Conditioning Ride 11-17-2011

So, yes, I'm nuts. I made the decision and sent in my entry for Lead Follow. I spent much of the week between my last conditioning ride and this one figuring out how to get Hoss's HRM set up so it would work and not rub all his hair off. After many exchanges on Ridecamp, I concluded I had two problems. One was clearly Hoss has a nutritional deficiency which is resulting in his hair being brittle and his skin friable. In answer to that, I've started adding ground flax seeds to his diet. It will take months to decide if this is effective, but in the meantime it seems like a good thing to try. The second thing was I did not understand where I was supposed to be placing the side electrode for the HRM. Roger Rittenhouse, who devised the HRM system I am using, was a great deal of help and was able to make it clear to me what I was missing. I found it funny while reading his website I came across a statement he made while obviously somewhat frustrated by the inability of others to understand what he was saying. He responded to some posting on Ridecamp partly with the following: 

remember I have developed this and been doing this longer then any others 'selling' hrms - for horses. but hey HOW difficult is it figure this out?? (sic)

Well, he hadn't met me, had he? No matter how many times I read the directions, it seemed like all I could hear was Charlie Brown's teacher. It took a while, and some serious dumbing down of language on his part, but I got it sorted.

But before we could be making any attempt at 75 miles, Hoss needed to be seen by his favorite equine chiropractor, Dawn Fletcher of Medicine Hat Animal Chiropractic. So on Monday, three days before this ride, Dawn came out to see Hoss. Poor guy was definitely out and very sore. Dawn spent a great deal of time working out some muscle spasms in Hoss's back. Poor guy really hurt, but he did his darnedest to stay with her. I think Dawn really enjoys working on Hoss. He's pretty cooperative and has clearly decided she's good for him. Of course because of how badly out he was, Dawn had to say no riding for twenty-four hours, but of course I gave him more like seventy-two. It wasn't like I was in any condition to be getting on him in twenty-four hours anyway.

Now armed with the proper information to get the HRM working properly, I needed to get out and actually test it. Additionally, leaving the dogs home for the weekend knowing they would not get daily walks, it was really a necessity that the boys get a good bit of exercise. So I loaded Hoss in the trailer and the boys in the truck, and we headed down to Hollenbeck for a good ride.

Hoss's left hind swelling issue has not gotten any worse, but it hasn't gotten any better, either. After our morning walk it was improved, as it always seems to be post-walk.

I got Hoss's boots all on – the Easyboot Edges on the fronts and the Renegades on the hinds and the interference boots on his hind fetlocks – then got the saddle on and started messing with the HRM. The short lead electrode goes under the saddle pad on the left side, underneath the saddle seat where the stirrup hangs from. This one I've always seemed to be able to get in the right place. The long lead electrode with the pigtail is the one that always eluded me. I had been placing it far too high. It needs to go behind his elbow. I decided to put it behind his elbow and pretty close to the center line of his chest (his sternum). Once I'd placed the electrodes and gotten the cinch tightened right (not too tight, which creates its very own set of galling issues), I got the watch out and got it set up. It instantly picked up a signal and within seconds I had a reading. 35 beats per minute. That's not half bad. And I was very thrilled to see the watch getting a very consistent signal, even before I'd gotten Hoss working and sweating.

When we hit the trail, Hoss felt very rough. Much rougher than usual. I made him take a good long warm up before letting him trot again, and worked on getting him collected and extending properly. It felt like he was going up more than forward. It took some time, but he did start to smooth out.

I decided to do some mid-ride recovery checks, so after we ran as fast as we could up the hill to the top at Hollenbeck, I stopped him and watched his heart rate. At one minute, he dropped from 137 to 100. At two minutes he was at 88. That's pretty good recovery, from what I understand.

By the time we got to the flat back part of Hollenbeck and threw in a good breezing, Hoss was feeling quite smooth. He had a few moments of wanting to canter canted oddly, but I was able to support him with legs and reins to straighten him out. We did a few lead changes. I'm not yet able to do flying lead changes, so this was accomplished by dropping to a trot and picking up the other lead. Hoss was more even side to side than he has been in the past, but boy, the left lead was horribly difficult for me with the injured right hip.

Clearly Dawn's visit did a great deal to improve Hoss's overall wellbeing and way of going. His canter today was much more even side to side than I think it's ever been. The only issue was my inability to ride the left lead well. It just hurt too much. Mostly I just went as limp as I could and trusted I'd end up where I needed to be on the downs.

