CC pictures

...Because I'm going into surgery in 5 minutes and don't have time to write a real post.  Sorry!

Somewhere I took a picture of her pre race.  Where that picture might be I have no idea........

Above: Farley at the 25 mile mark

 Irish horse and Major enjoying some rest and food at 25 miles.

Farley the morning afterwards.

Can you pick up your head so I can get a pretty picture for the blog?  

 EEEEKKK!!  Bad angle! 


Was too tired to try and get better shots of "post ride".


Below: Irish horse got a good shot of me and Farley coming up "Berkley hill" (ie the big hill on the blue loop). 

Cache creek

I will give you the story and the gear and the lessons learned post.....but before that you have to grant me one, just ONE post of raving about Farley. Consider this the post about my horse and Cache creek. The gear and tricks learned will come next.

Farley may be that one great horse in my lifetime.

Really.

This ride proved more than anything that our past successes are absolutely NOT due to me as some sort of wonderful endurance rider, but to her phenomenal physiology that comes together in a way that makes this sport relatively easy for her.

I'm probably an average endurance rider. After 20 MT in 2011 I remember posting about I felt like I had finally become a "real" endurance rider because I actually rode and managed my horse throughout the race, and Cache creek gave me the same feeling - it was an extremely challenging day and through knowledge and experience I was able to manage pacing and hydration to complete 50 miles in about 9:15, about 1 1/2 hours before cut off.

But that does not explain how we finished that ride yesterday.

First off, it was THE most humid ride I've done to date, combined with high temperatures (mid nineties) for a heat index that was well above the 150 "danger zone". Not usually a problem for a mid summer or fall ride, but for a May ride those are very hot temperatures indeed.

Upon realizing what the temperatures PLUS humidity was going to be I quickly realized there were 3 facts of life going into Saturday.

1. We did not have the heat training to do this ride.

2. We did not have the hill training to do this ride.

3. We did not have the mileage to do this ride.

Facts 2 and 3 have been around for a while and I had a plan for managing them. Adding in fact 1 made my life complicated.

I haven't been exactly straight forward about what I've done conditioning wise with Farley because it hasnt been much. I did a hot fast LD (30 miles) on her last September. Starting in March I've been getting on her 2-3 times a week and doing anywhere from 3-10 miles per ride, mostly intervals (trot, canter, gallop), although there's been weeks I've not ridden. I've gone up to Auburn mid day and got in some afternoon hills in the sun with lots of trotting. Two weeks ago I went camping at Cache creek and got some where in the neighborhood of 24 miles in over 2 days. Alot of walking and hill miles, but a lot of cantering and galloping too.

That's it folks. This 50 was where I was either going to come to a reality check when it came to my endurance plans this year, or (unfathomably) be impressed enough to take a chance.

Heres the other facts of life when it comes to endurance on Farley

1. She has 2 pulls. Both on 100's, both due to lameness/injuries.

2. She has probably some of the best heat metabolic I've ever seen in a horse. She can canter into gate and go's at Tevis and be below 60 by the time I dismount. She does not require a lot of sponging and scooping - over cooling her will cause her to shiver.

3. Farley takes care of herself and doesn't hide stuff

4. She's short and I can get on and off her how ever many times I need to during a ride.

There were 4 loops on this ride - each 12.5 miles long. Here's how the ride went down.

Loop 1 (Red)

This was one of those "1 in 7" starts I have with Farley when she's a maniac and is attempting to go at Mach speed from mile one. I was already having flash backs to 2 rides in particular, both done on Minx, both resulting in pulls. American river it was cold all week and then was over a 100 on ride day. We didnt make it. Mount Diablo I had to trailer her over to the ride camp in the middle of a hot day, and then once we got to ride camp there was zero shade. And then it was even hotter the next day (115 or something ridiculous like that), they ran out of water, it was hilly, and I pulled at lunch with no gut sounds. Only to find that you couldn't stay the night at RC and I had to put my horse back into the trailer that evening and take her home. So yeah. I don't have a great history with hot early season rides - at least on a Standardbred. Anyways - back to Cache Creek. I had to trailer Farley into RC 3:30-4:30 and she was slightly dehydrated coming off the trailer. I made it my mission to rehydrate her that night and everything looked good in the morning. So off we go with a horse who has a slightly different ride plan than I do. My plan: trot everything that isn't straight up hill, get off and jog the downhills. Farley's plan: Pass that horse and that horse and that horse and that horse and charge up that hill and that hill and that hill and race down that hill and that hill and that hill and then use that ditch as a cross country jump and that log as a jump and then stop to drink and eat and repeat.

Right.

I did let her got at a faster trot on the "flats" (ie the parts that weren't straight up or down) in the morning and trot up *some* of the hills because I knew the cool hours were going to be precious few. Starting in this first loop I did get off and jogged the down hills. This is the first ride that I've consistently gotten off from the beginning to the end and it definitely helped me as much as the horse.

After claiming to have completely forgotten all ground manners for a good 2 miles down to the first vet check, we vetted in.

Vet check 1

P&R at 52, walked over to the vet where he pronounced her good. Not even a watch on the gaits or a slight uneveness, or a comment about hydration. And it wasn't just nice vets - I saw 5 people ahead and around me go through with "there's something about that left front". Wow. OK. This is good.

Loop 2 (White)

More trotting, more jogging, in these last couple hours of cool. The last half of the loop was hot, and she finally started to drink really well at the water troughs on the trail. I found out that scooping water on her actually encouraged her to drink instead of just annoying her so for the rest of the ride I concentrated on scooping and reducing her heat load as much as possible. I don't remember much of this loop, except, although vet check 1 had reset the "button" some what she was still really really strong and my abs, shoulders, and arms were really feeling it. At the end of this loop we had 25 miles and even though I've done a lot of rides on this horse, I felt like my first 50, when everything past the LD distance is an unknown. The thought that kept passing through my head was "of course we will get to the lunch stop - we've trained for that, but further than that?".

It was going to be a hot ride so the vets instituted a respiration requirement to the pulse requirement and I was nervous because I've never monitored that on Farley. I've never noticed her panting, but since I'd never been required to make sure it was under 60/min what if I screwed up and pulsed her in too early with an inverted pulse and respiration?

Was never an issue all day even though there were lots of horses around me that had delayed P&Rs because of it.

Vet check 2

Vetted in at 48. Really?????? Totally sound. No watches. No comments. B for hydration parameters. Vets assured me that they were seeing that on everyone. This is when I started looking for more reassurance from the vets. "Are you sure she looks good? are you sure she's sound?". (unsaid was "you have no idea how underprepared we are for this, and there has to be something.....). I found myself actually bringing stuff up like "she seems to have some more gas than normal on the trail" because I really really really wanted to make sure that everything was really really really ok because this trail and ride was really really really hard. (I was told "don't worry about the gas").

My standard phrase for when asked how my ride was going from that point onward was "I'm having a better ride than I deserve or could expect".

I met the lovely Irish horse and Major at this point and her (even lovelier) boyfriend crewed for me. It was wonderful. We rode off and on together for the rest of the ride and finished within minutes of each other at the end.

Loop 3 (Blue)

We were warned of a ginormous hill on this loop. It was the talk of the trail. Irish horse had ridden with some people earlier where all they talked about was how bad the hill was and how they puked on the way up. I was really really really nervous that it was going to be like training hill (cue flashback to American River with Minx). I had decided the night before that Berkely hill might be the hill of the ride that I would end up leading up even though Farley and I had a pact of "you carry my ass up the hill and I'll lead you down it".

