Boo 25 CTR West Sumner, ME Oct 2002

This is the last ride of the season for me (sniff, sniff). The Boo is one of my favorite rides. Vicki Austin, the ride manager, really goes all out to put on the best ride. The ride is in West Sumner, ME held at an old farmsted dating back to 1736. The farm sits on the side of a hill with wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. The couple that owns the farm, Laura and Steve, are wonderful and so generous to open up their home for this ride. Laura has no arms so must do everything with her feet. She is amazing in what she can do and she both rides and drives her horses. Bonnie took Friday off work so she could go up to the ride early in the morning with me. We planned to leave around 8:00 AM. I got out of work at 2:30 AM. When I got home, I fed the horses, packed the trailer and then snuck in a couple hours of sleep. It was raining when Bonnie arrived but it was not supposed to clear off so we sat around and drank coffee until the rain stopped at 8:30 AM. The weather report said it was going to be cold Friday night and would also rain Friday night into Saturday. So we packed enough clothes for an army hoping to be prepared for anything. We loaded up the horses, Zephyr and headed out. We got to the ride in good time. No problems with the truck other then it being very loud from needing the muffler replaced. We were the second ones to arrive. Heather had been the first. We had our choice of where to park and set up our fence. We, of course, parked as close to the house as we could get as that was closer to the food. We unloaded the horses and tied them to the trailer. I hitched Zephyr's cable to the door handle of my truck. The field we camp in is wide open and on the side of a hill so it can get very windy here. We decided to set up the horses fence using my trailer for a wind break. So, I needed to turn the trailer around so we could set up the fence and not have the living quarters door opening into it. Bonnie untied the horses and held them. I jumped in the truck and pulled forward to make a loop in the field. I glanced in my side view mirror and see Bonnie jumping up and down and waving her arms as best she could while holding both horses. She was shouting something but I couldn't hear a thing over the rumble of my bad muffler. Then, I suddenly realized what she was making the fuss about, poor Zephyr was still tied to my truck!!! He'd been running for all he was worth to keep up, thankfully I was going slow and hadn't gone more then 50' so no harm done. I jumped out, got him and put him in the truck with me. I had to hug and cuddle him and tell him I was NOT trying to kill him! I got the truck and trailer situated to our satisfaction but it still took us forever to get the fence the way we wanted it. I'm not sure why we had such a brain cramp about it but we did. We did finally get the fence set up to our liking and the horses settled in with hay and water. It was cold and windy enough for me to put on my long underwear and heavy coat. We headed to the house to register. Vicki, the ride manager, also makes and sells horse, dog and people clothing. I had ordered a dog coat for Zephyr. It was to be made of coated nylon so it would be waterproof and lined with fleece. When I got to the house, Vicki saw me and she got all excited and started running around looking for my bag saying, "Oh, I can't wait to see your face when you see your dog's little coat." She finally found the bag and handed it to me. I pulled out the coat and it was indeed adorable. It is made to look like a horse blanket. Then I pulled out the bill ...... $60!!! Yikes, Zephyr is only a 15 lb dog so the coat is small! I sure hoped Vicki was not watching my face when I saw the bill. I should have asked the price before having Vicki make it! That's ok, she did a great job.

After registering, I unhooked my truck and we went down to the little store on the corner for lunch. It is a small place but they have good food. When we got back to camp Susie had arrived. Susie and I had decided previously that we were going to switch horses on this ride and had entered the ride this way. She told me that Cody had been really hyper on her last few rides and she was worrked about me not having a very good time if I rode him. We discussed it a bit and decided to ride our own horses. Poor Vicki had to redo our paperwork but was a good sport about it. Bonnie had thought Halla was coming to the ride and has asked to ride with her. Halla backed out so Bonnie was in the ride order with a group of people she didn't know. Vicki had set up the ride order with 4 riders starting together 5 minutes apart. Bonnie was starting 3 groups behind Susie and me. Bonnie was not at all happy about this. She was anxious about Lady Bug and Marie being separated. We talked to Vicky and asked if Bonnie could be put with our group. She didn't really want to make the change at first but the 4th person in our group hadn't shown up so Vicki let Bonnie take her spot. Susie wanted to go for a ride before the vetting but it was so close to vetting time, I didn't want to go. She decided to just lunge Cody instead. Bonnie and I got right in line for vetting so didn't have a long wait. I went first and while Marie was trotting one of her circles, she trotted into a slippery spot and fell down. She did it in typical Marie fashion. She went down on the side of her butt, then slowly rolled over onto her side and just laid there a minute like she was thinking, "Oh, gee, I fell down... this is kind of comfortable.. maybe I'll just rest here a minute.. oh, I guess I'll get up," and she calmy got to her feet and looked at me like, ok, now what? We finished the trot out but she was just slightly off on her right shoulder from the fall. The vet wanted to re-check her in the morning just to make sure she was ok. A lot of horses would have freaked out if they went down like that. Not Marie, it would take too much energy to freak out. Lady Bug vetted in fine. Margaret Farnum had parked right next to my trailer. I had ridden the Crooked River 60 with her. Marie was in heat and nuzzling Promise over the fence. Louise Lester was parked behind me and she had her stallion with her who was talking to Marie and trying to tell her he was the only 'real man' on the grounds. But Marie was only interested in Promise, silly mare. Bonnie brought a bottle of her father's famous 'recipe' with her. Homemade coffee brandy. It was very good. We made a couple drinks and went over to Susie's trailer to sit and chat. Mary Batt showed up around 4:00 PM. The riders meeting was at 5:00 PM and held at the starting line. Then there were snack at the house. It was the usualy layout that was more a meal then snacks. There were several pasta dishes, chili, beans, zucchini casserole and lots of homemade deserts. We ate like pigs. It was quite cold outside by now. After eating, we went outside and huddled around a campfire together. Vicki had even hired entertainment for the evening. "The Horse Hippy" who is a musician and comedian. He was late showing up since he'd written the wrong date on his calendar. I was hanging out by the campfire trying to avoid being roped into line dancing in the barn. I don't mind line dancing, I was just too tired for it. Vicki came down and told us the Horse Hippy had arrived and was all set up in the barn. I don't know what I expected but he was quite a sight. He definitely looked like an old hippy with his long gray hair and beard, disheveled jeans, denim shirt, and red flannel vest. Looked like he just came crawling out of the hills. He played banjo and electric guitar. He was actually quite good and very amusing. Marcy Gamester was dying to dance and trying to get everyone to dance with her. She got Steve, the farm owner, to dance a few with her. Then she got the man that had brought the Horse Hippy to dance with her. Susie got me up for one dance but I quickly retreated back to my comfy hay bale. Though my feet were getting cold enough that I was thinking about dancing just to warm them up. After the Horse Hippy left, I went back to the campfire. Eventually, Bonnie and I headed to bed. We knew we'd be warmer in our sleeping bags. Zephyr, as usual, spazzed out when he got up into bed with us. He crawled into Bonnie's sleeping bag to check it out. Then he tried to crawl into mine. I had my mummy style bag and it was too tight a fit for him so he crawled out and back into Bonnie's bag and slept with her all night. Silly dog! As we laid there, we could see our breath, burrrrrr. We knew we wouldn't want to get out of our sleeping bags in the morning. I put the clothes I was wearing the next day into my sleeping bag so they would be warm in the morning.

