Tevis 2005 – The preparation


In 1988, I attempted my first Tevis. I look back at how much more I
have learned about the sport, and the Tevis trail since then. I had a
heck of a horse, but made some mistakes during that attempt such as
doing a huge, very fast trot down a long hard packed road, causing a
slight lameness at Michigan Bluff (56 miles that year), and a pull.
Due to different circumstances, I would not return to the trail for
many years. In 1998, I started working for Roxanne Greene, helping
her with her endurance horses. I went up with her to pre-ride the
last part of the Tevis trail, and helped her get ready for the ride
for the next few years. In 2001, she received her 20th Tevis buckle.
The ride was back in my system, and finally in 2004, I had a horse I
thought had what it took to get me that buckle. So, last year I made
another attempt on my gelding Rushcreek Gambler. He had done 100's
previous to my owning him, and I knew his condition base was very
strong. His recoveries were awesome at all the vet checks, with me
being able to come into a stop, and so straight to the vet, without
needing to wait for his pulse to come down. But, at Foresthill (69
miles), he was lame at the end of the 1 hour hold, and again, that
Tevis buckle would not be mine. He had also had some tripping issues
all day, and I was really scared about riding him into the darkness
along the CA loop. Last thing I wanted was to have a horse trip in
the darkness, along the edge of the mountain that drops off sometimes
to the river below. (this will become pretty ironic to have this fear)
After the ride, Roxanne suggested I get Hank ready, as she felt he
was the right size, build, and was strong enough to complete the
ride. His problem was, he was still fairly new to the sport, and had
some "issues" with spooking etc. I had a year to get him ready. He
was often frightened by a small stick across the trail, and would do
an explosive leap to get over it. He spooked some, and if he got a
vine or brush in his tail, would freak. But, he proved to handle any
trail situations such as rocks, banks to go up and down, water
crossing as smart and safe as horses with miles of trail experience.
But I just did not trust him 100% to not mentally explode over weird
things. Thankfully, when he did, he never put himself into worst
situations. Just had me grabbing to hang on, and hope he did not
unseat me.
The summer of 2004, he was along with us on the cross country XP
ride, and had done 3, slow 50 mile rides in a 3 week time frame, with
friend Dave Rabe on him. They went slow, and after each days ride, he
always looked strong and cheerful. XP rides will teach a horse to
care for himself well on the trail, as water is often not plentiful,
and eating what grass is found along the way may be the only other
munchies besides that at the vet check. They learn to care for
themselves, and learn they might be out there for a long day. I did
some NATRC rides with him in the Fall, which I feel helps the mind to
not get race brain at the mass starts of endurance rides. Then, I had
planned out to do a ride per month the beginning of 2005, and ask a
little more of him each ride, building up to Tevis. The first ride
was Frigid Digit, local to me here in North Texas. We started about
10 min. after the last horse, and worked on him keeping a nice steady
pace. The ride is very flat (on Tevis standards), but we were working
on the mental aspect along with some conditioning. He drank well,
learned about relaxing at busy vet checks, and being passed, and
passing other horses. The next ride was down in the Hill Country of
Texas, at Heart of the Hills. More rocks and hills than our local
trails. It was a small group of about 11 riders starting. We kept the
same pace as the last ride, but added in the slightly more technical
trail. Then, about a month after that, we went to Oklahoma, to
Winding Stair. A 55 mile ride, in the Ouachita Nat'l Forest. We had
mountains, more rock, and more technical trail. A wonderful ride,
which was awesome for Tevis prep. Again, we kept the same pace as the
previous rides (just under 6 mph over all pace) with the added
difficulty. Here, Hank was showing me the climbs were tough on him,
and I knew he needed much more work on hills to be ready for Tevis.
And that was just not going to happen here in No. Texas.
I decided that I would take he and Gambler out to Los Angeles the
beginning of June, to finish our training in the mountains that
Roxanne had prepped so many Tevis horses over the years.Between she
and her family, they have over 40 Tevis completions. My husband was
going to be home for much of that time, with the exception of going
on the road the week before Tevis. The neighbors then took care of
the animals for us. I arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, and on Friday I
headed to a NATRC ride that was held in the mountains above Santa
Barbara. I figured it would be a good training ride, and a test to
see how his conditioning was. It was also a ride I had done many
years ago, when I lived in California, and was looking forward to
seeing the trails again. I was blown away when he placed 2nd in a
very tough class of seasoned "West Coast" horses.
Over the next 5-6 weeks, we started riding in the mountains,
building up Hanks hind end muscles, and his heart rate. We were
careful to not over do it, as many riders do getting ready for Tevis.
Too much hard work, and you arrive at the start of the ride with a
horse that is either exhausted, or having potential soundness issues
for doing too much, too close to the ride. Ideally you will have a
horse that is at it's peak both condition and soundness, but if you
have to start a horse that is slightly weak in one area, you can
usually work with one that might not be in as peak condition, but
lame is lame, and your day WILL be done. A couple weeks before the
ride, we drove up from L.A. to pre-ride the last 30 miles of trail
that we would cover in the dark. We split it in to two days. One of
those days, we rode out from the finish, to the river crossing, then
turned around and rode back. We started in late afternoon, and ended
up actually riding in the complete darkness, without a moon. The
horses all did very well, and had no problems seeing the trail and
all of its rocks, ruts and switchback turns. I just hoped he would
remember all of the trail conditions when we got there during the
ride, and we were both tired.
As I was getting Hank in shape, I was trying to get myself in
better shape too. Roxanne's property is on a hill, so I spent my days
walking up and down it, working and caring for her horses. When we
rode in the hills, I got off, and walked down the hills to work those
muscles that would be used when I walked down into the canyons. I
knew my legs would really hurt if I did not do so. I learned that
downhill walking only sounds easy on the legs, but if not
conditioned, you WILL hurt! I also knew that there was no way I would
be able to get in condition to tail UP the canyons, and that Hank
would have to carry me.
A few weeks before the ride, Roxanne and her office chair had a
disagreement, and she ended up with a bruised tail bone. So, she was
not going to be able to ride. We had heard that Dave Rabe was in need
of a Tevis horse, so she offered him Thunder, a nice big gelding. We
took Thunder up on the pre-riding, and he had been born and raised at
Roxanne's, and had been brought up in the mountains. He had also done
some XP rides. He was as ready for Tevis as he could be. Dave has
over 35,000 endurance miles, and his very first ride, and finish, was
Tevis in 1985. He already had 7 Tevis buckles, and we knew he would
take excellent care of Thunder.( you might have seen Dave at a ride,
he always wears cut off jeans, and usually a white T-Shirt!) I knew
he would know the pace to keep, for those of us who were riding just
to finish. Dave was unable to get up to meet Thunder until Friday at
ride camp, and the first time he got on him, was at the ride start. I
was just glad to have him along with me at the start, as I had NO
idea what Hanks reaction would be to starting off at a trot with 200
other horses. I had done my homework, we had tried to work at group
starts, and at keeping his mind on what I asked him to do, and not
getting naughty and fighting me. I had made him walk out of camp with
others trotting past us, but would all of this come together in the
darkness the morning of the ride? I'd find out…………..

(click next for part 2)