2012 Bucksnort Challenge

I missed this ride last year due to our fall at Moab. This year I was determined to make it.

My husband was home for this ride, so we decided to bring DC along for her first camping experience. I had to work that Friday morning, so we wound up getting a rather later start than I expected. I wasn't worried, though, because the ride is fairly close to home. Ha. It took us almost three hours to drive there! I was surprised how long it took us. We were the last to arrive. I missed the ride meeting, so picked up my packet where it was left out for me. Because it was well past dark, the vet elected to vet Hoss in the morning. It turned out to be pretty dark then, too, so he really got little advantage for the choice.

We got camp set up and my husband made some wonderful carne asada and corn tortillas for dinner. I set up our new, queen size air bed cot. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, I will not sleep on the ground again. This cot was a great find. It can be used with or without the air mattress. We used it with the mattress and it was quite comfortable and I was off the ground.

In the morning my husband cooked up a breakfast of eggs, bacon and potatoes. Someone came over while I was still in the tent after feeding Hoss, thinking that not only did I get breakfast, but my husband would saddle my horse. We disabused her of that, but I took the opportunity to wax effusive about the way my husband takes care of me at a ride.

I saddled Hoss and took him to see the vet, who thought he was funny when he joked Hoss was lame. Yeah, not funny, dude.

I rode out on the trail in the early morning light. We passed Laurie Birch early on, which isn't unusual for Hoss. Laurie tends to set a slower pace at the start, and we catch and pass them often. Of course, most of the time, because Hoss is more consistent than he is fast, they often catch back up to us before we get much more than halfway through the ride.

The scenery was beautiful. We cut around a mountainside and onto the California Riding and Hiking Trail. There was an area that had recently burned (I can't remember when it must have been).

This was one of our standard three vet check rides. We came into the first check in decent time. Hoss recovered quickly and we vetted through. The vet noted he seemed to be short striding behind. I said he felt normal, and she'd said the same thing at Manzanita. She wasn't going to pull us for it, but wanted to mention it.

Hoss ate his electrolyte bran mash and picked at some hay while we waited for our hold time to be up. After our 20 minutes, we hit the trail once again.

Not long after leaving the vet check, perhaps two or three miles down the trail, I heard something behind me. I thought it was another horse catching up and looked back. Nothing and no one to be seen. I continued to ride on and heard the noise again. This happened several times before I turned around and saw three dogs following me. I had heard one of the dogs' collar tags. I hollered at them to go home and for some time I thought they'd turned around.

I decided to dismount and lead Hoss down a particularly ugly hill trail with significant rock on it. It was steep and treacherous enough with rolly rocks I decided to use my cane as insurance that I would make it down in one piece. While I was getting the cane, the dogs appeared behind us on the trail.

At this point I figured it was unlikely I'd get rid of them. I knew I wasn't responsible for them, but I would have felt terrible if I'd left them behind and something had happened to them. One appeared to be quite elderly. So I continued on my way, but paid attention to where they were.

We were on well-used trail for some time, then we were turned off onto a new, and quite steep hill. Hoss was having difficulty with it, so I decided to get off and lead him down it. The problem became immediately evident. The new trail was through large rocks and boulders which were still somewhat buried in the new and hardly used trail. At some point on this section, Hoss scraped the front of his pastern badly enough to make him a little stiff after our next vet hold. The wound was about the size of a quarter.

We came to a water trough were a ranger was hanging out. I told him the dogs weren't mine, not that he seemed particularly worried about them. They followed me all the way to the second vet check.

Someone at the vet check recognized the dog and, with some effort, the dogs were contained to be returned to their home. Hoss vetted through without incident. I set him up with his electrolyte bran mash and hay, which he happily munched while we waited. I was able to find adequate items that fit into my diet to have a decent lunch. I had packed enough in my saddle bags that I didn't need it, but it's kinda nice to find something fresh and not pre-packaged to eat.

While in for our hold, Laurie arrived. I think we were about 15 minutes in to our hold. We had slowed quite a bit to keep from leaving the dogs too far behind, so I wasn't surprised.

