Taking One for the Team

Friday D and I and Bhen drove south and east to Fort Stanton to catch the final day of a 6-day endurance ride.  The weather was quite warm and sunny, and we navigated to the BLM equestrian area at Ft. Stanton that serves as base camp for this ride, and got camp set up.  Bhen and I got checked in by the vets, and we went to the ride meeting to hear about the next day's ride.  The area had experienced a LOT of rain (flash flooding and hail the previous day and evening), so the ride managers had re-routed the course for the 35 and 55 mile rides, to cover a previous day's ride, re-using the markers and flags that were already out on the trail. 

We lucked out on Friday night, and even though the sky was very threatening, we only got a brief rain storm with all the lightning running along the mountains the next ridge over.  (Bhen isn't happy at the prospect of rain in this photo.  He's hoping for the best, but it's been a pretty rainy summer in NM.)

 

Saturday a.m., we got off to a fairly early start at 7:00 with a group of about 30-plus riders.  All the riders for the 35 and the 55 mile rides went out at the same time in a controlled start.  (Which means the group all walk out of camp with one sort of "pace horse" and everyone follows in a relatively controlled manner until the pace horse's rider gives the all clear and folks can start trotting.)  I had decided Bhen and I would try to ride the first 21 miles (before the first vet check) fairly quick, since it'd be cooler and he does better if we can get out ahead of the large packs of riders. 

The ride course turned out to be fairly technical.  A lot of steep, rocky areas, winding in and out of pine trees on a single track.  So we trotted as much as we could on the relatively good areas of footing (one of the few pictures I took of the day of "good" footing is below) and walked when we had to.  We moved along at a fairly respectable 7-mph per hour pace and got into the first vet check, where we clocked in and were cleared by the vets to go on at about 10 minutes past 10:00.  D had driven out to the vet check and he had everything ready to go for us, once we cleared the vets.  He already had mash with electrolytes out for Bhen with some water that wouldn't be super cold, so he could drink as much as he wanted to.  We both got rehydrated, and by a few minutes before 11:00, at the end of our mandatory 45-minute hold time, the timer told us we were cleared to go out.

About a mile outside of the check, there was a crucial point wherein the 35 milers turned one direction, and the 55 milers needed to turn the other way.  We found the water tanks at this point, but I apparently had a terminal blonde moment, and read the sign from the previous day's race (which was being re-run on the same course) incorrectly, and headed off on the 35-miler trail.  It was a little confusing because both trails were marked with red and white ribbons, so once you went wrong, there wasn't any way to figure out you had gone wrong. 

The next 10 miles were a lot of elevation gain up to a ridgeline, picking our way through loose, sharp rocks, before we finally made it down over the ridgeline spur to more level ground. I was trying to be sure Bhen was pacing himself pretty conservatively, so we had slowed down to a walk, since it had also gotten very hot out, and 2 riders who I knew were riding the 35 trotted up.  Yikes!  I had a brief moment of discussion with them, and realized we were only about 4 miles outside of camp.  So, we had 2 choices.  I could go ahead and finish the 35 miles and talk to the ride manager, or we could go back up over the 10 miles of about 1000-feet elevation gain on the rocks and then try to pick up the next 26 miles of the 55-mile trail before heading back towards camp, where we had 1 more check before a final 8 miles to complete.

Although Bhen was doing absolutely fantastic, there was no way I was going to ask him to do almost 75 miles in the heat.  (To say nothing of me.  55 miles is one thing; 75 unplanned miles is another).  So we continued on along the 35-mile trail.  We popped into camp, got checked through by the vets, who had zero concerns about Bhen - he really looked fantastic! - and talked to the ride manager.  Roger was extremely gracious and agreed to let Bhen have the miles and the completion for the 35 miles go onto his cumulative record, which I was very happy about.

So, as per our usual, Bhen takes one for the weak link of the team, powers through and does a fantastic job despite his handicap of being saddled (hah - a pun) with me as his sole teammate.  I was very disappointed I had screwed up and we didn't finish the 55, because he was doing extremely well, and I know not only would he have completed it, he probably would have come in as a top-10 horse, based on how very well he was doing.  Hopefully we can get through the 50 miles in Santa Fe next month without onboard navigation problems at my end!

All for now....

Comments

[Chris]

Ahhh, the disappointment. But a fabulous ride nonetheless. Look forward, cause the best is still to come.

[margene]

You must have good skills of persuasion. Way to go Bhen!!

[Christina Scovel]

You and Bhen are amazing. Even if you didn't mean to - still impressive!

[Marcia]

Awww....too bad! Glad they let you have the credit, though.

[Marji]

Rain. I can almost remember rain.

They (whoever "they" are) that an El Nino is forming, so maybe California will get some much needed water this winter. I sure hope so. Our well is sucking sand.

[Toby]

Wowsa, is Bhen a solid hunk of horse or what? Glad the rain held off so you could ride. Despite the mileage issue it sounds like it was a very successful outing.

[Teri S.]

Hee hee...we seem to have our endurance events synchronized. That's a shame about missing the turn for the 55 mile event. At least you weren't DQ'd. When's your next ride?

I came across this article on our local trail running club site: http://www.vhtrc.org/forum09/od1979.htm. The Western States 100 was initially an equine endurance event that was opened up to runners. This story is about the genesis of the sport in Virginia. It's pretty interesting.

[Cheryl S.]

Too bad about missing the 55, but at least it worked out pretty well anyway.

[Karen]

Oh too bad about the mix up! I'm glad to hear Bhen got the credit on his record though.

[Debbi]

I love the ride updates! Mostly - they give me "ride envy". :) Someday I'll have my mare trained well enough... I really wanted to say though it's very nice to see how "rounded" Bhen is knowing that he's also in such fabulous condition. :)