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.

Eurolite Fitting Update

So my Endurance Plan this year is going about as well as my Endurance Plan went in the second half of last year, that's to say, not swimmingly ... i.e. we haven't managed a single ride yet this year. I'll admit to feeling heightened anxiety (read "mild panic") at this point akin to a newbie who's never done any rides. I don't feel ready, I don't feel my horses are ready, I don't feel our equipment fits, I'm not fit enough, etc, etc...

Part of the problem has been trying to work out saddle fit for Fergus. After spending the first few months of the year trying out various saddles, finding some that worked for him, but not for me, I finally settled on a Specialized Eurolite. As someone warned me, they are good saddles - once you get them dialled in for the horse. ...And we're still at the "getting it dialled in" stage. We're close, but given our past saddle fit problems, I'm super-picky.

This weekend, after about 14 miles, I finally felt like I'd just about got the saddle to where it needed to be for me, but found some interesting sore spots on my undercarriage today. To say I mourn the use of my Sensation* would be an understatement.

(* I'm still using it on Roo and Uno, so get to be reminded of its loveliness at regular intervals).

The nice thing about the Eurolite is the removable seat. A saddle fitter helped me by showing me just what could be done in terms of making it more comfortable for me. As a result, I now have more of a twist in the seat than I ever felt would be possible thanks to the creative use of a Sensation pommel bolster and some carefully positioned Specialized shims:

Pommel bolster + shims to add twist and make the seat work for me

She also showed me how to make knee rolls - which I needed, not being used to free-swing stirrups or lack of pommel to brace against on steep downhills.

Knee rolls. Look bodged, work great.

All these items were hidden under my trusty sheepskin... until I rode a few times and discovered that either my bum is too big, or (more likely, of course), I have a long femur (grasping at straws), resulting in feeling like the seat is too small and falling out the back of it. As it turns out, the Eurolite is a 15", my Sensation is a 15.5", and the UltraLite I demoed (which felt HUGE) was a 16". Of course.

So I sadly ditched the sheepskin cover, and proceeded to rip the crotch and knee out of a (thankfully old) pair of tights on the exposed hook-velcro on the shims on two short rides. Hmmm.

Found a few scraps of purple fleece and used them to wrap around the hook-velcro, and, voila, properly cushioned shims. Except that the purple is... well, purple, and doesn't really match anything else. I shall try to find some non-purple scraps of stretch fleece.

This was the latest in shimming on the underside for Fergus, plus widening the cushions in back to flip the front up more:

Fergus is fairly flat-backed, so needed some shims to offset the rock in the tree

we rasped down the center area of the cushions to give him more space in his bulgy areas closer to his spine
...and the latest mod was widening the area between the cushions just in the back to try and alleviate some pressure in front.

The above shimming/cushion placement still resulted in this odd ruffled area (between my fingers) after 17 miles, but it was somewhat improved compared to earlier setups:

As an experiment, on our morning quickie 3-mile blast up the lane and back, I added more shoulder shims, thinking that the offending area is just behind the pommel area on the tree, but that resulted in completely dry areas, so nix that. Apparently it's the shoulder area that is acting funky.

We're off to the Tevis Fun Ride tomorrow, so hopefully Brenda Benkly will be able to take a look at it and offer some advice on what else I can do.

Of course, predictably, this week I've decided that if I find a 16" Eurolite, I will grab it, so might end up going through this whole thing again, unless the tree turns out to be the same. Right now I can work with what I've got, but I don't love it. 

Ten weeks until Tevis. Fergus is, at this point, less than enthusiastic, but I suspect that might be because we've been training solo all year and he's lonely. We shall see how he feels this weekend in company and if he seems better, my entry will go in the mail. 

Saddle Shopping at the AERC Convention

Never wanting to miss an opportunity to white-knuckle my way over Donner Pass in bad weather, Thursday evening I headed up to Reno for the annual AERC Convention. It turned out that the storm had passed and the weather had settled compared to Wednesday night (1.5" sheeting rain, hurricane-force winds, multiple trees downed onto overhead lines, power lost, etc...).  The highlight of the trip home from work was coming upon this tree on Andy Wolf in the dark and pouring rain, and having to make the decision on whether or not to squeeze under it as fast as I could and hope like mad that it didn't come all the way down while I was underneath it (it is leaning on the overhead lines).

