2025 Old Selam Part III: Willie the Rocket Ship

August 31 2025 

So I trotted out for the vet Dick in the morning, and he said Willie looked fine. So, off Willie and I went on the day two 25-mile LD ride.

I had the plan of just ambling along on a pleasant trail ride LD for the day, because, you know, Willie ought to be a little tired from yesterday, right? 

And it started out that way. There were around 22 riders, and Willie was calm while we warmed up walking around camp. I always look for a little pocket where I might get a little Bubble, usually up near the front, not behind the fastest riders, but not where I’ll be tailed/chased closely by other riders.

And as the trail was announced open, three or four riders started walking out, which I thought was great. We fell in behind them, and walked out, and then they started trotting, but suddenly the front ones balked, and we got bunched up, and after they got going, they took off like a shot, and unfortunately, so did we. 

Oh heck no Willie was not tired. Or relaxed. Those riders up front were blasting down the trail and I was blasting after them on a rocket ship. I tried to convince him just to slow down a bit already, working hard on not just pulling but using strong seat and leg and *suggesting* with my hands on the reins to slow down… but it became more of a pullfest.

He pulled and pulled and at some point you have to decide, you’re both wasting so much energy pulling on each other, is it just better to let Willie go fast and stay with the fast horses, because that’s just how things work out sometimes.

At least the weather was nice and cool, and Willie felt perfectly sound. 

I was able to drop him back for a while, with another horse following me, but my hands would start to go to sleep trying to hold Willie back. He’s not always like this, but today he certainly was. 

So as you’d expect, the first 15 mile loop flew by really fast. Willie finally caught up with and rode with three others, (another lady had left everybody in the dust far ahead). And finally the last 5 miles or so, our group slowed down a bit, even walked up some hills, which was nice. I didn’t want to pass anybody, but their horses really started slowing down, so at the last water trough, Willie just went on ahead, much calmer, and on a loose rein, back into camp. 

He pulsed down right away, and I checked the out timer sheet later, and hooray, we were going to have our own lovely little Bubble on loop 2! We were about 10 minutes behind the first horse, and there was about eight minutes to the next horses behind us.

So I put on his jaquima halter for the last 9 mile loop, and OMG we had the best ride, cruising easily and comfortably, not fast and not slow, trotting along the winding soft logging roads in the forest, the trails to ourselves. This is what I hoped the first loop would have been like, but that’s okay, because loop 2 was so awesome!

Willie ended up finishing second, and I never felt a single bad step, so I said we would show for best condition.

At his 10 minute CRI Willie was 44-44 !!!!! The vet Robert said, “*Clearly* you overrode this horse.” 🤣

(For those who don’t know, the vet takes a pulse, the horse trots out 20 yards or so and back, he waits a minute, and takes the second pulse. A pulse that jumps from, say, 56 to 70 shows the horse is a bit fatigued. A low pulse rate, particularly the second pulse, is awesome. Willie usually vets in before the ride at 40.)

But, OMG, when Willie trotted out, Robert said he saw a couple of odd steps again! Just slight and only a couple, not consistent. OMG! I had felt nothing again all day. 

But we still came back to do the BC showing an hour later with the vet Dick, a thorough exam and a trot-out, and Willie looked perfect!

When he finished his exam on Willie, Dick said, “I’m gonna tell you two things about your horse.” I thought, uh oh, what’s wrong! Tell me, I always want to learn. 

He said, “First of all, you still have a knot in his tail.” (oh yeah, I gotta get that out with some cowboy magic). “And second," Dick grinned, "I think he’s way too small for you.” My 16.2 or 17 hand horse. Lol!

And later in the evening at the awards, Willie not only got high vet score (!!!!) but Best Condition!!!!!  I love my Standardbred!!

I decided not to do an LD on day three, because I think there was something going on with this feet, possibly the pads that I squirted in when he had soft soles from two days of rain. We’d leave it on a great note. What a great weekend at Old Selam, still one of our most favorite rides!

Also, that rooster chicken was still hanging around ride camp, having dinner with everybody and planting himself front and center stage while a guy named Sam from the Idaho State Penitentiary - where the story of Old Selam the prison horse began in 1900 - told a mesmerizing story about Old Selam and the prison escapees he carried to freedom or almost-freedom, and while the ride awards were going on. 