It actually warmed up overnight and was warmer in the morning. It was cloudy but so far the rain was holding off. For that I was extremely grateful. I fed Marie and Lady Bug then headed to the house for some breakfast. I had the usual oatmeal of course. But there were lots of other goodies as well. Home baked breads, pastires and donuts. I just love this ride! while the costume class was being judged, I got Marie out and lunged her so she would be ready for her re-check. It just happened the vet walked by as I was lunging her and he watched her and told me she looked fine to ride. Bonnie and I tacked up and got ready to ride. The start of the ride went down the long driveway, then turned into the fields and came back around along the edge of the fields. Bonnie, Susie, Mary and I headed out together. When we turned into the fields, Susie broke into a trot and all the horses got excited. Well, not so much Marie but the rest got excited. When we turned the first corner at the end of the first field, Mary's horse, Midori, kicked at Lady Bug just hitting Bonnie's stirrup. That set Lady Bug to bucking which got Cody to jumping and leaping. I just sat back to enjoy the show. Susie and Bonnie were getting a bit stressed so Susie asked if Bonie and I would mind if she and Mary rode on ahead of us to split the horse up. We were fine with that. About then, Margaret on Promise caught up with us and Promise was looking like a time bomb ready to explode. She asked if she could ride with Bonnie and me hoping this would calm Promise down. We were fine with that. Though now Marie was getting a bit excited due to Cody going ahead of us. She didn't do anything bad, just set a fast pace hoping to catch up with Cody. Promise didn't have any trouble with the pace Marie set but it was a bit faster then Bonnie really wanted to go. We caught up with Jan Hatch and rode with her on and off for a while. It started to sprinkle while we were riding the first loop. We slowed down a mile before the hold and came in with nice cool horses. The hold was back at camp. Since it was quite chilly and damp, we put fleece blankets on the horses so their muscles wouldn't cramp. I was able to have Marie's P&R done early so I had more time to get her and myself something to eat. Vetting went fine and we were out of the hold on time. I put on my rain poncho in case it started to rain for real. Bonne, Margaret and I stayed together most of the second loop. we eventually caught up with Susie and Mary. At that point, Margaret rode ahead with Jan. We caught up with Irving at a water stop and Mary decided to ride with him. So, Susie, Bonnie and I finished the ride together. I told Irving I was going to get ahead of him so he would not cross the finish line ahead of me like he did at the Crooked River 60. I teased him about this all weekend. Cody was still being silly and pulling Susie a lot. When we got back to the trailer, We quickly untacked and got blankets on the horses. I did sponge Marie off to get off the dirt and sweat but kept her covered. her pulse came down quickly. We went for our trot out and she spooked at the dog tied near the arena. The same dog she ignored when she vetted in. And the silly part was the dog wasn't even out!! So, she didn't do her best trot out ever, but then her trot outs are never very impressive. After the trot out, we settled the horses back in their fence with hay and water. We put rain sheets on them since it was really starting to rain now. We then headed to the house for supper. It was great as usual, Salad, chicken, potato, squash, string beans and pie as well as left overs from last nights snacks. After the meal, the hands on were done. They did this under a tarp. Some of the horses did not like the sound of the rain on the tarp and didn't want to stand under it. Lady Bug jumped around a bit at first. Lady Bug was also a bit chilled even though she was blanketed. Marie was good but you could tell she didn't like it. Lady Bug had a very sore back. The vet said a lot of horses did. It must have had something to do with the weather. As soon as we were done, we put the horses in the trailer with hay so they would be out of the rain. Then we packed up and got ready to go. The award ceremony was held in the house where it was warm and dry. Susie got an award for the scariest costume. I got a nice hand pained plate for high point QH. Bonnie got a plate for high point pony. Lady Bug is 1/2 Welch Cob. We left right after the awards. We took one wrong turn on the way home but when the road soon turned to dirt we knew it was the wrong road. Other then that, it was an uneventful drive home. It was a great ride and I was sad the riding season was over. I gotten to know so many people in this sport now and I will miss seeing them over the winter.

Boo 25 ME 10/19 25/S-23/F
Judges: Buggia - Lavelle
Junior
1. Travelon's Two Times Two / M Kohler
Adult
2. Nerzans Lady Mariah / H Bonneau
3. Prymtym / T Hutchinson
6. HFA Silver Savana / M Deleware
8. Xavier Sunny Acres / S Reinheimer
8. Menomin Medallion / L Hutchenson
10. Lady Bug / B Hinz
10. Czar Nickolas / L Lester
12. LWF Paljoe Promise / M Farnum
13. Marie / C Ross (score 93.50)
14. Amalie Spunk / L. Kohler
14. Nikita Bahar / L Crowley
16. Mighty Frankie / T York
16. DLA Cassidy / J Hatch
18. TC Spark / C Lester
Completions:
GBA Karakorum / J Sewell
Willows Rahmann / I McNaughton
Travelons Times Two / M Gamester
FR Midori / M Batt

Crooked River 60 CTR Waterford, ME October 2002

Another minor pre-ride adventure. First and most devestating was the news that Tut's restaurant in Waterford was closed!! That was almost enough to make me cancel my entry. Thankfully, the closing is only temporary. In August I went to the Northeast Challenge endurance ride to crew for Heather. The ride is held in Buckfield and I noticed that I was on RT. 117. Now, Rt 117 goes to Rt 26 in Norway which is on the way to Waterford. I asked Heather how RT 117 was between Buckfield and Norway. She said it was ok. So, I decided the next time I went to Waterford, I would try the back way and avoid going through Lewiston/Auburn. I don't mind driving through Lewiston/Auburn except for the million traffic lights. I decided to wait for Bonnie to get out of work so she could ride up with me. Bonnie wasn't taking her horse, she was working the ride. Bonnie got to my house a little after 1:00 PM. I was ready to go so we just tossed Bonnie's stuff into my trailer and we were off. Keep in mind that my muffler is falling off my truck and it is getting quite loud. Another reason to avoid Lewiston/Auburn. I was familiar with the back roads to Buckfield. We had no problems to that point. Then, from Buckfield on Rt 117 was new territory. It wasn't long before we started climbing. We went up and up and up.....and just when we thought we couldn't possibly go up anymore, there was a sign warning of a "steep incline ahead" !!! I though we WERE on a steep incline. We went around the next corner and I had sudden visions of a roller coaster! The incline did get steeper! Somehow poor "Old Blue" got my trailer to the top of the hill. We were down to about 15 mph by the time we reached the top but we made it. So, now I'm a bit worried what the down hill side is going to be like. Thankfully, it's long and quite gradual going down the other side. Phew! "Old Blue" is too old to be abused like that. Bonnie and I decided we would take our usual route home. We got to the fairground without problems. Heather was the first one to spot me when I drove in. "Gosh," she said, "I heard you coming before you even turned the corner by Tut's. I knew it was either you or Margaret. You two are the only ones that haul with such old trucks." The ride was low on entries so we were able to park where ever we wanted. We parked next to Heather near the camper hook-ups. I put Marie in the nearest barn in a stall right across from Heather's horse, Mariah. I took a chance and used ropes across the front of Marie's stall hoping she would leave them alone and stay in. It was misting when we got there. There was no line for the vetting so I took Marie up got her vetted in right away. Then, Bonnie and I set up camp. Bonnie had brought all kinds of goodies to snack on. We sat around a picnic table with Heather and snacked in the mist for a while. Margaret showed up and Heather went off to talk her into parking near us. Bonnie and I went to get our supper. The ride provided a meal tonight for an extra $6.50. It was prepared by Rich Gamester and was very good. half a chicken (nicely cooked) salad, bread, potato and green beans. Zpehyr was with us. He thought the supper looked quite good also and begged his hardest for some scraps. He got a few. Margaret put her horse, Promise, next to Marie. Marie was giving him dirty looks but not making much of a fuss otherwise. I walked Marie around later, then went up to the barn with our chairs to sit with some others out of the rain. Scott Hatch was in the barn with a group of people and spotted Heather's horse Mariah. He proceded to tell them the tale of the Fryeburg ride when Mariah and Promise bolted in a field. Margaret jumped off Promise, Mariah fell and Heather was thrown. Mariah got lost in a swamp and a search party had to gou out to find her. He described the terrain and conditions and then told how "we all" saw Mariah at the last minute. I don't think Scott realized that Heather, Bonnie and I were sitting in a stall at the other end of the barn. I almost jumped up and corrected his story to point out that it was "I" that saw Mariah at the last minute. We finally headed off to bed around 9:00 PM. Zephyr had his usual spazz out spell when we put him up in the gooseneck to sleep with us. We just hid inside our sleeping bags until he settled down. It is really funny watching him. We talked for a while before falling to sleep. I was raining quite hard by this time.

