Liberty Run

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

Well, just back from the Liberty Run 25/50/100 in Augusta, GA.  Vicki
Parker and clan put on another great ride. I took the family this time to
enjoy the gorgous lakeside campground complete with showers, playground,
restaraunt and FLUSHING TOILETS!

GUESS WHAT?  KABOOT GOT DRUG TESTED!! (Does anybody know if Wipe fly
repellent is legal? :-)  The finishing timer handed out a colored card as
you finished, and when you got back to camp, all those with a certain
color card had blood pulled.  It was all very random. 

They had another good turnout, 12 in the 100, 55 in the 50 and 61 in the
25.  The forecast was for temps near 90 with lots of humidity, partly
cloudy.  It had obviously been dry lately and the sand was bound to get
deep with that many horses passing over it.  

I was torn between entering the 50 and the 100.  It had only been 3 weeks
since Kaboot completed the Biltmore 100...and I'd always heard once a
month maximum on 100's...but I really went with the idea of going ahead
and entering it and pacing concervatively.  

Melissa Crain was there to do her demonstration ride on Charbiel.  She
was supposed to do it at Biltmore, but a tornado lifted the roof off her
house (with them in it)  the night before they were supposed to leave so
now she was stuck trying to do an impressive ride in oppressive heat and
deep sand.  The Kanaveys had brought several horses, and Windy Mattingly
( I believe) was there.  The more I thought about how hot it would be,
and my fear of sand, then I thought about how all those great riders
would be riding as lightweights for the FEI stuff...the more it made
sense to go for first lightweight in the 50 instead.  I waited so long to
make my decision that I was the last one to vet in and almost delayed the
ride meeting.

I've gotta admit when it felt nice and cool at 5:00 AM and there was that
beautiful full moon, it was tempting to run up there and see if they'd
let me start with them.

This course is awfully fast, but tough.  There are two 15 mile loops that
have lots of rolling hills and deep sand, then a 10 mile lake loop that's
mostly flat, firm and an absolute racetrack.  I've never started a 50
where I planned to try to run up front and it was a new experience.  We
did the first 15 miles in an hour flat. I looked at my watch (yes I do
think it was a true 15 miles) and thought, "this is crazy".

 I was far enough behind the leaders that they were already vetting
through when I got there.  Dawn Sanchez was there riding her husband's
horse.  I forgot to mention that this ride was also the qualifier for the
AERC Championship Ride, so that was on some people's minds also.  Dawn
has recently moved to the Northwest, and her husband is still in
Tennessee.  He is a heavyweight, she weighs next to nothing even with
tack.  With her husband Roger Barrett campaigning the horse, then Dawn
suddenly put on its back, it seemed to sprout rocket boosters and was
setting an incredible pace.  She ended up winning the ride in about 3:38
and taking BC.  2nd went to Margaret Rogers, from the Chattanooga area,
who used to be in jumping horses.  She bought Robin Oscar's horse and has
gone straight to the front.  Nobody's had the chance to meet her yet, she
loads up and leaves before most of us finish.  Guess I'll have to run up
front if I want to say hello.  I think third went to Judy Sandlin, 4th to
Nikki Young, Kaboot and I were 5th, and 6th was Adell and Awesome.  I
remember Joe Schoech was top 10 too...forget the rest.

In the 100, the heat and sand took its toll.  My info is pretty much just
what I overheard.  The Kanaveys didn't have much luck, heard Jedi was
pulled, and one other.  Though the trail was almost entirely sand, there
were places where they'd just scattered some of those huge chunk gravel. 
They were so spread out you couldn't resist trotting through them like a
mine field, but it only took hitting one of them just right to get you. 
At one point someone said another horse the Kanaveys brought doing its
first 100 was doing well.  Don't know how that turned out.  Melissa Crain
and Charbiel put out a great effort.  She finished while it was still
daylight, around 8:00.  Charbiel looked good at the trot out and took 1st
and BC.  She'd done an awful lot of solo riding, since nobody else was
very close to her. 

Vickie Parker and Harry? did a great job taking care of us at this ride. 
There was very little natural water on the trail and they had put out
LOTS of huge tanks and garbage cans of water along the trail.  At no time
did I feel it had been "too long" since we'd had a chance to drink.  The
awards were nice and the food is the BEST.  
As far as my attempt to be a "front runner".  I hated it.  I've decided
the relaxed pace of 100's  is much more my style...but I've got to admit
when I saw that sand get deep I was darned glad I wasn't in the 100.  My
ride seemed to go great.  Kaboot was strong and willing and cantered most
of the last 10 mile lake loop on his own, however I came darned close to
losing my completion.  

I had noticed a slight rub behind his right elbow at the 2nd check and
had made a point to make sure the girth was farther back on the next
loop.  I almost always ride with a crupper, but since this wasn't a
mountainous ride and I knew I wanted to pull my saddle at every check,
I'd left it off, just to make it easier. Apparently my saddle worked
forward a little on the downhills and had rubbed behind his right elbow. 
I washed the girth (neoprene) and his girth area at each check to avoid
sand, but the rub was there.

The vets had told us to make sure we got up there on time for our 10 min.
CRI and not to stand in line. (Lines tend to get long at this size ride),
so I went straight up.  Unfortunately, I got a vet who only vets one ride
a year and was unclear on rules.  Since he was 64 I asked to let it be my
completion exam.  She wouldn't because I hadn't gone through the P&R
check (with line).  Then she had me do a trot out and thought he gave a
couple of times.  It definately wasn't over grade one.  He only did it a
couple of times, but she wouldn't let that be my completion check. 
Metabolically I thought he was the best he'd ever been, very bouncy and
bright eyed and I'd had definate thoughts of a good chance for BC.  Now I
was just desperately wanting a completion.

While she vetted (very slowly) another horse through, and I tried not to
look like a jerk who is trying to get an unfit horse through (was I?) I
finally got Dwight Hooten (DVM) to tell her to just put down the present
time as my P&R time.  Then she made me trot again at the P&R time (it had
been about 10 min.) and the giving was a little more noticeable, but
still not grade II.  Then she made me do circles in both directions. 
GRRRRRRR! Am I not right that you cannot require circles for a completion
exam? 

 Fortunately, he looked better on circles than on the straight and she
finally said he was a little off in the LF, but begrudgingly gave me a
completion.  I had Duane Barnett look at him and everybody agreed...RIGHT
Fore.  I understand "Fit to Continue", and agree with it, but I also
understand cramps and have seen more than one horse come in looking great
and not vet through quick enough before a cramp hit.  I felt I was well
within the intent of the rules and was pretty frustrated.  Was I wrong
and just caught up in the heat of competition, or should I have been
given a quick, straight out trot, Grade 1 and given a completion?

I felt terrible not having a really good looking trot-out, but couldn't
figure out why he'd be off.  He's always been really sound, but I had to
watch things like gut sounds and hydration closely.  Now he looked
fantastic metabolically and was off.  *sob!*  Wouldn't have been so self
concious if I'd gone slower, but we'd done it in 4:19 and I hate to have
any suspicion that I over rode him.

I checked him with hoof testers and he was fine.  He got no swelling or
heat in the leg. His girth rub, though not raw, just a couple of dark
lines on the skin, was very tender. We finally decided that he had
probably been compensating for the discomfort in the girth area and had
gotten a cramp.  This morning he looked 90% better.  No bobbing at all,
maybe a tad of a short stride on that side, perfectly tight tendons. 
Lets just hope.....

Thanks to Vickie Parker and clan.  Thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  The only
problems I had were my own fault.

Angie

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=