Patch and I are off to another ride, this time in central Oregon. I didn't check the weather forecast before we left home, but as I drive along it looks good, and when I get close to my destination I find a radio station that says "times of sun and clouds with temperatures pushing 60". It sounds great!
Ride camp is a big open field, there are lots of trailers, people, and horses there already. My teammates saved a place for me to camp next to them right next to a water tank and not too far from an outhouse. Perfect!
Patch gets set up with 2 buckets of water and a bag of hay and I go to fill out my entry form. The vet line isn't long when we get there, the vet doesn't find any problems and we are back to the trailer. I set out a few things for morning, helmet, half chaps, sponge, water bottle, all lined up on a bale of hay and ready to put on myself or the saddle. It's nice to be able to grab what I need without having to think much on the morning of the ride. One of my teammates tells me it is going to rain tomorrow, but I prefer not to believe him.
The ride management has a spaghetti dinner for us, so I will save the sub sandwich I bought for lunch tomorrow. Just before dark there is a rider information meeting, then I give Patch more hay, check his water, and go to bed.
I awaken before daylight to sounds of riders getting horses ready for the 75 mile ride which starts an hour before mine. I turn up the furnace and stay in bed since I can watch them go trotting by from my window. Then I get up, dress in a warm trailer and start my ride day routine. I step outside into a misty drizzle, what's this?
About 70 riders have entered the 50 mile ride. I have decided to do some warm up riding at the upper edge of camp far away from most of the confusion. My friend Eva is camped up there and she also wants to keep her horse calm. We agree that we will try to ride together and see how our horses do with that.
We both have horses who prefer to be in the lead, so we trade places back and forth, it's good for them. Two other riders start out with us but the group is too much for Patch, and I soon find places where I can pass them. Eva stays with me and we are soon out of sight of the others.
Loop 1 is 21.8 miles. When we come back into camp the vet check is quite busy. After the pulses come down to the right number we get into the vet line, feeding our horses handfulls of hay as we inch along toward the vets, then have a 45 minute hold before we can leave again. I take Patch to the trailer, give him some beet pulp, grain and vitamins, then take care of my own needs. It's horses first in this game, but the riders need to take care of themselves too.
Time passes quickly and out we go again. Loop 2 is 18.3 miles, and goes in a different direction. Eva and I ride together. Other horses and riders riding the 75 mile ride pass us. We also meet one rider who is coming back toward us because she missed the turn from loop 2 on to loop 3, something we need to watch next time through since the two loops start out on the same trail for a few miles. Patch is doing fairly well, working hard enough to not be too excited. The misty drizzle continues but it's not enough to get us wet. In fact, even with a light wind, I feel hot with my regular jacket on over a sweatshirt.
The vet check is just as busy when we get there the 2nd time, the vet thinks Patch might be slightly lame. He doesn't pull him from the ride, but he wants to check him again before I can leave. He keeps my vet card and I take Patch to the trailer for another 45 minute hold. It's getting windy. I tie Patch on the sheltered side of the trailer and put 2 heavy blankets on him to make sure he doesn't chill. He has hay, beet pulp and grain, and a bucket of water.
I wonder what might be going wrong with Patch. It could be just a muscle cramp, or maybe his pelvis has slipped out of place again. Keeping him extra warm might take care of it.
I eat half of the sub sandwich, a banana, some mixed nuts, drink some juice and pray about whatever is wrong with Patch. About 10 minutes before my out time, I take what I will need if he lets us continue and we go back to the vet. He says we can go. I put the bit back in Patch's mouth, add a butt rug behind the saddle to cover his hindquarters as we go down the trail, Eva checks us out with the timer and we are on our way again. We have only about 10 miles to go.
A mile or so down the trail the mist turns to light rain and the wind increases. The butt rug needs some weights to help hold it in place. I have to hold on to one corner to keep it on him, changing hands to hold the other corner when we change direction. We watch carefully for that turn and soon see why the other rider missed it, the sign for the split in the trail is flat on the ground. After a mile or so it joins up with the other trail again, then there is another fork for a short section before it joins the common trail to for the last 2 miles into camp.
It's raining quite hard, I'm wet but so far moving fast enough to keep fairly warm. After the finish timer records our time on the vet card I find the heavy blanket I stashed nearby to put over Patch. Thankfully there is almost no vet line. The vet checks Patch quickly and says he looks better, so I think maybe the butt rug would have been a good idea sooner. There is always something to learn. The vet says he saw several almost lame horses today who looked better later in the ride after the riders added butt rugs to keep their hindquarters warmer.
I walk quickly to the trailer. Patch is unsaddled and covered with a warm blanket, I debate about putting cooling clay on his legs. It might be cold outside but inside those legs there could be a lot of excess heat. I am very cold now, but it needs to be done, so I get a small bucket of water and a brush to clean his legs. Bending over is hard, I am getting stiff. I hurry. A cold hand in cold wet clay, brrrr, hurry up and get it done. I'm glad he only has 4 legs.
My shoes have gobs of slick mud on them. It won't scrape off so I go into my trailer living quarters on my knees and take off the shoes, turn up the furnace, make a big mugfull of hot chocolate and start changing all my wet clothes for dry ones.
After I am somewhat warm I go over to the timers tent to visit with various people where there is a propane heater. The ride management is feeding all the riders again, tonight it's chili dogs and potato salad. I'm glad not to be eating the rest of the sub sandwich.
One of the riders tells me that a mutual friend of ours has decided to sell his horse and quit endurance riding. He has been through a divorce recently and wants to relocate closer to his ex to try to reconcile. I also learn that the guy has had problems with depression, something I hadn't known. Although I am looking for another horse, that one is out of my price range.
The ride manager says that if we need to be pulled out of the field in the morning her husband will have the tractor ready for that. One year we had to be pulled in! We called it valet parking. Just before dark I go back to the trailer, give Patch a fresh bag of hay, check his water, feel under his blanket to make sure he is warm, and go to bed. I'm so thankful for a warm trailer and a soft bed.
I wake up when it is about half light, aware of raindrops falling on the trailer roof and decide to leave ASAP and hope I don't have to be towed out. It doesn't take me long to pack my things. I tie Patch to my friend's trailer, getting him and myself a walk in the process, then put the truck into 4wd low range and manage to drive out to the firm road in one not so graceful motion! I park off to the side and walk back to get Patch, load him up and we are outa there.
Back at home a few hours later I get a phone call from the fellow I had talked with about our mutual friend. He had a call waiting from the friend's brother when he arrived at home. Sad news, life was just too much for him to handle so he ended it. I wasn't able to attend the funeral. He was a nice guy and will be missed.
Here we go again! This time we are headed to the mountains in the panhandle of Idaho, almost directly east of where I live but we have to go the long way around to cross the Snake River at Wieser, Idaho,then go north again.
Ridecamp is at the Adams County, Idaho rodeo grounds at the edge of the town of Council. Recent rains have made some of the ground unusable but there is still plenty of room for trucks and trailers, horse pens and activities. I find a place to park and get Patch settled with hay and water. My teammates are not at this ride and it feels kind of funny to be without any of them, but I know a lot of the people at the ride.
After filling out the paperwork and getting Patch checked in by the vet, I go visiting, then heat up a can of ravioli on my Coleman stove for my dinner. It's not exactly a gourmet meal but is filling and loaded with carbs that I will need tomorrow.
The ride meeting doesn't tell me anything new, I have done this ride a few times but it was always held in the fall so at least the weather and scenery will be different. There will be apple blossoms instead or ripe apples, and more water in the river to make refreshing noises as we trot past. The last time I was here the thermometer was reading 101 in camp about the time I finished the ride. The forecast for tomorrow is about 60-65. That sounds real good.
Morning already! The usual sounds of people and horses wake me just after daylight along with the song of a meadowlark seeping gently into my conciousness before the alarm goes off not so gently. I crawl out of the sleeping bag and turn up the furnace. I know it is cold outside because my furnace came on several times durning the night even though it was set to the lowest setting.
