Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Late Thursday morning, Daniel and I met up with the Halls at our local
market. The Halls live up the street from us and consist of Susan
(mom), Ricky (dad), and Cindy (14 yo). Cindy and I ride together
periodically and Cindy expressed an interest in endurance riding. So
this spring, Cindy has been carefully working with her teenage mare,
Stormy, with the idea of riding the 25 mile LD ride at LBL.

After getting fueled up and getting a pizza for the road, we headed
toward LBL. The weather forecast was less than pleasant. Thunderstorms,
rain, wind. But this was the only 25 mile ride I had in my planned
season and I wanted Cindy and Stormy to have a taste of the endurance
experience at an LD ride before jumping into doing 50s. So we were
going.

It was chilly and both horses were blanketed for the trip. Windy,
overcast and just chilly. The trip was uneventful and we arrived at the
LBL Wranglers campground early afternoon.

We busied ourselves setting up camp. We chose a campsite right next to a bathhouse.

Tanna was to be tethered with a running picket line. Daniel put up the
rope and we attached knot eliminators away from each pole to prevent
Tanna from rubbing on the poles. He is a master at slipping his halter
if he has something to help him. We attached another knot eliminator
from which to hang Tanna's hay bag. Close enough for him to reach the
hay, but far enough away to prevent him from being tangled in the bag.
A lead rope securely tied to a locking climbing carabinger hooked over
the rope completed the setup. Tanna  ripped into his hay the
minute he was put on his picket line. I showed him how far he could
roam and then left him to eat (thrilled that he was, in fact, eating!).

Stormy was housed in a metal corral. We usually have Tanna in the metal
corral, but with this Stormy's first endurance ride (to our knowledge),
we thought it would be best to have her in the corral and tie Tanna,
the expert (haha).

While setting up camp, the sun came out and warmed the day up. It was quite pleasant actually. Maybe the weather would be good?

We headed to the pavilion to sign in. Teddy Lancaster of Running Bear
was parked near the pavilion and I paused to admire her new rig and say
hi. Sign-in was painless and quick. Cindy and I received our rider
packets and a water bottle with the LBL Express logo on it. Very nice.
:-)

Back to get the horses and make the quarter mile hike to the vet check
to vet in. Both horses vetted in with all As and were happy to drink
from the concrete water troughs around the campground. I was happy both
horses were drinking. Last year, I rode the 25 mile LD ride at LBL and
Tanna drank nothing between the time we arrived on Thursday and the
time we finished the 25 mile ride on Friday.

Cindy wanted to take Stormy on a ride to see if she was going to act up
badly. So far Stormy had been acting quite calmly and rationally. No
nervous fits, no jumping around like a magical jumping bean. Calm,
serene. Like an old hand at camping. It is likely that she was taken on
group trail rides in her life before Cindy got her, so maybe she just
likes it. She is also quite attached to Tanna and Tanna is a very good
camper as far as not being nervous and silly in camp. So maybe she was
taking cues from him.

Cindy decided to ride bareback, but I thought a saddle was prudent, so
I saddled up quickly minus my HRM, sponge and tights. I was wearing
jeans and just decided to do the pre-ride in jeans. We were only
planning a walk and maybe a bit of a trot.

We took the horses for stroll around camp, allowing Stormy to look and
absorb. Lots of nice horse flesh to look at. No, I repeat, no electric
corrals. They were not allowed this year from what I could see. Every
horse was picketed, stalled, or in a metal corral. There were even a
couple mules and a horse that were staked out to a stake in the ground.
When I checked in and mentioned that Stormy would be in a pen, they
were very careful to be sure I meant a metal corral and not an electric
one.

The pre-ride was successful. Both horses were controllable. Energetic, but not stupidly so.

While on the ride, we saw the SERA scales set up near the vet check. So
after unsaddling, we took both horses over to weigh them. Stormy
weighed in at 942. Tanna weighed in at 822! I have tried and tried to
get his weight up this winter and it appears I finally did. I don't
think he needs to weigh any more than 825, but I was pleased with 822.
Unfortunately, we didn't weigh the horses again. I meant to, but I kept
forgetting to. So I have no idea how much weight either one of them
lost during the ride. I need to buy my own scales to set up at my
campsite. :-)

We had just enough time for supper before the ride meeting. We cleaned
the camp up and blanketed the horses as we thought rain was surely
coming again. I left Tanna eagerly eating his supper.

While waiting for the ride meeting to start, we hung out at Teddy's
trailer, conveniently located 20 feet from the ride meeting location.
:-) I purchased more syringes (love those syringes!) and some EnduraMax
and looked at the Freeform saddles she had on display. She doesn't sell
the Freeform saddles, but she does have them to look at. They are
interesting looking and look shorter than the sports saddle I tried
last year.

The ride meeting was interesting as always. :-) Dr. Mike Habel and Otis
Schmidt were on hand as vets. A couple more vets were coming, but had
not arrived. The LD ride was to start at 6:45. 15 minutes after the 50s
left. Since the 25s and the 50s started on different trails, there was
not going to be a problem with too many horses on trail. 40-some-odd
riders in the 25 and about 17 in the 50. 3 riders were entered in the
2-day 100. Of the 40 LD riders, there were 6 JRs entered and all 6 were
on their first ride. The LD riders had 2 loops. The first loop would be
14 miles and the second loop 11. I really liked that. Last year, the
loops were the same, but the shorter loop was first last year. I like
the 14 mile loop first. Pulse at the vet check was 64. 60 at the
finish, of course. 40 minute hold.

SERA president, Truman Prevatt, announced that SERA is in the process
of accepting donations for a portable blood analysis machine that would
travel the SE rides like the scales. Hopefully, there will be more
information about that on the SERA website.

After the ride meeting was a new rider's meeting. We hung out for a
little bit listening, but it started to get late and we needed to check
on the horses before going to bed. We slipped out. After walking the
horses and settling them with hay and water for the night, we went to
bed.

The storms came in waves throughout the night. During a lull, I woke
Cindy up and we walked the horses around again and checked their hay
and water. Back to bed to listen to the storms come in and roll out.
The alarm rang at 4:30 and I got up. I made sure Cindy was awake (she
was) and went about my preparations for the day. It was NOT raining and
I was thrilled about that. I don't like saddling in the rain.

to be continued...

April
Nashville, TN