White River Ride Spring 2003 - Maggie Mieske

The first ride for us this season. Thank God winter seems to have given us a reprieve! In spite of ever present problems with hauling to rides, we made it to the ride site, confident that the impending arrival of Jenny's uncle (the genius mechanic) would solve the funny noises in our truck's engine.

Max and Malik immediately settled into the routine. These guys are getting to be pros. They know about eating and drinking and hanging loose. I LOVE it! They both vetted in with As. Malik, as always, must be entertaining. This weekend, he met up again with Rae Birr as his vet and I do believe he kept looking over at Steve Halstead (vetting comp across the way) wondering why Steve wasn't vetting him! He does seem to have a liking for Steve. Except for dancing a bit for Rae, he behaved within reason and gave her the proper "airs above the ground" performance for which he is famous in order to impress her. I am sure she was duly impressed until he tripped over his feet just as he made it back to her from our trot out! How embarrassing! To make matters worse, as we walked away, Max suddenly stopped directly in front of Malik and absentmindedly, almost as if he were being obliging, Malik halfheartedly started to mount him (didn't make it, of course) and then backed off with a silly look on his face. I don't know if he was embarrassed or not, but I sure was! Everyone had a good laugh!!! (And no, he wasn't even dropped or anything...I think he was daydreaming!).

Anyway, Friday night got COLD. There was ICE on the waters in the morning. I had trouble sleeping and finally got up at 4:30 and tried to rekindle the fire with no luck. So, I bundled up under the canopy in a lawn chair and admired the stars, remembering the meteor showers I try to enjoy every summer. Just as I was thinking it was too much to ask to see even one shooting star, one streaked across the sky in a blaze of glory. AMEN! As ridecamp started to stir and the birds started to announce the coming day, we all got up and got ready for the day and the ride. Our only goal at this ride was to complete....I had two things really that I wished to achieve. White River had been my first 50 in 1998 and it took me a loooooong time so I hoped to improve that time (which I didn't think would be hard since I was riding Malik and in MUCH better physical condition than I was then...I also have stopped smoking since then). It was also Malik's first 50 in 2000 and his first pull. Back then, his hindquarters just weren't ready for that sand then! So, we both had something we needed to accomplish.

We tacked up and warmed up with some walking and trotting and a little prancing. As Malik settled down, we finally checked in and simply were able to stand around at the start line and wait. It is wonderful to be able to do that. I enjoyed it immensely and even bragged a little bit to some of those around me. Big mistake. We didn't have a problem waiting there not even when the hot foot riders took off at the start. As we started walking toward the trail, Malik became Mr. Parade Horse doing his elegant canter almost in place only circling a bit this time and almost, almost acted like maybe he might just climb a tree if I didn't let him go. However, I was not going to allow any out of control behavior and we went off to the side and discussed it momentarily. I won. Kind of. So we TROTTED off down the trail. Good compromise.

The horses had no problem with the first 15 miles though I was still trying to slow down the pace (my stomach was not agreeing with me that morning). Nelson and Uncle Daniel were faithful in their pit crewing though the horses really had no interest in water yet. The first check was total chaos...I don't remember there being that many horses at White River when I have been there and horses were crowded around the vet in area. Rae had reduced the pulse parameters to 64 bpm to slow down some of those riders. When we presented Malik, he was at 68 (he had been down under 60 but the horses literally crowding around must have been too much excitement for him). So we had to wait. As we did, riders who came in behind us came up and went around INTO the vetting area, ignoring what might have been a line. We eventually got our pulses taken and wasted much time...had I been a front runner and vying for top ten, I would have been quite upset but our goals were more modest this time. In this case, "don't sweat the small stuff".

Horses ate and drank like champs in camp during our hold and off we went for our 10 mile loop at an easy canter. Malik finally settled into his huge trot and my stomach settled down and life was more efficient. The day warmed up. Uncle Daniel quickly settled into his slave labor role as the "water boy" (keep in mind "Uncle Daniel" is about 30 something) and was a fast learner. What he hasn't learned is that there ARE paybacks for those who get their riders wet at pit stops.

The second vet check was much less eventful than the first. The front runners were really running hard but far enough ahead of us to not cause any congestion at the check. Now all we had to do was do it all over again. The hour hold seemed almost too long and I wondered how I'd get back into it but I did and was surprised at how easy it was to mount up and go again.

We slowed down on the 15 mile loop this time...the first ride of the season is a rude awakening! We are never as ready as we hope we are!! I had also been sick with a nasty cough the week before and my lungs were complaining and causing some wonderful coughing spasms from time to time. We were also more careful because the more horses that go over this trail, the looser and deeper the sand gets and it seems to be 40 miles in sand that in the past has been Max's and Malik's nemesis and they had both been a little tight at the 2nd check.

We made it through the 3rd check with flying colors, improving all their scores. Only ten more miles to go!!! Our hold went by quickly. We took off at a gallop out of the last check (psych out tactics really...not for the competition but for ourselves and our horses!). We settled into a trot but it was not "the" trot. Malik had to pee. I know this "I gotta go" trot. I tried all of our usual little tricks to induce him to pee. He had peed previously in the ride so it wasn't like it was a vital thing but it's hard to ride a trot that feels like your horse is trying to cross his legs! I knew he wasn't tired (maybe some but not THAT tired). We decided to canter. That was much more comfortable, for both of us it seemed though my cough was making breathing difficult at times. Whenever we trotted, it was THAT trot so we would canter again (after trying the tricks again). Both horses were still interested in spooking at stupid stuff so I didn't feel even one bit sorry for him!!! This is the first time my "tricks" to encourage him to pee didn't work.

They were quite glad to turn onto that last 2 or 3 miles of trail where they stop for a drink and cool their feet in a little stream and their energy surged even more as they knew camp was ahead. I watched the two of them drink side by side, playing their little tricks on each other, dripping water on each other's necks and rubbing their heads (a wild, vicious Arabian stallion and his little gelding buddy) and realized what a TEAM they are. What we achieved we achieved TOGETHER and TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE (T.E.A.M.). I remembered enjoying the wild cherry trees in bloom and the marsh marigolds in all the wet places. Blue violets and the beginnings of what will soon be forest ferns and trillium lillies. Little, itty bitty leaves the size of my pinky fingernail and miniature purple buds waiting to burst into lilacs in a few weeks. The little kids who run out to the road to see the "horseys". The rushing water through the culverts washing away the last of winter's surplus. The smell of the woods. The warm sun on our faces, the blue of the sky. I will miss Jenny when she leaves for college and I am experiencing some serious doubts about our ride season (or most of the ride season anyway) without Jenny and Max. Not that we can't ride alone...we have, can and will. But for me, as much as it thrills me to charge up the hills and fly around the trees and through the forests and splash through streams (or LEAP across them as it suits Malik), none of the possible awards for this sport....not first to finish, not Best Condition, not ANYthing can equal the rewards I have reaped sharing this sport with my daughter who is also my best friend even if she doesn't think so.

And so, we FINISHED and in that respect, we WON. I really have no idea what our placing was (NOT top ten) and I don't even care. We finished in 5 hours and 49 minutes ride time and I am happy with that. Next weekend is Jenny's prom...she is going to volunteer at the Little Manistee Memorial Ride. Malik and I will go it alone there. Oh, and did Malik really have to pee? Well, after we finished, we went back to camp to untack and let the horses take a breather before vetting out. On the way to see Rae for the last time, Malik stopped and peed one lake, two ponds and a couple of decent puddles! Figures!!

I do know THIS...I am NOT ready for the Grand Island 100 this month. It's too early in the season. I am not going to set us up to fail. I am going to wait until the end of the season and perhaps if fate is kind, our truck will see us through to Spook Run. I will, in the meantime, have the opportunity to ride the Shore to Shore (that should really test my mettle!) and by the end of the season, Malik and I will both be in better shape, mentally and physically and perhaps by then I will have recovered from my empty nest syndrome. Oh, and I will by then be back in college myself, finishing my teaching degree! Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me in my 100 mile endeavor...I have not given up, I have postponed. It is still my goal for this year to try a 100 miler so keep it coming!! :)

In closing, I must remember to thank our pit crew, Nelson and Daniel. Yeah, maybe we could do it without them on a ride like this with all the checks in camp but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun! THANK YOU, guys. And I must say, I enjoyed banter with our guest timer, Mike Caudill (regretfully did not get to meet Connie! Darn it!). Never did get to say Hey to Mary and her mighty Morgan either. I'm sure I'll see them all again somewhere soon!!! And many thanks to the vets, Wayne and the multitude of volunteers that I know it takes to put on a ride. I am so happy and glad that I have a whole season full of rides to look forward to!!!

Maggie

P.S. The truck will live to haul another day. It's off to the mechanic for some TLC and inspection to pinpoint the problem, but genius mechanic doesn't seem terribly concerned about its fate.

Hog Wild - A Newbie's First Multiday (sort of ) - Scott

One hundred miles in one weekend. Okay, not quite the same ring as 100 miles in 1 day, but we've all gotta start somewhere! What an amazing experience. What an incredible ride. Tammy Robinson and the gang at Trail-Rite know how to do it.....well.....RITE!

The trails were impeccably marked - even the one or two riders who got lost admitted as much! There was a good reason to get lost, however, because the trails were BEAUTIFUL this year with hock-high mustard-weed fields and California poppies everywhere. It would have been so easy to be taking in all the scenery and miss the plethora of ribbons! The footing was incredible. The skies were a crystal blue. The volunteers were plentiful and knowledgeable and helpful. The food was delicious.

And the trails? Outstanding! There were single track winding paths on ridges with views of five mountain ranges, wide well-groomed dirt roads, long, twisting, sandy washes, and a final loop that took us through a semi-residential area where "movie folks" keep monkeys, orangutans, emus, llamas, and a huge one-hump camel! This ride has everything. You want a hilly challenge? The first loop'll do ya. You wanna race on a well groomed flat? There's plenty of that too. You want the adrenaline rush of picking your way carefully along narrow ridgecrests where you'll put all of your training to the test and trust your mount's ability to place its feet where you want 'em? Oh, boy. Hog Wild's got it! :o) I've obviously never ridden the Tevis - but I overheard several who've done so referring to this ride as a mini version of that classic challenge. I cannot recommend it enough. It's the only ride I have repeated (last year and this) and I will do it again and again - as long as Tammy and her family are insane enough to keep putting it on. How 'bout a three-day next year, Tammy? I'll help you blaze more trail!

If anyone is wondering how Solitaire and I did, here ya go........

