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