Mt. Adams Endurance Ride, May 19 2012

Monica and I went down to the Mt. Adams endurance ride this past weekend.  This is a great ride – about 6 hours away, nice camping, just about perfect trails and views to kill for.  We got there Friday night, got settled in and vetted and went for a short ride.  My ankles were not happy, so we didn’t go far.  We did some visiting around camp and then turned in for our early start the next day.  We met Lisa Preston, who was there with her young Teke-Arab filly for her first LD ride.  There was one other Teke cross there with Mona Thacker.  Her Shiraz has been competing for quite a few years and has been racking up the miles.

Saturday morning dawned and we got ready.  The weather was perfect – 60ish and sunny.  Our plan was that I’d start behind the leaders and go fast, to save my ankles, and Monica and Danny would meander out later.  As this is only his 3^rd ride, she’s being very conservative (and rightly so).  So, we waited until the majority of the 75 (yes, 75 riders in the 25 mile ride) went out.  We walked out of camp after a bit of excitement – someone’s horse decided to warm itself up just as we were walking to the start line.  They caught it after a few minutes and then we walked out on a loose rein.  As soon as we got to the woods (there was about a half mile of pavement to walk on) we started our trot and passed and passed and passed people.  Galen LOVES to pass other horses.  We finished our first loop of 13 miles in around 1 ½ hours and vetted through just fine.  We only had a short hold, so we went back to the camper and got resupplied and a bite to eat. 

We headed out on our second loop and met Monica and Danny coming in as we went out.  The horses felt that we should stand around and talk about it, but a small amount of ‘persuasion’ and Galen and I were off.  This next loop was 12 miles and we ended up leap-frogging with the same group of people most of the way.  We completed this loop in about the same as the first – my total ride time was around 3 hours and 40 minutes (not sure of the exact time) and my only real mistake was not getting off and walking him in the last half mile.  I was worried about my ankle – getting off and not being able to walk would have been a pain.  So, it took him a few minutes to pulse down to the ride pulse of 60 and we ended up in 11^th place.  If I’d have walked in (and he was pulsed down), we would have been 8^th.  To explain, on the LD ride, ride time stops when you cross the finish and are at a pulse of 60.  The 50s and above ride times stopped when they crossed the finish.  But, he vetted through just fine and we were done in plenty of time to go back and chat with friends and wait for Monica and Danny to come in. 

Monica had had a lovely ride and Danny was complemented on his ‘metronome’ trot on the trail.  He’s really blossoming this year. 

More and more people are recognizing the Tekes at rides – lots of “how do you pronounce that” and we handed out several breed info booklets.  I bet we see more and more at the rides in upcoming years!  I know that people riding behind us are often amazed at how smooth and spook free our horses are.  Love it!

All in all, a lovely weekend.

Cathy and Galen on the first loop.  Mt. Hood (I think) in the background.

                                                  Monica and Danny on the first loop.

                                          Cathy and Galen on the second loop.

Getting ready for Mt. Adams!

This week we're getting ready for the Mt. Adams ride.  Once again, Monica and I will be doing the LD and Wendy will be doing the 50.  I will be going as fast as possible, hoping that my ankle doesn't give out before I finish.  Happily, Galen is good with that plan. 

Mt. Adams is absolutely lovely and I can hardly wait.  All this week we're stocking the camper and trailer, mounting our corral hangers on the trailer (so we don't have to 'macrame' them on) and then we'll head out Friday morning. 

Monica and I got in a good ride at the Watershed last week - her phone fritzed out, so we don't know exactly how far we went, but we were going at a pretty good clip for most of it.  Galen got into his lovely, long trot that I just sort of almost sit and kept it up.  I could hear "Good boys" from behind me, as Danny got into his lovely trail trot too.  We both had big 'trail riding' grins when we were done.  Neither horse did much sweating at all, although there was a bit of a breeze that probably helped with that.  The horses are ready...we'll see about me.

After Mt. Adams, we'll go to Klickitat and then possibly Renegade, if Addy foals at the right time.  She is due on July 2nd, so could pop anytime from the middle of June on.  We'll just have to wait and see.

I've been working some of the young horses.  Mahri is carrying a saddle and has worn a bridle twice now.  No big deal.  Monica has sat on Goshen and taken a few steps.  No big deal.  Andre is coming along, getting stronger and fitter every day.  I'm trying to get a little time in with Khan, Ari and Slari too, although they tend to be gotten to last.  I even lunged Salam a little today.  He really enjoys the work and fussing.

Well, my lunch break is done, so I'm heading out to the barn to enjoy this gorgeous weather.