We completed the first day middle-of-the-pack and healthy - which is exactly what I was hoping to do. At the final check, Solitaire had almost straight A's - her only B was (if I remember correctly) for impulsion. She was tired, but very fit. :o) I decided not to push her and opted not ride her the second day. Then Tammy offered me a wonderful opportunity - I could ride drag with her the second day on one of her incredible horses, TR Pistol Pete. (Yikes! I was going to ride a damned Ah-rab! LOL) I immediately took her up on it, especially since she would be riding her mare, Kate, and a completion would give this incredible horse 4,000 career miles! And this after taking time off to give Trail-Rite Ranch the miracle of healthy, stunningly beautiful TWIN foals last year!!!! Well, I pulled my tired newbie-butt up onto Pete the second day and rode off with Tammy for a milestone - my first multi-day. I completed (it'd be hard not to on this Trail-Rite trained horse - Pete is truly a "Pistol") and earned my 250 mile badge. But that paled in comparison to Tammy and TR Katie Bar the Door. I rode over the finish line with them and watched Tammy on the verge of tears as she rubbed Katie's neck. 4,000 miles. Wow.

It was a weekend to remember. This is an incredible sport full of incredible people and even more incredible and outstanding horses. My butt might be a little sore today but, with the high I'm on, I haven't noticed yet. :o) Thanks, Tammy and everyone at Trail-Rite. And a BIG thank you to Ginger who volunteered and sat as the in and out timer in base camp for a total of over 20 hours while I was out having all the fun.
Well, I'm gonna try to go to sleep now, but it may be hard. My mind is still "drinkin' the wind." :o)

Scott

Whiskey Town Chaser (aka Underwater Scavenger Hunt) - Pat Super

Perhaps this year, the ride should have been called Whiskeytown Underwater Scavenger Hunt. The instructions on the driving directions reminded participants to be certain to stop at park headquarters to secure a parking/camping certificate. The Forest Service Ranger advised that there was a storm warning out and at least 2" of rain was expected with snow forecast as low as 2000 feet. (Kanaka Peak, part of the trail, is at 4000 feet)

At 11 am on Friday the sun was shinning brightly and the skies were blue. I had ridden this ride for the first time last year and enjoyed it so much that a return engagement was definitely on the calendar. In fact, I anticipated a big attendance and so made special effort to get there early to secure a good parking spot. Imagine my surprise when we approached the campground and saw only a very few trailers where we anticipated bunches. After securing a great spot and getting the horses settled, we wandered over to the ride manager's area. On the tables were an array of truly nice awards including some exceptional ceramic horse sculptures donated by a local rider. Obviously much effort had been put into securing top notch participation awards. We were informed that there had been at least 15 cancellations just that day because of the dire weather forecast and anticipated bad driving conditions. But everyone was upbeat and slowly, trailers began arriving and things began to look up. When we rode out to stretch out the horses and check out the first few miles of trail, the weather was delightful, perfect riding weather and we commented that it was hard to believe that heavy rains would dampen the ride.

My riding buddy, Leighsa and I would both be riding "babies" for whom this would be their first endurance ride. Our plan was to ride at a slow but steady pace and concentrate on having a calm start. The goal of rides with them this year will be to develop an expectation of quiet and disciplined rides. Imagine my surprise and utter embarrassment when I presented Scrimshaw to vet in and she would not let the vet approach her. She whirled and danced and threw her head up and would have no part of him placing a stethoscope on her. This is a horse who six years ago lay in my barn in deep straw while I imprinted her. This is the little mare who was so easy to work with and who has always been a pleasure to be around and ride. Of my four horses, she is the one to follow anyone for a pet or stroke on the nose. She had epileptic episodes during the first three months of her life but luckily outgrew them (after about 15 episodes) just as the vet had predicted. I half expected the vet to throw up his hands and refuse to attempt to vet her in but instead he was patient and kind and continued to work with her to allay her fear of him. After what seemed like a very long time, Scrimshaw allowed the vet to examine her and she trotted out like a champ and we were on for Saturday's ride.

At the ride meeting, we were warned again of expected rain and cold weather and advised to care for our horses accordingly. The final count at that point was 22 starters on the 50 miler and 10 on the 25 miler. Just as the ride meeting concluded, it began to sprinkle. In ten minutes it was a downpour and it rained most of the night. I was thankful that I had found a Rambo waterproof blanket with zip on neck cover at a spring sale just a few weeks ago. I downed a Excedrin PM and settled in for a comfy night. It was raining as we tacked up and headed out on the trail but we were dressed for wet weather and looked forward to a fun, if wet ride.

The start of the ride was a sane one and both "babies" took it all in stride and when we turned onto the single track trail from the dirt road, we were happy to find that the footing was wonderful with no slippery mud. Decomposed granite in this area makes for great trail. It was raining lightly by now and the foliage on the hillsides and along the ravines made for a beautiful ride. This is such a pretty area. About a half hour into the ride, we saw riders returning along the trail. They were certain that they had missed a turn somewhere and were retracing their steps. We had questioned the lack of flagging earlier so were not surprised at this turn of events. At one point there were at least ten riders (half of the ride participants) milling around riding back to check turn-offs and possible routes. A few riders had ridden these trails often and opted to go on saying that at some point, the trails would converge and we would be able to pick up the actual flagged trail. Wanting to ride the trail as it had been routed for us, others decided to turn around and go back to the last known flag and search for the correct trail. This area is criss crossed with trails that are used by mountain bikers and horsemen and the choice of turnoffs is abundant. After some searching, we saw a glimmer of a flag about 50 yards down another trail but no flag to indicate a turn. But it was the correct color so we headed down that trail.

By now it was raining for real again but the horses were doing great and it was turning into a real adventure. A little muttering about how hard is it to hang a "reassurance flag" every now and then, but all in all, just something else to deal with that makes endurance the challenge it is. At another point, we arrived at a very large parking lot that we knew in advance we would come to but there was a choice of trails taking off from various parts of the area. Luckily, there was a group of riders ahead of us who called to us not to take the trail we had selected. That saved us from who knows how many miles of back tracking. The winds had come up and it made me wish I had worn that extra poly pro sweater I had left in the trailer. I usually overdress at the start of a ride and I usually find myself stopping to readjust for being overheated. No chance of that happening today, however.

There were parts of the trail that would serve the 25 milers as well as portions that would be ridden again on the second 50 mile loop. Where it was apparently questionable, management had written on signs with arrows pointing the correct direction depending on which loop and mileage one was doing. Problem was that the winds had blown down the signs and the rains had so disintegrated them that it was necessary to dismount, unfold the cardboard and try to imagine which directions were which. There would be one out vet check and because of the weather, the vet had said that he would make it a stop and go so that the horses would not get chilled. How happy we were to arrive at this point. We knew we were there because there was a lone white truck out of which the vet and his assistant climbed as we approached. Thinking that we had to be the last riders of the 50's we apologized for having made him wait out there for so long but he assured us that there were some riders behind us and he was so encouraging and upbeat that it was heartening. In fact, he told us how proud he was of us for hanging in there and riding under these adverse conditions. It was a quick check and we mounted for our trot out and we were on our way again.

The flags were sparse but we managed to follow the trail. After riding for some time at a pretty steady trot, Leighsa said "hmmmm, does this look familiar to you? We were trotting down a road that looked like any other road to me and I had not noticed that it was familiar so we continued. A few miles later, we encountered large remains of ashes where workers had apparently burned piles of debris. They spotted the road every twenty or so yards. I remembered encountering such spots earlier but thought that perhaps they had burned on many of the roads in this area. Then we saw a can on the side of the road that Leighsa remembered having seen before. Oh no! Don't tell me. I pulled out the map but it was one soggy mess and disintegrated as I tried to unfold it. By now, however, it was apparent that we were at the turn-off that leads to the out vet check and if we continued, we would be there in less than a mile or so. Ayeeee! This was turning into a frustrating adventure. We had done the first loop twice. As we rode back up the road, we encountered several groups of riders who were looking for the out vet check area. Some of them had managed to take the second loop trail which climbed Kanaka Peak, the highest point of the entire ride and had to back track. They were not happy. We also met some 25 milers who had gotten lost and ridden much of the 50 mile first loop. They were not happy. We met a couple of riders, one of whom was off and walking. Her four year old horse was on his first long distance ride and with the weather and the mileage, he was pretty tuckered out. He definitely was not happy.

Poor ride management. This ride was turning out to be a disaster. And they had obviously worked so hard to make everything right. The printed maps and instructions, the wonderful awards, the planned dinner that evening with Tri-tips cooked on the open spit. But according to someone's law, "If there is something that can go wrong, it will" was definitely applying to this ride. At one point, when I hopped from my horse to adjust my saddle, I realized that my boots had filled with water and each step was super squishy. We both found that our waterproof riding pants and jackets weren't really waterproof. But at least my neoprene gloves, though soaked were keeping my hands from freezing. The horses weren't drinking, even at the stream crossings when we had them stand in the middle of the streams. Even after electrolyting, they weren't drinking. But they were ravenous and we stopped often for them to munch on the abundant clumps of grass on the sides of the trails and roads. We realized that at the rate we were advancing, with the many twists and turns, we would likely finish with just barley time to spare. As miserable as we were, comfort wise, we could not help at commenting on the beauty of the area and it was a pleasure to ride the single track trails, which by now had turned to little streams. We were still having fun. If one had a horse who had issues with water, after this ride, the horse would be a guppy puppy.

Arriving back at camp, we were greeted with cheerful encouragement by a drenched group of smiling volunteers who were braving the elements and keeping a happy presence. Aren't endurance people great? Oh darned! Scrimshaw was not so tired that she would let the P & R person take her pulse without a fight. But, again, patience and kindness won out and after a few minutes of chasing her in a circle and stroking her and cooing to her, the kind man in the scary wet black slicker and the fisherman's rain hat was able to get her pulse which, thankfully was not elevated and we were vetted through and cleared for our hour hold.

Once I had gotten Scrimshaw's blanket on and she was scarfing down the beet pulp mash with a vengeance, I went into the trailer and turned on the heat and sat right in front of it. It felt sooooo good. Leighsa would not come in and opted to eat in the horse section of the trailer because she feared that if she once got warm, she would not want to go back out for the second loop. And she would have gone out, too, but I was having second thoughts. Our babies had already gone what we figured to be about 40 (or more) miles. If we went out for the second half, assuming that we did not get lost, they would end up doing at least 65 miles. Was it fair to ask this of them? The longest training ride we had gone on was 20 miles, some of it hard climbing, albeit. They both were eating well and looked bright and spunky. They had trotted out well and could probably have finished the ride easily. But how would we feel if somewhere out there, one or both of them should run out of gas or get overly tired. We opted to pull and have them remember a good experience. Even with the weather, it was hard to pull when you know that you have a sound, healthy horse, definitely fit to continue. I really appreciated the vet wanting to see the horses before we left. He offered to come to our trailer to check the horses or for us to bring them to the vetting area. He just wanted to know that they were ok. And of course, they looked great. In fact, both vets, after the trot out told me that they thought I had a fine little horse and it was well worth the time and effort to get her desensitized to the vetting procedure. (I was still embarrassed by her performance). We gave the horses time to rest and eat, and eat, and eat and then headed for home. We also learned at that point that at least the first part of the ride had been "sabotaged" and ribbons had been taken down by persons unknown.

