Hillbillie Willie and the Last of the Autumn Suns

October 12 2024

Normally I shoot the 3-day Autumn Sun Endurance ride in Gooding, Idaho, but this time I wanted to shoot days 1 and 3 (and RM Jessica’s dad would shoot day 2) and ride Hillbillie Willie on day 2 on the 55-miler. He was fit and hot and ready to roll, and he could use another ride after his 3 days of LDs at Old Selam five weeks earlier.

However. It would just be Willie’s second solo voyage to an endurance ride. He’s not a great ride-camper anyway (always messing and getting into stuff), but, going solo….. I apologized to everybody at the ride beforehand (if you didn’t hear me) because Willie was going to be VOCAL, calling for his BFF DWA Barack all days and nights.

We parked right next to Shyla and her Thoroughbred mare Nya, and mare mule Sadie, and Willie made instant fast friends, especially with his new BFF girlfriend mule, although he kept up his whinnies for at least 48 hours, just in case Barack was within earshot.

Ever since Willie’s meltdown at the start of Eagle Canyon in April, our first ride of the season (after 7 seasons!!!!!), I’ve since been a little nervous about starting rides on him. Although he’s steadily been improving this year. But you just never know. At Old Selam we had 3 days in a row of calm starts. But here he’d be without his buddies all weekend, so…….

Autumn Sun is not a hard ride. It’s a rocky ride. There are places you have to walk, places where you can move out as fast as you want, and places you could move out but be careful and be ready to slow down. We’d have a big climb on loop 2, but the rest is mostly flat, gentle hills.

It was chilly Saturday morning as we saddled up, so I hand walked Willie around camp with 15 minutes to start time. At 5 minutes till, I climbed aboard. He was still a bit amped, but good. He wanted to go already. Only 4 other riders were ready to start; nobody else was even in sight. I’d thought maybe I’d ride with Kristen and Chancey, Sara and JoJo, but I didn’t even see them saddling up when we walked around camp. Maybe they’d decided to do the LD instead.


When ride manager Jessica yelled “Trail’s open!” at 7:30…… nobody went. *I* did not want to go out first. I wanted to drift in after other riders, with a little bubble. Love the Bubble.

Stevie and Sonic, Alex and Alexander Hamilton went out first. Two other ladies went out next, so I fell in a bit behind them. But Willie was so amped he wasn’t going to keep a space there, and he was starting to irritate one of the horses, so we went on past them. But we didn’t have quite enough of a gap from Stevie and Alex ahead of us, so, I had the anchor hold on Willie. He kept to a trot, but he would have preferred to go a hundred miles faster.

Only a half mile or so out of camp, the two-track followed a rocky trail, so we had to slow to a walk. Willie watched his feet but boy was it a fast walk. Back onto a two track road, the trail quickly made a sharp left turn back onto another trail. Stevie and Alex had missed it. Dang. That put me and Willie in front where I didn’t want to be. I hollered at the girls to turn around and fortunately they heard me.

It was a super rocky stretch of cow trails, and super sparse ribbons because the dang cows ate them, again and again, after Jessica and crew kept putting more out. I kept a sharp eye out for hanging ribbons, ribbons on the ground, and shreds of ribbons that the cows forgot to swallow. Willie was fabulous about watching his footing, and he wasn’t amped anymore, just forward, ready to move out!


We finally made it out of that rocky-snot section, passing Wally who took our picture, then out on a smooth two-track road where we were able to move out at a smart trot. Willie was happy to be cruising along the sagebrush desert. After 10 miles or so, we had a little detour to a stock tank, where I was so happy Willie dunked his head in and took a big drink. Yay! Off we went.

After another 5 miles or so, a pair of riders were coming up behind us. It was Kristen and Chancey, Sara and JoJo. No, they had not changed their mind to do the LD, they woke up at 7:27 AM, scrambled up and out, threw their saddles on and took off after all the other 5 of us had long gone!


