Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
MICHAUX MADNESS
I'M BACK!!!!!!!!
Another season of stories and misadventures begins with this ride. I'm not exactly sure if you're ready for this or not! I've had a whole winter of dull boring days to make up for.
You'll notice I'm competing on Bee-Bee this year. After years of a dozen people competing their first CTR or END on her and loving every moment of it, she and I are finally going to be a team. She is bred for this year so I'll only get through the summer on her then I'm on to Rocket, but she and I intend to have fun. Whee!
Due to my surgery and inability to work with Joker, Kyle Gibbon is successfully competing on Joker this year. He's had several fun rides on her so far this season but refuses to get caught in the "story-trap". Although many people have begged and begged, he gives us a two paragraph summary of how the ride went and that's all. (sigh). Well, I molded him into a pianist and a horseman, but not a story teller. My bad.
The moral of this week's story is..."Nobody Told Me." and it actually starts BEFORE we leave the barn for Michaux. This is a true story, the names have been changed to protect poor, pitiful, ME. I say that because it's become obvious to me that I don't tell people those things they need to know and it's coming back to haunt me. I can't sleep, I can't eat and I'm having trouble concentrating on writing this story because of it.
For those of you just joining in on the fun of distance riding, I need to explain some things before I start the official ride story so you can't say, "Nobody Told Me."
When you first arrive at the ride, you stop the trailer and send the passenger, with the endurance book (has all the horse's paperwork) to the check in so you're logged as here. In the endurance book is a blank check (because sometimes you've forgotten to pay for your crew's dinner), your AERC and ECTRA membership cards, ALL the horse's registration papers, coggins test and rabies shot certificate. Your passenger should thank you for profusely for being such a wonderful person to keep their health first and foremost in your mind at all times and sending them on the mission impossible which requires half an hour of jogging around from trailer to trailer to find the ride manager. All that exercise is very good for their heart.
When your passenger arrives back at the truck (hopefully with the endurance book and with the ride packets) to give you the okay to go park somewhere in the middle of a swamp, on a hill, and approximately 6 miles from base camp, do not forget to say thank you.
Now, once you are precariously parked with all the horses shifted to one side of the trailer, you quick get out and unload the horses and ask your passenger to tie buckets to the side so they can have water. Do not forget to remind your passenger to give each horse a flake of hay and a treat. This prevents you from getting stomped in the head when you try to remove the leg wraps.
Remember your passenger's health! Do not allow them to sit down and become a camp chair potato. Have them brush the horses while you get the appropriate colored crayon to mark their numbers on both butt cheeks. Color co-ordinate those crayons! Blue crayon does not show up on a bay or black horse and yellow crayon will not show up on a palomino horse.
Now, while your passenger is loose and limber from the stretching exercise associated with a good grooming, you take the horses to the vet in. Here the vet will poke and prod, look in some embarrassing places, and ask you to do some more jogging with your horse in hand. Truly, they are not watching your flabby butt, or your passenger's flabby butt, they are watching your horse's nice sleek butt for any tell tale indications.
Okay, back to the truck to settle the horses in for the night and get the rest of the truck unpacked. If you are fortunate, you or your passenger has tricked some unknowing person into crewing for you and they're already working on the camp set up.
Are we clear? Ready to read the ride story? "Nobody Told Me."
Memorial Day weekend. Saturday, 1:06 PM
I had the most remarkable week and was in the best mood I have been in for a long time (since end of February, anyway). Not to bore you with my weekly details, let's just say that I knew I was back. Five Aikido workouts, four long rides on Bee-Bee and Rocket, my husband has a car project so he would be fretting about the car instead of fretting about me, my publisher sent me the preliminary cover designs and I actually liked one, I was going to my first ride of the season, and everything was already packed in the truck.
HOW MUCH BETTER CAN IT GET?
I walk up the steps to the barn and see Shark all hooked to buggy for a ride. Excellent! He loves to go out. The day just keeps getting better and better.
Connie is there and is smiling.
The barn chores are all done, even the ones I left to get done over the weekend.
Whoo Hoo.
I stop to talk to Michelle about the kittens we're mothering and off he goes, Mr. Gentle Shark pulling his passengers in the little black buggy. He's so sweet, tiptoeing down the aisle heading for the back door. I no sooner see them disappear out the arena door until I hear all this hollering and see Michelle running back down the aisle towards me white as a freshly laundered sheet.
