Fort Howes Ride

["Drin & Jim Becker" <rainbow@montana.com>]

I just got back from the Fort Howe's Endurance ride that was held in
Ashland Mt. over towards the eastern part of the state . What a well put on
ride , excellent camping facilitie's , beautiful trail , awards were
outstanding ! A friend of mine , Dianne came over on thursday night to
where I live . We packed up that night and then headed out friday morning
around 7:00a.m. We pulled into the little town of Ashland around 3:30 that
afternoon and went into the store there to pick up some ice and ran into
some more endurance riders that had come for the ride and who had travelled
just a little bit longer than us to get to the ride site . It happened to
be the Rojek family and friend's that had come all the way from Vermont to
do this ride . 
We then went on to the ride site and our friends from Bozeman , Louie Rod
and Anne Kennedy had saved us a nice camping spot right next to them .
After setting up camp and vetting the horses in we all went to the dinner
put on by the ride management Bill and Jan Stevens . Barbecued steak ,
baked potatoe's , fry bread, salad's and cake , along with pop , juice, &
beer , what a feast ! We listened to the ride meeting and then headed off
to bed ..Since all of us were
doing just the 50 the next morning we got to sleep until 5:00 a.m. before
getting up to get ready.Anne, Louie and I started out together the next
morning and had a nice relaxed start , This was Anne's mare Dyskrete's only
second 50 and Louie's mare Rosie's first comeback ride after a three year
layoff for motherhood, and my gelding Bo's first ride of the year , so we
held a conservative pace and had a great time visiting along the trail
where  another rider hooked up with us who happened to be Barb Harry who
had come all the way from Iowa to do this ride ! Rode in to the first vet
check together vetted right through, did our hold and headed out on the
next loop which was a 25 mile loop, somehow we lost barb so just us three
rode together from there , I can't say enough about this beautiful trail ,
now I live in some country that makes yellowstone park look only so so ,
but these trails were just great , beautiful meadows , coulee's and
fantastic rock formation's . We went on to the 2nd vet check that was the
only out check on the ride and it was in a grassy shaded canyon type area ,
really nice . Again vetted right through and into our hold , Anne and Louie
rested their horses a little longer so I left the check with Darlene
Patterson riding Suzy Haye's great horse Kooter , and who was under strict
orders to go slow as Suzy wanted to do a 100 in a couple of weeks with
Kooter
(Suzy was doing the 100miler on SSA Csea Dream) we rode for awhile and then
caught up with Sandy
Bollinger on her Bezatal mare Summer and Linda Voight on her Curly horse
"Curly" . We all rode together off and on during this third loop and on
into the 
third and last vet check , again vetted right through and after the hold
headed
out to do the last 10 miles of the 50 . I started out riding with Sandy on
Summer
and we talked bloodlines for awhile as Bo is also a grandson of Bezatal .
Then I 
saw some riders up ahead and decided to go after them while Sandy
maintained her same pace , 
turns out it was a bunch of 100 milers not 50's , the Rojek bunch and also
Steph
Teeter on her russian orlov (sp) , visited a few minutes with them over a
water tank and then headed on and caught up again with Linda on her curly
horse , wow what a trot he has ! Then we ran into 
Suzy  and Harriet Akien , rode with them awhile and then our trails divided
so we went our 
seperate ways .Linda and I finished the ride together in 15 and 16 place .
Again I just can't say enough about this ride , camping area is HUGE , and
great vets and PR people , very well run ,
if any of you ever get the chance please go do this ride , you will not be
dissapointed ! I'm
not sure of who all finished , hopefully someone will post that for us .
                        Drin & Bo
                        Mtn. region


























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