Re: LD miles, NOT FLUFF, and Endurance Thrills

[CMKSAGEHIL <CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com>]

<<Heidi -- You have got to be kidding>>   <<Now I find out your first ride was
VC.>>

Hi, Maryben--

Nope, not kidding.  Young and foolish back then, but not kidding.  My total
exposure to endurance riding was that I knew two people who had ridden Tevis
(only endurance ride I had ever heard of back then).  I HAD done a couple of
local CTR's, but thought they were pretty tame.  Of course, I had ridden all
over the Lemhi Mountains near Salmon, Idaho, since I was big enough to fork a
horse, with the only rule being that when you were a little person, you were
limited in the places you could ride by yourself by which wire cowboy gates
you could open and close by yourself.  By the time I was 8 or 9, I had figured
out that I could take the halter tied to my saddle (mandatory riding
equipment--we were not allowed to ever tie a horse up by the bridle reins),
buckle it around the gate post, and use it like a block and tackle--once I
perfected that system, I could close ALL of 'em, so was allowed to ride
anywhere out there.  (That was in the innocent days before we worried about
two-legged predators, and the 4-legged ones didn't bother a kid on a horse.)
I could always get on and off, because there is NOWHERE level in that
country...

At any rate, I could never try Tevis because it was during haying season, but
by some freak accident, I got on the mailing list for VC.  This was 1973, mind
you.  I was 17 years old, and my foundation stallion Surrabu was 7--my parents
(Dad horsey in a rancher sense, Mom not horsey AT ALL) went down and crewed
for me.  We went a couple of days early and I prerode from Washoe Lake back to
Virginia City.  When I got to Washoe Lake on race day, it was just about
sunset, and it was dusk when I left, with 16 miles to go, I think it was.  I
still got lost in the dark (Pat Fitzgerald was never noted for ample trail
marking, and we darn sure had never heard of glow sticks back then), but was
no stranger to night riding from my range riding days, so was able to find
myself without too much difficulty.  I was so tickled to be in good time to
finish that it never dawned on me to speed up because it was cool--I left
Washoe in 14th place and ended up in 28th place because I was just enjoying my
ride in the moonlight, and didn't occur to me to hook on with the experienced
folks who had sped up.  (The pack that passed me included Pat F. with 5 junior
riders.)  I finished on the dot of midnight, with four hours to spare.  There
were 92 starters, and as I recall, 60-some-odd finishers, so there were still
a lot of people behind me in the night!

At Washoe, some guy came running up to my parents after I had left, and said,
"Oh, I see your rider is still in!  I have tried this ride three times and
never finished!  WHAT'S YOUR SECRET???"  My exhausted, non-horsey Mom said she
just stared at him with her mouth open, and couldn't say a word...

That moonlight ride down Ophir Grade into Virginia City ranks right up there
as one of the most thrilling times of my life, and I can remember leading
Surrabu from the timer at the end to the staging area--felt like there was a
full symphony orchestra playing off the road shoulder in the dark, something
like "Wellington's Victory" or some such....  Definitely one of the biggest
"highs" of my entire life....

My Mom has a picture of me somewhere, sound asleep on a couple of hay bales
and a horse blanket, on the old VC railroad dock on Sunday about noon--I was a
pooped puppy.  One of my favorite pictures that adorns my wall is one my Mom
took at Washoe when we hauled out there for me to pre-ride that section--it is
of my Dad (who is almost 80 now) giving Surrabu a bucket of water out of a
fresh rivulet running into the lake.  I am mounted, ready to ride out.  We are
on the beach, the lake is in the background, the Sierras behind it all, and
not another soul around.  When you're a teenager with a good Dad and a good
horse, you think you've got the world by the tail.

I still think there is a "zone" that you get into on the 100's and they are
still my preference--even fat and out of shape, if my horse is fit (a lot of
times there are other people riding him for me) I will still take my Ibuprofen
and do a 100, even if it is my only ride of the season.  Did Chinook a couple
of years ago (tough bugger--only three finishers, Len Fox, his son Philip, and
me, all at 3 a.m., after starting at 5 a.m.), and Santiam is still one of my
favorites, coming over Cash Mountain in the dark.  Time becomes elastic, the
immediate surroundings and the horse are everything, and it is so danged
PEACEFUL....

Heidi Smith, DVM--Sagehill Arabians (Oregon)

P.S.:  The Bob Suhr story reminds me--once I got started endurance riding, my
Dad thought it might be fun, too.  He started endurance riding at age 60, and
felt that the epitome of his career was doing the 6-day 310-mile Lost Wagon
Train ride when he was 68.  He rode most of the way with Frank Bennett--Frank
was on one of his good mules, and Dad was on a half-Arab that he raised by
Surrabu...  Was always glad that Surrabu and I could pay him back by giving
him the trusted horse that he rode into his old age and enjoyed so much.