Farley was still wanting to trot and was quite strong so I made another pact. I would not ask her to trot but if she broke into a trot, I would let her trot a 100 yards before I made her walk. In this fashion I would make sure that she wasn't getting caught up in some sort of race brain that was going to kill us in the heat. We went along comfortably in this fashion, doing lots of trotting in short segments. She was still offering to trot up hills but I decided that our pact applied to mostly flat ground. I let her have one short canter just for fun, and yes, we may have trotted up a couple of hills, but I always made sure that anything we were doing above a walk was her asking, not me telling. As far as I was concerned, we had entered the realm of "no-mans'-land" of the ride where I didn't know what the hell to expect, but I hadn't expected to have this much horse.

We went up up up a hill. It was pretty steep. But not that long. "is this Berkely?" I asked myself? There has to be more. A little flat section and then a little more up.....but that was it. Huh? Farley stopped once in a shade patch for maybe 10 seconds, but beyond that had power walked up the hill and never gave me any indication I should get off.

It was after that hill that I started to think I had a real shot at finishing this ride and perhaps even doing it in such a fashion that wasn't too embarrassing.

Vet check 3

Lots and lots and lots of hot horses here with loads of water being dumped on them. I dumped some water on Farley and then P&Red and vetted in. Totally sound. No watches. B on gut and hydration. "Been seeing it all day" I was told. "Looks totally average for the horses coming through here" I was told. "The top horses that have gone through here have looked exactly the same" I was told. Can you tell that I was asking the vets whether everything was REALLY ok?

You mean she isn't sore or have cramping due to all these hills? Or the fact we haven't done this in 2 freakin' YEARS????????

Are you sure?

The only thing wrong is some Bs for hydration?

Because I'm pretty sure I've NEVER gone through a ride with this horse where at SOME POINT I didn't a B for gaits or muscle tone.

She's a little tired - I told the vets.

So are most of the other others - I was told.

Loop 4 (purple)

The heat load was starting to build up in the horses and I could see it in Farley. She was eating, but not diving into her food the way she usually is, so I decided to ride a very conservative. I calculated it, and even with walking most of the last loop I would get in one hour before cut off. Farley was mostly content to give me a good strong power walk but was still asking to trot. If the footing was good and it was mostly flat I would give her the OK and we did some trotting. Getting off and running the downhills REALLY helped decrease or at least minimize the heat load in the later parts of the day. She visibly looked cooler when I would get to the bottom of the hill. She wasn't even taking advantage of me mounting to take a break and rest - we do moving mounts during rides and she was walking and trotting off as I mounted and dismounted.

I was IMPRESSED.

I saw a horse on the trail a couple miles from camp that was in trouble and being treated by the vet. I looked at the horse and recognized the "look". I've seen it in Minx, and I've seen it in Farley (most notably in Tevis) of a horse that was done for that day.

Farley definitely did not have that look yesterday.

About 5 miles from RC she started to ask to canter. Ummm.....no. Absolutely not. We have NOT come this far to do something that stupid in the heat of the day. I'm happy that you are feeling so good, but that is NOT what is going to happen.

At 2 miles from RC she refused to even LOOK at the water because we were almost.there.

1 mile from RC she started threatening to buck me off and jig.

Right.....because jigging is the fastest way for me to throw the reins at her and let her just trot/canter/gallop as fast as she wants towards RC. NOT!!!!!!!!

We practiced WALKING.

She rewarded that lesson by attempted to rear and buck me off at the in timers when I had to hand them my card.

I had a lot of horse left.

Final vet check

"Still has quite a bit of bounce to her step" I was told at the final vet check.

OK - color me shocked because NO ONE has EVER accused Farley of having a "bounce" to her step at ANY POINT during a ride before. She's not a pretty mover - she's efficient.

When asked how I thought she was doing, my response was that I thought she was a little hydrated and tired, but that I thought she was OK. The vet agreed. She pulsed in at 68 (I always vet her in as soon as I can because she tends to "shut down" during vet checks and take naps and trying to vet her in 30 minutes into the check seems cruel and unusual, so I usually take a hit on my gut sounds, but she stays happier. ) with a similar respiration, so he did comment that she was probably still a little hot.

There wasn't a line, so I asked the vet to give her a more thorough look over because of her history, my goals, and because I'm using a new saddle. The vet, who knew my history with this horse (and knows I'm a vet student) patiently explained that yes, she was totally sound. No signs of ANYTHING. Nope, she didn't look stiff or sore or crampy. Back looks great - the saddle is fine (at least what can be evaluated without seeing the sweat pattern).

I was super super happy with Farley. She had stayed strong through the entire ride, and the vets had given her better scores on a very very very hard ride than what we have gotten in the past in "full" training and conditioning.

After the ride

I *think* I may have mentioned that this was probably by far the ride with the highest heat index I've ever done. I've never seen Farley hot but I was pretty sure that what was going on. Her respiration stayed elevated and she wasn't eating and drinking post ride like she usually does. One of my classmates who also did the 50 was parked next to me and I asked her if she would mind listening to Farley's gut sounds and giving me her opinion. I was at this point flat on my back with a migraine trying to resist the urge to smash my skull against the giant rock next to camp site and splatter my brains over the ground. She agreed with me - Farley did have gut sounds but they were quiet. In her opinion Farley was tired and hot. Her horse was much the same. Farley seemed fine other than that.

I had a feeling from previous rides that once the sun set, Farley would stop napping and start eating. That didn't stop me from worrying of course. It seemed like everyone that had finished the ride was dealing with the same issues, so I kept telling myself to just be patient. Farley ALWAYS naps after a ride, and she was swishing at flies and had gut sounds. Let her do her thing.

I woke up after dark to the sound of her crunching the carrots I had left on the ground for her and drinking and eating and pooping.

In the morning I woke up to a horse that looks fully rehydrated, has lots of perfectly colored pee, and dragged me around ride camp looking for the most scrumptious clumps of grass.

WOW.

She didn't look this good after our first LD

She didn't look this good after our first 50. (even though we had trained for it, done several LD's prior to it, and it was an easier, cooler 50)

She looks better this morning than she has at any comparable hot 50 we've ever done before - usually she still looks a bit tired and gaunt if it's been a hard hot ride.

I felt her legs: totally cool and tight. SHE HAS NEVER HAD ABSOLUTELY ZERO FILLING ON HER FRONTS. Sometimes I go out to the stable and she is slightly filled. No wrapping or pouliticing was done because I was trying to die that night. No walking was done.

I trotted her out - bouncy and sound. Not stiff and sore at all.

We trailered home and I turned her out into the arena. She TROTTED out away from me. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rolled, got up and went to explore the arena and what little edibles there might be.

 

So here's the bottom line for me

1. She felt great for the entire ride and kept wanting to move forward at speed.

2. She vetted in great all day.

3. ALL physiological parameters looked great the next day.

4. The only caveat to our greatness was a heat related issue after the ride. Considering that the cool weather and very few heat spells up to this point in the season, we were not able to get the heat training in. LOTS of other teams were having this issue, not just us. This is a fixable issue before Tevis.

I think the most important parameters that tells me Tevis isn't a pipe dream is the lack of soreness, stiffness, or any indication that she was over ridden. Heat training is fixable and probably would have been an issue this early in the season if we HAD been training for it.

I'm not sure how she's doing it, but some how I'm able to pull from her base of 2 years ago. My guess that it goes back to good genetics and having a solid base (even if it was some time ago.) She's always been able to maintain fitness without a ton of mileage, is relatively heat tolerant, has good trail sense and pacing, and really stable physiology (I think that heat tolerance is probably highly correlated with a horse that is able to compensate and maintain their internal electrolytes and balance respiration with other physiologic parameters so that they don't get too out of whack - I had a good conversation with a vet about electrolytes that I will share in a later post that relates to this). Whatever secrete mare paddock workouts she's doing, I hope she keeps doing it.

