Ride Stories

My Peace Point '08 Story...

mer@TheEquestrianVagabond.com (Merri) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:18:00 +0000

I have never written a ride story before and am a little leery about posting
one, only because there are so many other people who are a heck of a lot more
eloquent than I!

This ride was to be my 3rd 50 miler. We had completed Hickory Creek 50 and Ride Between the Rivers 50 earlier and had started out with the Hornswaggle doing a 25, and then Michaux Madness 30.

We arrived at base camp on Friday morning. This ride is right in my back yard
more or less! Only 42 miles away!

We get vetted in for the Saturday 50, no problem.

We (my 10 yo Morgan gelding Ivan and I) started about mid way in the pack.
Trotting along and having a good old time.

Now?.. just to let you know?. I do BAREFOOT (we DON?T have to go into any type of discussion on this now?.PLEASE!)
And I was booting all around for my 50?s. Epics in the front
And Bares on the back. Now? we completed our two previous 50?s with this set
up?. And let me tell you, those two rides were muddy, sloppy, miry, and messy?.
The four boots stayed on with no problems?
THIS ride was dry! Really a very barefoot friendly ride, but doing the 50
miles I don?t want to take chances.

As we are trotting along with about 4 or 5 other riders, I hear a boot flopping
around on the back (kind of sounds like a flat tire!)... So I ask everyone if
they mind holding up a bit so that I can reapply said boot?.. No problem?. So I
get off and put the boot back on, and say a prayer.

I don?t think that prayer was heard (it was very foggy you know!) and the SAME
boot comes undone AGAIN a little bit further up trail!!!!
SO?.I get off the horse to just take the darn thing off, and to remove the
other one as well... I tell everyone else to continue on, that I would be fine?

NOT!

I get the near side boot off, and like a FOOL I drop my reins as I go to remove
the off side boot. Well now? my partner, compadre, buddy old pal decides that
he would rather continue on
with the other horses, AND LEAVES ME OUT THERE ON THE TRAIL ALL ALONE!!!!!!!!

Oops! Now what?

I had to walk my sorry A_ _ back to camp hoping in the mean time someone
would catch my BAD horse and tie him.
It must have been about 6 miles I had to walk! No found/caught horse tied
along the way!

So I arrive back at camp, and they were already aware that there was a
loose/lost horse out there. The other 50 milers that had to do a lollipop
passed me WALKING in, my helmet in one hand, and the one boot that I had
managed to get off the horse in the other.

I can?t tell you HOW MANY PEOPLE asked me ?Did you find your horse yet?)
ARGGGHH!

So?? I figured I wouldn?t panic yet (not until dark anyway!) and proceeded to
help pulse in in-coming riders, help riders cool their horses etc?.
What could I do? There was time to worry later.

Some one on the Ride Management team gets a phone call from other members out
on trail that said MISSING/LOST/LOOSE horse was found and they were about 8
miles into the orange loop at the creek. Yeah! (We had been riding the White
loop when Ivan decided to leave me.)

So, off I go with the Ride Managers son Tyler on the back of a 4 wheeler to go
retrieve my errant horse!

It was a BLAST!
Up over logs, bending around trees, up hills, down hills, yippee! This was fun!

Get to the creek that said horse was supposed to be at ?. But no horse!?
Huh??????
BUT there were about 5 or 6 riders that were trying to pick up the trail and
couldn?t find ribbons?So Tyler calls the Trail Master (his dad!) to let him
know that there was vandalism AND that the horse was not there!!!!!!
His dad lets him know that the horse was at the NEXT creek crossing (someone
had ponied him further up the trail) and to proceed there and that the ribbons
should be strung to the left after coming out of the creek.

So, as Tyler and I are 4 wheeling down the trail, I?m re-hanging
Orange ribbon (Tyler just happened to have orange ribbon in a basket on the 4
wheeler- how convenient!)

Finally! We get to the second creek crossing and there?s my guy!
Standing there, firmly held by the PHOTOGRAPHER Matt Jenkins! Poor guy was
busy holding my horse, rather than taking
his photos!!!!! What a guy! THANKS Matt!!!!!

So I retighten the saddle and climb on board and ride that NON- remorseful
horse back to camp! He?s justa? prancing and dancing the whole 2 ½ miles
back?(the road was just a little ways up the trail and we took that back to
ridecamp.)

Everyone is saying that the horse wanted an HO (horse option)
Rather than an RO! Ha ha ha?

No way I say! I wasn?t about to let that horse think that he could get away
with this now, could I?

I asked the vets Art King and Nick Kohut if I could
change my ride to the next day.
So, both Vets agreed, as well as the ride manager Laura Riddle, that I could.

Now you see, Laura had some revenge in mind for my horse!
Her Trail Master (Tyler?s dad, remember him?) had dropped her on trail to
search for my horse while he went to gas up the 4 wheeler. THEN he got the
call about the trail vandalism. He had to take care of that before he could
get back to her
and she walked almost TEN MILES back to camp!!!!!!!
She was NOT a happy Ride Manager, oh no!

So, Laura, Vengeance was served!
Ivan (the Terrible) had his sorry A_ _ ridden on Sunday!

Sundays ride wasn?t quite as eventful now?thank goodness!

EVERY TIME we came in off our loops, EVERYONE would say?? Hey, I see you
haven?t lost your horse yet!?
Ha ha!

He pulled and pulled the first two loops?. Made me work!
The loops were WHITE 11 miles, ORANGE 14, ORANGE 14, and WHITE 11.

Heading back out on that second 14 mile loop, he was a DOG!
I had to push him and prod him! We only had 2 other riders behind us, and
everyone else that was in front of us were WAY
ahead! So we were in a pocket which was fine by me! No pulling anyway! But a
lot of pushing!

The last loop I ended up riding with Wendy Mancini and her 25 year old QH
gelding Old Meadow Jim.
Now? Wendy and Jim had done a 50 the day before! And my guy who is more than
HALF of Jim?s age was sucking wind!

Wendy and I came in together to share the Turtle award.
I know that we had maybe less than a half an hour to go before our cut off
time. Whooh!

Yeah!!!!! Another 50, albeit SLOW, under Ivan?s hooves.

Lynn Brunetto
Waynesburg, PA

Tugby EGB Ride 8/6/08 - The Parsler Family

noreply@blogger.com (Endurance.Net) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:02:00 +0000

Original Article

This was one of the EGB rides that was hosting Pony Club classes, so we thought we should patronise this ride despite the fact that Jim and Natasha were aiming to ride the 30k Novice CR, rather than the 18k Pony Club Kestrel ride on offer.

Crossing a ford at Tugby
picture by ScottDigital

We had been warned that Tugby was quite a hilly ride, and given the weather was really quite hot we knew that this ride would be a challenge of Tally and Shine’s fitness. We normally take two 5 gallon barrels and a box of a dozen slosh bottles, and thought that this might not be enough. To make things worse we realised that we had forgotten our bucket of sugar beet water, which is normally the only way to get Shine and Tally to take on water when we are doing these rides. We were also told that there were limited places that the crew could meet us, as on the first part of the rides the tracks were all cross country, and we were not supposed to crew in the villages. However, many of the fields were stock fields with troughs and there were also two fords that we had to cross that would provide water on route.

We left the venue and had to try hard to persuade the horses to go through a terribly scary and obviously carnivorous gate. It would have been embarrassing if we could not even get out of the farmyard. However after a fair bit of kicking and badgering we then got underway. A good proportion of the first part of the ride was across farm fields and good grass tracks but within about 2k of the start we met the first hill, whilst it was not too steep it was quite long. We then continued over a series of rolling hills across some really lovely countryside. It is a very pretty part of the country and has some very good riding tracks. Large numbers of ramblers was also using these tracks on the day. This meant that at times we had to restrict our longer faster canters, and revert to trot and walk.

There also seemed to be a moratorium on marking the route with the normal paint arrows within the villages. As such it was important to be able to read a map properly to ensure that we took the correct route.

Having limited crewing points on the first part of the ride, is not normally too much of an issue whilst you are still fairly fresh. However with the hot weather both ponies were soon sweating up nicely and so seeing Nikki just before checkpoint 2 which was 12k into the ride provided some welcome relief. We normally try to meet up about 4 times approximately equidistant on a 34k ride, so 12K seemed a long way. Excessive amounts of water were applied to both horses via slosh bottles and sponges, which they were obviously grateful for, as they did not do their normal dancing about. One of the good things about a hot day is that you do not have to worry about the horses getting cold if you apply a lot of water at the crew points, as within 5 minutes of setting off they were dry again.

We had tried to get both ponies to drink from one of the troughs on the first part of the route without success; so I decided that I would tie a sponge to my saddle so that we could try to cool off the horses when apart from the crew points. The next 5k was all cross country again this time predominantly downhill where we got to one of the fords that we were told about. We were all pretty hot again by this point so we again tried to get Tally and Shine to drink, and then I got off to sponge them down. Zip up joddy boots and chaps are very comfortable but they do leak when you are paddling in the ford. However as an example of how hot is was my boots looked dry by the time I had remounted, and my feet felt dry after about 2 minutes.

We went onto Tilton on the Hill which, was about half way. Again there were no markings so we had to check the map carefully. On the way out of the village we had to go down a fairly steep hill, which given we were on tarmac meant that we had to stick to walk. Because of this we both got off and walked with the ponies in hand, so as to give their backs a rest. However once we got to a flat bit we got back on in order to trot on some more.

By this time in the ride we had a good indication of the toll the hills and heat were taking on Tally and Shine. We normally start off fast so as to give ourselves some leeway for getting lost and to allow ourselves the chance to come in slowly, so as to improve the horse’s final pulse rates. We normally aim to do the first half of the ride at an average speed of at least 12kph, and aim to finish at an average of 10kph. Since we started doing graded rides we realised that the optimum speed to get a grade 1 pass is 10kph, as this gives the best range of pulse rates that lead to a grade 1. On this ride at the half way point we were averaging only 9kph, which was a bit too close for comfort to the minimum speed of 8kph.

When we came to another stretch of cross country a couple of riders on the 42k route came up behind us. They also complained that their horses were making heavy weather of the ride. However as soon as they went in front both Tally and Shine suddenly found their second wind, no way were they going to be overtaken! So the four of us went on together for the next few kilometres taking turns in “towing” each other, to the next crewing point. Nikki provided drinks and slosh bottles to us and our two new companions. Then on we went across the fields again. Just as we were coming to about 24k on the route trotting along a stony track I thought we were scuppered, as Tally picked up a large stone in his hoof and immediately started hopping. I got off and checked all his feet for stones or cuts. The two experienced riders we were with said that his hoof might be bruised and that he may walk it off. So for the next kilometre or so I walked beside him.

Once off the stony track I got back on again, and Tally seemed fine, the only sign of being foot sore was when we had to go through a long deep ford with a stony bottom, which he obviously did not like. However once we got back onto the road he was happy to trot on so there could not have been much wrong. Nikki met us again about 2k from the finish for a final slosh down, we were still at about 9kph average speed, as such we basically aimed to take it easy getting back to the venue so as to keep the horses pulses as low as possible.

