I'm at my brother's in Louisville, taking a day to visit before making my way
back home. What a
trip this has been!

I can't believe we completed the 100 at the Bighorn. It is an unbelievable but
beautiful ride and
very T-O-U-G-H!!! There were climbs throughout; no "downhill" ride here. I'm
glad I spent the time
and money to trailer to sandy up and down trails to condition. Had I not done
that, we'd have not
finished. Boomer is far tougher than I imagined. He finished looking pretty
good.

I did not have a good day physically--I started out with hip pain that just
didn't want to let up
despite medication and then my left ankle decided to quit on me, rolling in the
stirrup. Sure made
me forget the hip pain! I don't recall a ride in which I just felt so off so
soon and for so long.
The constant pain really dulled my enjoyment of the ride as it was happening. I
was pretty
demoralized because I just couldn't imagine getting through the entire 100 miles
and was worrying
about how my pain was impacting my riding and affecting my horse. Riding at a
walk was about the
only time I felt OK. I borrowed an ankle brace from the Stalley's at 75 miles;
that made the
remaining ride possible although it was still very painful but with my ankle
stabilized, I could
deal with the pain and ride Boomer's energized trot(I think I've ground a few
millimeters off my
teeth though!).

Boomer, however, did a lot better than I did although he did get to the point
where any climb was
greeted with a slow crawling walk. He went into a big slump between 60 and 75
miles. I didn't think
we'd ever finish that portion of the trail but he came alive after the hold at
75 miles and I had a
lot more horse than I could comfortably ride for the final 25 miles. This turned
out to be a good
thing as we finally reached the base of the long descent at 2:20am with 10 miles
to go in the
remaining 1hr 40 mins. I needed all that horse to get us done in time. I was
riding with 2 WY
people. Had they not asked if I wanted to ride with them I would not have made
it as my ankle was
impacting my ability to get off and on and there were multiple gates to
negotiate; they kindly took
care of the gates (and one was on a 16.1 Anglo). Needless to say, they rank high
in my book on
great riders! We did the last 10 miles in an hour (they actually did it in 55
mins; I dragged a bit
behind). The winners took 1.5 hours . . . but they weren't worrying about going
OT! I almost cried
when we reached the highway and my companions pointed out we were within 1.5
miles of the finished
with plenty of time left.

One thing this trip taught Boomer is the importance of eating and drinking. He
did not travel well
to CA but since I loaded him back in the trailer at Auburn to head east, he has
turned into an
eating and drinking machine. He ate like a starved horse at the holds; he was
grabbing and digging
for feed faster than I could get it out of the bags and then cleaning up
leftovers.

I'll have a longer more detail version of my trip put together within the next
week. I expect to be
home on Friday. Apparently my internet is down at home so it may take a bit of
time to get that
fixed (or I'll just go up to Panera Bread and hang out there!). I know Boomer
will be very happy to
be out in his pasture. He's getting at least one full month off and very likely
more time than that
before seeing a saddle again. He deserves it!

Debbie