Hillbillie Willie’s 2026 Eagle Canyon

 

Sunday April 26 2026

Plans changed big time for the first ride of the 2026 season. I had Hillbillie Willie ready for a 50 at Antelope Island in Utah to start off the year. He’d never ridden on the island, and since I’d ridden it once long ago with Dudley, I knew this would be the perfect trail for him, and he was fit and ready. 

Then two weeks before the ride (April 18-19), it was cancelled (postponed to October). Because of bugs! The dreaded gnat hatch was two weeks early due to a warm winter and little precipitation. For me the bugs - no-see-ums, gnats, mosquitoes - are always bad anyway at the island any time of year; I am a bug magnet. Even a human race was cancelled two weekends before the horse ride because it was so bad.

 

So, our ride plans changed. Next up was Eagle Canyon on April 25-6 almost in our back yard, at Eagle, Idaho in the foothills. And when I say foothills, that is one hilly ride. It can be a tough first ride of the year for any horse, and it’s real tough ride for a flat-lander Standardbred for his first ride of the year. I have yet to ride Willie on a 50 at Eagle and I probably won’t. I know my horse and that is not his kind of 50-mile ride. So, we’d ride a 25-miler on day 2, and I’d shoot day 1.

Two years earlier, when I used a 25-miler at Eagle to start the season, Willie had a hind end tightness after loop 1 and got pulled, so…. there was that to worry about, because I always have to find things to worry about.

And as always with Willie, I never know what I’m going to have underneath me when we start a ride. He might be calm, he might be on crack. He’s 14 now! You’d think he’d be predictable and calm by now. Saturday afternoon I took him on a short warm-up ride, a mile up to the water tank, where he was calm and forward and didn’t whinny once for his three BFFs back in camp. But on the way back, although he kept it to a walk, he felt ready to explode. Oh boy!

When Connie decided to ride her horse DWA Barack, Willies BBFF (Bestest Best Friend Forever), on the 25 on day 2 and we’d ride together, I knew it was going to be an easy start and a fun day! Willie and Barack hadn’t done a ride together in two years.

Connie pic!

Sunday morning we let most of the riders go out ahead of us, or at least we thought we did, because Barack hadn’t done a ride in almost a year, and Connie always has to be aware and alert riding him. Both boys started out smoothly and calmly, a nice working trot a half mile up a gentle hill till we hit the trails and the real hills. Willie was sooooooo happy to be with his BBFF!

We mostly had a nice bubble on the first 12.5 mile loop, cruising up and down the hills at a steady trot, both horses moving out and having fun. Not quite competing, but powering each other on. The hills were mostly still green from late spring rains, and though they’d had a downpour about a week earlier, there were only a couple of little boggy areas that were easy to negotiate. I always start Willie in a ride in his kemberwick bit in case I need brakes, but today he didn’t pull on me at all, because whyever would he want to get away from his beloved bro Barack!

I put Willie’s beautiful jaquima halter (made by Maria Phillips) on for his second loop, and again we just cruised along the trails, trotting on the rare flats and up hills, and walking down, sometimes dismounting on the steeper downhills. We passed a great horned owl nest with three babies spilling out of the nest. Two water crossings were unusually high, and Barack briefly thought about taking a bath in one of them, while Willie had a splash fest.

Very well-fed cows wandered everywhere, fat from green grass and trail marking ribbons that ride manager Layne and co had to keep going out and replacing. Only one corner through a homestead was missing ribbons at the turn - and it was only our loop’s colors because cows apparently think the green and orange ribbons taste best - but we knew where we were going. We hollered at a rider ahead of us several times to get her back on the right trails.

We let the boys trot right on into the finish, to see what their pulses would be and how long it would take for them to pulse down to 60. Barack was first down, a minute before Willie, and we found out we’d come in 3rd and 4th. We’d thought we were back near 10th or so! 

Willie ended up getting both high vet score and Best Condition, with a CRI of 44-40, a fine start to the season. Go Standardbred!!!!

Next up: Aiming for a 50 at City of Rocks end of May!

connie pic here and up top!

