Chief's Long Ride

During the night it rained, sleeted and snowed.  We woke up to cold temperatures and ice on things.  Ride start was at 6:00 a.m..  Took my time getting ready since I was not wanting to start with the pack.  38 or so riders on the 55 miler, 18 on the LD. I just mostly wanted to get the 3 or 4 miles down the trail before the 35 milers started a half an hour later so they wouldn't be running up on us.  This is Chief's 4th ride so he's not real experienced at ride starts yet.  He was great at Cuyama but he had his two mentors with him (Weaver and Rocky).  On this ride we were planning on riding with John B. and in fact were going to be vying for the Tail End, since the last time we rode together we brought up the rear.  I actually beat him that time (for last place).  So I knew that this was going to be some real serious competition!  I actually chose this ride because I knew it would be a great atmosphere to ride a younger horse.  I have thought about the biggest mistakes I made with my other horses, especially Rocky.  The two biggest ones come to mind the most.  First one is I made the mistake of letting him do any limited distance rides, and second - I took him to the wrong kind of ride for his first 50.  Now that I'm more experienced, I am trying to not make those same kinds of mistakes with the new horse.  Why do things the hard way, this is so much easier now!

I mounted up on Chief and walked him over to the start were horses were mingling out.  It didn't appear that most people were in a hurry, so I dropped in behind John and Boomer and we just walked calmly out of camp and down the trail.  The trail is in a new location this year and is in the lower part of Lee Canyon, where the Mt. Charleston ride is held in May.  The trail is just that, actual trail.  Obstacles include joshua trees, cholla cactus, rocks, and desert type foliage, when you do a ride like this your horse becomes a ballet dancer of sorts, it's really fun!  We headed out up a really long hill and trotted as much as we could.  It was chilly and breezy in the morning, and snowed on us several times during the day, though it still felt warmer than I'm used to.  We were even riding thru snow on the ground!  The horses were climbing a lot with winter coats so I was glad that it wasn't any warmer. The first loop was 15 miles and we were about three hours into it when all of a sudden behind us comes a big group of fast moving horses - the front funners!  Well, I should say they were formerly the front runners! :+}  Not anymore.  They blew by us as we were nearing camp.  We made it into the first vet check after that 15 miles and it took us 3 1/2 hours. 

Uh oh.  3 1/2 hours to go 15 miles?  I'm doing the math in my head.  Okay, this trail is really tough.  It's all uphill or all downhill, but there isn't anything flat.  Chief doesn't have easyboots on (dumb, dumb, dumb) and there are a few rocks (lol).  We kept getting delayed everytime a horse would get a cholla stuck in them.  At our first vetcheck we had a 20 minute hold here and vetted thru just fine.  Our next loop was going to be 20 miles long, then an hour hold and then another different 20 mile loop.  I was still doing the math in my head, trying to figure out how fast we'd need to go to make the time, now that we knew what the trail was going to be like.  Since it was new trail (meaning, it wasn't really a trail yet) it was hard to follow.  We left the vet check but John soon turned back realizing that he just wasn't going to make it thru the day at the pace his horse wanted to go.  Gosh darnit, I really wanted to ride with him!   I continued with Libby and Tye.  We trotted a lot of the uphill trail and then walked on the parts of the technical trail and I kept telling myself that there would be some good footing farther up where we could really boogie and make up some time.  We had to make up some time.  Of course, I didn't bother to bring a watch, a heart monitor or a GPS.  I also forgot to bring any beet pulp.  Thank goodness that Claire got me some beetpulp, and I was able to borrow everything I needed.  I don't have a trailer right now, and it's a real pain.  

We wound our way thru the trail, it seemed to go up and down, then down and up, then down and down. Finally we were headed back downhill after doing a several mile long climb up to the top and around the water that is in the catch-pen that we also ride by on the Mt. C ride.  Had to stop another time to two to pull cholla out.  Then on again and trotting everywhere we could, and now I was trotting over everything, rocks and up and down all of the hills.  As we got within about 4 or 5 miles of camp, Libby decided that there was no way her horse was going to be able to keep up the kind of pace necessary to finish the ride in time so told me to go on without her.  I was still working out the math and didn't really want to leave her, but I knew that if I stayed with her that I would have to pull when we got in to camp.  She really wanted me to go on without her, so I put Chief into a trot and we trotted the entire rest of the way in to camp.  We had started at 6:00 a.m., and I got my in-time after going 35 miles at 2:29 p.m. in the afternoon.  It did take him a couple of minutes to meet the 60 criteria, but he'd been trotting his little heart out up and downhill and some deep stuff too.  This is where all that conditioning paid off.  Now I had an hour hold before going back out on the trail. Chief vetted thru again just fine.  I had been feeding him on the trail and during the vetchecks he never stopped eating the entire time.  I love this horse!  I had Barney hold him for me for a moment while I looked for more cholla and plucked out a couple that I had missed earlier.

