Cover Photo #48

Thursday May 31 2018

I've been waiting for the surprise to hit the fan. 

I knew my photo would be on a cover of Endurance News, I just didn't know which cover or when. It's the next June issue!

It just so happens that my 48th cover photo features my good friend Connie and her horse DWA Saruq (one I've ridden in a couple endurance rides), who was bred by my good friends Helen and Archie of DWA Arabians.

I kept it a secret, and the timing was such that I told Connie her birthday surprise was in the mail. Helen and Archie will be thrilled, too, when they find out. They breed wonderful Arabians, and they have long contributed to our sport of endurance, so it's lovely that one of their home-bred horses is now a cover boy!

A Four-Hand Endurance Ride

Sunday April 27 2014

It's always somewhat exciting (for lack of a more encompassing word) climbing on a new horse for an endurance ride. I've done it throughout my 15-year endurance addiction, since I've never had my own endurance horse. Some horses are easier than others. And we all know how endurance horses are usually much less animated in a training ride (read: more lazy) than they are in an endurance ride.

I got on Quinn, my Tevis horse, (owned by Nance Worman - she offered him to me 5 days before Tevis), for the first time the Friday afternoon before Tevis for 20 minutes and called it good, and I got on him Saturday and rode him 100 miles. He was an easy ride.

Other horses are a little more exciting. Take Bodie. I'd been riding him on training rides for a couple of months, but last year when I got on him for our first 50-mile ride together, he was a bit wound up. In fact, I quote: "Linda (riding Tex with us) said I was riding 4 different horses. It sure felt like I was riding 4 different horses doing 4 different things at the same time. I did manage to stay on." (My second 50-mile ride on him was great.)


And take Connie's horse Saruq, in yesterday's Tough Sucker II. I rode him once in the arena, and he was easy. I rode him on a training ride, and he was easy. I didn't expect him to be 'easy' on an endurance ride, but, Whoa Nelly!

He used to be a racehorse. He still thinks he's a racehorse. He likes to be in front. We rode with Connie on her other horse Finneas. He's THE GRANDSON OF THE BLACK STALLION, in case any of you have never heard this. And he knows it! And he thinks he has to win every ride (including cattle drives). He insists on being in front.

The start was rather, um, exciting, with 2 hot horses wanting to be in front. We found a little pocket at the start, a little space behind horses in front of us, but that didn't matter at the start of this HORSE RACE!!! (so thought Finneas and Saruq). A whole lotta shenanigans were going on beneath us, and I discovered the gloves I was wearing were not particularly good for gripping reins, something which was very important at that stage in the ride. I thought at one time I might lose Saruq there when he threw his head straight up in air and tried to leap to a gallop… but I managed to keep a hold of him.

The rest of the ride, 49.8 miles of it, took a lot of riding. A Lot Of Riding. Saruq knows how to pull. The harder you pull on him, the harder he'll pull and the faster he likes to go. He can bend his neck like a pretzel and still pull a freight train at 35 mph. When you're on a horse that pulls, you want to do the opposite: don't pull - because he'll just pull harder and go faster. That means really using your legs and weight, a lot, and trying to keep your hands light on the reins. Less pulling but more communicating with the reins, but still taking a good grip on them. Not pulling them, but working them a lot. I couldn't use my grip-less gloves, so the reins did a number on my fingers throughout the day.


Connie says, Look ma, one hand! And note Finneas' ears are going back because Saruq is daring to come up beside him
I'd carried the point n' shoot camera along to take pictures during the ride, like I always do, but it wasn't until 15 miles into the ride, when we were heading up the Hallulujah Rim Trail, that I even thought about taking pictures. I hadn't been able to take both my hands off the steering wheel the whole way. Connie wasn't any help as a photographer either - she had to keep both hands on Finneas' reins. We did snap a few photos as the horses were (momentarily) standing still at the lip of the Hallulujah Trail, just before we got off to walk them down the steep hill back onto the flats. I gave the camera to Steph for loop 2, since she was doing a 1-Hand Ride on Jose.


Me on Saruq - notice he is snarling. That's his racetrack snarl. Curls his lip, wrinkles his nose, and bares his teeth.
One good thing about our horses is that they aren't affected by wind, like some spooky Arabs. Which was a good thing, since we were riding in a hurricane.

I've always wanted to ride inside a Dust Devil and we did just that! One came at us, fast, (like 35 miles an hour, the speed the wind was gusting), while we were trotting along the trail into the wind, a wall of howling whirling brown dust (think: Hidalgo), and Saruq puffed up a bit but didn't know what else to do so he just kept trotting! The Dust Devil slammed into us head-on, then batted us to one side, then flung us to the other, then whapped us from behind as it went on, and we came out trotting the other side, having not missed a beat. I closed my eyes as the Devil passed, and I'm sure Saruq did too!