As a footnote, it was a good thing that we left when we did. Heading toward Mt. Shasta, the rain turned to snow and it was accumulating fast and we still had a high pass to go over. I was happy that I had put those new tires on last week. Had we continued the ride, it is doubtful that we would have been able to make it home without some white knuckle driving and luck. My niece lives in Mt. Shasta and she said that she awoke Sunday morning to two feet of snow in her yard.

Bottom line is that Whiskeytown is a beautiful ride and ride management is terrific and the vets are awesome and I will definitely be there next year. Hopefully the sun will be in attendance also. The one suggestion that I would make is that when there are portions of trail that will serve more than one loop that each loop be ribboned with a different color tape. I would also like to see more flags more often if only to reassure me that I am on the correct trail. Y'all missed an awesome ride. Miserable as it was, it was FUN!!!!!

Pat

Chicken Chase - April Johnson

WEDNESDAY:
After getting off work on Wednesday, my husband and I dropped Serts off at the horse-sitters. We used to board Serts and Tanna with Judy, so were completely relaxed about leaving the gelding in one of her pastures.

Then we went home and began packing the right side of the trailer. Four bales of hay, a plastic rubbermaid-type container holding 50 lbs of grain and 40 pounds of beet pulp pellets went in first. I believe in being overprepared! :-) Then 3 rubbermaid containers with dog and horse supplies, several buckets, and the dog's large pet kennel.

Daniel mounted a closed circuit camera on the trailer door looking into Tanna's trailer stall. He also took 5 corral panels from our round pen and loaded them onto the rack he'd made on top of the trailer.

We spent the remainder of the evening packing people stuff and food into our small slide-in camper. This would be our first trip with our new-to-us camper.

THURSDAY
Thursday dawn cold and rainy. Ick! What happened to the promised sun and high 60 degree weather?

I got dressed and went out to find Tanna. I scanned the front pasture and didn't see him, so started up our big hill to look for him, figuring he was at the very top talking to the mare in a neighbor's pasture. I got worried when I reached the top and didn't find him. So I went down the fence line calling and looking. I called to Daniel, asking if he saw Tanna. Yep, down in the front pasture. Oh, well, it was good exercise.

Tanna was shivering, so I tied him to the trailer and gave him some beet pulp. I also threw his winter blanket on him. It took a while, but he finally stopped shivering. Poor guy. I should have had his blanket on him all night.

Daniel and I finished eating our own breakfast and finished last minute preparations to leave. We were in no hurry. Our ride wasn't until Sunday, so Tanna would have plenty of time to rest up for it.

We loaded Tanna into the trailer about noon. He went in quickly after a couple of false starts. He's not used to seeing all that other stuff in the stall next to him! Then I realized I hadn't put a hay bag in for him. So after trying to shove the hay bag in through the front window, I unloaded Tanna and put the hay bag in. Tanna jumped back into the trailer with no problems. He immediately started munching hay, quite content.

We pulled out of our driveway and stopped at a gas station down the road. Not to get gas, nope. To get a 1-liter bottle of Mountain Dew for Daniel. His normal traveling fare. :)

Our next stop was only 20 miles down the road at our local Wal-mart. We needed a few things, fresh fruit and 10 pounds of carrots.

Ok, finally! On our way! The camera looking in on Tanna blanked out. Oh, well. We switched to the other camera that was mounted on the back of the camper that Daniel uses to hook up the trailer. I could at least see Tanna's nose every now and again. Not very good though.

We traveled quite happily for quite aways, then stopped at an exit 30 miles south of the exit to get off for the ride. We went into a Taco Bell and ordered some take-out, and scooted across the road to a gas station. We took about 10 or 15 minutes at the gas station, loading up the truck with gas, buying bread and Pizza Combos (yummy!), and taking care of the animals. I got the dog out of the trailer and ran her back and forth a little. Then I offered her water and Tanna water. Tanna didn't drink, but obediently dropped his nose into it 2 or 3 times.

We got back on the road and followed the GPS directions after getting off the interstate. We were soon pulling into camp. We rolled slowly through camp and picked out a spot backed up to a treeline.

It took a very little time to pull the corral panels off the trailer and the divider out of the trailer and set them up into a hexagonal-shaped pen for Tanna. We gave him a bucket of water and his hay bag. Then we headed back toward the front to look for check-in.

I introduced myself to Amy Whelan, the ride manager, then waited as a couple of people riding on Friday got checked in. Then I got checked in for Sunday, paying my $$ for the entry fee and the mandatory Indiana state park bridle tag. Since I was the first rider to check in for Sunday's LD ride, I got the A number. Cool. A for April. On my first LD at Longstreet's Charge years and years (4) ago, I got AA when I was riding Apache (April and Apache, AA).

Amy told me that they would buy back the bridle tag since I was only riding one day. I'd get $10 of the $15 back. Works for me! As we wandered back to our trailer, we looked at all the trucks and horses that were already there. There were 30-some-odd horses that started the 55 miler on Friday. The weather was chilly, but at least we'd driven out of the drizzly yuckiness we'd seen in Nasvhille.

We attended the ride meeting later that evening. Even though I wasn't going to be riding, I was planning to volunteer out at the away vet check. Pulse would be 60 for all horses, all distances, all weekend. Holds on Friday and Saturday were 45 minutes. Holds on Sunday were 50 minutes due to easier calculations. The Sunday holds were decided Saturday night. The 55 would have 2 vet checks, both away from camp at Wilson Lake. All other vet checks for the weekend would be in camp.

After feeding Tanna a bucket of beet pulp and grain mix and filling 2 hay bags for him, Daniel and I disappeared into our little camper for munchies and then bed. It was so nice to crawl up into the bed over the cab instead of sleeping on the ground!

Tanna was making noise everytime he grabbed a bite of hay, banging the panels a bit. So Daniel went out and put bungee cords at the top of each panel intersection, stablizing them a bit so there was a lot less noise.

FRIDAY
I didn't wake up Friday morning until the riders were warming up for the ride. It was quite chilly, but I got up and took Tanna with me toward the start, wanting to see his reaction to all the horses and the excitement. He seemed interested, but not concerned. Although, we didn't see the main start. We were a little late for that.

The weather was nice, though. Sunny, although cold and windy. I wandered back to our campsite and fed Tanna again. After breakfast, Daniel and I hopped into the truck and headed off to the vet check site. The plan was for Daniel to drop me off, then go looking for a store to get people water, which we'd forgotten.

We got there and Amy introduced me to Susan Kasemeyer and Susan Vuturo various other people that I don't recall at the moment. I was given the job of vet secretary for Rae, a vet that had flown in from Michigan to vet on Friday and Saturday. It was interesting to see the riders come in. Seeing all the different tack variations. I saw at least 3 treeless saddles and a couple of Abetta saddles. A Synergist saddle. A lady wearing horse shipping boots instead of half-chaps. I can't say I learned tons while being vet secretary. I did learn some and watched and listened a lot. Maybe I just didn't do it long enough.

There was one accident. A lady came driving into the vet check and then it was apparent that she was hurt. She had taken somebody else's truck and left the truck's owner with her horse. She was immediately surrounded by helpful people. Somebody was dispatched with the trailer to pick up her horse and her family took her to the hospital. Her horse had tripped while trotting downhill and had rolled over her. Later in the weekend, Amy announced that the hurt lady might have fractured a bone, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

I stayed at the vet check for 5 or 6 hours before taking off to go to the store. Daniel had stayed around the whole time. Part of the time was spent sleeping in our camper. Very nice to have that camper! :)

When we got back to camp, I figured that it was time for Tanna to take a look at the trails. So I saddled him. I was planning to use my high profile pad that had been delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday, but was disappointed to find out that the pad was not the same as the one I had, it was longer in the panels. I decided not to use it and put the smaller woolback pad on him.

I had Daniel hold Tanna while I mounted. I was hoping not to have a problem. While Tanna did do a couple of crow hops, it was mild and he quit quickly. He wouldn't stand still, though, so I waved to Daniel and headed for the trails.

I thought I would be out of the way, but it turned out I chose a trail that riders were coming and going on. Oh, well. More chance to see how Tanna would react. The trail started with gravel. Tanna was barefoot, so we walked and trotted along the edge of the trail. I picked the edge, thinking to save his feet.

We scooted off the gravel onto a trail as soon as possible. The new trail was very narrow and had tons of switchbacks. It was rather overgrown, too. But at least it wasn't gravel. After a few minutes, the trail dumped back onto the pink loop marked for the endurance rides.

Tanna was strong and pulling to blast up the hills. I allowed him sometimes, depending on the footing. We trotted a lot and cantered some. He was doing quite well. We came out onto a road bordered by a saddle club. We trotted along until the ribbons veered off the road to the left. The trail at this point was a gravel road in the middle of a field. I made Tanna trot off the gravel. He wanted to canter, but I refused because off the gravel, the ground was so uneven and I wasn't going to risk a misstep. The rest of the trail that I took had small scattered gravel and we mostly walked and trotted that section.

When I came out on the road, I checked my GPS. It said I'd gone 6 miles and that camp was just .25 miles along the road. So instead of following the ribbons across the street, I decided that 6 miles was a good enough leg stretching and headed directly toward camp.

When I got to the camp turn-in, Tanna started freaking and going sideways. At first, I thought it was the long blowing pink ribbon that marked the entrance to camp, but he wasn't paying any attention to that. It was the large rock with a horse sketched into it that he objected to. So I spent the next 10 or 15 minutes asking Tanna to walk back and forth in front of the rock, moving closer and closer to it. For several minutes, he did some very nice sidepassing to keep facing that scary rock. Then I finally got him to walk up and sniff the back of the rock. As we stepped around to the front, he about jumped out of his skin again. Guess he didn't like the sketching! Finally, though, he did sniff the front of the rock, so I turned him back to the camp.

When Daniel and I looked at the GPS track on the computer, the computer calculated that we'd gone 8 miles instead of 6.5 that the GPS had calculated. The computer is more accurate. I was irritated that the Geko was calculating low. Very low. Not that I cared that we did 8 miles instead of 6.5, but one of the reasons I use a GPS is to help gauge distance and average speed during a ride. While the Geko has lots of space for holding track points, the actual in-ride calculations seem to be poor quality.

SABBATH
I woke up Sabbath morning around dawn and slipped out to give Tanna some food. I'd begun lacing his food with electrolytes on Friday night. After feeding the dog, I went back in the camper and went to sleep for a couple more hours.

We lazed around for a couple hours before deciding to go find some local geocaches. Geocaches are small boxes that are hidden pretty much anywhere, but parks are a popular place to place them. The boxes usually have a log book to sign in and say a little something and small trinkets to trade. The hider then goes on www.geocaching.com and posts the coordinates and a little about the box and the area the box is hidden in. Then a Geocacher (like me and my husband) gets the coordinates, puts them in our GPS unit and then follow the arrow until we find the box. It's a fun sport and gets me out walking around when I'd usually be sitting around.

