Then the climbing began.
I've never seen so much uphill in my life. We went up and up and up and
up, and just when you think you are at the top, you round a corner and there's
more up and up. Poor Widget would stop, look up, look back and try to turn
around and go downhill instead. I kept telling myself that this
is the worst ... after the next vet check, it will be downhill back to
McCoy's. Some of the views were just spectacular. You look
waaaaaaaaaaaay down and see the Shenandoah river snaking through the
valley.
At the next vet check (I can't
remember the name) I was so happy to see my crew. They took my horse, got
him eating and drinking, got me eating and drinking. No problems getting
through the check. I barely remember it! Anyway, I set off
happily anticipating the downhill coming up. Wrong! The trail going
back was more uphill!!!! Where the heck do they find all these
hills. Again we climbed up and up and up over even more rock than
before. More spectacular views.
At one point I came to a pie plate
that said "Bog" and sure enough, right smack in the middle of the trail
was this huge pit of mud. No way around that I could see. I checked
very carefully to make sure hoofprints went up on the other side of it and that
no ears were sticking out of it. Looked like it hadn't sucked down any
horses, so we slogged through -- it was over my horse's knees (he's only
14h). So anyway, I'm looking (and praying) for some downhill -
please!! Be careful what you pray for -- the downhill finally appeared and
it was scarier than the uphill! No dirt -- just rock. At one
point my horse stopped dead in the trail, looked down, and clearly said "No WAY
I'm going down that!!" I got off and tried to lead him down, but he
refused to budge, which was probably a good thing because if he had gone, he
would have most likely landed right on top of me. I got back on and he
immediately tried to do a rollback (no room to turn around) and head in the
opposite direction. Nope -- I told him, we have to go down
there. He finally heaved a huge sigh and plunged down the hill. I
spent the next half hour or so praying that his shoes didn't slip. We
finally got past the really bad rock into more sucky mud. I didn't think
we'd ever make it back to McCoy's. In fact, I was so sure we would be over
time that I stopped frequently to let him graze and drink. We finally came
into McCoy's (dead last) and to my surprise, they vetted him through, and after
our hold sent us on our way! I again met up with my friendly drag rider
who led the way back across the Shenandoah.
We had 7 miles to our last vet
check and this time I was definitely over time. I was almost to the check
when I heard someone call my name. Turning around in the road I saw my
truck and my crew -- all loaded up and on their way back to base camp!
They were told I was pulled at McCoy's and the ambulance was taking my horse
back to camp, so they were leaving. They were pretty shocked to see me
coming up the road. Thank goodness we ran into each other. We got
Widget watered and fed and checked by the vets. It was only 4 more miles
back to the 4-H center and I wanted to ride it rather than be trailered
back. He pulsed right down and was deemed fit to continue, so Suzanne (the
drag rider and now my best buddy) and I headed back to base camp.
She and I discussed whether we
should race to the finish, decided "nah" so we just trotted/gaited in waving our
arms, shouting YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!! .... our friends were clapping and cheering ...
it was pretty cool. I was an hour or so over time, but we completed 50
miles -- a distance neither myself or my horse has never done before.
Widget was tired and had some foot soreness from all the rocks (definitely pads
if I ever do this again), but no puffiness, no muscle soreness that I could
find. He was out galloping around the field with his buddies
after we got home this afternoon.
All in all .. it was a wonderful
weekend. If I had planned a trail ride, and it had rained all the
previous afternoon and all the previous night I would have said "forget
it", rolled over and gone back to sleep. But there I was, so I might as
well get up at an ungodly hour and go ride in whatever is out
there. I met lots of
wonderful people, made some new friends, reconnected with old
friends ... Life is good!