I step out of the trailer and see frost on the grass, but it is not heavy, so the first rays of sun will melt it. I wonder if I will need gloves, but after I have been outside a while I realize that my hands aren't cold, so decide I can leave them in the trailer, but I will wear my jacket. Sometimes deciding how many layers of clothing I will need is quite tricky, the weather changes a lot in a day. We will not be back in camp until we are done with the 50 miles.
My plan for the day is to wait until most of the riders have started down the trail before we start. I am hoping to keep Patch calm and happy traveling alone. After he is saddled and ready to go I take a few pictures of other riders leaving, then after answering the same question: "Aren't you riding today?" several times, I mount up and head for the start line.
Monsters! At least that is how Patch views the dumpster that wasn't there last year, and a new building. After we get past them we trot down the trail, happy as can be. By the time we get to the first vet check we have passed 8 or 10 riders.
Patch passes the first check and I see a friend I haven't seen in a couple of years. She has remarried after a rotten first go, and is very happy with her new husband. But the more immediate thing on her mind is that her horse is lame and she and the horse will be trailered back to camp. I ask her if she is going to stay for the evening because I would like to visit with her, she says maybe. I give her a hug before I ride off.
At this point I join up with Chris and we trot along together. Patch is fine with another horse beside him as long as he can keep his head out in front. Patch is nice and calm and Chris and I enjoy conversation as we ride along for the next 16 miles.
The sun is out, the trees are sheltering us from the wind and I am wearing too many clothes. My jacket is open and we are going with the wind so I feel sweaty. It's better than freezing. We come to the halfway point where there is a punch hanging on the fence. We punch our vet cards to prove we have been to the end of the trail and start back into the wind. That feels good but we are also facing the sun and I'm still too hot. The jacket comes off a few miles before the next vet check but I choose to carry it because I don't want to stop to tie it behind the saddle.
Most of the water has leaked out of my bottle and I forgot to fill it at the first check, so by the time we get to the second vet check at 40 miles I am feeling just a bit dizzy. I need water and salt. Thankfully both are available at the check. Usually I carry a salt tablet or two in my pocket but today I have forgotten them.
Patch looks good, but Chris' horse has a sore leg. Not sore enough to disqualify her, but she is going to ride at a walk for the final 10 miles to camp. The ride management has provided a table full of sandwiches, chips and cookies, and a cooler full of water bottles. I borrow a kid to hold Patch for a few minutes while I refill my water bottle, get a bottle of water to drink, and get some food. Then I sit on an upside down bucket next to Patch while we both eat.
I leave the check alone but soon catch up with 2 riders. My legs hurt, a combination of work and needing some potassium, so I don't ride with them very long. They trot on and I take a walk break of about 100 yards, then trot for another half mile or so, walk again, trot again. We finish right behind them after having been about 1/4 mile behind for most of about 5 miles. The finish timer tells me I am 10th, not bad for starting so late. I think it was a good strategy!
There's one vet check to go before it is final. The vet sees something, Patch looks just slightly lame. She wants me to take his easyboots off and bring him back.
I go to the trailer, tie him on the sheltered side, unsaddle him and cover him with a blanket. While I am taking off his easyboots a big gust of wind tries to wrap my trailer door around the side of the trailer. People hear the noise and come running, they push the door about halfway closed and I tie it with a rope so the wind can't get it again, then go back to taking Patch's easyboots off. The door problem can wait.
The vet still sees a little problem but it is not enough to disqualify us, so we get a completion. He has a sore tendon. I take him back to the trailer and wash his legs down with cold water and a brush, then apply the clay to draw the heat out of the tendons, giving the sore leg an extra thick coating. The vet says he might also need some Bute, so I give him a dose of that and will repeat it in the morning. Bute is an anti inflamatory, we can't use it before or during competition, but after we get a completion it is ok.
I'm feeling really tired and hungry and I know I still need water and potassium. I eat a banana and drink some V-8 juice and sit in the shade for a few minutes. The wind is cold, so soon I am looking for a sheltered place in the sun. I go find my friend and visit with her and others, and then we go to the ride photographer's trailer to see the pictures he took today. He gets about 10 seconds to take a picture as we trot past him, sometimes they are good, sometimes not. I buy one.
The trailer door has a rod on the inside that is bent and is against the top of the trailer door, similiar to what most screen doors have. I give it a good hard stare and think maybe it will take 3 or 4 men shoving on it after I get the horse loaded in the morning, to get it to close. Hmmm, and then the Lord gives me a brilliant idea! WD40 to the rescue. Of course I have some in the trailer! I spray the rod so that the closing mechanism will slide over it easily, and then spray the trailer door where the rod will be rubbing against it, and then I go outside and push hard. It moves. I push more, it moves more. To get it to latch I push several times and move the outside latch at just the right time and get it secured. Thank you Lord, we can do this again in the morning and I won't have to go home with the door tied shut with a rope.
After the last riders are back to camp there is a potluck followed by awards. Following that I visit with a new-to-endurance rider who lives about 20 miles from me. We sit in her trailer, glad to be out of the wind, then just before dark I go back to check Patch, give him a fresh bucket of water, a full bag of hay, put on his heavy blanket and prepare to go to bed. It's been a long day with challenges and success.
In the morning I take Patch for a walk and let him eat grass while I say goodbye to a few people and wait for the trailer ahead of me to leave so it will be easier to get out of my parking spot. I need to drive across dry ground and there is a big wet area I want to avoid. It already has some deep tire tracks going across it. Patch enjoys the green grass while we wait and although he ate a lot of hay overnight, he eats like there is no tomorrow.
Patch and I are on our way again, this time we are going to be just south of Mt Adams in Washington. Mt Adams is just south of Mt St Helens, the one that erupted on May 18, 1980. This is the 27th anniversary of that event. There is a dark area of ash on Mt Adams just above the snow line from the ongoing slow motion eruption of St Helens which has been putting some ash into the air for years now and building a new lava dome inside the crater.
My teammates have saved me a parking place. It is so nice to have a reserved spot, sort of being treated like royalty! I usually arrive at ride camp late in the day when there are already a lot of other trailers taking the good spots and putting me way out there with a long ways to walk to the vet area. No problem with the walking, but during timed vet holds, a 5 minute walk to the trailer to get something takes away rest time.
We are camped in a nice grassy field, Patch goes to work eating all the grass he can reach. I get him 2 buckets of water and go to enter the ride.
When we go to the vet check for Patch's check in, there stands Can Do, the mare I sold, with her proud and happy new owner. Can Do sees Patch and nickers a greeting, they sniff noses. It's been over a year since they saw each other, but time means little to a horse. They are almost the same age and were raised together.
After the check in and getting Patch settled at the trailer with a bag of hay that he ignores in favor of fresh green grass, I go back to the staging area where a high school group is serving tacos. It's nice to have hot food and it helps the kids. I sit at a table with two riders who are attempting their first 100 mile rides tomorrow. Nine riders have entered the 100, I have done about 25 of them over the years, but I think maybe I will never do another one. Maybe.
The ride information meeting takes place just before dark, the wind is cold, blowing right down off that big old snow covered mountain. The forecast for tomorrow is partly cloudy with a chance of showers in the late afternoon. Ok, I will be finished with my ride by then and not get wet riding. Might get wet in camp afterward though.
I awake at about 3am to a loud clanging sound and get up quickly to see if somebody's horse has escaped. Many people use portable pipe corrals, and while they are quite secure, horses do find ways to hurt themselves in them, and sometimes they do escape. I walk around with my flashlight, looking at neighboring corrals, looking for a wandering horse, listening for footsteps. Nothing. I conclude that somebody's horse just kicked the corral, probably while rolling or stretching.
Patch still has enough hay and water, and I go back to bed. A while later I hear the 75 and 100 mile riders preparing to leave. They start at 5am, with just barely enough light to see. I doze off and wait for the alarm to ring. We don't go until 7.
