Well, the first Adventure of the season. Marie has been very sick this spring so I have not been able to ride her. She had an autoimmune disease called Purpura that was a result of a complication to her Strangles vaccine. So, in order for me to compete this year I had to find someone that would let me borrow a horse. Now, finding a horse to ride wasn’t the biggest problem, it was finding one that was fit enough to do a competitive trail ride. That ruled out most of my local friends that just don’t ride their horses enough to do a distance competition. I sent out a few e-mails to some people I know from ECTRA to see if they might have any suggestions. I got nothing there so I put out message on the ECTRA message board. That got some results. I got offers from ECTRA members from PA, RI, VT and NY. No one local. Hummmmmm, so, it seemed that those who had actually seen me ride didn’t wanted me on their horses! Then Charlotte Lester contacted me and said she was looking for someone to ride one of her horses. We set up a date for me to come ride with her at her place to see how I did with her horse. That was set for the weekend after the Maine 80. I went to Waterford to work the second day of the Maine 80 and saw Charlotte there. She had someone ride her young horse in the 30 mile ride. and I guess this woman had her hands full handling this young horse. So, Charlotte was a bit stressed out about it and decided she didn’t even want me to try her horse. Ok, back to the drawing board. Then Susie told me that Terry wanted me to ride her horse in a competition. My only hesitation was that Terry was leasing this horse from Judy Sewell who I didn't really know and that made me a bit uncomfortable. But, I contacted Terry and arranged to try the horse out. He is a 17 yr. Old Arabian gelding named Koram. Susie and I picked Koram up on a Friday, trailered over to Phippsburg. First, we had trouble catching him when we picked him up. Then, when we got to Phippsburg, I had Koram tied to the trailer to saddle him and when I went to tighten the cinch, he pulled back and broke his lead rope. Luckily, he didn’t go anywhere. By now I’m thinking this horse is nuts and I’m probably crazy to ride him. But, much to my surprise, Susie and I had a wonderful ride. Koram and Cody were great together. We thought they would be competitive with each other but not at all. They were as happy as two peas in a pod. I rode Koram a second time with Susie and Terry’s daughter Cara. We rode right from Terry’s house. Barbara also came riding Susie’s other horse , Monty, making four of us. Once again, Koram was great. I was very excited about using him for the Acadia 50. Terry had to do some sweet talking to get his owner, Judy, to let me use him. Judy doesn’t really know me so I didn’t blame her. And, Judy had ridden Koram in the Waterford 30 just two weeks prior to the Acadia ride and had not done all that well. Koram had been quite a handful at the start of the ride and didn’t score very well.
Susie and I decided to go up to Acadia together. With gas prices the way they are, it didn’t make sense to drive up two vehicles. So, we thought it would be best to pick Koram up on Thursday and have him spend the night at Susie’s so we could get an early start on Friday morning. I was to pick up Koram at 4:00 PM with my trailer. Judy would meet me at Terry’s so she could bring over Koram’s papers and his blankets. I got to Terry’s early, around 3:15 PM. Terry doesn’t have much room to turn a trailer in her yard so I just backed in. Judy showed up shortly after I did. She soon realized that she had forgotten Koram’s paperwork back at her house and had to go back and get it. Meanwhile, Terry and Cara had come out. Judy was soon back with the paperwork. Then, she wanted us to rig up Koram’s bridle with a bit she had bought for him and wanted me to use. Judy and I took care of that while Terry got Koram’s grain ready. All this time Judy is warning me about all the bad things that Koram does. Terry had warned me that Judy would do this. I kept assuring Judy that it was all right and that Koram and I would be fine. After we got all Koram’s stuff loaded into my trailer, I got Koram and tried to load him. Not all horses like a step up slant load trailer if they are not used to them. Koram didn’t like the look of it. He didn’t absolutely refuse to load but he wouldn’t quite go in either. He danced side to side and would put one foot in then back out. Then two feet in and back out. Finally, he did get all the way in but no one put up the butt bar and he flew back out. I told Judy and Terry to make sure to get the bar up when I got him in the next time. After a few more minutes I got Koram back in the trailer. Terry got the butt bar up. Koram backed up, hit the bar and jumped forward again. Just as I got him tied up, he tried to back out again. He hit the bar, dropped his hindquarters down and went right under the bar !!!!! But, now he was tied so he got stuck about half way out. He started thrashing and pulling. I’m in a corner of the trailer with nowhere to go. No one could even try to release the butt bar with his thrashing back legs. All we could do was wait until he stopped thrashing. After what seemed like forever (though I’m sure it was only seconds) Koram finally managed to squeeze his hindquarters back into the trailer. Trying to act calm and quiet I latched the divider and quickly exited the trailer and closed the door. We didn’t see any obvious injuries and decided it would be best if I left right away and just got Koram to Susie’s. When I unloaded him as Susie’s all we found was that he had taken a chunk of skin off his left hind leg. It wasn’t deep, it just looked a bit nasty. We walked and trotted him around and he seemed fine. Phew! We settled him into a stall for the night.
