I had zero plans of going, honestly. It's cold. I was going to work. I didn't feel like taking Socks who HAS done an LD at 7iL because I didn't want the sand to get up in his bell boots and rub him. Just, I wasn't going.
Until...D.C. reached out to me.
"R.C. is going to do the 75 on Tivio, and, he thinks he'll be too tired to do the 50 on the next day. Would you like to come ride Dez again? You're welcome to crash in our trailer."
Would I like to ride Dez again?
WOULD I?!!!
Resounding YES!!!
Cue mild freakout as I'm not together, but I have a week to get my shit together, pack (well, repack) my bag and toss everything in the car.
I was supposed to leave on Thursday to do the ride on Friday. Except on Wednesday, Kaylee was showing some signs of being a little sick. My parents were going to watch her for the whole weekend as I was planning to go up to B's for New Year's Eve (Joe was supposed to work his reserve police gig). But, as my sister's husband had just gotten out of the hospital with some intense sickness, and they were going to my parent's house for a delayed Christmas for my sister's granddaughter, mom asked that I not bring Kaylee until after they left.
Cue me buzzing all over the house in frustration as the time gets later and later. Kaylee was totally fine all day Thursday. I had INITIALLY planned to arrive at ride camp around 5:30.
Totally didn't happen. ALL my plans went to hell. I didn't arrive until 9ish, including getting lost once. So, missed ride meeting, but, 7iL is a nicely marked venue, easy to follow trails, but I took the map anyway, "just in case".
R.C. and Tivio headed out early on their 75, and D.C. and I laid around for a few extra minutes before we started getting Dez dressed.
She held him for me, and I swung up, did a few circles, let the front runners head out as I rode up, checked in and headed out on trail.
And almost immediately realized the Dezzie of River Run was NOT the Dezzie of High Roller. High Roller Dezzie could SEE the horses in front of him. And I was cold, so grabbed gloves with ZERO grab for the reins. BIG mistake. HUGE.
Dez charged through my hands. I could NOT slow him down. He was having none of my shit about staying behind horses and walking, or even gaiting calmly. I finally gave it up, and let him out just a little because I was bracing so hard with my hands it was, quite frankly, ridiculous. He's strong and he knows it. Race brain in full effect.
As we were heading out on this loop, we passed R.C. and Tivio circling back on it. He quickly assessed the situation and said "There's the Dez I know."
Yes, this was the Dezzie I had been warned about.
Dez and I keep having "discussions".
"No Dezzie, not so damn fast."
"Dezzie, LISTEN TO ME!!!"
*cue me turning him into the trees to slow him down*
"Dammit Dezzie, what did I just say?"
*cue me running him into the trees again*
We come to an open section and a nice young man on a sleek bay Arab comes up behind us at a trot and he asks to pass. I of course tell him that's fine.
And they break into a canter once they're a little way ahead of us....and I lose control of Dezzie.
He takes off like a shot, and I'm wrapping the reins around my hands trying to stop the mad dash.
Let me say, I wasn't scared, but I was annoyed. I was annoyed I wore the wrong type of glove. I was annoyed Dezzie wouldn't listen. And I was pissed at his first owner for allowing such a nice and naturally gifted horse to be like this.
I ended up running Dezzie in to a fence (not literally, but right up to it) to stop the mad dash. The young man offers to stick with us and slow down, for which I am appreciative. Eventually we end up in the woods, and I'm able to slow Dezzie enough that the young man is free to continue on his ride without waiting on us. But it involved circles. Turning Dez all the way around and back tracking the trail.
Every trick I could think of and had at my disposal to get him to listen to me, I was using shamelessly.
We finally come out of the trees, and we have some semblance of being a cohesive team.
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| He almost looks like he's listening, doesn't he? Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
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| I mean, doesn't he look like he's behaving? Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
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| I usually don't look this intense and serious. Apparently I get this way when focusing on NOT DYING! Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
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| Wheels falling off a little here. DEZ! Listen to me! Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
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| Thank you for listening Dez. Good boy. Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
We come in to camp, and D.C. is there to meet us. Dezzie is being a pill (took me a few moments of spinning him in circles so I could get him to stand still so I could, you know, DISMOUNT), and she and I are both on him to just STAND STILL and freaking BEHAVE!!
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| Talking to D.C. and doing a quick run through about how the first loop had gone. Credit to SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
I tell her I've offered him water, gave him a 10 count, then moved on, which is a strategy she says she also uses and approved of. His heart rate was a little high, so we try to offer him water (no dice, he wasn't having any of it), he drags me over to someone's alfalfa and snatches a mouthful (are you KIDDING me Dez?!) as I rip him back off of it. We get him to finally come down and we go to vet him through.
