Zayante, The Best Endurance Horse

Friday November 8 2013

He was a beautiful brilliant white bundle of energy floating above the tan sand, in the golden winter light, a happy horse in the Panamint Valley. - Me, Death Valley Encounter, 2004

He could sneer like nobody's business while motoring down the trail, intimidating the horse next to him with his fearsome attitude.


And well he should - not many could hold a candle up to this invincible endurance horse that is 5th on the all-time AERC mileage list with 13,200 miles, and who was gracious enough to carry 19 of us on his back throughout his 15-year career.

He was bred and born destined for the show ring but through a series of fateful twists, he started his life as a pack horse named Paco, before ending up where he was meant to be: on the endurance trails. Jim and Jackie Bumgardner renamed him Taco and started his endurance training before selling him to Bob and Julie Suhr. The rest is endurance history.**

Julie renamed him Zayante. "We put him in a corral overlooking Zayante Canyon, named after an Indian tribe that once inhabited it," Julie said. "Taco let out this gigantic bugle call to tell everyone he was here and he had a new name as of that moment." For five seasons, Bob and Julie owned and rode their Superhorse, who went 5000 miles without a pull – that’s 89 straight rides, on distances of 50 to 100 miles, including 4 straight Tevis finishes, 42 Top Ten finishes, and 5 Best Condition awards. "He's the best horse I've ever ridden," Julie still says, and coming from someone who has over 30,000 endurance miles and finished the Tevis Cup 22 times and won the Haggin cup 3 times, that's saying something.

In 1995 the Suhrs sold Zayante back to Jackie Bumgardner, because he could be quite the spooky horse. Jackie and Zayante continued on Julie’s original quest to reach 100 rides without a pull. Not only did they accomplish this; in Zayante’s 100th ride, the Gambler’s Special in April of 1996, Zay and Jackie finished in first place.
 

Jackie and Zayante after they hit 10,000 miles in 2002

I stepped in around 2001. I rode for Jackie in the winters in Ridgecrest, California, and there were a number of us vying for Most Coveted (Saddle) Seat of Affection in the Zayante Fan Club. Zayante ultimately willingly carried me over 715 AERC miles.

One of the best endurance horses I've ever ridden, Zayante gave me some of my greatest and most memorable rides on some of the most spectacular trails.

In 2003, Zayante took me on my second 100-mile endurance ride. I was the newbie - it was Zayante's 24th 100-mile ride.

It was great to be riding a white horse in the desert at midnight; there was still a bright moon glow from the low clouds, I was quite warm, my horse was still going strong, and I was so fortunate to be out here, spending a day and a night with a super equine companion.

Zayante didn’t look or feel like he’d been 92 miles – like I certainly did – and he perkily trotted right on out for the last 8 miles. He was still pulling, jigging, ears pricked forward, neck a bundle of energy beneath me. This horse blows me away. I myself was worn, tired, aching, but I could not complain because of this horse who would faithfully and much more willingly than I continue another 50 miles if need be. The wind was blowing a gale at our backs. My tongue was thick and heavy, voice was gone, throat dry and raw, but I couldn’t be bothered to make the effort of reaching for a handy water bottle to take a drink.

The last few miles seemed to take the longest of all until we made the last turn to the north. The lights of the Fairgrounds could be seen in the distance. At 99 ½ miles, at 2:30 in the morning, Zayante gave me a special gift: he spooked so hard (at nothing) I almost hit the sand! Just testing to see if I could stay on after all that riding. What a great, great horse he is!

I rode and finished my first multi-day ride on him at the Death Valley Encounter in California in 2004:

We wound on up through a pinyon forest, ensconced in its permanent blanket of snow for the winter. We reached Rogers Pass at 6560 feet, and it wasn’t the strong cold wind up there that almost blew me off Zayante, but the stunning view into Death Valley and the Badwater Basin (below sea level), and the jumble of Black Mountains and the Amargosa Range and Greenwater Range. Climbing the last steep hill, we could also see the Owlshead Mountains covering the southern horizon. Now I knew why Zayante wanted to get up this canyon so badly - he knew what was waiting here on top.

