Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I had wanted to do the 100 really bad.  A couple of weeks before the 
ride one of my horses got a snotty nose, so I had been really 
watching Chief close and was worrying that he could be possibly 
coming down with something.  On Friday I longed him in the sand arena 
and he had more mucous in his nose than usual.  Combine that with the 
weather conditions and the fact that he was body clipped and I had to 
make the choice best suited for the horse, no matter how badly I had 
really wanted to ride in the 100.  I had a lot of people in the 65 
call me a weenie, but I figured that I was in good company :^).

As it turned out, it worked out that way for a reason.  When Matt 
caught up to me early in the ride Saturday and said that he needed a 
sponsor I thought he was talking about him.  Then I looked back and 
saw Colton.  That kid rides like a tick on a dog!  Matt told me that 
his horse had fallen in a hole and was injured and he didn't think 
he'd make it thru the first 15 mile check.  He told me how much 
riding that Colton had done with Little Diego.  He called the vet 
check on his cell phone to let everybody know and we made it into the 
vetcheck where he did pull his horse.  They gave Colton the option of 
continuing on, or not and he wanted to keep going.  His horse was a 
bit buddied up with dad's horse and it took some effort on Colton's 
part to keep the horse following mine instead.  Eventually Little 
Diego became friends with Chief.  The thing that always amazes me 
about our horses is how well they can adapt to different 
situations.  Chief has never been the type of horse to get attached 
to other horses, he doesn't like horses getting into his space, and 
he especially does not like horses getting too close from 
behind.  Well, on this day he was absolutely wonderful with the two 
little guys (horse and rider) and didn't even make an ugly face when 
Little Diego would rub on his side, or get up next to him from 
behind.  In fact, on the numerous occasions when we'd have dozens 
(literally) of m/c's, quads, dune buggies, you name it -- flying past 
us we put the little guy right next to us right off of Chief's butt 
and everyone stayed safe and calm.  A couple of times I did put Chief 
out into the roadway and stopped the fast groups.

All of the riders on the trail were really great with offering words 
of encouragement.  Thanks!!  We made it into the 35 mile vetcheck, 
and Colton decided he still wanted to continue on.  I put Matt's cell 
phone # into mine, so anytime on the trail for the rest of the day we 
had a low spot or an issue to deal with, I just simply called him and 
talked to him or let him talk to his son.  Colton did a remarkable 
job, he had low points and high points just like any endurance rider, 
and he still chose to keep on going.  He was ready to go from the 
last vetcheck before I was!

When it got dark, Colton was never scared.  He kept talking about how 
pretty the lights were, looking down on the city of Ridgecrest, and 
the stars above.  It was a nice evening for a ride and we had plenty 
of time that we didn't need to rush in so walked most of the last 7 
or 8 miles in.  Chief was excellent about stopping or slowing in 
front of any dips or ditches to let me know so that I could tell 
Colton what was coming up.  I don't know if he even needed that, 
Little Diego was taking care of him just fine.

Had I the option, I would have headed back out after an hour break 
and done the 35 mile loop and made Chief's reaching 5k miles by 
riding 100 miles in a day.  I'm grateful for what I did get to do, 
and am looking forward to many more wonderful rides on him :).  Maybe 
even with Colton, though I have a feeling he'd really rather ride 
with his dad!

Karen
in NV

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=