Hoss and DC Go Around the Neighborhood

I was really stressed making sure I had everything I needed in order to get through the ride. I was driving myself hard in order to get ready to go. Not only did I need to pack everything, I wanted to get the blog caught up. On top of that, I had received my 500 mile patch and wanted to get it on my jacket before we left.

So I was really happy when I'd gotten everything packed and loaded and still had time to get in a quick ride. I could really only ride around the neighborhood with the time I had, so I decided DC needed to go along and start learning how to be ponied.

DC is not a fan of being introduced to new things. When I saddled Hoss, put the long lead rope on her, and mounted up, she immediately started looking stubborn and unwilling. It took a little doing, but I was able to get her going.

For much of the ride, DC was hanging back. I felt like I was taking my horse for a drag. Several times I stopped Hoss, backed him up, and tapped DC on the back to get her moving again. I tried to keep after her with the whip to keep her keeping up properly, but boy, she did not want to do this.

Hoss, on the other hand, was a true handful. He thinks we should get to go fast riding around the neighborhood. I asked Hoss for a trot, only to be held up by DC refusing to move any faster than she already was. I stopped Hoss, got her caught up, and used the whip to encourage her into a trot.
By the time we turned around for home, DC had started to get the idea. She still wasn't thrilled with the plan, but she was doing better. Now I more often had to slow her down.

It was rather challenge-round. Hoss wanted to go fast, DC wanted to just plant her feet and tell me "no."
When we got back, I tied both horses to the trailer and got Hoss untacked. 

Since Hoss needed his feet trimmed, I decided to hit DC's feet, too. She was a little bit of a snot, but when she realized the farrier's horse gets her ass kicked if she misbehaves, she suddenly knew how to stand quietly to have her feet done.

I got Hoss's feet trimmed and in good shape before giving him a much-needed bath. In the morning I'll brush him and apply Laser Sheen to keep him clean.

Everything is packed and loaded to leave for Death Valley in the morning. All we need is the horse and me. Well, and the pillows and whatever I'm bringing along in my tiny cooler. My husband will have both of the bigger coolers. I'm sure I've forgotten something. I know I'd better get the headlamps packed in the morning; they're a last minute item because I need them to feed in the morning.

Here's hoping I haven't forgotten, and won't forget, anything important!

Conditioning Ride 12-24-2011

HR: 36

HRR: 50

Distance: 7.9 miles

Avg Spd: 5.1 mph

Time: 1 hr, 40 min

I really wanted to get in a ride, despite knowing I would have to go in to town and brave the stores on Christmas Eve. I finally decided to get the ride in before getting everything else done. My other obligation for the day was the Candlelight Service at church. I had to be at church at 7:15pm.

I got Hoss and the boys loaded and we headed down to Hollenbeck Canyon for a good ride. I had originally wanted to get in 12 miles, but decided to just do the normal 8 mile trail. I had a lot to get done and not a whole lot of time to do it.

This time while setting up the HRM, I tried wetting Hoss's back and side with Gatorade to improve the odds I'd get a reading before we started working. At first it didn't seem to help, but by the time I had taken his heart rate with the stethoscope, the HRM had started reading. So it worked, but I found later his back was kinda sticky from the sugar in the Gatorade.

I decided to just go barefoot rather than deal with the boots. Hoss's feet were just long enough to deal with it, and knowing I'd have to trim him before we left for the ride, I figured this was a good way to get some of that excess hoof off without having to do it myself. It also meant I wouldn't have to clean his boots, and I already knew I'd have to soak and clean his Gloves before the ride.

Hoss was not particularly slowed by being barefoot. He was much more careful over the rocks. I wasn't going for any kind of speed, so this was okay. Besides, it was more about wearing down the dogs before we leave than anything else.

We made our way to the hill, and had a nice canter up the hill. I managed to keep him cantering over the berm he likes to use as an excuse to slow down. Once we reached the top, I dropped him back to a trot, and we kept trotting until we hit the cowboy gate.

After the cowboy gate, it's downhill for a bit before we could pick up the trot again for a while. Then it was back to the walk for the rest of the downhill, and then a little more trot before turning at the olive grove and heading downhill again.

At the bottom, Hoss wanted to keep walking where he'd usually want to trot. Probably a sign his feet were just a little sore. As soon as we got to the softer flat trail, however, he was more than happy to get his canter on.

I got him to keep up a good canter all the way around the hairpin turn back toward the meadow and the trailer.

Once we topped the rise after the hairpin turn, I let Hoss slow to a walk, and we picked up the trot on the gentle downhill toward the meadow. We turned at the icky water trough – which the dogs love but Hoss won't have anything to do with – and we'd usually stop to let the dogs get a drink, but Hoss wasn't having it. He wanted to keep going. It wasn't really a warm enough day the dogs needed a cooling off, anyway.

Since it was Christmas Eve and I had errands to run, I did not take the time to collect all the data I usually would. Besides, he walked in with a heart rate of 50. At that point, how far he dropped at 10 minutes was really unimportant!

Conditioning Ride 12-22-2011

HR: 36

HRR: 81

HR 1 Min: 61

HR 5 Min: 50

HR 10 Min: 44

Distance: 6.62

Avg Spd: 5.4 mph

Time: 1 hr, 17 min

I took Hoss and the boys to the Steel Bridge in anticipation of a reasonably long ride. We got out there early afternoon.

I used the Easyboot Edges on Hoss's front feet, as he's really due for a bit of a trim and the Gloves probably wouldn't have gone on, at least not well. Once the boots were all placed, I started saddling up and working on getting the HRM working. I've run out of the EKG gel that came with the HRM, so I am now using aloe gel, which is suggested as being a good alternative. But when I got the electrodes placed with the aloe gel, the watch was not getting a signal. I suppose it's possible it's because he's shedding, so it's harder to get the gel in contact with his skin so the electrodes can pick up his heart rate.

I decided to just get riding and see if the watch would start picking up a signal once Hoss started sweating up. It worked. Within a few minutes, he had sweated enough for the electrodes to make good contact and I was getting a heart rate reading.

We kept up a good trot through the meadow and on much of the trail alongside the river. We crossed the dry seasonal streams, and trotted up the switchbacks. I had to push to keep him going. He's used to going pretty slow through here, but I feel we've reached that point at which he's going to have to work harder much more regularly. And, since he's in boots, his soles are better protected and it's safe to trot over some pretty rocky stuff. It's only the "rolly" rocks we have to be careful of.

We kept up an aggressive trot toward the cowboy gate, pausing to walk past the boggy water that collects 
on the road. Hoss kept wanting to walk through the middle of these areas, sometimes even wanting to step into the water. Which is how he ended up sinking up to his knees once. So I had to put plenty of pressure on him to keep him in the "safe" areas.

Several times I stopped Hoss and we worked on what we'd learned In our previous week's lesson. We didn't get it perfect, but we got it pretty good a couple of times.

Halfway along the road, I heard the sound of coyotes calling. A lot of coyotes calling. Having lost a dog in this area to coyotes once upon a time, I was not feeling good about taking the boys into that area. I also don't have bells on the dogs, and only have one remote control shock collar. I decided we'd call it and turn around.

We trotted on back to the river crossing. Once across, Hoss was pulling eagerly to get to the grey road and take off. Once I got him straightened out on the road, I moved him in to a canter and we had a nice long run.
Before we got to the bridge back over the river, we spent a little more time on our lesson. Once I got him to do the turn in either direction relatively softly, we continued on our way.

We crossed the bridge, and Hoss was still feeling pretty perky. I decided we go ahead and come in "hot" so I could see how he would recover. It was a short ride, so doesn't really give me an idea how he'd do if he came in hot to a vet check at most rides, but it was kinda fun to see.

His heart rate did come down quickly. Within a minute, after coming in at 81, he was at 61. At five minutes, he was at 50. I take this as a very good sign for our future rides in which we'll have three vet checks and criteria set at 56.

Coso Junction Day 2 12-11-2011

It became clear at the end of day one that the night was going to be very cold. I hadn't been entirely comfortable the night before, even in my zero degree sleeping bag with another thrown over it, and my fleece pajamas and blanket sleeper and hood and warm socks. I had a feeling Hoss's beet pulp would freeze overnight again. So I set up the tea kettle full of water for the next morning and took my water bottles in the tent with me. I figured I might need a drink in the night and they'd be less likely to freeze in the tent. I also dug out the fleece sleeping bag liner.

