Muckleratz CTR 2025

 July was about Muckleratz and August has been about my NACMO ride, and every day I question why I feel the need to even continue telling the entire universe about all my rides ad nauseum. But here we are. For now.

Last year, I took Booger to the endurance ride at Muckleratz, then turned around and did the CDR with Lucy. I had a lot of fun doing it that way, so I decided to repeat the performance this year. It has been a month already so some of the details are fuzzy by now. 

Good girl, Lu.

My original plan was to glue shoes before Melt Your Popsicle and use the same set at Muckleratz the following weekend. Then I found myself feeling lazy and just used front boots for the CMO ride. Instead, I glued the shoes the Wednesday before we left for the CTR. The farrier was coming the following week so I'd basically be putting them on, riding, and then pulling them off. It's kind of a waste of money to do it that way, but it's worth it to not have to worry about boots.

I actually let Mike do the gluing this round. He has been wanting to give it a go, and the pressure was low. Because it is actively bug season, we tried adding zip ties to the shoes to hold them in place. My horses tend to stand really well for shoeing, and the shoes fit well enough that they actually don't move much even with some stomping, but I wanted to try this method. It worked really well, though I did not like the look of the zip ties sticking out of the glue after I cut them off. I was lazy again and did not file down the glue after it set like I normally do. The presentation was not as neat and tidy as usual, but I didn't really care, and the retention was excellent so... meh.

Unfortunately, the shoes seemed to backfire in a way I couldn't have predicted. I brought Lucy in on Friday to go to the ride and found that she had a massive shoe boil on her right elbow.

Well, crap.

Lucy has always had a callus on that elbow, and occasionally gets some thickening of the bursa. I suspect it has to do with the way they taught her to lay down in Texas. Girlfriend is covered in many lumps, bumps, and scars that tell the tale of a rough childhood before she landed with us. I have never seen it blow up like this, however. Not only was the capped elbow swollen, it was also hot and tender to the touch. She had clearly irritated it.

Mike and I are the photographers for the ride so we were heading to camp with or without the horse. Furthermore, we were bringing the horse trailer with us regardless. I figured I might as well take Lucy. I assumed we would not start, but there is nobody I trust more than an endurance ride vet. It wouldn't hurt to bring her and get her looked at. So that's what we did.

The drive out to Muckleratz was not the best we've ever had. We got to 81 just in time for some massive  thunderstorms to hit the area. The lightning was flashing pretty much constantly and the windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the deluge. Everybody was crawling on the highway with their flashers on and I was white knuckled in the passenger seat. The forecast for the weekend wasn't looking great either.

We did get lucky and catch a break in the rain as we arrived in camp, but I was told the storms that had just passed through were pretty intense.

A screenshot of the lightning strikes near camp.

We got everything set up and situated and gave Lucy some time to settle in. Then we headed up to vetting. I pointed the elbow out to Dodie and Dr. Nick. I also had Mike jog Lucy so I could watch her go. She was quite lame. Ouch. Nick suggested bringing her for a recheck in the morning, but I fully expected not to ride. I also asked Nick what his thoughts on bursa surgery are, and he said that if this becomes a chronic issue, he recommends it. 

Finances aside, I have some concerns about doing surgery over a joint. I also worry that Lucy has been traveling well despite a history of trauma to the area, and I worry that interfering with what she's used to might cause more harm than good. 

I have also consulted with my regular vet at home, and his approach is very conservative. He recommends leaving capped joints alone for a slew of reasons. Wound care, potential infection, and scar tissue are factors. He also warned me that they take a very long time to reabsorb once they've been irritated. 

All of this is to say that I am quite torn about what to do and when. Personally, I take a pretty minimalistic approach to non-emergency horse care. I tend to be in the "watch and see" camp. One month later, the elbow is still slightly thickened, but Lucy is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and eager to go down the trail. I think she is moving well, though I can do my usual mind meld and make her lame if I stare at her long enough. I guess time will tell.

Back in camp, we did the usual afternoon activities: dinner, ride briefing, social hour. I paid attention during the meeting on the off chance I might go out the next day. Then it was back to the trailer to relax and get ready for the next day. I prepped as though I was riding, but was ready to shoot candid photos in camp all day instead.

The weather that evening (the whole weekend actually) was dreadful. Storms kept rolling through camp with heavy wind and rain. Between downpours, it was hot and extremely humid. I am not a huge fan of July. 

Hiding under our pop up tent while the rain comes down. (The pop up tent would not survive the weekend...)

