That was my horse! Thank you again Pat for riding him :). Maybe with more
training (on the horses part) I can convince Pat to ride him again for me.
I rode the 50 on my horse Weaver. It was a beautiful ride, and luckily I
was not in the huge crowd of horses and immediately vetted in at lunch
without having to wait. What a great ride! We came into the lunch stop
with a heart rate of 36 - that's why I was asking if the altitude might be
affecting them somehow.
I would like to openly thank all of the riders who stopped along the trail
to give us supplies and offer help for the girl that was injured. She fell
from her horse, and the horse flipped (literally) over the top of her. Her
arm was hurt badly, and her face was also very bad. She was in a lot of
pain. Every rider that went by offered assitance and gave us so much stuff
- it was great! One rider gave us a frozen water bottle (ice), another gave
us some wrap, and one rider even took the shirt off of her back - I used
that to put the arm in a sling, and then my vet-wrap to secure it to her
body so it wouldn't flop around. We also had somebody give us some Motrin.
You guys were all great! The girl wanted to finish the ride, we were almost
to the last vet stop (in the 50). Her dad put her back up on her horse and
her sister/friend ponied her horse and they did finish! The last I saw her
she was looking better and on her way to the ER to get checked out.
I had used my easy boot with the easy foam again on Weaver's front feet for
the race. It was a wise move - I didn't know this, but there were a lot of
muddy-boggy spots on the trail. A lot of horses were losing shoes - some
more than one, and then they would put on easy boots and lose them too. I
was sure happy then that I had my boots/foam on because I also noticed that
Weaver navigated thru the mud and muck a whole lot smoother and easier than
a lot of the other horses.
Imagine my surprise when I finished (boy we had a nice run to the finish -
it was way cool having a horse so strong at the end!!!) and my husband (and
Pat's husband too!) were there giving out awards! We all got a nice
sweatshirt. Because hubby helped all day they were generous enough to feed
him lunch AND dinner - the dinner was delicious! Maybe he'll help out more
often at rides, though one of these times it would be nice if he would
actually CREW. (haha)
I did meet some other internet people there. Carol Randall, who rode the
50, and Glenda Glass - congratulations on your first 50 Glenda!!! :). I
never did see Dorothy, and I also missed the other Karen. Next time!!
Happy Trails!!!
Karen in Gardnerville