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 :)

Has it been so long?? Really?!? ((LONG!)) Part 2

(Not the best shot of us, as he fought me most the way here and looks tired and sweaty..but gaiting well in the pic! This was about 1.5 miles from the vet check... Photo by Barry Thorpe)

So to the ride we went. Got up there on Fri before the ride, started unpacking, and realized: no electric fence! Ack! Oh well :( So he was going to have to just get tied to the trailer the whole ride. We vetted in fine (got a nice comment from the vets about how nice he was...even THEY had to look to see he was a stud, LOL..score!), then I decided a both would be good, since it was a relatively warm day and we had access to water. This would be his first bath in who knows how long! It made him nice and shiny and soft...sighhh...purdy horse! ;)

(This is after the vet check...much better, he has settled down and is much more relaxed and got to rest for 1/2 an hour. I am riding with Elicia Kamberg and her nice gelding and we'd done a training ride together earlier too, so these boys were happy to ride the rest of the way home together. Photo by Barry Thorpe)

Tied him up again and all was well...til that evening after the ride meeting. During the day I had him on a sort of 'zip line' on a rope hooked up inside the trailer, tied to the inside tie rings, rope fed out through the windows. Worked great, and gave him a little more room to move around. Problem was, the metal runner loop would clang around on the trailer. No way I was sleeping (or NOT) with that all night. So I decided to just tie him to the corner tie ring overnight. Tied him, went to get some mush for him, after which I was going to move his water tub (to block the bottom of the door-corner...) and hay bag. Came around the corner with his mush bucket, and his head was down eating grass...rope under the corner...uh oh! Sure enough, he sees me, up goes the head...well, 6' where it is stopped by the corner. Course all hell proceeds to break loose! Storm is flipping out, setting back on the halter. Rope is going NOWHERE (stout rope, good snap, rope halter=a stallion that stays where he is parked all day/night). Trailer is rocking, I am on the wrong side of the trailer from the knot (which, btw, I tied a different one from normal, that is SUPPOSED to be a better quick release than my normal fare). My friend Vanessa was on the other side, and she couldn't get the knot to release (from now on, back to my other knot). I was trying to calm him down, yelling at her to find a knife (of course, this WOULD be one of the few times I was NOT carrying one on my body...sighhh...Murphy strikes again). Finally, after several attempts at undoing the snap (bullsnap, hard to do anything with, let alone with 1100lbs of horse on the other end setting back) while he would set back, come forward, set back, I finally got him to give his head enough to unhook the danged thing! All three of us were adrenalined up at that point, and it took a while to settle down. I retied him (even SHORTER..just barely able to reach his water and mush), got his water bucket moved to the corner, and checked him over. Had a little scrape on his cheek from the halter, but 'seemed' fine. In the morning (it was dark by now and most ppl were in bed), I'd have the vet check him over (he REALLY was set back hard...on a rope halter too) before I went off on the trail.