Hillbillie Willie’s Trick or Trot

October 25 2025

After some fabulous fall weather, wouldn’t you know the clouds massed for the last ride of the season, the 2-day Trick or Trot Halloween ride in Eagle. My plans were to ride a 25 on both Saturday and Sunday to wrap up the season, depending of course on how my horse felt and how the weather was. I was prepared and psyched up for rain, because it was coming, but all still depended on footing. 

I packed like 6 raincoats, 4 heavy coats, my still-to-be-used long chaps made of fleece on the inside and waterproof material on the outside, and a pair of shorts (just in case) plus various combos of riding gear, and Hillbillie Willie loaded up with DWA Papillon, DWA Barack, and DWA Saruq into Regina’s trailer Friday morning, and north we headed. Barack and Saruq were along for a vacay.

It’s the *worst* saddling up in the rain, and while it did rain a bit overnight, it was only drizzling when it came time to saddle up for the 8:30 AM 25-mile start on Saturday. Connie and Pappy had already set out on the 50 a half hour earlier, and Willie didn’t mind because DWA Barack and DWA Saruq had come along for the weekend and were keeping him company. (Saruq thought this was the Best Endurance Ride ever - come along to ridecamp and just eat all weekend!).

Willie and I had taken a warm-up hand-walk on Friday with Diamonds and Cat, and of course Willie took quite a shine to Diamonds, so they were going to be our riding partners on the 25-miler. Cat was dressed as a fabulous knight and of course Diamonds, 1/4 Shire and 3/4 Arabian, already looks like a knight’s steed, or a movie star horse.

Willie was a little amped as we warmed up around camp, but he kept his wits. Once trail was open, we actually started strolling out (yay!), then we picked up a (strong) trot. All the horses were feeling quite fresh in the cool light rain! We had about a mile along a flat road, and the further we went, the stronger Willie got, and when a high stepping hackney horse pranced past him, Willie cranked up the volume. The stronger Willie gets, the more he bows his neck and looks like a macho racehorse. Which he was, though at the track he motored down the track with his head up in the air.

We passed photographer Steve Bradley then took a left on a squishy 2-track road up into the Eagle foothills. Some spots were a little slick, but Willie was careful, and we had no slips. In fact the rest of the day things got wetter, and slippery-er in places, but Willie was so sure-footed, I had to think he raced in the mud, or he grew up in the mud. A lot of horses had trouble on the wet trails, and a good number of riders pulled partway through the first loop of the 50, but Willie was like a fish in water. After a couple of miles he stopped pulling and set to watching his feet, adjusting to the footing. If it looked slippery, he moved sort of cat-like, lighter, a little shorter strides, and if it looked deeper, he adjusted to that. I let him pick his path (sometimes he’d move over onto grass) and speed because he was making all the right decisions and taking care of both of us!

He wasn’t in a big hurry anyway, as now he not only had one pretty girl with him but two, Lady and Kinley joined in with us, and we just kept moving along steadily. 

It kept raining on us, sometimes harder, sometimes lighter, but when we climbed up on a ridge we had wind and rain/sleet battering us sideways, and we got pretty cold and soaked (except for Cat in her handy waterproof knight’s outfit). You know how horses will turn their butts to the wind/rain, sometimes even when you’re riding them? Willie didn’t do that. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain, from the side or the front; he seemed to be enjoying himself. I sure was, particularly because he was so sure-footed and I did not have to worry!!

As I got cold and soaked on that ridge, I was thinking I might or might not continue on loop two after the vet check, because surely the footing was going to be worse by loop 2… but then we descended, the wind lessened, the rain even let up, and I thought that if Willie passed the vet check, and he looked good during the hold, we’d continue on.

A bonus was that I got a complete change of clothes on during the hold (and Willie stayed toasty and dry under two blankets at lunch), fleece/waterproof long chaps (made by Joyce Kellenberger) and a long raincoat, and out we went for our last 10-mile loop. Again Willie handled the mud with ease, and we all eased into the finish, for a fabulous last ride of the season for Willie! (After it rained later that afternoon, HARD, with lightning and thunder!!!, I wasn’t going to risk going out on for sure muddier trails for the 25 on Sunday).

