I’ve just returned from the ride that 5 years ago I can say literally changed my life, Iron Mountain Jubilee. Losing Traveler there, at our first Endurance ride none-the-less, rocked me to the core. I lost my partner of six years to a branch on the trail, on the side of a mountain, just a few miles away from our completion after a ride that had been going so well. The last hours I spent with him held such a wide range of emotions… I still remember it all. I miss that guy, but I can now see how some of him must live on in Sully. Sully looks at me, and leans into my body and soul, in a way I just cannot describe. I’ve had him just over a year now, and can feel the bond and partnership continuing to grow.

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Of course, getting to the ride itself was a feat! We had limited riding time, with our last test run the Sunday beforehand. Plans for that day in the mountains fell through, so instead I picked up a neighbor and her TWH to hit a quick 9 miles at our local park on a hot humid day only 10 min from home (however, 40 min from the barn!). His shoes did well – though I recall noticing a nail had poked out on the RH and later forgot about that… Tuesday everything looked fine, then on Thursday I got a message with a pic – the RH shoe was gone! My mind was racing – we are supposed to leave by 1pm Friday – now what?! I was crossing fingers I could manage to get some time with the ride farrier to get this shoe back on before vetting in…

Fortunately Felesha was able to meet us right before we were to hit the road and get it back on (I actually found it in my first guess of location), added an extra nail in both hinds, and tightened all 4… We got on the road about 1:45 instead, not bad, just put us in the beginnings of rush hour traffic near Roanoke. The weather was not great the drive down, in and out of rain sometimes moving only 40 mph on I-81… and of course, 15 miles from our exit there was a crash delay! We arrived at camp at a decent time still and Anita had saved us a spot to park right by her. I also ended up next to Erin, who was doing her first 50 (55) on her mare that we rode with at OD (they completed this ride & were turtle!); That was fun to see them again.
I set up camp, with our new and improved add-on electric to his panels, and went to vet in. Sully did well, and did a really showy trot with snorting and blowing due to being spooked by some kids playing as we came down the line … back in the pen, he got himself zapped 2x, and myself once (I thought I had hit the button to turn it off, apparently not!), but having that extra protection really helped me relax more overnight. I still barely slept, but it wasn’t because I was worried about him or being woken by the noise the panels make hitting the trailer when he would bump them previously.

Saturday held a rude awakening to rain… it just wouldn’t quit. It was cool out, and I shortly found Sully shivering – thankfully I had his sheet in the trailer and could throw that on him while we waited to tack up for our 8:30 start. I discovered tacking up in the rain really stinks! I had a tough time getting his crupper onto the saddle with wet fingers and rain in my face. I also totally forgot to put my sponge on the saddle, but really didn’t matter since it rained most of the first loop! Not sure what happened to “rain done by 9am” weather forecast.

So here we are – ready to start...I walk him down to the starting area to give our number, and wait to find Anita and Shag as we planned to ride together – taking it easy as Shag is recovering from an injury – and all I wanted was the completion. A volunteer held Sully for me to get up on and we had a small bit of rodeo pop-up “rearing to go”. Then we fell in together with Shag and few other riders and walked out of camp relatively calm like. Sully led a good bit, and eventually we traded to letting Shag set the pace to ensure he would be alright. It was muddy…but not horribly slick, though a few spots were “sucking mud” that we slowed up for. The horses did great on picking their footing amidst the mud and rocks and we had some decent areas to move out. We crossed the rangelands and got a picture by Becky Pearman.