There are about 60 entries in the 50 mile ride. I wait at the trailer with Patch saddled and ready to go while nearby riders head toward the starting line. Patch just watches them go. It's nice to be camped on the quiet side of the field. About 10 minutes after the official start time we leave the trailer and walk to the start line. I give my number to the start official and we head down the trail, first walking, then trotting.
As we catch up with the slower riders we pass without lingering, and by the time we have gone 12 miles we have passed a dozen or more. We aren't hurrying, just letting Patch go along at his nice ground covering trot. This is the advantage of not starting with the fast or even medium speed groups, we pass the slow riders and probably will never catch up with most of the faster ones. Patch will stay calm since he won't have a horse right beside or in front of him for very long at a time.
The wet weather has moved in sooner than the forecast said, and we get 2 nice showers on the first loop and another just as we get back to camp for the first vet check. The line is already long and I am glad to have stashed a blanket where it is handy to grab and put over Patch to keep him from chilling.
He passes the first check ok and I decide maybe a raincoat would be good, but halfway to my trailer the sun comes out and I meet another rider coming toward me with his raincoat on. We laugh and decide that for this kind of showers one raincoat should do it, one of those things where if you wear the coat it won't rain any more. Our short hold is up anyhow and we start out together. Patch is ok with that for several miles, then the other rider decides to slow down so we go on alone for a couple of miles.
I catch up with my friend Max and his mule Reba, and we go along together and soon are back in camp for the next vet check. The line is long again, and it is raining again. I grab the blanket and we inch along letting the horses eat as we go. One of the helpers comes along the line with flakes of alfalfa hay, Patch thinks alfalfa is wonderful! Max's wife brings out a big feedpan with beet pulp, grain and chunks of carrots. Reba eats better if she thinks somebody is going to get it all, and so Patch does his part there, too.
It takes us about 15 minutes to get to the vet. Hydration factors ok, gut sounds a little quiet but ok, but then when I trot him the vet says he is lame in the rear. She keeps my vet card and tells me to come back later and she will try to determine the cause. And so, just like that, we are done for the day after only 25 miles. Oh well, it happens to everybody sooner or later, and Patch did get a great workout on the mountain trails.
The sun is shining again. We wander back to the trailer, giving Max the news, and then some of my teammates. Patch is happy enough to be eating grass again, he is not in any pain except when trotting. This is why the vet evaluates their gait at a trot, there is more extension and more impact than walking, so if anything hurts, the horse will show it then.
I decide that since it is early in the day and I am not tired, Patch is not tired, and there is rain forecast for evening and overnight, that I will go home. My team has things well organized and they have plenty of help. So, as soon as Patch is unsaddled and has all the hay he wants, we go back to the vet to get a better idea of where the problem may be, and soon after that we load up and hit the road. It feels really strange to be heading home in the middle of a ride day.
We arrive back at home well before dark and Breezy hears the truck coming and runs across the pasture doing the sliding Quarter Horse stop in a fence corner just as we turn into the driveway. He is as good as any dog at recognizing "his" truck pulling his trailer with his buddy inside. He trots down the fenceline along the driveway with his tail in the air nickering at Patch.
Late breaking news via the internet: the two first time 100 mile riders finished the ride with 15 minutes to spare, riding from 5am until 4:45am with about 2 1/2 hours of hold times. I have done that, and I know just how they feel: tired! Beyond tired. And the horses, well, after a good meal and a bit of rest, they'll be recovered before the people are.
Patch and I are on our way west on a day when the temperature is 99 degrees. We are headed back to the same general area as our last ride, but this time will be south and east of Mt Adams. It's not many miles from the last ride site, but we will be in a hotter, dryer climate. The climate changes quite quickly because of the way the cloud patterns go around the mountain or are blocked by it.
I neglected to have my truck's air conditioner fixed, so I drive with my windows open, it's not much help but at least the air moves. At 65 mph it really moves! An hour and a half into the trip I stop to buy a large chocolate shake. I think it might be cooler about 40 miles farther along when the highway follows the Columbia River, but I only get brief readings about 4 degrees cooler. One of the few places where I do feel a difference is when we cross the river at The Dalles just below the large hydroelectric dam that puts a lot of spray into the air. It's brief but refreshing.
Camp is at a rodeo grounds in a small town. The camping area has plenty of trees, ahhhh, shade. There's not much temperature change but at least I'm out of the sun. Parking is kind of tight with the trees and so many people already there, so I squeeze in between 2 jeep roads and a couple of trees near my teammates. I will have a lot of horse traffic going past me on the way in and out of camp. This is going to be a dusty weekend even though the water truck will be spraying the roadway into camp and in the vet check area a couple of times during the day.
Several of my teammates have entered the 2 day 100. There is more risk because half the distance is done the second day, and if problems appear overnight the first day won't count. Otherwise it is like a one day 100. The vet check and hold in the middle is just very long.
Because of Patch's muscle cramp problem at the last ride, I decide to be a bit conservative and enter the 50 instead of the 80 miler or the 2 day 100. I can enter a second day later if all goes well for the first one. If I finish the second day I will be earning points for 2 50 mile rides, not a 2 day 100 even though the mileage would be the same.
Some of my teammates are helping with this ride, and one of them is the ride manager. For the first day my team will be providing hot dogs, chips and lemonade for all the riders at one of the vet checks on the trail. This is a big ride, over 200 riders have signed up for the first day. That means somebody is gonna be BBQing a lot of hot dogs.
The forecast is for a hot day, a few degrees hotter than the previous one. Patch and I start out about 10 minutes after most of the riders have gone. He trots along happily and we pass about 15 riders before we come to the 18 mile vet check. The day is still fairly cool and his pulse comes down quickly after I sponge his neck and chest with water from a tank, then we see the vet and he is good to go. The hold here is 30 minutes, enough time for him to eat a fair amount of hay. This vet check has trees along the road so there is shade.
We are doing a 50 mile loop today, so from this vet check we go on to the next one, about 14 more miles through the forest on jeep roads and trails. For the most part, the terrain is not steep, and there is a lot of level ground which surprises me since we are so close to the mountain. Ocassionally we cross a real road, mostly gravel but there is one that is paved. We cross it at a walk so his feet are less likely to slip.
The second vet check is at about 32 miles and has a lot more horses in it, since riders on all the distances have to stop here. Those on all distances except the 30 mile ride have an hour hold, the 30's have half an hour. Patch is ok, but the vet thinks maybe he sees something and advises me to keep the horse moving during the hold. I keep Patch walking around gleaning and during our hold he eats a lot of hay, some leftover grain and beet pulp, plus chunks of carrots and apples. Another rider holds the reins for me while I visit the portable outhouse, then get a hot dog and a bag of chips, and refill the 2 water bottles on my saddle. I put plain water in one bottle, and half lemonade in the other.
Can Do, the mare I sold last year, is in the 50 mile event today, she is about 45 minutes ahead of Patch and I, so she and her owner leave a few minutes after we arrive. She looks good.
The vet check is in full sun, so it is a relief to stick my head into the water tank one more time before we leave. I also sponge Patch so he is wet and more or less cool when we start down the trail into the trees for the last miles to the finish. Somewhere along the trail I discover that the gullet of the saddle is bumping Patch's withers. This explains why the vet who examined him last week to find the cause of the lameness at the last ride, found that his withers were sore. I thought he had probably just rolled on a rock in the pasture and hadn't thought too much about it.
As I ride along I am thinking of possible fixes for using the saddle tomorrow, or using Breezy's saddle on him. Horses come in different shapes, and I don't think Breezy's saddle is wide enough, but maybe if I use a thinner pad.... Patch is thinner than he was when his saddle was fitted and set up for him last year. Or maybe I could do something else. Adding an extra pad under this saddle would raise it up a bit but would also make it narrower. Patch has wide shoulders and they have to have room to work. There is time to think about it, right now I just need to get finished for today.