Thanks to all those indomitable, intrepid, fabulous SWITnDR members, SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders, our local club, for coming out to help in that awful wet cold weather you all stood or sat out in Saturday and Sunday while many of us had fun out riding where that weather wasn’t so miserable. And thanks to Debbie for putting this ride on, and may we all have fabulous weather in the spring at Eagle!

And big goal next year: a 50-miler gets us our Decade Team!!!! Fingers crossed!

So, About That Old Selam Chicken...

Sunday August 31 2025

By Sunday, everybody was used to that rooster chicken hanging around ride camp central. Why not, he was getting all kinds of good leftover scraps, and being admired by the humans. 

At one of the ride meetings he startled Joe the vet when he jumped up on a little table by him.

Art took this one

A few people tried to catch him, but nobody could. And someone said that if someone caught him, someone might take him home. Maybe it was Hayley who would take him home. Maybe it was the Haflas. Or maybe it was Bentley.

But either way, the chicken socialized and pecked on all weekend.

Late Sunday morning, John Stevens came up to Ridecamp central, and he had his little mini rat terrier kind of dog, Spud, with him. John set him on the ground, and when Spud spied that rooster, he took off like a shot after him. Rooster chicken started running in circles, not all *that* hard, and the little dog was running as fast as it could, spinning his wheels trying to catch that chicken. 

Robert the vet was sitting in a chair watching the chicken run circles around him, with the dog chasing for all he was worth, intent on catching this chicken that was twice his size, when the rooster suddenly jumped in Robert’s lap!

Robert jumped up holding the rooster, 

who actually seemed quite content in Robert’s arms, while the dog leaped up and came down with a couple of tail feathers in his mouth. 

John had a hard time trying to catch his might hunter dog, who was running circles around Robert and the rooster, still hoping to get a bigger mouthful of chicken, while rooster calmly and serenely settled in Robert’s arms and looked down at his would-be assassin.

The rooster caught, he was put into one of Regina’s big dog crates, and the hunt for his new owner commenced. Hayley’s mom Lindsay said “No! We don’t want a rooster! Who came up with that rumor?” Someone else said No, Bentley wasn’t taking a rooster home. Haflas were nowhere to be seen in the rooster conversation. Meanwhile the rooster seemed quite pleased with himself, hanging out in the big dog crate with his own bowl of water and dog food snacks.

Finally Karen B said she’d take the rooster. For real? Yes, and she was ready to pull out, so we toted the dog crate to her trailer, and slipped the rooster and crate in with Peanut for the ride home to Oreana and Bates Creek.

Rooster settled in nicely at Karen’s place. He’s happily crowing away early in the mornings, coming for food when Karen calls “chick chick chick” and ruling the roost, i.e. scaring Sylvester the cat, the Big Game Hunter. Sylvester thought *he* might have a chicken snack and started stalking the rooster, but the rooster made one cockadoodledoo at Sylvester, and the cat ran for cover. 

“So meet Sam,” Karen said, “short for Selam. What else ya gonna call a rooster from the Old Selam ride camp.”

He’s the new Bates Crick Mascot!

Karen took this one at home, with Peanut and Sylvester admiring their new Companion

**Diane Stevens reminded me that Spud is a 9 month old 1/2 Jack Russel 1/2 Pomeranian**

2025 Old Selam Part III: Willie the Rocket Ship

August 31 2025 

So I trotted out for the vet Dick in the morning, and he said Willie looked fine. So, off Willie and I went on the day two 25-mile LD ride.

I had the plan of just ambling along on a pleasant trail ride LD for the day, because, you know, Willie ought to be a little tired from yesterday, right? 

And it started out that way. There were around 22 riders, and Willie was calm while we warmed up walking around camp. I always look for a little pocket where I might get a little Bubble, usually up near the front, not behind the fastest riders, but not where I’ll be tailed/chased closely by other riders.

