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[RC] first event, first 50 report - Keith Kibler

On May 20th, My mft, Blues and I went to the Dead Dog Endurance event in Kinmundy Il for our first shot at a 50. It was definately interesting. We showed up with my spanking new Aerc card and the entry fee. A nice woman took our money and then the race director showed up. The first thing she said was " You shouldnt do this race". That was odd as I had been talking to her by email for months and she had always encouraged me before. I thanked her for her concern and said I thought we were ready. After all, she already had my money.
   Waiting in line for the first vet check I was approached by Vickie from Evansville and her daughter in law looked at my horse and said "I think it is horrible the way these people are treating you." This kind of caught me off guard as a little rudeness never wigs me out. But you see I did not know at that time that there had been a meeting, which I later had explained to me at which time it was discussed that:
1. I was not on an arab.
2. It was our first event.
3. I was a "local".
So, the plan was hatched to try and discourage me. 
  Vickie, who is a lurker here per what she told me (email me Vickie for the ride information in Shawnee please) said "I dont know what your horse can do but do your best, we will be your crew, and please dont let these peoples arrogance stop you" I didnt.
   A small animal vet who I had talked to by email a few times, but never met in person then stopped by our trailer and said "You should do this" I had to ask her who she was.
   Race morning started smoothly. The LD riders started first with a mad dash out of camp. The endurance event was all arabs and Blues, my beloved 12 year old racking foxtrotter.  He is out of Mr Koscot, Merry Boy Sensation, Golden Governor and Poole's Blue Boy. 
   We started with a controlled start of 2 1/2 miles and then the call of "the trail is open".
   There was a woman there who told me she had done the Pan Am games and that here arabian had 4000 miles on him. I decided she would be a good one to keep in sight. I did just that was a protege of hers in between from Dubai. To say the least the woman was not pleased with my being 20 yards behing her on a fox trotter. Heard during the first 20 miles into the vet check:
 
1. What do you do for a living? Your  a lawyer? I dont like lawyers?
2. What do I do? I sell endurance horses, If you want to buy one I could sell you an endurance horse.
3. You will never win on a horse like that.
4. I hear you ride like hell.
5. Another arab rider offered me $40 per hour to ride his horse.
6. I guess you dont know how to post do you?
 
Well, you get the idea.
 
We went into the first vet check at 20 miles in a bunch 2nd, 3rd and 4rth over all. The first place rider must have exploded at the start because I never saw her once the whole race.
The 2 arabs with me both veted out 60 seconds faster due to their heart rate falling a bit quicker. But hey, If my memory serves our lowest score was an A- on the vet check on the trott out. I had to keep saying , "this horse is gaited, HE WON'T TROT!" But we do need to work on that somehow to please the vets in the future.
    It took about 15 minutes winding through the LD riders to pull the two arabians we were following back to us. We did just that and settled in again at a rack at about 10 mph. In studying what gave the arabians an advantage before the event one thing that seemed apparant was that there shifting from loping, trotting and cantering allowed them to use different muscle groups. SO, I worked on Blues' Canter in secret. My trainer hates cantering and I never told him until after the race and we met up later.          
    We rolled into the 35 mile vet check exactly like before.  Vickie and her daughter in law helped me sponge down blues.  This time I got a B I think on the "trott out" GAITED HORESE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TROT!" O well, back to the race.
     The woman from Dubai pulled and the Pan Am racer vetted out 2 minutes faster.  (Note to self, use my own heart rate moniter next time to get the vet over quicker)
     Joe, a rider from St louis was doing the race the next day and asked if he could shadow us. I told him I would love the company.
     I bumped Blues up to 11-12 mph (arent gps watches useful?) for about 4 miles and never saw the Pan Am rider again. She must have been positively flying. I decided we were safe from behind and werent going to move up so I let Blues walk a few times just to play it safe. 
     After a while Joe said:
1. Do all gaited horses move this quickly?
2. So, you dont have to post at all?
3. It is an honor being behind you.
4. How much is that horse worth?
   Needless to say I liked his comment alot more that some of the others I had heard.
 I slowed down through the finish line which was on the trail itself and kind of startling to my horse.  We then had about 200 yards to go to the vet check on hard packed gravel. I collected blues up and set him a slow show rack. He sounded like a machine gun or a paso on the boards. Our crew (God bless you both!) gave us thumbs up and high fives.
We were 3rd overall and 1st in weight class. Folks avoided us like we were lepers or something.  The assistant director came to our camp sight as I was packing up and said "I gues you know you earned major respect"  THen he told me about the meeting and said "we were just concerned about the horse"
  I told him that I appreciated any concern for my best buddy Blues, whom I love dearly and that there was some of that concern in their motive, but that since not a single person asked me about the training we had done I thought the main issue was really arrogance.  He did not disagree. He then said "You will never win overall on a horse like that" I asked him what the motto of the Aerc was? He remembered. 
  We got our awards for finishing, 3rd place and winning our weight class and left early to pick up other horses, several gaited buddies and a week of riding and camping at the Big Creek Trail ride in So Missouri.
    What did we learn?
1. Training for this was just like training for a human endurance event. Periodazation, Lond Slow distance, rest, speed work, heart rate monitering, race preperation and proper food all come into play.
2.  A gaited horse, if it is the right horse can compete quite nicely.
3.  There are some lovely people at these events.
4.  Considering that my sample group is quite small, dont be surprised if you greated with alot less than open arms if you are new, local and not riding an arab.
5. I love my horse Blues and he is a champion in my eyes.
 
TO finish is to win, and we did both.
Keith and BLues