2021 National Championships at Fort Howes

 It's enough to make a person question their life choices.

After pulling at 20 Mule Team with a stone bruise, and having addressed such with pads, and seeing no further sign of lameness in Demon since, I was fully confident we'd do well at National Championships and bring home a completion. It was not to be.

Two weeks before National Championships, I reshod Demon. The bruise in his hoof looked good, was well keratinized, and he was trotting sound even after a 10 mile ride. He got new shoes and pads before turned back out until we left for Montana.

The whole trip started out rocky. My elderly dog, Mac, suddenly took an extreme turn for the worse and clearly required euthanasia. The vet couldn't get out to perform the job until noon Thursday. I had planned to leave Thursday morning. Well, OK, guess I'm leaving in the afternoon. Shouldn't be a huge problem.

Mac, may he rest in peace

Once the vet left, I got loaded up and we were on the road a little before 2pm. This is when I realized that 6-8 hour delay in departure was a bigger deal than I'd thought. I had it in my head that the drive was 1200 miles. Nope. 1400. This meant my planned stops were right out the window. Add in having left so much later meaning more traffic (and there were some serious accidents on the road, too) and it took 10 hours to make 500 miles. 

Just to make things even more interesting, a little over 200 miles into the trip, another driver honked and waved at me, indicating there was an issue with the trailer. I pulled off and walked around the rig, discovering one of my brand new (less than 1500 miles) trailer tires had separated. Here I'd been thinking Demon was being particularly antsy in the trailer. It wasn't him. It was the tire. 

I'd stopped in a poor place for actually executing a tire change, so I limped us on down the road a couple of miles. I found a spot where, if necessary, I could unload Demon. 

I'm very glad I had stopped with my devil-may-care attitude about having a spare and all the appropriate tools. I had a tire iron, chocks, and the Trailer-Aide device, plus had carefully put the trailer's spare tire in the truck (the spare tire mount in the trailer itself was in a rather unfortunate location and I'd stopped using it long ago). 

Being appropriately armed, I proceeded to changing the tire. The first challenge was the lug nuts. The unfortunate side effect of getting new tires is having these young bucks who do not understand about galling nuts and bolts putting the lug nuts back on after mounting new tires. Some of them put the nuts in the impact driver, then put it on the bolt, significantly increasing the odds of galling. Which thus increases the difficulty of removing said lug nuts without a breaker bar or impact driver. One of my lugs was badly galled, and was not wanting to break. Normally, it's not a big thing other than the sweating and swearing. The problem I was having was that the rim was not resting firmly on the ground, depriving me of anything to brace against. I ended up putting a chock under one side, kicking it under there as hard as I could, and my toe under the other side, doing my best to limit the turn of the hub as I struggled to break the lug free. I did ultimately persevere, but as one person said when I told this story, "safety third!" The next challenge was getting the spare out of the truck, which involved climbing up on top of the hay, pulling it up onto the hay, getting off the truck, and pulling the tire down behind me. It was a ridiculous amount of work and took me a solid hour to accomplish. I will be purchasing a cordless impact wrench in the very near future, just so I don't have to worry about galled or over torqued lug nuts.

Flat ready for removal, at last!

When I did finally find a place to stop for the night, I couldn't take Demon off the trailer for more than a walk. There was no place to park where I could safely tie him to the trailer and not have vehicles come alongside. He's black enough I've had people nearly walk into him in the dark, and I'm not trusting drivers to do any better even with headlights. So after a walk around, he had to spend the night on the trailer. He was not happy about it. I had to keep the pass through door between the LQ and the horse box open so he could see me, and he still fidgeted an awful lot.

This left 900 miles to hammer out on Friday. I wanted all day Saturday for both of us to recover, and having had to spend the night on the trailer it seemed even more important to have that for Demon. Not to mention I didn't sleep especially well with an unhappy horse on the trailer with me. At least I was able to make this push at a faster clip and we arrived in camp about 10pm, and even still had enough light to manage leveling the trailer.

We both slept much better with a quiet and level spot.

Saturday was a quiet day, but I did a lot of walking back and forth. At one point, my left knee, which has been giving me trouble since the left hip was replaced in November, was so painful I almost couldn't walk at all. I managed by putting on a brace for the walking part.

Sunday was an early start. I got up at 3am and chucked a bunch of food and an electrolyte mash in front of Demon before laying down for a little longer. I walked down to check in and leave my wagon in the vet check area to lug my saddle back to the trailer during the vet hold. We had a good start, leaving well after the fastest riders. Demon felt really good. He drank or at least tasted the water at every opportunity. At the 9 mile trot by, he was drinking and eating, and judged sound. I clambered back on with the assistance of the mounting block ride management had brought out, which was a shorter one than I'd usually use, but got the job done.

We continued down the trail and Demon felt strong and good, wanting to chase other horses. I did my best to keep him from getting too obsessed about other horses. He has this thing, he wants to see all the other horses, either passing or being passed by, at least once. He'll slow down if horses he hasn't seen yet are coming up behind, but once they've passed him, he'll pass them and continue without a care in the world for them. It's a tough dynamic to manage at times.

The first loop was relatively flat with minimal (at least to my Southern California, done a lot of Duck rides mind) rock. So I allowed Demon to keep up a good clip, although I was still aiming for a 7.5mph average. We were sitting at 8mph, but it was early in the day so I wasn't concerned about it.

We were trotting along nicely and I noticed my left foot didn't feel quite right. Somehow it was stuffed all the way into the stirrup, well beyond where I'd normally want my foot. It took multiple strides before I was able to recenter it, only to have it push forward again. I was having one heck of a time keeping it back where it belongs. At the canter, I looked down and could see my leg flopping around from the knee down, and I couldn't do a damned thing to stop it. Standing resulted in the entire leg moving forward. 

It wasn't long after I'd realized I really had little control over that left leg that Demon bobbled just a bit. I slowed him to a walk for a bit before he gamely offered the trot again. He seemed sound, but just as at 20MT, something did not seem quite right. We varied walking and trotting back in to camp.

After coming in to the vet check, I pulled the saddle and checked his pulse at the knee. I can't hear well enough to use a stethoscope anymore, so I do it manually, although my fingertips are a little insensate so it's not perfect. All I can tell for sure most of the time is if he seems to be down enough to present to the vet. He was down enough to feel confident I could present him and we went to the vet line.

