Stories
2004 Hog Wild 50What a fantastic ride!
The 2004 Hog Wild ride was held Saturday April 17. This ride is actually the first of two back-to-back rides offered on Saturday and Sunday. And, it has a reputation as being a tough one. It is in Saugus, CA, just north of LA and The Valley (or maybe technically it is in The Valley?).
Phlyrt and I arrived at base camp around 1:30 pm on Friday. For once there were no emergencies or other issues with leaving home in a timely manner, other than my own turtle-like preparation speed. Base camp was already getting pretty packed with rigs, but I found a decent spot and got us settled in.
Phlyrt was in roaring heat, so of course she was living up to her name, as if she needed that excuse to be talkative in camp. We vetted in with laughter from the vet about Phlyrt being in heat and "oh, she'll be fun."
Since we'd actually arrived with lots of daylight I tacked up and headed out to take some of the edge off and get a nice stretch after the trailer trip. Once she's tacked up Phlyrt's all business. After an hour of trotting and cantering out in a lovely sandy wash, she was content to settle down at the trailer and feed her face.
The ride meeting was short and sweet, which was good since as usual it was turning cold. I'm not sure why it's always cold overnight in camp; even if the days are swelteringly hot, the nights will be freezing cold. I bundled Phlyrt up in a blanket, even though it's been warm enough at home that she's not even wearing a sheet at night. She's fully shed out, you have to look close to see the line from her trace clip anymore.
The 50 mile ride was scheduled to start at 6 am, with an admonition from the head vet that the weather report was calling for fog - which means nearly 100% humidity - so to watch out for overheating our horses even though it would be cool out. I took my melatonin pill (what a fantastic thing to discover; it helps at home and now I found it even helps at a ride!), settled into my sleeping bag with a book and was asleep around 9 or 9:30 pm. I managed to almost sleep through the night - I'm getting better at every ride - and only checked on Phlyrt four or five times. By 4:45 am, however, I was wide awake. It was too cold to willingly leave the sleeping bag, but by 5-ish I'd forced myself to get up.
Phlyrt was tacked up and ready to go in plenty of time for the 6 am start. I led her on a couple laps around camp to stretch her, both pre- and post-tacking up. By start time the fog had lifted, and it was getting warm enough that I went ahead and rolled up Phlyrt's rump rug rather than heading out with it spread out.
I'm not entirely sure where I lost track of time, but by the time I mounted up and arrived at the starting line it was about 6:05 am. Not a big deal, but a bit irksome since I had been ready to go in plenty of time to leave with the crowd, but clearly something went awry. It's obvious I'm not in this sport for the race aspect of it.
The first leg of the ride was a 17 mile loop that would bring us back into camp. Phlyrt was feeling great and wanted to go fast - typical for early in the ride, but this time she pulled all the way through that leg. Normally she'd be content to do a flat walk on a loose rein within the first five miles or so, but not this ride. The trail was wonderful, up and down, with great footing and quite a few water stops. The weather was cool, but not cold. My ride "plan" was to try to do this first leg in about two and a half hours.
I was shocked when we circled back into camp at exactly 8 am. We were already half an hour ahead of the speed I had thought we'd go. As fast as that was, the front runners had apparently taken only a little over an hour. Obviously the cool weather had all the horses feeling good. I let Phlyrt drink and drag me over to get some hay while I messed around with her rump rug - it was cool enough at the checks for me to feel she really needed it. By the time I was done fussing around and called for her pulse, it was 8:07. This was a 20 minute hold. Phlyrt seemed to prefer the weeds growing around the vet area more than the hay supplied by management, silly girl. After five or 10 minutes I went ahead and took her to the vet where she got straight A's. Since we still had 10+ minutes left on our hold, I headed back to the trailer so she could eat some of her own hay rather than weeds, and I could run to the potty. Of course, I managed somehow to lose some time and we headed out on the next leg at 8:30 rather than our official 8:27 out time.
The next leg was 18 miles, which would again loop back into camp for our hour lunch hold at mile 35. Phlyrt was still feeling great and didn't think we needed to walk. Up, down, didn't matter, she thought we should fly! On some of the steepest down hills I dismounted and led her, which was good for both of us. We passed quite a few riders on this leg, which was totally different from our normal ride "strategy" where we let everyone pass us. Like the first leg, the trail was beautiful, the footing was generally fantastic, and there was a ton of water out there for the horses - like a good girl Phlyrt stopped and drank every time.
At 10:56 am we trotted into camp again. 35 miles under our belts and it wasn't even close to noon yet! Phlyrt got her pulse taken at 10:59, for once I didn't dink around, but called for a timer pronto. We then headed for the trailer for both of us to eat lunch. That's when it started to rain. The sky had been threatening for a while and there had been some drizzles out on trail, but at this point it was really coming down. I threw a blanket on over Phlyrt's saddle & rump rug (she was protected by those), but I was too late and my fuzzy seat cover was nice and soaked. What fun that was to sit on for the rest of the ride. I went back into the trailer to hide out and eat my lunch - and, yes, I actually ate quite a bit for a change.