What the?!?!?!?
I stick my head out the front door to see what's going on and here comes Shark barreling along the side of the hill headed for the porta-john. Nobody in the buggy and it's bouncing along behind him like a jolly ball caught in the frenzy of a tornado.
I look up the hill and Shark's two passengers are running after him. Okay, they're not hurt or they couldn't run THAT fast, so I whip my head around towards Shark and see him deftly miss the porta-john, just as Connie leaps out of it in fear for her life. I know she was in fear because she was in her under pants. Hmmmm. True horsewoman that she is, she attemtps to catch him, but forgot that when you become an adult, the underwear super-hero thing doesn't work anymore.
Up the hill, buggy balanced on two wheels, threatening to flip as it merrily jounces along behind him, Shark squeezes past the trailer and takes off up the back of the barn. Shark has perfected the 90 degree turn at full gallop. He's done that to me many times, but I've never seen him do it with a BUGGY attached. It was glorious to behold.
Okay, I'm relaxed, not in panic mode (yet). I know the mares are in the back paddock so he's not going far once he rounds the turn sand sees all those pretty manes and tails just waiting for him to stop and say hello.
I head out the same aisle he was gentle negotiating just two minutes ago. Possibly, I can get to the dirt path up to the back paddock before he barrels down it headed for God-Know-Where with the buggy. If I'm even luckier, he'll be wooing someone at the top of the hill in the pasture and I'll be able to get him all disconnected before he hurts himself.
Whew, true to form he stopped to visit the beautiful mares in the back paddock.
Ooops, he's seen me! Knowing full well he's not supposed to talk to strange mares, he comes barreling down the path straight at me. I'm not budging!
"SHARK! Whoa buddy." I put my hands up and stand at attention.
He doesn't COMPLETELY ignore me. He actually looked at me, moved over so he wouldn't hit me, then passed me on by to cruise on into the barn.
Yep. Buggy's still there, dancing along behind him.
We track behind Shark into the barn. Fortunately, he chose the back aisle to cruise down. Dutch and Vision were on the wall having a tying lesson so Shark was stopped dead in his tracks.
Whew.
Alright, let's get this rig turned around.
"You! Grab ahold of his head and turn him that way." I point as I grab the back of the buggy.
"And you, move that mare and baby." I wildly point in another direction.
"Walt, don't let me get squooshed in between the wall and the buggy while we turn this around." I gesture madly in his direction.
"Connie, get some freakin' pants on." (Okay, I made this part up because I couldn't resist sharing with you ONE MORE TIME that she really did pull a Warner Brother's cartoon and jumped out of the porta-john in her under pants. If I can't tease on Connie, who the heck CAN I tease on?)
We get Shark and the buggy pointed back out the back door.
Barely containing my mirth at the situation, I ask. "So, what exactly happened?
The reply was slightly muffled and spoke with quavering vocal chords. "When we started down the driveway, the buggy hit him in the back legs and he took off."
Oh, I am in tears here. What better teacher than experience?
I look at the breeching and it's not hooked to the breeching buckle on the shafts. I calmly point this out to the five people standing around in the aftermath of the adrenaline rush. Perfect opportunity to educate, they're all focused at the moment.
"Oh," Connie pipes in (and yes, she's dressed.) "We couldn't find that and thought these shafts didn't have one.
(sigh)
"And how exactly would the breeching break the buggy if the shafts didn't have a breeching buckle?" I ask while I am readjusting the harness attachments.
They both shrug. Connie replies with grave seriousness.
"We didn't see it, though I did think it was odd that it wasn't there."
I look at her and reply, still calm and with the intent to educate.
"Well, you both saw me in the barn before Shark was ready to leave, why didn't someone ask me about it?"
They both replied simultaneously. "Nobody Told Me."
I am telling you, at this point I am almost dying. I want to laugh SO MUCH but the serious concentration on the buggy driver's face leaves me no choice but to keep that hilarity to myself. It's not often that I am able to contain laughter. So this is a huge feat of self control for me!
Now, the poor buggy if FUBAR. It's old and although in relatively nice shape, I can't get replacement parts for it. I know, I've tried. The right rear tire is mangled beyond belief. The remaining two screws holding the seat there are toast and the one side looks as if it has seen a local chainsaw massacre. The shafts are fine, whic surprises me (and of course, that's the only part I actually have a spare to.)
