Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
Old Dominion 50
Remarkable. Early June and the 30 milers competed in temps reaching 100 degrees. Does this remind you of anything (see Old Dominion 2005). It cooled off somewhat for us 50 milers...all the way down to 91.
Allow me a moment of reflection on the good nature and big heart of Judy Short...the best crewing lady ever. She worked all day in that heat to get our stuff from one vet check to the next. Not only did she have to sleep the night before with me snoring in her ear, get up in the morning and play rush around while we got ready to hit the trail, she also had two riders and two horses to keep track of in the heat. She is remarkable...although after the ride was over she did tell me not only was she never going to attempt to RIDE the OD trails, she was probably never going to crew on them again, either. Something about driving along cliffs and fear of falling off the world's end.
Before we even left the barn we had a lot of fun playing musical horses. John Marsh is a wonderfully patient man and I wanted to give him three "Hurrahs" in this story. Originally, I sent in my application for Bee-Bee and one for Izabel. Lori was to ride Izabel. After Michaux, Izabel was pulled due to a sire back, and I figured that she would need a couple weeks rest and conditioning work to strengthen her back. She's certainly fit enough to do a 100 miler (grin) but carrying weight is a lot different from driving.
I emailed John and cancelled Izabel's entry. With OD being the absolute toughest trail system on the east coast, it was best not to push the issue.
A week goes by and Kyle emails me that he's not going to go with me. (brat!) Great. I hate to go out alone, mostly because I hate riding alone. Fine, if he's not going to ride Joker, then I am bringing Joker back home and putting Lori on her. I email Skip (Kyle's dad) and tell him I'm coming to get Joker because I have someone willing to ride her so she's not sitting around the pasture becoming a potato.
(I'm not going to get into it here, this is a WHOLE other story about Joker, Kyle and Kevin. Let's just say that my desire to bring her back home precipitated a snow ball effect.)
I email John and ask if he can reopen the application for Lori, she's going to be riding Joker. He emails me back and says, "Absolutely, no problem at all." He cancels Kyle's entry, reopens Lori's entry, puts Joker under Lori and emailed me confirmation. Whoo Hoo.
In the meantime, the snowball effect at Kyle's house has turned into an avalanche and Skip emails me that I can't have Joker back...they want to buy her.
WHAT?!?!!? Skip "HATES - LOATHES - PUKES OVER" Appaloosa horses.
I cannot believe my eyes as I read the emails about buying her. Fine. If the boys are going to work and compete her, then I don't mind her being sold to them. If they're gonna let her sit around and gather moss, then she's coming home. We enter into an agreement. (again, this is another story that I WILL sit down and write for your entertainment)
I take a good look at the horses in the barn and figure that Rocket has been doing very well on his conditioning work, maybe Lori could ride him. I get on him, run him hard for 17 miles and he didn't even breath hard. Okay, that workout wasn't OD trails, but it was a good hard workout. I'm willing to let him try. And Lori is tiny and rides very well so he won't be carrying a lot of weight or a bad rider.
I email John back and ask if we can switch horses for Lori. She won't be riding Joker, now she's going to be riding Rocket. Patient man that he is, he emails me back, "No problem." and I get confirmation of Lori's entry with Rocket as her mount. I enthusiastically thank John with all my heart for all his patience and understanding over the last minute switches going on.
About an hour after this flurry of emails with John, Kevin calls me and asks if he can come with me to OD.
(sigh)
Sure, come on along. I don't mind. Of course, now I have to email John one more time and tell him to reopen Kyle's application with Kevin as the rider and put Joker back on that application.
(groan)
I don't wanna ... I feel like a heel...it's two days before the ride and I'm still driving poor John mad with changes. Of course, he is just as wonderful as all the other times and confirms that Kevin is now riding Joker on Kyle's application. He then checks to be sure that I am riding Bee-Bee and Lori is riding Rocket.
Got it. We're good to go.
(whew)
Lori comes up and puts her tack on Rocket so we can be sure everything fits. It does. She mounts up to take him for a spin to get comfortable with how he works and off they go. He's so remarkably wonderful! It's so hard to believe he's a five year old breeding stallion. He's just awesome.
