Hillbillie Willie's City of Rocks Endurance Ride: Day 1

June 21 2019

When I saw Deb and Jack (Jackpot Jackson), I knew I wanted Jack as Willie's mentor/riding partner at City of Rocks. Jack is big, big-strided, and steady. I just knew he'd keep Willie calm during the start - which to me is the most important part of an endurance ride. I'm getting too old (and wimpy) to have a hot horse at the start of a ride (ahem Finneas!). Once I get through the first 5 or 10 miles, Willie will calm down... but isn't it nice just have a calm horse from the start!

I sort of stole Deb and Jack from Nance and Fancy and her riding partner, but, this was all about Willie :)

And you know what happened? The start went perfectly. Jack was relaxed and in no hurry. Willie absorbed all that, and he was relaxed, and in no hurry - none of that bouncy-hot-wiggly-jiggly-pacey bone-jarring trot/pace/trot, worrying about catching the competition ahead him.

Even when Mike and Taladega went by us at the start, both of them having a discussion with each other about slowing down and enjoying the scenery, Willie just trotted on, steady and relaxed with his mentor Jack.

The entire day, in fact, was just beautiful, mostly sunny with a lovely afternoon edge-of-a-thunderstorm, and calm steady and smooth! Willie felt great from start to finish, and he finished Day 1 fit and ready to continue on to Day 2!


on Box Top trail, early part of loop one in City of Rocks Nat'l Reserve. It's one of my favorite scenic parts of the park. We're following Deb and Jack, and in front of her is Mike and Dega, who have come to somewhat of an understanding.


This is Kimi Linnell and her Standardbred mare Sego Lily. We got to leapfrog each other a couple times on the way to and in Castle Rocks State Park. Go Standardbreds!


Willie leading the way back home, on the Lathe Trail in CORNR


The incomparable Deb and Jack, catching the edge of that storm that didn't scare me!

More stories and ride photos at:
http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019CityOfRocks/

Hillbillie Willie Takes on City of Rocks: Pre-Ride Prep

Sunday June 16 2019

It was Steph who suggested I try riding her horse Hillbillie Willie, the off-the-track Standardbred, in all 3 days of 50's at City of Rocks Pioneer endurance ride on June 6-8 near Almo, Idaho. It's takes place in and around City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park, and it's the first 'leg' of the Idaho IronHorse 'triple crown', the other 2 being the 3 days of the Top O' The World Pioneer in July near Spencer and the e-day October Autumn Sun near Gooding.

What a great challenge! Willie is only 7; it's only his third year of endurance riding. Could he do three days in a row?

During his first year, he finished 5 out of 6 50-mile rides - his one pull resulted from bruised feet during a ride. That's when we learned that he didn't have real tough feet (is that a Standardbred thing? a racehorse thing? just a Willie thing?) and he needed pads. End of that year he was AERC's high mileage Standardbred, presented by the United States Trotting Association in partnership with the AERC. He also finished 2 back-to-back 50's at the incomparable Moab Pioneer ride at the end of the season.

Willie finished all 3 of his 3 rides last year (one 25, two 50s); this year he'd completed April's Tough Sucker 50 before City of Rocks.

I've spent the last year working on calming and slowing him down, getting him off the bit, collecting, going down the trail with his head lowered and relaxed, and ingraining a steady (not racy) trot. Though I can fake it, I'm always a little nervous at the start of his rides, because I don't want him to get nervous and wound up. It wastes a lot of energy, and it can be rough to ride. At City of Rocks, whether we did 1 or 2 or 3 days, I just wanted him to have calm starts. I wanted one riding partner that could match his big stride and who would be a good mentor, and I hoped he could ride much of it on a loose rein. And I didn't think ahead to doing all 3 days; we just went vet check to vet check.

Pre-Ride highlights:

Willie says hi to his pals and mentors, whom we rode with in this year's Tough Sucker: Cousin Hawk (JAC Winterhawk - 2500 miles and 6 BCs) the gray, and Uncle Mal (Fire Mtn Malabar - 7300 miles and 48 BCs) the bay

Willie meets the famous Dave Rabe (72,000 miles) and his amazing grays, White Cloud (10,000 miles), Rushcreek Okay (8800 miles), and Chey's Cocamoe Joe (6400 miles)

Willie and Jose play in the stinky mud pond, after which I took Willie to vet in and didn't clean him off for Jessica the vet. She loved him anyway.

Willie (r) meets new Standardbred pal Sego and Kimi Linnell!

More photo stories to come, and more ride photos & stories at

http://www.endurance.net/international/USA/2019CityOfRocks/

Hillbillie Willie and the Mormon Crickets

Wednesday May 1 2019

GAAAAHHHH - a new mormon cricket hatch, a swarm of millions! 

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the ground starting to move ahead of trotting Willie - we'd powered up the Rim Trail and rejoined Spring Ranch road, heading toward the Owyhee mountains when it began. But it wasn't the ground moving; it was a million little inch-long crawling jumping flopping things - baby mormon crickets!

In some cases, baby animals can be ugly-cute (think warthogs)… but there is NOTHING cute, at all, about any-sized mormon crickets. Disgusting creatures. Mormon crickets can't hop straight; they just flop, in all directions, sideways and upside down. When one dies, the others swarm and eat it. They can make highways dangerously slick when they get run over (then the others swarm to eat the dead ones, and get run over, etc). There are never just a few mormon crickets, which one could cope with, but swarms. They get big and bulbous and they are uncoordinated and ugly and creepy and gross. Even horses think so - just ask Hillbillie Willie!

Willie's spook is more of a duck-jump, and when he saw the ground begin moving beneath him with these strange crawlie-jumpy things, he began duck-jumping back and forth and back and forth, because he didn't know which way to spook! He lowered his head and shook it in aggravation, and the durn crickets bopped him in the nose when they flopped upward, and he really disliked that!

