How The West Was Spun

Caja Ride - 2011

Another one for the books!  And one I would consider successful from a ride management point of view.  No major horse or rider health issues, and no one got lost.

It was an insane and insanely busy weekend.  Not that we didn't expect that it would be, but still.  One of those 72 hour periods where, everytime you thought you could sit down, 6 people had questions or something that needed doing/fixed/looked at.  We had a major weather switch on Saturday, the night before the ride, so we wound up with quite a bit of high winds and then rain out in front of a weather system.  Sunday was cool and breezy almost all day and while we got the 30-mile riders all in safely, we did have a block of time (about 90 minutes) where it POURED on the 50 milers. 

It rained again Sunday night during the after-ride meeting and dinner, but we all managed to huddle under the shade remuda out at the trailhead and mostly stayed dry.  I was super grateful for hot food cooked by someone else, and my bottle of wine that was still chilled in the cooler, which I cracked open for a congratulatory glass when we finished.

I was really impressed with the new riders.  None of them got into trouble - they all took exceptional care of their horses and looked really good coming in at the mid-ride vet check and the final.  My vet (who is my personal vet and takes very good care of my horse boys), as usual, did an outstanding job, and as I told him, while I know he's not a miracle worker, I always feel better when he's around as there isn't a lot he can't handle, and he's great with the horses AND the riders.

We also totally rocked the volunteer lists this year.  We had plenty of pulse/respiration check people, folks to fill in to do timing duties, help set up and take down flags, signs, food setup, water tanks - you name it.  A whole bunch of great folks who pitched in above and beyond the call of duty and really made the ride possible because frankly I know there is NO WAY we could have done it without all the extra hands.  My folks, who were also here visiting this week, schlepped up and down 599 with bags of ice and plates of food and brownies to feed the volunteer crew, and while my mum kept saying "I wish we could have done more", the fact of it is just having someone do something on my list that I didn't have to take care of myself was a HUGE HELP.

So.  Now things around here hopefully will return to normal crazy for a bit.  I've got some final paperwork to do, a few more checks to write for our permits and to AERC for rider fees, but the big stuff is done.  The plan for this evening is to kick back, put our feet up, have some vino and eat the dinner my mum left in the fridge for us, with an early early bedtime.

All for now.......

Ride the Caja - 2010

The ride went super well this weekend.  We had a great group of folks come out to enjoy the trails.  The weather cooperated by almost everyone's standards (me?  cold weather girl?  I would have been fine with about 20 less degrees, but I'm fussy.)

We had bright blue skies and some high puffy clouds.  The wind actually was a nice addition for most of the day on Sunday for the riders - it kept everyone cooled off and we had NO metabolic problems with the horses.

 

About the only major glitch we had was that the second vet we had scheduled to come never showed.  She gets 30 lashes and bad karmic juju, as far as I'm concerned, but our vet (who is our personal vet at home) came and totally kicked butt.  He handled all of the checks, and the trot-bys, and stayed chipper and upbeat ALL DAY.  

 

Bhen and I had a good ride together.  It only took him about 43 miles to settle in. I think he missed having the large white pace car known as Sam with him, because he was a total herd 'ho, happy to bond up with ANYONE remotely near him of the equine persuasion.  We had several discussions about the fact that he needed to focus on where he was putting his feet and quit yelling at the other horses around him.  AND that we were not going to ride with every horse that came near us.  It's an interesting physiologic chart to watch his heart rate monitor run at 110 or 112 while he's trotting along nice and relaxed by himself, and then bump to 140-145 when he's yelling at his fellow ride-mates.  Anyway, he came in great at the checks, pulsed right down after a drink of water, and ate and drank like a champ.  We didn't set any track records, but we were 11th out of a field of 16, and we improved our personal finish time, so I was happy with how he did.

He also reached his 500-mile mark for "regular" (meaning not limited-distance) endurance rides with this one, so I was super proud of him for that as well!

I definitely wanted to thank all the folks who came out and volunteered.  There is absolutely no way to host a ride without volunteers - and folks stepped right up and helped with water tanks, and signs, and pulse checks, and made sure the riders were able to have a successful, and we hope (!), fun ride.

All for now.....
 

