More Seat Shimming - Fergus' 16" Eurolite

For past info on "Things I Have Done", refer to these two posts:
Fergus Saddle Update (scroll down to "More Tweaks") and
Saddles - Work in Progress (scroll down to "Shimming the 16" Specialized Eurolite")

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Cantle Bolster:

Fergus' new Specialized Eurolite felt great for Virginia City 100, but by the time we got to 20 Mule Team 100 it wasn't doing quite as well. A last-minute (literally - I added it on the Friday afternoon before the 100 miler - figuring I could always pull it out at the first vet check if it wasn't working) addition was to velcro my half-moon-shaped (Sensation) cantle bolster under the seat.

Despite the miles I'd done in this 16" saddle, I still felt like I was swimming around in it so thought this bolster might help for those accelerating-moments Fergus has occasionally (the ones that flip me off the back of the cantle). It probably makes the saddle a little too snug now, so I maybe have to make something similar that isn't quite as bulky, but at least it helped a bit.

Cantle bolster velcroed behind the seat. I raised it a little for NV Derby, so it was slightly less bulky,
but probably still need something a little narrower - right now, this is still a bit too much. 

That said, at about mile 55 on 20MT, my right IT band started to get whiny and by the end of the ride—despite repeated stretching whenever I was out of the saddle—it had seized up altogether. No more trotting for us. Luckily we were riding with Brenna and TWH Sky, so did a lot of big-gait walk, but it was disappointing all the same to no longer be able to trot at the end.

The only other time I've suffered from this problem was riding Roo on VC100 - never with Fergus before, so that was a bit of a mystery. Until I started thinking about how my feet are a lot more underneath me when I ride in my Sensation on Roo - and with the addition of the cantle bolster to the 16" Specialized, I was effectively moving me forwards in the saddle and bringing my stirrups more underneath me. Huh.

So another adjustment this month was to move the stirrups forwards on the Eurolite. I don't have them screwed in to the tree, so figure they'll self-adjust somewhat. They felt fine for NV Derby 50, but like I say, I only had the problem after about 55 miles, so that might not be significant.

* * *

Seat Comfort:

Whether it was because we walked/gaited more during 20MT 100, so I was in the saddle more, or whether the padding I'd added for VC100 had already deteriorated, I'm not sure. Either way, my delicates and seat bones suffered greatly. So for the last month or so, I've been putzing around with some ideas.

The first option was to try using Supracor as padding. Ash had a strip lying around from another project so kindly sent it up to me. I cut a narrower strip to go under the seat and rode in it. Too wide under my adductors. So I shaped it somewhat and rode again - still too wide. I think Supracor is the wrong material for this - it works well as a sheet, but doesn't taper well at the edges, so was too bulky under my leg, instead of fading subtly into nothingness. Rode once more with that set-up and decided it wasn't going to work - too much padding - so took it out:

Holding the Supracor up, so you can see the Specialized shims underneath

Holding the Supracor up, so you can see the Specialized shims underneath

Supracor flopped into place and fat pommel bolster added.
You can see my attempts to shape the Supracor under my adductors

Supracor flopped into place and fat pommel bolster added
You can see my attempts to shape the Supracor under my adductors

Seat flopped down on top. The purple things are my Sensation knee rolls,
velcroed to the underside of the unfastened (at the front) seat

So I removed the Supracor and readjusted the Specialized shims under the seat a little and it gave me enough twist to work fine for the 50 at NV Derby last weekend:

Flat strips of Specialized shim to add twist to the front of the saddle.
The object of the exercise is to raise up the center, so your legs aren't being spread so widely apart.
With more bulk in the middle, your leg can hang slightly straighter.

Flat strips of Specialized shim to add twist to the front of the saddle (and the fat pommel bolster). 