Shark is limping, but he's limped before...Mostly he's fine. Later, upon investigation, we found that he ripped a chunk out of his sole, right next to the frog and it's very tender...but he's fine.
One of the passengers wants to pay me for the exhilarating adrenaline rush thrill of leaping head first from a run away buggy. Imagine that! An adventure at New Promise Farms. Now who would have thought?
The driver is still shaking, fear-anger-mirth, I'm not sure at this point. And I don't want to ask.
*SO* everyone is shaken up a bit, but mostly fine.
It's funny, come on. (grin) Okay, I guess you had to be there to appreciate the hilarity. Ask Naoma, she'd know. She's been there and done that buggy scenario.
I corrected the harness, showed all those standing around (and there were about 8 people there) how to correctly attach a buggy to the harness, and sent the driver out to walk Shark in the buggy and remind him what his job REALLY is. And it's NOT providing me with a full days worth of amusement.
When they return and Shark is in the cross ties, I notice that someone took a scissor to Shark's mane and cut it (gasp). HORRORS! I like the au-natural look on my horses and only trim their beards and bridle path. I never scissor. I don't care what the boarders do to mutilate the looks of their own horses, BUT NOT MY HORSES! No scissors.
Thinking to lighten the mood a little, every one is so somber over the near miss accident that could have but didn't occur with the run away horse and buggy it's a good thing they aren't Amish because they wouldn't survive a day on their farm, I make an off the cuff comment.
"So, now I know why Shark ran away, some one scissored his mane."
Oops, wrong thing, Dodie. Suddenly, an avalanche of emotions cascades through my barn.
"Nobody Told Me. I didn't know I couldn't trim Shark's mane. I'm always in trouble about everything in this barn because Nobody Told Me." (and so on and so forth - I was overwhelmed by the force of emotions coming out here.)
Now honestly, how is it at all possible I am that mean? My heart is broke and I know that anything I say at this point will feed the fire, so I walk away from it. Great. Now I'm leaving for a ride weekend and I have a very upset person in the barn who believes I'm the meanest person on the face of the planet. I didn't know that my stable rules were so strict because "Nobody Told Me."
Obviously my good mood is under attack.
(shrug) Not that I don't care, but if I'm gonna make it worse then I'm leaving.
Connie and I grab our horses and load up. We're outta here. Connie was great company. I really miss Connie coming with me. In fact, I believe this is the first ride since last October that we've done together.
Memorial Day weekend. Saturday, 4:21 PM
We arrived in Mont Alto in record time. Good traveling, except when Bee-Bee and Izabel got their rhythm in sync and started rocking the trailer side to side. Whee.
Judy was there waiting on us.
I sent my passenger (with the endurance book) to check in and asked Judy to wait for her to give her a ride while I went and parked.
Julie found Connie while she was checking in. Connie's exact quote to me, while wearing a look of exasperation, was..."I wasn't in the camp three seconds before someone came up to me and asked if I was with Dodie Sable."
(grin) The new idea for crew T-Shirts is, "Dodie Who?" I am ordering some on Tuesday. If you'd like one, and you crew for me, it's yours for free. Email me your size.
So as I'm parking, this nice car parks beside me and this nice person jumps out and offers me a big grin. Good mood is coming back! It's Julie!
I found a to-die-for parking place. it was right next to the porta-john and in a little cul-de-sac so no-one could park right next to me. Plenty of room for the two tents, the canopy and all our chairs and stuff. I started unloading horses and because I failed in my duties as a crew-mentor, Julie had to ask what to do to help because Nobody Told Her.
Connie didn't know Judy was waiting and walked up leaving Judy stranded on the side of the road like an old used up rag. When Connie came sauntering up to the trailer (just as Judy decided she'd been abandoned) I asked her why she didn't ride up with Judy. Her reply, "Nobody Told Me."
I saw Joker standing at Kyle's trailer, and since it was still so early, I was sad because I thought he must have been pulled. Little did I know at the time, he finished 12th. "Nobody Told Me." WHOO HOO, Kyle. Way to kick Arab butt!
Judy and Julie made an
extremely efficient crew for setting up camp. We had three tents and a
canopy set up in record time. Under half an hour. Remarkable.
I need to find a way to convince more people to be crew for me. This
was awesome. I wasn't tired or anything (chuckle). Now, one tent
was very easy to set up, requires one person semi-awake...it's a tent
purchased with Marlboro miles (ew, smoker)...the other tent, as evidenced
here, requires 12 people to get setup. That one was purchased with
real money. Now tell me, do smokers got their shit together, or what.
