The Quicksilver Fall Classic Endurance Ride: Road to the Tevis Cup #55

Last weekend Fantazia and I attempted another 50 at the Quicksilver Fall Classic endurance ride. Overall, a great experience, but once again we failed to complete. On the one hand, I’ve solved the muscle cramp problem we had at Wild West. On the other, we had a heat problem that resulted in Fantazia not pulsing down in time. The worst is that I could have prevented it and gotten the completion in at least two ways. Sigh.

Jump to:

The Trail
The Landscape
Fantazia’s attitude
Fantazia finished sound!
The Bad
Why we were pulled
Next steps

The Good

We got out of the smoke!!!! Yay. We’ve had weeks of bad air, ranging from red to purple, with a few lucky breaks when i could ride. But the last few days before the Quicksilver Fall Classic were unhealthy, and I came back yesterday to purple air.

The Trail

The Quicksilver Fall Classic had the best marked trail I’ve ever ridden. I didn’t go off course once!!! For me that’s unheard of. It helped that it went along established trails that were well-groomed. And well-mapped, so if I had needed to, a quick glance at the map and GAIA–which also has all the trails–would have re-oriented me. But I never took my map out. The instructions were perfect and the markings were intuitive: solid chalk lines where we weren’t supposed to go and double-headed arrows along the trail. Fantazia was afraid of the first 15-16 chalk arrows (and an odd 4-5 later ones that caught her by surprise), but that’s a small price to pay.

It was also a fun course with a nice mix of road and single-track. We did it clockwise for the first loop (the 25s stopped there) and counter-clockwise for the second. This made riding the second loop very easy for me. Fantazia realized within a mile what we were doing (the same thing we’d just done, backwards). I never had to steer her or look at the trail markers, even though the trail came together more than once. Every single time she headed in the correct direction. She’s got an amazing memory for where she’s been, and we do loops backwards and forwards frequently enough that she knows the routine.

According to my Garmin, there was a total of about 2,900 total elevation gain for each loop.. (I forgot to start the route both times, so I am missing about half a mile). The first loop started off with a nice climb, which was perfect at 6:30 am on fresh horses. (It was important to warm up well, and I had.) On the second loop, I got off and led her most of the way down.

The landscape

It was cattle country, but so much more civilized than my home stomping grounds. Here, we’ve got ferocious steep hills, rock everywhere, and wire gates you have to muscle closed (because there are no prise-bars). At this time of year, with a drought, water is hard to find, and clear water impossible. There are few troughs. Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch County Park is groomed. It’s got nice water troughs all over the place. The gates are all metal, easy to open from horseback, and swing closed automatically. The land isn’t overgrazed, so it’s not eroded. There are few boulders and no treacherous trails along cliffs.

Above: Early morning sun through the trees at the Quicksilver Fall Classic endurance ride.

The cattle were fat and docile (unlike the local brand). The feral pigs were numerous (and also more docile than ours). We saw many deer and one coyote as well. May gorgeous valley oaks. (But sadly, no dudleya. I was on the lookout because iNaturalist has several sightings in the area. I did see several laurel trees.)

Above: see the feral pigs we encountered at the beginning of the ride.

True, we had to share the trail with runners, bikers, ATV riders but they were all courteous. Fantazia quite likes trotting behind bikers and pedestrians. She doesn’t approve of ATVs, but she’s not afraid of them.

Fantazia’s attitude

Fantazia was great about the pedestrians, their dogs, the bikes, the cattle and pigs, the wildlife. She trotted over all the bridges.

Fantazia was more relaxed than ever at this ride. She ate hay (alfalfa and even some orchard grass), carrots, and apples the day before. On Saturday she wouldn’t touch the fruit, but she did eat lots of alfalfa. She still won’t eat her Ultium, but at least something is going down the hatch.

In the video below, you can hear crickets and Fantazia eating!

We started out at the front (and were immediately passed by the elite, haha), and I realized right away that she did better alone. I had planned to ride with Karol, but when Fantazia goes with another horse more than the time it takes to pass or be passed, she stops listening to her own body and gets anxious to follow/wait. Alone, she takes care of herself. After the first 5-6 miles in the morning, she relaxed and settled in to a nice trot (around 8 mph) with occasional canters. We averaged 7 mph on the first, which was exactly what I wanted to do.

On the second loop, we averaged 5.5 mph. Fantazia was surprised at being asked to go back out (she’d been pulled her last couple of rides), but once she knew we had to do another 25 miles the other way, in the heat, she was all business. She trotted until her pulse went over 130, and then fell back to a walk. No kidding… I never had to check her. Nor did I have to ask her to trot. She’d walk (slowly) until her pulse was 75-90 (I don’t know why sometimes lower), and then she’d start trotting again.

