Iron Horse! 100 miles, 2 days

Iron Horse Award, handmade by Marshall Bates from old-horse shoes found on the Iron Mtn trail

Sunny completed 50 miles both Friday and Saturday at Iron Mountain Jubilee. The weather was perfect, the trails were fantastic, and all the stars aligned! He transversed 100 miles of mountain trail with 15,622 elevation gain/loss on Saturday and probably about the same on Friday (my Garmin lost Friday's data).  His 100 mile ride time was 18 hr 52 min, we tied for 27th on day 1 and had a 4-way tie for Turtle on day 2 (it was great sharing the trail all day with Dale, Roger, and Monica!) The Renegade Vipers stayed on perfectly for both days and the vet cards looked great the entire time. Thank you to Nancy Sluys and team for putting on such a great, well-thought-out ride!!

Day 2, Photo by Becky Pearman

After just under a 5 hr drive to camp, he weighed 910 lbs (413 kg) and had a body condition score of 5.5/9 on arrival. (I love having the horse scale at rides! On an aside, he weighed 878 lbs on arrival at Old Dominion after a 1 hr trailer ride). After completing the 50 on Friday he weighed 896 lbs, losing 14 lbs or about 6.4 liters of fluids, this would equal to about 1.5 % dehydration (not taking into account any weight loss or dehydration from travel prior to the ride) [For the math geeks,  Liters of fluid loss = Kg of horse x % dehydration].   I was hoping he would regain his 14 lbs of loss overnight, but the next morning he still weighed 896 lbs (hey but in the morning he didn't have his renegades on... so he actually regained about 1.4 L of fluid, and YES I did just weigh all my wet/muddy renegades and all 4 weighed about  3 lbs or 1.4 kg).  At the end of the 2nd day he weighed 878 lbs or 399 kg, having lost a total of 32 lbs or 14 kg.  This equates to about 3.4% fluid loss or dehydration for the 100 miles/2 days.  That is not too bad, but of course I hope this improves at future rides as he becomes better at eating and drinking on the trail and at camp; he did eat much more consistently on day 2 than on day 1. I did give Sunny plain salt and mashes prior to the ride and electrolyted about every hour on trail with 1 oz (half-dose) of Enduramax and 1oz ProCMC (and lost my drench syringe on trail too).

Powerline view on trail

I was pumped and excited after finishing the first 50 on Friday with both of us in great condition, so I went ahead and signed up for Saturday. About 1 am on Saturday I was definitely thinking 'WHY?" why did I think this was good idea again... And when I tried to get up and walk Saturday am, I definitely thought, why??? But I had already paid my $110 so I certainly wasn't going to back out and lose my entry fee, LOL.  Sunny agreed and was reluctant to leave basecamp, he wasn't concerned at all about following the herd of horses down the trail, he knew the correct direction to go, back to the trailer and his alfalfa.  However, after a few miles down the trail we both loosened up and he was especially happy to catch up with Dale and Cheyenne; Sunny has a crush on Cheyenne and loves to share the trail with her.

My Trail Buddies for Day 2 - Dale, Roger, and Monica

Hospitality stop on the 2nd, 20 mile yellow loop

Sunny and Cheyenne enjoying Melody's and Sweet Pea's leftover hay at the Vet Check

I loved having different trail both days, with gorgeous views!  I thought the footing was fantastic, mostly firm sand/clay base trail with some shale/rocks and gravel roads. There was no boulder climbing like on the Old Dominion trail. I enjoyed hiking the climbs to give my body a change and Sunny's back a break from carrying me.   During the last 15 miles on Saturday my calves were failing and my shoulders were cramping.  I still need to improve on my posture while riding, I push my heels down too far which works my calves too much and I hunch forward a little which is why my shoulders cramp from supporting my heavy head.  Also, when I have brace in my position it can create brace and tension in Sunny as well (never a good thing).  This is a continual work in progress and fatigue brings out bad habits, but on the bright side when my calves stopped working I had to find new ways to keep posting without using those muscles :)

Photo by Nancy Sluys. Starting out on Day 2, this photo captures my braced posture (and tells my why I am still so sore today!)

I loved basecamp, it was picturesque with mountain views, shade trees, and on the banks of the New River (and had showers too!!). The horses enjoyed the cooling river (great for 'icing' the legs after riding all day!) and good roll in the sandy banks afterwards.

Lessons learned --
1. I need to keep practicing better posture
2. My hind renegades rubbed on the 2nd day, this has never happened previously but I may have had them adjusted too tight.
3. I did have mild girth chaffing on the 2nd morning, I smeared on the Desitin and it actually looked better post-ride. Next time I will use Desitin prior to any long ride.
4. This ride really took everything Sunny and I had. We are both really tired, my calves are swollen and I have been on/off nauseous, he is still only walking around the field, not trotting and playing yet; his windpuff's are little extra puffy this morning out from standing around after such intense exercise. We did finish with A's and in good condition but in hindsight I don't think we were really fit enough for this level of difficulty. Had the conditions been less than perfect (ie muddy, hotter, more humid, etc) we probably would have run into problems.  This is the hardest I have ever pushed myself or my horse and while I don't regret it, I do understand that we need to be more fit before tackling hard 100 mile rides (ie Old Dominion). I don't have the experience to know what is 'normal' for horses after such a hard ride but I would like both my horse and myself to be a little perkier a little sooner.   I think prior to tackling any more longer rides I would like to pace a little faster, add-in a little more canter, finish 50's solid early to mid-pack rather than with the turtles. But we have just added 100 miles to our base of long-slow-distance and we should both come out better for it.
5. Our relationship is improving, Sunny trusts me more (and vice versa) and I love the fact that he still wants to be partners after such an ordeal. He seems to know I do love him and he trusts me to take care of him, knowing I dismount and lead him through the hard sections, take him off the hi-tie for grazing walks and pee-breaks (he doesn't like to pee in his 'bed'), and in return he still walks up to me in the dark, after 12 hours of work, after 100 miles and almost 10 hours of trailering, just so I can make sure everything is still ok.

Plan:
Rest and more rest and relationship play while resting!  Then we will keep building our partnership, practice dressage, and maybe start adding in some more speed to our conditioning rides.  I would like to practice maintaining a balanced, easy canter for longer stretches on the trail.