Once the seat is down, who would know you had all that stuff under there?
unfortunately, the velcro on the pommel bolster peeks out of the front slit in the seat,
so it still needs the sheepskin on the top:

Sheepskin added and - voila - enough twist

Sheepskin added and - voila - enough twist

But the seat is still way too hard. No matter what, Fergus' way of going will never be described as "smooth" and being repeatedly slammed into the saddle for 50 to 100 miles is taking its toll. When asked "how is your ride going?" the correct answer is probably not "My crotch is on fire" (which was my response). 

On Sunday I prodded Brenda's new Specialized seat and - huh - that is way cushier than my old used one.

So I have two choices - apparently Specialized have some discounted leftover seats from random sources. If I trace my seat and send them the tracing, they will try to match it as best they can. This might be a good option, since I may be able to get something that will cover the knee rolls a little better (the attachment-velcro still pokes out the front a little and I keep snagging my rope reins on it).

Or Option #2 is to invest in one of these $55 Thinline Seatsavers. This might help. But it might not. But it's probably cheaper than the Specialized seat. And money is tight right now.

Still musing on my options, so will see. Leaning towards the new Specialized seat.

Virginia City 100 - 2015 - Part 3 - in which I only cry a little bit

Continued from Virginia City 100 - Part 2 - The Ride

* * *

The Aftermath

After two hours sleep, at 8:30 a.m. I woke up long enough to peer blearily out of the window and see that BC judging was about to start, and be coherent enough to know that—no—I didn't need to watch it. Fell back into oblivion for another hour and half.

Shortly before 10 a.m. I rolled over stiffly in bed again and saw Kaity walking Ani and Fergus on the far side of camp. It was time to fall out of bed.

Kaity delivered Fergus back to his hay and knocked on the door to drag me out for breakfast. I opened the door, looked at Fergus, looked at Kaity and burst into tears. I was racked with guilt that I'd done wrong by my horse and in any case we were going to get banned for "drug-testing positive".

Apparently 3.5 hours' sleep had done little for my rational-thinking skills.

The awards went by with me not feeling a whole lot better and I stood up in front of the assembled masses and told them that Fergus didn't need to be doing this ride any more - that it was too hard on such a big horse and that the pounding on his feet was more than I should ask of him.

Around 11 a.m. pft showed up on his motorcycle to chauffeur us home (we put the m/c in the front stall of the horse trailer and he drives while I sit in the passenger seat and my eyes roll around in my head).

As it was warming up, pft took Fergus' blanket off and asked me what I thought about the rubs on his back.

"What rubs...??"

Being as tall as he is, and being as short as I am, I can't really see Fergus' back all that well. When I'd untacked him at the end of the ride, I'd palpated his back for any muscle soreness and although he was very slightly reactive, it wasn't a lot considering how long the ride had been and how much climbing had been involved. However his back was wet at the time and I completely missed the rubs in the dark.

Looking in the daylight on a dry horse—indeed, to put it mildly—I'd rubbed the crap out of his back.

I felt awful. No wonder he'd been out of sorts and reluctant to trot with me in the saddle (presumably the discomfort was not as bad trotting in hand since he always trotted well for the vets). It explained a whole heap of reasons for his behaviour the previous day and why I continuously felt that he "wasn't quite right" although I couldn't say why and, despite this, he continued to get good vet scores throughout the day.

Apparently the fact that I'd neglected to wash him, coupled with my choice of saddle pad shims had been the worst possible combination for this ride. While I thought the high-tech Jen-X shims were helping with their superior concussion absorption and ability to mold to his back, I'm now wondering if on a horse who's back moves as much as Fergus' does, if there isn't some heat build-up going on in there too, especially since I was just using the thin-cotton-bottomed pad. Either way, complete and utter fail when it came to saddle pad choice. :(

It seems that my worries about foot-soreness and leg fatigue were completely unfounded - he was perfectly fine - provided you didn't mash a saddle + rider on to his back.

The Future

So where are we now?

It took Fergus almost four weeks before any hair began to grow back, during which time I squinted obsessively at his back on a daily basis.