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| Realizing that the photographer is right there and you're completely oblivious. Credit SAGA Lifestyle Photography. |
Here's our Loop 1 stats:
Splits
| Time | Cumulative Time | Moving Time | Avg Speed | Avg Moving Speed | Max Speed | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10:45 | 10:45 | 10:37 | 5.6 | 5.7 | 9.3 | ||||
| 2 | 7:24.3 | 18:10 | 7:19 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 9.7 | ||||
| 3 | 7:00.5 | 25:10 | 6:56 | 8.6 | 8.7 | 10.1 | ||||
| 4 | 7:07.6 | 32:18 | 7:02 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 13.2 | ||||
| 5 | 8:17.7 | 40:35 | 8:07 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 10.2 | ||||
| 6 | 7:26.9 | 48:02 | 7:20 | 8.1 | 8.2 | 9.3 | ||||
| 7 | 8:51.1 | 56:53 | 8:41 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 9.9 | ||||
| 8 | 8:51.5 | 1:05:45 | 8:38 | 6.8 | 6.9 | 9.8 | ||||
| 9 | 7:51.2 | 1:13:36 | 7:39 | 7.6 | 7.8 | 11.2 | ||||
| 10 | 9:29.0 | 1:23:05 | 9:14 | 6.3 | 6.5 | 10.3 | ||||
| 11 | 10:57 | 1:34:02 | 10:52 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 10.9 | ||||
| 12 | 8:34.2 | 1:42:36 | 8:18 | 7.0 | 7.2 | 12.9 | ||||
| 13 | 10:01 | 1:52:37 | 9:57 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 12.3 | ||||
| 14 | 10:11 | 2:02:49 | 10:03 | 5.9 | 6.0 | 13.1 | ||||
| 15 | 10:36 | 2:13:24 | 10:24 | 5.7 | 5.8 | 11.1 | ||||
| 16 | 6:20.3 | 2:19:45 | 6:17 | 9.5 | 9.5 | 16.7 | ||||
| 17 | 14:41 | 2:34:26 | 9:48 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 9.1 | ||||
| Summary | 2:34:26 | 2:34:26 | 2:28:03 | 6.4 | 6.7 | 16.7 |
So, we're set up in a good position as we're heading out on our second loop.
About 2 miles in, that water and food was sitting so heavy in my stomach. I couldn't get comfortable in the saddle, and Dezzie was doing what I jokingly call the "Quarter Horse Death March". He wasn't particularly interested in gaiting out or moving quickly. He would, if asked, but he was just as happy to walk. I decided this wasn't awful, especially as I just couldn't seem to get balanced or centered. He also was telling me that the saddle wasn't comfortable.
We're making okay time. We're on target to finish, and that's all that matters.
All of a sudden, about 8 or so miles in, Dez flicks and ear back and charges forward. I cannot figure out what on earth is going on, and then I realize; we're being passed by the hot foot LD riders.
Son of a b....here we go again. I point him off trail into the weeds, we spin circles, go around trees, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING I can think of to get him to listen to me again.
He settles down, so I get back on the trail, and we continue on, though, now that he KNOWS they're up there, he's hell bound to ignore me, so he's blistering along faster than I want him to be. This sand makes me very uncomfortable when I'm on a horse I can't rate. Suspensory and tendon issues come to mind, and I do NOT want that to happen to ANY horse.
We circle back on trail, we're back to doing those tricks again. And FINALLY he seems to settle back down again.
GREAT!! Whew!! Okay...and he starts to sandbag me. "Oh I'm sooooooo tired....I just want to DIEEEEEEE...."
Dramatic much Dez? I tell him when we get back, we'll swap saddles for him. I'm so sorry. I carry on a stream of conversation...then, out of the blue, he takes off...we're heading around a corner, he's charging ahead, and I cannot tell you what happened next as I got separated from my horse at this point.
I vaguely remember riders asking me if I'm okay. I told them I'm fine. I think they asked if I needed them to call anyone. Just said if they could call camp and let them know, I'd appreciate it. And I started hiking, I think. I DO eventually have a clear memory of walking down the trail. I was a little confused for a moment. I knew where I was. I knew I'd driven there, and I was PRETTY sure Joe hadn't come with me. As a few moments ticked by, I snapped back into it, and was concerned that Dez would be lost on the ranch.
However, in less than a mile, I see ahead a bay horse, and a person holding the horse.
