Well, I was heading off on this adventure alone. Bonnie decided not to ride and was staying home to take care of the horses. I headed off right after work at about 6:00 AM. I stopped at G&G store for gas and a few grocery items. When I went to put the grocery items in the ice box, I noticed that the passenger side rear tire on my truck was nearly flat! AAAGGGGHHHHH! There was no air hose at the store. I had a whole pack of local elderly gentlemen looking for one to no avail. I decided since it wasn't totally flat and I was only a few miles from home, I would just go back. I got back to the house without incident. I unloaded Marie and tied her to the side of the trailer. I unhooked the truck and went out back to the garage to put air in the tire. There was only 10lbs in it and it holds 80lbs. But now I wasn't sure what I should do. Head out for the ride with that tire or change to the spare. I waited for Fred to come home from work to get his opinion. His opinion was "I don't know what you should do." He doesn't seem to understand that since he's the man, he is supposed to be able to fix everything! He filled up the portable air tank for me and sent me on my way. I just checked the tire a few times on the way up to make sure it was holding air. The tire was fine and I arrived at Fryeburg without problem. I picked my usual spot at the end of the first barn. Marie was wondering where all her friends were and called a bit between stuffing her face with hay.
I set up camp and had just settled down to read when Susie arrived. Very early for her. I was impressed. She brought along Libby, a 12 year old girl, and her new puppy, Callie. Marie was very, very happy to see Cody and made quite a ruckus. Susie and Libby quickly got set up and Susie and I decided to go for a ride. We tacked up and headed out on the trail that we always use for the ride. Cody was very excited and acting up. Marie was a bit light on her feet also. When we got to the road, a man pulled over and asked us if we had permission to be on the property we were on. He said that the man that owned the property didn't like people on it. We didn't know anything about it so we headed back to check with Colleen, the ride manager. Colleen told us that she had permission to use the trails. But, by this time we decided to just take the horses around the race track so we wouldn't be leaving Libby alone for so long. Both horses were very excited. We trotted around the track a couple times then worked up to a canter. Cody finally settled down a little. Then I saw something come off Susie's saddle and come flying by me? Susie started yelling, "Cindy, please stop, my stirrup fell off!" I stopped Marie and sure enough, Susie's stirrup was laying on the track behind us. Her stirrup leather had broken. Upon checking, the other one was ready to break also. Luckily, my English saddle happened to be in my trailer so I was able to lend Susie my stirrup leathers. 
Susie wanted to ride with me on the first day but Colleen had the 25's and 50's going out separately. It just happened by chance that I was paired up to ride with Mary Batt. That would be good as Marie likes Mary's horse Midori. After riding, Susie and I went into Fryeburg to get some lunch. When we got back, we got our riders packets and I put the numbers on our horses. Then, the long waiting line to vet in. Cody and Marie both vetted in fine. Callie and Zephyr were getting along well. Rich Gamester was providing the meals for the weekend. We had hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings tonight. Mary arrived sometime after 6:00 PM. The vet told Mary that Midori was running a mild fever and she had a snotty nose when she came off the trailer. So, the vet wanted Mary to keep Midori away from the other horses for the night and re-check her in the morning. We walked the horses aound that evening out in the field where we could let the dogs run loose. Callie and Zephy had a great time playing. Callie is so uncoordinated still and Zephyr was running circles around her. It was very cute to watch them. The bugs finally dorve us back to the barn. We put the horses away and hung around for a while just visiting and chatting. We had the riders meeting this evening. colleen informed us that the trails had to be changed at the last minute. We do quite a few miles through agricultural fields and Colleen had gotten a call that the fields had just been sprayed with pesticides and we couldn't safely go through them. Scott Hatch saved the day by going out and rerouting the trail. He did a great job fiding an alternate trail and getting markers up. I don't know how he managed it! Everyone was tired so we turned in for bed early. It it going to be hot tomorrow so the ride was going to start at 6:00 AM. We would have to be up very early.
Susie was up before me and fed Marie for me. When I got up, I wandered over to the office to get my coffee and oatmeal. The coffee was ready but no hot water for the oatmeal. This is not like Colleen, she is usually so well prepared. I didn't want to wait so I got my coffee and went back to my trailer to heat water for oatmeal. Midori passed her vetting was was set to go on the ride. She was having a strong heat cycle and was just in love with every horse on the grounds. Mary and I were nearly the last one out in the starting order. There was only one groupo of four that hung back and went out after us. This was Mary Coleman's group. Mary and I alsmot got off the trail one right in the beginning but realized our error right away and turned around. Not before Mary Coleman's group got to yelling at us. It was good of them to be concerned about us and want to help. They got in front of us at this point. We passed them somehow at the river crossing. The water was hight this year. Not quite deep enough for the avarage horse to swim but close. A pony would have been swimming.
