Tom Quilty 2019 – part 2

The alarm had been set for 10:30.  Horses were to be saddled and ready to start warming up by 11:15.  Ride start 12:00 or 00:00:00, midnight.  I had been planning to have breakfast when I got up, but it was a little too early for that, so I settled for a hot chocolate and some homemade snacks. 

Kerry and Richard were getting Amethyst ready, I just had to get myself sorted.  I was very pleased to have scored another trial pair of Caviar tights, these tights are the most comfortable I have ever ridden in, but the pair I had been given two years previously were decidedly worse for wear.  I had brought them along anyway as they were still going to be my first choice, but imagine my delight to get a phone call on Thursday to come over and grab another pair. 

Soon we were all mounted and making our way to the start, circling clockwise in an ever increasing whirlpool of horses.  As Amethyst and I were going to be riding on our own and going slowly I chose to simply walk around near the middle, keeping out of trouble and out of the way of those trotting.  Amethyst was confused to be on her own and called out occasionally.  Initially it had been planned that I would be riding with Floor on another of Brook’s horses.  But she had been offered a ride on another more experienced horse and so Amethyst and I were on our own.  Kerry and Richard had been answering questions about whether I would be ok riding alone – sure – but nobody had consulted Amethyst.  As a young horse in a large stable she was used to company and was noticing their absence already.

The magic of the singing of the Tom Quilty song before the start  has to be experienced to be understood.  Very emotional to be actually there and about to start in this epic ride.  I don’t know about everyone else but I was singing the chorus to myself throughout the first loop and then again during the last loop.  “Tom Quilty, Tom Quilty your name will ever stand, As long as we’ve got horses to ride across this land, Horses with courage, Riders with guts, We’ll ride your course, God bless the horse and your old gold cup”

Away we go!  Midnight!  Horses start streaming out the gate and down the road.  Amethyst and I wait until most of the whirlpool of horses has gone before making our own way onto the course.  Our aim was to do about 10km/hr so for the 45km that meant we would be in about 4:30, I certainly didn’t want to be in before 4 at the earliest.

As promised it was a long, tough loop.  There were hills and they were a decent size with plenty of work in them.  One thing I noticed that was very different from riding in the dark in New Zealand was that all the tracks were forestry roads, so even the narrower ones were still drivable.  Thus while the loop was challenging in terrain, it did not have the same technical challenges of finding the best line across pasture and broken ground that we have at home.

Amethyst was feeling less confident than I expected, again I think this was just due to being out on her own and with a strange rider as well.  She was doing everything right and it wasn’t a problem, I could just feel she wasn’t sure.  So I sang her the confidence song from Sound of Music… at least the bits I could remember, and only when we were alone!!  “ I have confidence in confidence alone, Besides which you see I have confidence in me!” Have confidence in yourself, have confidence in your rider.

All went well and we were home less than a minute past 4:30!  No water needed her heart rate was 48 so we were able to go straight in.  Everything was great – loop 2 here we come.  But first time for breakfast both Amethyst and I were HUNGRY.

Loop 2 was nice, this was the only loop that went around the base and off in the other direction.  Already the leaders were well ahead of us and were coming in from loop 2 as we were heading out.  Still cool as the sun came up, some riders noticed a slight frost.  Some nice flatter track along roadsides and then another big climb in the forest that seemed to just go up and up forever… and then down again.  Again Amethyst had been feeling great and vetted well, all As and 1s with a -4 CRI.

As was mentioned in the ride briefing loop 3 also had a lot of work in it.  Amethyst found this loop quite difficult, having previously only done 80km she was confused to be going out again and took a while to get going.  Again she was not even slightly difficult, just a feeling of confusion and hesitancy.  This was further than she’d been before, so fair enough!  On all the loops I had been getting off and leading her down the steeper hills, now I started jogging beside her for a while along the flat before getting back on.  This really seemed to perk her up as when I got on she would be enthused and ready to go.  I was still leading her at one stage when we came across a horse and rider relaxing on the side of the road, horse unsaddled and grazing.  “You ok?”  Yes they were, the horse had lost a shoe and they were taking the chance for a rest and a feed while waiting for the farrier.  Amethyst was happy to graze for a while too. 

On reflection I think this is what makes the 24 hour time limit that is used for the Quilty and for 100 mile rides in America better than the 16 hour limit set by FEI.  If you lost a shoe in an FEI ride and was not able to get it back on promptly then either you would have to pull out or would be forced to put extra pressure on your horse to catch up, or ride without the shoe and risk going out lame.  With plenty of time it isn’t a problem, people can get things sorted and still look after their horses and ride the best speed for the horse.  If your horse needs to go slower… fine, needs to eat?… not a problem.

