My original plan had been to arrive at camp early and bring DC along for her first camping experience. Unfortunately my husband was unexpectedly called back to work early. I didn't want DC to be by herself, so she didn't get to go.
We wound up arriving fairly late. Since I didn't have my wonderful husband to cook for me, it was easier to get there later so I could eat at home. Friday night dinner was included in the entry, so I only had to worry about lunch and breakfast on Saturday. Not that Terry doesn't provide breakfast; it's just mostly not anything I can have.
I got camp set up and Hoss vetted without incident. Went to the ride meeting and dinner and spent some time visiting. Over night, though, my air mattress deflated several times. I vowed I would never use an air mattress again.
In the morning I got up plenty early to feed Hoss and have breakfast. I got camp packed up before saddling and hitting the trail.
Hoss behaved himself pretty well. So I asked him for a trot earlier than usual. Unfortunately, he was sure I was lying or something and he went into his "I'm fighting to go faster" trot. It took a few tries, but he finally settled in.
We got stuck in traffic for much of the first six miles. Once the trail opened up, we got out ahead of the other horses. We sped up long enough to leave them behind. Hoss was cheerful and moved out nicely. We arrived at the first vet check in good time. Hoss recovered quickly and we started our 20 minute hold.
I didn't want to overuse my remaining tubes of electrolyte, so I had elected to send crew bags to all three vet checks. The one advantage of three vet check rides is having the opportunity to send something out for each electrolyting interval. I set Hoss up with his electrolyte bran mash and hay. So of course Hoss wasn't particularly interested in the bran mash. Should've seen that one coming.
We headed out for the second loop, hitting the "lollipop" loop before cutting back across the road and down into the valley. Because it's getting close to our Tevis attempt, I decided it was time to start really pushing Hoss for quicker finishes. The conditions were perfect. We were able to keep up a steady pace.
The second vet check was back at camp. I got off the lead Hoss the last few hundred yards back into camp. A rider on the 25 mile event was holding his horse near the vets, waiting for it to recover. The horse pulled away from the rider and came barreling at us. I pretty quickly realized it was headed for Hoss, so was able to safely intercept it and return it to its rider.
Once we had returned the other horse, I let Hoss get a drink and recover, then vetted him through. We headed to the trailer for electrolyte bran mash and hay for him, and some lunch for me. Once I had him set up, I headed down and found what I could have at the rider lunch table. Not much, but I did okay.
After our one hour hold, we set back out on the trail. Riding out of camp and up the road, I made the left turn I knew I needed to make. Another rider went straight. I called out to her, trying unsuccessfully to get her attention. Several other riders started yelling. I assumed they were trying to get the other rider's attention, too. We had trotted down the road some way when an SUV pulled up alongside us and the driver insisted we were going the wrong way. I was pretty sure we weren't, but I turned around anyway. Should've listened to myself. We hadn't gone far when, lo and behold, the rider who had taken the other trail came riding toward us. She had been told she was going the wrong way. Since I knew from previous years the way I had been going was right, I turned around and we headed the right way once again.
We ended up with the other rider who had headed the wrong way and two others for a time. I was content to stay with them for a while, but really wanted to be with just my horse. At a water stop I took the opportunity to head off on our own. The others caught back up to us, but went ahead and left us behind, to my relief.
We came into the third vet check well ahead of cut off. One of the horses that had passed us was still having a hard time recovering. I don't know if it ever did. Hoss recovered quickly and I got him vetted through and eating.
Once our hold was over we headed out on the trail again. We quickly got stuck behind two horses whose riders were doing that trot a little ways, walk for a while thing that annoys the snot out of me. It took a little time, but I got by them. Then it was a matter of convincing Hoss to keep going so we'd leave them behind. By this point in the ride he wasn't thrilled about leaving the other horses. It took some doing, but I got him going. Once we turned the corner and were headed back toward the vet check for our five minute hold, he moved out a bit better.
By the time we got to the five minute hold, Hoss was convinced he was starving. One of the drawbacks of the three vet check ride is, he gets this idea that there'll be food just around the corner and he doesn't need to eat now if he doesn't really feel like it. Which results in the starving at 40 miles effect. Eventually I had to drag him off the hay in order to finish the last 8 miles.
There was some objection to leaving the food, but Hoss did pick it up and get moving. Checking my watch, I realized we were on target to get done in 8 hours or a little over. I kept him moving. I really wanted him to break that barrier.
We got back to camp and it was time to wind it down in terms of speed. Naturally at that point, Hoss had decided he wanted to catch another horse and wouldn't slow down. I finally simply dismounted and led him in. As we approached the finish, I realized he was missing a shoe. Dratted horse.
In the end our completion time was 7 hours, 20 minutes. I was extremely pleased with the result. While we have had similar finish times, it has always been at significantly easier rides. To get that at this ride was a victory.
*Sadly, I have no images for this post. My computer was stolen and I lost all the pictures I had taken.
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