This was on the last day of the DVE, the last few miles of the 4 days in a row, 200 miles:

Down, down, step by step beside this amazing horse I’d ridden and walked beside for 195 miles, sometimes stepping in rhythm with, sometimes moving on auto pilot with, legs stepping one after the other, on and on, with 2 goals in mind: getting to the finish line and starting the next day. Just me and this horse, taking me up mountains and canyons and valleys I’d never see otherwise, with a power and speed I could never attain, this amazing 18 to 23-year-old steed, now approaching his 10,685th career mile.

We finished just before dark, and passed the final vet check. I got my wish, completing my first multi-day ride on the best endurance horse I have ever ridden.



There are two more very special unpublished stories about Zayante that will be featured in my upcoming memoir. I hope they will do him justice.


Zayante's record stands at 241 finishes in 252 starts, 20 of 25 100-mile completions, 5 Best Conditions, 4 Tevis buckles. He was elected to the AERC Hall of Fame in 2002.

When Zayante retired from endurance in 2005, he hung out on Jackie's ranch with his best pal Ross (Sierra Fadrazal +/ , 8430 miles, Pardner's Award with Jackie in 1998), until Ross crossed the Rainbow Bridge at the age of 33 in 2011.

Ross and Zayante, 2009

Zayante then went to live at Nick and Judy's in the Bay Area - Nick being the president of the Zayante Fan Club, with several thousand miles of trail together. There Zayante continued to live the good life - forever revered, constantly spoiled.

Just a few of Zayante's Fan Club - including The Raven!

Nothing stopped Zayante on the trails, but colic finally stopped him Tuesday night. He's gone to join Ross now, where I'm quite sure they are already galloping circles around the other endurance horses up there.

Zayante, you took our hearts with you when you left us. You will be forever missed.


**Zayante was featured in a story I wrote about him in Equus magazine in 2004, before he reached his 10,000 miles. Read about it here.

The Rainbow Bridge: ZAYANTE, ? - 2013

Originally published in Equus Magazine, 2004

And Miles To Go...

Glancing at his papers (he has none), he’s just another gray Grade gelding, who used to first have no name, which became Paco, which morphed into Taco.

In the horseflesh, he’s a brilliant white, utterly obvious Arabian piece of class, one who has left many broken hearts along his way. With big knowing eyes, one competitive attitude, and a legion of fans rooting him on, he is about to leap into the pages of Endurance history books as one of only eight horses who have ever reached 10,000 endurance miles in their career.

His complete origins remain a mystery, but the story of the horse with no name begins somewhere around 1983 – or 1989, depending on whose story you choose to go with. Back then a horsewoman/trainer/trader named Laddie with a keen eye for horses spotted a young gray stallion in a field across from a fancy Arab show barn near San Luis Obispo, California, the now non-existent Baywood Arabians. The gray’s owner hadn’t paid his board bill for 2 years, and so the gray was left alone to rule his pasture kingdom with an iron fist. The 4-year-old (so she was told) hadn’t been handled at all, no shanks, shots or shoes; in fact he was barely halter broke and he did quite well at intimidating the girls who had the chores of just feeding and watering the almighty horse daily.

Laddie took him off their hands for $100. She immediately had him gelded, and in a couple of weeks was headed to Bishop, California with a few other colts where she was going to start his training. On the way down Highway 395 she had the misfortune to break down. 

Fortunately a northbound trailer turned around to help, and it happened to be Laddie’s friend Billy Martin. Billy took one look at the gray on the trailer, and said, I want that horse. They made a deal, and the no-name gray became Paco and landed at Red Meadows Pack Station near Mammoth, California, a far cry from the show ring for which he’d been supposedly well-bred.

There Billy worked with Paco on occasional summer evenings after work, breaking him to saddle and bridle. 

In the fall the pack station horses had to be rounded up from the mountains they had been turned out to graze upon, and the job fell to Billy, who was by some mix-up left no horse upon which to do it… except a recently broke gray gelding, completely out of shape, with no more than sixty hours of training in him, who’d never been up and down hills, never been over rocks, never done much of anything but trotted around the flat meadows a few times when Billy wasn’t too tired after a long day of work.

Billy saddled up in the early morning and headed out on Paco, up and down mountains, over rocks, through streams and bogs, cross-country following horse and mule tracks through forests that might have scared an ordinary inexperienced horse. At one point Paco had to leap four feet straight up onto a rock shelf to get them out of a tight spot. 