When I woke up, it was still raining. I had been having the strangest dream about Bonnie and a trailer. I dreamed her new trailer was parked in our yard and Fred was doing something with it. When he was done, he didn't chock the wheels and it rolled down the driveway and hit something. Bonnie was very upset and crying and she ran down the driveway and got underneath the trailer and pushed it back up the hill. when she got it to the top of the hill she couldn't hold it and it rolled back down and dragged her. That's when I woke up and I didn't know what happened to her. Strange.....I fed Marie and then went down to the building where breakfast was set up. I had coffee and oatmeal. The riders meeting was in the dance hall because of the rain. Marie and I were starting with Margaret Farnum and Promise. The ride was scheduled to start at 7:30 AM. It was raining so hard at 7:00 AM it was decided to push the start time forward to 8:30 AM. I was still raining at 8:00 AM, 8:15 AM still raining, 8:20 raining, 8:25 AM raining, 8:30 AM, Just like someone turned off a faucet, it stopped raining. YEAH! Margaret and I were numbers 10 and 11. We got off to a good start. The trails were good. I thought the rain would make them muddy but it didn't. Just a lot of puddles good for the horses to drink from. We set a fairly slow pace the first few miles of the ride due to rocks and hills. It quickly got warm and muggy. Then a breeze came up and it was much more comfortable. Margaret and I got into the hold in good time. Bonnie had all my stuff ready. Marie pulsed down well and passed the vetting without problem. Bonnie sponged her and fed her while I grabbed a sandwich. Just before I mounted up, I checked Marie's girth. It wasn't too bad but I tightened it up one more notch, and we left the hold. We met Marsha Deleware walking up the trail towards us leading her horse. She was wet from head to toe. Her horse had spooked and backed off the side of a little bridge into a stream and got caught in some cables with Marsha pinned under her. By some miracle, Scott Hatch was there on his ATV on his way to fix a trail marker and was able to get her and her horse out ok. Marsha was a bit shook up but mostly unhurt. Her horse got some scrapes but nothing serious. Marsha pulled from the ride. Heather's horse also spooked and Heather was thrown but she also was fine. Somewhere along the way Irving's group passed us and Margaret and I were last. Irving rarely passes anyone. We finished the ride on time but were humiliated at being passed by Irving! Bonnie had water and sponges out. I untacked Marie and sponged her off. I took her pulse several times and it wasn't going down like it should. Hummmm, the Bonnie lets out a groan and tells me to check behind Marie's elbows. Poor Marie had huge swollen ...... I don't know what it was ....huge swollen fluid filled pockets. I don't know what caused them. They were in front of the girth. They were not rubbed or raw looking. Just big swollen fluid filled areas. She was in pain and that was most likely why her pulse wasn't coming down like it should. Her pulse was still 54 when she was checked. She wasn't interesed in eating either, just hung her head. Her trot out was horrible, she was really hurting and didn't want to move at all. I thought for sure this was the end of my ride. The vet told me not to give up. I was not going to be eliminated. I was told to apply lots of cold water to the area and just come for a re-check in the morning. I agreed to this but didn't think for a minute Marie would be ok to ride in the morning. Bonnie and I spent a lot of time that night holding cold cloths behind each elbow. Then I would walk her a little, then more cold clothes. Her pulse stayed up around 58 for quite a long time. She was finally eating and drinking good though. The supper that was provided was very good. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, bread and pie. We went down to the award presentation for the 30 mile riders. Then, more time putting cold cloths on Marie and walking her. Later we went over to Rich and Marcy's trailer to just hang out and socialize. Marcie was telling us of all the ECTRA rules she has managed to break. I checked Marie's pulse one more time before going to bed. It was finally down to 48 but that was still higher then normal. Char Lester came over to see how Marie was and offer some advise. She asked when the last time was that I had given Marie electrolytes. I know I got a bit defensive with her but I was just worried about Marie and didn't want to get into the "electrolyte debate right then as I was sure that was not any part of Marie's problem. I did apologize to Char later. I felt bad as I know she was just trying to help. When Bonnie and I went to bed, I had made a tug of war toy for Zephyr by tying some knots in a piece of rope. Boy did we get him wound up! We thought we would never get him settled back down so we could get some sleep.

Sunday morning I got up to feed Marie and approached her stall with a laden heart. I was so pleased to see her bright eyed and eager for breakfast. Her pulse was normal and the swollen areas had drained and were much smaller. She was moving comfortably and passed her re-check. I could hardly believe it. The weather was good and the ride started right at 7:30 AM. By the first water stop, Marie's swelling was completely gone and she was traveling great. Promise spooked and Margaret came off him but was unhurt. Margaret and I rode a little bit too fast on the 5 miles before the hold. We missed seeing the 1 mile to go sign so flew right into the hold. Oops.... I was afraid our P&R sould be too high but Marie just squeaked under within 10 minutes. Phew! We got through the hold fine and headed off on the final leg of the ride. We were really keeping an eye out for Irving. We were determined not to let him pass us again today. He got withing sight of us in the last mile. We did not want to speed up that close to the finish. Irvings horse walks faster then Marie and Promise and he keept creeping up on us. He passed us about 10 feet from the finish line! AGH! There was still one rider behind us so at least we weren't last. Bonnie once again had water and sponges ready. I untacked Marie and sponged her well. Her pulse was 48 after 20 minutes. Just a tad over normal but not bad at all. The swollen spots were completely gone but she was just a little sore to the touch there. All else was fine. Apparently 6 or 7 other horses had gotten the same swollen spots. None as bad as Marie's but still it was strange. Marie vetted out quite well. I settled Marie into her stall with lots of hay and water. Bonnie and I packed up most of our stuff and then got our supper. Tonight was soup and cheeseburgers. Then it was time for the award presentations. There was some comfusion with the paperwork and while we were waiting Margaret said to me, "I should go pack while I'm waiting and just have you let me know when they get things straightened out." I told Margaret that was a good idea and if she won grand champion, I would give her whatever I won and keep her prize and tell her I'd won the grand championship. She laughed and said maybe she would just sit tight and wait. Marie got a score of 91 which I though was great considering all she'd gone through. And don't you know Margaret did win grand champion! I told her she should have gone and packed up and left me to get her award! I told her it was Marie that inspired Promise to win. It only took Bonnie and I a few more minutes to finish packing up. While we were doing that, we got to witness Steve Rojek run over his riding helmet with his F550 truck. OOps..... We had an uneventful drive home.

Crooked River 60 ME 10/5 12/S-F
Judges: Creighton
1. LWF Paljoe Promise / M Farnum
2. TC Spark / C Lester
3. Fagan Farah / A M Savino
4. GH Jessee Jolody / D Houghton
5. AFX Ploaris / S Rojek
6. Pygmalion / K Downs
6. Nerzan's Lady Mariah / H Bonneau
8. Araba FAble / J Collins
9. Marie / C Ross (score 91.00)
10. SR Katherine / D Rojek
11. DLA Cassidy / J Hatch
12. Willow's Rahmaan / I McNaughton

Acadia Pleasure Ride Sept 2002

Our much anticipated yearly trip to Acadia had arrived. This is just a pleasure trip with friends. I left my truck and trailer home this time since "Old Blue" needs work....again.... and it's a long haul to Acadia. So, Bonnie was taking Linda and her horse Mac, I was going with Halla
I was on vacation the week before we left. Fred and I have been fixing the horse barn. The sill down the middle of the barn rotted and had to be replaced. Because we had the barn torn apart, Bonnie and I were keeping our horses over at Carol Lenna's. She has a nice run-in shed and pasture that she isn't using. Bonnie was taking care of the horses. My garden also needed to be harvested that same week so I was going crazy trying to work on the barn and get my canning and pickling done. I canned 31 pints of pickled beets, 24 quarts of green beans and 12 pints of carrots. I didn't start packing for Acadia until Friday night. Much of what I needed was in my horse trailer which was over at Carol's. we planned to leave by 8:00 AM so I got over to Carol's at 6:30 AM so I would have time to pack what I needed from my trailer. Bonnie was already there when I arrived. She headed right over to Linda's to get her stuff so we could see if everything was going to fit in her truck. I fed the horses while Bonnie was gone. Bonnie has a taunno cover on her truck so is limited on how high she can stack things. My trunk with my saddle and all my horse gear was just a little too tall to go in. Nor could we get in any of the hay. We had to pile all that stiff into my truck to take to Halla's and she would have to haul it up. The hay was all in bags so she could put it in her trailer's dressing room. It was 8:30 AM by the time we got everything ready to go to Halla's. We loaded the horses and headed to Halla's. When we arrived there she said she had started to think we had forgotten about the trip! Somehow the plug on Bonnie's truck came unplugged and dragged on the road on the way to Halla's. It had worn the casing off the bottom but the contacts were still ok. We had to duct tape the plug into the receptacle and then tie it on to make sure it didn't come off. Bonnie was not very pleased about this. Tony helped Halla and me get the hay and my trunk packed into Halla's trailer. We unloaded Marie and put her in Halla's pasture while we were loading my stuff into Halla's trailer. Marie had a fit about being separated from Bonnie's horse Lady Bug. She ran and hollered something awful. We were going to meet Bonnie and Linda at the Quick Mart Right by the on ramp to the highway. When Halla and I got there, Bonnie and Linda were waiting for us. We went in to get coffee and ran into Al Penney. He is my farrier. I owed him for my horses last shoeing so I was able to pay him and save myself a stamp. Then in walks Dennis and Barbara, my brother and his wife. They were heading up to my other brother, Kevin's camp for the weekend. My parents were already at the camp.


