20 Mule Team 100, 2001

Yet ANOTHER Great Horse to Ride!

 

Ah yes, the desert was wet!  In fact, it was soaking wet.  Complete with snow and mud.   I still contend that there are no conditions better to ride in anywhere than wet desert.  Two months ago, Death Valley was bone baking, choking dusty, good old fashion dry desert, and here, just a few weeks later, the desert was riding perfection.  The weather gods really smiled on Jackie this year at the 20MT, since it rained and snowed a lot right up to a couple of days before the ride.  The day of the ride was about perfect- overcast, cool, and no wind- not a puff. 

I got another chance to ride a different horse this year, when a good friend named Rebecca Jankovich asked me if I’d like to ride her horse in the 65 mile ride, since she would be on vacation for the month of February, in Vietnam of all places.  My response was sure, but I had a better idea.  I suggested she let me take her horse, Moose, through the 100, since it would be his first 100, this ride is great as a first 100, and I really would rather do the 100.  She replied with, “Well, I sort of wanted to do his first 100, but….”   Sensing there was a chance, I made her a deal she couldn’t refuse.   I do the 100, and I’ll ride with her on Tevis.  That was an easy sell, since she really wants to do Tevis, and I have the perfect Tevis crew.  Off she want to vacation in Vietnam, (which, by the way, she really enjoyed.  This woman has been everywhere else in the world, it seems) leaving her trusted horse to me.   Moose is a half arab/quarterhorse, an interesting mix to be sure.   He’s a big guy, nice and sturdy, about 8 years old, I think, and has done about 600 miles or so to date.  I met him at the XP last June when I met Rebecca, who we rode with for a lot of the ride.  I remember being impressed with Moose, since he was always going forward very nicely. He did all five days with ease, looking very strong throughout. His camping manners left a bit to be desired, though.

I drove down with my riding buddy Sally Abe, who was riding Ahkiba in the 65 again.   He did this ride last year as his first desert ride and did real well, he then did 2 days at Las Vegas in November, again, real well.  Sally loves riding in the desert, it seems.  The trip down was uneventful, the new transmission in my truck providing all the power the rear wheels wanted.  The brand new hot water heater and water pump in my camper solved all my dribble shower and leaking problems from Death Valley.  (Now if I could just get that darn sparker thing to light the stove!)  We arrived in Ridgecrest and picked up Moose from Jackie’s house, where he has been living for the past few months.  We set up camp at the fairgrounds, where we had a power plug for the camper, running water, and a light outside our camp.  Certainly one of the better ride camps I have been to.  Although Moose bonded to Ahkiba instantly, he “discovered” his stable mate, Maggie, was over in the stalls and started calling.  And calling.  And calling.  Moose sounded like a bad air-raid siren.  Those fighter jet pilots that zoom around overhead in Ridgecrest were probably wondering where the noise was coming from.  Since there was no air raid going on at the time, we tried to ignore it.  People were looking at us, wondering if he was going to do that all night.  We would have lost our cool parking spot, and would have been banished out to the desert somewhere, if not tarred and feathered. Boy, he was loud.   As luck would have it, he shut up when the sun went down.   That was a relief.  Now if we could just get those generators to go off at 9:00 pm!

Friday morning- sleep in late, wake up to a nice, relaxed, sunny day.  I really like this arriving-a-day-early stuff.  We do it for the horses, but hey, a day off is nice for me, too.   We saddled up the horses for a nice warm up ride, with me trying out Rebecca’s saddle.  It was an Ortho flex, I think, and was a nice enough saddle, with two exceptions.  The first was trying to figure out how to put it on!  Clips, straps, bags, cantle, pommel- it took a bit, but once I got past that, we went out for a ride.  A very uncomfortable ride.   It was quickly obvious that this saddle might work for Moose and the thinner Rebecca, but it was in no way going to work for me.   The seat was just too small for me to fit in.  It wasn’t so bad when I was standing up, but if I sat down, I would have been singing soprano after a few miles.   This wasn’t going to work.  I brought my own saddles down, just in case.  I put my good old faithful SR on there (that works great on Zayante, too) and took a look.  It seemed to fit well, and boy, it sure worked better for me.   I was taking a bit of a chance, trying something as radical as a new saddle on a 100 mile ride, but it was either that, go bareback, or not ride.  I knew I would have to check his back every time we stopped, and would pull him if it were causing him any problems.  My saddle made all the difference in the world, for me at least.   It was kind of like putting on a nice, comfortable, old pair of shoes.  Okay- now we can go do this.  After our ride, I amused myself by watching Gary and Laura Fend put easyboots on Laura’s horse with Easyfoam- the stuff oozes out like strange acid, and is the stickiest stuff I ever touched.  It sort of reminded me of those old, black, smoking snakes you lit on the fourth of July.  Laura was riding in her first ever 100, Gary was riding his mare Cinabon, er, sorry, Cinabar, on the 35 in her first ride after having a baby.   Too bad- I was formulating a plan on how to get Gary totally lost in the snow, but we wouldn’t be riding together.  I have not forgotten the water, nor has Sally.   Once again, Moose was bellowing through the day, but at night, he was quiet, and eating.  A lot!  Thank you Moose.  We kept the invasion of Ridgecrest from happening one more day, at least.

