Well, we did it! Hauled to a new ride (only the 2nd year it has been held) in TN to try out some new trails and completed another LD 🙂

I went out a day earlier than I normally do, leaving on a Thursday to do the 5.5 hour haul there as Prophecy had been there since Tuesday eve with Anne. Prophecy did his job well, providing company for each of her 2 horses while one or the other was out competing. Anne completed the 50 the first day and then won the 75 mile ride the following! She had plans to go out for another 50 the last day but decided not to – Right now I can barely imagine getting through a 50, let another 75 more miles! someday maybe….

The week leading up to the ride was semi-stressful. Prophecy was due to be picked up by Anne on the 15th, and the night before he gashed up his head, requiring a haul in to the emergency vet for stitches. All patched up and on antibiotics with a headache, he was picked up the next day as planned. They traveled on Tuesday to the ride, and other than a hold up on the road for an accident which made for a longer trip, all was well and he quickly learned about respecting the electric pen.

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Not only the gash fun, but due to our crazy schedule I had very little prepacking time compared to usual. I normally get it down to just having to feed and load him to hit the road the week leading up; I got him out on a last “longish” ride the 15th and was able to leave all the tack ready to go and that was about it! A new set of Blue Pegasos shoes were put on Wednesday eve by Felesha. Fortunately with taking the day off to travel, I wasn’t in a big rush to get on the road – plus, leaving closer to 10am got me away from the morning rush. I was armed with more food options for Sully this time, extra hay for Prophecy, and more re-arranging to do than usual to have 2 horses in the trailer ride home. We got off on time and had a pretty easy, albeit long, drive down 81 into TN. Got into camp just as expected and then was able to take my time setting up as I didn’t need to rush over to vet in – it was kind of nice not having that pressure. Anne arrived back from her 50 not too long after and we got to chat and I said hi to Prophecy; fortunately I was set up just one trailer away. I went to the awards and ride meeting Thursday night and headed to bed on a cool windy eve – which meant little sleep from the wind gusts!
Friday morning I saw Anne and Wonder off on their 75 start and volunteered at base camp as a scribe for the vet-check and kept and eye on Sully, Prophecy, and Solo all day. I opted to vet Sully in late morning while all was quiet and he did well. I feel like he has now got the idea of a trot-out down so I don’t have to sprint. Granted, if I do make my strides longer/faster he can keep up for sure (and still out pace me), but we have a pretty good pace going now that doesn’t completely wear me out! I actually put that to use a few times trotting horses out of for others throughout the day, including another Standie who was just there for experience. I always love being a scribe – I got to listen in on conversations about saddle fit, hoof care, electrolytes, and then pick the vet’s brain when things are quite to ask more detailed questions. We got to chatting about Prophecy and his hoof and back issues, and it just keeps becoming more clear that retiring him from riding was the best and most affordable option (meaning I could be chasing ghosts in diagnostics that come to the same conclusion about him). Then it was dinner catching up with some friends, the ride meeting, final preps before bed for our ride Saturday and seeing Anne and Wonder come back in to win the 75 mile ride!

Another restless night of sleep (some wind gusts, but not as bad) and I was up finishing my saddle packing and trying to force myself to eat breakfast. This ride is the first one this year I’ve been nervous at – I chalk it up to being a totally new ride to me and just not knowing what to expect after hearing of a 3000′ elevation climb! I managed to eat my protein bar, took a little tummy medicine just in case, and then we were down at the start about 5min prior to the start to mount up. We hooked up with Jim and his Standie Joe that I met and rode with some at IMJ. The start was nice and calm (only 1 person went racing out of camp) and Sully wasn’t pulling me along too badly. There was a group discussion at one turn to figure out the right direction and then we all headed off and the larger group we had been in split into smaller ones. We ended up also riding along with my camp-site neighbors and had some other adventures with a horse and human spill; thankfully Jim was able to help her back onto the horse and we finished up the loop – Mary is a tough lady who went back out on the 2nd loop with us too! The vet check went well and Sully ate nicely, drank well and was ready to head back out. As we were heading out on loop 2, a horse busted through his electric fence and took off down the road! A rider and someone on foot chased after to catch him, I learned later that they were successful. The 2nd loop was pretty, but we had 2 short trail detours for confusion on the markers! Glad I carried my maps with me this ride… We happened to arrive in at the end of the top ten – but Sully took a bit longer to pulse down with his HR stuck at 80 in the hot sun. Anne had decided not to ride a 3rd day and came to our rescue helping me hose and scrape him – we checked with Christo and he was at 52 (need to be at 60 to get your official time) so off to the official pulse box with 4 minutes to spare and the final vet check to get our completion 🙂 His CRI was great at that point and we wound up 15th. We were both hot and tired but I had little shade to offer him 😦 after getting him set up with his wraps, more mash, hay and some alfalfa, I went off to take a coolish shower. It is always a bonus to have a full bathhouse at camp! Also means I have YET to use my cowboy shower even though it is working now!

More lessons learned of course!
1. Always carry the map(s) – paid off this time!
2. I need more ice for hot rides at the holds/vet check.
3. Bring the darn pop-up!
4. We have some tweaking of electrolytes to do, especially on hot/sunny rides.
5. Keep working on my trotting with him downhill. I still don’t feel particularly well balanced when we do this, so when I do allow him to I’d like to better my riding.
6. He does canter! At least I’m pretty sure that is what he did – if I thought his trot was big, umm yeah canter stride is bigger!

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Now that the ride was done, I had to start re-arranging and packing up to bring 2 horses home! Granted Prophecy didn’t come with much stuff but it does change my usual layout… This was probably the part I was most nervous about – hauling 2 horses back 5.5 hours. I noticed movement back there more than with just Sully, but otherwise it was a pretty easy haul – which is good! I picked out this truck based on being able to haul (2) 1000 lb horses and gear in my hefty steel trailer and it did not disappoint. We arrived back to the barn and then I fed the boys some mash in stalls before turning them out with the other two. All in all, it was an easy intro – Sully did kick out at Prophecy a few times that I saw but didn’t make major contact. Amanda’s 2 boys were way more interested in Prophecy than Sully was, and followed him around the pasture. By the time I left, Prophecy was hanging with Draco and Sully and his pony bud Neville were up in the shelter together.
I returned on Tuesday eve and the boys had now been split into 2 groups so that Sully & Prophecy can work on bonding before we eventually move them to my place; which getting that ready has been slow going with the fence installation delayed due to post availability. My target is mid-Nov, but really it is just when everything comes together that it will happen. The neighbors are super easy to work with, so we just go with the flow.
I gave both boys a good brushing and attention with their dinner and then Sully and I just hung out – he came over to me when he was done, allowing Prophecy to clean up his crumbs. He did move Prophecy away from us a few times, so he appears to be claiming me and himself as boss …