PART ONE: Traveling to the Spanish Peaks Endurance Ride (is here).
Nisha had never completed a multi day 50 before. The most we had done, up until Spanish Peaks 2024 that is, was two LDs in a row in preparation for 50s. I have a competitive streak that is mirrored in Nisha and I shan’t apologize for it anymore. Some of us extend our trots a little too much to bottom out the ride and nab the coveted turtle award (but not from lack of trying).
ANYWAY.
Ride Day One – Forced Slow and Steady
Day one was a forced slow ride. When I say force, I mean 50 miles of arguing with Nisha sometimes quite loudly and with swear words. This is our process and I’m not looking for advice on how to manage a mare who loves her job so much she wants to gallop her way through it. Should I try to keep my inner thoughts more inner? Sure. But I’m not part of Club “You Need a Harsher Bit,” I’m part of Club “Ride The Horse You Have,” and the horse I have is a powerhouse.
Our GroPro video!
Because I wanted to ride Nisha three days at elevation with steep climbs and descents, I had to make sure her first ride was paced and not a blowout. In Texas rides, where the land is as flat as a twice smashed pancake (and just as aesthetically pleasing), Nisha can finish a 50 in six hours. For context, many times our local top rider can finish in 4 hours. We accomplish 6 hour finish times via my arms giving out and letting her channel Secretariat as she mostly canters her way to a finish. Depending on weather, sometimes Nisha can “blow her wad” and is often unmotivated by the last loop of the ride. She’s often alone and therefore bored since there’s no one to chase by the ride’s end. The horse you have for the first ten miles is not the horse you have the last ten miles, and Nisha is no exception to this rule.
Secondly, Nisha is a Russian Ballerina Princess, dark bay in color, cool in weather preference. She was born in Canada, raised in Washington, bred with Russian lineage. My girl is not a straight Egyptian desert pony with hot sand beneath her feet. She’s an ice queen more suited to “Let it Go!’ because the cold never bothered her anyway. This means I try to get her to complete as many Texas miles as possible when the temperatures aren’t so inhumane, and leave the remaining few miles in the hot afternoons.
You don’t have to like my strategy for it to be my strategy. Like my dietary and home decor choices, what I do out on a ride is what I do on a ride and isn’t a decree for all riders made to do the same.
In Colorado, the high was mid-seventies with humidity so low my skin cracked. Nisha, and all the other Texas and Southern ponies, felt more alive than they had in months with those cooler temperatures. Meaning I could change the strategy quite a bit.
Ergo the first ride was paced slower. We trotted the vast majority of the 50 miles, riding with a friend of mine who was doing the same, though her ride was much smoother aboard a Foxtrotter.
It being the first ride, I felt fresh and enthusiastic. I donned the GoPro to capture a few golden moments, though none of them fast, via a chest harness. I didn’t much feel like GoProing with a harness on any other remaining days. If you think something is moderately uncomfortable, try it for 50 miles.
Nisha wanted to be a meth-fueled mountain goat in areas where I needed her to be a shy sloth. High spots, bad footing, rocks rocks rocks, and tight in and out spaces that required attention and not adrenaline, made up the first five to ten miles of the first loop of the 50. There were over forty riders on the first day of the 5 day pioneer ride in Colorado. Usually the “field” breaks up and spreads out. But due to so many tight areas that required the human brain to intervene and be the adult in the situation, there was a lot of pileups and choke points. This meant Nisha got to see her competition for much longer than usual. There are pros and cons to every situation and this was no different. Nisha being middle pack to bottom (as it turned out in the end) meant she had plenty of horses ahead of her. Nisha gets off on passing riders in front of her. She loves it. Not really catching and staying with the ride team, passing. Big difference. She has no qualms in abandoning your stupid fat slow ass, is what I’m saying. Her sentiment, not mine.
So the argument between how fast and careful I wanted her to be versus how she wanted to be extended for most of the day. I’m super serious about this. I pulled for fifty miles. She wanted to blow her wad and gallop more times than I can remember, especially when she sensed her proximity to ride camp. Those who know, know.
Nisha was also a terrible drinker and eater. Note the past tense, because there was a big lesson learned in ride one.
On our second vet hold, Nisha had issues pulsing down. Her initial pulse at PNER was 64, which is acceptable though I’d always prefer lower (her dark coat triggers a higher pulse when it’s sunny, it’s not an accident many of the endurance greats are grays and chestnuts). But when we got to the trot out, Nisha’s pulse shot up to 80, and a vet noted she was “thumping.” I had never heard of this before and it hadn’t been a problem, at least noted, in the past (though I suspect she had this issue in 2020 in a ride in Oregon).
The vet told me it was an electrolyte issue and she needed calcium and I should recheck her in twenty to thirty minutes.