Made it.

The Convention was bags o' fun, as always. Given that most of my friends either live in other states, or live at the other end of my state, getting us all together in one place, awake, alert, clean, and not needing to [trim/boot/put together a crew bag/mix up elytes/feed horses/muck horses/groom horses/obsess over some minor ailment our horse has developed in the last six hours which may prevent starting the ride] is an event in itself.

My Prime Directive for the Convention was to test-sit every saddle in the building, and come home with either a list of saddles I'd like to demo, or, more ideally, come home with a demo saddle.

Sadly, there weren't nearly as many saddle vendors present as in the past, so there were three things I wasn't able to try:

• Freeform "happy ass" seat (not sure of the 'real' name, but that's what it is starting to be known as)
• DP Quantum saddle (recommended to me by Dana at Sensation, sold by Action Rider Tack, who sadly opted to go to PNER Convention this year, not the National one. To date I have never seen this saddle in person, let alone sat in one)
• 4Flex Pathfinger EFF Saddle (sold by Athletic Equine who were mysteriously absent from the event, despite being listed. Again, never seen one, was intrigued by the literature, might have sold my first born for one had I had the chance to try one out, but "must be present to win").

Wednesday morning before work, I was out in the barn in the wind, making curvy wither tracings of Fergus' back, armed with a large sheet of paper, tape measure, marker pen and bendy ruler. Then at Crysta's sharp suggestion, I was up until 1:30 a.m. that night making cardboard cutouts of said wither tracings.

Armed with my cardboard cut-out horse, I was able to try:

Arabian Saddle Company:
Sierra Trail - this saddle was really lovely and cushy and looked like it would fit based on Cardboard Fitting. However the price tag was sadly somewhat beyond my budget. It would be something to set aside for future consideration if I get really desperate.

Reactor Panels:
Have been riding in two different RP saddles for the last month and Lisa Jordan has kindly spent many hours fiddling around with me on fit (me and Fergus), but there's just something about these saddles that doesn't quite work with my body and Fergus' movement. None of the 3-4 saddles I sat on in their booth felt good to me (despite the fact that the endurance model I've been trialling for the last couple of weeks doesn't feel too bad, which is odd).

Ghost Saddles:
A quick look at these made me realise straight away that they weren't going to work for Fergus because of the lack of Big Gullet®. However, I sat and talked with Marlene Moss* for some time and was impressed with their plans for the future in making adjustments for the better. Saddle makers who "keep thinking" are great, IMO, and I hope things go well for them. A friend in NV bought one on Saturday, so I'll be keeping tabs on how she likes it.

(* I've been reading posts from Marlene Moss for years and had formed a picture in my head as to what she looked like. Well, it turns out she doesn't look *anything* like my head-picture - not that she has an extra head or is 7' tall - it was just a bit of a shock to discover something that you *know* to be true isn't even vaguely. Nice to meet you finally, Marlene).

Saddles in the Tack swap:

Orthoflex and Timberline Flex - astonishingly heavy and I'm just leery of the potential pressure points. All the people I spoke to about these saddles over the last few months said they adored their old one, but the newer ones weren't as good. I asked Connie Creech what she was riding in - she said an Orthoflex - worked fine for her horses but she didn't love it for herself. I didn't love them enough to want to do more than quickly test-sit the pair in the sale, although they are local to me, so again, if I get desperate and the sellers haven't sold them in a few months, I could potentially still try them out.

SR - came highly-recommended as an investment and being incredibly comfortable. I can attest that it was very comfy to sit on, but alas these saddles are built to fit specifically to your horse's back (taken from a cast) and the two I looked at were far too narrow in the gullet to fit Fergus.

Trailwise:

• Elite
• Pioneer
• Aussie Lite

Similar in design to Specialized saddles, I was excited to try these since I really liked the concept; liked the look of them; and liked several of the modifications they had made to the design - namely being able to add rise to the seat, the cable attachment for the rigging, and the way you could shim the felt support panels on the underside of the saddle.

Although the saddles they had brought to the convention were 15" and I concluded I probably need a 16", the Elite, particularly, felt very comfy for me to sit in and I had gotten interested enough to want to take a saddle home to demo.

