Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
CHESAPEAKE 50
September 22 & 23, 2007
Ah, what a way to end the season for me and Bee-Bee. I have to say that we started our season poorly with two pulls for lameness issues. Bee-Bee fell at Michaux and wasn't completely recovered by the time OD rolled around. So we kept at it and finished out the 2007 together in a ride of glorious fun and tremendous power. I truly did not know that Bee-Bee had such a talent for this sport. For 6 years, she's been used to start people on their way to this sport and she's never been given a chance to shine competing under one rider. She is remarkable and although I am sad to stop riding her now so she can concentrate on growing that 7 month fetus into a beautiful, endurance running foal, I am thrilled to know that she is exactly what I am promoting through my Tennessee Walker breeding program....naturally gaited, sweet tempered, highly intelligent, and stamina to work all day long and still have horse left over at the end. She has a home with me forever.
AND YES! Please take note that when you read this story, Bee-Bee is 6 1/2 months pregnant.
I'm going to start this story a little backwards. I like to save some suspense for the end of the story to keep you guys reading on, but this has to be said now. Judy has been crewing for me for two years and is the absolute best crew person I've ever had. She takes care of me like a mother-hen and never complains about my overbearing attitude and constant badgering when I come into holds. She always has a smile for me and cares for my horse (and me) the best. This ride, I hog-tied Karl into coming along to help since we would have two riders. Karl has never crewed before, and has NEVER been exposed to my "ride-personality". Being the husband of my best stall cleaner, I was little hesitant to piss him off and lose them both from my barn...but once he was hogtied, I couldn't undo it. Three days with me, confined in a camp and exposed to all facets of my competitive nature, I knew I was doomed to lose his friendship.
I would like to say THANK YOU! Judy trained Karl most excellently and Karl was the best. Always right there anticipating my needs (and Connie's needs) and toted and lifted and unpacked and packed and was generally abused for three days and never one time did he complain, question, or roll his eyes at me. I couldn't believe it. I thought Judy was the only person in the world that could put up with me. Karl is either a fantastic actor (to hide his disgust) or is a remarkable person (to join Judy in putting up with me).
Thank you both for a successful ride! Without your assistance, I would not have placed where I did in the ride. Without your care I would not have been able to push that little extra to get the job done. AND...without your devotion, I wouldn't be able to do these rides because I have too much to do all by myself. I do know (and am constantly reminded by those that ride with me) that I am the Mr. Hyde personality during a ride, so my appreciation and gratitude of you as crew is heartfelt! You deserve some kind of reward!
THANK YOU!
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Thursday, Day 1, pretty boring.
We had a little adventure getting TO the ride. Nothing exciting, but I wanted to get out of the barn by 3:30 PM so we would miss the afternoon traffic around the Phila/Wilmington area. THAT didn't happen (No? really?) and we hit the big metropolitan area right at rush hour. believe me when I say driving a full rig on the Blue Route at that time is NOT fun. I swear, if anyone that drives in bumper to bumper traffic reads this story, please think about this BEFORE jumping out in front of a tractor-trailer or horse-rig...WE CAN'T STOP QUICK and we leave a car length between us and the vehicle in front SO WE CAN FREAKIN' STOP. Sheesh.
Anyway, we arrived without making any wrong turns (YEA!) although I did have to think about that very last turn while we were sitting at a red light. If the person that was behind me in the little blue car reads this story, just mark my indecision down to "It's a woman thing." and move on.
We arrive with lots of daylight left and Judy was awaiting on us. She helped us get all unpacked by jumping into the back of the hot truck and pushing stuff at me as fast as I could catch it. It's a lot of fun playing catch with Judy.
I sent Karl and Connie off to set up the stalls (Ah, yes - stalls for the over night horses, how wonderful is that? No worries about loose horses in the night). Judy and I got everything organized for setting up the camp, all ready to go. When Karl returned from stall duty, Judy and Karl set up the canopy while I held the incredulous Bee-Bee who was watching every movement of that snapping noisy tarp with sharp eyes, ready to bolt at the first indication that the tarp was going to eat her up. Judy and Karl made quick work of getting the rest of the camp set-up...canopy up and stable, tents up and stable, Connie's stuff into her room, Karls' stuff into his room. About the exact time that we were finished and sitting down, Connie put in an appearance. (Ah-ha, now I know why she wants to ride the stallion, so she can take care of him instead of setting up camp.)
We still had daylight left when we were finished (amazing) and sat around talking about nothing until dark. I think Judy is afraid of the dark because she always leaves before it gets dark.
Anyway...we took care of the horses for the night and went to bed.
Friday, Day 2 - a little more excitement.
Today I was supposed to ride drag for the 100 and 80 mile riders on Zack. Now, I rode him last year and fell in love with his overall personality and gait. Zack is a big fat TWH gelding owned by Cate (our wonderful ride manager this weekend). I got up early, took care of everything I needed to at our camp then moseyed on over to find Cate. I asked her if she told Zack I was riding him again and she said, "Yep - and he's very excited!"
Well, that was an understatement!
I got him out, grazed him and groomed him and went for a walk. Since our ride last year required me to be walking the first mile, I wanted to leave out after all the 100's and 50's were far out of sight. Okay, the moral of this story is don't wait too long.