One of the earlier frontrunners that had missed trail earlier left about a half an hour before me. I think the rest either gave up or were pulled.  I was the tail end and didn't have much chance of catching up to the rider in front, and there wasn't anybody in back of me.  In fact, I think that 15 people had already pulled.  I was still doing the math, and talked it over with Peggy about whether or not I should even try to do the last 20 mile loop in 4 hours.  I had done the previous 20 mile loop in 4 1/2 hours and that was in the same time as Tinker did it (she was the 1st senior and BC on the ride that day).  So I wasn't exactly putzing along, we'd been trotting a lot.

Oh man. I watched Chief eat, drink and pee during this hour hold.  He looked good and alert.  I got on him and thought I'd see how it would go. I figured that I could always turn around and come back. He'd already done 35 really tough miles and now he was going to be heading out uphill all by himself.  Well, good grief, this little guy just perked right up and won my heart right over.  He trotted right out of camp and almost the entire way up the long grade!  I was so impressed with his attitude and eagerness that it really perked me up and changed my attitude.  Now here he was getting me thru the ride.  I made sure and carried a really large baggie of equine senior and several carrots with me since I knew how long we would be out there.  I also knew we'd be in the dark for some ways, so took a flashlight.  As the sun was starting to set behind Mount Charleston the lighting was making it really hard to follow the trail.  We'd be trotting along, looking at a ribbon then all of a sudden the trail would end and I would have no idea where to turn him.  Which way do we go?  Often, I would end up steering him face first into a tree.  I was getting really frustrated after doing this a few times, I could not find the next marker and saw tracks going every which way.  I was about ready to turn around and give it up, when Chief seemed to spot the next marker and headed towards it of his own free will.  Sure enough, just like the lights coming on, I saw the trail marker ahead and then we got thru those sections working together. 

We made it to the highway crossing and the water, where Chief just dived into the hay pellets that were there.  I pulled him away for fear that he would choke.  BLM won't allow hay to be put out at the checks anymore.  So I fed him my baggie of feed and he drank really well.  I took some photos and then we headed on our way.  We trotted where we could, and then where I needed to I got off and led and jogged as much as I could on foot.  This really wiped me out.  The sun was setting more and more and the trail was harder to follow and all I kept thinking is what happens if I get lost out here, they will never find me.  Things were going along pretty well, I was getting closer to camp and decided to get off and jog and lead for awhile when all of a sudden I felt a sharp jab in my leg.  It felt like I had been attacked - and I had - by a cholla!  I instinctively put my hand down and got that stuck to the other side of the cholla.  I fell to the ground with tears coming down totally out of control, I was in shock over how much pain I felt so quickly.  No wonder the horses hate that stuff so much!  I wrestled with the damn thing and finally got it pulled out.  It was like pulling out a dozen fish-hooks.  I was suddenly nauseas and couldn't walk anymore.  So I got back on Chief and just hoped and prayed that he would not run into any cholla himself.  I couldn't see anything, and this was the first time I'd ridden him in the total pitch black dark.  The plan was that I'd have company and while we were tail end together at Silver State, I think John and I still had an hour and a half to spare.  On this ride I was pushing the clock at lot closer than I've ever pushed it before, holy cow! (HOW does Trilby do it?????)  We made it in to the finish line just before the cutoff, taking almost 13 1/2 hours.  Vetted thru just fine and even managed to get my vet card into the drawing for top ten.  It was sort of fitting that we got the last drawn card for one of the awards.  We also got a t-shirt, a hat, and a caribbeaner.  They told me that they were considering coming out on the quad to check on me and make sure I was allright, but Barney told them to leave me alone that I knew what I was doing (gee, thanks Barney!). :+P   Chief got some good experience, some really great conditioning and we're getting this thing down as a team. 

I heard that the dinner that night was spectacular.  I missed it only because I was still feeling nauseaus from the cholla attack.  I didn't even eat dinner, but I was drinking plenty of fluids and they were staying down, mostly.

Kay helped me take care of Chief, then I went over and crawled into my sleeping bag in Gesa's camper (thanks all you guys).  We came home on Sunday.  Only the true die-hards stayed and rode on Sunday, the trail was also 55 miles and I am sure was also quite a challenge!  

It's not very often that you are given an opportunity like this, to do a real endurance ride.  I always like the LVDR rides and look forward to next year.  These guys even put out glo-bars.  I should have taken one for a souvenir of this very memorable ride.  :-)  Thanks you guys!  And thanks to my friends for hauling me and my horse to the ride, and for housing me and taking care of me too -- you guys are awesome!!! 

Oh yeah -- lessons learned.  1)  pack the beet pulp first  2) get the horse used to easyboots (DUH)  3) bring a watch  4) half chaps for this ride wouldn't be a bad idea  5)  screw up once in awhile so people will worry about you  

Karen
& Granite Chief