Grizzly Endurance ride, Madras, OR

We spent the weekend in sunny Madras (pronounced MAD Rass, we were told!) Oregon wearing big trail riding grins.  We (we being Monica, Wendy and I) drove down in the pouring rain on Friday.  It was such a relief to get over the pass and see sunshine!  And dry footing!  Ahhhh....

We pulled into camp around 3:30 or 4 or so (we left around 7 am), found our brand new portable Hold Your Horses corrals and set up camp.  We're starting to look very upscale with those corrals!  We got all settled in, took our evening ride and had supper (lovely steak dinner, thanks to Wendy)  Somehow, we missed the ride meeting, but the trail was very well marked, so it wasn't a problem.

After a fitful night's sleep, we got up, saw Wendy off on her first 50 of the year and then Monica and I saddled up and got ready for our 32 mile LD.  We had a slightly different strategy this time, as I figured that less time in the saddle for me would be easier on my ankles.  So, Galen and I headed out reasonably near the front of the pack and Monica held back.  We (Galen and I) went out on a loose rein and after about a half mile of walking, he asked to trot and I said 'Sure'.  So, we got into his gorgeous, long trail trot and passed and passed people.  We were zooming along with no one in front until a very nice lady and her mare caught up to us.  Liz and Twiggy were great ride partners - we rode the rest of the ride together.  Both horses were well matched and Twiggy pulled us up hills (not Galen's favorite thing) and we slowed her down going down hill (Galen loves downhills...go figure)  Liz and I chatted through most of the ride, which made time fly by.  She was local, so gave me the guided tour of the mountain ranges.  My camera was full, which is a shame, as the scenery was stunning.  The country was green and little wild flowers were all over.  It was a lovely, lovely ride!

We came into the first vet check and a very nice volunteer trotted Galen out for me.  My ankle was ok, but I staggered a bit getting off and was spotted, so they asked if I needed help.  What nice people!  I didn't get their names, but I really appreciated the help.  We went back to camp for our hold and Galen and Twiggy spent a lot of that time calling back and forth.  They had become fast friends on the trail.

We went out for our second loop (the first was 22 miles, the second 10) with Liz and Twiggy and this one flew by.  I'll have to look at the vet cards to see how fast we were going, but we were not lollygagging at all!  Our total ride time was 4 hours and 48 minutes, so we did a bit over 6 mph average.  I think we went a bit faster the first loop, but I'll have to find my card to make sure.  We came in around 1:30, pulsed through and were told we were either 4th and 5th or 5th and 6th (I don't remember if Liz was before or after me and I was 5th).  So, I decided to stand for BC, as it's great experience.  Also, as I'm bigger than a lot of those tiny, skinny riders, I do have a shot at it (rider weight is calculated in the score).  We ended up coming in 3rd out of 5 in the BC.  We got all 9s (out of 10) on our scores, except his Recovery score wasn't that great.  I'll have to work on that - I'm sure there are techniques (besides just plain conditioning) to help with that.  He was tired, but not terribly. 

I'm glad I did the LD - my fitness level is still nowhere near where it was a year ago.  But, it's getting better and I think as the season progresses, my fitness will go up.

Monica and Danny came in later, 15 minutes overtime.  She was fine with that, as Danny did great the whole ride, was praised by other riders for his 'metronome trot' and joined and left groups like a trooper.  Monica was very careful with him, as this is his first season and his base fitness is still getting there.  He looked great at the finish and while they didn't get a completion, they got all A's on his vet card and the vet told her that she had done a great job with him.  So, it was a great experience for both of them.

Wendy came in about an hour later, tired but grinning.  I trotted Allie out for her and then we went back to the camper.  We got all the horses cleaned up, fed, wrapped and blanketed and then went to the awards ceremony.  After that, a yummy dinner, a glass of wine and well deserved sleep. 

Our drive home went much quicker, as the weather was dry and sunny the entire way.  We strapped our new corrals to the sides of the trailer, which worked out just great, and made it home around 2:30 or so. 

I'm sore today, but not all that bad.  Walking is no problem, just going down stairs!  My daughter told me I should stretch...seems like I did plenty of that on Saturday, but maybe I'll try a little gentle stretching today.

Now we have to unload everything and start getting ready for the next ride, which will be Mt. Adams.

I do have some photos, just need to figure out how to download them, so I'll put them up when I get that done.

First Ride of the Season

Cathy on Galen, Shannon on Tommy and Monica on Danny. Thanks to Craig Mayfield for the photo op!

Today is a resting day after our fun weekend. We just finished our first Endurance ride of the season, Home on the Range.

The original plan was that I would take Galen, Monica would take Danny (his first endurance ride ever!) and do the 25 and Wendy would take Allie and do the 50. Cindy Balogh was coming as camp chef and crew. Wendy ended up cancelling, as she's aiming at Tevis and has to be very careful about her vacation days. So, it ended up me, Monica and Cindy and our two boys.

