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Re: [RC] - rdcarrie

Congratulations to Lucky and Romeo on your first 100!!!  And best of luck at Tevis!  :)
 
Dawn Carrie
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Faustina Duffy <kellswaterfarm@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: GaitedEnduranceRiders <GaitedEnduranceRiders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; ridecamp <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; darlene salminen <witsendranch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mon, 29 May 2006 16:03:37 -0500
Subject: [RC]

Ummm-WOW!  Romeo & I just got back last night from the Joe Tate Memorial Ride.  WOW for hills, rocks, and heat!  And I have NEVER seen that many voracious ticks in one place (and I lived in Arkansas, Missouri AND LOUISIANA!!).  BUT-It was amazing!!  At 3:00 am Bill Johnson on Red and Romeo and I mounted up and headed down the yellow trail to try the 100.  We live in the Ozarks, we're used to hills and rocks, right?  Well, yes-but maybe not that many in such close succession <grin>!  The rocks and the heavy dew peeled to Equithane right off, so I put the set of Bonnie's boots I always carry on his fronts and headed on.  We finished up the first loop just as the sun was coming up and rode two fresh and happy horses in to camp for great checks and a 45 minute hold.  It had stayed humid all night, but was still comfortable temperatures.  After Romeo hoovered up all the alfalfa and Omolene he could stuff in in 45 minutes we put boots on the back as well, and headed ou t again. 
 
Next comes the orange loop with the longest straight up climb I have ridden (or so it seemed at the time!).  We let the boys stop and graze from time to time as the temperature was already climbing.  The creeks in the bottoms had such beautiful rock walls and cold clear water, but I was definitely kept on my toes watching for ribbons through the thick woods (just plain hard to see around all those trees!).  Arrived at camp before we had expected it, so it took a little more time to cool down (we usually walk the last mile or so, but came out of the woods at a canter and we were RIGHT there!  Romeo cooled down quickly and we got all As for the check, but Red's CRI was a little elevated.  Nothing specific was showing up yet, so they did a re check at the end of the hold and it was still high, so they pulled (I'll let Bill tell you what we found...). 
 
So now I'm off to do the Purple loop on my own <sigh!>.  More hills, rocks and trees, and after a very long down hill I came out onto a gravel road but couldn't find any ribbons.  I tried left for a short ways, then went back and tried right for longer...no long luck.  I decided to turn around and see if the trail had turned off before I got to the road.  Just as I got to the foot of the hill I met a  35 mile rider who had gone farther to the left with no luck returning to do the same, and 2 more coming down the hill.  The very last (solitary) ribbon was on the left, and one of the riders remembered going that way the year before, so off we all went.  More and more parts of the trail were familiar to our *native guide* so we carried on with our fingers crossed.  After making our best guess at the next intersection we had only gone a short distance when our drag rider said "Wait!  I think I see ribbons!" and darted into the woodline.  Sure enough, about 20 yards in the pur ple ribbons started again.  We looked for areas where the ribbons were close or the trail easy to follow for the next couple 100 yards and swiped a few ribbons to hang out along the road for anyone who was behind us and carried on.  By this time it was approaching the 90s and the cool hollows and creeks were a beautiful (if all too brief) relief before more big hills.  I came in to camp and had to work to get Romeo cool, but once his temp dropped he vetted through great.  45 minutes and back out on Purple <again>.  By this time there were more folks cooling and pampering Romeo than I had ever seen, and I felt like a Queen (Thanks to Bonnie, Bill & Ramy!)  HALFWAY DONE!!!
 
Turns out that the management had waited to hang the ribbons by the road to prevent them being taken down, and in the flurry of the ride start had forgotten to get it done-it was already corrected by the time we got back to camp.  We headed out now with a plan of using the shade and the hollows as much as we could, spending 20 minutes in each of the 2 cold creeks and the shaded part of a hay field to make sure his core temp stayed down, allowing us to walk off trail after the hottest part of the day already at pulse-YEA!  40 minutes to eat SHRIMP (for me) and EVERYTHING IN SIGHT (for Romeo) and we tackled Orange loop and the monster hill just as the temp slowly began to drop. 
 
We managed to get past that hill before the sun had dropped all of the way, but then had trouble finding the turn at a small pond after it was fully dark.  We walked up and down the road for 40 minutes before Romeo took a bite off of the bush that had the ribbons (the winds had bunched them up into the branches, so by my headlamp they looked like leaves).  HALLELUJAH!!  Back on trail!  We made it into camp and Romeo cooled down fairly quickly.  His scores were all good-a B+ on gut, the rest As, and we had just enough time to comfortably finish the last loop after a short 20 minute hold.  Off into the dark, on a trail we had already navigated in the dark that morning....
 
There is something about Yellow trail-I think it has the highest concentration of blooms, or maybe it was because of the cooler temps, but the smell all along it was heavenly.  Monte Mitts and Bill met me where the trail crossed the road to keep my spirits up and Romeo tanked up with feed and water.  Since Monte has these trails memorized he would tell me just what turns to look for and how far we had to go-that did wonders for making the trail seem to fly by.  Coming up on the final 4 mile stretch of road we could follow the glow lights Nancy Mitts had hung to make sure Romeo could see his route even if I fell asleep.  I figured we should take it easy so I walked about the last 2 miles in, and Romeo pulsed down VERY quickly.  We decided to let him eat for a little longer, then we woke Genie up to do our final vet Exam-and we were DONE!!!!!!  Yup-WE DID IT!!!!!!!  Thanks to Bonnie's Better Built Boots (we're trying to get her to call 'em that, shortened to the B-4) and tons of help and pamper ing from Bonnie, Bill and Ramy (and I think half of the camp at various times!) we took 1st place, Best Condition and turtle on our first 100 completion!!!!!
 
Romeo is how, galloping through his pastures and flirting with his mares, and he looks great!  He was pretty slow yesterday morning (so was I) but by the time we got home, he was bouncing around to get his mares...I almost think he was shamming because we all would pamper him....but he certainly earned the right!
 
I just want to say Thanks again to Bonnie & Bill & Ramy and the Mitts for all their help...I thought Bonnie was the ultimate crew after Shore to Shore, and I was right.  But Bonnie with folks to help was amazing!  And those boots carried us with all As for gait for 90 miles of rocks and hills and roads-I'm a believer!  Never slipped...
 
It was definitely hard...I looked at the ride placings and realized that for the last 10 years, 17 riders have started and 11 have finished....those hills are NOT easy even though they're lower elevation that some of the more notorious rides, and there's enough heat and humidity for anyone!
 
And thanks Ramy, for enduring a trot for so many miles to give Osage a great first ride!  Oh, and just to clarify-he has done rides longer than 8 miles (18 and 17 mile loops at times) but never in boots....Maybe next time I'll loan you a Tiger....
 
So will I do it again?  Every chance I get!!!  What a great weekend!
 
 

Replies
[RC], Faustina Duffy