Autumn Fergus/Saddle Update

So much to learn, so little time to write it all down.

(This post is almost all about trials and tribulations with Fergus this year, and as such often fails to mention "other stuff going on". Not that the other stuff wasn't good and interesting, but I had to stop typing at some point rather than just regurgitate the last four and half months of Interesting Topics)

Lameness

Back in May I was still trying to get the brown 15" Eurolite to work for Fergus and I. We were aiming for Tevis, I'd gone as far as ordering him a spiffy new purple halter and reins, and announced "provided nothing goes wrong, we should be able to pull it off".

< roll eyes > You just couldn't keep quiet, could you?

On a Sunday in late May, we did a nice training ride from Driver's Flat to White Oak Flat and back - lots of good climbing, a couple of interesting snake sightings and I was very happy with how he felt.

King snake taking a shower by the side of the creek below Francisco's.
This was one of two king snakes we saw that day.

By Thursday he was dead-lame. We'd just had some rain, which caused me to freak out that he'd slipped in the mud and pulled something vital, but instead I waited two weeks for an abscess to pop out and it finally did. Rather that immediately giving relief, if anything he was even more lame at that point. Argh.

Finally, two and half weeks into it, I was able to get him in to see Supreme Lameness vet Marty Gardner (now permanently based in Ione, CA) who diagnosed his problem in about 15 seconds (no exaggeration) - an infected corn - had his assistant pare out the problem area with a sharp hoof knife, revealing the black pocket below. "A few weeks and he should be good as new".

But we were out of time - I'd needed that month to really get in some good conditioning and ramp Fergus up to where I needed him to be, fitness-wise. No Tevis for us this year.  :(

Trimming

It turns out that my method of trimming wasn't paring away enough bar, and the result was an impacted area of hoof - and the likely contributor to much of Fergus' toe-first landing and lameness-niggles over the past couple of years - if not longer (see our post-NASTR 75 story from 2015).

Thankfully, it's a relatively easy fix now that I know what I should be watching for, and although I still struggle with where the rest of the bar should be, at least I know enough to scoop out the heels more aggressively.

Hands up if you can spot the corner of the foot that Fergus was avoiding weighting on landing?
(and subsequent location of the abscess)

The good thing about Renegades is they are foot-specific, so the horse wears the same boot on the same foot giving you a very clear view of how he's landing and what problems may need addressing. From the wear pattern on this boot, I was aware of a problem, but didn't know what it was or how to fix it.

Due to his "disability", I only got 100 miles out of this boot before he wore through the toe. I added another 100 miles to it before abandoning it.

This is the matching boot from his right front, same mileage.

I can still see where he's loading up the outside edge, but no where close to how he was wearing the left foot.

Unfortunately, standing funky for over a month while his foot healed up, meant that Fergus' front feet got totally out of whack with weird additional medial height, necessitating aggressive rebalancing = taking off more foot than I really wanted to.

16" Specialized Eurolite

Right about when he went lame, a 16" Specialized Eurolite popped up for sale just 30 minutes away from me, so I grabbed it. It turned out to be an older tree (pre-2010, the trees were much flatter) which actually suited Fergus' long flat back better. It wasn't nearly as nice a saddle as the brown 15" one, but it was the right size and came with fenders. Someone had added some rather pathetic breast collar D-rings to the front of the saddle that I figured would come off the first time they were put under any strain (they did).

I fiddled around shimming the saddle for me (it didn't need much adjustment to fit Fergus) and was relatively happy with how it felt, even if I couldn't really keep my balance in it very well.

By early July, we were back up and running again. I took Fergus and Roo over to NV and spent a happy afternoon riding 20 miles with Crysta, Pam and Connie - climbing NV-style (aka never-ending) and both pones did great. Even with Roo leaping about on the end of the lead rope, I was able to ride nicely in the new saddle.

Pam, Connie, and Crysta after climbing up to the pipeline trail.
Pam and Crysta went on to finish Tevis a few weeks later.

These two were a handful, happy to be out. Gorgeous views over Washoe Valley

The Monday after Tevis we rode CA Loop with Ash (on Roo) and KT (on Ani), and then at the end of July we spent a few days up at Packer Saddle just north of the Sierra Buttes and I was able to put another 25 miles of slow climbing on his back end.

Letting the horses take a break at Francisco's after doing CA Loop

Headed south from the Pack Saddle campground to access the PCT

On the Deer Lake > Pack Saddle campground trail - they are planning to reroute the PCT onto this trail

And so we headed to Bridgeport in mid-August, not nearly as fit as I wanted, but at least upright and sound.

Bridgeport - Eastern High Sierra Classic (EHSC)

I hadn't ridden the Bridgeport ride in six years and it was definitely time to go back. It was on the schedule last year, but cancelled at the last minute due to a fire near the trail. I love this ride, but in retrospect, it really isn't a good choice for Fergus - lots of very tight twisty places to muscle him around, resulting in a weary rider.

Weary or not, it really is probably one of the loveliest rides in the West Region:

Going for the "high energy" look :)

It was the first time I'd done an e-Ride with him booted on all four feet - a little nervous-making, but the Renegades stayed on - with just one emergency toe-strap replacement when the velcro filled up with crud. He didn't feel totally comfortable over rocky footing yet (remember I'd had to aggressively rebalance his feet, so they hadn't had a chance to grow out properly), but we finished and he looked pretty good at the end, considering.

Following our first distance excursion, the 16" Eurolite was deemed "OK". My calves were sore and my crotch was burning. The first few miles of riding felt like I was a complete beginner, with absolutely no balance or control over my floppety body. I hated riding in a new saddle and hated that feeling of discombobulation. It was "OK", but I wanted that usual feeling of "being at one with my horse" back again.

I'd originally intended to ride both days, but Fergus was a bit tight in the right rear glute towards the end of Day 1, so we opted to go to the hot springs on Sunday instead. It poured with rain - score on two counts - I wasn't riding in it, and all the people cluttering up the pools scuttled back to their cars, leaving deserted, quiet pools for us to soak in.

More Tweaks

I had four weeks to get things straightened out before Virginia City 100.

(three weeks if you consider that the following week Ashley flew in from AZ to ride Roo at the Tahoe Rim Ride - I was along as crew and driver, and volunteer at the out-vet check. The ride went great and we all had fun. And best of all, Roo didn't dump her).

