Nevada Derby I

We arrived at the ride site outside Reno, Nevada early afternoon on Friday. It was a long drive. We had over-nighted in Bishop at the fairgrounds after picking up Kaity Elliott and her horse, Kody, in Apple Valley. The horses shared a pen at the fairgrounds and I learned to my dismay that Hoss is not a very nice guy. He bit Kody at least three times over night! Guess I won't be putting him with other horses again.

The forecast for ride day called for steady rain starting around 2pm and the possibility of snow. I knew this well in advance, and had treated my windbreaker with waterproofing. I treated it with so much of the stuff the darned thing still stank so bad when we packed up I had to put it in the bed of the truck so we wouldn't all be high by the time we got to Reno.

The week before the ride, I started having trouble with my asthma yet again. I knew I really needed a breathing treatment, but I didn't have any drugs for the machine. I was ready to go to the ER, but my sister was able to come through with some medications and I spent the weekend trying to knock the attack down. By Monday it was clear I was not going to get any better without seeing a doctor first, and I couldn't get in to see my regular doctor. But I had a problem. There were only two bales of hay left in the garage. The only day I had to go to the desert was Monday. I had to go get hay. So I hooked up the trailer and drove out for hay. My husband helped me buck it when I got home, and afterwards, wheezing like a poorly sealed air compressor, I drove myself to the urgent care. The doctor said he didn't need a stethoscope to diagnose me. He could hear me from across the room. I was seen quickly and given prescriptions for steroids, antibiotics, cough syrup, and medication for the breathing treatment machine. They also gave me an injection of steroids. It was probably the first time in my life when someone asked if I wanted a shot and I said yes. When I arrived home with my new prescriptions, I immediately took the first dose of antibiotics, a slug of cough syrup, and sat down for a breathing treatment. By the time the Albuteral had me vibrating, I was breathing easier.

The result of all this was, I was arriving at a ride with my breathing still compromised enough that, while walking to dinner with Kaity and my husband, I couldn't keep up with them. Trotting Hoss out for the vets was a bit of a challenge. It didn't help that the vets couldn't seem to determine Hoss was fine, he just sort of lumbers in the trot out.

The winds were pretty bad, and all we had to sleep in was the tent. The big one. Since my husband needed to head back in to town anyway, we disconnected the truck from the trailer and used it to block the worst of the wind from the tent. The horses were happy, as we were camping with two other rigs and had them set up to block the wind reasonably well so the horses were protected in the center. It could only have been better if we'd had one more rig.

This ride started at a civilized 7:00am. So I didn't need to get up until 5:00 to feed Hoss. I had brought along beet pulp pellets. I wanted to feed them right away when I got up, so I left them to soak overnight. I don't think I've ever seen Hoss so persnickety about his beet pulp! He ate about half, and went to his hay, ignoring the rest of the beet pulp. I've even been feeding him a little corn and barley to improve the flavor of his breakfast and provide him with a little more energy. Not good enough in his mind. This meant that, when I saddled up and we headed out on the trail, he hadn't finished his food and had not gotten his full dose of electrolytes. It couldn't be helped. Hoss would start the ride anyway. Maybe he'd learn something. Probably not.

We headed out with Kaity and Kody pretty much right at the start. Ride management wanted everyone on trail by 7:15, and since we knew this ride was probably the closest we'd ever do to 50 miles without going over, we knew we needed to use every minute we had.

We got the horses warmed up and picked up a smart trot. At the first water stop Hoss drank a bit, then we continued on up the hill. I noticed Hoss's trot was slightly different than it had been before. I had changed his hind shoes in an effort to improve how he uses his hind end. It seemed to have worked. His gait was more efficient. I could only hope the change wouldn't cause him to tire out from using muscles he hasn't conditioned well.

Turning down along the hillside, we headed down a trail with quite a bit of whoop-dee-doos. This resulted in more walking than we would have preferred to do, but it was better than risking injury.

Once we got out of the worst of the woop-dee-doos and back on level ground, we were able to trot out well again. Then we turned back into the hills and rode along some more challenging trail. This section went up and down with some extremes. There were sections of flat where we could pick up time, but the downs and ups were rather steep. At one point there was a rather challenging rock obstacle. The horses had to step down after a hard left turn. It was rather like a stair case. Kody and Hoss negotiated it fine, even if the riders were a little nervous about it.