When Billy and Paco did finally find the herd, they all headed back up and down and through those same mountains and rocks and streams. A few miles from the pack station, near dark, the herd took off toward home at a dead run. Paco kept up with them, but by the time they stopped in camp, Billy was afraid he’d overdone it on his little horse. But all Paco did, says Billy, was huff and puff a few times, then take a deep breath, and his eyes lit up and that son-of-a-gun was ready to go on again. It scared me, he said, I’d never seen that Look of Eagles before. 

That was when Billy knew he loved this horse, a feeling he’d never developed before for a horse or mule. 

After that, Billy packed him down the Pacific Crest Trail from Bishop to Inyokern, a week-long trip leading 2 loaded-down mules. Billy just rode Paco in a bosel, never having to ask him anything but to slow down a bit for the mules to keep up. At night Billy hobbled the mules but let Paco loose; while the mules went off to graze, Paco was much more interested in hanging out in camp with his buddy Billy.

The next person to utter the words, I want that horse, was Jim Bumgardner, who with his wife Jackie, rode and sold endurance horses. Jim shod horses at the place Paco lived, and he eventually talked Billy into selling him the gray - a sale Billy regretted immediately, and still does. To this day he’s glad to hear the horse is doing well, but he won’t even look at a picture of his beloved Paco.

At the Bumgardners’, Paco became Taco; and after a few months of riding, Taco was on the move again. In 1991 Bob and Julie Suhr, an older couple of serious endurance endeavors, called Jackie looking for an endurance horse. After trying Taco in a ride, they bought him.

And so began the endurance career of Zayante, (no longer known as Taco!) Esteemed Endurance Horse. As there were no papers to prove his breeding, he was registered as a Grade, although you couldn’t find a horse anywhere with a more classic Arabian look and build. 

Bob and Julie owned and rode their superhorse for five seasons, going 5000 miles without a pull – that’s 89 straight rides, on distances of 50 to 100 miles, including 4 straight Tevis finishes, 42 Top Ten finishes, and 5 Best Condition awards.

In 1995 Bob and Julie decided to sell Zayante because at their age – a youngish 70’s – the ground was starting to feel a bit harder when Zayante spooked and Bob came off. They offered the champ back to Jackie Bumgardner, under the condition that she no longer call him Taco. She readily agreed – Zayante no longer resembled anything like a taco. He looked like and carried himself like royalty.

Jackie and Zayante continued on Julie’s original quest to reach 100 rides without a pull. Not only did they accomplish this; in Zayante’s 100^th ride, the Gambler’s Special in April of 1996, Zay and Jackie finished in first place.

Since that special day, Jackie has racked up 3325 miles on her gelding. Nine others have been privileged to get on his back to continue piling on his miles. We all love him and fight over who gets him next.

Nick Warhol, self-described as “Zayante’s Biggest Fan,” has logged 1300 lucky miles on his back. 

I am Zayante’s Biggest Buddy. I’ve put only 100 miles on him, but they were the best rides of my life. I was lucky to still have my life after a serious horse accident, and Zayante was my first two rides back. I told him to take care of me out there, and he did so with aplomb and pride. 

Zay can have his bad days. Like when you ask him to pony a younger horse. Such a task is far beneath his dignity, and he proves your decision wrong every time by acting worse than the green horse you’re ponying.

He can throw in some annoying spooks, and can jig till the cows come home if you aren’t going the speed he prefers. He can make a terrific “Meany Face” meant to scare off lesser horses; it’s a sneer that many an endurance rider has come to know well. 

He can be a real bear when, for example, he wakes up the morning of an endurance ride thinking he’s going to Top Ten, but his job that day is to escort a less fit horse on a slower 50 miler. Take it from me, Zayante can stay extremely mad at you for 8 straight hours.

You forget those minor disturbances, however, when you ride him. He’s the Energizer Bunny: he keeps going, and going, and going. He thrives on multi-day rides, looking as good at the end of the last day as he did at the beginning of the first. He’s a champ at the vet checks, saving his energy, never excited, looking pleasant and interested and polite. He’s push button to ride – after all, at 21 or so years of age and nearly 10,000 miles, (and easily triple that in training miles) he’s pretty much seen and done it all. He knows which way to go, how fast to go, where he is in regards to the pack. He won’t let you take a wrong turn on a trail. If he’s tired (never) or a bit arthritic (a little more now in his twenties), he lets you know, although he’d just as soon keep on going down the trail regardless.

