VC post-ride

I've got two main thoughts that have emerged from our try at VC:  I'm getting closer to getting it figured out, and I don't think Dixie has peaked yet.

I was right about one thing, earlier this year when I started planning my season:  Virginia City is way, way harder than Sunriver.  I had such an unfortunate experience in Oregon, but I'm glad I went - the trip was super fun with my Worst Crew and Special Auxiliary Worst Crew, and Dixie made such a good* show of it.

* By West "to finish is to win" standards, which is all I've ever cared about.  Racing is awesome if you can do it, but there's plenty of good company wandering along at the back of the pack.

Endurance has really been an amazing journey for me.  I just can't think of a way to talk about it that doesn't sound cheesy as hell - blah blah personal growth - but it really is.  I had to learn to be brave to get started, and I had to learn to be a badass to push through 50s, and now I am learning humility as I try hundreds.  It's hard.

It's such a deceptively easy concept:  get your horse really fit, make sure your tack fits, and ride well for hours.  Nothing to do once you cross the starting line except watch the clouds and make sure you stay balanced, right?  But really, you're thinking very hard about a million things from the time you get to ridecamp til the time you unload the horse at home.  As soon as you get the physical mostly nailed down, you switch to the mental part of the game.

And my horse just keeps bouncing back stronger.  Dixie felt great, great, triple-word-score GREAT all day at VC.  I'm pretty sure I could've asked her for more and kept riding and maybe squeaked out a last-minute finish, but you know... I've rehabbed a tendon.  I want to never rehab a tendon again. She's an honest mare, and if she says she's tired I'm not going to push her.  She didn't choose this life, and she's not out to prove anything to anybody, and I'd rather live to fight another day.

Anyway, you're here for tack and stuff.

~*~ Tack and Stuff ~*~

Fortunately Lucy got a pre-start picture of us; unfortunately we're just blurry ghosts with glowing eyes.

I'm still loving the Specialized saddle.  Dixie's so comfortable with it that she trots about 10% of the time, instead of the 80% she was trotting with the evil old saddle.  I kind of wish I'd sprung for the full seat cover instead of seat + leathers covers, and I may pick up a used full seat cover at the convention next spring to try it out.  I get (painless!) bruises on my thighs, just below the seat and above the stirrup leathers - not a big deal, but not ideal.  A full seat cover would prevent that, I think, but sometimes a full cover makes the twist too wide and causes its own set of problems. I'm willing to try a used full fleece, but not really willing to shell out $$$ for a brand new one.

We're still rocking the discount pad and girth.  I often think about buying Dixie a really nice pad, like a Supracor or a Haf pad or something, but her back isn't the slightest bit sore so I'm not going to change what's working.  (Nothing says love like how much money you can spend on - wait, horses do not care about that.  Horses want food, companions, and fun.  They don't want status-symbol gear, unless that's the gear that's most comfortable for them.)

Most of my biothane is American Trail Gear at this point.  Somehow I'm still using the same Zilco headstall I've used since I gave up leather, lo those long years ago.  When I'm spending imaginary money, after I get a fancy pad I get a blue/purple halter bridle with stainless hardware, but again, the rope halter + snap-on bridle works well enough.  Dixie gets sweaty and itchy with just that minimal amount of hardware, and I don't want to strap even more itchy bits of plastic to her head if what we're doing now works.

I'm getting the hang of the extra-long rope reins + running martingale.  I really like it, but reins / tailing ropes are very idiosyncratic so you might hate climbing rope reins.

I don't usually ride with a cantle bag - I sored a horse with one once and I'm pretty paranoid about letting it touch the horse's back, and if you've got it strapped on tight enough to not touch the back it's almost impossible to get shit out while you're riding.  But it's great for hundreds/night rides, to hold all your emergency gear and the spare boots you probably won't need but can't go without.

I still love/hate my Griffin's pommel bags.  They're so big and floppy, ugh, but they're so big!  They hold literally everything I could ever want.  I can shove like two pounds of carrots in one side and still have room for my food, my camera, my vet card, the fly mask, etc. in the other.  And they have velcro pouches to hold vet cards and powerbar wrappers and crap.

I'm pretty happy with the diabeetus socks, too.  We were too tired to sock her directly after we pulled, and she got a tiny, tiny bit of fill in all four legs overnight.  We socked her Sunday morning and I left them on til Tuesday morning with no problems.  The front socks could be a bit smaller and they sank about an inch, but they're not so tight that they caused any problems.

I was really sore Tuesday, and I wussed out and asked Orlando at the barn to pull them, and he had no problem yanking them off.  They really are easy to use.

Dixie is in small front / XS rears, which are the smallest sizes they offer right now.  Somebody told me they're thinking about making even smaller socks, and for $40 a pair I might get a pair of XS fronts when they're available.

~*~ Me ~*~

I've got my outfit pretty nailed down.  Running gear for my top half - a sports bra that clamps the girls in place, some technical running shirts, and however many more layers I need to stay warm in the Inevitable Snowstorm.  Butt Butt'r, Tights Lady tights, good wool socks, and that one pair of shoes that has never done me wrong.  No underwear.  Death to underwear.

