Ridecamp: [RC] Silver State, Thanksgiving weekend 2002

One of the great things about this ride being over Thanksgiving weekend is 
that it lets you look back over the previous year and think of all the 
things that you have to be Thankful for.  On the 9-hour drive to Jean, 
Nevada this year I thought of all of those things.  Weaver and Rocky, I am 
sure, don't realize how much I appreciate them, nor do they understand all 
of the great and wonderful experiences that they have given me.  I can shut 
my eyes (not while I'm driving tho), and think back to any of the various 
places we have been over the last year and I am magically transformed to 
that moment.  I remember sponsoring a junior on her first 100, while she 
slept with her arms around Rocky's neck in the last couple of miles to the 
finish.  I remember Weaver drinking out of the Snake River, and of the 
blisters he put on my hands trying to slow him down after leaving the vet 
check on the last day at that ride.  I remember the how the air smelled 
from the soft rain and Weaver's warm breath on my neck when I got off to 
get a gate.  Everything I think of makes me smile.  I am truly Thankful 
this Thanksgiving.

As time goes on I think I have learned to appreciate each ride a lot 
more.  I am not in any hurry to finish, because then it is over.  I rode 
with John Bass on the first day, and we finished last.  We had the most 
amazing ride.  There was a storm, and the sky filled the desert with the 
most incredible colors.  The contrast between the brown desert and the 
rainbow of colors in the sky is something that is just so special to get to 
experience.  The weather was just perfect - no wind, it didn't rain and we 
were comfortable.  As John and I went over the Rocky Pass for what may well 
be the last time anybody rides over it on an endurance ride, I collected 
one of the trail markers to keep as a souvenir.   We were in last 
place---the first time we went thru Rocky Pass we were getting lapped by 
the front runners.  The second time thru was pretty peaceful!  As I was 
leading Weaver down the steepest part of the pass, he stopped and turned 
his head, letting me know that we were getting too far ahead of John and 
Boomer.  I looked back and saw that John was indeed quite a ways back, he 
looked like he was trying out for a role in Night of the Living Dead, or 
the Mummy, by how he was moving <ouch>.  This gave me more opportunity to 
snap photos of the spectacular colors.  The days are short, so we rode the 
last couple of miles in the dark. Lights from the Nevada Landing casino 
blinded us and so we just let the horses find the way.  They knew better 
than we did where the trail went.  This day's trail does a loop back into 
the same camp.  We finished at 5:30, went to the ride meeting at 6:00 then 
headed over to the casino to eat dinner.  What a day!

On the second day we ride point to point, from Jean out to Blue Diamond.  I 
really like this trail because it is so much fun to ride. The trail winds 
and dips and turns and goes up and down.  I was sponsoring Heather, a 
junior, and her horse Marc.  Heather's older sister Miranda was moving my 
rig and Rocky for me to Blue Diamond.  I rode Weaver and waited for most 
everybody to start and leave camp until we left.  This resulted in a nice 
easy relaxed day.  On some of the last rides Weaver has become really 
difficult when he doesn't get to go at a pace that he wants.  I much prefer 
to avoid that kind of situation.  Anybody who thinks a young horse is 
difficult at the start---an experienced *strong* and opinionated horse 
isn't a whole lot easier! :+D  On this day, same as the one before, I often 
felt as if I was riding a ballet - as the horse just glided thru the trail 
with such ease and grace.  I feel so safe and secure on Weaver, he has 
never fallen with me and he loves following those narrow single-track 
trails with as much enthusiasm as ever.  We did get rained on a little bit 
this day, but the temperature was warm and it was nice.  The night before 
it rained for hours.  Weaver's neck and head had been wet for a full day 
and he was still in a good mood.  Ordinarily, he hates bad weather. But, 
this was just rain, no wind, and warm -so he was pretty content.  Because 
it was warm, humid and raining - the horses just never did dry.  My 
Gore-Tex raingear kept me dry and warm, and Weaver had a polar fleece rump 
rug.  The rain from the night before made the desert even more beautiful 
than ever.  The barrel cactus were vivid red in color, the moss had turned 
bright turquoise and green and the Joshua trees stood out against the brown 
earth in their new shiny green colors.  Add to this the colored rocks as we 
head up towards Cave Canyon and the clouds in the sky and you've got nearly 
every color imaginable.  Heather decided to pull at the lunch stop, so I 
continued on and rode the rest of the day with Tracy and her stallion 
Dragon.  The trail markings had been tampered with, but we managed to find 
our way without too much trouble.  It was about 3:30 when we finished--7:00 
a.m. starts.  RM provided a really nice hot dinner to us that night (the 
other nights we had the casino restaurants to choose from), and completion 
awards were polar fleece throws.

On the third day I rode Rocky.  This day was the 1st ride day of the new 
ride season.  We started last and stayed behind Trilby for several miles 
out.  I spent a lot of time working on getting him to walk and trying to 
keep him calm and from getting too wound up.  Knowing he'd already spent 2 
days not being ridden to get wound up (he hates being not-rode!)   He likes 
to try and use every excuse in the book to break into a gallop.  I found 
that morning, the only two gears Rocky had were "neutral" - which is when 
he was standing still and "faster", which is what he tried to achieve no 
matter what gait we were in.  It went something like this:  (from the 
horses perspective) "I want to gallop, if I can't gallop, I will 
trip.  When I trip I will save myself by going into a gallop.  If you try 
and control my speed I will run thru a cholla cactus".  Yet, I never got 
mad at him, instead I talked to him and patiently kept working with him 
until he understood.  When I started to feel him responding to my leg aids 
and he was staying in a trot, I let him go a little more.  When he tried to 
get going too fast we would go back to a walk.  During the lunch vet check 
he probably tossed his head up in the air at least 100 times -all the while 
eating, drinking, peeing on his food, and dragging me around.  Apparently 
Chill Out wasn't in Rocky's vocabulary on this day.  He gets like this 
sometimes.  After lunch I let him go a little more and that made him really 
happy, though I still had to bring him down to a walk if he saw riders 
ahead.  This was a great training day for us, because at the end of it I 
felt that I had accomplished something.  We still have a long way to go.  I 
still don't know how many cholla cactuses we knocked into.

Well, all three days went by too fast.  Just like that, it is over.  The 
casino is there, and we ate dinner in it one last time.  It is nice to have 
good friends.  We had a great time, talking about the magic we have from 
riding our horses on such a fun trail.  I will miss this ride.  Weaver and 
Rocky, between them, have completed the last 21 days, or - 7 years - of 
Silver State.  We've had a lot of great times here, and will really miss 
this trail.  It is a real treasure!  Thanks to LVDR, Claire, Fred, Peggy 
and all of their wonderful helpers on all of their hard work.  We really 
appreciate you.  :-)

Karen
& Weaver
& Rocky .....looking forward to wherever we end up next year :-)







=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=