Nick Warhol's Silver State ride story

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From: Nick Warhol via Judy Long 
Email: nick.warhol@kla-tencor.com

Here's Nick Silver state ride story.  Forgive us if the spacing is weird
since I'm never sure when I use the guest page on just where to put the
hard carriage returns.


Silver State multi-day ride         
Las Vegas, Nevada.

The West region 1998 ride season came to an end over Thanksgiving weekend
with the annual Silver State 3 day ride held in the little, bitty, desert
town of Jean, just outside of Las Vegas. Some town- it's actually a couple
of big casinos just off the freeway.  Once a year ride managers Fred and
Claire Toomey (and the Las Vegas Distance Riders) hold this  50-50-50 
and 2 day 100 desert ride.  I brought Shatta back to the desert to the scene
of his first multi-day three years ago where he learned the hard way he had to
eat in order to do multi-day rides.  (he never ate a bite and went a day & a
half and just ran out of energy) Judy and her wonder Appy Warpaint had to
stay home due to work and the care and feeding of all the other animals at
our place.  My friend Susan Dockter came along to do crewing and driving
duties.  She brought her two-year old mare Alli along for the experience of
a long trailer ride and the excitement of a week-long camping trip.  It was
nice for Shatta to have the company as well.  Alli did great on the trip-
watch for her in the year 2004!


We drove down from the Bay area a couple of days before the ride and let the
horses recover at Claire's ranch.  Thanks again, Claire, for the
hospitality.  It was great for my horse to spend 2 days before the ride in a
nice, soft, big, arena.  After losing $25 in a dollar slot machine with 25
pulls we headed out to the start area and set up camp.  Lots of familiar
faces were present:  Lori Oleson, Becky Hart and Judith Ogus made the long
drive down from the Bay area.  Brian Reeves, Val Weiser and Heather Bergantz
packed their horses in Brian's trailer and showed up after an overnight stop
in Bakersfield.  Heather was riding a friend's horse named Red who didn't
have much endurance experience but was in tip top shape. Karen Chaton from
Nevada brought her 1998 mega-mile horse Weaver and his buddy Rocky for yet
another ride.  Death Valley Encounter ride manager extraordinaire (ride it,
you'll see!)  Jackie Bumgardner was on Zyante- this guy lives in the desert
and loves it.  Jim Mitchell brought another contingent from Bakersfield.
Becky Glazer came for day 2 and 3.  Dave Rabe from Nevada and of course
Trilby Peterson, who added another 150 miles to her 45 or 46 or 48 thousand
something. 


Shatta's had a great year so far with his rides getting better and better as
we go.  My plan was to ride with Brian and his great horse Goofy at a good
pace, not too fast, but moving along.  We got underway in the cold morning
trotting out across the open desert.  Rocks?  What rocks?  It wasn't that
bad.  Sure, there are rocks in Nevada.  My theory is just take it easy, be
smart and use pads.  It works for me.  We trotted briskly for the first 5 or
so miles to the first of many sand washes.  I was remembering this wash
being real steep, real soft and real long.  NOT!  Funny how perceptions
change.  We trotted nicely most of the way up the thing, stopping only for
little cougar-rock like rocky ledges we had to climb up.  The wash dumped us
out into the desert where we followed a really cool trail across the rolling
terrain.  I just love riding in the desert!  (soft spot for me, I grew up
out here)  A short steep climb led us to more neat trails, then hang a left
up a rocky road to bird springs and the first water stop at 15 miles.
Shatta didn't drink (normal for him) so off we went.  


Brian and I found a section where we were flying along at a huge trot on a
slightly downhill grade, nice and soft with perfect footing, with a view of
the entire valley in front of us and huge rock cliffs on either side.  It
doesn't get much neater than that.  We rode along on the rocky trails up and
down across the desert until we came to the climb.  Just a short hop up a few
hundred vertical feet and then off and walking down the rocky, nasty other
side.  More downhill work to the next water at mile 32.  Both horses drank
the first couple of feet of water in the trash cans.  Three more quick miles
across the desert and in rocky washes and "BOING!"   Goofy spooks at a
downed Joshua tree, causing Brian to fall 99% off.  He stayed in the saddle
somehow and let his heart rate recover as we neared the camp and lunch.  A
quick stop with Barney the Vet and rest time.  Shatta was only mildly
interested in eating but he was drinking very well.  We were up somewhere
near the front of the pack but we were not sure where.  Judith rode by on
her mare Sonya as we were walking to the out timer.  "Come on, catch me and
we'll ride together!"   We did in a mile or so and spent the last 15 mile
loop riding together.  Brian fell back for a while but caught back up when
Judith and I walked up a couple miles of sand wash.  The three of us did the
little climb and downhill again and did our best to drain the water at the
stop.  We boogied into camp and were shocked to find ourselves in 12th and
13 places overall, 3rd and 4th in the 2 day 100.   We had a great day and
both horses looked fine, although Shatta was not eating as much as I would
have liked him to.  Dinner that night was at the casino buffet.  I think it
was only good since I was so hungry.  After dropping another $20 in 22 pulls
this time (I got one damn cherry) I swore off dollar slots for a while.
Shatta was eating but I remained worried a little, although in retrospect
I'm not sure why.


