A little over a week ago (Jan. 17), I drove to Ridgecrest for the Fire Mountain endurance ride for the fourth year in a row. Things did not go entirely as planned, but River’s ride to the Trona Pinnacles was a success. In 2023, Jazz and I won the 55-mile ride to the Pinnacles by keeping going through wind and rain. (Read about it here: Jazz’s first endurance win–and mine!) Last year, I rode Fantazia who was coasting easily to a top ten finish when my knees gave out. (Read about My second ride to the Trona Pinnacles.) I ended up in 15th place with a fresh mare. This year, because River had had a long break, I entered the LD, 25 miles out to the Pinnacles.
River could easily have done a slow 50-mile ride, but I wanted to ride the next day. That didn’t happen, but not because of River!
(Read about River’s fitness going into this ride.)
Jump to:
Friday: Getting there and getting ready
Saturday: River’s ride to the Trona Pinnacles
Take home
What’s up next?
Friday: Getting there and getting ready
The drive to Ridgecrest
I left home around 9:30am Friday. It’s an easy three and a half hours to Valley Riders in Ridgecrest, including my usual stop at Love’s in Tehachapi. I was quite relaxed right up until I turned my headlights on for the daytime headlight zone on highway 65 north of Bakersfield. As sson as I turned the switch, the truck went whompf and slowed down about five miles per hour. Of course I turned the headlights off.
Some backstory on the truck issue
My truck has been telling me “wiring default on trailer” for a few years, ever since they “fixed” a wiring issue. Of course I’ve taken it back in, and everything worked fine despite the warning up until November. On the way to the Sesenta Años xpride, I realized I did not have trailer brakes. I took the trailer in for a thorough wiring checkup (to Viking, a division of E.M. Tharpe in Tipton that has been fixing our trailer for years). They tweaked a few things and said it was fine… When I hitched it back up to take home, the truck computer didn’t recognized that it had a trailer with brakes.
I then took the truck in. My mechanic found a mess of wires shorting out and (supposedly) fixed it. It looked good! The truck computer realized it had a trainer and I could change the gain on the brakes. I could hear the trailer brakes working. I still had a wiring default on trailer display, but everything seemed to be in order. I verified that the brakes worked driving down from Tehachapi. (And then again, going home Sunday; the grade down to Bakersfield on 58 is a good test!)
But I couldn’t drive with the lights on…
Of course I immediately called my mechanic. I wanted to know if I could keep going or if I needed to panic. They said it might be the battery, it might be a short, go to Ridgecrest anyway. Just don’t drive in the dark.
I was going to reach Ridgecrest at one, but no lights was going to be a problem Sunday. I had planned to ride the LD, but it was going to be 30 miles. There was no way River could complete that with time for me to get home before dark. (I had to be home Sunday because I needed to prep for my first day of class Tuesday.)
Above: Crossing the railroad tracks as we neared the Pinnacles on Saturday.
Arrival and parking
Unless it’s a ride camp with tons of space, I prefer to arrive before the ride starts. This is especially true for Valley Riders in Ridgecrest, but this time I was lucky. There was plenty of room, and I was directed to park right next to a friend, Andy Botello. (Not that I mind parking next to a complete stranger–that’s how you make friends!) As I was setting up, Karol Mancini called to ask where I was parked and if there was space.
Karol and I had met at my second ride in California, at Coso Junction in 2022. We rode together then, and off and on since then. We had tentatively planned to ride together to the Trona Pinnacles, but unfortunately Karol’s mare Cece was off at the vet in.
Just across from Andy’s camper were the Hellys, another nice coincidence, as Heidi and I planned to ride Sunday together. Although I ended up not riding Sunday, it’s always nice to be close by. It saves me a lot of walking!
Pre-ride and vet in
The pre-ride: A world of difference from last year!
After I had the trailer set up, I saddled River for a short pre-ride. She was very well-behaved, in part due to five miles we had ridden the day before, primarily in the arena. River had been very fresh and full of herself, despite loping two miles in relatively deep sand. (We do a flying lead change every quarter mile).
For our pre-ride, I simply rode around ride camp. It’s three flat miles, if you add a tiny extra loop through the desert. I was curious to see how River would behave. It was one year and six rides since River’s first experience in endurance at Fire Mountain 2024. (Read about River’s first endurance ride here.) Then, she had Fantazia with her; this was great to help her relax at the trailer, but Fantazia’s frantic calling made River more anxious. After riding Fantazia to the Pinnacles on Saturday, I vetted River in (see below) and then saddled up.
River was awful last year. She bucked and tried to rear repeatedly. I had to do many small circles. Finally, I loped her in the end of the arena until she calmed down…
River’s vet in went very smoothly!