Once back at the venue we stripped off the tack and then sloshed the horses down, and then walked them around to stop any stiffness and then off to the vets for a trot up and pulse check. All told we ended up using more than 15 gallons of water both at checkpoints on the ride and at the cooling down sessions at the end. Given the terrain and heat we knew that we were not going to get a grade 1 this time. So we waited for the results and were pleased when Natasha and Shine had a grade 3 whilst Tally and I got a grade 4.

Whilst it was a very challenging ride I can recommend Tugby as a good ride with some excellent riding tracks across lovely country.

2008 Argentan - Team Nellie

noreply@blogger.com (Endurance.Net) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:51:00 +0000

The rural calendar in this part of Northwestern France includes various reliable markers. The swallows arrive back from Africa early in the afternoon of the 2nd or 3rd of May. In June t\
he sun comes out and, because it has been raining since 1863, everyone is happy except the farmers, who begin to fret that the watertable hasn't been replenished. Then it rains again, \
firstly on the hay as it lays in the fields, then it really pours for the week leading up to the Argentan ride. This is so the organisers can spend five days panicking, working out alte\
rnative routes to avoid the worst of the mud, some of which has also been there since 1863, and thinking about cancelling. The day of the ride itself is then always sweltering.

This year only the swallows and the farmers kept their side of the deal. You can always rely on a farmer to moan. Round here they're driving A class Mercedes, and when they cross a fiel\
d to bring in some cows they wear more bling than Snoop Doggy Dogg, but they're still all doom and gloom. Maybe the girl didn't turn up to polish their Krugerrands; I don't know.

Anyway, the weather confounded all expectations by baking the ground hard for a month then changing to overcast and uncomfortably muggy for the morning of the ride; the sort of day when\
you wish it would get on with it and rain.

This time last year teamnellie was there to compete, Richard riding a horse from Brittany who was having his first attempt over the distance and on whom heewed with the horsehen you're \
riding you see things in terms of mud or overhanging branches, flat sections to put on speed, hills to climb up or run down. If you're racing around in a car trying to get to a crew poi\
nt, your day is bends negotiated, traffic lights cursed at. You might get a fleeting glimpse of a big house, an old church, some kind of plaque, a monument. You have no idea, really, of\
where you are.

This ride starts and finishes at the local racetrack, as do many major rides in France, and the first section of 27km uses old farm and forestry tracks in a series of long, straight and\
fairly flat runs to the first vet gate, at the Haras du Pin.

In 1714 King Louis XIVth's 'first horseman', one Franapproved' stallions. On the eve of the French Revolution, the Stud accounted for 196 stallions and 132 "approved horses". After a pe\
riod of uncertainty, the State-run stud institution and the associated stallion farms were reinstated by Imperial Decree - the gold-plated bees that are worked into the wrought iron mai\
n gates are one of the symbols of Napoleon I.

Complete Story

Vermont 100 - An Outlaw Rides the Yankee Trails

noreply@blogger.com (Steph Teeter) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Tom Noll

A runner named Steve made this comment about the Vermont 100 endurance run
some time ago:

"Just a note on the Vermont 100; the run coincides with the VT 100 horse
race - same time and on the same course, so you spend a good part of time
passing and/or being passed by horses (and their riders hopefully). At
first, I thought this would be a pain. Turns out, it's nothing short of
magical, and the riders never failed to cheer you on as they passed. It's a
beautiful course, well organized, well marked, well stocked, and the horses
were a surprising bonus."

In the dark of winter, I contacted the Vermont 100 ride managers, John and
Sue Greenall about riding the Vermont 100. I mentioned that it is a very
long haul from Idaho to Vermont and I wondered if there were any local
horses that I could ride. Sue Greenall put me in touch with Paul Kendall at
the Kedron Valley Stables in South Woodstock and Paul thought that he might
have a horse that could be ready for the 100 in July. Paul has ridden the
Vermont 100 several times himself and he knows the trail and what is
required to condition a horse for 100 miles of trail. In addition,
Christina Phillips rides for the Kedron Valley Stables and Christina knows
how to condition horses too. Throughout the spring we kept in contact and
by late May it was time for me to make a commitment. Paul and I talked and
I made my decision.

Later I found out that Paul's horse was not just any horse but that her sire
was Omar, the only horse to complete all three Vermont 100-mile equine
endurance events; the three-day 100-mile endurance driving competition, the
one-day Vermont 100, and the three-day 100-mile competitive trail ride.
Omar completed the three events in one summer during the 1990s. Paul wanted
me to ride Springtime, a chestnut-colored Arabian mare sired by Omar.

I arrived in Vermont late on Wednesday evening before the ride. I met
Springtime with Paul Kendall and Cindy Davis. Cindy is a member of Kendall
family and Cindy has special feelings for Springtime. The next day, I went
on a short ride with Springtime while Cindy Davis and Christina Phillips
followed along. Just as I was assessing Springtime and her abilities, Cindy
and Christina were assessing my abilities too. Also, I was testing out the
tack. I arrived in Vermont with my riding clothes and very little else. I
figured that I would ride whatever tack and saddle fit the horse.

I could tell that Springtime was an efficient and easy moving horse with
plenty of trail experience. Cindy related some of her and Springtime's
history and I knew that I was taking Springtime on her first 100 and that
Springtime was very special to both Paul Kendall and Cindy Davis. They both
arranged to meet me several times on the 100-mile trail.

I made arrangements to ride with two experienced 100-mile riders, Laura
Hayes and Bill Taylor. Laura talked with Dolores Arste, and Dolores and her
husband Dave offered to crew for us. In addition, my endurance friend Sue
Hedgecock in Utah contacted her sister in Vermont, and Sally White would
help with crewing too. We were somewhat unorganized but we came together at
Silver Hill Meadow on Friday. We enjoyed a nice dinner under the big tent
with the runners, volunteers, and other riders, and we made our final
arrangements for the ride.

Laura Hayes, Bill Taylor and I started off down the trail at just after 5:00
AM the next morning. We waited for the other riders to clear the start and
after some uncertainty and wandering around, we passed under the banner.
Our 100-mile adventure was underway.

Springtime's job is to be the guide horse on the trail rides held at Kedron
Valley Stables. Springtime had many years of experience and, in all those
years, she always led the group. Spingtime was not comfortable in any
position but the lead, and following Bill or Laura's horse led to all kinds
of antics. We decided it would be easier for all of us, and especially
easier for Springtime and myself, to just to ride in the front. We rode a
conservative pace and soon we began to catch up with the runners. I became
concerned when we passed twelve miles or so and did not see the first stop.
Our plan was to start slow but we began to worry that we might miss the
first cut-off.

We crossed the covered bridge at Taftsville and continued on up the trail.
Eventually, we came to the first stop. Other riders had commented that the
distance was closer to 15 miles rather than twelve. In any case, we pulsed
down, spent our ten minutes, and took off for Galaxy Hill and the first vet
check six miles away. We arrived at Galaxy Hill with only five minutes to
spare. I was beginning to think of Tevis and being hounded by cut-off times
all through the day. Springtime was somewhat agitated and ate and drank
sparingly. By this time we picked up a fourth rider and Laura, Bill, Sharon
Levasseur, and I took off for the vet check at Highbrook. The four of us
were all pretty close together up and over the "Sound of Music" hill. The
view on the top was magnificent and we took photos of each other while we
rode the trail. At the top we all got off of the horses and Laura and I ran
off down the trail. It was great running down the trail leading a horse in
the company of ultrarunners.

The ride travels on roads and trail through rural Vermont. Many people
watch the event from their porches and others set out water tanks and hoses
for the horses and runners. We passed by some truly picturesque farms and
cottages. Riding the Vermont 100 is like taking a long trip through a
museum or a historical park. Many of the homes and farms have signs
indicating that the farm dated from the late 1700s - years before a
Louisiana Purchase, before Lewis and Clark, and years before there was a
West. Many trails are on overgrown Vermont Class Four roads through the
woods with stone walls on either side. Vehicles no longer traveled the
roads, but the public right-of-way is still used. One time we passed by a
very old cemetery, quiet and alone in the woods. That cemetery and some low
stone walls along the trail were all that remained of a family's homestead.

There are a lot of hills on the Vermont 100 and I began to chuckle to myself
every time the trail turned on a road that had the word "Hill" in the name.
That word, Hill, meant that we were in for a climb. A few miles before the
Ottauquechee River crossing Laura Hayes lost a shoe on Mo. Sharon's horse
Zephyr was feeling the effects of the distance. I passed ahead of Laura and
Sharon and continued on to the river and the second vet check at Highbrook.
Laura told me later that she quickly attached a new shoe but that she lost
valuable time. I reached the vet check at Highbrook about 40 minutes ahead
of Sharon and I left the hold before Bill and Laura arrived.

The next hold was Mitchell's at 60 miles. By now, it was clear that I was
the last of the riders. I was gaining time on the cutoffs and I was
guardedly optimistic. At Mitchell's, I decided that Springtime really
needed to eat and drink and I removed her bridle and bit and decided to ride
the rest of the trip with reins on her halter. Cindy told me that
Springtime had never been ridden without a bit, but I thought that eating
and drinking was important and that control would not be such an issue alone
and 60 miles into a 100. It turns out that we had nothing to fear because
Springtime was very well behaved.

Shortly after I left Mitchell's, I came to Margaritaville. The crew road
follows the same road to Margaritaville and my crew noticed that I had
stopped and that I was talking with a pretty woman. Later, I told my crew
that an attractive lady offered a margarita and I stopped to enjoy the aid
station. The margarita is gone but I will hold that margarita memory in my
mind for quite some time.

We rode on through the trails and up to the top of Heartbreak Hill.
Tuackenback is the aid station at the top of the hill and Springtime and I
arrived about an hour ahead of the cutoff. Like the other checks, I took
care of myself while Sally, Dolores, and Dave took care of Springtime. The
three of them cooled her and made sure that she ate while I tried to eat and
drink as well.

We left Tuackenback just at dusk. Soon it was complete darkness. I was
riding with no lights and only a reflective vest. I was well behind all of
the other horses and I am sure that some of the runners thought that I was a
ghost or a hallucination when I came up from behind in the darkness. At one
point on the trail I found myself off-trail going directly through the
brush. I guess that Springtime saw the next glowstick and decided to try a
slightly different and more direct route. Through the night I saw glowing
moss on the decaying logs and lightning bugs making streaks in the darkness.
Later, I put my light on my helmet, but I thoroughly enjoyed riding through
the darkness with no lights while trusting my horse to find a safe path.

Springtime and I came into the 88-mile check at O&H Farm. I had lost a
half-hour of time between Tuackenback and the O&H Farm. This was the only
time I was somewhat cranky during the ride and I apologize. There is a low
point on every 100 and the miles before the 88-mile check at the O&H Farm
was mine. I had been checking my watch and doing the arithmetic in my head,
and the calculations were not favorable. Springtime was walking slowly and
I figured that we could only maintain about three miles an hour. That pace
would not allow a finish. I thought that I still had plenty of physical
horse left, but the mental horse was about used up. I felt sorry for my
horse and I felt sorry for her on her first 100. Springtime has rarely been
out on the trail alone and the 60 miles of riding separate from any other
horses had been mentally tough for her. I talked with my crew at the hold.
Laura Hayes and Bill Taylor joined the crew, and Paul Kendal was there too.
Paul reminded me that Springtime was a driving horse and that she was
comfortable with the gentle tap of a buggy whip for direction. Paul cut a
short stick for me to lightly tap Springtime. Paul was convinced that we
could make it to the finish. In truth, I think that Paul cut that stick
more for my confidence than for Springtime's motivation.

