I've been reading RideCamp for several days now and
still not caught up with all the posts since I joined. Quite the group of
comments! I love Angie's RideCamp Oath.
I am a 44-year-old 192-lb. woman in Central
California (Sacramento area) just starting to train to ride Endurance again
after 28 years (had to get the calculator out). I only rode two rides when I was
a teenager, got pulled on one, on what I would call a non-Endurance horse and
finished 36 out of 136 on the 1974 Nugget ride in N. San Juan on my beautiful
old guy who just passed away in February. His name was Monte Wolfe http://www.typef.com/horses/Monte_Wolfe.jpg and
was ridden to a lot of Top Ten finished and 1,000s of miles of competition and
was never pulled. That's me as a 17-year-old on the Nugget in the picture link
attached. I was my Dad's crew for almost 10 years with this horse - 1970-1980.
If anyone remembers my dad Bill Cary and Monte Wolfe from any of the
California/Nevada rides, including the Tevis, I would love to hear from you!
Beside his drawer full of belt buckles, he doesn't remember a heck of a lot
unfortunately in the what-ride-did-he-go-on and where-did-he-finish category,
and it's too long ago for them to be in the AERC computer. (Speaking of belt
buckles, when did they stop giving those on the rides? I know you can only wear
one but was sure looking forward to winning another one and I'm not setting my
sites on the Tevis)
Anyway, I have a new horse, "MC," 5-year-old
Mustang from Ely, Nevada. Just back from the trainer, who I found out
accidentally after she was there, did lots of Endurance finishing Top Ten a lot
(Steve Wright) and he seems genuinely impressed with her and says I have a
real goer. I hope he's right!
I just want to ride and finish. I'm not interesting
in winning (Steve asked "How many wins don't you want?, had to laugh at that). I
only have 5 training rides in on her so far. Three 5-milers in 50 minutes and
last night a 7-miler in 60 minutes. She goes well and I'm having more trouble
getting her to slow down than eat up the ground so we spend a lot of time
working on that. I'd like to get in a couple of rides this year and thought
since I'm old and out of shape that maybe a 25-miler would be good for both us
for the first time. Was looking at the Fireworks in Santa Cruz, which will give
me another month of riding. Plan to do at least 3 trailer-to-the-foothills
15-milers before then. Everything is flat around here. Any comments for a
born-again beginner would be GREATLY appreciated. It sounds like things have
changed quite a bit from the 70s and I was just a kid then anyway and you know
what happens to your mind when you get old! My Dad is in his 70s now and says he
wants to crew for me so hopefully he remembers more than I do!! LOL
Thanks in advance for your input and this great
board!
Jackie Floyd
