Road to Tevis #34: Our second ride in the desert, xp at Coso Junction

Fantazia and I spent a good part of last week camped out behind the service station at Coso Junction for our second ride in the desert. Despite being more than a month later than our last ride in the same area, it was much colder. It snowed on us during most of our ride on the second (our first) day. It continued snowing all afternoon and evening, and well into the next morning. Fantazia and I were both cold, not having come prepared for quite such wintry weather. Fortunately, the final day was sunny and much warmer.

Typical view on Thursday: Joshua trees nearby, snowy mountains in the distance.

Overall, it was a good experience. Fantazia improved in some ways compared with our last ride. In others, she stayed very much the same. This post will be short on words and long on images, but I will describe the ride, new lessons learned, and the take-home good and bad.

The Eastern Mojave Scenic XP at Coso Junction

The ride was supposed to be at the Mojave National Preserve but the National Park Service refused the permit because of COVID. The good thing was that Coso Junction is a shorter drive for me, but the Eastern Mojave sounds a lot prettier. The ride at Coso was quite pretty though, especially along the route we took the second day, which was very similar to the first. (I rode the second and fourth days.) The weather was not very nice though, until the last day.

It was originally only supposed to snow Wednesday. Apparently Tuesday and Wednesday were unpleasantly windy, but the snow didn’t really start till Thursday afternoon… at ride camp! We started to get small flakes out on the ride by around 9:30.

My first snow video of many…

Thursday afternoon through Friday morning was fairly miserable. It snowed off and on, big fat wet flakes, the whole time. I made a campfire (a challenge in wet snow), and put on a lot of clothes. so I was warm. I also had a very warm sleeping bag… so warm I was hot. When I got up around 4am because someone’s stallion was loose, the heat stayed with me until he was back with his owner.

our second ride in the desert — Ride camp Thursday afternoon. You can see the snowflakes!

The good

Fantazia’s drinking

Fantazia drank well. True, she didn’t touch her water at the trailer until the second night, but she drank at the communal troughs almost every time I took her to them. She also drank on the rides. The first day she was very keyed up and didn’t want to drink until I took off ahead of everyone else. Once we hit a water stop with no other horse in sight, she drank well. I gave her electrolytes (Perform N Win this time, which I alternated with a home-made mix), and she drank at every water after that.

Water on our second ride in the desert — Drinking at a luxury-trough out on the trail next to Allan’s mare Shez Mostly Zipped.

She even recognizes the water truck! Dave drove up while Karol and I were completing the second loop Saturday and offered water (one of the promised water stops had had none). Fantazia immediately knew what he was doing! if she could have helped with the buckets and hose she would have!

The beautiful trails

It doesn’t look like much behind the Chevron station at Coso Junction, but once you get out several miles, it’s really pretty. The footing was excellent most of the time, with a good portion of the rides following (relatively rock-free) dirt roads.

And the Joshua trees were amazing, especially against the backdrop of a snowy Sierra Nevada (yes, I know that’s redundant).

Some of the trail was single-track. this is from the first day, through Joshua trees.

The fourth day, out second to ride, had, in my opinion, less interesting trails. We did go through one area that was full of obsidian. I got off and stuffed two pieces into my pack.

The people

Unfortunately, the people I spoke most with at Laurel Mountain were not there, but I met new people. As usual, I learned a lot from their stories of endurance in general and Tevis in particular. On Thursday, there only four of us doing the 50, and we rode together much of the way. Valerie Jaques and her stallion demon had been at Laurel Mt, but we hadn’t spoken much if at all. Allan Horn and Carla Eigenauer were new to me, and it was a pleasure to ride with all three. Allan’s mare shared certain characteristics with Fantazia, so it was useful hearing how he “managed” her (maybe I need to manage Fantazia less!)

Thursday’s ride. On the left, Allan on foot next to Carla, with Valerie coming along behind. In the middle, Valerie and Demon at a water stop. On the right, Allan in the snow.

Karol Mancini pulled in next to my trailer on Thursday with her chestnut mare Cece. We had fun camping next to each other, and riding together for the second loop on Saturday. Sadly I only got a few pictures from that day, but Karol and Cece are ahead of me in one!

Saturday’s three pictures! I believe that’s Michele Rowe ahead of me on the left. We rode together for a brief time. In the center, it’s Karol Mancini.

