During the ride meeting the night before, it came out a junior was in need of a sponsor for the second day. I waited about fifteen seconds before finally raising my hand and volunteering to do it. Generally speaking, it's better for Hoss if he doesn't have to keep up -- or back -- with another horse. I had no way of really knowing how well matched Hoss would be with the horse the junior was riding, but I couldn't see letting the young lady miss out on a ride day just because no one wanted to sponsor her.
So, in the morning, after saddling up, I went in search of my junior. I eventually encountered her heading out toward the trail. We got together and made our way onto the trail.
I quickly discovered the junior's horse was quite a lot faster than Hoss. She had a good 9 mph trot, while Hoss's best pace is about 7mph. I knew it was going to be difficult to manage the day. It was once again hot -- not as hot as the day before -- and the humidity had gone up.
The junior and her mare led most of the day. With the mare being the faster of the two horses, this certainly made sense. Additionally, in my experience, Hoss prefers not to lead if the other horse is a mare. He's happy to follow any horse, but he's much more reluctant to lead if the other horse he's with is a mare.
We came in to the vet check in good time. Once again I had forgotten to give Hoss his electrolytes in the middle of the first loop. To make matters worse, after we had vetted through, I discovered there was very little hay left. It seems ride management underestimated how much they would need. I had to scrounge around to come up with a handful of hay for Hoss to eat. The junior had a bucket full of feed for her mare. Of course it had food in it Hoss can't have, so I had to closely monitor him to be sure he didn't get into it.
After our hold time was over, out we went back on the trail. We were about five miles out when I decided Hoss just did not seem himself. It was hot, and he clearly needed more electrolytes. Despite having given him an electrolyte bran mash at the check, I gave him half a syringe of electrolytes in hopes of helping get him going better.
Within a few miles of giving Hoss the electrolytes, he started to perk up. We were able to pick up a trot for a time. The junior was clearly accustomed to doing less trotting than Hoss and I usually do. Her horse was fast enough to do less trotting than Hoss needs to do. It was quite the challenge to balance my horse's needs with the mare's needs.
We came to the steep hill we had come down the day before. I elected to dismount and tail Hoss up it to give him a bit of a break. It was quite a long hill. By the time we got to the top, I was winded, but managed to get back on and continue on our way.
We caught up with Laurie Birch and "her" junior. It turned out the two juniors were competing for the end of year high mileage award. In the end, the junior with me got second place by five miles.
Hoss really likes Laurie's mare, so when she got in front of him he got quite strong. Laurie trotted on up a hill, leaving us a little behind. I could feel Hoss bunching up, wanting to run. I looked over at my junior, and asked, "Shall we run?" With a grin, she nodded, and up the hill we charged. It was a fun little moment.
In for our second hold, Hoss pulsed down immediately. The mare took a little longer. On the first day, she had suffered a mild colic after the ride, so we were being careful with her this day.
By this time, the hay was virtually gone. It took quite a bit more effort on my part to scrape together hay for Hoss. Also, I was out of water. In desperation, I dipped a water bottle into the horse water for myself. It was either that or risk becoming dangerously dehydrated.
After our hold we headed back toward camp. I had given Hoss the other half of the electrolyte syringe, and a mash at the check, and had another syringe for halfway back to camp. We didn't head out with particular speed, but we certainly wanted to hustle back and make it in before dark.
Our finish time was a little slower than the prior day's. Still, we finished in just under 9 hours, the difference being the five miles longer on day one. I gave Hoss a bran mash and got myself to bed as early as I could.
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