Crewing. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Roo in his jammies

On others' recommendation, I tried shortening my stirrups a hole (necessitated punching a hole in the fenders, since they were on the shortest setting). That felt like a jockey, so I punched another "half-hole" in between and that felt reasonable.

I spent an afternoon playing with bits of felt and various other pieces of padding and learned some things about rotating pelvises, thigh angle, and how the two affect how pointy your seat bones feel. The best padding turned out to be bubble wrap, but was deemed insufficiently durable for a 100 miler so I had to abandon that concept. I added padding, I took padding out, I cut padding up, etc. Poor Fergus had to deal with me getting on, riding 30 feet, getting off.... repeat for an entire afternoon. He was a good boy, although the couple of times we set off down the lane, only to return within a minute or so got him very confused and he suggested that maybe the ride ought to be a little longer?

Very cushy, but not very durable. It was worth a try, though.

I finally realised that part of my problem was not having enough security in the front of the saddle to snug myself behind. Although I had the additional "knee block" shims in there (see pic here from May), it wasn't enough. A lightbulb went off and I fetched the knee blocks out of my Sensation saddle.

These are designed to velcro onto the underside of the saddle - and on a saddle with flaps, are completely covered. Unfortunately, the Eurolite only has shortie flaps (which is how come it's "light"), so the velcro-face was sticking out towards me. I'd had this problem with the shims I'd been using and had wrapped them in a couple of pieces of fleece, but I was worried that would wear through during a 100 miler, so instead popped them into a spare pair of Equiflex Sleeves - purple, to boot - to keep me from snagging onto the exposed hook-velcro.

(Ann's question this morning about "d'you have a pair of socks on the front of the saddle?" made me realise that, yes, a pair of socks (if I can find some purple ones) would be a better option, to save the more expensive EquiFlex Sleeves).

And voila! The saddle was ready to ride.

Virginia City 100

I slept the best I have ever slept at a ride the night before VC100. Having just stuffed 4.5 weeks-worth of work-hours into the previous two weeks might have had something to do with it, but it was good to feel that calm.

Fergus has developed a man-crush on KT's horse Ani and insisted that he couldn't be more than 5 feet from him at any time which got a little old (especially as we were milling about at the start and he was very naughty), but it worked out OK.

photo: Bob Hall

The saddle felt great right from the start - I was able to stay in it, despite Fergus trotting his Biggest Ever Trot (separated from Ani, he had to catch up). I got a nasty rub on the inside of one knee, but that was more due to a new pair of tights than the saddle, and liberal application of anti-chafe gel helped the problem (that, and switching to fresh clothing at the 50 mile hold).

He was in massive glue-ons for the ride - feet still not where I wanted them, I was leery to trim any more off. 3.5 glue-ons on the front were probably a little too big, and we lost the left front at about 33 miles just before Bobcat Canyon on our way down towards Washoe Lake.

My boot bags could only accommodate one 2WW Ren and I didn't have any gloves big enough to fit his front feet, but Ren #1 was enough - off we went again in mismatched boots. I was actually glad my "spare" was a Renegade, since I wouldn't have been able to get a glove on there very easily with all the excess glue still on his foot.

Arriving at the Washoe Trot-by with an extra spare.
photo: Diana Hiiesalu

photo: Diana Hiiesalu

At the Washoe Trot-by I borrowed a rasp and scraped off the excess glue on his hoof wall so I could get the boot on there better. I then replaced the "spare" in the boot bag with Renegade #2.

Multi-tasking - KT's mom Carol elytes Fergus, while Renee feeds him mash, and I rasp.
Many thanks to them both for their crewing help.
Photo: Diana Hiiesalu

Removing excess glue, so I could get the spare Renegade to seat nicely
Photo: Diana Hiiesalu

During this short "break" (hah), Fergus was tormented by stinging insects and was flailing around and I was foolish enough to get in his way and got nailed by a flying back leg. That hurt, but luckily it was a sideways blow, not a full-on kick, so although I had a spectacular bruise to show for it, and whiplash of the lower back, at least it wasn't my head.

Photo: Bob Hall

Back at camp at 51 miles, Renee procured a size 3 glove from Tami Rougeau to replace the mismatched Ren.

Leaving camp after this hold, he was nice and loose (I've had horses be stiff at that point, from standing for an hour) and he was very motivated going across American Flat (read "I must be in front, trotting way faster than everyone around me").

At 60 miles, climbing up to Jumbo Grade, I looked down and noticed my pommel bag flapping around. Realised it was because the ring that it - and my breast collar - were attached to was no longer attached to the saddle. The wimpy ring (remember that one at the top of the page?) had given way. I had to work around this wardrobe malfunction by attaching the breast collar lopsidedly. Fergus apparently didn't notice, thankfully.

At 63 miles, just after the Jumbo #2 hay stop, he lost the second front glue-on, and the spare Ren went back on again until the hold back in camp at 76 miles where Renee snagged second size 3 glove from Tami. At least we were in matching boots now.

(thanks goes to ride partners Kerrie Tuley and Cortney Bloomer for noticing the flying footwear, as I might not have). 

We left the 76 mile check and rode the next 16 miles on our own, much to Fergus' sadness. Getting sleepy at midnight was not good - I knew we still had at least another four hours to go. I sang, Fergus trudged, I worried he was going lame (he was weaving back and forth across the trail and travelling crab-wise - I later figured out he was smelling the vegetation by the side of the trail to sniff out the sparse bunch grass), I sang some more. I felt queasy so sang quieter.

At the 92 mile check we caught up with the two riders ahead of us - Carolyn and Alex - and, lo, Fergus was miraculously cured. We went from "definitely going to be pulled for lameness" to "holy crap, could you be any stronger or more obnoxious??". Fergus charged out of there like he'd only gone ten miles and proceeded to barrel back down the trail towards camp. Attempts to slow him down - and get him off the side of the trail when someone in a vehicle needed to pass - were met with distain and pushy behaviour.

Comparing this bargy horse with the sad sore one from the previous year, I was pretty thrilled (not to mention it woke us both up).

We crossed the finish line at 3:48 a.m. (21st out of 44 starters) and were back in camp and off the horse by 4:30 a.m... 24 hours after I'd gotten on the previous morning.

