Death Valley Encounter Day 4 2011

On this, the last day of the ride, Hoss and I hooked up with Kody and Kaitlynn. We've ridden with them before. Hoss and Kody are well matched. When one doesn't want to move out, the other will pick it up. They like each other and go about the same speed. And Kaitlynn and I get along pretty well, too.

Much of the ride was over relatively flat ground. It was also on or near the same trails we'd taken the day before. There was some new stuff as well, but we pretty much went around in the same fashion as Day 3.

Kaitlynn and I kept up the pace pretty well, chatting while we trotted along. We walked what we needed to, or when the horses needed a break. Yet again, there were playing cards we had to pick up as proof we actually went the way we were meant to.

We came back in to camp for the vet check nice and slow, and both horses were down right away. We took our horses to our separate trailers and took care of them and ourselves while we waited our hold time. Somehow I got my out time wrong, and ended up vetting and leaving ten minutes late! Kaitlynn and Kody had already hit the trail and were far ahead of us.

Hoss, now left behind and on his own, was less than keen on going back out again. It took some doing, but we managed to hit the trail again.

I knew Kody and Kaitlynn were ahead of us, so I tried to encourage Hoss to keep up a snappy trot in hopes of catching them up. We had finished in front of them every day before this, and I knew they weren't going particularly fast. Hoss wasn't having it. I swear I was pedaling that horse.

We did eventually get caught up by another pair of horses, but they were moving out much faster than Hoss should really go when they were trotting. Otherwise they walked. We wound up ahead of them when we hit the four way. If we turned right, we'd be headed back to camp. The trail marking wasn't especially helpful, and I thought we were meant to head back to camp. Hoss certainly thought so.

We hadn't gone far down the road before I looked at my GPS and realized we must have been meant to go straight, as we would end up short on mileage. I turned Hoss around, and he was ticked off about it. I ended up getting off to lead him back to trail.

Our mistake on the trail meant the pair of horses we were ahead of wound up ahead of us. This inspired Hoss to pick up the pace somewhat. I still had to push him somewhat, but he was trying harder than he had been.

We finished in plenty of time, but never managed to catch up to Kaitlynn and Kody. I saw them on my way back to my trailer, and explained I'd gotten my out time wrong!

Another 200 miles down! That's 300 miles in December alone. So far, so good. Things seem to be going our way to this point! Of course, there's still 11 months to go in the year, so we'll see what happens now.

Death Valley Encounter Day 3 2011

Since Hoss had ripped through the toe of one of his Gloves, I had to use his Edges on his front feet for this day's ride. His girth gall was a bit swollen and slightly larger than it had been when we'd arrived, but wasn't particularly tender. With the use of Body Glide, I was keeping it from getting too irritated. I failed to mention that, just days before this ride, my riding boots suddenly started causing huge blisters on my heels again. By Day 3, I felt like I needed to just tape the heck out of my heels to prevent any further damage. Any bandages I used simply came apart in my socks and came off when I took off my socks. This was not adding to my comfort!

The vet check for Day 3 was back in camp, meaning I had no need to prepare a crew bag, and could expect to be back at camp in time to take my meds. I took some of the meds with me, just in case I needed them. I also brought along my regular riding gloves. My hands were getting dry and chapped from the cold and dry, and my knuckles were getting knocked open on the zippers on my saddle pack.

Once again I used the lighter bit. I still wasn't feeling real good about using the hackamore, considering how difficult he had been at times.

On this day, we rode up into the mountain range to towers at the very top. Early on, Hoss discovered his "buddy" Echo, and became insistent upon catching up to and riding with him. Today, Echo was going much faster than I was particularly interested in going, along with the horse Echo was actually riding with. For most of the morning, it wasn't terribly difficult to keep Hoss back and prevent him from going too terribly fast.

At the top of the mountain range, looking down into the Panamint Valley, we had some spectacular views. The ride photographer chose a great location. We were riding along the edge of the ridge, with a 2000+ foot drop off the opposite side from where he was taking pictures.

By the time we came in for the vet check, we were not far behind Echo and his rider. We got our out time, and headed to the trailer.

The one drawback to having the vet check back at camp is, Hoss seems to think it means the ride is over and eats at a much more leisurely pace than he does at out vet checks. Either that or he thinks other horses might steal his food at out checks, so he eats faster than at the trailer.

I made up a bran mash with electrolytes for Hoss, and tossed out some alfalfa. My husband had headed in to town to get supplies to cook dinner for Saturday night – the New Year's Eve dinner for everyone, not just us! – so I was on my own to get my lunch. I found a can of soup and heated it up. I also made myself a cup of hot chocolate, and sat in my "anti-gravity" chair to eat. I also made sure I got my meds as I needed them, and made sure I had on me what I might need out on the trail.

