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I grabbed the carrots and a hay bag to go up to the vet check. I slung the
hay over my back and Tanna took an immediate interest. All the way to the
pulse area, he grabbed hay from the hay bag. I was very pleased! He was
eating with gusto. We got up to the vet area and Daniel used the community
hose to spray Tanna down really well. Tanna continued to grab hay from the
bag on my back even while being hosed down. I scraped the water off him to
keep the water from insulating and heating him up again. He felt cool to my
touch. We went and weighed him. 748 pounds. Only lost 2 pounds that loop.
Good!

Then we went to get his pulse taken to get the start of our hold time. Due
to a miscalculation earlier in the day, this hold was only 40 minutes
instead of an hour. Man, I was looking forward to that 1 hour hold! Might
have even been able to get a nap in or even just sit down for a minute
(gasp). The other 20 minutes of hold time would be taken at our pulse check
after the next 10 mile loop. Ok, that would work for me, too. I was wanting
to take some time then. This would just make sure Jamie and Kim would have
to take that time, too. <grin>

While waiting for the vet, Tanna continued to eat. He ate and ate. If I got
too far away from him (Daniel was holding him), he'd give me the eye until I
got back in range and he'd grab another bite. I was SO glad he was chowing
down. I guess he thought he was done and could eat or he thought, she's
crazy, I'd best eat while I can. We'd already gone longer than we'd ever
gone before. 27 miles was the longest ride we'd ever done up to now. (He did
do a 30 mile LD with Dee Fortner before I got him, though.)

I got Stan as the vet this time. He said to give him some sloppy food. Sure,
thing, doc, soon as we get back to the trailer. That was about the only
thing he said this time. I was so pleased Tanna was eating anything, I
didn't even mind too much that the vet didn't say much else. Tanna got all
As, but a B- on guts. But I was sure that would be ok, since he had decided
he needed to eat.

He ate about 3/4 of the way back to the trailer. Partway back, he decided
those carrots looked really yummy and started nosing the bag until Daniel
alerted me and told me to give him some carrots. Finally, he decided he'd
had enough hay and carrots, and walked calmly back to the trailer. As soon
as Daniel turned him into his pen, though, he headed for the hay hanging on
his pen. Chomp, chomp. I climbed into the camper and I could hear him
slurping at his beet pulp. YES! Crunch, that must've been a carrot. Chomp,
slurp, crunch. Tanna had gotten serious about this food thing.

He quit eating after awhile and looked VERY surprised when Daniel brought
the saddle again. You could almost see his thoughts. I just DID my ride!
What do you THINK you're doing? I laughed at him. See, I TOLD you you'd be
out all day, I chided. Daniel also laughed at him. He lowered his head and
just waited as we finished attaching everything.

I ran back into the camper to pee again. I'd drunk 2 liters on the second
loop and another 20 oz or so during the hold. While I was in there, I heard
Daniel talking to Jamie or Kim. I thought I heard one of them wasn't
continuing on. Hmmm. Wonder what happened.

I mounted up and headed for Jamie, who was waiting on Wiggles. I gave my
number to the timer and we headed across the bridge toward the 10 mile
yellow loop that we would do twice. Turns out Kim's mare had a bad CRI, so
was asked to come back for a recheck. Jamie and I would continue on alone
while Kim decided whether or not to push her mare or just quit for the day.

We chatted as we trotted along. We caught up with a lady riding a horse
named Jim. She (didn't catch the lady's name) was on her second time around
the 10 mile loop. She'd be almost done. We informed her we were just
starting our first time on that loop and were the last riders. We were
planning on tying for the turtle award. She was going a bit slower than us,
so we left her after awhile.

We alternated trotting and walking, giving the horses some breathers. Tanna
was a bit confused that I was still riding him, but responded well when
asked to trot. About a mile or so before the water troughs on that loop,
several riders passed us up. Again, on their second loop, almost done with
their ride. I envied them! But my horse was re-engergized by their passing
and pulled on me, asking, insisting to go faster to catch them. No way!
Settle down, goof, we still have to do this loop again! Tanna shook his head
with impatience and I kept squeezing and pulling back. Wow, he's strong.

