I DID IT!! First 50 miler!

[Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>]

First a couple of comments on what lead up to this last weekend since I've
gone thru a lot of stuff to get to this point.  

When I first got interested in this sport, I had a job that wouldn't let me
have any Fridays off for the whole summer...so I got a new job that has me
scheduled for 12 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays (I pick up extra days when
I don't have anything on my schedule.)  Last year we started competing in
LD.  

I had not ever camped with a horse nor was I set up to camp myself (altho I
had a lot of experience in this regard in years past)...so I set about
getting "stuff" to survive weekends with the horses in all types of terrain
and wide varieties of weather (and all tent camping since my truck wouldn't
pull 3 horses with the weight of a camper over the passes.  New truck
forthcoming in the next couple of months or so.)  

I had been riding horses that averaged around 17h. but had a couple of
"shorties" (around 15h) in the pasture who were 11 years old, pretty green,
completely fat and out of shape, and had not travelled in a trailer...so
out of the pasture they came and I soon added a Welsh/Arab mare and then
two Arab geldings to the group in training.  

I had been spending all of my riding time doing dressage lessons and riding
in an arena and hadn't been out on the trails for several years...so I
started riding in the hills in our area to condition the horses and learn
about endurance riding from the scientific point of view.  

I didn't know anybody in my area who did this sport...so I nabbed a couple
of students who were interested.  We all learned together -- and Aarene,
who has stuck with me from the beginning, is now my greatest asset in
making our weekends run smoothly.  Along the way we've gotten other
students and friends interested as well.  

Last year we did our first season of 25s...I rode Blaze and then acquired
Cabby during the year.  He had done 50s in the past but had only done three
25s in the last 2 years...one of those with me 3 weeks ago at Home on the
Range.  He had gone thru a phase (of several months) of being only ridden
in a hunter barn arena by a young rider (not the owner) and managed to get
chubby and out of shape (and short-strided :-p) while the owner's parents
went thru a divorce.  They also did a terrible job on his feet (long toe,
low heel) so he had to be laid off for a while when I got him to get his
chunked out feet back in shape.  I've been working with him now for just a
few months. 

I decided it was time -- I needed to make the leap and give a 50 miler a
try.  The Grizzly Mt. ride seemed to be a good one to start with, according
to those who had ridden it before.  Also, with me riding the 50, our team,
the Tree Frogs (new last year) would have 3 people in the 25 and 3 in the
50...a possibility for points in both distances.  

Two weeks ago, Cabby (my horse) stepped near the edge of the road we were
training on and it gave way.  He scrambled to get back on the road and
didn't set his foot down right and slipped on the wet rocks.  When I felt
him starting to fall, I knew I was going down so I did my best to get away
from him.  I landed on my right SI joint on the road (a good trick seeing
how I came off on his left side <g>) and tweaked all of the joints on my
right side.  For the next two weeks I did nothing to aggravate those body
parts and let them heal so that I could do the ride.  Cabby did fine,
didn't get injured, since he was able to recover from his fall once he
didn't have me aboard. ;-) 

The day after my fall, Cabby's new saddle (custom DeSoto) arrived.  I know
you're not supposed to use anything new in a situation as this, but I
figured it would have to fit better than what he was currently wearing.  I
put a student on him for a lesson in the new saddle to check for fit and
then I climbed on long enough to adjust the stirrups for me.  Since
Marilyn's saddles have free swinging, narrow fenders, they can be switched.
 Blaze already had his saddle with fenders for my height and were already
broken in.  When I ordered Cabby's saddle, I ordered shorter fenders to
switch to Blaze's saddle since I have several short (5' nothing) students
and friends that ride him and we couldn't get the current stirrups up high
enough.  Having the fenders already broken in on Cabby's new saddle would
be a big bonus...a much easier time on my poor torqued knees. 

We got to the ridecamp on Friday about an hour later than planned since we
had a blowout on one of the trailer tires as we pulled into the gas station
in Madras.  If you're going to have a blowout, do it there, on a Friday
afternoon...and have the Les Schwab dealer about a half mile down the road.
<g>  Aarene and I got the tire changed and sent Jim and Kadi to the tire
store to get a new tire.  By the time we got the tire on, they already had
the new tire ready.  Just drove down, paid the guys, and tossed it into the
dressing room of the trailer.  Also, Aarene drove this trip since I didn't
want to stress my right leg (and did a great job on her first attempt
driving a rig -- and has now earned her role as Head Driver of the Rig.)  

