Lincoln Trail 100

Most of our endurance rides are around 9 hours away, so when we get to go to one within 2 hours of home in Southern Illinois , we make use of it.  I have been thinking of using this ride for our first attempt at a 100 miler for a year.  Kate, my little 6 ½ year old grey Tennessee Walking  Horse was the horse I chose.  Kate is the worst moving horse we own.  She would like to pace when she stands still and I have spent a lot time remedying that.

However, she is a sweetie and she is my favorite horse.  She is not my best, just my favorite.  I can call her when she is with the mare herd and she will leave them to catch me and nuzzle me.  The other day I called her and she came from the back pasture.  She really surprised me when she looked at me for about 10 seconds and then ran away and out of sight.  In two minutes I was surprised to hear galloping hoofs.  She had gone to the back pasture and retrieved the rest of the mares and brought them all to me.  Sometimes, I think Sandy might be jealous.  Kate has done 4- 30s and 4- 50s.  All were completions and 7 were top ten finishes.  The only one that was not a top ten was because I held her back in her first 50.  She is like a Honda, steady and dependable.  Did I mention she is adorable?

Sandy had her MFT Savanah ready for the horse’s first 30 mile Ld.  I am very deliberate about training schedules.  Savanah is 5 and has had 33 rides and 268    miles of training this year.  Kate had 63  rides and 691 miles of training this year.  All of our rides are on GPS watches and many have a heart rate monitor.   I think they were both ready.

Friday night featured a pounding rain storm.  When we got up to feed pre ride, the rain was still coming down. It was time for rain gear.  Only 5 riders signed up for the 100 and one backed out before the start.  The 100 was going to be Kate and 3 Arabians.  At the start I was asked pointedly by the spokesman for the three  “ Is it your intention to ride with us?”  I got the hint.  100 hundred miles by myself in the mud, at my first 100, could make for a lonely and challenging 24 hours.

I hung back for the first 4 miles until I was asked for directions.  I know the course well.  I showed the way of the path and shortly afterwards, the other 3 pulled off the trail.  I pulled over and waited.  Once the others started they only walked.  I decided I had no choice but to go on.  It was going to be a lonely day.

I decided to do the first 20 miles loop at a leisurely pace.  Oop’s I meant rack, not “pace”.  We finished the first 20 mile loop a few minutes in the lead and Kate came down to 60 within about 2 minutes.  The second 20 mile loop was more of the same and we gaited along at around a 124 heart rate at an average of around 6 mph.  We did speed up to a rack when we could.  I think gaited horses have an advantage in bad terrain and bad weather.  Because we train in the Shawnee, which has lots of hills, creeks, and rocks, they are used to a challenging surface.  Gaited horses don’t have a suspension time when all four feet are off the ground, unless they pace like Kate, which makes them sure footed. They always have at least one foot on the ground.

I take canter breaks on our mature horses after they are set in gait.  This seems to refresh them.  We finished the loop at 40 miles and Kate was at a 57 heart rate.  She had scored all “A”s in every category so far.  The 40 to 60 mile loop was more of the same and the rain stopped.  I got to ride with a couple of the 50 mile riders for a while and slowed to ride with a pleasant woman.  Kate and I both enjoyed the company.

As we came into camp and I was caught by the other 100 riders.  She ate the whole break.  I had some chicken, chips, water and a 5 hour energy. Heading out for the 60 to 80 mile loop presented an interesting challenge.   I knew it would be dark before the end of the loop.   Kate was hitting on all cylinders and she had always gotten stronger toward the end of a 50 mile ride. This was different because we were already at mile 60.

I decided, from a strategy standpoint,  that the less time I spent in the dark the better.  I had 2 minutes on the trailing riders.  If I sped up, I thought I could maybe get 15 miles in before it got dark.  This would leave me with only the last 5 miles of this loop in the dark and then the last 20 mile loop.  The other riders would have more of this lap in the dark and it might help Kate in the long run.

I smooched Kate and she picked up her racking gait.  For the entire ride, I never had to touch her with a spur or to motivate her other than verbally asking her to speed up.  She is wonderful.  I love this little mare.  We finished the next to last loop in the pitch dark with about a 30 minute lead.  She was at 54 when we came in, but she did get 2 “B”s.  The vet assured me that a bit of a drop was not unusual this far into a 100 mile event.  When you threw in the mud and terrain, I was sure she was right.  She said I should expect a dramatic loss of energy in Kate.

