Strap on in for this one, all arms and legs inside the ride please, this is a bit of a doozy! I’ve never done a Pioneer ride before, and technically I still haven’t, but I may well be hooked now. I did end up riding three days in a row, but I only snagged one completion…and our first ever Best Condition!!!!

The Old Selam Pioneer ride is held over three days in the mountains north of Boise, just east of Idaho City. The haul from Canby to Centerville is at the bare edge of what I’ll ask Tarma to do in one day, and I only tried it because we’ve already done it once this year, in the opposite direction heading home from our big spring trip. 85% of the haul is all on I84, so fairly straightforward cruising with plenty of easy rest stops. I always unload Tarma at least once if she’s hauling more than 6 hours, which I did hauling over just outside Baker City and hauling home outside La Grande. It gives me a chance to get some wet mash into her, let her stretch her legs, pee, and get her head down. This does require a bit of equine calculus; can I trust her to load back up? I do and she does, but it’s something to consider. 

My original plan was to haul over Thursday, have a rest day Friday, ride a 50 on Saturday and a 25 on Sunday, then haul home on Monday, Labor Day. In hindsight, I think I should have kept to this schedule. I had won at the PNER convention to have an experienced 100 miler rider crew for me, and as they were riding the 100 on Sunday and were not arriving to camp until Friday night I moved my schedule up a day. I think if the weather Thursday night hadn’t been cold and rainy, we might have done out better. But part of endurance is dealing with the variables handed to you, and doing your best. 

My plan for the 50 miler was to push us a bit in multiple ways; I wanted to go out with the group and see how Tarma’s emotional state handled a crowded start; I wanted to get our moving average up a bit; and I wanted a lot of hills! I got all three in spades. Our region boasts the Blakely family, who regularly top 10 Tevis and train and sell FEI level horses. They happened to be riding the Friday 50 miler, and Tarma tried to convince me she could keep up with them for like, half a mile before I pulled her back in. She was NOT thrilled with this and the first three miles were rough, I couldn’t get her to walk or anything less than a power trot for love or money and there was a pretty dang steep climb that she just threw herself at. Again in hindsight, I should have changed our warm up plan; normally I walk out the first mile but that only works if we aren’t caught up in the group. Next time I will mount up more like 15-20 minutes before the trail opens and walk around a bit more. 

We did manage to find a bubble (and get passed by one of my favorite photographers, Merri Melde, on her big Standardbred Hillbillie Willie, who recognized us! How cool!) but somewhere in the starting mad scramble Tarma managed to toss off that damn left front shoe. Fudge. I only really noticed it when I hopped off to pee and electrolyte her at mile 8, after some amazing road cruising with the sun rising over the foggy valley. What a view we had! We managed to finish all the rest of our miles with a Renegade on that hoof without further issues…or mostly. 

The first loop of this 50 miler was 23 miles, making for our first two loop 50. This might have been another factor to our pull. We slid into camp our normal way, with me jumping off just outside camp, loosening her cinch and dropping her bit. I did have the Polar heart rate monitor for this ride, and I loved riding with it! It gave me such a clear idea of where she was and how long her recoveries from different levels of effort are. It also backed up that I do know her pretty well; at our final hold I was able to tell the vet, “She’s probably about 62-64” without looking at the Polar…and she was at 62!

Anyway, back to the 50. We walked into camp, she vetted right through as she normally does…but in the 100 yards or so back to our trailer I began to get a bad feeling. At the trailer she didn’t dive into her food per usual, and she wanted to roll, even with her tack and blanket thrown over the saddle on. She was standing with her right rear leg out behind her, not wanting to put full weight on it. OH NO. Bad vibes! I strip her tack and put her cooler on, and her eyes get that internal look that horses get when something isn’t quite right. She curls up on the ground, but thankfully she wasn’t thrashing, groaning, sweaty or looking at her belly, she just looked like standing was too much effort. 

For better or worse, this is exactly the kind of situation my brain works best in. I can lock in and work the problem without distractions or emotions; had I been able to do any math on the fly whatsoever, I had looked into paramedic school once upon a time. With no real signs of colic, no injuries I could feel out, the Polar telling me her heart rate remained normal, and as she was eating mash if I held it up for her, I was disinclined to think this was colic. I knew our ride was over for the day, it was now a matter of sussing out what was the issue and what support Tarma needed. I let her stay laying down for about 15 minutes, then I asked her to get up, which she did slowly and she did walk…but slowly, and she kept looking at her butt. Ahah, a clue Sherlock! 

I get her back to the vet, turn in my card, and we look her over and discuss things together. The new vet (this was her first endurance ride!) helped me zero into the issue: A butt cramp! Tarma was super tight on that right hind, the one with the gnarly scar in the middle, and her left hind was tight too. She had no other real symptoms and her other parameters were nominal. Our official ride record shows a vet pull-metabolic, as the probable main reason for a tight hind is a metabolic/electrolyte issue. For my first vet pull ever, this is a workable issue; find the variables and address them. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting real up close and personal with Tarma’s butt…and I could tell she needed it as she didn’t protest at all. 

