 |
[RC] BSF Part 7 of 9 - April JohnsonI walked into the timer behind K&K. 9:57 was written on my card. We'd done the 13+ miles in 1 hour 57 minutes. I scanned the crowd for my husband, hoping he'd made it up to crew, but I didn't see him, so started hunting for my vet check stuff. I located the rubbermaid box with the hay bungied to the top. Then I spotted the 2 smaller buckets a little ways down. I headed to get the buckets and saw my 5 gallon bucket very close to the small buckets. When I got up to get it, I saw it was filled with water! Blessings on the ride management for making sure that happened! As I was gathering up my buckets, I was also kept busy trying to keep Tanna out of other's hay. A nearby rider gave me a couple handfuls of her hay for Tanna to occupy himself while I gathered the buckets. I thanked her and moved over to my vet check box. I poured water into a smaller bucket with beet pulp and grain, then removed Tanna's hay from a plastic bag. Then the box came open and I offered carrots to Tanna. He sniffed the beet pulp, nibbled the hay, and ate a carrot. I turned off my GPS and dropped my helmet, GPS, and hip pack into the box. I also removed my long sleeve shirt and left it in the box. On came a ball cap, then I removed the saddle from Tanna and dropped it on the ground. I checked his HR before I removed the saddle. 59. Good. I sponged the worst of the muddy gunk from his girth area and back, grabbed a bag of carrots, a couple of pop tarts and headed for the vet line. Truman came and took Tanna's pulse. Took him a minute, but he pulsed in at 49. Time on E, he called. 10:10 was the answer. It'd taken me 13 minutes to locate my stuff, unsaddle, sponge, and get to the pulse down. Not bad, considering I wasn't rushing, racing or anything else. The weather was gorgeous. Low humidity, probably mid-70s. It was WONDERFUL! I waited in line handing carrots to Tanna as fast as he'd eat them and munching on a pop tart. We were 2nd in line when Tanna stretched out and peed. Good boy. :-) I gave him a piece of my pop tart as a treat. I got Otis for our vet. Cool. I pointed out a rub on Tanna's withers. He wasn't sore on it, but the hair was gone. There was no swelling or heat or pain, so Otis said it wasn't significant enough to note. I figured it was a resulte of us trotting down hill and the saddle pushing on his withers more than usual. After a trot out and back, I got my vet card back. All As. Tanna looked great. We went back to our area where Tanna continued to browse his food. I periodically fed him carrots and an apple. After about 20 minutes, Tanna just stood, relaxed, almost asleep. I let him do that for about 10 minutes, then took him over to a water trough to offer water. He hadn't drank more than about 4 sips since the start. He still didn't drink. On the way back to our stuff, Karen talked to us to make sure we were ok. She asked where my crew was and I said he just must've not made it. She looked concerned, like maybe he'd gotten lost, but I told her he was going to try to get a ride out so he wouldn't have to move our camper and he must not've been able to. I asked her what to do with the beet pulp Tanna wouldn't eat. She said just leave it if I wanted it later. I said I did, but if it was going to make a mess in the trailer, they could just toss it out before putting my bucket in the trailer. I then headed back to our stuff to saddle up. I saddled him quickly and carefully, using the tougher neoprene girth and storing the soft one in a plastic bag in the vet box. As I saddled Tanna, I heard the timer yell that "G" and "H" were cleared to leave. I looked up to see K&K ready to head out. I held out my hand meaning I still had to wait (my out time was 6 minutes after theirs). I found out later they thought I only had a minute or so before I'd be out. They went ahead and left. I secured everything in the vet check box and to the vet check box, dumped the rest of the water, then tied Tanna to a sign to go use the portapotty. I held my breath as had been advised by other riders. When I got out, I gave Tanna some electrolytes. I put Tanna's Little S Hackamore bridle on him and put the sidepull (I use it with a bit) into my vet check box. I mounted up and headed over to the timer to tell them I was leaving. They said, "yeah, you're clear." "I know, I just wanted to let you know I was headed out." I was 6 minutes late leaving the vet check. No worries. It was a gorgeous day, and I had over 4 hours to get down the mountain and pulsed down. What could be easier? ...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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|