There were a lot of other people whose names I don’t quite recall, but who were very friendly! (It’s not personal, I am terrible with names… and FACES! having aphantasia).

Other neighbors had a really cute puppy!

I was better prepared in many ways!

Last time I had brought firewood but no grill. I had brought a propane stove without an essential attachment. So no hot water. This time I brought the entire stove, a teapot, a grill, and a tritip to barbecue.

Last time I hadn’t charged my headlamp and forgot to bring a flashlight. This time I had a charged headlamp (which I didn’t use), and I had bought two great little rechargeable flashlights.

Last time my Garmin Fenix 5S ran out of battery. I hadn’t even brought the charging cable. I had to plug my cell phone into the truck to charge it. This time I not only brought cables, but also an Anker Powercore portable charger. That was a great purchase. I chose one of the more powerful options (Anker has many), and it never ran out. I charged my phone from 15% to full every night, and my watch from 60%, 20%, and 70% on the three nights. It even charged the little flashlight each night.

The rest day

Taking a rest day between 50s was a good idea. First, she (we) needed it… although in Fantazia’s case, that must be balanced with the fact that it was another day of not eating properly. But even if she probably lost more weight than if we’d done back-to-back 50s, it was good for her brain. She stood at the trailer and pawed while everyone who was riding left into the snow. When the sun came out, I rode her with a foam pad and overgirth around ride camp. We did leg yielding, and just stood and talked with people. She stole other people’s hay and drank from the communal troughs. After the ride she was calm and relaxed.

Fantazia is completely sound…

I actually had to saddle up and trot her today for my farrier to assess her movement (see below). I was pleased to find that she is not sore anywhere, and trots perfectly sound. No filling in (stocking up) either, but I had her front legs sweated, so that might have prevented minor stocking up.

Only problems are weight loss and interfering…

The good and bad

Eating

On the one hand, she did eat better than she did at Laurel mountain. She nibbled on hay at the beginning, and accepted carrots for the first 24 hours. Then she started refusing them. At lunch on Thursday, about 25 miles into the ride and far from Ride Camp, she ate really well. I had packed some soaked timothy/alfalfa cubes, beet pulp, and rice bran. I put some carrots on top and sat down beside her with my Brie sandwich. As long as I was sitting right there, she ate.

Fantazia ate a bit better at the trailer, and she ate really well at lunch the first day we rode.

She also wanted to eat along the trail, as she had at Laurel Mt. When she relaxes enough to realize she’s hungry and getting tired, she tries to grab whatever she can… you can see it in the video below! (you can also see the snow on her…)

However, she still refused to eat her normal ration on Ultium Gastric Care. I had brought lots of rice bran, and she nibbled on that. On our rest day (Friday), I made a watery mush and syringed rice bran into her every time she pawed or whinnied or otherwise acted like a nut. Figured two birds with one stone, it got some fat into her. Unfortunately she lost a lot of weight (at least 75 pounds), and I need her to regain a lot of that if we are to do two fifties at the Cuyama Oaks xpride, as planned.

On the left, Wednesday afternoon before the ride. On the right, Friday afternoon. We still had another 50-mile ride!

It didn’t help that it was cold. I had brought three blankets, a lightweight sheet, a rain sheet (unlined, but heavy), and lightweight 180D) winter blanket. I should also have brought a cooler and my heavy winter blanket with hood and tail flap.

The bad

Fantazia was if anything even more worked up on the trail. As long as she can see horses, she wants to be in front. When she’s lone, she does calm down, after many miles. I didn’t ride very well on Saturday, I got frustrated and forced her to stay behind (we were riding with Allan) when she wanted to pass. That just made her get more worked up. I should have let her go, at a slower pace than she wanted, but not insisting she stop and back up many times.

Perhaps because she was moving so big and occasionally cantering sideways, she interfered a lot. I put ankle boots on her Saturday, but not Thursday, because I didn’t expect it. My farrier came out today (Monday) to film her trotting under saddle and trouble shoot. She moves just fine here… Not even getting close. But we are putting new hind shoes on next week, in preparation for Cuyama Oaks. I have also ordered these fetlock boots from Riding Warehouse. Hopefully they work out well.

More videos and pictures below! No time to write more!