Wildwood Stable is really neat and really caters to the carriage horses. There are horses there all season that are used for public carriage and wagon rides. There are three portable barns. The older one has a solid tin roof. the two others are canvas covered with six stalls in each of the barns. These were the nicer barns. We ended up in the older barn as we were nearly the last to arrived. And of course it was the barn farthest from camp. There were already two horses in that barn. The stalls are back to back with the doors all facing the outside. The two horses already in the barn were in the middle stalls. I assmed so they could easily see eachother.
Wildwood provided the shavings. We picked two end stalls side by side, dumped in shavings and put the horses in. Well, there is a solid divider between the two stalls Shannon and Marie were in and Marie went right out of her mind. She couldn't see Shannon. It did not matter that Shannon was right beside her, she couldn't SEE her. We ended up moving Shannon to the other end so that Marie could see her through the bars. Though now there was a horse between them. But, all that mattered to Marie was that she could SEE Shannon. Silly mare!We vetted in sometime around 7:00 PM. Everything went well. The vet judge, Denise Ross and the lay judge, Abby Bloxom, were real nice. So much better then judge at our first ride. They did a very thorough hands on and did not miss a thing. They found every bump, scrape, and missing hair. Which is exactally what you want them to do at the vetting in. Because if someting is missed on vetting in yet found at the final vetting, you might loose points for a change in condidion. After the hands on, we did our trot out. The vet judge said all looked good. Because I had such a problem at my first ride, I asked the vet if she noticed anything at all wrong with Marie. She told me that Marie stabbed out with her hind leg and didn't engage her hindquarters well. But felt it was due to her conformation and nothing she would call a lameness. That was exactally what I had been trying to tell the vet judge at Bog Brook. AGH.
After vetting in, we settled Shannon and Marie into their stalls, then settled ourselves into our campsite. I don't have a step to get into the camper. I've always just used anything handy and lately I've been using an old muck bucket. It's taller then a water bucket and works quite well. And the fact that I have ridiculously longs lets also helps. Well, the muck bucket had been full of rocks at home so I had grabbed my newer one as I was too lazy to empty the old one. The newer one, though the same brand, is obviously not as well made..... The first time I stepped onto it, I broke right through it. Bonnie and I scrounged around camp for something else to use as a step. We came up with a milk crate. That was fine for me and my long legs but it made for quite a long step for Bonnie from the crate into the camper. The first time she stepped out of the camper, she tipped it over and took a nose dive. I'm just sorry I didn't get a better veiw of it but I was in the camper and just saw her suddenly dissappear. Luckily she didn't hurt anything more then her pride. She has sworn that before we camp the next time, we will have a REAL step.
We didn't do anything fancy for supper, as if that is a surprise. We just heated up some cans of soup. We had enough snack food to last a week. And I had made up some of what is becoming our traditional trail mix to snack on also. I usually make it at home but this time had just thrown all the ingredients into the camper. This mix turned out even more outstanding then ever. The secret ingredients are (I should probably keep this a secret...) Gold Fish crackers, M&M's, dried cranberries, dried pineapples, dried mango, banana chips, dry roasted peanuts, mixed dried berries) Well there, now the secret is out.
The only other excitment we had that night was when Bonnie lost her tooth. She took it out when she brushed her teeth and forgot where she put it. She was outside with the flashlight looking all over for that thing. The ladies in the campsite next to us even came to help out but Bonnie wouldn't admit to them what she was looking for and declined their services. It turned out she had put the tooth in her bag in the camper. Phew! For a while I feared we would have to go to bed with that thing running loose just waiting for a chance to sneak up and bit us in the night.
We had a quiet night. I slept well but I was so tired I probably would have slept well if I'd put my sleeping bag right out on the driveway on the tar and used a rock for a pillow. We got up at 5:00 AM to feed the horses. The ride provided a breakfast of fruit, muffins, Bagels, hot and cold cereal, coffee, tea and juice. I, of course had oatmeal. The rider's meeting was at 6:30 to let us know the rules of the ride and give us our trail maps. The competitons was also for drivers but there was only one driver. The driver was the first out at 7:00 AM. Then, ten minutes later the riders started going out in pairs two minutes apart. Bonnie was number 12 and I was lucky 13. We got off to a good start. We traveled slowly at first. We were totally blown away by how beautiful the carriage roads are. There is over fifty miles of carriage roads. They are 16' wide with a broken rock surface. The stone work of the bridges, of which there are quite a few, is just fabulous. True works of art. Marie didn't appreciate the stone work quite as much as I did as she thought all those stones were scary horse eating boogers. She was not too bad though and mostly did some heavy gawking.
