Walks Far's 1st ride (loooong)

[Teresa Van Hove <tvanhove@uswest.net>]

Life is good.  Local ride season has begun and
I am not stuck sitting out this year.  Yesterday
I took my 4 year old 1/2 arab pony on her 1st LD.
Big thanks to Brad Patterson for putting on another
good ride.  He always assembles a great group of
vets and volunteers and Pawnee was no exception. 
Grey must have told her she was going to an
endurance "race" because she was unexpectedly
excited.  The ride vets were very patient with
her hyperventilating and goosey reactions -course
they are used to endurance horses and she only
moved away, no shoving into them, good girl :)
I decided not to start late, just at the back
of the pack -controlled start, with the exception
of a 50 miler horse who thought it would be easier
to finish w/o his rider.  The 50 miler horse had 
no interest in joining the "lowly <TIC> LD'ers" &
ran right by the group; Frank Solano also riding the
50 rode out and caught the renegade while the front 
of the LD group blocked the open gate to the huge
open space and the rest of us just waited, not wanting
to stir things up.  Hope they gave Frank a good sport
award.  Walks Far thought she should be at the front 
of the pack and could convince me to let her run by
acting out a bit.  I pulled her head around to my 
knee for a brief timeout and got the point across
that we were going to do this MY WAY.  My intention
was to do a slow ride, taking about the whole time
to complete even though the ride is pretty easy.

1st creek crossing, Walks Far marched right across
behind the other horses, ignoring one who thought 
his feet were going to melt if he got them wet.
Good girl.  We settled in to a slow pace with some
natrc riders.  I thought this would work great for
keeping a slow but steady pace.  Water on this ride
was all stock ponds except at base camp.  Walks Far
proved her mettle by marching into the 1st one with
a somewhat muddy bottom (about 1/2 way though the 15
mile loop) and drinking, though she was annoyed enough
to paw a bit.  I got off and tossed my sponge in from
the edge to sponge her down, let her eat for a few
minutes and then we were off again at the slow steady
pace.  

1st vet check, good hydration, great gut sounds, eating
everything in sight (I was even able to just stir some
E-lytes into her grain and bran mix - This is why I 
bought a pony cross) trotted out fine.  Got a little
excited when other horses were leaving, but when I
untied her and led her around to graze she started
eating with gusto again. 

2nd loop.  We are a little behind time to finish in
time.  I give the natrc riders a few hints but stay
with them since Walks Far would rather stay with her
new buddies.  About 1/2 way through my competitive
side kicks in though.  I don't want to not complete
on her very 1st ride. Specially when she is eating &
drinking like such a pro.  So I pick up the pace and
Walks Far relunctantly, but without arguement leaves
her buddies.  I left it pretty late to pick up the pace,
and did not want to push Walks Far on her 1st ride- kept
a very close eye on the HRM and did not ask her for very
much, just to keep up a decent pace.  She got excited
near the finish when she spotted some 50 milers
finishing their ride and wanted to catch them. 
Crossed the finish line and had just a few minutes
to pulse down to  meet the completion criteria
within the time limit (LD rules remember) She just
made it on p/r count and time (I think - not sure
because I left before the awards -out of my character
but I had made plans thinking it was a 25 mile ride
and would start 30 minutes earlier) 


Lessons learned:  Never assume that any other riders
goals will be consistent with yours.  The natrc folks
I was with were just fine tuning for their 1st natrc
ride and did not care even about completing.  Need to
work on pacing and teaching Walks Far not to neigh at
VC's.  Question:  If I just demand her attention, by
making her back or something will she learn to focus
on me and not do this?  She has much tougher feet 
than me.  She was barefoot but I'm the one who
got foot sore on the trail.  I hate that, I feel
like if I was riding correctly it wouldn't happen-
I don't bounce around, but my lower legs swing 
a bit and I probably take too much weight in the 
stirrups. I have cloud stirrups that help a lot but
they are on Grey's saddle. But I am pleased that I don't
have to try and teach her to eat/drink.  In my 
experience its a lot harder to teach this then it will be 
to work on increasing the pace and not crying for trail 
buddies while being vetted.  
 
p.s.
Walks Far's story -ghost written by T.
Yesterday I went to my 1st competition.  Knew 
something was up when T stumbled out at 4:30
to feed us.  Sure enough I was loaded in the
trailer and rolling by 6:30 (At least she had
a hay bag in there.) We stopped at a strange
place with a bunch of horses.  It was pretty
exciting.  T got me more hay, brushed me off 
and then took me to the vets.  The stethescope
was cold, and I didn't want my gums touched but
the vet was gentle and it wasn't too bad.  T
took me back to the trailer and got me some
bran and grain mash that had some salty apple
flavored stuff in it.  It was still pretty
tasty.  Then T saddled me - I keep trying to
convince her not to by acting wild but she
just ties me short and saddles me anyway. At
least this time she lengthened the lead as
soon as she was done.  Then she led me around
and let me graze a bunch.  I love sweet green
grass and I don't get it all the time.  Then
the ride started, I'd heard it was a race but
T insisted that I just go slow instead of 
getting up in front, she is so stubborn sometimes.
I could tell she was happy when I crossed the
creek, I don't know why she even noticed, it was
a much easier crossing than some we did last summer.
We rode across a bunch of prairie.  There were no
water tanks, I had to wade into stock ponds to drink
on the trail.  Most were ok, but the 1st one was too
muddy and the water wasn't very clear.  I drank some,
I don't like to get thirsty but I was glad the rest
were nicer.  After the 1st loop I got to take a big
drink out of a nice tank and another vet looked at 
me.  Then I got to eat again, more mash, hay and
grazing.  It was nice but we were only there for
an hour and then we had to go again.  About half
way through the 2nd loop T got a bit tense and
said I had to just keep trotting and leave my
new trail buddies behind.  I don't know why. I
knickered to them to hurry up and stay with me but
they didn't, so I just had to go by myself.  T 
rides me quite a bit by myself, I like company better
but like I said she is stubborn so I did what she
wanted.  When we got near base camp I saw some
other horses and wanted to run fast and catch
them but T didn't let me run (after pushing me
to go faster all that way now she says take
it easy -humans!) She got off and led me the last bit
into camp and I got a good big drink and she sponged
me, and then a vet looked at me once last time
and T took me back to the trailer and got me
mash again, unsaddled and brushed me off good,
and let me eat hay for while.  Then one last
drink, just a little grazing, and back in the
trailer. At least I still had hay left. When I got
home it was supper time so me and Cindy got our 
evening hay. So going to rides is not too bad, but you 
have to eat when you can, because you keep getting 
interrupted.  
 
-- 
Teresa Van Hove
Co-Manager Long X Rides
"http://www.users.uswest.net/~tvanhove/LONGX.html"