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[RC] Countdown to Tevis- part 6 - CowgirgoofWell it's 1 am, and I just got home from a glorious night ride on George with Roxanne and her Tevis horse Shar-Po.We leave in twelve days- do you suppose two women could be more excited?? We rode in one of the most technical forests we have in Florida- a greenway trail system which is heavily wooded with narrow single-file trails with little hills and deep sand. There were lots of downed saplings and small trees for the horses to negotiate over in the dark. Roxanne and I couldn't stop talking about Tevis in general and the California Street trail (which we rode on last August with Judy Houle). Since I don't have much night riding experience, I tried riding both with and without these neat little battery operated glo sticks that I found at Tractor Supply. They are far superior in brightness to a glo stick, and the coolest thing is you can turn them on and off. George preferred not to have them on as I think they cast too many shadows for his liking! We did quite a bit of trotting on the way out, then slowed down more towards the last half of the ride. We rode from 8:50 pm until 11:10, and covered about ten miles. There was one place when we were heading out that we heard something BIG moving in the woods right next to us. George heard it too, but was not as concerned as Roxanne was! She was in back and pretty much told me to hurry it up and get the heck out of there. I couldn't believe how much I liked it. It was a blast. Although I rode George at night after the Liberty Run ride in Augusta GA last month, this was only the second time I've had him out at night. Roxanne had just ridden at night last weekend with another endurance rider, who stated she hated it and would probably never do a 100... Guess I'll just have to be weird when I say I can't wait to try the CA street trail at night! Our only real casualty of the night is that Roxanne and I are both sporting huge rips in our tights where the brush got us. Oh well- what an excuse for a new pair... Well, I'd better get to bed for some beauty rest- tomorrow I am starting the serious packing since it has to be consolidated to fit in Roxanne's trailer. Oh- PS, I received my rider's packet today with the participant's guide. Our number is 233 (doesn't that sound lucky?) Boy, does it feel really real now! Becky and Gorgeous George- Tevis bound
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