Once our hold was up, I got mounted up and told Laurie we'd see her soon. At that point it was a forgone conclusion they'd catch up to us.

We managed to keep a decent clip for much of the next loop. It helped when Laurie caught up to us. We were walking up a steep and rocky hill when they caught up to us. It was a rather treacherous ascent. There were two other riders who caught up as well. While we negotiated this intense section of trail, all of us expressed some dismay over the trail selected. I think by that point we had mostly decided it was our first and last time to do that ride.

We finally got out of the nasty stuff and back on more reasonable roads. We were getting close to the vet check, and it was getting later than any of us would have liked. We took the opportunity to canter a bit. When we were within half a mile I hopped off and led Hoss the rest of the way in to the check.

We got through our last 20 minute hold and got back on the trail. Hoss was tired enough -- or at least seemed tired enough -- that I decided to leave his bit off. I hooked the reins to the sides of his halter to ride him the rest of the way back to camp.

By now there were four of us clumped together to come in to the finish. The trail back was largely nice, so we were able to keep up a good pace.

When we arrived at the top end of the camp area, we all got a wild hair across our collective butt and kicked our horses up to a good canter. The four of us came bombing in to camp and started pulling up. Except Hoss was not listening. For a moment I thought we were going to run right back out of camp on the trail. He did finally decide he'd rather go ahead and stop. Of course his heart rate was quite high, so after getting our completion time I took him to the trailer to recover. Despite the silly running, he recovered in reasonable time and vetted out well.

I still had enough daylight to get on DC for a quick ride in a strange place. She was good but behaving a little more silly than usual. I didn't learn until later that she'd gotten away from my husband and gone running through camp earlier in the day. Had I known that I might have spent some time on ground manners before riding her. Still, we had a decent ride.

My husband had packed up camp while I was riding, so all we needed to do was put the horses in the trailer and take off. We did fix the shallow hole DC had dug next to the trailer. Once everything was loaded, we got in and I stuck the key in the ignition. The truck failed to start. It was immediately evident to me the battery had died. It shouldn't have. We had been parked for 24 hours, and hadn't used it to charge anything. I recalled it had not started as usual at Moab, but had chalked that up to four nights without being started and being used to charge my phone and iPod.

I found someone whose vehicle we could use to jump the truck, and we were on our way, but it was clear my truck needed a new battery. On the way home we stopped to pick up a trickle charger. I needed to be at church early on Sunday morning, so we needed to be sure the truck would start in the morning.

2012 Moab Canyons Endurance Ride, Day 3

Day 3 felt cold in camp, but we weren't far up the trail when the temperature rose. Hoss was feeling good, better than he had on Day 2. We started out with Laurie Birch and stayed with her much of the day.

Hoss was feeling good, but I was tired. I could've cheerfully gone back to bed, but I have this thing about finishing what I set out to do. I would have had to be much worse off to withdraw.

Much of Day 3 was Day 1 in reverse, but there was some lovely new stuff, too. As we rode out of camp with the rising sun at our backs, we came into an open field with a long view of the rock formations in the distance.

We headed down a long rock face. Most of the other riders dismounted and led down, but Hoss has to pack my butt over just about everything. I knew I would have to get off for the descent down Wipe Out Hill, so I was saving myself as much as possible.

At the bottom we rode back out of the canyon and on our way. We trotted along at a good clip and made the vet check in reasonable time.

I set Hoss up with his bran mash and such, then went to see if there was anything I could have at the lunch table. I was pretty hungry by this point, and what I had packed was simply not enough.

As soon as I turned my back on my horse, he started walking away! He's never done that before. I caught him and took him back to his station, and headed away again. Once again he left. This time I realized what he was up to. He was thirsty. I led him over to the water and let him get his fill. At least I know I can still trust my horse -- but I'd better be sure he doesn't need anything.

At the end of our hold, we got back on the trail. By this time I was really tired and I just wanted to get back to camp. By this point we were riding with Laurie Birch and two other riders. In many ways I would've been happier to be on our own. One of the other riders tended to keep up a nonstop chatter which I found distracting. Oh, well, better than pedaling Hoss through the last 25 miles.

