Crooked River 3 day 80 CTR Waterford, ME May 2010

I’ve decided to attempt the 3 day 80 mile ride with poor old Marie. She is in good condition. But, I’m quite sure she is developing some arthritis as any older hard working horse is likely to. So, I would just take it a day at a time and see how things went.
I headed off to the ride at about 8:45 AM and arrived at the fairground at 10. I brought Zephyr with me. Few people had arrived so I had a good choice of places to park. I decided to park where I could have an electrical hookup. I pulled into the best spot for me and realized I was going to have a hard time reaching the hookup with my cord unless I turned my truck around. I was just getting ready to turn around when Scott Hatch came over and thought I would make it with my cord if I just unloaded Marie, then backed up as far as I could. This worked and I could just reach with my cord. But, then I realized that I could not put Marie on the Spring Tie which I was planning to use as it would put her up against the side of a building and there was an exposed waterline pipe there that wasn’t safe. So, I just set up my electric pen for her. She’s probably happier with that anyway since we will be here for three days.



I got Marie settled in, set up camp then made myself a sandwich. Amy Beem had arrived and she asked me if I wanted to go for a quick ride. So we went out for about an hour at a quiet walk. Amy is riding Weezie her Appy mare (that I think is awewome). Allie Marie was riding Amy’s horse Washburn. Allie was not riding Washburn in the competition, she was just here to work the ride. Another friend of Amy’s, Rhonda, was coming to ride Washburn in the competition. Kyle Neilson had come and he was riding one of Kathy Brunje’s horses. It was nice to see so many familiar faces here at the ride. Marcia Deleware, Kathie Brunjes, Tom Hutchinson, Irving McNaughton, Jean and Elliot Bridges, Kyle Nielson, Steve Rojek, Sondra Day, Peg Dockham, Mindy Veinneau, Bill and Stephanie Rice, Kelly Jack, Jeff Gardner, Scott & Jan Hatch, Stephanie Buckley, Char Jewell, Janet Brunjes & Louise Lester who are running the ride and many others.



Marie was quite restless because she did not have a buddy near her. I tried to take a nap but Susie arrived and Marie started hollering and hollering non-stop wanting to be with Susie’s horse Spark. I finally got up and went over to visit with Susie while she set up camp. Marie continued to fuss over not being near Spark despite the fact that Steve Rojek had come and set up near me so Marie did have company. But, not to her satisfaction apparently. We all headed up to get vetted in. The Vet judge is Heather Hoyns and the lay judge is Sondra Day. Dr. Hoyns did not like the way Marie looked at the trot so asked me to bring her back again when everyone else was done vetting in. She was not happy with how Amy’s Washburn looked either. So, I waited and took Marie up again later and I was passed to start the ride though Dr. Hoyns was still not happy with how she looked. Washburn also passed. We all sat at Amy’s trailer for a while and visited then eventually went down to Melby’s for supper. I had the haddock dinner which was very good. Later I walked Marie and ran into Mindy Vinneau doing the same. I have not seen her in a while and it was good to talk to her. While we were chatting it was announced the riders meeting. There was strawberry short cake for everyone which was a pleasant surprise. After the meeting, I asked Char Jewell if she could put me in the starting line up near Marsha Deleware. I was hoping to ride with her as I knew her horse would set the same pace as Marie. I checked with Marsha to see if this would be ok. She didn’t mind but she was already riding with Cathy Demick and said we’d need to check with her as her horse could get a bit competitive. Cathy said we’d try it and see how it went. Then we all went back to Amy’s trailer to relax and visit some more. We did not stay up very late and I was very tired from having worked the previous night. It was a bit overcast so I put Marie’s rain sheet on her in case it rained during the night. It turned out the overcast was from smoke from very bad forest fires in Quebec in Canada and it hung over us all weekend. Zephyr was thrilled when I put him up in the goosneck with me for the night.

