NC50-A Florida Prespective

["Annette Blackmore" <anet950@hotmail.com>]

Actually this should be captioned A Florida Prespective or "What to do when 
your Florida horse has never seen a rock before..."

This is quite actually a very tough letter to write.  Having been an avid 
reader of ridecamp for a while I am not one to actually join in with my own 
personal experience so ridecampers be gentle...this will be probably my 
first and last time at doing this.

I must explain something first about myself, less then four months ago, out 
of the blue, I was diagnosed with a pretty good cancer, underwent radical 
surgery, got most of my innards cut out, found that the cancer had spread to 
my lymph nodes and one lung and then was welcomed into the wonderful world 
of chemotherapy where I spend 6-8 hours every 21 days being turned into a 
toxic waste dump in the hopes of turning the tide against this parasite that 
has invaded my body.  All the while my wonderful oncologist, Dr. Neil 
Finkler from Orlando, Florida planned all my chemo treatments around my 
training and ride schedule.  It came to my immediate notice after this 
diagnosis(I'm quick this way) that my life had really altered (to say the 
least) and goals and plans had to be rearranged and reprioritized.  One of 
those goals was qualifying for the National Championship ride (which was 
done) and the other was actualizing that goal by my boyfriend and I loading 
up our two Florida sand horses and traveling from Altoona, Florida to Ft. 
Stanton, New Mexico.

After receiving my ride packet with the description of the course from ride 
management it did not take me long to figure out that this would indeeed be 
a challenge..come on...a mountain is a mountain, elevation is a given and 
rocks...well they kinda come with the territory along with steep ascents and 
even steeper descents.  I will give you this...I was unprepared for all the 
rocks and if you think I was unprepared for the rocks, you should have seen 
the look on my horse.  Yes there were rocks everywhere...big rocks, fat 
rocks, sliding rocks, rocks hiding other rocks, rocks rolling down on other 
rocks, horse leg grabbing rocks and always me falling down in the rocks, but 
through it all my "brown-eyed" girl "Sadie" (very wide eyed at all those 
monster rocks)slowly, carefully, quietly and very cautiously picked her way 
down that descent.  Yes, I was scared, my horse had practically no 
experience on hills, let alone "MOUNTAINS" but down that mountain the two of 
us came, she far more gracefully then I.  We came down tired but sound, 
energized by the sheer challenge of it all, astounded by the beauty and 
grateful to be part of the whole experience.  Was the trail tough? You 
betcha!  Did I expect differently, no, not really...do I ever want to see a 
rock again?  Most empathically NO!!!! and by the way, when I got home the 
first thing I did was throw away my pet rock...

I may or may not have the chance to take place in another championship ride, 
this is not being maudlin, but realistic, its the way life goes, but I do 
know that this was a true "Endurance" experience and in my humble opinion, 
what a National Championship ride is all about.

My hat is off to everyone who made this ride possible.  I felt as if ride 
management took every care and regard to the well being of both horse and 
rider from the awesome vets they had on site to the wonderful chuck wagon 
food provided for everyone.  This was definently a team effort, and once 
again in my opinion, an outstanding job was done by all.

In closing, I need to thank my wonderful crew...headed up by Ed Oathout, 
from Pittman(just north of beautiful downtown Altoona)Florida, who drove 
from Florida to be "Crew Boss" in his beautiful new F350.  There is probably 
no one in this world I respect more or a friend I cherish as much..words 
escape me..you are simply the best!  To my 3 sisters(perhaps not sisters by 
blood, but more importantly, sisters of the heart) who flew in from 3 
different locales..Donna West from Orlando, Fl., Sandy West Pegram from 
Birmingham, Al., and Lyndy West Payne from Gerald, Mo.
Everything we have all gone through paled in comparison to the strength and 
love I felt radiating from the three of you when I was coming down that 
mountain and to Joby (who opted to pull his horse due to a stone bruise at 
mile 25)who came into my life when I was whole and who has chosen to stay 
through all this nightmare because in his eyes, I am still the same woman 
(albeit bald, no eyebrows, eyelashes, etc.) that I was.  With his strength, 
support and love he has made this difficult time in our lives a challenge to 
be welcomed head on and beaten.  Last but certainly not least, to "Sadie" my 
brown-eyed girl..one of my main reasons for living.....GOOD JOB!!!!



Annette Fantasia Aerc M17690 and Falanas Saeeda (aka "Sadie") H28314
Southeastern Division from the proud State of Florida
11th place Featherweight Divison
National Championship Ride Ft. Stanton, New Mexico August 2000
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