Granite Chief's First 100

We rode thru the desert with a horse with no braid. That was the name of our Team on this ride. I cleaned up Chief's mane, conditioned and braided it. A couple of days before the ride I found him minus the longest braid. We found it, all 22” of it, out in the dirt where the horses lie down. I figured that he was probably sleeping when one of the other horses came and stood on it and he jumped up and ripped it right off. I just figured that this was one of those things that horses like to do to freak you out right before their first 100. I knew Chief was ready for it, since he'd done all 4 days of Death Valley and was very strong on the last day; it was time for an attitude adjustment by way of going 100 miles in one day. This is a good first 100 for a horse. The trail is nice with gradual climbs, nothing too difficult or technical and the footing is excellent. Tho, you do definitely want to take a horse to this ride that is well broke to motorcycles (and lots of 'em).

Getting ready for a 100 is a lot of fun. We spent the day Friday getting everything together. Packing for all of the vet checks, food for the rider and the horse. Finding the glowbars and getting everything organized so it would be easy to find during the ride. Making sure I had all of the riding clothes I would need in case the weather turned. The right blankets and rain gear for the horse in case it was needed. Dave came with me to crew and was going to meet me at the first hour hold (approx. 35 miles), the 3rd check at 57 miles, back in camp at 65 miles and then out on the trail again at 92 miles. So I had to make sure I had enough feed for the horse packed for each of those times, plus myself. I was getting excited.

The ride start went well. I waited until about 5 minutes after 6 a.m. and then mounted and walked out of camp. Chief was calm and going well. I gave my number and crossed the road onto the trail. Chief realized that he was starting a ride and woke up----I had already walked him around camp earlier to warm up so asked him to do a slow trot. He was going along pretty well but started to get excited. He would get behind his bit, and do little jumps. I was trying to tell him to go forward but afraid to squeeze with my legs for fear that he would go up rather than forward, so tried to stay calm and keep him moving. He got thru it and was fine for a while. He doesn't buddy up with other horses so it doesn't help me to be next to another horse, he still wants to catch up to any horse that is ahead that he can see. So that is where it was give and take for a while. I would let him trot a little faster to keep him happy, then reel him back to a slower trot or walk when I could. We finally reached the 8-mile water spot and stopped. I got off here and hung out a little while and let some of the others go ahead and left when I had a break so I would be by myself. That really helped, now we were riding at a pace we were both happy with and without trying to catch somebody. This was nice. I was finally able to start taking photos.

The first vet check was about 14 miles out. We pulsed down, trotted and then drank and headed back out on the trail with a couple of bites of hay. The weather was beautiful. Soon we were being passed by the 65 milers who started an hour behind us. A few cantered by on one of the downhill sections, I think 7 of them. Chief actually handled that fine I think he gets the concept of being passed. I had been counseling him, telling him “you need to get control of your feelings”, I think he was starting to listen. His first and only spook on the ride came up soon at the next water trough. We were trotting along and it was off to the side around a bush and as soon as he saw it he went sideways, but stopped and then walked right over and drank. I electrolyted him then, the only time I syringed him with electrolytes throughout the entire ride. The rest of the time he ate them in his food, which I prefer. We soon encountered several large groups of motorcycles. They were everywhere, passing us in groups, singles, going around us, next to us.

The hour hold went well at 35 miles. Dave was waiting for us. I had something to eat and one of those new Snapple meal replacement drinks. I drank a few of them during the day and like them a lot. Chief ate hay, soaked oats, soaked complete feed w/ elytes, apples, carrots, equine senior and cob. On the trail I carry carrots and feed him several between each check. He went thru more than 10 pounds of carrots in one day, mostly on the trail. I picked up his feet and checked his shoes. He's in his third shoeing of Ground Control shoes, and this set was put on a week before the ride. I bend back the heel area and shake, to get all of the small little pebbles out. We never got any larger rocks in the shoes during the ride. The footing is so good on this ride that I wouldn't expect to, tho there are a couple of sections that something could get in there. The shoes have almost no wear on them.