In addition to the strips either side of his spine, he also had some loin rubs which I was less concerned about, since he hasn't had any problems in that area before and I was  aware of sitting further back in the saddle towards the end of the ride to try and alleviate some discomfort in my knees from all the walking. So I'm calling those "one-offs" and not worrying too much about them.

He has been on vacation for three months and won't get any amount of riding until I can find a saddle + pad set-up that is going to properly support and protect his back.

• Part of the problem was lack of cleanliness - such a simple thing and yet so significant in this case.
• Part of the problem was bad choice of shims.
• Part of the problem was his loss of muscle tone along his back and in his rear end - some due to his body being jammed up (which hopefully Tom Mayes mostly cleared) and some due, probably, to saddle fit discomfort. 

I'm hoping that Tom at Skito Pad can help me with shims that will support his back better and have sent him photos and diagrams of what I think is going on.

And I'm looking at alternative saddles. My plan is to line up a selection of shims and (borrowed) saddles and, using a Port Lewis Impression Pad, see if I can't come up with the best weight distribution possible. I'm also wondering about trying a Triple Thick Woolback pad, despite thinking that sheepskin and Fergus were a bad combination. I'm going back to the drawing board and reevaluating everything all over again.

As far as saddles go, I'm still not convinced that my Sensation won't work with the right shims. This weekend I tried on all three Sensation saddles, as well as a treed Albion that I happen to have temporarily in my possession, and frankly, from feeling around under the saddle, in theory, mine fits the best. It just needs tweaking - shim-wise - to get it to work properly. But if that proves not to be the case, then a new saddle will be needed before Fergus does any significant work. I'm already eyeing the two Bob Marshall Sports Saddles in the basement with a view to selling them to raise any money needed for a new saddle. I'm particularly thinking about Freeform saddles, since I think they may have better weight distribution without needing to move away from treeless saddles. My gut says that a treed-saddle probably isn't the answer.

I'm also reassessing Fergus' heritage when evaluating saddles and their fit. Although I've always known he "moves big" and had attributed that to some of our problems, I'm now thinking more about the deep muscle and what's involved in generating that big TWH movement and how that could be affecting saddle fit.

Either way, I hope I can get my Big Horse back to his former glory so that we can continue down the trail.

Moore's Most Excellent Dude6

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* * *

Oh - and the drug-testing? Never heard a peep from anyone about it, but this showed up weeks later in Endurance News. Apparently Fergus isn't a secret druggy afterall, regardless of my paranoia.

Virginia City 100 - Part 1 - The Prep

(The more I wrote on this subject, the longer it got, so I finally split it into three parts. I started writing it almost ten weeks ago and have been masticating on it ever since. To write it brings back the feelings of fatigue and being out of sorts)

* * *

It has been two weeks since Fergus and I completed VC100 - me for the third time, him for the second, and I'm still suffering from a strange melancholy over the ride and I'm not exactly sure why. It could be that I'm just burnt out from the season (I am), that I'm still tired (I am), or that it's time to take a break (it is), but I have this vague sense of unease that I didn't do right by my horse that day, although on the surface of it we had a great day.

* * *

Recap on Past

To recap, in 2012 Fergus and I did back-to-back Tevis and VC100 and although he was great at Tevis, he just didn't sparkle at VC the same way. I always wondered if it was because he was still tired from Tevis that year (the rides were 6 weeks apart), or if the trail didn't suit him (did all the hard-packed trotting hurt his feet?), or if he preferred the competition of all the extra horses at Tevis (200 starters, as opposed to the 30-45 who usually start VC), or if it was just that the Tevis trail is "home" and he likes it.

