My weekend experiences started even before I arrived to base camp. We had only about 20 more miles to reach our destination when I noticed a flat tire on the front drivers side of my horse trailer. We were on the long steep incline grade on Highway 8, and there wasn’t a lot of room to pull over to the side. I’ve also never changed a tire before, but I had all of the stuff to do it (a trailer aid ramp and a star wrench). I also have AAA as a backup plan. However, out of the darkness immediately came light! Wayne and Catfish Moe were right behind me, and pulled over to ask if everything was ok. I told them that I had a flat tire, and without delay, Wayne quickly went to work, directing me how to get my trailer up on the ramp and free up the flat wheel. In less than 10 minutes, I was back on the road! Much faster than AAA, and probably smelled better and better looking, too! I knew that the endurance crowd was full of compassionate angels, and I was elated and thankful to see them come fly in to my aid. It took me a while to determine whether I would be doing the LD (25) or my first 50 at this ride, so a lot of stars had to align to push me to that decision. Since my friend, trainer and mentor Bart Eskander would not be available for this ride, it was a bit daunting to think I’d attempt it on my own. Dave Wisniewski and Anne Cornell York invited me to ride with them if I chose the 50. That was the first star and probably the most important star to for me. I am lucky to know and to be friends with great people that are wonderful horsemen and can handle tough challenges and successfully get through them. They are also funny and irreverent, and those would be good qualities to be around to get me through the ride. Once assembled, our three person team agreed to do this ride together. We discussed some basic management and I was just soaked in everything that trainers, mentors and friends had suggested beforehand to be prepared, but physically and mentally. Janet Lemon Worts came into our camp the night before and gave me some tips on how to properly electrolyte my horse. Im glad she came, because that’s probably the one thing that wasn’t in my saddle pack. I just didn’t know, and it never occurred to me to electrolyte on the trail. She told me that when he gulped between 12 and 15 swallows of water, counting them as they went down his neck, I could give him 20cc of electrolytes, and that would get him through the ride. Other stars that aligned were that the ride was a 50 mile loop. Not having to come back to base camp at the half way point to vet in and have lunch was favorable, as that may have been too hard on both Tommy and me mentally. Another bright star was that it was managed by Terry Wooley Howe and asst Jennifer Bishop, who are known for recruiting a zillion volunteers to help you at vet checks with feeding and watering your horse for you, and getting your person taken care of with snacks and refreshments. Your own pit crew wouldn’t be necessary! There were also cookies along the way but you had to get all the way to the 45th mile to get one. That was ok, though, because I packed five of Casey McCann’s cookies on my saddle pack, promising that I would only eat one every time I felt like crying. At the end of the day, I had only eaten one cookie from my pack, and it was fairly early in the ride. The ride is rated as a “moderate-plus” to “difficult” because of the intense elevation gains and terrain that requires some horsemanship. 5:00am came way too quickly after having been up most of the night, mostly from nerves and thoughts running through my head, psychologically gearing myself up for the day. I exited the motorhome at about 5:30 to find Dr. Rebecca Florio removing Tommys blankets and starting to groom him. It cracked me up! Dr. Florio has been instrumental in my early training days back in 2009 and has also helped mentor me through rides, and watching Tommy progress. Partially through her urging was a reason that I felt we were both ready to graduate to the next level. She said she was there at camp to make sure that I was really going to do the ride! We started this ride at about 6:10, to allow the camp to clear out and minimize the racebrain “Shabazzle” that happens on many starting lines. Bart has been weaning me off of my German martingale crutch during training, and this would be the first ride I would do without it. Tommy has been difficult to control at start lines in the past, so I hoped that this time we could start at a more controlled non excitable walk until we got into the hills. I had exchanged my slick leather reins for my rubber gripped reins in the event that I needed help from him grabbing the bit and yanking them out of my hands. But I didn’t need them. Tommy, Scarlett Aphroditii and Elvis