Vail Lake Endurance Ride 2012

Hoss and I arrived at ride camp fairly late, close to 5pm. After getting him set up with water and a nice bran mash, I set up camp and got my rider packet. Once Hoss had a chance to eat and drink, I took him and vetted him in. After he cleared the vet, I took him back and braided his mane. Evelyn Allen had sent me new riding tights, and many strips of cloth left over from making them. I used the strips as ribbon in Hoss's mane. Looked pretty cool, and we matched.

....Even if it does make him look kinda girly

The ride started at a marginal 6am. I much prefer the 7am start. Especially this time of year, there's little reason not to wait until 7am. Unless it's going to be particularly hot (like it was at Prescott), there's plenty of daylight to do a later start. Maybe it's just me. I don't want to have to be up at 4am.

Hoss wanted to just go. I made him start toward the back (we'd finish back there anyway; might as well start there). One of the biggest problems Hoss has is getting upset when another horse passes him. I decided we were not going to trot until he settled down and walked properly. It just was not happening. Instead he was doing a pretty passable pace. This reinforces the idea he probably has a gait, but doesn't do it as naturally as would be ideal. Several times I circled him to a stop before we continued. Still not walking. I got him to walk and was just about to ask him for a trot when another horse passed us and all bets were off. He was pacing again. It took quite some time and close to three miles, and much "reminding" him he's not allowed to look at other horses, before he walked decently and I was able to ask him for a trot.

Of course, the "trot" I got was more like the jackhammer Nazi trot style. I stood up in my stirrups and just rode it out until he settled a bit and started trotting more naturally. He still wanted to go faster than he really should, but at least he had a trot with a proper rhythm and a little bit of suspension.

The first leg of the ride was mostly on dirt roads. Hoss does very well on dirt roads. It's just about his favorite surface. So, despite some steep but short climbs, it was pretty easy for him to do. Unfortunately we were behind the time I was hoping to make due to his refusal to walk for the first three miles. We walked in to the first vet check about 9am. I had hoped to be there by 8:30.

Hoss recovered in about two minutes, with me sponging him. He really likes being sponged, even if it's not super hot. His favorite is to have the sponge placed between his ears and let the water run down his face. Once he'd pulsed down, I took him and vetted him through. I made up his bran mash and set out his hay. He was more interested in the weeds than the hay once he finished the bran, but he ate decently. I got a little bit of fruit and a couple of donut holes.

Once our hold was over, we got back out on the trail. The second leg was a bit of a shock. There was much more technical trail, including narrow single track along a steep hillside. It was narrow enough not to risk trotting on. Much of the trail through the hilly parts was clearly new, and not as stable as older, more established trail. There were large rocks to negotiate both up and down. Several times Hoss did stupid things and tripped. Once he nearly slid over the edge of the trail.

During this section I got my first notion this ride wasn't going to be as easy as I'd been led to believe it would be. Yes, the footing was "good," but the steep sections were really steep. I quipped to another rider, "Is this an endurance ride or a moto-cross track?" The roads we were on were often very steep. Too steep to more than walk up or down.

The second vet check was back at camp. I hopped off when we were within a few hundred yards of camp and led Hoss in. His heart rate came down in three minutes, again with much sponging off. We got in about 11:30, an hour ahead of the cut off time. It wasn't terribly warm yet, although I was down to my tank top (it's so nice to have nice weather). I took Hoss back to the trailer once he'd been vetted and gave him bran and a flake of alfalfa. I went and got myself a sandwich and drink, then sat with Hoss for the remainder of the hold.
 
During the ride meeting, we had been told the second half of the ride would be tougher than the first. If they were right, it was going to be really difficult. The first half hadn't exactly been a breeze.

Once our hold was over, we headed back out on trail. Once again we were using trail that had been recently created. Much of it was pretty nice, but there were areas that could use some work. While we were riding, we passed camping areas. One had a stage set up and live bands performing. That was kind of interesting. Hoss didn't seem to care at all. What got to Hoss was the sound of people yelling and screaming ahead at one point. I don't know what it might have all been about, but whoever they were they were loud!

We rode through another camping area where a pair of model dinosaurs had been erected on a hillside. I missed them with the camera – dammit. We rode past a pool were a large group of people were doing something indefinable, but it was clearly some organized event.

There was a great deal more climbing on the third leg of the ride. We rode along the top of ridgelines and climbed hard. Then coming down in to the vet check, the trail was steep and treacherous. And the worst was yet to come after the vet check.

