Stories

We did the 25 mile LD at Manzanita on Saturday, October 4th. I had asked around and was told this ride was "flat" and "easy" and "perfect for a horse returning from an injury" by multiple people. Well, maybe the course changed, or maybe we have differing opinions of "flat," but this ride was NOT flat. It was up and down and up and down, including several steep areas, but very very little was actually flat. It was also much hotter than expected. However, the footing was great, the trail markings were great, and it was a fantastic ride!

There was a 50 mile endurance, a 25 mile LD, a 15 mile fun ride (not AERC sanctioned), and 15 & 25 mile Ride & Ties. I don't know how many horses were there total, but there were over 80 entries in the 25 miler.

So... Phlyrt did awesome and I was very proud of her.

At the vet-in, she got all the regular comments she gets: how beautiful she is and how she's such a great size (despite all the hype about bigger horses, every time I take Phlyrt to a ride I have multiple people comment that she's the perfect size). The interesting comment this time was the person who asked if she was a Morgan! My only guess on that is that this ride, more than any others I've been to, was filled with the 15+ hand Arabians who have 13 hand bodies -- weedy, lanky, scrawny, whatever you want to call those sorts of horses with no body and mile long legs. Phlyrt, on the other hand, has more substance (not just relative to her height, but literally more), but less height so that contributes to her proportionate appearance. (And compared to my others, Phlyrt does not have as much substance, so I can only imagine what that person who asked that would think of my others.)

The start was at 8am and was a controlled start. These are my least favorite starts, I'd much rather have a shotgun start in camp. With the controlled start, all the horses go out in a group for about a mile at a walk, then they can go at any speed. But, of course, by this time your horse is happy in the group and suddenly all their friends take off. So, Phlyrt and I argued about speed for quite a while. I was letting her trot, but slowly, not hauling ass. So, as soon as the riders in front of us would get out of sight, the next group would come up from behind and pass us. It was great training, but really tough on my arms & shoulders. What was interesting is I thought she was being a total brat (understandably, given the situation), but riders passing us kept commenting on how well behaved she was and they wished their horses were that good!

Around mile 5 or so, I came across a girl on her first ride whose horse (Gandolf) was a basket case. Luckily she was on the 15 mile "fun" ride, but she was not having any fun. She was literally in tears over her horse's behavior, and I didn't blame her -- he was a monster. She said she was there with some other riders, but they were planning on top tenning so had left her right at the start. I decided to ride with her to see if that would help. So, for several miles Phlyrt and I walked along trying to help her with her horse, but he was beyond help. His brain had totally shut off and he didn't even care that another horse was with him. It didn't help when some guys on dirt bikes rode right up her ass and freaked him out even more. On several occasions he almost went off some edges since he was so hyped up and dangerous (luckily the trail was mostly safe, but there were some areas that were bad for a horse that freaked out). She also said that he'd gone into some cactus earlier. I felt really bad for this poor girl. This horse was so wild and out of control I think if I'd been riding him I would have turned around and gone back to camp.

At the 6 mile mark they had the first water stop, but as the manager had predicted I didn't see any horses (including Phlyrt) drink. Of course, it was made worse because the water stop was a parking area filled with people with dirt bikes and quads -- there was far too much activity and noise for most horses to drink at this point. In fact, we were at the very end of the pack at this point, so all the 50s had gone through and most of the 15 & 25 milers, but the single water tub was still almost full.

Phlyrt and I stayed with Gandolf and his rider (I never got her name!) for a few more miles, but he really was beyond help. His rider decided to dismount and walk him (even then he was just running circles around her, literally). I finally let Phlyrt walk out of his line of sight, and turned around to wait to see if she wanted to stay with us, but she and Gandolf were in their own private war and it was clear we weren't making any difference. So, I rode off without her (I felt SO bad, but didn't know what else I could do and the turn off for the 15 milers to take a different route was coming up soon anyway).

After we left Gandolf, and I dismounted and walked down a hill and tailed up a hill, Phlyrt's brain finally clicked on (she'd been decent, but not "good" by my standards up until then). We spent quite a while alone, which is my favorite way to ride. At mile 11 there was a water stop, and there were other horses at it as we came in sight, but they rode off before we got there. I was expecting her to be a twit about that, but she was wonderful and totally ignored the departing horses and tanked up at the water. I was so proud of her. (Unless you've been in this situation, you might not understand what a big deal this is.)

The vet check was at 14.5 miles. We hadn't seen any horses since the 11 mile water, so I was expecting to come into a pretty empty VC area. Wrong. It was PACKED with horses. We came into the check at 10:53, I let her drink and searched for a pulse person. By the time I located a pulse person was in this zoo of activity and got her pulse taken it was 11am (so officially it took her 7 minutes to pulse down, although I think she was down before that, if I'd been able to figure out who was doing what or if I could learn to yell "Pulse!" louder so they'd come find me); and I hadn't even located the sponge water so I hadn't even sponged her off yet -- which is the best way to bring down the pulse). There was a 30 minute hold here. I asked the pulse person where the vet was for the VC since this was such a mass of horses and people I couldn't even see the vets. I was told that the line of horses leading off behind a bush was the line for the vet! So, I sponged her off after finally locating the sponge water, grabbed some hay, and got in line. We spent at least 30 minutes in that line waiting for the vet (there was only 1 vet there!). But, Phlyrt used the time wisely chowing down on hay, bran mash, and carrots (I had to grab my own hay since they didn't have it thrown down well for the horses in line, but the tubs of mash were well-placed for the line, and there were volunteers walking around handing out carrots).

