2013 Western States Trail Foundation 100 Miles 1 Day Ride -- Tevis

I had everything together. I had a horse ready to pack my half-crippled ass over any obstacle. I knew we could get it done. Due to what can best best be termed pilot error, we did not ride into the fairgrounds in Auburn after hours on the trail; we came in on our trailer.

I made two critical and ultimately ride-ending errors. The first was believing the "suggested cut-off times" ride management had published were realistic. The second was freaking out when Hoss's heart rate monitor malfunctioned and showed him with a significantly elevated heart rate.

We started the day in good form. I did not want to ride around in circles in the "pen" with the rest of the horses, which would have seriously amped Hoss up and made him more difficult to manage than usual. So we headed out from our camp in time to catch up with the tail end of "Pen 2" when I figured "Pen 1" had been released. We got there a bit later than I would have liked. I underestimated how long it would take us to ride to the gathering area. Still, we hit trail at a good time.

This early in the ride we were hung up in quite a large pack. Hoss was doing pretty well keeping pace with the somewhat faster Arabians around us so long as we were trotting. When we needed to walk, however, his slower pace became apparent. Much of the trail is on single track, so when the pace needed to slow to a walk, the horses ahead would pull away while the horses behind would pile up. We became very good at giving trail for faster horses!

At the pre-ride briefing for "new riders," the speaker described five bridges over a boggy area. The way he described it, I envisioned five narrow bridges side by side over the same section of trail. I was a bit puzzled by the idea of this set up. Why would anyone do that? It didn't make sense. It turned out the five bridges were, of course, one after another on switchback trail. They were quite narrow, but Hoss handled the notion just fine.

After we made it through the single track we were in Squaw Valley and climbing up to High Camp. The road was pretty steep, so everybody was walking. In hind sight, I probably should have urged Hoss to trot more, as he is quite slow when walking and we lost a significant amount of ground. We did make it to High Camp before the suggested cut off time of 7:45, leaving me feeling pretty good about our progress.

The next "segment" of trail crossed the Granite Chief Wilderness. I had heard it was a challenging segment. During the pre ride briefing it was mentioned not to expect to make up time across this section. The suggested cut off times essentially said this 8.5 mile section could be traversed in 1 hour and 15 minutes. Unfortunately this was a bit optimistic for your average horse. Much of the trail is steep and rocky, and there are sections of bog and places the stream runs right down the trail. I have since seen another rider describe the Granite Chief Wilderness as the most challenging section of the trail. Hoss tackled it just fine, but we missed the suggested cut off into Lyon Ridge by 21 minutes, coming in at 9:21.

The next section, to Red Star Ridge, was relatively easy. Still, we weren't going to get it done in thirty nine minutes. Suggested cut off was 10:00. We crossed this section of steep sided trail which included Cougar Rock in 1 hour and 39 minutes. Hind sight being 20/20, we probably could have accomplished it faster, and should have. Cougar Rock was the most challenging part of this section, aside from the trail being generally narrow and steep sided. Hoss is a sure footed and confident horse, so I now feel I could and should have striven for a faster time.

By this time we were largely alone. Other horses had passed us and gotten just far enough ahead we were setting our own pace.

Red Star Ridge is the first stop with a "Gate and Go," meaning Hoss needed to recover to a heart rate of 60 beats per minute and pass a modified vet check. Walking down the hill into Red Star, Hoss's heart rate on the monitor was 92, just exactly what I would expect under the circumstances. We came in just under the cut off time of 11:00. We had one hour to get through this check and make the next 7.5 miles to Robinson Flat.

This was my second error. I had hung the heart rate monitor on Hoss's tack so I could see his heart rate recovery. We came into the check and he promptly took a big drink. I had given him electrolytes at High Camp, but hadn't given him a second dose until just about two miles before we came into Red Star. I was already thinking he would be doing better if I had been slugging him with electrolytes at a quicker pace. His heart rate had been elevated at High Camp, and started coming down to a more normal rate after I had slugged him. When we got to Lyon Ridge, I contemplated giving his next dose then discarded the idea as too soon. Coming into Red Star I had changed my mind and electrolyted him before we got in. So of course I was thinking I was behind in getting electrolytes into him. When the heart rate monitor showed him at 101, I thought, oh dear, he's gonna have a hard time coming down because I didn't give him the electrolytes sooner.

I sponged him and watched the monitor. One of the volunteers checked him with the stethoscope and said he was high. Well, I took that to mean the HRM was right, and now it was going up. I was beginning to get a little freaked. The HRM got up to 168 and stuck there. No amount of sponging made any difference. All the while, Hoss was standing there cheerfully eating. This should have been my first clue the HRM was malfunctioning. Other horses nearby that were not recovering were ignoring food. Hoss was eating as he usually does -- as if the food might at any moment be stolen from him.

