The Fireworks 50, August 3, 2002
Nick Warhol
Have saddle, will travel? Maybe I should put that on my business card. I keep getting the chance to ride other people’s great horses in rides, thanks mostly to Jackie B, who has let me ride Zayante, (yay!), Holly, Charlie, Redman, and Raffiq. This past weekend I got to try out yet another horse, this one belongs to my long time riding buddy Sally Abe. Phathom is her new 8 year old Arabian gelding, he has a lot of good base conditioning, and has she has completed his first two fifties very well. She rode him at Oakland Hills and found him to be a little “energetic,” so she asked me if I would like to try him out and let her know what I thought. Absolutely! I like those forward horses. Like I say, give me a horse that needs brakes, not a gas pedal. Does Phathom need brakes? Oh, Yeah.
Judy signed up to do the fifty on Wabi, it would be his second fifty. He’s our new horse that I bought to replace my injury-retired Shatta, who I still miss riding dearly. Does Wabi need brakes? Nope. Gas pedal? Yep. Well, at least in the beginning. When we first got him, it was hard to even ride him, he was so slow. Not my cup of tea, but he’s an absolutely wonderful horse who is a joy to be around. Judy sort of adopted him, leaving me with Warpaint, the fire breathing Appy. Does Warpaint need brakes? Yes, actually to slow him down you need a boat anchor, quicksand, or Howitzer cannon. Wabi has come a long way and is getting much better, Judy just loves riding him, since he’s a little different than the War Pony. She does the rides with Wabi in a string halter. Very nice. (But she has claimed my saddle!)
The Fireworks ride has been around for a long time- I rode it a couple of times a few years ago, but not since the base camp moved out to the coast from the show grounds in Santa Cruz. The new base camp is the envy of any developer- that’s many millions of dollars worth of land we were parked on with a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean. Spectacular views! The old ride ran on a lot of single-track trail that winds through some really pretty, lush, green forests. I was hoping for the same stuff with the new ride, and was not disappointed. They even kept the river crossing! The start leaves something to be desired, though. Note to all ride managers- it is preferable to have the start on a road rather than single track. I know it’s not possible all of the time, but it is sure better. They started the fifties out at 6am, in the serious drizzle (not quite rain, but almost as wet) with a controlled start on a single-track trail to the first wooden bridge, maybe a mile or so into the ride. Jack Enderly was there, doing a good job of spacing the horses out to avoid any trouble. There was quite a line by the time I got there, but it only took a couple of minutes to get through. Phathom was being pretty good, although jigging. He wanted to go, but like Warpaint, he was fine at a slow jig. We were in a very long line of horses that snaked along for what seemed like a half a mile after the controlled start. It was okay so far, since Phathom would stay behind other horses, but I could tell he wanted to go faster. I looked up just in time to see someone sailing off her horse a couple hundred feet in front of me, the big, grey horse took off running up the trail, but since it was single track, it only went for a few moments before someone grabbed it. It turned out to be Beth Wachenheim who got the flying lesson off her big horse Ollie. She got banged up, but remounted and continued along with her hubby Scott after re-grouping a bit. The line of horses could not go any faster than some of the slower riders in front, so there were a few people “waiting” patiently for a place to pass. There were not any, so they just had to wait. The single track dumped out on to a road after maybe 3 miles or so, I was trying to take it easy and was following Maryben and one of her Juniors, since I liked their slower pace. We got to the road where we paused to let some people pass. Phathom stepped down a little hill and was standing still when I realized my downhill foot was moving, slowly, downwards. Uh-oh. I knew something was wrong, when someone behind me said, “hey dude, I think your saddle is loose, and….” Yep, in slow motion the saddle just sort of went over to the right, depositing me on the ground, next to my horse, who just stood there. Plop. Maryben looked up and noticed some bozo falling off at a standstill. “Huh, I wonder who that rookie is,” she thought as she saw me get up. “Oops, it’s Nick!” I won’t live this one down for a while. I could always tell people that I fell off at a dead run, after jumping a thirty foot chasm filled with lava and poisonous snakes, but that would be stretching it a bit. Nothing damaged, except my ego. Phathom was moving around a bit as I remounted, I can understand somewhat, since there were twenty other horses trotting away. A couple of people stood there while I got back on, thanks guys, I really appreciate that. Nice trail manners are a good thing. We started out down the road at a trot; it was here that Phathom showed me his desire- to go faster. Once he had some space, he figured he should be going with those faster horses. He wasn’t crazy about trotting, and wanted to canter when a horse went by, so rather than fight him, we just loped along at a nice slow pace for a while, actually going slower than he was trotting. After a while he would trot, but when another horse came by, look out, he wants to follow, bad. It was some work to keep him trotting, but I was fine, since he wasn’t doing anything stupid, just a lot of slow canter. I only had one problem, that was when Ken Cook came sailing by- Ken was up with the leaders and had gone off trail, he was making time to get back up there. He said Hi as he came by, again, nice and polite, but Phathom saw it as a challenge to go win the race. I just stopped him for a moment until Ken was gone, then all was fine, except for Phathom tossing his head more than I like. We stopped at the trot by for water, then headed out down the nice wet roads and trails towards the river crossing. It’s pretty deep, and about 30 feet across- my shoes got wet up to my ankles. I had no idea how Phathom would do- he just steamed right on through. Excellent! Once on the other side I asked him to walk, nope, not yet, still some jig. We took it easy up a rolling climb to the top of the hill and into the sandy single track. This normally would have been really hard on a horse, but the wet sand was nice! Silent, easy trotting. It was here I saw the leaders heading back down the trial I was on- I counted thirteen before the trail split. The four or five mile loop that followed was really fun- it was almost all single track, no dust, and wound in and out of forests. We even got to trot along a highway of sorts. I ran into Mike and Kristen Bernsten, and after picking them up, (no, not really, I just passed them) I kept trotting through the forests at a nice, calm pace. I just love a horse that wants to go. We went back up the hill to the common trail, and then down the neat sand trail, and on the way down I ran into Judy and Wabi. They were having a great time so far. Historical note- it was at the Fireworks ride in 1993, I think, it was Judy’s third or fourth ride on Warpaint. Imagine Warpaint as a 7 year old! My parents were there, crewing for us at their first ever endurance ride. Judy came into the lunch check on foot, with Warpaint running circles around her. Judy wasn’t smiling, and startled my mom when she asked for a gun to shoot this stupid horse. It was the beginning of the Warpaint/Judy era, they were still trying to convince each other who was in charge. Flash back to the present- it does my heart good to see Judy smiling, especially at this ride. I came up on Julie Suhr and Barbara White as we got back to the river crossing- I still get a kick out of seeing those two together. Fifty-two Tevis buckles between them. Fifty-two! That is mind-boggling. At the rate I’m going, it will take me 50 years to get to 25. Maybe I can be the first 100 year old to finish Tevis.