He loves endurance. You can see it in his eye, you can feel it when you’re on his back. I have never been on a better horse – he’s simply a joy to ride.

This spring, March 16^th, in the Geo Bun Buster endurance ride in Coso Junction, California, Zayante should hit his 10,000th mile, with Jackie aboard. Those of us in the Zayante Fan Club hope to celebrate the amazing accomplishments of this amazing horse - although, we are sure, it won’t end at 10,000.

There’s a record of 19,000 miles to top, and Zayante won’t hear of retirement.

 - Merri Melde 

**************************************

Farewell, Zayante

November 7, 2013

Destined for the Arabian show ring in the early 1980's, but instead picked up for $100 by a horse trader because of an unpaid board bill at the now-defunct Baywood Arabians, the paper-less gray gelding nicknamed "Paco" first started his working life as a pack horse in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

A lucky twist of fate landed the gelding - renamed Taco - on the Fire Mt Arabian ranch of Jim and Jackie Bumgardner, in Ridgecrest, California, in 1990. Lucky, because he ended up where he was meant to be: on the endurance trails.

He shortly found a home with Bob and Julie Suhr, in Scotts Valley, California. "We put him in a corral overlooking Zayante Canyon, named after an Indian tribe that once inhabited it," Julie said. "Taco let out this gigantic bugle call to tell everyone he was here and he had a new name as of that moment."

For five seasons, Bob and Julie owned and rode their Superhorse, who went 5000 miles without a pull – that’s 89 straight rides, on distances of 50 to 100 miles, including 4 straight Tevis finishes, 42 Top Ten finishes, and 5 Best Condition awards. He gave the Suhrs' daughter Barbara White - she's the leading finisher of the Tevis Cup, with 32 buckles - her 20th Tevis completion in 1994.

It was the 1992 Tevis ride on Zayante that was one of the fondest memories of Barbara's life. She recalls: "Except for passing two other riders, I rode those miles from Francisco's to the finish line alone.  It was so strange to be out there in the dark by myself, on a bright white horse who wanted to go with such eagerness.  I remember frequently slowing him down and turning a flashlight on my heart monitor to make sure his pulse was still recovering, then letting him go again. 

"It was a special night for me - warm, moonlit, and solitary, except for Zayante. And, except for the sound of the river and his footsteps, it was quiet and personal. It didn't seem that it could be the very same day that had started out in a mad rush of horses from the point of beginning, full of trail gridlock, jumpy animals, nervous people.  Instead it was a very special evening, not an organized event, just me and a very special equine partner racing through the darkness to a finish line in Auburn. 

"I get emotional simply reminiscing about that magical night." 

In 1995 Bob and Julie decided to sell Zayante because he was rather spooky. They offered him back to Jackie Bumgardner, under the condition that she no longer call him Taco.

Jackie and Zayante continued on Julie’s original quest to reach 100 rides without a pull. Not only did they accomplish this; in Zayante’s 100th ride, the Gambler’s Special in April of 1996, Zay and Jackie finished in first place.

Jackie and Zayante hitting 10,000 miles in the Geo Bun Buster on March 16, 2002

Zayante went on to reach 13,200* miles, 5th on the all-time mileage list, over his 15-year career. His record stands at 241 completions in 252 starts, with 20 of 25 100-mile rides completed, and 5 Best Condition awards.  He excelled in multi-day rides, and he gave 19 different lucky riders memorable rides over his career.

After he retired in 2005, he lived at Jackie Bumgardner's ranch until 2011, when his best buddy, Sierra Fadrazal +/ (8430 miles, Pardner's Award with Jackie in 1998) died. Then he went to live with Nick Warhol and Judy Long in the Bay Area of California, until November 5, 2013, when he passed on from a bout of colic.

He was probably born in 1979 or 1985, which would make him 34 or 28.

Zayante, you will be forever missed.

*Zayante's AERC records say 13,200; the list of high-mileage equines says 13,255.

Farewell: Sierra Fadrazal +/

Monday January 24 2011

There's one less set of hoofprints on the endurance trails.

