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
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