Can you tell I'm a bit in shock how it all turned out. I am not shocked that we finished - I wouldn't have started if I hadn't had a good shot at finishing. But never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have the horse that I had yesterday. I still cannot freakin' believe it.

Posted with Blogsy

My motto for the weekend

Last post today I SWEAR!!!!!!

(and I dont' have reception at ride camp so you won't be bugged by alcohol induced updates like SOMEBODY else posted....Funder :)

^^^^^^^^^
(BTW no alcohol will be involved this weekend - the amount of running that I will have to do to make this weekend happen means I am not going to ANYTHING that compromises that - for goodness sakes I'm leaving Tess home!  An excellent litmus test: If Tess can't come than my favorite recreational beverage can't either. )

Thank you to the wonderful Ashley who posted this on her facebook this morning. 

It shall be my motto for this weekend. 

This is also a good time to review the nuggets that I keep on my blog sidebar that have been posted by my readers over the years.

The difference between now and then and other last thoughts

 Last thoughts before I leave for my Cache Creek!

Thought #1
I rode on Wednesday.  As I trotted down the back stretch of my loop concentrated on really trying to live in that moment.  I took a picture in my mind.  A picture complete with all 5 senses that I've hopefully etched into my mind permenantly.  No matter what happens on Saturday, I wanted to capture THIS moment.  Of perfect happiness and soundness.  Of  perfect ride on the horse with the dog by my side (actually in front.....).  Of a loose rein and balance and a willing attitude.  The future is unknown.  

I think the difference between now and then, was 2 years ago I didn't take the time to live in the moment enough.   That changed during 20 MT 2011 when Farley started having muscle cramping issues early in the ride. I took a LOT of time to just live in the moment on that ride, because I was never sure whether we were going to make it through the next vet check.  I would just take a moment unfocus, take a deep breath, and FEEL my horse beneath me.  I didn't know at that time that I would be in vet school that fall and that would be our last endurance ride for almost 2 years.  However I did know that aside from what I was already doing (keeping her rump warm and trying to ride conservatively) that I had very little control over whether we would finish and that wasn't the important thing on this ride. I had finished Tevis, I had achieved my 1000 miles, and I had achieved my bronze level 100 mile achievement.  Farley and I were at that ride not to accomplish any particular long term goal - we were out there because we loved 100's, and to enjoy the trail and the company.  On that ride I was reminded of Minx, and reminded that the future is uncertain, and that's why even now I have a hard time remembering that ride as a failure even with the pull at mile 92.  Because we had a beautiful ride and I learned a beautiful lesson. 

Thought #2
Is this my first ride?

My brain apparently thinks so.  I can't sleep, have been obsissively posting here, making lists, and making last minute decisions of what I need to take to the ride.

Case in point.  My dressage saddle is now joining my other 2 saddles in the trailer becauase after the ride on Wednesday I was reminded how balanced I am in that saddle and what a great sweat pattern Farley has in it.  Let's completely ignore the fact that I don't think I actually have a vet check back in camp (something I discovered Thursday) - I might change my mind Saturday morning and want to ride in it!

And then this morning I thought of THE perfect way to carry elyte syringes on my saddle.  Which requires me to find/buy velcro and electrical tape, and find the containers that my feeding syringes were packaged in.  

I have 30 starts (not counting the ride and tie) and over a 1000 endurance miles.  I really need to get a hold of myself!

Thought #3

Gluing boots is a pain.

It was a pain when I did it for a Wild West multi day.

It was a pain when I did it for Tevis.

It was MORE of a pain yesterday when I did it for a 50.  Mostly because I knew that I was going through this process for "just" a 50. 

Am I glad this option exists for situations like this one when I don't have a good boot fit on Farley right now, and I don't want to put shoes on?  Yes. 

However, the idea of doing this on anything approaching a regular basis makes me want to run screaming towards my strap ons. 

After taking 1 1/2 FREAKIN' HOURS to glue on 4 boots, including hoof prep, I've decided that the worse part of the process for me is:
1. The fact I have to do and concentrate on 1 thing for 1 1/2 hours (and that was WITH a fresh trim - ie I did NOT have to trim her).  Pure torture with someone with shiny object squirrel disease.  At the end of the 1 1/2 hours me and Farley pretty much hated each other.  She was a snit and I was a bitch. 
2. Being reminded of how much hoof modification has to occur in order to make the glue ons work. 
3. I lose an entire day of prep for the ride.  After doing this process I was in NO MOOD to do ANYTHING else.  I drove home, devoured the entirety of left over "Beijing Wings", and watched a Supernatural episode.  And then lay in bed too excited to go to sleep.  

People who glue on boots are probably going to look at my pictures and tell me I should have sanded a heck of a lot more than I did.  But I just couldn't.  For better or worse, I just couldn't take off any more wall.  :(

 Below is the hoof cleaned up with the rasp.

 This picture shows the sand prep on the hoof wall.

 Even the stable puppy was done after the process.

For those of you have never glued boots on, I'm now going to enlighten you on the published versus actual steps of gluing on boots.

Published steps: how to glue on boots
1. Assemble your crap
2. Make sure your horse has a fresh trim and refresh if necessary
3. Prep the hoof with sandpaper.
4. Clean hoof
5. Prep the boot for glueing
6.  Place glue in boot
7. Place boot on hoof
8. Spend a few moments insuring the bond between hoof and boot, touching up with more glue as necessary.
9. Cut the back of the boot back for length if necessary (I'm using Renegade Pro-comp Glue on boots which have a flat back and can be cut back to exact length with a pair of nippers)
10.  Repeat with the other hooves.

Actual steps: how to glue on boots
1. Assemble your crap.  Experience tells you to make sure you have a place to put trash because you will generate a lot of it.  

2. Put on leather gloves.

3. Refresh the trim and roll with a rasp (I did just enough to knock the dirt off and I could see the hoof - her trim was only a couple days old).

4. With the smooth side of the rasp clean up the outside of the hoof - should be nice and pretty!  Experience tells you this is not as easy as it sounds. 

5. Use sand paper to to take off any semblance of shiny cuticle on the outside of the hoof wall.  Experience tells you this takes much longer than it sounds. Hoof should be a perfectly amorphous, sanded texture.  You will come closer to this "ideal" depending on how much "modification" you can stomach on your horse's hoof.  My prep yesterday fell somewhere between what I did for WW and Tevis (not enough) and what the professionals did at Tevis (ideal).

6. Size hoof to boot.  Realize that the sizes are slightly different than expected and thus instead of 4 fabulously clad bronze feet, you will have 3 fabulously clad bronze feet and one in......yellow. Fortuantely, experience tells you that having more sizes and boots than you think is necessary will allow the best fitting boot for that day to go on the hoof......

7. Spray the hoof and wall with denatured alcohol.  Stick hoof into a clean, spare glue on and threaten horse with immediate death if she moves the hoof out of the boot. 

8. Prep boot by sanding inside phalage, cutting V notches if necessary (made more challenging if you left your tin snips at home and are working with woefully sub par wire cutters.....), and then clean inside of boot with denatured alcohol.

