Thoughts on PAC from Silver Medal position

["Roberta Harms" <equiphile@hotmail.com>]

   Well, you've heard from excited people about the winner Heather Bergantz. 
  You've heard a bit from the USA East, the Gold Medal Team.  I expect a 
whole lot more from Angie soon!!:)  I'll tell you about the Silver Medal 
experience from the Central Time Zone team.
  We all arrived in camp by Monday.  We had our first team meeting and 
get-to-know-each-other that evening.  The whole week before our Assistant 
Chef, Art Priesz, kept things light.  He warned us to have a song about our 
state, school, etc.  We got extra points for adding central time zone, 
PanAm, gold medal, etc.  We butchered alot of good songs, but had fun over 
the next 3 nights.  Our group was international, too.  Mexico, Venezuala and 
Romania were all riding horses from Darolyn. The German Team came from 
Wisconsin where Bettina Koehn lives and she brought the other German rider 
also.
  We had to get serious Thursday and Friday, but by then we were settled in 
and knew everyone else.  We came with 13 riders and 15 horses.  One 
alternate horse was taken down to the Stable facilities.  On the trot outs 
on Friday one of our expected 12 horses, Loius Lafite was lame and not 
allowed to start.  That meant our 13th rider got to ride on an alternate 
horse (Patty Crawford's horse was already scratched).  Joyce Mocilan stayed 
and crewed.
  I, personally, liked the use of the Heart Rate wands.  I felt more secure 
with electronics than with newly trained people doing the pulses.  My horse 
was down in the first 15 seconds after walking into the box all but 1 time.
  Our team riders consisted of Jan Worthington, Tracy Hoskins, Shelley 
Bridges and myself.  Jan has ridden all the Pan Ams/North Ams.  I had ridden 
in 1999 in Canada.  The other 2 were making their first trip and were good 
choices for the team.
  The pre-ride ceremoney was not as exciting as 2 years ago for me.  We were 
told if there were any problems to exit the arena.  My horse walked around 
once, but started to dance by half way.  I exited before lining up.  My 
horse had no chance to step on my crew this time.  (She was going to get a 
real MD this time if there were any stitches needed, not the horse vet!)
  The trail was spectacular!  The roads were very hard and caused alot of 
concussion on the horses legs. The entire trail was either going up or down, 
almost no level terrain at all.  These mountains were steep enough to be a 
very good test of a true Endurance Horse!
  The vets thought they saw a bobble on my horse at the 47 mile check.  
nothing at the next stop and a little "something" at the next stop.  He 
looked fine at all the other stops including the end when we completed  
about 10:15pm.  I held my position and did not try for Top Ten due to the 
fear of making the "something" bad enough not to finish.  As a Team rider, I 
had to ride FOR the Team.  Finishing well was the most important thing.  The 
last 4 miles of the ride were in the pitch dark and some locals were pulling 
down the  glow sticks as fast as they were put up.  I walked most of it 
hoping that I was not lost. I finished 14th.  2 riders came in after me and 
had been lost due to the pranksters. We finished all 4 of our horses on the 
team and 9 out of the 12 starters. 66% of the horses who started, finished.  
We think everyone was careful due to the difficulty of the terrain.
  All in all a very well done, class ride.  Water everywhere, at least every 
5 miles.  My horse loved that Vermont water.  He peed at each stop, 
including the end where Jeanne Waldron had to wait to avoid the splash to 
take his pulse for the final CRI.

Roberta Harms

Melissa Crain from the Central Time Zone took the individual Silver Medal.



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