I got on after we made the curve and camp was out of sight. He was all business and began working rather nicely! No sillies and settled right into a very comfortable running walk, looking two miles down the trail. We no sooner got to the curve past the fence when here came the front runners of the 100 mile ride. They came trotting around the corner of the fence and Zack decided he was really a lean mean rodeo bronco horse. Up, down, around and around we went. That was fun! Haven't ridden that kind of shenanigans in a while.
Once they passed him, he was fine ... coming up from behind him is what set him off. After they rounded the next bend and he couldn't see them anymore, he was fine and we got on down the trail in a nice gaited rythmn. 1-2-3-4, I love this gaited ride.
We get out into an open field and I hear horses coming up behind us...in a canter...and so did Zack! He went straight up and whipped around to see. Unfortunately for him, he didn't take ballet classes and didn't know how to do a pirouette very well. His lack of skill combined with the heavy dew on the thick grass presented quite a challenge to him. His right leg floated out into space and his left leg slid underneath him in a slow motion and he executed a perfect slap-stick fall onto his side.
What about me? Well, as he was going down, I simply stepped off the side. No worries. I was much more skilled at falling than he was (chuckle). I wonder if I should tell Cate to take Zack to a falling clinic?
When he got back up, his left stifle appeared to be locked. He wasn't bending his leg as he walked and I was totally freaked out. I have killed Cate's horse and she's never gonna speak to me again.
God!
So, I head towards camp trying to think up several escape plans. I could just keep on walking and no-one would miss me until the next morning when I didn't show up to ride...or I could sneak into camp and hide in the bed of the truck for the remainder of the day...or I could kidnap Cate, lock her in a stall and put duck tape over her mouth so she couldn't yell for help...or I could quick duck off tot he little mini-mart and get some hair dye to bleach Zack out to a nice blond palomino and no-one would know it was him. I could claim he ran off with some young filly while we were out riding.
None of these sounded very plausible.
As I'm walking the 2.5 miles back to camp, Zack was getting better and better. In fact, he got so much better, had he been my horse, I would have got back on and attempted to continue on down the trail. In retrospect, I suspect that he probably banged his hip bone when he fell and had that quick shot of pain and throbbing we get when something hits our shin bone. Hurts like the dickens for five minutes then all is well.
So, as I round the corner and start back into camp, I see a lonely figure walking towards me. It walks like Connie, is dressed like Connie, looks like Connie ... when I get closer I see IT IS CONNIE! Now how the heck did she know it was me? She said someone told her a rider was coming back in on foot and she looked for the black pants, black helmet and black horse. (Hmmm, time to change my colors???)
She was coming to help me if I needed it. BUT! We were both fine so she just got to be the first person to hear the story. I guess the folks that ran up on me and saw it happen were really the first people to hear the story, but they don't count - they ARE the story (chuckle). And I'm certain by the way they skedaddled out of there after they found out Zack and I were fine, that they KNEW they were the story and they wanted to scram before I got a good look at them and could pick them out in a line up.
I had Dr. Nick look over Zack. I am feeling horrible to have abused this poor horsie. Dr. Nick said he looked fine, but I thought (and so did Connie) that he looked a little stiff in the back still. I took Zack back to his stall and made myself wait for Cate to return from the trail so I could tell her our trail woes. This was the hardest part.
By the way, KUDO's to Cate on putting on yet another wonderful ride at the Fairhill Stable trails. Marvelously done and I can't imagine how she could subject herself to doing 4 rides all at the same time. My goodness. She's much braver than I am.
Okay, she didn't kill me and Zack seemed quite okay when Cate got him out and trotted him off a bit. I survived another day.
Since I wasn't helping on the trail (grin) I sat with her sister, Trish, and did paperwork for the rest of the morning. Karl helped us, too and I found out he has the most marvelously neat handwriting. Connie was doing P/R work so we were all busy for Cate. Thank you Cate for keeping us from becoming bored.
Evening came and Judy left before she turned into a vampire (or something) so the three of us played some scrabble and a game of 500 before turning in for bed. I was totally relaxed and ready to sleep ... until I called Marc. Oh, my ... this is a new tip and trick from Dodie...DO NOT CALL YOUR HUSBAND THE NIGHT BEFORE YOUR RIDE. He will mess up your Ki (internal energy) and you won't get any sleep. The subject of our conversation revolved around Alec (kids), the grocery store (money) and Rose (mother-in-law). It's not meant for publication (shudder).
Damn husbands.
Okay, I set my alarm for 4:00 AM. Our time out was 7:16 AM and I figured that was plenty of time to get horses fed, me fed, Connie and Karl awake, double and triple check everything and be ready. They were calling for some higher temps for Saturday and we were worried about keeping them cool so I ordered bags and bags of ice from Judy when she came in the morning.
At 3:45 AM some sweet person with a death wish came out into the middle of the field and started beeping their horn and flashing their lights. Did this person not know we all had 15 more minutes to sleep? I mean really? I guess the funniest part about this is that I only saw lights go on in one camp besides mine. Apparently, everyone on this ride is deaf, so I have to be careful if I come up on someone on the trail. I don't want to startle them now that I know they can't hear.
