American River Ride Story

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Judy Long julong@cisco.com
American River Ride 4/24/99

Nick and I went to the American River ride last week, the
first time that either one of us had been to it.  Since it
was a point to point ride, Nick was going to drive the truck
and crew for me.  Although it was our plan from earlier in the
year that Nick would crew for me at this ride, we hadn't
expected that Nick's horse Shatta would be laid up with a
suspensory tear.  This made the mood of the outing a little sad.
Nick and Shatta won't be doing any endurance rides until the
year 2000.  Nick usually bounces back from disappointments
quickly but this one seems to be hitting him really hard,
especially since Shatta is in his prime and they both had such
a great season last year.

This was Warpaint's first ride since getting pulled for lameness
at the 90 mile point on the Twenty Mule Team ride in February.
He was looking good and I felt confident that he would be able
to do the ride energy-wise.  When he was shod after Twenty Mule
team we found bruising on both feet that made it look like sand
under the pads had caused the lameness problem at the ride.  I
kept my fingers crossed that we would not have problems with
rocks on this trail.

We drove up to Folsom Friday afternoon, fighting major winds all
the way there.  After some confusion about where to go once we
were at the Negro Bar state park, we found a spot to camp that
turned out to be next to our Livermore Trailblazer riding club
buddies Karen Schwartz and Roberta Dunn.  I thought we arrived
kind of early but the camp was pretty full.  The weather was
warm and sunny and the wind had pretty much disappeared.  I
hoped it wasn't going to be a scorcher the next day.  There
were some RideCampers running around as well --  I saw Lucy
Trumbull and Becky Hackworth and Nick talked to Wendy Lumbert
for a bit.

Warpaint vetted in without incident (yeah!) although I was
nervous.  The vet didn't help when he teased me about having
disqualified %50 of the horses he had seen already.  I felt
better after I found out he'd only seen four horses.  I was
pleased to get the OK after our trot out and back.  Since Nick
had volunteered and taken Warpaint out for a ride Friday morning
before we left, I just had to get my stuff ready for the next
day.  Nick seemed to enjoy riding Warpaint (too much), so I told
him that if we made it through this ride OK, I would forego the
Napa ride I had planned on doing and let Nick ride WP at Castle
Rock.  Nick accepted (far too eagerly) and I think I got even
more nervous wondering what I was getting myself into (or out
of?).  Nobody else rides Warpaint on the trail, much less in
an endurance ride.  The idea did seem to perk Nick's spirits up
a bit.

The ride meeting was interesting although not terribly
informative.   It seemed like a lot of information was assumed
and I'm glad I wasn't a beginner trying to figure out what was
going on.  I wasn't too concerned, I just hoped the trail was
marked well (it was). Since all my stuff was ready, Nick and I
were in bed by 9:00 pm.  We had the windows of the camper open
and the weather stayed warm all night.  We got up around 5:00
am, ate breakfast, and got ready to go by 6:20 am which is an
amazing feat for me.  I rode around camp a bit to let the crowd
clear out on the controlled start.

Warpaint did his usual dancing and hopping down the side of the
paved road on the way to the start but he really wasn't too bad.
Nick was pulling out with the truck and trailer as we went down
the road so I asked him again if he was sure he wanted to ride
this horse -- the answer I got back was "Absolutely!".   I
wondered if I would be a widow after Castle Rock.

At the start I almost got my horse kicked while getting onto the
single track that dropped down to a larger trail.  I was paying
attention to the horse in front with the red ribbon and not
paying enough attention to the horse next to me without the red
ribbon and got too close.  Oops.  Luckily no harm was done to
either horse -- maybe Warpaint just brings out the worst in
others.  He started out trying to blast down the little trail but
responded when I wanted to slow him down. The first part of this
trail seems to go along bike paths and short trails before it
gets out of the town area and to the trail around the lake.  It
was about 10 or 20 minutes before we came across other riders
and passing them wasn't too bad.

Once you got to the lake the trail was beautiful -- up and down,
twisty single track.  We came to the first trot-by and made it
through OK.  I rode with Karen Schwartz off and on to the first
vet check but anytime Warpaint was in front he went too fast
and when Karen's horse Chris was in front Warpaint was on his
butt.  The trail wasn't physically challenging but it was
definitely a bit of a technical challenge.  I was able to let
Karen and some other riders get far enough ahead of us that
Warpaint started to settle down.  There were wildflowers along
the trail and all day I saw these beautiful large black and
blue butterflies feeding on them.

Quickly enough we were at the first vet check.  There was access
to the lake there but no troughs.  It was fairly warm but not as
bad as the day before and a lot of people were kind of shocked
that there was no water trough.  This was one of the pieces of
information given out in the ride meeting but I think it didn't
sink in until people arrived at the check and found no troughs.
Lucky for me Nick was waiting there with a bucket of water that
he hauled up from the lake.  He had to cover it with a blanket
to hide it from all the riders coming in.  He wasn't planning
on making another trip to get more.  Warpaint recovered fairly
quickly and we headed down to see the vet.  This vet check
didn't have a hold after you met P/R criteria and saw the vet
but I stayed for a while to have a breather and let Warpaint eat.

