Back on the trail at Bar H

Bar H

The ride ended as it had begun, with the sun hitting me hard in the face. But now, I was literally riding into the sunset. We had been out on the trail for eleven hours, minus one for the lunch hour hold. Now six o’clock in the evening, we were coming in on the same road we had left on at seven that morning.

Me the day before the ride, prepping for our preride.

I knew we were going to complete. Ozzie looked great all day. It was the final mile and we were hand walking in. No need to rush. Walking helps the horse cool down, and helps the rider come down too. I had loosened the cinch, taken the bit out of his mouth, and we were trekking along, at a strong walking pace.

I felt the exhale push its way up my throat and release into the air with a gasp. A sob of joy. A few streams of tears fell down my cheeks and I was thankful my riding partner Brooke and her horse Spirit had dropped back a bit. I had the privacy to let the reins loose on my emotions a bit. A year before riding on the trail with Brooke I told her that one day I’d have a good joyful cry with my horse. This was it.

After a year off following our first 50 (Eastern Mojave 2014) together – my first endurance ride and Ozzie’s first 50 – because of a radial fracture I had some emotion to let go of. Once I knew his leg would heal I dove into the hand walking and watching his leg. But now, nearly a full year later we had come back to being fit to complete a 50, and not just any 50, but a tough, hot, rocky, canyon-climbing 50.

The night before the ride I slept very little. I had parked my van so I could open up the back and literally just open my eyes to see Ozzie. At the ride a year ago he got loose in the middle of the night (lead rope unclipped from halter) and got kicked, he was not getting loose this time. So I was opening my eyes at every sound. I did see the gorgeous stars, and hear the coyotes hunting a few times. But for reference, being hyper vigilant has a downside - lack of sleep. 

Ozzie enjoying being able to eat constantly the day before
the ride

The morning went smoothly, it was calm mellow start. Only the long horn cattle gave Ozzie pause. He is used to the black Angus (I think) cows where he lives, but those long horns surely looked alien.

Much of the day was a blur. In the way a mother will quickly forget the details of giving birth – natures insurance that she will want to do it again – a lot of the ride quickly faded from memory. One thing that remains clear is our riding team of two was well matched. Spirit and Ozzie (from the same breeder in Canada – Sturgeon Creek Arabians and related through the Crabbat/Polish/Russian Stallion Pyatigorsk – and both trained for endurance by Charlene Lewis) Our four being team went well down the trail together. Brooke has become my un-official mentor on my newbie journey into endurance. We haven't actually talked about it, it just sort of fell into place that way. I'm a pretty do it myself sort of learner, I need to do it to learn it properly, need to feel it, integrate into my muscle memory. So having a casual mentor relationship works well. Someone to bounce ideas off of, remind me of certain things, and gently point things out. But mostly to keep me on pace on the trail. Thank you Brooke! 

I remember I liked the first 25-mile loop best. At the pre-ride meeting, the night before the ride, we decided that I would be the navigator and Brooke would keep us on pace. I’m pretty good at directions and map reading and I know nothing about staying on pace in a ride. This worked out perfectly. I earned my keep when I caught a sharp left turn in the trail.  We trekked along, Brooke telling me when we needed to move out when Ozzie and I were in front and lolly gagging a bit. I did find I had to push through my comfort zone a bit in some single-track trails weaving among large rocks and through trees. But this horse took it all in stride.

The fabulous shot of me and Ozzie in the morning, by Lynne Glazer.
This was fairly early in the ride, hence the great morning light. And it was
before the 15 mile pulse and go vet check. We are well warmed up at this point

We had one little episode where the group of riders behind me got a great show. We were trotting through a single track trail winding between some large rocks, and my stirrup scrapped against a rock. It might a loud snap sound and Ozzie spooked. I screamed. Sidebar comment - I have to remind folks I'm riding with that I'm a vocal rider. Meaning that when spooks happen I scream or sometimes loudly laugh. BUT if I'm making noise it means I'm ok. It's when I'm really quiet that the 'you know what' is hitting the fan and I'm really having to focus. So when Ozzie spooked he squirted forward, I wasn't quite prepared and I dropped my reins. Somehow I guided him to the side, off trail (I did not want to run into Spirit or foul up any of the riders behind us), but among the rocks. One of the riders ahead of us called back "Is everything OK back there?"I shouted back "Yes, we are all good." Just seconds later I got Ozzie stopped, standing among the rocks. And we calmly rejoined the line up on the trail. One rider behind us was chuckling and commented on the good show. And we were off once again. 

