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!

Wet, Wintry, Windy, Wonderful

Saturday November 3 2014

I like a good cold rain while riding on a horse who possibly has a stick of lit dynamite up his butt as much as the next person (oh - wait - I am the only person I know who likes the good cold rain while riding, though I could do without the stick-of-lit-dynamite-up-his-butt part), but the thought of waking up before dawn with the cold rain already falling, and going out and saddling up in the rain for a 90%-chance-of-rain-and-45*-and-wind day is a bit daunting, even for me.

But when my alarm went off for the Owyhee Hallowed Weenies, the last ride of the season, and it wasn't raining yet, I was pretty happy. And when Carol and August, and Dudley and I found a bubble at the start (and in fact, the entire day - it was like we were the only ones out on a 50-mile training ride), with no riders in sight ahead of us or behind us, all day, and Dudley never had a stick of dynamite in him, it turned into an awesome ride.


It was an awesome ride, even when, middle of the first 15-mile loop, I decided to put on my rain jacket right before the rain started coming down, and I reached in my saddle bag and pulled out… my rain pants.

Hmm.

I tried sticking my arms in the pant legs - no go. So I knotted the pants around my neck like an unfashionable rubber scarf for a while, till Carol remembered she had an extra raincoat with her. (Note to self: spray paint your black rain pants bright orange, so you don't get them confused with your black raincoat).


It was an awesome ride, even in the rain, that continued all day, and the cold, which was only mild at 44*, and the wind, which you were shielded against with your proper raincoat. It was an awesome weather day for a horse and rider who don't do so well riding in hot weather (Dudley and me).

It was an awesome ride, because the Raven, dressed as a cardinal for Halloween, rode along as usual!


It was an awesome ride, because it was Dudley's fourth 50-mile ride of the year, an awesome accomplishment for the big beast I fondly call, among other things, a Recovering Obesaholic. He's come a long way and accomplished a lot this year.


He'll keep up the diet and the exercise this winter (in between his Trick Training) and aim for an even better endurance season next year!


For a ride recap, and results and more photos, see
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2014OwyheeHallowedWeenies/

'Toons: Owyhee Hallowed Weenies Day 2

Friday November 12 2010









For the worded story of the ride, see
Hula Hula Hula!

Hula Hula Hula!

Sunday October 31 2010

Hula Dancers (Connie and me, Finneas and Jose - who pinch-danced for Dudley, and another girl and her horse), Argentinean Gauchos (Steph and John), Sponge Bob Square Pantses, a Sheep who kept shedding wool along the trail, a Blue Tiger, a Man in a Black Cape, a Peacock, a couple of Ballerinas in Tutus, a Real Wild West Cowboy and Cowgirl...


Those were some of the Hallowed Weenies riding along the Utter Disaster Trail/Oregon Trail on Day Two of the Owyhee Hallowed Weenies endurance ride. A lone survivor of the Utter Disaster bravely took pulses at the vet checks, and Daisy Mae helped with the timing.


We of the Pickett Creek Brigade were late getting started on the trail again - almost 30 minutes late today. "Are you guys going or not!?" roared Regina the ride manager. We scuttled out onto the trail, hula skirts and Argentinean dreadlocks flapping in the wind.

The Gauchos and Hula Dancers split up, so our horses would be more settled today. Jose was so light in his bridle this morning (though we went along at a faster clip more to his suiting), that after loop 1, much to his delight, he went in a sidepull the rest of the day.


"HULA HULA!" I screamed, whenever we spotted anybody on horseback. We frightened a few horses, who had apparently never seen Hula Dancing Horses and riders before. (Go figure!) Naomi Preston's Karlady pinned her ears at such foolishness when she met us later in the day.


Blue storm clouds and silver virgae dramatized the morning skies and snow showers flirted with the Owyhee mountains, but we dodged the rain all day. We followed a new trail along an impressive rim overlooking some more fantastic Owyhee Badlands,

with Castle Butte looming purple in the east

and the gray buttes along the Snake River floating to the north. Jose was impressed with the scenery, stopping on the hills to look around at the views.


Back at camp for the first vet check, Connie discovered her dog Ben Jovi had locked himself in her car, when she told him to sit, and he sat on the car keys and locked the doors. Jovi could not be made to sit on the keys again to unlock the doors, so Connie and several people tried to unlock the doors through a back cracked window with a lunge whip. In the end, the Ben Jovi was freed, and it was just about time to go back out on the trail.