< proud of my big bargy horse >

The vet detected slight loin soreness at the final check, but I don't think it was any more than the result of a horse that wasn't as fit as he could be doing 100 miles and walking a good part of the last loop. By the following morning, any residual soreness was gone. My body was fine too - no pokey aches from treed saddle digging in.

I declare the saddle a success for both of us!

Extra D-rings

You can never not have enough D-rings.

This week I took the 16" Eurolight to the saddle guy in Newcastle and asked him to properly attach those front D-rings again; replace the rather wimpy leather holding four of the others on (it was only a matter of time before they wore through and fell off); as well as adding two custom D-rings on the back of saddle behind my leg.

My task for this coming weekend is to design and sew two new boot bags that will accommodate two sets of 2WW Renegades snugly on the back of either side of the saddle. I love my old sausage bags, but they were designed to fit two of Roo's size 0.5 gloves. I can just get a single 2WW in the bag, but it takes ten minutes to wiggle it in there and ten minutes to wiggle it back out again, and as VC100 showed me, carrying enough spares for each foot really is important.

NV Derby - 4th-5th April

NV Derby - 4th-5th

Took Fergus and Roo over to Washoe Valley for this ride and planned to ride both days, regardless of weather. I just don't care. Stamping feet. Etc.

Approaching the ride date, the weather began to deteriorate and I concluded that whilst I might be able to get home on Monday morning in the truck, I wasn't comfortable dragging the trailer in snow. Accordingly, Renee kindly offered to house the pones at her house in Reno for the week should it be necessary to leave them in NV. I'd come back the next weekend and fetch them - a PITB, but I really wanted to do the ride.

As it turned out, the weather was fine and clear come Monday morning. I left ridecamp at 8:45, met pft in Auburn to switch the rig-n-pones for a commute car, and was at work and showered* by noon.

(* necessary, given three days of crud accumulation).

Saturday:

The ride went really well. Saturday was the first ride of NASTR Triple Crown (Fergus is "up" this year) and I'd planned to move out a little with him, rather than dawdle and dilly-dally. It "sort of" worked. Biggest problem was dealing with a shrieking Roo at the trailer - and the responding bellows from Fergus.

We rode the first loop with neighbor Becky who we'd trained with a little, so I knew she knew what sort of pace Fergus could do if I let him and wouldn't have to feel guilty (note this happens pretty rarely - the "letting him move out" part). Most of the time I'm super conservative, but I just wanted to see what happens if I let him get on with it.

Wild mustang herd out by American Flat

One interesting section was riding through the crappy rocks under the power lines. Ordinarily I'd insist that he walked these sections, but at one point found ourselves trotting along while realising that we should be walking. I was about to pull him up when I realised he was actually doing a really tidy job of not tripping on the rocks, or standing on them and taking funky, lame-making steps. He did such a nice job on that crappy section that his technical abilities went up in my estimation. Not sure why I thought he was clutzy, when I think back to how well he did in the dark during Tevis last summer, but I'm really starting to trust him not to do something stupid when it comes to travelling at speed over uncertain footing.

Every time we came into camp, Fergus would be bellowing frantically for Roo and I'd have to take him to the trailer and let them breathe in each other's faces for a minute or so before we could proceed to the vet check. Luckily I was parked at the end of the trot lanes, so in Fergus' case, this worked OK - at least I could get a pulse on him, although I did bring Roo along for the first PnR.

Parked at the end of the trot lanes - good and bad.
But main conclusion - excellent spot.

Becky decided to hang back a little for the second loop, so we went out alone. Despite my best efforts I was still nearly 10 mins late leaving the lunch check - just not enough minutes in an hour hold to get Fergus, Roo, and me squared away. This second loop was very intermittent, pace-wise. I've been trying to get more consistent about pacing with Fergus, but it does require the cooperation of said horse, which I didn't have with Mr Misery, out there with no friends, in the desert, alone... He basically bellowed for about 30 miles which was quite dull and I confess to resorting to whacking him with my rommel every time he did it - which made not the slightest bit of difference.

But he did good. We rode on and off with the riders around us, but mostly on our own, trotting along, bellowing.

Windy on top of Sand Hill. Washoe Lake looking pitiful in the background

Biggest excitement was—after promising Gina Hall that I'd appreciate Ophir Grade better—being rewarded with finding a 100-year old oxen shoe just lying there on the path. Saddest moment was realising there was no way I'd be able get back on Fergus if I got off to retrieve it, and so having to disappointingly leave it there (actually secretly scared that it was really just a chunk of rusty metal - which I knew is what it'd turn out to be if I slithered off and then spent the next two miles on foot, looking for a mounting block). And bigger excitement was discovering that Gina and Dave had also spotted it on the trail behind me - and they were off on foot, so picked it up - and after bitter whining during the awards, she gave it to me. Thanks Gina!

Ophir Grade, near where I found my oxen shoe

Oxen shoe!

Coming in on loop 2 across the park, I could tell that Fergus was getting a little tired of continuous trotting and although we stalked a couple of riders on the trail (I look at my watch when they are next to a certain bush or some other landmark, then see how long it take me to get there - thus how far they are in front of me - and later, do it again to see if we're gaining). I opted to ask him to keep trotting, but not to push him. Just as well - turns out the two riders were a loop ahead of us and going in to the finish, while we still had a third loop to complete.

On the last loop - the 6-7 miles around the park, he'd really lost interest and was very miffed at having to leave Roo once again. Again, we were out of the hold 5+ mins late due to having to juggle Roo, Fergus and my needs on the half-hour hold. Hey ho. I tried. More enthusiastic riders passed us (they were in a pair, so their horses were all happy - not all alone and likely to die out there, like Fergus would. ...at least until we turned for home again) and we never caught them - again, I opted to ask him to trot, but not to push it.

All in all, he coped very well with the extra non-dawdle pace. Vet Marcia Smith thought she spotted "something" on his LF at his final trot out. Given his tendency to skip when he goes into the trot, I never know if he's genuinely showing something (and thus should bite my nails and obsess over it)(which you know I am, secretly, anyway), or if they're just seeing that skip. He is a big horse, with a big trot and doesn't show well (unlike horses with more moderated, low-energy gaits) if he loses motivation, so that could also be it. Either way, I immediately pulled his boots (easier said than done - yes, that is my horse standing over there with several yanking/poking instruments sticking out of his footwear and me getting redder in the face from wrestling with them) to make sure that wasn't causing the problem, but no, they seemed fine, with minimum amount of sand in the fronts (the glued ones) and quite a bit more in the backs (non-glue), but seemingly not enough to cause any problem.

