Tevis 2005 – The Ride

I don't need a lot of time to get ready in the morning of a ride.
So, I woke up just before 4AM. I had actually slept pretty well. But,
I woke up with a bit of a sinus headache. I took some medication for
it, and hoped I could get ride of it soon. Ate my banana, drank a
protein drink, and got Hank ready. Thankfully I had an excellent
crew, and Sara was already up and helping me get Hank ready. Because
my knees are not in the best shape, I wear knee supports, and half
chaps over those, which help keep the supports from slipping. It
takes me as long to get dressed, as it does to tack up the horse!
Dave had Thunder ready, and we headed off to the ride start. We
decided to ride in the middle start group. When we arrived, we were
towards the back of that group, with the 3rd group not far behind us.
As we sat there in the morning darkness, it was fairly quiet. I'm
sure the other riders were deep in thought of the day ahead, as I
was. I gazed up at the moon, and thought about how it was setting
now, but would rise again in the early morning hours, and maybe shine
enough to help to guide us over the last part of the trail. As the
sky started to get lighter, and I kept looking at my watch, I saw
that at 5:15, the riders up in front of us started to move off down
the road. I took a deep breath, told Hank he was good, and asked him
to move off into an easy trot. This is one of the most emotional
moments for me, as I know this is THE moment we start to test if all
our work and training is going to have been enough, and if the Tevis
gremlins* are done messing with me, and if we will have a successful
day.

• Tevis Gremlin- a naughty little creature you will never see.
They start to visit those who have sent in a Tevis entry months in
advance, all the way up and through the ride. They amuse themselves
by causing unknown soundness issues with the horses, they get into
your truck and cause mechanical problems, usually when you are
trailering your horse someplace. They cause horse shoes to fall off,
tack that has always fit to suddenly rub, and other nuisances to try
to keep you from starting the ride.

As we trotted down the road, the dust grew thicker. Dave was ahead of
me, and I stayed as close behind him as possible. Hank was being
good, with the exception of diving his nose once and awhile, asking I
not hold him back so much with the bit. But never hung on my hands,
and remained light and not tugging hard. He was all business, and was
not spooking at the logs and rocks that he spooked at the day before
when we rode out a few miles and back after vetting in. I told
myself to ride the ride one section at a time in my mind. The first
section was 10 miles to the highway 89 crossing. I was concerned
about the wooden walkway bridges that went over the streams and bogs
that we had to cross, but when we got to them, Hank put his nose
down, snorted, and went right across. When we got to the highway
crossing, there were spectators watching and cheering the riders on.
It is hard to describe how much spectators can bring up emotions
inside you as they cheer you on. It does not matter if it is just 10
miles into the ride, or 90 miles into the ride, for me, it means so
much that they have taken the time to go out and clap for you, and
tell you to "have a good ride" or "looking good". For a lot of the
trail before Squaw Valley, we were in a nice pocket with just Dave,
Jim Mitchell and myself. As we started up the long grade to the top
of Squaw, it would be the first real test to see if Hank was ready
for all the climbs. We walked and trotted to the top, watered the
horses, and headed off into the high country. We would now find out
if the bogs were as nasty as we were told they would be, after having
such a wet, and high snow level winter. I found that they were NOT as
bad as expected. We got into some groups of riders, that were going
really slow, and even getting off to go over some of the boulders.
Off is OK, but please, do NOT hold us up as you get back on! We were
about 8th in a line of horses when we saw a horse loose up on the
hill. Dave jumped off, and ran up the side of the hill and caught the
horse. Again, on our way, and we got around the extra slow riders,
and were again, in a nice pocket of just a few riders. Last year, I
skipped Cougar Rock, as Gambler was tripping too much, and I felt he
would not me safe to take over it. This year, I had been undecided at
the start, but Hank was so sure footed, was not having troubles with
any of the boulders he had to cross and even step on, and was really
listening to what I was asking him to do, and where I wanted him to
go. I decided to go over it. Dave went first, and Thunder was a
champ. Then, Jim headed up, and his horse got half way and spun
around and came back down. Dang it, Hank and I needed a horse to
follow. Well, behind me was Tammy from Cool Tack. Her horse went over
last year, so I had her go ahead of me. Up and over, and Hank and I
followed. There is a spot where you do a slight right turn. At that
point, you are to stay sort of to the left, next to the side of the
rock. Well, Hank did not move over enough, and in front of us was the
straight up and down "wall" that he had to leap up. I kicked, he
leaped, and had no problems getting to the top. What a ride! I was
laughing and telling Hank what a good boy he was. The spectators and
photographers must have thought I was nuts. But I had worried and
thought about Cougar Rock so many times since sending in my entry,
and now it was just a memory!
On in to Robinson Flat (36 miles). We were a smidge faster than I
was with Gambler last year, arriving at 10:49am. Hank ate like a pig,
looked good, and before we knew it, we were on our way again. The
road out of RF is long and hard packed. We trotted most of it. I
tried to keep Hank to the edge where it was not as hard, and maybe
easier on his legs. At one point, so local land owners have set up a
nice water spot for the horses, and offered riders drinks. They do
this on their own, at their own expense, and it was such a welcome
stop for both horses and riders. As we turned off on to the trail
again, I was in the back of a string of about 6 horses. Ahhh, Tevis
dust! I had managed to not deal with much of it on my previous
attempts. The trail is often along the edge of the mountain, with
extreme drop offs. Unlike last year, when I was scared with every
step, I was feeling SO good to be on a horse that was so sure of
himself, forward, and moving along with such ease. Hank was handling
the ride like a pro. No spooks or goofy steps. When we got to the
first canyon, the others hopped off to lead down, but before I got
off, I looked and they were jogging down into the canyon. Well, my
knees would never handle a "jog", so I rode half way down, until they
started walking, and then lead the rest of the way to the bottom. I
feared the heat of the canyons, but had built up in my mind that they
would be unbearable, and then found it was not that bad. I had been
drinking my water, and finally shook that darn sinus headache, and
was feeling pretty good. I had a couple extra water bottles on board,
and squirted water on Hank going up out of the canyons. This was the
toughest part of the ride for him. We went slow, but he never asked
to stop and rest. A nice easy, steady walk. I was spoiled with
Gamblers great recoveries, and knew Hank would be tougher to get down
to criteria. It took us some time at each check, but it was what I
expected, due to his over-all minimal mountain conditioning. All
other vitals were fine, just slow to drop in heart rate. He ate and
drank well, and was moving very sound. At Deadwood and Michigan Bluff
(63 miles), I gave him extra time to eat more. We were still slightly
ahead of my last years arrival times, and knew I had time to spare.
What I did NOT want to do, was get into the position to having to
chase the clock and cut off times. If one is that slow, often they
will not be able to catch up late in the ride, when the horse gets
more tired.

(click next for part 3 of 3)