Day two started out in warmer weather, out the same trail until we hit Bird
Springs at 15 miles.  Brian and I decided to take it a little easier this
morning just to stay on the safe side.  He actually left before me, thinking
I was in front of him.  I rode out with Karen and Weaver, who I doubt
remembered Shatta from Tevis where Karen and I rode together from Foresthill
to the finish.  We trotted slowly up the same trail, doing a little walking
up the first wash.  I could see Brian off in front of me a mile or so since
he was wearing this big drover coat.  He pulled slightly ahead of me but I
saw him when he was leaving the water.  "Huh?  I thought you were in front
of me!"  He and Goofy rode off with Jackie and Becky G while Shatta tried to
drain the spring.   I had decided before the water I was staying there until
he drank.  No worries.  Karen and Weaver went out ahead at a faster pace.  I
left the water and met up with a rider named Nancy James from somewhere in
Southern California.  She and I rode together across the long, long cross
grain section where you trotted a while then had to walk down across these
huge gullies coming down from the mountains.  I was looking at my heart
rate monitor constantly, making sure Shatta was staying within his normal
heart rates.  He was.  We reached the start of the long uphill wash and
started walking.  The wash starts out about a half a mile wide and ends up a
couple of miles later being a steep, rocky, very technical climb up to the
summit of a little mountain range.  Both
horses trucked right up- it was not as
bad as I remembered, either.  At the top we found more nice trails that led us
down the other side to another valley, then to a water stop at the foot of a
long, steep hill that leads to the vet check.  I led Shatta up the whole
thing (huff, puff) since this is as far as he got three years ago.  At the
top he drank and was at criteria in about a minute.  Okay- sure beats last
time.  He still didn't eat much, which concerned me more, although his pulse
had dropped below 40.  After about 30 minutes he started eating some of
Nancy's combo hay, maybe a quarter flake or so.  I gave him a lot of
electrolytes and headed out with Nancy for the last 20 miles.  This 20 miles
was actually superb.  The trail was always single track with most of it
having good footing.  We worked our way down the valley and then turned left
up towards the Red Rock National recreation Area, near Las Vegas.  Man,
it's beautiful in there.  We got rained on for about 45 minutes or so and got
quite soaked.  Another water stop and we headed down the valley on more
great trails.  Lots of nice trotting, all slightly downhill with nice
footing.  Nancy and I started making bets on when we would finish, and about
where we were overall.  Both of us were wrong when we came around a turn and
found the finish. We were something like 20th and 21st overall, which put me
in 7th overall on the 2 day 100.   I was very pleased.   Shatta rested at
first, still not eating a ton.  He looked fine at the vet, although maybe a
little fatigued.  He had also suffered a decent size cut on the front of one
of his rear fetlocks, a couple of inches above the coronary band.  His
hydration looked better than it had at the start which was also good.  After
a wonderful meal of crab legs and langistino (Mmmmm, love that camper) the
weather cleared up and it stopped
raining.  Big sleep that night after the
awards.


I decided the next morning to be conservative and skip the third day.
Shatta had done so well and had completed his first ride on two
consecutive days.  I also didn't like the look of that cut on his leg and it
was a little swollen.  I really want to go to Death Valley and this was a great
conditioning ride for that.  Brian sat out the third day as well due to a
slight lameness on Goofy caused by an easyboot screw gone wild.  Heather did
okay on her in-experienced horse: she got best time overall for the three
days!  Great job.  Susan and I avoided the bumper to bumper traffic on I-15
and took a dirt road from the Parumph Valley over to Jean via Sandy Valley.
We ate dinner at the casino again and watched a movie in Brian's room.
Another great night of sleep and we were on our way home again, through the
wind and rain of Northern California.  


Another great ride and the end of the season for Shatta.  He's did just
great in his first real year of competition and I couldn't be more
pleased. Next year should be even better!


Nick Warhol

Hayward, Ca.