Our horses were monsters all day, making us work to keep them from going too fast. I think I used every muscle in my body, including my hair follicle muscles, because I feel every one of them today. I'm whooped, muscles are sore, face and eyeballs are windburned, fingers are thrashed, dry-crack cuts in my hands everywhere - I love being an endurance rider!

Just whooped

More photos of the ride (including ones of the second loop, taken by Steph on her pleasant, calm, one-hand ride on Jose) are here.
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2014ToughSucker/

Top photo: The Raven had a great ride on Saruq!

Meet the Fab Team 100-Mile Fandango Horses

Steve Bradley photo!

It's less than 5 days (!!) till the Owyhee Fandango 100. Time to meet the Fab Team's Fleet Four-legged Fancy Frolicking Steeds.

Jose: The Deep Thinker

Most of you already know my thoughts and feelings about Jose, The Best Horse Ever. Jose is a highly intelligent being. He notices things. I am positive he appreciates the scenery around him. He looks at things, studies them, ruminates about them. Around the house, up the canyon, out on the trail, he discerns things before I do, and he communicates with me. He'll tell me to come open a gate. He'll tell me right where a tick is biting him (like underneath, in the fold of skin by his sheath, or in an armpit). He'll spy a speck of a coyote far in the distance. I swear that when he stops on top of hills on a ride and studies his surroundings, his GPS synapses are firing in his brain, connecting the dots on a complex mental map. 

I talk to him a lot, explain things, because he just might understand everything I say.

Jose's much more competitive than I am on a ride, but he's very controllable. Last year Jose and I did 720 miles together, and that earned my first AERC vest, ever, for 2nd place in the Northwest featherweight division in mileage. 

Last year Jose did his first 5-day ride in a row at the Owyhee Canyonlands. This will be his first 100 miler. If he finishes, he'll hit 2000 miles.

Jose's owned by Steph, but he's my Heart Horse. I didn't plan it that way… it just happened. : )

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Steve Bradley photo!

August: The Turbinator

Point him down the trail, and he's gone, like he's got turbo rockets in those feet! Carol owned this horse once previously, then she sold him. It was a heartbreaker for her, not to mention we almost beat her senseless because she loved that horse. That's her business, buying and selling horses, so she was just doing her job. But, by a twist of fate last year, she came to own him again. They took about a year to really get to know each other again, and now Carol really loves him. August has become a monster on the trail on the five 50-mile rides they've done together over the last year.

Carol hasn't come close to finding his bottom yet. The Fandango will be his first 100 miler. Carol will hit 6000 miles herself if they complete.

And this time we will totally for sure beat her senseless if she ever tries to sell this horse again.

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Finneas: The Opinionator

Finneas, grandson of the Black Stallion, is not short on self-confidence or ego. He has opinions about EVERYTHING, how fast to go, which way to go, who should be in front on trail (him), where the other horses should go (behind him), when to eat (all the time, unless he's trying to get ahead of somebody on trail). When I told Finneas he'd better shape up because he's doing a 100, said, "I'm going to win! I'm the Grandson of the Black Stallion!! What's a 100?" 

He's an easy keeper, so, much to his chagrin, he's had to go on a diet before the Fandango - locked up and fed small rations of hay so he'll lose some weight. He hates diets. He screams like a girl when he sees me coming in the morning with his breakfast hay.

It will be Finneas' first 100 miler, and Connie's first 100 miler.

Steve Bradley photo!

Stay tuned for the Crick Girls' 100-mile adventure in the Owyhee Fandango 100 on Sunday May 27!

Click the link for a video of Jose's next-to-last training ride for the 100.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUMSb3W0fC4

and follow updates of our ride! at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2012Fandango/

Meet the Owyhee Fandango 100-Mile Team

Saturday May 12 2012

3 girls, 3 horses.

Carol gathered a few quick pictures to give you an idea of who we are:

Connie & Finneas

Carol & August

Me & Jose

I'll flesh out the characters in another blog entry.

Connie's gone till next weekend, so right now I'm keeping two horses fit - Jose and Finneas. We also put Finneas on a diet!!!! He needs to lose about 20 pounds before the ride. As Steph pointed out, it's the heat that will affect him most - he doesn't pulse down fast anyway (probably that appy blood in him, plus he's a black horse), and the more fat he carries, the harder it will be to dissipate that heat in his body. Finneas is not fond of dieting. He can scream like a girl horse when he's starving, which, when he's on a diet, is every time he sees me walk by. I tell him it's for his own good, but he does not believe me!

Connie is having some trouble with counting, as, for the last week, she's been thinking we have 20 days to go till the ride, when it's really only 15 days left!

