After a little while I decided to get up and take some photos of Laurie heading out on her 50 mile ride. She wears a yellow life vest to counteract Otto's, shall we say, adventurous nature? This makes her easy to spot! I hiked out a ways to get a decent photo with nature in the background instead of the ride camp. We all love ride camp, but let's face it, it can be a little distracting when what you want is a rider photo.
She waved as they went by and asked me if I had captured Otto's shenanigans at the start. I was sorry to have missed that. I guess he gave her a little trouble but they looked great as they went past me.
It was a beautiful morning indeed. I headed back to camp. It was still too early to tack up. I pondered going back to bed, but our start time was 7 AM and I knew I would need a substantial amount of time to get ready. I ate my dried fruit and tried to fight the butterflies.
Thankfully it was a very easy-going morning. There was plenty of time to get it all done. We even had help! Laurie had brought along two of her riding students, Marci and Eliana, and they were crew-in-training. While tacking up I went ahead and put on my HR monitor. I haven't used it since Bare Bones, last October, and shouldn't have been surprised that it didn't even turn on. Dead batteries. I removed it. I didn't want the extra equipment on if I wasn't using it. Everything else looked fine, except my right stirrup was looking like it wanted to slide off the end. I have quick release hangers, only this safety feature was looking less safe all the time.
Before mounting up, I had forgotten something in the tent, so I asked Eliana to hold Sinwaan for me. Marci must have taken this photo at that time. It is nice to have a photo of my helper for the day. I would let her crew for me any time!
Heather and I headed out at 6:45 to warm up the horses before the start time. We meandered all around the alfalfa fields and the horses were well behaved. It was a nice way to start the day. (Marci or Eliana took the above photo)
We got to the start a couple minutes early and I think the circling started to make Sinwaan a little crazy. When they said "The trail is open," Heather and I were right there and put the horses into a trot to start our journey. A couple strides into it and Sinwaan started bucking a little. I am sure the excitement had gotten to him. A couple of strong growls from me straightened him out. He was just feeling good. We set a fast pace in the lead and it was fun. I like to be out front when possible. There was a third rider who stayed with us and leapfrogged us quite a bit. She had a very fit looking horse and when Heather started talking with her, discovered he is slated to go to Tevis in two weeks. This was just another training ride for him. They ended up winning the 25 mile distance, and taking BC. It was well deserved.
There were a couple of times that some of us would miss trail markers, and the others behind would call out to let the others know to turn around. The first time Heather and I missed the turn, 2 or 3 people got ahead of us while we turned around to go back for it. Then those people missed a turn and we called them back. It was leapfrogging like this for a while. Everyone we rode with seemed exceptionally nice, and I must say it was one of the nicer experiences I have had on the trails.
At one point there was a very steep downhill on a rocky surface. I would have liked to have gotten off to lead Sinwaan down it (I don't have a lot of faith that he won't fall on his face), but it was scary enough that I had no time to dismount before I looked down and saw the trail. It was the only technical part all day. Unfortunately, no photo of that descent.
Much of the water on this loop was early on and from natural creeks on the side of the trail. We stopped multiple times but the horses weren't interested in drinking. At about 8 miles in Heather and I both e-lyted the horses. This is the first time I have ever done that and I am thankful to Heather for helping to teach me more about how it can be done. She had syringes pre-made and we carried them with us to give along the trail. The vets had said at the ride meeting that you could not over e-lyte your horse on this ride. Because of the mountains, the temperatures and the breeze, it makes for a very deceptive environment. He was right. The horses hardly looked sweaty, I didn't sponge on the trail all day, and it was cool the first 16 mile loop. Even despite the e-lytes, Sinwaan did not drink.
Bunny is an ex-racehorse and can trot over 15 mph, so it is fair to say Sinwaan did a lot of cantering in those first 10 miles. We three (or four?) front-runners set a blistering pace. There was a lot of up and down and hardly any level surfaces, though the grade was not exceptionally steep and it was double-track dirt roads. Great footing most of the time. Heather and I had agreed early on that we would both ride to our horses' ability, ride our own rides, and if we could be together, wonderful. If we couldn't be, that was ok too.
It didn't take long for me to realize that something was horribly wrong with my right stirrup. A couple of miles in I realized that I could hardly reach it and definitely couldn't put my weight in it with my heel down like a good english rider. It was incredibly frustrating trying to figure out what was going on. Every time I tried to force more weight into my foot, my ankle would shake and roll over to the side. It was painful. So painful, and so frustrating that I finally slowed Sinwaan down because I couldn't take it any more (this was between mile 10-12 by my guess). Actually, I lost my stirrup and couldn't get my foot back into it as we were cantering along, so I had to slow him to a trot, and then a walk to get everything back together. By then the others were gone. Then it was his turn to be frustrated. He fought me a little and whinnied for his friend(s). But I knew he wasn't fit enough to keep up with Bunny the entire 25 miles, probably not enough the entire first loop of 16 miles. He found an intermediate trot that I could half sit and half post with my thighs.