I urged him to keep up his trot - I mean, he for sure wouldn't want to walk through those things, and *I* was for sure not getting off to walk, and I was for sure not going to fall off - can you imagine the horror! Most scary were the bushes with clumps of flopping crawling crickets beneath them, making the leaves shudder and shake. 

We rode through at least a mile and a half of these creatures, and every single one was a baby - not an adult in sight anywhere. Where do they suddenly come from anyway - spontaneous combustion??

They reminded me of the White Walkers, the walking dead in Game of Thrones - they just kept coming on and on, swarms of them. I've heard of the crickets dying and making bridges of the dead bodies to keep moving onward across a creek. (Like Game of Thrones Season 8 Episode 3, where the dead made a bridge to cross the burning barrier - creepy!)

While I gagged and bemoaned out loud this dreadful event, Willie bravely kept up his trotting through the incessant pool of mormon cricket babies. When we finally left their territory, Willie was still shaken up a while - trotting along and lowering and shaking his head as if to shake off the daytime nightmare!

above photos is Hillbillie Willie on another ride…. not pictured are the mormon crickets. If only I'd had a video camera!

Hillbillie Willie's National Geographic Moment

Sunday April 21 2019

"Get off the web and into the wild" is the campaign of the PNTS - Partnership for the National Trails System. PNTS is encouraging people to "pledge to turn your gaze from your phone and computer screen to your natural surroundings and explore a park, trail, wildlife refuge, or forest near you - even your backyard. You never know what you might discover!"

Easy for me - Hillbillie Willie and I get into the wild on a regular basis. We're surrounded by BLM high sagebrush desert, 6 miles below the Owyhee mountains, in the southwest corner of Idaho, in one of the least populated counties. On just about every ride we see some kind of wildlife: deer, antelope, sage grouse, chukar, coyotes. Willie - the off-the-track Standardbred racehorse - is quite sensible and doesn't get alarmed: he enjoys encountering the wildlife too.  

The very day I took the PNTS pledge, Willie and I had a fabulous National Geographic moment.

As we started riding down the narrow and at-places-steep Tower Trail ridge, we surprised a herd of 8 mule deer in a fold of the hills below us. We stared at each other momentarily, till the deer decided to evacuate. However, instead of moving downhill away from us, the lead doe angled straight ahead and up, aiming for the trail we were on. As we popped around a little corner, the herd had just reached the narrow trail 15 yards ahead of us; their sensible option was to run on down the trail, or to seemingly irrationally leap over the precipice down the 80-degree cliff.

There was a moment's hesitation before the lead doe committed: then she hurled herself over the edge. One by one the others followed unquestioningly - like a waterfall over a cliff - catapulting, catching air, landing 20 feet down the slope before touching ground again. The adrenaline enveloped the herd as they hurtled downward; when one stumbled she'd leap and fly another 30 feet downhill; when another almost fell down she sprinted faster down the hill with the others rocketing recklessly after. The herd's mad charge left dust curling down the cliff and they were gone before Willie even got to their leaping platform.

If I can anthropomorphize here a bit, there may have been a touch of prey-fear in the deer, but what I really sensed was arrogance - their utterly unrivaled and untouchable grace and speed, knowing that, even if this little human had wanted to, I did not have the capable mount, nor the guts, to follow them; and even if I was the Man from Snowy River and gave chase over the cliff on my horse, I could not have gotten anywhere close to them. The deer picked the steepest cliff - because they could.

A camera would have gotten a fabulous video, but I had my hands full with an excited horse! Willie gave off his own excited Deer Snort and I had to use a bit of focused riding to keep him on the trail.

It was an extraordinary deer encounter neither of us will ever forget!

#getoffthewebandintothewild

#natgeomoment

Goodbye Dudley

My heart is forever shattered.

Belesemo Dude - Dudley
2002-2019

#BestHorseEver

#HorseLove

#TheDude

#MagnificentBeast

#RainbowBridge

#LaminitisSucks 

Another Tough Sucker for Hillbillie Willie

Monday April 8 2019

Hilbillie Willie had a terrific seasonal debut in the Owyhee Tough Sucker 50 mile ride this weekend.

We rode with "Uncle Mal" and Naomi, "Cousin Hawk" and Lee, perfect mentors for this young whippersnapper Standardbred racehorse-turned-endurance horse.

Here are a few shots from the scenic (green!) desert ride along the Snake River, around Wild Horse Butte, over the Oregon Trail.

Wild Horse Butte ahead
Love the long Standie neck, no?

That's the Snake River

Snake River
Love the long Standie neck, no?

Snake River - the trail in reverse, completely different scenery!

on the Hallelujah trail, looking at the Owyhee mountains

Willie's ride story is here on Endurance.net

Story Behind the Photo: Tevis in Colorado

March 13 2019

I’ve ridden horses around the world, but this Colorado #betweentheears photo is one of my most favorite memories ever. Why? Because I am riding Stoner, a future Haggin Cup winner, with Garrett Ford aboard The Fury, a Haggin Cup winner, and future Tevis Cup winner, and dear Kevin Myers aboard Auli Farwa, a future Haggin Cup and Tevis Cup winner. Behind me, not pictured, is Rusty Toth riding Take A Break, a future Tevis Cup winner. I am so honored to have been in such amazing, elite company, both two-legged and four-legged.

#StoryBehindThePhoto #HorseStoryBehindThePhoto #EnduranceLegends #TevisCup #HagginCup #EnduranceRiding #AERC #AERCEndurance #DistanceRiding #ArabianHorse #LifeThroughTheEars #LifeBetweenTheEars