We rocked a hard ride: Frenchman Creek, part 1

Bringing Dixie back to endurance has been so scary that I hardly ever think about it all at once. She had a legitimate (thankfully minor) tendon injury in June, and those things can be career or life ending so easily. Instead of constantly worrying about her, I've only really thought about our next move a couple times so far. The last time I really thought about it was August 1, when I got an email notice of a new NEDA ride. That was two months after Dixie's injury, and everything had gone textbook-perfect so far. I decided that if we had a couple of good rides in August, we'd go do the 30 mile NEDA ride on the 27th. And after that, I didn't deeply consider the matter again - I sent in my entry, told my friend I'd ride one of hers on the second day of the ride, and didn't worry about it again.

We had one good ride in August. Well, good until we crashed, and no serious harm done to either of us post-crash. Dixie carrot-stretches as eagerly as ever, and she prances around the pasture and rolls energetically. I think I bruised a rib, but motrin and rest is fixing that. I kind of wanted to scratch because I didn't feel 100%, but I felt good enough to ride competently and the timing of the Frenchman ride sure works well, so I packed my crap and loaded my horse.

NEDA rides are usually cart-friendly, so they're flat and fast and short - 20 or 25 miles, usually. This one was listed as 30 miles and not recommended for carts. I decided if Dixie could do a 30 mile hard ride, she'd be good to do a 50 in October or November. If not, we'd just pick up LDs in the spring - she could probably be a competitive LD horse in regional points. Still - I was terrified to try the ride.

I'm too tired to give more than the bare stats tonight. We finished in 6th place (out of maybe 10-12 completions - no big win). 31.9 miles, after about a mile of me misinterpreting a ribbon. 7:15 ride time, which sounds pretty awful til you account for the 8200' of elevation gain - that's HUGE. The very steep NASTR 50 had 7300!

It was an extremely technical yet breathtakingly beautiful trail. We trotted or gaited everywhere we could and walked the rest. Our ride buddy turned back at 23 miles (minorly lame) and somehow we slogged through the last 8 miles (and a couple thousand feet of hills) all alone. We waded in a river, drank from a creek, and confronted two fearless young mule deer. Dixie never took a bad step. It was hot as hell for us (which is not hot at all for you, dear reader, but just remember my horse isn't used to humidity anymore) but she pulsed down as soon as we stopped moving. I am so proud of her.

Pix and stuff tomorrow, plus Sunday's ride on the stumbly grey Arab!