As always, my ride schedule was up in the air until the very last minute. No Frills and the Cheshire CTR in Pennsylvania, the first ride I ever did with Steel, and coincidentally her first ride, are on the same weekend. No Frills features two days of riding, Saturday and Sunday. Cheshire is a Sunday ride. Out of the two, I wanted to do No Frills because I haven't done it before and it's AERC, which always takes priority for me. However, I don't have my own horse to ride so... what's that expression?... beggars can't be choosers.
Originally, Dodie and I were supposed to do Cheshire together. Dodie has dibs on me for the season. After Rabbit Run, Wendy offered to have me ride Sterling at No Frills. For a hot second, I debated doing 55 miles in Virginia on Saturday, driving home to sleep in my bed, and doing 25 miles in Pennsylvania on Sunday. I am aware that this is crazy talk. I had also planned on doing that in 2014, but those plans crashed and burned. As it turns out, the decision was out of my hands.
It was settled. Dodie and I would do the Cheshire CTR on Sunday.
Except, then Daisy went up to Foxcatcher with Kelsey and kicked some serious horsey butt. Dodie is realizing that she has quite the endurance riding machine, and is starting to come around to
So about one week before the actual ride, it was decided that we would be doing the No Frills 55. We would still be riding on Sunday, which helped me out with the planning end of things because it meant Mike wouldn't have to miss a Friday of work. It's the beginning of the season and they are swamped right now, so the less time off he takes now, the happier his boss will be when I drag Mike all over the country later in the year. Gotta work if you wanna play, as Dodie says.
"Are you ready to do 55 miles of that trail?" Mike asked, seemingly reading my mind. GET OUT OF MY HEAD.
I wasn't sure. It's a tough trail regardless, but we're coming out of winter and I've been hibernating. I'm fat and stiff and old.
You don't get miles if you don't ride, right? Right.
Mike and I worked a very full week, then switched gears to ride mode in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, Star Tannery is only four and a half hours away, which meant we didn't have to get up before the sun on Saturday.
Speaking of the sun...
It did not look like we were going to be seeing much of it over the weekend. While the forecast at home called for gorgeous spring weather, one look at the radar revealed a massive storm system sitting right over southern Appalachia. There was a 90% chance of rain for Sunday, and it was going to be cold.
I'll admit, I wanted to cry. I don't mind riding in the rain or the cold, but both is not appealing. It was the first time of many that my inner voice asked, "You know you chose this, right?"
We packed rain gear, which I didn't even know I owned, grabbed my saddle, and loaded up the dogs. We stopped at Quick Chek for lunch, and grabbed extra sandwiches in case they didn't feed us at the ride. I had heard rumors...
The drive itself was totally uneventful. I'm getting to the point where anything under six hours isn't much of a commute. There may be something wrong with me.
As we crossed into Virginia. we left blue skies behind, and it started to rain in earnest. I sighed heavily and braced for a soggy 55 miles.
We made our way down the mountainside and, as promised, spotted ride camp on the right. Dodie's rig was visible from the road so I knew exactly where to go when we arrived. We parked, said our hellos, and met Dodie's newest addition, a three month old standard poodle puppy named
In that moment, Mike spotted the solution to all our camping woes. You see, we sleep in a tent at these rides, and recently switched from an air mattress to a memory foam pad. This arrangement works well unless it's raining. Damn. It just so happened that there was a run in shed in the pasture that the rigs were parked in, and Mike scurried up there at light speed to claim it for our camping spot. One woman did make a comment about the fact that she was hoping to put her horse in the shed for the night. Mike seemed pretty frazzled by her comments and attitude (I wasn't there), but I told him that these things are on a whoever gets there first basis. She had had several hours to set her horse up in the shed before we even arrived. Besides, the horse was wearing a waterproof blanket and didn't seem to mind the weather one bit.
