Pre-VC100 - in which I try to get my ducks in a row

You always think you've got it together for a 100 - until about two-three weeks before when suddenly everything seems to be falling apart.

I've been scuttling around, trying to get my ducks in a row.

Fergus and I did the Tahoe Rim Ride on 29th August (two weeks ago) - lovely as always - and I came away with a shopping list of things to sort out (and wishing I had an extra month and an extra 50 miler between then and now to get everything squared away).


First of all - the Tahoe Rim ride. It went great and although I worried a little about Fergus' hill fitness (he was a little "bleah" on the steeper climbs), he bounced back in each case once we got to the top and never felt flat the entire ride. Not to mention he managed to finish the ride with a vet card entirely filled with As. I've never done that before - usually there's a B on guts or something. So my take-away is he's ready for VC100.

That said, I don't feel he's as fit as he's been in past years, which means I'm going to need to ride more conservatively than usual. Not a big deal. The goal is finishing – and finishing-looking-as-good-as-we-can – not finishing-as-fast-as-we-can, so this is a good reminder to me (the so-called brains of the operation) and will hopefully reflect in an equally impressive vet card.

Saddle Fit

Or should I say shim fit. My problem is that Fergus doesn't get sore from the saddle... but weeks later tell-tale white patches show up. I narrowed some of it down to pad material - unlike every other horse in the world, sheepskin pads don't seem to agree with him. This finally became blatantly obvious when he wore a fleece-bottomed Skito pad for the first 65 miles of 20 Mule Team 100 back in February and came in to the tack-off vet check with heat bumps the size of peas. I switched to the cotton-bottomed Sensation pad for the last 35 miles and the bumps were gone at the finish. Voila. Problem solved.

Not.

A month or so later we did NV Derby 50 in the same set up and shortly after that new white patches appeared. Apparently the FreeForm panels I was trying out weren't having the desired effect - in fact they seemed to be creating more pressure along the ridge of muscle either side of his spine. Nix them.

On to NASTR 75. By now, I'd started throwing money at the problem. I bought a set of Jen-X inserts - poron on the top to combat concussion and impact, and [other foamy stuff] on the bottom to cushion his soft tissue. Removed the offending FF panels and just used the Sensation pad with the new inserts (which, predictably, arrived the day before the ride, so no opportunity to try them out). They actually felt really good and I was very happy with them - we were, in fact, both so happy that we went much faster than we should have and he came up lame with sore feet. Ruh-Roh. But hey, at least the pad seemed to be working.

On to Tahoe Rim 50 - I was still happy with the pad, but now very unhappy with how much topline muscling he seems to have lost. He still has the difficult-to-fit ridge of muscle (now liberally covered in white hair) either side of the spine, but has lost muscle below it. He also developed a strange hunter's bump on his loin area. Something out of whack causing the hunter's bump and therefore causing loss of muscle? Or uncomfortable saddle fit causes loss of muscle, causing something to go out of whack and the hunter's bump to appear? Chicken and egg?

Tom Mayes is due to take a look at him on Friday, so hopefully he'll discover something obvious that I've overlooked and he'll be miraculously cured.

If that doesn't happen, the more likely scenarios is that I'm going to need to get really creative with shimming this coming weekend and come up with some way to protect his remaining back muscle for VC100.

How his saddle has been fitting most of this year. 

I tried a quick, five-mile experiment at the weekend. I'd concluded that the top edge of the insert was causing the most grief, so broke out the FreeForm Panels again - now also stuffed with revolutionary Jen-X inserts (instead of the felt + carpet underlay that was in there to begin with when I last tried them), took a felt-shim out of the saddle itself (hoping to remove that unyielding pressure point) and took all the shims out of the Sensation pad - so I was effectively just using the FF Panels as my insert and saddle support. In doing so, I was hoping that I could move the top edge of the insert further up, so the flat side of it was laying against the bulgy area. Like this:

 All that actually happened was the hair closer to his spine, higher up than the white hairs ended up getting really mussed and swirled. It didn't look promising. At  least not promising enough that I'm willing to risk it untried at a 100 miler.

What I think I need to do, is something closer to this:

which will entail finding some sort of shimming-insert material that I can stack, shape, and layer, while tapering the edges to fit in his hollows.

Horse Weight

Fergus isn't thin. But he's not exactly fat either. I was looking at photos of him tied to the trailer at VC100 in 2012 and he was positively round.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, he'd been living with Roo. About ten days ago Roo chomped him on the girth area and that was the final straw. Not only was Fergus not getting fat from this partnership, he also needed a dose of bubblewrap.

