Ride report and photos submitted by Jill Surkin. Thanks for the great write-up, Jill! Stay tuned for more news and photos from the 2012 Old Dominion coming up.
Saturday, June 9th was this year’s Old Dominion endurance ride in Virginia – the Beast of the East! We were blessed with fantastic weather this year, sunny with temps starting in the 60s and rising to the low 80s with low humidity; we really got lucky, as the next day was close to 90 and very humid. It’s been fairly dry, so the trails were in great shape, but the OD rocks hadn’t gone anywhere…
On Friday morning, I tacked up and headed out for a warmup ride with my friend Emily; we met up with several 100-mile riders doing the same thing, and they asked lots of questions about our Renegades. I love talking about them to people who’ve always shod their horses, especially at this ride — they were impressed that I ride in boots and have no issues with them, since the OD trails are famous (or is it infamous?) for eating boots.
On Saturday, after the 100s left at 5:15 AM, close to 50 riders headed out at 6:45 for the 50. I started solo at the very end as always; Sasha has come a long way over the past few years, but he still has a bit of racebrain, and this was definitely not the ride to wear himself out with fussing. I caught up with Emily a few miles in, and we rode together the rest of the way. Section one had some new trail this year — climbing the pipeline in the sun was out, replaced by some lovely, more gradual uphill trails through the woods. It was still fairly cool when we got into the first vet check; our horses pulsed down right away and vetted through without incident. After some snacks for them and us, we headed back out for section two.
After a bit more climbing of the gradual variety, we got to the big one — 2.5 miles straight up the mountain on a rock-strewn singletrack trail. At the beginning was the best directional sign ever — a white paper plate that simply said “Cross Road, Climb Hill.” Understatement of the year! Emily and I had already decided we would get off and walk the whole thing, since we both wanted to save our horses, and it was getting pretty hot at this point. So off we get, and start up. After about a quarter mile, we were red-faced and puffing, but the horses were still going strong. I finally got fed up with Sasha stepping on my heels, so I unclipped one side of my reins and made him tail me up. Much better! After another quarter mile, Emily wasn’t feeling so well — she didn’t have long enough reins to tail her horse, so she had been going on her own. So I got back in front of Sasha, and Emily tailed him while leading her horse. After a few discussions, I convinced him to stop clipping my heels, so he settled for nudging me in my back with his nose. And that’s how we went the rest of the way, Sasha pushing me in the front and pulling Emily from behind. I don’t think we would have made it without him! The Renegades gave him great traction during the climb.
We got to the top and rode for a few miles along the ridge (more rocks!), rewarded with lovely views and the remnants of the blooming mountain laurel, and then headed back down. What had been 2.5 miles hiking straight up was 8 miles of trotting back down on switchback gravel roads — our knees were very glad to get to the bottom. It was pretty hot at this point, but our horses still made pulse at vet check 2 within a few minutes. No crews were allowed at this hold, but volunteers were on hand with food and water for both horses and people. After section two, the last 20 miles felt like nothing — a few steep ups and downs (and more rocks!), but much shorter ones. Vet check 3 passed without incident, and we came into the finish just after 5:30 PM. Sasha doesn’t like to drink at the beginning of a ride, so he got his usual Bs on the hydration-related scores, but we finished with all As otherwise — our best final vet score ever!
Our Renegades took quite a beating, but Sasha’s hooves looked absolutely perfect when I pulled them off. Not one bruise or rub, and the boots hadn’t budged a bit all day. As I say all the time to anyone who asks, I absolutely love having boots that do exactly what they’re supposed to do and nothing they’re not, with zero fuss. I train my horse barefoot and boot him at rides, and his feet look fantastic. Thanks, Renegade®!
