Fall Frolic 25 CTR Harrison, ME September 2003

The Fall Frolic is a new ride being held here in Maine. Everyone was excited about having some new trails to ride on. I didn't leave for the ride as early as I usually do. I hadn't done any packing ahead of time so I had to pack when I got home from work. It didn't take long. I've packed for rides so many times now I think I could do it in my sleep. Actually, once I was packed and had the trailer hitched, I did fall asleep in my recliner. Fred woke me up when he got home around 9:30 AM and I was on the road at 10:00 AM. The direction provided to get to the ride were good. The ride is in Harrison, ME which is about 1 1/2 hr. drive from home. Harrison is nearly due west of Bowdoin. But, there are no good east to west route in Maine. All the main roads seem to run north to south. So, you have to swing either north or south to get to the ride. Frustrating. The farm where the ride is being held is on a dirt road and is an historic site. There is an old saw mill on the Crooked River that was built in 1847 and run until the 1970's and is now in the process of being restored. Getting into the field where we were camping was a bit tricky. It was a tight turn around a telephone pole with a sharp incline down into the field that was a bit washed out. I pulled around the corner carefully and made it ok. There was only one trailer in the field when I arrived. It was Heather Bonneau. The field where we were camping was beautiful with the River running along one side of it. A lovely farmhouse and yard was on the other side of the field. There were picnic tables set up under a canopy in the yard. There was going to be a pig roast for our Saturday meal. I parked on the side of the field closest to the river. Some of the larger gooseneck trailer could not make it into the field due to the steep angle off the road. Those trailer had to park up the road in Scott Hatch's yard by his barn. Jan Hatch and Louise Lester were the ride managers. Heather no longer had a portable pen so her horse would spend the weekend tied to her trailer. The vet judge was Larry Buggia and Char Lester was the lay judge. Larry was late arriving so Heather and I sat around munching on pretzels and chatting. It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70's. The same weather was expected for tomorrow. I set up Marie's pen in a way that she would be able to see the horses on either side of my trailer. Susie was coming and if Marie could not see Cody, she would have a fit! Larry arrived around 3:30 PM. I was in line for vetting when Susie arrived. She made it into the field fine with her trailer and parked next to me. Marie vetted in fine but was very sluggish on the trot out. I had to actually tap her with the whip to get her to trot. Not a bad thing for the initial trot out as it could hardly look worse at the end of the ride. It was funny listening to the comments for the score sheet. "wind puff on right leg, bone spavin on left leg, slight splint on the other left leg..." when they were done, I asked if I should just load the poor creature on the next meat wagon! We had a good laugh over that. These things are quite normal for a hard working horse. After Susie got Cody vetted in, we took Zephyr and Callie for a walk on a dirt road so we could let the dogs run loose. They had the best time running together. When we got back to camp, we had our supper. Susie and I had both brought food with us. I had soup with bread and crackers. Margaret had also brought her own supper with her and sat with us to eat. Heather hadn't brought anything but said she was not hungry. Margaret and Susie tried to share with her but she declined. The riders meeting was at 6:00 PM that evening. Jan started to describe the trails when her husband Scott interrupted and said he had changed them in a few places. There was some tense discussion between them for a moment but it was all worked out. After the meeting, Susie and I got our guitars and played a few songs but couldn't really get in the mood. We put them away and went over to sit with a group that had gathered at Margaret's trailer. We all shared chips, dip, crackers and wine. Oh, and some awesome chocolate truffles that Margaret had brought. The group broke up about 9:30 PM and we all headed to bed. Zephyr looked so pitiful when I climbed up into bed leaving him on the floor that I had to get up and put him up in the gooseneck with me. Bonnie has him totally spoiled. He was so happy that he spazzed out like an idiot for about 5 minutes before settling down. He seemed to feel the need to curl up by my head with his butt in my face. I had to shove him off a few times before he got the hint and stayed out of my face. Silly dog. I woke up once and was a bit chilly. I had only brought my light sleeping bag. Bonnie's sleeping bag was in the trailer so I threw that over me and was soon toasty warm. I got up at 5:00 AM and fed Marie. The ride provided a nice breakfast of hot and cold cereal, fruit and a nice variety of delicious muffins. There was also some trail mix and bars to take with us on the ride. the ride was starting at 7:30 AM. Heather had to present her horse to the vet for a re-check this morning. Mariah had looked a bit lame on Friday. The judges still weren't thrilled with how she looked but decided to let her start the ride. Susie throught Callie looked cold so we decided to put the two dogs in her trailer for the day. That way they'd be up off the ground and have plenty of room to move about and play.
The ride started right on time. Susie and I were 13 and 14 in the starting order. I was lucky 13! Cody was an absolute spazz ball. He jumped, spun, danced and pulled Susie's arms out of their sockets. Marie even got excited enough to prance a bit. We started out too fast but Susie just couldn't hold Cody back. Cody finally settled down to "just" out of control from "completely" out of control after a while. We ended up passing a lot of riders. The trails were super. Nice dirt roads and woods roads with some single track and all of 1/8th mile on tar. There were two real neat river crossings. At the first one, we had to walk the horse up stream in near chest deep water before getting out on the other side. Susie and I caught up to Mary Batt at one point but her horse was getting out of control with Cody so she pulled back and let us go ahead of her. A bunch of us came into the hold all at the same time. This is hard on the crew and judges as it backs them up. Susie and I still managed to get out of the hold on time and were soon on our way again. We caught up with Irving and rode with his group for a while. Right at the finish line was the second river crossing. About 10 of got there together. It was a steep drop into the river and you had to cross straight across to avoid getting into any boulders with a short steep climb out the other side. It was a bit tricky to cross in a bunch like that. We tried to cross one at a time but then a horse would refuse to go alone or another would get upset about being left behind so we just lined up single file and in we went. That worked out ok. Marie did very well at the final vetting. She trotted out strongly and willingly. I was very pleased. Heather's horse was dead lame at the end of the ride. When we were done with the final vetting, Susie and I took the dogs for another walk. The meal was being served when we got back. It as delicious. Pork, home made potato salad and cole slaw, baked beans (yuck!) and rolls. And all sorts of pies for desert. It took a while for the scoring to be completed. Susie and Cody won grand champion!! After the awards, we quickly packed up and were ready to go. We were a little worried about getting the trailer out of the field, so we pulled the trailer out before loading the horses and just took turns holding each other's horses. It was a great ride and I can't wait to do it again next year.

Fall Frolic 25 ME 9/6 24/S-23/F
Judges:Dr. L Buggia - C Lester
J1 Llinkk / Jack Sarah
J2 Alejandor Del Nordesta / Edgar, Carley
1. Xavier Sunny Acres / Reinheimer, Susie
2. Keeper / Brooks, Leslie
3. Thunder / Vienneau, Mindy
4. KA Shiloh / Niedoroda, Susan
5. AL Ailal Shahin (Rubin) / Brunjes, Kathy
6. Snap Crackle & Spark / Rice, Bill
7. Jahyr Jamlin / Jack, Kelly
8. Marie / Ross, Cynthia
9. FR Midori / Batt, Mary
10. Especial Edition / Prentice. Linda
11. VH Phazon, McNaughton, Irving
11. Snowfield O'Malley / Hutchinson, Tom
13. LWF Paljoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
13. Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
15. Moria NA / Hurton, Bonnie
16. Melinda Del Pardo / Lord, Andrea
17. Inde Khaldair / Dixon Susie
18. Beechtree Chichen Itza / Whitney, Jennifer
Completions:
Delecia Del Nordesta / Little, Sidney

Streaked Mountain 30 CTR West Paris, ME August 2003

Another competition and I knew this would be the most challenging one I'd ever done. Two weeks earlier, Bonnie and I had trailered to Heather's house to ride the first 12 miles of this ride. Heather is the ride manager of this ride. I'm glad we came for a pre-ride as the trails were a lot harder then I'd expected and Marie was a bit uncomfortable on the rockiest sections. I actually had second thoughts about entering the ride at all. In the end, I decided to buy four easy boots to put on Marie over her shoes so she wouldn't have trouble with the rocks and I entered the ride. Heather paired me up with Margaret Farnum to ride. I was happy about that as Marie and Promise travel well together. Margaret also had some second thoughts about entering this ride. In the end, she also decided to give it a try.

I didn't leave home as early as I'd planned but was still the first to arrive at the ride site. It was very, very hot out and I was grateful for the new truck with airconditioning. So was Zephyr. I pulled into the field where the sign was for the ride with another trailer pulling in right behind me. Heather's trailer was parked in the field and her mother was sitting in a chair beside the trailer. I went over and asked Heather's mother where we were supposed to park. She looked very unsure but said she thought we could park anywhere in the field. I was looking around for a port-a-pottie that should be there and some sign of avaible water. I didn't see either. The couple that pulled in behind me also asked where to park and were wondering the same things I was. Heather's mother got a bit abrupt with us and went back to sit at Heather's trailer leaving us with no clue what to do or where anything was. So, we decided to just wait until Heather showed up. We didn't want to go through the trouble of setting up our campsite and then have to move them if we were not where we belonged. So, we both pulled into the shade of some trees and opened up the trailers to keep the horses as cool as possible. Marie was perfectly happy in the trailer munching her hay and watching out her window. It wasn't long before Heather's father showed up. I've met him before and he is quite nice. He assured us that we could park anywhere we liked. The port-a-pottie was not there due the a breakdown of the truck delivering it. Water was in tub in Heather trailer. The field we were in had two windmills in it. One that supplimented the farms electricity and the other that ran the well pump. It didn't take long to set up camp and get Marie settled in her pen. She was quite happy about all the green grass available. It wasn't long before Margaret showed up. She set up camp next to me so that Promise and Marie would be near each other for company. Marie was as happy to see a familair face as I was. I made myself a sandwich and settled down in what little shade I could find to relax for a while. It was sooooooo hot that I was just wringing with sweat. There wasn't much shade for the horses but that didn't seem to bother them as much as the flies. Both Marie and Promise must have gotten down and rolled a hunderd times to scratch. Margaret had set up a tarp in Promise's pen so he could get under it for shade. He was not interested in it at all so Margaret and I ended up bringing our chairs into his pen and sitting under it. I was tired from working all night and then coming straight to the ride. I ended up falling asleep in the chair for a while. Margaret had a little Sony Walkman tape player with her and was playing Kenny Loggin music.