Steph is considering having a teams competition for the ride, and regardless, we three girls on the crick need a team name. For some reason, the "F" team seems to have come up, from some of the emails Flying between us:

Ferociously FABULOUSLY Far-freaking-out FAMOUSLY FIT 'n FABULOUS FEMME FATALES on Flying horses…

and right now Fiiineas is Fabulously Fit and Fabulously Fat (and Fabulously opinionated)

And don't any of you add "funky" and "flatulent"!

Maybe readers will have some better suggestions than "Team F" … how about it? 

Suggestion anybody?

P.S. I wish I could say I did the artwork, but Carol found them online! They fit us each so well, don't you think?

The Big One Hundred

Sunday May 6 2012

Let me preface this by saying, It Was Not My Idea.

I was ready and able to help on the 100-mile day at our upcoming 3 day Owyhee Fandango at the end of May. And I was ready to help crew for Carol and Connie.

Carol hasn't done a 100 since 2007. If she finishes, she'll get her 6000 miles! It will be her horse August's first 100. Connie has never done a 100, nor has her horse Finneas, but they both have the gas and gumption to git 'er done.

Connie and Carol have been sending psyching-up-encouragement emails to each other. Connie has a little good luck present for Carol. I've been sending both of them a few inspirational emails, such as, 

"The Moon Phase on 27 May, 100-mile ride day, will be waxing crescent (36% illuminated), which in this desert will be bright enough so you can see to comfortably pick your nose."

Today, Steph sez, "Why don't you wear the helmet cam, and ride Jose on the hundred with them?"

WHA……..?!?!!?!?!??!?!??!?!?!??!?!

I've been quite content to do 50's on Jose. To some 100-mile gurus, that's not 'real endurance' and I'm a wimp. I'm here to say that I am not a wimp, but you can call me lazy, if you must. To me, 50 miles is just dandy - I get good pleasure and exercise (and sometimes sore) from 50-mile rides (multi-days are my favorites), and I have time to post pictures and report at the end of the day. I haven't done a 100 since 2009. Jose's never done a 100. If Jose completes, he'll get his 2000 miles.  

Oh dear! I was cruising through life all happy and lazy, taking on little challenges like 50 mile rides now and then, with nothing piled on and spilling over my plate to worry about. Now I have a LOT to chew on. Now I must begin a major mind shift. I have to think about things like, how to optimally train Jose? He's fit, having done 2 50's this month, 3 weeks apart, but… now what? a few short rides? a long ride? both? a lot of short rides? Walking? Trotting in sand? Hills? What am I going to eat? I don't like to eat on 100's, but I must. It'll take me weeks to figure out what to eat! I better start cooking many things now, so that I have a variety to choose from! What to pack for the vet checks - some of them will be out-vet checks. In fact 3 out vet checks; 2 of them will be in different places, so I'll have to pack 2 different bags for each hold (and double the goodies in one vet check bag). What to put in the bags for me, and what for Jose?? Jose will need a variety of grain and hay and a change of saddle pads and cinch and grooming brushes and brushing boots and extra horse Easyboots and a blanket in case it's cool or wet or windy, and a variety of food and frozen water and gatorade and Starbucks coffee drinks and a change of clothes and bandaids and Ibuprofen for me… Do we (Jose and I) each need a bag at each vet check, and what, now I have to pack 4 bags?? What about the weather - will it be comfortable, or will it be hot? Too hot? What if it's too hot?? Ohmigod what if there are thunderstorms???? And now I have to look at maps! Now I have to charge lots of batteries for the helmet cam… and decide which vet bags to pack them in and decide on what 8 hours of footage to shoot. And what about that starting time - 5:30 AM!!! I don't like that side of the morning!

Steve Bradley photo!

On the other hand, I'll get to make a special video of a 100-mile ride, of a special place (the Owyhee desert) with Big Things on the horizon, and hopefully not the sunrise 24 hours later! I will discover one hundred new ways to admire the Owyhee desert. I will soon share a new experience with Jose Viola.

And, a big motivator is that I'll now be in on the little prezzies Connie is creating. My prezzie for the three of us will be beads for our horses' manes.

Daily emails have begun flying. Here is Connie's from today:

we are strong , fit , smart gorgeous and ready , and have excellent crew and steeds . 

I may have to shave my legs and paint my nails.

and 

so 21 days and counting? steeds and gals stupendous fabulous ,willing and ready for anything. 

I have 21 days to psyche myself up! Don't know if I'll inform Jose about it yet or not. : ) 

Let the psyching begin!

[If you missed them, videos that I made of our Tough Sucker I ride, and videos Steph made of the Tough Sucker II ride are here on Endurance.net.]

(And, if plans change and I need to help during the 100 miler, instead of ride, it's because I need to help, NOT because I am chicken or wimpy or lazy.)