Virginia City 100 - 2015 - Part 2 - the Ride

Continued from Virginia City 100 - Part 1 - The Prep

* * *

Section 1 - 0-24 Miles

The ride starts at 5 a.m. outside the Delta Saloon on the main street running through Virginia City. The start line is about 20 minutes walk from camp, so we really had to be up on our horses by 4:30 ish. I was glad of my glowsticks - it's really dark out there at that time of the morning. Fergus was relaxed but animated and just wanted to get on with it all.

Bless Bob Hall for telling me to keep my fleecy sweater on (it was warm at the start and I'd wanted to jettison it) - it turned out to be freezing at various points along the trail just before sunrise an hour or two later.

Trying to persuade Fergus not to trample the spectators at the start (photo: Bob Hall)

KT and I once again went to our plan of riding the first section separately - so I could let Fergus move out without rubbing either of us raw fighting his enthusiasm, while KT and Ani could start their day in a more measured, sensible fashion. Having done this successfully at 20MT 100 back in February, I knew this would put me about 30 minutes ahead of KT, which meant I'd get an extra long rest at the first vet check.

Our friend Megan Kenworthy and her excellent horse Scooter were riding VC for the first time and we were pooling our crew to some extent. KT had her mom Carol, Megan had her mom Katie, and Renee was going to play floater between the three of us. To add to this, KT would be riding with Nina, who's husband Juan was also thrown into the mix.

We'd discussed ahead of time how the crew pool might work - who would need to be where, when. Renee thought that Megan "usually moved out pretty good", so we figured she'd likely be in the front, with Fergus and I in the middle, and KT bringing up the rear.

Sunrise over Virginia Highlands

As it turned out, Megan caught Fergus and I in the first five minutes of the ride and we ended up riding almost the entire first loop together (with one break when she got off and ran down the old Toll Geiger Grade and I hand-walked it).

At the top of Geiger Grade overlooking South Reno - Megan off and running... and that would be the last we'd see of them until we got to the bottom

  

Bottom of Geiger Grade/Old Toll Rd - by then I'd found a rock and taken advantage of it to scramble back on, as I knew they were few and far between towards the bottom of the hill. At the bottom, the local residents had put out a water trough, and through Fergus' enthusiastic TWH-walking, and Megan getting a drink, we caught up with her again at the bottom (photo: Sanne Steele)

Fergus and Scooter paced well together, although I was a little concerned that I'd be tempted to go faster than I ought to be going if we stayed together (the horses egged each other on a little, so I had to watch my rating at all times). 

I actually spent almost the entire loop agonizing over what to do - stay with Megan, or wait for KT? I kept looking for a sign that this pace wasn't going to work for us in some way. 

I had a feeling that Megan wouldn't be taking as many walking breaks as KT would (and I do like those walking breaks, wussy rider that I am). KT rides an overall slower pace - but is really even - she doesn't necessarily get any slower towards the end of the ride. Put simply, she is the Queen of Pacing and is the most sensible 100-mile completer I know. If I stayed with her, I knew we'd finish because she just has a knack of picking a really good pace that gets us to the finish line. 

But I also knew that I'd  pay dearly – physically – for that slower pace, keeping Fergus' natural speed down. I'd done this at Tahoe Rim 50 three weeks before and my body had been a mess for about ten days afterwards - totally out of proportion with the degree of physical activity of the day. He just naturally moves about 20% faster than most horses - not because he's fast, he just moves BIG.

Mindful of that pain, but also knowing that so long as I could keep things under control, it was probably kinder to Fergus in the long run - to let him move out at his more natural speed - I finally opted to stay with Megan for the whole ride - she was good company, we'd move out sensibly, and finish in good time. 

And I reasoned that KT was riding with Nina, so had company... and although I really wanted to spend the day with her (she lives nearly 500 miles away, and we don't get to see nearly as much of each other as I'd like), we'd be competing again together in the Riding Dead 100 over Halloween and we'd have plenty of time to catch up then (predictably, the Riding Dead 100 was cancelled, so that plan totally backfired). 