I hear some hollering from the ring and then Jacki comes riding up to the barn.
"Dodie, something is wrong with Rocket's leg." she looks very concerned.
I freeze in fear. God no...
"He's standing in the road down there with that girl." she points down the driveway. "He's not putting any weight on his leg."
I jump into action. As I run out the front door of the barn, I see Lori standing with Rocket in the road. I jump into my car and fly down there. Rocket is standing on three legs, the fourth leg he won't even put on the ground.
(oh no)
I have to say, though....once again he impresses me with his brains and calm demeanor. He's standing there while horses are milling around not 20 feet from him and although he's scoping them out, he doesn't seem to really care about them at all.
I run my hands down his leg. Nothing seems out of sorts. Lori is trying to tell me what happened but I'm not really listening. Something about they were doing grandly, moving along at a good pace, and all of a sudden he stumbled. When he came out of it, he was on three legs.
I notice blood on the sole of his foot. I pick up his foot and he's fighting me. I pop him and tell him he's an idiot and he relaxes while I dig around in his foot.
He came to me with bad thrush in all four feet. This is only a couple months ago. I had been treating it and thought I had it licked. Guess what? That thrush was so deep into his foot that his entire frog fell out. I kid you not, it was gone and all that was left was raw sole and bleeding from where the frog used to be.
Holy Shit! I've never seen THAT before.
I tell Lori what's happened. Tell her to quit worrying, she didn't do anything wrong, and send her up to the barn with Rocket with instructions on cleaning it out and putting him away for the evening. I then tell her to get Izabel out of the pasture and take her for a ride. She's not had one day of soreness since the Michaux ride and I've used her for countless lessons and trail rides since then, so Lori is going to be riding on Izabel.
Wait a gosh darned minute! Wasn't she the original horse on the application? OH NO! I have to call John AGAIN! I'm dying here.
I go home to reflect on the nature of horses, their constant boo-boo's and whether or not I'm prepared to keep going in this sport of endurance. I'm near to tears. I'm not 100% sure of Bee-Bee, she was pulled at Michaux and even though she's been fine since we got home, I know what the OD trail can do to a horse that *IS* 100%. I'm not sure about Izabel, she was also pulled at Michaux, though my suspicion then (and it holds true now) is that she was sore due to not being used to how Connie rides so far forward in a two point all the time and that carrying Lori she'll probably do much better. I don't have Joker any more since the boys have decided they want her for their own. Rocket blew a frog and that means he won't be competing at all this season, maybe a short CTR at the end of the season. Frogs take a long time to re-grow.
And that leaves me sitting here wondering if I will be able to finish out the ride season at all this year. I'm not very happy on this Wednesday evening, two days before the ride weekend.
Okay - I'll quit being a big cry baby. Sorry about that.
On Thursday, I trot out Bee-Bee - she looks grand. Full of spunk and very feisty. In fact, she was SO feisty, she pulled the lead rope from my hands, leaving me with a nice rope burn on my palm (*!^!^&%$!^%$@%$^*). Okay. She's going.
(PS: Thursday June 7, 2007 Alec graduated from Kutztown High School AND turns 19 years old. I am so proud that he finished school. For those of you that know my family life, you understand the relief I feel when he receives his diploma and exits stage left. Also on Thursday, my mom and I get a bug up our asses and paint my kitchen. I've been wanting to do this for a year and Marc was totally uninterested in helping me pick a color or doing the work to get it done. It's now a lovely shade of periwinkle - similar to the shades of color here on this webpage. When Marc comes home from work he throws a fit because it's "purple" and he hates purple. I can't win.)
Back to the ride story....
I trot out Izabel and notice a slight hitch in her gait. I put her in the arean and lunged her both directions and could notice a hitch going counter clockwise. What the?!?!?? I poke and prod and can't find any soreness. I pick up all four feet and do a "soundness" test. Nothing changes after the flexing, not better...not worse. I have Sarah trot her for me straight out and straight back to see what I can see. I suspect that this is how she goes (she has a wicked splint on one hind leg that appears to be the result of a direct injury...maybe that's the cause of her hitch) and since I've never really "looked" at her before, I may have missed it. I get on her and rider her around the upper field. She feels fine and is certainly game to move out.
