We had a few breakthroughs this past weekend as we took on the White Mountain Tango ride and in challengingly rugged but beautiful terrain with a LOT of climbing doing back to back ride’s we finished in 5th place on Day One and 9th place on Day Two. Our ride plan included a new traveling protocol for trailering to and from the race and a new electrolyte protocol for Sandman during the ride and as importantly, a different saddle, pad, and girth combination, new stirrups for me, and all of this in combination with months of weekly PT with Ian at Endurance Rehab and training in the gym when combined resulted in some break thru achievements but at the same time a few new issues popped up that still need work.
We went into this ride with a few “to do’s” to test and accomplish, one of which was to work on his confidence in crowded situations with high energy horses around him and with this in mind, our goal was a drama free start and to that end, mission accomplished, we walked out at the start without a jig or shy sideways and we made a very smooth transition to the trot. Another important area of improvement was riding alone and leaving and joining up with new horses along the trail which he did with less drama than ever before and on several occasions, he led various climbs and flats all alone and out in front with his pounding 12 mph trot without a care in the world. Lastly, crossing water, handling bike encounters, and crossing bridges. We weren’t able to work on these last three very much but in terms of bikes, he managed well thru a few of those encounters but scarily on one very narrow trail with a steep ravine on our left he had a complete come apart when confronted with a bike. As I think about this, he sensed the bike before I did and he was jiggly before the biker even came into view, given the precarious nature of that situation we still have work yet to accomplish on these last three, especially crossing water (which still is not his friend) and bridges.
Additionally, above and beyond our ride goals (above), his and my learning on this ride, included riding with cows on the trail everywhere all of whom will invariably get up (and scare the bejeebers out of Sandman at least initially), from their resting positions just as we were riding by, really high noisy rickety and rusty step over gates which for the first time, he allowed me to lead him across after opening the gate vs. riding over it, bikes on very narrow trails, bear bells on other horses (yes bells on the horses to scare off the bears), hunters in the woods hiding in camouflage, chainsaws on the side of the trail and the infamous Collarbone which is a deceivingly steep climb and more vertical than not at the base which is even more complicated by the fact that you confront it at the end of an ever smaller gauntlet of a trail that narrows as you approach the base (leaving you with nowhere to go but up) with cliffs on the left hand dropping into a steep ravine that seems to go on forever. Pictures do not do this claustrophobic juncture justice, when you arrive at the base, you look to your left and it’s a drop off down a steep ravine, you look to your right and your blocked by the mountain your about to climb and then you cock your head back to look up at the climb in front of you with railroad tie steps and it’s seemingly from that angle straight up.
All of this is complicated by the fact that you can’t sit at the base of the climb and mill around thinking about what you want to do or how you want to make the climb as the base is pretty confining and there are other horses coming down the trail behind you and if you sit there hemming and hawing for more than a second or two, the horses get even more anxious, so when you hit the base, ya set your drink on the table and choose a path and ya just kinda gotta “go for it” and keep in mind, there is no coming back down, once your on a path and your moving up, there is only one really safe way out of there (especially knowing more horses are coming down that narrow trail behind you) and that is up, and because I’m on Sandman (and he always makes life exciting and facetiously he’s kinda special that way and never does anything calmly or in slow motion) “going for it” means you grab a big chunk of his mane midway up his neck (because you don’t want to grab high up and pull him over backwards), you lean forward and over his neck, stay low and go straight up, leaping upward and essentially launching yourself upward from railroad tie to railroad tie, regrouping with all four feet in a millisecond on each tie and then using it as a launch pad and then “springing” straight up to the next step while hoping against hope that his back feet don’t slip off the railroad tie as he launches upward, and then amazingly, just when your ready to take a breath at the top, your confronted with one last big hazardous jumbled up ball of tree roots now staring at you at from eye level (because your coming up fast from below) about 2 feet high and 4 feet wide positioned conveniently right in our path but luckily about two feet back from the summit which we needed to once again of course (because it’s Sandman), leap over as well which for Sandman was the coup de gras as he caught his back left foot in those roots and tore off his back boot. I’ve calculated this climb to be about 40 feet from the base to the top which doesn’t seem on the surface to be a lot but the more than two story high climb in that short distance is a steep one. I’ve done this trail now on Sandman three times and every time, we’ve done the “bullfrog up the cliff face approach” and it is for sure, exciting but in the future, probably not the best approach and I think I’ll study it a bit and find a calmer route up
On a less dramatic note, this ride is a “must do” ride, the thinking, planning, and diligent detail that goes into making this such a well managed ride and unique as well and especially so because it is in such a remote location, never ceases to amaze me. Lancette and Ellen who double as the “dynamic duo” and all of the many volunteers and our amazing Vets Scott Houser and Mark Anderson, all together orchestrated the many details required to put on such a safe and fun ride, with smiling humor, humility and empathy everywhere. The food was great, dinners, and snacks everywhere you turn, and lunches and breakfast were so well done and the awards were fun, creative, and useful. I spent a lot of time around camp walking around and talking with everyone and catching up on family and friends, and then at night we had dinner and sat around the campfire talking and listening to stories some old and some new while coyotes, cows, and elk yelled back at us from the dark on the edges of camp as we talked about horses and life.
We enjoyed riding with Pam and while doing so, we talked strategy and how all that was working or not and as we traversed the route we checked each other for gear issues and double checked often our route maps (conveniently she more than me 🤣) while laughing along the way at ourselves and our anal retentive nature, it was a fun ride and time moved quickly. Camping next to Denise Bee was a joy with her useful Starlink system which was a special treat, and sharing our camp with Ashley, Brad, and Susie, and more than a few shots of Peanut Butter whiskey, and last but not least, our ride photographer David Wright, who doubles as Katherine Serna’s Dad and her crew, took some great pictures for everyone. All up all in a great ride weekend and one more notch on the belt for Sandman. Lori and I are so proud of our boy Sandman whose super friendly but always inquisitive nature like Dennis the Menace is a joy to be around and now such a trusted member of our family at Promise Ranch, signing off Lucian, Lori, Masquerade, Diamond, Sandman, and Shadow, enjoy the ride, this was a good one 🙂