We stopped at Dysart's on the way up. we had a great meal there as usual. There was a music festival going on in Bangor that weekend and the traffic was backed up on I-95. We got directions from someone to get around that and get onto I-395 past the traffic. That turned out great! We got to Acadia with no problems. We got checked in quickly. They have put in all new barns that are very nice. Everything is very convenient. We got the horses settled in and unpacked what we would need at the barn. There were only two other horses in the barn. There are three barns for people bringing their how horses to ride. Each barn has twelve stalls. The other two barns were empty. We were very surprised, we thought the place would be packed. We were told at the office that August is usually a slow month for stable, but that they were very booked up for September and October. We had two stalls on each side of the barn. We put Marie and Slick next to each other. Lady was put right across the aisle from Marie with Mac next to her. Once we got the horses settled in, we parked the trailers in the campsite. Halla brought her 'dining tarp' and we had quite a time setting that up. It's really quite simple but if anyone was watching us, they got a good laugh I'm sure. We finally managed to our satisfaction and dragged the picnic table under it. Bonnie and Linda cleaned out Bonnie's trailer and set up their cots in there. I was sleeping in Halla's trailer. She has a gooseneck like mine. I was teasing her on how privileged I felt being allowed to sleep in her palace! Halla introduced herself to the two men who owned the horses that were in our barn. One of the horses was a big Percheron/Standardbred cross gelding named Wallace. The other was an older polo pony named Tucker owned by a man named Jay. Jay is from Manchester, England but is now living in NH. After we got camp set up, we went out for a ride. We rode the Day Mountain loop. Linda was a little anxious about how Mac would react to the carriages. He has a history of being scared of them. We came across three or four of them and all the horses were good about it. They gawked a bit but that was about all. Marie seemed a bit out of sorts. She was a little excited and crabby with the other horses. She has been a bit out of sorts actually since being moved to Carol's place. She's never been away from home that long and I think it is confusing her. We had a good ride. The only problem was the dust on the trails. It hasn't rained in a while and it was very dusty.


We fed the horses when we got back from our ride then headed out to find a place to eat. We were all in Bonnie's truck since her truck has an extended cab with a back seat. Every time we would see a restaurant, Bonnie would slow down and ask if we wanted to try it. Halla kept telling her to keep going. Bonnie would grumble and keep going. Eventually we ended up in Bar Harbor. It was around 8:00 PM by then. We had gone through to the far side of town before Halla was content to let Bonnie find somewhere to park so we could walk around and find somewhere to eat. Finding a parking spot was not easy but Bonnie found a spot on a corner she was able to pull into. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to and agreed to give it a try. This was the West Street Cafe. There was a waiting line but we figured it would be the same everywhere. We didn't have long to wait. The place was quite nice and we all enjoyed our food. When we got back to camp, we checked on the horses, topped off their water and gave them plenty of hay before we headed to bed. Halla had brought a bunch of "smut" magazine to read such at the Enquirer, etc. We read them for quite a while getting a good laugh from them. Right after we'd settled into bed, we started hearing ka-band, ka-bang, ka-band and it was LOUD like someone was pounding nails over at the barns. But, it was way to late for someone to be doing any work over there. After a while Halla says to me, "Cindy, is that Marie?". I replied, "I don't think so, she's never kicked in a stall before." Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang....... Suddenly Halla burst out, "That bastard! Slick has been doing this in his stall since early spring!" Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang......"That bastard" Halla would mutter and roll over and try to sleep. Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang..... "That bastard" she muttered and rolled over again. I don't know if Slick stopped banging or not or I just fell asleep. In any case, I wasn't awake for very long. I woke up several times during the night and it had started raining. When Halla and I woke up, it was still raining. Bonnie and Linda were already up and had fed the horses. Halla and I laid around until we smelled the coffee Linda was making. It was fresh perked and very good. We were glad we had set up Halla's tarp. We hung out under the tarp drinking coffee for a while then decided to go over to the Jordan Pond House for something to eat. The Jordan Pond House is quite the tourist spot and quite expensive. But, it is also quite a nice place to eat. The restaurant wasn't open when we got the gift shop was open so we browsed around in there waiting for the restaurant to open. I bought a stainless steel camp mug and a bucket hat. Bonnie picked up a rain coat and a stainless steel travel cup. Linda bought a pair of hiking boots, a bucket hat and a fleece pullover. Halla got a bucket hat and some stuffed toys. One was tit mouse and the others were little birds that make bird sounds when you squeeze them. Halla also purchased a balsa scented door stop which she later laid out between our beds in the trailer. I was kind of wondering if it was a hint that I smelled bad or something. Halla and I immediately donned our bucket hats for the rest of the weekend and referred to each other as bucket heads. We were seated in the restaurant right away as soon as they opened. It was 11:30 AM and the rain had finally stopped. I had curried chicken salad which was served with grapes, mandarin orange slices and crackers. It was absolutely delicious though outrageously priced. We all had Oregon Chi to drink. This is a spiced tea sweetened with cream and spiced with pumpkin. It was delicious! By the time we left the restaurant, the sun had come out and it was beautiful. As soon as we got back to camp, we headed out for a ride. The rain was actually good as it laid the dust down on the roads and the riding was much better then yesterday. John and Jay were just heading out when we got to the barn. Halla took a few pictures of them. They were camping in a tent and said they'd gotten a bit wet last night. Halla offered to let them sleep in the back of her horse trailer if it rained again tonight! AGH! They seemed nice but they WERE strangers! And they had their own horse trailer they could sleep in! They invited us to join them that evening at their campfire.






We rode down to Seal Harbor and rode the roads down by Long Pond where they don't allow bicycles. Then we went up by Jordan Pond and the rock slide. We were out for nearly four hours. Mac had been very excited when we started. He looked very impressive with his tail up in the air, his neck arched and prancing down the roads. I'm not sure that Linda was all that impressed but the rest of us enjoyed the sight. Marie was still being a bit crabby with the geldings. Lady Bug was an angel. Slick was jigging a bit when we were walking which was irritating Halla. After the ride, we decided that Mac got the "most impressive looking horse of the day" award and Lady Bug got the "best horse of the day" award. We got someone to take a picture of us all on one of the bridges. Bonnie and Linda got ahead of Halla and me at one point and Marie almost tied with Mac for "most impressive horse of the day". Marie doesn't like getting separated from Lady Bug. When we got back to camp, we lounged around snacking on all the goodies everyone had brought. I didn't bring much but everyone else brought too much so it all worked out. We decided we were too full to eat supper but thought we could still manage some desert. So, we went back to the Jordan Pond House. We had the sweetest little waitress that was from Mobil, Alabama. Halla just had to buy some more of the stuffed toy birds at the gift shop. Linda, Bonnie and I had blueberry cobbler and Chai. Halla just had Chi.

The nigth was very clear and it was going to be a full moon. I told Bonnie I wanted to do a moonlight ride. Bonnie seemed interested, Halla didn't. Linda never made any comment on it. When we got back, we checked the horses. Bonnie and Linda went to bed. Halla and I joined John and Jay at their campfire. We had a nice time chatting with them. By 10:30 PM the moon was coming up and it was very nice out. I once again tried to get Halla to go for a moonlight ride but she still wasn't interested. She tried to talk one of the guys into going with me and I wanted to slap her silly! I was NOT going on a moonlight ride with two men I did not know. Thankfully, they decided they were too drunk to do any riding. So, I woke Bonnie up and talked her into going with me. It was such a wonderful ride. We rode to the top of Day Mountain. It was a bit dark on the way up as the moon was still rising but it was gorgeous at the top of the mountain and perfect on the way back. We had such a good time and Marie and Lady Bug were wonderful. Halla had left a light on in the trailer for me. What a sweetie! She was still awake when I crawled into bed. We chatted a bit them settled in to sleep. Ka-bang, ka-bang, ka-bang, "That bastard!" and so it went for the second night.


