The Incredible Lightness of Being Standardbred

April 10 2018

Clop Clop Clop Clop

Flying into the fog, nothing but a strong breeze and Willie’s hoofbeats (and an occasional Willie whinny) blowing into my ears.

It’s Willie’s first ride of his second endurance season, the 25 miler at the Owyhee Tough Sucker, his home court. And though I ride him by himself on the trails all the time, it’s only his second time doing an endurance ride by himself. Willie, an off-the-track Standardbred has two modes: endurance horse and racehorse. He’s in his racehorse mode right now, though he’s well out in front by himself (hence the whinnies). He still thinks he’s got to catch somebody, because he knows there are other horses out on the trail, somewhere, and this is a race, even though I’m trying to convince him otherwise.

Clop Clop Clop Clop. He’s going fast, but we’ve reached a compromise: I won’t pull, and you won’t pull, and you can go fast, but not too fast. The second loop we’ll take it easier (I hope). He’s not pulling or leaning on the bit; he’s not too heavy on his forehand, but he’s pounding the ground, and I know he can be lighter. And I know if he’s lighter, he will stay sounder longer.

Even though I dislike it, I’m going to start working on him in the arena on collecting, rounding up, getting off his forehand, lightening up, balancing better. Mostly because Connie and Sarah will be here for coaching and helping! Connie’s an expert in the arena, and though Sarah’s only 15, Connie says she’s better than both of us in the arena.

When Connie starts teaching a horse to round up in the arena, there eventually comes that one certain moment where it just clicks and the horse first drops his head. That’s the start of the inkling of the idea in his head. Eventually (could be 10 minutes, could be 10 days, with the thicker headed horses or the ones who haven't discovered those different muscles yet), he gets it, he knows what he’s supposed to do. And depending on the horse, it can take a lot of riding the horse (as in, not being passive), a lot, and a lot of leg, a lot, (which I don't always have) to teach a horse to be able to default to this way of moving. It’s a workout for horse and rider. Once he starts getting it with Connie, that’s about when I can get on and start asking for it.

This and top pic, at the beginning of the lesson with Connie

So we started today, in the arena. Connie got on Willie for the first time (“Wow!”), and after about 10 minutes, she had Willie starting to figure it out. Leg leg leg means go forward, but back off the bit and drop your head for release of pressure.

Another 10 minutes and he was already starting to carry his head lower more of the time, working up a mighty sweat.

If a horse hasn’t learned to round up, they use different muscles when they do. It will take some time to build those muscles up where it will be easy for him to carry himself that way. It will build up some of my arena muscles too, which aren’t very good (and with progress, maybe I won’t dislike it so much. Or not…).

He’s starting to get it!

After Connie worked with Willie a while, (“This is totally do-able with him, you'll be able to do it.”) I rode him and got some occasional good balanced movement, then Sarah rode him too (for the first time, she loved him - he’s unlike any other horse she’s been on - “he’s funny!”). Already, Willie sounded a bit lighter on his feet than the clop clop clop clop.

Yeah Willie!

Willie was a flatlander horse with a flatlander butt when Steph got him in February of 2016 as a 4-year-old. After he was broke to ride and had a year of trail riding, I started conditioning him for endurance: sand and hills, hills, and hills, to build up those butt muscles so he could motor up the hills. He grew those butt muscles, and completed 5 50-mile rides last year; and now he’s going to work on the balancing/rounding muscles.

It’s a start!

I’m getting it, I’m starting to get Willie to get it with me


Willie’s cracking Sarah up with his camel-like pace-a-lope here, which sometimes emerges from within

2018 Owyhee Tough Sucker - And The Band Played On

by Merri Melde
April 9 2018

Seriously - does nobody read the weather reports? Who would even want to come for an endurance ride with a deluge and a hurricane in the forecast? The weathermasters have been pretty inaccurate with the precipitation this winter, but they've been spot on with the wind, and we were in for a big blow on Saturday, if not at least some of the 100% chance of rain they predicted Friday night and Saturday morning.


But 42 riders still showed up for the first Owyhee ride of the season. Some were here because they haven't been able to ride much elsewhere (I've been riding most of the winter, but not everybody else has), or they have just been itching to get going, and weather simply didn't factor into it. But mostly we're all here to ride because we're all, in some form or another, Tough Suckers.

The live band booked for entertainment arrived with instruments in one hand and horses in the other. Endurance rides are really the excuse that gets the bluegrass Pickett Crick Ramblers together. Friday night audience included 2 members who stayed till the very last song, and even clapped after a couple numbers!

It wasn't till morning that I finally decided on a plan for myself: get Hillbillie Willie a good training ride in the 25, and finish before the hurricane hit. (And we timed it just about right; when we rode down that last draw for home we were in strong a wind tunnel, and when I was bandaging Willie's legs up in camp afterwards, the gale force gusts hit.)


You know how it goes with the rain: if you're already out riding when it starts raining, it's not so bad, but it's a shade short of miserable if you have to saddle a wet horse up in the rain. But the overnight and morning rain never materialized, so that was an added bonus to the day. Dark skies glowered over the 14 riders who started the 50. The forecasts were right about the wind though; it started picking up around 10 AM (and there were even some spots of thick fog that we rode through), and the wind was strong and hurling some mean gusts by the time the 50's started arriving at the finish in the early afternoon.

The race for first place in the 50 was a tight one, but Dean Hoalst and Pay Attention were familiar faces who got the win in 5:20, and Best Condition. The actual first place finisher was eliminated when the horse didn't pulse down. Kristen Maholland and Two Carat Diamond ended up with second place in 5:44.

Connie Holloway on DWA Saruq and (first Junior) Sarah Holloway aboard Noble Desperado finished 3rd and 4th in 6:35. 11 completed the 50 mile ride, with the turtles, Roz Cusack on DA Nejwah and Heidi Skerratt on Gold N Beaudayshus squeezing every bit of enjoyment out of the hurricane ride, finishing in 10:05 while the Pickett Crick Ramblers were in the middle of their Saturday evening concert.

28 riders started the 25 mile ride with 27 finishing. Long-legged Hillbillie Willie won the 25 in 2:59, with Karen Steenhof and WMA Proclaim finishing 2nd in 3:05 and getting Best Condition. Linda Kluge and Ted, and Abrie Church (one of our fiddle players) on Ultra Sonnic finished right with Karen in 3rd and 4th. There was only 1 pull in the 25.


The riders out on trail survived the winds and hurtling tumbleweeds just fine (really, the wind was worse on Sunday), and the band played on in the evenings, and we've decided that in 3 years of jamming together, we've gotten good enough that we sometimes sound pretty darn good! Anybody need to book a bluegrass band? Our next gig is City of Rocks on June 7-8-9.



See photos and more of the ride at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2018OwyheeToughSucker/

Postcard From Owyhee: PRISON

Monday March 26, 2018

I Am an Endurance Fashion Plate

March 23 2018

I am not colorblind, I am Color-I-Don't-Care.

Do I know endurance fashion? Yeah - just ask anybody!

It's been brought to my attention that, um, how do I tactfully put this... my clothes and colors sometimes don't go together. Clash is a word I've heard. Green checked tights, red and black half chaps, light blue shirt (with pocket), orange long-sleeved striped shirt (with pockets), dark blue cool vest, lavender helmet... what's the problem?

Or it might be red tights, blue half chaps, black winter jacket over brown fleece jacket (with pockets) over light blue fleece jacket (with pockets) over purple shirt (with pocket) over long-sleeved light green shirt, dark green helmet. Is there something wrong?

I also often wear socks that don't match, but that makes total sense, as I have another pair, exactly like them!

I'm all about comfort and utility, which means warmth and fleece and pockets in winter, and coolness, sun protection and pockets in the summer.

Even when I wear regular clothes out in the real world, I just can't seem to look like normal people do. I always look kinda… jumbled and inelegant. I have a friend who writes the blog WhatIWore2Day. She always looks terrifically fabulous (and I cannot fathom how she puts her cool outfits together), and I figure if I ever become concerned and really need to look politically correctly fashionable, she can become my consultant.

But I have no problem with my non-style, even if people's eyes do sometimes explode. The horses I ride down the trail don't care.

It all proves that I am not colorblind, I am Color-I-Don't-Care. And you can take this Endurance Fashionista's word for it.

Postcard From Owyhee: #TimeMagazineCalled !

November 26 2017

Postcard From Owyhee: Winding Down

November 16 2016

2017 Revival of the Moab Canyons Endurance Ride

October 31 2017

"We are the lucky ones!" - ride manager Sheri Griffith

I got two words for the Moab Canyons Endurance ride: Spec. Tacular.