Once I had Hoss settled in, tucked in to a bunch of hay and a warm bran mash, I set up my saddle for the next day's ride. It turned out the vet check would be back at base camp, so I didn't need a vet check bag. I made sure my vet check food was ready and in my trailer readily available.

My camping neighbor took pity on me, having in the past been a tent camper, and invited me in for a rather nice dinner. I had just started selecting a can of soup for dinner and started the tea kettle for hot chocolate. My neighbor was in a living quarters trailer. Not one to pass up comfort and somebody else doing the cooking, I took her up on the offer.

Dinner turned out to be a chicken and rice dish bought at Costco and a spinach salad. We had a lovely conversation while we shared a wonderful meal and I got to be warm for a while. She also let me get water from her rig rather than walk all the way down to the water hose and lug it back. We put Hoss's water and beet pulp mush in the back of her trailer in hopes it would not freeze.

I crawled in to my tent and set up my bed. Then I got in to my night clothes, putting on my fleece balaclava under my hooded blanket sleeper and snugging everything down. I got myself into bed and hoped I wouldn't need to get up in a hurry in the middle of the night for Hoss.

I woke up thirsty near 2am. I snuck a hand out of my sleeping bag and took hold of my water bottle. It was completely frozen solid. The bottle of Gatorade was slushie but not frozen, so I had a little Gatorade. Since I was awake, I sat up and looked out to check on Hoss. He was standing quietly asleep. I laid back down, got snugged back in, and hoped I wouldn't need to get up until 5am.

Hoss stayed quiet all night and I didn't need to arise until 5am. I immediately turned on the stove under the teakettle, which had frozen over night, before going into the back of the trailer to get Hoss his breakfast hay. I set up a cup for hot chocolate for myself. I wasn't sure if I had time to change before the water was ready, so I waited for the water.

Once the water was ready, I made my hot chocolate and got Hoss's virtually completely frozen beet pulp mash edible. I took my hot chocolate into the tent to get dressed, along with my headlamp, which was my only light. The lantern had finally called it quits and was not able to provide adequate light to dress by. During my dressing, I managed to lose the headlamp somewhere in the tent, still turned on. I frantically searched for it, but was unable to find it before it was time to leave. I was quite distressed, as I knew the likelihood we would complete after dark, and I would be virtually blind. At least with the vet check back at base camp I'd have a chance to search for it.

We rejoined our riding partners from the previous day. I suggested we should try to go a little bit faster, as her mare looked good and there wasn't another day. It would be safe enough to push it just a bit. My suggestion didn't really stick, as we ended up coming in about the same amount of time as the previous day.

Heading up the power line road

This morning we were really riding into the sun and I was really relying on Hoss to pick his way on the trail. Because he's in boots, he's discovered he can handle more rocks than he could in shoes. The mare we were with, however, was in shoes and not quite as well protected. My riding partner had to holler to me several times to slow down because Hoss was trotting over rocks her mare couldn't chance. Once past the sun in the eyes thing, it was easier to slow down when it was appropriate.

I failed to mention in the previous post that I've learned Hoss does best if he gets a dose of electrolytes every 12.5 miles or so. When I give it to him is more dependent upon when water stops occur than strict mileage. In fact he seems to have realized that getting the electrolytes makes him feel better. He takes them without complaint and no longer attempts to spit them out, nor does he hold them in his mouth. He swallows the dose as best he can. We're still working on the rate at which I should administer them so he gets them down.

Around the volcano

We traded lead several times, depending on which horse was feeling more motivated. We made the vet check in good time, and once again Hoss's heart rate came down quickly, and he was pulling me to the vet. I took him to the trailer and got him fed. I hung my HRM watch from his saddle so I could keep an eye on his heart rate while I cooked myself up a bowl of soup. Again, I could have had lunch from ride management, but with the yet-undiagnosed gut thing, I prefer to stick with what I know won't leave me in crippling pain. Hoss's heart rate was in the 40s while he ate his hay and electrolyte bran mash.

While Hoss ate, I tossed my tent searching for my headlamp. It had to be in there somewhere. I finally found it on the far side of my bed, on the floor between the tent wall and the mattress. I was grateful to find it. I turned it off and finished my lunch.

Once again time to hit the trail, we rejoined our riding partners and headed out. The first loop on this ride had been particularly long, about 30 miles, so we only had about 20 miles to go. We were gonna finish after dark again either way. I was very relieved to have my headlamp back!

The trail -- with a little of Hoss's head!

The last loop was back up the power line road the opposite direction from the way we had gone the previous day. When we reached the point at which we turned the previous day, we continued on further through some more trails beyond that point. I had put my headlamp on my helmet in preparation for darkness, but needed to remove my helmet for one reason or another I cannot remember at this point. I got everything situated and my helmet back on. We rode a good mile or more before I realized that, when I had removed my helmet, I had lost my headlamp!

The idea of finishing in the dark without my headlamp was particularly nerve-wracking for me. I had to turn around and find it. I headed Hoss back down the trail as fast as we could go, and ultimately found my headlamp. With great relief, I dismounted and retrieved the headlamp, then got back on and cantered back to meet our riding partner where we had left her.

Sunset/Dusk as we rode down the power line road

We rode through the trails and through some pretty scenery before returning to the power line road we had come up the prior day, and headed back down it. Dusk hit and I turned on my headlamp and realized it was pretty weak. I was pretty sure having been on all day had not been good for the batteries. We paused long enough for me to switch out my batteries and get a better light.

We kept up a brisk pace, but still didn't manage much better time than the previous day's ride. Once again Hoss practically dragged me to the vet, and he vetted through easily. After riding down the power line road, his HRM was going bonkers and not giving a reliable reading, so I don't know what his heart rate actually was.

We parted company with our riding partner and I took Hoss back to the trailer. I got him well cared for and had started on some dinner when the call for the ride meeting went up.




Many riders had left upon finishing, so there were few enough of us left to all squeeze in to the ride management trailer. My completion awards were a Coso Junction Warmup mug with my name on it, and a plaque showing Hoss and I had completed both days. Woohoo! Something for a brag wall!
Yes, indeed, so far, so good. 2012 is starting out much better than 2011 did.

Coso Junction Warmup Day One 12-10-2011

We had arrived in base camp after dark on Friday night, so I was stuck setting up camp by lamplight. Since it was dark, Hoss was not vetted in until morning.

The ride did not start until 7am. This was nice, as it meant I didn't need to get up until 5am to feed. But it was cold! In the morning I gave Hoss his hay, and went to mix up his beet pulp mass to find it partially frozen! I put the tea kettle on and boiled up some water. I used some of it to make myself some hot chocolate, and the rest to warm up Hoss's breakfast.

When I had arrived at camp, I had purchased from Griffin's Tack a new pair of brushing boots to replace the pair I'd lost one of. I started fiddling with Hoss's boots, getting the Gloves on his fronts and the Renegades on his hinds. I needed a vet bag, so I got down one of the hay bags I had stuck a flake of alfalfa in and grabbed a pan to put in with it. And there, between the pan I picked up and the pan it was resting in, was the missing brushing boot. Well, I guess now I have two pair.

I saddled up, got the HRM working, the GPS reset, and headed out to see the vet just before the start. Hoss was cleared easily to start the ride. We rode around a bit waiting for the official start call, and we were approached by a young lady on a grey Arab mare. She asked if she could ride with us. I warned her we're pretty slow, but that was what she'd really been looking for, so it worked out perfectly.

Early in the day on the trail

We headed out on the trail and Hoss was behaving himself quite nicely until a pair of horses passed us. Any other time, he can be passed without incident. During the start of a ride, however, it just makes him crazy. My policy is I get to set the pace, and I don't really care what he thinks we should be doing. We hadn't warmed up long enough yet, I felt, so we needed to continue to walk. Hoss objected to this decision, as some other horse had had the temerity to pass him, so what I had going on was a pretty good jig. I rode him hard to get a few good walk steps out of him, then we started trotting.

We kept up a good pace through some pretty country. I was able to keep Hoss up to a consistent 7mph over most of the terrain. In the early part of the ride we were riding into the sun and I couldn't see the terrain. I had to trust Hoss to tell me when we needed to slow down. Mostly he was good about it. He only slowed down when we were going through rocks, then picked up the pace when the terrain was good.

