Monday, September 24, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Making a Comeback
Alright, I'll be honest....dropped off the radar here for a bit. So I'm trying to make a comeback and get better about updating this thing. My cousin started his own blog recently (pretty much about his random thoughts), so I figure if HE can do it, I can do it.
General updates: This season, my focus has been on a few things. I bought my first horse, Fine Ali Bey, in February 2012. She is adorable and has been super-easy to bring along. Her breeding is a mix of Crabbit, Polish, Spanish, and Egyptian. She's very small, maybe 14'2'' and delicate so I've been bringing her along very slowly so as not to hurt her growth or cause an injury. Recently we've put her and Helo on rice bran along with their normal food to try and bulk them up a bit. She carries me no problem, would just like to see a little more on her especially as the weather cools off. My first ride with her will hopefully be Fort Valley in October.
Helo has had a bit of a trying year. He started very well, but also began to get nervous traveling to rides and not holding weight well. Pretty sure he was developing some ulcers. He also came up off of Foxcatcher with a Fistulous Wither, so he's been pretty much left alone these past 6 months. Sarah (his owner) has been slowly bringing him back. His back needs to build up some muscle again and we've got him on rice bran with Ali. He seems very relaxed and happy to be back out on trail with a job again. She and I have both switched to Specialized Saddles; it's the only treed saddle out there that you can adjust with your horses back as it changes. Helo has a weirdly prominent wither that comes back very far; Sarah tried a multitude of different saddles and liked this one the best. Of the other saddles, she felt closest and most secure in this one, and we knew for a FACT that it would stay off his spine (you can see down the entire channel from butt to wither). For my switch, Helo wasn't the only horse I had problems with. I also had pressure points with Kricket (Farah's Testamony) and Ali also got a bad wither rub, even after I purchased an Equipedic pad to help bolster support for them. So I went Specialized, having used it before and loved it. I'm very happy I made the switch; these saddles are great and I will be able to change and customize the fit as she grows and changes fairly easily. For anyone that's interested, their website is www.specializedsaddles.com. You can also order them through Global Endurance (www.globalendurance.com); Christoph and Dian are dealers and can help answer any questions you have.
Kricket has been having an awesome year! Amy is still focusing a lot on Remington, so she let me bring Kricket along for her to get her mileage for National Championships at Biltmore next week. Then in a surprise move back in February, Amy said I could take her! So I'll be racing down in Asheville in TEN DAYS!!!! So excited, and stressed. We're going to be letting Kricket put some speed on and just see where she places; not going to be pushing for a top spot but would like to be in the upper end of the pack. Amy has told me that if I go faster than 6:30 she will kill me. Of course, she also said if I lose in a race-off she'll kill me (we practiced, I clocked Kricket at 27MPH and she still had a gear or two left). So we'll just have to see how the day goes.
Speaking of Champions...Heather and Jeremy both went to the World Championships in London this year! Not to be confused with the Olympics (endurance is not yet an Olympic Sport), the WEC is definitely a big deal. The US Team placed 4th, finishing 4 out of 5 starters. This is a great showing for them and they went super-fast! We are all very proud of our team. You can read about their experience on Heather's blog here.
That's all I have for now. Tonight is Sandy Point night with what I am informally calling the Central Southeastern Virginia Endurance Team (ie pretty much all of us not up in the mountains). Sarah and I are going with Helo and Ali, and we'll be bringing Sarah's daughters on their ponies Aleah and Silver. Will be posting some Garmin Reports on training routes here. I'm registering Ali with AHA and am going to be looking at the different types of competitions they have (one is recording training mileage so I have to be better about that habit). Stay tuned.
Alright, I'll be honest....dropped off the radar here for a bit. So I'm trying to make a comeback and get better about updating this thing. My cousin started his own blog recently (pretty much about his random thoughts), so I figure if HE can do it, I can do it.
General updates: This season, my focus has been on a few things. I bought my first horse, Fine Ali Bey, in February 2012. She is adorable and has been super-easy to bring along. Her breeding is a mix of Crabbit, Polish, Spanish, and Egyptian. She's very small, maybe 14'2'' and delicate so I've been bringing her along very slowly so as not to hurt her growth or cause an injury. Recently we've put her and Helo on rice bran along with their normal food to try and bulk them up a bit. She carries me no problem, would just like to see a little more on her especially as the weather cools off. My first ride with her will hopefully be Fort Valley in October.
Helo has had a bit of a trying year. He started very well, but also began to get nervous traveling to rides and not holding weight well. Pretty sure he was developing some ulcers. He also came up off of Foxcatcher with a Fistulous Wither, so he's been pretty much left alone these past 6 months. Sarah (his owner) has been slowly bringing him back. His back needs to build up some muscle again and we've got him on rice bran with Ali. He seems very relaxed and happy to be back out on trail with a job again. She and I have both switched to Specialized Saddles; it's the only treed saddle out there that you can adjust with your horses back as it changes. Helo has a weirdly prominent wither that comes back very far; Sarah tried a multitude of different saddles and liked this one the best. Of the other saddles, she felt closest and most secure in this one, and we knew for a FACT that it would stay off his spine (you can see down the entire channel from butt to wither). For my switch, Helo wasn't the only horse I had problems with. I also had pressure points with Kricket (Farah's Testamony) and Ali also got a bad wither rub, even after I purchased an Equipedic pad to help bolster support for them. So I went Specialized, having used it before and loved it. I'm very happy I made the switch; these saddles are great and I will be able to change and customize the fit as she grows and changes fairly easily. For anyone that's interested, their website is www.specializedsaddles.com. You can also order them through Global Endurance (www.globalendurance.com); Christoph and Dian are dealers and can help answer any questions you have.