I added gaiters at Virginia City.  Dirty Girl Gaiters is a little shop that makes custom ultrarunning gaiters - these are not the clunky things that keep out goatsheads and rattlesnake bites, these are super thin and come in patterns designed to soothe the soul of endurance riders.  They hook on to your shoelaces at the front, and attach to the heel of the shoe with velcro at the back.  After I put them on, I literally never noticed them again til I was trying to get undressed the next evening.  And instead of picking up a rock every time I got off to run, I got one tiny bit of gravel in one shoe the whole day.

I got way, way behind on hydration.  I had the water, I knew I should be drinking the water, but it was so pleasantly cool all day that I just didn't drink it.  Every time I saw Mel she was like "you're not drinking enough" and I was like "yeah yeah I'm on it this next loop dude" and I was so not on it.  I paid the price, too, with the worst DOMS I've ever had.  I know what wikipedia says, but for me, DOMS is very strongly correlated with dehydration.  If I drink vast amounts of water and take my electrolyte pills, I'm just a little sore; if I badass on through without enough water, I'm crippled.

I did eat pretty well.  Mel says I should have eaten even more, and I could've, so I will next time - but it felt like I was eating a lot, anyway.  One of the nicest things about having crew is that you can spend virtually the entire hold eating without worrying about anything else, and Mel was constantly shoving tasty food at me.  Except once when she shoved the nastiest Totino's-looking pepperoni at me, and I got the bag open before I realized it was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen, LOL.

Things I ate:

• Almond Goo - this time I went with crunchy fresh-ground almond butter about 4:1 with nutella and salt to taste.  Crunchy was interesting; I usually use smooth.  
• Powerbars - Cliff Builder bars, chocolate peanut butter.  They're AWFUL.  They're vile.  I hate them so much, but they go down and stay down and that's as good as it gets.
• Nuts - I think I had some nuts too.  I hate nuts, but again they go down and stay down.
• Hard boiled eggs - shit yeah, as long as somebody's willing to peel them for me when I get too stupid to operate them.
• Freeze-dried strawberries.  Unexpectedly delicious.  Didn't realize the packet contained bananas too til I'd eaten most of it - I kept wondering why some of the strawberries were so UGLY, but I ate them anyway.
• Chocolate covered espresso beans - smart crew pours a handful in the rider's hand every time they head to the out timer.  Rrrrrr nothing fires you up for the sleety SOBs like a handful of espresso beans!
• Hot food - when you've done your 50 miles and you think you can't possibly go on, eat something hot and get back on the horse.  
• Mini Babybel cheeses - they're pretty tasty, and like hardboiled eggs, they are individually wrapped so they don't get too manky in camp.  Pro:  they are easier to open than eggs. Con:  I bet they're reprehensible if they get hot.

Things I didn't do:

• For all of my threatening and whining and complaining, I did not drink anything alcoholic the whole day.  Nothing hurt so badly I wanted to take the edge off, and I didn't want to lose what few wits I had left.  Like I said at the beginning, it's a really thinky sport at the longer distances.  I was too busy thinking about Dixie to drink - was I pacing right, was she comfortable, how long can we stand here and eat/drink before she starts to cool down and stiffen up, etc.  I reserve the right to drink the water-trough beers on 50s, however.

One of the things They Warn You About when you start talking about hundreds is how you just can't keep eating all night.  It's true.  At a certain point your stomach phones your brain and says "Excuse me?  We're closing for the night, you may want to finish your business with me."  It's weird and I can't describe it any better than that - I just knew that at some point soon I wouldn't be able to eat any more, so I started shoveling the food in even faster.  

Everybody does what works for their own physiology, so YMMV, but I can't run on carbs.  I hate the sugar rush / crash, and I crash harder than other people, so I try to eat balanced food - lots of protein and fat to fill out the carbs.  Maybe you can negotiate a deal with your stomach where you keep eating those pure sugar gels, like the Honey Stingers, all night, but I can't manage it.  Anyway, eat a lot all day, cause you probably can't eat much in the dark.

~*~ Boot Talk Time ~*~

So I went with Easycare Glue-Ons for VC.  Glueing boots is a leap of faith - "never do anything new at a ride," but who wants to go to the trouble and expense of glueing boots for anything other than a hundred/multiday?  At some point you just have to leap and hope the net is there, yknow?

Tami kindly glued for me.  I was busy hand-feeding Dixie tiny bits of hay to keep her mind off of whatever weird shit was happening to her feet, so I didn't get any pictures.  Both Easycare (pdf) and Renegade have really good articles about how to apply glue-ons, so if you're interested in the nitty gritty, check their sites.  The tl;dr version follows:

Start with freshly trimmed hooves.  Clean them up, make any last-minute tweaks, and rasp the outside of the hoof wall.  Roughing up the hoof wall gives the glue something extra to stick to.  Put squishy rubber stuff in the sole of the boot and hard-setting epoxy stuff in the walls and slap the pre-sized boot shell on the hoof.  Run an extra bead of epoxy around the top of the boot wall to help seal it.  Hold up another foot and distract the horse, so she won't wiggle and torque the boot sideways as it cures. Repeat three more times, and voila!  Glued.

