Somehow, we managed to [sort of] coordinate the leaving of three vehicles mid-morning the Friday before the ride. And somehow, we all managed to miss the turn to ridecamp, which was clearly marked with a sandwich board with the words “ENDURANCE RIDE” clearly marked upon it. It was a near-miss, though, and we were back on track almost immediately. Thankfully, the trailer ride was a short one for once.
When we pulled into ridecamp, which was a huge grassy field, the wind was blowing so hard the foot-tall grass was almost laying flat. We had clear instructions to park in rows, which would have put us parallel to the wind direction, so we fudged a bit and parked within a row, but parked so our awning and LQ door would be shielded from the brunt of the ruthless wind. Paul parked his rig the “right” direction, which made our little camp into an “L” with a nice buffer between trailers. Heidi parked her Forester in the middle of our buffer zone to guarantee we’d keep the buffer for the weekend.
As soon as camp was set up, we set about relaxing. Beers were opened and the talking began. It was nice sitting around with Paul chatting in chairs rather than on horseback for once. George entertained us all by looking completely confused by the entire ordeal. We eventually made our way over to register for the ride, and then returned to camp to saddle up for a quick easy ride. Jasper was very relaxed until we turned around for home—then he turned into a jigging maniac. I was so focused on side passing him back and forth down the trail (After this he decided walking forward at a walk was a REALLY good idea!), I didn’t realize Paul and Heidi were having similar problems with their mounts. Must have been the wind and excitement in the air! We passed several riders doing the same who had much naughtier horses than we did, so that was at least a little comforting.
Heidi and Paul sample and cook (respectively) our amazing dinner steaks.
When we returned, we cleaned up the horses and took them over to vet in. Everyone did very well (Jasper consistently scored a B on gut sounds all weekend, which seems pretty usual for him) and the ponies were returned to the trailer and bedded down for the night. Jasper got a new hay net from Susan at Healthy as a Horse that holds about a third of a bale of hay. I decided this was a good purchase as it would GUARANTEE I won’t have to get up in the middle of the night to the sound of hay bags being grumpily knocked on the side of the trailer by demanding, starving endurance ponies.
Off to bed we went! Heidi admitted to me she was nervous for the following morning, since George had been such a handful at our quick ride. I assured her he would probably be a little “up”, but since he was riding with Ron-G (who is a seasoned pro), she had nothing to worry about.
Saturday
Heidi had wanted to be sure to have enough time to see the fifties leave. Paul insisted we take all three horses over to the start so they could see everyone leave, which I thought wasn’t a terrible idea. It was fairly anti-climatic, though. Not sure what Paul is used to seeing at the beginning of ride and ties, but there were a few that left at a very reasonable trot and the rest left at a walk. The horses were nonplussed.
The bonus of having a ride season under our belt is that I’ve got my routine down to a science. I decided to do the ride completely barefoot, so it took about three minutes (including HRM electrode placement) to tack up. I threw a cooler over everything and left Jasper to eat at the trailer while I sat in a lounger and calmly ate my breakfast. When it was finally time to leave, I was shocked to see Jasper’s heart rate—36 bpm. His heart rate is NEVER that slow just before leaving. The lowest I’ve ever seen it (and only for a brief moment) before leaving the trailer was 44. Could it be possible my little Jasper was growing up??
About five minutes before 8, I tightened my girth and hopped into the saddle to leave with Paul and Heidi. Jasper’s heart rate continued to stay low all the way over to the start, and even stayed down when “trail’s open” was announced and horses started leaving (again, a very controlled start). Off we were! The three boys were walking calmly out on the trail with everyone else passing us left and right and were amazingly calm! Once we got down the trail a bit, we picked up a working trot, which was about the end of Jasper’s good-boy act. He spent the remainder of the 25 miles pulling and acting like a big jerkface.
