ridecamp@endurance.net: Biltmore Ride (story - long)

Biltmore Ride (story - long)

Tina Hicks (hickst@nichols.com)
Mon, 29 Sep 1997 10:14:15 -0500

Well, the Huntsville contingent struck out all the way around this weekend.
Horses can do the damndest things sometimes :-)). Tony was pulled at the
first VC with a grade 3 much to my suprise as he was 100% on the trail mere
moments before....he was so consistently off that when the vet said he's
really off but if you want it I'll do a recheck in 15-20 minutes that I said
no, the check is really crowded, won't take up your time - he's off and
needs to stay in camp, thanks. (I've vetted under this vet several times and
really like her and her judgement btw)

I learned a very valuable lesson about 30 minutes later when he was
T-Totally sound (and was the rest of the weekend and is today) - **always
always always take a vet up on a recheck boys and girls **. Seems like a
no-brainer, huh? Well, some of us are a little slow I guess.

I'm guessing he had just gotten "stung" by a rock on the trail (just shod 2
days before - mistake #1) and that's what the vet saw. Farrier found zilch
with hoof testers and he (Tony, not the farrier <g>) trotted sound as could
be - at which point you could have knocked me over with a feather. However,
it's probably just as well it did show up at the check cuz that means there
was *some* owie there and another 35-40 miles could have turned it into a
major bruise which would not have been a good thing.

So, I learned a lesson and brought home a sound horse - coulda done a lot
worse, right :-)

The other half of the Hunstville Duo struck out at VC3 when Embers' CRI
spiked - from 44 to 68. Very, very odd for him to not have textbook CRIs so
of course this was a major flag -all other parameters As, eating, drinking,
etc....Did a recheck after 15 minutes of him resting, eating, drinking. He
started the CRI with a 60 (?? very odd) and went up to 78 - so no question,
he was tired, or not feeling well, or whatever -at any rate he was also done
:-(. Of course my mom was done the VC before :-)) so she didn't put up too
much of a fight when I told her he was pulled. We went too fast on the first
loop and it caught up with him on the third loop - here again, learned a
lesson, brought home a sound and feeling good horse - coulda done worse and
won't let it happen again. It takes a while to learn when your horse is
going on adrenaline and when he's really able to go that fast.

We both hated it too cuz the weather was _beautiful_ for ride day, the trail
was great and Bob Mangus did a great job managing this ride which was a
benefit for a therapeutic riding center in that area - Mountin' Hopes is the
name of it I think. For someone who said he didn't even know what an
endurance rider was a few months ago it sure didn't show!!! The entry fee
wasn't cheap (at least for this area) so would have been nice to have seen
everyone get a T-shirt rather than just those that completed but overall a
very nice ride and it's nice to know the money was going to the riding
center. We didn't get to go by the Bitlmore house like we do in the spring
but gorgeous terrain and the checks ran smooth as silk. Bob even had the
guts to walk around camp during the day and ask how everyone was doing and
did anyone need anything <VBG> - pretty brave RM if you ask me :-).

Lots of pulls by the way - I think there were more rocks than it seemed and
the terrain was deceptively difficult - let's see, around 12 pulls on the 50
(out of 47 starters I think) and about that many on the 25. Course it
doesn't make you feel any better to be pulled even if there are a bunch of
you :-)

One of the best parts was getting to use my new trailer for the first time.
I felt like I had moved into a Holiday Inn :-) Went from a 2H bumper pull
walk thru to a 3H slant with some dressing room area and even a sink!!! I
think we've died and gone to heaven. Wow -what a difference! And if I ever
want some more space all I have to do is show my mom a roach and I suddenly
have the gooseneck all to myself :-).

I provided some excitement Friday and Saturday which I'm sure management was
thrilled with - Tony (who has *never* done this before) got out of the pen
not once but *twice* this weekend - at a gallop, flipping his head,
spooking, the whole Arab deal. Fortunately he's easy to catch - when he did
it on Saturday (by rolling too close to the fence and catching it with his
hoof - thank goodness it happened to not be on when he did it!!!) he ran
straight to the check area - maybe he wanted that recheck :-)) My mom and
Embers had gone out on the trail about 15 minutes before he did this - I had
visions of Tony taking off after them and compeleting the ride solo :-).

All in all a great weekend even with the pulls.

-TH
hickst@nichols.com

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