Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
GREENLANE
meep meep meep meep meep
ALARM! 4:00 AM, time to get up.
I hop out of bed, throw on my clothes I carefully set on the chair last night before bed, (well, if you can call cut off shorts and a light t-shirt clothing) and run down the hall for that morning "ritual" that relieves the bladder. Whew. Almost killed a cat in my rush to get there. She zigged when she should have zagged.
Down the stairs, coffee is done. Gotta love those programmable coffee pots. Set it for any time you desire and "Ta-Da" instant fresh brewed coffee.
WAIT! The coffee pot is full of hot water. I forgot to put coffee in the filter (Duh!). I'd prefer not to be teased about this slight oversight on my part.
Since it's a new coffee pot, and brews pretty quickly, I throw in a new filter, COFFEE, and run down to the cellar to get the two bags of ice I bought last night on my way home from the barn from the deep freeze. I was truly trying to be efficient last night as I set everything up to be ready to go in the morning. Green Lane is only 40 minutes from me so it's truly easy to get to this ride.
Back up the cellar stairs. The cooler already has my water and tea in it so all I need to do is dump in the ice, pull the sandwich out of the fridge and toss it on top and I'm done.
Coffee's not ready yet (sigh)
Okay, run out the side door, down the driveway and jump in the KIA. Keys? Oops.
Back to to the house, get the keys and back out to the care. I pull the Kia as close to the door as possible, run back in and (wham) trip over my herd of 50 cats (which is really only two, and if you've read the "Don't Kill The Kittens" story, you understand my exaggeration). Of course, they're all too interested in that door opening and closing because there is a possibility I won't remember to close it all the way and they can escape (yeah, right).
I put the cooler in the car, scattering cats as I herd them away from the door, and when I'm done...
...COFFEE!
I fill my huge mug, put the lid on it and I'm out the door. 4:45 AM - I'm early. Man, I'm getting good at this.
I get to the barn minutes after Connie arrives. The trailer and truck are packed and ready to go, so I throw in my cooler from the car into the back of the truck and rush up the stairs to get the chores done. I left everything in ready position last night so I would save a couple minutes and it worked! Between me and Connie, morning chores took less than 15 minutes. Not shabby for a 38 horse barn.
I look around for any last minute "Oops, I forgot this!" items and then go back down the steps to get Bee-Bee. I am very anxious over this ride. Bee-Bee was not herself at the last two rides and I pulled her. Please, oh please let me get one ride under my belt this year on this mare. She so loves the work.
Connie grabbed my legs wraps that I forgot (duh!) and threw them down the stairs at me. I quickly wrapped up Bee-Bee's legs and we're ready to load the trailer.
Izabel was out in pasture all night (It was Shark's group out yesterday) but she was easy to catch. Connie wrapped her legs and we load.
Out the driveway. 5:46 AM. Wow, we're too efficient.
The drive went fast, Connie and I were yick-yacking the whole way there. I was hoping that I would remember the way that Kyle showed us to get to the trail head which is better than the directions they give on the ride sheet. I did. We arrived at 6:30 AM on the nose.
I sent Connie with the book to check us in. When she came back she said that John didn't have Bee-Bee's coggins. I found that bizzare because I remember emailing him her coggins and registration when I switched horses several weeks ago. Whatever, it's the reason why I carry "THE BOOK" in the truck to the rides. It has all the paperwork in it on every horse from my barn that MIGHT end up at a ride.
We got a great parking space, about 100 feet from the vet-in. That's a great parking space because the hold will be at the vet-in area and we can just walk them up to the trailer. Nice! Only problem with our parking space is that the field is LOADED with poison ivy right there. I pull the trailer forward a little bit (scaring the bajeezus out of Bee-Bee who is TIED to the trailer) to get us out of that huge patch of poison. Didn't matter, there was more poison in the new spot so we moved the horses to the other side of the trailer where the poison was LESS prolific.
*NOTE* The morning was a balmy 51 degrees so I am dressed in cut-off shorts and a tee-shirt ... and yes, no shoes. I'm sure that now I'll be covered head to toe in poison as I tromp back and forth through the dew covered field.
We write out numbers on our horses...I'm #3 and Connie is #4. That's awesome! Means we get to go out right behind the point riders. I love being first group out, means you're [usually] first group in. They're calling us to vet check so after some minor grooming, we leisurely saunter that 100 feet down to the vet-in. The field we're parked in has not been mowed and the grasses are about two feet high. Since we had a good dew last night, my legs are soaked. Thank goodness I am not wearing pants or they'd be stuck to me.
