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[RC] Big South Fork ride report(quite long) - Sunset Farm


Whew wee, was it warm and humid!!! But still my FAVORITE ride. Beautiful trail all day long, they have some climbs but not as long as at OD, they have some rocks but not too many, they have some sand but not too much or too deep and some gorgeous stretches along the river and with super cool gigantic rocks that you can envision Indians peering around. Absolutely wonderful vets and tons of volunteers and a well marked trail until the day riders try to "help" and take them down. Oh, and they have chiggers--nasty little beasties---bite you and you don't even know it until you are trying to sleep after 100 miles and the bed fells like you are still posting and your ankles are itching like crazy and your quads and calves feel like they are threatening to cramp and you(I was anyway) craving a steak and baked potato with all the trimmings.


Our day started early at 6am when it was still full dark and Jodi Buttram led us out on a controlled start(thanks again Jodi). First loop was 20.6 miles to our first away vet check. They kept our cards for the AERC research so I have rough guesses on our ride times--took about 2.5 hours. I vetted with Ken Marcella and he said he was proud of us for not blasting away on this loop. Rode the first loop with Nicki Mueten and her great horse Fury who already has 5 100 mile completions this year including 13th at Tevis, Ruth Anne Everett on Razz and partly with Mary Howell on Shiloh. A 40 minute hold where Sonny picked at various feeds and hay and mostly gawked at everybody else.

Second loop back to camp was 19 miles and change, Ruth Anne left 1 minute before us and Sonny had a good ol' fashion temper tantrum for the full 60 seconds, dancing around, threatening to stand on his back legs(he does this quite well) and finally because nothing else worked he resorted to swinging his head around to bite my right leg. I was way unamused by this new tactic so the 3rd time he tried I timed it right(missed the 2nd time) and allowed him to "run into my foot" and thus ended the nonsense and the 60 seconds that felt like 6 minutes! This loop went great with Ruth Anne, Nicki and myself switching off leading until about 15 miles out I was trotting along and realized that they weren't behind me, so I came down to a jog, they still didn't catch up, walked a little still no sign so I stopped and they popped up over a hill walking and Ruth Anne was on foot. Razz had lost a front shoe and was foot sore with out it. No problem, we decided to walk in, well I was very surprised when Nicki asked "are you supposed to have a shoe and pad on your left front" uhhh--yes, So now 2 of are missing a shoe--damn. I hopped off and walked on the ground for a while with Ruth Anne we walked for about 30 minutes until Mary Howell(God Bless her) caught up and not only had a easy boot but hopped off her horse and put it on!! Service with a smile. Nicki and Mary jogged off and I hopped back on Sonny and we continued to walk to make sure Razz was okay. Shortly there after we were passed by another group of 6 100 milers and we continued to walk and I was able to let Sonny "run into my foot" a couple more times. Nicki and Mary were going to alert the farrier to our plight and we pretty much walked and jogged when the footing was good but managed to walk in and pulse right with that group that had passed 15 minutes earlier. I always have several sets of shoes with me that are shaped to his foot and ready to nail on for this exact reason so it was simple for the farrier to get us done fast, I even had extra pads pre-cut down to the right size. On a side note---my new favorite way to pad is to either buy pads with holes our have my farrier drill holes, then I don't worry about "stuff" getting in there and causing a problem, I have friends that have been pulled due to "stuff" under the pad. These are pretty much single ride use--they get shredded by the end of 100 miles but serve the purpose of protecting the sole from sharp rocks, after I get home I cut the pads out to keep the sole tough. Ride time about 3 hours I think

3rd loop was 14 miles back to camp--rode out with Ruth Anne, Nicki and Mary had a 13 minute lead on us, we went out with no intentions of trying hard to catch them but did three quarters of the way through. The pack of 6 that we pulsed around were all walking out of camp and we trotted and never saw them again except for Wendy Mancini who caught us at a couple of water crossing where we were soaking our horses down, halfway through this loop at about 1/2 way I started my glycogen supplementation at one of the river crossings after Sonny drank really well. I tried mixing elytes in with it and will continue to do that--simpler to carry less bottles and easy to dose. We finished this loop with Mary and Nicki and this was the only time I was concerned about the 10 minutes it took us to pulse but felt better because everybody else took 8-9 minutes also. Out on trail it was quite pleasant, rarely were we in full sun but camp was in a brutal full sun with a faint breeze every now and again and very muggy. Sonny really chowed down on this loop and we were set to head out on another 15 mile loop to our 2nd away vet check.

