Moab Canyons Endurance Ride, Day 1

Hoss and I rode with Mary Ruebush and her young horse, Hadi. I had met Mary through the Ridecamp news group, when she posted needing a ride back to California for a horse she was selling. I had seen the post and responded, and we arranged that I would haul the horse back with me. We also arranged to ride together throughout the three days of Moab. She was riding her horse for his first fifties, and Hoss does better with a little motivation, so it worked out well for both of us. I also had the good fortune to get to sleep in the living quarters trailer Mary and her friend, Dorothy Sue, had brought. It was much warmer in there than it would've been in the tent!

Out to the East shortly after the start

We started out day one with prancy horses wanting to chase everything. We hadn't gotten far down the trail when a loose horse came racing up the trail at full tilt. Hadi sure jumped about it. Hoss dealt with it fairly well, giving Mary someone to use to stop Hadi.

The loose horse ran back to camp and we continued on our way. Hoss would not settle in to a walk, which of course means I couldn't let him trot or we'd just be out of control. I think it took something over a mile to get him to settle enough I could ask him to trot.

The landscape was beautiful. We wound around the base of a narrow mesa early in the morning, then around the back side on our way up to Wipe Out Hill.

Wipe Out Hill is a steep sandstone rock face we had to go up on Day 1. The four-wheel-drive people usually come down it. To give you an idea how steep it is, if you're driving down it, you can't see where you're going past the hood of your vehicle. The four-wheelers stick their heads out the window and look for land marks! Hoo! They must be insane.

The recommendation, understandably enough, is to lead horses up Wipe Out Hill. Mary got off Hadi and led him up without incident. This is one of those places where steel shoes would be an improvement over boots. The steel bites into the sandstone and sticks pretty well.

Hoss was in his boots. I started up, and the big problem is I'm slower than Hoss, so he tends to get sideways. Getting sideways on sandstone is a terrible idea. I heard him start slipping and turned to see if he was going to get stopped or if I was going to have to let him go. He managed to get himself solid. I gave him a moment to resituate himself and we continued up the hill. He made it the rest of the way just fine.

At the top we all got back on and continued on our way. The morning loop was 26 miles, and much of it was deep sand. Hoss doesn't see much deep stuff, and Hadi is still quite young, so neither Mary nor I was interested in going particularly fast through that part. Day 1 was 55 miles, so even at 26 miles to the vet check, the afternoon was going to feel very long.

Sometime after Wipe Out Hill

It took us the better part of five hours to make the vet check. Criteria was set at 64, something I've never seen. Hoss's heart rate came down effectively immediately. Yet another thing I've never experienced.

Hoss was still pretty chipper, but of course he really isn't built for speed. He can go at a steady trot, but it sure isn't a fast one. Hadi, however, is a young Arab and he goes fast. On the second loop we often found Hadi and Mary leading until Hadi felt he'd left Hoss too far behind, then Hoss and I would catch up when Hadi slowed down.

Things got better when we were caught up by another group of riders. Having more horses around motivated both Hadi and Hoss to get moving. We rode through another lovely canyon. After a time, we ended up getting separated from the other riders and were "chasing" other horses.

We finished somewhat later than we would have liked to. Hoss came right down to criteria when we came in. I was using the heart rate monitor on him, mostly for the sake of curiosity. I found it is somewhat inaccurate. It was reading 71 and the vet got 68. At the mid vet check, it was reading 64 and the P&R fellow got 60. So it's not perfect, but it's a nice tool to have.

Back at camp, I got Hoss untacked and rugged up and fed. I removed his boots. My feeling is they tend to get full of dirt, and I don't want him standing around with that on him over night. Additionally, when I've left boots on him overnight before, he's given himself wounds in his armpits. While I was removing the boots, I discovered I hadn't gotten the end of the hose clamp on his left hind boot sufficiently into the keeper. It had bent a bit. I was still able to get the boot off and had every confidence I could get it back on and wrestle the end into the keeper in the morning.

It's amazing how quickly time zips by when getting a horse taken care of. I cooked up a bowl of soup for myself and joined Mary and Dorothy in the trailer for the evening. We were all tucked in by 8:30pm, in preparation to do it all over again the next morning.