The vet was a little late arriving. It was a woman from Rochester, NH and it was her first time judging a ride. Janes Brunjes was the lay judge. It didn't take long to get vetted in. One the trot out, Marie spooked at some invisible booger and nearly ran me over! Mary Batt arrived around 6:30 PM. She quickly got her horse vetted in and then there was the riders meeting. As I suspected it sounded like the trail was going to be challanging. The ride time was being extended by 20 minutes so we would have 5 hrs. and 20 min. to 5 hrs. and 50 min. to complete the ride. I knew even that would be hard to make because fo the time it would take to get over Streaked Mountain. thankfully, the weather was supposed to be much cooler with less humidity tomorrow. That would make a big difference. Right after the riders meeting, I went into my trailer and heated up some soup for supper. Then I went right to bed. I did hear the Rojek's pull in sometime in the middle of the night with their big rig but fell right back to sleep. I was glad they had come to the ride. They are international competitors that have ridden all over the world. It would be interesting to see if they considered this ride challenging.

I was up at 5:00 AM and fed Marie. It was fairly nice but not as cool as I'd expected it to be. I heated some water for coffee and oatmeal. Heather did provide donuts and juice. After I ate, I got Marie and put her easy boots on. They are a pain to get on so I wanted to get it done early. Margaret and I were 3rd and 4th in the starting order. Mary was 9th but we figured she would be able to catch up with us. Margaret and I were off at 7:02 AM. We quickly caught up with the first pair out. Only a couple miles furter and Mary caught up to us. The climb up Streaked Mountain was tough. The first part of the trail up the mountain is steep with large rocks that you just have to bumble over. Then, there is several miles of near solid ledge, some of it quite steep. I would have thought the hores with flat steel shoes would have found this slippery footing but I didn't see any horses having trouble. We just went slow and careful. It was a nice clear day so the veiw from the top of the mountain was beautiful. Going down the mountain was quite a bit easier. There are several towers at the top of the mountain and we went down on the road that leads to the towers. It was still very steep in places but the footing was good. Mary and I were gabbing while riding along quite quickly and I noticed that we had gotten ahead of Margaret and Janice. They caught up to us at the first water stop. Heather was at the water stop at the bottom of the mountain. She told us the guy that was driving the truck with the big water tank, lost the tank out of the truck onto the road. The water tank holds 250 gallons and she said it slid a ways down the road before coming to a stop. He had to empty the water out before he could get the tank back into the truck. Then he had to go fill it again. Heather left while our horses were drinking. There were trail markers to take a left turn where the water buckets were. So, we took the turn and headed down the trail. We soon noticed there were no tracks on the trail ahead of us. This worried us because we knew there were a couple riders ahead of us. One was Cindy Seams who had helped Heather mark the trails. So, we couldn't imagine she would have taken a wrong turn. We went back to the water stop before going too far and sure enough we saw tracks going straight down the road. But, the trail markers clearly indicated to turn onto the trail on the left as we had. So, we headed back down the left hand trail. A mile or so later we came out on the old railroad bed. We rode down 4 miles of that to the hold. There was a nice pond 2 miles from the hold and we stopped to let the horses drink and to sponge them off. It was there I realized that I'd lost my sponge. Mary let me borrow hers to sponge Marie off with.


We kept moving at a pretty quick pace to the hold knowing we couldn't afford to waste any time. The hold was in a nice spot with plenty of room for the horses and vetting. We were the first ones into the hold. The group riding with Cindy Seams had indeed gone off trail and were now behind us. All the horses in our group passed the vetting with no problems. We fed them and managed to leave the hold on time. Just as we were heading out, another rider was coming into the hold and had my sponge. Yippee. Now, we had a decision to make. We either had to ride as fast as we dared in an attempt to finish on time and risk losing points for a possible high P&R at the end, or ride slower and lose points for a sure time penalty. We would lose one point for every minute were were over on our time. If you go 30 minutes over, you are disqualified. We decided to ride fast and take our chances with their P&R. The weather was good and it had actually cooled off and there was a nice breeze. We felt confident that our horse could handle the speed. Going out of the hold, we had six miles of the railroad bed to travel. We made excellent time on this. It was all flat with excellent footing and good for cantering. The rest of the trail was a mix of some dirt roads, some pavement with decent shoulder and some very rocky woods trail. We moved as fast as the terrain would permit. Along one stretch of dirt road, Margaret's horse nearly tripped over a young eagle. It was on the trail holding a squirrel and didn't want to give it up. It hopped down the trail directly in front of us trying to fly but was unable to get off the ground. The eagle finally released his prize and flew off. As we passed the mile markers for 3 to go, 2 to go and 1 to go, we knew we were close on time. The last mile was a narrow woods trail. We just ducked our heads to avoid hanging branches and moved along as quick as we could. When we came in sight of the finish line, we could see Heather waiting anxiously and waving us in. Margaret and I crossed the line with 10 seconds to spare!!! We were the first to finish. I quickly untacked Marie and sponged her off well. Margaret and I took the horses to the edge of the field by the woods so they would have some shade to stand under. Marie's pulse was over by a few points being 48 but I was quite pleased with that. Midori was also at 48. Promise pulsed down fine but the P&R person thought his respiration was slightly high. I could tell Marie was tired but she did a good trot out. Other then the fact that I dropped her lead rope and she took the opportunity to run back to my trailer. I had to chase her down and bring her back to finish our trot out. It was a while before hands on were done. Only 5 riders had managed to finish the ride on time. Six or seven others made it within the 30 minute window. The rest went past the disqualification time but Heather didn't want to eliminate them. She said one of the mile marker got torn down but that really wouldn't make any difference. Heather provided hamburgers, hot dogs and salad for lunch. And the port-a-pottie never did arrive so there were a lot of visits to the woods. Steve Rojek said this was indeed a very challenging ride. Margaret won grand champion! Not bad considering she was riding the oldest horse in the ride at 22 years old. And I won reserve champion on my little mutt of a QH.

Streaked Mt 30 ME 8/23 14/S-F
Judges: Dr. C England - J Brunjes
1. LWF Paljoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
2. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 98.00)
3. FR Midori / Batt, Mary
4. Zaim / McKittrick, Janice
5. Shiloh / Seams, Cynthia
6. Dreamcatcher / Soscia, Joanne
7. Keona / Rojek, Dinah
8. Seagull / Barbosa, Hernan
9. Twopence Kelly / Gelston, Andy
10. Zephyr's Elegant Gift / Kenney, Sharon
11. Segway / Kallela, Sini
12. Rugby / Mersereau / Rene
13. Finch / Rojek, Steve
14. Lady Virginia "Nettie" / Tenggren, Traci
13.
14.

Fryeburg 2 day 50 CTR Fryeburg, ME July 2003

Well, I was heading off on this adventure alone. Bonnie decided not to ride and was staying home to take care of the horses. I headed off right after work at about 6:00 AM. I stopped at G&G store for gas and a few grocery items. When I went to put the grocery items in the ice box, I noticed that the passenger side rear tire on my truck was nearly flat! AAAGGGGHHHHH! There was no air hose at the store. I had a whole pack of local elderly gentlemen looking for one to no avail. I decided since it wasn't totally flat and I was only a few miles from home, I would just go back. I got back to the house without incident. I unloaded Marie and tied her to the side of the trailer. I unhooked the truck and went out back to the garage to put air in the tire. There was only 10lbs in it and it holds 80lbs. But now I wasn't sure what I should do. Head out for the ride with that tire or change to the spare. I waited for Fred to come home from work to get his opinion. His opinion was "I don't know what you should do." He doesn't seem to understand that since he's the man, he is supposed to be able to fix everything! He filled up the portable air tank for me and sent me on my way. I just checked the tire a few times on the way up to make sure it was holding air. The tire was fine and I arrived at Fryeburg without problem. I picked my usual spot at the end of the first barn. Marie was wondering where all her friends were and called a bit between stuffing her face with hay. I set up camp and had just settled down to read when Susie arrived. Very early for her. I was impressed. She brought along Libby, a 12 year old girl, and her new puppy, Callie. Marie was very, very happy to see Cody and made quite a ruckus. Susie and Libby quickly got set up and Susie and I decided to go for a ride. We tacked up and headed out on the trail that we always use for the ride. Cody was very excited and acting up. Marie was a bit light on her feet also. When we got to the road, a man pulled over and asked us if we had permission to be on the property we were on. He said that the man that owned the property didn't like people on it. We didn't know anything about it so we headed back to check with Colleen, the ride manager. Colleen told us that she had permission to use the trails. But, by this time we decided to just take the horses around the race track so we wouldn't be leaving Libby alone for so long. Both horses were very excited. We trotted around the track a couple times then worked up to a canter. Cody finally settled down a little. Then I saw something come off Susie's saddle and come flying by me? Susie started yelling, "Cindy, please stop, my stirrup fell off!" I stopped Marie and sure enough, Susie's stirrup was laying on the track behind us. Her stirrup leather had broken. Upon checking, the other one was ready to break also. Luckily, my English saddle happened to be in my trailer so I was able to lend Susie my stirrup leathers.


