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After doing the OD and Big South Fork as my 1st 100s last year I figured 
that Red Barn with it's flat sandy terrain would be a piece of cake! Not 
so says I!! My previously empty buckets told me that we probably had 
somewhere between 4-6 inches of rain that day which started soon after 
we were in the saddle and continued to around dinner time with 
lightening and big thunder and periods of high wind that made the 
raindrops sting the face.
My husband, Bill, who was to crew for me got tied up and had to stay 
home. Since I was by myself I thought it would be easier to go back to 
my trailer for my holds. When I arrived I timed the walk to the vet 
check at 2 minutes, it seemed pretty convenient since I was parked right 
next to the trail coming in and could drop my saddle on the way to the 
in timer but by the time the morning  was half over the mud between me 
and the vet check became very deep and hard to navigate causing me to 
lose lots of time and energy walking back and forth. I had set up a 
bucket and hay bag up at the vet check just in case I would need it and 
the last 2 checks I stayed there but still had to run back and forth to 
the trailer for forgotten items. Between that and having to change 
clothes a number of times I had no time to rest myself. I really learned 
the value of a good crew that day!
The first loop wasn't that bad but the second (red) loop was starting to 
get really boggy since it had a lot of new trail that had been recently 
bulldozed. Holes would just open up under your horse unexpectedly and 
great caution was needed. The places where the swamps crossed the road 
were rising, sometimes belly deep, and would  have ditches in them that 
would make you feel like your horse just fell out from underneath you! 
We then had a 20 mile loop that went around a lot of cotton fields that 
were starting to get deep and some more deep crossings. I started that 
loop with another lady but after about 5 miles she thought her horse 
wasn't doing right and decided to turn back. Blue, missing his new 
friend, started to slow down which wasn't a bad thing since the 
conditions were deteriorating  quickly. He is a very careful horse and 
he was really watching his foot placement which gave me confidence that 
we would be ok so we kept pushing on. By the time we got off the white 
loop my  boots were filled with water and being waterproof they weren't 
letting any out. At the trot out I felt like I had 10 pound weights on 
each foot, Blue looked great though! Blue was starting to get bummed out 
because I kept taking him away from the "horse party " to go back to the 
trailer and stopped eating the several kinds of hay I brought him so I 
grazed him for a while which put me leaving that vet check about 20 
minutes late. I figured I'd go ahead and stay up in the crew area for 
our next check so he could sample everybody else's hay and he was fine 
with that.
The yellow loop the second time around was a bear. By this time I was 
near the back of the pack and all the riders in all the distances had 
used this trail at least once and some twice and it was not only chewed 
up but the several miles of circling cotton fields had become literally 
knee deep and worse allowing for no trotting at all, just painful 
slogging! I was not looking forward to doing the horse eating red loop 
again knowing that it would be much worse and I was seriously 
considering pulling from the ride for my horse's sake, plus I was 
getting pretty tired from fighting the elements and crewing for myself.
When I got back to camp at 60 miles I was overjoyed to find they had 
shortened the ride to 80 miles, taking out the dreaded red loop and 
doing the blue loop (which we had not done yet) twice to finish. That 
sounded doable to me so I decided to continue. About this time I started 
hearing reports from the first riders returning from the blue loop 
saying that it was extremely dangerous in places too and some were 
talking of pulling their horses. The trail team went out on four 
wheelers and rerouted the trail to the road where we had to ride down to 
a stop sign and back to make up the mileage. That took out the worse of 
the dangerous places and kept us a bit safer. There were plenty of 
fairly good places on that loop to make up a bit of time but I was still 
going to be doing my last loop in the dark and dark it was with the 
thick cloud cover and no moon!
The rain had finally stopped and the sandy trails drained fast so my 
last loop was better than I thought it would be except that I could 
barely see. I had a light stick on Blue's breast collar and a head lamp 
if I needed it (which I did) but soon discovered that I had grabbed the 
one with the old batteries which became quite dim in a very short while 
not giving me much aid. We made it in somewhere around 10PM and Blue was 
feeling really good. He even pulled me around a bit at the vet out and 
got lots of compliments from the vets for his animation plus he got all 
As on his card. It totally amazed me that he actually looked like he 
could go out and do the 20 miles for the 100 but I have to say that I 
felt pretty spent. Today I feel like I've been run over by a truck, that 
80 miles kicked my ass! I felt way better after the OD riding almost 24 
hours compared to this, the elements really took it out of me for sure. 
For the most part Blue looks pretty good today, I rubbed his legs for a 
long time with Sore No More and massaged him a bit. He is a little stiff 
but not that bad considering what he went through plus the 8 hour 
trailer ride home. He had one little ding on his left rear fetlock which 
is also amazing considering all the hidden hazards. Once again I am in 
awe of this horse, he's tough!
One thing I need to mention was the amazing team of folks who put on 
this ride. The Perry family were incredible, always there from finding 
me a parking place close to the vet check when I arrived to the 
incredible effort in the trail rerouting. They had also involved the 
whole town, who were all excited about the ride and keeping us all safe. 
There were more spotters than I have ever seen and they always looked 
cheerful even after hours of standing in the rain. I don't know how Eric 
Rueter keeps all those rides straight but he does it with what looks 
like amazing ease (although I'm sure it's tougher than he makes it 
look!). With AERC, FEI and AHA endurance and CTR rides all being held 
simultaneously throughout the weekend it was just incredible how 
smoothly things went. A huge thanks go out to these people who had some 
hard decisions to make during a really tough time. I'm not sure how it 
affects the FEI riders as far as their points and qualifications go but 
it was the right decision to make in light of the danger to the horses 
and riders.
Hope I get to ride those trails on a better day, they were really 
beautiful between all the raindrops!
Happy Trails, Nancy & Blue (looking forward to doing a full 100 at 
Biltmore!)



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