Silver State 2001

[Karen <karen@storallnv.com>]

Another ride season is over!  We had a really great time at Silver State 
over Thanksgiving weekend.  The turnout was a little smaller this year, 
only 56 riders on the first day.  This was Weaver's first 3-day ride six 
years ago, and I rode him all three days on it this year.  It was probably 
one of the best rides I've ever had with him.  He's had a real good ride 
season, even if it did only start it in June.  In six months he has 
completed 1,350 miles.  I rode him all 3 days in hopes that he'll make it 
into the national mileage category, since if I split the horses up they'd 
probably both end up 1 ride short.  I sponsored Kayla on her last ride as a 
junior.  Next season she'll be riding as an adult, at 14 years old.  Her 
younger brother Troy rode with us on the last day of the ride.  Barney and 
Linda came to vet, and they worked with training a new vet who said she 
really liked endurance riders and thought we and our horses were great.

The weather on the first day was really nice.  We rode in t-shirts and some 
of us wore hawaiian print shirts :+)  Camp stays the same the first day, 
and we have lunch back there too.  There is a lot of new trail, which is 
really nice.  It gets us out of the rocks and off of the roads a lot and 
makes for a lot nicer ride with better footing.  Completion awards the 
first day were t-shirts, and top ten drawing awards were little stuffed 
horses that were super cute.  Kayla was first junior and got a couple of 
things for that.  Everything went really well the first day.  The only 
negative thing that day was the horse people were trying to ride 
barefoot.  The horse was looked really lame out on the trail, it was so 
sore that even my junior couldn't believe the rider didn't get off and walk 
it back to camp.  I guess it **barely** passed the vet check with a grade 2 
lameness at the end.  But later, it looked worse and in a lot of 
discomfort.  I hope the rider learned a lesson.  Too bad it had to be at 
the expense of the horse, who is suffering a great deal because of what?  I 
just hope that people don't start thinking they can ride barefoot horses in 
rides like this, because it's not what endurance riders are about.  That 
poor horse stood for hours all night with four feet together rocking in 
pain.  I never saw it try to eat a bite of food in all that time.  Jennifer 
and Kirsten tied for first and I think Jennifer got BC (??).  I'm sure 
Peggie will post the results soon.

The second day we rode point to point, from Jean out to Blue Diamond.  The 
weather was calling for rain so we left prepared in the morning.  So much 
of the trail is new, and the lunch vet check has been moved so that it is 
more in the middle of the ride which is nice.  The trail is pretty remote, 
so they let you know the only way out is by helicopter if you get into 
trouble.  We had a really great ride on the new trail.  It was slow going 
winding around the cholla cactus and the joshua trees on a new trail (not 
burned in). We made it up the long steep rocky canyon and looked back to 
see Las Vegas.  Weaver and Gem both managed to get some cactus into their 
legs, but we got them all cleaned up with no harm done.  After lunch, the 
trail was easier to follow and great footing so we picked up our pace a 
bit.  We came to a section of trail without ribbons, so turned around and 
went back to where the last one was.  They had been pulled down, presumably 
by some idiot bike riders.  I think we passed them too, because they told 
us which way to go, and it was not only the wrong way but the wrong trail 
has been marked with ribbons that had been pulled down from the correct 
trail.  These jerks have no idea that they could be endangering peoples 
lives by doing that.  Kayla and I both knew which way to go, so it wasn't a 
real problem for us, yet we did not know if the trail had been 
changed.  Claire came out right away and got it all fixed up.  I downloaded 
my GPS tracks onto Barney's topo software and we could see what we did and 
the extra trail we did going back and forth.  It started raining on us just 
a few minutes before we finished, and it kept pouring rain for hours.  By 
the time we got in, the horses were completely soaked.  We vetted and then 
I headed over to the trailer, with a sideways going horse (he hates going 
face first into blowing rain!), and put him into the trailer so I could 
untack him and clean him up and let him dry while it poured outside.  All 
during the night the wind came up and blew everything not battened down 
into the next state. I don't think many of us got much sleep.  I even 
double blanketed Weaver so that he would stay warm, and had him sheltered 
from the wind by the trailer so he wouldn't get chilled.  I have no idea 
who was first but Elfta got BC.   I just wanted to keep Kayla in the 1st 
junior position and we did that.  I left Weav's easyboots on 
overnight.  Usually I take them off each night but figured it'd be okay 
since this was just a three day ride and if I took them off he'd be 
standing in the mud anyway.  I used boots on all 4 feet, he seems to be 
going really well that way.  A lot of horses had boots on all 4's or at 
least the front feet.

The storm cleared as morning came and the third day of the ride dawned with 
a bright blue sky.  A few more riders had left the night before or decided 
not to ride on the last day, fearing the weather would turn bad again.  We 
lucked out though, and the last day was really not too bad.  The rain had 
kept the dust down for us.  A little windy, but we were prepared and 
comfortable all day.  I rode with a rump rug on and used a crupper to help 
hold it down.  That worked out really well.  The trail seemed easier to 
follow going back to Jean, even though the rain had cleared all the hoof 
tracks away.  Between the two days I got the entire trail of tracks on my 
GPS for Claire to have.  She can see every wrong turn we made and where we 
stopped to go behind a bush <G>. hahaha  I also marked waypoints where each 
camp and water/lunch check was too.  Next year it will make it easier to 
follow in case the ribbons get pulled again or we get lost.  On the last 
day Kayla let Troy go in as first junior.  We were all in the top ten 
again, and Kayla came out first overall junior on the ride.  :+))  Libby 
Bass, another junior - won the True Grit award.  She got that for riding 
the same horse in all 7 of the Las Vegas Distance Riders rides this year. 
She was the only one who received that award (a jacket) this year.

The casino seemed more crowded than usual at Jean.  I think because so many 
people were driving into Vegas this year for the holiday weekend. Traffic 
going in and out was awful.  We were luckily coming and going a different 
direction from most people so it wasn't so bad.   The second day awards 
were feed pans (I got a purple one :+)), and the next day was a brush and 
aspirin holder thingies.  I got drawn for a top ten award on the 2nd day 
and now Weav has a leopard print fly mask to cruise around in next spring 
when the flies come back out.  Peggie fixed dinner out in Blue Diamond on 
the 2nd day (once the rain stopped), and it was really good.  They did a 
great job, as always.  John Parke came and rode Skoldjur and now I think 
has 2000 miles on him this season (is that amazing or what?).  Kayla's 
little Gem horse has done 1,000 miles this season, most of that on the XP 
and Tevis, he's a neat little horse.  Trilby came and rode the middle day, 
she's done something like 2900 miles this year.  I better cut back a little 
next year, Kayla says I'm starting to walk like Trilby.  Uh oh.

Thanks to Peggie, Claire, Fred, Dr. Barney, Linda, Dr. Peggie, the LVDR and 
all the volunteers who put on this ride, we really appreciate you guys!!!!

Happy Trails,

Karen
in NV
& Weaver, 4770 miles
& Rocky, 4580 miles