Million Pines - story - long of course

["Tina Hicks" <hickst@nichols.com>]

What a great ride this is!!! I missed it last year due to a
work function and was sure glad to be back this year. It
just isn't done any better than it's done at MP. A good
friend of mine was going to do the 25 on a mare she's
leasing but as it turned out she wasn't ready yet so Lyn
came anyway to crew - what a luxury!

The trip down was uneventful.....for the first 15 minutes :)
at which point I looked in my mirror and saw a stack of
buckets do a beautiful rooster tail out of the bed......and
then the second stack did the same thing! Buckets do this
neat "hanging in the air" thing at 55 mph. This happened at
the bottom of a hill on a small country road with no way to
turn around and go back to get them...so off to Wal-Mart for
buckets. I think shopping for necessities is always best
done on the way to the ride :)

The rest of the ride was fine until we actually arrived and
had to park....For those of you who have never been to MP,
the camp is more trees than anything else and my rig is not
huge but it's not tiny either...After some scouting we found
what looked like a good spot only there didn't seem to be
any way to "get there from here" :) While Lyn and I were out
of the truck wondering if anyone had a chainsaw another
rider came over and offered her husband's help as he is a
truck driver. Now, I can hold my own backing but I also have
no problem letting someone help and I knew we'd be out there
a while without help. He arrived on the scene - with me
driving, him coaching and spotting, and Lyn and his wife
spotting I got in - by the hair of my chin :) The whole camp
was probably wondering if I was trying to cover my 50 miles
right there going back and forth. Side note: mirrors and
running boards are *not* flexible - nor are trees:)

The weather was sticky - humidity had to have been in the
neighborhood of 90% when we got up Sat. morning as we had
some rain that nite and more was expected. (As it turned
out, we were wishing it would rain later in the morning to
break the humidity). The start was amazingly uneventful
which is very odd for Tony - he likes to re-enact Chariots
of Fire when we start but not that day. We started off down
a wide open dirt road at a nice trot/canter.....

Wesley told us there was plenty of water on the trail and
boy was he right!!! There were two places in particular that
were so deep I swear we took a couple of swim strokes! Tony
even drank on the first loop which was amazing....I'm
thinking this might be a good day...

Came in and vetted thru fine and was told by Lyn to sit down
and eat and drink :) (The holds were all 40 minutes). I was
pleasantly surprised to find out I was going out in 15th
place - out of 66 starters.

Second loop went well - I rode with several folks most of
the way which was nice - came in, vetted thru, waited my
hold, and went out in 12th place. By now, I'm getting Top 10
Fever :-)

Back out on the Water Loop for round 3. By now I'm getting a
little more fatigued than I should be to ride well and a
little voice says that maybe we should drop back a little
but all indications are good (HRM, vet card, drinking,
eating, etc) so we truck right along and leave for the 4th
loop in 10th, with 11th one minute behind and 9th a couple
of minutes ahead. 

By now I *know* I'm not riding as well as I should be so
therefore not helping Tony any and he's needing a little
motivation to keep up this pace which is not quite the norm
for him.  We ease up some, 11th (Nina Murphy) catches us,
which is fine, and we ride along and catch and pass 9th. So
now we are sitting pretty - both in Top 10. We pick a nice
easy canter and mosy on down the trail....until we hit some
mud. At which point Tony's front legs suddenly stop going
forward but his hind end doesn't - which sends his head into
the mud, his back end over and me off - all in one fluid
motion :). He gets up and just stands there shaking for a
minute with mud in his eye and both ears :-( After I
determed all of our limbs are working I tell Nina and Co. to
go on so they won't lose their place and I take him back to
the stream to wash up as best I can.

Surprisingly he is not off as we take off again at a walk -
I now just want to complete. After walking for about 20
minutes tho he really perks up and wants to trot. We putz'd
for a little while longer and then he was ready to go so we
finished at a good strong canter, ears up, and feeling good
with Samm hot on my heels :) We ended up 12th, Tony looked
great at the finish check and Sunday morning so I was a
happy camper. 

Next ride - 100 miles at Hallelujah with Samm.....

YIKES!!!!!!! Major-tizzy-in-the-works:-))

Tina
hickst@nichols.com