River’s second endurance ride (Road to Tevis #110)

This last Saturday was River’s second endurance ride, 50 miles on Day 2 of the Western Mojave xpride. Although she behaved well and completed the ride, she was not 100%. It was 7-8 good strides and then Ouch! Definitely hoofsore. We skipped the LD I had planned to ride the next day. Monday morning my farrier located the sore area in her left inner toe. After watching her trot out on hard ground, he said she was 8.5/10 (I could not see any limp at all, just lack of free movement) but should be better by Cuyama Oaks in two weeks. Crossing fingers, and in the meantime, a description of the ride!

Read about River’s First Endurance ride here.

Jump to:

Preparations and getting there
River’s second endurance ride
Loop 1
Loop 2
Aftermath
Take homes
Some botany

Preparations and getting there

The trailer had been packed since early February…

I had planned to take River to the Fossil Fuels ride, which was cancelled at the last moment. So everything was in the truck or trailer… This means that when I got to Ride Camp and took a good look at my clear-sided water containers, I realized that most of my water was green. Ugh. Fortunately I had refreshed my hydration pack and two cannisters because I don’t like the plastic taste that happens within a week.

But I still had to be careful with human potable water! River doesn’t care about green water.

Horse feed was fine, and of course I’d checked human food.

Now I wil have to bleach all my clear-sided water containers before the next ride at Cuyama.

The location

This was my fourth time at the Laurel Mountain Ride Camp. Fantazia’s and my first ride ever, during the pandemic, was there. (Our first endurance ride, finally!) I took Fantazia and Jazz to the Laurel Mountain xpride last year and to my amazement they both won (Two surprise wins). Then, because of the heavy rains last year, the Cuyama Oaks ride was moved to Laurel Mountain. Both my horses were a bit naughty at that ride (read about it: Training my horses during competition), but Fantazia won the 55… because the five people ahead of me went off course!

I know the desert around Ride Camp, just southwest of Inyokern, very well. There are gorgeous views of the mountains, and the trails are generally decent, with a mix of deepish sand, rock, and very good shallow sand road. Ride camp is just up Wiknich Road from the Ridgecrest Gun Range. The road was good, but now, after last year’s rains, is terrible, You can’t really go above 5 mph with a trailer. It’s a bit alarming to go along the back of the shooting range. Last year while riding Jazz I heard a richochet whine past my head! The Sage shooting range is a bit futher up Wiknich. Fortunately my horses are not alarmed by shooting.

The desert was green again this year (though not as green as last year!). I saw new flowers. It’s amazing what botanical variation there is to be found in the desert, with plants flowering briefly and spectacularly. Even the drive is beautiful, especially if you follow Hwy 14 to 178 and then go south.

Above: Views along Hwy 14, near Red Rock.

Above: Views of the mountains through a creosote bush near ride camp.

Pre-ride(s)

Above ten miles from ride camp, before I got off 14, it started raining. It was colder than it had been at home, windy and wet. After unpacking and saying hi to Karol Mancini who had texted me when I was getting close, I saddled River. (See my gorgeous new McCall saddle!) Luckily River was obedient enough that I could get away with the 1.5 mile ride to the Sage range. It was too cold for more!

Even more luckily, I had gotten in a good ride the day before: 4.15 miles in an hour, 1,325′ total elevation gain on steep hills. River was ready to do 50 flattish miles in the desert (I thought).

At the trailer

River is completely different from Fantazia and even Jazz. She’s calm. She just stands there and eats. She eats more, drinks more, and poops more than Jazz and Fantazia did together. (Because she doesn’t move, no poop is ground up. I have to take it all to the manure trailer.) She doesn’t pull back or try to escape. All she did was neigh occasionally and empty her hay nets.

Above: River stands calmly at the trailer, even when it rains! It rained for several hours on Friday, and again for at least an hour and a half Saturday night.

River’s second endurance ride

The 50 started at 7:30. I got up at 5:00 and refilled River’s haynets (she eats more and poops more than Fantazia and Jazz did together). I gave her some of her regular Purina senior feed (which she didn’t eat) and carrots, and went back to sleep till a little after six. I took my time getting up, made some yerba mate, and relaxed. Around 7:10 I groomed and saddled River. She was calm.

Above: River waits just before the ride started. You can see my new McCall saddle, which worked out great for the ride.

Loop 1

I had planned to leave last, but there seemed to be a competition for that prize. Finally, at 7:35, I led River out of camp. I remained on foot for the first 3/4 mile (and forgot to turn my watch on until just before I mounted). We started trotting after about a mile. I say about because I didn’t remember to start my Garmin watch until 0.65 miles (I know that distance now, but guesstimated half a mile at the time.)

Once we started trotting, we overtook several groups of riders. Later, they all passed us. It was an excellent training experience. Rover gradually got calmer about being passed and passing. She got used to seeing horses everywhere. (It was great to be in a ride with 36 other riders.) In the end, almost everyone passed us, and River was calm about it.

