Year End Review

Audrey and Jazz complete 1000 competition miles together

I didn’t believe at first and had to count it three times.  Jazz and I have completed 1000 competition miles together (only two of which were LDs) in the past two years! The last 110 miles were accomplished in October at Quitaque Climb where we did back to back 55’s on a very technical (and awesome!) course. But first, I feel the need to recap some of the other rides we’ve done this summer and Fall, so buckle-up, grab your favorite hot beverage and settle in, this is going to be a long post.

     My last post recapped our first back-to-back rides resulting in 105 miles in one weekend, which was my main goal for the season. Since then, we’ve done it twice more, once at Fort Stanton (105 miles) and again at Quitaque (110 miles). But I don’t care so much about the number of miles, instead I like to reflect on the lessons learned and experiences gained along the way. (Future me, take note, remember and try not to make the same mistakes).

Fort Stanton 105 miles - Sometimes riding is the easy part

Great shirts, the purchase benefited St. Jude's

Back in July I learned that plans change and change again. The original plan was to drive two rigs: Kenny (owner of the horses) would drive 2 horses with a load of building materials that would stay at the new NM ranch. I (rider) would drive Jazz and Phoenix in the LQ trailer to Fort Stanton with Bobbie (owner of the horses) acting as navigator and crew. Two days before we left, Kenny hurt his back and wouldn’t be able to come! Now it was Bobbie acting as crew and navigator and myself acting as driver/rider.

     Getting there:  This was my first time driving a goose neck 3-horse LQ trailer (eeek!), just remember WIDE turns. At one point in the same town, we stopped at 5 (yes 5) different gas stations because of the difficulty in finding one with available diesel that you could get in and out of somewhat easily with a large rig. If anyone out there has connections with Google or other Map apps please tell them to add an option to find hauling friendly gas stations!

     We made good time getting to our half-way point at Fort Stockton, TX but we lost all the time we made when trying to get Phoenix to back off the trailer. He would not. We spent 45 min encouraging, tapping each leg, pushing and prodding to no avail. A friendly local drove by who said he had horses and helped us readjust the rear tack compartment, so Phoenix could just barely turn around. It was most definitely a tight fit. The horses settled in nicely to their temporary paddock for the night and the next morning we got up to drive 6 hours again to get to Fort Stanton, NM.

     Except that morning Bobbie got a call from her husband Kenny, only to realize he was in the hospital with what was essentially colic or in human terms an intestinal blockage. It must have been painful because he drove himself to the hospital at 2am (and we all know how guys are about toughing out pain). We had to make the decision of going on to the ride or finding a way to get Bobbie back home. Apparently, there’s not a large need for car rental places in west TX because we would have had to drive an hour out of the way and it would have cost $350 a day just to rent a car! We decided to drive on to Fort Stanton and if needed Bobbie could fly from El Paso back to San Antonio.

     Luckily no further adventures that day (except more hunting for the right gas stations). Horses were happy to arrive and settle in. We had all day Saturday to get organized, head to town for groceries and ice, glue-on boots for Jazz and vet-in of course.

     My goal for this ride was to complete the 3-day pioneer of 50, 55, 50 miles. Jazz and I had previously done 105 miles in two days but that was a relatively flat, easy course. Fort Stanton is anything but easy. Rocks, hills, climbs, rocks, hard-pack gravel roads, dry creek beds with big rocks and more hills. Did I mention rocks? Also, when you’re riding 50’s at Fort Stanton it’s guaranteed there will be rain in the afternoon since it’s monsoon season. I had been planning for this ride all year. I was very disappointed last year when Jazz and I had our first pull due to lameness at 33ish miles. It was not a ‘rock with my name on it’, it was my own fault. I did not manage our riding speed well enough. I let Jazz canter up and down the hills in order to keep up with a faster Arab and as a result she had muscle cramps/soreness in the right rear. This year would be different, I’ve been working steadfastly on making sure the left lead is strong and we walk or gait up hills. While I’ve read that cantering up hill is the most efficient gait for the horse, it is so only if it’s collected and Jazz and I aren’t there quite yet.

Day 1 50 miles
      I had great riding partners that I stuck with all day. Kerry L., Bill and Deb D. (who I rode with at Old Glory and we recounted the snow and cold). There were some glue-on boot issues, as in they did not stay glued on, but I had spare strap-on Scoot-boots that worked well as replacements. We had an interesting adventure on the last loop. We were supposed to cross a normally dry creek bed but rain earlier in the day turned it into a raging river! The water was moving too fast to safely cross. Another rider was able to call the ride manager (my own phone was dead) and after 15-20 min. of tense waiting (though the horses were fine just eating grass) we were rerouted and finished the ride without anyone getting hurt or injured in the flash flood. All the riders and ride management were very courteous and understanding of the situation, it was impossible to figure out the exact placings given that multiple riders had to be rerouted and finish times/miles were all slightly different. I think most of us were just happy to finish and all 17 starters completed that day. I good lesson here is to make sure you have a fully charged phone and try to remember to recharge it at holds because you never know what might happen on trail.

