The Equestrian Vagabond

Hillbillie Willie’s DECADE TEAM Ride!

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:07:36 +0000

June 9 2026

This is Part II .

Part I is here.

Day 2 City of Rocks:

After I vetted Willie in on Friday, I found out Erin was riding Ivan on the 50. IVAN!!! Many of us lust after Ivan, the 17-hand gorgeous chestnut hunk of 1/2 Akhal-teke, 1/4 Dutch harness horse and 1/4 Arabian. Many of us threaten to load him up in our trailers after the rides. When Erin agreed to try riding with us I was thrilled! I figured we’d match pace pretty well. And I’d get to ride with Ivan! (And Erin.)

Erin said, “Ivan just likes to be adored.” Well no problem there, because Willie becomes instant BFs with most anybody he rides with, and from the start, he did indeed adore Ivan.

And so it was that we started out relaxed on a loose rein at 7 AM the next morning. Ivan was so calm it rubbed off on Willie. Nothing to get excited about, just a 50 mile ride ahead of us. The thunderstorm forecast was completely gone and replaced with partly cloudy skies and 65* temperature. Perfect! And it was rather odd, being on the shorter horse for once!

Julie Bittick joined us for the first half of the first loop on her friend’s Almurath SFF, doing their first 50 together. Julie’s kind of a badass, she rode in and finished the Gaucho Derby in Argentina in February, and she’s going to ride the Quilty in Australia in July.

The original plan for the 25-mile loop 1 was a new trail down from the top of North Fork Circle Creek, down the back way into Castle Rocks State Park, which would cut off at least one way of that 5-mile straight road to Castle Rocks. Alas, at the last minute, we were told we couldn’t use that trail, so, after riding up into and through City of Rocks National Reserve, we had to do that 5 entire miles of road, each way. But with the long strides of Ivan and Willie, those ten miles were a nothing burger. When Ivan upshifted to his big trot, Willie set down into his racing pace, which gobbled up that road in no time.

The loop through Castle Rocks State Park took us up almost into low hanging clouds over Cache Peak. It was cool enough to slip on my extra rain jacket!

After a vet check back in camp at 5500 feet, where Willie’s pulse dropped to at least 44, the second 25-mile loop took us back up into City of Rocks, all the way to Indian Grove at the top at 7500 feet.

Though the mountains and the area around Almo were unseasonably dry, in the higher elevations there’s still some nice grass along the trails. Normally Willie is all business on a ride, but he copied Ivan and devoured what grass he could, all day long.

Creeks were dry, (no snow pack from the warm winter; only the one creek in Castle Rocks State Park had any water), but ride management (John and Carl!) put out ample water tubs, and the three troughs fed by natural springs up top were delicious for the horses (and for filling water bottles).

Descending from Indian Grove on North Fork Circle Creek trail, Erin the badass got off Ivan and ran the several miles down the mountain. I am not a badass, so I stayed on Willie, who was extraordinarily sure-footed. Going over some tricky rocky sections of the trail, instead of rushing and stumbling along to keep up with Ivan ahead, he would stop, put his head down, study where to put his feet, take a few steps, stop, and look carefully again before placing his feet thoughtfully. What a smart Standardbred!

I was able to open most of the gates on Willie, who’s such a good ranch horse, unless the chain was so low on the gate I couldn’t reach it. Erin got off to get a couple of those gates, and Ivan is so tall that unless there was something to stand on, she had to use her hands to lift her foot high enough to reach the stirrup to mount!

Both of us riding rather tall horses, we often had to duck flat on our horses’ backs as we went under some tree branches hanging over the trail. On the Boxtop trail as we trotted through a grove of trees, I must have glanced down at something and then got a WHACK on the front of my helmet so hard it snapped my neck back and almost knocked me backwards off Willie. That’s a PSA Public Service Announcement to WEAR A HELMET! Had I not had a helmet on, it would have whacked me square in the forehead and would have knocked me out, not to mention landing on my head on the trail.

All throughout the day I was amazed at what magnificent athletes these endurance horses are. Ivan and Willie traded off leading, and we just let them set the pace. I didn’t ask Willie to trot up hills, he just did it because he could and because he wanted to. We kept up our easy pace all day and finished in 10th and 11th, and once the vet gave Willie the final thumbs up…

We got our Decade Team!!!!!

There are so many people to thank for this and for this year’s ride, and if I miss you, consider yourself thanked!

Thank you to Hillbillie Willie!!!!!! He’s an amazing horse, fun, smart, hilarious, sometimes naughty, always entertaining.

Thank you to Steph Teeter for giving me this horse when she retired from Endurance and horses!!!!! Thank you to Nance Worman and Debbie Johnston for taking this epic ride on again as managers. Thanks to Regina Rose for hauling us there, and Connie Holloway for her support and for supplying DWA Barack, Willie’s BBFF as a traveling companion. Thanks Erin Hafla and IVAN for super fun company on our 50-mile ride! And Julie Bittick too who rode with us on the first loop. Thanks Veronica Stanley for the saddle fitting, and thanks to Cat for shooting Day 2 so I could ride!

As far as we Standie people can figure, Willie’s just the second Standardbred in endurance to achieve Decade Team status. Of course, there aren’t that many Standardbreds doing the sport, which is a shame, because they’re a super versatile breed. And if they’ve raced, they come with a solid fitness foundation.

*Cat Cook photo up top

Connie Holloway photo of Willie opening a gate*

Standardbreds rock !!!

8K527

Hillbillie Willie’s Decade Team Quest Part I: What could possibly go wrong beforehand

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 18:11:45 +0000

Friday June 5 2026

AERC’s “Decade Team” recognizes those equine and rider teams who completed at least one endurance ride (50 miles or more) each year for 10 years.

I’ve pretty much accomplished the main endurance riding goals I’ve had over 20+ years. Tevis Cup - check. Virginia City 100 - check. Ridden thousands of miles in beautiful country with good company - check. Even gotten a couple of Best Conditions - check. The only thing left I’d really like to accomplish would be a Decade Team. In all my years of catch riding, I got so close on one horse owned by Steph Teeter, 9 years on the best ever Jose Viola.

This is Willie’s 10th year in endurance riding. Could we actually really do it together????

I tried not to think about it too hard, and I wanted to get it over with early in the season, because, the longer you wait, the more your odds go against. There’s likely a bad fire season is coming up, with much of the West in a drought and everything already so terribly dry. When smoke is bad I won’t train, and rides might even get cancelled because of fires. Not to mention the skyrocketing gas prices with no end in sight.

So I set my sights on the Antelope Island ride April 18-19. Beautiful ride, the perfect terrain for Willie’s first ride of the season.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, here’s what:

April 18-19 - Antelope Island ride was cancelled! With much of the West having a terribly warm winter with little snow, or late snow that melted quickly and warmed right back up - the gnat hatch on the island came weeks early. That would have made conditions miserable for humans and horses, so ride manager Jeff wisely postponed the ride till October. (The week before the Antelope horse ride, the human Buffalo Run was also cancelled.)

May 4 - Willie and I rode over rattlesnake!!! Trotting along a home trail made narrow by tall golden cheatgrass, we passed over it before I even noticed it. It was a smaller one, and I have no idea if we hit it or if it struck after Willie zoomed by; I just know my heart was in my throat. This has been a big snake year; I’ve seen more diverse snakes in April and May than I’ve seen most entire years.

May 10 - Willie stepped on my foot. Made me howl! Normally he’s very aware and careful to never step on me, but the grass was tall and I had one foot back as I stretched forward with the other foot, and he never saw my poor foot that he walked on. Luckily nothing broken, I just hobbled around for a few days.

May 19 - I STEPPED ON A RATTLESNAKE!!!!! I stepped under the hay tarp before I looked, and when I lifted the tarp up, my foot was on a curled up snoozing rattlesnake! I don’t know who was more startled. I screamed, jumped backwards and fell down and smacked my head on a (luckily) plastic bin. I laid there shaking while the snake slowly unwound and stretched out and meandered underneath another tarp. It was almost 3 feet long. The only reason I wasn’t bitten was because the snake was snoozing and it wasn’t my time. (Also, I didn’t knock myself out or give myself a concussion from hitting my head.)

May 24 - Sunday we arrived at Ridecamp at City of Rocks (we arrive early so Connie and I can start hiking and marking trails in the parks), just missing a gnarly looking thunderstorm to the north of us. Also, there was a 70% chance of rain and thunderstorms for Saturday when Willie and I would be riding our 50! And you know me, I am terrified of lightning.

May 25 - Monday while out riding Willie on the park trails with Connie on DWA Papillon, we saw the blow-up of the Summit Creek fire (started by the previous day’s lightning storm) just over the mountain from Ridecamp. (See top pic, smoke above Willie's head, that's when it first started.) Fortunately the wind was blowing it away from us, but we’d be watching that all week.

May 28 - Thursday a horse got loose in Ridecamp, galloped through our pasture fence and took it down, and all 4 of our horses got out. Luckily it was during the afternoon when many people were around, so they were able to help me surround and catch our herd before they went far, and luckily nobody got hurt.

And so….. we finally made it to Saturday morning, Day 2, the start of our 50 mile ride!

See Part 2 is here.

Hillbillie Willie’s 2026 Eagle Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Mon, 04 May 2026 03:24:00 +0000

Sunday April 26 2026

Plans changed big time for the first ride of the 2026 season. I had Hillbillie Willie ready for a 50 at Antelope Island in Utah to start off the year. He’d never ridden on the island, and since I’d ridden it once long ago with Dudley, I knew this would be the perfect trail for him, and he was fit and ready.

Then two weeks before the ride (April 18-19), it was cancelled (postponed to October). Because of bugs! The dreaded gnat hatch was two weeks early due to a warm winter and little precipitation. For me the bugs - no-see-ums, gnats, mosquitoes - are always bad anyway at the island any time of year; I am a bug magnet. Even a human race was cancelled two weekends before the horse ride because it was so bad.

So, our ride plans changed. Next up was Eagle Canyon on April 25-6 almost in our back yard, at Eagle, Idaho in the foothills. And when I say foothills, that is one hilly ride. It can be a tough first ride of the year for any horse, and it’s real tough ride for a flat-lander Standardbred for his first ride of the year. I have yet to ride Willie on a 50 at Eagle and I probably won’t. I know my horse and that is not his kind of 50-mile ride. So, we’d ride a 25-miler on day 2, and I’d shoot day 1.

