[RC] What Endurance Means To Me - TypeF \(Jackie Floyd\)
I haven't been active on RideCamp this last year in
the posting aspect, but I do read it. After all, it's where I first landed,
several years, after deciding to get back into endurance after being out of it
for so long.
But these days endurance seems to have taken an
entirely different turn for me. Never in a million years, did I think that I
would find a horse, fall in love with him, and ride him 1200 miles in one year.
Never in a million years, did I think that it would be over just as
quickly.
Most of you know the horse I'm talking about is
Tank. After two years of trying to figure out what's wrong with him (and many
have tried, including some very well-known vets, two nutritionalists (one
of them seems to keep breaking her arm), an herbalist, a chiropractor, a
physical therapist and several trips to UC Davis) I think that we've all
collectively settled on a pinched nerve. Although I could find that out
definitely, with a nuclear scan or a mylogram (both very expensive), I don't
think there is a point. If that's what it is, it's not fixable. He seems very
happy being a pasture ornament. That makes one of us.
In an effort to stay "within the fold," I kept up
with my endurance guide and published a supplement. And while the supplement has
a 2007 date on it, it's not about dates. So I have decided not to do a 2008 one.
With my mom's health almost at it's end, I am spending the majority of my spare
time with her.
I have also tried to keep finding the time to ride
once a week, and pretend to be "conditioning" a horse. After all, I do have two
that I can ride besides Tank. But it's just plain not the same. I'm not sure it
will ever be.
I also took a trip to New Mexico, not for the
GSFHR, but to visit my good friend Katey Gies, Tank's former Mommy. We spent
four out of the five days I was there, whizzing up and down and
around the wonderful single-track trails of the mountains right out her
back door. We pretended we were at Grand Canyon as we looked out over the
beautiful scenery. GC coincided timewise, with my trip to New Mexico and GC
was the last time I saw Katey three years ago. So it was kind of a nostalgic
trip. I did come home in a much better frame of
mind. After all, I was on a good horse for four days!
In an effort to stay with this endurance thing, I
immediately badgered Angie into a new cartoon for a first aid kit I've been
wanting to sell. My enthusiasm kind of went overboard and now we have a new
t-shirt for the non-Arab riders who have been bugging me, a long-sleeved T, and
a lunch cooler.
While the definition of endurance has changed for
me, I am really trying to stay positive that someday it will mean the same thing
to me that it did in 2004-05, when I traveled about, seeing so much beautiful
country, with my best friend Tank. So, for now, I'll have to be satisfied with
helping Angie make people laugh about the sport we all love so
much.
And there is a little bit of light at the end
of my tunnel (although I usually say it's just another train) ... Karen
Chaton's Granite Chief and his brother Zenos will be getting a new baby brother
or sister in March. I am looking forward to a cute little Cheefee look-a-like
out of my mare Crystal. Now that I think about it, maybe the future is not so
bleak after all.
