So you know most of the bad parts about the ride, but here’s
the rest of the story. Afterall , we all live for a fellow distance riders ride
story.
The first major highlight was that I went down with my
friend “J” who has a pretty darn nice LQ 3 horse. I can always rough it in a
tent for a couple days if needed, but
given the opportunity who would turn down that offer? We split fuel costs and better
yet, “T” came with and he chauffeured us to and from the ride. I got to rest up
in the back seat of the truck , with my dog and my ipod and airconditioning. It doesn’t get much
better than that for this sport.
The forecasted weather was to be in the high 90’s. I worried
about those temps the week before.
Maggie wilts in the heat. Lets face it,
she’s no arab and she just doesn’t cool as efficiently. However, the morning of the ride, we woke up
to a light drizzle , lots of clouds and a cool breeze. It was only in the mid
to high 60’s. I rode with a rain jacket. With the cooler temps, we stood a
pretty good chance of doing ok.
There were very few riders in attendance, sadly. However,
this made for a relaxed atmosphere which
was perfect “J” ‘s youngster .. This was his first exposure to any sort of
event. The ride itself was held on a private 5000 acre ranch with some
beautiful scenery.
We started at 7:00 in the rain. Maggie felt pretty fresh but
not anxious. Since this was a CTR and some of the trails were said to be a
little rockyt ,they gave us a total time
of 7 hours ride time , which included a one hour hold in camp. Basically it was 3.5 hours to complete the
first 15 mile loop and 2.5 hours to
complete the second loop (10 miles).
We headed out in pairs of two, each two minutes apart. Jan
and I quickly caught up with the first two riders and went on by. Their horses were walking and spooking. Maggie
was eager to go so Red and Maggie set a pace and we let them trot out. We figured
with some of the hills we had to climb (over 1000 feet in elevation)we had
better make time on the flats where we could. We trotted across the hay field,
praying our horses would miss the golfer holes. We crossed a narrow, scary and deep irrigation ditch which Maggie did
like a champ , and then we hit the dirt road.. 2 plus miles of dirt road… blah…we
had to follow for 2 miles. I didn’t much care for that part but we kept up with
the trot since it was flat.
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| Right after the big climb |
Shortly after that, we
hit our first big climb. The hill seemed to go on forever, over a half mile long , and rocky . I am not
talking a little gravely. I am talking sharp big rocks and lots of them . Rocky
enough that I thought I should have pads on my horse and was probably risking
getting a stone bruise. We could only walk. It took us over 20 minutes of walking to get
up that hill. By now, the rain had mostly stopped and it was ungodly muggy out.
At one point, I lost my head and hopped
off Maggie. I was going to give her a break and hand walk her up the last steep
part of the climb. “J” quickly reminded me we were in a CTR not an endurance
ride and to get my butt back in the saddle. I Oops! Thought I was on an endurance ride for
a split second there. I quickly got back on.
In CTR’s, you can’t dismount ,
unless there are exceptions made by ride management for safety.
Most of the area had range cattle so there was often surprise
black monsters in the trees or bushes. Maggie was fine with all but one that
seemed particularly sneaky and she gave him a wide berth but never spooked. There was a lot of watering tanks along the
way but Maggie would not drink on the entire first loop. No surprise there but
as humid as it was, I was really wishing she would.
On that first loop, we really only had maybe 2 long sections
that we could let the horses get out and boogie at a trot without worrying
about a steep climb or rocky footing. The
rest of the time we had to walk… the footing was too risky for a stone bruise
or just too steep up or too steep down.
In fact there were sections that were so
steep and rocky, they allowed two of those exceptions and let us get off the
horse to lead them down. Those were
nearly ankle twisting sections for the rider.
It kinda sucked but we made it through the first loop
without any major issues. Maggie seemed
pretty sluggish about 5 miles into that first loop compared to her normal self.
I equated it to the humidity. We came
into the hold and she pulsed in at 11 within the 10 minutes. (10 or under is
ideal but you don’t get dinged unless it’s 12 or higher) I untacked her and
turned her loose in her pen for the hour hold and hoped that she would drink.
She ate her beet pulp like a champ. Before I knew it , the hold time was up and we had to get ready
again. I was trying to decided whether to electrolyte her because I wasn’t sure if she had taken a drink. Her
hydration level seemed to be in the “OK to good” level with the pinch test and her cap refill time
was fine. I knew that there were three
water tanks within the first 6 miles of the second loop so we had plenty of
opportunity to get water. Since her hydration level was not in any danger I
went ahead and gave her another round of electrolytes
We headed back out across the landscape. Maggie did not seem
right to me . Her ears were back and she
just didn’t seem to want to move out well.
We got to the first water which was a creek crossing. She rinsed her
mouth out but refused to drink. I
checked her hind quarters and nothing seemed tight to indicate she was showing
sign of tying up. I had two more opportunities at water, so we kept going. As “J” and I trotted along, she agreed Maggie
was not her usual go- go self. “J” asked
me if Maggie knew how to drink with a bit in her mouth. I thought about it and
realized that she had never drank with
this bit in her mouth. In all of our
conditioning rides, we never have water on the trail. I always take her back to
the trailer but ofcourse she always refuses water at the trailer too. She would
always wait until we got home and dive into her water bucket, in her corral, ofcourse, with no bit….
I never really
considered that the bit was part of the
drinking issue because she had drank well in the snaffle two years ago in her
first race after the first 15 miles. I ride her in a totally different bit now.
It didn’t seem like it should have made
a difference because the bit has a good tongue relief but apparently it did.
