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[RC] at the ride - rides2farDo I have the order of events correct at a ride? Just a few additions: Arrive at camp Get someone to hold your horse while you drive in circles looking for the best parking place that the people who arrive Thursday haven't taken or put up their 2 acre pen over. Beware of really great spots that are available. Chances are the open space is right next to "the old biddies from Fla" or some other undesirable neighbors. The same goes for crewing areas. receive a 'vet card' Remember to go register *without* your horse. Stretching to receive your card under the tent with a lively horse pulling your other arm is a trick. As often as not the people running registration are aunts or cousins of management, are learning as they go and very nervous at the idea of a horse under their little awning with them. Save yourself a trip and bring your AERC card & coggins when you register. Hang onto that packet and actually look through the contents later. Managments started putting valuable information in them a few years back and it was a year or two before I caught on. Take my horse to the vets for a initial 'exam' where they determine my horse is in condition to compete If the vet line is really long I recommend going for your pre-ride ride. For some reason everyone seems to be in a hurry to vet in and the line is always worst early. I prefer to vet in after the horse has been off the trailer awhile, has eaten and been for a little ride. The ride begins Ha, you're dreaming. Now it's time to go back and sort through all your stuff. Set up camp, feed hungry family members, find out where the vet check is, which direction the trail comes in from on each loop and set up your crewing area. It's also time to braid the horse, and pre-mix all my doses of electrolytes which, if I get pulled early I sit on the tailgate and shoot through the air as a method of stress reduction. Stop setting up vet check though unfinished and go to ride meeting. 8PM Go to ride meeting. Take a flashlight, a pen, your ride map and a chair/bucket to sit on. Try to take notes but give up after the fifth, "And then you're gonna see the old Chamlee place and take a right, and then a left, and then a right, and then there's some water down in the woods but you can't see it" After ride meeting, continue setting up my check until everyone else has been in bed for at least an hour. 2 AM, get up and see whose horses are loose and make sure mine are still there. Saturday morning: 2 hours before I get on the horse it's time to feed. 30 minutes before the start give him a dose of electrolytes and then be on the horse and walking. 15 min. pre start mix in trotting. 5 min. pre-start, Tell family goodbye and if you die you hope they have a good life. We ride a loop and come back to camp (or wherever the vetting is), I get the vet card I am carrying with me marked by someone to say this is the time I rode back into camp yep. I now have 30 minutes to get my horse presentable for the vet with the biggest concern being the heart rate /CRI, in this situation 60 bpm I untack my horse, and sponge her down and assuming her heart rate is over 60 I don't let her eat or drink just yet. Drink yes, eat, no. Never refuse water. Her heart rate is 60, it is within 30 minutes of coming into camp, preferably 10, if not I'd slow down. I take her to the vet and he/she checks heart rate, respiration etc, I trot her out and back they check heart rate again etc. If it's allowed, and if the line is long, wait till the P&R people have confirmed the 60 bpm, then get your crew to hand you some hay or beetpulp slurry to feed while in line. Your horse could get 5 or 10 min. more eating time in this way. If her pulse happened to go up over 60 before getting to the vet it doesn't matter. Assuming all is good I can now stay as long or short a time as I want in camp feeding/watering my horse and myself knowing that the minutes are ticking away from the maximum allowed time I have to complete so I can stay as long or short AFTER I have the horse vetted Yes, but I personally would prefer to give my horse that "eating time" a minute or two at a time spread out along the trail where there's often much better grass than at the check. I leave camp and do the second loop Yee Ha! No near death experiences this time. :-) I come back in repeat the above check in and vetting process. Assuming it is within 6 hours (yes I am referring to a LD ride) that the vet has given my horse the ok I now have a completion. Go back to camp, swear you feel great. Take care of horse, peel off damp tights, cover your body with baby powder and put on loose jeans, drag lawn chair over into the shade and if necessary drape a fly mask over your face and sleep the sleep of the dead for a few hours. Get up and find that rigormortus has set in and limp/drag your body to the awards. Have fun! Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ============================================================ And remember, an arab's fourth gait is the spook! ~ Jeanie Miller ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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