Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Ah, yes-- another of the semi-frequent ride stories.  An account from... hmm.  Basically all of the interesting things, leaving out "And then we drove along the road and then a car passed us but it was legal but they were speeding and I read in the car and we stopped for Taco Bell for lunch and I lost the sporks and we hurried back to the horses and they were okay but..." and all that stuff.  See?!  I'll just put "bla bla bla" instead of boring you with the details.  The boring details.

 

That morning, I slept in.  Bla bla bla.  The car ride?  Bla bla bla.  Once we got into camp and got parked, there wasn't much to do.  Except, of course, to help other people put their corrals up and groom the Beloved Equine until she shimmered!  Literally.  We were parked next to (on one side) Pat, who had TWO Shadow horses!  One at the ride, one at home.  Kind of like us-- horsie Shadow and doggie Shadow.   But even more so.  On our other side, we found out that Jacque knew our neighbors who had just recently started going on many rides with us.  We hadn't even vetted our horses in... and the adventure was already starting.

 

We vetted in... bla bla bla.  Ride meeting... bla bla bla.

 

However, that night as I set up my sleeping bag and struggled with my mom trying to set up the tent, I felt like an old pro.  In the bed of the truck (my mom clamimed the tent) I'd swept it lovely-ly and clean.  I think that some of the people camped near us were questioning my sanity as I swept bits of hay across the tailgate... but oh well.  I had a wonderful foam pad (which I had to bargain both horse blankets and my small foam pad away to my mom for) under my sleeping bag.  I slept in my ride clothes for the next day, with my bit at my feet and a sheet of Bounce beneath my pillow.  Boy, I was not willing to hold a Tara-buffet for the mosquitoes like I did at the ride meeting! lol.

 

In the morning, well, I wasn't the first up, but my mom managed to wake me before most people woke.  After a wonderyful breakfast of bagel, chocolate soymilk, sliced apple, and chocolate grahame crackers, the horses actually had finished eating.  Well, sort of.

 

Bla bla bla.

 

After they were tacked, we went out to the road where other people were walking their horses before the start.  To calm our horses, we took a more roundabout way than most people did.

 

Bla bla bla.

 

The start was controlled, but we started seven minutes late (at 6:07) but we were so incredibly late and typically so slow that it didn't particularly matter.  After it became an un-controlled ride, my mom and I rode basically on our own.  For a while, we rode with a group of individuals, and sometimes we would carefully keep our horses behind a couple of people.  We basically passed and let pass, and kept our own pace.  Shadow, however, decided that her pace was faster than Storm's.

 

So, we got behind some other people again.  Ones that wouldn't take off once they got a chance.  It was a woman named Beth, who (as we discovered) was the same Beth who sponsered me on the last seven miles of the American River Ride!  She was riding with her eight year old daughter, Katey, who was riding Ima the mule.  We stayed with them until a while after lunch, and at the last vet check before the finish Beth waited past their hold time to make sure that my mom's horse didn't get pulled and I wouldn't need another sponser for the rest of the ride.  Such a kind woman.

 

Anyway... I think I skipped ahead in time!  Of course, there isn't much to say... except that the volunteers were wonderful.  Out on the trail there would be water troughs and sponge buckets, with people refilling your water bottles and giving you sodas.  Sometimes there were carrots for the horses, people pouring water on your horse for you... it was just WONDERFUL!  At the first vet check there were all types of snacks, and piles of alfalfa, bran, carrots, and apples.  For shy people, volunteers would come up asking if you needed your water bottle refilled.  People took requests of those in the vet line, bringing them cups of Gatorade and lemonade.  A huge pie/cake/bread pan of coffecake and pound cake was brought around, along with a bucket of pretzels.  Once all had been fed, a paper plate laden with all of the above and chocolate cake was-- well, almost-- shoved under your nose if you happened to be standing in the vet line.  Anyway... enough about the first v et check.

 

Now, I cannot remember the trails-- how am I supposed to remember 50 miles of it?-- so I am simply going to say: bla bla bla.

 

At lunch, all was uneventful.  The horses pulsed down and drank.  And ate.  They got vetted in within 40 minutes of being pulsed in, though not uneventful!  Shadow does not like to trot out.  That's (almost) all there is to it.  You have to flick the rope back at her so she realizes, This is business!  Now, I must say that I never have been an accomplised rope flicker.  Anyway-- in my opinion-- what was it if Shadow got a B in attitude instead of an A?  Well, it turns out that I should have been an accomplished rope flicker.  Or, indeed, I should have flicked the rope on the way out instead of just on the way back.  Because the vet that we got thought that Shadow was off in her front right leg.  Only when she was trotting away!  On the way back (when I flicked her) she was perfectly sound.  So, my mom took Storm to the end when Shadow trotted out again.  She did it perfectly.  That is, except when she tried to run away with me when Storm was trotti ng back again.  Buddy issues?  No kidding.  Once Shadow had a reason to trot, she was perfectly sound.  However, a note was taken for the vet at the next stop to watch her right front leg.  It remained sound for the rest of the day.

 

Trail: bla bla bla.

 

The last vet check!  It was as good as the first, with watermelon, snack mix, cookies, soda, iced tea, bran, alfalfa, and carrots.  Storm was tiring metabolically, so we took it easy the rest of the way back...

 

Bla bla bla.

 

Before the end, we were panicking.  We had 35 minutes to get to the end, and we were anywhere from 1-5 miles from the finish.  Plus, we couldn't trot because of Storm's metabolic tiring.  Oh gosh.

 

(Tense, panicky music plays) Bla... bla bla!

 

We finished with seven minutes to spare.  Surprisingly, there were four or so people behind us.

 

We had an our after finishing to vet in... right?  So at 6:4something (we came in at 5:53) we went to get vetted.

 

The vets were gone.

 

We were (once again) panicking.  I mean... THE VETS WERE GONE!  At last, we had finished within time... AND THE VETS WERE GONE!  Talk about post-ride hysteria.  Well, several minutes and hoarse throats later, we managed to find a vet.  Several minutes later, a scribe came up.  Lifesavers.  The horses were sound, got their completions.  Surprisingly enough, Storm's jugular refil and skin tenting were better than Shadow's.  And to think that my mom was afraid for his hydration.

 

Another ride successfully completed, another confusing, jumbled up ride story.  Luckily, we missed the drama of lameness, bees, and falls.  Instead we got an adventure.  Not neccesarily one that I'd be willing to repeat, but hey.  We're alive, we're well, and we've got 50 more miles under our cinches-- not to mention the after-ride dinner!

 

I really didn't intend for it to be this long!,

     ~Tara

---

 FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar ? get it now! 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=