And then I started looking at the underside - the important part for Fergus - and grew leery of how the weight distribution worked. The support panels under the tree weren't nearly as supportive as I first thought, with some of the apparent size being taken up by extraneous non-supporting fabric. My worry was that, in reality, the footprint on these saddles wasn't actually that big and I could see pressure being created from the tree. I might be wrong, but non-being a proven saddle design I couldn't tell, and it was enough that I was scared away.

Specialized:

• Trailmaster
• International
• Eurolight
• Ultralight

Brenda Benkly who was repping Specialized at the Convention is an old friend who was forever on the hunt for the "perfect saddle". It seemed like every six months the latest Saddle Perfection Incarnate had been thrown out for some reason or another. So the fact that she had not only settled on these saddles, but settled on them enough to want to rep them impressed me. She has been riding endurance for nearly 30 years, has over 10,000 AERC miles, as well as a remarkable 19/21 completions in 100s, so she's 'been around the block' long enough to have formed some common sense when it comes to endurance riding equipment.

My biggest sadness about these saddles is how wide the twist is. Other than that, I like most things about them - they are horse-fit-adjustable; they appear to have excellent weight distribution once properly shimmed*; they are utilitarian - plenty of rings and places to tie things on; they have a nice big scoopy cantle to keep me from getting left behind; they have proven-performance in 100 mile rides; and, most important to me right now, they are inexpensive. They are commonly available, which means I could potentially get a used one relatively quickly, and there are locals around to help me fit them*, namely Brenda and chiro Bill McKean.

* The general consensus seems to be that they are good saddles, but can take up to 8 months to get dialled in - and until you've got them where you want them, they can be super-frustrating. Hence the "locally-available fitters" being an important selling-point to me.

Specialized Ultra Light prototype saddle

As it turns out, Brenda had in her possession a prototype saddle - the Ultra Light - a skirtless lightweight saddle that Specialized had only just come up with. The saddle was obviously a prototype and had been whipped up quickly for the Convention, so was a little rough around the edges and missing some of the more obvious "needs", namely rings to attach a breast collar. But the minimalist aspect of it/lack of skirt meant that it "rode" a little narrower than the other models (at least on the saddle stand) and quite a few people who tried it out liked it. And me liking narrower twists was one of them. It was agreed that, provided Brenda didn't sell it at the Convention, I could bring it home to demo.

...and I did.

Writing this on Monday evening - I was able to try it out quickly this morning for a quickie mile and half. So more soon on this subject.

2015... in Review

Looking back on the year, it felt somewhat disjointed and out of sorts. But despite some missed goals and disappointments, I realise that I rode in some absolutely amazing locations and continue to appreciate just how lucky I am to live in such a lovely area.

We had our ups and downs, but finished the year on an up with ailments either diagnosed or at least on the mend, and starting 2016 positively.

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January:

This month marked the driest year since records began in 1877 for our area - the whole state was in trouble, and our lovely dry winter - whilst good for horse conditioning - did little for the parched reservoirs that were dropping to record low levels (for example, Folsom Lake, one of our closest, was at 15% capacity by December).

Over Christmas/New Year, pft and I made our usual trip south to the desert and went horse camping at Catalina State Park down near Tucson, AZ. pft wasn't riding horses, so we only took Fergus and bicycles. It snowed and we froze our butts off, but had a good time nevertheless. The scenery is so gorgeous down there - and best of all, it was slop-free. Ash drove over for the day and we spent a happy afternoon walking deckers in the snow.

I love it there, but the two-day drive to get there is definitely a damper.

Catalina State Park, near Tucson, AZ

Later that month, the horrible Charlie Hebdo shooting occurred, raising many questions in my mind about freedom of speech and ramifications thereof.

20 Mule Team 100 was on the calendar and I decided to give myself some "just in case" insurance by getting both Roo and Fergus fit for 100 miles. I ponied Roo off Fergus at high speeds (gosh, his legs can extend - something I wouldn't in a million years let him do under saddle), and had fun having them both along.