Hoss vetted out, and we hit the trail again. Echo and the horse he was with were just in front of us. I tried to hang back in an effort to get them to lose us, but it didn't work out very well. The entire second loop, I was fighting Hoss trying to catch up to horses trotting much faster than he could reasonably maintain.

We rode through a long canyon, where we had to pick up another playing card. Hoss was far too interested in catching up with the other horses than he was in listening to me. I had to get off to get my playing card, and to take one of my meds which I was due for.

When I got back on, Hoss did everything he could to cut trail and ram right through to catch up with the other riders. He had a bit of a fit, and spun about in a bush. Once I got him going straight again, I noticed an odd sound and realized he'd pulled one of his hind boots. I got off to put it back on to discover he had broken the cables, and the boot was unusable. I also noticed the tread had worn radically. With less than 300 miles, the Renegades had reached the point of being nearly completely worn out. They're supposed to last 500 miles.

I attached the broken boot to the saddle and mounted up. Now I had a horse with a bare hind foot who wanted to run like crazy and catch up to the other horses. I needed him to stay fairly slow to protect that bare foot. Fortunately the footing was reasonably good, and we were close to the end, so the odds of him wearing the foot down so far he would be sore by the time we finished were low.

I let Hoss trot on the best parts, and tried with little success to keep him to a walk in the rocky areas. He was locked on to those other horses and he was not letting go. When camp was in sight and we'd crossed the last road with less than a mile to go, I got off and led him in. It was the only way to keep him from continuing to try to catch the other horses.

Hoss vetted through just fine, but now we had a problem. The Renegades were the only boots we had for his hinds. At this point, though, I was becoming somewhat less than enamored of the whole boot thing. I took Hoss back to the trailer, and while he was eating, I prepped and nailed on a set of steel shoes. I think the boot thing is officially over.

Death Valley Encounter Day 2, 2011

Since Hoss had behaved pretty well on Day 1, I decided to set up his lighter dressage bit. The advantage to this bit is he's less resistant to it. He'll take it much more readily. The disadvantage to this bit is he's less resistant to it because it's easier for him to fight than the Kimberwicke.

The ride management had titled this day of the ride the "Helter Skelter Trail." It was an up and back trail. About a mile from the end of the trail, where we all turned around, is the ranch where Charles Manson was captured, thus the moniker for the ride.

I made a huge error on this ride before we even left camp. I forgot my pouch with my medications in it. When we passed Dr. Nicholson, I asked if anyone was back at camp who could get my husband and have him bring it to the vet check. Unfortunately, by that time, everyone he could reach had left camp, so I was going to be getting through this ride without the meds I really needed.

The trail started out up the same dirt road we'd started on the previous day, and through the canyon. Where the trail met with the salt flats, we turned right toward the vet check area. This was where the 25 milers would turn around, and the 50s would have their check on our way back down.

From this point we entered Goler Canyon, which is absolutely spectacular. The different stone formations and colors are just amazing.

The problem we encountered was a pair of riders who, when they trotted, went at a significantly swifter speed than Hoss can maintain. He wasn't truly "locked on" to them, but it got frustrating. They would slow down, and we'd catch up, and we'd pass, and Hoss would lose his momentum, and they'd catch up again. I'm sure it was annoying for them, too.

We got caught up to and rode for some time with a woman on a beautiful black stallion by the name of Echo. While he was pretty fast, he wasn't so fast Hoss would fall too far behind, and his rider wanted to slow down a bit for this day anyway. We stuck together for a while, then she needed to stop and get Echo to drink from the stream flowing through the canyon, so we left them behind again. I just wanted to keep Hoss going. I don't want him to get back in the habit of needing another horse to keep him motivated.

About a third of the way up, we had to negotiate what had been dubbed "Burro Falls." This involved going over a very rocky trail alongside the falls. I decided to ride up it rather than lead. I was not confident my hip could take it if I did walk up the trail.

By the time, the black stallion had caught back up to and passed us. I let them go first. Echo's rider chose to walk up the trail, and nearly took a nasty fall all by herself. Echo did just fine.

Hoss started out pretty well, but managed to get hung up and sort of fell up the trail. He pulled his right front boot during the incident, and I had to get off and reset it. I noticed he had broken through the toe of the boot, one of his Gloves. Well, that pair would be no good by the end of the ride!

