The Fall Frolic is a new ride being held here in Maine. Everyone was excited about having some new trails to ride on. I didn't leave for the ride as early as I usually do. I hadn't done any packing ahead of time so I had to pack when I got home from work. It didn't take long. I've packed for rides so many times now I think I could do it in my sleep. Actually, once I was packed and had the trailer hitched, I did fall asleep in my recliner. Fred woke me up when he got home around 9:30 AM and I was on the road at 10:00 AM. The direction provided to get to the ride were good. The ride is in Harrison, ME which is about 1 1/2 hr. drive from home. Harrison is nearly due west of Bowdoin. But, there are no good east to west route in Maine. All the main roads seem to run north to south. So, you have to swing either north or south to get to the ride. Frustrating. The farm where the ride is being held is on a dirt road and is an historic site. There is an old saw mill on the Crooked River that was built in 1847 and run until the 1970's and is now in the process of being restored. Getting into the field where we were camping was a bit tricky. It was a tight turn around a telephone pole with a sharp incline down into the field that was a bit washed out. I pulled around the corner carefully and made it ok. There was only one trailer in the field when I arrived. It was Heather Bonneau. The field where we were camping was beautiful with the River running along one side of it. A lovely farmhouse and yard was on the other side of the field. There were picnic tables set up under a canopy in the yard. There was going to be a pig roast for our Saturday meal. I parked on the side of the field closest to the river. Some of the larger gooseneck trailer could not make it into the field due to the steep angle off the road. Those trailer had to park up the road in Scott Hatch's yard by his barn. Jan Hatch and Louise Lester were the ride managers. Heather no longer had a portable pen so her horse would spend the weekend tied to her trailer. The vet judge was Larry Buggia and Char Lester was the lay judge. Larry was late arriving so Heather and I sat around munching on pretzels and chatting. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's. The same weather was expected for tomorrow. I set up Marie's pen in a way that she would be able to see the horses on either side of my trailer. Susie was coming and if Marie could not see Cody, she would have a fit! Larry arrived around 3:30 PM. I was in line for vetting when Susie arrived. She made it into the field fine with her trailer and parked next to me. Marie vetted in fine but was very sluggish on the trot out. I had to actually tap her with the whip to get her to trot. Not a bad thing for the initial trot out as it could hardly look worse at the end of the ride. It was funny listening to the comments for the score sheet. "wind puff on right leg, bone spavin on left leg, slight splint on the other left leg..." when they were done, I asked if I should just load the poor creature on the next meat wagon! We had a good laugh over that. These things are quite normal for a hard working horse. After Susie got Cody vetted in, we took Zephyr and Callie for a walk on a dirt road so we could let the dogs run loose. They had the best time running together. When we got back to camp, we had our supper. Susie and I had both brought food with us. I had soup with bread and crackers. Margaret had also brought her own supper with her and sat with us to eat. Heather hadn't brought anything but said she was not hungry. Margaret and Susie tried to share with her but she declined. The riders meeting was at 6:00 PM that evening. Jan started to describe the trails when her husband Scott interrupted and said he had changed them in a few places. There was some tense discussion between them for a moment but it was all worked out. After the meeting, Susie and I got our guitars and played a few songs but couldn't really get in the mood. We put them away and went over to sit with a group that had gathered at Margaret's trailer. We all shared chips, dip, crackers and wine. Oh, and some awesome chocolate truffles that Margaret had brought. The group broke up about 9:30 PM and we all headed to bed. Zephyr looked so pitiful when I climbed up into bed leaving him on the floor that I had to get up and put him up in the gooseneck with me. Bonnie has him totally spoiled. He was so happy that he spazzed out like an idiot for about 5 minutes before settling down. He seemed to feel the need to curl up by my head with his butt in my face. I had to shove him off a few times before he got the hint and stayed out of my face. Silly dog. I woke up once and was a bit chilly. I had only brought my light sleeping bag. Bonnie's sleeping bag was in the trailer so I threw that over me and was soon toasty warm. I got up at 5:00 AM and fed Marie. The ride provided a nice breakfast of hot and cold cereal, fruit and a nice variety of delicious muffins. There was also some trail mix and bars to take with us on the ride. the ride was starting at 7:30 AM. Heather had to present her horse to the vet for a re-check this morning. Mariah had looked a bit lame on Friday. The judges still weren't thrilled with how she looked but decided to let her start the ride. Susie throught Callie looked cold so we decided to put the two dogs in her trailer for the day. That way they'd be up off the ground and have plenty of room to move about and play.
The ride started right on time. Susie and I were 13 and 14 in the starting order. I was lucky 13! Cody was an absolute spazz ball. He jumped, spun, danced and pulled Susie's arms out of their sockets. Marie even got excited enough to prance a bit. We started out too fast but Susie just couldn't hold Cody back. Cody finally settled down to "just" out of control from "completely" out of control after a while. We ended up passing a lot of riders. The trails were super. Nice dirt roads and woods roads with some single track and all of 1/8th mile on tar. There were two real neat river crossings. At the first one, we had to walk the horse up stream in near chest deep water before getting out on the other side. Susie and I caught up to Mary Batt at one point but her horse was getting out of control with Cody so she pulled back and let us go ahead of her. A bunch of us came into the hold all at the same time. This is hard on the crew and judges as it backs them up. Susie and I still managed to get out of the hold on time and were soon on our way again. We caught up with Irving and rode with his group for a while. Right at the finish line was the second river crossing. About 10 of got there together. It was a steep drop into the river and you had to cross straight across to avoid getting into any boulders with a short steep climb out the other side. It was a bit tricky to cross in a bunch like that. We tried to cross one at a time but then a horse would refuse to go alone or another would get upset about being left behind so we just lined up single file and in we went. That worked out ok. Marie did very well at the final vetting. She trotted out strongly and willingly. I was very pleased. Heather's horse was dead lame at the end of the ride. When we were done with the final vetting, Susie and I took the dogs for another walk. The meal was being served when we got back. It as delicious. Pork, home made potato salad and cole slaw, baked beans (yuck!) and rolls. And all sorts of pies for desert. It took a while for the scoring to be completed. Susie and Cody won grand champion!! After the awards, we quickly packed up and were ready to go. We were a little worried about getting the trailer out of the field, so we pulled the trailer out before loading the horses and just took turns holding each other's horses. It was a great ride and I can't wait to do it again next year.
Fall Frolic 25 ME 9/6 24/S-23/F
Judges:Dr. L Buggia - C Lester
J1 Llinkk / Jack Sarah
J2 Alejandor Del Nordesta / Edgar, Carley
1. Xavier Sunny Acres / Reinheimer, Susie
2. Keeper / Brooks, Leslie
3. Thunder / Vienneau, Mindy
4. KA Shiloh / Niedoroda, Susan
5. AL Ailal Shahin (Rubin) / Brunjes, Kathy
6. Snap Crackle & Spark / Rice, Bill
7. Jahyr Jamlin / Jack, Kelly
8. Marie / Ross, Cynthia
9. FR Midori / Batt, Mary
10. Especial Edition / Prentice. Linda
11. VH Phazon, McNaughton, Irving
11. Snowfield O'Malley / Hutchinson, Tom
13. LWF Paljoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
13. Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
15. Moria NA / Hurton, Bonnie
16. Melinda Del Pardo / Lord, Andrea
17. Inde Khaldair / Dixon Susie
18. Beechtree Chichen Itza / Whitney, Jennifer
Completions:
Delecia Del Nordesta / Little, Sidney
