My first multi-day(long) Day 1

[BeckeG@aol.com]

I did my first multi-day ride this last weekend at the White River Labor Day 
3-day 150.  As multi-day rides go, it was a short one.  I didn't know how my 
horse would do on a 5 day and I couldn't afford the time off from work so 
this seemed a good opportunity. I will tell you that I have a new respect for 
all those that do those 5 day rides and if you have children with you - how 
do you do it?
Char Richards on her Appaloosa, Sammy, & I on my Arabian PJ set out to finish 
the ride. That was iffy for me on Friday as PJ vetted in with a knotted 
pectoral muscle.    
We started out early Friday to get the horses to camp so they could 
acclimate.  I had to take a horse for my exchange student to ride on her 
first 15 miler and 2 other horses for a Junior, Tommy and his grandfather to 
ride.  My husband was supposed to come up early Saturday morning and bring 
Nina, my exchange student, and help pit crew.  Tommy and his grandfather were 
arriving in the early evening to ride the 35 mile competitive. 
We set up camp about 10 AM.  Then went into town for gas, ice, and couple of 
bags of deer carrots and we picked up 4 bales of very nice grass hay that a 
farmer was selling along the road.  You can never have too many varieties of 
hay for the horses. By the time we got back to camp, the temperature was in 
the 80's and the flies were beginning to bother the horses.  I set about 
brushing, spraying and pulling the massive amounts of burrs out of the manes. 
They looked pretty good by vet in.
The vet arrived and we lined up with the others.  Sammy vetted in well and he 
was good to go. I trotted PJ out and her gate was not as smooth as it 
normally is. Dr. Rae Birr found a small knot in a shoulder muscle and told me 
to work it out, other wise she was fine. Well, I worry and now I really had 
something to worry about.  I spent most of the evening massaging PJ on the 
shoulder, and heck, might as well do the rump muscles. I just knew we weren't 
going to make it. Char kept telling me to think positive.   She will work out 
it 
By this time Tommy and his grandfather had arrived.  Now Tommy is an 
energetic 11-year-old who loves to ride and loves being with all the people 
on these rides.  But I noticed something different about him.  When you asked 
him to do something, he would turn to do it and then do something totally 
different.  His grandfather told me he had been started on some medication to 
help him at school.  Well, it had eliminated his short-term memory. Tommy 
wasn't going to be able to help much this weekend if he couldn't follow 
directions.  
We went to bed by 10:30, as our start time was 6:50 the next morning.  That 
was when it was light enough to see the trail.  At 11:00, Beth & Daryl 
Yerrick arrived.  We had kept a spot next to us for them as Beth is a school 
teacher and was going to be late.  Tommy heard their rig (it was too dark to 
see anything). So I jumped up and went outside to direct them to our area. I 
was really tired by this time, so as soon as they were parked, I jumped back 
into my sleeping bag. 
Day one was going to be warm, about 85% and a little humid. The horses were 
very fresh and both wanted to do a little buck as we were warming up.  The 50 
milers were going out at the same time so we let them go and we started about 
a minute after they did.  I did not want PJ to try and catch them.  We had a 
LOT farther to go than they did.  The 50 milers do a 15-mile loop and then a 
10-mile loop, twice.  We were to do a 25-mile loop, then the 15-mile loop and 
the 10-mile loop.  The 25-mile loop breaks off from the 15-mile loop and then 
rejoins it latter.  We were going to go over this part of the trail a lot.   
When we got to the turn for the 25-mile loop Sammy and PJ thought we were 
nuts.  They sniffed the trail but there were no horses ahead of us. At the 
top of the loop, about 15 miles out, we stopped for a food break.  Char's 
husband, Dick, was there with the slurry, hay, electrolytes and water for us. 
We spent about 15 minutes there.  I wanted to spend longer but the horses 
wanted to go, so off we went. 
We arrived back at camp in a little under 3 hours.  Now for the work from Dr. 
Birr. Yep, something was still there but not bad, keep massaging her. We had 
60 minutes.  We let the horses eat and rest.  I worked on PJ several times. 
Cross your fingers.  We saddled up again and trotted out for Rae.  Good to 
go.  Whew! Off for the 15-mile loop. About this time, Nina was supposed to be 
coming in from her very first ride.  I was hoping to see her finish.  No, we 
were out about 20 minutes before she came in. 
We hooked up with a 50 miler for about 10 miles.  The next hold was 30 
minutes and more massage.  Again a trot out.  Rae said she was good to go.  
Nina was now in from her ride and was going to help us pit crew.
 Now for the 10-mile loop.  By this time the Michigan sand was getting really 
deep, it was hot, the sun was out and Dick met us about 6 times with water 
and slosh for the horses.  Char and I were beginning to get really warm.  I 
got off a several times to help Dick with the electrolytes (Ok, this was his 
first year pit-crewing and he's 68 years old.  He was doing a great job but 
he too was a little weary. We were afraid we were going to catch him napping 
on this loop.) 
We arrived back at camp around 2:30 for out 16 hour hold.  We did our CRI and 
Dr. Birr pronounce PJ not working well on her whole left side.  Ouch! But we 
had until tomorrow morning to fix it.  Well, I had 16 hours to walk, massage 
and worry!
Nina had to run back to her vets.  She didn't realize that she had to do a 
final trot out! All was well and the vets took care of that issue. Thank 
goodness for our vets.
 I let PJ be a horse for about an hour, eat, drink roll, etc. before I 
started to work on her. We cleaned up, got stuff ready for the next day and 
then went for the wonderful potluck and awards. I did sit for 1 whole hour 
there.  
For the next 2 hours were got ready for the next day and work with PJ.  I am 
so tired by this time.  Nina sacks out in Char's rig and Tommy gets ready for 
bed in mine.  We finally have lights out at 9:30.

I'll have more later.

Becke Grams
Michigan


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