* * * 

Heart Rates:A strange thing had happened at Tahoe Rim 50 three weeks before. The day wasn't particularly hot and we weren't moving particularly fast, so I didn't elyte Fergus at all during the day - other than what I'd put in his feed, which predictably he refused to eat during the ride. At the first vet check, Renee was doing PnRs and her initial take on it was that Fergus was "dead" - he had no pulse. Finally she found one (in the 50s, I think), so off we went to the vet. The vet - Chrysann Collatos - listened... and listened... and listened. She finally said "well, he would have had a pulse around 56, but it's actually only 28 because he's routinely dropping 2-3 beats at a time". Fergus stood looking totally relaxed, he was eating and drinking well and showing no signs of stress in any way. So we decided to just keep an eye on it and make sure he didn't do anything amiss.

At the next vet check, it was the same story - nothing amiss, except for those missing beats.

At the final vet check, his pulse appeared to be totally normal, so I dismissed it as "one of those things". 

It was only afterwards when we got to discussing it among a group of endurance riders that the connection with the lack of elyting was made. Hmm.

Because of the above, I resolved that I was going to adhere rigidly to a proper elyting protocol during VC100 and that Fergus would get dosed at regular intervals. There would be no anomalous heart rates making any appearances at VC. I dug out every syringe I owned at home - some of which hadn't been used in years, let them soak overnight (they had traces of god-knows-what in the bottoms of them), then rinsed them out and was ready with my arsenal of squirters and a bottle of mixed up ProCMC+Enduramax+applesauce. 

At vet-in for VC100, Chrysann was our vet. She was very pleased to see me as she couldn't remember my name from Tahoe Rim and had wanted to get into contact with me. After the Tahoe Rim, she'd gotten curious and talked to a few other vets - including Gary Magdesian - an associate professor at UC Davis, and one of the Tevis research veterinarians - and the general consensus had been that this was NOT normal and WAS cause for concern. She suggested that I should take Fergus in and have him monitored with a remote heart rate monitor for 24 hours to see what he was doing. 

No pressure on the eve of our 100 miler, eh? 

That said, when she checked him at vet-in this time, his heart rate was totally normal - no skipped beats, no anomalies. She wondered if perhaps he had had some kind of virus at Tahoe Rim?

* * *

7:45 a.m. - When we got to the highway crossing at 19 miles, Chrysann was there doing the trot-by, and while I chatted briefly with KT's mom, Carol, she scuttled over and took his pulse. It was actually very comforting - having our "own personal cardiologist" out on the trail to keep an eye on things - she'd been the one to notice this problem in the first place, so she knew exactly what she was listening for. And it wasn't there at 19 miles either. Phew.

Vet Check #1 - "Market" at 24 Miles

8:45 a.m. - Chrysann was our vet at the Market, so she was once again able to monitor him carefully. Fergus was ravenous, but otherwise seemed normal - his CRI here was 52/44. Chrysann was suspicious - 44 seemed too low to her. 

Far from being a relaxed 45 minute hold - I almost reverted back to my early days in endurance when everything went by in a blur and I simply didn't have enough time. 

Best thing at this check - Renee - my saviour! She had dived into Starbucks and gotten me a mocha and a sandwich. I managed to force in about 2/3rds of the sandwich, but the mocha went down, almost in one. That stuff is nectar at that point in the ride. 

Once I got that out the way, I had to deal with the problem that first thing that morning I'd neglected to lube any of the normal places I need to lube when riding Big Mover Fergus - the insides of my knees, knicker elastic line, and my under-boobs. Usually I keep a tube of Monistat Chafing Powder Gel in my pommel bag for just such occasions, but it had recently exploded in my pack, coating the inside with gel (there'd be no chafing inside my pommel bag). And of course I'd forgotten to replace it, so had to borrow KT's Bodyglide. 

Couple that with - surprise! Every girl's dream! I got my period unexpectedly - and of course had nothing with me, so had Carol rummage through KT's truck to find me something. So I had to scuttle to the portapotty and do some speed-remediation. Needless to say, only the insides of the knees (already chafed raw) got lubed. 