I found myself glancing at my watch about every 5 minutes, hoping to find we were close to time to be back at camp. It did not make the miles go by any faster. It wasn't until we got to Wipe Out Hill I realized why I was so anxious.

I dismounted and watched other horses descending the hill behind their riders. Laurie's horse slipped in her Easy Boots. There were many skid marks from horses in boots slipping on the hill. It did not raise my confidence.

I got my cane out, and had the intention of sending Hoss down by himself, but Laurie came back up and led him down without incident. I followed slowly on my cane, the hip giving me fits the whole way. I thought I was going to fall all on my own, but I made it to the bottom.

After successfully negotiating Wipe Out Hill, I gladly got back on for the final ten miles back to camp.

As we were riding along, I noticed the unmistakable sound of a loose shoe. A hind shoe on one of the other horses was coming off. I thought it would make it back to camp, but barely. Unfortunately I was wrong. The shoe became too loose to safely continue on. I stopped to help the other rider by removing the shoe. It wasn't the easiest task to accomplish barehanded, but I got the thing off.

By the time we were done, Laurie and the other rider had continued on their way and were far ahead of us. Laurie and her husband wanted to leave camp that night, and besides it wasn't like she'd be a whole lot of benefit waiting while I struggled with the shoe, so I certainly couldn't fault her choice.

I kept with the other rider for a time, but when we got to off the soft trails and onto the harder roads it became clear the other horse was unlikely to complete if it didn't slow to a walk. I separated from the other rider. I just wanted to get back to camp, and she certainly understood.

We arrived back at camp in good time and got our completion time. As I was standing with Hoss waiting for our time to be written on our card, he elected to pee. His pee was quite dark, almost frighteningly so. I simply had not given him electrolytes like I should have. I knew I'd have to mention it to the vet. I took him back to the trailer and untacked, gave him a sloppy electrolyte bran mash, and dumped a bunch of hay in front of him. He tucked in and barely raised his head. That was a good sign. If he was in trouble and didn't want to eat, he had a much higher chance of needing treatment. The fact that he could barely stop eating long enough to breathe was a good sign.

I gave Hoss as long as I could to eat, but I had to drag him off the hay to vet. I told the vet about the dark pee, and that Hoss was eating like the hay might be taken away at any moment. She was unconcerned, feeling that the fact he was eating and looked quite perky negated any significance of peeing dark.

We camped one last night and headed for home in the morning. We stopped in Las Vegas overnight. My son is living their with my ex-husband (his step-father) and his wife (my son calls her his "step-step mom"), and they found a place for Hoss to spend the night and I stayed with them. They were working at a haunted house in Downtown, so I got to see them in their get-ups. I didn't go through the haunted house, but saw their individual roles before they opened. Afterwards I walked through downtown, which is a whole new experience, and I recommend against bringing children (women in bikinis dancing on bars, need I say more?). I found a nice little Cuban-Mexican place for dinner, which I couldn't help feeling my father would have found quite charming. Then I wandered around for a while before heading home.

In the morning we were awakened by a knock on the door. A Las Vegas police officer was there. My truck had two windows smashed out of it. Initially I thought only my duffel bag had been stolen, but my computer was gone, too. Needless to say I was quite annoyed. The loss of the computer was bad enough. When they took the duffel, they dropped several items -- scissors, some ointment, a spoon, Body Glide -- on the ground beside my truck. What they didn't leave was a pair of fleece riding tights, a couple of brand new bras, and a couple of t-shirts. I think that frosted me more than the loss of the computer. The computer I could understand them taking, but my clothes??

I ended up spending an extra day in Las Vegas to have the windows in my truck replaced. I certainly wasn't driving all the way home like that. My son was happy to have me for some extra time, but as he said later, that wasn't what he meant when he said he wished I could stay longer.

2012 Moab Canyons Endurance Ride, Day 2

Day 2 of the ride left in the pre-dawn light and chill. We rode out and had a very nice start. My goal was to finish with similar speed as on day 1, although I knew it was likely we would be slightly slower.

