Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Tanna and I went to do the 25 mile LD ride at LBL Express. Our adventure started
on Thursday morning. Normally, I like to get to a ridecamp two days before I am
to ride to give Tanna a chance to settle in and get ready for the ride. But
since LBL is only 2.5 hours from my house and we were "only" doing a 25 mile
ride, the plan was to get to ridecamp around 12 or 1 PM on Thursday and then
haul home after the ride on Friday.

Last week, we did a slow (10.5 hour ride time, excluding holds) 55 miler at
Chicken Chase. This is the beginning of our second season and the first time
I've attempted doing rides on back to back weekends.

After Chicken Chase, I didn't notice any rubs on Tanna and was thrilled, but on
Sunday after Chicken Chase, I noticed two places on his loins on either side of
his spine where the hair had been rubbed off and there was a very slight bump at
each place. I wasn't sure where those came from as he also had grass and dirt
stains in close proximity indicating that he had been rolling pretty good. So I
wasn't sure if the saddle had caused the rubs or the rolling had caused the
rubs. But it was something to keep in mind for LBL.

Thursday morning, it was blowing pretty hard like blowing in a storm. We were
late to meet Laura Tichenor and her husband, Dan (not to be confused with MY
husband, Daniel), to drive up to LBL together. I rushed out the door and quickly
stripped Tanna's blanket off and replaced it with a lighter nylon sheet, slipped
the fly mask on and pointed Tanna at the trailer expecting him to jump right on
in like normal. Uh, no way. He balked hard. He was being loaded into the right
side of the trailer when he was most often trailered on the left in the last few
months. The dog was barking, chasing Serts around. The wind was howling. The
truck was rumbling and I was rushing my horse that can not be rushed. I took my
tapping stick and gave him a sharp rap on the rump. Ok, that was a bad move. He
spun around me like a mad horse with the dog at his heels.

I told Daniel to take the dog and both of them to go away. I tossed the tapping
stick away and tried to calm down. Tanna did not want to get in the trailer.
Finally, I opened the escape door and walked into the trailer ahead of Tanna. He
followed me willingly enough and I clambered out the escape door and petted him
and called to Daniel to come close the back. That'll teach me to brag on my
horse loading nicely. I had just been bragging to Laura how well my horse loads
and then this incident. Looks like more lessons with more excitement are in
order.

Anyway, we were finally on our way and we drove to the truck stop where we were
to meet Laura and Dan. They were gassing up when we got there and I hopped out
and gassed up our truck. Then we bought some bottled water and we all headed out
for the highway.

After an uneventful couple of hours of traveling, we pulled off at the exit to
head to LBL. There was a Cracker Barrel there and we went there for lunch. Laura
and I chattered so much I don't even remember much of the food that I ate! Dan
even ran into somebody he used to work with. How weird is that?

Back on the road, we headed on the last leg to LBL. Immediately before entering
LBL lands, there is a bridge one has to cross. A very narrow bridge. And it was
raining pretty good. And to make it worse, there were huge dump trucks coming
the opposite direction. One right after the other. I was just positive we were
going to be forced off the bridge or they would scrape all down our rig. There
were only 3 dump trucks, but it was quite scary to me.

Shortly after that we started seeing markers to the camp, so we followed the
road in. We pulled up to the gate house at LBL and got 2 campsites next to each
other. A bathhouse was on the other side of Laura and Dan's campsite and there
was a water hydrant on the other side of our campsite (across the road). Very
nice, we enthused! After camping in a pasture the week before, we thought we
were in paradise! :-) (But we LOVE Bill Wilson's place and are quite happy to
camp in his pasture/hay field!!)

We quickly unloaded the horses and set them up on the high lines. Every campsite
(that we saw) at LBL has picket line posts. Each campsite had ample room and was
very nice. There are even barns with nice airy stalls, but we decided to keep
our horses with us and not stall them, although it's a nice thing to have and to
remember for training trips.

Laura and I gathered our paperwork and headed for sign in while Dan and Daniel
took their bikes for a spin. We signed in and each got a water bottle for the
"thanks for coming" gift. Also, in our ride packets we got some horse cookies
and maps for our ride the next day.

After sign-in, we stepped over to visit with Teddy Lancaster from Running Bear
and Laura bought a couple of knot eliminators (that we never got around to
using).

Then we got our horses and took them to weigh in and have a look see around the
camp. Tanna weighed in at 770. Which I thought was excellent. He was only 8
pounds lighter than he had been pre-ride at Chicken Chase. He left Chicken Chase
at 750, so he had gained 20 pounds in the 6 days between the rides.

Then came the vet in. Tanna vetted in with all As. I pointed out the spots on
his back, but Otis checked them out and said they weren't a problem, which is
also what I thought, but I did want to point it out.

Next we decided to play with Tanna and saddles. I'm thinking of changing my
saddle in a year or so, so I think it's time to start looking at saddles and
deciding what I might want to purchase. Laura helped me try out a couple of her
saddles. I discovered Tanna has a wider back than I thought.

Also, I got to ride Diamond (Laura's horse) for the first time to try out his
saddle. He is a very nice horse! Laura had me get him to go soft and to do some
side-stepping. He is a very responsive horse and it was exciting to feel him
soften in my hands and round his frame. He wouldn't do it for me at a trot
(although he does it for Laura), but he did it for me at a walk. Very nice.
Makes me want to take some basic dressage lessons to see if I can get Tanna to
do that.

Then came supper and the ride meeting. The meeting was long. Seemed like the 50
milers had a lot of stuff to remember! Our stuff was pretty easy. 2 loops. The
first loop was 11 miles, the second 14. Vet check and hold in camp. Hold of 40
minutes. Pulse at the vet check was 64, pulse for the finish was 60. Start for
the 50/2-day 100/1-day 100 milers at 6:30, start for us at 7 AM. The rest of the
meeting was just your basic stuff like don't race, be careful of the trail
riders we'd encounter, awards and meal would be Saturday evening, etc.

Before the ride meeting, I got to see Carla Lawson! I hadn't seen her for quite
some time. Back in 1999 we both went to Longstreet's Charge to do our first LD
ride. I had seen her last year when I went up to pick up a kitty she'd rescued
that she couldn't keep, but I had no idea she'd be at LBL. She was there to crew
for her friends, Lisa and Penny. It was particularly weird because just that
afternoon, I had been telling Laura that I hadn't seen Carla in forever.

After the ride meeting, I got to see Susan Reid. I had met Susan when she came
up to test ride (and buy) a mare that my barn owner was selling. I took Susan on
the test ride so she could try out May. It was cool to see her! She was going to
ride on Saturday and help out on Friday. She didn't bring May, but brought her
other horse to ride. I introduced her to Laura and we all chatted for awhile
before I insisted I had to find an outhouse.

Back at the trailer, I fed Tanna again and made sure everything was laid out for
the morning. I climbed into bed and set my alarm for 1 AM to get up and feed
Tanna. At 1, I dutifully crawled out of bed and went to feed Tanna. The wind was
a smidge chilly, so I put his light nylon sheet on him and went back to bed.

(to be continued)

April
Nashville, TN

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your water freezing IN the cantle bags!
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