The vet took his pulse and sent us for our trot out. I spooled out the line to let Demon trot a little ahead so I could watch him. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw a couple of bad steps. When we got back to the vet, he said nothing and continued the exam. I thought I must have been imagining things, since I've never had a vet not tell me immediately upon return if my horse was off. Once he finished the exam, he told the scribe Demon's CRI (60/68) and informed me is was off. Having now heard Demon's heart rate coming in was 60, I told the vet I was confident our day was done, as Demon has a very rapid recovery and has never come into a vet check with a heart rate over 52 unless something was wrong. The vet held our card and asked me to re-present him toward the end of our hold time.

We went to the trailer, where Demon drank well and then laid down for a nap. He wasn't able to lay out completely because of the hi-tie, so I dragged my chair over and put a leadrope on. We just hung out together while he napped. He rolled onto his side and went right into deep REM sleep for about 5 minutes. He had a good lay down for 15 minutes, then got up and drank some more and started casting about for food. I took him back to the vet, where it was determined he was still off and we were sent to the treatment vet.

Long story short, the treatment vet went over Demon quite carefully. I even removed his shoes, as with pads on it's next to impossible to use hoof testers. The treatment vet thought maybe something had gotten under the pad, a theory which was quickly disproven by the undisturbed presence of the hoof packing I'd used when I shod him. Nothing of note was found. The treatment vet even checked his temperature (100.2, on a really super hot day, too). 

So, after giving ourselves a couple of hours to rest, I decided to pack up and head for home. By the next day, when we got to Scipio, Utah, and I had a nice arena to turn him loose in, he was completely sound. 

There is little more frustrating than an intermittent lameness which resolves so quickly it's impossible to diagnose.

The game plan now is to have the chiropractor out (she's exceptional at detecting small issues in horses, and has helped us get appropriate treatment for multiple horses no vet had yet isolated an issue in). If she doesn't find anything of note, we'll start riding again after a 6 week total lay-up, with the goal of completing an LD before the end of the year. I'll be visiting my doctor to pursue what the heck is going on with my knee (I'm sure it'll need surgery, and I'm bitter about it). Depending on the chiropractor's findings, there's a significant possibility that Demon's lameness is him compensating for stupid things my left leg decides to do. 

Tevis, obviously, is out. One does not bring a horse with 2 consecutive lameness pulls to the starting line of Tevis. But, hope is a good thing. So, Tevis is on the calendar for next year. July 16, 2022.

Sunflower Ranch Obstacle Course

 Hoss needs to get out and have some fun, too, so when a local ranch was putting on an obstacle course day, I decided we'd load up and go. Hoss really does like getting out in public and being fawned over, and this sort of event is right up his alley.

Our "go time" was 1pm, and nothing was being timed for this little informal event. We got there around 12pm so I could check in and look around. Hoss stayed in the trailer while I looked at the vendors and got myself a pulled pork sandwich. I sat and watched horses working the obstacles while I ate, then went out and unloaded Hoss.

We tacked up and headed in to the ranch. At 1pm we went in the gate and got mounted up.

Since it wasn't timed, I really more or less allowed Hoss to decide where he wanted to go. His first choice was to check out the blue wavy man thing. You know those things on the blower motors with the ridiculous waving arms? That sort of thing? He not only wasn't afraid of it, he wanted to check it out up close!

Once we'd seen that, I directed him over to the first obstacle, a series of pool noodles one is meant to pass between the ends of. They're arranged so the ends of the noodles emulate branches that are across a trail. This was easy.

The next thing was not so easy. A wooden box with scrunched up plastic bottles. He wanted nothing to do with this nonsense. Of course, what he was really doing was seeing what he could get away with. We discussed it a bit and after a gentle pop with the quirt, he remembered that yes, he does know how to do these things and it really is kind of fun. He walked through the bottles fine after that.

There were several different bridges, a pathway with rocks and logs, a hillside with rails and rocks, two water crossings, beach balls blowing around, barrels with pool noodles poking out hanging from a shade shelter, all sorts of stuff. We went 'round and tried different obstacles, doing some of them several times. When he figured out there were treats in the mailbox, Hoss kept taking me back to it.

We spent an hour going through the obstacles and having a good time just doing something together. There was a photographer, from Simply Gaudy, so we got a whole lot of pictures to share.

Headshot!

Going up the multi-step bridge

And over

Very small carpet lined box

Through the tiny water crossing

Over the dome bridge

Into the water bottles

Up the rocky hillside

The very best obstacle: a treat dispenser!

Posing on the plank

Carrying the flag

Another headshot.

And another... He had a lot of head shots

20 Mule Team 100 2021

 Some trails just feel like they're out to get ya.

The 20 Mule Team ride is known to be fairly easy to moderate and not particularly challenging. That did not mean the trail didn't eat us.

We arrived in camp late Thursday night for our Friday ride. I knew camp was going to be very full and parking at a premium so I wanted to get in early so we'd be able to find a suitable spot. With the help of the ride manager, we parked at the far end of camp along the "road" through camp.

This turned out to be a poor choice. We spent all day Friday watching horses and people walking hither and thither past our camp. And Demon, on the Hi-Tie, was right next to the road. It didn't take much inattention on the part of a human to end up bringing a horse extremely close to him. If someone came from the rear, they could be unaware Demon was even there before he had seen them and nickered. So Demon wound up being on high alert in camp all day Friday, and although he ate and drank well, it still felt like he didn't get as much relaxing in as he usually does.

Saturday morning ride start was 6am. I carefully went over the map and cut off times and established the times I was shooting to get in to each check. Quick, but not super top ten quick. I was shooting for a 6.5mph average.

Ready to go in the pre-dawn light.

I got us ready and we were out the gate at 6am. Demon was on the muscle immediately, which isn't unusual for him. It can take a little while for him to settle in, so I wasn't concerned. But, he was going much faster than he usually does and he wasn't paying attention to his footing like normal. He was all eyes about the other horses.

The earliest part of the trail is pretty even, so despite being goofy, I felt cautiously OK about letting Demon more or less have his head. I knew he'd settle after a while, surely before we got to the heavy rocks. Well, more the fool me. He did *not* settle down.

We somehow ended up in the lead. I snuck a look at my GPS to find we were averaging Ludicrous Speed. I wanted him to slow down. He did not want to slow down. We were starting along the trail along the highway when he finally decided he could slow down, which allowed another horse to pass us. I figured at that point we'd be OK, he'd let others pass and drop back to a more rational pace. But no.

At this point we were getting to the rockier stuff where attention to where he puts his damned feet became important. I kept asking him to slow, he kept bulling on. Walking was all but out of the question. He'd walk a bit then the jigging would start. Reluctant to end up in a war, I did my best to meet him in the middle and allow him to trot. But of course making him slow down had meant other horses passed, and I don't know where this hyper competitive horse came from because he's not the one I'm used to riding. 

