This year I was determined to make no more excuses for not riding enough and doing some of the things I've been wanting to do. So, I've been riding. Mostly normal trail riding but riding nonetheless. Then, 5 weeks before this endurance ride, I contacted Keith Kibler, a local endurance rider I know, to start joining his weekly endurance training rides he has on Saturday's. On that first Saturday I rode with him he said to me, "You know there is an endurance ride near here in 5 weeks, you can get ready for it." That planted the seed. 5 weeks is not much time to condition but surely I could get Lily though the 30 mile limited distance ride. Lily had plenty of trail miles under her belt but just not enough miles at endurance speeds. So, for the next 4 weeks I focused on getting out and getting some miles on Lily at faster speeds. Not an easy task at all this year as we've had the wettest spring ever and the trails are muddy. But, we did our best, Joined the Saturday group the next few weeks and I felt Lily was ready for the 30 miler.
Then, I got hurt the Monday before the ride. Rotated my right pelvis, which jammed my SI joint and inflamed the base of my spine. Tuesday I could not stand up straight and was in a lot of pain. I went to the Dr. that evening and he helped a LOT. I could mostly stand up Wednesday but still had some pain. Thursday I was worse and went back to Dr. He worked on me and again it helped considerably but I was still not great. Friday, I was still undecided. I got out of work a bit early and cleaned out my horse trailer as I have not camped in it in 6 years. It was HOT and it was going to be a hot humid weekend. At the last minute I decided to go. Enough excuses for not doing things. Even if the excuses were valid ones. I called the ride manager to see if I could still enter the competition. She said yes and gave me directions on how to get there. That took multiple calls as the camp has bad cell service but she didn't give up until she was sure I had the directions.
I hooked up the trailer and went to the barn to get Lily. I fed all the mules first and loaded my tack while they were eating. Lily jumped right onto the trailer ready for whatever adventure I had planned. I pulled out of the barn a little after 4 pm. I got to the ride around 6:30 pm. I got a nice camping spot in the shade for which I was grateful. I did not get an electric site but as a late entry, that's life. The spot I got was pretty tight to back into but several people came to help guide me in. I unloaded Lily before maneuvering into my spot as she was getting anxious on the trailer and pawing a bit. The woman camped next to me, Cathy, held her for me (and Lily managed to get in a good dirty roll!) Once parked, I gave Lily a quick grooming. She now had some new wet mud on her that wasn't coming off with a quick grooming but it was getting late to get vetted in so I didn't obsess over it and just took her up to the vets. You don't get judged on the cleanliness of your equines at endurance rides thankfully. Lily was good for the vets other than not liking to have her gums checked. Something to work on for future rides. I didn't know if I could trot her out with my pelvis hurting but gave it my best try. It was not pretty but I managed. Lily was good and trotted off fine when asked. Though she pins her ears flat and scrunches up her face in disgust. That's a whole other story and lesson in how not to train a mule to do something. But, she trotted fine. We were passed to ride in the morning! Yeah! Then we had the riders meeting.
I took Lily back to camp and set up my Spring Tie. I've never put Lily on this and had no idea if she would be ok with it. She is familiar with being high lined so I didn't think she would mind. But, would she mind for a whole night? I didn't have room at my campsite to set up a pen. So, I put up the Spring Tie and hooked Lily up. She was fine. She did test it out but not in a bad way. Just seeing what her limits were and how far she could move. I hung her hay bag and a water bucket and she seemed content. She could see the horse next to us and that made her happy. My camp neighbor, Cathy, and I chatted for a while. She was bringing her mare back to competition after some time off. She planned to ride a slow ride and was also doing the 30 LD. We decided to start out together and it was a relief to know I had someone to ride with that has done this ride before. It was really hot so I hoped it wouldn't be too miserable trying to sleep in the trailer. I heated up some soup I'd brought for supper, drank a gallon of unsweet tea. Well, not that much but I could have I think. And then I headed for bed. The temperature was dropping a bit. I opened all my windows and just lay on top of my sheet and it was fine. It cooled down just enough so I was not sweating and by early morning I had to throw my top sheet over myself. I could see Lily from the window by my head. Especially with her being white. She was SOOOO good all night and just chilled out on that Spring Tie alternating between munching hay or standing back from the trailer closer to the neighboring horse and just relaxing quietly. This was such a relief for me and I could not have been more pleased with her. This however, did not mean I slept well. I was in some pain from the work of cleaning out and packing my trailer and was not sure if I would be ok riding. So, I did a lot of tossing and turning and little sleeping. But, at least Lily did nothing to add to my anxiety.
