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[RC] Swanton GONE MAD! - beth gloverHi Friends; We went to beautiful Santa Cruz/ Davenport for the gorgeous Swanton Pacific 75/100 mile ride this weekend. If anyone ever looks on Weather.com for Davenport temperatures...add a good solid 10 or 15 degrees to that. It was close to 100 degrees. We camped with Jonathon Bowman and Melody Wong, and were having a lot of fun with the kids playing in giant buckets of water. We had great barbeque, pre-road the course for a few miles, were having a good time. Saturday the ride started at 5:30, and I was determined not to get lost in the back of the pack and lose time like I did at Tevis. I was all pleased with myself as I didn't barf one time at this ride. So I got right up there with Jonathon, and it was pitch black outside, with gorgeous stars in the sky. Living in LA, you don't get to see stars, honestly. Just leaving camp, I was totally blind, and trusting that the horse could see well, which she did. Well the ride started off at a brisk, but careful trot. A man behind me was "glad that I had
on a white shirt", and I laughed 'cause the only thing I could see was Jonathon's white shirt. Was happy that we preroad the start so I knew which sections were rutted, sort of. We were noticing how you can see hundreds of sparks from the horse's hooves as they trot and hit rocks, like little fireworks. The horse and I both felt fit and excellently conditioned. I was trotting along with Jonathon, thinking I was Mrs. Cojone, riding Miss Mojo, when we went by a "hippy camp". We all joked and hummed the theme from deliverance. In a little while, we went motoring around a fenced compound, and my horse hit a patch of cement driveway or something that was sandy, and I felt her kind of slide forward, then bobble, and I thought she hurt herself, as she pulled herself up. My friends trotted away, onto the wrong trail, since many of the trail crossings were "vandalized", ribbons removed, dolomite scraped away. I took the right trail and saw a lady by a barn who helped hold my horse whilst I applied the easy
boot. Then Jonathon came up, and tightened the boot. We duct taped it too. I had to go easy at first since I wasn't sure how she was doing, but she seemed fine, so we trotted on, until we came to a gorgeous redwood path by a stream and then a deep deep stream crossing. A few feet later, off came the boot. It was rocky. I just grabbed my boot and rode barefoot until I got to a safe place where I got lost since the trail markings were removed. I got the boot back on, and did you know that they smell like burnt rubber after a while of use! So I made it to Vet one, and the very kind vet helped me duct-tape it on good. So off we went through more beautiful redwood trails, and I also saw the biggest Manzanita tree in probably the world. When I was approaching the vetcheck number two, the mare was acting a little ouchy, and I was hoping for a shoer, as it seemed like the boot was troubling her. I got off and walked in, directly to water, where Melody Wong informed me that my daughter Laura was really sick. So
then I took Summer over to look at Laura, and she was laying on Jonathon's horse blanket barfing and retching, pale, clutching her painful belly, shaking with chills, and not talking to anyone. She is 10 years old. I tried to palpate her abdomen, and she wouldn't let me touch it much, and was very tender on the right. So I went over to another very sweet and kind vet, and retired my horse from the ride, asking him if there was a doctor or nurse in camp. Since I wanted an objective opinion, and sure enough, there was a wonderful woman right there, who is a family practice physician. If anyone knows her, thank her profusely. She examined Laura, and found no bowel sounds, and also thought that she had appendicitis. So we 911'd her, and because of the remote location they decided to helicopter her out. ( Ironically I had helicopter insurance for the family at Tevis, but this time I don't so I am going to EAT it financially) They took her to Stanford, where her pain subsided after some medication and a huge amou
nt of IV fluid, they gave her about a liter in about an hour and a half. Kind of like a horse colicking at a ride. Then she was steadily better and they ruled out the appendicitis, instead calling it viral or bacterial gastroenteritis. We were able to take her back to camp, and she slept most of the time, and drank fluids. Today, Monday, she is almost her normal self. I want to thank Barbara M., the Vets, Julie Suhr, the horse ambulance people, and all the other riders for wisking my horse and other little girl away and taking care of them all day until we got back from Stanford. That was also about the best Sunday breakfast that I've had in recent memory, it was a gorgeous ride, and people were great friends. I was so worried that the helicopter would scare the crap out of horses at the vet check and someone would get hurt, and everyone made sure that the aircraft landed up the road a safe distance away. It seemed the the horses were uniformly calm and collected about the ambulances and firetrucks, an
d I thank all the riders for their patience. Now stay tuned to this station to see if I have to sell my horse to pay for the freaking helicopter ride which is gonna be thousands, and maybe my great insurance will throw a bone at that bill. Sigh.
Ride on! Beth Glover 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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