The THREE AMIGOS, in a very characteristic (of endurance riding) photo of Debra and Mary Jane and Sandman and I somewhere around mile 43 coming down out of the mountains and headed back to camp.
Sandman and I rode the Land of the Sun Wickenburg 50 mile event this past weekend. The weather was perfect with high 70’s in the afternoon, you could not ask for a better day for riding.
This was the first 50 mile test of Sandman’s new glue on shoes and even though they had some mileage on them and we’d been training on these shoes for 2 weeks and they held up well and stayed on in the rough rocky terrain, due in large part to Christina’s patient trim and diligent application process.
Sandman scored straight A’s across the board, with one B on “skin tenting”, which is one of 5 hydration criteria on his Vet card. His pulse coming in to the VET checks was in the low to mid 50’s and well below the 60 threshold.
It was a long 50 mile ride and the 3rd loop of 16.7 miles was two miles shorter than the 1st loop but took us an hour longer to complete, due in large part to the more arduous terrain we needed to traverse on loop 3. It was a challenging but beautiful ride, and the trails were well marked with both flags and on the GPS mapping program as well.
We thoroughly enjoyed riding with Debra and Mary Jane and as the miles sorta 🙂 flew by, we laughed and joked about our wavering focus and keeping our glass half full, 🙂 we finished 7th, 8th, and 9th, while having a great ride together.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Karen Leiman and her team and congratulate them and the volunteers on another great event. They all do an amazing job, and the rides are without exception, fun, safe, and fully staffed with the best Vets Dr. Anderson, and Martha Barbone and the volunteers, Jenny, Steve, Bonnie, and Kim were everywhere you turn. The trails are all well marked showing all of the many twists and turns over 50 miles and the radio crew out on the trails are second to none and super helpful.
All up in all, a really great event and so much fun for the riders and horses. We to a rider, without exception, appreciate the hard work of the ride management team, Vet’s and volunteers.
Lori and I are so proud of Sandman. Just a really great weekend, enjoy the ride, this was a great one. 🙂