At one point we are going along a trail looking down into a canyon with a nice waterfall, and the whole effect of solitude is changed when a semi truck goes along the highway on the other side of the canyon. I didn't realize there was a highway over there even though I have ridden this trail several times in previous years. We go along by ourselves most of the time, Patch is happy with that and I am happy with his relaxed attitude. Happy horse, happy rider. It's much less work when I am not fighting a frustrated horse.
The temperature is slowing everybody down. I take a lot of walk breaks on the last section of the trail. The lid on the water bottle with the lemonade mix is loose and most of it has leaked out! I had this same problem earlier this year at another ride. The water in the other bottle will have to get me to camp. I taste it, ugh, it has a strong bleach taste. I pour what is left of the other bottle into it to mask the unpleasant taste.
A couple of riders pass us, and later we pass several others at a knee deep creek crossing. I would like to stand Patch in the water for a couple of minutes, but he doesn't want to stand and I don't insist because there are big rocks on the bottom and I don't want him to fall in the water. We go on and pass 2 more riders who are walking, one is my friend Max, he's leading his mule just to give them both a break. He is doing the 2 day 100 so I am not competing with him today.
When the water bottle is almost empty I discover a bug floating in it. I need the water but not the bug. I carefully strain him out between my teeth and donate him to the forest floor, then finish the last of the water. I wonder how many others I may have consumed. Well, with all the bleach in the water, I guess he was clean.
We cross the finish line, where the finish timer writes the time on the vet card. We go to the water tank and I sponge Patch to cool him while he drinks, then we walk back to the trailer. Patch is unsaddled and he gets a few bites of food while I cool myself off a little, drink some cool juice from my ice chest, and take off my riding helmet and half chaps. They hold a hot of heat although the helmet has vents. I would love to take off more but I've reached the limit for now. I grab my stethescope and check Patch's pulse, it is below 60 so we go to the official pulse area and vet check.
The vet says Patch is ok but quite leg weary, he's traveling just a bit sloppy but not lame. I tell her I felt the same way when I jogged to trot him for evaluation. We have a little chuckle over that. The temperature in the sun is 104 and there is no breeze at all.
Now I have to finish cooling off and see what I can do about the saddle problem. Over the next few hours I can feel the heat getting to me in spite of staying out of the sun, taking another salt tablet, and drinking lots of water and juice. I have less enthusiasm for riding another day in the heat. Breezy's saddle does not fit Patch even with the foam padding removed from the saddle pad. I think about the wisdom of riding 50 miles again with a leg weary horse using a borrowed saddle which may or may not work. Patch started today fresh but would not start tomorrow as fresh. The risk of injury would increase with the miles more than on a cooler day. At 8 pm the temperature in the shade near my trailer is 89. The air is not moving and tomorrow's forecast is for a high temperature about the same as today.
I decide not to ride tomorrow, but instead of going home a day early I will help my team and take pulses at the vet checks on the trail and in camp. It takes a small army of volunteers to keep things moving smoothly at a ride, so I will do my part tomorrow.
My alarm rings, it is morning again. I slept well after I finally got to sleep, delayed by the combination of heat and the live music in the rodeo grounds dance hall which thankfully stopped at a reasonable hour. It wasn't bad from a distance but I wondered how anybody could be in the building with it. Their amplifiers work very well.
Today I am not riding, so there is much less to do first thing in the morning. I take a walk to the outhouse, enjoying the cool comfortable temperature, then go back to my trailer, give Patch a fresh bag of hay and refill his water buckets. I also take him for a short walk. After eating something I go to see the start of the ride and learn that one of my teammates has pulled out of the ride, his horse has a sore tendon that wasn't a problem yesterday but has manifested itself overnight with some swelling and tenderness. That is one of the risks of the long hold in the middle of a 2 day 100.
The good news is that he will crew for the team and I can ride out to the vet check and back to camp in his air conditioned SUV! I will help with crewing for the team but probably he will handle most of that, and I can just help the ride management by doing pulses.
We haul a lot of stuff out to the vet check, and I help get everything set up and ready for the horses and riders. Then we wait for about half an hour before we see horses coming. The first rider in is one of ours! Others are not far behind, and I am kept busy. This is the same vet check that was the first one yesterday, it has trees and stays fairly cool. The timer has one of those portable picnic shelter things with a card table for paperwork, and several chairs. We sit in the shade when there are no horses coming through, and catch up on camp news, horse and people news, and have a few laughs.
When all my teammates have come through we go back to camp where they will appear next. I go back to work taking pulses and writing times on vet cards, and occasionally helping somebody with something. The sun is still behind some trees, so it isn't hot yet.
After a couple of hours we are ready to go back out to the same vet check where we were this morning. We left all the stuff out there because the riders go through it again and some of them will already be there again before we get back.
We pull in and learn that somebody pulling a trailer has jittered sideways on washboards on a curve and hit my teammates horse trailer. Not much damage was done, and somebody got the driver's information so it would be covered by insurance. The guy was just going around a corner too fast with an empty flatbed trailer. He said he didn't know he hit anything, but the people at the vet check stopped him. The trailer was there to haul any lame or sick horse back to camp but wasn't occupied at the time.
It's hotter now, the sun is shining right down on the vet check. It takes some creativity to keep the horses and riders out of the sun. I learn that it is hotter under the picnic shelter than in the shade of a tree.
I noticed a rider wearing a dust mask and commented to him that he was ready for the dusty conditions of the day. He said he had to wear it because he has had a double lung transplant! He was riding the 30 mile ride and this was his very first endurance ride ever! The rider who was helping him is his nurse, and she is the one who got him riding horses a couple of years ago.
After all of our team has come through for the second time and headed down the last section of the trail, we pick up all the stuff we brought out plus some saddles and tack from two horses who were pulled at the vet check, and drive back to camp. It's hot now and the air conditioning feels wonderful.
It's mid afternoon and the sun has been shining directly into the pulse/vet area in camp. The temperature is nearing 100 again. I keep retreating to a shady place under some trees whenever I can. As the riders finish for the day the spaces between them become longer, that is fine with me, I have more time to sit in the shade and visit with others who have taken refuge from the heat.
The man with the lung transplants is there and I feel priviliged to have more time to talk with him. He tells me that his problem was cystic fibrosis and he has never been a healthy person. He thought he would probably die while waiting for new lungs, but seven years ago he got them. Most lung transplant patients survive about two years, so he is by far the longest surviving patient, at least from the hospital where he had his surgery. Today he was riding because he got pledges for the transplant program, and the hospital newsletter will publish an article about him complete with pictures. What an amazing man! He was in a lot of pain but he did it anyhow. He makes me feel like a wimp and I told him he is my hero, that gave him a big smile.
My team did well this weekend, but because of computer mess ups on the results we still don't know where everybody placed. The ride manager tried a computerized program for the first time and ended up having to go back to compiling the results the old fashioned way with pencil and paper.
We got a lot of gusty wind in the late afternoon, followed by just enough of a shower to cool things off and freshen the air. I took Patch for a leisurely walk through the trees before dark, then finished packing up most of my junk so that I could make an early departure for the trip home and beat the heat.
I spent most of the morning hurrying around to get all the flowers, greenhouse plants and vegies watered enough to hold them through the next couple of days and we are headed off to another ride. This time we are going to the east slopes of the Cascade mountains, about 50 miles west of Yakima, Wa. The ride is a tough one and I hope Patch and I are up to the task on a hot day.
On the drive to the ride campsite I keep watching the thermometer. At Yakima it is reading 102, but as we get closer to the mountains I can see it cooling off. When we reach camp at about 5pm it reads 88. Not too bad, it will probably be about the same tomorrow.
Patch is happy to be out of the trailer with a bag of hay and some water so I go to fill out the paperwork. After a check by the vet we are good to go.