Finally, the horses got out of earshot and eye-sight and Tanna settled a
little. We slowed to a walk when we reached the water. There had been a
spotter out there taking numbers to be sure nobody cut trail, but nobody was
there that late. No matter, we still did the trail right. :-) The riders
that had passed us earlier were just finishing at the water trough and took
off just before we reached them. Tanna wasn't sure about them leaving, but
decided that water did look good. He stuck his head in the trough and sucked
down lots of water. Good boy. Still drinking well. Jamie and I took a few
minutes, letting the other riders pull away from us and sponging our horses
good. It was the hottest part of the day and we still had another loop to
do. Tanna still acted freaky a few times seeing that blue sponge arise out
of the trash can. "That blue water monster is BACK!!"

After a few minutes, we started out again. We passed another place to get
water, but since both horses had just drank and been sponged well, as well
as there were already other riders blocking the way. So we continued on.
Shortly after that, we caught up with a friend of Jamie's that wasn't
looking so good. She was flushed and listless and admitted she didn't feel
well at all. I was told her name, but forget now. We were about 3.5 miles
from camp I guess. The lady was on her last loop. Jamie didn't want to leave
her and I agreed. We had plenty of time to complete our ride, even with
having another loop to do. We gave her food and water and Jamie gave her
some little hard candies to suck on. The lady kept saying she didn't want to
hold us up, but Jamie was adamant about not leaving her on her own. I also
agreed and didn't want to go on either. Besides, if something DID happen
there would need to be two of us anyway. One to stay with her and one to
race into camp to get help. But the candy seemed to help and the lady made
it in just fine. We left her at the finish line because she could go ahead
and cut down to the vet check and we still had to finish our loop and go up
to the timers.

I jumped off Tanna and let Daniel have him and we walked directly to the vet
without untacking and called out asking for a pulse down. A different vet
(can't remember her name) that had vetted on Saturday and rode on Sunday,
took the pulse, watched Tanna trot up and back, and said, "yep, you're clear
to go on." Jamie was also up there for her pulse down. Then we spent a few
minutes trying to figure out who exactly would write on our cards our pulse
down time and the time to go out since there was a 20 minute hold after the
pulse down. Finally we got Nancy to do it and were able to head back to our
trailer.

I seriously didn't want to go out again, but I did anyway. I'd hate myself
for stopping so close to the end. We'd already done 40 miles and he was good
to go out again. Besides, if I didn't go out, Jamie would have to do that
last 10 miles alone and I didn't want to do that to her. Daniel just ignored
my saying stuff about quitting and checked my GPS while I gulped down more
peanuts. A few minutes later, I tightened Tanna's girth, mounted up, and we
headed off on our last 10 miles.

At the timers, we gave our numbers and our out time. 3:32, I told them as I
reached for my vet card. "Never mind the card, we believe you." Go on. The
big clock next to them said 3:41. Late out, but still plenty of time. 2 and
a half hours to do 10 miles. No problem.

I had been having major problems all day with my stirrups being too long. I
had no way to shorten them, so had tried putting them on the fenders
backwards (well, frontwards...my stirrups are on backwards to start with).
But I just couldn't keep my stirrups that way, so not long after starting
the loop, I had to stop and put them back the way I had them for the first
40 miles. The pain wasn't pleasant, but at least I could keep my stirrups.
Since my stirrups were too long, I spent a lot of time on my toes, trying
desperately to keep off Tanna's back and post properly. Hard to do on my
toes and painful to boot. I spent part of that last loop clutching the
pommel to help my balance. I admired Jamie's ability to post and keep her
hands off her pommel. Oh, well. Gotta get those stirrups fixed. I need to
burn another set of holes so I can have them shorter. Or rip the fenders out
altogether, replace them with 2 inch stirrup leathers (can you get 2 inch
leathers?), shorten the top bars on my stirrups, and cover the leathers with
fleece to keep them from pinching. That way I can make them short for my
short little legs and they'd be able to be adjustable. For training rides,
my longer stirrups are just fine. It's just that Tanna's fast trot and his
power trot are very hard to ride with the long stirrups. And riding longer,
of course, just enhances the problem.

