Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

In a message dated 3/29/2004 11:07:14 PM Eastern Standard Time, lanconn@xxxxxxx writes:

> up the next hill. When I reached the top amd looked
> back,  no Becky in sight.  Hmmm....seems going UP hills is a little harder
> than going down! Right, Becky? <grin>
>
> Becky is still leading about 4-5 miles out of camp.  I'm keeping Magic off
> Miles' butt, but staying close enough behind that we can talk.  However, at
> the top of a little hill, Miles did an abrupt stop and Magic stepped on his
> left rear shoe, yanking it off.  Becky didn't have an easyboot, but since
> the ground was soft we thought he would be OK till we reached camp.  He
> showed no signs of being off.  We did the first loop in 2 hrs and 41
> minutes....just about perfect.  In camp, both horses were down immediately,
> but in the trot-out, Miles was off on the right front! Was it because of the
> lost shoe on the left rear?  Too fast on the downhills?  Things like this

Jim does such a great job telling these ride stories! I can attest that he tells the truth, and does not forget a single detail...

After beating myself up on the twelve hour drive home  to Florida Sunday, I came to the conclusion that I just plain rode my horse too hard on that first loop by letting him pick his pace. He has only done a couple of mountain rides, and was feeling extremely good. It may not have helped him to have his hind shoe pulled, but I'm pretty sure that was not the total cause.
With my new Timex speed and distance watch, I now know that this horse is trotting 8.1- 8.8 mph, when for years he's finished ride after ride by trotting between 6.6 and 7.3 mph. I believed that he needed to make better time in the mountains to complete (he's finished a couple of 50's this year on flat ground in 9 hr ride time).
He's a big horse (weighs 1100 lbs), and cannot handle "speed". 
Judy Houle told me last summer while riding the CA Street loop on the Tevis trail that we only need to average 5 mph at Tevis this year to finish. Leatherwood mountain ride has been quoted by two-time Tevis finisher Claude Brewer to be a tougher trail on a horse than Tevis. Guess I should have listened to Judy and Claude...
Of course I didn't see the second loop at Leatherwood, but everyone says it was tough. Not a single break from the up and downs. I imagine it was tough to average even 5 mph. I had told myself going into this ride that I would rather have (not) finished it by going over-time than with a lame horse, and I blew that strategy on the first loop.

Overall though I had a great time. I learned alot about negotiating hills from Jim. Fortunately, I had "practiced" tailing at home because when Jim "lost" me at the bottom of that mountain, I was in the middle of receiving a rude awakening to tailing! About halfway up that 500 foot climb I had nothing left. The lungs were screaming. A nice man held my stirrup so I could mount on the side of the trail, and I figured then that I'd run the down hills but let my horse pack me up!

My sister had driven over from Durham to rent a Leatherwood "cabin" (more like a lodge) with me, so we just got to spend more time together than we expected!
The good news is that I had my vet come out to do radiographs on his fetlock joint first thing yesterday morning, (based on Dr. Jeannie Waldron's advice). There are no chips or sesamoiditis apparent, so we are treating it like a soft tissue injury and he should be well in a week or two (he is sound at the trot already). I'll get him back in light training then and we should be on track to do the Biltmore 50 on May 8th.

Thanks to Abbie and Phil and all the great people at Leatherwood for a first class ride. I'll be back for that one!
Also thanks to Jim for taking me under wing, we're going to his place to train in the N Georgia mountains early this summer to do more prep work for Tevis.

Becky and Moyle Miles (Tevis bound)