Jen and her friend LeAnne were in camp for the weekend and it was really fun to catch up. Jen was doing her first distance ride back since Killian injured himself. LeAnne is starting her lovely, young mare and this was their second competition. She is very sweet and I enjoy spending time with her. 

It had been a long day and the weather was not cooperating. We were ready for bed before it even got fully dark out. First, we took advantage of the outdoor showers to get cleaned up before crawling in the gooseneck. This time, we did not lock ourselves out of our truck (and also the spare keys now live in the trailer). 

On the way back, I paused at the clubhouse to see what my proposed start time was. This way I could do backwards math to figure out when I needed to be up/vetted/etc. My start time was 6:59am, and I would be going out solo.

Sleep was tough that night. It was hot and muggy even after darkness fell. We have fans in the gooseneck, but they are industrial grade and very loud. Instead, Mike and I grabbed our battery-powered DeWalt fans and stuck them next to the mattress. They worked really well and are nice and quiet. (I have to laugh when I think about all the money we spent on upgrades for our trailer, only to have work-arounds for most of them. The irony is striking.)

Vetting was supposed to start as soon as the sun came up, so I was up bright and early with Lucy in tow. Her elbow was still swollen, but not nearly as hot or sensitive as it was the day before. I took her up to Dr. Nick for a once over. I was fully expecting to have my first DNS on my record. 

I jogged Lucy down and back and she was peppy and happy to go. This was a good sign. Nick said she looked good on the way out (up hill). She took some funny steps here and there on the way back (down hill), but Nick said she was much improved. The final verdict was that she was sound enough to start and that I would keep an eye on it.

"I think the movement will be the best thing for it," Nick added. Good enough for me.

After that it was a bunch of hurry up and wait for my start an hour later. I gave Lucy breakfast and a dose of electrolytes, finished packing my saddle bags, and got dressed to ride. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but in a way it took the pressure off for the day.  

At 7:59am, Lucy and I were off, trotting down the road out of camp right on schedule. She actually felt really good and was raring to go. I decided to just let her roll. I figured we could go fast in the beginning to get a cushion on our time, then slow down as Lucy got more tired. (Spoiler alert, she never got tired.) 

We passed several people on the climb up the mountain, which was surprising to me. While Lucy does not eat up the hill the same way Booger powers up it, she did chug steadily along, requiring only a few walk breaks along the way. As always, Lucy proved to be fitter than I give her credit for.

At the hang glider launch, we passed Mike and his camera and we bebopped right along.

We paused at the water trough by Jim, and I glanced at my watch. We were going too fast so I let Lucy hang out for a minute before carrying on down the gravel road to the left. I was glad to see that we were not doing the ridge trail at the CTR. Instead, we made our way directly to the snow mobile trails. In fact, the loop was mostly snow mobile trail. This made for a fast ride time.

In fact, that was the pattern all weekend. Lucy was raring to go and I was ok with it. We did a lot of cantering through the forest on a loose rein without a care in the world. I was keeping an eye on my watch as the miles went by. Any time we got our moving average up much past 6mph, I asked Lucy to take a walk break to let the clock run. Our pace was right where it needed to be to come in at minimum time.

About halfway through the loop, we came to the picnic grounds. John was one of the spotters at the water troughs and I asked him how Lucy looked coming down the gravel road. He commented that she looked great and that her foot falls sounded nice and even. Excellent!

After I let Lucy drink, we came back out White Oak Road and swung right, eventually picking up the Matter Trail and flying right along until we came to Lucia's water stop. When we arrived, Lucia seemed surprised to see me. She commented that I was the first of the CDRs to come through. I guess we were really cruising and had passed everyone who started in front of us.

This rock has become a landmark for me.

Last year, Lucy loved the watermelon at this spot and was pulling pieces other horses had dropped out of the water trough. I was excited to offer her more this year, but she did not seem interested. This was disappointing to me. (Her appetite was otherwise good and she was happy to have cookies and carrots along the way. I guess the watermelon was a one-time thing last summer.)

From there, we came down the logging trail back to camp. 

This is when I realized that the course was going to be about a quarter mile shy of 12 miles! This was not good news because we were already running fast enough to be bumping up against our minimum time. I was originally prepared to walk the last two miles in from the trough to the finish, but Lucy was still powering right along. Even at a walk, she moves at about 4mph. I found myself with a mile to go and half an hour to get there. I don't think Lucy can physically go that slow. 

I did some creative walking in the last mile. I tried to just wait the time out at one of the forest service gates, but Lucy thought this was a stupid game. She knew we were almost back and she was eager to get there. Standing around for no reason was definitely going to get her good and frustrated. Instead, I spent some time back tracking and walking zig zags to slow us down. 

