Stats:
Trail Ride #3
Location: Kalama, WA
Distance: 4.6 miles
Elevation: 778 feet
Ride Time: 59 minutes
Horses: I rode Vinnie, another rider rode Zorro, and Dessa free-ponied
I had a rare opportunity today to squeeze in a weekday winter trail ride – usually I get off work too late and the sun sets too early to do so. However, with our last day of sunshine until the normal winter forecast resumes, we headed up the mountain with all three horses again, and for that I am incredibly grateful.
Humor me as I take you on a detour about how we got to today’s ride…
Nearly two years ago, Vinnie sustained a moderate suspensory injury in his right front leg. After 6 months of extremely light work (walking around with small lesson students for up to 20 minutes 2-3 times per week), we began the long road to reconditioning his leg. Throughout this process, he received a series of Shockwave treatments and periodic ultrasounds to re-check the injury. His healing and rehabilitation plan was very successful, and in April of this year, a year after the original injury, he was cleared to begin re-conditioning for endurance. Our vet, who I specifically went to for this injury, is confident we can resume full participation in endurance, including 50-milers – the key word being we, as in Vinnie and specifically with me.
You see, Vinnie is 13.3hh and weighs 900 lbs (according to his driver’s license; he’s currently about 940 lbs and while he is in shape, his shape is definitively ROUND). When I purchased him, I hadn’t intended to purchase a literal pony as my endurance mount. I’m almost exactly at the mythical 20% “maximum weight” (while this percentage has been debunked both by better examination of the original conclusion and by countless Tevis finishers, this is still a piece of information relevant to his overall success I’ll discuss more in a moment). When Vinnie successfully completed the 50-mile ride in April 2023, I was SO proud of him and looking forward to our first full season competing together. All that was shattered when we was dead lame just 4 hours later and Dr. Foss, the ride vet, gave a preliminary diagnosis of a suspensory injury that was later confirmed by my own vet a few days later (for clarification, a different one than who I use now).
After many tears and deep breaths, I refocused on what our future looked like not just for the next year but also in the years to come. A terrible doubt snuck in… Vinnie always carried me just fine and didn’t show any issues until now. And, on a later ultrasound, my previous vet mentioned evidence of strain on the bone that had occurred over time in the past. Vinnie had only been lightly ridden prior to my ownership – was I asking too much of him? Was I too heavy? Did I have our goals all wrong?
A few months into this journey, an offhand conversation with an experienced endurance vet confirmed my worst doubts – just from a brief description of my concerns as well as Vinnie’s size, they said that they wouldn’t recommend doing any sort of demanding riding with him, including conditioning rides or CMO’s.
I was devastated. Vinnie is my heart horse, the first I’ve ever had. I thought I’d had previous heart horses, but with Vinnie I just knew. He head my heart from the moment he poked his head over the gate and wasn’t for sale, but was mine just a few hours later because the previous owner just knew as well. And now, what future did we have together? He deserves more than being a pasture ornament, and frankly I can’t afford a pasture ornament. His prognosis was very optimistic, but would continuing to ride him undo that in the future? I could modify how I rode him, but he would be so bored and so would I. No, if I couldn’t ride him the way we both deserved, then he deserved someone who could.
Thankfully, I got a second opinion. And a third. And I emailed Dr. Foss to get his perspective. They all disagreed. However, Dr. Foss in particular helped me reframe the entire situation – and how to avoid causing something like this in the future.
Essentially, like characters in video-games, we can think of horses as having various “stats” that create or reduce demands on their bodies. In endurance, relevant stats often include: speed, distance, weight, elevation, footing, conditioning, experience, and rest. The first five create demands, while the last three can help horses better meet those demands. It wasn’t just that I was “maxing out” Vinnie’s weight stat; I was maxing out everything and not giving him enough of the “healing” stats! I was asking him to go his maximum distance, had allowed him to do so at a fast pace for a significant portion of the ride, was regularly asking him to climb elevation, and had not only pulled him at mile 31 the weekend before for what I thought was a boot issue, but that ride had sandy footing – all while being a small guy with an adult-sized rider! He could have done just fine with any one of these or even a combination of the, but all of them at once? And he had a bad step and slip partway through the ride? No way. Though I’ll never know for sure what caused the actual suspensory injury, I definitely wasn’t setting him up to be healthy. I feel lucky the injury wasn’t worse.
So, what does this have to do with today’s trail ride?
First, I’m incredibly grateful that it was even possible in the first place – In addition to really needing a ride to maintain my mental health, not even two years ago I nearly rehomed Vinnie, Dessa had a severe founder and I took her to the vet thinking it would be a one-way trip, and I didn’t even know Zorro existed. To be up on top of that mountain today in the sunset and looking at the summits of four different volcanoes would have been an unimaginable blessing.
Second, I am working hard to make sure I am emphasizing my horses’ “healing” and protective stats. I’m balancing conditioning (which simultaneously prepares them but also strains them) with conservative distances and elevation. I don’t want to override either of my horses, but especially not Vinnie because it would be (was) so easy to do. I am doing what I can to make sure I’m fit and not adding unnecessary weight to his load, but there’s only so much I can do. If our goal is endurance, then I know I’ll be asking him to push for longer distances. While he needs elevation, he doesn’t need an excessive amount to be fit enough to achieve our goals. Likewise, we’ve been maintaining a conservative 7mph trot – which is also good for Zorro as a new endurance horse, even though he could easily do a 9-10mph working trot and 14mph extended trot. But there’s no reason to ask that of him now, and no reason to ask Vinnie for more than the pace we need to finish within time.
Moreover, we are putting our arena work to use and I’m asking him to lower his head and use his core as we move down the trail. He’s become very good at it and regularly stretches down and lifts his back. I can tell he is so much stronger than he has been in the past – all things that will help him carry me better and more safely when doing long distances. Likewise, I (or my second rider) asks Zorro to do the same because, even though he’s 16.1hh and could easily get away with sloppy form, I want to ensure he’s building the correct muscles to protect himself long-term and eventually be my 100-milers. Every time ride, I am more confident all of us will be able to start this season ready and finish proud!