A few people had tried to catch the rooster, and they got close, but they couldn’t quite get him. Someone said that if someone caught it, someone would take him home. You know how those “someone” rumors start. He’d obviously wandered away from some homes or been dumped there, and he looked quite at home around people and also must have been pretty adept at hiding in the forest.

 

Note The Raven on Willie's back, of course The Raven rode along with us this weekend. It's over 9000 miles for The Raven! 

and top photo by Steve Bradley! 

2025 Old Salem Part II: Cruising the 50 on Day One

August 30 2025

Hillie Willie and I would be riding Day 1's 50-miler with his BF (Best Frenemy) DWA Papillon. Pappy and Connie were entered in the AHA Arabian championship 50, so her goal was to top 10 in that division. She was going to let Pappy move out faster than he usually does, and Willie is long-strided enough and fit enough now that he he and Pappy should easily be able to cruise along together at that speed. It turned out to be Willie’s very comfortable moving-out pace.

Pappy got to lead because he gets really wound up if Willie trots beside him or too close behind him, and Pappy was really wound up at the start anyway because he thinks he’s a racehorse, which he never was, but he could’ve been, and he was out to conquer everybody in front of him. 

But after the first couple of miles, we ended up in this beautiful Bubble (nobody close in front or behind us) that lasted almost the entire first 25 mile loop. It was glorious. The day was glorious. The footing glorious. It was a cool morning, not smoky, the trails were perfect from Wednesday’s rains, and our horses ate up those two-track winding logging roads. We had a blast and got the 25-mile loop done in three hours.

Willie felt fabulous and strong the whole loop. But strangely, when we trotted out for Dick the vet, I thought I saw a slight bobble or two of his head as I glanced sideways, and Dick said there was something going on and he waved Joe the vet over to watch him trot out again. Oh dear! So I trotted Willie out again, and this time he was better, and Dick and Joe could not pinpoint what or where the "something" was, and it wasn’t consistent. Connie saw it, and she said she didn't know what that was. Never seen it before. Dick asked me to come back before we went out on the second loop and I said absolutely, I wouldn’t take my horse back out on a 25 mile loop if he was at all questionable. 

During the vet check I purposely didn’t try to find any stiff muscles, and I didn’t walk him around at all, just let him eat and rest and drink, because if there was anything going on, I wanted it to show up when I trotted him out again. When we went back for a trot out before we left on the second loop, Dick and the vet Robert watched him trot out, and said maybe they saw something and maybe not, but it was much much better, if it was even there at all. Dick said I could go out. I said I’d start out and if I felt anything I’d turn right around.

Well. I tried for 10 miles to find any kind of bad step or anything, and I couldn’t find one. So then I just quit worrying about it, and we had another great loop. We had a Bubble for a while, then lost it when four riders caught up with us and we played leapfrog for a while, and Pappy got all wound up again, and Willie got a bit wound up. I'd switched him to his jaquima halter for this loop, but he wasn’t uncontrollable, so that was good. We kept moving along at a good pace, and finally got a comfortable Bubble again ahead of the riders for the last part of the loop.

I still couldn't feel a single bad step, and Willie felt so strong and powerful. I am so amazed at this horse at how easily he just cruises along, and how he really seems to like it.

We finished that loop in 3 1/2 hours, and because there was a kerfuffle with trail markings, quite a few people ahead of us missed the correct trail unfortunately. We almost did, but we figured it out right away, fortunately. So that’s how we ended up in fifth and sixth places. And honestly, I couldn’t give a hoot about where I finish, I just want to complete my rides with a sound and healthy horse. In the end, nobody remembers where you finish, it doesn’t matter. The healthy sound horse matters.

I was holding my breath for the trot out, but Willie looked perfect. Another 50-mile finish for Hillbillie Willie. 

Go Standardbred!!!

So, during the ride when I thought my horse might end up lame, I thought, just let us get a completion on this ride, and we won’t do anymore this weekend. But on the second loop when my horse felt so strong, and didn’t take a single bad step, I thought we might do an LD on day two and/or day two and three. I would trot out for the vet in the morning and see if he could see anything. And of course if I started and felt anything at all, I'd just turn around back to camp.

