City of Rocks: Year 9 on the way to Decade Team

 

June 10 2025

Planning a ride season nowadays is pretty much a crap shoot, with work and other commitments and the West now always prone to exploding in fire and changing your plans for you. 

My main Endurance goals for Hillbillie Willie and me are to have fun and maybe, just maybe achieve Decade Team, which is equine and rider teams who completed at least one 50-mile+ endurance ride each year for 10 years. This is year nine for Team Hillbillie Willie and Me. 

We rode and finished a 25-miler at Eagle Canyon in April, but that is one hard hilly ride, and Willie is not a hill horse, so I wasn’t about to attempt a 50 there for his first ride of the season. It was a good hard training ride for him.

So along came the 3-day City of Rocks in Almo, Idaho, a ride we have put on, or helped put on, the last 15 years. This year I’d shoot days 1 and 2, and Cat would shoot day 3 so Willie and I could attempt a 50. 

Heat, heat, heat, was in the forecast, though Day 3 was the kindest of them all. A small chance of thunderstorms were in the forecast, which I either prayed wouldn’t happen or just pretended they weren’t going to happen. City of Rocks can have some doozy storms on those hot summer days (oh, wait, it’s not even summer yet.) and boy am I scared of lightning.

I was hoping we’d find someone to ride with. While Willie can go alone or in company, and he appears to enjoy the 25 milers solo, I didn’t think he’d much like blazing 50 miles of the hot trails alone. We ended up starting out with Danielle and Huey, and companionably rode with them the entire day. Willie pretty much instantly makes best friends anybody he rides with and he of course thought Huey the Quarter horse was the Bomb.

Highlights of the ride:


Only 7 of us started, including the famous Christoph Schork, riding GE Haatra for her third day in a row, and we got to ride with them for the first 15 miles or so of loop 1. That a was a first for me!


The Arrowleaf Balsamroot/Mules Ears were out of control this year


We leap-frogged throughout the day with Tricia and Bentley. 
 

 

Wait… we’re approaching our pristine spring water trough at 7500’ at Indian grove where our horses have climbed and climbed and are sweating bigly and need a drink here… what is this!

 
It’s one of the nearby campers! She has found the perfect place to read her book in an inner tube in her bikini! 

She kindly got out and removed the inner tube because our beasts did *not* want to drink while she was in there!


On the first part of the 12.5-mile loop three (which was a repeat of loop two), Huey was leading the way along a single track beside a small creek, when we all heard a strange but familiar honk… both horses spooked and stopped because a baby sandhill crane was in the trail ahead and mama crane was honking startled and frantic! We stopped and watched while the baby ran to the creek to the left (good) but mama ran off to the right (not good), then back and forth across the trail as if she’d lost her baby. We tried to walk on past, but mama kept going further away. Finally when she bolted to the right again, we scooted past her, hollering apologies over our shoulder.

With five miles or so left to the finish, along this long fun two track road in the park, Danielle asked Huey if he wanted to canter. Canter he did, and Willie broke into a canter. He won’t usually hold it too long before he shifts to a pace (which he did), but as long as it’s smooth, I let him do it. Then Danielle says, you want to gallop? And Huey broke into a gallop, and Willie broke into a gallop, and he galloped alongside Huey for an exhilarating quarter of a mile, wheeeeee! I’d never galloped that long or fast on Willie, and I was so proud of him for holding that gait for so long! Willie was pretty proud of himself too. Tricia and Bentley were in sight ahead of us, and Danielle hollered, “WE’RE GOING TO CATCH YOU! BETTER PICK IT UP!” (They heard us yelling but didn’t know what we said.) And we giggled and slowed our horses down. 

As we were walking back along the park road to the finish (Willie was practicing his fast walk!), a rattlesnake suddenly slithered across the trail in front of us. Danger danger! Willie saw it and planted himself. He knew it wasn’t a good snake! We let it slide on off the trail before we moved onward. Successful snake encounter!


It was a hot day, and while Willie felt great all day, his pulse did run 10+ beats higher than it normally does in a ride (I ride with a heart rate monitor). It took him several minutes to pulse down at each vet check and the finish, even though each time we walked in the last mile or three miles and I sponged him down.

At one lunch break where he just nibbled (he’s never a voracious eater) when I sponged him off, his pulse dropped those 10 beats. He didn’t drink well from water troughs on the trail, but at one of the small creek crossings with the teeniest puddles to siphon from, he took a good drink. 

