Ridecamp: [RC] Hallelujah Ride story

Hey RideCampers!!  It seems we need something on here
to read that's not such at big debate.  As if all
these political commercials on TV weren't enough, now
it's all there's been on RideCamp.  So here's my
little write up on my ride experience last weekend at
the Hallelujah Ride in Camden, SC.


A couple weeks before the actually ride I talked my
wife into signing up for the 25miler.  We had not been
able to ride our horses much lately, so we decided to
do a SLOW 25 just to get some more miles.  I've heard
so much good about the ride that Lucie Hancock puts on
every year that we just had to go.  Lucie usually has
her ride in Feb, but with the change in ride locations
and time of year, she decided to put a second ride
together for the year 2002.  Lucie, "Survivor" Trish
Jackson, and others, worked with the Camden Hunt Club
to setup this ride.  These trail weave around 12,000
acres of pines.  An absolutely beautiful area for a
ride in mid-October in the SE.  The nights were cold,
but the days got up to low 70s.  Camden has a rich
history of horses with the Steeple Chase track, so
what better area to have an endurance ride.

We pulled into camp on a beautiful Friday and setup
camp under the power-lines.  Had to watch our for red
ants, wicked burrs, and cacti.  During setup,
excitement arose as a horse got loose and took off
down the power-line out of site.  Trish Jackson tore
off after the horse in her new Ford truck she won from
Survivor.  Luckily they retrieved the horse.

Our horses vetted in just fine, however my wife, Lara,
was not feeling so hot.  She had been fighting a bug
and it started to get bad again.  So at the ride
meeting I asked Lucie if anyone was looking for a
horse to ride.  With luck, there was a 14y/o named
Megan, and best fried of Lucie's granddaughter, that
wanted to ride and was about to go get a horse.  So
she became our hired gun to ride our little grey.  A
14y/o to ride our 14hh grade Arab mini-tank.  This was
to be Megan's first ride and first time on an english
saddle.

Morning came and Megan showed up about 7:30 to saddle
up.  We were all set and she was able to warm up a bit
on Jazz.  The 25miler started and we eventually made
our way down the trail along with my buddy Tom Keever.
 I was on my girl, Jayda, the 14.2hh bay that I have
for sale in the classifieds.  We pretty much stuck
with a nice easy trot the whole way.  5 miles in we
came to the railroad crossing.  Well, them tracks and
stones yanked a shoe right off Jayda.  The trails were
ALL sand so I was not too worried and on we went. 
None of them wanted to drink on the first loop since
the morning was cool and we were taking it pretty
easy.  First vet check went great and Megan was still
alive after her first 15miles on our mini-tank;)

We started off on the second loop again, still with
Tom, since he was riding easy as well.  The second
10mile loop was soooo much fun.  Still all sandy
trail, but they wove through the pines and made it so
much fun.  Along the trail we picked up a guy from the
Raleigh area with a new young gelding on it's first
25mile ride.  Horses drank good this loop.  At one
point while cantering, Jazz had to remind Tom's horse,
Charli, that she was a mare and gave him a swift kick
to the nose.  No harm done though.  About a half mile
from the finish we were cantering and came upon a
driveway which had two large brick columns on either
side.  Jayda thought she'd stop and admire them with
out warning me first.  I sailed right between her ears
and did an awesome roll back to my feet with the reins
still in my hand.  We came into the finish shortly
after and received our completions.  I was so proud of
our girls and of my junior Megan who got her first
AERC miles.

The next party, errr, ride is the infamous Carolina
Ride put on my JD Fountain over Thanksgiving weekend. 
I decided to do my first 50 on Jayda and asked Lucie's
granddaugther, who is close to 1000 AERC miles, to
ride Jazz.

Hope you all enjoyed my little story.  Check out a few
pictures I have of the ride.  Got a great picture of a
draft horse that completed the 25.  Also of this
awesome spotted walker that finished 4th in the LD. 
See you all at JDs.

http://www.geocities.com/strohs4me/HallelujahRide/

Tim (still looking for a great home and rider for Jayda)

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