So Roo now has Small Thing as his new room-mate (ST has gained about 50 lbs in a week - this will need to be a temporary situation), and Fergus is living the life of free-feed hay - as much as he can eat. Get fat!

In addition, he's also getting a daily bucket of mush in the morning - three coffee can scoops of Elk Grove pellets, three scoops of LMF Gold, a Vit E/Selenium/Magnesium supplement, and, as of this morning, a loading dose of Cool Calories.  Any more than this and I start to feel like I'm completely overdoing it and will have an out of control monster come ride day. And on a horse as big as Fergus, that picture does not sit comfortably in my head.

(I considered getting a big bag of rice bran, but a) would then have to fret about calcium-phosphate ratios, and b) would stop feeding it after a while, keeping it for "special" - which actually means it goes rancid and is full of wugs and cobwebs... hey, I already have a bag of that!)

Horse Footwear

This is actually an area I feel like I might be winning at (famous last words). After his lameness pull at NASTR 75 in May, he got a couple of months off to heal up and since then has been wearing Renegades in front. I'm pretty happy with them - except for the amount of debris they seem to gather that regularly needs emptying. This weekend I'm scheduled to drill debris-holes in the front of the boots to let this stuff out - allegedly that will help.

I still wince when we trot on pavement (f'instance, on our way back from the powerlines on Andy Wolf, when he's super-motivated to get home) because he lands so hard, so that just reinforces the idea that I can't let him blast along at high speed on hard footing.

The boots worked very nicely for Tahoe Rim - but that is mostly very lovely, duffy footing, so not a huge hardship for him.

His spiffy front Renegade glue-ons with squishy gel soles have arrived and we'll glue them on the Friday before the ride. He'll be in Gloves in the back.

I'm a little anxious about the Ren glue-ons, mostly because I haven't glued them before and the protocol is slightly different than what I'm used to with Gloves. Also the glue surface area is slightly smaller, so I'm worried with my pathetic gluing skills he'll be more prone to losing them. But let's face it, he loses the Gloves just as easily when I mess up* gluing, so it's not like anything is actually that different. This is more pre-ride (and pre-gluing) jitters than based on any real problem.

(* At Tahoe Rim, I finally got back the Size 3 glue-on he lost and someone picked up on the trail at NASTR 75 back in May)

Horse Elytes

Yup, I'm completely out. Remedied this somewhat by purchasing a tub of Enduramax, but still need the ProCMC and some applesauce. Add to the shopping list.

Coggins

Yes, I did get that Coggins last year specifically for VC100... and yes, that does mean that it has now expired. Took Fergus in for a new Coggins on Tuesday - it should be back by early next week. Disappointingly the vet used the white marks on his back as "identifying features". I am mortified.

My Fitness

Because of needing to keep Fergus to "normal horse pace" at Tahoe Rim, I came home sorer than I've been in a very long time - my quads were shot, my calf muscles stiff and unyielding, even my neck-shoulder junction hurt. My friend Sally came to visit the week after the ride and kindly gave me three mornings of deep massage release on my legs (as well as my arm - I've currently got a lovely dose of tendinitis in my left elbow, which means I'm doing everything lopsided, which really isn't helping). She was concerned that this seemed to be more than just post-ride soreness. And to be honest, I've felt sore for months - figured it was just age creeping in.

So maybe not.

It could be that I need to a) visit a masseuse after the ride, or b) learn rolling techniques (perhaps during the ride? doubtful) to keep the muscles loose.

Either way, I need to remember to stretch as much as possible leading up to the ride - and the morning of the ride. Which, of course, isn't happening yet. Must. Try. Harder.

My Fuel Intake

Did spectacularly badly at this at NASTR (but it was hot <whine>), slightly better at High Desert with Roo, and moderately at Tahoe Rim - and that was due to Renee feeding me sandwiches. In the meantime, I've acquired some Tailwind Endurance Fuel:

It goes like this. You add the powder to your water bottles - in a concentration that mirrors your water intake. So if you want to consume 200 calories in the next section but will likely only drink one water bottle, then the whole packet goes in that one water bottle*. If, however, you will drink three water bottles, then you divide it among the three water bottles.

(* I'm a little worried that an entire packet in a single bottle of water will make my eyes water from the concentration of it...)

The idea is that you don't even have to eat real food (a definite plus for me when I get pathetic) - you ought to be able to subsist entirely on this stuff.