The first loop (16 miles) went by fairly quickly. The first five miles we were grouped pretty tight with about 30 other riders, none of which were going fast enough for Jasper. I used Heidi and Paul to my advantage--every time Jasper got too chargy (which always happens when he spots another horse in front and wants to pass), he got pulled up and plugged in right behind George’s butt. This was fine, so long as Ron-G didn’t come up next to us, which stimulated a long bout of head tossing and general temper tantrum throwing. Jasper does NOT like Ron-G, and it appears as though the feeling is mutual. Although come to think of it, I can’t really think of many other horses Jasper really “likes” other than Callie and she doesn’t count.
We came across some beautiful scenery, including a 1-2 mile stretch of trail that had been described as “not that rocky.” Um, I would have called it rocky myself, but I was being especially aware because Jasper was barefoot. He did incredibly well, and crunched through it like it was no biggie (I was so frustrated with him at this point with all the pulling I was practically daring him to step on a rock and hurt himself--practically). We saw some incredible views of the Snake River, and on a clear day we had been told we could see Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Unfortunately, it was just a little too hazy.
We came into the first vet check in about 2 hours and 15 minutes or so. Jasper refused to drink the entire time, which caused me much consternation and worry. However, he looked bright and was having no problems otherwise, so I decided to write it off to the cool weather and his fitness level. He passed the vet check with good scores (another B on gut sounds) and we were ready for a 45-minute hold at the trailer. He ate and napped, which is typical for him. He did drink a tiny bit, but not enough to ease my worry about his lack of water consumption.
The second loop went out the opposite corner of camp and followed a gravel road for the first 3 miles or so. All three boys were feeling amazing, and we opened them up a lot on the road. It was an amazing feeling going out after 16 miles with a fresh as daisies horse. Jasper was floating in his incredible 12 mph trot on a loose rein with Ron-G and George following close on his heels. At one point, Heidi pulled up next to us and Jasper made a nasty face and George and kicked it into another gear I’ve never felt before. It was incredible, and both Heidi and Paul noticed and were amazed. The last nine miles went by incredibly fast. Jasper drank like a camel at the first water stop, which made me completely stop worrying as I knew he finally had gone into “professional mode” and was taking care of himself. We trotted and cantered the entire loop, and several times I was so happy I could sing or cry, sometimes even simultaneously. The boys were feeling GOOD, and we were exhilarated and passing people left and right.
My feeling was crushed going into the last water stop, however. We’d just come of a long stretch of cantering, and when I looked at my HRM it read 217 bpm. What?!? I took several deep breaths and dismounted to walk him the last few yards to the waterer, although my heart rate probably matched Jasper’s. I checked him out and everything seemed fine. That’s when I noticed our girth electrode had come completely undone and was dangling in the wind. Whew! We’d been riding with about an inch of daylight under our girth for the last loop and his shedding winter coat had covered the Velcro and girth, making it impossible to stick any longer. I unhooked both electrodes and decided to ride the last few miles “off-line.”
About a mile from the final vet check, Paul suddenly morphed into a competitive monster. There had been a group of riders that had been trying to catch us for the last several miles, so Paul announced that we were going to trot into the last check because “If those damn riders want to catch us they’re going to have to LOPE!” It was actually pretty hilarious—Paul was obviously feeling pretty cocky as Ron-G had come into the first vet check with a heart rate of 44. Off we went, and Jasper and I trotted into our first vet check ever. He pulsed down right away, and vetted through with great scores. Woo hoo! First ride of the season, completed!
Just before we vetted, however, I saw Paul and Heidi walking away. I called to them to make sure they realized we had to vet a final time, and they said they were going back to the trailer for a bit first. It ended up almost costing Heidi and George a completion because George got crampy and almost didn’t complete. We worked out the cramps, however, with walking, massage, and a cooler.
All of us were exuberant and had a great big toast (and a nap!) after our last ride together. It was a wonderful way to end four wonderful years of riding with Paul on Moscow Mountain.
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