New Mexico Renegade ... sort of

["Steph Teeter" <step@fsr.com>]

Sometimes things go well ... and sometimes it just seems like everything
goes wrong.

Before I start, I want to thank Randy Eiland and his helpers for another
great 5-day ride. This was our third time at Renegade - riding the Mexican
border
from El Paso, Texas to Lordsburg, NM (Arizona border) and I still LOVE this
ride.
The wide open country, mesquite, sand, rock, and you can't help but think
about the history when you ride there - the apaches, Billy the Kid, Poncho
Villa - this country is so big - but so easy to get lost - or  hide - in.
Plus
there's something special about Randy's rides -  relaxed and friendly.
Barney Flemming and Nancy Cryderman (?) are terrific vets - always
there to help, always willing to spend extra time if necessary. It's just a
fun ride.

Our first few mis-haps were pretty minor - we had traded in our old
Sundowner for a new one which was delivered to the ranch, and waiting
for us when we arrived. The wiring didn't match our truck's so rather
than charging the battery, the trailer brakes stayed on. Not a big
problem, there wasn't a lot of driving to do and our truck could do
the braking, so we just left it unplugged. But while focusing on the
trailer brake problem, John had  failed to release the emergency brake
completely during some of our tests up and down the ranch drive, so
they sort of burned up. No problem, we just wouldn't park on any
hills :)  The ride must go on....

We loaded the horses, hay, etc and headed over to base camp on
Sunday. Beautiful weather - 70's and sunny. John would ride Snip,
our green-broke Arab/Saddlebred cross, and I was riding Nature's
Fantastic - a young Thoroughbred/Russian Orlov cross of Lari Shea's that
I was just riding for her for the winter. (yeah, right - as if I wasn't
going
to fall in love with him!) I had ridden Fantastic at Death Valley - it was
his
first endurance ride and he was a bit of a handful in the beginning  - but
after he bucked me off I planted him behind John and Quicksilver and
we somehow made it through the first 25 miles. He was fine the remaining 375
miles and l was really impressed with his ability - and attitude - he never
did stop asking to go faster.

Base camp was the usual day of visiting old friends, preparing tack and
feed for the week, vetting in, riding. It's always so exciting before a
ride. There were actually quite a few other snags - Alisa Waxman (from
Chicago) had kept her horse at Spur C for the winter also - she arrived on
Saturday, took her mare out for a short ride, all was well - until she
vetted in
and discovered she was lame. Alisa was crushed, but fortunately found some
great folks from Montana (Dorothy Sue Phillips, Phyllis Arnold) who had
a spare horse for her - (Alisa ended up riding their 'spare'  top-ten all
week and
finished top-ten overall - not bad!)  Our other Spur C friend, Earle Baxter
from Canada had a panic when his great Standardbred/Arab cross trotted
out lame just an hour after an easy ride over to base camp. Earle worked
on him - figured it was a shoulder problem - the horse worked out of it
and went on to finish all 5 days, 5th overall. Just weird stuff going on.
And
then there was word from  Nicole and Dave Luck - they couldn't make
it because their truck had just been stolen! We're all shaking our heads
at this point... what next?

The first day - 55 miles started Monday at 8AM - warm and sunny by the
time we all left. John and I planned to ride very slow - neither of our
horses were seasoned competitors, and we just planned to do the
miles - conserve energy, easy pace. Unfortunately both our horses
were very eager and not happy about the slow pace. We spent
the first 2  hours keeping them at a walk (sort of) - we were finally
able to let them move out as we turned along the railroad track - good
footing, no horses in site, they should be more relaxed by now.
We were moving along reasonably when Fantastic broke into a
lope - it started getting more vertical, and then rather alarmingly
like bucking when I heard a huge roar and we realized a freight train
was bearing down on us (10 ft from the track). Both horses were
sky-high by then and I just recall thinking ...circles ... we need to
do circles... I'd love to go back and look at our tracks some day.
We both managed to stay on, I have no idea what John and Snip
were doing, but Fantastic and I were doing pirouette and piaffe circles
around the mesquite. After I realized we weren't going to die it was
actually quite thrilling. This was probably one of my most exciting
moments on horse back.

Poor Fantastic never did get the hang of watering at the cow tanks.
Creaky windmills, big tanks on concrete platforms - and he was
really afraid of the cows. I carried a collapsible bucket, so he
at least drank a little at the stops. After crossing the mountain
and heading down to Monday's base camp we had one more
tank to water at. There was a beast of a bull lying next to it,
and another bull braying in the bushes. This was just too much
for either of the horses. Fantastic just froze and started trembling.
Snip was a little braver and we finally got them around the tank
and the bulls - but I'm afraid it left a lasting impression on Fantastic,
and he was even more frightened of the cattle after that.
Finally made it to camp, a 9 hour ride time, getting dark, hungry,
but both horses looked great. And Boyd was there with a
nice cold beer!

Tuesday was pretty pleasant - and mostly uneventful. The vet
check was at a god-forsaken ranch in the middle of an alkali
flat - truly grim. Nobody lived there anymore, but still used
it for stock. The trail in went by the cattle 'graveyard' - bones
and buzzards, a nice place to hurry by. I guess Sue Norris's
horse tried to hurry by a little too abruptly, bolted, broke
Sue's finger in his escape and raced around the ranch and
vet check until he was finally caught. When I saw Sue, she
had her finger taped up with purple and yellow vet wrap - and
was determined to finish the ride. Typical endurance rider!

We rode into the border town of Columbus Tuesday night,
storms brewing on all horizons and a pretty good wind blowing.
Horses looked great, John and I felt good - all the walking we
did kept us from getting sore. We had some nice trots and
canters riding into camp along the border - into the wind,
high sprits. But it was looking like Wednesday's weather could
be a little different from the 70-80 degree days we'd been having.
That night, we all drove across the border into Palomas, Mexico for
dinner - great food, good time.

And then Wednesday  - our day of real adventure.

...this is getting pretty long, I think I'll finish the story in another
message - later,

Steph




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