Pine Tree 30 Endurance Waterford, ME June 2005

Cindy Ross with Koram



Well, I had quite and adventure at this past ride. And for once, Susie was not involved! hahahaha. It started out as an easy ride for me. I was borrowing Koram again. But, this time Terry, the woman I was borrowing him from, was bringing up her daughters horse so would bring Koram also. Terry and Kara were going up on Thursday so they could attend the big cookout. So, they would set up a pen for Koram and I wouldn’t have to worry about that. All Terry wanted me to do was bring some hay. This years Pine Tree 100 mile ride was a “qualifier” for the US Endurance team so there were over 100 riders from all over the country in all the distances combined. 20+ riders were in the 30 mile ride. The 30 mile ride was only being held as a clinic. We would not receive any awards or get any mileage credit. But, Koram was not conditioned well enough for the 50 mile ride.

Bill Rice vetting in. Larry Buggia vet

I arrived in Waterford at about noon time on Friday. I stopped to have lunch at Melby’s before going to the fairgrounds. While I was there Terry and Cara came in. We all ate and then went up to the fairgrounds. The Waterford fairground is not that large and with that many riders, the trailers were packed in like sardines. I was glad I didn’t have to worry about parking a trailer or setting up a pen. Irving McNaughton was riding the 100. Terry was crewing for him. This didn’t really make Cara very happy since she really wanted her mother crewing for her. When we heard how hot they were predicting it was going to be on ride day, Terry and I tried to talk Irving into dropping to the 50 but he wouldn’t hear of it. Stubborn man! Susie and Barbara arrived shortly after we got back from lunch. Barbara McGovern was with Susie. She was riding Susie’s new horse, Monty, in the 30 mile clinic. It would be her and Monty’s first competitive ride. Once they got settled in, we all went out for a short ride just to let the horses stretch their muscles after the trailer ride and before the vetting. Cara and I braided our horse’s manes. Getting the hair off their necks would help keep them cooler. Vetting went quickly and Cara, Susie, Barbara and I were all cleared to ride. Bill Rice wasn’t so fortunate. His horse failed the vet check due to lameness (I think) So, he loaded his horse up and headed home to pick up one of his other horses. The second horse passed and was cleared to ride.

The riders meeting was held that evening at 7:00. It was announced that the 100 mile ride was going to start at 4:30 AM instead of 5:00 AM. This was due to the predicted heat and to space the 100’s, 50’s and 30’s further apart in case the vets got very busy treating horses that might have trouble handling the heat.

Riders meeting. Left-Susie Reinheimer. Front-Terry York. Behind-Barbara McGovern



Sue Greenall did the yearly “Boiled Owl” presentation. Kathy Brunjes got the award this year much to her dismay. The “Boiled Owl” award is a funny little tradition that was started some years ago and is awarded to the person considered the “toughest” rider. The 30’s would still be starting at 6:30 AM. We all hung around Terry’s camp for a while. Heather and Margaret joined us. We didn’t stay up too long though since we all had to be up early. I had decided to just sleep in my truck since it was jut one night and I didn’t want to bother with setting up a tent. That was ok except for a spot light that was shining right into my window. I finally managed to get a shirt hung up in the window enough to block the light so I could sleep!

Kathy Brunjes being presented the 'Boiled owl' award by Sue Greenall and Irving McNaughton.

Kathy Brunjes displaying her Boiled Owl award t-shirt


I was up by 3:30. Coffee and donuts were available. I wanted to be up to see the 100 milers start. At 5:30, the 50 milers started. We 30 mile riders were not feeling bad about doing the shorter distance when we heard what the temperature was going to be. It was supposed to be record high heat with high humidity. The humidity is what will cause problems for the horses. After the 50’s were gone, I tacked up Koram. We started at 6:30 am. At that time it was still comfortably cool. An Endurance ride has a mass start and there was some concerns about who was going to ride with who and how it was going to effect the horses. Susie and Barbara were going to go slowly since it was Barbara and Monty's first ride. Cara, had arranged to ride with Stephanie Rice. This was a first ride for Cara's horse also so she and Stephanie planned to go slow. We knew that separating Koram and Laureado (my horse and Cara's horse) would upset them but Stephanie didn't seem to want me riding with them for some reason. They wanted me to go in front of them and stay way in front so Lauredo never got to see Koram for the entire ride. Well, I could make no promises on that. I wanted to ride with Susie and Barbara and if they went slow, we would run into each other. And with the heat, I couldn't promise to ride fast anyway.