Fantazia finished sound!

No cramping! She was pulled for a rear-end lameness our last three rides. At 20 Mule Team, she was lame on her right hind; an injury sustained at Cuyama Oaks that I didn’t give her time to recover from. At Wild West, she cramped up when I dismounted to walk in after the first loop. She’d been moving fine, she leapt into the air, kicked crazily as if at a bee… and when I trotted her out, she was lame. I massaged it out, gave her a day off, and tried to ride the third day (with vet okay), but she was lame after ten miles. Based on what the ride vets there told me, and later advice, I concluded I had messed up her feed and electrolyte regime (read about everything i was doing wrong).

As soon as we got back from Wild West, I took away Fantazia’s alfalfa. I did not listen to her complaints at seeing primarily Bermuda grass hay in her feeder. I gave her about 1/3 wheat and 2/3 bermuda, and small flake of alfalfa after tough rides (there were few). This is why she attacked the alfalfa at the ride! I also bought CMPK and gave her that along with Enduramax. I didn’t do an experiment, so maybe it was just blind luck… but I prefer to think I fixed a problem 😉

But we are BOTH sore…

Of course, she is sore, as I am! When we got home, she came out of the trailer super-stiff, trotted sorely out to her pasture, and rolled four times! Roll, trot up to ditch for water, roll, trot over to squeal at neighbors, roll, trot to feeders, trot back out, roll. Trot back to water.

My chiropractor would be happy, he says they should always roll after work. She never rolls at rides, and I wish she would. Watching her yesterday was instructive. I thought she looked tighter on the left side before she rolled, on the right after the first roll, on the right again after the second, and no perceptible difference in gait after the third and fourth times down. As of this writing (Monday afternoon), 48 hours post-ride, she is trotting a bit stiffly but balanced. We’ll see. (Tuesday: seems completely back to normal!)

The Bad

We were not as fit as we should be for a 50

Fantazia was indeed not as fit as she was last spring, not surprising because we haven’t done much. (See my post on Endurance training while the Rest of Life is happening.) She took care of herself and went slowly, but she was still sore all over at the end. No lameness is not the same as not aching! It just means she didn’t know which foot to favor! She got a B on gait (to be “lame” they must be consistently off. She was just sore).

Kind of like me. I am sore all over, especially my right hip, right lower back (radiating), and feet. My legs are sore, but the good-kind of soreness. But I am lame from the hip, sigh. I need to schedule more time for jogging and hiking.

Fantazia still won’t touch her pelleted food/rice bran/beet pulp mash

Fantazia ate hay really well this time. She never rejected alfalfa when I offered it, and she ate at her hay bags steadily all night. She also ate apples and carrots the day before (but not on ride day). However, she wouldn’t touch her usual Ultium Gastric Care and rice bran mix (which includes Cal Trace and Abler), and she didn’t want her usual post-workout soaked beet pulp and alfalfa cubes.

Fortunately, she went into this ride fat, so missing three meals (I fed her Sunday’s breakfast when we got home at noon) won’t kill her. The main thing is I hate for her to miss her vitamins and ulcer preventative. I might go back to pastes for rides.

Fantazia didn’t drink until 20 miles into the first loop on ride day

Although she drank well the afternoon and night before, she didn’t touch the water in her bucket by the trailer, and she wouldn’t drink out of troughs at ride camp, which she usually does. This means I couldn’t give her electrolytes (I did Friday morning at home and after our pre-ride) until mile 20. At that point, she drank far more than 50 swallows, and I gave her EnduraMax and CMPK.

She was shocked when I saddled up to go back out for the second loop, probably because she’d been pulled the last three rides so no second loops! As soon as I got on she made a beeline for the nearest trough and drank tons. Then she proceeded to drink every chance she got on the trail. She does learn!

Her hydration scores were good, but she was not hydrated enough. She peed about 10 miles into the ride normally, and then tried to pee again two more times, but of course, only a few dribbles. She likes to pee frequently, especially in the heat, so I took that as a sign of dehydration. And the need to check kidneys. Although once she drank she no longer tried to pee (except the normal). All the pee I could see was yellow (though not as clear as I like). She peed when I walked her before bed, but sadly too dark to see. In the morning she had peed the normal quantity, but who knows what color.

Unfortunately, I think she’s learned bad hydration habits these last few months…

With the drought, our normal watering holes are dry or disgusting, and she prefers to wait till we’re home, even if it’s 10+ miles in the heat. But we don’t go 25 miles. Hopefully she’s learned her lesson, but just in case I will elyte on our next training ride.