Nope ... I'm taking NO CHANCES!
(groan)
Now I have to email John AGAIN. I swear, I quit. I email Lori and tell her that I don't feel comfortable taking Izabel. If it was any other ride but the OD, we'd chance it. The OD is very tough and I don't need broken horses.
Lori was very good natured about it and accepted her plight very adult like (chuckle).I don't think I could have taken a temper tantrum at this point.
Now, I am ready to pack the trailer so we can leave tomorrow.
FRIDAY! YEA! God, it's hot. 74 degrees when I wake up at 5:30 AM. What the hell. I send my mother home (hehe) and go to the barn to get things packed. Since I was painting all day on Thursday, I got nothing packed into the trailer.
8:30 AM and I'm sweating myself to nothingness. I swear, I lost almost 30 pounds since 5:30 AM just sweating. (That's not a BAD thing!)
10:30 AM and I am sitting my ass in the creek. Cirocco thinks this is grand, a person in his creek. How better can HIS day get.
11:00 AM - where the fuck is Kevin. He is supposed to be here at 11:00 so we can load him stuff up and get rolling. I want my air conditioning, dammit!
11:45 AM - here comes Kevin. Believe it or not, I am totally dry from sitting in the creek, that's how hot it is.
12:06 PM - we are out the driveway. How remarkable. AIR CONDITIONING.
Kevin and I had a grand discussion about all kinds of things. Then we'd sit in quiet reflective thought listening to a CD. Then we'd talk about stuff again. it was a nice ride down there. We had a short detour through Fort Royal. When I got into the Shenandoah area, it was totally congested with Friday evening traffic, compounded by construction snarling everything up into a tangled mess of cars jockeying for position. I missed my turn off and ended up in Fort Royal proper. I went in circles trying to get out and finally whipped that bad boy trailer off to the side when I saw a police officer conveniently parked on a side street.
I ran up to his car and tapped on the window. He smiled at me (good) and I asked if he could help me. He said, "I'm guessing you're lost?" (better) and I reply, "Yep!" He gave me directions to get back onto the correct road and wished me luck at the ride...his sister was there competing. (awesome)
I jump back into the truck and off we go. Short 30 minute delay in arrival, but we got there.
Judy was waiting for us next to a porta-john. (What's with her and hanging out at Porta-Johns?) When we arrived in camp, she pointed me towards some good parking places at the top of the hill overlooking the entire camp. Lovely view! She also ran down to get us checked in and get a vet to do out vet-in. Apparently I have missed the 5:00 PM vet-in deadline by arriving at 5:20 PM.
Kevin and I quick run out hot, thirsty horses down to the tent to vet in. I wish they'd had 15 minutes or so to drink...they've just been on the trailer for 5 hours in the heat with no water to speak of and eating dry alfalfa hay all the way down here. They HAVE to be thirsty. Gut sounds were great for both of them so we lucked out.
All A's for Bee-Bee.
Back up to the trailer. Dinner and the ride meeting afterwards is in 20 minutes so we decide to set up the corral pens and stuff after dinner. Little did we know that dinner would start late, run late and it would be almost dark before we got back to the camp.
30 milers ... goodness. The heat index was 109, hot sun beating on them, and most the riders did not finish. Yep, total repeat of the 2005 OD limited distance ride. I was pretty amazed that the times were so slow...I know the trail is tough, and it was hot, but it was still a shock to hear the finishing times and how many didn't even complete.
I talked to a couple of the LD riders and heard that the trail was hot, dusty, the rocks had multiplied since last year, and it was grueling out there. I started planning the trail in my head while we set up camp to the headlights of Judy's truck.
Check out these corral panels
I got! I love them. I can't believe I've been riding since 1999
and didn't have any of these panels before now. I will NEVER be
without them again. Bee-Bee rested so nicely and she's usually very
"concerned" when we get to a ride...not resting or eating properly.
The panels must have given her a sense of security she didn't have before.
I'm VERY happy with them. They're light weight, easy to assemble by
yourself and are very inexpensive if you buy two sets at the same time.
