Eights weeks before Tevis and I find myself without a horse. I had been conditioning my 8 year old gelding for the Tevis Cup for 4 years. During one of our training rides he kicked himself in the sesamoid bone causing a fracture. After xrays and a chat with the vet, it was decided that he needed some time off to heal, and that eight weeks would not be long enough for the injury to heal.
I remembered that my neighbor had bought a nice looking Arab gelding at an auction in Healsburg the year prior. That horse, Bo Stegicc, a 12year old, 15 hand, had a serious injury to his hip, chest, and left rear hock when he fell off a cliff when a saddle slipped back on a steep trail. My neighbor’s daughter had not tightened the cinch enough, when it slipped back, the horse spooked and went over a small cliff and down into thick brush. The horse had some medical attention and was then turned out to pasture on a 1,000 acre ranch for a year to heal and fend for himself.
I had my wife, Nancy, drive me down to the ranch were he had been turned out on the quad to take a look at him, I brought my saddle just in case. I found Bo in a heard of about 15 horses. His right hip looked like it had been crushed and his left rear hock was a mass of scar tissue. You could see the big scar on his chest and where the stitches had been. He was probably 100 pounds overweight with a big grass belly. I doubted seriously that he was sound but I should a least give him a try. Could I get him ready for Tevis in only 8 weeks?
Getting him saddled was quite a chore, but soon we were underway back home, approx. 3 miles. I did happen to have the heart rate monitor on him as it was on the saddle. I thought that he was not even going to make the 3 miles. When we got home I let him rest for awhile and trimmed up his feet, which had not been touched in a long time. I then took him to a nice meadow next door which has a ¼ mile hill, approx. 100 foot of gain and the footing is real nice. I did a couple of laps with him and determined that he seemed to be sound, just fat and very out of shape.
I decided that I wanted to ride him for a least one week to see how he did before I invested any money in shoes. We did lots of work in the pasture next door. We started on May 23rd when I brought him home and the Tevis was on July 20th, less than 8 weeks away.
My heart rate log shows that the first week was only 3 days and we did 11 miles. His recovery on the first day was 17 min to 60 bpm, with a max HR of 209. On the third day he was ridden twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. I could already see an improvement. Workouts were light, with lots of walking and some short sprints, 800 feet or so.
His second week started on Tuesday with a new pair of shoes as it looked like he might work out and we needed to expand our workout area. This week’s total miles was 40 for 5 days of work with one double day. This work consisted of hard easy days with a few short sprints thrown in for the easy days and the hard days consisted of a 10 mile coarse with lots of climbing, over 2000 feet of elevation gain. This took approx. 2 hours.
My third week started on June 2nd. This week consisted of five (6) training rides with our first long ride on the 5th day or 6th training ride. First day consisted of two rides, one in the morning and one in the evening. Ride 4 consisted of 4 hours on the Tevis trail and about 18 miles. He had two days off and then did a 7.5 hour 40 mile ride from Foresthill to Last Chance and back. Total for the week was 83 miles and 19 hours.
Forth weeks total was 60 miles about 11 hours. One long training ride on the Tevis trail from Robinson Flat to Foresthill with Jon and his horse Spider. We met at Foresthill where they have the Vet check. We then took one rig up to Robinson Flat which is about 40 miles. When we arrived there was lots of big patches of snow. It looked like we were the first riders through to Foresthill. The ride took about 6 ½ hours and is about 35 miles. This part of the Tevis trail is where all the major canyons are.
Week five consisted of two long rides and two shorter rides with a total of 74 miles and 13 hours. Monday consisted of another ride with Spider and Jon from the Tevis finish at the overlook in Auburn to Francisco, which is the second to last vet check. Thursday was a 25 mile ride from Driver Flat, 3 miles from Francisco, up the trail towards Foresthill and back for a total of 4.5 hours.
The sixth week was 5 training rides. One long ride of 27 miles in 4.75 hours. This long ride was from the overlook in Auburn, the finish line, to the river crossing plus another loop. Total for the week was 55 miles and 10 hours.
Seventh week was the week of June 30th. Twenty more days to go! This week we had 2 training rides one consisting of 5 miles and one of 40 miles. After the 40 mile ride, Foresthill to Last Chance, Bo came up lame after he kicked himself on the left rear hock. 9.5 hours this week and 45 miles. After this ride Bo had 4 days off, until Monday of the next week.
At this point things were not looking too good, Bo was still had a swollen hock. I decided to boot the injury and start the seventh week. Bo was not lame so we continued slowly, this week, the week before the Tevis we only did 37 miles in 9 ½ hours.
Seventh week was my tapering week, but not exactly as I had planned.
Eight week was Tevis week - Read 2002 My Last Tevis Ride? to find out how we did
I know I mention most of the long rides over 10 miles or so. What you don’t see is one of our regular 1 hour rides includes riding down to the lake and back up the other side and then home again. This has approx. 900 feet of elevation gain on each side for approx. 1800 to 2000 feet of total gain. Bo would consistently do better then the day he did before.
Our goal was to get him back to a state where we could start a very carefully controlled conditioning program. Other than some 100 yard repeats he was never asked for an all out performance. We tried to take it a slice at a time, only doing a little more that we did day before.
Bo is not exactly my idea of an endurance horse. I never would have bought him except to get through one more Tevis year. He is about 15 hands, he is slab sided and rafter hipped, has small cannon bones and 00 feet, both front and rear.
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