I
have been trying to catch up on ridecamp over the last couple of days (was
well over 100 digests behind (!)) and finally got to the photo album
posts. What a great idea! I’ve just uploaded pictures of my three
boys (Cabby, Billy, and Blaze) with me on Cabby, Aarene on Billy, and Jim on
Blaze.
Cabby and Billy just
earned a PNW PNER award called the Sandybarr Award. Sandybarr was a
horse who had some huge amount of miles and had never been pulled. They
give this award to a horse who completes at least 10 rides consecutively in a
season without getting pulled. All 3 of us train, travel, and ride
together and had all 3 of my boys were still in the running up to the
9th ride where Blaze got pulled after tearing up his pad on a very
rocky loop.
Our 10th ride
for Cabby and Billy was at Foothills of the Cascades, which is very
rocky! It was very nerve-wracking having 2 horses on their 10th ride.
It got even more stressful when Billy got kicked (by herd boss Blaze
while tied at the trailer during our last hold...something they do on a
regular basis) and with only 19 miles to go!! Luckily Gene Nance
(experienced ride vet) was camped next to us and told Aarene what to do right
away and she was able to walk him out of it. I was in the RV bathroom
when all hell broke loose!! There were plenty of people there so I
wasn’t needed to help...it’s still very frustrating trying to get out of an RV
bathroom in a hurry!!
We had taken RO with Blaze
after the first loop since I could see an occasional head bob during the first
loop (I was riding right behind) and we didn’t want to take any chances.
In his attempt the ride before to take the weight off of his hoof with the
torn pad, he put extra stress on his weird, wingy leg in front. It
appeared to be a mild problem so we decided to not push our luck and took him
out. He was apparently not very happy at being left behind after the
first loop and had a few things to say when Cabby and Billy got back.
We took the ride very
carefully and slowly (as we did with most rides) since our goal was set at the
beginning of the year and we figured it was a way to really make us take it
easy on their first full year of doing 50s. We didn’t get all 3 to the
end, but we did reach our goal with Cabby and Billy. Their pictures are
now in the photo album -- even Blaze, the little darling! <g>
Don’t get me wrong...I love this horse -- most of the time. He was one
of the first horses born in my barn after we moved in. He’s now 16 and
got pulled out of the pasture about 5 years ago and started doing LD with me 3
years ago...now takes students. Did several 50s this year. He’s
herd boss at home and sometimes it’s a damn good thing he’s so cute!!
<g>
Sue
**************************
"Live as you will have wished to have lived when you are
dying."
- Christian Furchtegott Gellert, German Poet and
Writer
