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Our herd had been sequestered in their barn stall since the rains
started on Wednesday night, as their usual twenty four hour turn out
paddock is on a steep hill side and if we left them there we would one
day wake up to fine three mud balls stuck to the lower fence. We loaded
Hal and Summy (another TB E-horse here in Poway), and heading out for
the desert Friday morning to stake out a choice campsite next to corrals
and vet in. Hal came through as usual with a grade one lameness, the vet
had to ask me which leg it was. Check in at the San Diego rides are
simple, go pick up your folder and wait for your number to be called for
the vet check, we even had a volunteer greet us as we rolled in to show
us to our corrals.
The ride meeting was sweet and short. The clear desert sky afforded the
best view of the Milky Way I’ve seen in years. The constellations were
harder than usual to pick out for all the extra visible stars. The
controlled start (walk for the first quarter mile) seemed a little
delayed but was somewhere around sixish, Bonnie riding Summy, Hal and I
walked out about twenty minutes after the crowd passed through. It’s the
first time Hal has deigned to behave.
The first twenty five miles were a breeze, metaphorically and in
reality, nice to drop the reins and flap your arms to cool off. There
was an off road biker buzzing around the six mile water through but it
didn’t present any real problem since most horses at that point aren’t
interested in drinking. Hal, true to form, refused water, but gobbled
any hay he came within reach of, until 25 miles, then drank 9 gallons
during our one hour sojourn at mid way. Things had gone well and the
first half apart from the some sand left us with two relatively fresh
horses. We caught up with fellow ridecamper, Lynne Glazer and Ember, at
a water stop. This was Ember’s first ride with as Lynne puts it, "the
big dogs", or as I prefer to put it, "the mad dogs" meaning the 50
milers. Ember had chosen to cut a path through some cholla cactus
delaying them. They’d also taken a couple of wrong turns. My wife was
ride photographer, and tells me that the front runners had passed the
first vet check a half an hour ahead of schedule, with the next group a
half hour behind, the cool weather and good footing they were cooking.
We left at eleven to start our second loop, running the middle of the
pack about 30 out of 60. We had passed only a hand full on the trail but
seemed to have spent less time at the stops waiting for recovery. The
temperature was rising, I had caked on 3 layers of sun screen, and the
alleviating zephyrs stayed with us. With both horses being heavy TB’s I
chose to walk uphill and trot downhill, canter flat to conserve fuel.
This meant playing a little leap frog game with some lighter horses.
Halfway through the second loop we checked in at the vet stop and both
horses met criteria in a minute or two as they had all day. Hal, looking
a little tired, chowed down management provided carrots and hay to go
with some water. The volunteers were their up to their usual five star
standard, holding horses, handing our drinks and food. Only pulse was
used for criterion, no respiration, these were dubbed P stations. Hal
showed a little reluctance to leave his food and trot out for the vet
but his scores which had been good all day if anything improved. He
definitely didn’t like the idea of leaving the shady horsesgasbord for
the next eight mile loop. Never the less, he plodded on when clucked at.
The eight mile loop took us away from vet check three up and down some
hills with some pretty haze covered scenery. The wind died at this point
warming things up a little, and we slowed the pace but made steady
progress looking to finish around four or five, the cut off time being
six. Apart from the vet checks there were plenty of imported and natural
water stops during the ride, all of which Hal refused after a disdainful
sniff, while Summy quaffed a quart or two at each one. The trail was
also very well marked through out.
Hal took ten minutes to meet criterion at the 45 mile P stop, no vet
check here, just stop meet P and hold for 10 minutes. Hal came down
within a couple of minutes but would shoot back up again, and yo-yoed
like this for fifteen minutes or so. A skin pinch showed that he was ok,
not great but ok. He did seem cool to the touch, not what I would have
expected, and he definitely didn’t want to leave hay pile which he was
steady munching his way through. We sent Bonnie and Summy on ahead as we
were obviously holding them back. As we set off, one of the volunteers
called out that Hal was going a little short on his right hind. Hal is
usually a little ragged to look at but there were enough odd signals for
me to hop off and ask if there was a vet about, and there was. The vet
checked Hal out and thought that the stiffness in Hal’s leg might be an
early sign of tying up. So the ride was over for him there, the vet gave
him a stick for the soreness and one to help act against the
vaso-constricting effects of tying up. I didn’t bother to ask for a
blood draw, the day was over, the vet said we need not bother to blanket
and nothing special need be done.
Ten minutes later we were loaded up with another pull and rode back to
base camp, where Summy and Bonnie waited and dinner was cooking. This
was Summy’s first fifty and Bonnie has now joined that search familiar
to us all, the search for a saddle that fits. That was yesterday. Today
Hal is out in the front yard bossing the two youngsters about, staking
his bit of lawn and hay, looking none worse for the wear.
A good ride, one to put on your calendar for next year.
-- The Poway Horse Page, Poway, San Diego http://freeweb.socal.wanet.com/users/hl/hlurphy/
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