9.  Take off gloves.  Put on pair of disposable gloves. Insert new tip on glue gun. 

10. Put glue into boot.  Hope your horse doesn't take this moment to move her hoof out of the spare glue on and get it dirty because the clock is ticking on the glue setting. Experience tells you that if you try and force glue out of the gun after it starts to set in the tip to fill that "one more space" half way through the gluing process, the pressure generated at the base of the tip will explode the nasty glue all over everything when you remove the tip, so you get one shot at getting all the glue you are going to need onto that boot.  Experience tells you that you will need 6 tips - 1 for each boot, and 2 to fill any last minute gaps.

11. Manipulate the hoof into various positions to get a good boot set.  God help you if you have an uncooperative horse.

12.  Realize at this point that you will indeed need a new pair of disposable gloves for every single hoof because the glue gets all over them and makes them essentially useless.  In fact, experience told you this would probably be the case, but since you were in a hurry leaving school, you just grabbed "a handful".  Thus you will be a glove short for the last boot and then have to deal with a film of glue all over your hands.  Something that has happened every single freakin' time you glue on boots.

13.  Gently set down the hoof in boot and threaten the horse with death if she makes any sudden moves.

14. Change back into leather gloves.  Discard tip.  Discard disposable gloves. Realize that you have just finished 1 out of 4. 

Thought #4

Convincing the Brittany that she doesn't get to go is THE most heart wrenching thing about the ride prep.   Tess would be immensely unhappy to be left in the horse trailer while I was out riding, and since the ride is going to be quite warm, I would be worried about her and whether she had enough water.  Plus, the thought of 2am puppy full-moon rituals does NOT amuse me since I'm already way stressed about this ride and whether it's going to go well.

Attempts to convince the boyfriend to come to the ride Saturday and Saturday night (and bring Tess) so that I could see my dog post ride and snuggle with her Saturday night were unsuccessful.....

Tess can't decide whether she is more disappointing that she isn't going, or more relieved that she escapes a snuggling.....

The spackle.....

Spackle needs a new name. 

Irish Horse is right.  Spackle is not a good term for what promises to be the most delicious thing I've ever been able suck down in the saddle.

Except apple sauce.  But applesauce doesn't have protein, and similarly to "man can not live by bread alone:, I can guarantee you that this endurance rider cannot live on applesauce only for 50 or a 100 miles. 

For those of you that missed the recipe tucked into the bottom of a previous post here it is - make a batch and give me your best name for this wonderful substance (that I will admit to eating for breakfast this morning).

1 c. almond butter (Winco lets you grind your own in the bulk section, which made it more affordable).
1c. cashew butter (I couldn't find, so I bought unsalted raw cashew pieces and ground them to smithereens in my food processor)
1/4 c. almond oil (Ha!  Couldn't find this either so I used a soy or vegetable oil with minimal taste - thought about using coconut oil, but didn't - but I might next time)
1/2 c. Agave syrup (I used honey - because I wanted more flavor, not just for it to be sweet)
1 Tbl vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract (I didn't add because I didn't have)
Salt - to taste

Mix in a blender

Once I had it all mixed up, I separated into 4 bags so I could experiment with "additives".
- 1 bag I kept as original
- Added white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to 1 baggie
- added miniature chocolate chips and miniature marshmallows to another
- added coco powder and miniature chocolate chips to the last baggie.

It's only Wednesday and I'm already out of time!

I'm sure I could be so much more productive if I could dictate my blog posts via speech to text.......and then I'll try to do something simple like speech to text a comment on a friends facebook status, and this posts:

it being a seamless hack allows you to ride in urine I just don't see the problem.

Instead of this:
if being a shameless hack allows you to ride endurance I just don't see the problem

Right.  Me thinketh I'll continue to blog the old fashion way. 

It's funny how far away a Saturday ride seems the Wednesday before.  Until I realize that I'm gluing boots on Thursday, and leaving for the ride and vetting in on Friday.  Which leaves Wednesday as the LAST day for me to do any last minute shopping and packing and stressing.  

EEEKKKK!!!!!!

Wednesday afternoon I realized that while I have plenty of Vitalytes (the elytes that I put into my water bottles) and S caps (elyte "capsules" that I swallow like a pill every hour), I need more Cytomax (a different kind of elyte that sometimes I need periodically).  AND after reviewing my camp far west ride story, realized I want some Honey Zinger elyte chews to take with me in my saddle bags.
==> The only place to reliably get cytomax and honey zingers in this area is REI.  Which is kinda (but not really) on my way home. 

OK.  I can handle that. 

And then based on an email on the new100milers yahoo list I remembered that I can often get pizza down at rides when I can't get anything else down and so let's put on the list to pick up a "perfect" pizza from papa murphy's tonight to cook on Thursday.  Pretty sure I can do that on my way home from the stable tonight....

AND I need to find good sandpaper for the glue boot prep......

And now I'm reminded how much I HATE GLUING ON BOOTS.  HATE HATE HATE.  But it's my penance for ignoring Farley's feet over the winter time and even though she's sound barefoot, she doesn't have the best biomechanics right now.  And I do not want to stress about the strap ons on my first 50 in 2 years in boggy conditions.  So glueons it is.  And my life is going to suck for the 40-45 minutes MINIMUM that it's going to take me.  And I lose much of Thursday. Ugh.

OK - let's review the list
-cytomax
-honey zingers
-pizza
-sandpaper

Oh yeah..... and I need feeding syringes for elytes....and caps for the syringes......

*sigh*

And what about that short little fun trail ride I wanted to have with Tess and Farley this afternoon?

I think I just officially reached my maximum "things that need to be done before the ride". 

Time for gin and tonic.  Or just the gin. 

PS - 6 oz of spackle easily fit into my squeeze bottles.  6oz of spackle + 1 c. of applesauce (in a second squeeze bottle) + vitalytes + 1-2 packages of honey zingers = 4 hours = ~25 miles.  So the goal will be to have all the spackle, applesauce, and honey zingers consumed within that 4 hours, and then do a refill.  :) I do so much better with goals - so if I know I have to consume a certain amount within a certain time than I'm much better about doing so! 

Non-arab management?

I'd happily welcome any suggestions for managing the non-Arab through rides, too, and I promise to pick and choose whatever seems to work for us!

This was the last of Figure's question and the question I would MOST like my readers to give advice on either here or on their own blogs. 

What I post on this blog, including the previous post on how to condition the endurance horse, is based on my own one-rat study.  Many of you probably feel like I've jumped off the deep end and adamently disagree with some of my advice.  That's OK - my hope is that even if you think I'm full of horse apples, that there may be one little gem in there that you can take away and think about.  It's certainly what I do when I read other people's stuff - I rarely agree with everything they say, but there's usually one thing I can take away.

Those of you that are long time readers of this blog may read some of the stuff I posted yesterday and say "but that's not what you said 3 years ago!!!!"....and you would be right.  As much as I value consistency, I value having an open mind and constantly reassessing my methods to best of the current knowledge out there.  So yeah, my philosophy on conditioning has changed over the years.

There's some great questions and comments on yesterday's blog, and I'm going to attempt NOT to repeat the information here.  Today's post is concentrated on my experience with conditioning an arab versus a non arab.

I'm going to start with Farley, because I think it is easier to talk about arabs and then contrast the non-arab.  remember that this is my opinion in my one-rat study - which is why it's important for you to post and comment if you have a different opinion! 

After building a base on Farley, I started doing 50's, and fairly quickly I attempted a 100.

Let's remind ourselves what the see saw looks like:

In the first part of Farley's career, including the first time I attempted Tevis, I was operating in this range:

I stayed in this sweet spot for a year, accomplishing a lot. But then, I started to move towards the right hand side without really aknowledging that was what was happening.  Setting aside additional issues such as nutritional that caused my pull at Tevis 2009 - another major factor was that I had shifted from one side of the see saw to the other, without quite making it.  I either needed more rest or more mileage and as a result I ended up in the uncomfortable position of the middle.......