Also, there was still that rooster chicken hanging around ridecamp. He made himself right at home front and center stage during the ride meeting and dinner.

**top photo by Steve Bradley** 
We let Pappy get a ways ahead of us before I let Willie go by Steve. He shifted to High Gear Pace to catch Pappy, so yeah that's his racing pace in the photo!

Hillbillie Willie’s Crazy Daze of Summer

July 19 2025

It’s always fun to go to a new ride. Hillbillie Willie loves new trails. And Crazy Daze, near Spokane, Washington would be slightly cooler than home, and in the forest, so, shade! It was rather a long drive (around 9 hrs) for a one-day ride, but, it fit well in our schedule for the upcoming 3-day Old Selam ride on august 29-31, where my big lofty goal is three 50s on Willie. (Subject to change of course.)

This time Willie and DWA Papillon would be making the trip, Pappy being Willie’s BF (Best Frenemy), as opposed to his BFF - Best Friend Forever DWA Barack.

Our ridecamp and the ride would take place in the Riverside State Park, over 9000 acres along the Little Spokane and the Spokane rivers. We’d be riding briefly on loop 1 and 2 along the inviting cool green Spokane river.

As usual Regina Rose chauffeured Connie and me and our steeds to the ride. Chris Sprague took over the ride this year, and thank you to Chris and to the ample volunteers who helped! Unfortunately only 12 started the 50 and 11 started the LD, but there were a good number of trail riders who also rode and had fun.

It was an early 6 AM start, and Connie and I fell in whenever we found a nice bubble. We weren’t out to win, just to finish! Willie and Pappy had never ridden together, but Pappy is fitter than Willie, and I figured they might be able to match pace pretty well together. And anyway pretty much Willie was not going to let his BF get out of his sight on the trail since they travelled all this way together!

Loop 1 and 2 were the same, a 20-mile loop, with loop 3 being a smaller inner 10-mile circle. After a couple of miles along a soft single track trail, we dropped down into the aptly named Deep Creek, devoid of water but a rocky boulder-y SOB with a good rocky climb out. 

Pic by connie

The ponies took turns leading for a few miles, but any time Willie was in front, he wanted a small bubble with Pappy. He’d slow down his trot as much as possible to keep Pappy close, and he’d turn his head one way then the other, never straight, because he was keeping his Popeye eyeballs on Pappy. Pappy really wanted to be in front anyway, because he got a bit anxious following behind, so it just worked out best that Willie and I stayed behind him. Willie’s bubble was still pretty small, he did not want to be more than two horse lengths behind Pappy! He’s not like that when he rides with other new Instant Best Friends on other rides. He can go far in front or far behind them, (or solo), but when he’s with Pappy or Barack, his bubble shrinks a lot. 

BFFs when they are eating grass together on the trail

Not so much BFFs when Willie dares to trot beside Pappy

It was a fun day, hot but not too hot, working our way along the woods, through some nice grassy fields, above and briefly along the Spokane River. We did a lollipop on the first two loops where a nice couple took our numbers and re-supplied us with cold water! Water troughs were every four miles or so, and the horses really appreciated that. As did I, because by loop 2 I was dunking my cool vest in every one of them and sponging the horses off.

Low clearance

Vet check

At the second vet check, after 40 miles, Pappy had a slight hitch in his gitalong (probably found that rock with his name on it), so, oh no! Willie would have to go out and do the last 10-mile loop solo! So when it was time, I climbed aboard, and I urged him into a trot leaving camp, leaving behind his BF. The first mile or two Willie was a bit sad, but then, he just went into his efficient agreeable forward trot, enjoying some new trails in the forest. We didn’t encounter anybody except for a couple of pleasant bike riders who pulled over for us, and then suddenly we were back in camp, back for the finish and a re-uniting with BF Pappy.