The next morning, Hoss's left hind swelling wasn't any worse than usual and went down with the walk.

Conditioning Ride 11-12-11 or, Yes, She Really is Nuts

Two weeks after our Moab adventure, I took Hoss and the boys for a short trail ride at Hollenbeck. The weather was turning, and I had a rehearsal to get to, so we didn't have a great deal of time to get in a ride. The boys were completely nuts, and Hoss was showing signs of feeling a bit pent up, so getting out was as much a necessity as anything. I also wanted to try out a suggestion I got about using the heart rate monitor. Since the electrode on his side had rubbed the hair off, I had asked online for advice. One of the suggestions made was to put both electrodes under the saddle on both sides. In addition to this, I needed to try out the brand new Renegade hoof boots I'd gotten for Hoss's hind feet.

The swelling issue Hoss developed after Moab hasn't changed. I did start taking him on morning walks, and the swelling will go down to the point the leg looks near normal. I've been applying liniment every day in hopes of improving things and getting it to go away. In the mornings, though, the swelling is back. I did trim out his feet and took a very hard look at that left hind, but there's simply nothing there. He has no pain response of any kind, but I think he's beginning to get ticked off at me for continually messing with it.

Fiddling with the HRM took more time than I hoped it would, and I couldn't get it to work quite right. It was clear the watch was receiving a signal from time to time, so I figured we'd just ride and hope that once Hoss had sweated up enough there'd be a good signal. The Renegade boots took less messing with to put on, but I had spent some time at home making some adjustments to get the straps right.

When I mounted up, it was pretty clear my hip was not going to be thrilled about the whole notion. It was immediately achy even through the drugs they gave me at the ER last week. As we headed for the cowboy gate and the trails, I realized I had little to no "leg." I couldn't use my leg for a cue without experiencing pain and cramping in the muscles. Luckily Hoss was still feeling a bit stiff and sore from our misadventure, so he wasn't taking advantage of my disability. I did figure out I could simply shift my weight from one butt cheek to the other and he'd move over in response. Cool! My trainer commented he's so good he'll even do what I want when I don't ask right.

We hit the trail at a sedate pace. It wasn't raining yet, but there were some sprinkles. My daughter had come home shortly before I left, and I quizzed her on the weather conditions, which had convinced me I could get away with a ride. Besides, it's not like we were going to melt or anything. It did turn out we timed it perfectly. The rain didn't really hit until I put Hoss back in the trailer.

Once we had warmed up adequately, Hoss picked up a nice but somewhat stiff trot. Clearly he was still "out" from sliding down Wipe Out Hill. Also, while brushing him, I found some extremely sore muscles. Clearly he was going to need a visit from his chiropractor before going to Lead Follow! Still, he was happy enough to get out, and after a bit smoothed out adequately enough I could be sure he wasn't lame at all.

I knew Hoss was sweating adequately enough that the HRM, if it was going to work with both sensors under the saddle pad, was going to work. I fiddled with the watch, and saw it get a few signals, but it never did give me a reading. That fix was a bust.

I had to be to a choir rehearsal so I really didn't have a great deal of time to ride. As a result I decided to cut the trail a little shorter than usual. Rather than go up the hill, we turned down, cutting off the extra two miles or so up the hill. At the flat, we had a good run-out breezing until we hit the "short cut," where, to his surprise, I turned him to cut off another mile or so of trail.

Once we topped the rise into the meadow, we took the "high" side, cutting the trail just a smidge shorter. As we trotted along, Mac caught sight of a coyote in the middle of the meadow and took off after it. Ash was not far behind him. I hollered, but was summarily ignored. I didn't have Mac's shock collar on, so had no way of stopping him. Not knowing what trouble he could be chasing, I sent Hoss cross-country as fast as we could go after the dogs. The terrain is uneven enough we weren't confident to do more than a swift trot.

Ash was the first to acknowledge my commands and return to me. I could fortunately see Mac, so at least I'd be able to get to him without a major search if things went badly. The coyote, fortunately for it, outpaced Mac and went to ground somewhere Mac couldn't find it. Mac also returned to me, looking slightly abashed. I'm really going to have to get a two-dog training collar system!

Back at the trailer, I got Hoss untacked and found the swelling on his left hind had reduced to completely normal. I ran my hand over it several times, poking and prodding and pinching and squeezing. Only response was a disgusted look from Hoss.