Heading out on last loop, prepared for rain.

The most disappointing part of the ride was how my own body reacted after the tough (but nothing I haven’t done before) 50 miles. My inner thigh muscles swelled which had only happened at one other ride. I iced as best I could but wasn’t sure I could do another 55 miles the next day. I was disappointed because prior to the ride I had increased my own running and core workouts specifically for this ride. However, I did not get as much saddle time as perhaps I should have leading up to the ride and some muscles you can only work while riding. Now, I’m doing more stirrup-less riding to work these muscles more.

Day 2 55 miles
      The next morning the swelling had subsided so we headed out on trail again. While we had riding buddies on the first-loop, we were by our lonesome selves on the 2^nd and 3^rd loops. To keep my mind off of the pain and endless miles Jazz got to hear a lot of my singing on trail. The folk song ‘Home on the range’ seemed to be a good fit (because I just wanted to get home) and I sang ‘You are my sunshine’ to Jazz, who did seem to perk up and pick up the pace a little more whenever I sang a song to lift our spirits. Of course it down poured and for the last loop we had to be careful in the mud but also be mindful of time. We finished in 10 hours 20 min (turtled) and it was a fabulous feeling ambling back into camp to the cheers and well wishes of the other riders and crew who came to greet us. We were tired, but we finished!   

Phoenix and I warming up before the Intro start.

Day 3 Intro ride with Phoenix
     It can be frustrating when life gets in the way of your riding goals, but eh? That’s life! I opted to not do day 3 with Jazz for a number of reasons, all related to me, the rider and nothing to do with Jazz or her ability/fitness. I knew I would have to be able-bodied and functioning enough to make the long drive back to TX. I had an important job interview lined up for the day after we returned and I thought it might not make a good impression if I couldn’t walk straight or go up and down stairs because I pushed myself too hard and damaged muscles. (Note, I got the job!). In addition, I was planning and signed up to do the Moonlight in VT 50 mile ride in ~10 days with my sister and needed to make sure I was recovered and functioning for that bucket-list ride. As such I was happy with my decision to give Jazz a rest and ride Phoenix (the backup horse) in an Intro ride. Phoenix is an 8 yr old MFT gelding and is Bobbie’s main trail riding horse but he’s only done 1 intro thus far and needs more trail conditioning and experience to build his confidence. I rode with two other intro riders and we had a great time, enjoyed the sights and took our time for a nice successful conditioning ride. Phoenix should be ready for his first LD this Fall!      

Moonlight in VT 50 – Caprock Mtns to Green Mtns
It was very interesting going from the Caprock Mountains of New Mexico to the Green Mountains of Vermont, both beautiful in their own way. Jazz got to sit this ride out. I traveled to my sister’s farm in western NY (www.laurelinfarm.com) and together we rode 50 miles in the Moonlight in VT ride. Just in case you were wondering, a Freeform treeless saddle will fit in a large suitcase. It was a fantastic experience riding alongside ultra-runners who started at 4am (and you think we have it rough starting at 7am) to run 100 miles. The 50 mile ride started at 2pm so that we would have to ride in the dark for the last couple of hours. The green mountains of Vermont were beautiful, and I highly recommend this ride if you ever have the opportunity to go. I made a video of the experience here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTbE9yW6TZU&t=161s

On trail at Unicorn Hunt!

Unicorn Hunt 55 humid miles

The next ride with Jazz was at Unicorn Hunt in September. This ride took place in eastern TX, just north of Houston. I live in San Antonio which can have quite humid weather (particularly in August/September) and if anyone in my area complains about the humidity, I always reply ‘at least it’s not Houston’ because it will always be worse there. This gives you an idea of the weather conditions of the ride (100% humidity). Not ideal for larger muscled Tennessee Walking horses but I was at a point mentally where I needed a ride/vacation. I had been working non-stop (Visiting Assistant Prof. teaching Physiology and Biology) for the past 4 weeks and needed a break from undergraduate students and never ending course/lecture preparation. Being so busy I did not have a lot of time to ride Jazz but luckily horses keep their conditioning much better than people.
 