At this check I changed from his bit into a hackamore. I thought that he'd be fine in it, but it didn't work out how I hoped, so at the next check I switched back to the bit. Oh well. I left the check a little over our time and rode with Sue and Becky, my other team members. Heather (the 4th) pulled earlier in the day so there were three of us left. The 6.5 mile long section of flat road seemed to go by fairly quickly. I took more photos, and soon we arrived at the water stop where John Teeter was. There was hay there and the horses all drank well. We had one more water stop before the next vetcheck. We were making pretty good time keeping a steady pace. The vet check went well, in fact I had perfect checks all day long I don't think I could have had a more perfect ride. Well, until the part at the very end {sigh}.

We left that check and had 8 more miles to go back to camp to the 65-mile point and another hour hold. Sue, Becky and I were still together. Becky's horse Ed walks really fast (he's gaited) and it was hard for Chief and Rocky (Sue's horse) to keep up. We made it into the check before dark, and enjoyed our hour hold. I changed clothes, ate, put glowbars on Chief's b/c, put my headlamp on and made sure I had everything I'd need at the 92 mile point should the weather turn bad. So far, it had stayed absolutely perfect all day. No wind!

Soon it was time to go. This is the part that I had lived for all day long. Hell, ever since Death Valley! Now was the moment I had been savoring…..the time to see the look on Chief's face when we headed back out! The look on him when I put the bit in his mouth was totally priceless! Up until this ride, he had never done more than a 55 mile one day ride before. I lead him out of camp and mounted. We crossed the road to the trail. Becky and Sue were not ready to leave yet so I took advantage of the opportunity to see how my horse would feel by himself. He took off at a nice good walk, then asked to trot. Wow! I told him, now see, this is how you should have been at the START! You've got it boy, now next time don't make me ride you 65 miles to get you to do this ok? {g} He sure had a great attitude. The last 35 miles was the best part of the day! We trotted up to the water trough where the official finish line was. A couple of riders were galloping in and so we moved out of the way over to the water trough. That still wasn't good enough as one of them continued in a circle and came around and pretty much slammed right into us. Chief jumped sideways in time to not get hit, at least. I was just glad I wasn't dumped off in the water. We then figured it was safe to continue back on the trail and got on our merry way. Chief never looked back, never balked and seemed pretty cheerful about this whole thing. This was fun! He was having a great day and takes such good care of himself he doesn't give me anything to worry about so I was having a really great ride. The stars above were bright and clear. We continued at a nice steady pace, walking and trotting. We were only slowed down trying to find the trail (let's just say they don't go overboard with glowbars on this ride). Eventually Becky caught up with me, joined by Alexis. Sue had decided to go back and pulled (darn), so now it as just Becky and I left from our team. We rode together to the water stop by the underpass. I got off here and decided to stay and let Chief eat while the others went ahead. Chief was still not able to keep up with Ed's walk and I didn't want to have to ride a jigging horse, plus since this was his first 100 I really wanted to spend it alone with him. After letting him eat a few minutes, I mounted up and we left the check at a walk. Chief followed the trail easily in the dark and we made it into the 92-mile point at the same time Becky and Alexis were leaving. We had a 15-minute hold here and stayed a little longer since Chief was eating well. The evening was beautiful. Now we only had 8 miles left to go to the finish. Or so I thought.

We made it up the trail, back across Hwy 395, underneath the Ridgecrest billboard and then back up and over the hill towards Ridgecrest and camp. We were doing pretty good, I felt really good and Chief had a nice enthusiastic attitude. As were dropping down closer and closer towards the finish, Chief tried to make a turn. I saw a glowbar ahead and steered him towards it instead. There were more glowbars so I kept following them. How was I to know that they had been moved and I was no longer following the real trail?

Pretty soon I started to realize that I wasn't where I should be. Chief already knew this. I saw the lights of Ridgecrest and all I could think of is “uh oh, which way do I go?”. I wasn't sure where to turn, and could not for the life of me find the lights of the fairgrounds, they every so conveniently blended in with all of the other city lights. I came upon some guys in a truck and asked them if they knew how to get to the fairgrounds. They said sure, and what are you doing out at 3 a.m. with a horse? They drove towards me and got a little too close for comfort so I quickly jumped on Chief. I wasn't very comfortable with the situation, being alone and no idea where I was but figured that being on the horse was safer. They told me where to go, to the stop sign, turn left and go two miles, then left two more miles and the fairgrounds are on your right. I had no reason to doubt them. I was figuring at this point I had simply lost the trail, or took a wrong turn. I had followed the glowbars until they stopped. It was not uncommon on this trail to have it be a mile between glowbars. I didn't know it at the time, but I was only one turn (block) away from the fairgrounds when I followed the glowbars the complete wrong direction.