Jackie Bumgardner's horse Sierra Fadrazal+/ , aka Ross, was put down Friday at home in Ridgecrest, California at 33 years of age. Jackie bought him as a youngster shortly after buying his sire Sierra Fadwah (who lived to 31 years of age); and Ross and Jackie spent more than 20 years on the endurance trails together.

He carried 24 different riders over his career, and was always eager to go down the trail. His ears would prick forward, his head would go up in the air and his long legs would fly into overdrive as he ate up the miles.

Never lame, his record speaks volumes: 8430 AERC miles, 145 starts and 145 finishes, 14 hundred mile finishes, including 4 consecutive Tevis buckles (1985-6-7-8) and three straight Virginia City buckles (1985-6-7), 9 Best Condition awards.

He completed his last 50 mile ride in 2002, but he continued to carry riders on LDs until his last one in 2005 on his home summer turf of Bridgeport, California in Jackie's Eastern High Sierra Classic ride. After that, he continued his work as 'Uncle Ross', breaking new horses to the trails by ponying them. Most memorably, he was Zayante's best friend since 1995 - the two of them were inseparable for 16 years.

I saw Ross the week before he died. We'd spent a lot of training miles together, summers in Bridgeport, winters in Ridgecrest. Ross stopped eating to come up to me. He sniffed and sniffed my hands, Hi, my old friend, and he stood there while I scratched his back and sides, and he lifted his neck so I could scratch beneath it.

He left for the next world on Friday.

Goodbye, my Old Friend.

Freedom

Sunday August 16 2009

Since basecamp for the Eastern High Sierra Classic is in Jackie's pasture, her horses are either penned up, tied up, or moved elsewhere starting Thursday of the ride, through Sunday.

The old boys Ross and Zayante (more on them later : ) are moved across town to a different pasture. Sherri's 2 boarding Paso Finos stay in the pasture's little pen. The three that were to be ridden, Odyssey, Zane, and Redman, were tied to Jackie's trailers, all weekend. Unless they were ridden or handwalked around, they stayed tied to those trailers.

Once the ride was over on Sunday, and all the horse trailers pulled out, and everything was picked up, all the horses were reunited once again.

Odyssey, Zane and Redman were turned loose. The Paso Finos were let out of the little pen. Ross and Zayante, hauled back here to their home pasture, were turned out.

The horses didn't know what to do first - run around, skid to a stop to sample all the hay piles left behind, sprint in circles, spin, leap, buck, greet each other, run around some more, roll, shake, stop and watch the shenanigans, run and eat at the same time...
Redman made the most of the running.

So many things to choose from - freedom once again!

2009 Eastern High Sierra Classic

August 15 2009

It's now twenty-four years and still counting for the Eastern High Sierra Classic endurance ride near Bridgeport, California, put on by Jackie Bumgardner. This was my 6th time to ride in it, and umpteenth time to ride the trails, but no matter how many times I see the same trails and the same scenery, I'm never not amazed. It still ranks as one of the most beautiful mountain rides I've done. Every year it's like seeing it all over again for the first time and I say the same thing all day long: WOW.

It's not an easy ride: there's altitude, rocks, bogs, creek crossings, steep trails to deal with. You better bring a fit horse, and you'd better know how to take care of him.

This year Jackie gave me her mare Fire Mt Odyssey to ride. I rode for Jackie for several years so I knew Odyssey and I'd ridden her quite a lot, though on only one endurance ride. She's a Princess - she'd love to come live inside your house with you, be scratched and rubbed all over all the time, have a few minions fanning her to keep the flies off... but that soft outer veneer covers one tough horse. I looked up her record: over 3600 miles over 6 seasons (with 2 years off for having a baby in there), and that includes completing Tevis, her only 100 miler. That's almost as many miles as I have. Then there's the single pull in 74 starts: that was with me! In 2003 we were pulled for a lameness. So, besides the incessant pressure I feel being responsible for someone else's horse (which is every ride, since I don't have my own endurance horse), there was the added pressure of not ruining Odyssey's record any more than I already did!

There's a rider limit of 130 on this ride, and Ridecamp - the pasture Jackie leases for her horses from the Hunewill Ranch - was packed to the gills. By Friday night, rigs coming in at the last minute were being squeezed into the last available spots of grass.