In the meantime, Fergus was starting to act funky. Partly it was that he needed to pee (he did - all over the concrete we were standing on, splashing both of us liberally), and partly it was that Scooter – his new best friend – was in another crew-location. He scarfed down two pans of goodies that Carol offered him (go figure - this was the stuff I nearly didn't even bother to bring, since he'd ignored it so categorically at Tahoe Rim), but then started fidgeting around and acting odd, so I took him over to stand with Scooter. And instead of standing quietly like a good boy, he proceeded to trample everyone and everything in sight, drip mash all over everyone else's belongings and generally make a nuisance of himself. Because I needed to "remediate", I left him in the care of Katie Kenworthy who I'm sure was very relieved to hand him back when I reappeared. Sorry about that, guys. 

KT and Ani showed up 30 minutes later, and we did our best to avoid the horses seeing each other. Ani (who is a grow-up) couldn't care less, but Fergus had spent the day before bellowing at him and needing to stay close at all times. He'd even gotten pissy with me when I insisted we did a pre-ride out to the cemetery and back in the afternoon. Either way, I didn't want to risk him spotting Ani and getting all attached again. Result - KT and I did a "Hi! Bye!" at the vet check, and Megan and I were off again (or at least would have been if someone hadn't done the wrong math on my vet card and written my out time down wrong - ten minutes later. Spent a couple of minutes getting that sorted out).

Section 2 - 24-39 Miles

This loop went pretty much as planned.  It started to get hot, I dunked my bandana in the trough at the bottom of Geiger Grade. Actually, more accurately, Megan dunked my bandana in the trough - I couldn't reach the water from the lofty heights of Fergus' back. 

Bailey Canyon

We spent a happy hour working our way through Bailey Canyon with Fergus leading. When we were finally done, he pulled off to the side to let Scooter have a go and proceeded to stop a lot and generally act unmotivated going up to the saddle. Down the other side he moved out, but still didn't feel outstanding. Despite warnings that the creek on Jumbo Grade wasn't running, there were several places where the water had pooled on the trail and we were able to sponge a little and get them to drink. Towards the bottom, I elyted Fergus like a good girl and realised that you could lose a lot of time faffing around with elyte syringes and trying to get back on your recalcitrant steed who didn't want to stand in a convenient location next to the trough - instead he wanted to move back and forth, do his best to knock me in, then stand so close I couldn't actually get my foot in the stirrup.

LOVE THIS PHOTO!! Fergus and I trotting across Washoe Lake State Park (photo: Baylor) 

We zipped across the Park, taking advantage of the good footing (and the fact that Fergus knew where he was, and knew that there'd be Good Things at the other end).

Arriving at the "Trot-by" at Washoe Lake - a 15 minute hold for refreshment purposes.
By now, it was HOT. (photo Hiiesalu-Bain?)

12:25 p.m. - The trot-by proceeded like a NASCAR pit stop. The horses drank, Renee hosed Fergus and Scooter liberally, we got 60 pulses on them (a requirement before we could leave), we did our trot-by, and we retired to the small stripe of shade next to the truck for refreshments.

Saddle bag water bottles were refilled, elyte syringes replenished, I forced down an entire meal in about 45 seconds while the horses scarfed down the buffet provided to them by Carol, Katie, Juan, and Renee.

My favorite part was when I was reaching up to get something out of the saddle bag, Renee walked up, without a word sprayed my arms with sunscreen, told me to shut my eyes and mouth, sprayed my face, and walked off again without me ever uttering a peep. This is the best kind of crew - the ones who don't ask you anything, they just do it - but they know what you need so it's not intrusive.You just feel "serviced".

L to R: Renee, Scooter, Juan, Katie, Carol, Fergus, and Megan

And then after 15 minutes, they threw us out, citing that their "next round of customers" (KT and Nina) were about to arrive. Knowing that they needed to pick up the pace a little, they'd made 15 minutes on us in this section. Good going guys! (I bet they didn't waste all that time faffing around elyting at that last trough...).

