I
have been trying to catch up on ridecamp over the last couple of days (was well
over 100 digests behind (!)) and finally got to the photo album posts.
What a great idea! I’ve just uploaded pictures of my three boys
(Cabby, Billy, and Blaze) with me on Cabby, Aarene on Billy, and Jim on Blaze.
Cabby
and Billy just earned a PNW PNER award called the Sandybarr Award. Sandybarr
was a horse who had some huge amount of miles and had never been pulled.
They give this award to a horse who completes at least 10 rides consecutively
in a season without getting pulled. All 3 of us train, travel, and ride
together and had all 3 of my boys were still in the running up to the 9th
ride where Blaze got pulled after tearing up his pad on a very rocky loop.
Our
10th ride for Cabby and Billy was at Foothills of the Cascades,
which is very rocky! It was very nerve-wracking having 2 horses on their
10th ride. It got even more stressful when Billy got kicked (by herd boss
Blaze while tied at the trailer during our last hold...something they do on a
regular basis) and with only 19 miles to go!! Luckily Gene Nance
(experienced ride vet) was camped next to us and told Aarene what to do right
away and she was able to walk him out of it. I was in the RV bathroom
when all hell broke loose!! There were plenty of people there so I wasn’t
needed to help...it’s still very frustrating trying to get out of an RV
bathroom in a hurry!!
We
had taken RO with Blaze after the first loop since I could see an occasional
head bob during the first loop (I was riding right behind) and we didn’t
want to take any chances. In his attempt the ride before to take the
weight off of his hoof with the torn pad, he put extra stress on his weird,
wingy leg in front. It appeared to be a mild problem so we decided to not
push our luck and took him out. He was apparently not very happy at being
left behind after the first loop and had a few things to say when Cabby and
Billy got back.
We
took the ride very carefully and slowly (as we did with most rides) since our
goal was set at the beginning of the year and we figured it was a way to really
make us take it easy on their first full year of doing 50s. We didn’t
get all 3 to the end, but we did reach our goal with Cabby and Billy.
Their pictures are now in the photo album -- even Blaze, the little darling!
<g> Don’t get me wrong...I love this horse -- most of the
time. He was one of the first horses born in my barn after we moved in.
He’s now 16 and got pulled out of the pasture about 5 years ago and
started doing LD with me 3 years ago...now takes students. Did several
50s this year. He’s herd boss at home and sometimes it’s a
damn good thing he’s so cute!! <g>
Sue
**************************
"Live as you will have wished to have lived when you
are dying."
- Christian Furchtegott Gellert, German Poet and Writer
