Nevada Derby - Part I

My Thursday prep day was very stressful. I think I got complacent not having a horse to prepare - "Oh, I just need to throw some clothes and a pillow in the truck!" I'm lucky to not have a stressful job, but it means I'm now ill-prepared for days that don't go according to plan, and that coupled with packing and food-prepping and trying to get to bed in time to hit the road at 5am just about fried my brain. At 4.30 I was up with the intention of a hot shower and coffee before packing the cooler and getting the last few things in the truck. Except I couldn't get hot water. Grrr! Never mind, we're off to an endurance ride and I get to hang out with E and her husband, my friend C is arriving from England on Saturday night, and it's not stressful. Driving was really really boring, until I found snow!

Shortly after going over the pass it was blue skies, that would remain most of the weekend :)

I'm not used to trips much longer than Fort Bragg to San Francisco, and this would have taken even longer with a trailer. Home to ridecamp was probably about seven hours.

Getting closer..

I met B in Reno so we could get a few last minute things and follow him to camp, where I would finally meet my weekend pony, Special:

Not impressed at being woken for pictures

Pretty much right away we tacked up to go for a pre-ride. E took care of (stupid) easy boots for me since I was having more difficulty than should be necessary while I saddled both ponies. Special is not easy to fit, so I was going to be riding in E's Free'N'Easy for the weekend with some ridiculous girthing system recommended that kinda works. Wish I could have time to play with it because I'm sure I could find something else that works but we weren't going to risk changing anything at a ride. I knew the saddle wasn't ideal for me, and brought my sheepskin for a fuzzy treat on Sunday :) Time to find out more about my trusty (ha!) steed.

E and Ike

Looking back down to ridecamp

Happy ears

I learned that Special has an interesting yet efficient way of going, and is not a fan of rocks. In fact, she's quite sure they might eat her, enough to warrant jumping past them. This would be a challenge at a ride where I'm pretty sure they are growing the rocks. We also spooked at ribbons. Good job, endurance horse. It was a fun ride, I had my tack set in a way that would work best for us, and we were ready. Back at camp we got the horses settled, met new friends, got registered, and played with the star of ridecamp:

Jellybean!

Jellybean was very popular, especially when she trotted out with Ike during vet-in. Go Mini, Go! (She was not always popular with B who is nursing a bum knee when she frequently made a break for freedom while the Arabs were gone...Whoops!)

Special vetted in with all As and a nice low pulse that I've forgotten. We were deciding what to do regarding boots. The last ride E and I were at together, and my last 50 (June'12!) we fixed boots at least every mile. I was mad, and swore off renegades for ever and ever. Our problems then were sizing and user error (and they were green - can't help my superstitions lol). We didn't want boots coming off, and not sure whether we should just goober glue for the whole weekend. In the end, we opted for using tape under them, and if I had issues on Saturday I could glue that night for Sunday. It was getting close to time for ride meeting, and suddenly the sky looks like this:

Hello Snow!

We huddled in to listen to directions from the ride organisers, vetting criteria (60 at each check, 68 at the finish due to varying weather), and info on the trail. Afterwards, B borrowed our camp stove since his was missing a piece, and I learned that I had a camp stove crock pot. Plans start being made for a stew the next day! While dinner was cooking, I decorated my easy boots to ensure easy spotting should they get misplaced in the morning:

Conveniently matched her lime halter!

The ponies were all tucked up for the night, and even though it was pretty early, I decided to forgo hot dinner and crawl into my truck bed nest ready to get up for the early morning feeding. I had everything prepped and laid out, TailWind in my pack, mashes ready to go for the morning. Commence adventure sleeping!

Sleep well steeds :)