Pathom made the firemen laugh as he crossed back through the river- he was still trucking, but he slowed his walk way down and crawled through the river with his nose in the water, drinking big. They though he was being very efficient as he kept moving while taking a huge drink. This was about 13 miles into the ride or so, and it was here that this strong boy finally relaxed a bit. He would walk now, especially up hills. You should see this horse walk up hills- we walked past 5 horses on the climb back up from the river, at a walk. Imagine him with Sally on his back- she weighs 95 pounds, I was 176 on ride day. This guy is really strong. We trotted through the UC Santa Cruz land to the first vet check, Phathom came down right away, and looked great for the vet. Kathy Webster and her friend Gertie were there, going out about ten minutes ahead of me. Phathom ate the whole time- at the Oakland hills ride he was doing way too much excited moving around, here he was quite happy to stand and eat. We left right on time, riding head on into those nutty ride-and-tie people coming the other way. They really truck along on both horseback and foot. I was riding all by myself- Phathom was just like Warpaint, in that he is just happy to be trotting along at whatever speed I want, the faster the better. But unlike Warpaint, I didn’t have to physically restrain him to keep him going the speed I want. I REALLY like that. We trotted a nice, steady pace all the way back to camp along that single-track trail that was getting kind of chopped up. I had one scare when I almost had a head on with a ride and tie horse that was blasting out of one of the dense little tree areas. Phathom was great- he just stopped, quick.
A wonderful lunch awaited me, since Sally is kind of energetic and is always doing something. In this case she had my lunch ready, she had cleaned out my camper, did the dishes, and swept the floor. And I’m riding HER horse. Phathom looked very good for the vets, Sally was very encouraged. He ate for an hour, we left only a few minutes behind Kathy and Gertie, I caught up to them in a couple miles. We had to do that same long section of 2 way common trail again. It was at the big intersection that I, we, er, all of us, made the mistake. There were some confusing course marking signs that conflicted with each other, and what we thought we were supposed to do. We saw the sign that pointed to the last vet check- that looked like the right thing to do, but it was wrong. No Gary, I did not get lost, I went the right way, too soon. The three of us rode on for about 3 miles or so, knowing we were on trail, but not sure if we were doing the right thing. It seemed right. We show up at the last check after only an hour- there are the top ten horses in there, oh darn. Feeling a little stupid, we went down in to the check and gave the horses a drink of water, then told Becky Glaser we were going back out to do it right. We scurried on out, back the way we came, to the intersection, then down the paved road to the correct loop. If it made us feel any better, we saved a few riders from doing the wrong thing, including Mike and Kirsten. A whole bunch of people did what we did and rode to the check the at the wrong time. We went maybe 6 miles out of our way or so, it wasn’t a big deal, and we got the horses a drink of water. Yeah, that’s the ticket, we meant to do that. Better for the horses, don’t ya know.
That second loop was really nice- spectacular trails through dense, wooded forest, and then onto nice, wet roads with perfect footing. It didn’t take long to get back to the intersection, where went the RIGHT way down the trail we had already done. I verified that the signs were indeed confusing. Once again we rode into the check, this time after doing the right trail. It was warm and humid, and it took Phathom a little while to come down to 60. I was a little concerned about his recovery taking a few minutes, but after his CRI was 60- 52, I was feeling just fine. He ate for the 30 minutes, after leaving we walked up the long climb out of the check, then cruised in the last 5 miles or so to the finish. We caught up to Kathy and Gertie right at the gate- Phathom was very happy to see them, or someone, as he blasted in to the finish looking like he just started! Sally could not believe it- he’s tossing his head and dancing around. Wow! If this is a glimpse of how this horse is going to do, watch out. I think we were 29th or 30th, somewhere in there.
I sure had fun, but Alas, poor Judy made it to the finish at 6:06 pm, six minutes late. She and about 6 other horses timed out, making it a good ride, but a bummer nonetheless. Wabi looked very good, even after the fast pace they did for the last couple of miles. Poor Pam Loftus and her friend were about 2 minutes late- no completion. Even Trilby was late, that doesn’t happen very often. This is a beautiful ride, especially with the wet conditions. I’d like to see a way to change the single track start, and not having to ride the two-way trail so much, but other than that, (and maybe having another spotter, and maybe another vet at lunch?), the ride was very well done. I had a great time, even after falling off and getting lo…, no, going the right way too soon. Look at the bright side- Phathom did a 56 mile ride, looking absolutely great, and I was able to spend an extra 45 minutes on a horse. What could be better than that?
Nick Warhol
Hayward, Ca