At the mid-point of our hour hold the rain had slowed to a misting, and we headed back to the vet area for her vet check. All A's except for one B on gut - this is a really subjective area, especially since you can get a really good gurgle one minute and the next minute not hear enough. Since I knew she was feeding her face and drinking well I wasn't remotely concerned about that B. So, we headed back to the trailer and she kept on eating. Unlike her other 50s so far she didn't even bother taking a nap.
Our official out time was 11:59 am, and we actually left just after noon. Our biggest time hurdle this time was that I managed to drop my gloves in a bucket of water at the trailer while preparing to head back out and had to figure out what gloves to wear for the rest of the ride. Since my fingers were cold I decided to try a pair of winter Thinsolate-lined gloves; I also put on a sweatshirt under my windbreaker as the weather was getting colder not hotter as the day progressed. I left Phlyrt's rump rug down as we left camp. I believe this was the first time I'd actually ridden her with a rump rug dangling, good thing she's a good girl and takes things like this in stride. Within a few minutes of leaving camp I felt she'd warmed up plenty, and I went ahead and rolled the rug back up, which took some talent to do while riding if I do say so myself. I also had had the presence of mind to bring along my cell phone, since there had been no reception in camp. On the top of a hill I called my husband to say "hi" and tell him how great we were doing.
The next check would be out on trail in 12 miles at mile 47. Since Phlyrt was finally content to walk some we walked more on this leg than we had during the first 35 miles, but she was still wanting to trot and canter quite a bit, too. On this leg we ran into the same woman who rescued us from the rattlesnake at Bar H Boogie and rode together for a while, although at some point we left her behind. This was another lovely section of trail. While most of it was remote, like the rest of the ride, some of it wound through homes. There were several gorgeous horse properties, a place teaming with exotics (I saw the camel over the fence and heard they had a lot of other critters), and even a "monkey house" where they really had monkeys. It's not every day that you get to see monkeys from horseback. Phlyrt didn't even notice them.
About a mile or so from the vet check we were crossing a lovely field of grass and I stopped to let Phlyrt graze for a few minutes. For quite a while I'd been aware of others behind us, and while we were stopped they caught up and passed us. Must have been 6 or 8 horses, and Phlyrt just kept eating as they trotted by. What a good girl!
We came into the check just minutes behind that big group, with an in time of 1:52 pm. I couldn't believe it. My original plan had been to aim for a 4 pm finish, or 10 hours completion time including holds. Clearly, even with the dawdling we did on this leg our time was going to be much faster than I'd planned. We only had three miles to camp at this point!
Since so many of us were needing pulse checks at the same time I let all the others go first since they'd arrived first; if I was in a hurry I wouldn't do that, but I wanted them to go ahead and leave the hold before us so they wouldn't need to pass us again on trail. Even so our pulse time was 1:57 pm. Phlyrt was extra hungry at this hold (or the hay was tastier here?). She even liked the bran mashes supplied by management, which she normally ignores. At the mid point we vetted through with more A's and then she went back to eating. I had warmed up enough out on trail that I took off my sweatshirt, but my hands would have to continue to sweat in the Thinsolate gloves for the rest of the ride. Our out time for this 20 minute hold was 2:17 pm, and we actually hit the trail at 2:20 pm since I felt so bad pulling Phlyrt away from the food. (At least I know exactly what happened to the couple minutes I went over this time.)
The last three miles was rumored to be "up," but since all day had been either up or down, with the little bit of flat being in the sandy wash, I wasn't worried that we were going to be hit with anything new for the finish. It took us 22 minutes to cover those three miles, mostly walking or slowly trotting the ups and downs. We cantered across the finish line at 2:42 pm. Feeling goofy I put out my arms like Alec on The Black to the amusement of the finish timers.
In camp, I'd just gotten Phlyrt un-tacked and put her cooler on when the sky started falling again. But, this time was different. It was HAILING! In Southern California! Akkk! I threw a waterproof blanket on Phlyrt and an oilskin duster on me. Phlyrt was looking so miserable that I went out and stood upwind from her with my back to the hail and let her hide her face in my coat. I felt so bad for her! 50 miles and then getting hailed on. Of course, I felt even worse for those still out on trail!
The hail didn't last too long, but it was followed by more rain. We had to do our final vetting within an hour of coming in, so we ended up having to vet out in the rain. Phlyrt finished with A's and a couple A-'s that I mostly attributed to the scowl on her face - she hates having rain hit her face (Miss Prissy? tough endurance horse who hates being rained on).
Originally, I'd hoped to stay overnight and ride on Sunday, too. But, I decided that having done the ride in significantly less time than I'd planned, I should quit while we were ahead. Phlyrt finished strong and looked great, but this was only her third 50 so I didn't want to ask too much of her. Besides, I couldn't seem to get dry and I didn't like that Phlyrt couldn't get dry, so I knew we'd both be more comfortable sleeping at home. We stuck around for the awards, where we learned that not only had the winners finished by something like 11:30 am (!), but there were only three pulls on the 50 and all three were Rider Options, so not a single pull by the vets!
This was simply a great ride. The weather - which we were lucky to mostly experience while in camp - offered some new challenges, but that's what endurance is about. The trail was awesome; the views were great; the volunteers were all friendly; management was super organized; tons of water on the trail; this ride was an A+ all the way around! Next year I hope to do both days of this not-to-miss ride!
Don't miss Nick Warhol's Hog Wild Story