What me'n Rocky did for Thanksgiving :+)

[DreamWeaver <karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us>]

Silver State Point to Point, 3-day 150 Mile Endurance Ride.  November 
26-28, 1999

Final ride of the season.  Excited, happy, sad.  We'd had a good season and 
wanted to finish up this ride in good shape, more than anything.  Goals 
accomplished for us this year began as impossible dreams and thru long hard 
work and *lots* of patience became reality.  To say that Rocky has been a 
challenge is a bit of an understatement.  We were never sure if he'd stay 
sound, let alone be able to do endurance.  He's got one deformed foot, one 
club foot, fine boned, he's badly cow hocked, often too smart for his own 
good and nevermind about the more serious flaws (mostly his rider) 
<vbg>.  So off we went to complete this ride, 150 more miles......

Day 1.  Lots of riders.  Over 90.  Wow, big ride for a multiday.  Where'd 
all these people come from?  The first day we do loops back into camp.  The 
first one being 35 miles, then a 1 hour vet check hold.  60 
criteria.  Beautiful weather.  Nice calm start.  Trail is mostly single 
track and windy, with lots of dips, and a rock here and there ;^).  Lots of 
new trail this year.  Gotta watch for cactus, try not to inhale too much 
dust.  In no time we made it to the first water at Bird Springs, 14 miles 
into the ride.  E-lyted Rocky.  He drank well.  Good.  We continued, over 
to a part of trail called "Rocky Pass".  Nice of them to name part of the 
trail after us.  :-)  Good thing for Easyboots.  I had lost one on the way 
and put another one on at Bird Springs.  The farrier had taken more off of 
his feet (dangit), proclaming that the club foot was finally at the right 
angle (guess it was all wrong up until now?)  So after that I wrapped with 
vetwrap and that worked well.  Trail plays tricks on us, weaving us back 
and forth thru the hills letting us see the casino in the distance, then 
turning us away and back up again into the hills.  Finally wind our way 
down to the next water stop, 4 miles from camp.  Horse drinks well, and I 
e-lyte again.  We cruise into camp.  Walk in, P&R at 60 right away.  Donate 
blood to the Vampire Vet (Pride Project).  Crew is gambling in casino, so 
we're on our own.  I notice Weaver (brought along as spare horse) is now 
tied to the trailer with a different rope.  Uh oh.  He'd not been a good 
boy and got loose at the start, but only went to the next trailer with 
another grey horse and just stood there (idiot).  Went out for next 15 mile 
loop and that went by quickly, but not that quickly.  So far so good 
though, everything going good.  Finished, vetted, gave more blood.  Cleaned 
up horse, boy it was already late.  Went to the casino to eat at the 
buffet.  Learned this night what food to stay away from for next 
time.  Made note: next time just go straight to desserts, skip everything 
else.  Have already forgotten what the completion awards were. (DIMR)  Bob 
Suhr received an award for the oldest horse/rider combined ages.  Said he 
hadn't won that award since 15 years ago when he was 65.  hehe

Day 2.  Another beautiful day.  This day we move camp to Blue Diamond, so 
we ride 50 miles out one direction.  Beautiful country.  35 miles to first 
vetcheck.  14 miles to first water.  I offered Weaver to a junior to ride, 
and also was sponsoring another one.  Got to Bird Springs.  E-lytes 
jammed.  Dang.  Sacrificed 1/2 of Weaver's electrolytes to Rocky.  Heck, 
he's just doing 1 day he can do without half a dose.  Continued on, we're 
on new trail now.  (different from 1st day)  Meander around thru dry 
riverbeds, rock formations and hills that turn into steep rocky canyons 
where we climb up.  Nothing is flat, all gradual inclines and declines 
besides the occasional switchback being a bit steeper.  I had us all stop 
and tighten our cinches and check them a time or two.  Heather's horse 
tripped and went down.  She came off, landing on a rock on her 
knee.  Ouch.  Horse was shaken up.  Us too.  We continued on, walking and 
being careful.  Eventually made it into the 35 mile vet check.  Vet check 
had crew access this year, so I sent my crew bag with Brian.  Great. :) 
Husband was moving 2 rigs so didn't come to the vetcheck.   Hay and 
water.  Two vets, no lines.  Nice.  Heather pulled, so was just me and one 
junior now.  Went out on last 15 mile section to finish.  Got to the next 
water (another spring) and riders had been sponging or scooping (which 
wasn't allowed) and because of that there was so much mud our horses 
couldn't bend down to drink without slipping.  Rocky scared me trying to 
bend down on his knees to reach the water.  It was almost empty.  I wonder 
if the selfish people who did that knew that riders behind them (and we 
finished in 21st and 22nd place out of 92) would have no water, not to 
mention the local wild horses and other wildlife?  Idiots.  (BLM could not 
allow the ride to go on again because of this)  Ken and his horse Rocky was 
with us here, and he took a pic of my Rocky trying desperately to get some 
water.  The three of us (the two Rocky horses and Weaver) trotted nicely 
into the finish together.  Horses were all strong and felt great.  Good 
footing, beautiful scenery thru a windy riverbed and lots of curving single 
track trail.  Watch out for the cactus though.  Completed day 2. 
Yeah!  They served us dinner this night.  Good food.  (other nights we got 
a ticket for the buffet in the casino)  Wild horses hung around 
camp.  Teased Hugh Vanderford that I'd wake him up at 2 a.m. with a halter 
and tell him there was a loose horse.  He'd probably catch one too......

Day 3.  Started out slowly.  Third day on multiday always suck.  Got on 
horse.  Ouch.  Was informed that Weaver (back at trailer) was trying to 
find China (husband says W's not going as spare horse anymore).  Rocky hits 
a rock on trail and felt funny.  Uh oh.  I'm thinking I'll turn and go 
back, at least we made it thru two days right?  He picks up a trot and 
feels perfect.  Hmmmmm....maybe he was just cold too?  I figure at least 
it's only 15 miles to the vetcheck so not too far in case he does come up 
lame.  Won't have to go 35 miles like the day before.  Get behind Gesa and 
her mule Clovis.  Rocky and Clovis have ridden lots of miles together, 
mostly at this ride.  Catch up to John Park, who got 4,000 miles on 
Remington at this ride.  Kat Swigert was riding his other Icelandic and we 
came up them in a big cloud of dust, as she was catapulted off into the 
dirt.  We trot along, then go under the freeway underpass.  Soon, we find 
that there are no trail markers.  We find fresh prints though, easyboot 
prints and a horse with pads on.  Hard to tell much more than that in the 
creekbed with pebbly footing.  We roam around looking for markers 
complaining and whining about how they could have done a better job marking 
trail. ;^) Then we figured that the ribbons may have been pulled, as they 
had been on this ride 4 years ago in this same area.  So we floundered 
around, followed some of the fresh prints and headed off into the 
hills.  We saw a herd of wild horses on the side of one of the canyons 
watching us.  Finally, we saw horses ahead and headed towards them and 
found the trail.  Turns out, we went under the wrong freeway underpass (who 
knew there were two?) <bg>, and there were no ribbons on the trail cuz we 
weren't on the trail (like duh).  Imagine being lost and being too dumb to 
know it!  We felt really embarrassed and take back everything we said about 
ride management (ooops).

Finally made it into the vet check, a little later and behind a dozen 
horses more than we shoulda been (if we'd been paying attention). Gesa 
checked with RM and we supposedly went farther out of the way, and did a 
harder trail than if we had gone the right way, so they just laughed at us 
and wondered how in the world we ever got that mule under that shorter 
underpass.  I'm sure Gesa and me will never live down cutting trail on this 
ride.  :+)

We had a 1/2 hour hold today, since the vet check was so early in the 
ride.  Rocky donated to the Vampire Vet again (more blood).  He was doing 
great, everything looked good.  This day we had even more help. Brian 
brought my stuff out, and Jim even brought us chairs to sit in.  Trilby was 
even in the check before our time was half up.  <gulp>  Maybe we better get 
a move on, huh?  Finally time came (quickly) to leave.  I had continued 
e-lyting Rocky everytime he drank.  I had my saddle packs filled with food 
for him.  35 miles to go to the finish with no checks inbetween.  At each 
of the two springs on the way back we fed the horses (errrr....horse and 
mule).  Sure did seem like a really loooong last 15 miles.  Gesa and I 
argued about which way we went in on this ride previously.  I was sure we 
went a different way on the third day the year before.  She argued, then 
said "but I didn't do the third day last year".  <bg>  (I can tease her, 
since she got us lost - can't I?)  Three or four bighorn sheep (or goats?) 
watched us at the water stop - took their picture but you can't even see 
them they blend in too well.   The trail was a lot different this year, 
longer, less water........not too hard just different.

Rocky felt good and strong so I let him trot out and canter all the way 
into the finish.  This was the funnest part of the ride.  Knowing that we 
would be done in a few more minutes and that nothing could stop us 
now.  The single track trail winds and turns and is really a lot of 
fun.  Try to follow the trail at this speed without losing it is really 
fun.  Watching the casino loom nearer and nearer.  Came into the 
finish.  Weaver sees Rocky.  Or rather, Rocky sees Weaver. Uh oh.  I had to 
pass our rig to get to the finish line.  Rocky seemed to know, and didn't 
try to stop or even slow down.  Screw Weaver.  hehe.  Love this horses 
attitude.  Within seconds of finishing the Vampire already had a needle in 
Rocky's neck drawing the last two vials of blood.  Let horse drink, then 
vetted out.  NOW he wanted to see his buddy, and nearly dragged me (running 
yet) back to the trailer.  It was already 3:30 (or so.....coulda been any 
time I'm just guessing <G>) so I didn't sponge him down knowing the sun 
would set and he'd never dry (heavy coat, except for where his neck got 
shaved).  Went to shower - YES - then ate dinner with the Mitchell's at the 
buffet.  It was much better this time.  Either I knew what food to get, or 
was just so hungry that it didn't matter.  Walked horses, went to 
awards.  Walked horses, went to bed.  Got up, walked horses, ate breakfast 
in the casino, drove home.  Season over.  Rocky did good.  1,385 miles, 
100% completion including 3 100's, 3 multidays, 2 wins, 1 B/C ......time 
for a break!  Nice to finish up with his feet finally straightened 
out.......maybe this horse can do endurance :))).

Happy Trails,

Karen
in NV
& Rocky, 2,210 miles
& Weaver, 3,205 miles
http://members.xoom.com/ridephotos/   (link is at top for Silver State photos)





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