Above: First video of Loop 1, not long after River and I started trotting.

When we were on good ground with no one in sight, I let River lope. She lopes comfortably at 11-12 mph. We regularly lope one mile on each lead, so she was well-prepared to do it. When I look at the heart rate data from my Garmin, however, I suspect that loping might have led to the stone bruise.

The bad step (in retrospect)

River was not lame for most of the first loop. At the very end, when we were passing Ride Camp to the east, I thought she took a few bad steps. She was wanting to cross the desert and go straight to the trailer, so at the time I thought she had got a rock lodged in her shoe. I got off, checked feet (no rocks), and adjusted the saddle pad. (It had gotten off kilter because I put only one latigo through the holders.) She moved well when I made her trot around me, so I got back on and tested. No limp.

After my farrier found evidence of a stone bruise, I knew that she had most definitely stepped on a rock at some point. Monday night, I closely inspected the readouts from my watch.

In the graph below (loop 1), you can see where it peaks at 195. I didn’t notice at the time. It shouldn’t have peaked there. We’d done maybe about 10 strides at a lope, and it was flat. (I’m guessing ten strides from the data below.) It looks like we had stopped for water just previously (HR dipped below 50 and my watch disconnected from her monitor). Then there is a bit of trotting with HR under 100… and then we lope a tiny bit and it shoots up. It does go back down and then stays below 100 bpm for most of the final miles… But we were trotting below 8mph and walking. It would be low.

Above: Speed (grey), elevation (green line), and River’s heart rate (red) for Loop 1. I have marked where it peaks at 195, just after a short lope. River’s pulse is never that high, even when charging up very steep slopes!

Some stats

As mentioned above, I did not turn on my watch for the first six-tenths of a mile. That was all at a walk, so if anything including it would give us a slightly slower time.

Average speed 6.0 mph. Top speed was 12 mph. At the trot, I tried to keep our speed around 7 mph, which is River’s easy speed at home. Sometimes she wanted to go faster (when headed towards Ride Camp. River has an excellent homing beacon.) I slowed her without fighting. Sometimes she wanted to go slower. I let her. I loped about 1.5 miles total, generally around 11 mph. It makes up for a lot of slow walking, necessary in rocky terrain. Total elevation gain: 1,709′.

River’s average heart rate was 102 bpm, max 195 in the spike seen above. She trots around 90 bpm on flat, good ground. In sand she hovers around 120-130 for about one mile. As soon as she climbs to 145 I slow her to a walk until she dips below 90. This means we trotted off and on through all the sandy parts. You can see the trends in the graph above.

Above: An example of some of the gorgeous views we had on Loop 1.

The hold

River was jigging beside me with no hint of lameness when we got in. Her pulse was 52. Dave never vets until the end of the hold… he says he wants the horses to cool down enough for lameness to show. (I think this is a great idea.) I grabbed one of Annie’s egg salad sandwiches and tied River to the trailer. I took the saddle off because I wanted to curry her and inspect for issues carefully. No soreness anywhere. She ate hay and carrots and took a nap.

I gave River Cal MPK (Ca, Ph, Mg, K) drench and Endura-Max (with Kaolin Pectin). I had given her the e-lyte mix on the first loop as well.

When I had 10 minutes left, I saddled and took River to Dave. She vetted through fine and we headed out.

Loop 2

River was reluctant to leave Ride Camp, but she went… with many a head toss. Once we headed west, she could see some horses ahead of us and her attitude changed. We passed three horses at an 8mph trot that I had to insist on… River was in a hurry as long as we were going north and then east behind the Ridgecrest Gun Range. At first I assumed she thought she was doubling back to camp, and maybe she did. Not long after we headed southeast, she put on the brakes. I let her walk, because we weren’t in any hurry.

Above: A stretch around mile 3 of Loop 2. River was going strong then. I had to negotiate constantly to keep her trot below 7.5 mph.

When River told me something was wrong

When I asked her to trot again, River didn’t want to go faster than 5-6mph. She wasn’t lame, and at first I wasn’t worried. She was trying to eat, and at home when she wants to eat she slows down. But when other horses passed us and she still didn’t want to speed up. What was worse, her heart rate started going up fast every time we trotted more than a 150′. You can see it in the graph below. I wasn’t that surprised when she started limping.

We walked the rest of the way. River was happy to walk as long as we were pointing away from Ride Camp. When she thought we were headed home, she was in a hurry again. I made her walk, which she did… mostly! With some attempts at trotting. She got spooky (which she is not unless looking for an excuse to run home). I let her trot slowly for a few minutes on a single-track (no lameness then) to get her mind back in order. Then we walked all the way back.

Above: Speed (grey), elevation (green line), and River’s heart rate (red) for Loop 2. Again, I marked where it peaks, this time at 171, at a slow trot. After that it goes up every time we trot and plummets immediately as soon as we walk. Once we fell to a walk, it is low except for occasional attempts to speed up.