Ride morning came cool and calm, with the start for the 100s at 6 am.  My goal was to go a constant pace all day, trying to finish at 1:00am or so.  I started out after the pack, with Moose walking.  Wow.  He walks very fast, but he was walking for me.  My plan was to go real slow at the start and let Sally catch up, since she was doing the 65, which started at 6:30.  I hooked up with Laura after a few miles- we rode along together while the leaders of the 65-mile ride came roaring by.   Our horses behaved very nicely with other horses cantering by- I appreciated that.  We chatted about various things as we trotted along in the wet desert.  The conditions could not have been better.  Perfect traction, no dust, no sand.  In my old motorcycle times we would dream of days like this.  I told Sally I would be surprised if she didn’t catch me by the first highway crossing, and what do you know- there she is, right after the road.   The three of us rode along down the different trail this year to the overpass water stop, about 12 miles from the start, where Moose took his first drink already.  Very nice.   Moose was asking me to speed up by trying to get the bit and go faster, but he was certainly controllable, much easier than Warpaint, for example.  I was getting tired of him yanking on my arms for the bit, but he quit that after a while as well.  Just past the underpass, Laura was leading us as we rode along the railroad tracks.  She missed a ribbon and started riding down the wrong road.  A million things flashed through my mind.   Is this where Gary learned how to get lost so often?  Maybe it’s a family thing.  Should I punish Gary by sending his wife off to be lost, like he did to me that time?   Nahh.  Laura is too nice for any of that, and besides, it’s Gary I need to seek revenge on some day, and water has to be involved.  I called her back- she thanked me, knowing full well it would not be the last time she heard about this small episode.  We rode across the desert a while and got to the first vet check- all the horses were down right away.  Sally had a 15 minute hold here, so I just hung around and let Moose eat, while Laura went on ahead.  After the check, we continued on, heading up the pass to the beginning of the loop around the wilderness area.   The views up here are so nice- you can see a long way, just don’t make a wrong turn.  It was kind of muddy in places, but we were in no hurry and walked through the sloppy stuff.  When we got up a little higher, we began riding through the snow that blanked the desert in a beautiful white coat.  That’s really neat, as long as it isn’t too deep.  The mud was the bigger problem.   We were on muddy roads covered with snow that were fine as long as you didn’t hurry.  I wouldn’t have run through some of that muck.  We walked the whole 5 miles or so, noticing at least 5 horseshoes stuck in various places.  There was water everywhere in the numerous puddles, making it very nice for the horses, who still seemed to like drinking out of the muddy puddles.  We caught a few people, a few people caught us, but everyone seemed to be really enjoying the incredible conditions.  We climbed up out of the canyon and down into the old mine area, then hit the long road to the vet check.  I had to hold Moose back a little more than I would like- he seemed to know there was food ahead.  The check was much better than last year- there were no long vet lines, there was plenty of horse water, plenty of sack lunches, the weather was perfect, and everyone just seemed to be in a good mood.  We devoured our lunches (Egg salad rules) while the horses ate a lot.  The hour goes quickly, and it was off trotting down the 6-mile road.  We stopped a few times to let them drink, and for a few cars to pass, one going way too fast.  Jerk.  Back into the desert again, we made our way the 4 or 5 miles back to the first vet check, where we stopped a while to let them eat, then worked our way back to the next check at the highway, at about 56 miles into the ride.  Funny- it just seemed to go so fast, even though it was late in the afternoon.  Dave complemented us on the horses, saying they looked great at this point in the 100. We all breezed through the check and rode on, only 8 miles to the camp.  We took it nice and easy back into town, stopping in front of Jackie’s house for a drink in the big puddle.  A guy who was riding the 100 (Bob Spoor, from Marin County) looked at Moose dancing around and said to me- “I hope you are doing the 100.”  We boogied to the finish line for the 65s, and the hour hold for us, right at 5:00 pm, Sally ended up in 25^th or so, a very nice finish for her horse.  I took Moose to the truck for some food, then to the vet at 30 minutes.  He put on a show for everyone that sure felt good- he was trotting out like I had not ridden him, dragging me through the vet area.  The vet was very impressed, and the Brazilian vet that was visiting came over to ask me if I had really ridden that far.  The horse looked that good- he was very impressive.  That’s sure a nice feeling. 