We rode together for miles. It was nice to have the younger girls get off and get the gates off their shorter horses. :)  Also, it was nice at one gate that Kristen opened, that I was able to peel my fleece jacket off, and turn my backwards shirt around. I had wondered why my shirt pocket seemed to be around on my back, and why my shirt was so tight around my neck. What can I say, it was cold and I dressed under my sleeping bag with just a flashlight so I kinda got the shirt put on the wrong way.

Willie had a fun time with his new BFFs, trotting, pacing, cantering, and we girls yakked and the horses eyeballed each other as the miles went by. About 8 miles or so from camp, Kristen looked back and saw dust from two riders in the distance behind us. “Let’s go!” She said, and Chancey and JoJo shot off, and Willie stayed with his new BFFs, and yeehaw, the ground flew under us faster and faster, as the canters became gallops which became sprints. I let Willie do his thing, and his trot became a canter became a pace which switched to a racing pace (!), and ohmygod we were going fast. And then he lowered his body down and he switched to a higher gear and OHMIGOD I have never ridden that horse that fast! He was back in a race on the racetrack and he was FLYING, he was going so fast he was not wobbling back and forth but very smooth, it was fun and exciting and thrilling and then it was just getting too fast too much for me, with some rocky sections coming up on the road and I said, “Eeeeeeasy Willie, let’s slow down here!”

He would have rather gone on that fast but he consented to slowing down, let his little human come back down to earth, and I had to catch my breath more than he did because that was so insane!


I had to dismount for a gate (Kristen and Sara were long gone!), and that gave us a nice Bubble again. So we cruised the last few miles solo at a nice trot (or walk through a rocky dry wash), and by the time we reached camp, Willie had already pulsed down to 56.

He didn’t whinny once for anybody in camp, instead he chowed down on alfalfa in the middle of the vet check, then ate the rest of his hour hold in his pen, not even worrying about his mule girlfriend who was gone out on the 25-mile ride.


Stevie and Alex had arrived a few minutes after Willie and me, and when Alex and Alexander unfortunately got pulled, Stevie and I decided to do the last loop together. Our first part of loop 2 was a long climb up into the hills, our horses cruising companionably along, Stevie and I occasionally talking, often just silent and riding and enjoying being out in the desert on our horses. We had the same ideas of riding, moving out on the good ground and the gentle hills, getting off and walking the downhills, walking the few steep uphills, giving our horses time at the water troughs for good deep drinks (yay! Drink up!), eating alfalfa from the bags that RM Jessica left for snacks. The hay tasted way better when Stevie hand-fed Sonic and Willie.


We tied for third at the finish, and Willie ended up with High Vet Score again, yay Willie!

He was just happy he’d made yet another BFF with Sonic, and when I finally put him back in his pen, his BFF mule Sadie was back from finishing her second LD, and he could rest and gaze at her lovely big ears 5 feet away from him. (I don’t think Sadie was quite as impressed with Willie.)

Willie was tired enough after his ride that he didn’t make one peep that night, nor the next day until about mid-afternoon. :)

I’m so glad we got to ride this last Autumn Sun ride, so glad Willie survived his second solo ride camp and made soooo many new BFFs, so glad I have a horse who is enthusiastic riding alone and in company, so enjoyed riding solo, and with Kristen and Sara and Stevie, and so proud of my Standardbred!!!!!

The Kitten Who Went To Heaven (On Earth)

October 4 2022

This story is horse-related since it happened at an Endurance ride!

Friday night before I crawl in my bed (car) at Ridecamp at the Autumn Sun Pioneer/Distance Nationals Endurance ride, I am brushing my teeth under the stars, when I hear a “Mew”. Huh? A bobcat? A strange bird? “Mew.” 

I turn my headlamp on and swing it around, looking for eyes. No eyes, no more sound. That was weird. Ridecamp is out in the middle of Desert Nowhere.

Next morning get up to my alarm in the cold and dark, crawl out of my bed (car), fumble around to make coffee, say hi to Karen B who’s walking her dog Pickles in the dark, and “Mew.”

