Experience the ENDURANCE of Foundation Breeding
COAL CRACKER CHALLENGE
Ride Entry Forms | Trail Photos | Listing of entries and donations | RIDE PHOTOS
OFFICIAL MILEAGE MEASUREMENT DONE 08/06/07 - 26 MILES
I am wearing an evil grin and rubbing my hands together in glee...it's now MY TURN to torture some riders. Mmmmm.
Cheryl has laid out two nice trail systems up where she lives near White Haven, Pennsylvania. Now remember, these are the very trail systems that have caused a serious problem between me and Cheryl. She lives right off both systems. That's right, she can walk out her barn and be on some kick ass trails and I hate her guts. I like the rest of her, but the guts are icky.
OKAY, let's be serious. This is serious.....if we get an August date, we will be doing the Mountain Boogie. If we get the October date, we'll be doing the Coal Cracker.
This story will keep you posted on our adventures for putting together this ride.
It all began with a simple question in November 2005.
"Aren't you Dodie?"
I get asked this all the time. I'm not sure why, I don't know who else I would be!
"Yep." I grinned from atop Numbers back while she deeply drank from the water bucket at the end of the first seven miles of the 2005 Canal ride.
"Is that Cindy?" the blond woman pointed to the chestnut speckled Appaloosa mare that Naoma was riding.
"Yep."
Now I'm curious. This is obviously someone who has been on my website A LOT! That's scary...maybe I don't want to talk to her. Maybe she's a psycho killer endurance rider that's going to chase me down the trail and tromple me to death with her tall lanky bay pinto mare.
"I saw that mare on Gail's website and was thinking about buying her. I thought I saw her on your site not too long ago."
Whew. She's just an App admirerer.
"Great mare," I nodded, "Naoma only conditioned her 9 days to bring her here and she's doing remarkably well so far."
She nodded back at me. "I could tell she was built to do this kind of stuff on Gail's site. it's nice to see that someone with your reputation thinks so, too." She's grinning like she's talking to a famous person or something. Sheesh.
"Check with me at the end of the ride and I'll tell you if we were right or not." I reined Numbers around to get moving because Naoma and Jen were leaving me, headed back down the trail.
"Nice talking to you. What's your name?"
"Cheryl. I love your website. I read your stories all the time."
Now I'm grinning like I'm a famous person.
"That's awesome. I have a black truck and black stock trailer. Look me up after the ride."
AND SHE DID! And she invited me to her house to ride. And I went. And I hated her from day one. She has the most awesome trails at her house.
We have become excellent friends and riding buddies. So, this summer, she presented to me her idea for a ride. I asked around and a lot of people are HIGHLY interested in coming to a ride we'd do, so now we're going to put ourselves in mortal danger of being in someone else's story and we're going to do it.
I want to keep a running diary of what we do (right or wrong) so next time we can avoid the pitfalls. I have gotten some rather awesome advice from Cate and Mary so I think we're going to have a better chance of NOT screwing this up. And I hope they both continue to support our efforts.
FIRST: We need to find a place large enough to hold a camp for 40 rigs. This is Cheryl's job since it's her stomping grounds and she knows everyone and their brother, dog, cat and hamster. She talked to the owner of a kennel up the road from her house and he has giving her permission to use the club house. YEA!
SECOND: We need to get permission from land owners to ride on the trails. Again, Cheryl's job especially now that I know she also knows everybody's sister, horse, goat and pot bellied pig. Stay posted.
THIRD: We need to try out the trails and see if there would be anything that may be dangerous, not conducive to happy riders and horses, etc. Since I've already been all over the Coal Cracker trails and know it will be kick ass...Cheryl takes me and Walt on the Mountain Boogie trails. WOW. I just realized that I hate Cheryl even more. I could have ridden all day on these trails. They'll be very fun to ride. Trust me on this one. Since we moseyed along them the first time we tried them out so I could get a good look at what the terrain was like, I haven't a clue what kind of distance we did that day. I'm going back to crank them out with Cheryl. I'll keep you posted on how those sweet trails are at speed.