Two years earlier, when I used a 25-miler at Eagle to start the season, Willie had a hind end tightness after loop 1 and got pulled, so…. there was that to worry about, because I always have to find things to worry about.

And as always with Willie, I never know what I’m going to have underneath me when we start a ride. He might be calm, he might be on crack. He’s 14 now! You’d think he’d be predictable and calm by now. Saturday afternoon I took him on a short warm-up ride, a mile up to the water tank, where he was calm and forward and didn’t whinny once for his three BFFs back in camp. But on the way back, although he kept it to a walk, he felt ready to explode. Oh boy!

When Connie decided to ride her horse DWA Barack, Willies BBFF (Bestest Best Friend Forever), on the 25 on day 2 and we’d ride together, I knew it was going to be an easy start and a fun day! Willie and Barack hadn’t done a ride together in two years.

Connie pic!

Sunday morning we let most of the riders go out ahead of us, or at least we thought we did, because Barack hadn’t done a ride in almost a year, and Connie always has to be aware and alert riding him. Both boys started out smoothly and calmly, a nice working trot a half mile up a gentle hill till we hit the trails and the real hills. Willie was sooooooo happy to be with his BBFF!

We mostly had a nice bubble on the first 12.5 mile loop, cruising up and down the hills at a steady trot, both horses moving out and having fun. Not quite competing, but powering each other on. The hills were mostly still green from late spring rains, and though they’d had a downpour about a week earlier, there were only a couple of little boggy areas that were easy to negotiate. I always start Willie in a ride in his kemberwick bit in case I need brakes, but today he didn’t pull on me at all, because whyever would he want to get away from his beloved bro Barack!

I put Willie’s beautiful jaquima halter (made by Maria Phillips) on for his second loop, and again we just cruised along the trails, trotting on the rare flats and up hills, and walking down, sometimes dismounting on the steeper downhills. We passed a great horned owl nest with three babies spilling out of the nest. Two water crossings were unusually high, and Barack briefly thought about taking a bath in one of them, while Willie had a splash fest.

Very well-fed cows wandered everywhere, fat from green grass and trail marking ribbons that ride manager Layne and co had to keep going out and replacing. Only one corner through a homestead was missing ribbons at the turn - and it was only our loop’s colors because cows apparently think the green and orange ribbons taste best - but we knew where we were going. We hollered at a rider ahead of us several times to get her back on the right trails.

We let the boys trot right on into the finish, to see what their pulses would be and how long it would take for them to pulse down to 60. Barack was first down, a minute before Willie, and we found out we’d come in 3rd and 4th. We’d thought we were back near 10th or so!

Willie ended up getting both high vet score and Best Condition, with a CRI of 44-40, a fine start to the season. Go Standardbred!!!!

Next up: Aiming for a 50 at City of Rocks end of May!

connie pic here and up top!

Hillbillie Willie’s Trick or Trot

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:21:00 +0000

October 25 2025

After some fabulous fall weather, wouldn’t you know the clouds massed for the last ride of the season, the 2-day Trick or Trot Halloween ride in Eagle. My plans were to ride a 25 on both Saturday and Sunday to wrap up the season, depending of course on how my horse felt and how the weather was. I was prepared and psyched up for rain, because it was coming, but all still depended on footing.

I packed like 6 raincoats, 4 heavy coats, my still-to-be-used long chaps made of fleece on the inside and waterproof material on the outside, and a pair of shorts (just in case) plus various combos of riding gear, and Hillbillie Willie loaded up with DWA Papillon, DWA Barack, and DWA Saruq into Regina’s trailer Friday morning, and north we headed. Barack and Saruq were along for a vacay.

It’s the *worst* saddling up in the rain, and while it did rain a bit overnight, it was only drizzling when it came time to saddle up for the 8:30 AM 25-mile start on Saturday. Connie and Pappy had already set out on the 50 a half hour earlier, and Willie didn’t mind because DWA Barack and DWA Saruq had come along for the weekend and were keeping him company. (Saruq thought this was the Best Endurance Ride ever - come along to ridecamp and just eat all weekend!).

Willie and I had taken a warm-up hand-walk on Friday with Diamonds and Cat, and of course Willie took quite a shine to Diamonds, so they were going to be our riding partners on the 25-miler. Cat was dressed as a fabulous knight and of course Diamonds, 1/4 Shire and 3/4 Arabian, already looks like a knight’s steed, or a movie star horse.

Willie was a little amped as we warmed up around camp, but he kept his wits. Once trail was open, we actually started strolling out (yay!), then we picked up a (strong) trot. All the horses were feeling quite fresh in the cool light rain! We had about a mile along a flat road, and the further we went, the stronger Willie got, and when a high stepping hackney horse pranced past him, Willie cranked up the volume. The stronger Willie gets, the more he bows his neck and looks like a macho racehorse. Which he was, though at the track he motored down the track with his head up in the air.

We passed photographer Steve Bradley then took a left on a squishy 2-track road up into the Eagle foothills. Some spots were a little slick, but Willie was careful, and we had no slips. In fact the rest of the day things got wetter, and slippery-er in places, but Willie was so sure-footed, I had to think he raced in the mud, or he grew up in the mud. A lot of horses had trouble on the wet trails, and a good number of riders pulled partway through the first loop of the 50, but Willie was like a fish in water. After a couple of miles he stopped pulling and set to watching his feet, adjusting to the footing. If it looked slippery, he moved sort of cat-like, lighter, a little shorter strides, and if it looked deeper, he adjusted to that. I let him pick his path (sometimes he’d move over onto grass) and speed because he was making all the right decisions and taking care of both of us!

He wasn’t in a big hurry anyway, as now he not only had one pretty girl with him but two, Lady and Kinley joined in with us, and we just kept moving along steadily.

It kept raining on us, sometimes harder, sometimes lighter, but when we climbed up on a ridge we had wind and rain/sleet battering us sideways, and we got pretty cold and soaked (except for Cat in her handy waterproof knight’s outfit). You know how horses will turn their butts to the wind/rain, sometimes even when you’re riding them? Willie didn’t do that. He didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain, from the side or the front; he seemed to be enjoying himself. I sure was, particularly because he was so sure-footed and I did not have to worry!!

As I got cold and soaked on that ridge, I was thinking I might or might not continue on loop two after the vet check, because surely the footing was going to be worse by loop 2… but then we descended, the wind lessened, the rain even let up, and I thought that if Willie passed the vet check, and he looked good during the hold, we’d continue on.

A bonus was that I got a complete change of clothes on during the hold (and Willie stayed toasty and dry under two blankets at lunch), fleece/waterproof long chaps (made by Joyce Kellenberger) and a long raincoat, and out we went for our last 10-mile loop. Again Willie handled the mud with ease, and we all eased into the finish, for a fabulous last ride of the season for Willie! (After it rained later that afternoon, HARD, with lightning and thunder!!!, I wasn’t going to risk going out on for sure muddier trails for the 25 on Sunday).

Thanks to all those indomitable, intrepid, fabulous SWITnDR members, SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riders, our local club, for coming out to help in that awful wet cold weather you all stood or sat out in Saturday and Sunday while many of us had fun out riding where that weather wasn’t so miserable. And thanks to Debbie for putting this ride on, and may we all have fabulous weather in the spring at Eagle!

And big goal next year: a 50-miler gets us our Decade Team!!!! Fingers crossed!

So, About That Old Selam Chicken...

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 18:42:00 +0000

Sunday August 31 2025

By Sunday, everybody was used to that rooster chicken hanging around ride camp central. Why not, he was getting all kinds of good leftover scraps, and being admired by the humans.

At one of the ride meetings he startled Joe the vet when he jumped up on a little table by him.

Art took this one

A few people tried to catch him, but nobody could. And someone said that if someone caught him, someone might take him home. Maybe it was Hayley who would take him home. Maybe it was the Haflas. Or maybe it was Bentley.

But either way, the chicken socialized and pecked on all weekend.

Late Sunday morning, John Stevens came up to Ridecamp central, and he had his little mini rat terrier kind of dog, Spud, with him. John set him on the ground, and when Spud spied that rooster, he took off like a shot after him. Rooster chicken started running in circles, not all *that* hard, and the little dog was running as fast as it could, spinning his wheels trying to catch that chicken.

Robert the vet was sitting in a chair watching the chicken run circles around him, with the dog chasing for all he was worth, intent on catching this chicken that was twice his size, when the rooster suddenly jumped in Robert’s lap!

Robert jumped up holding the rooster,

who actually seemed quite content in Robert’s arms, while the dog leaped up and came down with a couple of tail feathers in his mouth.

John had a hard time trying to catch his might hunter dog, who was running circles around Robert and the rooster, still hoping to get a bigger mouthful of chicken, while rooster calmly and serenely settled in Robert’s arms and looked down at his would-be assassin.

The rooster caught, he was put into one of Regina’s big dog crates, and the hunt for his new owner commenced. Hayley’s mom Lindsay said “No! We don’t want a rooster! Who came up with that rumor?” Someone else said No, Bentley wasn’t taking a rooster home. Haflas were nowhere to be seen in the rooster conversation. Meanwhile the rooster seemed quite pleased with himself, hanging out in the big dog crate with his own bowl of water and dog food snacks.

Finally Karen B said she’d take the rooster. For real? Yes, and she was ready to pull out, so we toted the dog crate to her trailer, and slipped the rooster and crate in with Peanut for the ride home to Oreana and Bates Creek.

Rooster settled in nicely at Karen’s place. He’s happily crowing away early in the mornings, coming for food when Karen calls “chick chick chick” and ruling the roost, i.e. scaring Sylvester the cat, the Big Game Hunter. Sylvester thought *he* might have a chicken snack and started stalking the rooster, but the rooster made one cockadoodledoo at Sylvester, and the cat ran for cover.

“So meet Sam,” Karen said, “short for Selam. What else ya gonna call a rooster from the Old Selam ride camp.”

He’s the new Bates Crick Mascot!