I get all of about 45 minutes of peace time before Connie gets up. She's wide awake and looking pretty good. Not as nervous as I've seen her sometimes. I made two pots of coffee, not knowing how much we'd drink. Tomorrow, I'm only making one pot (chuckle). We had a grand conversation about Alec, grocery stores and Rose. I feel much better now.
We ran around like chickens with our head's cut off for about an hour getting things organized. I really believe that Karl comes from a large family of women because he was calm and laid back while me and Connie are squawking and hen pecking each other. Judy came with ice (and more ice) and I set her and Karl with [written] instructions on what time they could expect me at the hold and what I wanted when I got there.
Time to saddle up. Bee-Bee knows exactly what's going on today. Yesterday she ate all her breakfast with no questions asked. This morning, she barely touched it. She knows. Of course, Rocket being the horse-vacuum that he is, ate all his breakfast, all his bedding and was eating the splinters from the wall. I swear, that's one thing I don't have to worry about with him...eating or drinking on trail. I'm just glad he didn't eat through the stall wall and consume all the horse next door's food. That would have ticked off someone.
My gosh, we're ready to get on the horses and the sky opens up with rain.
RAIN? Hell yes! Give us some more! MORE MORE MORE! Keep us wet and cool!
THANK YOU GOD!
Judy kept saying, "But they only predicted 10% chance of light showers." (insert belly laugh here!)
I wasn't gonna put on a poncho, but then I got to thinking about this brandie-new saddle cover I just bought yesterday. (Oh, I didn't tell you about shopping yesterday? I will take photos!) It's black sheepskin that covers my entire saddle and anyone that's bought something dyed black knows that it's gonna leech the first time it's wet. I wasn't sure if I wanted to get off at the end of the ride with black thighs and crotch. Thinking that I might want to save myself the embarrassment of explaining that "No, I didn't crap my pants I bought a new pad that got wet and leeched black die on my inner legs and butt." I went ahead and put on the poncho. We mounted up and it's just a light rain, no biggy.
Little did I know that Connie was blinded for most the first part of the ride. Either the rain was on her glasses, or it wasn't raining and her glasses were fogged from the heavy humidity. I'm so glad she was not riding point.
We didn't move as quickly as I wanted to on the first loop. Most the trail was grassy fields and with the rain sitting on top the long thick, and previously dried out, grass. Running across the fields we found the down hills were mightly slick for Bee-Bee in her spikeless shoes. (remember last ride we had to get new shoes put on by the ride farrier because my farrier is too busy to come out to my barn and help me out.)
We sure did a lot of downhill skiing during the morning loop. She's much more graceful at it than Zack was. Being a true single footed horse, when she started sliding she simply put another foot down to replace the one that lost traction. Kinda like a limited-slip rear in an old car. It was nice. I felt very safe on her. Connie said it was rather interesting to see from the rear view.
BUT
We took it easy so came into hold 10 minutes later than I wanted to. It probably worked out well for us though because both Bee-Bee and Rocket were at 44 at the 10 minute pulse check. And Bee-Bee wasn't breathing hard at all. Rocket was a little up there, and I don't know how much was exertion and how much was interest in the pretty mare standing about ten feet from him while he was getting his P/R check.
That's okay, I'm decided I'm going
to hold them until 10:15 to go out on the second loop. I don't want
Bee-Bee stressed or Rocket to get too wound up so the 40 minutes in camp
will be beneficial to their mental health. We're on a CTR and holds
are 20 minutes. Just not enough time for me to get my own shit
together let alone get my horses together. Plus...since they've been working Endurance, and are
accustomed to the 40 minute hold, and that's what we're doing. End of
discussion.
Imagine my surprise, when five minutes after our trot out I looked up to find Connie already standing on her mounting block, ready to get on Rocket at 9:55 AM.
"WHOA there, Nellie! We're going out at 10:10 ... hold up a couple minutes."
Of course, that may have sounded much more cranky in person than it does in this story (chuckle). I think I need to get valium or something for when I'm riding. I get much too intense. I know, I've heard all about my "ride personality" since I returned from this ride. It is something I am definitely going to work on....and anyone that has been subjected to this facet of me, please accept my apologies.
And we're off, at 10:13AM so we're in good shape to finish up the second loop in the time I've allotted.
OH MY GOSH, Bee-Bee. Slow down already. The first loop she was kinda droopy. I'm not sure if it was the rain or me slowing her down on the hills, but she was just kinda plodding along and I even commented to Connie that she seemed to be "not quite herself".
Now, on the second loop, she working like she's got a rocket up her ass. Wait a minute! She DOES have a Rocket up her ass....(okay, it was a bad pun, but I had to say it...I just had to)... In all seriousness, she was on fire. Cranking along at a good 9-10 miles an hour. I know because we hit the first five mile marker at 35 minutes. Oops. Slow down, Bee-Bee.
The trail on the second loop was very nice. Less fields, no rain - now it's just cloudy (this is still good! The sun wasn't out to bake us into little people cookies on our horse's backs). Connie can see again now that her glasses aren't being rained on so we put Rocket out front a couple times. Now, the funny part about this is now I get to be a back seat driver. How fun is that?
