I could not ride because my truck decided at the last minute to need a
clutch, so I went to help. Boy am I glad I did.
Sharon guaranteed rain, and she was correct, but the rain was out of the
way by Fri. afternoon. Sharon commented that the reason the ride was
held in August was because they needed the rain the most that time of
year!!
Her brother and sister came all the way from Oregon to help with the
food, and boy was there a lot of food, and it was terrific!! Her whole
family and all of her friends showed up to lend a helping hand, and the
whole thing went very smoothly.
Since I didn't get to ride:-(, I didn't see the trails first hand, but I
never heard one bad word about the trail the whole day!! I asked a bunch
of people what they thought of the trail, markings, etc, and they all
agreed that it was WONDERFUL!!!
We had Mel Justice--no kidding on the name!-- and his partner Charles "Buck"
Stone, Law enforcement Agents from the S. Carolina Dept. of Natural Resources
riding the trail on two horses belonging to Clemson University. They
were a welcome sight to some of the riders out there during the long hot day!
Agent Justice was a very happy fellow. He was out donating his time,
trying to get started a pilot program dealing with mounted search and
rescue, man hunt, public relations, and preventive measures. The
Agents will use Clemsons horses until the program can get on it's feet
enough to get horses of their own donated from private sources. They are
working in that area because of the vast trail resourses, the many
sanctioned events held at that location, and the great number of social
riders that show up on the weekends. According to Agent Justice " We
want to be seen so that riders can identify us as people there to help
them in case they have a problem."
The trails were well marked, with pie plates marking turns, danger spots,
and also used as mile markers. Many riders commented how helpful to know
how many miles they had gone.
The awards were generous and plentiful. Ride T-shirts were given out at
the ride briefing the night before, so no one went home empty handed!
Top ten, first to finish, BC, and Jr awards were given at the awards
meeting, along with some fun awards such as who had the dirtiest horse!!
Kathy Bauer was mortified when I suggested her horse Sir Jon, who she
just happened to have at the meeting, and since he is a grey horse, he
was filthy!!! She says she will be glad to have the product to use on
Sir Jon. He does like to roll in the mud!!
As a volunteer, I was treated great. We were fed, liquid refreshments
were plentiful and offered even before we thought we needed to drink.
Riders were very courteous, and I only heard one snotty comment from a
rider the whole day!! It was fairly early in the ride, so the volunteer
staff just put that down to early ride jitters!! Or possibly a fairly
new rider trying to find their spot in the pack!
Vet staff was very capable with Duane Barnett as head, Dwight Hooten, and
Katrin Lavell completing the trio. It was Dr. Kats first time as an
endurance vet, and she will definately be back!!! Duane said that she
will make a first class endurance vet, and we will be very lucky to have
her working in that capacity.
The BC judging was a real doozy! The best vet score of 450--out of
500--was also the BC horse. Karen Clark did a wonderful job of taking
care of her horse in the Carolina heat and humidity. The second best vet
score was 430, and she was second in the BC hunt. Dr. Barnett commented
on how great most of the horses looked, although he did comment on how
many of the top ten horses had a tough time recovering due to the
excessive heat and humidity. He said that many CRI's were not as good as
he hoped, but that given the day, and weather that everyone came through
looking good.
The weather gods did us a great service by keeping the cloud cover over
us most of the day, but the humidity was still up there. It was windy at
some times, and that was a welcome relief, but not enough.
No horses had to be treated, and the horses that were pulled, were mostly
lameness. We did have one mild tie up--a 25 miler about 3 miles into the
first loop. It was not bad, and was doing fine a couple of hours later.
If you get a chance to attend this ride, by all means, put it on
your calender!! If Sharon continues to have this ride, it may well
become one of the best rides in the Southeast!!
APPY TRAILS
SAMM C. BARTEE
Auburn, Al. SE Region
with
SIR REVEL--1045 miles and........!!!
MOONLIGHT JET--just getting started at 16