When we got back to the road, the horses took a good drink at the water stop some 2 miles before the vet stop. There was hay, but it looked suspiciously like orchard, so I couldn't let Hoss eat it. At least I knew he had hay and bran at the vet check and we couldn't be far from there.

The first loop was advertised as 11 miles. Someone who had done the ride in the past told us it was more 
like 9. It was a good thing we didn't live by that. By the time we came to the vet check, my GPS was reading close to 13 miles. Yup, they got it that far off.

As per usual, it took Hoss a few more minutes to come down to the 60bpm criteria than it did for Kody. He didn't drink in the vet check – which didn't bother me as he'd had a good drink two miles earlier – but sucked up his bran mash and munched quite a lot of his alfalfa. I took him to the vet close to the end of our hold. The vet wasn't happy with his trot out (oy vey) but passed him and we headed out on the trail.

The next loop was purported to be 19 miles. After finding the first loop two miles longer than advertised, I was nervous this loop might be off, too. It could be off either direction, longer or shorter! Based on the experience, we would be pushing ahead on the assumption the mileage was misreported. At least this time, we knew we would be able to see camp long enough in advance to have some notion how far out we were.

It was cold and windy, but Hoss was handling it quite well. Not that I'm surprised. He seems to be unaffected by weather extremes.

We trotted down the trail around the mountain until we came to the long downhill. Kaity hopped off Kody and led him on down the hill. I don't have that luxury. I get off and Hoss is faster than me. It just ticks him off. It's easier and less aggravating for both of us if I just stay on. Kaity can jog down the hill, so it's easier for her to go ahead and get off, and gives Kody a break.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill, Kaity mounted back up and we headed off. Several other riders caught up to us. We were now about 10 miles (if we went by the map) from ride camp. The road we were on was straight and virtually flat. We could just about see ride camp from where we were with ten miles to go. The horses that had caught up were going much faster. Kody happily picked up a canter and kept up with the others. Hoss, on the other hand, wasn't particularly interested in going quite so fast. On the theory he'd catch up later, he allowed himself to fall behind.

The wind picked up, and a dust storm stirred up toward ride camp. We could see the dust cloud blowing across the desert. I certainly hoped it would die down some before we got to it.

Once separated from the other horses, Hoss continued to drop back, although he continued to trot smartly enough. Kody was doing quite a lot of cantering. This meant he got further and further ahead of Hoss. Hoss has never been particularly fond of cantering. He'd rather trot than anything. Hoss did start to get upset about it, and I had to hold him back to keep him from ramming through some sections of trail he needed to walk through. By the time we were in sight of camp, it was clear we would be some time behind Kody and Kaity. This was not unexpected, as the same thing happened at Twenty Mule Team.

I hopped off Hoss when we arrived at the road to ride camp. This typically gets him to calm down on the way back in to camp. If I ride in he tends to stay hopped up. We walked in, gave our number to the in timer, and went to pulse down.

By this point Hoss was pretty hungry. He wanted to eat! It's not unusual for his heart rate to stay up unless I allow him to eat. I told the P&R person he'd come down if I let him eat, but she was convinced I shouldn't let him eat. Most horses' heart rates will increase if they put their heads down to eat or drink. Even Hoss's heart rate will go up when he eats. But at that particular moment, his heart rate was up because he wanted to eat. Once I let him drop his head and start eating some hay, his heart rate dropped immediately. I walked him back to the trailer and gave him bran mash and let him eat his hay.

Kaity and Kody had arrived back about fifteen minutes ahead of Hoss and me, so they'd be leaving before our hold time was up. I sat in the truck and took a breathing treatment as a preventive measure. My husband made me some lunch and I sat behind the trailer as much out of the wind as I could get and ate. By this time the wind had shifted so the rigs weren't creating as much of a wind break for the horses as we would have liked. Hoss was basically standing directly in the wind the entire time we were at the trailer.

Hoss was napping when Kaity tried to sneak out with Kody. It didn't work. Hoss immediately woke up and started calling for Kody. It was time to go ahead and vet him anyway, so I got our stuff together and headed up to the vet.