Susie and I were on our way by 9:00 AM Friday morning. We drove straight through since we wanted to get their early enough to take a short ride before vetting in. We got there shortly after noon. We pulled up in front of the barns, unloaded the horses and settled them into their stalls. Then we unloaded all our gear and put it into the tack stall. Susie got back into her truck to take the trailer over to the camp sites and the truck wouldn’t start. Oh great! She tried and tried but no luck. She had just had a new battery put in and it was turning over so we knew that wasn’t the problem. I thought it sounded like it wasn’t getting any gas. A few guys came over and looked and thought the same thing. Fuel pump, which in that truck is in the gas tank. Wildwood stable wasn’t officially open yet so there was no one in the office. And we couldn’t get a cell phone signal there to call out. Finally, we found a man that works there. He got us into the office so we could try to call someone about getting the truck fixed. We called all the local garages and they were all too busy. Susie finally called a GMC dealer in Ellsworth and they said they could work on it Saturday. We had to get the truck there by 4PM that day. They didn’t have towing service. After a few more calls, we found someone to tow it. They came and got the truck. It was with tears in our eyes that we watched Susie’s poor truck being hauled away on the flatbed. At least we didn’t break down on the highway! We had made it to the stable safe and sound and that was all that mattered. Colleen, the ride manager, used her truck to tow Susie’s trailer and park it in a campsite. Despite the time it took to get things settled with the truck and trailer, the vet was late to arrive so Susie and I still managed to get in a short ride. The horses were good. Several people that knew my horse was sick asked me who I was riding. When I told the Koram, they just rolled their eyes and said that was going to be interesting. Hummmm. Poor Koram has a bit of a bad reputation. The horses were vetted in order by their entry numbers. That made it nice since we didn’t have to wait in a long line. All went well with the vetting and both horses were good to start the ride in the morning. Rich Gamester was our cook for the weekend. He prepared a nice meal of chicken thighs, potato, corn, rolls, and salad. After we ate, we walked the horses around a bit and let them nibble grass. Koram wasn’t eating much of his hay but ate his grain and was drinking well. He is definitely a nervous horse and you have to move slowly and quietly around him. But, I’m naturally slow moving and quiet so it seemed to be working out fine. We settled the horses in for the night then hung around in front of Susie’s trailer for a while. We soon headed for bed. Susie and I got up at 5:00 AM. Susie went over to the barn to feed the horses. By 5:30 AM Colleen had breakfast ready and I had my usual oatmeal.The riders meeting was at 6:00 AM. Susie and I were going out on the ride nearly last in the starting order so we had plenty of time to tack up and get ready. Koram’s owner has had trouble with him at the start of rides with bucking and acting up. With this in mind, I didn’t mount up until the horses in front of Susie and I started and we only had two minutes to go. Then, after I mounted, I just did big slow walking circles with Koram until they called our numbers to go. We walked quietly across the starting line. That worked perfect. Koram kept his head together and all four of his feet on the ground. It wasn’t long before it got really hot. Koram and Cody traveled perfectly together. Koram was moving along just a shoulder length in front of Cody most of the time but Cody didn’t seem to mind. Cody pulled Susie a little at the start. After we passed a few other riders we didn’t really see anyone so the horses soon settled in. Both horses have fast ground covering trots. We mixed the pace up with some walking and cantering. We knew it was going to be tough to make our time with the heat and humidity. At the hold there was no shade to be found. Cody’s P&R came down to an acceptable level within 10 min. Koram’s pulse came down but he was panting, or “inverted”. That is when their respiration is higher then their pulse. That can be a sign of metabolic problems. So, they had to take his temperature. That took a few minutes. Koram’s temperature was fine and his gut sounds were good. So, panting was just how he handled the heat. I didn’t know the horse well enough to know what is normal for him. His trot out was fine. We took a few extra minutes to let the horses eat a bit. We knew we’d pay for that later trying to make our time. The second half of the ride went well. We were leap frogging with a couple of other riders and that got Koram a bit excited seeing horses ahead of us. He was a bit stronger and he would jig instead of walk. I just worried that about him wasting too much energy. I decided it would be best to just keep the fast pace up rather then fight him to slow him down. I think that would have made him waste even more energy. Susie and I finished with only 2 minutes to