The Washoe Valley Endurance ride is a really well run ride with great ride management, vets and lots of volunteers. The trail was very well marked with plenty of water and even hay provided on trail. Dinners each evening and awards were also really well done. If you haven't done this ride before be sure to put it on your calendar for next year if you are able.
As you can see, there is quite a bit of variety on this ride between the scenery and footing. We had a lot of great wildflowers this year which came in all different colors. Check out an entire album of photos and take a virtual ride through the day two 50-mile course! I rode Bo for the 2nd time on an endurance ride (the first time was the middle day of Mt. Carmel) and he did very well. He is a really fast walker, especially going up and down hill so we did a lot of walking with trotting reserved for the more level and better footing areas and finished around 31st out of 50 starters. He now has 500 miles and this was the fastest ride he's ever done. Here and here are photos that the ride photographers got of us during the ride. Be sure to check out this photo as well - of Dave Rabe and Rushcreek Okay. They completed the first day 50 miler. This was Okay's first ride since the trailer accident and he did really well - Congratulations Dave! (note: there is still time to participate in the raffle to benefit Dave - click here to learn more!)
We had nice weather for the ride with a slight breeze which was perfect for the horses. There were three loops with the first loop being 25 miles with an hour hold, then an additional 18 mile loop with another 15 minute vet check and hold (all in camp) and then a remaining 7 mile loop around Washoe Lake. The first two loops had a lot of climbing with some incredible scenery. Pulse criteria was 60, which Bo breezed right through and overall handled the ride exceptionally well. He is really level headed and steady. His shoes had come off the week before and he handled using four Epics and dome comfort pads just like he'd always been doing it - size 2's on the fronts, and 1's on the hinds. So far he has been sound barefoot with no signs of foot soreness, so appears to be making the conversion to barefoot just as well as Chief did. :)
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