We were up on the old rail road bed when he tripped hard in the canter. He caught himself and barely unseated me, and kept going without turning a hair so I didn't think much of it. He looked fine.

Then a little later, I found myself doubting. I thought I saw a head bob. I thought I felt his hind end not right. I hovered over the saddle and watched, trying to determine if I was right or if I was playing tricks on myself. He looked good. He felt good. He kept wanting to go. So, go we did.

I tried to get him slowed down for the last mile into the vet check at 19 miles, and he was just not thrilled with my plan. We had some moments trying to take it easy and not gallop in like Bonanza. When we got to the road, I did allow him to trot for a good stretch, just to settle my mind that he looked and felt sound.

I was tired. I went to get off as we arrived, and ended up hooking my right foot over his hip to get myself over. Hooray for a well broke and tolerant horse! We got our time card and walked over to the pulse takers.

I finally was able to get a good look at my GPS. We had a 8.5mph average. Yeesh. Quite a bit faster than I'd hoped to go.

I knew before the P&R volunteer said a thing that we were in trouble. She spent far too long with her stethoscope against his side. I knew he was not recovered, and that was not a good sign for Demon. He typically will be in the high 40s for his heart rate coming in as we did, even with all the excitement. So when the volunteer said he wasn't down, I knew in my heart our day was over. It only took a few more minutes, and we went to the vet.

After the physical exam (which he passed with flying colors) we trotted out. I spooled out the line and let him get ahead of me, as the sound of his footfalls behind me was not quite right. Just barely, he had a bit of a head bob. 

Back at the vet, she completed the exam and we talked about the lameness. The vet said she watched him trotting up the road and if that had been all she had to go on, she would have pronounced him sound. She wanted to see him again and see if he was better at the end of our hold time. I agreed, although I really did not think it was in our interests to try to continue. We hung out and he ate and drank. I picked up that left front foot and probed at it, but nothing was obvious (yet). 

Waiting for our ride, watching other horses come in.

We went back to the vet, and he was a little better. I was told we could continue, but I declined. I already had a suspicion it was a stone bruise, it just hadn't developed enough to find with my bare hands. We waited for our ride back to camp.

While we waited, I went and picked up that foot again. And lo and behold, now I could feel the mushy spot. Not sensitive enough to get a reaction from thumb pressure, but definitely the source of the issue. I was just as glad we were having a trailer ride back to camp.

At least I knew what the problem was and could address it at home.

We spent a few hours in camp chatting with others before packing it in and heading for home so Demon could spend the night in his nice big turnout rather than tied to the trailer.

On Sunday, I lunged him and he was completely sound. Took him to the barn and pulled the front shoes. I thought I'd just put pads under the shoes he was already wearing, but decided they were not quite big enough with pads, so he got a new, larger pair. Which of course got me wondering: Should I have taken him up a size when I shod him? Maybe? I did have to do more work than usual to make these fit. I know I should have reshod him more than 1 week before the ride....

The bruise is barely visible just next to the shoe at the 2nd nail. I had to manipulate the color to get it to show.

Second guessing is part of the game. I'll never be sure if he would have been OK if I'd used larger shoes, or if I'd padded him to start, or if we'd parked somewhere we weren't having the Parade of Horses past the trailer all day, or if I'd laid back and not started right at the beginning of the ride and got hung up with the leaders, or if I'd managed to slow him to a more rational speed, or, or, or, or, or.

Home, and not pleased about it, either.

In the long run, he's fine. I stuck the pads on him and he's been in his turnout ever since, bored for 3 weeks. He's done some trotting in his pen and he's sound. We'll get some saddle time this weekend and assess where we are. I plan to make some changes for National Championships in June, though. First is those bigger shoes. Second is pads on his fronts, even though he has done just fine without pads for 5 years. We'll park where there's less foot traffic. We'll give the leaders a good 5 minutes to get ahead of us. If we finish, of course, there's no way to know what elements make a difference and which don't, but this really isn't science.

This marks the 4th time we've been to 20 Mule Team. Of those 4 times, only once, the National Championship in 2019, did we finish. I'm starting to feel like this trail has a vendetta against us in particular. Maybe 5th time's the charm....

Eastern Mojave @ Coso 2021

Due to the pandemic, the ride typically known as Eastern Mojave and held at Cima Rd and I15, was moved way up the 395 near Olancha, in an area known as Coso Junction. This is where the Death Valley Warmup/ Coso Junction ride is usually held in early December. That ride didn't happen so the location made for a perfect replacement for the usual Mojave location. 

I definitely had a little trouble getting out of the driveway for this ride. When I went to hook up the trailer, I discovered the batteries were completely dead. I had already set up shore power for it, as the solar didn't seem able to do anything for it, and it had taken most of a charge when I put it back on the solar. But when I went to hook up, the solar panel was showing no power and the power panel was completely dead. Putting it back on shore power fixed the issue, only to have it go dead once back on the solar. Dreading an issue with the charging system, and knowing if it wouldn't charge on the solar panel I'd be without power in the living quarters pretty quickly, I fetched Mike and his tools and we proceeded to go over the thing seeking the issue.

After we'd opened the junction box Mike commented the blue wire felt warm. Well I've done enough wrestling with trailer wiring to know the blue wire provides power to the brakes. This seemed really weird. Why would the brakes be drawing power? 

And then I noticed it.

The cable and switch for the breakaway brakes was missing.

Now, this warrants a little explaining. I can't tell you how many years I drove around without a breakaway on my trailer. It wasn't until fairly recently I became aware such a thing even exists. Even more recently that I discovered they are required on 2 axle trailers. So I went a long time without a breakaway, and thus a long time not needing to go through the process of connecting and disconnecting one. Due to this, it wasn't long after I bought this trailer that I forgot to hook up the breakaway to the truck and dragged the end off the cable. So I had half-assed it for a while, until I got what I needed to repair it and hook it properly to the truck.

Which I promptly forgot to disconnect the next time I used the trailer.

The brakes were pulling power because, well, the switch was open. 

The cure was to, for now, cut out the breakaway. 

And we were finally able to hit the road at 1:30pm.

We arrived in camp at 7:30pm, to find everyone buttoned down and the ride trailer shut up. There were perhaps 5 rigs in camp, which, coupled with the ride trailer being closed, caused me to think perhaps I'd gotten the dates wrong. A quick check of the website assured me I was where I wanted to be when I wanted to be there. The wind was so horrendous there was no parking in such a way as to reasonably block it. When I tried to step out of the truck, my hat blew away. I set up camp as quickly as possible and did not bother to unhook the truck, which made the trailer much more stable in the circumstances.