Bundled him and Roo into their blankies, spent some time blankly trying to figure out why his Equisleeve socks weren't in the trailer before I flashed to them hanging up "to dry" (for the last six weeks) in the mud room after they came home filthy from 20MT. I ended up putting Uno's purple ones on him - these are the next size down, but went on fine (it even felt like they went on easier than usual? Maybe because I'd taken his boots off) and seemed to not cause any over-compression.

Uno's purple sleevies, Fergus' filthy blanket. Fashionable horse about town.

And our non-dawdle pace paid off, with a 25th place finish out of 70-something riders - admirable, considering how much time I lost not getting out of the holds on time.

Wheee - love riding this horse!

Sunday was Roo's turn.

My morning wasn't quite as relaxed as hoped - probably because I had to spend several hours mucking the elephant horse, but I got Roo's clothes on and was about to get on when I realised guiltily that I hadn't eaten anything. So there I was, doing a speed-stuff of half a banana into my face, when I noticed the clasp on the snap on Roo's zilco halter was broken and sticking out at right angles. Hmm, not good. I assume he rubbed it on the trailer. Decided to try and push it back into place rather than remove bridle, halter, find a new halter and put everything back on. And right as I was frustratedly pushing on the snap without success and thinking I'd have to do that anyway, it popped back into place. On I hopped and we were off, leaving the bellowing Fergus in our wake (clearly, leaving from the opposite side of the trailer from Fergus wasn't the cloaking device I'd hoped it would be).

Apparently I hadn't really planned this out properly, since I hadn't made any arrangements to ride with anyone, which is the kiss of death with Roo. The first part of the ride crosses the park on the wide sandy road. Roo stopped dead before we even got to the number-taker, then spooked at the water trough at the start line, then proceeded to weave drunkenly at the trot for the first half mile. We caught some walking-riders, he didn't look convinced, so we trotted on until we caught the next pair - who turned out to be Dave and Connie! Yay! Good company! And we rode with them for the rest of the day.

Weather coming in over the Sierra from California to the west

At the top of Jumbo Grade

Starting down the long descent

The biggest thing that concerned me riding with them is both their horses have a super-fast walk, while Roo's walk is... well... not fast. Not even medium. We'll call it "slow". So we'd follow along, shuffling-trot at regular intervals to keep up. Then I remembered that Roo had followed Shardonney through much of Virginia City 100 in September - so I knew he could deal with the pace (and this was half the distance).

Connie and Dave's trot-pace was a little slower than Roo thought we ought to be going, so I was having to hang on to him more than was comfortable to stop him tailgaiting, so when we got to the water trough out by American Flat and he was having a "go in front" moment, I let him trot on ahead of them for a mile or so. I knew his gung-ho attitude wouldn't last, but hoped that if I let him move out a little, he'd settle better and I'd be able to ride him on a loose rein as per usual. It worked perfectly - except for the part where him going on ahead upset Shardonney, so she was pulling on poor Connie. Sorry Connie.

With the weather coming in from the west (I was totally overdressed in every item of clothing I'd brought for the weekend - just in case), it had been windy when we started out, but nothing like what hit us as we started to head west again. We got absolutely blasted full-on so hard my sinuses began to hurt from the pressure. My nose ran constantly and any attempt at conversation was a waste of time.

All along this section we saw many small herds of wild mustangs, including one that was standing in the middle of the trail  right in front of us, and went galloping off across the rough ground, leaping boulders as it went. Pretty cool.

Trudging up Goni Rd (remote road that leads up to the cinder pit quarry), I told Connie about how one year there was a guy up there digging in the dirt in a really peculiar way and I was convinced he was burying a body. Connie, in turn, told me the story of her husband having actually found a body up there (someone who'd shot themselves). Euw. Spooky.

Unfortunately, this loop came in from the opposite direction to my trailer, and I foolishly attempted to PnR Roo without first grabbing Fergus. I don't know why I bothered. He was up at 80, yelling at Fergus, who was cheerfully bellowing back from the other side of the trot lanes. Finally I gave up, went and fetched Fergus and had to juggle them both in the PnR area. Pulse now down, the vet secretary and the vet (Rob Lydon, I think?) kindly held Fergus for me while I ran Roo up and down.

Roo munching in lunch in windy camp

Of course, because of our delay, we were now five mins behind Connie and Dave for our out-time, but they kindly agreed to wait for me, letting their horses eat hay at the out-timer. When you're juggling things on your own, you've no idea how little kindnesses like these add up to making the day a fun one, instead of an exercise in frustration. Thanks guys.

Loop 2 sets out along the edge of Washoe Lake - in its current sad state of drought. I was looking back at photos from past years here and it's so sad to see the expanses of dry dusty silt.

Paralleling East Lake Blvd.
(I fell off UNO here one year :)  )

Washoe Puddle :(

Roo managed the climbs admirably (bearing in mind he is not a hill horse by any stretch of the imagination and given the choice, I wouldn't have picked the Cinder Pit day for him. Alas, with Fergus doing Triple Crown this year, he had to do Day 1, and I'm trying to get Roo to 2000 miles, so he had to do "A Day" - whichever one was left over). We got to the top of the Cinder Pit without embarrassing us, although sadly, my yellow sponge went walkabout somewhere on this stretch - all the was left was an empty scissor snap. I think that makes three sponges I've now lost without trace. :(

Coming down the other side, I marvelled at just how fast Dave Rabe can walk on foot. There's no way I could keep up - and I wasn't hanging around. Connie didn't even try and hopped back on Shardonney who has a super-fast walk, so I was having to scuttle to stay ahead of her.

View from just below the Cinder Pit

Dust blowing on the lake, far below

The last loop around the park went without incident - my non-stop trotting abilities are reaching new heights as I can just about go for 6-7 miles now without suffering too badly. Good skills for me and the pones. 

And most amusing was discovering at the finish that we'd top-tenned the ride. Admittedly, there were only 21 or so starters, but it was still fun - a first for Roo and I both. 

