Ride & Tie Championship - Euer Valley
6 September 2003

As last year, the Ride & Tie Championships not only had the 35 mile R&T Championship, but also a 13 mile R&T, as well as an AERC 50, an AERC 25 ("LD"), a 20 km ride/10 km run biathalon, and a 35 mile trail run. Talk about interesting logistics. But it went off brilliantly.

Note: Ride & Tie is a race consisting of two runners and one horse. The team start together. The person riding the horse rides a certain distance before tying the horse to a handy bush/tree/fence/twig/stump/bucket and sets off running. Eventually, the original runner catches up to the tethered horse, hops on, and sets off after the first person, passing them and riding on up the trail where they then tie the horse and leave it for the runner to catch up to. So it's a game of leapfrog, how fast can you and your team mates cover ground without exhausting any of them. Much strategy involved figuring out how best to use your resources. The usual result is the horse spends half it's time dozing next to a tree and the other half galloping madly for another quarter mile or so. 

No, I didn't lose my mind and do the Ride & Tie part - I just did the straight 25 mile *ride* (no running involved) and got to spectate the R&T first hand instead.

All I can say, is that we had a *blast*! Gah, that was so much fun! 

The 50s started at 6 am, while the the 25s and R&Ts went off at 8 am. Because they started the LD and the R&T simultaneously, most of the LDers were cowering at the furthest end of the meadow, trying to avoid the stampede start that is classic at these events. Then, once we got going, riding with runners dotting the trail, tied horses dotting the trail, and R&T horses being galloped past at regular intervals was much more fun than I ever thought it would be. 

Initially I was nervous passing behind the tied horses, but they are so well behaved (amazing, considering how much adrenaline they must have seething through their veins) and have no interest in kicking - they just want to know when the rider's going to turn up, so they can *go* again. 

The rider-runners are *astonishingly* fast at what they do. Admittedly, because of the way the timing worked out, we were actually riding with the top three teams (in the world, I guess, seeing as it was the world championship) - but I'm still amazed at just how much stamina these people have. 

Most peculiar was riding along and passing Skip Lightfoot, only to have him gallop past on the horse, and pass him running again a minute or two later - but the weirdest thing was I never seemed to see his partner gallop past on the horse ;-) 

This was the first ride for my busy-head gelding, Provo, since he wrecked my knee in 1999 ;-) and he did great and looked wonderful at the end - yay, Provo! He made me proud again. All I have to do now, is see if I can cope with doing a 50 on him. He's kind of rough and for a few days afterwards I was having a hard time stepping down off things (hardest was climbing down the steps to the hot tub - ack). 

Provo thought that chasing horses or runners was about as much fun as he's had in years and was very disappointed when we went out on Loop 2 and took the extra section of trail with no R&Ters on it (they took a short cut, because they were on different mileage than us). He cheered up considerably when we rejoined the main trail. 

Next year the R&T Championship will be held at Fort Bragg in June. I'm sure it'll be lovely there, but really hope next year someone holds an event at Euer Valley as well. The weather was perfect, the footing good (in fact, the footing was so good, I missed a ribbon turning because I was so mesmerized by the niceness of it), the trail (despite it's complications) was brilliantly marked (only blind people who forgot to look for ribbons could get lost) and so much fun to follow. Many thanks to Laura Christofk and her helpers for putting on this great ride and I'm sorry to see it go - perhaps Laura'll consider just putting on the endurance part alone? I'm sure some riders were scared away by the thought of the R&T (wimps<g>).
These first three photos were taken by the "official" ride photographers of the day 
who's names I can neither remember, nor find. I will try and find out who they were...
Slaloming in and out of the Ride & Tie runners. The main trick was that they preferred that you announced the side you were about to pass on—which is all well and good if you happen to be able to figure out right from left...

This is about 1-2 miles after the start. Note the horse being “hand-tied” in the background.

Looking like we might have some idea what we're doing at either 7 or 11 miles in (we passed this spot twice on a short section of repeat trail)...

What we're actually doing is discussing whether or not we need to be chasing Steve Shaw's galloping R&T horse, Cougars Clown.

Clown was ridden (and run) by Laurie Wilson and Alina Vale who were a real pleasure to share the trail with. They eventually finished in third place overall (for the 35 mile course).

2003 Ride & Tie Championship Results 
(incl. 25 and 50 mile AERC endurance rides)

Provo wanting to run in at the end of the first loop...

Photos taken by me from on top of the horse on Loop 2:

Looking across to the Loop 1 ridge and beyond (we got a better view of "beyond" while skittering down a vertical switchback section on the backside of this ridge)

Down on the pinkish road on the right, you may just be able to make out a runner about mid-way along.

Camp is in the valley at the far end, ~6500'..
Provo wondering where all the runners and galloping 
horses have gone (they took a short cut).

Yup, we're going up there... and not a runner in sight. <sigh>

Volcanic outcropping on the way up...

Now we're at the top of that steep uphill, looking back the way we just came.

 
Northstar-at-Tahoe - Ski slopes in winter, mountain bike trails in summer... next weekend's trip.
Looking down towards Tahoe-Donner, another small ski area, and Martis Lake (?)

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Panorama looking back the way we came (right) and
to the west toward Castle Peak

 
One of the less interesting patches of trail, but the views were so wonderful, it was nice to not have to watch where you were going.

Loop 1 had a bunch of twisty singletrack, but there was so much going on, you couldn't possibly take photos (needed both hands to ride, definitely). 

Loop 2 had some great knee-knocker sections, including one short stretch through some huge aspen - but again, too busy riding to get any photos of that either.
This area is cross-country ski trails in winter. 
We are at ~7800'.

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Panorama looking toward Donner Summit, I-80 in center.

 
Green ferns galore - heading back towards the valley and Provo's perking up a bit.
Riders Dorothy and Dennis Miller coming across the meadow, back at camp, to finish off the 50.
Selection of pics taken by my (original) mentor and friend, Ann Blankenship:
Provo desperately hungry after being out on the trail for months... This is 20' from the finish line and I'm trying to get his head up so we can go and PnR.
50 mile winning (and BC) horse, Geronimo, keeping rider Cassandra Conly's young son out of trouble. 

Cassandra and Geronimo crossed the finish line seconds before I did, having completed twice the distance and only started two hours ahead of me. Hmm.

Provo doing his final trot out, gawping off towards where our trailer was parked in the trees. 

He looked in a lot better shape than I did, particularly as he'd stomped on my little toe while I was tacking him up first thing in the morning.

This photo demonstrates my first efforts at leg wrapping (with poultice underneath). 

Provo's now 15 and almost starting to show signs of maturity (yeah, right), so I am making a special effort to be as kind to his legs as possible. He is also recovering from a bowed back tendon from last summer. 

So I've got ice boots on the back legs (along with poultice wrapped in wet paper towel) and poultice, pillows, and wraps on the front legs. This is why he is standing funny. <grin>

It may be overkill for a 25 mile ride, but I wanted to practice and actually it worked pretty well. Back legs got iced for 25 mins and then just left with the poultice on overnight. I left the wraps on his front legs on overnight as well and in the morning his legs were pretty warm when I unwrapped them and hosed them off, which I wasn't so happy about. Next time I'd take them off before I went to bed. That said, neither fronts nor backs had any significant filling and once we'd ambled around in the morning, they were nice and cool. 

 

Provo's looking hopefully at the plastic bag of goodies I'm about to give him...Alas for him, 't is but a syringe of applesauce and electrolytes.

Euwww.... spit it out, spit it out...

Back in his (Euer Valley-provided) corral at the end - looking over to his buddy-for-the-day - Geronimo, who was next door.

Euer Valley is a proper horse camp with corrals for over 100 horses dotted throughout the trees. $11 a night for a horse and rider. Phone 530.550.9011 (June-October) or 530.676.7325 (November-May) for more details.