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.

Roo Snippets from 2007

Browsing for some old ride stories, I came across the following two snippets about Roo that were interesting:

May 2007 - Washoe Valley: Dave Cootware had brought along a horse scale for us to play with, so I got to weigh Roo several times: Friday evening: 860 lbs Saturday: 820 lbs (right after the ride)  Saturday: 838 lbs (after eating/drinking for a couple of hours/wearing his blankie)  Sunday: 830 lbs (right after the ride)  (Peggy [Davidson] weighed Dakota on Saturday after the ride and he was 1022 lbs!)

June 2007 - Horse Expo: ...Watched another demo by Jec Ballou...   Afterwards I went to talk to her about what I could best do with Roo. She suggested that I work on speeding up and slowing down at the trot with him - to work his sacroiliac area and persuade him to drop his head. She said with the pelvis tilted down (from a high head and hollow back), they tend to stab their back legs into the ground and will get problems from that. She also said that walking hills developed the best muscling. She said you'll often see endurance horses with a line down the center of their hips, dividing the two sides of the muscle - probably because they've been trotting up hills and got strong, but not uniformly so. She said you're aiming for a nice round muscle.

Predictably, I haven't worked on this, he does still stab his back feet at times, and has developed a lovely crease down the center of his butt muscles. But that said, I very seldom let him trot up hills - we almost always walk them, so maybe it's just how he's built?

Pre-Pre-Virginia City 100 - in which I round up those last laggard ducks

Leaving tomorrow evening to drive up Virginia City after work. So how are the ducks coming along?

Saddle Fit

Fergus got looked at by Tom Mayes on Friday and it was a good session and explained a lot of what was going on. His right shoulder was all bunged up. It looks like at some point in his life he ran into a tree/gate post/similar - jamming his shoulder (he does have a divot in that shoulder - perhaps the point of impact?), smooshing his diaphragm forwards, and causing all the force to rise up into his right wither/shoulder area.

Tom spent quite a bit of time releasing that whole mess from sternum to withers. Interestingly, he's always had a "wry" foot on the right front - loading it oddly and causing it to grow crooked. And he also moves strangely on the corresponding left rear (you don't feel or see it much watching him move, but you can see it in his footprints in soft footing, not to mention if he twists off a boot - the left rear will be the one). Which begs the question, how long has he been dealing with this? Well, his right front foot has been like that since he was five, and he's 13 now, so...

Tom in the process of realigning Fergus' sternum and shoulder

Another problem was in his loin area. Admittedly, this is where I'm a little hazy about the specifics, and where the non-conventional medicine part comes in. He was apparently having intestinal problems, which manifested itself in the loin area, meaning he couldn't engage his rear end properly - or make proper use of any nutrition I put into him (which is certainly true - I've been feeding the heck out of him and yet he still isn't getting fat). And because the "point" that deals with that area of his insides manifests itself as soreness in the loin area, in turn this meant that he was having some muscle atrophy in his glutes (hence the weird hunters bump that I started noticing the second half of this year - that was mostly from the muscle dropping away either side, not the bump itself rising up), and also losing muscle along his topline - making saddle fit difficult since I was chasing a moving target.

If you saw the before and after flinch and non-flinch, you'd get Tom in to do your horses too.

The really fun part was watching Fergus' reaction before treatment (poke a finger in the offending area, watch Fergus flinch) and after (poke a finger in, watch Fergus not react at all). I don't understand it, but if it means he's more comfortable, I'll go with it.

At the end of the session, Tom suggested that I took him on a short ride to "jump start" the area again - and show Fergus that all his parts were now working again. I planned to ride at Cronin on Saturday, but woke up to smoke from the Butte Fire, 20 miles to the south. Figured it was a bad time to exercise his lungs and I'd wait until tomorrow. Sunday it was worse, and by Monday it was really bad. Tuesday dawned foggy.... foggy? After a week of 100° temperatures, foggy and wet was too strange.

Sunday morning smoke

Finally this morning I got up early and took Fergus and the dogs up to the Power Lines and back before work - not the work-out I was looking for, but at least got us out to try my latest idea in shimming.

Racing Spike home again - yup, that little dog can sustain about 15 mph

It goes like this. If Skito foam was originally invented to even-out pressure points (and—as people complain—the foam smooshes down to nothing when warm), and I need to shim the dips in his back, if I put a Skito foam in the pad under his Jen-X insert, will it just smoosh away in the ridge area, and shim out the dipped area?