Our riding partners ahead of us on the trail

It was a beautiful place to ride and pretty flat. The young lady I was riding with wanted to go slow. It was her horse's first multi-day ride and she was worried the horse was not as fit as she would like her to be. My observation was the mare looked pretty darn good and she was underestimating her horse.

We reached the vet check right around 11:30. Hoss's heart rate came right down. In fact, he was "San Diego recovered" within minutes of coming in. I found his vet bag and made him his bran mash and put his hay out. He had his hay, bran mash, and a bucket of water all lined up so he didn't need to take a single step to get to anything he wanted.

The young lady I was riding with had her mother there as crew. I was given a nice banana, peanut butter and honey sandwich (the alternative was Cup 'o Soup from ride management), and ate one of the granola bars I'd put in my pack. I switched out my water bottles for the two full ones I'd sent to the vet check with Hoss's vet bag. We hit the trail again.

Going through some very nice, arena-like trail, we got going at a particularly good pace. I snuck a glance at my GPS and found we were hitting 8mph! It even felt like a nice, smooth gait! Hoss has truly come a long way, though he has a long way to go.

Coming off our fast section

We slowed down for the hill and made our way around to the last section. This involved riding up one power line road and back down another. Boring and flat. Toward the end of a ride, it's a little disheartening as well. Since it was flat, though, we kept the horses going at about 7mph. It was clear we would be finishing in the dark, though. I was very glad I had a head lamp with me. I had told my riding partner I used it in the dark because I am very nearly night blind, and Hoss seems to prefer it when I use it in the dark. She was okay with this.

The moon rising as we headed toward the finish

Once we turned back down the second power line road, the horses sensed they were on the way back and were able to keep a good pace up. We did end up walking quite a bit of the last part. My riding partner wanted to be sure she had enough horse for day two. Since I had my head lamp, I didn't really care.
We hopped off our horses just outside ride camp and led them in. I was walking pretty slowly, so rather than leading, it was more like I was being pulled by Hoss toward the vet. He knew where the vets were, and once he saw them, he could go eat!

I had removed my HRM watch and hung it on Hoss's tack so I could see what it was reading. He was well down below 60 by the time we got to the vet. He trotted out cleanly and we were passed to do day two.

Goals and Aspirations for 2012 Ride Season (and a little on the weight thing)

The 2012 season already is looking much more promising than 2011 was. Moab really helped Hoss turn the corner. His recoveries are now looking very good, and so long as we have no disasters, 2012 should be good.

Last year I had doubled the number of miles I wanted to do from the prior year. Since 2011 was so disappointing, I'm a little shy of doing that again. We did finish a 75 miler, even if over time (because we got hopelessly lost, not because we couldn't maintain a finishing speed), so I'm feeling pretty good about getting in longer distance rides. With all that in mind, here are our goals for 2012:

750 Endurance miles

Complete one 100 mile ride

One ride (single or multi-day) per month, except July and August

Get as many of those miles as possible at multi-day (3-5 day) rides

All that put down, I already have over 1000 miles on my "prospective calendar." My true aspiration is to complete 1000 miles and two 100 milers. I believe it's doable, if we can stay on a steady course.

With such a heavy schedule, I know Hoss needs some time off. I am planning on no competition in July and August. Sure, we'll ride to keep up our fitness, but we will not compete.

This should work out well on another front. DC turns 3 in April, and will return to Beth for breaking in. My hope is she will do well and come home to just be ridden during Hoss's "off" period. Once Hoss goes back to competition in the fall, DC would go back to Beth for further training.

Now I want to touch briefly on the weight loss thing. After much frustration, and weeks of working out an hour and a half a day for weeks, I finally started losing weight. To date, I have lost around 30 pounds. If my home scale is accurate, I am at my goal weight. But, I look in the mirror and think, I could lose more. If I lose another 25 pounds I will be in the range for my height.

I haven't been able to work out since the accident at Moab. So far I have not regained any of the weight I lost, but of course this cannot last. I've made an appointment with my doctor. Of course her first available isn't until January 10, but since this has been going on this long, I don't expect it to be suddenly resolved by then. I want to be sure I don't have something that needs fixed, and get physical therapy if it applies. I think physical therapy may be very important to recovering this hip.

I would like to get down to a more appropriate weight for my height. I know I have to make allowances for the amount of extra muscle I carry around (and need). But I realize that, in order to be a top ten rider, and do some of these much more challenging rides, I need to be fit and lose as much of this extra fat I'm packing around as I can. With that little filly in the pasture, who will not mature to be quite as heavy as Hoss, and thus need a lighter rider, I surely have the motivation to get my weight down as far as I can!

2011 Ride Season Recap

I suppose a poor ride season must come into every horse and rider team's life. I can't say our season was a total disaster, but it was certainly a disappointment. We had an awful lot go wrong in a single year!

At our very first ride of the 2011 ride year, day one of Death Valley Encounter, Hoss was pulled with a cramp. I decided not to ride him on day two, and rode again on day three. Not fifteen miles into the ride I noticed he was lame on the hind. It felt like either his foot or his hock. Couldn't be sure which. We finished the ride on "walking orders," and while we were allowed a completion, by the next morning it was evident Hoss had strained his left hock. He spent the next two weeks in a corral.

We got back in to the groove after two weeks off. Hoss hadn't lost much condition due to his confinement. I had pulled his shoes after he had strained his hock in hopes of slowing him down. It didn't work. Because he wasn't slowed by being barefoot, I decided to experiment and see if I couldn't get him barefoot. I decided to give it a year before I would make the final decision whether to use boots or shoes.

And then there was the shoulder surgery. I had to have my left rotator cuff fixed. It turned out to be a complicated affair and I was in a sling for six weeks. During the time I was out, my daughter rode Hoss, just to keep him moving and the dogs exercised. She was only riding him around home. She didn't have time to take him anywhere else. They had a rather nasty fall right before I got out of the sling and was able to go back to riding.

This is where things started to fall apart. We had finished one day of Death Valley Encounter and three days of Eastern Mojave, so we had 200 miles when I had hoped to have 250 by that point. Indeed, if he hadn't come home from Death Valley lame, we might have gone to Warner Springs the next week, and adding all those miles we could have been at 400 miles by that point. 500 was our goal.

I rode Hoss as often as possible without boots, trying to get his feet toughened up. I noticed he tripped, mainly on his right front, but it was easy to write it off to sore footedness. So I kept riding. I started using his front boots.

As the Descanso endurance ride approached, I noticed Hoss would be off, then fine. He was very inconsistent. I nailed on shoes and pads and hoped for the best. During the ride, he would be fine on consistent footing, but would be very slightly off when the footing got uneven. At the third vet check, we were pulled. He was lame.

Hoss went to the vet for a lameness exam. After running through all the tests, from flexion tests all the way through x-rays, we found nothing definitive. All we could say for certain was it was somewhere in the front 2/3 of his foot, from an inch above the hairline down. Hoss was put on six weeks confinement and anti-inflammatories for six weeks.

After coming out of confinement, Hoss was a bit pent up, but he'd lost some condition and it showed. We went next to the Big Bear ride. Hoss had trouble keeping up a pace better than 5mph. We wound up pulling, largely because I was experiencing some rather significant – and yet undiagnosed – gut pain. Also, we didn't have time to finish if Hoss wasn't going to go any faster or recover any better.

We went to Best of Both in October and finished with just 15 minutes left on the clock. Hoss had a hard time coming down at every vet check. It took him right up to the last moment we had – there were cut-off times – before he would get down to 56 beats per minute. Still, we finished. I hoped we had turned the corner.

At the end of October, I decided we'd go to Moab Canyons in Utah. The description sounded like the ride would be easy enough, and it would get us closer to our goal than going to the closer ride in Ridgecrest on the same weekend. We finished all three days of Moab. Hoss came down to criteria – by this point I had purchased and started using a heart rate monitor – quickly, but in the mountain region, criteria of less than 64 is virtually unheard of. Watching the HRM, I found he was doing better each day. On the second day, he looked pretty tired at the vet check, but my sense was he'd be okay, and I was right. I babied him through the end of the second day, and on the third day he did fine. Except when he slid down the sandstone hill and took me out, giving me a badly bruised and sprained hip, which still isn't healed.

