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[RC] [Guest] My first 100 miler more or less. - Ridecamp GuestRichard Dawson Mrsd @ qnet.com My first endurance ride attempt was the Tevis in 1972. My wife Carolyn and I had gone over to watch the ride in 1969 and 1970. Due to an over-reach by the old grey mare I ended up with her five year old daughter who I very dilegently trained for a total of six weeks. Man! that mare could really trot. We drove over to Auburn about 10 days before the ride to pre-ride the last 40 to 50 miles of the trail. What fun. my wife and I rode with Paige Harper out to the river and back. My mare tied up on the way back to the barn and being such a superbly trained informed rider I really felt that she was getting into good shape. Good hard muscle tone. That evening Marion Robie came by our pen and decided to do her very best good samaritan deed. She immediately got us going with hot cloths and massage. Ended up with walking the mare after a day or two of rest and she seemed to come out of her problem. Off to the start at Squaw Valley and while camped managed to meet a very nice gentleman and his 13 year old daughter who was riding a very beautiful POA. This young lady was very well spoken and polite. A rule of the Tevis at that time was that all riders had to carry a minimum of 165#. Thgis lovely young lady was about 40 50 # short of the minimum. They tried lead, rocks and finally two giant wine skins full of water. (TOO BAD IT WASN'T what they were designed for.) Saturday morning we were off and thundering up the road to the top of Squaw. We went over the top and down the other side on the lower trail that had a beautiful meadow and some giant boulders. Lovely trail with great trees. We had gone about 8 to 10 miles and that POA was really moving. I didn't look back for about a half mile or so and when I did the POA and rider were nowhere to be seen.. turned around and at a full trot went back up the trail to find my charge.and finally spotted her over behind some trees she had lost one wineskin at the tie on the other had broken. This kid was really upset. I took the remaining skin and told her to stay with me no matter what fell off. Somehow I managed to drop the skin behind a tree within the first 50 yards and a little later she was really upset when she realized that it was gone. I kept moving down the trail and was making good time when I looked back and she was gone again. Back down the trail for another half mile and found her hiding behind a tree. This happened at least four times. We came up to a small creek in Duncan Canyon and my mare took a giant leap across this little trickle and an un-named portion of my anatomy attem[pted to soften the blow of my rather beat up body. It felt so good that I nearly passed out and was just wraped around the mare's neck. The lovely young lady kept asking if everything was O.K. but all I could do was groan and mumble unpprintable comments about this lovely mare's ancestory. Finally got to Robinson and after the horse was declared O.K. and I had gone to the little boys room and managed to give enough blood for a transfusion, found someone else to take charge of this delightful young lady and rode to Michigan . She did the same thing to lady who took charge and managed to get her pulled on time. The mare went on to finish the Tevis 3 times.I, thanks to some wonderful horses have finished 6 times. I really love endurance..... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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