So effectively, my pad currently looks like this:

Certainly not ideal, but might do the trick.

This morning we did a quick 3 miles up and back to see what it felt/looked like. I can't say for sure that it'll work, but do like the way this idea is headed. Admittedly, the pad is now SUPER-PADDED, which is maybe too much padding (have done that before), but it doesn't seem to be doing any harm. Thankfully, the treeless saddle works in my favour here - with no solid tree to deal with, it can't pinch him, since it just spreads wider to suit the shape it's sitting on - and hopefully is now better supported further away from his spine.

I have one last option to try - two sets of Skito foam shoulder shims that I found in the back of the trailer. Initially, I only found one set - and they were only 1/2" thick, so not enough in terms of padding. But doing ride-chores last night, I found a second set down the back of something, so possibly doubled up they will be enough. That would effectively look something like this:

And might work. Something to take with us and use if he looks like he's getting uncomfortable.

So saddle fit, not really solved. And we've run out of time. :(


Horse Weight

Fergus has greatly been enjoying this item on the list. He's now getting his ration of LMF-Gold, Cool Calories, Beet Pulp and Vit E-Mag Supplement. As well as a quarter/half flake of alfafa on top of unlimited meadow grass hay. He's getting to the picky, I-can't-possibly-eat-this-hay-and-need-a-bucket-of-goodies-instead stage. So far, he's still not fat, but showing slight signs of improvement.


Horse Elytes

Enduramax and ProCMC purchased and I mixed up his elytes last night, now safely stored in the fridge - after glopping it all over the counter trying to pour it into the bottle. That was messy but at least I didn't squirt any on the ceiling.


My Fuel Intake

Well, I never got to try Tailwind on a ride, but sat and drank a glass of the lemon-flavoured one while flopping about indoors in the heat on Saturday. The verdict was it tastes like alka-selzer cold medicine and isn't something I'd drink unless pft was standing over me, ordering me to drink it (as he has to with the cold medicine).

So that's a "no".

Yesterday, while having a bleah-moment at work in the afternoon, I tried the raspberry one - which has caffeine in it. The raspberry flavour isn't bad, but the nasty aftertaste (presumably caused by the dextrose, sucrose, citric acid, sodium citrate, sea salt, potassium chloride, magnesium citrate, and calcium carbonate) was... well, nasty. And I made it a lot less concentrated than the lemony one. In theory I could make it even weaker, but at that point I'd need to drink about six bottles of water an hour to gain the required effect of not needing any other food source - and the temperatures are only supposed to be in the high 60s/low 70s on Saturday.

Not going to happen.

(I still have the unflavoured option to try out, but can't see how that will work at all, with nothing to mask the nasty aftertaste).

So as an option, pft dropped by REI this morning and got me three packets of Clif's Organic Energy Food - pizza margherita. (review here: http://www.bikerumor.com/2015/01/30/clif-introduces-new-organic-energy-food-including-squeezable-pizza/)

Ash bought me one of these to try when crewing at Tevis and I really liked it (consumed at 3 a.m. when I was having a lull), so hopefully it'll still seem tempting on the day.

I also grabbed a "Chia Squeeze" in strawberry and banana flavour (who knew you could get these at the supermarket?). I have no idea what it tastes like but "Each Squeeze contains 1200 milligram of Omega-3s, protein, antioxidants and more" - that has to be good, right?


Clothing

The half-chaps were liberally sprayed with "suede cleaner and revitalizer" (or something), which didn't do an awful lot to soften them up, but I wore them around the barn in shorts for a while and they seemed OK, so I'm going to assume they'll be fine.

A new Tipperary helmet showed up in the mail Monday and I spent a happy hour wearing it in bed while reading (didn't get home any earlier than that). It feels snug, but not too snug. And I wore it this morning riding for 45 minutes and my head didn't start throbbing, so I'm going to assume that'll be OK also. Added sticky-backed velcro to the brim area to attach my salamander beak-brim (a super long brim to shade me from the sun so I don't have to wear sunglasses), so the helmet mine now whether I like it or not.

* * *

My list of things to do is mostly done, with the exception of "find GPS" - no clue where I put it, which is a bit disconcerting.

My duck list currently looks like this:

Good enough.

An Hour of Excitement - in which Hopi doesn't completely lose it

Written Wednesday:

This morning pft had an appt with his sleep apnea Dr (looks like we may be headed in the right direction there, so we'll see how it turns out) and Tom Mayes was supposed to see Fergus this afternoon, so I booked a day "working at home" in between all that stuff. Then Tom postponed until Friday and I didn't have any work, so thought I was going to have to have a day of enforced vacation (and get done all the stuff that I failed to get done over the three day weekend)("the stuff" = anything).