So this year we came back, hopefully more rested and knowing the trail ahead. Unfortunately, I don't think he was in as good shape this year. He's had a slow slide into some "issues" (covered in the "Pre-pre-VC" post three weeks ago) which I think impacted him. He was still able to perform, but not to the same level as he did, say, for Tevis 2014 (which I still maintain is probably the best ride I will ever have on any horse in my lifetime). His rear end definitely isn't as strong and he's lost muscle-tone on his back. So I knew he'd have some limitations and that I'd need to work around them. I planned on being very conservative on the uphills and not pushing him or letting him overdo it. And, looking back, I'd say it pretty much worked, although it didn't seem that way at the time.


Fergus the Magnificent

Firstly, before I get into all the oddities, let me say that Fergus was absolutely phenomenal at this ride - he ate more than I've ever seen him eat before and was absolutely ravenous from about mile 45 onwards. He couldn't cram it in fast enough. He dived into the wet hay in a small trough at Jumbo both times, and never came up for air (I've never seen him eat wet hay before). I thought he was going to take out Katie Kenworthy's fingers when he lunged for the hay she was holding at either 75 miles or the finish (memory hazy). He tried to eat the vet secretary's clipboard. Vet Chrysann Collatos watched him dive into a hay pile after she vetted him and said dryly "I'm a little concerned by his appetite" <snort>.

He had amazing recoveries - I think 56 was his "worst" CRI, while he was a 52/44 at the first 24 mile vet check, and 52/48 at the finish 24.5 hours after I got on him the previous morning. Other than getting a complete hosing at the trot-by at Washoe Lake at 39 miles (we were hot-hot-hot in the afternoon sun), I didn't put any water on him all day.

So other than the expected "Bs" on gut sounds (during which he was stuffing in food as quickly as he could), and a "B" on attitude at 76 miles, he pretty much had an "A" filled day. Can't complain on a tough 100 miler:

A Long Day

It was a longer day than expected (perhaps VC always is?), but not for any particular reason - the Virginia City 100 trail is just tough, and rocky, and has some ridiculous climbs on it. And comparing times from past years, I think the trail is actually getting slower, particularly when I go back to 2010 times - I *know* Uno is slower than Fergus, but we still can't match the times from that year. I spoke with Meredith Mayerhoff who's been riding the trail for years and she thought it was lot rockier and more eroded than in past years. So you just can't move out in some places the way you could in the past.

Couple that with not having Connie Creech to follow for large sections of ride, and we just moved slower.

Lack of Sleep and Other Offenses

To the growing list of "things I messed up on", add lack of sleep and trying to do too much the day before.

As usual, I opted, to drive up to Virginia City after work on Thursday night. This might have worked out if I hadn't left work late, which bumped me to leaving home late, and then I had a comedy of errors trying to fill up with diesel which further bumped me - all of which meant that Fergus and I weren't settled in camp until around 2:30 a.m.

The following morning, almost immediately, I had kind people bringing me donations for the horrendously fast-moving Valley Fire that started the weekend before. (intense dash-cam footage from the fire as it happened).

(We had a chain set up - I would pick up horse donations from VC and transport them to Auburn, where I'd meet up with Aurora Grohman and pass them off to her. She, in turn, would take a trip westwards and give the donations to Emily Pendergrass. Emily lived in Middletown and although thankfully her house didn't burn, she lost her barn and its contents. She set up a pickup point for local horse people to come by and "shop" for needed items).

The final outcome of VC100 donations - a huge truckful of goodies

So not much sleep, followed by a low-key but ultimately stressful day Friday trying to get everything done - including a last minute attempt to get his pad shimming right (as you always do the day before a 100), a pre-ride to see if that shimming would work (it seemed to. But it in retrospect didn't. At all.), a trim (just to really set my back up nicely) and glue on Fergus.

On Thursday around 3 pm I had a conversation with pft from work about bathing Fergus. It went:

"Ack, I meant to ask you to bathe Fergus today..."

"It's a little late for that - he won't dry before the sun sets and then he'll be wet in the trailer going over the mountain".

"Hmm, never mind..."

This should have put "BATHE FERGUS AT CAMP" to the very top of the list, but instead it fell off the list altogether.