LOOP ONE - 20 MILES

I got up awful early, before my alarm at 4:20, and found a white horse hanging out at our trailers. She let me catch her, and knowing that somebody would come around camp frantically looking for a missing horse some time this morning, I tied her up to a trailer that faced most of camp. Half an hour later I saw someone with the horse - "Found your horse, did you?"

Ann Hall came up to me, "Oh - thank you!!! She's a Hyannis horse (Hyannis Cattle Company breeding) - I thought she ran off and I'd never be able to catch her again!" Luckily she'd just let me walk right up to her.

Ann K led the 50 milers on a mile-long controlled start out of camp at 6 AM Saturday morning. It was chilly enough for some horses to be wearing butt blankets, and to make for some very frisky equines. A long line of horses - 93 of them, kicked up a long line of dust that hung in the air. For just that reason, Gretchen (riding her horse Kav), Jessica (riding Gretchen's horse Raffiq), and I squeezed in toward the front of the line, as we rode over the low line of hills and descended toward the Hunewill Ranch in the dawn.

Once we hit a two-track road, the single line broke up, eager horses cantering past to get a better position for the climb up to Summer's Meadows. Our horses were on their home turf and knew exactly where they were going. Raffiq took off with Jessica at a canter and she was having trouble reeling him in, and Odyssey's lofty trot was about to bounce me out of the saddle. Gretchen slipped Kav, who was willing to go at a more reasonable pace, in front of us to slow us down. Back on a single track winding through the sagebrush, we started a steady climb. A chorus of snorting horses, hoofbeats on dust and rock, and the brushing of sage against horse legs accompanied the visual symphony of the sunrise as we climbed several hundred feet above the valley floor.

Topping the ridge: a view of Twin Lakes far below, framed by the Sawtooth ridge - WOW! We jumped off our horses for the several hundred feet of switchback down-trail to the bottom of the Lower lake, where we had a pulse-down and trot-by vet check. We'd timed it right to be ahead a crowd of people, and we vetted right through. I ripped off my fleece jacket and handed it to Dick Dawson to take; I quickly took off Odyssey's butt blanket and gave it to Jackie.

We three jumped back on, and headed off up the road for a mile. Our horses were pretty sure that the opposite direction was the correct way (when we do this training loop, we turn back home here), so we weren't blazing any speed records through here. Leaving the vet check, Odyssey took a few bobbles on her right front. Just when I started to think I was riding a lame horse (but how could she be, she just trotted out fine for the vet, right?), then she'd be fine. She favored that leg again, and I said to Gretchen, "I think she's off!" But then she was fine again, and Gretchen didn't see anything. I started having visions of Odyssey getting pulled at lunch... only her second pull ever, both with ME!

We turned up the Cattle Canyon trail to begin our next climb above the lakes. It's a few miles of single track, some along steep drop-offs toward the lakes, climbing higher and higher, with very few places to pull over and let people by - and we'd now picked up a string of horses. I don't like leading a string of riders because I feel I have to ride their speed and not mine, but there was no place to pull over for a long while. And meanwhile, Odyssey was definitely favoring that right front once in a while. "Geez, she feels like she's got a bruised right front foot!"

Gretchen, riding behind me, was squinting at Odyssey's feet, and said, "That's because she's lost her shoe!" Geez - how long had Odyssey been without that shoe, and had been clearly telling me that, and I just didn't get it! (Embarrassing, unprofessional - what kind of a horseman am I??)

We still had to go at least another rocky mile on the steep single-track trail before there was a little place for the three of us to pull over. Conveniently, I was carrying two Easy Boot Gloves, one of which Gretchen put on for me. (I was too slow!) Got back on a sound horse. We continued on up the trail.


More climbing, with Upper and Lower Twin Lakes getting smaller below us - we came up and over one curve in the trail, and another awesome view - the Sawtooths spread out before and above us. WOW! Gretchen recalled climbing Matterhorn Peak in the Sawtooths a few years ago, when a thunderstorm suddenly came up, and the peak got struck by lightning. She got knocked away from the rock she was sheltering against, and her gloves blew off her hands. She didn't fall off the peak, and survived to endurance ride. Luckily for me, and everybody around me, there were no thunderstorms forecast for today, since I'm scared of lightning. Gretchen doesn't love it either. : )

It was early enough yet to be almost cold in some of the drainages, where the side of the hills and the forest kept us in shade. Great weather for the horses, and comfortable to ride in.