We only got in 5 miles, and I didn't really collect data knowing it was going to be so brief. I got Hoss and the dogs home just in time to turn around and head out in the terrible weather to go to my rehearsal. I was late, partly due to the miserable weather and partly due to getting a late start.

So, yes, I'm nuts. I'm giving serious thought to heading out to Lead, Follow or Get out of My Way.

It’s Just Never Easy

Ten days now since our fall at Moab. So here's the update on how everybody's doing.

Hoss looks pretty good. He still has a tiny bit of swelling around his left fetlock and pastern. I palpate him every day, but so far he's just annoyed that I keep fussing. He gives me no pain response at all. There's no heat and the swelling feels mushy for want of a better word. I'm beginning to suspect there's something going on with his foot. Again, no heat, but the swelling is of the variety that would make me suspect an abscess or other hoof injury. I haven't done anything about digging into his feet, because my hip hurts an awful lot.

After nine days and I wasn't any less crippled, I decided I'd better get checked out. I called my doctor's office and was told she couldn't see me for three weeks! I didn't think that was quite soon enough. This is more than a little frustrating. How long in advance to I need to know I'll have a problem in order to get in? She does have a triage procedure which I have used in the past. It's a little hit-or-miss. Without being physically seen, the nurse has to go by my description of my symptoms. If I miss something or I'm wrong, well, I get the wrong treatment. More than once I've gotten the wrong diagnosis based on the phone interview thing.

Based on the realization that either way I'd be driving into town for xrays at the least, I decided to forgo the triage process and went to Balboa hospital instead. I'd considered hitting an urgent care closer by, but realized the hospital was a better choice. The urgent care doesn't have an xray machine, so I'd have to be referred to another facility. It would likely result in me driving all over the place to get a diagnosis. At least at the hospital, it's one-stop "shopping," as it were. Any diagnostics could be done right on site.

Mondays are evidently a rather busy day for the emergency room at Naval Medical Center San Diego. There were so many patients a woman who was sent in by her doctor after discovering a dangerously high blood sugar level had to sit in the waiting room. There simply was no place for her in the back. They drew blood on her and plopped her back in the waiting room.

I knew I'd be "fast-tracked." Balboa used to have an urgent care, but due to remodeling, it's not in operation. Now everybody goes to the ER, and anybody who should be in urgent care is sent to fast track. Obviously I wasn't in any immediate danger. I was in the ER waiting room for a few hours before a bed opened up in fast track and I was called over there.

The student Physician's Assistant came in and did the exam and background. Her first comment was "So you got kicked by a horse." Um, no, not kicked. My horse did not kick me. He was slipping. He had no control. He slid right into me. I told the PA I wanted it officially noted the horse did nothing wrong. I'm beginning to feel the statistics about horse-related injuries are skewed because ER personnel don't get what the patients are telling them. I mean, someone looking at the report for my injury would assume Hoss had kicked me!

Once I got the whole kicked/fell thing straightened out, the PA decided based on my description to get xrays taken of my hip. There was a bit of a wait, but I had a book with me so it wasn't bad. Getting the xrays taken was not fun. First the tech had me put my toes together with my heels apart. Wow, that was uncomfortable. Worse was when he had me bend my knee and drop it to the outside. Holy crap that hurt!

Back over at fast track I lay down and waited for the results. It seemed like a long time passed before the young PA came in. What she told me was more than a little frightening. She told me they saw what looked like an avulsion fracture in my hip.

I know what an avulsion fracture is, so this was not good news. An avulsion fracture occurs when the attachment of a ligament or tendon to the bone pulls part of the bone away. This type of fracture can be significant and require surgery. From her description, I knew it wasn't of the surgery variety. Still, it would take a long time to heal and involved soft tissue damage, which just takes even longer to heal. They were waiting on the radiologist to confirm the diagnosis.

I spent a rather tense time waiting for the final word. Ultimately the radiologist determined what they had seen was calcification in my hip joint. My right hip has been a problem for a very long time, so it doesn't surprise me they're seeing arthritic changes. I did get the chance to see the xrays myself. I do have some experience reading xrays, even if it has been horse films. To my eye it could go either way. I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was misdiagnosed and I do have a fracture. Fortunately if it is misdiagnosed the fracture is mild enough as to make no difference in treatment.

