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Old Dominion 25 LD, June 10, 2005

HOLY SHIT!!!

Excuse the profanity, but that's EXACTLY how I feel about yesterday's ride at Old Dominion.

It started before we even got there! My entry paperwork stated the ride started at noon on Friday June 10. Last week I looked at the website to get specific directions and noticed that the website said the Friday LD vet-in was from 9:00 AM until 1:00. The 25 mile ride meeting was at 1:00, or as soon as all the 25 milers were vetted, and the ride started at 2:00. I thought, "Excellent, they're gonna start us after the heat starts to go away." And my second thought was, "Awesome, I can drive there in the morning instead of going for an overnight."

So, we leave our barn at 7:30 AM. The horses were in fine fettle, as soon as we put on their wraps they got excited to rock-n-roll. Off we go. Listening to the radio as we got closer to Front Royal, we noticed they had heat warnings for people to stay indoors with the ac on, keep pets out of the sun and provide them plenty of water, and that the heat index was going to take the temperature into the upper 90's.

GREAT! Last weekend when we rode, it was a whopping 71 degrees. What a huge change in temperature so fast. I was concerned for myself (we all know how I can't deal with the heat).

So...we get to the ride site at 10:52 AM and the volunteer that was directing traffic asked which ride we were in (they were parking people according to their ride...very organized!) When I said, "Today's LD." then man almost had a heart attack. "You're LATE!" he practically shouted at me. (WHAT?!?!?!?!) The ride starts in an hour and the vets are leaving. I told the guy, "BUT BUT BUT, the website said 2:00 ride time." He told me there was a mistake on the website and it was corrected that morning (wrong answer, it STILL states 9:00 to 1:00 vet-in and 2:00 ride time as of today...the day after the ride.)

OMG! Walt and I hustled down to park the truck, whipped the horses off the trailer and jogged up to the vet-in arena. While Walt got the paperwork, I hurried both horses to the ring. Thankfully, the volunteers were so helpful, one held Whoopie while I started Joker. Even with me being all wound up, Joker actually stood very well for her exam (there's a first for everything - all A's BTW.)

Walt said he told the check-in people about the website error and they told him I must have read it wrong because it did not say that (hmmm). (For all you interested, at the award dinner, several people sitting behind me were talking about how they arrived late because the website said 2:00 ride start, so I know I wasn't the only one to have an adventurous start to the ride.) We missed the ride meeting so I had no clue about the terrain or visual markers for the ride. It was 12.5 miles out and back. I did not know what the terrain indicators would be for coming in the last mile or two before vet check or ANYTHING. I felt very lost not being at the meeting. I asked several volunteers about getting ride info but it was too late, we had to get tacked up and ready if we were gonna start at noon. So, I was unable to devise a plan of attack for the trail BEFORE we left, I was gonna have to play it by ear. AND - I missed loading stuff for the vet check, so were were gonna have to carry everything for the vet check with us on the horses. I hate that extra weight on them, but you have to do what you have to do.

Okay - we're vetted in, but after hauling 3 1/2 hours, the horses are too wound up to drink or eat much and the ride starts in 1/2 hour. I am really stressed that they aren't relaxing enough to drink because it is REALLY getting hot. I was frying standing at the trailer getting them tacked up. I double dosed Joker with e-lytes in hopes that the first water crossing we came to, she'd drop and drink. She started eating grass about 5 minutes before we needed to mount up and get going.

Okay - we're mounted and ready to rock-n-roll. The pace car leads up out to the trail head and off we go. Well, knowing that Whoopie and Joker work the mountain really regular, they cranked up that first mile and a half of trail without any hesitation. We blew by everyone. I kept telling Walt to slow Whoopie down because it was heating up and although we all know she can crank a mile and a half of uphill mountain trail relatively easily, I wanted to preserve her energy. We ran out front of the pack for 10 of the 12.5 miles (later on that).

The first 8 miles had tons of clear cold water (yea!) and the horses drank very well. I was so hot, I drank all three of my water bottles by this point and was hoping to find an ice-cream stand out here on the trail. (grin).