Getting into the ridecamp (thru the deep clay-mud) was the hardest part of
the 10 hour trip -- "put it into 4-wheel drive and keep your foot on the
gas pedal.  If you bog down, stop pedaling." <g>  The valet service was a
hoot and we saw several rigs being pulled around the camp by the tractor on
duty. ;-)  We made it fine, however, and got camp set up in an organized
fashion (finally!!) and in record time.

Mercifully the 50s started at 8am (I had been thru several 3:30am arousals
for work (and the trek down) that week that I was very happy to sleep until
5:30.)  Kadi Jefferson (who rode Darby, my Welsh/Arab pony mare, last year
in 25s) was going to do her first 50 on Blaze (whom I rode in 25s last
year) and it would also be her first ride as a Senior.  We figured Blaze
would be fine since he had been conditioned by a HW (me) and Kadi is a FW.
It was Blaze's first 50 also.  I also had another student, Jim Beidle (who
was our crew last year) doing his first 25 on Blue, one of my schooling
horses...her first ride also.  They were guided by Aarene, who rode Story,
her horse she did 25s on last year.  My friend and fellow Tree Frog team
member, David LeBlanc, would be our guide -- and he was great!!!  As we
went thru the ride, we would discuss different aspects of it so that we
would know how to do the vet holds more efficiently, how fast we needed to
be going to maintain an average 7mph or so, and so on.  With so many water
troughs along the way and the mileage marked on the maps at the water
troughs, David's great mathematical mind would quickly let us know how fast
we were going.

Around mile 40 I experience the dreadful "chafing" that so many have
complained about ;-)...and also discovered that riding Cabby for 50 miles
was definitely a *2* jogbra type of ride, since wearing only one was not
quite enough and resulted in sore chest muscles and some new areas of
chafing I hadn't encountered before. <bg>  At around mile 45, my right leg
muscles decided they didn't have much posting or two-pointing left in them.
 My right ankle and knee were hurting pretty badly.  At this point I was
very happy that my orthopod had given me the prescription for Voltaren (a
heavy duty anti-inflammatory/anti-prostaglandin that works pretty well --
altho a legit "pain pill" would have been welcomed at that time!)  When I
asked him for the Voltaren (and announced I was going to ride the 50), he
looked at me over the top of his eyeballs and said, "Are you sure you
REALLY want to do this?"  I told him I had to and "it was for the team!!"
"Oh, okay...", he says.  (Hehe...the "team" argument always works with the
guys. <g>)

Everyone made it in.  We (in the 50) did it in about 11 hours including vet
check times, coming in nearly tail-end.  The horses were in great shape...a
little tired but doing well.  I had muscle fatigue like I've never
experienced in my past!!  A little sleep, tho, and lots of
anti-inflammatories and Tylenol, and I was able to zip right up to get my
completion award the next morning.  However, a 10 hour ride in the truck
yesterday let rigor mortis start to set in <g> and I could really feel the
sore muscles from head to foot by the time we got home.  They're better
today but still complaining. ;-)

Aarene and Jim did well on the 25.  The third person on our team doing the
25 was Jennifer, David's wife, riding their young horse, Phoenix.  She also
did well and came in about midway thru the pack.

I can appreciate the addictive qualities of this sport pretty well at this
point.  At about mile 48 I was wondering about my sanity in sport choices
<g> but those thoughts totally dissipated when I saw the ridecamp.  Even as
I could barely walk when I got off, I was already planning my next 50 at
Prineville in 3 weeks!!!  We will be bringing Billy (Belesemo Trad x
Naliza), another of my horses, to his first ride then also...Aarene will be
riding him.   

All in all, it was a great experience!  I feel we (my horses, the other
riders, and I) were fairly well prepared and we learned A LOT!!!!  I will
be going into my second 50 with the confidence that I know I CAN do
this...despite starting as an older adult (a grandmother) and having to
deal with various aches and pains from some injuries.

Only 2 weeks, 5 days until Prineville (but who's counting? <bg>)

Sue    




sbrown@wamedes.com
Tyee Farm
Marysville, Wa.