Oconee WMA 25/50 - story

["Tina Hicks" <tina@liveonthenet.com>]

Well, this weekend was my first ride in almost a year and the 
initiation ride for my new Merhow trailer (you can check it out at 
home.hiwaay.net/~bhereth/pics). 

The short story is we did great for 25 miles - the only problem was 
we entered the 50 :). I pulled because Tony decided March 4 was 
not a good day for drinking, at all, ever. So while all other 
paramaters were looking good, when the vet did the skin pinch at the 
second check his skin stood out like an "A" and his cap refill time 
was crummy - the vet looked at me and said "that worries me a 
little". Now, knowing Tony's gut shuts down if you look at it wrong 
(tho they were moving fine Saturday, go figure) and knowing his HR 
hadn't dropped like it should have I told the vet I'd take some extra 
time to see if he'd drink, bring him back for a re-check and we'd 
see. Well, the extra time didn't convince him to drink - even when I 
took him back to his pen where is buddy was (who was going back 
home with her owner Samm so wasn't being ridden). So I pulled - 30 
minutes after I did he sucked down a ton of water.

Man, horses can be a real pain :)) Anyway, it was the right call for 
us - there's always another ride.

The trail was great - a bit muddy from our early morning shower - 
but otherwise pretty and well marked. The vets and help worked their 
tails off to make the checks go as smoothly as possible even tho 
help was a little scarce and Samm never got to stop yelling as she 
was in timer/out timer/arrival timer/etc...all day. This sport would 
shrivel up and blow away without all the volunteers that come out to 
make a ride a ride.

I don't remember exactly but seems like there were about 60 25s 
and 40 or so 50s - a pretty good crowd. We all had a good time 
even tho it was in the 50s cloudy, windy, and cold most of the day 
(after a forecast of "chance of showers in the AM, then sunny and 
68 - yeah, right)  - what's a little weather to endurance, right? 

There were 10 pulls on the 50 and not that many on the 25 but I 
can't remember exactly. Apparently this was a lower pull rate than in 
past years.

Here a few lessons I learned from the first ride of my fourth season:

1) Weather forecasts aren't worth the time time they take to load on 
weather.com

2) Pringles cans are not waterproof

3) You can buy all the fancy vinyl totebags and such you like - 
nothing beats a good garbage bag for keeping your stuff dry at 
vetcheck when it pours in the wee hours of Sat. AM  - next time 
that's what I'll use and maybe my Pringles would have survived the 
rain.

4) I can re-tie a rump rug at a full trot on a slick red clay road while 
turned around talking.

5) Trust no one when you ask them about a trail - everyone's 
interpretation of rocky, hilly, or flat is vastly different. 

7) Mules can make a ton of noise.

8) Don't bother worrying about your horse's feet or gut sounds or 
anything else cuz then you just have other problems - and when you 
worry about those you'll have a new set of troubles. Just go ride.

9) If I'm ever in a bad fall on the traiI I hope Danny Herlong is on the 
trail with me - he went back to camp at a high rate of speed from the 
middle a loop to let management know that a rider was down (I don't 
remember hearing what happened to her - maybe Truman or Samm 
knows) and then went back out on the trail (for a total of 1.5 times on 
that loop) to complete the ride several places lower than he would 
have otherwise.

10) Nothing makes you get out of bed faster on a post-ride AM than 
someone politely knocking on your camper door and saying "your 
horses are across the pasture grazing" (instead of in their pen 
which is where they were when you went to bed).

11) When you're crewless, don't hesitate to just walk up to someone 
and ask them to hold your horse while you take a bathroom break - 
I've never had anyone refuse me yet - maybe it's the look of panic 
and desperation on my face :)

Anyway, a good ride all the way around and one I'll certainly keep 
on my calendar for next year.

Next stop - Million Pines - hope to see some of you there.

Tina
tina@liveonthenet.com