Day 1:

What a great day to Duck* around in the desert.

In the morning, I went and knocked on Dave and Annie's trailer. Annie answered and greeted me with a smile, telling me I could go into the ride trailer to get a packet and put in an entry. She informed me everyone was doing the LD, with a particular look I understood to mean she really, really hoped I'd do the LD, too. Seeing as 50 miles mostly by ourselves didn't sound super fun, I was fine with doing the LD instead. Bonus: ride start was 8am.

After a leisurely morning, we saddled and headed out with the few other brave souls who had elected to brave the desert. A winter storm was predicted for the area, which resulted in many riders begging off. So 6 riders started the first day.

On our way out of camp, I looked down and lo and behold, there was my hat, in a tire rut. I was thus obliged to dismount, recover the hat, and put it in the truck. This did not please Demon, as it meant most of the other horses were already well on the trail by the time I got back on.

We started out along the road up into the desert. Demon was super happy to be out and going. We quickly pulled ahead without much sign of a desire to slow down. He also stopped and had a drink at the first water stop, a skill he's picked up over the miles. These days he rarely passes up an opportunity to drink or eat.

The first half of the ride was mostly a long uphill pull. We settled back to a walk several times, letting Demon catch his breath. Eventually we were caught and passed by Bart Eskander, and we ended up riding together genially for the rest of the morning.

After we turned back downhill, we mostly went faster than we had uphill. We stopped at the vet check for about 20 minutes to let the horses drink and eat before hitting the trail back down to camp.

We did not go as fast as we could have. It was a lovely day and I certainly didn't mind being out longer than otherwise necessary. Demon and I were awarded the first place finish by dint of arriving at Annie first. Bart and his horse did a lot of leading, not because Demon wasn't willing, but because Bart's horse is naturally faster.

Day 2:

Our first 50 mile point ride of the weekend.

Start time was 7am, which I didn't mind particularly. I checked the weather before we left, to decide if I should take my duster or if my jacket would be enough. I decided the jacket was enough. This decision would haunt me later.

We left camp a bit more sedately than the day before, still with the leaders. Much of the trail was the same as the day before, although the other direction. I was keeping a close eye on my GPS and our average speed. My goal was to do about 6.25mph. So when, about halfway through the first loop, Demon wanted to slow, I wasn't unhappy. He'd been going pretty fast. But then, he didn't want to speed back up. He just wanted to poke along. He kept casting about for grass, which is rather sparse in this area. I would make him trot for a while before he would fall back to a trot and want to stop for a bite. I was thinking he needed to pee. In the past, before he got pretty good at peeing under saddle, he'd simply plod along until we got back to the trailer and he would pee there. These days, though, that hasn't really been a problem so I was rather mystified until we had our vet check. He ate a bunch of hay and, when we hit the trail again, was back to his normal, cheerful, and forward self. He was just hungry!

Of course, halfway through that first loop, the clouds rolled in and the snow started. And all I had was that jacket.

After we left the vet check, we got motoring and, since we're pretty danged good at downhill, took advantage of it to make some time. Except it's tough to make time when you can't really see where you're going. Fortunately most of the time Demon was very confident and was able to keep us on trail while I squinted and basically stared at his neck. The snow frequently blew straight into my face. It was only when the wind was sideways to him Demon was reluctant to go forward with much speed. It made for a slow ride back to camp. Making it tougher was the small loop we had to do which took us away from camp about a mile and a half out. At first Demon was really annoyed, but when he realized it was good, fast trail, he picked it up and we got it done relatively quickly, even if the sleet did start blowing right in our faces when we turned up the road.

Back at camp, we trotted out quickly (4th place, as well as last place) and went to the trailer to untack. I got his blanket on and threw food in front of him before taking myself into the living quarters to dry off and warm up. Bizarrely, my arms were soaking wet. I thought my jacket must have leaked through, but how odd for my arms to be almost solely what was affected. I didn't have much energy to think on it. I got the water heater going and bundled under the blankets until I had hot water for a quick shower, after which I dressed in the next day's ride clothes and my fleece pajamas.

Day 3:

The snow was still with us in the morning, despite ride start having been delayed until 8am to give the horses a chance to warm up before the start. I elected to put my duster on over my vest, in an effort to stay as dry as possible. This presented the problem of storing my phone and GPS in places where I'd be able to access them readily. The duster unfortunately lacks pass throughs so I can keep those items where I normally would on my belt. Fortunately, it does have rather large pockets and I was able to drop my phone and GPS as well as gloves, spare batteries, and my map into them.

There were more riders this day, as more people had rolled in the prior day, and so we were riding along with several fresh horses. Demon was feeling really good and drinking and eating well, so I allowed him to largely keep up with the front runners. He was doing so well, in fact, that I could allow him to drink while other horses were also drinking at the same station. 

The vet check was back in camp, and after almost 5 miles of flat or downhill two track roads, we had an average speed of 7.5mph. We slowed as we approached camp and came in well recovered for our hour hold.

During the hold, I checked the weather forecast and determined it was safe enough to switch back to my jacket. I hung the duster and we left camp with the jacket.

We started back out on the flat portion of the trail, and Demon was charging along nicely until the trail started heading uphill, at which point he decided he found this annoying and he didn't want to trot uphill. So we went fairly slowly, allowing the leaders to leave us behind, and made our own dogged way around the second loop. Once we were back to flatter and downhill territory, Demon picked it up again and we finished with an overall average of 7.25mph, the fastest Demon has ever done a ride.

Day 4:

Once again we had an 8am start. This day was very clear and the sun rising in the east lent its warmth to the morning quickly, even if I did need my jacket for the start.

Again we were with the front runners, but this being the day after doing his fastest ride, and his 4th day in a row, my goal was to finish, and speed was irrelevant. So when he decided he didn't really want to go quite so fast as the fastest horses, I was more than happy to allow him to drop back.

We happily kept our own counsel through the now-familiar trails. By this time I was pretty spent, but Demon was starting to get stronger. This is a common phenomenon in multi-day rides. As the days go by, the horses get stronger while the humans start needing naps. It's not unusual to have riders pull in to compete the last day, thinking they can do well against a bunch of spent horses, only to get their doors blown off, much to their dismay. 

But today, despite feeling pretty danged good on average, it was a good day to go at a more relaxed pace.

We turned down the mostly flat portion of trail to head back to camp, and took up a steady trot which caught us up with a couple of riders. One of the horses, a dark bay mare, took a shine to Demon. I could see her glancing back at him and watched the rider correct her several times. That mare wasn't even observably in heat, and she wanted nothing more than to canoodle with Demon. Once there was enough space to give a wide berth, Demon and I went off into the desert and passed by at a smart trot.