I had a comment on the last post of how do you know where you are on the see saw - It's either in hindsight - but if you know you have minimal miles for what you are trying to accomplish you are on the left hand side.  If you are trying to "make up" for those minimal miles by getting in "one last" ride before a race, or if you are pushing for your horse to go harder and faster during those last rides because you are stressed about the amount of conditioning and they aren't giving it to you, then it's very possible you are starting to move towards the middle. 

After Tevis 2009, I added dressage lessons, interval training, and riding more days out of the week, as well as more endurance rides to my season.  I moved to the right hand side of the see saw. 

I stayed in that sweet spot for over a year.  I did 3 100's that year, including Tevis and Farley looked GREAT.  But then, I added jumping to our cross training and I asked for one ride too many in the context of everything else we were doing and I shifted once again to the right hand side of the see saw and I got pulled again. 

I want you to notice a pattern.  First off, I have 2 pulls - one from each side of the see saw.  Choosing one philosophy over the other does not make you immune from getting pulled.  Second, both my pulls resulted from me shifting to the right of the see saw towards more miles and less rest, than the other way.  Far more damaging than not enough miles is the effect of not enough rest. 

How does this relate to a non arab? 

In my experience, a non-arab, in general, needs more miles to achieve the same amount of fitness, and needs more miles to maintain that fitness. 

The rules of rest still apply, but somehow you need an increased number of miles while still maintaining enough rest. 

Which means you are always operating in this quadrant (red) instead of one of these (green)

I found that even with a LOT of miles I wasn't getting as much "bang for my buck" so while that number of miles would have put me in the "superfit" category on an arab, it wasn't with my standardbred.  And I needed more miles to keep her fit which kept me out of the superrested category. 

So I was always teetering on the right hand side of the see saw, seeing the results as if I was in the middle of the see saw, but seeing results as if I was on the far right, past the sweet spot. 

If you go back and read in the comments of yesterday's post on my "3 stages of conditioning an endurance horse" I found that I spent a lot of time alternating between stages 1 and 2, and often was never able to get out of stage 2 - stage 2 that was the end point.  With Farley (an arab) I spent minimal time in stage 2 and bumped to stage 3 really fast.

Again, I'm fully aware I'm talking about ONE arab and making generalizations.  I'm talking about ONE standardbred and making all sorts of jumps and conclusions to not only other standardbreds, but to other non-arab breeds.

One other anecdote: My sister went with me on her mustang to most of my early conditioning rides on Farley (stage 1 and 2 training) and I noticed the same thing on the mustang that I did with the standardbred.  Even though the mustang had a more ideal living circumstance (on pasture with other horses) she did not condition as fast or keep that conditioning. 

Anyone else out there have a differing opinion?  Or even thinks I'm right?  Would especially love to hear from Funder, AareneX etc. as I know they not only have way more experience in this area, but it's recent!  [looking at you Funder with your awesome 2 day 100 mile Tennessee walker :)]

Reader question

Today we have a response to a reader comment that was way too involved to get a response in the comments!  Would love to hear whether your advice for this reader is different from mine.

I've put her questions in italics and addressed her "sub-questions" one at a time in the non-italicized font.....

First the relevant signalment (that's what we vet peeps call the age/gender/breed/neuter status.  Think of it has a one line history that tells you the relevant history of the animal and gives you a photo in your mind):
Fetti, Haflinger, looking at doing our second LD, first one this year. 

AWESOME - So what we have here is a non-traditional breed that already has one LD under her belt (girth?) and is looking for more.  

It's entirely possible we'll never make it to a 50, but I don't think it's unreasonable to aim for some 25s where I don't have to worry the whole time about time/pulsing down at the end.

AMEN!  It's the number one reason I HATE LD's.  I can remember thinking that neither me nor Farley were going to survive the experience of pulsing down at the finish line on the LD's that we did.  She did NOT understand why we were standing outside of camp away from the trailer, food, water, and the comforts of her Spring Tie. Ugh ugh ugh.

However, keep in mind that you have to pulse into vet checks within a certain time, and you DO have to pulse in to the finish at the 50 mile distances and above in a certain time - it just doesn't affect your placing.  That being said, there is just a diffference (for me at least) of sitting at the finish line trying to get my horse to pulse down, versus pulsing in for a vet check.  It's just different.

And don't count yourself out for 50's or even a 100.  If you don't read Funder's blog - you should.  She went from "never going to do endurance" to "maybe I'll do an LD", to "a 50 could be OK" to "I can't WAIT to do a 100!".  And she's doing it on a Tennessee walker! 

With our usual riding partners, average speed tends to be 3-4mph. Am I right in thinking that most 4-10 mile rides with them are not going to do an awful lot for Fetti's conditioning/fitness level? We're generally not going above a medium-slow trot, with a fair bit of walking thrown in when the others get tired. Her Big Trot is closer to 7-8mph (on flat ground, but without other horses). 

To increase fitness you need to be pushing the horse in either the speed or distance (or difficulty in trail - such as hills etc.) to a level not previously experienced.  Maintaining fitness is easier and doesn't necessarily mean that you are pushing quite as hard.  My guess is that by doing the 4-10 mile rides at that speed you are maintaining a certain amount of fitness needed to do an endurance paced LD, but you aren't actually adding to that fitness in any significant way.  I feel that 4-10 miles at 2-4 mph is fine for the majority of your rides, as long as you add 1-2 long rides a month, and an interval workout every 7-10 days.

I would do my long rides at that "big trot" speed, with walk and jog breaks as necessary for 2-3 hours - overall speed will end up being slightly greater than the 2-4 mph, and when you work up to the 3 hour mark, your mileage will be increased as well.

Interval workouts would be done by doing short bouts of that big trot speed up a hill, or on the flats with at a speed slightly faster than the big trot speed, with walk/jog breaks.  Perhaps 2-4 minutes doing the fast portion of the interval, followed by 1-2 minutes of slow walk/jog recoveries.  The horse should be close to full recovery (ie close to 60 bpm) before doing the next fast interval.  So if your horse is struggling to feeling "good" after 1-2 minutes of the slow recovery, you need to back off the speed or duration of your fast intervals.
- Note that by "fast" I don't mean gallop your horse all out......the fast portion of the interval is just faster than the normal endurance speed - a fast trot or a slow canter. 

Those 4-10 mile rides, and finishing that LD last year means that you probably have the base to start doing the long rides and intervals I've described above.  In fact, for someone that has just started, the slower rides are exactly what I would recommend!  However, you are ready to move your conditioning to the next level, to give you a little more of a "comfort cushion" for your next LD. 

We did finish the 25 last year at Ride Bear, but just barely pulsed down in time. As a result, I'm currently erring towards the super-fit side of the spectrum. 

I would encourage you to step back and think of your conditioning to this point as outside of the seesaw between "super rested" and "superfit".

Since I don't know how often you are doing the 4-10 mile rides, it's hard for me to determine exactly how much mileage you are putting on your horse, but for the sake of this argument, let's assume that these 4-10 mile rides are making up the majority of your training, and that you are riding a couple days a week.  Sound fair?
-  With this assumption, I would argue that you fit into neither category of super fit or super rested!
-  You aren't doing the super fit thing, because you are neither going far enough or fast enough (often enough) to be putting the "extra" fitness on your horse.
- But you are doing significant riding more often than what I would consider "super rested".