We came in to the vet check at 3pm, half an hour ahead of cut off. This time, with the higher temperatures and the much more challenging trail, it took Hoss nine minutes to pulse down. There were no sponges at this vet check – I had been unable to find mine in the trailer during the second hold – so I used one of my empty water bottles to scoop water over Hoss's neck and face and front legs. Once again Hoss got a bran mash (the advantage of the three-hold ride – giving Hoss a bran mash with electrolytes at every stop rather than ramming it in to him with the syringe) and I gave him some hay. There were also popsicles for riders and I gratefully had one. By now it was particularly warm. I had emptied one bottle, which after I used it to scoop water on Hoss I refilled with Gatorade.

After our hold time we got back on the trail again. I saw other horses riding through the open field across from the vet check area, so I knew we should be over there. I realized pretty quickly as we rode along the road that we'd missed a turn. I turned Hoss back to look for the turn. He trotted along nicely, until I turned him where we'd missed. He thought we were going back to the vet check!

We trotted along the road and turned back up toward the hills. Trotting along this windy section of little-used dirt road, I heard a vehicle coming toward us. It was coming fast, and the driver had no way to know we were there. I urged Hoss to the outside of the road so we'd be visible as early as possible. An older white truck came screeching around the corner. I made eye contact with the driver, but he made no effort to slow down. As his truck started skidding sideways toward us, it was clear it was up to us to get out of his way. Hoss didn't really recognize the danger. Why should he? He's never had a vehicle do anything but avoid him. I kicked the hell out of him, sticking him hard with the spurs to get him off the road just in case that idiot driver lost control and rolled it. The truck flew on past and, heart in my throat, I got Hoss back on the road and trotting again. Then I heard a second vehicle, and a police truck came flying around the corner. This truck at least stuck to the road and I didn't fear he was about to wipe us out.

I was still running a little bit of an adrenaline high when we got to the water buckets. I let Hoss get a good drink while I contemplated the hill ahead of us. This hill, basically a dirt road, must have had a better than 7% grade. I've walked 6% grades, and this was definitely steeper. I decided I'd better tail Hoss up it. He wouldn't be able to walk any faster with me on him, and if he didn't have to pack me it would be at least a little easier on him.

The hill was long. Really long. More than a mile I tailed Hoss up the hill. Several other riders got off, but rode more than half the hill, usually getting off midway and getting back on closer to the top. Those horses trotted relatively easily up the hill. Hoss, on the other hand, doesn't do so well on hills. Even tailing up he goes pretty slow. It took us a long time. We're going to have to work on getting up hills better.

Once up the hill, we started down the other side. Well, sort of. It was a bit rolly. Sort of moto-cross track rolly. Again. There was very little trottable area, at least for Hoss, since he kinda sucks at the trotting uphill thing. So we trotted the flattest parts, trotted at the bottom of hills and starting up the hills. We needed to make time. We had less than two hours to complete.

Finally we got out of the hills and were able to get serious about trotting. The wind was at our backs. Who needs to eat someone else's dust when you can eat your own? The wind blew the dust just ahead of us, creating our very own personal dust cloud to ride in.

We were really coming down to the wire, but I could see camp and the end of the ride. Usually we walk the last mile or two back to camp, but we trotted in this time. We came in with just five minutes left on the clock. It turned out we were the last finishers. The final two riders behind us simply could not make the time. They were over an hour over time, partly because they realized they weren't going to make it and stopped trying.

In the end, this ride was a significant challenge. It was described as "moderate," which I would disagree with. After the first half I would have called it "moderate plus." Now I would be more inclined to describe it as "challenging." And the manager is talking about doing a multi-day event there. Oy! Only if it doesn't have quite so many vet checks….

2012 Prescott Chaparral Ride Day 3

One last day. At the ride meeting the prior night, we were told to expect a hard climb on this ride. We were riding in to the Granite Basin and it was considered to be the toughest trail of the three days. The reason it was held for the last day was because the Forest Service didn't want us out on heavily used trails during the week. So it was done on a Monday.

I got Hoss ready to go and headed out to the start. We trotted out for the vet and made our way out at the start.

The trails were truly beautiful on this day. Hoss and I were alone pretty much all day, not hooking up with any other horses during the ride. Just the way I like it.

It was very hot, and I was starting to get tired. I forgot what color ribbon we were supposed to be following. It didn't take me terribly long to realize my error and turn around and get back on the trail. We met up with another rider who briefly thought I was going the right way. I disabused him of the notion and we headed on up the trail.

