Last Ride of the Season: Hillbillie Willie’s Trick or Trot

October 29 2024

My Oscars speech:

This weekend could not have been accomplished without help. I forgot Willie’s bridle. No way would I have started him in his lovely hybrid Jaquima halter (and, turns out, No. Way. could I have ridden him on the first loop in that!!!) So, mucho mucho thank you to Stevie, who supplied a headstall that fit Willie’s big honkin' Standardbred head, and thank you to Layne, who happened to have in her barn the exact same big honkin’ kemberwick port mouthpiece bit Willie uses! (He hates a snaffle). Both of those saved my bacon whilst Willie was On Fire the first loop!

In Endurance riding, you have to be flexible. Have goals, yes, but leave them subject to change, depending on your horse, depending on the day. My goals for the last ride of the season were two LDs at the Trick or Trot ride over the Eagle Canyon trails. And of course a calm start with a finish at the end! I hoped Willie had the same goals.

No matter how you slice it, in the spring or fall, the trails at Eagle Canyon are hard. Willie is not a hill horse. He *can* climb hills, but they are hard on him, and often he just isn’t comfortable on the downhills. And everything on these trails are up, or down, with little flat in between. 

It was near freezing in the morning, so we saddled up early and walked around camp for 20 minutes before the ride. Willie had plenty of energy but was calm. When I mounted up amongst the witches and headless horseman and skeletons (it was Halloween), he stayed calm. When the trail was open, we strolled out side by side with Karen and Riley, and Willie stayed calm as we started trotting up the long hill (first of a thousand) out of camp. We trotted (uphills) and walked (downhills) with Riley for a mile or two, after which Willie started revving up. By the time another mile passed, he was like, Alright already, time to move. 

Hopes for a slower ride went out the window then. Willie wanted to go, so we went! It really does no good fighting him for mile after mile, because he’s wasting as much energy revving as he would if he was just moving out. There were gopher holes, and some badger holes to be a bit careful of, but he’s pretty sure-footed and pays attention, more-so when he’s moving out than when I’ve got an anchor hold on him. 

I always tend toward the conservative - that’s my endurance upbringing - looking forward to finishing one day and riding the next day, but after a while, I gave up and let him go. Willie’s not so much about having to get to and be in the front; he just likes to move out and have a space in front of him (that coveted Bubble a lot of us like), to adventurously fly down an open and new trail, the bigger view the better, the twisty-er the trail the better. I really think he likes the feel of the wind in his mane and tail! I know he loves the Endurance trails, which are soooooo much better than running round and round and round a racetrack.

In the April 25-miler at Eagle, the first few miles he was on crack and legs spinning every which way, and at the first vet check, he had a hitch behind and was pulled. Today, I just figured with a hard fast 12-mile first loop, either he’d pass the vet check and we’d go on to loop 2 (where I knew he’d slow down), or if he got pulled, it had just been a hard fast first conditioning loop of 12 miles, and it was fun.

He zipped along happily on a loose rein, up and down and up and down, and the 12 miles flew by, and we arrived back in camp some 18 minutes ahead of the next rider. Not my intention! But happily, he was already pulsed down when we arrived, and he was sound! Forty minute hold and we were off on loop 2.

We did take loop 2 easier. I let Willie pick the pace. Trot or canter or pace where he wanted to, walk when he wanted to. Nearing the end of loop 2, he was taking more of the downhills at a walk, and I even dismounted to walk down several long steep hills. As long as I knew I could climb back on him at the bottom! He drank deeply at the water troughs (yay!) and the only other horses we saw on loop 2 were in the distance on the 50-miler, and a few trail riders out for their own fun.

Willie pulsed down right away when we got back to camp, finishing first, trotting out sound (yay!!!!), and later just missing Best Condition by a point or two. So close! Nora’s Portia finished second, after taking a tumble a couple of miles from the finish and bruising Nora spectacularly (but nothing broken!!) and took Best Condition.