We left the vet check and it became very foggy. I remembered one old
expression from the 1970s - onward through the fog - as we made our way on
the trails. I softly tapped Springtime with the stick. Springtime picked
up the pace and we maintained a very nice 100-mile trot. There was one long
downhill section and I got off and ran along beside her. We were making
good time now and I began to think that we might even finish. We both began
to "smell the barn." My sprits recovered and Springtime recognized my
optimism too. I encouraged Springtime, she encouraged me, and we trotted
right through the last two fly-by crew stops. I had plenty of horse left
and we were back to the ten-minutes per mile pace or better.

The last twelve miles were foggy, damp, and dark. I was riding with the
runners who were all chasing the 24-hour cutoff. Everyone was motivated.
Generally, I moved up in the group but a few runners managed to eke out a
faster pace and left us behind. At the very end it was just Springtime and
myself along with Chrissy Ferguson from Arkansas and her pacer. We finished
the Vermont 100 in the dark as two runners lightly jogging through the
forest with a horse and rider close behind.

Springtime had a good day. My friend Regina Rose says that mares can dig
deep and really pull when needed. Springtime is a working horse but still,
she is a horse who never went much further than 25 or 30 miles in a day,
probably had less than five rides out alone, had never been ridden in the
dark, and she dug deep within herself and finished 100 miles of trail fit to
continue. Many times it would have been easier to just turn and head back
to the stable but each time she turned away from her home with only minor
discussion when I asked. I continue to be impressed by the quiet confidence
and ability of horses.

The theme of the 20th Vermont 100 was to remember the volunteers. Many
times across the whole 100 miles, I was thinking about the volunteers and
the land owners who I met along the trail. I know that volunteering at a
ride makes a long day and I am sure that the race volunteers wonder if it is
worth the effort. Well, I am sure that some of the riders and runners had a
life-changing experience over the 100 miles of Vermont trails. That
experience will be woven into the fabric of their lives and will become a
part of them for the rest of their lives. And, although I cannot speak for
the horses, my suspicion is that some of the horses may have had a
life-changing experience as well.

Many times I took my buckle out of my pocket and held it in my palm later
that day after the ride. When I look at my Vermont 100 belt buckle, I
remember a day on good trails spent in the company of a good horse and good
friends. I am very lucky.

Tom Noll
SW Idaho

Sharon & Zephyr's Vermont 100 Story

noreply@blogger.com (Steph Teeter) — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Sharon's Story & Vermont 100 Photos

Sharon Levasseur

After Pine Tree, I decided that if we had kept a more reasonable pace for the first half of the ride we would have been in much better shape at the end, and capable of going much further. So I decided to enter the Moonlight in VT 75 that was being held 3 weeks later. The name of the game would be GOOOO SLOOOOOW.

To that end, I practiced getting off and jogging alongside. Unfortunately, I soon remembered that the reason I don't usually do that is because Zephyr trots at a minimum of 8mph and I run at a maximum of 6mph (and that only lasts a few yards). Nonetheless, we worked on it a few days in a row and I thought we had it down. I even ordered some Dirty Girl Gaiters to fit over the tops of my shoes and keep the dirt out because I can't wear half chaps. Of course I bought yellow.

On Tuesday of ride week, my Dad agreed to crew for me. He isn't a horse person and had never crewed before, but he wanted to spend some time with me. I was just as excited about it as he was.

I waited until Friday morning when he was in the truck and we were headed down the road before I told him that, just the night before, I had decided to up the ante and ride the 100.

I broke the news by telling him about a book I'd read as a child. It was about a mommy badger who had eight pups/kits/cubs and one by one they got lost or died and she never noticed UNTIL she was down to two... because badgers can only count "One, Two, Many". (Yes, it was an odd book.) My theory, backed up by opinions of the enthusiastic members of the "New to 100s" Yahoo Group, was that if I thought we could finish the 75 then surely we could also finish the 100. Everyone says after you hit 60-70 miles you're over the hump anyway. The theory was that this ride would seem like "25, 50, Many."

He was game, but of course he teased me about kidnapping him before I broke the news!

The long trip was punctuated by a few bits of excitement. At two different points, a horrendous noise came from under the center console of the truck and scared me stiff. We finally decided it was probably ice coming off the AC underneath the truck, because Dad was running his side at 60° (I was running mine at 80°). Also, there was a Border Patrol stop... in coastal New Hampshire! Nothing much else of interest, just a long drive... 8 hours including my stop to pick up Dad. Oh yeah, it would have been a little shorter but Dad made me miss my first two turns in like 2 years. Great navigator he is. (Just kidding, Dad.)

We arrived in camp around 12:30. The "cheap" part of town (small rigs, no generators) was still pretty empty but the "ritzy neighborhood" was chock full.

We puttered around setting up our campsite, including Zephyr's pen and Dad's tent. I went up and vetted in while he finished getting everything ready. In the picture below, you can see Zephyr underneath the awning.

During the ride meeting there were some sprinkles and some wind, but nothing bad. After the manager, day manager, and vets had finished their talks and asked for questions, I spoke up and said I was attempting a first 100 for myself and my horse and would like someone experienced to ride with. Laura Hayes volunteered herself, Bill, and Tom... they planned to walk flat-footed out of camp and keep a reasonably slow pace. Great! I was very excited to have lucked out like that.

Dinner, as always, was amazing. Those runners know how to put on a spread. I filled up my plate and only could eat half, and of course Dad chimed in with the "I knew you couldn't eat all that!" line that parents can deliver so well. Dinner conversation was great, we talked to a bunch of runners and also several riders. One experienced crew-person assured Dad that his coworkers' assessment of his job for the weekend was pretty much spot on... he was going to be "The Waterboy". He said as long as he didn't have to shovel poop he was good.

Before we lost the light, we got the obligatory pictures under the start banner. MAN he looks short here. He's also wearing a 3-digit number starting with a 2. It's the first time I've ever seen the 100-mile horses marked that way, normally it starts with a 1. If there are 75-milers usually they have a 3-digit number starting with a 7. Oh well, it's not like I've waited 6 years for my horse to wear a 100-something number anyway, right? Right?? Guess I should have stuck with the 75-miler... then his number would have been 106.

After the photo shoot, Dad helped me load into the truck whatever I had ready at that point. He went to bed shortly afterwards... maybe 8:30. I felt bad because I knew I'd be making noise for the next couple of hours, getting the rest of my gear ready.

I slept about 3 hours overnight. There was some rain, and of course I had one ear open for loose horses (especially mine), but mostly I listened to the endless sounds of a camp full of horses, riders, runners, crew, and volunteers.

When the alarm went off at 3:00 a.m. I was already awake. I quickly got up and fed Zephyr, then went back to lay down for a few more minutes.

I was up and eating breakfast when the runners started at 4:00 a.m. They softly shuffled downhill past our row of trailers, their headlamps and handheld flashlights shining brightly and bobbing as they cheered and were cheered for by onlookers. Some wore trash bags and ponchos in a futile effort to stay dry in the thick, foggy dawn air. From the back, after they all passed, they were a half-mile-long glowworm oozing through the dark.

I checked in with the starter at exactly 4:30. Tacking up by the light of a flourescent lantern went more quickly once Dad came over to help, as Zephyr didn't want to stand still. I was in the saddle at about 4:50, with no idea what Laura, Bill, or Tom looked like under helmets and on top of horses. I peered through the fog, asking people if they were Laura, or if they knew her.

Zephyr misbehaved while waiting, sidepassing and tossing his head. We waited until the end, looking for three other horses hanging back in the crowd. After a moment I moved to the start line, asking the crowd whether they knew whether Laura, Bill and Tom had come through yet. Nobody knew. Oh well. Here we go.

Dad was walking back down the hill to the trailer when I passed him. He was surprised to see me, he had thought I'd already left. He'd wished good luck to the rider of a different chestnut horse wearing yellow tack before he'd realized it wasn't me. I believe he managed to get a picture, but he hasn't sent it to me yet.

We headed down the long hill out of camp walking behind everyone else, but soon passed two horses because Zephyr began to gait. He went in between foxtrot and rack for the next 3-5 miles. I would have preferred a nice slow trot but he made it quite clear that trotting with a low head and slow speed was not possible for him just then; a 6mph foxtrot/rack was all he could offer. I wished he would trot because we don't usually gait for so long; I worried that it would be hard on his body. After those first few miles he did trot at about 7-8 mph. It was a relief.

The two horses that we had passed at the beginning passed us about then, at a good steady trot. They reported seeing a couple of horses still behind me. I thought that was probably Laura et al but I knew I couldn't stop to wait and see. The intel might have been wrong and where would that have left me? Further behind the crowd than I already was.

At this point, Zephyr was mentally well-established in plodding along in a slow trot. The humidity may have contributed to his willingness to trot slowly. Once we were moving I was warm enough to take my windbreaker off and tie it around my waist.

The trails were beautiful and because we were moving so slowly I had a chance to take some pictures.

After a while, we rode through the center of a quaint little downtown area. I had passed a female runner several times who was wearing all pink with the name TAMMY written in magic marker across her chest. Tammy took pictures of everything she passed and that passed her, including probably 20 just of Zephyr and I. We chatted a bit; it was her first time at the Vermont 100 but not her first 100-miler. She planned a slow and easy pace. I just hoped she had a big enough memory card to last her the distance!

There was a traffic cop to help us through the intersection at the center of downtown, and then we crossed a beautiful old covered bridge where Tammy took my camera so I could have a picture of us crossing.

The first leg of the ride lasted F-O-R-E-V-E-R. It was supposed to be 12 miles but I know what 12 miles feels like. I was sure I'd missed the first stop, which I thought was supposed to be a flyby. I thought maybe Dad had gone there, decided I'd already been through, and left. I started looking for Hold 1.

Everywhere along this stretch of trail there were trees down. In some cases it was just a few branches piled alongside the road. In other cases there were enormous trees, obviously centuries old, cracked through with the top half slanting at an angle, or with the entire root structure exposed and the whole tree tipping over from the base. The fresh cracks were obscenely bright against the weathered old gentlemen's bark, an ugly atrocity seen through the calm and peaceful blanket of the still-humid morning.

Eventually I came to a left turn on the dirt road. Straight ahead of me was a massive tree, laying across the road and on top of the roadside power lines.

I followed the signs left into a field where a vet, my Dad, and a couple volunteers all waited. The first thing they said was that this was indeed the 12 mile stop, but that it was indeed more like 15 miles. My GPS agreed.

OK then, I thought, that stinks but at least this is the flyby and not the hold, so I didn't miss anything out on trail. How odd, a flyby in a field! I wonder why the vet is here, he must be doing on-trail observations.

Then someone solemnly announced that I was running overtime, and that after my hold time had passed I had better get some boogie in it. "What? What hold time? I thought this was the crew stop! This is the HOLD? Where is everyone?"

