tevis

Tevis 2015 Crewing: Worth It

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

I crewed the 50th Anniversary Tevis ride…and now I’ve crewed the 60th Anniversary ride. Plus 5 other years in between. I’ve definitely earned my crewing stripes. :)

I was crewing for my best friend Kaity again, this time riding her newer horse Ani in his first Tevis. I can’t really say “Spoiler Alert” since full ride results are available online, but THEY FINISHED!!

Wednesday afternoon saw me flying in to Sacramento, where Lucy picked me up from the airport and we headed straight to the Tevis Pre-Ride BBQ in Auburn. Since we were still early, we perused the vendors (pretty 60th Anniversary shirts this year…of course I added to my wardrobe) and walked through the barns, looking for people/horses we might know.

I ran into Tammy from Arizona and her mare DRae…who, we found out, is actually a half sister to Kaity’s Ani. Small world. It was their first Tevis…and they finished!

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D-Rae

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Ani

You would think they were related or something. ;)

After the BBQ, it was onward to Tevis Low Camp (aka Lucy’s place, where it is tradition to stash horses/crewpeople versus staying at the fairgrounds) for an evening of hanging out on the back deck, drinking beer and analyzing the Tevis rider lists.

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Tevis moon

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Cuddling with Spike, Artemis’s younger brother. Worst part about flying somewhere is not being able to take Artemis along.

I won’t admit what time we all finally shuffled off to our respective beds, but it was late. Or early, depending on your perspective and if you want to call it Wednesday night or Thursday morning. ;)

I had a way-too-early rooster chorus wake-up call, but I managed to stuff a pillow over my head and go back to bed for another couple of hours before dragging myself out for coffee and a day of trailer packing and ride prep.

Something I bring to the table (ha!) as a crew-person is my ability to cook, and I get an annual request for my “Tevis pasta salad” to be a part of the food line-up. (So far, all four years I’ve made this, my riders have finished. A correlation? {Probably not, but we all have to have our superstitions…})

Ashley’s “Magic Tevis” Pasta Salad
16oz small pasta (elbows, small shells, ditalini, etc…)
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
3-4 green onions, thinly sliced
9-10oz mayonnaise, more or less can be used as desired
salt
pepper
olive or grape seed oil

– Cook pasta according to package directions. Once cooked, drain and lightly drizzle with olive or grape seed oil (this will keep it from sticking or clumping together).
– While pasta is still warm, add half the mayo and stir to coat pasta.
– Add chopped eggs and sliced green onions and mix.
– Salt/pepper to taste.
– Add additional mayo to taste. I generally use about 9 oz of mayo for an entire bag of pasta, and it creates a nice coating on the salad without being gooey or gloppy. Adding it while the pasta is still warm allows the pasta to absorb some of the mayo for a nice creamy taste and texture.

*** For Tevis, I parcel it out into Ziploc bags and small tupperware containers to be divvied among the main food cooler and individual vet check coolers. It’s proven to be popular with both rider and crew alike.

This year we went the “dry ice” route of keeping food cold…all I can say is it worked really well…like overkill well, to the point that a number of food items were actually *frozen* by Saturday evening. Next time: yes to dry ice, just maybe a little less than 70 pounds worth… (Worked great for ice boots though!)

Thursday prep went really smoothly (no exploding hay bales this year), so Friday morning, we rolled out of Lucy’s around 10:45, on our way to Robie Park.

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Infamous Robie Park dust on the last several miles of the drive in.

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Tevis start line. {wistful sigh}
One of these days…

Monsoon activity has been pretty prevalent in the Sierras, and a couple miles out from Robie Park, we started getting RAIN! Ummm, whut???? It’s not supposed to rain at Tevis! (Except for that time in 2012 when it started raining in the evening after Foresthill, but I digress…)

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Rain at Tevis. It’s a thing. A thing that completely blew my theory that “if you actually bring raingear, you won’t need it.” Grateful for my GoreTex. Especially since “raingear” isn’t a commonly-carried Tevis vendor item…so I would have been reduced to running around with a trashbag, spooking horses.