Goler Canyon is a hard uphill pull. It isn't overly steep, but it is unrelenting. Hoss isn't especially keen on going uphill, especially trotting uphill. I kept after him and encouraged him and while he wasn't keeping up his normal speed, he was continuing to trot. I would allow him to slow down to a walk for a while from time to time, but never long enough to allow the horses we had passed to catch us back up.

As we approached the top of the canyon, we began encountering horses coming back down. Hoss thought we ought to turn around and go with them. It became a little difficult to keep him motivated, but it wasn't the first time he'd encountered this sort of phenomenon.

We finally made our way up to the top, got our playing card – proof we made it to the top and didn't "cheat" and turn around early. Once we turned around and were headed downhill, Hoss had a little more get up and go, and picked up a bit better trot. By this time, however, I needed pain control I didn't have. My riding was affected, and thus his movement was affected. It wasn't his best trot, but it was okay under the circumstances.

When we reached Burro Falls again, I decided to dismount and lead him down. We had caught up to a horse following his rider, who led him down the falls and on away. I was still a little wary of walking the falls trail on my own, but decided it would be safer for Hoss. I picked my way carefully, and Hoss was careful, too. We made it down without incident, but my hip told me all about it when I got back on.

We trotted on toward the vet check at the end of the canyon. When we were close, I got off and led him. His heart rate was down when we walked in. I found Hoss's crew bag and got him set up with hay and a mash. At this point I was pretty painful. I laid down on the ground beside Hoss to wait out our vet hold.

Another rider was able to give me some Advil, so I took a bunch of that to get me through as best I could. We left the vet check and headed back toward camp. I was pretty uncomfortable, so I mostly just hung on and let Hoss follow the horses ahead of us. At that point, I just wanted to get it over with. We weren't going too fast, as we were going back through the canyon we'd come through in the morning.

Hoss did very well, despite having to pack me along, out of balance and in pain. At the water stop some six miles from the end, I gave him his last dose of electrolytes. While I was off, I set my whip down, confident I'd remember to pick it back up. We were nearly back to camp when I realized I'd left it behind!

Back at camp, Hoss vetted through just fine, and I took him to the trailer. I also took some meds, trying to get the pain back under control.




I was worried about my whip, so after I'd cared for Hoss, my husband and I went looking for my whip. We didn't find it, but at the post-ride meeting, another rider approached me and told me she'd brought it in. I retrieved it on my way back to my trailer after dinner.

Death Valley Encounter Day 1, 2011

Hoss and I arrived in ride camp relatively late in the day. No matter how hard I try and how prepared I am, I can never get out of the house early! We got in around 4pm, and camp was packed! After driving around a bit, I settled on a spot in the center near the porta-potties and the manure trailer.

Since we arrived so late, I got Hoss a bucket of water and gave him a bran mash with electrolytes right off. While he was eating, I got as much of camp set up as I could. My husband was coming up the next day, so I needed to set up the big tent for the both of us, which requires help. I was sure I'd be able to recruit someone to help me.

As soon as Hoss was done eating his mash and had drunk a few gallons of water, I took him over to vet in. The vet gave him the once over, then asked me to trot him out. Expecting Hoss's usual reluctance to trot out, I started out with a little encouragement to him. Well, the first thing he did was go straight UP, all four legs off the ground! I was so surprised I failed to correct him. I don't think he actually trotted, but the vet passed him.

I recruited a fellow rider to come hold up the middle of our big tent so I could get it set up, then got the thing all together. In fairly short order, I had camp set up, fed Hoss his dinner, prepared his beet pulp for his morning meal, and started on dinner for myself.

Once my dinner was ready, I opened up one of the lighter sleeping bags, laid it in my anti-gravity chair, sat down, and wrapped myself up to eat my soup and hot chocolate and enjoy the evening.

In the morning it was colder than I'd thought it was. Not nearly so cold as at Coso Junction, but there was ice in the water. I boiled water for hot chocolate for me, to warm up Hoss's beet pulp mash, and had the bright idea to use some to defrost his water bucket. Unfortunately I didn't give him his beet pulp right away, and he didn't eat it all. By the time he was halfway through, camp had gotten kinda exciting, and he was more interested in checking out what everyone else was doing than eating.

I had bought Hoss a new saddle pad and we used it for the first time. It seemed to work very well. He certainly moved out nicely!

In the early morning sunshine

Due to his airs above the ground the previous day, I elected to use a bit on Hoss in hopes of having better control. It certainly seemed to work. I didn't get the behaviors I was afraid I might based on his leaping about during his vetting in.