We drove over to Washtucna on Friday, after hearing dire weather reports and even rumors of ride cancellation. We perserved though and made it over the pass (not too bad) and to the Ridecamp on private land in S. Eastern Washington. Our first small adventure was as we came into camp. There was a line of rigs ahead of us, seemingly waiting for something. We soon found out what. It had been raining there (the landowners thanked us Western Washingtonians for bringing said rain) and the mud had made passage under our own power not happening. So, out came the enormous tractor (I had tractor envy) and the driver dragged each rig through the mud to higher (and drier) ground. It was an interesting experience - sort of an amusement park ride.

We then found a good spot, said hello to a few friends and set up camp. We did miss Wendy at this point, as she usually sets up the portable corrals. But, we muddled through and had everything set up in time for a nice ride to check out the trail. We rode what would be the last bit of our second loop and were a bit dismayed by the soft, muddy footing. Happily, the night was clear and a bit windy, so the mud dried up a bit by the next day.

Then, we socialized some; our friend Shannon Mayfield was there with her Teke gelding Asil Tumay (by Astrachan out of Anastasia) and we met up with Susan Bhatt and her Arab mare Capri, who had boarded at my barn for a few months when she moved here from Florida. Of course, there were plenty other people we said hi to also! We then went to the Ride Meeting and then off to bed.

Of course, people (and horses) started stirring around 5 am or so, so we were up fairly early. Our ride start was at 8 am (50s went out at 7 am) so we had plenty of time. I went off to the Port-a-Potty and came out and saw Cindy walking around with a leadrope. Whatever for? I wondered. Well, our horses had decided to do a little warm up of their own and broke out of our tape paddocks. They led us (and a bunch of other people) on a merry chase for a good ten minutes. Then, when both they and us were properly warmed up, they allowed (OK, GALEN allowed) us to catch them. Besides the humiliation factor (everyone dreads the 'your horse is loose' shout) we now have to figure out a better containment system. I later watched Danny leaning on the electric tape, trusting his winter blanket for insulation. Darn it! That is one thing I didn't think we'd need to change.

Anyway, we caught our bad boys (and they didn't seem sorry at all) and tacked up. Shannon, Monica and I had a strategy - our plan was to leave last from camp to avoid race brain. Unfortunately, other people had the same idea and instead of getting into a race- of sorts- to see who could be last, we just went. Danny was a bit up, which was to be expected, as he's never done this before. Tommy was a little high too, but neither were terrible, just young. Galen, of course, thought that we should start catching people and passing. I did a lot of half-halts that first 15 miles! All three did very well, pacing well together, playing leap frog without a problem. The biggest issue we had was...hoof boots. We started the ride with 12 assorted hoof boots on 3 horses - we had Easyboot Epics, Easyboot Gloves, Easyboot originals and two Renegades. During that first 8-10 miles (or maybe less) we had 10 boot malfunctions. I lost one back original Easyboot and poor Monica and Shannon lost all of theirs. We didn't notice 2 of Monica's come off, so those are out there somewhere, but the rest were noticed, so Monica and Shannon got LOTS of experience getting off and on. We ended the first loop with 3 boots left on Galen. I'm sure a lot of the problem was the sucking footing. I didn't hear if other people had the same problems, but I sure wouldn't be surprised.

We finished our first 15 mile loop in around 2 1/2 hours, so even with the getting on and off and the necessary walks, we made good time. We came back into camp for our vet check and vetted through with good scores. Danny was all A's; in fact, his scores were better after the first loop than his check in. Galen's were ok - he had some Bs for gut sounds, which isn't all that abnormal. He's too busy thinking about the horses ahead to eat on the trail!

My only problem was that as I got off to walk into camp, my left ankle let me know that it was not happy. I sort of staggered in and Monica (thankfully) trotted Galen out for the vet.

We had our hold and appreciated Cindy being there to feed us, feed our horses and help us get ready for the next loop. Shannon decided she'd go alone, as Tommy was a bit wound up with his two buddies. So, we stripped off several layers of clothing and headed out for our second loop. This was a much more boring start, with both boys asking politely if we were out of our minds. Weren't we done? Didn't we come back to camp? But, we got out of camp and rode for a bit with some new friends. I got to put a name to at least one person. This loop was through a lot of deep footing, with grass covering up holes. Often we couldn't tell if a lump was a cow pat or a badger hole, so we trotted when we could and walked the rest. We were able to really appreciate how lovely the terrain was and we were grateful we'd put sunscreen on. We finished this 10 mile loop in around 2 hours, so while we trotted we must have been moving, because we walked a lot. I was able to trot Galen out, although the vet might have preferred someone else doing it, as I staggered so badly we ended up two vet lanes over. Glad they don't vet the human as I'm pretty sure I was grade 3 lame. Danny did his trot out like a pro and Tommy and Shannon were right behind us. I think we ended up coming in 25th, 26th and 27th out of 40, which was perfect. We had planned for a reasonably slow pace, the boys came in looking great and no minds were blown. I did realize though that my fitness still isn't where it was a year ago...my 'medical adventure' has taken a toll. So, more riding for me, darn.