FOURTH: We need volunteers. Can't have a ride without volunteers. So far we have a couple. PLEASE, if you can't ride at this ride, be our slave. Email me and we'll add you to the list.
FIFTH: We need to get signed up with ECTRA to hold the ride. I went on their website and read their nice brochure about starting a ride of your own. I have to call Cheryl and tell her I quit. I'm too lazy for this much work. We emailed for the two dates we're thinking will work for us. Stay tuned.
January 1 2007...
Okay, what we have so far is one land owner on the Boogie ride has denied us access. This isn't as frightening as it may seem as her property can be circumvented if the remaining land owners agree to allow us access. She was really sweet about it, and encouraged Cheryl to continue riding on her property for normal daily stuff. I really can't say as I blame her - 40 horses blazing across ones fields is very discerning.
Cheryl also tracked down one of the owners of the property for the Coal Cracker ride and he directed her to call his head of security (Geez!) I'm glad Cheryl isn't at all intimidated by making these phone calls.
We've received out packet for sanctioning from ECTRA so we're going to get that sent in right away. We're told that if something happens and we can't hold the ride, our fees will be refunded.
Cheryl sent an email to Dr. Nick and I have a call into Dr. Amy to set up a ride veterinarian. I'd like to get Nancy as our Lay Judge and am still looking for a way to get into contact with her.
Cheryl won't let me quit. She's mean!
After many emails, phone calls, and bald spots on her head from pulling her hair, Cheryl managed to get Dr. Nick as our vet. Three weeks after I sent in the application and payment, we got sanctioned by ECTRA for our ride on August 26th. Cheryl sent lots of emails looking for a lay judge and everyone was either busy that weekend or had conditions that we could not meet. Cate Peloquin (bless her heart) came through for us and will be our lay judge and she's even going to bring her dear husband Ben to be our timer.
YEA!
Now I'm making up the forms and ride details so we can get it out there for people to sign up for our ride. Cheryl is having a heart attack because we've had snow and ice for the past two weeks and she cant' get out to the trails to see which 12.5 miles she's going to mark out for the loop. She wants to do the same loop twice (yawn!) so I suggested she do the second time around backwards. Means people will be passing each other but the trails are wide and that should not be a problem.
And poor Cheryl will age a thousand years by the time this is done...ME? I don't worry about shit until it smacks me in the face. Cheryl, on the other hand, worries about it before it even happens. Maybe this is why we're friends ... we offset each other nicely. (example) I posted the preliminary ride entry form and there were some things that needed changed. I emailed her for a list of the changes all in one email so I could make one change and be done (don't worry, be happy). She sent me an email at 10:00 AM and at 11:00 AM wanted to know why the changes weren't made yet (chuckle) Well, the changes are now all made and the forms are ready for you all to print and sign up for the ride.
Now (insert mental image of me rubbing my hands together in glee) we search for ride slaves (oops) I mean volunteers. This will probably be the hardest part of the ride. We'll keep you posted with a running list of people that have lost their minds and signed up!
03/04/07 UPDATE: Oh my goodness ... already I'm getting emails from people coming to the ride ... they're so excited. I think this is the most fantastic idea Cheryl had and I'm glad that I was able to be involved. If you can't ride, PLEASE volunteer!
04/14/07 UPDATE: Cheryl has been out on trail and took some photos for us to show off to those of you hesitating to join us in the fun (or maybe you're just scared to be in the story???) CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PICTURES We've had lots of interest and Ellen may be doing a 12.5 mile clinic, stay tuned for more on that. We have received high point Appaloosa ribbons and high point Tennessee Walker ribbons from the breed registries. Now, I'm still waiting for SSHBEA, AHA, APHA and AQHA to send me ribbons. We've also received a donation for the person who falls off during the ride (chuckle).