I was the last one to get up Monday morning. Halla was up early trying to get Slick to stop banging the stall wall. I never heard her get up. She said I'd talked to her but I don't' remember it. Linda had coffee ready again. I'm taking her camping with me all the time from now on! We had enough snack food that we didn't bother going out for breakfast. The first thing Linda said to me when I came out of the trailer was, "I hear I missed a great ride last night." I guess she had wanted to go but since she hadn't said anything when I'd originally mentioned it, Bonnie and I had assumed she wasn't interested. Bonnie and I felt bad that we hadn't tried to wake her up. We checked in with the office to see if we had to have our horses out of their stalls by 10:00 AM which is the normal check out time. If so, we'd have to pack up before riding. It turned out there was no one coming in for those stalls so we could take our time so we decided to go riding first. We rode up to Eagle Lake. Then I took a wrong turn and ended up going by Aunt Betty Pond and up towards the Witch Hold Pond loop. Horses aren't allowed there so we had to back track by Aunt Betty Pond and head down to Jordan Pond. At one point, Slick went right up to a woman on a bicycle, reached into her fanny packed and carefully plucked a water bottle out of it by the cap. It as the funniest thing! Thankfully, the woman used to own horses so was not scared by Slick. She just calmly removed the bottle from between his teeth and put it back in her pack. Slick also stuck his nose into several bicycle carts and "smoozed" with the children. So, Slick got the "biggest smoozer of the day" award. Lady Bug was now in heat and glued herself to Slick. She kept nickering to him and gazing at him all moon eyed. Marie was quite jealous and kept giving Slick dirty looks. Marie got quite excited by Lady Bug being in heat and kept sticking her nose under Lady Bug's tail. Mac seemed to think they were all a bunch of pigs and wanted nothing to do with any of them. Mac definitely got the "best horse of the day" award today. We were almost back to camp when we again came upon the woman whose water bottle had been stolen by Slick. She had some apple cores and gave them to Slick. His smoozing had paid off. The horses really got along very well together. We kept switching places taking turns leading and it was great.

Once we got back to camp Bonnie and Linda were on a mission to get packed and head out. Halla would have liked to relax a while longer but Bonnie didn't want to drive home in the dark. It didn't take long to pack and head out. Halla and I stopped at Dysart's on the way home. Bonnie and Linda had gone straight home. It was a great trip.

Fryeburg 25 CTR Fryeburg, ME July 2002

Another great ride, another pre-ride story. At least this one doesn't involve my truck. I had sent my entry in only a week before the ride. The entry fee was $67. One morning just before the ride, I was sitting at the table eating breakfast and noticed a couple of tickets on the table. It suddenly dawned on me that Fred had gotten tickets for the Maine State Music Theatre and it was for the same night I would be in Fryeburg! AAGGGHHHHH. Fred had bought the tickets ages ago. He so rarely makes plans like this and I knew that somehow I had to figure out how to be in two places at once so.....

I got up at 4:30 PM Thursday afternoon and packed up the trailer, took care of the horses and headed to work. I had to be into work early at 8:00 PM instead of 9:00 PM. I worked until 5:30 AM, drove home, fed the horses, ate breakfast then got the horses ready to go. When Bonnie arrived at 7:30 AM, she followed me to Fryeburg in her car. She brought her car so I would be able to use it later that night to come home to go with Fred to the theatre and not have to drive my big truck. We made good time getting to Fryeburg taking us a little less the 1 hr. 45 min. We chose our usual stalls at the end of the first barn. There was already plenty of bedding in the stalls so we just put in hay and water and settled the horses in. We then went to the office to register. Once that was taken care of we headed into town for lunch as it was 11:00 AM. Much to our surprise, there were no restaurants open in Fryeburg. We stopped at a gas station to ask about some place to eat. The station attendant told us our best bet was to go into Laconia, NH. Only about a 10 minute drive so we went. We found a great place there and had a nice lunch. On the way back to the fairground, we got lost. Not too badly though and a nice woman out walking gave us directions back to the fairground. We got back in plenty of time for vetting in. We went right up for vetting so were only 3rd and 4th in line. The vet wasn't real happy with the way Marie trotted so I would have to go back in the morning to have her re-checked. I forgot to tell the vet that Marie just had pads taken off her front feet so they might be a bit tender right now. She's had pads on front for four years and I'm sure her feet will take a bit of time to toughen up again. After vetting in, I hung out in front of the stalls and visited with Jean and Elliot. We walked the horses, then at 3:30 PM I headed for home. The traffic was quite heavy but I still got home in only 1 hr. 45 min. I took a quick shower then Fred and I went out to supper. We went to the new Chinese place in Topsham and it was quite good. The musical we went to see was "Ragtime". I was very good though I admit I snoozed through some of it. The musical was over at 10:30 PM. By now I had been up over 30 hours and still had the drive back to the fairground. I arrived back there at 1:15 AM. When I drove in, Heather's trailer was parked so close to mine that I wondered if I would be able to open my trailer door. I had told Bonnie I would likely get some sleep at home before driving back to the ride, so I was sure hoping she hadn't given my bed away to anyone. I saw that Heather was sleeping in her truck so my bed was empty. I tried to be as quiet as I could but I still managed to wake Bonnie up. She and Zephyr were quite comfortable together. Zephyr got all spazzed out when I crawled up into bed. Thankfully he settled down fairly quickly. Bonnie told me I hadn't missed anything by missing the supper that was provided that night. She said she had one nearly raw cheeseburger and a small cup of cole slaw. I'm glad I'd had Chinese! It sure didn't take me long to get to sleep.

We got up at 5:00 AM. That was only about 3 hours of sleep for me but I didn't care. The weather was cool, dry and overcast all day. Great weather for the horses. I went to the office for some breakfast. They had hot and cold cereal, bagels, donuts, muffins, fruit, juice and Coffee. I had oatmeal (big surprise) and a muffin. I walked Marie before taking her for her re-check. She passed the re-check. The riders meeting was held at 6:30 AM. The ride started at 7:00 AM. Bonnie and I took our time tacking up our horses as we were in the back of the lineup to start. There were a lot of riders this year. Over 30 horses in the 25 mile ride and nearly as many in the 50 mile ride. We had a wonderful ride. Both horses were just perfect and the trails were lovely. Lots of wide sandy agricultural roads and we got to cross the river this year. It was Bonnie's first time crossing the river which was exciting for her though the water was very low. We paced ourselves perfectly. Bonnie even led us in a lot of nice long canters. We only had one spook when a teenager popped up over a bank and surprised us. We finished in perfect time. When we got back we were sad to hear there were several accidents out on trail. Irving's horse and reared up and fallen on him. He had to be taken to the hospital. He had several broken ribs but would be ok. Dinah Rojek's horse fall and Dinah landed hard on her hip. She too was taken to the hospital. Thankfully, nothing was broken, just badly bruised. One woman fell off in the river. Another woman fell off twice and bruised her shoulder. I've never know so many people to come off their horses in a single ride. We did our final trot out and I remembered to tell the vet about Marie recently having her pads removed. After the trot out we put the horses away and relaxed until it was nearly time for our hands on. We walked them for a bit before the hands on and everything went well when they were checked. We settled the horses into their stalls with plenty of hay and water. We then went to get supper. It was way better then the previous nights fare with grilled chicken, salad, potato, sauteed summer vegetables, bread, fruit and cake. It was delicious. We hung out at the picnic tables and visited with everyone while the scoring was done. Bonnie took Zephyr for a walk then brought him over to the picnic tables were I was. It took a long time for the scoring to be completed. Bonnie and I both had very good scores. She scored a 98 and I had a 97.75. We cleaned our stalls, packed up the trailer and headed home around 6:30 PM. It was a great ride.

Fryeburg 25 ME 33/S-31/F
Judges: F. Gorra - J Levelle
1. Manyone Praise Song Furka / L Alderdi
2. Sage / S MacDonald
2. MCF Bijou / M Bittersdorf
5. ? / S Niedoroda
6. Glad Gay's Cresundo / V Bentley
6. Lady Bug / B Hinz
8. Disco dusst Bunny / C Nelson
9. Codeman / C Metayer
10. FFC Gremlin /
10. The J Man / F Raymond
12. Tonka Kola Gold / S Akerstrom
12. Marie / C Ross (score 97.75)
12. Aziza / L LeVitre
16. Mercedes Magic / S Whitcomb
17 Reczaar / D DeShon
17. Prymtyn / T Hutchinson
Completions:
? / M Demison
? / J McKittrick
Indian Halo / J Brucker
Hebet Betal / M Russell
Moria NA / B Hurton
Mariah Gene / M Paltrow
A Royal Holiday / L Walsh