All I could think about was my early years of riding at a summer pony camp in the East, where they gave me a giant horse and an english saddle with no stirrups. We had to learn to ride with our body and then we could have the stirrups. I was never more thankful for those lessons then today. I realized that by cantering, I had managed to get that far into the ride without realizing how bad off I was, because at least at the canter I could sit and not worry so much about my foot, or posting. By now I wanted to quit. I wanted to be done so bad I could taste it. But I am out in the woods on a mountain side and the only way in was to get there myself. (All vet checks were in camp) Either by riding or walking. And the way my ankle was feeling, I doubted walking was an option. So Sinwaan and I meandered, sometimes trotting and sometimes walking, as he pushed me for more speed to find his beloved.
When I saw the turn into camp I was so relieved. I had a rider pass me shortly before the turn, and she had missed it. So I hollered to her as I saw her through the trees climbing the ridge for the second loop. She was very grateful that I had saved her the distance. We rode back down the single-track together the last couple miles to camp and Sinwaan pulsed down just before her. He was looking quite well considering we had just done 16 mountain miles in only 2 hours. He vetted through fairly well, thanks to my new crew Eliana, who trotted him out for me and did a beautiful job.
I hobbled back to camp and tied him to the trailer with hay and water and he took it easy. Heather's hold was about over but he was glad to be with Bunny for a spell. Heather's grandfather was also there, he had made the trek over from Ronan to see the ride and it was nice to meet him. He was a huge help to me as I tried to figure out what was wrong with my saddle. He quickly pointed out that my stirrup holder was broken, it was shifting up and down and it should have been secure in the "up" position. The fact that it was falling down was adding inches to that right stirrup. No idea how to fix that, but I thought if I punched a new hole in that stirrup it should at least make it possible for me to finish the ride for a completion. Forget Top Ten at this point, I didn't want another failed ride on Sinwaan's record (or mine). What's another 9 miles, when you have already done 16? I had spent so much money to get here, there was nothing wrong with my horse, how could I quit now? (It's funny the things that motivate you, or at least me) Finding my spirit once again I borrowed a leather punch and succeeded in putting another hole in one stirrup. Hoping that would be my miracle answer, I went and sat down in as much shade as I could find. I snacked on some trail mix or honey roasted peanuts, drank as much as I could handle of my Powerade (I didn't drink nearly enough on the trail) and rested up for the second loop.
I don't wear a watch, which is something of a handicap when you are trying to figure out when to be back at the trailhead for you assigned "out" time. Thankfully my new crew Eliana did, and she let me know when it was time to mount up. Initially the shorter stirrup felt great and I had new confidence that we would finish this ride, and well. That didn't last long. Long enough for me to get out of camp and realize everything was still out of wack. Oh well.
We met up with the same woman we rode in with (I learned her name was Dawn) and she and her Paso Fino (he was 21) helped to drag us along as we left on the second loop. Sinwaan was done by this point. He had put in a lot of fast miles and he was all too ready for an extended nap. He kept stopping and just standing around. He did seem to enjoy the Paso's company however, and that was the little motivation that we needed to keep going.
That loop was slooooow compared to the first one. We did most of it at the walk. Partly because Sinwaan didn't want to go faster and partly because I was still having trouble with the stirrup. In one section of the trail we were riding along on the double track dirt road and I looked over at the view and noticed blue ribbons on the trees below us. Hmm. Did we miss a turn? I pointed them out to Dawn. They looked like they were on the wrong side of the trail but we turned back to check it out anyway. Dawn said "I can't believe they would want us to go down there" as the descent was steeper and more dangerous looking then the last technical part of trail we had covered. There were fallen logs in the way and it was just very steep. Dawn shrugged and went for it anyway. I gave her some room and then held my breath as Sinwaan followed after her. When I was about half way down this terrifying "trail" another woman rode by on the road above us. She said "I don't think you guys are on the trail." We said "we see ribbons down here" and she replied "Well they are on the wrong side. I will ride onward and tell you if I see more up here." I had stopped Sinwaan at this point because I didn't want to do any extra climbing if I wasn't where we needed to be. Within seconds she called back "The trail is up here, I see more ribbons." THANK HEAVENS. I was at a good spot to turn around so back up the steep embankment we went. It was like a 70 degree angle. It's no surprise that with that last surge from Sinwaan to make it back on the trail my stirrup came all the way off. He wasn't in any hurry to catch up to anyone at that point so we took a minute to get it back on. What a HASSLE. Dawn rode along below us until she saw a good place to come back up and rejoin the main trail.