Went to sleep, though woke up at every little sound of course, since I was now tuned to trouble. So didn't sleep well. Good thing it was only an LD I'd have to get through. Took him back to the vet (who also is into chiropractory) before taking up to make sure he was still good to start. He was a little sore in his poll, but not bad and got the green light to go....goody! So I tacked up and got set to go. He was nice and mellow, even with all the 50's leaving and the LDs getting read to go and wandering around camp. So that was a great sign. At the start, we all kinda hung back, no one wanting to be 'first', LOL...lots of hotshoes in the LD, huh? ;) The starter practically had to kick us up onto the levy to head out, LOL. I hung back and hand walked him to the actual trail head, then mounted up. He was calm walking and mounting, but spooked like a dork at the trail head sign (which he has seen a dozen times at least and never spooked at! What a dolt!) and then.... a MONSTER on my hands! Not sure what he did when he set back, but must have sparked some little competitive streak that was up til now hidden in him. He would NOT walk! (I walk up the first 1.5 miles of this trail usually, as it is a significant hill and didn't want to tucker him out at the start) He kept pulling and wanting to gait out or canter and catch other horses...not like him at all! This proceeded not only up the first hill (which I THOUGHT would wear him out...riiighhhttt...nope), but for the next 16 miles...basically all the way to the vet check! What a ding bat! He'd pull and try to run, I'd circle him, he'd try to run, etc. When the footing was good or there was a nice stretch of trail, I would ASK (after the pull/circle cycle of course) him to move out... and OUT he would go! What fun! a super smooth and fast gait and just zip zipping around switchbacks, trees, etc... kinda crazy, but thrilling :) He was never out of control, mind you. If I really need to say ENOUGH and WALK, I could circle him to a stop easy, then let him just STOP for a minute and get his head on, then we could go on again. It was just that he wanted to really GOOOOOO! Which he normally doesn't (lazy SOB usually!). If I knew he were in shape to go fast, I'd even ask him to keep that up. Since he's not though, I kept asking him to rate back a lot, which he really wasn't happy about, but somewhat complied.
Finally, near the vet check turnoff, I met up with my friend Elicia (we'd done a training ride together on our two horses before, so the boys really liked hanging with each other) who was doing her horse's first LD and was trying to slow it down as well. The rest of the way to the VC (bout 1.5miles) we finally were able to slow gait or walk on a loose rein...aaahhhh...bout time! So after getting all hot and bothered most the way to the check, I was able to get Storm to slow down, which hopefully would mean we could actually pulse in in a decent amount of time. Both Elicia and I were figuring out the VC plan, thinking we'd have to strip tack and do lots of sponging to get the ponies pulsed in (as both had gone a bit faster than their normal pace). 1/4 mile from the VC, we dismounted and loosened the girths...Storm was around 72 on his HRM and then it quit (doesn't like loose girths). WE got out our vet cards, handed them to the checkers, and since nobody was around, the pulse takers came over to check us (this was at about 1 1/2 mins into the check)....no way did I think Storm would be ready, but since no one was in line, figured I'd see how 'close' he was..... DOWN! says the checker (and he's a long-time e-rider, not a newbie volunteer either, so I knew if he said we were good, we were!)...he hands me back my card, and Storm is at....56!!...well, so much for thinking we were going too fast! Hmmmmmm...... Elicia's horse was down a minute later too, so not a problem :) We decided to hang together and ride the rest of the ride together from there on.

I led the horses to a nice shady area and set the boys up with hay (we provide hay for riders at the RW rides if they want it) while she went to find her crew bag. Then she watched the boys while I got mine. Both ate like crazy and drank well, and of course each wanted the OTHER horse's mush and hay. Her horse was constantly in Storms dish, nose to nose, and he pretty much coulda cared less... what a good pony :) Just before we were ready to leave, we packed up the bags and then went over to the vets. It was only a 1/2 hour hold, so tack was left on and we barely had enough time to get ourselves fed, but I like shorter holds as it gives you more time on the trail to take it easy, and if you NEED to stay longer, you sure can, so no big deal :) Anyway, we went over to the vet, and she did a CRI. Basically you take a pulse, trot the horse out for a set distance, trot back, wait a minute....usually during which the vet checks the rest of your horse....and then pulse again. This goes back to the important RECOVERIES thing I talked about earlier....you want the second pulse to be the same or within a few beats at most higher, than the first. If it is lower, all the better, and of course the lower the actual number of both (48/48 vs a 56/56) is even better... This indicates how fit the horse is, and how tired at that point in the ride the horse is, or other things that may be wrong. Not all vets at all rides do this, so it was kind of fun to see what Storm was at. I figured in the 50's I'd be happy, and if he was the same pulse, really happy :). What was his CRI???? 44/44......NO WAY!!! I thought I had misheard her! She also gave A's on everything, A- on guts, which was fine with only a 1/2hr hold and what he had at the pre-vet anyway... Handed my card back, and yes! 44/44! WOWZER!!!!! You really can't appreciate how excited I was about that one, as I thought a) he was still not in such good shape (guess he'd only fooled me with his laziness at other rides) and b)he had gone too fast to the VC (guess not...seems he was ok to handle that), and c)even for Arabs that was a darn good CRI, let alone a gaited horse that "those don't do endurance well"....Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... Elicia's horse vetted out fine as well and we went to mount up and head home.