I made the turn that I was told to make, trotted on by the Wal Mart and Albertson's on China Lake Boulevard. Soon, these guys were circling around the block and I was getting a bit nervous. They were drunk. I realized that at one point they had told me that the way I was going (the first time I saw them) that they had told me that all of the other horses had gone the way they told me to go. If they knew that, why did they ask me what was I doing out there with a horse at 3 a.m.? Suddenly I didn't feel so good. I cut Chief over off of the road and into some dirt, in an area where they couldn't follow me easily. We trotted along and ran when we could, now I wanted to get somewhere to try and call for help. As I continued down the road, I could see that there were no lights beyond the Shell station and that I knew I had been messed with. I was annoyed at myself for not having my cell phone with me, or even my GPS with basecamp marked on it. Then I wouldn't be in this position. My horse had already gone 100 miles and now I am riding him the complete wrong direction from the finish line, and he is perfectly willing to go. Suddenly, he stops and refuses to go. I got angry with him and urged him on, thinking you stupid horse I've ridden you 100 miles and you won't go now; don't you understand this is important we need to get out of here? Thoughts I would later regret having. He wouldn't go, so I turned him left and went up a ways, then right again, and then he was willing to go. We ran up to the Shell station, which was closed but there was a phone. I jumped off and ran over to it and dialed 911. Yay, it rang! The phone worked! I got a dispatcher and told her what happened, that these drunk guys sent me the wrong way, were following me and I had no idea where the fairgrounds were, could they help me? She said sure, hold on. Came back on the line and I said, can you tell me which direction I need to go from here to get to the fairgrounds? She hesitated a second and said “well, it's pretty far”. {gulp} I explained that my horse had already gone 100+ miles and was running thru the dark trying to get away from these guys and I wanted to keep him moving so could I please just walk the right direction and have the police meet me? She said sure, do you see the lights from Wal Mart and Albertson's? @#$% uhhhh…..you mean the one I passed a half an hour ago? Yes. Head that way. Okay, thank you. I turned Chief back around and started walking him back. As I led him I went back over into the dirt and as we walked I came upon the spot earlier where he had balked and refused to go. Oh my Gawd. I got tears in my eyes and turned around and hugged him and told him what a good boy he was. He saved our lives. Had he gone where I had asked him to go, we would have tumbled a ways into a culvert and I probably wouldn't be telling this story now. I am glad that after going more than 100 miles, he had more sense than I had and knew how to take care of us. I continued walking and soon two police cars pulled up. I stopped and we talked a few minutes. They were going to see if they could find the guys that had been harassing me and make sure I got back to the fairgrounds okay. The directions were to go back past the Wal Mart, next street down turn right, go thru the next stop sign, keep going straight, then turn left and the fairgrounds were right there. I realized at that point that I had already been right there, but just one street over and could not see the lights. I asked what time it was, and don't remember what it was, but it was maybe 4 a.m. so I knew I would have enough time to simply walk in and make it in time. I had blisters on my feet but did not care, I just knew that I wanted to take the best care of Chief that I could, since he had gotten me thru so much in the last 24 hours that I owed it to him to not risk anymore dumb things like trotting in the dark thru an area full of obstacles that could get us hurt.

Made it in around 4:30 (I think). Brian and Charlie (vet) were sitting in the truck. I found out that I was the 2nd to last rider. John Parke was still due in. I heard that some of the other riders had been rerouted too, and have since found out from others that they also had some situations to deal with that weren't all real pleasant. I was just happy that I made it back to camp in one piece, with a healthy horse, even if it was with a police escort. I learned a lot. I will always bring my cell phone from now on. I will always bring my GPS, and before I start I will mark basecamp. At each out vet check I will mark a waypoint. I will listen to my horse even if there are glowbars ahead, and I will thank him and love him for keeping me safe and for bringing me so much happiness and pleasure.

Becky and I only have the EHSC 50 left to do to get the Fire Mt. Horse Excellence award this year! 300 miles down, 50 left to go. I love having goals.