And as the trail was announced open, three or four riders started walking out, which I thought was great. We fell in behind them, and walked out, and then they started trotting, but suddenly the front ones balked, and we got bunched up, and after they got going, they took off like a shot, and unfortunately, so did we. 

Oh heck no Willie was not tired. Or relaxed. Those riders up front were blasting down the trail and I was blasting after them on a rocket ship. I tried to convince him just to slow down a bit already, working hard on not just pulling but using strong seat and leg and *suggesting* with my hands on the reins to slow down… but it became more of a pullfest.

He pulled and pulled and at some point you have to decide, you’re both wasting so much energy pulling on each other, is it just better to let Willie go fast and stay with the fast horses, because that’s just how things work out sometimes.

At least the weather was nice and cool, and Willie felt perfectly sound. 

I was able to drop him back for a while, with another horse following me, but my hands would start to go to sleep trying to hold Willie back. He’s not always like this, but today he certainly was. 

So as you’d expect, the first 15 mile loop flew by really fast. Willie finally caught up with and rode with three others, (another lady had left everybody in the dust far ahead). And finally the last 5 miles or so, our group slowed down a bit, even walked up some hills, which was nice. I didn’t want to pass anybody, but their horses really started slowing down, so at the last water trough, Willie just went on ahead, much calmer, and on a loose rein, back into camp. 

He pulsed down right away, and I checked the out timer sheet later, and hooray, we were going to have our own lovely little Bubble on loop 2! We were about 10 minutes behind the first horse, and there was about eight minutes to the next horses behind us.

So I put on his jaquima halter for the last 9 mile loop, and OMG we had the best ride, cruising easily and comfortably, not fast and not slow, trotting along the winding soft logging roads in the forest, the trails to ourselves. This is what I hoped the first loop would have been like, but that’s okay, because loop 2 was so awesome!

Willie ended up finishing second, and I never felt a single bad step, so I said we would show for best condition.

At his 10 minute CRI Willie was 44-44 !!!!! The vet Robert said, “*Clearly* you overrode this horse.” 🤣

(For those who don’t know, the vet takes a pulse, the horse trots out 20 yards or so and back, he waits a minute, and takes the second pulse. A pulse that jumps from, say, 56 to 70 shows the horse is a bit fatigued. A low pulse rate, particularly the second pulse, is awesome. Willie usually vets in before the ride at 40.)

But, OMG, when Willie trotted out, Robert said he saw a couple of odd steps again! Just slight and only a couple, not consistent. OMG! I had felt nothing again all day. 

But we still came back to do the BC showing an hour later with the vet Dick, a thorough exam and a trot-out, and Willie looked perfect!

When he finished his exam on Willie, Dick said, “I’m gonna tell you two things about your horse.” I thought, uh oh, what’s wrong! Tell me, I always want to learn. 

He said, “First of all, you still have a knot in his tail.” (oh yeah, I gotta get that out with some cowboy magic). “And second," Dick grinned, "I think he’s way too small for you.” My 16.2 or 17 hand horse. Lol!

And later in the evening at the awards, Willie not only got high vet score (!!!!) but Best Condition!!!!!  I love my Standardbred!!

I decided not to do an LD on day three, because I think there was something going on with this feet, possibly the pads that I squirted in when he had soft soles from two days of rain. We’d leave it on a great note. What a great weekend at Old Selam, still one of our most favorite rides!

Also, that rooster chicken was still hanging around ride camp, having dinner with everybody and planting himself front and center stage while a guy named Sam from the Idaho State Penitentiary - where the story of Old Selam the prison horse began in 1900 - told a mesmerizing story about Old Selam and the prison escapees he carried to freedom or almost-freedom, and while the ride awards were going on. 

A few people had tried to catch the rooster, and they got close, but they couldn’t quite get him. Someone said that if someone caught it, someone would take him home. You know how those “someone” rumors start. He’d obviously wandered away from some homes or been dumped there, and he looked quite at home around people and also must have been pretty adept at hiding in the forest.

 

Note The Raven on Willie's back, of course The Raven rode along with us this weekend. It's over 9000 miles for The Raven! 

and top photo by Steve Bradley! 

