Ridecamp: [RC] BIG WOO HOO!!!! The Finish

First I want to thank each of you that took the time to wish me luck in my
very first Limited Distance Ride (25 miles) at Sunriver, Or. this weekend.

Second, this is going out to lots of ppl so I will sometimes refer to those
by name.

Thirdly, and this is really going to be hard to tell you, especially those
on a "certain list" .........but I am going to TRY and it is going to be a
bigger challenge than the ride but I will Try not to ramble on and bore
everyone stiff. Besides, I am such a good BS-er (ah, ahem, I mean story
teller) that hopefully there is a little something in it for everyone.

Blah Blah Blah, I could start with all the mishaps that went on before we
left the driveway, but everyone has those stories to tell. We pull into ride
camp at about 7pm. look around at a hundred rigs to find DeAnn  Schnepple
from Oregon City that I met a couple of years ago at Pacific Crest Ride when
my Arab never let me get to the starting gate without the threat of being
killed and so I woossed out and quit before we got to the starting gate.

We drove around this DUSTY field (I was warned this is a major dust camp,
but who ever believes naysayers?) Hubby who is not into horses, but also is
not into letting me drive our brand new gooseneck to smash like I did our
camper and stock trailer, agreed to be my chauffeur for his peace of mind.
It is late, I didn't pack any food and he was getting that Yosemite Sam look
on his face and I could see him mouthing "the words"

Finally I said just park where you can, turns out we were right next to
DeAnn. Well so far luck was with me.

I take Cruiser to the Vet check in and there is this great Vet that I met at
Limestone. Hair down to him butt and chain smokes Camels. (Yuk) but a really
sweet man. I told him that I was trying to find him to do a prepurchase exam
on my Arabian Mare and her filly, but couldn't find his number. "Did you
look in the yellow pages?" asks he. "yes, yellow and white" says me.

Well no wonder! says Dr. I am not listed!  HUH?????  He said he likes his
privacy, actually if I didn't like my current Vet so much, I would try this
guy, a man after my own heart, except for the cigarettes, but I have my
charms, or did.

I told him that not finding him cost me a sale on my mare and filly. Told
him that the "Other" vet found Marey lame. Marey has never been lame nor is
she now. But this is the same group that tells everyone that they suspect
their horse of EPM. They did this to me and scared me poopless. I even let
them do the spinal tap in the rain on a dirt arena. Well the doc did have me
hold an umbrella over the horse. So what does that tell you. I am going to
get the unknown Vet with the long hair to come out and do the same exam on
my mare. Can't get my Vet to do it and don't want him to now. I definitely
want an independant opinion.

Off subject for a minute, this Vet that did the exam for the sale, held
Mareys front legs up forever. I even told him that if he held my leg up that
long I would have a charley horse to set me screaming. This is a 19 year old
mare with not yet three month old foal. It was after he held this leg up
that when she did the trot out, she did favor that leg. I watched her move
like that in disbelief. As soon as she was home, there was no further
"lameness" but the sale is off, and after this race, I am glad, but what are
the standards of checking for lameness.

Okay, Cruiser passes with great scores on the preride exam.  I was amazed at
how calm he was during the night before and during the night and during the
ride. I kept having flashbacks to Zar at Pacific Crest.

DeAnn is sponsering her 11 year old adorable neice, Michelle in the 25miler,
so we are going to ride out together. She and Michelle are on horses that do
100 and 50 milers, Arabians of course. So I told them that I am just taking
this slow and don't worry about leaving me.

WELL!!!!!! they left me in the dust about 400 yards out. I didn't mean it
that literally. But, that was fine. I am really just concerned about Cruiser
being able to finish this in the alloted 6 hours.

The course, as Janet Hunter said is fairly easy, much easier than what we
train on. But it is soooooooo  dusty and thick soft dust almost like trying
to move out in beach sand. Wasn't forested like I envisioned either, mostly
in the sun and it got hot.

I keep checking Cruisers HR. He is doing fine, staying in a running walk
most of the time. I would pull off trail and let him eat grass, since I was
not Elyting him prior and wanted him to get something into his system.

Lots of people passed us, Oh, we started 15 minutes after the starting time.
Kinda my fault,  Riding around to warm up the horses, Deann said okay let
go. Wait minute! We are starting now? I have to give Randy a kiss goodbye,
it could be the last time he sees me alive. I am sure that seemed silly and
wasteful of time, but I had to do it. I would have fretted about not kissing
him goodbye the entire ride. (yea yea, this is no time to be sentimental,
but he is my soul mate, living with me constitutes him for Saint Hood)

Okay, we are off, horses passed us, we stopped LOTS. One stop I was in a
meadow with a few trees and didn't see or hear any one coming up the trail
behind me so figures this be a good time to answer the call of Nature. So
there I am out in the open with my big arse hanging out. Aahh, relief. Jump
back on Cruiser and just 100 feet up the trail is the Water Buckets! And
people around it. Yikes! Well, I just brazenly rode right up and figured it
they ain't seen a 54 year old tattooed butt by now, they can have a new
experience in life. (blush)

7miles to Vet check. Holy Cow! I've only gone 9 miles??  I can imagine what
Cruiser would have thought. So we start to boogie down the trail, me
checking his heart rate( man, those are the coolest little doo-dads, I want
one for every horse, so what if I only ride one at a time?) His HR is just
awesome, especially now that I know how to put it one and what I am supposed
to be reading.

