Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

America and I continued our morning jaunt, following the pink loop.  We finally reached a point where his breathing became more controlled, even while climbing, and, when we found the ridge line, I let him transition through his higher gears: trot, lope, slow canter, faster canter.  All of them so smooth, so mellow (I should have named him "Jim Beam"); this horse is a dream to ride, when he behaves.  After a mile or so I turned him around and we headed back towards the barn.  As we began going down a steep hill, I noticed something quite peculiar.  America had no idea what to do here.  He would just stop, wait, hesitantly begin walking very slowly, and stop again.  This on a horse who never stops for anything; I started wondering if 12 hours would be enough time come Saturday.

 

Somewhere during the ride we had lost a shoe, left front.  Oh, that's just lovely.  I wanted to ride him some more during the week, but, knew the ride farrier wasn't going to be out until Friday.  I'm not a big fan of Easy boots (hard to find when you lose one) but figured Abbie might have one or two for sale in her tack shop.  These mountains are darn tough, and, to lose a shoe on your first outing kind of gives you an idea.  They don't call this ride an extreme mountain challenge for nothing.  One would think the word "extreme," or "challenge" would be enough, but, at Leatherwood, the two definitely belong together.

 

I did quite a bit of riding that week.  Twice a day I went out, riding Princess in the morning and War Cry after lunch.  Both barefoot horses did very well, but, I must admit Princess seemed a little sensitive to the rocks on the second day.  When I noticed this, I headed down off the rugged mountain trails and ran her along the creeks where the ground is soft and more giving.  War Cry was the one who amazed me.  No sign of trouble at all riding up and down those mountains, barefoot.  I started to wonder if he could actually do 50 miles here without shoes on.  I wasn't going to try such a thing, but, he did have me thinking it was possible.  Jen has done an incredible job with this horse; kind of like weaving straw into gold.

 

I took America out one other time for a training ride on Thursday, with an Easy Boot on the left front, and lost the darn thing somewhere on the yellow trail.  We doubled back, I dismounted and we started walking.  After about an hour I found "Mr. Hard-to-find" near some exposed tree roots littered with rock.  Living in these mountains would definitely help me lose some weight; I hardly ever get off and walk a horse in Florida while training (water moccasins, gators, sweltering heat and sand are my excuse).  Up here in the mountains, the air was cool and refreshing, a snake would seem out of place and a gator would be a freak of nature (maybe, during the endurance ride, on that last loop, I'll see a Gator although I am more prone to envision scantily clad wimmen when the hallucinations begin).  Yea, I could most definitely live up here.

 

I called home and my wife told me Shannon hadn't checked in, via the telephone, yet with his Mom.  My only contact with the war was coming from the radio; I found myself needing a visual Ted Koppel fix, with him wearing that Army helmet atop his laughable hair, adding some humor to a topic that wasn't funny (the only TV reporting I was getting in Leatherwood included the results from the local "Square Dancing" contest and "Blue Grass Music").  Ted was one brave dude, out there in that heat combined with the blowing sand, risking his life at his not so young age.  I hope this is Ted's last war; I'm starting to get the impression we Americans have become the new Romans of the third millennium.  Pound your left breast hard with your right hand, extend the hand outward in a clenched fist and yell out a hearty, "Hail Bush!"  I do believe this is how the rest of the world views us.  We, in our hearts, know it's all because of 9/11, we will be "victims" no longer; the gloves are officially off and we won't be going down without putting up one serious fight.  Our new Caesar ain't messing around, and if our country has to file Chapter 11 over the whole thing, so be it.

 

The ride meeting finally came on Friday night.  A good crowd was there; the ride was very close to being sold out.  Phil, the inventor of Leatherwood endurance, did some talking trying to warn us all this is not an easy ride and to please be careful out there.  Abbie went over the trails explaining where the caution areas were (this whole ride is one big caution).  My stomach was already churning.  In less than ten hours, America and I would begin the most difficult ride of our lives.  The lucky one here is the horse, because, he doesn't know what the plan is and won't figure it out until sometime tomorrow afternoon.  I have a feeling, between the two of us, tonight, he will actually get some sleep.  Good thing, cause he's going to need it.