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Sometime during the night, I woke up and looked at my clock. It was 2 AM. I had 
slept through the alarm? Nope, the alarm had messed up and didn't go off. Oh, 
well, still plenty of time to feed Tanna. I had only planned to get up and give 
him more beet pulp, but while the feed was soaking, I decided to walk him 
around to graze. An hour later, I crawled back into bed, with Tanna full of 
grass and munching beet pulp.

At 5 AM, I was up again, this time "for real." I dressed quickly and headed out 
to saddle Tanna. As I was brushing and prepping him, I saw Ed Kidd heading 
toward me with a lead rope in his hand. He informed me his horse had escaped 
overnight and I expressed sympathy. It was hard to believe Merlin would go 
anywhere on his own with so many horses and so much grass around. But Ed said 
he'd been all over camp and didn't find him.

I continued to saddle my horse and Daniel ended up going with Ed in his truck 
to see if Merlin was down the road somewhere.

Start time was 6:30 AM and I was in the saddle by 6:15. Now a huge thanks goes 
out to Susan Vuturo here for helping me mount my bucking bronco. Since Daniel 
was out with Ed, I expressed to Susan (who was parked right next to me), my 
reservations and fears about getting on Tanna unaided. She immediately 
volunteered to lead him around by a lead rope after I mounted and help keep him 
under control until I felt ready to handle him. It only took a minute or two 
and I was comfortable with Tanna enough to go off on our warm-up. Usually if 
Tanna is going to explode into a bucking fit, it is within the first 2 minutes 
of mounting.

I warmed Tanna up back and forth on the road, chatting with other starters and 
crooning to Tanna to keep him calm. I was planning to go out with the pack, but 
somewhat in the back of the pack. Since Tanna had been doing so well at starts, 
I thought we could start with the pack. WRONG! Tanna did ok, but was being 
fidgety right at the start. As we passed the lake where the photographer was 
taking pictures, I was sure the picture would be horrible as Tanna and I 
discussed our speed options. (The picture turned out great and I bought it 
later.)

To avoid about 3/10 of a mile on pavement at the start, the Keesees had 
obtained permission to route the start through a new trail that I think is 
private property. The trail had been broken through on Friday morning, but was 
in good shape. Single track. I was about 13th or 14th in line of about 20 
riders. I was doing my level best to keep Tanna off the mare in front of us. 
For some reason, he thinks if he is more than 6 inches behind the horse in 
front of him, he is losing.

I thought I was doing fairly well at keeping him back. He thought I was keeping 
him too far back and took advantage of an imbalance on my part to buck me off. 
Not sure what he thought that was going to accomplish as he didn't even run 
anywhere. I rolled under him and he managed to keep from stepping on me and I 
just jumped up and grabbed the reins. The riders behind me thoughtfully stopped 
and gave me words of encouragement as I remounted on my shaky legs. We took off 
again as soon as I was mounted and again with the fighting to keep him off the 
mare. Sheesh. I hadn't come 1/2 mile and I was ready to go back!

When the trail opened up, I was sure he would pitch another fit. Thankfully, he 
did not. We were still fighting, but no more bucking for the day. Whew!

After awhile I found myself in a group of 5 horses. We were trotting and 
cantering by turns. Well, the horses in front were mostly trotting that I saw, 
but Tanna and another mare were cantering more. We were booking right along. 
About 45 minutes into the ride, I figured we'd had enough of going that fast, 
so kept an eye out for a good place to pull off and get off Tanna. After 
another 5 minutes or so, I saw the perfect place and hopped off. The rider in 
front of me called back to make sure I was ok (as she had seen me fall off 
earlier) and I called to her that we were going to go slower.

I took a pit stop and tried to get Tanna to eat as I walked along on the 
ground. Uh, no. No, no, no. He wasn't interested at ALL. He ate about 2 bites 
and that was it. I was frustrated and after 15 or 20 minutes, finally tossed 
the food (rather than try to get it back in ziplock bags) and stuffed the 
collapsible bucket back into the pommel bag. I remounted and we took off at a 
good trot.

We spent the remainder of the loop pretty much by ourselves until about a mile 
or so out. There were other horses in sight sometimes, but mostly not. We 
caught up with the young mare Tanna had been trying to tail-gate when he threw 
me and rode in with them to the vet check.

The first loop was 18 miles. We did that loop in 2 hours 11 minutes. 8.25 mph. 
Faster than I would have liked, but I really didn't feel like Tanna was taxed 
or worn out. Daniel met us at the vet check and Tanna pulsed down in 3 minutes. 
His CRI was 56/48 and received a B- on guts, an A- on skin tenting, and a B+ on 
jug refill, As on the rest.

We immediately headed to our trailer not far away and I noticed Ed Kidd's truck 
was gone. His horse had been found fairly close to the camp at a neighbor's. I 
decided to leave the saddle on during the 40 minute hold, although I should 
have at least straightened the saddle pad. It was still under the saddle all 
around, but a bit crooked, but I didn't notice that until after being on the 
2nd loop for awhile. We sponged and Tanna ate 3 or 4 apples and a few wisps of 
hay. A few bites of beet pulp. Nothing to get excited about and he didn't want 
to drink anything. He'd drank about 3 or 4 sips on the trail, but nothing like 
I wanted out of him. I think he thought he was done.

I was energized and bounced around during the vet check and only sat for the 
last few minutes. I gave Tanna some electrolytes and switched his bit for his 
hackamore. Daniel helped me mount and made sure Tanna would behave himself and 
off we went.

To Be Continued...
April
Nashville, TN


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