Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
BIG SOUTH FORK
Oneida, Tennessee September 8, 2007 (Temp in the shade 97)
I am so embarrassed! Four people came up to me at this ride, which is in the South East region (I ride in the North East region) and asked if I was Dodie...because I was walking around barefooted and they didn't know of any other horse person with the balls to do that (blush). I tried explaining that I had to cut back on money somewhere so I could go to all these rides, and shoes, bras and hair cuts are the cut backs (chuckle).
A fifth person came up to me and knew I was Dodie because the question out of his grinning mouth as he sauntered towards me at the vet in on Friday afternoon was, "When is that darned book gonna be published so I can get a copy?" (double blush) I'm mighty glad that Connie wasn't with me, she would have died because I still haven't got her a T-shirt that says, "I'm with Dodie." or her second choice which is "Dodie who? I'm just crew!"
I also walked in on two conversations in progress in which they were discussing that I was at the ride and what kind of story was I going to write. Oh my gosh. I can't believe this. I'm infamous. First the bare feet, and now the ride stories.
The first conversation (and you'll know who you are!) I held back and just listened to get a feel for my reception in the South East region...they were talking about my famous TWO INCH story. Two guys talking about two inches! Can you imagine? The thought of it should pulse your funny button and get at least ONE guffaw. And they both appeared to love that story a lot. I'm glad because that is my favorite story.
The taller fella with the nice jean clad hiney (chuckle) said he hoped that he got to meet me so he could be in my BSF story. Well, guess what? You didn't actually meet me, but you are sure in my story now! The shorter fella with the tight T over some amazing pecs said he was afraid to meet me because he would be in my story. HA, you are also in the story! And let me tell ya, they were some fine looking guys so I chose that moment to duck behind Dr. Otis and skip out...I was a little intimidated at that point that people were talking about me.
Now, my favorite conversation I walked into was the one person telling the other person that they LOVED my stories because I told it like it was and didn't sugar coat the whole thing. (gasp) She turned and saw me standing there (double gasp) and complimented me on pissing people off (I know EXACTLY which story she was referring to...and I still hold to my guns on that one because no other ride I've attended since has been that bad.) She said she really enjoyed that I just wrote what I saw and left it at that and didn't back down on anything. Now, that was very refreshing and she made my day! THANK YOU! I truly don't set out to make anyone upset, which is why I clearly state to put on your humor cap before sitting down with your coffee to read these stories. I simply write what I saw and felt and sometimes I get carried away.
Okay...enough about me...on to the story.
The ApHC is holding it's second annual National Distance Championship ride here this year and although I don't have an Appaloosa to compete on this year, I have Kevin riding on Joker and have been asked to sponsor a Junior Rider on an Appaloosa. Okay. Good deal. I'm there! I don't need an excuse to go to a ride...but it's nice to have one to give to the family to explain why I'm gonna be gone for four days. (hehe)
Kevin was going, so (of course) Kyle needed to go. We had several emails back and forth before Kevin actually signed up for the Championship ride. Mostly because Joker was kicked in June and had two months off the heal her leg. Then, her first ride back, the Coal Cracker Challenge Joker had a very low score (This was an ECTRA Competitive Trail Ride) and a VERY sore back after the ride. I was concerned about her back more than her score, Joker is notorious for scoring low at CTR's. Rika also didn't score as high as I felt she should have scored. I didn't feel that Rika had enough time with Kyle and wasn't being conditioned properly. Kyle felt I was wrong. Difference of opinion. *BUT* Kyle has ridden to Junior Championship at CTR's on several occasions and has even had a perfect 100 score, so when Rika came in with such a low score on a very easy 25 mile, I was a little dismayed. We discussed all these things through email but I let them make their own decisions. Kyle has pretty much cut me off as his mentor since he started riding as an adult in AERC this past spring 2007, and that's fine. He's been running with me since fall of 2005 and if he needs to feel his wings, that's how we all learn! Flying solo.
Kevin is more new to this sport and rode Bee-Bee on his first 50 mile ride this past spring. I think it was as much a shock to Bee-Bee as to Kevin to do 50 miles. They both completed Turtle, with lots of cheering and congratulations with several minutes to spare. How wonderful. Anyway, Kevin has been working on getting going with advice from many people and a big heart full of care for his horse...maybe not a lot of skill, but it's really about the heart, isn't it?
Okay. I gave them my opinions, they made the decision to come to the ride.
Good deal!
Our drive to TN was exactly the opposite of what you are all expecting to read today. Mapquest told me it was 579.8 miles and should take me 10.5 hours. Okay, if I was driving the Mustang, maybe...in a trailer with three horses, two boys and a dog...NOT! We actually did the drive down in 12 hours to the minute. And it was smooth sailing. Easy drive, Waltzing Matilda was her old self pulling the hills with no worries and when we got to the gorge (Whew! Don't' try THAT in a big rig) she creeped down the switchbacks in first gear, requiring very little braking through the steep downhill and pulled us up out the switchbacks in third gear with absolutely no troubles at all. We love Matilda! (For those of you new to my stories, I couldn't do these rides without Matilda, she's my boss V10 Dodge 4X4 pick-up)
Quick, easy and no "getting-to-the-ride" story EXCEPT! (oh, yes, there is always an exception to every statement)....My little Sheltie, Foxy, escaped the fence a week ago when my big clumsy German Shepherd, Sasha, opened the gate on accident from bumping into it several hundred times with her 130 pounds. While Sasha looked at the open gate with "Uh, Oh!" eyes, Foxy made a break for it and was run over by a car on the road in front of my house. I was heart broken. Foxy was only 7 months old and hadn't learned about cars yet. Sasha, good dog, never left the yard until I came out of the house to hang clothes on the line in the side yard. Suddenly, there was Sasha wiggling her whole body wanting to help me.