The downside of this is, of course, I haven't tried this product. I have no idea if I'll even like it. I don't usually love flavoured drinks - water is my favorite drink - so I'm unsure how it'll work out. I'm supposed to try these three packets before the ride, so I can pick which I like best. The bottom, white packet is unflavoured... but surely I'll notice a funny taste? surely? The Raspberry Blitz flavour has the added bonus of caffeine, so wondering if that's something I ought to try at night? The lemony one seems like it'll be the least offensive...?

But you need to try them, Lucy!

And you need to formulate a dumbed-down plan as to how you're going to get this in your water bottle when you get stupid.

Clothing

I broke down and rinsed my half-chaps that were totally caked in dried sweat and grunge:

Now they are clean. And now they are just as stiff and unyielding - only without the grunge caked on. I think I need to find some suede suppler... Or whatever it's called.

Occasionally, when Fergus trots big (as he is prone to do at rides where he can move out), my riding tights not only rotate around my legs, they also begin to creep up my legs until my ankles are exposed at the front - and then the half-chaps rub against the bare skin. Squeak. I need to remember to wear longer socks. Hasn't happened yet, however. Remembering to even bring long socks, that is.

A new helmet is needed. I read somewhere you're supposed to replace them every 3-5 years (assuming, of course, you don't fall off and whack your head). Since I know exactly when I last purchased my helmet (shortly after I fell off and whacked my head hard enough to give myself concussion, despite wearing a brand new helmet, and thus needed to replace said brand-new helmet), I was able to look back at when that Washoe Valley ride was... uh... that would be 2007... about 8 years ago. So yes, a new helmet is needed.

In the meantime, Tipperary opted to very-slightly-redesign their helmets so the "medium" is now just narrow enough for me to wonder if it'll give me a headache, while the "large" is just a bit too big. <sigh>.

My Ariats were coming apart during our trip to UT in July - to the point where I was having to hope that they'd still be together at the end of each hike. So ShoeFix (shoe menders in Auburn) to the rescue and $15 later they are good as new. Ish. Good enough. No longer falling apart. Footwear - check.

So in summation, the ducks are not in a row at all and I've got ten days to make it so:

Pre-20 Mule Team 100 - I haven't done enough jitters

Training didn't go super smoothly for this year's 20MT. I started out feeling pretty good about it - had Roop along as a pony horse (as "Plan B, Just In Case"), both pones were working well, and everything was following the conditioning regime I'd outlined for us.

And then just as I was supposed to ramp up to a 20 mile "hard ride", the monsoons struck:

I don't actually mind riding in the rain, but I do mind taking the horses out on steep clay trails that become slick as snot – a great recipe for a slip and pull – so opted out that weekend. It wouldn't be the end of the world - there'd be plenty of other opportunities... maybe I could sneak in a good ride one weekday morning? (not)... 

The following weekend we were due to go up to Reno for a good training/trotting ride - 20 miles of similar terrain to 20 MT which I thought would be just the ticket. 

Bedell Flat - the first loop on Rides of March endurance ride. It doesn't look
like it on the map, but there's actually 2,000 ft + of climbing on this loop.

But in the event, taking along a pony horse didn't work out so well and trying to get three horses to settle down and stop trying to out-perform each other proved beyond Renee and my capabilities, so we ended up with a lovely not-so-trotty 20 mile training ride (and it was so great to see Renee and get to spend a quality day with her, instead of the "hi/bye" type interactions we've been having for about the last 18 months). Both of mine looked like they hadn't really done anything at the end, which was gratifying, but since they hadn't really done anything (unless you count yanking my arms out of my sockets trying to keep them both under control on the way back across the valley) I'm not sure how useful that actually is. If nothing else, it's hours out on the trail, right?

Before we got on the proper trotting section, when everyone was
still keeping it together and pretending to be adults

Starting to deteriorate. Renee finally gave in and switched all Roo's tack
onto Bite and rode him. I'm not sure it was any better  (actually even more
exciting for him, by the looks of things) and Roo certainly thought having less
encumbrances was a better idea on the way home as my two did their
best race horse impersonations all the way back across the valley.

It was a bank holiday weekend, so luckily I'd have Monday to get in that last 15 mile trotting ride to put the icing on the cake, right? Wrong. Apparently if you push too hard, you get nowhere and my body suggested that stopping, please, might be nice, so I tried to stop for a couple of days. Unfortunately, stopping isn't one of my strong points, so even prone and doing little, the brain is still going mile-a-minute and keeping the system online, ready, just in case. 

Stop please. I want to get off.

