I Endured!

Short version: I finished!

Hello everybodies, how are you? I am more than fabulous, cos for me now being an official enduring pony. I went to Cuneo Creek, I did pony riding for 50 miles, I passed all my vet checks, I had energy to spare, and I am now an Endurance Horse. Are you proud of me? Caution: we went a long way and this is a long report:

Beautiful views

Pro pic - Boots N Bloomers

I should back up a little, and point out that it was not all fairy dusts and rainbows at this enduring pony ride as far as I'm concerned. I did some of my very worst behavings EVER! Cyd was so embarrassed by me. The first vet lady was the nicest, although they were all very nice to me. My first vetting was also my worst behaving, so bad I didn't even get a number on my butt, cos for nobody, even Cyd, was going to touch my butt with my brain wherever it was. I had to go back to my pen and think about my bad behavings. Cyd put my number on me later when I was calm again, so the volunteers could easily track me. The vet line was a little bit tricky cos for having a long wait, and then a generator right next to us, and then a band playing where we were doing trottings. However, all the ponies had to deal with this, not just me, so it's not forgivable. I will do learning and practicing and be better next time! I still scored all A's, but my pulse was 52. This is okay, but not perfect, cos for me being excited. This day we went on a short pony ride by ourselves, and I got to practice skills I would need the next day, and make sure all my gear was set up just right so we didn't have to fuss with it in the early morning. During the night I ate tons of snacks and drank a lot of waters and laid down to take a nap so I was fresh and ready to go, even though I had no idea what was planned for me.

Feeling small in the Redwood Forest

Death marching up the hill [Photo by MB]

Saturday morning Cyd brought me my mash foods really early in the dark, and told me to eat up and drink lots cos we had a long day ahead of us. After we both ate breakfast she came to put my saddle on me, and my extra gear like my sponge on a rope. There were already some ponies walking around, so about ten minutes before start time Cyd led me out and we walked away from the other ponies near the start line, and we went to a quiet spot without other ponies. I was super hyper but keeping all four feeties on the ground. Suddenly another pony came trotting super fast behind me, and I lost my mind. I did rearing, then I did leaping for the moon, and generally being a poop face. The other pony then did trotting super fast away from me and I just didn't know what to do with myself. Cyd says I did something called "totally checking out", and it took her forever to make me calm enough to even walk to the start. We met a new friend called M and her pony Fetti, so once I was kind of calm we went to the the start line. Most of the ponies had already gone but I was not ready yet. Cyd asked the nice Timing Man if there was a rule that she had to be riding her pony to start the race, but he said it was up to her. So we started just by leading. I got really bad again. As soon as I was quiet for more than one whole minute, Cyd hopped up on my back. This actually made me better, and very quickly I settled in behind Fetti. It took M a few minutes to hop up on her pony and I quietly waited, not like the raging lunatic I had been. Then we were off, and it was just like any other pony ride! M and Cyd hit it off and chatted away, every now and again pausing to growl at us ponies (mostly me) for making snarky faces at each other. I did trotting, even up some of the hills, and I did a lot of being in front. We got to a long down hill and Cyd hopped down to do running and give me a break. It took a while to find a way we were both okay with, but then we were off. We did great at running until we didn't. I did one of the worst things I ever did. I tried to kick Cyd! Lucky she has quick reactions, and my hoof just bumped her knee a bit. It hurt her but not badly and didn't do any damages. She walked next to me for a bit, and then got back on cos for wanting to rest it. I lost running privileges after that, and told we had some Big Lessons coming up. Me and Fetti went back to trottings, and before we knew it we were coming back to camp. The first thing you do is pulse down, which I did in one minute. Fetti took a bit longer than me so I ate some snacks and waited for her so she didn't get sad I was leaving. Once we were both pulsed in we went to eat our lunches at our own camps, and see the vet. Cyd took me to the vet right away so we could both relax the whole time we were there. I scored all A's except in 2 boxes. Gut sounds get 4 scores, and I got 2 A's and 2 B's. Time to eat some snacks, drink some waters, and relax. 

Running down the hill [Photo by MB]

M and Fetti, who is an Enduring Haflinger

After we had rested for 1 hour, it was time to leave again. We had to go back up the same hill like at the beginning, but now it was hot. Neither me nor Fetti wanted to go up, and our people had to encourage us a whole lot. I did a little bit of my stopping, but once I realised Cyd meant business I started trotting more. We had to go down some hard packed downhill, we alternated walking and trotting depending on how steep it was and how much I was concentrating. Sometimes I got a bit carried away and had to stop to calm down so I didn't fall over! Back at the river one of the fast ponies was coming back, and she said we had a massive hill to do next. We set off feeling fresh, and trotted up lots of the hill, only walking the steep bits. Then we came to where it was mostly flat-ish, Cyd and M commented on how that wasn't too bad, and we flew along the trail, both of us ponies feeling gooood. Until it went up. Fetti did much better than me here, I was not enjoying so much up. It felt like it went on forever. Finally we got to the top and took a big long drink. There were some people who we did leapfrogging with on the way up, who basically told us we had to go in front of them now or we had to stay behind them the whole way down. The peoples decided to stay behind them so us ponies could drink. Except the peoples in front were going quite slowly and there were quite a few places to pass. We started out staying back quite a ways, but the front people kept walking. Once we stopped staying way back they kept trotting some more. The downhill went on a long way but it was switch backs and very pretty. Once we hit the valley floor M and Cyd asked the people in front if we could pass. They were a little bit rude, one person saying that she was going to let her horse trot out doing big trottings and we might not keep up. Cyd and M said they had been holding us ponies back for a long time (which was true, we were raring to go even though this was the furthest we had ever been). They said if the big trotting pony turned out to be faster than us they would gladly move out of the way and let her come by. We never saw her again though. Me and Fetti loved moving out fast, and it was so pretty under the giant massive Redwoods. There were no more big hills, and we still had tons of energy, and we just flew through the forest. We had been taking turns being lead pony on this loopy, but for the last little bit I was raring to go. Cyd put me in the front, and I kept asking to canter. I was doing so great at enduring! We did big trottings all the way back until we could see camp. We walked the last bit cos for it being downhill on pavement, though Cyd didn't get off me. Everybody cheered for us when we finished. We have 30 minutes to have our pulses taken but we did it right away cos for Cyd wanting to see how good I did. It only took me three minutes! 

Getting good at downhill trotting [Photo by MB]

Getting close to the finish!

Our super awesome crew people took my saddle back to our camp, and Cyd took me a handful of hay foods to eat on the way so we could go straight to the vet. I still didn't do good at trotting out! My gut sounds had got better, now 3 A's and only 1 B, but I got a B for my back being a little bit sore, and I got a B for my attitude cos for trying to bite Cyd's face off! (Told you I was Very Bad!) Everything else was A's! Now I was all finished and could go to my pen and sleep. I still had a lot of energies left, and when Cyd took me walking later that evening I was bouncing around, and again the next morning. I was relaxed enough in my pen to lay down and eat my snacks. My legs looked great the whole time, and didn't get hot or puffy like happens to some ponies. You know what else we're super proud of? I lost 2 front booties within the first 2 miles, and only 1 was retrievable, so I only wore my back booties for the first loopy. Cyd didn't want to have more problems and the footing is pretty good on this course. At our lunch time vet check, Cyd told the vet I only wore back booties in the morning, and would like his permission to wear no booties in the afternoon. The vet said that since I don't always wear booties at home that it was okay, as long as Cyd was careful with me, and that I came back sound. So I did this ride nearly totally barefoot! My feeties looked great at the end. We went a bit slower over some of the ground than we might have done if I had booties on, but other than that it doesn't seem to have made a difference to me.

Pro pic - Boots N Bloomers

So there you go. Now I am a real enduring pony. I have some things to work on, but other than my camp behavings I did amazing, and never ran out of energy. There was another race the next day and when me and Cyd walked by the vet on our leg stretching walk the next morning he watched me and said how great I looked and should be going again that day too. I totally had the energies to do another loop on Saturday, or another ride on Sunday, but I'm not quite physically ready for that. It would be awful to push me too far and get me hurt. We have lots of time to turn me into an enduring champion! Thank you to our Super Awesome Crew and the Lady in Red, and to M and Fetti for being our besties for the day. We hope you had as much fun as we did, and we'd love to ride with you again some day.

Monday morning - what 50 miles?