The vet check at camp was shorted to 30 minutes due to a cold breeze that had taken hold. So I got Demon fed and made myself some lunch as quickly as I could, and we headed back out on trail.

For the second loop we had to head off to the north toward the LA aqueduct and several mining operations. Much of this is fairly flat, but it does have some interesting points. Demon headed out smartly enough, then saw the two mares we'd passed earlier hit the trail and slowed down until they caught up and passed us. 

The biggest reason Demon is not a winning horse is he wants to see every other horse on trail in front of him at some point before he wants to lead. It's not that he minds leading. He just wants to know who's behind him.

Once the mares were ahead, we picked up the trot to keep up. When they slowed, Demon did not, and we continued on for a bit. I quipped to the other riders, "See you in a bit!"

Sure enough, Demon slowed down again and the mares caught us again. The dark bay was still being quite the flirt. Demon was very professional about it and ignored her studiously. 

After we hit the high point and started back down, we rode along the aqueduct, which is covered in concrete. Water had pooled on top. Demon was pretty thirsty and he could smell that water. He made a move to jump up onto the concrete top (about 3 feet) to get a drink, and did manage to sip some water off when the pooling was lower. Not having any idea how well such a structure would hold up to 900 pounds of horse plus rider, nor feeling especially good about traction once on top, I did not allow him to indulge his desire to get up there.

Fortunately once we turned truly back toward camp there was a water bucket and Demon was able to get a good drink. After which we were able to get in some good trotting for some time.

Once we got within 2 miles of camp, Demon wanted to walk, and the mares passed us again. This now being Demon's "thing" and not being especially unhappy with a horse who isn't interested in charging back to camp, I allowed for the nice little mosey back to camp.

At the ride meeting that night, I was pleased to find Demon and I had been awarded fastest time (who else ya gonna give it to, if there's only one horse and rider what did all 4 days?), but particularly thrilled that Dave awarded Demon the overall best condition award. While clearly there were no other candidates, Dave would not have awarded it if he didn't feel Demon had deserved it. If he felt I'd overridden Demon or otherwise pushed him harder than he was fit for, Dave would not have put that on the plaque.

Overall it was a great weekend and I feel really good about both of us. I was a lot better off after 4 days than I had been after the 2 days I rode at Laurel Mountain. I was able to run enough to trot my horse out without looking like I was going to fall down. Demon ate and drank both in camp and on trail quite well. Any time we stopped to wait for other horses to drink, he'd cast about in the desert for something to eat. Demon was able to drink while other horses were close by drinking, and even when riders weren't paying close attention to keeping their horses' heads away from him, Demon kept his own and didn't do anything foolish. In the past I've had to wait for other horses to leave before I could allow him to drink. This is a great thing for him to be able to do, as on the Tevis trail it will likely be far harder to get him a trough all to himself. As to the hunger, I have a suspicion I need to up my electrolyte game. I suspect he's looking for food in an effort to get electrolytes. While it works, there's simply not enough time and sometimes not enough food to replenish electrolytes. So I will fiddle a little with how often I do electrolyte him when we do 20 Mule Team.

* Yes, I mean Duck. These days it seems few people are aware of Dave Nicholson's nickname, The Duck. The story of how the appellation came to be hung upon him varies depending on when you ask and how many drinks are involved.

Laurel Mountain XP Ride 2021

 The second best thing I've done in my life was getting my left hip replaced on November 16th, 2020.

The best thing was having the right one done in November 2013.

Now that I have a matching pair, I'm feeling a lot better in the saddle, and  put it to the test. February 4-6 I entered Laurel Mountain, a 3 day XP event, planning to ride days 1 and 3 and do the limited distance rides. 

Demon and I arrived in camp about 4pm on Wednesday afternoon. The wind was howling out of the South, putting the kibosh on my plan to park with the tail of the trailer to the South. I wanted to keep Demon and the camper door out of that wind. It was strong enough I almost couldn't open my truck door. I parked the trailer with the driver's side to the South, putting the Hi-Tie and camper door to the North. This way at least Demon wouldn't be battered by the wind and I wouldn't be trapped in the camper by it. As it was, the wind was so strong it found it's way through the cracks in the trailer and nearly kept the stove from running.

By 8pm the wind blessedly died down and we had an otherwise peaceful night in camp.

Settled in for the night

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, sign-in was accomplished by virtue of management having put out packets with entry cards, maps, and detailed information about the ride. There had also been an email a couple of days earlier with GPS tracks. I had successfully loaded those on my Garmin eTrex 20 so I'd have the tracks to follow. I took my day 1 card, filled it out, and entered us as planned for the 25 mile ride.

The ride start for the day 1 25 mile ride was 8:30am. Felt like phoning it in. I was up at 4am to feed a very demanding Demon. He's been doing this endurance thing long enough to have developed the understanding he's meant to have as much hay in front of him as he can possibly consume, and is to be provided food upon demand. He'd been pestering me for a while and I'd been ignoring him as best I could, but I finally tended to his desires. 

While waiting for start time, I wandered around camp a bit to see who was there and chatted with a few people before heading back for coffee and cereal for breakfast. I saddled up and we headed over to trot by before hitting the trail.

Demon was eager and super happy to be heading out. My only concern was how long it had been since he'd done much work. After Grand Canyon, we got home, I put him in his pen, I didn't ride him again until January 1st. He hadn't worked until then for 4 months, and the longest ride we'd done between then and Laurel Mountain was 7.5 miles. Not only was I concerned for his fitness, I was concerned for mine. Since the hip replacement in November, my left knee has been giving me fits, really making my life unnecessarily difficult. And I am definitely not yet to the point of mounting from the ground.

The first leg of the 25 is a fairly straight shot up the canyon toward the Laurel Mountain Golfball. I am not sure what, exactly, this structure really is. While it certainly *looks* like a golf ball on a tee, it is far too large for Earthly golf courses. My best guess, based on location and what's around it, is it's a radio tower of some kind.

We were trotting along on the gradual climb toward the mountain, and Demon was absolutely, 100% positive we were meant to be somewhere off to our left. He was trotting along looking ever so slightly left, and at any opportunity, he'd try to turn left. He even sort of stealthily drifted left, trying to head off into the desert in search of the trail he was absolutely certain his stupid human had missed.  But we finally made it up and around and climbed to the Golfball.

