Lessons learned and Audrey and Jazz’s longest toughest rides yet!

Jazz and Audrey take a Selfie!

This past weekend I had the most exhilarating, adrenaline fueled ride experience in my life so far, followed later in the day by the most frustrating experience. Since my last post in March (scroll down below), I’ve had a number of great and not so great rides. Here are a few quick tidbits I learned from these rides I’ll share, then I’ll discuss my most exciting and disheartening ride below. 

Trot/Gait out at Llano Estacado

1. At one ride I learned that endurance means more than enduring long miles of trail, sometimes you have to endure unfriendly and unaccommodating ride management as well. At a ride that will remain unnamed, the management decided ‘no electric pens’ without telling anyone. They did not have any available stalls or let us borrow panels. I was very angry (and I don’t get angry very often) at a clear lack of communication. I was ready go home and submit a protest. Eventually we worked it out with the owner of the property who let us use the electric pens. Additionally management assumed that all riders knew the trail, but many riders got lost over the first mile of course because it was not well marked. They fixed this later in the day. The actual riding part went pretty well, Jazz (TWH mare) and I finished 50 miles on Saturday, when I also had my first on-trail bathroom experience, when you gotta go, just go. Then Sunday we did 30 miles and got BC!
2. At the Llano Estacado ride, Jazz and I had the best ride we’ve ever had. We made friends with another rider and did the entire 55 mile distance together, including enduring a downpour thunder/lightning storm in the middle of it. We went on to get BC! This would not have been possible if we didn’t have the riding buddy, the horses helped each other along so I encourage you to make friends on trail.
3.  However, I’ll caution those reading this, don’t let success go to your head! My ego was inflated and at the next ride at Fort Stanton I let Jazz go too fast cantering up and down the mountains, trying to keep up with a faster Arab. Jazz had muscle tightness/cramps at mile 33 and we both got our first pull :(
4. On day 2 of Fort Stanton, I rode Annakate (morgan mare) in the 30 mile. Many mentors will tell you ‘don’t do anything new or for the first time at a ride!’ I knew this, but circumstances were what they were and we were using glue-on boots for the first time. With the excellent adaptability and tool handling of Kenny Weber (at one point using a hack saw!) we got boots and pour-in pads on such that Annakate wasn’t lame and we finished the ride.
5. At Quitaque Climb I learned that the rider must always check your tack before and after you get on! The girth was too loose when we started out on the 55 mile and as the name suggests there were a lot of climbs involved. I thought I was on a roller coaster ride moving up and down the mountains but also side to side! Shear will and my mantra of ‘just stay centered’ got us through until we could dismount and adjust the tack. This was day two and only 2 riders were entered in the 55. After the first loop, I knew we couldn’t keep up with the faster arab (lesson learned from Fort Stanton) and so for the next ~40 miles Jazz could not rely on a riding buddy to motivate her along. I think Jazz had her ‘seeing Jesus’ moment, that is being pushed to the edge and moving beyond it; (phrase I got from another mentor Patti Stedman) at the end of the long, lonely ride Jazz was eating and drinking like she never had before, realizing she had to take care of herself over such long distances. This had been our longest, toughest ride yet, that is until 2 weeks later.

Still bright eyed after 63 miles.

My longest, toughest ride yet happened at Armadillo, where we signed up for the 75 miler! How do you know if you’re ready for the next distance? All the FB posts and advice from mentors said to just sign up and try it, so I did. And while someone might say we failed because Jazz and I didn’t finish, I say there’s more than one way to measure success. I’ll always remember the 1^st loop where I had the most exhilarating, adrenaline fueled ride experience in my life so far. I woke up at 3am and Jazz and I headed out at 4am (the sun doesn’t rise until 7:30am!) with Kerry Lowrey and Hope Finan, both Tevis participants, leading the way. I am super grateful to these experienced horse women for answering all my questions and conveying a sense of carefree ‘we do this all the time, except over mountains!’ attitude. They led the way through the dark, windy forest paths, gaiting along at 8-10 mph. Every now and then creeping thoughts would pop up in my mind: ‘what are you doing?!’, ‘you’ve never done anything like this before!’ (see bullet point 4 above), ‘what if a tree branch pokes out your eye?’, ‘what if Jazz trips in a ditch/over a tree root?’ and on and on. I promptly shut those negative thoughts down with ‘The answer is Don’t think about it!’ (Rick and Morty reference) and refocused on the here and now. This took major trust in Jazz, my fellow riders leading the way, and ride management for clearly marking trails and danger spots along the first 28 mile loop. I had a huge grin on my face the entire time. 😄 And then the heat and humidity set in. 

Ready and waiting to head out on the 2nd loop.

     On the 3^rd loop Kerry started before me walking on the blue trail and I said I’d catch up since my out time was a few minutes behind her. However, I learned you have to know what loop you’re on AND what loop you’re not on, i.e. there is a difference between blue/white ribbons and blue/yellow! I did an extra mile and got separated from Kerry. Since Jazz was now by herself, she was not motivated in the least to go any faster than a 5 mph pacey gait interspersed with walking and eating. It was frustrating and painful as this was mile 46-63 and I knew we had to get to 75 miles to finish. I was completely prepared to hand-walk the last loop and was calculating cut-off times for how I could do it before 10pm. Luckily we finished the last 5 miles of the 3^rd loop going strong because some 50 mile riders came up behind us and Jazz found her motivation. Unfortunately this was the hottest part of the day of 4:30pm, high of 87 degrees with high humidity. Lots of ice water cooled Jazz enough to meet P&R but when we went to the vets her HR was slightly elevated around 72 bpm and stayed that way for the next hour. While I’m sad we didn’t get to do the last 15 miles and complete now I know to only attempt longer distances under less humid and hot conditions with Jazz. It probably would have been different if it had actually rained instead of the air being stagnant and as one rider put it ‘felt like a microwaved towel was laid on us all day’. We went to the vet for fluids and they recommended we wait and Jazz recovered fine on her own, maybe because she ‘saw Jesus’ at the last ride.      

Bobbie Lieberman and Kenny Weber

A huge thank you goes to Bobbie Lieberman and Kenny Weber, they are the owners of all the horses I’ve been fortunate to ride and my faithful crew. They are not exactly in their physical prime (i.e. getting older) and it’s a major effort gluing on multiple hoof boots, tacking up at 3:30 am and always having sponges, electrolytes and feed at the ready. Add on to that the stress and complications of building a new home in NM when you live in TX (see Bobbie’s series of articles in Equus magazine) and it’s amazing we’ve been able to accomplish all that we have! They take excellent care of their horses and maybe we will sell one or two to downsize their herd as was the original goal of our partnership (Jazz is for sale to just the right home!) but it’s been a fantastic journey so far. This was my last ride for the season and I look forward to the next ride year. I hope I don’t repeat my mistakes and learn from my future mistakes. If you’re a greenbean rider, I hope you’ve learned something from my experiences and if we’re at a ride together, come say Hi!