After reaching 8500 feet, the trail began its downward spiral, alongside roaring Horsetail falls, back down to the top of the Upper lake. Raffiq led the way on the winding single track trail alongside the Upper lake - he has a ball when the trail twists and turns and you can't see very far ahead of you and he goes faster and faster. Lots of "YeeHaw!"ing going on along here, by us and our horses.

We played leapfrog with other riders through the houses between the lakes, and past the Lower lake - Odyssey got more and more excited the closer we got to home along the flat sandy trail back to camp.

The day was still cool, and despite motoring in all the way, Odyssey's pulse was at 48 as soon as we arrived for the lunch vet check. WOW! I got her shoe replaced during the break, and after our one-hour hold, we headed out with four shoes for our second 30 mile loop.




LOOP TWO - THIRTY MILES

After trotting toward Buckeye Canyon for a couple miles, we turned up a logging road that took us from the valley floor at 6500' up to over 8000' again, toward Eagle Peak. This can be a hot slog of a climb where your horses (and you) are pouring sweat, but today was one of the coolest EHSC rides I've done. Makes it a lot easier on the horses, and oh-so pleasant!

Odyssey wasn't so thrilled to be leading the way, because we passed at least 3 shortcuts back (that we do on training rides). Raffiq took over and led us up to the top, through an aspen forest that is quite stunning with bright colors in the autumn, and where a view of Eagle Peak opens up before you. Once we made it over the top, Odyssey took the lead again. Normally she can be spooky - those horse-eating logs are especially scary - but she was really into it now. Especially if she got far enough ahead that she could stop and grab mouthfuls of grass (the cows weren't up here yet, so there was plenty of grass), because she was starving, even though she'd eaten most of her way through our hour lunch hold.

Our trail turned back toward home, and we trotted much of the long way down an old logging road into to the Buckeye drainage. At the bottom we passed through the vet check where we'd be stopping for our second hold after another out-and-back loop. There was no hold this time, but Odyssey was still SO STARVED, we stopped for the horses to eat hay and grass for 15 minutes.


I always have mixed feelings about the Buckeye Canyon loop. It's a beautiful loop to ride and it's flat and fairly easy (except for rocky sections on the way back, and some bogs which are a bit scary some years), but I always vividly remember our ride in 2005, when Jackie's awesome endurance horse Zayante colicked severely out here on us, at the far end of this loop. First time he'd ever had a metabolic problem in his 15 seasons and over 13,000 miles of endurance riding - and this was his home turf where he lived and trained, and we'd been riding a regular, moderate pace. He almost died on us that day. He didn't, and he's still around (story on him later : ), but that was a terribly traumatic day that always slightly taints the beauty of this loop for me, and always makes me worry, just a little bit, no matter how good and strong my horse is feeling.

Our horses were doing fine today - feeling strong, and eating and drinking well, and we probably had nothing to worry about... but Zayante had been completely fine and normal till he suddenly wasn't. You just never know.

But - beautiful it is. WOW. Big forested hills on your left; granite cliffs on your right, and a growing Buckeye Ridge looming into your view in front of you. A shaded Jeffrey forest to trot under, sagebrush flats and cow meadows to frolic through (cows were out here now - they like to eat the orange ribbons that mark the trail, so someone ALWAYS has to come remark the trail at least once). There's not a direction you can look that you don't say WOW! What a great day for a ride on such an awesome trail!

We were passed by half a dozen riders, and Gretchen said something about, "Wow, let's back off those guys a bit, it's dusty." Dusty? After 100 miles of the Hell Dust of the Tevis trail, I hadn't noticed!

Almost four miles up the canyon, our trail crossed Buckeye Creek and turned back. Gretchen, always looking for an excuse to jump in cold rivers and lakes, said she'd get off her horse and sponge our horses off. It felt so good, she forgot to get back on to ride her horse across the creek.


We took turns leading on the trail back, and as we got close to the Buckeye vet check, we whooped and hollered. There were plenty of horses in there already, getting pulses taken, hanging out and eating for their hour hold. Plenty of volunteers taking pulses and handing out water to riders, or holding horses for riders. Odyssey and Kav's pulses were down immediately and Odyssey dragged me right to the hay.

