Silver State multi-day ride         Las Vegas, Nevada.

 

The West region 1998 ride season came to an end over Thanksgiving weekend with the annual Silver State 3 day ride held in the little, bitty, desert town of Jean, just outside of Las Vegas.  Some town- it's actually a couple of big casinos just off the freeway.  Once a year ride managers Fred and Claire Toomey (and the Las Vegas Distance Riders) hold this  50-50-50 and 2 day 100 desert ride.  I brought Shatta back to the desert to the scene of his first multi-day three years ago where he learned the hard way he had to eat in order to do multi-day rides.  (he never ate a bite and went a day & a half and just ran out of energy) Judy and her wonder Appy Warpaint had to stay home due to work and the care and feeding of all the other animals at our place.  My friend Susan Dockter came along to do crewing and driving duties.  She brought her two-year old mare Alli along for the experience of a long trailer ride and the excitement of a weeklong camping trip.  It was nice for Shatta to have the company as well.  Alli did great on the trip- watch for her in the year 2004!

 

We drove down from the Bay area a couple of days before the ride and let the horses recover at Claire's ranch.  Thanks again, Claire, for the hospitality.  It was great for my horse to spend 2 days before the ride in a nice, soft, big, arena.  After losing $25 in a dollar slot machine with 25 pulls we headed out to the start area and set up camp.  Lots of familiar faces were present:  Lori Oleson, Becky Hart and Judith Ogus made the long drive down from the Bay area.  Brian Reeves, Val Weiser and Heather Bergantz packed their horses in Brian's trailer and showed up after an overnight stop in Bakersfield.  Heather was riding a friend's horse named Red who didn't have much endurance experience but was in tip top shape. Karen Chaton from Nevada brought her 1998 mega-mile horse Weaver and his buddy Rocky for yet another ride.  Death Valley Encounter ride manager extraordinaire (ride it, you'll see!)  Jackie Bumgardner was on Zyante- this guy lives in the desert and loves it.  Jim Mitchell brought another contingent from Bakersfield. Becky Glazer came for day 2 and 3.  Dave Rabe from Nevada and of course Trilby Peterson, who added another 150 miles to her 45 or 46 or 48 thousand something.

 

Shatta's had a great year so far with his rides getting better and better as we go.  My plan was to ride with Brian and his great horse Goofy at a good pace, not too fast, but moving along.  We got underway in the cold morning trotting out across the open desert.  Rocks?  What rocks?  It wasn't that bad.  Sure, there are rocks in Nevada.  My theory is just take it easy, be smart and use pads.  It works for me.  We trotted briskly for the first 5 or so miles to the first of many sand washes.  I was remembering this wash being real steep, real soft and real long.  NOT!  Funny how perceptions change.  We trotted nicely most of the way up the thing, stopping only for little cougar-rock like rocky ledges we had to climb up.  The wash dumped us out into the desert where we followed a really cool trail across the rolling terrain.  I just love riding in the desert!  (soft spot for me, I grew up out here)  A short steep climb led us to more neat trails, then hang a left up a rocky road to bird springs and the first water stop at 15 miles.  Shatta didn't drink (normal for him) so off we went. 

 

Brian and I found a section where we were flying along at a huge trot on a slightly downhill grade, nice and soft with perfect footing, with a view of the entire valley in front of us and huge rock cliffs on either side.  It doesn't get much neater that.  We rode along on the rocky trails up and down across the desert until we came to the climb.  Just a short hop up a few hundred vertical feet and then off and walking down the rocky, nasty other side.  More downhill work to the next water at mile 32.  Both horses drank the first couple of feet of water in the trash cans.  Three more quick miles across the desert and in rocky washes and "BOING!"   Goofy spooks at a downed Joshua tree, causing Brian to fall 99% off.  He stayed in the saddle somehow and let his heart rate recover as we neared the camp and lunch.  A quick stop with Barny the Vet and rest time.  Shatta was only mildly interested in eating but he was drinking very well.  We were up somewhere near the front of the pack but we were not sure where.  Judith rode by on her mare Sonya as we were walking to the out timer.  "Come on, catch me and we'll ride together!"   We did in a mile or so and spent the last 15 mile loop riding together.  Brian fell back for a while but caught back up when Judith and I walked up a couple miles of sand wash.  The three of us did the little climb and downhill again and did our best to drain the water at the stop.  We boogied into camp and were shocked to find ourselves in 12th and 13 places overall, 3rd and 4th in the 2 day 100.   We had a great day and both horses looked fine, although Shatta was not eating as much as I would have liked him to.  Dinner that night was at the casino buffet.  I think it was only good since I was so hungry.  After dropping another $20 in 22 pulls this time (I got one damn cherry) I swore off dollar slots for a while.  Shatta was eating but I remained worried a little, although in retrospect I'm not sure why.