While Mike set up camp, Dodie and I went up to vet in. Steel was amped up and pretty much pulled me up the hill to the pulse tent. She vetted in clean, then got anxious while Daizy took her turn.
I wish I'd had my camera with me. Steel knew better than to push or pull me, but she was feeling anxious about her friend (who hates her) leaving her. Her former dressage training kicked in and she started to do the most balanced, collected, correct piaffe on a loose lead beside me. The volunteers around us were pretty impressed.
They assumed she was my horse and asked, "How did you teach her that?"
I laughed and did my own version of the piaffe, responding, "O, you know, it's our dance routine. We plan to go on America's Got Talent soon."
Once the horses were vetted and the camp was set up and the dogs were walked, we settled under Dodie's canopy to wait for the ride briefing. I couldn't resist scooping up the puppy, which somehow turned into her falling asleep in Mike's lap.
We told stories and caught up on each other's lives. Dodie checked the weather and exclaimed, "Uh oh! What does red mean?" There was a brief pause. "Huh. Apparently we're under a tornado warning."
"Wonderful." I decided not to think about it.
Eventually, we looked at the time and decided it would be a good idea to mosey up to the sign in trailer to check on the status of the ride briefing. It's a good thing we did because the meeting was never announced and I'm sure a few people missed it.
In the mean time, a few people who had done the Saturday ride came over to chat. They all seemed to have horror stories to tell about the trail. The tales involved climbing from boulder to boulder, sliding down rock faces, and a 25 mile (!) loop. I chose not to think about that either.
I also ran into Dr. Bob, Magic's owner. He was one of the ride vets and I was delighted to run into him. We also have a lot of catching up to do. No spoilers, but there is going to be an adventure involving them soon.
After I was thoroughly soaked, the ride meeting finally started. I have to be perfectly honest. It was not a very informative briefing. Personally, I don't require a lot of information at ride talks. I basically need to know what markers to look for and what order to do the loops in. That's it. In fact, I often just look in my ride packet and miss meetings because I arrive at the last minute. Even I felt like they left out some important details though. Several people started asking questions. How long were the loops? What was the hold situation? What was pulse criteria? Ride management seemed to be agitated about the questions.
I heard a lot of remarks along the lines of, "I'd like to get out of here some time tomorrow," and, "We need to be at Biltmore next week."
I kept my mouth shut, but I came pretty close to saying, "Newsflash. We're all going to Biltmore. Let's focus on this ride."
Ugh.
I should have grabbed my food and gone back to my shed.
Eventually, the ride meeting was dismissed and everyone scattered for the night. Mike and I fed the dogs, then hit the road. Dodie had messaged me in the morning asking if we could pick up a canister of propane for the Coleman stove. I told her we'd be happy to grab it, but we hadn't passed anywhere useful along the way. Still, I had a vague idea of where there was a Walmart, and since we weren't hauling horses, it was easy enough to take a trip out.
It turned out the Walmart was much further up the highway than I anticipated. Still, we found our way and bought the necessary supplies. I think it was the biggest Walmart I've ever been in. I know we have Supercenters in NJ, but I don't think I've ever been in one before. Whoa!
Just as Dodie was starting to wonder if I'd changed my mind and gone back to NJ, we made our way back to camp. It was dark by then and the rain was still coming down hard. We said goodnight to Dodie, Poe, and the horses, then grabbed Herbie and Julio and hid in our tent. We ate sandwiches and drank beer by lantern light before tucking in for the night. By now, both dogs have accepted the fact that sometimes we sleep in the 'people crate' in the woods for no reason. They curled up at my feet and passed out.
I actually slept really well that night. I did have one moment when I woke up in a panic. A tractor trailer had come barreling down the hill behind camp, making quite a ruckus as it went. I think Julio forgot we weren't at home and shot out from under the blankets on high alert. I came to completely convinced that the tornado had come and we were all about to die. Eep!