Stinking cute as usual

Back at camp, with the weather starting to pile over the Sierra in earnest and it starting to lightly snow, I got Roo's boots off, his sleevies on, large quantities of food installed in front of him and Fergus (I bring many pre-filled hay bags, so just have to keep hanging a fresh one as they empty), big blankies on both, and was out cold by 8:30 p.m. I almost slept for 11 hours straight (can you say "tard"?), except for being woken from a deep stupor at around 10:30 when the side door on the horse-part of the trailer blew open. I don't like to completely latch the doors on the trailer when I'm camping in case I need to make a getaway (have a walk-through door to get into the rear of the trailer) and prefer to have as many exit options as possible - and this one had blown open in the fierce wind. I struggled up, got it bungeed shut from the inside, and after a quick glance at my good, hard-working boys (half-asleep in front of their hay nets), I clambered back into my nest again.

The morning brought bright sunshine, ice on the water buckets, and a wonderful drive back over the Sierra, admiring the fresh snow on the mountain tops. Hard work - but oh, so worth it.

NASTR 75 - In Which pft and I Ride 75 Miles and pft Gets Whacked in the Face by Branches

At 25 miles - Photo: Bill Gore

Well, in time-honoured tradition, the NASTR 75 plan that wasn't really a plan came off way smoother than expected. Is there a correlation between worry and what will go wrong? i.e. the more you worry, the less likely it is that the things you are worrying about will cause any problems at all? Of course, there were the mandatory glitches, but nothing overwhelming, and they involved none of the things I'd been fretting about all week.

The Day Before

It was a scrabble to get there on time - we were running so late (even later than our Predictably Late lateness) that we had to scuttle around like mad things once we got there to get everything ready. So much for socialising.

One of the last minute "emergencies" involved a discussion between pft and I about which tights to wear. He wondered about some elastic-nearly-gone tights that had knee padding, over a newer pair. I worried that the bagginess from lack of elastic would cause rubs (happened to me at 20MT last year). Turns out that he was already getting knee rubs from the saddle. He's been using a shortie-sheepskin cover - it's very very cushy, but only for the butt and upper thigh - no protection down lower. I have a longer sheepskin, but it was pretty tired and had been more or less retired due to being ripped at the attachment points. It has been sitting on my copious "mending pile" for months. Looked like I needed to do some emergency mending.

So I got out the needle and thread and sewed up the torn parts, then proceeded to add various strategically-placed grommets to get the thing really firmly attached to the saddle. Luckily, I've got one of these longer sheepskins on my saddle, so I know how to rig them up and what the pitfalls were if you didn't get it firmly attached.

Once at ride camp, we speed-tacked up Fergus and I had pft trot him up and down to make sure it was going to work OK - because you know that trotting 200' is going to show you exactly how something will perform over 75 miles. Unfortunately, he was wearing jeans that were rucking up, so it was hard to tell what was a wrinkle in his jeans and what might be a wrinkle in the saddle cover. The fact that you're not supposed to try anything new on ride day was in the back of my mind, so my Emergency Plan involved adding the shortie sheepskin (and the grommet kit) to an auxiliary crew bag in case we should need to make a switch at the vet check if we discovered that the longer sheepskin wasn't working.

Of course, the sheepskin (experted mounted on the saddle, if I do say so myself) performed flawlessly and pft never even noticed it was there all day.

One of my other tasks was to get both pones braided up. The temps were forecast to be in the mid 80s, so I knew we'd be sponging a lot. I ran the other day - first time in a year - and know how good and refreshing and rejuvenating splashing myself in the creek half-way along had felt - and I resolved to do much, much better about sponging the horse at EVERY opportunity. Sponges and soft-sided scoops were added to the tack pile.

We may be slow, but at least my pones look smart in their braids:

Feeling fraught, we finally sat down to supper at 11:30 pm.

We set our alarm for 3:30 am although neither of us slept that well. But getting up that early did make for a reasonably relaxed start to the day, as well as giving us time to get the "horse stations" ready for the evening (filling water buckets to the brim and setting out full hay bags). I knew from past experience that the less we had to do when we came in at the end of the ride, the better (...and, yup, once again by the end, I proved incapable of getting the T-fasteners done up on Roo's blankie - and his is the easiest one to do up).

(I'm still not sure I managed to actually eat any breakfast, though, now I think about it. Hmmm.)

Figuring out what to wear was tricky - it was warm enough to be in shirt sleeves, until the breeze kicked in. I eventually opted for a cami top with sunshirt over it, and my fleece vest on top of that. pft wore a hoodie - and we were glad of the extra layers going through the canyon in the early morning. By about 8:30 a.m. I was starting to bake and the vest got elasticked onto the back of the saddle (I have a couple of string-elastic toggles back there which I can maneuver clothing into without turning around in my saddle).

Loop 1 - 0-25 miles

Fergus got quite excited watching the front-runners warming up in the sand arena immediately adjacent to our trailer, so we let everyone go ahead and ambled out at about 5:05 a.m., both horses on a loose rein, both pretty laid-back about the whole situation. Mindful of my warming up lessons during rehab with Uno, I made us walk for ten minutes before picking up the trot. Andrew Gerhardt came flying past saying "you should make time while it's still cool" - and I told him we still had three minutes of walking to go.

The first few miles are easy hard-packed dirt road that climbs gradually before dropping into El Dorado Canyon. I don't know if the creek in El Dorado Canyon runs the entire summer (possibly, since I think it's spring-fed), but there was plenty of water in it at the end of May. With so much greenery and water, it's a riparian oasis for birds and animals.

The cave about 2/3rds of the way
through El Dorado Canyon

I love the first 2-3 hours of this ride - it's all technical stuff - dropping into the creekbed, scrambling over rocks, balancing through babyheads, clambering up the side of the banks. There were mini-bogs, endless stream crossings, a multitude of pine boughs to poke your eye out on, willows to dodge, cottonwoods to duck under. We passed through the middle of a jeepers' camp, passed strange rock formations (this canyon is very volcanic), passed a cave big enough to live in, as well as several that were big enough to squeeze into, and it's all interspersed with sections of footing that is good enough to trot at will - if only for 50' at a time.

Fergus and pft led the way and did a great job getting us through in a seamless fashion - no easy feat when you're pacing for two very-unevenly sized/strided horses.