"Turn left. Ribbon on the right. TURN!"
Connie enjoys the trail too much to pay attention to where the ribbons are and Rocket hasn't been doing this long enough to follow the ribbons by himself. I had a rather enjoyable time mocking Connie's navigation skills. Of course, in retrospect, now that everyone has been reminding me how horrible I am during a ride, maybe this wasn't funny to Connie and I'll need to apologize for my inconsiderate nature. Damn. I am going to have to get a new funny-cap or something.
We run the second loop in perfect time. Back at hold at with 15 minutes to spare. I had to slow us way down the last four miles as we were WAY ahead of our time. That worked out well for us. We came into base with two fresh horses. Pulse out was awesome for both Bee-Bee and Rocket. I think the best part of finishing a two day ride (on the first day) is that once you're pulsed, you're done.
Now, I haven't done a two day CTR since last year and I have forgotten the routine. Dr. Nick confused me when he said, "Okay, you're done, take your slip to the timer and get your out time for tomorrow."
Huh?
Betty had my slip and she's shaking her head at me.
"No, Dodie. You're done, go away."
(shrug) Okay, I stop at the timer to find out if I needed to give him anything and Betty is following me wagging her finger.
"Go away, Dodie! You're done!"
(grin) "Okay, alright already."
I start to walk away and remembered a question I had. I head back over towards Betty. She's smiling and shooing me with her hands, "Go away, Dodie!"
(laughing out loud) "FINE! but can I ask one stupid question?"
She gives me the eye (you all know the EYE!)
I sheepishly ask, "Do we trot out in the morning or tonight at hands on?"
"Tomorrow, Dodie...now GO AWAY!"
I turn and leave, laughing to myself. I get no respect around here.
I asked Judy if she wanted to take me over to her barn to give Chey her shot, but Judy was either thinking it was getting darker sooner than it did last night or she was tired (crewing is hard work, people! I truly treasure those people that can stand out there in the heat and wait on us riders and I now have even more respect for those people that will crew for me when I'm Mr. Hyde). She said we'd get it another time and she left.
Okay - since we started out onthe trail in the second group of the day, we have all the time in the world to play some more scrabble and cards. Whoo Hoo.
Cate came and found me to tell me that she sent Zack out on a ride and Tie and he was doing just fine. I hadn't killed him. Whew.
In the meantime, supper on Friday night was at 6:00 - we assumed (uh, oh - we know what that words really means) that it would be at 6:00 Saturday night. No-one told us any differently. Of course, having fifty some 30 mile riders on Saturday, Cate needed to get supper out of the way so she could get awards done and let people get on home and clear out the parking area. Supper was at 4:00 and we almost missed it. Fortunately, Renee walked by talking about the red tomato sauce she got on her shirt while eating and that flagged us that we might be missing something.
Nice thing? Since we got down to the pavilion where they were serving supper late, there was no line and we could ask for seconds. Mmmm, seconds!
After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we returned to base camp and sat to watch the 30 milers get their awards and cheered them on! There were sure a lot of 30 mile riders. That's great. Cate's my inspiration as a ride manager/secretary. I have to ask her the secret to getting people to a ride.
Back to camp we go and we played some more 500. I have now decided I am not playing with Connie any more. Marc bought us a new deck of cards and she cursed them. She won both games that night. How can that happen? I'm like the Queen of Cards. Damn! And Karl whooped up on me, too. I am embarrassed to say that I can no longer accept the title of Queen. I will have to pass it to Connie. I thought about asking for a rematch, but didn't want to lose a third time.
Oh - and for those of you following the Dodie soap-opera, Puff (me new little foo-foo dog) camped just as nicely on this ride as she did in Tennessee at Big South Fork. She was quiet and mannerly until she could see me, then she sounded like all the devils in the world were chasing at her tail. Sheesh - what a mama's girl she is.
I tried and tried to call Marc before I went to bed. I couldn't reach him at all. Not on his cell, not on the house phone. I was about in tears. FREAKIN' HUSBANDS! THEY RUIN YOUR KI BEFORE A RIDE. Now, how am I supposed to rest?
And I didn't. I woke up screaming to a nightmare. I haven't had one of those in years. I'm sure I was worried about Marc not being reachable and so created my own dream demons. Once again, a story not fit for publication.
Dammit.
Back to sleep I go, tossing and turning all night. I'll bet I got a total of about 50 minutes sleep the whole rest of the night. I laid there worrying about all kinds of dumb things...but I did put together a plan to change how things are handled at home when I'm not there. You know, like making sure everyone, including Rose, knows exactly where I am, cell phone numbers of ride managers, etc are on the fridge when I leave so if there is an emergency, I can be found.
Dammit.
SUNDAY, Day 3 - last 20 miles!
I am very irritable in the morning having had no sleep. Then, when I made the coffee, there was not a lot of water in there and the coffee was thicker than pea soup. What happened? I know I filled the pot the night before when I set it up to go. It swear, there's a freakin' coffee pot demon running around Fairhill. That happened to me last year, too! If I find that bugger, he's gonna get the full lashing of my Mr. Hyde personality.