Karen took this one at home, with Peanut and Sylvester admiring their new Companion

**Diane Stevens reminded me that Spud is a 9 month old 1/2 Jack Russel 1/2 Pomeranian**

2025 Old Selam Part III: Willie the Rocket Ship

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 23:32:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 22:06:00 +0000

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!

2025 Old Selam Part I: Before the Ride

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 19:05:00 +0000

Friday August 29 2025

I learned a lot!

Originally my lofty goal was to ride three days of 50s at Old Selam. This is one of my favorite rides ever, mostly along soft-footing old logging roads, gentle ups and downs with just a few climbs/downhills, ample water, and the lovely Boise National Forest, with the occasional wildlife sightings. More to come on that!

Willie was fit, from rides and from spending several weeks at the DWA Arabians spa in Bellevue with Helen, where I got to go up and ride him a couple times on some really good training rides. So he was ready. The question was me in the heat, and as the ride got closer, and the forecast showed it was going to get hotter each day, I decided to do a 50 on day one and then play the rest by ear. I just can’t handle the heat this year.

The three days of the ride would be Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We arrived on Wednesday. Wednesday afternoon ride manager Debbie asked me if I could go out with her and help mark a little bit of trail on foot that was left to mark on one of the loops (I'm always up for hiking and marking trail).

We went out on the ATV and checked some things, but ran out of daylight, so Thursday morning we went back out. She dropped me off at a spot and I had about a 2-mile hike of marking trail, and then I would meet her back on the road.

I ambled along the lovely, cool forest, which smelled so great because we’d had a great downpour the day and night before. It was so misty riding on the ATV that my glasses stayed fogged up. I hiked along hanging ribbons, keeping my eyes out for moose, and while I was hiking along a creek thick with willows, I came around the corner and WHOA, there on the hillside was the biggest moose I have ever seen.

It wasn’t just huge, it was HYUGE, a big bull moose, up the hill about 40 yards away, and he turned to look at me. (Of course I'm on foot so it looked even bigger, but. it was HYUGE.) OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I needed the moose to leave because my trail went below him, and I couldn’t hike all the way back to where I started. but how the heck do you move a HYUGE bull moose??

So, I crept forward to behind a lodgepole pine that had a trunk about a foot wide, and I started yelling and whistling at Mr. Moose. I hollered and I whistled myself blue in the face, and all he did was look my way and tried to zero in on me. I figured if he moved anywhere, he was going to move down to the trail and on into the willows. At least I *hoped* he would.

But instead, he started moving towards me! OMG. My heart started thumping really hard. I made myself very very small behind this tree and I shut up. He knew something was behind the tree.

And then he moved closer!!! OMG!!! I looked up this tree to see if I might be able to climb it if I had to, and believe me I could have if I had to. He moved even closer to within about 20 yards of me and I stopped breathing. And I prayed a couple of times. Keep moving to the creek. Keep moving to the creek.

I was trying to rack my brain as to what I knew about moose. I knew they hated dogs. I thought they didn’t like people, but I wasn’t sure. Later, Robert Ribley told me a scary story about nearly being attacked by a moose, and then Anne told me about a moose encounter she had where (long story) she suddenly found herself in front of a moose in her driveway, and she did the only thing that came to mind, which was to drop down and curl up and play dead like you do for a grizzly bear (turns out this instinct is a good choice). The moose actually came and sniffed her face while her eyes were watching its hooves before it wandered off.

I had an idea that moose couldn’t see very well, but that couldn’t stop him from getting irritated at whatever was spying on him from behind the tree. He crept a few feet closer, and I would inch around the tree trunk, trying to stay very skinny.

Finally, thank the Lord, he turned down to the creek and trotted on into the thick willows. I waited a little bit and got back to breathing normally, then I made a big wide swerve up the hill and around where he had been. OMG!!!!!!!!!

So then, Debbie picked me up on the ATV and we continued on with her driving and me hanging the ribbons, and we came to a creek crossing, which we drove into just fine and out of, but going up the other side was a short steep, super soft few lengths of sand. I saw that and said I’m skeered, and I jumped off! (I am afraid of ATVs if the road is not completely flat .)

Debbie tried to gun it up, but the sand was too soft and the four wheeler just dug four deep holes. So we were stuck, and stuck good. But. Debbie was smart enough to have had a winch installed on that ATV, so I got to learn about winching an ATV!

We tried one tree and then had to get a different angle and used another tree, and then had to move the winch hook to a third tree, but the winch was two inches too short, but Debbie had two belts for padding the tree and connected them together with a steel carabiner. I stayed far away in case something snapped and broke, but by golly Mighty Red the ATV got winched up that little hill with Deb nursing/steering it along and out of that sand and we hopped back on and kept on marking trail! I may never have to winch an ATV out of a spot again, but I know how now!

But we weren’t quite done with adventure. We had one more creek to cross, but it was more like a dammed up beaver pond, and with all the rain we had, the water was quite high, so it wasn’t even possible to lift your feet high enough and keep them dry because the ATV was like halfway under water, but Deb just gunned it, and Mighty Red swam and got through there, but coming out of the pond, OMG, the wheels grasped for traction in the mud, and there was a little hill, and the ATV did a wheelie, and I thought I was going to die, but before I could get too skeered and bail off we were out. Booya!!!! I hate ATVs but I love Mighty Red!

The rest of the day was pretty much boring, just the usual, vetting in my horse and getting ready for riding the next day!

Also, there was a semi tame rooster chicken hanging around ride camp central.

Hillbillie Willie’s Crazy Daze of Summer

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 21:17:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Sat, 26 Jul 2025 23:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 17:15:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 14:49:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 02:59:00 +0000

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!

Hillbillie Willie and the Last of the Autumn Suns

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 20:17:00 +0000

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!!!!!

Get-Away Horse at Old Selam!

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 01:59:00 +0000

*this is overdue… it came from notes I made and I just threw the rest together!*

Since Hillbillie Willie’s brain exploded at the start on his first ride this year, even though he’s steadily getting better, I am just not sure what he’s going to do. So… with the goal of riding all three days of LDs at the Old Selam Pioneer ride (one of our favorites) outside of Idaho City in the Boise forest on August 30-September 1, I was just hoping for the best, in our case being good calm starts and pleasant rides and completions!

We arrived on Thursday with clear skies, but sadly the next morning it was smoky, and it stayed that way the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t terrible in camp, but I debated about riding Friday Day One. It wasn't real bad except for up on a couple of the ridges where the smoke got pretty thick and made my eyes water and made me cough a bit. You wonder how it affects the horses. And what are you going to do? Everybody comes here for the ride, some people from far far away, and to get out of the smoke you either have to leave or you deal with it. Had it been really terrible I wouldn't have ridden, but still you worry.

Willie’s not all about racing on the trails. He’s really all about the social aspect of endurance. And everybody is his instant friend, so he's happy to go with anybody. He'll go by himself but he loves the socialization.

And in camp, as we've had to do all year this year, Willie and I practiced leaving his bondo boy buddies DWA Barack and DWA Papillon, going on walks by ourself away from them, and Connie would take hers on a walk one at a time. Connie was planning to ride three 50's switching horses, and I was hoping to ride Willie on the three 25-milers. Over the weekend, Willie gradually got to where he would only whinny once when he left his buddies.

Day One started with everybody just walking out of camp calmly when the “Trail’s open” call came. Cat and Haffir started to lead out, but Haffir was spooking at the pond on his right, so Willie just went out ahead, and we ended up in front on the first loop the whole way, loose rein… the whole day! He enjoyed riding with his new BFF Haffir.

We easily made it to the out-vet check with a little space to spare before the next riders came in. Willie kept looking for Barack and Pappy, although he pulsed down right away and he ate a little bit at the hold.

We headed out on loop two back to camp, just cruising along comfortably at a steady trot. Halfway through loop two, Nora and her beautiful golden Morgan Marvelous Portia zoomed past us at a gallop. Yeehaw! Nora called over her shoulder, “She's on fire!” Willie didn’t alter his gait, just kept up the same trot with Haffir behind him.

We cruised on in to camp for the finish, where Willie pulsed down right away, finishing second. We both had a really super fun day, and best of all was the calm start and riding on a loose rein!

Day two was another awesome calm start. Willie and I fell right in behind Natalie on her tall leggy saddlebred She’s Spotless (they’d tied for first the 50 on day 1), and Kathleen on her Arab Elokwent. They didn't mind us tagging along, because you know, Willie likes the social aspect, and he matched their pace, and he has learned to stay back and not impolitely run up other horses’ behinds.

We motored right along and again had a super fun first loop. The trails at Old Selam are so incredibly spectacular, rolling logging roads with super soft footing, creek crossings and plenty of water troughs everywhere. Willie didn't drink at all on the first loop on day two, but I knew he drank overnight. But you always wish your horse would drink!

When we got to where Steve Bradley was taking pictures, Natalie went first, Katie held back and then Willie and I waited behind her. Natalie took off like a rocket doing whatever kind of racking her gaited horse does, and Katie's Arab took off galloping next, and oh my god when I let Willie go he launched into an instant pace, like he must have done on the track, and ohmygod, sit deep hang on and enjoy the ride! I have never ridden that horse that fast at a pace, it was incredible! I’m glad I didn't start giggling because I would have fallen off. Although he was very smooth, thank goodness!

Shortly past Steve, we pulled up (giggling) by a meadow, where a moose and its baby were just leaving the other side. They stopped to turn and look at us, and our three horses stopped and stared. It was Willie’s first moose! I thought it was cows at first, and I think that's what Willie probably thought they were, because they were far enough away that they kind of resembled cows.

And on we went.

Coming into camp for the vet check the last couple of miles, Willie’s turbos kind of turned on so it was pretty much a pull-fest the last mile or two because Natalie and Katie’s horses were flying, and Willie was going to stay close to his new BFFs!

Arriving in camp, Willie didn't whinny for Barack or Pappy once (!). He pulsed down right away, finally took a good drink, and he got to hang out with his BFF Pappy on his 40-minute hold for lunch.

When it was time to head out on loop 2, Willie was actually the first one out time-wise, but we waited to let Natalie and Katie go out first. I didn’t want to be up front setting a fast pace. But Katie was another minute behind me, and then Rory on his Arab SCA Vision, so since Natalie waited for Katie, and Rory headed out first.