There was one last ride available to us before the year was over. If we could finish 75 at Lead Follow, we would have 480 miles, and get close to our goal. It was a last-ditch attempt to get some miles. Unfortunately we got lost and ended up over time. So no credit for those miles. We ended our season with 405 miles.

What I can say is Hoss has turned the corner and is doing much better on his heart rates. I noticed at Lead Follow he was coming down to the set criteria – 60 – almost immediately upon coming in to the vet check. At the trailer, while eating, his heart rate would drop into the 40s.

During much of the season, I was nailing shoes on Hoss's hind feet for competition. I had one heck of a time finding boots that would work. I finally settled on the Easyboot Edges, and used them all four days at Moab. They stayed on, but he beat the hell out of his back fetlocks with them. He also tore up the gaiters pretty good. The gaiters did a pretty nasty number on his hind pasterns, too. He came home with nasty rubs. So, as far as I was concerned, the Edges, at least on the hind, were a bust. Before Lead Follow, I bought a pair of Renegades for his hinds, and he wore them with no issues -- except he wore them out in a single 75 mile ride. It turned out they were just a bit too small, and just as if you nail shoes on a horse that are too small they are apt to wear out early, the same evidently applies to boots. He now has a pair of size 2 Renegades for his hinds and they seem to be holding up just fine.

Next season is already looking up.

A Horse for Christmas

The first time I saw her was just a few weeks after I'd euthanized Phoenix. I was driving my truck up to the shoeing area near Beth's shed. As I drove toward the corrals, this little dark grey filly was pacing along the front of her pen. She got to the corner, paused and looked my way. It was like looking at Phoenix the day I bought him. I felt my heart lurch. In that moment, I knew two things: she was meant to be mine, and I couldn't have her.

There were a number of reasons I knew I couldn't have her. She was practically wild at that time, and I certainly couldn't afford to pay Beth to train her at that time. My plan had been to get Hoss to and through Tevis, then find a broke, 4 year old to bring up behind him. 2013 is going to be the year I am utterly focused on Hoss; having another horse to care for and break in at the same time will be too challenging. It just wasn't the right time.

I spent the following eleven months or so denying I wanted this little horse. I told myself all sorts of things. She'll be too small. It's too soon since putting Phoenix down. She looks too much like Phoenix.

Phoenix in 2007

As time went on since I first laid eyes on her, I learned dribs and drabs of information. I deliberately avoided her, but of course it's impossible to completely avoid a horse living with my trainer. I recall one day in particular she was running at mach speed around the round pen. I thought, that there is a top ten prospect if I ever saw one. She was tearing around the round pen without a bit of encouragement. Beth was sitting outside the pen watching her.

I learned her name is DC, which is short for Demon Child. It doesn't sound like the most promising name, but she was named after her sire.

Beth bought and owned for a time a young, black, Malabar bred Arabian stallion. He is the calmest, coolest fellow. If someone is told he is a stallion, they feel the need to check. So Beth chose to name him Demon as a joke.

At the same time she acquired Demon, Beth had a very nice little black mare by the name of Esprit. Beth always planned to breed the two, and I had visions of owning a Demon baby. We tried to get Esprit in foal to Demon without success, and Beth was forced to euthanize Esprit when she suffered a serious injury, permanently laming her.

During the time Beth owned Demon, she bred him several times. One of the breedings was to a 20 year old maiden Arabian mare by the name of Merrylegs. Merrylegs belonged to a young lady who was horse-crazy at the time. The young lady and her family moved shortly after the breeding (she was covered once) and before Merrylegs could be confirmed in foal.

DC and mom Merrylegs

A vet did a pregnancy check on Merrylegs, and pronounced her open. No baby. From what I understand it was something of a relief, as the young lady had lost interest in horses. So you can imagine their surprise when they found a dark dapple grey three-day-old filly with Merrylegs the April after her breeding!

For reasons unknown to me, DC ended up with Liz Masters as a rescue. She was sent to Beth for training. Of course, while in training, DC was also offered for sale/adoption. Beth, disliking someone who was looking at the little filly, decided since she had owned Demon at the time of the breeding, she was responsible for DC and took her herself.

It was only months after she took DC Beth learned Liz would be sending Eclipse back down for sale. Beth had briefly owned Eclipse, but had sold him back to Liz because she wasn't in a position to keep two horses, and chose to keep Esprit.

DC with Mac in the background, who could not be convinced to stay out of the picture

So now Beth was in a pickle. She couldn't afford two horses, and desperately wanted to buy Eclipse back. The only way this could happen was to, at the very least, reduce her expenses. Still unaware I was completely in love with DC, she asked if I'd take the filly home and care for her there, thus reducing expenses enough for her to buy Eclipse. So, on Friday, December 2, 2011, DC came home with me and Hoss. The plan was for her to stay with me, for me to care for her and just do stuff with her until she's old enough to break in, then she'd go back.

Having her home sure didn't make me want DC less. It was like she had been created for me. She's a Demon baby, something I always wanted since meeting Demon. She looks a lot like Phoenix, which really adds to the desire to have her rather than detracts from it. Phoenix had always been a great horse in my eyes, despite his flaws. She will mature to a good size for me. At 2 ½ she is only an inch or two shorter than Hoss despite looking far smaller when seen next to him. She's got the potential to be a top-ten horse. I've never had the opportunity to compete at that level. Phoenix had the heart but not the body. Hoss is just too slow. DC could be that top ten horse I've always privately hoped I'd own some day.

I think we'll make a pretty good match

My daughter is pretty intuitive. She pretty readily saw through me. She knew I wanted that little filly. She approached my husband, her step-father, and proceeded to talk him in to buying her for me. I am told part of convincing him was singing, to the tune of "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth," "All she wants for Christmas is the horse DC!" It worked. He called Beth and worked out a deal. By the end of the weekend she was mine.

Conditioning Ride 12-8-2011

HR 30

HRR 65

HR1Min 49

HR5Min 54 (he shook, so it's not really a creditable reading)

HR10Min 43

Distance: 7.9 miles

Avg Spd: 5.5 mph

Total Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

I took Hoss and the boys down to the Steel Bridge for this ride. Earlier in the week, I took Mac to a different vet as he was still just as lame he'd been a week earlier. He was diagnosed with a nail bed infection and put on antibiotics. He was sound in three days. Hoss and I would be leaving for the Coso Junction Warmup ride that weekend, so I decided I needed to get the boys well exercised before we left.

DC was not happy when we pulled out with the only other horse she had for company. Hoss hasn't been very nice to her, but I suppose he's better than nobody. She trotted around and paced a bit, but it wasn't frantic. It was a good sign she'd be okay when we left for the weekend.

It was an overcast but not overly cold day. The boys were excited to be getting out – it had been a while – and I had a hard time keeping them from greeting every other person using the area that afternoon.
We needed to make the ride pretty quick, as we got a late start and I didn't want to be on the trail in the dark. Once again it was hoof boots only, still hadn't found the hind interference boots. We were days away from the ride, so I had called Griffin's Tack to order a pair. It turned out he would be at the ride, so I decided I'd just pick them up there.

We got a good clip going shortly after hitting the trail. As yet, most of the seasonal stream areas are still dry. It will take a little more rain than we've gotten to get them flowing again.

Once we hit the long road, I urged Hoss into a swift trot, trying to keep him at 7mph. It's hard to keep an eye on the "odometer," as the GPS hangs off the side of saddle and is very difficult to see. I had to go more by feel than by the numbers, but the few times I managed to sneak a peak, he was doing pretty well at keeping his speed up.

After crossing the cowboy gate we continued at a trot. I elected not to ride to the gazebo, fearing it would cause us to be back too close to or after dark. So we took a short cut trail up the hillside. I kept Hoss trotting for the conditioning effect. He really would rather have walked, but I was able to keep him moving out. Some of the turns on this trail are tough to negotiate, but Hoss needs to learn to deal with this kind of thing without having to slow down first!

At the top we made the left turn back down. Hoss knew we were headed for home and picked up the pace just a little bit. One of the things I like about this horse is he doesn't change pace particularly. He doesn't tend to lag on the way out and rush on the way back. He's pretty consistent. It's what makes him a long-mileage endurance horse. The slow-but-consistent thing will allow him to have a long career with a lot of miles. He may always finish toward the back of the pack, but he'll finish in good shape.

