Just Keep Riding

It has been about 3.5 years since my last completion of an LD ride with Tesla back in Nov 2015; now I can happily say that Sully and I completed our first of many rides to come at the Old Dominion LD on Fri 6/7! For those of you who are just starting out, or struggling to keep going, remember Dory and sing “Just keep riding“. I have now finally reached the 100 mile mark after almost 5 years in AERC. The sport is a test of endurance in so many ways!

<Ride photos from the amazing Becky Pearman Photography>
Loop 1 & Post Vet-check

I have learned a lot to date, and I know I will continue to learn something at every ride…training or competing. During my hiatus from competing, I stayed involved in the sport I fell in love with riding Traveler and Tesla. The lessons learned along the way – are many – and I won’t rehash them as they are pretty well cataloged in this blog.

So here’s our story of the 25 mile LD at Old Dominion 2019…

The previous Friday the farrier came out to fix the sprung front shoe, and he added some glue for more hold to ensure he wouldn’t step it off again. The next morning I grabbed Sully for a ride at Graves with Jill and Dixie (who ended up 1st to finish at OD!) to get in some rocky hill work. We did a total of 18 miles – it was good training for him with that rocky climb as it was the first time I’d ever heard him huff and out of breath. He was allowed to do what he needed to move forward- and would stop to rest a few breaths then trot up a bit and walk some more. He really enjoyed moving out on the road, but wouldn’t pass Dixie for anything on the way to Big Meadows…now on the way back was a whole other story! He totally had a second wind after our lunch stop and was ready to fly back. It was really difficult to hold him to a walking pace for Dixie to keep up with on the rocky steep downhills and road. We had a great time tho, and I’m sure will ride together again sometime on more training rides.

Wednesday evening I went over as usual to feed and was armed with my spreadsheet checklist for packing up the trailer, plus the additional task of getting Hoof Armor applied to Sully’s feet as added protection; he did fine at Graves over the prior weekend without pads, but I just wanted some extra protection from the rocks, rocks, and more rocks at OD! I managed to get through it all, leaving only to fill my water tank and load his hay, electrolytes, and him into the trailer Thursday afternoon. I got through my morning at work, stopped at home for my bag and cooler and headed to the barn as planned on time. I had a goal to be on the road by 2, which would get us in to camp about 4 with plenty of time to settle and get vetted in by 6. That was all going fine and dandy until I had to fight with my trailer GN Bulldog Clamp to hook up; for some reason it kept snapping shut as soon as the ball touched the hitch…Sully thankfully happily ate lunch and some hay in his stall while I was cursing away out there. After finally getting it to cooperate, we were off and still relatively on time just a few past 2 🙂
The drive was nice and no traffic to worry about. We arrived at camp a bit after 4 behind Sarah Mountain and hung out waiting to park while they got her truck unstuck – apparently heavy rain the day prior made the field soggy and she found the sticky stuff while swinging her trailer into place. I had to be a bit more careful about getting us into place avoiding the soggy area and then I set up his pen and went to register. Sully vetted in great and behaved for Dr. Rick (who saw him at FV being a complete loon). I began to pack up my saddle bags and get things squared away for the ride, then dinner and the ride meeting, and finally settling down to go to bed around 10pm. I say that, but I really didn’t sleep much! Doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done this, I don’t sleep well before a ride. Friday morning we got up with the camp wake up call and saw the 50s head out. Sully got a little worried about all the commotion, but I went over and groomed him and he instantly settled. We got ourselves tacked up and ready to go for our 8am ride time and headed over to check-in about 750. After that I kept him away from the main road as I didn’t want to go out with the front runners and looked to keep him more mentally checked in with me. He was still rather amped by the atmosphere, but not as severely as he was at Fort Valley and we left camp controlled and at the speed I set. We climbed a lot of rocks… moving out where we could, walking where we couldn’t. We found a nice little group of riders to hang with and then found a gaited horse he really did well with and hung with them a bit. I had to separate us on the downhill fire road as Sully wanted to race and I wanted to stay in the saddle, so then we were pretty much alone until near the vet-check. He did really well there – I dropped his tack, sponged his back a bit, and the walked over to P/R. He again saw Dr. Rick and was a good boy vetting through. He ate his mash well, but of course wanted everyone else’s stuff around 😛 We headed out a few min after our hold time was up (I was just not in a rush) for the last 9 miles. We started out with an Appy but lost them not too far in…then found our gaited friend again (who had gotten into and out of the vet check a bit ahead of us) that we finished the ride with and ended up tying for overall placings 🙂 He didn’t behave quite as well for the finish line P/R, but we figured it out. He looked great, came away with all A’s and a ravenous appetite. He seriously woke me up every 2 hours for more hay overnight and wanting lots of scratches!

All in all, it was a great ride. I was, and am, beaming happy with him! There are a few things we need to work on of course:
1. Downhill speed. He really wants to bulldoze through and I’m trying to get him more controlled, both for our safety and his longevity. That whole fire road felt like a fight and I almost got off him at one point. I will say no matter how much we ‘argued’ he never once flipped out and tried to buck or rear, so that is a plus!
2. Rope halter/better lead for the hold area! My little tailing lead line wasn’t enough to stop him when he pulled away to try and steal other grain/hay.
3. I need to get another feed bowl for the away check…the bucket was hazardous in terms of the spill factor lol (and dripping it all over me and his saddle!)
4. Bring or wear gloves in case of #1!!
5. We still have some shoe (or boot) sorting out to do…he didn’t lose any of shoes (several horses did!), but did twist the right hind out of place. Fortunately the ride farrier just could tap it back over to make sure we wouldn’t have any issue with him stepping on it till the next farrier appointment.