Concerning lights,  I had gotten a lot of advice.  We had practiced with lights and without lights.  Kate couldn’t care less. We had never practiced with glow sticks.  She did not like them and she let me know that, by stopping beside the trail.  I put them into my back pocket.  She liked me to use a head light.  She wanted to walk in the pitch dark , but would gait if I turned on my head light.  After about 5 miles, the head light started going dim.  Once we walked off the trail in a bad spot and lost the trail.  I could not find it.  I was by myself and it was so dark you could not see your hand in front of your face without a light.  Who does a night ride without a moon?

I remembered my wrist GPS and put it on an 80 foot radius.  I found the trail only about 15 foot away.  I could not panic.  It occurred to me that I could get in real trouble by myself and I had to stay focused.  With 12 miles to go my helmet light went dim.  No problem,  I had a spare.  I put it on my helmet and then discovered it would not stay in the “up possession”.   I had practiced with it but not on this helmet.  So, I got to finish the last 12 miles with both reigns in my left hand and my right arm over my head holding the light.  At times I shut the light off whenever I could.  Kate would rack along until a limb would whack me and I had to turn the light back on.

Kate and I finished the ride by ourselves at 12:45 a.m..  I was really glad to ride through the finish line. Kate acted like it was no big deal  and she was at a 60 heart rate at the vet stop.  The vet staff and volunteers who are waiting gave us a standing ovation, which made us both very happy.  Kate took first at her first 100 and was B.C.  Life was very good and I could not have done it without my loving wife Sandy.

Sandy did the first LD on her MFT Savanah.  It did have a moment of tenseness.  A well intentioned husband was waiting for his wife, who was doing a 50, and was beside the trail handing out apples.  Apples are a very good idea.  The very wolfish looking dog that was off leash, was not a good idea.  It stepped out of some shrubs just as Sandy’s co-rider, who was riding an Arabian stud horse had taken the lead.   The stud spooked and threw the rider.   The stud came at Sandy’s mare, started pawing, screaming, and rearing as if to mount Sandy’s mare with her on it!  Sandy kept spinning her mare, as the stud was standing on his rear legs and lunging at them.  The stud kept circling the mare Sandy was riding, trying to get to her, but stayed just out of reach of his owner, who was trying to grab his bridle.   Sandy didn’t dare try to ride off, because she knew he would catch them.  So she tried to stay close to the rider, hoping he could grab him.

Sandy kept backing and spinning until the owner caught the horse.  As soon as the rider caught him, the stud stopped dead still and became a perfect gentleman!   The rider mounted up, after profusely apologizing, and off they all went.  When they came in to the vet check the owner asked Sandy if she would be nervous about riding the next loop with him as his horse liked a buddy.  She said “I don’t have a problem as long as you stay on his back!”  And so the 2 of them finished the last loop together.

All in all, it was a perfect weekend.

Keith and Sandy Kibler
Shawnee Sunrise Farm

Double Eagle 2010

The Double Eagle Ranch is just outside of Elsberry Mo which is north of St Louis.  It is privately owned and, although the camping is “primitive”, the grounds are immaculate and the trails spectacular.  Sandy and I had one concern, and that was the weather.  It had been over 90 degrees and the humidity had been oppressive the week before the ride. Sandy really worried about the weather and I promised that if it was too bad at the start, we simply would come home.   It was not promising when our truck said it was 99 degrees as we passed through St. Louis.

We were one of the first to arrive and secure a camping spot.  It was looking like the weather as scaring off riders.  Eventually, 23 horses showed up with riders and crews.  Next door was Dawn Corbin-Deutsch and her able husband/crew, John.   Like my wife Sandy, Dawn has a serious health issue, and John told me that they were celebrating every day that she could be active by doing endurance on her Missouri Foxtrotter Navigator.  John went to start his generator and the cord came off in his hand. We took a crash course in generator tear down together.