I hopped off when we reached the vet check and Demon, having not seen water in some 10 miles, promptly dragged me to the water tanks. Typically I can decently hold him back. That was not the case this day. It was all I could do to keep up well enough not to get literally dragged. At least my knee had not collapsed beneath me when I dismounted, as I had greatly feared it might.

The trot out after our hold must have been a sight to behold. I could just barely go fast enough for Demon to trot, and I limped the whole way. But we were cleared. I then realized I hadn't thought far enough ahead to getting back on after the hold. Fortunately Annie found a spare bucket and turned it over for me to get on with. I may have walked a long way before finding something of sufficient height to get me back on.

We walked the steep hill back down to the flats, then set up trotting again. I kept thinking he'd want a break, but he really didn't. He just kept right on trotting along. He even asked to canter, a request I happily obliged each time. He only stopped for water and when I pulled him down for some of the more technical downhill sections and some rocky stuff.

We got back to the road back toward camp and had to pass the gun range. This wasn't a big deal last year, but this year, some dude was firing off some heavy rifle and that was enough to spook Demon. I was able to keep him calm, but he definitely thought getting by there quickly was ideal. I obliged and we set off at a smart trot to leave that particular nonsense behind.

Before arriving at camp, we had to turn left back out into the desert for another 3 miles. Most horses, upon hitting this turn, the wind goes out of their sails and they really don't want to move out. Not Demon. He'd been gradually slowing as we approached camp. When I asked him for that left turn, he surged forward and headed back out into the desert at a smart trot. However, when we made the turn back toward camp on the trail we'd headed out on in the morning, he slowed to a walk. It took some prodding to get some trotting for at least another mile or so.

It's really funny having a horse who's disappointed to have the day over with.

Once back at camp, we unsaddled and settled in for a nice post ride rest.

Friday we had the day off and stayed quietly in camp as the other horses went out and back all day.

That afternoon, I went over the map for Saturday. I was contemplating the distance of the LD, and thinking about how I wasn't any worse off after 25 miles than I'd been at 12.5 miles, so if I was going to ride 35 miles on Saturday, I may as well ride 50.

I entered us in the 50.

Saturday's ride start was at 7am. I was again up by 4am to feed and water, and got my coffee going so I could lay down for a bit longer. We were saddled and ready to hit the trail after a quick trot by at 7am.

This was a pretty long, technical 35 mile loop to start the day. There's still plenty of jeep road with decent footing to make time on. There's also quite a bit of history in that part of the country. Old buildings from mining days gone by still stand, or at least partially stand, as nature slowly takes them back. These days it seems some of those old mining claims are being re-explored, as several old encampments along the Bonanza Trail are active once again. Much of those 35 miles are very scenic and interesting. 

Bonanza Gulch Post Office

Then there's Red Rock/Inyokern road. Miles and miles of almost entirely straight, virtually flat dirt road. That was a bit tough. Demon really likes single track, so trotting along on such an unvariegated stretch of road, having allowed the other horses to get away from us, was a little disheartening for him. We took several walk breaks, although they were not long, as Demon would seem to get his resolve back and we'd head off at a trot again. Eventually we turned right onto a smaller, more interesting jeep trail where he was able to have a drink and we had our mojo back.

Red Rock/Inyokern Road

I was running the track on my handheld, so I knew how far we were from camp. I kept sneaking peeks at it, and peering off into the distance, thinking surely I should be able to see camp by now? We got to within 2 miles of camp and still no visual sign. I was beginning to wonder if there was some glitch in the track, or if this was some sort of elaborate practical joke, when we crested a hill and camp came into view. I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief and we rode in for our 1 hour hold.

After our hold time, I got back on and we rode over to Dave, where we did our trot out before heading out for the second loop. This loop is a bit more boring and there's considerably less going on. It's also the loop we had a nasty fall on last year. So neither of us was feeling particularly brave about ramming through those miles to get it over with.

Not long after we headed out, another horse and rider caught us up. We exchanged greetings as they passed and continued on. After a bit, the other rider paused her horse, unsure where to expect the next turn. As I was using the GPS, I was able to assure her it was a bit further ahead. Ultimately, we ended up riding those last miles together and I wish I had written her name down, because I am *terrible* with names. We mostly trotted, with a little walking here and there.  We managed to miss a turn somewhere, but were able to find our way back to the trail with little issue.

Then we had to pass the shooting range again.

This time, an extra heavy rifle was being fired. With two horses reinforcing the idea that going that way was stupid, it was much more difficult to get them to go. I managed to get Demon onto the road and then off into the desert a bit and pick up the trot so we could get the heck out of there. All the while never quite sure when the next shot was going off. Both horses were unhappy, but at least they weren't bucking or rearing or bolting. Some sideways spooking and a powerful desire to bug out were the worst of it.

Once again we had to turn off to the left away from camp. Demon, having done this before, was well pleased and knew what to the expect. So we led the way at a cheerful trot until the turn back to camp. Even though those last two miles were mostly walking, we made good time.

Back at camp, we trotted our horses by Dave to vet out. Headed back to the trailer and enjoyed the rest of the day and evening.

Death Valley Encounter 2020

The weather the few days leading up to the Death Valley ride had me concerned about making it to the ride at all. On December 26th, even here in the mountains of San Diego County, we got fully 4 inches of snow. Our local freeway was briefly closed. I knew by the time we needed to leave on the 27th the roads would be in good shape, but I had a much closer challenge: getting the trailer out of the driveway. I have to keep it parked by the barn in order to keep it plugged in while not in use. Getting it out involves backing it down the driveway. The driveway is steep enough if it's iced over the trailer will drag the truck helplessly down the hill. Ask me how I know this. So we had to wait for the sun to do its job and defrost the driveway before I could get the thing out.

We did finally hit the road about 10am, which all things considered isn't bad. It's only about 270 miles to ridecamp. It's really rare for two days after Christmas to have particularly bad traffic. I usually make the drive in 5 hours or less.

Not this time.

Of course with all that weather and snow, people were out in force. We hit a lot of backups. It wasn't until we got past the Kramer Junction we were able to reliably make time. There was even snow on the mountains between Red Mountain and Trona. We made it to camp about 5:30.

Due to all that weather, there were very few rigs in camp. Maybe a dozen. Probably less. Never have I seen ridecamp at DVE so empty.

Because there were so few riders, the decision had been made to vet everyone in at 6:00am on ride day. Seeing as there was perhaps a total of 15 riders all told, it was an easy enough thing to accomplish. Our ride started at 6:30am.