Connie brought her red ribbon and carefully wove it into Izabel's tail. I will have to say it was a waste of time as Izabel never indicated one time on that ride hse wanted to kick anyone. Of course, on a CTR you usually don't get passed by riders or get bunched up into a group, and that might have had something to do with it.
Cheryl is riding Point on this ride with two other people, she's in line towards the front and I wave "Howdy". Cat is one of the people riding point with Cherly. She's on her Appaloosa gelding. How awesome to be seeing him at all these rides this year. She's hoping to get him qualified to do the Nationals this year. Let's cheer her on!
Kevin and Kyle are in line and I wave "Howdy".
While Connie and I were waiting out turn for vet-in, lots of people come up and say "HI!" to me. Now, for those of you reading this that came over, remember CONNIE! She feels left out!
A small incident in line...the third rider that was riding point with Cheryl had a mare with a red ribbon in her tail. Now, he was yacking and not paying any attention to this mare while standing in line. She was making faces at every horse within 10 feet. She creeped over towards Holly (Cheryl's mare) and made faces. Holly looked at her like, "Oh, yeah?" Cheryl wasn't paying any attention, either, and she was in between the two horses. Just about the time I was gonna holler over to her to move and avoid a "mare issue", that buckskin mare with the red ribbon arched up her neck, squealed and threw a leg at Holly. OMG, I thought it was gonna hit Cheryl. It missed Cheryl and Holly, but Holly saw it and retaliated with her own well placed kick to the buckskin mare's hip.
Ouch.
*NOW* that guy is paying attention to his mare. I swear. If your horse wears a red or yellow ribbon, do not stand in line like a dummy. Keep your horse under control. Cheryl could have been hurt badly if that kick had hit her.
Vet in - Bee-Bee passed with flying colors. 1 point off on each leg for wind puffs. Everything else great. Now remember that CTR's work differently than Endurance. Everyone starts with the same amount of points (100) and has the same ride time (in this case, we had 4.5 hours minimum time to 5.0 hours maximum time to complete. If a rider comes in before or after that time frame, each minute is a point off the score.) It's not about finishing first (like endurance) but finishing with no change in your horse. CTR's really teach a rider horsemanship and pacing.
SO - if Bee-Bee's wind puffs are still a 1 at the end of the ride, there is no loss in points against my 100 starting number.
Izabel appeared to be off when trotting her circle to the left. I didn't see any head bobbling but the vet said it was so. Vet let her pass for the ride with a warning to pay attention to any issues. I don't know what else the vets picked up and Connie didn't say so I don't know if she was paying any attention.
Those vet-in people must have thought I was nuts. Here they are all bundled up in jackets, one girl even had on gloves, and I'm running around half naked in cut-offs and no shoes. (shrug)
Okay - we're all checked in and ready. Connie went down and got us some sugar (donuts and danishes) to get us off to a good start (LOL).
We tack up because I know we'll have to be instant ready after the ride meeting as we're first group out. Kevin and Kyle are the other two riders in our group.
At a CTR they start you out in groups of [usually] 4 horses. The next group will leave 4 minutes after we do. If there are five horses in the group, the next group will leave 5 minutes after them, and so on. They also usually break up the groups leaving witha 10 minute wait every 4 or 5 groups. This helps keep the horses from getting bunched up on a trail. Your ride time starts when your official "start time" puts you on the trail. This gives every rider the exact same amount of time to finish the ride no matter where they are in the starting order.
Ride meeting. Well - Izabel did not want to be left out of this meeting [I suspect] because she came following along, without her halter.
What the heck?!?!?!!?
Apparently, she caught her halter on the door handle of the trailer and since it's a breakaway halter, it broke away. She was so good. Stood right there while some lady held her nose and waited for Connie to dig up a halter. I'm not sure if Connie knew there are halters in the endurance box, and halters behind the seat of the truck because she came to get Izabel with the bridle. (shrug) I'll remember to tell her later.
Okay, same trail as all the previous years. Yep, I got it. Pink ribbons out, yellow for turn, and blue ribbons back.
Off to the bathroom I go while they continue answering questions for new riders to the trail. Ah - Now I'm ready!
They tell us 10 minutes to start. Yea!