Once at Robie Park, while Kaity went and checked in, I wandered around, connected with friends and some of “my” Renegade riders, and hung out at the vetting area until Kaity came back down with Ani to vet in.

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First obstacle passed: vetted in GREAT!

After watching them vet through, I went and did my best to contribute to the Tevis economy (yay, vendor shopping!). I had a couple things on my wish list that I was able to find, but mostly I just like perusing the different horse wares.

After having a couple of questionable experiences on the availability of food at the Friday night Tevis dinner the last couple of years, despite having pre-purchased tickets, it was decided this year we would have our own private crew dinner ahead of time, and then head down to the ride meeting, which worked perfectly.

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Super-crowded ride meeting. With 198 starters, the pavilion area was *packed*!

After the meeting, the “advance team” of myself, Lucy, and Renee headed out of Robie Park and back down to Foresthill where we would spend the night in anticipation of being able to be one of the earlier cars in line up to Robinson Flat. While it made for a shorter night of sleep, it was definitely a good idea and way less stressful than the Great Trailer Race out of Robie Park in the morning…plus we were up there early enough to watch all of the front runners come in.

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Tevis Moon! (Driving out of Robie Park Friday night.)

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Following the water truck up to Robinson Flat.

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Vet check area at Robinson Flat. The calm before the horse arrival storm.

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First rider in.

There was some miscommunication early on about how much “crewing” was allowed on the road in to Robinson Flat — first we were mistakenly told by an official “you can’t crew here, you have to go back down past the in-timer.” Never mind that the first 6 or 7 horses had already been in at that point…

Yes, there is a sign about 1/4-mile out from Robinson Flat that states “no crewing before this point.” But historically, we’ve always been allowed to meet riders out on the road, let the horses get a first drink, pull tack, and start cooling. So to be told, “No crewing” created a bit of a stir, especially since there was never anything published anywhere to that effect.

A few minutes later, another official came by and clarified: We were okay where we were, they just don’t want a huge backlog of horses stopping out on the road and creating major traffic jams — so as long as we could do things in a “mostly forward motion” we were okay to start pulling tack and cooling the horse. Which is what we’ve always done. I can understand the not wanting a backlog of horse butts standing in the road while other horses and crewing come bustling up around and behind them, but the communication of that intent could have been more clear.

(A a brief aside here: I realize an organization needs rules and regulations to run smoothly, but it seems like every year, there are more and more asinine and arbitrary rules that are invented and imposed on riders and crew…I feel like it’s starting to cast a bit of a shadow on something that has always been very enjoyable. This kerfuffle over crewing/not-crewing, and not allowing food into the blood draw and vet lines at Robinson Flat were the two biggies for me.)

{And stepping back off the soapbox…}

While we were waiting, it…wait for it…started raining. Again. And this time I didn’t bring the rain jacket. Fortunately there were large pine trees to shelter under, and horse blankets in the crew cart.

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A shivery (partial) SUPERCREW!
Renee, Lucy, and yours truly
The other half of the crew was on their way up from dropping the trailer at Foreshill.

And happily (since Ani does NOT like cold), by the time Kaity arrived, the clouds had passed and the sun was out.

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Kaity arrives!

Keeping the “forward motion” edict in mind, we quickly got to work stripping tack and stuffing food into the starving Ani. He wasn’t quite keen on the “quickly strip tack” idea, with a few “let me spurt forward and run into my handler (me)”  moments…but we got the job done and got them to the in-timer and then onward to the blood draw and vet line.

As I mentioned before, they blocked us from bringing horse food into the blood draw area (which we have in the past, as some of our participants are not fond of needles, so pans of food serve as excellent distraction) and into the vet line. In our case, this time, it was fine…Ani doesn’t care about needles, and Kaity only had one person ahead of her in the vet line…but for others that were stuck in that line for 20-30 minutes, that’s a big problem. At least if you have to wait that long, the time can be productive for the horse to eat, but that wasn’t allowed to happen this year. Another one of those new, unpublished rules that doesn’t seem to make any kind of sense.