The plan was to walk more and relax on the way back...bout 11 miles tops. Well...we know how plans go, right? Storm knew we were heading home (problem with riding on the home turf) and he was wanting to GO again...especially after having rested and refueled. The first few miles were on a nice, open, flat, good footing logging road as well. So I let him out a little and we cantered quite a bit and gaited a little. I also knew the next two miles after that were DOWN hill and flat, before it finally went uphill again. What FUN it was! Elicia's horse and Storm were kinda egging each other on as well and feeding into it all... At the downhill it turns into a less maintained two-track, then into a single track. We walked most of it with a little slow gaiting and then walked the really steep downhill. This led into another flat, old logging road that we gaited on, and walked the bad spots (some bogs and ditches and stuff you have to negotiate). Then UP UP UP for the next 2 miles until you get to what we call the Alder Trail. A fun, single track, rolling whoopie-do trail that takes you for 2 miles to the big switchback hill that you come up in the morning. We flew down that again (poor Elicia had me slow down the pace a few times, as Storm really, REALLY knew that the Alder Trail meant we were close to home and he was feeling GREAT!) at a good pace, then finally popped back onto the trail for home. Both E and I decided to get off at the 'cave tree' and lead the rest of the way back down (another 1.5 miles or so) and get the boys to settle down. At the bottom of the trail, we hopped back down to ride the last 1/2 mile or so on the levy to camp. The hand walking seemed to have worked, as both were mostly content to walk on in on loose rein. E and I were bummed we were doing an LD, as it would have been fun to 'race' (trot/gait..neither of us wanted to go hell bent for leather or anything) in to the finish, just for the heck of it , but since LDs don't finish til the horses' pulses were down to 60, we didn't want them to go flying in. Oh well...so we strolled across the finish line instead. We hopped off and got our pulses taken right away, and Storm was again at 56... great! All done! E's horse was down too :) After untacking (Storm didn't even seem bothered by leaving E's horse and going to his own trailer, though her horse whinnied back at us a few times I think), we came back for a final vet out.... All A's again, except guts, which were still at A-...no biggie :) And a GREAT score card. I know the cards really don't mean that much, as they are just a brief glimpse into what your horse is doing that very minute, and you really need to just pay attention to what he is doing all day.... But (esp since he was doing so well all day and had lots of energy to spare at the end) it is still nice, when you get that 'straight A' report card :):)



After vetting, I let him eat and relax for an hour, then took him down to the creek for a good role in the sand, a drink out of the river (he tanked there..he loves running water over trough/bucket water any day), along with standing his legs in the cold water for 10 mins (even better than ice boots!) and then grazed him for a good half hour on the nice grass out there. Then back to the trailer to have the rest of the day off, while I relaxed a little myself and waited for the 50's to come in. All in all, this was an excellent ride for Storm, and I was extraordinarily pleased. :) Now I am thinking we'll do his first 50 sooner than I had thought, since he came through this ride so well!

In the 'Cave Tree' while out trail marking...Storm and I all decked out in ribbons.. :)

Has it been so long? Really?! (LONG!) Part 1

(Hoanna, my 13yo Morgan/QH mare, on her first 50 at Bryce...one of my most favorite pics of her!)

Looks like it was April since my last post. APRIL! Holy cow! I know I have had a busy spring/summer, but really... Sorry all! Anyway, I suppose I will backtrack and post some of the fun things Storm and I have been doing this spring and summer, before I head to Bryce Canyon with him (and hopefully! do his first 50 there....). I am REALLY excited about taking him to Bryce. This is one of my most favorite places in the world to ride, and I have shared it with every one of my riding horses so far, even the dingbat 5yo, Eowyn, who got to do some trail riding there last year. It was also where my mare, Hoanna (dingbat's mom) did her first two 50's as well, with no problems whatsoever. So let's hope that good luck rubs off on Storm and all will be well :)