The advantage of a short grey horse? Dirt shows up very clearly. Disadvantage of a tall, dirt-coloured horse? It doesn't and it turned out that Fergus was pretty dirty.

The pad and shim combination I went with in the end was his cotton-bottomed Sensation pad, the high-tech Jen-X inserts and some wimpy shoulder shims that might have worked if they'd been twice the thickness. An inspection of the sweat pattern after leisurely pre-ride to the cemetery and back seemed to indicate that set up would work. (<sigh>)

Since the glue and boots would need to "sit quietly" once applied, I couldn't glue until after the pre-ride, so to get him vetted I slapped on some strap-on boots, and then had to wait for Kaity to return from her pre-ride before gluing. We were going with new Renegades-with-gel-bottoms-glue-ons on his front feet (with Easyboot Glue-ons in back) and I was unfamiliar with the gluing protocol for those. The theory was that the cushy gel-sole would help protect him against concussion and he would stay comfortable, unlike at NASTR 75.

We got things glued, but much later in the day than I was comfortable with and I never got a "sit quietly" moment the entire day.

So to say I didn't feel rested would have been a massive understatement.

On to the ride itself.

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:

May - Week 3

The theme for the bank holiday weekend was "Sleep-Sleep-Sleep", instead of "Go Out and Have Three Days of Fun". You know it's time when the thought of doing anything "fun" fills you with an overwhelming tiredness - and so it was on Sunday morning (despite not getting out of bed at all on Saturday) when we were supposed to be packing for a quick camping trip to the mountains. The end result was a girl who spent almost the entire weekend either reading, watching films, or sleeping... sometimes all at the same time.

Sunday evening, pft joined me on a quick jaunt to the Powerlines and back (he wisely stayed at the top, keeping his mtn bike company, instead of scrambling down and then puffing his way back up again). Poor Finn was overheating - I need to do a summer convict-cut on him again since the temperatures are about to start climbing with avengence. Fergus took it all in his stride and positively lunged when we turned for home - I was about to suggest that he graze for a minute at the bottom, but instead he leapt, did that slightly alarming [oh-my-goodness-he's-a-big-strong-horse] head wrench and off we shot back up the hill.

By crikey that little dog can run!

And so I pronounce Fergus ready for NASTR 75 next weekend.

He's not carrying as much weight as I'd like. He's not thin, it's more that he's just not plump for the upcoming workload. Hopefully he doesn't drop too much weight this coming weekend. Once we get back, it'll be Operation Fatten Up all the way to Big Horn.

The forecast is for 88°F on Saturday - awk - we haven't trained in heat at all this year and he sweats pretty well in mid-70s right now, so I'm going to have to be diligent about keeping him as cool as I can.

His new ultra-expensive [oh please oh please let them do the trick] saddle pad inserts are on their way via UPS and should be here tomorrow (because we all know that you're supposed to try brand new, never-before-experimented-with, things on the day of a 75, right?). My take is that it can't be any worse than what I've already subjected his back to - he currently looks like an abuse case, thanks to my trying Freeform panels. It was another example of Lucy trying to put too much under there to make it work - and I've no real way of knowing if it is working since he seldom shows signs of discomfort - the first I know of it is when a new rash of white patches show up <sad>.

Anyway, hopefully the minimalist yet high-tech approach will do the trick this time around. And failing that, I can send a spare pad out to the vet check to switch out - we go through there three times.

* * *

And the Sleep-Sleep-Sleep worked! This morning I actually felt that tug of excitement back again. Even though I knew I'd be happy when I got there, the thought of NASTR (or indeed any ride, even a conditioning ride) was making me weary. Instead, I'm getting that clean focused feeling again - where I have things in hand and - yes - this is going to be fun.

May - Week 2 and a Bit

Week 2:

This is kind of backwards since the weekends are preceding the weeks - which everyone knows is wrong, since all weekends come at the end of the week. I will try to do better.