Illinois Canyon (a side canyon to El Dorado) rock formations

We were caught and passed by two groups of 50-mile front runners (a group of five, followed by a group of three) - earlier than usual to be passed, but I think it was them pushing each other rather than the speed we were going.

Picking our way through the babyhead rocks
in Illinois Canyon 

When we finally got out on the main dirt road - Sunrise Pass Rd - Roo was eager to get on with it and asked to canter. It's a level, minimally-rutted road  so I let him play a little. pft got Fergus cantering as well and pretty soon both boys were racing each other along the ledge of road, having a lot of fun and not pacing correctly for a 75 mile ride at all. We pulled them down to a walk and then let them go again. And that was enough. For the next half hour or so, every time we tried to get them to trot sensibly, they wanted to canter and race each other.

We stopped and sponged and got them a drink at the slightly-off-trail creek (didn't look like many riders had bothered with this drinking/sponging opportunity) - and four of the six people I knew were behind us snuck on by while we were down there. At the top of the climb, the remaining pair of riders came past and thus we were in last place - at 20 miles.

Climbing the only hill of any significance on the course.
Despite the apparent lack of real hills, we still ended up doing
6,000'+ of climbing (and descent) by the end of the day.

...and clambering down the other side among the rocks - Slide Mtn in the distance on the right.

Shortly after this, Fergus' RF size 3 glue-one came off. This was no great surprise - it's the one where the glue was set up before I even got it on his foot. I was pleased that it lasted as long as it did. pft got off and put on a strap-on Glove and off we went again. This turned out to be the only "boot event" of the entire 75 miles. Roo's four glue-ons and Fergus' remaining three never moved (and, as I type this on Wednesday evening, are still firmly on their feet - removal is going to have to wait until the weekend because it's going to require some serious work to get them off and I haven't gotten home from work before 10 p.m. this week). The sparsie Glove gave Fergus no problem either - picking up minimal grit despite the sandwashes and the creek crossings, didn't rub, and didn't shift the whole ride.

For once Roo out-drank and out-peed Fergus - not a common occurrence.

Fergus usually out-drinks Roo by about three to one, but on this ride, for some reason Roo was in drinking mode. Fergus still got As on hydration, but Roo drank and drank - and peed often as a result. Good pony. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come (it only took him 1700 miles to figure it out).

We got into the 26 mile vet check just past 10 a.m. - five hours which was pretty good going for the terrain and minor booting-interlude.

This was a 40 minute hold, but wasn't really long enough to sort out two people and two horses.

Arriving at the first vet check at 26 miles - still grinning
Photo: Bob Hall

Does this couple look like they have any clue what they're doing??
Photo: Bob Hall

Making up the horse meals the night before -
exactly how much food do two horses need to complete a 75?

When Roo and I did this ride in 2007, I didn't pack enough food for him at the holds (not sure what I was thinking, but apparently failed to take into account the extra 25 miles). So this time, I packed enough food for each hold, plus a bit more ... and then doubled it for the two horses. Added to that were people water bottles - ride management were providing people water at the vet check, but I've been caught out by that before* - one of the pitfalls of riding at the back - so always carry extra. And then doubled that for two people. The result was the stupid crew-box was so heavy I couldn't lift it on my own.

(* turns out this wasn't unreasonable. Whilst they didn't run out, they were running very low by the time we left on our final leg back to camp).

All my boys resting in the shade at the first vet check. 

The trouble with not being able to lift it was the box was in one place and the horses and pft were in another, so I had to shuttle individual items back and forth which didn't make for a very restful 40 minutes. I did manage to elyte the horses (Gina's magic recipe that they have no objection to) before we left, knowing that there was a water trough just a couple of miles up the trail. But we still left the check about 15-20 minutes late.

Leaving on the next leg
Photo: Bob Hall

Loop 2 - 25-50 miles

This was the Kalahari Loop and possibly one of my least favorites of any ride I've ever done. This loop brings out the true meaning of "endurance".

Firstly, it's 25 miles long.

Secondly, it goes out into the desert where there are no trees and no shade.

And thirdly, it does this during the hottest part of the day causing you to become a shrivelled, dessicated thing the longer you're out there.

The first time I ever rode this loop convinced me I needed one of those large Salamander "beak" brims - and I've ridden with one ever since.

The good thing is they've moved the ride date of NASTR 75 to a month earlier - the end of May instead of June, making it marginally less warm, but it was still toasty out there. Of interest is the fact that pft said he never felt uncomfortable, while I was totally baking for most of the five hours we were out there. Unsure if this is:

A) Because I'm a girl and have more, er, "covering" than pft, esp. in the front (even more especially since he dropped over 20 lbs in the last few months... a HW he is no longer, so I told him he mustn't top-ten anything because they'll find out when they weigh him).
B) Because he's riding a great big horse with a really slow tempo, so not working up a lot of heat from activity (this seems possible - I die of heat when riding Small Thing because of the fast tempo).
C) Because I'm 48 and hormonal (this seems unlikely, but was suggested to me today by someone at work).
D) Because girls naturally run hotter than boys.

I wore one of those soaked neck-roll things with the gel inside and spent the entire loop, every three minutes, rolling it on my neck so the cool part was against my skin. I also dabbed at my face with my horse sponge at regular intervals, and re-dunked the neck roll and re-moistened* the sponge at every one of the four water troughs along the way.

(* one of the few perks of riding at the back - you can use your sponge in the trough because there's no one behind you).

I only dropped my neck-roll in the trough once.
And persuaded pft to get off to rescue it.
He's a good husband.

Loop 2 has all the fun stuff at the start - a wildly steep drop down into a sand wash, the sand wash that has lovely wildflowers and glimpses of a view through the V at the bottom, followed by a long chunk of twisty fun singletrack in the sagebrush.

Here's a little video of the steep drop into the sand wash - the video doesn't make it look nearly as steep as it actually is, but trust me, it's steep:

In the sand wash

Nearly to the bottom

Twisty singletrack in the sagebrush

The twisty singletrack section was thoughtfully extended by ride management this year and although it rode a little longer (and a good chunk was in deep, paranoia-provoking sand), it was still a lot of fun. The trick on this trail is to try to stay *on* the trail as it wends its way around the bushlets. And, in the case of riding Roo behind Fergus, staying *on top* of the horse when your body is following the trail around the bush and Roo decides to jog the opposite direction to cut the corner to keep up with Fergus. I only came close to coming off a couple of times. Roo led for some of this, Fergus led for some of this. And after a while we all had to walk for a bit because you can only have too much of a good thing before parts of you start to hurt.