We got in a good, steady clip, and Hoss did a very good job on the steep climbs. The scenery was gorgeous and my pictures do not do it justice.

We wound up riding with the rider I had camped next to at Coso Junction. Our horses were reasonably evenly matched, although hers was a bit faster at both the walk and the trot. Hoss was okay with this by and large. He didn't pull on my trying to catch up all the time. We were able to keep a steady pace, not too close to other riders and not getting passed often.

We were walking through a deep, sandy wash when caught up by a pair of other riders. Hoss didn't seem to care for them. I was hoping they'd pass, as they'd been going faster than us, so it seemed logical they'd go ahead and keep up the pace they'd been setting. Evidently they preferred our pace, and stayed behind us. 

Hoss seemed to feel a bit hemmed in. After a few minutes of feeling his tension, and after he'd asked politely several times to canter, I pushed him up to a good canter and we were off. I don't know exactly how far we cantered, but it was quite some distance. The riders who had caught up to us didn't seem to agree a canter was a good thing, so we were able to leave them behind.

Coming across the flats before the vet check

There was plenty of flat, especially after the vet check. Because a bunch of horses came in pretty close together, and I had hopped off to help Hoss get his heart rate down, Hoss didn't get his pulse in right away – according to his HRM he was well under 60 when we walked in and before we got to the water. He really wanted a drink, so despite the fact he was down, I let him wait to get a chance at the water buckets. This meant the horse we were riding with was down before Hoss, and her out time was earlier than ours by several minutes.

At the end of our hold, our riding partner was out several minutes ahead of us. Several other horses, which had technically come in to the check behind us but got their pulses before us also left before we did. I packed up Hoss's crew bag and we hit the trail. He wasn't especially eager to hit the trail again, but that's not unusual for him. He'd rather stay where the food and water is!

Because there were several fast horses ahead of us, it was easy to keep Hoss up to a steady pace that would eventually catch us up to our riding partners. It did get tough to keep Hoss from going too fast. When past by swifter horses, he wanted to keep up, but I knew better than to let him. He simply cannot keep up those speeds over those distances, even on the flat.

We were finally able to catch up to our riding partners and continued on our way across the flats to the canyon crossing up and over and through back to ride camp. Much of the trail was rocky and we spent a good deal of our time walking.

Having had quite a lot to drink at the vet check, I found myself needing to find a bush. Well, there aren't really any bushes out there. Nor rocks of sufficient size, either. So I stepped Hoss off the trail, dismounted and took care of business. The funniest part was, Hoss seemed to decided this was a fabulous idea, and just as I was getting ready to get back on, he decided to relieve himself as well.

Looking back down into the canyon

We entered the final canyon with some pretty steep climbs and edge-walking drop-offs. Hoss handled it quite professionally, never putting a foot wrong. I still kept a close watch on him, as it was an easy trail to step off of with potentially disastrous results. The hardest part of the climb went up a rocky section of single track not suitable for much more than a steady walk. In some places, riders dismounted and led, to give their horses a break. Hoss was not so lucky. He gets to carry me pretty much every mile.

Up the canyon

Once out of the hardest part of the canyon, we began ascending toward the road back to camp. Hoss initially was giving all signs of wanting to trot, but as soon as we passed a pair of horses, he died down. I pushed and kicked to no avail. One of the riders we passed complained I shouldn't get after him; it was a climb, after all. Well, Hoss does a lot of climbs, and he could do this one, should he be properly motivated.

Motivation came when the two riders passed us up and took up a trot. Hoss was quite willing to trot along behind them and even had a nice spring to his step. He was not in the least tired at this point, despite what he'd been trying to convince me of earlier. I realized shortly after getting back to camp why he was so eager to stay with these particular horses. They were our neighbors!


We hit the road back down toward camp, and trotted much of the way in. Hoss likes to trot downhill. It doesn't seem to be hard on him at all. Of course, knowing he would always be a tad slow, I always pushed him to go ahead and trot down all but the steepest and nastiest hills.

We made it back to camp at about 4:30pm, a pretty good time for us. Hoss vetted through clean, and we were ready for the next day. I got him cleaned up and blanketed, and went to dinner.

The nicest treat was my husband had arrived about an hour before Hoss and I finished, so he was there when we got back. I had commented to other riders it sure would be nice if he had made it by the time I finished, but I had dim hope of that happening. I knew he would be up for a long time and really expected he'd end up taking a nap somewhere along the road. Instead, he drove it straight through. And he even managed to get me a hot sponge bath started before he crawled in to his sleeping bag and was off to sleep!