I warmed  Blues and Kate up the night before and they both passed the vet in with straight A’s.  The vets were gaited horse knowledgeable and we were both very thankful. After the pre race pot luck, we headed to bed. We also discovered that our Honda 2000 generator would not power our trailer’s air conditioner.   It was a very hot night…  The weather changed in a minute around 2:30a.m. The trailer started rocking from a high wind. We got up and put up the canopy just in time for the monsoon to start.  We ended up getting less than 4 hours sleep, which is never a good thing before a 50 mile ride.

I was glad to see my friend Paul Sidio. Paul is a class act and a rider I really enjoy spending time with and riding with.  Paul and I share a love for playing music and if you share a ride with us you are warned that our discussion of music history might prove boring.

The morning started off looking like it might be a cool if not a rain filled day.  Lisa Sargent, the race director did a fine job of flying by the seat of her pants and changed the course to allow her and her crew to check on areas that might have had damage from the storm.  The course became two 7 mile loops and then two 18 loops.  One horse was DQ’d during vet in the night before so 10 horses started the 50 and 12 started the 25.  Sandy and Blues went out with the lead group and in fact led the first 14 miles.  I settled back with Kate to about 5th, as I did not want to push her over 10 mph. I was concerned about both what might happen to the weather and her gait. I love this little horse, but she is the most challenging gaited horse to ride that I have ridden.  With about 2 miles to vet check, I felt my left stirrup break and I reach down and caught it before it hit the ground.  I knew I had a replacement in my cantle bag but I did not want to stop before the vet check. I got to balance while finishing the first loop.

Both horses did fine at the 14 mile vet check but the vet asked Sandy to watch Blues. I asked her to pull him back a bit and ride with Kate and me.  The temperature was rising as was the humidity.  The second loop had lots of turns and Lisa Sargent had done a great job of marking the course.  As the temperature rose, so did the difficulty of the course. About half way through the loop, I felt Kate roughen in her movement. I got off and checked her hoofs.  Both front shoes were gone and both back shoes were loose.  I had one boot with me on the horse, but the other one was back at the trailer.  We watched the heart rate monitors closely and found as many creeks as we could find for sponging and drinking.

Sandy and Blues

After slowing our pace due to the rising temperature, we came to a hay field. We met a rider coming out of the field as we were going in.  He was on a very fast Arabian but was actually turned around a bit and had stopped under a shade tree. We told him that he had ridden past the exit of the field and was starting a second loop of the same field. I asked him how big the field was and he told me that it was between 25 minutes and an hour. I thought he must be confused.

The field came to be known as the “field of doom” from the other riders. It was about 4 ½ miles of winding bush hogged paths that curved and crossed an occasional creek.  Very little shade offered itself.  We came into the 32 mile vet check with both the riders and the horses sweated up and ready for a rest.  Both horses did fine at the vet check but Blue was a little rapid with his breathing.  We took them back to the trailer and gave them their electrolytes and a beet pulp mash. They both ate great but Blues did not drink.  The vets were asking all the competitors to bring their horses back due to the heat and the humidity.  We did that before we left on the last 18 mile loop.   Blue’s respiratory rate was high after trotting him out and Sandy elected to opt for a Rider Option for Blues. It was wisdom.

Kate goes looking for the “Hay Field of Doom”

Kate and I went out by ourselves and I tried not to think about the numerous horses that were being pulled from both the LD and the endurance ride. The temperature was now into the 90’s and the humidity was soaring.  Kate was not thrilled with her Cavello boots, and although one of the vets had tightened the rear shoes he had told me there were no guarantee that they would stay on.

While watching her heart rate, I needed to watch her respiration rate and any other signs that she might be struggling.  While standing in a creek a few miles into the last loop, we were caught by three Arabians.  Knowing that horses often do better with another horse around them, I decided to tag along behind them.  It became obvious to me that they did not want our company.  On top of that, many Arabians and their riders seem to ride in less than a steady pace.  It has been my experience that many of the trotting horses have a real tendency to speed up on flat ground and then slow to a flat foot walk on up hills or at the sign of mud or rocks at creak crossings. An advantage I think our gaited horses have is that our horses are not supposed to have a time of suspension. They are usually very sure footed, and, while allowing for differences of individual horses, they can usually be rated at whatever speed I want them to travel.  The GPS watch is a critical tool for our riding.