Marking Trail

Saturday, D and I and the horse boys headed out to mark the limited-distance loop for the endurance ride next weekend, some of which also encompasses the first loop for the 50-milers too.  We had been watching the weather all week and they were calling for rain, and we SO did not want to go out and ride almost 30 miles in a downpour.  When we got to the trailhead (where they were hosting a competitive trail ride this weekend), the skies looked pretty gloomy.

 

Even the thought of rain was enough to make Bhen have his grouchy ears on for a while. I swear to dog, he is like the Felix Unger of horses.  He doesn't want any of his stuff messed with, he doesn't want to be fussed about, he just wants things HIS WAY and JUST SO.  (HIS WAY does not involve rain, snow, excessive heat, too much wind, any bugs, or new stuff on his saddle.  Or anyone fussing with his feet.)

You might have figured out, we were marking the blue loop.  We had 500 flags to mark the just-under 30-mile loop and we actually didn't even mark part of the first 7 miles as those overlapped the competitive trail ride and we didn't want to confuse those riders with double flagging.  (Those 7 miles are 2-tracks and can be marked pretty easily by vehicle anyway.)  So, we trotted out the first few miles and then, once we figured out where the CTR pink flags stopped, we started marking.  Everything on the right, and turns marked with a blaze of 3 flags.  LOTS of flags. 

By the time we were headed in for the last section of mileage into base camp, Bhen had figured out we were going to steer over near a tree but if he slid up right next to it, he didn't have to stop trotting, just maintain course, and I could line up the clothespin and fasten it onto the branch at the trot.  The real trick was leaning down to do sagebrush bushes at speed, but he figured that one out too.  Pretty much, if he can continue to trot while doing whatever insane human trick I'm doing, he's okay with that.  Not so much with the stopping constantly and backing up and waiting for me to carefully place the pins.  That's not on his happy list either.

Luckily for Bhen, the day cleared up and we had only partially cloudy skies off and on, but with some sun and a nice breeze.  This is one of the cattle watering spots headed back into the main 1100 well (where the vet checks will be next weekend).  Sort of hard to believe New Mexico in August, isn't it?  It's VERY green out here these days with all the rain we've had in the last month.

 

Here's Sam and D marking a turn.  Or rather, having just marked a turn, Sam's taking a minute to itch his ears on the tree.

 

We managed not to get soaked - just a few raindrops when we were about 4 miles out from base camp at the end of the loop - although it started pouring just after we pulled out of the parking lot with the boys.  We got the bulk of the trail marked, so we could give the boys' legs a rest now for a week.  And I think we are just about there for all but the last-minute stuff for next weekend's AERC ride!
 
All for now....... 
 

Other Things

So, you know, in my spare time, D and I are co-hosting the Caja del Rio endurance ride this year.  We have been out scouting trail with the other ride manager, and getting things organized, putting together prizes and permits and all sorts of things to make sure the ride runs smoothly. 

We've even got a website set up this year, if you'd like to check out some photos of the area. 

D has graciously said he'll stay in camp to help run things, but Bhen and I will be riding for sure!

If anyone is even semi-local to Santa Fe and would like to come out to volunteer, we still can use some extra hands for all kinds of things on Sunday, September 5th, with free lunch and dinner for the volunteers.  If you are interested, or want more information about the ride itself, please shoot me an email (the contact me link is up there at the top corner of the blog page).

All for now......

AERC Ride: Fort Stanton, NM - Day 4

I am seriously starting to get a complex about our endurance rides and I feel like an absolute dork reporting in yet again with weird horse illnesses and issues.  My new and ONLY goal for the rest of the season is to just have NO CRISIS involved with riding. 

First the good. D and I trailered down on Wednesday a.m. to Fort Stanton for what we hoped would be 3 days of riding at the annual AERC ride there.  Roger Taylor has been hosting the ride for several years, and he does it as a 3-day Pioneer from Sunday to Tuesday, Wednesday as a rest day, and then a second Pioneer for Thursday through Saturday.  I wanted to do a fairly conservative 35-mile LD ride with Bhen to be 100% sure his leg was A-OK. 

We got in, got camp set up and got the boys their food and water.  The area had gotten a TON of rain on Tuesday, so all the ground was a little bit spongy, but we were able to pull in and set up camp just fine.  It was very very hot tho, and we were glad for a little afternoon cloud cover and some spritzes of rain to cool things off a little bit.