Due to the predicted heat, the 50 mile riders were starting at 6 am and the 30's at 6:30 am.There were 19 riders in the 50 mile distance and 17 in the 30 mile distance I was up before 5 am and fed Lily. She was wondering what was going on with all the activity in the camp. She has camped a few times now but the energy level of horses and riders at an endurance race is very different from normal camping and she sensed this of course. But, she was good and ate well. She was just watching the riders and horses with curiosity. Especially when the 50 mile riders left camp. But again, she was curious and nickered a bit at horses going by our trailer but did not get overly anxious. She stood quietly go be groomed and saddled. Cathy and I had decided to not start the ride with the group but rather hang back and let the others go first. A good idea for Lily as I know she would be excited and I don't want her to get race brain.
Once I was saddled up, I checked in with the timer. Trail opened for the 30, Cathy and I waited a few minutes and then we headed out. NOW Lily was fired up and she headed down that trail like a ball of fire. I was able to keep her at a trot but it was a hard fast trot and she was determined to catch every horse ahead of us. The trails were muddy but Lily blasted right though the mud. We went along the side of a few open agricultural fields at the start where Lily could see the other riders ahead of us and at one point we were traveling sideways at a good speed but she was still under my control.... for the most part.......She settled a bit once we got into the woods. Did I mention the trails were muddy. Some spots were really, really bad. The trail was well marked though and that is always good. Lily wanted to go fast the whole first loop and I struggled to keep her at a reasonable speed. I knew we'd get in trouble with the speed and heat if we didn't slow down. Sponging Lily from the saddle was a bit of a chore at the creek crossing. She did not want to stop long enough for me to do it. she wanted to get going. There were horses to catch and pass!
Somewhere in the last 5 miles or so, I separated from Cathy and joined with a couple that was riding slower and taking longer breaks at the water crossings. Lily did setting in with them pretty well. One of their horses lost a shoe and as we were all looking down to see if the shoe was gone we passed a trail marker and took a wrong turn. Thankfully we didn't go too far before realizing it and got the chance to herd some Canadian geese in the process. Lily was not attempting to eat as much as usual when I ride. I wasn't sure if she was getting tired or just wanting to catch the others. I hoped it was the later. We got into the hold, which was back at camp, and I went straight to my trailer, stripped Lily's tack and started getting water on her before checking in with the timer. Lily was hot and panting quite hard so I knew it would take some work to get her pulse down. I took 15 minutes or so before checking in. Then took a few more minutes before calling pulse and going for the vet check. Lily's pulse was JUST at the maximum and she was still panting. The panting may just be normal for her though. She is a big mule that weight tapes at 1400 lbs. This is not to her advantage in a hot race. You don't see many endurance horses her size for this reason. Her trot out was less than enthusiastic but some of that was my stumbling attempt to run in pain. However, Lily did pass the vet check and we were good to go for the 2nd loop. The hold was 40 minutes so I fed Lily, made sure she had plenty of water and I chilled out making sure to drink enough. I was not really hungry but had some fruit and a beef stick anyway.