Come ride with us! August 26, 2007
AND NOW FOR THE ACTUAL RIDE STORY:
For those of you that believe I make this stuff up just to put a ride story on the internet, PLEASE ... come and live my life for one day and then tell me if I don't deserve some kind of special award for surviving all these years. I promise you, this kind of stuff is such a daily routine, I don't even notice it anymore.
I watched the weather all week like a hawk. It's August, in eastern Pennsylvania, and August can be KILLER with heat and humidity. We had a cold front came through the week before the ride bringing not only many many inches of much needed rainfall, but temps in the lower 70's. Man, it was a great week. Mid week, the rain and coolness went away and we were working towards a Saturday before the ride of temps in the upper 90's with 60% plus humidity.
OH NO!
The weather mean insisted that a mini-cold front would come through Saturday night bringing a 30% chance of T-storms and temps for Sunday 10 degrees cooler.
Uh, huh ... and we all KNOW that the weather men are so accurate.
Naoma (from North Carolina) and Sean (from Carlisle, PA) came in Friday night to go with me as volunteers for the ride. Everyone at NPF was so excited to see Naoma, big prego belly and all. No-one has seen Naoma since she left 19 months ago to go live near my parents when my brother died. Then my father was diagnosed as terminal as she's decided not to come back to PA (sob). She has all my grand babies down there. How am I supposed to spoil them from up here?
I digress.
So, Friday night was a mini-reunion for us as we tried to catch up on all the local gossip from PA and NC.
Saturday I got up knowing I had a full morning of stuff to accomplish before I could get to the barn to get rolling. A lot of people had emailed me that they were coming to the base camp Saturday so we decided to get as many people vetted in Saturday as we could and start vetting at 6:00 AM to get the ride rolling at 8:00 AM. Better to finish before the heat could come up. They were calling for 82 and sunny for Sunday (as of Saturday morning at 7:30 AM) Still a slight chance of T-Storms Saturday night.
Since Sarah and Michelle helped me get everything packed and organized on Friday, I really didn't have much to do but move the cooler from the house to the truck Saturday. I rocked through my morning stuff and was home to shower by 12:30 PM. Well, first I got into the pool for awhile since I sweated every bit of water right out of my body Saturday morning. MY GOD! It was HOT! HUMID! And nasty out Saturday morning.
The shower was an entire waste of water.
Back to the barn by 2:00 PM to load three horses and roll on up to Cheryl's. I took Izabel for Cat to ride, Rocket for Connie to ride and Bee-Bee for my riding pleasure.
And I left the barn with an entourage of motley crew following along behind me. (Three of the best children a mother could ask for).
We arrive at base and there are many people already there. WOW! It's an amazing thing considering that two weeks ago today we had only 7 entries...and in the past 14 days, we received 23 additional entries. Of course, we cajoled, threatened, and sent out leg breakers to people houses to GET those entries, but who's telling?
Cheryl has everything running smoothly for parking. Dr, Nick is there and Cate (Our lay judge) is there, so we're in good shape to start getting people registered. I set up the table and got out all the massive amounts of paperwork for Naoma to do registrations while Sean and Alec set up the canopy. Now, my shirt is soaked, my hair is sticking to me in places we don't want to discuss in a G-rated story, and I can't believe how freakin' hot it is.
Alec and Sean helped me get Rocket's pen set up so I unloaded the three horses and got them all taken care of and settled in. Fortunately, Cheryl gave me a parking space with plenty of room for all three horses to be comfortable. THANK YOU CHERYL!
Naoma had registration under control so I got Sean together with Cate for vetting in. He scribed. Believe it or not, I totally blew scribing for Dr. Nick. I never did this before! He had to teach me all the codes for Very Slight Wind Puffs, Splints, etc etc etc. Boy, did I feel stupid that I never paid attention to what those codes meant.