Cara York with Laureado and Stephanie Rice with Micky



Before the start, Cara and Stephanie separated from us by going back up into camp to wait for the start. That got Koram very upset so I just walked him up and down the road and didn't mount up until the call of "The Trail is Open". Then, I quickly mounted and off we went. Susie, Barbara, Margaret and me started together. Quite soon, Margaret and I pulled ahead of Susie and Barbara and we didn't see them again until the ride was over. We decided to go ahead and make some time while it was still cool. Everything was going great. The horses were traveling perfectly together. We were in the front of the pack. Koram is a nervous horse and can be a challenge to ride. But, he was behaving perfectly and was not getting too upset when other riders passed us. I was having the best ride ever on him. Not far from the hold, which is the halfway point for the 30's, we came to the Crooked River. There is a nice spot right off the trail to take the horses into the water. There were a couple of horses in there already but plenty of room for Margaret and me. Now, I had been told that Koram doesn't like being sponged from the saddle but I had done it a couple of time without problems on previous rides before I got that warning. And I had done it a ton of times at the Acadia ride without problem. I went right out into the water and as it got over his knees he got a little nervous. Then, I tossed out the sponge and he eyed it and sidled away from it into deeper water. When the water got belly deep he exploded. (I think it was the belly deep water that set him off especially since I later found out that he bucked his owner off in the Saco River at the Fryeburg ride when he got to belly deep water.) Koram bucked hard and kept getting into deeper water. Which, believe me didn't slow down the bucking. Eventually, I flew off and took a head first dive into the river. Well, it certainly was a nice soft landing and felt rather nice on such a hot day so I was completely unharmed. The water was chin deep to me and with the current it took me a minute to get my feet under me. When I finally cleared the water from my eyes (thankfully, my glasses were still on my face) I looked around and…… no Koram! "Where is my horse?!" I frantically asked as I noticed that everyone was staring upstream. I was told that he had gone up the river around a corner and out of sight. My heart sank. I had just lost someone elses horse! One rider tried to follow Koram but soon her horse had to swim so she turned back. I told every one else to just continue on. There was nothing they could do for me and it would be better if they went on to the hold and alerted ride managment that there was a horse missing. I tried walking up the river but it was too deep to walk with steep banks on one side (sometimes both sides) and swamp on the other. Farther up river there was a ridge of dry ground between the river and the swamp. So, I walked up the powerline until I found a narrow spot in the swamp and I could get out to dry ridge running along side the river. Then, I went up stream hoping that Koram would come out on my side of the river. Eventually, I did find his tracks where he had come out of the river on my side. The brush was very thick but I was able to follow his tracks. He was caught between the river and the swamp so it wasn't hard to follow the tracks. Eventually, I saw where he decided to reenter the river rather then brave the swamp. I looked across the river and there he was, chest deep on the far bank with his bridle caught in a tree. WITHOUT MY SADDLE!!!!! He had tried to climb out on the other side where there was an extremely steep and high sandy bank and had fallen back into the river. There really weren't many good places on either side of the river to get out. It was mostly steep banks. of 3' to maybe 20' or more. I swam across to Koram. He seemed to be unhurt but he was on a bend in the river and there were lots of downed trees in the water on that side. I didn't know how I'd get him out through all the trees in the water without help. And he had no plans on going anywhere. Great! now what? I called a few time and a couple guys in kayaks heard me. They didn't know anything about horses but offered to make a call for help. I told them to call Melby's restaurant. No one's cell phones were working in the area so we were told to call the restaurant if we had any problems and that ride management would be checking in there every hour or so. So, off they went to make the call. I was stuck standing in the water with Koram since the bank was too steep for me to get out and stay with him. I knew I was not far from the road since I could hear cars passing by. About 20 minutes after the kayakers went for help, I heard a car stop and then heard Tom Hutchinson, the ride manager, call out. Tom and I have a history of finding lost horses and boy was I glad to hear his voice!! I called back and he heard me. "Is that you Cindy?" "Yes." "Are you hurt?" "No." "Do you have your horse?" "Yes." "Is he hurt?" "No." "Do you need help?" "yes." "Ok, I'm coming down." Tom came down and assessed the situation. The steep banks were a major problem. The only place to get Koram out was downstream a short way but it was through and around a particularily snarly knot of downed trees. And it was chest deep or more so you couldn't see much of the snarl of branches. But, it was the only way to go. Tom had me lead Koram since I am a bit taller then he is and we figured I had a better chance of keeping my head above water. Tom got behind Koram and made him move. It was not fun. We all stumbled, fell, swam and floundered our way through. But, we got Koram out. Except for a few minor scrapes on all four legs, Koram seems unharmed. Phew! Now, I just had to walk him into the hold and get him checked out by the vet. We hadn't been far from the hold when Koram and I parted company but he had traveled quite a way in the opposite direction during his flight. Tom told me it was only a "couple" of miles to the hold. But, I’m pretty sure it was more like 4 miles! When we got to the hold the vet's checked him and he was fine and got all A's on his vet card. The scrapes on his legs were all very minor. We could have continued the ride except that I had no saddle!!!! There were a lot of horses being pulled at the hold due to the heat so we had to wait for a while for our turn to be trailered back to camp. Once I got him there, he was not happy about being in his pen without his pasture mate. So, I didn't dare leave him until Terry got back and could keep an eye on him.

Cindy Ross with Koram and Margaret Farnum with Promise



So, about 3 hours after I had come off Koram, I headed back out to the scene of the crime to find my saddle. All I could think about was $800 for the saddle, $150 for the Deluxe sheep skin cover, $50 for the packs, $50 for the woolback pad $40 for the girth, $75 for the endurance stirrups.....$$$$$ AAAAGGGGHHHHH. And I knew the saddle must be in the river since I had tracked Koram from where he had come out of the river until I found him. I went back into the woods where I originally had but followed the bank downstream this time. I didn't go far when I looked over the bank and there was my saddle floating in the river!!! Yippppeeeeeee. Now I only had two problems. I had dressed in jeans because the woods were so thick and brambly along the bank. And they were the only dry pants I had. That problem was quickly solved. A quick peek up and down the river to determine that I was alone at the moment and off came the pants. Now I had at least a 3 foot drop into the river. It didn't look all that deep and the bottom was sandy. So, in I went. I had really done all the swimming I wanted to but what are you going to do! hahaha. The water was about waist deep making the bank about eye level to me. I grabbed the saddle, gave a heave, and thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head!!!! After 3 hours of soaking in the river, that nice big western style LEATHER endurance saddle felt like it weighted 800 LBS!!! I couldn't believe that it had been floating! And I had to lift it to the height of my head up a straight bank to get it out. Now, I know I can normally do this. After all, I've put this saddle on Bailey, a friends 16.3H horse!! hahahahahaha. I nearly killed my self getting it out. I truly thought I was going to have to get help. I finally got enough of it out to sit on the edge of the bank, then, I had to find a place where I could heave myself out. All the while I was expecting a hoard of kayaks or canoes to come down the river and catch me in my skivies. Once I was out, and quickly dressed, I examined the saddle for damage. There was none. As a matter of fact it was still cinched up! somehow, Koram had slipped right out of it. I then stripped everything off the saddle and wrung out all the water that I could from the sheepskin cover, girth and packs. Now I had it down to only 750 lbs! It took me a while to get the saddle out of the woods and back to the truck. It was truly so heavy that I could only carry it so far then I would have to put it down and take a rest. And the oppressive heat didn't help. But I eventually got it back to the truck. Minus the saddle pad and sponge which I didn't find. That was all right, I could live with those loses. I drove back to camp and put everything out to dry. Then I waited for Susie and Barbara to finish. Irving was back at the camp by then and had decided to pull from the ride. The heat was just too much for him and he wasn’t feeling well. Terry wasn’t feeling well either so I vetted Irving’s horse out for him. Cara finished the ride but didn’t get a completion. Her horse was 2 min. late getting his pulse down. Margaret also finished the ride but didn’t get a completion. Promise was having some metabolic trouble due to the heat also. He was put on an IV. He was fine after that. Susie and Barbara both got completions. There were many horses and/or riders that didn’t complete their rides due to the heat.
So, all in all it wasn't really a bad day. I was fine, the horse was fine, and I recovered most of my equipment undamaged. I got to take several nice swims on a horribly hot day and I got 15 miles of wonderful riding in before the "incident".

