Fire Mountain Pioneer 2022

There was no small amount of trepidation coming into Fire Mountain this year. After he scared me at Sesenta Años, and then not getting to start due to an abscess at Cayuse, I was quite stressed about getting Demon through this ride. I had also added QuickStuds (a traction device) to his composite shoes, as I felt he had less traction than he rightly ought to. Adding (or reducing) traction always has the potential to be wrong. I had ridden him 14 miles and he felt fantastic with the traction, but 14 miles isn't 50 and I wasn't completely convinced I'd done the right thing by him.

We arrived in camp later than I'd hoped due to issues with my new water carrying plan. I'd purchased a modular truck rack and half moon water tanks. After assembling the truck rack, we put the tanks on and I finally filled them on Thursday morning. By the time I'd driven the truck down to load hay, that modular truck rack had revealed it's weakness. It was not going to do the job. The tanks had to be drained and the truck rack pulled off. I got one of my 55 gallon drums and put that in, filled it, finished loading, and we were finally on the road by 10am, arriving in camp about 2pm.

Camp was downright packed. It took several fits and starts before we were able to park. The ride manager later said it was the first time camp had filled up to the point people were camping on the road outside camp. I got us squeezed in as close to our neighbors as I could in hopes of leaving enough room for more rigs.

Day 1

In the morning, I saddled up and headed out for a civilized 7am start. It's my habit to leave after the leaders on rides like this. I do not like to let Demon get caught up with the leaders and seeing who of the hotshoes was there, I was not eager to leave before they were well up the trail (a solid 5-10 minutes after the start). By the time we hit the trail, the controlled start had reached its terminus and the hotshoes were off up the trail. 

Demon was plenty ready to go while being controlled and careful about it. He did get a little goofy when I finally asked for the trot. I definitely had a lot of horse!

The first loop went by quickly, and we were back in camp for the first hold around 9:30am The second loop was harder to keep Demon motivated. He's got this habit of getting what I call "midday doldrums," during which time he would just.... rather not. This time period is generally between 11am and 3pm. Once the sun reaches its zenith and begins to descend, he starts to perk up. But this is not especially conducive to completing rides, so I've been working on getting him past this particular habit. I started using intervals with him to keep him moving. We'd do 10 minutes trotting, then 10 minutes walking, terrain permitting. He perked up with this method, especially once we reached the apex of the hill and started back down. On the third loop, he was still kinda dopey, so we continued with intervals until we got back to the downhill and he fairly cruised himself in.

After the last year we've had, I very nearly elected to pack it up and head home after succeeding in getting a completion. It felt rather like tempting fate to continue. But, I stuck it out. 

Day 2

This was a 55 mile ride, so the start was at 6:30. The sun was just brightening the sky as the leaders once again made their way out of camp. The first loop was a very long, 40ish mile go. The first vet check was in the middle of the loop, so an out check. I made sure to pack a bag (the one with my little three footed folding stool in it) with hay and a bucket for the 30 minute hold. 

As we were riding through "town," the most bizarre thing happened. Demon and I were trotting along perhaps 100 yards behind the next rider, when a small pickup truck drove onto the trail, honking at the rider to stop. By the time we caught up, this person was interrogating the other rider about what we were doing, why he'd seen hoof prints on the trail days earlier, on and on. I shrugged and said it's a permitted event, and people are allowed to ride horses on the trail, something to that effect, and rode on. I hoped the other rider would follow suit, but she did not. After a few strides, I turned back and told the guy to go back to ride camp and ask for the manager, since he wanted to "be informed," then took off again. Later in the morning, as I was passing by Brian, one of the ride officials, I told him about this encounter, just so he'd know what was going on.

We'd been told the first check would be about 20 miles in, and we'd pass through at 15 miles, do an additional 5, and have our hold. Well. The first time I arrived at the hold, my GPS showed 15.5 miles. OK, not so far off. Then as we were riding along, I was thinking it was gonna be a lot more than 5 miles to go around the hill and come back. I'm reasonably familiar with the area, having done several rides there, and 5 miles seemed a bit of underestimating it. When we ultimately arrived back for the hold, my GPS showed 24.5 miles.