So, we spent a few miles of speeding up and slowing down.  After a while, Kate and I eased past and gaited on.  The temperature continued to rise and we slowed down and took frequent breaks.  Sometimes we stopped in a creek. Sometimes, we stopped and ate grass.  The heat got worse and much of this loop was up and down, with no moving air.  I became even more concerned.  We walked. We walked a lot.  However, we just had to speed up for the up hills and then rest at the top of the hills.

After a few miles we bumped into the Arabian riders behind us at a turn. I spoke to them as we passed and the strangest thing happened. Kate perked up. I checked our time and saw that the walking was putting our 12 hour finish in jeopardy. I prayed and suggested to the Lord that we could use a little rain to cool us off.

A few miles later, the trail passed over the highest part of the course, and this point offered a good view in several directions.  The most astonishing view was the sky.  It was incredibly dark and ominous and a very strong wind came up.  The wind and the sky suggested a severe storm.  The temperature dropped at least 15 degrees within a few minutes.  I knew someone was praying, but thought that they were doing too good a job with their prayers.  The only thing missing was a plague of locusts and the death angel!

We came to the “hay field of doom” and I knew we had to move faster than a walk or we would not make the cut off time.  Kate just could not gait smoothly at this time with two easy boots, two loose shoes and 11 hours of heated competition under her belt.  I tried her at the lope and she freshened.  She also raised her speed to 10-11 mph and her heart rate steadied at about 120.  We loped the hay field while watching her heart rate and watching out for the riders behind us.

We came into the finish line very thankful to be finished… Kate was hot but her heart rate went to 60 in a few minutes. I gave her electrolytes.   Sandy and the vet techs hosed her, and after a few minutes of sponging, she cooled down.  We got our completion and it turned out that we were 2nd out of 4 finishers.

Sandy and I learned several things.

1.   This is a great ride!   If they move it to a cooler time in the fall, we will definitely come back.   Lisa Sargent did a fantastic job, as well as the vets, vet students, and volunteers.

2.   We need to stay away from rides that will be over 90 degrees with a high humidity.

3.   You could override your horse early in the cool part of day, and not know it until it shows up later when the heat and humidity rise. ( Even though one of the leading riders took a rider option, because of a thrown shoe, only one of the leading horses finished.)

4.   We have to get a second generator.

5.   Gaited horses are awesome!

Keith and Sandy Kibler
Shawnee Sunrise Farm

Dead Dog Creek
May 2010

Dead Dog Creak is my favorite ride. For starters, the ride has many creeks, but none of them are named “Dead Dog Creek”. A previous ride in the area was on a creek thought to be named “Dead Dog”. However, it turns out it was the wrong creek with a different name. The ride is sponsored by the White County Saddle Club, but the ride is in a different county in Southern IL.

The race directors are Linda and Aaron Mower of Olney IL. They do just a super job and are what the heart of the AERC is all about. Local, non pretentious horse lovers that also love to ride and are willing to put back into the sport in order to help others.

The ride is definitely rustic. It is held outside of Salem IL, which is right in the middle of St Louis Mo and Evansville IN. It is at the Stephen Forbes State Park. You have water spigots, electric hookups and a pair of out houses. The ride is a series of 15 to 20 mile loops that are repeated around a lake. Over 90 % of the ride is single track trails in woods. There are many streams to cross. All vet checks, for every distance, are in camp. This is my favorite ride.

Unfortunately, the ride was not as well attended as well as it has been in the past. I believe this was because the weather had been wet for 30 days and people who were regulars there knew it could be wet on race day. Boy, were they right.

Sandy and I had 3 twhs and one mft ready for 50s. My top horse, Blues was more than ready to do what he does. Our friend, Pat Phillips was still mourning the loss of her TWH Cowboy, who rolled into an electric tape fence and died. She loves Blues and loves to ride him. She also rides him wonderfully. So, naturally, those two got hooked up. I was ready with my little TWH mare Kate. Kate is not a speed ball, she is a Honda. She is a pretty little grey Honda. I had two other TWHs ready. One was a little mare named Jazz, out of Southern Jazz bloodlines. The other was a pusher bred TWH mare named Niki.

Pat Phillips on Blues and Keith Kibler on Kate

Someone had ridden the course and removed most of the tags. What is wrong with people? So I rode 15 miles with Niki and helped get that straightened out. Next I rode 7 miles of warm up with Jazz. She had no problem with the mud either. I did the warm up with Mira Fleming. She is a wonder. The woman is 77 years old and absolutely flies on her Arabians. She has completed over 13,000 race miles.

