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Does anybody know if the little black Morgan, Alert's
Shadow finished the race? And what their final total
time/ride time was?
How many horses completed altogether? I was sorry
to see that the lovely Hawk had to be pulled just before
the final leg of the race.
I had the great pleasure of attending the ROC as a spectator.
It was the first endurance race I have ever been to. The
10-hour drive down and back from Massachusetts was well
worth it. The grounds were lovely; the weather perfect.
I enjoyed most talking with my fellow spectators and
some of the contestants after the day's race and soaking
in everything everybody had to say about anything that
had to do with endurance racing, conditioning, or trail
riding. I was delighted to discover that there were
even two Morgans competing for me to cheer for.
I enjoyed waundering around the grounds and seeing all
the inventive ways people have for creating temporary
living quarters for their horses. If you've never seen
a real ridecamp before, it is quite amazing. Sort of
Horsey Hooverville! Many ideas! I just wonder where
people buy some of that stuff. I was especially intrigued
with those big white plastic water drums-on-their-sides
with flat bottoms and black screw-off lids on top. One
fellow even had his rigged with a pump and manifold to
distribute water under pressure!
The trade show was a bit smaller than I had hoped for.
This was my first opportunity to handle and examine
carefully the equipment I have seen only in catalogs
(and often only as line drawings). I managed
to spend about $200 and still came away without a
biothane trail bridle! Every piece I saw had some
reason for not being quite what I was looking for.
However, I understand that Animal Tackers from Texas
will make up darned near anything I want so I guess I
will have the pleasure of trying to design my own
bridle!
I was mostly disappointed that only one saddle distributor
showed up. I am definitely in the market for a trail
saddle to replace my old 1970's vintage Crump Prix
de Saute close contact saddle. For anything that
pricey I want to examine models in detail up close.
Bridleworks from Kentucky was there with their Italian
saddles, which I greatly appreciated, but no other
manufacturers showed. I had to content myself with
trying to figure out what kinds of saddles I was seeing
on the contestant horses and what I liked or didn't like
about each--but from a frustrating distance. Do the
saddle makers show up in force at the AERC convention?
A highly enjoyable weekend, and congradulations to
all the contestants for making it there!
Linda B. Merims
lbm@ici.net
Massachusetts, USA
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