Re: Liberty Run, anyone?

[rides2far@juno.com (Angela C. McGhee)]

Anyone have news of LR yet?  I was wondering whether Tina made it.

-g

Yes, Tina made it.  Saw Tony this morning.  He looked great...Tina looked
like she'd been rode 100 miles.  :-)

Gossip first:  Valarie Kanavey was there riding a chestnut horse.  Her
horse got kicked the first 15 miles and was taken out of the competition.
 I heard her say she could feel him off on the downhills on the course,
but he was consistantly off in the vet check.  She seemed to take it
awfully well...didn't complain.  Talked to the girl whose horse did it. 
She felt bad.  Said he'd never kicked but got run into from behind and
let fly.

Jeannie Waldron was there.  First time I'd met her.  She's one tough
lady.  She & Rambo were taking it pretty easy.  Heard it was Jeannie not
Rambo that was the problem.  Her ankle seemed to be bothering her badly. 
I passed her at about 40 miles and she looked as if she was in pain. 
Heard she took a metal sweat scraper, broke it in half and splinted her
ankle with vet wrap.  She went on to finish the 100.

Karen Clark won the 100 on her Saddlebred Jeb Stuart.  I'm not sure but I
think she might have gotten BC also.  

Debbie Ivey brought 16 yr. old Vali Hifaysera (sp?) out of retirement and
won the 50.  June Parsons (a good friend of mine) came in 2nd in a race
to the finish with HER retired horse Hi Time...18 years old.  Wish I had
horses like that to retire.

There were 18 in the 100, about 54 in the 50, and 61 in the 25.  The win
time for the 50 was something like 3:54.  The course was really fast, and
I honestly do not believe one inch short.  The footing is pretty
incredible over most of the course and the main problem horses were
having was going too fast...and using the same muscle groups over and
over.  It just felt tooo darned easy and there were quite a few horses
lamed out.  The vet lines were very long and I think some stiffened up in
line.

Bekki Crippen & Buddy Bullseye racked up another 25....makes 4 this year.
 Ol' Buddy has become a campaigner.  You ought to see him sleep on his
picket line the night after.  Bekki looked out the tent without her thick
glasses and thought he was gone.  Nope, just laying completely flat. :-) 
He looked wonderful though.  Just knows how to rest.

Rhonda Chitwood and her daughter Katlyn contacted me after reading some
of my posts on Ridecamp.  They were local, had never been to a ride and
were curious.  I invited them and they actually showed up and did 25. 
Had a wonderful time, but Katlyn is campaigning for a faster sponsor. :-)

Now for my ride.

 I've got good news & bad news...First the good news.

Got to Liberty Run thinking I'd have to enter the 50 because Kaboot had
some small wire cuts on his rear heel.  Worried that the sand (deep in
places) would irritate it in the 100 miler.  Duane Barnett looked at it
and said if he'd come to do the 100, that wouldn't stop him...so I
entered the 100.  Least prepared I've ever been...no crew...very little
planning...only 2 batteries...eek.  Thank goodness Karen Pruitt loaned me
a tube of Desetin for his heel and it worked great.  See...it's good for
something besides diaper rash.  The only problem I had was every time I
smelled it I had a flashback and wanted to cry that my kids are growing
up so fast.

There were 18 in the 100, 54 or so in the 50 and 61 in the 25.  They
seemed really short of vets (actually none showed up for vetting in until
LATE Fri.  2 vets who came to ride vetted everyone in.  :-(

 Started at 6:30 AM in the dark.  Did the first 15 miles, averaged 10mph.
 The footing is awfully good there, but the sand got plowed by all the
horses and deteriorated as the day went on.  The trails were marked
extremely well and they had put out a lot of water which was a big
improvement this year.  YEA MANAGEMENT!


Kaboot kept catching up with Jeannie Waldron and Rambo and I kept trying
to explain to him that was NOT our place.  Turned out she was having a
slow day, but how was I to know?  

To shorten things considerably...we did the first 50 miles at 10mph. 
Kaboot was just CRUISING.  No effort but kept trotting off and leaving
the people I meant to ride with.  The fifth loop was 15 miles, and it was
the worst, with the deepest sand, some hills, in the heat of the day (got
in low 80's).  We really slowed down and took it easy and did it at 5
mph. I rode with a lady named Barbara? from Pennsylvania with a really
nice dark gray gelding.  She asked me about Kaboot and how many miles,
etc. then she asked "Are you going to nominate him for the North American
Championships?"  I cracked up.  Sure, I can see the team now:  Valarie &
Danielle Kanavey, Steve Rojek, Jeannie Waldron, the Crandells...and ME. 
Ha.  But I did thank her for the complement.  She thought it was pretty
funny that I was carrying a huge armload of cane and feeding Kaboot as we
went down the trail.  I said, "haven't you ever seen someone feed their
horse on the go?" and she said, "Yes, just not so consistantly" :-)

He came into the vet check down, was eating everything in sight and
looked great.  Joe Edwards kept trying to get me to go on and leave them,
but it really scared me when we got too close to the leaders.  At this
vet check though, they told us we were just 40 min. behind the leaders. 
Don't know if they meant before or after our hold though.