I'd lost sight of Jessica and Raffiq in the crowd of horses, and finally noticed he hadn't joined us. He was still standing having his pulse taken - that was not normal for Raffiq! Another few minutes and he was still standing there; Ann W came over to hold our horses while Gretchen and I went over to Jessica and Raffiq with water to sponge him down and cool him off. Nick was monitoring his pulse. "It's hanging at around 68."

Not normal! Raffiq should have been down around 50 when we came in! After more sponging with cold Buckeye Creek water, he finally came down to the 60 pulse criteria, but he wasn't interested in water or food - not normal! - and one look at his eye, and you could tell he was just not right. Not particularly in pain, but just not comfortable.

I of course kept thinking of Zayante, and that made me nervous. Zay was in much worse shape by the time we got him into this vet check that year, and though Raffiq didn't look anything like Zay now, he just was not right.

Jessica took Raffiq into the shade, and we kept sponging him to keep him cool. Gretchen tried squirting water in his mouth to get him interested, but he wasn't. I listened to his gut sounds by putting my ear to his guts - heard some activity, but not a lot. Nick came and checked his pulse again and listened to his guts: "He's 56 now, and I hear some gut sounds in there" - but Raffiq still just didn't look right in his eyes. Our hold was only 30 minutes, but we decided to stay longer to see if he'd suddenly snap out of it.

He didn't. It was only 6 miles back to camp - which we could have walked in with plenty of time to spare - but Jessica pulled him. Ann's husband Fred was driving the Horse Cadillac Shuttle back to camp for any horses that were pulled (one was already waiting, so they could leave as soon as Raffiq was ready), so we all went to the vet - Jessica and Raffiq to pull, Gretchen and Kav, and me and Odyssey to vet through to continue on the trail.

The vet looked Raffiq over and agreed he should be pulled. There was nothing seriously wrong with him at this point, but he should be watched closely. Gretchen and I vetted through, after spending nearly an hour there (Odyssey never picked her head out of the food the whole time), mounted back up for our final six mile loop in.

We thought we'd mosey on in, but Odyssey had other ideas.
She's been over this trail hundreds of times and wanted to get back to camp. I had to tuck her behind Kav on the smooth flat dirt road for the few straight miles down Knee-Knocker road back into camp because she would have galloped all the way in - and probably dumped me along the way, because she was spooking at things, because she was full of beans!

When we got to within 30 yards of the finish line - which is along a willow-lined fenceline which ALWAYS spooks our horses, Odyssey's eyes were big as pie plates from just being silly-spooky, plus there was a big umbrella shading the finish line guys, plus Raffiq was screaming at his trailer (horses always seem to know way ahead of time when their buddies are coming in - obviously Raffiq was feeling better), plus we were at the end of the ride back at her home pasture - everything was just EXCITING!!!!

I got off and led Odyssey to the finish line because I was about to get dumped off!

We unsaddled back at the trailers and went to vet in - Odyssey's pulse was again 48 and she trotted out sound - another completion for Odyssey (whew!) and another beautiful 50 mile ride for me and the Raven : ).

And another successful, beautiful Eastern High Sierra Classic ride in the books. All 32 starters in the 30 mile ride completed, and all but 5 of the 93 starters in the 50 finished.

Yet one more WOW was the after-ride dinner cooked by Quinn (forget his last name - he's originally from my small part of the world in Owyhee County Idaho!), and Zip and Nancy Upham. It was the most stunning ride dinner I have ever had, and somebody who was not as tired and starved as I was confirmed that.

It's always a huge undertaking to put on a ride anywhere - volunteers everywhere make endurance rides happen, and this one is no exception. The forest service has also been a big help (and the new designated Hoover Wilderness fortunately missed our regular EHSC trail), as have the local residents who don't mind us riding along their roads, some of whom actually come out to wave at us as we ride by and dust them out.

Jackie says she's putting this ride on one more time - it will be the 25th anniversary - and then Gretchen's taking it over. Ride entries are limited to 130 every year, so make your plans. A little slice of heavenly trails await!

And that Hyannis horse I caught in the morning? Hal Hall finished 4th on her in the 50 and won Best Condition : )



Results, more photos at www.endurance.net/international/USA/2009EHSC