I did get Finn clipped. He was only about five months overdue. No foo-foo cut for him, given the amount of matts - just a convict cut for that dog-on-stilts look (as Ann calls it):

still needs finishing off, but for fun, I opted to only cut one side to start with 

Sporting that raffish, dog-about-town look

Dog-on-stilts the following weekend when he was all done.
I actually really like him in a short cut like this (once you get
over the initial shock). He's very sleek and slinky looking. 

The following work week turned out to be the busiest in months, culminating with not leaving my office until 11 pm* on Friday in an effort to finish up a project due on Monday (*means I get home after midnight). But that at least meant that I didn't have to work over the weekend so would have more than enough time to go out with Uno on Saturday (prospective buyer wanted to meet and ride him) and get in a ride on Fergus on Sunday. Only, remember the previous weekend when my body said "enough!"? It did it again. I spent a good portion of Friday night/Saturday morning in the bathroom, not having the time of my life. You know you've been working too hard and spending too much time doing GIS when, upon returning to bed and trying to sleep, your brain keeps trying to uncheck the box on the "tummy ache layer" to turn it off (it doesn't work, btw, it keeps turning itself back on). Not good. 

I did get the ride done with Uno, but getting him ready and riding about wiped me out (although, of course, I felt pretty good the whole time I was riding - go figure, what does that tell you?). So back to bed I went and stayed there all day Sunday. No eating (within 36 hours I'd dropped 4 lbs). No riding. No packing. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200. 

It's Monday now and my body still hates me. Food is going in and staying there, gingerly, but I feel pretty crappy if I try to do more than just sit. Even my teeth hurt right now. So I'm taking it super-easy as much as I can. I don't leave for Ridgecrest until Thursday, so am doing slow-motion packing and pft is helping a bunch for which I'm very grateful. 

Fergus and I on the Cliff Trail at Joshua Tree a couple of days after Christmas

Fergus is fat and happy, not knowing what's ahead. I bought some Freeform panels from someone (in England of all places), so have been moving pad inserts around and think the new set-up should be better for his back. He wasn't getting sore, per se, but has some sort of callousy-areas that needed different padding. He's only done 35 miles in them so far, but I think they'll do the job - and they velcro-on/velcro-off, so if they appear to be doing more harm than good I can whip them off very easily, mid-ride. 

The underside of my Sensation has "loop" velcro on the front, so they stay put at that end. Unfortunately the back part isn't as sticky, so my job sometime before Thursday is to attach (and probably sew) some sticky-backed loop velcro in the loin area of the underside of the saddle to keep them from shifting each time I tack up (and given how tall he is, trying to get things straight on him when they're way above your head is no mean feat). The extra padding (esp. the first time I tried the panels out, without first removing the mega-inserts from the Sensation pad) make him about 17+ hh, which is ridiculous. 

As far as "special treatment", I had a bucket of E-Se-Mag supplement that I never got around to feeding to Roo, so both of them have been getting a couple of scoops of that in a yummy mush. They both think this is a fine idea and are very attentive in the mornings. I'm not sure Fergus really needed it - it was bought primarily to help Roo with his crampy back end - but it doesn't hurt as far as I can tell. 

And the very good thing is, during all this Roo has been worked very nicely so is up and running and ready to go to whatever ride I choose to take him to - without any of my usual concerns about lack of riding and under-conditioning. I'd say he's probably as fit as he's ever been. 

---

So to sum up, our total conditioning (especially aimed at getting ready for 20 MT) for Fergus (and Roo, with the exception of the 45 miles at Christmas) has been:

• 45 miles - Christmas week at Joshua Tree/Catalina State Park, including much walking in sand washes, and one hard and fast 13 miler keeping up with pft on the mtn bike.
• 10 miles - local trails, mostly walking, but with the Powerlines thrown in
• 11 miles - singletrack trails between Auburn Lake Trails and the Middle Fork, up and down, up and down, starting to add in good trotting, although not continuous
• 14 miles - Rock Creek dirt roads - hardest, fastest to date. Route was picked for maximum continuous trotting and we certainly got that in. Roo did some astonishing trot moves that I'd never in a million years let him do with the extra weight of a rider. 
• 15 miles - singletrack trails between Auburn Lake Trails and the Middle Fork, up and down, up and down, Sally rode Roo and kept us to her rolicking Tevis-ride speed (note to self - I am much more cautious than Sally when it comes to riding rough terrain :)  )
• 0 miles - monsoons hit
• 21 miles - Bedell Flat with Renee, good length, some overachiever trotting towards the end, some good speed walking (doing a Walk-off between Fergus and Bite), some sand, some climbing. Two weeks until Ride Day.
• 0 miles - bleahs, so Fergus is what he is, fitness-wise.

