My PAC part 3 (will it never end?)

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

Part 3

The biggest difference in this ride and any other I have done was that
the people in the town not only knew what we were doing...they cared! 
From the time we hit the trail at 5 AM we would hear cheers from people
as we passed houses.  There were water buckets *everywhere*. There were
huge tubs in front yards with sponge buckets next to them. There were
picnicking families in lawn chairs who applauded as you went by. There
were kids holding up signs that read, "One mile to vet check, "Go
USA-East".  As if that wasn't enough, they had hospitality stations where
you'd round a bend and there would be 30 people carrying jugs of water to
pour on your horse, offering you orange slices, tea, Gatorade, carrots
for the horses... I mentioned to a fellow rider, "I should give
electrolytes now" and a lady said, "You need electrolytes? I honestly
think they had them.  I said, "No, I've got my own" and she said, "Here,
give them to me". I just handed them down, she dosed him, refilled the
syringe with water and rinsed his mouth out, then handed the syringe
back. Talk about service!!  Met the same lady later in the day and she
did it for me again.

About electrolytes.  I used my home mades and gave them on the hour as
usual...and a strange thing happened.  My horse kept peeing... often!  I
remember Karen Chaton saying he horse peed 5 times during 50 miles and
how extreme that sounded.  Kaboot peed 5 times the last 20 miles!!  I
honestly think maybe he didn't need the electrolytes much since it was so
cool, and he was just drinking water and peeing them right back out.  His
urine was as clear as water.

Metabolically, it seemed to me that this ride was very easy on the
horses.  I guess the hills slowed them down so it was the muscles that
were affected first.  The grass was sooo lush compared to our area, and
water was so plentiful.  There were plenty of muscle sore horses the day
after this race, but I didn't see any that looked "drawn".

They told us the trail was 40% woods trails and 60% of the hard packed
dirt roads.  I guess it was, but it didn't seem like it.  It seemed like
we got to spend plenty of time in the woods and they were gorgeous...tall
spruce, beautiful stands of the white birch, views out over blue hill
after hill.  They had names for their hills...I know one was "Heartbreak
Hill" and the others were equally descriptive, but my horse didn't seem
to mind them and my shins didn't mind when we had to walk up the really
steep ones.  

We had vet checks often. Far more often than in most 100's and it made
the day go by fast.  The longest stretch without a check was 19 miles and
there was a trot-through 1/2 way through that. Some were as short as 9,
10, 12, and even 4 miles.  I liked it and I think it's one of the reasons
the completion rate was high. People didn't lose time if they wanted to
let their horses eat like you do on 22 mile loops.

Our first vet check was at 13 miles.  Just before we got there we hit
some bees.  Suddenly we emerged at an indoor arena (somebody said it was
Charles Bronson's farm) and people sort of swarmed us  to help. Kaboot
got very upset and silly and was still 89 when his traveling buddy, Mary
Yeager's Snickers was 43.  Mary was trying to wait on me but accidentally
crossed the line where you had to go on forward and vet through.  It was
for the best.  Once everyone gave up on my horse coming down he dropped. 
Val noticed he was stomping a rear foot and that was the first time it
hit me that he may have been stung.  The rest of the vet checks went
fine.  We almost always lost time in the vet checks because Kaboot
doesn't relax, but I guess that's a trade out because the nice 
relaxed horses don't give you that enthusiastic trot-out. (yes he was
still racing me)  After the 86 mile vet trot out Dane Frazier said to me,
"Have you been riding this horse at all?"  At 96 miles the vet who I
hadn't seen before leaned over to his 
secretary as we trotted and said, "I guess this is that base-wide horse
everybody's been talking about".  Nina Barnett said, "Nobody's going to
pull that horse because when he's trotting away from you all you see is
how wide he is, and when he's coming back you just want to get the hell
out of the way!" >g<

At about 75 miles Mary Kornwolf, Kathy Shank and I hooked up and our vets
told us to just ease them on in and *finish*.  There really wasn't any
reason for us to hurry since we had no part in the team thing, and
nothing but completion was up for grabs.  The people by the roads were
still out there applauding, even though it was late evening, and some
were starting to cook supper. (I guess that's called Dinner in VT).  As
we rode up a long hill the smell of grilled chicken filled the air and we
saw some people in their backyards grilling.  I called out, "That's cruel
torturing us like that" and he called back, "Want some?"  Mary took him
seriously and said, "yeah!" and trotted Shiloh right up to their grill to
get a chicken breast. >g<  She yelled to us, "It's good!" and caught back
up and split it three ways.  Vermonters are the best!