18-mile loop two, the same old loop that takes us by the Snake River was the same old impressive. Always a different hue, today the Snake was a light silver-blue, reflecting the skies.

We caught up with the Man in the Black Cape, the Blue Tiger, and Lynn and Agnes (dressed as Lynn and Agnes) at the prettiest part of the trail.


The last 12-mile loop 3 took us across the highway into the backside of Oreana. Jose, as always, with his eagle eyes caught all movements in the distance and stopped to stare - trucks, cows, a tiny distant rider on horseback, and the Bates Creek drainage.

We hula'd back to camp as the sun threw our long shadows across the golden fields above basecamp.

I hugged my pal Jose, thanking him for another terrific dance.

(Note: Tani Bates won the 75 on day 1, and the 50 on day 2, both on the same horse! Congrats to Tani and CR Marjan Roars!)

It Takes a Village

Friday October 29 2010

It takes a village to get to an endurance ride: approximately 8 people, about 9 horses and a day or two of packing the entire farm into three horse trailers - all this to drive to basecamp only 10 miles down the road.


It's time for the second annual Owyhee Hallowed Weenies endurance ride.


The weather during Friday's vet-in was perfect - cool and clear, just perfect for a hundred miles of riding at the end of the season in the Pacific Northwest.


More photos, and stories coming on Endurance.net at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2010OwyheeHallowedWeenies/

Hula Hula!

Thursday October 28 2010

Dudley stood for his fitting for his Halloween Costume: he wants to be a Horse Hula Dancer! (If he does the 50-mile Halloween ride on Sunday... it's not completely confirmed yet.)




The skirt framework was measured, the first ribbons tied, Dudley helping pick out the next colors.




He actually looks a bit bored here.


We tried it out on the trail in the wind today, and Dudley thought it needed more ribbons.


We'll work on it tonight. (I might even be persuaded to go as a Hula Dancer, if only to wear a hula skirt to match Dudley's - forget the bikini top or coconuts.)

The Dude

Thursday October 221 2010

An idea has been growing:

Dudley's lost weight. His feet are better, and he hasn't gotten into any grain or alfalfa lately (even though he busted out of his pen again the other night) to bring on any laminitis episodes. I took him out marking trail with Regina, over soft footing that Day 2 of the Hallowed Weenies endurance ride would be going, and he did fine.

"What if..." I thought...

Look up Dudley's endurance record and you see 1 (that's one) 55-mile ride, two years ago. Dudley's nine. He's had bad laminitic feet since I've known him, he's always battling a weight problem, he's always starving, he's probably got equine metabolic syndrome (symptoms are abnormal fat deposits, chronic, recurrent laminitis, particularly mild cases); the one endurance ride he did with a trainer, he road foundered from it (his feet had overgrown his shoes).

Steph pulled his shoes in the spring and he's gone barefoot since. His feet are better, though if he eats food that's too rich (i.e. gets into alfalfa, or gets too much grass, or if he - heaven forbid - got into grain) he has another laminitic episode. He's also on D-Carb supplement, which is supposed to aid in carbohydrate and glucose metabolism for insulin-resistant horses (and it appears to help).

What if, I thought, Dudley did a 50 mile ride in 2 weekends?

I finally said it aloud to Steph, "What if Dudley tries a 50 on Day 2 at the Hallowed Weenies?"

We decided to take him on a good 20 mile ride yesterday, to see how he handled it. Four of us went, Steph on Rhett, John on Mac, and Judy on Milan (Judy's planning on doing 2 LD's at the ride).

Well. Dudley handled it condition-wise just fine - I had a heartrate monitor on him, (his starting pulse was 33) - and any big exertion we did, his heartrate dropped to 60 quicker than (Tevis finisher) Rhett's does.

And as for Dudley's feet - they were fine the day after the ride, and if they were not, too bad! That bugger tried to start bucking with me 3 times during our ride! If he can buck, he can ride further! In fact all of our horses were wired!

Dudley now has a 50 mile ride on his schedule for Halloween!

(Another idea: maybe he can go as a hula dancer, since he likes wearing his ribbon hula skirt...)

Hallowed Weenies Day 1: Fairies on the Prairie

Saturday October 31 2009

Just give endurance riders the slightest excuse to get together, and they'll do it. Add in a near full moon, and a chance to play dress-up, and you end up with the 2-day Hallowed Weenies endurance ride at the end of the season in the Owyhee Desert.