Between Fort Stanton and Unicorn Hunt conditioning for Jazz:
3 weeks rest
week 4: two rides 7.5 miles each
week 5:  no riding (I started the new job)
week 6: one 7 mile ride, one 10 mile ride
week 7: Unicorn Hunt 55 mile ride

     My goal was to just have a nice ride and go at our own pace. I did not get off to a good start though since I ended up sleeping in! First time I’ve ever done that at a ride. I typically like to have 70 mintues from wake-up to the start of a ride to get everything ready. This time I had <30 minutes! Sleeping in late actually resulted in us having one of the best starts this season. We were about 10 minutes late starting and everyone else had left. Jazz was focused with a job to do. There was no fighting, fussing or head shaking. She just went smoothly down the trail, which was great since it was quite dark in the woods and for the first 1.5 hrs we went from LED to LED in the blackness. I had a red light but Jazz new the way. Riding in the dark is now one of my favorite things and I wish more rides would offer opportunities to experience it. We did not see any Unicorns but there was a nice down pour twice in the afternoon. We turtled and were awarded a lovely folding camp chair, best turtle prize ever!

Conditioning in mud.

Quitaque Climb – 110 miles in one weekend

Between ride conditioning (or lack there of) for Jazz:
2 weeks rest
week 3: one 4 mile stretchy walk/slow gait along the road (too muddy of anything else)
week 4: one 4 mile easy gaited ride in the rain along the road
week 5: Quitaque Climb

     This was the ride with no expectations. While Jazz and I have had a great season so far, since August things have changed. Namely I started a new job as a Visiting Assistant Professor teaching in the Biology department at St. Mary’s University. Preparing lectures and labs, grading assignments and managing students means working >50 hour weeks. This means little to no time for riding or running or maintaining any meaningful exercise routine for myself. I needed a nice relaxing weekend with just a horse and a trail where I tried not to worry about the exam I was supposed to give on Tuesday that I had only partially made.

     I’ve had this ride on my calendar since last year for a couple of reasons: 1) I like the technical terrain and beautiful trails 2) Ride camp at Pole Canyon Ranch has heated bathrooms and showers! (a major plus for me since I’d be working out of an open stock trailer and sleeping in the back seat of the truck) 3) it falls on a long weekend where I didn’t have to work on Monday. The downside was that it is a 7-8 hour drive and I was crewless. Jazz’s owners, Bobbie Lieberman and Kenny Webber, were off getting their new New Mexico ranch prepped and ready for more permanent living (see Bobbie’s article series in Equus magazine).

     The ‘weekend’ started Thursday night. I finished teaching my freshmen biology lab at 6pm and made sure to let the students know they could not stay late this week (I had places to be!). I drove to the ranch and packed up for an early morning start Friday. My original plan was to arrive Friday afternoon and relax on Saturday, so Jazz could recover from the 7.5 hr drive and we’d ride on Sunday. The drive went well and Jazz was bright eyed so I decided to ride on Saturday. With help from fellow rider Todd H. we glued on renegade shell boots with no problems. Jazz’s eating, drinking and attitude were all great. But then I noticed she had a squinty left eye that I hoped was just from road dust and would work itself out. The ride meeting was abbreviated due to an impending lightening storm! I had just enough time to vet-in and get settled before the rain hit. But the squinty eye had become a swollen eye ☹
     The vets gave me eye ointment and I was able to apply some ice just before the storm hit. I huddled in the truck and got everything inside as organized as possible. The rain ended after about an hour so I was able to re-ice the eye while avoiding getting nipped/bitten (yes, Jazz ice is cold but its good for you) and did the ugliest braid job I’ve done yet in the colder drizzling rain.

Saturday 55 mi
      In the morning I was rushed as usual. You’d think I’d have a better routine by now, this is an area that still needs improvement. Anybody got any helpful tips for morning routines? The good news was that the eye looked normal, swelling was gone. The bad news was that I had <5 minutes to warm up, but Jazz seemed rearing to go (figuratively, not literally). It was still pitch dark out and the start sounded but nobody was heading down the trail! Finally, veteran rider Mike G. headed out and I followed because somebody’s got to go. The first 8 miles Jazz was a dragon, head tossing avoiding the bit, wanting to rush up and down the hills. I slowed down to let the front runners get out of sight and Jazz would relax, then we’d catch up to them because they thought they were off trail because nobody had seen a ribbon in a while! And I was back to taming the dragon. (Just a note: I use the term dragon loosely. It’s more accurate to say she’s just an opinionated mare that needs a bit for the first 8 miles but after that an S-hack is fine).  
      Once we found a good spot back away from the front runners she calmed down. Then we lost our first rear boot, the left rear. I put on the scoot boot and hoped it would stay on for the whole ride (which it did!). Just before each hold I seemed to lose another glue-on. Not quite sure why they didn’t hold up, the terrain was a combination of rocks, some mud and creek crossings. I had lots of spare strap-on boots though. I put on a renegade strap-on, on the right front and near the end of the ride put on a scoot boot on the right hind foot. I was pleasantly surprised that we had no problems with the strap-on renegade, despite having to go through lots of water and some mud along the creeks.  

