Sandman REALLY humped it and he REALLY earned his 50-mile 10th place finish at the Land of the Sun ride this past weekend. This was a super fun ride over really challenging terrain in sketchy weather, and for this reason, I call it the “ride of attrition” as teams dropped out along the way on this very tough technical trail that was all parts, muddy and slippery from the rain the night before but then within a few steps rocky and deep sand for miles.
With this footing shifting under us constantly and numerous steep climbs and descents thrown it was a real technical bugger boo and maybe the “next new” toughest ride in our region, but at the same time, a lot of fun as well.
For those of you who may be following Sandman and I, but aren’t in our riding community, we went into this ride with a few objectives, key of which was to work on his confidence around high energy horses and more specifically at the start with the chaos around him and with this in mind, our goal was to start drama free and to that end, mission accomplished, we walked out in the dark at the start on a loose rein without a jig or shy sideways and after the horse ahead of us briefly spooked at some shadows, we made a very smooth transition to the trot.
Another important area of improvement was leading along the trail which we have more work to do on, as he was reluctant on this ride to lead out on the “leaving camp” portion of our loops and I think it was because we didn’t rotate as we normally do early on in the ride and he just fell into the “I’m following today” mode. However, on a few strategic occasions, when we were dragging a bit on the outbound portion of the 3 loops we were riding, he did lead out in front with his pounding 12 mph trot without a care in the world.
Lastly, crossing water, is an obstacle I’ve wanted to work on and in this ride, we had a LOT of water to contend with, so we were able to practice this a bit as well and after his first attempt to literally leap the feeder stream, he was able to walk thru the rest of the water obstacles.
In terms of his scores at the Vet check, we finished the ride with straight A’s and a pulse of 48 (and one minus on gut sounds) and it was a good tough ride and he traveled to and from camp calmly and ate and drank like a champ along the trail.
I’ve intentionally been working to fill gaps with training and experiences on skills that were sorely missing from our repertoire and ones that we really needed to master to make “real” progress. This list has grown, but in general, these skills included, 1) night riding, 2) crossing bridges, 3) standing calmly for his hoof trimming, 4) moving thru water obstacles, 5) trailer to and from rides and camping at events calmly, 6) managing his interaction with cattle along the trails, and finally, 7) calmly interacting with other horses and finding a way to start each race without being fractious and jiggy, and 8) leading with enthusiasm and confidence.
It’s a lot for a horse whose already doing 50s and has a 75-mile completion as well, but these eight (now) skills are critical skills to master so that we can compete consistently at a higher level. We’ve been able to make progress on many of them, but we still need to work on water and leading, and the bridge skill is yet to be really tested, but stay tuned, we’ve got more yet to come and more to report on down the road.
In closing, I want to thank Karen Leiman and her team of volunteers who did an amazing job and put on a fun and safe event, and who are appreciated greatly by the endurance community they serve, and this effort coupled with the amazing Vet’s led by Dr. Mark Anderson and his team of Vet scribes who were always available and helpful and did it all with a smile and sense of humor were great to work with.
We rode this ride with Sarah and Shamey and it was always fun and upbeat as we checked one another often for gear and questioned one another on the trail directions, you just couldn’t ask for a better partner to share 11 hours in the saddle with and Shamey was a monster and attacked the trail always.
We also enjoyed camping with our training partners Mary Jane and Elle, Susie and Brad and as always, sharing camp with them is a lot of fun (even though the trailer ride in was a harrowing experience) 😊.
All in all, it was great fun and another amazing ride weekend with great friends and great horses. I think we just gotta smile, relax, and enjoy the ride we’re on, we only get one and this one was a good one.
Enjoy the ride!! 🙂