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[RC] BSF Part 6 of 9 - April JohnsonI led Tanna into the open field between several trailers and lunged him around me one way. No major spooking. I sent him the other direction. Still ok. Even with the easy boot bag. Excellent. I expected him to be more jumpy considering I hadn't ridden him in 2 weeks. Daniel held the reins and I swung up into the saddle. After a quick kiss, off I went. I wanted to get on the scales while mounted. So I headed over there. We passed a water trough and I offered water to Tanna. He didn't drink (didn't expect him to, but I offer anyway). But the water reminded me, electrolytes! I hadn't given him any since the night before (when he got 2 doses in his feet). And what's more, I didn't have ANY in my vet check box. Agh! What an oversight! I trotted Tanna back toward our trailer. I met Daniel coming to watch the warm-up and the start and I told him about the electrolytes. He accompanied me back to the camper and went inside to get my 4 tubes of Lyte-now out of the cooler. I tried to put them in the easy boot bag at my hand, but Tanna wouldn't stand still for love or money, so I dismounted. One tube went in the easy boot bag, and 2 more went in the cantle bag. I opted not to give him any before the start. I remounted and made it over to the scales. Tanna did stand still for the briefest of seconds on the scale, but I couldn't read the readout very well and I promptly forgot whatever it was I thought I'd read. I wasn't anxious to keep trying, so I headed out to the gravel road that separated the two halves of camp for the warmup. I called to Nancy to get the official time. I checked my watch. I was 40 seconds behind. "Good enough for horseshoes," I said aloud. I alternately trotted and walked up and down the road away from the start. I checked out the other riders. I recognized several of them from the vet in and a couple from other rides. I smiled and made small talk every now and again. Then I struck up a conversation with Kelly Haslam from North Carolina. She hadn't introduced herself, but I remembered reading her info from her vet card when she vetted in. She and her daughter, Katie, were planning to ride conservatively and ride the 30 both days. I started the ride with them and naturally fell behind them in the start. After about half a mile I finally remembered to turn on my GPS! Tanna was fighting, but the single track through the woods was very nice to convince him that he didn't need to try to pass the horses in front of him. I just had to keep him off Zeke, Kelly's horse, in front of me. Sometime during the first mile or so, Katie got stung by a bee. I said that I had some various medicines in my hip pack and I would be glad to share. They didn't take advantage of that right away, but did at the vet check. This loop was very nice. Sometimes it was just us three, but then we caught up with 2 horses in front and so there were 5 of us. Then, as we all went up a hill, 3 or 4 other riders came up behind us and passed on the left. I was busy looking behind me and to my right to see the mist hanging in the valley below. Very nice view! After awhile, it was just 3 of us again and we chatted while trotting along. Tanna would canter some, and I'd insist that he trot up the longer hills. We had several conversations like that! I took the lead and Katie and her horse Lusie (Spelling??...it's a nickname!), would ride to our left and slightly behind for some of the way. Surprisingly, Tanna didn't want to race her, but would just keep trucking with his ears forward and ready to go as fast as I'd let him. We passed a 50 miler with a radio and I commented on it. Then we passed her and kept going. I was still in the lead. All the sudden, we came out on a gravel road. Where to go?? I pulled up and looked for ribbons. Nothing to the left or right. The radio 50 miler came up and so did the Appaloosa horse from the corral panels across from our camp site. The guy on the appy spotted the ribbons on a trail that parallelled the road. So off we all went. At least the missed turn didn't cost us much time and no milage! LOL. (On the way back, I saw the pie plate with the arrow marking the turn...I just out and out missed it. The mistake the others made was relying on me! LOL) Shortly after the turn, we came up on Howard Bramhall and War Cry. Howard was off and walking. He said he was ok, so we kept going. A rider ahead of me heard me say Howard and cried, "Was that Howard?" And I said (like I knew), "yep, that's Howard." Hehe. Fun, fun. Howard caught up with us after awhile and there was some good natured teasing all around. All the sudden we were in a PACK of horses! 10 or more. I threaded Tanna through them and ended up in the lead, losing Katie and Kelly. I keep trotting along at a good pace until I saw the trail turn to the left and no longer parallel the road. I kept Tanna going straight to allow the horses to pass us so I could get with K&K again. Howard started to follow me and I told him not to rely on me. Hehe. That was fun. K&K were at the back and I fell in behind them. What a great time I was having! All too soon, there was a sign advising to spread out for the second photo op. We did and as soon as the pictures were taken, we were dumped onto a road. Very short distance to the vet check. Riders started dismounting and soon I did, too. As I walked, I dropped the bit out of Tanna's mouth. A fifty miler commented on how long the 20 miles had seemed. "I didn't go 20 miles," I grinned. "You didn't?" "Nope, I'm a 30 miler." I think she thought I'd skipped trail, or maybe she'd gone the wrong way. But neither was true. ...To Be Continued April Nashville, TN =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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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