Willie’s CRI was 60-72 ten minutes after his finish, so we didn’t show for BC. But the rest of him looked great, and we finished our 50…

Year nine on the way to Decade Team!

My First Endurance Ride with my New Shoulder and my "New" Horse!

June 5 2021

Sure, I already had two shoulders, and I've already partnered with the Standardbred Hillbillie Willie to ride some 765 AERC miles over the last 5 years, but Day 3 50-miler at the City of Rocks Pioneer endurance ride in south-central Idaho marked my first 50-mile ride since my Hot Mess of a shoulder was repaired 6 months ago, and my first ride owning Hillbillie Willie!

Due to a change in life circumstances for all of us on the Crick, and a great big heart, Steph Teeter gave me Hillbillie Willie in April.

Finishing that 50 on Saturday was enough to make a grown man cry!

Hillbillie Willie: City of Rocks...Dynamite...Ninja Attack

June 26 2020

I rode a lit stick of dynamite for 6 miles.

Well, one could hardly blame him for being a hot crackling explosive. City of Rocks was Standardbred Hillbillie Willie’s first endurance ride of the season - his last one was last October.

Rooting his head (and the bit) up and yanking it down and jerking it to the sides… no amount of (exhausting) leg-leg-leg or rein jiggling or one-rein pressure or rein wrestling or pleading got him to stop doing that for the first 6 miles of trail in the 50-mile ride. Giving him a loose rein would have put him 5 minutes ahead of the front runners even though we started 10 minutes late. 

It was Day 3 of City of Rocks in Almo, Idaho. Willie did all 3 days last year, but this year just one day was best for him, since he’d been away from endurance so long and wasn’t as fit at this point as last year, and this is a tough ride, and he’d be going hard as usual, and wanting to go faster than I wanted him to.

Willie rode with his mentor, Master Yoda Jack (and Deb), and his former ranch mate Smokey (formerly Steph’s but now Nance’s horse). 

I knew they’d set the perfect pace for and match strides well with Willie, because those two rode Day 1 together. Jack’s always the consummate professional, always calm and steady, a good influence on Young Jedi Willie. Of course, Willie ignored him for the first 6 miles because his former racehorse memories and instincts were in the forefront of his imagination, even though most of the other horses and riders were far out of our sight. Willie plumb wore me out. I could put him in front, in the middle, or in back of our group, and for 6 miles I got yank, pull, root, head toss, mouth open or bit chomp.

But somewhere near the border of Utah when we turned a corner onto the Boise-Kelton Stage Route, heading for the stage station ruins and the intersection of the California Trail in City of Rocks National Reserve park, 

Willie transformed into the endurance horse I know, settled down and moved along at a steady long trot, loose rein, ears forward and relaxed. (Whew!) The three compatriots cruised the two 25-mile loops together through the park, climbing on loop 2 to 7500 feet at Indian Grove.

All was smooth sailing… except for the lunch break, when I was waiting to go back out with Deb and Nance, and I tried mounting Willie by stepping up onto an almost-empty water tub… which collapsed into Willie (i.e. attacked him, dousing both of us with the water left in it), and I fell into him (resembling an attacking Ninja warrior) and scared the bejeezus out of him, and he panicked and flew backwards, and I kept holding onto his rein hoping he’d stop and recognize me for the clumsy human I was, but he didn’t, and he kept backing and dragging me face-first in the dirt, and we created a huge dust cloud and attracted a cluster of shocked people, and finally I had to let go, and ouch my kneecaps hurt because that’s what I’d landed on first, and when I plowed to a stop and lifted up my head out of the dirt and looked at Willie, he was 15 feet away from me snorting, head down with HYUGE eyes, wondering, Why did you attack me? Brian picked me up out of the dust and humiliation, then I had to approach and comfort Willie and assure him that it wasn’t intentional and I hadn’t really attacked him! (Oh, I see a cartoon in this.)

And then all was well for the rest of the day… except my kneecaps were bruised and it took two washings afterwards to get the dirt/mud out of my tights.

Hillbillie Willie's City of Rocks Endurance Ride: Day 3

July 6 2019

Hillbillie Willie's quest for all 3 days/155 miles at City of Rocks - his first 3-day ride!

Day 1 and Day 2 down, one more to go!

Day 3's 50 mile ride was a repeat of Day 2's (minus a little 5 mile loop): a loop in the desert towards Utah and along the Boise Kelton Stage Route, and into City of Rocks National Reserve along the California Trail. Loop 2 was up into the park to a high point of 7500' and heading back down in a big scenic park loop.