We crossed the cowboy gate back onto the long road and picked up a good trot. The large puddles could be a problem. Once, while crossing a puddle, Hoss had sunk all the way to his knees. So now he's a little more wary. At least that wariness seems to only apply to this particular riding area. He does just fine in other places, although there is a spot at Hollenbeck he's not fond of but has figured out how to negotiate okay. With this area, at the Steel Bridge, the wet areas are inconsistent. In the summer it'll be dry and no problem at all. Come winter, it's a problem. The spot at Hollenbeck is year 'round, so he's not as bothered by it. But when we're trotting or cantering on the long road at Steel Bridge, he gets nervous coming up to the areas where water as accumulated. I try to slow him to a walk before he thinks to do it himself, and direct him through the best part. Of course, I've put him in a bad spot in the past, so he's not entirely sure he can trust me on that one!

Back at the river crossing, Hoss stepped right in – carefully, of course; he knows there are rocks and other debris that cannot be predicted from ride to ride – and crossed without hesitation. His eagerness was quickly explained. Once we got on the gray road, he was a coiled spring. The horse wanted to run!
I glanced back to make sure the boys were with us, then let Hoss take off at a flying gallop (17mph; not exactly a racehorse here). We had a fabulous run most of the way to the turn back to the bridge, only slowing for the downhills.

We crossed the bridge and trotted back to and most of the way through the meadow. Once back at the trailer and collecting my data, I was very pleased to find we'd averaged 5.5mph. I do believe that is the fastest we have ever average at the Steel Bridge!

Conditioning Ride 11-24-2011

HR 47

Distance: 12.3 miles

Avg Spd: 4.5mph

Total Time: 2 hours, 56 minutes

HRR 70

HR 1 Min: 64

HR 5 Min: 50

I decided to get in a ride on Thanksgiving morning before we headed over to my sister's house for dinner. For this ride we headed on up to Horsethief Canyon. I didn't take the boys along, as Mac had developed a mystery left front lameness. It was obvious his left lateral toe was abducting out away from his foot and he wouldn't use the toe properly. He would go pretty fine for a while, then suddenly be three legged lame, carrying the paw and hopping on the other front foot.

So it was just me and Hoss. I booted him up for the ride, the Gloves on the front and the Renegades behind. The size 1 Renegades had completely worn through at the toe and most of the tread was gone after Lead Follow, so I was worried Renegades wouldn't work for him. I had entered the raffle for another pair at the ride, and won a pair. I sent the ones I got – another pair of size 1s – and asked for size 2s to replace them. In the meantime, the nearly done in 1s would have to do.

I came across a problem while I was booting Hoss up. One of his brushing boots – which I had bought at Moab because he was tearing up his fetlocks with the boots on his hinds – was missing. I dug around a bit for it, but it never appeared.

My plan was to get as far up the Secret Canyon trail as I could, see how much of it I could find. So we saddled up, fiddled the HRM into working, and headed on down the trail.

When we reached the road where we'd turned left the last time, we turned right. Much of the road is too rocky or steep to trot on, so this was a slower than average ride. We continued down the road until we came to a "T" intersection. We had the choice to turn to the left, or to the right. There was no signage to give me any clue as to which way was "right," so I just decided we'd go to the right and turn around once we'd hit around six miles.

We were able to get quite a bit of trotting in. It was clear the road is more often used by off road vehicles, though there was evidence of at least one horse having recently used it. Lots of beautiful scenery. I was able to get some pretty nice pictures.

We made our way down the trail to the seasonal creek. The pond was very full. It has to be crossed to continue on the trail.

We hit the six mile mark at a wide turn in the road. There's a gate which appears to go to private property, and the road continues on after a hard left. We could have continued on, but it was time to turn back so I could make Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house. We trotted what we could, walked what we had to. I got some nice shots on our way back, too. The area is simply gorgeous. I'm going to have to find a day to truly explore the area. And I'm gonna need to find a partner to do it with. It's more fun with a friend riding along as well.

When we got back to the trailer, I watched Hoss's heart rate come down nicely. Within a very few minutes he was under 56. I did notice the Renegade boots, while I had heard him hit himself with them, did not do any damage to his fetlocks despite the lack of brushing boots. Since he'd been having swelling problems, I took pictures of his hind legs from all angles. Of course, this turned out to be unnecessary, the reason for which will become clear in future posts.

We loaded up and got home in plenty of time to make it to my sister's house. My poor husband was suffering terribly from food poisoning and was unable to enjoy the dinner, but my dear brother in law gave him a huge "care package" of leftovers. At least my husband was able to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal, even if a day later.




Hoss's hind legs did swell up the day after this ride, and I decided I needed to take him to see the vet. While the swelling goes down with exercise, I felt I need to have an explanation for endurance vets. Since we were planning to do the Death Valley (Coso Junction) Warmup ride, and do both days, I needed to have a good explanation and diagnosis.

Chalice Ranch is Moving

This story has really been a long time in coming. I've made no mention of the troubles we've been having with Chase, our mortgager, over the last two years. I really didn't want to have to talk about it over and over until we had a resolution. So there are very few people who are aware of our foreclosure woes.

Shortly after we'd moved in here, I had a fall off Hoss and suffered a brain injury. It was a pretty bad injury, but none of us realized I had been brain injured. We just went on with life as if nothing was wrong.

The problem was, I had effectively lost my sense of the passage of time and my math skills suffered greatly. I also developed what could almost be called a phobia of talking on the phone. I felt like I couldn't understand people over the phone.

I still have a poor sense of time. If you ask me when I did something, there's a good chance I won't be able to tell you. Anything that happened within the last week or so could've happened yesterday or two months ago. I have to keep very strict records of when I trimmed or shod which horse and have every appointment in my computer or I'll forget. I will also forget whether or not I took my medications or gave the dogs theirs. Just today, I forgot to start the gas pump before I went into the convenience store for a hot chocolate! I have to stick to a very strict regimen in order to make sure the things that need done, get done.

My math skills have not returned. I was never great at math. I remember the hours I spent sitting on the family room couch trying to memorize my multiplication tables – and failing. Even the simplest addition and subtraction problems are difficult for me. I have to carry a calculator to make sure I charge clients the right amount when I get paid on site. I do get pretty good when I'm doing the same numbers over and over again, but it takes me far longer to come to a solution than it ever did before.

The phone thing I think is the weirdest. I never really liked talking on the phone for the most part, but after the TBI, answering the phone stressed me out. The very idea of making a phone call was almost enough to cause a panic attack. I've mostly gotten over it. I still don't like to answer the phone, and I find myself avoiding making needed phone calls. I'm getting better. I still feel like it's hard to understand people on the phone, but at least I'll answer the dratted thing.

The difficulties occurred because I would just forget things. I'd forget to bill clients. I'd forget to put checks in the bank. I'd forget to pay bills. I can't tell you how many times SDGE and the propane people got paid because somebody showed up wanting paid or they'd turn off our services. Our cell phones got shut off more times than any of us can count.

Since then, it's improved and I'm able to keep up with the bills. I'm often late, but that's usually more a matter of time than forgetting to do it all.

The fallout from this was Chase started foreclosure procedures. I was able to call them and start the redemption process. They allowed us to start a loan modification.

My memory of what happened is rather fuzzy. Remember I was (and am) dealing with a brain injury and my memory ain't what it should be. I do know I filled out and mailed back the forms they sent me. I also know I faithfully made the six months of payments – which were higher than our regular payment had been. And then I continued to send in payments.

Then I got a notice or something, not sure how it happened, and we had to start the loan modification process again! Once again I filled out all the paperwork and sent it in. Once again I faithfully made my payments. At some point, I even received a letter stating we had been accepted for a loan modification. Awesome!

And then, there was a three day notice to get the hell out. Chase had filed an unlawful detainer against us. I can only say my reaction was pure shock. From my perspective, I'd done everything I'd been asked!

I called a lawyer, and we started proceedings to sue Chase. It was pretty clearly an illegal foreclosure. There was no notice; they'd done it silently. My attorney went to work, and the unlawful detainer was put on hold.

The first settlement conference was back in May of this year. We had been warned by our attorney that Chase appears to have policy that, if they foreclose on a property, even if you show up with cash to pay it off, they won't sell it to you. So we were fully prepared to be offered a sum of money and a period of time to get out. Well, you could've knocked me over with a feather when Chase said they'd consider a loan modification.

