Howie hurries and a little more run

Started my Tuesday afternoon sessions with Howie this week. The objective is simply to get more time riding in hopes of starting jumping competitions this spring.

Howie was very strong today and, as usual, in a big hurry right from the start. Howie's walk was almost as fast as Duke's trot (Laura was riding Duke at the same time) and Howie's trot was as fast as Duke's canter. So I had to work really hard to keep Howie at the pace and rhythm that I wanted. Howie did eventually slow down a bit, but even at the walk at the end of the lesson he was a little speedster.

Laura and I talked a little about the possible impending purchase of Meyou, the horse Evan brought to the Tacoma Polo Club for Laura to consider for herself of one of her students. Meyou is exactly the horse I would be looking for...a jumper and a bit of a polo player, but I wasn't expecting to buy a horse until next spring. Meyou's even a chestnut, which makes him even more appealing...to me anyway. I'll be talking to the parents and looking at my budget very closely to see if "Me and You Forever" (Meyou's full name) will come to pass.

For the run in the evening I changed my workout to two minutes off, one minute on. Wow...how an 30 additional seconds can seem to drag on forever. But in the end, I was able to do it and actually felt pretty good during and after the workout. I'll continue this interval set for a couple weeks and then bump up again by 30 seconds.