Two thousand ten gets filed away as one of the not so better years. Not as bad as 2005, but close. And I can't really put my finger on the reason. It started with the snow storm from hell resulting in the longest winter and from there, it seemed like a struggle every step of the way. Now here it is the last day of the year, and snow pellets are once again hitting the window. Fortunately, it's been a mild winter so far; perhaps the sign of good things to come.
Call me corny, but I log all my ride time. I belong to the Nebraska Horse Trails Committee's Trail Time program and the AQHA's Horseback Riding Program. It's become a habit to jot down my ride hours and other notable items about the ride; a diary of sort. Plus I'm a stat junkie, so I love looking at the end of year data.
I usually set my riding goals in the beginning of the year; hopefully riding more than the prior year. With the weather we had this past year – too cold to ride in the early months and too hot to ride mid-summer – I had to re-evaluate my goal. Luckily, with a mild fall, I made my new goal. This year I logged 250.25 hours in the saddle riding just over 700 miles.
Other than riding at home (23%), I spent the most time on the Branched Oak trails (17%) in preparation of our Trail Challenge; followed by Camp Moses, Oak Creek and Two Rivers. New locations added to the list this year included Medicine Bow and Vedauwoo Devils Playground in Wyoming.
As usual, Windy got the most ride time: 197.75 hours. The rest of the time was divided closely between Blue, Ginger and Butter.
My favorite ride of the year was the Competitive Trail Ride I did at Indian Cave. It was a spur of the moment decision, the weather was Top 10 and the ride was as close to perfect as Windy and I ever get.
Thanks to all of you who ride the trails with me; virtually through this blog or in "real-life".
Happy New Year.
I do hope you have a better year! I for one will be glad to see the back of this one!
ReplyDeleteI love to read all your posts, and do ride the virtual range! However, there is no substitute for ridin` your own. So heres to more horse time, and more miles under the belt!
Happy New Year!!!!
I am also a stats person and what a great idea to log your rides! I will include that as part of my 2011 goals. Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you keep track of your rides. Hope you have a great riding year in 2011. Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteThose stats are pretty blame cool Tammy!
ReplyDeleteRiding with you has been a pleasure...and dreaming and even comiserating...the tough times are in the territory with the best of times (same county, sometimes neighborhood).
Will be looking foreward to riding with you!
KK
Sounds like a pretty successful year of riding. Here's to an even better 2011!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to you,
~Lisa
At least the goal of riding more than you did last year should be an easy one for 2011, huh?
ReplyDeleteThanks to your posting of Garmin's trail mapping, you can come along on my rides!
ReplyDeleteCTR Alaska will be hosting the Bald Mountain Butt Buster in July 2012. Can you make it?
Even if it was a down year, that's a lot of miles!
ReplyDeleteI really like what you've done with tracking your riding. I'm wondering how you track the miles. I might try this this year, although it might be kind of depressing to see how little I ride but might also be a motivator to do more.
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