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I had a fabulous memorial day weekend.  I took both my horses up to
ride the Black Hills LD.  I always like to get at least one LD on Grey
before entering any 50's on him and this was his intro to the season. 
It was Shade's intro to AERC - she went along for the camping trips
last year and did a few fun rides, and we did the Kenlyn fun ride 3
weeks ago -she could have physically done the 25 mile LD there - but I
wasn't ready to face the 'urban challenges' on her, unlike Grey, who
at 15, has 'been there and done that'.

Rode Grey on Saturday so Shade would not be getting the extra first
day excitement --She got to be on the newly installed sky-hook while I
was out on Grey.  Not going anywhere after soaking up all the
excitement in the air saturday morning was great mental
training for her.  Grey did his bad habit on the first loop of
attaching himself to a couple of other horses but wanting to speed up
the pace (it took me too many years to catch on to him doing
this and how it can mess up the other's pacing) -in this case the 2 
QH's he was trotting away from and then waiting for, were totally
keeping to their own pace -good horses, but I pulled Grey behind them
as it was certainly driving me crazy. I rode the last few miles from
the
water tank by myself as they were still cooling down and grazing their
horses when Grey was getting impatient.  Usually Grey's pulse drops
like a
rock so I did not slow him down till getting off to walk about 100 yds
from camp.  The warmer weather and gradual climbing 1-2 miles into
camp had fooled me though, and Grey took over 5 minutes to come down
to the criteria of 56.

Those 2 riders were well ahead of me out of the vet check hold and I
got hooked up with Sue and Jill who left at the same time as me. Very
good riders who are often 50 miler front runners.  I was happy about 
riding with these great horsewoman who know so much more than me, but 
nervous as I didn't want to be bad ride company.  They were on fairly
novice horses (of course or they would have been in the 50) so I put
Grey in the lead up the first hill as he does have a pretty good fast
walk up hills. Then I pulled off, cuz I was nervous about him doing
his hurry up and wait thing, but after a mile or so of following them,
their horses were hesitating a bit, though not tired & they wanted to
trot and create some breeze as it was pretty warm and still at that
spot on the trail -Grey was pretty fresh so I went in front,
determined to pay good attention, and not let him do his yo-yo
routine.  

Grey ended up leading most of the way.  Jill's horse got its 2nd wind,
but she kept him behind -I think because he was being a bit chargy
with her off and on. Grey seemed to be keeping a decent steady pace, I
would check his trot a bit some places when he started to speed up and
remind him to keep going in others where he would have walked if I'd
left him to his own devices, but he responded to what I asked and also
did not keep trying to sneak in a pace change every other minute,
which he will often do. Grey is a funny horse --he always remembers
every turn when he's done a ride or loop before, but he often doesn't
perk up just cuz he's on the home stretch, and around maybe 1.5 mile
from the finish line, the track was dusty; I heard Jill say something
about eating dust and right then Grey decided he needed to walk for a
bit.  So I announced 'OK Grey -kicking up dust and then hitting the
brakes you better pull over.'  Sue, on Ozzie (sp) led the rest of the
way in. Pulse down order was Sue, Jill, and I,  we were 3-5 on finish
order out of 18 starters & we all stood for the B.C.'s , including me
-though Grey usually doesn't score well -heck on 50's we are usually
not even near the top ten unless its a small ride and then we are way
out on time; but I always figure its more fun for whomever win's if
there were more presenters and Grey was traveling good, and eating
good so no worries that he would be questionable for completion from
waiting for the hour. 

I was pleased when Jill told me after the ride that I had set a 
nice pace (and relieved that my efforts to pay attention and do so had
pretty much turned out).  At the ride awards Paschal just announced
the top 3 placers for the BC's (a great idea as it doesn't turn the #
2 announcement into the big news.)  Sue was #3,  Jill #2, and my chin
hit my chest when my name was called for #1.  

If know me, you may know I'd need a crew to kick me out of the vet
checks to leave on time.  If you've ever seen Grey you know his back
defines dippy & he travels narrow - I have to use splint boots on his
front legs, and splint-interference boots on his back legs, he eats
and drinks ok, but he'll often wait to start drinking till 10-15 miles
and then stay behind on hydration and he's too curious to eat really
well at vet checks.  I am just tickled pink that so many things
clicked into place with him on this ride, to where he had good vet
scores - and Barney had used a good portion of the scale - it wasn't
that every horse was given 490-500 on vet scores and Grey just got the
award from my extra weight points over Sue and Jill and the 1st/2nd
place rider.) It's probably the highlight of Grey's ride career; while
Jill and Sue's young horses will most likely both move on to being in
the top 5 at future 50's and and 100's and winning or coming darned
close to winning many of those ride BC's.  

Happy trails all,

Teresa and Grey Moun and Shade

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