Crooked River 30 CTR Waterford, ME Oct. 1999

The last competition of the season. Bonnie's horse has come up lame and my truck is broken down so I am traveling with Susie. Crooked River is a one day 30 or a 2 day 60 mile ride. I would have loved to do the 60 mile ride but Susie could only do one day and when you are hitching rides, you can't be picky. The trip started out great when I realized I had never sent in my entry form. I managed to get in touch with the ride secretary and she said there was still room in the ride and to come. PHEW! The ride in at the Waterford Fairgrounds. It is a very small fairground and about 1 1/2 hr. drive from home. The vetting in started at 1:00 PM. Stalls could be had on a first come first serve basis. Susie had to go to a convention on Friday so she could not leave early. We decided that Joanie and I would haul the horses up in the morning so we could get a good camping spot and stalls. I dropped my little truck off at Susie's house on the way home from work at 6:00 AM and picked up her truck and trailer. Susie just got a new truck and it is very nice. I went home, packed up, loaded Marie then went back to Susie's house to pick up her horse, Cody. He is a gray gelding and had just rolled in the mud by the looks of him and what a mess he was. I brushed him and cleaned him up the best I could then loaded him on the trailer. Marie was thrilled to see him and it was soon obvious she was in heat. Hussy..... Joanie was late getting to Susie's so we didn't get as early a start as I'd hoped to but that was fine. There was still plenty of room when we got to Waterford. The stalls are open cattle type stalls with no doors. I set up a line of electric fence across both stalls and that worked fine. I knew nothing short of electric would keep Marie in. Joanie and I lounged both horses to get them warmed up and relaxed after the trailer ride. Cody has a little problem with being a little stiff until he warms up and moves around some. We wanted to make sure he'd look good for the vet. We got in line to vet in hoping that Susie would show up before our turn came. She did and Cody vetted in just fine. Of course, stupid me had forgotten to bring my coggins papers and the ride secretary, Louise Lester, thought it over and told me she could not let me enter without the papers. Then she thought about it some more and decided to let me enter if I wrote a statement on the back of my entry form stating that Marie was current on everything with my vets contact information. I could have kissed the woman. Marie was very good for her trot out. Nice and quiet like you want. We settled the horses into their stalls and then set up our tent.
Susie had brought a 13 year old girl, Katie, with her that rides one of her horses sometimes. She seems to be a real nice girl and has been extremely helpful. We sat around for a bit and snacked on some cheese and crackers and had apple cider. Then we went around the grounds and checked out Jean and Elliots Bridges trailer. It was a nice two horse gooseneck with living quarters. Though the real reason we went to check it out was because it had heat and it was getting very cold out. Colleen Hoyt is here. Her son goes to the same school as Susie's son. both of their sons were in a football game tonight. And they got the bright idea to go to the game. We went to Tut's restaurant for supper. It is within walking distance of the fairground. The place was packed. By the time we got seated, Coleen and Susie realized they didn't have time to eat and get to the game so they left. Katie went with them. It would be nearly a 2 hr. drive for them to get to the game and a 2 hr. drive back. By the time they got back, they would not get much sleep before the ride. I thought they were crazy and Joanie agreed with me. Jean and Elliot came into the restaurant and sat with Joanie and me. They are such a nice couple. Elliot does not ride. Jean has been competing for about 8 year. Joanie and I picked her brain for useful information. That's one of the things I like so much about CTR, the people are so nice, and always willing to give you help and encouragment. Just a real fun group of people. After we had supper, we went back to camp and checked on the horses, then headed for bed. We didn't know when Susie and Katie would be back and didn't wait up for them.

I woke up about 1:30 AM. I was warm enough in my sleeping bag but I just couldn't get comfortable. I must have been sleeping good up until then because I never heard Susie and Katie when they got back to camp and went to bed. Susie was still awake. She and Colleen had only been able to see 20 min. of the football game before they had to leave but she said it was well worth it. I finally gave up trying to sleep as I had to go to the girls room anyway. I dressed and climed out of the tent as quietly as I could. I headed down to the dance hall where the bathrooms are and it seemed like a long way in the dark! When I got back, I just did not want to go back in the tent so I got in my little Mazda truck, reclined the seat snuggling into my sleeping bag and managed to sleep for a while. I was actually quite confortable and I probably should have just slept there in the first place.
About 5:00 AM I heard Susie up and around so I got up also. We fed the horses, much to the distress of the other horses in the barn who's owners were still sleeping. It was very cold out. I was dressed warmly enough but my feet were cold. Susie and I went down to the kitchen for donuts and coffee. The riders meeting was at 7:00 AM. We tacked up the horses immdeiately after the meeting. The first riders were out at 7:30 AM. We knew we were going to be the last riders out so had plenty of time. Susie did want to make sure to warm Cody up well. We went out last at 8:00 AM. It was the most beautiful ride. The trails were beautiful. Almost all of it on nice wide dirt roads or nice sandy trails. It was somewhat hilly but with such great footing for the horses that was no problem. We had to go by the hold and go around a five mile loop and come back to the hold for the hold ... is that confusing...after we we passed the hold and were on the 5 mile loop, Susie decided it was taking us too long to get back to the hold and got very nervous. She was sure we were off trail and had missed the hold. I thought I was going to have to thump her one to calm her down. I knew we couldn't have as we were still seeing trail markers. It wasn't long after then when we came into the hold. She was thinking it was only a 25 mile ride rather then a 30 mile ride and was getting confused everytime we saw a milage marker. Everything went fine at the hold. Marie's pulse was at the maximum allowed but not over and her respiration was fairly low. She has to work a little harder to keep up with Cody then she did with Shannon. We actually got out of the hold on time for onces thanks to help from Joanie and Katie who were working the ride.
Another friend of Susie's also showed up and helped out. We did the second half of the ride in great time and had to walk the horses the last three mile in order to not come in too early. Marie's P&R's were low at the final vetting and she did a great trot out. She was just a bit lazy about trotting circles in one direction. We took care of the horses and settled then into their stalls to rest while we went to get supper. They were serving a nice supper of ..... BEANS!! YUCK!!! There was also mac & cheese, ham, rolls and a nice home made apple crisp. It was all good and I didn't go hungry despite the beans. Joanie and Carol helped us pack up the tent and then had to leave. Not long after that the ride committee called us down for the award presentation. The first thing they awarded were the breed awards. When I didn't get the hight point grade horse, I knew the big ribbon was once again out of my grasp. But Marie did get a score of 99 1/2 which was great. I was delighted and proud of my little mare. She has just gotten better at each ride.

Crooked River 30 10/16/99 17/S&F
1 Crystal Mint / L Alexander
1 Czar Nicholas / L Lester
1 Kofaxx / A Wells
4 Izusu / S Niedoroda
5 VH Pahzon / I McNaughton
5 Marie / C Ross (score 99.50)
7 Desert Falcon / J Graffam
7 ? / K Downs
10 Olympia Gold / J Hunt
12 Mighty Frankie / T York
13 Xavier Sunnyacres / S Reinheimer
15 Rolling Stone / H Moss
17 Count Canaskis / K Brunjes

ECTRA year end awards
Marie 180 - Cindy 180
Bonze medal middle distance