I was thrilled with Willie’s ride, and thought I’d just end our season on that note. He didn’t eat great throughout the day (he got A's on his gut sounds at the first vet check and finish, and his pulse was always low, so nothing was wrong), and day one was just one tough ride for a not-hill horse, even though it was only 25 miles. We didn’t get our two days of riding in, but a sound finish on a hard ride - a perfect end to a season of Standardbred fun!

Top photo by Steve Bradley!

Hillbillie Willie and the Last of the Autumn Suns

October 12 2024

Normally I shoot the 3-day Autumn Sun Endurance ride in Gooding, Idaho, but this time I wanted to shoot days 1 and 3 (and RM Jessica’s dad would shoot day 2) and ride Hillbillie Willie on day 2 on the 55-miler. He was fit and hot and ready to roll, and he could use another ride after his 3 days of LDs at Old Selam five weeks earlier.

However. It would just be Willie’s second solo voyage to an endurance ride. He’s not a great ride-camper anyway (always messing and getting into stuff), but, going solo….. I apologized to everybody at the ride beforehand (if you didn’t hear me) because Willie was going to be VOCAL, calling for his BFF DWA Barack all days and nights.

We parked right next to Shyla and her Thoroughbred mare Nya, and mare mule Sadie, and Willie made instant fast friends, especially with his new BFF girlfriend mule, although he kept up his whinnies for at least 48 hours, just in case Barack was within earshot.

Ever since Willie’s meltdown at the start of Eagle Canyon in April, our first ride of the season (after 7 seasons!!!!!), I’ve since been a little nervous about starting rides on him. Although he’s steadily been improving this year. But you just never know. At Old Selam we had 3 days in a row of calm starts. But here he’d be without his buddies all weekend, so…….

Autumn Sun is not a hard ride. It’s a rocky ride. There are places you have to walk, places where you can move out as fast as you want, and places you could move out but be careful and be ready to slow down. We’d have a big climb on loop 2, but the rest is mostly flat, gentle hills.

It was chilly Saturday morning as we saddled up, so I hand walked Willie around camp with 15 minutes to start time. At 5 minutes till, I climbed aboard. He was still a bit amped, but good. He wanted to go already. Only 4 other riders were ready to start; nobody else was even in sight. I’d thought maybe I’d ride with Kristen and Chancey, Sara and JoJo, but I didn’t even see them saddling up when we walked around camp. Maybe they’d decided to do the LD instead.


When ride manager Jessica yelled “Trail’s open!” at 7:30…… nobody went. *I* did not want to go out first. I wanted to drift in after other riders, with a little bubble. Love the Bubble.

Stevie and Sonic, Alex and Alexander Hamilton went out first. Two other ladies went out next, so I fell in a bit behind them. But Willie was so amped he wasn’t going to keep a space there, and he was starting to irritate one of the horses, so we went on past them. But we didn’t have quite enough of a gap from Stevie and Alex ahead of us, so, I had the anchor hold on Willie. He kept to a trot, but he would have preferred to go a hundred miles faster.

Only a half mile or so out of camp, the two-track followed a rocky trail, so we had to slow to a walk. Willie watched his feet but boy was it a fast walk. Back onto a two track road, the trail quickly made a sharp left turn back onto another trail. Stevie and Alex had missed it. Dang. That put me and Willie in front where I didn’t want to be. I hollered at the girls to turn around and fortunately they heard me.

It was a super rocky stretch of cow trails, and super sparse ribbons because the dang cows ate them, again and again, after Jessica and crew kept putting more out. I kept a sharp eye out for hanging ribbons, ribbons on the ground, and shreds of ribbons that the cows forgot to swallow. Willie was fabulous about watching his footing, and he wasn’t amped anymore, just forward, ready to move out!


We finally made it out of that rocky-snot section, passing Wally who took our picture, then out on a smooth two-track road where we were able to move out at a smart trot. Willie was happy to be cruising along the sagebrush desert. After 10 miles or so, we had a little detour to a stock tank, where I was so happy Willie dunked his head in and took a big drink. Yay! Off we went.

After another 5 miles or so, a pair of riders were coming up behind us. It was Kristen and Chancey, Sara and JoJo. No, they had not changed their mind to do the LD, they woke up at 7:27 AM, scrambled up and out, threw their saddles on and took off after all the other 5 of us had long gone!