Susie wanted to ride with me on the first day but Colleen had the 25's and 50's going out separately. It just happened by chance that I was paired up to ride with Mary Batt. That would be good as Marie likes Mary's horse Midori. After riding, Susie and I went into Fryeburg to get some lunch. When we got back, we got our riders packets and I put the numbers on our horses. Then, the long waiting line to vet in. Cody and Marie both vetted in fine. Callie and Zephyr were getting along well. Rich Gamester was providing the meals for the weekend. We had hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings tonight. Mary arrived sometime after 6:00 PM. The vet told Mary that Midori was running a mild fever and she had a snotty nose when she came off the trailer. So, the vet wanted Mary to keep Midori away from the other horses for the night and re-check her in the morning. We walked the horses aound that evening out in the field where we could let the dogs run loose. Callie and Zephy had a great time playing. Callie is so uncoordinated still and Zephyr was running circles around her. It was very cute to watch them. The bugs finally dorve us back to the barn. We put the horses away and hung around for a while just visiting and chatting. We had the riders meeting this evening. colleen informed us that the trails had to be changed at the last minute. We do quite a few miles through agricultural fields and Colleen had gotten a call that the fields had just been sprayed with pesticides and we couldn't safely go through them. Scott Hatch saved the day by going out and rerouting the trail. He did a great job fiding an alternate trail and getting markers up. I don't know how he managed it! Everyone was tired so we turned in for bed early. It it going to be hot tomorrow so the ride was going to start at 6:00 AM. We would have to be up very early.

Susie was up before me and fed Marie for me. When I got up, I wandered over to the office to get my coffee and oatmeal. The coffee was ready but no hot water for the oatmeal. This is not like Colleen, she is usually so well prepared. I didn't want to wait so I got my coffee and went back to my trailer to heat water for oatmeal. Midori passed her vetting was was set to go on the ride. She was having a strong heat cycle and was just in love with every horse on the grounds. Mary and I were nearly the last one out in the starting order. There was only one groupo of four that hung back and went out after us. This was Mary Coleman's group. Mary and I alsmot got off the trail one right in the beginning but realized our error right away and turned around. Not before Mary Coleman's group got to yelling at us. It was good of them to be concerned about us and want to help. They got in front of us at this point. We passed them somehow at the river crossing. The water was hight this year. Not quite deep enough for the avarage horse to swim but close. A pony would have been swimming.

Several miles further down the trail, Mary Coleman's group caught up with us again at a water stop and informed is that we had gone off trail right after the river crossing shortening our ride by 1/2 mile or so. ????? Mary and I had seen tracks and markers the whole way. Mary Batt told Mary Coleman that possibly she had gone off trail and not us. Mary Coleman insisted she had stayed on the trail correctly. And so it went back and forth until finally I said to Mary Batt we were just going to have to go back because if Mary Coleman was right, we would be disqualified. We had to ride hard to make up the lost time. We had NOT gone off trail and we did get to the hold on time. Even though we'd ridden hard to make the hold on time, both horses vetted out fine. We finished the second half of the ride with no problem. Marie vetted fine at the end and was good to go for the second day of the ride. The vet wanted to check Midori again in the morning thinking she looked a bit lame. Susie said Cody had been real strong and pulled her most of the ride. Her hands were blistered! There were sandwiches when we got back from the ride. The, we had supper at 2:00 PM. Lasagna, salad and bread. It was very good. After dinner they had the award ceremony for teh 25 mile riders. I can't remember what Susie placed. Susie packed up quickly and headed out.
Mary was tired and laid down for a nap. Later, heather, Margaret, mary and I went into Fryeburg to climb Jockey Cap. A short climb up a granite dome of about 150 in elevation. The view is great from the top. Margaret had her dog Grizz with her. He is huge and it was funny watching Zephyr and Grizz playing together. Zephyr has no fear of other dogs no matter what their size. When we got back down from Jockey Cap we stopped for ice cream from the store at the trail head. We sat at the picnic tables with the dogs. Margaret bought a dish of ice cream for Grizz. he didn't eat it all and Zephyr was thrilled to help out finishing it. After we got back to the fairground, we walked the horses until we couldn't stand the bugs anymore. We then settled the horses in their stalls for the night. We decided to go to bed early. I went into my trailer and was playing my guitar when someone pulled up beside my trailer in a car. It was Bonnie!!!!! I was so excited to see her. She had decided to surprise me! Yippee! I got up and we took Marie and Zephyr for another walk while I told her all about the days ride. We then went back, put Marie in her stall then went to bed. We ended up chatting for quite a long time.

I slept longer then I'd planned but not to long to be a problem. I fed Marie then went to the office for breakfast. Colleen had everything ready this morning. Mary Batt's horse did not pass her re-check this morning and was pulled from the ride. So, I would be on my own for today. Bummer. I ended up riding with a woman from PA that was riding a very hot Paso Fino. Not many gaited horses are seen at rides in this part of the country. It was fun watching her horse move. She didn't think she would be able to ride with me because her horse is very competitive. It didn't take long though to see that Marie was actually having a quieting effect on her horse as she does with most horses. But, the Paso Fino was setting too fast a pace for Marie so I eventually fell back and rode with Louise Lester. Louise was riding her stallion Nickolas. Marie was upset about being parted from the Paso Fino and didn't care at all that she was now riding with a handsome stallion! Silly mare!I rode with Louise into the hold. Marie was still upset about the Paso and just squeeked in with her P&R. The woman with the Paso waited for me to leave the hold as her horse had also been stressed over being separated from Marie and we rode the rest of the ride together. Marie lost a front shoe and I had to put an easy boot on her. I had just had new shoes put on her three days before the ride and didn't think I'd have to worry about that! The pace the Paso was setting was still to fast and at the end I had to stop and hang around in the field before the finish line for about 15 minutes so I wouldn't get a time penalty. Marie was not to happy about this but managed to deal with it. The vetting went fine at the end. For dinner we had steak, potato, Italian Pasta salad and bread. The steak was a bit tough but everything else was very good. The award ceremony was after the dinner. I got a 4th place ribbon and was very proud of my little mare.




Fryeburg 50 ME 7/26-27 29/S-25/F
Judges: Dr. Glass - J Levellie
J1. Heart of Fire / Patty Simcox
1. Tyger Dan / Greenall, Sue
2. Czar Nickolas / Lester, Louise
3. Shyrocco Lyric / Kimberley, Jenny
4. GH Jesse Jolady / Houghton, Deborah
5. Finch / Rojek, Steve
6. CR Monarchs Memory / Malkasian, Robin
7. Blew Away / Down, Kathy
8. Langwood's Lorelei / Stratemeyer, Joan
9. Nikazem / Winslow, Roxanne
10. DS Easter's REplica / Simcox, Cindy
10. Queen of Argyll / Stuller, Marilyn
10. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.00)
13. Prince Buddy (Casey) / Cameron, Pamela
13. Shiloh / Seeams, Cynthia
13. Hawks Neopolitan / Coleman, Mary
16. HFA Silver Savana / Deleware, Marcia
16. Otis / Beem, Amy
18. Shyrocco Crisedyde / Hartmann, Lynn
Completions:
Amilie Spunk (Jamil) / Kohler, Elizabeth
Medallion Del Pardo / Hall, Brenda
Samid Ar Ras / Blittersdorf, Meoldy
DLA CAssidy / Hatch, Janice Conley
Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
MCO
Inde Khaldair / Two riders

Acadia 2 day 50 CTR Seal Harbor, ME June 2003

Bonnie and I were very excited to be heading off to our favorite ride. Actually, I was going to be driving Marie in the cart. Bonnie was going along with me as my groom. A groom is not required for driving a single horse but is allowed and a good idea. Bonnie is a brave soul. Bonnie and I headed off at 7:00 AM Friday. We decided to try a different route to Acadia that someone had told us about. We were taking Rt. 3 out of Augusta. It was a real nice drive but took us the same amount of time as the route we usually take. And we did not go by Dysart's which is our favorite place to stop and eat. It is so nice hauling now with the new truck. We arrived at Wildwood Stables at 10:00 AM. No one was around to check in with. There was a sign on the fist Barn that all the driving horses were to be in Barn A and the riding horses were in Barns B and C. This would work out well. Susie was coming with Cody. since she was riding and I was driving, we wouldn't be able to travel together on the trail. It was best that Marie and Cody stay as far away from each other as possible for the weekend. I was still expecting to have a hard time with Marie. She is so in love with Cody. As long as he was on the grounds at all, she would know it and probably cause a fuss wanting to be near him. We picked a stall and Bonnie got it set up while I unloaded Marie and the cart. Then, we picked out the campsite we liked. We didn't set up right away. We wanted to wait until we checked with ride management to make sure we were ok where we were. Bonnie had packed us a lunch and we relaxed at the picnic table by the barns to eat. Marsha Deleware arrived and joined us as soon as she got her horse settled in. There were still no signs of any ride management after we ate. Apparently, they were out marking the trails. I hooked Marie up to the cart and Bonnie and I went out for a little test drive. We did the Day Mountain Loop but didn't go up to the summit. Marie was wonderful. Soon after we got back, Janice Hatch, who was helping with the ride, arrived and we were able to check in. I was hungry again so Bonnie got out the rest of the lunch we hadn't finished earlier. We settled in once again at the picnic table by the barns. Heather had arrived and was walking her horse, Mariah, around. She came over and sat with us. Mariah kept coming over and blowing horse boogers all over the table. ECK! Bonnie and I went back to camp to set up and settled down to relax for a bit. Mary Batt showed up and decided to go for a ride after she got her horse settled into a stall. She'd had a problem with the stable manager, Ed Winterburg, on a previous trip. Well, she wasn't there more then 30 minutes when she was getting in trouble with Ed again! No horses are allowed in the camping area and not realizing this, Mary had led her horse into camp. Now to access the trails you do ride the horses on the road through the campsites but are not to take the horses into the campsites. When we told Mary how to access the trails, she didn't believe us and instead rode up the alley between the work horse paddocks. During the operating season this is not allowed. But, since the work horses had not yet arrived, they let us do it so Mary was saved from getting in trouble a second time.

