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[RC] MILLION PINES - rides2farMillion Pines was GREAT as usual. Something like 85 started the 25, 75 finished. 55 in the 50, 45 completed. (That's probably somewhere approaching the numbers they said). All I remember about placements were: 50 miler 1st & BC Bud Davidson (don't know which horse he rode) I also remember Nina Barnett was 11th. You can guess who was between. :-) Kaboot & I had a blast. He finished in something like 21st place. I tried some new things. For instance, I thought I might let him learn to do a slow canter instead of an extended trot. He's wonderful about switching leads, but BOY! can he spook better at a canter! I have yet to figure out how a horse can do a ride called "Million Pines", gallop by pines all day, and manage to choose ONE that looks REALLY scarey! :-P I thought I'd try doing what the dressage people say to do...use your seat when you want the horse to slow down. Well gals I tried it...and I'll never try that again. I much prefer raw *hands* after a ride. :-P They had had tons of rain this year and the trail was really cool. In one place you looked directly out into a swamp that looked like a Cajun in a pirogue would be hunting alligators in...but there were markers tied to the trees straight through it. Wes is one of the few people I would trust enough to follow them. It was really cool going through knee deep water, through the cyprus knees. Then there's a sign on a tree saying "stay right, bog" and I'm wondering what it looked like the day he found that out. One section of the trail was completely under water and there were logs piled on both sides. You could tell when the flood came through they had been everywhere and Wes had literally waded in and cleared them away. The footing was great under all this water so it was actually fun to have a place to walk along through it and the horses stayed really fresh all day. Josie's favorite was the place where it dropped down and was well above the horses' shoulders. It was *very* cool for Soperton. I've been there maybe 10 times and it was the lowest temp ever. Cool breeze, brisk morning, I barely sponged and *that's* unusual. Bekki Crippen got her first pull ever and that was hard for her but probably harder for the poor vets who sure didn't want to do it. Turned out it's apparently just a stone bruise so we told Bekki it just made her a *real* endurance rider now that she's got a pull on her record. :-) Must have made her feel a little better. I heard her tell several people "Now I'm a *real* endurance rider! :-) Million PInes lets juniors ride free, which means a LOT to me. I love the way Wes encourages the kids. He always has nice awards for all of them. Josie & Ben got another one in. It's easier to enjoy riding with your kid when it doesn't cost you anything. :-) Poor Josie, she had to sponsor both Dave Bennett (Ben's owner) and me the whole first loop. If I wasn't saying "Get Ben in front of me, slow us down! Dave was saying it. We especially needed her for a little while at the start. You see, the whole town of Soperton gets involved with the endurance ride, so the sherriff's car was there at the start. When they said "Go" all the people interested in starting up front immediately headed down the road...maybe 30 or so. Then another 15 or so of us were just around the curve and just sort of trotted around as they got gone. The sheriff must have thought that was all there was because he pulled his car across the road to turn around and follow them. We come around the curve at a big trot and I had visions of that horse jumping the car in "Run Appaloosa Run". He backed up, we all went around him and on by. Well, I guess he thought we were all there was so he pulls out right behind us, and is literally tailgating us down this open dirt road WITH HIS BLUE LIGHTS ON! Dave's horse Rocketeer is freaking out about it so I looked back and see this police car right on our heels with blue lights on, and another 15 or so horses that had started late behind him. He just looked like he'd joined a parade. >g< I was having less trouble than Dave so I waved a little frantically at the guy till he realized we wanted the lights off and he turned them off. Boy, just when you think you've seen it all. >g< There was one bad incident. A loose horse ran over a crew member at the vet check. I was just coming in off the 1st loop when the paramedics were putting the woman on a stretcher. She apparently ended up with stitches in her chin, a cracked pelvis and injured shoulder. That makes twice I've been at a ride where someone was run over, and I was almost run over at Million PInes 2 years ago when a horse paniced through camp. Maybe our education committee needs to have a pamphlet on safety in camp. I know an awful lot of people loosen their girth, then leave a horse standing at his feed pan while they drop the lead to reach something on the other side of their check. All it takes is a horse taking a good shake, and a saddle going under the belly to have a disaster. There's so many little kids running around and such that we need to be more cautious. At the ride meeting Wesley donated a check for $500 to the SERA fund to buy a blood gas analyzer (I think that's what it's called) in memory of Don Kasemayer. Hopefully what we learn from it will benefit all horses in the long run. If I ever get to the point where I can only do one ride a year Million PInes is where you'll find me. Thanks to Wes Crowe and all his great family for having us over. :-) Angie =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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