Anyway, back to an update. I will start with a recent event, then work my way back. We have a great, local endurance club here...Redwood Empire Endurance Riders (REER), and every year we offer 4 endurance rides in this beautiful county of ours. Chalk Rock, near Bridgeville, Ca in June, offers a ride on a private cattle ranch in the coastal mountains. Redwood 1 and Redwood 2 (the second I have been conned into managing for the last 3 yrs, so don't get to ride it, but that is ok!) in Orick, Ca in July and August, offer some stunning riding in the Redwood National Park. These are the ONLY AERC endurance rides held in the bounds of a national park. You get to experience pristine, old growth redwood groves and scenery straight out of Jurassic Park (in fact, one of the 3 JP movies had scenes filmed not 10 miles from this ride, and I believe parts of the 3rd original Star Wars movies, Return of the Jedi, was also filmed near here, or in the Redwoods State Park not too far south...either way, similar scenery :) ). Even living 1/2 hr away and getting to ride these trails as often as I want, I never tire of these majestic trails. Riding through the giant trees and fern carpets, I feel the breathe of eons past tickling my hair, and expect a dinosaur to pop out from behind a tree at any moment. If you ever have a chance to make it out here for the ride, DO! Or just come on up whenever, and Storm and I will give you a tour :) The final ride, Cuneo Creek, is held near Honeydew, Ca in September, in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Cuneo is a great horse camp (with corrals and real toilets/showers), with a fun variety of coastal redwood groves and more warmer weather loving trees like madrones...and the only ride we have with poison oak! ICK... This is a great ride as well, and now is a 2-day event, so if you can't justify coming to a one-day ride, come on out for Cuneo and you still get to see some great trails!
(Some pics from riding around on the Redwood 1/2 trails a few yrs ago....this is how it usually looks, fog included :) )

Ok, this ends your commercial interruption, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I was just returning from taking Storm to another ride (that will follow in another post) and didn't feel up to taking a horse out to Chalk Rock, so I helped out at that ride instead. But Redwood 1 was plenty far away (July 17), so I thought it would be great for Storm to do another "real" (as opposed to the non-aerc Duck Miles we did in May, which will be in another post) LD and earn his keep as an endurance horse :) Since I have been taking him up to Orick occasionally for training rides, we'd be on home turf and I knew he could do this ride if I took it easy (I thought he wasn't quite in top shape yet, but as you'll read later, I was being fooled by his lazy attitude!), despite some good hills on this trail Really! Don't laugh! This ride has some hidden terrain that you wouldn't expect on the coast... and the humidity can really knock a horse down on race day if you go faster than you are used to or think just because it is 'cool out', you will be fine...heat index is a big factor here as it never drops below 70% humidity, often being 90%+ with the trees literally raining on you.

But before the ride, the trails had to be marked and I thought it would be a good gauge to see how Storm was feeling (since I hadn't done much but putter on a few short trail rides since June) and make a final decision about whether I'd ride him, or ride Cheyenne on the 50 (my original intent and the horse I had sent the ride entry in with). We did a 12 mile trail on one day, with mostly walking (my marking partner's horse was way outta shape, so we took it really easy) and he was fine there of course. Then we went up to what is the Vet Check, to mark the 'far loop' for the 50's. This was about 18 miles and my partner for this trip had an in shape horse, so we did a mix of walking, gaiting (and her horse trots pretty fast, so he had to really gait up and at times would choose to canter instead...), and canter/galloping. The latter was about 3 miles of it on a nice logging road that takes you back to the VC at the end of the loop. We would trot a tiny bit, then fall into a canter (or even a gallop as her horse likes to GOOOOO and when the road looked clear, would just take off without telling us, lol...so Storm learned to go for a good run too) for a little while, til we decided another ribbon needed hanging. Than BRRRTTT! Brakes on, find a suitable tree branch, hang ribbon, walk a minute or so, then repeat the cycle. Great fartlek training as the books call it. Get the heart rate up a good bit, rest a little, heart rate back up, etc.