So, I had to add some water, percolate it a bit, then cut that black thick swill in our our coffee cups so we could drink it instead of eating it with a spoon. Marvelously perky Connie didn't even complain about it. Good thing, or I would have made her do the dishes.
She and I discussed nightmares and husbands and emergency plans for a little while. I felt much better after getting some Connie sense into me.
Now, I had a super zap of caffeine, and a zing of Connie sense, I'm screaming through the morning chores. Wowza. Zipping here, flitting there. I think I was making people dizzy.
Karl gets up and I send him in six directions to get things done. Judy shows up and I give her twenty chores to do. Running like a maniac. Too much caffeine!
I explain to Judy and Karl how the morning will go. There will be no vet hold for our 20 mile ride, but there will be a water stop in base camp after the first loop. I figure I'll be there about 8:30 to 8:45 AM. Our out time is (was) 7:15 AM. I guess while I was cranking out directions in my caffeine induced state of WHOO HOO, I forgot to specifically say, "Come to the water stop at 8:30 and hold our horses so we can jump off and pee out some of this coffee from our bladders."
We mount up (no rain this morning) and it's a little on the muggy side. I don't think we'll need ice, but it's not going to be fun after noon around here! We'll be done long before that...whew.
Down to the timer we go and Cate changed our out time to 7:22. Man, that means we have 12 minutes to wait. I hate waiting. Yes, I'm getting cranky. Yes, here comes Mr. Hyde. I can feel it and I'm trying hard as I can to hold it back.
We're off on the yellow loop. It's MARVELOUS! My gosh, all my cranky went right out of my head as we boogie down the trail. It's like being at home and Bee-Bee is very comfortable weaving in and out of trees while I'm ducking low branches. Absolutely stunning trail. I was in heaven.
Only one place was a trouble and we got all turned around. We cranked up into some woods out of a field. The trail was going straight up through the trees and that small bit of woods was honeycombed with trails. Some for horses, some for hikers.
We passed an open spot where five trails converged. Apparently, our trail turned left. There wasn't a blue turn marker (it fell on the ground and got trompled to a mighty miserable death in the dirt) so we continued straight up the trail to the top of the hill, missing the turn. We came back down the trail and couldn't find it. Kim Lyttle showed up with her crew and they got lost, too. We looked like the Keystone Cops in a movie about catching a rabbit in the woods as we split up and went down all the trails looking for yellow ribbons. It was quite amusing, actually. We couldn't see each other but could here each other passing on trails close by and we called out continually - "Not here." "Nope, not here either." "Not over here, but I found a dead mouse, does that count?"
Finally, Cat found the right trail and Connie and I headed towards her voice calling out, "Come on Dodie, over here Dodie." I looked at my watch. Damn, we lost 14 minutes trying to find trail. Not good. We don't have any minutes to lose. Now, where have I heard THAT before? I have to say, though, the entertainment value in finding the trail was probably worth the lost time.
We cranked it up an notch and boogied on down the trail with tons of energy out of Bee-Bee and Rocket. I'm pretty impressed with their working today. This is Bee-Bee and Rocket's first two day event and they haven't been conditioned to work two days in a row so this is marvelous. They were perky and eager to move out.
We arrived to the water stop at base camp at 8:55. Dammit dammit. Okay, remain calm. Bee-Bee and Rocket aren't pushing it and they need a drink...and I need to PEE!!!!!!!!! Where's that crew of mine? Probably tearing down camp ... I wish they were tearing down the driveway towards us...I gotta GO!!!
I throw my reins to a startled Connie as I run towards the bathroom. Without a question, she catches the reains in mid-air like a professional and is probably laughing at me.
I reach the bathroom without incident and stripped my tights down. "Ahhhhhhh" what a relief. Getting those sweaty tights back up over sweaty legs was another issue. (chuckle) One leg up half way, the other leg up half way...inching closer and closer to the "on" position. Not a pretty sight at all. There was a fly in there watching me intently, probably relieved that he didn't have to try this same feat on his six sweaty legs.
Back out of the bathroom, I run as quick as I can while trying to adjust the crotch of my tights and ask Connie if she wants me to hold Rocket so she can pee. I'm ritching around because these tights just don't feel right now. Freakin' sweaty tights.
Still no sign of the crew and I'm cranky (can we all say Uh, Oh - here comes Mr, Hyde)! Tights aren't right, crew isn't here, we're behind schedule by 20 minutes....man, oh man.
"No, I don't need the bathroom." Connie replies to me. "They both drank and I gave them elytes. We're ready to go."
I was stunned speechless. I felt my stomach drop into those miserable tights and spots appeared before my eyes.
"Noooooooooooo" I wail. "You gave Bee-Bee elytes?"
"Yes." she answers. I hear the tentative quaver in her voice and I can't stop myself. I know I'm being mean and I can't stop myself because I'm in tears and pissed as hell.
"WHAT THE FUCK, CONNIE? You're gonna kill my horse. No elytes for Bee-Bee., DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT."
"Oh no," she whispers in a small voice full of pain. And I hear it, and I know I should just shut the fuck up and I still can't stop myself. (Remember the valium? Now is the time I really needed it.
"I don't give her Elytes, it burns her stomach. What are you thinking?"
