Subject: [RC] And what I learned at
Michaux (long)
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.
