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| Explorations Photography |
Imagine this: It’s the night before your big event that you’ve been training months for. All you need to do is get to sleep so you’re well rested to start the day off right. You lie on your damp cot that got half soaked from the downpour rain that the forecast failed to predict. BBzzzz…. Bzzzzz… yet all you can hear and focus on are the buzzing mosquitoes trying to get a tasty snack of your blood. I did manage to get a few hours of sleep Thursday night but it was not ideal and the mosquitoes were worse the 2nd night. But it was a good weekend of riding.
Support for Detroit Horse Power non-profit
This was my first-time riding at the Detroit Horse Power Ride (aka Metropark) and I highly recommend it! It’s a fundraiser for the non-profit group of the same name that uses horses to teach vulnerable Detroit youth: perseverance, empathy, responsible risk-taking, confidence, self-control or PERCS. Every-one of these skills is necessary for endurance riding. I especially like the ‘responsible risk-taking’ one! I gave them an extra donation along with my entry fee and you can learn more about their project of building a stable in the middle of an inner-city here: https://www.detroithorsepower.org/
Friday Start
Both Caroline and I were riding in the 50-mile race on Friday. Sixteen riders started and we set-off at 6:30am to ride the slightly sandy, rocky, somewhat hilly, forest trails that make-up Kensington Metropark. One of the challenges of the weekend was to see how Merri (my 8 year old appaloosa/arabian mare) and I dealt with the heat and humidity, which we haven’t been tested on before to this degree. In the morning the temperature was ~73 degrees F and 99% humidity. It was wet and I got a workout weaving and ducking under heavy wet branches and leaves. By the afternoon the humidity dropped to 70-80% but the temperature rose to 88 degrees F! Merri did an excellent job taking care of herself, drinking and eating well. Her heart rate was reading high at >180 ish bpm (maybe the sensor was reading wrong?) but when I stopped on the first loop to electrolyte, her HR had dropped to 69 bpm in < 5 min. After that I stopped looking at the HR monitor for the rest of that loop. Caroline had zoomed ahead and was in the leading pack but I opted to stay more towards the middle of the pack knowing we needed to save some energy for the next day.
My Air Vest Works!
Got through the vet check and hold 1 fine with the help of Barb Hager (mom) who’s got the crew thing down pat and it was on to Loop 2! At this time, Merri and I were by ourselves and I learned why I ride in an Air Vest. The trees were still really wet and heavy from all the rain the night before. I was trotting along on a relatively loose rein and in a split second I see a movement ahead and to my left and then a loud crash! Merri spun, I heard a POP and I was on the ground, landed on my right shoulder and back. A large tree branch had fallen about 20 feet ahead of us just to the left of the trail. Normally Merri will spook in place at unexpected scary things but I don’t blame her this time for spinning because it was scary even to me. The pop was my air vest going off and I had a moment on the ground to appreciate that the experience was like falling on a pillow. There was no need for the usual thoughts that I typically have immediately after a fall: ‘do all my body parts work? Any sharp pains? Will I have an awesome bruise to show for this?’. I managed to keep ahold of my reins so Merri didn’t go far. We were both shaken but after walking a bit and figuring out how to deflate my vest by unscrewing the canister, I got back on and we carefully finished the loop without any other incidents! Now at the 2nd hold we passed the vet check fine after delicate sponging (Merri doesn’t like quick rapid sponging). I tried to replace the vest CO2 canister with my spare but at this point my brain wasn’t working optimally and I inflated the vest again and, in the process, ate another $40 (the cost of a replacement canister but still cheaper than an ER visit).
To the Finish of Day 1!
For the last loop of 12.5 miles, Caroline had left ahead of us and I was able to find a riding buddy, Amy, and the horses matched well and appreciated the company of riding together. I especially was thankful since we had to ride the same loop that my air vest went off and I was a little nervous. We kept a steady pace of trotting and walking with eating grass (the horses were eating grass, we just drank water). At about 2 miles to go back to camp we caught back up with Caroline and Glory and we hand-walked in to tie for 7th place, ride time of ~7 hours 44 min. I stood for Best Condition hoping to get the High Vet Score recognition because at the last ride we were really close to getting it. To my surprise we won the High Vet Score and the Best Condition award! This was a great confidence booster because it tells me I didn’t ride too hard or too fast, we still top 10’d and we were ready to do it all over again the next day.
