Nevada Derby II

I arose before 5am to a light dusting of snow on the ground. This was bizarre because, as the night had worn on, I had shed layer after layer of clothing. As the temperature dropped, I got warmer and warmer.

Getting ready to head out on trail with a little snow on the ground

 I got Hoss saddled and we headed out on trail. Kody called from camp a few times, and Hoss looked back, wondering why his buddy wasn't coming along.

The trail headed out and almost immediately up a steep hill. Hoss was pretty hot to get going, wanting to catch up to or keep up with other horses. A paint horse and another (very fat) mustang were ahead of us and he temporarily chose them as the objects of his obsession.

Once we topped the hill, I got Hoss around the paint and the mustang and kept him trotting until we hit some rather rocky whoop-de-doos. I slowed Hoss to a walk to negotiate this section of trail. And behind us, the paint and the mustang sped up and trotted through it, catching up to and passing us! Worried I'd end up in another situation like the previous afternoon, at the next opportunity I got Hoss trotting again. We passed the pair again and by dint of much kicking and cajoling, I kept Hoss trotting down the trail. I didn't allow him to slow until we'd passed the photographers halfway up the next hill.

The first loop was quite long – some 20 miles. The manner in which the ride was split created a bit of a dilemma. I had only brought along four total tubes of paste electrolytes and had two left. I like to give Hoss the electrolytes at particular intervals, typically as close to every 12.5 miles as I can. Usually he gets one of those doses at the mid vet check in a bran mash. With the way this ride was split up, it wouldn't be possible to get the mileage right without another tube of electrolytes. I finally decided to simply split the two loops evenly, 10 miles between electrolytes on the first, 15 miles on the second.

We reached the 10 mile mark at a rather convenient point. There was a water trough. I stopped and offered Hoss a drink. He didn't drink, but I gave him his electrolytes anyway. My experience with him is it's best to just give him the stuff whether he drinks or no.

Now we were back on the long trek back toward camp on the same trail we'd been on the previous day. 10 miles back to camp, and I could see camp from where we were. We trotted quite a bit and made our way back to camp a good hour before I had expected to make it back. My GPS read about 2 miles less than the loop had been purported to be.

My husband asked me if I'd rather buy the lunch being prepared by ride management. I decided that would be good, as all we really had was soup or boiled hot dogs. Since I am not a fan of boiled hot dogs – I prefer them grilled – we decided to have the prepared meal. We took lunch back to the trailer and sheltered inside from the wind.

I took Hoss to the vet shortly before our hold was up. Hoss had eaten and drank pretty well. The vet who watched him trot out was concerned he was landing harder on his left front than his right front. The head vet watched him (I had to trot him twice) and decided he pretty much always looks like that and cleared us.

A cow beside the trail -- she never bothered to move

 The second loop was quite long – 25 miles. This was over much of the same trails as on day 1. It took a little cajoling to keep Hoss moving, and he did better when he had horses he could try to catch up to, but he did pretty well all things considered.

We stopped at the water stop just a couple of miles from the check point. There was also hay, but it looked suspiciously like orchard grass, so I couldn't let Hoss eat it. Fortunately management had put out a significant amount of carrots. Hoss ate those happily until I pulled him up and got him moving again.

At this point we were more or less following two other horses. Hoss would step out well while they were trotting and he was trying to keep up, but when they slowed down and I asked him to keep going, he'd slow down as soon as we were ahead. It was a little annoying, especially since the other pair would trot for a while, slow down, then trot for a while again. This made it easy for Hoss to wait for them.

When we reached the check point, rather than a human taking numbers, there was a clip board with a sheet on which to put our numbers and the time we got there. One of the other riders we were sort of with did the writing for the three of us. Then it was time to head back down the hill and toward the second vet check back at camp.

Hoss typically does better going downhill than up. He was more reluctant than usual on this ride. It took more work on my part to keep him going. It didn't help when other horses were coming up going the other way. While Hoss knew going the way we were would take us back to camp, it still gave him an excuse to slow down and try to stay with other horses.

While we were heading down the hill and other riders were coming up, I was asked a couple of times one of the more annoying questions I think a rider can be asked: "How much further?" One woman even gave me a rather dirty look when I couldn't give her an exact distance from where she was. What do I look like here, an odometer? Sheesh. This one ranks right up there with "How many riders are behind you?" How the heck would I know that??

Back at the water stop, we turned up the hill and back into the steep stuff we'd done twice on day 1. Hoss slowed down here when the horses we had been "with" stopped at the hay but I made him go on. Another pair of horses passed us and he got motivated again. Fortunately not quite as motivated as the day before. He didn't quite pull my arms off trying to catch up to them while I forced him to go slowly down the hills and not charge up them. He handled the rock "stairway" well and thankfully for the last time.

We came in to camp for the second vet check. I had my husband bring hay and a bran mash to the vet check area rather than take Hoss back to the trailer. Hoss ate well, and toward the end of our fifteen minute hold, I took him to the vet and checked him through.

By this time I was really starting to hurt, so I broke down and took a painkiller. Once it kicked in, I was sure glad I'd taken it. Up to that point I had been feeling grumpy and behaving rather poorly. I was surly and kinda mean. Taking the painkiller meant I was a bit more cheerful for the final five miles of the ride.

Hoss was not feeling particularly motivated. There were a couple of horses ahead of us and he showed no interest in trying to catch them. I got him trucking along at a rather slow trot for a time but when we started up a mild hill he died down to a walk. Normally I would've forced him to keep up his pace, but I was feeling pretty good about life and hey, less than five miles to go, so I let him walk up the hill. Besides, I had a great 
book to listen to.


When we turned off the uphill and started going down again Hoss was ready to trot. Once again feeling cheerful himself, we trotted along the road downhill back toward camp. There were a couple places he wanted to slow down and I saw no reason to deny him. He did trot most of it anyway. Once we got back to the road back to camp, I hopped off and led him in. We finished nicely, and I tucked Hoss in for his last night in Reno.