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Ani trot

I have no photos of the crewing-and-stuffing-food-into-rider-and-horse part of the check, since I was refilling water bottles and saddle packs, tending to horse necessities, and re-tacking…but suffice to say that hold always zips by.

Ani needed a re-check per the blood draw (as the vet who re-checked them said, “Why???) but that was completely seamless and we had them to the out check right on time.

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leaving Robinson Flat

Shortly after Kaity left, a rescue helicopter was brought in for a rider who had come off earlier in the ride — that was a bit of excitement as it tried to land, kicked up a ton of dust, and peeled off to land elsewhere. A whole cluster of riders rushed up to the out-timer to try to get out, were sent back down when they brought the chopper in, then rushed back up as soon as it peeled off. Always a bit of unplanned excitement.

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(I was impressed by the fact that all the horses that I saw were completely nonplussed by the whole thing. Gotta love Tevis horses.)

After the helicopter excitement, we headed back down to Foresthill where we got the trailer set up, then Lucy, Renee and I headed back out again — Lucy and Renee to Chicken Hawk vet check, and myself to Michigan Bluff, which is just a water stop, but it’s at the top of the second canyon, and it can be beneficial to both horse and rider to have a quick pause here for a snack/cool-down before heading up to Chicken Hawk, a mile and half up the road.

I had some AZ endurance buddies down at Michigan Bluff to hang out with, who had snagged an excellent shady spot, so I took pictures, jumped in to give a crew hand to a couple of people, and waited for Kaity to show up.

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Kaity and Ani at Michigan Bluff. A little hot, and definitely starving.

My goal as crew was to have them out in 10 minutes or less — they were gone in 9 minutes. There was time to cool Ani, let him eat a large chunk of alfalfa, get Kaity to drink an Ensure and refill her water pack, and send them on their way.

I got the Full Tevis Experience this year in running down the hill to Michigan Bluff (and the shin splints to prove it), and the subsequent hike back up. New sympathy for the horses/riders climbing the canyons.

Timing worked out well — Kaity was *just* coming up Bath Rd to Foresthill by the time we got back (after socializing a bit in FH), and the other half of our crew had already taken the cart, met her, and pulled tack.

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Foresthill vet check

The Foresthill check was really smooth — longer vet line, but plenty of food — and we had them back at the trailer in short order. Kaity showered, Ani got ice boots on his legs, glowsticks and headlamp were applied to gear, and we had them to the out-timer on time.

After seeing them out, we hung out around FH for a little bit, eating our own dinner and packing up the trailer before making our way back down to Auburn.

Sensible people take advantage of several hours of downtime and take a nap.

I am not sensible. Nor is Lucy. Hence why we stayed up all night in the stadium, watching riders come in. I almost nodded off a couple of times, but we kept following the webcast status, seeing riders we knew leave the Lower Quarry check and would keep delaying the notion of heading off to bed. And before long, it was close enough to the time Kaity was expected that we might as well stay up.

Tevis riders and crews have perfected sleep deprivation.

Our routine has been that when our rider leaves Lower Quarry, they turn on their “Track My iPhone” feature that we can then access and follow their progress on our phones, so that last half hour was spent obsessively refreshing my phone, wondering *exactly* where she was at on the trail.

And then her tracker showed her very close, and then there were three neon green glowsticks appearing at the finish line!

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official timed finish

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down in the stadium

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completion trot-out

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good boy!!

And like that, we were done, and Kaity has another Tevis horse. We hung out in the stadium for the hour re-check on metabolics, using the time to poultice and wrap legs (another reason I’m on the crew, aside from my pasta salad, is that I’m an excellent leg-wrapper).

It was daylight by the time we wrapped things up and got back up to the trailer, and we all crashed for a few hours of sleep.

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Comparing grubby crew legs

Lucy and I got up early enough to shower (nothing feels as good as that shower Sunday morning, even if the water does go from ice cold to scalding hot), get breakfast, and watch the Haggin Cup judging. 8 out of the Top Ten horses showed this year, and they looked good.

After that it was hanging around the trailer, packing stuff up to head back to Tevis Low Camp, and then awards dinner.