The best hospitality station to me was at the top of a long hill where
about six kids under the age of 9 were out at the road in front of their
house.  They had a huge trough filled with water, and several sponge
buckets surrounding it.  There were about 3 little kids maybe 6 years old
hustling around a field pulling handfuls of grass then running back to
pile them by the water trough where they had a big pile already. One
little boy had a hose and would politely ask if you'd like your horse
misted.  They were so efficient, and seemed to know exactly what we
needed. I had tears in my eyes it was so sweet.

At 86 miles we lost Mary when Shiloh trotted lame. Considering that he'd
popped a splint earlier in the week it was a testament to her care that
she got him that far.  Our team also lost Kathy Brunjes and Ali Darkness
in what was the one bit of injustice all week.  A vet said he had limped
during his trot out. Our vets said he stumbled. There was no room to
argue the vet pulled Ali.  There was a rule that any horse pulled from
this ride *had* to go to the treatment barn for further evaluation.  Ali
was hauled to the treatment barn where he was trotted on a straight line,
and in circles both directions where they declared him officially *not*
lame.  Poor Kathy.  The next morning he was the best looking horse I saw
prancing around.  

Kathy's job had been to ride with Brenda Baird one of our team members.
Brenda had two very important reasons to *have* to finish the ride. 
First, because she was one of 3 team members left, and 2nd for a little
known reason.  Nikki Young's mom had snuck and taken a lock of
Breathless's tail after she'd died, and sent it to the PAC. Her
instructions were for one of the team members to carry it, and if they
got pulled pass it on to another to make sure that at least a part of
Breathless did the 100 miles.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house when
we learned about the plan and Brenda had been chosen to do the job.

At 96 miles we all breathed a sigh of relief.  I'd had enough of
wondering if I was going to road founder and just decided to enjoy the
walk in.  We met a truck that was rehanging glow sticks which apparently
ONE bad apple had removed.  Out of all the fantastic people in Vermont,
it's such a shame that such a jerk lived in such a crucial spot. Word was
that "He didn't want horses going by his house at that time of night". 
There were also rumors somebody was throwing firecrackers at the
horses...more on that later.  We had no problems, but Karen Clark and
Becky Harris who left the 96 mile check in 10 & 11 place (I think) were
put off course and lost several positions.

Now...a GREAT story on the firecrackers.  I got this from Rita Swift at
the post ride party.

Rita said she was riding along and heard some firecrackers, then came
around the curve and there were these guys.  She said, "What are you guys
doing?" and they said, "Oh we're just shooting off some fireworks, but
we'll wait until you're gone on by".  Rita said, "Well boys, you know
this horse has been 97 miles and he's getting a little tired. Why don't
you just set them off now?"  They said, "What?"  She said, "Why don't you
just set them off NOW".  "They said, "We've got some pretty big stuff
here, M-80s and all" So Rita said, "Just a second then" and she tucked
her flashlight under her arm and took the reins up short and looked back
at them and said, "Give me all you've got"  She said when they set those
things off Cass took off like a bat out of hell and almost ran over Stagg
who was just around the bend. >g<

We finished at 12:38 PM. I think 40th out of 90 There was a crowd at the
finish line. Kaboot did his big trot out and we got cheers.  I was
especially proud when someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Angie,
Christy Janzen, that was an incredible trot out" :-))

Unlike most rides there was a rule that said the horses had to pass a
metabolic re-check 2 hours after finishing.  Someone had to be there when
they did it. It was after 1AM when we got to the barn so I told my crew
to go on. They had been up 24 hours and were beat.  Bill went off to try
to call our daughters and I got an army blanket and went to sleep on the
ground in front of Kaboot's stall door.  The next thing I knew some vets
woke me up to check him. I was a little disoriented, and thought Bill had
left me. I'll bet they thought I was a grouch. They passed him and I
found Bill asleep in the truck.  FINALLY I was sure I'd completed.

I didn't have to walk in the finishing ceremony. I got my completion
award (a nice crystal what-not with the ride, etc, engraved on it) and I
can look at my ride photos and have nothing but happy thoughts. :-)) 
Thanks to USET for footing so many bills, and all the USA-East support
people for guidance. Thanks to Zilco for the beautiful tack.  I highly
recommend to any of you who have the urge to try this out. It was the
experience of a lifetime.

Angie McGhee & Kaboot
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.