[RC] Endurance, Carolina Style: Part Two - Howard Bramhall
Later on that night, I suffered through another bout of Dan Rather and
Peter Jennings (for some reason I couldn't receive NBC) covering the war and the
bad news started filtering in. The Iraqi's had overtaken a few supply
trucks that had made a wrong turn and captured their first POW's of the
war. One of the captured American soldiers was a young female.
My stomach began to turn. I turned off the TV and went outside to spend
some time with my 3 horses wondering how I had managed to be so lucky to
have spent 20 years in the Air Force without experiencing any kind of the
killing and maiming of human life that I was now watching on CBS and
ABC.
I woke up on Friday and went for an early morning ride on our Painted mare,
Moonlight Princess. I felt the need to ride all three horses during the
days I was going to spend in the Carolinas. This mare loves to trot and has
an extended one that is a blast to move out in. Her canter is very fluid,
but, she prefers the trot more than any other horse I've ever
owned. She has close to 500 competitive miles in her short career
(she's only 6) and her recoveries are almost as good as my
two Arabians. She's mostly thoroughbred with a dash of quarter.
Princess has become my wife's horse and the two make a lovely pair out there on
the endurance trail.
The mare was being a little feisty today; spring was in the air and it was
also in her step. BOING, BOING, BOING. Even after traveling a
half mile I could still hear the noises coming from my two geldings who were
calling out for her to return. War Cry made the loudest commotion and when
he does this while you're standing next to him he can break an ear drum.
The mouse hat on my painted mare's head would turn, like radar, to pick up
his cries. With her radar turned on I didn't think I'd get lost
today. Forget the map, just follow those ears.
When we returned to the campsite, after about an hour and a half, several
trailers had already pulled in, most of them with South Carolina tags. I
love watching the transformation of an endurance ridecamp; kind of like watching
the circus come into town and set up. And, it's almost as entertaining,
with the men and women couples, wimmen with wimmen teams, and some groups had a
kid or two thrown in (a man with man combo is rare, and I didn't spot one in
either of the Carolinas), all discussing what goes where and who does
what. I've come to notice, after all these years attempting to do
endurance, that it's usually the male who backs up the rig. Wimmen don't
back horse trailers for some inexplicable reason; they'd rather circle
the wagon, no matter how far they have to travel or how many trees they need to
take out, to get the rig pointed in the direction they want. The letter
"R" on their transmission stands for "rather not."
Then there's the buddy network, friends who set up alongside each other,
creating their own individual neighborhood. The record, which wasn't
broken here, that I've seen is nine rigs, all side by side, creating a separate
cow town inside a large urban sprawl. In fact, it was my gal, Val, who set
this record and I have yet to see anyone else come close to matching it.
When Val comes to town, one tends to notice. She wasn't present at either
Carolina ride because she was over there in UAE competing Internationally.
I wonder if she was close enough to see or hear the war?
Jennifer and Erica arrived later in the day. I had tried to keep the
Yellow Sub nice and tidy, clothes picked up, trash put away, to avoid any
conflict that might arise if I were to do otherwise. Erica seemed to enjoy
the campsite especially after I pointed out the electric and water connections;
Jen went running off quickly to see if any other teenagers were on the
grounds. Kids are like horses and tend to prefer their own kind whenever
possible.
There was a young boy name of Scott, Jen's age, at this ride. I had
noticed him before, my wife had even sponsored him once at a ride. This
kid was always hanging out with a bunch of girls, mainly because he was the only
teenaged boy in camp, and, I could tell, this fully charged hormonal male could
not have been happier. Talk about overwhelming attention! This is
one of the best kept secrets of endurance, for men, young and old, and I didn't
think Scott was going to be the one who would tell all those uninformed males
out there who didn't know about the number one secret of endurance
(Gee, Howard, looks like you just did that). Note to Self: Keep an
eye on Scott and Jennifer this week-end, especially since it looks like this boy
thinks like I used to.
At the pre-ride meeting on Friday night Patsy, the ride manager, described
the trails, holds and all the pertinent information that a rider needs to
know. A couple unusual things here. One, pulse was 60, all holds,
all distances. Only 3 loops, the first one 20 miles, second 15, last
another 20 (yes, that is 55 miles). And, she reminded all of us, this
place wasn't named Sand Hills for nothing.
