I was at my happiest today in a gravel parking lot. We were in our way home from a fantastic weekend at the Grizzly Mountain Ride, and we’d stopped at the rest area on the Deschutes River in Warm Springs. This area is my favorite of all my road trips, I swear there’s magic in the smoothly rushing water, the always green grass and the mustangs on the other side. Today we’d stopped so I could soak the awful mud off Tarma’s legs, she charged right into the river and munched as I drank my coffee in the sunshine and Kade threw a stick for Benny, happily swimming into the river like an otter.

I’d just completed our first LD ride of the season, the one that wasn’t on my radar. I have no real plan for this ride season, other than at least one 50 towards our Decade Team status. I’d hauled over to volunteer, to see Dry Side friends and hang out in ride camp. I haven’t done a single ride at “race pace” this year, which for us is about six miles an hour. Multiple friends assured me we could handle it based on how much we have been riding, even with most of them arena rides, and they were right! We (mostly me) aren’t 50 miler fit, but that’s where LD’s come in, as conditioning rides themselves. This Grizzly was classified as a 30 miler, which gave us an extra hour of riding time, of which we used six hours and twenty minutes to go 27.8 according to my Ride With GPS. Even if it had been the full 30, we would have made it in time.

I loved seeing all aspects of a ride all in one weekend. Friday I was up bright and early to volunteer, ending up with a gate assigned to me for the day. Grizzly is run over the Crooked River Grasslands, which is open range. Getting off to open and close a wire gate and finding a place on the other side to mount back up is tricky and time consuming, so volunteers babysit the gate to ensure riders don’t have to dismount and cows don’t wonder out.

Saturday found me awaking to my alarm and Tarma yelling at me. She can and will pee on her Hi-tie, but she prefers me to get out of bed early enough to take her for a walk instead. The LD doesn’t start until 730, so I had plenty of time to make actually hot coffee and get Tarma tacked up. I had a friend help me adjust my stirrups to account for my new stirrup turners, and off we went!

The first loop is only 11 miles, which meant we spent 11 miles energetically discussing speed. We managed to jiggy jog walk jig our first mile or so, which is as comfortable as it sounds. As Shar described the first few miles of her ride the day before, I was basically holding onto the slobber straps for awhile. She was responding to the new J&S hack, but man did it take work! We were both a bit amped even three miles in, made worse by the fact that I couldn’t see for awhile, it was so foggy my glasses were soaked but I couldn’t spare a hand to clean them or take them off. There was a road crossing, which with the fog ride management had set out volunteers to help us cross safely. I think I shocked the poor radio guy by cursing at two drivers who had zero lights on in 100 feet of visibility, the absolute morons. Like I said, I was little amped up!

The rest of first loop took no time at all, even with electrolyting her (I’m trying the “half dose every 10 miles” formula), dropping my electrolyte bottle, dismounting to grab said bottle and hauling myself back aboard (short horse for the win!) In fact this loop was so short it made Tarma mad. Usually at vet holds she settles right in to eating and drinking, choosing from the smorgasbord of options I keep available for her. This time she paced on her Hi-tie, so I short tied her and she’s take a bite, toss her head around and side step, bite, toss, sidestep. She had places to go and I was keeping her there against her will.

We charged out of ride camp at Mach 8 and kept that up for several miles. I can neither sit nor post this super trot of hers, so I would adjust her until there was a sittable trot (I don’t post a lot, much to my dressage trainer’s dismay), which is about Mach 5 (6-7 mph I think). She’s stick that speed for about 100 yards, then creep up to Mach 8-9 and we just repeated this dance for miiiiiles. Until I stopped to electrolyte her again (wonderful that I can do this from the saddle!) and we started to climb and wind our way around a butte. We matched up it, not pausing for the cows or deer, and about now Tarma decided she was starving. I think she started appreciating the new hackamore about then, she has full freedom to eat (she wasn’t the best at chewing with a bit in).

We managed a few more trot sets on our way down the butte and back towards camp, but once past the ride photographer we pretty much walked the four miles or so back. We had plenty of time and I was getting tight, and I had once again forgotten to rub the anti chafe butter under my bra strap so they were rough again. It had also started to mist, enough to cool us off but not put my riding skirt on. I have her one last dose of elytes two miles out of camp and we grazed our way down a weirdly green grass fence line and moseyed into camp. Tarma immediately pulsed down and vetted through, receiving plenty of compliments while Kade trotted her out for me.

As we didn’t have another loop (or two) ahead of us, I was happy to tuck Tarma in to her post ride feast with her cooler on and park myself at the communal campfire with a hard cider, catching up with friends old and new. Saturday night was rough, Kade insisted on sleeping with me so every time I’d roll over I’d kick him in the head (teenagers) so I ended up sweaty and uncomfortable. The dog gave up on us about 2am, which is about the time I woke up. It was a drenching night, dumping rain, thunder and lightning, it was rough. I was worried about Tarma out in it, but at least her mid weight blanket was fully waterproof still!

I gave up trying to sleep about 5am when the rain finally stopped and crawled out bed, giving Tarma fresh food and water. When I went to step away she’d follow me, so I turned off my light and just stood with her. I scratched her a bit and breathed with her, telling her how pretty and strong and wonderful she is, and she yawned and put her head right into me. These quiet moments are the biggest reason I love horse camping, as a boarder I don’t always get this side of her.

I crawled back into bed and slept another two hours, hard this time. I hustled us through packing so I could try to get out of the mud, in case we got stuck and needed a tow out. Thankfully with my water tank empty and Kade holding Tarma away, I managed to back out in 4WD low and then hustle out to the gravel road without sliding once… though the husband and his commercial grade pressure washer definitely came in handy once we got home! It was nice to get back home without being completely exhausted, I had enough energy to give Tarma her first of two annual baths (she haaaated it but she was so gross) and help clean out the truck and trailer before showering and reuniting with my couch.