Coming out on the good-footing road at the trough (where I dropped my neck thing), we stopped to talk to several off-roaders who were curious about the ride and what we were doing. After this trough interlude, I explained to pft that we needed to trot as much as possible because there were going to be places later in the day where we wouldn't be able to. And we did pretty good for a pair of riders who have little motivation to trot continously. We egged each other on - taking it in turns to lead. We even cantered a little in a nice relaxed way (I know this was relaxed because I was able to reach down and rescue my escapee sponge as we were going along).

But again, there's only so much trotting you can do before you get the bleahs. Peddling two horses wasn't much fun. At the turning under the powerlines, Roo's homing beacon kicked in a little and he set off in the front - only to spook hugely at a large white boulder and nearly dump me. I could get him to go, but only if Fergus kept up and F was less and less interested in doing so.

Turning into the hot wash I came very close to nearly falling asleep in the saddle and was only saved by Roo stopping to pee - thus providing a bit of minor interest. We trudged along, peddling them into a trot as best we could as often as we could, which didn't seem to be very often.

Wilting in the Kalahari

There was a strange dead truck in the middle of the wash at one point, and that provided some interest for a short while.

And then embarrassingly, along came Scott Dutcher (part of ride management) on an ATV. I assume they sent him out to look for us, which is never a good sign. I announced to pft that from here on out, if we *could* trot, we *would* trot - and luckily from about there onwards, there was plenty of trotting opportunity. On the dirt road coming in (usually my most hated section), I got Roo in front and he went for it - trotting the whole way in in front at a good clip, with only two short 30 second walking breaks that he instigated - and started to trot again without me asking.

We arrived back at the vet check 5 hr 10 mins after we left 25 miles earlier. Again, not too bad - at this point we'd gone 51 miles in 11 hours. Not great, but still within parameters provided we stayed on track and didn't dawdle any further.

We had an hour hold at this point - much needed. The vet check was deserted of other horses, so we left Roo and Fergus unattended in front of a huge pile of hay and sat in the partial shade of a tree. Thanks to Kelly Williams coming in from the next loop, I even got my mind to turn off while chatting with her and munched down some chicken pasta salad, despite feeling queasy from heat and tiredness.

Loop 3 - 50-60 miles

I did not manage to remember to elyte the horses, or to put my soaking neck roll back on my neck leaving on this next loop, so it didn't start quite how it was supposed to. We met two big groups of riders coming in off this loop, which always makes you a little nervous - it shows exactly how far behind you are. But I was OK with our situation. It wasn't great, but I told pft we could still make it provided we didn't dawdle and we trotted everything that could be trotted.

And the loop started off great. pft put Fergus in front and off we went - trotting solidly for about three miles, including another long gradual downhill. pft normally hates to trot downhill, but he did a great job here - really making some time and I was impressed - as well as relieved that we were making time and would be back on track in no time.

And then everything went south.

Roo will lead on his terms - when his radar kicks in, or on occasions when he starts to feel brave. He won't do it consistently, however. Fergus is happy to lead most of the time, and will do so at a good pace.

Except on this loop he decided he didn't want to. And here's where Roo's Wimp Self gets REALLY frustrating. There are times when I NEED him to pick up the slack and go in front and trot when told - and he won't. Partly it was the two horses feeding off each other - the one in front wouldn't trot without the one behind coming too - and the one behind, half the time, was so lethargic in his response that by the time you got him trotting, the one in front had decided he wasn't coming and stopped trotting. So we walked a good chunk of the second half of this loop, particularly when it started uphill and  pft thought Fergus was too tired to do more.

Coming in the last couple of miles, we met the lady on the pinto who we'd overtaken at around five miles into the ride. She was now about an hour ahead of us. That was a demoralizing moment and I started to think that we were in serious trouble.

We had three choices:

1. Do a RO pull at the next vet check (60 miles). I didn't particularly want to do this, but if pft decided that neither he nor Fergus were up for the last 15 mile section, and opted to pull, I wasn't convinced that I'd be able to get Roo out of the vet check and back to the finish on his own. Remember his Wimp Self.
2. Continue along the trail, but with no energy and go overtime.
3. Continue along the trail, but make some serious time by upping that energy and trotting everything we could.

pft was not amused. Words were said.

As it turned out, Option 1. seemed to be off the table. There was no horse trailer at the vet check when we arrived. I assume it had taken some pulled-horses back to camp and hadn't returned (it's about a 50 minute, very bumpy, trailer ride back to camp).

The horses looked really good at the vet check - Fergus in particular (so much for the "he's too tired") - scoring nearly all As. The vet said they looked good and that they'd looked good all day, which was a nice compliment. We may be slow, but at least our horses look good. Roo did well for his check, but I noticed him taking a few funky steps just before our trot out, and one during the trot out, and knew he was getting crampy in his right rear. This is his biggest weakness and when he gets crampy, he'll kick out with that leg. He kicked out as we were getting ready to leave and my heart sank. It would either get better, or we'd be pulled at the finish.

As far as getting to the finish, I hoped that we could turn things around and go with Option 3.

The remaining vet check staff (yay them) got pft a sandwich and he got to sit for a bit. Meanwhile, I ran around like a maniac, taping glowsticks to both horses, elyting them, grabbing our warm clothing, stuffing things frantically back into the crew box (predictably, the horses had enjoyed the hay so much that they only ate about a third of the "special" food I'd brought them, so I couldn't fit everything back into the carefully-packed box). Ended up having to bungie things to the outside of the box just to group it all together.

A big thank you to the volunteers for looking after pft here, and for having to deal with our stupid large box. If pft and I continue to ride together, I think we need to divide our crew junk into 3-4 containers, because the one enormously-heavy box (along the the lightweight auxiliary crew bag of horse coolers, sheepskin cover and grommet kit) doesn't work.

