You may have already read Tara's story of our first
ride....here's my version. Camp was sure tight, but the wonderful volunteer that
called herself "parking Nazi" was great in helping me get parked. No room to set
up the little tent, and I was also concerned about runaway horses during the
night as well as no time to put away in the morning (we were 20 min late as it
was). Tara slept like a rock, as usual. The horses were surprisingly calm from
the time we arrived until we saddled up in the morning. Then they got
excited and it became hectic, trying to get everything put away with only
an 11 yr old to assist, but Tara did her best. We crewed for ourselves
(hubby was out of town ), so had manure clean-up, etc. My friend came to move
our rig to Auburn and we were off.
I had read many stories about how the horses
behavior changes on real rides as opposed to training rides and so I wasn't
totally shocked at how uncontollable our partners were. At least they were only
trying to go faster than we wanted, not doing anything dangerous or dumb. They
finally settled down after Auburn, and since they were both EDPPing, we thought
we'd both complete, however, I think the aggressive downhill trotting (that we
were trying to control) took a toll on Storm's withers (maybe). After he was
pulled at Cool and trailered back to Auburn(thank you, thank you, thank you! to
these great volunteers!), a vet there noticed a spot of wavy hair & said it
was from pressure, maybe caused pain that kept his heartrate bouncing. A
volunteering nurse at Auburn also noticed that his heartrate is high (64/66)
when she put the stethescope on him, but if she waited awhile, it would go down.
He is pretty goosy about being touched on his sides. Breast collar & crupper
are on the way. Maybe need to try a new saddle pad as well, had to give my
Coolback to my daughter when her horse started getting sensative back. We
think her change in posting style has helped her horse as well. Many
thanks to all the volunteers and especially the rider who sponsored my
daughter from Cool to Auburn and my friend, Kathie, who became our crew after
her horse was pulled due to mystery 30 minute lameness at Rattlesnake
Bar.
Tara loves to learn & get advice (she
especially likes the "Oreos" for breakfast suggestion!) from all you
ridecampers, keep it coming & thank you all so very much. We now have lots
more ideas for food, camping, etc., and we'll hopefully see some of you at the
Wild West Ride on May 30.
Kathy (can't believe my 11 yr old finished our
first ride & I didn't!!!)