The last couple of days Hoss has been giving indication that he's getting rather bored with the standing around and doing nothing. He has figured out how to remove the T-post caps on his pasture fence. He had the fence down enough he could have left, but was standing quietly in his pasture. I think he was expressing his desire to get out. I'll probably start taking him along on morning walks just to break up the monotony.

As to the remainder of our ride season, I'm not hopeful. At this point I am leaning heavily toward not going to Arizona for Lead, Follow, or Get Out of My Way on the 19^th. My pain level at this point is simply too daunting to make me feel comfortable with committing to another ride. I'm thinking our ride season is over. I have two more days to make a final decision, so while I'm pretty sure we're done for the season, I'm leaving the door cracked for the possibility.

The Drive Home

I wasn't planning to get out terribly early on Sunday. I had dishes to wash and a camp to break down. Mary and Dorothy Sue planned to leave pretty early in the morning. Since I was hauling a horse Mary was selling back to California with me, they tied her to my trailer before they left. I heard them pull out long before dawn.

I fed Hoss and laid back down, figuring there was no purpose in getting up for good until the sun had come up. The little mare, Kahleelah, was upset her friends had left. Mary had only left a little food, not wanting to risk Hoss getting to something he's allergic to. Kahleelah paced back and forth a bit and nickered. I listened to her for some time. At one point I heard the trailer gate pop open. I got up and got it closed and gave Kahleelah some Bermuda hay out of my supply to keep her busy.

After laying back down, I tried to get a bit more sleep. It was a long drive home and I wanted to be as well rested as I could be. But I had slept pretty well, so for the most part I lay there awake, listening to the horses rustle about. After a while it became clear Kahleelah wasn't settling, so I got up. I started the process of getting packed up by cleaning up the truck, then got the trailer packed up. I was going to wash my dishes, but discovered I didn't have scrubbies to wash them with. Alternatively I put the dirty dishes in a trash bag and put them in the truck.

By the time I got the tent down, it was still wet, so I couldn't roll it up and put it away. I put my memory foam and sleeping bag back in the back seat of the truck so I could sleep. The tent got shoved into the truck on top of everything else. The tarp I put on top of my tools so the dirt on it wouldn't get on the tent.

I was packed and ready to go. I got the truck hitched back up and started the process of loading. I made up a hay bag for Kahleelah and tried to load her. By this point she had hooked herself on the trailer, popped the door open, and generally spooked herself with my trailer a number of times. So she seemed to have decided my trailer was a horse eating monster. I got her to get in, but she promptly flew backwards back out of the trailer. I wanted her in the middle stall and Hoss in the very back so I could get him out if I needed to. Also, there's nothing to prevent the horse in the last stall from trying to get out when the gate is opened. I know how Hoss will behave. Kahleelah I didn't know, and I didn't want to risk her getting hurt if I opened the gate.

In the end I had to find someone to help me load her. A very kind young man named Chad helped me. He got her in and out a few times before we were able to get her to stay in comfortably. Chad tied her off and closed her in, and I loaded Hoss.

Hoss's hind legs had swollen up pretty badly over night. His left hind in particular was swollen, from the hock down. When I untied him and asked him to load up he didn't want to use his left hind to get in. He hopped on his right hind and got in. I must admit, he's quite the athlete to be loading three-legged! He would stand on the leg, but he didn't want to bend it.

We pulled out at about 8:30 am. Kahleelah sure danced around in the trailer. When we stopped for gas, she was pawing in the trailer. I figured this was simply due to nerves, so I left her be. Hoss was unconcerned by her behavior. He's been trailered with horses behaving much worse than that!

The drive was pretty uneventful, with exception of Kahleelah acting up in the trailer. I stopped and offered both horses water, and discovered poor Kahleelah was tied far too short! I loosened her up but didn't untie her. When I tried to leave her untied, she tried to duck under the divider. I didn't want to take a chance she'd hurt herself so I tied her, but much longer, just short enough to keep her from getting her head under the divider. Hoss I took out of the trailer and walked around for a few minutes. He was stiff to start, but loosened up as we went. He took a good drink. I wasn't able to get my bucket filled deep enough for Kahleelah to get a good drink. She couldn't figure out how to get her halter beyond the lip of the bucket. We weren't terribly far from where I'd be dropping her off, so I wasn't overly concerned. Once we hit the road, Kahleelah was much more settled in the trailer. Guess being tied short does not sit well with her!