I tighten everything on Bee-Bee and whisper in her ear that we're gonna have a great ride and she'll be fine. (crossed my fingers with great trepidation as I give her the pep talk)
Last ride we were at with Izabel, she was wound up tighter than a top on speed. This ride she was very relaxed and stood around quietly waiting to get started. Amazing. Bee-Bee was anxious and was doing her Tennessee Walker high step as we were warming up. I was talking with Kevin (on Joker) while warming up and he told me Joker tossed him the other day when they first cantered. Seems he got a taste of her buck at the canter routine. (grin)
GO! Trail is open.
I'm out front so I set a pace of (what I think is) 6 or 7 miles per hour. Bee-Bee and Izabel work very nicely in this pace together at home and can work for MILES without a break at this speed. At some point, I hear Kyle say, "We're doing 8 miles per hour." He must have a GPS unit on him somewhere.
Okay. We're working and doing well. Kevin got out front of us on Joker and started riding lead. At this point in the trail, this is the FUN part. Narrow trail winding through knee busting trees. We trotted through most of that. I heard Connie say ouch and eech once in a while behind me so I figured that big wide Izabel must have put her knee to a tree once or twice. Personally, I love trail like this. It's a very good training trail, teaching you and your horse to bend together. I didn't hit a single tree and Bee-Bee was very responsive to my weight shifting as we wove in and out. Way cool stuff!
**NOTE** I heard a lot of complaining about this section of the trail last year and then I heard a rumor that so many people complained this year that Charlotte was considering taking it out of the ride for next year. DON'T YOU DARE, CHARLOTTE! This is my favorite section of the ride! It's fun, challenging and it's a great educator! What I say to those complaining people is, "Train your horse to bend!" I've done that section on trail on Shark, River, Joker, Numbers and now Bee-Bee. I have never hit my knees on the trees (hey, a rhyme) and it's because my horses bend!
We come out of the winding tree trail and Kevin was still out front. He was working faster than I cared to work, and very erratic ... trot and then jog and then walk and then trot. (grrr) I had in my mind what kind of ride I wanted to do to keep Bee-Bee loose and not stress Izabel with her "offness" at vet check. This was definitely NOT want I wanted to be doing. I held Connie back and we let the boys go on without us.
Once they were out of sight, we got into our "pace" and started working.
Damn. We come up on the boys. And once again, Bee-Bee gets all interested in what those two horses are doing instead of what SHE should be doing. I hate when she does that. She gets very competitive and wants to be right on the tail of the horse in front of her, so she doesn't pay attention to the trail. And she doesn't work at HER speed.
I hold us back and let them go on.
Back into our pace. Lovely! Izabel is working nicely behind me.
DAMMIT! There they are again. What the heck are they doing up there.
Once again, I hold us back. We get into a pace and ...
... oops ...
... there they are again, off the side of the trail fixing something. Kyle said they were fine so we passed them and got right into the rhythm I wanted to ride.
Smooth as silk Bee-Bee traveled down that trail. It was grand. The sky was crystal blue, there was no humidity at all and it was warming up so the dew was burning off leaving a nice coolness underneath the trees.
Truly, not a lot more happened on the first leg of the trail. We were working a beautiful 6 or 7 miles an hour and both horses were relaxed and eating up mile after mile. The only thing that I did do was miss the blue trail when it cut off from the pink trail. I knew I was moving in the right direction so even though Connie asked me about 42 times did we want to turn back, I kept on going because I knew we'd be up on it shortly. And we were, and we finished on the right trail. We probably added an extra 1/4 mile to our loop ... that's okay. My bad.
14 miles and we're back to the vet check at 11:15 AM. It's starting to get hot now (well, to me it's hot) The sun is beating down on us in this open field where we are and since it's almost noon, there's no shade to speak of since the sun is almost straight overhead and not making any shadows. Truthfully told, there was no humidity at all and the temp reached 84. That's a perfect riding day. I just don't particularly like anything over 60, so I was hot.
At ten minutes, we do our P/R [pulse and respiration]. Bee-Bee is at 56 pulse (good!) and 52 respiration (not so good, but typical of Bee-Bee at 10 minues). She's not inverted (R higher than P) so she's vetted fit to continue. She performed an excellent running walk for her trot-out and we're a "go". I was pleased for this first leg of the ride. No soreness in her loins and she was showing a tremendous amount of interest in getting moving again.
At ten minutes I'm not sure what Izabel's P/R was (I'm sure Connie will tell me at some point so I can put it in the story.) Apparently it was good because she continued to trot out. Now, since I knew that Izabel was showing an offness at vet in this morning, I was paying careful attention to her during the ride and watched her like a hawk during her trot out. She looked like Izabel. Not too graceful, but strong and steady. Whew ... she should be good to go.