The other problem was that both our phones died over night. I had specifically turned mine off to conserve battery, but it's been doing this weird thing where it turns itself back on, even if I've yanked the battery. I got a new one already, but I haven't had time to transfer everything over yet. I still don't have a smart phone.
Our plan was to wait for the trail to open, mount up, and mosey out the starting line behind everyone else. We wanted to avoid any and all drama.
Just before 7am, we tacked up. Steel was in rare form. She danced and spun while I saddled her, and tried to squish me against the trailer. I didn't dare tie her shorter following that time she knocked herself out last year. Once I got the saddle on, she was flinging her head around so badly that I nearly couldn't bridle her. Mounting also involved some frantic spinning since she was absolutely convinced that Daizy was going to leave and never come back. Daizy, by the way, wasn't going anywhere at all. I finally one-reined her to a halt ("O yeah, I remember this...") and swung up from the ground. As soon as my butt hit the saddle, she stopped being a dingleberry. Oy!
I gave Mike a kiss goodbye and told him I'd see him at the end of the day. Hopefully. Because they limit the amount of vehicles allowed into the national forest at any time, there was no crewing at the holds, all of which were away. With the lack of cell phone reception, and our dead batteries, there would be no way for us to be in touch over the next several hours. I promised to be careful and he wished me luck.
Right on schedule, we rode up to the now-open starting line, only to find out that they didn't have me on the rider list. I was pretty stunned. I had sent my entry with a deposit before the early entry deadline. I had received confirmation through email. I had checked in on Saturday without any issues, paid my remaining balance, and got my rider card. I had a number. I had a ride packet. I had vetted in.
I spelled my name ten times while they got things squared away, and we were off.
Steel was raring to go and we spent a lot of time cantering along this stretch. I had heard that we would have to move wherever we could because a lot of the trail featured conditions that weren't conducive to more than a walk.
The loops for the day were red, white, then blue. Easy to remember. But as we came up the hill, the ribbons went from red to white. I had heard something at the ride meeting about a shortage of red ribbon so I wasn't too concerned. At least, I wasn't until I saw a rider on a gray horse coming down the hill towards us. She was a 50 miler, and I started to wonder if we'd done something wrong. Ride management told us that if we went down hill, we had messed up, but the markers on the service road had been pretty clear about the fact that we were in fact going down hill.
Just as I was wondering if we'd messed up already, a volunteer in a truck came down the hill and set the record straight. We were in fact following white ribbons until the red trail resumed. I'm glad the truck was there because the white ribbons went on for a few miles, and I would have been second guessing myself for a long time.
I'm also glad that other rider turned around when she did. Turns out this familiar face was a woman named Rachel on a very lovely gray gelding named Dakar. We've crossed paths many times over the years, but have never been formally introduced. She wound up riding with us for the day, and we couldn't have asked for better company. We laughed and joked and had a fabulous time. Plus, Rachel had done this ride several times, and had a pretty good idea where we were at any given moment. That's a nice perk to have at any ride, but especially at one like this.
The first loop flew by, despite the fact that it was 20 miles long. Once we got off the service road, we did a ton of climbing. We went up and up and up until we were riding in the clouds. I was glad that I decided to wear my jacket despite the rising temperatures back at base camp. It was damp, misty, and chilly at that elevation. The trail hadn't gotten terribly treacherous yet, and we were still able to do a fair bit of trotting and cantering. I also enjoyed the breath taking views in the clearings we passed through.
We continued to climb and the trail got gradually rockier and more technical. The horses were doing a great job navigating between the rocks, and we still maintained a good pace. I had to remind myself that Steel is used to conditioning on trails similar to this, and that the fact that we have nothing like this in my neck of the woods doesn't matter.
Some time later, we crossed the road, as promised. I wondered what street this was, and thought it would be nice to drive Mike up there so he could take in some of the incredible views we were getting to experience. He doesn't complain about coming to these rides. In fact, he swears he enjoys our trips. I still feel guilty that he doesn't get to experience the beauty of actually being out on these trails. Camp is often lovely and scenic in and of itself, but the truly amazing part is out on the loops.