We met with Kahleelah's new owner just outside Victorville. I unloaded Hoss and we got her out. Her new owner brought water and shallower buckets, so Kahelelah was able to get a good drink before loading up in the other trailer to go to her new home. Once they had left, Hoss was unhappy about being separated from his new trailer buddy. I needed to take a nap before heading the rest of the way home, so I loaded Hoss back up with food and water, and we moved to another location where I could sleep in the truck. I didn't want to leave him tied to the trailer because I couldn't find a place to park where I felt he would be safe from truckers trying to park to rest themselves.

I crawled into the back seat of the truck and slept like the dead for six hours. Normally my phone receiving emails or text messages will wake me up. This time, when I woke up and picked up my phone, I found messages I'd never heard my phone alert me to. For sleeping in the back seat of my truck on a badly bruised hip, I felt very refreshed and alert.

I gave Hoss a pan of beet pulp and a flake of rye grass. I decided to try hauling him with a half-full water bucket in the trailer with him to see how it went. I know people who have done it, so I figured it was worth a go.

We hit the road again about 5am. I decided to get breakfast on the way and drove into El Cajon to have breakfast at the Antique Row. I had eggs with bacon and sausage. Probably a mistake, and I sure did hurt later on, but it was about the best breakfast I'd had in a week. We were back on the road before 8am, and home by 8:30.

Hoss's left hind leg was still swollen, but his right had returned to near normal. I put him back in the pasture and gave him a bunch of hay. Uh-oh the goat was sure happy to see him. The dogs were so excited they could hardly contain themselves.

Before we had arrived at Moab, the water tank in the trailer had failed again. My husband had repaired it, but either the repair didn't hold or it found somewhere else to leak from. The floor of the tack room was soggy and some mold had started to grow. I pulled everything out of the tack room so it could dry. I got the tent out and hung up to dry, the dirty dishes in the house to be washed, and everything put away properly.

I decided I wanted to wrap Hoss with standing wraps, but I didn't have the mud stuff I needed to do the job. This meant running in to town to get some at the feed store. So I hopped in the Jeep to run that errand and check the mail. My daughter had used the Jeep while I was gone, and she had left it with hardly a drop of gas in it! So now I had to go all the way down to fill the tank. At the post office, I found several checks to be deposited, which made going all the way down that much easier.

When I got back, I gave Hoss a bath and got his legs wrapped. While bathing him, I found the heart rate monitor sensor on his right side had rubbed the hair off his side! It wasn't enough to make it bloody but sheesh! I really do not need him to keep getting these sores. His girth gall isn't any worse, fortunately, as a result of this ride. I was keeping it slathered with hydrocortisone cream.

Because of the swelling in his hind leg, I've decided to withdraw from our next ride this weekend. I'm hoping we'll still be able to do the Lead, Follow or Get Out of My Way ride in Arizona in another two weeks, but I'm not depending on it. If the swelling goes down by this weekend and he doesn't show any further signs of trouble, we'll probably go.

I have decided the Easyboots are no good for his hind feet. The hair loss from the rubs from the gaiters is terrible, and I'm pretty sure the swelling in both pasterns is due to the gaiters. I'm thinking about going with Renegades for his hinds. If they work out, I'll probably eventually move to using them all the way around, but I'll use up the Easyboots I have first.

Because of this little misadventure, we will not make our mileage goal for the year. That's okay. I'd rather have a sound, happy horse, than the record I was looking for.

Moab Canyons Endurance Ride Day 3

I slept pretty well in my tent despite the cold. In fact, if it hadn't been such a trial to get in and out of the sleeping bag, I might have removed a layer I was so warm. I got up at 5:30, fed Hoss and went into Dorothy's trailer to get dressed. The weather forecast had been for the days to get progressively warmer. I put on a tank top and my funky tights under my flames sweatshirt and windbreaker.

When I went to put Hoss's boots on, I noticed his hind legs were pretty swollen. The right hind pastern had several spots where the hair and been rubbed off. I put Body Glide on his pasterns to help prevent any further problems. I had picked up a pair of interference boots from Griffin's Tack, and put those on to protect his interference wounds. I figured the swelling would go down as we rode and warned Mary I'd have to adjust the boots, probably a few times during the morning as the swelling went down.

This morning we headed out at a pretty sedate walk. Hoss was feeling better than he had the previous morning, but he wasn't feeling the need to take off. Hadi was definitely feeling good. He was downright frisky!

After a little bit of a warm up, we picked up a nice trot with Hoss in the lead. He was keeping a pretty good pace. He was doing a very good job of being the leader to start out.