I was riding pass/fail, but I'll be honest: I don't know the rules as well as I should. I knew the ideal time was 2-2.5 hours for the 12 mile course. There is a half hour of wiggle room on the back end of that window where you get points off if you're competing (and nothing happens if you're riding pass/fail) but I wasn't sure about the front end of the window. It turns out it's a good thing I spent a while killing time. You can apparently be a little slow, but you are absolutely not supposed to go too fast. (What happens in pass/fail can be a bit subjective, but I'd prefer not to take chances.)

In the end, Lucy and I came in at exactly two hours (and about thirty seconds). 

I wandered down to the trailer and got Lucy untacked and sponged off while she ate her mash. For CTR, you get 20 minutes at the finish before you are supposed to walk up to vet. I knew her pulse would be down by then and we weren't competing so I took my sweet time sponging her and letting her cool off. After all the walking we had done, it didn't take much. 

Then it was up to vetting again. I did a terrible job keeping track of anything at this ride. (See previous comments about not caring any more.) I think Lucy's heart rate at the finish was something like 52. It was low enough for endurance standards, and not low enough to warrant riding anything but pass/fail. I trotted her down and back, which is the only part I cared about. I was pleased when Nick announced that she looked even better than she had at the start. Still not 100% perfect every step, but trending in the right direction. Awesome!

We got our completion and I got Lucy put away. 

That brings us to about 9:30am. Wow. It's amazing how much you can get done in a day when you rise before the sun.

Mike was still out on trail taking photos. I still had some time before people started coming in off the second loop, so I did some reading and relaxing.

Did I mention the bugs were horrendous that weekend? Truly, I dislike summer.

Eventually, riders started to trickle in and I wandered up to the vetting lanes to take pictures there and in the hold area. I spent time chatting with Nick, Dodie, and various volunteers. At some point, Mike finished at the hang glider launch and joined me in camp. As always, I enjoyed watching riders doing their thing. 

Here are some photos:

LeAnne's beautiful young mare.

Vets and volunteers.

Killian being silly.

And then handsome.

By early afternoon, the ride had wrapped up. I was hot and itchy and grumpy so I crawled back in the trailer and took a nap. That helped.

Then it was the usual blur of ride camp when the riding isn't happening. There was round two of ride meeting and food (taco bar). There was round 200 of rain and subsequent steaming. At some point, Sam rolled into camp to visit with the dogs in tow, which I always enjoy. Then she and Rachel got introduced when Rachel came over for some portrait photos. A good time was had and I remember next to nothing about it a month later.

Oh, and the campground did its Chevy Curse thing again. Another Chevy trucked locked itself on the other side of the field! I have actually talked to many people since our own mishap at the endurance ride. Apparently, a lot of people have had their trucks lock themselves at Muckleratz. All of them have been Chevy trucks. We joked that the campground is located on an old Chevy burial ground. These guys did not call for help and managed to break into the truck on their own. It did take them several hours though. When we finally heard the car alarm go off, indicating success, we gave them a standing ovation. (Who says we don't have fun?)

Sometime in the process of all this, I found myself volunteering to pull ribbons on the orange loop the following morning. I was saying that I felt like Lucy could have done more miles, and Helen suggested that this would be a good way to get more riding in without competing. I was all for it! 

(I also wandered up to Mary's tent and bought myself the fanny pack Mike has been telling me I need for the last several years...)

And so the day passed until we started to slowly run out of daylight. Once again, I was ready to call it quits before the sun went down. I took Lucy for a walk at dusk, then headed up to the showers again.

That night, I did not feel like I slept well. Once again, it was hot and muggy (though the fans helped). I am also having a hard time with the trailer mattress. It is definitely too firm and I struggle to get comfortable. I end up dealing with hip and back pain and having to toss and turn to relieve it. 

With that said, I must have fallen into a deep sleep at some point. Apparently there was a massive storm that night with rain that made the previous day's monsoon seem like a mere drizzle. There were also powerful winds. There was water actively running through the field and trees were coming down in the woods. I slept right through it. So did Mike. This is when our party tent suffered catastrophic injuries. We woke up in the morning to find the whole thing collapsed in a heap. There was no salvaging it. This also meant anything that was under the pop-up got soaked, including my riding shoes. Whoops. 

The following morning started in much the same way Saturday had. Mike got ready to head up to the hang glider launch and I took Lucy back to the vet for a safety check, which she passed with flying colors. I waited until the gap between distances to head out onto the trail. I would be sweep riding behind the 25's on their first loop. The CDRs would go out behind me, but head onto the blue loop instead. 

