Walking back to camp from vetting in after our 25 LD on May 3, I was not planning on riding the 30 LD on my birthday. My mental capacity was drained. I felt Roach’s mental capacity was drained. I did not feel like repairing my Scoot Boots. I was sore, tired, disheartened and fairly certain Roach felt the same.
I felt bad, though, because Angel had not been able to ride past 4.5 miles and, despite how terribly my ride went, the ride was beautiful and we had wanted to do this together. I went back and forth many times with myself about riding only the first loop and rider option in the hold.
A rider option is when the horse is deemed fit to continue by the vet but for whatever reason the rider chooses not to continue. This can be because of rider soreness or fatigue. Or a rider may pull because the rider knows their animal best and the animal is not acting normal despite passing the vet check so they pull to be safe. I have taken a rider option for this reason at Dunn’s Creek which you can read about here. Prior to being overtime the previous day, Dunn’s Creek had been our only non-completion.
GoPro Ride Along Video
Looking for the video? Click here! But you should read the whole story.
Decision time…
Finally, I told Angel if she fixed my boots, I’d ride at least the first loop. Being tired, grumpy, and close to tears with frustration over how the ride went, I had no patience to replace toe straps. She agreed and I got my spare equipment for the repairs.
One thing you need to know about me, dear reader, is I am not a quitter. It’s why I chose to finish the mileage despite being over time. I cannot stand setting a goal and not even trying. Sipping on my drink, watching Angel fix my boots, my mind kept spinning despite telling myself I had made a decision. I made a decision to faff through 15 miles and quit. That isn’t a decision. That is a failure of moral fibre, a buckling of the backbone. Not achieving isn’t failure; however, not attempting to achieve is failure.
Watching Roach tick all the healthy post race boxes of peeing, pooping, eating, and drinking, I decided to brush him down and take an assessment of his “feeling.” Bumping me with his nose for attention, his goober personality was intact. Feeling his back, it was smooth with no heat, no flinching, no knots. His legs were smooth and cool with no hint of rubs from his boots. I stretched one shoulder, then the other. He gave no sign of resistance nor shortening.
On to the rear.
Roach has a minor issue with his left stifle. There is a scar on that leg as well which makes me wonder if he got caught up in something when he was younger and if he struggled on it, resulting in some minor permanent damage. His left rear has always been “sticky” to pick up. So, I was paying special attention to this leg when stretching. Zero problems.
I stood back, looked at him and asked, “Are you ready to do the damn thing again tomorrow? Because you look like you can.” I would like to say he did something dramatic like one of those silly horse girl movies. But this is real life, so he let out some gas and went back to his hay. But that was a good enough answer for me.
“He feels shockingly good,” I called to Angel. “We’ll do all thirty miles tomorrow if he passes the vet check at the hold. Mama didn’t raise no quitter.”
I am not a quitter, and if my animal is good for it, then I don’t have an excuse.
Loop One: Mount Vindication
The following morning we tacked up and I trotted out for the vet to prove he was still sound from the previous day. We were cleared to start and Roach started strong. He felt as though he hadn’t done anything the day prior.
All of the loops we rode for Biltmore were different which is why we wanted to do both the 25 and the 30. The first loop of the 30 had a lot of the same trail portions of the previous day’s loop two on the mountain, but backwards. Roach flew through it. (Well, for him. The important thing to remember is compared to some of these horses, his fast is still a snail’s crawl.) Jessie had no stop in her and I was concerned about the second loop and our ability to compete. I’ve become a fan of negative splits during the River Rise Ramble (you can read about that one here). I wanted to attempt negative splits here but after the mental hardship of the previous day, I decided to let Roach stay with Jessie instead of risking his mental distress. I was making a big ask of him by doing another ride and I wanted to be as considerate as possible to him. He hates having to leave Jessie and yesterday was still weighing heavily on his mind. I could tell by his insistence on staying with her. So, I let it be.
Turns out, that mule has a lot more horsepower than I give him credit for. He sustained a blistering pace for us for all 15 miles of uphills and downhills and switch backs. I’m going to see if we can start incorporating that speed more often in our Florida 25s.
Safety, Comradery, and a Skill to Train
As we approached the hold, about a mile out we saw what looked to be a rider on the ground. It was a rider pair we had been “leap frogging” on the trail for a bit. Coming closer, we could see the rider’s horse was loose and running with some horses contained in a paddock. The rider was our camp neighbor and thankfully she wasn’t alone. She had been riding with her camp neighbor for the ride. Her airvest had deployed which probably saved broken limbs considering she landed on some brutally unforgiving gravel. We took a quick assessment, asking what was needed. They had already rang camp for assistance and we saw Roman (the horse) ahead of us so we decided to get him if we could. Another pair riding ahead had gotten hold of him, but neither horse could pony.
I don’t wear this dork vest for a fashion symbol. This is an inflatable airvest called the Hit Air and you can learn more about them here
Thankfully, Jessie has had experience ponying. We started ponying him, riding in a group with the two who caught him in front, Jessie and Roman in the middle, and Roach at the back so hopefully Roman wouldn’t feel the need to escape or resist.
We ran into the help from camp who were on foot. We handed off Roman to one and gave precise instructions to the downed rider’s location. She was taken to the hospital and was given a clean bill of health with no severe injuries. She was wearing a MIPs helmet and an airvest. Those two things undoubtedly saved a lot of trauma.
After seeing the usefulness of ponying, I’m planning on using our “summer break” to teach Roach to pony and be ponied. I do not know if he has either of those skills. Hopefully, we’d rarely need them but better to have them and not need them then need and not have them.
Lack of Gas
As I feared, loop two went much slower than loop one but thankfully the terrain was more flat. Jessie is a bit of a runner then a quitter then a runner. Roach isn’t that at all. He’s a go all-dayer and, because of his little legs, shorter stride, and all around more slow, he’s got to stay in that pace to finish.
Jessie had used up her “Let’s do it” attitude in the first loop and had to be pushed to move at a good pace. At times, Angel had to dismount to assist with ascents. What made this more frustrating was due to yesterday’s horrible ride, Roach was unwilling to pass or continue without her. I don’t blame him for that. Roach and Jessie trailer together, train together, and then sleep together when we’re at rides. He has got it well in his head that she’s herd. I asked a lot of him, mentally, the previous day to do 20 miles after leaving her. I think it would have been different had we started by ourselves. Leaving her on trail was very distressing for him and he was digging in his heels about it today.
But we have to do what we have to do and he has to do what is asked. I knew Jessie would catch up, but Roach doesn’t have that speed. Unfortunately, I did not feel pleasant asking him to pass. Our speed also suffered from it. He immediately began refusing to move out. It was just awful doing that to him. This was one of those moments I wished we could have a human conversation. I very much think he would have moved on better if he understood what we were doing, that it wasn’t the same as the previous day.
A Storm’s a-Brewin’
While fighting Roach in the vineyards, dark heavy clouds rolled in. Biltmore had been forecasted to be a wet ride all weekend, but thankfully, the weather had held out. Now it looked like luck might be running out. The wind picked up and, sure enough, the sound of thunder was not far behind. Picking up on my urgency, Roach finally began to move out more. Still not great, but more than before. I wanted to be back in camp before the storm really hit.
We ducked back into the woods and Jessie and Angel caught back up with us. A short time later, Angel dismounted again to assist Jessie with a climb. For some reason, about this time, Roach caught a second wind and started moving like he did in the first loop. This is when it came really handy to have some type of handless comms. I use the Aleck Punks on my helmet, which I’ll write a review later, but it allowed me to easily call Angel and see if she needed me to assist with mounting before I got too far ahead. She was just getting ready to mount at that point so Roach and I kept on.
Redemption
We completed it. We finished our vetting with As. I am so immensely proud of that mule. He completed 55 miles in the mountains and we weren’t turtles. Not hating on turtles by any means. I was just shocked we managed to do both days and somehow not be the turtle in the 30. Post ride he felt great. I’m so proud of him and his abilities. I can’t wait to see what the future has for us.
Turtle is the last to complete the ride within time. Holding to the motto, “To Finish is to Win,” turtle is often recognized and frequently has a silly award to go with it. Some people take turtling very seriously and compete for it for fun.