Kricket has been having an awesome year! Amy is still focusing a lot on Remington, so she let me bring Kricket along for her to get her mileage for National Championships at Biltmore next week. Then in a surprise move back in February, Amy said I could take her! So I'll be racing down in Asheville in TEN DAYS!!!! So excited, and stressed. We're going to be letting Kricket put some speed on and just see where she places; not going to be pushing for a top spot but would like to be in the upper end of the pack. Amy has told me that if I go faster than 6:30 she will kill me. Of course, she also said if I lose in a race-off she'll kill me (we practiced, I clocked Kricket at 27MPH and she still had a gear or two left). So we'll just have to see how the day goes.
Speaking of Champions...Heather and Jeremy both went to the World Championships in London this year! Not to be confused with the Olympics (endurance is not yet an Olympic Sport), the WEC is definitely a big deal. The US Team placed 4th, finishing 4 out of 5 starters. This is a great showing for them and they went super-fast! We are all very proud of our team. You can read about their experience on Heather's blog here.
That's all I have for now. Tonight is Sandy Point night with what I am informally calling the Central Southeastern Virginia Endurance Team (ie pretty much all of us not up in the mountains). Sarah and I are going with Helo and Ali, and we'll be bringing Sarah's daughters on their ponies Aleah and Silver. Will be posting some Garmin Reports on training routes here. I'm registering Ali with AHA and am going to be looking at the different types of competitions they have (one is recording training mileage so I have to be better about that habit). Stay tuned.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Rabbit Run Recap
Hey guys, this one won't be too long I promise.....
Went to the New Jersey ride Rabbit Run with Amy Smoot and Carolyn Vavala. I took Helo, Amy took Remington and Carolyn was on her mare, Becca. Amy and I planned to ride together and go easy, just trying to get Remington through his first successful 50 in a long time and also get Helo conditioned. I wasn't too concerned because the ride is flat and supposedly easy.
We got to camp with no problems and parked on Friday. Immediately I had concern because the sand on the road in and in the vet area was pretty deep; Carolyn's rig was losing some major traction. This was scary, as we had not prepared or conditioned for deep sand (yikes!). Helo was unfamiliar with using a ramp and bonked his ankle unloading; he was sound it was just a little ouchie to the touch. He also was a little dehydrated; I ended up hitting him with a few doses of electrolytes while we rested on Friday. Everyone vetted through fine, and we had a great ride dinner and fast meeting.
Saturday morning, Amy and I waited until the main pack was out of sight before we headed out to trail. Kelly Lane (riding her horses, Dinero) decided to head out and pace with us. It ended up working out great! Remington calmed down much faster then normal, Helo was energetic but very well-behaved, and it was great experience for everyone. For the first two loops we held about 9-10mph trot, except for on the moguls and deep sand (we slowed down for all of that). Unfortunately, there was a LOT of deep sand. Apparently this is not common for this ride, but because they didn't get a lot of rain the trail wasn't as compressed as normal. Good to know if we come back in future years. There also is almost zero food and very little water on trail, so it's good to bring some horse snacks on the saddle and not take too long out there.
Helo and Remy started to get tired around mile 30, so we backed them off to make sure they finished. Unfortunately Dinero pulled at mile 35 (hind end lameness). Amy and I went VERY slow on the last loop; we were all kind of dead brained and sore from the very flat ride and Helo wasn't eating or drinking as well as I wanted him too. I hit him with Probios and some Balance at the vet check and he perked right back up again, and his vet checks were good all day. Good experience for both of us now, I'll definitely have that handy for future rides!
Amy, Carolyn and I all finished successfully and headed home Saturday night (again a note for this ride, they make you leave Saturday night unless you want to pay extra to stay). Next year, we'll pay the extra. Since we were all very tired it took us a lot of extra time to get home, and the horses took longer to recover over the next few days. Lesson learned.
Next up, Foxcatcher!
Went to the New Jersey ride Rabbit Run with Amy Smoot and Carolyn Vavala. I took Helo, Amy took Remington and Carolyn was on her mare, Becca. Amy and I planned to ride together and go easy, just trying to get Remington through his first successful 50 in a long time and also get Helo conditioned. I wasn't too concerned because the ride is flat and supposedly easy.
We got to camp with no problems and parked on Friday. Immediately I had concern because the sand on the road in and in the vet area was pretty deep; Carolyn's rig was losing some major traction. This was scary, as we had not prepared or conditioned for deep sand (yikes!). Helo was unfamiliar with using a ramp and bonked his ankle unloading; he was sound it was just a little ouchie to the touch. He also was a little dehydrated; I ended up hitting him with a few doses of electrolytes while we rested on Friday. Everyone vetted through fine, and we had a great ride dinner and fast meeting.