Scope out the website for them and get yourself some of these awesome
panels.
http://www.c-siron.com/trailpanel.htm They're the best thing since
toilet paper!
Okay, here we go. We are without camper this year, back to rough camping in a tent. I decided I'm too lazy to set up a tent and can just roll out the mattress in the back of the truck and sleep in there. Works out great! And, since they were calling for storms over night (and it was flashing up a good one come dark) this was probably safer any way. There is a lot of room and I offered Judy to sleep with me on the nice form fitting mattress. I didn't warn her that I snore, talk in my sleep and am very busy rolling all over the place. I didn't want to scare her out of the truck and onto the ground beside Kevin. She's a very light sleeper and the next morning she told me all about my snoring, talking and rolling all over the place. Sorry!
Kevin opted not to have a tent, either and slept on the ground beside the truck. He said he was comfortable (ooookkkaaayy!) and there were no rocks under his back. Me? I'd have laid on the ground and every rock from here to Winchester, VA would have zoomed over to my sleeping area.
I was going to dig out my alarm clock but Kevin said his phone had an alarm and we could use that. I told him to set it for 5:00 AM. He did and gave it to me. (hmmm) He's very lucky that he still HAS a phone. That freakin' thing sounded off all night telling us, "Signal - oops, no signal." It was so busy telling us about the signal that it burned up it's battery and didn't wake us up anyway. Actually, Judy got up around 4:30 AM and her moving around got me out of bed.
Horses get fed and watered. Bee-Bee is munching away looking very chipper and ready to go. Joker is her normal chow-hound self, eating everything and it's brother. The corral panels went a long way towards keeping Bee-Bee from being restless. She even laid down in the night to sleep. I know! I was cleaning mud, grass and manure off her back.
5:30 AM - the 100 milers are off. They look very chipper and are smiling as they trot on by our camp site. There are sure a lot of them! I couldn't believe my eyes as horse after horse went on by. I don't have the actual count, I'll have to look things up later, but I heard there were over 30 100 mile riders. That's way awesome.
We walk down the hill to the main tent and have some breakfast of champions. Caffeine and sugar. Mmmm. I brought eggs and bacon to make for myself so as to avoid the sugar fest of donuts and danishes that I knew would be there, but got caught up in the festivity of eating those marvelously yummy items and didn't make my breakfast. I'm gonna pay for this later when my energy levels shoot through the roof and Judy can't contain me. Maybe it's JUDY that's gonna pay for this later.
I overheard Kevin telling Judy that he was nervous. He always gets nervous before a ride. (chuckle)
We climb back up the hill to the camp to start getting ready. I pack up my saddle with four bottles of water and gaterade. Snacks and gum into the saddle pack. Check and recheck my emergency supplies (black tape, cable tie, hoof pick, knife, string, vet wrap) and am ready to go.
We tack up and are ready to head down to the starting line.
I like riding with Kevin!
He's not at all frantic before the ride starts, he's just as laid back as I
am...takes his time, and is ready to go one minute before we need to be
ready. I was so relaxed, no-one was pushing me or frantically running
around like a crazy person rushing to get everything done. Nice!
Down we go to the starting line. As we arrive, they call for TWO MINUTES. Perfect timing, eh?
Bee-Bee stood nice and calm waiting for the go. She was aware and looking all around, interested in those silly Arabians jumping up and down, but mostly reserving her energy to kill me when they say, "Trail's open."
And she almost did.
She took off like a bat out of hell and it was all I could do to keep her
contained as we road out of camp. She was READY! This mare is
fantastic. And the only hot head I've ridden in the past several years
that has absolutely no spook in her. None. Just a lot of
unleashed energy and desire to go hell bent for leather.
And the ride begins. Let me tell you about the OD/Fort Valley trails. Constant up and downs, boulders everywhere, rocks on the trail the size of graprefruits through basketballs, more up and down, and beautiful awe inspiring, breath taking views. God. You got up on the ridge and you're at peace with everything. It is the most technical trail I've ridden and it not only challenges you as a horse person, it challenges your horse. I have to say that any horse that comes off this trail, whether they completed or not, if they're still sound, they are a grand horse. Hang on to that horse for ever!