There were 3 geocaches that we were going after. They were all along the same trail. The furthest one out was about 1.3 miles. We decided to go get the furthest one first and then get the other 2 on our way back. Otherwise, we'd probably stop after the 2nd one and not go to get the last one!

Daniel took the dog and I snapped a lead rope to Tanna's halter and off we went, our interesting little caravan. For awhile we were on the common trail with competitors coming and going. Tanna did really well about getting off the trail for them to pass and never got hyper or upset. I love this horse!!!

After about half a mile, we got off the common trail and headed out on a single track trail. The hills were challenging for me. I had Tanna's lead rope draped casually over my shoulder with him following behind me. He stepped on me once and I swung the end of the rope back towards him and after that, he didn't step on me. We discovered on our walk that Tanna likes Skittles. Taste the Rainbow! Daniel had brought some and when we stopped periodically for me to rest (I'm such a wimp!) we'd eat a few Skittles. Tanna was interested, so I gave him a couple. Yummy, he liked those! And why not, they're just sugar. :-) When we reached near the spot where the geocache was, I tied Tanna off the trail and went in search of the cache. We found it in good shape, signed the log and climbed back up to Tanna. He'd stood staring at us, wondering what in the world we were doing, I'm sure.

We headed back towards camp and went in search of the second cache only .2 miles from the one we'd just found. This second cache required a steep, steep climb. I stopped to rest at least twice on the way up and collapsed on the ground as soon as we got to semi-level ground. Whew!!! What a workout I was getting. Tanna just looked at me like I was silly. The second cache took a little looking, even though it really was easy to find.

On our way to the next cache, we ran into some backpackers. We stopped and talked with them a little bit and one of them asked to pet Tanna. They asked if I ever rode him (since I was leading him, I guess it was a valid question!), so I told them a little about endurance riding and why we were there in the area. Never did get around to telling them about geocaching. The third cache was found easily. There was no good place to get Tanna off the trail, so I stayed with him while Daniel signed the log book of the cache. Then we headed back to the common trail towards camp. I was tired! I'm used to riding miles, but not walking them!

When we got back to camp, I dropped Tanna, the dog, and Daniel off at camp and decided to go see when I could vet Tanna in for the ride on Sunday. It was about 3:30 eastern time. I found Amy and she said come up and vet in when the vets aren't busy. So I went back and got Tanna. He'd rolled, so I ran a brush quickly over his coat to remove the dirt.

We went up and Rae wasn't busy, so she vetted me in with all As except a B+ on guts. I didn't get that because except for his brief 8 mile ride and 2.5 mile walk, all he'd done was eat and drink. But since he'd been showing no real problems, I didn't worry too much about the B. I did ask Rae about it and she just said "That's what it sounds like now. Just let him eat whatever he wants."

I went back to the camper and gave Tanna some beet pulp and went to take a nap until dinner. Dinner was provided by Ride Management for all riders. It was chicken (of course), green beans, potato salad, lemonade, iced tea, salad, and cake. I served myself all but chicken and tea. It was yummy stuff! After dinner, Daniel and I sat out in our chairs outside Tanna's pen. I had him on a lead rope letting him eat grass since his pen floor had been reduced to dirt and trampled hay after 2 days. We sat talking and watching the camp activity. Camp was extremely full, so plenty of activity to watch.

Tina Hicks came by and chatted with us for awhile. I had met her Friday finally. We'd spent some emails trying to get together for training rides and it had never materialized.

Tina rode the 25 on Saturday on her gaited horse, Hank. She'd lost 2 swiss boots along the trail in the first few miles, so had in reality, done the ride barefoot. I, of course, was interested in how she did since Tanna is also barefoot, although we weren't planning to ride barefoot. Hank had done well. Completed the trail in 3:20-something minutes with half an hour spent helping a rider that had been kicked in the shin. That's the 3rd time I've heard of that happening in the last few months. Ouch.

Tina left to go to the meeting place for a meeting. We thought it was the ride meeting, but it turned out to be the awards for Saturday's rides. It wouldn't have been a bad thing, except that since we thought it was the ride meeting (and the previous ride meetings were fairly short) we didn't take our chairs and the awards lasted longer than the meeting. I forget the exact numbers, but 90% of the riders completed the 25 miler and better than 90% completed the 50 miler. The only placing I remember is Lois McAfee won the 50 miler. Oh, and Tina got both her Swiss boots back from lost and found!

After the awards, Amy said that the ride meeting would be in a half an hour. She also said she wanted the bridle tags to buy back if we wanted. So Daniel and I went back to our camp to get our chairs and the bridle tag.

We sat around waiting for the ride meeting to start. It was a quite short meeting. Everything for the 50s was the same as Saturday's ride, so no surprises there. The 25 milers would ride the pink loop (10 miles) and come in for a vet check. Then ride the blue loop (17 miles) instead of the yellow loop (15 miles for the 25 milers) like on Saturday. The holds were changed from 45 minutes to 50 minutes to aid the volunteers in doing out time calculations. The second loop for the 25 milers was changed to the blue loop because it had less gravel.

Back at our camper, I spent some time laying everything out for the ride in the morning. Brushes, easy boots, vet wrap, duct tape, bridle, reins, saddle, GPS, saddle pad, heart rate monitor, ride pants, layers of shirts, gatorade, water, dried fruit, everything that I could think of.

Then I set several alarms on my PDA and my husband's PDA and my wristwatch. I'd forgotten to bring a real alarm clock and I was worried about getting up in time. I set all the alarms for 5 AM. Start time was 7:40. 2 hours and 40 minutes should be plenty of time to get ready. I wanted to be mounted by 7:10 to be warming up and evaluating Tanna's mind.

I gave Tanna another helping of beet pulp and grain laced with electrolytes. Then I crawled into bed to await the alarms.

SUNDAY
I was actually semi-awake by 4:30 AM. When my alarms started going off, I turned them off and moved to start getting ready for my day. I fed Tanna, but he knew something was up and largely ignored the food for awhile. He grabbed a bite of hay now and again while watching me. I took the dog off her lead and took her for a quick run.

Then I went back inside and got dressed. Then I put Tanna's easyboots on and then wrapped them in duct tape. I set the plunger on the Lyte Now electrolyte tube and squirted 25 ccs into his mouth. After breakfast, I sat and read my book for 15 minutes. I had plenty of time and I was trying to keep myself calm. The calmer I'd be, the calmer Tanna'd be.

Finally, I went out and saddled Tanna. I kept a blanket covering his butt because it was cold out and I wanted to keep him warm and fluid. I adjusted his breast collar to engage sooner. Usually, my breast collar is a precaution to keep his saddle from sliding completely to the side if he dumps me and runs off, but for this ride, the breast collar was quite necessary. I haven't trained Tanna for a crupper, even though I have one, so I didn't even think of bringing out the crupper. Besides, Tanna's high withers come in handy to keep the saddle back. :)

I tightened the girth and checked his heart rate. 36. Pretty good. I put my water and gatorade bottles in the cantle bag. I slid the bit into his mouth (I had slid the bit under his blanket on his butt to warm it up a little), clipping it to the other side. I usually ride in a Little S Hackamore, but I was unsure of how Tanna would act, so wanted the bit. As I went to put my foot in the stirrup, I noticed I was wearing my tennis shoes, still. Can't do that. My tennis shoes can get through the holes in my easy ride stirrup cages. So I tied Tanna up again and changed my shoes.

When I went back to get on, Tanna would not stand still. My husband was watching from the camper, so I asked if he would come hold him. As soon as I said that, Tanna stood still long enough for me to pop into the saddle. As he danced around, I called into Daniel and told him I was on and going.

We walked back and forth and up and down and I trotted him some to check his brakes. Everything seemed a go. When I went up to the start area, the 50 milers had already gone. Just a few more minutes. I found Tina and parked Tanna next to Hank. Daniel showed up on my left, then it was time to go.

It was a controlled start and there were several horses in front. We were spread out on the pavement. A lot of horses calmly walking. A lot of owners crooning to their horses to keep them walking calmly. The photographer was off to the right. Tanna started just a tad, but no real spooking.

When we reached the gravel, I let Tanna move into a trot. Boing, boing, boing. He started to get stiff-necked and strong. Boing, boing, boing. Canter, canter, canter. Please go slower, Tanna, Boing, boing, boing. Ok, fine, here we go. Canter. We passed a horse that was jumping around quite a bit and I made sure the guy was ok as we trotted past. He said so far he was ok!

We ended up trotting along by ourselves, but could see other horses ahead. Tanna was pulling, but controllable. We turned off the gravel onto trail. I let Tanna canter where safe and pulled him back to a barely controlled trot when not safe to canter. After awhile we caught up with a leopard appaloosa and a chestnut. When they stopped to drink, we passed them up, since I knew it was useless to ask Tanna to drink only 2 miles in.

We were on the same trail that I had ridden on Friday. When we hit the pavement, the chestnut was behind us, but stopped or slowed down. All the sudden, Tanna realized he was by himself. He couldn't see any horses ahead and the ones behind him had stopped or slowed down. He seemed alarmed by that fact. I talked to him telling him that we'd see other horses and even if we didn't, this is what we did, ride out together with no other horses.

After a couple of minutes, we were out ion the gravel road through the field and 2 riders on mares asked to pass on the left. Then the chestnut and appaloosa passed. Tanna went into barely controllable mode again, so I fell in line. Five horses in a row, trotting and cantering along together. After awhile, I ended up in the middle and when the appy and chestnut paused for water again, we split a little.

As the mares trotted along, Tanna cantered to keep up. He trotted some and cantered mostly. He was controllable as long as I didn't try to keep him too far behind the mares. I found out that the mare in front of me was being ridden by Dede, the vet secretary for the other vet on Friday.

As we neared the end of the trail, we came up on the photographer. Flash, rear, fall. The lady on the lead mare fell off, but was unhurt and jumped right back on. When we saw pavement, I dismounted and began removing my gloves and looking for my vet card. I dropped a glove and had to go back and retrieve it.

It took 6 minutes for Tanna to pulse down. He was hanging at 64, but it dropped quickly after he peed. He got As, except for a B on guts again. After the vet check, I took Tanna back to our trailer and threw a blanket over his butt to keep his muscles warm. He immediately started eating the beet pulp that he'd largely ignored that morning. He alternated between hay and beet pulp.

Tanna still had both easy boots, but we thought it best to redo the duct tape. So Daniel removed the tape and retaped one foot. I retaped the other. I sat around and ate and drank while Tanna ate. He didn't drink much, but ate heartily and since the beet pulp was very wet, I wasn't too worried about the drinking.

When it was about time to go out, I saw Tina and asked her how they were doing. She'd come into the vet check sooner than me, but had decided to leave out later than her out time to give Hank a bit more of a breather since they did the first loop fairly fast.