Luckily I actually had a working heart rate monitor on him (was not working well at ALL at the June ride) and was able to see how he was really feeling. Gaiting along at a Runwalk, he was usually in the high 70's/low 80's range. At a rack (trying to keep up with the bigger trot of the other horse), he'd be more in the 150-140 (the high end when he was REALLY working to keep up...this would be when he'd willingly pop into a canter, and the HR would then drop...good!) range. In his mellow, rocking-chair canter (and I am LOVING that he is finally 'finding' this gear! It is so smooth, and fun, and keeps his HR lower too!), he'd be in the 120's. Then of course in the gallop, he'd up into the 150+ range. Now for the key though...what about recoveries? Those of you not into endurance (skip this if you are, or are bored by all this! LOL), a horse's fitness is measured more in how fast he recovers from working, vs how high his HR is during work. Though there are 'averages' for where you want a resting and working HR to be, all horses are different (and most averages are written by ppl with Arabs/TBs...a whole different animal than most these gaited horses!). Some have low resting HRs (in the low-mid 30's) and some are higher (in the 40's). Some 'work' at a lower rate (high 90's-low 100's are what some ppl are looking for), some higher (1oo's-120's) and it really isn't that important. What IS important of course, is knowing what is normal for YOUR horse, then going by that. Say for example with Storm...if he is over 140 while 'working' (faster gait/slow canter), then I know I am quickly approaching the anaerobic zone (meaning we are burning energy too fast..we want to keep e-horses in the aerobic range instead, to slowly burn energy over time, and not wear themselves out before the ride is over). Ideally for him, I would like him to stay in the 120's (oh, and this is all in Beats per Minute...or bpm) at his highest, with of course the lower, the better. As a horse gets fitter, this can of course be improved upon, but some horses just never get as low as others...and that is fine! (Too many 'new to endurance' ppl are scared off cause they think there horse isn't fit enough for e-riding...usually they are comparing their horse to a very fit horse of a friend, who may be a totally different breed/body type on top of it!) As long as your horse is doing alright for what is normal for him. Now..back to the magic word, RECOVERIES. This tells you much more about a horse's fitness levels (or if he is getting tired at a ride, sick, hurt, etc..even before more evident signs are noticed). Basically, at most rides, we the criteria for a horse to get into a vet check or complete (LDs don't get to finish til this HR is met, 50's 'finish', but must meet the criteria within 1/2-1hr of finishing, depending on the ride) a ride is 60bpm (some rides have higher or lower, but for training purposes this is a good 'set goal'). So when training, you see how long after raising the horse's HR by working, it takes to get the horse back down to 60bpm (or lower of course...the lower the better!). You can do long/slow training (lots of gaiting in the aerobic range) or fast/high HR, ie fartlek, training (lots of cantering/pushing HR up into the anaerobic range). This is all the cliff notes version, so I am leaving lots out (masses of books have been written on this, LOL), but for myself, if the horse takes more than 5mins to come down (without using water or any cooling method on the horse, and still tacked up...my preference), you are seriously out of shape... if it takes more than 2mins to come down, then you still have work to do. 0-2mins is great, esp if it is warm out (all this has variables accoriding to speed/terrain/temp of course...again, cliff notes!). Sooo, what this boils down to, is that I want to see Storm recover to 60bpm or less, in less than 2 minutes after 'working'. We tested this a few times on the trail, and he was always dropping to 60, or below within a few minutes, or right away if we were not doing much (walking, slow gaiting). Final test was after that fartlek stretch...we walked the final 1/2mile into the vet check are (where our trailers were) and it was in the full sun, so about 75 deg that day (which for us is hot!). The last water on the trail had been about 5 miles back, and no water (to drink, let alone cool off the horse with) at the trailers (we have to haul it up there for the actual ride). So to test, I just took the bridle off, left tack on (just loosened the girth a tad), and looked at my watch, while watching the HR...bit by bit, it was dropping (at a ride of course, I'd toss water on him if needed, strip the saddle, etc...we train more extreme than we need to be at a ride, so it will be easier AT a ride :) ). As it got around 62-3, we were a minute in...by 2 minutes he was at 58! Whoo hoo! At 5 mins he was at 52. I called it good and stripped tack at that point :) Great! So not too shabby and out of shape after all! I promptly called up the Ride Manager for RW1 that evening, and told her to switch my entry to riding Storm in the 25. This was about 4days out from the ride.
More in the next part....

