Cuneo Creek 2010

Our Camp setup...Storm in a pen, Oli and Chey in the hot fence, all sharing hay hanging on the corral..worked great! :)


Storm did his first 50 just over a week ago...and passed with flying colors!
As I mentioned in the last posts, our local endurance club hosts 4 endurance rides each year. The last in the series, is usually held around the first weekend of September, in the lovely Humboldt Redwoods State Park. I had originally intended to take Storm to the Bryce Canyon XP ride in Utah that same week, but Terri's goat decided to develop mastitis a day before we left. This totally changed our plans. After a quick call to the ride managers to see if there was still room, we decided to go do the Cuneo Creek ride instead, and a week later, the Patriot's Day ride. If we did both days, we'd still get 4 out of 5 ride days (Bryce is a 5-day ride) in, with less travel on top of it. After Storm's stellar performance at Redwood, I decided to try his first 50 at Cuneo.
This is a 2-day ride, and I was planning on doing one day on my oldster, Cheyenne, and one day on Storm. I'd figure out which day after seeing the trail layout and checking temperatures. I ride at Cuneo all the time, as I am a member of the MAU (mounted assistance unit) group there. So I know how far the trails are, how the elevation changes, trail footing, etc. After finding out the trails, and with weather predicted to be hot (but slightly cooler on day 2), I chose to ride day one on Chey and day two on Storm. Cuneo is a fairly easy ride (slightly short trails and though some hills, most are long, gradual climbs, vs straight up and steep), and a great 'first' for horses...first LD, first 50, first multi-day, etc.... I did my youngster's first ride there last year, and so it was fitting to make it Storm's first 50 as well. I knew exactly how fast I could go where, and what the trail did where, so time-management would be a simple task (vs at rides you don't know, and have to 'guess' by mileages and what others say about the terrain), and I could take my time and not feel like having to rush through to finish on time. Another nice addition: there was only going to be ONE one hour hold in camp, instead of multiple holds, which would mean I had even more time on the trail. Whoo hoo!
We arrived Thursday afternoon, as all the good (shady, with corrals...this is a 'real' horse camp with permanent corrals, real bathrooms with showers, and even a sandy roll pit for the ponies) spots are gone by Friday. We stuck Storm in a corral, and set up a hot fence area for Oliver and Chey, then relaxed the rest of the day. The next day, my friend Vanessa (who was going to be a vet secretary both days and came down with us) and I took Chey, Storm and Oli (I ponied Oli off Storm, and both boys behaved wonderfully! I love how easy going Storm is with everything knew...I had never ponied off him before, and Oli kept switching sides and getting the rope under Storm's tail...no problems there either) on a ride to where I had remembered a swim hole in the creek, that was big enough for horses. I found it 6 weeks ago, so wasn't sure it would still hold enough water, but it would be fun to try out anyway, and it was hot enough to just dunk ourselves in, if nothing else (95+...we were not happy that it would maybe be that bad all weekend)! It was about 1hr out to the hole. Once there, we untacked and tied horses to trees on the creek bed, to take one in at a time, as there was not much room (SMALL hole, maybe 30ft across at the widest), and none of the horses had been swimming before that we knew of. The nice part of the hole, is that the creek is really shallow (horse knee-deep) and then gradually goes deep enough to swim, but never REALLY deep (7ft maybe at the deepest?), so the horses can keep their feet most the time and just barely have to swim. And a person can also stand in the water most the time, and let the horse swim around them. This is perfect for teaching a horse to swim for the first time... Oliver was the calmest and just swam around easily (maybe he has done it in the past, with a different owner?), Chey was not too excited about it at all, but liked just standing belly deep in it and cooling off, vs swimming. Storm was not too sure at all, and did that 'rear/swim' thing a lot of newbie horses do, the first few times they feel lifted off the ground. So I had him swim without me a good bit, then with me til he felt ok with it, and then called it good. Good enough for a first try :) He seemed to like standing knee deep and pawing at the water, splashing everything around, best of all... Afterwards, we tacked back up and rode back to camp. We had Easyboot Gloves on all the horses btw, as the creek bed and most the creek had big rocks in it. They stayed on the whole time, through the water play, and after, all wet and squishy (stopped squishing a few minutes down the trail), and not a rub or other issue. Great!
Once we got back, I vetted in Chey, and put him up. A few hours later, I braided his and Storm's manes, and brushed them down and checked them over one last time. I noticed two swollen spots in the 'folds' of Chey's armpits, one with a dime-sized rub on it... WTH??? Looked like a girth gall, but the girth is never that far forward, and in the almost 5,000 miles I have ridden him, I have only once had a gall.. found something similar (but not as severe) on Storm as well. Took him back to the vets, and they thought it was a gall too, but that if I kept the girth back off it (wouldn't believe me when I said it never goes there), and lubed it up well, we should be fine for the ride the next day. Hmmmm...Well, I pulled out the good old Bickmore's Gall Salve (that stuff is AWESOME...always carry it!) and slathered it on. I also cooled the pit area, as it was BLAZING hot...after it cooled down, the swelling really reduced. I think what happened, was that due to the heat, the folds rubbed against each other, and caused the galls, not the girth. At any rate, I decided to check him in the morning, and bump down to the 30 the next day, instead of doing a full 50 if needed, in case it would get worse. It looked better in the morning, but not great, so I did bump down. Though with Bickmores, and riding later, not only did it not get worse, it seemed to get much BETTER...Could have done the 50...oh well.
So, after tacked up Chey and booted him up (in buckle-converted Bares with dome pads...he LOVES these as they cushion his old-boy joints so nicely), we did the 30 instead...well, turns out we did a nice 15mile trail ride, instead. Why? Well, since I decided last minute, I was busy finding the RM and vets to let them know my decision, and get a new card, number, etc. In all that chaos, I forgot to get a new map and find out where the LDs were going (I guess knowing the trails gave me a false sense of security....ooops!). It was a controlled start, and as we were going down the trail, I ask the leader which loops to do. "Orange, then Yellow" was the answer. Cool, no problem. Wrong.... I was with the group for a few miles, all trotting along, when out of the corner of my eye, I see this dark, floppy thing go flying behind me...turn around, and there is my Dixie Midnight flopping to the ground behind us.... BBBRREEAKKKS!!! and flip the horse around and off the trail. I had left the girth real loose, just in case it WAS the girth somehow, and I guess that didn't sit too well with the DM pad, letting it work out from under the normal pad and scoot out the back of my saddle. So while I fixed my tack, the rest of the LDers went on by me and I was all on my own to the first trail split. This split had a samll paper plate on it with "30's Day 2 (note the 2) right, 50's/All Day 1 straight" or something similar...couldn't quite tell, as Chey was upset at having been left, and hot to go, and dancing around the sign, which was not in a big print or on a big plate. All I saw was "30's right" and there were some ORANGE ribbons hanging in the trees to the right. Since I was told to follow orange, I went right.
Wrong... Oh well. Off I went on a nice, BIG loop.... I kinda thought I was going wrong, when I never caught anyone. But i kept thinking they had left at a good clip, and I had wasted a LOT of time with the saddle/pad issue. And there WERE prints all over out there (duh, it's a horse trail...and someone had to have marked it too...). Note: I'll have you know, I was never 'lost'...I knew the trails and where I was on them, where to go, where camp was, etc... I just happened to....errrrr....take the incorrect trail for that day's ride, LOL ;).... By the time I came all the way around the loop, to the next split, I had pretty much figured I was wrong, though. Sure enough, a sign saying "30's Day 2, Right, 50's...." I knew I was totally on the wrong trail. I decided to go straight, which would take me to a trail and back to camp in another 1/2 hr. Oh well... I figured at that point, I was not meant to be out there that day, and should have listened earlier..Goat problems? Girth Galls? etc... the getting off track was the last straw! I 'could' have continued on the 'day 2' loop, in hopes that if I did all the miles, and did the after-lunch trail correctly, I might get a 'completion only', but decided not to push my luck, esp since I knew the 50's would be coming UP the trail I would have to come down, and might beat me to it even this early... most likely not a good idea. So home I went.
Turns out, when I got back to camp, they were running around looking for someone free to be another vet secretary. So I said after putting up the horse, I'd be game. I vetted Chey through and then ROed for getting 'lost', set up Chey in his corral, checked Storm, and spent the rest of the day hanging out, relaxing, and helping vet sec. That was fun, and educational as always, and not a bad way to spend a bungled up day. Of course, by lunch, not to mention the end of the day, every rider and the entire camp, had heard of my getting 'lost', and were having a ball ribbing me... lost at your home-territory ride...I'll never live THAT one down :) LOL...
Here we are, after heading home...I was laughing, telling the photographer all about my mishap. We can have fun even on bad days I guess! :) Photo by: Barry Thorpe

