September 4 2026
I’d planned to ride Willie on all 3 days of LDs at the Old Selam Pioneer ride. It’s still one of mine and Willie’s favorite rides ever, in the Boise National Forest, on fabulous trails of rolling soft logging roads.
We didn’t train *super* hard ahead of time, but Willie was plenty fit enough for LDs, and we’d have fun riding all 3 days. Horses get better and stronger on the third day in a row, right?
After I vetted in on Thursday for Day 1, my Endurance mentor/hero Suzy Hayes, said, “Don’t you want to ride the 50 on Day 1 with me and Tru? We won’t be going fast and we won’t be going slow.”
First I laughed. Willie and I got our 50 in for the year at City of Rocks. But once it got in my head, it didn’t go away. I’ve never ever gotten to ride with Suzy and finally after all these years, here was the opportunity! This is Suzy Hayes, you know, over 28,000 miles, with one horse in the Hall of Fame in 2011, Kootenai Zizzero, and Pard’ners Award with the same horse in 2007, winner of the Big Horn 100 in 2020 just six weeks after a horse wreck where she broke 10 ribs, fractured two vertebrae, punctured a lung and lacerated her liver, and spent five days in the ICU and 10 more days in the hospital. Yes, that Suzy Hayes! Didn’t take me long to change my mind and my plans, and I told Willie about it, and he was all in. (After an extra bucket of carrots.)
The rather unusual forecast for Old Selam this year was so thrilling, cooler weather and chances of rain!
I don’t like saddling up in the rain - it rained at night - but I didn’t have to. The rain let up when I woke early to get ready, and we carried rain jackets for the ride.
Trail for the 50s opened at 7 AM, and Suzy and I let everyone go ahead of us. Tru is a rescue horse for Suzy, and she’s bringing him along carefully. There’s always something to learn, from each other, and Suzy and Tru are still in this phase. He wasn’t super experienced, with only 2 completed 50s and a CTR under his girth.
I was sure hoping Willie was going to set a good example for him, with a calm start. He was wound up as we left camp, but when he saw that Tru wasn’t interested in shenanigans, they both started down the trail trotting like the professionals they could be.
The two moved through the Boise forest, up and down the rolling foothills on the soft two-track logging roads, at times riding above the clouds/fog over the valley, keeping our eyes peeled for moose (we saw none). Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn’t. Suzy has always been generous with any kind of endurance answers to questions you might ask. She’s been particularly helpful to me and Willie about feeding.
Tru mostly set the pace, but Willie took the lead now and then. He always likes to size up his companions. Are they nice? Will they maybe let him be the boss? He’ll trot close beside and turn his head to his companion, and back off if he or she says so, but Tru kind of ignored Willie, so Willie didn’t have to prove anything. (Or have anything proved to him.)
Only 10 started the 50, and we started and stayed in the back, only passing Jamethiel and her mare Tarma on the first loop, though we were moving steadily along.
Neither of our horses drank on the first 25-mile loop, but it was a cool morning (YAY!!!), and they pulsed down as soon as they came into camp for the hour hold.
Loop two was a bit slower, and we rode much of it with Shayne from Montana and her horse Major Macs Dragon. Rain started in the middle of the second loop, but it just felt good, and the green forest smelled good and looked so happy. The ground soaked up the rain so well (and it had soaked up the previous two nights’ rains) there was only one place that was getting a little slick as we came into camp for the finish.
Alas, Tru was lame in the hind end at his final trot-out, and later Suzy and vet Robert saw an unusual lump on his hock which will need investigating. Willie ended up with the turtle award, a nice little shot glass which he noted would not hold a carrot. No matter, he got plenty when he was finished!
We did show for Best Condition, because we could (though I’m a featherweight, so not a big chance, and the winner, Sanoma Blakeley, was an hour ahead of us), and because I really like the vet to watch Willie trot out an hour later, to see how he *really* looks. If the vet sees something, I want to know. Willie sometimes trots out with what vet Robert calls a “Standardbred Wiggle”, and Connie got a video of us, so I know what he’s talking about!
Willie was tired enough that we decided to sit out Day 2’s LD ride. So he got to hang out with his two buddies, DWA Barack (our weekend babysitter) and DWA Papillon, who would be doing the 100 with Connie on day 3!
Top photo by Steve Bradley!
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