More updates

Saddle without the shim.....wants to slightly drop down and push into the shoulder in front...

I know, I look all wrong here..but I am trying to see how the saddle feels with the shim...trying to stick my hand under the front of the saddle and feel the shoulder area..I think I was also trying to move the sheepskin under the pommel some (it was a BIG piece that needs trimming and I was tucking it away to take better pics).

Ok, the blog has not been very exciting lately, but I have just been too busy to do much riding and it often rained when I wasn't (I know, I suck as a "real" endurance rider...I should be out conditioning Storm in rain/showers and whatnot...but I can't bring myself to do that. So it will just take longer to get him in shape I guess! :) ). I did take him to a local horsemanship clinic A week or so ago, just to get him out and "mingling" with other horses, since it is now spring and I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to have a hormone overload at the next endurance ride (esp since he was all hot and bothered by Ari when we took them to the vets together). Turns out I think he really DOES know when he is "working" and when not...he acted like his normal ol self most the time, and only 'looked' at some of the attending girls when he got bored (arena work is not our thing...we both were bored pretty fast and he expressed his displeasure at having to do the same exercises over and over again, LOL), but was easy to refocus back on me. He did really well though (it was a windy day and some of the other horses were all riled up) and got many comments about what a quiet boy he was and how handsome. We had a whole mix of horses from a Gypsy cob looking thing, a blind Haflinger, and a Welsh Cob, to two mules (one gaited) and you usual stock horses and a TB... It was fun in its own way (though not really my thing) and we got done what I had intended. I have also been looking for saddles for him, while waiting to get his custom saddle made. I found a used one (amazingly! You rarely find them!) of the brand I am looking at (Advantage Saddles... http://www.advantagesaddles.com/ they are AWESOME!) and I just got it in the mail...I took it on one ride and it looks to be SLIGHTLY too wide...tried a sheepskin shim under the front in the roundpen yesterday, and I think that might just fix the problem...I sure hope so! It would be awesome to have something that works on him well (currently I am riding in a Wintec dressage, which is "ok" for him, but not quite right either...as I increase the distance I ride him, I will need something a little better). Anyway, we are leaving for Lost Padres and Mt. Carmel on Thurs, then I should have lots of fun pictures and updates while we are on our 3 week adventure :)

Updates...and pretty pics :)