She asks if I want her to rinse out Bee-Bee's mouth.
"NO!" I snip at her.
A volunteer comes by with carrots and Bee-Bee spits it out. My stomach sinks and tears are pouring down my face. If she's spitting carrots that she was happily eating five minutes ago, I know that she's lost her joy to be working and we will probably not finish the ride in time because she's gonna cramp up and I'm gonna have a sick horse on my hands to care for on the trail.
FUCK!
Okay, I give myself the pep talk...quit being a whiney baby, Dodie and get back on your horse. Quit yelling at Connie, she was trying to be helpful since our crew wasn't here. Quit being a royal pain in everyone's ass. QUIT QUIT QUIT. About that time, I thought maybe I *SHOULD* quit, riding this ride, and let Connie finish it out by herself. I know what's coming and I'd be better off handling a crampy horse in base camp then trying to do it out on trail. I mentally run over all the things in my ditty bag and wish Karl was here to run back to camp and get me some peppermints for Bee-Bee. (sigh)
I can't even look at Connie right now because I have tears streaming down my face and I don't want her to see how utterly pissed I am. I know she thought she was helping me and I have to love her for that. I need to calm down so I can explain why you can assume nothing about someone else's horse and you must always (always) ask before you do. I can't assume what Rocket's doing, even though I ride him and know him pretty well, because I am not riding him on THIS ride ... I always ask Connie how he feels, how he's moving, is he tired, does he want a carrot, etc.
What's done is done. Some nice guy holds my stirrup while I mount up and we're off. And I know that nice guy thought I was an asshole because he heard me yelling at Connie.
That must have been a great drink of water Bee-Bee had at the water stop while I was battling with the tights from hell ... she rips out that driveway like her ass is on fire. Helen is watching us for trot-by and she's yelling, "Trot, Dodie, trot." and I'm ripping my shoulders out trying to rein Bee-Bee in off a canter. Sheesh. I get her into a running walk and we strut on by Helen.
10 miles, Bee-Bee. That's all we have left. Hang in there girlie.
About 3 miles out, I feel Bee-Bee slowing down. We have a short climb to do so I pull her into a walk. As soon as she feels me giving her the okay to slow down, she stops and is biting at her side.
Oh, no.....
I push her back into a camel walk, just to keep her moving. She's shaking her head and reaching down to bite at her chest.
Oh, please ... walk this cramp out, Bee-Bee. It's gonna be okay.
In the meantime, I've put my happy face back on and am trying to apologize to Connie. We talked about crewing, handling other people's horses, handling your own horse, reading the horse's body language, etc while I'm trying to get Bee-Bee to walk through the cramp.
She finally lifts her head and looks down the trail so we're off again. We catch up to Kim Lyttle and crew and follow them for awhile...well, okay, we follow them until Cat gets us off trail for the second time and then I bail. (chuckle) I prefer to ride point so I know where the ribbons are. We lost another couple minutes charging up a hill past our turn - not to mention the hill climb ate some energy up. I let them on past us and put Bee-Bee back into her groove.
We were doing well as we passed the 5 mile to go marker. My spirits were lifting because Bee-Bee had picked up the pace - like she KNEW we were behind time and had to get on down the trail - and I figured we could get into the camp right at 3 hours and not be over time. We came out of the fields into the woods and...
...WHAM...
I almost fly over Bee-Bee's head as she stops cold and her front knees start to buckle. I'm pushing off her neck trying to regain my balance when I realize what she's doing.
Shit, she's trying to roll. CRAMPS!!!!!
"Get up, Bee-Bee, get up, let's go."
I lay into her, knowing I have to keep her moving to work through her tummy ache.
"Go, go, go."
For the next mile, I struggle to keep Bee-Bee moving forward. She keeps trying to stop...her back is all hunched and she desperately wants to hit the ground and roll this cramp away. I have my heels dig into her sides so hard my calves are cramping.
"Go, go, go. It's gonna go away, I promise. Let's go."
Finally, I feel her take a deep sigh and she relaxes. Her head comes up and we're off again.
Whew. This sucks not being able to get off and walk her. That would have been much more effective (not to mention safer for me and her) but in CTR, you cannot walk your horse. If you get off, you have to get back on in the exact same spot. This was certainly a challenge to me and Bee-Bee! My goodness!
She's boogying and we pass Kim and crew.
Boogey, boogey, boogey....WHEE! She's back!
We come to the deep creek crossing and I put her belly deep in the cold water and let her stand there to catch her breath. Sponge, sponge, sponge. I know she's not really hot, but she sure got sweated up during her cramping episodes. Sponge, sponge, sponge. She's really not breathing all that hard, I count and she's at about 40 respiration. Not bad at all considering. I'd be breathing much harder than that if I had cramps.
I look at Rocket and he's puffing like a choo-choo train so I tell Connie to move in a little deeper so he can cool off faster.
I look at my watch and
"WHAT?!?!?!?!"
We're at the two miles to go and we still have 30 minutes to max time. How did that happen? Bee-Bee must have been doing about 12 mph that last 4 miles. Holy shit.
