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Page 4
The next section of trail was in the middle of the day and in the
hottest canyons. This is where Bob and I spent all of our time worrying
about drinking and pissing (for ourselves and the horses) and riding
with Sandy Schuler. Bob and I constantly worried about the fluid intake
of our horses, stopping at every creek or seep, sponging the horses off
when they wouldn't drink and silently begging them to drink at the next
opportunity. "Did your horse piss at the last vet stop?" "How much or
did he drink?" "How far to next water?" This seemed to dominate our
conversations and thoughts almost to the finish. Bob and I drank as much
as the horses at every opportunity. Thankfully every vet check seemed to
have a plethora of volunteers trying to help us refill our bottles and
offering us something to drink as well.
>From Cavanah Ridge until Forest Hill vet check we rode with, near,
around or behind Sandy Schuler. Now I mention this because this gave me
time to consider some things about Sandy that she probably will not want
me reveal. It is not about any specific technics or styles to her riding
but about how she seems to have this ride, the Tevis, really dialed in.
Here was another year where Sandy ended up in the top ten. It seems that
she does this almost every year. I believe that a review of her record
would show that she probably has as many top tens as anyone else and
maybe as many as Julie Suhr. But most of all, if anyone bothers to study
her in times at the various vet checks throughout the ride and in other
years you would come up with the formula to consistently top-ten this
event. Bob and I were encouraged by the fact that we were riding in
about the "Schuler" time slot for most of the difficult parts of the
race. It was suddenly at the Forest Hill vet check that Sandy suddenly
disappeared. She had been saving her horse for the section that
everybody else starts to slow down. This is where Sandy seemed to take
off. We never saw her or the horse again until the finish. I will bet
that Sandy had one of the fastest times from Forest Hills to the finish
as any of the riders, even the first place contenders. (Something to
research when the results come out.)
It was the section from Forest Hills in that Bob and I started to focus
on our position. We had been aware of where we were in the mix all of
the way down the mountain but you can never really tell because you have
to ride with faith. You have to have faith that about half of the riders
ahead will get pulled or bonk before the last vet check. That is why Bob
and I (and Sandy too?) don't mind being in 40th place at Robinson's.
Chances are that you WILL be in the teens by the time you get to Forest
Hills. And that was now the case. We started counting riders and
strategizing from there on.
It was coming into the White Oaks vet check that things got really
exciting. Bob and I had been riding in about 15th, 16th place, vying
with Suzanne Sullivan and Whitney Bass for that position. They had
caught us on the California loop and we couldn't shake them. We all
trotted in together to the White Oaks check and there in the check with
us were about six horses. I did the math and whispered to Bob that Top
Ten may be in striking distance! We P/R'd really quick and the horses
drank a lot. This was a good sign. As we checked out the timer said that
there were twelve horses ahead of us. Wow, now we are really getting
close. From there down to the river is a three mile old dirt road that
drops steeply. Just out of the check we jumped off our horses and ran
with them downhill. We passed one horse just out of the check. All I
remember is that it was the girl with purple hair. Yes, purple. It
wasn't the moon that was shining on her hair. It was purple! And then!
Yes. There was Tom Christofk walking with his horse. I told Bob that we
have to blow by him cause if he sticks with us his horse will be pulled
along and we will never lose them. That is what we did. We were now in
11th and 12th place. We ran in the dark all of the way to the old
Francisco's vet area thinking about how much time we had gained on the
10th place horse and distanced ourselves from 13th place.
It was not to be though. Just as we reached the old vet check area there
were glow sticks just behind us and there was Whitney Bass on her big
Morab. Now I had been dreaming about catching the 10th place horse and
considering that Bob and I really needed to catch 9th and 10th place
since we were riding as a team of sorts. And here is Whitney Bass whom
we can't seem to shake or deter. Does that mean that we need to catch
three other horses? We all joked about this. The three of us crossed the
river at the ford and went up the side to the new trail. We alternated
the lead and all of the horses seemed resigned to the fact that they
were staying together. I was resigned to the fact that we couldn't shake
Whitney. The Lower Quarry final vet check was coming up in three miles
and whatever horses were still in there would tell our chances for top
ten. The moon had come up so we could see the trail ahead better but
more important was looking behind us. We didn't want to get caught by
any of the riders behind us that were beginning to make that push for
top ten too. Mostly concerning us was the fact that Suzanne Sullivan and
Lori Stewart were in striking distance and they could come up on us if
we didn't keep moving. Walk, trot, bite finger nails, Walk, trot, bite
finger nails.
Finally we could see the lights of the Lower Quarry. Riding in the last
quarter mile you could look down on the vet check from above. Were there
any horses stuck there? No. We were alone. Tenth place was long gone
they said. Well, that was that. As we let the horses recover and eat
here suddenly horses seemed to start streaming into the check. There
seemed to be six or more horses right on our heels. Bob and I were off
in the darkness letting the horses eat and had already checked through.
Whitney was just getting ready to present her horse and was letting it
eat some more first. Bob saw all of these other horses coming in and
suggested that we slip out before they noticed us there too. Off into
the darkness we went. We had slipped out of Whitney's grasp as well!
The next six miles were not spent trying to catch another horse, but in
trying to keep from getting caught. Bob and I continually kept looking
for glow bars dancing on the trail behind us or for tell-tale
flashlights. Finally there was the last curve and the finish line. 11th
and 12th place were ours and we were very pleased. It was Bob's best
finish and we were both very happy. Best of all the horses were happy
too. They were in great shape.
Sure enough the next horses were only 10 minutes behind and had been
coming on strong. There was Whitney and her Montana morab, the next
horse behind us. It was the next day at Best Condition judging that we
were asked to present our horses too. We were told that a few of the top
ten did not carry weight so they wanted to see our 11th and 12th place
horses as well. The race management suddenly made an announcement that
because of miss-riding part of the early trail four riders were being
given completions only. Three of them were top ten.
If you could have seen the look on Bob and Whitney's faces when they
found out that we had squeaked into the top ten. We were all a sight to
behold.
How do I end this with Tom Christofk? Well he was one of the riders that
was bumped to completion only. He had finished in about 16th place in I
think his first finish at Tevis. What got my attention was that he had
the strength to accept the decision of the race committee and he stayed
around to get his completion award. He was disappointed like the other
three but was there to get the last buckle. To finish is to win.
Steve Shaw
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