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[RC] Moonlight in VT 50 / Part One - RISTREE

Moonlight in Vermont 50 Ride Report

Our diabolical plans for the ride involved a 9 hour haul from WNY to VT with my steed, Ned, along with my friend Carla and her trusty mare, Miss Dee.  We planned to spend a couple of days at my friend Suzy Fraser's new dressage facility, and some dressage lessons with Ned, who is a quasi dressage horse in addition to being a quasi endurance mount.  [Ned is 9, ½ Arab and ½ Trakehner, originally intended to be my "real" dressage horse, but then we did one fifty, and he seemed suited to the sport, and well, you know how it goes.   Dressage has taken a bit of a back seat, and some days we school 2nd level dressage, other days training level.]

After years of hauling with my husband with nary an incident of note, we were chugging along the NYS Thruway at noontime when a family of four passed us in the left lane, gesturing wildly and surely screaming, although all we could see were their wide open mouths and fingers pointing at the trailer.

Not good news, we figured.

Sure enough, a blown tire on the trailer, and a nice two hour wait alongside a 65 mph highway while AAA and the NYS Thruway Authority (which will not allow AAA service on their Thruway) argued over who miscommunicated to whom when the driver showed up with a tiny jack (luckily, we had one) and no tire iron sufficient to change the trailer tire.  Ooops.  Two hours spent there, including the time it took for the driver to return to his shop for a tire iron.  Note to self:  pack all necessary equipment to change tire oneself, THEN allow burly man to do it for you.  Also note to self, explain to dispatcher in excruciating detail precisely what one needs, then make dispatcher read it back to you.  Get dispatcher's name.  Anyhow, both horses behaved like saints, and we headed off again, arriving in time to settle the horses in and watch Suzy school her third level Danish Warmblood before crashing for the night.

Over the next two days, we shopped and fussed over the horses, and I had two dressage lessons that reminded Ned once again that he does indeed have a left hind leg, and that no, collection is not just something that happens at Sunday Mass.  He's a talented guy, but after an hour lesson I was flushed and wringing wet, and he  had barely turned a hair.  No wonder I love endurance, where at least we BOTH sweat.

Headed off to Rojek's Smoke Rise Farm on Friday morning, joining our friends Georgia O'Brien and Paul Calandra in camp.  Met Susan Brehm, who was riding her first 100, and with whom I'd conversed on line, but had never met in person.  It was so good to see familiar faces, new faces, swap stories, and enlist Paul to assist us in getting nearly level in a hilly pasture!   Paul was planning to ride the 50, Georgia was going to crew (although she had packed her saddle and seemed to be wishing an evil injury on Paul so she could ride herself).  We mapped out the holds and got unhooked to set up our crewing areas, since Carla and I were "flying solo."

[End of Part One]