We come up out of the water and start down the trail. I put her in the dreaded dog-walk so she's moving forward, but not exerting much energy. Usually this is where I would put Rocket with his ground eating flat walk out front, but he was having nothing to do with leading. In his mind, if he was out front, he was gonna stop and eat (grin). What a good boy! He is marvelous on the trail. Eats, drinks and pees about 20 times while we're out there.
We come into the last mile and stop for grass. Ah, Bee-Bee is eating. Thank you god for small favors. If she's eating, our cramping is done.
Last 1/2 mile and there is a shallow stream. Water and she drinks. I had to laugh at Rocket, he stepped halfway off the ledge to drink and Connie looked like she was gonna slide right down his neck and splash into the stream to get her own cool off.
YEA! I'm feeling MUCH better now. I'm sure Bee-Bee is, too.
We come walking into base and there's our crew, snapping photos. (chuckle) I asked what happened to them at the half way and they both look at me like I'm speaking German. (hmmmmm). I wanted to get a good picture about how I felt and put up the universal middle finger gesture for Judy to take a picture, but I think she chose NOT to include that one on the CD she gave me. (Yes, I'll edit the pictures and get them posted shortly.)
YEA! We finished with 7 minutes to spare. Whoo Hoo.
Okay, now comes the fun part. I throw reins at Judy while I undo the saddle. Over to the water tubs to get them cooled off. It's not that hot, being 10:15 in the morning, but the cooler they are, the faster they come back down to normal P/R. Bee-Bee actually doesn't look bad at all but I have a total "Mommy" eye on her while I'm dousing her with water. I'm waiting for the other shoe to fall.
Rocket is falling asleep while Connie is working on him. Head all down and droppy, ears hanging at half mast. What a great stallion to have at a ride. No worries with this boy.
Bee-Bee is trying to drink everything in sight. Guess that Elyte made her a bit thirsty. (chuckle)
20 minutes, off we go to pulse in. Bee-Bee is at 42/26. WHOO HOO. What a mare. Two days, fifty miles and almost seven months pregnant. AND, she did that after having a bad round of the crampies on trail.
Rocket is 44/28. Holy Crap. How good is that for a stallion? And how excellent is that for a horse that just started his career in distance and really isn't all that conditioned. One bad thing about stallions in a CTR, they tend to be excited by all the strange horses around and their heart rate stays up. Well, I found out later that Connie was rubbing his neck and cooing to him (ooo, he's gonna get spoiled by Connie) and Cate said his heart rate just plummeted when Connie did that.
Good job, Connie! Stroke that stud some more (snicker).
I wish Connie would write a story - I'd like to hear her side of a ride, running behind my sorry fat ass acting like a total butthead. "Hey, Connie! Write a story!"
I trot out Bee-Bee and first she didn't think I was running fast enough for her so I backed up and and started her again. This time she blew past me and was leading ME to the trot-out.
Whoa whoa whoa...come back here. Okay, no loss of energy HERE! Of course, after giving me strict instructions before the ride started on Friday, Helen was expecting me to be doing my trot out in shoes ("No bare feet, Dodie," she spoke with teh deep authority of a school principle, all the while wagging her finger at me. "Keep your shoes on for trot-out because kids will be watching and you'll give them the wrong impression.") Hey, there's no ECTRA rule about wearing shoes during the trot out, come on ... I'm well known for my bare feet. Doesn't she know I can run in shoes?
(sigh)
Okay, I kept my shoes on and made Helen happy. Dr. Nick was a little shocked, though...and did a serious double take when he noticed I still had shoes on my feet at trot-out. (grin) I'm not ALWAYS a butt-head! I can follow instructions once in a while.
Okay. Now I throw the reins at Judy again and give her strict instructions to walk and walk and walk Bee-Bee. Stop and let her eat grass, but keep her in motion. I didn't tell her "why", I didn't mention the cramping and other miserable stuff I was dealing with, I didn't even smile at her ... just barked out orders. (Sorry, Judy! I really don't intend to be mean).
They told us hands on would be very soon and I wanted Bee-Bee to be in peak enjoyment of life when she got up there. No cramping while getting hands-on.
There were about twenty-six or twenty-seven 50 miler's so the P/R's went quickly and hands-on came sooner than I thought. Up we went when our numbers were called. I was concerned about Bee-Bee's back where Numbers bit her. All the hair rubbed off during the ride (ouch) but she really didn't seem to be too sore on it...only if you directly touched it. The loin muscle wasn't sore but I was sure we'd lose a point or two on back ouchies, but not for back soreness.
Hands-on.
As far as I could tell, Bee-Bee did very well. but of course, I can't see the sheets and mostly I can't hear what Helen and Dr. Nick tell their scribes because I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other one. I did lift my foot for Helen to inspect ... yes, I still have my shoes on. Everyone applauded me on the shoes. REMARKABLE.
We're done, Rocket did very well, too. Karl tells us everything is packed up and ready to be loaded. My gosh, he's excellent crew and I know it's because Judy trained him very well on this ride. THANKS, GUYS!
We tied up the horses to the trailer and they even had hay and water ready for us there. I'm getting spoiled, now. I climb up into the back of the truck and start barking out to Karl to hand me this, hand me that.
Lunch time! Truck is packed and we head down to the pavilion to get food. I still have shoes on ... I'm sure many people were trying to figure out if this was really Dodie or an imposter.
