GMHA Analysis

What we did and how it worked:

 - We rocked a Matrix Cross-Country sheepskin pad under the jump saddle (Black Country Quantum) all ride.  Tuck seemed comfortable and as previously mentioned, he was not sore.  He did develop some post-ride swelling under the tree points on the right side -- better than before last flocking adjustment but still no bueno.  Not sure I can bear to part with this saddle (more on that below), but the plan is to at minimum retire it as a distance-riding saddle.

 - Thanks to the cooler weather, I've been out of my Terrains + half-chaps and into my beloved Ariat Broussard winter tall boots.  Very very comfy to ride in and did a nice job of mitigating the stirrup pressure across the shins that sometimes bugs me during the downhill-trotting marathons.  A little clunky on foot, but no worse than the Terrains.  I did have more toe-numbness this ride than I have in the past, but I'm starting to wonder if that's not actually a boot/stirrup/foot interface problem: I noticed while riding around in the Passier that in that saddle, I had zero numbess ever.  Not sure what that tells me, but something, I'm sure.

 - Traditional leather bridle, running martingale, Thinline reins, and this bit.  That's our jumping bit and I like it an awful lot: rides like a snaffle and doesn't back the horse off, but there's a little more there there for exciting moments.  At some point I'd like to switch to a breastplate with running attachment, but I've been saying that for literally years.  Never had a saddle slip on this horse (knock wood); I just like the look and the idea of being able to fix the attachment at a consistent length (I tend to pull mine back and forth through the donut a billion times while tacking up).  I've been drooling over endurance bridles with quick/easy bit removal and now that I know what a difference having a bit in will make to his drinking, I think we're going to need one of those.  (I covet the Taylored Tack ride-and-tie bridle in particular, but not sure I'm ready to go nosebandless, and I've never used a rope halter in my life, but man, that bridle is so pretty!)

 - REI hydration-compatible backpack with Camelbak bladder and hose.  Meh.  I like the convenience (of not fussing with bottles, and of having the pommel bag (an English Stowaway slimline) available for other stuff instead), but was pretty bummed by the hose failure.  Not sure what happened there.  And I like having stuff on my body, in the abstract, but in practice, yuck.  Going to need to debug this one for next year.  I remain intrigued by Mel's hydration-bladder-in-boot-bag approach and have a few vague ideas about stuff-on-my-body solutions.  Contingent on what happens with the saddle search and thus what saddlebag options are available.  Everybody else seems to be able to get theirs strapped down more securely than I do.  Gotta figure out what's up with that.  (Please show me your systems!)

 - I rode in my usual: SmartWool socks, Kerrits tights, and SmartWool zip-neck shirt on the first loop, switching to an REI quick-dry short-sleeve button-down for the second.  I love all of these things; they are my favorites.  I also started in an Arc'Teryx insulated zip-up hoodie thing (acquired, as has been all my beloved Arc'Teryx gear, through a combo of helpful sale and well-timed coupon) that is warm enough for walking around stabling in sub-40-degree temps but didn't make me overheat and die while riding (although I did take it off at the Stop & Go).  I am pretty sure that it's magic.  I use the same rule of thumb for cold-weather riding (not that this was really cold-weather) as I used to for running: if I'm a little too cold starting off, I'll be good once I'm going.  Tipperary Sportage helmet, Neumann's Tackified gloves.

 - I went to the Nunn tablets again for elyting my water (and wonder if that's what caused the Camelbak problem, although again, it was fine for the first 90min, so...???) but I remain ambivalent.  May just go back to Gatorade.  Trail-and-camp food was a surprising breakdown and I'm not sure what to do about that -- the idea of not being able to eat is bizarre and I have no coping skills!  My saving grace was a couple of Bolthouse protein drinks that I'd brought along and found inoffensive enough to suck down pre-ride and during holds.  I was hungry at the second hold, though, with nothing else looking good, and so would have been hungry on the third loop had we gone back out, and a low-blood-sugar Hannah is a homicidal Hannah, and nobody needs that.  Will have to ponder.

 - I did eat a few bites of Tucker's carrot on trail while he was chewing.  I was glad to have those in my pommel bag.  I'm not sure they made a meaningful difference for him, since there was grass available, but it made me happy to have them to offer.   We also shared an apple while waiting for the group at a water stop.  That apple tasted fantastic and probably would have worked as a peanut-butter-or-Nutella delivery vehicle during the holds as intended if I'd had time to chop-and-smear.

 - I desperately wanted chocolate-covered espresso beans ala Funder, but couldn't find them at my day-before-leaving shopping stops and so suffered through the caffeine withdrawal headaches.  I had even seen some at Starbucks that morning and not bought them because surely I would find them more cheaply at REI or Market Basket, but it was not to be so.   Woe was me!

 - I noticed in August and again this weekend: Tuck loves his beet pulp pre-ride but seems to be done with it by the first hold, although he continued snarfing grass and hay and grain and soaked alfalfa cubes (and carrots, and apples, and my granola bars...) with great enthusiasm.  Not sure what to make of that, if anything, but as long as he's eating, I am happy.  My elyting protocol, such as it is, has been to throw some Perform N Win in with his mashes starting on arrival at the ride site and that's that.  If he wants it, he can have it.  If he doesn't, that's okay, too.  I find electrolytes to be too much like voodoo for me to get aggressive with them at this point.