There was great footing, light sand, nice climbs, flat spots to move out and Ozzie kept trying to get me to let him out… out into his big trot. On this ride I learned that both Ozzie and I like being in front on single track trails. Not just because, well being in front is fun, but I have more confidence to let him out a bit since I can see the trail. 

 

Just Ozzie eating more.

There was a pulse and go vet check at 15 miles. One of the veterinarians there was the same vet who treated Ozzie at the ride a year ago when he got kicked. She remembered us, and was so happy to see him looking so good. And when we trotted out for her, she smiled big and confirmed she saw no indication of any injury.

We finished that 25-mile loop a little after noon, and quickly got the horses squared away so we could put our feet up and cool ourselves out. While it wasn’t in the 90’s as predicted, it was still flippin hot.  I also had to take some pain meds for my knee. That is something I’m going to be fixing as it continued to bother me throughout the ride, luckily there were plenty of places  where it made sense to get off and walk, and my knee only hurt when I was in the saddle (yes, I’ll be looking at changing stirrup leathers, position, knee brace, strengthening my knee etc.)

I knew there was a big canyon in the second loop. At the meeting they told us if anything happened in that canyon they would not be able to get to us out, there was no vehicle access. We would have to figure out a way to walk ourselves out. Oh, and they warned us about the illegal shooters likely to be along one portion of the trail.

 

PHoto by:  Kate Mylroie she lived along the trail
and cheered us all on. That's us in the middle, I think Ozzie is looking at a pig.
And Brooke and Spirit out in front.

So we went through some nice bridle path trails, people put out signs welcoming us. Then we started to leave civilization and head into no mans land. Well that’s not entirely true, you could hear the dirt bike riders zooming around. And then we heard the gunshots. As we crested over a hill we saw two guys shooting into a hillside. The sound echoed up the canyon to us. While Ozzie didn’t spook, I could tell the sound made him nervous, and I just didn’t want them shooting. I warned Brooke I was gonna start hollering at them. I shouted at the top of my lungs (and some folks will know I can make my voice carry a bit) and with help from the acoustics of the canyon they heard me, and we saw them put down their guns in the back of their truck. As we approached them, we thanked them and actually they were very nice. I told them a few more riders were coming behind us, and they said they would wait till they passed before doing any more shooting. We moved off and into a tiny little trail along the bottom of a ditch with good soft dirt footing, I think it would be the last good footing for several miles.

We got to a spot with a really rocky, steep down hill, and got off. Now Ozzie does not like to walk behind me. Yes, this is a thing we are constantly working on and will continue to do so. But in this case it was a bit helpful. He walked next to me, shoulder to shoulder, I held onto his breast collar with my right hand to keep from slipping down the hill and held the reins  in my left. We shimmied down the steep hill, navigating the very very rocky footing. Every time we thought we were done with the rocky down hill, we would reach a crest and there would me more sharp rocks. We just had to keep at it. Down, down we went. It was hot. And we kept going down, into a narrow canyon. The thought of the cool creek at the bottom helped. We reached it, Ozzie stood in the creek in the shade and I used a water bottle to rinse him off. Then Brooke did the same for Spirit. I got back on, and now we climbed up and up and up out of the canyon.

We had 12 hours to complete the ride. At this point we were a tad worried that we wouldn’t make it because of all the slow going. But we ran into a pair of riders who knew the trail and told us the last loop was only an hour and a half. That was heartening. But we still didn’t know exactly how much was left of loop two. So we just kept trekking, moving out whenever we could.

