Not so Tough Sucker

Friday

12:45 am

I’m awake, still, and can’t decide if it’s because of the long drive that I’ve yet to settle from, the constant squeaking of the spring ties, the anticipation and nervousness for tomorrow (or today, I guess), or all of the above.  Jasper’s happily munching away at his hay at the trailer, squinting at me in the lamplight every time I go back to check on him.

The drive was long—much longer than I had even been anticipating.  Navigating through Oreana roads in the darkness isn’t exactly my cup of tea, although we only managed to eliminate a jackrabbit and a few other small furries from the population.  My exam this afternoon went according to schedule--I arrived on time and finished in 13 minutes, including a second go-through to make sure I hadn’t missed anything.  As I was leaving town, I suddenly realized I had left all the refrigerated goods back at home stowed safely in the refrigerator and had to back-track.  Even so, I was on the road by 2:55 Pullman time (3:55 ride time).

When I did arrive in the dark, I was worried I’d have trouble finding our rig.  However, when Wayne had said he’d parked right at the entrance, what he actually meant was that he parked right at the entrance.  I could see the trailer and horses from the road, which was a relief.

During my absence, Wayne reported that Jasper got free not once, but twice.  The second time, he broke the tie.  I don’t know what was going on, but I imagine it was all the excitement of everything.  Even so, I was surprised at the news.  He vetted in without incident, although he received a B on gut sounds.  Wayne said he’d been eating for a while before he vetted him, so I think it was just the extremely long trailer ride.  I think when all was said and done, Jasper was in the trailer for 10 hours or so, including an hour layover in Boise while Wayne checked on the kitties and loaded Cricket.

Saturday

Morning came too soon, and just as I expected, I woke up long before the alarm clock went off. Jasper looked good--he'd eaten everything in front of him and drank about 7-10 gallons of water overnight. I ate breakfast and set about putting Jasper's boots on, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that Wayne had inadvertantly parked at the leaving point for all distances. Jasper danced and whinnied every time another group of horses trotted or cantered by. I finished tacking up and bravely put on Jasper's S-hackamore, figuring I could put his snaffle in if things got rough. I mounted and we set off walking for the start. About 100 yards from the trailer, Jasper had a meltdown--Cricket was circling at the trailer and all the excitement had taken it's toll. I dismounted (with difficulty--I had to pull him into a spin), we walked to the start, and I switched his hackamore for the bit. Ah, well.

They announced the trail was open, and Jasper and I gallantly left for our first 15 mile loop of our first endurance ride....with me walking him on foot and him whinnying and prancing next to me. I took Karen's advice--so long as Jasper wanted to prance about and pick his own pace, we would walk. We were passed over and over again, each time ramping him up more than the last. I held fast--this was a training ride, after all, and I wasn't about to let control get away from me that early in the ride. After about 2.5 miles, he had finally calmed down enough for me to mount again. We walked for another mile or so, and then I asked him for a teensy-weensy trot. He gave it to me, but at a 10 mph pace. So we walked again. We alternated walking and trotting for the first five or so miles. In one of our trotting bouts, he suddenly started to do the sideways "I've-lost-a-boot" trot he does, and so I stopped him and checked his rear boots. Nothing looked out of sorts, so off we went--at the sideways trot again. I stopped him and realized his front right boot had come completely apart. I hopped off and removed it along with his other front boot and stuffed them in our saddle bags. It didn't look like we were going to be able to finish with only two boots--I'd heard the second loop was rockier than the first.

We soon caught up with Carol and Rick Brand and made our way with them for a while. Jasper was feeling more relaxed, and so we pushed on ahead, working at about an 8.5 mph pace with frequent walking breaks.  I was so pleased with how relaxed he was going--he was more than willing to go faster, but listened very well and ended up rating better than I would have expected.  We crossed a stream (Alone! A first for Jasper!) and he had a nice pee in the deep sand.  I've almost got him to where he pees on command.  We're now at the point when I know he's thinking about doing it and can cue him to do it before he actually does.  I think it won't be long before he'll do it completely on command.

We came into the vet check and I told Wayne he'd have to fix my boot or else we'd have to pull.  He set to work and I vetted Jasper--he ended up getting better scores than the initial check, which made me happy!  He pulsed down right away and drank very well and we made our way back to the trailer for our quick break.  Wayne fixed the boot in short order--it turns out that I hadn't screwed down the screws tight enough on one of the cables, so it hadn't broke, just pulled free.  I rebooted Jasper, grabbed a quick snack and we headed out again for loop two.  

Jasper had PLENTY of energy leaving camp that time, too, so we walked until we were just outside of camp.  He seemed to catch on pretty quickly, and Rick and Carol caught up with us and we rode with them again for the first 3-4 miles of the loop.  We pulled ahead and again, Jasper rated extremely well and only spooked once at a lone sagebrush in a grassy field.  I couldn't believe how well he was doing out ahead by himself!  The loop went by very quickly, although about three miles from camp on a walking break I noticed his heart rate was hanging at about 103.  At first I thought it was a mistake, but it would move and so I decided he was probably just excited by the ride.  Unfortunately, this is the point I think his rear boot had started knocking into his fetlock.  I even got off and we walked for a bit to give him a break in case he was feeling especially tired, but he was acting normal and his heart rate eventually dropped again.  When I remounted, we finished the last few miles at about an 8.5 mph pace with him sitting at a 120 bpm.  When we came into camp, he was looking excellent!  His heart rate dropped, he had excellent gut sounds and other vet scores.  Unfortunately, when I trotted him out, he was significantly off in the right rear.  I had Wayne trot him out again so I could see, and he was definitely off.  Since we had taken so long, we didn't have any time to remedy the situation, so we were unable to complete.

I was very concerned about Jasper, and although I calmly walked back to the trailer, I had felt like running.  I stripped off his hind boots (no rubs) and started feeling his leg.  Sure enough, on the inside of his fetlock he had a scuff mark and some decent swelling where he must have been interfering with his other hind Renegade.  Well, shoot.  I iced and wrapped the leg, and within about a half hour, the swelling had decreased significantly.  We walked back over to the vet-in area so I could have Dr. Washington take another look at his leg.  He felt the muscles and everything and said there wasn't any cramping, so it was probably just the interference.  

All in all, I'm incredibly happy with Jasper's performance on this ride.  He ate and drank like a pro, rated better than I had expected, and looked happy and relaxed throughout most of the ride.  His lameness was a learning experience for me--I even have hind interference boots but since he's never had the problem before I didn't think to put them on.  I am so thankful he is not seriously injured, and really don't think there's anything I could have done to prevent this.  It's just one of those things!  At the awards dinner, Wayne asked me if I was disappointed I wouldn't be getting one of the cool completion tee-shirts.  I leaned over and whispered back, "I have a healthy, happy horse who did awesome for his first endurance ride, and I wouldn't trade that for all the completion tee-shirts in the world!"  He nodded and seem satisfied.

When we got back on Sunday, I turned him out for a quick roll in the arena and he wasn't off at all.  On Monday, he was definitely 100% sound and ran bucking into the turnout pen flirting with the mare in heat on the other side of the fence.  What a good boy!