Mary Batt & Midori

Mary Batt with Midori and Susie Reinheimer with Cody

Susie lunging Cody


Vetting was to start at 3:00 PM. The lay judge showed up on time but the vet judge was quite late. He was coming from CT so had a long drive. He arrived around 4:30 PM. Marie vetted in nicely. Susie arrived while we were waiting in line to vet in. Marie recognized Susie's trailer right away but just called once to Cody then went back to munching grass. After vetting in, Bonnie and I settled Marie into her stall with her grain and lots of hay and water. She was drinking a lot which was good. Rich Gamester was catering the food for the ride. We had hamburgers, hot dogs and salad that night. He does a good job with the food. I took Marie out for a little walk after we ate and then settled her in for the night. Bonnie and I got talking with another woman that was driving. Her name was Kathie and her horses name was Shadow. Her mother had also come along to the ride with her. Kathie was telling us how strong and "naughty" Shadow could be. I told her that Marie was usually very quiet and steady. Kathie asked if she could possibly drive behind me figuring that Marie's calm steady pace would keep Shadow quiet. I told her that would be no problem at all. After Susie got Cody settled in, she came over to relax with us at camp. After the riders/drivers meeting, Susie and I went back to camp and got out our guitars. We played and sang until nearly 10:00 PM. by the light of......the flashlight. We had quite a few people gathered at our camp before we were done. we checked the horses one last time before going to bed.

Susie Reinheimer and Bonnie Hinz relaxing in camp


I slept great as usual in my home away from home. I got up around 5:00 AM, fed Marie and started looking around for where they were serving breakfast. Bonnie joined me and we had to wander around for a while before we found that they had set up the breakfast table in barn C. There was hot and cold cereals, muffins, donuts and coffee. I had the usual oatmeal and a donut to hold it down. Marie was a bit anxious while I was harnessing her up. Bonnie held her while I hitched her to the cart. Marie kept fidgeting around but Bonnie did a great job of keeping her under control. Marie had put on some weight and the shafts of the cart were a bit tight. There was one team being driven. They were very impressive all hitched up. The drivers safety inspection was at 6:45 AM. The ride/drive was starting at 7:00 AM. I thought I had everything I needed in my cart but boy was I wrong! I had everything that I'd had at my last competitive drive but obviously they hadn't done as thorough an inspection. I was missing a quarter sheet, hoof pick, hammer and a spare halter. I don't even own a quarter sheet. Luckily Bonnie does and it happened to be in my trailer. I raced to the trailer to gather the things I needed while Bonnie was left holding one very anxious Marie. By the time I got all the required items together and passed the safety inspection, it was time to head out. Marie was very happy to finally get moving. It didn't take long for Kathie and Shadow to catch up with us. Marie was very curious about who was behind us since she couldn't see them with blinders on. Marie soon settled into a nice steady pace and all was going well until another driver came racing up from behind and flew past us without much warning. Then, just up the trail a little way, the same drive was poking down the trail at a slow walk. So, we came up on her and slowed to a walk. She kept at a slow walk so we asked if she would mind if we passed her. Kathie and I went by and were on our way down the trail. Well, within a few minutes the woman came racing by us again. Then, within a few minutes we once again came up on her poking slowly down the trail. We passed her a second time since we wanted to keep up a steady pace. This pattern went on for a while with this driver racing by us then slowing down. By the sixth or seventh time Marie started pulling and getting a little strong with me. I had to really get after her to pay attention to me. Then we came up on all the other drivers lined up on the trail going nowhere.

Cindy Ross with Marie

Kathie Robbins with Alert's Shadow

Robin Cuffey with Golden Rule & Long Hill Soprano

Anita Jack with Deacon

Clara Hendin with Rohan Nimloth

Sondra Day with Ben Putnam


The Jorden Pond House gate was closed and locked and we couldn't get through. We all waited a while and finally the first rider came along. It was Heather. The gate is only a few miles from camp so we told Heather to let Colleen know that all the drivers were stuck at the gate. There is an archway beside the gate that the riders can go through. We waited about 40 minutes for someone to come open the gate. Many of the riders passed us in this time. I tried to really distract Marie when Susie and Cody went by. It seemed to work. When the gate was opened and we started going through, the woman who had kept racing by us started having trouble with her horse. The horse was backing up and getting upset. She couldn't stop him and he ended up backing into someones pickup truck. Due to the back up at the gate, all the driver came into the hold at the same time. This makes it hard for the ride workers to get everyone through the hold and out on time. If they can't, we are credited for the time we are held up. Kathie and I got an extra 15 minutes. We headed off on the second half of the drive in good shape. One of the things I had told Bonnie to remember when she agreed to come with me was that if anything happened, to bail out of the cart as quickly as possible. Well, at one point we were passing another cart and we were on the drop off side of the trail. Bonnie must have felt we were getting too close to the edge of the trail because she suddenly started climbing over me getting ready to bail out. I could see she was taking my advise to heart and it was going to be every woman for herself on this drive!

Acadia National Park wouldn't allow Colleen, the ride manager, to put up any marking ribbons on the trees or any of the usual paper plates with arrows on them that are traditionally used at the rides to mark the trails. She was only allowed to put up little white arrows on the signposts at the intersections. That was fine except someone thought it would be funny to remove a few of the markers. So, as you can guess, Kathie and I got to an intersection, saw no marker and assumed we were to go straight. A little further on Shadow started indicating he was thirsty. We stopped at a little stream. We couldn't get the horses to the water in the carts. Kathie saved the day with her collapsible bucket she had with her. Bonnie held Shadow while Kathie got water for Shadow. Then Bonnie held Marie while I got water for her. Both horses drank a lot. We were soon on our way again with much happier horses. We were almost to the end of the "Around the Mountain" trail when we met up with a group of riders coming down the trail in our direction. That was not supposed to happen. And I don't know why they call this particular trial the "AROUND the Mountain" trail since it so obviously goes OVER THE MOUNTAIN!! We had already done this trail once on the first half of the dive. The riders told us that we had all taken a wrong turn and had to go back to the last intersection we'd passed. This was going to add about 8 miles to our ride/drive. The riders took off at a fast pace in an effort to make up for the time they lost. Kathie and I turned the horses around and headed back. It was going to be far harder for Kathie and me to make up our lost time since we couldn't safely travel as fast as the rider with our carts. We hadn't gone very far when we came across Heather coming down the trail in our direction. Her horse, Mariah, started freaking out when she saw our carts heading towards her. Heather jumped off and started yelling, "I've been lost twice today, I've fallen off, I've been dragged and I'm not going to turn around again! They will just have to come pick me up with a horse trailer!" Well, since no motorized vehicles are allowed on the trails, we knew this was not going to happen. We got Heather calmed down and back on her horse and she headed back with us. It wasn't long before she started saying she was very thirsty. I looked back and she truly did not look well. She hadn't brought any water with her and was getting dehydrated. Bonnie and I gave her our water. We ended up going over the mountain on the "Around the Mountain" trail three times that day. We just couldn't make up all our lost time and actually came in 5 minutes past our disqualification time. We didn't know how ride management would handle this situation since it wasn't our fault the markers had been removed. Colleen rode out to confirm the markers were gone and we were not disqualified. YEAH! Bonnie and I got Marie unhitched and sponged her down outside. Then I put her in her stall to cool down. Marie passed her P&R and trot out with flying colors despite the extra miles going over the mountain. The only problem was the shafts of the cart had rubbed her sides and there were swollen sore spots on each side of her. I felt sooooo bad when I saw this. Marie had never given me any indication that she was feeling any discomfort. I applied cold water to her side to make her more comfortable and keep the swelling down. Bonnie and I had to figure out something to do with the cart or we weren't going to be going out for the second day of the ride. Luckily, my cart has metal shafts and we were able to bend them out. If only we had thought to do this to begin with. Sigh.... The woman that had been racing by us all day had broken the frame on her cart. She had one of the men look at it to see if he could patch it up so she could go out the second day. Bonnie, the sweetheart that she is, cleaned out Marie's stall for me. We took the pads off Marie's harness, hosed them down and cleaned the harness. Then Bonnie and I went back to camp and hug out relaxing while munching on snacks. Susie had taken a couple of people to the public showers to clean up. Bonnie and I didn't go since driving the cart doesn't make you hot and sweaty like riding does. Supper was great that night. We had a choice of lobster or chicken. There was salad, rolls, clam chowder, potato and corn on the cob. After supper I walked Marie around for a while before going back to the trailer for the night. It wasn't long before the guitars came out and we had another sing-a-long. We didn't stay up quite as late as the previous night since we were all tired.