It was a lot simpler to set up camp the last two seasons when I had a camper on the truck. For those of you that don't know, I had to sell the camper to fix the roof on my house. There is a mention of the gaping hole in my roof in one of the stories from November last year. Roofs are very expensive! Ours cost $20,000 to replace. OUCH! So, I'm gonna be tenting it this year until I put together enough money to buy another camper. Thank goodness for my crew!
We brushed the horses up, put on
the appropriate color crayon (Connie was AC for All Connie and I was AD for
All Dodie), and headed for the vet in. We quickly vetted in, I
reminded my vet that Bee-Bee is gaited so I didn't get some kind of weird
comment like the last time that she was lame or moving funny (sigh).
We both got all A's
on the score card, grinned at each other and went back to the trailer to settle the
horses in for the evening while we went
down and chowed on some food.
I forgot to mention that
although I THOUGHT I had paid for my two crew to have dinner, there were no
crew dinner tickets in the ride packet. I sent Connie up to pay for
their meals and (of course) she comes back and says, "Barb said since it's
for Dodie, here's the tickets, she can pay me later." Connie would
like to be known for her so I want everyone to look at this picture and
remember CONNIE.
Ride meeting. I pay attention because every year I come here, horses are pulled left and right for lameness. This is a tough trail to do first out on the season. I love this trail. First Skip gave the completions for the 30's and 50's (75 milers were still out on trail). Times seemed really slow to me. It was hot (91) and the trail was dry (hard on the legs).
Okay - good to know. I need to take it easy and slow. Like Bee-Bee is going to go for that.
Julie is asking a lot of good questions about the ride meeting. Excellent.
Judy is her ever calm and efficient self. I love Judy!
Connie is quiet and thoughtful.
Now, back to the camp. I'm digging all over for the coffee so I can set up the pots for the morning.
I can't find it.
Oh my gosh. How could I forget the coffee?
I tear everything apart. No coffe, no tea bags, no sugar. I am so stupid. I explain to Julie that her riders are going to be cranky in the morning. And I apologize in advance.
Judy (bless her heart) promises to rescue me from my stupidity and will stop at a convenience store and bring us some coffee grounds to make in the morning. (Remember how I said I love Judy? Now you know why!)
I've been hot and sweaty this entire time so decide it's time to take a bath in my fancy blue muck tub. I go into my tent to gather together all my necessary bathing tools, and find ...
.... the coffee and sugar and tea bags (groan) The food box was NOT left at home on the counter as I believed, it was put into my tent when the truck got unpacked and "Nobody Told Me." I got a good chuckle out of that. But I can't call Judy to tell her not to go shopping because I have no cell phone service. What to do, what to do....
I gather my PJ's and soap, come out and everyone has disappeared. What the heck?
I'm all alone. Nobody Told Me it was bed time."
I bathe (ahhhhh) and climb into my tent to sleep.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Whooooo whooooo whoooooo whooooo. Fire engine siren.
That the heck? Is that Skip's idea of a wake up call?
I look at my watch, it's 3:15 AM.
????
Soon, the whooooo whoooooo whooooo is joined by Whe-ooo Whe-ooo Whe-oooo. Then joined by Whoop Whoop Whoop.
Until it was all done, I heard 7 distinct sirens. And they were on the other side of the trees from base camp, I know - I could see the blinking red and blue lights through the trees.
(sigh)
Good thing was that the horses weren't freaked.
Better thing was that I noticed Izabel laying flat on her side snoring. Good camping horse, right there! Tied to a trailer, she laid down and snored on her first endurance ride.
Most excellent thing was, I managed to go back to sleep.
Memorial Day Weekend, Sunday 4:48 AM
I wake up and enjoy the view out the door of my tent as I smoke a cigarette. What was the view? Judy doing the morning feeding and watering for Izabel and Bee-Bee. God Bless Judy.
I get up and tell her about my amazing find in my tent after she left. I told her I wanted to call her on the cell phone but I had no signal. I completely forgot that Julie had been using her cell phone so her carrier OBVIOUSLY loved endurance riders and gave them signals in all the most bizarre ride camps. Duh, "Nobody Told Me.".
In typical Judy fashion, she accepts it all in stride and asks what she can do to help. I send her and Julie out to warm up the horses while me and Connie eat, do the three morning S's and get dressed.