Several miles further down the trail, Mary Coleman's group caught up with us again at a water stop and informed is that we had gone off trail right after the river crossing shortening our ride by 1/2 mile or so. ????? Mary and I had seen tracks and markers the whole way. Mary Batt told Mary Coleman that possibly she had gone off trail and not us. Mary Coleman insisted she had stayed on the trail correctly. And so it went back and forth until finally I said to Mary Batt we were just going to have to go back because if Mary Coleman was right, we would be disqualified. We had to ride hard to make up the lost time. We had NOT gone off trail and we did get to the hold on time. Even though we'd ridden hard to make the hold on time, both horses vetted out fine. We finished the second half of the ride with no problem. Marie vetted fine at the end and was good to go for the second day of the ride. The vet wanted to check Midori again in the morning thinking she looked a bit lame. Susie said Cody had been real strong and pulled her most of the ride. Her hands were blistered! There were sandwiches when we got back from the ride. The, we had supper at 2:00 PM. Lasagna, salad and bread. It was very good. After dinner they had the award ceremony for teh 25 mile riders. I can't remember what Susie placed. Susie packed up quickly and headed out.
Mary was tired and laid down for a nap. Later, heather, Margaret, mary and I went into Fryeburg to climb Jockey Cap. A short climb up a granite dome of about 150 in elevation. The view is great from the top. Margaret had her dog Grizz with her. He is huge and it was funny watching Zephyr and Grizz playing together. Zephyr has no fear of other dogs no matter what their size. When we got back down from Jockey Cap we stopped for ice cream from the store at the trail head. We sat at the picnic tables with the dogs. Margaret bought a dish of ice cream for Grizz. he didn't eat it all and Zephyr was thrilled to help out finishing it. After we got back to the fairground, we walked the horses until we couldn't stand the bugs anymore. We then settled the horses in their stalls for the night. We decided to go to bed early. I went into my trailer and was playing my guitar when someone pulled up beside my trailer in a car. It was Bonnie!!!!! I was so excited to see her. She had decided to surprise me! Yippee! I got up and we took Marie and Zephyr for another walk while I told her all about the days ride. We then went back, put Marie in her stall then went to bed. We ended up chatting for quite a long time.
I slept longer then I'd planned but not to long to be a problem. I fed Marie then went to the office for breakfast. Colleen had everything ready this morning. Mary Batt's horse did not pass her re-check this morning and was pulled from the ride. So, I would be on my own for today. Bummer. I ended up riding with a woman from PA that was riding a very hot Paso Fino. Not many gaited horses are seen at rides in this part of the country. It was fun watching her horse move. She didn't think she would be able to ride with me because her horse is very competitive. It didn't take long though to see that Marie was actually having a quieting effect on her horse as she does with most horses. But, the Paso Fino was setting too fast a pace for Marie so I eventually fell back and rode with Louise Lester. Louise was riding her stallion Nickolas. Marie was upset about being parted from the Paso Fino and didn't care at all that she was now riding with a handsome stallion! Silly mare!I rode with Louise into the hold. Marie was still upset about the Paso and just squeeked in with her P&R. The woman with the Paso waited for me to leave the hold as her horse had also been stressed over being separated from Marie and we rode the rest of the ride together. Marie lost a front shoe and I had to put an easy boot on her. I had just had new shoes put on her three days before the ride and didn't think I'd have to worry about that! The pace the Paso was setting was still to fast and at the end I had to stop and hang around in the field before the finish line for about 15 minutes so I wouldn't get a time penalty. Marie was not to happy about this but managed to deal with it. The vetting went fine at the end. For dinner we had steak, potato, Italian Pasta salad and bread. The steak was a bit tough but everything else was very good. The award ceremony was after the dinner. I got a 4th place ribbon and was very proud of my little mare.
Fryeburg 50 ME 7/26-27 29/S-25/F
Judges: Dr. Glass - J Levellie
J1. Heart of Fire / Patty Simcox
1. Tyger Dan / Greenall, Sue
2. Czar Nickolas / Lester, Louise
3. Shyrocco Lyric / Kimberley, Jenny
4. GH Jesse Jolady / Houghton, Deborah
5. Finch / Rojek, Steve
6. CR Monarchs Memory / Malkasian, Robin
7. Blew Away / Down, Kathy
8. Langwood's Lorelei / Stratemeyer, Joan
9. Nikazem / Winslow, Roxanne
10. DS Easter's REplica / Simcox, Cindy
10. Queen of Argyll / Stuller, Marilyn
10. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.00)
13. Prince Buddy (Casey) / Cameron, Pamela
13. Shiloh / Seeams, Cynthia
13. Hawks Neopolitan / Coleman, Mary
16. HFA Silver Savana / Deleware, Marcia
16. Otis / Beem, Amy
18. Shyrocco Crisedyde / Hartmann, Lynn
Completions:
Amilie Spunk (Jamil) / Kohler, Elizabeth
Medallion Del Pardo / Hall, Brenda
Samid Ar Ras / Blittersdorf, Meoldy
DLA CAssidy / Hatch, Janice Conley
Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
MCO
Inde Khaldair / Two riders
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