As it turns out, there were fires to fight from work, so I did end up working six hours and once again didn't get anything done - until I looked up and realised it was 7:30 and sunset is 7:30. I'd promised myself – if nothing else – at least I'd trim a "pair of feet" today (either Hopi - needs all four done desperately - or Uno - needs front toes done desperately).

Out on the back deck, struggling into my shoes, I immediately got distracted by small chickens flying onto the roof - was admiring their cleverness in figuring out the safest way up into the roosting tree (the current chook roosting-tree is at the corner of the house, at the end of the dog run). They usually sit on the fence and fly up into it at dusk. And hopefully avoid any interest by the dogs in the process.

Current roosting-tree. If you squint, you can see two chooks in the top left area.

Chooks in roosting mode

But not this time. I went around the corner and discovered both dogs "playing" with one of the teenage chooks. He wasn't looking too hot - down on the ground with Spike looking cheerfully on.   I don't think they like to be "played with". 

Rescued him and took him (stunned and lolling) down to the barn for a night safely tucked up in the chinchilla cage* to recover. I couldn't find any obvious damage - just more dog drool than a chook needs - and thankfully it seems that he was just stunned by his ordeal and appears to have recovered - was walking around within the hour and looking much perkier, so I'm guessing he just got rough-housed. Of course it was my favorite red roosterlet of that bunch. I don't know why I bother having favorites - it's the kiss of death on them.

(* aka chook crêche).

Back in the bosom of his family the following morning,
no worse for wear. He's the red one in the back.

So.

On to trimming.

We got hay delivered today, so everything that normally lives in the barn aisle is being stored temporarily in my trimming space (an open-sided stall closest to the entrance), meaning no space to trim, so I opted to trim in the aisle. Which would have worked fine (probably) if I hadn't picked Hopi to trim.*

(* There was methodic reasoning to this - I figured if I did two of his feet tonight, I'd get the other two done another day, since he can't usually tolerate four feet being done in the same session).

Because I'm too pauperish to buy mats to cover the dirt aisle floor, instead I put down some boards -against mud (winter) or dust (summer), and to drag bales of hay across when the hay truck is too loaded up to fit into the low-roofed barn so has to pull up to the far entrance to unload.

Hopi was a little concerned about standing on the big, heavy 4x8 plywood board, but got used to it soon enough, happily eating out of the hay bag I'd provided, standing with the lead rope looped around the panel a few times (I never tie him when I trim since he can become "excitable").

I trimmed one foot totally without incident, then decided I needed a piece of string to tie the hay bag (on the ground) to the panel, since both he and Uno (inside the stall) were eating out of it and it was moving around too much.

At one end of the aisle is my hay shed - and area that is 8' x 12' with two sliding doors. The door closest to the center was slid open, and the hay area was half-full of 30 bales of hay (they are bringing the rest tomorrow)... and I had one of those "what if" thoughts about how, if Hopi had a meltdown, I could dash in there to get out of his way (one side of the aisle is lined with panels, the other with chook crêche cages, so no escape route for Lucy if she's stupid enough to get trapped at that end). 

I turned to get the piece of string and ... yup... Hopi had a minor meltdown.

 Unsure what set him off but he scootled, tucked his rear end, his back feet slipped on the board, and then he was scrambling around and practically falling down, trying to rear and scootle and panic all at the same time. As designed, the rope came unwoven and - as planned, I dived into the hay shed to get out of his way.

What I wasn't expecting, however, was him diving in after me.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING??? I don't know if he saw me as a safe place, so followed me for protection, or if he was just facing that way and ran forwards, but now there I was, stuck in the hay shed - an area of about 4' x 8' - with a panicking horse who's facing me and threatening to climb up the wall of hay or over the top of me (he's done it before). His back end was covering my exit route - the open sliding door - and behind him in the rear of our 4' x 8' space are two feed bins - the closest one being a metal trash can (for maximum banginess) and I knew if I tried to back him into that gap between the bins and the hay (about 2' x 3') to get him turned around, he'd miss, hit the bin with his back end, panic even more and leap forwards on top of me. Ack.

The space he had me cornered in

The space I needed to back him into (not going to happen) to make space to get out.