     On the 2^nd loop I met up with Bill and Deb D. who I’ve ridden with in the past and I had a great time with them. They’re smart riders who take the time to let their horses eat grass and then move out on the flat. I love that every now and then one of them will let out a hoot or a holler or a Yee-haw! Which keeps it light-hearted and fun. More fun on the 3^rd loop, but we had some unexpected bad luck. Deb realized her horse was intermittently off on the front end. She decided to hand-walk the horse the last 3-4 miles back to camp. Bill and I went on ahead but soon we heard her yelling for her horse! We high-tailed it back to Deb who reported that when she had gotten off to hand-walk him back (the stinker) up and decided to take off in the opposite direction. I hurried back to camp to let them know the situation. The horse had made his way back to camp and everyone was relieved to hear that no riders were hurt or had been thrown. Jazz vetted in just fine and we came in 5^th out of 12 starters. I felt really good (unlike Fort Stanton, I had no major swelling or chafing) and I realized since we had such a good ride, we’d have to do it all again tomorrow!

Sunday 55 mi
     My biggest worry for Jazz about riding a second day was whether or not her feet could handle it with the strap-on boots. She had the beginnings of redness/rubbing along the heals and on the left rear it looked like the top of the boot was rubbing the hoof wall. With some help from a fellow rider and farrier, we trimmed the top edge of the left scoot boot so that it was not rubbing on her coronet band (Yay for ride friends!).

     There were only 3 of us riding the 55 on Sunday, with the other two being experienced riders who had completed Tevis in the last 2 years with their horses. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the stories of the Tevis trail and given Jazz’s performance this weekend, I’m pretty sure we could do it. But there’s lots of planning and money involved in that once in a lifetime ride and who knows what the future will bring.
      I did the 1^st loop with the other riders, Jazz was happy to keep up or hang back depending on the terrain. We lost a front scoot boot only once (we were cantering a flat stretch in a gentle rain and the wetness combined with the action of legs and feet, just flipped it off). I stopped, got off, readjusted the boot. With that done, I realized I could not get back on my horse! No rocks to stand on and the saddle, being treeless and wet, kept slipping. I was very grateful when a group of LD riders came up behind and saw my plight. One rider got off, held my stirrup as I got back on. Thank you, thank you kind strangers and now facebook friends!  

     At the 1^st hold, I had a silly rider mistake: I knew my out time was 10:41am and I’d check my watch periodically to make sure I was on task. However, I was looking at the ‘avg. pace’ field of my Garmin watch which read 10:18, instead of looking at the ‘time of day’ field which read 10:38am. Doh!  Rushing around I got back out on trail. You may be saying, ‘hey what’s the big deal, it’s just five minutes’. But it’s more the principle of the thing, no wasted time, ride the best ride that you can. Jazz and I were by ourselves for the rest of the ride (~36 miles).

     No issues on the 2^nd loop and I had to make sure I was eating/drinking enough at the 2^nd hold. At each hold I reapplied Desitin to heals and pasterns to prevent rubs. I did not electrolyte at the holds but brought a syringe with me and only elyted after Jazz took a big drink on each loop. This seemed to work well. The weather was great for TWH’s, cloudy, around 70 degrees and some sprinkling misty rain here and there.

     The 3^rd loop was the hardest (of course) since we had to do the flat rail trail alone. This is a short stretch of pastures to a short stretch of road which connects to a looonng stretch of flat, straight, boring 4-mile hiking/biking trail which goes over 5 bridges (I counted) to an old railway tunnel that is now home for a colony of bats. At the tunnel you simply turn around and go back on the flat, boring loooonnngg 4 miles to the road/pastures. The trail seems to stretch on for miles (which it does) to the horizon line. It’s like the pictures or paintings you see of railroad tracts that stretch forever into the distance. Being forced to contemplate the vast infinity of space that is before you is not good for endurance riders. Have I mentioned that I prefer technical, hilly rides?

     At this point Jazz was very pacey i.e. not the smooth, wonderful gaited horse that is motivated to keep up with other horses. It was mind over matter, chiefly my mind over her matter. I played various mind games and pep talks of ‘OK Jazz, let’s just maintain this 6mph pace’ to ‘OK Jazz let’s aim to reach 7mph’ and then when the glimmer of a bridge was ahead, I said, ‘OK Jazz lets get to 8mph to get to the bridge!’. And Jazz would comply each time and didn’t put up any fuss (at least not too much). She’d be rewarded by eating grass at each bridge.

     I’ve found that when you ride a trotting horse, you can use the momentum of posting to help keep the speed and forward movement going. But on a gaited horse there is no posting and so I use my core strength to keep the momentum going. Most of you dear readers are probably used to trotting horses so here is a thought experiment. Imagine somebody is going to punch you in the stomach (yes, close your eyes and imagine it), you naturally engage your core muscles. Now imagine holding those core muscles like that for >7 hours! I had lots of time to experiment with this, as soon as I relaxed my core, Jazz would slow down and walk. It didn’t really matter how much I wagged my legs, flapped the reins, or waved my hands around, which helped for a short while, but my core strength is what really kept her focused on moving forward. During the last loop I remembered I should document this and took some pictures and video. I was super pleased when Jazz picked up the left lead (her bad lead) at mile 49 and near the end we cantered to where the finish line was supposed to be and got back to camp with plenty of daylight to spare! We were top ten, 3^rd place, turtle and the first horse and rider to complete two days at the Quitaque Climb ride!

