My PAC part 2 rediculously long

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

I've tried to post this twice and it didn't go through. Maybe Ridecamp
doesn't accept novels so I'll cut this one in half too. >sigh<

Part 2:
Correction from part one:  Debbie BULLIS not Bullie! >g<

Thursday morning was the official "vet in" minus trot outs. The GMHA
looked very festive with all the country's flags draped around the arena.
 I got a French vet which made me feel quite worldly.  With the fields
where we'd been camping just a couple of miles away all the teams had
chosen to ride over rather than haul.  They had scheduled us to vet in at
intervals, so as we drove back to Rojeks we would meet teams of riders in
full colors riding along the back roads towards the venue.  The sky was
blue, the horses primed, the weather perfect, and those uniforms were
beautiful. The award for prettiest goes to Pacific South, with lots of
ties for 2nd.  Their jackets are navy, red and bright yellow, and so is
all their biothane.  One cool thing they added was the rider's record
embroidered on back. It would tell how many PAC's or WEC's they'd
participated in.  I had to laugh when somebody referred to the Mountain
region as "Those Aqua-people" Sounded like Atlantis had sent a team. >g< 

Now that the horses were in their 10x10 stalls it was time to start
appreciating our crews who took turns making sure the horses didn't spend
much time in them.  I was lucky enough to have a great crew.  First I had
Bill, who just for this week went through a total personality change and
became proactive.  No more dragging feet or going through the "oh that's
not necessary" routine.  He worked hard begrudging none of it, and
managed to take videos besides!  I had also lined up Liz Szeliga  (no I
can't pronounce that) from Mass. to help. Then I met Kathy Duggen who had
planned to crew for Lynn Gilbert and was available. She had finished 3rd
in the pre-ride and knew the trail. Other than the language barrier (she
was from near Boston) she was the perfect addition to the crew. We dubbed
her our "Native Guide" took Bill on a tour of all the vet checks and it
took them 3 hours just to drive to them all. 

Speaking of language barriers...that was one of the more amusing aspects
of our team. There were people from Southern California who sounded
pretty normal to me (even though my SE accent stood out to them) but the
SE riders & NE riders all on the same squad had a heck of a time.  For
instance...they say "Hahbah" rather than Harbor, and "Lahbstah" instead
of Lobster, so you figure they don't use "R's" but then they say "Idear"
instead of "Idea", and "Canader" instead of "Canada"  Bill was totally
confused when Kathy Duggan urgently asked him if he got my "Cud".  He had
no idea what she wanted.  She finally said, "Caarrrd" sort of saying the
r in the back of her throat the way Bambi does when he's trying to say
"Birrrd".  By the end of the ride we couldn't get Kathy & Liz to quit
saying "Dang far" (far means fire in this case).  

The official trot outs were to be held Friday.  We had all hoped until
the last minute that Ceia's horse would quit being sore and vet in but
when our vets had their last team trot out that morning he was definitely
off and she decided not to even try. We were all very disappointed for
her.  When I lined Kaboot up for that trot out I stopped and turned my
official team cap backwards to allow for the speed and we did our
windsprint.  I sort of like our coach's name for that out and back sprint
which is a "suicide". I may refer to Kaboot's trot outs as suicides from
now on.  The vets were satisfied. He stopped on a straight line, and they
chuckled as I turned my hat back around.

Suddenly it was time for the big trot out event..and it was an event!
Everyone was in full uniform. We had to go to a field where an official
lady almost died of confusion when Bill forgot his penny. We entered the
field and circled to the left, perfectly evenly spaced. Stopped, and had
our first official pulse from Roger's wands.  It was 37 (he usually vets
in at 44 so was quite calm)  We walked on around and on the far side of
the field there were maybe 10 vets evenly spaced checking horses out for
a CRI. The line was constantly moving and every time a horse was
officially passed the announcer would say something like, "Number 70
Angie McGhee on Kaboot Herlong has been cleared for competition". and
their crew would sigh with relief.  The vet checked Kaboot over, gave him
all A's except a B on anal tone which I found amusing. I forgot we
weren't supposed to speak to them and said, "Don't worry, I've just
removed so many ticks he's not ticklish any more.  Tomorrow morning
you'll be able to crack walnuts with it"  Fortunately there was no
reprimand. >g<  