Section 3 - 39-51 Miles

This next is the worst of the climbing. Last year, poor Roo about wilted going up here. It's a huge 1700 ft climb that goes on and on, in the worst heat of the day, with no redeeming qualities - other than the lovely views looking back down on the valley. I'm sure the horses appreciate it. Oh yes.

Climbing towards the SOBs

At the top, instead of being rewarded by what appears to be a flat section of trail, you're confronted by the SOBs.  Unfortunately for Fergus, I'm pretty sure he remembered this section. Luckily for Scooter, he was cluelessly oblivious, so we put him in front.

Climbing, then climbing some more. 

Poor sad Washoe "Lake"

We came from that lil' road down there between the hills

Start of SOB #1

SOB #1

SOB #1 - starting up the climb. Andy Gerhard and John Brain catching us

Andy Gerhard wondering why this was a good idea

Fergus fascinated by the varying degrees of abuse being exclaimed from behind

Andy and John

Megan catching her breath

...nearly at the top

The trick is to teach your horse to tail without being distracted
by the vegetation invitingly placed beside the trail

Stopping to munch on said vegetation is actually well received by horse and rider

Fergus puts on a burst of speed and we surge to the front

SOB #2

The bunch grass by the side of the trail is always a big hit

Andy and John keeping pace with us

With the SOBs done with, Megan and I did our best to keep our pace up - trotting as much as we could on the way to the Jumbo #1 water stop. The trail is pretty rocky in places and Fergus wasn't very motivated along here, so it was a "down" part of the ride. I hoped to spot some wild mustangs which sometimes congregate up here, but they were a no-show. I drank some warm Ensure and did my best to stay cheerful.

2:50 p.m. - At the Jumbo stop, Fergus dived into the wet hay and I drank some lemonade. At this point in the ride, it's hot, you're tired and you know you're falling behind in the fuelling game.

The last section between Jumbo and camp (and the alluring hour-hold at 51 miles) is four miles of flat/slightly downhill very hard-packed rocky Ophir Grade (the old toll road between Virginia City and the mill at Washoe Lake) and we left right behind John and Andy. Megan seemed eager to keep up with them but straight away I was unhappy with the speed for this section. Last year I'd been forced into a much speedier pace than I wanted to go with Roo because I needed to stay with his buddies to keep him motivated. My gut feeling was that was what tipped Roo over into his "too much" zone, which I'd been trying to stay out of - and needed to stay out of if I hoped to finish the ride. Just another thing that didn't work out on that ride.

This year I didn't need Fergus to stay with the other horses, but trying to persuade him not to keep up with them was all but impossible. I could force him into a slower pace by making him walk, which he'd do without too much complaint, but if I wanted him to trot sensibly and let them pull ahead, that just wasn't going to happen. A few times we walked, but then he'd just accelerate even faster each time we started to trot again, pounding his legs even harder. No amount of rating would make any difference. So we were towed along with me doing my best to try and maintain some semblance of control and wincing at the pounding.

51 Mile Check

3:30 p.m. - The first time I did Virginia City 100, I distinctly remember coming in to the 51 mile stop, totally whupped, and thinking "We're only half-way done". Kiss. Of. Death. Never, ever think this. So instead I do my best to focus on the fact that we've got a nice hour-hold waiting for us - food, rest, and maybe a face wash. And here we are - sitting in the shade, enjoying boiled eggs by the looks of things, and the use of Carol's aloe-drenched wet ones to spiff up my grimy face. 

Lunch stop at 4 pm. 

Throughout the day, I'd been watching Fergus' front glue-ons gradually separate from his feet, so I had to make a decision - continue with what we had, and run the risk of losing a boot in the dark and making him lame (as I had with Roo last year - he lost a boot in the dark somewhere on the 51 to 76 mile loop... but no idea when). Or remove the front glue-ons and put strap-ons on instead. I opted for the latter and Crysta very kindly took care of removal for me. As it turned out, the boots were better attached than we thought and she had quite a struggle on her hands getting them off.

