[RC] And what I learned at Michaux (long) - Cynthia Eyler
We finished the 50 on Saturday and got a
completion, but it wasn't pretty. My gelding is sore, but he's
fine.
First of all, the ride itself was glorious.
The only thing that could have been better would have been if the mountain
laurel had been in full bloom like it was last year. Oh, and we could have
done without the thunderstorm on most of the third loop and that last brutal
pipeline climb near the end of the final loop. LOL A tough but
beautiful ride. Ride management, and all of the vets and volunteers, were
wonderful. Special thanks to Art King and Duane Barnett.
After giving Jack a couple of months off, we
started working again in early February, figuring that we'd be back to intensive
work in a few weeks. But two weeks later we had a freak accident (nobody's
fault, it just happened) that left me with a broken collarbone.
So, our conditioning began on April 12th when the
ortho cleared me to ride again. I knew that we needed to prepare for
mountains, so we did lots of climbing steep grades and we even got up to Michaux
a couple of times.
Here's what I did wrong and what I
learned:
1. Since my horse can be doggy when we
ride alone, I decided to ride with someone who's also a tail-ender. We
shared some miles last year late in the 50 at Doncaster (which is all
flat), and I figured we'd do well together. WRONG. I slowed her down
on the downhills and she slowed me down on the uphills and on the flats.
We enjoyed each other's company, but our horses combined to give us an
agonizingly slow ride. We should have separated after the first few miles,
or sooner. "Ride your own ride" will be pasted up in my truck and trailer
next time out. On the dressingroom mirror...on the door of my tack
compartment...above my feed bins...
2. I e-lyted several times during the
first 25 miles, and Jack looked great at the mid-point. But I forgot to
dose him at the mid-point vetcheck, and on the next loop (12+ miles) it poured
rain and I did not dose him, figuring that the cold rain would keep him
from sweating much. After getting a good dose of e-lytes into him at the
second vetcheck, I did not dose him on the third (11+ miles) loop.
WRONG...WRONG...WRONG. Those last two loops may not have been very long,
but they were hard miles, and this is a horse who sweats copiously and needs
e-lytes when he's working hard. I know all that, but my brain just
was not operating properly. Only two things really matter at the
vetchecks: feed and e-lyte my horse. And, for my horse, always
e-lyte after he has a good drink on the trail. ALWAYS, in even in
only warmish weather.
3. Conditioning for steep uphills is not
enough. I did not condition nearly enough for taking downhills at
anything faster than a walk. We got our completion, but after rushing to
get in on time on the final loop, Jack was sore enough in the hind end to be
grade 1 lame. I did discover, to my delight, that all our climbing work
had made his hind end strong enough to brake well on very steep, walking
pipeline descents -- but not strong enough to take so much faster downhill
work.
I missed the dinner and awards taking care of Jack
(thank you Skip and Barb for the very nice turtle award), and I really felt like
a piece of excrement for making him hurry in to the finish just so I could get a
completion. Later that evening Bob Walsh
told me that so long as my horse was okay (which he is), the only thing that
matters is that I learn from this ride, that when we stop learning from
each ride we're not paying attention.
When we got home Sunday afternoon, Jack trotted --
and then cantered -- out to find his best buddy in the herd. Made me feel
so good to see him move out joyously.