Glue-ons fall off unpredictably.  It has something to do with the age of the epoxy, or the quality control on that batch of epoxy, or the moisture content of the hoof, or the horse's way of going, or the alignment of the stars; no one's really sure how all those variables come together.  It sounds like bullshit, but I've seen some real bullshit with shoes, too - the first ride I ever volunteered, somebody (hi L!) had to walk like five miles back to camp when her horse half-pulled a shoe.  It got stuck half-on half-off out on the trail - she couldn't even pull it to boot him.  Sometimes shit just happens.

Easyboot glue-ons come in boxes of four and they're about a hundred bucks (or less) per box.  You also need two kinds of epoxy and two kinds of epoxy glue guns.  It adds up to probably what you'd pay to shoe for the ride - but again, it's not the kind of money I want to spend to try them out at an easy 50.  The Renegade glue-ons are less expensive, but they're very much one-shot deals.  

I'd heard a lot of horror stories about trying to pry off the damn glue-ons a week after the ride, and after I fell I really wasn't looking forward to boot removal.  I actually called the farrier, yall, but when Thursday rolled around and he still hadn't happened to come by my barn, I pulled the boots myself. With Easyboots, it's not that hard.  (And again, I'm so glad I'm free from the tyranny of farriers.)

Get your mallet and the widest flat head screwdriver you can find.  Put tasty food in front of the horse and explain to her that she is only required to stand still.  Start tapping the screwdriver down between the boot and hoof and prying.  This is where the Easyboots really shine - the Renegade glue-ons are solid "plastic" and Easyboots are flexible "rubber."  (They're both high-tech composites, not plastic and rubber, but you know what I mean.)  You can pry the hell out of the Easyboots and they won't tear or distort too badly.

 After you pry the glue loose all the way around, jam the screwdriver down to the sole and pick the foot up and pry the whole thing off.  If the glue's loose all the way around it will pop off magically.

The rubbery stuff will still be packed in around the frog.  Pry that shit out.  It's stanky.

PRO TIP:  if you didn't fall off your horse earlier that week, this is the ideal time to trim.  Everything is stinky and mushy and you've got a lot of new growth.  If you fell off your horse you can skip this step and go have a lie-down.

I was really, really pleased with the glue-ons.  You're not supposed to re-use them - it's hard to get them clean enough for the glue to stick to the boot again - but you can turn them into Gloves, which is my plan.  

The shells are the exact same shells used for the Gloves, so all you need to do is buy gaiters and drill a couple holes and you can re-use them.  I happen to own seven 0.5's that no longer fit and two 0's that do, so I am really happy to have four shells that I can turn into 0 Gloves.  

Renegade glue-ons are slightly different.  They're harder material, so they don't flex.  This means the glue seal at the top doesn't break as easily, and depending on all the other factors (see above re: epoxy, stars, etc) they might stay on longer.  But removing them is more like removing glue-on shoes, with a lot more destruction and cursing and yanking.  There's no way to reuse them, FWIW.

I was really, really happy with how Dixie's legs looked after VC.  She's pretty badass and she's used to long miles on shitty rocky trail, but I think the cushioning effect of the squishy glue in the boots really helped a lot.  

I feel much improved from this time last week.  I will still go to great lengths to avoid sneezing or coughing, but I've got full range of motion with minimal soreness.  I'm not quite ready to trim, but hopefully later this week I'll be able to get started on all that new growth!

~*~

Maybe there's something big I forgot to talk about, but I can't think of anything else right now.  Hit me up if you've got questions.  I'm working on a big post about How To Trim, since I've had a few questions about how I learned to trim, but it's not ready yet.  

GC analysis

So how did I end up with only an hour left to cover seven miles? It's all in the vet checks. Most of the 50s I've done have had only two vet checks - the loops are 20/15/15 (or some combination thereof.) Gold Country was 12/12/18/7. Instead of stopping and pulsing my horse down twice, I had to pulse her down three times. Instead of losing an hour and a half to mandatory hold times, I lost two hours. If Dixie had pulsed down the second she walked in to each check, and I had crew to shove me back in the saddle and back out the gate the second I could leave, I would've had exactly 10 hours to cover 50 miles. But I lost another 45 minutes to pulsing my big thick-skinned horse down, and probably 15 more to me getting my shit together to get out the gate again. I only had 9 hours to ride 50 miles. I had to sustain 5.5 mph to get it done.

That's not prima facie unreasonable, even in July, but it wasn't foremost on my mind. I've never cut it that close before, not even at our first 50. It just never occurred to me that we'd get so out of time - especially when the vet-check cutoff times were so encouraging. Of course I didn't take a single picture of my vet card, but I want to say that the first vet check, 12.5 miles from camp, had a cutoff time of 10 am? I got there at 8:30. I stayed an hour to an hour and a half ahead of the cutoff times. I'd have done better to completely ignore the cutoffs AND my GPS and just go by the mileage points listed on the map + the time on my phone to figure out how I was doing.

I was going to shake my fist at the heavens and say "Well I'll just not do rides that have three vet checks," but you know what? The ride flyer (for this year, no less) says it's a two-check 15/15/20 ride.