On to Day Two, with hopefully more success. At least this time, I knew for sure where I was going, as I was back to doing a 50. And I was going to ride with Terri, if our pacing worked out ok... Storm looked great in the morning, and his gall, which wasn't bad to begin with, looked ok. I gooped up his pits with Bickmores 'just in case' anyway, tacked up and booted up (four Gloves...he does awesome in them with no tape, or any modifications, despite a wider, 'spade' shape to his feet), and off we went. The first loop was exactly where I had started off the previous day with Chey, and after the first 2-3 miles of flat going, we started up the switchbacks of a good sized climb.
The benefit of the uphill slant, is that Storm picked up a WONDERFUL rack...there was a horse a few switchbacks up ahead that he wanted to catch, so he kicked into a higher gear. It was fast, smooth, and FUN! He is such a lateral horse, that on downhills he'll tend to fall into a step-pace (we are working on that though, and it is getting increasingly better), but an up hill will square him up into a nice runwalk or rack, depending on the speed. On flats, it depends on how I can get him to collect up or not, how tired he is, etc. He gets better and better every ride though, and the stronger his muscles get, the more he'll gait correctly. And it sure is a gaited grin ride, when he does hit that nice lick :)
After getting to the top of the climb, we go around the mountain a little, then back down, down, down, down on a gravel logging road. I pretty much get off and lead this, as I feel it's better on the horse's legs to not ride down all that gravel downhill, especially since I am in no hurry to win anything. This got us to the split in the trail I decided to go home at, the other day. So up the mountain we went again, on another gravel road, to where a beautiful, 5 mile single track trail, switchbacks down, down, down again into a majestic, old growth Redwood grove. This trail, because it was a very gradual decent, we rode down. I worked on getting Storm to rack and run walk instead of step pace, and was having pretty good success. We would also canter on the flat areas of it. FUN! Then another couple of miles back to camp, for our one hour hold. We pulsed in at the required 60bpm pretty much right when we got in, then went to the trailer to untack, and after a little bit of resting and eating, went to vet through. All A's... whoo hoo! And he felt and looked good to me up to this point on the trail, as well. Good to go for loop two.

