Since this ride is so close to home, we did our normal Friday routine and went to Sun Coast Farm in Imperial Beach for a lesson. I got a couple of horses trimmed while we were there as well. Because the ride manager – Terry Woolley-Howe – elected to include a Friday night dinner this year, I didn't have to pack any food for myself at all. There's a reason many of us differentiate between rides by referring to "Terry" rides. At a "Terry" ride, one hardly needs bother to pack a thing for ride day, for horse or rider. Of course, because of Hoss's dietary restrictions, I usually still pack him something to send to the vet checks. This year I only packed a bran mash with electrolyte to send to the mid vet check. I knew there would be enough hay he could have at the other two checks, plus if all the mashes had stuff he couldn't have in them, I could always procure more without it.
Before getting my dinner, I went over to the vendors and picked up another saddle pack. Now I have enough storage for all four of my water bottles, snacks and Gatorade mix for me, electrolytes for Hoss, my camera, spray sunscreen and bug repellent, a stethoscope, a hoof pick, and first aid supplies. And I could probably get more into it, but that was all I could think to cram into the packs on Friday evening.
The ride started at 6am on Saturday. I got up at 4:30 to feed Hoss and get dressed. Breakfast (fruit and donuts and coffee and hot chocolate and juice) was served at 5am. I walked over and grabbed food, then walked back to eat it in my truck. Once I'd eaten and Hoss and polished off his breakfast, I got him saddled up and we rode over to the start.
At NASTR, I had still been using an S-hack on Hoss. After the ride, he had pulled so much and so hard that not only were my hands horribly sore, the hair had been rubbed off his nose. My trainer and I elected to switch him over to a curb bit. So the previous two lessons had been taken in the curb bit to get him used to it. He wasn't any less antsy on the way to the start, but he was significantly easier to control. Although while we were walking he got a bit too frantic and I decided to back him in an effort to redirect his brain. We hadn't practiced backing in the curb bit in lessons, and it didn't occur to me doing it in such a fraught situation might result in rather more dramatic behavior than usual. I stopped Hoss then asked gently for him to back up. The next thing I knew, he had dropped back on his hocks and nearly fallen to his knees! It was quite disconcerting, but I kept my head and got him back on his feet. He seemed appropriately chastened by the experience and once I was reasonably sure he hadn't hurt himself we continued to the start line.
Once the start was announced I held Hoss to a walk and felt pretty good about his behavior. So I asked him for a trot pretty early on. He really wanted to keep up with the front runners. Knowing he'd never last, I kept him back some, knowing they'd get away from him soon enough. We came to a steep downhill everyone was slowing down for. By the time we got to it, all the other horses had continued jamming on down the trail. This made Hoss a bit anxious and he wanted to bomb down the hill to catch up. I forced him to walk to the bottom of the hill. Unfortunately when I asked him for a trot at the bottom of the hill he tried to bolt. That doesn't fly. I cranked him back to a walk and his "trotting privileges" had been revoked until he could get himself back under control.
Time for the frustrating if necessary part. I held Hoss back to a walk while he tried every trick he's ever come up with to go faster. With the curb bit it took much less effort on my part to keep him down. Even when he was misbehaving I was able to spend a good deal of time on a loose rein. Of course making him walk resulted in being passed by many horses, which just spins Hoss up. I told him, over and over, if he would just walk calmly and trot calmly we could pick up our pace, but if he was going to threaten to bolt he was going to be walking until he gave that crap up. Of course I wanted to get on with it just as much as he did. Which doesn't mean I'm going to put up with dangerous behavior.
It took some time and a few miles, but Hoss finally gave it up and walked a few good steps. I asked him for a trot and we were off again. He didn't bolt and kept a reasonable trot and listened to me. At this point we were behind two riders, Gabriele Mitteregger and Don Huston. We had to keep a little further back than usual from Gabriele's horse, as he was kicking out in frustration. He wasn't kicking at Hoss, it was kicking to express his displeasure. Hoss pretty quickly got the idea and stayed well back to keep from getting his nose kicked in.
For the most part Don or Gabriele led, but there were moments when their horses flagged and Hoss would take the lead. Of course as soon as Hoss was out front he'd slow down, but during the morning he didn't slow down to the point I needed to pedal him.
Climbing the hill up West Mesa Fire Road, I wondered how I could ever have viewed it has a particularly challenging hill. Sure, it's a hill, but it's nothing like what we saw at Vail Lake. Hoss trotted up the hill with little pushing from me. He seemed just as unimpressed as me.
Coming down into the vet check, Don and Gabriele got off their horses to walk in. I continued to ride in. I figure he's fit enough at this point to carry me all the way. Besides, in this particular area getting off and leading is treacherous for me. Coming downhill among the rocks really increases the odds I'll hurt myself. It's better for both of us if he just packs me in. So we came in a little ahead of Don and Gabriele, which I figured wouldn't make a great deal of difference as Hoss wouldn't come down immediately.
As it turned out Hoss's heart rate did come down quite quickly and we wound up leaving the vet check well ahead of Don and Gabriele. I'd rather not let Hoss get too used to being with other horses all the time, so I was perfectly okay with these circumstances. We were passed by other horses, which stimulated Hoss to try to keep up. But he's not consistently fast enough, so I held him back and tried to keep him from getting overly focused on the other horses. After a time we wound up in a "pocket" by ourselves.
About halfway through the second loop I realized I'd forgotten to give Hoss his electrolytes before we left the vet check. I went ahead and gave him the missed dose before we continued up the steep fire road toward the lake.
Shortly before we got into the second vet check Don and Gabriele caught up to us. Once in Hoss took a few minutes to recover, then we started our hold. I made up a bran mash with electrolytes for Hoss. The vet running the vet check decided we needed to remove saddles, so I stripped it off of him. I didn't want him standing around too long with his sweaty back uncovered to get cold. As soon as he'd slurped up most of his bran mash, I took him to the vet and got him cleared. Once back with his bran and hay I put the saddle back on him. We hung out for the duration of our hold.
Done with our hold I got Hoss's bit back in his mouth and saddle adjusted and we headed out. Don and Gabriele were out shortly after us and caught us up quickly. Hoss wasn't much feeling the trot up the hill thing, so it worked to our advantage to have Don and Gabriele catch up. Having the other two horses kept Hoss motivated, and he even led some up the hill.
We came into the last vet check well ahead of the cut off time. There were even a fairly significant number of horses behind us. We did our twenty minute hold, I gave Hoss his electrolytes, and we were on our way.
After crossing the water under the Sweetwater Bridge, we headed back toward camp. Somehow Hoss and I ended up ahead of Don and Gabriele. Hoss kept up a good trot for a while, but he started to die off. By the time I was pedaling him hard, Don asked if they could pass and I gratefully allowed them to go ahead. I'd just been about to suggest the idea when Don spoke up. Once Don and Gabriele were ahead of us, Hoss was plenty motivated to keep a decent speed going.
There was a five-minute hold about two miles from the finish. It has been in a different place in past years. This year, we had to make a deliberate left turn to get to the location. Unfortunately it was poorly marked. Don, Gabriele and I made it into the hold as required, but we learned later many riders had missed it. A yellow sign on the trail directed the ride and tie participants to head back to camp. Another sign, up and to the left, directed endurance riders to the five minute hold. It was not well placed. I could easily see how so many people missed it.
We arrived at the finish line just before 5:00pm. I was quite pleased with our finish time. About 9 hours and 20 minutes, give or take. Hoss is getting a little bit faster at this, which he really needs to be for Tevis. I'm hoping by the time we go to Tevis next year, he'll be consistently staying ahead of cut off times.
