25-Mile CTR @ GMHA

My nerves were not helped by having to do that last all-systems-go? ride in a cold apocalyptic downpour on Friday night.  I thought about skipping it but figured I would be happier knowing where we stood with the gear than not, even if it meant being cold, wet, and cranky for the rest of the night.  So we ventured forth.  Even had a good time!  But yes, I was cold, wet, and cranky for the rest of the night.  Oh, well.

The rain stopped earlier that expected on Saturday morning and the haul up to GMHA went fine.  Tuck hopped off the trailer and went, "Oh, I know this place!"  And!  For the first time in his life, he started drinking like a champ the minute he stepped into his stall.  So that was nice.  I felt predictably much calmer as soon as I was on-site.  Got Tuck settled in, the trailer stashed, and then myself settled in as well:

A few folks immediately recognized me as a newb, and the ride manager gave me an overview of how the ride would go -- most of the info was familiar from my pre-ride research and rulebook/handbook review but I'd come up with a couple of questions on the drive and appreciated the chance to ask.  I am not a super social butterfly and bopping along doing my own thing is generally my default, but I was grateful for the welcome and had some lovely chats with some very kind folks -- and even some pit bull kisses, which made me feel right at home.

Tucker was a gentleman for the vetting-in aside from thinking the trot-in-circles portion was stupid.  I'd have done better to present him on a longe line for that section, but it had not occurred to me.  After, we went for a stroll and some grazing.  I'd confirmed during check-in that there were no restrictions on hand-walking, so we ended up following some other folks out into the jump field.  Very weird to be out there with a horse but not, y'know, jumping over anything!  I parked myself on the Sugar Shack and read Hawkeye while Tuck worked on eating ALL the grass...

(I liked the way the horizon echoes his topline...)

I was starting to feel a little lonesome as we headed back to the barn -- was a little dislocating to be basically done for the day at a horse thing before 6pm -- but a friend of mine who lives locally showed up and we headed into Woodstock for pie and cake.  Got back to tuck the pony in and chilled at a picnic table watching the sun set over the mountains until time for bed.

The briefing was at 6 on Sunday morning and my start time wasn't until 7:24, so I had too much time on my hands -- did a bit of pacing the grounds away from our stall, a bit of chatting with our neighbors in stabling, until finally it was time to tack up and go.  The two drivers had started first at 6:30, then there was a gap, and then horses were started every two minutes mostly in pairs, but Tuck and I were headed out alone, which suited me fine; an event horse should have no problem leaving the group and I figured this way I wouldn't be less likely to get sucked anybody else's pace.

The start leg headed down the trail above one of the stadium rings, which was convenient -- it's a path Tucker's galloped along many times, so he was happy to lock into a trot and go.  We followed it out past dressage to Morgan Hill Road and hung a right up the hill, and we were off.

The ride was a combination of smooth hard-packed dirt roads and wooded trails.  Lots of up and down -- some sections quite steep -- and a little mucky on the trails but nothing too terribly shoe- and tendon-sucking deep.  Tucker picked up his head and made big eyes when we first hit the roads, and he did back out of his traveling stride, but he kept moving and before too long, settled back in.

We caught up to the pair that had gone out in front of us within fifteen minutes, which simultaneously pleased and concerned me.  They were moving faster at a walk and on the downhill sections; we were faster at a trot and uphill.  In retrospect, I probably should have passed earlier than I did; I initially thought that catching them meant I was going Much Too Fast by the time it occurred to me maybe it would be just fine to traveling-trot on the smooth uphill first few sections and save our taking-it-easy for the muckier downhills, we were into the first stretch of single-track and then I felt awkward about asking to pass.  So instead we followed until the trail opened on a small meadow and we went by after Tuck grabbed a mouthful of grass.  We leapfrogged with them for the first ten miles or so.

The trail was marked every five miles as "X miles to go."  We were right on our clock at the five, a bit behind it at the ten, but we were back on the roads at that point and by ourselves and Tuck felt fantastic: cheerful and eager and just cruising along in this big booming trot with a loop in the reins.  The sun had come out and we were passing through the prettiest countryside...

And I was just completely overwhelmed with how happy I was to be there, and to be there with Tucker, and how impressed I was with him and how grateful to be able to recognize and appreciate the experience in the moment as we went along.

We did hit a stretch of the doldrums somewhere in there, as Tuck started to feel tired and my watch told me that we should be at the midpoint hold Any Minute Now but the sign saying that we were a mile out from the hold was nowhere to be seen...  I could see hoofprints in the road, so I was pretty sure we hadn't missed a turn, but yeah, doldrums.  Slowed back to a walk and trudged along for a while -- had this not been a CTR, I would have hopped off and led to give him a break and myself a change -- until we found some good grass, and paused for a few minutes so Tucker could chow down.  (He had shunned the troughs at the water stops thus far, but ate like it was his job all day.)  He felt much brighter when we moved off, so we trotted again, then had a canter up a long shaded hill --

-- and got to the top, turned a corner, and there was the hold.  Don't know if the heads-up sign had been vandalized or if I'd just missed it, but so much for walking him in!