Day 2, 50 miles all over again, Dressage lessons are paying off
In short, day 2 was a success. There were 9 horse/riders starting and we turtled coming in 6th place, riding for a total of ~9 hours 22 min. There are advantages and disadvantages to riding in a group of other horses. For example on the first loop Merri was happy to be at the tail end of a line of 3-4 other riders just keeping them in sight. But on the 2nd loop, partnering with Karri B. and her horse worked well in the beginning as the horses motivated each other to keep going. But then Merri would trot hollowly and tense down hill (instead of relaxed or just walking down hill). And then Merri wouldn't grab a bite of grass to eat because the other horse wasn't stopping and eating. So, I let Karri go on ahead and then Merri ate better on trail without having to worry about another horse.
There was a low point at the 2nd vet check when vet Bob Marshall said her back was starting to get sore (probably because of the tense downhill trotting). I worried all through the last loop, but we had switched to a fresh dry skito pad and I worked hard to get Merri to collect and use different back muscles. Thanks goes to Caroline, who’s been giving me dressage collection lessons and teaching us to ride more correctly. As a result, at the end of the ride there was no back soreness!
Other interesting notes
Interference observation: At the Muckleratz 50 mile ride I did not need to use rear ankle boots because Merri did not interfere at all. This was 5 weeks ago and just after a hoof trim and Versa Grip Shoe changeover. But at this Detroit ride after the 1st loop on day 1, Merri had interference marks on the inside of both rear fetlocks. I used the ankle boots for the rest of the ride but I felt bad that it happened in the first place. My farrier said that horses can interfere when they’re at the end of a trim cycle (which Merri was) because their hooves are a little longer and it affects their way of going. This is great info to have for future rides and knowing when to use ankle boots vs not needing them.
I had no chaffing, in part due to liberal use of Squirrel’s Nut Butter anti-chaffing salve and in part due to the right clothing. On Friday I rode in new compression tights from SportHG.com that I purchased at the OD National Championships ride. I like the tights but can’t quite recommend them yet because by the end of just one 50-mile ride they have some holes and runs and stitching coming apart. I’m going to contact the manufacturer since they are supposed to last around 800 miles (not 50).
I’ll probably be buying a new pad and new girth to have spares when doing multi-days and 100 mile distances because it was helpful to have the fresh dry pad that Caroline lent me. Maybe then I’ll be done buying tack?
Mindset and ‘framing your reality’ can and does affect your physical functioning and performance. Do you go into a ride thinking ‘I just want to get through this’ or do you go into a ride thinking ‘My horse and I are excited to see what happens on trail and grow stronger’. This first thought process of ‘I want to get through this’ means you have the expectation of struggle and hardship and pain and the focus is on the end goal of finishing. The second mindset, focuses on the journey and partnership and emphasis of growth mindset. I’m not saying that one mindset is better than another, after all the AERC slogan is ‘To Finish Is To Win’, emphasis on finishing. But I’m fascinated by how thought processes can affect our physiological functioning (how sore we feel, how much energy we have, how focused we are, etc). I may have to write another blog post about this as I explore it more. I had only a little muscle soreness overall (the good kind of soreness) and by the end of the day on Monday I could walk down stairs fine. In the past it’s taken me a week to fully recover from a 50 mile ride. I recently listened to the 2-part podcast from Hidden Brain called ‘Reframing Your Reality’ and they describe how mindsets and beliefs affect our response to stress, how our bodies metabolize food and how they respond to exercise. Check it out here: https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/reframing-your-reality-part-1/
Future 100 here we come! (or maybe 75) Because we did so well this weekend, Merri and I will be signing up for a longer distance at Cala-Boogie ride labor day weekend. Not sure yet if it will be a 75, 100 or 75 mile elevator. The biggest obstacle will be trying to get some night rides in to see how she is riding in the dark.
Until next time...Happy trails and enjoy the Journey!
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| Explorations Photography |
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