We were with the other horse briefly, until the rider dismounted and led his horse. We had reached the climb (I didn't realize it was the "long arduous climb" described in the meeting; it seemed pretty tame to me). Hoss and I passed the other horse and rider and headed on up the hill.

It wasn't until we got to the top and started dropping down I realized the hill we had been climbing must be the one management had warned about the prior night.

There had been no water since before the climb and Hoss was beginning to show signs of being particularly thirsty. As we dropped down along the trail, I could see a stream running along down the embankment beside us. There was no safe way to get down there, but the smell was driving Hoss nuts. Finally we came to a spot where two other riders had made it down the embankment and their horses had been able to drink. Once they cleared out I rode Hoss down to the stream. He was so thirsty he wouldn't cross to drink from the flat side. Instead he stayed with his butt up on the embankment and dropped his head to drink. It was an awkward position for me, but we got through it. Once he'd slaked his thirst enough to be more reasonable I got him across the stream and allowed him to drink from there.

Once we got out of the trail down into the Basin we came to a parking area. I followed ribbon and realized somehow we'd gotten off track again. It took some riding back to find where we'd missed the turn but we did. The turn had not been terribly clearly marked. We had been told to work the trail "counter clockwise." Well, that doesn't mean much if you can't be sure where the trails are in relation to one another.

We finally reached the vet check. Hoss recovered well and we settled in for our hour hold. Hoss ate a bran mash and some hay and a little bit of soaked beet pulp.

After our hold we hit the trail again. I will say this was the toughest of the three days. We had to make time everywhere we possibly could. We climbed back up the trail alongside the stream and out of the Granit Basin.

Much of the rest of the trail back to camp we had covered on the prior two days. Hoss recognized it and at least didn't dally particularly.

Of the three days, this one took us the longest. I was pushing toward the end, worried about making the cut off. We made it in with a little over half an hour to spare. I was pretty happy with our time, considering how difficult the trail had been. While not impossible, it had been more challenging than the prior two days.

2012 Prescott Chaparral Ride, Day 2

Since Kody was back on the injured reserve list, Hoss and I were on our own for day two. This was the 55 mile day. It was flatter than the prior day, so should be easy enough. Management did decide to start earlier due to the high temperatures, so we started at 6am. This had its benefits, but I hate starting that early. It's better than 5am, I suppose.

The whole pack headed out at a steady trot. We were able to go along with the flow quite nicely to start. We were not riding with anyone in particular, and it wasn't long in to the ride before we were on our own.

As predicted, this day was largely flat. There were climbs, but nothing much. We did have to ride through some rolling stuff and some areas with a lot of turns. Hoss isn't real good at turning one way then the other. We've been working on bending through turns during our lessons, and I used the opportunity to work on getting him and me bent properly through turns.

The vet check was back at camp. It got pretty warm pretty early in the day. I sponged Hoss at every water stop. When we arrived back at camp for the hold, Kaity met us at the vet check area and helped sponge Hoss down. He pulsed down quickly and we got him checked and back to the trailer for food and electrolytes. Kaity walked him back so I could get some lunch. The ranch we were camping at donate grass-fed beef burgers, which were very good if rather small.

Once our hold was over we headed back out on the trail. While on this loop we got caught up by a group of other riders. Hoss wanted to stick with them, but he's simply not fast enough to stay with most horses. It wasn't long before the other horses were well ahead and Hoss was struggling to keep up with them.

This is the situation I dislike the most. Hoss gets obsessed with trying to keep up with horses. Often this gets particularly frustrating when we get to water stops just in time for the other horses to leave. This means if he stops for a drink, the other horses get farther ahead. There's no incentive for him to stop and drink rather than chase the other horses. I had to force him to stay at water stops. It was while this was going on that I discovered that, while you can lead a horse to water but can't make him drink, Hoss will drink if I whack him between the ears with my crop!

Again, the ride is something of a blur. I remember stopping at a water trough and dipping my helmet in it. It was a cow trough, so it was nasty and smelly. I didn't care. I was hot! Hoss got a good sponging as well.

Because this was the 55 mile day, I was feeling a little stressed out about getting done on time. My GPS was showing a good fifteen miles left to go and not really enough time to finish if we didn't get up and go. So I pushed Hoss to keep up his pace. It was tough through the twisty stuff, but he persevered.

Either my GPS was way off, or management's measurements were off. After starting at 6am, Hoss and I finished at 3:30pm. That's the fastest we've ever done. I have a hard time believing the mileage was right!

