Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I like training in the rain occasionally, really occasionally, and not sure I would have been happy at this ride either!  I've done this ride when the conditions were perfect, and had a blast.  Just enough rain the week before to settle the dust.

 

I wonder how everyone in the Pacific Northwest manages in the rain?  I'm sure that those of you know how to not be a wet-soaked rag at the end.,,,  Please do tell...  You're probably all reading this and snickering...

 

I don't do snow or sand either!

 

K.

On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 12:22 PM, Bob & Dorothy Foster <hitech@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I live right on the Loafer Creek segment of the Lake Oroville Ride, and so I was signed up early to go. However having just taken my young mare to Lake Sonoma the week before, and having seen the AccuWeather report, I almost backed out. I am so sorry I didn't. The ride (as usual) was very well-run, the riders being treated as royalty by all the volunteers, but the weather and trail conditions were just as Renie described in her posting here yesterday.

 

My mare got really cold and slipped and almost went completely down at one point. I was riding even more slowly than Renie, finishing at 5:40, cold, wet, and tired. I had trotted into the finish on a sound horse, but by the time I vetted her in, she was unwilling to trot and was lame - which I attribute to being stiff because she was fine after getting warmed up - so after nearly 12 hours spent out in the driving rain, I didn't even get a completion. I should have ridden back from the 2nd vet check because it was only 1/2 mile from home, but by then I figured Allure and I had invested too much effort to quit.

 

I learned my lesson. From now on I will be a fair weather rider. I'm too old to try to trot out a tired horse who was carrying at least 15 extra pounds in water-soaked clothing and equipment (especially since I had a half inch of water in my boots from the pond surrounding the 3rd vet check.)  I'm not sure my saddle will EVER dry out completely!

 

I will find out about the accident mentioned and report back later today.

 

djf (not usually a whiner, honest) and Allure (who is just "sensitive")