And that was the good part. At the vet in last year, River kicked another horse. Ever since then, she wears a red ribbon in her tail! She has improved with every ride, and this year she didn’t even threaten a kick. She trotted out well, pulsed at 48, and had all As.
Above: Left/above: River’s fancy red ribbon is a serious warning to other riders. She does kick, though she is getting much more tolerant of other horses in close proximity. Right/below: our ride card after vet in.
Saturday: River’s ride to the Trona Pinnacles
The LD started at 7:30, which is a luxury. It’s weird to be lollygagging at 6:30 when you usually ride 50s. I’m almost always a tad late for the start of a 50-mile ride. Well, ok, I also end up hurrying at the last minute for a 7:30 start because time seems unlimited! This time I was ready on time. It helped that I ended up riding with Donna Dubois and Kerrie Tuley and they were ready.
We led our horses out of the gate at 7:32, well after the front runners had disappeared, but with at least some people behind us. Thirty-nine horse and rider pairs started the ride.
Above: Kerrie (riding Magnum) and Donna (riding Indy) lead the way. They generally talk a lot more than I do, and River is squirrelly with horses alongside, so I did a lot of following!
Section 1
The LD for Day 2 of Fire Mountain was a one-way ride out to the Trona Pinnacles, so rather than loops, we had two sections. The first was just under 12 miles. Donna, Kerrie, and I mounted up after the first quarter mile. Our horses were very well-behaved. River did well following and leading, even when other riders passed us. We played a lot of leap frog!
Around mile 8, on a long sandy downhill stretch, River suddenly became very reactive to other horses. If one swished a tail, she bolted into the desert. I decided to put some distance between us and other riders, and let her move ahead. I don’t like to trot downhill, but it was a gradually sloping, sandy trail. River loved it, and she settled down as soon as we were out of sight of the others.
About half a mile from the hold I hopped off and led her in. Donna and Kerrie caught up with me at this point.
The hold
River had pulsed down by the time they checked her heart rate. In fact, she had been below 60 since I dismounted. She had not drunk any water on the trail, and she did not drink at the hold. I wasn’t worried. It was a cool morning, she hadn’t exerted herself, and she dug into the alfalfa provided. Her vet scores were excellent (all As).
Above: River was relaxed at the hold. In the background of the second picture, you can see Donna and Indy and Magnum. (Maybe Kerrie’s there too, but I can’t spot her.)
Section 2
My out time was only three minutes before Donna and Kerrie’s and I waited. River needed to be able to ride with others nicely! She did a great job for the rest of the ride, partly because we went slightly faster and trotted for longer stretches. She also finally drank, at about 17 miles. River loves water, and always tries to get as much of her body into it as possible. This can be alarming when her knees are collapsing in from of a 150-gallon tank! It also means I don’t worry too much if she’s not drinking. Waiting to drink for 17 easy miles in cold weather was not unusual.
The ride to the Pinnacles is mainly downhill, and the last half is almost all a gradual downhill grade. The footing is excellent most of the way. Although the sand gets a tiny bit deep at times, it’s very similar to what we have in our outdoor arena, so River is used to it. It was the perfect ride to do coming back from a lay-up. There are long periods of trotting, and that’s the one thing I don’t have at home.
Above: The elevation profile of the ride out to the Trona Pinnacles from my Garmin watch. The blue mark is close to the midpoint.
On sustained trotting and River’s current training
I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near Springville, CA. There is no flat. (Read about my terrain here: Prerequisites for riding in the Sierra Nevada foothills.) The steep hills are wonderful for conditioning, but I cannot trot for long stretches. The longest happen in the arena, where I trot for 1.5 miles as a warm-up. Lately I’ve followed that with two miles of loping. Thanks to the sustained loping and the fact that I let her gallop up hills, River has gotten fitter than she’s been since I’ve had her. Overall, that is.
The demands of trotting for long periods are both physical and mental. River got bored trotting, but she was definitely fit enough to ride the 25 miles to the Pinnacles. In fact, she could have done the 50. I probably would have had I realized that I wouldn’t ride Sunday. I do need to change River’s diet though. She needs more fat in her diet and a bigger build up of feed prior to the ride.
As we approached the Pinnacles, River perked up. This was largely due to a large group of motorcyclists, but it told me she wasn’t nearly as tired as she had been letting on. Not that I thought she was excessively tired. In fact, her heart rate had been so low I wondered if my monitor was malfunctioning. I still worry about that, but her finish suggests she was, in fact, metabolically very efficient.