I dunno. I know my horse is marginal at this sport, but she's not dangerously marginal. She had good vet scores all day, and I rode her pretty intelligently. Maybe her recoveries will continue to improve like they have for the last couple of years. Maybe she'll pulse down faster.

It was a tough ride. It definitely didn't feel that hilly, but the GPS says it's the hilliest 50 we've ever done. It was very hot, and I suspect the shitty smoky air didn't help things. I'm super proud of Dixie for finding fifth gear at the very end, but I'm upset with myself that she had to find fifth. That's not how I like to ride.

Stuff! Now that I'm really getting the hang of endurance camping, I'm getting way more lassiez-faire about everything.

I didn't even bring the truck tent. I just threw a tarp in the back of the horse trailer and tossed my cot back there. It was fine. I brought plenty of food and ate enough of it I suppose. Some powerbar things (gross) and some nut-and-fruit trail mix (boring), plus tons of fruit at the VC's and steak and chocolate milk at lunch. I really kinda thought the chocolate milk might make me hurl, but it looked SO GOOD when I opened the cooler and it went down GREAT.

Usually, I mix powdered electrolytes for my camelbak. Hot salty lemonade is pretty gross but I drink the hell out of it. This time, I did the whole ride with water in my camelback and electrolyte pills in my bag. I ate a handful of pills whenever I thought about it - I honestly have no idea how many or when. I did not drink as much water as usual. It didn't seem to do me any harm. I kinda missed my hot lemon water though.

Still rockin' that same long sleeve runner's shirt. It totally regulates my temperature - it keeps me slightly cooler in the heat and slightly warmer in the cold. I loves it. Still rockin' the barefoot shoes. I laced them pretty tight to hopefully prevent blisters, but I still popped a blister on one foot. I didn't notice til I got home so I guess that's almost success. I've been going commando and not getting the panty-line chafing.

The participation award was a Cooltie, and they gave it out at sign in. It does, in fact, work. It feels kinda disgusting - it's a warm slimy wet thing tied around your neck - but I felt cooler than I otherwise would've.

Last week, I got a Fitbit. It's a little pedometer, smaller than a cigarette lighter, that clips onto your body somewhere. It tells you how many steps you walk in a day, then extrapolates how many calories you've burned, miles you've walked, etc. The hard-but-not-impossible goal for most desk job people is to walk 10,000 steps in one day. Would you care to guess how many steps the Fitbit thinks I took on Saturday? And how many calories I burned, even after I went back and told it I'd been Riding Horseback (Trotting) for 12 hours?

My quads are KILLING ME. Gonna bike a lot more around town and try to get in better shape for Tahoe Rim.

Sticking your helmet in every water trough is definitely the way to fly.

Horse stuff!!
Used Gloves again. I've gotta be getting near 200 miles on that set, and they're noticeably easier to put on. I only taped the fronts - her front feet look way better, but the Gloves' V still doesn't stretch like it should. I actually lost a rear boot, but the gaiter kept it on. Will probably tape all four for Tahoe Rim.

So Easyboot people, is this the point where I put the powerstraps on? Now that the boots are ~easy to apply~?

My Renegade friends have been giving me vague disapproving vibes about my boot disloyalty, but the Gloves really do fit better right now. Shrug!

Totally forgot to buy applesauce. I only had four single-serves of applesauce, so I rationed them out. Turns out Dixie eats hay-and-BP mash with a half oz of Enduramax mixed in, yay! She ate a lot of her elytes and I only syringed at the first two checks.

She didn't drink til 16 miles. She drank great all the way back to camp, then after lunch she was pissy and wouldn't drink again til the trough at about 39 miles - but again, she drank heavily at that trough, the trough 2 miles from the last VC, the last VC, and the trailer. I have finally started to relax and trust that she's taking care of herself. Her hydration scores were consistently good.

And speaking of that - this was the first ride where I assumed she was ok. Every AERC ride we've done, I have been assuming that she's about to die and hopefully the vets would notice before she fell over. This ride, I just assumed she was ok, mechanically and metabolically, and hoped the vets would notice if I was wrong. YAY.

Dixie looked good after the ride. Her flanks got a little tucked in from the inevitable dehydration (endurance athletes, equine or human, can't replenish their fluids completely during an event - they always finish a couple % dehydrated), but they'd improved the next morning.

All four legs had a tiny bit of fill overnight. I need to walk her more often before bed and before we load up to go home. Do poultices work, or do they just make the humans feel better about things? What about wrapping, does that work and how would I learn how to do it? Is it just disguising the problem, or does it actually help prevent future lameness?

Of course nothing rubbed her. This is the up side to having a thick skinned horse that takes 10 minutes and 10 gallons of water to pulse down. :)

2012 Washoe Valley II 50 miler

Yall. Theoretically, you're supposed to give your horse her last meal of "grain" three hours before the ride starts, so that it's in the right place in her guts to do her the most good while you're riding. But that's 3 am, and NOBODY wakes up at 3 am thinking "yep time to feed the horse." But I did! I woke up at 2:30 because it was so cold I needed to turn the heater back on, and I made the ultimate sacrifice: I got completely out of the sleeping bag, put my shoes on, climbed out of the tent (yes it was even colder outside), and dumped the pre-soaked beet pulp / hay pellet / grain mix for her. I am the champion.