Not far from there was the vet-check/hold/camp. We brought them back the trailers to untack (which I learned when I’m by myself and dealing with wet and muddy items it takes me a little longer to accomplish) and ended up pulsing in with an out time 3 minutes behind Anita and Shag. He behaved well despite that we were “hooked on” to other horses not necessarily up there (I had him in a rope halter and a chain in my jacket pocket just in case!). He got all A’s with a minus in one gut quadrant from the vet. Sully wasn’t as interested in his mash as he was watching all the horses come off the trail from his pen, so took him out to graze and he happily ate grass in the hold. I changed gloves as mine were soaked, kept the jacket on just in case and grabbed a few snacks myself. Still sprinkling/misting we tacked up again to head out on the 2nd loop with Anita, Shag and the gang which included Jim on another Standie on his first LD, and Dan on Rusty (the four of us played leapfrog the whole ride). And another picture from Becky – he is happily moving on out again.

While I thought the ride overall at Triple-C was great, it is the long downhill fire-roads that I hate! (OD had one too). At least this time we had a riding buddy, but his trot wasn’t as comfortable, I ended up 2-pointing a lot, and wishing he would gait over those 4 miles! But, we survived without the battles I had with him at OD. We made it back to camp and I hopped off at the water tank just passed the finish line where he finally took a good drink and I got the one picture I took the whole ride!

It was just too wet out and I had gloves on. We hiked our way up into camp with a finish time of 1:17 pm. Back at the trailer I really took my time untacking, etc as I wasn’t concerned with getting up to the vet check quickly, I had a completion in my sights.

We got our pulse/completion time at 1:33pm and learned after receiving all As and pluses, and a better CRI than the first loop, that we were in 8th place! That totally took me by surprise and I decided to go ahead and stand for BC an hour later just for the experience of doing it. Getting my tack and such together to get weighed in was not fun after all that mud and rain I must say! And the actual experience of doing the trot circles after riding 25 miles and an hour rest was more difficult than I thought it would be; I was beat as we finished up the 2nd circle and came back down the line (maybe since I hadn’t eaten yet). Fortunately, I didn’t have to sprint to have him trot along with me, so I think he’s learning his job in the trot outs now 🙂

It had finally stopped raining so I was drying out his sheet and left him in a cooler to rest. He ate up some of the mash he left earlier, some new stuff, some hay and of course grass when I took him walking. After changing out of wet clothes, I hung out with Anita and Arlo (her rottie) eating fruit and a protein bar to hold me over till dinner. When it was time for the awards, we got a T-shirt and Top Ten mug as expected, but I was utterly shocked by Sully earning the awards for High Vet Score AND Best Conditioned for this ride! I now have two beautiful hand made and decorated plates, to go along with the one I was given at the ride 5yrs ago to remember Traveler, and he earned himself some extra mash that night with his Guinness 😛 He looked good – a little tired, but not any more than any horse around us – and I think he would have gone out again if I had asked. I gave him some more hay and crashed for the night by 10pm, if even that late; this time I slept!

Sunday morning I finished packing up, and after a bit of grazing and chatting with Anita and Sarah we hit the road somewhere around 8am to get back home. He came off the trailer with attitude strutting down the driveway to the field. Once in the gate he took off past his buddies to the grassy area to roll, then came sprinting back to the water. He ate more mash and then had headed up to the shelter for his nap by the time I was done unhooking the trailer and unloading a few things. Oh the mess of mud I have yet to deal with!

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Some lessons learned this time
– I need more than 1 rain sheet (or blanket) in the trailer, who would have thought?! Especially for an August ride!
– If I ever do stand for BC again, make sure to eat before and get my energy back! You think an hour is a lot time, but it isn’t!
– Rain? Put as much on the saddle as you can BEFORE throwing it up on the horse…maybe extra towels to keep things dry? (I used my rump rug in a pinch)
– Setting up the awning or a pop-up is probably time well spent if isn’t too windy. I didn’t set up either since we didn’t need it for the shade.
– Bring along more variety of things for him to chose from to eat at holds (and as I learned at OD, I need more feed pans for this).
– Always take the opportunity to stand for BC, no matter how remote you think your chances are – you may get surprised!

Getting a top-ten was completely unintended – all I wanted was to get thru this ride with a healthy horse. Sully fulfilled that dream and then some, with Traveler and Tesla watching over us.