2025 Old Salem Part II: Cruising the 50 on Day One

August 30 2025

Hillie Willie and I would be riding Day 1's 50-miler with his BF (Best Frenemy) DWA Papillon. Pappy and Connie were entered in the AHA Arabian championship 50, so her goal was to top 10 in that division. She was going to let Pappy move out faster than he usually does, and Willie is long-strided enough and fit enough now that he he and Pappy should easily be able to cruise along together at that speed. It turned out to be Willie’s very comfortable moving-out pace.

Pappy got to lead because he gets really wound up if Willie trots beside him or too close behind him, and Pappy was really wound up at the start anyway because he thinks he’s a racehorse, which he never was, but he could’ve been, and he was out to conquer everybody in front of him. 

But after the first couple of miles, we ended up in this beautiful Bubble (nobody close in front or behind us) that lasted almost the entire first 25 mile loop. It was glorious. The day was glorious. The footing glorious. It was a cool morning, not smoky, the trails were perfect from Wednesday’s rains, and our horses ate up those two-track winding logging roads. We had a blast and got the 25-mile loop done in three hours.

Willie felt fabulous and strong the whole loop. But strangely, when we trotted out for Dick the vet, I thought I saw a slight bobble or two of his head as I glanced sideways, and Dick said there was something going on and he waved Joe the vet over to watch him trot out again. Oh dear! So I trotted Willie out again, and this time he was better, and Dick and Joe could not pinpoint what or where the "something" was, and it wasn’t consistent. Connie saw it, and she said she didn't know what that was. Never seen it before. Dick asked me to come back before we went out on the second loop and I said absolutely, I wouldn’t take my horse back out on a 25 mile loop if he was at all questionable. 

During the vet check I purposely didn’t try to find any stiff muscles, and I didn’t walk him around at all, just let him eat and rest and drink, because if there was anything going on, I wanted it to show up when I trotted him out again. When we went back for a trot out before we left on the second loop, Dick and the vet Robert watched him trot out, and said maybe they saw something and maybe not, but it was much much better, if it was even there at all. Dick said I could go out. I said I’d start out and if I felt anything I’d turn right around.

Well. I tried for 10 miles to find any kind of bad step or anything, and I couldn’t find one. So then I just quit worrying about it, and we had another great loop. We had a Bubble for a while, then lost it when four riders caught up with us and we played leapfrog for a while, and Pappy got all wound up again, and Willie got a bit wound up. I'd switched him to his jaquima halter for this loop, but he wasn’t uncontrollable, so that was good. We kept moving along at a good pace, and finally got a comfortable Bubble again ahead of the riders for the last part of the loop.

I still couldn't feel a single bad step, and Willie felt so strong and powerful. I am so amazed at this horse at how easily he just cruises along, and how he really seems to like it.

We finished that loop in 3 1/2 hours, and because there was a kerfuffle with trail markings, quite a few people ahead of us missed the correct trail unfortunately. We almost did, but we figured it out right away, fortunately. So that’s how we ended up in fifth and sixth places. And honestly, I couldn’t give a hoot about where I finish, I just want to complete my rides with a sound and healthy horse. In the end, nobody remembers where you finish, it doesn’t matter. The healthy sound horse matters.

I was holding my breath for the trot out, but Willie looked perfect. Another 50-mile finish for Hillbillie Willie. 

Go Standardbred!!!

So, during the ride when I thought my horse might end up lame, I thought, just let us get a completion on this ride, and we won’t do anymore this weekend. But on the second loop when my horse felt so strong, and didn’t take a single bad step, I thought we might do an LD on day two and/or day two and three. I would trot out for the vet in the morning and see if he could see anything. And of course if I started and felt anything at all, I'd just turn around back to camp.

Also, there was still that rooster chicken hanging around ridecamp. He made himself right at home front and center stage during the ride meeting and dinner.

**top photo by Steve Bradley** 
We let Pappy get a ways ahead of us before I let Willie go by Steve. He shifted to High Gear Pace to catch Pappy, so yeah that's his racing pace in the photo!