Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

If this is a duplicate, I apologize.  There was a glitch when I sent it the
first time, but I don't think it went because it hasn't come in yet with the
other Ridecamp emails!

The good thing about that is, I remembered some funny details I'd forgotten
to include the first time.  :-)

-Sharon L.

-----Original Message-----

I was going to wait until I was able to post this on my own website, but I
ended up being too excited.  I had to share my story right away!  Hope you
enjoy...

---
This year there was a new endurance ride in Vermont, the Justin Morgan
Memorial 50 in Tunbridge and four surrounding towns. I wanted to ride it but
wasn't sure Zephyr could handle the White Mountains. So three weeks
beforehand, we rode the Brown Bag 25 CTR in the Green Mountains of Vermont.
He did well enough to convince me to give it a shot.

The night before we were scheduled to leave, a friend decided on the spur of
the moment to ditch work and come along to crew for me. HURRAY! Thanks to
preparations earlier in the week, we were packed up early enough that I was
able to cook omelets. We were out the driveway by 8:15 with what was
supposed to be 6 hours of driving ahead of us.

We took our time, stopping here and there for coffee, second breakfast, gas,
elevenses, etc. but thankfully no wrong turns. We finally got to the
Tunbridge Fairgrounds around 3:30 or so, set up camp, and vetted in with all
As.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/IMG_0360.jpg

Heather isn't a horse person and has had no real exposure to the sport of
endurance, so we spent a good long time getting my gear ready and discussing
the logistics of crewing. I've never had a crew before so we had to think it
through out loud together.

Next thing we knew it was time for a very yummy barbeque and the pre-ride
meeting. The trail description was the most thorough I had ever heard; it
was quite clear that Trailmaster Deb knew this trail in and out. I didn't
end up remembering very much of what she said, but one thing sure did
stick... watch out for the bull tied in the middle of the road!!!

Over dinner I met a guy named Dave who was riding a borrowed horse and had
the same goal I had, which was to finish as slow as we needed to in order to
get our flatland horses through safely, so we agreed to start together and
see how it went.  Since I had a crew and he didn't, Heather and I agreed
that she could carry some things along and set them out for him.

After dinner it seemed as if we had 3 more minutes of daylight before it was
full dark and time to go lay down and pretend that sleep might actually
happen.  Heather had opted to stretch out on the backseat of the truck.
she's shorter than I am. and I crawled into my Tent Cot in the front of the
trailer. I know I slept a little bit because I distinctly remember Zephyr
escaping from his escape-proof corral and that nobody could catch him. but
when I woke up it was clear that either I'd been sleeping, or he'd come home
and shut the gate behind him!

Time to get up came too soon. Start time was at 7:00 so my alarm went off at
4:30. Breakfast for him, breakfast for us, last-minute attempts to finish
shedding him out by sheer elbow grease, and tacking up by 6:40 for warmup.
Dave introduced me to Stina, whose name I'm sure I've spelled wrong, who
also wanted to ride very slowly because both she and her horse were
attempting their first 50-mile ride.

Zephyr was very calm as we warmed up and waited for the vehicle-controlled
start.  Trailmaster Deb got this shot of the leading riders and the
starter's car:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/IMG_0361.jpg

Heather got a great picture of all the horses strung out after the starter's
car, on the switchbacks going up the hill out of the fairgrounds. It was all
pavement but all the horses were keyed up so everyone was trotting. Zephyr
was doing just fine until the second switchback when the road turned to
dirt. Then he turned on the afterburners and took off up the hill at his
biggest trot.  Rather than fight with him and waste both our energy, I just
steered my rocket and tried to remind him that he had a rider, and that he
should try to keep it under 12mph. After a few miles he started to let me
have more of a say in the matter, so I hung back and waited for Dave and
Stina. We all arrived at the first crewing stop, a boat landing, together.
Heather helped Dave and I, but Zephyr wouldn't drink so I took a minute to
walk him down to the boat landing. Still no drinking so off I went. It took
a few minutes to catch up to Dave and Stina but eventually we did. We were
loving the trails and finding the markings easy to follow as long as we
looked around thoroughly at each turn marker to double-check which way the
trail went. Looking around thoroughly paid off in more ways than one; the
views were spectacular. The mountains were wrapped in such thick fog that
only the tops showed. I tried to take some pictures but the camera didn't
handle the light well so the pictures don't show the true glory that we got
to see in person.

