Kentucky Die Hard II 2009

Kentucky Die Hard II
Nov 2009

Shaker Village, in Lexington KY, is a mix of anachronisms.   The Shakers were a religious sect that was an offshoot of the Quakers.  They took the interesting theological position that it was not Biblical to procreate.   That left little room for new members except for adoption.  Preaching abstinence from sexual relations for married couples would hardly be the way to expand the church rolls. The husband of the leader checked out on the sect and the marriage after that particular theological shift.   After the civil war, the sect practically died out. They had a wonderful place consisting of many acres of rolling Kentucky bluegrass, stone fences and rustic buildings.  The terrain is similar to the Kentucky Horse Park.   While waiting at the vet check, I read an interesting sign stating that the Kentucky Revised Statutes made it illegal to consume alcohol on the grounds of the Shaker Village, unless Shaker Village sold it to you.   Cheap wine was $ 6.00 for a small plastic cup.   Ornate buildings with wonderful stacked fences, but  you parked your rig in an uncut field and had to schlep your own water the best way you could.   Riders from as far away as British Columbia showed up.

Sandy loves these kinds of open field rides.  I prefer more difficult terrain and trails that wind through woods.   I think these gaited horses excel in bad terrain and we train them in hard terrain.  I think the open field type of courses,  especially since we don’t train on them, gives our horses too much opportunity for imaginination.

O’Well, if this sport didn’t have excitement, it wouldn’t be as much fun would it?

Niki and Jazz

Sandy rode Jazz, a 4 year old TWH mare that has a large dose of alpha female in her.  She is one of our smallest horses at 14.3,  but she has a huge heart.  She had been raced once before and she took 7th at the 30 mile distance in September.  Sandy was a bit apprehensive as Jazz can be head strong.    She is the type of young horse you need to be both relaxed on but also very confident while heading down the trail.  She is not the type of horse you need to wrestle with.   As a buddy of mine says, “you need to pick your spots”.

The course was very similar for both the Ld and the 50 miler.  There were lots of ribbons and lots of turns.   At times, you left the Ld course while doing the 50 mile course in order to add a loop for extra miles.   It got very confusing.   Nevertheless,  she came in for the first vet check in the top ten.  She was very surprised.  Sandy and Jazz settled into Jazz’s efficient 9-111 mph easy rack. She said it was like riding a smooth sowing machine.  This girl is tough. I should say both the “girls” on that team are tough.

Three girls passed Sandy in the second lap of the LD and came to a confusing turn at a barn.  There were two ways to go at the barn and the other three girls all wanted to go one way.  Sandy was sure that the correct way was the opposite direction. Sandy let the others talk her into going the way they thought was correct.  They all did the correct mileage according to Sandy’s GPS when they finished, but Sandy decided that she was sure the 5 mile loop they had done was not the correct 5 mile loop.  One thing about my darling, she would not knowingly take advantage of anyone nor “bend” a rule.  Although she had finished about 6th, she went out on the course,  found the missed turn added an additional 5 miles and dropped from top ten to 25th.  She ended up riding 30 miles instead of the planned 25.

Niki was excited during the vet in the night before the ride. There was definitely something she was sensing at the vet in barn that got her wound up.  Dr Ken Marcella is one of my very favorite vets and I have tremendous respect for him.  I always learn something from Ken and would go to a ride for no other reason than he was scheduled to be the head vet.  He thought Niki was sensing something that we were just not understanding.   She got all A’s except for “attitude” and she got a B+ on that.

The start of these open field rides are always interesting.  We had around 25 horses at the 50 start and they were all Arabians except for Niki.  The whole group was milling about until someone yelled “3, 2,1, GO!”    One of the top riders, who works for the Arabian breed association had her stirrup fall off right in front of me during the start.  I offered to stop and help her but she sent me on.    As this was Niki’s first 50, my plan was to ride her conservatively.  I fell in with Bill Taylor from Ohio on his super Arabian James.  James has a following and is well known in the endurance world. One of my favorite things at endurance rides is meeting new friends and spending the rides learning about their lives and experiences.  Of course, it is also good for a newer horse to have a buddy during a ride.  We learned from a course worker that we had added an extra loop,  but as we were both riding for completions we did not really care.  As Bill said, “we are on an organized trail ride”.

The first loop was 25 miles.  With about 2 miles to the vet check, Niki threw a shoe on the left front.  She did not favor it any way and we were not in a rocky part of the course, so I opted to forego the boot.

