My PAC Part One

[Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>]

I hate doing this, but I'm posting this in parts simply because it's so
darned long and I'm afraid I'll hit a button and it'll disappear.  I'll
finish it today though.  I'm sorry if parts get boring, but I actually
sort of write these as a journal for me and this is the stuff I want to
remember.

Angie

Wow, where to start?  This time last year I had very little thoughts of
nominating, then last December I got an e-mail from Jaye Perry asking me
if I was going to nominate or not. I hem-hawed around and Jaye being Jaye
took that as the answer he wanted,  "Yes!" Being scooped up by Jaye is
like being a mailbag hanging on a hook that gets nabbed by a train
passing by at 60mph.  The next thing I knew it was full steam ahead and
no looking back.

USA-East was trying out a new selection procedure this year that would be
based solely on head to head competition...no whining about politics,
etc. Just get on your horse, go to 2 out of 4 rides and the horses with
the most points when the dust dies get to go.  The procedure wasn't
perfect, but I think everyone liked the direction it's taking us and now
just wants to refine it.  

How does a teacher take 8 days off the second week of school?  Well...it
helps to teach Art instead of Algebra...and it also helps to tell the
principal it will just be five first, then at the last minute change it
to 8. :-P  The school secretary was panicking about how to put the leave
down and we put it down as "sick leave".  Unfortunately, while I was gone
the local newspaper ran a 1/2 page story about us and the first paragraph
said "Local school teacher vacations in Vermont...at least she *took*
vacation, it's actually serious business".  Well no, actually I took sick
leave. Let's hope the people in the home office didn't see that.

We were looking at 24 hours of hauling with a horse who'd never been in
the trailer over 9 so Jaye arranged for us to overnight at Val's in
Virginia.  We hauled all night and got there at 5 AM. I've never been to
the Old Dominion so waking at the site of it was exciting.  Got to admit
though, it looks a lot like home.  Several other PAC participants were
there and the excitement was building.  As irritable as I was when I was
trying to leave home I don't know how Val stood us all showing up at the
last minute but you'd have thought they had all the time in the world. 
Larry had Bill and me dying laughing with stories and made sure we went
up to see his really cool treehouse he built in the woods.  They not only
tolerated us parking in their driveway, they had us all in for dinner!  I
think Larry is the president of the unofficial AERC foreign embassy.  He
seems to really enjoy bringing young people from other countries over to
work for them for awhile and make friends.  I suggested that they just
design themselves a flag and declare their farm a country in itself. They
have enough top horses and riders to send out a team capable of winning
the WEC all by themselves.

 There were momentos of World Championships tacked up on the fronts of
Pierez and Fire & Gold's stalls and I couldn't believe they left those in
the barn rather than the house.  Found later that the house was too full
of bronze awards to waste space on things like ribbons. It was an
inspirational start to our first International Competition.  I'll warn
you all, she's got a field full of fit looking worldbeaters in the wings.
 You guys who can't find large Arabs?? Blame 4'11" Val, she's hoarding
them. >g<

There were lots of discussions on what would be the best way to haul up. 
I stuck to my usual "get him out every three hours" and from what I heard
was practically the only one to get him out at all on the way to VT from
VA which took us 13 hours.
I think the other horses had been on long hauls more often and probably
drank, etc. better in the trailer.  Kaboot was great, unloading in
McDonald's parking lots and busy truckstops without flicking an ear.  I
did come up with a new trick. Since it's not always possible to backup to
grass to unload I started laying down a piece of carpet for him to hop
down onto to avoid slips and he liked it.

The USA-East team would be staying at Steve Rojek's farm 2.5 miles from
the GMHA from Sunday through Thursday morning when they had to be checked
in at GMHA.  The stalls at GMHA were tiny (10x10) so we were putting off
going as long as possible. All the other teams were at a huge field with
a beautiful view just down the road.  

 I had never been to Vermont, and I can tell you the Woodstock area was
worth going back to. It's BEAUTIFUL.  I don't know if wood doesn't rot up
north, or if it's too cold for them to burn down, but there were soo many
huge old barns in perfect condition, built next to gorgeous OLD homes. 
For example, Steve Rojek's tin roofed rock home was built in 1761. There
was a British KING in charge when it was built! His carriage barn was
incredible, with at least 20 antique carriages and sleighs in a room with
a huge fireplace and an old painting hanging over it.  Noticed he had a
few silver cups that I would have decorated my entire house around
stacked here and there in the carriage house too. >sigh<

Woodstock is a ski town, which should tell you something about the
terrain we rode on.  Let's just say about half the trail would have
looked good with a lift going up it, and the other half with ski tracks
going down.  Sort of intimidating when someone says, "And then you'll be
down that way" and you look up at the roadsign which reads "Suicide Six"
with an arrow pointing that way.