Pat Phillips and Blues
Saturday morning dawned with ominous skies. Only 7 competitors answered the call for the 50 mile start. Did they know something I didn’t? The LD did have a full slate. The trail was called “OPEN” and within 6 seconds, the rain started. With the 7 riders sorting themselves out, I slipped little Kate in behind Pat and Blues and Mira and her Arabian. The rest of the horses were also Arabians. Everyone had on rain suits but me. Sandy had placed a light poncho in a bag on my saddle. After 2.5 miles I was really getting wet so I opened it up with one hand while riding. I fumbled around and tried to put it on in full “moving on mode” and realized I was risking serious hurt for no good reason. So, I pulled Kate back and pulled on the poncho. Well, I tried to pull it on. You see, I still had on my helmet and the hole in the poncho was too small for the helmet. I almost laughed out loud until I realized the risk I was taking sitting on a horse, in a race with my eyes completely covered by a poncho. I took off the helmet.

The rain kept coming down and Pat and Mira kept speeding up. You have to ride your own race and my race with Kate did not include going over 13 miles an hour in the mud. We slowed down to the 8-10 mph I had planned out for little Kate. I wanted those horses to move on down the trail. However, Kate was so steady that we kept catching up to them when they would slow for things she would rack right through. We finished the first loop in a pack of the three leaders.

No problems with vet in and I reported for the next 15 mile loop with a dry set of clothes on. At the 25 mile mark, Kate and I started a very muddy climb on the steepest part of the course. She slid a bit and my world went very wrong . The cowboy string girth that I had thoroughly slathered with Vaseline, before the rain, let loose it’s grip and the saddle spun. I would say I hit the ground, but I had not seen ground since the start. I hit the mud and as I slid around I watched Kate run bucking and kicking off the course as she tried to rid herself of the upside down saddle. The cantle bag exploded in slow motion and I saw all the contents spray into the air.

I yelled for Kate to stop. The flight side of her brain took over and she disappeared into the woods. I picked myself up and was glad to find I had nothing broken. I walked and called her name. After a short walk, I heard her nicker to me and saw her watching me from the woods. The saddle was hanging under her. As I walked to her, she panicked again and took off bucking and kicking.

I walked back to the trail and headed towards the direction she had gone. After a while, I saw her and she was standing very still. One reign was wrapped four times around one leg. With my heart pounding, I calmed her and took the muddy English saddle loose and tried to tighten it. The girth would not tighten. Then I noticed something wrong. Both stirrups where gone. There were no stirrups and no stirrup leathers.

As I walked back to where the cantle bag contents were sprayed around I saw the stirrups wound around a small tree that Kate had apparently run over. While I tried to reattach the leathers, two Arabian competitors came by in full race mode. The leader of the two asked me if I was okay and kept right on going. To say I was disappointed that they had not stopped was an understatement. I simply could not attach the stirrup leathers. I hung both leather on my shoulders and led Kate down the trail. It was so muddy I could barely walk. I had to have a stump or a log to have a chance to get on her.

It was still raining so hard I could not see through my glasses. I was covered in mud and sopping wet. My saddle was covered in mud and I had no leathers or stirrups. It was 6 miles to camp. As I walked down the trail I could not find anyway to try and get up on Kate. After walking for a while, the trail ran into a creek that was simply too deep to try and cross. I was at the end of my trail and out of ideas. I had no idea what to do.

So, I prayed that the Lord would help me. I had to have help. Then I turned to Kate and said out loud, “Kate you are going to have to let me on, you are just going to have to let me on.” I faced her into the stream and took a hand full of mane. I bounced one, twice and then jumped with all my might. I landed on her back and pinned the slimy English saddle with my stomach. As I asked her to stand and wormed around to try and balance myself on her back I thought that if the loose saddle spun and caused her to go into the stream it would be two weeks before they found my body.