Finally opted to grab his lead rope and make a speed dash for the door while turning him to follow me. Not exactly space for him to turn, but better he's turning towards me and the exit than cornering me furthest away from the door.

It worked! He scrambled a bit on the slippery wooden floor of the hay area, but popped out behind me - no damage done, except for a skinned knee (him) and a minor cardiac arrest (me). I shook for about three minutes afterwards but managed to talk nicely to him and praise him for being so clever and not completely losing it.

And got the second foot done. Not well, since I couldn't turn him to face the light without putting him back on the board and that wasn't happening with me underneath him - but got it done in the dark, mostly by feel. He wasn't cooperative, no doubt still in a mild state of alarm, and that was the side he skinned his knee on, so maybe it was sore, but by then pft came down to help me and held him for me while I finished up.

Hum. At least I got something done. Sorta.

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:

The Story of Blinky's Arrival

Cochin #2 - the red hen - is not a good mother. After the birth of black-bubby-cochin, she was sitting on eggs on and off... mostly off. At least once I found the eggs very cold in the nest, so I figured they weren't viable any more.

Went away on vacation for ten days, came back and found her (and her frizzle friend in a second nest box), firmly ensconced on eggs. Oh-kay - so we should expect more bubbies in about two weeks time (they take 3.5 weeks to cook).

Sunday I was picking pond weed out of the trough (green algae... it's good for them, right?) and heard miserably loud peeping coming from the chook house - and sure enough, lying upside down in the dirt was a yellow-n-bloody chicklet. Huh... two weeks early. Seems like this one must have started to cook right when the black chooklet was hatched. So much for non-viable eggs.

Picked it up - definitely didn't look good. The roosters, outraged by its presence, had been working on it for some time, apparently. It had hatched from the red hen's nest, dropped about 4 feet onto the ground (she probably pushed it), and then it was at the mercy of the Big Kids. One side of its head looked very bad and I figured it probably wouldn't make it. But it was still alive, so I put it in a small box with a heat pad and left it to sit quietly.

Blinky's "good" eye :(

Blinky's not so good side

About six hours later, I was mucking the paddock behind the hen house and I hear more peeping. Back to the chook house and look around carefully and found a second chooklet hiding in a bucket. Huh. This one had been minimally pecked and looked pretty healthy compared to its sibling.

Alive and well, with only slightly pecked legs,
the Sibling

So now I have two chooklets inna box.

Monday night, they were both still alive but had gummed-shut eyes. With a damp Q-tip, I was gently able to get both eyes open on the healthier of the two. No luck on the injured one's "better" eye, though.

Tuesday morning, the healthier one was eating and wobbling around. The injured one was still hanging in there - preening itself - but I don't think had figured out the eating thing yet - what with not being able to see anything. It is noticeably lighter than its sibling. But it has not given up yet and seems to be fighting for its right to be here.

We leave on our camping trip Wednesday night and with nowhere to plug in a heat pad, I asked a friend at work if she and her son would be interested in looking after them while we were gone. They had done a great job on a disabled baby chook a year or so ago (twisted leg - now full-grown into an egg-laying hen... still disabled, but cheerily drags around).

So the chooklets came to work with me this morning. The injured one has been christened "Blinky". Think the one eye is gone, but if they can get it's other eye ungummed I think it might just make it.

Time will tell.

Assembling flat-packed furniture

Third Week in July:

Traffic jam on Andy Wolf, Wednesday morning

It's very red. Roop races the dogs on the powerline road

Monday: Sorted out baby chooks - two new ones while we were gone, plus two dead ones (I was afraid of this, since there were multiple hens in the same nest, meaning the babies were cooking at different times, so would hatch at different times and would require a diligent mother. She wasn't.)

Tuesday: Trimmed Roo ready for riding (no longer curly elf-toes after five weeks)

Wednesday: Rode Roo to the bottom of the powerlines where we were thwarted by blackberry bushes that had sprung up since I was last down there. Next time, I go armed with snippers. The ride didn't start well with Spike disappearing on a jaunt before we were even out of the gate, but after five minutes yelling, he reappeared at top speed and we were able to get going. Roo felt pretty good and more or less trotted the entire way to the top of the powerlines (hill n' all). He was predictably hopeless going down the steep hill (toe dragging, unable to get underneath himself - nothing has changed really in six years) so I got off and speed-walked him down. He felt really good coming back up - smooth and strong, which surprised me - this is only the second time I've ridden him since his seven week hiatus. And we made it back home again in record time.