When we got back, the gentleman who greeted us said, "You won the lottery!" Being tired and having taken a painkiller for my hip, I was rather addled and his comment made no sense whatsoever. It turned out he meant our number had been drawn for random drug testing. It took a rather significant amount of time for the vet to draw the blood and prepare everything. Kaity finally came over, concerned something was wrong.

The vet finally wrapped up the whole drug testing thing and I was able to take Hoss back to the trailer.

2012 Prescott Chaparral Endurance Ride, Day 1

While I was finishing saddling up and fiddling with Hoss's heart rate monitor, and Kaity and Kody were finishing up as well, we heard someone start hollering for the fifty milers to check in. This particular human being had a rather loud voice, audible and clear throughout camp. It made us giggle. We finished getting ready and headed over to check in.

Hoss was doing fine until we were riding up and down waiting for the official start and Kaity asked Kody for a trot. I decided I didn't want to trot, and Hoss started to get annoyed. I asked him for a circle and what I got was bucking. Without changing what I wanted, I started kicking him forward and got my whip in hand. He really had some buck in him that morning. In our lessons, he had started bucking a bit in an effort not to do what was asked. It had worked a couple of times, at least temporarily, so he decided maybe it would work now.

Hoss managed to make quite a spectacle of himself. After the bucking I started backing him and he pointed himself right at one of the Porta-Potties. I allowed him to go ahead and back into it – lightly – then straightened him out and made him back some more. We did teeny little circles with his head cranked around. We did side-passing. He settled down a bit, but when we headed out on trail we were separated from Kody and Kaity and he was one unhappy camper. We did eventually catch up. In the mean time I was able to get Hoss to settle down and get to work.

It got hot pretty fast. Before we'd been out much over an hour I had my sweatshirt off and was down to a tank top. It was really quite nice. The first ride of the season I've been down to less than a sweatshirt. I was careful to apply plenty of sunscreen!

OMG, cows!

 Fairly early in the day we encountered a pair of cows and calves. They were right in the middle of the trail and showed no interest in moving. Kaity and Kody were in front, and Kody was frozen, staring at the cattle. I got Hoss out in front and rode him at the cows while hollering. It didn't take much of that – Kaity took up the call of "Come on, cow!" as well – before the cows and their calves barreled off into the underbrush.

Much of the first loop – indeed, much of the entire day – is a bit of a blur. The vet check was in a very nice area with lots of grass growing. I had sent a crew bag with a bran mash for Hoss and my extra water bottles. Lunch was a choice of a variety of lunch meats and chips and such.

Hoss was his typical self on the trot out. I showed him the whip before we started out in an effort to get him to trot appropriately. He did better on the way back than on the way out, since Kody was back at the vets. His CRI (Cardiac Recovery Index) was 48/52. That's not considered all that great. The heart rate should be the same or lower on the second check than on the first one. I had a feeling, though, the vets weren't really doing it right. The trot out area probably wasn't long enough, and I don't think they waited long enough between checks. Hoss's CRIs in the past have always been the same or lower. Based on how he was performing and how he was recovering, though, I figured he was fine.

During the second loop we had to climb a rather rocky hill. Kaity noted we "usually rock the hills." To which I couldn't resist responding, "Well, this hill is 'rocking' us!"

We finally made it to the downhill side. Kaity hopped off and led Kody down the hill while I continued to ride. It was an ugly downhill Very rocky and rutted. It was still nice to be heading down rather than up.
At the bottom of the hill was a cow trough where we stopped to let the horses drink. Hoss and Kody snuggled up pretty close to each other, so when I wanted to hop off to sponge Hoss, I had to dismount on his right side. As I was swinging my leg over, my left hamstring cramped. I wound up lying on the ground getting the cramp to release while Kaity wondered if I was going to make it. The cramp let go and I managed to get up and sponge Hoss.

After getting back on and making our way down the trail, we picked up the trot and Kaity immediately noticed Kody wasn't moving right. The same hip he was favoring after his fall at Nevada Derby seemed to be giving him a problem again. We gave him a little time and Kaity rubbed him a little, but in the end it was clear they were unlikely to make it in on time. They were walking.

Hoss and I continued on. Hoss wasn't particularly happy at first, worried about his buddy, but he settled in to trot us the rest of the way in. At the road crossing, I asked the volunteers if they might be able to reach ride management to give Kaity and Kody a ride back to camp. They were able to, and later Kaity and Kody had reached camp before we made it back.

We pushed back to camp and finished nicely.