Dinner is potluck at the team campsite, and we even have shade! We talk about tomorrow. A bit later I pack a crew bag with hay, a baggie of grain and a small pan to put it into, and there is still room to add my lunch. I make a sandwich, peanut butter and cream cheese on whole wheat bread, put that into a baggie and then into a small insulated fairly crush proof box and add that to the crew bag. That gets put into one of the team members truck, then I lay out things I will need for tomorrow and there is nothing more to do until the rider info meeting.
The temperature has cooled off enough so that I take a light jacket along with my folding chair and go to hear about the trail, holds, and other important information. I see the lady who bought my mare, Can Do. She will also be riding the 50 but I don't expect to see her since she usually rides faster than I do.
Bed time. Patch gets another bag of hay and a clean bucket of water. He seems to use them for targets. I put this bucket about 10 ft from the clean one, hoping he will drink at least one of them.
A pleasant little bird is chirping his good morning to the world just as the 75 mile riders are about ready to leave. There are only 5 of them, and I am not sorry not to be riding that distance today. Been there and done that, I know what that trail is like and have no desire to ever see parts of it again on a hot day, so we will be doing 50 miles.
Time to get some breakfast, the usual stuff except the store was out of plain yogurt so I have cottage cheese instead with my banana, handfull of mixed nuts, juice and vitamins. I make sure my water bottles are full and take along some salt tablets in an itty bitty zipper bag. I have soaked a cool tie in water and put that in a plastic bag. It is too cool to want to put it on but I will need it later. It goes into my fanny pack along with the Patch's electrolites and a large plastic syringe to use for mixing electrolite powder with water from a stream or tank and squirting it into his mouth. We will both need salt during the day. This will be a 50 mile loop so I need to remember everything, there will be no second chances today.
And finally we leave, maybe 5 minutes behind the others. A lady on a gray stallion follows me, I've seen her before but never talked with her, so we ride along and get aquainted.
The trail goes along the edge of a meadow and and crosses a knee deep creek, then starts climbing mountains. Up, up, and more up. We get spectacular views and pass a few slower riders. Her horse is a follower, mine is a leader, and we both want to take it easy.
Just before vet check 1 we catch up with Can Do and her new owner, and ride into the vet check together. Patch and Can Do are happy to see each other. We keep them together at the vet check and ride out together when our 15 minute hold is over.
Patch travels along quite relaxed and happy. That makes me happy too. The trail goes up, up, up some more and we finally reach the summit and a few patches of snow! I think I remember that the high point of the ride is over 7000 ft. We started at about 2000 around 25 miles ago. The horses have been getting short breaks where there is grass and shade. Now we are decending with grazing breaks through meadows with knee deep grass and they think they are in heaven!
Vet check 2 is at about 35 miles and we have a one hour hold. Saddles are removed, we sponge the horses to cool them and get their pulses down, then see the vet. Patch and Can Do both pass and we retreat to the shade. My team crew person remembered and was quick to grab the nice shady grove of trees where I set up to crew for them last year, and so we have shade. Patch eats for the whole hour like a machine and I resaddle him just minutes before we need to leave again. One of my teammates sponges him with cool water one more time so he is cool and wet to start down the trail.
The last 15 miles to camp is mostly down hill, some of it very steep and dusty. When we arrive at camp the sun is directly on the pulse/vet area. Two of my teammates who have already finished their rides take Patch, unsaddle him and take him to the water tank for a drink and more sponging. His pulse comes down quickly, Can Do is right there so he doesn't worry about her leaving, and we see the vet again. Patch has a sore back from all that steep downhill trail, but not sore enough to disqualify him. We are done, and we finished right in the middle of the pack, 21st out of 43 starters, 8 hours 47 minutes travel time in rough terrain for 50 miles.
Today Patch has been the best behaved that he ever has been and was a real pleasure to ride. I lead him to the trailer and he goes right to work on the hay bag. Can Do's owner leads her away and he doesn't seem to notice or care. Patch gets a sponge bath and I improvise an ice bag by putting the ice packs from my ice chest in a t-shirt and tieing the openings closed with a hay twine, then put that over the sore places on his back for the next 20 minutes.
While he stands there with that funny looking ice pack eating hay, I stretch out on the folding lounge chair on the shady side of the trailer. Many people passing by stop to ask me what that thing is. It's just a case of the mother of invention being necessity. When the icing treatment is done the ice packs go back into my ice chest and the shirt is added to the dirty clothes bag.
Tonight's dinner is a barbecue with all the trimmings, provided by ride management. My friend David finishes his 75 mile ride while we are eating. It's great to cross the finish line and have about 150 people cheer, I know because I usually do the 75 here and I have been the recipient many times.
The evening is cool enough for a light jacket and thankfully my trailer living quarters has cooled nicely before I go to bed. Patch has had a leisurely walk through the meadow to graze, the birds have gone to sleep, bats are swooping above us to catch bugs for dinner, and everything becomes very quiet except for crickets and an occasional frog song.
In the morning I have the vet examine Patch's back again and discuss the advisability of riding another ride in 2 weeks. Nope, he probably needs more time, so I will give him an additional week off. This changes my plans but then when I stop for breakfast a few miles down the road, I learn that at least one of my teammates is going to a two day ride in Idaho the weekend after the one I hoped to go to, so we are trying to convince at least one other team member to go to that one so we can get some team points. We got good points yesterday with bonus points for 2nd, 3rd and 4th places on the 50 miler.
One the way home I suddenly hear a shhh-shhh-shhh sound and have a flat tire just about a mile from a gas station. There is just enough air in the tire to get there without ruining the tire, and the gas station employees just pump gas.
A teenage boy who just happens to be at the gas station with his family is hired for $5 to change the tire for me since I was having trouble getting the spare down from under the truck bed. Hornets had built a nest for egg hatching in the space around the hinges to the rear door which I discovered when I went to get the jack out from under the seat. OUCH! But thankfully I get only only one sting.
By the time the tire was changed the other teenage boy and their dad had all helped. I gave the boy $20 and told him to buy milkshakes for the family on their way home, after all, it's 90 degrees and they have 300 miles to travel pulling a trailer with 5 horses in it and all their camping gear in the back of the pickup. A service call from the tire company on a Sunday would have cost $98, so this was a bargain. We all went our separate ways smiling.
This time we are going to Idaho to ride in the mountains about an hour north and east of Boise. It's another hot day, and the forecast says more of the same, 100+ in the Treasure Valley where Boise is located. The ride managers have assured us that ride camp and the mountain trails will be cooler. I hope they are right.
There are forest fires to the east and north of our location, but the forest service people say the winds will take them away from us. We can see smoke but not smell it, so far so good.
Camp is in a meadow that has a creek running through it. I find a place to park near a water tank and not too far from an outhouse. The land is owned by a rancher, and he has requested that we all feed our horses certified weed free hay, so I have brought a bale of it that I bought last year. Patch doesn't really like it, but it is what we have to do.
After entering and getting Patch through the vet-in proceedure there isn't much to do until the ride info meeting. Only one of my teammates has come to this ride, so there will be no possibility of team points. It is a long ways from where most of them live. This rider lives near Portland but has come to the ride to ride with her mother who is a long time endurance rider.
All the vet checks will be in camp, the holds between the loops are 1 hour each. I don't have to take food or electrolites with me since I will be back in camp twice and can take care of everything at my trailer.
The ride will have 3 loops, the first one is 23+ miles. We are starting early so this will get us half way through the ride before it gets very hot. The mountains are steep here, and we are either going up or down, without much level ground. Mostly we are on old and new logging roads, and occasionally we pass a place where logs have been dragged to a landing where they will be loaded on to trucks. The larger trees are taken out carefully leaving the smaller ones to grow. We see signs of deer, elk and bears. Part of the ride is on private land, part on US Forest Service land.
Patch and I start alone but after a few miles we catch up with Jim and Vicki who live in Idaho, as do most of the riders at this event. I tell them that I may just pass them and go, but for a while I will ride with them and see how Patch does with some company. I have ridden with them for brief periods before, so they know what a handfull Patch can be when he gets excited. He does fine and so the 3 of us visit as we go along.