Thursday: Adjusted boots:

(Disclaimer: the rest of this post is about fiddling with Renegade hoof boots and probably offers little interest to anyone who doesn't use them).

This morning's chore was swapping out Renegade captivators with the Viper ones on Small Things's front boots, as well as switching out the long wires for some shorter ones - all part of fine-tuning the boots - they more or less fit, it's just a case of getting them "just right".

Before I started, I adjusted Roo's front boots. That went very smoothly and I was congratulating myself on my new-adjustment skills...

And then I started on ST's boots.

It was like assembling IKEA flat-packed furniture. Insert Tab A into Slot B - only Tab A is the wrong shape... huh... these Viper Caps don't have the black doofah that the wire goes around - I'll just take it off this Ren Cap... uh, they are a different design.. OK, I'll just take it off this other Viper Cap... wait, why do I have this extra Viper Cap? Is it a different size? what size is it? how do I tell what size it is?

And predictably, I got distracted just as I was unscrewing the tiny screw and it dropped onto the rubber mat under my feet - to disappear and never be seen again. pft brought me the magnet-onna-stick and I eventually found it.

Went to put it on ST's foot, only to discover that because the Viper Caps are deeper, the sides protruded further forwards - which meant they were now butting up against the back sides of the boots and I couldn't tighten them enough to be snug on his foot. That won't work.

Back to the barn, remove the Viper Caps, inspect extra Viper Caps in case they are actually smaller, decide they aren't... decide in any case, I think I tried the smaller Viper caps on his front feet and they were *too* small... put the Ren Caps back on...

In the middle of all this, the banties decided to do a drive-by - five roosters came rushing through in pursuit of a single, uninterested hen. All my carefully laid out straps and bits flung.

At least I was clever enough to put Spike on the shorter length of his baling string (the one I use when I'm trimming so he can't get tangled in a horse-being-trimmed's feet) - thereby making sure that he too didn't "help".

Utah 2015 - San Rafael Swell

Placeholder

To be added upon as I get to it. Unfortunately I came back to find work had gone from 0 to 80 mph while I was absent, so free-time is a bit scarce right now.

* * *

Until this evening, I hadn't actually written anything about our trip last week, but I had gotten as far as downloading the pics off both cameras so that I was ready to do so at a moment's notice.

And now I've made this placeholder, so at least blob-entries will be in the correct order.

For now, suffice to say it was a most-excellent trip - we visited some of the finest scenery Utah has to offer; and reinforced the concept that things are way more fun if they turn into an adventure, rather than a pedestrian excursion; stayed in two of the best camping spots I've ever had the pleasure of erecting a tent on; saw rocks, rocks, and yet more rocks; laughed at the dogs a great deal; only combed my hair twice in ten days; drove a total of 1964 miles (including the journey home - 893 miles in one day... pft = 736, me = 157... a fair division of labour); and between us took 1415 photos.

* * *

This is where we went - as the guidebook helpfully told us, San Rafael Swell is a kidney-shaped geologic feature in Central Utah. Upon reflection, I decided I don't actually know what shape a kidney is - so here's the map:

It's the kidney-shaped lumpy bit in the middle of the map.

The three yellow blobs are where we spent our nights - Richfield (a not-very-restful-night in a Motel 6 as "somewhere to crash" - while in actual fact we spent most of our four hours "sleep" there trying to prevent the dogs from barking at all the other clientele - after arriving at 3 a.m. Utah time. Perhaps next time we'll just sleep in the truck - it might be more restful); The Wedge (north part of that Christmas-tree-shaped canyon); and Behind the Reef Rd near Temple Mountain:

* * *

Campsite #1 at the Wedge:

Here:

And this is what the "front yard" looked like (incidentally - that ridge is the background is Cedar Mountain which had a plenitude of cell towers on top of it. The Wedge had better cell coverage than we get at home):

And this is what the view was like just a few hundred yards away:

 And Campsite #2 - "Behind the Reef Road" near Temple Mountain:

It's rough but someone has to do it.

More later.

* * *

Highlights of the trip:

• Nearly getting struck by lightning
• Cycling the Good Water Rim Trail solo
• Most amazing scenery. Everywhere
• Most amazing camp sites - and there was nobody there
• Slickrock hike puddles
• Watching Spike upsidedown in the puddles on the slickrock hike
• Using pft's ankles to hoist myself up a rock face (and watching Finn jump it in one bound - and very nearly not making it)
• Tadpoles in Chute Canyon
• Watching Spike chase swallows-shadows through the Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon
• Watching the light on the cliffs (and being witness to the most amazing light, back-dropped by thunderclouds in Goblin Valley)
• Getting the dogs through the water obstacles and up and over the big boulders ("Go Team!") in Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon - and watching the dogs grow in confidence as they realised "yes we can"
• Getting the truck stuck - and getting it back out again
• Complete solitude

How Many Things Can You Fix in Two Weeks?