     One more ‘adventure’ awaited on Sunday night. It was super windy, but I knew Jazz was taking care of herself, eating and drinking well. I woke up at 5:30am and looking out the window the electric pen didn’t look quite right. The wind must have blown the electric tape (not electrified) off the T-posts and Jazz decided to wander off! My heart was completely in my throat and my stomach was doing loops! OMG I thought, Jazz is gone, lost and nowhere in sight. Since there was no poop in the pen and most of the hay was still there, I concluded she must have been out for most of the night! Deep breaths and think ‘if I were Jazz, where would I be? I’d want to be with other horses of course’. I walked along the horse pens and found her within 10 minutes. Major sigh of relief!

     The drive home was long but uneventful. Jazz had some swelling in the left hind ankle/pastern. This was the foot that wore the scoot boot the longest and there were some rubs from the gaiter and straps. I was concerned when we finally got back to the ranch, but she wasn’t lame or limping, just stiff after the drive. Jazz has deserved some time off and this concludes our ride season this year. Time to set new goals…the next logical step is 100 miles and did you know that Tevis is 100 miles? Hmmm….       

Audrey and Jazz complete 105 miles in one weekend!

Jazz and I did it, we accomplished our goal of completing two 50 mile rides back to back at the Shanghai Trails ride! For this post I thought I’d share how our conditioning/training schedule went for the 6 weeks between our last ride at Old Glory and the just-completed Shanghai ride, then I’ll share some of the memorable moments from the ride itself.

Great action shot! From a previous ride courtesy of John Nowell

Jazz’s pre-ride conditioning - less is more when your horse is fit
Previous to this ride Jazz (13 yr old TWH mare) and I had completed 10, 50-mi rides between last year and this year, so generally speaking Jazz is a very fit horse. Despite being fit, she still needs training work in certain areas, specifically picking up the left lead. I only rode Jazz 4 times in the 6 weeks leading up to this ride and we specifically focused on the left lead. Here is what we did: 

Feb. 10-11 Old Glory Ride (80 mile weekend, prev. blog post)
Week 1-3: rest and recovery
Week 4: 1 hr arena work, 5 mi trails
Week 5: 4 mi leg stretch easy ride, 15 mi trails
Week 6: rest prior to Shanghai Ride

I will note that Jazz has the fortune of living on a spacious TX ranch with 7 herd mates. They roam around the couple hundred acres along with 2 mini donkeys, 4 cows and wild pigs. Generally they are not confined to stalls or small paddocks and get lots of social interaction.

Audrey’s pre-ride conditioning - do not neglect your own fitness
My own conditioning is far more involved than Jazz’s. Since most days I am chained to my desk reading, writing papers, analyzing data, banging my head against the wall trying to make experiments work… I purposefully schedule in time for my own conditioning. I’ve also found that if I don’t run 2-3 days a week I fall into negative mood states and depression. Studies have shown that aerobic exercise can be just as effective as anti-depressant medication, so I encourage everyone to exercise not just for the physical benefits but also for mental health. I also condition/train other horses on the ranch (some trotting, some gaited) which helps work different muscles. Here is what I did in the 6 weeks before the ride:
Week 1: 3 mi run, 17 mi ride (half on a trotting horse, half on a gaited horse), 10 mi gaited ride
Week 2: 4 mi run, (rainy weather = no riding)
Week 3: 5 mi trail run w/hills, 3 mi run, 11 mi trotting ride
Week 4: easy arena riding, 3 mi run + hip exercises, 8 mi gaited ride, 8 mi run
Week 5: 3 mi run, ~6 mi riding, 3.5 mi run, 15 mi gaited ride
Week 6: 8 mi run
As you can see I only get to ride 1-2 times/week and I try to make the most of it. So you can compete  in endurance distances without riding 5 days a week. I also incorporate yoga stretching to increase my flexibility. In addition, I’m trying to be more mindful of my posture at work and avoid collapsing my back/shoulders while being figuratively chained to the desk. I try to take walk breaks and strive to get 6000 steps every day (though I think it’s recommended you reach 10,000 steps/day). Now that you have an idea of what we did leading up to this ride, here’s how the ride itself went!

Jazz receiving her pre-vet BEMERing. I used it on myself at night.

