ridecamp@endurance.net: Derby Ditch Ride Report <long>

Derby Ditch Ride Report <long>

DreamWeaver (karen@chaton.gardnerville.nv.us)
Sun, 06 Apr 1997 18:49:33 -0700

Well we did it! I got Rocky thru his first 50 mile endurance ride on
Saturday. Derby Ditch, Fernley, Nevada. We arrived early enough on Friday
that we were able to get one of the nice big pipe corrals for him. That
sure made things easy! He trailered well to the ride. I only mention that
because he used to arrive either all sweaty or with a bloody something or
other ;^). So little things like arriving well and in one piece are
important! We got camp set up and when Kathy Ceragioli arrived I helped her
for awhile checking people in. She was the ride secretary and had quite a
lot to do with over 100 riders starting the race! She did a great job :).
It was sure windy that afternoon. brrrrrrr!!!! Another nice luxury we had
on Friday (besides the pipe corrals), was being able to all go out and eat
pizza :). I know of at least one rider who went so far as to stay the night
in a motel! Boy, talk about roughing it!!

I tried a new experiment with easy boots on this ride. Rocky is prone to
scratches every spring (ugh!), and one of his feet was particularly bad at
the time, I decided to remove the heel straps out of all the boots and foam
them on. I put the first boot on but didn't use enough foam. So I added
more to the other three boots. I put plenty of Vita Hoof on his heels to
make sure the foam didn't stick, especially to the scratches part - which
btw are much better as long as I keep them moist. He did great with the
boots during the ride, however the first one that I put on without enough
foam did come off. I picked it up though, so it wasn't lost. Tho I did
have at least forty people tell me that I had 'lost a boot' <g>. We did the
rest of the ride without it, since he is shod and was moving perfectly fine.
I was glad for the protection as there were quite a few rocks and some
really hard places on this ride.

I was disappointed in the morning to wake up and find my bananas frozen. My
water bottles were frozen solid. (I discovered that while out on the trail
and wanting to drink!) The horses water had frozen over too, and his
crimped oats mixture was frozen solid. I had put his electrolytes in there,
and since he didn't eat a bite of it he didn't get any electrolytes.

Ride day was beautiful! I think everybody had a great time and with four
vets everything went smoothly and we never had to wait for more than one or
two horses in front of us at any vet check. We went thru a total of three
vet checks during the ride with a pulse criteria if 60 and the final vet
check with a criteria of 64 or 68 (?). Was very happy at lunch to have
Rocky go thru the vet check with straight A's. He was drinking well, and in
fact had no electrolytes all day but his scores were all A's on hydration
the entire time - he sure does drink a lot. I kept expecting him to get
tired or want to slow down. It never happened. He's one strong horse, a
pleasure to ride, but already extremely competetive. I had to really keep
him held back.

We finished with a ride time of 6:10, coming in 30th out of approximately 97
or 98 riders. After the ride we went to the potluck. It was very good,
there was plenty of food. Nikki from Fallon even came to visit and brought
a tri-tip with her. Maybe next time she'll get to come and ride!! The
awards were T-shirts and completion certificates. First, BC, and weight
divisions also received trophies.

The girl (Bonnie) that was careflighted was released from the hospital.
Glad to hear that she is going to be allright. Hopefully the horse (it was
hit in the rear by a pickup) will also be allright. It looked fine
yesterday. We wish them both a speedy recovery. The accident happened less
than 1/2 a mile from the Silver Springs vet check - going in. It sure made
some of us a little more nervous than normal in the places where we had to
ride along the highway and on the small shoulder of the roads (NO the cars
didn't slow down for us!!)

Happy Trails,

Karen
in Gardnerville
& Rocky 50 miles :)
& Weaver who is really mad and is ignoring me :(

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