After thanking Cate profusely for a great ride, we waddle our full bellies back up to the truck. Connie and I grab our stuff and head for the showers. Ahhhhh, it feels good to have a shower and wash my stinking hair. All three feet of it.
Back to the truck. Everything is done and we head down to the awards and completion meeting. This is going to be great fun. I can't wait to hear how those 100 milers did. What a feat.
They did the juniors and that was inspiring! I love the juniors.
They did breed awards and Bee-Bee got "Best of the Rest." How is THAT possible? That's okay, I'll accept that pretty red halter they were handing me. It will look grand on Flame, with her black coat. The funny thing here is that Cate called out rider #51, Dodie Sable and we all looked at each other because I was rider #57. I thought maybe the 7 looked like a 1 ... I didn't want to consider the possibility that I got someone else's prize. I really liked that red halter.
Then they started the Lightweight division. Connie got her completion. (Yea, Rocket! Scored an 88.75 and was 17th overall in the ride! he's great and Connie rode him well.)
Karl had asked me yesterday why Connie was in lightweight and I was in heavyweight. I explained it's all based on weight of person with their tack. He believed that Connie and I were the same size (snicker) and didn't quite understand. I told him that although it APPEARED we were similar, Connie is actually quite smaller than I am. She has a smaller bone structure and less meat mass on her frame...etc etc...okay, let's just be honest here, I'm fat. End of discussion.
ANYWAY ....
They gave out all the LW division awards and started on the HW division. They call all the completions and I'm not one of those so I'm hopeful for a ribbon placing. I'm thinking I might get a ribbon for fourth or fifth place.
They call sixth place. Fifth place. Fourth place. (Holy Crap? Did I get third?)
Third place, not me. (Now I'm wondering if Cate really did call out the wrong rider name with that #51 and we're not going to place at all.)
Second place, not me. (Oh, no ... I didn't get a placing.)
And before first place is announced, Cate makes a small speech to the group.
She's smiling like a cheshire cat as she begins. "Before I hand out this placing, I have to bust on this rider a little bit."
I'm really not paying too much attention, I'm trying to figure out why we didn't complete.
Cate continues. "This rider had an excellent trot out which gave her this score for first place because she wore her shoes."
WHAT?!?!?!?! Is that possible?
"First place, #57 Dodie Sable on EB's Hard Cash Girl. Score of 98.0"
I almost fall out of that little blue chair I'm squatted in.
Oh, my gosh! I got a bucket full of goodies (and the bucket, too). I can't believe it! While Cate is announcing the Reserve Champion and Grand Champion, blood is pounding in my ears and I don't hear who won the ride. I was too busy trying to figure out how I managed a first place. That's remarkable.
When I looked at my sheet to see Bee-Bee's points, I noticed that we got 3rd overall in the ride. WOW! Bee-Bee was excellent. What a wonderful way to end her 2007 ride season. She is a grand horse and I can't love on her enough.
THank you, Judy!
Thank you, Karl!
This was not possible without your help in crewing andkeeping me out of trouble.
Thank you, Connie - for putting up with me and my nonsense.
Thank you, Cate for a great ride on even better trails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And while I was gone this weekend, the boarders and leasers decided to have a picnic. I believe they were celebrating Ella's birthday and her training completion for Kojakk. I'm not exactly sure, they had the invitation posted for two weeks and all it said was COME TO THE PARTY WHILE DODIE IS GONE...sheesh. They had a great time...here's one person's story.
She
was thrilled! She even gave her daughter and granddaughter pony rides on
him. That's not even the best part of my weekend. My boyfriend, Luke came
along, rode Kix, and wants to ride her again. Kix had a grand time, and I
was so proud of Hobo. For the most part, he led the whole trail ride. He
didn't spook at anything and when it came to crossing the creek, he
jumped right in and played in it. So, by the end of the day, I
was beaming. You missed a great picnic, but I think Ella saved enough food
for you guys, which is good cuz it was delicious. The rest of the horses
looked good on the trail ride. Sam took Jo Lee and she looked fine. I rode
behind her for a little and I was watchin that foot, and she wasn't ouchie.
Walt took Harlo, and she did pretty good. He said she doesn't do well by
herself, but as far as I know, she behaved in the group, except at the
creek. She wanted nothin to do with that creek. Walt told us to go on
without him and he spent another half hour or so workin with her. When he
came back, he said she wouldn't cross, and he wasn't happy about it at
all. Somethin to work on. Jamie took Izabel out with us. They really make
a good pair. They both have that need for speed and she led the way a few
times because she wanted to go off on her own a little. Michelle took
Image. Image did great! She was really ready to go. I can't wait to see
her work once she gains her weight back. The only problem with her was
Michelle's saddle rubbed her in the girth area. It's nothing serious, but
just as a heads up, she does have some sores. She kept up with the group
and looked good when we got back. She looked like she could have went
another round, but we decided to untack because we were all pretty
hungry...well I know I was. hehe That's the only out-of-the-ordinary thing
that went on this weekend. All everyday chores went smoothly. If I think
of anything else, I'll write a follow-up e-mail, but that's all I got.
Talk to ya later!
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