This entry was posted on 10/1/2008 3:36 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Thursday September 25 2008
While
the ride down to the Snake River petroglyphs was left out this year,
riders still got a chance to ride along the Snake River
, along the old Oregon Trail, and around the base of Wild Horse Butte, 300 feet high and almost a mile in diameter.
And I was one of them!
Connie
rode Rushcreek Mac, and I rode my pal Jose Viola, (with Raven in Bag),
on the 55-mile ride, and we picked up Helen Bonner on the way out of
camp under cloudy skies with an orange strip of sunrise slicing the
eastern horizon. Same ol' trails
I've done at least 4 times now... up onto the north flats, across the highway,
through part of the 485,000-acre Snake River Birds of Prey National
Conservation Area, through a deep wash that gets so narrow you can
touch the sides as you canter along if you dare to let go of the reins,
on a big loop around Fossil Butte, into the vet check at 18 miles, back
out on a big 38 mile loop to the Snake River
and back to the vet check, and 12 miles back into camp.
And
they never get old. Every time I ride the trails out here, even around
the house, I'll see something I never noticed before - a pile of
boulders, the angle of a wash, a fold in the hills that suddenly looks
unusual, a different game trail I haven't tried yet. Different lighting
- different times of the day or the year - add yet another element to
the trails
and the Owyhee mountains on the horizon. And it always makes me think
of the pioneers in the 1800's that traversed the area when they had to
blaze their own trails - especially when I'm hot and dusty and tired...
and I know I have a hot shower and cold Dr Pepper awaiting me back at
the house.
A
thin cloud cover kept the day 5-7 degrees cooler than a baking sun
would have, and the bugs weren't so bad along the ever-scenic Snake
this time. We were cruising along with our horses - Jose wanted to go
faster faster faster! - and Mac was pushing a bit to keep up with Jose
- but we'd started out at the back of the pack (
somebody
couldn't get ready to leave the starting line on time), and we stayed
there. Everybody seemed to be cruising about the same speed and staying
in their same positions.
Now, a word about the out vet checks
here. Riders leave their gear bags in a pile in the morning, where the
volunteers (namely neighbors Linda and Mike) load them into the horse
trailer, drive to the out vet check, and unload the bags. Some riders
pack efficiently - a little food for the rider and horse - in a bag
that is small and light. Connie and I packed a bag that was very big
and extraordinarily heavy. So heavy, that I had to have help from Mike
carrying it to where Connie and I set up. "What've you got in there, a
body?" Well - it was lots of treats for us humans (Connie doesn't ride
anywhere without a Goodie Bag, and this one was full, and of course we
had to have a few Starbucks coffee drinks, and lots of frozen water
bottles) and horses (lots of beet pulp - wet and therefore heavy, and
some dry grain, and carrot treaties). We hadn't even put any blankets
in, or hay, like we normally would! We had to make sure that we and our
horses wouldn't go hungry, no matter what the weather or trail
conditions. Mac discovered all the goodies in Connie's human Goodie Bag
and was nosing around in it
trying to help himself, while dripping wet beet pulp all over us.
The
trails were mostly soft (and just starting to get a bit dried out and
dusty), the company and conversations good, and the ride really was
coming to an end quickly; too soon, we were zipping along the last
plateau top towards home. We had to pass a shortcut turnoff to our
house that Jose and Mac both knew well, but we didn't have any trouble
keeping the boys cruising past it, to the downhill trail (Merri's
Trail) at the end of our Pickett Creek Canyon. There, when we stopped
to get off to walk down the hill, Connie found Mac had thrown a front
shoe.
We just walked the whole two miles on foot back into camp
- it felt good to stretch the leg muscles after much steady, fast
trotting. Actually, it only felt good once I could walk with my bad
kneecap... which worked itself out after a half mile or so. Jose's a
fast walker, so I had a good workout keeping up with him. That was my
daily dog walk... only the dogs weren't with me (and boy, did they need
their daily walks, as they were ballooning out from all the food they
were begging at the ride dinners!) And we did it - another 50 miles of
trail for me and my great pal Jose.
29
of 30 horses finished the 55 mile ride, and all 21 riders finished the
30-miler. Evidently many of them were gaited horses again, as evidenced
by the many "Go Gaiters!" cheers during the awards. Apparently they
also kidnapped Steph (she went to their trailer on the pretext of
looking for somebody or something) and they plied her with a (?) shot
of tequila, so she had a good time conducting the ride meeting.
The
well-fed, jocular and sometimes rowdy group of endurance riders and
families were quiet as church mice as Dr Michael Peterson gave one of
his very popular informational lectures, this one on the mechanics of
feeding beet pulp to endurance horses.
Highlight of the day had
to be the completion of the 30-mile ride by Skyla Stewart and her
27-year-old - that's TWENTY-SEVEN years old - horse AW Habod. He had a
great time - as you can see from the story Habod himself wrote.
Then
there was Jacinta Denton, who won the 25 on her lovely gelding Krasniy
Kumeer. She was so excited receiving her award - "I've never won
anything in my life!"