We headed out towards Auburn on some more beautiful trail.  Some
parts were pretty scary if you thought about it.  It was narrow
single track trail with drop offs into the lake.  Hmmmm, let's
not trip, shall we? The whole time I was on the trail in the
morning I kept thinking about how much Nick would like this.
He loves single track trails.  Warpaint didn't have much of a
drink at the first check but finally decided it was time.
There was a spot on the trail with water running over it and
although there were a couple of riders here we were able to get
a drink without incident.  The rest of the trail into lunch
wasn't too tough.  Apparently there is a huge hill (Cardiac?)
that wasn't in the ride this year.  The footing was great all
day so I wondered where the rocky part I had heard of disappeared
to.  Soon we were at the fairgrounds in Auburn and ready for our
lunch stop.

Nick had the truck really close so I was able to go untack and
then bring Warpaint back for the vet check.  This is the same
place that Tevis ends but I hadn't seen it in the daylight for
a long time.  After lunch we headed out backwards on the trail
towards Cool, crossing No Hands bridge.  WP was still feeling
very strong, the weather wasn't too warm, and the trail wasn't
that demanding.  I knew we were going to cross Highway 49 but I
wasn't sure where.  When we passed the place where you cross it
on Tevis I didn't see anyone but I started to think I might have
missed the trail.  I had told Nick that I was going to take about
2 1/2 or 3 hours to get to Cool and we were on a much faster
pace than that so I decided it would be nice to just walk for a
while.  The trail was shady and pretty and we walked alone for
a while.  Soon enough we came to the Highway 49 crossing we were
supposed to be at and crossed when there was a break in the
traffic.  On the other side of the Highway was a nice trough
where the loop began and ended.  Once again it was pretty trail
and Warpaint was eager to move on.  I was surprised at how
quickly the day was going and how nice a ride I was having.

We met up with Karen Schwartz and Patty Bailey (of Remington
Steele fame)at the end of the loop back at the trough.
Warpaint became very energetic after we crossed Highway 49 and
I thought I would try to get away from Karen and Patty to get
him to settle down.  No such luck -- we blasted up a hill
at a gallop but Karen's horse Chris didn't want to let us go.
I also didn't realize that we were probably less than a mile
from the vet check, so Karen and I ended up slowing to a walk
and Patty caught up quickly.

Nick was here to meet us again and help cool off Warpaint.  We
took a few minutes to recover here but the time was reasonable.
He had been trotting on the trail without being asked and I was
comfortable that I was not over-riding him.  He passed the vet
check and I hung out with Nick while Warpaint ate.

We took off for the last few miles of the ride at about 2:30.
Karen had already headed out for the finish so we were alone.
The day had seemed to go by very quickly and I was really
enjoying the ride. The last part of the ride was about a mile of
trotting next to a paved road and then a long downhill (followed
of course by a long uphill).  I think this was the Coffer dam
trail.  I know we didn't cross another bridge and I saw a tunnel
with the river coming out of it.  We hooked back up with a piece
of trail that we'd done on the way into lunch which I think was
the Cardiac hill bypass trail.  The last vet check was a mile
from the finish and the criteria was 68 pulse.  We arrived
there 1 hour and 17 minutes after we left Cool.  Since we'd
walked almost all the way, Warpaint recovered quickly and we
were on our way back to the fairgrounds.

We finished around 4:00 pm and vetted through shortly after.  A
completion!!!  The award was a photograph taken of horse/rider
earlier that morning at a pretty pond.  Ours came out with a
nice reflection of Warpaint and I in the pond.  At least it was j
ust a reflection -- we've been in a pond together before (another
soggy story). We ate barbecue and relaxed for a while before
packing up for home.

The good news is that I had a great ride,  Warpaint actually
behaved pretty well and looked good after the ride.  I haven't
commented on the "control" posts because I'm one of those
people who has a horse that wants to run out of control. Over
the years we've tried alot of things at the start of endurance
rides and I really can't tell you that anything specific has
worked. Some rides are better than others, some worse.  This
ride gets the high honor of "No Blisters" on my fingers.  With
Warpaint, all I can say is "some men never change".  Those of
you who know us know what I mean.  At this point in his career
he seems to be mellowing a bit, at least enough so that I don't
feel like I'm sending my husband to certain death when he rides
him at Castle Rock in two weeks.  If Nick can survive the first
10 or 15 miles he'll have a great ride.  If not, I'll make sure
the life insurance is paid up ;)


Judy Long
Hayward, Ca.

Nachi Sunshine (Warpaint)
2420 miles in 8 yrs of endurance, hoping to squeak out a few more...




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