May - Week 3

The theme for the bank holiday weekend was "Sleep-Sleep-Sleep", instead of "Go Out and Have Three Days of Fun". You know it's time when the thought of doing anything "fun" fills you with an overwhelming tiredness - and so it was on Sunday morning (despite not getting out of bed at all on Saturday) when we were supposed to be packing for a quick camping trip to the mountains. The end result was a girl who spent almost the entire weekend either reading, watching films, or sleeping... sometimes all at the same time.

Sunday evening, pft joined me on a quick jaunt to the Powerlines and back (he wisely stayed at the top, keeping his mtn bike company, instead of scrambling down and then puffing his way back up again). Poor Finn was overheating - I need to do a summer convict-cut on him again since the temperatures are about to start climbing with avengence. Fergus took it all in his stride and positively lunged when we turned for home - I was about to suggest that he graze for a minute at the bottom, but instead he leapt, did that slightly alarming [oh-my-goodness-he's-a-big-strong-horse] head wrench and off we shot back up the hill.

By crikey that little dog can run!

And so I pronounce Fergus ready for NASTR 75 next weekend.

He's not carrying as much weight as I'd like. He's not thin, it's more that he's just not plump for the upcoming workload. Hopefully he doesn't drop too much weight this coming weekend. Once we get back, it'll be Operation Fatten Up all the way to Big Horn.

The forecast is for 88°F on Saturday - awk - we haven't trained in heat at all this year and he sweats pretty well in mid-70s right now, so I'm going to have to be diligent about keeping him as cool as I can.

His new ultra-expensive [oh please oh please let them do the trick] saddle pad inserts are on their way via UPS and should be here tomorrow (because we all know that you're supposed to try brand new, never-before-experimented-with, things on the day of a 75, right?). My take is that it can't be any worse than what I've already subjected his back to - he currently looks like an abuse case, thanks to my trying Freeform panels. It was another example of Lucy trying to put too much under there to make it work - and I've no real way of knowing if it is working since he seldom shows signs of discomfort - the first I know of it is when a new rash of white patches show up <sad>.

Anyway, hopefully the minimalist yet high-tech approach will do the trick this time around. And failing that, I can send a spare pad out to the vet check to switch out - we go through there three times.

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And the Sleep-Sleep-Sleep worked! This morning I actually felt that tug of excitement back again. Even though I knew I'd be happy when I got there, the thought of NASTR (or indeed any ride, even a conditioning ride) was making me weary. Instead, I'm getting that clean focused feeling again - where I have things in hand and - yes - this is going to be fun.