We did the rest of the loop alternating trotting and walking. The horses
would draft off each other, then tire and we'd let them walk and grab bamboo
or whatever from along the trail, then repeat. We did that all the way
around, talking and falling silent by turn. Sometimes I would even close my
eyes and "sleep" for a bit. Tanna kept trotting right along. What a boring
loop. :-)

Finally, we hit the road to the finish line. Whooohooo! We were ALMOST
THERE! Less than a half mile to go. We trotted in, Tanna occasionally
breaking into a canter. We approached the finish line together, side by
side. We didn't see the finish line timer! Where were they? They'd better be
there. And sure enough, Nancy was there waiting for us a little past the
finish line. I saw Daniel standing beside Nancy's truck with his camera. I
raised my hand and waved happily. WhooooHOOOOO, I yelled! Tanna started. I
don't usually yell from his back. I was so proud of my boy I could bust!!

Finish time was 5:21 for a total ride time of 9 hours 26 minutes. Then to
get him to the vet. We had 60 minutes to show up for the vet. I walked Tanna
to our camp site, stopped him and waited for a minute. Contemplating having
to dismount. I knew it would hurt. And it did, but I did get off. It was
only fair to Tanna to get off him after having gone 50 miles. :-) We
stripped his saddle for the last time. I dropped my helmet and the GPS units
and went in the camper to pee and change my boots for more comfortable
shoes.

We wandered up to the vet check area. We saw Kathy and she asked if we
needed a vet for a vet out. I said, yeah, but that we were in no hurry, we
wanted to spray Tanna off first. We sprayed Tanna for a good long time,
giving him a good massaging shower. He likes his showers. Kathy took her
horse to the scales and weighed him. We weighed Tanna after she was done.
746 pounds. Not bad. Not bad at all. Only 6 pounds lighter than the day
before when we had vetted him in.

I held Kathy's horse while she checked my horse (only fair, you see) and
Nina Murphy scribed for her. He vetted out ok, but he was a bit tired. Got
mark downs for gait and impulsion and a B for guts again.

But he DID finish. Jamie and I tied for SECOND to last place. Argh. Jim
Holland and Flinn Anderson (I think) tied for last place. How'd they sneak
behind us? :-) So now I'm an endurance rider and Tanna is an endurance
horse! Sadly, I didn't get a T-shirt for my accomplishment, but Daniel says
I can get horsedesigns.com to make me one of my very own! LOL.

We had some mild trouble getting home. We had a tire start to peel, so had
to limp into a place to get 2 new tires. But we got into town early enough
to drop Tanna off at home and go straight to get Serts.

We had a few problems and I'm sore some, but not as much as I thought I'd
be. I am on ibprofen every 4 hours, though. :-) But at least I can function.
Tanna looks great! Running around in his pasture. Not sore. He had a couple
of sores on his mouth though, from the bit. I was pulling at him way too
much. Not sure how to fix that. Have to think on that for awhile.

We did decide to skip the OD 25. Too long of a drive for only a 25.

Tanna is going to get some weeks of well-deserved rest. Serts will be
getting some riding now to keep me in shape. :-)

I had a great time, overall. I have such a feeling of accomplishment. I
couldn't have done it without Daniel. He was great! Supportive, helpful, and
jumped right in there and worked like an experienced crew. I also couldn't
have done it without Jamie and Kim. I really enjoyed riding with them and
wish Kim could have completed with us rather than pull. The two of them
showed me how to get a horse through a 50 miler. Tanna and Wiggles worked
well together. Can't wait for the next ride. Thanks to Vicki, the vets, and
all the volunteers that put on Liberty Run. And a big thanks to my little
750 pound, 14.1 Arabian gelding. He's a sweetie.

To finish is to win and boy, did we win!!!

April
Nashville, TN



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