We got most the horses vetted in before they decided I was a terrible scribe and I should just go and get my horses to vet in and let someone with more brains do the scribing. That's okay, I learned a lot about how NOT to be a scribe for the vet.
I need to get someone working with Rocket more consistently. He's had so many riders doing so many things with him, he's confused. His trot out was a little hairy. When I started my "Bee-Bee" run, he thought I was going so fast so he could canter along side me. (sigh). So I slowed down and then he thought he should be power walking (double sigh). So I finally found a middle ground speed so he could do his running walk. (whew)
Bee-Bee perfectly performed her running walk when I went Bee-Bee speed. She knows what that lung killing run is all about, get up there and "Strut Your Stuff". Remarkably, in only five short months of riding her, she has quickly come to understand a lot of "dodie-izms" and has truly turned into a great riding partner for me. I can't hardly believe that I owned this mare almost 6 years and never took the opportunity to compete with her myself. I always thought she'd be too boring for me and I let everyone else ride her.
And Izabel. Lovely sweet and adorable Izabel. Perfect trot out. I did make note to Dr. Nick and Cate that she has a funny way of going and she always does that. They noted it on her sheet. I don't know if it's a conformational fault, related to the injury that scarred her leg, or related to the fact she drove buggy for a million years for an Amish family, but she definitely goes funny in the front. Especially when doing circles.
About the time they were finishing up the last horses, we hear thunder rumbling in the back ground over the ridge line. Ah - here come the 30% chance of storms. It rained a little bit, then the sun came back out and made it twice as humid. Bleck.
We all sit under the canopy hiding from the sun and we hear more rumbling. Since everyone at the base camp is now registered and their horses are checked in, I told Naoma she could go on home. Since she's pregnant, I thought it would be better for her to sleep at home instead of camping out. I remember those days of August pregnancy. Sean decided he didn't want to camp out with me, so he went home with her. It's just me and Alec. That's nice. I haven't had alone time with Alec in a very long time.
Dee-Dee showed up with her sweet driving companion, Foxy (a lovely dog of undeterminable breeding). She sits with us and we discuss all kinds of things that mean absolutely nothing but are interesting to chew over.
Rumble, rumble...more thunder coming. I look up at the sky and the clouds are boiling over the ridge, rolling with fierce intensity that was cool to watch but sent chills up my spine because they were bubbling under an orange sky.
Tornado-sky!
RUMBLE RUMBLE
BAM BAM BAM. Holy crow! The sky opens up on us and we can't see three feet in front of our eyes. BAM BAM BAM. Lightning cracks all around us.
RUN!
We grabs our chairs and hop into the trailer.
It's a little loud in there, but we continue our conversation. Five minutes and the sun is back out ... the sky is WAY orange now and the clouds are trying their best to push their way out of the sky right into our laps. Dee-Dee decides to go and get some mini-shopping done in town while there's a break in the weather. Alec and I (knowing full well this is not the end of the storming) clean up the trailer a little, grabs some lamps as it's getting dark, and we settle in the trailer for the storm to hit us.
BAM BAM BOOM
CRACK RUMBLE KA-BOOM
Here it comes. Darkness descends on us faster than snapping a light switch off and the sky once again opens up with an intensity that is awe inspiring, even in an old T-Storm watcher like myself. I absolutely LOVE thunderstorms and this one was right on the money with being one of the baddest I have had the opportunity to sit out in.
My poor horses. I'm watching them closely through the slats on the trailer to make sure they're not panicking. The lightning is coming in one and two second intervals. The thunder is vibrating through the ground and rocking the trailer in its attempts to jump start an earthquake. The rain is coming down thick as soup and hard as concrete. The top of the trailer sounds as if it's bending under the weight of the onslaught.
OH MY GOD! Cheryl and Renee are out in this marking trail. HOLY CRAP!