Before we left, I wolfed down a yoghurt and 2/3rd of an Ensure in literally about 20 seconds - who knew you could do that? (guaranteed to make you puke).

an assortment of glowsticks on our breast collars

Loop 4 - 60-75 miles

We were out of the final vet check at 7:55 p.m. Sunset was at 8:15 and it would be dark-dark by 8:50, so we had a little under and hour of daylight to get as much trail covered as we could.

The volunteers told us "Make as much time as you can in the daylight" and we didn't need any urging - we were out of there and trotting within 50'. Evidently the sandwich did good for pft, he put Fergus in front and off we went. Poor Fergus had never been worked so hard - pft made him trot all the way to the trough (uphill), where we paused to let them drink (after elyting them) and I handed pft a couple of Tylenol. And off we went again.

Connie Creech told us at the ride meeting that Sullivan Canyon was in the worst shape she'd seen it in years, with lots of whups from motorcycles and lots of erosion. We trotted as best we could - once again, pft did some great work on the downhill stuff and trotted for as long as he could before it got too dark to do so safely. After that, we just had to rely on Fergus' super powers of Big Walking.

That's a big horse
Photo: Diana Hiesalu-Bain

The strangest thing for me on that section was I kept hallucinating a wire strung across the trail about five foot above my head. This happened about every 20 seconds for about 10 minutes in the dwindling light - several times I even ducked to avoid it. No idea what my brain was doing, but it was odd.

From having done Tevis with Fergus, I knew he was good at following the trail, but I don't think I realised *how* good. This trail in Sullivan and El Dorado Canyon isn't exactly the easiest to follow, with many twists and turns and sudden sideways drops into the creek. Although they'd put out glow-sticks, they were very few and far between and really only served as confidence markers - more a "Yup, you're still on the right trail" type of thing. Fergus led us in nearly the whole way almost flawlessly - only taking about three wrong turns over the course of about ten miles.

At one point, Roo pulled over to pee, so Fergus did likewise. For once Roo (who is the slowest pee-er in horsedom) was done sooner, so pulled back onto the trail and set off in front. Only I have no idea where the trail was, or where we were (keeping in mind we'd done this section first thing in the morning). We ended up dropping down a steep embankment and going along for a while - presumably on the trail - but I have no idea. Roo stayed in front for about five minutes before he started gawping at every single rock and twig alongside the trail. He was weaving around to avoid them all, so I finally had pft put Fergus back in front again - figured I'd either get dumped, or we'd just never make it in time.

The worst spook he did was trotting to catch Fergus up (although he did an amazing job himself of Big Walk, his still isn't quite as fast as F's, so we'd still have to periodically jog-trot to catch up) - he came around a bush and there was a huge white boulder hiding behind it. He dropped out from under me like a brick but luckily didn't go too far sideways.

When pft is riding Fergus, he's about foot taller than I am on Roo and he'd gotten slapped in the face by tons of pine branches in the daylight and I was quite worried that he'd lose an eye on the trail in the dark. The glow-sticks not only lit up the trail around the horses, but they also lit up the branches above us to some extent. Pft still got pretty battered, but at least wasn't covered in blood as he had been at the first vet check. And he only took one skewer to the shoulder.

A couple of times towards the end where the trail was wider, Roo and I trotted up level with Fergus who craned his neck around to Roo and gave him a dirty look. I think Roo's glow-sticks were messing with his night vision, so after that we stayed behind.

We came back through the jeepers campground (that felt a little surreal... "Good evening!" [nonchalant-casual, like we always ride around in the pitch black at 10 pm]), and finally started up out of the canyon. Roo got in front after Fergus took his final wrong turn (took the down trail instead of the up one) and was marching along purposefully. My knees were screaming from so much walking on the trail, and about half a mile from the finish we both got off because we couldn't stand it any longer. Hobbling along behind Roo, I realised that—wow—this horse can *really* walk out when he wants to - he was striding along as fast as I've ever seen him.

We did get back on again (safer than tripping in the dark, plus pft's past injuries don't allow for much speed walking - there's a reason we got him a great big horse so he doesn't have to get off much) and, lured by the lights of Dayton, made it back to camp just about when they were starting to think about sending out a search party for us.

Too blotto to take good notes, I believe both horses got great vet scores at the finish. Roo and Fergus have both now completed the second leg of the NASTR Triple Crown (although pft says he has no interest in doing VC100). And Fergus looked amazing - a walk in the park for him. Tevis 2014 here we come!

Pones got put up in front of their hay bags, detacked and blanketed. Yanked on their Equisleeve socks (pft helped me with Fergus, since his feet are huge and it's a real struggle to get the socks over them - plus he's never terribly cooperative when it comes to pulling them up and insists on waving his leg around).

Ride management had saved us a plate of supper, but I was really too queasy to do more than pick at the melon (Robinson Flat vet check style), although I think pft ate more. Finally, once the pones were sorted out, I did munch my way through a load of ham.

And we were done.

---

I was impossibly proud of Roo who'd done such a great job all day. I'd spent the entire previous week fretting about how he wouldn't be able to comfortably keep up with Fergus all day and that he'd be struggling at the end - not. He took it all in his stride and never acted like he was in over his head.

Photo: Diana Hiesalu-Bain

So very proud of my small grey pone

And Fergus proved once again what an amazing horse he is.

---

Things I discovered along the way:

• Roo really can keep up with Fergus and move out when he wants to without his legs falling off.
• And he can walk fast when he's sufficiently motivated. 
• If the glue sets up before it gets put on the horse's foot, the glue-on will fall off. But I knew that anyway. Pleased that that particular boot lasted 20 miles and very happy that that was our only loss.
• If you walk that much, Roo's back will suffer from baldness and some edema. Evidently my pad setup still needs some serious work. 
• Fergus' pad setup, OTOH, appears to be dialled in. Apart from some odd heat bumps (like small peas under the skin), he finished looking good. 
• Not having to put boots on the morning of a ride is a Good Thing.
• pft and I riding together is a bad combination to make time. Neither of us are motivated when we get the bleahs. We need a secret weapon of a third rider to get in front so that we may follow in that blind, miserable "must we?" fashion that gets you places far faster than you would under your own steam.
• pft and I riding together is a bad combination because we're too close to each other and pick up on each other's moods - so if one gets negative, the other does too. 
• I am very proud of pft for doing so well at this ride. There were some problems, but overall he did a great job and his riding is improving in leaps and bounds. 
• Although he said he'd never do this again, I bet he will ;)