At the vet check Dr. Marcella suggested getting the shoe put on first. Niki came down to heart rate criteria quickly but still seemed a bit agitated at the vet in barn.  The farrier examined the right front    to match  his replacement shoe with our home farrier’s work.  The vet hold was only 45 minutes and the trailer was quite a walk from the vet in barn. I really had to hustle and throw down some food while moving Niki. Niki vetted in with all A’s.  Bill was very gracious as he saw me hustling and offered me lunch.

As we left for the second loop, I noticed that Niki was off a bit.  Bill and I talked about it and he thought she was “short striding” a bit in the front.  Now, I started worrying.  I decided I would do a “rider option” if she continued any compromise of her gait.  She steadied out after about 800 meters and she got smooth.  Then she seemed to bobble a bit.  Her head shake was symmetrical. Was I imagining this? Did she bruise her hoof when she pulled the shoe?  It is easy to worry about your horse to the point that you  can over analyze your situation.  On the other hand, many riders fail to be sensitive enough and make a small problem a bigger one by not stopping when they should.  Of course, being a competitor, I wanted to do the best I could, and the best Niki could do.  After all, she had taken BC at her last ride.  We work so hard to have the highest completion rate possible.  The thought of not getting a completion was a hard pill to swallow.

The trail curved within 800 meters from the camp and I could see the vet-in barn.  Niki favored a front stride once again and I turned her towards the barn.   I told Bill we were making a day of it and were stopping so that I could get Niki looked at by the vet staff.  My heart was heavy.   As I pulled into the vet in area I told Ken, “rider option, something is not right with her movement.”  The treatment vet, Bryan Fraley looked closely at Niki, her heart rate was down.  We did the trot out, and she did not favor either front foot. He pronounced her sound and said I could continue.   I said again, “she is off”.  He called for Ken and had me do the trot out again. He pronounced her sound and fit to continue.  I told them about the shoe being pulled on the left front.  He said that a pulled shoe could really stress the foot.  Ken watched another “trot out”.  He pronounced  Niki “fit to continue”.   Again, I said, I know the horse and something is not right. They called the farrier who had put on the shoe.  He said that Niki was not showing any pain, that there was no hot spot nor swelling and that she was fit to continue.  Again, I told the group,  “I am taking a rider option because I know the horse and have ridden and trained her for years”.   They asked me to come back in an hour to have her looked at again.

I walked her back an hour later and I found out that the treating vet, Bryan Fraley was also a farrier. I told him I was sure something was a bit off.  Bryan suddenly said, “I found it”!  He pulled out a small pebble that had been wedged under the trailing heel of the right front shoe.  It was just the right size to be hidden under the shoe.  Bryan said that our home farrier had errored by leaving the heal of the shoe extended beyond the rear of the hoof wall leaving a pocket for the rock to wedge into.  We have put over 5000 miles on our horses in the last two years alone and had never seen this before.   In fact, I have never heard of a pebble being wedged under the trailing heel of a shoe in such a way that it could escape the view of a farrier and two vets.  You can bet that it will be something I will always watch for in the future.  If you do this sport long enough, you will probably see all kinds of things you never heard of before.  The important thing is to always learn from these things.  This learning process is something we can all help each other with and why I believe that we need to be open with each other about what we learn.


As long as we learn something from each ride, it is a success.   We enjoyed this ride and Sandy wants to go back.  It is a bit pricier than some others.  Camping is extremely rustic and you have to haul water  far enough to make us think about bringing a water tank next time.  Unless you don’t mind paying $ 6.00 for a very small glass of cheap wine in a plastic cup, it might be a good weekend to try abstinence.

So far, our horses have had 33 starts, 30 completions, 1 rider option, and 3 BCs.  We have learned that gaited horses can not only do endurance, but they can do it well.   Our learning process is continuing and one of the things that I am being surprised at is how different horses respond to different types of training schedules.

This was the end of the 2009 ride season and time to start planning and conditioning for 2010.  I hope to keep Blues up on his 50 mile competition and to compete Kate at both the 50 mile and 100 mile distance.  I hope to compete Niki at the 50 mile distance if she does not sell first.  Sandy will compete Jazz and Lady if they don’t sell.  She will also compete Cheyenne after I have had the chance to take her to her first ride.  Cheyenne,  is the best twh mare I have ever sat on.  She is coming 6 in the spring. My plan is to get her introduced to endurance in 2010 and then cross register her as a singlefooter with  SHOBA.  I hope to then breed her in 2011 to a singlefooting stud.

Endurance has been such a blessing to us.  It has given Sandy and I something to be passionate about together in our empty nest years.  We hope to keep learning, keep encouraging others and to keep adventuring.

Keith Kibler
Shawnee Sunrise Farm

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