I mounted up with the blanket still on Tanna's butt, intending to walk him back up to the trail with it and have Daniel bring it back to camp. But Tanna didn't like it, so rather than upset him, I had Daniel remove it right away. We were cleared to go and out we went on the blue loop.

We were alone and Tanna moved out just fine. He trotted and cantered. He seemed to think we were alone on the trail, but after awhile pricked his ears up and kept looking for horses ahead of him. The trail was hilly and when up on the ridge, there was a wonderful view.

Part of the blue loop involved traveling down a trail to a gate, reading a password off a pie plate, and returning along the same trail for aways. When we hit that part, it was awhile before we started seeing riders coming our way. I had expected to see people sooner. With each rider that passed us, Tanna seemed more lively and more animated. He's so cute!

Finally, at 10:13, we saw the chestnut and appaloosa from the first loop. They were heading back from getting the password. I figured I couldn't be too far behind them so when we hit the gate and I got the password, I turned Tanna and let him go.

And I mean let him go. I never let him go full out. I'm too much of a fraidy cat. But it just felt right, so away we flew. And it felt like flying. It was exhilerating. Here I was on my favorite horse flying! I can't put it into words, but it felt wonderful. We were totally in sync. He was flying, but listening. We blew past Tina and 3 other horses while they were headed toward the gate. I'm pretty sure we slowed down. Might have even gotten into a trot, but the second we were past them, we were gone again. While we flew, I thought, now I'll never get his mind back. I've just blown his mind. Then I thought, even if I don't blow his mind, I'm probably killing his body. But we kept going and going. In reality, it was only about 10 minutes and 2 miles, but it was SO much fun! :) Amazingly, the easy boots stayed on through that foray.

We reached the end of the out and back trail and turned left to hit the pavement. Turned right and trotted along for a mile and a third before turning back onto the trail. There was a good bit of water right there and I asked Tanna to drink. No go. So we headed out and caught up with the chestnut and appaloosa shortly after. I followed them for a bit until they stopped for water and Tanna refused again. Then we trotted off.

We rode the rest of the ride by ourselves. Tanna did fine. He even drank some from a creek further on the way. Good boy! The next part of the ride was a climb out of the gully to the ridge. He did well on that, trotting and cantering up it. We hit the common gravel trail with 1.5 miles to go. I couldn't believe we were almost done. We cantered along at a nice 150 heart rate. I glanced down to be sure his easy boots were still on. Looked ok to me, so we cantered to the road.

With about two tenths of a mile to go, I slowed Tanna to a walk. His heart rate was about 90 when I dismounted at the grass. I landed wrong when I dismounted and I limped toward the timers' table. Daniel saw me and came towards me. I gave him Tanna and started to walk by the timers when they asked for my card. Oh, yeah, duh.

It took me three minutes to hobble to the pulse area. He was down before we got there. So we got our time. 11:41. Ride time of 3:11. Good enough for 7th place. That was a pleasant surprise. Not that it mattered, but I was thinking I was about 17th or so.

He vetted in with all As except a B on guts again and a B on capillary refill. I had lost one of my easy boots and Chris, riding the Appaloosa told me where it was, so I had to head back out and get it. When I thought I had it, all I was seeing was the duct tape, but of course, I didn't realize that. I've got to start using the red boots!

I asked each rider I passed if they had my easy boot and about half a mile out I saw Charles and a couple of other riders. Charles said he had the boot in his pack. Cool! I turned and followed them back in and Charles gave me the boot when we got back. Thank you to him!

Amy knew this was only my 3rd LD and my first ride in 4 years, so she had saved out a shirt for me! Thanks, Amy. The 3rd day finishers were mostly getting lead ropes, but I prefered a t-shirt. Very sweet of her!

I also bought a couple of pictures from the photographer. I had Tanna on a lead rope while looking at the books of pictures to find me and Tanna was standing nicely behind me. Several people got a kick out of the horse "looking" at the pictures, too.

We loaded up and headed home after about 3 hours. Daniel had fixed the camera so I could see Tanna quite well on the way home. When I turned Tanna out in the pasture, he went running around with the dog.

We had a great weekend and will definitely be back next year! Great ride! And thanks to Bill Wilson for the camping area and all the other things he did! The trails were marked well, even though there was some talk of vandalism. I didn't get lost once. The trails had great footing.

It's a great ride. If you missed this one, consider coming next year!

April
Nashville, TN

2003 Rides of March - Pat Super

I have just returned from riding my first endurance ride in Nevada. First let me say that it was well worth the drive from Southern Oregon. This was the first time the ride has been offered and except for one fault (at least some of the riders felt this way) it was an exceptional ride in every way. There could certainly have more water sets. The first water was at 15 miles. Thank goodness the weather was cool. Ride management was open to suggestions regarding this and I am certain that next year, this will be corrected.

The staging area was at a large arena grounds with a couple of good sized arenas, large round pen, picnic area and gazebo where the awards ceremony was held (while a sumptuous meal was served). Strangest staging area and start of ride that I have ever experienced. All of the rides I have ridden before have started on trail far from residential areas. The arena grounds is tucked smack dab in the middle of a suburban housing tract. Most of these houses have some acreage around them and most show signs of owning horses, with corals and out buildings so the location of the arena grounds is a great facility for this community. The ride started right down a paved street and then turned onto a sandy track which led across sagebrush open land into the surrounding foothills. Although there were over 110 riders on the 50 mile and I think over 40 on the 30, it did not feel frantic or the trails crowded. In fact, even from the first couple of miles at the start, one saw very few riders as the terrain helped to separate riders rather quickly.

I had heard it said that this would be a fairly easy ride and a good one to start off the endurance season but I think some riders were sorely surprised to find that this was indeed a fairly challenging ride. Early into the ride, the single tract trail took us on a fairly long, rather steep climb which found some riders off and walking their horses while others fairly easily trotted the entire climb. Since our training and conditioning trails are very similar to this climb, my training buddy and I found that our horses were not overly taxed, thank goodness. The thing that concerned me most was the prevalence of sand on the trails. It was great footing with barely any rock but trotting in sometimes deep sand with horses who are not conditioned in the sand caused me to go a lot more slowly than the topography would have dictated. Although much of the ride was in open high desert, and at times one could see riders far in the distance, most of the time, it was difficult to find where the trail led or if riders were approaching because of the lay of the land. There were dips and gulleys and short very steep rises. In fact although short, some of the rises were as steep as anything I have ridden and were a lot of fun. One aspect of much of the trail that I did not enjoy was the washboard like dips that often went on for very long distances. Not easy on the horse's legs and hopefully riders rode with this recognition. ( think this may have been caused by the abundance of off road bikes that have made a maze of criss crossed trails throughout this area. In fact there were many that could be seen in the distance but when they were encountered, they were really courteous and pulled off the trails and shut off their motors).

The first vet check at 15 miles was also the first available water. But it was manned with a lot of volunteers and there was great hay set out in small piles, each with accompanying apples and carrots. There was also plenty of cold water bottles and soft drinks and sandwiches for the riders. This ride had four vets so there was never a wait for vetting or p&r. We lucked out with the weather and the rains of the previous days having subsided and both days were dry, although it began to rain as we pulled out and headed for home on Sunday morning. Saturday morning was rather warm, and the sun promised to shine, which it did off and on. By late morning, however the winds commenced and blew unrelentingly the rest of the day. So the second vet check (which was in the same location as the first) was quite cool and very windy and on the open plains, this made keeping the blankets on the horses somewhat problematic for some.

From the second vet check back to camp was a 15 mile romp. There were sections of trail that begged cantering for long distances and as there were no major climbs (although quite a few short, very steep ones), my horse felt fresh and strong. I did not know that we were back until quite suddenly, we rounded a bend and there, 50 yards ahead was the finish line. Although this ride was quite fun and one that I hope to do again next year, for me, personally, it was made difficult because for some strange reason, my ankle began to hurt excruciatingly so after we left the last vet check. I could only trot or canter for short times and then had to bring my horse back to a walk so that I could regain my balance and shake my leg to get feeling back into my ankle. I could not imagine what caused this. At one point when I had jumped down from my horse, I had twisted my ankle but not so that it did not recover a few seconds later. Then, my saddle for some reason, began to list to one side (the side with the sore ankle) and try as I might, I could not center it. I hopped off a couple of times to adjust it and in fact once had cinched it so tight that when I checked it again, my poor horse had wrinkled skin under the cinch which had luckily not begun to gall. It was a bummer not being able to enjoy such wonderful trail with a strong horse but such is this sport. It was a bummer to be walking my horse when riders breezed past me. Oooooh the pain of it all.

The bottom line is that if you are anywhere near this ride or can get to it next year, you had better register early and plan on arriving early in the day to claim a spot for your rig because this is a ride that is only going to grow in popularity. My hat goes off to the ride managers and anyone having anything to do with this ride. It was GREAT! And the vets were some of the friendliest, helpful and efficient that I have seen.

Pat
PS
If anyone was at this ride and knows the name of a man who became my new hero, please give him a well deserved pat on the back. About five or so miles into the ride, we saw a woman who had obviously been separated from her horse walking some of the trails trying to track her horse. We can all imagine how she must have been feeling. Then about 15 minutes later, we saw a rider who looked like a modern day cowboy riding a great looking horse and leading another, fully tacked. This man had obviously given up his position with what were probably the front runners to return a wayward horse to his worried owner. I asked his name and above the wind could only hear his first...Richard, I think. If you are reading, Richard, thanks a million for epitomizing the spirit of good sportsmanship and just plain caring.

Ride Story: FHA CTR - Teri Hunter

CTR 100,60, 40.

This is not an endurance ride Scott but it is a Competitive ride with lots of history. I am also not a good rider, a computer person so it most likely will be direct to the point.

Ride Manager - Becky Siler. What a wonderful job. I did not ride but I have many friends that were riding and drove up Saturday to help out and support them. Arrived in time to get to the last vet check (10 miles to go) out of camp. Helped set up water buckets for everyone. Vets and Volunteers started to show up. Everyone was set up and ready to go before the first horse arrived. This was the second day of the 100 or the first day for 40 and 60's. Format was Friday 40, Saturday 40, Sunday 20. Riders coming in and did the horses look great. 5 horses were pulled out of 47 for that day that left out. From what I heard from the riders there was plenty of water out on the trail with beautiful scenery through the Ocala Forest in Florida. Open spaces, wooded, palemetto, and lets not forget the sand. Lots of Sand. The volunteers did a great job refilling water buckets and handing out gator ade and water to those arriving. Refilling water bottles and such. Off the trail they went and from the looks of where they were headed into it looked beautiful. Wish I was riding, but then again I am glad I was not. It has been unconditionally hot this time of year for Florida with temps in the mid to high 80's and humid as ever.