My neighbors with the pit bull were there waiting for their daughter (who had started about twenty minutes after us) and I was glad to see some friendly faces.  I had ten minutes in the hold before our pulse and respiration check and I was trying not to think too hard about the implications of having basically cantered up to the hold.  I had no idea what Tuck would think of this part of the ride, but the hold was in a huge grassy field -- he let me lead him up to the sponging buckets and then went right back to eating while I sponged and scraped.  Still refused to drink, the punk, but pulsed in at...

Forty.

Forty!  Respirations at 32.  Parameter was 64, I think, and not inverted.  I peeked at the volunteer's sheet as she was writing his numbers down; obviously she had not done every horse through the hold, but Tuck's pulse was the lowest I saw out of the 12-to-15 numbers on her sheet.  So that was a nice boost!  He trotted out well and the vet confirmed that his metabolics were good.  We had to stay at the hold for twenty minutes total, which gave me a chance to get a little more water on him and accept an orange slice from a hospitality volunteer -- actually two slices; Tucker stole the first one, crunched it, and spit it back into my hand -- before we headed out through the field.

Tuck was a beast leaving the hold.  Not naughty or hard to ride, but he was obviously All Refreshed And Recovered Now and very much Ready To Go.  I was getting braver about letting him trot reasonable downhill sections -- he was handling himself well, keeping a nice shape and not pounding, and I was starting to figure out how to brace myself down slopes without bracing against him -- and we were at this point a bit down on our clock, which I was fine with; I figured we'd just go as felt appropriate and see where that put us.

The hold-to-22-mile section is a bit of a blur.  We were by ourselves the whole time. Tuck felt great, aside from one brief discussion on a downhill trail when he felt (reasonably enough!) that I should be paying more attention to him that to my sour gummy watermelons.  (I was super-glad to have snacks, most of which were healthier than sour gummy watermelons.  I am a snacker with some blood-sugar issues anyway, and had not been able to eat much breakfast due to nerves, and around the halfway point found myself suddenly ravenous.)

There was a designated water stop at a mountain stream at about 4 miles to go (the last 5 were marked every mile) and Tuck finally deigned to take a few swallows after I stuffed him in the water to sponge.  Just after the stream, one rider of the pair we'd been leapfrogging with early caught back up and passed us; we were in visual range for most of the rest of the way in.  Tucker still felt good all the way to the end -- he slowed down when I asked him to and I think would have been happy to walk in, but trotted readily, moving lightly and well with a big active stride and maintaining it of his own accord.  I started to hurt -- inner thighs and knees -- in the last 2-3 miles and opted to restrict trotting to flat and uphill sections, since I wasn't confident I could hold myself out of Tuck's way trotting a downward slope.

We ended up coming in at roughly four hours, thirty minutes.  The window for coming in without penalty was four hours and ten minutes to four hours and forty, with a half-hour allowance after that for completion with a penalty to your score.

We had twenty minutes before the P&R check -- forty and twenty for Tuck, respectively -- with a parameter of I think it was forty-four and I forget what.  Then over for the trot-out portion of the vet exam.  We lost a couple of half-points there for "very slight" deterioration in length/height/animation of strides and a point for willingness.  The jogs out and back were, I though, within normal limits, but if Tuck had thought the circles were stupid before he'd gone twenty-five miles, he was utterly convinced of it now.  Then lunch, with the hands-on exam after.

Which went well!  Some slight soreness in the pecs -- the hauling-you-along-trail-and-up-the-mountains muscles, which made sense given that this is the first time he's ever gone this far -- but a clean bill of health elsewhere...including his back, which the vet said felt loose and relaxed and perfect.  I am counting that as a major (if weird) triumph.

There was a multi-hour wait while they finished the hands-on exams and tabulated scores.  I hadn't expected that, but was happy to have a chance to crawl back into my hammock and rest while Tuck snoozed in his stall.  I actually felt physically better than I expected -- less tired, less sore -- considering that I tend to be kind of destroyed after a horse trial.

We finished on a roughly mid-pack score of 96 out of 100.

We got back to our home barn about 8pm, with enough light left for Tuck to hang out in one of the paddocks while I unloaded and cleaned the trailer.  I figured he'd want a nice roll, but no: went right back to devouring the grass.  He looked good when I went out to visit him on Monday morning -- bright and happy, walking well, a very little fill in his legs but nothing out of the ordinary.  I figure he can have a few days off.  I'll hop on Wednesday or Thursday evening and we'll.go for a stroll, and then go from there.

I still can't get over how fantastic he was.  He was so easy to ride -- very eager and biddable and undramatic, handled himself well on the terrain and in the various footing, slowed up and looked when he had a question about something but even then, kept moving on down the trail.  I wish he'd have been a better drinker, but that wasn't a surprise -- and he did drink gallons before and after the ride, and ate along the trail like it was his job.

I think that he had a pretty good time.

I think we'll be back.

Thanks to you readers-and-commenters for your support and encouragement, and cheers especially to Figure, who made me feel much calmer about the pacing aspect of the ride at a time when I really needed somebody to make me feel much calmer about that!

Will do another post tomorrow-ish about what worked and what didn't and what maybe comes next.