In the knitting department, I churned out this excellent star beret in one weekend. Love it to bits, but it's hard to wear because I'm never quite sure how to put it on:

Star beret

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February:

Sally came to visit and we took Roo and Fergus out on the high trail for an afternoon of speed work. This was yet another time when Roo went out under saddle but I wasn't on him - which was a recurring theme throughout this year.

Most people have sporting heroes and mine is musher Brent Sass. Brent has the best approach of anyone I know - his motto being "Attitude is Everything" - doing his utmost to make the best of even the worse situations. Last year he came so close to winning the 1000-mile Yukon Quest before flipping off the back of the sled in a moment of exhaustion and giving himself concussion. This year he was back again, wearing a helmet buried under his layers of hats. Figuring out a helmet that is going to work in -60°F/-51°C took some doing, but it paid off and he won - despite oversleeping on the trail by several hours towards the end of the race, causing his followers to have minor panic attack and think that, once again, "something bad" had happened. It ultimately provided a nail-bitingly close finish, with many hours of hitting <refresh> <refresh> <refresh> following the tracker - and he finally won, beating the 2013-2014 champion Allen Moore.

At the end of the month, Fergus, Spike and I headed south for 20 Mule Team 100. We rode with Kaity and had a lovely time in what turned out to be one of the best spring flower displays in years. Kaity's mom, Carol, crewed for us and took care of Spike for the day - for which I am mightily grateful.

20 Mule Team, near Ridgecrest, CA

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March:

After two and half years, I got my braces off! And felt like I had a mouth of someone else's shiny plastic teeth.

The AERC Convention was a fun weekend - at dinner there were four decker-owners in a row... and mine was the only one who (news from home) had TPed the back deck. I came home minus all my sweaters and jackets and had to contact the hotel's lost and found - thank goodness I have friends in Reno who could go and retrieve them. Lastly, I did my homework and filled out eight (count 'em) 100 mile surveys that I'd promised the AERC research vet, Olin Balch.

Inspired by the Adhere guy at the convention, Fergus and I embarked upon a search for squishy feet inside his boots to give him more concussion protection. This proved curiously prophetic later in the year.

Uno got ridden (something that needs to happen more often) at Cronin and Roo and I took to the Larimer Trail in hot and humid conditions (and, bravely, in an S-hack... not the best choice for him) and got chronically lost on the way home exploring the area behind Larkin's.

Larimer Trail high above the Middle Fork of American River, looking down on the River Road used on Tevis

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April:

Fergus, Roo, and I headed for a weekend of 50s at NV Derby. Luckily I parked at the end of the trot-out lanes, because whenever we got back to camp, the horse left behind screamed incessantly, necessitating fetching it and taking two horses through the vet check. I opted to let Fergus out a little "to see what he could do" - and the result was a 25th place finish in a field of 72 - but an "I see something on the left front" from the vet at the finish (we completed, but it was there).

(Coupled with an "I see something" at the first vet check at 20MT - it was enough to make a girl nervous that something was brewing ...but predictably not loudly enough to tamper my enthusiasm).

The next day Roo got a top-ten finish tagging along behind Connie and Dave. Although in a field of only 21 starters it was a slightly less spectacular result, I still felt like I worked hard.

Snow that afternoon meant that I couldn't get home, so I spent a frigid, blustery night camped out alone at Washoe Valley (pones bundled in their blankies) before driving back over the mountain on Monday morning when it cleared - on an absolutely crystal clear morning of crisp white snow. Gorgeous.

Fergus, overachieving at NV Derby
Photos Gore/Baylor

Roo holding his own and getting his first top-ten

Towards the end of the month, there was a horrific 7.8 Earthquake in Nepal - lots of destruction in the country and a nasty avalanche at Everest Base Camp. That put paid to the climbing season for the second year in a row.

With our success at 20MT, I decided that Fergus and I would make the trek to Wyoming to do the Big Horn 100. With lots of climbs to get ready for, we spent a good few mornings climbing the Powerlines at the end of the lane.

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May:

The whole family (well, pft, Finn, Spike, me, n' Roo) went to the High Desert ride over in NV. I'd never done it before and we were to chaperone friend Dionne on her horse Storm's first 50. It was exactly what was needed - a nice relaxed easy-going 50... pouring rain the day before notwithstanding:

High Desert, near Stillwater, NV.
Roo wondering about the thunder clouds, Storm trying to pretend she can't see them.