Alec and I are calmly playing hangman. The storm rolls over us for two hours. I kid you not, this onslaught started at 8:15 PM and didn't stop until 10:20 PM. We got a lot of hangman games played in that time. Around 10:00 PM the wind kicked up and it was blowing hard. The trailer was rocking, the tarp we put up on the inside of the trailer to shelter us from the rain was trying it's best to escape it mooring and run away from the storm, the rain was blowing in on top of us and it was COLD rain, the horses were doing everything they could to get away from it....and Bee-Bee's line tore. It did not snap, it literally tore. She made her way over to Renee's canopy and was standing underneath it. Izabel thought that wasn't too fair and was running back and forth at the end of her line trying to figure out how she could make her lead line tear so she could get shelter, too. Rocket was actually in better shape then they were because he was on the lee side of the trailer, away from the wind. He was huddled up against the trailer as close as he could get without standing on the trailer wheel well.
BAM BAM BAM, Alec runs out in that to get Bee-Bee back to her spot.
BOOM BOOM BOOM. The wind is blowing everything all over the place.
He hops back in the trailer after securing Bee-Bee and suddenly, we see our canopy blow past us like something out of the Wizard of Oz. Landing right on top of Rocket. Poor Rocket, he sits down like a dog in his pen and hollers.
Alec runs out and since the canopy is in ten pieces anyway, he swiftly dismantles it while I calm Rocket down. I keep assuring Rocket that it's just a piece of canvas and not a horse eating monster.
I look out the other side of the trailer and Izabel is going nuts. Alec's tent has blown into her legs and she's trying to contend with her own monster. Alec runs over to that side and gets the tent away from Izabel.
And at that moment, the rain and wind stop. That fast. Just done and over. Light switch back on.
We're drenched. We're cold and I decide it's time for me to go to bed anyway.
Damn. I left the window open on the truck cap and the pillows are damp. Who cares, I'm going to bed.
Since the rain stopped, Dee-Dee escaped the comfort of her car to come and say good-night to me and Alec. I was hoping she got back from her shopping spree okay.
I never saw Cat so I don't know if she made it in or not. I hope so, Izabel will be bummed if she can't ride on Sunday.
I never say Judy so I don't know if something came up and she couldn't make it. Since I didn't see my email since early this morning, she could have left me a message and I would not have known.
Cheryl came over and while drip-drying in my trailer, told me how a tornado touched down not 10 miles from where we were and how it hailed on them while they were putting up ribbons on the trail. She told me to be sure and take ribbons with me when I left in the morning in case any blew down or if I saw places that needed more ribbons.
Alec found some clothes in my bag that he could wear without feeling "girlie".
And the lights go out.....
3:30 AM. I wake up because it's lightning and thundering again and I hear the patter of rain on my cap.
Drat.
Back to sleep.
5:00 AM. The alarm on my phone that Alec showed me how to set goes off and I sit up to hear pitter-patter of rain on the cap.
Drat.
Alec is sleeping cozy and warm buried under the covers next to me and I didn't have the heart to wake him up after he'd done so much in the rain for me last night. I look out the window and see that the horses are still where they're supposed to be (whew).
Ugh. Time to get up. Where'd I put that stupid rain slicker. It's probably outside in the rain.
I dig around and actually find another slicker, nice and dry in my clothes bag.
Yea!
I get out of the camper and [squish] everything is just saturated. Rocket is laying in the mud and I can't WAIT until Connie sees him. I already did my part, getting him here, getting him cleaned up, getting him checked in, caring for him and two other horses in a horrific storm ... SHE gets to clean the mud off. Ha.
Bee-Bee and Izabel obviously laid down last night...ick. One side of Bee-Bee is a lovely bright chestnut, the other side is brown...double ick. Maybe I'll make Connie clean her, too.
Everyone is fed and I'm waiting on Cheryl's husband to arrive and put on the coffee. No way am I digging through all this wet stuff to get out the coffee and a pot to brew it in. I figure I can cart over the boxes of registration stuff. I don't know how many people will be coming this morning or how many didn't get checked in last night. I'm all the way up by the kennel house and people are parking at the other end of the field...for all I know, 20 rigs could have come in last night without me knowing it.
