Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

By 6:30, Cindy and I were mounted and headed for the start. Both
horses were alert and excited. Stormy acted up a bit whenever we were
near the other horses, but we kept walking around and tried to keep
her calm and occupied. Tanna was being angelic. :-) We met up with
Jackie, a friend from Middle TN, and decided to start the ride
together. We allowed the pack to get away while we offered water to
our horses and Cindy hopped off to tighten her girth. When most of the
other riders were out of sight, we calmly started our ride at a walk
and across the nearby road into the woods.

We soon picked up a slow trot. Tanna was doing ok. Stormy was fighting
and acting up a bit, but not too terribly much. Somewhat normal for
her. Jackie and Serina (sp?) were ahead a little ways. We came to the
first hill. Not too much of a hill, but steep and with the recent
rains, muddy.

Somebody had dropped their water bottle on the trail and Jackie
commented on it. Then her horse flipped out. I'm not sure of all the
sequence of events, even though it happened directly in front of me,
but Serina reared and the saddle slipped. Or maybe the saddle slipped
first and she reared in protest and caused it to slip more.
Fortunately, Serina did NOT go over backwards. That would have been
very very bad. And that probably would have involved Tanna and me as
we were directly in the line of fire for that. Serina came down and
spun back towards camp. I tried to get Tanna to block her, but it
didn't work too well as she just stepped off trail. Then Jackie was
off on the ground and Serina was flying back down the trail towards
camp, bucking, with the saddle around her hips. Tanna was having his
own fit on the side of the hill, but I got him under control and
checked with Jackie. She got up and assured me she was fine. Knowing
there was really nothing else we could do, Cindy and I continued on
while Jackie headed back to camp.

We found out later that Serina had sped straight back to her trailer.
Eyewitness accounts report that the saddle was under her belly and she
was moving out fast. When she passed the small restaurant, 2 park
rangers sprung into action to follow her. Later Jackie told us that
she and Serina were both bruised but fine. Whew. That could have been
disasterous!

On with the ride. Tanna and Stormy worked well together. Since the
trail was two-track a lot of the way, we rode side by side. We did the
14 mile loop in 2 hours 24 minutes. A good 5.8 mph pace. My goal for
this loop was a 5.5 - 6 mph pace on trail, leaving plenty of leeway
for a longer hold or any problems we might encounter on trail.

The vet check wasn't too bad, but Stormy didn't want to trot out in
her bridle (and away from Tanna), so I trotted Tanna to encourage
Stormy to trot. Maybe not the best, but it worked. Cindy now knows to
work on trotting out with a bridle. :-) Both horses did fine on vet
scores. Tanna received a B on guts, but As everywhere else (hydration
scores As!!!!!). Stormy also received a B on guts, but also a B on
impulsion (no surprise there due to her lack of willingness to trot
away) and a B on wounds. This was a mystery as Cindy and I saw no
wounds. Only old scars from an old accident with a fence. We could
have asked the vet, but we'd already left the vet check and as long as
there wasn't a problem, we figured it didn't matter so much.

We opted to return to our campsite for our hold. I tied Tanna to the
trailer with his hay bag gaping in front of him and mixed his beet
pulp mash. For this trip, I had premeasured meals in gallon bags.
Complete with supplements. Very handy. I think I will do this for
future rides. All I had to do was find a bag labeled VC, put it in a
bucket, dump some water in and serve.

Tanna ate most of his mash and some hay. I left him tacked up with a
loose girth and loose breast collar, ready to go out again at a
moment's notice. At some point, I gave him his mini-dose of
electrolytes and a follow-up of Fasttrack/Neigh-Lox.

I changed from my sweatshirt (which was soaked in sweat) into a ride
t-shirt and put my non-breathing rain coat back on. It hadn't rained,
but that didn't mean it wouldn't.

At our out time, I told Cindy we could go any time. She resaddled and
we mounted up and headed out 15 minutes late. We saw Jackie at the vet
check area and chatted with her a few minutes before going out for our
11 mile loop. Tanna was eager to go out again. Stormy, a bit confused.
:-)

About half-way through this loop, we caught up with Diane riding an
appy. He was refueling along the trail when we caught up with her.
Tanna thought that was a great idea and grabbed some grass along the
way, too. Diane decided we were going a reasonable speed (SLOW) and
rode with us for awhile. Until I stopped to find a bush. She decided
to head on. Tanna took advantage of the break and I rewarded him with
half a granola bar (I got the other half!).

Tanna was thrilled that the other horse had gone on. He loves nothing
better than tracking and catching a horse in front of us. :-) He was
having a great time and so was I. I think Stormy and Cindy were
enjoying themselves, too, although Stormy was showing signs of being
tired and/or bored. She had definitely settled down, but she was a far
cry from being exhausted or overworked. She was just mellower. :-)

We walked when the trail got too muddy and slippery. Tried to make
time where we could. We also stopped for a few minutes to let the
horses enjoy some good grass. The weather was overcast, but not as
chilly as the first loop and I was fairly comfortable
temperature-wise.

After awhile, we caught up with Diane and rode the rest of the way in
with her. About 20 minutes from the finish, it began to rain lightly.
At least it waited till the end of our ride.  :-)

We did the 11 mile loop in 2 hours 15 minutes. Slower than the first
loop. 4.8 mph. But we stopped a lot more on the second loop and ended
up walking more due to muddier conditions and trying to get the horses
to eat while walking. Add in the 15 minutes we started late and our
loop average was only 4.4 mph. But we had 20 minutes to spare. :-)

Both horses were down when we presented them for pulse. Tanna repeated
mostly As, with a B for gut. Stormy trotted out better as we had her
parents bring the halter to the finish, but still received a B for
impulsion, a B for guts, added a B for gait (she was a bit tired) and
a B for muscle tone. All in all a decent ride and Stormy and Cindy's
first completion! :-)

The ride cards were being kept until the ride meeting, but since we
were planning on heading home before awards, I had Daniel take
pictures of our ride cards and made arrangements with Jackie to bring
our completion awards back to Middle TN. Our horses were snug in their
pastures at home long before the awards would have been presented and
we deemed that the best thing for both horses.

We headed back to camp and cleaned up the horses. Tanna polished off
the mash he'd left from the vet check and ate some more hay. I hosed
off his lower legs and scraped off a lot of the dried mud from his
belly. Most of the camp had been packed already by Daniel and Cindy's
parents, so all we needed to do was take care of the horses and let
them rest a bit. We walked both horses to the water trough on the
other side of the bathhouse and both horses drank well. Stormy still
needs to learn to drink and eat better, but she did eat and drink
some.

This ride is due some great weather. Maybe it will be next year. I'm
not sure but what I would have bailed if it had only been me to think
about. As it was, I'm glad we went and Cindy and Stormy had a good
first ride.

Thanks to the Fruths for putting on this ride and to the vets and all
the volunteers for being cheerful and making this ride happen despite
the bad weather! Here's hoping the weather was better today!

April
Nashville, TN

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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!!

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