Another first - pft took me to the drive-in to see "Thor" for my birthday.

To get our second part of the Triple Crown, Fergus and I went to NASTR 75. Inspired by his performance at NV Derby, I once again let him move out - we were even leading the ride at one point, much to my embarrassment - with the predictable result that he went lame at 60 miles. <slap forehead>

Although interesting and educational, playing "top ten" wasn't remotely enjoyable and won't be happening again - not least because letting 1200 lb horses run on hard dirt tracks is not conducive to good health. A subsequent visit to the vet on Monday produced a "sore feet" diagnosis (I had been resigned to a suspensory injury at best, so this diagnosis was met with some degree of disbelief) and I consequently made the decision to move to slightly beefier Renegade boots for better concussion protection.


Despite the vet thinking Fergus'd be OK for Big Horn 100, I wasn't much enthused by the idea - I always prefer to give a good break after any injury, and didn't think that travelling 2000 miles round trip on a "he'll probably be OK" gamble was a great idea, so our Big Horn plans fell off the calendar.

Finally, after many years of good service, my Miata let me down by nearly not making it to work one morning. We got trucked home, courtesy of US Rider, and the problem was deemed a faulty ignition system. Couple that with being about 100,000 mile past needing a timing belt change, Miata has been moved to the garage for some TLC.

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June:

June 5th marked the real start of summer with the annual erection of the back deck sunshade (this year tied to a tree, rather than a cinder block - high tech).

With a visit from friends in England who we'd promised to take camping looming on the horizon, we took a trip up to Faith Valley to reccy the situation. pft mtn biked, the dogs romped, and I rode Small Thing (who managed to kick Spike in the chin on purpose, dampening the fun day). Love it up there.

Faith Valley - across the meadow

Faith Valley - evening quickie on our day of arrival

While we were there, pft got a puncture and Small Thing ended up tied to a tree - no big deal. But he then had a small meltdown when he got his leg over the lead rope - not usual for him who normally sees such things as minor inconveniences. Once we got home, I figured out why - it looked like he'd gotten his legs caught in the fence a few days before we left without me realising. As a result, the fence at the bottom of his paddock wasn't as good as it had been and needed replacing - particularly as that would be Kaity's horse Ani's paddock during Tevis week, so pft and I spent a happy weekend scrabbling in the dirt, pulling out the old (now long-buried) fence and replacing it with new.

Spike n' me do fencing

Knowing this year I wasn't going to ride Tevis, as soon as it got vaguely hot, I shamelessly cranked up the a/c in the car and drove to work in the nice cool. I'll take the little pleasures as needed.

At the end of the month, I spectated the WS100 run - this year giving impromptu help crewing for a runner from the East Coast. As always, in awe of the runners - and enjoyed spending the day in Foresthill and the evening down at the river crossing.

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July:

This month saw us cram in as much as we possibly could.

We took the dogs and mountain bikes to Utah, camping - and had one of our best trips to date. Starting at the Wedge - the scenery was amazing, the place deserted (excitement and interest whenever we saw a car off in the distance), and we had a fun time mtn biking the Good Water Rim Trail... a LOT.

Good Water Rim Trail - most amazing, unexpected scenery 

Good Water Rim Trail, a quarter mile from our camp

We spent the second half of our trip at San Rafael Swell, behind the reef, visiting Wild Horse Window cave, Goblin Valley during a spectacular thunderstorm, and finishing up with a hike through the slot canyons of Little Wild Horse Canyon.

Our camp "behind the reef", San Rafael Swell

Wild Horse Window cave

Goblin Valley

Goblin Valley

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Little Wild Horse Canyon

We were then home for a week, before setting off once more to Faith Valley to set up for the Kind family's camping trip. We had a fun weekend, mtn biking, horse riding (not as successful as hoped, but we were able to salvage some rides out of it), and ending with a trip for pft, Dave, Elliott, and Austin to the Flume Trail on mtn bikes/running.

Small Thing disgraced himself at Faith Valley, but to be fair I put him in a bad situation so take full responsibility for my own stupidity. Unfortunately, however, his behaviour filled his imaginary jar almost to the brim with black balls and it would be Christmas time before we got everything back under control.