The 2015 Tevis Cup was won by Potato Richardson riding SMR Filouette; the 2015 Haggin Cup was awarded to Auli Farwa, owned by Kevin Myers and ridden by Jenni Smith. 198 riders started, 90 finished, for a 45% completion rate.

After awards, we headed back to Low Camp, ate pizza, and spent the rest of the evening chattering away about all things Tevis. And then Monday, my Tevis fun was over and it was back to the Real World. (Tevis World is much more fun.)

2016 Tevis is early, so there’s only 50 weeks and change before the next round. ;)

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Crew shirts.
Really says it all.
Definitely worth it.

Tevis Time

/ Ashley Wingert / 1 Comment

We’re at under a week now until I take off for my Annual Tevis Adventure, so probably time for me to come up with something to say for my Annual Tevis Musings. I’m not sure what I can add that I haven’t covered in past years…search for the “Tevis” tag under categories on the right sidebar if you want to see all of the previous posts.

Last year’s post with links to videos, information, and other resources.

I’m crewing for Kaity again this year…she’s be riding her newer horse Ani, the one she took on last year‘s pre-rides. She is rider #85, which we have concluded is a Good Number. If you visit http://www.teviscup.org starting on Friday, 7/31, there will be a link to follow along with the webcast, with as-close-to-realtime-as-possible (wilderness areas, strictly radio communication, limited internet access points) updates, photos, rider statuses, pull lists, and more. Rider numbers have been posted, and as of 7/22, there were 205 sign-ups (limit is 210).

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Fergus at Robinson Flat, 2014

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Kody at the Finish, 2013

Ahead of Tevis, part of my work for Renegade Hoof Boots is rider coordination — finding out who is intending to ride Tevis in the boots, and what size and style they need, and making sure they get their boots well ahead of time to be able to do any adjusting or re-sizing if need be. During the ride, there’s not much for me to do — these are experienced riders who have successfully completed rides with the boots and have a sense of what they’re doing, and everyone is highly encouraged to carry spares or back-ups should they encounter a patch of boot-eating trail. (It happens. Rugged trails tend to eat horse hoofwear of all kinds. Nothing out there is perfect.)

While I’d love to do a repeat of last year’s Tour de Tevis Trails, this year won’t involve quite that much time away…but I’m still hoping to sneak at least one ride in to help dial-in boot fit (photos and online troubleshooting can do a lot, but sometimes, I just really like to get my hands on the horse/boots, especially for some of the more challenging ones…sometimes something can be hard to explain, but you can feel when you get the fit dialed in, and then subsequently be able to show someone what you’re talking about).

This’ll be year #7 for me to crew…at this point, I could almost hang out my “professional Tevis crew” shingle, eh?

2014: That’s A Wrap

/ Ashley Wingert / 7 Comments

I so very badly want to say “and good riddance,” but any year that sees me turned into an actual trail runner can’t be all bad.

Many things certainly did not go as planned, and I’m pretty sure I spent the least amount of time in the saddle that I have since I started riding. I think if I hadn’t had the trail running, I probably would have gone absolutely out of my mind climbing the walls, but hitting the trail with my own two feet kept me (reasonably) sane.

As far as 2014 goes, it may not have gone as planned, and I may have spent far too much time dwelling on that the past few months, but looking back, it was actually pretty decent.

Got to ride Libby again. We may not have
technically completed, since we came in
overtime, but we had a good time and got in
a good training ride.
photo by Susan Kordish

Still got some pony time in. Sensing retirement is imminent, but
will still keep taking advantage of the good days when I can and
when she says she’s feeling good.

my girls

Fun times meeting with fellow bloggers at the AERC
Convention in Atlanta. 

“Answer”
And did I ever! Some riding, and lots of
running!

Lots of time with my favorite running buddy!

Another epic Tevis crewing adventure!
(That’s Artemis’s full younger brother Spike I’m holding.)

One of my best friends got married, and I was
one of her bridesmaids. This is probably the
first and last dress pic that will grace this blog.

Seeing more of the Tevis trail!

Ran a road race (15k) — as in ran the whole
thing — and didn’t die!