Today Willie and Jack were joined by Fancy (and Nance) again, and Belesema Anna and Chris. It was another beautiful cool day and the horses did great. Willie never missed a beat, never flagged, never was uninterested or unenthused. He really loved going down the trails, and it seemed so effortless for him.

When the four of us crossed the finish line together, holding hands, Willie felt just fabulous. He pulsed in, at the end of 3 days and 155 miles, with a pulse of 44. 44! 

My final post summed it up: Oh. My. Gawd. I LOVE THIS HORSE!

A few pix from the day:

On the Boise Kelton stage route, Twin Sisters peeking over the horizon.

Headed for Twin Sisters on the California Trail, one of the main roads through the park.

A pair of our heroes, Dave Rabe and Cheys Cocamoe Joe

Lunch time in camp! Willie loves to eat. He's not a voracious eater, but he eats the whole time.

Heading up into the park

One of my favorite trails, Geowatt

Nearing the high point at 7500'

Deb and Jack… yes, it was a wee bit chilly at times up high (but felt great)

Descending one of the prettiest trails, which we refer to lovingly as Rat Poo trail because of all the packrat nests in some of the rock cliff clefts

Cat Cook took this of the eight of us at the finish - Willie was absolutely amazing, it was one of my most favorite rides ever!

More stories and ride photos at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019CityOfRocks/

Hillbillie Willie's City of Rocks Endurance Ride: Day 2

is this a good lookin' horse or what!

June 30 2019

Hillbillie Willie's quest for all 3 days/155 miles at City of Rocks - his first 3-day ride!

Willie finished up his 50 miles of Day 1 at City of Rocks with no problem. He felt fine the morning of Day 2, and was happy to get saddled up again (and eat while he was doing it - he loves to eat at rides!). OK, here we go on Day 2's 55 mile ride!


Admiring our shadows on loop 1, out on the desert toward Emigrant canyon before heading into City of Rocks National Reserve and the California Trail.


We are on the old historic Boise-Kelton stage route. The landmark Twin Sisters granite spires are just peeking up over the hills on the right.


Enjoying a fresh spring water trough; Twin Sisters on the very left


Our escorts Deb and Jack. Just below the Twin Sisters spires, you can see the remains of the old stage stop


Just one of the bazillion pretty trail shots on loop 2 in the National Reserve park


Just after we reached the high point on the mountain at 7500 feet, a rather spectacular cold front/storm blew in. Clouds must have been racing through the pass and down into the park valley at 50 mph. We were somewhat sheltered by the mountain we were on. Fortunately I had enough layers with me to put on and stay warm, though I sure coulda used a pair of gloves for a while. The horses did great in the cold!


We were joined today by Nance and Fancy. We all 3 finished together - horses did just fabulously, and Willie felt terrific.

2 days down - one more to go!

More stories and ride photos at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019CityOfRocks/

Hillbillie Willie Takes on City of Rocks: Pre-Ride Prep

Sunday June 16 2019

It was Steph who suggested I try riding her horse Hillbillie Willie, the off-the-track Standardbred, in all 3 days of 50's at City of Rocks Pioneer endurance ride on June 6-8 near Almo, Idaho. It's takes place in and around City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park, and it's the first 'leg' of the Idaho IronHorse 'triple crown', the other 2 being the 3 days of the Top O' The World Pioneer in July near Spencer and the e-day October Autumn Sun near Gooding.

What a great challenge! Willie is only 7; it's only his third year of endurance riding. Could he do three days in a row?

During his first year, he finished 5 out of 6 50-mile rides - his one pull resulted from bruised feet during a ride. That's when we learned that he didn't have real tough feet (is that a Standardbred thing? a racehorse thing? just a Willie thing?) and he needed pads. End of that year he was AERC's high mileage Standardbred, presented by the United States Trotting Association in partnership with the AERC. He also finished 2 back-to-back 50's at the incomparable Moab Pioneer ride at the end of the season.

Willie finished all 3 of his 3 rides last year (one 25, two 50s); this year he'd completed April's Tough Sucker 50 before City of Rocks.

I've spent the last year working on calming and slowing him down, getting him off the bit, collecting, going down the trail with his head lowered and relaxed, and ingraining a steady (not racy) trot. Though I can fake it, I'm always a little nervous at the start of his rides, because I don't want him to get nervous and wound up. It wastes a lot of energy, and it can be rough to ride. At City of Rocks, whether we did 1 or 2 or 3 days, I just wanted him to have calm starts. I wanted one riding partner that could match his big stride and who would be a good mentor, and I hoped he could ride much of it on a loose rein. And I didn't think ahead to doing all 3 days; we just went vet check to vet check.