I had made a crucial mistake. Because I had studied the schedule for the 75 in such detail, I had only glanced at the schedule for the 100. I'd seen "Pit Crew #1" at 12 miles, and "Hold 1" at 18 miles, but I'd missed the fact that there was a 10-minute hold time listed for PC1. In my defense, though, I KNOW I'm not the only person who finds this ride's Hold Schedule really hard to understand. I don't know how I missed hearing it at the meeting, but I did.

During those 10 minutes, Laura, Bill, and Tom arrived. We very briefly exclaimed over having missed each other at the start; it turned out they had ridden together uphill on the road for a few minutes until everyone had left, then turned around and actually started. Lesson learned... make a firm plan about when/where to meet up at the start.

Ten scatterbrained minutes after arriving, I hauled myself back into the saddle and headed out. Zephyr had eaten and drunk well, but I had done neither. I had been focused on a couple of tack adjustments; other than that I honestly have no idea where the time went. I think I was shellshocked from discovering how far behind I truly was.

You see, the Open/Close times for all the Holds had been calculated based on a first leg of 12 miles... not 15... so our slow average speed at the start meant we were going to need to chase the closing times all day.

I boogied as much as I could for the next 6 miles, and arrived at Hold 1 ("Galaxy Hill") just 4 minutes before the closing time of 8:40 a.m. I was still so distracted that I didn't get him over to the vet for his pulse time as soon as I'm sure I could have; he was at 52 by the time I went over. I believe he vetted through with mostly As, but A- for impulsion/willingness. I remember asking Dad "Where's the awesome view? Management said the Galaxy Hill hold has a view so spectacular that everyone calls it The Sound of Music!" Dad shushed me and told me to eat something so I dropped the subject.

I waited 2 minutes past my out time so I could leave with Laura, Bill, and Tom. Again, because I hadn't studied the Hold Schedule well enough, I didn't realize the next leg was 24 miles. I must have thought it was 16 miles because that was the length of the first leg of the 75. We didn't really talk about it, either, as I recall. Finally, I had no idea that in that leg there were only 2 flybys. For some reason I expected a flyby roughly every 5 miles, certainly not any more than 10 miles apart.

We rode and rode, and rode some more. Sometimes we all rode together, sometimes it was just me and Tom, and sometimes it was just me and Laura with Tom ahead and Bill behind.

Zephyr had plenty of energy and tried hard to lead the way but Tom's horse would have none of it. I took this picture during one of the times Tom was ahead out of sight.

The next thing that really stands out in my mind is riding up a hill on a mowed path through a grassy field. Tom was ahead of me, Laura and Bill behind, and runners interspersed as always. The further up the hill I got, the more awesome the view became. (It was only after I returned home that I realized that THIS is the view they call "The Sound of Music". Management must have meant it was AFTER Galaxy Hill.)

It was "all butterflies and kittens" until I rode a few more feet and saw the way down. Yikes. I do not ride down hills that steep. I do not ski down them. I usually do not even walk down them. My gut instinct was to sit and scooch down on my bum! I'm sorry I don't have a picture but my hands were too busy shaking and my brain was too busy turning around and walking back the other way.

We all got off our horses to lead them down. Tom and Laura walked down fast and may have even jogged, while meanwhile poor Bill got stuck behind the freak who is scared absolutely stiff at the thought of even having to drive down a hill like this. He was very patient and truly "talked me down" just like the Ski Patrol does when you freeze up. I know. They've come for me before.

At the bottom, the pads of my feet were burning from slipping against the vinyl of my orthopedic insoles while my toes grabbed futilely for security in the dirt. I was a good sport though and we jogged behind Bill for a few yards before he and I both agreed it was time to mount up.

Bill and I caught up to Laura, who was having trouble with her horse's shoes (Epona, I think??). One of them had broken clean in half! She pulled an Easyboot on and continued on foot. Eventually she mounted again and we all rode together for a while. I think there was a flyby in there somewhere, I remember stopping at one while I was with Bill and Laura. She didn't stay long, but walked on ahead.

Bill and I left the flyby together having been told we had another obscene number of miles to go until Hold 2. I believe it was 12 miles. Keep in mind, I was still thinking this entire leg was only 16 miles. So I was hugely confused and discouraged to hear that the endless miles between Hold 1 and this flyby had added up to only FOUR MILES! For pete's sake, we had trotted a lot of it, so there COULDN'T still be 12 miles to go before Hold 2! I almost passed out from the shock of trying (and failing) to get the numbers to add up.

As I left, Dad told me that the next pit crew stop was about 4 miles down the trail, and he ordered me to hustle!

I think somehow I got ahead of both Bill and Laura, but I don't remember how. All I know is I did that 4 miles alone and seriously booked it. I think it may have been mostly woods trail, and if so, that would have helped. We just got in a zone, even to the point that we began ignoring the runners we passed unless I had to call ahead to tell them which side of the trail we would pass them on.

Leaving the second and last flyby on that leg, Dad told me Hold 2 was about 7 miles down the trail. Given the warped nature of time/distance that morning, it might as well have been 50. Still, we dug in.

Soon there was a nice shallow river crossing. It took some convincing before Zephyr would cross it; he just wanted to stand in the middle and play.

We were both doing reasonably well when we turned right at a Y where the left-hand side was named something along the lines of "Incredibly Steep Hill Road" ... and it headed straight up at a 90° angle to prove it... and the right-hand side was named something along the lines of "Frederick's Hill Road".

Frederick sounds like a nice well-mannered man, I thought, as I cackled to myself at not having to climb up Incredibly Steep Hill Road.

We went around a corner.

We climbed.

We went around a corner.

We climbed some more.

I got off to walk.

We went around a corner.

We climbed.

I stopped to rest.

You get the idea.

I would have sworn that hill was at least 4 miles long. After a while there was a house with a teenage girl in the driveway minding buckets of water for the horses. I thanked her profusely. She promised we were almost at the top.

We climbed some more.

You get the idea.

I think, although I'm not sure because I wasn't looking at my watch, that it may have taken us an hour to climb that hill. Runners passed us, but no horses although I know Bill and Laura were back there. (Turns out, Laura had stopped at the second flyby to replace the shoe. She's a farrier.) I heard later that it is exactly 2 miles long, and I doubt we averaged more than 2 mph going up it.

When we finally reached the top, I tried to get Zephyr to stand in the ditch so I could get on. He wasn't having it. After a moment a runner came by and I begged him to hold my stirrup. I was up. We were off.

By this point it had been probably 3 miles and well over an hour since Zephyr had seen another horse. He was pretty convinced that I had taken him on a well-desguised training ride. He's very lazy on training rides. It was all I could do to get him to trot slowly along behind a runner, and if that runner walked, Zephyr would too (in a most abrupt fashion that dug my GPS right into my tummy).

That's all well and good, but I was also getting funny readings from the heart rate monitor; it seemed as if his heart rate was spiking whenever we trotted. The problem was that I couldn't tell if those were real readings or not, I'd been having trouble with the Wearlink belt sliding back really far and I suspected the thin fabric may have been twisted under the saddle. No telling what effect that would have.

At this point, every runner we saw on trail asked if Zephyr was OK. They knew I'd struggled on the hill (although Zephyr hadn't) and that I didn't know whether the heart rate monitor was malfunctioning. I didn't really know what to say to them. I alternated between telling them "we're overtime, we're done" as we walked along, and spanking him up into a trot to see how he responded. I just couldn' t tell if I could believe the monitor readings. Every time I spanked him, I winced, wondering if the runners were judging me for urging forward a horse I didn't know was really OK.

Although I don't really remember specifics, we must have finally gotten into the groove. We were trotting steadily for a while before we got to Hold 2. Tom was still there, but was scheduled to leave just a few minutes after we arrived. We got there 30 minutes past the cutoff time but the vet informed me that management wasn't going to officially enforce Closing times until Hold 4.

However, he strongly suggested that I pull; he said the trail only got harder from there and we would need to drastically increase our average speed to make the Closing times. During the trot-out Zephyr showed further deterioration of willingness and impulsion... something that had been obvious to me on the trail... so that would have made an increase in speed difficult unless we had a horse to pace with.

I was overheated and drained... from not eating right (out of distraction over the seemingly distorted time/distance), from walking up that hill, and from having work so hard to encourage Zephyr to trot when he had no motivation of his own. It wasn't hard for the vet to convince me we didn't have a prayer of meeting cutoff times.

Dad and I were told we needed to wait until Laura and Bill came in, so they could be given the option of trailering their horses back to camp with Zephyr. I think they came in about 3:00. At first they wanted to continue on, and try to make up the time now that Laura's horse had its shoe back, but again the vet was influential in the decision. The trailer would only hold 2 horses, though, so they opted to ride their horses back to ridecamp to save the volunteer the trip.

As soon as the decision was made, I hustled Zephyr to the waiting trailer. I heard thunder in the distance and it was starting to rain; I hate thunder and I wanted to get him back to camp before all heck broke loose.

The volunteer trailer driver stopped at the top of the hill for me to unload. I grabbed Zephyr and ran down the hill as fast as I could under the blackening sky, with a sound and happy horse running beside me. As soon as I got him back to the trailer it began to rain. There were no other horses in camp and I was afraid he'd freak out during the storm, so I tried to load him on the trailer where I was sure he'd be safe. However, the step up was huge because the downhill (right) side of the trailer was on blocks, so he was uncharacteristically unwilling.

I quickly pulled out his rain sheet, put it on him, and led him to his pen. Before I went in, though, it began to rain harder. The wind was picking up and the thunder was getting closer. Camp was so deserted I could practically see tumbleweeds blowing through. Scared for him, I resolved to load him on that trailer if it killed me.

Lucky for me, the rider "next door" came in for her first in-camp Hold just then. She offered to help and at first I turned her down, but she had the good sense to just take the lead rope despite my protests that he would NOT get on that trailer if there was someone in there ahead of him. She hopped on, I tapped his hip, he hopped on and stood quietly while she snuck out next to him. YAY! Thanks Becky Cahill!

He was still wearing his rain sheet but my first priority was to get his hay bag out of the truck. As I was doing so, the wind at my back picked up so strongly and quickly that it knocked my breath from me. Suddenly I realized it wasn't just cold, it hurt! Dime-sized hail was striking me at somewhere around 50 mph!

Before a full second passed I was totally and completely soaked and freezing from the inside out. Becky huddled with her horse inside her open-sided stock trailer. I struggled to get the hay bag in through the open trailer window while Zephyr was trying just as hard to stick his head out through it to see what was going on. When I finished with the hay bag, I walked around behind the trailer to shut the door, just in time to see a tent and a folding canopy go careening end-over-end through several horse corrals, including the one right next to Zephyr's. Dad, meanwhile, was sitting in the truck watching two 50-mile riders come in to the trailer on the other side of me for their hold time. He said later that it was amazing to watch; they just went about their business.

As soon as I got into the dressing room I peeled off my dripping clothes and toweled dry. I was standing there buck naked when I heard a loud bang. The wind had shifted 180° the other direction and had blown open the side escape door into the horse area. In the few seconds it took me to jump into dry clothes, the entire inside of the front stall got soaked! And of course after I went out there to shut the door, my dry clothes were no longer dry.