I went to work and got all the information Chase wanted together well within the period of time they gave us to do it. They assured our attorney they would have an answer in three weeks or less.

Three weeks passed and we heard nothing. Then a month, and still no word. Two months, nothing. Three months, utter silence. As we approached the final settlement conference date in October, our attorney started getting after Chase's attorney. All of a sudden, Chase was saying they'd never received the package in the first place! Our attorney found what he had and re-sent it. I was asked to bring current bank statements, Mike's paystubs, and a profit and loss statement for my business, plus our last two years' tax returns to the settlement conference. I sweated it out gathering all that information literally at the last moment, and went to the courthouse for the conference.

I had all the documents, had spent several hours gathering it all together, and it turned out to be for nothing. Chase wasted my time. Ultimately, their offer was 120 days to vacate and $10,000. I was pretty furious they'd put me through all that, but at that point it really didn't matter. Our attorney and I consulted, and spent quite a while looking like we were in deep negotiations, then he went back in to talk to the Chase attorney some more.

In the end, we came away with $15,000 and have until February 2^nd to move out.

Now came the hard part: Finding a place to move to, ideally in Jamul, where we could keep all the animals. It seemed to be an insurmountable task, and I dithered about it for several weeks before I finally started searching in earnest. I took the attitude the right place would come along, and didn't let the lack of appropriate locations discourage me.

It paid off. I found the right place. It's over in Lawson Valley, and on three acres. The three acres are pretty much useable, as opposed to the less than one acre useable here. Additionally, they don't mind what we do to rearrange things to build an arena, pasture, garden, whatever. I can have my animals and they'll pretty much leave us alone.

The house itself is a little odd. It looks a little bit as if someone took two different homes and mooshed them together. It clearly started out as a one bedroom log cabin style home. The living room is quite large, taking up quite possibly half of the original home, and has a lovely fireplace. The kitchen is rather small but useable with a short section that can be used to eat at with stools (why I can't think of what that's called right now I do not know). The front bathroom is quite small. Standing just inside the door, I cannot spread my arms completely from the wall to the cabinets. And it has a sunken Jacuzzi tub. In the dark, someone could just walk right into the tub! Next to the dining room is a small bedroom which we will use as my office.

The second part of the house is in a completely different style. The dining room opens into a large family room. The most interesting feature of the family room is a small counter with a sink and an open area obviously intended for a small refrigerator. There are two ceiling fans in the room as well. The second bedroom is significantly larger than the first, with a large closet taking up one wall. The master suite has a second bathroom with a shower and a walk-in closet. There is a sliding glass door in the master suite which opens on to a deck above the three car garage.

All in all, it's really a trade up. I get to have an arena, have all my animals at home, there's trail access pretty much right out the gate, I can build a significantly larger pasture…. The positives just go on. Oh, and it's cheaper.

So, we lost the house we bought to foreclosure and will have that hanging over our heads the next ten years. That's really the only negative. Other than we have to move. That kinda sucks. I hate to move!

Lead Follow or Get Out of my Way 75, 2011

We tried to get as early a start as we could getting out of home, but it really wasn't happening. While we were still on the road by about 6am, it was later than I had hoped for. To complicate matters, I was down to the last few doses of my medications to control the pain in my sprained hip. I accept I should not have been going to a ride in my condition, but I'm stubborn, and I just wanted one last chance to get a few more miles on our season.

While packing and preparing to leave for the ride, I had removed and hosed down the girth for Hoss's saddle. As soon as I did this, I discovered large chunks of the wool just coming right off the sheepskin cover. Well, that didn't last long! Fortunately I had already decided to get a new girth and ordered it. It wasn't going to arrive in time for the ride, but at least this would be the last ride for the falling apart, galling POS I was using. What I decided to get was an Easy Girth by Running Bear. Measuring and deciding on a length took some doing, but I finally settled on a 24" girth.

The other problem I'd had, which really didn't seem to be a problem when I first discovered it, was my left stirrup seemed to want to let go. On our last ride, on our way out, I thought, boy, I'm really out of balance. My left leg is really feeling long! Then I gradually noticed it was getting longer. Didn't take me long to realize something was wrong with my stirrup. I got Hoss stopped and fixed the stirrup. It appeared the buckle didn't want to stay in place. Not having a great deal of time to fiddle with it, I had gotten it back together, mounted back up, and continued our ride. It didn't give me any other more trouble, so I thought nothing of it.

To further complicate matters, I had purchased a new pair of riding boots. I bought the exact same brand and style I've used for years. I've always been able to simply put them on and walk away. No break-in period. I put them on for my morning walk the next morning and headed out, fully confident I'd have no problems. Unfortunately I discovered to my dismay and woe, something about the way the boots are constructed has changed. By the time I'd walked a quarter of our daily distance, I was noticing I was developing a blister on my right heel. I stopped several times to make adjustments to little effect. When we'd turned around to come home, the blister was very painful but still tolerable enough to walk on. Barely. I then started to notice a blister forming on my left heel. By the time we turned up the final hill for the last eighth mile or so, I was nearly crippled. I briefly considered hopping on Hoss bareback with nothing but the halter. I didn't do it. I had no helmet, have never ridden Hoss bareback, and he's a different horse to ride than he is to lead. So I hobbled my way home. Once I had Hoss In the pasture and fed, I hobbled into the house to remove my boots. I found a truly huge, bloody blister on my right heel, and the beginnings of one on my left heel. To make matters worse, probably because I'd been walking oddly, I had sores rubbed into the outside of my right foot as well. The only pair of shoes I could wear: a pair of leather moccasins I inherited many years ago from my father.

I had been calling my doctor's office trying to get refills on my drugs to get me through the ride for three days. By the time Friday morning rolled around, I had just enough meds to maybe get me through the ride, but it meant not taking any for the drive. This meant trial by fire for my husband. He had never driven the truck and trailer except to move it about fifty yards, and then he got it stuck enough we had to call in friends with a 4x4 truck to get it out. So you can imagine he was more than a little nervous about driving the rig. But, I couldn't possibly drive the nearly 400 miles myself and get on my horse the next morning. So once we reached the highway, I turned over driving duties to a very nervous husband.

I wasn't able to take my drugs as prescribed, to be sure I'd have enough to get through the next day's ride, so I sat in the passenger seat, unable to find a truly comfortable position. It wasn't long before I decided I'd be more comfortable sprawled out in the back seat, where we had put the memory foam pad and a sleeping bag just for this purpose. It was an improvement, but it certainly did not cause the discomfort to vanish.
Since my hip injury I have found myself sleepy pretty much all the time. I could toddle off to bed by 6pm and be sound asleep until the sun came up. So it was really not surprise when I drifted off to sleep in the back seat of the truck. My husband had the TomTom GPS to go by, so I wasn't really worried about him getting lost!

We were in Scottsdale when my doctor's office finally deigned to call me. They wanted to know where I wanted my prescription called in. Well, by this time, we were a little lost in Scottsdale. The TomTom had not been updated recently enough to get us all the way to the ride site, so we had started to rely on my husband's iPhone and Google Maps. But we had passed a CVS pharmacy. Obviously I couldn't keep the doctor's office on the phone long enough to drive back to the pharmacy so we could get the number, so I had them call the prescription in to my regular pharmacy, then had the CVS we'd passed call and transfer it to them.

It would take some time for the prescriptions to be ready, and it was getting late, so we decided to get Hoss the rest of the way to the ride site. We needed as much daylight as possible to set up camp and get Hoss checked in. We had friends planning to join us at ride camp for dinner, so they agreed to stop and pick up my prescriptions on the way.

I was hobbling around base camp in my moccasins, with little protection from the rocks and other hazards, with no drugs on board, trying to get checked in and my horse vetted. Camp was quite crowed, and it took us a long time to find a spot, and it was rather farther from ride management than I would have preferred.
I got my packet and led Hoss on up to vet in. I didn't put his boots on, because I didn't want to have to take them back off again since I don't like him to wear them overnight unless he has to. When the vet told the scribe his heart rate, she said if there was a prize for the lowest entering heart rate, Hoss would have won it. He was at 32 beats per minute!

I had trotted Hoss out before loading him up, just to be sure that funky left hind swelling wasn't causing him any pain. He trotted clean and sound. So I expected to problems when I trotted him for the vet. Of course, this turned out to be one of those times he's decided trotting out is stupid and he won't do it. It took a little threatening on my part, but he finally started trotting. And of course he took two steps, stepped on a rock with his left front, and was instantly lame!