We rode together for miles. It was nice to have the younger girls get off and get the gates off their shorter horses. :)  Also, it was nice at one gate that Kristen opened, that I was able to peel my fleece jacket off, and turn my backwards shirt around. I had wondered why my shirt pocket seemed to be around on my back, and why my shirt was so tight around my neck. What can I say, it was cold and I dressed under my sleeping bag with just a flashlight so I kinda got the shirt put on the wrong way.

Willie had a fun time with his new BFFs, trotting, pacing, cantering, and we girls yakked and the horses eyeballed each other as the miles went by. About 8 miles or so from camp, Kristen looked back and saw dust from two riders in the distance behind us. “Let’s go!” She said, and Chancey and JoJo shot off, and Willie stayed with his new BFFs, and yeehaw, the ground flew under us faster and faster, as the canters became gallops which became sprints. I let Willie do his thing, and his trot became a canter became a pace which switched to a racing pace (!), and ohmygod we were going fast. And then he lowered his body down and he switched to a higher gear and OHMIGOD I have never ridden that horse that fast! He was back in a race on the racetrack and he was FLYING, he was going so fast he was not wobbling back and forth but very smooth, it was fun and exciting and thrilling and then it was just getting too fast too much for me, with some rocky sections coming up on the road and I said, “Eeeeeeasy Willie, let’s slow down here!”

He would have rather gone on that fast but he consented to slowing down, let his little human come back down to earth, and I had to catch my breath more than he did because that was so insane!


I had to dismount for a gate (Kristen and Sara were long gone!), and that gave us a nice Bubble again. So we cruised the last few miles solo at a nice trot (or walk through a rocky dry wash), and by the time we reached camp, Willie had already pulsed down to 56.

He didn’t whinny once for anybody in camp, instead he chowed down on alfalfa in the middle of the vet check, then ate the rest of his hour hold in his pen, not even worrying about his mule girlfriend who was gone out on the 25-mile ride.


Stevie and Alex had arrived a few minutes after Willie and me, and when Alex and Alexander unfortunately got pulled, Stevie and I decided to do the last loop together. Our first part of loop 2 was a long climb up into the hills, our horses cruising companionably along, Stevie and I occasionally talking, often just silent and riding and enjoying being out in the desert on our horses. We had the same ideas of riding, moving out on the good ground and the gentle hills, getting off and walking the downhills, walking the few steep uphills, giving our horses time at the water troughs for good deep drinks (yay! Drink up!), eating alfalfa from the bags that RM Jessica left for snacks. The hay tasted way better when Stevie hand-fed Sonic and Willie.


We tied for third at the finish, and Willie ended up with High Vet Score again, yay Willie!

He was just happy he’d made yet another BFF with Sonic, and when I finally put him back in his pen, his BFF mule Sadie was back from finishing her second LD, and he could rest and gaze at her lovely big ears 5 feet away from him. (I don’t think Sadie was quite as impressed with Willie.)

Willie was tired enough after his ride that he didn’t make one peep that night, nor the next day until about mid-afternoon. :)

I’m so glad we got to ride this last Autumn Sun ride, so glad Willie survived his second solo ride camp and made soooo many new BFFs, so glad I have a horse who is enthusiastic riding alone and in company, so enjoyed riding solo, and with Kristen and Sara and Stevie, and so proud of my Standardbred!!!!!

Get-Away Horse at Old Selam!

*this is overdue… it came from notes I made and I just threw the rest together!*

Since Hillbillie Willie’s brain exploded at the start on his first ride this year, even though he’s steadily getting better, I am just not sure what he’s going to do. So… with the goal of riding all three days of LDs at the Old Selam Pioneer ride (one of our favorites) outside of Idaho City in the Boise forest on August 30-September 1, I was just hoping for the best, in our case being good calm starts and pleasant rides and completions!