We were up early again. It had rained during the night and was still very foggy with a heavy mist. The rider/drives meeting was at 6:30 AM. It ran a bit last since people were a bit paranoid about getting lost again. We drivers had to really rush to get the horses harnessed, hitched and through the safety inspection on time. The shafts of my cart are fine now that Bonnie and I have bent them out. Marie's sides looked ok except for some missing hair. I went out a couple minutes late. Kathie was right behind me. Since the second day of the ride/drive is only 20 miles, there would be no hold. Things were going well so Kathie asked if I would mind if she and Shadow led for a while. That made Marie very happy as now she could see her driving partner.

Cindy Ross and Bonnie Hinz with Marie on trail

We had to stop once when Shadow broke his tie down. Bonnie tied it to his breast collar to keep it out of the way. While we were stopped we all took the opportunity for a quick trip out into the woods to.......to check out the wildlife.... Bonnie, once again, was a big help with holding the horses. Because of the mist, Kathie and I had both taken off our glasses. We had to be very careful at the intersections watching the markers. At one point we did take a wrong turn but realized it right away. We turned around which put me ahead of Kathie and Shadow. It was just a short stretch back to the intersession where we had gone wrong. I pulled down a side trail to get out of Kathie's way so she could take the lead again. Marie thought I wanted her to go in the opposite direction of her new friend Shadow and had a temper tantrum. She reared up when I wouldn't let her turn around immediately. Luckily, I had my whip in hand and quickly gave her a smack on the butt. It surprised her and she bolted forward a short distance. Bonnie was already half way out of the cart when I got Marie stopped. Bonnie was obviously taking no chances. Marie behaved after that. I guess she can't be perfect all the time. Shadow had been getting strong with Kathie and she was getting tired of fighting with him so Marie and I took the lead again. Shortly after that, along came the "racing woman". She flew by us without warning in a rather narrow spot narrowly missing us and startling our horses. And, sure enough, we soon came up on her poking slowly down the trail in front of us. We just slowed way down to give her time to get well ahead of us. That worked since we didn't see her again until just before the finish line. About 2 miles from the finish, Bonnie was in the process of cleaning my glasses for me when we heard Kathie yell, "Help me, I need help!" We had just rounded a sharp corner and for some reason Shadow decided not to finish the turn and had gone into the ditch. There was a huge rock right in that particular spot and it had jammed between the wheel and body of the cart. The cart stopped and threw Shadow into the rock gashing one back leg. He jumped back out of the ditch but couldn't go anywhere with the cart wedged on the rock. Bonnie immediately jumped out of my cart and went to Kathie's aid. Bonnie really kept her head and approached Shadow calmly and quietly taking hold of his bridle. Kathie, of course, was a bit shook up and wasn't sure what to do at first. They couldn't back Shadow out of the ditch and off the rock without risking further injury to Shadow. Kathie got out of the cart and was able to lift the wheel over the end of the rock while Bonnie slowly led Shadow forward and back onto the road. Once again, Bonnie saved the day! I don't think I will ever do a competitive drive without a groom! The gash on Shadow's leg looked nasty but he didn't seem at all lame and it wasn't bleeding much. We were close to camp and running short on time so we decided to move right along as quickly as we safely could and just get back. We finished with only a few minutes to spare. Bonnie and I got Marie unhitched and Bonnie took her in her stall to sponge her off. Marie's pulse was a bit higher then desired but her respiration was low and she was fine. Her trot out was great. I knew I'd lose points for the missing hair from the shaft rubs though. We had another great meal provided by Rich. Honey ham, baked potato, asparagus, and cookies. Susie, as usual, was rushing around trying to get everything packed up as quickly as possible so she could bolt for home. We had the award ceremony right after the meal. If I had fixed the shafts on my cart for the first day of the drive I would have won the driving division!! AARRGHHH! I was so mad at myself. Well, we all knew how well Marie had done. She is an amazingly tough horse with a big heart. We did get high point rookie driver, high point rookie horse as well as high point grade horse. It didn't take long for Bonnie and I to pack up. Bonnie, the woman sent from heaven, stripped down Maries stall while I packed up the trailer. What a great ride/drive. I really enjoyed driving with Kathie, she was so much fun. I hope to see her again soon. Her mom was so nice too.

Acadia 50 ME 6/7-8 6/S-F
Judges: Dr. Gorra - J Lorimer
1p. long Hill Soprano / Cuffey, Robyn
1p. the Golden Rule
1s. Rophan Nimloth / Hendin, Clara
2s. Ben Putnam / Day, Sondra
2s. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.50)
4s. Deacon / Jack, Anita
5s Alert's Shadow / Robbins, Kathie

Hidden Brook 25 CTR Norway ME April 2003

At last, the first competition of the season. It's been such a long cold winter that I thought this would never arrive! This ride is a new one. We don't usually have any rides here in Maine until late May. The frost isn't completely out of the ground this early in the year in some places so you can't ride in the woods yet. Heather Bonneau is the ride manager and said it would be an easy ride all on dirt roads and pavement with good shoulders.

I hadn't been feeling very well for a couple of days before the ride and had taken two days off work. I still wasn't feeling very well Friday morning but was going to the ride anyway. I set off about 8:30 AM and it is just a little over an hours drive to Hidden Brook Farm in Norway. It is quite a large farm. The camping site was fine except it was much to far from the toilet! And all uphill to get there! A water truck was provided so we would have water handy. Heather came out to greet me as soon as I pulled in. There was a little girl, Mabel, tagging along with her that was about 6 years old I'd guess. They both walked down to the camping site to show me where to park. I was the first one to arrive so I had my choice of spots. After I got parked, Heather wandered back up to the barn but Mabel stayed with me. She was just full of questions. "What's your name? How old are you?" and my favorite, "How old were you when you were young?" I had to think about how to answer that one for a moment. Mabel was determined to help me set up my fencing. She actually did turn out to be quite helpful. It didn't take long to get the fence up and Marie settled in. Marie was a bit worried about being the only horse in the campsite and called a bit. She was fine otherwise. Once I had Marie settled in, Mabel and I wandered up to the barn so I could check in and get my riders packet. After I got my packet, I went back to the trailer and set up camp and then took a nap for a few hours. When I got up, I made myself a sandwich then headed up to the barn to hang out with Heather. Laura and Steve were there. They were working the ride. Steve was busy following the farm owner around and helping him to get chores done. He was having way too good a time since there was a lot of large equipment to 'play' with. I sat and talked with Laura and Heather for a while. We were having pizza for supper that night. Laura and Heather are both Catholic and it was Lent so they decided to share a meatless pizza. Steve and I would share one loaded with meat just to tease them. Laura is quite amazing in what she is able to do considering she has no arms. While we were standing out in the open, some dirt blew into her eye. She wears contact lenses but this presented no problem for her. She sat at the registration table, quickly popped the lens out with her big toe onto the table, picked the lens up with her tongue and gives it the spit rinse, placed the lens back on her big toe and popped it right bacn in her eye just a slick as can be. And faster then I can do the same with hands. I went back down to the trailer to check on Marie. She was fine and quite happy now as she had some company. She seemed quite smitten with the buckskin gelding that was right next to her. I had to put on my long underwear and heavy socks and boots, it was cold!

Don McLean is the vet. He's the one that is so bugged by the way Marie travels. Norma House is the lay judge. She's real good. Vicky Austin and Abby are the scribes. I had Marie ready to go as soon as the vet got there. I was the first one to vet in. Don McLean, as usual, made a few comments on Marie's short stabby strides in back but passed her to ride. I put Marie away and went back to watch the others vetting in. The vet and crew asked me to go up to the barn and get them some coffee and hot chocolate. Heather didn't have anything available so she sent Laura and Steve out to the store to buy coffee for the crew. There were a lot of new faces at this ride. People had come from RI, CT, MA, NH and VT. There were originally 30 entries though a few had cancelled. Not a bad turnout at all. The riders meeting was at 7:00 PM. After that we had our pizza. We sat in Laura and Steve's truck to keep warm. Laura did have trouble getting the pizza out of the box as it was a bit soft and Steve ended up helping. Once the pizza was finished, I went down to the trailer and settled in for the night. It wasn't long before Margaret Farnum showed up with hot chocolate mix and brandy. She was willing to share that in trade for some hot water as I had a stove. I thought that was a pretty good deal. Then Heather showed up. It was quite a squeeze to get us all in my trailer but we managed. It was cold in the trailer but much better then outside. After Margaret and Heather left, I snuggled down in my sleeping bag and was soon toasty warm. I knew it was going to be hard to get out of it in the morning.