So, I visited my dear friend on Thursday and picked a puppy from his large assortment to be my new ride buddy. Now, he's been my buddy for 20 years and he loves to breed Poodles (bleck) and I tell him BLECK all the time. That's okay, he hates Appaloosas and tells me bleck all the time, too! (chuckle) Guess what puppy caught my interest and held my attention out of the 30 some I looked at and played with? Yep, a toy poodle. (bleck) Okay, I have to admit, she is absolutely dear and sweet and I think everyone needs a little foo-foo in there life so she's not my foo-foo dog.
So, at sever months old, she leaves her kennel to go for a 12 hour joy ride to Tennessee. Gets tied to a chair all weekend, petted by a hundred people who think she's the dearest thing they ever saw, and learns to walk on a leash, not get dragged by the leash and even got to sleep quietly on the pillow next to me. She actrually made an excellent camping dog. Never barked, never complained, ate all her food and drank lots of water. Good Girl.
And she didn't even puke in the truck on the way to the ride.
EXCELLENT.
We arrive in base camp, exactly where the directions said it would be (EXCELLENT DIRECTIONS!) and at exactly 8:04 PM. Oh man, it's starting to get dark and there are trailers everywhere, parking in ever conceivable manner, sideways-longways-sardineways...it's a nightmare of rigs and there isn't anyone there parking us. It was kinda a free-for all.
I sent Kevin and Kyle to look for a spot I could stuff my rig into. In the meantime, Lisa found me and welcomed me to camp and told me "Good Luck" on finding a parking spot. She was also dismayed when she arrived and the total chaos of parking she found there. If I could....I would like to tell RM that we could have fit another 20 rigs in there if someone would have laid out the parking and directed rigs into their spots. Some people had enough space for five horses and they only had one horse. Then people like me who arrived late with three horses, barely had enough room for one horse. AND, I parked next to a guy that not only had ONE horse with a huge paddock for that ONE horse, he also staked a ten foot parameter around his truck so no-one could park next to him. How rude! But, it gets better...
After I got us parked and we started unloading, the boys off loaded stuff inside this 10 foot parameter. Why? So it wasn't in the way while we set up the corral for the horses. We fully intended to put it all in the trailer once we were done, it wasn't going to STAY there, but this guy comes roaring out of his trailer, jumps all over the boys about scratching his truck and they would have to pay for any damage, and can they get their shit out of his space. (I wasn't there for that conversation or I would have let loose with both barrels at that butt-head. This was relayed to me later when I asked why they were moving stuff instead of setting up the corrals)
Then later, I wandered to the back side of the trailer to check on the horses and was carrying Puff (the new puppy, so aptly named by Alec, my youngest son). This man's dog was growling and carrying on at us the entire time we were setting up the corrals so I already knew it was not a nice dog. Why would someone bring a dog like that to a ride? Anyway, this man came out of trailer - not to greet me as his new neighbor, but to tell me (and I swear to you, this is the truth with nothing added or removed). [quote] "My dog is tied under my trailer and I will NOT be held responsible for your dog when it gets up under there." [end quote]
I didn't even know what to say. I felt attacked at 9:30 PM and after driving for 12 hours, I was not prepared to remain diplomatic when dealing with a butt-head. I did managed a sweet reply though (Connie, you would be proud of me, I even smiled when I answered him.)
"Oh, that's okay. We noticed that your dog isn't very friendly when we were putting up our corrals and I keep my dog leashed. She's safe and I appreciate your concern for her."
Now, I know you are all disappointed now that I didn't blast the man with both barrels but you know what? I had to live next to him for the next three days and sometimes you can take some of the vinegar out of a person just by smiling.
Of course, the next morning, I wasn't even out of bed before he came over to tell me that he was gonna be leaving Saturday and I would have to move my rig so he could get out. No problem! I was already disconnected from the trailer and could move my truck. He'd have plenty of room. He checked with me three times on Friday to be sure that I would move for him. (sheesh). And then the butt-head never left until Sunday morning anyway.
Now, they boys told me that he was much nicer on Saturday, so maybe he was tired and cranky from crewing for his granddaughter on Thursday. Who knows? I never had another conversation with him after that so I can't tell you if my smile sweetened him up or not.
Our neighbor on the other side had the most comical and entertaining Jack Russell named Petal. She was a very dear dog and came over to visit Puff many times while we were there. She even stayed for supper and helped Puff clean her plate so she could get dessert. Petal's owner was just as sweet natured as Petal. Hmmmm. I see a trend here. Cranky dog, cranky owner ... sweet dog, sweet owner.
PUFF!!!! PLEASE!!! Be very very good this weekend. (snicker) We don't want anyone thinking I'm bad.
Friday I spent most the day visiting ApHC riders and their horses. Then running through camp to see everyone that was there. Being in a different region, I was surprised at how many NE region riders I talked to that I knew. It's very nice to go somewhere new and know some people. I met many new people and that was grand, too! I love to talk and having a new audience gave my passion for gab a work out.
Now, this ride holds several exciting things for me.
Sallie is gonna be here (I love Sallie, she's my soul mate from somewhere, I know it.)
I'm gonna see all the ApHC people I haven't seen since last year's ride
I'm riding a trail I've never been on - EXCITING!
I'm crewing for myself on a 50 and I'm anxious to see if I'm up to the challenge.
I'm finally going to meet up with Cindy after several aborted attempts so I can buy her mare and bring her home. Cindy is actually going to compete the mare on her first ever LD on Saturday and I'm dying to see how she does.
I'm on some much needed R&R - I've been working steady 7 days, 14 hours for the past three weeks and need to kick back.
I'm picking up Lucy aka Fame from Cindy after the 30 mile on Saturday. She's to be my second string running horse.
Friday was wonderful. I got to do tons of visiting, some bonding with my new pup, learned lots about the boys and that they must be getting comfortable with me because they've become slobs (that never happened on any other ride I took them to) and got that R&R I have been looking forward to having. I felt great.
Now, if you ask the boys, they're gonna tell you I was crabby. Let me explain.