Shortly after we crossed the road, we passed the photographer. Whenever I see Becky Pearman at these rides, I smile. She really knows her way around an endurance ride and consistently gets wonderful images of the horses out on trail.
She snapped this beauty of Steel on this part of the trail:
We went on and the terrain started to get really rugged. We were now on the ridge line, and it felt like we could touch the sky. On either side, the mountain dropped away. The footing was boulders, not rocks, by this point, and the horses picked their way carefully across the trail. We had made our way above the regular forest, and were now surrounded by a combination of pine trees and algae-covered trunks. The rocks and trees were all covered, and it was sometimes hard to tell if a surface was stone or wood. All around we saw mountain ranges dotted with farms and log cabins.
It occurred to me that we would be in big trouble if anything ever happened up here. There is no way any kind of vehicle would ever make it to these remote locations. The only way to get down would be by helicopter. I was in my element and my heart sang.
This. This is why I do this, I thought, breathing deeply and looking down at the clouds below.
We rode along the ridge for miles, hopping from peak to peak as we went. Every time I thought we had climbed as far as you could physically go, we went up again. It was a challenging trail to be sure, but it couldn't have been any more rewarding.
I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked. The terrain meant that I really had to focus on riding and not snapping pictures. I was kicking myself for not putting a memory card in my helmet cam. This was definitely the ride to have it at.
| Dakar climbing up the ridge behind us. |
All the same, Steel and I very nearly managed to die on this stretch. We were picking our way carefully down the hill when the rocks under Steel's feet suddenly shifted, then gave way. I gasped in horror as her feet went out from under her and her head disappeared from view. She was on her knees and everything was still sliding. I thought for sure that we were going down, and that the horse and I would somersault down the side of the mountain and meet a gruesome end together. In a last attempt to not die, I completely let go of my reins, sat back, and grabbed a hold of my cantle. Steel managed to fling her legs forward so she had all four hooves under her again, but the ground was still moving and she wasn't able to stop despite her best efforts at slamming on the brakes. She pinned her ears in determination and I closed my eyes as I watched a tree trunk heading directly for my left side.
"O my god, I'm going to break my good leg,"I thought. Steel must have had some similar thoughts about me being on her back because she gave a mighty heave to the right, and narrowly missed the tree before coming to a complete halt.
I wanted to fling my arms around her neck, but we were still perched on a downhill grade. My heart was pounding. That was close.
I patted Steel and thanked her for catching us both, then asked her to walk off. She felt pretty stiff, and my own back and hip was aching from our brief rock skiing episode. I knew we were less than a mile from the hold, and I was really worried I'd just watched our completion go out the window. What rotten luck.
We got to the service road at the bottom of the hill, catching three riders in front of us in the process. Dodie agreed that Steel looked stiff in the hind end, and I braced myself for bad news at the vet check. Rachel had also pointed out that Steel had some blood on one of her legs. I'd heard her forging a bit coming down the service road at the start, but Rachel said the bleeding was behind.
A few minutes later, we pulsed down (60 on the dot) and walked over to vet. We did get a B for wounds (the rocks during our slide had really bitten us), and I think I was holding my breath as I jogged. To my surprise and utter relief, the vets declared that Steel was sound and definitely fit to continue. She had a B on skin tenting, but A's the rest of the way across the board. I did have to request that they not separate Steel and Daizy during the P&R, but we were otherwise golden. I would get to ride another loop!
The hold itself was actually well run. I had heard nightmare stories about items getting lost during transport, and a lack of water and supplies in the past. The ride is called No Frills. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had hay, grain, beet pulp, and water for the horses, as well as sandwiches and drinks for the riders. The volunteers were extremely attentive and helpful, and really made this a wonderful experience.
