Well, Emma Jane and I survived our last CTR of the season. Emma Jane has had problems with intermittent lameness ever since I brought her home a year ago. Never totally lame or anything that anyone can pinpoint. But, lame enough to know that something is wrong. But, she had been going nice and sound for 3 weeks prior to the ride so I had hopes for a good competition. Friday was a horrible day. Rained all day. Barbara and I headed out for the ride about 2PM. We arrived at about 3:30PM. When we arrived we unloaded Emma Jane and Marie took them right away to get vetted in. It was raining, but not too hard at that moment. Emma Jane trotted out beautifully. Hands on went very well with Emma Jane behaving excellent. Though her eyes bugged out and she nearly sat down when the vet checked for 'anal tone'! hahahahaha. Not sure why that startled her, she's had it done before. All in all she was a perfect lady. I was proud. The lay judge, Janet Brunjes was at the first ride I did with Emma Jane and she was just amazed at how Emma Jane has come around in letting strangers handle her. Marie vetted in fine also.
Barbara and I headed down to set up the portable electric pen at which time the sky really opened up and it just poured. We quickly put rain blankets on Emma Jane and Marie. As well as donning rain pants, raincoats and rubber boots ourselves. I got the pen set up in record time and we put Emma Jane and Marie in with lots of hay.
This ride is held at a beautiful old restored farm on a hill with acres of open fields and a spectacular view. The owners of the farm,Steve and Laura are so welcoming and friendly and opened up their whole house for us to come in and stay dry and warm. They provided us with a catered meal Friday night.
The weather that night got even worse! The wind picked up and was gusting bad. Along with the rain it was quite miserable. We headed back to the trailer at about 8:30PM. We checked on Emma Jane and Marie and they seemed fine. The blankets were doing their jobs and keeping them warm and dry. Emma Jane was keeping her big mule ears at half mast to keep the torrents of rain out of them though. I considered loading them into the trailer for the night but with the blankets they really didn't seem to be in any distress. I woke up around 1am. Looked out the trailer window and saw the fence was down. I threw on my raincoat and boots and ran out. Emma Jane and Marie were quietly hanging out in the pen still. PHEW! I put the fence back up and made sure their blankets were still ok. They were still warm and dry underneath. So, back to bed I went. About an hour later I woke up because the gusts of wind were rocking the trailer so hard. I went back out to check Emma Jane and Marie. The rain had finally stopped and they were fine. I hung hay bags out for them at this time since I figured any previous hay had blown out of the pen and into the next county!
Cara on Roadster, Marsha on Piper ride start
Cindy on Emma Jane & Barbara on Marie at the ride start
There was a catered breakfast in the morning. The power was out but the caterer had a generator so all was well. We ate by candle light. The ride started on time despite the power outage and difficult weather. The wind gusted hard all day and this made it very cold out in the open. Not bad at all in the woods. Steve, one of the farm owners, went out ahead of us on his tractor to clear out any blow downs and there were quite a few. The trails were great though. A lot of dirt road and jeep trails. Not muddy at all despite the rain. Emma Jane did great the first loop to the hold which was back at the farm. Her trot out was great. Marie was also doing great. We headed out on the second loop. Emma Jane was great until about 5 miles from the finish. She seemed to really run out of gas. She is in good condition and has done longer rides so I was surprised at this. But, we finished in good time. Emma Jane pulsed down in time though she was a little high on pulse. We went up for our trot out and she was very good and trotted willingly but with little enthusiasm. And I noticed she was just a tiny bit off on her right front. (sigh!) She started the ride with a '0' (sound) in lameness (out of a possible 25) at the end only 1 point was taken off for lameness which is very minor. She lost 6 points for 'mechanical fatigue' which I had to agree with. While out in the field waiting for ‘hands on’, I got some of the usual funny questions I always get about Emma Jane.
”Are mules comfortable?”
(I liked this one..) “Can you steer her”? Hahahahahah. When I told the woman that I could steer her she then asked, "Well, yeah but, I mean, don't you have to really pull hard and doesn't she just haul you around?" I assured her that Emma Jane has a very light mouth and was no problem to control. And what really made my day was when I heard someone behind me say, "oh, geesh I don't want to be standing behind a mule" and they moved their horse away from behind Emma Jane and in back of an Arab gelding and promptly got kicked! hahahahahah (no one was hurt so I can laugh)
Cindy on Emma Jane
Barbara on Marie
Emma Jane was again a perfect lady for the 'hands on'. After we were done with the vetting, we put Emma Jane and Rosemarie back in the pen with lots of hay and headed to the house for yet another wonderful catered meal! Emma Jane got her completion and placed in the top 18. Marie did very will and I believe placed 6th. It was a wonderful ride. By the time we were ready to go, Emma Jane was much lamer. And she was quite noticeably lame by the time we got home. Poor girl. I am thinking that she didn't so much run out of gas on the ride as she was just feeling some pain and discomfort.
It really was a wonderful ride despite the weather. Laura and Steve did a great job of putting on the ride and making everyone comfortable and welcome. I sure hope they hold this ride again next year.
Emma Jane is such a good mule I sure hope I can figure out what is wrong with her. She rides so wonderful. She travels great. She has camped this year in stalls, on the high tie and in a portable pen now with no problems......
Barbara on Marie & Cindy on Emma Jane on Trail
Cindy on Emma Jane and Barbara on Marie coming into the hold
Barbara with Marie and Cindy with Emma Jane at the hold
Barbara trotting out Marie at the hold
Marsha on Piper
Cindy on Emma Jane and Barbara on Marie on trail
Trails From The Crypt 10/21/06 21/S-21/F
Judges: Dr. Larry Buggia - Janet Brunjes
J1 SS Polar Ice / York, Cara
J2 INdian Smike Sign / Weeks, Taylor
1 Thunder / Sstygles, Amanda
2 Alladins Storm / Seams, Peter
3 Enchanted Safire / Seams, Cynthia
4 Beckie / Dockham, Peg
5 Cliffes Copper Penny / Buckley, Stephanie
5 Legendary Echo / Charter, Diana
7 Marie / McGovern, Barbara (92.50 pts)
8 Julio / Rojek, Steve
8 Anchor Hill Alan (Max) / Gill, Sarah
10 Odie / Palmer, Judy
11 SPD Carousel / O'Connor, Colleen
12 Keona (BHR) / Arsenault, Steven
13 Kahlua D&D's Boy / Bell, Patricia
14 Emma Jane / Ross, Cynthia (86.75 pts)
15 Cindi Jo's Velveet / Levasseur, Kathy
16 SA King HOfflin+ / Austin, Vicki
17 Travelon's Times Two (Moon) / Gamester, Marcy
18 Highcountry Piper / Deleware, Marcia
YTD Carreer Milage
Cindy - ride 1235 Drive 75
Marie - 1235 (75 drive)
Emma Jane - 160
No comments:
Post a Comment