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[RC] BSF 2009 Ride Story - Part 2 - April* version with pictures on my blog: http://www.enduranceriderblog.com Thursday, September 10 At 5 AM, 3 alarms signaled time to get up. I was already awake as I am usually on ride morning. I hopped up and begin my check list. Feed the horses, make breakfast, get dressed, saddle. I dressed carefully in my favorite competition riding tights and the t-shirt I had received for volunteering at Race the Trace in May. Roger Barrett was the ride manager and he died in August from cancer. I wore the shirt to honor and remember him and I thought of him often through the day. I lunged Tanna in a couple circles to each direction to make sure everything looked good and up I went. Tanna felt the excitement, but was controllable as I walked him to the starters to give them my number (lucky 13!) and then a warm-up waiting for the ride to start. And then we were off. I headed out at a brisk trot, until I came on a rider trying to mount up. I stopped Tanna and waited for him to get on before continuing into the woods at a good trot. The first loop was around 16.5 miles long out to the first vet check. Tanna pulled and fidgeted and fussed and complained to go faster. This is quite normal for him. He is convinced that he can run the entire ride. But BSF has lots of elevation change and Tanna is not a mountain horse. We just don't have mountains to train on. So we spent the 2 1/2 hours fighting. Daniel met me at a couple places on trail and got some nice pictures. Into the first vet check, pulled off the saddle and set it on the convenient guard rail just perfect for a saddle rack. Then to the vet. Tanna vetted through ok and then stared at the feed, carrots, hay and apples as if he'd never eaten such things before. He has a very bad habit of not eating at the first vet check and this ride was no exception, much to my irritation. He did nibble some. Out for our next loop. I took it easy and snapped some pictures along the way. The scenery was nice and the trails were great. Tanna was a little doggy, but we made it through the loop. We didn't see other horses much. A couple other riders down by the river, but I was not in a mood to ride with others. Not much for Tanna to eat on this loop. We came into the check and paused waiting for 2 or 3 horses to go out on their last loop back to camp. Tanna vetted right through with a B on gut sounds. Normal for him. Especially since he hadn't eaten much since breakfast. Tanna did eat this check. He sampled everything he had in front of him, including the neighbor's leftovers. There were few riders left in the check. Most had headed back to camp already. I kept checking Tanna's HR, but it was hanging in the 60s which is not normal for him. Usually he will drop into the 40s after vetting in. I listened to his guts and wasn't happy with those either. 30 minutes after vetting in, Dr. Ken rechecked him. By this time, Tanna's HR had dropped some and he had a decent CRI of 52/52. The CRI is the Cardiac Recovery Index and consists of checking the horse's HR, trotting him 250 feet and then rechecking the HR a minute after the first HR check. If the second number is higher than the first number, the horse could be showing some distress. Tanna's gut sounds had gone down from first vetting in, so that was a concern. After a discussion with Dr. Ken, I decided to head back to camp on the last loop and carry some hay with me to hand-feed along the way. If I felt Tanna wasn't recovering properly, I would use my Spot Messenger to notify Daniel to come get me. Tamra was a complete lifesaver and provided some yummy alfalfa hay for the loop. So out we went on our last loop. Hurrying to make time where we could and me hand-feeding Tanna from the saddle. After a few miles, Tanna perked up more and we were in business. He had always been willing to trot when I asked, but now he was trotting on his own. I was watching his HR and was satisfied he was doing ok. We crossed the river and faced a climb up. Tanna power-walked the hill, our average speed only dropped a little from the effort and he was more than willing to go. I had considered getting off and hiking the hill, but Tanna convinced me he was doing great and we made much better time than if I'd been off. We caught up with Dixie and Cowboy and rode with them some. When we reached the top and were on the flat, I was mostly letting Tanna do what he wanted. He would canter or power trot. Finally, I had to pull off and have a quick break and Dixie went on. Then Tanna and I continued on to the finish and Nancy. How I love seeing Nancy at the end of my rides! :-) Back into camp, I pulled Tanna's tack and threw a cooler over him and took him to the vet. He looked good. I took him to Dr. Ken for his completion exam and Dr. Ken said he looked better than he had at the check. Not that he had been really bad before, but his HR and guts were better this time. So yay! Another finish of a tough trail. I was scheduled to ride Serts in the LD on Friday, but I wasn't sure I was ready or Serts was ready for the ride. I was afraid Serts wouldn't be able to do the tough trail Tanna and I had just done that day. But others who knew the trails better convinced me that the Friday trail was easier and I should go for it. So, thanks to Tamra and Susan Kasemeyer, I finally decided to go ahead and go. However, dinner was already underway, so I couldn't vet in that night. We had dinner and hung out for the awards and ride meeting. I chose a pretty purple shirt for our completion award. It would be my shirt during the next day's ride. I listened to the instructions for the 30 miler and then headed back to camp to ready my vet check bag for the next day's away vet check. I finally got to bed after 10:30 PM. to be continued... April Nashville, TN http://www.enduranceriderblog.com "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." TS Elliot =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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