My little Kate did not move an inch. I got a hand full of reigns and we crossed the creek and I prayed a prayer of thanks. We picked up speed in an easy rack as I balanced on the loose saddle and let my wet legs and boots dangle. We climbed the next hill and as the saddle started to slip, Kate came to a complete stop to let me adjust it. This horse was becoming my hero. It was the longest 6 miles of my riding life but we made it. After vetting, I got help fixing the saddle and off we went for the last 15 miles. Around the 40 mile marker, Kate got stronger. She also got faster and her rack was just singing in the rain. At mile 47 we caught the two Arabian riders that had passed me while I was on the ground. Kate and I eased past them and they sped up.

The race was on. They kept speeding up and Kate kept responding. They broke into a gallop and Kate galloped for the first time. She broke 15 miles an hour in the mud and pulled away from them. We caught Pat and Blues who were taking it easy in the mud as both walked off through the finish line.

Pat and Blues did so great. She was tough as nails and took 2nd in her first 50 in the worst conditions imaginable. Did I mention she has a metal cage in her back? Mira Fleming finished just over an hour in front of us and took B.C. Considering what she came through to get a completion, Kate’s 3rd place finish  was an unbelievably good result.  We decided we had had enough of the wet conditions and loaded the other two horses up and headed for home.

The last second we were dry.

This ride is a great one to have as your first ride and we would love to help those who want to give it a try.

Keith and Sandy Kibler

Shawnee Sunrise Farm

Blazing Saddles 2010

We needed to escape the snow; we had to escape the snow and mud.  Maybe, if we went south it would be warm and dry. “Maybe”, is a very indefinite word.

Blazing Saddles is in Laurel Mississippi, which is about 100 miles north of the Gulf.   We left southern Il at 18 degrees.    When we got to Mississippi the temperature started dropping and then the rain started. The good news is that their version of miserable weather could not touch our version of miserable weather. Everything is relative isn’t it?

One of our reasons for going to this ride was that the head vet is Dr Otis Schmidt. Otis is not only completely fair no matter what type of horse you ride; he owns a TWH and understands the nuances of the oddities of judging a gaited horse. I would travel a long way to see Otis at an endurance ride.

Sandy had trained Jazz, a fiery TWH mare for the LD and I had Kate ready for a mid pace 50 miler. Kate is the worst moving horse we own but she is also my favorite. Her personality is that of a labrador retriever. She is also has the perfect emotional stability for endurance. Nothing fazes her. She couldn’t care less about imaginary bogey men, being in front, or being in back. Her heart rate drops like a stone. Her only drawback is her movement. Left to her own devices she would pace when she stands still. So, we condition, we train and we learn together. I love this little horse.   I dream that she will be my Tevis horse.

Jazz is the most mareish mare we own. She has a rock hard constitution. She decided last fall that she did not want to move forward when another horse came towards her. Now, that might not seem like something important, but when a course is “out and back” you could end up stopping frequently. She also would back up at that moment. Now, my Sandy is a super duper rider and will do things on a horse that leave me weak kneed, but I did not think she needed to compete on this horse until this issue was fixed. We worked and worked and had it rectified but I was not sure that it was fixed on a permanent basis without having another horse as a buddy for Jazz. Endurance ride situations can be stressful enough without a horse having its own issues.

We looked at having Jazz buddy up with Kate and then do a slow 50, but Jazz was too young by a few weeks. She was able, but not eligible. So, Sandy decided to ride Blues, my 16 year old MFT. Blues is a rocket, and has completed several 50s. He has top tened more times than not and has won one 50. However, I keep track of training on all our horses and I knew that Blues only had a little less than 100 miles of riding in the previous 8 weeks. His 12 month mileage before that was about 900 miles.  I was concerned his recent mileage was not enough to let him have a good event.  Sandy decided to ride him in the 25 mile LD, while  I took Kate on a 50 mile stroll.

The ride was a very long way away and was primitive.  It was really primitive and you had to take your own human and horse water.  Sandy decided to put our new water tank in the trailer stud stall instead of the truck bed. She then filled it up.  When we got to the race we discovered that the  tank  had a molded cover over the inside to the hose spout so that we could not  get the water out without using a garden hose  through the top of the tank and  starting  a siphon.  I tried to remove the spigot cover from inside the filled tank. Boy, was that cold.

This was the friendliest ride I have ever been to. The people where from as far west as  Nevada ,  as far east as  South Carolina and as far north as Illinois.  All the horses were Arabians except for our two and a Rocky and a saddle bred cross.  Both of the later paced and their riders posted.  The ride featured fantastic food at no extra cost. Friday night was catered catfish with all the trimming and Saturday night was homemade Jambalaya.