It's pretty hot when we get back to camp for the first vet check. I sponge Patch's neck and shoulders to help him cool off, and I also put cold water from the horse trough on myself. Patch passes the vet check and we go to the trailer for a one hour hold. We both eat, and I try to cool off. The trailer is in full sun and the sun is high so there isn't much of a shadow. Water bottles are refilled and put back on the saddle, and I drink a lot of water, eat a banana, an English muffin sandwich with peanut butter and cream cheese, and drink more water. Patch gets a dose of electrolites.
Before leaving I put on the cool tie that has been soaking since early morning in a bucket of water in the back of the trailer. I get my head wet, sponge Patch and we leave for the second loop, about 15 miles. Again I am riding with Jim and Vicki. Occasionally we stop for a few minutes where there is grass and shade. The horses are enjoying the fresh grass which comes in several flavors. We get up on a high ridge and can almost see the source of the smoke we are smelling, and we watch heilicopters with buckets of water (500 gallon buckets) flying toward it and then disappearing behind another ridge, then back to a reservoir to refill their buckets. We also ride past the reservoir but are not there when the chopper is refilling, although later we hear that some of the riders did see that as they went by.
By the time we finish the second loop, vet our horses and stay in camp for another hour hold, it is mid afternoon and really hot, several degrees hotter than they said it would be. I sit in the trailer with the door open, is isn't cool but cooler than I would be in the sun. The windows on both sides and the roof vent are all open so there is a bit of air flowing through. I eat another banana, the 3rd one today, and mixed nuts which taste good because they are salty. I take another salt tablet and drink about all the water I can hold without feeling sick.
Our hold time is about up. I put Patch's bridle back on him, tighten the chich, lead him to the water tank, sponge both of us, stick my head in the tank and put my riding helmet back on. Little streams of cold water are running down my neck, back, and front, and although it makes a few shivers, it is refreshing. I should have done the head in the water tank thing as soon as we got here but was concerned with getting out of the sun and never thought of it. We cross the creek, check out with the timer and start up the road again. There is only about 11 miles left, but according to those we have met in camp who rode this loop on the shorter ride, it is a tough loop.
Jim and Vicki and I are still riding together. Patch doesn't care if he is in the front of the group or behind, but doesn't like the middle. There is grass here and there along the trail and we try to stop where there is also shade, but there isn't much shade so sometimes we stop in the sun just long enough for the horses to get 2 or 3 bites. We miss a turnoff and go about half a mile down a hill and realize we have missed a turn, so have to climb back up the hill to find it. I tell Patch I'm sorry.
The correct turn takes us down a very steep single track game trail. I get off and shuffle my feet to keep my balance. Patch follows and thankfully he is not trying to pass me and not shoving me with his nose. I can feel my riding shoes getting full of dirt and small rocks, and am thankful that I am not following the others down this trail because we are making a lot of dust. We stop now and then for a quick rest, because going down a steep hill is a lot of work to keep gravity from taking over completely!
The steep trail ends and we are back on an old logging road and soon we come to a water tank. Out comes the sponge and we both get wet, and of course Patch gets a good drink. I still have a little bit of water in one of my bottles, it's hot, but it's water. I need to freeze my water bottles so they will be thawing out as I ride and I will have cold water, that would help my overall temperature.
The last 2 miles are in full sun, the first part follows a badly rutted road along a fenceline, then we get on to a better road where we can travel a bit faster without having to dodge from side to side, it's the road we drove in on yesterday coming the last mile or so into camp. I know where I am, but I don't think Patch does. Then the wind brings the smells of camp to his nose and he speeds up for the last quarter mile. We are finished with about half an hour to spare.
Patch gets a good drink at the water tank, and we get in line to see the vet. Patch looks fine for the final check. I am overheated and can't wait to get to my trailer and get cooled off. It's a good thing the vets don't check the riders.
Rule one is take care of the horse first, and it only takes one extra minute to unsaddle Patch, take off his bridle and replace it with a halter. He gets a new bag of hay and still has water in his buckets.
It feels good to get out of my riding clothes, sponge off with some water, and put on cooler clothes. My head aches a bit from the heat, so I drink more warm water (I don't have any that is cold) and take another salt tablet, then crawl up on the bunk and lay down with a cross breeze cooling me a bit. I snooze for a while but wake up as riders are going past my trailer on their way to dinner.
The ride managers have hired somebody to feed the riders, but I don't think they understand how hungry endruance riders get. I stand in the line in the sun and am getting too hot again. By the time I get a plate of taco salad and make it to my chair I am feeling dizzy. A nice little boy whose grandmother is sitting next to me gets me a glass of lemonade.
The food revives me and now the sun is going behind the trees. Ah, shade! Wonderful shade!
The awards for the day are given and we all head back to our trailers, or to other places to visit. I go to my trailer, get my glasses and a flashlite, and go to see the pictures that were taken on the trail today. Of course there is a lot of visiting along the way and I see some people I hadn't realized were at the ride, they were camped in the other part of the meadow and rode ahead of me all day.
I decide that I will not ride tomorrow because of the heat. I know it would sneak up on me sooner than it did today. The next thing I have to get for myself is a cooling vest made of materials that stay wet once they are soaked for a few minutes in a stream or water tank. And I know where to get one, the vendor will be at the next ride I'm going to in two weeks. It will be hot there too, after all, it is August.
Central Oregon is calling. The ride camp is at the Sisters Rodeo grounds, conveniently located only about 1/4 mile from a major highway. Easy to get to if I don't count driving through a lot of traffic. Central Oregon is growing at a phenonimal rate, and has been for the past 20 years. We lived in that area between 1985 and 1993 when we decided we needed more space and moved about 250 miles to our present location. We thought it was our choice, but God knew where He wanted us.
Patch and I are on our way before noon. Hopefully I will miss the rush hour traffic when I get to central Or. and will still have plenty of daylight after we get to ridecamp. Temperatures are around 90 as we travel, with a forecast for a high of 85 for the ride tomorrow.
About 100 miles from my destination I can see smoke from a forest fire somewhere ahead, hanging in a thick brownish layer with blue sky above it. The source of the fire is to our west and the wind is taking it to the southeast. The highway decends from a high plateau and takes us through the smoke. It smells like juniper, kind of sweet when it burns. Juniper is much like cedar, and has a lot of oils in it. By the time I get to Sisters we are out of the smoke and the sky is blue.
Several of my team members are already here, some even came the day before. Camp is in a grassy field that is used for rodeo parking. The grass is about 8 inches high and green. Patch grabs a bite of hay as he passes the hay bag on his way out of the trailer, then spits it out in favor of the fresh grass. As far as he is concerned, this is heaven!
After greeting teammates and other riders I finally get to the ride camp office and take care of the entry business, get a vet card and a map with information about trail marking colors and water on the trail, distance to the vet checks, etc., and make my way back to my trailer, stopping at a vendor's trailer to buy a cooling vest which should keep me comfortable tomorrow no matter how hot it gets.
Patch has eaten all the grass he can reach and is looking for more. We make a slow trip to the vet area with Patch munching happily all the way. A volunteer takes his pulse, it is a nice low 36. I've been doctoring some small wire cuts on his right front foot, but the vet says they are not likely to cause any problem, and gives him all A's on his card, making the entry process complete. He munches grass all the way back to the trailer, a trip that would take a couple of minutes at a walk, but with Patch munching and me visiting with other riders along the way, it takes about 20 minutes. That's ok with both of us.
I hang his hay bag on the side of the trailer, he sniffs at it as if to say "what's this dry stuff I get every day?" He gets 2 buckets of water and a pan of soaked beet pulp with grain and vitamins, which looks better to him than the hay, so he forgets the green grass and begins eating.
I start organizing things for tomorrow so that I won't have to be hunting for anything at the last minute. If everything is laid out I can just start putting it on the horse and on me without having to think too much.
