You attend the dinner Friday night (yes, FRIDAY!), and are given a choice
between hamburgers, cheeseburgers or hot dogs. Everything is included, cold
drinks, bottled water, beer, wine, coffee, and desert. mmmmmm So you eat
until you (almost) colic, stay for the ride meeting and then head off to
sleep. You are awakened the next morning at 5 a.m. with a couple of people
in a jeep driving around serving coffee and danishes to everybody in camp.
If you want the more deluxe version you can walk up to the large barn and
have your choice of coffee, juice, milk, danishes, bananas or donuts.
Then the ride starts at 7 a.m. You go thru some beautiful country along the
way. Pass thru the first trot by feeling great - it's going to be a
wonderful day! Then you head up the mountain to do a 4500 foot elevation
gain. All along the way there are cute little signs telling you what is
ahead on the trail :). Talk about scenery, there are gorgeous views in every
direction! Then you walk your horse into the vet check and you are happy
because he vets in with a pulse rate of 36 and is happy to eat and drink.
There is a table filled with snacks - bananas, cookies, apples and more,
plus ice chests filled with bottled water and sodas. Since this is
imaginary I won't mention that part about getting locked in the out-house
<g>. You then head back to ride camp, enjoying quite the roller coaster
ride to get back along the way! Your horse meanwhile is drinking at every
opportunity and feels great. As soon as you arrive in camp you P&R and then
vet right thru, so that your horse can enjoy most of a full hour of rest,
knowing that there are only 15 miles left to go. While you are eating lunch
you notice how nicely your horse is eating and drinking and are quite happy
about that. You also realize how well organized everything is, with clocks
on ladders at every stop so you always know the time, signs showing where to
go, what to expect and plenty of volunteers to help you. You even notice a
truck and trailer parked at the vet check out on the trail, just in case
somebody might need it.
You leave from the lunch stop, and head out on the last loop. Your horse
takes every opportunity to drink along the way, and is grabbing bites of
grass whenever he can. You arrive at a radio check up on the ridge, and
while your horse is drinking a volunteer fills up your water bottles for you
and offers your something cold to drink and wants to know if you want
anything to eat. Then they tell you that you are the first horse on the 50
miler, and you smile and laugh, thinking they must be confused.
You continue on, down the hill and thru some sandy washes and jeep roads.
Enjoying the view and the fact that there are no horses behind you within
site. So you slow down and allow the horse to eat, drink and do his
business <g> along the way. You realize that for several miles the reading
on his HRM has been staying at 88. That is until he realizes camp is right
over >there< - so he picks up a canter and easily runs the majority of the
rest of the way into camp, calling out so as to make sure everybody knows he
is coming! You slow down to a jog as you go thru the finish line. You
barely notice because of all of the people cheering that the finish has all
sorts of ghosts and gobblins sitting on bales of hay. You are just about to
get off and lead your horse the rest of the way into camp, however he has
other ideas and decides he wants to trot, so you let him. Once inside camp
you get off and lead them over to your trailer, pull tack, sponge and turn
him loose. You can't hardly keep him still because he is eating the entire
time, and finally just leave him be.
Upon completing your final vet thru you turn in your card and are given a
completion award of a t-shirt from the ride. You are just very happy to
have completed this rather difficult 50 miler, and can't wait till they
start serving dinner because you realize you are starving! The dinner is
again very well done and is tri-tip, again all the drinks, beer and wine are
included. The riders are entertained by fiddlers who do an awesome job!
Then the awards are handed out. You watch while the junior riders are given
their prizes of savings bonds, and then the adults are given their prizes
consisting of a brand new horse trailer, trips, tons of hay and other really
great things. People that got lost were even given awards, and most were
pretty good sports about it. Then the top ten awards, of which you get to
partake, and include a rain poncho and a top ten coffee mug. Then the first
place award, of which you are given a couple of other nice things including
an embroidered jacket, then to really top things off you're name is called
when they announce the Best Condition award and for that you also get an
embroidered jacket, and some other things, plus an award for first in your
weight division. The horse even gets a 50 lb. sack of LMF! Wow! What a
long day. You are so tired you are barely aware of everything going on
around you. You leave with all intentions of coming back to the pancake
breakfast they are serving the next morning......but you choose to take your
horse for a nice long walk the next morning instead., and then to take the
time to pry his EZ-boots off of his front feet. Time to unpack...
What a ride!!!!!
Karen
in Gardnerville
& Weaver
& Rocky