The vet wanted to check the foot to see what he could see, but of course I know my horse's feet. I picked up the foot and immediately spotted the damage where he'd stepped on the rock. I even found the nasty sharp rock he'd stomped. The vet let me take Hoss back to the trailer and put his boots on. We returned booted up. Hoss trotted out somewhat better, but still grade 2 lame. They decided to give me until morning to have him checked again, but I felt the condescension. They didn't think he'd be sound in the morning. My opinion was, a lame horse doesn't have a 32 heart rate, so it was the rock, and he'd be fine by morning.
Just to be on the safe side, I found one of the vendors (Horses Dacor) and picked up a pair of comfort pads to put in his front boots. They also carry Smarty Pants, underwear meant for high activity. I bought a pair of those, because I already knew from Moab I wouldn't be able to wear any of my usual underwear without serious consequences.

Once back at the trailer, I put the comfort pads in Hoss's size 2 Easyboot Edges and put them on him. I figured if he had the boots and nice cushy pads on overnight it would improve his odds of being sound by morning.

In the morning, I saddled up against the possibility we'd be hitting the trail. Leaving the boots with the pads on paid off. Hoss trotted out sound. I suspect he would've been sound had I left him barefoot all night, but there was no purpose in taking the chance. I mounted up and we left, the last 75 milers to hit the trail.
I was a little nervous about riding alone. Hoss has always done best with "company" on the trail. We did, however, rather quickly catch up with a rider on a pretty red roan Mustang. The horse was putting up quite a fuss. The rider told me her horse doesn't do well alone, and can be quite a handful when ridden alone. Indeed, she half-reared as Hoss and I caught up. The rider asked if they could fall in behind us, and we were on our way.

It was still pretty dark, though the sky was lightening. We had a hard time finding the trail signs, but finally found them and made our way up the trail.

At some point, the other rider noted one of Hoss's hoof boots was crooked. Admittedly I failed to check them well in the morning, so it was truly my fault. I got off and made the best fix of it I could. The other things I had forgotten were my waist pouch with my meds and the tool for adjusting Hoss's hoof boots, and my cell phone. I wasn't terribly worried about being swarmed by bees or coming across someone cooking shrimp, so the lack of my drugs was not high on my worry list. But not having the tool, well, that was a problem.
I straightened out the hoof boot as best I could and tightened the gaiter in an effort to keep the boot on straight. Once I was done with that, we headed back down the trail – and my stirrup started falling off again. So I had to get off and fix that. I really didn't have the time to take a close look, but it was clear something was very wrong with the buckle system on that stirrup.

A few more miles down the trail, and Hoss's boot was twisted again. This happened a few times, and I finally decided to leave it the heck alone. So long as it stayed on, we were good. The other rider I was with fortunately had in her possession a multi-tool, so I was able to tighten the worm clamps on the boots and left it at that.

While riding along, a group of riders ahead of us – two boys and their father – had a problem. One of the boy's horse got into the cholla cactus, and the poor boy had several pieces poking into him. The worst was on the back of one leg. I leapt off Hoss, collected the multi-tool, and went to work getting the cholla out. I had him pull off his halfchap so I could pull the cholla off it, too, and got him on his way.

When I walked back to Hoss, who has stood quietly and patiently on his own, I noticed he had cholla stuck in his pasterns and legs. He didn't even care as I pulled them out. I wouldn't even have known until we got back to camp for the first vet check if I hadn't gotten off.

About halfway through the first loop, at a water stop, I gave Hoss a dose of electrolytes. He seems to be accepting this better. I think he's figured out it makes him feel better. Doesn't really make it taste any better, but it's easier to tolerate if he can see the logic.

The first loop was 26 miles, and I had hoped to get done in less than five hours, but with all the tack problems (the stirrup slipped on me once more on the first loop) and the boots and the kid with the cactus, it took longer than I anticipated. We were in at about five and a half hours, right about 11:30. Not horrible, but it meant we'd have to push harder on the second and third loops.

As I didn't have my phone with me, my crew, husband Mike, friends Dena and Cherilyn, were concerned for Hoss and me safety. They were able to get updates as to when I passed check points, but they had expected to see me sooner.

Alfalfa hay was brought from the trailer to the pulse in area so Hoss got eat. He wants to eat the instant he comes into a vet check, and has been known not to have his heart rate come down until I've let him eat whatever he wants. I was pleasantly surprised, however, that he ate a little, drank quite well, and his heart rate dropped below criteria (60) within three minutes of coming in to the vet check.

Hoss passed the vet check easily, although he got some scores lower than I'd like to see so early in a ride. I think the vet on this ride was a bit stricter than I'm used to seeing, and of course he'd never seen Hoss before other than to know the prior night he'd been lame. The only problem I had with Hoss was getting him to trot out. It's like he runs hot or cold. Some rides he's good about it, others, he just says "screw you!" I don't think the combination of a sprained hip and blisters on my heels helped at all. But I could've strangled this vet. He wanted us to trot away, trot back and by, and trot back to him. Hoss and I are used to vets who'll watch three sound steps and say, okay, you're good.

We got Hoss back to the trailer and gave him bran mash with electrolytes (so I didn't have to use up another tube, and he didn't have to have it shoved down him), water and alfalfa hay. While he was eating, I went to work on his boots. I realized the size 2 Edges are just bit too big, and what had happened was the comfort pads had squished into the excess space at his toe. Since he's toed in to begin with, it resulted in the pads pushing the boots more to the inside. They had stayed on just fine, but they were full of dirt and little rocks. Since the size 1 Edges haven't been repaired since Moab, I decided to put his Gloves on for the rest of the ride. The Renegades on his hinds caused no trouble. They stayed put.

The next thing to work on was the stirrup issue. I pulled the stirrup hobble and got a closer look at the buckle. It turned out the piece that slides down over the part that sticks through the holes had come apart. It was now too loose to hold the stirrup fender. After some brain-storming, Cherilyn came up with the idea to cannibalize a piece of stiff wire from a bungee cord, straighten it out, and use it to hold the buckle together. It wasn't long enough to reach all the way around the buckle, so Cherilyn found some sport tape and taped that sucker on. Worked perfectly. It's held up to this point.

Mike cooked me up some soup and I took a few minutes to sit and eat it once we'd gotten Hoss's tack issues worked out. I sat in my nice comfy zero-gravity chair for perhaps ten minutes before it was time to hit the trail again. This time I remembered my waist pack and my cell phone.

Cherilyn was going to have to leave before we got back for our second vet check, as she'd ridden her motorcycle and would be risking getting quite cold on her way home. So we said our goodbyes before I left. At this point we had already decided we'd have brunch with Dena and Cherilyn before we headed home on Sunday.

On my way to the trail, I saw the rider and horse we'd been with, and she called out, "good luck," to us. Turned out she'd been pulled. Her horse was stiff behind. We were on our own.

We were the last 75s to get out on the trail – on the first loop, we had gotten passed by many of the 50s, who had started half an hour after we had – and it's entirely possible we were the last ones out on the trail. I was very worried about keeping Hoss's pace up without another horse to help motivate him. I was pleasantly surprised to fine, while I had to keep after him more than I would like to, he was maintaining a 6.5 to 7mph trot. All by himself on the trail.

We briefly encountered other horses on the trail, but Hoss showed no interest in joining up with them. He was content with the pace we were setting, and his heart rate looked good, running between 110 and 120. Much of the trail was highly trottable, with the exception of a deep, sandy wash, which we mostly walked.

As we rode along, I noticed the glo-sticks out for the evening. There didn't seem to be many, but there didn't seem to be too few. But, it looked like they had already been activated, meaning by the time the sun set, they'd be useless. That gave me a moment of worry, but the trails are marked well with trail signage, so I figured it would be okay, despite not being able to see well once it got dark.

On our way into a water/check point, another 75 passed us coming out, already on his third loop. Sometimes it just amazes me how fast these horses can go!

At the water/check point, another rider, a fifty, caught up to us. I expected Hoss to want to hook up with that horse when we left, but he wasn't interested. Once he'd had water and a little hay, we left on the trail. The other rider caught and passed us, and Hoss made no effort to keep up with them.