Pine Tree 100 Endurance, Waterford, ME June 2002

Another great adventure. Although, when I headed off on this ride I didn't know how much of an adventure it was going to be. With much arm twisting, I got Fred to come along on this ride to pit crew for me. I didn't want poor Bonnie stuck crewing alone again. Susie was also coming to this ride. We planned to ride together and she also needed crew. For once there is no pre-ride repair story for our sorry old truck, it has actually been running great. The Pine Tree is a one day 30/50/100 mile endurance ride. Susie and I were entered in the 50 mile distance. I had originally hoped to do the 100 mile distance and had conditioned Marie with this in mind. I just didn't have the money for the 100 mile entry fee. Fred and I headed for Waterford around 8:00 AM Friday morning. We had both worked all night. Fred had actually worked 2 jobs. We had an uneventful drive up. A lot of people had already arrived. Even Susie beat me there, a first I think! Heather spotted us as soon as we arrived. The fairground isn't all that large and there are 75 riders between all the distances. Susie had saved us stalls in the back barn. They were really great stalls since they were fully enclosed. the other stalls are all open air cattle stalls without full walls. It was very hot and humid and it was so nice and cool in the barn. No bugs either and the stalls were big. There were no doors on the stalls though. We strung lead ropes across the doors. That was fine for Cody but we ended up tying a board across the front of Marie's stall as she kept leaning on the lead ropes. Susie had left her bale of hay in reach of Marie and she was taking advantage of that. Fred went into the trailer and fell asleep as soon as we got there. Susie and I got the horses settled in. There were two other horses in the barn and one was a stallion. Marie was in heat, as she is every time she is with Cody. She was not interested in the stallion at all, only Cody. But, the stallion was getting very agitated about her. The stallion owner weren't very friendly either. Susie and I went to the office and signed in. We decided to take the horses out for a little ride so they could stretch their legs. We rode for about 1 hour. Marie felt great. Cody stumbled four or five times which worried Susie a bit. She didn't think Cody felt quite like himself. When we got back from our ride, we got out our chairs and settled down for a while by our trailers. Shade was hard to come by so we were huddled in what little shade there was under the gooseneck of Susie's trailer. I had planned to wait for Bonnie before going to Tut's to get lunch. Hunger got the best of me about 1:00 PM and I went down to get a sandwich. Bonnie went by me as I was walking back to the trailer. I got a chicken salad sandwich and it was HUGE and delicious. I got Fred an Italian and woke him up to eat it. Bonnie got out her chair and we all tried to squeeze into the shade together. We finally ended up moving behind my trailer. Fred eventually came out of the trailer and sat on the back of our truck under our gooseneck to eat his sandwich. He wasn't interested in socializing with us girls so he got out his chair and settle back under the gooseneck and fell asleep.

We didn't hurry too much to get in line for vetting. It was so hot and there was no shade so we waited until the line went down a bit. They had P&R people taking the horses temperatures while we were waiting in line. The man that came to take Marie's temperature asked if she had any issue about having her temperature taken. She's never had it taken often but has never fussed when it was so I said no. Well, HA! Marie had a fit jumping and kicking like a fool. Marie never kicks at anything. He finally gave up and told me to tell the vet that she did have an issue with having her temperature taken and it wasn't worth getting hurt over. the man stalked off muttering about knowing how 'mares' are. I was appalled. And being a mare is no excuse for bad behavior. A few minutes later another P&R person came over and asked if I'd had Marie's temperature taken. I said I hadn't and explained why. He said he was willing to give it a try. Marie didn't fuss for him at all. It's funny how horses react to different people. Marie and Cody both vetted in fine. We got them both settled back in their stalls. We woke Fred up and went down to Tut's for supper. while we were waiting for our meal, one of the other riders came by our table to say hi and told us that there were only eight horses in the 100 mile ride. so, Fred pipes up and says, "I think you should change your entry to the 100." There was dead silence at the table for a minute and finally I said I just didn't have the money to change my entry. Silence for a minute again, then Bonnie says, "I'll pay for it if you want to try it." At this point Susie is getting excited and in her usual infinite enthusiasm is saying, "Cindy, you should go for it, I'll help crew when I'm done with my ride, you should do it, you should really do it..." and so on. I told them I would talk to a few of the really experienced people there and see what they thought of me entering Marie in a 100 with only one 50 mile endurance ride under her belt. I didn't want to push her too hard and hurt her. I felt she was physically in good enough condition, it was mentally I was worried about. Just the thought of entering the 100 got me so flustered I completely lost my appetite and couldn't eat my supper. And it takes a lot to put me off my feed! When we got back to camp, I tracked down Sue Greenall. She is a very experienced endurance rider. She asked me how Marie did on her 50 mile ride. I told her Marie breezed through it. Sue asked if she was bright, alert and active right after the ride. I told her yes, she was. Sue told me to go for it. She gave me some advise on how to ride a 100 which was a lot of help. She told me how to get through the inevitable tired times we would have. I went out and found one of the ride secretaries and told her I wanted to change my entry from the 50 to the 100. She just stared at me for a minute, then said she would have to track down Tom, the ride manager to see how to change an entry up in miles as she'd never had to do that before. Usually, people go down to the shorter distances if they change at all. It turned out to be no problem. She gave me a new riders packet with crew instructions for the 100. Louise Lester asked me if I was crazy and told Bonnie she was even crazier for agreeing to crew for me. I kept getting comments from people in the line of, "you got guts girl" or "are you sure you want to do this". That was just so encouraging. I kept telling people that since I'd never done a 100 before, I was to stupid to know better. The riders meeting was at 7:30 PM. At the meeting they announced that two people at this ride had just qualified for the U.S. Team and would be riding at the World Championships in Spain this fall. Gee, I wasn't feeling too out of my league. Both of the U.S. team qualifiers, Kathy Brunjes and Steve Rojek, came and congratulated me on being willing to try the 100 and were very encouraging. It is one of the things I love about this sport, everyone is so encouraging and helpful. We walked the horses one last time then went to bed. It was nearly 10:00 PM and we would have to be up by 3:30 AM to feed the horses. The ride started at 5:00 AM. Despite the fact that I had been up for over 36 hours and was exhausted, I had trouble getting to sleep. I usually sleep like a log and it's usually Susie who can't get any sleep before a ride. We were making fun of Bonnie the next day because Bonnie usually sleeps in my trailer and I usually sleep well. This time she slept in Susie's trailer an Susie slept well. We told Bonnie she bored us to sleep with her chatter.