I knew I had to slow Lily WAY down for the 2nd loop or she would be in trouble at the end of the ride with the heat and humidity so high. I saddled Lily back up, which she thought was a bit weird as she was sure we were done having been unsaddled, washed and fed. But, she didn't make any fuss. I mounted up and headed out alone. Lily hesitated slightly but not much and then got right to it and trotted off at a nice pace. The 2nd loop was a repeat of the 1st loop. I was so looking forward to all the really bad mud spots now churned up by many horses going through. Have I mentioned the trails were muddy.... Lily again could see riders ahead of us when going along the fields. She wanted to catch up but was listening to me better about slowing down. At one point, a side by side ATV was following behind a couple riders. Lily and I caught up to it and I rode up right beside it. I could tell the man had no idea I was there. He was too busy watching the girls in front of him. So, I shouted a big hello! I wish I could have gotten a picture of his face. He nearly fell out of the seat I startled him so bad. I gave him a big wave and rode on ahead having a good chuckle over it. I ended up catching up with Cathy and was pleased to see her again. She too was trying to slow way down for the 2nd loop. So, we stayed together. We stopped to let Lily and her horse, Spirit, graze. Lily didn't eat much, she wanted to get moving. She had more energy than I expected for this 2nd look. We trotted along in the spots that weren't muddy but did not trot though all the mud this time. There was a lot of mud so we did quite a bit of walking. Lily led quite a bit of the 2nd loop as she was setting a nice pace. A nice ground covering pace at both the walk and trot but not going too hard. At the hold I'd taken my sponge off my saddle and forgot to put it back on. Cathy was kind enough to let me use hers and Lily was much better on the 2nd loop about standing to be sponged. We passed back and forth with other riders on and off. At one point when some riders came up behind us, I turned Lily off the trail to let them by. When I turned her back towards the trail, for some reason Lily tripped and went down on her knees in front. One of the passing riders commented, "That's the first time I've ever seen a mule fall." That was kind of embarrassing being on a mule with their sure footed reputation. About 3 miles from the finish, Cathy realized her horse had lost a shoe so we walked the last miles back to camp. We had plenty of time to do that and I had no reason to leave Kathy as it was not like I was trying to win the race. I just wanted to complete with a sound healthy mule. Lily seemed to be feeling good and wanted to go faster than I was letting her go.
We got into camp and I again went right to my trailer and stripped Lily's tack and applied lots of water before checking in with the timer. I went up for the final check and when they took her pulse the first time, it was just over the maximum. I still had time so I took her back to the trailer, put more water on her then went back for a recheck. Lily made it the 2nd time up. I was figuring I would have a hard time doing my final trot out. But, Lily surprised me. She trotted right off both directions with no fuss at all other than her usual sour face when she does it. I was so happy and pleased with her! We had passed the vet check and finished our first ride! I would have done a happy dance but the heat and my hurting body said no to this idea. I let Lily graze in the shade for a while and let her get a good roll in. A vet was passing and got concerned wondering if she was colicing. I told him she was fine and that it was a happy roll. I tied Lily back up to the trailer. Gave her lots of hay, fed her again, made sure she had her salt block available which she made good use of and plenty of water. She ate her grain. A mix of a little bit of oats and alfalfa/timothy pellet blend and some alfalfa cubes crumbled up. She took a decent drink then just took a nice long nap. So did I. Cathy's horse unfortunately coliced as soon as we got back into camp. I think her horse will be ok but the vets had to work with her for quite a while. Cathy took such good care of her on the ride and after it was a surprise. And Spirit showed no signs of trouble at all on the trail.
I cheered for Keith and Gaby when they rode into camp at the end of their 50 mile ride.
I napped in my chair a bit longer after making sure Lily was fine and had everything she needed. There was a pot luck supper after all the riders got in. Then they held the riders meeting for Sunday's ride. Then we had the awards for today's ride. Only my endurance friends will understand my happiness in winning the turtle award. I didn't leave camp until about 7:30 pm and got home a little after 10 pm. Lily was happy to roll in home dirt. I was happy to get home to my air conditioned home and my own bed. The ride was a complete success for me. Lily exceeded my expectations. And I am deeply thankful to my new friends that helped me get to this ride both physically and mentally. Keith and Sandy Kibler and their endurance training group for all their encouragement and Sally Matthis for riding with me even when weather conditions were predicted to be bad.
Some comments from the AERC Facebook page about the ride:
