Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

OK, I'll bite.  lst:  1991, end of first day of the final 2 day 150  
mile National Championship ride in Nevada.  Those of you who were  
there will never forget THAT event.  At the end of the first 75 mile  
day, I was very sick.  I was coughing up a lung and running a temp.   
The mare I was honored to ride, Fire Mt Spunk, looked terrific.   
Everyone, including the head vet, Dr. Kerry Ridgeway, said I should be  
pulled BECAUSE of ME!  I sat on Kerry's motorhome step and was sobbing  
and coughing.  I kept saying that I had to finish the ride.  (I don't  
really have a clear memory of this whole event due to walking  
pneumonia, but I have several witnesses :)  Finally, Kerry took pity  
on me or decided I was so stupid he had to help me or bury me the next  
day.  He took me into the motorhome and started stirring up a potion  
out of his horse drugs!  I know that he put two or three things in it  
at least and it was THE most horrible looking concoction I have ever  
seen in my life.  It looked like curdled milk with an orange or redish  
tinge.  He told me not to look at it and not to ask what was in it,  
but to hold my nose and drink every drop and that MAYBE I'd live  
through the next day's 75 miles.  Well, whatever it was allowed me to  
sleep through most of that night and to ride the next day.  Kerry  
checking on me throughout that next day.  I truly believe I would not  
have finished that championship ride without Kerry's care and kindness.

2nd:  1986 (I think), I was riding an anglo-arab gelding owned by Tom  
VanGelder.  HotShot was fun to ride, but was known to trip if he  
wasn't focused.  About half way through the first 25 mile loop,  
HotShot tripped over a rock at a hand gallop.  I landed flat on my  
back on a pile of rocks.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  Some  
riders went by and said they'd go for help, but frankly that would  
take a while and it was questionable whether they could get a vehicle  
there.  At that point, I couldn't completely feel my legs.  Kathy  
Arnold (winner of Tevis, BigHorn, Race of Champions) came up and  
carefully helped me onto her own horse.  Then, she led both horses for  
miles in the desert until we got to a vehicle.  Anyone who knows Kathy  
knows what a fierce competitor she is!  Yet, that day she sacrificed  
her ride completely to care for me.

I have so many stories like that where other riders put aside their  
own goals to help me.  It was hard to pick only two.  There's no one  
of earth more generous than endurance riders.  Cindy

 "hear some experiences from you all about an instance where a fellow  
horse lover
helped you, out of the sheer goodness of their heart, born of this
camaraderie.  I'm sure everyone has some great stories.  :)

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