I overheard a conversation between Kyle and Kevin about their ride the next day. They were going off without me (sob) and it's the first time for me. It was like babies leaving the nest, I was feeling very worried for them and very proud of them all at the same time. This is not a good feeling. Later, as I'm picking up their stuff for the millionth time, I started worrying even more...if they can't keep their stuff together in camp, how the hell are they gonna keep their stuff together on trail without me.
Oh, the ego of Dodie.
BUT...I believed I was persevering in my quest to remain calm and not mother them to death. Apparently, I did not remain calm and I did manage to snap at them about something and that set the tone for the whole weekend between me and those boys. I feel very badly about that. I didn't mean to ruin their enjoyment of being here and the excitement of going off on their own to ride the trail their way. I'm a bad mother, what can I say. Just ask my own three kids, they'll tell you I'm horrible and that's why they gave me the AOL IM screen name of Meanie Mommie. (grin)
Whatever. I'm calm ... relaxed ... NOT!
The day passes and we get the horses vetted in. There was a scale there and we'd played the guessing game on weight - I was within 50 pounds on all three horses. Bee-Bee weighed 946. Remember that for later.
The lady vet (please! Accept my apologies, I don't remember your name) loved Bee-Bee and loved the fact she was a Tennessee Walker. She did tell me that her shoes looked very iffy and was concerned for her keeping them on during the ride. Now, I had begged my farrier to come and do her the week before and he let me down. The shoes were on tight, but they were over grown and Bee-Bee's toes were very long. After the vet said that, I decided that I needed to do something about it.
Kevin (bless his sweet heart) volunteered to find the ride farrier and see if he would reset her shoes for me. Off he went on his quest while I was (once again) putting away boy stuff left all over the place. Kevin came back, successful in his quest and with good news! The farrier said "Sure!"
Then, I sheepishly asked Kevin if he would come with me and bring Rika so Bee-Bee would behave. Bee-Bee was very wound up at the vet check because her new found corral buddy, Rika, went off and left her alone with just me and the vet. I didn't want her bouncing on the farrier's head after he so kindly agreed to reset her shoes. Kevin (bless you, bless you) said, "Sure." in that laid back totally chilled manner he has about most things. I would have asked Kyle, but he was no-where to be found.
Sometimes, I forget Kevin is there because Kyle is so animated and gregarious, absorbing most my attention while Kevin is chilled, hanging back and just absorbing whatever flies on by him. Thank you, Kevin, for being my babysitter!
Down to the farrier we go, and can you believe that two people came up to me on the way down asking, "Hey Dodie, are you writing a story yet?"
Who ARE these people? And what do they think I do? Spend every moment writing? Pshaw.
And Chris found me, chuckling over my bare feet across the gravel drive. Said he'd recognize my toes anywhere...I told him to stay out of the ladies room peeping under doors. (grin). Big hug for him, he's grand. He's are famous bareback rider. Rides every ride without even a pad under his nice rear-end. Even I rode Numbers with a PAD for pete's sake. Mostly to have something to hang my water bottles on.
BEN! You're my hero! The farrier was not only excellent, he was friendly and talkative and very educational! He wasn't happy to put the old shoes back on because they were so thin that the nails were sticking up out of them and the head would just wear off. He put four new shoes all around, balanced Bee-Bee exactly like I like her to be balanced and set her flying off on pegasus shoes. Literally, it was the nicest shoeing job. And very inexpensive. I didn't feel he charged me enough since I'm used to paying much higher priced up here in the NE.
Kevin and I were watching our clocks while Bee-Bee was getting shod because the Appaloosa ride dinner was at 6:00 and then the BSF ride meeting was at 7:00. We didn't want to miss either one. We were done about 5:15, so we had plenty of time.
Back to camp to put our horses away.
I haven't seen Kyle all day, I know he's off visiting all his new friends he's made on Ride Camp. Kevin was in and out of camp most the day so I had a good grip on where he was and what he was doing. Not that I'm mothering (I'm not, really!) I just need to know everyone is safe.
Back to our camp. Sallie comes over and visits a little and I can tell she TOTALLY excited to be doing the 100 on Kirby (and I'm a little jealous 'cause I want to do a 100 someday and here she is doing her second one). Unfortunately, I have to run her off because we're getting close to dinner time for the ApHC people. Her husband reminds me so much of Marc. I said I gotta go, she said Bye and we stood there talking...and talking...and Jim says, "Let's go let her get cleaned up." And took her by the arm (because we were still talking). Oh, Sallie and I are so much alike. Wonder if there's known around her barn as "Sallie Time"?
Kevin and I clean up. I take the infamous Trailer Bath In A Bucket and feel SO MUCH BETTER NOW. Man, I was sweating my ass off all day and that bladder of water had been sitting in that hot sun all day so it was nice and toasty. Really washed the sweat off nicely. Feeling more human and less beastly, Kevin and I head down to the pavilion where the ApHC dinner is going to be held. It's about .3 miles from the base camp and off the gravel road. Of course, I'm barefooted (chuckle).
About half way there I remember that we might need our chairs...just about the same time Kyle comes running out of the woods off the trail. He said he went jogging with this very cute girl that was with him. Uh, huh ... so why are you so red in the face? Huh? We told him we were on our way to the dinner and he said he'd be up shortly. Kevin turned back to get the chairs in case we needed them and I continued up the road, just me and Puff.
Beep Beep
"Hey? Need a ride?"
I look up and smile at the truck full of ApHC riders.
"You betcha!"
I hop in and ride four seconds into the pavilion area (grin). Good I saved some foot leather for the walk home.
Dinner was excellent, the Tennessee Club did a wonderful job of supporting the APHC riders and an even better job of cooking food. We had BBQ and german coleslaw (a little shocking to see down south) and chips and soda and baked beans....THANK YOU! They convinced Jack Daniels (A Tennessee company) to sponsor the riders and Jack Daniels had nice gifts for all the riders. Even though I wasn't competing in the Championship ride, I was sponsoring a junior competitor so I got a bag of goodies, too. I didn't get a cool T-shirt, though, and that was a bummer.