walked calmly and collectively out of camp without a worry or care in the world. It set the stage for what was going to be a wonderful ride with great friends. The first few miles of this ride were windy single track trails. Since it was near the start, there were many groups of people and we were all trotting nose to tail. There were probably 20 people in this group. At the end of this trail, it dumped out onto a fire trail, where we were to turn right and continue elevation gain. At this point, the sun was starting to rise and peak over the mountain tops. It was time to shed our outer layers. Dave and Anne wanted to wait until the fire road so that they could dismount and secure their pullovers to their saddles. As soon as the trail let out, Heidi and her group went left to recollect, the competitive Arizona group went to the right to get going, and our group stopped to adjust. I did not get off since I had already taken my jacket off on the trail. There were still horses coming off the single track trail and passing us, which brings a little excitement and anxiety to the horses standing still. Dave and Anne were just getting ready to mount back up when Tommy started walking briskly to follow the other horses. I was ok with it, because I knew they were ready to go, and they’d catch up in a minute. In a couple strides, his walk turned into a strong trot for about two strides and then a full speed gallop. I was pulling back on the reins but nothing was happening. He wasn’t stopping. It wasn’t making sense to me. Speed was pouring on, his strides were getting longer and faster. I was on a runaway horse and didn’t know what to do. Tommy is such a powerful horse, it was like being on an out of control freight train. I looked to my left for places that looked soft enough for an emergency dismount, but there really weren’t any. It was thick with Manzanita brush, and looked painful to jump on. I didn’t want to risk breaking bones, but I didn’t want to risk whatever was that might come next either. The accident I had last May where almost this same exact scenario happened, resulting in a hospital stay with a broken back and pelvis, and a year of rehab flashed through my mind. Terror took over me. I still couldn’t understand why I had lost command. Trying to remain as calm and rational as possible, I glanced up on Tommy’s head, and there was the bit, dangling on one side to the right. The clip holding the bit had come undone, and fell from his mouth. I had no head control, and needed to quickly think of a Plan B to get us both through this situation with the least amount of bodily harm to both of us. Tommy rounded the bend in the road, picking up speed, and an Arizona rider was just ahead. His horse became antsy as Tommy barreled in on him. I begged him, “please stop your horse, please stop!”. I was desperate and my only hope was to get Tommy to hopefully use that horse to stop. However, this was a fire road and plenty wide to go around and keep galloping away. I didn’t know how this story was going to end, but suspected it wasn’t going to end well. I really didn’t know what to do. As Tommy neared the black horse, I saw the horse tuck his rear end bracing for impact. At the last second I reached forward with my left hand, and grabbed the side of the silver rope halter that Jenny McCann had bought for me. She convinced me to use it under my bridle, as we were going to be our own crew members and needed to bring all of our stuff with us to vet checks. I had never worn a halter under my bridle before this day. It saved my life, or surely saved me from some horrible fate of more broken bones and a broken spirit. I pulled his head hard to the left, cranking it to the side. His nose was shoved into a manzanita tree. He stopped. I jumped off. My nerves exploded and I became weak and shaky. My knees were wobbly and a sick shot of numbness shot through my veins. Just then, Anne rounded the bend and called back to the group “She is here and is ok!”. I was ok. Disaster was averted. Dave was right on Anne’s heels, and handed me a roll of (red) duct tape and I taped the clips so that they could not open again. Heidi Helly quickly appeared and comforted me, assuring me that everything was ok. She suggested I walk alongside Tommy until my nerves settled down enough to get back on and continue. We still had 45 miles to go. That first cookie was very very good. Vet Check 1, Sweetwater Bridge, Mile 13. 