WAIT A GOSH DARN MINUTE!
The vet pulled Izabel. Said she was bobbling at the trot (head bobbing usually means a lameness of some kind.) Vet looked at her foot and ran her hand over the leg and shoulder. Told Connie she didn't feel anything wrong, but Izabel could not continue the ride.
DAMN. Connie's record stands! Every time she comes to this ride with a new horse, she gets pulled. I'll have the vet out this week to see if we have any issues with Izabel that may prevent her from doing this sport. She really likes to go down the trail at top speed and never ever has a pissy moment about the work, so if she's just off because she was out playing in the field last night - GREAT! If she's off because she has other issues going on, we'll get 'er fixed right up!
Okay - now I'm off to ride Bee-Bee on my own. I've never had her on a trail [away from home] alone. She's okay at home, although she doesn't like to leave the barn. I'm wondering how she'll do.
She was GREAT! She worked better than I've ever seen her work. She got into her rhythm and just moved out. Ears forward, tail up and 1-2-3-4 running walk the whole way. At one point we were in a field and I let her canter to stretch out her back. Well, Little Miss Frisky! She tried to take advantage of me and GALLOP. Obviously, she's not in any distress. I've been carefully monitoring her cadence for any sound that she might be pulling up that loin muscle again. Nothing. Perfect 1-2-3-4 beat the whole time.
Early into the second loop I passed a group of pleasure riders. They had every size horse from a big painted draft down to a small little Arab pony with a little girl riding. I passed them by several times as our competitive trail wove back and forth across the pleasure trail. They were very nice and inquired what we were doing (CTR) and what kind of horse I was riding (Walker) and how do you get involved in this sport (www.ectra.org). They were pretty impressed by the whole thing.
I zoned. She was working without my help and I kicked back to enjoy the ride. Coming out of the last loop before heading back to the hold, Bee-Bee decided to wanted to wake me up a little. We have to come down these "stairs" of rail road ties put on the hillside to help prevent erosion. She's normally very good about stuff like this, but a long line of motorcycles were passing on the road and she was all focused on them. Not paying attention to her feet and
BLAM
Down she goes. End over end, we tumble down those stairs to the macadam. She jumped right back up and I don't know how I managed it, but as she stood up, I slid me leg over her and was on back up on her back.
Ta-Da.
The young girl helping at that crossing thought that was great and even clapped! (grin) Glad I could be entertaining.
I was a little worried that the fall may have hurt Bee-Bee, but not a scrape to be found on her or me. My good knee was a little swollen, but no pain. Later, I found that my saddle took a beating, pulled some leather apart at the stitching, no problem. Lied's can fix that lickity-split.
Now that I'm awake (thanks, Bee-Bee) chug down the trail to the road crossing that puts us 3 miles from hold. She was in rare form and I swear she was moving better after the fall than before the fall. Hmmmm.
We cross that road and I found the blue trail cut off that I missed on the first time out this morning with Connie. It's cuts off to the left right after we pass through the trees. I get up on the blue trail headed back to hold and Bee-Bee gets her 1-2-3-4 rhythm going. I zone and before I knew it we were passing the 1 mile pie plate. WOW! I looked at Connie's watch (oh, yes - did I forget to mention that I forgot my watch this morning?) and found that I had a half an hour for minimum time. Ooops.
Walk Bee-Bee ... walk.
We stopped and ate some grass.
We walked a little bit in the shade.
Stopped and ate some more grass.
Wish there was water here, but not until the little creek before we cross the road to the hold.
And...we pretty much moseyed into the timer 45 minutes later. Yep - that was a LONG mile, took us 45 minutes!
So, we completed at 4 hours 45 minutes - exactly half way between the minimum time and the maximum time. Excellent.
The nice thing about it taking us 45 minutes to do that last mile, Bee-Bee was already cool and relaxed. I unsaddled her while John wrote up my slip and carried it back to let her back cool off some.
Connie offers to help me (evil snicker) so I have her walk Bee-Bee (I didn't want her to stiffen up after that fall she took) while I wash her down with ice cold water.
20 minutes...time for final P/R
Get this...
36 pulse, 6 respiration.