This day of the ride took us over a great deal of sand stone rock face, which ended up slowing us considerably. While we probably could have trotted more, in some places it was hard to determine where the trail was, and we ended up caught up with a couple other horses which weren't going quickly over the sand stone. Even if we had passed them, one was going a pretty hot clip on the dirt, so getting ahead wasn't really an option.

Hoss wasn't especially interested in going very quickly, and I found I had to push to keep his pace up much of the time. We did end up catching up to Laurie Birch and Scudd Run, which gave Hoss that little bit of extra motivation he needed.

The vet check was at about 17 miles. I managed to forget to give Hoss his first dose of electrolytes, so made sure he got his bran mash at the vet check. He once again recovered quickly and well.

The second "half" of the ride was long and felt it. We stayed with Laurie and one other rider. While I normally prefer to ride alone, I can't complain about riding with Laurie. She sets consistent pace and her horse is unrelenting. It's nice to find a horse that can "inspire" Hoss. The drawback is, he starts to get attached and starts wanting to protect the horse he's with. Especially if it's a mare. I spent a good deal of time correcting ill-mannered behavior.

We finished in decent time. After vetting and unsaddling, I realized I had managed to completely forget to give Hoss his electrolytes. His only dose had been at the vet check in his bran mash. Of course he got another dose after the ride, and would get more in the morning, and he certainly seemed to be feeling just fine, so I didn't worry about it.

During the ride I had noticed Hoss's hind shoes sounded odd. I checked them when we got back to discover they were thin and nearly gone. They would never last another day. I reshod his hind feet and hoped I wouldn't have to do anything else with his feet for a while!

2012 Moab Canyons Endurance Ride, Day 1

We made the two day drive to Moab, Utah, for this awesome ride. Despite the length of the drive, and the hassle of finding places to park along the highway over night, it's absolutely worth it. On our way, I did get to stop in Las Vegas and visit briefly with my son.

When we arrived at camp, the wind was blowing hard enough to need safety glasses. I was pretty sure I was going to get sandblasted.

I found a place to park which was reasonably protected from the wind, by dint of parking next to another rig so it and my truck acted as a wind break. Hoss was relatively well protected by the trailer. Somewhat on a whim, I decided to use the horse collar I've been lugging around in the trailer tack room to tie Hoss with rather than his halter. I figured it was high time I saw if it would work for him. He doesn't really like to drink with the halter on, since it gets hooked on the bucket, and he's always rubbing is head on things. I gave up leaving a halter on him in the trailer because he just rubbed it off. The collar is slightly big on him, really needing another hole, but I decided to try it anyway. Figured it was unlikely he could get it off.

During the ride meeting, someone hollered about a buckskin stallion being loose. My ears always prick up when someone says "buckskin," because Hoss is nearly always the only one in camp. The part about it being a stallion only temporarily threw me off. I stood up, and there was Hoss, visiting with a mule not far from our camp. I initially thought he'd slipped out of the collar, but was relieved when I realized he'd just come untied. I caught him up and tied him back to the trailer.

Ride start was 7:30 local time, which was 6:30 to me. I got up two hours before ride time to feed Hoss. I went back to bed for a short time before dressing and making myself some breakfast.

We saddled up and hit the trail on time. Hoss was his typical, hyper self on the start, but once again settled fairly quickly. I was able to ask for a trot early on, and this time he set off cleanly. As we were trotting along, I could not figure out why I didn't feel right. I was posting way too high. Eventually I realized the stirrups were too short because Wendy had been the last person to ride. I pulled off the side of the trail and dismounted to adjust the stirrups. One rider asked if all was well as he passed, to which I responded I had forgotten I wasn't the last person to ride the horse.

Back in the saddle, we headed on down the trail. Hoss was feeling good in the nice low temperatures. I didn't exactly give him his head, but I didn't do a whole lot of holding him back, either.

About halfway through the first loop, we came to the dreaded Wipe Out Hill. I wasn't very concerned about going up it, but I knew it would be a challenge. I had borrowed a folding cane from my mother just for the purpose of getting up and down Wipe Out Hill. My hip is still a problem and I knew I would need the extra support. I've been using a walking stick on my morning walks, but it doesn't fold down small enough to fit in a saddle bag, so cane it was.

