[RC] Pine Tree 50: Impressions from a Rookie Rider with a Rookie Horse (Part I A) - Sharon Kenney
Sorry... Part II will have already arrived in your
mailboxes... accidentally made Part I too long the first time.
:(
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Hello all,
I'd like to thank Tom and Kathy for a very smooth
introduction to Endurance riding.
As some of you may recall, my horse (Zephyr) is a
7yo RMH/Arab. We have done several CTRs - two 25s (Hidden Brook and
the Northeast Morab) and the Acadia 50. Pine Tree was my first Endurance
ride. I wasn't sure I should stay in the 50, because Zephyr and I haven't
trained much in the heat, but I decided to go for it because I'd made
arrangements with a couple of women who also wanted to ride really
slow.
I hooked up with my ride partners, Margaret Farnham
and Lory Walsh, and we rode out after the front runners had already left.
The start was much different than I've gotten used to - I'm accustomed to
leaving two at a time, and being passed occasionally. Zephyr was jazzed,
and tried to gallop, but I held him to a slow (bouncy!) canter to match the
horses trotting around us down the two-track. Eventually the pack spread
out a bit, but we ended up playing leapfrog with some other folks for a
while. The three of us had decided to go faster than our
intended average speed while the air was cool, so the pace, for me, was
fast.
Zephyr was eager and happy, as was I. The
first 15 miles went pretty quick. At some point, Margaret and I stopped to
water the horses at a crew area, and Lory went on without us. When we
arrived at the first hold, which was 30 minutes, I suddenly realized
that I had no idea where my stuff was. I had no crew, so I'd put my hold
bag in Irving McNaughton's truck and promptly forgotten what it looked
like. I finally found it - Terry (sp?) saw me panicking
and muttering, and asked me if she had my things! I said
yes and she showed me where they were. It was then that I realized several
things. One: it is extremely difficult to unsaddle a horse while you are
holding it, especially if you have a breastplate and a heart monitor (which
you're not used to using). Two: Once the girth is undone on one side, the
horse will be perfectly happy to unsaddle ITSELF by dumping the entire thing off
the other side onto the ground, in his effort to reach his neighbor's beet
pulp. Three: Heart monitors are a pain in the butt to deal with when
you're trying to extricate a horse from its tack while it is trying to eat his
neighbor's beet pulp.
Finally, I untangled his legs and removed his
bridle. He had his rope halter underneath, so I unclipped my
sponge-on-a-leash (note to self: include extra un-leashed sponge in the hold
bag) and dunked it in my neighbor's sponging water. Hey, it was the only
water around. :p He'd been pulsing around 64 when I rode in, so I
headed over to do my P&Rs. He pulsed in at 48, and his CRIs were
48/48. He got all A's. I returned to my stuff, gave him some beet
pulp (which he didn't eat) and some carrots, which he sucked down like... well,
like carrots, actually. I reset his front left Easy Boot (he's barefoot
and booted all around) because it was twisting slightly. Before I knew it,
it was time to saddle up. Needless to say, it was even harder to do than
unsaddling had been - ended up begging someone to hold him for me.
Margaret and I rode out about 6 minutes after my out-time (9 minutes after
hers). Zephyr, who has never been unsaddled at a hold, was exceedingly
confused. He told me in no uncertain terms that he was very unhappy at
this nasty turn of events! We walked for a while, while I waited for his
heart rate to normalize again.
