As Tina drove her rig up the long driveway to the barn parking lot where I
stood with all of my stuff scattered around me like a homeless person, I
thought "okay, looks like we're on our way to the first goal of the weekend
- actually getting to a ride." I was going to take my own rig to save
packing time, but when neither one of us had gotten our new CB's installed
in the trucks, we knew that we couldn't go 3 1/2 hours without talking :->.
So we load up and head out on to our next goal of the weekend - to expose
Savannah to more than she has ever seen in her whole life of 10 years (her
previous owner rode her a good bit at home, but never took her anywhere).
About the only thing that is new to me about endurance riding is the actual
riding of trails during a ride. I've been camping since I was 6 weeks old,
riding and horse showing for years, ridden with Tina on conditioning rides
(on Embers), crewed and taken Tony through vet-checks, and listened to Tina
talk for years about this stuff. So setting up camp and the check area and
getting the horses settled in went real smooth. At the ride meeting is
where we learned that there were wooden bridges on the trail and I got
worried for Tina :-> - Tony has been a firm believer in horse eating trolls
& monsters for years so I didn't know what he might do. Savannah doesn't
appear to believe in trolls and will follow me or another horse through just
about anything, so I don't think that I went into as much shock as Tina
appeared to. :-> Then they had a little meeting for all of us first-timers
about how the checks worked and warnings to watch the horse's condition
because of the heat/humidity. Then came bedtime where sleep didn't come
easily between the sticky air and the abundance of words that Tina and I had
left over for that day that we felt we had to use up before sleeping.
Tacking up in the morning went really smooth, once Tina left for her start
:->. Once I was sure that she had gone out, Savannah and I went down for my
roll call and to hang around the start for a few. I ended up talking to
Rhoni McCollum, one of the ride organizers, for a few and told her about how
this was our first ride. She gave me some encouraging words while Savannah
checked her for treat and scratch potential. The 25 mile was a controlled
start for about 1/4 of a mile through the narrow trail in the woods, but I
still didn't want Savannah to get caught up in the frenzy, so I walked her
back down the sand road to the vet check/camp area to get on. Then we
walked back up to the start to some encouraging words from Tom Nichols, ride
organizer, and off we went on the Blue Loop. We caught up with some other
riders where the controlled start ended and then went walking/trotting down
the forest service road, through the woods, over logs and bridges (Savannah
hit the brakes - someone else please go over first), waaaaay around puddles
and bogs (Savannah doesn't like to get her feet wet yet), and through a
stream where the others drank but Savannah didn't (I knew that was common in
the beginning of the ride). By the time that we got to the dreaded
pipeline, the group had spread out, so Savannah and I walked most of it
alone with me on foot. It was still early enough that we had some shade
from the trees on the side and we did catch some breezes on the top of these
rollercoaster hills, but it still was hot and hard work. Savannah hasn't
seen many hills in her life (the land at her barn is *very* flat - oh,
excuse me, there is a ditch on the property), let alone ones as steep as
this, so I was rather amused when, after several "up/downs", we were
standing resting a moment at the bottom of a large "up" and she stared at
the hill from the bottom to the top, took a big sigh, and started walking
up. It was like "dang, another one... well, let's get it over with."
After about 3 miles of this (1/2 way through the loop), there was a 10 min.
hold (not a vet check) for the 25 milers at the top of one of the "ups"
where it crosses a forest service road. There were ride volunteers there
with muck buckets of water for the horses and icy bottled water for the
riders, and a phone in case someone needed assistance. They saw that we
were fine, although moving slow, and sent us out for more pipeline work when
our hold time was over.
We *finally* got through the pipeline and back into the woods for some more
trotting, bridges, downhill drop jumps (the log water bars to curtail
erosion), fire towers, 5ft. diameter culvert pipes on the ground, fallen
down barns and rusty 18-wheeler flatbed trailers and ATVs. She made it by
everything without getting eaten and got braver each time. She finally
drank at a water trough that was set up. And we continued our trek to the
end of the world (or so it seemed) following blue ribbons alone. We finally
got overtaken by a group of 50-milers (on their second loop) and I learned
something that surprised me - I had more horse under me than I thought, she
just didn't have any motivation. So we trotted along in the woods behind
this group for a little while until she did something else that surprised me
- she said that she had enough and was ready to walk for a while, which we
did and the others cruised out of sight. After a while, 2 more 50 milers
came up and one of them walked with us for a while, asking if we were okay.
He realized that I was a 25 miler still out on the first loop and wanted to
make sure that I wasn't having any trouble. I told him that we were doing
just fine, thanks for asking, just moving slow, and in fact might trot with
him for a little while until she needed to walk again. We ended up doing
this trot-with-others-then-walk for the rest of the ride in. As we came in
to the in-timers after not seeing them for 4 hours and 17 miles, Rhoni said
"Hey Lyn, glad to see you - we've been looking for you. The other riders
said that they passed you on this last section, so we knew that you were
okay." It's hard not to feel welcome in a sport with comments like that
:->.
So I go to our spot, pull tack, sponge her off and go to vetting. Pulse is
at 60, everything looks great, maybe a B for hydration, but I quickly
calculated that I won't have time to finish the last 9 miles after the hold,
so I elect to pull. I'm thrilled though, cause Savannah and I reached our
goal - to see the "world" outside of home - and she was great.
I'm not sure when I can make our next ride, but I'd definitely like to do
another one. Yes, I got pictures of the baby like a proud mama should,
though it was after the ride and she was so clean and perky that you
probably won't be able to tell she actually went any where. And no, I'm not
worried about getting her number off - I'm kinda proud of the big blue "AA"
on each side of her gray butt!
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