We arrived on Thursday with clear skies, but sadly the next morning it was smoky, and it stayed that way the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t terrible in camp, but I debated about riding Friday Day One. It wasn't real bad except for up on a couple of the ridges where the smoke got pretty thick and made my eyes water and made me cough a bit. You wonder how it affects the horses. And what are you going to do? Everybody comes here for the ride, some people from far far away, and to get out of the smoke you either have to leave or you deal with it. Had it been really terrible I wouldn't have ridden, but still you worry.

Willie’s not all about racing on the trails. He’s really all about the social aspect of endurance. And everybody is his instant friend, so he's happy to go with anybody. He'll go by himself but he loves the socialization.

And in camp, as we've had to do all year this year, Willie and I practiced leaving his bondo boy buddies DWA Barack and DWA Papillon, going on walks by ourself away from them, and Connie would take hers on a walk one at a time. Connie was planning to ride three 50's switching horses, and I was hoping to ride Willie on the three 25-milers. Over the weekend, Willie gradually got to where he would only whinny once when he left his buddies.

Day One started with everybody just walking out of camp calmly when the “Trail’s open” call came. Cat and Haffir started to lead out, but Haffir was spooking at the pond on his right, so Willie just went out ahead, and we ended up in front on the first loop the whole way, loose rein… the whole day! He enjoyed riding with his new BFF Haffir.

We easily made it to the out-vet check with a little space to spare before the next riders came in. Willie kept looking for Barack and Pappy, although he pulsed down right away and he ate a little bit at the hold.

We headed out on loop two back to camp, just cruising along comfortably at a steady trot. Halfway through loop two, Nora and her beautiful golden Morgan Marvelous Portia zoomed past us at a gallop. Yeehaw! Nora called over her shoulder, “She's on fire!” Willie didn’t alter his gait, just kept up the same trot with Haffir behind him.

We cruised on in to camp for the finish, where Willie pulsed down right away, finishing second. We both had a really super fun day, and best of all was the calm start and riding on a loose rein!

Day two was another awesome calm start. Willie and I fell right in behind Natalie on her tall leggy saddlebred She’s Spotless (they’d tied for first the 50 on day 1), and Kathleen on her Arab Elokwent. They didn't mind us tagging along, because you know, Willie likes the social aspect, and he matched their pace, and he has learned to stay back and not impolitely run up other horses’ behinds.

We motored right along and again had a super fun first loop. The trails at Old Selam are so incredibly spectacular, rolling logging roads with super soft footing, creek crossings and plenty of water troughs everywhere. Willie didn't drink at all on the first loop on day two, but I knew he drank overnight. But you always wish your horse would drink!

When we got to where Steve Bradley was taking pictures, Natalie went first, Katie held back and then Willie and I waited behind her. Natalie took off like a rocket doing whatever kind of racking her gaited horse does, and Katie's Arab took off galloping next, and oh my god when I let Willie go he launched into an instant pace, like he must have done on the track, and ohmygod, sit deep hang on and enjoy the ride! I have never ridden that horse that fast at a pace, it was incredible! I’m glad I didn't start giggling because I would have fallen off. Although he was very smooth, thank goodness!

Shortly past Steve, we pulled up (giggling) by a meadow, where a moose and its baby were just leaving the other side. They stopped to turn and look at us, and our three horses stopped and stared. It was Willie’s first moose! I thought it was cows at first, and I think that's what Willie probably thought they were, because they were far enough away that they kind of resembled cows.

And on we went.

Coming into camp for the vet check the last couple of miles, Willie’s turbos kind of turned on so it was pretty much a pull-fest the last mile or two because Natalie and Katie’s horses were flying, and Willie was going to stay close to his new BFFs!

Arriving in camp, Willie didn't whinny for Barack or Pappy once (!). He pulsed down right away, finally took a good drink, and he got to hang out with his BFF Pappy on his 40-minute hold for lunch.

When it was time to head out on loop 2, Willie was actually the first one out time-wise, but we waited to let Natalie and Katie go out first. I didn’t want to be up front setting a fast pace. But Katie was another minute behind me, and then Rory on his Arab SCA Vision, so since Natalie waited for Katie, and Rory headed out first.