Bee-Bee has done this trail twice and she's like a freakin' mountain goat. She boogies through these rocks like no-ones business. First time I had her up here, Connie was riding her and I couldn't keep up with her. My horse was carefully picking his way through all the boulders and Bee-Bee was boogying. Man, she was a treat to watch. Second time we came up here, Naoma was riding her and Naoma left me in the freakin' dust more times than I care to remember. Both times Bee-Bee faired very well so I had no reservations about her doing the trail. My only concern was that she had muscle cramping at Michaux two weeks ago and I was concerned that she'd get sore again in her loins.
Joker was at No Frills twice, which uses this same system, but not this exact trail. She did fine on that ride so I had no concerns about her either. My biggest concern was for Kevin. This is a tough ride and I was hoping he would not get too tired.
We're off.
They broke the ride into several steps. A gate at 10 miles. What does that mean? it's not a vet check, they just stop you and don't release you to continue down the trail until your pulse is at the parameter set by the vet. Most horses continue on down the trail immediately if they were ridden sanely. We did (ride sanely) and we did (go right on out the gate). The thing that disturbed me about how they had the vet checks set up was that they had closing times on the holds. That was mighty unfair, if you ask me. When it's this hot (it was 73 degrees when we got up and the sun was beating down on us.) I like to ride hard in the morning, putt-putt in the afternoon heat, then bully them up again in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, if I rode that way, I would miss the closing times on the holds and it would put me OT (overtime) and that will get me pulled.
Okay - I set a timing in my head for each hold and gave that time frame to Judy. So far, so good - we reach the 10 mile Gate at exactly the time I expected to.
Off we go.
This leg of the trail is mighty interesting! Up and Up and Up and Up. 11 miles of UP and Up and UP and Up. Oh, and did I mention that the rocks must have procreated since last year?
First vet check. Right on the money when I said I'd be there. Unfortunately, the hold is in a field with no shade relief and it's HOT. There is very little air moving and the sun is doing its best to melt the tires off the crewing vehicles. Whew.
Bee-Bee pulsed in at 42 and the vet made a wonderful comment that you don't see that often with the Walkers. They usually fail at this sport because their pulse is so high. (chuckle) He hasn't seen anything yet, wait until I got Rocket out here. His pulse is so slow that it's difficult to find and even after a strenuous work out, it rarely goes over 50. I have a hard time pushing him hard enough to get his heart rate up at all. I really have to work at it.
Bee-Bee did her trot out with her tail in the air, trying to canter along side me. Great! 21 miles and she's in fine fettle. The tough trail comes next. 17 miles of grueling rocks and more UP and UP and UP.
Judy crewed us marvelously! (Thank you Judy!) and we got out of the hold exactly on time.
Off we go.
Bee-Bee got into a zone and so did I. We came upon a small lake at the top of the world. It was most remarkable to find a lake all the way up here. Obviously, we stopped (grin) and Joker thought it was swimming time.
GET OUT OF THERE, you don't know that it's a crater and you're gonna fall straight in!
Then we got stuck behind three riders on a single track trail. They were WALKING. Oh, my, god. We're losing time and I can't get around them because it's a sheer drop off on both sides. YES! We're on top of the world. First I was stressing about it, but then I relaxed and enjoyed the view. I kept looking for a passing place, but took the time to smell the roses (okay, really I was touching the boulders)
We walked for several miles before a passing area presented itself. At that time, the three riders in front of us decided to start trotting again, so I stayed right on their ass until we broke out on the gravel road.
We're off. Bee-Bee and Joker took off like their tails were on fire. We passed those three riders and left them in OUR dust. Going, going, gone. And now we're working down hill. My freakin' knee started acting up from pushing myself up off Bee-Bee's back. I can't believe this. My knee has been very well behaved for these last couple months and NOW it's gonna give me fits? What the heck?
I get off, thinking to walk down through the boulder alley, but that was actually worse. I'm telling you, I was halfway to tears it was that bad. So I get back on. Remarkably, that short distance that I walked must have put something back into place because my knee felt much better.