Saturday morning, Amy and I waited until the main pack was out of sight before we headed out to trail. Kelly Lane (riding her horses, Dinero) decided to head out and pace with us. It ended up working out great! Remington calmed down much faster then normal, Helo was energetic but very well-behaved, and it was great experience for everyone. For the first two loops we held about 9-10mph trot, except for on the moguls and deep sand (we slowed down for all of that). Unfortunately, there was a LOT of deep sand. Apparently this is not common for this ride, but because they didn't get a lot of rain the trail wasn't as compressed as normal. Good to know if we come back in future years. There also is almost zero food and very little water on trail, so it's good to bring some horse snacks on the saddle and not take too long out there.
Helo and Remy started to get tired around mile 30, so we backed them off to make sure they finished. Unfortunately Dinero pulled at mile 35 (hind end lameness). Amy and I went VERY slow on the last loop; we were all kind of dead brained and sore from the very flat ride and Helo wasn't eating or drinking as well as I wanted him too. I hit him with Probios and some Balance at the vet check and he perked right back up again, and his vet checks were good all day. Good experience for both of us now, I'll definitely have that handy for future rides!
Amy, Carolyn and I all finished successfully and headed home Saturday night (again a note for this ride, they make you leave Saturday night unless you want to pay extra to stay). Next year, we'll pay the extra. Since we were all very tired it took us a lot of extra time to get home, and the horses took longer to recover over the next few days. Lesson learned.
Next up, Foxcatcher!
Monday, March 26, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Boy Scout Powwow and Season Update!
Once again, I'm SUPER slow at updating this. Apologies, I'll try to get better!
Amy Smoot and I took her two horses, Remington and Kricket, down to Georgia for the Boy Scout Powwow last month. It was a haul, but I had heard good reviews about the ride and we wanted to get some good miles on Kricket towards getting her qualified for Nationals. Remy has been having some internalizing issues too, so we were hoping if we went together and just took it easy we could help him work through it.
The drive down was rough, we went overnight and had to switch off a lot to stay awake. Also, if you're ever driving from the North DON'T follow GPS directions. Hit me up, I'll get you better ones, otherwise you'll end up spending the last 3 hours on Georgia backroads driving 35mph. Blegh.
We got to the campground on Friday morning and set up camp. The camp area is really nice, pretty wooded so there's shade and real bathrooms. There are showers too but they are across camp (no problem for us, we were just happy to have them!). After setting up camp we took a nap and then vetted through. Both horses looked great, very relaxed and happy. We also ran into my good buddy Heather Reynolds; she had brought two youngsters up from Florida and was looking to get a 50 in both days on them as well. After vet in we went for a quick warm up ride with Heather to stretch out (everybody was feeling feisty) and then went to dinner. The dinners every night were GREAT! Hot food and we got to eat inside in the dining hall.
The next morning we tacked up as usual and headed to the start line. Remington was doing his normal "trembling" which didn't bode well for him; Amy hasn't quite figured out what's going on and why he does that, but we're working on different supplement combos (leaning heavy on the magnesium right now) to try and get him settled back down. The start was kind of crazy, they let all 120 riders and horses go at once! Thankfully, the trail was nice dirt with lots of winding through the trees which gave us an opportunity to slow down.
Both our horses were pretty keyed up for the start and it took them a little while to settle down. Kricket was awesome, forward but listening to me. I did suggest to Amy that we start her in a stronger bit, just to give my arms a break (she has since ridden her and agreed haha). The first loop was 15 miles, then a trot-by, then another 10. The trail was pretty nice wide dirt with very little climbing. There were some spots out around the fields where the dirt was very deep like sand, so we slowed down for those. Remy looked a little iffy coming in off the first loop and unfortunately got pulled at mile 40; his trembling had tightened up the muscles in his hind end and he had a really bad cramp. Boo. Kricket rocked it, she held nice and steady all day and when Remy pulled, she looked around for him but kept heading on down trail with minimal issues. Her vet scores were all A's all day (except for the last check, her gut sounds were a little quiet but I think it was because she was looking around for Remington).
Remy's cramp was bad enough that we decided not to start him the next day and let him take it easy. Kricket rocked it even more on Day 2, the trail was almost exactly the same and she did not seemed fazed at all. She went alone or with other horses and just held a steady 9mph with little to no effort. We ended up riding a lot of day 2 with a vet who was going about the same pace but stopping every 45 min or so to let the horses get a grass snack. We cut an hour off our time from the day previous and again she had all A's on her vet cards. The vets seemed really impressed with her, her metabolics were great and she was super-solid on her trot outs. Not bad for a big anglo-arab!
I highly recommend this ride to anyone; it's very well-run and organized, the trails were nice, and it's good for both beginning and advanced horses. There is some deep dirt that resembles sand (especially because you repeat trail and it gets really churned up) but not so much that you can't still make time easily. And despite the long drive, it is actually really easy to get to. Just have to have the right route mapped out!