We hit roads and MAN WAS IT HOT! The devil himself couldn't have been more proud of the heat rising off this surface. Whoopie was showing some signs of heat stress but I couldn't stop them to walk on this terrain. We jogged through it and when we hit woods again, I let them walk under the trees. Joker cooled right off, but Whoopie was still showing terrible signs of heat stress. I didn't want to worry Walt, so I just kept my eye on her.

Then we're out of the woods and on macadam again. I guess the Devil heard me on the first stretch of macadam because he turned it up a notch...OMG...I was dying. We went through this little village to the next stretch of trail and Walt saw me watching Whoopie, so I told him my thoughts. Joker is ready to rock-n-roll, but I kept us to a slow pace for Whoopie's sake. I was very concerned at this point.

Then we go through this nice tree covered tractor path. It was a good place for us to move out, but watching Whoopie, I figured we better keep ourselves slow. This is where people started passing us. One after another, pass pass pass. Finally, coming down a hill, I see horses crossing the river. WOW! Because I wasn't at the ride meeting, I didn't know we'd be doing a river crossing. It was AWESOME!!!!! All the way across I telling Walt - SPONGE SPONGE SPONGE. The river was warm, though, not cold so the sponging didn't have as good of an effect as we could have had for cooling down.

We get into the vet check (on the bank across the river) and I dropped tack and went straight to the vet. Joker's pulse was 52. The vet was VERY impressed that I checked in at 2:28 and pulsed down at 2:33. Well - we walked the last two miles in, and even with the heat, Joker was very relaxed. (I did not know at that time that horses were being pulled left and right for heat and metabolism problems)

Whoopie, however, was in heat exhaustion and her pulse was WAY up there. Walt stood in the river for an hour sponging her off and still couldn't get her down under 80. Yes, she was pulled at this time. NOTE: It took us 2.5 hours to do 12.5 miles. That is HORRIBLE! But I could not work any faster without causing the horses a heart attack. The heat was brutal.

Being Joker's first season, I hadn't worked her alone on the trail before so I didn't know how she was gonna do. There was a fella there that I met at Michaux two weeks ago that was working a young Arab on his first ride. I hooked up with him and asked if I could tag along for Joker's mental health. He thought that was great. Joker and his gelding actually worked very well together, they both had about the same speed going for them.

So we're working together going back and they're both relaxed, stopping to drink at every puddle, and not stressed. Coming through the path between two fields, it's a bit rocky and muddy so we slowed down. Okay, all of you that know Joker...you know she is a busy body, having to check out everything. She was still very perky, so because we slowed down, she was checking out everything and FELL! Flipped over, right on top of me! The three riders in front of me said they heard her stumbling and then heard, "Oh shit." When they turned around, all the saw was my one leg. (OUCH). That was okay, it was when she rolled off me that I got hurt...there was a large rock under my left hip and (of course) she rolled off me to the left, grinding that rock right into the hollow of my back and hip bone. (SCREAM).

I was very worried that Joker had injured her self. Everyone's asking me if I'm okay and all I can think about is my poor horse. She was fine, standing there like, Dude, whacha doin' on the ground?" Stupid horse. She was good so I went to put my foot in the stirrup to mount (scream) and boy oh boy, what pain shot through my hip. I was praying that I didn't break something going down the trail, because with every post, it was screaming.

Okay - I stayed with the fella and his Arab for 11 miles before I had to stop and let Joker recover a little. We were working up hill and she was starting to over heat. We got to a crisp clear spring that was very cold and I worked her cooling. I also drank half that creek myself. Because I wasn't able to get a bucket together to have hauled to the vet check, I had no spare water with me...having drank all three bottles the first half of the ride. By the time I got to this spring, I was in la-la land with pain in my hip and dehydration of my brain.

Note - to this point, we have not seen any other riders. No-one has passed us, and we're like all alone on the trail. I sent him on and he was worried about leaving me, but we only had 45 minutes to make the last mile and a half to get in on time. I told him "GO! FINISH! I'll get an OT and I don't care."

Joker actually cooled down pretty quickly and she didn't get nervous that her new found buddy left her. I was concerned that she hadn't pee'd since the morning, but she (being the Joker food hog that she is) found a stand of grass and was going to town on it.