We had a great day. It was clear and sunny. We went over the summit of a couple mountains and the views were breathtaking. We had to stop several times along the way to take pictures like a couple of tourists. Needless to say, we had to move along a bit faster the second part of the ride to make up time. We rode 30 miles the first day and had 5 hrs. and 30 miutes to complete the ride that day. We made our time fairly easily. The hold was 15 mile into the ride and back at the camp. We then did a different 15 mile loop for the 2nd half of the ride. Both horses P&R's were excellent at the hold and at the end. Both horse also trotted out fine at the end a. Marie had already had a ridge of bumps on her back when we'd arrived. They were definitely worse at the end of the ride today. They didn't seem sensitive to the touch so I didn't think they were saddle sores. I am not quite sure what is causing them. We were provided sandwiches for lunch and all in all, things went well for our first day. That evening we were provided with a wonderful meal of grilled chicken, green beans, corn, rolls, baked potatoe, salad and pie. We all ate together which was nice. It gave us a chance to get to know some of the people doing this sport. Everyone has been so nice and supportive of us newbies. I took Marie for a walk this evening just to work on getting her used to Shannon being out of her sight. Marie did not like this at all. She whinnied and moaned her fool head off. She had every horse in the camp calling. She behaved pretty well otherwise. Silly, silly mare. She seems to be ok when she knows Shannon is not with us. But, if she is sure Shannon is nearby but can't see her, she panics.
Later in the afternoon I had to interrupt my little vacation to sit down and do my homework for the business writing course I'm taking. Boring! There's been way too much homework with this course. Bonnie lounged around and read a book about endruance riding that Susie let her borrow. This evening, Bonnie and I took Shannon and Marie out walking and let them graze in the little field. Later we made some coffee and sat out for a while. Eventually, the no-see-em's drove us in. It was bed time anyway. Overall, the bugs have not been bad at all. The nice thing about having the camper is having a private place to take a sponge bath. After I had bathed, I jumped right into bed. I called out to Bonnie that she could come in to the camper now. Bonnie opened the door, started to step into the camper, then suddenly jumped back out like she'd just seen the worlds biggest spider or something. Well, I had quite rudely, though accidently, left my undies laying right in the middle of the floor. Ooops, but geesh, it was only underwear....... Bonnie plucked up her courage, carefully climbed back into the camper, gingerly picked up the undies and hurled them in my face! Boy, talk about rude. I may lose my undies but at least I always know where all my teeth are.
Another good night of sleep. The camper is very comfortable. We were up early again to get the girls fed. One of the two women with horses in our barn didn't think she would be able to ride today. When she had finished yesterday, her horses pulse had been high and didn't come down well. The vet also thought the horse looked a bit lame and wanted to re-check him this morning. The woman thought the horse did still look a bit lame and decided to just pull from the ride. They were very disappointed as it was there first competition. The ride manager came over and talked to them and convinced them to let the vet take a look at the horse. The vet thought the horse looked fine and encouraged them to stay and ride. She said they could re-evalute the horse at any point along the trail if there was a problem and she could pull then. They decided to give it a try and the horse finished the ride with no trouble at all.
We were once again provided with a nice breakfast, had our riders meeting and were soon tacked up and ready to do. Today we would do 20 miles with no hold. The bumps on Marie's back were still there and about the same as last night. We were a little later getting started this morning. The driver went out at about 7:20 AM. Ten minutes later the riders were started as yesterday in pairs two minutes apart but in reverse order. It was very overcast and foggy today. We only had 2 hrs. 30 min to 3 hrs. to complete todays ride so we knew we had to move along faster today to make our time. The ride started with a loop to the top of Day Mountain. I'm sure the view would have been great if we had been a clear day. The rest of the ride was on Rockafeller roads.
These roads go right down by the ocean and are just wonderful. We had to keep up a steady trot and canter the entire 20 miles to make time and we just barely made it at that. Bonnie and I really have our horses in great shape and they finished easily. When they took the horses P&R's 30 minutes after we finished, Marie's were lower then I'd ever seen it be. Strangely, the bumps on Marie's back were smaller. I thought they would be much worse after another day of riding. Now came the hard part of the day. It can take quite a while to get through the vetting on all the horses. You have to be ready when they call you but it can be a long wait. They did all the trot outs first in order of finish. Then they do the hands on in the same order. When we were finally done, we settled the girls into their stalls. We were then provided with yet another lovely meal of spaghetti and meatballs, salad, rolls and pie. Then came the award ceremony. They had the ceremony by the barn under an awning. Bonnie and I settled ourselves on the stone wall. They started out with 6th place ribbons and worked up from there. I placed 4th in my divison. Then they gave out breed awards. Bonnie got high point grade horse. She also won high point rookie. By now I was a bit confused and a little excited. After all, we both were riding grade horses and were rookie riders. But, I had already gotten a division ribbon but Bonnie had not. So, how could she have higher points them me in rookie and grade horse unless...........she was reserve or grand champion...... and she was GRAND CHAMPION!!!