After we got back from Georgia, Amy offered to let me take Kricket to Nationals in September no matter what happens with Remington. Needless to say I am SUPER excited and this is a huge deal and very generous of her. She still needs two more races to get qualified but based on her performance in GA, I don't see her having any trouble. We're also going to continue to work with Remy to see if we can't figure out what's going on.
Next weekend we'll be in New Jersey for Rabbit Run! Amy is taking Remington and I'll be taking Helo (owned by Sarah Seashols). Helo has a very busy season planned too; in fact if all goes well he will also be qualified for Nationals, so I have convinced Sarah she should go if possible. We're also planning on Foxcatcher, Biltmore, and Old Dominion.
Oh, and in other news...I brought home MY first horse about a month ago! Her name is Fine Ali Bey (bred by Melisa Trott) and she is a 4 year old purebred Arab. She is small right now but definitely will grow, and what I really love is her mind. Inquisitive but level-headed, very solid and smart about what's going on around her. Best part, she loads and unloads on the trailer beautifully! We went for our first slow trail ride at Sandy Point last weekend and she did fantastic. A few little starts when she caught something in the corner of her eye, and she jumped over a trickle of a creek instead of stepping, but everything was very quiet and easy. My plan is to bring her along very slow and maybe do an LD in the fall to see how she does. I want to make sure she gets plenty of time to learn and GROW so that she has a good successful start to her endurance career.
As always, feel free to hit me up if you have any q
uestions!
Amy Smoot and I took her two horses, Remington and Kricket, down to Georgia for the Boy Scout Powwow last month. It was a haul, but I had heard good reviews about the ride and we wanted to get some good miles on Kricket towards getting her qualified for Nationals. Remy has been having some internalizing issues too, so we were hoping if we went together and just took it easy we could help him work through it.
The drive down was rough, we went overnight and had to switch off a lot to stay awake. Also, if you're ever driving from the North DON'T follow GPS directions. Hit me up, I'll get you better ones, otherwise you'll end up spending the last 3 hours on Georgia backroads driving 35mph. Blegh.
We got to the campground on Friday morning and set up camp. The camp area is really nice, pretty wooded so there's shade and real bathrooms. There are showers too but they are across camp (no problem for us, we were just happy to have them!). After setting up camp we took a nap and then vetted through. Both horses looked great, very relaxed and happy. We also ran into my good buddy Heather Reynolds; she had brought two youngsters up from Florida and was looking to get a 50 in both days on them as well. After vet in we went for a quick warm up ride with Heather to stretch out (everybody was feeling feisty) and then went to dinner. The dinners every night were GREAT! Hot food and we got to eat inside in the dining hall.
The next morning we tacked up as usual and headed to the start line. Remington was doing his normal "trembling" which didn't bode well for him; Amy hasn't quite figured out what's going on and why he does that, but we're working on different supplement combos (leaning heavy on the magnesium right now) to try and get him settled back down. The start was kind of crazy, they let all 120 riders and horses go at once! Thankfully, the trail was nice dirt with lots of winding through the trees which gave us an opportunity to slow down.
Both our horses were pretty keyed up for the start and it took them a little while to settle down. Kricket was awesome, forward but listening to me. I did suggest to Amy that we start her in a stronger bit, just to give my arms a break (she has since ridden her and agreed haha). The first loop was 15 miles, then a trot-by, then another 10. The trail was pretty nice wide dirt with very little climbing. There were some spots out around the fields where the dirt was very deep like sand, so we slowed down for those. Remy looked a little iffy coming in off the first loop and unfortunately got pulled at mile 40; his trembling had tightened up the muscles in his hind end and he had a really bad cramp. Boo. Kricket rocked it, she held nice and steady all day and when Remy pulled, she looked around for him but kept heading on down trail with minimal issues. Her vet scores were all A's all day (except for the last check, her gut sounds were a little quiet but I think it was because she was looking around for Remington).
Remy's cramp was bad enough that we decided not to start him the next day and let him take it easy. Kricket rocked it even more on Day 2, the trail was almost exactly the same and she did not seemed fazed at all. She went alone or with other horses and just held a steady 9mph with little to no effort. We ended up riding a lot of day 2 with a vet who was going about the same pace but stopping every 45 min or so to let the horses get a grass snack. We cut an hour off our time from the day previous and again she had all A's on her vet cards. The vets seemed really impressed with her, her metabolics were great and she was super-solid on her trot outs. Not bad for a big anglo-arab!
I highly recommend this ride to anyone; it's very well-run and organized, the trails were nice, and it's good for both beginning and advanced horses. There is some deep dirt that resembles sand (especially because you repeat trail and it gets really churned up) but not so much that you can't still make time easily. And despite the long drive, it is actually really easy to get to. Just have to have the right route mapped out!
After we got back from Georgia, Amy offered to let me take Kricket to Nationals in September no matter what happens with Remington. Needless to say I am SUPER excited and this is a huge deal and very generous of her. She still needs two more races to get qualified but based on her performance in GA, I don't see her having any trouble. We're also going to continue to work with Remy to see if we can't figure out what's going on.
