Well, once again, the best laid plans often go off the rails at the last minute. I was actually planning on taking Jazeb to this ride because it is notoriously hot and humid here in the Southeast during August. However, Jazeb, who is the king of getting out of rides ended up with a sore back. Upon closer inspection, he definitely needs a different saddle. So, the back up horse returned to back up and Eli was up for the Iron Mountain Jubilee 30 mile ride.
Eli and Finn on their last conditioning ride before Iron Mountain
So, Dody and I decided that we would ride together. This would be Finn's 3rd official ride and he did amazing. We pulled into ride camp on Friday and had to park in the very back of the camping area. They had a wonderful turnout for this ride. We were drenched in sweat after setting up camp and realized that we would have to ride very smart on Saturday if the weather held the same pattern. Our friend Lara was out riding the 55 and when she came in we knew that the toughness of the trail and the weather would make for a very difficult ride. The horses vetted in great and were eating well. We remarked that it was so hot we never even made it down to play in the New River, instead opting for some A/C in the living quarters.
Eli being silly. Photo by Terri Strickland
On ride morning, we opted to hang out in back of camp and let the horses graze a bit as the front runners went out. We had an uneventful start on loose reins. We were riding out almost 15 miles to the away check at Camp Cripple Creek. The trail was really tough for the first 3 miles with lots of tight and muddy switchbacks that were only a few feet wide. The terrain on this ride varied from technical mountain trails, wide logging roads, rocky single track, steep climbs and grassy range lands full of cattle. Eli was none too keen about the cows and he felt like a keg of dynamite ready to explode. Young Finn led the way through the cattle and we made it out unscathed! We made it to the vet check in just over 2 1/2 hours.
Camp Cripple Creek
This was ideal place for an away vet check. The humidity was really getting to us though. Thankfully at that point the skies remained overcast. We took about 10 minutes to pulse down and vetted through with no trouble. Finn ate everything in sight and Eli nibbled but was distracted by all the range land movement. After a 50 minute hold, we saddled up and headed back out for the return trip home.
The first 5 miles leaving Camp Cripple Creek were very hill and full of rocks so it was slow going in places. The sun came out and both horses were blowing on the hills to dissipate heat. We electrolyted as needed, sponged a lot and walked most of the hills. We knew as we had done this ride before that you have to keep up a steady pace or you will end up over time. We came in at 2:30 and had till 3:15 to complete. We pulled tack just after meeting our in timer and started cooling the horses out at a shady water bucket. We walked over slowly and they both pulsed down within a minute of reaching the pulse box. Finn ended up 12th and Eli was 13th. We were very proud of the boys for winning this war of attrition at Iron Mountain. There were 30 horses in this ride and only 20 finished.
Final Pulse in: Photo by Roberta Young
Overall, this was a fantastically run ride and we had a blast on trail although as usual, I got a bit overheated in the late afternoon. Eli also weighed in at his highest ever at 1050. He lost down to 990 during the ride and gained back to 1010 on Sunday morning.
Eli on the range lands: Photo by Nancy Sluys