We hit the next water trough and I took her bridle off. You
might guess…
Yep, Maggie dove her whole nose in the tank and gulped and
gulped and gulped water. I was never so relieved.
Ok, so I know that Ideally
you’re not supposed to be figuring these things out in the middle of a
competition but I was sure glad “J” had asked that question and we were able to
figure it out when we did. That probably saved Maggie from coming in way too
dehydrated and who knows what other metabolic issues.
We kept going and Maggie perked up but she still did not seem quite right to me. I
wasn’t sure what was going on. I was watching her HR pretty closely but nothing
alarming was showing. She wasn’t
recovering as quickly on hills and when
we trotted some of the flats she was a little higher than she normally is but
she was still well below 150 unless we
climbed a hill. If anything, the rates were telling me she was getting tired but
not that she was in any major discomfort.
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| an old ruin of an abandoned Mill Site, see building to the far left...they say it's haunted... we didn't see any ghosts.. |
We hit the last water tank of the second loop and I
unbridled her again but she didn’t want to drink so I just scooped water and
poured it on her to help her cool off. We had four miles left. I kept her unbridled and rode the last four
miles in just her halter. She seemed to be happier so I tied it onto Jan’s
saddle which had better tie-off’s and continued. . Ofcourse, this presented it’s
own set of issues because I had no stop on her and since the knot is tied
underneath her chin, there was no directional reining either. We traveled along
like a drunken sailor at times and I was
pretty much a passenger at this point, trusting Maggie wouldn’t do anything too
crazy.
We trotted until the 2 mile mark as it was mostly flat. Once
we hit the 2 mile mark, you have to have forward motion or risk points being
deducted. I wouldn’t say our motion was completely forward, but also a bit
sideways as we navigated the snow fence with sheep behind it.. that was an
interesting few moments. Not to mention,
both horses were really
struggling with stumbling. They were
tired without a doubt. We came in
exactly in our time window. I unsaddled
her, gave her a quick sponge and headed over for our 10 minute P&R. Maggie
pulsed down to 11 and the vet thought she had actually had improved her
hydration level from the first loop. I was hoping that would be the case.
Typically in a CTR you have your P&R and then wait an
hour for your final vet check. Due to a
family death with the vet, she had to leave
as soon as the ride was over, so we did our final vet through right after
the P&R. Maggie got all zero’s (that’s
a good thing in CTR) on cap refill, gut
sounds, hydration, tack wear (no sore spots from saddle or bridle, no blemishes
or cuts on legs, etc..I was happy with that.
However, we did have
one surprise.
When we did the final trot out, Maggie was lame on her left
hind. Grade two lame. Both “J” and I were shocked because I never felt or saw a
single lame step, other than her stumbling. At first the vet scared me a bit because she
thought that there was some evidence to suggest that Maggie may have been tying up. She felt some slight hardening in one spot along
her rump, right next to her spine, towards to top of her tail. I watched Maggie
urinate at the hold and it seemed fine at that point. I was not convinced she was tying up . The
vet thought it could also just be a muscle strain but I would have to watch
carefully. She suggested I give her some bute so I gave her two grams.
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Looking across one of the mountain valley's at one of the locations we were able to let the horses trot out.. the picture didn't do the scenery justice but we were at the highest point of the ride here.
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My final score was a 97 which ended up putting me in first
place for the Open division. Maggie’s first blue ribbon! I was pleased but my
concern with the lameness overshadowed a celebratory mood.
I took Maggie back to her pen and gave her more beet pulp
with some Ultium and hay. She ate about half of it and then just stood quietly.
I was watching to see if she would drink. It took her a good half hour before
she wandered over to the water tank to drink.
I never did see her urinate but after resting for a couple of hours, she
perked up and chased “J” ‘s horse a
couple of times away from her hay pile. Apparently she was feeling much better.
I periodically checked her leg,
hindquarter, and foot through out the
evening to see if any swelling or change appeared. Nothing. She didn’t even exhibit any filling in her
tendons which I expected with the hard ground we traveled on.
I got showered (love LQ horse trailers!) and took some nap
time until it was time for some dinner.
Things have a weird
way of working out sometimes. A friend of mine and his wife live 5 miles from where the ride was being held. Since room in the LQ trailer was limited, they
offered “T” room and board for the weekend at their place and “T” got an
opportunity to offer my friend some
horseback archery training. Anyways,
this friends wife is a barrel racer who just happened to be
taking 4 of her horses to see her vet Sunday morning, who also just happens to be the same vet that
travels to my area monthly to do chiropractic work on horses. I have used him multiple times in the
past. He’s one of the best in the
northwest region, especially when it comes to performance horses. I thought it might be a good idea to have
him take a look at Maggie and see if there was something he could do to help her. After a couple of phone calls and coordinating,
he agreed to sneak Maggie in Sunday morning
for an adjustment t before we headed back home. Our appointment was at 9:00. He
watched her move and went to work on her.
He didn’t think it was anything serious but she was definitely out in
the Pelvis and L4, L5. The stifle was
affected as well. When she walked out
after he worked on her she was no longer
short striding on that left hind. She stepped out normal.
I worked her on Tuesday, she seemed fine. I worked her on the lunge tonight. She seemed fine. The vet felt confident that she would be fine to compete this weekend . I have to decide. There is nothing to indicate that she wouldn't be ok at this point, but if there is some underlying issue, it could rear it's ugly head , causing me to have to pull.
I have one and half days to decide.... ofcourse, this trip will be back to primitive camping for me with my non living quarter trailer. Heavy rains predicted Friday night... hmmmm.. is it a sign??
Stay tuned!