Told you she was relaxed when we got back. That was a great last mile of walking and eating. Even if it WAS hot out there in the field to me, obviously she was very comfortable. We do our trot out (fingers are crossed, PLEASE do not let her loin be sore) and she was kinda sauntering along, not really picking her feet up to show her gait. Vet Amy said, "A little faster than that, Dodie." so I hollered at her and swung the lead rope.
HOLY PAMOLEY, BATMAN ... we zoomed up, around to the left circle (oops, she slipped and he hind feet came out from under her - I heard lots of gasps) then around to the right circles and then zoomed back to the vet.
Huff-puff-gasp ...
I was RUNNING as fast as I could and she was passing me by in her running walk. Okay, if there is something wrong, the vet should have got a good look at it. Maybe the vet could look at me, I think I need oxygen. Connie offered me her inhaler (thanks Connie, maybe I'll quit doing trot outs in my combat boots instead.)
I look up and the vet was smiling! A-OK. (yea!) I take her back to the trailer and sit to wait until all the riders are in so we can start hands on. I asked Connie how she looked and she said just fine! (Yea!) I couldn't see what she was doing because I was concentrating on running as fast as I could to stay up with her. Whoo Hoo. What a mare.
They called for dinner while I was waiting. Connie and I went over to eat ourselves fat. Not as much food as I was expecting, but it was yummy. (Okay, they could have had a smorgasbord there and I would have been starved...I can eat!) Since I was first rider at the table, and there were lots of riders still out there building up a good appetite, I thought it would be rude to go beg some seconds.
Ken (Connie's husband) showed up and we had a grand time visiting while we waited for hands on. I admired his bare legs as he sat with them in a patch of poison ivy (remind me to ask him about that in a day or two).
Bee-Bee passed her hands on with flying colors. She really likes that saddle...not a single flinch anywhere and that lay judge really worked over her back and girth area, a couple times. I was getting a little worried that thee was something there, since she did it about four times, but finally she gave her only a 1/2 point for her mouth being sticky.
Not getting too hopeful, I thought she probably had a good score. All I could remember was that her back legs were a 3 for wind puffs (fronts were still a 1 so that would be 4 points) and there was a 1/2 point for her mouth being sticky (means she could have drank more water). Everything else seemed okay so that's about 4.5 points off. I don't know about anything else, like how she looked at her trot-by - they can take points off for a horse seeming not happy to be working, or if a horse appears in distress panting or dragging along. There could have been something at the halfway hold that I didn't know about, like maybe because her breathing was a little high they could give her points off for metabolics.
Okay - in trepidation, we wait for all the horses to finish the hands-on and the score sheets to get totaled. One thing about CTR's that are irritating to some people [not to me, I happen to like this down time to review the ride in my mind, find ride management and thank them for having me, and to visit with other riders I know] is the time factor. The finishing and scoring can take longer than the ride if management isn't well organized.
Even though Green Lane was under a new manager (literally, it was her first ride to manage) they did excellent keeping things moving along. By 4:30 PM they started the awards.
Are you ready?
Kevin got Grand Champion junior riders. Kyle got First place Junior Riders. (Placings in each division goes Grand Champion, Reserve Champion, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th)
I got first place in my division. That's never happened. I've had lots of seconds and thirds, but never a first. I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe it. In fact, I was sure that they made a mistake. After studying my sheet, I discover there is indeed a mistake. Bee-Bee didn't get a completion after all.
WOW! ROCKET's score was 94.5. Seems that when I changed horses with John several weeks ago, the info was not passed along to whomever filled in the score cards...the horse I was riding on the sheet was Score's Dakota, a 5 year old pinto stallion...Imagine that no-one noticed all day that the horse I was riding was a chestnut mare (chuckle). That does explain why he didn't have a coggins on Bee-Bee, though. One mystery solved.
No problem, it makes for a funny story. Now we can tell everyone how Score's Dakota (Rocket) SCORED at Green Lane. (hehe)
So, final score for Bee-Bee (under Rocket's ECTRA number) was great! She lost one more point for her attitude during trot out for a total of 5.5 points lost. (I guess because she didn't get up and go right away without me waking her up, the vet felt she was tired.) She wasn't tired, she was lazy and that definitely requires an attitude adjustment.
Amazing! I was so excited when I got home I couldn't hardly stand myself. I had to tell everyone. How vain is that?
It was a grand ride! I'm so glad that Bee-Bee is back to her old self. Glad to see that Rocket doesn't need a rider to complete and glad that Kevin got Grand Champion juniors. Sorry that Connie didn't complete, but now that we know Rocket can do it, she's gonna start riding him (big grin).
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