Next weekend we'll be in New Jersey for Rabbit Run! Amy is taking Remington and I'll be taking Helo (owned by Sarah Seashols). Helo has a very busy season planned too; in fact if all goes well he will also be qualified for Nationals, so I have convinced Sarah she should go if possible. We're also planning on Foxcatcher, Biltmore, and Old Dominion.
Oh, and in other news...I brought home MY first horse about a month ago! Her name is Fine Ali Bey (bred by Melisa Trott) and she is a 4 year old purebred Arab. She is small right now but definitely will grow, and what I really love is her mind. Inquisitive but level-headed, very solid and smart about what's going on around her. Best part, she loads and unloads on the trailer beautifully! We went for our first slow trail ride at Sandy Point last weekend and she did fantastic. A few little starts when she caught something in the corner of her eye, and she jumped over a trickle of a creek instead of stepping, but everything was very quiet and easy. My plan is to bring her along very slow and maybe do an LD in the fall to see how she does. I want to make sure she gets plenty of time to learn and GROW so that she has a good successful start to her endurance career.
As always, feel free to hit me up if you have any q
uestions!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
1/15 Training Ride with Helo at SP - Garmin Report
Untitled by schicksa at Garmin Connect - Details
Good day today! Helo was a little spooky so it was probably good that we were out alone. Confidence builder for both of us! Started with all 4 boots but had a few wardrobe malfunctions so ended up taking off the rears and going with fronts only. Very happy, forward boy who was excited to go out! Love this horse!
Good day today! Helo was a little spooky so it was probably good that we were out alone. Confidence builder for both of us! Started with all 4 boots but had a few wardrobe malfunctions so ended up taking off the rears and going with fronts only. Very happy, forward boy who was excited to go out! Love this horse!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Ride Schedule 2012
In case anyone was curious, here is my tentative ride schedule for 2012. Yeah, I'm going to be crazy busy, and this DOESN'T include the potential 5 year old Heather and Jeremy may be sending me to work with....deep breaths Sarah....
2/10-2/11: Boy Scout Powwow (GA)
Kricket, 2 days, 50 each day
3/24: Rabbit Run (NJ)
Aleah (50)
5/5: Biltmore (NC)
Aleah (50)
6/9: Old Dominion
Aleah (55)
Late August: VA Highlands (VA)
Aleah or Helo? 50 or 50 and 30 (2 day)
9/22: Nationals Biltmore Estate (NC)
Tentative – Kricket, depends on Amy and Remington (50)
10/26: Fort Valley (VA)
Helo or Aleah? 50
Garmin Report - 1/7/2012
Garmin Report 1/7/2012 - Yorktown Battlefield with Amy, Kricket, and Remy
Long day today! We did over 26 miles, trying to keep at speed (12mph) as often as possible. Had to slow down for pavement, gravel, etc. Both horses did great!
Long day today! We did over 26 miles, trying to keep at speed (12mph) as often as possible. Had to slow down for pavement, gravel, etc. Both horses did great!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Garmin Report 1/1/12
Training Ride at York River State Park by schicksa at Garmin Connect - Details
Training ride with Sarah Seashols and her horses, Helo and Aleah.
Training ride with Sarah Seashols and her horses, Helo and Aleah.
Training Report 12/31/11
Training Ride at Graves Mountain by schicksa at Garmin Connect - Details
Hooray new Garmin for xmas! Used it today on a training ride with Amy Smoot and her horses, Kricket and Remington. Had to push Kricket today, she was a little lazy. Both horses got a good workout in but neither were over-taxed. Good stuff!
Hooray new Garmin for xmas! Used it today on a training ride with Amy Smoot and her horses, Kricket and Remington. Had to push Kricket today, she was a little lazy. Both horses got a good workout in but neither were over-taxed. Good stuff!
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Exciting News!!
Heather and Jeremy Update: They have moved down to Florida for the winter (like Canadians?) and are training and competing down there. Heather contacted me this weekend to let me know they have an extra horse for me to compete on the FEI 50 at Goethe on 12/17! SO EXCITED! Just renewed all my memberships for AERC (including International), FEI, and USEF. If anyone is curious, all together it costs about $150 and you can find all the links and connections you need at AERC's International section of the website (click HERE). Everything is online and very fast, granted I'm a computer nerd but it only took me about 15 minutes to get through everything!
Any questions, as always, feel free to email me or contact me through Facebook!
Any questions, as always, feel free to email me or contact me through Facebook!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Fort Valley Recap - finally...
Finally am getting around to posting my recap of Fort Valley. Sorry for the delay, was waiting for all the photos to come in. Also, I apologize for the weirdness with the formatting. Blogspot is not cooperating and it took me several hours just to get this formatted legibly, so I'm giving up at this point.
Kricket did great at the vet checks; she was calling for her friends and looking for th
em a lot but still eating and drinking through the hold. Not bad for her first time by herself! Her heart rates were pretty good all day, in the 50-60 range and I took her in within 2-3 minutes of coming in off trail.
The second loop starts exactly the same as the first, but once you get done with the pretty grassy part you head out a different direction. This part of the trail was my favorite, windy through the trees and soft dirt where you could really move. Also a lot of water stops, one at a beautiful stretch on the river where the cliffs jump out.