My alarm went off at 5 am, and HOLY SHIT IT WAS COLD. I was seriously reconsidering my choice of sports. I turned on the truck to charge my phone, made coffee, checked the horse (yep she ate all that 3 am grain and licked the pan), slathered ICE COLD Butt Butt'r on my ladybits, and generally felt very sorry for myself. Eventually, with some coffee and some blessed heat in the truck, I felt up to the challenge.

I pulled Dixie's cooler, tacked her up, and threw the waterproof blanket on top of the saddle. Her cooler is a fleece job with a closed chest, so it slips over her head like a sweater and fits snugly. The blanket fits more loosely, and it's got an open chest that closes with velcro and some buckles, so it's easier to drape it over a saddled horse. Everybody does this, and I've done it at almost every ride before.

At 6:20 it was time to mount up, so I undid the belly straps, un-velcro'd the chest, and pulled the blanket off my horse. Except it didn't come off completely - one of the leg straps caught on the pommel bag and OH MY GOD, HOLY SHIT, THERE'S A PURPLE MONSTER ON MY ASS I'M GOING TO DIE Dixie started flailing around like a 3/4 ton marlin on a line.

Horse people know exactly how horrifying this is, but I have a couple of non-horse readers: this is seriously bad. This is exactly how horses kill themselves and cripple themselves. It's the second worst possible outcome - if her halter, lead, or hi-tie had broken and she'd RUN THROUGH CAMP WITH A PURPLE MONSTER EATING HER ASS it could possibly have been worse. The only thing I could do was stand at the corner of the trailer talking loudly but calmly to her, telling her what a good girl she was and how it was ok. About five and a half hours later, Dixie slowly started to calm down and looked at me and stood still. She was literally shaking like a leaf.

I just stepped up and started scratching her neck telling her what a wonderful brave amazing horse she was. Her muscles started to relax a tiny bit. I told her she was outstanding and I'd save her if she'd just hold still, and I slowly ran a hand back and unhooked half the blanket, then I ducked around and started scratching her neck on the other side and slid down and unhooked the blanket. She darted away from it. I picked it up and rubbed it on her nose and told her how silly she was.

Then I bridled her, led her around to make sure she hadn't gone lame, and mounted up. We walked pretty calmly up to the start gate, let the hotshoes roar on out, and then I was cold and I thought maybe if we trotted I'd warm up so we went out mid-pack.

Dixie's brains fell out her ears for the second time that day. It was horrible. I was so cold I couldn't feel my feet or my hands. It was all I could do to hold her to a fast gait - she kept trying to bolt and I'd yank her back with my numb hands and she'd start bucking/cantering in place and I'd let her go and she'd gait for a hundred feet then try to gallop. Rinse and repeat over and over.

I felt very sorry for my dumb ass.

But then the sun peeked over the hills and this beautiful fog started coming up from the valley. We hit the water trough at the top of the park, maybe 2 miles in, right behind a guy. He stopped, so I manhandled Dixie to a stop, and two more people came up behind us. I didn't even make Dixie stand at the trough, but I did insist she not run off til all the horses declined to drink. We walked across the road, I let her gait off, and the worst was over. She was still chasing the horses ahead of us, but she wasn't trying quite so hard to gallop after them.

A couple miles further along, we came across the ride photographers, and Dixie and I took the World's Worst Ride Pictures. I have this utterly terrified death's head grin on my face, and my head's down at a funny angle so I have a double chin, and Dixie looks completely freaked out, and in one of them she'd just tried to bolt so I was hauling on the reins and her mouth is gaping open like some Don't Do This You Asshole educational photo. It's bad. I might post it anyway, it's that hilariously bad.

But! Man we look sharp! Everything except my breastcollar is blue and purple, wheee!

At the bottom of Jumbo Grade, we finally caught the horses ahead of us - it was our friends B&D and another rider I didn't know. I gladly let them "tow" us up the big hill at Jumbo, and we all hopped off to walk down the back side. We all walked the horses down a waterfall-of-rock trail, and when it leveled off a bit B&D mounted up and headed off. The other rider, L, asked if I'd like her to wait while I got on, and I said YES PLEASE, and we hopped on up and spent the rest of the ride together.

Dixie did a great job as lead horse. She headed out with her Big Walk, and L's mare walked the rocks and trotted the nice bits and kept up just fine. L had ridden Saturday too, and she was also looking for a nice easy 10 hour finish. We wound on down through some lovely views, and when it leveled out we hit a water tank and both horses drank. While they were finishing, M and a couple other new people showed up, so I said hi but our horses were done and off we went. Dixie trotted off strongly, and L was sure our pace was good, so we stayed in the lead and zipped along the flat bits. There were two railroad crossings, but Dixie just took a good look at the ties and rails and walked calmly over them. ET and somebody else passed us, but Dixie somehow managed to stay cool about the whole thing.