One rider pulled at that vet check and trailered back home. After talking to her after the ride she said that her horse gets hot easily and this is always a problem with him. She did a wonderful job of taking care of her beautiful walker. Such a nice person and happy with what he had accomplished. Alot of the 40 mile riders usually only do 25 miles, so for them to test themselves and their horses especially in the hot, humid and deep sand they all seemed very proud of their accomplishments.

Back at home camp, riders were coming in for their finish. All horses looked exceptional and really looked well taken care of for this leg of the ride. You can tell because everyone was coming in with a BIG smile on their faces. As each rider or group of riders came trotting by everyone clapped for their accomplishments. This seemed to help pump the riders and the horses up.

Vets and Volunteers worked hard to keep to their schedule of events that was extremely detailed on the brochure that was handed out. Many activities were involved with this ride not just the ride. They had a social hour, a raffle drawing of tons of prizes. The Distance Depot www.thedistancedepot.com was there for riders to purchase items of NEED. We always need something. I picked up a jug of Perform n Win myself.

As I was sitting there watching my favorite riders go through vetting watching intently how their horses were moving I noticed the vet. I don't know his name but he seemed very concerned with each rider and that they knew everything about the horse and how they were doing. He treated each one as if they were the only rider there. I am sorry for not knowing the name. He really deserves a lot of credit.

Awards were scheduled at 6 and were right on time. Boy those volunteers sure worked fast to calculate everyone's scores. I don't remember everyone who took home an award. They were actually very beautiful. The ones I do remember is Ramsey took home Grand Champion, her daughter took home second place junior. Caren Stauffer took home Best Trail Horse. Everyone seemed really happy.

At 7:00 pm they had entertainment at the Rocking Horse Stables where the ride was held. Wonderful exhibitions by different types of riding. First they had America the Beautiful playing with a reining horse doing his thing with the American Flag. Brought tears to my eyes. If they would have played Anchors Away I would have been a blubbering idiot (because I have 2 in the Navy). Then we all stood for the National Anthem with the American Flat in plain view in the center of the ring. After that we saw performances by the Citrus County Mounted Patrol and their drill team. What magnificent animals. Classical Dressage performance by an International Rider. What the killer was is he used an Arabian. What a beautiful performance. Flying lead changes with every step. Piaffe's, Passage, Extended Trot, Half Pass, Side Pass just beautiful. Then the reining horse came back with another performance with sliding stops, wow! and more. There was also a funny spot in the show. The announcer said that he was a International know famous trainer. Then he announced his name. I looked at my friends and said "I never heard of him". Lynette Burks said she thought it was going to be funny. She was right on the money. We laughed and laughed. I have never seen things done with a horse like that. That performance ended the show. We all went back to our trailers and either partied for those that were finished or went to bed for those that were riding the 20 miles for their 60 mile or 100 mile ride the next day.

Hopefully someone that stayed for the Sunday ride or who rode the ride will post more info. This is not just a ride it is a BIG event with lots of history. If you ever get a chance and would like to ride this one, look for it next year. It is usually booked up so keep watching for the next ride. Ride info can be found at www.distanceriding.com click on FHA.

Teri

2002 Death Valley Encounter Days 3 and 4 - Merri Melde

by Merri Melde, deputizing for Nick Warhol

DAY 3

One hundred miles down, one hundred to go! Will we make it? I can't think ahead to that last day, that last mile; only mile 101, then 102, one by one, step by careful step.
I have cracks in my fingers, a sun- and wind-burned face, and this morning I discover an 8" bruise wrapped around my thigh - was this from Zayante's fall? But I am rested, re-fueled, and eager to hit the trail again (though I admit it is awfully hard to get out of bed).
We get up at 5 AM, walk the horses, feed them, take off their bandages, put Easy Boots on, eat human breakfast (prepared by Mike), and it's time to saddle and warm up - somehow those 2 hours in the morning are gone and it's time to go.
Day three is a relatively flat ride along the Panamint Valley from Indian Ranch to Panamint Springs, skirting the foothills of the Panamints to the east and the Argus Range to the west.
We were ready to trot out for the vet at 7 AM, but had to go back for the electrolytes we forgot to give the boys. We started out almost 10 minutes late, but by day 3, many people were still just strolling out for a nice ride with a bunch of friends on a beautiful, cold, desert morning. Even our horses, while eager, were content just to stroll along for a while, no hurries, no worries.
But when Zayante was ready to go, it was time to move along. We had a gradual uphill climb up a trail to a wash, and kept passing our groups of friends and stablemates - the same middle-to-back-of-the-pack group we'd been keeping pace with the last 2 days.
We worked our way up along the base of the Panamint foothills, trotting along on the good footing, slowing down for the rocks. We stopped several times to adjust/replace Easy Boots. I picked one up someone had lost on the trail, which Gretchen ended up using after Becky Hackworth borrowed her spare.
At one point my Raven fell out of my saddle bag - my Raven puppet that has completed every ride with me since I started endurance riding. Fortunately Gretchen was behind us and saw it, or I would have had to ride this whole trail backwards till I found it! Next time I'm tying it to my saddle bag so it doesn't fly out.
The LD Vet Check was a water stop for us at around 9 AM (this was I think the first time I'd looked at my watch while riding in 3 days); here Ann K joined us for the day on her Rough and Ready Red Horse. Zayante grew happier as we continued on, pulling harder on me than he was the last 2 days. He knew just where we were headed today, also. On this stretch we passed Julie Suhr several times, and I swear Zay strutted for her. Julie and her husband Bob owned Zayante for the first 5 years and 5000 miles of Zay's career, and Julie considers him the best endurance horse she has ever ridden. I just can't imagine why she says that.
The further we went, the stronger Zay pulled, (was this really Day 3 for him? And I used the sidepull again??) and I finally got off him and walked (fast) down the rocky trail to the highway. He of course picked the less-rocky single path and gave me the rocks to stumble over. Smart horse! A nice water break was had there; then we headed up another sandy wash west to the Argus range. I was having a difficult time convincing Zay to take it easy going through that deep sand. We'd passed Judy on Warpaint, her big strapping Appaloosa working on his 1000th Death Valley mile with Judy aboard, several times this morning, and here she tried to ride and talk with us, but Warpaint, being a not very social horse, took off quickly, leaving us and Judy's words in the dust. That horse has the urge to pass any horse ahead of him, and a huge trot with which to pull it off.
Sparrow was waiting at the end of this wash with more water; then we headed back down another wash - Zay pulling hard on me, since he knew lunch was up ahead - to the Vet Check. Mike once again had the food ready us and for our horses (were we getting spoiled or what); we worked on wrenching sand-filled Easy Boots off while they ate, as the rockiest parts of the ride were now behind us.
We had a leisurely stroll out after lunch, back east across the highway for a mile, but once we turned north for the final 14 miles to the new base camp at Panamint Springs, Zayante came alive, or I suppose I should say extremely enthusiastic. Here, along this sandy road that looked like it must reach to Canada, once again, I truly appreciated this amazing creature beneath me. If there's a horse heaven on earth, this was it, and Zayante was in it. He flew along this stretch at a smart trot, feet like metronomic pistons eating away the miles; 3 miles, 6 miles, 12 miles, white mane rippling over his white muscular neck. I no longer had to hold him back, just helped him pick out the best rock-less path so he didn't have to miss a beat. He motored along, happy as a clam with his big trot, ears forward, always pricked sharply forward, grinning from horse ear to ear, never breaking a sweat. Sometimes Ann and Gretchen and I talked; sometimes we existed alone on our horses while still in our close group led by the happiest horse on earth, doing the job he loved more than any horse ever loved his job anywhere, ever. It was hypnotic, addictive, elative, intoxicating.
Having done this very trail countless times, Zayante knew Panamint Springs would be emerging into view up on the left, and sure enough, as soon as we saw it, he saw it, and his head would swivel between the path before him and Panamint Springs, checking the shrinking mileage, while his stride never altered.
Finally we reached the end of this endless dirt road where it met the highway; the horses had a well-deserved drink while we humans about collapsed from the uninterrupted hour of trotting. The horses were ready to race on the last 3 miles to the end, but having to ride on the shoulder of a quite busy highway with cars that didn't see the need to slow down, we took our time getting in, and let the horses relax (which didn't quite work for Zayante).
We passed our final vet check at 4 PM with flying colors: 150 miles down, 50 more to go! 15 of 15 finished the LD; 70 finished the 50 with only 1 pull.
It was a great treat to finish, and get the horses taken care of before dark. Mike had everything set up for the horses, had coffee ready for Gretchen and a Dr Pepper waiting for me. I had one of the best showers ever, then had dinner at the Panamint Springs restaurant served by too few harried waiters waiting on many starving endurance riders. I slipped in with the water guys Sparrow and Alex, then squeezed in with a group of riders - strangers when I sat down and friends when I got up.