I told Naoma [and the rest of the crew] to be here by 5:30 AM. About the time I'm wondering where the heck she is, I get a phone call from her.
"Yo, Mom. We're gonna be late."
"Really?" I grimace. "Why?"
"Well," she laughs. "Me and Karl were yick-yacking and I missed the exit."
I chuckle to myself because I've missed Cheryl's exit already and I know it's 9.5 miles to the next exit. I'm guessing that Naoma really just wanted to have her own "Getting There" ride story.
"Okay. See you in a bit."
I no sooner hang up from her until Sean calls me.
"Ma?" he sounds very tired.
"Yep."
"Uh, Naoma missed the exit I think."
"Yep, she just called me."
"Oh, man ... I was gonna get off there but she kept going so I thought I better follow her."
"Dummy!" I bust his chops a little and following his sister who has been lost more times than the Lewis and Clark expedition. He's not amused.
"Okay, I'll see you in a bit."
"Okay, Ma. Sorry 'bout that."
"No sweat."
I hang up from him and open the truck door to get the boxes of registration stuff to run as fast as I can to the kennel house so it doesn't get soaked and the phone rings again.
" 'Lo?"
"Is this the ride management for Coal Cracker?"
"Yep."
"We're lost." Now, this is the tenth time I've heard this. I know the directions on the website are perfect, how is it that everyone keeps getting lost. And how come they are all going to Weatherly instead of shooting right onto I-80 like the instructions say?"
"Where are you?"
"We're on Buck Mountain Road and we can't find Stage Coach."
WHAT? There are bright orange signs everywhere with arrows.
"Okay, go back to the stop sign where you turned onto Buck Mountain Road, turn around and come back and watch you're odometer. At 1.1 miles you'll be at a cross road. Turn left. Camp is on the right after the big red building."
"Okay."
Seems that MapQuest has become so popular that everyone uses it instead of believing the ride management's directions. Let me tell you. A couple stories ago, I got lost going to a ride using MapQuest. I don't use it anymore. Now, I call the Ride Manager and say ... Give me some landmarks to go with the directions you provided.
No more MapQuest for me.
In the meantime, while I'm talking with her, Cheryl's husband arrives and is setting up the coffee. I rush through the pelting rain to get the registration stuff inside the building. Oh my gosh - there's enough food in here to feed an army. I sure hope people come down here and eat some of it. I shouldn't be eating this high calorie, low nutritional value junk, but I couldn't resist! Coffee wasn't ready and I needed a shot of SOMETHING to get going. Sugar will work (grin).
I no sooner settle in than here comes the first people to get registered.
"Howdy!"
"Are you Dodie?" (I'm glad that Connie is running late, too - she hates when people do that.
"Yep!"
Her face breaks into a grin and she starts gushing over my website and the stories and how she's glad to finally meet me.
(blush)
She gets herself and her riding buddy registered and I'm wondering if I am following Naoma's protocols while I'm trying to remember everything Naoma has to get signed. Release form, trail permit, fill in the license plate number, give me a sample of blood. Good Lord....I volunteered for this...am I nuts?
Cate comes in to check on me and says I'm doing just fine.
I am? Doesn't feel like it. There are about 12 people in here and they're all talking to me at the same time. And four more come through the door to add to the bedlam.
NAOMA! I see NAOMA!
Get over here (whew).
Naoma takes over and I run off to get some other things done, like make sure everyone is up here and registered...finding out if Alec ever unburied himself from the covers and where the heck is Cheryl?
Sean and Alec are wandering around in the mist helping people out (What good boys they are) and I ask if they want a poncho. Know what rhymes with poncho? Macho.
"No rain gear for me, Ma. I'm a man! I can take it."
"Okay, dokay." (snicker).