Well, due to both lots of rain, and an increasing ride schedule (not with Storm yet though), I haven't had a ton of time to ride him. When I have, I just went on quick training rides up into Arcata Park, which is a great place. You can go on a one or so hour ride and get a GOOD hill work session in. So for less amount of time, you get good quality work. I haven't taken the camera much either, so don't have anything interesting from those rides. But two updates:
Firestorm is OFFICIALLY now ours (me, my friend Terri, and Barb Paynton his original breeder up in Canda...for those that missed it, we three went in on him together so we could afford to buy him :) ). Last payment on him was made in March and he is paid off and his paperwork arrived in my hands on Thurs when I got home from the last ride... We'll be sending off the change of ownership papers next week to KMSH... WHOO HOO! :)
Other update: I also had another package waiting for me when I got back..his pics from the Death Valley ride over New Year's. They came out AWESOME! I had my two favorites blown up to 8X12 and printed on this neat METALLIC paper. It is the coolest stuff...it really makes colors pop out and shimmer and gives the pic an almost 3-D life-like look. The copper of his coat and silver of his mane just SHINE. I wish I could show that effect online. Oh well. Here are the two I picked for that paper.... His "after the race" head shot, taken at the finish line of his FIRST ride ever. He has that typical "Storm look" that he does, with that goofy, impish twinkle in his eye. I LOVE it :) The second pic is the next day, I was trying to get him to gait well in hand for a pic (he still likes to pace or step-pace in hand). Lynne caught up doing a nice gait in one of them. Ignore my goofy look (ear muffs, sunglasses, and sweats....oh so classy! :P). The "white" on his legs is dried clay from poulticing his legs (I love to spoil my ponies) the night before.... I have a few others I got in smaller format, but have to still scan them. Will post those asap as well. All pics are by Lynne Glazer (www.lynnesite.com), an exceptional equine photographer! I am trying to get her up here to do a "real" (not at an e-ride, so that we can control place and light a tad better...not that she doesn't still somehow manage to get awesome pics in such uncontrolled places as e-rides, LOL) photoshoot. If you live in the are (Eureka area) and are interested, let me know...we need a minimum of 8ppl to sign up for her to make the trip up here from SoCal...you'll never regret it!
Last update: we are going on another series of rides at the end of this month. First, a two-day in So-Cal and then a 5-day in Utah. I will be bringing Storm to both. Both only offer 50's, which he is not ready for yet, but he'll do lots of trail marking (we are helping take down the ribbons for the first ride, then driving straight to Utah and spending the week prior to the second ride, helping put up ribbons for it...) and maybe some "Duck Miles" (both rides are run by the XP group and though they do not offer LDs, you can ride your horse "unsanctioned"...meaning you get no points for an LD... any distance you want and just go do shorter loops, or to the vet check and get hauled back, or whatever... great for starting young or unconditioned horses in the ride atmosphere) at both rides as well. This way he'll continue to get ride atmosphere exposure and get RIDDEN (since the weather is not cooperating here again...it is raining...and SNOWING! At the COAST! ...sighhh)

All the pretty horses....

OK...Guess I will finally just stand here quietly...

Storm, Ari, and Boots were needing their yearly vaccinations, so Terri and I decided to trailer pool into the vet's office. We normally can give our own shots, since all our horses stand fine, most without any restraint at all, and so far, none have shown any reactions to any of the shots either. But in good old California, we are not allowed to give Rabies ourselves. I hear rumor that there is one catalog that will ship to CA, but unless you have a bunch of horses (well, we are pretty much at that, but they are not all on the same schedule, or even close), it really isn't worth it as you need to buy a vial of the stuff, all the syringes, and the vaccine shipping is often extra. So we bite the bullet and pay the extra office visit to get it done locally...oh well.
It was fun taking them in though, as I doubt there have ever been that many Mountain Horses in one place, at the same time in this county...I think since my one friend that also had one moved away, and I only know of one other....I think we own all the ones around, lol... We might have to change that! This is such a fun and easy breed to own, and we have a lot of ppl that are beginners to horses, or just older and tired of a "hard" horse around here. They'd love to have an easy going horse that is not hard to ride and comes in such a great range of size and color, and is so multi-purpose. I wish we had a breed parade here at one of the fairs or something...
Anyway, all the horses were good for their shots, including Boots (since he is new to us, we didn't know what he'd do). It was a good trip for Boots as he got to hang out in a safe parking lot for a while (vet was doing something or other and we didn't get him til about 30mins past our appointment), but right by the freeway interchange with lots of noise and movement. He really didn't seem to care. Then a rancher brought in a cow to get shots and dehorned, so it was dropped off in a pen and left...We took each of the ponies up to see it, and it very kindly made lots of mooing noises and wandered around then pen. Ari couldn't care less (I think there are cows in her neighboring pasture part of the year) and Boots just looked at it a little warily, but was fine otherwise. Storm was unafraid and only interested in whether or not it was breedable, as his darling daughter got him all hot and bothered that day, LOL.
That was actually good too...he hadn't been around any mares since December, and he was just talking up a...well...storm :) at Ari and strutting around like he was king. So I used the extra 1/2 hr to school him in ignoring girls (it is so funny..I have YET to have him talk to or be bothered with noticing a mare much while being ridden..but in a halter and in hand, he seems to think he should chat up every potential customer...so we have to work on that). Course I have no way to show him what IS "ok", since we are not really breeding...so I can't for instance take him to a breeding shed/area and "let" him talk to mares where it is ok and his "job", then take him elsewhere where it is NOT ok and thus try and show a "difference"...It sometimes makes me feel bad for constantly getting on his case when he is talking (he really doesn't get all "studdy" in other ways...just does love talk, LOL), and him not having ANY time where it is "ok"... but I guess that will sort itself out when he DOES get to breed, and then gets to see that there are "ok" times to be a boy...
Ari got to practice patience while we were there...she was NOT happy having to stand tied for 1/2 an hour, lol...finally she gave up and stood still without pawing, head tossing, rope eating, etc... :) We also measured her on the nice, level concrete...she was right between 14'3 and 15'...sighhh...and right now she is a good bit butt high again....STOP GROWING! LOL....
Anyway, it was a usual mixed cloud and drab Humboldt day, so the light isn't too hot, but here are pictures of all the pretty ponies in one place :)
The three stooges all together at once....






