(What does it mean to sponsor a junior? In AERC, junior riders are required to have an adult rider with them on trail at all times. There are many reasons for this, safety for the rider and horse are foremost the most important of those reasons. I have sponsored many many juniors over the years and I love to ride with juniors. Their joy and love of being on the trail is so invigorating and contagious that I ride each trail with new eyes whenever I have a junior with me.) Meghan was no exception to that rule. She didn't know me very well, just to see me talking with her mom in camps over the past couple years, and it took her a little while to warm up to me, but once I got her talking, she was excellent company on the 50 mile ride.
Okay - now we run back to base camp for the ride meeting. First they did awards for the Friday 30 mile ride. Oh, how wonderful to see them giving out awards for top 10 and BC in the LD. They don't do that in the NE region. I know that RM's don't want their LD riders to be racing, they want them to be conditioning their horses, but you know what? I still say that a horse that can do 30 miles is an excellent horse and there aren't that many of those around. And if a rider cared for their horse on that 30 miles and did a good job with the horse and the horse finishes first, they should get recognition for that accomplishment. I was thrilled to see the RM handing out prizes for the LD.
Then the 55's. There was a lot of cheering and good will. The RM was hysterically funny and very entertaining, which is the sign of someone enjoying what he does. He was busting on people for their [lack of] parking skills and said that he wanted a bigger ride next year so we all had to get our *** together and learn to park better. Again, I add that they can dedicate two volunteers to setting up the parking and then putting people in their spots to avoid the haphazard conditions we had this weekend. I know I would hug any volunteer that gave me a parking spot!
Dr. Otis stood up and gave us our warning about heat and trail conditions. TAKE CARE OF YOUR HORSE. I fully intended to take care of me and Meghan. I wanted Meghan to complete the Championship ride and I wanted Bee-Bee to safely finish her 50 miles with a 6 month baby in her belly. I already knew I was going to be running mid-pack and that's my plan.
I wanted to visit with Sallie again after the ride meeting, but it didn't break up until after 9:00 PM and I still had some things to do to get ready for the next morning. Until I was all done, it was after 10:00 PM and I never made it to her camp to tell her "Good Luck." I was sending her ESP messages, I sure hope she heard them and knew I was thinking about her.
Since I only slept about 4 hours the night before, after driving 12 hours, I was a little exhausted and actually fell asleep around 11. I listened to the boys a little bit talking to each other and felt a good sense of "wellness" so I slept like a little baby. Yep, awake every hour or so crying for my mama!
I was already awake when the alarm went off because some horse was screaming for his buddy at 4:00 AM. Had to be a 50 mile horse left behind when his 100 mile buddy went off to get warmed up. Of course, that horse set off several other horses, Joker included, and being on "horse-tune" I was instantly awake when I heard Joker. OMG, is Bee-Bee or Rika out of the corral?
I quick jump out of the truck, almost squishing poor little 4 pound Puff in my exuberance. I grab her out from underneath my fat ass and toss her to the ground then do a very ungraceful exit over the tailgate, almost falling on top of her (again) because she's trying to get BACK into the truck and she's right under my feet. Of course, this causes me to try and avoid a road kill situation, knocking my balance down to nothing and over I go. Right on my face. So much for Aikido falling training.
I quick look and Bee-Bee and Rika and laying back to back in their paddock and Joker is busy pacing all her manure into pulp in her corral.
Whew. No missing horses, Joker is just being her normal silly self.
Petal ran over to greet me, so her mommy must be up somewhere. (What a sweet little dog.)
I do the pee-pee dance down tot he end of camp to the porta-John and between holding my nose and trying not to wonder what that is on the side of the toilet seat, I relieve my poor bladder that is over worked from all the fluids I drank yesterday while I was sweating to death. Puff followed me to the porta-john and promptly did her business right outside the door (in the dark) while I was doing my own business. What do you think I stepped in when I exited the highly aromatic chamber? Eewwww.
I grab some toilet tissue and clean up what was left on the ground of her business. I figure I'll wash my foot when I get back to my camp.
Good Dog. No-one noticed so I can't be a shitty owner (hehe).
I start coffee and since the boys said to wake them at 4:30, I had a couple minutes of peace time to myself. My favorite time of the day is morning. No-one around and I can sit and contemplate life, listen to by birds telling me lies and drink my coffee with no interruptions. I actually had all that for about 10 minutes before I had to wake them up.
Kevin must have been awake because when I "knocked" on the tent, he poked his head out right away.
"Is Kyle up?" I ask.
"I don't think so." he mumbles.
"Kyle? Shake a leg."
I hear a low murmur from inside the tent.
"Kyle?"
"Yep, I'm up."
(chuckle)
Sure he is.
Haying and watering is done, so they grain them. I eat some eggs and toast (protien and carbs). I'm starting to sweat so I look at the themometer. 74 degrees? !)*$)(*^*(%$)( That just can't be right. Man....
We heard the hundreds get off and started on trail. I yell to the passing crowd ... "Good Luck Sallie." I hope she heard me.
Now, the grouchie Dodie story begins. Last night, I opened a panel of the corral to go in and tack up Bee-Bee for an afternoon try-out-the-trail ride and Kyle had already opened one so he fussed at me.
SO SORRY! I closed up my panel and we used the one that he opened.
Now, you're asking yourself, "Self? Why is this important?"
Because, if you open two panels, the corral falls down (oops). And Kyle's opening was much more convenient anyway, and the corral had a good swing to it in that spot he chose, so that's now the "Go in and out" spot. We used it all afternoon and night.
Come morning, we're getting ready to tack up. Kyle is already in the corral tacking Rika and I go to the spot Kyle chose as our "gate". I thought it odd that the pins were in it, but then thought that he put them back in so Bee-Bee wouldn't escape while he was grooming Rika. No biggy.
I no sooner started to pull the pins that he's fussing at me [again] that he already has an opening.
What the **** and what happened to using this spot that we used yesterday?
I think I actually said that to him because then he gets all defensive about me opening the other place so he decided to use the other place.