Cheryl briefly touches base with me before she runs off to get Cosmo for Jamie. Kyle, Kevin and Joaquim brought Jamie with the promise to ride Cosmo [more on that later]. Kyle wanted them to all ride together and I said, "No way am I putting four juniors together." First time I ever heard Kyle whine about anything (this boy is tough)...but he swiftly got over it.
Personally, I had a reason for this. I don't like to make any judgments about anyone's decisions regarding their own horses and stuff, but after riding with Cheryl and Cosmos couple weeks back, I would not have put a junior (let alone a junior I had never met) on Cosmo. He is a good boy, but he is four years old and he is full of beans. That's just my own personal opinion but using my 25+ years of experience as a trainer and instructor, I chose to put Jamie in a group of experience riders - just-in-case. Not that I don't think Kyle could have managed anything that could have happened, I just preferred to not have four juniors running together.
Cate and Dr. Nick are vetting in the last of the horses and I look at my watch.
WOW! It's 7:05 AM already. How did that happen? I ask Connie to tack up Bee-Bee (I already groomed her, aren't you Lucky, Connie?) and I run to the bathroom to change into my riding clothes.
Jim came by as I was on my way to the "Setters" room and said that he heard an old saying once, "Rain before seven, sun after eleven." I hope he's right. I don't people to be disappointed in our ride. Although [I have to admit] for August, it's a grand day. Not really hot and if the mist stays with us, it will just keep us that much cooler.
I send Alec running around camp to notify everyone that we will be moving the ride up and hour (Can we say YEA?) and ride meeting will be at 7:30 AM, point riders are out at 8:00 AM. He takes off with a big smile on his face and starts his imitation of a Town-Crier.
It was not easy to get into my clothes, everything was sticking to me...my hair, my sports bra, my underwear. And how the heck and I supposed to get these riding tights on (sob).
I'm back out and check Bee-Bee. I undo her saddle and put it back on. That's okay, at least Connie had it on her. I check out Cat and Izabel, they're doing okay. Rocket's ready. Okay, back over to the kennel house.
MEETING IN FIVE! I yell and everyone at the back of the camp heard me (chuckle).
Where the heck is Cheryl? I don't want to do this ride meeting alone ... I don't know what she did out there on the trail last night in the hail storm.
AHHHHHH....
Okay, get the ribbons, get the pie plates, get the meeting started. Good thing I have no fears of public speaking, even when I don't know my ass from a hole in the ground.
I give them the ride time, pulse parameters, design of the trail is the same loop twice. I hold up the ribbons and tell them the colors they'll see ...
...and here comes Cheryl.
"Here, you take this." I practically jam the stuff at her to let her finish the meeting.
(She's gonna kill me)
You know. I have to admit, I'm glad she's the ride manager and not me. I couldn't have pulled off everything she did. Organizing the property owners, getting volunteers together and giving them jobs, managing the food and prizes....all I had to do was a bunch of paperwork - which I am highly skilled at doing so it was no big deal.
THANK YOU CHERYL! This was a marvelous ride!
We answered questions. I forgot to bring my white board (wouldn't have mattered anyway, the marker would have washed off.) so I gave the ride order and told people to pay attention to where they were starting.
Ben and Alec are the ride timers and they've got everything under control. (Yea!)
8:00 Am and Renee and her friend are off right on time.
My group of ying-yangs are next at 8:15 AM so I go get on Bee-Bee. Oops, she's ready to go. Get back off and wait a couple minutes.
Cat and Izabel are making friends. at 2 minutes before we leave, Cat decides to change her reins. (HURRY!)
I get on Bee-Bee again.
Whee! This mare cracks me up.
OMG - here comes a lady wants to know where she can vet in.
Nooooooooooooooooo..........
It breaks my heart to tell her that the ride has already started.
But but but....we were lost (Freakin' MapQuest)
I'm so sorry.
She asks if she can ride drag and I tell her absolutely!
Ben calls time and we're off.