Connie walks over to me while I'm putting on my boots and says, "Nobody Told Me that my shirt is on backwards." I look up ... and damn, she's right! She has it on backwards. Connie got a good chuckle out of that. (I would have to, had I noticed it before she told me!)
Bee-Bee isn't eating breakfast so I instruct July to let her stop and eat as much as she wants of the long grass. I needed Judy to understand that Bee-Bee is Joker's opposite. Bee-Bee's not affectionate and doesn't like to be fussed with. Her routine is all messed up at rides and she gets picky, and that's okay. SO, I tell Judy if she just hangs on the end of the rope and ignores Bee-Bee, she'd do okay. And she did. She got her to eat.
Izabel could care less...she's all about GRASS! Give me more GRASS! What a good mare. I really like this mare. She doesn't wantt o take her E-Lytes, though. Head up and down, side to side. And once you get them in her, she keeps her lip up in the air for like 10 minutes and refuses to eat anything. I have to say, I used to buy those apple flavored E-lytes until I tasted it a couple years back. I immediately changed brands, It didn't taste ANYTHING like an apple. It was actually quite nasty. I taste tested a couple before I found one that wasn't TOO bad.
After I get Bee-Bee tacked up, I hear Connie walking around mumbling to herself. Being the deaf person that I am, I said, "What?"
She's wiping her face with a napkin. "Nobody Told Me that I had E-Lytes on my face."
I couldn't help it. I just started laughing. Remind me to buy Connie a mirror for the next ride so she can dress herself. I bought her a mounting block that folds flat and now, I'll get her a mirror.
Connie reminds me seven times not to forget my helmet. I get on Bee-Bee sans helmet. I guess I can't say, "Nobody Told Me."
Judy hollers to me as Bee-Bee takes off for the hills. "Dodie! HELMET!" I actually heard her but Bee-Bee was chugging away from the campsite. I figured I'd get her turned around and pick it up on my way back. Julie runs out on the road waving the helmet at me. I have the best crew ever.
Connie used her new
mounting block and said it was wonderful! Yea! (EVERYONE!
Look at this picture of Connie getting ready to go to the timer and memorize
her face. Next time you see her at a ride, ask her if I am with her -
she'll pass out from a heart attack and I'll get to put that in my next
story.)
We go down to the timer and check in - it's exactly 15 minutes before ride time. WHoo Hoo. Bee-Bee is really cranked. In fact, she's so cranked she forgot to spook at the blowing flag because she's so focused on out warming-up the other horses. Izabel is feeding off the tension in Connie and in the horses milling around in the warm up area and we finally decide to get off and wait until everyone leaves before leaving ourselves. Wouldn't be the first time I was last for something.
Judy and Julie had walked over to the warm up area so they helped us. When all the horses had left the starting line, we mounted up and got going on up the trail. Bee-Bee was WAY ready. Cranked on up that dirt road like no-one's business.
Well, within five minutes, we began passing people. Bee-Bee was in fine fettle and Izabel was ready to work. This first two miles is all up hill on a dirt road. I kept trying to tell Bee-Bee to save her energy, but she was ready to go. Fine. I'll have the shoulders from hell tomorrow but YOU'RE GOING TO SLOW DOWN.
We discovered that Izabel is a kicker. She does not like strange horses behind her or beside her. Ears flatten and feet fly. And it's only with the strange horses, Bee-Bee can be right on her ass and she's fine. How bizarre.
So, Connie wants to prevent any people yelling at her, "Nobody Told Me" and is diligently hollering to anyone coming up on us to watch out for identified flying objects...namely, Izabel's feet.
We get to the end of the dirt road and turn up the pipeline which takes up up and over the mountain tops. Up then down, then up, then down...once more up, then down. Nice footing, but horrible grades. They call these three mountain names. The only one I can remember is, "Heart Break Hill" The other two are just as wicked sounding.
Unfortunately, the LD riders are all bunched up. Now, I like to work this kind of terrain slightly different than most riders. These walkers can really motor down a hill and the up hill is harder on them than for a trotting horse. I have been watching Izabel working since she got into my barn and I believe she can motor down a hill with the best of the walkers, so my plan was to motor down, walk up.
Yea - right.
Mob central. Horses packed in a group strung out all over both sides of the trail. Bee-Bee was pulling my arms out of the sockets fighting to go faster faster faster and catch up to the horses way out in front. Izabel was making faces at any horse within 20 feet of her. Connie was hollering, "Watch! Kicker!"
