Cake and Camp

Chamfron Colorado is 13 today and very definitely living his best life with Jessica.  Chamfron Chipita has been at a very hot South Shropshire Riding Club Camp, after a very stop start year (house move, injuries to both Chip and Linda and general busyness) it's nice to see them both back out, Chip remembered the trail classes of her youth and picked up a win at Horse Agility.  As life is not getting any less busy the plan is to put her in foal to a mouse dun Highland, people who know me will suspect my involvement in this choice of sire!!

Sun's shining

Its been a glorious weekend of sunshine here, today we went to South Queensferry and saw our first of the forty large giraffes that are lurking around Edinburgh.  You can collect them on an App and gain rewards, this one just happened to be a free ice cream, I had Giraffa Cake!  We saw a second at the Gyle and later one in Morningside.  We also stopped at the now finished (I may have said that before on this blog but I think it is actually finished this time) Colinton tunnel, I think you could walk through it a hundred times and see something different every time.  While we were sauntering and snacking Kirstin and Chamfron Agata de Fuego were no doubt sweltering their way around their second Bronze Thistle Qualifier for a speed category 2 gold.

Spotted on my travels (19)

Hoofin' around the Highlands

Jessica and Chamfron Colorado had a day riding with Claire and her two horses yesterday, Claire is doing a 1000 mile horseback ride around the Highlands in aid of The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) who support physical & mental well-being of ambulance service staff & their families. Wild camping as much as possible and aiming to finish within three to four months.  Claire's fundrasing page is https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/claire-alldritt   All money raised will be ring-fenced to support staff in Scotland and to help TASC raise their profile north of the border.  Wonder how Spidey would feel about a future career as a pack pony...

Spotted on my travels (18)

News from Chamfron Colorado

A tough 60km at Dores for Jessica and Chamfron Colorado last week, according to Jessica's watch they did 1130m of ascent and descent, HR out 48 and return 36.  Colorado is sponsored by Flexi boot and wears them for all his rides, the latest limited edition colour launch is hot pink, I'm not convinced he thinks he can pull it off though!  I have been impressed with these boots, absolutely no evidence of the rubs I was used to seeing at Endurance rides with other makes and I am now seeing several Chamfrons using them, Jessica says his first set have done over 1500km on mostly hard forestry tracks and are still in use.  He has also been spotted in Endurance magazine with super crew Fraser Mackay and on his holidays on the Dell Estate.

Summer Solstice steps (3)

My annual tally of effort for the previous twelve months, randomly calculated from the Summer Solstice. Well, we have recently fallen off the walking wagon, conferences and training staying away from home, a job that has me tired but not really walking three days a week and the lethargy of Covid has meant that the last six weeks have been an extremely week effort.  However this year I did manage 2248 miles (walking or occasionally riding) and 4,755,143 steps which is nearly 200 miles more than last year but considerably less steps!  Sadly I did not break the five million barrier. Best day was the 16th August 2021 with 31,434 steps and 14.5 miles (Ben Nevis, all done before lunchtime!) and the best month was July 2021 for a total of 517,439 steps and 245 miles.  I cannot imagine I can improve on this total over the next twelve months so there will have to be different targets, a bigger daily total is certainly do-able.