Tevis-bound

In about 5 hours, I will be leaving for the airport, whre I will fly up to Sacramento for...

TEVIS!!!

Crewing Tevis, to be more precise. My rider is Lucy Trumbull, #170.

I should have Internet before and after the ride, although I won't be bringing my computer with me to the actual ride. Something about a battery that only lasts for 15 minutes...

The ride's live webcast can be followed here: http://www.teviscup.org/webcast/main.html. Rider upates will be posted regularly, and there is a feature called 'Where's My Rider?' that allows you to type in a specific number and find out the last update on that rider (what time they came in to which vetcheck, if they were pulled, so on). Photos should also be posted.

Good luck to everyone riding Tevis this year!!!

Honest Scrap Award

Thank you Crysta at Go Diego Go and Danielle at If the Trees Had Ears for both bestowing upon this blog its first award ever, the Honest Scrap Award. Both are fellow endurance riders whose blogs I've been following for a while now, and I will have the opportunity in a few weeks to meet Crysta in person while crewing at Tevis.

When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:

- Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.

- List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not know.
- Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
- Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

My honest scraps:

1. I think I'm destined to be a professional student for the rest of my life. After grumbling my way through high school and ranting my way through my bachelor's degree at Arizona State, I went back to school yet again for the (seemingly endless) task for getting my certification in court reporting. It's a long process, but for the most part, I enjoy it.

2. I've been very blessed to have my "once in a lifetime horse" as my first horse. I can't imagine having another horse that I'll have this kind of close, bonded relationship with again. I was so fortunate to have been able to spend so much time together when we were both growing up, especially since our partnership of green rider + green horse was an equation that never should have worked.

3. I'm a slightly OCD control freak. Lists and post-it notes dominate my life. The upside of this is it means I can have my horse trailer packed and ready to go to a ride within a couple hours. The downside of this is everything has its place, and only I know where that place is. My patient father has learned to just pull down the heavy stuff and hand it to me to do with what I will. Beware, anyone that volunteers to crew for me at Tevis...there will be pages of instructions.

4. I'm a very eclectic person with lots of various interests besides horses to try keep my mind occupied and prevent OCD fixation on any one topic (it doesn't work). These include writing, photography, reading, jewelry making, sewing, and travel.

5. I'm a former show person who used to be scared to ride outside of the comfort of the arena, since Mimi was "so bad" any time I'd ride off my trainer's property. (In the mind of a very cautious [read: chicken$#!*] twelve year old, outwalking the other ponies and "looking" at the garbage cans was cause for great concern on my part.) Now, I hate riding in an arena unless I absolutely have to, and have a goal of doing Tevis on this same pony. :) How far we've come. I think my former trainer's jaw hits the ground every time I email her one of my ride stories.

6. My biggest goal and obsession of endurance is Tevis. It's probably so cliched by now, and I'm hardly the first person to come up with this goal, but it piqued my attention when I first started in distance riding, and grabbed hold of me after my first year crewing at there in 2004. Not to jinx best-laid plans and all that, but if the stars align and the distance gods are feeling gracious, my goal is to make it to Tevis 2010.

7. I'm an Arizona native, which means I can theoretically handle heat well. I do, but not without complaint. However, I die in anything over 15% humidity. There is a reason I want to move to San Diego, where it is 70* year-round.

8. I'm an only child, and still live at home. This works out very well in several ways: I work for my parents, out of the comfort of our home; Dad and I ride together; I can concentrate on school an not have to be a Real Adult yet.

9. As mentioned above, Dad and I ride together. Mom and I are what my Dad calls the "creative geniuses" of the family -- we both have creative, artistic endeavors that we do together. Riding is Dad's and my thing. We've been "returning the favor" back and forth for years -- I was the first one to get into horses...Dad followed suit. He wasn't interested in the show ring, though, and started trail riding, which turned into competitive trail (NATRC). He got me out of the show ring and onto the trail. After a couple years of NATRC, I turned my sights on endurance, at which point, Dad bought a new, endurance-suitable horse. Now, we're both focused on Tevis, although I'm far more obsessed about it.

10. I'm a self-admitted geek in the sense that I love sci-fi/fantasy, computer stuff (although I'm bad at it), reading, writing, the works.

The ten bloggers list is going to be difficult, mostly because a lot of people in my immediate blog vicinity have already received the award. The problem with running in a small group of people, we all follow each others blogs, and I was slow on the draw to get working on this.

- Horse Stories Illustrated. Cristy Cumberworth is a friend, fellow distance rider, and amazing photographer. She was the photographer at my very first NATRC ride eight years ago, and she very graciously allowed me to be her photo assistant the following year. Her talents as a photographer are beyond amazing...check out her blog and see if you don't agree!