We made up a lot of time but I had to slow us down. It was hot. There was no water on the trail and the horses were panting. Dammit. I hate this whole "time on the hold" thing. I would have preferred to work a lot slower during the heat of the day.
WAIT! Grass, water, more grass. STOP!!!!!!
We make a 15 minute pit stop. Bee-Bee was panting but was still eating and drinking. She loaded herself way up on water and was eating grass. Couple riders passed us (but not those three walk-up-the-trail riders!) I made some jokes to riders as they passed about tanking up because the fuel was cheaper here. That got a few laughs.
I figure we're about 2 miles from vet-in so I walk on the ground awhile. Bee-Bee is doing much better, she's cooling off so I get back on. We trot them for another mile then see the vet point way ahead so get off and walk.
Vet check 2, 39 miles into the ride.
We're now 45 minutes behind where I wanted to be. Being behind those stupid walking riders (who I still have not seen yet) really killed our time. I am so mad. I am also halfway near to dehydration. I emptied all four bottled on the trail and need MORE FLUID.
Bee-Bee was at 66 when we got in so I took her to the river and started bucket dumping water on her. Judy took over and we got her down to 60 rather quickly. Too hot. She's having a hard time cooling off. I also think that the she may be sore in her loin again because she's not as perky as she was before.
Joker looks good, passes her vet check and trot out. Bee-Bee is still interested and wants to go, but during her trot out, she was hitching on that right side. Not bad and the vet did pass her to continue but I opted not to stress her any more. I would like to have her the rest of the season and I know the next 10 miles are killer. Been there, done this ride before (grin).
Yep - once again, I have "Rider Optioned" my horse. So far this season, I done two rides and RO'd both of them....hmmmmm.
That's okay! I loved every minute of that 39 miles! And kudo's to Bee-Bee! She did very well and was very enthusiastic through the whole 39 miles. She is a trooper.
Kevin, you're now on your won - run over there and find out if you can hook up with that group getting ready to leave. He did. Off he goes.
Bee-Bee is VERY upset to be left behind. She danced on my toes several times while we waited for the horse ambulance to take us back to camp. At camp, the treatment vet looked at Bee-Bee and couldn't find any soreness. In fact, Bee-Bee trotted out for her perfectly fine, no hitching. Maybe I COULD have continued, but you know what? I'd rather have Bee-Bee to ride another day. I'm thinking that she is having trouble adapting to my crookedness in the saddle and that it will get better the more I ride her. Remember, this is the first I've ever ridden her in the five years I've owned her and I've only been riding her since the end of April. If [indeed] it is her getting accustomed to my crookedness, then she'll be fine as the season goes on.
SAD STORY TIME.
Remember those freakin' hold times? Kevin got into the last gate, 4 miles to go, and he was 15 minutes past the closing time and they wouldn't let him continue. Pulled him for OT. What the fuck, Luigi! The last four miles is the first four miles we went out on and Joker could have done that in about half an hour to forty-five minutes, no trouble at all. He had forty five minutes to complete, they should have let him go on. I was so disappointed for him. FOUR FREAKIN' MILES TO GO and they pulled him for OT at the gate. NOT FAIR! Joker had a lot of horse left in her. What a champion mare she is.
So, neither Kevin nor I completed the OD 50, but we had a grand time! Judy was WAY worn out, moving our stuff from hold to hold in the heat, but she was game and never complained. She did tell me, however, that she is never going to crew the OD again - it's too scary, all these cliffs and mountain passes she had to drive on to get from one hold to the next (chuckle). What a weenie. Guess I won't get her to RIDE it, either!
Please click here to read another riders story, Paul Sidio wrote about his first experience as a Calvary Rider. I have been inspired to do more for myself and quit depending on others. This should be an interesting year. I am also humbled by his upbeat attitude and open mind about completing his 100 miles alone. After reading his story, I wanted to trash my story because it's a conglomeration of complaining and whining. Where did my good humor go? I will do better with the rest of the stories this year. I promise!
Instructor/Manager: Dodie Sable
Located in New Smithville PA at 37 Fenstermacher Road, 3 miles north of Kutztown University
Call us at 610.756.3836 or email us at dodie@newpromisefarms.com