I’m writing this up before I collapse and there’s a lot here, so buckle up! Upfront I want to thank every single volunteer, from the ride manager on down, for how cheerful and helpful and encouraging they all were all weekend. Having those radio folks out on the trail keeping track of you is such peice of mind, and a boost when you need it most.

This ride camp is close to home, just over two hours, so due to this and putting on a new shoe I didn’t pull into camp until 3pm. It was a little weird not to vet in immediately, but it gave me time to hang out with some friends and get settled in. A bunch of folks rode on Friday and headed home Saturday. I slept with the door open, dreading another Hi Tie tustle, but Tarma spent a peaceful night. Of course she proceeded to wake me up at 6 to tell me to get a move on, she was quite confused that we didn’t leave early like usual!

A few walks around camp, then I futzed with my saddlebags and mixed up her electrolytes. I’m going to try some that Julie told me about, I’m not sure her current ones are working for her quite as well. The Midnight Rider Clinic was well attended and super informative, going over why horses night vision is better than ours, the limitations and setting yourself up for supporting your horse through the darkness.

Unfortunately the clinic, awards and ride meeting ran late so I didn’t get to nap at all, instead I sucked down a Pepsi and a banana. I got Tarma tacked up and instead of hand walking out of camp, I decided to chance riding out as she was super calm. Plus, the ride photographer was less than a mile outside camp and I didn’t want my photo to be my trudging along! We made it past her without incident and proceeded to live up to our occasional nickname of “Hot Mess Express.” Everything was an argument for the first 5 miles, speed, pace, direction, passing nicely instead of bulldozing past. Sigh.

My overall ride plan was to hustle through the first two loops, to leave plenty of time for the dark loops. Plus, I wanted to test Tarma and see where we are with her conditioning and find any holes. And boy I found some. We power trotted and cantered the hardest climb right out of the gate, I wasn’t really holding her back much. It was a thrill to sit deep and just let her power ahead, easily switching between gaits without argument or stress. I did focus on rating her canter, I can sit it easily at her medium speed but her faster speed kicks me up and out of the saddle.

Unfortunately she came to the water tank at the snow park breathing pretty heavily. I had to sponge her for a good five minutes to get her cool and we slowed way down, walking most of the way back to the first vet check. Even so, we finished that loop (that was either 12 miles or 15, no one’s quite clear which came back to bite me later) in two hours. She pulsed down immediately and vetted through clean, with only a minor scratch on on leg. Our first 45 minute hold flew by and out we went, catching up to Julie right after she saw a bear! We lead her and power house Astro for most of the second lollipop loop. Most folks don’t like all the logging roads but I love letting Tarma open up that Morgan road trot, smooth as butter and elating to ride.

Again I wasn’t rating her super closely and she didn’t ask to walk or slow down, so she was huffing again at the water tank. I let the others go ahead, sponging her and popping a Scoot Boot on the replace a lost shoe, she drank deep and once again we mostly walked back to camp, she wasn’t upset when everyone else left. Again she pulsed right down and vetted through cleanly, but she was hungry so I took her back to the trailer to eat. I offer her a variety, the weed free hay (both Timothy and alfalfa) plus “sweet tea” (oats in water with Replenishmash) and soaked beet pulp and carrots. She slurped down all her beet pulp, she drank well all day minus one incident at a tank surrounded by wasps.

Now it was dark and we headed out for a short 10 mile loop, easy peasy. I finally used the green LED light up breast collar my mother in law gifted me years ago, man did it come in handy and a lot of folks wanted it! We caught up with a sweet lady and her short Mustang and we took turns leading and following. This was my favorite loop, flying through the darkness and chatting. We separated at the last vet check (pulsed down and all A’s minus some gut sounds) which I don’t think did us any favors for the last loop, I should have tried harder to hook back up with her for the last loop. I also popped her second Scoot Boot on, she lost both rears shoes at some point, so happy I sprung for the Enduros as they stayed on and didn’t rub!

This is where things started to go a little sideways, I love my saddle but something about how I was riding wasn’t quite right, my lady garden was, uh, hamburger. I put my Fuzzy Butt back on which was a huge help and took ibuprofen, but it wasn’t enough. I can only crouch in two point for so long, plus I remembered the initial climb being pretty technical so I had planned to walk up most of it. I left camp just before 1230, with a 3pm finish time feeling doable, even for 12 dark miles. Tarma was moving out well but I was starting to hurt, digging deep into the doldrums and enduring.

