One of my main goals this season was to
ride two 100 mile rides. I almost hesitated to have that as a goal
because I can only go to so many rides and I want to complete all my
rides. The more miles you choose to go, the more you need to have
everything figured out and the more chance you have of getting
pulled, even if you do everything right. But I really like the longer
distances, so plan I did.
Of course fires, pneumonia and my horse
deciding to skin herself up goofing around in the field didn't help
my season any. Seems despite how hard I try, I don't have control
over everything. Such is life.
Bunny and I had a fantastic 100 mile
ride at Sunriver. The day just could not have gone better! Since then
I had turned my sights to Oregon 100. First Santiam got canceled,
then Bunny skinned herself up and we chose not to do Prater Mountain.
But Bunny felt great! We had gotten in some great conditioning miles.
Every ride we did she was, faster, more attentive and seemed more
fit. I felt great about the whole thing.
My mom wasn't able to come this time so
my good friend Ruth Sheriden had even said she would come and crew
for me. This was going to be great.
We go there Thursday and got camp set
up. It was a new ride camp and so things were running behind. I
couldn't find out any real info about our loops, holds ect... till
fairly late on Friday. I tried to roll with the punches but I like to
plan.
Finally I did get my info and plotted
out my plan. I was planning to average between 7.5 and 8.5 mph of
course being willing to slow down if I thought we should. My goal was
to finish.
I rode Bunny both Thursday and Friday
and got a great feel for how all the loops took off. Bunny felt
awesome! I did manage to fall off on Friday. There were lots of other
people out riding Friday and in the desert you can see for a long
ways. We had stopped and talked to several people, Bunny thinks this
is a definite waist of time, and were headed back to camp. She was
watching more horses headed toward her and horses to the side and
then noticed a large rock beside her. She spooked a bit and I wasn't
paying attention either and fell off. How dumb. I felt fine at the
time, however and didn't think much of it other than that it was dumb
and embarrassing.
The morning of she was ready to go but
good. I took her to the back of camp and rode her around till just
after most of the pack left. Then we hit the road. Several miles in
we caught Hannah Summers. I didn't want to ride any faster than she
was going and have always wanted to get to know her a bit so I asked
if I could join her. We had a great time. Bunny was good about riding
along with another horse. I am thrilled about the progress she has
made in that area.
Our first loop was 35 miles with a trot
by vet check at 18 miles. Just before the trot by vet check Hannah's
mare went down. She was looking at the vet check just ahead the trail
went down and became deep sand all at once. The mare looked ahead and
didn't expect to stick her toe into deep sand. Luckily both were okay
and got up and went on.
We took a few minutes at the vet check
to use the facilities and let our horses eat. Then we headed off for
our 17 miles back to camp. On the way back we were joined by another
gal and passed by the three front runners on the 50. Bunny handled
it all well!
As we got into camp I realized that we
were coming in at the same time as a bunch of 25 milers. There was
only one vet in camp at the time so the line was LONG. Bunny drank,
stood like a champ for a pulser who wasn't sure what she was doing
and then stood in line eating hay. Ruth ran and grabbed me a protein
drink for the wait, good help is so nice to have. Bunny vetted great
and during the rest of the hold she ate non stop.
I headed out with Hannah for our second
loop, only 11 miles this time. I was realizing that for some reason I
wasn't riding great. My shins were sore (something that hasn't
happened to me in ages), the outside of my left ankle was sore and in
general I just felt like I was beating myself up a bit. My horse felt
great, she wasn't the culprit. I tried to ride better but I just
didn't feel right.
Later it hit me. My fall on Friday.
Even though I didn't feel it then I must have messed things up enough
that I wasn't riding my best. When I saw the ride pictures I wasn't
surprised. I was listing to the left like a drunken sailor. No wonder
that ankle hurt!
Photographic evidence that I was riding crooked!
Photo by Laura Spears
The trail was great! Last year there
was quite a bit of deep footing but this year the footing was
awesome. The day was fairly cool, it was smooth sailing.
When we came in Bunny pulsed right
down, drank and we vetted a bit quicker but still had to wait in
line. My one thought was that I needed to do something about my shins
and ankle. So as soon as I got Bunny vetted I turned her over to Ruth
and set out to see what I could do to make my ride more comfortable.
I rubbed in some anti inflammatory gel
into my shins, due to having Crohns disease I am not supposed to use
Ibuprofen. I tried to think through the issue with my ankle. Where it
hurt, where those tendons ran and then tape it like Kandi would. I
know she could have done a better job than me but with what she's
taught me I managed a tape job that did it's duty and kept my ankle
from hurting.
All to soon our 30 minute hold was up
and I was headed to put the bit back in and hit the trail. Only then
did I realize that Bunny hadn't eaten as much as I would have liked.
She ate, but not with her normal 100 mile vigor. I was so wrapped up
in thinking about the miles ahead and the hold being up that I didn't
think much more and headed out.
I joined Hannah again and we set out
for a 15 mile loop. I felt a bit better and the horses felt great,
things were good. Till we hit water. Bunny didn't drink like she
normally does. Normally when she hits water she is all business. She
barges in and starts drinking loud enough to be heard half a mile
away. If you come to a trough and see you are going to have to wait
you better act soon and not let her get to close or it will take an
act of God to keep her from drinking. Again, she drank it wasn't like
she wasn't drinking at all but the normal attitude wasn't there. That
made me worried.
The loop went great and we had a 45
minute hold to look forward to. When we got the camp Bunny drank
great my worry lifted a bit. She vetted good except for B- on gut
sounds. I was sure that was due to her not eating great at the last
hold. I talked with the vet about that and my concerns about her not
drinking as much as I would like. He said all her hydration stuff was
A's and that if she ate good this hold he wouldn't worry about it.
