Tales of a Competitive Trail, Endruance and Pleasure Rider: 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

Tales of a Competitive Trail, Endruance and Pleasure Rider

Friday, May 24, 2002

Waterford 30 CTR Waterford, ME May 2002

Saturday, May 4, 2002

Appleblossom 25 CTR Groton, MA May 2002