“Did you hear that?” We listen, and “Mew.” That has to be a cat! I turn on my headlamp and we walk toward the big flatbed water truck toting a big tank of water that’s being used to fill the water tubs in camp and on the trail. “Mew. Mew.” Whaaaaaat? Definitely a cat. There shouldn’t be a cat out here! Is it in the truck cab? Inside the water tank?? No. We walk around the other side of the truck. “Mew. Mew.” Where is this thing??

I duck below the flatbed and holy crap there’s a tiny kitten on the tire. “Mew. Mew. Mew.” OMG! Instinctively I grab it - it won’t let go of the tire with one claw, because it’s afraid, but it wants to be rescued but it’s hanging on mighty tightly to that rubber. I unhook the claw and cradle her under my chin inside my coat. She’s clawing me because she’s scared but she’s purring like a noisy 350 horsepower generator.

Ooooooh kitty! A rescued kitten! Where on earth did it come from!? 

But wait - now what! I didn’t have a plan beyond grabbing it. This is beyond my capacity to deal with. I can’t put it anywhere, it will run away. I can’t leave it in my car. It needs care. And I have to leave shortly to go out on the trail to take photos! What on earth do I do with this tiny thing, now that I impetuously committed to rescuing it! 

Of course I walk right up to Dr Mel’s trailer and knock on the door, hoping Mel and Tom are already awake, because Mel will know what to do. She says something from inside the trailer, and at the door I say, “I need help!” The kitten is still clawing me but purring ferociously nonstop. It’s still a bit scared but knows it’s struck the jackpot, and it’s not going anywhere.

And I get an idea, “Karen, Regina has a dog crate in her truck, can you go grab it?”

And of course as soon as Tom opens the door and Mel sees the kitten snuggled under my chin, she goes into crisis care mode. “Oh yea, I’ve got some canned chicken here,” as she’s grabbing cans, “we’ll put some water in this dish here,” as she pulls out and runs water in a little bowl, “and I’ve got some wood chips we can use in a litter box. Yep, her eyes are weepy and she’s a bit emaciated and she’s got a respiratory infection, not uncommon for a stressed kitten. Some food and TLC and antibiotics and she’ll be fine. 

“Obviously, her name’s Autumn Sun.”

Mel opens a can of chicken and sets it on the trailer bumper, and I put the kitten down and that was all she wrote. I don’t even have to hold onto her because she is starving and she isn’t leaving that chicken! Karen brings the dog crate, and we bundle the kitten, can of chicken, water dish, cat potty, and even the soft dog rug into the crate and the kitten never stops eating. 

I have to leave so I put the crate in a very conspicuous spot under one of the tents, like right where people will stumble over it or run into it, so that the kitten can see a lot of people throughout the day, and continuously piteously purr and Mew and attract the sympathy of some sucker who might take her home. (Mel can’t take the kitten; she already has too many. I can’t keep a cat; where I live it would get eaten in 1 hour by any number of critters, domestic and wild.)

I worry about that kitten all day while out shooting pictures. When I return to Ridecamp and walk to the tent where the dog crate had been - it’s gone!

I find Mel. “Did somebody take the kitten?”

“Yes, Mike Cobbley adopted it.”

“Well, I was kind of thinking about getting a cat,” Mike said later, “and you can clearly see SUCKER written on my forehead.”

It took Autumn Sun about the same time it took for her to wolf down a can of chicken (5 minutes) for Mike Cobbley, Jessica Cobbley, the two Hyuge dogs and tiny pipsqueak dog to fall under her spell. She adapted to Mike’s house like she was born there.

“Mike’s Sucker Cat,” Mike says, clearly stricken.

Autumn Sun the kitten struck gold at the Autumn Sun ride. I don’t know where on earth the kitten came from, but you can clearly see from her photos that she is wise beyond her months, and she was meant to be where she is now!

 

Firecracker Willie and the Autumn Sun Endurance Ride

October 24 2021

He’s gonna blow…

Any minute now… I thought, as I walked a lit firecracker around Ridecamp. Hillbillie Willie pranced beside me, neck bowed, eyeballs rolled forward, as a long squeal like I’ve never heard - like 20 seconds long, Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! - slipped out between his curled lips. He was just on the edge of exploding.

