In the past, day three has been run by heading up to the towers on the longer, less steep slope, and come down the rather steep side. I didn't remember it from last year, nor do I remember being particularly opinionated one way or another about which way would be better. This year, though, management decided to run the trail "backwards" from the way we did it in the past. This meant going up a rather steep slope. In hindsight, I don't know why anyone would want to come down that particular section of trail. I'd much rather go up it!
Heading up the hill, Hoss was pulling the hill well, doing much better than his usual uphill performance. He really does seem to do better on single track and challenging trail, as if he wants something to challenge his mind a little. Flat wide roads are easy and, thus, boring.
When we topped the hill, I noticed another rider had caught up. I offered to let him pass, but he declined, content to stay behind us. Many times, when a horse is behind him, Hoss will slow down. This time, though, he did pretty well and I didn't need to get after him to keep a good pace.
As we were riding, the gentleman behind me started chatting a bit. We talked about various things from time to time, and as we continued down the trail, it gradually came out that he had "selected" me to ride with! He said he had liked the pace I set on the previous day, and wanted to hook up with me and Hoss for the ride.
This rider, Randy Cowin, and I, got along just fine. And our horses got on, too. Hoss would cheerfully lead this particular horse, when most of the time he prefers not to have other horses behind him. He just as cheerfully followed, when Randy's horse, Assad, was feeling more motivated.
At one point, Hoss got his foot hung up in the rocks and loosened a shoe. I heard it right away, but recognized I wasn't going to be able to get it off by hand for a while. Once it got loose enough, I hopped off and replaced it with a boot.
We were coming down a long downhill, and this was right in Hoss's wheelhouse. He hit the trail and worked like he's supposed to. I had my horse back. What a relief.
We did well enough on the first half to have Randy and Assad finish the 25 in the top ten. I waited with him until Assad recovered, then headed to the trailer to feed Hoss and put his shoe back on.
I was feeling pretty whipped, trying to do all this riding and overcome bronchitis at the same time. After I ate, I laid down for a time to get a little extra rest before we hit the trail again.
After our hold, we headed out for the second half of the ride, which was largely flat. Hoss was mostly well behaved, only giving me a problem when I wanted him to pass and leave behind other horses. It was still better than it could have been and I didn't have to fight him too hard. It was easier once we hit downhill stretches and he would really get to trotting out.
We finished the second loop in good time and got ourselves back to camp and ready to rest.
When we got back to the trailer, I was feeling a bit puzzled over how clean our space looked. I was pretty sure I would need to clean up after Hoss once we got back. It took a few minutes, but I realized our very kind neighbors had cleaned up for me. They had noticed my bottle of high-power cough syrup in my tent, and decided to help me out. I could not have been more grateful.
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