Then Katie and Natalie took off after Rory, and Willie and I fell in behind. Just out of camp, Natalie and Katie passed Rory and they took off like rockets to the moon. Willie wanted to go with them, and I said heck no Willie, we don't need to go that fast because I’ll just be hanging onto you like a tail feather, so slow down buddy.

It was a pull-fest again for the next mile or two, until the girls got out of our sight, which happened on a big steep hill where Willie was willing to slow down a bit because he was huffing and puffing like a steam engine, and then Willie realized he had a potential new BFF behind him, SCA Vision.

So soon after, I had a calm forward horse on a loose rein and we trotted the whole nine miles of the loop, stopping for water now and then, which Willie he didn't care for, but we easily finished our loop back into camp with Rory and Willie’s newest BFF.

Willie pulsed down right away for third place. Day one his CRI was 50-46, today’s CRI was 48-44! Go Willie!

Day three, everybody started out at a stroll, and Willie and his newest new BFF saddlebred Chicory with Samantha aboard, went out first. We just shuffled along the road out of camp, then off we went on the trail, just trotting. Not fast, not slow, just long-legged horse trots.

I had a loose rein the whole first loop and most of the day, it was so amazing. Willie and Chicory stayed together for quite a while, then Chicory slowed down, after Nora and her Portia passed us. That horse went by like a bullet again, and we let her go on, Willie not giving chase. Then Chicory slowed down, and Willie went on, just the same steady long-legged trot. He kept looking back and wandering about Chicory, but then he caught sight of Nora's mare (another potential BFF) up ahead. He didn't race to catch up with her but after a while he did, and we stayed with her for a while, until Nora slowed down.

Willie just continued cruising on at his same steady trot. He really loves the winding logging roads in the forest. Sadly we didn’t have any views because of the smoke, which was thicker in some places. He even stopped to grab grass along the trail a few times, which is great for him, since he’s mostly all-business.

A couple of miles from camp, Chicory caught up with us again. We trotted into camp together off the first loop of 16 miles. Willie pulsed down right away, and since he wasn't frantically calling for his buddy Barack back at camp at the trailer, we stayed and splashed around in the slop, or horse crack, or oat floats (made of water mixed with rice bran, oats, and carrots), which he got all over himself and me.

We waited for Chicory to pulse down, then we went back to our trailer where Willie ate with Barrack, then we were back out on loop 2. We just went out did our long-legged trot having the whole second loop of nine pleasant, beautiful miles to ourselves, Willie so willing and so awesome and so effortless. We even rode that last loop in our jaquima hackamore made by Maria Phillips of Vudu Tack & Crafts LLC and just had a lovely loop. Icing on the cake was, we came in first, finish CRI was 44-44, and icing on top of that dessert was that Willie got High Vet Score (!!!!), Best Condition (!!!!!!!!), first LD Pioneer 3-day horse, and Vet’s Choice Getaway horse.

My mind was blown! That was an exciting wrap to a fun three days in a row of 25's at Old Selam Pioneer. Willie and I really love that ride!

*those are Steve Bradley photos of us on trail!*

Hillbillie Willie's Bandit Springs

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:18:00 +0000

July 16 2024

Willie is a traveling Houdini this year. He's been to three rides that are new to him, first Mary & Anna Memorial ride in Oregon then sleeping Giant in Montana and now Bandit Springs in Oregon.

We were ready for a hard hot ride, though we knew it would be 10 to 20° cooler up in the Ochoco Mountains between John Day and Prineville than it would be at home.

We decided we'd do a 50 on day one, and play day two by ear.

The drive to ride camp was hot for the horses in the trailer, though as long as we were moving it wasn't too bad. We tried the trick of adding a couple of bags of ice to the shavings in the trailer; that's supposed to keep them cooler. Does it work? I don't really know. I can't see how it would help when the trailer is moving and all the hot air circulating through it, although when the trailer is stopped, it might actually help with cooling a little bit.

We did have a bit of excitement on the way. On highway 26 in Oregon, we saw smoke from a new fire to the north, called the Cow Valley fire and it was starting to come over a distant ridge. It looked big and bad. We had also passed two other fires on the way, one which had closed a road we were going to take. But this one look pretty serious. And by the time we got to ride camp a couple hours later, the highway was closed. (And by Saturday, the fire had raced East along the highway, heading for Vale, where they were put under evacuation orders after the fire grew to 120,000 acres with no containment; we would have to take a different route home.)

Then about two hours from ride camp, we had a flat on the trailer. Fortunately we had just pulled over in a pullout to let traffic go by us before we entered the narrow wind-y canyon that goes to John Day, and we happened to notice the flat so we were able to fix it there on the side of the road and not be caught in the canyon with that! We got it changed pretty quickly, didn't have to unload the horses. As we were finishing up, a truck pulled up behind us, and the person sat in there for quite a while, and then he finally strolled out of his truck while yapping on his phone, and finally walked up to us and said, you girls need any help? Oh, thanks, we've got it. But when Regina asked him if he could do the last tightening on the nuts, he launched into a story about how he'd been out riding his ATV and blah blah blah, so he didn't really want to help anyway. But that's okay, we got it.

Anyway, on to ride camp. Willie was traveling with his BFF DWA Barack and his BFrenemyF DWA Papillon. The plan was to ride Willie and Barack together on the 50 on day one. We tried that a couple of years ago and it was a bit difficult, but we thought we'd try it again. Barack would be happy and Willie would be in heaven.

And Bandit Springs ride camp is in a big meadow with plenty of delicious grass, and wild horses that run around the area and come close to camp and sometimes chase riders on trail. Our horses loved the grass, because all we have at home is dry weeds and cheatgrass.

Our ponies are watching the wild horse herd in the meadow

At ride camp Willie had to practice leaving his BFFs in camp to go for walks, because this year, he's so Bondo-boyed to both of them that he forgets everything else and how to be more than five feet away from his BFFs. So we kept practicing that.

Willie had a pretty good calm start Saturday morning, though he's just longer legged and bigger striding and faster than Barack, so I had to work on keeping him under wraps, and Connie had to work on pushing Barack a bit to keep up.

Connie and I both swore we were not going to miss any ribbons on the loops today. Loop 1 was 30 miles with a vet check and 30-minute hold at 12 miles, in a nice grassy meadow.

Of course Willie wanted Barack's food and Barack wanted Willie's food

The rest of the loop was pretty tough, lots of ups and downs and it got pretty hot. At one point Willie really wanted a drink from a stream, but we just couldn't get down to it. And then about the same time, we missed a turn, totally did not see the obvious three ribbons, and we went downhill about a mile and a half until, duh, we realized we hadn't seen any ribbons for a while. I mean really, duh! So we had to turn around and the horses had to work that hot mile and a half back uphill to get back to that creek. I felt so bad we’d made this big mistake! And they were so thirsty, we found a way to get down to the creek and they really tanked up.

I always ride Willie with a heart rate monitor, and I was really glad of it because even after that long drink at the creek, we had another hard climb uphill, and he was quite hot with a high pulse at the top. Fortunately we soon had a water trough not long after, and I sponged him down well, and also dunked my own cool vest in the water, and that really helped him come down and stay down the rest of the day though we sponged off at every creek and water trough we came to. It was probably in the mid-90s.

Of course I worried and fretted about everything I could think of, including feeling terribly guilty about the horse flies that attacked Willie’s face as we rode across an otherwise lovely meadow. I’d fly-sprayed him at the out vet check and even rubbed some on his face, but had left his face mask back at camp for the second loop. He’d walk and fling his head, trying to get rid of them, but they’d land and bite, land and bite. I tried to teach him to rub his head in bushes as he walked by.

Connie took this one in the meadow

We had an hour hold back in camp, then went out for the 20 mile loop 2. It was hotter, and the boys were rather less than motivated, though we did have a good breeze. We swore we weren't going to miss any more ribbons, but we did once or twice, but at least we didn't add another three miles to our total. We both had to admit that we are terrible at following ribbons.

We had more climbing and descending, because it's in the mountains, but both of our horses did really well. We saw two herds of wild horses, one herd with a couple of running bucking foals, and one that was probably a bachelor herd.

Willie's staring at the wild horses in the trees

About 5 miles from the finish, we caught and overlapped Simone and her friend, and the rest of the way in we duked it out for turtle. Connie and I stayed behind them, so that left me and Connie to duke it out for turtle. I insisted on turtle because Willie has never gotten one, and because Connie made me let her get turtle a couple of years ago when she was riding Phineas and I was riding Dudley and we came in last. So, Willie got turtle for the ride! Which won me and Willie some lavender bath salts. I don’t think he’ll have any use for them, and I figured they would really come in handy after all the dirt I accumulated at the ride.

I'm so proud of the Hillbillie, this was a hard, hot ride for him and he handled it well, much better than I did. I couldn't choke down enough food during the day, though I did stay plenty hydrated, though the water I was drinking was about the temperature of a boiling teapot which makes it taste terrible. Coming into camp for the second vet check after the 30 mile loop, it only took him about a minute to pulse down, and at the finish, by the time we took a drink at the finish line water trough and I sponged him down, and we walked to the pulsing area, his heartrate was already down to 60. In that heat!

His back was a bit sore after the ride (and it's more his sides, not the top of his back), and his legs were a bit puffy, which is not unusual, but still puffy, so we weren't going to attempt day two. I think with all his big movement and his size combined with lots of climbs and descents, it just irritates his back at times and the pounding makes his legs fill.

I’m rather in awe of Willie (and all the horses who rode and finished Bandit!), in how well he handled the heat and hills. Standardbreds Rock!

Hillbillie Willie and the Sleeping Giant

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Sat, 22 Jun 2024 15:57:00 +0000

June 22 2024

Sleeping Giant, the new Montana ride, is only around 8 hours from Oreana, so we loaded up Regina’s trailer with 3 horses and headed there on Thursday. Of course, “8 hours” is by car when you’re on a mission, and our adventuresome trip took 11 hours.

