Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Finally, for the first time in - well, ever, we had great weather and no mud for the Foxcatcher ride in Fair Hill, Maryland.  Amazing!

Endurance appears to be alive and well in Maryland.  Every year this ride gets bigger.  This year we had 81 entries start the 50 mile ride, and 66 entries start the 25 mile ride.  We also ran our very first Ride and Tie, and had three entries in the 25 mile distance.

The 25 mile ride was won by Christa Kurman (Empress Monict), in her first AERC ride.  Christa was joined by several friends (Lauren Annett and Devon Steen) who rode together, all on their first ride, and finished in great shape in three of the top four spots.  45 riders got a completion.  We had several first time riders who took excellent care of their horses, took it slow in the heat, and unfortunately went over time.  And we had more than 20 first time riders in the ride.  Good work, all your recruiters out there!

The 50 mile was won in a tie by Pam Weidel (AF Big Bucks) and Kim Orr (DMO Beys Harrah), with a ride time of 4:33.  Kathy  Brunjes and Theatric, back from Malaysia last November, tied for third and won Best Condition.  And it was fun having Jeremy and Heather Reynolds at our ride.  I had forgotten they'd moved to Virginia.  We had 66 riders complete the 50.

The ride and tie was won by the team of Paula Wilhelm, Patti Nash, and their horse Rico, with a ride time of 4:44.  The other 2 teams tied for second, and Lani and Kathy's horse TF RedMcIntosh won the BC award.

I know many at the ride were asking about Ival McDermott.  She had a fall on trail and soldiered on until she could go no further.  We ended up bringing an ambulance down to her and taking her to the hospital, but she was ok.  She drove herself home later on that day, and we did hear that she made it home safely and was doing just fine.  

Many thanks are in order for putting on such a large ride and having it run so smoothly.  Thanks to ride managers Barbara Bateman and John Dennison.  Huge thanks to ride secretary Louisa Emerick, who has this job down to a science.  Nick Kohut and his troop of vets were fantastic all day long.  And Lana Wright designed and marked (with help from lots of volunteers) a great trail.

Some special thanks for their help on Saturday.  Thanks to Cate Peloquin, who called ride management twice to alert them of fallen riders who needed assistance (Cate was just in the right place at the wrong time on Saturday).  She also sponsored 2 juniors on the 25 mile ride and all of them completed in great shape.

Also special thanks to a great guy named John, who was crewing for his wife in the 50.  He's also an EMT, popped in when a rider fell at the start to see if we needed any help, and then was enlisted for a good long time to help us take care of Ival until the ambulance arrived.  We stole him again a little later on to go pick up another horse and rider.  He was a fantastically good sport, as was his wife - we completely stole her crew from her in the morning and I felt bad!  If anyone knows who John is, or who his wife is, please let me know.  I never caught John's last name, nor his wife's name.  But I am so grateful they were there!

Many thanks to all for coming to ride!  See you in 2009.  Full results are posted at www.fairhillinternational.com/foxcatcher.  And ride photos should be posted there in the next couple days.

Alissa Norman
Scorer and tractor driver (but I didn't have to do that job this year!)