This would be my fourth year shooting the Autumn Sun Pioneer ride, but gosh, I sure wanted to ride Hillbillie Willie there one day. I’m not sure if Ride Manager Jessica Huber suggested it or if I did; it became a plan. This year I’d shoot 2 days and ride 1 day.

Willie’s pals DWA Barack and DWA Saruq accompanied him to Ridecamp. The plan was that Willie and Barack would ride on opposite days, so Saruq would be the babysitter with the one left in camp. That didn’t quite turn out as planned, and it was Saruq that could have used the babysitter on day 3, as that was the day Willie and Barack went out together on Sunday on the 50.

Which meant that Willie was in a small pen for 3 days, and he just about couldn’t stand himself, especially when I took him out to walk by himself, away from his buddies.

I’ve ridden this horse in Endurance for 5 seasons now, and he’d never been so tightly wound, and so buddied up with his bros. I ride him by himself all the time at home and he’s just fine, but this time that just didn’t translate to Ridecamp. 

I saddled him up Saturday afternoon for a pre-ride warmup, climbed aboard the sizzling firecracker, and trotted him out of camp, and up the road, hoping he would just trot and not prop and buck! Fortunately his legs are so long that it’s not easy for him to buck, and it’s just easier to channel that energy forward, so LET’S GO! I told him. Blow off some of that steam. Defuse that bomb about to detonate! It wasn’t a long warm-up ride, but it did take a little of the stuffing out of him (and I stayed on!), and he was a little calmer back in camp.

At the start of Day 3’s 50, he was happy, since he was headed out on trail with his best bro Barack. (And Barack had done Day 2’s 30-miler, so he was like - eh, whatever.) But I was back aboard an electrical shorting fuse the first few miles of the ride. When Willie is hot, he bows his neck like a tough racehorse (keep in mind the Standardbred racehorses go with their heads high up in the air). He looks like he’s pulling hard but he really doesn’t, but with every stride he slipped along faster and faster, and I kept having to check him. I finally had to stuff him behind Barack for a while, and once we started climbing up the canyon, and the boys started huffing and puffing, the real Hillbillie Willie started to come back to earth, a forward, energetic horse, going along on a loose rein (most of the time).

I lucked out riding Day 3, with loop 1 being one of the most scenic trails of Autumn Sun. This trail is what gave Ride Manager Jessica Huber the idea to put on a ride here. Winding up through a series of canyons, on a trail far below rhyolite cliffs and rock formations, Willie watched his footing on the trail while I scanned the ridges for a cougar, like Tracy and Tom saw last year. I didn’t see any, but, like my Forest Service ranger friend once told me when I complained I never saw any cougars, “Oh, but they see you!”

Some of the trails were lava rocky and technical, requiring a horse to walk and pay attention, much of the trails were smooth 2-track where you could move out on. Willie and Barack worked well together, rotating being in front and behind and beside each other (though Willie always erred on the faster side of trotting), and while Willie tends to take a ride VERY SERIOUSLY, he’s learned from Barack that sometimes it’s OK to stop and grab a few bites of grass, or at least grab them on the go. 

On one stretch the ranchers’ cow water troughs we were allowed to use were empty - the ranchers had just drained them a few days before for the winter. Willie was thirsty, and he was terribly disappointed to find the bottom of one trough covered in cow pies (likely the cows' opinions on the empty water trough!), and by God Willie made his way over to an icky looking cow pond where he sunk to his ankles in cow muck as he sucked down the murky liquid. At home we liked to keep our water buckets and troughs so clean, but this was good wild desert water (next year’s ride will be a week earlier, so the springs/cow troughs will still have water).

The weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, trail conditions perfect. We crossed the finish line tying for last place, tying for the coveted Turtle Award (fun turtle aprons made and donated by Lynn White), and just for grins I showed Willie for Best Condition (knowing we had no chance at that, since I’m a featherweight and we finished almost 2 1/2 hours behind the winners). 

And what a super surprise and treat, High Vet Score went to Hillbillie Willie!

Jessica's dad Wally Bodenhofer took the pix on day 3 so I could ride. Yay!