Finally it was Tevis week ...

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August:

...This year it was Kaity and Ani competing, and Ash, Carol, me and Renee crewing. We got her in, we got her out, and as a team we did a great job. High Five Us! ...Oh, and Kaity and Ani finished on target, so I guess they did good too ;)

After meeting sisters Ali and Jessica at Faith Valley, once we were home, we hooked up and did some fun conditioning rides with Ali on Roo. Although he did plenty of conditioning this year, most of it was either on the end of a lead rope, or with someone else in the saddle. We had plans this month for Bridgeport - Fergus one day to get him ready for VC100 in September, Roo the other; followed by Tahoe Rim - Roo's favorite - to ramp him up for the Riding Dead 100 at the end of October.

Well, best laid plans... Bridgeport was cancelled due to a wild fire, so I ended up having to take Fergus to Tahoe Rim out of necessity. The ride went well but I came out of it in poor shape - mostly from holding him back all day, as well as muscling him around that tight course. My ducks weren't in a row ready for VC100, but I thought I could pull it together in the next three weeks.

Early one morning Finn was out on the back deck barking at squirrels... and continued to bark and bark and bark. Finally pft went out to check — only to see a bear about 50 feet from the back of the house. Oh.

I made some feeble attempts at putting white balls in the ST's jar - not with great success when we once again ended up with him rearing and me yelling. Needs work. I persevered (mostly by avoiding the horses running the fence) and got a couple of shorty rides in, but not with any degree of confidence.

Early in the month pft thought he'd pulled a stomach muscle which gradually got worse over time. The Dr thought it might be a hernia, so he started undergoing various tests to figure out what was going on.

My mumma said she was tired of knitting for babies and I talked her in to knitting me a cardi. When it showed up, I loved it.

My lovely cardi

 

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September:

The exciting "moment" for this month was me attempting to trim Hopi in the breezeway of the barn, him having a minor flip out, which escalated in to bigger flip out, followed by me leaping into the hay shed to get out of his way - and him following me into that tiny space. Awk. We managed to get out of the situation unscathed, but it was one of those "life flashing before your eyes" moments.

In a continued effort to get Fergus in better shape for VC100, I had Tom Mayes come out and work on him with some eye-opening results. What I thought was a developing "hunter's bump" turned out to be muscle atrophy on his rump cause by him being jammed up all the way to his shoulder (might explain some of the back atrophy also). Tom suspected that he may have ran into something with his shoulder at some stage and had been carrying this problem around for a while. He also had some similar blocking to his innards, which possibly contributed to my vague impression of his "failure to thrive" this year - it was hard to keep him in good weight. I hoped that this bodywork would help him feel a little better.

pft's health issues continued with a sleep study to see what his apnea might be doing, along with some chiro work to try and relieve his stomach/muscle/back problems. Neither was terribly conclusive.

Our final conditioning rides for VC100 were cancelled due to smoke from the Butte Fire about 35 miles south of us. This fire, which burned enthusiastically for a couple of weeks, ended up consuming 475 houses, 343 outbuildings, 71,000 acres and killing two.

We were well socked in with smoke, raw throats from breathing the air particles, and things were so tinder dry we were living in daily dread over the possibility of any fires starting.

Smoke from the Butte Fire at home

On Saturday 12th, we watched in horror as footage unfolded of what was to become the Valley Fire - strong winds blew what should have been a minor incident into an inferno in a matter of minutes, injuring firefighters and ultimately growing to 50,000 acres in 24 hours. That fire topped out at 76,000 acres, with four deaths, and burned most of the towns of Middletown, Cobb and surrounding communities - 1958 structures burned.

On Sunday 13th, a small fire started a few miles from us and although I could hear the air tankers to the north of us, I couldn't see them in the already thick smoke. They got the fire out quickly and it turned out to be an arson/triple homicide.

It was not a good month for fires.

VC100 happened on 19th - and I think I was already sufficiently unsettled that it just didn't seem to go well, despite Fergus having an outstanding day on paper. I came home exhausted and dreading the fact that I needed to "go again" to get Roo ready for the Riding Dead 100 at the end of October. I knew I'd have fun once we were there, but my heart really wasn't into the commitment needed to get him ready, so although I was bummed when the ride was ultimately cancelled, I was actually secretly relieved.