 

We went out at the back of the group of riders on Thursday a.m.  Sammy was pretty wound up - he wanted to go catch the pack, but once we passed a few people, he settled down and he and Bhen got into the first vet check (at 21 miles) in about 3-1/2 hours.  They both checked through really well (all As from the vets) and we got them fed and watered.  The storm clouds were starting to build and as we left the check after our hold, we realized we needed to move along and get up and over the ridge we had to climb before the rain hit.

While we didn't burn up the trail, we did keep a nice pace up and over the mountain, and were glad we did, because the sky started to close in with black clouds behind us, and we could see cloud-to-ground lightning out ahead of us.  We got down into the valley, headed back to camp around the old cemetary and it started to rain, with lots of thunder and lightning.  The ground got slick pretty quick so we wound up walking a lot of it to save the boys' legs.  Other than being wet and cranky about that, Bhen did great - his leg was beautifully quiet and sound, no swelling or heat in it, and we checked through the vets perfectly.

The rain eventually cleared and D and I decided since Bhen did just fine, we'd go out for the next day to ride another 35-miler.  However....... I woke up at 2:30 to the sound of Darth Vader's heavy breathing outside my window of the trailer.  Our new configuration allows Sam to look in the screen (ever hopeful we will have cookies to share through the window) just over my bed.

 

He was breathing really fast and heavily, so I pulled on boots and went out to see what was up.  He was burning up - the heat coming off his chest and neck was almost too hot to touch, and he sounded like a freight train headed up a hill.  D got up and we walked Sam up and down in the dark along the access road for camp.  By about 4:00 a.m. he had developed a case of scours (Montezuma's revenge in horses) and as soon as the vets were up, we had him up at their trailer to be checked around 6:00 a.m.   I had been sponging him off with cool water along his neck and chest, and his respirations had settled down by then, as had his excessive heat, but scours can get really bad really fast in horses, especially with the heat, so the vet opted to give him a shot to help quiet his tummy down, and suggested we try to get him to eat some dry hay and drink a bit. But NO RIDING.  He said if Sam stayed stable, we could get him home so our vet here could look at him, but if he got worse, we were going to have to get him to a treatment vet for fluids.

So we hung out in camp - I didn't want to take Bhen out for 6 or 7 hours, leaving Sam at the trailer agitated that his buddy had gone away, and leaving D with the decision, if Sam got worse, to drive off with the truck and trailer and take Sam into town for treatment, while Bhen and I were out riding.  After about 3 hours, things had really quieted down for Sam, so we decided if we were going to leave, we had better do it, as the camping area was still pretty wet and slippery, and there was obviously more rain building.  We got camp cleaned up, got more water in Sam, who was quiet and seemed tired, but his tummy sounded better and he was eating his hay, and hauled him home, checking in with our vet on the way once we got into cellphone coverage.

After a quiet night, where we went out and checked on him several times, Sam seems back to his normal self.  The vet thought it was possible he ate something in the weeds that are in base camp that upset his stomach, but possibly also was a combination of the heat and something he ate, plus the sudden drop in pressure with the storm that came in.  We'll probably not know - but at least he is fine now.

So... sigh... disappointing for the 2-legged folks, as we really wanted to ride at least two and maybe three days, now that Bhen was back to normal.  Of course, we always put the ponies first, and having Sam be okay is much more important.  We'd just like to maybe catch a break here one of these times and actually go and ride multidays when we go!

All for now......

Valles Caldera AERC Ride - Part 2

We were all pretty tired after two days of riding, or in my case, crewing for D and Sam.  We went to bed fairly early, but were woken up just before 11.  Sam had decided he didn't like Bhen in "his" space, so he had been driving him around and around inside their pen, and Bhen finally panicked and broke the panels to escape, taking Sam with him on a joy-ride around camp in the dark.  (Luckily, we had some moonlight.)  D and I threw on boots (I always sleep sort of half-dressed for JUST such an occasion at these rides), and ran outside trying to track the boys down. 

Trust me.  This is not the easiest thing.  Bhen, being a dark bay, is normally very hard to see in the dark, but since it had been so cold at night, and since Sam had run 2 days straight, we had put on his jet-black fleece cooler for the night.  All we could do was sort of listen for the hoofbeats as they tore around camp in a big circle.  Again (!), luckily, not super spooky boys, and after 2 big circuits, they slammed to a stop just next to our trailer at the water tank there and we were able to throw halters on them. 

A few people had cleared out after day #1, and there were a couple of large cattle holding pens that had been in use, but had gotten freed up.  I had asked Deb if I might leave Bhen in one of those for the next day if Sam and D went out, and she said there was an empty one, so we hauled the boys over to that one (very sturdy pipe fence), and threw them in there.  Where they promptly decided to antagonize the other horses already penned up next to them.  Lucky us - all mares.  Two of them in heat (which means the third was probably close too).  So I sent D back to bed and got 5 layers on plus a sleeping bag and stood out there with them until about 1:30 to try to moderate the situation a bit until they quieted down from their big adventure.  I was finally so frozen - after watching a gorgeous moonset and seeing a shooting star - that I gave up and headed back to the trailer.  After a couple of hours of fitful sleep, we were up early to check on the boys, who had now settled in with their new group of girlfriends.  Stinkers.

D woke up exhausted.  He had decided he wasn't going to ride and we were just going to go home.  But a few of his buddies talked him into trying for a Pioneer award (that's where you ride all 3 of the 3 days), so at the last minute, we hauled Sam out and got him tacked up.  D snarfed a power bar, drank some coffee, and hopped back into the saddle.

Day #3 was a repeat of the first day's trails, but they reversed the direction of travel.  D just wanted to finish.  That's all he needed to do for the award, so he went out nice and slowly.  His plan was to walk the first few miles, and to walk all the up and downhill sections, slow-trot the flats, and walk into camp.  Sam's walk is really huge though, and Sam wasn't really prepared to just go slow, so as the day went on, they encountered more and more riders and slowly moved up through the pack.

They were tired when they came into the vet check, but got fueled back up and headed off. They finished up the final shorter loop in good time, and came in within the top 10.  They stood for Best Condition, although their finish time wasn't fast enough to beat out the two other men riding, both on fresh horses.  However, just finishing meant they did 100 miles in 3 days, and won themselves a Pioneer Award for their efforts. 

I stood with the vet while they did the final best condition vet checks and she kept saying how impressed she was with Sam, and how great he looked.  And he did!  A bit tired, but his trot was strong and steady, tracked perfectly, and his pulse and respirations came right back down after his trot-out. His hydration was good, and all his other physical markers were really strong.  She gave both D and Sam a pat on the back for doing so very well, particularly at the high altitude, and we went back to our camp to give both of them a well-earned rest.

After D had cleaned up, we took both the boys down to the "equine therapy pool" to stand in the cold, fast-moving water to cool their legs and to eat some nice fresh green grass.

 

After we got more groceries into Sam, we went off to the ride dinner ourselves.  After we ate, Bob announced all the day's ride winners and Best Condition awards, and then announced the Pioneer Awards for the folks that had ridden all 3 days on the same horse.  There were only 4. One, our new friend, Ann, who rode the regular endurance ride on her awesome little gray gelding, and three for the LD - two of which were D and our friend, Lisa.  AND, as the icing on the cake for an awesome weekend, the vets awarded D a Best Condition Pioneer Award, since Sam had stood for BC every day and had really good vet scores.

This for the horse no one thinks can do endurance.

The prize (which we definitely were happy to get, since we had been using the old fleece cooler from D's previous, much smaller horse and looked like a badly fitting mini-skirt on him) was a new fleece cooler, which will be embroidered with the ride name and date, the award name and Sam's name on it.  I was SO pleased and SO proud of both of them!  It's a big accomplishment to ride a Pioneer, but also to keep your horse in such good condition for all consecutive days, and is something not every rider and horse team can do.

You'll be pleased to know our final night passed uneventfully.  The boys hung out in their cattle pen and managed not to kill each other or anyone else.  We actually slept through most of the night and "slept in" until 6 a.m.  We stayed in basecamp to help Bob and Debbie clean up and check the camp over for trash or anything like large piles of manure or hay, and to get those spread out and tidied up.  Since we were so close, we only had a couple of hours to haul home, and were back midday to get Sam some more calories and a nap.

Truly a wonderful ride, despite Bhen and I not really doing much actual riding.  I'm so happy and proud for D, who, two years ago was just going to take some pictures and crew for me at these rides.  And, of course, for Sammy, who totally rocked it.

All for now.....

Valles Caldera AERC Ride

Wednesday afternoon, D and I loaded up the boys and hauled way up into the Jemez Mountains for the 2010 Valles Caldera ride.  Our friends, Bob and Debbie Bulcock, hosted the ride, which is held on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. This is a really unique and special pleasure, as the preserve has a very strict user policy.  Even for those of us who are local, you have to buy a 1-day pass for fishing and they only allow a certain number of users into the preserve on any given day.  They issue only two overnight camping passes PER YEAR.  So the fact that Bob and Debbie were able to get us access to this really pristine area was, I am sure, a lot of work, and they did a fantastic job as ride managers/hosts.

The preserve is stunning.   Think all the golden sunlight scenes from A River Runs Through It or the Horse Whisperer.  The caldera is filled with stream-fed grassland that supports a large elk herd (yep - we saw a bunch of elk.  D even saw one of the calves), as well as bears (yep - thanks to Bhen's quick eyes - we also saw a big-butted cinnamon-brown bear), coyotes, lots of birds, fish and so on. The caldera itself is bowl-shaped and ringed with the remnants of the volcanic cone before it collapsed to create the caldera itself.

This pretty little stream ran alongside the road into base camp.  We arrived to absolutely perfect weather - 75 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  We got the boys set up in camp, watered and fed.

 

The next morning, we got up to frozen water in the dog bowls and a skim of ice on the horses' water buckets.  (It was in the 20s each night out there!).  We got the boys tacked up, and we started out around 7:30 a.m. for the first day's 35-miler.  We had decided to ride limited distance, since Bhen was just coming off his 2-week injury hiatus with his knee.  The first loop out on day 1 was just under 20 miles and we got to come back into camp for our vet check.  The boys were moving out nicely with the cool morning temps and we zipped back into camp in great time, went through the vet check without a problem, and got them their mid-race feed and electrolytes, as well as us.

The second loop went out of camp and then dove down into the lush grass pasture just to the east of base camp and then out around one of the mountain peaks.  I had walked Bhen out of camp for a few hundred yards and we started to pick up our trot, and I could tell he was off.  D was looking for it for me, but he couldn't really see it, but he sure FELT off.  So we turned around and went back into camp.  I had the vets immediately look at him, and while it was hard to catch - maybe every 5th or 6th step at the trot (not at the walk at all) - that same leg that he had injured was obviously bothering him.  So I pulled him.  I wasn't taking any chances with his leg and while I suspect he had gotten stiff standing at the trailer, it definitely was bothering him, so that was that.

D, who had never ridden solo at a race before, took a deep breath and I sent him off with Sam hollering for Bhen the entire way.  I shouldn't have worried at all - they did great together!  Banged through that loop and came zipping into the finish line.  They did SO great in fact that they won Best Condition prize for that day.

Next day, I had Kristi, one of the vets check Bhen out.  His swelling, after some icing, had completely disappeared and he was 100% sound at the trot.  She and the head vet cleared him to go out, but I opted to give him the rest of the ride off.  I didn't want to compromise his long-term leg soundness for 2 days of riding. Just not worth risking that, ya know?  But I think y'all can probably guess I was very bummed, even though I was sure it was the right decision to make for him.

Day #2 of the ride was a 25-miler for the limited distance riders.  A slightly more technical ride that climbed up just above 9500 feet on one of the peaks near the elk-calving areas (the ride didn't go thru any of the actual calving areas.  Although all the babies should be on the ground by now, the ride managers didn't want to disturb those areas, but D said they did see a lot of elk up in the trees in that area).  Both the LD and the regular endurance riders started out at 6:30 a.m. in one big group, so D held Sam back a little bit to let the fast-trackers go ahead and not try to race. Here he is hanging out with our friend Lisa and her new horse at the start.

 

Since I wasn't riding, I told Bob and Debbie I'd give them a hand, so I went out to the vet check (which was outside of camp this day) to do pulse/respiration checks for the riders.  This also meant I could help D with his break since this was where the halfway vet check was too.  The riders were a little late coming into the check, compared to what we had expected.  Turns out the elk really like the taste of trail flag markers and the wooden clothespins used to attach them to the trees.  Yikes!  D and Sam actually did pretty well - going slow and looking for the correct trail - although some riders added a lot of miles to that loop that day.  They came into the vet hold looking pretty fresh and perky, and got some calories into them.

 

D was the second LD rider to come in, so he and Sam headed out to finish the loop into basecamp, while I stayed out to wait for the rest of the riders.  The last group, who were moving really slowly, came through several hours later, so the volunteers and the vet packed it up and headed back into basecamp.

D and Sam were already in and Sam had gotten a bath and his post-ride grain.  Unfortunately, it turns out Bhen had met them at the finish line with a nice lady after he snapped (IN TWO PLACES) the heavy-duty fiberglass Hi-Tie pipe he was on and wandered around camp snacking at other campsites and looking for Sam before she found him.  (Luckily for me, he's not a very spooky horse. He's been on that tie-line TONS of times and not a lick of problem.  Not sure why there was one this time, but a lot of other horses would have left camp completely after a scary thing fell from the sky onto him and then dragged along behind him attached to his halter.  Yikes - a potentially very scary situation!).  Sam came in second and was beat out for Best Condition by only a few points by a vet who was there for the day, riding his horse. 

In the afternoon, D and I sat around while the boys (now sharing Sam's big panel pen) had their dinner and we watched the smoke plume from the fire just to the north of us (about 12 miles away) flare up in the heat of the late afternoon.

And that's the end of day #2.  Or almost.... but you have to come back tomorrow to hear the rest of the story.

All for now......
 

I wish......

I could show you more pictures of beautiful blue sky and my handsome boys getting ready to go ride like this one:

 

But, alas.  I do not. It's just been one of those weekends, I guess.

D and I hauled down to Quemado Lake, NM, to do a new-to-us ride, Ride the Divide, up in the scenic Gila National Forest.  We got a good early start on Friday a.m., and were planning to ride Saturday and Sunday with the boys.  When we got in on Friday around lunchtime, we got camp set up and tacked the boys up to take an easy jaunt out the first bit of the trail we'd be riding on Saturday a.m.  We don't do anything fast or fancy - we just walk to get the trailer stiffness out and take a look at the trail.

The boys both quieted down as soon as they saw the ribbons - they are smart and knew exactly why we were there.  We rode up to the first trail junction and then turned around to head back to camp.  We were walking quietly along, looking at the scenery, when Bhen turned his head to look at something (not in a spooky way, just to see what he could see in the woods), and caught his toe on a rock in the road, and took a major tumble down to his knees.  His left front was only lightly scraped up, but his right knee was bleeding badly from several places. 

We walked the boys back into camp, and using bottled water, I tried to get the worst of the dirt irrigated out.  It really didn't look good.  At ALL.  So I applied ice packs and got the bleeding stopped, irrigated out the wound again, packed it with antibiotic ointment, and wrapped it.  The race vet said he didn't think it could be sutured, but there was no way I was going to take Bhen out for 50 miles on that leg either. 

Saturday a.m., we loaded back up at early o'clock, and hauled back home.   I called our absolutely stellar vet (who I love, but frankly?  We have seen FAR too much of him this year) and had him on alert to come by in the afternoon to take a look at the leg for me.  When he got there, he got Bhen sedated, and wound up cutting off the skin flap that was still hanging off (it wasn't salvageable), irrigated out the wound, injected some local anesthetic into it, plus some antibiotics, and got it all closed (it was a 3-pronged burst laceration) with 7 staples.  Hopefully staples can come out in 10 days to 2 weeks, but we are being only cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to go to our next ride in June.  The main thing is that (as of today's bandage change), it looks really pretty good.  The laceration edges have pulled together.  There was only minimal seepage and that's all dried, and the swelling has gone down a lot too (so I am hopeful we had no bony involvement).

Here's my boy being very good about his leg bandage, which I'm sure is hot and itchy. 

 

So, you know.... being insane, and having 2 now unscheduled days off, D and I finished the barn for the boys (except for the roofline cap and the trim), and ran fence line.  That was the (very limited) silver lining amongst all this mess.

The original pasture fence ran out perpendicular to the left-hand opening of the barn you see above.  We bumped it out to allow the boys access to the barn (obviously), and then ran it another 30 feet or so out from the barn, and across to tie into the existing fence.  We still have more cactus to clear to give them all of the planned extra 40 feet, but they are brutal right now in terms of thorns, so we'll wait until their growing season is over. 

