KKS Windsong - my first LD - long

[KarenBrat1@aol.com]

I'm sunburned, tired, stiff and had to dig a pound of dirt out of my ears 
(and wipe out of eyes and off of teeth) but had a great time anyway!  Eegads, 
they don't call it "Windsong" for nothin' - if that's just the wind 
*singing*, I don't want to go anywhere near the Wild Winds ride!  It was 
blowing hard when we (a brave friend, me and my horse) arrived Friday night 
(about 20 minutes later than we should have, having vroomed past the ribbons 
and plates up what we thought was the "short steep hill" that we were to 
"lose no time going up" and ending up in someone's front yard :-D ).  It 
continued blowing hard enough to rock everyone's trailers and campers all 
night long, and after topping off my steed Bender's food and water in the 
early morn I began to wonder if I really wanted to do this.  It couldn't 
possibly be a pleasant experience to ride in that kind of wind.  Bender, by 
the way, had never been around so many horses and so much bustling activity, 
and was levitating clean off the ground and screaming bug-eyed, in between 
flying back and forth as far as he could on his long lead rope and flipping 
at the ends like a trout on a line.  Thank Epona (the horse goddess) I 
planned to do P & R work on Saturday and not ride til Sunday.  I would have 
had to closely hobble all four feet in order to saddle him, and flip him on 
his side - very tightly hogtied! - to get the Easyboots on!  (NO, to any 
horrified impressionable people, I have not EVER done such a thing.  That's 
just editorial exaggeration.  Really :-)   He got at least a 12-mile 
conditioning in doing that most of the day :-D  By late afternoon he was 
still looking around alertly but at least was standing still with a cocked, 
relaxed hind foot.

Oh... the wind.  It gradually died down late morning and then it was hot as 
blazes.  Late afternoon it picked up again and repeated the same cycle 
through Sunday, very slightly less mph.  The soil there is very fine, powdery 
silt and fine sand, and it got into everything.  I'll bet everyone came away 
with a fine case of sinusitis... I know I did!

I have incredible respect for ride management and personnel, and especially 
the vets!  Think about it... the personnel all have to be out there *all day* 
until the last rider comes in.  It is certainly a huge amount of work going 
on constantly.  Riders, when your P & R person asks you to turn your horse so 
their right side is to the wind, just do it.  Don't gripe or look at us like 
we're idiots.  Honest, even with high quality stethoscopes, unless the 
horse's body was blocking the wind, we couldn't hear a darned thing and even 
then it was a strain.  I ditched my cheapie 'scope right away, it was 
useless.  Luckily an experienced P & R gal Julia had brought a spare, which 
my friend Lisa and I traded off all day.  Tuesday after work I'm heading to 
the local med supply for a *real* stethoscope!  We even got prizes for 
helping P & R - really nice baseball caps with the ride logo on them :-)

It was a lot of fun checking out everyone's gear and horses, and listening to 
the comments about the trail etc.  Met a lot of friendly people.  There were 
three teams (that I know of) there who all had cute team emblems shaved into 
their horses' haunches... the Fish Creek team with a big stylized fish with a 
big Pacman-like open mouth, the Men In Tights with little hearts, and my 
favorite, the Boobs on Hooves with, of course, two nippled boobs shaved on 
their horses!  Too funny!  Saw a lot of beautiful, athletic, well kept 
steeds; and a few very sad skinny ones that I would personally be embarrassed 
to take out in public until I'd put at least 100 lbs on them :-(  Dogs... 
most people were very good about the leash rule, and the few dogs that I saw 
wandering unleashed were at least well behaved.  There were a couple of 
dachshunds being drug around on leashes by a kid who should have been locked 
up in their trailer though, as the obnoxious little creatures were actually 
*biting at* people who came within reach.

Early evening my horse vetted in with all A's except for a B on gut sounds, 
which did not surprise me as he had not been drinking much all day :-(  I'd 
been stuffing carrots down him every time I went to the trailer (often) which 
probably helped a little though.

