On May 20th, My mft, Blues and I went to the
Dead Dog Endurance event in Kinmundy Il for our first shot at a 50. It was
definately interesting. We showed up with my spanking new Aerc card and the
entry fee. A nice woman took our money and then the race director showed up. The
first thing she said was " You shouldnt do this race". That was odd as I had
been talking to her by email for months and she had always encouraged me before.
I thanked her for her concern and said I thought we were ready. After all,
she already had my money.
Waiting in line for the first vet
check I was approached by Vickie from Evansville and her daughter in
law looked at my horse and said "I think it is horrible the way these
people are treating you." This kind of caught me off guard as a little
rudeness never wigs me out. But you see I did not know at that time that there
had been a meeting, which I later had explained to me at which time it was
discussed that:
1. I was not on an arab.
2. It was our first event.
3. I was a "local".
So, the plan was hatched to try and
discourage me.
Vickie, who is a lurker here per what she
told me (email me Vickie for the ride information in Shawnee please) said "I
dont know what your horse can do but do your best, we will be your crew, and
please dont let these peoples arrogance stop you" I didnt.
A small animal vet who I had talked to
by email a few times, but never met in person then stopped by our trailer and
said "You should do this" I had to ask her who she was.
Race morning started
smoothly. The LD riders started first with a mad dash out of camp. The
endurance event was all arabs and Blues, my beloved 12 year old racking
foxtrotter. He is out of Mr Koscot, Merry Boy Sensation, Golden Governor
and Poole's Blue Boy.
We started with a controlled start of
2 1/2 miles and then the call of "the trail is open".
There was a woman there who told me
she had done the Pan Am games and that here arabian had 4000 miles on him.
I decided she would be a good one to keep in sight. I did just that was a
protege of hers in between from Dubai. To say the least the woman was not
pleased with my being 20 yards behing her on a fox trotter. Heard during
the first 20 miles into the vet check:
1. What do you do for a living? Your a
lawyer? I dont like lawyers?
2. What do I do? I sell endurance horses, If you
want to buy one I could sell you an endurance horse.
3. You will never win on a horse like
that.
4. I hear you ride like hell.
5. Another arab rider offered me $40 per hour to
ride his horse.
6. I guess you dont know how to post do
you?
Well, you get the idea.
We went into the first vet check at 20
miles in a bunch 2nd, 3rd and 4rth over all. The first place rider must have
exploded at the start because I never saw her once the whole
race.
The 2 arabs with me both veted out 60 seconds
faster due to their heart rate falling a bit quicker. But hey, If my memory
serves our lowest score was an A- on the vet check on the trott out. I had to
keep saying , "this horse is gaited, HE WON'T TROT!" But we do need to work on
that somehow to please the vets in the future.
It took about 15 minutes winding
through the LD riders to pull the two arabians we were following back to
us. We did just that and settled in again at a rack at about 10 mph. In studying
what gave the arabians an advantage before the event one thing that seemed
apparant was that there shifting from loping, trotting and cantering allowed
them to use different muscle groups. SO, I worked on Blues' Canter in
secret. My trainer hates cantering and I never told him until after the race and
we met up
later.
We rolled into the 35 mile vet
check exactly like before. Vickie and her daughter in law helped me sponge
down blues. This time I got a B I think on the "trott out" GAITED HORESE
ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TROT!" O well, back to the race.
The woman from Dubai
pulled and the Pan Am racer vetted out 2 minutes faster. (Note to
self, use my own heart rate moniter next time to get the vet
over quicker)
Joe, a rider from St louis
was doing the race the next day and asked if he could shadow us. I
told him I would love the company.
I bumped Blues up to 11-12
mph (arent gps watches useful?) for about 4 miles and never saw the Pan Am rider
again. She must have been positively flying. I decided we were safe from
behind and werent going to move up so I let Blues walk a few times just to play
it safe.
After a while Joe
said:
1. Do all gaited horses move this
quickly?
2. So, you dont have to post at
all?
3. It is an honor being behind you.
4. How much is that horse worth?
Needless to say I liked his comment
alot more that some of the others I had heard.
I slowed down through the finish line which
was on the trail itself and kind of startling to my horse. We then
had about 200 yards to go to the vet check on hard packed gravel. I
collected blues up and set him a slow show rack. He sounded like a machine
gun or a paso on the boards. Our crew (God bless you both!) gave us thumbs
up and high fives.
We were 3rd overall and 1st in weight class.
Folks avoided us like we were lepers or something. The assistant
director came to our camp sight as I was packing up and said "I gues you know
you earned major respect" THen he told me about the meeting and said "we
were just concerned about the horse"
I told him that I appreciated any concern
for my best buddy Blues, whom I love dearly and that there was some of that
concern in their motive, but that since not a single person asked me about
the training we had done I thought the main issue was really arrogance. He
did not disagree. He then said "You will never win overall on a horse like that"
I asked him what the motto of the Aerc was? He
remembered.
We got our awards for finishing, 3rd place
and winning our weight class and left early to pick up other horses, several
gaited buddies and a week of riding and camping at the Big Creek Trail ride in
So Missouri.
What did we
learn?
1. Training for this was just like training for a
human endurance event. Periodazation, Lond Slow distance, rest, speed work,
heart rate monitering, race preperation and proper food all come into
play.
2. A gaited horse, if it is the right horse
can compete quite nicely.
3. There are some lovely people at these
events.
4. Considering that my sample group is quite
small, dont be surprised if you greated with alot less than open arms if you are
new, local and not riding an arab.
5. I love my horse Blues and he is a champion
in my eyes.