Shanghai Trails Friday camp set-up
This ride was about a 4 hour drive and I packed everything the morning of and had no troubles driving. I was once again crewless, since the horse owners Bobbie and Kenny have a long list of ‘to-dos’ to accomplish before they head to New Mexico for the summer months (Bobbie has a great article series in Equus magazine detailing building a ranch from scratch). I wasn’t too worried about not having a crew since I had done well the last two rides on my own. The first big decision was where to park at ride camp? At this particular ride I was cognizant about camp safety since it was this time last year that there were loose horses and some horse deaths due to a ride camp accident (see last year’s blog post). I found my friend and fellow greenbeaner Kirsten L. (who I met at a previous ride a few months ago) and parked near her. We were just a short walk away from the vetting area which turned out to be really helpful since I didn’t have a crew. On Friday it was very windy and I had one heck of a time getting my tent set-up safely without it flying away. This was an almost impossible task to do by myself and I was imagining my tent flying around camp like some oversized kite, spooking all the horses and resulting in pandemonium! Luckily Kirsten helped me get it set-up and there was no impromptu kite flying this day. I used extra fence posts on the corners to further support the little ground tent-pegs which helped anchor everything down.          

     Every horse has their own idiosyncrasies and I’m still learning about Jazz’s. Last ride she had B’s on gut sounds at the pre-ride vet-in because I had forgot to give her the Outlast supplement and other food options when we arrived. This ride I found out that she’ll eat the Outlast if I mix it with sunflower seeds. I imagine that to Jazz sunflower seeds are like chocolate peanut M&Ms are to me, crunchy and delicious. I gave her plenty of food options (coastal hay, alfalfa, grain mash w/carrots, rice bran sweet water), BEMER’d her twice, walked around camp a bunch and at the vet-in she received all A’s!
     The pre-ride meeting went well, and I had everything ready to go for the morning. I just had to mix up the electrolyte ‘smoothie’ to be ready to give in the morning and this is when I had the Elyte Eek! moment. In a Tupperware smoothie shaker I use 6 scoops Perfect Balance Electrolite, ~12 oz kaopectate, top it off with CMPK and mix. But this time something went horribly wrong! It was not mixing right and there were frothing, foaming air bubbles pouring out the top just as if you’d shaken a can of soda, except it kept frothing for 30+ minutes! I fired away some text messages to Bobbie (my mentor who has >20 years’ experience in endurance) to make sure this was indeed not normal and figure out what to do. That morning when packing Bobbie realized we were running low on the Perfect Balance elytes and so mixed in some Apple-a-Day to make sure there would be enough for the weekend. A look at the ingredients showed Apple-a-day contains baking soda (also used to make science fair volcanos!) which I found through some mini-experimentation was reacting strongly with the CMPK but not as strongly with the kaopectate. So we resolved that I would syringe the CMPK separate from the elytes in order to avoid the frothing mess of mixing it all together. It was around 11pm when I finally got to bed. I had my standard wake-up at 2am-ish to go pee and make sure Jazz was eating/drinking as much as possible. Back to bed to wake-up at 5:45am to be ready for the 7:15 start.   

Kirsten and Cali leading the way!

Sat. 55 mi ride - slow vs. fast pace is all relative
     Saturday my strategy was to ride a ‘slow’ pace in order to make sure we still had energy for Sunday. Kirsten said she wanted to ride a faster pace since this was her 2^nd 50 on her ‘new-to-her’ experienced Arab mare. We compared previous ride times, paces and speeds and decided to ride together since my ‘slow’ pace should match her ‘fast’ pace. We rode the entire 55 miles together, Kirsten led most of the way and we waited for each other at the holds. At the first hold Jazz pulsed in right away and had a B- and C on guts, though she was eating so I wasn’t too concerned. In contrast Kirsten’s horse ate like she was starving at the holds and had no problems with gut sounds. On the 2^nd and 3^rd loops I made sure to stop every few miles to make sure Jazz took a few bites to eat. I knew that if Jazz became uninterested in grass then we’d have to go slower and change tactics. Luckily this didn’t happen and we maintained a steady pace gaiting and cantering (picking up the left lead!) throughout. I wasn’t worried when riders passed us and I had to curb my own competitiveness constantly thinking that I’d be doing this all again tomorrow. We were just shy of the top 10, Kirsten came in 11^th, and I got 12^th out of 18 starters. I thought we were going slow but it turns out we were 12 minutes faster than our time at this same ride last year! (Ride time 8 hrs 5 min., avg speed 6.9 mph, avg HR 123 bpm). Having Kirsten and her mare as a riding buddy really helped both Jazz and myself physically and mentally. We had some great conversations about training, our experiences with marathons, and why more people don’t ride 50’s. I think it’s because a lot of endurance riders are >50 years old and it’s just more work to get yourself in shape to complete the distance. If we had more rider fitness programs or clubs (similar to how there are many different community based running groups, couch to 5K programs) I think we could increase the 50 mile participation rate. 