DAY 4

The moon is still hanging over the horizon, the stars are still brilliant in the crisp chilly wind. There are snow rumors up high, and it makes us shudder to think of having to go through slick snow again.
Today, the last day of my first multi-day ride, I am not so sure Zayante can go. I feel fine, not a sore spot on my body except for my left little toe, of all things, but Zay is quite stiff when we walk him and Raffiq around in the morning. He is so stiff I mentally plan on what I'll mope around doing all day. But I go through the motions of getting us both ready, in order to escort Raffiq to the start, and I vow to be grateful we've come this far. I get on Zayante 20 minutes to 7 AM and Gretchen gets on Raffiq, and we warm them up good. Suddenly Zay seems to feel as good as I do, wants to complete this ride as badly as I do, and my hopes start rising. Gretchen and I forget the electrolytes again, and have to go back to get them. Somebody, we decided, is going to be in charge of these next time.
Charlie the vet is watching the horses trot by for the start, and I wave at him, and ride Zayante at a trot over cement, the hardest ground I can find. Zayante is smooth as glass, and we are okayed to go again.
14 25 milers and 73 50 milers start out today (14 and 70 will finish). Quenby joined us at the start and we hooked up for the whole day together. She rode her gray mustang mare Granite Annie, who packed along part of the Pacific Crest Trail with Quenby. Annie and Zay did not take a right shine to each other. There was a lot of flattening of ears at the start.
We sauntered up the highway a half mile before we turned south up the Darwin Canyon road. It was a long haul to the top. Zayante was yet again very perky and hard to convince we should take our time and be careful going up this hard-packed, sometimes rocky, winding 4-wheel drive road. His excess energy found its outlet in more jigging today. On top we were rewarded with a spectacular view in the morning sunlight of the Sand Dunes and Cottonwood Mountains behind us back down the canyon.
We hopped off to walk downhill into a wonderful, wide, flat sandy wash with high canyon walls on both sides. This had to be another of Zay's favorite places in the ride, as he bounced along in front at a smart trot, passing some more old mines, and many large piles of wild horse or burro poop. A hard chilly wind hit us in the wash, and blew on us till we got out of the wash.
Up another slow grade of a hard road, looking behind us on rippled bands of the Argus Range, then we descended to the funky semi-ghost town of Darwin, with its wonderful sculptures and artwork and mysterious little shrines. The town was named after Darwin French, who explored here in 1860. Lead and silver was discovered in 1875, and later gold and copper and zinc was mined. Alex was waiting here at the LD Vet Check with water and hay.
From here we headed west 7 miles, up one long sandy hill, the perfect kind of hill Zayante likes to attack, the kind he trains in. All day we were still overlapping the same people - Sue and Becky, Judy on Warpaint, Rebecca and Emmaline. Our stablemate Adonis motored on up this hill at a steady trot, and up, and up, never stopping. Go Adonis! I still had to keep an anchor hold on Zay to keep him from galloping all the way up; and we trotted strongly and steadily behind Adonis, and Raffiq and Annie kept right up behind.
I was beginning to really enjoy this - until the wind hit us near the top of our climb at 5500'. Now, I will take anything - snow, rain, sleet, dust - but I hate the wind. HATE IT. And this was no mere wind, this was like a hurricane, howling through a wind tunnel. As it smacked me around on Zay, I became very crabby. You couldn't talk; you couldn't hear anything but the gale force in your ears; you felt so disconnected from your horse. I wasn't enjoying any scenery; I wasn't enjoying anything. My howls of rage at the wind were blown back down my throat. I gritted my teeth, scowled and howled some more, bowed my head and pulled hard on Zay to keep him from running flat out through it - he didn't enjoy it either. He gritted his teeth, bowed his head, cocked it sideways against my anchor hold, just wanting to get through this and get it over with. We were both SURLY.
By now we'd done around 19 miles, with only about 6 more till lunch; but it was cold and windy and I wasn't even hungry, and it felt like 45 miles, and I couldn't believe we had 6 more to go before I could get off, and we're up on this beautiful Centennial Flats, and I was tired of this. Whose idea was it to ride 200 miles in 4 days?? Wah, wah!
Most welcome stop of the 4 days was at the bottom of that wind tunnel where Sparrow waited with water, and where we'd turn north, with the wind at our sides. I hopped off Zayante, still extremely irritable, while Judy on Warpaint said as she rode off, with a completely calm and different perspective, "Well, that was a bit breezy." Breezy, indeed.
Now, all of a sudden, with a side wind buffeting us off the side of our horses instead of blasting us in the face, it wasn't so bad after all - though the jeep road we were on seemed to be a twin of yesterday's road that went all the way to Canada, with no lunch Vet Check in sight. But after a few miles we saw it in the wee distance; we began meeting a bunch of front runners with happy faces; we waved and said hi; we snacked on my great homemade trail mix. The scenery on the Flats at nearly 5000' was yet again spectacular: The Argus range was back to our east, and on our west and running north: the snow-capped Sierras. We thought we could pick out Mt Whitney in the distance. This was not a darn bad place to be on New Year's Eve, cruising along a high desert through a Joshua tree forest on this wonderful, powerful horse, going along as strongly as he had 175 miles earlier.
We loped on happily and energetically into lunch, where it was not as cold and windy as we'd feared. Mike once again showed up to help us with food and blanketing the horses. It was only a 30 minute hold, and I had to pull Zayante's face out of the food. He's used to eating for 50 minutes and resting for 10 before we go back out.
We 3 all passed the Vet Check, and left for our final 25 miles in high spirits, headed back the same way we came, meeting the last 3 riders, including purple-clad Trilby on Beau coming in for lunch. Zay continued to walk, and walk - and walk. I stopped him for a few Kodak moments, and for the first time in 4 days Zayante didn't object to this waste of time. While I snapped, he'd grab anything he could find to eat - though up here there was nothing but prickly, tasteless-looking scrub. He didn't want to pick up a trot, not even when Raffiq and Annie passed him. He pinned his ears at them, but continued to walk - which worried me greatly. This was not Zayante. What was wrong with him?? Was he just starving? Just dead tired? Hit the wall? Had no more fuel to go on? Once again, we forgot to electrolyte (somebody is going to be designated in charge of this next time!), and although they get electrolytes with their grain - was that the problem? We were about 3 miles out of the Vet Check, and I almost turned him around to go back and pull him.
Quenby was carrying electrolytes with her, and she offered some. By the time I got it administered to Zay, half a dozen horses had trotted past us. I don't know if it was that or the electrolytes, but Zay immediately perked up, and he barely let me get my feet in the stirrups before he took off, his usual vivacious self, motoring along, spooking at the dead Joshua trees and horse-eating boulders (the size of a basketball), sneering at Annie. There had been some serious ear-pinning and snarling contests between these two going on all day, neither giving in - I think we found the King and Queen of Sneers.
The wind had calmed, just a breeze on our other side. When we stopped at Sparrow's water to head back east, Gretchen took some of Quenby's electrolytes for Raffiq. When done, she licked the syringe - and take note: if you've never tried this, don't do it.
Turning back east for the short climb then long winding downhill through that formerly windy wash, it was so pleasant and scenic, with the mountains in front of us and Joshua trees and cholla dotting the bouldered hills on both sides of us, sunlight and whispy clouds, a lovely ride - although Gretchen's stomach was beginning to bother her.
Zayante set a fast pace down the hill, keeping his eye on War Paint's great white spotted butt ahead of us. I let that big trot roll all the way back to Darwin because it made him happy and the footing was great. Quenby's heart monitor on Annie read 98 all the way down.
Not only was there horse water and hay at Darwin, but Alex had chocolate treats for us. One of the locals was out visiting with everybody. The chocolate didn't hit the spot with Gretchen's churning stomach. She hadn't had anything unusual for lunch - wait, could it have been the electrolytes? It was slow returning home; we wondered if we'd make it back by dark today, but we didn't care. We just wanted to finish this 4th and final day. We walked on foot most of the way down to the sandy wash, where Zayante practically threw me up onto his back.
Again, this obviously being one of his favorite places on the DVE, I turned Zayante loose to do whatever he wanted. Those white ears pricked forward and he leaped into his Big Trot, breaking into a canter, and a gallop at times, eating up the ground, spooking mildly once or twice, but having way too much fun to interrupt his great romp. I only glanced over my shoulder to make sure Raffiq and Annie were still behind me; I didn't hear any yelling, so we joyfully blew out through the entire few miles of wash.
Zay wanted to keep on trotting up the last monster hill, but it was time to slow down and take it easy the rest of the way. We even turned that last climb into a training session for Raffiq - Zayante and I ponied him while Gretchen tailed him. Raffiq didn't care, after 195 miles, what we did with him, though I doubt he would've cared anyway since not much bothers that steady little horse.
At the top, admiring the beautiful view for the last time this year, we all hopped off and 'walked' all the way down - fast. With Zayante's Big Walk I have to half jog and stumble and hang onto him for support; despite Gretchen's growing stomach ache, she and Raffiq did a lot of jogging down that Zay's power walk kept us up with.
Down, down, step by step beside this amazing horse I'd ridden and walked beside for 195 miles, sometimes stepping in rhythm with, sometimes moving on auto pilot with, legs stepping one after the other, on and on, with 2 goals in mind: getting to the finish line and starting the next day. Just me and this horse, taking me up mountains and canyons and valleys I'd never see, with a power and speed I could never attain, this amazing 18 - 23yo steed, now approaching his 10,685th career mile.
We 3 finished together, just before dark, and passed the vet check. I got my wish, completing my first multi-day ride on the best endurance horse I have ever ridden. if I had only 1 wish, it's that everybody, just once in their life, gets to ride a horse like this.

Footnote: Mae Chase-Dunn on Benjamin was the overall winner with the fastest 4-day combined time of 22 hrs 44 minutes. Elfta Hilzman's Luna won overall BC for the ride. 30 horse and rider teams finished the 4-days of riding together, a record for the DVE and a fine tribute to those who had the luck, patience, skill, and of course more luck, to do it. Before the ride, Nick Warhol promised to donate a blanket to the horse and rider partners who complete the 1K mark at the DVE ride. The first winner of this award: his wife Judy Long, riding Warpaint, whose big spotted butt we followed most of the 200 miles.

Merri Melde
Vagabond (but Ridgecrest, CA in the winters)

Death Valley Encounter 2002 Days 1 and 2 - Merri Melde

by Merri Melde, deputizing for Nick Warhol

Is there a better place to be on the planet December 28-31 than at the 4-day Death Valley Encounter in the southern California desert? Storms and snow all around us; flooding in the Bay Area and LA; but could anyone ask for more perfect weather in the Panamint Valley and Mountains surrounding this 200-mile ride? Cold crisp mornings, sunny, almost warm afternoons; following historic trails and sites of the 1850's immigrants and miners; a fine group of nearly 100 riders a day, fine friends, and an exceptional group of volunteers crewing and helping with the ride. . . read on and I believe this is one multi-day you may not want to miss next year.

I usually spend my winters in Ridgecrest, CA riding for Jackie Bumgardner, who for the 17th year has put on the DVE. I really desperately wanted to participate in this ride - my first multi-day ride - because December 28th is the 3rd anniversary of a horse-kick-in-the-face that almost killed me. This was the first time since multiple surgeries and healing I was able to make it here for this ride. The only downside was that Nick Warhol would not, alas, be able to make it for this ride, which meant that I would be stuck riding Jackie's famous 18 or 23-year-old 10,000-mile plus white warhorse Zayante, and many of us know how much Zayante despises multi-days and how much I dislike riding this horse. Oh, and did I mention that Zayante almost died from strangles 2 months earlier? (First time he's ever been sick).