- Here, There & Everywhere. Christine is working toward her first distance ride with her Standardbred Bling and done-a-bit-of-everything mule, TAZ.

- Between Golden Ears. Lei and her Halfinger pony Mitch are both fans of trail riding, and working towards the possibility of competitive trail. Mitch is one of the cutest ponies ever!

Steps in the right direction

Success! Today, for the first time ever, we were able to do a proper training ride going barefoot in the back! 9 miles, walking and trotting, only having to slow down over the worst of the rocky sections. Apparently the combination of using Renegades and doing my own trimming in between farrier visits is working.

In the past, the most I've managed is a couple miles before Mimi started acting flinchy. Today, she didn't flinch once, and did a great job of maneuvering around the rocky sections of trail. If I can start going bare in the back for rides at the San Tans, that'll really extend the life of my boots even more.

It was also trimming day after riding, so Mimi's feet are nice and pretty again. She only got one tiny chip on her hind feet from going bare today, which was excellent.

It was hot, hot, hot both days this weekend, which was excellent for heat conditioning. Fortunately, there was a very nice breeze yesterday. Today was warmer, but I wore the CoolMedics vest and that made it a lot more bearable. Yesterday was an excellent ride. We did the 14 mile big training loop in just over 2 hours, doing a nice trot for a good part of the way. Some of the time, Mimi was happy to do her relaxed, 6.5-7mph "100-miler trot" and then other times she was much more eager to move out at her 9-10mph "power trot." She's feeling so good right now, which is encouraging and motivating enough to really keep up a religious training schedule during the brutal summer temperatures.

Because I'm Not Insane Enough

For your consideration and considerable amusement, I present to you the following Facebook conversation:

A: Perfect weather for a morning run...pony fitness is good, so time to work on the rider.

K: Ahhhhhhhh!!!! Ashley's running!!!!!! YES! I'm already thinking of the San Diego rideNtie possibilities. Can't help it, it's what I do.... ;)

A: That would be awesome! And Mimi's the perfect RnT height...easy to get on! We'd have to do something about the vastly different stirrup lengths...

K: No big - are you riding in an english or endurance right now? How's mimiers at being tied to a bush and left as other horses ride by?

A: English saddle -- Duett. I have no idea how she'll do, I've never tried it. The idea would be to try to find a RnT practice session and/or mentor before signing up for a race. Errr...you do know you'll have to be the stronger runner of the two of us, right?

K: Consider it COVERED woman! i'm training for the calico 30k this jan and the goal is to eventually be THAT PERSON who people remember at rides because she runs WITH her horse. ;) If it's english and I'm not spending more than a couple miles in the saddle at one time it shouldn't need adjusting. Just a fleece cover :) Your legs will love you for it. I'm thinking about the Manzanita and Descanso RnT's that concurrently happen with the endurance ride...but later, when you're in SD and don't have to pay for coggins/HT's. ;)

A: Already got the full sheepskin cover after Descanso NATRC in 07...can't imagine riding without it now!

K: For sure - i love those things though i rarely use mine due to the cholla and creosote that seem to be magnetically attracted to it!

A is, obviously, me. K is friend Kaity. We've sort of grown up together, despite living in two different states. We both used to show in POA, showed against each other for years (and we're still best friends), both started riding NATRC, then both switched over to endurance.

She used to ride a POA gelding, Sonny. He and Mimi are cousins, same grandsire on their POA half -- he's POA/Morgan cross, Mimi is POA/QH cross. Sonny is 21 now, I believe, and retired from competition, and Kaity is starting a new horse - a 5 year old (I think...4 or 5 now) Arabian/Appaloosa gelding named Kody.

Kaity and Sonny at Descanso NATRC 2007. We rode together all day, with Dad and Beamer happily sandwiched between the two Bad Ponies.

Kaity loves runing, and is fortunate enough to live right up against trails she can run and ride on. As evidenced from the above conversation, this translates into a want to try Ride N Tie, and I have to admit, her enthusiasm is contagious. I've wanted to try RnT, but have lacked a willing partner...Dad is having trouble generating any sort of interest in the sport, as he really hates running. Also, the complete lack of any RnT activity in AZ makes it all sort of a moot point.

I'm not that great at running, but I enjoy the feeling I get afterwards. Yesterday, I got a couple-mile run in...which consisted of "run about a 1/4 mile, then walk pathetically for a bit, then run a bit, then walk a bit." The idea behind this is to get fit enough to get off and keep up with Mimi for short periods of time while jogging, thus giving her a break while still making time.

And I think Mimi's got a solid enough brain to handle being tied off while others pass. I think. The advantage of using her is, she is short. The disadvantage -- her saddle rolls when you mount, so you have to tie off next to a bank or rock or some elevated surface with which to swring from. Also, Kaity is about 5'9" or so. I am (barely) 5'5". She can vault onto a pony no problem, probably without stirrups. I tend to pathetically slither and scramble on.