When they announced Bonnie's name she was stunned. She nearly fell off the wall. I was absolutely busting with pride for her and her little horse. I must say it put some noses out of joint. Here was a rookie rider on a small 16 year old $800 mutt of a horse winning grand champion. It just totally made my day. Bonnie won a nice plaque, a folding camp chair, a spray bottle, a container of electrolytes, a coffee cup and, of course, the BIG ribbon. I think I was more excited then if I'd won myself. I always knew she had a talented and athletic horse. I did remind her that I had helped her pick out that champion horse. And that I take care of that champion horse so the championship was kind of half mine.... I'm just kind of surprised her head fit through the camper door tonight. Bonnie and I decided to stay over an extra day so we could relax and enjoy the evening. And we would sneak in another ride in the morning. It was our first time here and we didn't want to leave. Nor did Bonnie really want to drive home in the dark.
Bonnie and I cornered the vet and lay judge to let them know what a wonderful job we thought they had done. We ended up having a long and informative talk with them. Abby Bloxom was the lay judge and has been riding endurance and CTR for many years. She told me the bumps on Marie's back were pressure bumps. She said my saddle seemed to fit fine, but that I needed to stop riding like I was in a western pleasure class and adjust to this new sport. She said both Bonnie and I needed to sit a little more forward and lighter in the saddle. We needed to post to the trot and absorb more of our weight in our knees rather then on our horses backs. Both judges thought we had wonderful horses and had done a great job conditioning them. I asked Abby if she though Marie could do endurance riding. She said Marie definitely had the strength and ability but that I would likely never be a top ten finisher as Marie is not particularily fast. But, she encouraged me to try it when I though Marie and I were ready. She said it is very good to do 2 years of CTR before going to endurance riding. It takes a long time to build up bone strength. Muscle and cardio build quite cast but not bone. Abby also cleared up some confusion on the need, or not, for electrolytes. The said the horses don't really need electrolytes for CTR distance. But, if you did give them, at the end of the ride, you may have a horse that looks a little fresher and you may have a trot out that looks a little prettier for the judge. But, a horse will naturally replace electrolytes on it's own within hours. We were also advised to be more agressive with our sponging at the water stops. Still, with Bonnie winning grand champion, we can't be doing things too wrong.
It was foggy this morning. It looked like it might rain. We decided to take our chances and ride anyway. I'm glad we did, it turned out to be a nice day. We went back on the Rockerfeller roads since it was too foggy to get any views from the higher elevations. We just did a short slow ride to give the girls a break. They had already worked hard for us this weekend. Bonnie packed up the horse trailer while I cleaned out stalls. We had an uneventful drive home. It was extremely windy so we drove slower then normal. We stopped at Dysart's for lunch. We were smart enough to offer the horses water this time, unlike the trip up. Marie drank a whole bucket. Shannon didn't want any but when we got home she thought she was dying and made quite a scene at the water tub which was unfortunately empty. She hopped both front feet into it, tripped, the tub flipped over and tangled with her back feet. She ended up doing a summersault over it. She then jumped up and was outraged that the tub was STILL empty. After all, a grand champion should get better service then this!!! I had to go out and guard the tub so she wouldn't hurt herself or the tub and send Bonnie rushing to turn the water on! Silly horse!
It was a great weekend!
Acadia 50 ride 6/12-13 1999 19/S 17/F
1 Shannon / B Hinz
2 FR Midori / M Batt
3 HFA Sliver Savana / M Deleware
4 SA King Hofflin / V Austin
5 Merceedes Magic / S. Whitcomb
6 Callander Ocassio / K DiPietro
6 JJ ? C Doughty
8 Kahula D&D's Boy / P Bell
10 LWF Paljoe Promise / M Farnum
12 ? / Marnie Lord
12 Marie / C Ross (score 93.50)
14 Anchor Hill Alan / M Gamester
16 ? / Mattie Lord
17 GA Abadi Jasars
Acadia 50 Drive
1 Ben PUtnam / Sondra Day
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