GERA Classic (sketchy results)

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

Just a quick post for those in the Southeast who missed the GERA Classic.

Had a great ride. The trail was great but with TONS of rocks. I had on
rim pads, but after hearing people talk about how constant the big gravel
was I went back to the trailer and pulled easy boots on over the front.
Other than starting off with some attempting bolting/headslinging/lemme
buck business (always a good sign) Kaboot was great. It was funny, he
hooked right up with the horse he rode with at Biltmore this Spring. I
didn't recognize him since someone else was riding him, but Kaboot did.

We were smoking along pretty good... did the first 12.5 mi. right at an
hour and the front runners were well ahead of that. I was at the bottom
of the top 10 or so. The horse out front was a new horse. I didn't know
his name but somebody said its name translated to "For Sale" in Arabic.
>eg<

Nina Gibson wins the bad luck award, twice. She was running about 3rd
with Goat and he wasn't padded. Pretty incredible on that trail. As she
passed a mule that was in the 25 it nailed her on the shin really bad.
Then she came in camp and they were trotting Goat out. He went about 10
yards perfectly, then hit a partially submerged rock in the vet check and
came up dead lame. :-(( Some days are worse than others. It was a hot
day, temps in the 90's with humidity but the trail was well planned to
keep us in the shade as much as possible.  One note, the night before the
race when it was doing its usual humid evening with lightning flashing in
the distance thing, I was standing talking to Danny Herlong and primo
timer Nancy Gooch.  Danny said, "You know Angie, If lightning came down
right now and knocked all three of us dead you know what they'd say?
DAMN! It killed NANCY!!!" >g<

The only names I can remember in the top 10 were:

3rd Kathy Moyers-Tow on Merlynn
4th or 5th? Joe Schoech on Bogy (also a WELL deserved BC!!)

I was riding with Cleon Akins and Kate Denisar on the last loop and we
were deciding how to finish. I'd led quite a bit of the last loop, but
Kate had done her share. Cleon wasn't feeling too good, his horse had
thrown a big spook and he thought he'd slipped a disk. Kate had left for
the last loop with no curb chain and was riding with a mechanical
hackamore. I was trotting along out front and Cleon started negotiating
our finish. We discussed how dumb it would be to race in when it was 94
degrees and they'd done a really tough ride. I told Kate I was willing to
race her at a trot, whoever's horse breaks has to pull up. Cleon didn't
like that since he said his horse couldn't trot with ours, he wanted us
to hold hands and tie. I'd never done that before but said that was fine
too. As we made the turn onto the dam and saw the finish line ahead Cleon
pulled up beside me and I took his hand and we yelled at Kate to come on
up. She put her horse in a canter and he decided it was time to race in,
oops, no curb chain. I smooched Kaboot up and tried to block him for her
but then they really took off and Cleon decided to race her in. Next
thing I knew I was hauling my horse down and looking at a cloud of dust.
SUCKER!!! >g< We finished 7,8,9 but when 6th didn't complete (stone
bruise) we moved up so I was 8th. Ride time was 5:17

Kaboot looked super at the BC vetting. He just waits for the vet to tell
him to trot so he can take off. I had to stand in front of him so they
could take his pulse before he took off, and he trotted faster than I
could run the whole time. 
The vet later told me, "I gave your horse the highest vet score. Any
horse that's leading you at the end looks pretty good". He got all 9's.
Otis says doesn't give 10's (but I know he has because he admitted he'd
done it ONCE before when I interviewed him for EN >g<)

Joe Schoech and Bogy got a WELL DESERVED BC. He was about 4th? Horse
looked great and Joe's a heavyweight. It's so nice to see someone winning
BC that really deserves it and makes you feel good about the sport.

So 6th was Kate Denisar on Pizazz
7th Cleon Akins on CJ Dunn (Arab/Morgan cross)
8th Angie McGhee on Kaboot
9th Judy Sandlin on Shammy (they bought him back from the Kanaveys) Not
sure who got moved up to 10th...maybe Vicki Parker? 


41 horses started the 50 and I think about 35 finished. The 25's
completion ratio was a little better but I forget how many there were.
The ride was well run and we just had a great time.

Angie and Kaboot.
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