20 min hold. We arrived at 8:30am. Tommy was below criteria of 56 in three minutes. (He pulsed in at 52bpm.) In that 20 minutes, I had to change a flat Renegade, go to the bathroom and vet in. In addition to doing those things, you want your horse fed and watered at the same time. Annie and Dave each have their own list of tasks to do for them and their horses too, and still meet the goal to stay only 20 minutes. When I first arrived at the hold, I tied Tommy to the side of a trailer so that I could run and do these things, and suddenly I had pit crew volunteers run to my side- Sam (@Kate) taking Tommy so he could eat and drink, another gal taking my camelback and over to the water station to refill, someone else rushing food and refreshments over to me (donut holes, gatorade, lemonade, water, cantelope, bananas). Casey was at this vet stop too, offering assistance to riders. All of this pit crewing allowing me to accomplish all of those tasks in 20 minutes. We technically have as long we want to take along the ride and at vet checks, but to get through the ride and finish timely, we had to set our goal for just the mandatory hold time of 20 minutes. It goes quick. Nothing better than pit crew volunteers! Tommy’s Report Card for Vet Check 1 looked like this: Mucus Membranes: A Capillary Refill: A- Jugular: A Skin: A- Gut: A Tone: A Impulsion: A Gait: A Attitude: A Saddle: A Wounds: A Pulse: 52 (parameter is 56) Nine miles out of the first vet check was Soapstone Grade, a literal “ass kicking” fire road full of medium sized sharp pieces of loose granite stones. It kind of looked like what I am putting in my front yard right now! One of the best decisions the group did was to get off and walk up this grade. On this road, the right side (closest to the hillside) was creviced with a lot of thicker unstable granite/shale shards, so that had us walking on the cliff side. This road climbs 800 feet in elevation in just half mile. Dave had warned us earlier that just when we think we’re to the top of the hill, you will have to turn right and climb even more, so to just be prepared for it not to end when you think. It seemed after an eternity of climbing when we neared what I thought looked like the top, and Dave excitedly exclaimed “Hey! There’s the top!”. I was overjoyed. My glutes and hamstrings were on fire. I kept thinking of my personal trainer Kristine, her words echoing in my mind, “You’re stronger than you think”, but this was really pushing my limit. I found the longer I stopped to catch a breath, the faster my muscles set up. I had to keep walking. Quitting wasn’t an option. Dave and Annie were rockstars and just chugged up it. No stopping. Now that the top was finally near, the pain would almost be over. Just as I took that high emotional breath, I heard Dave again “Just kidding! We have to turn right and go up some more!”. He was so excited about it. He had extra energy to burn. In that half second, thoughts raced through my mind that I actually had reached my physical limit. This was it. My body went limp and if I wasn’t so out of breath, I would have cried. I felt so spent. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d have dug another cookie out of my saddle pack. I train as hard as I can with both a personal trainer as well as on the trails in Chatsworth with Tommy at least five days a week, and most weeks, six. We all know our limits are “something”, but usually those limits aren’t tried to complete failure (we do have natural survival instinct!) to know what they are. I don’t know what they are for me, but in that moment, I knew I had probably reached it. I just resigned to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. The sun was beating down on the backs of our necks, blazing our skin. We had to pay attention to where we put our feet so we didn’t twist an ankle by stepping on a rock. To add to the challenge, Tommy was crowding me over to the cliff side, not out of willfully being rude, but just ignorance. He is respectful of my time and space on the ground at home, but I am rarely walking alongside of him on a trail. It was just another new learning experience for both of us. I was tired of fighting him to stay either behind me or on the other side of the road. My triceps were burning, trying to keep him over to my right. It took all the extra energy I was going to need to make it up the hill. I was still happy that I was not making Tommy endure this hill by himself. He’s in better shape than I am, and could have packed me up this hill, but Dave suggested this plan for later preservation for the distance endurance they would need later. After all of these thoughts went through my head, I heard Dave again say “Just kidding again, this is the top.” A sigh of relief overwhelmed me, and another adrenaline high shots through my body. We were almost there! Even after we crested, I had to keep walking a bit because I was too weak to climb back on Tommy. Believe it or not, horses grow in size the longer the ride is. The concept is to keep moving forward, even if you have to move slow. We had vet checks where we could rest. After another two or three minutes, I was able to remount and we headed down a road that led to huge grassy meadows with windy single tracks snaking through them. Soon we came upon Cuyamaca Lake. It was heaven. On the other side of the lake was Vet Check #2. Highway 79 Staging Area, Mile 28. 