When we finally got to the vet, she did fantastic. She got all A's except an A- on impulsion (which kind of irritated me, since 1) he has no idea what her normal impulsion is like & 2) I didn't try to get her to show any impulsion since most vets on endurance rides are really easy on that except if you're showing for BC & my own impulsion is pretty low by that point, so I can barely trot out myself). But, I was very happy with the A on gut (normally her weak point), and he even commented on how great her gut sounded.

After we finished with the vet I grabbed a volunteer to please hold her while I used the potty myself. I then let her drink again (good girl!), and mounted up. By this time it was 11:45, so our 30 minute hold was 45 minutes long. This means with the dinking around with Gandolf and his owner, plus our easy pace, and then the longer than expected hold, we had 2 hours and 15 minutes to do the next 10.5 miles and pulse down (the finish of an LD ride is when the horse pulses to 60, not when they cross the finish line). I figured, no problem, this was right on target for our nice slow ride.

Oh, I did see Gandolf's rider at the vet check, so she did survive (the 15 milers had the check at 10 miles or so, rather than at 14.5, by taking a shorter route there). I didn't notice Gandolf so she must have handed him to someone to calm herself -- she'd been almost as worked up as the horse earlier. I also saw her back in camp later, but I didn't try to talk to her (being shy is a real pain in the ass).

Anyway, back to our ride. The next section was a couple mile loop that brought us back by the VC around mile 17 and the photographer. I smiled as we went by. I looked like a dork -- at this point I was dirty, Phlyrt was dirty and sweaty from the heat, and I had my new Range Rider helmet on (which Jason says is really unflattering).

The next section of trail was tough. Some really tough, long climbs up to a vista point (I took photos with my one-time camera), and some steep downhills (ah, yes, and I didn't bring her crupper, good planning). About a half-mile past the vista point (mile 20 I think), there was a water stop. Again, we arrived just as the horses ahead of us were leaving, but Phlyrt ignored them and tanked up like a good girl. After that most of the rest of the ride was on a hard packed dirt road, and mostly downhill. And, I refuse to do more than walk when the ground is that hard (learned my lesson at Fire Mtn with the tendon thank you very much). Phlyrt was perfectly content to walk on a loose rein, even though most of the time the horses ahead of us were in sight thanks to this long dirt road.

At mile 22.5 there was another water stop, where we duplicated the last water -- arriving as the others were leaving, but she ignored them and drank. I was just bursting with pride that she's learned this very important lesson. The trail continued downhill and mostly on hard packed dirt road all the way to camp from here. So, it was all walking. I was starting to worry about our time by now after all that steep climbing followed by all this walking. As camp got into sight, Phlyrt suddenly started getting antsy again -- I thought it was the sight of camp, but the more likely reason is coming up.

At about 1:30 we reached the edge of camp. I dismounted in the shade of a tree (did I mention it was HOT out?) and led her in. As I was walking that last 100 yards into camp the manager walked up and said "the first 50s are coming in fast, so you'll want get out of the way." I walked into camp, was congratulated by the people waiting at the finish line, and then heard "here they come!" I turned around to the sound of thundering hooves. The manager was not kidding -- these two were RACING for first. This was the first time I'd witnessed a finish like this. Wow. No wonder Phlyrt was getting antsy, she had to have heard/felt the hoofbeats behind us even though I didn't actually see them when I turned around (she was doing the thing she does when people come up behind us fast, so I kept checking, but never saw them). Anyway, it was impressive. Not something I care to do, but wow, it was amazing. These horses had just done 50 miles and were in a dead RUN coming down that hill for the finish!

Jason was waiting for us and took Phlyrt from me. We walked over to the vetting area, let her get another nice long drink and called for a pulse taker. She was already down, so our official end time was 1:37. We actually "passed" several of the riders ahead of us since they hadn't pulsed down yet. I had planned to take the whole time and certainly did -- 2pm was the cut off of the 6 hour cutoff. And I think there were still horses out on the trail, so we didn't turtle (I think we were in 64th place).

We went back to the trailer, untacked, and gave Phlyrt a good grooming while she chowed down. She was clearly tired, but not worn out. Around 2-2:15 we went for our vetting out. Jason did his crew duty and trotted her out for me. She got all A's, except a B on gut (which surprised me, but some vets like to be really tough on gut sounds, which I appreciate).

The awards were scheduled to start at 5:30, so Phlyrt and I both took a nap. At 5:30 we went to the awards. They gave no prizes for placings in the LD (this is good, IMO). They did calculate an AERC BC (best condition) from the top ten in the LD, but did not give an award for it. Then they did an overall top five BC from all placings in the LD -- four horses had perfect scores and tied for first! I bet if Phlyrt hadn't gotten that B at the final vetting she would have tied with the 5th horse for 2nd place. Oh, well... We decided not to stick around for the awards for the 50s (which would start at 6:30). Since Phlyrt had rested well and eaten and drank so well, we decided to head home rather than spend the night. So, we hit the road right around 6:30 (along with like half the LDs judging from how many people pulled out with us).

So, it was a very good ride. I was very proud of my girl. I was a bit miffed that I forgot to hand Jason the camera to take some photos of us. Oh, well.