My friend Paul Sideo talked Sandy into riding Blues in the 50.  He knows Blues from his ride at Sedalia Mo, where Blues was 5th.  I told Sandy we could ride together and have a great day of husband-wife time if she just took her foot off of Blue’s accelerator pedal.  She agreed to watch the GPS and his heart rate monitor and that we would go to the back and hang out.

We hooked up with Ginny Conner and her Chocolate Rocky named Rambo and started off the 50 near the back of the 29 riders.  Blues was definitely full of himself and was pulling on Sandy to the point she became concerned.   He was not listening to her at all and his desire to “go” was made worse by his being passed by galloping Arabians more than once without  a warning.  I asked Sandy if she had changed any of his tack and she admitted to putting on a new curb chain.  That was the problem and I changed it one hole and Blues completely calmed down.  If you ever lose the curb chain on that horse you are going for a detour off the trail to where ever he wants to go because he requires a handle to steer him.

We came through the first vet check fine and Kate and Blues were at 64 when we presented them.  At mile 15, Sandy turned Blues around and said, “Blues is a completely different horse now, his energy level is very good, do you think it is alright to go on?”  What I think she really meant was, “See you later!”  She was gone.

Kate and Ginny and Rambo motored right along at about a 7.5 mph the rest of the day.  We caught Paul Sidio and his Arabian about mile 23 and we all had a lovely time.  Paul is an old touring professional musician and guitar player and we spent many miles playing music trivia.  For me, one of the most fun things about rides is making new friends and the time you get to spend getting acquainted.  Kate made me work on 15 miles of Georgia red clay road riding, as the flat surface is the worst thing for her gate.   When I came out of my trailer to start the last 12 miles, Kate had untied herself from the trailer and was gone.  That sure will wake you up.  I found her at the starting line tied to a tree.  It seems she was ready to go back on trail.

Paul’s horse was trotting and Ginny’s Rambo was pacing and Kate was watching their movements and letting that affect her gait. I decided I was not going to have that over that last 12 miles.  I stepped her speed up out of starting line and slapped her with the reins on both shoulders.  Keep in mind this horse is not just a horse to me. I really do love this horse. I have bonded with her more than any other horse I have ever owned. She is my sweet heart. But, she is most definitely not going to bounce me out of the saddle.  The “attention getter” worked immediately and she, not only payed attention, she went to 9-9.5 mph and settled into the best rack she knows how to produce. We zoomed.

Kate crossed the finish line tied with Ginny and Rambo for 19th and it only took about 2 minutes to reach heart rate. It was the only time she had not been at criteria when I presented her.  Sandy and Blues had left us in 22nd place at the 15 mile mark. They finished tied for 11th. Had they not held back the first 15 miles, they would have undeniably finished around 5th.  We were presented with monogrammed hay bags with “Blazing Saddles” on them and I won a DVD of the film of the same name for being the first one to know a quote from the movie.  Knowing “Candy gram for Mongo!” came in handy.

Ginny told me later that she came out of her trailer the next morning to find Rambo missing in action. Everyone helped her look for the horse but he was not to be found.  Eventually she was the only one left in the remote campground as darkness fell.  After she shut herself in for a lonely night,  she heard a knock on the trailer door and a local cowboy told her a friend of his had found a horse in a blanket, and wanted to know if she was she missing one. Rambo had turned himself in at a local farm.  All was well.

Jerry Price and her gracious husband put on one heck of a ride and we will most definitely go back.  It features good trails and southern hospitality. It is a chance to pick up a friendly 100 miler if that is your thing.  I give it 5 stars out of 5!

This was our 34th and 35th start. What we learned from this ride:

1.  After a good years base mileage, it does not take as much mileage as I have previously thought to leg up for the first 50 of the year. It seems our gaited horses don’t lag behind on that issue as much as I thought.

2.  Always double check things that are new, like that water tank, and the chin strap on Blues.

3.  You just meet the nicest people at these rides.

4.  Learning useless trivia is not always useless.

5.  My little Sandy is my hero and does not always rub it in when she finishes  1 ½ hours before me.

6.  Our Supplement routine is working.

Keith and Sandy Kibler
Shawnee Sunrise Farm

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