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
