The American river ride was the first ride that Sorsha and I have done in over seven months. Family obligations have kept us from doing any riding, but we have that pretty much sorted out now. I drove up on Friday morning with Ines and her spunky gelding Rayos. Camp was PACKED with rigs; the parking team did a good job getting people situated. We got so lucky since we were the third from last rig to fit in the main area. We got a great spot very close to everything. The weather was perfect, finally, although I was a little worried about some of the muddy bogs that might be present in the cool area due to the recent rains we've had. At the ride meeting the trail lady talked about something called the long water, be sure to take the long water; don’t go to the left. What was that? Well, I guess we'll find out.
The ride this year was different than past American river rides in that it started and ended in cool, doing loops in and out of camp, as opposed to the point-to-point ride that's always been in play at this ride over the years. The last time I did this ride about 8 years ago, I found the single track from Folsom Lake to the Auburn area was just too torn up, technical, and downright nasty to do again. I was glad to see a change. The ride was 3 loops for the 50: the 15 mile red, the 10 mile white, then the 25 mile blue. The red and the white loops started and ended in cool. The blue loop was pretty neat since it went from Cool to Auburn, backwards on the tevis trail, to the vet check at the overlook and then back to Cool the same way we came.
We left camp at 6:15am with a controlled walk over to the start, then took off with the pack at 6:30 with over 60 horses in the 50. The ride started right out on single track , which is fun, but makes it hard to pass people, especially early on. For some reason we just couldn't get away from the conga line of horses during the first few miles. It's just so much easier to ride by yourself. We hung back after a while and let the groups go but kept getting caught up in other groups; It was kind of strange to keep getting stuck with many riders. The trail is a mixture of really nice single track and jeep roads with good footing in most areas. There were boggy sections, as well as some rocky stuff, but overall the footing was quite good. We ended up on a long downhill road to the American river, which was pretty full, (the rapids were loud!) and skirted along the shore to the East for a bit. We then climbed all the way back up to the top of the canyon where Cool is located. After 10 miles we finally were able to ride by ourselves the last five miles into the vet check back in camp. We still didn't know what the long water was. Sorsha recovered instantly with her classic 40/40 CRI and ate happily at the trailer for 30 minutes…
Read the rest here:
http://stories.endurance.net/2024/04/2024-american-river-classic-nick-warhol.html
2024 American River Classic Endurance ride photos in California by
William Gore Photography:
https://williamgorephotography.smugmug.com/Endurance-Rides-2024/American-River-Classic-2024
2024 Nevada Derby Endurance ride photos in Nevada by William Gore
Photography:
https://williamgorephotography.smugmug.com/Endurance-Rides-2024/NV-Derby-2024
April 26 2024
For all you Hillbillie Willie fans who’ve been following his Endurance career, you all know that all I really want out of an Endurance ride is a calm start and a sound horse at the finish. At Eagle Canyon, I got neither!
I always underestimate Willie’s fitness in the first ride of the seasons, but I still opted for caution in doing the 25 on Day 2 (I shot Day 1’s ride; Steve Bradley shot Day 2 so I could ride!), particularly because Willie is not a hill-climbing horse, and this ride is *full* of hills. It’s a tough ride for your horse’s first one of the season.
I had no indication Willie would suddenly become demonically possessed at the start of this ride. We’ve been working on calm starts the last 7 years, and last season was pretty much perfect, going out calm every ride on a loose rein, either in a group or riding solo.
I took him on a long uphill walk on Friday, and he was perfect. After shooting on Saturday, I rode him on a solo warm-up trail ride (I tried this at Autumn Sun two years ago, and he was a total freak riding by himself leaving his buddies in camp; I felt like I was on a half-broke 2-year-old); he was perfect.
Ten minutes before the start on Sunday, he was walking around mostly calmly, grazing, watching horses, a little squirmy, but nothing unusual. I expected everything to go smoothly, because he gave me no indication that a dragon was about to erupt.
As Regina hollered, “Trail’s open!” I tried to find a little bubble. I didn’t want to be right in front of a bigger group, but I didn’t want to be near the faster starters. I found a small bubble but as soon as we hit the road, a crazy demon took over my horse. All his brain cells went out the proverbial window and he morphed into Secretariat (he is an ex-racehorse after all). Oh my lord. Worst start I’ve ever had on him...
Read the rest here:
https://theequestrianvagabond.blogspot.com/2024/04/2024-eagle-canyon-help-my-horse-is-on.html
Read the rest here
2024 Ride in the Pines Endurance ride photos in South Carolina by Becky Pearman:
https://beckypearman.smugmug.com/Other/Endurance-2024/Ride-In-The-Pines
2024 Eagle Canyon Endurance ride photos in Idaho by Steve Bradley:
https://stevesphoto.smugmug.com/2024-Endurance-ride/Eagle-Extreme-D2
2024 Eagle Canyon Endurance ride photos in Idaho by Merri Melde, The
Equestrian Vagabond:
https://www.theequestrianvagabond.com/Clients-Endurance/2024-Eagle-Canyon-Day-1
2024 Lead Follow or Get Out Of My Way Endurance ride photos in Arizona
by Linda Sherrill, Justus Photography:
https://www.lindasherrill.com/proofing/lead-follow-ride-bumblebee-ranch-2024
2024 Antelope Island Endurance ride photos in Utah by Merri Melde, The
Equestrian Vagabond:
https://www.theequestrianvagabond.com/Clients-Endurance