I dismounted and pulled out the cane. Hoss started up the hill, and I held on to the reins to help guide him. We made it up uneventfully.

Since Wipe Out Hill is at just about 12 miles into the ride, I went ahead and gave Hoss his first dose of electrolytes before getting back on. There was a water stop about two miles on, giving ample time to clear the taste of the paste from his mouth so he would drink.

 
We came in to the vet check at 25 miles in just over four hours. Hoss looked excited and strong.

Hoss pulsed down as close to right away as he always does. Criteria was set at 60. He was down within five minutes. I took Hoss to the water tank to be sure he had gotten enough to drink. We found our crew bag, and I set him up with an electrolyte bran mash and hay. I set up my little tripod stool and ate the lunch I had packed for myself. I've found it's easier, with the dietary restrictions, to make myself lunch than try to find something at a management-provided lunch table. They always do their best, but my diet is kinda ridiculous, so I don't expect to be accommodated.

After our hour hold, we headed back out on the trail. We were passed shortly by a pair of horses who continued on faster than Hoss can reasonably keep up with. He let them go with little fuss.

Going through the trough of a hill, I spied a hoof boot from one of the horses that had passed us on the ground. I took the time to get off and retrieve it, knowing those things are expensive. Not long after, we caught up to the other horses as the rider of the horse that had lost the boot was replacing said boot. I stopped long enough to give them back the boot I had found.

The problem with stopping for any length of time with other horses except at a water stop is Hoss decides we must be going to ride with those horses. When I asked him to move on, he did the hoof-dragging thing, wanting to let the other horses catch up. They did, of course, and moved on ahead of us. I tried to keep Hoss far enough back that he wasn't really "with" them. It wasn't terribly effective.

As we rode along, we started gradually catching up with the other horses. They had started doing the trot a little/walk a little thing. Eventually they were walking enough that we needed to get around them and move out. I forced Hoss to get by them and keep going by dint of relentless kicking. Once we got ahead of them by a quarter mile or so, he gave up trying to stay with them and went to work.

At some point about five miles away from camp, something told me to check Hoss's shoes. I looked down and sure enough, he'd lost a front shoe. I was terribly annoyed. I got off and put one of his boots on. This time, I had had the sense to bring along every boot I have for him. Lose 'em all now. I have spares....

We rode the rest of the way in to camp. The trail in went past our camp, so I quickly unsaddled him before taking him to the vet for our completion. We ended up doing the first day, 55 miles, in 7 hours, 35 minutes. It's not an exceptionally challenging ride, but I am well pleased with that time, only 15 minutes longer than Manzanita with an additional 5 miles.

Of course, after vetting, I had to unload the truck and replace Hoss's lost shoe. The wind was blowing horribly again, so hard it was blowing the back door on my truck closed on the forge. Still I managed to get Hoss's  shoe replaced.

When I went to bed that night, I realized the wind had blown fine red sand into my tent through the netting. It turned everything a dusty red. There was even dust under the screen protector on my phone. Fortunately I had closed my duffel bag and pulled my sleeping bag closed.

Halloween Fun Show at Hyslop Horse Heaven

My friend and neighbor, Patty Hyslop, held a Halloween fun show at her ranch just two miles from home. A friend from church, Wendy Turner, had started coming out to ride with me. She rides Hoss while I ride DC, giving DC the confidence of having Hoss around for her early trail riding. Wendy has been having a wonderful time with Hoss, and we decided we'd participate in the fun show.

On that Saturday morning, Wendy arrived about 8am and we rode the horses the two miles or so to Patty's ranch. We hadn't had a great deal of warning, so we didn't have costumes. Wendy did bring along a little paint to put markings on Hoss to make him a Indian horse, so that was fun.

The first class was the costume class. Although we didn't really have costumes, we both rode in the class. DC was very well behaved. Hoss, not so much. DC pulled away from him and he got very upset. I spent a great deal of time half turned in the saddle to instruct Wendy while DC carried me handily around the arena. It was her first experience in an arena with a bunch of other horses, too. The only problem I had with her was when she got behind the mini. The precious little thing is smaller than our biggest dog, Ash. I think DC thought he *was* a dog and expected him, therefore, to get out of her way.