The USA-East squad probably had more veterinarians than any other squad.
We had 6 official vets, plus one rider vet...would have been two had
Nikki Young been there.  Our vets were very concerned with the quality of
our trot outs and wanted us trotting out for them bright and early
Monday.  So, we all trotted out...with horses who had been hauled 13-24
hours in the last two days... and the vets were gnashing their teeth. 
When you get 6 top vets together looking at horses trot, they're bound to
compete. Nobody wants to be the one who doesn't see *something*...then
add to that the fact that they are terribly nervous about their
responsibility which is to pick 4 horses, of which three *have* to
finish, to go for the team medals.  I'd compare it to someone who has
mortgaged their parents farm, which they still live in, without their
permission..to take that $100,000 and bet on a trifecta which they *have*
to win.  I think that's the sort of pressure our vets were putting on
themselves.

Fortunately I went to the Jane Savoie clinic on positive thinking and
didn't fall over in a coma the first time they didn't like my horse's
trot out.  I figured if she could get to the Olympics with no horse, I
could get through the Pan Ams with this one.  USA-East had 18 slots on
our team since we were the host team.  Our altnernates included Steve
Rojek (it was his home trail) Rita Swift & Cass (one of the top teams in
the country) and Connie Walker (PAC individual gold last time out). 
Picture yourself as a major league coach with Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio
and Reggie Jackson on your bench and you'll know what they were thinking.
>g<  

Then things started happening.  For those of you who hadn't heard, Nikki
Young's great (and I do mean great) mare Breathless died in colic surgery
several weeks  back (not ride related).  Then Lynn Gilbert's horse
Chagall was lame and didn't come.  Next Val's horse Bearcat O'Reilly
arrived with a cough and was taken off the grounds to quarentine. This
put Rita, Steve and Connie on the team.  Later in the week Cia Reis's
horse who looked great all week got his hind leg through a metal corral
and tore it up.  We lost Ceia and didn't even have 18 horses any more.
Debbie Bullie and Adriene Hewitt had qualified, but their horses weren't
up to competing this week either so they had come to crew.  I think the
vets relaxed some then, since the bench was now empty.  The reserves were
used up, it was now time to get what we had through the race.

I think I mentioned our vets liked trot outs.  Our vets wanted *good*
trot outs. Nice, energetic trot outs.  They wanted everyone to come out
twice a day and practice trot outs.  There's just one problem.  Kaboot
*loves* trot-outs.  He gets faster and faster when you trot him out. 
Here he'd been gone from home for days...I'm sure he was confused when we
just keep getting up in the morning and do more trot outs, but that was
OK with him. He LOVED this new sport.  He loves it because he can trot
faster than I can, and he's *winning*!  The vets apparently had read
Merryben's post saying you never let the horse turn around you or he may
take a bad step, so it was *imperative* that we keep up with the horses
and stop them on a straight line.  All I can tell you is that by Thursday
I swear Kaboot was starting to crouch when I said, "Ready?" and he was
taking off like it was out of the starting gates.  I kept having to run
faster and faster to keep up and had to do stretching exercises before my
sprints.  All this was under the supervision of just 4 of our vets, since
Ann Stuart, our Chef de' whatever and Julie Bullock were in FEI meetings.
 Finally, Ann got to come to one of our trot out sessions to observe. 
After I returned from an "Out, 2 large circles to the left, 2 large
circles to the right, and back" race, and was bent over wheezing with my
hands on my knees Ann declared, "They're not going to let you trot *that*
fast! Can't you slow him down?" >shriek<  

Thursday morning it was time for the big move.  We saddled up 18 horses
at 6 AM, in full uniforms to ride them to GMHA.  Think about it. What do
you *think* our horses thought was going on? Yep...a semi controlled
start. :-P  As we lined up to ride out of camp Julie Bullock ran to her
truck and cranked her stereo all the way up with a rap musician chanting,
"Let's start the commotion". We looked *good* in our uniforms and it was
the coolest thing to hear the hoofbeats, have a prancing horse under you
and be one of the team.

Angie McGhee











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