This loop is also home of the infamous Indian Graves. I was very happy to have help/leaders up this stretch, as it made me very nervous (having talked to riders who had accidents in previous years). The good news is that i
t is not as bad as I thought; it is a very very very looonnnngggg stretch of uphill, but it is not steep or technical except for a few short spots. Most of the trail is pretty broad along the side of the hill.
Around this time, Kricket started looking for something to eat on trail but there wasn't a lot of options. Thankfully I had some cheese crackers in my pack, remembering that Amy had given some to her as a treat while we were training in the weeks leading up. So as we walked up the mountain I was hand-feeding her cheddar cheese crackers from my hand. Pretty funny!
Once we got up on Milford Gap she was eating tree leaves: bite right, walk 4 steps. Bite left, walk 4 steps. We got a great rhythm going! Once up the "scary" part of Indian Graves (narrow technical stint with two big step ups) we were back on Milford Gap, then over the top of the mountain and back down to camp. They say this trail is the same length as loop one, but it seemed a bit longer to me. Might have been because we went easy going up Indian Graves for the most part, but we were booking along the flatter stretches so I don't think so. Would love to get out there with my GPS one day to see.
I should also make brief mention in memorial to the heart rate monitor at this point. It had come apart on Loop 1, but all the pieces managed to stay attached to us. At the vet check, since I had everything still I made the decision to put it back together and try again with it on loop 2. Wrong choice; it came apart again only this time I lost the main central piece that hooks into the sensors. Whoops. Sorry Amy, I owe you half a heart rate monitor. Guess you know what you'll get for Christmas! Also a learning experience for me; I think that the HR monitors are good to train with but I'm not as much a fan during a ride (except at the vet check, I love having a hand-held to see when they come down). I like to be able to "feel" what kind of shape my horse is in and run where they feel good. But I can see in conditioning where that would be very handy, so you can see how hard you're really pushing them during a workout.
Loop three is down at the base of the mountain, mostly along private property. The trails for the most part are wide soft dirt and not too much climbing. There is one nasty technical stretch with mud and big rocks, and a few shorter but steep uphills. It was on the first few of these that Kricket finally started to tire a bit, so being in good position I let her slow down and take it easy. She was not upset at all about letting the group go, which is good (and also shows me how tired she was). But we soon met up with another rider who had decided to back off a bit on her horse, so we walk/trotted into the finish line together, finishing 9th and 10th. Not bad for her second 50! We decided not to show for BC because her butt was pretty sore from the climbs and she was tired, plus we came in 10th so it really would have just been for the practice anyway. I was also VERY sore; Kricket is an anglo-arab and has much bigger gaits than Helo or Aleah (who both ride like Cadillacs), so my muscles had to do a little more work than they were used to. :-) You can bet I hit that ibuprofen as soon as we got back to the trailer!
Day 2 with Helo went v
ery well, though unexpected. My original plan was to go slow just to finish and have fun, as well as get some practice in. I even paired up with Roberta Young and her Tennessee Walker, Smokey, who had done the 50 the day before and would be going easy. Well, Helo had other ideas. Like Kricket, he was wound up the start so I let him out a bit in order to burn off some steam. Only Helo never slowed down! He was sooo strong that I could only rate him a bit for the first 25 of 30 miles of the LD. He even was a brat down the technical downhill mountain trail; he jigged and fought me the whole way! We even took a fall when he lost his footing while cantering the grassy part on Loop 1, and he STILL was pulling on me. BTW, he handled the fall very professionally. I didn't take too big of a hit since we were on soft dirt/grass and he tried to catch himself halfway down, and he stopped and waited for me once he got back up (thanks to Roberta and the other riders for stopping too!). After checking tack and making sure he was sound, it was OFF TO THE RACES once again!
The LD is Loop 1 and Loop 3 of the 50, so I knew the trail pretty well at this point. He was still keyed up and riding butts halfway through the last loop, so after the nasty technical climb we checked with everybody and made the decision to push ahead. Helo handled this pretty well, we had one "discussion" when he spun and tried to go back to the group while heading slowly downhill, but once I turned around and explained what we were doing (in a mean mommy voice of course) he moved on ahead. This was the first time he actually slowed down and went steady all day. We also met up with some other riders pretty quickly and helped them navigate the last few pieces of trail, so once he figured out the game he was all go again. We also lost one of our glue ons about 2 miles from the finish, which was halfway expected because they were sized for Aleah, who was originally supposed to go. Since the trail pretty soft dirt with limited gravel (what we train on at home), I decided to finish the trail with that foot bare. It was a good decision, the vets said he was perfectly sound and gave him all A's at the finish! We completed in 7th place (though for an LD they don't really take places), and his heart rates were fantastic all day. It wasn't until his final CRI, 56/60, that he finally showed he was a wee bit tired.
So, Fort Valley was a huge success! Both Amy and Mariah finished two days on their horses on the LD, and I top 10'd both days on 2 different horses. The trail is absolutely beautiful, but I don't recommend the 50 unless your horse has had extensive hill-work. It was also very well-marked this year, and ride management did a great job making everything run smoothly. We also had a newer head vet that I didn't recognize; she did a great job and of course Nick and Art were there too.
