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I also spent last weekend enjoying the Lost Posse ride. The Fort Braden loop 
was a blast and I managed to survive with my knees unscathed. Eclipse handled 
the twists, turns, and ups and downs like a champ and was more surefooted than 
I expected. I think he really got into that loop. I can?t wait to do some 
mountain riding on him. My plan for the weekend was to do an 8+ hour 50 on 
Saturday and if all was well, repeat on Sunday. Eclipse is still in the base 
building/brain training phase. So far, the previous 3 8+ hour 50s he did had 
taught him he needs to eat and drink because "Mom" is crazy and may keep him 
out all day. He?s been very strong and still has had plenty of go at the end of 
the day. I hope to do a 100 on him next ride season as the 50s so far have not 
impressed him much. All was going well until about 47 miles when we found a 
pine tree root with our name on it. Eclipse did a big stumble at a trot and 
came up off! ARRGHHH!!!! We slowed to a walk in hopes he had just stung himself 
and would be OK. I had ridden most of the ride with Keith Bass and we were 
having a great time. After a bit, Eclipse seemed to be doing OK so I was hoping 
we had dodged the bullet. At the final vet check, our trot-out was iffy. The 
vet completed the exam and had us trot again. No more if . . . he was 
definitely off in the left front so no completion. Oh well. We were in good 
company as at least 2 of my ride friends had also been pulled at the end of the 
50. I had a nice 50 mile training ride and at least it was long enough to 
further reinforce the eat-drink-pee-relax lessons of the previous 3 rides and I 
had another 50 miles of base building. Eclipse will get some time off; he had 
some swelling in his left front tendon that I've been icing and poulticing. 
It's looking good so I don?t think he did anything serious to it but he'll get 
plenty of rest before throttling back for some summer trail riding (this was 
the last FL ride until the fall). It was just one of those things that happen. 
Must have been my blazing speed!

Alas, the fun did not stop there. On Sunday morning, I pulled out and stopped 
at the first gas station. I saw I had a tire going flat on my horse trailer. I 
added air and heard a hiss. There was a screw in the tire. No problem . . . I 
had a spare and I can change a tire. Big problem . . . my tire iron fit the RV 
lugs and was too big for the horse trailer. I hate calling for help when it?s 
something I?m capable of handling! Fortunately, I have US Rider so I called and 
waited for help. It took a while for the tire change guy to get there but he 
quickly changed it and I was on my way again.

I got about 13 more miles when disaster struck. There was a soft muffled pop 
like a backfire and I lost engine power. I coasted to the side of the road, 
trying not to scream in dismay. I was 270 miles from home with a dead RV. I'd 
had the fuel pump and fuel filter replaced back in October after some signs my 
fuel pump was failing. I could smell gas; the engine would turn over but not 
catch. I just knew I had a fuel line problem of some sort. I called US Rider 
again; got the same representative on the phone. I think I almost had poor 
Chinae crying with me by the time I finished my tale of woe. So much for being 
calm, cool, and collected! I was definitely not any of these at this point. She 
started working on getting someone out to help me. As it so happens, my friend 
Cindy who is the only one in my town I've managed to drag into the sport was at 
the ride and riding the 25 on Sunday. I called her cell and got her voice mail. 
I called and left a voice mail with another friend who was riding a 50. I was 
worried about missing Cindy as I knew she was going to leave soon after 
finishing the ride. Since I didn?t know how long I was going to be stuck, I 
really wanted to get Eclipse out of the trailer and somewhere safe. He was 
pretty pumped up and raring to go again despite his leg injury and was not 
standing in the trailer patiently. I then remembered that the trail map handed 
out at registration contained the cell phone #s of the ride managers. I called 
Susan and explained what had happened. She went down and found Cindy getting 
ready to load up and leave so I was able to arrange for Cindy to come by and 
take my horse on home. Eclipse was very happy to load in Cindy?s trailer with 
his training buddy and I was happy that he wasn?t stuck on the side of the road 
any longer. Susan also found someone who would come and get my horse trailer 
and park it somewhere safe. That would speed up getting my rig off from the 
side of the road. I told her that once my RV was ready to be towed, I'd call 
and she could send her help my way to get the trailer. Meanwhile, US Rider 
found someone who said he could fix the RV where it was. Yeah right! I got a 
good laugh at that idea. It took a while for John from J & J Towing to arrive 
as he went the wrong way first. When he pulled up in a pickup truck, my heart 
sunk. How was he going to help me? He didn't even have any tools! His tow truck 
was elsewhere in the county but he had figured he could come out while he was 
waiting for the truck to become available and see if he could find out what the 
problem was. I asked if he was a magician since I didn't think it would be an 
easy fix. He looked and crawled under the rig and had me turn the key a few 
times and then said he had found the problem. The fuel line connecting to the 
fuel filter had popped loose. With the use of one of my screwdrivers, he got 
the line and clamp back in place and the truck started!! He WAS a magician!! I 
was back on the road! He commented about how many calls he had recieved from US 
Rider to make sure he was on his way and was impressed that they were so 
concerned. He was even nice enough to call me about 30 mins later to make sure 
I was still rolling. So if you ever need help in Tallahassee, John is the man!