I am, admittedly, relying very heavily on his existing base, and the fact that we ride slow, and the fact that the last ride he did was a stellar Tevis, and the fact that the ride itself isn't too hard.

And I'm also cognizant of the fact that, no matter what I do, I always feel under-conditioned, so I can never win.

But mostly, Fergus and me (and Spike, since he gets to come along as ride dog and all round entertainer - and company for the long drive up and down the Central Valley) will have an excellent adventure, get to spend the day with Kaity (always a pleasure and my favorite 100-mile ride buddy), and hopefully we'll get to the finish, learning a bunch in the process.


Epilogue: after 2.5 years, my braces come off the Wednesday after 20MT - woot!!

Getting My Ducks in a Row - Hopi

Hopi

In the last few weeks, Hopi started to look a bit funky - he's not thin exactly, but his hip bones were poking out, ribs peeked through, and his top line started looking very prominent. In addition, the hair on his rump got peculiarly tufty.

To complete the picture, he seems to be having an all-out war with "someone" (thinking Small Thing) and is covered in scuffs and bite marks. He's not bottom of the pecking (biting?) order - that spot is reserved for Uno who just wants the quiet life - and Hopi and Small Thing regularly eat together, so it doesn't appear to be that he's being chased off the hay. Hum.

The strange thing is, during this time he has become the most relaxed and cheerful I've ever seen him. He's talkative, friendly, and plays a lot.

Hopi's Tufty Butt:

After eyeing him for a while, I concluded maybe he needed a worm purge, so duly purchased 1,000 ml of fenbendazole (10% suspension) - enough to purge four horses should I feel the need to do so. Otherwise, enough to treat my five horses for about the next decade.

'Course, as soon as I ordered the stuff, Ann pointed out that I should probably get him a fecal exam to make sure that's what was really going on. She even gave me a kit* to do the deed.

(*Kit = small pill bottle with a pokey spoon attached to the lid. Instructions were "Take some poop off the top of the pile, keep refrigerated".)

Thursday was the day and I set about getting Hopi to poop on command. This used to be a simple matter of looking at him or putting a halter on him. But apparently nowadays that wasn't going to cut it. He ambled along behind me, quite happily, looking around at the world, totally relaxed.

Hopi acting like the highly-strung arabian he is...

Ah hah, I thought, and loaded him in the trailer. 

Most self-respecting horses, at this point, will poop within four seconds of getting in the trailer. Nope. Loaded and unloaded him several times and took advantage of the situation to impress upon him that leaping out of the trailer as soon as the door was opened wasn't appropriate. Manners about jumping out were instilled, but still no poop. 

I ran him up and down a bit. No poop.

Finally realised it was getting late and I needed to get to work, so tied him in the barn with a hay net and ran indoors to get ready. 

Wondering what to do now - to alarm him sufficiently into production,
but not enough that he wonders what he did to deserve such treatment.

Now nice and tidy, but still no poop in the barn, I decided to try and load him one last time and - voila, finally he produced the much desired substance. Put him away and then squatted in the dust in my work clothes with the pill bottle and the pokey scoop and retrieved a sample.

At Auburn Animal Medical Large Animal, I handed over my prize. Apparently if you send your poop sample to the lab, they will charge you around $200 for the privilege of inspecting it under a microscope. Auburn Animal Medical realised the stupidity of this - who's going to test for worms when you can pick up a tube of wormer for less than $10? So they purchased the necessary equipment and now do "fecals" in-house for a mere $25.

And here's the rub. The vet office called that afternoon - Hopi is negative for worms. 

So now what? I should test him again in a few months to make sure they aren't at the encysted stage. But in the meantime, this morning Hopi got stationed in front of a large pan of sloppy feed - Elk Grove Pellets and Ultium feed, with a helping of E-Se-Mag (Vitamin E, Selenium, Magnesium) and we'll try that for a month and see if it helps. And I'm waiting to hear from the vet as to whether I should go ahead and administer a five day fenbendazole purge anyway.

* * *

Edited to add 08.26.13:

Hopi tucking into his enormous pan of goodies. Note offending ribs in the background. He's been gobbling this stuff once a day for ten days now, and I'm not convinced it's done much so think that a worming purge is in his future. However, I'm going to wait until after we get back from vacation so I can supervise in an obsessive manner.