Bonnie and Susie had already fed the horses by the time I got up. I had my usual breakfast of oatmeal. I was so wound up I never even went to the office for the donuts and coffee that were provided for everyone. We tacked up the horses in the barn. Susie was worried about how Cody would behave in a pack of over 70 horses starting at the same time. We decided to get out of the way and let the pack leave ahead of us. We found Liz Szeliga in back out of sight hiding for the same reason. Her horse also gets too excited in a large pack. She asked if she could ride with us for a while. We were glad to have her. We'd ridden with her for a while at the Maine 80 last year and enjoyed her company. We headed out as soon as the biggest part of the pack was gone. We passed Heather less then a 1/4 mile up the road. She was off her horse trying to get her under control. She quit the ride right then deciding her horse was too stupid to ride. Poor Heather. This is the same horse that dumped her at Fryeburg last year and got lost in the swamp. Susie, Liz and I moved along quite fast and made good time to the first hold. The first loop was 15 miles and the first and second holds were at the pumping station. The rest of the holds would be back at the fairgrounds. Marie lost a shoe several miles before we got to the hold. Her shoes were quite new so I hadn't been worried about her losing one. Her hoof was really torn up. A farrier was supposed to be at the hold but no one knew where he was. I was just sick, I figured my ride was going to be over before it had barely started. I did have my easyboot with me. I put it on and just prayed that it would stay on for the second loop which was another 15 miles. Marie passed the vet check. I told Bonnie and Fred to keep an eye out for the farrier and ask him to be ready to replace Marie's shoe when I got in for the second hold. The boot stayed on and we made it to the second hold with no trouble. Thankfully, the farrier was there because Marie's hoof was very torn up. The farrier had to build the hoof up with filler so he's have something to nail to. I took Marie through the vetting before having her shoe replace so I could get my "out" time. Your hold time doesn't officially start until you go through the pulse gate and your horses pulse is under 64 bpm. They are also checked for hydration, a quick check for soreness or tack problems and a trot out is done. The vet I got was my regular vet, Larry Buggia. Marie looked a bit off on the foot she'd lost the shoe from but Larry thought it was just from having a boot on one foot. He passed Marie but asked me to come back for a quick check after I got her shoe replaced. It took a while to get the shoe on because of the filler so Susie headed out on the third loop without me. Marie did fine at her recheck once the shoe was replaced. I was so relieved and headed out on the third loop alone. I soon caught up with a woman named April from Canada. We rode together for a while, she was very nice. Bonnie and Fred missed one of the pit stops for some reason I can't remember but April's husband was there and gave me and Marie water. I ended up leaving April at that point as she was going to walk the rest of the way to the next hold. April was doing the 50 mile ride. Since I was doing the 100 mile ride, I just couldn't ride that slow with so many miles to go. I was already behind all the other 100 mile riders. April was really hoping I completed the ride so she could tell the people in her barn at home that owned QH's that a QH really could do a one day 100 mile ride. You don't see many QH's in 100 mile rides. Marie passed her check at the third hold. Her pulse was a bit high but mostly from worrying about where Cody was. Abby was now helping to crew me. Liz put her heart monitor on Marie for me to use. I now had 45 miles done and I felt great. I was drinking plenty but still couldn't work up an appetite. Fred and Bonnie had bought me a sandwich and some energy bars. The third hold was 1 hour long so I had a chance to rest for a while. Bonnie walked Marie around letting her graze. I also gave Marie some grain and carrots as well as a light dose of electrolytes. Loop 4 was going to be the long one at 23 miles. And it was the hottest part of the day. I started out with another woman but she was only doing the 50 and we soon had to part ways since her loop was different then mine. I would now be alone for the rest of the ride. All the other 100 mile riders were ahead of me. Marie had a bit of a slump between 3:00 and 5:00 PM. She was great though and didn't quite on me. She did everything I asked, just without much enthusiasm for a while. She got on a slow jogging trot and kept this up pretty steady. I knew we were losing time but I didn't dare push her any harder. The mosquito's were really starting to come out adding to the deer fly that were already plaguing us. The deer fly I could swish off with a leafy branch I'd picked up as the congregate around the horses head. By 6:00 PM the mosquitoes were awful and those I could not swish off as they were all over Marie. She was going crazy with them. She has no tolerance for mosquitoes or black flies. My vet says she has a slight allergic reaction to them. Poor Marie! We kept spraying her at every hold but it didn't seem to help much. I made it through loop 4 to the hold. Marie once again passed the vet check with flying colors. We now had done 68 miles and I was still feeling pretty good. Fred urged me to eat another sandwich and I did manage to eat most of it. Susie was now done with her ride and was now part of my pit crew. One of the ride volunteers came to ask me if I thought I was going to be able to complete loop five before dark. Loop five was 14 miles long and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it. They hang glow sticks to mark the trails after dark. The ride manager, Tom, said that they were going out to mark loops six and seven, the last two loops, which is just one 10 mile loop ridden twice. Then, they would back track down loop five marking the trail until they found me. That seemed fine so, off I went on loop five. It was getting cooler now but the bugs were nearly unbearable. There was a lot of riding along a tar road on this loop. Eventually, the trail went up through a horse farm, down a mown path through a field and into the woods. It was 9:00 PM when I got to this point and the trail through the woods here was just a rough, newly cut trail and it was very dark in the woods. I couldn't really see the trail and Marie couldn't follow it either. Now, I was starting to get nervous. There were a lot of orange markers as it was a new and unclear trail, but nearly too dark to see them. I carefully and slowly worked my way from ribbon to ribbon. When I went from one ribbon and didn't quickly see another, I'd go back and start again at the last ribbon I'd seen. As long as I didn't get off trail, the ride manager would eventually find me while marking the trail with the glow sticks. I was so relieved when I made it through the woods and out onto a dirt road. And I was even more relieved when I heard the sound of Tom's motorcycle coming down the trail. it was sure good to see him. And he did a great job of marking the trail with the glow sticks, I had no trouble following them. And that was important because there was no moon and it was SO dark I literally could not see my horses head. The only trouble I was having with Marie at this point was that she was so hungry, she wanted to stop and eat at every patch of grass we passed. When I got out to the main road and to the next pit stop, Tom hung a glow stick off each of my stirrups so people could see me. I had no reflectors nor any kind of flashlight. By the time I finished loop five I have to admit I was getting a bit spooked about being out in the woods all alone. I had now done 80 miles and the rest of the rides were one loop ahead of me. My amazing mare once again passed the vet check with flying colors so I had to push on even though I had finally hit the wall and I neither mentally or physically wanted to go back out. Marie was awesome. Despite how dark it was, she knew where she could trot and where she couldn't. I just let her take care of things and just kept her going from one glow stick to another. At just about midnight, half way out on loop six, a moose stepped out on the trail in front of us. Marie spun and bolted down the trail the way we'd come. I got her stopped fairly quickly but I was so scared and tired at this point that I didn't have the courage to try to get her past the spot where the moose was. And it was too dark to tell if the moose was still there or not. I was really fighting panic so I just kept going on back the way we'd come back towards camp. When I got back to the dirt road that leads back to the fairground, I nearly got hit by a car that was flying up the road and didn't see me until the last minute. He came to a screeching halt and stopping to apologize profusely. That was nice but I didn't want any strangers stopping to talk to me at this time of the night on a dark back road with no houses around. When I arrived back at the fairground, I was relieved, disappointed, angry, exhausted and crying. I lead Marie into camp and poor Susie and Bonnie thought I'd fallen off Marie and might be hurt. I finally managed to blubber out that I was fine but just too freaked out to complete the ride. Marie still had to go through the vet check. Marie was in great condition so they gave me the option to go back out and complete loop six. But then I would still have to do loop seven. Though Marie was fine, I was not. And I would have been hard pressed to make the time at this point anyway. So, I pulled from the ride at 90 miles. I am so angry with myself for not being able to over come my fears, but I am amazed and proud of Marie. She just kept going and going without protest. Bonnie and Susie took care of Marie putting in her stall with lots of food and water. I crawled to my trailer, quickly washed up and went straight to bed.

Susie was gone when I got up. Bonnie left soon after. Bonnie told Fred when she got up, she had found a strange man sleeping in the cab of our truck. She was brave enough to wake him up and tell him to move on. There had been a dance at the hall that night and it was probably a drunk sleeping it off. Strange our truck should be picked. Probably because it was so old and had a bench seat, better to sleep on then bucket seats. Bonnie and Susie had taken care of Marie before leaving. I went to check on her and she looked great. Fred and I had breakfast and then left. It was a quiet ride home. Lady bug was sure happy to see Marie when we got home.

Pine Tree 100 ME 6/29/02 9/S-6/F2 Misu Nikki / S Rojek
3 ? / L Wright
4 Hawks Neopolitan / M Coleman
6 Indian Tom Tom / J Brucker

