just had to come with us and to get to that trail I have to go past Ellison’s dogs and that is not a good idea for their dogs or mine. So we just kinda rode around. Haily was being a pain spooking trying to head back home type stuff. Not sure what I need to do to fix this as circling her / serpentines / making her go back nothing was working. Need to visit with Kim on this one. 3.9 miles/ 3.2mph June 1st – 3rd: The lameness issue had me concerned so I made an appointment with the awesome equine chiro/vet in Maryville MO. We knew we had one detour on 136 between Rock Port and Tarkio but were not aware there was another between the T and Maryville. Man my usual 40 mile trip to Maryville was close to 100 miles. Luckily the vet called and was running late so we were not late. Still had to wait at his home (this where he works on horses) for a about an hour and a half. I led Haily around letting her eat on the side of his driveway. She was fascinated with the meadow across the highway from his home. After her treatment which was minimal! Only one hip out slightly she escaped from me while I was writing out the check. Off she went to the meadow; I ran after her and saw her heading into a wooded area. My heart is breaking when I get to the wooded area and there is knee high old barbed wire fence with wire all over the place and no Haily anywhere. Long story short she was “missing” for an hour. We finally find her with the help of a stranger just down the road from the vets visiting with his neighbors horses. Thanks GOD she was not hurt I take her back to the trailer and head home, finding a little better detour home. The vet cleared her for the Centered Riding Clinic I had planned for the 2nd and 3rd so Saturday morning at 5 AM I headed North to Brenda Messick’s for the Clinic. This was an awesome Clinic I am not sure to even begin! We did “ground” work first. Not with the horse but with us, we learned how to visualize which helps with finding what our center is. And some stretches /visualizations to help our bodies be prepared to ride centered. I was in the last group to ride so I got to watch the first 3 groups ride I then knew kinda what to expect. I sure wish Carol could run her magic hands over my leg before every ride not sure what she did but mile leg felt a mile long! Then Carol told me my pelvis was tipped forward. DARN I thought that was the one thing I had down. So I am trying to figure out what right feels like! Then it was on to keeping my pelvis center/ soft eyes / breathing. These are the biggys I am concentrating to first. When we got done with our turn with Carol I asked Brenda if there was a place Haily and I could enjoy a short ride. She sent up down to some CPR ground she rides. After we rode the in and out road Haily did not seem interested in returning back to Brenda’s so we did a loop around the section. This was the neatest gravel for riding a barefoot horse on, Haily ended up the 4 plus miles with perfectly trimmed barefoot hooves. Day 2 we were instructed to work on riding from our center. Not sure I got all this concept but trying to do it really helps with my posting the trot. All in all this was a great Clinic for me I have a lot to work on and some tools to help me along the way. 8.7 miles/3.5mph May 25th – May 28th: The Jo Tate Endurance Ride, this was to be Haily’s first AERC ride. What a weekend! First we get super lost once we arrived in the Flag Springs conservation Area we drove around the area for almost 3 hours, before a kindly sole lead me to the ride camp. It was dark before I got parked. Haily does not eat or drink well on the road so I elected to not ride on Saturday since it was a 2 day ride I would just ride on Sunday. I did go out and do a short fun ride on Saturday with Dedi and her new horse. We picked the wrong trail to ride as this one was mainly road but I did get to see some of the Jo Tate Trail. Sunday dawned and we got already timely and I got her all warmed up she is calm and being a very good girl. We trotted out for Leon and we are off for our first AERC LD. I left with Triny and did not get ¼ a mile and my stirrup falls off! I send Triny on and hook her back up. We go another ¼ a mile and if comes off again. I give up and lead her back to camp to have it permanently put back on. Barry Cole and Leon are still in the vet check area. Barry jumps right in to help with the stirrup. He high tails it back to his rig to get another tie for the other side I walk away with Haily and Leon tells me to STOP. She looks lame! Oh man was she lame she could put no weight on her back left. Barry gets my boots off we are hoping for something minor like a rock no such luck she is lame. So I pull from the ride. Never did figure out why she was lame went to the chiro the next weekend but still no answers. 