Thankfully, it warmed up overnight. It was still cold but much warmer then yesterday. So, It wasn't go bad getting out of my sleeping bag after all. I fed Marie, then heated up some water for coffee and oatmeal. Heather only had donuts and orange juice available so I heated water for some of the campers around me for coffee. I got my hold bag ready packing a couple of bagels for Margaret and I in it. I tacked Marie up and rode up to meet Margaret as we were riding together. We walked the horses to warm them up. We were the second pair out in the starting order. Marie and Promise were fairly quite to start and we let the walk for a bit then moved out at a good trot. The buckskin gelding that was next to Marie all night was just ahead of us. Marie spotted him and started pitching a fit. She decided she was quite in love with him and wanted to catch up with him. He would get just out of sight around a corner then she would spot him again on a straight stretch and it was making her crazy. She called and pranced and got all sweaty fretting about it. There was no way I could let her catch up with him because she has got to learn not to attach herself to other horses like this. It's weird how she can pick a completely strange horse and form such an instant attachment to it. Here I was riding with Promise, a horse she knew from many rides, and she could care less about him. Marie carried on for 6 or 7 miles before finally settling down. So, this was an improvement since I've had her carry on for an entire ride. Margaret and I took turns leading. The ride was indeed all on dirt roads and pavement with good shoulder. It had more hills then we were led to believe but with the good footing, this was not a problem. We got into the hold right on time. The hold was on someones front lawn. It was a little crowded and there was a bottle neck of riders that had all arrived close together. I had bought Marie a feedbag so I could feed her at the holds and remain mobile too. The hold are so rushed as you only have 20 minutes. The first 10 minutes are spent pulsing down. Many horses pulse down quicker but Marie most usually needs the full 10 minutes. You need to keep your horse quiet to pulse down but Marie sees the other horses eating and hay, grain and all other imaginable horse goodies everywhere and gets anxious to eat. So keeping her quiet is nearly impossible. Once the P&R is done there is only another 10 minutes to get though the vet check and trot out, feed the horse, yourself and take care of any other necessary business. Anyway, she pulsed down fine so I grabbed the feed bag, put her food in it so I could slip it on her and then get in line for the vetting. What I never thought about, when I tried the feed bag on her at home while she was wearing her halter, was that it would not work with her hackamore on. So, here she was trying to shove her head into the feed bag to get the grain but couldn't quite reach it with the hackamore hanging up on it. Marie started to get very frustrated, Margaret is now several horses in front of me in the vetting line, I'm starting to stress out trying to figure out how to get Marie's grain to her since there were too many horses milling around for me to just dump it on the ground. I finally just flung the feed bag back with my hold bag and got in line for vetting. Now Marie was mad and sulking. Margaret had to trot Promise twice as the vet thought he might be a bit lame. Marie trotted out fine. Margaret was already mounted up by the time I got through vetting and it was past time to go. I scurried to my hold bag, grabbed the bagels I'd packed for us all the while Marie is shoving me around trying to find the stupid feed bag with her grain. I finally got myself together, mounted up, threw my hold bag in Heather's truck so it wouldn't get lost and we were finally out of the hold. We walked the horses while we munched our bagels. Margaret seemed to think we were fine on time. She has been competing for many years and has never gotten a time penalty so I didn't worry about it. When we came to the mile markers for the last 5 miles we both realized that we were behind on time. We picked up the pace as much as we could but still finished 3 minutes late. That would be 3 points off our scores. Poor Margaret was horrified and I felt bad I had not helped her keep track of time. We took both of our horses down to my trailer. Keeping them together would help them stay quiet and have better P&R's. It was quite warm by the time we finished the ride so we were able to sponge the horses down. Marie's face was itchy and sweaty and when I was reaching up to carefully sponge around the top of her head, she shoved her head right into my hand trying to scratch on me. This caused me to accidentally squeeze water right into her ear. She freaked right out. She started shaking her heard really heard, then pulled back and broke her trailer tie. She was so upset and offended with me and there was nothing I could do. Don't you know it was right at that moment the P&R person showed up. So, her pulse was up but her respiration was great. So, I knew I'd also get a few points off for a high pulse. The grand championship was once again slipping out of my grasp. Drat! All went well for the hands on and trot out. When that was all done, I put Marie in her pen with plenty of hay and water and went up to hang out with Margaret while waiting for awards. Supper was hamburgers and hot dogs. Louise Lester won grand champion with her stallion.

Hidden Brook 25 ME 4/19/03 25/S - 23/F
Judges: Dr. McLean - N. House
1. Czar Nickolas / Lester, Louise
2. Sdemens Thunder / Chsriser, Diana
2. CSF Otis / Walker, Connie
2. Raczaarr / DeShon, Deborah
2. BF Saxx / Bentley, Valerie
6. Ton Ka Kola Gold / Akerstrom, Sharon
7. Royal Legkacy "Naji" / Broome, Jennifer
7. count Canaskis / Miller, Brenda
9. Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
10. Chlostc Moon Danse / Downs, Kathy
11. Nikademis / Seams, Peter
12. Chocholare Soldier / Rice, Stephanie
13. Misu Koran / Navoy, Cory
14. Shyloh / Seams, Cynthia
15. Dreamcatcher / Soscia, Joanne
16. LWF Palfoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
17. Jewely's Gem / Beckstrom, Carolyn
18. Inde Khaldair / Dots, Jen
18. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.00)
Completions
Lady Virginia "Nettie" / Tenggren, Traci
Zephyr's Elegant Gift / Kenney, Sharon
Silvea / Brunjes, Janet
Micky B / Rice, Bill

Boo 25 CTR West Sumner, ME Oct 2002

This is the last ride of the season for me (sniff, sniff). The Boo is one of my favorite rides. Vicki Austin, the ride manager, really goes all out to put on the best ride. The ride is in West Sumner, ME held at an old farmsted dating back to 1736. The farm sits on the side of a hill with wonderful views of the surrounding mountains. The couple that owns the farm, Laura and Steve, are wonderful and so generous to open up their home for this ride. Laura has no arms so must do everything with her feet. She is amazing in what she can do and she both rides and drives her horses. Bonnie took Friday off work so she could go up to the ride early in the morning with me. We planned to leave around 8:00 AM. I got out of work at 2:30 AM. When I got home, I fed the horses, packed the trailer and then snuck in a couple hours of sleep. It was raining when Bonnie arrived but it was not supposed to clear off so we sat around and drank coffee until the rain stopped at 8:30 AM. The weather report said it was going to be cold Friday night and would also rain Friday night into Saturday. So we packed enough clothes for an army hoping to be prepared for anything. We loaded up the horses, Zephyr and headed out. We got to the ride in good time. No problems with the truck other then it being very loud from needing the muffler replaced. We were the second ones to arrive. Heather had been the first. We had our choice of where to park and set up our fence. We, of course, parked as close to the house as we could get as that was closer to the food. We unloaded the horses and tied them to the trailer. I hitched Zephyr's cable to the door handle of my truck. The field we camp in is wide open and on the side of a hill so it can get very windy here. We decided to set up the horses fence using my trailer for a wind break. So, I needed to turn the trailer around so we could set up the fence and not have the living quarters door opening into it. Bonnie untied the horses and held them. I jumped in the truck and pulled forward to make a loop in the field. I glanced in my side view mirror and see Bonnie jumping up and down and waving her arms as best she could while holding both horses. She was shouting something but I couldn't hear a thing over the rumble of my bad muffler. Then, I suddenly realized what she was making the fuss about, poor Zephyr was still tied to my truck!!! He'd been running for all he was worth to keep up, thankfully I was going slow and hadn't gone more then 50' so no harm done. I jumped out, got him and put him in the truck with me. I had to hug and cuddle him and tell him I was NOT trying to kill him! I got the truck and trailer situated to our satisfaction but it still took us forever to get the fence the way we wanted it. I'm not sure why we had such a brain cramp about it but we did. We did finally get the fence set up to our liking and the horses settled in with hay and water. It was cold and windy enough for me to put on my long underwear and heavy coat. We headed to the house to register. Vicki, the ride manager, also makes and sells horse, dog and people clothing. I had ordered a dog coat for Zephyr. It was to be made of coated nylon so it would be waterproof and lined with fleece. When I got to the house, Vicki saw me and she got all excited and started running around looking for my bag saying, "Oh, I can't wait to see your face when you see your dog's little coat." She finally found the bag and handed it to me. I pulled out the coat and it was indeed adorable. It is made to look like a horse blanket. Then I pulled out the bill ...... $60!!! Yikes, Zephyr is only a 15 lb dog so the coat is small! I sure hoped Vicki was not watching my face when I saw the bill. I should have asked the price before having Vicki make it! That's ok, she did a great job.