But here's the question, what exactly
is eating good? So on that hold she ate the entire time, but the
attitude wasn't there. Bunny usually has an attitude about food on a
100 mile ride. You sometimes literally have to drag her away from it.
She was eating, the whole time. I know I watched her like a hawk but
the attitude wasn't there.
I debated staying longer but she had
eaten the entire time. I debated weather to keep riding with Hannah
or to ride by myself. I had a feeling Hannah was going to start
speeding up and Bunny and I were probably going to keep going the
same speed and slow down a bit at the end.
I decided to leave on time. To start
the loop with Hannah and part ways if I felt that was best.
Sure enough a little bit into that
ride, Hannah was speeding up. Her mare is a great horse, she has more
miles then Bunny and more 100's including tevis. She is a great
horse. Bunny felt good at the faster speed but I felt like if she had
her way she would slow down just a touch. So when we came to a trough
I told Hannah that I was a little worried about my horse and was
going to slow down a bit. Bunny and I stayed a few minutes and she
ate a bunch of grass and then we headed off.
On our own she was great, ears perked
forward, drank like a champ. I stopped to let her eat on the trail
and even slowed her down a bit at times. She felt great and my
worries were easing up. As we finished that 14 miles I felt good
about everything. We had taken extra time to eat, she was drinking
great, had great energy and we were 75 miles in. Life was good.
I wasn't worried about riding the last
25 miles alone. Bunny is a champ alone!
We came in and she vetted great, her
gut sounds were back to A's on one side and B's on the other,
perfectly fine for 75 miles in. So I headed to camp to let her eat
and get ready to ride in the dark.
Ruth turned her loose in her pen and
she just stood there. She didn't even make a move to eat anything and
her eye and the whole look about her changed. Then she tried to lay
down like she wanted to roll. I stripped her tack and then she didn't
try again. I just didn't like the way she looked so I asked Ruth to
take her for a walk. Ruth got back and said she had drank again, good
deal so we turned her loose again. This time she stood there looking
all hunched. She had her front and back feet close together, like
that old picture of the Indian on the dead tired pony. All her spark
was gone and it scared me. I marched her right back to the vet.
The vet looked her over, all A's except
for the B's on the one side for gut sounds. She did a CRI and it was
48/48. She told me unless I had expressed concern she would have said
the horse looked fantastic, good job and keep up the good work. But
that what I told her was concerning. At 75 miles it should be next to
impossible to keep her from eating. She said to give her some time,
try to entice her to eat different things and see what happened.
Several people offered different feed
options and Ruth went to get some soaked oats. Back in her pen I
tried to feed her goodies by hand and she wouldn't even lip them,
then she started to paw, that's totally not like her. Right then I
knew, even if she turned around and looked great, I didn't feel
comfortable asking her to finish 25 more miles. We were done and if
we were done I wanted the vet to do whatever she thought best to help
her feel better.
So right back to the vet I went. I told
her I was pulling and she suggested a half dose of Banemine and a
walk and then see how she was doing. At that point Bunny was standing
very guarded and the vet hoped the Banemine would help her relax. She
suspected that maybe she had a painful pocket of gas.
Within a few minutes Bunny perked up,
pooped and started to eat and I felt so relieved. She started to look
like her old self again.
I was bummed about pulling but I knew
in my heart it was the right thing to do. Bunny gives me her all and
we have a great time. But if it's not fun for her then it's not fair
to ask her to do it, even if she could have. I care to much about
her.
That evening there were many more
checks with the vet just to make sure she was doing good and pulling
out of it. She was and by that night she was back to her attitude and
pulling me around to find food if I stopped to chat with someone.
So after I knew she was okay then my
mind switched modes to what could I have done differently... Here are
some of my conclusions. Who knows if they would have made a
difference or not but they are good things to think about and keep in
mind in the future.
Taking more time at holds. It didn't
really dawn on me that I should have maybe taken more time to let her
eat. That second vet check would have been a good time to think about
staying longer. Even though she was eating she didn't eat with her
normal vigor,and she didn't have much time to eat due to the lines
for the vet. The crazy thing is I totally would have done that, I
just didn't think about it. I had to many other things on my mind.
New feed. I wasn't dumb enough to
switch feed right before a ride but I did use a feed I don't use all
the time. Normally I make mashes with Ultium and beet pulp. A few
weeks before the ride I went to the feed store and they were out of
Ultium. I got Renew Gold instead. I've fed it before but usually feed
Ultium because it's more affordable. Renew Gold is a little higher
fat and I figured that would be a good thing and it was a bit before
the ride and she had eaten it before. But we hadn't used it at a ride
before. Who knows if it played a part but it makes me wonder.
Ride straight! This isn't always
possible. I can usually feel if I'm off, but this time I couldn't, I
just felt the after affects. If Kandi had been there she might have
been able to do something about it on a hold or I could have asked
others for feedback on what I looked like and tried to figure it out.
But whatever I messed up when I fell off screwed up how I rode and I
couldn't figure it out. I know it beat me up and I am sure it wasn't
great on my horse either.
You can't finish them all. No matter
how hard you try and how many things you do right 100 miles is a long
ways. If something is a little off that day with you or your horse it
might be enough to end your day early. As much as it pains me to
pull, it's okay. There will be another ride. I learned some things
and had 75 great miles. To bad I don't get AERC points or miles for
those but such is life. Oh and I'm already pondering what 100 miles
rides to try next year.
Bunny and I are hoping to do the Owyhee
Hallowed Weenies ride at the end of the month. If things work out
we'll do one last 50 mile ride there and at least get 250 miles for
the season.
Here's looking forward to one last ride
this season!
