Last race of the season

On Saturday I competed in (possibly) the last endurance race of the season. It was 55 miles and was in Devon, which is where I train every week (1/2 hour south of Edmonton). I rode Hailey again (I rode her in the 100 mile race in July in Long Island and placed 4th). After the race some people were saying that the mileage wasn't correct and that it was closer to 65 miles though.

Hailey hadn't been ridden in about a month, had a cold, and was barefoot, so we had to go slower than we're used to. It was a really hot day (above 30 C in the hot spots in farmers' fields) so that also slowed us down a lot. Every chance we got we went in the North Saskatchewan River and sponged for 5 - 10 minutes. I had to sponge myself as well to prevent heat stroke. It felt so good to have a wet head and shirt with the breeze blowing. Kept me from going loopy from the heat.

I had to ride the last half of the race by myself because Hailey took longer to pulse down at the first vet check than the horses of the people I was riding with, so my hold time started after theirs did. That meant that I had to start out again after they had already left. I didn't try to catch up to them because I knew that pushing Hailey was not a smart thing to do. It takes a lot of work to manage her in the heat (just like me!) and at the vet checks to get her pulse down before our hold time starts. She is also very difficult to motivate when she's by herself, so I expended a lot more energy than I had planned on!

The Devon race is the hardest 50 mile race in Alberta. The trail takes you up and down the hugmongous and very steep hills of the river valley many, many times. A lot of the hills are sand trails, so that makes it even more difficult. One loop of the trail was on trails that we train on, so I could go a bit faster on that loop because I knew what was coming up. On all of the hills I got off and tailed her up (walked behind her, holding onto her tail and one rein while she went ahead and pulled me up) and hand walked or jogged her down them. I probably did 5 miles of hills on foot, and then hand jogged her in for a mile right at the end so her pulse would be down when I got there. All that walking that I did kept her in a good shape for the vet though!

We finished 2nd to last in the senior division of the 55 mile race in a time of 8 hours and 47 minutes. We were two hours behind the first place finishers. I am super sore today from all the hills and I've been having trouble negotiating stairs, but we finished! Endurance racing is about riding your horse to their ability on that particular day while taking into account the stresses of the trail and the weather. Several horses didn't finish because their riders didn't take extra care with the heat and the hills. So... all things considered, we did fantastically well. It was nice to end the competition season on a good note with my favorite partner!

I forgot my camera this time, so I don't have any pictures from this race, but here's one of Hailey from the 50 mile Competetive Trail race in Red Deer on June 10th (We placed 2nd in that one! CT is different than Endurance in that everyone has to finish the ride in the same time, and then your placing is based entirely on your horses's performance during the day.). She's such a love!

Hailey's Comet