After our hold, I got us going again and used more intervals to keep our pace up. We crossed the highway and made our way on the fire roads. The ribbons were pretty sparse on this section. At some point, I managed to lose the trail and I'm pretty sure I missed a check point, but we muddled through and made it back to camp. I couldn't trust my GPS reading since we'd been off track, so I don't even recall what it was. 

After our hour hold, we went back out and did the much shortened third loop from day 1, finishing strong and passing the vet check well.

Day 3

Day 3 trail was Day 1 trail in a different order. So we headed out for the longest loop of 20 miles at 7am, feeling good and happy to be alive. We did more intervals, this time doing 10 minutes trotting and 5 minutes walking. We finished the loop in good order, and there, as I'm riding into camp, is that guy from the day before, parked just inside the gate and watching. I called Brian over and informed him he was there so it could be dealt with, whatever "it" was.

After our trot out, the vet, Mike Peralez, said he "saw something" on Demon's right front 2 or 3 times during our trot out. This immediately made me a bit paranoid. He had tripped really hard on the first day, and I'd been dwelling on it despite a lack of repeat performances, to the point I am suspicious the problem is one of the studs in his right front shoe is sunk in too far. So for Mike to point out that particular leg... well it made me a bit spooky.

After our hold we set out on the second loop, this time feeling kinda like we were taking time to pay attention to our surroundings. I was a bit nervy since being told "something" was going on, even though I felt and saw absolutely nothing. I abandoned intervals for the time being, focusing instead on going fast enough to complete. 

Somewhere on this loop who should show up again but Mr I Wanna Be Informed. He was on a motorcycle, and he was talking to the riders ahead of us when we came down the hill. They left him shortly before I arrived, and I started Demon trotting after giving him a long look. He said something about having seen us at "start/finish" and I told him, why, yes, I'd seen him, too. He took off shortly after I passed and when I caught up to the other riders I asked what he'd said to them. Evidently he claimed he was the security guard for the big property out there in the middle of nowhere we'd passed, and tried to talk the riders into going over to the compound so he could take pictures of them in front of the house. They sensibly declined and continued on their way.

You meet all kinds in this endurance thing.

When we got in for the 1 hour hold, I presented Demon to Susan McCartney. After our trot, while she was finishing the exam, her scribe mentioned the note Mike had put in earlier about "watch right front." She scowled a bit, looked at the card, looked at the horse, then shook her head and said "I didn't see anything." That certainly put my mind somewhat at ease. I've had Susan vet my horses many times and I respect her judgment and lameness detection skills. Still, Mike had called out a leg that had already done something weird, so I couldn't entirely dismiss his observation, either.

Our third loop we did a bit more enthusiastically, having been judged completely sound by Susan, but I still didn't push super hard. But once we were headed downhill back toward camp, Demon perked up quite a lot and we rather sailed into camp. I had to hold him down to a walk for the last mile. He vetted through fine, although Mike did once again note something about that right front.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend and it went off without a hitch. I'll have to pull his shoes (he's about due a trim anyway) and see if my suspicions about that stud are correct. Maybe with the studs I'll be able to get a reset and use the same shoes for Laurel Mountain. We'll do LDs at Laurel, since the plan is the 100 at 20 Mule Team.

EasyShoe Versa Grip with 5 QuickStuds

I also think we've got the electrolyte thing handled. I gave him a tube of electrolytes at least 3x per ride day, plus more if it seemed like he needed it. He was doing very well and his recoveries are much more in line with what I expect from him. It's just a matter of being sure to remember to administer them!

Oh, and during that 3rd loop, I was asked what my favorite colors are, to which I cheekily responded "gray and blue." As many know, I ride in green and yellow, and my horses wear green and yellow. Over the years, there has been many a guess, from Green Bay Packers to John Deere, none correct. Well, there is a story, and I wrote about it lo these many years ago here.

And, if you're interested in the story of making it through escrow, you can read all about it here.

Cayuse 2021

 This ride turned out to be an excellent lesson in reading the materials. I didn't do that. And it bit me in the behind.

I knew we were going to be late hitting the road. The home purchase *still* had not closed, and I had finally managed to find an engineer to re-inspect. The engineer was coming at noon on Friday before the ride.

I did email the ride manager to alert her I knew I'd be very late. In my mind, this meant I'd told her I wouldn't be there in time to vet in on Friday night. But I didn't read the ride materials with any particular care, and largely skipped over anything that wasn't explicitly labeled as "rules" for this specific ride. After 18 years competing in endurance, it seems like everything is largely boilerplate and it gets very easy to skip over stuff which looks like what comes out of every rider packet ever received.