 First time his HR was 198 right out our driveway. The entire ride the thing
was crazy. I called a friend and she said Are you sure you had it on right?
Well, how should I know? I looked at the picture in Roger's booket. MaryAnn
said Amber, you didn't have it on right...you were getting a double heart
beat.

I took Roger's booklet to bed that night and read the directions. Why is
everything so complicated now days? Pictures are good.

We Stop again and let him play in the snow patch. Actually, I wanted his
feet cooled and he likes to eat snow, so I thought this would be good for
him. I figured he wouldn't mind me throwing a couple of snowballs at him
either. I know.......this is serious stuff I should be focused. (well, I
will tell you, I was extremely focused...on my horse. He is a 4 year old
baby with the heart of the Greatest Arabian who would run him self to death
for me, so I am doing everything that I can to be kind to this baby in his
first event, all I really wanted was to make in time, that would be my
proudest moment with this wonderful equine partner)

Next stop is for some lush green grass, off the trail. As he is eating, here
comes this beautiful little chestnut. Something different about this horse I
am thinking. So we catch up with him and I ask what breed is your horse?
Missouri FoxTrotter. Right On! I say. I am on a TWH. Turns out this fellow
is from Corvallis, nothrern Oregon and this little gelding came from Pam and
Tony Friesens, in my neck of the woods.

This gentleman was Dave and his first ride as well. He has worked at lots of
Races but his first ride. So we stuck together for quite aways and Cruisers
Hr was down to about 65 and I told Dave I had to move on out. See ya at Vet!

So I am doing a rack now, then I let Cruiser have a few bites and keep going
now in a slow RW. Here comes Dave foxtrottin on up, I couldn't believe it,
that guy was a little mover.

We get into Vet at the same time, Cruiser was down below 60 when we walked
in. So our time started quickly, He ate and drank really well. I lost my
sunglasses and thought about all that dust! Ugh.  I am still picking dirt
clods out of my nose.

Time to take off, so they all know I am a greenhead and wish me luck. I take
off to the left of them and put Cruiser into gear.
"HEY! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"  Huh? I guess I don't know. "YOU GO THE OTHER
WAY!""  har har har, they got a good laugh out of that. Of course I felt
like a horses arse, but managed to pull it off with I just wanted to see if
you were paying attention. Face now beet red and not from the sun. (You
know, I come from a proud German/French family)

YIPES! Less than two hours to go 9 more miles to make finish time. Putting a
little pressure on the horse now. C'mon, baby we don't care if we are last,
but we have to complete. This is what all that bootcamp we did together for
the last year is adding up to. 50 milers are now passing us, but it gives
Cruiser a little more desire to keep up. We are keeping a really good pace
now. Even doing a nice rocking chair canter.

I am thinking "Oh boy! we left that little foxtrotter in the dust." (sorry,
but we all have a little vengeful streak, otherwise life would be boring if
we were ALWAYS nice or thinking NICE thoughts.) So I know that there is no
way to even be on a par with these arabians, but I now have my
nemesis........Tennessee Walker vs. Missouri Foxtrotter(Hey, I own two FT's
and two Arab/MFT crosses, I can pick on him)

TWH: 4 1/2 years. MFT 11years. TWH carrying a "heavyweight"  MFT carrying
"heavyweight, but not AS heavy"

TWH 900lbs. MFT 1050+ lbs.

So we left 7 minutes before him and we are bookin it. HAH! we'll show him,
Cruiser.

Stop again for a bite of grass, see a cloud of dust coming up the trail. Oh,
gotta be one of the 50 milers. We don't care about that. We just stand on
the side of the trail, me off of him and him munching grass. When all of the
sudden the dust clears and here he is, that dumb looking MFT.

This is the only war we have Cruiser. The Arabs beat the heck out of us.
The gaited breeds can still hoof it out.

So I jump aboard and we go. MFT rider has the gall to look back at us to see
where we are. So he puts that horse in high gear and they take off at a
gallop and that was the last we saw of them until the finish.

Cruiser is just giving it his all, he is such a great guy. So I accept
defeat, but figure again, I am not pushing my buddy for anything or anybody.
He is getting tired, I am getting tired. I think now is the time to give him
some electrolytes. I made up some cherry flavored and put a tablespoon of
sugar in it. He took them down excellent.

