Land of the Neversweats (long)

["Reeves, Brian" <breeves@genus.com>]

I was riding in The Land of the Neversweats 25/55 was this past weekend,
so here is a summary of it. It was held near Susanville, Ca right on the
Nevada border, and managed by Rosalee Bradley. I had gone last year and
had a fun time, so my companions and I drove the 440 miles to go this
year. It was Nancy Elliot, DVM and Becky Glaser who went with me, Nancy
to ride, and Becky to crew. We arrived around 4:15 or so Friday
afternoon to a new base camp from last year, and the weather on the cold
side.Saw quite a few familiar faces in camp....
Vetted in fine, got stuff ready for the ride, and then went to the rider
meeting. By this time it was cold and windy, so after the meeting we
were glad to get back to the camper for dinner and wamth and no wind.
Nancy and I decided to ride together and got our game plan in place.
After tacking up in the morning and warming up the ponies, we left camp
and it immediately started to sleet.
Lovely. Well at least it stopped after a couple of minutes. It was
pretty cold out, and by about mile 10 it started snowing. Horizontally.
Wonderful. It actually looked kinda neat, but I did'nt particularly want
to ride the next 45 miles or so in it. It stopped after a couple of
miles, and then we got to vet check at mile 15. Everything ok, left
after our hold, then it started to rain. @%$#&$ Lovely. It stopped after
a mile or so, and it held the rest of the day for us. Riding thru the
desert, cutting around sagebrush at a good trot is alot of fun!! We were
behind the first pack of 12 or so riders, and the other 45 or so were a
ways behind so we were riding by ourselves most of the time. We arrived
at lunch at the 35 mile mark, with Nancy vetting thru right away. Not so
for me, my horse had picked up a rock and was off RF. Took him back to
the rig and started to work on him, I would not take him back out unless
he was 100%. Nancy did her hour hold and left, hoping I could get back
out on the trail. Becky and I  (mostly Becky) did everything we could to
get Goofy sound. It worked. It took a little longer, but he was 100%
sound. So after an hour and 20 minutes at lunch, we went out. Even
though he was sound, I backed off the pace from the morning. As I was
about 3 miles into the last 20 mile loop, I see the 1rst place rider
coming at me. The last 4 miles was common trail, but nice and wide dirt
road. I start to see the rider get closer, saw a grey pony and purple.
Nah, it could'nt be!! Karen Chaton and Rocky?? It was them. It was nice
to see, we had ridden alot together in the last year. We actually
stopped in the middle of the road and stared at eachother. She said she
was in first and I said I know. Then we started to laugh. You had to
have been there. Wished her the best and off we went. Goofy wanted to go
with Rocky, but we still had a few miles to go. Met up with a nice lady
named Ellen, and we rode the rest of the ride together. Took it easy,
got passed by a few people, but finished. Ellens horse looked good
vetting, Goofy was a little sore but ok. I was kind of surprised that we
came in around 26th place out of around 60, I thought we took forever at
lunch. Nancy came in 9th and her horse looked great.
Went to a fabulous dinner, even though it was cold and windy again, and
waited for the awards. Nancy received high vet score and missed BC by 3
points!!! The top ten were able to pick out their awards that were made
by local artists. Nancy picked up a nice picture frame, a headstall, and
a ride t-shirt. I though when they called Karen's name as the winner,
she would pick another skull (long story!) but took a lovely belt buckle
instead. Everyone who completed got a ride t-shirt. This year it should
have been a parka!!!!
It was a good ride, with good friends and good horses, what more could
you want!

Brian Reeves
West Region


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