Stories

Saturday October 16, 2004 marked the third time Phlyrt and I completed the Davenport Dare ride. But, this time we finally did the 50.

The weekend prior to the ride I painted the outside of our house. This meant climbing up and down a ladder over and over. I had to move that stupid ladder every three feet since I'm so short and have short arms. Much of the painting was over my head; I was mostly painting trim & eaves. As a result, I was having back spasms all during the week. I was also simply exhausted, as I've been trying to get the house ready to put on the market and have hardly slept in weeks between working on the house, attending the Manzanita ride two weeks prior, keeping up with my normal chores and Jason's chores (he's already in Portland), and working my normal work hours, too. Several times in the week prior to the ride I considered pulling. Friday morning I even went so far as to check the ride entry form to see what the cancellation policy was. It said "no refunds after October 14." Since Friday was the 15th, that made the decision for me. Suck it up and get my butt out there!

Since the Totem Pole Ranch that hosts the ride camp for this ride has pretty much endless parking, I wasn't worried about getting a parking spot. I arrived at camp around 3ish Friday and parked so that Phlyrt could be in the shade. Luckily, this also meant she had the trailer to protect her from the wind which was gusting a bit. After setting up camp and checking in, I saw the first of the vets arrive so I took Phlyrt over for her vet-in. After vetting, I tacked up and got on her for the first time since Manzanita. She was feeling pretty spunky, but was respectful of her sidepull on our short ride out of camp.

The ride meeting was at 7pm and due to some last minute rerouting the trail for the 50s seemed pretty complicated, with one "lollypop" loop and some duplicated trail. We were assured, though, that the trail would be well-marked so we'd be fine. I was so tired I went back to my camp site and pretty much passed out. I know I've been saying that each ride I sleep better than the last, but this one I really slept well. I only got up once and that was because a noise woke me and I figured I might as well check on Phlyrt while I was awake. Luckily I had a new watch and had set the alarm, because without it I might have literally slept past the start time I was sleeping so well. I think sleeping on that hard-as-rock futon mattress in the gooseneck was also good for my back since it felt better when I got up than it had all week.

I had Phlyrt tacked up and ready to go when the 6:30am start time came. We walked over to the start and the front runners were already gone, so we just headed on out. Phlyrt was complimented by the girls working the start on her nice walk on a loose rein. Ah, if only she'd stayed that way.

The ribbons were pretty tough to see in the pre-dawn light, but we only missed one turn and discovered the mistake quickly. Then a couple of "hotshoes" came out and passed us during the first couple miles of trail - both riders I recognized as folks who normally top ten - and suddenly Phlyrt was a different horse. She was pulling and worked up and just generally in a go-go-go frame of mind. She hasn't been this bad in a while.

We were trotting along, and another lone rider came along and passed us. She was trotting along ahead of us, with Phlyrt in let's-catch-them-before-they-get-away mode, when the other mare spooked and her rider hit the ground. She was lying on the ground in front of her mare and holding the reins. Phlyrt came down to a walk easily and we walked up to them, hoping not to startle the other mare. I asked if she was OK, and she replied that she'd be up in a minute. I stood Phlyrt still and waited while the other rider got to her feet and managed to mount her horse. Her knee was bleeding, but she said she was otherwise fine. We trotted along together for a while then she trotted off ahead again.

Around mile 8 there was a pulse-and-go. Phlyrt came in and pulsed down quickly. I was actually impressed how quickly she came down since she was wired and was still acting goofy (for her). Unfortunately, she had refused to drink up to this point - the water at this check was the third water we'd come across already. She did drink a little here, but not nearly as much as I would have liked.

It was getting light enough out that I reached into my pocket for my sunglasses. Akkkk! They were broken. One of those itty-bitty screws had fallen out and left my sunglasses in pieces in my pocket. Oh, boy. That's one way to have a long day in the desert. Ah, well, what can you do? I was wearing one of the "No Whining" shirts from Terry's rides, so I couldn't whine about it even if I'd wanted to. Besides, who was there to whine to?

We trotted on through the desert. This begs the question: isn't it an awful lot of work to drive out to the desert to dump your old appliances and furniture? Why do people do that?

Most of the first leg of the ride was a gradual uphill. As a rider you don't really notice it so much, but it does take its toll on the horses. I heard from a crewperson at one point that they were very impressed at how much elevation change there was when everything looked so flat.

We reached vet check 1. Due to the rerouting, ride management hadn't been able to really supply us with mileages to the various holds other than the first pulse-and-go at 8 miles. Phlyrt and I trotted into the vet check along with the lone rider that had earlier fallen from her horse and with a pair of riders who had been leap-frogging us all morning. I'd been trying to space us out from the other riders by walking, but every time we'd trot we'd catch right back up with them. And if I tried to pass, they'd tag along.

Phlyrt drank well and pulsed down quickly and I took her over to munch on the supplied hay. About 10 minutes into our 20 minute hold I took her over to the vet check. I told the vet that she wasn't drinking as well as I would like to see and that she was more wired than normal. He gave her all A's and told me not to worry so much. He said she was just a fit horse behaving like a fit horse. Well, I'll still worry. It's in my nature.

I decided to trust Phlyrt and left her bit off as we headed back out on the trail. It seemed to be a good decision as she relaxed and stopped pulling on me.

