While I had the intent to write about our time at the Mark Langley clinic earlier this month, this past weekend was the epic event in the endurance world known as Tevis – a 100 mile point to point ride held on difficult terrain and often challenging hot weather in CA. So first I’ll cover the 24 hour obsession –

I responded to the call of a FB friend and was “virtual crew” helping to keep track of 2 riders throughout the day and watching pulls from the front runners to advise if any dropped off their radar. The team was a mother and daughter, who little known to me when I joined the crew, were going for the win! Long story short – Jay Mero (mom) came in 1st, and her daughter Reyna came in 2nd and won the Haggin Cup!
It was quite fun to follow along all day, but the ride unfortunately has surfaced memories for me. In freak events on the Tevis trail, 2 horses were euthanized. My heart breaks for them… and sympathizes with utter shock of the loss of your best friend. The memory of losing Traveler is ingrained… Moments of the hour(?s) waiting on vet help blend together… Watching him try for me to get off that mountain, and knowing in my heart he would be miserable if he made out it to maybe recover in a stall. Making that call, to end his suffering, broke me. The support I received from so many strangers in addition to my friends at that ride was one of things that kept me in the sport. What happened to us was a freak accident – nothing that couldn’t have happened on trail at home. And so, I kept going and keep going, hoping to reach my dream of Decade Team with my horse.

The road has not been easy, I’ve suffered more setbacks and losses, but also gains… I didn’t know if I’d ever do a 50, and Sully carried us through two of them. I do not believe I have Tevis aspirations, or even 100 mile completions in my future – but that can always change as time goes on! Honestly, right now I’m back to dreaming of just getting to an LD! Breeze is physically capable but mentally challenging. And that brings us to our Mark Langley clinic…

Independence Day weekend was filled to the brim… I woke early on the 4th to load up and head an hour away to Pennmeryl Farm to meet Mark and the clinic participants for breakfast before our learning was to begin. It was a smooth ride down and arrived early enough to unload Breeze and our stuff then park the truck and trailer before breakfast. We all chatted for a while and ate a quite yummy spread, then signed up for time-slots for the morning, and then order was repeated after lunch and each day after. We had a large indoor which was helpful to escape the sun on a hot weekend. Sessions of 30minutes seem so short, but quite a lot can happen in that time span! Just from our initial working on the ground, it became quite clear that all of us were working on the root issue of a brace in our horses, presenting in different ways. It is a product of prior training and lifestyle, which are things that we cannot change, but we all hope and work to forge new ways of going and understanding for them. With Breeze tucked away in his stall, I unhooked and headed home for a family 4th dinner and celebration.

I returned early Friday morning to find Breeze in a different stall – apparently fireworks and no buddy to share a stall next to (they were across aisles) had him wound up and they found it best to put him next to Earl – another big gray – for comfort. [The two became known as the Gandalf twins by Mark]. I turned him out in a pasture for a bit which resulted in much running about and calling for others. He was less worked up by the time our morning session came about thankfully. For the morning we worked in the round pen which had a light wind blowing and made it tolerable with the strong sun, as the indoor was stifling. After lunch we went to the indoor again, and I was told I was riding that afternoon! Riding quickly revealed and anxious horse, longing for the comfort of other horses, who did not care to respond to pressure but blow through it instead. We played a drunken sailor mounting block game and waited for Breeze to settle for each step of the process, awkwardly draping over him and feeling silly. Our ‘ride’ was more about standing still than much else.

Saturday was an Expo day as well as a clinic day. I got to see some friends that came out to audit and learn more about Mark and/or saddle fitting, osteopathy, and nutrition. We had to back track a little on the ground at first to gain his attention for the morning, so in the afternoon I was instructed to bring him in early to work on it so we could get right into riding for the afternoon. We continued our work on brace, following the feel of the rein, and committing to a back-up. I was able to get him seen by True North Equine afterwards as I felt his right hip was dropping causing my saddle to kick that way when riding, especially at a walk. Low and behold, he had knocked himself out of whack since his appointment in April. A quick fix of that, and his TMJ, but otherwise good 🙂 [great timing too as the farrier and neuromuscular dentist came out the next week!].

The last day started out a bit frazzled as when I went to hook up my truck to the trailer early on and it wouldn’t start! Unfortunately it was not a battery issue so I called USRider to get some help. I had no idea where to have it towed to and in asking the farm owners for advice, they knew someone who could to come look it at first. He said the fuel line had lost prime and once primed started right up no issue. [it has since not had issues again and has been checked by the mechanic in town]. During the wait we had a secured a ride home for me & Breeze if needed with other attendees, and the farm owners even offered to haul my trailer with him in it if needed.
We were able to do less of the ground-work centering pre-session time, but definitely still needed since he doesn’t fully trust in his human over another horse. We had a great set of rides to finish up and headed home around dinner time. I got to take Mark back to Charlottesville with me to catch a flight the next day and chat more with him on the drive. Got some funny looks pulling up to the hotel with a trailer in tow! I hope he can return in 2025 and we can show how far we’ve come and keep working together!

Is Breeze ready for an endurance ride? No. He is quite distractible and it can be hard to bring back his attention. He has a lot of good qualities though, and I think will be quite the contender and partner once we get there! We are sticking to small rides and work at home on the brace and rein meaning as well.

He is such a different horse than I’ve had before… All of mine prior have been very people oriented, Sully to the extreme that if he was worked up, if I just started to groom him he’d settle. While he had fire-breathing dragon moments, I never felt like he was “gone,” where as with Breeze it feels like the connection breaks entirely and I’m just in his way. He’s an onion with many layers to peel through, which I’m committed to doing versus just sucking it up, riding it out, or forcing matters with bigger tools and fear.