Then Katie and Natalie took off after Rory, and Willie and I fell in behind. Just out of camp, Natalie and Katie passed Rory and they took off like rockets to the moon. Willie wanted to go with them, and I said heck no Willie, we don't need to go that fast because I’ll just be hanging onto you like a tail feather, so slow down buddy.

It was a pull-fest again for the next mile or two, until the girls got out of our sight, which happened on a big steep hill where Willie was willing to slow down a bit because he was huffing and puffing like a steam engine, and then Willie realized he had a potential new BFF behind him, SCA Vision.

So soon after, I had a calm forward horse on a loose rein and we trotted the whole nine miles of the loop, stopping for water now and then, which Willie he didn't care for, but we easily finished our loop back into camp with Rory and Willie’s newest BFF.

Willie pulsed down right away for third place. Day one his CRI was 50-46, today’s CRI was 48-44! Go Willie!

Day three, everybody started out at a stroll, and Willie and his newest new BFF saddlebred Chicory with Samantha aboard, went out first. We just shuffled along the road out of camp, then off we went on the trail, just trotting. Not fast, not slow, just long-legged horse trots.

I had a loose rein the whole first loop and most of the day, it was so amazing. Willie and Chicory stayed together for quite a while, then Chicory slowed down, after Nora and her Portia passed us. That horse went by like a bullet again, and we let her go on, Willie not giving chase. Then Chicory slowed down, and Willie went on, just the same steady long-legged trot. He kept looking back and wandering about Chicory, but then he caught sight of Nora's mare (another potential BFF) up ahead. He didn't race to catch up with her but after a while he did, and we stayed with her for a while, until Nora slowed down.

Willie just continued cruising on at his same steady trot. He really loves the winding logging roads in the forest. Sadly we didn’t have any views because of the smoke, which was thicker in some places. He even stopped to grab grass along the trail a few times, which is great for him, since he’s mostly all-business.

A couple of miles from camp, Chicory caught up with us again. We trotted into camp together off the first loop of 16 miles. Willie pulsed down right away, and since he wasn't frantically calling for his buddy Barack back at camp at the trailer, we stayed and splashed around in the slop, or horse crack, or oat floats (made of water mixed with rice bran, oats, and carrots), which he got all over himself and me. 

We waited for Chicory to pulse down, then we went back to our trailer where Willie ate with Barrack, then we were back out on loop 2. We just went out did our long-legged trot having the whole second loop of nine pleasant, beautiful miles to ourselves, Willie so willing and so awesome and so effortless. We even rode that last loop in our jaquima hackamore made by Maria Phillips of Vudu Tack & Crafts LLC and just had a lovely loop. Icing on the cake was, we came in first, finish CRI was 44-44, and icing on top of that dessert was that Willie got High Vet Score (!!!!), Best Condition (!!!!!!!!), first LD Pioneer 3-day horse, and Vet’s Choice Getaway horse.

My mind was blown! That was an exciting wrap to a fun three days in a row of 25's at Old Selam Pioneer. Willie and I really love that ride!

*those are Steve Bradley photos of us on trail!*

Hillbillie Willie's Bandit Springs

July 16 2024

Willie is a traveling Houdini this year. He's been to three rides that are new to him, first Mary & Anna Memorial ride in Oregon then sleeping Giant in Montana and now Bandit Springs in Oregon. 

We were ready for a hard hot ride, though we knew it would be 10 to 20° cooler up in the Ochoco Mountains between John Day and Prineville than it would be at home.

We decided we'd do a 50 on day one, and play day two by ear.

The drive to ride camp was hot for the horses in the trailer, though as long as we were moving it wasn't too bad. We tried the trick of adding a couple of bags of ice to the shavings in the trailer; that's supposed to keep them cooler. Does it work? I don't really know. I can't see how it would help when the trailer is moving and all the hot air circulating through it, although when the trailer is stopped, it might actually help with cooling a little bit.

We did have a bit of excitement on the way. On highway 26 in Oregon, we saw smoke from a new fire to the north, called the Cow Valley fire and it was starting to come over a distant ridge. It looked big and bad. We had also passed two other fires on the way, one which had closed a road we were going to take. But this one look pretty serious. And by the time we got to ride camp a couple hours later, the highway was closed. (And by Saturday, the fire had raced East along the highway, heading for Vale, where they were put under evacuation orders after the fire grew to 120,000 acres with no containment; we would have to take a different route home.) 