But these were way more fun! Ended the year with 48 race miles
total…racked up way more run miles than ride miles. *shrug*

Semi-swimming in the Salt River.
May not have ridden much, but the
times I did, it was usually pretty fun!

I’m not one to make resolutions (“inebriated declarations of good intent”), and quite honestly, I’ve thoroughly embraced the “no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy” mentality when it comes to trying to plan things out too far in advance, since it all falls apart anyway.

I’ve got my spring roughly mapped out in terms of trail runs (which you’ll find out about as they happen, lest I alert the universe to my plans and jinx myself), and it looks like I’ll probably be doing the Bumble Bee ride again…just the fun ride this time, since my saddle muscles aren’t in shape.

Beyond that, my only immediate plans are to snore in the New Year…I generally have a rule about going out on New Year’s Eve — I don’t — and have no plans to break it this year. (Currently chuckling a bit at the all-day rain forecast, and the 29* overnight temps…that’ll put a crimp in the Fiesta Bowl and block party celebrations. And it may even put out the dog-and-pony-startling fireworks. Love fireworks, but prefer to see them in a place and environment that isn’t disturbing my animals…like Disneyland.)

Hope everyone has a fun and safe New Years Eve, whatever your plans may be, and we’ll see you in 2015!

Epic Tevis Adventure, 2014 Edition: Part Three: Last Chance for Adventure

/ Ashley Wingert / 4 Comments

Final part!! Unless, of course, I think of some things I forgot along the way. But for all intents and purposes, we’re done. :) Good job if you’ve gotten this far along the journey. Less words, more photos in this part.

MONDAY morning, we rounded up our respective mounts, stuffed them in the trailer, and zoomed up to Foresthill to do a quick ride from Foresthill to Chicken Hawk and back. We parked right in front of the cemetery (no, not ominous at all…), rode through the Mill Site, down Bath Road and into Volcano Canyon. Volcano is the smallest and “tamest” of the three canyons, but it still has its drop-off areas, and you still go down two miles and up two miles. And it’s also very, very dusty.
all dressed and ready
heading towards the Mill Site — can
just barely see the trailer in the background

they leave chalk signs on Bath Rd to tell you how far you are…
I’m side-eyeing it more than the horse
down Volcano Canyon

Volcano Creek
where the trail crosses and continues — this is looking
towards the Chicken Hawk side

pausing to water the boys in the creek
Going up towards Chicken Hawk, we saw bear tracks in the dust. And passed this really creepy-looking tree, all charred and dead in the middle of a bunch of greenery.
dusty!
CREEPY TREE!!!

climbing

The new trail out of Chicken Hawk is interesting – I would love to see what it’s like after a winter of getting bedded in. As it is now, it’s very dusty, and there are random small holes to trip over/step in that are hard to see due to the fine, powdery footing. It’s definitely made for small, zoomy pones, with more twists and turns…but far more interesting than the old road. Slower, for sure…but I’m guessing the trade-off of having the larger vet check and more space is probably worth the trade-off.
going up to Chicken Hawk — flyin’!!!
The boys got to clean up the hay leftovers at Chicken Hawk, and we surveyed the suddenly-ominous skies. “But rain was predicted for the high Sierras, not the foothills!” protested Kaity. The port-a-potties were still in place from the weekend, so we made use of the facilities, went through the check to the road and then back into the check – miming our way through “ride procedure” and then back out to the new trail.
“Nomz” go the boys.

rider refueling

coming in to Chicken Hawk from the road — ride direction

signage
leaving Chicken Hawk on the new trail —
DUSTY!!!

heading towards Volcano Canyon

bombin’ down the road!
I actually really enjoy Volcano Canyon – running it in the direction the ride goes is fun. A lot of the downhill can be trotted/shuffled down, so you can really make time. We briefly got sprinkled on (if a dozen drops of rain counts) going up the canyon when we passed through a break in the trees, but that was it.
yes, Roo, I *know* you enjoy tightrope-walking the edge

makin’ time! (camera doesn’t cope well with low light)

dueling cameras

Tevis ribbon!
going down
lookit that pone corner at a trot!