(I have a headache now.)
Finally, I'm tired of it and let Bee-Bee go. We blast through the middle of this mod of horses and take off.
Ahhhh
Finally, I can relax my poor arms.
Bee-Bee gets into her famous mile eating rack and we're motoring. God, I love this gait. I can ride this all day.
Izabel is cranking right along behind her. No worries. Not puffing or huffing or struggling.
Up and down. First mountain rise battled, we've left the huge mob of horses behind us and now Bee-Bee needs to catch up to the horse that's 1/4 mile ahead of us. We're on a down hill, so no problem.
The very steep grades, we stop and walk down. Even at a walk, Bee-Bee really stretches out her legs and covers ground. My head is almost touching her butt as we negotiate the steep hills. And going up some of these, my face is buried in her mane. It's awesome.
About two miles from the 10 minute vet check, we stop in a stream to cool them off and Connie says that Izabel's back legs were chaking. I look over at her and she's standing there pretty calmly. No shaking that I could see. Her breathing was a little rapid, but not overly so. I held us there in the water for about 10 minutes until some riders came up. I couldn't see that Izabel was in trouble, so we went on.
It takes us a little over two hours to go 8 miles. Yes, it's that hard on them. ANd it's not cool out, either. These last three years I rode this ride, in May, the weather was more typical for this early in the season. You know, low seventies. Yesterday it was 91 and today they said it was going to be the same. Only difference was that yesterday the day started out a cool 47 degrees and this morning it was 61 when we got up. Bleck.
It wasn't too bad as the side of the pipeline we were running was on the west side of the trees so we were in shade mostly. That was helpful. We waited our ten minutes in the hold, trotted out and were sent back on down the trail.
Wow. On the way here, it was mostly up, now we're going to be going mostly down. Bee-Bee's in heaven.
We're cranking along. The trail goes off the pipeline and we're in the shade mostly. I know it's pretty warm out but I don't really feel uncomfortable at all. Being under the trees is very nice. I was enjoying myself so much, you just can't imagine. Bee-Bee was working her little heart out and I didn't even have to encourage her. She was going, going, going.
Down and down. We reached the place where I remembered that the in previous years, at the height of rainy spring season, it was shoe sucking mud mixed with fist sized boulders and was almost a vertical drop off. I dismounted. Connie was like, "What? Should I get off, too?" I told her to do whatever she wanted. Just because I did it didn't mean she had to. I just know that it will be easier on Bee-Bee if I walk her down it. Plus, we're only about two miles out from base camp and this will give her a chance to get pulse down so we can check in immediately when we arrive.
Connie got off Izabel and when we rounded the turn in the trail and she saw the drop off, she said, "Oh, I see!" I was waiting for her to say, "Nobody Told Me."
Down and down. It actually felt good for me to be walking. My knee isn't 100% right and is probably never gonna be as I opted not to have the surgery repair but to let it heal on it's own. Down hills can be trying for me, but it wasn't bad at all. Even as I rolled my ankles back and forth over those fist sized rocks, while sliding. The trail was bone dry and that worked in our favor in some spots...against us in others. This was one spot where it would have been nice for the trail to be a little moister. As it was so dry, we were skiing on the rocks as they had nothing to stick to.
A little mud makes a great gooey sticky adhesive. Close your eyes and remember back to the days you made mud pies and threw them at your brother and how wonderfully they stuck to the front of his shirt. Ah, you can open your eyes now.
So, we get through that and head down the last piece of trail, through the pines, to the dirt road which brings us back into camp. I got back on and boogied. Connie got on all by herself without her new collapsible mounting block. How marvelous! And she didn't even slide her saddle off the side. Now how am I supposed to write anything fun if she's gonna do everything perfectly?
I get back off at the dirt road and my knees feels wonderful. In fact, I feel wonderful. I am so amazed that I had surgery just a couple weeks back. I feel perfectly marvelous and it was grand to be riding down the trail pell mell once again.
I power walked us back into
base camp. I needed a stretch, Bee-Bee needed a breather and it was
such a nice day, it just felt good. We arrive at the base camp in good
time, got our time in and turn around to find Judy and Julie standing
with hands out. YEA! Perfect crew. They must have been
trained by someone other than me because I can't remember to tell any one
anything.