Acadia 50 CTR June 2005

Well, the first Adventure of the season. Marie has been very sick this spring so I have not been able to ride her. She had an autoimmune disease called Purpura that was a result of a complication to her Strangles vaccine. So, in order for me to compete this year I had to find someone that would let me borrow a horse. Now, finding a horse to ride wasn’t the biggest problem, it was finding one that was fit enough to do a competitive trail ride. That ruled out most of my local friends that just don’t ride their horses enough to do a distance competition. I sent out a few e-mails to some people I know from ECTRA to see if they might have any suggestions. I got nothing there so I put out message on the ECTRA message board. That got some results. I got offers from ECTRA members from PA, RI, VT and NY. No one local. Hummmmmm, so, it seemed that those who had actually seen me ride didn’t wanted me on their horses! Then Charlotte Lester contacted me and said she was looking for someone to ride one of her horses. We set up a date for me to come ride with her at her place to see how I did with her horse. That was set for the weekend after the Maine 80. I went to Waterford to work the second day of the Maine 80 and saw Charlotte there. She had someone ride her young horse in the 30 mile ride. and I guess this woman had her hands full handling this young horse. So, Charlotte was a bit stressed out about it and decided she didn’t even want me to try her horse. Ok, back to the drawing board. Then Susie told me that Terry wanted me to ride her horse in a competition. My only hesitation was that Terry was leasing this horse from Judy Sewell who I didn't really know and that made me a bit uncomfortable. But, I contacted Terry and arranged to try the horse out. He is a 17 yr. Old Arabian gelding named Koram. Susie and I picked Koram up on a Friday, trailered over to Phippsburg. First, we had trouble catching him when we picked him up. Then, when we got to Phippsburg, I had Koram tied to the trailer to saddle him and when I went to tighten the cinch, he pulled back and broke his lead rope. Luckily, he didn’t go anywhere. By now I’m thinking this horse is nuts and I’m probably crazy to ride him. But, much to my surprise, Susie and I had a wonderful ride. Koram and Cody were great together. We thought they would be competitive with each other but not at all. They were as happy as two peas in a pod. I rode Koram a second time with Susie and Terry’s daughter Cara. We rode right from Terry’s house. Barbara also came riding Susie’s other horse , Monty, making four of us. Once again, Koram was great. I was very excited about using him for the Acadia 50. Terry had to do some sweet talking to get his owner, Judy, to let me use him. Judy doesn’t really know me so I didn’t blame her. And, Judy had ridden Koram in the Waterford 30 just two weeks prior to the Acadia ride and had not done all that well. Koram had been quite a handful at the start of the ride and didn’t score very well.
Susie and I decided to go up to Acadia together. With gas prices the way they are, it didn’t make sense to drive up two vehicles. So, we thought it would be best to pick Koram up on Thursday and have him spend the night at Susie’s so we could get an early start on Friday morning. I was to pick up Koram at 4:00 PM with my trailer. Judy would meet me at Terry’s so she could bring over Koram’s papers and his blankets. I got to Terry’s early, around 3:15 PM. Terry doesn’t have much room to turn a trailer in her yard so I just backed in. Judy showed up shortly after I did. She soon realized that she had forgotten Koram’s paperwork back at her house and had to go back and get it. Meanwhile, Terry and Cara had come out. Judy was soon back with the paperwork. Then, she wanted us to rig up Koram’s bridle with a bit she had bought for him and wanted me to use. Judy and I took care of that while Terry got Koram’s grain ready. All this time Judy is warning me about all the bad things that Koram does. Terry had warned me that Judy would do this. I kept assuring Judy that it was all right and that Koram and I would be fine. After we got all Koram’s stuff loaded into my trailer, I got Koram and tried to load him. Not all horses like a step up slant load trailer if they are not used to them. Koram didn’t like the look of it. He didn’t absolutely refuse to load but he wouldn’t quite go in either. He danced side to side and would put one foot in then back out. Then two feet in and back out. Finally, he did get all the way in but no one put up the butt bar and he flew back out. I told Judy and Terry to make sure to get the bar up when I got him in the next time. After a few more minutes I got Koram back in the trailer. Terry got the butt bar up. Koram backed up, hit the bar and jumped forward again. Just as I got him tied up, he tried to back out again. He hit the bar, dropped his hindquarters down and went right under the bar !!!!! But, now he was tied so he got stuck about half way out. He started thrashing and pulling. I’m in a corner of the trailer with nowhere to go. No one could even try to release the butt bar with his thrashing back legs. All we could do was wait until he stopped thrashing. After what seemed like forever (though I’m sure it was only seconds) Koram finally managed to squeeze his hindquarters back into the trailer. Trying to act calm and quiet I latched the divider and quickly exited the trailer and closed the door. We didn’t see any obvious injuries and decided it would be best if I left right away and just got Koram to Susie’s. When I unloaded him as Susie’s all we found was that he had taken a chunk of skin off his left hind leg. It wasn’t deep, it just looked a bit nasty. We walked and trotted him around and he seemed fine. Phew! We settled him into a stall for the night.


