[RC] The Fort Valley Rain Dance (part 2) - steelsidedown
Then the turn for Indian Grave, oh boy.
First trip up this monster for the young pony, I'm not sure he's mature enough
to handle the task, checked all emergency exits! >wink<
Well guys, no sugar coating, it was bad. The rain had begun to flat
out pour on us. The lower steeper climb that is mostly dirt, was so slick
the horses would slide each step forward they gained. I used the emergency
exit and tailed up to the rock. Back on ponyboy, he's still motivated
(read Napoleon complex still functioning as usual). I'm the middle horse,
following buddy from the first loop, and a new friend caught up with us
during this loop. The horse up front is a trooper, leaping two or three
times up, then stopping for a breath. This was a huge help to motivate my
pony who was really waivering. There was literally a 2" deep waterfall
running down "the stairs", the noise was slightly scary, but the water flowing
around his hooves and splashing up in his face really freaked him
out. He stopped and pondered a time or two, but just with verbal
encouragement I was able to convince him not to back up, phew! Just when I
thought, I was in trouble, the horse behind me turned around and went to other
way! HOW did she do that? There is NO room on this trail to turn
around! Off the rock and took the last upward turn back on dirt/rock mix,
still a flowing waterfall. All horses started taking turns trying to quit,
who could blame them? I start whooping to motivate little man (hey, it
works), soon all three of us were whooping up the hill. It worked!
Phew!
VC2 revealed battered, muddy, volunteers.
Ugh! It seems several had taken turns inadvertatly sliding into the vet
check.. no not the horses.. the volunteers! Oops! Still most are
giggling, but noticably more wet and less animated. Again, fret over
soundness, pony fine, remove all soaked clothes, news dry ones on, pony
stuffed full of food, and we drag back out, chanting only 12 miles to
go!
Loop 3 was even better. One small climb (I
swear I heard the horses threaten to get even), lots of fun wooded zippy
trails. All the mud you could ask for! >g< Hey, if
that's all we can find to complain about, it was a fabulous! There were 3
spotters left in the woods to point us in the right direction. Those poor
soaked souls, how ever did someone talk them into that job!?! His evilness
is still trying to rip my arms from the sockets, so I figure fair is fair, he
carried my butt up the mountain, he may as well enjoy cantering. A few
nice canters thru hay fields, one especially deep river crossing! (This is
were riding the pony does not pay off, sure its easy to get on/off, and everyone
else gets the spider webs, but I was wet halfway up to my knees!) Some not
so appropriate canters we won't discuss in other places, but I'm happy he's
pulling and seemingly getting stonger. I couldn't wait for the ride to be
over, but Henry's truck could be seen on the horizon, and the finish
line seemed to come too soon.
Final vet check, went just as well as the
previous. I need to recheck my card, but I think we had all A's for
the day!
My crew was kind enough to have everything packed
when we got in. His evilness got in a good roll, then into his nice dry
trailer, stuffed full of goodies. (We are only a three hour drive, he ate
EVERYTHING by the time we got home!) I changed again, officially filling
an entire trash bag full of wet clothes! And off while the getting is
still good! (aka before the mud gets any deeper!)
Huge thanks to all the wet muddy volunteers,
management, and land owners! The weather can never be controlled, but
every other detail was carefully planned and carried out to keep us all safe,
happy, and on trail! :-)
Congrats to everyone that finished on Saturday,
that really was an ENDURANCE ride!