Day 1

Day One began at the base camp of Valley Wells in the Searles Valley. Gretchen Sam from Bridgeport rode another of Jackie's horses, Royal Raffiq, with Zayante and me. I thought I'd outfit Zayante in a sidepull, thinking he'd be relaxed these 4 long days. We started out under clear skies, wrapped in layers against the 35* chill. At 7:00 AM, 15 riders on the 25 mile-loop, and 94 riders on the 50-miler (15 and 85 finished, respectively) headed for the outskirts of Trona, now a potash mining town, then headed up a sandy wash, skirting the base of the Argus Mountain foothills lining the valley. Zayante energetically pulled us along, not totally thrilled with the slower pace I'd picked for him to hopefully last 200 miles. It was an easy warm-up 12-mile ride to the Vet Check for the 50-milers back in base camp.
Then we headed out east toward the Slate Mountain Range. Zayante plowed and tugged his way up this long gradually-climbing jeep road into and to the top of the Slates at 3600 feet. Up there, a beautiful view of the Panamint Range greeted us across the valley - chocolate mountains dripping with caramel topping, dissected with millions of rippling canyons, ending in the Panamint Valley, 1300 feet below us. Gretchen and I hopped off and walked down the jeep road, following Fish Canyon, the escape route Rogers and Manley took escaping out of Death Valley and returning the same way with supplies for the stranded Bennett-Arcane party back in the 1850's. We stayed on foot all the way down the now-rocky terrain into the Panamint Valley, where Sparrow and his newly-shorn Poodleranian, Pest, awaited with welcomed water and hay for the horses.
We continued north along a dried-up salt lake 10 miles along a kind meandering jeep road, surrounded by scrappy creosote bushes and a few cactuses trying to make a living in the harsh ground. The only other sign of life was an occasional raven that hopped around and croaked at us as we went by. Looking at the miles and miles of desert, and the maze of mountains surrounding us, and thankfully only imagining the terrific heat of the summer, it was so easy to envision but hard to imagine those brave immigrants struggling across the sands with their oxen and loaded wagons, lost and not knowing the way out. We were clipping along at a steady 8 mph trot on jeep roads, where they must have been lucky to make 8 miles a day on no roads.
Zayante knew where he was, knew where he was headed. He was a beautiful brilliant white bundle of energy floating above the tan sand, in the golden winter light, a happy horse in the Panamint Valley. I let him go on a loose rein, walking when he wanted, picking up a trot when he wanted. Raffiq followed faithfully and steadily behind us, taking the lead when he thought the old man had walked too long. We lapped and overlapped Sue Benson on Rocky and Becky Hackworth on Stylish Gent several times, both of them also wanting to get their horses through the 4 days of the ride.
The second Vet Check just before the ghost town of Ballarat was a perfect, wind-less place to tank up on water and food for the hungry horses and riders. From here, it was about 7 miles to the new base camp of Indian Ranch. For about 10 years, base camp had been here in Ballarat. Zay thought it should still be in Ballarat. Did I mention Zayante had previously completed all 4 days of this multi-day Death Valley Encounter 5 times? That his total completed mileage in the DVE over 9 seasons was 1465 miles? He tried to turn into the empty campground at Ballarat. I had to steer him north along the road. He kept trying to stop, could not understand why we and the other horses were not stopping here, where he'd always stopped for the day. For about 5 miles I had to work on convincing him that this one time I actually knew more than he did, that we were at a new base camp this year.
When our stablemates Maggie and Adonis, ridden by Rebecca and Emmaline, caught up with us, Zayante reluctantly drafted on in behind them. We arrived just before dark in our new camp, where Zay seemed to say, Ah ha! I know where we are now! We finished in the middle of the pack and vetted through fine, ready to get pampered for the evening and relax. The only problem was there was no red trailer - Zay and Raffiq's home - to tie to. It was still out at the last vet check carrying supplies and waiting on the rest of the riders and horses. This turned out to be no problem, however, as the usual helpfulness of fellow endurance riders erupted. Rebecca took time out from caring for her own horses to rearrange her trailer so Raffiq could fit in, and provided hay and water and blankets for both horses. Ken Cook - formerly known as "Friend of Wabi;" now also "Friend of Zayante" - offered a spot on his trailer and hay and water for Zayante, and later Judy Long (Nick's wife) supplied us with more hay.
When the red trailer returned, Gretchen's fiance Mike helped us shuttle supplies and horses back and forth; and by the time we got Zay and Raffiq settled, fed and watered and their legs done up, and the ride meeting attended, and the horses walked again after I mooched food off Gretchen and Mike in their luxurious mansion on wheels, and my tent set up (which half blew away the first time I set it up), I was exhausted. It was 9:30 PM and I hadn't stopped moving since 5 that morning. I might have been the last one up in camp at that ungodly hour; there was not a peep out of a human or a horse under the brilliant desert stars.

DAY 2

A ferocious wind kicked up at times during the night; apparently 5 horses got loose from a pen but were, fortunately, quickly recovered. Raffiq himself was loose, but hanging out in the sagebrush near his uncle Zayante. A quarter moon hung like a jewel below a planet at 5 AM when I got up. 28 25-milers and 84 50's saddled up (28 and 79 finished) for the day, to Ballarat and up Pleasant Canyon into the Panamint Range, a lollipop loop up top, back down Pleasant Canyon to Ballarat and back to Indian Ranch. Zayante was very lively going up the hard dirt road to the first Vet Check at Ballarat, pulling on me hard. He had an agenda today, and being conservative was not on the list.
While enjoying every ride I do, always in the back of my mind is a slight worry about the horse I'm on. Is he traveling perfectly? Did that stumble hurt him? He's not going his usual pace - is he alright? Did he eat and rest enough? Did he get the right amount of electrolytes? With Zayante it's always in the front of my mind. He's older, he has arthritic flare-ups; with all the mileage under his girth I certainly don't want to do anything wrong on him. I'd pulled him once before when he wasn't going just right..
On this hard dirt road I thought I detected a slight favoring of his right front - especially when he cocked his head to the right, mad at me for not letting him gallop this measly little stretch to Ballarat. Could his ankle be bothering him? I had Charlie the vet look him over good at the Vet Check; we trotted out twice for him, and Zayante seemed fine. Maybe a slight hitch in his gitalong, Charlie said, but only slight. I could always turn around and come back if it got worse.
Continuing on was just fine with Zayante. I could tell immediately this was one of his favorite days of the DVE. Gretchen and I followed the other horses up Pleasant Canyon, but somehow Zayante and I ended up going up Unpleasant Canyon. We were still surrounded by horses, but Zay was NOT a happy horse today. He wanted to attack that 10-mile, 3500' climb, and walking over the very rocky ground was not a way to do that. He felt good enough to run up it, and I know this horse, and I know he would have if I would have let him. He loves hills, the steeper the better, and going slow is not how a proper warhorse takes them. But we had 2 + more days, 143 more miles to go, and the footing was bad, and I wanted him to go slowly and carefully. Zay would have none of my reasoning. He got in a lather, and had his head cocked sideways in his way of showing frustration and braced against the reins that were cutting into my fingers. Good idea today, that sidepull.
Finally we sort of compromised - if he couldn't trot forward, he'd trot up and down - the Zay Jig. I let him trot when the rocks weren't too bad, and he jigged the rest of the way. Fair enough. The lather disappeared, and I rode the Jig.
Red canyon walls towered above us, the sun-facing side dotted with barrel cactus. We passed the old remains of a higher gold mining ghost town with old buildings, mine shafts, ancient rusted vehicles. The dead young horse we had to pass in the middle of the trail was a bit scary to Zay. Snow covered the peaks of the Panamints we glimpsed through breaks in the canyon walls; and at around 5000' we started getting into icy spots.
Zayante had just accepted the wisdom of walking through the real rocky parts, and just when we hit another icy patch, he decided to go back to jigging. That's a bad idea wearing 4 Easy Boots, and instantly they slipped right out from beneath him and he fell down. I can't recollect exactly what happened, but I somehow landed on my feet next to him. I must've thought I could help him to his feet, because I just stood there holding onto his lead rope. These things happen so fast you don't have time to think, otherwise I'd have gotten the hell out of his way.
When he tried to get up, his feet slid out from him again, and he fell back on his side, and some part of him whacked me in the leg, and it finally reached my brain to get the hell out of his way.
Zay slithered on his side like a snake on oil before he finally scrambled up and whinnied, Holy Cow I hadn't planned on that! Raffiq whinnied back to him, Are you OK? Gloria Vanderford ahead of us stopped to ask if we were alright; I said we were fine.
But were we? More worry engulfed me. Did Zay hurt himself? Should I turn around right here and go back? He seemed to be fine - he hadn't fallen hard, and wasn't limping. But would it show up 5 miles up on top and we'd be stuck up there? And yikes, what if he had fallen on me? No place to land a helicopter around there - the only way out was the 7 miles we'd come slowly up.
We continued on, but Gretchen also hopped off and we walked on foot beside our mounts. Considering my disinclination for hiking fast uphill a mile high, trying to keep up with Zayante's big walk - and on slippery ground now covered with an inch of soft snow - was not easy. I lasted about a mile before I had to get back on. I took off his 2 back Easy Boots to give him a little more traction, and I got back on him.
Once the snow got deeper the footing was better - it was dry snow, but now the road was steeper and it was like slogging through very heavy sand. We crossed into Death Valley National Park, passed the turn-off to Sparrow's gold mine, had a drink out of a bathtub filled with spring water, and kept climbing. We met 7 of the front runners trotting their way speedily down the snow (how did they keep their footing??). One of them said, "There's a surprise up there for you." What could that be?
We wound on up through a pinyon forest, ensconced in its permanent blanket of snow for the winter. We reached Rogers Pass at 6560 feet, and it wasn't the strong cold wind up there that almost blew me off Zayante, but the stunning view into Death Valley and the Badwater Basin (below sea level), and the jumble of Black Mountains and the Amargosa Range and Greenwater Range. Climbing the last steep hill, we could also see the Owlshead Mountains covering the southern horizon. Now I knew what the surprise was, and why Zayante wanted to get up this canyon so badly - he knew what was waiting here on top.
From there, Gretchen and I hopped off and led our mounts down, down, down the jeep road; and we were grateful for the deep dry snow in which we could take cushioned, huge sliding steps down. Without snow, the road must be terrible footing, steep and rocky. We dipped down into a valley, then had another short steep climb; then it was back down in the snow (on foot), where we met our uphill trail, and then down that long, very long Pleasant Canyon back to Ballarat. When I'm not in a hurry - and I never am - I don't like to ride horses a long way downhill. It must be hard on their joints, especially an old guy like Zayante. So we walked on foot at least another 4 miles, and at Zayante's power walking pace. All 4 of us were dead tired when we caught sight of the Vet Check in Ballarat.
Ballarat, now a ghost town, was built in the 1890's for housing and supplying mines of the Panamint Range. Its decline began in 1905 when the Ratcliff mine closed. Today all that's left are several old buildings and a cemetery.
Mike, bless his wonderful crewing soul, had food waiting for us and the horses, and we all stuffed our faces. Zayante passed the Vet Check with flying colors - no stiffening from his fall and no evidence of lameness in that right front. With the fuel stop, we trotted most of the hour back to Indian Ranch.
It was getting dark, and Zayante felt so perky he started looking for things to spook at. When he spooked so hard at something, what I don't know, that he fell to his knees, Raffiq led us bravely (almost nothing bothers him) into camp in the dark. Kudos to those finish line folks Ray and Kathy Sansom, waiting out there patiently in the cold and dark for all the riders to come in every night.
Once again, Mike had the horses' home ready, and started on dinner for us tired 2-legged folks.
After a ride there's still a lot of work to do, and there's no sense stopping till you've done it: blanket the horses, ice their legs, take the Easy Boots boots off, clean the horses, mud and bandage legs, drink that Dr. Pepper I've been dreaming about since noon today, attend the ride meeting, put on second layer of horse blankets, walk the horses, finally eat my own food (I gave up trying to be self-sufficient and feed myself, and mooched off Mike and Gretchen again), feed horses again, bum a lovely shower, and crawl in bed by 9 PM (I also gave up my tent and surrendered to the couch in their motor home), exhausted. My body throbbed to the tips of my toes and fingers, and I had the muscle twitches as I fell asleep. That was one long 50-mile day - though of course my horse did nearly all the work.