Kaity stops to smell the bay leaves

“Why are we stopped? WHY???” Fidget pants r us.

the clouds we were racing

cool rocks

back at Volcano Creek

scenic moment

“Ani, don’t LEAVE me!!!”

bottoms up! (there were trout in here)

mining remnants (and there were mining claim signs on
some of the trees)

going up!

drinking at the spring halfway up Volcano Canyon

at the top of the canyon, almost to Bath Rd
New appreciation for how far up Bath Road you still have to climb – it’s not “just around the corner and you’re there.” But since the boys had only done about 8 miles at this point, as opposed to the 68 on ride day…we trotted.
at the bottom of Bath Rd, just out of the canyon. on ride day,
they have troughs here.

about halfway up

at the boundary of the Mill Site — approximately where they
set out the trough on ride day
We did a bit of hay clean-up at the Mill Site, then headed back to the trailer. We got sprinkled on yet again right about the time we were getting in the truck, and then that was it for the rain.
The plan for the afternoon was to finally, finally go play at the American River Confluence. Every year I’ve been to Tevis, the topic of playing in the river has been talked about, and never ends up happening, so we were determined to make it happen at some point this year.
It’s been something that has been added to the “must do yearly” list. We found a spot that was just past No Hands Bridge, with its own “private beach” with areas to swim, wade, or just sit. Beautiful, clear, cool water, gorgeous views…definitely a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
view from our private beach

No Hands Bridge from below
Monday night wrapped up with me doing some creative packing (I was bringing home a saddle pad Lucy had borrowed and a quilt she had put together for me), but I managed to get the important stuff in there (and ship the less-important things home).
TUESDAY morning wrapped up the fun…we did some vehicle shuttling and shuffling to enable Kaity to ride the California Loop from Foresthill to Driver’s Flat, one way. Once we got her situated and trailer moved, Lucy dropped me off at the airport on her way to work. Fortunately, my flight home was much quieter, and my parents brought my little Artemissy-puppy to the airport to pick me up!
THE WRAP-UP: The more I crew, the easier it gets. It really helps when you’ve crewed multiple times for the same rider, and for the same horse. You learn quirks about the horse (For example: Fergus can be touchy about his ears, so allow a couple of extra minutes to bridle, and don’t unbridle him except at the big checks. He’s easier to syringe from the off-side. He prefers LMF and beet pulp sloppy mashes to pellet mashes. He likes bite-sized apple pieces hand-fed to him.)
I also learn new tricks every year, things that get filed away in my mental filing cabinet of “how to make my eventual Tevis ride easier.” Things I would like my own crew to do. Notes to self on my own care. And, of course, seeing as much of the trail as I can ahead of time to know what I’m up against and how to best train for it.

This might not be everyone’s idea of a vacation…but in my world, it was exactly what I needed. (And I’m ready for vacation again, thanks…)

Epic Tevis Adventure, 2014 Edition: Part Two B: Foresthill – Sunday wrap-up

/ Ashley Wingert / Leave a comment
When we last left off, Kaity and I wrapped up the Robinson Flat check and were heading back to Foresthill…