My lovely breast collar died about a mile in, so I switched to my headlamp only to realize the red light recommended did make me a little nauseated. Tarma was also hungry so kept stopping to grab grass. About halfway up I realized we would probably be overtime, as I just didn’t feel up to trotting much, but I didn’t think we’d be that far off the cutoff. I told the first radio guy I was going to make it but slower than anticipated, and we kept climbing through the dark. I was fighting DIMER so hard, singing, forcing down a fruit leather, telling Tarma what a strong noble steed she was.

We made it to the snow park about 240ish, to two lovely volunteers pushing a brownie into my hands and checking on me. The vets radioed up, offering me a trailer as it was clear I wasn’t going to make it down in time. I asked if it wasn’t too inconvenient for folks if I could ride for the completion (it’s marked on your record but no points awarded), and everyone agreed as long as I stayed mounted, as the riders ahead of me ran into a bear. For some reason I wasn’t afraid of running into a bear in the wilderness at 3am, if it happened I’d deal with it (I also rode all day with an air vest). I told them I could make the just over four miles downhill back to camp in an hour, and off we went after Tarma had her full of the oat float.

I gave up and switched my headlamp from red to white light, as there was no one around to bother with it, and it let us pick up a little speed, especially on the roads. Even with it I was able to catch a few metors from the Persoid shower! We made it to the last water tank and radio guy right on my mark, about 40 minutes later with, by my understanding, two miles left to camp. The hardest part was my ride ended here, the vets made a call and said I had to trailer back at that time (it was about 320am). I was upset, not understanding why or what had changed in the last 40 minutes. I still don’t as I wasn’t able to talk to any of the vets, they were asleep when the trailer got back and gone when I woke at 10am. I am proud of Tarma, I changed the game on her and asked her to load in an unfamiliar trailer in the dark and she loaded right up.

The radio guy and the lady with the trailer (who turned out to be the manager of my favorite ride, Klikitat Trek!) were so sweet and supportive, talking through everything with me and firmly telling me there was no fault or blame here, especially on me. My first reaction was humiliation, if this was a vet pull for horse safety reasons I feel I should have known better and called it earlier, but Tarma was a beast all day (minus needing some more low intensity conditioning). If it was more along the lines of convenience for the volunteers and the vets, why offer me the chance to make it down instead of sending the trailer to the snow park? We’d been having such a good ride, if slow this last loop, I know we could have finished, to have it end the way we did was hard.

There were still several volunteers waiting up for us when we pulled in at 345am, and they helped me make sure Tarma was pulsed down (she stepped off the trailer at 48bpm) and one lady said she looked like she certainly could have done six more miles.

Wait, hold up. According to the map, plus the GPS track from when we did this loop earlier in the day, I only had two miles to camp! I wouldn’t have been so disappointed if I was a lot father than I thought, it’s one thing to come in 30 minutes overtime, another thing to go over an hour overtime, especially at 4 in the morning! I’m still not clear how long that stretch between that last water tanks and camp was, I heard estimated from 3 to 6 miles. Exhausted, hurt, confused but proud of my mare, I settled her in for the night, stripping her tack, icing her legs, shoving a ton of food in front of her, tossing her cooler on and passing out by 430am.

The heat woke me at 10 (I slept through the awards at 9am), head a jumble. Tarma looked great, I stripped her cooler off and gave her fresh water, her bucket near empty. I took her for her customary pee walk (she will pee on the Hi Tie but really perfers not to). A ton of folks had already packed and gone, including the vets I had set out to find. there. At some point between me crashing at 430 and the award meeting, I was awarded a completion. I just buried my head in Tarma’s side and cried, I felt I had done the work, the miles and preparation and care of both my horse and myself and enduring, and to hear it goes on our record is a relief. I don’t give a fig for points, but our record matters, it proves we can do this, this feral Morgan mare and I.

I managed to slowly pack up in a bit of a daze, Tarma happy to snooze and watch me do the work for once! I talked some things over with Julie, who gave me some things to focus on and different electrolytes to try (Tarma licked them out of her hand!) I still haven’t fully processed all the lessons learned, but I’m home safe with a strong horse and that’s what matters over everything.