Fifty Two Miles: We Did it Again

Yesterday Emily M. and I set out to get in a fifty mile day. I had ridden a hard 13 miles the day before. Ruthann joined us for the first fifteen miles of the ride before it was time for her to go home. She rode Comet and her great horse Medicine Dog for her stretch of the ride. Emily M. did 37 miles on Young Joseph, a Chincoteague/BLM cross, that seems incapable of exhaustion, and did the remainder on Samson, a Corolla who rode lead through the darkness like an old pro, with one hard five mile ride on Wanchese, my little Shackleford stallion.

I rode my SMR stallion, Ta Sunka Witco, for 30 miles, gave Trade Wind a hard five mile ride. and did the remainder on Holland, my Shacklford shown pictured above.

We were joined for the last seven miles in darkness by Emily W. on my Shackleford, Porter and Norm rode Riggs for his first night ride.

I have done fifty miles in a day on several occasions but this time Emily and I did things differently. We took extended lunch breaks and even went into town for supper. These breaks, and the change of mounts, gave our horses enough time to rest to allow us to really cover ground when we were riding. In fact, the vast majority of Joseph's miles were accomplished at a lope and to a lesser degree so were Ta Sunka's miles. By doing so we finished nearly two hours sooner than on my first fifty mile ride.

Emily sees beauty everywhere she looks. I see challenges everywhere I look. Yesterday, Emily looked around and saw a beautiful day. I looked around and saw a day that I whipped, and whipped badly.

Fifty two miles. Fifty pounds over weight. Fifty years old.

I won.