MPines Santini & me

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

Hi all,
Have *terribly* little time this week, but just had to check in and thank
Steph for the loan of her horse Santini at the Million Pines Ride this
weekend.  If you recall, she loaned me the "crazy" horse. :-)

Got there Thursday morning after driving most of the night, Bill drove
the rig down the hill through the pines, totally heedless of the fact
that there might be no place in the world to turn around and we might
have to leave it permanently.  Parked with a beautiful view of the lake
wondering why this great space was still there.  Unloaded the family, and
only *then* noticed we'd parked next door to Danny Herlong and his mule.
>g<  So *that's* why that space wasn't taken! 

Met Steph and Santini.  He was getting new shoes.  Cute bay.  Seemed
sweet.  Seemed like they were warning me about an *awful* lot of stuff. 
Like...be very careful not to tie him up..in EITHER since of the word,
etc. etc.  Tina Hicks showed up without a horse and grabbed the other
spare.  We agreed to ride together.

I took Santini out for a little "get aquainted session" riding with my
neice and another rider (not his buddy) and boy oh boy.  What the heck is
THIS?  How do I describe it?  I was absolutely sure he was trying to rack
in the front.  The rear was going other places.  She'd said he might
gallop in place, but one end was galloping and the other felt like it
really wanted to rack.  I rode him for about an hour and never found any
sort of recognizable gait that I could post. He wasn't the least bit out
of control...just totally out of allignment.  I had no idea how I was
going to ride this for 50 miles. We tried him out with a sponge.  I had
Ashley take her sponge out and dip it in the puddle and he almost had a
heart attack when she yanked it back up.  I considered just putting mine
back in the trailer so as not to risk losing it tomorrow since it
wouldn't be used, but stuck with my vow to never be without one.

Tina tried her mount out and was absolutely in love.  I thought maybe
she'd gotten the better end of the deal.  We decided to start about 10
minutes late.  There were 102 horses in the 50 (huge ride) and almost 100
in the 25 starting 30 minutes later.  There just didn't seem to be a good
place to ride a "crazy" horse.

Sooo...we started about 7 minutes late...and guess what?  HE WAS
FANTASTIC!!!!  The most incredible Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde performance I've
ever witnessed.  The horse was a dream to ride.  Beautiful extended trot,
responsive, fun...you name it.  MUCH safer than Kaboot on a first loop. 
No run aways...passed when we wanted to, fell in behind when we wanted
to.  Meanwhile, Tina's horse which she was told never leads, has to
follow, did a beautiful job of leading for the next 25 miles or so.  Not
that Santini required it.  He seemed totally immune to buddies.  No
problems leaving them in the field or on the trail. By the 7 mile mark, I
dared to take my sponge out.  We were in knee deep water and I just
leaned over and dunked it and brought it up.  He didn't seem to mind, so
I slowly worked my way up to popping it back up to my hand and he said
that was O.K.  By 11 miles I was doing the "swing it forward in the
flying sponge motion" and popping it back with no reaction out of him. 
By the end of the ride I was doing some fairly conservative on the fly
stuff, but sponging heavily at a walk through the 30 yard mudholes.  He
took to it like a pro.

We rode the first 14 miles conservatively and were probably in about 80th
place at the first check.  Vetted thru fine.  Steph had said if we took
it easy early, I could just let him hit his little canter after he
chilled out.  We did the next 11 miles in 1:10, still riding with Squeak
( I think that's what they called the other horse). Squeak had an
incredibly beautiful trot and Tina thought she was back on the jumpers.
Looks like a big Hunter-Jumper....but, at the 25 mile mark he was grade
1.  The vets approved him to go on, but Tina wasn't comfortable doing
that and pulled.

Santini was eating and drinking like a trooper, but only drinking from
buckets. He didn't seem to grasp the concept of sucking mudholes.  He
totally ignored the water while all the other horses drank, but as soon
as he got to camp he drained about 5 gallons at least from a muckbucket. 
That was his routine.  Loved apples, ate all ours and stole the
neighbor's.  Was a sweetheart in every situation.

So...I think we did the first 14 miles in about 1:40, the next 11 in
1:10...broke off from Squeak and picked it up and did the next 14 in
about 1:20 and then...(numbers taken from memory of disoriented rider not
reliable)

Headed out for the last 11.  He hit that great little canter of his and
just started passing horses.  I'll bet we passed at least 15 horses, just
zooming by.  The wind had picked up (same storm the OD people talked
about) and limbs were down where they hadn't been earlier, pine cones
flying making you happy to have on a helmet, and spitting rain.  It was
really exciting, so long as the horse was OK with it and Santini was too
cool. 

We were cruising along passing horses like road markers when suddenly out
of nowhere something white and purple went by me at about 90mph.  It was
Lynn Carlson of Florida on her mare Ribbons.  Lynn had the mare's chin
all the way back to her chest and looked like they'd been doing that all
day.  The mare was absolutely beutiful looking just like the horses being
galloped on the track in the mornings (she is off the track).  If I'd
have been on Kaboot when she went by we'd have both probably died, but
Santini doesn't have that problem and just sort of acted like, "wow" as
she blew by.  

She was still at the next water when I got there and I offered to pay her
to stay  until I tried to get my horse to drink.  She was absolutley
exhausted from holding the horse back all day and was more than happy to
stay *anywhere* for a few moments.  She ended up tucking in behind me on
the trails for a little relief, but when we'd hit a wide road it was
"Whoooooaaaaa, see ya later"  

Last year when I did this ride the heat was so oppressive that when we
stopped at creeks to sponge, the heat from the horse would just make your
face feel flushed immediately.  This year it was soo incredibly cool and
windy that they just kept going.  Knocked about 25 minutes off the win
time from last year.

Lynn ended up dropping back with someone we passed to try to ease in and
Santini cantered on in to the finish to finish 22 of 102.  I've gotta say
John and Steph were right, he's a *fun* ride.  Don't know that I'd call
him crazy.  He was wonderfully sane during the ride, but he certainly had
some "crazy legs" during that Friday night pre-ride.  I think she's going
to hang onto him to be her sports car and Khruschev can be the luxury
sedan. >g<

Steph and the Big Guy did well...didn't get the hot weather they'd hoped
for to show he could handle France.  She finished 6th, but with the group
that finished 3rd thru 7th.  She gave up 10 minutes the first loop to the
winners, and never got it back.

Gotta give my kids some credit for crewing for her.  I give Bonnie (13) a
hard time about paying more attention to the boys than the horses, but
when Kruschev planted his big foot on her toe and leaned on it, she said
she pushed but he smashed it hard peeling the skin back from the nail and
turning the whole thing purple.  I said, "Why didn't you yell loud like
I've told you to if they do that?" and she said, "Steph *almost* had his
pulse down and I was afraid to raise it" >g<  I think that's the first
time I've ever see Bonnie or Josie at the first check.  Steph got them to
get out of bed lots earlier than I ever have. >g<

Anita Carlson of Florida wins the tough nut award.  We passed her on the
3rd (I think) loop walking and she'd lost her horse. He'd been gone
"awhile".  Found out she got him back about an hour later and went on to
finish the ride.  Sunday morning I helped her lift her cooler into her
trailer and she was asking me "what does it feel like when your ribs are
broken?"  She was having lots of trouble breathing deep and her back was
hurting pretty bad...but she finished by gosh.

As usual Wes Crowe and his family put on THE BEST ride.  You just can't
fault it anywhere, just imagine the perfect host doing everything
possible for a great ride and that's them.

Angie

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