Right now, I am sitting in a forced time out from riding. The tendons involved in the broken finger I had screwed together last year adhered to the scar tissue and it required surgery to release so I could function normally (I was struggling to hold reins for a sustained period of time without straining muscles in my forearm). Suki, in turn, is also going through a bit of a let down period. In some ways, it's for the better, she did work hard this summer and needs a chance to grow out her hooves. Long story short, her hoof wall got a bit brittle in August and she just would not keep on shoes. We'll hit it hard when I'm cleared to ride again.
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| The Flying Sausage Returns |
This got me thinking: how fit was she really to start with? Sure, she was aerobically fit, she could go through foxhunting without getting drenched and make it through a jump lesson with enough energy to bound through many rounds of "come jump that again." The hike straight up Algar Brook Road was nothing to her. But, was she ever really, truly fit?
Probably not.
Real fitness, the kind I would like her to develop, takes years to build and does not let go after a month of a lighter work schedule and a month off. This is the fitness I took for granted my old event horse, Spot, having. It was a level of fit he gained after years of racing (until he was 9 with 55 starts), and never having much of a let down, beyond a 3 day a week schedule during finals period and the like, until the winter of 2011-2012 when I did not have an indoor. That horse was always ready to put that final bit of aerobic fitness on in the spring and never understood the meaning of fat (for better or for worse).
Suki has yet to see that level of work, though the past year or so has been the most consistent in work, save periods off for surgery, she has had since I've owned her. All is not lost in my goal to get he truly fit, but it's only the first step. She has come a long way in the way she carries herself, and her level of broke-ness. When she goes back to work soon, I'll be able to start working on her base, focusing on her traveling straight and evenly because she is trained to listen to leg-into-hand, giving, and so on. And, we'll have plenty of time to start it slowly and correctly before the pressures of next season start peaking over the snow banks. And for that reason, I am glad to be out of commission now, even though these are the last few weeks of above freezing riding weather. I'll be able to get a start on her mileage for next season, and those following, before it is necessary she have level of fitness. It isn't the rides the week before a competition that make the difference. It is the rides weeks, months, and years before.