Waterford 30 CTR Waterford, ME May 2002

Another ride and once again my truck was in the garage on the day I was supposed to be leaving for the ride! It was making faint but strange noises when I was coming home from the last ride. So, I took it back to the garage right away. I needed them to fix the leaking gas tank anyway. The garage had had it for nearly two weeks and still didn't have it ready to go until this morning. The spider gears in the rear differential were stripped and that's what had been making the noise. The mechanic said he didn't know why the truck hadn't broken down completely. And there was an oil leak but that was only a cracked gasket that had to be replaced to fix that. The speedometer doesn't work and I was tired of never really knowing how fast I was going. The garage had the truck ready at 8:00 AM which was good. Fred took me over to pick it up at 8:30 AM. I was all packed and ready to go. I went straight home, hooked up the trailer, loaded Marie and headed for the ride. I also took my new dog with me. He is about the ugliest dog I've ever seen, but he is such a good dog and a real sweetheart. His name is Zephyr. He's 1 1/2 years old, black with long hair. A small dog being 1/2 Lhasa apso, 1/4 Pug and 1/4 Pekineses. He is very obedient and follows me around like a shadow. I decided to bring him along to this ride to see how he likes camping. Bonnie was coming to this ride without a horse so would be able to help me keep an eye on Zephyr. When I got him, he'd never had a collar on, or leash or been tied. So, I didn't know how this would go. He love to ride in the truck though. He just lays down quietly and sleeps, or stares at me. When I got to the fairground, I asked Janice Hatch, the ride manager, where to park and set up my fence. She told me to go up next to the open cattle pens. Heather saw me as soon as I pulled in. It took me a few tries to get the trailer backed into where I wanted it to my satisfaction. But, didn't take all that long. I am getting more comfortable with this trailer all the time. It was more getting into just the right spot where the trailer would be most level so I would not spend the night rolling out of my bed. I finally settled for a spot that would only have me rolling into Bonnie all night but not all the way out onto the floor. Heather gabbed to me while I set up my fence. I had just finished setting getting it set up and was about to put Marie into it when the ride manager's daughter, Kathie Brunjes came running up to tell me I can't park where I am. The spot was being saved for a friend of hers. "Didn't my mother tell you not to park here?" Kathy asked me. I told her that this was exactly where her mother had told me to park. Kathy thought it over a while then decided there was plenty of room for her friend to park in front of me. The problem was only that her friend has an enormous trailer and they wanted to make sure there was enough room for her to park it. Parking in front of me turned out better as the ground was more level. After getting Marie settled in, I decided to go down to Tut's for lunch and I invited Heather to go with me. I just got a sandwich to go and Heather got a brownie. That might not sound like a big deal but a Tut's bownie is a wondrous creation of chocolate, peanut butter and fudge topping. And all the food at Tut's is served in generous portions. We took our lunch back to Heather's trailer. Heather managed to drop her brownie on the ground before she even got the first bite. She had to scrape off some of the wondrous topping to avoid eating dirt but she did eat it. I would have too!!! Heather decided we should walk the horses and get them ready to vet in as soon as the vet judge arrived. I actually took my time getting Marie ready and Heather was done vetting by the time I wandered over to the vetting area and I didn't know where she had gone to. Things were a bit disorganized and there was some confusion over our ride numbers. The riders doing the 80 mile ride were using stalls and their numbers were on the stalls. Only those got mixed up somehow. So people had grease marked their horses with the wrong numbers. The vet was SOOOOOOO slow. He went over every inch of the horses, poking, prodding, flexing and bending their legs. It took forever! It did give me a chance to meet some new people while waiting in line though. Marie had been falling asleep while in line, then suddenly her head came up and she started calling. She recognized Susie's trailer when Susie pulled in and knew that the love of her life, Cody, was now on the grounds. Bonnie arrived soon after Susie. After vetting in, I settled Marie back in her pen. She was very unhappy about this since Cody was now in the waiting line to be vetted in. Heather had found me again at this point. Marie paced around her pen hollering like a fool until Susie got though the vetting with Cody and put him into a pen next to her. Zephy was being absolutely wonderful. He was quiet and would just lay down under the trailer when I had to leave him alone. We walked him around while we waited for Susie. We ran into Irving while walking. He had just bought a new truck, trailer, horse, and dog. He also told us he had two new cats and a new house! WOW! Nothing like a change. Susie, Bonnie, Heather and I went to Tut's for supper. While we were there, we saw Mary pull into the fairgrounds. We got back before she had set up and had her set up near us. Mary wasn't riding, her daughter was. Her daughter's boyfriend had also come with them. We all went back to the trailers to sit and relax for a while. By the time Mary's daughter got her horse, Prince, vetted in, it was after 7:00 PM. They decided to go down to Tut's for supper so Susie, Bonnie and I tagged along with them. Unfortunately, the grill had closed so they had to settle for sandwiches. The rest of us thoroughly enjoyed having some desert. By the time we got back to camp, it was getting very windy. It was still warm but supposed to get quite chilly overnight. I decided to put a rain sheet on Marie. Susie didn't have one so borrowed one from Bonnie. The sheet she borrowed is really too big for Bonnie's horse but fit Cody perfect. So, Susie bought it from Bonnie. It is a really nice rain sheet and Susie was all excited about it. We went to bed after getting the horses settled for the night. We brought Zephyr right up into the gooseneck to sleep with us which got him so excited. He jumped back and forth from Bonnie and I wiggling, squirming and whining in pure happiness. When he was finally quite, I looked to see where he was. He was IN Bonnie's sleeping bag laying on his back with his head on her pillow! He thought he'd died and gone to dog heaven. He has been such a good dog all day. I had to get up during the night to get our chairs we'd left out. The wind was so strong it was blowing them into the horse fencing. It was an uneventful night otherwise and I slept well.

I woke up around 4:30 AM. It had gotten cold and I was glad I'd put a blanket on Marie. I had used my lighter sleeping bag as it had been warm when we went to bed. I was almost wishing I'd used my heavier one. But, as I was a little chilly, it made it easier to get out of bed. I met Susie coming back from the bathroom and we fed the horses then headed right down to the building where they were having breakfast. Everything was ready and I had my usual oatmeal. They also had donuts, fruit and some very strong coffee. I'm glad they had oatmeal available as I'd forgetting to bring any of my own. I'm not sure I could have ridden without my oatmeal!! Susie and I walked our horses for a while. Bonnie walked Zephyr. We put the horses back in their fences and went to the riders meeting. Susie and I had plenty of time to get ready after the meeting since we were at the end of the starting order. When we checked to see where we were in the starting order, we had not been listed at all. Like I said, a bit disorganized. Poor Susie wrenched her back while saddling Cody and was in a lot of pain. For a while she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to ride. By the time it was time for us to go, she was feeling a little better. Cody was very excited and quite naughty for the first five miles. We got bunched up in a group of six right away and that got Cody even more excited. I was worried Susie's back would get worse with Cody jumping and pulling the way he was. He finally settled down after we got some space between us and the other horses. We rode at a pretty fast pace. The horse were both feeling great. We got to the hold about 20 minutes earlier then we really wanted to. Bonnie was waiting and had things ready for us. She was working the ride. The horses vetted fine at the hold. Marie pulsed right down to 44. That is very low for her at a hold. She is usually 54 to 58. I had to think the P&R person might have recorded it wrong. It was the usual rush at the hold trying to get everything done. Irving approached me and asked me what time Susie and I had to finish the ride. I told him and he asked Susie and I if we would let his friend, Kim, ride with us so she would make her time. Irving's new horse was giving him some trouble and he was going to slow right down. But, he didn't want to ruin Kim's ride. We were glad to have her along with us. We rode pretty fast until we saw the 5 miles to go marker. Susie and I had to slow way down at this point to not come in too early. We sent Kim on ahead of us so she would make her time. We had to walk most of the last 5 miles. The horses were cool and dry when we finished. We sponged them down anyway to get all the dried sweat and dirt off them. Marie's pulse was higher then I'd have liked. It was 48. This was not high enough to be any problem, but they take points for anything over 44. And once again I was wondering about the accuracy of the P&R. Marie's pulse should have been at resting rate with all the walking we'd done at the end. Hummmmmm, maybe I need a heart rate monitor. Vetting out at the end only went just a little faster then the vetting in had taken. Only 15 riders were in the 30 mile distance so it wasn't too bad. The 80 mile rides didn't have to do a full vetting, just a trot out. Maura showed up at the ride to day hello. She had her whole family, including her dogs with her. They were staying at a camp not too far from the fairground. One of Marua's dogs got very nasty with Zephyr, which didn't seem to phase Zephyr in the least. He seems to be oblivious to weather another dog is playing with him or trying to kill him. Bonnie and I sat around by the trailer relaxing while waiting for the vetting to be completed. Louise Lester came by and sat with us for a while. Susie, Bonnie and I had not bought tickets for the banquet supper for tonight. We figured we'd just go to Tut's again. Usually they have the award ceremony for the 30 mile riders before the banquet. Unfortunately, today they decided to have the banquet first. So we had to sit and wait for everyone to eat before getting the awards. Bonnie and I still went to Tut's for supper. I had to get after Marie big time when I loaded her on the trailer to go home. She saw Cody getting on his trailer and she wanted to be with him. She loaded right into my trailer but then started slamming and banging and thrashing her hay bag around in a fit of temper. She was quite in the trailer while Bonnie and I had supper so I won't complain. The ride home was uneventful.

Waterford 30 ME 5/25 15/S-14/F
Junior1. Midnight Goldenbey / S Lukins
2 Ali Darkness / C Walker
Adult
1. ? / C Lester
4. A Kinda Magic / P Mc Elliott
4. BAF Cubis Choice / L Pederson
6. Jackal / R Lendis
6. padrons Protege / ?
6. Willows Rahman / ?
9. ? / T Landis
10. Prince / M. Batt
11. Marie / C Ross (88.00 points)
12. Xavier Sunny Acres / S Reinheimer

Appleblossom 25 CTR Groton, MA May 2002

Ride story was lost.......

Apple Blossom 25 MA 5/4 35/S-31/F
Judges: Dr. Newell-J Lorimer
Junior
1. Midnight Goldenbey / S Lukins
2. FFC Gremlin / ?
3. Travelons Two Times Two / M Kohler
Adult
1. Sherrington / K Redente
1. RE Genesis H Vecchie
3. Kineo / P Snow
4. Rushcreek Equal / G Pawlowicz
4. BAF Cubis Choice / L Pederson
7. The J Man / F Raymond
7. Amilia Spunk / L. Kohler
9. Mariah Gene / M Paltrow
9. Lady Bug / J Johnson
11. FFC Brigadier / J Samuels
11. Rouk / C Burgess
13. Inde Khaldair / L Crowley
17. HFA Sliver Savana / M Deleware
17. Skip Go Solo / ?
Completions:
Jewel's Gem / C Beekstrom
NFL Villiant / C Largo
? / D Rice
Cherokee / R Carney
Onyx Moon Shadown / L Pierce
Marie / C Ross (93.00 points)
Lady Bug / B Hinz