After fifteen minutes, I was beginning to think my horse might require treatment, although nothing other than an apparently high heart rate suggested it. A volunteer came over and checked him -- and he was recovered. I don't know how long we waited, but long enough I suspect it made the difference in us making the drop-dead cut-off at Robinson Flat of 12:00.

We went to the vet, who checked Hoss over and declared him fit to continue, although he felt Hoss was behind on hydration. I knew I would need to up his electrolytes, but he didn't look that bad off to me, and he was certainly drinking well enough now to catch up. We left Red Star Ridge at 11:20, giving us 40 minutes to make it to Robinson Flat.

Another horse, which had taken a long time to recover at Red Star, was just ahead of us, giving us the inspiration we needed to book it. We have covered 8 miles in an hour and fifteen minutes, trail much more challenging than the mostly downhill and flat jeep road we were on. So off we went, trotting and cantering all the way. We would canter the flats and as far up the hills as possible, then trot on down. The other horse (plus one which came galloping up and passed us, offering us more inspiration) got well ahead of us. We came to a steep downgrade about 1/4 mile out of Robinson Flat. I hopped off and walked down the hill, giving Hoss a bit of a break, as we was starting to feel the speed of this section.

I got back on when we reached the bottom and rode him in. When I looked at my watch and realized we weren't going to make the cut off, I stopped pushing and we walked the rest of the way. We were overtime by 15 minutes. We made those 8.5 miles in about 55 minutes, probably would have been 50 if we hadn't slowed down.

My daughter and husband met me on the road. Since we were over time, we were not given an "in card." I didn't take the time to cool Hoss off and get his heart rate down because it didn't matter; we weren't continuing. He took a good drink while my daughter pulled his tack. We walked down to see the vet, my thought being to get it over with and get him to food.

When we got to the vet, Hoss's heart rate was, understandably, high. He was at 72. This isn't exceptionally high considering what we'd just done and not taking the time to pulse down. He got his exam, and the vet asked me to bring him back after 20 or 30 minutes to be seen again.

We walked over to our crew area and got Hoss set up with food and water and got him sponged down. After sufficient time had passed I took him back to the vet. Now his heart rate was down, although only to 60. Considering the walk back over to the vet in the heat, I wasn't the least bit alarmed by this. The vet, though, was alarmed. It turned out she had gotten the impression he was "weary." This was because Hoss likes to "point" a front foot while resting the opposite hind. He also tends to "switch off" the instant I get out of the saddle. He knows it's rest time, and he isn't about to waste a moment of it if he doesn't have to.

This began the most bizarre process I have ever experienced at an endurance ride. Hoss was demonstrably fine. He just wanted to rest and eat and drink. Since there was no food, he elected to sleep. But because the vet thought he was "weary," I had to keep him over in the treatment area to be examined. Long story short, we were there for at least half an hour and three separate people had to check him over. By the time the last person got around to seeing him, he was starting to look dehydrated and the guy commented on it. It was all I could do not to point out he'd be eating and drinking and probably not dehydrated had he been where he should have been rather than cooling his heels where he didn't need to be. I stopped by the water troughs on our way out and he took a big drink. Duh.

Getting a trailer ride was the next ordeal. Whole forests die to put this ride on. We had to have a slip of paper to get a trailer ride. I don't think I've ever seen anything made so complicated.

Hoss was, of course, absolutely fine. We got our trailer ride back to Foresthill where my husband had parked our trailer. Hoss was so unhappy he was being a handful and my hip was giving me a great deal of trouble. My daughter took Hoss from me and decided it would be easier to ride him than lead him. She hooked the reins to his halter and got on bareback. Yup, he was fine!

We didn't finish, but we learned some lessons to apply next time. I don't know if we'll be able to go next year, as I'm on the path to get my hip fixed at some point in the next months. How much down time I'll have is yet to be determined. I'm hoping to be there next year, but I'm not counting on it.

I do know when we get back again, we'll be going faster. To that end, we've got our work cut out for us. I'll have to recover and rehabilitate from whatever surgery I wind up having. Hoss will have to work on going a bit faster on uphills, his one problem at rides which he doesn't really have at home. So, between now and surgery, since I've already stopped working due to my hip, I'll be taking him out and getting him running uphill in hopes of getting him trotting uphill at rides. Who knows? Maybe it'll get him running uphill at rides if I ask for it!

Here's the video from the ride. Fair warning -- I drop an F-bomb toward the end!