I mixed up a new dose of electrolytes, this time adding in the BCCA’s (branched-chain amino acids) I picked up in Auburn, and made sure she got the full dose instead of the partial dose I give throughout a ride. I put her IceVibes on her front legs (no swelling/filling in her legs all weekend thankfully!), massaged her butt for 10 minutes every hour followed by a short walk. I also put the weighted and heated blanket I keep in the trailer for warmth at night on her hips and butt, and she really relaxed after that! It took about 90 minutes or so, but by the time the rest of the 50s were finishing she was back to her normal self, stuffing her face, dragging me around camp, and peeing and pooping on her normal schedule. On our walks she also decided to eat dirt in one swampy spot, so I dunno what was in that dirt but it was good stuff. 

Thankfully that night was much warmer and dryer, though a lighting storm did wake me up about 1am, lighting everything up like noon for a bit. Alas, I was not able to sleep in. Tarma was a bit put out to be left behind when everyone else left, didn’t I know she was fine? I walked her out away from camp and she acted like her butt hadn’t betrayed us yesterday. I massaged said hind more after breakfast, letting her rest a bit with the normal buffet before her. After lunch when camp was quiet I saddled up with her fancy new British pad to try, and we headed out for a short tack fit ride to see how she felt (short for us being a 9 mile loop). 

She pulled on me the entire time and never took a bad step. I took her over to some mentors and asked them to play the game of “Pretend you don’t know this horse; would you ride her?” After some poking and a trot out, they encouraged me to head out tomorrow and enjoy the ride. I made the call to aim for the LD versus the 50, just in case. I woke up earlier on Sunday and took extra time tacking up; I gave her a full dose of electrolytes with the BCCAs and massaged her butt for a few minutes. I mounted up well before the trail opened and let her warm up longer, and she felt great. 

We headed out once again with the group, and she once again dropped a few marbles along the way. She’s not dangerous but she wasn’t paying any attention to her feet or the terrain, which worries me no matter how sure footed she is. I finally had to hop off and let everyone else go (and drop my stirrups a hole) and I got her brain back…a tad. We spent at least 75% of this 16 mile loop just….messy. She absolutely refused to accept the pace I asked for, no matter how many tricks I pulled out of my bag. It just wasn’t fun, even when I turned on my music (a last resort for me), and I had to keep turning it off when we ran into folks. I just never felt I had her mind or her balance, and there may have been a few tears and plenty of curse words. I hate hanging on her face, and I did everything I could to avoid it, but sometimes you just have a freight train who thinks your input is garbage and your right leg is off in space and just ugh, nothing was flowing or fun. We did find a tiny, tiny bit of flow on some solid portions of road, where I just said “fuck it” and let her pull us into a 13mph trot/canter stretch while I kept an eye on her heart rate (her working zone seems to be 115-125 bpm, with jumps to 170/180bpm after a big effort like a canter climb or steep hill). 

We flew into camp and I fumbled through my normal routine, doing my own best to find a center and reset. We vetted through clean and Tarma dragged me to the trailer and started stuffing her face, so at least that was going well. I let Benny cheer me up, downed an iced coffee and talked myself back into that saddle; I’d get a damned completion out of this trip if I had to do it kicking and screaming! We headed out for thankfully the same loop we’d done yesterday with just over two hours to complete, easy stuff for us. I could tell she was getting a bit sick of me, like a teenager at odds, so we hooked up with a new friend from Montana and Tarma was happy to again pull on me and lead the way the entire time. It’s a beautiful loop and we chatted the whole way, which I think Tarma appreciated that not all of my attention was on micromanaging her…though we did end up backing up a few times because she would not walk. 

We came in with a big group of other folks on the LD, another first for us. We hit the edge of camp and she was at about 100bpm; I hopped off, loosened her girth, took her bit out and took a deep breath and she was at 80bpm; by the time we got to the vet check she was down to 60bpm. We were in the top ten, though over an hour behind the front runner. I decided to show for Best Condition anyway for the practice if nothing else. We stood for our 10 minute CRI (cardiac recovery index), then I spent the next hour paying obsessive attention to her butt and legs. We returned for our hour vet check for BC and she showed well, and when I weighed I was only 263! Somehow I managed to shave 20 pounds of gear! 

She settled in and looked like she’d barely done anything, although we’d done 57 miles of riding over three days, a new record for us if not quite what I’d planned. At awards on Saturday we were treated to some stories from a gentleman from the Historical Idaho State Penitentiary, and on Sunday a cowboy poet recited some of her beautiful and funny writings to us. We were cheering on the 100 milers coming in and going back out again during awards on Sunday…but somehow Tarma and I managed to snag our very first Best Condition out of that messy LD! I was surprised to hear our name called, as we’d finished 7th and well behind the leaders. Tarma, of course, was not surprised by her award. She knows she’s hot shit! For my part, I felt 50% better than I have at any other ride, even Santiam earlier this summer. I was never really all that sore, I was able to post the whole time as needed, I had a ton of energy for taking care of Tarma and I didn’t have any crashes myself. All that fitness work is paying off!

So yeah, that’s the tale of the weekend we got our first vet pull and our first Best Condition award! Ride photos courtesy of the wonderful Steve Bradley Photography, thank you for catching us all over three busy days! I want to put a plug for everyone who helped put on this fun ride, from Debbie the ride manager, Regina the ride secretary, all the vets and volunteers were super cool and supportive, and the speakers were so fun! Melissa and David, thank you so freaking much for checking over Tarma, for your advice and support to get us back out there!