After I changed (again) I just laid down and rested for about 3 hours, then got up and Dad and I rebuilt Zephyr's fence so he could get off the trailer. Dad had unloaded the gear from the truck onto the ground, so I loaded it into the trailer. Dad was in bed by 8:00 so I went up to the big tent to chat with the vets and management, and watch the first two 100-milers vet in. (It was around 8:30 when they finished... I would have MAYBE been within a few miles of Hold 4 if I'd still been out there.)

On Sunday morning we left camp at around 9:45, but we had to stop for gas and breakfast sandwiches (there were none, we had to get tuna). I didn't drop Dad off until 3:00, and got home around 5:30 or so. I went straight to bed... after unloading and feeding Zephyr of course. He was fine, in high spirits with plenty of energy. The new farrier did a good job and the shoes stayed on great. The interference boots did the trick too. All is well.

Now that I'm sitting at home, well-rested and with a few days' perspective, I have to wonder whether maybe we should have continued on. Here's my analysis:

At the decision point, it was 2:00 p.m. and we were at Mile 42 with a 45-minute hold awaiting us. The five 75-mile horses had already come and gone from Hold 2 and were somewhere on the trail ahead of us; the 50-mile horses were at the start line.

The first 42 miles had taken us 8 hours and 20 minutes' ride time, including the few minutes spent at flybys but not including the 40 minutes of hold time, for an average speed of around 5 mph not including the holds.

There was an 18-mile leg from Hold 2 (at 42 miles) to Hold 3 (at 60 miles). If we had left Hold 2 at 2:50 and been able to increase our average speed to 6 mph, it would have taken 3 hours... which would have meant arriving at Hold 3 just before 6:00 p.m. for our 60-minute hold time. The suggested Closing time (which wouldn't be enforced) was 6:00 p.m. We wouldn't have left Hold 3 until around 7:00 p.m.

The 50-milers don't join up with the 100-mile trail until Hold 4 (at 70 miles) and their Closing time for Hold 4 was 7:00! (Closing times are different for the 50s vs. the 75s and 100s.) So the 50-milers would have all come and gone by the time we arrived, and there would have been no chance of seeing them on trail or at the hold. Unless Laura and Bill had caught up, Zephyr would have continued to be the only horse on the trail. We would have had to continue pacing off the runners.

The closing time for Hold 4 was 9:00. At that point, management would begin to enforce the Closing times. We would have needed to cover that 18 mile leg in only 2 hours; we would have needed an average speed of 9 mph to make it.

So, as much as it still pains me, it seems that I made the right decision.

Will there be a next time? Maybe. I'd do a few things differently.

First, I'd pick a flatter ride even if it is a few weeks earlier in the ride season. Heat and humidity are one thing, but add in mountains and it's just too much of a drain on both of us... at least for a first 100.

Second, I'd find a mentor ahead of time who is an experienced 100-mile rider AND familiar with that particular trail AND willing to shepherd me through the whole thing. I'd completely forgotten what it's like to ride at the back of the pack and not be able to count on leapfrogging with other horses to keep Zephyr motivated. I've gotten used to running somewhere near the front and just occasionally hooking up with riding partners but not having one person by my side all day. I guess it would be OK to let ourselves be a little dependent when trying to get through a first 100.

Third, I'd beg/borrow/steal an experienced crew member, hopefully who is experienced in crewing specifically for 100-mile rides. (There's apparently an art to pacing that is different than 50-milers, and I need all the help I can get.) Dad was great, he really got into his job, but he still had to ask me what Zephyr needed. I did NOT eat enough, though it wasn't Dad's fault. I just need someone who can just take my horse away to deal with him themselves, then push me into a chair in front of a wide selection of tasty tidbits to tempt my troubled tummy.

Fourth and most definitely NOT least, if I decide to pursue this dream, I need to make a mental commitment to condition more. Not just go out and ride a nice moderate speed/difficulty loop, but actually make an effort to seek out hills and force Zephyr to perform a quality cardio workout despite his somewhat lazy-when-alone nature.

So, given that the only two 100s within reasonable driving distance of home are Pine Tree and Vermont, it seems that IF I decide to do this again soon, Pine Tree will probably be my next attempt. 2009? We'll see how Changes 1-4 shape up.

Next up? I wish I could make it to Western Maine for a 50 or two, but I promised hubby I'd be home for the next few weekends. So instead, next it's a 2-day 50 at The 'Burbs CTR on August 23-24. Then nothing in September (going to a wedding in NJ), and in early October the Maine 100 (a 3-day 100 CTR).

After that, we'll be done competing till next May. If I want to do the 2009 Pine Tree 100 I should definitely aim for the May 2009 Bare Bones 50 as a warmup. Otherwise I can get by with the Brown Bag 25 CTR that same weekend. We'll just have to wait and see what winter training looks like.

Big Horn '08 by: Noodle

noreply@blogger.com (Steph Teeter) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Hee Haw, I'm Noodle & this is my story:

It started at the Shamrock ride a couple of weeks ago. Mom brought my sister Nellie & I to see who she wanted to take to the Big Horn. I didn't know then what I was getting myself into. Nellie always told me, "Mom is crazy", but I didn't believe her.... I know better now.

Anyhow, At Shamrock I got to ride the first day. What a trail! The first loop had so many rocks, that Mom was worried about my barefeet. It didn't slow me down any, though. In fact, I really had a good time flying thru this loop. Too bad Mom had the bit in my mouth, I could've really gone fast with my sidepull. I guess she had the right idea though, because I started getting tired toward the end of the 2nd loop. I decided we should walk a bit here & there. We got to really enjoy the scenery this way. The 3rd loop there was really nice, too & short compared to the 1st 2. After tah 55 miles I was fairly tired, but it only took me 7 1/2 hours to do it.

I got to rest & play all the next week until I had to go move cows for branding on Sat. That was a short ride, but fun. I got to chase down some of those sneaky cows & calves. Silly, trying to run away, not on my watch! The next day I got to go ride with a couple of my Michigan buddies in South Dakota. Ike & Huckleberry brought Monty out here. (He came home on Fri night.) I had had fun riding at Iron Creek, the trails there are pretty cool.

Then I got to rest & play again until Thurs. That's when Mom put shoes on all of my hooves. I got tennis shoes on the front (Ground Control) & dress shoes on the back (lite rims). I behaved myself while she put them on, but I like going barefoot better.

So, on Fri., I got to go to Shell, WY. I was suprised to see Ike & Huckleberry again. I guess Ike was going to ride in the 50 there. I was proud to tell him that I was going to go in the 100. (A little sacred, too-I've never gone that far-but, I didn't tell him that.) I didn't let Mom get much sleep that night. I kept talking to anyone who would listen. I was hoping for some extra goodies to eat or at least a little love. Finally, a little after 3 am, I managed to con her into some grain. It was a little bit of a backfire, when she saddled me up that early. She got a new saddle that is really comfy for me, even if it is heavy.

It's 4 am, now & me & a bunch of other horses are trotting off into the prairie. There was still a full moon out so it was easy to see hwrere we were going. After awhile, we started going uphill for, like ever! The only good part about this trail was the grass--long & lush, just the way I like it. We eventually got to the top, only to go down & up & down & up & down & up............ The only good part about this trail was the grass, nice & green, just the way I like it.

Finally! A vet check, rest, grain, yippeee.

On the trail again. By now I have found a new friend. His name is Cabo. He is a Paso Fino. Buckskin even. He was fun to ride with. If i got tired or bummed out, he'd help me along & perk me up. If he got tired or bummed, I did the same for him. Nice guy, that Cabo. Before I knew it, we were at the next vet check. Did I mention that this trail is awesome? So many beautiful views! And the grass! So tasty! Just the way I like it.

Down the trail we go again. Too bad, I liked the ski area. It was nice there. But there was so much more to see & I had Cabo for company. More pretty flowers (some were tasty, too, just the way I like them), cool creeks to drink from, sunshine & a perfect breeze. I did get a little lazy this loop. Maybe I should've tried to sleep better last night. Oh well. We did get to stop a couple of times & rest & eat, so it was ok.

Part of this loop went around a pretty lake. There were some loose horses there. A silly roan & a grey wanted to be endurance horses too so they followed us. They eventually had to go back at a gate. That's where I met a lady horse named Sabella. (She was a little cranky though.) There was another horse too, but I didn't get his name. We didn't have far to go to the next vet check. Wonderful grain, rest & grass, thick & succulent, just the way I like it.

I left there alone, heading back to camp. Mom said we'd walk a bit for the others to catch up. Sabella came along 1st & then Cabo. I was glad to see them. We backtracked a ways on a trail we'd come in on earlier. After awhile, Mom found our turn off, even after the naughty cows knocked down the flag & blinky post. She got off & put them back up so others would find the turn in the dark. Shortly after, it did get dark. It was a beautiful night though. Perfect temp with a perfect breeze. The stinkin cows ate most of the grass, but there was still a little bit & some sage for extra flavor, just the way I like it. It took a little while before the moon came up. Boy was it bright once it did, though. It really helped us see the rocks when it came time to go down off the mountain. Mom said it took us an hour just to get down. That's when we saw our pit crew again. Man, they were having a good time! The important thing was the grain & the hay, soft & green, just the way I like it. I didn't really want to share it with Sabella & Cabo, but we were all so hungry. We just gave each other dirty looks while we stuffed our faces. Mom got a little crazy with the other girls--they were having LOTS of fun.

After a bit, we headed on out across the prairie again. Almost back to camp. What a sweet place to be. I was having so much fun with the other horses! We all just flew on down the trail. When we were almost back to camp, Mom dropped my reins to grab the other girls' hands, that's when we really got cooking. I ran so fast, she had to let got of their hands to pull the reins. Hehehe. She got me slowed & we did it again. I was nicer this time.

Finally, my saddle came off for the last time. I fussed a lot while Mom took it off & weighed on a scale. Then she took me to a nice spot to poop, pee & ROLL. Sandy & dusty, just the way I like it! We walked around a little bit 'cuz the vet was busy with some other horses. When he was ready, I dragged Mom over there so we could finish this thing up. Then I dragged her back to the trailer for some rest & hay, lots of it, stuffed tightly into a bag, just the way I like it.

So, there is Noodle's story. I am so proud of this girl. Her 1st 100! Wow! A little under 18 hours

Marirose

Pine Tree 50... Riding High: 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Endurance.Net) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:33:00 +0000

Sharon Levasseur

In deciding whether to do the 50 or 100 at Pine Tree this year, I took several things into consideration. Most importantly, I read all the Decade Team interviews at www.aerc.org. Regardless of how long it was before the rider took each horse to its first 100, most of them said they like to do a 50 about 3-4 weeks before the first 100 of the year. Since so far all we've done this year is a 2-day 60, I decided to opt for the 50 at Pine Tree and try for either the 75 or 100 at Vermont.

The week before the ride, I spent a little time each night making sure I had everything in the trailer that I needed, and that it was arranged efficiently. I made a few improvements, like putting adhesive linoleum tiles on the wall under the bridle hooks in the rear tack, and like buying a tall narrow set of plastic drawers for "kitchen" stuff. I've never really needed that before, but one of my other improvements was a two-burner propane stove so I was going to need camping pots and utensils! I had everything loaded by Thursday at 11:00 p.m. As usual, there was no list, but I just knew I had all the essentials on board and everything else was fluff.

[...More]

Old Dominion - Nancy & Blue's 1st 100!

noreply@blogger.com (Endurance.Net) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:11:00 +0000

For years I have talked and dreamed about doing a 100 mile endurance ride and especially the Old Dominion. The stars just have never lined up for me to do one due to scheduling of my real life or horse issues but this past weekend my 100 mile dream came true!

After the Biltmore ride when Blue and I took a wrong turn and ended up doing almost 60 miles and finished looking good I had a feeling that we could do the Old Dominion or at least give it a try. I went ahead and sent in my entry before I chickened out, after all, no matter how far I would make it the experience would be quite an adventure.

My husband Bill and my friend (and massage therapist) Lisa agreed to be my crew and we did our best to organize everything. A big feat in itself since I did not know what exactly I would need and all the vet checks were away from camp. I was most worried about keeping myself going and hydrated because I have had some past experience with heat stress and upset stomach on hot rides and I didn’t want to be the weak link in the team. I did some research on the internet about what marathon runners and bike riders do during a race and stocked up on some energy and electrolyte products to help me along. We also brought along a lot of food possibilities to entice me to eat even at my low times. We had sushi rolls, flank steak, roasted veggies, muffins and all sorts of great food, which we shared with others that were hungry as well. The sushi was a big hit!

The night before the ride at the ride briefing they encouraged the formation of teams. I overheard Laura Hayes, who was sitting across from me, say that a member of their team couldn’t make it so I asked if they minded if I took her place. Our team was Bill and the Babes and consisted of Bill Taylor, Laura Hayes, Libby Lopp and myself. Our crew was also Bill and the Babes since Julie, Bill’s wife and crew, had decided to ride with Bill Sluys and Lisa and all crew together. Since we were planning on riding slow Bill T, Laura and I decided to ride together the next day. Laura was riding a fairly young horse, it was Bill’s horse’s first hundred and it was Blue and my first hundred as well.

I was hoping for cool weather but although the temperatures were a bit more moderate than the previous weekend the humidity was off the charts. We left camp at 5:30 am wearing t-shirts with my glasses fogging up. The three of us walked out of camp and proceeded down a gravel road for a half of a mile or so before we hit the trail, which started climbing immediately. The climb was gradual (I say gradual but that is in comparison to what lay ahead!) at first with some ups and downs but soon became very steep as we came out of a hardwood forest into an open gas line area. Laura and Bill got off and walked and tailed for a while and I did too for a few minutes until I realized that I was not used to it so got back on my horse. It was beginning to get pretty hot and I didn’t want to stress myself too much at the beginning of the ride and Blue is used to carrying me everywhere down the trail since he is a seasoned NATRC horse.

We continued on single track trail through hardwoods climbing to a ridge that was much more alpine with scrubby trees and lots of mountain laurel that was blooming profusely, sometimes creating a tunnel effect. It was just beautiful and the occasional views we glimpsed were spectacular. The footing was sometimes good and sometimes very rocky and slow but we seemed to be keeping a steady pace. By now the horses had become acquainted and were establishing a hierarchy. There were two geldings, Blue and James(Bill’s Horse), and the mare, Mo, Laura’s horse. Blue must have told them unconditionally that he was the leader because after a while neither one cared to pass him so he led the way.

After riding the ridge for a while we descended down a steep gravel road for several miles. Laura suddenly felt that her horse was off and sure enough she was bobbing her head consistantly. Thinking that she might walk out of it in a minute we continued for a ways until she realized that the horse had lost a shoe. I had an Easyboot and offered it to Laura. Since she was entered in the Cavalry Division she had to think about it for a minute, as the assistance would eliminate her from that part of the competition. Looking at the map and realizing that it was still quite a ways to Rogers Field Vet Check where the farrier would be she accepted the boot and dropped out of Cavalry. We were on our way again but it wasn’t too long before the boot had fallen off. We went back a ways to see if we could find it but alas, it was not to be. I had one more boot and again offered it but with some tips to make sure that it would stay on.

We got back on a wooded trail that later came out into a gas line for our first check which was a gate and go. We pulsed down and trotted for the vet and were on our way.

A little more wooded trail then it was pretty much gravel road from there to the Rogers Field Vet Check and the boot stayed on.

We all passed the first check and Laura had the shoe replaced. Our crew was relieved to see us as we were the last to arrive. They had a nice place set up in the shade of some trees and we feasted on all the goodies from the cooler. Blue was eating and drinking great and enjoying being fussed over. I was thrilled to actually have an appetite and honed in on the veggie sushi. I was feeling amazingly relaxed and was having a blast.

As we left Rogers Field we passed lots of the 50s coming into the vet check. It was good to see some of our friends and slap hands on the way by. Everyone looked like they were having a great time. We got a mile or so down the road and disaster struck once again for Laura. The shoe that had just been nailed on came off! She headed back to the vet check not knowing if anything could be done about it. Bill and I were disappointed to have lost our team member and the geldings were devastated over the loss of their mare. They began sucking back a bit and the pace slowed especially when we hit the big climb. It was seven miles up a steep gravel road in the hot sun and our pace began to crawl at what seemed like 2 mph! I don’t think Bill T and I talked much on that climb, we were just willing our beasts up that mountain.

Since we were in the open and nearing the ridge I realized that I had a cell signal and called my Bill to see if he had heard anything from Laura. He said that as they were leaving the check they saw her heading back out with yet another shoe on her horse. We were glad for her and wished her the best.

When we finally got to the top there was a much welcome water tank and some friendly volunteers to greet us. Blue drank more than he ever has at a water stop, he just kept going back for more. Both we and the horses were hot but then a light rain started to fall as did the temperature as we entered another single track trail where the hundreds split off from the fifties. This one had the most beautiful areas of mountain laurel and some awesome rock formations. The trail was rugged and beautiful and the horses were revived by the rain, we steadily made our way alternating walking and slow trotting as the terrain allowed. The rain got harder and we both got soaked. I had decided not to carry my raincoat at that point because it had been morning when we left the last check and I didn’t realize that it would take us so long to get to the next one. I didn’t really care at that point though because the rain felt so good on my hot body. I started to notice that Blue was slightly hesitant and he started looking over his shoulder from time to time. All of a sudden I heard someone on the trail behind us and gave a hootie hooo and got one back, Laura had caught us! Our little herd was back together and the geldings were most happy. “I hate to quit!” was Laura’s answer to the problems of the day and was just the attitude one needed to make it through this ride!

We got to Bucktail Vet Check at 41.8 miles and once again our crew was relieved to see us. That 16 mile segment had taken us almost 5 hours to complete, we were dropping farther behind and we were not even half way through the ride. We would have to pick up our pace to make it to the next check before the cut off time. I pealed off my soaked clothes and replaced them with dry ones and this time tied my raincoat onto my saddle.

I don’t remember much about this next segment because this is where I made a grave mistake that almost cost me the ride. At the last check I had loaded up my saddle bag with some energy gel food and a package of electrolyte concentrate that you mix in your water bottle. They were both packaged in those little foil packs and I got one out while I was trotting down the trail, ripped the top off with my teeth. Thinking it was the energy gel I took a big gulp only to find out that it was the electrolyte concentrate. My stomach went instantly bad and it was all I could do to keep from throwing up. I realized what a horse must feel like when we force too many electrolytes down their throat. I had that same wrinkled up nose look that they get.

Soon the rain began again and this time with dangerous lightning and thunder all around us. I had first put my raincoat when the rain was light but soon took it off again because I was sweating profusely under it and thought I would be better off without it but then the deluge really hit. The temperatures instantly dropped about 20 degrees or so and the wind picked up fiercely. The horses bowed their heads and trudged through the rain even though their instincts told them to stay put and turn their backs to the storm. The wind was strong and being in the woods we prayed that no trees would fall on us. The trails became raging torrents irritating Laura and me since we were both certified AERC Trailmasters. We had been taught that the water must run off the trail not down it and by now we were nearly knee deep in raging water! The movement of all the rain and water and trees in the wind was not helping my sick stomach a bit either. I was hitting the low point of my ride and I was hoping that I would make it through. At this point I had been further down the trail on my horse than I had ever been in my life so if I had to pull I at least have had a good adventure. I kept thinking of Laura’s mantra “I hate to quit!” and it helped me to get through.

We had picked up the pace but were still dangerously close to the cut off time by the time we got to the Wates Run Gate and Go. I was still dizzy and sick feeling and wasn’t talking much. Blue still felt great and was thrilled that the volunteers had set up pans of mash that had a variety of beet pulp, grain and all sorts of goodies in it. He dove in and started sampling the different mashes and several kinds of hay. He was in heaven since he loves any food that is not what I brought!

At one point Bill was checking his horse’s feet and realized that the right rear was about to bust out of his shoe on the outside. The nails were loosening and the hoof wall was breaking apart. He had an Easyboot with him but when he put it on we realized that it was way too big and would never stay on. I tried one of mine but it was too small and would not even go over the foot with the shoe at all. The only choice was to continue and hope that it held. If it came off maybe I would be able to get the smaller boot on if needed. The volunteers told us that the next 11 miles to Big 92 was mostly gravel road so we vowed to make up some time. Focusing on keeping our pace up helped keep my mind off my stomach and I felt a little better for a while.

Along this stretch we caught up to another rider, Crystal Woodhouse and her Morgan mare, Misty. Blue, angry that he was no longer in the lead, charged ahead and passed them and any time Misty tried to take the lead back Blue would pin his ears and snake his head at her. This became their conversation for the rest of the segment. Soon Misty was subdued and like the others refused to pass Blue. They would just quit and let him regain the lead. They obviously had their own ideas about how to ride this ride. The competition was good and helped us to gain at least 30 minutes of our time. We got to Big 92 Vet Check with 45 minutes to spare before the cut off.

My crew, Bill and Lisa, took one look at me and were worried. Bill knows that look when I am sick and he feared that I would not make it. Lisa trotted out my horse as I was unable to at that moment. They tried to get me to eat and drink but nothing was passing my lips. Lisa started loading my packs up with crackers, cookies, protein shake, yurba matte tea and anything she could think of to get me eating once I got back on the trail. Big 92 was a 45 minute hold and I thought it would never end. My head was swimming and I finally went into the porta pottie and threw up. I was pretty pale when they put me back on my horse but I was not quitting. It was starting to get dark and we were only at the 65 mile mark. We were in for a long night!

The moon was nearly full and already well up in the sky by the time the sun had set and I was looking forward to my first experience with night riding. My stomach was beginning to feel a little bit better and I was able to drink a little tea and protein shake. I gradually started to recover except for a little vertigo that I was experiencing from riding in the dark. The trail was gravel road at this time and we were instructed to look for a left hand turn onto a woods trail. We trotted a long way and finally we came to it. It was a small, close, single track trail but it was well lighted with glow sticks. We had no problem negotiating it until it came out at a paved road intersection with three choices on where to go. We were dismayed to find no glow sticks in sight but a small pile of torn up ribbon indicating that some vandalism had taken place. It was really dark and foggy by this time and we cast about for a sign as to which way to go. We went down each choice for a while and found nothing. We really didn’t need to be wasting time at this point so I got out my map and really started studying it to determine exactly where we were. I figured it out and felt confident that we were to have taken the road that went straight after leaving the woods even thought my horse was convinced that left was the fastest way back to camp! About a mile up the road we finally came to a glow stick, yay! Our spirits were lifted and we trotted down the gravel road on to Rogers Field Vet Check for the second time.

The scene we witnessed when we arrived was like night and day from the cheery scene we had left in the morning. The 2 inches of rain that had fallen had turned the field into a lake and our crew had to park at the road at the entrance. We took our saddles off there but had to slog through the mire a couple of hundred yards to the pulse checkers and vets who were stranded in the field unable to get their vehicles out. By this time we had gone 75 miles and if we could make our time, finishing this ride seemed well within our reach. My sickness had gone away, thankfully, and my energy had returned. Blue looked fantastic as the slow pace of the day was nothing more than he had been doing in NATRC for 2500 miles of competition. We were headed home and by now all the horses knew it. We took advantage of the pull of the horses towards camp and with renewed commitment set out on our second to last leg of the journey to the finish line.

Once again with our delay in finding the trail we were really pushing our maximum time. Blue and Misty had buddied up and he was really getting into his zone. He was really working the trai,l which had become slow and rocky again, trotting a few steps and walking a few steps trying to keep up the pace in the dark. We began pulling away from Laura and Bill. I didn’t have the heart to hold Blue back and wait up so I just let him do his thing with Misty in tow. I felt like Laura had enough experience to get her and Bill through and at that point they would somehow make it without us. I wanted to finish this ride so much by now and I know we would need the extra time on our last leg which was one of the most difficult, it was time to ride my own ride.

We came into the Pump Station Gate and Go to cheers from the volunteers who were surprised on how much time we had made up. We had gained about 15 or 20 minutes in 7.2 miles and things were looking good. Bill and Laura came in right after we did and we all pulsed down right away. Somehow Bills bad shoe was still on the hoof and Laura’s new shoe was holding as well. I had Easyboots glued on the front with shoes in the rear and all was well with my system. We were all jazzed and wasted no time getting back on the trail, we were going to finish this thing!

We started down the trail together again but soon Blue and Misty were pulling away from the others. He was on a mission to home. The trail became rocky and slow again but with his big walking stride he pushed forward adding a few trotting steps in when he could. The fog was getting thick and was messing with the light from my head lamp causing me to feel a little dizzy again until I learned to focus on a point ahead and ignore the water droplets that were swimming around my vision. We were so focused and thinking as one being, it was such a powerful feeling. The moon was getting lower in the sky and the night was dragging on. We came into the final vet check 30 minutes before the cut off time. Laura and Bill came in 20 minutes later and we were so relieved when they arrived. I don’t know how they were going to make it but don’t forget, Laura won’t quit, so I know that somehow they would.

Blue pulsed down right away but Crystal’s horse was hot and it took a lot of work to get her pulse down since we had hurried over some pretty rough terrain. The temperatures were still warm enough for us to be in t-shirts even though it was 2:30am and the fog was like pea soup. It became apparent that I would have to finish the last leg by myself and maybe she would catch me on the way. I followed the directions to get out of the vet check but when I got to the paved road the light sticks once again stopped. This was beginning to get frustrating because we had no time to lose, we had 9.5 miles to the finish line, 2 ½ hours to make it in on time and the toughest, slowest trail yet to do. Blue wanted to go left so we tried that for a while but saw nothing. I went back to the intersection and heard Crystal coming so together we took the other choice and soon saw a friendly light stick swaying in the wind.

We trotted up the road not realizing that it was the last real trotting that we would be able to do. The trail soon turned back into a single track and became rocks on top of rocks with the slickest, snottiest mud in between. This part of the trail really prayed on our minds. The moon had set and it was pitch black, the fog was messing up our head lamp light but we needed it anyway, my batteries were starting to die and I hoped they would last to the finish. I had lost the light sticks I had tied onto Blue’s breast collar earlier. Little glowing eyes were looking out at us from the bushes and sometimes I would recognize a deer or possum. One time some eyes darted across the trail in front of us and the body language suggested a fox or a bobcat. It was like the night creatures were cheering us on to the finish. This last leg had three significant climbs, each one steeper and higher than the next. Our pace became dangerously slow again as the mud and the 160 horses that had gone down the trail before us had made the trail nearly impassible. I was really worried about laming my horse in the last 10 miles so we were as careful as we could be while still trying to maintain at least a 4.5 mile an hour average pace. My worst fear was after all that hard work we would be a few minutes over time and not get credit for it after our horses had worked so hard for us.

This part of the trail seemed like it would never end. Just when it seemed like we were done climbing the trail would dip down only to climb further up. Sooner or later we would have to go down. We thought a lot about Laura and Bill and were hoping that their ride was going well, sending good energy their way to help them along. Finally we started going down more than we were going up and it seemed like we really were getting close. It probably took us an excruciating hour to get off that mountain as going down was much slipperier than going up. Blue just tucked his butt and slid down a lot of it except where the rocks would stop him from skiing all the way to the bottom.

We came to a big water tank and celebrated because we knew that we were just a mile or two away now. Still it seemed to go on forever when all of a sudden an awful smell met out noses. At first I thought it was a dead thing in the trail until I recognized the putrid odor of the turkey farm that was right on the gravel road to camp. One more little slide down and we were on the gravel road with less than a half a mile between us and the finish line!

It was 5AM and the sky was becoming pink with the rising sun. We had ridden for almost 24 hours to get back home! My heart was pounding and my excitement was building but there was a heaviness in my heart because my hope was waning that Bill and Laura would make it. All of a sudden I heard a rattling of hooves on the gravel road behind us and here they came hooting and hollering! Laura’s horse, missing the company of the mighty Blue had picked up the pace and made up that lost 20 minutes and caught us. I had a great idea that we would all hold hands and tie for the turtle but Blue had other ideas, he was not going to lose this 4 horse race and charged ahead as the others tried to ride up even with us. As we rounded the last curve we saw a small crowd and the lights of the finish line. Blue became animated and elevated, prancing down the road, spooking to the left and the right a bit. I could not believe this horse had just gone 100 miles! It was overwhelming and the tears began to flow as I dismounted and gave my amazing horse a big hug around his neck. We had done it, completed our first hundred, the toughest on the east coast and so had the others!

Mary Farris and Gina Hagis, my 2 best riding buddies, were there to meet us at the finish and accompanied us and my faithful crew to the final vet out. Blue vetted out with all A’s with a B on gut sounds (typical for him) and an overall impression of A-. Wow, I couldn’t have asked for better and was quite proud of my horse and the way I had ridden him. I’ve seen what he looks like when overridden and that was not this picture. He looked like he could do it all over again. What an accomplishment. It was the most fun and challenge I have ever had on horseback and I truly can’t wait to do it again.

I would really like to encourage more people to attempt a hundred mile ride as my experience proves that with careful pacing and a little luck it can be done. If an 18 year old competitive trail horse with only 4 50 mile completions and a 50 something year old rider can do it, so can you! This was the most significant challenge I have ever attempted and I can’t begin to tell you the strength and confidence in my own power and that of my horse and our partnership it has given me. It is overwhelming and so worth it. I understand now the real meaning of endurance!

I would like to thank first and foremost my crew, husband Bill and friend Lisa, who really got me through the tough times, Laura Hayes for helping me to trust our slow pace, Bill T for his quiet companionship, Crystal and her feisty morgan mare for giving us a spark when we really needed it, Ann Stuart for suggesting I use Body Glide to prevent Blue from getting scratches (it worked!), Meg Sleeper and Tom Sites for their pre ride advise to ride it like a CTR, Mary Farris and Gina Hagis for telling me over and over that my horse could do it and getting up at 5am to meet me at the finish and Garrie Bates for telling me it was time to start living my dream! Thanks go to Libby Lopp for finishing 2nd and pulling up our team score, the team of Bill and the Babes finished 2nd in the team competition on perseverance, we just wouldn't quit!

Also thanks to all the volunteers who worked tirelessly to provide us with a well organized challenging and fabulous event that will go down in my minds history as the best thing I have ever done! As a previous ride manager and trail master for a competitive trail ride I know what goes into preparing an event like this and these people made it look easy! Thank you so much and see you next year!

Nancy and Blue

Descanso Ride - "Almost a Disaster"

noreply@blogger.com (Endurance.Net) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:14:00 +0000

The ride started at 6am and everybody was moving along smoothly until just past the photographer at 7am. We were on a single track, windy, rocky, technical trail that crossed a creek several times. At the first creek crossing Doug and I came upon a horse tied to a tree, a woman sans helmet, soaking wet, covered in mud, appeared hurt, very upset, saying her horse was down, couldn't get up, very scarry stuff, disaster #1 has struck. I asked where was the horse and she pointed to a man standing in the bushes holding a rein that disappeared into a hole. I got closer and could see one hind hoof waving up in the air, not a good sign. The bushes were 6 feet high, very dense stickery things like a briar patch and I could not see anything of the horse. I started stomping bushes and moving forward.

The guy with the rope said I was almost stepping on the horse's head but I saw nothing. I brushed my foot sideways crushing the small dense plants and there was the horse's nose, all cut and bloody sticking up even with my boot at the edge of a narrow deep gully. The horse made a feeble attempt to wiggle free then laid back breathing fast, didn't look good but I had seen worse and tried to assure the woman that we would get her horse out. I reached down and started removing tack, bit, hooked the rein to the halter, martingale, breastcollar, the horse didn't move and was breathing fast and quivering. The guy with the rein was at the rear and above the horse in a good place to keep the horse from kicking me by keeping the rein against the rear hoof so I got down in the gully next to the horse's shoulder. The saddle was mostly out of sight jammed down in the mud and water.

The horse was sort of on his left side against a nearly vertical dirt bank, front lower than the rear, all 4 hooves in the air with his back and right side tight against a big 4-5ft dia smooth rock. I could see all of 3 legs and part of a 4th and they looked okay so I figured once the saddle was unhooked the horse would be able to thrash itself free assuming his back was not hurt from hitting that big rock. There was only one place for the horse to go and that was toward the rock and me so I released the offside billet and scrambled out of the gully. The horse didn't move.

We poked him a little and slapped him with the rein and he made a feeble attempt then laid back. The lady was really scared now but I told her that her horse just didn't know that he was free yet just wait. Less than a minute later the horse made a move rolling toward the rock and really came alive, thrashing to get his hooves under him and struggled up the bank stopping next to us. We all cheered and the lady's tears changed from worry to joy. I asked the other fella to help me pull out the saddle and it took both of us pulling really hard to get it up out of the mud. It appears that the saddle was what was holding the horse in the gully. My GPS showed that I was there for 26 minutes but it seemed longer. During all this time my buddy Doug rode back a half mile to the highway to find help. He flagged down a crew vehicle going to vet#1 and they got word out and sent a rescue trailer back. We loaded the tack on the horse and the lady walked back to the highway, trailered to the vets and the horse was found to be only bruised and sore.

I'm sorry that I did not get any names (see photos below) but I did get some info on how this wreck came about. Lady #1, the one we helped, was riding with lady #2. Lady #2 was in the lead and her horse made a wild jump over the creek and up into the trees at which point lady #2 bailed off and her horse went crashing cross country with her chasing it on foot. Lady #1's horse got spooked at all the commotion and spun around in the narrow creek crossing, lost its footing, fell in the creek at which point lady #1 comes off getting wet and muddy. Her horse tries to run off but keeps falling into the narrow deep gully that is hidden with bushes, keeps thrashing around and finally drops out of sight with a squeal, her words, not a good sound that squeal. The guy with the rein was already helping when Doug and I got there 2-3 minutes after the wreck and you know the rest. Lady #2 returned to check on her friend just in time to see the horse get out of the gully.

Lady #1

Guy with rein

Doug rode for help

Me before disaster #2

photo

Well you might remember my new motto "To Eat Is To Win" and I'm currently "Undefeated" for dinner but on this ride I came very close to missing my first dinner since 1996. After lunch I was tailing up Middle Peak Fire Road, a crooked, rocky, 2 mile long steady climb of 1100ft which is a 10% average grade. My horse was feeling good and kept trying to trot but I was tired and kept pulling him back to a walk. I should have got on but oh no, I needed the exercise. Probably a half mile from the top during one of the many "horse yanks me into a trot, I pull his head with the rope and say whoa, we continue walking" he yanks me completely off my feet and my grip on his tail turns out to be stronger than my right shoulder joint and disaster #2 has struck. After lots of yelling and ramming my shoulder into my horse's chest my shoulder joint went back in.

That could have been a semi-happy ending because I was still able to trot some and we were making good enough time to still finish the ride but of course disaster #3 was coming....I had to pee. I had been riding for about an hour after the initial injury and had taken 2 Alleve and the shoulder was just a deep dull ache so I got off just fine using one arm. I'm right-handed and managed the zipper and other things and was feeling not too bad. I started to get back on, got some mane and reins in the left, reached up and grabbed the cantle with the right, pulled and all hell broke loose.

My shoulder popped out in front and looked like it was coming out of my shirt pocket. I was yelling and ramming my shoulder into my horse again but it wasn't working. I don't know what made me try it but I arched my back, looked at the sky, pulled both elbows toward my back and the shoulder went back in the socket. Not only did the pain lessen a lot but all that yelling stopped and my ears quit ringing. Lucky for me my horse and riding buddy Doug did not spook and run off so I found a really big stump, Doug held my horse and I just stepped on. Trotting was not fun anymore and another rider, Ron, whose horse was just not right agreed to walk the last 4 miles into vet3 with me so Doug could continue on. We made the 3:45pm cutoff and of course my horse vetted thru perfect so we got a ROS, S for stupid or shoulder, whatever.

End results, no injured horses, no broken bones, no ambulance ride, I'm still undefeated for dinner even left handed and my Marquis Performance Glueon boots were perfect.

Don Huston
donhuston @ cox .net
SanDiego, Calif

Old Dominion 25

noreply@blogger.com (Steph Teeter) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Dodie Sable

OLD DOMINION 25 [June 14, 2008] Beautiful weather! high 84, overcast, breezy

also known as: 25 miles is for weenies, let's do 31 instead

Old Dominion Endurance Ride is 34 years old and they moved the trails this year. The story goes they've gotten too big for where they used to hold it and the 4H center couldn't accommodate them any more. I can tell you that's truth! Last year, we were packed like sardines and there was no room to walk between rigs.

I was terribly excited to try out the new trails. First because I love new trails and second because I wondered if they were going to be as tough as the old trails.

Okay....We set up an OD team of riders. New Promise Farms Trail Trash (grin). T-shirts were donated by Dan's Tees of Allentown, PA. They read New Promise Farms, Proud to be..TRAIL TRASH. Cindy made us hats that says RACK ON (gaited riders really have the rack, ya know.) Teams are made up of four riders. Our team was to be:

Dodie on TWH "Flaming Lucy"
Cindy on UST "gods, I forgot his name already"
Cheryl on SSH "Cosmo"
Jen on AHA "Luke"

Unfortunately, Cheryl emailed me earlier this week and bailed on the ride because she was afraid it was going to be too hot, and she saw that last year hardly anyone completed the LD (due to the heat). She didn't want to subject Cosmo, a young horse on his first year of rides, to that kind of ride so early in his career. She should be commended for thinking of her horse first and foremost. That killed the team, though I felt I could find someone at the ride who didn't know who I was, and didn't know they'd be in a story for the whole world to read, then I could charm that person into joining us keeping the foursome together.

...Full Story

How many Sponsors does it take to get a Jr. through her second 50 miler…?

noreply@blogger.com (Steph Teeter) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:06:00 +0000

Janice Taylor

The Pyramid Challenge was on our list of 'may do' rides even though it was only one week after the Top Of The Rock. It all depended on how well our horses came out of their first fifty of the season.

With Paige's first fifty under her belt, she was eager to get another one there too. The Pyramid Challenge isn't one of my favorites, just because I don't care for riding around fields, in such an urban atmosphere, and the heat was really becoming an issue… I don't do well in that kind of heat at all. Must be an age thing, as Paige was rearing to go, go, go! So, as Grannies often do, I went ahead and packed up. After all, our horses looked great, it is only a 30 minute haul, and maybe the weather would be better than expected…ha!

Our parking for ride camp was moved to an open field away from all the construction going on at the Horse Park in preparation for the WEG. Boy, when that is finished, it will be something indeed! However, there were maybe four trees for shade…and they already had trailers clustered around them like little colonies in a desert of green…so we just parked on a flat spot, out in the open, closer to the Vet Check, and enjoyed the constant, strong breeze…Thank the heavens for that breeze or it would have been unbearable. The heat index of the day before was 105! But clouds and maybe a thunder storm was predicted for ride day…

Upon check in, a ridding buddy/friend's horse checked in with a sore ankle, I actually spoke these words out loud. "Oh, maybe my horse will be lame too, and I won't have to do this ride." Goodness, never, ever do that! As my horse checked in with a grade 2 on LR…uh…wasn't expecting that, as I had ridden him the day before in the arena and he was sound as could be. Was given the choice of loosening him up and bringing him back, but two other ridding buddies volunteered to sponsor Paige. So, I got my stupid wish and bowed out. Paige's mom was going to arrive on ride day and crew for us, so now Paige had two to crew for her and Amy and Brenda, her new sponsors.

Ride day arrived cooler than expected, thank goodness, as it was a bit cloudy and still had that nice breeze. RM opted to start a half hour early so as to get a bit of a jump on the heat. Thank You!

My horse wasn't a bit happy at being left behind, but little Breezz and Paige marched right out with their new buddies for the day. Another rider friend, Lucinda, joined them, so, off the four of them went to begin their ride right beside Interstate 75. Amazingly, most of the horses don't seem to mind the noise and sight of that constant traffic at all. They did get to make their way around in the open fields for a few miles before heading into the heart of the Horse Park, thus getting those little energetic spells worked out before facing those 'real' spooky things. I understand that a few riders did get to 'kiss' the ground though. Ouch…

First VC and everyone is looking good after their first 15 miles. Paige's mom has showed up and we crew members take over and get the horse's pulse down in no time… Well, Paige has a new heart monitor and delights in telling all around her that her horse is down, calling out the number aloud so that her friend, and last year's teacher/ rider/ sponsor knows that she has beat her in this… Thankfully, Amy has a great sense of humor…ha, ha…

But then, uh oh, disaster strikes, Amy's horse is out! Then Brenda's horse is out! Small grade 2 lameness's that might get worse in that footing. Being careful riders, they opted to pull. We all look at Lucinda, and she readily agrees to take on Paige as sponsor. So, I take off to change Paige's sponsor once again…

Out they go for the second loop which is 10 miles. They pace well together and are back in a little over an hour. Still looking good, but the heat is beginning to show up with its sticky heaviness. Thankfully, both horses get through Dr. Mike Habel's (head vet, and sometimes only vet) scrutiny and gives them both the go ahead…whew, getting through with a sound horse is becoming an issue here. But, then he may be feeling the pressure of all us crew which has swollen to four, looking over his shoulder, and biting our knuckles…. Thankfully, he also has a good sense of humor…

Second VC, half done, and the horses are getting down to business. And, once again, the crew is hard at work to take care of our charges, stuffing Paige with food and drink, cooling down the horses, and cheering them on. Brenda had bought a new shade to put up for the horses at the VC and boy did that make a difference!
Breezz just wanted to take a nap for goodness sakes…Paige was yearning for that second fifty! Lucinda is working hard to see that she does too!
Then off for the 15 mile loop again. They looked good going out, and we had our fingers crossed for a good go 'round.

Third VC and, oh no! Now Lucinda's horse is off… there was a collective groan of disappointment…even Mike….poor guy, was distressed with the outcome.
I went to Nancy Gooch to see who was in, or coming in, that might pick up a Jr to sponsor…no one for quite some time, but what else could we do but wait and hope that one of them would be willing? But, Brenda marched back to our crew area where we had struck up conversations with a fellow from GA. He was already sponsoring a Jr that had lost her Mom as sponsor, but they were due out soon… I didn't have the heart to ask it of him, but, Brenda had no such shyness…

Without a bit of hesitation, he agreed to wait another 30 minutes or so of his own time to wait for Paige…Goodness, there really are angels out there and Foster Olson is one of them. THANK YOU! The poor guy now had to put up with all of us until Paige's out time rolled around…
Now, Breezz really, really wanted his nap and resented my rubbing his butt, and offers of nice cool slushy food. 'Leave me alone for a nap, PLEASE!'
Paige was holding up great even with all the ups and down's of her sponsors.

As Foster trotted out with his two Jr.'s, in tow, Dr. Mike gave them the thumbs up! Now the heat was getting hazy and the whine of I-75 was a drone of the ever increasing oppression. Could they make it that last 10 miles?

Finally, there they were crossing the finish line. Foster, being the extraordinary guy he is, let the Jrs cross first. Sabrina went first as she had had to wait those extra minutes too, then Paige, then Foster for 7th, 8th, and 9th. Foster really should have been 8th…it must be that Southern Gentleman thing… Poor guy once again had to endure Paige's crew, but, they all did get their completion! Wha Hoo!!

Now at last Breezz could get his nap without too much interference from his annoying crew.

Congratulations to Karen Cummings who won, and her husband who crossed the line second and also added another BC to his long list.

It was a tough ride, not only because of the heat that can really suck it out of man and beast alike, but the footing was tricky indeed… if I remember correctly, 29 started the 50 and 14 finished… so 'To Finish is to Win' really was the motto for this ride.

Hats off to ride management, headed by Gunnar Palm, for keeping The Pyramid Challenge going. Working with the Horse Park is not always easy… He had a great team working to make us all as happy as was possible.

And a special hats off to Mike Habel DVM for getting us through it all with healthy horses!

So, now Paige and Breezz have two fifties under their belts/girths…whew, hope the rest aren't so hard to come by…