I arrived around 10:30am. There were 68 riders between the 3 distances so there were lots of trailer and spaces marked off for each trailer. It is always nerve wracking camping with a new equine for the first time. I unloaded Ruby and put her on my spring-tie. She has been high-lined before so I didn't anticipate any trouble with her on the spring-tie. I gave her lots of hay and water and she settled right in.
I work 3rd shift and I had not slept the previous night. So, once I saw Ruby was quiet on the spring-tie, I went in the trailer and took a quick nap. I woke when a nasty but thankfully brief thunderstorm rolled though. I poured rain for a short spell. When it passed, I went out and gave Ruby a rub down and toweled her dry. The storm circled back a while later and I put a rain sheet on Ruby. I was afraid of hail. The wind was VERY strong and a few people loaded horses into trailer worried about hail. But, it was just another brief downpour.
Tracy Bradford, from the MulesOnly list, came to the ride. She was going to crew for me. Though she ended up working the ride. They needed her more then I did. It was so nice meeting a list member and she was sooooo nice! When my friend Susie arrived, we went out for a quick ride to stretch the equines legs. Susie's horse, MacKenzie, is new to her and it would also be this horse first ride. Ruby was a bit jazzed up when we rode out of camp. We got out on a long open stretch of pipeline and I let Ruby go and she settled into a wonderful extended trot. MacKenzie was a handful. We didn't go very far. When we headed back, Ruby slowed right down like she didn't want to be done but MacKenzie stayed all jazzed up and jigging.
Once back, we cleaned our girls up and headed to the vetting. I have been practicing trotting in hand. As well as doing skin pinches, poking gums and such. Ruby wasn't bothered by any of that anyway. She WAS afraid of the stethoscope! I check pulses by hand under jaw or tail and don't use a stethoscope. Ruby got all twitchy and squirmy and did NOT want the vet touching her with that cold hard thing! Because of this, the vet, Art King, thought she was girth sore. "How come your mule is so sore? Look how sore she is!" (because now she didn't want him touching her girth area at all) "I bet she is lame from being so sore". EEEEEKKKKKKK!!!! I knew she was not sore! He told me to go ahead and trot her out first. Ruby did a gorgeous trot out. After trotting, I showed Art I could touch Ruby's girth area with no reaction. Then, Art put the stethoscope on other parts of Ruby's body and she tried to twitch it off anywhere he put it. "Oh, she is just scared of the stethoscope." PHEW!!! So, all was well and Ruby vetted in with straight A's on her vet card. I settled Ruby in back at the trailer. A group of us then went over to Susie's trailer. She had made a birthday cake for Barbara and me. Then, a bunch of us went out to eat at Melby's, our favorite restaurant.
The Riders meeting was at 7:30. I was getting very tired by now and slept though part of it. I'm just glad my pit crew and other friends were awake. After the meeting, we readied our hold bags for the ride. Filled water buckets, snacks for the hold for both people and equines and put everything in the truck that Barbara would take to the hold.
Ruby was getting a lot of attention and just loving it. The only problem was her addiction to booty scratches. She would greet everyone with a sniff and let them pat her head. Then, she would swing right around and present her booty! Which caused everyone to run for the hills! Until I explained what it was Ruby wanted. Though I didn't want anyone to just assume it was safe to be behind Ruby either. One woman came over to admire Ruby and when Ruby swung around, this woman didn't even hesitate but put her hand right under Ruby's blanket and started scratching her booty. When she noticed my amazed stare, she laughed and said, "I have 3 young mules at home. I recognized a booty scratch request when I see one." I got a good laugh at that.
We went to bed around 9:30 PM or so. Ruby was very quiet the first part of the night. I woke up around 1:00 and went out and refilled her hay bag and water. The camp was blessed with a 3.00am wake up call by Ruby. She started braying. She was bored and wanted some attention. Thankfully, she didn't bray much but she sure was loud! The 100 mile riders were getting up around this time anyway. Their ride started at 5:00am. The 50 mile riders were starting at 5:30am and we 30 mile riders were starting at 7:30am.
Buy 4:30am, Ruby was getting restless. A lot of horses were now saddled up and being ridden around warming up. I got up and fed Ruby her grain and made myself some breakfast. At 5:00am, the 100 miles headed out and the 50 milers were warming up. Ruby was really getting upset now. She was really pulling on the spring-tie and braying. She was NOT happy about all the horses heading out without her! Not a relaxing time for me. Ruby bounced around and was kicking out at absolutely nothing. No one was near her. She was just getting mad and having a bit of a temper tantrum! (see, she is not completely perfect! hahahahaha) Once the 50 milers headed off, I took Ruby out to graze on some grass. She was still pretty unhappy at first but finally settled down to graze. I assured her that next year we would be heading out with the 50's and she would not have to wait.
Cindy Ross on Ruby, Margaret Farnum on Promise and Kendra MacDonald on Mystic
It was a LONG 2 hr. wait for our start time. At 7:00am, we saddled up and started walking around to warm up. Then, at long last, we heard the anticipated words, "trail is open". Yippeeeeeeee. Susie wanted to go slow and so did I. So, we let most go ahead of us. Ruby and MacKenzie were both VERY jazzed up. They were both jigging and pulling and dancing sideways. We had a stretch of tar road to start off and did not want to be going fast on this. We managed to hold them both until we hit the trail. At first I tried to hold Ruby back at the pace Susie wanted to go but I soon realized this was just not going to work for Ruby and I. Ruby was going to go nuts if I did that. So, I gave her some slack and off we went. Ruby was awesome. She did not run away or get out of control. She would do whatever pace I asked. Walk, trot or canter but she just had to do it at her speed. I caught up with Margaret and Kendra and rode with them for a bit. But, still too slow a pace for Ruby. So, at the first "fly by" (where you meet your crew for water) I rode on ahead. Ruby was incredible alone. She does not need another equine for inspiration like my horse does. We passed several more riders and finally caught up with Bill and Stephanie Rice. They were riding at a very good pace for Ruby so I stayed with them for the rest of the ride. Ruby would have passed them also, but I had to draw the line somewhere on speed and Ruby agreed it was a reasonable compromise.