Susie and I were on our way by 9:00 AM Friday morning. We drove straight through since we wanted to get their early enough to take a short ride before vetting in. We got there shortly after noon. We pulled up in front of the barns, unloaded the horses and settled them into their stalls. Then we unloaded all our gear and put it into the tack stall. Susie got back into her truck to take the trailer over to the camp sites and the truck wouldn’t start. Oh great! She tried and tried but no luck. She had just had a new battery put in and it was turning over so we knew that wasn’t the problem. I thought it sounded like it wasn’t getting any gas. A few guys came over and looked and thought the same thing. Fuel pump, which in that truck is in the gas tank. Wildwood stable wasn’t officially open yet so there was no one in the office. And we couldn’t get a cell phone signal there to call out. Finally, we found a man that works there. He got us into the office so we could try to call someone about getting the truck fixed. We called all the local garages and they were all too busy. Susie finally called a GMC dealer in Ellsworth and they said they could work on it Saturday. We had to get the truck there by 4PM that day. They didn’t have towing service. After a few more calls, we found someone to tow it. They came and got the truck. It was with tears in our eyes that we watched Susie’s poor truck being hauled away on the flatbed. At least we didn’t break down on the highway! We had made it to the stable safe and sound and that was all that mattered. Colleen, the ride manager, used her truck to tow Susie’s trailer and park it in a campsite. Despite the time it took to get things settled with the truck and trailer, the vet was late to arrive so Susie and I still managed to get in a short ride. The horses were good. Several people that knew my horse was sick asked me who I was riding. When I told the Koram, they just rolled their eyes and said that was going to be interesting. Hummmm. Poor Koram has a bit of a bad reputation. The horses were vetted in order by their entry numbers. That made it nice since we didn’t have to wait in a long line. All went well with the vetting and both horses were good to start the ride in the morning. Rich Gamester was our cook for the weekend. He prepared a nice meal of chicken thighs, potato, corn, rolls, and salad. After we ate, we walked the horses around a bit and let them nibble grass. Koram wasn’t eating much of his hay but ate his grain and was drinking well. He is definitely a nervous horse and you have to move slowly and quietly around him. But, I’m naturally slow moving and quiet so it seemed to be working out fine. We settled the horses in for the night then hung around in front of Susie’s trailer for a while. We soon headed for bed. Susie and I got up at 5:00 AM. Susie went over to the barn to feed the horses. By 5:30 AM Colleen had breakfast ready and I had my usual oatmeal.The riders meeting was at 6:00 AM. Susie and I were going out on the ride nearly last in the starting order so we had plenty of time to tack up and get ready. Koram’s owner has had trouble with him at the start of rides with bucking and acting up. With this in mind, I didn’t mount up until the horses in front of Susie and I started and we only had two minutes to go. Then, after I mounted, I just did big slow walking circles with Koram until they called our numbers to go. We walked quietly across the starting line. That worked perfect. Koram kept his head together and all four of his feet on the ground. It wasn’t long before it got really hot. Koram and Cody traveled perfectly together. Koram was moving along just a shoulder length in front of Cody most of the time but Cody didn’t seem to mind. Cody pulled Susie a little at the start. After we passed a few other riders we didn’t really see anyone so the horses soon settled in. Both horses have fast ground covering trots. We mixed the pace up with some walking and cantering. We knew it was going to be tough to make our time with the heat and humidity. At the hold there was no shade to be found. Cody’s P&R came down to an acceptable level within 10 min. Koram’s pulse came down but he was panting, or “inverted”. That is when their respiration is higher then their pulse. That can be a sign of metabolic problems. So, they had to take his temperature. That took a few minutes. Koram’s temperature was fine and his gut sounds were good. So, panting was just how he handled the heat. I didn’t know the horse well enough to know what is normal for him. His trot out was fine. We took a few extra minutes to let the horses eat a bit. We knew we’d pay for that later trying to make our time. The second half of the ride went well. We were leap frogging with a couple of other riders and that got Koram a bit excited seeing horses ahead of us. He was a bit stronger and he would jig instead of walk. I just worried that about him wasting too much energy. I decided it would be best to just keep the fast pace up rather then fight him to slow him down. I think that would have made him waste even more energy. Susie and I finished with only 2 minutes to spare. We took the horses to their stall and sponged them off. During this time, there was a drastic change in temperature. An off shore breeze and mist blew in and it got very chilly. So, now we were throwing blankets on the horses to keep them from getting chilled. Very weird. Cody was fine in 20 min. Korm’s pulse was high. They have to get down to 60 or less within an hour. I walked him around for a while and then had the vet check him. His pulse came down to 58 with 45 min. But, he was well hydrated, eating, alert, with good gut sounds so the vet said not to worry. His trot out was fine and I was passed to ride the second day. I was actually a bit concerned. Koram was not in as good a shape as I would have liked. Rich Gamester had made up some chicken salad sandwiches which were very good. After I ate I went into the trailer to change, crawled up onto my bed and zonked out. I slept for at least an hour. When I got up, I headed over to the barn to make sure Koram was ok. Susie had both horses out grazing on the grass. Judy Lorimer, the ride judge, was with her and had taken Koram’s pulse which was fine she said. Phew. We put the horses back in the barn and fed them. Koram still wasn’t eating much hay. He was drinking very well, eating grass and nibbling his grain. I gave him some electrolytes since it had been so hot and he has sweat a lot. You could tell he was very tired. I was a bit concerned about riding him a second day. While I had been sleeping, Susie called about her truck. They said they had found nothing wrong with it and she could come get it. She got someone to give her a ride to the dealer. When she got there she told them to try starting it. Wouldn’t you know it didn’t start. They put it on the tester and sure enough it was the fuel pump. But, now it was too late in the day to work on it. They told her they would fix it first thing Monday morning. So, we were going to have to stay over an extra day. Boohoo. Our meal on Saturday was at Otter Creek. That is a motel a few miles from camp. We hitched a ride with Lois Crowley and Marsha Deleware since we were without wheels. We had lobster and chicken with salad and corn on the cob. It was good and we had a great time visiting with everyone. Ed Winterburg, the stable manager, gave quite a speech about his fight to get part of the carriage trails that had been closed to horses reopened. We all filled out some paperwork for him to help him in his cause. After all, the trails were created specifically for horses and we should be able to use them. After we got back we took the horses out for a final walk and nibble of grass, then settled them in for the night. We kept blankets on them since it was still chilly. We didn’t stay up long after that.
During the night it warmed up quite a bit. It wasn’t hot but was a bit muggy. We had breakfast and the riders meeting as on the previous day. I used the same routine for the start and once again all went well. I was still quite concerned about Koram being fit enough to finish the ride. Once I was on him, he was off like a rocket. This is a horse that I think would literally run himself to death. Today we were only riding 20 miles and there would be no hold. I used the same strategy as the previous day. I let Koram go and just checked back his speed enough to keep him under control. Cody was very laid back the second day. Once again we finished with little time to spare. We took the horses back to their stalls and sponged them off. Much to my surprise, Koram’s P&R came down in 20 min. I was pleased and very relieved. Our trot out went well and so did the Hands on. Well, I was obviously going to get a completion though I didn’t expect a very good score. After the vetting was done we put the horses back in their stall and went back to the camp site for another nice meal prepared by Rich. Just after I had finished eating, one of the ride volunteers came over and said that I was needed over at stable because they were missing some information on the horse I was riding. I went over and as they were finishing the scoring. As they were taking down my information, I could see my score sheet. I had a score of 96!!!! That was fantastic!!!
I went back to the campsite and told Susie. I had seen another score sheet with a score of 99 so knew that I certainly hadn’t won the elusive Grand Championship! Hahahah. The award ceremony soon followed. I did win first place in my division. What a great weekend.