If you haven't seen the recent Coen Brother Movie
"True Grit" with Jeff Bridges I highly recommend it.
Keep an eye out for the horse called
Little Blacky. The book by Charles Portis is exquisite.
Watch the trailer HERE.
and some great riding stunt scenes too
See one HERE

There was a lot of water put out on the trail for us. A god send each time we saw those buckets along the trail. At one point we were plugging away up a road, a hot black asphalt road in a residential neighborhood, it was after the canyon. I was hand walking Ozzie up a hill and working hard to keep a good walking pace. WE got to the water buckets and I was splashing the cold water on my face, on my neck, wetting my handkerchief and pouring some water on Ozzie (I knew only a few riders were behind us, and there was plenty of water). I had just been telling Brooke that I was almost out of drinking water for me, and when we came in for the last loop I would need to refill my bottles. It would take a couple minutes, not ideal, but I would need that water on the last loop.

As I was splashing my face, I heard a mans voice. “Do you want some cold bottles of water?” He was like an angel. At the house just up the hill from us a man and his two dogs had brought out some water. He took my empty plastic bottles and I took the ones he offered with gratitude. He asked if the water buckets were still full for the horses, I guess he had been helping to keep them filled. He said while he was not a horse person, he loved seeing the horses at these events. Hurray for Endurance riders!

And on we went. Not long later we crested another hill and there was base camp. Hurray! We were much closer than we thought. I almost cried at that point, cause I was worried that I would need to go very slow in the final loop – not for Ozzie (he was kicking butt) but for me. I was pooped. But Brooke and I both were on the same page, at this point we had – if I remember correctly almost three hours if we took all the time we had. And knowing the loop took the other rider (who was still behind us) an hour and a half we were in good shape. This helped us relax a bit.

Ozzie headed out on the same road now for the third time. He kept turning his head as if to say, “Are you sure?” But then off we went. On the last loop I remember seeing the horny toad lizard (we also saw a big ole jack rabbit at some point on the trail). I remember the very wide, hard road (or was that earlier in the ride too?) where we let the horses open up and we found Ozzie’s big trot – Brooke estimated it was around 12 miles per hour, she asked me if I knew he could do that. Nope.

I was comfortable enough to let the reins totally loose, give him his full head, he lowered his head, stretched out and the bouncing trot changed to a gliding, ground covering pace. I had to just stay up off the saddle and out of his way, no posting on this trot. Man that felt good. It was a totally different rhythm. I think we sort of found each other in that moment. He asked for his head and I gave it to him and Ozzie gave me this gift.

I wish I had been able to take a photo of Brooke and Spirit in front of us at one point on that road. Brooke dropping the reins and letting Spirit choose the pace, moving out, with Brooke’s arms out to the side. Flying on her horses back.

We enjoyed this tough ride.

 

Ozzie back home after the ride. 

I knew we were going to complete. After the vet confirmed we were all good, we headed back to the trailer. Gave them their mash, more orchard and alfalfa. Once he was cool I took off the saddle, brushed him out. Sponged his legs.

After dinner I was the walking dead. I set my phone alarm for an hour and a half so I could pass out and then get up and check on Ozzie. I couldn’t take off my chaps or my shoes; I just laid down in my van (so thankful for my comfy bed in the VW Vanagon) with my shoes sticking off the bed. And I slept for an hour and a half. When I got up Ozzie was still munching. It was now after 10:00. The stars were bright, camp was quiet. I topped off Ozzie’s hay bag and went back to bed.

The trailer ride on Sunday was quick, no traffic. When we unloaded into the turn out pasture Ozzie rolled and trotted. Five days later he's still enjoying his week off, turn out time and playing with his horsey friends. The photos below are from Friday, six days after the ride. I love the shot of his standing still, looking good and fit. (You can click on any photo to view it larger). And the video is of him playing with that same quarter horse. Enjoy.

 Its several days later and my body is still recovering. I have soreness in my feet, hands and shoulders.
Ozzie’s back baby! (And we’re registered for Lost Padres).  

Sidebar: A HUGE Thank you to XPRides - The Duck & Annie, the veterinarians, and all their crew for continuing to put on all these rides. Thank you to all the property owners who allow us to ride across their land and see these wonderful places. I feel so very lucky to live in this area with all these varied rides taking place throughout the year - from the desert rides, to ranch rides among oak grove valleys. I hope the American Endurance Ride Conference (AERC) and all US endurance riders thank their ride managers. From my view as a total newbie I think everyone should be doing all we can to support the ride managers, make things easier and simpler on them. Without the rides there would be no AERC, and without the ride managers, there would be no rides.