1 hour min hold. We walked in at 11:42am, under the set criteria of 56. His heartrate had gone down to 44bpm. Tommy’s Report Card for Vet Check 2 looked like this: Mucus Membranes: A Capillary Refill: A- Jugular: A- Skin: A- Gut: A- Tone: A Impulsion: B+ (he appeared as if he didn’t really want to trot as I led him away) Gait: A- (but once he did trot, he did it with style ;) Attitude: A- Saddle: A Wounds: A Pulse: 44 (parameter is 56) Anne, Dave and I were all doing well and our horses all looked great. We took great advantage of our lunch hour and rested under the pine trees. Our horses were tired, but happy. They spent the hour eating and resting with us in the shade. The next loop was my favorite loop. We left Vet Check 2 and began a three mile uphill climb. The ground was green with new life, littered with spring grasses and white dandelion seed pods. We made a lot of wishes! But at one point in the not too distant past, a fire had come through and decimated everything. The trees were skeletonous sticks, ghosts of what was once a lush beautiful forest of pine trees. It looked like we were trotting through a Tim Burton nightscape, only it was daytime. We climbed up to 5500 feet. The vistas were amazing. To give you an idea where we were, Julian was to our north and Ramona was to our west. The slope off of the mountain was majestic and made me feel so small. Breathing the air up there with great friends and being on a happy horses as we crested made me feel so alive and in high spirits! Our horses seemed relieved to have finally reached the top and going down was a breeze for them. We had to watch where we trotted, though, as there were broken branches of dead trees and large downed logs all over the place. The footing could have been slippery if approached carelessly. It allowed our horses an active recovery time. I have heard about the bonding that endurance riders get with their horses, and although Tommy and I already share a very strong bond, a wonderful experience happened together happened about Mile 37. We had all gotten off (one of many times) to walk alongside of our horses for about 10 minutes. As I walked, I spoke softly to Tommy. The way that he looked at me with his liquid brown eyes just melted me. He was fatigued more than he had ever been before, but at that very moment, he recognized that I wasn’t trying to kill him, only to help him. He suddenly realized that whatever the hell we were doing was a team effort and that I was only taking care of him. I knew that he was thankful that I was off of his back and walking alongside. I pet his neck as we walked and told him how special he was, and how much he meant to me, and I knew that he knew what I was saying. I felt it deep in my bones. Shortly after this experience, we mounted back up and a second life had been breathed into all of our horses. This ride would prove to bring me to the point where I thought I would break. Instead, about Mile 48, I became overwhelmed with emotion. Tears were streaming down my face. We were not only finishing, but finishing strong! Tommy looked like a full Country English Pleasure show horse for the last ten miles. It made me laugh, and laugh and laugh. Dave took video of it because we were all so elated that all of our horses were champions, as were we for properly managing this ride. The ride had its fair share of tests. It was hot, 85F and maybe even hotter in some of the canyons (100F was the estimate). The humidity was 45 percent. Dr. Fred Beasom advised in the ride meeting the night before to watch it out there because of these challenges. He says he often sees many metabolic pulls in conditions like this, and true to his prediction, there were many metabolic pulls, nine in just the 50 mile race. We got back to camp at 5:10pm. As soon as I pulled into camp, Casey was immediately at my side, took Tommy and offered to untack him and get him showered off and fed, so that I could have enough time to take a quick shower in the motorhome before the Rider Awards Meeting. I couldn’t believe it. I was overjoyed. If anyone heard me in the shower, I seriously sounded like the Herbal Essence lady. The cold shower was that great! But it was more than the shower. It was a time to let my emotions go. Here we completed something that pressed every physical and mental boundary that we’ve ever had. We did it. It didn’t kill us. It in fact, made us stronger.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:40:51 +0000
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