High Desert - Weekend 9th-10th:

Roops, Finn, Spike, pft, pft's dirt bike, and I had a splendid excursion to Nevada for the never-before-ridden High Desert Ride. As we arrived the skies opened and the "10% possibility of rain" materialized as about 2 inches-worth of wetness.

Roops and I rode with Dionne and her big mare Storm who was on her first 50 and we had a lovely day yakking away and riding about in the hills. I had wished for a nice relaxing ride with no drama and that's exactly what I got - right up until a rider just ahead of us fell off and broke her hip and had to be care-flighted to the hospital in Reno. Poor Dionne was made to go slower than Storm's capabilities, since Roo didn't need to be trotting along at 10+ mph, but we got the job done and I got a customary 5th from last - huzzah. 

pft rode about on his dirt bike and lolled about at camp. The dogs inadvertently got to gallop about in camp and have a wondrous time greeting all the neighbours until corralled. A fine time was had by all.

Monday 11th - Sunday 17th:

In which I worked, drove, slept, scratched the raging case of poison oak I picked up riding Fergus on the Powerlines and at Cool, and dealt with lumps*.

(*continuing saga from two years ago. I took high doses of Zinc, the problem went away for a year. I was cured so stopped taking the zinc, the problem came back. I am back taking high doses of zinc.)

So much for dynamic thoughts of pre-work riding and "Getting Stuff Done".

In fact, Saturday I didn't get out of bed at all, and instead sat and read a Norwegian mystery - Dreamless by Jørgen Brekke. Good reading, apparently, since it only took me a day to finish. This seems to be a regular cycle for me at the moment - go really really hard, then crash spectacularly.

Sunday I frog-marched myself out of bed and trimmed overdue Small Thing's feet - dug out the interesting remains of an abscess on his right rear - and then took Fergus out of for his final "long" conditioning ride before NASTR 75 in two weeks. Neither of us were filled with energy, so we did a peddle-ride with windmilling legs while Fergus ate his favorite seed-grasses. Lost both back boots - apparently I should read my own blog since it appears I used exactly the same back boots that fell off during our last big conditioning ride . 

Fergus Angst:
I'm hoping Fergus' current lack of enthusiasm has everything to do with being taken out on his own (and not having suitable back feet footwear), and nothing to do with my recurrent angst about saddle+pad fit. Using the Freeform panels for 20MT and NV Derby - something I was really pleased with at the time and seemed to be working beautifully - caused huge white stripes to appear along his back - argh. Every time I look at him, all I can see is those stupid white patches, never mind he's not remotely troubled by them when I palpate his back

Whatever I seem to do with pad inserts results in what feels like a huge wodge on his back along the top edge of the inserts. I had tried some shims which I thought were working, but next time I felt them, they felt bulky in that trouble-area. I will try reversing them so the tapered edge is up towards his spine.

In the Good Girl Department, I mended some torn gaiters with my handy "Speedy Stitcher"... $40 saved.. yay me... I'm trying to work up the courage to do my Ariat riding shoes, which have unravelled stitching down one side, but I'm scared of making a big lump in the wrong place on the inside. It's not rocket science, Lucy.

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 - Fergus

Fergus

In reality, I haven't actually got this duck in a row yet, but I'm working on it. Up until now there hasn't been any real hurry because Fergus has been on break since February (a product of having too many horses to ride, rather than not wanting to ride him), so like many things around here, it has been on the back-burner. Given that I hope to start him up in 100 milers again next year, I need to get the problem sorted out.

* * *

Unbeknownst to me, Fergus developed a couple of rubs either side of his withers during Tevis last year. At Foresthill, my vigilant crew distracted me ("look! Elephant!") while applying Desitin, and off I went again, blissfully unaware.

