Eagle Nest Ride

[LuAnn Rod <louie@gomontana.com>]

 Hi Ridecampers,
 Had a great ride this weekend at the Columbus, Mont., on the Eagle Nest
Ride. It's a fun run through the scrub hills above the Yellowstone
River, through Ponderosa pine forests and across and down washes and
cattle country. I rode with friend Drin Becker from Polaris, Mont., and
camped with Ellen Snoeyenbos, Anne Kennedy and newbie Jan Lunde (hope I
got the spelling right). Jan completed her first 25 miler on Al, a stout
little Morab who likes to untie his rope.
 Linda Beck puts on the very competitor-friendly ride with water and
drinks at vet checks and a swell steak dinner on Friday night. Visiting
from the AERC main office was Doyle Patrick who promised some press in
Endurance News. Linda came up with a real neat P&R tool at the vet
checks that had everyone oohing and aahing and made vetting-in a real
treat. It's a hand-held heart-rate monitor (that's probably not the
technical name, but that's what it does). The P&R person simply presses
it up against the chest of the horse in front of the girth and within 30
seconds it reads out an acurate pulse. Criteria was 64 and nothing was
more maddening that getting a 66 or 65 and having to wait. But that's
the game.
 We started out Saturday morning at 6 a.m. with the skies clear and only
a slight threat of showers by afternoon. Drin on Bo, her 3/4 Arab, 1/4
quarter horse and me on Willow, 7/8 Arab, 1/8 Morgan, started slow and
calm, something we're both trying to instill in our horses. Of the two,
Bo is the more experienced and a big guy with tons of go. I hoped to
stick with him, and Drin was taking it easy.
 The ride was one of those everything-went-right sort of rides and this
would be a more interesting post if we'd had major problems. But I'm
happy to report we didn't. The miles flew by for me. This is the first
ride I've done where I haven't been passed by 25 milers and boy, that
felt odd. Willow took a little longer to pulse down in the vet checks
than Bo at both the first and second checks and I had to really make up
time to catch up with Drin who had a couple minutes on us going out. But
again, Drin took it easy and within a few miles we'd caught her. It's
amazing the distance a horse can cover in three minutes. Drin and I
wound up riding the final 10 miles with Linda Voight on her curly
Bashkir. What an impressive guy. As we came into the last couple of
miles, the skies blessed us with a shower that felt just right as the
heat was starting to really turn on and the three of us rode in
together, no one feeling the need to push it across the finish line,
coming in at the ten-spot and a ride time of 6 hours 42 minutes.
 Ellen got her Guy through his first 50, but unfortunately, Anne pulled
her Descrete (again, spelling) when the mare didn't seem quite right at
the 25 mark. Whatever it was, it was temporary because Descrete with
ready and raring to go by late afternoon.
 My thanks to Linda Beck for putting on the ride and the owners and
employees of Eagle Nest Ranch who so graciously offer their land and
help in hosting one of the most hospitable rides in this part of the
country. We're looking forward to the ride again next year.

 Louie and Willow
 Bozeman, Montana