Poor Roo - Bridgeport cancelled, replaced by Fergus for Tahoe Rim, and RD100 cancelled. My goal to get him to 2000 miles this year was slipping away, despite only needing a couple more 50s to get us there.

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October:

"Winter" arrived on October 1st with me having to put socks on for the first time in months. Always a sad day when you have to put away your Tevas.

October turned out to be what I needed - play with no pressure.

The weather held and pft and I (in shorts, natch) took the dogs for a day trip playing in the South Yuba River at Big Bend near Rainbow Lodge just off I-80. Finn got car sick on the way up there, but once we arrived we all had good fun playing on the rocks. Spike amazed us by falling in the river but not caring one jot - swimming across and then swimming back again (this was after he was too wussy to cross the small creek at Faith Valley). He was fearless leaping from rock to rock (and falling in occasionally, before bobbing back to the surface again, legs scrabbling), while Finn was cautiously reticent.

South Yuba River near Rainbow Lodge

Family photo, South Yuba River near Rainbow Lodge

Because of being slammed at work, and being burned out after Virginia City 100, all I wanted to do this month was explore new trails and ride short distances - I was done with coming home exhausted. Erin and I drove up to Silver Fork (between 50 and 88) and explored the trails - climbing up over the ridge between Caples Creek and Silver Fork. The Silver Fork canyon is quite something to see and Roo was in an excellent mood. It was a good relaxing day.

On the ridge dividing Caples Creek and Silver Fork of American River (photos Erin Riley)

Roo snorkeling in Caples Creek

The next weekend Roo and I drove up to Donner Summit on our own and explored the PCT south of I-80 - from New Donner Summit to Old Donner Summit. Such fun technical trails, with no-one to please but ourselves, we had the best time. It seems like I never get up on these trails until late in the year - and then only have a short window before the weather turns to play up there.

Donner Lake from Old Donner Summit

For the final weekend of October, neighbour Becky and I trailered back up to Donner Summit and this time took the 15 mile Castle Peak Loop north of I-80. It had snowed the night before, so we were squeaking in under the wire. Most of this trail is up above 8000 ft, so once the weather turns, you're done until late June at best. I was feeling a little pressure that Roo needed to be ready for two days at Gold Rush Shuffle in November to meet my goal of getting him to 2000 miles. He was fit, but we hadn't done a lot of mileage or long trotting. I hoped that the over-abundance of muscle-using rocks, not to mention the climbs, would set Roo up. 

Although I knew we wouldn't be going fast, I hoped the amount of climbing and the degree of difficulty would give Roo an all-over workout to get him ready for two days at Gold Rush Shuffle in November. (photo Becky Batson)

Back side of the basin behind Castle Peak (photo Becky Batson)

Front side of Castle Peak, looking down on Round Valley towards the Peter Grubb hut (photo Becky Batson)

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November:

Dionne and I did a last conditioning ride from Twin Rocks to the Auburn Overlook in the middle of the month. Roo did well and was quite cheerful the entire ride.

I hadn't ridden there in years and although I knew Folsom Lake was "low", I was quite unprepared for the complete absence of lake - and the resulting rock-pile covered moonscape. Very cool landscape to see. The sandy "lakeside" trail was also something I hadn't ridden on before and I made a mental note to ride there again when a) I needed sand work and b) when El Niño hits and everywhere else is sloppy.

My plan for Gold Rush Shuffle was to do two x 50s with Roo to get him to his lifetime mileage of 2000 miles this year. Dionne and I were going to ride together with Roo in chaperone position to be a calming influence.

I hadn't gotten a chance to trim up Roo's feet before the ride, so ended up doing it the day before which I think was a mistake - I trimmed him too short and right from the start of the ride he seemed very subdued. This was ideal for Storm who was quite excited by the whole proceedings, but he didn't get any more enthused at time went on. By about mile 40 I wasn't sure we were even going to finish the ride at all, as he'd lost all impetus.