We saddled back up and headed out at 6:00 pm, just as the sun set.  Laura and I rode out of camp, Moose trotting along totally happy, still pulling me.   Laura’s horse was doing great as well, the weather was perfect, it was dark, we had 35 miles to go, life was perfect.  We quickly caught up to Bob, who asked if he could tag along with us, since his horse might like the company.  Sure, no problem.  It turns out Bob’s horse was also named Moose, and it was his horses first 100 as well.  Talk about a coincidence!  I told him the results would look like a typo- two Moose’s in a row.   The next couple of hours were just perfect- riding along with great horses, with great people, in great conditions, just having a perfectly great time.  I kind of wished Sally was out here, but she elected to not try her first 100 yet.  Bob and I talked a lot about all kinds of stuff, but we were both impressed by these two horses.  They went along with each other great- no pulling, no fuss, no grumping, no flat ears, just nice, forward, willing motion.  Laura told us that Gary was going to be at the highway crossing with food for the horses, so we planned on giving them 20 or 30 minutes to eat.   We got there and spent some nice time watching them eat very well.  Gary even gave me a Pepsi.   We headed back out, up the next climb that led us into the snow again.  Bob and I went on ahead a little, while Laura stayed behind a bit to ride with another rider who had joined us.   The trail was kind of rough, I think, since we couldn’t see it, but we made good time, the horses still going so strong.  We hit the power line road and made the final turn towards home- 15 miles to go.  We trotted all the way into the last vet check at the highway, where they both recovered quickly, Bob’s horse was at 44!   The check workers were deluxe- they gave our horses blankets, we got hot chocolate, the timers came and told us when to go.  It was a very quick 15 minutes, but we were up and going on time, only 8 miles to go.  A mile or so past the check, we were trotting along, when two horses come down the trail, coming from the wrong direction.  Huh?  We heard them say something about the vet check, but they were going backwards on the course!   We puzzled about that for a while, and later found out it was Laura and the other rider!   I guess the other rider was sure the check was not the check, so they passed by it, but then realized they goofed, so they went back.  Okay Laura- two losts in one ride?  Hmmmm.    Bob and I were jazzed- these two horses still felt fresh at 95 miles.  We let them go ahead and trot at a nice pace the remaining 5 miles, where we caught and passes about 8 horses that were going slower.   Here we are, a mile from the finish, and I’m holding Moose back like it was the start.   We hit the finish at 3 minutes before midnight.   I took Moose to the truck- he was pulling me to get there, and he hit that food with a vengeance.  I brought the hay bag with me to the vets- he ate the whole time, still looking wonderful.   I walked him around for a half hour, since we had come in trotting.  I iced his legs for 30 minutes, while he continued to pound down food.  I went to bed around 1:30, feeling great about the ride, and that horse.

Poor Laura had walked in the last 10 miles or so, getting in at 2:00am or something, since her partner had been getting sick and was having trouble trotting.  Laura should get the good guy award for her gallant help of a fellow rider.  She made it through in great shape, her horse looking wonderful.   That’s the way to finish your first 100.   Moose’s legs were a little filled, but other than that he was in great spirits.  I was making plans on how I could steal this horse and take him home with me- I had an extra spot in the trailer.  I told Rebecca I’d buy him in a heartbeat, but I knew better.  She was real happy about how well the ride had gone, but like I knew, he was not for sale.  I can’t blame her- I wouldn’t sell him, either.  But I’ll buy him!   And I’ll certainly ride him again, anytime, anywhere.   It will be fun to go with him and his mom through Tevis in August.  

The 20MT this year was about as good as it gets.  I sure had a nice ride.   I think there were about 58 starters on the 100, about 45 finishers, Moose and I ended up in 15^th.   Sally finished the 65 in fine shape, Laura completed her, and her horse’s first 100, and Gary managed to get through the 35 fine on Cinabon, without getting lost.  And the best news was that I made it home without my truck requiring a $2,200 repair this time. 

 

Nick Warhol

Hayward, Ca.