Acadia 50 ME 6/11/05 17/S - 16/F
Judges: Dr. G Dowd - J Lorimer
J1. AJ Morning Star Wakita / Wright, Caleigh
1. Alesar / Greenall, Sue
2. Tyger Dann / Greenall, John
3. GBA Karakoram / Cynthia Ross (Score 96.00)
4. Anchor Hill Alan / GAmester, Marcy
4. Sundance Tetezi / Smith, Vickie
6. Shrocco Criseyde / Hartman, Lynn
7. Xavier Sunnyacres (Cody) / Susan Reinheimer
8. Misty Falls Amandalyn / Beem, Amy
9. High Country Piper / Deleware, Marcia
10. Sebec / Townsend, Louise
11. Lady Virginia "Nettie" / Tenggren, Traci
12. Jake / Bejarano, Wendy
13. SA King Hofflin+ / Austin, Vicki
14. JB Roman Tar Bask / Libby, Kerry
15. Jai Alai / Ferland, Ruth

Acadia Pleasure Ride October 2004

Well, of course there is a pre-trip story to this trip. The pre-trip story being that there was not supposed to be any trip for Marie and I. Bonnie, Linda, and Halla had made plans to make two trips to Arcadia earlier in the year. One trip in June and a 3 night trip in October. I was invited to both trips but had to pass. I was so busy with the Triathlon until June. After that I was buckling down and spending any extra money I had on the kitchen. I had cancelled all my CTR and Endurance rides for the year also. Well, just a few weeks before the October trip to Arcadia, Bonnie called me to tell me that Linda would not be able to go for the first two nights of the trip. Linda wanted me to take her stalls for those two nights and Bonnie had already reserved me a stall for the third night. How could I say no! Yippeeeeeeeee. I was going to Arcadia.
Several days before the trip I started coming down with a cold and got a UTI! Great. Oh, and don’t forget the cramps. Darn it! I didn’t care, I was going if it killed me. Bonnie and I headed out Friday morning. At the last minute we decided to bring along Isabelle’s cart in case we got brave enough to drive her. We stopped at Wal-Mart in Waterville and I bought medicine for everything! We stopped at Dysart’s in Bangor for lunch. Dysart’s is soooooooo good. Great food at a very reasonable price. I had beef stew in a bread bowl that was absolutely delicious. We were good girls and split a piece of pumpkin pie. We arrived at Wildwood stables around 1:00 PM. and quickly checked in. Halla was already there. The horses were all in barn C for the first night then on Saturday we would have to move them all to barn B for the rest of the stay. We unloaded the trailer and got the horses all settled in. We had the two campsites on the end which was nice. We got the trailers parked and our camp set up. Halla has a nice canopy now that is all one piece and sets up very quickly and easily. We rested for a bit in camp and then headed out for a quick ride. We did the Day Mountain Loop. It was a beautiful clear day so we had a great view from the top. We passed quite a few of the big carriages along the way. The horses were all good. After we returned, we cleaned up a bit and went to the Jorden Pond House for supper. Very pricey but quite good. It’s definitely a tourist trap but we just can’t resist the place. $15 for a grilled chicken breast, I didn’t even look at the price of the scallops I ordered! Hahahaha. They are famous for their popovers which we all had several of. After supper, we went back to camp, fed the horses and settled them in for the night. We hung out at the campsite for a while. I had taken a dose of Nyquil so I was soon off to bed.
I was up several times during the night so didn’t get the best nights rest. I didn’t get too cold during the night for which I was thankful. I got up around 6:00AM and headed over to feed the horses. Bonnie said she would be right over. She fell back to sleep and Halla was up before her! We had to tease her a bit about that since Halla is always the last one to get up. After feeding the horses we heated some water for coffee. I had my usual oatmeal and we had breads and bagels. We hung around until it was time to move the horses at 9:30 AM or so. After we got the horses settled into their new stalls, we saddled up and headed out for a ride. We did the loop up by Eagle Lake. We took it pretty slow and easy. There was lots of time for talking. After the ride, we sat around camp and had a bit of lunch. Around 4 PM. I decided I was brave enough to try driving Isabelle. Bonnie would ride Marie. We needed to keep the horses together so Isabelle would stay quiet and happy. We got Isabelle hitched up without problems and headed put to the Jorden Pond House gate. Isabelle was a bit hesitant about pulling the cart up the big hill out of the camp. She’s never pulled the cart with anyone in it up a steep hill and the weight on the breast strap confused her a bit but she did it and even made the fairly sharp turn at the top. She did very well. She has only been hitched a few times. At one point she broke into a canter trying to catch up to the other horses. I pulled her in and she settled down after a bit. It took a bit of patience to get her tuned around at the Pond House gate. I didn’t have much more then the width of the road to work with. With a little patience and quiet handling, Isabelle figured it out and we headed back. Halla was having trouble keeping her horse in a set place while we were out. Isabelle gets a bit nervous when a horse passes her from behind I really needed Halla to either stay behind me or stay in front of me. After passing me, and then dropping behind me several time, I lost my nerve and got out of the cart and led Isabelle the rest of the way back to camp. Isabelle, was doing ok but I am such a big chicken when it comes to driving. Better to end the drive on a good note then take any chances. We stayed in camp that night for super. We had a soup that Bonnie had prepared at home. There was a community campfire that we sat at for a while. Everyone seemed to be telling stories of all the horrible equine accidents they’d either witnessed or experienced! Naturally, I had a few of my own to tell. But, once again the Nyquil got the best of me and I went to bed fairly early. I slept well the second night.
I wish I could finish this journal properly, but, it is now 6 month later and I just don’t remember the rest of the trip in much detail. I’ll just put down what I do recall.
I do remember that I spent most of the weekend in a Nyquil haze! Hahahaha.
The 3rd day, we had breakfast in camp again. We went out riding twice and put on quite a few miles. The riding was nice. We did a bit more trotting and some cantering. Isabelle got a bit excited about keeping up with us at one point and nearly lost Bonnie coming around a corner. Bonnie managed to save it and no harm was done. Linda came up sometime that day. She went out with us on our second ride. I believe we did Day Mountain loop. We were going to go to the Jorden Pond house again for supper. We were meeting some friends of Halla’s that had come up that day. When we put the horses back after the second ride, Isabelle was acting a bit off. She would not eat hay and was acting a bit listless and then laid down. We put off going to supper. We all brought our chairs down to the barn. We decided to stay there until we were sure Isabelle was ok. After a while, she did get up and start eating and drinking and acting normal. We had ridden a bit hard for her that day and she just got a bit over tired. We had another nice meal at the Jorden Pond House. Halla’s friends were very interesting and fun to talk to. That evening, we hung around the community campfire again for a while, until the Nyquil kicked in of course! Hahaha.
The last morning we woke to the smell of fresh brewed coffee! Linda is wonderful, she knows how to make good perked coffee! After breakfast, we went out for one final short ride. Isabelle kicked Slick. I think she was still a bit tired and feeling a bit crabby. No damage was done. We quickly broke camp when we got back and headed home. Bonnie and I stopped at Dysart’s again on the way home for another great meal there.