Pre-Ride highlights:

Willie says hi to his pals and mentors, whom we rode with in this year's Tough Sucker: Cousin Hawk (JAC Winterhawk - 2500 miles and 6 BCs) the gray, and Uncle Mal (Fire Mtn Malabar - 7300 miles and 48 BCs) the bay

Willie meets the famous Dave Rabe (72,000 miles) and his amazing grays, White Cloud (10,000 miles), Rushcreek Okay (8800 miles), and Chey's Cocamoe Joe (6400 miles)

Willie and Jose play in the stinky mud pond, after which I took Willie to vet in and didn't clean him off for Jessica the vet. She loved him anyway.

Willie (r) meets new Standardbred pal Sego and Kimi Linnell!

More photo stories to come, and more ride photos & stories at

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019CityOfRocks/

City of Rocks: Dudley's Pillow Fight

Wednesday June 15 2016

Some races people compete in endurance for the first place prizes. At the 3-day City of Rocks endurance ride, it was all about the Turtle pillows, for the last place finishers in each ride, made and donated by Tonya Stroud.

Connie and I planned to ride drag on Day 2's 50 miler, guaranteeing at least one of us a Turtle pillow. We'd be riding the two big (um… plump) black horses, Finneas (grandson of the Black Stallion) and Dudley (Belesemo Dude), pulling ribbons at Castle Rocks State park. Doing so would save us a day's worth of work on the after-ride cleanup/trail hiking/unmarking. Besides, Dudley is not the fastest horse in the barn, and Finneas does not need to be the fastest horse in the barn, so the two pasture buddies could do a more leisurely 50 mile ride while clocking in some work hours.

So on Day 2, the four of us started well after all the 50's, giving one gal, whom we knew would be riding her green horse slower, a good head start.

We even let the racing mules on the LD get out ahead of us before we hit the trail in earnest (mostly at a walk, then connie forgot her goggles and we had to go back, then Finneas was naughty so Connie got off to walk a while, etc), burning up the trail. Not.

Our trail took us on a loop through City of Rocks National Reserve, before heading down a dirt road to Castle Rocks State park. There we'd do a loop through the park once, stop for a vet check, then do the loop a second time (pulling ribbons) before retracing our trail through the Reserve back to camp and the finish.

We thought we'd so cleverly timed our departure and pace, thinking, once we climbed the park road, that we could finally pick up a bit of speed, when, only 5 or so miles out of camp, we came across Kathy of the Twisted Sisters on the 50 mile ride. Robert the vet was holding her horse while she replaced a shoe the gelding had thrown.

Dang! That threw a little monkey wrench in our plans. Now we'd have to either wait for Kathy here, or at the vet check some 20 miles hence. We did a little of both: we slowed our pace back to a walk (we had a long downhill stretch for a while anyway), then after some trotting along nice single track and two-track trails, we took our time at a water stop at Circle Creek overview. 

We happened to encounter a rattlesnake here - keep this incident in mind for later. But no sign of Kathy yet. Hmmm. We did a bunch more walking until we hit the road to Castle Rocks… still no sign of Kathy behind us. Hmmm. We walked and trotted the 6 miles of dirt road, always looking back, and pretty sure we still hadn't seen a speck of Kathy anywhere behind us. Hmmm. Should we zoom on to Castle Rocks, or should we putz some more? Dudley was mighty spooky on parts of this road, even when he was following Finneas. *I* couldn't see any horse-eating things, but he sure thought he could.

When we finally arrived at Castle Rocks and passed through where the vet check was, we got word that Kathy had just called the ride manager and said she had pulled and was walking home because her horse had thrown another shoe. What!? That put us way behind as turtles on the 50. (And, we found out later, Kathy had encounters with not only the 1 rattlesnake we saw, but 3 more, almost stepping on one, that just put her over the edge because she's terrified of rattlesnakes.)

No worries, we'd pick up the pace in the park. However, that's when, during the climb to near 7000 feet, it got hot and breeze-less and Finneas needed a break (which Dudley used to eat, because he always needs eating breaks). Connie got off to walk much of the uphill. Downhill from the high point was a beautiful meadow redolent with flowers and more grass (good for eating) which we led the boys down.

I photobombed Dudley! He is not impressed

We were the last last last two into the vet check. My vet bag had already gone back to camp without me, but Finneas was happy to share his extra food with starving Dudley. 