This is a great trail system. Mostly flat and wide with lots of room for running to make up for the couple of spots where we have to walk through rocks or on short distance of road. Cheryl drive it with her jeep and it measured a hair over 13 miles for the loop. This give us a nice 26 mile ride. She put out water every couple miles, and since we had RAIN RAIN RAIN last night, there should be plenty of puddles along the way. And there were!
The biggest hurdle we had on the ride was poor Cat's upset tummy. We did pit stops for potty breaks a couple times and she was popping Imodium pills like they were life saver candies. She never complained, even riding on a stiff ride like Izabel, she just kept on motoring. Cat blamed it on the Taco Bell she ate the night before. (grin)
We made excellent time on the first go around, even with all the stops along the way. In to the vet check at 2 hours 5 minutes. Good pace and all three of the horses were lively and still high stepping it. The rain stopped before 11:00 (I guess that old tale about rain before 7, sun after 11 must be true.) The sun was playing peek-a-boo behind clouds so we weren't getting hot.
Izabel was a freakin' race horse! Her pulse in was at 38. is that right? Cat was running a monitor on her and her heart rate was running around 90-100 (mostly). Sometimes it was 200 (whee) but we decided the monitor was just picking up twice because Izabel was showing no signs of stress and a couple miuntes after that 200 reading, it would be 110. (shrug) Who knows.
Bee-Bee pulsed right down. No worries.
Rocket was all worked up, plus he hadn't been ridden too regular since Genesee. Connie is really concentrating on her own horse so I was riding Rocket once a week. Not a lot of conditioning work. I think I'm gonna have to make a new rule in the barn. If you're gonna compete on my horses, then you're gonna have to do your own conditioning. It wasn't entirely fair to Rocket. But, he did okay. Pulse finally came down once he settled with all the excitement.
Off we go for round 2. Cat is still having tummy issues so we're working it a little slow. About the time I decide to kick it up a notch, here comes a bunch of riders barreling along behind us.
WHOO HOO, it's a race. We get into a nice friendly competition and we're really moving along the trail now. Izabel is a freakin' freight train. Chugging along in that road trot she has not even working up a sweat. Bee-Bee gets into the mood and she's high steppin; her running walk and stretching out her legs so far I swear I can see all four of them underneath me. Connie said she would bet that Bee-Bee was over-reaching more than two feet.
WHEE!
We're boogying along and Bee-Bee zones. She gets into that half-rack, half-canter she has and we're eating up ground. Izabel is all for that and she's into a groove eating up ground. Poor Rocket, he's falling behind and I'm not sure but I think Connie was getting tired because she wasn't riding Rocket as well the end of this loop and was pushing into his shoulder. I was too far ahead of her to yell at her (I'm sure she appreciates that!) and in retrospect, I wish I'd have hung back a little and told her to get behind the vertical.
We had 4 hr 20 to 4 hr 50 to complete in time. We finished 4 hr 42. Great!
Rocket was whooped. His pulse was elevated and it took him all of his 20 minutes to get it in parameter. Izabel was down to 36 in 20 minutes. Bee-Bee was at 52 in 20 minutes. We really cranked into the base camp so I'm not at all upset with those scores.
All in all, it was a great ride. No-one got lost. Only two people got over time, and they were just 12 minutes over time. Both the pulls were in the first half...one for a blown shoe and one for a rider and horse disagreement (this would be Cosmo and Jamie. Cosmo was getting to be a handful and Jamie said "Enough is enough" and got off.)
I was tired and I can't even imagine what Cheryl was feeling.
We scored the sheets...made mistakes which Dr. Nick and Cate corrected, got it all entered into the computer and had the awards. It was fun and most everyone stayed for the awards which was nice. Camp was cleared out by 4:30 and everyone elft their camp sites neat and clean. YEA!
We hope to do this ride again next year...maybe as an AERC ride. We'll see. Send your votes to Cheryl!
UNDER CONSTRUCTION (08/27/07)
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