Re: RC: Egyptian Event Ride stories

[JANUSTUDIO@cs.com]

Hi Carla,

Fellow Kentuckian here. I live only about a half hour from the Horse Park, so 
as I train here on the farm, the terrain is much the same. Open rolling 
fields, following fence lines, zipping through gates, etc. So, we are very 
comfortable with this type of going.  The BIG difference was the sight of all 
those horses leaving at top speed, some running, some bucking and many 
popping off their riders. Yahoo. . . My horses problem with all this it that 
he could see all this for at least a mile ahead of him. <g>
As my horse often thinks he's and Arab for the first fifteen miles or so, we 
too were off like a shot.  He is a big strong horse and my whoa muscles were 
screaming for relief for a very long time. I usually don't go with a pack, 
because he is so nasty about it, but this time we had no choice and he 
finally settled in with a group of around six or ten.  Angie and Josie were 
among us, just didn't know them at time. I do remember thinking that the 
youngster's horse could really move and had the widest trot I'd ever seen. As 
Angie said there are some unseen footing problems, so you need to be careful 
even though it looks fine. My horse (Rider) took many bad steps as he doesn't 
pay attention to where his feet are going unless we are by ourselves, or 
leading.  Mike and Connie set a fine pace, nice and steady, I really enjoyed 
riding along with the pack like that, but Rider, around ten miles or so, 
decided he wasn't an Arab after all, and I backed off when we came to a good 
water tank and let the pack move on without us. This is when Rider told me 
he'd lost a shoe. Not just one, but two, and bent another one. All those bad 
steps. . . Fortunately there isn't much in the way of rocks, so we were OK to 
get into the 1st VC. Rider has very troublesome feet, so I was really 
concerned about getting a farrier to nail some shoes back on. Not to worry, 
there was no farrier. . .Over one hundred horses entered and no farrier. That 
was my only complaint on this ride. Actually there was a farrier, he was at 
the show grounds a half mile away. Would have had to go to the trailer to get 
money, stand in line, get the shoes on etc. One of our DBDR members is a 
farrier, but didn't have his tools. He though, bless him, was able to 
straighten the bent shoe and I decided to at least do the next ten miles, 
walking the few rocky areas, and trotting the soft parts.  Well, any thoughts 
of acting like an Arab were long gone, made even worse by the fact he was 
leaving his girlfriend who'd been pulled, back at that lovely VC. So, the 
first few miles were very hesitant, and the rocks were much bigger and 
sharper. Needless to say those ten miles were not fast ones. <g> Plus he was 
going slightly off, so we pulled at the second VC. . .
My daughter pit crewed for me and told me some wild stories, about the 
beginning and end of the 25 miler. <g>
Yes, it is different, but fun. Get your whoa muscles flexed and join the fun.

Jan & Rider & newbie ~ Slick