I was up early the next morning. I fed Marie then headed to the food shack for breakfast. They provided cooked breakfasts for this ride which was nice. Today was French toast and sausage. Then, it was time to tack up and get ready to ride. The ground was wet and it was a bit chilly so I put Zephyr in the trailer with is food and water. He was not happy about this. He does not like being shut in the trailer for some reason. Marsha, Cathy and I were sent out together. We were second out in the starting order. Cathy’s horse, Stetson, was quite excited but Cathy rode so well you couldn’t really tell. Marie hung back last in her favorite position. A few miles out, Stephanie Buckley and her daughter caught up with us. There was another woman riding with them who was new to the sport. Her horse was very worked up dancing and tossing his head continually. Stephanie’s ponies are quite spirited but well behaved. The larger group was getting Cathy’s horse Stetson agitated. Finally Cathy told the other the they needed to ride on ahead. The woman riding with them said no they didn’t. Stephanie immediately said “yes we do” as she understood what was going on a led the way ahead of us. Stetson was much happier once they were out of sight. A little further down the trail we came to a lake where we could water the horses. We walked them in and I looked down and saw something long and thin swimming around. At first I though it might be a small eel. Then I notice there are more. A LOT more, and that’s when I realized they were leaches! YUCK! None of the horses wanted to drink. Just as we were leaving the pond, Scott Hatch pulled up with his truck. We said hello and were on our way. Very soon we came up on the woman that had been riding with Stepanie and her daughter. She was walking and her horse was not with her. She seemed to be ok so we told her to go back to the pond and catch a ride with Scott Hatch.

Cathy Demick on Stetson, Marsha Deleware on Piper & Cindy Ross on Marie

We got to the hold in good time. Marie just pulsed down in the 10 minutes allowed. All else was well. Vet still wasn’t thrilled with how she looked but let me continue. We were a few minutes late getting out of the hold but not enough to be a problem. The second half of the trail was good and we made good time. We finished in perfect time. When we got back I took Marie right to the trailer to sponge her down and wait for my final P&R for the day. I debated keeping her with Marsha’s horse but decided to see if she would be ok on her own. She wasn’t thrilled but was ok. But, just as the P&R person was getting ready to take her pulse, Susie came into camp and Marie spotted Spark. Marie’s pulse shot right up to 60. ACK! The P&R person gave Marie a minute and her pulse came right back down so all was well. I went up for the trot out. We were passed to ride the 2nd day. Susie didn’t want to wait around for awards so she packed up as soon as she was done and headed out. After I took care of Marie I took a nap for a while.

Kate Rogers, Louise Townsend, Amy Beem, & Allie Marie

Zephyr and Chindi


Stuffed Ponies made by Amy Beem



When I got up, I went up to Amy’s trailer to hang out with her. Louise Townsend had stopped in to say hi to everyone. Zephyr was having a great time playing with Amy’s dog Chindi. Supper that night was very good. Barbecued chicken, green beans, corn bread, salad, and a wonderful selection of cakes for desert. After supper was the award ceremony. After supper I walked Marie, then settled her in to her pen for the night with lots of hay and water. I put a wool cooler on her as it was cool out. Then, Zephyr and I headed for bed.

I was up early again in the morning. I fed Marie and walked Zephyr. Then I went to the food shack for breakfast. This morning they were serving pancakes. I sat and talked with Lois Crowley and Alan Wells. After I ate I got Marie ready to go. The ground was dry this morning and it was warm so I left Zephyr tied out. He was much happier outside. Once again Cathy, Marsha and I were second out in the starting order. Today Stetson was much calmer and Cathy was very pleased with him. The ride when well to the hold. We were riding the same trail as yesterday but made better time. Marie pulsed down fine. When we went for our trot out, the vet was very unhappy with the way Marie looked and told me I could not continue. After further thought, she told me to come back in 10 minutes for a recheck. I told Cathy and Marsha not to wait for me, so they headed out when it was time. I took Marie for her recheck. She looked a bit better though the vet still wasn’t happy. She decided to let me finish the day.