Plans for now are to have fun riding and taking it easy through the winter; I recently got a promotion and will be looking to by MY OWN horse in the Spring (I'm trying to convince Sarah that she should sell me Helo, he has turned out to be AWESOME on trail by himself and I absolutely love him!). But if not I'll find an arab or arab cross I can bring along and condition (suggestions are welcome!). I'm also hoping to convince some of my mountain friends to come down and ride with us one weekend; we aren't far and our weather is much milder so you can ride fast year-round! Come play with us!
Any questions or comments feel free to email me at samschic@live.com, or find me on facebook. Photos from me all taken from Kricket on day 1, the ride candids are by Becky Pearman who was the ride photographer that day.
Fort Valley this year ended up being kind of crazy for me; Sarah Seashols and I were originally going to take both Aleah and Helo. Unfortunately, Sarah ended up not being able to make it and the horses didn'tget the kind of conditioning I like for the full 50. But Amy Smoot (Gloucester, VA) asked me to take her horse Kricket on the 50. So, the plan changed to take Kricket on Day 1 on the 50 and Helo on Day 2 on the 30 (I was originally going to take Aleah, but she was not great about getting on the trailer for conditioning rides so Helo went instead). Amy and her friend Mariah were doing the 30 on both days on the same horses, so we had four in total (Helo, Kricket, Savannah, and Remington). We left in the early morning on Thursday to avoid traffic in a caravan, with me leading the way. Yes, I did warn Amy ahead of time that I tend to drive like a grandma so she better just get used to it.
The trip up was pretty quiet, though we did meet up with some other riders who had gotten lost trying to get to camp and let them follow us in. I love this ride, but the directions were definitely lacking once you get off the highway. If you ever have questions on it be sure to look me up, it's a LEFT turn off of the interstate, then a RIGHT after the bridge, and then you take the SECOND left onto the road to camp (it's a loop, if you take the first turn you go through some windy one-lane farm road that is not necessary).
Upon arrival, the girls and I set up camp and started prepping for the next day. We got the horses checked in and went for a warm-up ride, a
nd the usual dinner/ride meeting. Claire Godwin has been the manager of this ride for the last several years, and she does a GREAT job. Once the meeting was over we settled in and went to bed for the night. Because it was very brisk (in the low 40's) and windy I decided to try sleeping in the trailer as opposed to the tent. It worked out great, I have a cot now instead of the air mattresses so I was elevated off the floor a bit. Only awkward thing was getting in and out, I need to oil up the joints on my divider so I can slide it over more easily for camping. I also had several heavy blankets and Jack to keep me warm through the night, so I was definitely comfortable.
50 day went great, Amy wanted Kricket to go at a steady pace with her heart rate around 130-150. This was my first time riding with a heart rate monitor, needless to say I had the "constant checking" syndrome for a
while. Kricket was very excited and hyped up at the start, so rather than make things worse I did decide to let her go for a little bit to get it out of her system. It ended up working great, the trail starts with a long steep incline then levels out and heads down the mountain in some very technical rocky stuff, so it was easy to slow her down. She's also very well-behaved so it made life easier. Once down the hill we hit a cruising pace, which depending on the incline/decline ranged from 110-130. It felt right to me, she seemed to be working hard but not running herself out so I decided to stick around there. 
I met up with a couple of riders going the same pace and we ended up with each other for most of the day. Unfortunately I didn't catch their names but one is a vet and seasoned endurance rider, and we all were very friendly and helped each other so it worked well. Loop 1 has two big climbs followed by some technical stuff, but in the middle is a nice long stretch of downhill that switches from wide flat grass to smooth semi-gravel road so you can really move out. The road runs along the river in between mountain passes, so it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The second climb puts you up on Milford Gap, after which you hit the main trail straight down hill to basecamp.
Kricket did great at the vet checks; she was calling for her friends and looking for th
em a lot but still eating and drinking through the hold. Not bad for her first time by herself! Her heart rates were pretty good all day, in the 50-60 range and I took her in within 2-3 minutes of coming in off trail.The second loop starts exactly the same as the first, but once you get done with the pretty grassy part you head out a different direction. This part of the trail was my favorite, windy through the trees and soft dirt where you could really move. Also a lot of water stops, one at a beautiful stretch on the river where the cliffs jump out.
This loop is also home of the infamous Indian Graves. I was very happy to have help/leaders up this stretch, as it made me very nervous (having talked to riders who had accidents in previous years). The good news is that i
t is not as bad as I thought; it is a very very very looonnnngggg stretch of uphill, but it is not steep or technical except for a few short spots. Most of the trail is pretty broad along the side of the hill.Around this time, Kricket started looking for something to eat on trail but there wasn't a lot of options. Thankfully I had some cheese crackers in my pack, remembering that Amy had given some to her as a treat while we were training in the weeks leading up. So as we walked up the mountain I was hand-feeding her cheddar cheese crackers from my hand. Pretty funny!
