Ridecamp: [RC] RC: Real Endurance

Now, I am a REAL ENDURANCE RIDER!  Just completed my and my horse's first 50 
miler at Cascade Challenge--and it really was!  After years of doing LD, 
wishing I had a horse (and a body) I felt was capable of doing 50's I got my 
Anglo-Arab mare TRAINED and conditioned to the point I figured she could do 
50's.  For me, I just figured I'd have to take my chances.

Did the Sunday 50 at CC, Gail Williams' ride in the NW.  What a beautiful 
place!  The view from the ridgetops were panoramic, and everything was green 
as it is still spring up there.  Plenty of grass for the horses, lots of 
water.  A gorgeous, well run ride, that only had one minor complication on 
Saturday (I wasn't there) in which CHUCK borrowed some ribbons at a crucial 
junction in the trail, leaving some of the LD riders to do a 20 mile loop 
instead of the intended 10 miler.  We shared a camp with the Back Country 
horsemen, and it was really interesting to see the contrasts in gear, horses, 
and behavior.

As for me and Fog, we had fun, and completed a ride that was later described 
to me as one of the toughest rides in the NW.  It certainly was a lot of ups 
and downs.  Guess now I'm ready for anything.

We started last, and had a little trouble making it over the first creek 
(kinda deep and fast running) but with the help of a young Back Country horse 
person, who jumped on her horse bareback and lead us across, we were on our 
way.  Because I was the last one out, and determined to go slow, I NEVER saw 
another rider, except a couple of BCH riders going the opposite direction.  

My mare ate and drank like an experienced horse.  I was so proud of her!  She 
is AWESOME!  She handled that long ride all by her self, with no other horse 
to pull her along when she got tired.  Our time was somewhere around 9 hours, 
and she still looked pretty good and had enough energy to spook at the SAME 
tree stumps  coming into camp on the last loop, and trot into camp with 
style.  

The best part was <BG> we got both a top ten and the tail ender award.  I 
didn't know til I finished that there were only 6 horses in the 50 on Sunday. 
 

Thanks Gail and crew, it was definitely one of the high points of my 
endurance career.   The only downside was that a couple of BCH horses got out 
of their hot wire pen at 1:30 AM Monday morning, and were wandering around 
camp stirring up every one's horses.  The gal in the camp next to me was an 
endurance rider, and she and her buddy were out trying to figure out what to 
do with the horses when I got up to go to the bathroom.  She knocked on the 
owner's door, and the response was--Can't they just be Loose?  We waited 
about ten minutes and there was no sign of stirring, so eventually we just 
caught the horses and lead them over to the camp and knocked on the door 
again.  She said  "Is anybody going to come out and get these HORSES!"  So 
finally they stirred out of bed and took care of their horses.  Very 
reluctantly.  

I guess they figured their horses WOULDN'T run through anybody else's camp, 
WOULDN'T get in a fight with someone's tied up horse, WOULDN'T get spooked 
and take off up into the hills not to be seen for 4 days, or ever. WOULDN'T 
get chewed by someone's loose dog, or any of those other things that happen 
to loose horses.  jeri


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