Once the engineer left, with assurances he was happy to write a compliant report so we could close the world's most absurd real estate deal, I got us loaded up and on the road. It was 2pm by the time we were on our way.

The Cayuse ride being around Santa Margarita meant we had to slog our way through LA traffic to get there. There's a reason I tend to treat rides north and west of LA as non-existent. When it takes 9 hours to travel 300 miles, they may as well be on another planet. It's not that I mind driving for a long time. I don't. I mind driving for a long time and not making much progress. Plus stop and go traffic is hard on the horse. I don't like it.

We arrived in camp at about 10pm. It was hard to tell what I was looking at in the dark, and despite suspecting I was parking in an "off-limits" area, I took what I could get and we all went to bed for the night.

In the morning I wandered around until I found some semblance of ride management. I allowed as I thought I was parked improperly, and was directed where to move. A quick loading up of the horse and moving about 50 feet, we were in the clear. 

Feeling confident I had properly alerted the ride manager to my expected tardiness, I went about my morning preparing for the ride. 

It turned out, had I actually read the directions, vetting in the morning of was not permitted. The vets had to leave camp to be ahead of the leaders before the ride started, making early morning vetting impractical. I was disappointed, but, well, my own damned fault for not reading carefully. I did suggest in the future such a requirement be moved into the numbered ride rules and bold faced and a day of the week rather than a date used to bring attention to it.

I was prepared to just spend the day in camp volunteering. I'd brought a friend for her first experience at an endurance ride, so it would make for a good opportunity to start showing her the ropes. Then, the vet for the LD ride arrived. The ride manager came up and told me if I could get vetted in, we could at least do the LD ride.

So I saddled Demon back up again and we presented to the vet. After the examination and trot out, the vet said it looked to him like Demon was a little off in the right hind. I had my friend trot him out and it was subtle but there. The vet would have allowed me to start, but I elected to bag it. I'm not a fan of starting out on a horse with a bad step going on, even if it could just be something he'd warm up out of.

We spent the day in camp, had a good time watching the vetting and hanging out with friends and visiting, and headed for home in the morning. It wasn't the start to the 2022 ride season I had hoped for, but at least we were going home in one piece.

A couple of weeks later, when I finally got around to reshoeing Demon, I found a dried abscess in the outside heel of that right hind foot. Just as glad I didn't start him that day.

Tl;dr: Read the ducking directions.

Sesenta Años 2021

2021 was a year. Due to pandemic conditions, Demon and I did not get much opportunity to compete in AERC sanctioned events, and when we did, conditions conspired to prevent us from crossing the finish line. Sesenta Años was our last opportunity to complete a 50 before the end of the ride season.

To be clear, we *did* finish a couple of AERC sanctioned LD rides, and even won a BC on a WDRA LD. Not completing a 50 didn't mean a thing, outside of not completing a 50. With AERC LDs already completed, Demon remains in the running to achieve his Longevity Award. It's nothing more than a point of pride on my part, to finish a 50 each competition year. Alas, it was not to be.

By the time the ride rolled around, it had been a couple months since I'd been able to do any serious riding (I don't think I did any real conditioning between Virgin Outlaw and this ride). We had gone into escrow to buy the property we've been renting for six years, and it became a challenge quickly. In the last week before the ride, I was spending my days trying to find someone who could repair a poorly built deck in a screaming hurry and having no luck. I finally decided it didn't matter, I was not going to get it done, and figured I'd salvage at least some of the weekend by going to the ride. I packed up, loaded up, and we arrived late on Thursday night, with plans to ride the LD on Friday, the second day of the ride.

In the morning I scrambled around and got the entry done and Demon vetted.

After saddling, I noticed one of my stirrups was damaged. It took me a little bit to figure it out. I finally realized it must have happened when we fell at Virgin Outlaw. Sure went a long way to explaining why I'd felt slightly off balance! Not having replacements on hand, I had to go ahead and deal with what I had. 

Demon was looking good and I was really pleased with how controlled he went out of camp. I did have to kind of laugh as people commented it looked like he was giving me a rough time, all while on a loose rein and Demon was doing what I asked. He was making a good show of looking like he was out of control, while really being a perfect gentleman.