I didn't catch the name of that third woman but she was on a pretty horse that seemed fairly green to endurance. There was a long-awaited water stop about 5 or 6 miles in and Sinwaan finally dove in and started drinking. He stuck his whole head in up to his eyes and shoved the water around in the tank. The woman on the pretty horse dismounted to sponge and asked us to keep going as she planned to wait there for a bit to get her horse to settle down.
Dawn and I continued to ride together, mostly, her horse would get ahead and Sinwaan would lag, then eventually we would catch up again. We talked a little bit, but not in depth, and it was just a really mellow stretch. I was concentrating on riding and trying not to whine about how ridiculous my saddle situation was. My foot had resumed hurting long ago.
The trail back to camp surfaced, and Sinwaan knew the way. He found something inside of him and started asking to go faster again. Then forget asking, it was just me gripping with my thighs and trying to stay balanced as he trotted in the last couple of miles. I am pretty sure he has learned how to count and knew he was done for the day. The woman on the pretty horse had gotten ahead of us at some point and we caught up to her at the end as she was leading her horse in. I thought about doing that and then realized maybe I couldn't walk, and since we had walked so much of the loop Sinwaan should be able to pulse down fairly quickly. I was right. I dismounted, both Marci and Eliana were there to help me cool him down, sponge him off, along with an additional teen there to observe or help. Sinwaan got them all pretty wet as he tossed his head around in the water, part playing and part drinking. I think we pulsed down ahead of both Dawn and the other woman, although there were others who had gotten past us on the first loop so I didn't think I was still in the Top Ten. After pulsing down the scribes were asking if I was in the running, because all Top Ten horses had to be vetted through by the same vet for consistency in the BC judging. By the sounds of it, I was still in the Top Ten so we waited for that vet while I let Sinwaan eat some of the beautiful camp hay. Eliana again trotted him out for me and did a wonderful job. The vet's comment was "Well he looks ready to go out again!" That was nice to hear. He scored well on most things but he was dehydrated. They gave us a time to come back for the recheck in an hour.
Back at the trailer Sinwaan was glad to just take a nap. I was glad to sit and drink and drink my water and Powerade. I felt so dehydrated myself. Heather and her family decided to go out to lunch so I kept an eye on the horses and lazed about. I did see Sinwaan drinking some more water, but not a lot. When our hour was up, I asked Eliana to go with me and we took Bunny back with us to the vet check so Sinwaan would not be calling for her or acting up due to his separation anxiety. Most of the time he is really good, but when we come to camp with other horses he likes to be able to see them. Eliana held Bunny nearby for me and then we traded so she could trot him out again. His CRI was not as good as they would have liked, he was appearing more dehydrated and no gut sounds. The vet asked if I was planning to ride tomorrow and I said no. The vet seemed glad to hear that. At that point the vet was worried about him. We talked about how he would be able to rest tomorrow and I would be leaving camp that night. He asked that I bring him back to be checked before I left. We took the horses back to the trailer and Heather returned soon after. She and her mom gave me Larissa's leftovers, which were amazing. A black bean burger and fries. Oh man was that good.
After eating we led the horses over to the creek bordering the field to let them graze. On the short walk over there Sinwaan stumbled, and also peed. It was very dark. On to the grasses, at first Sinwaan was not interested in eating but it didn't take long for him to slowly start nibbling. Once he was nibbling he started perking up and eating more. I was glad to see him come around within about an hour. Back at the trailer again he ate his mash and drank more water. All good signs. I had planned on heading back to Ronan before the ride dinner, but after all of this concern over Sinwaan I thought staying to keep an eye on him would be the best call. Ride dinner was at 6:30 PM so I took Sinwaan over there a little after 5 PM and he was looking so much better. The vet had all good things to say. Great gut sounds, hydration looking much better, no more worries. Yay!
The awards meeting was right after dinner so I was able to be there for some of it. I was actually packing up the tent when I heard them call my name in 8th place. Not bad. I ran over to get a photo of Heather receiving her award for 2nd place. Way to go Heather and Bunny!! Awards were a lead-rope and bucket. One was for completion and one was for Top Ten and I can't recall which was what but I was ecstatic to get a RED lead-rope! That was lucky. Heather got a black one.
I have all good things to say about this ride. It was a mountain ride for sure, with lots of ups and downs and elevation changes. Nothing too technical (If you stayed ON the trail). I would have liked some water a couple miles in on the 9 mile loop. The vets were really great, the ride was managed well (thanks Jennifer!) and I had fantastic company. I am so glad it all worked out for me to take Sinwaan this year. (Trail photos above were from when I hiked it in 2011). This is a ride I would like to do again next year. For now I have to solve my saddle problems.
A HUGE thanks to my mom for watching my kids so I could attend with no worries, my grandparents for the loan of the car and tent, Heather for being such a great riding partner and friend, Heather's mom for the protein brownie bites after the ride and the conversation, Laurie for hauling and friendship, and the girls Marci and Eliana for crewing.