We kept up a steady pace. My only concern was I'd forgotten to pack another tube of electrolytes, and I was worried he'd have a hard time coming down to criteria once we finished this loop, which was 24 miles. I texted Mike to ask him to bring a tube of electrolytes to the vet check area as well as a bag of hay. I also requested my long whip be brought so I could beat him in to a trot. We got in to the vet check, and Hoss was hungry! He buried his face in the hay and I let him eat. I'd rather lose a few minutes to let him eat than try to get a pulse on him right away. As it was, even with his face in the hay bag, his heart rate dropped below criteria within a minute or two. I let him eat until he wasn't going at the hay like he was about to die of starvation, then took him to the vet. Once again he vetted through with satisfactory scores, and trotted better with the assistance of the whip and a great deal of growling and threatening on my part.

We did loop 2 in just over four hours.

Mike and Dena had run into town for food for our dinner. He cooked up a very nice beef stew. I got Hoss fed, another electrolyte bran mash in front of him, and sat down to eat my dinner. Unfortunately, Mike had accidentally added too much pepper, and I wasn't able to eat much. Of course, on an endurance ride, I don't eat a great deal anyway. I had a pudding and a granola bar.

It seemed like I'd only been sitting down for five minutes when it was time to hit the trail again. As it was getting dark, I switched into my jeans riding tights and a long sleeve shirt to help protect my arms and legs in the dark. I got my headlamp and made sure I had a spare set of batteries for it. I was also able to take my own Leatherman multitool along. Cherilyn gave me a pouch for it that had come with hers, which she hated. I hated mine, because I had to take my belt off to take the Leatherman off. It was like the perfect trade.
We made our way down the trail, and it was quite dark. There were few glo-sticks. We were the last ones on the trail, the rest of the 75s having finished ahead of us. There was a pair of 50s finishing their ride, but they were far ahead of us. We were hitting the trail at 5:30pm, and it was getting dark rapidly. The 50s had until 6:30pm to finish, so they were probably two or three hours ahead of us.

Hoss was less confident about his speed in the dark. We were keeping a pace more between 5 and 6 mph. I have a headlamp with three colors of light: white, red, and green. I tried the green, which helped me see the plant life, but I couldn't tell trail from not trail. Hoss, however, showed quite a bit of confidence and was able to stay on the trail.

We crossed the road and continued on familiar trail. Hoss was moving along confidently enough, if a little slower than during the daylight hours. I heard a voice calling to me from up ahead, but could see no one. I finally switched to the white light, and there, slightly off to the side but in plain view, was a rider on a very light grey horse. Wow. I really am night blind. I wouldn't have known they were there until I'd run into them. Of course, I should hope Hoss wouldn't have run into them. The rider had been putting out the glo-sticks. She told me there weren't many, but she felt it should be okay. There was something about having experimented with leaving the glo-sticks out all day, and it hadn't worked. I'm not sure what the real story is there, by that time I was a bit fuzzy in the head.

I discovered Hoss was much more confident when I had the white light on, so I left it on and tried to keep it aimed in front of Hoss's face. He picked out the trail with unerring accuracy. We made it to the check point, much to the delight of those manning it. I was the very last rider on trail, and they were just waiting for me to get there so they could leave.

After leaving the check point, we hit a deep sandy wash, and Hoss rather hit the doldrums. I was quite pleased it took him to this point to get truly tired/disheartened. The wash was a good place to walk, so I allowed him to walk through the entirety of the wash. Walking for a while when he's feeling like that will perk him back up and he'll get moving again.

We came to the right turn out of the wash, and Hoss happily picked up the pace again. There really were very few glo-sticks. We came to a trail sign that was bent. I glanced at it, but was unable to read it in the dark. Hoss turned left confidently enough, and I trusted him. But it wasn't very long until it became clear we had made a wrong turn. Hoss was still confident, but I had lost confidence in him. One mistake, and now I thought he was an idiot.

We wandered about in the desert. I allowed Hoss to continue, in hopes he'd find his way back to the trail, but I was increasingly feeling he only thought he knew where he was going.

And then we came to somebody's back gate. Now I knew we were off trail! Hoss wanted to continue along the fence line, but I forced him to turn around and attempted to find our way back to where we had lost the trail. My GPS was of little use. I couldn't see the little breadcrumb trail, and I couldn't tell the difference between where I should be and the trail we had used earlier. I had to keep stopping Hoss to make sure we didn't walk through any cholla – which he doesn't seem to care about, but I'd rather not have any in me.
We finally made it back to a glo-stick, and I gratefully chose a direction. Hoss made no objection, so off we went. 

And found ourselves back at the wash. We'd gone the wrong way. I turned Hoss about, and encouraged him to pick it up. I really started pushing him, knowing we had already lost close to thirty minutes wandering around in the desert. Now we had to get back quick in order to be back in time.

As we rode along, I realized if I had let Hoss make the decision while we were lost off trail, he would've gotten us back on track. Instead I had made him wander through the desert in the dark. Up to the point he had made the wrong turn, he had given me no reason to mistrust his choices. One mistake and I was ready to think him incompetent and take over. And look how that turned out.

Mike called me as we were going along to ask where we were. I didn't know at that point, but called him back minutes later after passing a trail sign. We were still pretty far out and needed to hot along to have any hope of finishing on time.

We finally made it to the road crossing with about fifteen minutes to go. I felt pretty good about our chances of coming in under the wire, but knew we stood a good chance of being overtime. I thought we'd be able to find the turnoff to the wash in to the back side of camp, but somehow we missed there. There wasn't a single glo-stick in sight.

By this time we were officially over time. I realized we had managed to miss the turn, and tried to turn Hoss back to find it. He absolutely refused to go back the other way. I think he might have just lain down to express his opinion. He knew how to get back the way we were going, and that was that. Since we were already overtime, I decided not to fight him on it.

We came in through the out trail. Everyone was looking for us across the vet check area from there. I called Mike and let him know we were there, and everyone came up.

I was tired and annoyed and, at the time, thought I was angry with Hoss. I realized later I was angry with myself. I should've trusted my horse more. Hoss passed the final vet check, but as we were over time, we did not get credit for the miles.

We now know we can do 75 miles. In fact, we made up half the time we had lost wandering in the desert. It's entirely possible if we hadn't missed that last turn, we would have squeaked in under the cut-off. The way we went was quite a bit longer.

I got Hoss taken care of, wrapping his hind legs with clay to help reduce the swelling he might develop since the incident at Moab. By the time I was done with him, I was so exhausted I was shivering. No amount of blankets and jackets could make me feel warm. So, once Hoss was well cared for with enough hay to see him through to morning, I crawled into my sleeping bag and was immediately asleep.
We got a late start toward home in the morning, trying to give me as long as possible to sleep. We stopped and had brunch with Dena and Cherilyn. Hoss got to hang out in their back yard in a rather suburban section of Phoenix while we went to eat.
Mike started out driving on the way home, as I was just too tired to be safe to drive. When we got to Yuma, we stopped briefly so I could give Hoss water and we could use restrooms. Mike wanted a chance to rest, and I was feeling pretty good, so I let him crawl into the back seat to sleep and took over driving duties for a time.
We pulled out of the mall we'd parked in, and someone pulled up alongside me, honking urgently. She told me the trailer gate was open. I'd forgotten to secure it after giving Hoss water! I came to a stop and leapt out of the truck. Hoss, thinking since I wasn't right there he should get out of the trailer, stepped out right into the middle of the road. He looked about like, "Now, why would she want me to get out here?!" I got hold of him and asked Mike to bring his halter out of the truck. Once I put the rope around his neck, Hoss got back in the trailer and I made sure that gate was secure before we hit the road again!

I only lasted about an hour. I pulled a rest stop to try to catch some sleep in the front seat while Mike slept in the back. Mike woke up, and said he felt he could continue on and let me lay back down in the back seat.
I was completely out until Mike woke me to drive the last little bit. The last 2.5 miles along the dirt road home. I got Hoss settled in the pasture while Mike got the perishables out of the truck. I think we were in bed around 1am.

It was a long ride, and I'm disappointed we didn't get our miles. I have to say our ride season kinda sucked. Hopefully the next one will be an improvement.

*writer's note: I took pics whenever something struck me as pretty. They are arranged more or less according to the time and during the loops they were taken. Because it was dark for Loop 3, obviously I have no pics of that part of the ride.