spare. We took the horses to their stall and sponged them off. During this time, there was a drastic change in temperature. An off shore breeze and mist blew in and it got very chilly. So, now we were throwing blankets on the horses to keep them from getting chilled. Very weird. Cody was fine in 20 min. Korm’s pulse was high. They have to get down to 60 or less within an hour. I walked him around for a while and then had the vet check him. His pulse came down to 58 with 45 min. But, he was well hydrated, eating, alert, with good gut sounds so the vet said not to worry. His trot out was fine and I was passed to ride the second day. I was actually a bit concerned. Koram was not in as good a shape as I would have liked. Rich Gamester had made up some chicken salad sandwiches which were very good. After I ate I went into the trailer to change, crawled up onto my bed and zonked out. I slept for at least an hour. When I got up, I headed over to the barn to make sure Koram was ok. Susie had both horses out grazing on the grass. Judy Lorimer, the ride judge, was with her and had taken Koram’s pulse which was fine she said. Phew. We put the horses back in the barn and fed them. Koram still wasn’t eating much hay. He was drinking very well, eating grass and nibbling his grain. I gave him some electrolytes since it had been so hot and he has sweat a lot. You could tell he was very tired. I was a bit concerned about riding him a second day. While I had been sleeping, Susie called about her truck. They said they had found nothing wrong with it and she could come get it. She got someone to give her a ride to the dealer. When she got there she told them to try starting it. Wouldn’t you know it didn’t start. They put it on the tester and sure enough it was the fuel pump. But, now it was too late in the day to work on it. They told her they would fix it first thing Monday morning. So, we were going to have to stay over an extra day. Boohoo. Our meal on Saturday was at Otter Creek. That is a motel a few miles from camp. We hitched a ride with Lois Crowley and Marsha Deleware since we were without wheels. We had lobster and chicken with salad and corn on the cob. It was good and we had a great time visiting with everyone. Ed Winterburg, the stable manager, gave quite a speech about his fight to get part of the carriage trails that had been closed to horses reopened. We all filled out some paperwork for him to help him in his cause. After all, the trails were created specifically for horses and we should be able to use them. After we got back we took the horses out for a final walk and nibble of grass, then settled them in for the night. We kept blankets on them since it was still chilly. We didn’t stay up long after that.
During the night it warmed up quite a bit. It wasn’t hot but was a bit muggy. We had breakfast and the riders meeting as on the previous day. I used the same routine for the start and once again all went well. I was still quite concerned about Koram being fit enough to finish the ride. Once I was on him, he was off like a rocket. This is a horse that I think would literally run himself to death. Today we were only riding 20 miles and there would be no hold. I used the same strategy as the previous day. I let Koram go and just checked back his speed enough to keep him under control. Cody was very laid back the second day. Once again we finished with little time to spare. We took the horses back to their stalls and sponged them off. Much to my surprise, Koram’s P&R came down in 20 min. I was pleased and very relieved. Our trot out went well and so did the Hands on. Well, I was obviously going to get a completion though I didn’t expect a very good score. After the vetting was done we put the horses back in their stall and went back to the camp site for another nice meal prepared by Rich. Just after I had finished eating, one of the ride volunteers came over and said that I was needed over at stable because they were missing some information on the horse I was riding. I went over and as they were finishing the scoring. As they were taking down my information, I could see my score sheet. I had a score of 96!!!! That was fantastic!!!
I went back to the campsite and told Susie. I had seen another score sheet with a score of 99 so knew that I certainly hadn’t won the elusive Grand Championship! Hahahah. The award ceremony soon followed. I did win first place in my division. What a great weekend.
Acadia 50 ME 6/11/05 17/S - 16/F
Judges: Dr. G Dowd - J Lorimer
J1. AJ Morning Star Wakita / Wright, Caleigh
1. Alesar / Greenall, Sue
2. Tyger Dann / Greenall, John
3. GBA Karakoram / Cynthia Ross (Score 96.00)
4. Anchor Hill Alan / GAmester, Marcy
4. Sundance Tetezi / Smith, Vickie
6. Shrocco Criseyde / Hartman, Lynn
7. Xavier Sunnyacres (Cody) / Susan Reinheimer
8. Misty Falls Amandalyn / Beem, Amy
9. High Country Piper / Deleware, Marcia
10. Sebec / Townsend, Louise
11. Lady Virginia "Nettie" / Tenggren, Traci
12. Jake / Bejarano, Wendy
13. SA King Hofflin+ / Austin, Vicki
14. JB Roman Tar Bask / Libby, Kerry
15. Jai Alai / Ferland, Ruth
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