And the really bad: Fantazia was pulled for failing to pulse down

I’ve gotten so used to being pulled, I almost didn’t list this! But it is a real problem. She was overheated, and I contributed to it. I led her most of the last 5 miles, and all of the last mile. We walked in to the vet check; her pulse was 65 though it had been in the 50s for the last quarter mile. Then I grabbed a sponge out of a bucket of hot water, and was stupid enough to start sponging her. It should not have surprised me when her pulse shot up to 73. I searched for a cooler bucket, found one, used it up, tried to use the ice water in the people-drink-trough, was told not to…

A volunteer finally poured some cool horse water into the sponging buckets, and once I put that on her, her pulse came down, and was under 60 in about 12 minutes. I took her to the trailer. At that point if I had put ice water on her, she probably would have pulsed down, but I thought she was fine. I unsaddled, took my gear off, grabbed a drink of water, and took her to the vet. We were now at 25 minutes from arrival.

Fantazia’s heart rate was 68. I took her to the hose and hosed for four minutes (and scraped), took her back to vet, stood in hot sun for a minute… When the vet took her pulse it was 72. Her temperature was 102F (slightly high: up to 101.5 is normal).

Above: There were many troughs, but Fantazia refused to drink until late in the first loop. She drank well afterwards, but I wonder if lack of being fully hydrated at first contributed to her overheating later.

More good things

The good news is that 20 minutes after we left the vet (55 minutes post-arrival), after icing her veiny-bits, she was close to 60. My stethoscope had mysteriously lost its diaphragm (last time I used it was when I lost Beroni to colic), so I asked the vet to listen: 64. (I can take a pulse with my hand, but I wanted precision and vet verification that she was recovering).

At exactly one hour post-arrival, she was at 56. Less than five minute later she was about 36 bpm (well under 40). And her body temperature was 100.

Actually, her heart rate had been lower than ever at the Quicksilver Fall Classic

When I put her heart rate monitor on pre-ride, she was hovering between 32 and 33. (Her normal resting rate at rides is 44-48). After the first loop, she was at 40 within 10 minutes (they took a while to take her pulse), though it came up to 52 at the vet check. With Fantazia, heart rate depends largely on what she can see. Horses in the distance? Plus 10. Hikers in the distance? Plus 5. Whinnying? Plus 15. I wonder if I blindfolded her and stuck plugs in her ears? (Not really going to do this!)

So she is fit, but I think more for short bursts of speed. Because I’ve been busy, our training sessions tend to be short, steep, and hot. She’ll canter up 400 feet with grade up to 30%, but we don’t trot far. (See my post on training steep and hot). Probably largely anaerobic. I figure we need more aerobic training, miles of trotting.

Next steps

Blood and urine analyses

I’ve just taken three vials in to the clinic to do full blood panels (exercise, kidneys, plus the usual). Just in case, for the kidneys, and to see where we are, post-ride, for exercise panel. I’ll do another of those before our next ride (Sesenta Anos xp). As per my vet, I’ll also draw blood 24 hours after her next ride (it’ll have to be day 3 of Sesenta Anos), and again at 6 days.

I tried to get a urine sample too. Waited with Fantazia for SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS today. No peeing. Gave up, blood drawn in less than a minute. Will try to catch the pre-breakfast pee tomorrow.

Note: Lots of people have asked me why all the analyses. Part is to check kidney function, part is just to see where we are. I am still kinda surprised she got overheated. Yes, it could be heat. Maybe something will turn up re kidneys. Maybe something else is going on. But we have been training in heat, and she’s never had a problem (even when in pain) with pulsing down, so I just want to cover all bases.

Training

Fantazia will have a week off–just grooming and handwalking. Next Sunday I’ll do an easy arena ride (smoke permitting). Monday I’ll do a bit more, but still easy. Then she gets another 8 days off because I am going to Oklahoma for the Morgan Grand Nationals. (Well… mainly to see friends! But I’ll also go to the show!) Then I’m hoping to visit friends in Paso Robles, with Fantazia. I’ll get some deep sand conditioning done. In any case, I’ll have two weeks to get her moving, and then I’m off to Evanston, IL., for my son’s parents’ weekend at Northwestern. I’ll do a fairly strenuous ride the Tuesday before I leave and the Tuesday after I get back, and then it will be off to Santa Ynez for Sesenta Anos.

I am super-thankful to be working entirely from home now, so I can move around like this. But training Fantazia is definitely not perfect between smoke and travel. Still, I’m hoping to complete at least one 50 at Sesenta Anos. The other two days we’ll probably do LDs.