Iron Mt. Jubilee 2015

J and I got 2 more completions in the Iron Mt. Jubilee limited distance endurance ride on Saturday. 

 J rode his trusty mount Jessica and I took out Brother for his first endurance trip.

 Brother is just 4 years old so not old enough for the 50 mile (they need to be 5) so we did the 30 mile LD ride.  J has been wanting to try a 50.  He might just have to do it alone.  We weighed the horses Friday evening when we arrived.  Brother is 15.3 hands and weighed 1185 pounds.

 Jessica at 14.2 hands weighed 1075.

 They vetted in fine.  The vet said he didn't see many western pleasure horses attempting this and wished me luck.

 Jessica vetted in like a pro and there was much discussion on what breed she might be.  One girl thought she looked pretty much like a mustang.

 Then it was time to hang out until morning.

The horses were perfect overnight, no pawing, pulling back or whinnying.  They were also calm for grooming and saddling.  I, on the other hand, almost forgot to change from my slip on shoes to my boots.  With 10 minutes until the start I went to get on and saw my mistake.  I ran back to the trailer, grabbed my boots and hopped on.  

 Brother was still doing great, really only interested in trying to eat.  There isn't much fan fair before the ride, just some people trying to quietly walk their horses back and forth until the trail is open.  We left right after the fast crowd but that left several behind us that eventually had to pass.

 Brother never got out of control but he never really liked other horses cantering up behind him on the trail.  That spotted gaited horse was one of the only other non-arabians that we saw.

 Brother and Jessica cruised through the range lands too.  Several of the horses get very worked up out in the open like that and end up being lead.

 There was also a Ride and Tie going on in conjunction with the endurance ride.  It was pretty depressing to have 1 horse with 2 people going faster than us.   And that was another thing Brother didn't really care for, runners coming up behind him on the trail.

 We made in into the 1/2 way point right at 3 hours.

And what a welcome sight to see V standing there ready to help.  

 It was great for her to hold the horses and let them graze while we were able to sit down and eat lunch.  The hold is 50 minutes but you wouldn't believe how fast that time goes by.

 Then it was saddling up and heading back.

 We didn't go back through the range land but had to go a much more rocky trail.  Brother was starting to do a little more stumbling and if he hit a rock wrong would limp for a step or two.  I was getting worried we might have to pull out but every time we would get to a rock free section, he would trot out sound.  The 50 milers started catching up and passing us about 5 miles after the hold.  I was starting to worry that we wouldn't make it back on time but the last 6 miles was all downhill and smooth and Jessica kicked in her road trot and Brother had no intention of being left behind, so we were able to make up quite a bit of time.

 We crossed the finish line at 2;57 and both horses were pulsed down by the time we got them to the vet check at 3:03.  We had until 3:15 before we would have been disqualified on time.  They checked Jessica first which placed her above Brother.  We were 41st and 42nd.

 There were 46 that started and 42 that finished.  That meant I was the "turtle".  I figured that for every step an Arabian took, Brother was taking 3-4.  He was taking 1 and  1/2 to 2 for each of Jessica's steps.  So really, he was working a lot harder that everyone else.

Jessica weighed 1015 at the finish and Brother weighed in at 1135.  They both went right to eating and drinking.  

As for being the turtle, there was actually an award for that, a turtle figurine, turtle garden stake, a "To Finish is To Win" refrigerator magnet and the best part, someone had donated 2 raffle tickets each to the last 5 finisher.  She had recently lost her father and wanted to honor him with an award and decided the last place riders probably didn't have Arabians so she gave us the raffle tickets to an Arabian horse raffle.  Anyone interested in seeing the horse I'm going to win can click HERE.  Someone said, if you can't be top 10 go for the turtle. So it was a great ride with wonderful weather (overcast, somewhat low humidity and upper 70's) and I got a completion on my 4th horse that I've trained and conditioned for this ride (Jessica, Hank, Thumper and now Brother).