Cindy Ross on Marie

I quickly got ready and headed out. Marie moved right along at a good clip and in a few miles I caught up with Cathy and Marsha. They were happy to see me. There were a few times on both day’s rides when we had come across horse boogers or ATV that had spooked Piper and Stetson and Marie had been the one to lead them safely by. We finished in good time. I actually had to wait at the end of the ride before I crossed the finish line as I’d had time added for the time I’d lost at the hold. P&R’s today were all done up by the vetting area. There were not enough P&R people to go to everyone’s trailers. Marie pulsed down fine. The vet was still unhappy with Marie’s trot out so told me I’d have to come back in the morning for a recheck. Sigh……..

After getting Marie settled in her pen, I took a nap for a few hours. When I got up, I headed down to Melby’s to get a sandwich. I got back to camp and walked Zephyr then walked Marie. Supper and awards for the 60 mile riders was at 6:00. Tonight we had spaghetti and meatballs, salad and bread as well as more delicious cake. Char Jewell won the 60 mile ride. I headed to be quite early. I was finally able to get an internet connection so checked my email then went to sleep.

Amy Beem's horses Washburn and Weezie



I was up at 5:00 AM, fed Marie, walked Zephyr then headed for breakfast. Today we had breakfast sandwiches. After the riders meeting, I took Marie up for her recheck. She failed the recheck so we were done. Marie definitely was a bit off and she had dsome mild swelling in her left front leg that was not normal. I quickly packed up camp and headed home wishing Cathy and Marsha the best of lunch.

Several days after the ride, I took Marie to the vet as the swelling just did not go down in her leg. She had a strained suspersory and will on rest for several months most likely.

Crooked River 80 CTR 5/29/2010 14/S-12/F
Judges:
1. Shyrocco Lyric / Kimberly, Jenny
2. Leland / Savino, Ann Marie
3. Sammy / Rojek, Steve
4. Langwoods Lorelei / Stratemeyer, Joan H
5. Winn Star / Gibbon, Kyle
6. Texas Sonset SSH / Demick, Catherine
7. Bedrocks Handsome Fello / Alexander Lee R.
8. Patenaude Vulcain Gazelle / Gardener, Jeffrey
9. Charlestown Raphael / Daniels, Steven (Rich)
10. Lazaarr (Luke), Nielsen, Kyle
MCO Highcountry Piper / Delaware, Marcia E
MCO Theatric / Brunjes, Kathy
DNF Hawks Nest Expedition / Welles, Allen
DNF Marie / Ross, Cindy

VERDA Brown Bag 25 CTR Cornish, NH May 2010

It was the first CTR of the season. My new mule Louie is still on the injured list. This was supposed to be his first ride but alas, I had to fall back on reliable, good ‘ole Marie. Bonnie and I headed out for NH at about 10:00AM. We’ve never been to this particular ride before but with the aid of Martha (the GPS) we had an easy drive to the Cornish Fairgrounds where the ride was being held. It took 3 hrs. 50 min. The ride was The Cornish Fairgrounds was a very nice place. The weather was forecast to be rainy Friday night and Saturday so we reserved stalls for River and Marie and they were lovely big stalls. We got them settled in right away when we arrived, then set up camp. There were 30 + riders, but Saturday morning vetting was allowed so half the riders were coming in the morning. So, it didn’t take too long to get through vetting. River vetted in fine. But, the ride vet was a bit concerned over Marie. She doesn’t have pretty legs, and she isn’t a pretty mover.She never has been and never will be. Marie travels narrow behind and is stabby with her right rear leg. She has puff, and bumps and all sorts of other things that an older, hard working horse will get.  The vet judge for this ride has never seen my horse before. The vet judges that have seen my horse on a regular basis have gotten to know her and know that this is just normal for Marie and she always is fine. The vet judge did decide to let me ride but said she would be watching me closely. That was ok; I knew she had the best interest of my horse at heart. And she simply doesn’t know my horse like I do. After vetting in, we settled River and Marie back in their stalls and asked the ride manager if there was a decent place to eat nearby. She gave us direction to Windsor, VT. It was only about a 10 min. drive. We ate at a questionable looking little diner there. The food was fabulous! They had a buffet that night. We headed to bed soon after we got back from supper. We knew we’d be riding in the rain the next day so had come prepared. I have rain pants I ride in which work great other then they work up my leg over time, which is annoying. So, Bonnie donated a piece of elastic to me and I sewed stirrups onto the bottom of the rain pants.