Soon the sound of horns honking announces the ride meeting. Although this is an old ride, it is old in name only, the ride camp is in a new area and the trails are all new to everyone. We will not see anything we have seen before.
Being rather close to a highway has it's drawbacks, the traffic continues long into the night. It's a sound I am not used to hearing. A horse in a neighboring camp is missing his buddy and keeps calling to him, dogs who live across the gravel road behind the rodeo grounds bark and are answered by coyotes. I sleep, but wake often, and even get chilly in my sleeping bag because the temperature gets down to about 40. Yes, I could turn on my furnace and fill the living space with the accumulated dust, but choose not to do that, instead I close my roof vent and windows.
This campsite is far better than what we had the previous 3 years, which was an asphalt covered snowmobile parking lot where I removed my trailer mat to provide a softer place for the horse to stand overnight. It was the only place the Forest Service would let us camp in the area where our old trails were. For several years before that we used another camping area, but the Forest Service wouldn't let us use that anymore because the road into it needed repair and they wouldn't fix it or let the ride management fix it even though somebody was volunteering to buy crushed rock to fill the holes.
I hear the sounds of riders getting ready for the 80 mile ride before my alarm rings. There are 7 entries in that distance, including one of my teammates. She is brave doing 80 miles on a completely unfamiliar trail, plus she is young and energetic and has a very good horse. The rest of us are doing 50's. We have one fast rider, so hope for some bonus points if she finishes in the top 10. About 85 are entered in the 50 miler. I plan to start about 15 minutes late to let traffic clear out and keep Patch calm.
My crew bag is going out to the vet check in a friend's truck, and I have packed hay, horse goodies and my lunch. Just in case it is still cold when we arrive, I also sent a blanket for the horse. I have no idea what the elevation of the vet check will be, but ride camp is at something over 4000 ft. Higher equals cooler, and the sun or lack of it will also be a factor.
I mount up and ride out of camp at a flat footed walk, but as soon as we turn the corner on to the road Patch sees horses ahead of him and his feet go into a trot pattern. I try to keep him calm and let him trot slowly while his muscles warm up. We pass several horses that are walking or trotting more slowly, and after about a mile and a half there is open trail ahead of us. In the 18 miles to the vet check we pass a total of 17 riders, and I know there are others who left camp after we did. That might put us pretty close to the middle of the pack.
The vet check is in full sun, so I won't need the blanket. Patch's pulse comes down to 60 beats per minute within about 2 minutes after we arrive, and we get into the vet line. The vet thinks she sees something funny with his left front foot, but it's not consistant so she ok's us to go on. She makes a note, "LF?" on his card for the next vet. Hmmm, I've been doctoring the other one. Maybe it's nothing.
We have a 45 minute hold here. I locate my crew bag, and give Patch half of the grain mix I sent out and when he is finished with that he goes to work on the hay. I eat some of my lunch, replace my empty water bottles with full ones which are mostly still ice, visit the outhouse and get my new vest wet in the water trough. OOO it feels good. Our 45 minute hold is over and I check out with the timer and we are on our way for the 20 mile loop which will bring us back to the same vet check in about 3 hours if all goes well.
We have done 38 miles when we get back to the vet check. This time I make sure we see a different vet, just to see if he notices anything funny about Patch's gait. He doesn't, so I relax a bit. We repeat the hold proceedure but Patch is tired of his own hay. The ride management has provided grass hay and alfalfa hay so he gets enough variety to make him happy, and he also wants my cookies.
I see my friend Max with his mule Reba. She is reluctant to leave the vet check, ears back and tail swishing in protest while Max tries to encourage her to leave without making her mad enough to rebel. Reba doesn't see any reason to leave a good place with plenty of food where she has been resting for the past 45 minutes. He gets a lot of verbal encouragement from all of us and is soon going down the road on the way back to camp. The first 1/4 mile is the hardest, then the equines forget about the food and get interested in the trail again.
Patch has no such problem, he is ready to see the world and off we go. We pass 3 riders and one other rider passes us on the 12 mile trip back to camp and the finish line. We finished in 45th place, taking 8 hours and 3 minutes, counting the 15 minutes we gave away at the start. So, about 7 3/4 hours for the actual time we traveled. Start time is the same for eveyone no matter how late one actually starts. A 15 minute sacrafice to have a calm horse is fine with me.
My faster teammates have all finished ahead of me, one of them was in 3rd place. Later in the evening, but before dark, the winner of the 80 mile ride has arrived in camp, it's my teammate! She is a bit tired but smiling, and her horse looks great!
The team has a potluck tonight, I brought a loaf of banana bread and a quart of my pickled beets. We also have lasagna, garlic bread, green salad, potato salad, a pan of brownies and a cocoanut cream pie! There is plenty for all of us plus a few guests.
After dinner I take Patch for another leisurely walk so he can get another good meal of grass. He ate some of the hay and took a nap while I took a nap and had dinner. We wander around camp and visit with other riders. Many of them are doing the same thing. One rider gives me a big slice of watermellon when we stop to visit at her camp. Patch is very interested, and I have to turn my back and eat it quickly, with his big nose following me and lips trying to grab a bite over my shoulder. It would have been a great video. I feed him about half of the rind before he tires of it and goes back to eating grass. Then I eat another piece without any help from him.
Three horses from my friend's breeding program have finished today's ride, and we talk about 3 of her others who competed in the Tevis ride 2 weeks ago and finished that. The Tevis is a very tough ride, with about half of the horses who enter actually finishing it. It is quite an accomplishment for my friend to have 3 of her babies finish it on the same day! Understandably, she is still on cloud nine! She had 4 or 5 mares with good bloodlines and a young stallion and has raised many good endurance horses from them. When she was selling them I kept telling her she needed to keep a good one for herself, she did and has done very well riding that one in a lot of one day rides and a lot of multiday rides all over the west.
Soon after darkness fell, all the riders were finished with the 80 mile ride, and things were pretty quiet. I stood under the stars brushing my teeth, listening to Patch chewing on his hay and watching a bat swooping through the lights near the rodeo arena catching bugs. Most of the people in camp had already gone to bed.
The nearby lonesome horse didn't care about his missing buddy anymore, I didn't hear dogs or coyotes, and managed to tune out the highway noise. All the horses in camp had had enough exercise to be more mellow than last night, and pretty much considered their temporary quarters as home. By the time it was dark, all the riders who had done a bit of celebrating earlier had gone to bed, and all was quiet. Ride camps are pretty civilized places, unlike some other types of horse camps where things sometimes get downright ugly.
I slept quite well and was up soon after daylight, Patch got another nice leisurely walk with lots of green grass and I packed up most of my stuff. Awards were given, then we all finished packing up and cleaning up our campsites, and began the drive home. I stopped about 50 miles up the road for breakfast and diesel fuel, made another stop about 3 hours later at a rest stop that has a small horse pasture, gave Patch about half an hour there, and arrived home about 7pm.
My morning is a marathon of watering greenhouse plants, wetting down the greenhouse floor, and moving the hose and sprinklers around the house to get the last part of the flower beds watered before leaving for a two day ride series. I'm leaving a reminder note for my hubby next to the coffee pot to water a few things that will need a drink before I come back on Monday. The ice chests are packed and put into the trailer at the last minute, Patch is loaded into the trailer and we leave here fairly close to my target time.
The trip to ride camp takes about 4 and a half hours. I make it through the Boise area before rush hour, then relax and enjoy the scenery going north from there, past a dam with a reservoir behind it, a reservior with telltale water line ridges along the shore. I have never seen it so low, or with fewer boats on it. We go along a river, then up over a steep gravel road for several miles after we turn off the main highway.
Ride camp is in a familiar place and I park in the same spot as last year. although parking is not reserved. It is close to the vet check area, a water tank and an outhouse. All the conveniences! None of my teammates are attending this ride, many of them went to a new ride in central Washington this weekend, but I had pre-entered this event to save a few dollars on the entry fee, and there will be plenty of them riding to make team points without me. Besides, I have the opportunity to ride two days here and since I have missed a few rides it seems to be a good idea.
