Big Horn 100 completion 2013

 Gary Brown and I went first of all to Dorothy Sue's and stayed the night. Its always great to visit with DS and she has a lovely place to rest the horses. Of course Kip 'did not' rest. He did a warm up 100 miles pacing in the paddock up and down probably all night.
Arrived at ride camp on Friday arvo and set up next to the wonderful Haeberles.See here a pic of Joe, Gary and I heading for the ride meeting which is held in the Shell Community Hall. Yes, we are riding like silly children in the back of John's pick-up.That's our mountain waiting for us there in the back ground.
The ride itself is spectacular. Expanding canyons loom up after daybreak to take your breath away and the climbs and decents are grueling. Gary and I rode together the whole way and our horses paced together well. Gary decided Duna and Kip were magnets as Duna would move only a short distance from the Kipper before locking back into him. And we made great time in spite of the fact we experience the 'battle of the boot' where Gary had to get of about 10 times to fix D's easy boots and i just simple lost Kip's glue ons and replace them with easy boot gloves at the vet checks. If it wasn't for this, I think we may have been in around midnight. We made it in at 3.02 am. Once again, there was a mishap with trail marking for about 12 miles in the darkest part of the ride. The new solar lights were there....but not charged!Whoops!  Thanks to Joe we made it down the mountain Ok. Joe and Scooter are veterans now and know the trail well. Now I have my own equine GPS in the name of Kipling. Next time it will be clear sailing down the mountain!
Yvette was not far behind us on Roscoe the wonder horse and was greeted by John and the super crew at 3.27 am. She too is now a 100 mile rider with a 100 mile horse! What a ride! 
Callie and Jesse had to pull at 75 miles, still a distance to be proud of. Callie and boyfriend Ben had everything ready for us so we could crash after vetting our amazing horses in. C and B, we love you!
The help at this ride was amazing. Thanks John, Laurel,Ben, Callie and my little  buddy Bryce for taking care of me and my horse along with a million other things that needed tending to. And let's not forget Tim French who just seems to be everywhere at every moment helping everyone. He sure was a hero when he turned up at the bottom of the mountain with water for the horses.I thought they were going to drown themselves they we so thirsty!
A big thanks goes out to the Tolmans, Vets and volunteers who put this ride on year after year. After two tries, I have my buckle will be back again some day to challenge the mountain.
(Hannah Pruss went on to win the ride after a nasty fall at the beginning left her with a badly injured wrist!)

Ronnie and Kip.