About halfway through the ride, a couple other riders caught up to us. We chit-chatted a bit, discussing shoes and saddles and such, when one rider observed Demon was missing a shoe. I was a little surprised by this. Demon was feeling perfectly fit and sound. Usually the loss of a shoe will result in at least a little mechanical unevenness.

I realized the shoe he was now missing was the one I had nailed on at Virgin Outlaw with just 4 nails and floated the outside toe quarter to relieve a suspected stone bruise. I had every intention of reshoeing him before this ride, but never got 'round to it, and threw him in the trailer with dodgy shoes! Despite my assertions that composite shoes are much less likely to be lost than steel, he lost the one I hadn't nailed on completely. And here I'd been discussing this not 3 days prior to the ride.

Due to the lost shoe, I slowed us down quite a bit. I knew I had a new set of shoes in the truck and didn't want to badly damage the foot while riding. So just getting through it was the order of the day.

I had no idea how far out in front we were.

After we went through the weird little extraneous pasture loop and got back to camp, I found out we were in first place! We'd mostly walked (although Demon had plenty of opinion about that and we did a good deal of trotting if I deemed the footing forgiving enough). 

I chose not to present for best condition, as by that time I could feel an alternation in Demon's gait, and I wanted to reshoe him. I knew I wouldn't get that done in time to present, so I elected not to do so at all.

It took me a long time to get Demon reshod, spending an awful lot of time distracting myself by making friends with other riders parked nearby. By the time I got it done, Demon had dumped my nails in his water and lost my clinch cutter. But it was done before dark!

I entered us in the 50 for Saturday. Demon was feeling strong all day Friday and I had no reason to think he'd have any problems on Saturday.

It was not to be.

The first leg of Saturday's ride involved a long, heavy uphill pull. We largely walked, although we took every slightly flat section to trot enough to keep our overall speed up reasonably.

By the time we reached the top, Demon was breathing pretty hard. I let him stop in the river crossing and cool off, having a drink and resting while the cool water flowed around his legs. We soldiered on, making our way relatively quickly back downhill.

Back at camp, it took several minutes for Demon to recover to under 60bpm criteria. I found this disturbing. Demon has never taken more than moments to recover, and having walked in he ought to have been recovered to well under 60, if not under 50. During our hold, I contemplated whether I ought to give him electrolytes, or if I should pull him and give a go on another day. He passed the check, and I decided to go ahead and keep going. We were riding with a new friend, and always pretty close to camp, so I felt comfortable we could go out and return safely if I decided I didn't like it.

Demon definitely felt like he'd had all his stuffing pulled out when we headed back out. He was a little encouraged by the presence of another horse, but he sure was falling back. There was a lot of water available on trail, and every time Demon got a drink, he'd rally for a bit before falling behind again.

I decided to turn back for camp when he scared the hell out of me.

We approached another tank, and Demon had a good drink. We walked away a bit to let the other horse finish drinking, and Demon started casting about like he was looking for grass.

Turned out he was looking for a place to have a lie down!

Demon laid down right there, under the tree, in the shade. I quickly stepped off, and he just chilled there. My heart was pounding as I waited to see what he'd do. It probably did not take the eternity it felt like, but he got back up and shook himself off.

I told the other rider we were going to head back to camp. No way was I continuing to ride a horse who felt tired and spent enough to straight up lay down. It took us a while, but we walked back to camp.

By the time we arrived, Demon seemed more his usual self, but I still felt like he wasn't quite right. The vet looked him over and declared him OK, so we went back to camp and I watched him like a hawk.

After some time, his heart rate had not recovered as expected, and he was picking at his food with little enthusiasm. I debated with myself for a while, then went ahead and slugged him with a tube of electrolytes. Within half an hour, his heart rate dropped and he was plowing through his food.

I spent a lot of time second guessing myself, thinking at first maybe I'd overdone the electrolytes, until I concluded it was far more likely I'd under done it. Demon isn't exactly a spring chicken, and while he needed minimal electrolyte support a few years ago, he clearly needs more now. As with everything related to horses, nothing remains the same except change. So I recognize he needs more electrolytes going forward. Thankfully he's really good about getting his electrolytes syringed and even seems to enjoy it. Now I just have to refine our electrolyte protocol.