Completion

River was so excited to be getting close to ride camp that her trot was mostly fine when we got in. Dave gave us the completion.. then I said to him, but she’s not really ok, is she? He said no. I was grateful for the “consistently lame” rule that allowed us to complete, but I most certainly wasn’t going to ride the next day.

Loop 2 statistics

Average speed: 4.7 mph. 679 total ascent. Average heart rate: 83 (high!). Maximum HR, as you can see above, was 171 bpm.

Aftermath

I didn’t sweat River’s legs, and resisted the impulse to give her bute. On the one hand, I would have liked to make her pain free. On the other, even though I was 90% sure she was just footsore, I wasn’t positive. I didn’t want to cover any issues.

After she’d had a chance to cool down and relax, I took River for a walk. Karol trotted her out for me, and then I asked Karol to watch her trot. We agreed she was 8 steps sound, 2 steps lame out of 10. Thumping on her left front hoof with a hammer elicited flinching, but she also just seemed sore on both front feet. I didn’t have hoof testers so I’d have to wait for my farrier to confirm.

The next morning, River was clearly a bit stiff, but not noticeably lame, even intermittently. Her legs were very slightly stocked up, and that went away after five minutes of hand-walking. She had eaten two bags of hay again, and drunk around five gallons of water. She rolled when I led her to a sandy spot (watch a video of her rolling). Fantazia never rolls on a lead, and Jazz did it rarely (and when very sweaty), so I had neglected to offer River the chance to roll the day before. I won’t make that mistake again!

Above: River was completely calm the next morning. She was entirely unworried that I’d forget to put her in the trailer (Fantazia gets frantic as soon as I start packing up.)

At home

River trotted away looking very good when I got home. Fantazia was happy to see her. River trotted up to the neighboring horses and started squealing and squatting. Yep, she’s in heat (though I wouldn’t have guessed it at the ride. Maybe she waited till the way home.) My farrier had very nicely agreed to look at her Monday morning. A few minutes with hoof testers let him localize the problem. He told me to apply iodine, use Hoof Armor, and we’d talk about pads if she was still sore in a week.

Above: River just after getting home from the ride. The next day I took both mares to their big pasture. They will stay there for a week, eating green grass and refusing to come in for their feed!

Take homes

River’s second endurance ride was a good learning experience. I rode alone the entire time, passing and being passed by other horses. She wouldn’t eat her normal Purina Active Equine Senior or beet pulp/hay cube mash, but she ate tons of hay and carrots. She drank well at the trailer. She did not drink as much as I would have liked on the trail, but she was well=hydrated throughout. Honestly, it was so cool that she sweat very little.

River is very very calm at the trailer. She never pulls on the rope, dances around, or otherwise fusses. She just stands. She only moves to reach water or hay. As a consequences, River did not lose any weight on the ride. She looks pretty much the same as she did when I put her in the trailer.

Oh–and she also didn’t kick anyone! I braided a big red ribbon into her tail, parked where I could tie her out of any possible paths, and was careful to give other horses a wide berth.

Had I gone too fast?

I had originally thought River was simply sore on both (or possibly all) hooves. Her lameness was too sporadic for me to easily identify a bad leg. I thought I had allowed her to trot too fast on the hard rocky ground. True, we had gone much slower than my usual with Fantazia or even Jazz. Also true that River was in shape to go faster than we did. The only times she worked at all hard on the ride was during the sandy parts of the first loop. Apart from the Fire Mt. ride and in the arena, River hasn’t done that much sandy terrain. It showed in her heart rate on the sand, so we took frequent breaks.

I wasn’t worried that we had gone too fast in the sand. I was worried that its abrasiveness might have made her feet more tender. That, plus miles of pounding on hard rocky surface, could cause all round footsoreness. She hadn’t been sore after Fire Mt., but Heidi and I had gone slower. (Heidi is an excellent guide when you want to start a horse. She has an amazing ability to stay at a 6 mph trot for long stretches!)

Was it loping?

Now I am almost certain trotting wasn’t the issue. It looks like she got a stone bruise while loping in terrain that had no obvious stones. All it takes is one sharp stone hiding in nice-looking shallow sand though! Should I stop loping? Well… I probably won’t. I believe River is most comfortable at a slow lope.

It may be that trotting in deep sand might have predisposed her to get a bruise by wearing away at the sole. I will consider using Hoof Armor on a regular basis. River does have nice thick soles though.

Above: Turning the mares out to pasture on Monday after the ride.

Some botany

I spend a lot of time looking at plants on endurance rides. I identify new ones with my Seek app (and post to iNaturalist). Sometimes I take pictures of old friends. My horses learn to come to a screeching halt and stand still while I hop off and photograph my favorites. Below is a slideshow of some of my finds last weekend.

Above: Slideshow of various plants sighted during the ride or the next morning.