Maureen's Blog

The other day an email from ThoroEdge Equine Performance included the following link:

http://thoroedge.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/frankel-vs-uncle-mo-when-2yo-precociousness-is-done-right/

The article made a lot of sense to me and prompted me to go out and measure the hill on the farm.  Taking my wrist GPS, I hiked up the hill. I should say here that I have two GPS’s, my wrist Garmin for hiking, etc., and the Polar G1 which just transmits speed, distance, etc., to the Polar HR monitor wrist computer.  The GPS revealed that the distance to the meadow at the top of the hill is 1056 feet (.2 miles or 1.6 furlongs) and the change in elevation is over 100 feet.  So it’s a fairly steep slope, without being too steep.  The horses frequently gallop up it, so it’s certainly rideable.

There is a way up the hill without going into the horses’ enclosure.  It’s currently blocked by a fence, but my youngest son, Mike, will be here in a couple days, and my plan is to create a gate so that I can ride through.  I will, of course, let Chance pick his own gait and pace until he gets fit enough to canter up the hill while carrying a rider.  It will be interesting to see if his heart rate lowers as he gets more fit.  I personally used to be able to hear my own heart beat the first dozen times I went up.  I no longer hear it, and it doesn’t pound like it used to, but it sure does beat pretty hard.