It obviously varies for each horse, but here is what I would consider a "super rested" and a "super fit" protocol for an LD horse.

(caveat - assumption being that, like in this case, the horse has successfully completed an LD before and can be considered as having a "base")

Super fit protocol EXAMPLE: Long (~3-4 hours) rides at speeds of at least 5 mph average every 7-14 days.  Horse is ridden most days of the week - a mix of dressage schooling, shorter trail rides, and a fast ride of ~1 hour every 7-10 days.  Reduce this work out in the last 2 weeks prior to a 50 or LD - horse is still ridden 3-4 days a week and those rides include schooling dressage, and slower trail rides up to one hour.  The 2 week taper period would also apply to a 50 miler.  For 100's the lead up "tapering" prior to a ride was even longer than 2 weeks - approaching 4 weeks, with ideally no significant rides (such as a 50) within 6 weeks of a hard 100. A superfit protocol will give you the reserves to get yourself out of a situation - ie you got stuck behind a long line of people or had a major tack malfunction and now you need to make up some time.
--> This is how Farley was trained for much of her endurance career.  Resting the horse before a ride, and giving alternating weekends off after doing significant 3-4 hour conditioning rides is essential for keeping the horse sound!

Super rested protocol EXAMPLE: 1-2 Long (~3 hour) rides per month.  Ride horse ~2 days a week.  And sometimes weeks go by without the horse being ridden.  No more than 1 hard work out a week (whether that was one of the long rides, or a faster interval ride).....and even more typically "hard" workouts are spaced out by 10-14 days.  May "cluster" your workouts - ie do 2 or 3 harder/longer/faster workouts back to back after 7-10 days off, followed by another 7-10 days off.  "Days off" = fartin' around = rides without fitness goals.  This includes fun rides with friends and beer, leadrope runs, ground work, swims in the lake etc. If you have a time and a distance in mind, than it is not a day off.  A cornerstone of this approach is that you absolutely make sure your horse is rested going into the ride......and you absolutely make sure you don't put your horse back to work after a ride or an especially hard conditioning ride too soon.  Wait weeks if necessary.  Never ride your horse through a NQR. Realize you are NOT going to beat that cut off time by galloping 5 or 10 miles.  The benefit?  Going into the ride, I'm not worried that there is something brewing somewhere. 
--> This is Farley's current conditioning.  

Neither approach is without it's risks.  Superfit?  Look for stress injuries and micro injuries caused by fatigue.  Tendons and ligaments are only as strong as the muscles around them - and fatigued muscles are asking for an increased load on a tendon that causes failure. Superrested?  If you have a horse with a history of tye up, you MUST make sure you are addressing it through nutrition and how you are asking the horse to go back to work.  I tend to not pull Farley out of her pen and ask her to do a hard work out.  If I have something coming up, I try to make sure I've gone running with her, or done a short walking trail ride with her for the day or 2 before. 

What about an approach that is in between these 2?  I would argue that you have the risks without any of the benefits.  You have a horse that you are riding a lot, that may be more fatigued than optimal, but the type of work being done by the horse isn't adding to their fitness. 

Important concept: If you are happy with how the horse is finishing whatever is your choice of rides (LDs, 50s, 100s), than don't change anything - it doesn't matter exactly where you are on the see saw because it is working for you. 

 However if you want the horse to look differently at the finish line, than you must change something in your conditioning plan in order to change something in your horses fitness. You could be in the middle of the see saw (Not enough mileage and not enough rest), or at the extreme ends of the see saw (not enough mileage OR not enough rest).  You either need to add rest or miles and which option you chose will depend on your rider goals and your individual horse!!!!!!!

I think a diagram would help explain this concept.  At the arrows, the horse is too tired.  At the circles the horse finishes well.  

You can also look at this as a 2x2 diagram (in vet school we get like a GAZILLION 2x2 diagrams to explain EVERTHING).

My Dear Patient Reader had one last (sub) question that will be answered in a second post since I think it's an important concept that stands alone and is relevant beyond this specific situation.

Bonus discussion - I wasn't sure how to fit this concept in nicely above so I'm shoving it here on the end.  Just something else to think about:

What about injury?  I've touched on it briefly above with stress/overtraining injuries associated with superfit protocols, and more acute overriding injuries associated with super rested protocols.  Another thing to consider is a known history of some injury that you don't want to reinjure. An argument could be made for either philosophy. 

Let's take tendons as an example.  Assume you have successfully rehabbed the injury, it was a relatively mild injury that required time off, but isn't necessarily career ending.  The facts are: the previously injured tendon is not as strong.  Tendons experiencing increased load have a tendency to protest.  Tendons are kept in working order by the strength of the muscles around them.  Tendons are susceptible to both overtraining/stress injuries, and overriding injuries. Keeping that in mind:

• Superfit = you've tested thoroughly tested the tendon out on the trail and it hasn't broke yet, so you are probably OK to go.  The downside: You've put a lot of stress on that tendon in training and it may have micro injuries (and in fact, the research says it probably does) and you are relying on the conditioning of the structures (muscles) that may or may not have overtraining issues/fatigue. 
• Superrested = You've not overloaded the tendon in training so you know you are going into the ride with as close to 100% integrity as it's ever going to have - the risk of some micro injury is low.  The downside: the muscles around it may not be as adapted for the load, and thus the tendon may experience more strain during the ride and muscle fatigue during the ride may cause injury. 

Again - there's a trade off and a grey area of what exactly is the "right" approach.  Again, it goes back to the rider goals, individual horse etc.  

A woefully inadequate post (and a spackle recipe!)

This post was going to be much better. 

It was going to have trimmed feet pictures (sorry Ashley - will get them to you tomorrow)

It was going to have a group picture of me in seriously wacky colors, Farley, and Tess getting ready to go on our afternoon run. 

It was going to a much better post than just words and me rambling along. 

But I took the pics using my REAL camera, and not my phone, and thus the pics don't automatically upload to my drop box, and thus when I leave my camera at home on the counter while I run to starbuck to do a little internet, those pictures do NOT magically appear on my computer, ready to share with YOU, my Dear Reader. 

So instead, my Dear Reader gets random Monday Mel thoughts, without the benefit of pictures, an outline, or a plan of what exactly this post is going to include! 

Did you know I have a fifty this weekend?

Yep.  It's been 2 years since me or Farley have been that far.  Should be interesting.  I'm planning on getting off a LOT and running.  If I'm not ready to collapse at the end from running I probably didn't run enough.

To be perfectly honest I'm a bit freaked out about the whole thing.  Which is why I haven't been posting much about the 50 here.  It's hard to sit here and not second guess my conditioning plan and compare it to everywhere around me and what THEY are doing.  Even though I have lots of miles underneath my belt, know what it takes to do 50 miles, and understand the balance between training and rested.  I don't have the time to get Farley super fit.  To try and do so would be to risk an over-training injury and go to rides with a tired horse that is more prone to injury.  Thus, my smarter strategy is to do minimal training and arrive at the ride with a well rested, uninjured horse and then try to mitigate the minimal training by utilizing pace and rider fitness.  Two different strategies that are both appropriate depending on horse and rider experience, and the goals of the ride. 

The WORST thing I could is let enough self doubt creep into my pschy that I'm tempted to do more mileage and training to try and push myself towards the edge of the seesaw that represents the less rested/more fit side --> because I do NOT have enough time, I would get half way there and then get stuck on the middle of the seesaw - not rested enough, nor fit enough. 

ANYWAYS....back to the 50 this weekend.  I'm trying to low key, not fret too much, and just take it one thing at a time.  Either it happens or it doesn't.  Either I decide not to continue going out on loops or I finish.  I either finish well enough that I decide to do Wild West, or I don't. 