At Willie’s last ride, City of Rocks, it took him a while to pulse down at the vet checks and finish, and his pulse was a good 10 beats higher all day. Here at Crazy Days, it took him a few minutes to pulse down at each vet check, so I wasn’t going to show for BC, because I knew he wouldn’t have a good CRI. I got talked into it though, so we showed. And I was right, his CRI was 54-72. But everything else was good, so another 50 miles in the books for Hillbillie Willie!

Willie pacing along!

Pic by Adrienne

Holy $hit Bullwinkle

July 26 2025

Hillbillie Willie loves riding new trails. He is also loving staying the Spa at DWA Arabians in Bellevue ID. Helen was kind enough to give Willie and Connie’s 3 horses refuge from the Owyhee heat for a while, and between my work days I’m able to come up for a few days at a time. Willie LOOOOOOOOVES walking around the farm sampling all kinds of GREEN GRASS (of which there is zero at home), green weeds, green alfalfa, green lawn grass, etc. Not to mention it is cooler here and the bugs aren’t so bad.

Today DWA Papillon and Connie, Willie and I went out for a ride on the BLM foothills near Bellevue for a good uphill workout on great footing. We were far away from the busy Ketchum/Sun Valley trails that are inundated with speedy bikers and loose outtacontrol dogs which make riding some of those trails on horseback impossible (and can sometimes make for scary hiking).

Willie led the way for a while, trotting up a soft 2-track road alongside a creek lined by aspen trees. 

Then Pappy took over the lead, cruising along, then - BRAKES! Pappy wheeled a bit, and Willie just braked behind him.

It was a giant moose! Holy $hit Bullwinkle! 

We’d startled him and he certainly startled us! He watched us and we watched him. Big daddy! There are moose in this area, Connie has spent plenty of time hiking and looking for a moose, but she’d never seen any, and when we least expected it, we came across this giant moose! Willie wasn’t worried at all (he has seen moose on the Old Selam ride, though not on the trail and not this close!), and he just curiously watched the beast.

Luckily Monster Moose was more interested in avoiding humans, and we were just fine with that. He went up and around a stand of trees and ended up back on the trail in front of us. We gave him plenty of space and kept walking upward (we wanted to stay on this great trail), and eventually he disappeared, probably back down in the brushy creek. We made plenty of noise as we rode along so any other moose would know we were on the trail!

The horses got a good uphill workout till we ran out of road/trail, and we walked back down. Pappy was all amped up from the moose, while Willie was the one mostly lingering and enjoying the great grass along the trail (he’s usually all business and won’t eat).

Then we headed up a harder steeper hill toward a ridge, trotting much of it to near the top. When we reached the ridge, the road went onward and upward, but that was a great workout and a great wildlife encounter for our boys today!

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!

This Standardbred Can Canter!

March 6 2025

I’ve let Hillbillie Willie pick the gait he wants going down the endurance trail, which, despite him being a pacer on the racetrack, is mostly a nice trot on the trail. Over the years he’s rounded up and balanced out to have a smooth trot, and even his pace now is a smooth gait.

One of the conditioning methods I use if for some reason I can’t ride, or for a change of routine, is liberty in the arena. Willie works hard solo, but he can be especially enthusiastic if he’s competing in the arena with/against his bromance bro DWA Barack. They both get some serious workouts in, because Willie always has to be in front, and sometimes Barack will sneak-and-squirt by him just to mess with him, and Willie has to work hard to get ahead of him again.

With the round circles in the arena, Willie’s started shifting into a canter more, (and often some other gait like a spinaroonie pacealope - oh, if I could just bottle that!), so over this winter in the arena (when/if it was dry) I started asking him for a canter. He’s gotten the right lead canter down so well he can do several loops in a canter and even slow it down. We’re still working on the left lead… I figure that since pacers on the track are discouraged from breaking gait, and they race to the left, it’s just harder for him. That’s my theory anyway.

The other day we had a good conditioning ride out on the trail, and at two different places, where Willie likes to pick up speed anyway, he slipped smoothly into a right lead canter, and both times he held it easily (and not speedy) for at least a quarter mile. I swear that horse was so proud of himself that he could show it off so well!