(sigh)
I had been picking up after these guys for a day and a morning (Oh, yes, this morning every time I went to get something of MINE, I found there stuff all over it, or my stuff strewn from one end of the trailer to another because they used it and didn't put it away) so I snapped at him, "What happened to find it a way, put it away?"
He jumped all over me that I was the one that wasn't following the program.
Fine, I put the pins back in the new morning opening and told him to use the old yesterday opening in the corral. I'm sure my tone of voice left him no options because I had just about had it with teenager smart mouths.
We're almost all ready and Bee-Bee has that "look" in her eye. Uh, oh. I get up on her and own we go to check in. They weren't ready for us yet, even though it was 6:45 AM like they said. being on Dodie-time, it may even have been later than that. The morning program was, they would trot by the vets to the trail head and wait to start.
You have GOT to be kidding me? You want me to trot my horse towards a mob of horses all waiting at the trail head to get started? I'll never get her stopped. Sure enough, we did our pretty running walk past the vet (BTW - thank you, Vet, that made the comment, "What a lovely gait your mares has, good job!". That made me smile.) and she refused to stop...plowed right into that pack of horses and then reared straight up in the air.
MY APOLOGIES to everyone that I bumped in to. I am very embarrassed by her manners, but she's never been asked to start a ride then immediately stop again. Normally, once I tell her to get on down the trail, she's all business and is getting on down the trail. I guess I need to start working this kind of a check in into my training program. Never had one like that before and now that I have, I need to incorporate it as part of the ride stuff they have to do for us stupid humans.
Okay, they open the trail and we're off. I'm sitting about mid-pack and keeping an eye on Meghan very closely because the horses behind us are crowding on us hard. I don't want to get driven down the trail, I want to move along at a good clip on our own. About two miles out we hung back a little and let the crowders pass us by. Then, me and Meghan had the trail to ourselves.
And what a GORGEOUS trail it was. I was in heaven. The footing was excellent. The views were tremendous. The morning was a little hotter than I liked, and rapidly heating up but under the trees on the trail it was wonderful.
AWESOME. I had goosebumps a couple times as we crested hills and looked out into valleys of mountains and trees. I stopped twice to point something out to Meghan. It was great.
This is a trail I could/would/will try my first 100 mile ride on ... assuming it's still around when I have a horse ready for that kind of riding. It was a great trail. All 50 miles of it. Challenging, but not hard. Easy on the eyes, but not boring. The smells were great. And I saw foliage I'm still trying to find on the internet so I know what kind of bush/tree it was.
So, down the trail we go, moving with a good clip [for Bee-Bee]. I asked Meghan a couple times if the pace was too fast for her. I know she's ridden Kuhna several rides, and even a 100 miler (I heard a rumor, don't know the truth of it) and figured she'd know if I was going to fast for him. At some point, she did finally admit to me that we were moving a bit faster than she was used to. I kicked Bee-Bee down a notch and we moved along about 7 miles an hour for the first 21 mile loop.
Kudo's! Into the vet check we come with nice fresh horses. We pulsed right down, even though the heat is coming up in waves. Once we got out of the trees and were in the open field, I could feel that heat and it was bothering me (both the heat, and the knowledge that the heat was going to affect the horses). Kyle and Kevin are sitting there and Kyle asked me what took so long. I looked at my watch and we did 21 miles in 3 hours. That's 7 miles an hour. What the hell is he talking about?
Trot out was great and I got another compliment from another vet. "Don't see too many gaited horses at these things and you certainly don't see one as regal as your mare doing this kind of hard work." (Yep, my chest is swelling in pride today!) Then my pride (one of the seven deadly sins) was crushed and mutilated when the vet handed me a rider's card and asked me to drop it off at the timer, please.
I looked down and it was Kyle's card. Oh no. I got this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was so worried about letting them go and now they've had a pull. it's all my fault...I should never had let them go. I looked at his time and saw that he came in 35 minutes before I did. Damn, he must have been boogying down the trail. Bad bad bad. I didn't teach him that. I taught him slow first loop to warm up and get the brain on straight, then kick it up a notch the second loop. Well, I failed as a mentor. My student didn't learn. Damn damn damn. It said lameness, which was far better than metabolics, but still I felt guilty for not teaching him better.
Eric Beene came over and asked how we're doing. I gave him the thumbs up and he smiled at me. "Keep that junior in the ride, Dodie." I smiled and gave him another thumbs up. I would have talked to him but I was gulping down bottle after bottle of water and couldn't talk much. He went on to say a couple Apps were pulled at this first hold for not pulsing down.
WHAT? How is that possible? This was a great trail. Easy to ride, water in many places for cool down. And even though Tennessee is obviously in some kind of drought, we found lots of grass on the side of the trail to munch on. How is it possible these horses are already in pulse trouble at only 20 miles?
Meghan's grandmom was crewing for her and I was on my own. I saw that Kyle and Kevin left me very little water, so I tied Bee-Bee (who was eating like a pig) to a water tub and walked over to fill the three buckets for myself. Damn, the public water trough is dry. Back to Bee-Bee to explain she has to be a camel for a little bit. Bee-Bee did drink some of the water that Meghan's grandmom gave her, and she drank well from the cool water we passed a couple miles back. No worries.
About ten minutes before my out time, they filled the public water trough and I ran over there with my three buckets. Of course, by that time Bee-Bee was ready to get rolling and wasn't interested in water at all.
Phooey.
The packed hold was thinning out by now (as we were close to the last ones in) and the heat was up on us. I was having a hard time breathing. First I thought I was in cardiac arrest (grin) but then realized it was because the air was so dry and hot and the dust from the horses leaving was choking me.
Bleck.
We mount up and we're off. Meghan is in fine spirits and she's telling me stories about her mom, and rides and things that I'm sure I should NOT put in this story. (Sorry Lisa, I know about the trees at OD). She was great company, I was highly amused. We're stopping more often now, it's hot and Kuhna is breathing hard enough for me to hear him behind me. Bee-Bee is still cranking, but she's slowing down so every puddle, splash of water and cool area with grass, we're pulling off the trail to get something for the horses. Both of them are eating well and drinking when they can. There's not much water out here and we don't find enough to wet them down until we reach this nice creek crossing at the bottom of a hill.