We let other riders get ahead of us. One rider was having some trouble with her horse and asked us to pass. Our horses weren't close at all, but her horse was getting very upset, so we accommodated and got ahead of them. They passed us up again later.

We decided to sort of baby our way along to the first vet check. We knew the first loop was shorter than the second, and we wanted Hoss to look good when we got into the vet check. So there was a lot of walking going on. Hadi evidently decided he didn't like this plan. I heard Mary hollering, and she had Hadi came blasting past us. Fortunately it was on a reasonably straight, flat section of trail, and Mary was able to ride it out. I got Hoss into a controlled canter, but made no attempt to catch Hadi. Hoss is slow, so he probably wouldn't have been able to catch him anyway, and I figured it would only encourage Hadi to run that much more. I just kept Hoss close enough we'd be able to stop and help Mary if she came off.

After we got back on, once Hadi had given up the idea of catching other horses, we rode along at a nice pace for a time until a group of 25 milers joined the trail. They were trotting along faster than we had been, and Hadi wanted nothing so much as to catch up to them. We tried to let them get away from us, but Hadi was not having it. We decided to get off and hand walk the horses for a time to get Hadi to cool off. He was feeling very good and appeared to have decided he needed to catch every horse he saw.

Once the 25 milers had gotten far enough ahead and we felt we were in more of a pocket clear of other horses, we got back on and rode on. We came upon the 25 milers, two girls and their mom, and they were short a horse. The mom's horse had gotten loose when she turned the horse around and the saddle slipped. She came off, the and the horse took off. She figured the mare had gone back to camp and was preparing to ride double with one of her girls.

We continued on our way, in no position to do anything to help them, although we kept our eyes open for the missing horse. The terrain was excellent, flat and not too deep, so we did quite a bit of trotting. I looked back at one point when Hoss was telling me there were other horses, and saw a group of riders trotting along with a riderless horse. They'd found the missing mare!

When we came in sight of the vet check, I hopped off to give Hoss plenty of time to recover. Once we walked in, he took a good drink and by the time we got to the P&R area, he was down. The vet commented his gut sounds were much better than the previous day and he looked much better.

I had sent a hay bag with alfalfa from home and bran. I mixed him a bran mash while he tucked into the hay. It was not easy. He kept trying to get the bran before I was done with it. Once I got the bran mixed up real well, I set the bucket I'd used to get water aside and gave him the bran. While waiting for our hold time to expire, I observed he was quite pleased to have a bucket of water right near him. He would drink from the bucket in between bites of hay. I'm going to have to get buckets to send out to vet checks in the future.

Once our hold was over, I gave Hoss a dose of electrolytes and we hit the trail again. This last loop was the first loop of the first day done in the opposite direction. I noticed many things I hadn't seen on day one. Not that it's surprising I missed things. Hoss was pretty fresh, so I was spending more time controlling him than enjoying the scenery!

We tried to stay in a pocket away from other horses. This seemed to work best for Hadi on day three. We caught up to a pair of horses being led by their riders and passed them up. Then the riders got on, and the horses caught up to us again. When the riders dismounted again, Mary and I set a good pace in an effort to get away from them.

We were riding through a wash with deep sand, walking, and I was drinking, when those horses caught up to us. They went past me without saying a word. I didn't think anything of it. Hadi was not pleased. When they came up behind him without warning he got a little goosy. Mary was rather unhappy about it, and I don't blame her. It's simply good trail manners to warn other riders when you're approaching and/or wanting to pass.

The other horses got a distance ahead of us, and we figured they'd be gone. We were wrong. It wasn't long until we caught up to them again, as they'd yet again gotten off to lead. Mary asked them to please warn her when they were approaching to pass, as Hadi was very easily upset by other horses coming up behind him. We passed them and continued on.

By this time both horses really wanted nothing more than to stop and eat every bit of grass they saw. We would let them stop for bites from time to time. I took to only letting Hoss eat if I pointed out something for him. He was starting to stop on his own, rather than waiting for permission.

Once again that pair of riders caught and passed us. This would be fine, except by this point we realized we were, in reality, going faster than them with their frequent dismounting, but couldn't stay far enough ahead not to deal with them. Every time they got back on, Hadi wanted to keep up with them. We'd pull off and let the horses graze in an effort to get the other horses away. Hadi figured out he should snatch a bite and then continue so he could chase the other horses. Hoss, on the other hand, was more than happy to keep eating.