Dude! I am SO BORED...Untie me!




















Hellooooo! Come on!




















Guess I will have to work this rope myself then...sheesh....if I chew long enough, maybe I will get free...




















Storm peeking around the trailer trying to see Ari...
























Finally bored with it all and just hanging out relaxed :)





















Boots, also a bit bored by it all...






















What a good boy..such a cute face :)

Slightly Off Topic...

...but not totally, since it is about Storm's buddy and future endurance partner. Today we'll feature a "guest horse". My friend Terri bought Firestorm's old buddy from Canada..."Boots" and he came down in December and is destined to be Terri's second endurance mount, so poor Oliver can get a rest now and then :) He is a 10 yo KMSH and he and Storm ran together as studs for some time, until Storm was sold to Oregon. Boots is now a gelding and is totally unbroke. I have been messing with him a little since he got here, but mostly he has been just allowed to integrate into our herd and is learning to trust us (he acts much like a mustang..wary of being caught, fast movements, etc...esp anything around the flanks/rear bugs him as he had to be the "protector" in Canada for many years). Terri and I went on a 4-day endurance ride in the Mojave desert, so Boots had no handling at all while we were gone. Yesterday I tossed a saddle on him for the first time, and today I got on him for the first time. He really proves to me yet again, why I am falling in love with this breed. He took everything in stride, and though more cautious of the "weird" things I was doing, than my hand raised babies that are dead broke to everything by the time I ever get on them at 4, he was very willing to let the new experiences happen to him. Of course, being a total foodie, all the "bribes" of yummy peppermint horse treats, didn't hurt one bit :) Here are pics and video of the day....











Checking out the saddle and pad...since I went through all that yesterday, with a big western saddle (today I used an old Barefoot treeless saddle Terri has), he was pretty blase about it...












Tossing the saddle pad all over and from both sides...a bit twitchy around the hind end, otherwise he was fine with that as well, as it was also a repeat of yesterday....













Next, the saddle... Checking it out, then I flung it all around him and made it big and scary looking/moving (much easier with a light, treeless saddle this time, than with the big saddle from yesterday)...he was pretty ok with that too...













And on goes the saddle... big deal, he seems to say....good pony :)













Tightening the girth..surprisingly, this never bothered him. I figured as squirrelly as he could be, he'd object to girth pressure...but nope, not a problem at all....













ho hum....no biggie...walking along fine...this is as far as I got yesterday...today we went for more




Sending him out to see what he'd do at a trot and canter....no big deal of course :)




First part of getting on him...seeing how he'd feel with a little weight and movement over his back and on his sides....lots of treat bribery, but whatever works, I say :)




And finally, last preparations before getting on, then the first time mounted...he was pretty danged good I 'd say :) After I was up and sitting for a bit, I hopped on and off a few times, then let Terri lead us around for 5 minutes or so. Once he settled and was happy (he scooted forward a few times, but not big spooks, no bolts, no buck, etc...GOOD BOY!), we called it quits for the day and ended on a good note :)