Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Soon we began a long steady climb up and over the ridge of mountains.  We trotted some short stretches but walked the large majority.  Jean went ahead and let Chi go on a little and we soon lost sight of her.  After cresting the ridge Sarah and I got off and walked, down, down, down.  We?d say hi or chat briefly with the 65?s that passed us on this section.  I remember one guy telling us what a good job we were doing as 100?s to get off and give the horses a break.  Heck, my knees needed the break at least as much as Sinatra did!  Back down onto the flat and we remounted and trotted the 6-8 miles or so to the railroad tressel and a water stop.  Sinatra had a little bit of a low spot at this point, I think when his little internal odometer rolled past 50 and he wasn?t back in camp.  =)  A bit of a break with some hay, water and some grain I had been packing with me helped to improve things.  It was a short 4 miles or so to the next vetcheck, which a group of us tried to make slightly longer by missing a turn.  Maybe some ribbons were vandalized but we eventually found the trail again. 

 

Into the vet check at 57 miles and Sinatra wanted to eat, eat, eat.  I put a little water on his neck and he pulsed down and vetted out well.  The same vet that saw him at 31 mile check saw him again at this point.  She still gave him a B on guts and this time a B on gait, he wasn?t overly motivated to trot out (only wanted to eat) so may have been dogging it.  I found my crew bag and gave him another mash and ate a little something.  I had packed glowbars for out here just in case it was late, I didn?t want to have to be coming into camp in the dark since the moon wouldn?t be up yet.  I taped a couple on my breastcollar during our 15-minute hold.  Sarah?s mare looked a little funny on the right hind so she took her over and massaged her before getting cleared at her recheck.  The last 100-miler, Gail Hought with Hought Tack, caught up with us and we rode the 8 miles into camp together.  The sun set as we headed in and by the time we were in the neighborhood before reaching the fairgrounds it was dark.  I leaned over Sinatra?s neck at the walked and cracked the glowbars.  It helped to light the way and more importantly allowed any approaching vehicles to see us coming.  I trotted on ahead, knowing Gail and Sarah were going to walk in and I could use the extra time for Sinatra to eat. 

 

We got into camp just after 7 pm and Melissa Ribley vetted Sinatra.  He had mostly A?s with a few B?s, I think maybe impulsion but he was going well with a 60/60 CRI right off the trail.  I took him back to the trailer, pulled tack and let him eat.  I looked in at Jean?s rig but it was all dark inside and Chi was resting comfortably with his blanket on.  I was tempted to see if she wanted to go back out but didn?t want to wake her if she was asleep.  I decided from the looks of things that she was done for the night and felt a little sad for her.  My mom grabbed me some of the dinner they were serving (tri-tip YUM) and I devoured most of it.  At this point, as I was saying I wanted to get a few things together for her to take out to the 92-mile check (same one as the 57-mile check) she kind of looked at me and said ?WHAT?!?? and I knew I had lost my crew.  =)  Luckily Sarah?s husband was going so I threw a few things in a bucket for him to take out.  I already had a little crew bag out there and my mom?s from her 35-mile ride was out there as well so I should be set.  We refilled all my water bottles (4) and I restocked my pommel pouch with 2 lbs of carrots.