We stuffed our pockets with food, and, with bags to collect ribbons, we headed out on the repeat loop of Castle Rocks, pulling the ribbons as we went along. On the places where we could trot, we tried to leap-frog each other, pulling every next ribbon, but any time I moved Dudley in front of Finneas, ohmigod, The Dude turned into a smart-ass spooky-balky-butt worse-than-a-green-2-year-old explosive bomb. 

Dudley was absolutely positive there was some killer horse-eating something in the bushes on both sides of him. At least he wouldn't spook too far to either side, because one side was just as scary as the next, and the very center of the trail was safest. Not to mention Finneas got mad any time Dudley was ahead of him, because Finneas always has to WIN. So Connie and Finneas pulled every second ribbon, and Dudley and I stayed behind her and pulled the ones they left. It's fun trotting by and grabbing ribbons, not slowing down. This doesn't work if they are pinned to sticker-y bushes though!

The skies had clouded over and a little breeze came up, so we were pleasantly cool. The boys got to eat plenty of grass as we walked down the rocky meadow pulling the ribbons and stakes marking the path.

By the time we got back to the vet check spot, all was quiet and deserted but for the bucket of horse feed I'd stashed for the boys to snack on. 

Then with some 18 miles or so back to camp, and with some pretty fresh horses, we boogied back down the road to the Reserve, and retraced our trails in the park there. Here Dudley led approximately 1 mile. He was still spooky, but it was uphill, and since Dudley was huffing and puffing away, it was too hard to spook big. So take note we followed Connie and Finneas approximately 49 miles of the ride.

cheese!

Time was ticking down. It was going to be very close making it back to camp by 6:30 PM. The last couple of miles in the park are on the single track Equestrian Trail winding through a pinyon and juniper forest. Finneas was flying along in the lead, when suddenly around the corner, I saw ahead of me a flash of white and Finneas whirling an instant 180 degrees to face me and Dudley. Connie managed to stay on, and, athletically and skillfilly, Finneas did not whirl into the barbed wire fence right next to him.

"Holy ***!" Connie yelled. "A big horn sheep!!!!!" We all watched the startled big horn male trot up the hill among the trees. We did not know there were big horn sheep in the park!

But The Dude knew. THAT must be what he'd been spooking from all day, knowing there was one big horn sheep in the whole of the park that was bound to jump out in front of us some day, somewhere. Either that or a moose (a mama and baby were seen by some riders last year in the park), or a cougar (days earlier, Gretchen and Mickie had ridden by the head of a fawn. Just the head. Meow!).

But we didn't have time to slow down, so we bombed on down the trail again, ever more alert for any more surprises, but the trail was clear, and we raced homeward. Crossing the finish line, at the last second Connie yanked Finneas back so Dudley's nose crossed first, thereby securing the coveted Turtle Pillow award (don't tell Finneas he didn't win!). But I got to wear Connie's flower headband from Walmart for the evening, so I reckon that was a pretty fair trade.

We had arrived in camp right at 6:30 on the dot. A good ride was had by us all, and The Dude had a good night's sleep.

*The footnote is that after Twisted Sister Kathy had a rough day 1, helping a fellow rider through a crash-and-concussion incident on the 50, then pulling on day 2's 50 after 2 lost shoes, a lost easy boot, and 4 unnerving rattlesnake encounters, she finished day 3 on the 25 on her horse and got a well-deserved Turtle Pillow!

You can enjoy more ride photos and stories of City of Rocks here at this link.

The Dude ROCKS

June 10 2015

He's a gorgeous beast. He's lazy, he's explosive, he's steady, he's naughty, he's innocent, he's always hungry… you name it, at some point, Dudley is it.

I rode Day 1 on Dudley at City of Rocks with his pals Carol and August, and Steph and Jose. 50 miles over scenic City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park trails, from 5700' to 7500'. (We missed seeing a moose and baby on trail… though that was probably a good thing!). It was Dudley's first 50 mile completion this season.


He had day 2 off, then I rode him again Day 3 with Steph and Jose. 50 miles over scenic and historic City of Rocks trails - following the old California Trail and Emigrant Trail, where hundreds of thousands had gone before him a century and a half ago.

We dodged thunderstorms (I wasn't worried this time because I was studying how the cells were moving!),

and Dudley ate our way through corridors of arrowleaf balsamroot, and down the grassy Boxtop trail.


It was Dudley's first almost back-to-back two days of 50's - and of course he carried The Raven with him.


And, yes, he was tired after his 100 miles, and my, is he looking ripped now!

The Dude Rocks!