Hidden Brook 25 CTR Norway, ME April 2004

The first ride of the season! YEAH! There are several pre-ride stories to this first adventure of the season. My neighbor’s daughter, Cheyenne, has been riding my pony, Isabelle, for a while now. Cheyenne was going to ride Isabelle in the competition. Four weeks prior to the ride, Heather e-mailed me asking for help to find a new vet judge for the ride. The vet that had agreed to judge the ride found himself unable to do so due to his partner having a baby and taking some time off. Heather told me she would waive my entry fee if I helped her out. So, I agreed. She e-mailed me the list of ECTRA certified judges to call. I started by calling the vets in Maine, then NH and MA. Next I started on the ones in VT, CT and NY. No luck. It is a bad time of year to get a vet on short notice with spring shots and birthing season for so many animals. Finally I called my own vet and begged. He wasn’t able to judge the ride but did recommend Dr. Stephanie Heikanin . She is a local vet she thought would help us out. She had never judged a Competitive ride before but she had helped out on a few Endurance rides. I called Stephanie and she agreed to judge the ride. There were, of course, two catches. First, she was not a certified judge and would have to become one to do the ride. The second was that she couldn’t get to the ride on Friday until 7:00 PM. I e-mailed Heather to see if we could work around these two problems. Heather contacted the ECTRA office to see about getting Stephanie certified. ECTRA prefers certifications to be at least a month in advance but in light of the vet judge shortage in ME, we got the ok to let Stephanie take the test. The ECTRA office said they would fax the test to Stephanie and she could fax it back. That all seemed like a good plan except the ECTRA office had trouble faxing the test. First they had the wrong number, then Stephanie called several times saying she still hadn’t received it. That didn’t get all straightened out until almost a week before the ride. As to the second problem of Stephanie not being able to get to the competition until 7:00 PM, that also worked out. The stable where the ride was being held has a big indoor arena. They re-arranged their lessons to allow us to use the arena so we would be able to keep vetting horses in after dark.
Phew! This competition was a ride and drive. Heather wasn’t getting any drive entries and sent out several e-mails encouraging people to enter driving horses. Marie is trained to drive but I couldn’t handle driving her and keeping an eye on Cheyenne since it would be her and Isabelle’s first ride. I asked Bonnie if she would like to go with me as my groom if I did drive. That way she could help out Cheyenne if they had any problems. I just needed to find out if they would let a rider go out with a driver. The drivers always all go out ahead of the riders. But, I needed to keep Cheyenne with me and the two horses together. Bonnie agreed to go and Heather said that Cheyenne could start with me. So, Things seemed to all be falling into place. Well, not so. Two weeks prior to the ride, I realize that the week of the ride is school vacation week. Cheyenne and her sister were going to NY to visit their dad for the week. Her mom apparently forgot when the ride was and no one informed Cheyenne’s dad that he would have to bring her home early to go to the ride that Friday. Cheyenne’s dad picked her up and she went to NY and still I had no answer about when she would be back. Finally, the Wednesday before the ride, a very disappointed Cheyenne called me from NY to tell me that her dad couldn’t get the time off work to get her home early. Poor girl! So, Bonnie made the last minute decision to take Cheyenne’s place and ride Isabelle in the competition. I was relieved that I would be able to bring both horses. Bonnie is going to buy Isabelle in the fall so this would be good for them both.
Since the vetting was going to be later in the evening, Bonnie and I didn’t rush to leave for the ride. Bonnie brought her trailer and we put my cart in that. She was bringing her dog, Minnie, and wanted her own space to see how it would go for Minnie’s first overnighter. Minnie is a 9 month old Min Pin. We headed out around 11:00. Susie was already there when we arrived. There was still plenty of parking and I got a nice spot. Bonnie ended up parking a ways away from me since she didn’t want to take up any spaces needed for trailers with horses. Fred bought me a “Spring tie” for Christmas. This is an arm that is mounted 7’ up on the trailer that swivels. A lead rope is connected to the end of it that just reaches the ground. When a horse is tied to it, the lead line stays up and out of the way of the horse’s feet. It gives them as much room to move around as a 12x12 stall and they can even lie down. A really neat rig and it requires no set up time when you get to the ride. I planned to try it out with Marie and put Isabelle in the portable electric pen. I wasn’t sure how that would go since it was Isabelle’s first overnighter and she has very little respect for electric fencing. We got the horses all settled in, camp set up and things seemed to be going fine. Then, Isabelle realized that Lady was just a few campsites up from us. Lady is the horse Bonnie owned previously and Isabelle had been stabled with her for a while. Isabelle got all excited and plowed the fence right down. She was quite proud of herself and ran around a bit looking quite impressive with her high stepping and tail up in the air. Isabelle wouldn’t let me get near her. She ran over to visit with Lady and Heather managed to catch her. I quickly decided that maybe Isabelle should go on the “Spring-tie” and Marie in the pen. That worked much better. Supper that night was going to be Pizza. We know it would be late before we got the Pizza so I made myself a sandwich and some coffee. Margaret arrived much to Zephyr’s delight. Zephyr worships her dog, Grizz. We sat for a while and visited after Margaret got her camp set up. Bonnie and I took the dogs for a walk. Minnie was very excited about all the new stuff and all the dogs there were around. A little after six, we started gathering near the arena with our horses. Bonnie and I were near the front of the line. I was anxious to meet the new vet that I had hired for this ride. I brought Marie into the arena for hands on which went fine. Then the trot-out. When I got done the vet tells me that Marie is dead lame on the right hind!!!!! AAGGHHH. Marie is not a pretty mover and she always travels funny with her hind end. She was NOT lame. I go through this every time a new vet sees her. After a bit of haggling, she agreed to let me vet again in the morning to see if Marie looked any better. I know that she would look just the same but it was the best I was going to get from the vet. Bonnie vetted in and the vet didn’t like the way Isabelle looked either. The vet thought Isabelle looked like she lifted her right hip a bit higher then the left but conceded that maybe it’s just the way she travels. So, Bonnie also had to vet again in the morning. Now wouldn’t it be ironic if the vet I hired wouldn’t let me start! The pizzas arrived soon after Bonnie and I were done vetting in. We quickly settled the horses back in at camp and went back up to the arena for pizza. Just after dark, I was heading back to camp from the arena when I heard the dreaded sound of a horse going through a fence. Suddenly, I see a large, panicked horse galloping up the road toward me dragging its whole portable electric pen! There