Sunday morning there weren't as many riders of course, and my horse had 
settled down somewhat, the activity having become normal now.  After the 
2-day 100's left at 6:00 he stood still enough for me to get everything on 
him.  Thanks again Karen Chaton for your terrific Easyboot instruction web 
pages!  I have trouble keeping the vetrap down when I put the boots on 
though, even though I've squashed down the metal grip teeth as much as 
possible.  My horse is very tender over rocks, and I didn't want a stone 
bruise to hurt him so I used Easyboots over his shoes.  They sure stay on 
better with the tag ends of the shoe heels to hook the back strap over... two 
of the boots' lockdowns had come undone before the end of the ride but they 
were still on :-)

At the starting area Bender turned into a maniac again, with all the energy 
pent up from standing tied at the trailer for 1-1/2 days.  (Yes I had walked 
him around occasionally, but it wasn't enough)  As we were cutting didoes 
around the area I commented to a woman watering her horse (Marti?  I'm really 
bad remembering people names - her horse was # 11  :-), that I had planned to 
take the entire 6 hours to complete the 25, but apparently my horse had other 
ideas.  She advised me to wait til everyone else had ridden out of sight over 
the hill before leaving, which was what she planned.  So I did, and when she 
rode past I bravely asked if I could ride with her?  Luckily for me she 
agreed.  Bender has never bucked, but he does huge sideways shies at 
*everything* (rocks, stumps, different colored dirt, clumps of grass, weeds, 
sigh...) and if I was alone I knew I'd be on the ground within minutes.  But 
if he is following another horse, he is fine.

A couple miles into the first loop, a fellow named Mike caught up to us on 
his green-as-grass 5 year old gelding who he'd been on a grand total of 7 
times!!  As he explained, the horse had been raised on range just like what 
we were covering and was pretty fit; also, he'd owned I believe it was *14 
full siblings* to this horse so he knew what they could do!  He and Marti 
knew each other well, and I enjoyed hearing all their horse and ride stories 
blown back to me on the wind :-)   We all stayed together the whole ride, 
bringing up the rear vanguard; and I finished dead last as I'd planned, in 
5:05.  

All vetchecks were in camp... boy that sure seems like the easiest way to do 
things... there were only two loops, 16 and 9 miles which simply repeated for 
the 50 and 75 milers.  Very gently rolling terrain, would be a perfect 
first-of-the-season ride.  Lots of water at roughly 5 mile intervals, some 
natural and some trucked in.  The ride is on a military training center and I 
was told the trail markers had to pick up lots of barbed and concertina wire, 
plus fill in coyote holes.  They said at least this area was relatively 
clean... some years they are in a location where the riders must be told told 
to stay strictly on the trail, due to the artillery duds laying around!  
Yikes!  Don't want a runaway horse there!

I am pleased with my horse, who could have done the 50 :-)  At the 16 mile 
check he looked like had just gone for a Sunday stroll.  Didn't look like he 
had worked at all.  For the first half or so of the loop he seemed like he 
was having a hard time keeping up with the other two long legged, big 
striding horses - he's a little guy, 14.1-1/2hh.  Apparently it took him that 
long to warm up, because after that he pulled from somewhere a HUGE flying 
trot :-)  We all walked in the last 1/4 mile and were below criteria when we 
reached camp. This time Bender-boy got all A's on his vet card, as he'd been 
sucking down lots of water at every tank/stream.  He refused to eat at the 
check though (1/2 hour hold), except for a few carrots.  We did the second 
loop a little faster, as Mike said, "I don't feel like I get my money's worth 
at these rides unless my horse is tired at the end of it."  B on gut sounds 
again but A on the rest.  Back at the trailer he tore into his soaked mash of 
beet pulp and "complete feed".

KKS Windsong is a great first ride, very easy terrain.  Bender and I did a 
lot tougher than that and just as fast riding for fun in Oregon last year :-) 
 I'm very pleased with my little big horse... now if I can just figure out 
how to stay with him when he spooks!  I'll never be able to do more than 
dabble in endurance as I have rotating days off and work most Saturdays.  The 
next ride I can go to is Labor Day weekend, and it's also a two-dayer so I'll 
do the same, P & R Saturday and ride Sunday.  So, I'm definitely hooked, but 
I'll only be able to feed my new addiction once or twice a year!  

"Ready" (Karen Bratcher) and Bender-boy,
Hayden ID


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