Wild West Rides - Another long story!

[Robin Everett <robin_everett@yahoo.com>]

Hi, "Nikki and Shannon"!

I'm the lady with the pinto who was camped next to you
- you introduced yourself to me - then left.  We must
have been close behind you on Sunday - we finished
21st.

I've been meaning all week to send in a ride story
about this ride - am just now getting caught up with
all the personal stuff that piled up while we were
gone.  

This was my second multi-day, but my first alone.  No
crew, and no buddies camping with me.  The goal was to
get Boo to be more sensible at rides.  As far as
eating and drinking went, we were successful.  Didn't
do quite so well in the pace rating department.

We got in Friday night in the dark and rain.  Melissa
helped us find a spot to park and we settled in a
quickly as possible - me camping in the horse trailer,
and Boo in his heavy coat.  The rain was persistent,
but not too heavy, and not too cold.  We did the 30
mile ride on Saturday.  It was raining when we
started.  I kept thinking about the picture of Ken
Wolgram in the 2000 Distance Riders Journal and
thought - this is what it means to be an endurance
rider!  I can do this!  I went out in my (short) rain
coat, full leather chaps, a rain cover on my helmet,
and my regular riding gloves.  That was my only
problem.  By halfway through the first loop, my hands
were soaking wet, and I was longing for the ski gloves
I knew were tucked into my trailer.  But it wasn't
really very cold, and the rain wasn't hard or blowing.
 The second loop, with the dry, waterproof gloves, was
much better!  Boo and I had a good day!  I do think
some people gave Melissa a hard time about not
canceling the ride.  I never felt unsafe, nor did Boo
slip on the trail.  Of the over 30 people (I heard)
who had planned to do the LD, only 9 of us actually
did it.  They missed a nice experience!  After the
rain, you could look down into the valleys and see
clouds below you.  Very pretty!

Got up Sunday to do the 50, and decided to start late
to avoid the rush.  Waited 10 minutes.  However, other
people had had the same idea.  Once Boo saw people in
front of him, he thought he had to power past them. 
The first part was mostly a slight downhill, and Boo
loves trotting those.  Also, we got sucked into
following a woman on a really nice mare who was going
much faster than I wanted to go.  Took me awhile to
get my kid under control. Finally, I met what must
have been the same Karen you met, Nikki, with the bay
horse and the broken bridle.  Karen Swartz. Her horse
is Chris.  We rode together for awhile, and she kept
saying she would let me go on ahead, but the horses
were going pretty well together, so we stayed
together.  I was there when her bridle broke.  She
decided to use Boo as a brake (he does go marginally
slower if he's in front!).  We rode together into the
vet check - a bit faster than I had wanted - and she
pulsed down before I did.  Karen's sister, Kathie, had
shown up to crew for her, and most graciously crewed
for me, too.  I had LMF in my cantle bag for Boo, but
they said to leave it and let Boo eat Chris's stuff -
which Boo was happy to do.  Karen wanted to leave at a
walk, so she left ahead of me, expecting me to catch
up.  Without a buddy, though, Boo was willing to go
more slowly, and I was concerned over his taking 5
minutes to pulse down, so I didn't see Karen again
during the ride, but we did spend some time together
in camp.  A really classy lady!  With a great sister! 
The whole day was a great ride - much faster than I'm
used to going.  Not too slippery, but you did have to
be careful.  Boo practiced his skiing (hind legs
only).  There was one very steep and narrow downhill
trail that we had been warned about - stay on your
horse!  We went down that very slowly.  At one point,
we had to make a 90 degree turn left.  Boo thought he
could ski through it, but his hind legs went a bit too
far under him, and he just about sat down on his butt!
 I grabbed saddle, to stay out of his way while he
recovered, and thanked God for my breast collar!  This
strain probably was the cause of a large hot spot Boo
developed after the ride on his left side behind the
girth, wrapping around to his abdomen.  Scared me when
I saw it, and I had Melissa check him out.  But he was
fine, and that was after the ride, so we did complete.
 Yeaaaa!  In fact, we got chased across the finish
line by a bunch of motorcycles.  They came up behind
us just as we were coming up to the finish line.  One
passed us, and I pulled Boo over to the side of the
road so the others could get by.  He had other ideas,
and was dancing around, so the bikers all stopped well
back from us, turned off their motors, and walked
their bikes (not great bit ones, but not little ones,
either) past the finish line and the camp - asking
which way the highway was.  I had the idea they had
taken a wrong turn somewhere and didn't realize they
were on roads closed to motorcycles.  Boo followed
them across the finish line, but was not about to stop
and drink with them so close.  Maybe next time!

Got up Monday after a great night's sleep.  Actually
saw stars!  And the sun came up!  We didn't lose the
clouds completely, and there was a cool wind most of
the day, but still it was another great ride.  We
started ten minutes late again, and this time it
worked beautifully.  Boo settled into his working
trot, and it was an hour before we caught up to
anybody.  Of course then he had to charge ahead, and
we wound up finishing 17th out of 36, making new
friends (Steve and Vicky) along the way.  Boo was
tired after 3 days, but still tried to race Vicky's
horse the last 5 miles.  I had to work to hold him
back!

This story is quite long enough - but I did want to
tell everyone what a great ride this was.  Robert cut
some of the trail himself with his dirtbike, I'm told.
 The food was great, and the volunteers, too.  As is
typical with multi-days (I'm told), there weren't an
overabundance of vet checks.  However, there were rest
stops where management had hauled in hay and carrots
for the horses.  And there were always these nice
little girls with candy for the people as well as
water for your water bottles.  At the last stop on
Monday, they even had cupcakes (leftover from the
banquet, since so many folks had bailed because of the
rain). And radio folk, so if you did come in with a
problem, they could call for help.  And the trails
were all extremely well marked - even I only got
sidetracked a couple of times, and I always found my
way back again.

So I want to thank Robert and Melissa for an extremely
well-managed ride.  I'm sorry the rain drove so many
participants away.  I'd really recommend this ride (or
any others they manage)!  And I now have 3 caps, in 3
different colors!  And Boo has 650 miles in 50s! {: >

Robin and Boo 

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