CHANGE is a good thing, but if it’s not going in your direction, you gotta switch it up a bit. For those who’ve been following Sandman and I and now Nitro, 2026 has been our year of CHANGE. Sandman was down with Ulcers for 90 days and I suffered a few injuries, not career ending but serious enough to keep me out of the saddle, BUT now we’re riding again and we’ve logged over the last two months, some really good 13-16 mile (2X per week) training rides on a 7-9 MPH pace on the trails and the horses are in the walker on alternating ‘off trail’ days for another 8-10 miles as well, so the horses are getting back in shape.
In terms of my training, Lori and I signed up for a 60 day fitness challenge, which includes a schedule of consistent rigorous 60-90 minute daily workouts (supervised with loud motivating music) and a related diet, accountability, weekly BMI tracking, and coaching all of which when combined has been instrumental in helping me recover from these recent injuries and doubles as a kick start for our training rides. This exercise system’s “Food Is Fuel” approach is super helpful with my riding and also my balance in the saddle. With the more complicated weight and balance exercises we do now, I’m stronger and more centered and “up” in the saddle later into the rides. The “food is fuel” way of thinking and the system of balanced meals, jells, electrolytes, carb and protein drinks pre, during, and post training has helped me improve so that now there is no “bonking” during or post rides or in and after the daily workouts, there is consistent energy which I feel and I think the horses also feel down thru the saddle.
For those who are interested, the fitness stats for our last 15.75 mile training ride, we did about 3 hours at a 7 mph hour trot for most of it, burned 1523 calories and registered 262 MEPS, which is a tracking system to measure physical exertion and workout intensity based on heart rate. Its a very helpful metric that is customized around your personal physical attributes and using this system on our training rides has been a real eye opener for me, as I had no idea how much energy was being burned up on a ride and how fueling that energy shortfall was so important to my riding.
When I was younger, I could ride and ride and all I needed to do to stay in shape and remain competitive, was ride, but I gotta say, getting older sneaks up on you and now, these exercise and balance programs, and complementary dieting specifically for energy before, during and after our rides is the missing ingredient at least for me and exactly what I needed and should have probably been doing more religeously a long time ago.
Both horses are doing well, Nitro paddles on the right front a bit and more so at higher speed, so we found his sweet spot to be about a 7-8 MPH trot and he doesn’t throw his boots at that speed. Jessica is doing an amazing job with Nitro, and he is now less reactive and more tolerant and we are learning that he is super smart and picks up on new stuff very quickly. Sandman is back to his old self again, trotting the single track on his 10 MPH pace all day long weaving in and out on the narrow trails but still dogs it on the wider trails, a left over race horse behavior that I’m working on, but alternatively, when you turn his nose toward home, wherever and however far away home is at that time, look out, he’s locked in like a race horse heading to the finish line and boy is it a fun fun ride IF you can stay in the saddle.
Suffice it to say, it’s great to be consistently back in the saddle and riding with our endurance community again. Lori and I are so proud of Sandman and Nitro the progress they have made and their bright future ahead. This is a photo from one of our recent training rides, Nitro is on the left with Jessica Nordqvist up on him and then Sandman and I in the middle and Aileen up on her boy Rocky on the right. Stay tuned, we plan to turn 2026 around 
, wish us luck, enjoy the ride, it’s gonna be a good one!!