At last, the first competition of the season. It's been such a long cold winter that I thought this would never arrive! This ride is a new one. We don't usually have any rides here in Maine until late May. The frost isn't completely out of the ground this early in the year in some places so you can't ride in the woods yet. Heather Bonneau is the ride manager and said it would be an easy ride all on dirt roads and pavement with good shoulders.
I hadn't been feeling very well for a couple of days before the ride and had taken two days off work. I still wasn't feeling very well Friday morning but was going to the ride anyway. I set off about 8:30 AM and it is just a little over an hours drive to Hidden Brook Farm in Norway. It is quite a large farm. The camping site was fine except it was much to far from the toilet! And all uphill to get there! A water truck was provided so we would have water handy. Heather came out to greet me as soon as I pulled in. There was a little girl, Mabel, tagging along with her that was about 6 years old I'd guess. They both walked down to the camping site to show me where to park. I was the first one to arrive so I had my choice of spots. After I got parked, Heather wandered back up to the barn but Mabel stayed with me. She was just full of questions. "What's your name? How old are you?" and my favorite, "How old were you when you were young?" I had to think about how to answer that one for a moment. Mabel was determined to help me set up my fencing. She actually did turn out to be quite helpful. It didn't take long to get the fence up and Marie settled in. Marie was a bit worried about being the only horse in the campsite and called a bit. She was fine otherwise. Once I had Marie settled in, Mabel and I wandered up to the barn so I could check in and get my riders packet. After I got my packet, I went back to the trailer and set up camp and then took a nap for a few hours. When I got up, I made myself a sandwich then headed up to the barn to hang out with Heather. Laura and Steve were there. They were working the ride. Steve was busy following the farm owner around and helping him to get chores done. He was having way too good a time since there was a lot of large equipment to 'play' with. I sat and talked with Laura and Heather for a while. We were having pizza for supper that night. Laura and Heather are both Catholic and it was Lent so they decided to share a meatless pizza. Steve and I would share one loaded with meat just to tease them. Laura is quite amazing in what she is able to do considering she has no arms. While we were standing out in the open, some dirt blew into her eye. She wears contact lenses but this presented no problem for her. She sat at the registration table, quickly popped the lens out with her big toe onto the table, picked the lens up with her tongue and gives it the spit rinse, placed the lens back on her big toe and popped it right bacn in her eye just a slick as can be. And faster then I can do the same with hands. I went back down to the trailer to check on Marie. She was fine and quite happy now as she had some company. She seemed quite smitten with the buckskin gelding that was right next to her. I had to put on my long underwear and heavy socks and boots, it was cold!
Don McLean is the vet. He's the one that is so bugged by the way Marie travels. Norma House is the lay judge. She's real good. Vicky Austin and Abby are the scribes. I had Marie ready to go as soon as the vet got there. I was the first one to vet in. Don McLean, as usual, made a few comments on Marie's short stabby strides in back but passed her to ride. I put Marie away and went back to watch the others vetting in. The vet and crew asked me to go up to the barn and get them some coffee and hot chocolate. Heather didn't have anything available so she sent Laura and Steve out to the store to buy coffee for the crew. There were a lot of new faces at this ride. People had come from RI, CT, MA, NH and VT. There were originally 30 entries though a few had cancelled. Not a bad turnout at all. The riders meeting was at 7:00 PM. After that we had our pizza. We sat in Laura and Steve's truck to keep warm. Laura did have trouble getting the pizza out of the box as it was a bit soft and Steve ended up helping. Once the pizza was finished, I went down to the trailer and settled in for the night. It wasn't long before Margaret Farnum showed up with hot chocolate mix and brandy. She was willing to share that in trade for some hot water as I had a stove. I thought that was a pretty good deal. Then Heather showed up. It was quite a squeeze to get us all in my trailer but we managed. It was cold in the trailer but much better then outside. After Margaret and Heather left, I snuggled down in my sleeping bag and was soon toasty warm. I knew it was going to be hard to get out of it in the morning.
