Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Let me start this by saying I'm too tired to read all the emails about the 
ride, so if I'm repeating something.. Sorry!  Right now I'm trying to take the 
chill out of my bones and am typing on my laptop from under and electric 
blanket. A hot cup of tea near by.  I know, don't slosh it on the keys.

Not sure what to say except to describe the day. It started raining before the 
start and was raining so hard it was difficult to see.
All 6 of our horses started.  The wind was blowing out of the north and the 
tent we were in only had a top and sides on the east and west.  , so we got 
some tarps and tarped the sides off,  but only could go half way up so the 
e"officials " could see what we might be doing to our horses.  
Becky Hart and Dr. Jim Bryant, went out and bought Propane heaters for the US 
teams we had 2 in our tent.  The heaters were great for the riders who got 
chilled and were shivering. Thank you, Jim and Becky.

Well when it got wet it got muddy.  our area was a sea of mud, it was just like 
chocolate pudding, but not quite as tasty.  You would just have to slog from 
one place to another.  We were covered to our knees and higher in mud stains.
I went and changed completely one time, some people didn't have that 
opportunity.

The trails went to hell in a handbasket and we heard before the riders were out 
of the 2nd vet check that the 100 mile ride  had been shortened to 75 miles and 
the 75 miles would stay the same with no changes. Horse were getting pulled 
left and right and we kept hearing how treacherous the trails were.  I heard 
going through some of the corn fields and tobacco fields were not pleasant, 
hock deep mud. The creeks were also high and moving fast. 

The East Team won the Gold, Central won a silver and last I heard finished all 
5 horses they started with. You GO! Grace.
Mountain team, I believe won the Bronze.

Danielle (used to be Kanavay) <I'm brain dead. Won the individual Gold  
EllyenRapp won silver and Jan Worthington won the bronze.

Pacific South, the team I was helping, had only 2 horses finish, Charisse Glenn 
and Kim Fuess both finished, Kim was in before Charisse.

Our team riders were Heather Jeremy Reynolds, Carolyn Hock  and Cheryl Dell.
First one to be pulled was Heather riding one of Valerie's horses, the horse 
had gotten cast in the stall the day before and was sound but seemed to have 
some minor swelling. So she only made the first loop. She teased everyone that 
she had won the LD ride held that day.

Second to be pulled was Cheryl Dell, here horse was lame at theevet check, 
turns out the horse had lost a shoe and no one noticed in all of the mud.  The 
horse went back to the barns, had a new shoe put on and was sound again.  

Third Pull was a Rider Option by Carolyn Hock.. she decided that since her 
horse had been trotted by the vets twice, but was determined to be good to go, 
she decided  to pull because the trail was so bad and if the vets saw something 
that made them exam-in the horse twice, it wasn't worth getting the horse 
injured.  Good Judgment on her part.

The 4th Pull was Jeremy Reynolds, he made it all of the way to the finish to be 
pulled at the end as his horse was very tired and found not to be fit to 
continue.    That WAS a heart breaker as I believe Jeremy would have been in 
the top 5.
Kim came in sound and completed as did Charisse. There was  a cut off time at 
the finish, both of them made it with time to spare.  I think Kim may have been 
20 minutes ahead of Charrise,  both of their horses passed the final check.

I have heard the completion rate was abysmal, so to have completed was a major 
accomplishment.

Skip Lightfoot, did a marvelous job as Chef   He was on top of everything and 
kept us all going. We had a great bunch of folks helping..
Well, I'm yawning and need to go to bed.  I'll see if I have any final thoughts 
tomorrow. Tomorrow is the bestcondition judging and the awards ceremony.  It's 
supposed to rain tomorrow too. I hear everything has been moved to an indoor 
arena.
More to come!
I'm finally warm and sleepy! So off to bed..






Columbia, Missouri
NATRC Region 6
AERC # 65 
AERC Central Region
OCER member



     

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