were fences on either side of me and I had nowhere to go! Thankfully, the horse managed to kick free of the fencing it was dragging just before it reached me and thundered harmlessly past. Unfortunately, when that horse got loose, it spooked several other horses in pens nearby and 2 more horses got loose. They galloped around camp a few times then headed down a woods trail that led to the main road. We followed them to the road but they were long gone already. So, we went back to camp to go out looking in cars. I stayed in camp since enough people had already headed out in cars to search. The horses were found nearly an hour later. The sheriff called us with their location. Someone had driven off the road trying to avoid hitting them. Horses and driver were ok though the car sustained some damage. The horses were brought back to camp safe and sound. When that excitement was over, Bonnie and I realized we had never asked what time to come back for the vetting in the morning. We headed up to the arena where the vet was just finishing when we heard Sue Greenall yelling. Before we knew it, both of her horses went galloping by us right out the driveway and onto the road. Bonnie and I gave chase but the horses were moving too fast. Just as we were heading back to camp, Heather came by in her truck. Bonnie and I jumped in the back so we could watch for fresh tracks. Heather had a big water tank in the back and Bonnie and I had to squeeze in and really hug that thing to not fall out. We went up a dirt road and found some fresh tracks we thought might belong to the escaped horses. They were heading back toward camp so we followed them to the paved road. While we were there trying to decide where they might have gone, Abby came by in her car to let us know that the horses had been caught and were already back in camp. Phew! By the time we got back to camp, Bonnie and I had nearly frozen to death riding in the back of Heather’s truck. Susie, Mary, Heather, Bonnie, Margaret, and I hung out and visited by my trailer. I heated water for hot chocolate. Margaret had brought some “flavoring” to add to it. Heather eventually joined us. A little after 10:00 PM we all headed for bed.
I didn’t sleep very well. It was very cold. My sleeping bag is rated for 0 degrees but I needed to add a blanked over it to get comfortably warm. Zephyr cuddled up to me under the blanket just as close as he could get. Just as I got nice and toasty warm, I had to get up for a call of nature. I also have to get used to the sounds that the horse makes on the new “Spring-tie”. When you camp with horses, every unusual sound wakes you up. It’s a good thing I had the alarm clock with me. I was finally sleeping soundly when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM. I got up and put on some water to heat. I fed the horses and cleaned up after them. We had to be re-vetted at 6:30 AM. Apparently Bonnie was quite comfortable in her trailer. She nearly overslept. I had my usual oatmeal and coffee. We took the horses up and did our trot-out and the vet still insisted Marie was lame. She didn’t want to let me start the ride. I argued (nicely) with her and she finally agreed to let me start. She warned me to expect to be pulled at the hold. I wasn’t worried since I knew that Marie was fine. As we were heading back to camp to get the horses ready, Lady and Isabelle got calling to each other. Suddenly, Isabelle rammed into Bonnie, spun around pulling out of her hand and kicked. Off she went to visit with Lady. Luckily, Bonnie was knocked down when Isabelle rammed her while spinning around. That kick would have been nasty otherwise. As it was, Isabelle still connected with Bonnie’s hand which swelled up and was quite sore later. Naughty pony!!!!! After we caught Isabelle, I led her up and down by Lady’s camp and let her know that I thought she had better behave. Drivers would be starting before the riders. Drivers had a 15 minute window from 8 to 8:15 to start as we were ready. Riders would be start going out at 8:30 AM. There was only one other driver in the competition. Bonnie and I headed out around 8:04. The course consisted mostly of dirt road, some tar road and a little bit of woods trail. We were setting quite a slow pace for Isabelle. Being her first ride and being only 8 months since she was first trained, we didn’t want to burn her out mentally. I know that she could physically handle the distance, but I also know that she would be more tired then she has ever been and would be feeling quite sorry for herself. All went well. The woods trail was a bit rough in the cart but Marie and I managed it. It was a lot of work for her pulling me through some deep mud. About 3 miles out from the hold, the riders started catching up to and passing us. When Susie and Cody came along, I knew I would have some trouble. I was right. Marie got all excited when she saw Cody and wanted to keep up with him. I was able to hold her back until Cody got out of sight. Unfortunately, on this part of the trail, we were going up to a water stop and then turning around and coming back the same way. Bonnie and I left the water stop ahead of Susie so she ended up passing us a second time. That was more then Marie could handle. She flipped out and bolted down the road after Cody. I pulled back and kept trying to calmly tell her to whoa. She did slow down but started hopping and bucking in the cart having a temper tantrum. There were a lot of riders on the road at this point going in both directions. Everyone was clearing off the road a fast as they could to get out of our way. Marie put on quite a show for everyone but we finally got things under control and managed to continue on our way. We got to the hold without any more trouble. Marie was very nervous at the hold. She knew all her buddies were there and she wanted to be with them. The trot out went fine. The vet admitted that Marie didn’t look a bit different and we were allowed to finish the ride. Isabelle’s P&R’s were fantastic. She was right down to resting rate within 10 minutes. We were held up a bit at the hold and got out 9 minutes over our time. They would have to add that back to our total ride time. The second loop went without incident. All the riders eventually passed us. I knew we would not make our time and would be disqualified. I didn’t care as long as everything went well for Bonnie and Isabelle. About half way around the second loop, Isabelle decided she had’d had enough and tried to quite on Bonnie. Bonnie handled it great. She patiently persisted in making Isabelle move forward and finally Isabelle realized she wasn’t going to get away with being lazy with Bonnie and was fine the rest of the way. We did end up finishing the ride about 10 minutes over the disqualification time. Even though we had disqualified, we requested a complimentary vetting so we could see how the horses scored. And I wanted the vet to see that Marie was fine. The vet admitted that she still looked just the same so couldn’t be lame after all. By the time we had finished the ride, the wind had picked up and was blowing real hard. It was causing some big dust devils to be whirling around. It made our outside supper a bit of a challenge to eat. Heather’s father set up his grill between two horse trailers to get some protection form the wind. He was cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. There was also salad. Once again we were grateful for the use of the indoor arena for the final vetting and then the awards. It gave us some relief from the wind. Susie got Reserve Champion of the ride!