Steel was eating and drinking like a pro, and other than electrolyting her and putting her boots back on, I left her completely alone. I was good and took care of myself even though Mike wasn't there to remind me. All his crewing is really starting to have an impact. I drank, took Advil to stay ahead of my pain instead of chasing it, ate a sandwich, a granola bar, and a yogurt, and even remembered to take a potty break. That one was a bit of a nail biter since the portapotty was on a trailer on a hill, but I put my big girl panties on (or took them off?) and did it anyway.
| Steel looking adorable at the hold. |
Before we knew it, we were back out for the 'dreaded' second loop. The horses felt perky and ready for more, and we had caught up to Rachel and Dakar before we knew it. The three of us set of galloping up the forest road out of camp, stopping only to let the horses drink. Even Steel was tanking up. She has really learned the ropes with this distance riding thing, and the electrolytes were definitely doing their job.
The second loop was definitely more technical than the first. About half of it featured footing that absolutely wouldn't allow for anything more than a walk. Still, I enjoy some difficulty in my rides, and there's nothing to build a partnership with a horse like having to rely on her knowing exactly where her feet are.
It was during one of these more technical stretches that we started to talk about the perils of our sport. I looked over the edge of the cliff alongside us and Dodie said something about ending up dead.
Still in high spirits, I crowed, "Yay dead!"
Three riders had just come up behind us, and the girl leading them chuckled. "Yay dead? Who did we just catch up to?!?!"
The Three Zombies. That's who!
On this loop, we did even more climbing and rocks. We also rode along the side of the mountain, which meant being along a cliff and getting some spectacular views. By then, the sun had come out and we were riding under gorgeous clear blue sky. It was warm, but not too warm. We didn't have to worry about the horses cramping up, but they also weren't sweating too badly. Perfect endurance ride weather, and I was so very grateful.
Before long, we passed the photographer again. As you can see, the fun meter was still high.
I will admit that Kelsey had a point about the rock situation on the second loop. There were definitely stretches where I gawked and thought, "Really? This is the footing? Who designed this trail?"
| This was part of the trail. You just sort of bear left between those two trees... |
Next thing I knew, we were coming down into the gate 'n' go at Bucktail. This was a pit stop with water and hay for the horses. There was no required hold time, but pretty much everyone was sticking around for ten minutes or so over the course of the day. As promised, Daryl and company were there to make the experience a good one. I have to admit, they really delivered on Daryl's promise. Not only were the horses taken care of, but there were refreshments for the riders as well. I stuffed my face with Hershey's chocolate eggs. On top of that, Daryl kindly took my jacket from me. It was getting too warm for me by that point. He also gave Dodie an armband for her phone, which had been traveling in my jacket pocket all day, shouting 'uh oh!' at the most appropriate times.
Shortly after that, we were off and running again. I had a handful of chocolate chip cookies to devour on the way out.
"You can ride one handed, right?" Daryl asked as he handed them to me.
"Can and do!" I laughed as we trotted away.
The next part of the loop featured a lot of down, down, down. I guess it's true what they say about what goes up! There were also some bridges and catwalks, which Steel didn't mind one bit.
Shortly after the pit stop, Rachel looked down at her GPS and whispered something to Dodie, who pressed her finger to her lips. "Shhhhh..."
"What? WHAT AM I MISSING?!?!?!"
All day long, I'd been telling the ladies that my fun meter often runs low at about 35 miles. I make my jokes and have my laughs, but then I tend to get surly and quiet if things are getting tough.
"We just passed 35 miles," they informed me.
"Well... I feel great!!!"
Next thing I knew, we reached a gradual uphill climb on a service road along a rushing river. It was beautiful and I don't think I got a single good photo of it. We cruised right along, all three horses alternating between the trot and canter. The last few miles flew by and before I knew it, we were back on the lollipop to the hold.
