Stampede Thru the Park (story)

["Tina Hicks" <hickst@nichols.com>]

(this is the short version - with work not sure there will
be a long version which some of you will appreciate <g>)

Wellll.....what can I say about a ride where I rode the
fastest 50 in the coldest weather in my short endurance
career and came in 35th out of 73 without one frozen
extremity? :-)) 

This was a great ride, well managed - Connie and
Amy moved a ton of horses (73 50s and 68 25s I think) thru
during this ride with amazingly little in the way of jams.
Even with 4 vets we
still managed to clog the lines a little at the first check
:-)
Tony finished with a time of 4:38 "fresh and happy"
according to the vet <VBG> - that's right 4 hours and 38
minutes and we were barely middle of the pack - the winning
time
was 3:16 or something *really* fast <g> like that.

The hardest thing all day was keeping those butt muscles
warm while standing in the VC line or waiting out the hold -
lots of rump rugs, coolers, blankets, all on top of each
other to keep the horses warm in the cold, strong
wind....Fashion violations abounded - myself included :-))

The trail was great - around the edges of all the gorgeous
fields in the park as well as some adjoining farm land. The
two times I've been to watch Rolex I've fantasized about
being out there on the course myself galloping over the
hills (but around those huge jumps <g>) - and I finally got
to do it as the second loop went thru some of that course. I
tried to tell Tony he was flying over sacred ground - ground
Olympians had covered but he didn't seem too impressed :-)

At each check he recovered immediately and <gasp> made it
thru the whole weekend without any beet pulp :-) He seems to
have sworn off of it for some reason so I fed pellets/oats
at the checks and hay. I did use elec. even tho it was
freezing and he drank like a trooper on the trail. He sailed
thru the final check much to my delight.

He almost knocked me down coming out of his stall Sunday
morning and took off at a gallop in the pasture when I got
home so I'd say he came thru it in fine shape.

Tina

PS - I used pantyhose under polarfleece tights and that
worked *great* - no numb thighs or frozen feet.