Tanza got his 5th LD completion on Saturday

I keep forgetting to get a new picture scanned or taken so I guess I'll write the post and maybe add a pic later.

I went to the Beaver Meadows Classic ride on the weekend.   I thought I might ride two slow rides but it was a pretty tough ride.   Tanza was actually a bit lame about 2/3rds or so into the first loop.  I pulled him up and led him a ways and then got on and mostly walked; or at least tried to, Tanza did lots of jigging and up and downs wanting to race back to camp or at least to buddies.   I don't know if he was spooked by the mountain setting or what.  He was fine riding him alone at Shamrock although I led him away from base camp because I knew he'd be unhappy to leave his buddies especially w/o any other horse company.   And Sunday at Basin after the first loop he was a bit tired and decided he had no need to keep with the other horses on the second loop.    But he was sure not happy to have me slow him down and lose the group this time.  But we survived and made it back to base camp.  A couple of riders behind us caught up and I let him stay with them rather than have another fight as I was not feeling the lameness as much on the trot anymore although I still thought there was some gait unevenness.

There was a long line at the vet check so he got a lot of rest on  his leg before we got to the vet and she pronounced that she did not "see anything."  I had told her he was off and which leg I thought he was favoring so she would be watching extra close.   So we went on and did the second loop.   I pulled him up from the people I started with when she was trotting through a section of road that I thought was too rocky and again had the anxiety and we have to hurry so it was a wash at best for his legs since he then went prancing in some spots through serious rocky trail sections.  Oh well good mental training overall I guess.   We ended up catching back up to them and I made them do the loop correctly where we almost cut off a big chunk of trail (we blew over a red line but thought it seemed off when we got to trail intersection and had not seen any ribbons so I took out my map and saw what we had done.)  The red line was plain as day when we backtracked, but then the folks with me kept doubting if we were correct even though we had ribbons and paint until the very last little bit.  But we made it back to camp.

We were 30 minutes overtime for a 25 mile ride but I thought the RM might fudge the time or change the ride distance because it certainly felt like the ride was long to me.   Some entrants with GPS showed her where the distance was 28-29 miles so it should have been sanctioned as 30 miles and she made the change.  Love a RM who does not get stubborn if shown that a ride is long and should be changed to the longer distance.   In fact the RM did a great job overall.  They had a huge number of entrants and the treatment vet who was intended to be a 3rd control vet to manage the big crushes at the checks was pulled away treating horses but they had volunteers offering people cold water, lots of hay and beet pulp for the horses as well as volunteers who would hold a horse so riders could have a potty break or grab snacks etc.    I was thinking I would pull and did not get my snacks out; and I know better, but with thinking I'd probably end up pulling while we waited in line plus some plain old DIMR I still whiffed that after all my years of practice.  Oh well I was able to ride the last loop OK and even kept the rookies with me on track after that one instance of riding over the line to block the trail segment we were not supposed to take and that was a less than 1/2 mile detour.

Tanza vetted through fine at completion but no way was I going to go out again after the temporary lameness. Those things usually mean there is still a little something wrong and little somethings that will self heal with a bit of rest can become a serious injury with months of lay-off with a second day of fairly hard riding.   I quit while we were ahead.

I went to ride Sadie Sunday night to see if her leg should be OK for trail-riding next weekend so I can  give Tanza serious rest and she had injured the other front leg.  Stupid little wench.   I thought it was just a minor scrape and bruise of the tendon, grabbed RazzMo to see how he would do.  Razz was fine but I am undecided on taking him or Tanza yet.   Sadie's leg was very hot and swollen Monday.   I called my vet and he was able to come out today.   I guessed right on treatment, had started her on antibiotics and a Furazone wrap and she got a shot of penicillin and a tetanus booster today as well as a new wrap from him and instructions to give the oral antibiotics for 10 days and call to get an ultrasound if the tendon is still tender after we get over this cellulitis skin and soft tissue problem or if the swelling does not go away in few days as it should.