Oh, this is great. I put them right out into the water and we sponged and sponged and sponged. They both drank like camels and I was trying to figure out how they can breathe and drink at the same time. That's a skill I'd like to have.
Kuhna (or maybe it was Meghan) was anxious to get on the trail and I made her stop and wait. I wasn't going anywhere while we had all this nice cold running creek water and they were both still breathing so hard. Meghan brought Kuhna back to the water and sponged him more. We stayed there 15 minutes. I didn't care. There wasn't a lot of water up to that point and they needed it.
Up out of the ravine we go. It was a nice pull. Not too long and not too steep. It was sure hot, though.
We get out on some flatter trail and kicked it up a notch. We passed a woman giving water to ride and tie people and she said, "At the end of this field is water."
Yippee!
We canter across the field and find five water tubs - EMPTY. Damn damn damn.
That really sucks.
We go on down the trail and stop at every grass we can find. At least grass has some water in it.
Finally, we round a corner and there's a guy filling buckets with water. He's at the junction of pink and blue so I know we're almost back to base. We stop and let the horses drink to their hearts content. We sponge and sponge and sponge. Bee-Bee almost got run over by the fella driving the truck because he wanted to back up and fill the rest of the buckets and I couldn't get her to lift her head out of the front bucket to let him do that. She was intent on refilling her empty tanks.
About now, I'm getting nauseous so I KNOW it's freakin' hot. It doesn't really feel like it because we're mostly under trees in the shade, but it's hot. I have drank 8 bottles of water, and four gaterades. I don't usually drink this much and I am STILL parched. I'm sure all that dust had a lot to do with it. I put Meghan out in front for a while because Bee-Bee was getting her, "Don't wannas" and I wanted her to remember she was on a ride, not at a park. Meghan told me she wasn't comfortable with Kuhna out front, but Kuhna was being really tired, too so I said, "Try it for a minute or two and if he's bad, get on back behind me."
(NOTE) There were two Rider Option pulls at the ride due to heat sickness in the rider. I wish I handled heat better than I do and if anyone has any suggestions about herbal supplements I can take to give me a heat edge, I'd love to hear it. I have always had problems in heat, even if I'm just sitting at home doing absolutely nothing.
They did just fine out front!
Ah, I see trailers sparkling through the trees like beacons of water in a lab. [Water, water] We get off and we walk in the last mile. I quick stop at my trailer on the way in so I can grab tylenol (heat headache) and a frozen water from my cooler (heat headache). We time in at 3 hours 15 minutes for the loop. Not bad, still moving 7 miles an hour and that was with all the stopping for munchies we did.
These horses are HOT. Panting like crazy. Meghan's grandmom (and I'm so sorry I don't remember your name) had ice all ready for Meghan and even had a spot under the canopy for me. Bee-Bee is in some serious heat panting now and there's a fan next to us in Skip's tent. No-one in over there so I quick pop Bee-Bee over in front of the fan and start wetting her down. Water, water, water. Bee-Bee is eating everything in site. Someone's carrots (sorry), someone's apple (sorry again), all her flake of hay (damn) and grain...she ate almost the whole bucket of grain I brought down tot he hold to get her through the second and final holds. She never eats like this at holds. I'm so glad to see she's finally getting the routine. And that's on top of all the grass she ate on trail.
WOW!
Now, from bending over and scooping water I am getting dizzy. Stupid blood pressure pills. I'm sure this up and down isn't the thing to do when you're on blood pressure medine, not in the rapid fire manner I was doing it. Up pour water, down scoop water, up pour water, down scoop water.
And where the hell is Kyle? He got pulled, I thought for sure he'd be in here to help me at the hold. He has ALWAYS been there for me. I'm looking around and see Kevin moseying around with Joker.
"Hey? Where's Kyle?"
Kevin shrugs. Typical Kevin fashion.
Mentally, I make a note to fuss at Kyle for abandoning me.
Okay, I'm my own crew. Up pour water, down scoop water, up pour water, down scoop water.
Kuhna was ready for pulse in and she left to get her vet check. Her grandmom started icing Bee-Bee (THANK YOU THANK YOU). Up pour water, down scoop water, up pour water, down scoop water on one side and ice ice ice on the other side.
Finally, Bee-Bee is down to 60. Took ten minutes to get her there. Man, it's freakin' hot.
Off I go to vet in. I pass Meghan on the way and she says she has to go back. Kuhna's CRI was 56/72. Ouch. He's hot.
"That's okay honey, get him in front of that fan while it's available and keep water on him."
Bee-Bee pulses in at 56. CRI 56/52. Nice. And I get yet another compliment on her nice gait. (grin). I should have known better than to swell up with pride. I was about to be crushed yet again.
I get back to the tent and Meghan is worrying about Kuhna. I look at him and he's looking perkier than he did. She goes off to get checked again. Comes back and says the vet said come back in half an hour. Oh no. About that time Eric walked over and asked how that junior was doing. I lied.
"She's good!"
Eric says that more Apps were pulled from the Championship ride. More metobolics.
In the meantime, I ditch Eric because I see Sallie and I wanted to find out how Kirby was doing. He was pulled at the first hold due to cramping. Poor Sallie, she's not having a good ride season ... in fact, she's having a ride season like I started. Kirby is in treatment because he peed brown. Why is this important to know? If the horse is padssing dark urine, the kidneys are not functioning properly. If the kidneys shut down, the horse dies. Now, don't get scared, his pee was brown, they had him on IV fluids, and he was eating everything in sight. He eventually peed clear yellow and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
I see Kevin moseying along outside and I flag him down.
"Kevin," I shout across the dust choked drive, "What's your out time?"
He said he was pulled due to Joker getting a cramp.
WHAT???? My heart beats so hard I think I'm having another cardiac arrest. I can't believe it. I was so sure Kevin would finish out okay on Joker, she was looking grand at the first vet check and since he was riding out alone after Kyle was pulled, and Joker loves to be alone, I felt he'd be okay.