As I was heading south, I suddenly realized I had given Cindy my horse but had 
not given her his Coggins. You have to stop at the Ag inspection stations in FL 
whenever you cross the Suwannee River and that was on the way home. I called 
her and told her about the problem. She decided to play dumb and not stop at 
the station. The Ag police came after her. In the end, after explaining the sad 
tale and having her male police officer friend who had come along for the 
weekend do the law enforcement secret ring knocker/handshake thing, she was let 
go with the promise I?d have the paperwork faxed to them when I stopped at the 
Ag station (we had traveled different roads and I had already passed the turn 
to take the road she had). The Ag guy at the station I stopped at was the one 
who was working on Friday when I came through. He remembered me. I explained 
what had happened and that I needed him to fax Eclipse?s Coggins to the other 
station to save my friend and prove her tale was true. Thank goodness for Ag 
police with a sense of humor! And I owe Cindy big time as this is now the 2nd 
time she?s rescued my horses during a breakdown (the last time was in my 
hometown when I dropped my drive shaft; another US Rider success story!). So 
not only do I have misadventures, I manage to rub off on my friends as well!

This weekend rivaled my wild weekend from the Boy Scout Pow Wow ride in 2005. 
At that ride, I ended up with 4 broken ribs after a crash around the 22 mile 
mark, rode 20 more miles with those ribs, got pulled at 42 miles after my horse 
slipped and strained a leg muscle, ran out of gas shy of a gas pump on the way 
home, and found a bulge on my outer dually tire that kindly waited until I was 
10 miles from home before blowing out.  Sometimes you think you would have 
better off to have just stayed home! Somewhere in this world, there is someone 
living a very boring life as I seem to have more than my share of excitement!

Thanks to the ride managers, vets, volunteers, and property owners at the Lost 
Posse. I did have a good time, despite the turn of events and am looking 
forward to next year. The Fort Braden loop alone is worth going.

Lessons learned from my Lost Posse weekend:
1.      Pine tree roots are EVIL and should be eliminated!!
2.      US Rider is the BEST! Don?t leave home without it!
3.      A 4-way ?x? lug wrench is on my weekend shopping list.
4.      Always make sure you have the ride manager?s cell phone # written down 
(RMs: it?s great if you have emergency #s listed on any paperwork you hand out 
at registration).
5.      Get your ride buddies? cell phone #s and load them into your phone. 
That way if you have a problem, you can call for help as someone is likely to 
be traveling the same way. I?ll be going around at my next ride adding to my 
list!
6.      If you hand over your horse for someone to haul, don?t forget to give 
them the paperwork.
7.      John of J & J Towing is a magician!

See you on the trails!

Debbie
Plant City, FL
AERC #21342

Parsons? Proclamation:  Anyone can ride fast . . . it takes real endurance to 
take over 8 hours to ride 50 miles!





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