Crysta working on Fergus' feet

This was the first time I'd used gel soles and so I was expecting some teething troubles. In the event, at least they protected his feet for the first half of the ride. The squishiness of gel soles mean you get more movement of hoofwall against boot wall than with standard boots and as such, I should have cut notches into the side walls to allow for that. It would have meant better adhesion at the front because that area wasn't being stressed so much. Lesson learned.

Crysta removed his glue-ons and we put on his Renegade strap-ons and I'm happy to say that I had no further boot issues (although I was worried going through the deep mud-puddles near the spring on the Cottonwoods loop).


Section 4 - 51-76 Miles

At this point we were 45 minutes ahead of Kaity, so by the time she had vetted and with all the kerfuffle of prep to go out again, Fergus didn't get a chance to glom on to Ani.

And unlike last year, Fergus didn't fall over as Roo did leaving the check. We were in good shape.

Curiously, I swore that the trail was completely different in places on this first section, but when I downloaded the GPS track, it turned out to be exactly the same.

We moved along, trudging the climbs and trotting where we could. Out by the V&T railroad tracks we saw two big bands of mustangs coming down out of the hills.

6:50 p.m. - At the Jumbo #2 water stop, Fergus once again dived into the wet hay and scoffed and scoffed. I checked his boots to make sure no grit was getting caught in the heel captivators.

Once again we were being pushed and pulled by Andy and John who arrived just behind us, but passed us on the long climb leaving Jumbo. I was worried that Megan would want to stay with them again and knew that their pace was faster than Fergus wanted to go, but thankfully she opted to let them go ahead. Fergus used my rule of trotting the flats and walking any hills.

Up on the mountain, as the sun set, we were rewarded with the twinkling lights of Reno far below us. I ate my pizza-margarita-inna-squeeze-bag and got heartburn (the downside of this foodstuff). With no moon, despite glo-sticks, it was pretty dark out there, especially on the steep downhills, and we had to rely on the pones' surefootedness to get us through. Turns out one of my glo-sticks had given up, but I still had two bright ones to light our way.

Arriving at Geiger Summit road crossing, our trusty crew was there to feed us and our pones. Both Fergus and Scooter dived into mash pans which I was very grateful for, but I wasn't able to enjoy the hot chocolate due to having a desperate need to use the toilet (as always, endurance is nothing but glamorous in the need to share). With no portapotties available, we continued on.

The section shortly before Lousetown Road is very trottable, but after being slapped in the face by tree branches, followed by Scooter tripping badly on the whups, Megan requested that we walk instead. Given how fast I've done this section in year's past (2012 - chasing Connie and Pam and trying to catch up with them in the dark; 2009 - following Connie on Shardonney as she flew off the mountain), the Mt Davidson to town section seemed to take a very long time this year. Every year the track down from Sign Hill towards town seems to get more and more rubbly as well, with no path through the middle to avoid the rocks.

Arriving at the cemetery at 74 miles
(photo: Sanne Steele - who mans the finish line with her trusty twin helpers - who by this time were fast asleep.)

Section 5 - 76-100 Miles

10:25 p.m. - After being "in distress" for much of the last 10 miles or so, I spent much of my hour hold at 76 miles in the portapotty, much to Renee's consternation as she came looking for me. At least you can rest sitting on the toilet.

Thankfully my crew-buddies took good care of Fergus - blanketing him and stuffing him with food. Thanks guys - this could've gotten tricky without you!

Carol cooked up a vat of pasta, chicken apple sausages and alfredo sauce (which we discovered at 20 Mule Team, goes down very well at this time during a 100 miler), so I sat and scoffed a bowl of that. Yum. By this time, Kaity and her companions were only 30 minutes behind us, so we did a slightly longer "hi-bye" and soon enough we were out again.

I have to say I don't remember much about this loop, other than Fergus being fairly reluctant to do anything but walk, which made me sad. He'd trot short distances, but his heart wasn't really in it. Luckily both he and Scooter have excellent walks, so we walked... a lot.