Again, I felt like I had failed those boys somehow.
Well, I can't worry about that right now, I'll get the whole story from Kevin later.
Bee-Bee ate everything under that tent except the canvas. Another neighbor asked if I'd like a flake of hay and I was very thankful to her. THANK YOU! Bee-Bee destroyed most of that, too! Damn, she is really eating well today!
Kuhna goes back to the vet and Meghan comes back all smiles. He's good to go.
We're supposed to go out of the hold at 3:00 on the nose, but Meghan hadn't allowed him to eat, trying to get his pulse down, and she wanted him to have something. No problem. We have four hours to do a 9 mile loop. We can stay in the hold as long as we like.
We left the hold at 3:20 PM to finish the last 9 miles. The out timer was funny...said she wondered what happened to us. I replied that we were having the buffet and since it was all you could eat, we wanted to get our money's worth. She gave us a hard time about changing weight divisions and we left out for the final loop of the day.
Here we are, going along and I notice this very nice walking mare coming at me. Now, these are shared trails and I had seen several Tennessee Walkers this ride. Some were impressive moving out in their single foot gait smoothly and regally. Some were (shudder) pacers bouncing their riders all over the saddle. I had been TWH watching all day so this one caught my eye right away.
I was admiring this horses when the rider says, "Dodie?"
I look up and say, "Yes?"
The rider grins and says, "It's Cindy! This is her. What do you think?"
OH MY GOD! I was admiring the very horse I drove all the way to Tennessee to bring home with me. Well, that worked out fine!
"Hey, Cindy, you better hurry, you're gonna be OT." She was riding Flame (Cindy calls her Lucy, I'm gonna call her Flame) in the 30 mile ride. The mare is five and this is her very first ride, and here she is, right in front of me, less than a mile from completing and looking like she hasn't even started yet.
Cindy tells me a bear was sighted about a 1/4 behind her on trail. A bear? Cool! We've seen deer standing on trail, several squirrels and something that I swear looked like a porcupine ... but not a bear.
Cindy heads into camp, we head out on trail.
DAMN!
IT'S HOT.
HOT.
I'm feeling very sick and I even think I might throw up. I suck down two gaterades and believe it or not, within ten minutes I'm feeling much better. What the hell.
We took it very slow and easy the last loop. We passed by three riders. Two Pioneer Riders (they were doing the 50 all three days on the same horse) and Chris was with them on her gelding. We were just walking, but Bee-Bee's walk is pretty ground covering, so we walked right on by them up a hill. They were all off their horses and ground walking. Thomas said he wanted to finish and if that meant he came in turtle for the day, he didn't care. I replied there was nothing wrong with that!
At the blue/pink cross over, I knew we had one mile to the finish line so we got off and walked. Almost to the finish line, Chris and the two Pioneer riders passed us by going at a trot. I didn't care, I was about getting back to camp with a pulsed down horse. We walked, on the ground, over the finish line.
5:15 PM, our finish time! The finish line timer guy was very impressed with our attitude of walking the finishing line. He made a big fuss over us caring about our horses so much (blush). He also said (and maybe he said this to every horse that crossed) that our two horses were the best ones he'd seen all day crossing the finish line. They were alert and bright eyed. He told us to have a good walk into camp and we left.
We walked the mile into base camp. We cut through the camp ground and I stopped at the trailer to dump off my saddle. We have one hour to pulse in. I decided I'd get everything cleaned up and put away quick so I didn't have to deal with it later. Once I had that done (about five minutes) I headed on down to the hold to cool Bee-Bee down.
Now, I get there and neither Kyle nor Kevin were to be found. I had filled all three of my water buckets before I left out for the final loop in anticipation of needing to get Bee-Bee cooled down for her final vet in. I walked into that tent and there wasn't a drop of water to be found. Not one freakin' drop. I was SO pissed. Even my sponge was missing.
I was in a frantic flurry of searching for my sponge when I saw Kevin sauntering around with Joker and asked where Kyle was? He shrugged. I snapped, "Well, it would have been nice if someone could have refilled my fucking buckets after they emptied them."
Oops, when I saw Kevins' face fall and I knew I had hurt his feelings.
Well, dammit ... they were pulled and knew I was still out there, it would have been nice to have their support for a couple minutes in the hold. I would have been there to crew for them at holds had I been pulled...absolutely.
Am I sounding whiney? Sorry, I was mad. Mad that they got pulled in the first place, mad that they had no inclination to help me out, and mad that someone used all my water and didn't replace it.
In the meantime, we found out that Meghan's mom's horse was in treatment for metabolics. Oh no. Meghan was worried and they were hurrying to get Kuhna done and completed so she could go and check on her mom and Fancy. Apparently Fancy had the start of an impaction and it stopped her elyte absorption. She is fine and doing well.
I hustled Bee-Bee up to the water trough by the vet-in and dared anyone to come and tell me I couldn't cool down there. I started dumping water on her like a mad woman. Up down up down. (you know the rest) Bee-Bee was calm and watching the other horses vetting in. She saw Kuhna in line and decided she needed to get up there and vet in, too.
Okay, fine, let's see where your pulse is. I went for a courtesy check and she was down to 48. DAMN! That's impressive. Of course, we walked two miles, I stopped at the trailer for about 5 minutes and then we had five minutes or so of searching for the sponge.
5:32 PM we completed. WE COMPLETED!
Yea!
During her final vet check, they found Bee-Bee's baby's heart beat. That caught the vet off guard.
"What is that?"
"Uhm, did it sound like a really fast heart beat?"
He squinted at me a moment then he asked how far along was she and I said 6 months. He did a double take and looked at her again and remarked on her obvious good health to run that 50 miles pregnant and to complete with such a nice pulse.
