Death Valley Encounter, Part 2

"Eeehhhh.....What's up, Doc??"

Ok, the rest of the tale...also long :)
Day 2...Terri took off again for a second day of riding and I tied Storm to some food and he was again very happy. Then I started cleaning camp, since today we'd have to move to the next camp after Terri got off the trail. Boy do those horses shit a LOT for three days..and it all had to be bagged and put in a dump trailer. Lots of work, uggg, and I had to remember (after one that was WAY too heavy) that you can't even fill the bag half full, if you want to chuck it over the side of the dump trailer, LOL.
After Oli left, I let Storm wander in the electric pen untied and he did fine. Goodie! Round 10am, I went over to help with pulsing and taking names for the lunch check, which was fun. You get to see everyone throughout the day and put names to faces you see all the time. After my "job", I took Storm for a walk and then finished packing camp. Just about when I was done, Terri finished, with Oli looking his usual good self. After giving Oli a 20 min or so rest, we tossed the boys into the trailer and made the hour drive to Ballarat, to the next camp. We got there after dark and most the other riders were already there, so we had to find a parking place pretty far in back. The upside was that the horses had nice soft sand to sleep and roll in, vs a gravel parking lot. Downside: our water containers were empty and we didn't have our roller cart with us either, so I shlepped a LOT of heavy buckets of water over the next day and a half. We set up camp in the dark in record time, went to the ride meeting, and hit the hay.
Day 3....This was going to be Storm's second ride day. Oliver again left at 7, and we LDs were set to leave at 8. Mary was also going to ride this day, so Storm would have his buddy on the trail again. The trail seemed easy on the map...go out like the 50's, but cut across the dry lake bed and skip the big hill the 50's have to climb around. Then to the radar tower, out across the Hwy and up the foothills to the VC near an old Onyx mine. Then down the foothills again, across the hwy again, and cut back over to the radar station to then retrace the morning trail back to camp.
Seemed simple enough, but it was further than it looked on the map, and there was a TON of rock...we had to walk a lot, esp all the way up the foothills and back down, which was almost a good 2 1/2+ hrs just there. That meant poor Storm really had to put the pedal to the metal when the footing was good. Not my original plan, which was to move out til he was tired, then walk, move out, walk, etc. Works really well to get you through most any ride. Oh well.
Oh, and he finally got over his little tizzy fits while being passed...the timing for the LDs was not great as all the 50's caught up with us on the lake bed heading out and then for the rest of the day we played hopscotch with them and the top tenners would go by at a good clip. So the first few gave Storm a good bout of race fever (another reason I like a NOT hot horse, because even the lazy ones perk up fast in a ride atmosphere, but are at least easier to control. A hot one will often go over the top with all that stimulus...) on the lake bed, but mellowed out after enough ppl passed us and it wasn't a novelty anymore and he figured out he was NOT in THAT race, LOL....
He did learn to gait up quite a storm in the Runwalk coming out of the vetcheck..it was slightly downhill, and I handwalked the first 40 mins due to horrid rock. Then I hopped on when it got a "little" better, but still insisted that he walk, but he was allowed to walk as fast as he wanted. Karl Phaeler on his Walker mare Gypsy and Bobbie Lieberman on her Morgan mare Annakate, passed us after the VC and Storm was VERY enamored with "his" girls (we camped across from each other the first two days and he loves his girls...he also might have a date with Gypsy, as both Karl and Bobbie are very enamored with Storm :P) and was wanting to catch them, but they were going faster than I wanted. This did motivate him to speed up though, so he really caught on to the runwalk for the next 45 mins, til we finally hit the split where the 50's went one way and the LDs went back to the radar tower.
We had more excitement coming down out of the vet check, as the dry lake bed and that whole Panamaint valley is used by the Air (or Naval ?) base as a jet playground... it is way fun to watch these fighter planes go zipping around the mountain sides and then hit the deck on the lake bed. I think they also have fun buzzing the riders coming through the area too, LOL, and they would come fly right over our heads several times. The first time Storm scooted forward and his HR went up to 95+ from 65+, but after that he couldn't have cared less. It was neat, you could practically see inside the cockpit if they'd been flying slower! :) I always have fantasized having enough money to go for a ride in one of those planes...what fun!
By the time we got to the radar tower, I had 52 minutes to get back to camp...and I knew we had a good ways to go yet...crap! I think the ride was a tad over 25miles and with the rock, it made the going slow. We ended up gaiting lots and not getting to walk much, so by the time we got to the lake bed again, he was getting pretty tired...but still doing well :) I was watching my HRM like a hawk to make sure he wasn't stressed too much.
