Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

YIKES, Oh me or my, that's
one of the scariest sights I'd seen in a long time.  We slowed, pulled
off at the exit and took a right heading for what we thought would be the
closest gas station.  Another right turn and we were on a side street
between a Toyota dealership and Car wash but a big enough area at the end
of the short block to quickly and safely unload the ponies (our 2 Ay-rabs)
before anything worse happened.  Just then, even before we could breathe
a sign of relief, we had a NASTY dealership owner come over and start giving
us the 'you have to get those horses out of here, they'll ruin my business'
litany.  Ok Sandy (talking to myself again), Dick needs to handle
this one. . . as I sometimes get a bit TOO direct in times of crisis (IMAGINE
THAT?!).  So I took the boys off the street and onto the shoulder
to nibble on some weeds and stand in the shade.  Of course, my faith
in mankind was strongly rekindled when, much to my surprise, a car wash
employee came over asking '. . . agua. . cabillo??'  and after finally
figuring out just what he was trying to say and acknowledging 'si', the
car wash manager brought over a bucket of water for the boys.  Wow!
 There are still wonderful people out there (I just voted them into
the 'horsey people' category)!!

WHAT NEXT?!!  Well,
Dick being Dick, he found some folks in the parts/service area that knew
some horse people that might be able to help us.  My wonderful boy
knocked my Blackberry device (combination PalmPilot/Cell Phone/E-mail device)
out of my hands and onto the hard ground (did you hear it break? - course
my husband would say it's a good thing, me off the cell phone).  Calls
to Morningstar Farms from Dick's cell phone (we were in Novato, CA) and
although Kevin was busy, he put us in touch with Monte, the gal that runs
Willow Tree Stables (none of these folks did I know before our 'need' but
they were horse people mind you, and helping out when we needed it).  15
minutes later Monte was pulling up alongside the freeway (we were on the
other side of a chain link fence), and tooting her 'we're hear to rescue
you' horn.  Thank God, somebody I didn't even know was coming to rescue
me!!  Goodness gracious, I still have goose bumps thinking about how
relieved I was.  Couple that with an educational call (yes, it says
on my card that you DO tow trailers) with MoTow - my endurance motorcycle
riding hubby had lovingly added me to his towing coverage - and we were
mostly taken care of.  I must say though that seeing my Circle J,
2 horse slant load bumper-pulled trailer on the back of a flat bed (a inch
of tire on either side hanging over) was definitely . . . shall I say,
spooky?!  Hmm. . . the thought did cross my mind (of course my horses
had already been taken away in another trailer) that if it 'fell off' that
maybe I'd get another trailer!  (naugh, I like the old one enough).
 So the horses were off to a nice 100 horse barn (they take good care
of horses who need layovers by the way) and the tow truck driver was off
to drop off the trailer.  Oh, but the Opinionated (Dick says I shouldn't
use Nasty), dealership owner had a few more 'instructions' for us before
we left. . . . gRRRRR!~~  

Still off to see the Wizard (ride
camp that is). After checking in with Monte and making sure that
the boys were happy (up to their hocks in good oat hay - thanks again Monte)
we were off to Ride Camp.  What, you say?!  Well, HECK YEAH!~
 What else are we going to do?  Heck I'd actually done ONE ride
so far this year (volunteered at one too), and one of my best riding buddies
was going to do her first 50 (yes, she did it, even though I wasn't with
her).  So Dick and I headed to Ride Camp where we were quick to be
picked up and taken care of on the volunteer circuit.  Marci &
Ruth run one heck of a good ride and even offered to return our checks
(oops, am I suppose to tell everybody that?!).  Actually, I think
it was Ruth's ride but Marci was in charge of the volunteers (that be me)
and early the next morning, gave me a pretty big clock and efficiently
put me at the Out Timers box and Dick was doing P & R's (as he was
the only one of us with a watch on).  That was fun!!~  All day
long I was thinking to myself, 'what are all the little things that people
do or I'd like them to do for me at a ride?'.  So I fed watermelon
rhines to the horses, or alfalfa that had been dropped on the ground, rubbed
their faces, talked to the riders, held a stirrup down when they were trying
to mount with a loose saddle (I like riding with a relatively loose saddle
as well) and/or <gasp> held them back an extra 10 seconds until it
was 'official time'!!  Actually rubbing all the horses and pointing
folks to the 'mounting block' (a cut log from a tree) or in the right direction
was a lot of fun.  Most folks don't know me and I don't know them
but they were all really great.


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