Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

About 5 minutes before I was able to head back onto the trail, I started tacking Ice up again. Based on the time it took for me to complete the 15 miles, I told Dan I would be back to camp in about 1 ½ hours. Leaving ride camp, I had to convince Ice to leave. But when got to the out-timer and rounded the curve towards the 10 mile blue-cut loop, he saw a big group of horses in front of him and he was happier. We picked up a nice easy trot and passed the group of about 5 horses. But soon after we passed them, he slowed to a walk. We walked a couple minutes, and then I asked him to trot again. He trotted a couple steps, and then came down to a walk. The group that I just passed 10 minutes ago closed the gap and passed me, all except for the last rider who was riding a little grey Arabian. I could tell when I passed them the first time that this horse was a little tired. When I dropped back from the main group, she stayed with me. It turned out that we rode the entire 10 mile loop together, almost entirely at a walk. But we figured we had about three hours to do 10 miles, so we were not worried. It turned out that this rider, Melinda Harrelson, and I kind of knew each other from an on-line horse chat group that we were both part of. We talked the entire time and it was very enjoyable. I only needed to look at my map a couple of times as the Osceola trail system was very well marked with permanent color coded markers with directional arrows on the trees. We crossed a stream, several long puddles that the horses drank from, and even crossed a long fairly-tall vehicle bridge with very low sides into a neighborhood. I don?t remember a bridge or a neighborhood mentioned in the ride meeting, but Ice did well over the bridge. About three miles from camp we decided the horses were rested enough. My butt was also getting really sore from just walking, so we asked the horses to pick up a trot. Then my legs got sore from trotting, so I asked Ice to pick up a nice canter, which he did with gusto. As we got closer to camp, I had to hold Ice back from galloping home. Like the previous loop, we passed through the small campground where ride management had put out buckets of water. We offered the horses some water, which they refused, but we sponged them for several minutes before hand-walking them back to camp. The last 20 minutes of the way back was along a road in the sun. Ice was marching along and pretty much dragging me. I could barely keep up with him. Melinda?s horse had dropped back behind me quite a bit so I ended up coming in 2^nd to last, not the turtle as was my plan all along! Upon finally arriving in camp I took him straight to the P&R crew. He pulsed in right away, giving me a ride completion time of about 5 hrs and 30 minutes. I took him back to the trailer to strip off his tack and sponge him for the vet-in. I felt a little light-headed and didn?t think I could manage trotting him out with passing out, so I asked Dan if he would do it for me.  Chris, who was sitting nearby, offered and I took her up on it, since Ice is a little scared of Dan. The final vet-in went very well. Ice got all A?s except for a B+ on gut sounds. I took him back to the trailer, gave him fresh food which he gobbled down, and I collapsed in a chair at the trailer.

The rest of evening was spent relaxing and attending the awards ceremony. We roasted hotdogs over a big bonfire that Dan made. Mary Anne and Kori decided to head home instead of spending the night at camp, but Chris and Alice, along with Kay Garcia and Meg Thompson, two riders from the Tampa area, joined us at the fire for conversation and to roast marshmallows. Later that night we watched an Indiana Jones movie, but I fell asleep before it was half over.

The next morning we took our time getting up and about. We were one of the last rigs to leave at about 8 am. The trip back was uneventful until we were nearing Crestview, which is only about 30 miles from the barn. Dan mentioned that we seemed to have used more diesel fuel on the way back than the way there. A mile later, he said ?uh, we have a slight problem?. Well, you know what that means! We both watched the fuel gauge on dash plummet from ¼ to ?E? and the low fuel light turn on. I hope none of you have had the bad luck of steering a heavy truck when you run out of fuel (I have, but I wasn?t pulling a trailer), so I said ?pull over!!? But we were a ½ mile from the Crestview rest area and Dan said we could make it. Dan careened into the rest area, pulled into the first spot, hit the brakes, jumped out, and looked under the truck. Fuel was pouring onto the payment. Dan turned the truck off and popped the hood. There was diesel fuel everywhere. Dan pulled out the new fuel pump he had just installed prior to our trip. It had a crack along the seam ? it was defective! We called Kellye and her husband, Rick, came to our rescue. He found a fuel pump on a Sunday afternoon and drove out to the rest area with it and a gallon of diesel fuel. While we were waiting on Rick, I unloaded Ice and hand-walked him for about ½ hour around the huge grassy area in back of the rest area. Ice even found a sandy area to roll in! I made myself an egg salad sandwich and offered some to Ice, but he spit it out on my white t-shirt, along with pieces of carrot that I had given him previously. Some of the sandwich ended up on the pavement too, which he later tried to eat off the ground, but of course flung it everywhere after he remembered he didn?t like egg salad. About 1 ½ hours after we pulled into the rest area, we got the truck started and made our way a mile down the road to the Crestview exit to find a gas station. We filled up and continued the short distance to the barn. Ahh, what a trip! Except for the tire and gas pump problems, I had so much fun. All the riders and volunteers were so friendly and helpful. The trails, although flat as could be, were pretty and well-marked. Although we didn?t have electricity or running water at camp, I found the camping in the shady ride camp very comfortable and enjoyable with our new trailer. I can?t wait to do more LD's and hopefully work my way up to a 50!

 

Christina Schiro and Ibn Ionah ("Ice")

November 2005