We got the boys tucked in with huge pans of beet pulp and knee deep hay and went for our stew feed and then the awards ceremony. We put them in the trailer (two box stalls) for the night, as I didn't want to wake up every two minutes thinking I heard hoof prints. Also, it was quite wet out and there was talk of wind and more rain. I don't think they minded a bit. In fact, the next morning when we unloaded them to get ready for the journey home, they were a bit miffed. You'd think Western Washington horses wouldn't mind a little wind and rain. But, we took down camp and then waited in line (worse than Seattle rush hour traffic) for rigs to get dragged out through the mud. We were lucky in that enough went out that we could finally go around the worst of it. I put the truck into 4 low and we powered through. We had an uneventful ride home and were pretty much unpacked by 3 pm or so.

Monica has taken a bunch of photos and Shannon took a few that she gave me permission to use here. I really need to get a camera!

All in all, a great way to start our ride season.

The wait is over!

Aya had her foal at 3:30 in the morning early Saturday. She had a little wax when I checked her at 9 am and started having regular contractions around 2 or 3. Monica and I settled in and watched her pace the arena, stop and swish her tail, stomp her feet and bite her belly. Around 10 pm, I went in to get some sleep and Monica woke me up about 3:20 with the news "her water just broke".

It was a textbook delivery (the best kind), and as the baby was coming out, I could see it was buckskin. Maybe this time I'd get my buckskin filly! Then, the foal was all the way out and I could tell she was a he. Lovely little buckskin ...colt. He has two hind stockings and one little triangle on the front leg. Lots of get up and go, very friendly.

I have a dog blanket on him, as it's quite windy and chilly and he doesn't have much body fat. He's wearing my son's dog's blanket, which has flames shooting down the sides. I was calling him "Speed Racer" today, as he zoomed around the arena with mom.

I think we have a name for him. My friend Cindy found the word "Merdan", which means courageous. It works as I wanted a M name in honor of his sire, Metman. It seems to fit him too. He marches right up and says hello. Of course, that is much too formal for a barn name. We've been calling him Paddy, as he was born on St. Patrick's day.

There are some photos on Monica's blog and on Facebook under the Cascade Gold page. Monica's blog is http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/

Sooner or later I'll get a decent camera, but not today.

Waiting for baby

Although it's a bit early in the year, we are expecting a foal anyday now. Aishet, (barn name Aya) is on loan from Freedom Run Farms of MI and came bred to the lovely stallion Metman. Aya looked like she was all ready to go last week and then the weather got nasty. Either the foal or Aya decided it was just too cold, wet, snowy, windy, slushy and sleety out to come out and play, so we've been playing a waiting game. I keep thinking that the next nice day will see a new little face, but I checked Aya earlier today and I think, just perhaps, the kid doesn't want to wait much longer, sleet or no sleet. Of course, we'll see!

I have the foaling stall all set up with nice, deep straw, shavings and a heat lamp. I have my foaling kit ready. I've been checking her every 2 hours for the last week now, although happily, I can see her from my bedroom window so I don't have to go outside every two hours all night long. But, interrupted sleep does take it's toll. Just ask my family.

So, very soon, we'll have another little one running around. Of course, I'm hoping for my buckskin filly, but we'll take whatever comes!

Clipping time

Today I cleaned my clipper blades (long overdue), oiled the clippers and took them out to the barn. Galen has been working fairly hard and it's been warm enough that he's sweating quite a bit. I figured that a very small clip job on the bottom of his neck might help him with cooling out a bit faster. He's got a pretty good winter coat for a Teke, even though he does wear a rainsheet in the winter and sometimes a blanket if it's really nasty out.

I did forget that he's never seen clippers before - I don't worry about nose or ear whiskers and one of the great things about endurance is that no one expects you to have a 'show-ready' horse, polished and clipped. So, we spent some time just getting used to those noisy things. He was very good, all in all, although I wish I had a photo of how far back he was leaning, without moving his feet. I just went slowly, kept telling him what a good boy he was, gave him treats when he relaxed, and we got that neck shaved a bit without much trouble. So, tomorrow we'll see if that helps with the cooling, as we're hauling out to the Redmond Watershed, for a nice, long ride, as long as the weather cooperates.

Monica commented that it 'took pounds off him'. Hmmm, maybe that is an option for humans also..