Then about two hours from ride camp, we had a flat on the trailer. Fortunately we had just pulled over in a pullout to let traffic go by us before we entered the narrow wind-y canyon that goes to John Day, and we happened to notice the flat so we were able to fix it there on the side of the road and not be caught in the canyon with that! We got it changed pretty quickly, didn't have to unload the horses. As we were finishing up, a truck pulled up behind us, and the person sat in there for quite a while, and then he finally strolled out of his truck while yapping on his phone, and finally walked up to us and said, you girls need any help? Oh, thanks, we've got it. But when Regina asked him if he could do the last tightening on the nuts, he launched into a story about how he'd been out riding his ATV and blah blah blah, so he didn't really want to help anyway. But that's okay, we got it. 

Anyway, on to ride camp. Willie was traveling with his BFF DWA Barack and his BFrenemyF DWA Papillon. The plan was to ride Willie and Barack together on the 50 on day one. We tried that a couple of years ago and it was a bit difficult, but we thought we'd try it again. Barack would be happy and Willie would be in heaven.

And Bandit Springs ride camp is in a big meadow with plenty of delicious grass, and wild horses that run around the area and come close to camp and sometimes chase riders on trail. Our horses loved the grass, because all we have at home is dry weeds and cheatgrass. 

Our ponies are watching the wild horse herd in the meadow

At ride camp Willie had to practice leaving his BFFs in camp to go for walks, because this year, he's so Bondo-boyed to both of them that he forgets everything else and how to be more than five feet away from his BFFs. So we kept practicing that. 

Willie had a pretty good calm start Saturday morning, though he's just longer legged and bigger striding and faster than Barack, so I had to work on keeping him under wraps, and Connie had to work on pushing Barack a bit to keep up. 

Connie and I both swore we were not going to miss any ribbons on the loops today. Loop 1 was 30 miles with a vet check and 30-minute hold at 12 miles, in a nice grassy meadow. 

Of course Willie wanted Barack's food and Barack wanted Willie's food

The rest of the loop was pretty tough, lots of ups and downs and it got pretty hot. At one point Willie really wanted a drink from a stream, but we just couldn't get down to it. And then about the same time, we missed a turn, totally did not see the obvious three ribbons, and we went downhill about a mile and a half until, duh, we realized we hadn't seen any ribbons for a while. I mean really, duh! So we had to turn around and the horses had to work that hot mile and a half back uphill to get back to that creek. I felt so bad we’d made this big mistake! And they were so thirsty, we found a way to get down to the creek and they really tanked up. 

I always ride Willie with a heart rate monitor, and I was really glad of it because even after that long drink at the creek, we had another hard climb uphill, and he was quite hot with a high pulse at the top. Fortunately we soon had a water trough not long after, and I sponged him down well, and also dunked my own cool vest in the water, and that really helped him come down and stay down the rest of the day though we sponged off at every creek and water trough we came to. It was probably in the mid-90s.

Of course I worried and fretted about everything I could think of, including feeling terribly guilty about the horse flies that attacked Willie’s face as we rode across an otherwise lovely meadow. I’d fly-sprayed him at the out vet check and even rubbed some on his face, but had left his face mask back at camp for the second loop. He’d walk and fling his head, trying to get rid of them, but they’d land and bite, land and bite. I tried to teach him to rub his head in bushes as he walked by.

Connie took this one in the meadow

We had an hour hold back in camp, then went out for the 20 mile loop 2. It was hotter, and the boys were rather less than motivated, though we did have a good breeze. We swore we weren't going to miss any more ribbons, but we did once or twice, but at least we didn't add another three miles to our total. We both had to admit that we are terrible at following ribbons. 

We had more climbing and descending, because it's in the mountains, but both of our horses did really well. We saw two herds of wild horses, one herd with a couple of running bucking foals, and one that was probably a bachelor herd. 

