[RC] Nick Warhol- Red Rock Ride Observations part 2 of 2 - Nick Warhol
The time was clicking away on my watch as we walked the long
road towards the check, but I knew it was over.Even if we were out of the check
at 4 pm, we would
have had to push it to go the 14 miles from the last check to the finish.We go to the check at 4, we knew there
was no chance, but were probably going to ride on in anyway for the
tee-shirt.Savanna pulsed down
right away, but Dave’s horse Motion was hanging at 64-66, and
Susan’s horse had quiet gut sounds.That was pretty much it, we spent
an hour letting them eat and rest.Susan’s horse got some nice gut sounds back, but was really
tired.Trilby and her partner
rode out of the camp at 4pm, pretty
much knowing they would not make it on time, but went anyway.The trailer arrived,
we tossed the horses in there, along with Karen Chaton’s
horse Chief, who also had a little trouble recovering.We made it back to camp at 6 pm, the cut off time.Dave Rabe came
in at about 3 minutes before 6, he was WAY ahead of us
all day.Hmmmm.There were quite a few pulls for over
time.I think there were something like 80 starters on the 50 and about 50
finishers.
But the 100- it was a tough one.Apparently there were a few factors that
caused so many pulls- there was one section that I didn’t ride that took
them 4 hours or so to go 18 miles.Those are the front runners.There was also a few complaints about not
enough water for certain parts of the 100 trail.I think one more trough on the 50 up on
top of that sand climb on the second loop would have been appropriate, but I
can’t comment on the water situation on the 100.Another factor is all that
sand.It really is
misleading- it makes it seem so easy, but it really saps the energy from the
horses.The trail also is always
going up or down hills, there was a lot of total elevation gain and decent all
day.Poor Suzanne Ford-Huff led the
whole ride looking very good, and finished first by a lot, but was pulled at
the finish.Horses dropped out of
the 100 all day long for several reasons, but the result was dramatic- 4
finishers with a winning time of over 17 hours.I believe 19 started the
100.Head vet Melissa Ribley did her usual excellent job all day, and as a result
of the rider/vet team cooperation, there were no major treatments.That’s a good thing.
The overall result was good, though.The ride management was very good about
listening and taking suggestions on how to improve things for the
championship.It was good to do a
pre-ride, but it was unfortunate to have so many people not complete.They will make several changes to the
trail, add more water, and do whatever it takes to make the upcoming championship
a success.
