Old Pueblo 1998 (long)

[Zebella <zebella@idt.net>]

We survived Old Pueblo (barely!)

I haven't been that cold in a very long time though!  This poor desert
rat about froze!  Was a nice, if windy afternoon when we vetted in.  Got
the horses put up on their picket line, which they seemed to really
enjoy instead of being tied to the trailer.  I think there may have been
some jokes on how many endurance riders does it take to put up a picket
line <G>  Couldn't feel my toes.

I abandoned poor Lancette in the tent and decided to sleep in the truck
cab, and I'm glad I did!  It absoblutely POURED down rain.  Cold,
freezing rain...and I don't know how strong those wind gusts were, but I
thought I was in a hurricane again!  The horses were under some huge old
trees and fared just fine.  

Nothing however, was quite as fun as actually getting up at 5 am <G>  My
truck doors had frozen shut, and I was starting to think that sitting
in  there all day might not be such a bad idea after all!  We spent some
time sitting in the trucks with the heaters running, and I believe
Cheryl's description was "This is too much like torture" <G>.  Lancette
had forgotten her gloves and got to ride with a pair of my socks on her
hands all day :)  What I wouldn't have given for a pair of those polar
fleece breeches!   As it was, we all rode in triple layers of clothes. 
Thank goodness the rain had moved out, and we didn't have to deal with
it.  I almost ended my ride before it began with a slip on the frozen
tailgate :)  And I still wanna know who left the T.P. out to get rained
on!!  Still couldn't feel my toes..

Had a nice controlled start for 1.5? miles up the road, and turned onto
the Arizona trail.  beautiful country out there, and we even met up with
a few patches of snow!  one hill we were trotting down turned out to be
much slicker than it looked, and the horses slipped a bit before we got
them slowed down...scary since the first vet check was at 21 miles for
the 30.  Would be a long walk back if anything happened.

  Once we got out in the open on the top of the hills, we found out just
how cold it really was!  The wind was ripping up there, and the times
that we had to travel into it, it felt like we were barely moving.  I
rode alot with one hand on top of my head, holding my helmet down! 
Lancette dug out a bandanna she had stashed away, and I think we were
considering forcibly taking it from her!  Cheryl told me that my face
was blue for the entire ride....musta looked like a 5 ft Smurf riding
along!  Pro had icicles hanging off his whiskers!  Toes?  Did I even
still have toes???

Cheryl's horse Blue figured out how to open and close the pipe gates
with his nose, which was a big help!  The barbed wire ones, we had to do
ourselves.  Lancette has decided that by next year, we need to have
taught our horses to jump the cattle guards, thereby saving a huge
amount of time over those having to get off and open and close gates <G>

Pro was feeling really good, this was his first ride back since we
discovered the bone chip on his sesamoid, and he had no trouble at all. 
He wanted to canter and we flew along for a bit with his heart rate
sticking right at 117...

Back to base camp <finally> at 21 miles and bad news....Cheryl's horse
Blue looks to be slightly off.  Vet/farrier consensus was that it was a
bad shoeing job responsible.  Although they offered to let her walk the
last 7 miles for completion, Cheryl opted to take care of her horse and
pulled there.

Lancette and I took our time getting our horses fed and watered,  thank
goodness for blankets, the horses were really shivering when we
stopped.  We left a bit late, I was worried that the horses would have a
tantrum at leaving camp again, but they went right out and eagarly
picked up a trot.  Had a 3.5 mile ride down the road to a p/r check and
back.  Both horses finished with no problems at all.  Pro decided to
buddy up with Nimbus and threw a fit whenever he was more than 5 feet
away <sigh> which was verrrry annoying.

got to see the finish of the 60, which was pretty exciting, 3 riders
came galloping down a steep grade into camp, I thought they were going
to biff it a time or two!  Sorry, I don't know who they all were, except
that there was junior rider who was waaaaay ahead of her sponser, and it
was deemed that she would get a completion only....bet she won't have to
learn that lesson again.

I had changed my stirrups to a pair of EZ Rides (ignoring the cardinal
rule, not to try anything new at rides) and they felt great!  Really
helped alot with avoiding the ankle fatigue.  (thanks Ryder!)  And the
sports saddle made it's first competition and felt great. (thanks
Karen!)  Gotta get one of those fuzzy covers to go with it!!  I saw 2 or
3 other riders with Sports saddles too.  And LOTS of SR Enduros.

After hanging out a while, getting the horses settled back in and
rested, we decided not to freeze another night <G> and just go ahead and
make the 3.5 hour drive home.  We were about 10 miles out of base camp
when we saw Cheryl flagging us down beside the road.  She had totally
shredded a tire on the trailer and another was about to go.  Luckily she
was able to change one and make it into Tuscon for repairs.

We were about 50 miles from home when a gawd-awful racket started up. 
Thought we had blown a tire too, but OH NO....it was coming from the
engine....Pulled over just passed the sign that said "DETENTION CENTER:
DO NOT STOP"  ....and discovered that the fan belt had frayed slightly
and broken the air cleaner line.  A phone call to hubby, some duck tape
and trimming of the belt and we were back on the road.  Can't say it
wasn't an interesting trip!!!

By the time I got home, I could *almost* feel my toes again :)
And boy, could I feel the tops of my thighs.....and shoulders too.


Thanks to everyone who worked to make the ride a go, I know there were a
lot of complications to work through!  Was lots of fun, and gorgeous
scenery along the way.  The base camp was great too, a stream and big
oak trees (a treat in the desert!)

We'll be back next year!  (with warmer clothes!!!)

tracy