Raffle Horse

[TddWil@aol.com]

We went to Fort Valley to do the 35 on Sunday. Had the usual luck, friends got lost after losing us on the DC beltway, and it was snowing/raining/sleeting on and off and windy (we don't have a living quarters trailer). Horses vetted in fine and I was pretty relaxed since my goal was just to finish. After dinner we crammed into a heated area for the awards for Saturday and Sunday's briefing. I had been over almost the whole trail at least once and felt OK with it except started to consider going down Sherman Gap on foot (Shadow is not used to stuff like this). Then they had Tracy Reynolds come up to do the drawing for the horse she donated to help raise money for Ed Paige (see Running Bear's website if you don't know the circumstances). She picked a little girl out of the crowd to pull the ticket - and - read my husband's name! I still don't think its sunk in, even though there's an extra horse in the back yard. What the hell, after 3 horses, whats one more. She's only 2 but very nice and easy to handle. She's in with the 2 endurance geldings now - one is terrified of her and the other is in love - he kept grooming her neck and withers while she was napping in the hay pile this morning. Oh, we did finish in fine shape, and I only fell down twice scrambling down Sherman Gap, and somehow we forgot all about the cold and the long drive and....

                            Shelly in DE