2010 is winding to a close

I can't believe how fast 2010 has blown by!  I can't say that I've been particularly busy, but time sure does fly...

As the snow, cold and darkness roll in, my riding season winds down. I went from riding 4-5 times a week, to 3, to 2 and now I am down to 1x a week.  Darn darkness and snow!  I have 2 more lessons before Christmas at the old barn and then I won't be riding there again until February, if the weather cooperates.  It is often just too cold to ride much here in January, even with an indoor arena.

I hope to be able to get in a couple of rides on Rusty here and there, weather permitting. I really want to try riding bareback in deep soft snow.  I haven't done that since I was a kid.  

*********************

I have 2 weeks and 2 days of work left before a nice 10 day break over the Christmas holidays!  I can't wait - I haven't had much time off since May, so it will be time for a rest from the routine.  I'll be back at work for 2 weeks in January and then we are going on a cruise! I haven't had a warm vacation in a few years, so we are really looking forward to that.

*********************

I just realized that this post is all over the place - I have lots of things floating around in my mind, but no one topic is really worthy of an entire post - so you'll have to bear with my disjointed ramblings for today!  :-)

I was playing around with Google Earth the other day - it is pretty darn cool.  I was zooming in on my house and my childhood home and then I realized that you could use it to map out distances. How cool! I decided to zoom in on the barn and see if I could map out some of my riding routes.  I mostly ride on our farm, as well as the occasional trip to the farm next door.  Next summer, I'm hoping Rusty's feet toughen up a bit and we can expand our travels up and down the gravel roads at the front and back of the property.

I was quite surprised to see that some of my longer rides were over 8km (just under 5 miles), with some heading closer towards 10km (6.2 miles) (when we did a few extra laps of the track).  Here is the google earth image - I just took a screen capture of our (approximate) route.  I feel pretty good about my riding this year - I had Rusty in pretty good shape by the end of the summer.  Next year, depending on how things go, I might look into seeing if we can get off the property for some sort of long charity trail ride, a hunter pace or something like that.

Have a look at our cool map!  Rusty's farm (100 acres) is the long narrow part and the neighbouring farm with the 1/2 mile track is on the top left corner. 

Although I've had a few minor hiccups with the care at this barn, the hacking is pretty darn good, compared to most barns. I have one barn in reserve if things go downhill with this place. It is a bit farther away from home, but they have more property and more access to outside trails.   I don't want to have to move again, so hopefully the little problems at this barn remain minor and nothing big happens.