FW: Million Pines 2000 - the long and short of it

["John A. Teeter" <johnt@fsr.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: tina hicks [mailto:tina@liveonthenet.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2000 7:56 AM
To: ridecamp
Cc: lyn dunbar
Subject: Million Pines 2000 - the long and short of it


Hello all, just got back from Million Pines - *the* ride to attend in
the SE as far as I'm concerned. The short version is I rode Steph's
horse on the 50 but didn't finish and Lyn rode Tony on the 25 and did
fine. We both had a ball.

The end. :)

The long version follows:

The weekend started a little on the downside when one of my horses was
dead lame at 8:30PM Thursday nite :( - my good friend Lyn was to ride
him in the 25 while I rode Tony in the 50.

Hmmm...what to do now? This ride is so nice that not going was not
really an option for Lyn - she's crewed for me many times so that's
always an option but she was really psyched to ride this year - her
second time at MP. Putting her on Tony and me crewing was of course an
option as well.

After finishing packing I remembered Steph's note to RC earlier that she
had an extra horse to ride so I dropped her an email  - not being sure
when or if she'd get it. I also dropped a note to the other person who
always knows the scoop on everything - Angie. Sure enough, when we got
down there Friday I had several folks tell me to "find Angie - she's
looking for you." Hooraayyyy!!!! I thought - I bet we've got a spare horse.

Now at endurance rides you find people as much by their rigs as by their
horses and I knew Angie did not have Kaboot and was in a rig I had not
seen before. How would I find her in this sea of rigs? I asked various
folks where she was and got a different answer each time so Lyn and I
took a little tour of camp - I finally just decided to look for the big
roll of duct tape and there she was :).

Found Angie, found and met Steph and met my ride for the weekend -
Sakuro HCC, better known as Squeak. He's a big, rangy very
thoroughbred-y looking 14 y.o. Arab who is experienced at this endurance
stuff. I'm not sure of his size - after 5 years in this sport, anything
over 15h looks good sized now <g> but I'm sure he was about 16h or so -
bigger than I'd been on since my dressage days. Steph's horse Kruschev
was almost as large and heavier boned - warmblood looking, very pretty -
they like'em big out west :)

So, the deal was me on Squeak and Angie on Santini for the 50 and Lyn on
Tony for the 25. We saddled up to go out for a pre-ride ride with Angie
giving us explicit directions on where she and Ashley were going as they
were already tacked up - we would meet up on the trail. Right...famous
last words :) I grabbed my mount and saddle from Steph all the while
thinking those famous words "Never try anything new at a ride" - oh
well, too late for that. I had plenty of Ibuprofin with em :)

Steph's only real instructions were not to ride him in front as he
spooks and is kind of like pushing a rope and to ride moderate pace -
sounded good to me. We go out for a short ride, all is well, he's a doll
to ride and then I have to face Samm at the registration table :) I knew
there were record numbers of entries and here I was doing musical chairs
with all my entries - gulp. After letting me know I was really giving
her grief :) we got all settled up, and were ready to go on Sat. morning.

Angie and I had decided to start late after the pack of 100 or so horses
took off for the 50 as we weren't sure at all of Santini's ability to
get all his legs going in one direction :). Turns out when Santini got
with Squeak he was a dream - I just couldn't understand what Angie had
been whining about - looked like she got a real nice ride to me <vbg>. 

We cruised thru loop one, mastered sponging, Squeak lead almost the
whole way, I was riding on the buckle as I am very prone to do unless
the horse I am riding is being an absolute fool, Angie was cracking me
up with stories - life was *good*. 

With a record number of starters (204) we all knew the checks were going
to be a bit crowded but wow - how can you have that many horses in one
spot? It was just a sea of horses, helmets, and sand :) It took us
almost the entire hold of 40 minutes to get thru the first check -
through no fault of ride mgmt's. I don't think you could have managed
that crowd any better unless you had a row of 15 vets like a grocery
store checkout line. 

When Angie and I took off for the second loop I felt a little something
on the RF but Squeak warmed out of it very quickly - I thought <was
hoping> it was just from standing so much at the check. Not knowing this
horse I didn't know if maybe that was normal for him <it wasn't>. We
cruised thru the 2nd loop with Angie and I swapping out
leading/following and her enjoying Santini more and more. We came in for
the second check and only took 30 of our 40 minutes to get thru :). 

I figured if what I felt was any more than a slight off-ness then
standing in line would do us in and sure enough when we trotted out the
vet asked me about my loop and I told him what I felt and how he warmed
right out of it. The vet even ocmmented how much it improved in the trot
out from going out to coming back but he still needed to give me a Grade
I as it was so consistent. 

I walked Squeak around a bit and then trotted him again in hand for
Angie - he was still slightly off. That was it for us - no sense taking
a horse back out for another loop when a) wasn't mine and b) whatever
was there was consistent rather than intermittent and c) if it was more
than a simple lameness more sand wasn't going to do it any good. I told
mgmt and put Squeak away. I was really sorry to pull him - he was such a
nice boy to ride but knew that was the right decision. (Turns out he now
looks fine which I'm glad to hear).

I'm now 0 for 2 for this season - the third time/ride has to be a charm,
right?:)

Meanwhile I catch glimpses of Lyn/Tony when I'm in camp - they are
having a ball - she's riding him in a halter, he's drinking like a champ
(that's always a crap shoot with him), and all is well which I'm very
glad to see. But I can see when they cross the line that she was _done_
- no elevating to the 50 for her - no matter how much I cajoled and
begged:). Lyn is one of those smart souls who knows when she's had
enough -  unlike the rest of us dumb folks who just keep going back out
on the trail :) They finished about 40th in a pack of about 85 finishers
after starting 5 minutes late. It's always amazing to me how many people
you can cruise by on a ride by just keeping a good pace all day. 

A cold front came thru after we were both done - wind, rain, yuck. I was
sorry I had to pull but glad I wasn't on right then :) At a ride where
the normal temp is 80 and humidity is about 85%, we were shocked to find
ourselves all bundled up at the riders' dinner and the temp dropped to
35 that nite - **very** unusual for this time of year that far south. Go
figure. 

Angie went on to have a great ride and finished about 80 places from
where they had started. Steph was in the top 10, Duane Barnett was BC
and I don't remember much else about the results.

As always, the food was fabulous, the azaleas were incredible, and the
whole weekend was great fun. Thanks to Wesley, the landowners (this ride
is entirely on private land), and all the staff for a great ride. They
*really* know how to put on a ride in Soperton, GA :)

Tina (and Lyn)