But when we pulled into Ridecamp in a field of yellow flowers on a private ranch north of Helena next to the Missouri River where the Nez Perce people lived and roamed, and where Lewis and Clark once floated by, it was worth the journey. The scenery is gorgeous, just the kind of country that makes you want to jump on a horse and ride into. I’d never ridden in Montana before so I couldn’t wait to hit these trails. “Sleeping Giant” comes from the mountain ridge above ridecamp, which resembles a giant sleeping on his back.

Hillbillie Willie was of course traveling with his BFF DWA Barack, and his frenemy DWA Papillon, and after Willie's unexpected wacko antics at Eagle Canyon this year, I wasn’t sure quite how he was going to behave at the ride. We’d be doing the 50-miler on day 1 (and possibly day 2) and one of his buddies would do a 25 each day. Willie and I practiced leaving them at times to walk around camp on Friday, and he seemed to handle it well. Maybe Saturday’s start wouldn’t be so bad!

I was hoping for that perfect spot at the start of day 1’s 50, not too many people strung out ahead of us, not too many people close behind, not too fast, not too slow. Who could I ride with that might match Willie’s pace? Willie was pretty calm as we warmed up before the start (yay!), and I ended up talking with Teresa from Minnesota aboard her seasoned 18-year-old gelding Aaz. “You want to ride together?” She asked. I said “Sure!” but with the caveat I always add, “We can try,” because I just don’t know anymore if my horse is going to be on crack or not, and if he is, my plans are out the window.

We let the fast riders go out first, and walked out the gate (!), before settling into a trot. Willie was amped and a bit bumpy, but not crazy (yay!). And with a calm influencer ahead of him, Willie settled into his fast trot, pulling, but not pulling my arms out of their sockets. In fact, he only pulled for 32 minutes (yes I looked) before he settled into hard work, and it did help that we soon headed uphill, up and up and up.

One of the ranch owners Cathy Campbell was present as we rode through a gate onto her land, with a view spread out below us of Upper Holter Lake, part of the Missouri River and the Lewis and Clark Trail into the Gates of the Mountains. Montana grass was green and knee high along the cow trails.

You could call 18-year-old Aaz a mountain horse, because this 4000-mile horse has completed, among many other rides with Teresa, the Big Horn 100 6 years in a row, and the Big Horn 50 or 75 another 4 years in a row.

My Standardbred is *not* a mountain horse, but today he became one, tackling the climbs like a pro, keeping pace right with Aaz, climbing higher and higher, and higher still, up onto a ridge overlooking the valley below and the Sleeping Giant ridge on the other side, and Helena in the valley to the south. The cool and wind-less morning was perfect for hard-working horses.

Aaz and Willie were pretty perfectly matched in pace, and they seemed to enjoy each other’s company. They traded off leading and following, trotting where we could, walking where we had to on a few rocky shale-y ridges and on the hard climbs. We looped back down into the valley, then turned and climbed right back up to the ridge a different way, and the views were still spectacular. Aaz ate Montana grass the entire loop, but not Willie at first, no sir, he is all business out on the trail. But after 15 miles or so, Willie snatched a bite… then later another bite…. then for the rest of the day he copied Aaz and grabbed mouthfuls of grass as we moved along.

Back at the vet check in camp, Willie only took a minute or two to pulse down. His BFF DWA Barack was out on trail, but his frenemy DWA Papillon was in his pen so Wille was happy to hang out near him during the break. Willie is never a voracious eater, but he ate non-stop for the hour hold (yay!), and his pulse dropped to 48 several times.

NOAA predicted a 60% chance of rain and thunderstorms for the afternoon (oh boy), and the clouds were already hovering. It was too warm to wear a jacket, but I tied my raincoat around my waist as Aaz and Teresa and Willie and I headed out on Loop 2. Before we even reached the road crossing, I’d slithered into my raincoat. By the time we reached the first gate (unmanned this time), it was lightning and thundering. Oh boy. I’m terrified of lightning. I was able to open the gate on Willie, but it was a bit tricky to close on horseback, and the thought of me holding onto a metal gate on a very tall horse made me awful nervous, so I got off to close it. As we started up the road, I kept my head down and pretended there was no lightning and thunder, and when it started hailing, Willie wanted to turn tail to the ice balls, but I kept him moving forward and he put his head down and pretended it wasn’t hailing. We all got a good soaking before the sun came back out.

The two-track road took us along the interstate where we had a tunnel to get us to the other side. Willie is not usually spooky but he wanted nothing to do with this tunnel! Aaz waited behind to see if Willie was going to get eaten or not. I got off Willie and led him toward the tunnel, which he still was leery of, but I pretended it was perfectly normal to be going through a dark tunnel underneath the interstate, and so he decided it was too.

On the other side, we started climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The sun played hide and seek with more scary and spectacular storm clouds. The higher we climbed, the stronger the wind blew. Near the top along a ridge it was blowing so hard, a gust knocked Willie and me off the trail a few feet. Since we’d gotten soaked in the rain, it was quite cold in the gale. But we kept plodding upward. I was crossing my fingers that we’d avoid the darkest storm clouds with the lightning, and as luck would have it, our trails took us right between the worst of it.

We didn’t see a bear along the soft two-track through the forest back down to the valley, but I am sure some bears saw us! We paralleled the interstate a while, and our horses were so hungry for the delicious chest-high Montana grass, at times they’d slam on the brakes to graze. A longer tunnel took us back under the interstate (no problem for Willie this time), and the rest of the loop was a flat two-track for miles and miles back to camp, coming in on the backside of camp, with Sleeping Giant over our shoulders.

We’d had the perfect Bubble the entire day, and we didn’t see another single horse or rider on loop 2. It felt like we had the entire marvelous Montana wilderness to ourselves.

It was a shocker for me getting back to the finish in 5th and 6th places (out of 22 riders). We’d pretty much started out in those places and stayed there the whole day. Even more amazing, we finished the ride in 7:07! Willie was tired after the ride, his CRI being 54-60 at 10 minutes, but an hour later he was 48-48!

I’m impressed with my Standardbred! In April of this year he was 12 years old going on 2 and on crack, and we’ve progressed back to a relatively calm start, a relatively contained first half hour on trail, eating along the trail, eating at the lunch break, and getting fitter. And, I think I’ve got my mountain horse now. :)

2024 Mary and Anna Memorial Ride: Year #8 on the Way to Decade Team

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Thu, 30 May 2024 02:51:00 +0000

May 29 2024

After Hillbillie Willie’s last ride at Eagle Canyon, where he was on crack for the start of the ride, then got pulled at the first vet check for hind end lameness, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect of him at the Mary & Anna Memorial ride in Oregon.

I wasn’t worried about his soundness or fitness; the Eagle lameness was very slight, I gave him a week off after Eagle, and when I next rode him, he was sound.

My main concern was his mental state! At the Mary and Anna ride, he’d be again leaving behind his BFF DWA Barack and his frenemy DWA Papillon in camp while he went out and started the 50-mile ride on Saturday. And when he gets 10 feet away from Barack, he whinnies. So, apologies to everybody in camp :) , we practiced many, many times on Thursday and Friday, leaving our camping spot by ourselves, walking away from Willie’s BFF/notBFF and walking through camp, visiting, grazing, practicing separation. He got a little better each time, but always, even while eating grass, he’s thinking about his buddies and whinnying for them.

Connie and I both wanted to come to the Mary and Anna ride, one we’d never been to, and the site of this year's AERC National Championships in August. My main goal with Willie is reaching Decade Team with him - at least one 50-mile ride a year for ten years. We’d done seven years together.

So. Saturday. Connie would also be riding Papillon on the 50-miler, but since Willie would be going faster, I saddled him up early and took him out of his pen to ride around and warm up and loosen up 15 minutes before the start. It’s much easier taking a horse out and walking away from his buddies than to be left behind in a pen when his buddies leave.

I still had no plan; was I going to try to ride by myself? Probably not, because Willie would just want to catch every horse in front of him. Later in the season after a few rides, he doesn’t do this, but I knew he’d be raring to go and he wasn’t going to be relaxed at the beginning of this ride.

I didn’t want to start in front nor in back, nor in a big group, and I wasn’t sure of who might be riding our speed and if they might or might not want company. So I just played it by ear, and would wait for what looked like a good time to head out on trail once the trail was open.

Willie kept his warm-up down to a walk around the other horses, but he whinnied for Barack a few times, and he was getting himself a little more wound up as the minutes ticked down. Finally the starter said “Trail’s open!” and the front-runners headed out. We kept walking around, but the more we walked, the more wound up Willie got, and I spotted a group who walked out, with another single horse or two heading out at a walk, so I pointed Willie to the trail, at a walk. This was where Williie would explode if he was going to do it, but I just hoped and assumed he wouldn’t…… and he didn’t! He was cranked up for sure, but he was not on crack. We settled into a trot as the other riders ahead of us did, and while Willlie was pulling on his reins, he wasn’t pulling TOO hard.

We quickly moved up on Lindsay Fisher and her daughter Hailey and two others, I sure didn’t want Willie interfering with their ride. We were able to safely pass them, and we continued on with a number of riders strung out on the two-track ahead of us on this 20-mile loop, with an out vet check halfway. We motored along, Willie full of beans and pulling, but not crazy (thank goodness!!!! I could handle pulling), a faster pace than I wanted to go, but with Willie, once I’m committed to a place and pace in the ride, we’re committed and I have to deal with it. Besides, it was a chilly morning, so it was okay to move out the first loop or two.

After a few miles, we ended up matching strides with young rider Laura E; she was catch-riding a friend’s horse and it was her first ride unsponsored. Her mount Wolf turned out to be a Saddlebred, and he and the Standardbred Willie matched strides and pace, and we ended up riding together the whole ride and all four of us enjoyed the company! Willie loves the forest, and he trotted along either ahead of his new buddy or beside him much of the way. After 90 minutes or so, I could finally take one hand off the reins now and then. We still moved out, but he wasn’t pulling anymore, especially since he had good company.

Willie usually doesn’t drink on a ride until after 20 miles or so, and he didn’t drink at the 20-mile vet check. I knew this was normal, but you sure wish they’d just take a drink already. He isn’t a voracious eater either, and he didn’t eat much at the 45-minute hold. This isn’t unusual either, but just eat something already! He did prefer the communal Horse Crack (soaked rice bran, carrots and oats) to his own grain, and when we could find some, he wanted alfalfa.