Boo! 25 CTR West Sumner, ME Oct. 2003

The seasons last ride. Sigh. The Boo! ride is one of my favorite rides. Held at the farm of Laura and Steve Falconer. They open their home to us every year so that we have a warm place to gather and have our meals. Laura is the amazing woman that has no arms. She doesn’t let that stop her from doing anything.
At work, the night before the ride, we had a mandatory day six (Friday night) scheduled at the last minute so I couldn’t go to the ride on Friday like usual. I went home and went to bed Friday morning. Susie called me early afternoon worried about me. I had her ask Vicki if it would be ok If I came in the morning and vetted in then. She said it would be ok.
I went out to feed the horses at 3:00 AM. They thought that was rather strange but that didn't stop them from eating. I managed to get to the ride at about 5:30 AM. It was still dark when I arrived. Everyone was parked in the upper field and it was muddy getting in. I unloaded Marie down in the driveway and tied her to Susie’s trailer so I could make a run for it up into the field and not worry about thrashing her around in the trailer. It’s a good thing I did and that I have 4 wheel drive! I was told that Louise Lester had to be hauled out with a tractor. The ride wasn’t starting until 8:30 so I had plenty of time to go down to the house and have some breakfast. Marie vetted in just fine. I was riding with Margaret Farnum and Mary Batt. Margaret and I had prearranged to ride together. The Boo! 25 is the last ride in the Triple Trail Series which consists of the Hidden Brook 25, Streaked Mt. 30 and the Boo! 25. Margaret and I had ridden the first two ride together so we figured it was only right to ride the last one together also. Coming into this ride, Margaret and Promise were in first place and Marie and I were in second place for the Triple Trail Award. If Marie and I completed this ride, we would also earn our 1,000 Competitive miles award. Only Marie would earn that since, for the rider, ECTRA splits ride and drive miles. I’ve driven 2 competitions so I am 75 miles behind Marie. The milage is combined for the horse. Susie was one group ahead of us in the starting order with Heather and Heather’s friend. Susie wasn’t too happy about that. When it was time to go, She let them get a head start on her before going out herself.

Zephyr & Grizz

Mary Batt, Susie Reinheimer & Margaret Farnum


It was a good and ride. Beautiful day. Mary’s horse was a bit strong with her and pulling. Marie and Promise were wonderful. A bunch of us came into the hold at the same time so we were held up there for a while. Marie passed at the hold without problems. Just as I was mounting to head out for the second loop, Marie stepped on her own foot and pulled a front shoe off!!! Thank goodness for Easy Boots! I jumped off and quickly put the boot on and we were off for the second loop. The second loop went fine and we were done in good time. Marie passed the final vetting and she had earned her 1,000 miles!!! YEAH! While we were waiting for the meal, we took pictures of all the dogs. Zephyr and Margaret’s dog Grizz. One giant ball of black hair and one small one. They are funny to see together. Susie’s lab cross, Callie, and Mary’s dog are also all black. The meal provided was wonderful as usual. Grilled steak and chicken, salad, scalloped potatoes many different kinds of pie for dessert. Then…..time for the awards! We gathered in the kitchen for this. (The Falconer’s have a very large kitchen) Marie and I got 9th place overall. Susie got Grand Champion for the second ride in a row! Margaret got Grand Champion of the Triple Trail Series and I got Reserve Champion. Not bad for a 23 year old Morgan and a grade Quarter Horse from the Humane Society!

Cindy Ross, Susie Reinheimer & Margaret Farnum


Boo 25 ME 10/18 25/S-F
Judges: Dr L Buggia - J Levellie
J1. SA FR Madazsin / Dagget, Catherine
J2. Willows Rahmaan / York, Cara
J3. Snowfield Kelley, Cricket
1. Xavier Sunnyacres / Reinheimer, Susan
1. Theatic / Brunjes, Kathy
3. Tapped A Nick / Lester, Louise
4. Moria NA / Hurton, Bonnie
4. LWF Paljoe Promise / Farnum, Margaret
6. Travelon's Times Two / Gamester, Marcy
6. Nikadeous / Seames/ Peter
8. FR Midori / Batt, Mary
9. Marie / Ross, Cynthia (score 94.25)
10. Keeper / Brooks, Leslie
10. Shiloh / Seames, Cynthia
12. The J Man / Raymond, Faith
13. Disco Dust Bunny / Nelson, Cindy
14. Alizahr / Bell, Patricia
14. Rugby / Mersereau, Rene
16. Nikita Bahar / Crowley, Lois
17. Nerzans Lady Mariah/ Bonneau, Heather
18. HFA Siver Savana / Deleware, Marsha
Completions:
Dreamcatcher / Soscia, Joanne
Tashi Samr / Rice, Bill
VH Phazon / McNaughton, Irving
SFD Carosel / O'Connor, Colleen


Triple Trail Series
Higest combined score for same horse/rider team for:
Hidden Brook, Streaked Mountain & Boo!
Grand Champion - Margaret Farnum on Promise
Reserve Champion - Cindy Ross on Marie

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.