We lost sight of all the horses ahead of us on a rocky powerline road through the hills, but then M and the other new person, C, caught up and we all slogged on through the rough bit. We climbed up the hills outside of camp, then decided to hop off and walk the horses down the steep grade to camp. C was trying to find a pocket by herself, so she took off a little bit ahead of us. The three of us stuck together quite happily.

The road down the hill toward camp is quite steep (-14% grade), hardpacked sand dust over solid rock. I slipped, twisted as I fell, and slammed my knee down. I cussed, got back up, walked like fifteen feet, and fell AGAIN, on the SAME KNEE. FML.

M and Info the Mustang, shortly before I fell.

My Kerrits winter tights get an A for durability. My knee was crusty with blood but they didn't rip. I like to think that the half-chaps protected my shins from damage, but I didn't really fall on my shin...

Sand over rocks.

So I gimped on into camp after the first 25 mile loop. We had an hour hold. Dixie vetted through just fine - B's for mucous membranes and gut sounds, indicating that she needed to eat and drink, but A's for everything else and a good CRI, so she wasn't too tired. At the trailer, she dove into her mash and hay and carrots, and I spent a little while taking care of myself. I slathered on more Butt Butt'r, glared at my knee wound, and ate a quarter pound of ham and an apple. I gave Dixie another half-dose of electrolytes. I refilled my knockoff Camelbak, which was performing adequately if not superbly, and then realized I had a good 15 minutes to spare. I pulled the rain fly off the tent, rolled it up, and shoved it in the tent bag, then packed a couple of things from inside the tent, then decided it was time to mount back up. I went to pick up my gloves and there was only one glove.

After 5 frantic minutes of searching, I realized I must've rolled the left glove up with the tent and shoved it into the bag. I was now out of time to look for it, and I only had one spare right glove in the trailer, so I headed out like some demented white-girl Michael Jackson. The only drawback to biothane reins is that they get slippery if your hands are at all damp, and I dunno about you, but when my horse starts yanking on the reins trying to bolt off, my hands get damp, and that's when I need a good grip on the reins. So gloves are not essential, but they sure are nice to have. Oh well.

I met up with M and L at the out gate, and we headed off merrily together on the second 18 mile loop. We were all sort of planning on a 10-hour ride, and we'd gotten in after the first loop an hour and a half faster than we'd thought, so we were in no rush. We'd looked at the map, and M and I are pretty familiar with the area, but I didn't know exactly where we were going (and I don't think she did either). All we knew was this loop went "up and up and up."

We plinked along some really lovely singletrack beside Eastlake Boulevard, the main road. Horror of horrors, the mild weather plus the lake equalled flies. My poor princess has not had an insect touch her glowing white hide in almost a full year, and she reacted poorly. These stupid slow black flies drove her NUTS. I don't think they were biting flies, but they were touching her face and she could not stop slinging her head. I felt so bad for her. I would smash them with my whip whenever they landed on her neck, and she appreciated it, but it wasn't enough.

At some point I took the lone glove off and looked less retarded.


L was happy in the middle or back, and M's Info only has two gears currently: a 3 mph walk or a 13 mph trot. So Dixie ended up as lead horse again. I kept telling her that if she'd walk faster, the flies might not get her, and she did a pretty good job. We caught up to C for a bit, then she took off again. The trail was pretty nice, only rocky in bits, and we were having a grand old time - til we popped over a rise and saw the water tanks at the crossroads and realized where we were going.

We climbed that hill.

There's a gravel (?) mine in that extinct volcano mountain. It's an active mine, so there's a very nice truck-quality gravel road that switchbacks up to the mine, then some jeep trail leading up to the top. We had to go up that hill, circle around behind it, and come down a different trail that went like 50' from the big gravel road. We could see horses slowly marching up it and horses gallivanting down the trail on the other side.

C was off her horse at the water tanks, feeding him hay. We rode up and joined her. She was flinging hay into one of the tanks, then fishing out the wet stuff and offering it to him, so we all stood around for 15 minutes feeding wet hay to each others' horses. Of course our own horses didn't want stupid soggy hay from our hands, but they wanted the delicious wet hay the strangers had. Everybody ate a lot of hay and drank a lot of water and eventually, reluctantly, we all remounted and headed on the death march.

C was riding a "formerly paint" grey NSH/Arab (exactly like Phoebes, I think) who had a great walk, so I sicced Dixie on him and we plodded up the road at 4.5 mph. Then 4 mph. Then 3 mph. Then M and L caught us at 2.8 mph. I checked Facebook. I responded to a lady who emailed me about my Craigslist "goat for sale" post. Dixie was SO UNAMUSED.



We kept getting excited when we'd make it to a turn, but there was just MORE HILL behind every turn. We checked out the riders behind us who were glaring at the hill from the water tank or slowly death-marching up behind us. It was 2.2 miles of hell with 1100' of Everest climbing.

Approximately four thousand hours later, we hit the top and found another water tank. The horses drank great and grazed for a while and we headed for home. C took off again - still looking to ride alone, poor thing - and the three of us stuck together.