We had five minutes left of our vet check when Connie and Pappy arrived; Pappy was getting his pulse taken and Connie shaded Pappy’s eye from Willie, and I stood between Willie and Pappy so they wouldn’t see each other and start whinnying! Pappy walked on to the vet, and I climbed on Willie and was just about to head back out on trail when Willie saw Pappy and whinnied, but we started out onto the trail with Wolf, and Willie quickly forgot about Pappy and got back to business.

The next 20 miles back to camp passed by easily and quickly through the Deschutes National Forest. Willie *finally* drank at the second water tank after the vet check, dunking his nose in and gorging like a thirsty camel. We had a climb up to the crater a few miles out of camp, circling the rim and looking down into the pit (full of ATVers zipping around.) Wolf and Willie cruised into the second vet check back at camp just behind some of the 100s coming off their 40-mile first loop. (We started at 5:45 AM; the 100s started at 5 AM.)

Willie’s gut sounds got a C…. Not good but not surprising, since he didn’t eat much at the first vet check, and no grass along the trail, as he is all business on the trail. But I wasn’t worried because his pulse was 56, and I knew he’d eat back in his pen beside his BFF Barack. I watched his pulse back at camp while he ate (nibbled the whole hold, as usual), which stayed below 60, (when he’s fit, it will stay below 50), and once dropped below 48.

We picked up Laura and Wolf back out on trail for our final 10 mile loop. Five miles into it we had a good climb, up and up a sandy road, and up again to the rim of the crater, around it, and back down into camp. We took a different path to the official finish line…. A finish banner stretched out by the trail, with Jala waiting with her camera, and a finish timer off to the side. Laura said, “You go ahead, my horse is going to spook at the banner.” I said, “OK, Willie won’t spook at it,” but as we got closer, the banner turned into a long wind-flapping stretchy monster, and Willie got bigger and taller like a giraffe until he finally spooked 20 feet to the left! Fortunately my long-legged Standardbred can’t throw an Arab spook, so I rode him to a stop, got off, and escorted him to the banner so he could see it really was just a banner, and he touched it with his nose and sighed, and we walked across the finish line.

At the final vet check, Willie trotted out sound (and smartly, we’d been practicing at home not to dog it!), his gut sounds had improved a little, and his final CRI was 44-44! Icing on the cake of the day!

This was Willie’s kind of course - pretty flat, with no steep hills, just a few climbs, and dreamy footing, 90% soft two-track with very little rock under foot so he could move out in his big Standie trot. Darlene and Max Merlich had the trails so well marked, and water everywhere we needed it on course. This will be a fun, fast course for the National Championships in August.

And so, we now reached year 8 of our 10-year Decade Team quest!

Connie took this one!

2024 Eagle Canyon: Help, My Horse is on Crack!

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 16:11:00 +0000

April 26 2024

For all you Hillbillie Willie fans who’ve been following his Endurance career, you all know that all I really want out of an Endurance ride is a calm start and a sound horse at the finish. At Eagle Canyon, I got neither!

I always underestimate Willie’s fitness in the first ride of the seasons, but I still opted for caution in doing the 25 on Day 2 (I shot Day 1’s ride; Steve Bradley shot Day 2 so I could ride!), particularly because Willie is not a hill-climbing horse, and this ride is *full* of hills. It’s a tough ride for your horse’s first one of the season.

I had no indication Willie would suddenly become demonically possessed at the start of this ride. We’ve been working on calm starts the last 7 years, and last season was pretty much perfect, going out calm every ride on a loose rein, either in a group or riding solo.

I took him on a long uphill walk on Friday, and he was perfect. After shooting on Saturday, I rode him on a solo warm-up trail ride (I tried this at Autumn Sun two years ago, and he was a total freak riding by himself leaving his buddies in camp; I felt like I was on a half-broke 2-year-old); he was perfect.

Ten minutes before the start on Sunday, he was walking around mostly calmly, grazing, watching horses, a little squirmy, but nothing unusual. I expected everything to go smoothly, because he gave me no indication that a dragon was about to erupt.

As Regina hollered, “Trail’s open!” I tried to find a little bubble. I didn’t want to be right in front of a bigger group, but I didn’t want to be near the faster starters. I found a small bubble but as soon as we hit the road, a crazy demon took over my horse. All his brain cells went out the proverbial window and he morphed into Secretariat (he is an ex-racehorse after all). Oh my lord. Worst start I’ve ever had on him. Instant freight train wanting to run away, legs spinning, feet plop-pounding the road, trotting, cantering, prancing sideways (he’s never done that!), pacing, pogo-sticking, pacelope-i-don’t-even-know-what-those-legs-were-doing, snarling, snorting, bowing his head in a pretzel to his chest, walking that tightrope just this side of exploding, simply demonically possessed and planning to win the Kentucky Derby. Holy crap.

I prayed my reins or snaps wouldn’t break as I had an anchor hold on him, trying to talk him into just not exploding, just ease up a bit, chill out Buster Brown, eeeaaassy, and when we got to Layne’s house and turned left onto a climbing trail, he hobby horsed in place (he’s never done that!) and was snoring blowing pounding wanting to sprint up the hill, doing the work of 12 horses and already we were right behind Vicki Nichols who was in third, with her lovely gelding Rio just trotting steadily and business-like up the hill with Jennifer and Tamara just in sight going over the hill. No way was I letting Willie get his way and sprint up to the front and on to the vet check 15 miles away, I kept him behind Vicki (but not up their butt), and then Cat and DWA Haffir joined us, and finally, after a couple more hills and miles with Willie watching Rio still moving steadily and calmly, Willie started calming down a bit. Good thing as my fingers were going numb on the reins.

Eventually the real Hillbillie Willie, the horse I knew, came back to earth, forward and strong and bowing his head but not pulling, (he looked good by the time we got to the water tower where Steve was taking pictures), and if he did start to pull, just asking with my legs brought him back. I was even able to take one hand off the reins now and then to take pictures. He felt smooth and fit and effortless, handling those hills like they were nothing.

It’s been years since I rode at Eagle Canyon. It is a beautiful ride, in the green (this time of year) foothills rolling off in the distance, with snow-covered Bogus Basin ski area off to the east. We had perfect weather - not too cold or hot or windy, which, at Eagle, can have all of those in one weekend! Willie and Rio and Haffir cruised along the two-track roads at a sensible pace, up and down hills, on the flats, passing cows, passing the canyon with the cross.

(Proceeds from this ride are donated to the Women and Children's Alliance in honor of SueB, a victim of domestic violence, whose husband pushed her off the cliff.The WCA hopes to help other successful, smart, beautiful women like SueB leave these abusive relationships before it’s too late.)

After 15 miles we trotted on into camp for our first vet check. Willie pulsed down right away, and we trotted out for Jessica. But wait - she asked me to trot again with Mel watching! Willie was off behind! I was rather astounded, as I had not felt anything. Mel agreed he was off a bit. She trotted him out for me (I couldn’t see it), Jessica trotted him out for me (I still couldn’t see it), then Jocelyn trotted him out for me and I finally did see it on the right hind. I was glad it was caught before I went back out on those hills on the second loop.

It was only a slight lameness, but I was a bit concerned, because I have gotten good over the years feeling even one bad step, and I had not felt this at all. But, horses can be running on adrenaline in a ride, and when they get into a vet check, they can just let down and relax, and it hits them. It was a bit cool with a bit of a breeze, so standing around would also let a horse stiffen up a bit. I untacked him and purposely let him stand around and cool off even more and eat for half an hour, had Jocelyn trot him out again, and I could detect it a bit more.

Like I said, Willie’s not a natural mountain horse, he’s a flat-lander, and maybe those hills got to him, or, in the exciting drama of the wild start he tweaked something.

And that wild start - just when you think you have things figured out with your horse, you don’t always! Sometimes, even after seven years of good starts, your horse can lose his marbles, and you just have to ride it out a while until he comes back to you.

Hopefully our next start will be drama free with a sound finish!

top photo by Steve Bradley!

Stormy's Memorial: It's Getting There!

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 02:35:00 +0000

February 11 2024

My beloved Stormy galloped over the rainbow bridge 2 1/2 years ago. Soon after, I started creating a memorial for him.

I got the outline done, gathered rocks I would eventually fill it in with.

Time passed, and more time passed. Weeds grew, time kicked the rocks out of the outline, and the pile of rocks I collected for the insides seemed to shrink.

The time has come to start working on it again!

I pulled the weeds, I re-did the outline, and used all the rocks I'd collected to start filling it in. Now, when out on hikes, when I see just the right rocks, I carry them home to fill the gaps.

It will still take some time, but seeing as it took me about 2 1/2 years to complete my beloved Dudley's memorial up on a hillside, I'm right about on my time schedule. :)

Just like every time I see Dudley's memorial on the hill, every rock I carry to Stormy's memorial brings a memory back. I know they are happy with that.

The Maiden Voyage of the S.S.S. Hillbillie Willie

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 02:06:00 +0000

Thursday November 2 2023

Super. Star. Standardbred. Hillbillie Willie takes a solo trip to the Weiser River Trail Halloween ride

The last ride of the season was going to be one big adventure: Willie’s first solo Endurance ride. He hadn’t trailered anywhere by himself since 2016, and he’s always had his bestest buddies with him at any ride he’s traveled to.

Loading, transport, and arrival went remarkably well to Cambridge, Idaho, 2.5 hours away… so, so far so good!

There were a few horses already in camp when we arrived at the fairgrounds, but the best distraction was: grass! Willie is not a voracious eater, but my goodness, he loves him some grass. He doesn’t get much of that living in the Owyhee desert. We spent a while grazing, and then I put him in a fairgrounds pen beside other quiet Endurance horses, and I never heard a peep out of Willie while I set up his pen at Regina’s trailer.

When I moved him to his trailer pen, a few more trailers had arrived, and Willie whinnied now and then, but he never ran his pen with anxiety, so I thought things were looking up. When Melissa and David drove in, I flagged them down to park next to us, as we’d all be riding the 50, and they’d finish before Willie and I did, so he’d always have new buddies close to him.