Not too far down the trail, we come to the water bucket. Cruiser takes a
really nice long drink. I take my sponge and practically give him a bath
from head to hood, under the belly, under the tail, genitals (Gads! hope
nobody drinks that stuff) and he is ready to rock and roll.

I have no idea where I am, how much farther, but what ever it was it was
long. I kept thinking is this ever going to end??

I am checking my stopwatch and it is getting real close to completion time.
I just can't believe that this has taken us this long, maybe I should have
not stopped so much, but quickly reminded myself that this boy has great
potential heis a baby, give him the benefit of the doubt and don't be such
greedy mind to sacriface the horse for a completion. First Ride, blah blah
blah.
I did listen to myself, but also heard myself calling the other self a few
choice names and wishing that personality would sometimes take a hike.

Finally I see the sign that we are almost there. I am showing about 18
minutes to zero. I stop at the water trough and there is the MFT. he is
getting a drink too. Have you vetted in I ask. No, not yet. Ah HA!!! Renewed
spirit, there is still a chance.

Well, gotta go, Dave Good luck(yea right) Get Cruiser in and the pulse
taken. He is hanging up at 70, oh, man! the clock is ticking. Come on boy,
relax. I start kissing him and patting him between the eyes on the forhead
(farrier taught me that) he gets to 65, 64, 63, 62, 61 (holy moly, my heart
is about ready to burst) 62, 64, Hey! whats with this stuff? I am gettin the
Vapors, ready to keel over. Clock is almost at completion time. I am the
Ying and the Yang.  63,61,...60! Yahoo!!! We did it! we had 8 minutes to
spare.

 I walked out of there with such a grin on my face. You'd have thought I was
number one (actually that was our number)

Man, I just kept telling Cruiser what a good boy he was, how proud I was of
him. He was the champ, that is for sure.

Some of the long time endurance friends of mine and these are hard core 100
and 50 milers were cheering me on. Tis was a proud moment. But the best was
yet to come.

Later that night, the MFT rider came over to our camp and said that he
didn't make it. Truly I was shocked. What happened? He said he could not get
his horse to pulse down in time. He missed completion by five minutes. I
truly felt sorry for him. I know how heartbreaking that would have been for
me.

But, then again..........tuff tootsies. He shouldn't have ran his horse that
hard. He should invest in a HRM.(I think I convinced him)  He let that "Win"
override his better sense and it taught him a very valuable lesson. It also
confirmed what I believed to be the right way to do this ride.

Awards ceremony. 25 milers.......Amber Applegate on Gen's Midnight
Rendezvous, Last place. I couldn't have been more proud. I did it, I saved
my horse and I got a bag of carrots for Cruiser for coming in last place.
Can't beat that.

Then It was fun time. As we are getting ready to leave this morning. I ran
into a new friend that I made at the Limestone Challenge. I promised her at
Limestone that I  would let her ride Cruiser to feel what a gaited horse is
like.

So I put my really cool Montreal Royal Trooper Saddle on him (Designed after
the Candian Mounted Police saddles) and First I let my friend DeAnn and her
neice, Michelle take him for a spin. There itwas, the big grin.and the "I
CAN"T BELIEVE
THIS!"

Next was down to another Michelle she did the 50 at Limestone and her Friend
Sherry was with me at the finish line. So we do a beautiful RW and I mean
all the camps along the way stopped and just gawked at us. I yelled out
Tennessee Walker and people said "Beautiful"

Get to Michelle and Sherry and they are by the water trough. Sherry hasn't
ridden in years and she jumped aboard and had the time of her life. Now
people are gathering up and asking about the weird moving horse. I said this
is a gaited horse. There are many types all smooth. This one happens to be a
TWH, but I also have MFT and I bred for a ARAB/MFT cross and got a colt and
a filly that are to die for. WOW!! they all said they would love to see
that. I said in three more years they will see Mojo and he will blow some
minds.

I could have paid for my ride if I charged everyone that wanted to ride a
gaited horse, Cruiser, for a ride on him. It was so much fun to see such
experienced horsepeople that I hope to aspire to someday, riding MY horse
and grinning from ear to ear. I told them that is what we call "The Gaited
Grin"

Michelle, a hard core Arabian endurance rider that places very well. Never
said anything about trying out Cruiser when her Friend Sherry got aboard. By
the time the last person took him out, Michelle said "That does it, I want a
ride" Wow, I am busting my buttons. I just took last place in a measly 25,
and these PROS are asking me to ride Cruiser. What a trip!

So Michelle hops on, and takes off. She is screaming This is so Cool!! I
have NEVER felt anything like this, Oh My GOD!!!

I had a fun day at the races.  Next one is the Redwood Ride in N.Calif. Look
Out!
amber and cruiser



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