Gotta love, Bee-Bee. She's the best. AND, I put her back on the scale and she weighed 935. That means she only lost 11 pounds. Well, yeah! She ate like a freakin' pig all day. That is the best part about this ride. Each ride she gets better and better. Unfortunately, I have decided this is her last run until next year after the baby comes. That was one reason I have been searching for four months to buy a second string horse...I'm gonna run 25's the rest of the season on my new horse while Connie gets Rocket whipped up into shape.
Now, my bladder was catching up to all the fluids I had consumed and I desperately needed to hit the porta-john after Bee-Bee completed. I headed towards the one by the vet check and...P-U. After a full day of heat processing ... P-U. They didn't get cleaned the entire time I was there and the RM said there were over 168 entries. Add crew and family and innocent by-standers and you've got 250 people. And three toilets. Oh my. My recommendation is to find a service that will come every day and freshen them up. This is the only other complaint of the ride. The parking nightmare, and the porta-johns. P-U. The one on our side of the road was no better.
P-U.
Okay - AWARDS for the 50's! I apologize to you 30's. You had a great ride and an excellent completion rate, but I didn't recognize any names and I've completely forgotten everyone .... I saw many of you pass me by on the first loop and I did admire your horses. I simply don't remember what your awards ceremony placings were because I was concentrating on the 50's. My bad.
...except I did remember one horse from the 30 mile ride....
Fame's Choice. Finished turtle, but did it in style - walking down the trail with that big ol' Tennessee Walker stride that says, "Get out of my way." Yep, I liked this mare from the day Cindy sent me an email and said (quote) "Dodie, please buy my horse, she needs you." (end quote)
There were 49 starts in the 50. 33 completed. That's bad, 66%. Bad completion rate. The really BAD thing is that 9 of those horses were the Appaloosas in the Championship Ride. That means the Appaloosa Championship ride had a completion rate of 43%.
Bad, bad bad.....man, that's just embarrassing. Here we are telling people how tough these Apps are and over half of them got pulled from a very easy ride. I was dying to know why that happened when most of these same Apps were at the WI ride last year, which I thought was tougher (though it was cooler).
On the plus side, we had a good turn out for the 2nd NC Ride. We need to keep supporting the ApHC Distance Division and keep promoting our Appaloosa horses. If we can keep getting converts like Cat and Kim, we'll keep growing. Kudo's to everyone that came to ride the Appaloosa National Championship. That's from my heart!
The winner of the Appaloosa Championship (and finished 8th place in the ride overall so he also top tenned the BSF ride) was one of our Appaloosa Juniors, Nick. Oh, how we cheered as he went up for prize after prize. At some point I yelled out that I'd go get him a wheelbarrow to carry his goodies home. That brought some laughter.
My junior, Meghan, finished in the top ten at 7th place. She was also third junior for the Appaloosa Championship. I was so proud to know that we rode together as a team. She kept me entertained and I kept her out of trouble (chuckle). Not like I think she WOULD have gotten into trouble, but you know how these young teenagers are!
Cat Carter and Kim Lyttle (both new to the Apps and this was their first year competing) both completed in style with good times. Cat finished 2nd Appaloosa (12th overall - damn, almost another top ten!) and Kim finished 5th Appaloosa. Cat started the ride believing she wouldn't finish and her gelding made a believer out of her. Kim started the ride with such a case of nerves, I thought she was going to shake right out of her saddle. I was so proud, both of them are from my area and we do many rides in the NE together.
Chris (who didn't finish last year because her horse colicked) finished on her gelding (aged 19 with a severe case of uevitis) 6th place Appaloosa. GOD THAT'S GREAT!
Believe it or not, when they called out my name for completion, I had my own cheering section. How did that happen? I don't even ride down here, yet many people cheered me up to get my T-shirt. (Now I wish Connie was here, she would have loved the moment of silliness.) I came in 31st place. Perfect middle of the pack with an 8 hour 12 minute ride time. Would have been faster but we took that last loop very slow. Two hours to do 9 miles and it worked for us just fine!
THANK YOU! Now, I'm really embarrassed. (blush) And yes, here's your ride story as I promised. One woman's mis-adventure.
The food at supper was awesome and I was allowed to fill my plate for seconds of that yummy chili and homemade cornbread. (thank god for southerners who understand a growing girl's needs for seconds!) I'm from WV...not exactly south, but definitely about the seconds!
That evening wasn't much after the awards. People were scattering to get to bed so they could leave in the morning. I was still up on adrenaline about the ride and was talking to a lot of the App people about their thoughts on why they were pulled. Most of them agreed they started off the ride way too fast. It's easy to do, especially when you're on a good fast trail like this one. It happened to me in Vermont two years ago. The trail is very deceiving and 20 mile loops are nothing to sneeze at. I was thankful for my Bee-Bee who thinks for herself and for my own experience which said, "Take 'er easy." I guess there's something to be said for being laid back (chuckle).
Kyle stayed up all night to be at the vet checks to help any crew for the 100 milers that needed it. I was very proud of him for being there for them. Hopefully it was a good lesson for him on how cranky (and sometimes lost and forlorn) the riders get after riding so long. He told me some of the conversations he heard going on between riders and crew ("No, I'm not going back out there." and "Kyle, you get on a nd finish the last loop." and "Get off me, I'm not sleeping.")
In the morning, my voice was the loudest when the four 100 mile horses stood for BC. I'm telling you....not a single one of those horses looked like they had just done 100 miles and only had a couple hours to sleep before their BC check. They looked marvelous and perky. I was especially taken with this little chestnut gelding who looked like he was fresh from the pasture...he was a little spit fire. I was impressed by this huge bay gelding the night before and there he was standing for BC. Nice horse, impressive and strong leaving you no doubt that he was a horse to contend with.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will write more later about the ride home. Now, that is a story in itself. Let's say that the whole gretzy (crabby) Dodie story came out and there were rabbit trails of purging from both me and Kyle and then he shut me out the last four hours of the trip. Very sad. It made me very sad.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Instructor/Manager: Dodie Sable
Located in New Smithville PA at 37 Fenstermacher Road, 3 miles north of Kutztown University
Call us at 610.756.3836 or email us at dodie@newpromisefarms.com