Re Pre Ride care

["arikara appaloosas" <arikaras@iafrica.com>]

Hi Angie and all the other ridecampers!
Well my crew normally(definately usually,normally mine husband)lands up
partying and drinking way too much the night before,and I usually go to bed
at 8pm.So guess who gets up in the morning and sees to the feeding at
3am,me of course still have to see the day mine better half does
this.Sometimes my crew only wake up after I have set off on a second leg of
a ride,definately a case of letting sleeping dogs sleep.*ghrin* got that
wrong.But on the other hand he can be a brilliant strategist and crew all
depending on the previous nights fun and games.
The bad thing about getting up at 3 am in the morning is not being able to
get back to sleep after that,am normally hyped up and ,land up groomming my
horses,checking there feet by flashlight and all  manner of daft things.By
4 am ,I have my horses out the stable warming them up,crazy but true.
Our 50 milers normally start at 6:30 am ,our 100 milers at midnight.
Heaven forbid that my crew survives next year when I do the 300 miler,will
just take along three or more people to crew for me.
At some of our rides my crew went home with a hangover and slept it off to
return when I had finished the ride.I always forgive him though as he
supports my love for endurance 100%,have to work on the crewing aspect of
this sometime,he carts me and my horses all over the country and has fellow
crew members of other riders who have as much fun as he does on rides,very
social creatures are crews in this country even most of the riders
depending on the ride have tons of fun.
I used but have taken my sport rather seriously for the last 5 years and
its definately better riding without a hangover,now that is no fun.
At one 100 miler most of the riders and crews partied till the ride
started,the person who rode my horse sobered up after the first 20
miles,not a good thing to do me thinks.Its all in the spirit of endurance I
guess*grin*
Yep we sure do have fun on our rides.
Yet again just my 2 cents worth*grin* am on a roll at the moment!
*grin* anyone care to come over and ride here in South Africa?Not to worry
most of us do now take our sport a bit more seriously since we are finally
going to compete Internationally!
Regards
Kathy and All her 26 horses "who shudder at the thought of someone with a
hangover on there backs"