Moab Canyons Endurance Ride Day 2

I got up in the dark at 5:30am to feed Hoss. I flicked on my headlamp and walked around my trailer to the sickening sight of his leadrope dangling from the trailer and no sign of Hoss. I went back to the LQ trailer and let Mary and Dorothy know Hoss was missing before I went hunting for him. It was absolutely dark, no moon and certainly not enough starlight to truly see by. I reasoned Hoss wasn't likely to go very far, so I started in a circular search pattern. I found him a couple rigs over, eating who-knows-what sort of hay. It looked like alfalfa. I collected him up and took him back where he belonged and fed him his real breakfast. I could only hope he hadn't found orchard grass to get into. I figured what he had been eating looked enough like alfalfa not to worry too much about it and if he got sick, well, we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

I put Hoss's boots back on. The one with the bent hose clamp I was unable to get the end into the keeper. If I'd had a pair of needle nose pliers with me I might have accomplished it, but it was not going to happen with my bare hands. I was left with just leaving it and taking my chances.

I used the S-hack on Hoss for this day. He's really getting to where he hates the Kimberwicke I've been using. When I tried to put it back in his mouth at the end of the vet check on day one, he fought me about it. Not so badly I couldn't get it on, or that we created a scene. Still, I didn't want to be dealing with him getting worse about it as the days went by. As it was, when I went to put the S-hack on, he jerked his head away and I had to discipline him about it. Once he realized I wasn't putting the bit back on, he settled down.

We headed out with Mary and Hadi again. Hoss didn't have quite the same get up and go as he had day one, but he was still pretty forward. Hadi was doing a pretty good job of leading, but he'd slow down when he thought Hoss had fallen too far behind. Hoss would catch up and Hadi would pick up the trot again. After a while, Hoss figured out if he dropped out of a trot sooner, he'd get to walk a little while, too. I think he was feeling a bit like he was doing an awful lot of work compared to that young whipper-snapper. And he was definitely more tired than I would expect him to be.

Another rider on a black arab stallion caught up to us and we all rode together for some time. The stallion kept us at a pretty good clip. Hoss couldn't really keep up, so we'd let them get ahead and catch up when they slowed down. At one point we caught up to a horse whose airs above the ground were quite spectacular. Mary was not interested in letting Hadi see that, so we dropped down to a walk and let the horse get well ahead of us.

At one point we missed a turn. We were trotting along a road and I noticed there weren't nearly enough hoof prints. I hollered out my observation and we turned around and found the trail we were meant to be on. Fortunately I'd noticed it pretty early on.

While we were trotting along, I felt Hoss take an odd step. He was off about five steps on the right hind after that. When I got off at a water stop to give him electrolytes, I noticed he'd knocked open the old interference scar on his right hind. Well, that sure explained it. That could not have felt good! I suspect it was because we were going pretty quick for so long.

We came into the vet check and I checked my GPS. We'd been averaging 6 mph! That's pretty quick for Hoss at his current level of conditioning. I knew we wouldn't be able to keep up with that stallion all afternoon.

It took Hoss longer to come down than I would've liked, and his heart rate stayed pretty high for some time. His gut sounds were pretty low, too. I explained to the vet he'd gotten loose in the night, so I didn't know what he might have gotten into. I also pointed out the interference wound on his right hind.

Mary and I decided to let the stallion go and continue on our own. The vet commented Hoss seemed very tired, so we wanted to take it easy so he'd look good when we got back to camp.

Much of the short loop we rode next we walked. It was alternately rocky and very deep, so not a great place to trot anyway. We did short bursts of trotting when one or the other horse felt the urge. Once we turned the corner so to speak and were headed back toward the vet check area, both horses seemed to perk up a bit. When we got back to the vet check area, they had a drink and wanted to eat. Unfortunately the only food laying about was orchard grass. Fortunately there was plenty of edible grass growing along the trail, so we headed on back toward camp and the finish. We let the horses stop frequently to snatch a bite or two of grass.

It wasn't terribly far back to the finish. We got back to camp about 5:30 for the finish. This time we had to get our saddles off before we could take our horses for completions. I took Hoss back to the trailer and got him untacked and cleaned up a bit. Hoss dug into his hay with vigor. I got his beet pulp started soaking to give him after he'd been vetted through.

Hoss vetted through just fine with a 54 heart rate. I took him back to the trailer to remove his boots. The bent hose clamp had become much more damaged, to the point I couldn't remove the boot. I checked with the vendors on site, but no one had the parts to repair the boot. My only choice was to leave it on. I removed the other three and loosened the gaiter on the one he had to wear overnight.

After the previous night's escape, I decided to pitch my tent and sleep where I could see and hear my horse. I did leave my clothes in Dorothy's trailer so I could change while standing up in the comfort of the heater. I'm glad I did move into the tent. About 10:30, I heard unusual noises, and sure enough, Hoss had escaped again. The rotten horse has figured out how to open the clip on his lead rope!

I caught Hoss back up and tied him back to the trailer. I got him some fresh hay in hopes of encouraging him to stay "home" and went back to bed. Despite temps dropping below freezing, I was quite comfortable. I had gotten myself a zero degree sleeping bag for just such occasions. I have to say, it was well worth the money!