Drake ate hay the night before the ride. I gave him a second flake
and he ate that too. This is the first time he has eaten any hay at
all on a ride. He also ate most of his grain. He still didn't drink
the night before or the morning of the ride, but he drank from the tanks
about 3 miles into the ride.
The winning critiera was the first across the finish line to meet
critiera. So, I decided I'd stay out front if I could. The lead
off horse/rider was a girl who lives near me. I followed close
behind her. Then when the trail opened, I took the lead (Drake
much perfers to be in the lead.) It was deep sand river bottom,
so I didn't go too fast. Then Patti wanted to pass, so she took
off and Drake was not about to be left behind. After a couple of miles,
we got to good road. For 14 miles we cantered at a good pace.
I figured that Drake would take a long time coming down, and there
would be no way to catch up. But, he walked in at 20, I drenched
him down (in all the right places), and he was at 15. I was only
2 minutes behind Patti. I let him graze a bit, he wouldn't drink
from the tank (I later found out most of the horses wouldn't drink
that water), he didn't want his grain, but he gobbled up the carrots.
Took him over to the vet. At the CRI went from 14 to 13. His guts
were grumbling loud, he was sound, he was perky, he was great.
Then, he started to hump up, paw the ground, and look miserable.
I figured he was colicing, going to die, something terrible. No,
he just needed to roll and scratch his back.
I stood by the out time, mounted just a minute before I was to leave,
and then Patti showed up. The timer said she could have left a minute
ago. Then he turned to me and said I could go too. So, I had some one
to drag Drake out (he doesn't like to leave the vet checks), and I didn't
have to catch up with her.
We went at a trot/canter pace the next 9 miles. Another girl caught up
with us, but her horse looked tired. Drake drank more from the water
tanks on the road. We got to the sand again. I was in the lead, so
I slowed down. No one passed me. Got to 1/2 mile from the finish line
and I walked. No one passed me, till the very end. We all walked in
together.
I immediately asked for a curtisy (dumb dumb forgot her watch). Drake
was at 16, so I asked for the official. The vet cards said I was 1 minute
ahead of the others, but it was more like 30 seconds or so. But I
was first.
Took Drake back to the trailer, unsaddled, drenched him again, and
walked over to the vet. At 10 minutes did the CRI. 11 and 11.
Perfectly sound. Did more cooling off, but Drake didn't want anything
to eat. He did want a nice roll again. Came back to the vet and
did the final. Vet said his guts were only a C (sounded better than
that to me.) So I figured there was no way for the BC.
During the wait for dinner, Drake slept a bit, then decided it
was his dinner time and ate anything and everything and drank lots
of water.
At the awards dinner I got BC. The third place finisher and I
tied in score, but Drake had a perfect 10 on his trot out, so the
vets used that as the tie breaker.
Now for the bad.
Drove the 80 miles towards home. Stopped at a gas station.
A lady drove in and asked if I lost my spare tire. No, I lost
the wheel off the trailer. Wheel and spindle and everything.
Luck had it that this didn't occur on the freeway doing 60.
Patti, who lives near me had driven by maybe 2 minutes earlier.
Since the trailer has 2 axels, I was still able to drive it.
I took it to my friend Jaci's, borrowed her trailer to get home.
Drove up my mountain, parked and let Drake have a nice rest.
He was still hungry and drank well. He was great the next day.
I was a bit more tired.
-- Wendy\|/ /\ -O- /**\ /|\ /****\ /\ / \ /**\ Here there be dragons / /\ / \ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\/\/\ /\ / / \ / \ / \/\/ \/ \ /\/ \/\ /\ /\/ / / \/ \ / / \/ /\ \ / \ \ / \/ / / \/ \/ \ / \ \ / / \/ \/\ \ / \ / / \ __/__/_______/___/__\___\__________________________________________________
Wendy Milner HPDesk: wendy_milner@hp4000 Hewlett-Packard Company e-mail: wendy@fc.hp.com Mail Stop A2 Telnet: 229-2182 3404 E. Harmony Rd. AT&T: (970) 229-2182 Fort Collins, CO, 80525 FAX: (970) 229-4292