After a bit, we inevitably caught up to them again. Just in time for Wipe Out Hill. On day one, we'd come up this hill, and although Hoss had slipped a bit, it wasn't terrible going up. I knew going down would be harder. It's recommended to lead the horses up and down this hill, and I am considerably slower than Hoss. I briefly considered hooking his breast collar through his reins and sending him on down without me. I discarded the plan because I was worried he wouldn't be able to figure out what to do on his own. So I kept hold of his reins and started on down.

We were about halfway down when I heard him start to slip. I looked back to see if there was anything I could do for him. I have an impression of horse legs going everywhere sort of like a cartoon horse in skates. Then his foot caught the back of my leg and swept it out from under me. I landed on my right side very hard, sliding just slightly down the hill. I hit my hip, arm, and ribs. Fortunately I managed to release Hoss's reins. He got himself stopped and waited for me to get up.

The two riders who had been ahead of us and stopped to wait for us at the bottom of the hill. Mary was at the top waiting for us to finish the hill. I am told Hoss sat down like a dog on the hill before he managed to get himself stopped. My fall evidently looked a lot worse than it was. I was asked by everyone if I was okay. I thought it an odd question considering I was sitting up and moving around, although not quickly. I was assessing the damage! I realized later my reply should have been, "I'm counting the bones."

Hoss waited for me to get up and gather up his reins. We made it the rest of the way down the hill without incident. At the bottom I checked Hoss over. He didn't have any obvious injuries and seemed happy enough. He wasn't particularly subdued, so I was pretty confident he wasn't injured.

We waited for Mary and Hadi to get down the hill, and we hand walked for a time. I wanted to make sure both Hoss and I had a chance to work out any kinks resulting from our unplanned adventure. It also gave some time for the other two riders to get ahead of us a ways.

The rest of the way back to camp we went pretty slowly. Mary tells me I looked rather gray after that fall, and I can tell you my right hip hurt an awful lot. I had hit damned hard. The muscle I'd landed on was protesting rather loudly. Still, we did our best to make good time. I didn't want to be out there any longer than necessary. Walking, in my opinion would just prolong the agony. We trotted as much as we could. Hoss never took a bad step.

At one point, within a mile or two of camp, Mary asked if I'd rather walk or trot in. I allowed as I didn't really care, but we'd get there faster if we trotted. So we trotted.

When we got in to camp and the final vet check, we were allowed to present without unsaddling first. The only problem with this plan was Hoss was starving, and the only hay on the ground was – orchard grass. His heart rate wasn't coming down. I explained to the vet he was really hungry and I couldn't let him eat what was available, so I'd rather take him to the trailer and let him eat for a while before presenting.

Hoss dug into his hay like he hadn't eaten in a month. I made him a bran mash which he sucked down in about two seconds. I got him untacked once the heart rate monitor showed him consistently down to 60 beats per minute. I threw a light blanket over him. Once he had slowed down his gorging, I took him back to the vet, where he cleared the check with no trouble.

Back at the trailer I gave him bunches of hay and beet pulp. I removed his boots, observing the rubs on his pasterns weren't any worse. The boot on his left hind I had to cut off. I got out my nail nippers and cut through the hose clamp to get it off. Both hind boots were damaged on the outside toe. I don't know if he did that on Wipe Out Hill or somewhere else.

I have to say that, while the boots are working fine on his front feet, I consider them a total failure on his hind feet. I think I may try a different brand of boots. I don't want to go back to shoeing him unless I absolutely must.

We got all three days finished, and got some nice completion awards in the mix. Of course, all Hoss cares about is the food!

Moab Canyons Endurance Ride Day 2

I got up in the dark at 5:30am to feed Hoss. I flicked on my headlamp and walked around my trailer to the sickening sight of his leadrope dangling from the trailer and no sign of Hoss. I went back to the LQ trailer and let Mary and Dorothy know Hoss was missing before I went hunting for him. It was absolutely dark, no moon and certainly not enough starlight to truly see by. I reasoned Hoss wasn't likely to go very far, so I started in a circular search pattern. I found him a couple rigs over, eating who-knows-what sort of hay. It looked like alfalfa. I collected him up and took him back where he belonged and fed him his real breakfast. I could only hope he hadn't found orchard grass to get into. I figured what he had been eating looked enough like alfalfa not to worry too much about it and if he got sick, well, we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

I put Hoss's boots back on. The one with the bent hose clamp I was unable to get the end into the keeper. If I'd had a pair of needle nose pliers with me I might have accomplished it, but it was not going to happen with my bare hands. I was left with just leaving it and taking my chances.

