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[RC] 1 more OD story - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: Chris Littlefield clittlefield@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== After reading the many stories about the OD I wanted to include 1 more. My riding partner Beth and I came from Florida to do the OD with our sights on simply completing. We have heard the stories of how tough the OD is and had worries about training for mountains in FLAT Florida. With the encouragement of experienced riders who thought the heat,deep sand and humidity of FLA would help, we trained on. We were lucky to travel with our personal farrier, her husband Larry and chef, my husband Ron. Food and shoeing were in our good favor. The trip took 2 days and the horses travelled well. We were TIRED of RAIN!And Mud. Nothing is clean. Luckily the day of the ride was picture perfect weather. We started at the end of the 90+ riders for the 50 with our sights on turtling through.Trot when we can, walk when we should. Each vet check had a cut off so we set our timer to keep us on schedule. From the moment we started riding with Irving McNaughton, we knew we were in capable hands. He knew this trail as well as the GPS. We KNOW we would have been one of the trail lost riders if it wasn't for his years experience. We had stories to hear of past rides and riders and times of reflection of the beauty. We were advised when the trail would be tough and when to take advantage of the flat work.We'd stop to take pictures only to be told to not dally then be shown an even better spot to photograph.He'd chide us about our vet check times and how to do it faster to take advantage of the down time. My horse through a shoe coming into Liberty Hall and Irving saved the day with his easy boot. (I can't pack Larry although I wish I could!) The good thing about riding towards the back is that the vet checks were a breeze!Easy in, easy out. In fact they hurried us up so we wouldn't lose time. Who would have thought it would take an hour and half to do 4.5 miles! Of course half of it is uphill! Irving got us through along with another rider whose companion was pulled at the 3rd vet check. When she asked if we were riding fast we had to laugh! We were 20 minutes from 6:30 and STILL on Skyline Drive! We kept asking Irving if we were going to make it on time! All along he continued with his "we'll get there in plenty of time" Finally,we're headed down the trail to the road that leads us in. Now us girls are getting antsy and start trotting home. Here is Irving WALKING! We finally get him to heed to our pleads of leading us, his band of women, in to the finish. Ron and Larry are radioing us that we have less then 5 minutes, where are we? With big trots and LOUD YA-HOOS we come down the trail! We finished 11:58 into the ride! We had almost all A's on our vet cards and with A's and a B+ (an A in disguise :))for completions. Thank you 100 times over Irving McNaughton for keeping us company, showing us that you don't have to ride fast, for knowing the trail, and your many insights about vet checks and mountain riding most of which were new to us!What a great ride! We had found out after the ride that you were a multi-year Turtle Award winner. This year you can add angels wings to that. Your "not so chatty" women friends, Chris Littlefield and Beth Thorne from Monticello, Florida and Jackie form New Jersey. ===========================================================Many of the endurance riders in our top echelons of competition, now and in the past, exemplify the 'common man' not the hierocracy. It is this possibility, this chance to come to the fore, that makes endurance competition of the Aussie/American type so much more desirable to part of the world. ~ Bob Morris ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ===========================================================
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