Then it was down to Foresthill, where we found the trailer, found a Funder, got everything we would need for the evening set up, got the cart ready for meeting Lucy on Bath Road, then we wandered over to see what food vendors were set up this year. An excellent taco truck provided sustenance, then we went down and hung out on Bath Road – word was that the front runners would be coming through shortly, and we will had time before we had to leave to meet Lucy at the Chicken Hawk check.
Funder shows off her shiny truck tailgate step
So we found a spot in the shade and hung out and watched Jennifer Waitte be the first rider into Foresthill, followed by Tom Johnson (who rides a beautiful little grey Al-Marah mare I was drooling over the entire ride…my love for these horses is a bit sickening, I know…), Tennessee Lane, and Heather Reynolds.
AM Lady Liberty Wins — such a pretty mare!
After watching them come in, Kaity and I headed out to meet Lucy at the Chicken Hawk check. It may seem redundant, having a crew person (or two) meet you at a check that is only 4 miles away from your next big hour-long check, but both Kaity and Lucy have called Chicken Hawk a tough, low-point check for them, so I can see the value in having your own personal crew to give you a mental boost. 
Fergus wasn’t particularly difficult to get cooled down this year, but if it’s a really hot day or your horse is having trouble pulsing down, I can see where it’s super-helpful to have someone to help with that process. Plus, there is still one more canyon – a small one, but still goes down and up – left before Foresthill, and I can see where hitting that with a horse who has had a chance to cool off and refresh a little bit could make the difference between a horse that drags up Bath Road versus one who is a bit more sprightly.
At Chicken Hawk, we hung around the check itself for a bit, getting a feel for the new layout – has a couple of bugs to work out, such as the vet area possibly being a bit close to the out-times. They had hay out near the out-timers for horses to eat after vetting, but it wasn’t actually apparent from where you were standing and looking in that direction – as was evidenced by the large pile of hay still there when we rode on Monday. Consequently, we went back to the hay/mash area for Fergus to eat some more, and then had to navigate through the crowds to get to the out-timer.
troughs, food, sponging in lower area, vetting and out-timer
at the top

Having a good spread-out space and a graveled area to sponge was very nice – I had never been to the old Chicken Hawk check before, but Kaity said this one was much, much nicer. Less mud from sponging meant it wasn’t so hot and swampy, and being on a slight rise, it was catching some breeze as well.
We met Lucy down on the road into the staging area, walked up to the troughs, and got to work cooling Fergus as he drank and ate. They had sponges and buckets there, as well as alfalfa and large pans of LMF mash. The volunteers were also excellent about keeping the sponge water topped off with cool water – excellent service!
Lucy and Fergus coming in
After vetting, we gave Lucy a few minutes to sit and Fergus a few more minutes to eat, then piled the girl back on her horse and sent them on their way.
vetting at Chicken Hawk
You can’t drive in to the Chicken Hawk check – have to park about a mile out on the road and walk in/out. We were all prepared to hoof it out of there, but managed to bum a ride from a volunteer who was driving out and had half a dozen people piled in the back of the truck. That shaved at least ten minutes off the time it would have taken us to get back to the truck!
Back at Foresthill, we found fellow crew member H, set up and waiting on Bath Rd with the cart, and we settled in to wait for Lucy. We didn’t have to wait too long before the large Golden Freight Train came powering up Bath Road. We stripped tack and hosed him at the trough set up on the road, then took him up the road to the check. He was still a little high on his pulse, so he got hosed some more, then once he was down, he was pulsed, then over to the vet line for his check – also successful!
eating in the vet line at Foresthill
Fergus trot-out…he looked more inspired IRL
Back at the trailer, we got him started on munching while the rest of us prepped tack stuff for the ride portion. Funder taped on the headstall to Lucy’s helmet, I taped glowsticks to the breastcollar, Kaity changed out saddle pads, and Lucy showered, changed, and ate.
We were scuttling a bit to get everything done in time – that hour seemed to go by awfully fast. Until we got to the out-timer, that is, and they noticed a mix-up on Lucy’s out-time slip – they had written too early of a time on her card. By the time we got to the out-timer, we still had about four minutes to kill, so Fergus got to stand up the troughs and I spent the time stuffing as much last minute hay into him as I could. They left right on time.
waiting to leave Foresthill

on their way again!
(Funny enough, this is actually my own personal strategy I use deliberately at rides – I mentally “reset” my out-time to anywhere between 2-5 minutes before it actually is, because I hate leaving checks late…when you ride a back-of-the-pack turtle horse, every minute is precious.)
Once the girl + horse had disappeared into the darkness, we packed up the trailer and all made our way back to the Fairgrounds. Lucy had reserved a spot in the North Lot camping area (the same spot Kaity had last year), and it got all prepared for Fergus’s arrival with his Spring Tie, shavings spread, and food and water waiting.
We all stayed up chatting for a bit, then gradually succumbed to the idea of grabbing even a couple of hours of nap-time. I stretched out on the backseat of Kaity’s truck, and dozed fitfully only to discover I was laying with my head facing downhill. That never works, so once I righted myself and tucked into my sleeping bag (I can’t believe I was COLD…but 2:00AM + being tired will do that to ya…), I managed to snooze for another hour or so.
Based on her times, and online tracking and updates, we expected Lucy in around 4AM SUNDAY, so we were waiting for her on the hill at the Official Timed Finish (which they had all lit up with Christmas lights – pretty!) by about 3:30ish or so. It’s fun to watch the riders come in – you can usually see glowsticks before anything else, so you wonder if that’s your rider yet…you try to remember who they were riding near…you whoop and holler and cheer…and keep watching for glowsticks…
fancy decorated finish
Lucy and Fergus had three very bright green glowsticks (battery-powered, reusable type, so brighter than even the standard green crack-and-go type)…we kept watching…riders we knew had been riding near her came in…and then there they were.
Fergus was doing his big striding/shuffley/gaity thing he does, and he just marched right under that lit-up banner, and just kept on marching right down to the stadium. 100 miles, and he still was doing his Big Trot around the stadium…and predictably spooked at the chalk finish line.
heading into the stadium

FINISHED!
All day long, every time we saw him, his attitude had been “Yeah, I got this.” He knew exactly where he was, what he was doing, and how this game was played. They finished faster, too. (22 minutes faster, and Lucy was almost spot-on with her goal time of 4:00AM – they came in a 4:03AM.)
The same attitude carried over to his final vet check – he strode out, he strode back, and he looked absolutely fantastic. And then he proceeded to drag me back to the trailer for food. Kaity wrapped his legs, then we took him back down for one final check – within 1-2 hours of finishing, the horse has to come back for one final metabolics check, just to make sure they’re not experiencing any kind of delayed post-ride problem.
final trot-out
When the head vet of Tevis does the final check on the horse and says he looks good, you know he looks good. And he did. He really did. Back at the trailer, Fergus settled in with a few more bites of food, then he was ready to sleep. Kaity and I threw sleeping mats and sleeping bags on the ground behind the truck – I figured that as soon as the sun was up (which was going to happen in about an hour at this point), I would be awake…but what they heck, it was a chance for another nap at least.
I managed to sleep until almost 9AM.
A shower was the first order of business, and it involved a bunch of us ladies commandeering the men’s room temporarily when it was discovered only one shower in the women’s bathrooms was functioning. Fastest shower ever – and it still didn’t remove the Tevis tan line of dirt embedded around the ankles – but at least removing the outermost layer of dirt felt really good.
Tevis tan line — sexy, no?

Then we grabbed breakfast and watched the Haggin Cup judging. Five of the Top Ten horses showed this year. I would love to be a fly on the wall for the Cup Committee discussions – it would be fascinating to know what was said, what was seen by Committee members, and all of the other factors aside from just the trot-out that we see that go into the decision of awarding the Cup.
I did a bit of shopping at the Tevis Store – wanted to get raffle tickets for the big raffle they did to support the rebuilding of the Swinging Bridge, and got a couple new decal stickers and new Tevis t-shirt. Drooled over shiny merchandise with “Tevis” embroidered on it, but my deal with myself is that my name actually has to be on that rider list before I will justify anything beyond a t-shirt. (Don’t mind me, I’m weird. I also won’t buy any of the silver buckle decals or pins or anything until I actually have a buckle, either.)
my friend Hannah came in NINTH on her
home-bred, raised, and trained gelding Stuart
(she rides in Renegades, and her finish was the
first Top Ten Tevis finish for Renegade)

I’m usually pretty mentally cooked by the time the awards banquet rolls around. Fortunately there was plenty of tasty food, I stood and clapped in all the appropriate spaces, and then it was done. We socialized for a little bit afterwards, then headed back to the trailer to wrap things up, pack up Fergus, then head back to Low Camp. The rest of the evening was low-key, hanging out on the back porch, then eventually turning in at a fairly reasonable hour. Kaity and I were going to do one final ride in the morning…because OF COURSE that’s what you do the day after you’ve been crewing Tevis all weekend. 
…more still to come…