Having ridden the 55 there last year and gotten caught out in the dark, I still had PTSD from the experience, but this year the trail in the dark was well-marked with glow-sticks, Roo cheered up towards the end and got his completion, despite being a little off. We were given the option of a recheck to start the following morning, but knowing how he felt, I was almost certain we would not be riding the second day. Sure enough, a recheck wasn't necessary - he was still stiff and not moving freely the next morning, so that was the end of our season - finishing up 15 miles short of our 2000 mile goal.

So all in all, a mixed year, endurance-wise. I made a bunch of stupid mistakes that didn't do Roo or Fergus any good and although we had some good results, my impression of the year was one of disjointedness - rides cancelled, rearrangement of plans, and uncertainties that went with it. You live and learn.

On the health front, I finally got fed up with the tendinitis in my left elbow and went and got some physical therapy. The wussy arm started out with 55 lbs of grip pressure (compared with 90 lbs in my good arm) and through (what at first seemed like very wimpy) exercises, it gradually worked its way up to 75 lbs. Best of all, by January the pain finally went away and I could start picking up coffee cups and cans of beans without wincing.

In the middle of the PT, I opted to add a yard of gravel to our parking area - which helped greatly when the rains came (we were getting tired of squelching in sloppy mud trying to get in and out of cars), but didn't help my wussy elbow.

pft had yet another sleep test and was fitted out with a CPAP machine which meant that he started sleeping properly and not thrashing around, yelling, at night. His snoring was gone and he slept quietly all night long. Despite being concerned about having to sleep with a mask, it turned out to be a non-event. Good stuff.

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December:

...and the rain started. After a four-year drought, this winter they promised an El Niño event for us - and indeed, the drought appears to be over.

Early in the month, Finn came in from morning feeding restless and shaky. Spike was due in for his rabies jab that morning, so we took Finn along. X-rays were clear so he was diagnosed with a mystery back ailment and sent home with pain killers, muscle relaxants, and anti-inflammatories. and commanded to stay quiet for ten days. Within a week he was back to normal, but it still gave us a scare.

In a last minute flurry of tests (ultrasounds, x-ray, MRI), pft's mystery "hernia diagnosis" was finally dispelled and it was concluded to be a bad bout of spondylolisthesis (his vertebrae don't stack one on top of the other properly - and one in particular is about 25% off center, pinching nerves and causing peculiar pains in hernia land).

We got wise and signed him up for the second time with Symmetry - a physical therapist who specializes in straightening people out. They helped him in 1996 when he broke his leg and got all tweaked up. Almost immediately their series of exercises began helping again and pft began to improve.

Once again, I started up working on a quilt that I began making several years ago. I love the design, but the individual pieces take forever to put together - particularly after I came up with a extra-special design of my own making. I think it'll be pretty good by the time I'm done... some time in the next millenium.

Throughout the year, we had a multitude of babby chooks get hatched, and an even bigger number of chooks disappear under mysterious circumstances, such that we're down to our lowest numbers in a long time. With the population decimated, I may have to resupply from outside stock next spring - something I haven't had to do in years.

At the end of the year, we headed south for our annual Christmas getaway in the desert. This year we opted for the easy and camped out at Kaity's place in Apple Valley for the week. The horses lived in her arena, while we plugged the trailer into her barn (necessary for CPAP power) by running an extension cord through the skylight. It was well below the temperatures we were used to (12°F / -11°C at night, warming to a pathetic 45°F / 7°C on the warmest day), and because we had Grizzle with us, we had to run the propane heater 24 hours a day for nearly ten days straight (interestingly, that used less than two tanks of propane). Towards the end of the visit we were starting to lose the battle against condensation, with ice on the inside of the window every morning.

We did civilised things like go to the cinema (Star Wars - the Force Awakens), eating out, playing cards, sightseeing, hiking with the dogs, and watching endurance friends in the Rose Parade on TV on New Year's Day.

Day 1 of riding nearly ended horribly when, in my nervousness, I forgot a crucial piece of equipment.
Luckily no harm done, and we went on to ride five days straight for a total of ~22 miles. 

Kaity and I rode five days in a row - which meant that Small Thing and I worked out our differences (thanks to some quality time in the round pen before each session) and refilled his jar with white balls. He behaved well the whole time, and I learned some coping skills with him when things start to turn south. I think we are back on track for a good partnership.

And so 2015 ended on a good note with one of the best sunsets I've ever seen: