Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

First HUGE THANKS to whomever was kind, caring, and brave enough in camp mid day Saturday to save my evil pony from the tent monster! (red bald face in blue metal corral) Knowing my little "angel", it was not an easy task!

Story of woe ... I pulled myself at the first vet check.. I know, I know, wimped out. My previously mentioned "angel" loves his easyboots, for anything rocky I strap them on over his front shoes. He stomps along getting traction on those slick VA rocks, happy pony. Well apparently the easyboot gods were not with us. The heel straps on both boots broke in the first 20 or less miles (one was brand new), neither boot came off, so the heel of the boot dug in the heel of the horse. OUCH! Something was funny about him, I kept fretting, one of my riding buddies desperately trying to appease me just happened to look in the right place and saw blood. I jumped off, pulled the boots off, and told buddies to leave me .... OK, I did say more than that, but I'll leave that to your imagination and hopefully John T will leave me on this list!

Got to the vet check... Angie's description couldn't have been more true, 0% shade, little warm water, but lots of grass. Buddies vetted thru by the time I got there, tried to convince me to go on. I went to the vet, announcing that I was not going on and why, and they did the obligatory check, they too felt he looked OK, and urged me to go on.

This is the hard part, I appreciate all the support, I really do, BUT I know my pony, and the trail, and me. One wrong rock bumping those ouchies would spell miserable pony, and in my heat stricken mind cruel owner. Nope, I'm resisting peer pressure, and I'll sleep well tonight. Oh, wait, that?s right I promised to cheer Angie in -- I'll sleep well tomorrow night.

Decision made, had a trailer ride back to camp nearly instantly, Thank You, John Marsh. One confused pony back to camp in luxury. Quick visit to Dr. Lynn to double check and back to his paddock.

OK, now the tough part ... I'm now one of the crew! Yikes! Its been a few years since I've played this role!

The rest of the crew pick me up and we zoom to vet check 2. Beat them there by about an hour. They come in exhausted, near melted, but the horses look good and are still their rude little selves. Vet the horse thru, try to spoil the riders as much as possible. Off they go.

Zoom to check #3, only 9+ miles for the riders, but up and over mtn for us. Worried we won't get there and set up in time. We get there, set up, wait, wait, there is 3-4 horses in, its 5:15, someone mentions only 15 mins left before the station closes. Huh? Oh geez, trouble. A few mins left to go, volunteers and the vets are trying to help the riders, by getting the cut off time extended by 15 mins, could still be doable to finish in time. They get word and its a go, literally seconds later riders POUR in, must have been 10 or so in the first crowd with a steady stream coming. All tried to spread the word they still had time to get pulsed. My two riders, made the time, but thumbs down on the fit to continue part. There was a buzz about trail sabotage, I finally got time to hear the story from my rider (that had done that trail several times). She said they got to a point where there was an intersection (hard to explain, but on OD trails, intersections are few and far between), and the ribbons went from being every hundred or so feet on the right side of the trail, to about every 10-20 feet on both sides of the trail. They did find it suspicious, went for a bit, found no more ribbons, turned around and went back, went the other way at the intersection and found nubbins of ribbons still on the trees, followed those to real ribbons and to the vet check. Of course, found a load of other lost riders, and lost about 30 mins of time :-(

Got horses back to camp, tucked in and comfy. Hot dinner, warm clothes (it got cold!), run errands around, visit, then finally settle in our chairs, right by the finish line to wait for Angie, I figure it'll be ... oh ... no more than 8 hours or so .. have to stay awake, well half awake, its a challenge, and after the failed ride attempt I'm determined. We chat, decide to go on another errand ..... over hear Angie has been pulled, stop back up, question the story teller, yepper that?s the scoop...

Thank you Aries, I was soooo exhausted and really needed to get to bed!  I'm snail mail a carrot to ya! <wink>

Congrats all! What a weekend! Hope everyone makes it home safe and ....well sound is a bit much to ask for right now!!

Jen