Keeping in mind I can't actually see Fergus' back from the ground, it wasn't until pre-Virginia City 100 prep six weeks later during the washing/primping/obsessing phase that I noticed that he had scurfy callouses on his withers and Crysta admitted "oh yeah, he got those at Tevis and we deliberately didn't tell you about them". This is what crew is for - to prevent you from obsessing over which you cannot do anything about.

The day before Virginia City 100, 2012. You can see his newly-minted wither callouses

I put his pad on and felt around underneath and concluded that in my efforts to protect his back and pad his Skito appropriately, I'd probably overstuffed the pad and it was causing bulges right about where he didn't need them. So the pad got destuffed and off we went and did VC100. No back soreness, no obvious rubbing.

Fast forward to 20 mule Team 100 in February - Mr Mild Manners became an overachieving GIANT HORSE and proceeded to move out as BIG as I've ever felt him move before. He rubbed the cr*p out of my legs in the first 12 miles (trying vainly to keep him to a subdued dull roar) and I knew that if he didn't calm down, my crippled body wasn't going to get close to finishing the next 82 miles. Luckily he did calm down and returned to his normal self, but not before skinning the insides of my legs.

What extra-special-BIG movement can do for you - the insides of my legs 50 miles into 20 Mule Team.
If it did this to my legs, what might it be doing to his back?.

Again, he finished with no back soreness or obvious holes, but the callouses were definitely still there. Come summer time, his fluffy winter coat shed out and, voila, two large white patches either side of his withers, a rear left-hand white patch, as well as some "frosting" either side of his spine. Not what I wanted to see.

Photo taken standing on the hay pile above him:

• Pretty sure the wither spots are my fault from overstuffing the pad and two-pointing a good deal. 
• Think that the patch in the left-rear was from when pft was still riding unbalanced from his broken leg. Now that he's more balanced and lost 20 lbs, think that problem has been remedied. 
• The frosting along the spine - not sure, but wondering if it's heat-related from him building up friction from his BIG movement?

So I concluded that although I've been using Skito pads almost my entire endurance career, apparently it wasn't cutting it for Fergus and it was time for a change.

From looking at his back, I don't believe he's suffering from a 'saddle poking' issue - I don't see any atrophy of back muscles:

Curiously, the area that is "frosted" also has raised hair along it.
I didn't notice this until I was taking these photos.

Another problem is because his back is so long and there's SO MUCH real estate available, my saddle tends to slide back off the raised part of his withers onto the flat part of his back, causing the front of it to sit too low and tilt me forwards slightly (I don't have this problem using the same saddle with either Roo or Uno - where the saddle sits closer to their raised withers). So whatever pad we end up using, it needs to be able to be shimmed at the front to raise up the front of the saddle.

Instead of sharing a pad with the other horses, it looks like Fergus will have a special one of his very own.

Using Sensation treeless saddles, it made sense to go to the source, so I emailed Kate in the office and sent her some explanatory photos. She suggested either replacing the foam padding in the Skito, especially if it was more than three years old (...er, that would be a "yes"...); or getting one of their new endurance pads made with Eco-Gold padding ("Ultimate impact protection with a combination of shock-absorbing technology; Reduced friction, rubbing and pressure points" - yup, that would be what I'm looking for).

Since I'd like to try something different for Fergus—particularly with a view to the idea that his big movement may be causing some heat friction—the Sensation endurance pad is the route I'm going to take.

(as an aside, another thing she mentioned was the temperature sensitivity of the foam used in Skitos - that it tends to become "mushy" and loses some of its support when riding in heat. I'm thinking that if I like the Eco-Gold padding, it may be that I replace all the foam in my existing Skitos (in need of overhaul) with this kind of foam).

(and as another aside, Christoph Schork used one of these pads during Tevis this year and said he really liked how cooling it was).

Today I emailed Kate at Sensation to set the ball rolling so that Cinderella will be set up ready for Fall Training (if we ever get organised enough to start such a thing)(right now I have three horses lined up in my head for "Fall Training", so we'll see).