Spring Fever

Alright so all of you who ride in any climate that has winter will be aware of the feeling that first ride in spring... The snow may not be all gone, but suddenly the temp is way up and the ground less frozen and you just HAVE to get outside after being stuck indoors all winter. And your horse clearly agrees. You get on outside and your nice, calm, well-trained critter grows an extra hand and starts bouncing. And it will likely be the most exciting ride of the year. Every year. Whether you want it to be or not >;-P

Well I always figured that was fair. They've been cooped up even more than we have so getting *out* is a big deal after winter. But I had to laugh today when I discovered that spring fever applies, to the same extent, even when "winter" lasts all of four days! hahaha yup horses were spinny spinny spinny. Even the ones who had been out every day of winter. I also discovered that my horse can canter for an hour (literally - her choice, not mine) and not be winded. I'm in trouble *g* Although getting her fit for XC is not going to be any sort of problem. hahaha

Says something for the LSMs (long-slow miles) of endurance training... That would be as opposed to SFMs (short-fast miles) that we tend to do in interval training for eventing. LSMs are mostly seen in endurance riding, but as Denny's done a fair bit of that I've seen it in evidence here. And indeed, Sienna's done mostly excessively long walking -- yet she can canter endlessly. So she's getting much fitter w/o the wear and tear on bones/ligaments/etc. Not terribly exciting I have to admit -- esp won't be exciting when I'm home and have nowhere to hack -- but effective.

Somebody told me yesterday to "have a nice weekend" -- caught my attention because of course when you work seven days/wk the "weekend" holds no special value. In fact the only way I notice it's the weekend is that the morning show I like to listen to on the radio on the way in, isn't on... An entirely different mindset.