Neither Wendy nor I got anything in that class, but honestly, how could we have expected to?

The next riding class was the obstacle course. I took some time beforehand to lead DC through some of the obstacles, knowing she had never done anything like it. There was a PVC framework with "caution" tape hanging down from it we had to walk under, a barrel with a stuffed rat that had to be dropped into a bucket, a blue tarp to walk over, a broom which had to be spun around and placed back on the barrel without being dropped (difficult to explain), a mailbox with a skull in it, a pair of pylons to do a figure 8 through, a wooden bridge to cross, a small jump/step over with one of those blow-up Halloween things next to it, and a pole on the ground to do a side pass over with the pole between the horse's front and hind legs.

Once I had worked DC through some of the obstacles, I helped Wendy get Hoss through some of the obstacles I knew he was going to give her a hard time with.

We waited and watched several other riders go through the course. When we were down to the last few riders, I went in with DC.

I wasn't confident of riding her through the dangling tape or over the tarp, so I led her through the tape, did the rat in the bucket, led her over the tarp, and tried the broom on the ground. Despite not even being on the horse, I managed to dump the broom on the ground. Once we were past that obstacle, I mounted up.

DC did pretty well with the mailbox. By this time I've already stopped next to our mailbox at home and gotten the mail. This mailbox was at rider height, so DC was less sure of this one. However, she finally settled to a halt next to it and let me open it, get out the skull, and put it back. We then went through the figure 8 quite nicely. She wanted to go around the bridge rather than over it, but it only took a few corrections before she went ahead and crossed it properly. The jump I felt was too high for her to attempt with a rider, and we've never jumped anything, so I dismounted and hand jumped her over it. She didn't want to go past the Halloween blowy thing, but managed it okay. I then got back on and rode her to the pole on the ground. I expected no better than to get her to stop over the pole, but she did a pretty passable turn on the forehand once we were there. It was mostly because she really did not want to be over the pole, but I'll take it.

Wendy got Hoss through the obstacle course, but he did give her some fits about it. She's really a beginner rider at this point, so without some serious instruction she did very well, especially with a horse who'll try any evasion he can think of.

DC and I placed third in the obstacle course, pretty cool.

The last event was a carrot hunt. A large number of carrots had been hidden all over the property, including one "golden carrot" worth $20 to the person who found it. We were not allowed to put any carrots we found in saddle bags; they must be on our person. Wendy had made the fortuitous decision to wear cargo pants.

We rode together around the property. Wendy turned out to be exceptional at finding the carrots. Wendy does work that involves spotting desert tortoises, so she has a fantastic eye. The carrots were probably easier to find than the desert tortoises are! In the end, we didn't find the golden carrot, but Wendy found the most carrots and won the hunt.

At the end of the day, we collected our "winnings" and headed for home. Wendy got a great big plastic pumpkin full of candy; I got a basket of soaps. We crammed them both in the saddle bags on Hoss's saddle (sure glad I'd left it on there), along with our lead ropes, collected up the dogs and rode home. It was a great deal of fun and a wonderful day. Wendy was already talking about what we should do for costumes for next year.

2012 Manzanita Endurance Ride

My original plan had been to arrive at camp early and bring DC along for her first camping experience. Unfortunately my husband was unexpectedly called back to work early. I didn't want DC to be by herself, so she didn't get to go.

We wound up arriving fairly late. Since I didn't have my wonderful husband to cook for me, it was easier to get there later so I could eat at home. Friday night dinner was included in the entry, so I only had to worry about lunch and breakfast on Saturday. Not that Terry doesn't provide breakfast; it's just mostly not anything I can have.

I got camp set up and Hoss vetted without incident. Went to the ride meeting and dinner and spent some time visiting. Over night, though, my air mattress deflated several times. I vowed I would never use an air mattress again.

In the morning I got up plenty early to feed Hoss and have breakfast. I got camp packed up before saddling and hitting the trail.