Day 1

After a reasonably quiet night (Demon did yell a bit at one point, but nothing to cause me to think anything exciting was happening) I got up at 4:30am and fed the beast. He's a hay dunker, so I also refreshed his water. I went back inside to find my husband, Mike, started on breakfast and coffee. It's really nice when Mike is home and able to come with me to rides. He cooks for me and cleans up camp while the horse and I are off riding. He likes camping.

Since Demon's Tucker endurance saddle broke, I was obliged to go back to using the Tucker western style saddle I use on Hoss. It started out as Demon's saddle, until I discovered Hoss's saddle at that time no longer fit him, and the Tucker endurance fit Demon as well as DC. I didn't have much opportunity to ride in it before the ride itself, just enough to verify it works. So I'd really forgotten how difficult it was to ride Demon in this saddle. And I would pay for its shortcomings.

We started off very nicely down the trail right at 6:30am. A quick jaunt around what Heidi Helly and I would come to call "the stupid loop" before the week was over got us headed up into the hills and on our way to the ETI and down into the Panamint Valley.

Although I was doing my best to keep Demon to a more sedate pace, we found ourselves up with the top 3 riders when we dropped on the Panamint Valley. Demon was keen to be on the hunt, but I don't want him to be in the habit of chasing (or waiting for) other horses, so I pulled him back as I was able and kept him on a slower pace. I was happy with how we were doing, though, as I'm working to get him at a consistent 6.5mph average pace.

As we descended the ETI trail, several burros came into sight. There must have been a dozen, all told, watching us all pass by. In all the years I've done this ride, I've only ever once before seen a single burro, the very first time I attended.

After the vet check, it's a relatively flat trail back to camp. Demon had used up more energy than necessary wanting to go faster, so I had to encourage him a bit more than I had in the morning. He still did OK. He did lollygag and wait for another pair of horses to catch up before really picking up the pace.

We were behind Nina Bomar and Dave Rabe for a bit, until we arrived at a confusing junction. I had my GPS going, showing the track we were meant to follow, so I said hey, this way and kept going. It was now downhill and toward camp, two things which motivate Demon well enough on their own, and he was more than happy to leave the other horses behind. So we kept on trotting on down the trail. We arrived back at camp about 4:30pm.

While I was at the vet check, Annie told me Mike had asked her who was cooking, and went off to ask if he could help. She said Sarah, who was the week's cook, would be happy for the help, as her crew had not been able to attend the ride. I told her he'd be absolutely delighted to help out.

When I met back up with Mike, he told me he'd be doing some cooking that night, so he'd already prepared my dinner before heading back to the club house. By the time of the ride meeting, it seemed he'd already become the de facto head chef of the ride.

Day 2

Remember I said I would pay for the shortcomings of the saddle we were using? I paid early and often. Long before we finished on Day 1, I had raw spots on my right thigh and left upper knee. This saddle is poorly designed for the way Demon moves. It fits him. It fits me. It's generally a super comfortable saddle. But, it's just not super awesome for posting in, and the pitch of the pommel means if I'm not in just the right place when we slow down or stop I get slammed into it. So before I even mounted up on Day 2, I was dealing with open wounds. Ah, well, it's called endurance for a reason.

On this day we headed out opposite of how we'd finished on Day 1 to hit the Slate Range trail. Much of the Slate Range trail and the T3 are very technical single track. It's harder to get a good pace. So I planned to get as much speed on the first 8 miles as I could. Unfortunately I managed to screw up my math and we ended up much slower than I really wanted to go.

We made the ride over the Slate Range, overlooking the Panamint Valley. While on the power line road between two sections of single track, we encountered another herd of burros. We got back to camp at about 1:00pm. Had I done my math right, we should have been in by a little before noon.

After our hold time, we headed back out for 24 more miles. About halfway through, I had myself convinced I was staying in camp on Day 3. I don't like the Tower Trail, anyway. I was really sore. 3/4 of the way through, I had myself convinced I was doing the LD the next day. Then the sun dropped behind the mountains and it got dark. And Demon likes working in the dark. He picked up the pace. I had to turn on my headlamp to decipher trail markings and my GPS, and Demon is unruffled by the extra light. I think he finds it comforting, in a way. By the time we hit the last mile back to camp, I was back to of course we'd do the 50 on Day 3.

We got back to camp about 6:00pm. Made for a very long day.

Day 3

Once again we hit the trail at 7am. After a decent night's sleep I felt ready to hit the trail despite saddle sores and overworked muscles.

This day's trail took us straight up to the T3, widdershins to how we'd come down the day before, back to the Last Tower, and straight down the Tower Trail.

The Tower Trail is a steep and technical drop down into the canyon between two mountainsides. There are many dropoffs and very steep declines. In the past, the ride has taken us up the Tower Trail, which I prefer. However I seem to have been outvoted and now we go down it. It's steep and technical enough most riders dismount and lead their horses down. I, on the other hand, am far too crippled to walk down (or up, for that matter) this trail while also managing a horse. If my horse and I must descend or ascend a trail like this separately, it has to be really separately and someone has to catch him at the other end. So, as other riders dismounted and led down, Demon and I dropped off and rode on down.

Once at the bottom, the trail is quite nice for the few miles back to camp for the vet check. We did our best to make good time back to camp, knowing the bulk of our miles were after lunch. This loop, arduous as it was, was 21.1 miles. We would still have almost 29 miles to cover after lunch.

Heidi Helly and OP caught up to us somewhere before we got back into camp, and we decided to ride together for the remainder of the day, if possible.

After lunch, we headed out with Heidi for the last loop. It was set up on our GPS units as two loops, labeled loop 2 and loop 3, as it came back through camp before doing the by now infamous "stupid loop" before coming in for the finish. We gave bags with hay and feed for the horses to Heidi's husband, Pat, so we could take a short break when we headed back through and let the horses eat.

After the first part of the loop (which is pretty much a blur at this point) we got back to camp at about 4pm and gave the horses 10 minutes to eat. We were really wanting to be on the muscle because we wanted to get the "stupid loop" mostly done before it got full dark. Once Demon and OP had a chance to get a little in their bellies, we mounted back up and headed back out.

We did our best to set a good pace with the rocks, and managed to just get off the "stupid loop" before crossing the highway and hitting the last three or so miles of trail. The sun dropped behind the mountains and once again Demon started picking up the pace, although he didn't seem to want to do more than walk really fast. By dint of following trail signs and my GPS, we made our way back to camp for another 6pm or so finish.

By this time, Mike was doing the lunch and dinner cooking, reprising dinner leftovers for lunch and feeding the whole camp. I was a very well pampered rider, as he would walk over to bring me lunch when I came in, sparing me walking over to procure lunch myself. All I had to do was ride my horse.