While she was eating, here come three riders. They jumped off into that cold spring I was just in and all three of them were working on one horse rather frantically. I scoped it out and that horse had the thumps so bad, I was waiting for him to seize up and fall over into the creek. He was in BAD shape. I went over and offered to hold their horses while they worked on him and gave them my last e-lyte. He definitely needed it more than Joker. They worked on him for 15 minutes before the thumps started to subside. That's very scary. His rider said she was gonna hand trot him in the last mile and a half and I said I'd ride with her to be sure there was no trouble.

So, off went her two buddies to get a completion and me and her started a slow jog back. DAMN! I wish I could jog up hill like she did! She said she did a ride-n-tie once and it wasn't so bad. (huff puff) Yeah, right.  (Photo by Hugh MacDonald, he let me have it for free because it's blurry - but it fits, because I was FEELING blurry.  THANK YOU HUGH!)

We jogged all the way back into camp. When we got to where we could see the timers, they were frantically waving to us. I looked at my watch and HOLY S**T ... I still had 6 minutes until 6:00 - I knew that Joker would be pulsed down in time because we didn't work hard at all coming back in. They handed us a glass of champagne while they marked our in time on the card and they were SO proud of us at the check-in. I didn't understand why until later (and you'll understand, too, when I tell you.)

I had jumped off Joker while they wrote on my card and was quickly moving her up the hill when a volunteer told me to slow down, take my time and cool my horse off - they had extended the pulse down time to 6:45 due to the heat. WOW! But, I checked Joker and she was at 56 so I went to the vets for pulse down anyway.

We checked in at 5:56 and pulsed down at 52 at 6:06. We completed! Yea! And right when the vet was doing her temp, she decided to pee (poor vet) but it was a nice clear yellow. Yea!

What a long hot ride that was. I have NEVER done a 25 that took so long, or seemed like it lasted forever. My hip screamed obscenities at me as I walked Joker and our stuff down to the trailer after the final vet check. My right leg was starting to bother me too and I wasn't sure why. I got to the trailer and Walt was waiting there. I explained to him that he should have been at the vet check with e-lytes, water buckets and hands to help me when I got back (remember, Walt is new to this sport and is still learning.) He told me he was waiting to see me come by but must have missed me when the vet called him to check Whoopie.

I e-lyted Joker, and quickly went over to Whoopie to check her out. Her breathing was still very high and her pulse was still elevated, but she looked comfortable and Walt said she peed and it was a dark yellow, but clear and not brown. (whew)

Okay - now the horses are cared for and the adrenaline is wearing off. My right leg is REALLY hurting me, and is in direct competition with my left hip. I went into the trailer with a bucket of water and rag to wash off and change clothes and HOLY S**T. My right leg is purple from the top of the knee to half way down my calf. When Joker fell on me, she must have landed on that leg. I had Walt look at my back and butt, and he didn't see bruising, but he say a distinct rock formation in red welts. (ouch).

I forgot my diddy bag of first aid stuff (it's in the camper, which we didn't bring since we're only gonna be here for the day) so I had no Tylenol. Man, oh man. Bobby was parked next to us so I asked her if she had any pain relief. She gave me four Anacin's, but that didn't work. I got to Advil an hour later, that didn't work. I NEED TYLENOL!!!! Man....

So, I hobble up to the ride dinner. EXCELLENT FOOD! Excellent service and everyone was very energized. Old Dominion is definitely like a family reunion. People were coming up and saying "HI" and I couldn't remember their names .. only their horses, so I'd say, "How's So-n-So doing?" Goodness me. The ride steward was VERY ADAMANT that the riders listen closely about the heat. She told them what a hard time the 25 milers had with heat and that they could expect the same thing on Saturday. She went over all the things you should do in the heat and was VERY STRICT that people were listening. When we got through the 50, 75 and 100 mile ride meeting, they finally had the 25 LD results.

SIT DOWN.

70 starts. 29 completions. If she read them in order of completion, then I finished 9th. I have never been to a ride in five years that had that kind of pull ratio. HOLY S**T.

Joker is awesome, and that's all I can say about this mare with a heart as big as the world. She never gave me one moments hesitation or cried for help and I know she had to be hurting as much as me with riding in that kind of heat.

BELOW IS A LETTER FROM THE RIDE MANAGER SENT TO ME VIA EMAIL 06/14/05