Here's the really cool bit: A billion years ago, in 2009 when I'd first come to Reno, I rode this bit of trail. I had gone camping with two decidedly not endurance riders, and we just went exploring in the hills. We found this long rocky switchback down to the lake, and as we rode I noticed some old dolomite dots and a ribbon or two hidden under the sagebrush, and I deduced that it was an endurance ride trail and it must be from the Washoe Ride. And like some little kid watching the Space Shuttle launch who said "I wanna be an astronaut!", I said "I wanna do this ride some day!" Three years later, I did the ride.

It's a beautiful trail in early May. There's tons of desert peach just starting to bloom, and it's not nearly so rocky when your horse has boots on, and it's not nearly so long when your horse is in great shape and you've got great friends to hang out with. It was pretty special.

I think we rolled on into camp for the last hold at 3 pm. The shorter second loop took HOURS longer than the first loop. It was, in fact, up and up and up. The second hold was just 15 minutes - I wanted to change clothes, but Dixie said she was hungry so we just stood at the vet check and she ate hay and grass for the whole time. She carried me up Death March Hill; the least I can do is be uncomfortable for one more hour.



C and L headed out of the last hold, but I could see M walking up so I waited for her. She hopped up on Info and I pointed Dixie at her buddies trotting off and said "go get 'em!" and she did. It was another amazing moment that made the hell of the morning totally worth it: my horse had done 40some miles, but she had gas left in the tank. We caught up quickly and roared up this amazingly fun twisty singletrack to the top of the park. We hit the tank at the north end of the park, let them graze for a few minutes, and trotted off again - west to the lake, then southeast back to camp. C and I ended up together again with the fast-walking beasties, and we decided we needed to trot to the finish. We trotted up to the big white finish line and both horses slammed on the brakes - they knew they were done. We were finished at 4:10 pm.

Dixie was clearly still very hungry. I took her back to the trailer, pulled tack, and let her devour another pan of mush and some hay. When she slowed down, I took a deep breath and lead her over to vet out - and she was SOUND. She PASSED. She got A's and B's for everything with a kickass CRI (like 56/50 or something, just outstanding numbers for us). She had cold, tight, sound legs and loose muscles and a perky look in her eye.

As always, the hardest part was packing up. I really don't mind riding cavalry, without any crew, but trying to leave after a ride is brutal. The boots, which did not budge all day, also did not budge when I tried to get them off - I ended up sitting down, slowly yanking them back and forth off of each foot. Then I took down the tent, packed away the million things I'd brought, packed up my trash, scattered the manure and hay and leftover mash, stowed the hi-tie, loaded the horse, and went HOME. I had the best shower in the universe and slept in the best bed in the universe in a gloriously warm house, and I felt remarkably good today.

My girl looked great this morning, too. Cold tight legs, a little tucked up in the butt but not too bad. A little "oh don't even THINK about coming over here," but generally in a good mood.


And that lady I emailed came and picked up the goat today. He's gone to live on a hobby farm with a llama and some chickens. Dixie's hollered a few times for him, but mainly she's eating and chilling out at the fenceline with her horse neighbors.

To steal Aarene's line: Life is good.

Washoe Valley pre-ride

Ok, let's get to it!

Apparently this waiting-to-do-a-50-and-getting-ready-to-move thing is stressful. It's kind of like slowly boiling a frog. I was vaguely aware that I was wound way too tight, and I knew I should relax, but I didn't really realize just how tight I was wound.

Washoe is a two-day ride - you can ride the 25 or 50 on Saturday, Sunday, or both days. I planned to go out Friday, hang out in camp and volunteer on Saturday, and ride the Sunday ride. With a two or three day ride, the Sunday ride is usually a little easier, plus the Sunday ride was co-sanctioned with my local NEDA organization - so I could do a not-quite-so-hard 50 AND get NEDA points. Sign me up! I packed 99% of what I'd need, dumped a bunch of food for the goat and cats, loaded the dog and horse, and drove down to Washoe Lake early Friday afternoon.

(Stuff I didn't pack: my good Camelbak. I left it in a friend's horse trailer a month ago, and I haven't caught up with her to get it back, and I'm sure it's full of Death Mold anyway, so I picked up a $20 knockoff at Walmart. I hate knockoff Camelbaks, but Walmart is seductive that way. I didn't pack the GPS, but I remembered a mile from the house and turned around and got it. I didn't pack people-hand-gloves, but I was pretty sure there were two or three somewhere in the truck or trailer.)

Mainly I wanted to get away from the house and boxes and piles of to-do lists, but I was also hoping that a day in camp would do Dixie some good. And it did! She is inclined to stare at the horses coming and going instead of concentrating on eating like she's supposed to. I left her pretty much alone on Friday and Saturday, and she eventually quit staring and started eating. She ate and drank great, and I started electrolyting her on Saturday evening.

I drank four beers (Corona, happy Cinco de Mayo!) and decided it would be a great idea to ride bareback through camp. I did put the bridle on, and of course I wore a helmet, and even though it took me four tries to leap on my tall-ass horse from the top of the ice chest, it was a great idea. The way I see it, Dixie has only three advantages over the Arabs in the sport: she's got a great walk, she's got an amazing brain, and she's always the most beautiful horse in attendance. And how else to show off one's horse's great brain and walk and beauty than by drunkenly meandering through camp? ;)

The weather was absolutely perfect for the horses: high in the low 60s, no precipitation, no humidity, and breezy but not incredibly windy. Sadly, the drawback was that it got COLD at night - down near freezing. I survived better than at Rides of March - I put up the truck tent, put the broken-zipper sleeping bag under my cot, wrapped my cold toes in one of those silver emergency blankets, snuggled up in all my clothes and the good sleeping bag, and turned the buddy heater on a couple of times. (Yes, I have a CO detector.)