 

Day two started out in warmer weather, out the same trail until we hit Bird Springs at 15 miles.  Brian and I decided to take it a little easier this morning just to stay on the safe side.  He actually left before me, thinking I was in front of him.  I rode out with Karen and Weaver, who I doubt remembered Shatta from Tevis where Karen and I rode together from Foresthill to the finish.  We trotted slowly up the same trail, doing a little walking up the first wash.  I could see Brian off in front of me a mile or so, since he was wearing this big drover coat.  He pulled slightly ahead of me but I saw him when he was leaving the water.  "Huh?  I thought you were in front of me!"  He and Goofy rode off with Jackie and Becky G while Shatta tried to drain the spring.   I had decided before the water I was staying there until he drank.  No worries.  Karen and Weaver went out ahead at a faster pace.  I left the water and met up with a rider named Nancy James from somewhere in Southern California.  She and I rode together across the long, long cross grain section where you trotted a while then had to walk down across these huge gullies coming down from the mountains.  I was looking at my heart rate monitor constantly, making sure Shatta was staying within his normal heart rates.  He was.  We reached the start of the long uphill wash and started walking.  The wash starts out about a half a mile wide and ends up a couple of miles later being a steep, rocky, very technical climb up to the summit of a little mountain range.  Both horses trucked right up- it was not as bad as I remembered, either.  At the top we found more nice trails that led us down the other side to another valley, then to a water stop at the foot of a long, steep hill that leads to the vet check.  I led Shatta up the whole thing (huff, puff) since this is as far as he got three years ago.  At the top he drank and was at criteria in about a minute.  Okay- sure beats last time.  He still didn't eat much, which concerned me more, although his pulse had dropped below 40.  After about 30 minutes he started eating some of Nancy's combo hay, maybe a quarter flake or so.  I gave him a lot of electrolytes and headed out with Nancy for the last 20 miles.  This 20 miles was actually superb.  The trail was always single track with most of it having good footing.  We worked our way down the valley and then turned left up towards the Red Rock National recreation Area, near Las Vegas.  Man, it's beautiful in there.  We got rained on for about 45 minutes or so and got quite soaked.  Another water stop and we headed down the valley on more great trails.  Lots of nice trotting, all slightly downhill with nice footing.  Nancy and I started making bets on when we would finish, and about where we were overall.  Both of us were wrong when we came around a turn and found the finish. We were something like 20th and 21st overall, which put me in 7th overall on the 2 day 100.   I was very pleased.   Shatta rested at first, still not eating a ton.  He looked fine at the vet, although maybe a little fatigued.  He had also suffered a decent size cut on the front of one of his rear fetlocks, a couple of inches above the coronary band.  His hydration looked better than it had at the start which was also good.  After a wonderful meal of crab legs and langistino (Mmmmm, love that camper) the weather cleared up and it stopped raining.  Big sleep that night after the awards.

 

I decided the next morning to be conservative and skip the third day.  Shatta had done so well and had completed his first ride on two consecutive days.  I also didn't like the look of that cut on his leg and it was a little swollen.  I really want to go to Death Valley and this was a great conditioning ride for that.  Brian sat out the third day as well due to a slight lameness on Goofy caused by an easyboot screw gone wild.  Heather did okay on her in-experienced horse: she got best time overall for the three days!  Great job.  Susan and I avoided the bumper to bumper traffic on I-15 and took a dirt road from the Parumph Valley over to Jean via Sandy Valley.  We ate dinner at the casino again and watched a movie in Brian's room. Another great night of sleep and we were on our way home again, through the wind and rain of Northern California. 

 

Another great ride and the end of the season for Shatta.  He's did just great in his first real year of competition and I couldn't be more pleased.  Next year should be even better!

 

Nick Warhol