No matter, making it for the ride meeting wasn't high on my list of important things. I found a place to park and got Hoss out of the trailer and set up with food and water while I went to get my rider packet. The vet elected to vet him then, so I trekked back up with Hoss and got him vetted in.
Once vetting in was done, I got the rest of camp set up for the night. The two vet checks would be back in camp, so I needed to be sure everything was just right so I could take care of both of us during our holds.
The ride started at 6am -- 5am to me -- in the pre-dawn light. I have been working on being able to better negotiate in the dark by not using a light while walking around the ranch at home. It has made a big difference, but we did get a little lost on the way out of camp. Hoss was very strong, and I couldn't let him try to keep up with the other horses, especially since I couldn't really see them and thus would have a hard time keeping him at an appropriate distance.
As the sun rose over the mountains, we found ourselves a little "pocket" to ride in. Hoss was keeping a good, solid pace. It was a beautiful morning. Not too cold, not too hot as the day went on.
We made it up to the top of the ridge line and down into sort of the bottom of a hill. Not really a canyon. We rode all the way down to the check point, where there was water. It was just about halfway through the first loop, so I took the opportunity to give Hoss a dose of electrolytes before we rode back up the hill.
Back at the top of the ridge, Hoss suddenly farted and bucked. He's not a particularly demonstrative horse, so this behavior was disturbing. I got him stopped and dismounted to check him over. Sure enough, he had gotten some cholla (what is commonly known as jumping cactus) in his front left pastern. I suspect the bucking was the result of some of it being thrown up into his belly. I got my Leatherman tool out and plucked the spines out, then ran my hands carefully over his belly to be sure he didn't have any stuck anyplace more tender. Once I was sure he was fine, I got back on and we headed on down the trail.
We arrived back at camp for our first hold at just after 10am, making the first 25 miles in slightly over 4 hours. The vet, seeing us come in, hollered, "You're here! It's not noon!" Last year we hadn't completed the first loop until after 11am. We kept the ride crew going until we got in, over time, past midnight. So they were understandably happy to see us stride in earlier than we had last year.
After vetting through, I took Hoss back to the trailer for our hold. I tossed out a flake of alfalfa hay and made him an electrolyte bran mash. While he ate, I made myself a sandwich and sat to wait out our hold time. Hoss didn't eat as well as I would have liked, but he did lick the bran mash bowl clean.
Back on the trail after our hold, we headed out of camp and up a bit of a climb. Hoss is pretty slow on hills, so we had to allow other horses to pass us a couple of times. It was a single track trail, and Hoss has decided lately that no horse should be allowed to pass him on a single track. I had to work pretty hard to get him far enough off trail to be safely passed. Once another horse was past him, he would be kinda sulky and make a half-hearted attempt to keep up with the horse. He didn't really mean it, though. He was regularly left behind quite quickly each time.
Once we topped the hill, Hoss moved out better and we got back in the groove. We had to pass the turn back toward camp on our way, and Hoss got it into his head we should go back. Fortunately he didn't put up a big fuss about it. Really he takes correction amiably enough.
On our way out, other horses were coming in to finish the 50. At one point, someone said, "You're in thirteenth place! We've been counting!" I had no idea how many horses were in our distance, so I didn't know if that was middle of the pack or last place.
As we made our way through the loop, I paid careful attention to where we were. I knew the last loop would repeat much of the same trail, just in the opposite direction. Last year we got lost on the last loop, so I wanted to have a clear picture in my mind to help prevent it from happening again.
The ride is largely flat, so I was pushing Hoss to keep up a decent pace. He got into a bit of the doldrums and really didn't want to move out. He started looking for excuses to slow down, and a great one appeared -- three trucks driving along the trail! I had to really push to keep him moving.
After we managed to get by the trucks, the next excuse was not long in coming up. We came across mountain bikers. Hoss is of the opinion I should stop and have a conversation with anyone we meet on the trail. We do often stop to chat on the trail when we're at home, but I really try not to do it at rides. Guess I'm going to have to limit the times we do it, because now he sees every human being as an opportunity for a stop-and-chat. It's all the more enticing when he wants to slow down. But we worked through it and got down the trail.
We made it back to camp about 3pm, finishing another 25 miles in just over four hours. It was something closer to or over 26 miles, really, so I was happy with our time. I was really pushing to finish in as close to 12 hours as we possibly could.
I took Hoss straight to the vet and got him through quickly before heading to the trailer for our hold. Once again, Hoss did not eat hay very well during the hold, but he did finish his bran mash. For much of the hold time he slept.
I made myself a quick roast beef and bacon sandwich and rested in a chair for the duration of our hold.
We headed back out on the trail at 4pm, as dusk began to settle in. I was extremely happy to be getting back on the trail before it got dark. The trail used to leave camp is difficult for me to find in the dark, so if there aren't other horses on the trail at the same time, I stand a pretty good chance of getting us hopelessly lost or turned around.
Hoss was more chipper about trotting on our way back out. He does seem to get happier about life as the temperatures drop. Even if the highs are only in the 70s, and he goes out in 115 at home.
As the sun dropped, Hoss concentrated on getting his butt on down the trail. Once full dark hit, we were riding through a wash, and I heard a coyote yipping behind us. It was pretty clear the thing was following us. While we were obviously not in any danger from it, it was still a little creepy. Hoss didn't care, though. I tried hollering at the thing to no effect, but Hoss just ignored it and kept on trucking.
We made it through the area we got lost in last year without incident and before full dark. We made it to the last check point, some 10 miles before the finish, with plenty of time to spare. At this point Hoss was suddenly starving to death. I ended up letting him eat for some time. He hadn't eaten well at the vet checks, so I couldn't bring myself to drag him off the hay, even though I knew camp was close.
I finally pulled Hoss away from the hay and we headed on down the trail toward camp. By this time it was full dark and we were following glo-sticks. This year, it seems they had a sufficient number of glo-sticks, which was certainly nice.
At this point we were leap-frogging with another horse and rider. This helped keep Hoss motivated. For a time they were ahead of us, and Hoss was chugging along wanting to catch up to them. I could see a pair of glo-sticks ahead of us in a line. The trail was difficult to distinguish in the dark. I had already discovered it wasn't until we got off trail that I would realize we had gotten off trail. I was not using my head light, as I have discovered that it can be limited. While it lights up the area within about ten feet ahead of Hoss, it casts his shadow across the trail, and makes it harder to see the trail beyond the circle of light. So I've really worked on being able to determine where I am in the dark rather than rely on a light. We were riding toward the first glo-stick, and I directed Hoss to go straight toward the second. About ten or twenty feet on, I realized we'd left the trail. Hoss quickly got us back on track and I realized the problem. There was a U-bend in the trail. The glo-sticks had been put up in line of sight of each other, but the trail went left from the first, then right, right again, and left where the second was placed. This showed the perils of placing glo-sticks!
We made it back to camp about 8pm, about an hour later than I had hoped for. Still, I was quite pleased with our finish. In the end, a 13 hour 75 mile ride is a great finish.
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