RAT 50

["Kathy Mayeda" <Kathy_Mayeda@atce.com>]

Title: RAT 50

What a ride!  We had a blast.  I was starting the ride with 2 nights of sleep deprivation (which I’m starting to think is getting to be normal for me).   This is the ride that I determined my fall ride schedule for the margarita party.

We started at 6:00 a.m. and too bad Beau and I were going too fast, because I think we missed a gorgeous sunrise.  It was fast trot uphill for a while and I got off and ran down the loose footed, steep downhill  trail.  Came in the first loop at 7:37 a.m. Too fast. Recovered good, trotted out with the same lousy B’s from pre-ride vetting. Dang farriers….

Second loop was too fast. Beau was energetic the whole way. The Ride and Tiers were coming through.  Nearly ran over Skip Lightfoot.  Beau was so fast during this loop and showed no sign of being tired until we got to the vet check.  Got to the 45 minute vet check, good recovery again, Beau is now very quiet.  Beau didn’t feel like eating much. Vet says he looks tired and slow down.  I take an extra 20 minutes before going out.   Dr. Bob Morgan from Loomis Basin was doing the check.  He’s the vet that gelded Beau years ago, but good thing Beau didn’t hold it against him.

The third loop was too fast.  Beau didn’t seem tired at all on the loop.  Was riding with a guy that was a former Ride and Tier that had a dislocated hip 2 years ago.  Told me all about getting all the hardware out of his hip this last winter and now he was riding a very aggressive 50 miler!   Beau was loving it and taking on every hill.  We come into the 45 minute vet check and recovered fairly quickly.  I take one look at Beau and almost fainted.  He had that wasp waist look.  Was really concerned and talked to the Dr. Fellers about it.  He was concerned that Beau didn’t look too perky.  Beau didn’t feel like trotting out either.  But all A’s and B’s except for C on gut.  Beau is always very quiet anyway, so that part didn’t concern me.  So he tells me to come back for recheck after he’s eaten and drank a little.  I come back, whining and thinking about pulling (I’m tired and cranky).  But Beau had gut sounds, we got a decent trot out, so I told Dr. Fellers that I would take an extra ½ hour at lunch and let all those fast people go through.  So I talk myself into going back out.  No one was with us, so we had a nice 4 mile walk up the hill.  By now I’m tired, cranky and don’t want to move.  Beau was just moving slowly and wanted to take up a trot, but felt the tiredness from me and slowed down.  Other riders pass us, we let them.  Beau even drinks out of a nasty muddy puddle for the first time.  Finally, I run across my friend Nina that drove up with me.  She was doing her first 50 on her mare (also doing her first 50) and riding a very sensible ride (not like me!).  So we finish together, her next to last place, me 3^rd from last place.  But at least we finish.  And I finished a tough ride without Beau thumping like he did last year.  Finally figured out electrolytes. 

Greg Fellers gave me a big two thumbs up when I came in.  Beau promptly pees and it’s very normal looking and we all smile.  We completed a tough ride.  Still had a lousy trot out, but Beau was sound and happy, no swelling, no stress and he came back to the trailer hungry and ready to eat the world.  It took Nina and I a good half an hour after we put our horses away, fed them, washed our faces before we gave each other a big hug in celebration!  We did it!  Nina is now an endurance rider!

Nina and I had vowed to each other that we would pull early if we were going to miss the margarita party.  We ended up missing it anyway and being barely alive for the banquet that followed. Good thing, because they had to use wine instead of tequila for the party.  Blecha.  One of the ultra-runners decided to call it quits and not tell the management.  Robert Ribley and I think Erik Thompson were out there looking for him for several hours, only to find out that the guy opted to quit to go the margarita party instead!

Saw Karen Sullivan – good to see another Ridecamper!

The Ride and Tiers sure know how to put on an event.  They had someone – I think it was Judy Holman – on a loudpeaker leading the cheer section and filling in the specators on the RAT competitors.  It was quite a hub bub.  Too bad I was too bonked to pay attention to all the spiel.

Curt Ripple started the awards with a moment of silence for the tragedies.

Potato Richardson ran the raffle and was totally corny.  Many copies  of Lew Hollander’s book and CD were raffled off.  Grand prize was a some kind of trailer hookup thingy- I was eyeing the Supracor pad.

By the way, Dr. Barney Fleming was there to handle the AERC riders.  We had a suspiciously FEI looking vet gate area and it ran rather smoothly despite the multi-even character of the day.  RATers were to get preference over AERC riders, but there was never a line or people in the way.

Nina goes to Skip Lightfoot’s camp to party more after the banquet and I decided to opt out to get some snoozes.  Didn’t sleep again – 3^rd night out.  We get up – me sleep deprived and Nina hungover, loaded up and had to have coffee and breakfast ASAP so we stopped in Truckee.  We got boxed into the parking lot and couldn’t back out.  I tried pulling forward, but there was a truck with a non-horse trailer illegally parked blocking our way.  Wahhhh!  We couldn’t look at each other because we both were freaking out.  I ended up calling the Police because the whole parking lot was blocked by the trailers.  They come and figure out that it was a local person at a church, found him, and told him to get moving and not parked there again.  Meanwhile, it’s two hours later than we should be on the road.  The rest of the ride home was uneventful, except I was afraid to turn on the news.  We were out of touch of world politics for two glorious days.

Excellent event put on by the Christoffs.  They didn’t cancel the ride because they felt that in times of tragedy, it is better to be with family and friends, and RATs are all family.  The ride was well managed, people were happy and very social.  Ran into a lot of friends, made a lot of new ones and look forward to doing it again next year.  Maybe Beau would be in better shape so I can go fast enough to make the margarita party.

Didn’t sleep again last night.  Post-trauma stress syndrome?

K.