For once I arrived at camp at a decent hour. I even got there well before dark! I set up camp, including putting up the big tent, as Wendy would be coming up Saturday.
Heidi Helly was performing with her band on Friday evening. They go by Heidi and the Hurricane. They were pretty good, too. And they were between my camp and the vet check. Eclipse handled it pretty well. We even took a moment to "dance" to the music on our way back to camp.
In the morning we headed out on the trail. We had to ride down the entrance road for the ranch, right between the pastures for the longhorn cattle. Eclipse gave them the hairy eyeball but walked along nicely enough.
I had managed to find a girth to use DC's Australian saddle on Eclipse, so that was what we were going to ride in. The western, it turned out, had caused quite a lot of rubbing, so the Australian was a better choice, putting the girth much further back than the western. There was no way I could use the western again on the rubs he had.
I had put my endurance stirrups on the Australian, but I had missed one critical fact: the stirrups had to be bolted on for a reason. When I tried to pre-ride Eclipse on Friday evening (and I'm very glad I did), the stirrup just fell off the saddle. This left me with quite the dilemma. In the end, I had to strip the fenders off Hoss's endurance saddle (Wendy would be riding him in the western) and use those on the Australian. I had quite the franken-saddle going.
As we rode along, I was noticing I did not feel balanced. Several times I had to stop and dismount to try to get the stirrup lengths right. I don't know how I managed to get it so wrong and why it took me so many tries to finally get it right, but I eventually did.
Another problem cropped up: the saddle pad wanted to slide out behind the saddle on the left. I expect this was due to my personal imbalances, not anything to do with Eclipse. A few more stops to make adjustments and we finally got that one under control.
We made our way in to the first vet check, and Eclipse decided he'd learned something from last week's ride: he got a big drink and tucked in to a flake of hay. Now, Eclipse isn't a fast eater. He eats at a sedate pace, seemingly no matter how hungry he is. It's a little funny, watching other horses scarf down whatever they can reach, and he's over there eating like he's being very careful to chew each bite the right number of times.
Eclipse passed the vet check, and we hung out a few minutes to let him eat and drink. The day was quite hot, and he hadn't eaten his electrolyte bran mash in the morning, so I wanted to be careful with him. I had a feeling I wasn't getting any more electrolytes into him, and I hadn't brought any syringes.
(On our way to Twenty Mule Team the prior week, one of the spigots on my water tank had broken, spilling 39 gallons of water in my tack room. As a result, I had pulled everything I kept in the trailer out to dry the floor. Many things didn't make it back in, including the syringe electrolytes.)
We hit the trail again, and rode on through a neighborhood for some time. Another horse caught up to us, and we rode with him for a time.
Riding through the neighborhood, we were passing a house side by side with the other horse, when two large dogs charged the fence. Eclipse couldn't have cared less, but the other horse sure did! He jumped and shied pretty hard (I describe it as he tried to jump into my arms) into Eclipse, resulting in Eclipse losing his balance. The girth wasn't quite tight enough, and I knew it. I planned to tighten it at the next water stop. That wasn't soon enough, because when he lost his balance and tripped, I went to the right, the saddle went to the right, and I got an intimate introduction to the road. I even managed to land on my shoulders and head. I did maintain my grip on the reins, something I would not normally do. We were riding in a neighborhood with people driving like maniacs. I feared if I released the reins, Eclipse might run off and get hit by a car. So I kept a death grip on the reins, and when he started backing up, I used the momentum to get me back on my feet. I adjusted the saddle, tightened the girth, and we headed back out on trail.
The fall happened at mile 17, so I had another 33 to go. My left elbow was banged up and a little bloody, but other than that I felt okay. We continued on with the ride.
When we came to the top of Dawson Canyon, I looked down the trail with a bit of trepidation. The hill was far too steep to ask Eclipse to carry me down it, so I dismounted and carefully led him down, then got back on and we rode away.
Getting down into the canyon wasn't much of an issue. It was when we started going back out that things got rough. The trail out was brutally steep. Eclipse hasn't learned to tail yet, and he's kinda bad at following trail, so I had to lead. At one point, riding through a flat section, we came to the steepest hill I'd ever seen. Eclipse stopped, and we looked at each other. He seemed to think I was about to ask him to climb a wall. Once again I dismounted and led him up. I swear I could have used mountain climbing gear. I consider it some sort of miracle we made it to the top, and then out of Dawson Canyon, which I could go my whole life without ever riding again.
When we got to the mid-way vet check back at camp, Eclipse was feeling the effects of the heat and lack of electrolytes. It was very hot for a black horse, so I took his saddle off and used a nearby hose to rinse him down and help him cool. He came down in a reasonable period, and we went to the trailer for our hold.
I hoped he'd eat a bran mash, but no such luck. He ate hay well, and drank well, but would have nothing to do with bran or beet pulp. I hoped he'd get enough out of the hay to get him through. At least he was drinking well and sweating, but he also hadn't peed at this point in the ride.
Once our hold was over we hit the trail again. Eclipse was feeling pretty good, and spent some time trotting well and willingly. I did pull him down to a walk several times, and got off for the hills, wanting to spare him as much as possible.
By the time we walked in for the third vet check, I was feeling that fall. All the hiking wasn't helping, and I was beginning to hurt. Only eight miles left, so I got Eclipse through the vet check and we headed back out.
We hooked up temporarily with another rider, and Eclipse followed along cheerfully enough for a couple of miles. Then his spirits started to flag, and he needed to slow down. After 45 miles, he was beginning to think this might never be over.
At this point, Eclipse refused to go faster than a walk on even the slightest hill, and would stop dead and wait for me to get off on steeper stuff. I was willing enough to oblige, but it was getting to be a bit annoying that he was looking at me and saying, "Get off!"
We got to the last water stop before the end and Eclipse tanked up. He still hadn't peed, and I was getting worried about him. So we took it easy the last few miles.
As the sun dipped toward the horizon, Eclipse started to perk up as the weather cooled. I got him trotting for a bit. When we were about two miles from camp, and darkness had settled in, he stopped and refused to move on.
I dismounted and stood with him for a while. I could just hear him screaming, "It's never going to be over!!!" He must've been sure we'd get back to camp only to have to leave again. I gave him time to settle his thoughts, and then started leading him back to camp.
I walked most of the rest of the way back. When I got worried we wouldn't finish on time, I did get back on. He rallied and gave me a little more trot before I pulled him down and we walked in, with 15 minutes to spare.
Still, he hadn't peed. I was pretty concerned at this point, and so was the vet. But he passed the check, despite looking a little dispirited, and I took him to the trailer. He wouldn't eat anything I could put electrolytes in, and I knew that was what he needed. I finally located a syringe, and put some electrolytes and water in it and just slugged it down him. Within fifteen minutes, he was much brighter. He had started eating upon arrival at the trailer, and drank a bunch as well. He remained bright, alert and responsive during this episode. Sometime during the night, he finally peed.
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