EHSC Story

[Lynne Glazer <lynne@glazer.org>]

It's been 5 years since we got to do this beautiful ride, and that 
time had been the 30.  This time the 50.

Heather Hackworth and I had a good time at EHSC.  Her first ride as 
an emancipated ex-junior.  We'd ridden together at Geo and our horses 
were well-matched in gait and temperament, and more importantly we 
had FUN!

We had fun yesterday, too.  No goals except completion in mind. 
Becky and Colleen Hackworth and Katee Owens were fabulous crew, and 
yesterday was certainly a day that I needed help.  Our ride time was 
8:11.  Heather had managed the incredible feat of finishing the Death 
Valley 4 day, 20 Mule Team 100 and this ride, to earn the coveted 
award of excellence, on Tez Marc--and her mom won the same award last 
year on the boy!

I took photos on the first (20 mile) loop.  Haven't looked at 'em 
yet.  I'll probably put them on the web page, got the waterfall, the 
lake, the rockpile, etc.  Well-marked trail, plenty of water, and a 
photographer's dream.

Some personal highlights, which mean a lot to me:

My horse did this very rocky ride without pads.
She vetted in with a pulse of 30.
She did the last 30 miles in a rope halter.
I never pushed her, she was completely self-propelled.
She was the best behaved ever at the start and ensuing dozen miles.
She came into every check at or below criteria, trotting in.
I only took two Advil all day (bad neck that has prevented any 
consideration of multidays)
I could have ridden today, even a 50!  (never felt this good before)
She finished 21st of 95 horses.

And this was despite one of the stupidest mistakes I have ever 
made--Friday morning we'd put up my EZ-up shelter, and used the 
slide-on weights but hadn't staked it down, first time ever, wasn't 
even a breeze.  Hours passed, then came a microburst that took the 
shelter straight into Ember in her corral, then it went up and over 
my gooseneck.

She had two lacerations on both front legs that miraculously missed 
anything vital.  I'm still shaking my head; she's had a ton of lower 
front leg injuries and many of my friends have doubted that she could 
suceed in endurance at all.  We went on a 90 minute ride to make sure 
all was well before vetting in.  So to vet in with a 30 pulse and all 
As was reassuring.

After a hot haul back down south into a headwind, now it's 
oh-my-god-back-into-ride management mode.  90+ entries a few days 
before cutoff, a dozen phone calls and countless ride-related e-mails 
to return.
For some reason everyone thought I'd be out pre-riding the trail or 
returning phone calls 2 weeks before the ride (like the last 4 years. 
<g>)

Lynne

and the fabulous Rem-member Me (Ember)
Norco Riverdance Ride (PS) 9/1/2001