Susie and I decided to ride the Waterford 30. They are running the Maine 80 also but Susie didn't have the time to do it. I didn't feel I'd gotten Marie in good enough shape yet. The Maine 80 is a three day event. 30 miles the first and 2nd day and 20 miles the last day. Bonnie decided not to bring her horse to this one. She wants more time to get more weight and conditioning on him. Bonnie did haul us up though. Bonnie didn't have to work Friday so she came over and picked me up about 10:00 AM. I was ready to go so we just needed to hook up the trailer and load Marie on. We then went over and picked Cody up. Susie had to work so she was meeting us in Waterford later. We had an uneventful trip there. We were set up in short order. We used my and Bonnie's portable fence. We were going to separate Marie and Cody but she is so in love with him that we didn't need to. As a matter of fact, Marie is so in love with Cody that whenever he got out of her sight for just a second, shd acted like an idiot. It only took a few minutes to clean up the horse trailer and set up our cots in there. Using the trailer for our living quarters is so easy. I wish we'd thought of doing this earlier. the vet was supposed to start the vetting at 11:00 AM. he didn't show up until 3:00 PM. Bonnie and I went down to Tut's restaurant for lunch since we had plenty of time before the vetting. We both had chicken salad Italians. They were huge and very good. Great coffee there also. Susie arrived at about 2:30 PM. There were a lot of horses to be vetted but they got us through in good time. Susie's husband, David, came up for the weekend. He drove up after he got out of work. I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. I didn't intend to but the bed kept calling to me and I'd had a full night at work. Later, Bonnie and I went back down to Tut's for supper. Susie and her husband had gone down earlier. Bonnie had not wanted to wake me from my nap so had decided to just wait for me. I forgot to bring my guitar and Susie almost killed me. We both took turns playing her guitar and singing up a storm. David was very nice but kept smiling at us like a parent smiles fondly at their children doing something cute. We went to bed when it got dark and had a nice quiet night.
We were up early. I heated up some water for coffee and oatmeal. The ride provides coffee and donuts but I needed more then that to start the day. The ride started right on time and we got off to a good start. I started ahead of Susie. Marie did not like this at all. She hollered and called constantly, but she behaved otherwise. It didn't take Susie long to catch up to me. I didn't realize that my Easyboot had fallen off my saddle. Susie saw it on the trail and had picked it up for me. Susie said Cody was doing great until she stopped to pick up the boot but he squirreled out after that. This ride was one tough ride. The toughest I've been on yet. A lot of hills and one downright mountain that was extremely steep going. Some very bad mud also. At one point, while traveling down a steep hill that was knee deep in mud with a lot of large rocks mixed in also, the woman riding behind me lost control of her horse and the horse bolted forward and rammed right into Marie. It ran us right off the trail. She got her horse backed off and I got Marie back on the trail and then her horse bolted and rammed us a second time. The woman did an emergency dismount that put her right between her horse and Marie. I was so afraid that Marie might kick out and kill the poor woman but she didn't. The woman was mortified that her horse had done that. She apologized profusely throughout the whole ride. I'm just glad she wasn't hurt. Her horse is an adopted wild Mustang. He'd run wild for eight years. He's thirteen now but still needs some training obviously. At the hold, Marie's P&R were well within limits. Cody's was borderline high. The vet checked him a second time to make sure he was alright, which he was. David was working the ride as a timer. He was doing the time into the hold and Bonnie was doing the time out. The hold is a mandatory 20 minutes though you can stay longer if you wish. You just end up making up the time while riding. The trot out for Cody and Marie was fine and we were out of the hold only two minutes late. We took it easy going back over the mountain. It was a beautiful day with great views from the top. It was a tough climb but well worth it. When we got down to the bottom of the mountain, Marie started stumbling and limping. I was so afraid she had pulled something on the steep terrain. Thankfully, she had only lost one of her front shoes and we were on some pretty stony ground. I had to stop and put the Easyboot on her. I was sure glad Susie had picked it up when she found it on the trail! I had tied it so tight onto my saddle that I had to cut the tie strap to get it off and once again Susie saved me by having a pair of cutters in her saddle bag. Two miles later Marie lost her other front shoe. By then we were on soft ground and it was good the rest of the way back to camp so we managed to finish on time. Poor Marie!She did such a great job. I used Bonnie's endurance saddle on this ride as I've been having some troubles with mine. It seems to fit her well. I don't know if it has anything to do with the saddle but she traveled better today then she ever has. She was doing great extended trots and keeping right on Cody's tail. She usually has trouble keeping up with him. I am suspecting that my saddle has been pinching her in the shoulders making her unwilling to do extended trots. She passed the final vetting with flying colors and we placed first in our division. Susie got reserve champion. We were both thrilled, it was a great ride.
Waterford 30 5/27/00 11/S-F
Junior
MCO Ali Darkness / J Wazelle
Adult
2 Xavier Sunnyacres / S Reinheimer
3 Briwds Mardi Gras / S Corr
4 Marie / C Ross (score 92.00)
5 Otis / A Beem
6 Mighty Frankie / T York
7 ? / S Day
8 FR Canadian Pilgrim / S Vieria
9 Little Beau / S Leavitt
10 Travelers Midnight Shadow / S Booth
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