By the time we were on the backside of the Cottonwoods lollipop, I was starting to hallucinate from fatigue - something to do with plastic rip-rap on the ground. I even dozed off a couple of times - waking up slightly panicky - thinking if I fell off Fergus it was a long way down to the ground.

It was cold coming around towards the Cottonwoods vet check as it always is along the river bottom there. Fergus still wasn't very interested in trotting and I was feeling slightly sick at the idea that we might - once again - get pulled at 92 miles.

2:20 a.m. - As it turned out, my fears were unfounded. We vetted quickly upon arrival and Fergus trotted out with straight As on his card and a CRI of 60/52. As at all stops, the horses were ravenous, so we let them eat for 20 minutes while we drank coffee. I was a much happier girl this time around, knowing that unless something went horribly wrong, it looked like we would be finishing.

At 2:45, we saw the red lights of Kaity and her group approaching the vet check, so we pulled the big blankets off the horses and scrambled back on and set off into the darkness before they arrived (once again, I was concerned that Fergus didn't need to see Ani).

On the return journey, I remembered a section of track where, on a training ride a few years back, Fergus had been the strongest and fastest I'd ever felt him. This night, however, while he was walking with purpose, he still had no interest in trotting. I had to assume that his feet were bothering him and concluded that this just wasn't the ride for him, given all the hard-packed trotting.

We were approaching Lousetown Road when a pickup truck driving in from the vet check passed us. Fergus and I were in front and although the driver slowed way down, for reasons I still don't understand, Scooter suddenly totally flipped out and leapt sideways, dumping Megan unceremoniously on the ground. Luckily she clung on until the last minute, so didn't have too far to fall, but from my vantage point I thought he'd trampled her and immediately started visualising a ruptured spleen or other internal injuries. And the fatalistic part of my brain flashed back on my earlier thought of "unless something went horribly wrong..."

Thankfully Megan got up unscathed*. The driver stopped, mortified to have caused this problem, but Megan assured them it wasn't their fault. I don't know if it was the lights of the pickup that scared Scooter, or the unexpected bed, or something in the bed that rattled, but he settled down soon enough and Megan was able to clamber back on.

We decided we were definitely walking in :)

(* afterward I confessed to Megan that I had plans that, even if she was injured, I was going to stuff her back on her horse and get her to the finish... a little bruising and broken bones never hurt anyone....)

4:27 a.m. - Coming up from the bottoms towards the finish, we could hear Kaity's group catching us from behind, and as we reached the finish line, we could see their lights coming - trotting strongly along the last section of track. They would finish a mere four minutes behind us.

We came through town for the final time - Fergus still walking strong and I thanked him mentally for hanging in there.

At camp he was as hungry as I've ever seen him - diving for hay and towing his minder around helplessly behind him. Other than extreme famine, he seemed none the worse for wear for his ordeal and trotted sound with As for his final vetting. We were done and Fergus had completed VC100 for the second time.

During the confusion of vetting five horses at once, someone came up and said "we need to drug test your horse" and had me sign a release form. Suddenly my bubble burst. I flashed on my aggressive elyting protocol and in my tiredness began to panic in a paranoid fashion that I hadn't cleaned all those syringes properly and that somehow Fergus would test positive for something (not clear what, since I couldn't remember the last time I'd used Bute, so any residue that I imagined being in the syringes would be at worst months old, and more likely years old. But when you've been awake for coming up on 28 hours, rational thought isn't high on your list of skills). I was totally bummed out - despite getting straight As for his final vetting (OK, a B on guts, but considering how he was stuffing food in, that was hardly a concern), I felt that Fergus had been "not quite right" for much of the last 30 miles of the ride and wasn't quite sure why. And now he was going to test positive for "something" and it was all for nothing.

Got Fergus untacked and tucked in a blankie and pulled on his leg-sleeves and installed him in front of more hay and mashes than a horse could possibly eat, and then sat sadly watching the sky lightening and ate another bowl of pasta and sausages.

* * *

Results for VC100


On to the Aftermath...

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: