Post by ride4fun on May 28, 2018 22:30:27 GMT -5
Friday started pretty well. B got here early and it only took a short time to load her stuff into my trailer, then we loaded the horses and headed out for Santa Fe NM. It was quite warm but not too hot for setting the horses up in the permanent pens at the horse park. We drove around and I parked along the edge of the polo field instead of using one of the hookup slots. They did have the option of not using the hookups in the back row but I chose to have the horses on dirt rather than the pea gravel for tacking up in the mornings.
Saturday ride went fairly well, was a long warm day. B's phone GPS app showed we went 50.8 miles. Her app is always at least 5% short so the ride was probably 53 miles. It was rocky and warm enough that we did not go very fast so between that and the extra distance it took 11 hours to finish including two 45 minute vet holds.
B's horse is 18 and this was his second 50 ever so she did not go out on Sunday. Tanza and I went out. I was riding the a famous old timer in our region. Tanza had mini meltdown at a water stop about 14 miles in where they had ham radio guy and volunteers when I undid my camelback shoulder straps and rotated around to remove a leaking water bottle and the old timer was walking off before I got my bag zipped up and back in place and when Tanza went trotting to catch up the flopping bothered him. He USUALLY is just find about things flopping a bit. He was crowhopping and no steering and headed right for the barbed wire gate that was on the ground. I came off, Tanza thank god swerved and avoided the gate but landed on my ankle with a hind foot. The volunteers were all "are you OK, did you get your bell rung" after I took a minute to get up. No I am fine except for the ankle.
It did not bother too much for riding and B trotted Tanza for me at the vet check. I was a bit slow getting out of the hold but caught up to the old timer and his mare. Thank goodness because I would have taken a turn that was part of one of Saturday's loops but we were not supposed to do that extra 5 miles on Sunday. Old timer knew from the map that we did not turn there. They should have rubbed out the arrow that signaled to turn on Saturday or at least made a point to tell people to ignore the white arrows on the ground on Sunday. 4 people behind us did take that wrong loop and ended up riding an extra 5 miles. Tanza stumbled all the way to his knees 3 times during the loop and I was worried about him but he vetted OK and ate great. B and her friends that had also gone to the ride got me stuff to eat and drink and an ice pack while Tanza ate at his pen., I guess I looked pretty rough.. This time we did not catch the old timer after being a few minutes slow getting out of the check. Tanza was wanting to go slow and I was reluctant to make him move out after the stumbling so we were very slow to the stock tank where he had freaked out on the first loop. The cows were coming to drink but they were wild as march hares, I led Tanza in because I knew he would be nervous and the cows scattered and stayed out of the area while we were in there. I led Tanza all the way out of the small sorting area where the tank was to make sure he did not freak out about cows coming to drink before we were totally out of the sorting pen area. He was much peppier after drinking good at the tank and moved out well where I let him but there was stretches of a lot of rock where we had to walk.
Finished about 6:24 pm in 8th place. 11 total finished, one of the 4 that took the extra loop decided her horse could not go fast enough to complete that last 12 miles within the 12 hour limit. B's friends got me an icepack that I used for 15 minutes before the ride awards. They had extra stuff they did not want to store and were grasping for "youngest rider, oldest, who drove the farthest and B's buddy shouted "two day horses" They had not planned on anything for that, nor even announced who was on a 2nd day horse when they did the placings. I put arnica on my ankle every time I got up to pee and also took 2 generic Alleve caplets before bed. I think I got very lucky and Tanza's horse shoe cupped my ankle bone, so I have a lot of bruising but the ankle was not rolled and sprained, not broken. Today it feels like only the swelling is causing twinges when I walk on it.
We got on the road mid morning and then had more adventure on I-25 in Colorado. It was hailing pretty good north of Pueblo for 10 minutes Many folks pulled over to wait it out, I opted to continue rolling but keep speed down to about 25 mph to lessen chance of cracking windshield as did quite a few other folks. Ran out of that and then ran into very heavy rain south of Denver and was in that for about 40 minutes Made it home, it had barely sprinkled. We are on a sand hill because rain storms often break up and miss us.
Saturday ride went fairly well, was a long warm day. B's phone GPS app showed we went 50.8 miles. Her app is always at least 5% short so the ride was probably 53 miles. It was rocky and warm enough that we did not go very fast so between that and the extra distance it took 11 hours to finish including two 45 minute vet holds.
B's horse is 18 and this was his second 50 ever so she did not go out on Sunday. Tanza and I went out. I was riding the a famous old timer in our region. Tanza had mini meltdown at a water stop about 14 miles in where they had ham radio guy and volunteers when I undid my camelback shoulder straps and rotated around to remove a leaking water bottle and the old timer was walking off before I got my bag zipped up and back in place and when Tanza went trotting to catch up the flopping bothered him. He USUALLY is just find about things flopping a bit. He was crowhopping and no steering and headed right for the barbed wire gate that was on the ground. I came off, Tanza thank god swerved and avoided the gate but landed on my ankle with a hind foot. The volunteers were all "are you OK, did you get your bell rung" after I took a minute to get up. No I am fine except for the ankle.
It did not bother too much for riding and B trotted Tanza for me at the vet check. I was a bit slow getting out of the hold but caught up to the old timer and his mare. Thank goodness because I would have taken a turn that was part of one of Saturday's loops but we were not supposed to do that extra 5 miles on Sunday. Old timer knew from the map that we did not turn there. They should have rubbed out the arrow that signaled to turn on Saturday or at least made a point to tell people to ignore the white arrows on the ground on Sunday. 4 people behind us did take that wrong loop and ended up riding an extra 5 miles. Tanza stumbled all the way to his knees 3 times during the loop and I was worried about him but he vetted OK and ate great. B and her friends that had also gone to the ride got me stuff to eat and drink and an ice pack while Tanza ate at his pen., I guess I looked pretty rough.. This time we did not catch the old timer after being a few minutes slow getting out of the check. Tanza was wanting to go slow and I was reluctant to make him move out after the stumbling so we were very slow to the stock tank where he had freaked out on the first loop. The cows were coming to drink but they were wild as march hares, I led Tanza in because I knew he would be nervous and the cows scattered and stayed out of the area while we were in there. I led Tanza all the way out of the small sorting area where the tank was to make sure he did not freak out about cows coming to drink before we were totally out of the sorting pen area. He was much peppier after drinking good at the tank and moved out well where I let him but there was stretches of a lot of rock where we had to walk.
Finished about 6:24 pm in 8th place. 11 total finished, one of the 4 that took the extra loop decided her horse could not go fast enough to complete that last 12 miles within the 12 hour limit. B's friends got me an icepack that I used for 15 minutes before the ride awards. They had extra stuff they did not want to store and were grasping for "youngest rider, oldest, who drove the farthest and B's buddy shouted "two day horses" They had not planned on anything for that, nor even announced who was on a 2nd day horse when they did the placings. I put arnica on my ankle every time I got up to pee and also took 2 generic Alleve caplets before bed. I think I got very lucky and Tanza's horse shoe cupped my ankle bone, so I have a lot of bruising but the ankle was not rolled and sprained, not broken. Today it feels like only the swelling is causing twinges when I walk on it.
We got on the road mid morning and then had more adventure on I-25 in Colorado. It was hailing pretty good north of Pueblo for 10 minutes Many folks pulled over to wait it out, I opted to continue rolling but keep speed down to about 25 mph to lessen chance of cracking windshield as did quite a few other folks. Ran out of that and then ran into very heavy rain south of Denver and was in that for about 40 minutes Made it home, it had barely sprinkled. We are on a sand hill because rain storms often break up and miss us.