It was the weekend of the Supermoon, and they're not kidding. I kept waking up thinking I'd massively overslept and it was 7 am, but no, the moon was just THAT bright.

I woke up Saturday feeling extremely peculiar. My throat hurt and my head was completely emptied of any thoughts at all. They had plenty of volunteers, and I ended up reading my Kindle and napping all day. I took two naps and almost fell asleep again about 4, but I decided that was a terrible idea and started getting ready for Sunday instead.

"Don't do anything new at a ride" is more of a suggestion than a commandment, so I tried Easyboot Gloves at the ride. I know, I've been a longtime fan of Renegades, and I feel oddly guilty for "cheating" on them. But Dixie has such a low daisy-clipping way of going, and as she gets tired, she goes even lower. Gloves have much less bulk at the front of the boot, so there's less plastic skimming the ground ready to catch her hoof on a rock. I didn't want Epics or original Easyboots - gloves or nothing, thanks. I tried on C and S's boots two weeks ago and decided that 0.5's might work, then I measured her after a fresh trim and decided that yes, 0.5's were the right choice. I ordered two, because I was planning on doing Renegades on the backs.

So Friday I put on the Gloves on front and rode Dixie on the beach. We walked in the deep sand while Cers played in the waves, then I coaxed Dixie into riding on the wet sand and letting the waves lick her feet. We went a couple miles up the beach, then turned back for camp and flew down the flat hard sand roads. The Gloves stayed put, with no sand in the boots or gaiters, but I didn't think they looked right. You're supposed to get a tiny bit of spread in the V at the front of the boot, and with a fresh trim, she had no spread. I bought Powerstraps too, but I wasn't sure how to install them / if I should install them.

Saturday afternoon, I went and found Lucy, who's one of the helpful Team Easyboot people. She brought a couple sizes of boots over to my camp and we tried them on - yes, 0.5's were the right size, and yes, they weren't fitting quite right. Dixie has close to perfect rear feet, a little flaring on the outside walls but not bad. Her front feet have persistently contracted heels, even when I keep them totally thrush-free and trimmed weekly. They're just never going to round out like they should, because of the shoes and pads when she was so young.

So Lucy gave me some athletic tape, loaned me a pair of 0.5's with powerstraps already installed, and showed me how to tape hooves. Let me tell you, it's just as much trouble as I thought it would be - and it WORKS. It's not something I'd want to do for every training ride, but it's definitely worth it for competitions. Dixie was EXTREMELY UNAMUSED by all this attention to her feet, and by the time I was taping the fourth hoof I was clinging to it for dear life, yelling "NOOOOO hold still" while she flapped it around like I was a troublesome sagebrush attached to her back leg. But I didn't let her put it down (and get sand on the tape, ruining the tape job), and she eventually gave up and let me finish. The new 0.5's fit picture-perfect on her back hooves, and the powerstrapped 0.5's went very snugly on her front feet.

I bought a cantle bag from Henry and shoved two Renegades in it as insurance. So if you're keeping count at home: four new boots, one new piece of gear on the saddle, a new knockoff Camelbak, and new half chaps. Like I said, it's a suggestion.

I have this irrational aversion to really long posts, so I'll quit here and start working on the Ride Post right now.

Easyboot trial - do these fit?

I got J's boots on today! They're old-style classic Easyboots, size 0. I would never in a million years have guessed that this horse would end up a size 0! But these certainly aren't too small. I don't think.

I got them on and strapped down TIGHT, just like the directions say, then we headed out for a hand walk around the pueblo house. There's one section of road with new gravel, that stuff the size of a ping pong ball that horses hate to walk on, and I've always let her go around it. I insisted that she walk with me over the big gravel, and she wasn't sure about it for a couple of steps, then realized the boots protected her feet and started striding out heel-first. Yay! We went through some pretty deep sand, over hard road with teeny bits of gravel loose on top, over a bit of pea sized gravel, and even got the boots wet. She wanted to drink out of a puddle and got one boot wet and full of sand.

I am not sure they fit right. Any Easycare people lurking? Anybody know how classic easyboots are supposed to fit? Here's some pictures...

She was standing like this eating a bit of grain, so the right front is way back in all the pictures.


Left front lateral. Is the boot supposed to gape open there at the quarters? Because the cable's on the tightest setting.


Right front lateral gapes the same way.


Left front medial fits a bit tighter against her hoof.


Apparently I didn't take a right front medial.

I played with the contrast a lot so you can maybe kinda see how the boots fit in the heels.



Her feet are almost "round" - not circular, but the same width as length. It's within a couple millimeters. Based on what the two sites say, she might be better off in Renegades, but I'm willing to try the Easyboots.

Thursday I'm going to go riding - back up the rocky hills - for a more comprehensive test.