Sun. 50 mi ride
Ride strategy: Strive to stay above 5mph at whatever gait we’re doing in order to overall average 5mph (which includes water/sponge/eating breaks along the trail and pulse down time at holds). There were only 8 starters and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t last in order to have the possibility that another rider could come up behind us during the anticipated 2^nd half lull to provide motivation. I started in the middle of the pack and for 8 miles followed two Arabs that were riding smart in the higher heat, taking walking breaks and stopping for sponging at the water tanks. Everything was great until I realized we had tack problems. Within the first few miles the scrubbie/dixie midnight pad was slowly but surely sliding back out from under the main skito pad (despite the girth being tight enough, I think I finally learned that lesson). Over a very frustrating few minutes, I was able to tie the front of the skito pad to the dixie midnight pad to keep it from sliding further back. Of course, Jazz was not about to stand still during the 1st loop with other horses leading the way, so I had to do it very carefully while gaiting along at 8-9 mph. It’s good to be able to multi-task at speed.

  

The long and lonely road.

   Hello humidity and high heart rate warning. After 8 miles I let the Arabs go on ahead because I realized Jazz’s heart rate (HR) was climbing higher and higher up to 150 and 160 bpm (which I consider the danger zone) even though we were gaiting on flat ground (no hills) at a not-too-strenuous speed of 8mph. Her HR dropped slowly while walking, I like it to drop to 100 bpm within ~1 minute of walking and she was hanging. Interestingly after she had a pee break the HR was a little better but still not great. I could feel the stagnant humid air just sitting around us with no breeze and got worried, having flashbacks to our 75 mi. attempt last year where we were pulled for metabolic as a result of the high humidity. During a walk break I checked the weather on my phone, it was 75 degrees and climbing with 90% humidity, but the humidity would drop later in the day. If I could get past the first trot by and vet check OK there was a strong likelihood the weather would be better in the afternoon. We took it easy and Jazz gave me an interesting 5 mph possible running walk? Despite spending the last year riding gaited horses, I'm not very good at identifying specific gaits since I can't see what the legs are doing and instead go by feel, smooth or not-so-smooth. We made it the last few miles of the 13 mi loop back to camp. The trot-by turned into a small hold as I had the vet do a full check with CRI to make sure Jazz was ok. I elyted and gave a syringe of CMPK and away we went back on trail to complete the 2^nd half of the 1^st loop.
     I had not previously ridden this loop, so I was vigilant to follow trail markers and Jazz and I were mostly alone on trail. On Pierce Ranch where the ride was held, they have rice patties and use large sonic blasts that sound like distant gun shots or small explosions, used to keep birds from eating the crops. This loop went closer to the blasts and while I’m not sure what Jazz was thinking, I thought they were great since every time a sonic blast went off Jazz got a bit of adrenaline rush and picked up speed. There was more wind to help cool her and her HR was great from this point on. I cantered some and asked for the left lead, but either because I was tired or Jazz was tired (most likely both) she would only pick up the right lead. I also discovered Jazz has a lovely 8-9 mph trot that she would pick up instead of cantering. I decided trotting was fine since she was still gaiting well if I asked and I wanted to stick with my >5mph strategy. We passed a bunch of the Intro riders who probably thought I was crazy as I explained this was our 2^nd day of 50 miles. We passed over the scary metal bridge without issue (I was told that other horses had a lot of trouble with this and had to be hand walked) and headed back to camp into the 1st hold.

Jazz only eating when being hand-grazed = more work for me.

     It was at this time that I really wished I had a crew. Despite the smorgasbord of food offered to her, she would only eat if I held the feed pan for her, handed her mouthfuls of hay or hand-grazed her. This means I could only a eat protein bar and some carrots that I shared. I guess Jazz is just a high maintenance horse at the 1st hold. The rest must have done her good because on the 2^nd loop, without another horse in sight Jazz had all kinds of energy. Usually there is a dip in motivation around mile 30 but Jazz had a job and she was happy to do it, going along without any prompting from me. I had to make her stop every few miles in the shade to offer her a chance to eat, which she would take a few bites and off we went again, gaiting steadily onward.

Ride selfie. I had 0 time to take picts 

on hold.