The next section of trail was the "lollypop" loop. It was supposed to be about eight miles. It headed down a wash, up a hill, along some ridgelines, and then back down to the wash and then up the wash. It was a very quick loop, and we continued to leap-frog with the lone rider (Sally) and the pair of riders (never got their names). The trail then cut across back to the same vet check area where we'd had the pulse-and-go.

The trail going up another wash had suffered some sabotage to the ribbons, and we heard at lunch that some of the front runners had lost a lot of time. However, the four of us were riding together at that point and decided to just keep going straight up the wash despite the lack of ribbons. We eventually came across a ride volunteer out trying desperately to put ribbons back up. He assured us that we were on the correct trail.

The four of us rode into the lunch hold together and all four horses pulsed down pretty much simultaneously - the difference in our times basically was just from all needing the pulse takers at the same time. Phlyrt, by this time, was her normal self on sucking up water at every available opportunity.

I grabbed my crewless crew bag and sat down to eat my lunch while Phlyrt ate the hay, beet pulp, and carrots I'd brought for her. At the 30 minute point I took her over to vet, and again she received all A's. In fact, despite my earlier worries about her not drinking normally at the beginning of the ride, the vet told his secretary that Phlyrt's skin-pinch was exactly what he's looking for in a well-hydrated horse.

I then took Phlyrt over to the ride-supplied hay where Sally's husband/crew was watching her horse and asked him if he'd mind keeping an eye on Phlyrt while I visited the porta-potty. I tossed Phlyrt's lead down and she stuffed her face into the hay and didn't look back up. When I returned, I jokingly asked if he by any chance had a safety pin; I was thinking desperately about my broken sunglasses. He said he might have a piece of wire and I held Sally's mare while he went over to his truck. Minutes later he returned with not only a paperclip, but also extra sunglasses in case the paperclip didn't work! What a great guy! Luckily the paperclip did the trick and I finally had eye protection from the desert sun & glare.

An hour is over faster than you can imagine, so I repacked my crew bag and mounted back up. The next section of trail was all repeat of the morning route. Phlyrt, having the memory she does picked up every turn in the trail even if I didn't see the ribbons right away. A couple turns were pretty funny as I totally missed the ribbons, but Phlyrt knew exactly where we were going and almost lost me as she zigged off onto the correct trail.

Not surprisingly, we were still leap-frogging with Sally and the other pair of riders. A long section of this trail was heading down a sandy wash. At the point we hit that trail, Phlyrt and I were in the lead. I just dropped my reins and let gravity help Phlyrt trot on down the trail. It was like a roller coaster ride, with twists and turns and lots of speed. I kept checking her heart monitor, since we were flying along so fast, but her heart rate was low and steady. Gravity is a wonderful thing.

Before we knew it, we'd arrived at vet check 3 which was at the same location as the first vet check hours earlier. All four horses again pulsed down together, although the girl checking Phlyrt couldn't hear her heart - this is a common problem with Phlyrt, but this was the first time it's taken someone so long that they finally gave up and went with my heart monitor reading (which was 54 by then; criteria was 60).

Once again, Phlyrt passed the vet check with A's and 20 minutes were over in the blink of an eye. Sally said that trot down the wash almost killed her as she wasn't up for that much speed. I apologized, and assured her that I was planning on going a lot slower for the remainder of the ride, although Phlyrt was feeling great.

Sally had left the check about a minute or two ahead of us due to the pulse listening problem we'd encountered. I took Phlyrt over for one last drink after I mounted up and then we trotted on down the trail. The volunteers told us we only had 9.1 miles to go.

We caught up with Sally and her mare within a quarter mile of the check. We rode along slowly together. Then the other pair of riders caught up with us and cantered past. We decided to let our mares join in, and had some fun cantering in the group before separating and slowing our mares down. The next couple miles Sally and I rode together, once again leap-frogging with the other pair. At one point, we were ahead and Sally said she hoped they wouldn't come blasting past us again, as she wasn't sure she could keep control of her mare. I told her I'd stick with her and we'd just walk until they were completely gone. Predictably, they came along at a canter and we just walked along as they cantered away. I think a lot of people who ride in pairs or groups really don't understand what it's like for those who ride alone.

The two of us stuck together and walked and trotted the rest of the ride. We trotted into the finish at 3:22pm, more than an hour faster that I'd been tentatively planning on riding.

I took Phlyrt to untack her, threw on a cooler, groomed her a bit, and then took her to vet out. She finished with the same great scores as she'd been getting all day.

By this time the wind, which had been alternating gusts and calmness all day, was starting to blow really hard. There were also rumors going around camp that the weather might turn to rain. I decided to let Phlyrt rest another hour or so, and then to head out. Originally I'd planned to stay for the awards and probably even spend the night, but the wind was very cold and I didn't really want her out in it even with the trailer acting as a wind-block. I figured our drive home was only and hour and a half and she'd prefer being at home. It was a good choice, since 12 hours after our finish time I woke to the sound of pouring rain on my roof, but Phlyrt was tucked in for the night in her pen in a waterproof blanket. And with the rain that we got during the night and on Sunday, I'm sure there were flash floods out in the desert, so the timing was perfect for hightailing it for home.

Once again I am just awed by the amazing athlete Phlyrt has proven herself to be. She wasn't even tired after this "fast" (for us!) 50, and was eager to run right up to the end. And she didn't look or act like she'd gone farther than around the block.