5.9 miles / 3.0mph May 18th – May 20th: Brenda Trujillo a lady I met thought the horsetales Yahoo group invited me to go down to Kanopolis with her group. Her Hubby wanted this trip to celebrate his birthday. So I invited Chris Anton to ride down with me. Had a nice trip down stopped and picked her and Ali up north of Topeka and off we went. We never did get in a loop with Brenda and company but Chris and I got in a few nice loops, I went though the water cross almost calm and they were a big issue with Charlie. I still have to remind myself now and then Haily is not Charlie! We had a nice weekend with great company and Haily got some good miles on her and my confidence jumped up a notch or two! 27.7 miles / 4.0mph May 14th: Haily first Open MOTDRA Ride: The ride was the benefit ride at Pomona Lake. This is the flattest ride on our schedule but also very technical. My plan was to leave last and do “our ride” but I left at my minute instead and paid for it with an unplanned dismount. I kept trying to keep us alone and it just was not working. Haily has an awesome 7 to 8 mph trot, get her faster than that and she gets hollow and choppy. Since most horses trot faster than that I figured alone would work best. After the dismount I gave up and stayed with Eric and crew for the rest of the first loop and the entire 2nd loop. We ended up in 3rd place in the heavy weight division and actually got 3rd place overall. An awesome placing for her first Open ride! GPS shut off for a while so stats not “right”. 26.1 / 5.10mph My 9th: I wanted to give the glove a test since we might need them at Pomona and we would need them at Jo Tate. Did a nice ride at home tested the gloved on hills up and down at a trot and lope they worked great. I struggle with getting them on and off but it will get easier as I do it more. We also found a way across the big ditch which opens up a lot of area for me to ride in. 4.22 miles / 3.4mph May 6th: Had an appointment with Randy to have Haily trimmed and have her fit with boots. He had 2 trainees for the weekend so this was a good opportunity for them and me to learn more about both trimming and boot fitting. She ended up with size 1’s on the front and 0.5’s on the rear. On the way home I decided to do a loop at Nodaway Valley Park since it is a long drive from home and I was driving right past it. What an awesome ride on my best girl. She zip through the trails like a deer running for it life. Unfortunately a storm was moving in so I had to cut it short at just under 5 miles. 4.63 miles 4.4mph May 5th: This was take the ribbons down day. Deb and Rosemarie showed up to help since I only had 1 day to get them all down I was very pleased to have the help. This was the fastest take down ribbons in history of taking down ribbons. We had a great time I was for the most part the tail end of the group and only had to stop and turn around a few times when all 3 of us missed a ribbon. 19.1 miles / 3.66 mph May 4th: I rode in the driveway and out on the road/fields a little tonight in the bareback pad. I was feeling very secure and comfortable this time even did some trotting. 1.48Miles / 3.3 mph April 29th : Rosemarie one of the MOTDRA members horse Skylar came up lame before the Indian Caves Ride so she rode Haily in the 15 mile LD Ride. Haily did a great job of carrying a total stranger on her around the very challenging trails at the Caves. And to top it all of we had cold rainy weather. Haily placed in 2nd in the ride. April 21st and 22nd: Our next mission was marking trails for the MOTDRA ride at Indian Caves on April 29th. Haily has taken ribbons down but never put them up. When we hang ribbons we tie them to clothes pens then hang them on cloths hangers and attach to our saddles. Since I knew I was making alone on Saturday I was a little concerned she was not going to love all those horse eating plastic monsters all over her. You would think by now I would quit worrying about Haily getting upset over things she was AWESOME as usual and we set out to mark the long 12.5 mile red loop. We came across a lady ponying a horse; she was lost and trying to get back to camp ASAP. Her sister had come off and the horse had headed for the timber. So my duties of marking had to end and we got the rider back to the trail head. It was late and a friend of mine was there and she offered to help on Sunday so I decided to wait until Sunday to go back to marking trail. Ruthann on her trusty paint Honey and I went out bright and early to mark the rest of the trails. Ended up being a good thing I had not done any more marking on Saturday as some drunken jerk cowboys had taken down about ½ the ribbons I had put out! Despite them and the lady needing help we got the trails marked! 17.48 miles 3.4 mph April 17th: Next update will start with another Wednesday night ride at home, we had a lot of rain in the last 5 days so going out on the Haily Hills trails was not safe. So we did the go around each field/pasture behind my house. Haily did great she is no longer going into the famous Arab Jig when she thinks we are heading for home. My older Rottie just had to come with us. After the 4th field we went around she decided to take the short way home. So a few minutes later I get a call from my hubby wondering if we are alright since Elway came home alone. Always good to have someone who will come looking for you if something bad happens. 5.01 miles / 3.4 mph