WOW, 35 years is a really LONG time, as evidenced in these photos, and for context, the pic above is Sandman and I this past weekend at the Tonto 50-mile ride and on one below is Sea Ruler and I in 1989, on a road in Ohio riding across America heading east into West Virginia.
Today, 35 years later, Sandman and I finished 18th at the Tonto Twist 50 miler on a super cold day with ice on the trail and in very rough rocky terrain, we rode slow and we finished and along the way, we smiled and laughed with our ride buddies Aileen and Sarah and it was a nice accomplishment for us both for a number of different reasons and our first 50 miler in a while.
But before I tell that story, I’ll step back a few decades in an effort to put our current training, and accomplishments into perspective and talk a bit about growing older, speed, and fear. So now it’s 1989, and I’m in Tucson at Al-Marah Arabians training three of Bazy Tankersley’s horses, one of which was the horse in this photo, Sea Ruler who could have been in every manner, shape, and form a twin to Sandman today.
At that time, I was training on the streets of Tucson to ride across America and then later, subsequently rode those horses 2963 miles coast to coast. We started in May of 1989, in saltwater on Huntington Beach in CA and we finished in October in saltwater on Chesapeake Beach in Maryland.
During those 150 days, I rode some days longer and some days shorter, but I rode every day, and averaged 19.75 miles daily for 150 straight days alternating three horses.
This picture is of my youngest horse Sea Ruler, who at that time, was the same age as Sandman is today and he was just as goosey if not more so and as I sit here today I wonder how we made it all the way across America and thru all of those obstacles, 1000’s upon 1000’s of cars and trucks daily zooming by us, dozens of bridges, river crossings, 1000’s of miles of city rides along the streets and highways of America in the dark and in the daylight thru countless road construction zones and then right into Washington DC, thru Arlington Cemetery and up onto the White House lawn for pictures with Senator McCain and Congressman Kolbe and then out Pennsylvania Avenue to a saltwater beach in Maryland.
Now I say all that to say this is where growing older, speed, and fear, all come together to play a role in what I’m doing today with Sandman and while I struggle often to overcome some of the even most basic obstacles, I just need to remember Bazy’s advice to me back then, “Lucian, you can walk and slow trot these horses across America and you can finish OR you can ride faster and struggle and you might not finish, it’s your call”.
When I’m riding now and I remember those words and don’t allow myself to get caught up in the race, and I ride more slowly and with intention like I did on that ride 35 years ago, Sandman is less anxious and he’s also happier. On these hard rocky trails with speed you and your horse have less time to react when decisions are made and you also have less time for the horses to overcome the anxiety that is triggered with obstacles you might confront and when you ride slower the extra “time” gives you a chance to breath and make better decisions.
I learned all of this 35 years ago and over time, I just somehow forgot these very basic and simple “riding rules”.
On this ride, I took some time to breath, to “enjoy the ride”, and to remember what Bazy said and apply it to my riding, because also, with age, I know I think and move more slowly (which is both a good and bad thing) and I need more time often to make good decisions and all of that “slow is better” thinking I believe translates for me now into better riding at least for me and especially as it pertains to Sandman.
I know it worked 35 years ago on Sea Ruler, Sweet William and March Along and so today, I know it can work again, so I used it on this ride and when I slowed him down all was better, when I let him run, we were riding on the edge and bad stuff happens when your riding on the edge, so I dialed it back every time he got fractious with speed and it worked.
The start of this ride was a perfect example of great team work for all three of our horses even with the “high energy” we all walked out on a loose rein and we even weathered some issues at the start with loose horses and moved on down the trail, incident free.
It was great riding with Aileen and Sarah and we kept it fun and even when we got really bored on the long rocky road that never seemed to end, we reverted to solving the world’s crises but then when we cleared the rocks we dropped out of world crisis solving mode and shifted into resolving more immediate problems like finding water and dodging the wrath of the “horse obstacle God” who seemed to want to place in front of us every make, model and version of possibly invented mechanized vehicles that you can imagine in an effort to scare our horses, and then when they ran out of vehicles, we had drones and mechanized parasailing to contend with and the coup de gras with 2 miles to go, kids crawling around playing hide and seek in the vegetation next to the trail and popping up like “whack a mole” and scaring the horses and then last but not least, a team of people with hunting hawks at the finish who were throwing meat out into the desert next to the trail for the their low flying hawks to practice their falconry…what next? Locusts? 🙂
But in the end, and after we had cleared the obstacle course, we were still in the saddle and still smiling and joking and our horses were still ready to rock-n-roll and in Sandman’s case scored all A’s on his final Vet check with a pulse of 48 at the finish. All good stuff and great learning for myself and Sandman and his confidence on the trail continues to build and this combined with his natural physical attributes is a combination that long term will really come together and pay off in a big way.
Finally, I want to thank Lancette Koerner and Ellen Weinel Hickey and all of the ride volunteers for their management and diligent support of this ride. Lancette and Ellen worked tirelessly to put together this ride and they kept it safe and fun and together with their volunteers, did a really amazing job and without exception are greatly appreciated. This coupled with the amazing Vets and Vet scribes who were always available and helpful and who put our horses first and they do it all very professionally but with a much needed sense of humor and finally and most importantly, my wife Lori, who held down the fort at home and cared for our sick puppy Shadow, we couldn’t do this stuff without her, she makes our world go round.
All in all it was another great ride weekend and as always in this sport, there was never a dull moment and the learning continues. As always, enjoy the ride, this was a good one 🙂
Sandman and Lucian