Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Here's another story I'm working on for The Michigan Horse Magazine. If 
anyone has any corrections or suggestions please let me know.
Kari Hanes
Montalee Arabians
Holton, MI


White River Labor Day Endurance and Competitive Trail Rides&

The weekend was perfect for a long ride. Cool fall mornings gave all the 
horses a little spring in their step. We arrived at ride camp, located 
between Hesperia and White Cloud MI, early evening on Friday and set up 
camp in our usual spot. People from all over the Midwest and as far away 
as Georgia came to participate. Cathy brought her daughter to pit crew 
for her. We had two trucks so both our daughters teamed up to crew for 
Cathy in my truck while Dale was setup to crew for Wayne and I in his 
truck. We went to the riders meeting then made plans for an early 
wakeup call and went to sleep anticipating 30 miles of great trail.

Saturday morning dawned as beautiful as we had hoped and 23 riders were 
readying for the 30 Mile Limited Distance Ride at 7:30 a.m. The 
temperatures were low and the sky was clear. We all saddled up, warmed 
up and headed for the start gate. After a few minutes we realized there 
was a rider missing. Everyone noticed at the same time  "Hey, wheres 
Wayne?" Apparently when the 50 milers started at 7:00 a.m. Waynes 
horse, Lucas Bask, thought it was time to leave so he went home. Wayne 
went back to his house, found him standing just outside the pasture, 
threw his saddle on and rode three miles back to camp to start after we 
all had left the start gate. He caught up with us halfway through the 
first 15 mile loop. We were both surprised and relieved to see the horse 
and rider team. The rest of the ride we rode together and all the horses 
came through well. Myself, Wayne and Cathy finished in that order with 
another great ride under our belts. All 23 riders who started finished 
with a completion award and ready to ride again the next day. The awards 
were later that night along with a potluck dinner that was fabulous! We 
all had the chance to hang out and visit afterwards before looking at 
another early start Sunday morning.

Sunday I decided to take the day off riding and run pit crew instead. It 
was my first experience crewing and it was a lot of fun. We gave our 
riders water and slosh buckets along with everyone else we came across. 
Thats what is so fun about this sport, everyone helps everyone else. 
There were a lot of new faces riding and I met a lot of people from out 
of state. I had the chance to welcome them to Michigan and show them a 
little northern hospitality. Out of 22 riders who started 20 finished 
with horses in good health and ready to ride again tomorrow. The two 
that didnt finish were fine but had problems pulsing down their young 
horses in time to qualify for a completion.

Monday morning I woke early to get everything ready for the last ride I 
would have this season. We were ready to go at 7:00 a.m. and started 
warming up for our 7:30 a.m. start time. The two girls were all set to 
crew for Cathy again on her Mustang, Red Cloud, and to be back up for 
Rod on his new Thoroughbred if he didnt stay towards the front runners 
with us. There were 17 riders competing in the 30 miler for the day. 
Wayne, Linda, Cathy, Rod and I started together and stayed together 
until the last couple miles of the first loop. Cathy had run all three 
days and gave her Mustang plenty of time to pulse down by walking the 
last mile or so into camp. At the first vet check Wayne, Linda and I 
pulsed our horses down within a minute of each other. Rod was about 
eight minutes behind that and Cathy another three minutes behind him. 
Our out times were 40 minutes from our pulse downs so we all took a 
break and let our horses drink, eat and rest. On the second loop it was 
just the three of us for the entire 15 miles. We had a good steady pace 
going and only passed a few riders doing competitive or 50 miles. We 
came into the last vet check same as the first with Wayne in first, 
Linda second and myself in third  all pulse downs within a minute of 
each other. At the awards ceremony I was completely caught off guard 
when my horse MA Mara Leah won Best Condition. The icing on the cake so 
to speak! It truly was a great ride for me as I was able to ride to two 
very experienced endurance riders the whole way.

We were informed at the awards ceremony that next years White River 
Rides will be moved a few miles away to a different base camp area, but 
all the trails should be close to the same. The first ride will be in 
May again. To check out the 2007 ride schedule and find out more 
information about endurance or competitive trail check out these 
websites: www.endurance.net, www.gldra.org, www.umecra.com or www.aerc.org.

See you on the trail!
Kari Hanes - Montalee Arabians



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