Twenty Mule team ride story (part 1)

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

Here is Judy Long's Twenty Mule Team Story (Part 1)
From: Judy Long <julong@cisco.com>

>Feb. 20 1999 Twenty Mule team ride story
>
>Nick and I headed down to the Twenty mule team ride on Thursday 
>2/18 so both the horses and riders could have Friday to relax before
>the ride.  Bad weather was expected in the Bay Area so we tried hard 
>to get out of town by a decent hour.  We were lucky enough to beat 
>the weather and although skies were pretty threatening, we never 
>did get any rain on the whole trip.
>
>We arrived in Ridgecrest around 7:30 pm and after a little confusion
>about how exactly to get into the fairgrounds, we set up our camp.  
>It wasn't cold but I decided to put the heavier blankets on the 
>horses just in case it rained.  After we went to bed a major windstorm
>kicked up and shook the camper most of the night.  Nick had put the
>jacks down to stabilize the camper and even with them, we were getting
>big blasts of wind.  I was awake enough to know there was a big
>windstorm going on and sleepy enough to not care unless we blew over.
>I knew the horses had the truck and trailer for a windbreak and since
>I'd put the heavy blankets on I wasn't worried about them.  (Other than
>worrying about crushing them if the truck really did blow over!)
>
>When we woke up Friday morning all the nasty wind was gone as well as 
>anything that might have been left outside and unweighted.  Camp looked
>very clean!  We lounged around, had breakfast, socialized and generally
>relaxed the morning away.  It was nice and sunny although we both hoped
>it wasn't going to be as warm on Saturday.  We went for a short ride
>together as far a Jackie's house until Nick decided he wanted to go
>back. His idea of a short ride was a lot shorter than my idea.  Since
>Warpaint would have been a real pain to walk back to camp with another
>horse after such a short ride, I went on for another mile or two just
>to get him to break a sweat.  I went out to where the desert starts 
>and the sight of another one of our great disasters.  In 1994 I started
>this ride and got about a mile or two from Jackie Bumgardner's house
>before Warpaint and I parted company.  He took off into the desert and
>I didn't get him back until around 6:00pm.  That was a long, stressful
>day for Nick and I and I certainly didn't want a repeat of that
>experience.  But 1994 was a long time ago and I felt alot better about
>our chances this time. 
>
>After we were back at camp it was time to go check in.  This is 
>where we realized that this was going to be a really big ride.  
>There was quite a line for the vet check but it moved very quickly.  
>I heard there were more than 60 riders on the 100 alone!  I had 
>hoped for a less populated start since Warpaint is such a butthead in 
>a crowd (and for him a crowd is more than two!).  I did manage to 
>avoid getting nervous -- I think I just plain forgot about it while I
>was preparing all my stuff. This might have been the first ride we've
>been to where we remembered everything we needed.  We spent the rest 
>of the afternoon getting our riding gear and crew stuff ready.  It 
>was at the ride meeting where you got an idea of how many people were
>there.  The place was packed!  
>
>I slept fairly well, actually a little too well because we got up a
>little late.  Luckily just about everything was ready to go so I 
>ended up starting almost on time.  I didn't see Lari Shea get dumped
>but I did see several people talking to her while she just kneeled on
>the ground.  You could see that she really didn't want to move.  I
>hoped the best for her and secretly thought "whew, thank goodness that
>wasn't me!".  It looked like it really hurt.
>
>Warpaint moved along at his normal start pace which is to say he
>really wanted to gallop like a wild man.  This is his 8th year of
>competition and he still starts every race this way.  He has gotten
>easier to convince that we aren't going to do it that way but he
>still tries every time.  In this case we had a little sideways stuff
>and a couple of crow hops but nothing real bad.  The deal with him in
>the beginning is that you can't really let go of his face.  I have
>to constantly ask him to slow down until I get blisters on my ring
>fingers from squeezing the reins.  Having rubber grips on the reins
>adds to the blister factor and so does having the start of the ride
>be flat.
>
>After we passed Jackie's house I did get a moment to look at the
>beautiful sunrise.  Although I think the desert is a little sparse I
>love the way it looks for sunrises and sunsets.  We rode out of the
>neighborhood and into the desert.  We made it past where I got dumped
>last time and I was finally looking at trail I hadn't seen before. 
>Although Warpaint's starts are a little better these days, the
>nuttiness lasts at least to the first vet check, so my concentration
>through these slightly rolling hills was on controlling WP's speed.  
>He has a real tendency to just bulldoze through anything.  I did come 
>across Nick a couple of times here before and after we crossed Highway 
>395 but it was too much work to try to stay with him.  I caught up to 
>him again at the first water stop where our ponies drank and we gave 
>them some electrolytes.  I was glad that they drank because the guy at 
>the stop told us that there was no water at the first vet.  Apparently
>someone had shot holes in the water tank that was there.  Nick and I 
>left together but really weren't able to stick together for very long.
>
>At one point I was riding in a small group with Nick, Bob Edwards,
>and a couple of other riders (Bob is the guy that Nick bought Shatta
>from).  It turned out that two of the horses in this group were 
>Shatta's 1/2 siblings.  All three were out of the same mare but 
>looked different -- a gray, a bay, and a chestnut.  I left this family 
>reunion behind because WP was really trying to race past the crowd.  
>All he wanted to do was canter. I was able to get him back to a trot 
>after going a little ahead of the group but he was flying.  As you 
>might guess, all this adrenaline and running (combined with being 
>an Appaloosa) can make it take a while for him to recover at the 
>vet check.  
>
>We arrived at the first check which was a pulse check but no hold at 
>15 miles.  There was a little bit of water there and Warpaint took 
>a small drink.  I was glad he drank pretty well at the first water 
>since it looked like things might get dry at this check.  Warpaint 
>took about 10 minutes to come down to criteria and went through 
>the vet check with out any problems. Nick had already gone on because 
>his horse came in to the check and recovered immediately.  I left the 
>check hoping to catch Nick in the next few miles.  
>
>We trotted along steadily and I caught up to Nick about 30 minutes 
>after leaving the check.  He told me that he had to jog Shatta twice 
>for the vets because they saw something on the first trot out.  On 
>the second trot out he looked fine, so they let him go.  Nick wanted 
>to take it easy but he wanted to have some company for Shatta.  We 
>trotted when we could and we walked up the hills on our way to the 
>30 mile vet check. It was still kind of early for WP to be calm and 
>he was very interested in competing with Shatta.  We'd get a nice 
>trot going and it would get faster and faster, then Nick would tell 
>me to slow down, then it would start up again.  For the most part 
>we had a good ride into the check. They both came in very strong with 
>Shatta recovering immediately and Warpaint taking a little time to 
>recover.  Nick went off to find Dennis Sousa who had graciously 
>agreed to bring our stuff out to the check.   He had everything out 
>and accessible so it was easy enough to just strip the saddles and 
>go to the vet.  Unfortunately for Nick, Shatta was looking a little 
>more consistently off at his trot out and the vet told him to bring 
>him back in 30 minutes and see how he was doing. Warpaint passed this 
>check with no problem and proceeded to eat all the food he could find.
>Nick's re-check didn't go well and poor Shatta was off so they were 
>done for the day.  I actually managed to eat some food, get my horse 
>tacked up, and leave almost on time (39 seconds into my minute!).  
 
... to be continued.




=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=