     At 2^nd and last hold Jazz was an eating machine and her gut sounds were better than ever. Thank goodness, because while she was getting better vet scores and taking care of herself, I was fading. The crew cart was useless because I forgot to refill buckets and replace the hay bag, so in the future I’m going to come up with a ‘Crew Cart Checklist’, but luckily camp was close by. I had to force myself to drink and eat as much as I could. I watched as all the 25 milers were done for the day and packing up to go home. Ride camp was getting more and more desolate and I realized I still had one loop of 13-14 miles to go. I was the last 50 miler since 2 people had rider optioned, 1 was pulled for lameness and the others (all on fresh horses) had finished long ago. Back on trail once again, I hand-walked Jazz for a half-mile out of camp in order to stretch my legs and because I didn’t want to chance having to fight with a stubborn mare who didn’t want to leave camp by herself. I don’t think I had to worry about too much because Jazz was in a pretty good mindset of just getting the job done. We stopped at all the mud puddles and water tanks for ample sponging and eating breaks, keeping an eye on our overall average speed. I broke up the boredom by singing such songs as 'Hallelujah' (both the Leonard Cohen version and the Handel choir version), 'Jingle Bells', and 'The ants go marching 2x2' etc.        Everything was great until about mile 43. It was here that we had to turn left back to camp, but Jazz was convinced we needed to go right (which we had done on a previous loop, but that was the looong way back to camp). A short struggle, some swear words and flailing around by me and eventually we got going down the trail. My legs were jell-o (not the tasty kind) and my left foot kept getting caught in the stirrup cage, so I’d have to wiggle/flail that leg around to get it unstuck. My upper abs were burning since to pick up the pace I’d lean back and drive with my core. With 2 miles to go we trotted down the long hard-packed farm road. I got paranoid and thought she might be slightly off and I’d be crushed if after all this we were pulled for lameness. We had plenty of time so I hand-walked her the last mile coming back to camp to cheers from the ride manager, timers and few remaining volunteers. She had the best gut scores all day (A-), an A on muscle and as expected was a little reluctant to gait out, but she did and was sound. Our ride time was 9 hr 26 min., average speed 5.2 mph, average HR 110 bpm. We did it! Yay for turtle awards!

Post-ride recovery
While we officially finished, mentally I was kind of a mess, unfocused, disorganized. I was worried about Jazz, she had a bump on her right tendon area below the knee that was swelling and seemed warmer to the touch. I iced her legs and put on Equi Flexsleeve compression socks. The vet (who was fabulous all weekend) came over and assured me it probably wasn’t a major injury (like a suspensory or torn tendon) since she didn’t react with poking or prodding, no obvious signs of lameness and Jazz was dutifully taking care of herself, eating everything and drinking well. It looked to me like a popped splint, which I’ve dealt with before with another horse and I had done everything I could for the moment. I had to force myself to sit down and eat because I kept trying to pack things up so we’d be ready to leave first thing Monday morning. I eventually got to bed around 11pm.
     I’ve heard of people experiencing pre-ride anxiety but not post-ride anxiety. I experienced a moment of panic at 12am when I must have been half sleeping. I thought I heard thundering hooves and a crash and was convinced Jazz had gotten loose and was galloping around camp. I sat bolt-upright in bed and yelled ‘Jazz!’ (thinking she’d hear me and calm down I guess?). I got my shoes on as quick as possible, stumbled outside and there Jazz was staring at me with pricked ears wondering what the silly human was so panicked about. I don’t know why my anxiety was so high after the ride, I blame the dehydration and overexertion. The next day we packed-up and drove home and Jazz acted and looked like she could do another 30 miles when she got off the trailer. The vet had recommended 3-5 days stall rest for the possible leg injury but Jazz was having none of that. She gaited out ok in hand and Bobbie couldn’t see any obvious signs of lameness, only slight diffuse swelling along tendon area. Jazz wasn’t going to ‘rest’ peacefully in the stall area or upper paddock, which she proceeded to trot all around wondering where her buddies were. We let her out into the large paddock so she could go out with the herd and brag to everyone what she did over the weekend!

Post-ride body exam
We, as riders always do a fabulous job of taking care of our horses, but I wonder how many of us put that much energy into taking care of ourselves? At the end of long rides like this I’ve taken to completing my own post-ride body exam. What muscles hurt the most, where am I weakest, is there any sharp joint pain, is there rubbing/chafing, did I put on enough sunscreen? I found a mystery bruise on the inside of my upper left arm and remembered I had the same bruise after the Old Glory 2-day ride. After some thought I realized I have a habit of holding my crop under my arm whenever I need a free hand. Such a small act of where I hold my crop, but over 105 miles and of course it’s going to bruise! My upper abs hurt the most, so I’ll be doing more planks and bicycle crunches. My oblique muscles (along the side of the abdomen) also hurt which means I’ll have to do side planks (which I detest and avoid whenever possible, which is probably why they’re weak … it’s a vicious cycle). Of course my inner thigh muscles (groin area) hurt but not as much as after previous rides. This must mean I’m getting stronger and am able to recover better, Yay! But I’m still going to try to do more stirrup-less riding to continue to build strength.

It was a great weekend and I’m very proud of Jazz. Now that we’ve accomplished this goal, the next step would be to complete back to back 50’s on more difficult, hilly terrain, and/or do a pioneer of 3 days of 50’s! Fort Stanton might be in our future but I always take it one day at a time and what will be, will be.

May The Horse Be With You!