I whip Bee-Bee's saddle off and grab her lead line to go get pulsed. Connie got her saddle off and Julie started walking Izabel towards the crewing area.
"Yo? Where ya going? We gotta pulse in."
(I swear, Julie said this...) "Nobody Told Me."
I almost fell on the ground laughing. I am a horrible crew mentor. Someone just shoot me and get it over with. Connie grabbed Izabel's lead and we went down for pulse. Now, it took approx 3 minutes to untack and they pulsed us immediately. Izabel was at 56 and Bee-Bee was at 52. Excellent mares. I no sooner got my card back and the vet was ready for the trot out. Man, this is very excellent vetting at the hold today. There's a lot of horses here and they're really keeping things moving.
I remind Dr. Otis she's a walker and take Bee-Bee on down. First time she was like, "Trot? You're kidding." I went back, Otis threw his hand in the air and Bee-Bee took off at a canter. Whoops. Running walk, Bee-Bee, running walk.
She performed marvelously down and back. Her CRI was 56. All A's on the card. Whoo Hoo.
I waited for Connie to get done and someone found me ("Hey, aren't you Dodie?") So I chit chatted a couple minutes then went to find out where they hid our crewing spot.
Under the pines. Wow, that's nice. Out of the sun.
Connie had a sad face. "They pulled me for back soreness."
"Damn. Bee-Bee got all A's."
We looked at each other for a moment with sadness.
Judy got right to work on Bee-Bee and Julie was helping Connie with Izabel. Izabel actually looked better than Bee-Bee...alert and eating, scoping out everything around. I couldn't believe she was back sore.
Bee-Bee wouldn't eat (typical) so I told Judy to walk her for some grass. Julie too Izabel along.
When they were coming back, Bee-Bee looked funny to me. I ran my hands over her back and down her butt and she wasn't stiff or sore. I threw the saddle on and she hunched up. Uh, oh. Judy even said she thought she looked off.
"Okay, Judy - trot her out for me."
OUCH!
"She looks cramped in the back. Let's go down to the vets and get their opinion."
Dr. Otis watched her and said yep, crampy. Could probably walk out of it. I said nope, let's pull her. If Connie was still in the game, I may have walked her up the road the two miles and see if she worked it out, but since Connie was pulled anyway, why push it? We're out.
You're thinking, "Bummer!"
Nope! It was a grand first loop. I was very very pleased with Izabel. Connie still had a lot of horse under that saddle at the vet check. I believe that Izabel's sore back was caused from doing all those steep grades that she's not accustomed to carrying a rider on. We're gonna practice it.
I did pull Izabel from OD. I want Connie to do more trotting up and down hills with her to get her accustomed to Connie's forward seat riding style and to work those loins on grades.
I'm still going to OD so it will be me and Kyle. I hope Judy's still going to come and crew.
Back at our camp site, I found that Judy and Julie had most everything packed up and ready to go. WOW! I am SPOILED by these two ladies. SPOILED! There was a tent packing issue. Of course, they BOTH said, "Nobody Told Me." (groan)
I pulled the tents out and repacked...showed Judy so the next time she can't say that.
Then Skip and Byran came over and chit chatted with us for awhile. Skip is Kyle's Dad. I introduced them to everyone and of course, they all gushed over Kyle and what a wonderful job that Skip did raising him. I gushed over how tremendous Kyle did on the 55 the day before with Joker. Then I tried to steal his little Yorkie. (She was too cute.)
While I was gabbing, Judy and Julie got everything packed up and we were ready to rock. I was humbled by their efficiency and lack of irritation with me leaving them to do everything by themselves. It must be my horrible teaching that lead them to believe that's the way it's supposed to be...the rider is lazy and the crew does everything. Shhhhh, Nobody Tell Them!
They asked me several times for a permanent marker to make numbers on the pipes for the canopy so it would be easier to attach next time it got set up. I didn't bring one because (yep) "Nobody Told Me."
THANKS LADIES! You made my weekend so marvelous. Now I get to go home and see how I can avoid any more "Shark" incidents.
PS: Both Bee-Bee and Izabel are perfectly fine this morning. When I put Bee-Bee out in pasture she was running around and kicking up her heels like she was three. Izabel came out of her stall ready to work. I couldn't find any soreness on her. Her leg with the splint was stocked up, but she was 100% sound and square when I trotted her out. A little more hill work with her and she'll be a grand distance horse.
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