Day 4

New Year's Eve. The 4th day always seems to be a little grim. It's hard to get in that saddle one more time. The horses, on the other hand, are on the upswing and feeling way stronger. I started out as usual, loosely riding with Heidi, who always starts out leading OP. Demon was feeling particularly good, and as I suspected he'd start sandbagging a little on the uphill slogs, I let him loose to get some distance done. We had a good go, crossing the highway and getting most of the way to Great Falls before he started to flag a little.

Coming out of Great Falls and on the downhill again, we picked up the pace a little. We made it 'round to the vet check area for the LD riders, got a quick checkup, and headed on down the hill. Still having a good go, right up until we turned left instead of right.

Demon was very much not happy about continuing away from camp, and uphill into the bargain. We persevered, and made our way back over the highway as quickly as we could. We continued on, setting a decent pace, until we hit the wash, where, due to deep sand, we were obliged to slow to a walk.

Once out of the wash, we picked up the trot again and alternated back and forth for a bit. We made our way back to within a mile of camp, where we had to turn away from camp and do a small portion of the "stupid loop" yet again. Once we got moving, Demon picked up the trot and it did not take him long to realize we really were heading back to camp and he kept his pace up to get back into camp about 11:30am.

Heidi and OP pulled in to the lunch stop not long behind us. Demon ate and drank well and we were off again to do the same thing over.

Demon was distinctly less than impressed to be doing the same trail a second time. We still managed to set a reasonably decent pace, although he really did think we should do something - anything! - different. He even tried to head on up to the Great Falls rather than take the shortcut as we had in the morning. But, we got going.

Heidi and OP caught us up as we were coming out of Great Falls. We continued on together, as much as the two horses were likely to stick together. Demon didn't want to trot uphills, and OP didn't want to trot downhills. So they would separate and come back together as the trail drove them. Back up the hill and across the highway and through the wash we went.

Demon was ahead when we got back to the little bit of the "stupid loop." We went to the water trough, and Heidi and OP were not far behind. I thought Demon would wait for them and we would head back to camp together.

I was wrong.

Demon stuck his nose in the water tank, decided he didn't really need a drink. He looked up the trail and decided this would get us back to camp, and the faster he did it the sooner. He picked up his head and off we headed to get it finished.

By this point I wasn't going to discourage him. I let him have his head and we trotted and cantered to within half a mile of camp. We got back just before full dark, making a finish at 5:30pm.

Overall it was a great ride. The New Year's Eve party, with Heidi and Pat performing was great fun. Those who were unable to make it, or chose not to try due to the weather, really missed out on a great event. I did come home with some spectacular saddle sores which are still rather raw. Fortunately Demon has a new Specialized Saddle we'll be picking up from Heidi in a couple of days. I can hardly wait.

***Since this writing, the new Specialized Ultralight has been procured and we are both extremely happy with it.

Sesenta Anos 2018

My last opportunity to put on miles for 2018 was the Sesenta Anos ride in Santa Barbara. I had planned to load up both Hoss and Demon and head to the Virgin and Outlaw ride in Semptember. My truck, however, had other plans. Specifically, it planned to retire. At just shy of 300,000 miles, that 2004 F250 gas engine had decided it was done. So, instead of going to V&O, I got a new truck.

But that wasn't the end of it. I had a cute little 6 month old filly to deliver to her new home in New Mexico. And a couple of mares to pick up, one as far away as Tennessee. So that excursion cut into getting to any rides.

Sesenta Anos was my next to last chance to get miles for the 2018 season, and if I could get 2 or 3 50s on Demon, I could keep him comfortably in the the top ten for the Jim Jones Stallion Award. We could get more miles at Gold Rush later in the month, as well.

Complicating matters was an incident Demon had on a training ride a week earlier. We'd been out training with his Scoot Boots on all four feet. At some point I realized he didn't feel right. He wasn't lame, but he wasn't right, either. We slowed to a walk for the remainder of that ride. When I got him home and removed his boots, I found a rock had gotten wedged into the back of one of his rear boots above his heel bulbs and rubbed him quite raw and bloody. It looked much better after a couple days of rest and Desitin applied daily, so I decided to glue boots on for the ride so he wouldn't have to have anything above his hairlines to irritate his fetlocks. I had a pair of EasyBoot Gloves I took the gaiters off and glued on his fronts, and a pair of Renegade ProComps I glued on his hinds. When we left for Sesenta Anos, I figured if I kept him well lubricated with Desitin he'd do just fine.

On day 1, I very carefully slathered all of Demon's fetlocks with Desitin before saddling up and hitting the trail. It was a largely uneventful day (and of course I'm getting around to writing this several months later, so memory has faded). We finished in decent time.

I got Demon vetted out and in for the next day, then untacked. I washed his fetlocks and reapplied Desitin for the night. Got him set up with his feed and water and we both went to bed.

Day 2 was similarly uneventful. I again cleaned Demon's fetlocks and reapplied Desitin. So far he was looking quite good. No heat or tenderness and he was eager to hit the trail. Day 2 the vet check was back in camp, and the way the loops ran, we got really close to camp before pulling away again. This did not please Demon. He knew where camp was and could not for the life of him figure why I was telling him we weren't going that way. But, he managed to get through it and finish again.

Once again, cleaning and reapplying Desitin was the order of the evening.

Day 3 started rough. I had a hard time getting my tail up out of bed and as a result I was quite rushing around camp trying to get done and hit the trail. During this bit of hurry, I forgot to reapply Desitin to Demon's fetlocks. I remembered just before I mounted up, but I decided he'd been doing well and didn't need it. He'd be fine.

This was a mistake.

The day was quite lovely, and it was quite a climb on the first half of the ride, necessitating quite a lot of walking. So when we got to a downhill section, Demon was a bit forward and we ended up cantering full tilt down a hill rather steeper than I would have chosen for such an act. I had a wild moment of thinking we must look at least a little Man From Snowy River.

At the vet check, we rested for a bit before presenting to the vet. The vet told me Demon was not lame, but he wasn't moving quite right. I got Pat Helly to trot him out so I could see, and he was putting his right hind down in a different place in the stride every step. Like he was trying to find just the right spot to put it and it wouldn't be uncomfortable.

The same hind he'd gotten the stone on.

Palpation revealed the still-irritated area was sore to the touch at this point. Although he was not lame, there was no way I was going to try to finish another 25 miles with any pain on palpation, so we pulled.

It was a good ride, and we did get another 100 miles, which ultimately finished Demon in 5th place for the Jim Jones Stallion Award. I had already decided we weren't going to try to go to Gold Rush. I was going to let him heal up and we'd go to Death Valley next.