It's DEZ!!!! OMG!! He'd been caught!! A crew of people came up at that point and they checked to make sure I was okay. Said I was fine, I was going to finish this damn ride now. But, was my horse okay? Were there any rules about needing to back track to where we'd separated? But mostly, was he OKAY?!!!! They trotted him out, we all watched him, he looked fine to us, so they said "Just get back in the saddle, and go. You're okay."
Zurkh's mom, D.H. was there, she helped boost my big butt back into the saddle and said "Ride that horse hard, he's not tired."
So I did. He moved out fine, gaited strongly. I was gritting my teeth, not angry, but in determination at this point. I was still a little fuzzy on things, but, by god, I was going to ride this horse!
We make it back in to camp (apparently we'd just missed R.C. heading back out with Tivio), and D.C. is there to meet us again. Once again, we take a few extra minutes to get him pulsed down, and then head over to the vets, where everything is okay, except for his guts. Vet wants us to do a recheck before we head back out though. Not a surprise, I couldn't get him slowed down enough to eat if I'd had 24 hours to finish a 50. He just wasn't having it. So, D.C. and I took him back to the trailer, offered him food, and she took him to hand graze him on some of the grass, hoping to get his guts moving.
I was a little less enthusiastic about eating; so gulped down some water and just sat for a few minutes.
D.C. and I got my saddle on him, and headed back over to the vets to have the recheck done.
Guts were still crappy, but, he wasn't gaiting out soundly now. A slightly "off ness" on his right front (I believe...could have been left front). We stood around and talked about it. The guts issue wasn't a problem for us. We could slow it down, almost walk much of this loop. But that leg.
One of our primary objectives for this ride was to break Dez of the "All rides are 25 miles, so I can skip eating and drinking" mindset. If we stopped at this point, we further reinforced this issue for him. But, if we continued, there was potentially no way he'd finish sound.
It wasn't a long discussion ultimately. That leg was JUST enough of NQR for us to take the vet's offer of a Rider Option. We were disappointed, but not greatly. I was freaked out that I'd hurt him.
The general consensus is when he made that turn where I came off, he probably hit a little hole in that sand and torqued it just a little bit. He was just fine and back to 100% in a few days, but that didn't alleviate my sheer guilt it happened under my watch.
We walked him back to the trailer, stripped tack and settled him in with hay while we waited for R.C. to come in off his loop with Tivio. I at least wanted to wish them continued good luck before I left for the evening!
Which I got to do before leaving around 6ish. Tivio looked great when I left, and I think they only had 1 or 2 more loops left to go at that point.
So, it was disappointing for me to not get that 50 knocked out on Dezzie. Truthfully, he has it in him. I can FEEL it. He's a sandbagger, which isn't necessarily a desireable quality, but if he can just lock in on his job, eat and drink on trail, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.
OH! And, here's our stats for the second loop.
Splits
| Time | Cumulative Time | Moving Time | Avg Speed | Avg Moving Speed | Max Speed | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8:12.4 | 8:12.4 | 8:10 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 13.3 | ||||
| 2 | 6:21.8 | 14:34 | 6:18 | 9.4 | 9.5 | 15.7 | ||||
| 3 | 8:28.4 | 23:03 | 8:28.4 | 7.1 | 7.1 | 14.3 | ||||
| 4 | 10:37 | 33:40 | 10:34 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 10.5 | ||||
| 5 | 9:33.2 | 43:13 | 9:29 | 6.3 | 6.3 | 11.8 | ||||
| 6 | 8:18.8 | 51:32 | 8:06 | 7.2 | 7.4 | 13.4 | ||||
| 7 | 9:05.6 | 1:00:37 | 9:00 | 6.6 | 6.7 | 11.9 | ||||
| 8 | 13:34 | 1:14:11 | 13:29 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 11.4 | ||||
| 9 | 11:43 | 1:25:54 | 11:35 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 11.9 | ||||
| 10 | 12:38 | 1:38:32 | 12:29 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 11.5 | ||||
| 11 | 6:21.7 | 1:44:54 | 6:16 | 9.4 | 9.6 | 17.7 | ||||
| 12 | 7:08.1 | 1:52:02 | 7:03 | 8.4 | 8.5 | 14.9 | ||||
| 13 | 16:36 | 2:08:37 | 15:04 | 3.6 | 4.0 | 11.8 | ||||
| 14 | 25:27 | 2:34:04 | 16:19 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 9.8 | ||||
| Summary | 2:34:04 | 2:34:04 | 2:23:05 | 5.3 | 5.8 | 17.7 |
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