Willie's staring at the wild horses in the trees

About 5 miles from the finish, we caught and overlapped Simone and her friend, and the rest of the way in we duked it out for turtle. Connie and I stayed behind them, so that left me and Connie to duke it out for turtle. I insisted on turtle because Willie has never gotten one, and because Connie made me let her get turtle a couple of years ago when she was riding Phineas and I was riding Dudley and we came in last. So, Willie got turtle for the ride! Which won me and Willie some lavender bath salts. I don’t think he’ll have any use for them, and I figured they would really come in handy after all the dirt I accumulated at the ride. 

I'm so proud of the Hillbillie, this was a hard, hot ride for him and he handled it well, much better than I did. I couldn't choke down enough food during the day, though I did stay plenty hydrated, though the water I was drinking was about the temperature of a boiling teapot which makes it taste terrible. Coming into camp for the second vet check after the 30 mile loop, it only took him about a minute to pulse down, and at the finish, by the time we took a drink at the finish line water trough and I sponged him down, and we walked to the pulsing area, his heartrate was already down to 60. In that heat!

His back was a bit sore after the ride (and it's more his sides, not the top of his back), and his legs were a bit puffy, which is not unusual, but still puffy, so we weren't going to attempt day two. I think with all his big movement and his size combined with lots of climbs and descents, it just irritates his back at times and the pounding makes his legs fill. 

I’m rather in awe of Willie (and all the horses who rode and finished Bandit!), in how well he handled the heat and hills. Standardbreds Rock!

Hillbillie Willie and the Sleeping Giant

June 22 2024

Sleeping Giant, the new Montana ride, is only around 8 hours from Oreana, so we loaded up Regina’s trailer with 3 horses and headed there on Thursday. Of course, “8 hours” is by car when you’re on a mission, and our adventuresome trip took 11 hours. 

But when we pulled into Ridecamp in a field of yellow flowers on a private ranch north of Helena next to the Missouri River where the Nez Perce people lived and roamed, and where Lewis and Clark once floated by, it was worth the journey. The scenery is gorgeous, just the kind of country that makes you want to jump on a horse and ride into. I’d never ridden in Montana before so I couldn’t wait to hit these trails. “Sleeping Giant” comes from the mountain ridge above ridecamp, which resembles a giant sleeping on his back.

Hillbillie Willie was of course traveling with his BFF DWA Barack, and his frenemy DWA Papillon, and after Willie's unexpected wacko antics at Eagle Canyon this year, I wasn’t sure quite how he was going to behave at the ride. We’d be doing the 50-miler on day 1 (and possibly day 2) and one of his buddies would do a 25 each day. Willie and I practiced leaving them at times to walk around camp on Friday, and he seemed to handle it well. Maybe Saturday’s start wouldn’t be so bad!

I was hoping for that perfect spot at the start of day 1’s 50, not too many people strung out ahead of us, not too many people close behind, not too fast, not too slow. Who could I ride with that might match Willie’s pace? Willie was pretty calm as we warmed up before the start (yay!), and I ended up talking with Teresa from Minnesota aboard her seasoned 18-year-old gelding Aaz. “You want to ride together?” She asked. I said “Sure!” but with the caveat I always add, “We can try,” because I just don’t know anymore if my horse is going to be on crack or not, and if he is, my plans are out the window.

We let the fast riders go out first, and walked out the gate (!), before settling into a trot. Willie was amped and a bit bumpy, but not crazy (yay!). And with a calm influencer ahead of him, Willie settled into his fast trot, pulling, but not pulling my arms out of their sockets. In fact, he only pulled for 32 minutes (yes I looked) before he settled into hard work, and it did help that we soon headed uphill, up and up and up.

One of the ranch owners Cathy Campbell was present as we rode through a gate onto her land, with a view spread out below us of Upper Holter Lake, part of the Missouri River and the Lewis and Clark Trail into the Gates of the Mountains. Montana grass was green and knee high along the cow trails. 

You could call 18-year-old Aaz a mountain horse, because this 4000-mile horse has completed, among many other rides with Teresa, the Big Horn 100 6 years in a row, and the Big Horn 50 or 75 another 4 years in a row.