I used the S-hack on Hoss for this day. He's really getting to where he hates the Kimberwicke I've been using. When I tried to put it back in his mouth at the end of the vet check on day one, he fought me about it. Not so badly I couldn't get it on, or that we created a scene. Still, I didn't want to be dealing with him getting worse about it as the days went by. As it was, when I went to put the S-hack on, he jerked his head away and I had to discipline him about it. Once he realized I wasn't putting the bit back on, he settled down.

We headed out with Mary and Hadi again. Hoss didn't have quite the same get up and go as he had day one, but he was still pretty forward. Hadi was doing a pretty good job of leading, but he'd slow down when he thought Hoss had fallen too far behind. Hoss would catch up and Hadi would pick up the trot again. After a while, Hoss figured out if he dropped out of a trot sooner, he'd get to walk a little while, too. I think he was feeling a bit like he was doing an awful lot of work compared to that young whipper-snapper. And he was definitely more tired than I would expect him to be.

Another rider on a black arab stallion caught up to us and we all rode together for some time. The stallion kept us at a pretty good clip. Hoss couldn't really keep up, so we'd let them get ahead and catch up when they slowed down. At one point we caught up to a horse whose airs above the ground were quite spectacular. Mary was not interested in letting Hadi see that, so we dropped down to a walk and let the horse get well ahead of us.

At one point we missed a turn. We were trotting along a road and I noticed there weren't nearly enough hoof prints. I hollered out my observation and we turned around and found the trail we were meant to be on. Fortunately I'd noticed it pretty early on.

While we were trotting along, I felt Hoss take an odd step. He was off about five steps on the right hind after that. When I got off at a water stop to give him electrolytes, I noticed he'd knocked open the old interference scar on his right hind. Well, that sure explained it. That could not have felt good! I suspect it was because we were going pretty quick for so long.

We came into the vet check and I checked my GPS. We'd been averaging 6 mph! That's pretty quick for Hoss at his current level of conditioning. I knew we wouldn't be able to keep up with that stallion all afternoon.

It took Hoss longer to come down than I would've liked, and his heart rate stayed pretty high for some time. His gut sounds were pretty low, too. I explained to the vet he'd gotten loose in the night, so I didn't know what he might have gotten into. I also pointed out the interference wound on his right hind.

Mary and I decided to let the stallion go and continue on our own. The vet commented Hoss seemed very tired, so we wanted to take it easy so he'd look good when we got back to camp.

Much of the short loop we rode next we walked. It was alternately rocky and very deep, so not a great place to trot anyway. We did short bursts of trotting when one or the other horse felt the urge. Once we turned the corner so to speak and were headed back toward the vet check area, both horses seemed to perk up a bit. When we got back to the vet check area, they had a drink and wanted to eat. Unfortunately the only food laying about was orchard grass. Fortunately there was plenty of edible grass growing along the trail, so we headed on back toward camp and the finish. We let the horses stop frequently to snatch a bite or two of grass.

It wasn't terribly far back to the finish. We got back to camp about 5:30 for the finish. This time we had to get our saddles off before we could take our horses for completions. I took Hoss back to the trailer and got him untacked and cleaned up a bit. Hoss dug into his hay with vigor. I got his beet pulp started soaking to give him after he'd been vetted through.

Hoss vetted through just fine with a 54 heart rate. I took him back to the trailer to remove his boots. The bent hose clamp had become much more damaged, to the point I couldn't remove the boot. I checked with the vendors on site, but no one had the parts to repair the boot. My only choice was to leave it on. I removed the other three and loosened the gaiter on the one he had to wear overnight.

After the previous night's escape, I decided to pitch my tent and sleep where I could see and hear my horse. I did leave my clothes in Dorothy's trailer so I could change while standing up in the comfort of the heater. I'm glad I did move into the tent. About 10:30, I heard unusual noises, and sure enough, Hoss had escaped again. The rotten horse has figured out how to open the clip on his lead rope!

I caught Hoss back up and tied him back to the trailer. I got him some fresh hay in hopes of encouraging him to stay "home" and went back to bed. Despite temps dropping below freezing, I was quite comfortable. I had gotten myself a zero degree sleeping bag for just such occasions. I have to say, it was well worth the money!