A thunder storm comes through camp, and we see several down strikes of lightning that will be sure to start some fires. The rain lasts about half an hour, not hard rain but enough to clear the air. It won't be so dusty tomorrow on the trails for about half the ride until the surface dries out.
Patch passes the vet exam with no problem. The trail information sheet gives me enough information to start laying out what I will need for morning. All the vet checks will be in camp for both days.
The ride information meeting gives everyone a few more details on the trails. Some changes have been made since last year. Then the head vet give us his part of the information which has no changes but rules require it. I see a few riders that I hadn't known were there, we visit a while after the meeting and then it is getting dark. I refill Patch's water, give him a new bag of hay, and put a lightweight blanket on him because the morning temperature is supposed to be in the lower 40's. The blanket is something I use at rides when the horse can't move around to keep muscles warm.
I awake to bright moonlight but it isn't time to get up. I hear some commotion so get up anyhow. By the time I get down off the bunk and out the door everything is quiet again. Patch is just standing there looking toward the other side of camp and I don't see flashlites or hear anything. After a quick trip to the nearby outhouse (ooo cold seat!), and a quick check of Patch's hay and water, I am back in the sleeping bag again. It's still a couple of hours before I need to be up, but I only doze off a few times, knowing the alarm will ring soon.
The trailer living quarters is chilly and I dress without wasting any time, and eat my breakfast banana, string cheese, a few mixed nuts, and take my vitamins. People are walking past my trailer, but so far no horses. I get Patch saddled and bridled, put a wool cooler over him and wait. We are not going out with the leaders, and hopefully can leave alone.
Patch is so calm, he stands still for me to get on my little stool to get on him, (I need that or some kind of a bump to get foot and stirrup together), and we walk through camp to the start line. I give my number to the starter and we walk out of camp in the fog which moved in after I had been up earlier. Soon we see two other riders disappear into the fog but Patch stays calm. Good boy!
The first loop is 20 miles, the trail is easy for the first half of it, no steep climbs. Patch trots along happily by himself and we pass a few other riders. The trick is to pass them and then speed up so they will not try to follow. It usually works because we are passing riders who want to go slowly and we look like we are going too fast. However, the speedup is just temporary and after we are out of sight we resume our former speed.
All the fog has burned off by the time we reach camp. We have passed 15 riders and that puts us about mid pack. Even with giving away about 10 minutes at the start, we did 20 miles in 2 1/2 hours. Patch passes the vet check and we go to the trailer for the hold time.
I give Patch half of the beet pulp/grain mixture I have had soaking overnight. He eats that and some hay while I shed a couple of layers of shirts, make a peanut butter sandwich, eat another banana and drink some water and V-8 juice. The water bottles on the saddle get refilled, I make a quick trip to the plastic throne, and it is time to slip the bit back into Patch's mouth and get myself back in the saddle, check out with the timer and start the 2nd 20 mile loop.
About 2 miles out I catch up with Jim and Vicki. Patch stays calm so it is nice to ride with somebody. We talk about rides, horses, families and life as we go along. This loop has a few steep climbs and the temperature is rising. As we ride along we keep hearing a small plane, probably looking for new fires, and later we also hear a heilicopter but can't see where it is going. We get a glimpse of it between the trees as it disappears over a ridge, but do not see any smoke.
We make a few stops to let the horses get a few bites of grass beside the old logging roads, taking advantage of food and shade at the same time, then make good time trotting on some long gentle decents. The temperature has risen quickly in the past 2 hours. We stop at a wide spot in a creek to let the horses drink. Patch paws at the water, first with one front foot and then the other, splashing himself and us and having a great time. I watch carefully for any signal that he might decide to lie down, but he just keeps splashing. We ride slowly on the last mile into camp and still have managed to make this loop in about 3 hours.
Patch is well hydrated, has fairly good gut sounds and is a bit reluctant to trot for evaluation. I make a guess that he has finally learned to relax at vet checks and doesn't think he should have to work. Breezy did that.
We have another 50 minute hold. Patch gets the rest of the beet pulp/grain mixture, eats some hay, and naps in the sun. I sit in the shade, eat string cheese, mixed nuts and a few cookies, then refill the water bottles on the saddle. My knee is bothering me a little so I take some ibuprophen. I have soaked my cool vest in a bucket of water, and make sure I'm wearing it before we leave. The temperature is up to about 85 in the sun and we have 10 miles to go with about half of it uphill and in the sun. Patch gets a soaking on his neck and shoulders, I mount up and we head for the timer's table to check out.
Jim, Vicki and I ride out slowly together and about 3 miles farther we are joined by another rider. The uphill is fairly slow but we trot on the gentle downhills. I think I feel some uneavenness in Patch's gait, it is the right front leg, so I slow down and ride at a walk for a while. About 2 miles farther we come to a water tank, the other 3 riders are there. They watch Patch trot toward them and say they see no problem. Maybe it's my imagination. We all leave the tank together but soon I think I am feeling it again, and so I let them go on without us.
I can see the heilicopter now, he is hauling water to a fire beyond a ridge a few miles away. I time him, he is making 5 minute trips and appears to be picking up the water from a location quite close to ride camp.
The decents become steeper and I see my former companions trotting on a section of the road across a canyon from us. It is the kind of slope I would not trot anyhow, so we are fine walking the rest of the way to the finish line in camp. When I reach the bottom of the hill at the edge of camp I see the heilicopter disappear behind the trees and come up a a few seconds later with a dripping 500 gallon bucket of water. My camera is in camp and I want to get a picture.
All that remains is to get the final vet check which will also be the entry check for tomorrow's ride.
Patch is reluctant to trot again and this time the vet can see why. She finds a sore tendon, but Patch is just barely lame (grade 1) so he gets a completion. The vet says we can start tomorrow but doesn't advise it. I decide it is not worth risking making a small problem into a large one. She agrees with that decision.
We go back to the trailer and I unsaddle Patch, apply ice boots to both front legs, and relax on a folding recliner in the shade for 20-25 minutes. I hear the heilicopter making his trips but need to stay here. After the ice treatment time is up, I take off the ice boots and apply a thick layer of clay to continue pulling the heat out of the sore tendons. He gets clay on all 4 legs. I take a bucket bath in the trailer, get into some clean clothes and go back to the recliner. It was a good $2 investment from the Salvation Army store.
The heilicopter has stopped coming, I think maybe he went someplace to refuel and will be back, but he doesn't come anymore. I probably missed some good pictures.
The ride management has a big barbeque set up and they are grilling hot dogs. The rest of our dinner is pot luck, and as usual there is plenty of it and a lot of variety! Awards are given after dinner, and the trail for the next day is explained. The riders will be doing the same trails again but in the opposite direction, but Patch and I will be going home.
The surface of the clay on Patch's legs has dried, so I use my other pair of ice boots to give his legs another good chill before I go to bed. I can pack away a few things while I wait for time to tick away. The blanket goes back on Patch for the night, the ice boots go back into the plastic bag and into the ice chest, and it's time to get ready for bed. I brush my teeth standing outside looking up at the stars and see the moon just coming up behind a mountain.
In the morning I go out to the start line and watch the riders start down the trail, then go back to my trailer to finish packing. I take Patch for a walk, then tie him to somebody else's trailer while I get my trailer out of our parking spot, and get turned around. Patch is loaded into the trailer and I drive out of camp, 3 miles up a steep winding hill and 3 miles just like it going down the other side. This brings us into Idaho City, a quaint little goldrush era town that is now pretty much a tourist town. I stop for some pancakes. I appreciate this cafe being here, and want them to be in business whenever I return to the area.
Later, about 30 miles down the road, I get out of the canyons and finally get some radio reception and find a Christian station, good music and an inspiring sermon for the rest of my trip home.
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