This morning the toilet chose to block. This was the latest in a long line of malfunctioning things going on at home, which has kept pft busier than he's ever been. Of course we're supposed to be leaving on vacation at the end of the week, and supposed to be packing for that, but so far, other than make a list of "things to take", no packing has happened.

In the last few weeks, in no particular order, he's had to fix:

• Brakes on truck
• Intermittent miss on the miata (still ongoing, after several things replaced)
• Completely re-doing 55 foot of fencing
• Repairing electric fence
• Cutting down a tree leaning on the electric fence
• Killing a rattlesnake that was in the horse paddock
• Dealing with a well-pump controller problem which meant we kept losing all our water pressure on a daily basis
• Fixing the freezer that chose to start leaking when a hose went bad (on a 100°F day)(possibly related to the above)
• Assembling a multiple-mtn-bike-travelling-mount for the truck
• Wrapping my chook crêche in chicken wire to prevent a) babby chooks falling out between the bars* and b) raccoons extracting babby chooks and their mothers out through the bars
• Fetching hay
• Cleaning the house ready for guests who won't arrive for another four weeks, but we won't be around much to do it closer to the time
• Re-riveting the running board on the trailer that popped off when we had to do a tight U-turn camping a few weeks ago and ended up dragging through some earth (actually not done yet, not needed for a couple of weeks, but it's on the list).

(* this happened earlier in the week when I was trimming Hopi - all the chickens were suddenly  making a ruckus, so I came up for air to see what the fuss was, only to find the latest addition walking around on the ground looking traumatized.)

* * *

I've been trying to keep things going at my end by performing at least one task every morning.

A poor exhausted Roo after nearly two miles.
Miraculously cured on the way home.

Monday I took Roop on his first outing in 7 weeks (unless you count the day I led him down the driveway to close the gate at the bottom, and then rode him back up to the top, bareback). He was awful on the way out, weaving and seemingly having a hard time staying on the road - that is until pft on his mtn bike and the dogs took off down a hill and left him behind - at which point he suddenly developed some impulsion. And of course on the way home, he was raring to go, even if he was travelling in a banana-shape... no idea what that's about.

Tuesday I was relieved to finally get around to trim a long-overdue* Hopi - and we finished on a good note, despite discovering when I came indoors that it had been 109°F out there in the barn  (wondered why I was dripping so much). I stopped before he got pissy and, although that meant his back toes didn't get rolled, at least they are short and de-chipped.

(* Hopi always ends up being overdue because he's difficult to trim, has kicked me at least once and I've never forgiven him, so I don't look forwards to it, so can usually find something else to do instead. Luckily he has the best feet of all of them, so even when he overgrows, I can trim and - voila - his feet look perfect again).

Wednesday I lopped branches and vines away from the electric fence. This proved a mistake. I've had some chronic tendonitis (at least that's what I assume it is) going on in my left elbow and it turns out that it really dislikes weed-whacking and lopping (it hurts enough that I can't pick up a glass of water at certain angles... phooey).

And this morning I re-spliced the electric fence where the weed whacker inevitably leapt and grabbed it. At this point the fence should be intact again and we can turn it back on.

* * *

Oh, and backtracking to Sunday evening, pft and I waited until it cooled off and then took Small Thing and a mtn bike out to Cool for an hour's ride. Around dusk (8:45 pm ish) we came across this little guy in the grass right next to the trail. He was a bit surprised by us, I think, and bounded off a ways before stopping to check us out - standing up on his back legs for a better look through the tall grass.

Needless to say, ST was more concerned by the water trough (Instrument of Torture) at the trailhead that I tried to persuade him to drink out of than the bear (Mildly Interesting) - he doesn't suffer histrionics very often.

This was the first time he'd worn back boots in probably over a year and there was much bucking going on. In retrospect, the pastern straps were probably also too tight - I'm gradually learning the new boots and hopefully the next excursion will go a little smoother.

Oh - and I had to laugh at this pic (below) that pft took of us following last week's post about how his feet grow funny. Wonder why that would be?

He can stand normally, I promise. He was just miffed that we should be Getting On With It.