Due to this and that, I got approximately seven minutes of sleep Friday night, but that wasn’t because of Willie - I only heard a few whinnies out of him during the cold night. But come early morning, when people started bustling about in the dark and horses started waking up, Willie let loose. He whinnied every 30 seconds, for like an hour. When I went out to tie him to the trailer to saddle him up, he was uncharacteristically antsy, wiggling about with big wide eyes. This was the most worked up he’d been at the start of a ride in years, which made me a bit nervous. What was he going to be like mounting, and starting on the trail?

I made sure I left our pen saddled and ready to go before Melissa and David left their trailer with their horses. For Willie it’s much harder to be left behind, than for him to leave horses behind. Anyway, it was quite cold, in the low 20’s, and a bit of a breeze already starting, and while Willie already had a good winter coat, I wanted him good and warmed up. So with 15 minutes to start time, we left our pen and started walking around (Willie immediately dove for grass to eat!) to warm up our muscles.

Close to start time, Nance and Goldie walked over, and we both mounted up, and took Dick Root and Alivia along with us and headed toward the start. Willie was still a bit antsy, but he never did anything wrong. We’d be walking the first half mile of the trail anyway, as it was on pavement, and we’d be crossing our first trestle (Willie and I had hand-walked out the evening before and practiced walking over it and back), and there might have been some ice, and I sure didn’t want any slipping and sliding around.

Well, even with being a bit squirmy, Willie was *perfect* starting out. We let David and Melissa and Dick leave first, as they’d all be riding faster, then after a bit, Nance and I headed out. We walked the start of the cement trail, over the trestle, and then started trotting. Willie was raring to go, but he tucked his head and didn’t prance and didn’t pull, and that Standardbred spent the next 50 miles moving out on a loose rein (!!!). We even, for the first time, switched from his bridle to his fancy Hybrid Jaquima Halter made by Maria Phillips of Vudu Tack & Crafts LLC at the out vet check!

The Weiser River Trail is the old railroad corridor of the Pacific and Idaho Northern railroad along the Weiser River, now preserved and maintained by the non-profit Friends of the Weiser River Trail for multi-use recreation (and bears! We passed *lots* of bear poop!). It was deeded to the group by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1997 and is 84 miles long, running from Weiser in the south to beyond Council to the north. This was the perfect almost flat track (10% grade) for a flatlander Standardbred who doesn’t enjoy hills. Sometimes you could see the track for miles straight ahead!

It was a cooooooooold day, particularly heading north, particularly the last five miles before the turn-around point, straight into a 20 mph wind that froze our jaws and made our eyes water. Willie and I were both a bit crabby about the wind, but we had to get ‘er done. When we reached the turnaround at 25 miles, hallelujah! We headed south with the wind at our tail feathers, and it got a bit warm, but we weren’t complaining! We just unzipped our jackets because it did get chilly again along some windy hill corridors and at the vet check.

All day we passed through a dozen gates, all but one of which I could open on Willie. He loves being a good cow horse, and on gates he can perform his one and only trick. When I say, “Push it!”, he pushes the gates open!

And none of the railroad trestles gave him pause, though I was a bit nervous going over the wood, some of which looked kind of old, but which I was assured was sturdy with more than one layer of 2x4s. On one stretch beside the Weiser River, a bald eagle glared down at us from his perch. He stayed there for several groups of riders. We grabbed grass at several points along the trail, and the water tasted good in the troughs set out by Barb and Ann.

Wilie and I finished together with Goldie and Nance after 7:25 of steady riding, making our only 50-mile ride completion this year (best laid plans had not worked out this season), which, hooray, makes seven years on the march toward our Decade Team goal together!

(Of course The Raven rode too!)

Willie was tired enough after his 50 that he didn’t have many whinnies left in him at Ridecamp. I don’t think he made one peep during the night. I looked out the window at 6 AM and saw him snoozing standing near David and Melissa’s horses, and when I looked out at 7 AM he was flat out on the frozen ground (17* in the morning!).

We’re so grateful for Pam to taking over the Halloween ride and putting it on on the Weiser trail. We’d hoped to also ride on Day 2, but Willie’s legs had had enough for the weekend, so we relaxed in camp - going out several times to walk around and graze - and as horses and trailers left during the day, Willie whinnied a goodbye here and there but he never got anxious.

So, I can now conclude, at the end of the 2023 Endurance ride season, that Willie is indeed a Super Star Standardbred, a Champion Endurance horse.

Not because of the miles he’s completed (1115 endurance miles, 285 LD miles in seven years!!), not because of the BC’s he’s gotten (five!!!). It’s because he was brave and strong and intrepid and was able to do what many other (champion) Endurance horses have already done: he went to an Endurance ride by himself and didn’t lose his marbles!

S.S.S. Hillbillie Willie the Endurance Horse Champion!

Steve Bradley photo!

Best Laid Plans: And Along Came Old Selam Pioneer

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 01:53:00 +0000

Thursday October 26 2023

My plan was to ride a 50 (or two) on Hillbillie Willie at Bandit Springs in Oregon on July 7-9. A busy photo-shooting schedule filled part of July and much of August, and then on a very tight turnaround unpack/repack/pack horse stuff schedule, I planned to ride one or two or three 50s, or at least 25s, at one of our favorite local rides, Old Selam Pioneer on September 1,2, and 3.

But then, along came Covid.

And then came long Covid.

I never made it to Bandit, and I managed only a total of three training rides on Willie before Old Selam, each of which about wiped me out. How was I going to ride a 50! Or even a 25! And squeezed in there right before Old Selam, along came a brutal 36-hour migraine.

And then Willie ended up with a big bite out of his side… right about where the girth would go. The girth might miss it, but probably not.

And then along came Old Selam.

And while about to saddle up for the 25-miler on Day 1, along came a friend’s concussion at the start of Day 1’s 50, so we spent the day at the hospital (followed by well-deserved Starbucks, and pastrami sandwiches and cream pie from the diner in Idaho City for treats).

And then along came a freakazoid horse named Hillbillie Unsettled Willie at Ridecamp, who could not stand to be separated from his Best Bromance Bro Barack any farther than 20 feet. I swear Willie was like a two-year-old who’d never been to a Ridecamp or spent any time by himself before. I just was not interested in riding on Day 2 on my Freakazoid. Everything just seemed so exhausting.

Day 3 was looking like it would be a rainy day. I have no problem with riding in the rain. It’s just *saddling up* in the rain that is un-fun. However, the evening before, Willie was finally settling down and able to act like a normal horse in walking around Ridecamp without Barack in his sight. And no rain the morning of Day 3!

So, I saddled up Willie for the 25-miler.

I never know for sure if I’m going to get a hot ex-racehorse at the start of a ride or not, but this year at each of our (only) two rides so far, Willie had been almost perfect, starting out nice and easy, on a loose rein and not pulling. We didn’t have any agenda at Old Selam - Willie was not that fit, and I sure was not - other than having an easy, fun, smooth, uncomplicated, un-racehorse-y ride - and that’s exactly what I got!

Nobody was racing on this day (many horses had done Day 1 or 2), and it just happened that Willie started out in the lead, because he was near the trailhead start when the trail opened, and nobody else wanted it. And we stayed in the position all day, just cruising along on a loose rein, not too fast, not too slow, just nice and steady. John S followed us all day on his mare Annie, and Willie was happy with the company.

Willie was happiest on the gentle downhill soft logging roads in the middle of loop two, shifting from a big trot to a canter to a pace, gliding around corners, galloping up hills, back to pacing downhills. I let him choose whatever he wanted to do because he was having a lot of fun. (He does like to make decisions and not be told what to do!)

The predicted rain had held up till near the end of our second loop; we got very lucky finishing when we did, because once the rain did start it was heavy and the trails quickly got muddy. Willie pulsed down in just a few minutes for the win, and then the skies let loose.

And best of all, Willie got Best Condition again, and truly by a whisker: he just nudged out DWA Hercules by .05 of a point! How’s that for math!

So in the end, I was pretty wiped out for the next couple of days, but Old Selam was a success all around - Willie had a great ride.

Our last goal is a 50 at this weekend’s Weiser River Trail… though we know how the Best Laid Plans have gone this year. My long-term goal is a Decade Team horse…. Willie and I have not done a 50 yet this year, and this year will make seven years.

But this ride will be another Hillbillie Willie escapade, because he’s going to the ride by himself. I ride him alone all the time, but he has never gone anywhere by himself since he traveled solo from California to Nevada in 2016!

Oooooh it’s going to be an adventure…..

Steve Bradley photo!

It’s a Wild(life) West Out There

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 02:22:00 +0000

June 21 2023

Hillbillie Willie and I regularly see wildlife on our rides in the Owyhee desert: deer, the periodic pronghorn, the occasional coyote (two were sunbathing on the peak of the ridge this morning).

But - whoa! - what was this creature!

Trotting at a brisk pace along a two-track, we came around a bend and two never-before-seen-by-Willie furry creatures were stepping onto the road ahead of us, then suddenly bombing away from us down the road. Willie slammed on his brakes as the two badger butts, a bigger one and a smaller one, ran away as fast as they could. But sensing big danger to her baby, Mama Badger stopped to face off with the super tall creature with an even taller creature on top. She’d probably never seen a horse and a human before, and despite the fact that combined we were more than 20 times her size, she challenged us, holding her ground, stepping behind a sagebrush for protection, then stepping back out to hiss.

Willie and I had a quick conversation:

SCREECH TO HALT

Willie: “Whoa!!!!!”

Me: “Ooof” - as I adjusted to the sudden change in pace.

Mama Badger: “Hisssssssssssss! I’ll kill you!”

Willie: “!!!!! Should I be scared?”

Me: “Ooooh! It’s a Mama Badger and that’s her baby running away! Badgers are fierce!”

Willie: “I might be scared! Dudley told me about these things!” (Dudley was scared of badgers.)

Mama Badger turned to run after her baby. Overcome with curiosity, Willie started to walk after them. Mama whirled back at us and stopped in the middle of the road, hissing. We stopped. Mama even charged at us, posturing, snarling, “Come on, I’ll take you on!”

Willie planted it: “Um…. not me. Uh uh. Not messing with her.”

