Desert Gold, Part 3

Happy boy! Look at that blue sky behind us! Much nicer today!

Ok, back to blogging :) Day 3! The morning went as the previous two days went. Judy went home the day before, so no one to ride day 3 with... that was fine, always someone out there to pass by, or hang with and chat, or just chill on my own too. The day was nice and going to shape up warm. We had a 15 mile loop that came back to camp, then the same loop in repeat, to finish. So if anything went wrong, I could pull (or be pulled as it may be) in camp and not have to sit around waiting to go home again. After Terri left, I went to find a vet, and see if we Storm got the final ok to go. Same vet from the night before was still out and about, so she watched him gait out and gave us the thumbs up! She also did a full VC (since we didn't finish the day before, and on a multi-day ride, usually your previous night's finish vetting is the pre-vetting for the next day) and said he must be REAL excited....his pulse was "a whopping 36"...LOL. And all the rest was an A too. Goodie! He looked great to me too :) Back to the trailer and get tacked up, and over to the start. I was starting a little behind, hoping I could get him to calmly start out and do a nice, LONG warmup before we moved out. Give his muscles as much a chance as possible.
That worked for a little while, but as on the previous days, the 50's caught up with us yet again. Luckily we'd been going a few miles, and he felt good, so I let him play with the 'big boys' for a few miles again, before slowing him down again. We varied between going along in our own hole by ourselves, and going along with some 50's, all the way to the vet check. Storm felt awesome, and we were able to move out at a fairly consistent pace, so that we were into the check by 10:20-something... That put us ahead of our usual 5mph pace, LOL... Nice, as I knew we'd have tons of time to finish, and I could take it easy later if I had to.
I hand walked from the 'finish line' area, to the pulsing and vetting in the main camp. We stop by the water at the finish, and at the pulsers, and he drank both times. Got our time from the in-timers as well, and went straight to the pulsers. Storm was at a 52. Then we walked right to the vets (they funneled us that way, no way to go to the rig first and untack or feed the horses or whatnot...kinda odd, but ok!), where we got checked right away as there wasn't anyone in line. Same vet as before...she has us gait out and then do her check (kinda make it like a CRI that way, with the pulse in pulse)...Storm was at a 48! Super! All the rest were A's too...and then her husband, who was scribing for her, looked under Storm and said "see, he does still have his equipment" or something to that effect...LOL... So she looks, and says something along the lines of "Huh, you're right! What a really nice guy!" I joked and said that was why he still had his 'equipment' :) She had vetted him most the weekend, except a few times, and hadn't noticed til then! LOL... That is how I like it...every ride, someone new will see how good he is, and will think favorably on his breed...and maybe we'll attract a few more Mtn Horse lovers as a result! I know I keep saying it, but it really is my new passion..to spread the word about these awesome horses...and if a stallion can show them, all the better...because most ppl think stallions are wild, and if they see he isn't, they might just think about how good the geldings and mares of the breed could then be!
Anyway, vetcheck done, we headed to the trailer and had lunch. The sun was out and I was happily relaxing (though had to take Duke for another walk...downside of the check in camp, he knew I was there and wouldn't hush up til I let him out! He definitely is still a young and insecure dog! LOL... As Storm was happily chowing away and then taking a nap, I stayed a good while longer...had about an hour of a break, instead of only 1/2hr, since I had so much time on the clock still. After his nap, I tacked him up again and out we went, back around the same loop. Kinda boring, but at least we both knew where we were going :) Storm was content to mellow out and go along at a steadier pace than the morning. We again encountered several ppl, but mostly spent the rest of the day alone. Which of course made him less happy............BUT!....
Unlike our time at Chamberlain, when I asked him to move out, he would, and walk when I asked him to walk. No more refusals and shutting down! I think the good part of sharing trail with the 50's all weekend, was that he FINALLY figured out that he was not REALLY all alone out there.... that there was always a horse to find, or that would find us! So he was much perkier and happy to be out on the trail... YES!!!!! I can't say HOW HAPPY that makes me :) I really HAD been way in the dumps after Chamberlain, no matter how many times someone told me 'young/new horses always do that at some point'...so to see it really was just a funk he'd been in, and not a death knell to our endurance career, made me totally happy!
He was slowing down a good bit towards the end, but at that point it had really warmed up and it was the end of 3 days after all, and with plenty of time left, I was happy to poke along and let him pick the pace. So we ambled (heck, with a gaited horse, amble really works as a word, LOL) into the finish. Luckily THIS time, Scott (the ride manager) was the only one waiting there on his quad, and once I told him I was an LD, I was told my finish was in camp. WHOO HOO! No more of that pulsing down issue! So I hopped off and walked in, and sure enough, we were right down again. Can't remember where...not as spectacular as our lunch pulsing, but in the 50's and 'in' nonetheless. I went to the trailer, untacked, fed him a little mush and walked the dog. Then took him back over to the vet. All was good :) So we finished our third day, with no issues, and no hint of the previous day's cramp issues. WHOO HOO! All in all, a happy ending to a weekend full of ups and downs and lots of things to learn :) And with as well as he felt and did all weekend, and finally having the energy to want to run with the 50's and gait well most the day, I had a new goal. :)
Next in line: maybe two days of 50's at Death Valley at the end of December!

Going along happily on our last day :):)