After registering, I unhooked my truck and we went down to the little store on the corner for lunch. It is a small place but they have good food. When we got back to camp Susie had arrived. Susie and I had decided previously that we were going to switch horses on this ride and had entered the ride this way. She told me that Cody had been really hyper on her last few rides and she was worrked about me not having a very good time if I rode him. We discussed it a bit and decided to ride our own horses. Poor Vicki had to redo our paperwork but was a good sport about it. Bonnie had thought Halla was coming to the ride and has asked to ride with her. Halla backed out so Bonnie was in the ride order with a group of people she didn't know. Vicki had set up the ride order with 4 riders starting together 5 minutes apart. Bonnie was starting 3 groups behind Susie and me. Bonnie was not at all happy about this. She was anxious about Lady Bug and Marie being separated. We talked to Vicky and asked if Bonnie could be put with our group. She didn't really want to make the change at first but the 4th person in our group hadn't shown up so Vicki let Bonnie take her spot. Susie wanted to go for a ride before the vetting but it was so close to vetting time, I didn't want to go. She decided to just lunge Cody instead. Bonnie and I got right in line for vetting so didn't have a long wait. I went first and while Marie was trotting one of her circles, she trotted into a slippery spot and fell down. She did it in typical Marie fashion. She went down on the side of her butt, then slowly rolled over onto her side and just laid there a minute like she was thinking, "Oh, gee, I fell down... this is kind of comfortable.. maybe I'll just rest here a minute.. oh, I guess I'll get up," and she calmy got to her feet and looked at me like, ok, now what? We finished the trot out but she was just slightly off on her right shoulder from the fall. The vet wanted to re-check her in the morning just to make sure she was ok. A lot of horses would have freaked out if they went down like that. Not Marie, it would take too much energy to freak out. Lady Bug vetted in fine. Margaret Farnum had parked right next to my trailer. I had ridden the Crooked River 60 with her. Marie was in heat and nuzzling Promise over the fence. Louise Lester was parked behind me and she had her stallion with her who was talking to Marie and trying to tell her he was the only 'real man' on the grounds. But Marie was only interested in Promise, silly mare. Bonnie brought a bottle of her father's famous 'recipe' with her. Homemade coffee brandy. It was very good. We made a couple drinks and went over to Susie's trailer to sit and chat. Mary Batt showed up around 4:00 PM. The riders meeting was at 5:00 PM and held at the starting line. Then there were snack at the house. It was the usualy layout that was more a meal then snacks. There were several pasta dishes, chili, beans, zucchini casserole and lots of homemade deserts. We ate like pigs. It was quite cold outside by now. After eating, we went outside and huddled around a campfire together. Vicki had even hired entertainment for the evening. "The Horse Hippy" who is a musician and comedian. He was late showing up since he'd written the wrong date on his calendar. I was hanging out by the campfire trying to avoid being roped into line dancing in the barn. I don't mind line dancing, I was just too tired for it. Vicki came down and told us the Horse Hippy had arrived and was all set up in the barn. I don't know what I expected but he was quite a sight. He definitely looked like an old hippy with his long gray hair and beard, disheveled jeans, denim shirt, and red flannel vest. Looked like he just came crawling out of the hills. He played banjo and electric guitar. He was actually quite good and very amusing. Marcy Gamester was dying to dance and trying to get everyone to dance with her. She got Steve, the farm owner, to dance a few with her. Then she got the man that had brought the Horse Hippy to dance with her. Susie got me up for one dance but I quickly retreated back to my comfy hay bale. Though my feet were getting cold enough that I was thinking about dancing just to warm them up. After the Horse Hippy left, I went back to the campfire. Eventually, Bonnie and I headed to bed. We knew we'd be warmer in our sleeping bags. Zephyr, as usual, spazzed out when he got up into bed with us. He crawled into Bonnie's sleeping bag to check it out. Then he tried to crawl into mine. I had my mummy style bag and it was too tight a fit for him so he crawled out and back into Bonnie's bag and slept with her all night. Silly dog! As we laid there, we could see our breath, burrrrrr. We knew we wouldn't want to get out of our sleeping bags in the morning. I put the clothes I was wearing the next day into my sleeping bag so they would be warm in the morning.

It actually warmed up overnight and was warmer in the morning. It was cloudy but so far the rain was holding off. For that I was extremely grateful. I fed Marie and Lady Bug then headed to the house for some breakfast. I had the usual oatmeal of course. But there were lots of other goodies as well. Home baked breads, pastires and donuts. I just love this ride! while the costume class was being judged, I got Marie out and lunged her so she would be ready for her re-check. It just happened the vet walked by as I was lunging her and he watched her and told me she looked fine to ride. Bonnie and I tacked up and got ready to ride. The start of the ride went down the long driveway, then turned into the fields and came back around along the edge of the fields. Bonnie, Susie, Mary and I headed out together. When we turned into the fields, Susie broke into a trot and all the horses got excited. Well, not so much Marie but the rest got excited. When we turned the first corner at the end of the first field, Mary's horse, Midori, kicked at Lady Bug just hitting Bonnie's stirrup. That set Lady Bug to bucking which got Cody to jumping and leaping. I just sat back to enjoy the show. Susie and Bonnie were getting a bit stressed so Susie asked if Bonie and I would mind if she and Mary rode on ahead of us to split the horse up. We were fine with that. About then, Margaret on Promise caught up with us and Promise was looking like a time bomb ready to explode. She asked if she could ride with Bonnie and me hoping this would calm Promise down. We were fine with that. Though now Marie was getting a bit excited due to Cody going ahead of us. She didn't do anything bad, just set a fast pace hoping to catch up with Cody. Promise didn't have any trouble with the pace Marie set but it was a bit faster then Bonnie really wanted to go. We caught up with Jan Hatch and rode with her on and off for a while. It started to sprinkle while we were riding the first loop. We slowed down a mile before the hold and came in with nice cool horses. The hold was back at camp. Since it was quite chilly and damp, we put fleece blankets on the horses so their muscles wouldn't cramp. I was able to have Marie's P&R done early so I had more time to get her and myself something to eat. Vetting went fine and we were out of the hold on time. I put on my rain poncho in case it started to rain for real. Bonne, Margaret and I stayed together most of the second loop. we eventually caught up with Susie and Mary. At that point, Margaret rode ahead with Jan. We caught up with Irving at a water stop and Mary decided to ride with him. So, Susie, Bonnie and I finished the ride together. I told Irving I was going to get ahead of him so he would not cross the finish line ahead of me like he did at the Crooked River 60. I teased him about this all weekend. Cody was still being silly and pulling Susie a lot. When we got back to the trailer, We quickly untacked and got blankets on the horses. I did sponge Marie off to get off the dirt and sweat but kept her covered. her pulse came down quickly. We went for our trot out and she spooked at the dog tied near the arena. The same dog she ignored when she vetted in. And the silly part was the dog wasn't even out!! So, she didn't do her best trot out ever, but then her trot outs are never very impressive. After the trot out, we settled the horses back in their fence with hay and water. We put rain sheets on them since it was really starting to rain now. We then headed to the house for supper. It was great as usual, Salad, chicken, potato, squash, string beans and pie as well as left overs from last nights snacks. After the meal, the hands on were done. They did this under a tarp. Some of the horses did not like the sound of the rain on the tarp and didn't want to stand under it. Lady Bug jumped around a bit at first. Lady Bug was also a bit chilled even though she was blanketed. Marie was good but you could tell she didn't like it. Lady Bug had a very sore back. The vet said a lot of horses did. It must have had something to do with the weather. As soon as we were done, we put the horses in the trailer with hay so they would be out of the rain. Then we packed up and got ready to go. The award ceremony was held in the house where it was warm and dry. Susie got an award for the scariest costume. I got a nice hand pained plate for high point QH. Bonnie got a plate for high point pony. Lady Bug is 1/2 Welch Cob. We left right after the awards. We took one wrong turn on the way home but when the road soon turned to dirt we knew it was the wrong road. Other then that, it was an uneventful drive home. It was a great ride and I was sad the riding season was over. I gotten to know so many people in this sport now and I will miss seeing them over the winter.

Boo 25 ME 10/19 25/S-23/F
Judges: Buggia - Lavelle
Junior
1. Travelon's Two Times Two / M Kohler
Adult
2. Nerzans Lady Mariah / H Bonneau
3. Prymtym / T Hutchinson
6. HFA Silver Savana / M Deleware
8. Xavier Sunny Acres / S Reinheimer
8. Menomin Medallion / L Hutchenson
10. Lady Bug / B Hinz
10. Czar Nickolas / L Lester
12. LWF Paljoe Promise / M Farnum
13. Marie / C Ross (score 93.50)
14. Amalie Spunk / L. Kohler
14. Nikita Bahar / L Crowley
16. Mighty Frankie / T York
16. DLA Cassidy / J Hatch
18. TC Spark / C Lester
Completions:
GBA Karakorum / J Sewell
Willows Rahmann / I McNaughton
Travelons Times Two / M Gamester
FR Midori / M Batt

