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