I rained hard that night. We were sure glad our kids were snug in the nice stalls, and that we were snug in my nice trailer. It was still raining when we got up in the morning but not as hard. We were up about 5:30 AM. Bonnie heated up water while I went over to the barn to feed River and Marie. Then I went back over to the trailer for coffee and oatmeal. We set up our chairs in the trailer and were nice and dry there. There were 16 horses being vetted in this morning. So, we knew that would take a while. The ride would not be starting until 9:00 AM. When the rain slacked off a bit, we’d go out and socialize a bit, and then hide in the trailer when it rained harder. Because of the rain, I packed our hold gear into two buckets with waterproof lids. There is nothing worse then a wet, soggy hold bag. Bonnie and I were at the barn tacking up when I realized we were missing the riders meeting. I ran over to catch would I could, which wasn’t much. I did find out we were following pick ribbons and the hold was being shortened to 10 minutes due to the cold and rain. I was not happy about the 10-minute hold. Bonnie and I waited as long as we could to leave the barn but finally it was time to warm River and Marie up a bit so we ventured out of the dry barn out into the rain. Then, it was our turn and we were off. I knew this ride would be a bit challenging with hills. We don’t have much for hills at home so it is hard to condition for them. I had been out riding and conditioning more with Marie then Bonnie had with River, but Marie is more then twice River’s age at 19 years old. The first part of the ride was hilly but overall not to bad, I set a fairly moderate pace as I feared more hills and didn’t want to burn out Marie and River too much early in the ride. Much of the first part of the ride was on dirt roads. At one point, we came out of a woods trail into a field. We were looking around for the trail marker when suddenly Marie and River both just about jumped out from underneath us. Another rider had popped out of another trail into the field startling our mounts. She had taken a wrong turn and was looking for the trail again. There was a man in the field mowing and he pointed out where the trail was. So, the three of us rode on together. We came out on a tar rode and rode down this for a while. Eventually, we all realized we had not seen a trail marker in a while. We went on a little further until we came to an intersection. This came out onto a fairly busy road and there were no markers at all. So, we knew we were off trail! AGH. We turned around and headed back. On the way back, we came upon Vicky Smith and let her know she was off trail too and she turned and followed us back. Not far from where we met Vicky, we found the trail marker and headed down the trail. But, we had added at least two miles to our ride. The 4 of us stayed  together into the hold. There was a bit of a hill coming into the hold. Marie doesn’t pulse down quickly and this wouldn’t help. You are allowed 10 minutes to pulse down, but if the hold is only 10 minutes and you take all 10 to pulse down, there is no time left for the trot out. And forget about feeding yourself or your horse. The hold was held in a large field with lush grass. Though eating supposedly will raise a horses pulse, standing Marie on lush grass and NOT letting her eat will raise her pulse much higher as she frets hard about wanting to eat. So, I just let her eat. River was a little bit chilled and shivered just a bit. One of the P&R crew got a blanket for him. River’s pulse came right down quickly, but Marie took the usual full 10 minutes and then just squeaked in at 60 bpm. Then there was a line for the trot out so there was not chance of getting out of the hold on time. Though any time we lost that was not our fault, we would get back. River’s trot out was good. The vet still was not happy with Marie. She was now saying that Marie was looking uncoordinated in back placing her feet all over. She looked normal to me. The vet decided to let me continue but was worried. We headed out of the hold about 28 minutes after we arrived so I knew we should be getting an 18-minute credit. The second half of the ride was tough, tough and ummmmmm, oh, yeah, did I mention tough. We did a large section on woods trail. And we climbed a hill that just went on and on and on. It was very steep in sections and the footing was lousy from all the rain. Marie and River would try to dig in to climb but it was slippery. Marie was in the lead and she went slow and steady for a long time. River stopped a few times. Finally, even Marie was getting pooped and she stopped too and needed a breather. That hill literally went on for several miles seemingly without end. Then, of course, what goes up must come down. And the footing was the same going down, muddy…..not deep but slippery. Even when we did come to some flat sections of trail, it was just to slick to speed up. By the time we got back to the dirt road, I felt that Marie and River were too tired to push any harder and we walked the last 4 miles back to the fairground. There is no award that is worth risking my horse over and our ponies were tired. We did not make our time but we did not get disqualified. We were 21 minutes past our time and you are allowed 30 before disqualification. Had we not gotten off trail, we would have made our time.