We had NO time to get across the lake and since he was tired and we were going fairly fast, he started pacing a lot again. Not his fault, as he doesn't have the gaiting muscles yet to stay set in his gait much. I hadn't planned on him having to gait so much/fast! We were really booking it for real now...Mary's horse was doing a flying endurance trot and Storm alternated between cantering and pacing and step pacing. Beings that we had to make cutoff, I just gritted my teeth and let him pick whatever would keep his heart rate relatively low and still be fast enough to make it. He was being SUCH a good boy and really giving it a go for me, as I could tell he was starting to tire. We did this pretty much all the way across the finish line, and made it in by the hair of our chinny chin chin. I hopped off and loosened the girth and he went from the 135-145 he was going across the lake with, to the low 80's, then started to drop to the mid 70's...he hovered between 60-65 for a little while (this is all without sponging or anything as water was fairly scarce and we were not allowed to use any extra besides drinking) and then came down to under 60. WHEW! We MADE it, just in time!!!! Whoo Hoo! What an awesome boy!
And again, this is all with maybe 40 rides on him, NONE over 15 miles, most around 5-10 miles. So I can not WAIT to see what he does when he is in real shape :) I absolutely adore this horse :) So after we vetted though, he ate for a good hour but then sacked out for the next few hours. He really was pooped (but not overstressed or anything) and looked tired for those two hours, but then he perked right up again and looked ready to go for another round.
Lucky for him, I was going to spare him that and he got to rest the next day, while Oliver went out for one last day. That night we also had a big, beautiful full moon rising over the Panamaint range behind camp, that took everyone's breath away. The next morning I got to once again clean and pack up camp and then move it back over the mountains to Trona and the golf course (ok, don't laugh, there IS a golf course out there...course it is all sand and no grass in sight, but what the heck..:P), where we would all celebrate New Year's. First time for me driving the "big rig" (not big for most ppl, but compared to my little truck and Brenderup, it was!), and that was a bit fun and exciting (esp the windy steep, narrow road over the Slate Range....).
I set up camp in Trona and it turned out we were parked right near Mary's setup and our friend April, who had her stallion with as well. Both boys behaved themselves well though :) Terri ended up pulling at lunch, as Oli had some rubbing issues going on with his boot gaiters and scratches (the problem with the desert and a horse with 3 white legs. The Alkaline sand just irritates the skin and makes everything rub and even without anything to rub, causes scratches. It is such a PITA! No white legged horses for me if I can help it :) ). That was kinda a bummer, as Oli would have passed his 5,000 mile mark that day, had he finished. Oh well, stuff happens, and that is his only pull in....well, ever I think? Wait,he did have one other pull a few years ago from a stone bruise...that is it though, so pretty good record :)
That evening htere was a great steak dinner (these things were HUGE! took up 1/2 the plate and way thick!) that was super yummy and then the awards. We had a bunch of ppl stay up til about 10, to "party" in the New Year. That was fun, as always, though only about 5 or so of us die hards made it to midnight, LOL..4 days of riding just killed everyone else :(
So there you have it, Storm's Death Valley Encounter. He is going to be a kick butt endurance horse once I get him in shape :) and I am going to have WAY too much fun with this! His next ride will not be til at least May, so we will work on conditioning and gait til then with no stress to have to "finish" a ride. He'll be much better then :)
(PS: on a side note, though the rest of me was SOOOOO much more compfy than on a trotter, I discovered it is going to take a little while for my lower back to get used to the totally new motions that gaiting throws at it, esp for distance work. I was pretty sore after day two, LOL..but I think that is like any new muscle movement, just something your body has to condition for! Course some of it prob was the pacing, which will go away with conditioning his gait...)
Storm at the vet check on day two....he's the horse with the red blanket on....


I tied his reins to that bush, then stuck food in front of him while I went and got my own food. He was good and could care less about anything else happening. These VC pics by Karen Chaton


Moonrise over the Panamaint range...this is right around dusk, it is not really this light out, but with the bright moon and a slow exposure, it looks awesome! It was still pretty light though for the time it was...





Our camp in Trona...it was nice and quiet this day and he just got to hang out and relax after his hard day working yesterday. He is such an easy horse to camp with, I LOVE it!


mmmmmm...more food!..these collapsible trash cans are great...keeps most the hay off the sand.


Looking good! Can't really tell he rode two 25's! Good boy :)


This is at our overnight stay in Tehachapi on the way home. Storm and Oli really became good buds that week and Oli actually "plays" with Storm....he'll run up to him, nip him and rear and jump around...I'll have to get a video of that one of these days :)