I just have to say one thing.....
Unless someone specifically asks my opinion on their conditioning program and is looking for specific advice, I keep my mouth shut.  There are many different ways to accomplish the same goal.  For example, we've already touched on 2 different strategies above - super fit versus super rested.  That's just one example of how it's important to look at different protocols and schedules and strategies and choose one that compliments your horse, you as a rider, and your ride goals.  The variation can be immense!  That being said, there are a couple of common themes throughout any program - one of which is that REST is very important.   It is during REST that the horse gets stronger.  REST is at least as important as any other component (long rides, intervals etc.) of your chosen program.  That is why I was shocked to see so many people who are going to Cache creek this weekend, posting that they were doing "one last long ride" before Cache creek this past weekend?  What the Hell???????  I've always followed the wisdom that any "last long rides" or any ride that could be considered "strenuous" never took place closer than 2 weeks before the ride.  That has been true whether I've been riding 50's or 100's.  Whether I've been using a "superfit" philosophy or (my current) "super rested" philosophy.  The fittness gained by doing a ride within that 2 week window before the ride gives you minimal increase in fitness, but increases greatly the chances of an overtraining injury or that you will be bringing less than optimally rested horse to the start of that 50.  If you absolutely MUST do that one last long conditioning ride 7 days prior to the start of the race in order to get that incremental amount of fittness possibly gained by doing so, I would argue that you probably REDUCED your chance of finishing by at LEAST the same amount that you increased them by the additional training. 

I was so suprised by the number of posts that I saw, I actually had to check with another endurance rider that I hadn't gone crazy and was totally missing something.  Nope, she thinks that is crazy too. 

Of course "long" is relative.  If I've been training for 100's and decide to go for a recreational 10 mile ride 2 weeks before the 100 - no big deal.  If I'm doing my first LD or first 50 and decide to do a faster 10-15 miles (or more) over challenging terrain with the intent to actually "train/condition" my horse - bad idea. 

Even during Marathons human athletes taper for 3 weeks prior to a marathon.  I might do a 20 miler or a half marathon 3-4 weeks out, I would NOT do a half marathon the weekend prior to a marathon that I wanted to do well at.  There is a limit to how much you can extrapolate from human performance to horse performance, but rest is one of those parameters that is universal. 

So if you've ever wanted my advice on what you should do in that 2 weeks before a ride, here it is:
Whatever mileage and riding you got in at the 2 week mark is what you are going into your ride with.  Any further training with the intent of increasing fitness will only harm you (or at best be neutral).  What should you do in those 2 weeks?  Have fun.  Definitely keep riding - but don't do it with time or mileages in mind and if it seems strenuous or hard, don't do it.  I'm not giving you a specific mileage or speed because you know exactly what consitutes training.  Go on a 10 mile ride because you have the time and the horse is eager.  Sure!  Gallop some because the horse and you are having fun and it's a great stretch of trail? Sure!  Ask the horse to canter or gallop specified intervals or perform according to heart rate?  Not such a good idea.  Going out to plug away on that trail with that huge hill?  Not such a great idea.  Asking the horse to continue at a speed when it begins to tire because it will be good training?  Not a great mindset in this period.  A 8 mile ride that intersperses some galloping, eating, hand running, and walking?  Sounds good.  Doing some ground work, maybe a bit of dressage - sounds great! 

Get the idea?


I'm experimenting with saddle food!
Not to leave you on such a "finger wagging" note......I want to share with you a recipe I'm going to try this weekend.  It's based on some experimenting that I'm doing with backpacking food for some trips this summer. 

The meals for ridecamp I have handled - those sectioned containers filled with food in an icechest wonderful! 

At camp far west last fall, I experimented with different commercial bars and elytes and nut butters and applesauce.  For that ride I made up baggies of balanced nutrition that were a certain number of calories and forced myself to eat one bag an hour.  It worked great - I didn't bonk and making sure that my protein and carbs were balanced went a long ways towards making my stomach and brain happy. 

I'm doing something similar for this ride, but I'm replacing the nut butter packets with a homemade "spackle".  Of everything I brought in my saddle bags, the applesauce went down the best, the nut butter the worst - and since the nut butter is how I'm getting the majority of my protein, I want to make it more palatable.  (eating jerky in the saddle was no bueno). 

Here's the recipe

1 c. almond butter (Winco lets you grind your own in the bulk section, which made it more affordable).
1c. cashew butter (I couldn't find, so I bought unsalted raw cashew pieces and ground them to smithereens in my food processor)
1/4 c. almond oil (Ha!  Couldn't find this either so I used a soy or vegetable oil with minimal taste - thought about using coconut oil, but didn't - but I might next time)
1/2 c. Agave syrup (I used honey - because I wanted more flavor, not just for it to be sweet)
1 Tbl vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract (I didn't add because I didn't have)
Salt - to taste

Mix in a blender

Once I had it all mixed up, I seperated into 4 bags so I could experiment with "additives".
- 1 bag I kept as original
- Added white chocolate chips and dried cranberries to 1 baggie
- added miniture chocolate chips and minature marshmellows to another
- added coco powder and minature chocolate chips to the last baggie. 

I'll see what flavors sit the best while "working". 

To dispense the spackle, a 500 ml platypus water bottle was suggested, but the idea of stuffing spackle into the little opening, and having that huge bag for a relatively little amount of spackle did not appeal, so I bought those little refillable squeeze bottles that you can buy in the camping section.  I am concerned that some of my "additives" won't fit through the nozzle of the bottles, so next time I'll probably throw the additives into the food processor to chop them up a bit. 

The plan is to throw a squeeze bottle in my saddle bags with one of the mixtures.  I'm putting applesauce in another squeeze bottle because it went down SO GOOD at my last ride, and I think that these 2 foods, along with S!caps (my electrolytes pills) and vitalyte in my water bottles (a different kind of electrolytes that I can drink that has an acceptable taste....) should get me through most of the loops, without having to open up a gazillion little packets and deal with the trash. 

For those of you that care about the numbers - note that none of the numbers/calculations below include the additives - just the original spackle base:

One spackle recipe = ~4000 calories
One serving is considered 1 Tablespoon = ~130 calories
I found it easier to weigh the spackle (thanks mom for the scale!  I use it all the time!); one recipe = ~22 ounces
Thus ~180 calories per ounce
The current recommendation I use for calories per hour of exercise = 200-300 calories per hour
So....let's call it 1.5 oz per hour and the rest I'll make up in apple sauce (yum!). 

I'm not quite sure how much is going to fit into my squeeze bottles, but I think it's going to be around 6 oz from what I've experimented worth so far........

So one squeeze bottle SHOULD be good for ~4 hours.  If haven't finished off a bottle of the stuff in 4 hours, I know that I'm probably working on a calorie deficit. 

In which I get trimming advice

Yesterday I sent some pictures of Farley's feet to renegade.  My plan is to use renegade strap ons at Tevis this year, so I want to make sure that her feet are trimmed as optimally as possible, since the "better" (ie closer to ideal) the hoof mechanics are, the better the performance of the boot. 

I want to be perfectly clear: I'm NOT taking a pigeon toed, contracted heel, crooked hoof creature and decreeing that it shall have "normal" mechanics.   I have a horse with nice normal feet without any major abnormalities.  Any significant imbalances in the hoof are more than likely caused by my trimming and can be corrected without causing lameness or harm to the horse.  