Once we got up on Milford Gap she was eating tree leaves: bite right, walk 4 steps. Bite left, walk 4 steps. We got a great rhythm going! Once up the "scary" part of Indian Graves (narrow technical stint with two big step ups) we were back on Milford Gap, then over the top of the mountain and back down to camp. They say this trail is the same length as loop one, but it seemed a bit longer to me. Might have been because we went easy going up Indian Graves for the most part, but we were booking along the flatter stretches so I don't think so. Would love to get out there with my GPS one day to see.
I should also make brief mention in memorial to the heart rate monitor at this point. It had come apart on Loop 1, but all the pieces managed to stay attached to us. At the vet check, since I had everything still I made the decision to put it back together and try again with it on loop 2. Wrong choice; it came apart again only this time I lost the main central piece that hooks into the sensors. Whoops. Sorry Amy, I owe you half a heart rate monitor. Guess you know what you'll get for Christmas! Also a learning experience for me; I think that the HR monitors are good to train with but I'm not as much a fan during a ride (except at the vet check, I love having a hand-held to see when they come down). I like to be able to "feel" what kind of shape my horse is in and run where they feel good. But I can see in conditioning where that would be very handy, so you can see how hard you're really pushing them during a workout.
Loop three is down at the base of the mountain, mostly along private property. The trails for the most part are wide soft dirt and not too much climbing. There is one nasty technical stretch with mud and big rocks, and a few shorter but steep uphills. It was on the first few of these that Kricket finally started to tire a bit, so being in good position I let her slow down and take it easy. She was not upset at all about letting the group go, which is good (and also shows me how tired she was). But we soon met up with another rider who had decided to back off a bit on her horse, so we walk/trotted into the finish line together, finishing 9th and 10th. Not bad for her second 50! We decided not to show for BC because her butt was pretty sore from the climbs and she was tired, plus we came in 10th so it really would have just been for the practice anyway. I was also VERY sore; Kricket is an anglo-arab and has much bigger gaits than Helo or Aleah (who both ride like Cadillacs), so my muscles had to do a little more work than they were used to. :-) You can bet I hit that ibuprofen as soon as we got back to the trailer!
Day 2 with Helo went v
ery well, though unexpected. My original plan was to go slow just to finish and have fun, as well as get some practice in. I even paired up with Roberta Young and her Tennessee Walker, Smokey, who had done the 50 the day before and would be going easy. Well, Helo had other ideas. Like Kricket, he was wound up the start so I let him out a bit in order to burn off some steam. Only Helo never slowed down! He was sooo strong that I could only rate him a bit for the first 25 of 30 miles of the LD. He even was a brat down the technical downhill mountain trail; he jigged and fought me the whole way! We even took a fall when he lost his footing while cantering the grassy part on Loop 1, and he STILL was pulling on me. BTW, he handled the fall very professionally. I didn't take too big of a hit since we were on soft dirt/grass and he tried to catch himself halfway down, and he stopped and waited for me once he got back up (thanks to Roberta and the other riders for stopping too!). After checking tack and making sure he was sound, it was OFF TO THE RACES once again!The LD is Loop 1 and Loop 3 of the 50, so I knew the trail pretty well at this point. He was still keyed up and riding butts halfway through the last loop, so after the nasty technical climb we checked with everybody and made the decision to push ahead. Helo handled this pretty well, we had one "discussion" when he spun and tried to go back to the group while heading slowly downhill, but once I turned around and explained what we were doing (in a mean mommy voice of course) he moved on ahead. This was the first time he actually slowed down and went steady all day. We also met up with some other riders pretty quickly and helped them navigate the last few pieces of trail, so once he figured out the game he was all go again. We also lost one of our glue ons about 2 miles from the finish, which was halfway expected because they were sized for Aleah, who was originally supposed to go. Since the trail pretty soft dirt with limited gravel (what we train on at home), I decided to finish the trail with that foot bare. It was a good decision, the vets said he was perfectly sound and gave him all A's at the finish! We completed in 7th place (though for an LD they don't really take places), and his heart rates were fantastic all day. It wasn't until his final CRI, 56/60, that he finally showed he was a wee bit tired.
So, Fort Valley was a huge success! Both Amy and Mariah finished two days on their horses on the LD, and I top 10'd both days on 2 different horses. The trail is absolutely beautiful, but I don't recommend the 50 unless your horse has had extensive hill-work. It was also very well-marked this year, and ride management did a great job making everything run smoothly. We also had a newer head vet that I didn't recognize; she did a great job and of course Nick and Art were there too.
Plans for now are to have fun riding and taking it easy through the winter; I recently got a promotion and will be looking to by MY OWN horse in the Spring (I'm trying to convince Sarah that she should sell me Helo, he has turned out to be AWESOME on trail by himself and I absolutely love him!). But if not I'll find an arab or arab cross I can bring along and condition (suggestions are welcome!). I'm also hoping to convince some of my mountain friends to come down and ride with us one weekend; we aren't far and our weather is much milder so you can ride fast year-round! Come play with us!
Any questions or comments feel free to email me at samschic@live.com, or find me on facebook. Photos from me all taken from Kricket on day 1, the ride candids are by Becky Pearman who was the ride photographer that day.
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