So maybe Mimi will have an endurance and RnT career, or maybe she gets shuffled down to the RnT horse after I can afford to keep a second horse (right...looking at San Diego prices for horsekeeping...I'm going to have to produce a lot of transcripts...). But that's still a ways away.

Brownie Points

Instead of riding on Sunday, I got to spend 15+ hours helping my aunt pack up her house and load the moving van, as she rather spontaneously decided to move...back to her home town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, after living on the West Coast (CA and AZ) for the last 32 years.

Lots of familial brownie points were earned in the hefting of boxes, and my ability to pack fragile things and make boxes for pictures. Never knew those years of working in the packing/shipping/mailbox center would come in so handy. This ought to get me off the hook for family obligations for a bit.

Equally spontaneous was my father's decision to jump in the moving truck with his brother, who is helping their sister (my aunt) with the move. Coincident to this is my grandparents will be moving out of their house and into a retirement community the same week their kids (my dad, aunt, and uncle) are going to be back there. Well, maybe not so coincident, as that was the hope that was how it would all play out, but very handy to have my aunt's house and grandparents' house sell at essentially the same time and to be able to time the move in such a way that they can all help each other out.

Mind you, Dad made the decision to go with them this morning. They're leaving this afternoon. So much for careful trip planning. The entire morning has been spent running around helping Dad get stuff together, clearing and reuploading music to my iPod shuffle for him to borrow, ironing, and getting the last of the newly-inherited items out of my suburban. That's why I don't mind helping people move, since I tend to acquire new things. Among the new toys accumulated: a scanner (score! don't have to go buy my own once I move), little bureau-top mirror and jewelry drawer, two picture boards (I adore these...they're the fabric kind, with ribbons stretched across to slide pictures under...I have one that is hopelessly full already). and a rusty iron display shelf. Might not be able to use a lot of stuff right away, but I'm slowly gathering it all for my own eventual move.

Fortunately, we had a good ride on Saturday. I think I have a hot-weather pony, because she has been unnaturally cheerful for the past couple months. Either she loves the weather, or she's feeling so good because her hocks aren't bothering her anymore. That in mind, I had no idea they had been bothering her for that long, if that's the case. She acts like she just turned six, not sixteen. She's power-trotting up hills and through sand washes, playfully spooking at Pony Eating Birds, asking for more speed (um, no. we're not trotting at 10mph through the sand wash) and in general, acting like a very cheerful, mischievous pony.

I can't even get aggravated about her antics, because I'm just so happy to see her feeling so good and acting so happy. Makes me believe we might actually have an enurance career that spans beyond a handful of rides. She's pretty good at telling me when she's happy or not, and I figure, as long as she's happy, sound, and healthy, we're going to keep going until she says "enough." Half of our time together has been littered with the echos of the phrase, "you can't do x." But that's a whole other topic that deserves its own post. :)

Saturday was hot, Hot, HOT. 95* by the time we were pulling out of the trailhead after the ride. Still experimenting with packs and various and sundry. This time it was trying to find a way to carry loaded elyte syringes, and if I had a little bag long and narrow enough to carry them seperately (I don't.) I have visions of applesauce/elyte-loaded syringes exploding all over my saddle packs...I might be able to put together something, but I don't know if my mom's sewing machine is strong enough to handle tough, cordura-type of material.

The other thing I was experimenting with was carrying my Camelbak waist pack. Apparently I'm a Camelbak collector and am determined to find something that works, sinceI have three of them -- two of the backpack-style, and the waist pack. The smaller backpack I'm not too fond of, as it's more of a nuissance than it's worth for the amount of water it carries. Plus, it grabs at t-shirts and pulls them up underneath it. The larger backpack carries more water, but that makes it heavier, and it doesn't shuffle around as much.

The waist pack carries about 45oz of water -- two bottles worth, essentially, and doesn't seem too heavy. It interferes a tiny bit with the cantle on downhills, until I figured out if I shifted around a bit, it rests against the cantle and I can lean back on it like a back rest going down hills. Trotting, it doesn't seem to interfere, but I have to keep tightening it as I drain the water out of it. I like that I can carry more stuff in the pack, like more food for myself, and a mini first-aid kit. And with Mimi feeling so good lately, she's been a little more "looky" and spooky...bad time of year to get dumped in the desert without water on your person.

My lower back is sore today, but I don't know if that's a function of the Camelbak, or of spending all day yesterday moving boxes. I noticed a tiny bit of muscle soreness Saturday night, but that could be just needing to acclimate my back and ab muscles to carrying more weight. All in all, definitely worth experimenting with, even if to only use it for the hot part of rides. I do drink more than if I have to fish around for bottles.