Check out this photograph of Remington and me at the Tejon Ranch 50 Mile
Endurance Ride the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There are other photos of us
in
the same gallery.
_http://www.photo.lynnesite.com/photos/225319974-L-2.jpg_
(http://www.photo.lynnesite.com/photos/225319974-L-2.jpg)
My secretary said it sure looked like I was happy from my smile as we rode
by the photographer, my buddy Lynne Glazer. This was my first endurance ride
since last May. An oppressive work schedule togethr with my broken leg last
May and skin damage to both Remington and Skjoldur from some saddle problems
last spring kept us out of competition in the meantime. After some
significant modifications to the saddle advised by the manufacturer, it seemed
to
really work well this time. More about that later. It was great to be back
on
the trail again.
Tejon Ranch is the largest undeveloped parcel of private land in California
at approximately 280,000 acres, larger than most National Parks. I was glad
to have the opportunity to see it. We did a lot of climbing in the Tehachapi
Mountains and saw some gorgeous views looking out over the San Joaquin
Valley. The first loop was 30 miles with an hour break back in camp and then
another 20 mile loop. Both loops went by a beautiful lake which I got to see
at
sunrise and sunset as well as going in and out of lunch.
Although the ride consisted predominantly of several thousand feet of steep
uphills and downhills and was very tiring for me, Remington seemed fresh and
strong throughout. He was very sound with not a hint of lameness in his trot
outs at the vet check. The head vet set the pulse down requirement to 56
bpm instead of the usual 64 or 60 bpm. Although horses have half an hour to
pulse down at a vet check, Remington pulsed down to 56 immediately at every
one
of them, including the finish.
He showed no signs of any metabolic or other stress at any time in the ride.
For an about to turn twenty year old horse at mile 28 of a hard ride, he
looks pretty good in the photo. As I have written several times before, at
10,400 career competition miles he is the third highest mileage endurance in
the
world still active and the highest for horses still doing one hundred mile
one day rides. When I had his legs x-rayed last February, the little bit of
arthritis he had had for a few years in his left front pastern joint had
completely disappeared. Maybe he is becoming immortal.
John Parke
Solvang Ca
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