The new pasture almost doubles their space, plus, they now have shade from about 9:30 a.m. on during the entire day, and protection from the storms.  A double bonus, since we need to keep Bhen's bandages dry.  It's supposed to be very hot here over the next week, so we were really glad today to see them both move right into the shade after breakfast and not venture out really until dinnertime.  They celebrated their good fortune with a little mutual grooming.

 

Totally not the weekend we had planned, but on the other hand, the boys love their new barn and I know D and I both feel better we can get them in out of the sun and heat and afternoon thunderstorms when we need to.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Big Bhen heals up quickly!

All for now.....
 

Tall Pines Endurance Ride - 2010

Friday a.m. under a dark sky, D and the horse boys and I trailered down to the Silver City, NM, area for the Tall Pines Endurance Ride.  The weather forecast hadn't been so good and it was in the upper 20s when we left our place in northern NM.  The winds on the way down were AWFUL.  Lots of steady wind and a lot of high mph gusts, which made pulling the 12K or so pounds between the trailer, the horses, and the camper not a lot of fun, but we made it down to ride camp by about 2:30 and got camp set up and vetted in.

I have to admit, that I was a poor photo blogger for y'all.  It was our first ride of the season, and we rode the 55-miler, so I was a bit distracted and every time I thought to get the camera was somewhere about mid-loop and away from the trailer. 

However, here's base camp looking up the trail that ran into camp for loops 2 and 3.

 

Loop one was 16 miles.  It ran out of camp between those two peaks you see above, up a nice, packed sand, 2-track and looped around the peak you see on the left-hand side of the above picture.  There was a bit of a climb, and then back down to skirt the fenceline of a private ranch that borders the BLM land where ride camp was located.  The boys did great on this loop - and we sort of trailed our friends, Pete and Judy (so they got to open most of the gates for us!) - back into camp in about 2-1/2 hours.  The horses checked thru with the vets with all As and we got some food into them and some electrolytes at our 45-minute hold.

Loop two was 26.5 miles.   This was the long one.  It headed back out between the peaks you see above, and then went out and around Montrose Peak.   This was a little more technical trail.  More rocky sections and a lot of sections where you'd trot 2 strides down, then trot 2 strides up, and repeat.  We walked a few sections through here, and somewhere we didn't see a water stop, but there was so much run-off from the spring melt that the boys just drank whenever we got to pooled water on the trails.  The end of this loop comes down a rocky canyon (more water opportunities) and lots of lush clover, so we let the boys have a few bites, and then turned and scooted down a long sandy arroyo back into camp.  Bhen was feeling perky enough when we turned into the trail immediately outside camp, he kicked it up into a canter for a few paces before I asked him to calm down and walk in.

After another 45-minute hold, we went back out on the last 12-mile loop.  This one followed the first section of loops 1 and 2, but then turned towards the right to loop around the right-hand peak you see in the picture above.  The second half of this loop duplicated the last 6 or 7 miles of loop 2, so after we stopped for water at the place that loop 2 and 3 came back together, the boys knew EXACTLY where they were and headed off for camp at a brisk pace.  We stopped a couple of times for water and munchies along the way, but made it back into camp even a little faster than we had thought we would.

D and I, of course, rode together, so when we got in and found out we were in 10th and 11th place, we argued for a while about who came in "first".  The regional director suggested to D that it was really in his best interests to let the wife half of the couple come in first, so D was the gentleman and did.  (I told him he should come in before me so he could top-10 his first 55-mile ride with Sam.)  He's probably sorry he did that, since prizes for the top-10 positions were a really spiffy belt buckle to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ride.

We got the horses checked thru the vet.  Both did really great in terms of their vet scores.  All A's and 2 B's for gut sounds for both of them.  They got a big dinner with lots of calories - grain plus their free choice of hay and a lot of fresh water - and D and I enjoyed the dinner the ride managers provided (there was a TON of food!).

A great start to our 2010 ride year.  We really enjoy the Tall Pines ride group.  We got to see some old friends and meet some new folks as well, which is always fun.  The cow mafia were back again this year, although subdued and did not try to take Sam's dinner from him this year.

The boys finished healthy and happy (although they both are having BIG naps in the sun today), which is really our main goal.  D and I had a really good time and we are looking forward to the next ride of the season already!

 

 All for now.......