2nd ride in Hat Ranch CTR series

[mspirit@webtv.net (Lori Chandler)]

Hi all -

Thought I would report on my second CTR ride at the Hat Ranch in
Williams AZ this past weekend.

After reading my mail and noticing some pretty exciting stories about
other rides, I hope this isn't too boring (personally I like boring in
the way of injuries & mishaps).

This was a 30 miler (last month was 25) paced the same at around 5mph.
We were timed out in groups of 4 at 2 min. intervals.  My number was 8
so I was toward the front of the pack.  All season I have been training
& looking for more opportunities to educate myself & my horse.  This
time we practised being left behind, & using a trail strategy .

I learned at the last ride the value of moving on & not lingering too
long with others for their benefit & mine.  I also learned how hard I
needed to concentrate when someone passed & my mare felt we should go
too.  My strategy was to make decent time to the first vc as there was a
long climb that I knew I wanted to walk up.

Off we go, & right off the bat a couple pass us  so we got the chance to
practise maintaining my chosen pace.  Took about 15 min., &  1 missed
ribbon.  Did get the chance to practise passing someone ourselves.

Got to vc 1 & out just before a large group pulled in so my strategy
here worked no getting involved with a bottleneck.  The mountain climb
is ours alone (so I thought).  Near the top we got to practise being
left again - this time the small group lingered a bit to chat (my fault
I saw some turkey with babies & was still excited about that).  Luckily
there was a water stop I could hang out at till they were well ahead of
us.

Trail turned to single track & I learned the value of not being the
first rider on a trail not well used.  The ribbons were tough to spot at
times (wound around branches or bitten off up to the knot) so I was glad
my mare was on top of where the other horses went.

2nd vc went well in & out (30 min. hold upon reaching criteria h.r.
which was 60)

An hour later we got to practise again being left as the first couple
who passed us at the start, missed the vc & were now just catching up.
At this point I was 3rd, which doesn't matter, just demonstrated to me
that sticking with my game plan & not being influenced by others would
some day gain me placement when we advance to 50's.

Pull into the last water stop (water truck with buckets) & ask the
driver how far out I am.  He said 3-4 mi.  Woops way early I thought I
was about 6-7 mi.  So good time to pull the bridle, loosen girth & hang
out.  We got maybe 20 min. when the group that lingered with us showed
up.  Thinking I wanted a peaceful ride into camp, decided to take off &
kill time at the half mile mark & lead in.  Again this worked well - we
came in, met criteria & decided to go ahead & vet out (vet said it was
OK I didn't have to pull tack & clean her up).

I wanted to say thanks for the valuable info on this list.  I used
Heidi's suggestion of trotting the sunny spots & walking in the shade.
Also all the info on electrolytes benefitted us.

The end of this story is we walked away with the breed award (Arab),
weight division & IAHA recognition certificate .  I am, however, most
proud of improvement my mare if making in the areas where there are no
awards given except by me to her.

Next month we tackle the 2 day 25mi. each day.

Lori & Sky
AZ