Photo by Vicki Gaebe. Karen & Chief, Day 2 Strawberry Fields Forever
It took me awhile to get these posted, because I had to go through a lot of photos.
I have narrowed them down to only 265 in the album. There are a lot of photos here – from all four days of the ride plus trail marking and trail work.
Rider photos were taken by Vicki Gaebe, and can be found here. I love the photo she got of Chief walking across the tiny little stream. She got an even better one of Dave and Tigger leaping across it like eventers. LOL Now you guys know why Dave has that horse! Click here for the Strawberry Fields website and to see that photo (it’s currently on the main page).
I’m not going to do a real thorough writeup on this ride here in my blog, because I’m writing one for Endurance News. If anybody has anything to add or would like to share photos, send them to me. Any special milestones, etc.?
Tree fell ON the trail - not across it, but ON it! This tree was HUGE!
After lots of chainsawing and moving branches and tree parts - Whew!
I had a really great time at the ride! I got to ride both horses – Chief on the ride, and Bo and Chief for trail marking.
Basecamp for this ride is at slightly over 8,000 feet. It’s near Heber City, Utah in the Mountain Region. The area is just gorgeous – tall pines, aspens – your typical high-country type trails. Breathtaking and awe inspiring. A truly special place and what a joy to get to spend over a week there riding every day!
I knew (well, hoped) going to the ride that if it worked out I was going to ride Chief the entire time, though I kind of figured that I’d be prepared to alternate the horses and that would work out fine too.
I didn’t tell very many people because I didn’t want to feel any pressure to keep riding Chief each day. It was kind of cool though, once he got going he did what he does best – goes and goes and goes! Chief’s vet scores were excellent all week, and he felt wonderful. It was an experience that I’ll always treasure. It’s not every day that you have a really special horse achieve a milestone like going 10,000 miles. I doubt it’ll ever happen to me again. I consider myself pretty lucky to have had it happen once.
Before I left for the ride I glued Renegade boots on both horses. I knew it had been raining and that it would be wet and muddy in camp, and on the trail. I was right, it was a muddy swamp when we got there. I knew both horses would be getting ridden to mark trail and figured between that and the actual ride it would be worth the time and effort to glue. It’s not my preferred method of hoof protection for the horses but for special circumstances or events, it gets the job done. It was a nice vacation from having to do anything with the horses feet for over a week.
The ride itself wasn’t so bad footing and mud and snow wise, as it dried out quickly. The mud and bogs weren’t bad, and on the last day a snow plow had come along and plowed the snow off of the roadway! That really slowed us down while marking the trail.
I felt that it would be more of an accomplishment for Chief to reach 10k if he completed an entire pioneer ride. Not everybody (horse or rider) can do that and I think it shows that Chief is a really strong and tough horse – well, he’s an endurance horse in the broadest sense. He loves his job! I like alternating the horses, though it is always a rewarding experience to ride the same horse all of the days on a multiday ride. The last time I rode Chief on an entire multiday was at Fort Schellbourne last year, where he did all 5 days. He did 4 days at Bryce and Grand Canyon last year too, in order to make XP Gold Medal. He is my most reliable horse and has been the least maintenance of any horse I’ve ever had. Chief is my once in a lifetime horse, no doubt about it. I am so lucky to have him.
In addition to doing the 210 mile ride in four days, Chief also marked the trails for days 3 and 4 (the hardest days of the ride, with the most climbs). On both of those days we went over 10,200′. I also rode Chief out with Dave Rabe in a couple of different directions a couple of miles from camp to chainsaw and remove a lot of fresh deadfall.
Now I know what it’s like to have somebody riding behind you on a horse carrying a chainsaw!
Here are another set of before and after shots. Howard (RM) also went out with a chainsaw and moved several downed trees. One even fell down on the road IN camp and had to be chainsawed. Maintaining these trails take a lot of work. There was still plenty of deadfall to ride over and around but at least the biggest obstacles were taken care of.
I’ve got more products to review that I’ve been using. I can’t wait to share!
I’ve been using some electrolytes for the last 610 miles that have been working out super well. I’ve gotten lots of questions on the last few rides about them. I think this will be a popular new item for endurance riders. The method of administration is different – new, easy, innovative – and it works! I’ll share more in an upcoming post about these electrolytes plus some other products.
If anybody has a product that they would like thoroughly tested (and I MEAN thoroughly), contact me and I’ll put it to the test for you and do a review on it.
Here are the photos from the ride. Be sure to put this ride on your calendar for next year!
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Death Valley Encounter endurance ride photos, December 28-31, 2009. Four day 200 mile pioneer ride.
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I’m anxiously awaiting your electrolyte review! I’ve been searching for a good one to use with my mare. Have you ever tried the Delite Bites? I ordered a trial pack, my mare seemed agreeable enough to taking them but I haven’t seen any info on whether they are as good as the traditional electrolyte supplements.