Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Diane:
> Does anyone want to talk about going crewless....

The trick with riding crewless is to figure out
how much is "too much stuff" (causing RM to curse
you when they have to lug your fifteen ton crew bag)
and how much is "not enough" (causing you to lose
friends when they tire of continuously providing
for you). You'll probably swing from one extreme
to the other before you reach a happy medium.

Three things I learned riding crewless:

1) Don't assume your crew "bag" will arrive at the
vet check - once at a ride due to miscommunication
my horse and I arrived but our stuff didn't. For some
reason I had an inkling this might happen, so I'd sort
of planned for it and had the basics with me.

If it does happen, it's not the end of the world -
there's almost always food and water for the horse,
so he doesn't care. And you should already have stuff
to munch on in your saddle - you can survive on Gus
if you have to.

The one thing that can bite you is if the check is
chilly and your horse gets shivery. A precautionary
rump rug on the saddle (even a summer ride - f'instance,
on the coast where it can be foggy) can save you in
that instance.

2) Your crew bag may not always make it *back* to ridecamp
at the end of the day, or if it does, someone else's crew
may inadvertently pick it up thinking it belongs to their
rider and you'll never see it again.

After losing one crew bag like that, I started using a
Rubbermaid tub instead of a nice plush bag.

Rubbermaid tubs are obvious enough (and unwieldy enough)
to not be picked up by a stranger by accident and mine
is marked VERY CLEARLY on the lid with my name.

The lid is firmly bungeed shut to avoid blowing off in the
back of the vet check delivery truck, enroute.

And you can sit on it at checks. :)

3) Carry the painkillers *on* you... leaving your emergency
vicadon back at the trailer won't do you much good when you
break your leg in the middle of nowhere.



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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
elsietee AT foothill DOT net
Repotted english person in the Sierra foothills, California
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