Even if you aren't infatuated with Utah's red canyon country, you just aren't quite human if you aren't overawed as you ride beneath and around imposing, towering red sandstone buttes and monoliths and spires, in the bottom of twisting hidden golden-cottonwood-lined canyons, and over white navajo sandstone slickrock overlooking the entire geological picture. It's simply a magical experience on horseback.


Back by popular bucket-list demand, October 27-29 saw the revival of the Moab Canyons 3-day ride outside of Moab, Utah, after a 4-year absence. It's a massive undertaking for someone with a high threshold for stress (that is, ride manager Sheri Griffith): marking 150 miles of big loop trails in Big Canyon country, recruiting volunteers, dealing with the gargantuan task of providing water in the desert (2 two-tank trucks hauled water constantly from Moab - a 40-mile round trip - into the desert, to ridecamp and water troughs out on trail) and expense, and a whopping number of riders, much more than expected… and not to mention two loose horses one night and a harrowing rescue of one, one lost rider that wasn't found and fetched till well after dark. Around 118 riders (both distances) started Day 1, around 112 started Day 2, and 96 started Day 3 (plus 14 Intro riders). Wow!


Ridecamp was in its same spot, at an old cow camp on the flats, with a fine sandstone hill standing guard. Over the days, ridecamp grew into a small city. It got so big that I never even saw some friends who were there riding!

The Moab area has become (over) popular with bikers and off-roaders, and the BLM was very happy to have horses on the trails, and particularly this 3-day endurance ride. Campers were entertained, waking to horses riding by their motorhomes and campsites, and motorcycles and ATVers and bikers we met on trail were always polite and pulled over for us. One group of motorcyclers helped rescue the lost rider, driving all the way out to our ridecamp to let ride management know.


We three Idaho Crick ladies were thrilled to be here with gallant steeds: Steph/Smokey, Carol/August, me/Steph's Standardbred Hillbillie Willie. Willie, former racehorse, was agog at this remarkable country. He has taken to the trails so well, I'm sure that in a former life he was a cow horse in the West. Maybe even an outlaw's getaway horse. Possibly both. And this country is where some of the famous outlaws roamed - Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch.

The trails for Day 1 (55 miles) and Day 2 (50 miles) were the same as the 2013 event, but just as awe-inspiringly Spec. Tacular. (We didn't ride Day 3.)


Day 1 took off into the sunrise above the La Sal mountains, to and all the way around the base of the boringly-named but massively impressive 900-foot high "Big Mesa", through the bottom of the hidden and twisting slickrock of Surprise Canyon, alongside another long impressive mesa, to a refreshing lunch for beasts and humans (catered lunches for us!).

Loop 2 headed west and dropped down into white slickrock country around Spring Canyon where outlaws most surely hid out, just around the next draw.


Day 2 travelled along the western face of Big Mesa, down the golden cottonwood-laced Bartlett Wash, then climbed up onto the upper layer of the white Navajo sandstone slickrock, where we had the most spectacular view of how this country formed: the softer upper Navajo sandstone eroding and dissolving into the twisty little canyons, and detaching little muffin tops that eventually separate, then fall apart and disintegrate and mix with the rest of the desert sand.

Just before lunch we rode along the rim of a red mesa and looked down upon the scene below that we'd be riding after lunch, another massive mesa, Lost World Butte.



Dropping off the mesa (on the gently sloping side) to lunch beneath The Needles, where a too-cute dog worked his food hustle, we then headed for that lost world we'd seen, riding along a shelf layer beneath the cliff we'd gazed from before lunch, then dropping onto the desert floor to circumnavigate the lone Lost World Butte.


Moab is always a good challenging ride, 155 miles over soft jeep roads, single track trails, sand, deep sand, sandstone, and crammed with eye-aching splendiferous colors of red, pink, salmon, maroon, cinnamon, vermillion, crimson, white; and always the jaw-dropping cliffs and canyons to leave you gawking in reverential awe. We were indeed the lucky ones.

It was a terrific birthday week, no better place to be! - great ride, awesome scenery, fine companions, phenomenal horses.


Photos and more on the ride at:
www.endurance.net/international/USA/2017Moab

*fabulous top photo of Day 2 by Steve Bradley!