Crowds were gathering as we came into base at the end of loop 3 – the winner wasn’t far away!

 We were slightly slower than our 10km/hr but not by much, and it didn’t matter anyway.  Again she came in feeling great and again vetted through fine.  I felt that I wasn’t doing such a great job trotting her up though, so decided then that I would get someone else to trot her out next time.  I think having a fresh person running out can help a horse have more enthusiasm than a tired rider with sore feet!  And all the better if it was someone she knew, who was more familiar with their methods.

Loop 4 was a bit easier.  It was very similar to loop 3 but missed out the two hilliest extra loops.  I noticed during loop 4 that there was one offshoot from the main track that was also part of loop 5.  Have to make sure we didn’t miss the turnoff as it was going to be dark on our last loop.  Amethyst trotted out beautifully, it was great to be able to watch her and see how good she looked, you can’t really tell when you’re running beside them.

Then the final loop.  My headlamp was back on – would the batteries last one more loop?  I had bought top quality batteries so they should…  As she had for loop 4 Amethyst trotted out happily on this last loop.  While she’d been confused going out again on loop 3 she now had gained that confidence she had been lacking for the first loop.  We may be going to go on forever… but she had this!  Let’s do it!  However it’d been a big day and she was getting pretty tired so again I got off to do some leading to help her enthusiasm, it had done a great job on loop 4.  But no, my legs were actually over it now and I was more of a hindrance!  I did have to get off one more time though as I had managed to get the martingale tangled when I put the reins back over her head.

Keeping a close eye out in the dark for turn off we did that loop and then we’re on the final run for home!  Or jog really, though she was still trotting along well and didn’t need to walk up those gentle hills that Brook and I had discussed a year ago yesterday.  As it was getting cold again and she seemed fine I decided to let her keep going at the same speed we had all day, I didn’t want her cooling down and stiffening up.  Through the last checkpoint “368, loop 5!!! Thank you!”  Only a couple of kilometres to go!

We jog in to the finish, gear off, weigh.  Her heart rate came down quickly, a bit longer to be sure for the final vetting.   56, 52 she finishes with a -4 CRI, what a star!  A great final trot up… we have our buckle!  I whisper to her how great she is as the vet checks her other parameters.  Then hugs all round as we take Amethyst back for a big feed – she’s really hungry and has been just about taking people’s hands off when offered lucerne in the strapping area!  She hadn’t wanted to eat grass out on track though, she was all business and just wanted to get back to base.

We had finished the ride averaging just under 10km/hr.  My friend Emma (Kerry and Richard’s daughter) who won the half way finisher saddle was about 20 minutes behind me, so I was actually in the faster half of the completers, which was a huge surprise.   Again this confirms for me that having the minimum speed of 10km/hr enforced by FEI rules for 160km rides is not a good idea.  It is very noticeable in the Quilty that the emphasis is on getting your buckle, imagine the carnage there would have been had everyone been trying to get in before me?  That’s over half the qualifiers who would either be denied their buckle for being too slow, or who may not have qualified because they were forced to go faster.  As it was the completion rate was nearly 65% which is fantastic.

After celebrating around the camp fire it was off to bed early.  Waking around 3am and taking myself to the warm toilets I noticed the lights were still on in the vet hospital.  Hopefully not too many horses in there still, hopefully nothing too serious.  There’s a woman loitering in the toilets – fair enough it’s so lovely and warm – she’s still there when I come out… can I help please?  Sure.  She has extreme pain in one leg, can I find someone to help?  I know there’s someone at the vet hospital so I head there.  Only one horse and it’s recovering steadily.  After consulting the vets who know which officials to wake and we soon have help.  All he does is call the ambulance and for a moment we feel bad about waking him, but as I point out there is no way I could have given directions to base!  After much deliberating she decides to go with the ambulance – feeling silly as it’s just a sore leg, but pain level is 9 out of 10 and she can’t walk, and if she goes with him he can give her better drugs!  Just as well she went, she had tied up!  And – apart from breaking out for her buckle presentation – was in hospital for three days on fluids!!

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Sunday arrives and it’s time to say goodbye to Amethyst, she’s off home for some well deserved paddock rest. 

Best conditioned work outs, buckle presentations, dinner, laser light show, and another early-ish night… an early rise needed to get to the airport in time… back to home and reality.