4th loop was interesting--quickly caught Ruth Anne who wanted to do her own thing this loop and not get Razz too hot(funnily enough she was always just 2 minute behind us) and caught Nicki with in 5 minutes and rode with her, I was not trying to catch her but Sonny was perky and bright so we cruised along, stopped at a grassy field and let them grab some grass, we both got excited when we saw a water trough at a 4 way intersection and completely missed the turn ribbons right before it. So, we continued straight on the trail that was marked for our return from the check for about a mile and 1/2--went "gee, what happened to our pink/black ribbons?" Consulted the map and decided we needed to turn around, went trotting back and ran into Ruth Anne who had done the same thing. Back at the trough we see the turn ribbons right where they were supposed to be and Ruth Anne waited there while we jogged on down the trail. While we were mis-placed Mary took the correct trail and we caught her. We stopped again at a nice creek about a mile from the vet check. I know it was about a mile because while crewing for friends on Friday they mentioned the nice cool water because the water truck that filled all the troughs had warm water and they said they wished they had stayed longer to sponge. So--I actually sponged off of Sonny's back for the first time in a year and 1/2(whole 'nother story for another time) for a solid 5 minutes, really trying to keep them cool. Started out and Sonny wanted to walk when Nicki and Mary started trotting, so we walked along(nice fast walk) and came to a intersection, there was no confidence marker after the turn but I was pretty sure this was the right way because of the forest service sign that was out there at the crossroads. We are still walking along when the most prettiest ever horse popped over the hill coming towards us, It was a liver chestnut almost hershey bar colored with a flaxen mane and tail so thick it hung to his elbows, split on both sides, forelock tucked into the browband and flowing in the breeze he created while gaiting along--a movie star type picture--mane flowing/blowing all over the place---tail dragging the ground and enough hair for 4 horses all flowing around like somebody had a jet engine blowing in his face. Well, Sonny took one look at that beautiful picture and thought it was a dragon coming to eat him, he sat down on his haunches and was reversed and running back down the trail quicker than you can say "scat". I yanked him back around and sat there on a 18.5 hand quivering mass of Arabian horse flesh while the cowboy had a good chuckle. This really perked him up and he took off doing his big 12 m/hr trot and we ran into Nicki and Mary coming back at us, double damn. They were very sure we were going wrong again---I wasn't so sure so I turned my now deflated 15.1 hand horse around and walked after them as they trotted out of sight. Sure enough they come trotting back at us again and we continued on to the vet check, Dana Kemmerer was walking down the trail looking for us(Ashley, her sister, was behind us) because even the vets were getting concerned that we hadn't shown up yet. She made us feel real good when she said the vet check was just a 5 minute human walk up the hill. I opted to walk in and it paid off when I pulsed in first in 3 minutes. This was our last 40 minute hold. Just 12 miles back to camp and 2 short 10 mile loops with 2 twenty minute holds.

5th loop, left out walking to wait on Nicki and Ruth Anne and when we started trotting Nicki's horse was very slightly off so she turned around to get a trailer ride back to camp. This was a short uneventful 12 miles, we stopped at the water trough and soaked them down good and just cruised into camp, we never saw Mary again on trail.

Short 20 minute hold and we were back on trail for 10.6 miles in the full dark at 8:30, no moon and it was very dark in the woods and the whole loop was---in the woods. Perfectly placed glowsticks with orange and green on a turn and orange for caution places and green on trail. We continued to switch off leading and got around it in about an hour and 20 minutes, one place Razz and Sonny both tripped, in hindsight it must of been one of those flat slick rocks you have on the trail at BSF but right then we both thought it was either erosion material or a concrete block!! 91 miles down and only 9.6 plus a 1 mile walk from the finish line!!!

Another 20 minute hold and off we went really feeling good about how perky and willing to move out our horses were, we caught lap traffic in Jonie Brucker and were doing great until Sonny caught his toe on something and almost completely wiped out, crawled on his knees and somehow managed to stay upright. Scared the snot out of me, to go that far and risk my awesome horse's soundness over something that was out of our control. Anyhow--we walked for a couple of minutes and when Sonny said he was ready we took of trotting again and thank goodness he was still sound. We finished about 11:30 and Ruth Anne and I tied for first out of 24 or 25 starters, I think the 3rd place horse was 40 minutes or so behind us. Ride time of 14 hours and change. A very challenging ride but also very very doable.

They had the BC judging Sunday morning at 8am which I think is a fabulous idea, it really sorts out the horses that might be stiff or sore the next day and gives more people who might be interested the opportunity to watch the judging instead of having to stay up all night. Ruth Anne and Razz won BC, Joni Buttram's Cash Pony had high vet score and I will just say that little snot was dragging Jodi Buttram all over the place and really looking like he hadn't done anything or gone anywhere on Saturday. HE LOOKED FANTASTIC!! Sonny got 2nd in BC and deservedly so, he took a few lame step on his trot out due to the better than half dollar sized owie he had on his right front ankle from 'bout falling down.

Kudos to management and all the volunteers--fabulous job, if you are within decent driving distance or from across the country you need to save that weekend on your calender for next year!!!

Happy Trails
Lynn and Sonny(3 for 3 on 100s this year)

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