One of the greatest things about endurance folks is someone has the thing you need, even if you don’t, and you probably have something someone else needs if they don’t. Jessica and Matt, part of my caravan crew, had CMPK (high dose calcium) to be administered orally to Nisha. Nisha hated this. Hated. Capital H hated. But it is exactly what she needed to stop the thumping. He pulse returned to normal and we were cleared for our last loop.
I was already taking it easy on this ride, forcing Nisha to go slower than she ever wanted to go in her life. And still our electrolyte game was not good enough. It was a harder ride, a different climate, and required a new approach to how I administered and what I administered to Nisha for success on a ride.
I was humbled. Deeply. What had worked heretofore for her electrolytes was not working in Colorado and I had to fix it for the remaining rides.
We had a beautiful ride once other riders spread out. Gorgeous peaks, stunning valleys, and lots of oooohing and ahhhhhing as we took in our surroundings, without a care where we placed so long as we finished the ride in time (we had plenty).
Nisha got her one nice canter in and even a little hand galloping, on the final loop as we approached ride camp. Both my horse and Jessica’s horse, Tonto the Foxtrotter, had plenty left in their tanks, so why not. We let them fly as we approached camp to close out the first fifty.
My GoPro batteries died long before this, sorry!
Nisha’s numbers were normal at the final vet check. She looked great, she did great, coming in 33rd out of forty something teams. A very bottom of the pack ride but by design. It would be the last time that week she was in the bottom ten.
Ride Day Two – Nisha the Terminator
Nisha had the day off between her ride one and ride two, as Cat the Quarter Horse went for her first ever endurance ride (a tough 25). I’ll pen that story separately. But the day off for Nisha mattered. At first I considered rolling her back for an LD. I considered this aloud with my Texas caravan. I was then kindly excoriated, lectured and spanked. I was told that horses only get stronger on rides such as these, that it was silly to roll her back to an LD since she was a 50 mile horse, and was I drop kicked as a baby for having such terrible reasoning skills. Not really the last one but the tone was there. The kindly bulling was administered as one of our caravan, Khristin, wanted to do a 50 but no one else (besides me) was riding that day. After stern peer pressure, I caved. Fine, I’d do the 50, but I better see the same people who bullied me into it being my crew and there would be hell to pay if Nisha struggled.
Spoiler alert: Nisha didn’t struggle. Not once.
In fact, Nisha was a machine. Like the Terminator. The original Terminator, not the modern spinoffs that get worse and worse with each money-grabbing iteration.
It was fully my intention to ride the second fifty with Khristin. We started out at a pace I’d consider “healthy casual.” In that we’d for sure complete the ride with plenty of time and plenty of horse left over: trotting, walking where needed and resting where desired.
But Nisha wasn’t having it. Khristin’s horse is smaller and has smaller movements. Nisha, while not really a “big girl” so much, is on the taller and longer side, and her extended trot is something to behold. It’s so huge it cannot be posted, it must be two-pointed as her legs move to the rhythm of her ancestors. Seen from behind, Nisha’s rear legs almost splay so she won’t ever interfere with her front end. This mattered, as the bell boots I’d put on her that day kept rotating and were cutting into her precious feeties (which I noted whilst taking an early morning tinkle on trail. We all do it, get over it). I really hoped she wouldn’t yank off her EasyShoes as I stuffed the bell boots into my shit saddle bag. She didn’t, because every instance of her trot that day was TERMINATOR.
While I was happy to do a restrained, casual ride on Day One, I couldn’t do another. Nisha was telling me with every molecule in her body that she had what it took to move out and conquer the ride. Me, being very hippy dippy granola about how I ride out there, trusted her.
It matters at this point to note that while Nisha and I have ridden the Texas flatlands for three years, we trained in the rocky, twisty, narrow Pacific Northwest for our first three years in endurance (we have competed since 2018). So while many riders took some narrower trails with caution, Nisha took them like a mountain goat running to dinner.
Our first loop on Day Two was not terrifyingly downhill. We zoom-trotted along a creek bed for the first few miles, wondering occasionally if Khristin would catch up (she didn’t, we missed you Khristin). This is when Nisha and I started racking up bodies. Again, Nisha isn’t that interested in staying with you. She’s interested in passing you and taking out someone else ahead of her. She is, and has always been, a stalwart competitor. As am I. So once again I am reminding you that is who we are. You don’t have to like it, you don’t have to adopt it for yourself for it to be our method of madness.
Anyhoodles, when the creek bed trail reached its conclusion and Nisha and I passed a few teams, then came the scary part I wish I’d had my GoPro to catch my commentary. A steep uphill switchback awaited us. Tennessee Blouin (ride manager extraordinaire) had warned us that morning about the hill, noting the rain of the previous afternoon might make it slick and that we should ride or walk-in-hand to take it easy. What Nisha heard was “taking it is easy.”
