Blue Mountain Gallop 55 - really hot!

["guest@endurance.net" <guest@endurance.net>]

Diane Nelson safehavn@fast.net
Hats off to the Ride Management team for pulling off the
Blue Mountain Gallop 55 on Sunday in broiling heat that felt 
like mid-July.  Temps were well into the 90's on the top of the ridge with little wind to cool and not much water.  This is
a truly challenging ride that taxed both horses and riders to
the limits of their metabolics.  Most riders came in looking far
worse than their horses.

This was one of those rides where everyone pitched in, crews &
P&R teams, etc. to see that *everyone* was safe and tended to.
Water was a scarce commodity, requiring a lot of effort on
everyone's part to bring that precious fluid from the stream
"down the road"....about 0.2 down, exactly 8 miles back if you
were lugging buckets!

Can't give you results as we were P&R-ing at VC3 til the last
horse went through.  Bridget made sure her helpers were
well-fed and fluidized.  It's a real pleasure to help out
such nice people.

Diane in Allentown, PA