Thankfully, it warmed up overnight. It was still cold but much warmer then yesterday. So, It wasn't go bad getting out of my sleeping bag after all. I fed Marie, then heated up some water for coffee and oatmeal. Heather only had donuts and orange juice available so I heated water for some of the campers around me for coffee. I got my hold bag ready packing a couple of bagels for Margaret and I in it. I tacked Marie up and rode up to meet Margaret as we were riding together. We walked the horses to warm them up. We were the second pair out in the starting order. Marie and Promise were fairly quite to start and we let the walk for a bit then moved out at a good trot. The buckskin gelding that was next to Marie all night was just ahead of us. Marie spotted him and started pitching a fit. She decided she was quite in love with him and wanted to catch up with him. He would get just out of sight around a corner then she would spot him again on a straight stretch and it was making her crazy. She called and pranced and got all sweaty fretting about it. There was no way I could let her catch up with him because she has got to learn not to attach herself to other horses like this. It's weird how she can pick a completely strange horse and form such an instant attachment to it. Here I was riding with Promise, a horse she knew from many rides, and she could care less about him. Marie carried on for 6 or 7 miles before finally settling down. So, this was an improvement since I've had her carry on for an entire ride. Margaret and I took turns leading. The ride was indeed all on dirt roads and pavement with good shoulder. It had more hills then we were led to believe but with the good footing, this was not a problem. We got into the hold right on time. The hold was on someones front lawn. It was a little crowded and there was a bottle neck of riders that had all arrived close together. I had bought Marie a feedbag so I could feed her at the holds and remain mobile too. The hold are so rushed as you only have 20 minutes. The first 10 minutes are spent pulsing down. Many horses pulse down quicker but Marie most usually needs the full 10 minutes. You need to keep your horse quiet to pulse down but Marie sees the other horses eating and hay, grain and all other imaginable horse goodies everywhere and gets anxious to eat. So keeping her quiet is nearly impossible. Once the P&R is done there is only another 10 minutes to get though the vet check and trot out, feed the horse, yourself and take care of any other necessary business. Anyway, she pulsed down fine so I grabbed the feed bag, put her food in it so I could slip it on her and then get in line for the vetting. What I never thought about, when I tried the feed bag on her at home while she was wearing her halter, was that it would not work with her hackamore on. So, here she was trying to shove her head into the feed bag to get the grain but couldn't quite reach it with the hackamore hanging up on it. Marie started to get very frustrated, Margaret is now several horses in front of me in the vetting line, I'm starting to stress out trying to figure out how to get Marie's grain to her since there were too many horses milling around for me to just dump it on the ground. I finally just flung the feed bag back with my hold bag and got in line for vetting. Now Marie was mad and sulking. Margaret had to trot Promise twice as the vet thought he might be a bit lame. Marie trotted out fine. Margaret was already mounted up by the time I got through vetting and it was past time to go. I scurried to my hold bag, grabbed the bagels I'd packed for us all the while Marie is shoving me around trying to find the stupid feed bag with her grain. I finally got myself together, mounted up, threw my hold bag in Heather's truck so it wouldn't get lost and we were finally out of the hold. We walked the horses while we munched our bagels. Margaret seemed to think we were fine on time. She has been competing for many years and has never gotten a time penalty so I didn't worry about it. When we came to the mile markers for the last 5 miles we both realized that we were behind on time. We picked up the pace as much as we could but still finished 3 minutes late. That would be 3 points off our scores. Poor Margaret was horrified and I felt bad I had not helped her keep track of time. We took both of our horses down to my trailer. Keeping them together would help them stay quiet and have better P&R's. It was quite warm by the time we finished the ride so we were able to sponge the horses down. Marie's face was itchy and sweaty and when I was reaching up to carefully sponge around the top of her head, she shoved her head right into my hand trying to scratch on me. This caused me to accidentally squeeze water right into her ear. She freaked right out. She started shaking her heard really heard, then pulled back and broke her trailer tie. She was so upset and offended with me and there was nothing I could do. Don't you know it was right at that moment the P&R person showed up. So, her pulse was up but her respiration was great. So, I knew I'd also get a few points off for a high pulse. The grand championship was once again slipping out of my grasp. Drat! All went well for the hands on and trot out. When that was all done, I put Marie in her pen with plenty of hay and water and went up to hang out with Margaret while waiting for awards. Supper was hamburgers and hot dogs. Louise Lester won grand champion with her stallion.
Hidden Brook 25 ME 4/19/03 25/S - 23/F
Judges: Dr. McLean - N. House
1. Czar Nickolas / Lester, Louise
2. Sdemens Thunder / Chsriser, Diana
2. CSF Otis / Walker, Connie
2. Raczaarr / DeShon, Deborah
2. BF Saxx / Bentley, Valerie
6. Ton Ka Kola Gold / Akerstrom, Sharon
7. Royal Legkacy "Naji" / Broome, Jennifer
7. count Canaskis / Miller, Brenda
9. Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
10. Chlostc Moon Danse / Downs, Kathy
11. Nikademis / Seams, Peter
12. Chocholare Soldier / Rice, Stephanie
13. Misu Koran / Navoy, Cory
14. Shyloh / Seams, Cynthia
15. Dreamcatcher / Soscia, Joanne
16. LWF Palfoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
17. Jewely's Gem / Beckstrom, Carolyn
18. Inde Khaldair / Dots, Jen
18. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.00)
Completions
Lady Virginia "Nettie" / Tenggren, Traci
Zephyr's Elegant Gift / Kenney, Sharon
Silvea / Brunjes, Janet
Micky B / Rice, Bill
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