Fort Howes Day 2: It's All Mental

Sunday June 7 2009

This time, it rained all night, and turned to a dozen forms of precipitation, all of them involving some form of ice, till late afternoon. It turned the trails into a mire of treacherous footing. "A mental ride," a couple of riders said.

Despite the conditions, there were still lots of smiles from riders and crews, if not in happiness then from a sense of humor. People love this ride, and the Stevens who put it on, and they keep coming back to do it again.

For the full ride story, see the Fort Howes page on endurance.net.

Here are some photos to give you the flavor of the day!

Julie Jackson-Biegert and Nitro, winner of the 100.




Oops! A slip on the slick ground.


Horse coming in to camp in the snow




Flurries in camp.


Heading back out into the snow!


Blankets off for trot outs.


Blankets back on immediately after - several blankets.


The snow turns back to sleet.


This rider was doing her and her horse's first 50. "I'm a wimp and I'm surprised I'm still going!" She was tickled with how much mud was all over her stirrups and legs. She finished the ride. Think of how enjoyable and easy all the rest of her endurance rides will be when she has good weather and terrain!


Still beautiful, despite the weather.


Horses bowed their heads moving into the blowing snow and rain.


Suzy Hayes and Tezero's Gold.




Trotting out for the vet.




This fellow came all the way from Texas but got kicked on the trailer, so he didn't get to ride. OBVIOUSLY he was bored. He kept pestering his pen-mates, trying to get someone to play with him.

2009 Fort Howes Endurance Ride - Day 1

Saturday June 6 2009

Mud, Anyone?

It rained all night, and just stopped for the start of the 75 mile ride at 6:30 AM. The skies stayed gray and threatening all day, though we lucked out and didn't get any rain. It was cool all day, and the temperature dropped to the low 40's (or less) by evening. Those who were clever enough to bring winter clothes stayed somewhat warm (lucky me!) and those who didn't think to bring muck boots got their riding shoes a bit muddy (unlucky me!).

If you want the full ride story, go to the Fort Howes page on endurance.net.

Here are a few photos from the gray - but quite pleasant and fun, and always beautiful - day.

10-year-old Granger Eichhorn riding his first 50 on his cute pony, with his dad, and trotting out at a vet check.




Two ladies on the 35.


No matter which way you pointed your lens, it was beautiful - even this little swamp!


Three gals having fun on the 75. Young Rider Kirsten Kimbler on the right finished 3rd.


A young rider at the vet check.


10-year-old Coletan MacLeod with his horse Zorro's SeaBiscuit, doing their first 50.




When you come to Montana, bring yer slickers! These 35-milers are prepared for the rain! (Which miraculously didn't come today.)


Jan Worthington (69 years old) and Leon coming in off their 3rd loop. Look how good Leon looks!


Three riders in the 50 sprint for the finish line.


Jan and Leon win the 75! Happy campers. Leon got Best Condition also.

2009 Fort Howes Endurance Ride - Friday

Friday June 5 2009

Here's a short list of essential items to bring along if you are planning to go to the Fort Howes endurance ride on the Circle Bar Ranch in southeastern Montana in June.

Shorts and tank tops.
Long underwear, winter fleece and wool layers, hat, gloves.
Very good rain gear.
Muck boots.
A sense of humor.
At least 3 changes of everything.

If you have all that, you'll stay comfortable and have a great time no matter what the conditions.

The first thing you might notice when you get to this ranch 20 miles south of Ashland is the simple beauty of the setting in the rolling hills of the Custer National Forest, at about 3000'. Bill Stevens' great great grandfather homesteaded here in 1883 - he was a former sea Captain from Massachusetts - and Bill and Jan's girls are the 6th generation on this ranch. You could say ranching is in their blood.


You could say endurance is too - this is the 13th year the Stevens have put on the Fort Howes Endurance rides. And there really is an old Fort - it had been put up in the late 1800's, "just in case," though it was never needed for protection. The outer walls are still there, and occasionally a roof is, also. A big thunderstorm blew the last one off, and Bill just hasn't gotten around to replacing it yet.

This year was again a 2-day ride: Saturday was a 35, 50, and 75; Sunday was a 55 and 100, all but the limited distances being offered as FEI rides also. And Saturday's 50 was also the Region 6 AHA Championship.


It was warm enough for shorts when I arrived - and it got hot and muggy too, but I'd heard it had been raining the last two days, and more was forecast. Jan and Martin Marsh had come here to Forth Howes from our Owyhee rides two weeks ago - Jan had both her horses entered here, but was sitting on the fence. "We'll see what the weather does. No sense in risking anything if it rains like it did the last 2 days straight."

There were some big rigs that brought 3, 4, 5 horses. Darolyn Butler from Texas brought 2 rigs and 12 horses! Many people drove 2 or 3 days to get here. A lot of riders would be riding the 50, or 75, on Saturday, and the 100 on Sunday. You might say they were a bit deranged, or you might surmise that most FEI riders are either trying to qualify themselves or their horses under the most recent FEI qualification system, for the World Endurance Championship in Kentucky in 2010.


Jan Worthington and Grace Ramsey brought 4 horses from Illinois, a thousand-mile drive. Jan was one who'd be riding the 75 then 100. She'd be on Leon - Golden Lightning - on the 75. Leon and Jan were in the World Championships in Malaysia last year, finished the ride and were pulled at the finish - this after about knocked down by a lightning bolt and getting thrown to the ground. They then finished the President's Cup in February in the UAE, followed by some time off for Leon. He'd just finished 3rd in a 50 last month, so he was ready for a 75. And although Jan probably gets tired of hearing it, it's worth noting that Jan is 69 years old, and is stronger and fitter than most of us.

