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Up to this point I had been explaining to him what endurance racing
involved. I explained that you have to get up really early to prepare
the horse. Preparation involved watering, feeding, grooming and
installing tack. At his request, I went on to explain that tack included
special hoof boots, support boots, telemetric devices, a light weight
saddle and its attachments. It had to be made clear that the saddle had
to be light weight because of the weight of the cantle bag plus contents
(food and cell phone), pommel bag plus contents (medikit, GPS and vet
card) and water bottles attached to the saddle. One has to presoak the
sponge too, so that it is soft and soaks water during the ride,
"sponge..." he repeated like a policeman taking notes at a crime scene.
Ignoring George's quizical look, I rushed on to explain that of course
it doesn't take as long to get ready as it used to since I figured how
to put that goop in the hoof boots and stick them on in less than an
hour and that they hardly come off more than once per ride now a days.
"Boots?", he did more mental note taking. "Yes, the ones for the hooves
and ones the ones for the lower part of the leg", I responded. "Ah
those towels", he'd seen quilted shipping boots one day when watching
our horses unload from a trailer. "No, no those are shipping boots, we
have to take those off first so that we can put on the support boots (a
software reboot as oppose to a hardware reset which involves the shoes),
of course you have to put lubricant on the legs first to prevent the
support boots from chaffing the legs and then you have to put the
suppport boot covers on to protect the support boots. It's a nuisance to
have to clean the lubricant off ones hands before you can do much else
otherwise everything gets sticky. I often wondered if I could find some
lubrcant goop that will work with the HRM", I was rambling.
"HRM?", we were going uphill now and he is only capable of short bursts
of conversation in between gasps under these conditions. "Yes it tells
me the horse's heart rate, have to put that on before you tighten the
cinch. You attach it to the breast strap which goes on before you stick
the saddle on and attaches to the saddle. Next we hook up the bridle and
spritz a final shot of fly spray on any spots that we missed the first
time and we are set to go."
His face gradually took on a more enlightened look, "So that's why it's
called endurance..." It was at this point that the diamond back struck
and fortunately, for the snake, it missed. As is typical of his species
George has developed a very thick skin and a score may have damaged the
snake's dentures and any injected venom would only have slightly
increased the vitriolic quality of George's humour. The snake looked
confused, George had finally registered it's presence by by the rattling
noises but not pin pointed it's location and was doing an Irish jig in a
circle around the snake. Quite odd really, watching an Englishman doing
and Irish jig around a snake doing Exorcist impressions.
"Yes," I replied as the rattler unwound itself and slunk off into the
bushes slightly cross eyed, "those who truely understand the sport,
realise that it is called endurance not because of the paltry fifty or
hundred miles that would be travelled that day but because of the years
and thousands of miles of preparation leading to that point. Jolly
smashing sunset today, eh what George?". He agreed and wondered aloud if
the bangers and smash were ready yet.
-- Nicco Murphy, San Diego County
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