My Standardbred is *not* a mountain horse, but today he became one, tackling the climbs like a pro, keeping pace right with Aaz, climbing higher and higher, and higher still, up onto a ridge overlooking the valley below and the Sleeping Giant ridge on the other side, and Helena in the valley to the south. The cool and wind-less morning was perfect for hard-working horses.

Aaz and Willie were pretty perfectly matched in pace, and they seemed to enjoy each other’s company. They traded off leading and following, trotting where we could, walking where we had to on a few rocky shale-y ridges and on the hard climbs. We looped back down into the valley, then turned and climbed right back up to the ridge a different way, and the views were still spectacular. Aaz ate Montana grass the entire loop, but not Willie at first, no sir, he is all business out on the trail. But after 15 miles or so, Willie snatched a bite… then later another bite…. then for the rest of the day he copied Aaz and grabbed mouthfuls of grass as we moved along.

Back at the vet check in camp, Willie only took a minute or two to pulse down. His BFF DWA Barack was out on trail, but his frenemy DWA Papillon was in his pen so Wille was happy to hang out near him during the break. Willie is never a voracious eater, but he ate non-stop for the hour hold (yay!), and his pulse dropped to 48 several times.

NOAA predicted a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms for the afternoon (oh boy), and the clouds were already hovering. It was too warm to wear a jacket, but I tied my raincoat around my waist as Aaz and Teresa and Willie and I headed out on Loop 2. Before we even reached the road crossing, I’d slithered into my raincoat. By the time we reached the first gate (unmanned this time), it was lightning and thundering. Oh boy. I’m terrified of lightning. I was able to open the gate on Willie, but it was a bit tricky to close on horseback, and the thought of me holding onto a metal gate on a very tall horse made me awful nervous, so I got off to close it. As we started up the road, I kept my head down and pretended there was no lightning and thunder, and when it started hailing, Willie wanted to turn tail to the ice balls, but I kept him moving forward and he put his head down and pretended it wasn’t hailing. We all got a good soaking before the sun came back out.

The two-track road took us along the interstate where we had a tunnel to get us to the other side. Willie is not usually spooky but he wanted nothing to do with this tunnel! Aaz waited behind to see if Willie was going to get eaten or not. I got off Willie and led him toward the tunnel, which he still was leery of, but I pretended it was perfectly normal to be going through a dark tunnel underneath the interstate, and so he decided it was too. 

On the other side, we started climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The sun played hide and seek with more scary and spectacular storm clouds. The higher we climbed, the stronger the wind blew. Near the top along a ridge it was blowing so hard, a gust knocked Willie and me off the trail a few feet. Since we’d gotten soaked in the rain, it was quite cold in the gale. But we kept plodding upward. I was crossing my fingers that we’d avoid the darkest storm clouds with the lightning, and as luck would have it, our trails took us right between the worst of it. 

We didn’t see a bear along the soft two-track through the forest back down to the valley, but I am sure some bears saw us! We paralleled the interstate a while, and our horses were so hungry for the delicious chest-high Montana grass, at times they’d slam on the brakes to graze. A longer tunnel took us back under the interstate (no problem for Willie this time), and the rest of the loop was a flat two-track for miles and miles back to camp, coming in on the backside of camp, with Sleeping Giant over our shoulders.

We’d had the perfect Bubble the entire day, and we didn’t see another single horse or rider on loop 2. It felt like we had the entire marvelous Montana wilderness to ourselves.

It was a shocker for me getting back to the finish in 5th and 6th places (out of 22 riders). We’d pretty much started out in those places and stayed there the whole day. Even more amazing, we finished the ride in 7:07! Willie was tired after the ride, his CRI being 54-60 at 10 minutes, but an hour later he was 48-48!

I’m impressed with my Standardbred! In April of this year he was 12 years old going on 2 and on crack, and we’ve progressed back to a relatively calm start, a relatively contained first half hour on trail, eating along the trail, eating at the lunch break, and getting fitter. And, I think I’ve got my mountain horse now. :)