The vet checked Hoss over, giving him a "B" on skin tent (hydration) and asked if he'd had much to drink at camp. I allowed I wasn't sure, but that he had drank well on the trail and had been standing in the wind for nearly an hour. Then we trotted out. The vet had "the look" when we got back. She thought he was off. She asked how he felt on trail. I told her – honestly – he felt totally normal. She called the head vet over and I trotted him out again. The head vet assured the first vet Hoss always moves like that, and we were allowed to head back out on trail.

By this time the real weather had moved in. With about 20 miles left to go, the wind and rain had well and truly come up. We headed out in much the same direction we had started in the morning. Hoss and I were pretty much by ourselves at this point. As we trotted along the road with the wind in our faces, I was grateful I had decided to put his riding fly mask on. The rain had become snow. Stingy, needle sharp snow. Hoss had his fly mask to protect his eyes. I was not so lucky. It was dark enough if I put my sunglasses on I couldn't see any better than I could without them. I would be very happy once we turned back in the other direction and got the wind at our backs.

Somehow two of the horses that had caught and (I thought) passed us on the loop prior to lunch ended up behind us – and caught us again. Hoss immediately locked on to them. He wanted to keep up with them. Unfortunately they were simply too fast for Hoss. Yet more aggravating, they didn't maintain speed well enough to leave us behind.

We turned up and headed back toward camp, going the opposite direction on the same trail we had started out on in the morning. Now behind a pair of faster horses Hoss wanted nothing more than to catch up to, I was getting hauled along pretty hard. At this point I expected to have the wind at my back, but no, it shifted. The wind was once again in our faces. Hoss developed quite a collection of snow on his brow ridges.
A few weeks before this ride, I finally saw an orthopedic surgeon about my hip. He diagnosed IT band syndrome (look it up; there's just too much to explain on the blog), injected me, and told me I didn't need the painkillers I had been taking. Ooookay. So I stopped taking them, knowing I wouldn't be getting more from this guy, and figuring I'd need them to get through this ride. I had a few left over. I'm glad I'd kept them, because I don't think I would've gotten any sleep without them.

The section of trail we were on now was the extreme up and down part. We were riding alongside a barbed wire fence as well. I could not get Hoss to give up on the idea of catching up with the other horses. And they would slow down just often enough to always be just over the next hill.

We got to the rock obstacle we had gone down in the morning. Now we would have to go up it. Going up involved heading, for all intents and purposes, directly toward the barbed wire fence and nearly running into it before making a sharp right turn. Fortunately Hoss, despite his distraction, is a practical fellow. He paid enough attention to the obstacle to make it safely to the top before attempting to charge after the other horses.

Riding this section with my hip the way it is and no painkillers was not fun. The only way I could keep Hoss head up and keep him from plunging out of control down the steep hills was to brace against my stirrups. This resulted in my hip really being painful. I tried getting in the saddle and keeping my legs on him, but it wasn't as effective that far in to the ride. I simply had no leg left.

We got back to the road toward ride camp, still fighting to catch up to the pair of horses. I saw a familiar helmet in the near distance. After a mile or so, we caught up to Kaity and Kody. I was surprised. They should have been finished long before us.

Kaity explained Kody had slipped on the rock obstacle and she'd taken a fall off of him. When they got everything back together and continued on, it quickly became clear Kody had pulled a muscle in his hind end. Fortunately when we got back to camp Kody passed the final vet check, but he was done for the weekend. Kaity and Kody would not head out on trail Sunday.

After the miles of fighting with Hoss, I was happy enough to slow down and walk in the last few miles with Kody. At first, despite being back with his buddy, Hoss continued to fight to keep up with the other horses. I made him walk back with Kody. Kaity voted Kody through right away while I took Hoss back to the trailer and got him cleaned up and let him eat for a while before I took him to the vet. I needed to get his vet card for day two anyway.

Hoss vetted out just fine. The head vet teased me about actually wanting to head out on day two, which at the time I was a bit put out by. Later I realized she really was just teasing. I think the pain was making me extra sensitive. After I'd taken a painkiller I was less bitchy.

One day down, one to go!