It was raining harder when we finished, and we could not go back to our stalls until the vetting was complete. So, we tied River and Marie to the trailer, untacked and put their rain sheets on them. Both had good P&R’s and I was so relieved. I knew they were tired, but I had made the right call to not push them harder trying to make our time so they were fine, yes tired, but in good shape. We let them both graze while we waited our turn for hands on. Marie was calling and nickering to all the gray horse. Marie just loves gray horses. Male or female! Hands on went fine. Marie had no changes in her tack area and her legs looked better then when she started the ride. We had some time to kill between our hands on and trot out so we tied the ponies to the trailer again with hay and water. Bonnie put a second blanket on River as the vet thought he was a bit chilled. I have to say, Marie has always seemed impervious to all weather conditions. She is such a tough horse. Bonnie and I went down to the snack shack and each had a couple cheeseburgers. Then, we packed up what we could pack so we’d be ready to go after the award ceremony. Then it was time for trot out. River did a very nice trot out. Marie’s was good in my opinion, very willing and steady. The vet was surprised at how good she looked as she had been expecting the worse. She did feel that Marie was dropping her right hip and dragging her right toe just a slight bit more at the end but she said it was just a slight change. So, Bonnie and I actually both scored quite well. Bonnie got a 96 and I got a 95 ½. But, we both had a 21-point time penalty. I was just thrilled with getting a completion though with a horse and mule in good shape and ready to do it again soon! We didn’t leave until nearly 6:00 PM. We had a long but uneventful drive home.

3320 VERDA Brown Bag 25 CTR 5/8/2010
# Start: 24 # Finish: 22
J1. Lutka / Thompson, Casey
1. Old Vermont Rebel / Kimberly, Jenny
1. Picaboo Street (Pica) / Walker, Courtney
3. Beckie / Dockham, Peg
4. Empiric / Blittersdorf, Melody
4. Sir Douglas / Phillips, Christina
6. Con La Gracia / Limlaw, Gene
6. Ashmoro Billy Alan / Batchelder, Rhonda
6. Charlestown Raphael / Savino, Anne Marie
6. Texas Sonset SSH / Demick, Catherine
6. Sundance Tatezi / Smith, Vickie
11. WBA Chanceful / Johnson, Ray
12. Omars Montana / Bottesi, Marlene
12. Canequin's Reach For The Stars / Gesler, Liz
14. LBF Hickory Smoke / Fiddes, Esther
15. Juneson's Image / Bennett, Abbie
16. Craggy Lea Jazzy Lady / Ring, Wilson
17. Kalis 2862 / Abbott, Melissa
18. Silver Britches / Brooks, Leslie
c River / Hinz, Bonnie
c Marie / Ross, Cynthia
DNF Rockin Rudy / Hall, Kathy
DNF Sadie / Thurber, Lorraine
J2. Calamity Jane / Abbott, Logan