I am NOT a hoof care professional or trimmer.  A trimmer still looks at Farley's feet every 5-10 weeks (depending on whether I miss my appointment.....) and cleans them up for me - I'm especially concerned that my inexperience will result in a medial imbalance etc.  And, just because I can see something that needs to be addressed in Farley's hoof doesn't mean I know how to use my tools to fix it!

Digression: I see a lot of trimming jobs done by various people in a 2 hour radius from me because of my "Boots4Mel" business.  I would say that 50% of the trims are see are worse than what I do with Farley, and 50% of them are better.  Of those 50% that I think do a better job than me, there's only a fraction of them that I would actually trust to trim my horse for various reasons and I haven't seen anyone I would chose over my current trimmer.  I make a point of looking at the horse's foot before asking who trims so that I'm not biased, but every time I see a trim I really really like, it's by my trimmer :).

I have to admit that I'm a little self conscious about posting pictures of Farley's feet.  I'm not sure why - I KNOW I'm not a professional.  I KNOW that I don't do a perfect job.  And I KNOW that there are a lot of people out there who can give good advice.  I'm not trying to pass myself off as the best trimmer in the horse.

I think some of it is this:
1. A fraction of the advice I'm going to get is really good advice that should actually be implemented.
2. Most of the advice is going to come from people like me - who may be able to see the abnormality, but don't necessarily know how to correct it.
3. Some of the advice is going to wrong. 

Here's the problem: I'm not knowledgeable enough yet to sort through which advice falls into category 1, 2, or 3.  I have to rely more on knowing WHO the advice is coming from than WHAT they are actually saying.  There's only 2 reasons to post picture of Farley's feet. 
1. To show off and brag how good they look.  I'm totally not there yet - she's rock crunching sound but that doesn't mean that her feet are "show worthy" yet. 
2. To ask for advice.  And since we already established that there's only certain people I'm going to take advice from anyways - than if I want advice I should just ask them......

OK OK OK - get to the point you say. 





I sent pics of Farley's bare hooves.


I received a page of advice. 


I like to think of the advice as falling into 3 categories (because there is NOTHING better than a numbered list!!!!!!)


Category 1: Principles that I knew.....that I have apparently forgotten and needed to be reminded of (don't take sole off in the front quarter of the hoof!!!!!!!  even with the rasp!!!!!!!!! If the sole is that high, the walls don't need to be taken down!!!!!!!)
My reaction to this advice: *head to desk*

Category 2: Subtle things that I have a hard time seeing.....but that once pointed out I can see better and thus correct!!!  (things like the relative height of heels between feet, slight flare at the ground surface etc.)
My reaction to this advice: I can't WAIT to take a rasp to my pony feet and correct this!!!!!!  COOL!!!!!!!!!!

Category 3: Ummm.......things I haven't done out of pure laziness. In my email with the pictures I called the trim a "clean up" that was left " a bit rough". 

Translation: Doing a good mustang roll is a lot of work and so I just sort of rounded up the corners. 

Time for whiney-ness: But her feet are HARD, and doing a proper mustang roll makes me SWEAT. 

The email reiterated the importance of a proper mustang roll.

My reaction: &*&^^&%%^&(*)  I need new a new rasp.  That's the only explanation for why I have avoided doing a roll (and then tried to justify the lack of it, LOL)

I took this as a sign that I needed to visit an awesome farrier supply store that lives in Sac - "The Horseshoe Barn". 

Every farrier/trimmer in the area recommends the place, but it's never been convienent for me to stop in.  Yesterday I had a client visit for boots that took me right by the place so I stopped in. 

 It was GREAT.  Walls and walls of options and brands and supplies.  And very knowledgeable people that were able to give advice about which knife sharpener to get, and whether my current brand of rasp was good or whether I should switch. 

Friendly, knowledgeable and reasonably priced.  What more could I ask for?  Well, that this place wasn't on the OTHER side of Sac from where I live and travel, but that is probably asking for a bit much......

 I exited the building with a box of goodies.  :)  Can't wait to get started on those hooves!!!!!!

Camping tips to be ignored - III & IV

Today we continue with more useful camping tips!!!  (use at your own risk, your mileage may vary).....

These posts were being difficult yesterday and gleefully crashed my blogsy app, so they had to wait today until I had "time" to rewrite them on my computer ("time" = a lecture that I'm not particularly into......).

Tip: To be tough is not to be stupid

Why Michele and I are NOT doing this course as a ride and tie:

Do you see the freakin' hills?  I tell you what, if my horse wasn't tied to that tree at the bottom of the hill, I would be taking whatever horse was tied there.

tip: close your eyes and buy beer while filling the fuel tank

 Tip: appreciate cuddly puppies when they choose to be cuddly...Because for the rest of the trip they will eat horse poop and want to lick you in the face.  Then, after finally allowing you to sleep, they will wake you up at 4:30a because they absolutely HAVE to go out into the moonlight and do some sort of dog ritual that requires them to be off leash and free and running around at full speed.  

So yeah...if Tess wants to snuggle up to me while I'm driving, I'll take it!

Tip: Friends are for laughing at you.  And taking pictures

It was Kim's turn to provide the amusement on the morning of the second day.  What are friends for but to laugh and take pictures while you stare at your bridle in puzzelement?  Here's a bonus tip: if your tack gets twisted and malformed because the fairies played in it overnight (or because it got tossed on a rock in a heap after your ride the day before....), it can probably be fixed without unbuckling it.  However, if those fairies had opposable thumbs....then all bets are off. 

In this picture, Kim tries to decide whether she's better off dismantling her bridle and attempting to put it back together, or give up ad ride her aptly named mare "Medusa" using a bridle-ness telekinesis technique.

Tip: while it is NOT acceptable to actually defile the signs in the campground, you may use duct tape and cardboard to ummm.......make the signs more appropriate.

It's hard to see in this picture, but the BLM sign has been changed from "Cowboy camp" to "CowGIRL camp". :)

Tip: Proper footwear is footwear that allows you to keep riding! And, in an effort to bring you non-dirty feet pictures, this tip is presented in conjunction with a bonus tip: If a bird looks like it's going to bite you....it probably is.

Dirty foot pic first:

This is why I had to do all my miles last weekends in crocs.  I ran on Thursday or Friday before the trip and my running shoes (the orange Merrell ones) gave me this blister. 

Why would I even continue to run in these shoes?  Because those shoes are the best compromise for a shoe that will allow me to both ride and run. Everything else I have tried either doesn't give me enough support in the stirrup, or provides too much support when I run.  So, if I have a ride and tie or other event coming up, I just make sure I've run in these shoes enough to have a callus in this location.  Since I have a ride and tie in mid June and I plan on using these shoes for my 50 in two weeks, I've stopped running in my runamocs and switched to the Merrells for now.  With rather unfortunate results. 

Ugh - I don't like popping blisters on feet because of all the bacteria - intact skin is good - but the pressure this blister was exerting was quite painful.  Using crocks in the saddle mitagated most of the discomfort when riding.  I was suprised how well the crocs worked in the saddle - they wouldn't be my first choice of footwear because they leave my feet too exposed on the trail for poke-y sticks that want to jab and lacerate my toes when running down hill dismounted - but if I do end up with a foot injury that requires me to wear a loose fitting shoe, I think they perform better than runamocs in stirrups.

 Once home I did end up lacerating it to relieve pressure once my foot was clean.  Oh blessed relief!  Usually popping blisters hurt because of the exposed sensitive flesh underneath the blister, but in this case, the pressure being exerted was a much bigger pain component. The skin is so thick on the feet that enormous amounts of pressure can be generated by the blister without it popping itself.

Below: Connor has been lost foot privileges.....