Headed out on the next 15 mile loop (between 65-80 miles).  Kaboot kept
trotting off and leaving his company, then getting upset that he was
alone, so we'd trot ahead and I'd let him eat cane (which he LOVES) until
they caught up. Then we'd trot some more.  Finally a faster rider caught
up and we trotted off together.  About 11 miles into the loop we came up
on a field that had been planted for deer or something.  Someone later
said they thought it was millet.  It was a BRIGHT green stemmy sort of
grass with big seed heads.  Kaboot waded in and gorged for a few minutes,
then we went on.  He'd been drinking really well so far too.  After
awhile we offered them cane again and Kaboot didn't eat, but we were
getting close to camp and he knew it and seemed to be in a big hurry.  We
offered them water and he didn't drink either.

Got back to camp and they were having the awards dinner at a covered
pavillion next to the vet check, so everyone was watching.  A vet left
his food and came out to vet us.  Kaboot got all A's except a B on gut,
then did his BIG trot out on command and everybody cheered.  That's when
I found out I was running pretty close to the front in 3rd or 4th
place...maybe.

Led him back to the trailer.  Just had to do the 10 mile loop 2 more
times and it's incredibly easy, perfect footing soft dirt road along a
lake.  That's the main thing I'd looked forward to, riding along that
lake in the moonlight.

Put Kaboot on the picket line next to Buddy, gave him his mash and he
just stared.  Offered him something else, he didn't even blink.  Went and
got a handful of grain and an apple and ...nothing.  AAARRRGHHHH!!!!
GNASHING OF TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He pawed...then I led him around...he pawed again...he peed.  The color
was fine.  I checked his gut sounds.  He had them.  But he just
STARED...blankly.  It was awful.  You're thinking I just rode him 80
miles fast and this is what he looks like.  Got Duane Barnett DVM,  to
come check him.  His mucous membranes looked good.  His gut sounds were
O.K.  Then he tried to lay down.  Duane told me to lead him around.  He'd
rather not have to give him drugs since he just didn't look bad yet.  It
didn't seem to be a typical "endurance related colic" that need fluids.

I looked at the clock...seems like it was about 8:00.  Everybody had been
through their hold and was leaving me...weep...

Led him around awhile and he quit trying to paw.  Put him on the picket
line and sort of dozed against the tree while he stood there staring at
me.  After about an hour he took a drink and started eating hay sort of
half heartedly.  Finally got cold so I got my sleeping bag out of the
truck and went to bed out by the picket line so I'd know if he did
anything.  Heard the riders go through camp after the first lap...weep.

At 11:00 Duane came back to check on him and woke me up.  Kaboot was no
longer dull eyed.  He was as perky as could be and knocking Duane down
trying to rub his head on him.  He obviously expected his grain and
wanted it NOW.  He no longer looked even bordering on tired.

At 1:30 I woke up to a weird thing.  The ride manager had suddenly
changed her mind and instead of having awards at breakfast they were
having a rip roaring time handing them out at 1:30.  Lots of cheering and
laughter...weep!  Kaboot was the one who woke me up.  He was trying to
reach the table where my food is.  I reached up from my sleeping bag and
gave him an apple that we'd tried to give him earlier.  Then he grabbed
the bowls the electrolytes had been mixed in and almost turned over a
huge glass of tea that they'd tried to give me while I was fooling with
him earlier.  I reached up and got it and held it out and he drank it
from the cup.  A few Pringles potato chips later I decided his apetite
was good enough that it was safe to move my sleeping bag out of the dew
and back in to the truck. 

There's always that part of you that says...hey, I've actually got 5 more
hours...I could go finish...but he did a great job for me.  I don't know
what risking something going wrong would have proved.

Do I wish I'd done 50?  No.  We made progress. If we'd have done 50 again
it would have just been repetition.  I used to think that wracking up
miles was my main goal, but after yesterday I think I just want to be the
best endurance rider I can be.  Now that we're kind of in the position to
do either fast 50's or 100's, the 100's seem to fit my style better.  I
think I'm more of an endurance rider than an endurance racer.   

Not sure what caused his mild colic.  It apparently wasn't your usual
"endurance colic" that's linked to dehydration, etc.  Several people told
me Millet could give a horse a tummy ache.  That's all I know to blame it
on  he never drank or ate after we stopped at that field, but the rider I
was with's horse ate it and it didn't bother him.  Several people told me
they tried to give it to their horses and they wouldn't touch
it....sounded like I gave less electrolytes than some.  I gave one
cannister per vet check with probiotics. (ABC's).  Some gave 2 & 3
cannisters.  Feel free to advise me if you have any suggestions.  He
looked great this morning.  Great after the haul. 

Finishers in the 100 that I remember...

Karen Clark
Lynn Gilbert? (is that name right...from Virginia, rode with JeannieW.)
Robin Oscar
Karen Pruitt
Tina Hicks
Richard Maxwell...(I think, never saw him get pulled)
Joe Edwards
Jeannie Waldron
Another female on a white Arab...you'll just have to guess.

there were others, just don't remember them.  One lady was on a Paso Fino
or something gaited...buckskin named Baron that threw a bucking fit at
the start.  11 finished. 

 80 miles the wiser, but no points.

Angie & Kaboot (are they gone yet?  Can I start eating now?)



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