A couple of Utah-ans had shown up - Sue and Tony Hedgecock, and their almost-neighbor, Jeff Stewart. Jeff brought his horse for Sue to ride in the 50 on Saturday, and Sue brought her own horse to ride in the 100 on Sunday. I sort of cozied up to this group when Sue offered the use of her trailer, for coffee, warmth, "whatever you need." What I needed was a Starbucks coffee right off the bat, so I provided the coffee, and Sue provided the expresso maker.

Sue and Tony had gone out for a warm-up ride; their neighbor Jennifer Poling from West Virginia had joined them. They'd gone out a ways, when Sue and Tony were ready to turn back. Jennifer kept going, and going... and got lost out there. She was gone for hours, and eventually Bill took his airplane up to look for her. He did find her, but then I think her crew got lost and they then had to be found!


Vetting in for tomorrow's rides took place in the afternoon, and as evening approached, the Big barbecue grill was fired up. As the now-chilly wind whipped around the big tent, (I now had fleece layers on, not shorts), riders and crews gathered inside for the ride meeting and the best ranch-cooked steak and potatoes meal you'll find anywhere. Jan gave everyone a dismal weather forecast: 80% chance of thunderstorms tonight, 20-40% chance of rain tomorrow. She did remind everybody of the saying, "If you don't like the weather here, wait five minutes, and it will change".

I'd pitched my tent the night before, heeding the warnings of two people: "Make sure you're on high ground! My tent about washed away one year." It was up on higher ground and I figured I'd be fine.


But Jan Stevens said, "There's a comfortable couch in the house up there, you'd better grab it, it's going to get wet out here." "Aw heck, I've got a good tent, I'll be fine." "You'd better take the couch..."

I decided to listen to the locals who know what they're talking about, so I took down my tent, and moved to the house for the night.

Smartest thing I did all weekend. It started raining around midnight, and didn't stop till the start of the 75-mile ride at 6:30 AM.

Yellowstone

Wednesday June 3 2009

Oh, the forest! I love the desert, but it's when I get into a forest that it all comes back to me. The sound, the feel, and most of all, the smell, of pine and fir needles on a snowy pass. There is nothing like it. Oh, I miss the forest.

On my way to Montana to cover the Fort Howes endurance ride, I passed through Yellowstone. It really seems a crime to whiz through such a grand National Park, a felony to stop for a few minutes at spots and quickly jump out and take a picture, of Tower Falls, or a resting big-horn ram, or a raging river, and not spend time, like a few days, or weeks, exploring the backcountry (which I have yet to do). What do we really understand of a place if we only run the tourist route? We never seem to have, or take, the time to do it right.

But as I have no other time right now, that's just what I did.

Does it really count seeing wildlife if you see it from your car or you get out of your car and walk to the shoulder of the road? Well, sure it does. Immediately upon entering the park I saw a bald eagle on its nest (a sign announced: "Bald eagle area: no stopping or parking for next 1 1/2 miles" - if they'd posted nothing, probably nobody would have noticed). Then came a coyote, trotting down the shoulder of a road, delaying traffic, on what was probably a well-used trail for his ancestors along the river, before man came and put a road in. There was the bighorn sheep resting in a meadow, (always stop at a crowd of people, to see what they are looking at), buffaloes out the ying yang, elk with some HUUUUUGE racks, and of course Ravens. I missed the antelope with a newborn fawn that was keeping a coyote at bay. This was at a little rock rise over a meadow - this must be a normal spot for things to happen, because there were just too many photographers hanging out up there. And there were some big, I'm talking HUGE, lenses, some about as big as my car. I don't think even my binos are that powerful.


On my way out of the park today, 3 bighorn sheep were gallivanting along the edge of some cliffs above me. They didn't have to be at the edge, right where I could see them... but they were. I have to think the timing and placement of me and the bighorns was all arranged for me, because nobody else saw them.

And what do you think the animals think of us humans scurrying to take their pictures and standing around and pointing at them? I always scan the ridges and look behind me to see what else is around. (I learned this in a game park in Africa: if you are stopped to look at a lion on the side of the road, you better look at the other side of the road because there's likely an entire pack of lions watching you.)

Do you think they pick a day for amusement, go hide behind the trees, and send Randy Ram to go out and graze in this meadow, to stop traffic so people get out to look, so the animals can have their own entertainment for the day? "Hey Randy - it's your turn to be the decoy today."

My path through Yellowstone was chosen by the name of the pass: Dunraven. How could I not drive over Dunraven pass with the Raven? We ended up in a big campground by a busy road (the good smaller quiet campgrounds were of course filled up early). I took a short hike up a hill near the campground near dark, breathing in the cold thinner air at 6500 feet, hearing the raging Garner river below, getting a whiff of the sulfur smell of the Mammoth Hot Springs nearby.


In the morning I beat some of the crowd to the Hot Springs, taking a hike early on the boardwalks, then whizzing through the rest of them like an armchair car tourist (felony).








Time to move on toward Ashland and endurance... but I'll be back to Yellowstone for a week with my backpack and my own two feet one day.

Workin' For A Living

Workin For A Living

Monday June 1 2009

You gotta love a guy who loves to work, and works hard at what he does. Always eager to go to work, always works hard at work, always reluctant to leave work. He's at it seven days a week.

Steph takes her garden very seriously. Stormy is the resident lawn mower. He takes his job very seriously. Keep the lawn trimmed so it looks neat and doesn't distract from Steph's beautiful flower garden. (Once Stormy was so zealous at his job, he started trimming Steph's flower beds too. John had to throw his hat at him to remind him to mow the grass only.)

Like one endurance rider (who likes to ride hundreds, and rides a horse who's does 24 of them!) says, "Work never hurt a horse."

Stormy would agree with that.