River Run Story
Jackie Bumgardner (jbumgard@ridgecrest.ca.us)
Mon, 17 Nov 1997 07:47:50 -0800
>Posted-Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 06:03:53 -0800 (PST)
>Resent-Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 05:45:16 -0800 (PST)
>Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 07:44:31 -0600 (CST)
>From: Samm C Bartee <bartesc@mail.auburn.edu>
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>To: Endurance <ridecamp@endurance.net>
>Subject: River Run Story
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>Well, what can I say about this ride? It's an awesome ride held in S. Ga.
>I had planned on going since last year. You know there are just some rides
>that you always have on your ride calendar? Well this is one of them.
>Base camp is the home of Pam and Willie Linahan. Its a beautiful place.
>The trail is mostly dirt road, forest trails, and lots of private land.
>The vet checks is away from camp, so you do 25 miles and then repeat that.
>NOt too bad. It was my 33rd B'day on Friday, so I thought that if Pam had
>plenty of help, I would go and actually RIDE for the first time since
>River Run last year. But this year, I would ride Weagle, my own home grown
>baby!! Yippee!!
>So, off we go. Am I nervous? you betcha! My best buddy Kathy had a huge
>German chocolate cake for me and everyone sang happy birthday to me at the
>riders meeting! that was really special to me. I was still nervous.
>There were 71 starters in the 25, and 36 starters in the open. Since
>Weagle is only 4-1/2, we were in the limited distance ride. Thankfully,
>since *I* haven't ridden since August. Now before anyone gets upset,
>Weagle has been ridden and conditioned by Daniel Padgett, another buddy of
>mine.
>Race morning dawned clear and quite cool, perfect for riding! Off the 50
>milers went, and I started warming up Weagle. Since I have only been on
>her back one time before--the day before the ride itself!:-)--I started
>warming her up early. She was doing great, no bucking, no rearing, no
>spinning, no theatrics at all. THEN, she decided that the stallion she
>was riding/bonded with was all HERS and she was going to give everyone
>that got too close to him a very ugly face. sigh. I had to correct her a
>lot and boy was I worried about what was going to happen out on the trail.
>But between warmup laps, she would stand calmly and quietly waiting on
>another cue for what to do. That is a whole lot different from what I'm
>used too!!
>8:00 came and the trail was declared open! Off we went, near the middle
>of the pack and hanging on to heart! This ride was very wet, very, very
>wet. We started out wading through knee deep puddles and we ended that
>way! The trail was nice, very well marked. The vet checks were well
>organized, timers were awesome and got everyone out on time.
>My riding buddy got pulled at the 1/2 way point because her stallion found
>a very bad hole and nearly went down. He managed to stay up, but he came
>up gimpy. Oh well, it was Weagle and I off on our on.
>But about 5 miles into the last loop, we rounded the corner and saw
>another friend down on the ground. Her horse had spooked and she came off,
>when she did, her face connected with some part of her horse, knee
>perhaps?, and it opened up her face near the eye. There was a LOT of
>blood, and she was in some kind of pain. Off a couple of us went, found a
>spotter and told him to get there ASAP! So they took Natalie off to the
>hospital, where she got some really good drugs to get her through!
>She had a giant headache, but she's ok. Her helmet has a small crack and
>a fairly deep gouge from the accident though. Her face also has a
>crack!:-) Luckily, nothing was broken.
>I was about 3 miles from the finish, whipping along at a steady pace when
>we encountered a large Rottweiler on the trail. He was looking at us
>trotting towards him, so I called out "hello poochie" to him. HE looked up
>at me, a human head growing out of that big animal thing and he freaked
>out. Spun around and took off running away from us. Weagle saw that and
>figured that something horrible must be near, so she spun opposite from
>the dog and since I was still looking at the dog, I wound up sitting on
>air! off I came, bounced a good one, and got up really quick. I looked
>around to see if anyone saw...no one did, so I guess it doesn't really
>count? hehehe!! I got back on..a little slower than early that morning,
>but I did get back on and away we went. Came into the finish with no
>further incidents. whew!! When the dust cleared, Weagle and I finished
>21st to meet pulse criteria. I was ecstatic!! She had done so well.
>More notes from the ride: This ride made Laura Szeremi's horse Bluridge
>Falcon's 1000 mile ride!! Congrats Laura!
>There were 12 Jr riders to start the 25, they all finished, there were 3
>Jr's to start the 50, and they all finished!! IT was a great day for the
>Jr riders. One Jr finished 3rd in the 50!! She was flying and everytime I
>saw her she had one MAJOR smile on her face! That's what it's all about.
>There were two Jr riders in the top ten on the 25. They did a great job
>all day long!
>
>I will post ride results as soon as I have a spare few minutes to type it
>all out.
>
>
>
>APPY TRAILS
>
>
>
>SAMM C. BARTEE
>Auburn, Al. SE Region
>with
>SIR REVEL--1305 miles and........!!!
>B JETS WAR EAGLE--endurance newbie
>85 miles and going....
>
Jim and Jackie Bumgardner
Fire Mountain Arabians -Home of Sierra Fadwah+/(Fadjur + Judhi)
Race Training and Endurance/ Race bred horses for sale.