Me: “No, we don’t want to tangle with a badger!” Baby Badger was still running down the trail. “We’ll go around so the Baby can stop running and Mama can get him back.”

So we detoured far around the trail (Mama Badger stood her ground still hunched up in a big fight posture), far enough to get ahead of the Baby Badger.

You never know what you’ll ride upon the Wild West. What a treat that was, and Willie can mark Badgers off his bucket list!

Hillbillie Willie and the Magic Bubble at City of Rocks

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 19:51:00 +0000

June 9 2023

Best! Ride! Ever! (Again!) on Hillbillie Willie the Standardbred!

I spent two hours in the middle of the night before Day 1’s 25-miler at City of Rocks*, when I should have been sleeping, worrying about the start. We’d be starting on a single track for a hundred yards - not ideal with a crowded field of 20 or 30 horses. Was Willie going to be a firecracker or would he be calm? I want calm starts. Would other riders be running up his butt? I don’t like that and it’s not safe. Would he be trying to run up the butt of the horse in front of him? I don’t allow him to do that because it’s not safe, but sometimes it takes a lot of conversation and effort with Willie to give the horse in front of him space, and sometimes miles for him to calm down.

And what about that gnarly awkward 4-strand barbed wire gate right by a nasty cattle guard, which was just another hundred yards up the single track trail? I could see all kinds of pileups and accidents there if nobody was manning the gate. (Every other year at City of Rocks, we could leave that gate open. This year, some renegade cows on the wrong side of the fence deemed the gate had to stay shut.)

And, Willie’s bestest bud DWA Barack would also be doing the 25-mile ride*, and Willie can get a little squirrely when he knows Barack is on the trail and not right with him. And so I worried, while my prime sleeping hours ticked away.

Really. I just wanted a good safe fun ride. That’s it.

It turned out that I could have slept those extra two hours instead of worrying. Every. Single. Thing. fell into place on our ride, and we had The. Best. Ride. Ever!!!!!!!! (Again!)

The start set the tone for the whole day: after I saddled up Willie (I tied him to a different trailer from Barack, and he wasn’t bothered), I mounted up and Willie walked around camp calmly, warming up and waiting for the start. When “Trail’s Open!” call came, we just turned and walked toward the single track trail heading out of camp. We ended up falling in behind a line of 10 riders, who thankfully started out on a sensible trot, and Willie and I had a glorious big Bubble behind us. Love the Bubble! In fact, we carried this Magic Bubble with us 99% of the ride.

And, luckily Byron’s mom manned the gnarly gate, leaving it open and keeping the cows away, so all the starters could get safely through.

The first mile on the single track Equestrian Trail winds through a juniper forest, so Willie and I couldn’t see the string of horses in front of us. We passed two riders right before starting this trail, and ended up behind Kevin and his Rushcreek horse, trotting along at a smooth and steady pace, with Willie kindly agreeing to give them plenty of space. He wasn’t pulling or yanking on me so I knew then that our ride day was going to be a good one. Little did I know yet how good it would be!

It got even better right away when, coming to the first trail junction not a mile up the Equestrian Trail, the other seven riders in front of us took the wrong turn. We didn’t see it happen, but suddenly there were no hoof prints ahead of us. “I think this is wrong,” Kevin said, “nobody else went this way.”

“No,” I said, “I’m sure this is correct.” The new ride managers of this year’s City of Rocks ride had a new system of trail marking, but I know the trails, and I’d memorized the map, and I knew we were going the right direction. Kevin pulled out his GPS: “No, my GPS says we’re going the wrong way.” Impossible! But he checked again, “It says we should be on the other trail branch.”

I followed him as he turned around, if only to go back and check the last sign, at which point we met two more riders coming our way and confirming we’d been correct and were on the right trail. So I turned Willie back around, and there we were in front, going the right direction, with no other horse in front of us, and from there we trotted onward into heaven.

We didn’t race; I let Willie set his own pace. He absolutely loves the twisting California Trail through the sagebrush (which parallels the park road), and he wove back and forth, zipping along with his ears forward, sometimes trotting, sometimes shifting to a pace or canter, working his way gradually uphill. He never took a breather; he wasn’t racing and he wasn’t anxious. He was happy.

I kept thinking horses would catch us, but onward and upward we trotted, having the entire City of Rocks National Reserve trails to ourselves, up to Elephant Rock (where our timing was great, and some 50 milers coming the other direction held the gate open for us), on uphill to Tea Kettle past a snow drift we’d never seen in that spot before; and yet more gradual uphill to Bread Loaves, on another winding trail through an aspen forest (through a gate we did on horseback) that Willie loves.

We popped out at Bread Loaves, with still no other riders in sight, where we crossed the park road onto a two-track road we’d never ridden before. I opened that gate on horseback too, and Willie plunged back into his steady ground-eating trot, up and still more up, to the high point of the Circle Creek trail at about 7000 feet.

While climbing we met two of the off-trail riders coming towards us; they’d just kept on going the wrong way to follow the loop backwards (they would later have to make up a few miles they’d cut off in this direction, and they’d get a completion only; we soon met another pair of riders who had done the same backwards loop).

Just as we crested the high point and started downhill, Laura and her cute bay Arab finally caught us, she’d been one who’d taken the wrong junction at the start, and eventually turned around to retrace her steps and get back on the right trail. We stopped at a water trough together, then they headed nimbly downhill while Willie and I slowed down. He’s like a big barge on switchbacks, and while he’s pretty sure-footed, I was grateful he didn’t feel the need to keep up with them or race downhill.

We had our big Magic Bubble back as we walked and trotted down, down, down to Circle Creek, back onto the two-track road that Willie picked up a fast canter/pace on, down the steep Lathe trail to the park road, which we turned on to take back to camp. It’s a gradual downhill, and Willie shifted into some kind of miraculous trot I hadn’t experienced before. Hard to describe but it was like he set himself down and hit the Glide Trot switch. I literally felt like I was on a flying carpet, smooth as silk, not posting, not two-pointing, but literally gliding in the saddle as he glided downhill, maybe 15 or 16 or more miles an hour, fast and effortless. Willie saw two horses on the 50 ahead of us, but he wasn’t trying to catch them, he was just in a rapturous glide zone that zipped him back to camp, where his pulse was below 60 as soon as I dismounted.

What a ride! And we had one more loop to go!

Heading out on Loop 2, Laura and her Arab were just a minute ahead of us. But Willie and I weren’t out to catch anybody. We yakked with a friend before heading out, then Willie picked a water trough in camp to dunk his head in and drink deeply (yay!) before we headed out of camp at a stroll.

I’d lucked out on the gate timing so far in the ride, so I paid it back at the gnarly barbed wire gate by the cattle guard heading to the Equestrian trail. A gal trail riding a wound-up green horse was approaching the gate, so I was able to hop off and open the gate for me and Willie and for her. She waited for me to mount up while I got back on, and off Willie and I went.

He cruised the Equestrian Trail again, and this time we took the right fork in the trail, and headed up the Lathe trail to Circle Creek overlook. Halfway up the steep climb Willie slowed to a walk (fine with me!), but once we gained the top at the parking lot, Willie picked up a big trot till our next gate. I opened and closed it on him (he’s such a good cow horse!), and he flew up the two track road to the turnoff to the Boxtop trail. He was willing to trot up the log steps, but I told him it was OK to walk. I opened and closed the next gate on Willie, and at our next gate we opened it for a pair of climbers, and they closed it for us.

The long steep climb to the top of Boxtop came next and when we emerged near Elephant Rock, Willie dunked his head in the water trough there and drank deeply again.

Aiming back toward camp on the California Trail, we met and pulled over for the Law gang of about 6 horses, Dave Rabe and Tami, and several more groups of riders. Still in our glorious Magic Bubble, I let Willie pick his pace, turbo-ing down the wiggling trail, shifting from a fast trot to a pace around the corners and a canter here and there. Slightly downhill, it was fluent and glorious and fun!

We popped out onto the road at the Stone House for our last few miles home - downhill again on the soft side of the park road where he shifted into that Magic Carpet trot. By now I could see Laura and her Arab far ahead of us, but we weren’t out to catch anybody - we were just doing our own thing. I even slowed Willie down, but his long gliding stride caught up to them by the time we made the final turn toward camp. We let the boys trot on in together, slowing to walk the last half mile.

Willie was already pulsed down as soon as I hopped off him at the finish - meaning he won the ride - !!!!! We hadn’t set out to do that, and we hadn’t changed our plans anywhere in the ride to do that; everything just worked out that it happened. All I wanted was a quiet start and a smooth fun ride (and it was all on a loose rein!!!!) and it turned into The. Best. Ride. Ever!!!!! (Again!) on Willie, and it would have been the same if we’d finished first or last or in the middle. He had fun, we had the Magic Bubble, and we both just clicked as a team. The win was icing on the cake.

And sprinkles on the icing on the cake was that with his 48-48 CRI and vet scores, he ended up getting Best Condition!

What a ride, what a horse! #StandardbredsRock !!!

Willie and I basking in the aura of Hall of Famer Dave Rabe (2009 AERC Hall of Fame and like a billion miles**) and his Perfect Ten horse Cocamoe Joe (10,000 miles, 10 Best Condition awards, 10 wins and more than 10 years of riding)

Connie Holloway photo!

*the 25-miler was re-sanctioned as a 30 after it turned out the mileage was long

**actually over 77,000!

Look at that loose rein I had all day!!!

Steve Bradley photo!

Willie’s Endurance Swag

noreply@blogger.com (The Equestrian Vagabond) — Sat, 27 May 2023 18:42:00 +0000

May 27 2023

But wait: there’s even more for Hillbillie Willie!

After the surprise of the vest from AERC for placing in last year’s Northwest LD mileage division, and the surprise of his AERC Northwest Best Condition first place halter, Willie had more swag coming!

I knew he would be getting these awards, (and some, like the cool bench, he got for Best Condition at the Halloween ride), but it’s still thrilling for Willie’s performance last year to be recognized in our awesome little SWITnDR (SouthWest Idaho Trail and Distance Riding) group. Willie and I won’t be making a habit of garnering prizes, so we’re enjoying it while we got it!

Standardbreds rock!