This time, Steel vetted even better than she had previously. We trotted down and back and were given the free and clear to tackle the last ten miles of trail.
By this point, I was starting to feel my bad leg a good bit, despite the fact that I was vigilantly keeping up with my Advil dose (and probably giving doctors everywhere gray hair in the process). I was glad to be able to sit for a little bit while Steel drank and devoured everything in sight. I could tell that Dodie was starting to feel some aches herself, and I made some comment about how close we were to the finish line. I'm not sure if I was cheerleading for her sake or my own.
At 3:31pm, we left the last hold, heading back home. I was thrilled and somewhat surprised at how peppy Steel was still being. She powered right along and I never had to ask her for any effort all day. She was offering me a power trot the whole time, and a canter whenever it was possible. On the last loop, I think she knew that we were almost done, and she seemed to find her second wind. We were flying over those last few miles on horses that felt fresher than we did. Steel flat out galloped on several occasions and even passed Daizy a few times (unheard of! Daizy is an endurance racing powerhouse.) After the first few miles, Rachel and Dakar fell back a bit. I was sad to lose sight of them, but knew we all had to do our own thing. Steel was on fire, and I wasn't about to slow her down. Daizy looked flat out unstoppable (in a good way!)
At the last road crossing, we caught up to two riders in front of us. I was impressed at how many people we had passed, given that we'd left camp 20 full minutes after the start. We passed the two young riders and cruised right along through the forest.
Long before I was expecting it, the flag-adorned finish line appeared. Dodie and I whooped and cheered as we crossed in 5th and 6th places respectively. It took longer than necessary to get our in times on our ride cards, but I was secretly glad to be sitting still for a moment.
Just as I was thinking that it would be nice to let Mike know we were almost at camp, a photographer appeared on a high bank in front of a stream crossing. I was surprised to see the photographer again, but then I realized it wasn't just a photographer... this one was mine! Mike had hiked out into the forest and scouted out the perfect spot for a photo op. I love the man.
"Dodie! Dodie! Let's do one with us hugging!"
Before Dodie had time to protest about having a sweaty, stinky, tired Dom touching her, I had legged Steel forward and thrown an arm around her.
This may be my favorite ride photo of all time.
We rode the rest of the way back to camp, dismounted on stiff legs, and threw our tack in the grass. I think Dodie was hurting pretty good by this point, but I was antsy for my completion. I am always on pins and needles pending that final vet check. I can't imagine much worse than riding a full course and getting pulled at the finish. Irrational, maybe, but it's a very real concern of mine at every ride.
| "Did you kill my lady?" |
Dodie decided to stand for BC, something she'd apparently never gotten a chance to do before. I opted out. With a few B's dotting Steel's ride card, I knew I wouldn't be in the running, and I couldn't fathom trotting a circle at the time.
As it turns out, Dodie damn near got BC! She missed it by two points (probably based on time) and ended up with the high vet score. I flat out cheered when we found out.
Mike jumped right in and did everything we could have possibly needed, including bringing down the hold bags and trotting Daizy for her BC standing. I scurried off to find my jacket (got it!) and buy prints from the photographer. Of course, I brushed Steel off and made sure she was settled in her pen.
And then Mike and I had to hit the road. It was Sunday afternoon and we still had a four and a half hour drive home. We both had to be work at dawn on Monday. I have never been so happy to have someone else do the driving.
Now, three days after the ride, I feel great. It was the perfect first fifty of the season. Steel blew me out of the water with her willingness and athleticism. The mare certainly steps up in the face of a challenge. As always, I had a great time riding Steel, and an even better time riding with Dodie. I made a new friend in Rachel (or she's going to hide behind a trailer and La La La the next time she sees me at a ride, I'm not sure) and I really got to hit the reset button just when I needed it most. The trail was incredible. Just the right mix of difficult and rewarding. The ride was well run. The trail was well marked. The volunteers were brilliant. I would do it again in a heart beat.