Hoss behaved himself pretty well. So I asked him for a trot earlier than usual. Unfortunately, he was sure I was lying or something and he went into his "I'm fighting to go faster" trot. It took a few tries, but he finally settled in.

We got stuck in traffic for much of the first six miles. Once the trail opened up, we got out ahead of the other horses. We sped up long enough to leave them behind. Hoss was cheerful and moved out nicely. We arrived at the first vet check in good time. Hoss recovered quickly and we started our 20 minute hold.

I didn't want to overuse my remaining tubes of electrolyte, so I had elected to send crew bags to all three vet checks. The one advantage of three vet check rides is having the opportunity to send something out for each electrolyting interval. I set Hoss up with his electrolyte bran mash and hay. So of course Hoss wasn't particularly interested in the bran mash. Should've seen that one coming.

We headed out for the second loop, hitting the "lollipop" loop before cutting back across the road and down into the valley. Because it's getting close to our Tevis attempt, I decided it was time to start really pushing Hoss for quicker finishes. The conditions were perfect. We were able to keep up a steady pace.

The second vet check was back at camp. I got off the lead Hoss the last few hundred yards back into camp. A rider on the 25 mile event was holding his horse near the vets, waiting for it to recover. The horse pulled away from the rider and came barreling at us. I pretty quickly realized it was headed for Hoss, so was able to safely intercept it and return it to its rider.

Once we had returned the other horse, I let Hoss get a drink and recover, then vetted him through. We headed to the trailer for electrolyte bran mash and hay for him, and some lunch for me. Once I had him set up, I headed down and found what I could have at the rider lunch table. Not much, but I did okay.

After our one hour hold, we set back out on the trail. Riding out of camp and up the road, I made the left turn I knew I needed to make. Another rider went straight. I called out to her, trying unsuccessfully to get her attention. Several other riders started yelling. I assumed they were trying to get the other rider's attention, too. We had trotted down the road some way when an SUV pulled up alongside us and the driver insisted we were going the wrong way. I was pretty sure we weren't, but I turned around anyway. Should've listened to myself. We hadn't gone far when, lo and behold, the rider who had taken the other trail came riding toward us. She had been told she was going the wrong way. Since I knew from previous years the way I had been going was right, I turned around and we headed the right way once again.

We ended up with the other rider who had headed the wrong way and two others for a time. I was content to stay with them for a while, but really wanted to be with just my horse. At a water stop I took the opportunity to head off on our own. The others caught back up to us, but went ahead and left us behind, to my relief.

We came into the third vet check well ahead of cut off. One of the horses that had passed us was still having a hard time recovering. I don't know if it ever did. Hoss recovered quickly and I got him vetted through and eating.

Once our hold was over we headed out on the trail again. We quickly got stuck behind two horses whose riders were doing that trot a little ways, walk for a while thing that annoys the snot out of me. It took a little time, but I got by them. Then it was a matter of convincing Hoss to keep going so we'd leave them behind. By this point in the ride he wasn't thrilled about leaving the other horses. It took some doing, but I got him going. Once we turned the corner and were headed back toward the vet check for our five minute hold, he moved out a bit better.

By the time we got to the five minute hold, Hoss was convinced he was starving. One of the drawbacks of the three vet check ride is, he gets this idea that there'll be food just around the corner and he doesn't need to eat now if he doesn't really feel like it. Which results in the starving at 40 miles effect. Eventually I had to drag him off the hay in order to finish the last 8 miles.

There was some objection to leaving the food, but Hoss did pick it up and get moving. Checking my watch, I realized we were on target to get done in 8 hours or a little over. I kept him moving. I really wanted him to break that barrier.

We got back to camp and it was time to wind it down in terms of speed. Naturally at that point, Hoss had decided he wanted to catch another horse and wouldn't slow down. I finally simply dismounted and led him in. As we approached the finish, I realized he was missing a shoe. Dratted horse.

In the end our completion time was 7 hours, 20 minutes. I was extremely pleased with the result. While we have had similar finish times, it has always been at significantly easier rides. To get that at this ride was a victory.

*Sadly, I have no images for this post. My computer was stolen and I lost all the pictures I had taken.