Crooked River 60 CTR Waterford, ME October 2002

Another minor pre-ride adventure. First and most devestating was the news that Tut's restaurant in Waterford was closed!! That was almost enough to make me cancel my entry. Thankfully, the closing is only temporary. In August I went to the Northeast Challenge endurance ride to crew for Heather. The ride is held in Buckfield and I noticed that I was on RT. 117. Now, Rt 117 goes to Rt 26 in Norway which is on the way to Waterford. I asked Heather how RT 117 was between Buckfield and Norway. She said it was ok. So, I decided the next time I went to Waterford, I would try the back way and avoid going through Lewiston/Auburn. I don't mind driving through Lewiston/Auburn except for the million traffic lights. I decided to wait for Bonnie to get out of work so she could ride up with me. Bonnie wasn't taking her horse, she was working the ride. Bonnie got to my house a little after 1:00 PM. I was ready to go so we just tossed Bonnie's stuff into my trailer and we were off. Keep in mind that my muffler is falling off my truck and it is getting quite loud. Another reason to avoid Lewiston/Auburn. I was familiar with the back roads to Buckfield. We had no problems to that point. Then, from Buckfield on Rt 117 was new territory. It wasn't long before we started climbing. We went up and up and up.....and just when we thought we couldn't possibly go up anymore, there was a sign warning of a "steep incline ahead" !!! I though we WERE on a steep incline. We went around the next corner and I had sudden visions of a roller coaster! The incline did get steeper! Somehow poor "Old Blue" got my trailer to the top of the hill. We were down to about 15 mph by the time we reached the top but we made it. So, now I'm a bit worried what the down hill side is going to be like. Thankfully, it's long and quite gradual going down the other side. Phew! "Old Blue" is too old to be abused like that. Bonnie and I decided we would take our usual route home. We got to the fairground without problems. Heather was the first one to spot me when I drove in. "Gosh," she said, "I heard you coming before you even turned the corner by Tut's. I knew it was either you or Margaret. You two are the only ones that haul with such old trucks." The ride was low on entries so we were able to park where ever we wanted. We parked next to Heather near the camper hook-ups. I put Marie in the nearest barn in a stall right across from Heather's horse, Mariah. I took a chance and used ropes across the front of Marie's stall hoping she would leave them alone and stay in. It was misting when we got there. There was no line for the vetting so I took Marie up got her vetted in right away. Then, Bonnie and I set up camp. Bonnie had brought all kinds of goodies to snack on. We sat around a picnic table with Heather and snacked in the mist for a while. Margaret showed up and Heather went off to talk her into parking near us. Bonnie and I went to get our supper. The ride provided a meal tonight for an extra $6.50. It was prepared by Rich Gamester and was very good. half a chicken (nicely cooked) salad, bread, potato and green beans. Zpehyr was with us. He thought the supper looked quite good also and begged his hardest for some scraps. He got a few. Margaret put her horse, Promise, next to Marie. Marie was giving him dirty looks but not making much of a fuss otherwise. I walked Marie around later, then went up to the barn with our chairs to sit with some others out of the rain. Scott Hatch was in the barn with a group of people and spotted Heather's horse Mariah. He proceded to tell them the tale of the Fryeburg ride when Mariah and Promise bolted in a field. Margaret jumped off Promise, Mariah fell and Heather was thrown. Mariah got lost in a swamp and a search party had to gou out to find her. He described the terrain and conditions and then told how "we all" saw Mariah at the last minute. I don't think Scott realized that Heather, Bonnie and I were sitting in a stall at the other end of the barn. I almost jumped up and corrected his story to point out that it was "I" that saw Mariah at the last minute. We finally headed off to bed around 9:00 PM. Zephyr had his usual spazz out spell when we put him up in the gooseneck to sleep with us. We just hid inside our sleeping bags until he settled down. It is really funny watching him. We talked for a while before falling to sleep. I was raining quite hard by this time.

When I woke up, it was still raining. I had been having the strangest dream about Bonnie and a trailer. I dreamed her new trailer was parked in our yard and Fred was doing something with it. When he was done, he didn't chock the wheels and it rolled down the driveway and hit something. Bonnie was very upset and crying and she ran down the driveway and got underneath the trailer and pushed it back up the hill. when she got it to the top of the hill she couldn't hold it and it rolled back down and dragged her. That's when I woke up and I didn't know what happened to her. Strange.....I fed Marie and then went down to the building where breakfast was set up. I had coffee and oatmeal. The riders meeting was in the dance hall because of the rain. Marie and I were starting with Margaret Farnum and Promise. The ride was scheduled to start at 7:30 AM. It was raining so hard at 7:00 AM it was decided to push the start time forward to 8:30 AM. I was still raining at 8:00 AM, 8:15 AM still raining, 8:20 raining, 8:25 AM raining, 8:30 AM, Just like someone turned off a faucet, it stopped raining. YEAH! Margaret and I were numbers 10 and 11. We got off to a good start. The trails were good. I thought the rain would make them muddy but it didn't. Just a lot of puddles good for the horses to drink from. We set a fairly slow pace the first few miles of the ride due to rocks and hills. It quickly got warm and muggy. Then a breeze came up and it was much more comfortable. Margaret and I got into the hold in good time. Bonnie had all my stuff ready. Marie pulsed down well and passed the vetting without problem. Bonnie sponged her and fed her while I grabbed a sandwich. Just before I mounted up, I checked Marie's girth. It wasn't too bad but I tightened it up one more notch, and we left the hold. We met Marsha Deleware walking up the trail towards us leading her horse. She was wet from head to toe. Her horse had spooked and backed off the side of a little bridge into a stream and got caught in some cables with Marsha pinned under her. By some miracle, Scott Hatch was there on his ATV on his way to fix a trail marker and was able to get her and her horse out ok. Marsha was a bit shook up but mostly unhurt. Her horse got some scrapes but nothing serious. Marsha pulled from the ride. Heather's horse also spooked and Heather was thrown but she also was fine. Somewhere along the way Irving's group passed us and Margaret and I were last. Irving rarely passes anyone. We finished the ride on time but were humiliated at being passed by Irving! Bonnie had water and sponges out. I untacked Marie and sponged her off. I took her pulse several times and it wasn't going down like it should. Hummmm, the Bonnie lets out a groan and tells me to check behind Marie's elbows. Poor Marie had huge swollen ...... I don't know what it was ....huge swollen fluid filled pockets. I don't know what caused them. They were in front of the girth. They were not rubbed or raw looking. Just big swollen fluid filled areas. She was in pain and that was most likely why her pulse wasn't coming down like it should. Her pulse was still 54 when she was checked. She wasn't interesed in eating either, just hung her head. Her trot out was horrible, she was really hurting and didn't want to move at all. I thought for sure this was the end of my ride. The vet told me not to give up. I was not going to be eliminated. I was told to apply lots of cold water to the area and just come for a re-check in the morning. I agreed to this but didn't think for a minute Marie would be ok to ride in the morning. Bonnie and I spent a lot of time that night holding cold cloths behind each elbow. Then I would walk her a little, then more cold clothes. Her pulse stayed up around 58 for quite a long time. She was finally eating and drinking good though. The supper that was provided was very good. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, bread and pie. We went down to the award presentation for the 30 mile riders. Then, more time putting cold cloths on Marie and walking her. Later we went over to Rich and Marcy's trailer to just hang out and socialize. Marcie was telling us of all the ECTRA rules she has managed to break. I checked Marie's pulse one more time before going to bed. It was finally down to 48 but that was still higher then normal. Char Lester came over to see how Marie was and offer some advise. She asked when the last time was that I had given Marie electrolytes. I know I got a bit defensive with her but I was just worried about Marie and didn't want to get into the "electrolyte debate right then as I was sure that was not any part of Marie's problem. I did apologize to Char later. I felt bad as I know she was just trying to help. When Bonnie and I went to bed, I had made a tug of war toy for Zephyr by tying some knots in a piece of rope. Boy did we get him wound up! We thought we would never get him settled back down so we could get some sleep.

Sunday morning I got up to feed Marie and approached her stall with a laden heart. I was so pleased to see her bright eyed and eager for breakfast. Her pulse was normal and the swollen areas had drained and were much smaller. She was moving comfortably and passed her re-check. I could hardly believe it. The weather was good and the ride started right at 7:30 AM. By the first water stop, Marie's swelling was completely gone and she was traveling great. Promise spooked and Margaret came off him but was unhurt. Margaret and I rode a little bit too fast on the 5 miles before the hold. We missed seeing the 1 mile to go sign so flew right into the hold. Oops.... I was afraid our P&R sould be too high but Marie just squeaked under within 10 minutes. Phew! We got through the hold fine and headed off on the final leg of the ride. We were really keeping an eye out for Irving. We were determined not to let him pass us again today. He got withing sight of us in the last mile. We did not want to speed up that close to the finish. Irvings horse walks faster then Marie and Promise and he keept creeping up on us. He passed us about 10 feet from the finish line! AGH! There was still one rider behind us so at least we weren't last. Bonnie once again had water and sponges ready. I untacked Marie and sponged her well. Her pulse was 48 after 20 minutes. Just a tad over normal but not bad at all. The swollen spots were completely gone but she was just a little sore to the touch there. All else was fine. Apparently 6 or 7 other horses had gotten the same swollen spots. None as bad as Marie's but still it was strange. Marie vetted out quite well. I settled Marie into her stall with lots of hay and water. Bonnie and I packed up most of our stuff and then got our supper. Tonight was soup and cheeseburgers. Then it was time for the award presentations. There was some comfusion with the paperwork and while we were waiting Margaret said to me, "I should go pack while I'm waiting and just have you let me know when they get things straightened out." I told Margaret that was a good idea and if she won grand champion, I would give her whatever I won and keep her prize and tell her I'd won the grand championship. She laughed and said maybe she would just sit tight and wait. Marie got a score of 91 which I though was great considering all she'd gone through. And don't you know Margaret did win grand champion! I told her she should have gone and packed up and left me to get her award! I told her it was Marie that inspired Promise to win. It only took Bonnie and I a few more minutes to finish packing up. While we were doing that, we got to witness Steve Rojek run over his riding helmet with his F550 truck. OOps..... We had an uneventful drive home.

Crooked River 60 ME 10/5 12/S-F
Judges: Creighton
1. LWF Paljoe Promise / M Farnum
2. TC Spark / C Lester
3. Fagan Farah / A M Savino
4. GH Jessee Jolody / D Houghton
5. AFX Ploaris / S Rojek
6. Pygmalion / K Downs
6. Nerzan's Lady Mariah / H Bonneau
8. Araba FAble / J Collins
9. Marie / C Ross (score 91.00)
10. SR Katherine / D Rojek
11. DLA Cassidy / J Hatch
12. Willow's Rahmaan / I McNaughton