It was, in fact, a steep and narrow switch back uphill no turning around scariness. The turns were a little frightening, not going to lie. But it should be noted that only one of us was nervous and it wasn’t Nisha. We were still under ten miles into the ride, so she was feeling “fresh” as we’d say in the equestrian world. “Fresh” is a euphemism for “Holy God will I live through this?” Once we were going up the hill, there was no place to safely dismount and walk. The trail was just too narrow to accommodate any kind of safe dismount that didn’t include “GERONIMO!” The only choice I had was to put my faith in my mare. I couldn’t micromanage, I really couldn’t manage her much at all. It was a moment of trust I had no choice but to make.
Obviously we did fine. Better than fine, as Nisha still wanted to canter the tiny trail (I said no, but thanks). My heart fluttered a few times, especially as she seemingly would spin on the proverbial dime to switch back up the hill. It was quite the relief to reach the summit where there was a radio volunteer there to make sure we all made it.
That was really the only moment of fear for our second fifty, but worth noting because it made me realize how surefooted Nisha is. I already knew she was smart with her tootsies, but she proved her ability in spades up that hill.
The remainder of the ride (no pictures because I had shoved my iPhone in a FlipBelt as I didn’t want to wear my breeches with pockets again, hence the gifs), was gorgeous and Nisha was just as strong as everyone said she would be. I would eat crow and admit wrongness that evening. Shout out to Khristin, Sue, Matt, Jessica and Teresa. You were right, I was wrong. Congratulations please enjoy this moment.
I have only two videos from Day Two, on our final loop as we approached ride camp and Nisha still possessed her giant trot and I said sure, go ahead and canter. Seen here:
Our new electrolyte game paid off. Nisha finished STRONG in 4th place. I took the next day off (Cat had a sore back) but returned to another and final fifty with Nisha for the 5th and last ride day of the Spanish Peaks Pioneer.
Ride Day Three – short and sweet
A major storm hit ride camp the night before Nisha’s Ride Day Three. In Colorado, weather is fickle. A storm rolled in and rolled out fast, but made itself quite the party while it hung out in camp. Lightning strikes with immediate, trailer-shaking thunder rocked camp. I’m therefore not sure how well Nisha was able to rest that night. I know I didn’t and nor did my puppersnaps Sailor and Punkin, the latter who demanded she snuggle buggle with mama while the scary thunder rolled.
It being the fourth ride I’d participated in that week, I was exhausted. I looked exhausted, I felt exhausted, I was caked in layers of dirt and horse snot, and freely told people “I’m ready to be done.” Twas a wonderful, transformative trip but it was in no way relaxing.
There are no photos from this ride. I took none. Think of it like the fourth child. So many photos of child number one (Day One in my case) and almost nothing from the fourth. The photos and videos I have from this day are of Nisha taking a nap after we wrapped it up. Because that was the moment I treasured.
That’s how I felt about it then and even now. We were both warn out by the fifth day. With all my mounting and dismounting, I felt a strain in my inner left thigh. I spent so much time out of the saddle, the balls of my feet were tired. I couldn’t wait to finish the 50 we’d set out to complete, and sit on my ass to zone out once done. Nisha probably felt the same.
Nisha did well, but wasn’t the machine she was on day two. There were fewer riders out on trail, and the big storms of the previous day (seriously, it rained and rained, broke, then rained and rained again) had everyone feeling a bit run down. Weather was supposed to be just as apocalyptic on this ride day as the day before, so Tenney Blouin ride manager extraordinaire, asked the 50 milers at the previous night’s ride meeting if we wanted to just ride two long loops and have only one hold so as to finish the ride earlier and hopefully before the storm. All but one person voted for this and we were right to do so.
No storm came, but finishing the 50 sooner, due to one less hold, was much easier on both me and Nisha especially mentally. Going out on a third loop is hard. Taking her out on just two: easy.
I hand-walked Nisha into camp about 3/4 of a mile out from the finish to help lower her heart rate even more. I usually do this at every ride, and was happy to help her out here as well. Trust me, nothing is more heartbreaking than finishing a 50 and not getting credit for it due to a pull at the finish. I never want that to happen to us again. If that means hand walking for 9 miles, so be it (I’ve done this before), but only did 3/4ths of a mile here.
She once again took fourth place, not too far behind horses in the lead since we were all equally wiped the heck out after so many miles.
150 miles for my mare done in 5 days. Proud? Heck yes. But we were ready to then return home for running water, electricity, and a a little more moisture in the air to repair my bleeding lower lip and wind-chapped skin.
What’s next? At this point, not sure. But Nisha is ready for 100s. Am I? A subject for another time.