 - Walking straight into the PR box: yes!  He is consistently down by the time we get there, so no need to waste time fussing.  I really liked the drink-and-go approach we used at the second hold.  If/when we have a halter-bridle that will go even more smoothly.

 - I was super, super glad that I had clipped.  We ended up with basically an Irish clip: lower half of neck and shoulders, chest, partial sides, and belly.  Tuck was still sweatier than I had expected.  I never had the sense that he was overheating or anything, but if I had it to do over again I would clip more aggressively.

 - I had talked a little after August's CTR about maybe putting interference boots on behind for the endurance ride.  He doesn't interfere badly.  Frequently he doesn't interfere at all.  But on longer rides and/or more technical terrain, he will sometimes skim a coin-sized patch off the inside back of his hind fetlocks.  Never seems to bother him but obviously I'd rather his skin remain intact.  I looked around a bit, but everything I put hands on seemed either not to cover the area in question or else to be hard-shell and/or full-length galloping boots that I would have loved for running him cross-country but that I suspect would rub if used hour after hour.  If anybody has suggestions, I am all ears.

What's on tap:

 - Pull the remaining three shoes, see what his feet do, and work on booting.  The good news about the lost shoe during the ride is that I now know he'll move soundly on a bare foot over normal footing!  And that he will fit into and go comfortably in a size 1 Easyboot Glove (although all agreed a 2 would probably have been better, and I'm not sure I would have had a prayer of getting the size 1 boot on by myself).  I've been surveying boot-users at every opportunity and plan to start with Renegades, mostly because it sounds like the fit is a bit more forgiving and I don't do my own hoofcare.  (That's on the list of things I'd like to learn more about some day, but I am frankly intimidated!)

 - Talked with the farrier this morning and we're going to put Tuck on a shortened trim cycle.  That's the cycle he was on over the summer, just because of ride scheduling, when his back was doing so well, and I've noticed as we've moved into fall that he starts to forge towards the end of the cycle, and that was when he most recently got sore.  Correlation is not causation, of course.  He has not been on a long drawn-out cycle and I think farrier does a very nice job!  But Tuck does seem to grow foot like nobody's business, so we'll try this for a bit and see what happens.

 - Project: Future Endurance Saddle.  The good news is that my dressage saddle that's been out on consignment has just sold, so those funds should grease the saddle search's wheels.  Still trying to decide whether I can bear to part with my jump saddle, and still trying to decide our exact next step.  Probably to contact a fitter who's been recommended to me and fling myself on her mercy.

 - Rider fitness needs to improve, which I've known for a while, alas.  I want to be able to run up the hills like a boss!  Or at least trudge at a slightly accelerated rate!  I'd shelved this one until post-ride, but now that time has arrived so I guess I shall sit down and figure out some sort of schedule to start getting my runs in again, and there is now what looks like a pretty decent gym within walking distance.  I actually enjoy lifting weights, when I can get to a gym without going out of my way, so...time to go check the place out.

 - And here's a way to work on rider fitness: work on our trot-outs (for real this time).  We suck, yo.  I find jogging a horse as boring as Tucker finds being longed and also it gives me flashbacks to all those racehorses that tried to jump on top of me the summer I worked at the track, so my trot-out practice with Tucker at home tends to involve me running three steps and then calling it good.  But he is on to me now, even when he isn't tired, and I would like to have the option of proceeding on foot at a ride somewhat faster than a trudge (albeit maybe not up too many 70-mile mountains), so...maybe pit bull and pony to 5k?

 - My other big learning curve to maybe tackle this winter is the whole horse-camping thing.  Horse retention seems almost as daunting as hoofcare, but a few rides without stabling have made it onto my bucket list (surprise! I have a bucket list now!) so at some point I shall have to bite the bullet.  Probably later rather than sooner, though, and almost certainly with much whining and appealing to friends, acquaintances, and slow-moving strangers for guidance along the way.  (I don't know why this makes me worry so much.  Tucker is a super sneaky-pants escape artist when it comes to gates and latches, but he ties pretty nicely and has never been one to challenge fences, even not-very-respectable fences.  I am betting he'll take to horse camping than I will.)

 - About that bucket list...  So all you crazy people with your talk about riding through the night have convinced me: I am now gunning for 100s.  As a medium-to-long-range goal, and if it turns out that Tucker is not a 100-mile horse (or that I am not a 100-mile rider!) that will be okay.  But yeah, I am hoping to get there one day, and I am also still hoping to ride for a cavalry award at Old Dominion.  One day.  Short-term next-season goals?  Well, completing a 50 would be nice.  And I would really like to ride the 50 at Vermont Moonlight next year, so my next project is I guess trying to figure out how to get from here to there.  I have a couple of vague and fuzzy ideas about what might work as our next outing (and I am super sad that they're all so temporally far away!) and I'm hoping to pick some local-rider brains as well.

 - And just generally keeping on!  As mentioned, I've been planning for a while to give Tuck the month of November off.  We shall see if my resolve holds in the fac of the currently glorious weather, though...  Maybe he'll get Thanksgiving to New Year's instead.  Or, as some winters have it, the start of ice season until the end of ice season.  I'm hoping to get some dressage and jumping back in the rotation over the winter -- maybe I'll even take a few lessons if the right opportunities arise; I feel like we're ready to revisit some higher education -- and I'm not sure how testing saddles and boots will work in the middle of winter...and I think we will spend a lot of time walking up hills.

And up.

And up.

And up!