More hills, dirt roads, woods, and fields, and then we were at the second
crewing stop. Pee-break for humans and sponging for horses, and we were off
again. After a while I spotted a pie plate attached to a tree off trail a
bit and yelled "WATER!" I couldn't read the pie plate yet but they don't
grow on trees, so chances were that it was a marker. The other two had
already passed it but Zephyr made the sharp turn without slowing down. They
all drank for quite a while. That was probably around 15 miles in. We all
felt a lot better then, it's always a little nervewracking at the beginning
when they're too keyed up to drink. We rode on with big grins!

The first hold was at a neighbor's farm, and was at around 18 miles. Heather
had picked a good spot for our water buckets up near the pulse-check area. I
knew it was hot and humid enough that to pulse down quickly we'd need to
strip the tack right away instead of waiting until between pulsing down and
the vet check like I normally do, so we stripped tack and dumped it into my
crewing cart. Sure enough, his pulse went right down. We got our official
out time and went back to the truck for a few minutes so we could both eat.
Round about ten minutes later I realized we hadn't gone for our vet check
yet, so off we went. It was in an indoor arena that had a mirror on the top
half of the end wall, and when I walked Zephyr up to it he didn't see the
mirror until he was right in front of it. His head came up, his ears pricked
forward, and he tilted his head from side to side as if he was admiring
himself. Heather just busted out laughing, she'd never seen anything like
it.

We vetted through with all As again and headed back for another few minutes
of snacking before I had to tack up again. The three of us left right on
time. Loop 2 was a little over ten miles.  We kept a slower pace, still
moving right out but taking more time to graze (and take pictures).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/JMM50-024.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/JMM50021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/JMM50015.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/Sharon1359/JMM50-011.jpg

Every bit of water we saw, the horses sucked down like champs. There were no
crew stops on this loop, and we cruised into the second hold before we knew
it. After the saddle was off, Zephyr pulsed down pretty quickly. This time
we went right over to the outdoor sand arena for our vet check. When the vet
asked me to trot him down and back, and we were on our way back when Zephyr
started trotting with his nose near the sand, sniffing. I was tired enough
not to make the connection. All of a sudden, mid-stride, he dropped like a
stone and just ROLLED and ROLLED and ROLLED! The reins got wrapped around
his nose and torn out of my hand; I'm probably lucky the center buckle
didn't rip my skin. Dumb me, I just reached down and picked the reins up
again but didn't think to move around to where I'd be standing right in
front of him. I would have, but I kept thinking he was finished! It was a
good solid minute before he finally got up. Everyone nearby had gathered at
the arena fence and was laughing. Someone yelled out that I had to clean him
up before presenting him to the vet, and someone else asked how the rolling
would affect our grade for Attitude! Dr. Art King laughed and just said I'd
have to do the trot-out again (so he could check the Cardiac Recovery Index.
pulse before and after trot-out). We passed again with all As and a warning
to be sure and get every last bit of sand out from under where the tack
would go. He didn't have to tell us twice!

Zephyr got less time to eat at this hold because we had to take him over to
the hose for a deep cleaning. We did the best we could without shampoo. I
had time to run to the outhouse with my new container of
Anti-Monkey-Butt-Powder to combat some oncoming saddle sores. Soon it was
time to tack up again, this time with a clean dry saddlepad. We ended up
waiting a few minutes until Esther, whose riding partner had been pulled,
was cleared to leave. It was the first 50-mile for both Esther and her
horse. The four of us did loop 3 together, a little over 9 miles, probably
at about the same pace as we did loop 2. I tried to eat some of my beef
jerky on this loop but when I looked in my pack I saw that the Ziploc bag
had opened, and my pack hadn't been closed, and I'd apparently been trailing
clouds of jerky over the last few miles!

More in a sec...


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

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