Our mid-ride vet check....all looks good, and a smiley face from Vanessa (sec-ing for Dr. Powers)

Now for the interesting part. The previous rides Storm had done, all had Out vet checks. This means they were somewhere out on the trail, not back in camp. One big loop away and then back to camp, which gives the horse a good sense of 'we have to get there'. This would be his first ride with a check IN camp, meaning he'd have to get tacked up and go back out, even though he'd think he was 'done', since being in camp had always meant that on loop-rides. Some horses don't seem to care either way, others HATE leaving camp again, and will even buck, rear, and refuse to leave without (or even sometimes with) another horse to follow out. I wasn't sure exactly what Storm would do, but since he is a tad lazy, I figured he'd need some convincing to leave. And sure enough, he gave me an odd look while tacking up ("Umm...WHAT are you doing? We're back home, right??"), and sure enough, leaving camp was not on the itinerary... ("Uh..no! We are DONE! The trailer is right THERE! Stupid human, I am NOT leaving a perfectly good food and rest place!"). Sure, I could have stuck Oliver in front, and Storm probably would have followed, but that would not have taught him anything, and then what if we didn't have another horse next time? So I led the way out, with much nudging of the heels and I did have to get out the crop and smack him on the rear a few times. Then he finally, though dragging his heels, left on the out trail, Oliver towing behind.
The heel dragging continued for over a mile, when we were finally passed by another rider and friend of ours, and maker of awesome tack (hought.com), Gail Hought. THEN of course, all of a sudden, we were awake and pulling on the bit again, LOL. Up the hills we went, then along a fun, rolling, dirt logging rode, where we had some great gallop sprints for fun :) Then we hit the last, long trail back down, another gradual switchback for some miles, back down to the creek and the last 2 or so mile trail back to camp. Storm was a tad tired, but had plenty of energy left. We pulsed in as soon as they could take it, at the required 64bpm. Then we again went back to the trailer, untacked, let the boys eat a little and rest (not even 1/2hr), and went to vet in. He was down to 56 by then and again, ALL A's. Best of all?? The head vet, Dr. Ellery (though Dr. Powers was 'officially' vetting us for the completion, we had all three pretty much vetting us in, as we were the last riders), gave Storm an awesome compliment. He said "This is a fine horse, and he is an excellently behaved stallion, and I really want you to know that. He is is so well mannered. Great job!" Ohhhhh, my heart was fluttering at that :) What an AWESOME boy! He is the BEST ambassador for his breed.
The Pre-ride and finish exam. All A's :) His pre-ride pulsing is getting better and better too...he used to be a bit higher (low 50's) because of the 'excitement' of being in a new place, but it is dropping lower, and one day I hope it will get close to his 'real' resting HR (38ish at home). Then I know, he'll be totally blase about being in a ridecamp :) Unfortunately the photographer only stayed for day one, so I didn't get any pictures of Storm and me :(:( Oh well....
I poured lots of mush and hay into Storm that evening, and he looked content and not 'worn out' at all. The next morning he was bright and chipper and like he could go ahead and do it all again. Whoo hoo! A job well done, for his first 50. Next up: two days of LDs at Patriot's Day. I was debating what distances to do, but since it was only one week away, and I wanted to not blow his brain or body, and decided to do two LDs, instead of an LD/50 or 50/50. Even though he looked and felt great, he IS still knew at this, so I will have to curb my enthusiasm and keep it fun and easy for him for now :)