Lucy and I hit the trail shortly before 7am. I thought she might be tired from the day before. If anything, she had even more energy on the second day! 

We went up the mountain again. There were a few trees down along the way, but nothing we couldn't step over. Once again, we wound up catching people on the climb. This time, we couldn't pass them because we were pulling ribbons behind them. Lucy thought having to slow to a walk was stupid. I was glad to see her feeling so good.

The problem with going out between the CDR and the CTR was that the people at the back of the CDR were going slower than we were, and the front runners on the CTR were going faster than that. Eventually, Millie's group caught and passed us. The timing worked out because there was an orange ribbon on the ground, which required me to dismount anyway. I hand walked for a while after that to give everyone some space.

Once again, we reached the top and passed Mike.

Lucy looking quite svelte. The view was quite different on day 2. 

Hello, Michael.

I spent a bit of time hanging out with Mike up top to give the CTR riders some space in front of me before heading out. This time, I went straight past Jim at the water trough instead of making the left onto Wolf Pond Road. 

It was quite eerie up on the mountain in the fog that morning.

A short while later, Mike called me to let me know Andrea had gone the wrong way at Jim and was on the wrong loop behind me. He was worried she would get lost since I was pulling the ribbons, but I reminded him that I was leaving the arrows up for John. 

A little bit after that, Andrea caught up to me and I informed her that she was going the wrong way and potentially doing extra miles. It turned out she was following Ride with GPS, but hadn't noticed that she had both loops, not just the one she was supposed to be riding.

Not far from that spot, the orange and blue trails came together again and Andrea got back on course. Meanwhile, I got passed by Millie's group again.

Lucy did not understand why I wasn't letting her pass horses like I had the day before, and I wound up hiking on foot for a bit more while we let them get a head start on us. 

I spotted this guy at the endurance ride but didn't have a chance to stop. 

After that, it was smooth sailing. Lucy and I had a nice bubble to ourselves. She was eager to go and I mostly let her, stopping only when there were ribbons to retrieve. 

Once we passed the water stop at the picnic grounds (and paused to give everyone some more space) the trail diverted onto the Slate Run Trail. It was fun to get to ride the whole course while only entering the shorter distance. I often casually think about getting more involved in drag riding. Every time I do it, I enjoy myself immensely. 

Good girl cantering along with a growing collection of ribbons flapping around her neck.

Before I knew it, we were passing Lucia and heading down the mountain one last time.

Mike texted me right around that time to let me know he had gotten everyone going through the first time. The light was getting worse, not better, and he was calling it a day up top. We had roughly the same distance to go. I was on horseback on logging road. He was in the truck on winding gravel forest road. I was surprised and amused when I beat him back to camp by a few minutes!

Lucy with her final ribbon count from the 13 mile loop.

Back in camp, I handed in my ribbons and got Lucy put away. This time, since I was not competing, I used the rinse kit to get her washed off and cooled down.

While Mike was shooting candids in camp, I slowly packed up all the horse-related gear. Mike and I had agreed to get everyone in the hold and then roll out. In fact, we had already taken down the temp pen and Lucy was chilling happily on the Hi Tie. 

Well... that turned out to be premature. I don't think I mentioned it above, but this ride was also the AHA regional distance riding championship. (All of two people entered: Diana and Sonja.) Long story short, this meant waiting until they were done to take some formal photos for the AHA newsletter (which I will probably never see). And this meant about another four hours in camp.

Boy was I ready to go home.

Here, have some more photos:

Eventually, things did finally wind down. The good news was that we were mostly packed and it took next to no time at all to get our corner of camp picked up and the horse loaded in the box for the drive home. There was more rain in there somewhere, but I was honestly numb to it by that point. 

We arrived home safely and I put Lucy out for some well-deserved time off. She has been working hard all year and I was happy to let her rest. Unfortunately, she also came down with a cough in August. My vet and I are both confident that it's allergies and has to do with the summer fungus on the pasture since she does it every year, but I still felt bad for her in the meantime. 

It was time to switch gears from July (which revolves around Muckleratz) to August (which revolves around my NACMO ride).

But more on that later. 

(All lackluster blog writing aside, this weekend was generally a success. I was thrilled to ride 25 miles with my best girl, and relieved that the elbow appeared to be mostly cosmetic. I am having a whole *crisis* and blogging falls into that category as well. But I have to write *something* or I'll lose all momentum. So here you go. Mediocre, hurried recap.)