 

 

Last Ride of the Season: Hillbillie Willie’s Trick or Trot

October 29 2024

My Oscars speech:

This weekend could not have been accomplished without help. I forgot Willie’s bridle. No way would I have started him in his lovely hybrid Jaquima halter (and, turns out, No. Way. could I have ridden him on the first loop in that!!!) So, mucho mucho thank you to Stevie, who supplied a headstall that fit Willie’s big honkin' Standardbred head, and thank you to Layne, who happened to have in her barn the exact same big honkin’ kemberwick port mouthpiece bit Willie uses! (He hates a snaffle). Both of those saved my bacon whilst Willie was On Fire the first loop!

In Endurance riding, you have to be flexible. Have goals, yes, but leave them subject to change, depending on your horse, depending on the day. My goals for the last ride of the season were two LDs at the Trick or Trot ride over the Eagle Canyon trails. And of course a calm start with a finish at the end! I hoped Willie had the same goals.

No matter how you slice it, in the spring or fall, the trails at Eagle Canyon are hard. Willie is not a hill horse. He *can* climb hills, but they are hard on him, and often he just isn’t comfortable on the downhills. And everything on these trails are up, or down, with little flat in between. 

It was near freezing in the morning, so we saddled up early and walked around camp for 20 minutes before the ride. Willie had plenty of energy but was calm. When I mounted up amongst the witches and headless horseman and skeletons (it was Halloween), he stayed calm. When the trail was open, we strolled out side by side with Karen and Riley, and Willie stayed calm as we started trotting up the long hill (first of a thousand) out of camp. We trotted (uphills) and walked (downhills) with Riley for a mile or two, after which Willie started revving up. By the time another mile passed, he was like, Alright already, time to move. 

Hopes for a slower ride went out the window then. Willie wanted to go, so we went! It really does no good fighting him for mile after mile, because he’s wasting as much energy revving as he would if he was just moving out. There were gopher holes, and some badger holes to be a bit careful of, but he’s pretty sure-footed and pays attention, more-so when he’s moving out than when I’ve got an anchor hold on him. 

I always tend toward the conservative - that’s my endurance upbringing - looking forward to finishing one day and riding the next day, but after a while, I gave up and let him go. Willie’s not so much about having to get to and be in the front; he just likes to move out and have a space in front of him (that coveted Bubble a lot of us like), to adventurously fly down an open and new trail, the bigger view the better, the twisty-er the trail the better. I really think he likes the feel of the wind in his mane and tail! I know he loves the Endurance trails, which are soooooo much better than running round and round and round a racetrack.

In the April 25-miler at Eagle, the first few miles he was on crack and legs spinning every which way, and at the first vet check, he had a hitch behind and was pulled. Today, I just figured with a hard fast 12-mile first loop, either he’d pass the vet check and we’d go on to loop 2 (where I knew he’d slow down), or if he got pulled, it had just been a hard fast first conditioning loop of 12 miles, and it was fun.

He zipped along happily on a loose rein, up and down and up and down, and the 12 miles flew by, and we arrived back in camp some 18 minutes ahead of the next rider. Not my intention! But happily, he was already pulsed down when we arrived, and he was sound! Forty minute hold and we were off on loop 2.

We did take loop 2 easier. I let Willie pick the pace. Trot or canter or pace where he wanted to, walk when he wanted to. Nearing the end of loop 2, he was taking more of the downhills at a walk, and I even dismounted to walk down several long steep hills. As long as I knew I could climb back on him at the bottom! He drank deeply at the water troughs (yay!) and the only other horses we saw on loop 2 were in the distance on the 50-miler, and a few trail riders out for their own fun.

Willie pulsed down right away when we got back to camp, finishing first, trotting out sound (yay!!!!), and later just missing Best Condition by a point or two. So close! Nora’s Portia finished second, after taking a tumble a couple of miles from the finish and bruising Nora spectacularly (but nothing broken!!) and took Best Condition.

I was thrilled with Willie’s ride, and thought I’d just end our season on that note. He didn’t eat great throughout the day (he got A's on his gut sounds at the first vet check and finish, and his pulse was always low, so nothing was wrong), and day one was just one tough ride for a not-hill horse, even though it was only 25 miles. We didn’t get our two days of riding in, but a sound finish on a hard ride - a perfect end to a season of Standardbred fun!

Top photo by Steve Bradley!