Sunday April 17 2011
...And everything in it to go to a 1-day endurance ride 10 miles down the road. It's the Owyhee Tough Sucker endurance ride, the first of the season. Literally, we could have ridden our 4 horses to basecamp on Friday, but we hauled them over - horse in one trailer, and things in the other.
You just don't know what all you'll need, so you might as well take everything. I take as much stuff to a one-day ride 10 miles down the road as I do to a 4-day ride halfway across the country!
Carol hauled her horse Justy, and our three horses Rhett, Mac, and Jose, in her trailer down to basecamp at Regina's old place, and we hauled our trailer full of stuff - grass hay, grass-alfalfa hay, oats, senior, beet pulp, supplements, apples, carrots, apple crunch treats, buckets, blankets (6 - because what if it rained overnight and the blankets got wet, and we needed more during the ride?), easyboot gloves, extra easyboot gloves, hoofpicks and hammers (to put the gloves on), brushing boots, saddles, saddle pads (and an extra one), bridles, extra sidepull for Jose, girths - and whatever else I'm forgetting to mention.
And, not to mention the huge bag of clothes and jackets I took along. I've had Jacket Angst ever since I lost my favorite riding jacket on our Wild Horse Butte training ride. I'm not emotionally attached to it, but it was just the perfect all-weather jacket - for warm weather, cool, cold, wind, rain, and snow. Now I carried about 10 jackets or vests to try to match that one jacket's efficiency (and still haven't succeeded in finding the right combo).
Moisture-heavy clouds and showers danced all around basecamp while rigs pulled in during the afternoon and evening, and Dr Robert Washington vetted horses in; but it never did rain. Weather was expected to be much the same tomorrow - overcast, chance of showers, but not so hot, and with enough of a breeze to keep the dreaded gnats away.
I'd be riding my pal Jose. It was looking to be the perfect day for our first Owyhee spring endurance ride.
It's amazing how much STUFF goes into endurance riding.
ReplyDeleteI am so smug about how tight I packed for High Desert. I will continue to be smug until I get unexpected weather and freeze/bake in the wrong clothes with the wrong gear, then I will return to wildly overpacking. ;)
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of stuff to be taken care of before a ride isn't there? My one question is what do you do when nature calls. I don't think I've ever taken a ride long enough to have to worry about this problem.
ReplyDeleteSo, did you forget anything? I always forget something when I pack!
ReplyDeleteEndurance Granny, If ya gotta go, ya just stop and go! hopefully with enough space between you and other riders where they don't pop up over the hill at the wrong moment. and if they do, hopefully they don't have to look!
ReplyDeleteShirley, this time I didn't forget anything but in all those clothes I couldn't find the vest I wanted! turned out I'd left it right by Jose on the bumper, DUH, and didn't need it anyway. : )
And Funder, wildly overpacking is highly underrated : )
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you mentioned easyboot gloves. I am wanting some hoof boots this year for my 16.3 hand heavyweight horse, is that the type you would recommend?
Also, I am beginning to rewrite a middle grade novel I wrote a number of years ago and in it the protagonist is training for an endurance ride. Any great training books you would suggest that I could read for research?
Thanks.
Hey, I found another blogger who lives in southern Idaho:
ReplyDeletehttp://knottypineranch.blogspot.com/
Sounds like quite a project, just getting to the ride. I'll be interested in reading the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteEndurance sounds like it would be so much fun. Beautiful pictures.
ReplyDelete