When I got ready to trot out I considered turning my hat around but
figured I'd better play it straight.  Kaboot was relaxed, but staring
intently watching the others trot out and I could tell he couldn't wait
to race me.  When the vet said "Trot him" he tried to jump out, but I
pulled him back around, lined him up carefully with the proper cone they
wanted me to trot around and tried to very nonchalantly say, "Trot". Ha! 
Off we went, wide open and picking up speed. I sprinted as hard as I
could, but had to keep letting the rope play out farther so he wouldn't
have to circle back on me.  I felt the muscles on my thighs getting
pulled (strained) and was grateful when we got to the far end and I
managed to stop him on a straight line.  There were titters in the crowd
as I carefully turned him and lined him back up hoping he'd be calmer on
the way back. Double ha.  He went even faster, I lost my hat and really
did hurt the fronts of my thighs running so hard.  He came to a nice
straight stop for the vet as if saying, "What do you think of *that?" and
the vet broke his no speaking rule and said, "You plan to RIDE this horse
tomorrow?  He got an A+ on impulsion and a notation, "Base wide" next to
it.  He trots *really* wide in the rear and the faster he trots the wider
it gets.

Next came the official weigh  and I was 164.5 I figured that's a nice
place to be...safely above the minimum (156 now) but not enough to feel
guilty.

The ceremony later that day was nice...and short.  Nice to have officials
who realize that 90 primed horse aren't going to stand still for long. 
They wisely held off all the "thank yous" etc. until Sunday when 90
horses were very willing to stand quietly.  The locals put on a
demonstration of the Morgan horses that was very nice. They had
carriages, hunt seat, a farmer dragging a log, anything you could imagine
a Morgan doing.  I felt bad because the official pictures were being
taken while we had our uniforms on and we had to miss some of it.

So now it's Saturday morning.  If felt good to finally get down to
business after a week on the road.  You peel away all the extra hoopla
and get down to the main event and it's just an endurance ride, the kind
you're used to and you're ready to *ride*!  Rode around for 25 minutes or
so warming him up, then they ordered *everyone* into the arena.  Picture
a dark show arena with 90 primed horses jigging around in it! Whew!  Then
they opened the gate on the far side and the course was open.  They
started us with a "controlled start" I thought following a golf cart, but
by the speed of it I think it was probably a really quiet motocross
motorcycle.  We trotted along in the dark for probably 15 minutes or so,
with Kaboot weaving in and out of traffic until he found a place he was
happy and he settled in.  After another 15 minutes it started to get
light enough to see who was around me and I realized that I was riding
with six other USA-East horses, and nobody else.  The horses had found
each other. >g<  All day long teams were riding together and I wondered
how much of it was the rider's ideas and how much of it was the horse's. 
There was only one time that Kaboot hooked up with a non-USA-East horse
and it was an Australian.  It surprised me until I realized he had leased
Lois McAfee's horse Leggs who had been stabled at our field all week. 

The trail was tough, with lots of climbs, but the weather was so
incredibly great that my horse really didn't care.  I'd heard some other
regions had considered it humid earlier in the week, while those of us
from the South had put away all our tank tops and were wearing sleeves. 
Then Saturday it turned COOL and clear with no humidity at all that I
could feel. There was even a breeze.  I'm sure it hurt Melissa Crains
chance for the gold, but it was still hard to wish *for* humidity.

The trails at GMHA are permanently marked with wooden arrows.  The
strange thing was that sometimes they were on the left, and sometimes on
the right.  Sometimes they were far apart.  I was scared that after dark
I would pass one on the left while searching with a flashlight on the
right, but it all worked out.  Gotta admit that when I went all the way
down a mountain without a marker between top and bottom though that
without 2 horses with me I'd have been worrying about turning back. 
There was plenty to turn you at the turns, but nothing to stop you if you
got past the turn.  All in all it worked out fine but I managed to worry.

The first 50 miles was a blur.  The trail was so EASY for RIDERS, but not
for horses. You had to remind yourself how hard they were working.  The
only problems I had were with all the steep downhills I spent too much
time standing and started having shin splint trouble on my left leg.  By
40 miles it was the worst I'd ever felt with shooting hot pain.  At the
vet check I taped it up with duct tape, and took some kind of 12 hour
anti-inflamatory sample a doctor had given me and a couple of 400mg
Tylenol.  Amazingly enough I had no more problems.  I'll add a note
here...there was talk at a meeting with FEI about banning drugs FOR
RIDERS. Whew! Wanna talk about controversial!!!  One popular drug was
Benadryl. There were bees on the trail and lots of riders got stung. I
got it once.  We had been asked to fill out a form before the ride
telling what drugs we carried, or took. I'm sure this will be a hot topic
eventually.

to be continued....
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