20 Mule Team 100, 2002
Nick Warhol
Endurance General’s Warning! If you went to this ride and
didn’t like it, or don’t like my descriptions, stop reading here and go to www.tiddlywinks.com and read about a sport that might be
more your speed. I liked the ride
and had a great time, fair warning.
I had a very busy past couple of weeks! Since the beginning of February, I got a
new job, I spent a week in Park City watching the Olympics and skiing, then
drove down to Ridgecrest for another shot at the 20MT 100. (By the way, going to the Olympics
was one of the neatest things I have done in my life, but that’s another
story.) This would be my
fifth time at the ride in the medium high desert of So Cal. I would have ridden Zayante the
wonder horse, but I got the option of riding Jackie’s mare Holly in the 100-mile
ride instead. Zay is sticking to
the 50 milers, since he’s getting up there and doesn’t need to do 100’s
anymore. Not that he couldn’t, I
bet, but its best for him.
Before the ride he had 9,905 miles.
Merri Melde would be riding him in the 65-mile ride this time. Would he make it to 9,970? Read on.
The
trip from the Bay Area to Ridgecrest is about 7.5 hours in my rig, it only took
4 hours and 55 minutes to do in the car.
Swoosh! That was fun! And on 14 gallons of gas! (I guess I could haul my horse trailer
with the Honda Accord, but the camper might compress the suspension a bit.) The weather was pretty warm for this
time of the year, making people nervous about the long hair on most of the
horses. The sounds of the
clippers buzzed all day at the base camp like a bevy of bizarre bees. On Friday I took Holly out for a
warm up ride with Zay and Rafique, another of Jackie’s horses. I enjoyed riding along with
Zayante, getting to actually look at him under saddle. We rode from Jackie’s house, up into the
hills, and then over to the fairgrounds where the ride base camp was
located. Zounds! Look at all the rigs! It had to be a record number of
entries. Gary and Laura fend were
here to both try the 100 together, that is if Laura could keep Gary from getting
lost, or falling into a pond.
Believe me, there aren’t many ponds in the desert, but if there was one
out there, Gary could find it and fall in. Steph Teeter made a long drive
down from Idaho to try the 65-mile ride on one of her huge, wooly Russian
horses, but left hubby John at home.
Regulars Joyce and Dennis Souza were there again, from way up north. Joyce had her new boy in tow, fresh from
winning some days at the 2000 XP ride. There were really a lot of
entries, it turned out to be something like 230 in the three rides. I was entered in the FEI 100 mile
ride, since Jackie thought that would be good for Holly’s record. This would be Holly’s second attempt at
a 100-mile ride, she was pulled in her first attempt for lameness. The FEI riders had a separate vet check
in, where the vet inspected all the horse documents, and the officials made sure
all the FEI rules were adhered to.
The infamous international endurance ace and chef de’quipe ( how in the heck do you spell that?)
Teresa Cross was one of the officials and made sure things hummed along
smoothly. I duct taped on
some stirrup cages, (bought ‘em there),
put on my shirt with a collar, (had to bring that), put on my black tights, (had ‘em), and
my helmet. (had that, too) Now I
was officially FEI compliant. Gary
and Laura took pity on the camperless me, feeding me some great spaghetti for
dinner on Friday. The ride
meeting was huge! I took a
moment and presented Ken Cook with a Death Valley sweatshirt as thanks for
taking care of our poor, stranded horse Wabi at Death Valley. The shirt said: “Ken Cook, Friend
of Wabi.” People will
probably ask him what in the world that means for years to come. Just tell them it’s a yoga chant,
Ken! Becky Hackworth came up
and asked me if I would mind sponsoring her junior daughter, Heather, in the
100-mile ride. Absolutely! I sponsored her last year at Death
Valley for a couple of days and had a lot of fun riding with her. She was riding her really nice
horse, Tez Mark, for the third time in the 100 down here. On day 3 at the DVE, Heather and I
had a trotting contest to see who could trot the furthest, that we had to call a
draw when we ran out of places to trot after 55 minutes without stopping.