And with it being Halloween, there were some scary things to worry about on the 50 and 25 mile trails: Day 1 you rode by "Dead Cow Farm" - an abandoned and rather creepy dairy; by the Idaho Ecology site - the P.C. name for the toxic waste dump near the Snake River; on a sloped trail right by a barbed wire fence; over an old bombing range; and during hunting season. Day 2 you rode over the site of the Utter Disaster Massacre, and, since not quite all of the last bit of trail had completely gotten marked, some of us got lost out there, and it's still hunting season. Yeah.

But the creatures still came out in Halloween droves. There were Fairies on the prairie, many Come to Save the World - a Musketeer, a Crusader, Zorro, an Oreana Cowboy (wait - that was a REAL Oreana Cowboy - Shane pulled Mary's stuck truck out of the sand while she was off riding in the LD), a Star Wars Jawa ("I can't abide those Jawas. Disgusting creatures!" said C3PO - who can quote that entire movie with me?), a skeleton (the horse), a soccer ball (the horse) and referee, Gumby & Pokey, Michael Jackson (who worked as our in and out timer), Where's Waldo, a college graduate, two pink flamingos, Pocahontas, a clown, an angel, of course a devil (someone stole the devil's cape and became impromptu Little Red Riding Hood), monsters, a drunken man on a mule, and Argentinean vaqueros. Steph commented later, "These were ADULTS! - this is GREAT!"

Even the Raven participated, dressing up as a Cardinal! (Someone, I'm not saying who, actually made that bird a costume!).

The Musketeer came all the way from New York City (New York City!) to ride. Sandra Fratelliere rode Steph and John's mare Sunny on her first 50, and it was Sandra's first ride in the Pacific Northwest.

The two pink flamingos were shedding feathers their entire 25 miles... some day a BLM bird biologist will be hiking out there, discover some pink feathers, and be amazed that pink flamingos have inhabited the Owyhee desert! The feathers actually served an extra purpose; since there weren't an abundance of pink ribbons to mark the trail (commented one rider), the pink feathers served as markers for those in doubt of their directions.

And Day One was all-new Owyhee trails. Basecamp was Regina Rose's house down the road from Oreana. Riders took off south, across the highway, up Birch Creek wash, (had a vet check), did a loop through scenic Birch Creek Canyon, (had a vet check), and back home. The LD's hauled out to the vet check to start and did their two loops, through Birch Creek Canyon, (had a vet check), then did a shorter out-and-back loop to finish.

After the awful weather the week before (that is just one point of view!) of wind, cold, rain, and a bit of snow - the weather was just perfect (a unanimous point of view): cool and partly sunny all day, and minimal wind. And the sunset was spectacular.

And even more spectacular was the dinner (for the second night in a row), cooked by Oreana neighbors Amy and Shane and Jessica and Isaac Riley and a couple of their friends. The indoor arena where we ate sounded like the Riley fan club: "OMG!" "This is soooooo good!" "I'm coming back next year just for the dinners!" And the family came around making sure you went back for seconds. Which was almost impossible after the huge firsts they heaped on your plate, but I think everybody managed. And then there was the dessert... The food truly was stunning (both nights) after a long working/riding/outdoor day.

All the scary trail obstacles were conquered with no problems. However Gary Pegg's Tennessee Walker stallion Gus's Mountain Mack, in the middle of the 18-mile loop of the LD, colicked. There was nothing for Gary to do but keep riding him, forcing him to walk in - if he got off to walk, the horse tried to go down. Annerose Carlile and her horse stayed with them; as soon as they got Gus in to the vet check the vets treated him and stabilized him, and he got hauled off to a clinic, where he immediately went into surgery. Awful news for everybody.

And our horse Rushcreek Mac wasn't quite right after he finished the 50. After it got dark, he was standing off by himself, away from Rhett and Jose and Sunny, not eating, and looking dull. Steph went to get the vet, Robert Washington; he checked Mac out and found a small compaction in the colon, but nothing he was terribly worried about. Robert gave Mac some tranquilizers, and stomach tubed him with oil and electrolytes. John sat up with him in the dark and cold, until Mac suddenly snapped out of it. We kept him separated (and Sandra got up to check on him in the middle of the night), and he was fine in the morning.

Next day: I get to ride Jose!!!