I've just returned from Ft. Churchill, NV where I
attended the High Desert Classic II 30. WHAT a great ride! Years ago, I thought
the desert was ugly. As I've "grown up," I've come to see just how beautiful it
is. I was truly looking forward to this ride, even though I had to go by myself,
without my ever-attentive crew husband Jim, and my riding buddy Liz had previous
commitments. So off for a 5-hour drive over Donner Pass by myself to sleep in a
tent in the freezing cold. No doubt about it, it was worth the
drive!
For those who'd like to skip right to the picture
slide show:
Friday night found me visiting with John and
Meredith Mayeroff who were camped next to me. I'd never met these people before
but amazingly, they knew all about me and my new horse Tank. Seems they are good
friends of my friends the Kirkpatricks and knew all about Toni and Diane Dann
bringing him here for me from Idaho. I keep forgetting what a small world this
endurance family is!
I settled down in my tent, wrapped in a double
sleeping blanket, a flannel sheet, riding pants layered with sweat pants, two
pairs of socks, a hooded sweatshirt and a down jacket. That was perfect. Nice
and cozy. Until midnight came and a double set of hoofs came flying down the
road next to my tent. The dreaded loose horse scene. I debated about whether to
abandon my cozy cocoon as the two horses milled around Tank making him a little
stircrazy as their owners tryed in vain to catch them. I decided to risk getting
cold and go out and help. Took me awhile to figure out why I couldn't get my
shoes on because of the extra pair of socks. By this time, the horses were off
across camp. By the time I got out there, I could hear them galloping off into
the distance down the dirt road leading to the highway with their owners
following in their vehicle. Oh, THIS is good. I'd forgotten there was a cattle
guard down there. Whew! Back they came galloping, all the way across camp, to
mill around my horse and the horses across the way. I think they'd finally had
enough of running because it didn't take me long to sweat talk them into letting
me get close enough to catch one. I didn't turn on my flashlight because I
didn't want to scare them and I couldn't see a thing, just blindly walked in
their direction, hoping I wasn't gonna trip over a rock. Got the second one
caught and yelled for their owners. They were very grateful. Now, to get back in
that tent! I never did get warm the rest of the night but it was worth it. I
would hope someone would do the same thing for me.
Saturday dawned awfully darn chilly. It was tough
for me to even think about getting out of the tent because I thought I would
freeze to death. However, once I did, I found it wasn't that bad. Ok, so the
baby wipes I was going to use to wash my face were frozen together and there was
ice on the side of the bottle of Gatorade I left out. But once I were
moving around, I didn't even notice how cold it was, except for that one foot in
the stirrup that seemed to be asleep, or frozen, or something. :)
The evening before I had looked around for Ann and
Alyssa Hall. Hal had emailed me the night before about their trailer they had
for sale and told me they'd be there and looked forward to visiting. I was
disappointed I couldn't find them. Well, I wasn't disappointed long. As we
started down the trail, there was something familiar about the rider in front of
me. Ann? Jackie? Hi!!! Ann and I had a terrific time riding together and talked
about everything under the sun and then some. I was truly disappointed Alyssa
was not able to join her. She was so much fun to ride with last year on the
Fireworks ride. Ann was riding a cute little six-year-old mare named Susie who
was just as sweet as she could be. "Supposedly" she's going to be Alyssa's new
horse, but I don't know ... I think Ann likes her just a little too
much!
We made good time to the lunch stop, just jogging
along. We only had to walk a couple of miles through some sandy wash and a few
rocky areas. Unfortunately, I had played with the lengh of one stirrup before
the start of the ride and by lunch, my lower back was screaming. I fixed it, but
by that time, the damage was done. So Ann jogged on ahead and I stopped and took
more pictures, walked a little and then let Tank do The Big Trot to catch up. He
was much happier that way anyway 'cuz he likes to do The Big Trot. It was great
training for Susie also, going ahead and then getting caught up with and then
passed. At least that's what Ann and I were telling ourselves. However, it
doesn't seem like Susie cares one way or the other about anything. She just
jogged, jogged, jogged.
The scenery was nothing short of outstanding,
beautiful red rocks, multi-colored cottonwood trees, a great section of creek
jungle that oddly reminded everyone of the Pirates of the Carribean with all the
skeleton-like dead trees strewn everywhere. It was hard NOT to stop and just
stare.
There were only 8 riders on the 30, Ann finished
2nd and I third. Everyone finished, I think, within 15-20 minutes of each other.
We were all done in 4:45 riding time. Tank put on his show face for vet-in and
did the big trot, arched neck, high tail thing, which so far, he's avoided at
final vet-ins, always causing the vets to give him a B for impulsion. This time,
he was all show and his vet card showed it. He got A's across the board and how
proud am I??? ... He got the Horse Excellence Award! A beautiful rump rug
handmade and embroidered with "High Desert Horse of Excellence" on it, made
lovingly by Heidi Vargo. Way to Go, Tank!
In the small world category, during dinner I met
Tracy Mayes from Reno, and we chatted at length. During the awards her name was
called for 11th place on the 50, riding LA Stepper. My jaw dropped. Last year
when my daughter was ready to purchase a new horse, she rode LA Stepper, but he
didn't do "it" for her. But I wanted him. But at the time, I wasn't in the
market for a new horse and didn't have the money required to purchase him. I lay
awake for a couple of nights thinking about him. A couple of weeks went by. My
husband said "buy the horse." (What a guy!) I called, he was already sold. To
Tracy Mayes. And she just adores him. Of course, I found my Tank and I am just
totally in love with him. As they say, things happen for a reason. We both are
very lucky to have found the horse of our dreams.
I SO wanted to stay today and ride the Lake
Lahontan part of the ride and see the wild Mustangs. But I have a magazine
deadline to meet. They said there are 9 different herds who roam the lake bed
and that they would come within 30-40 yards of us while we were riding. Boy,
what an experience that must be. I made a promise I'd be back next year to get
the full experience of the High Desert Classic.
Thanks so much to the ride managers The Uphams and
Heidi Vargo for a job well done!
:) Jackie and Tank
P.S. I fiddled with a new slide show package to put
the captions on and the ones I didn't have some stupid little 4R thing under
them. Too tired to fix! :)