Bill and Stephanie's horses were a bit spooky about some stuff. Every time they would hesitate about something, Ruby would go right to the lead and take them through. Ruby was as steady as a rock the whole ride. I was thrilled! And I was so proud of her. And every time we had to slow to a walk, Ruby would out walk those Arabs and they had to trot to catch up with her. Ruby powered up the hills like they weren't there. Floated though deep sand. Trotted down hills without a mis-step. Forded the rivers like a pro. At one point we were in a sand pit and walking so we humans could all take a moment to drink. Ruby thought she had found mule rolling heaven and started to go down! EEEEEKKKKKK. I wasn't really holding the reins so gave her a good kick and shouted a big "No!" Ruby jumped about 10 feet in the air and spooked both of the other horses. Oooops! Well, it saved us from going down though Ruby wasn't sure what she had done wrong poor girl.
We rode fast up to less then a 1/4 mile of the hold. We hopped off and walked them in that last short way and went straight to the pulse gate. You don't have to go straight to the pulse gate. You can take time to get the pulse down if you want. The pulse must be 64 or less for your hold time to start. If it is higher, you have to go to the end of the line and try again. I decided I would take a chance and go straight though. Ruby was not puffing and had not even broken a sweat. Ruby pulsed at 60. Then you trot them out and they check pulse again. If the heart rate goes up after a short trot, that is bad. Ruby trotted and pulsed at 52. Wooooohooooooo!!!! She was still not happy about the stethoscope but what a beautiful trot out she did.
Barbara and I checked that Ruby's tack was not rubbing anywhere. Offered her water, beet pulp and hay. Ruby didn't drink and didn't care for the beet pulp. She picked some carrots out of it that Barbara had added. She dug right into the hay though. Barbara sponged her down a little. Then, it was time to go. The hold was not in the middle of the ride. It was at 11 miles. So, we had 21 miles to go. A last minute change in the trail made it actually a 32 mile ride. If anything, Ruby was stronger on the 2nd half of the ride. She never slowed down and she showed no signs of tiring. We had two more "fly-bys". Ruby did not drink at either. Toward the end of the ride, we had 3 river crossing. At the 2nd crossing, Ruby finally drank like a fish. Phew! I was happy now. We had passed more people out on the trail so were in the front of the 30 mile ride now. We finished in great shape. We did the ride in 5 hrs. 1 min. (ride time). That is not super fast in terms of Endurance riding but just about the pace they want you to go for a 30 mile limited distance. You are allowed 7 hrs. 15 min. to do the ride.
I stripped Ruby's tack off and Barbara sponged her down. Ruby was still not puffing nor was she very sweaty. But, I didn't want to rush to the vet too quickly. I wanted to make sure we passed the check first time. I didn't wait long though. Just long enough to sponge her quickly. When I took her up, she pulsed at 60 again (still afraid of the stethoscope) did another beautiful trot out and pulsed at 48! Excellent! A different vet did our final vetting and gave her a B score on "tack galls". Only because of the way she was twitching with the stethoscope. The vet said he couldn't tell if she was sore or nervous. He thought she was probably just nervous but could not be sure. Ruby ended with straight A's on everything else. She looked like she could go out and do it all over again. The vets had all gathered around Ruby at this point and were really admiring her. They just were amazed at how lovely she moves. And how nice looking and friendly she is.
After giving her a good rub down, I put a fleece cooler on her as it was getting windy and quite cool. I tied her to the trailer with lots of water and hay. She was quiet now though bright eyed and watching everything. She did not look at all like she just did 32 miles! None of the horses what were camped near us were back from their rides yet so Ruby was alone at the trailer. She did fine, only braying a few times. When it was time to go home, she loaded right into the trailer like a good girl again.
I could not have been more proud of Ruby! She was the best of mule ambassadors!!!!
Pine Tree Limited Distance 30 mile endurance ride June 30, 2007
1. 4:44 Dorion, Lisanne on Nation's Glory
2. 4:51 Murphy, Frank on Desparado
3. 4:52 Linnell, Dianna on Half Moon's Majestic
4. 4:58 Rice, Bill on Potaca
5. 4:58 Rice, Stephanie on Prymtym
6. 5:01 Ross, Cindy on McAllister's Ruby
7. 5:14 Denardis, Kimberly on Omar
8. 5:15 Reich, Deborah on SA Zacks Comet
9. 5:15 Cader, Amos on FLF Blaze Star
10. 5:17 Bennett, Abbie on Juneson's Image
11. 5:18 McNaughton, Irving on RC Neon
12. 5:22 Cushing, Susan on Lappi Fra Curtis
13. 5:55 Reinheimer, Susan on MacKenzie
14. 5:57 Palumbo, Mary on Caspian Sea
15. 5:59 Dockham, Peg on Beckie
16. 5:59 Farnum, Margaret on LWF Paljoe Promise
Metabolic MacDonald, Kendra on Into the Mystic