Above: I let River canter for about an eighth of a mile as we approached the pinnacles.
The finish
Just after letting River stretch her legs near the end of the ride we reached the quarter-mile till the finish warning. Donna, Kerrie, and I dismounted, took our bridles off, and walked to the finish. River wanted to drink and play in the water. (In this short video of her at the trough one can hear Wild Horses playing in the background ;-)) By the time I found someone to check her heart rate, it was so low they couldn’t hear it. (I knew it was under 60 when we were at the water trough.)
Donna’s husband David had brought their trailer to take us all back to Ride Camp, so we unsaddled there and then headed back to the vet. River wanted to stay at the alfalfa; she was hungry! I insisted we vet through first, because I was hungry too!
I forgot to get a photo of her card, but the vet said River looked great. She actually told me her CRI pulse, but I’ve forgotten I thought she said it was 48, but it seems too much of a coincidence when that was her vet-in HR! I do know that River trotted out well, felt good, and had an excellent appetite.
Above: River alone in the background, Donna holding Indy in the middle, standing next to Kerrie with Magnum.
Trailering back to Ride Camp
The worst part of the day was the ride back to camp. The access to the pinnacles from 178 is not long, but it is very bumpy. To make matters worse, someone had torn up the rail on the railroad crossing with a their trailer. We had to go around a longer way. I was glad David was driving.
Above: River was glad not to have to ride back! In the second photo, you can see the Pinnacles through the truck window.
Take home
According to my Garmin watch, the ride was 25.25 miles with a total of 1,686′ total elevation gain (2,395′ loss). I clocked five hours and three minutes total elapsed time (including the hold when I paused the recording after about three minutes), 4:29 recorded time, and 4:23 moving time. According to the results on the AERC page, our time was 4:36. Average speed: 5.6 mph, average moving speed, 5.8 mph. This is very much in line with River’s speed in all her rides last year.
For context, Fantazia did the exact same trail to the Pinnacles last year in three hours, 31 minutes (3:21 moving time). Easily. She went on to complete the 50 miles in 7:12, in 15th place. We could easily have top-tenned if my knees hadn’t given out. I held Fantazia back the entire time. Our time was an hour faster than I had gone with Jazz the year before (but he did 55 miles in a storm).
Above: Trotting along calmly as we neared the end of the ride.
River is an easy ride (most of the time)
River takes very little energy to ride. She has smooth gaits, and she doesn’t pull. When she does want to go faster than I do, she is easy to rate, and her energy doesn’t go up into fancy, tiring-to-ride trotting. True, when she gets naughty she can be a challenge, but that is true of any horse. River’s naughty doesn’t last long; the only problem is that she does kick.
Will River speed up?
I spent all last year teaching River to go slow. Going slow is good for the horse’s brain, but it’s harder on this rider’s hip, back, and knees. It’s also not necessarily easier on the horse to stretch the miles out more than necessary for its physical condition. So I am ready to go a bit faster. I don’t know if River will want to.
I think she will. Most horses, when fit and adequately fed, want to go faster down the trail. I believe River prefers to lope rather than trot. This is fine in good footing. Because we don’t always have good footing, she’s going to have to be ok with trotting.
River is a very different horse for me. I am used to hot horses. River is not hot. Her work ethic is not great… it’s more in line with Jazz’s than Fantazia’s. However, that may be because of her history at the track and the way I purposefully undertrained her last year. I’m curious to see how she changes with increased fitness and feed.
What’s up next?
River and I completed a 19-mile conditioning ride last Sunday, eight days after riding to the Trona Pinnacles. It took us four hours and forty minutes and had a total of 3,350′ total elevation gain. It had rained the night before, so some of the roads were quite slick. This was a good thing–ever since River slipped and injured herself at the Cache Creek Ridge ride, I’ve been wanting to train on slick terrain. Horses learn how to navigate slippery slopes with a rider on their backs by doing. On Sunday, instead of leading River down all the hills, I made her carry me down a few good and muddy ones. (You can watch and listen to me narrate our way down a hill in the video below.)
She did great. It was a tough ride, and cold. I was going to ride a full 25 miles, but I was underdressed so we headed back the short way. Still, River is ready for a 50.
Next ride?
Next weekend I plan to go to the Eastern Mojave xpride. It’s a little further than I like, but I want to see that part of the desert, and I love the Nicholson’s rides. If all goes well, River and I will do the 50 Saturday and Sunday. (It would be better to do Friday and Sunday, but I work Thursday and cannot get home until after four.)
At least one of those days, I need to ride alone. I really need to listen to River, and that’s harder to do when she’s distracted by another horse and I’m distracted by another human.