my Oconee story (VERY long)

["Glenda R. Snodgrass" <grs@theneteffect.com>]

Okay, here's my very, very long Oconee weekend story.  For those who only
want to know what happened, we pulled after the 3rd loop.  Lakota hadn't
been eating & drinking well, and he really ran out of gas around 30 miles. 
He passed the 3rd VC and I could probably have completed at a walk, but it
wasn't worth it to me to push him, with the risk of complications from low
gut sounds and dehydration.  I learned an awful lot this weekend, my first
long haul as well as my first 50, so will try to state some of my "lessons
learned" to help other newbies out there who will be reading.  The ride
was terrific, the management really well- organized, people absolutely
everywhere to take care of our every need, spotters at every major turn,
yellow and green ribbons on every tree in sight.  We were in and out of
VCs so fast I could hardly believe it.  Peggy Clark and her crew did a
great job putting that ride together. 

First, the ridecamp is approximately 430 miles one way from my barn, which
meant a pretty long drive.  Since I have a friend who lives right off the
route I would drive, and I hadn't seen her in quite some time, I decided
to drive to her place on Thursday and stay the night, then have a short
drive Friday morning to the ridecamp.  I thought that breaking the long
drive up in two days would be easier on Lakota and me both.  That's one
lesson learned:  I don't think it was.  Next time, I'll drive all the way
on Thursday and have Friday in camp for him to acclimate himself to the
new environment, at least until he gets more accustomed to long hauls and
strange camps. 

Thursday morning we loaded in the rain, with dire weather predictions on
the radio.  Fortunately, the drive was relatively uneventful (about 6
hours) to Pine Mountain, GA, to Kim's house.  The first hour or so I
stressed over every little bump, as usual, but finally settled in. I have
major Flat Tire Paranoia since having a blowout on my first major hauling
expedition.  There was a strong wind blowing when I arrived, and the huge
storm was over central Alabama and heading our way.  I parked my rig so as
to put Lakota's pen in the lee (thanks to someone's ride story that I had
just read a few days earlier, can't remember who it was now).  I walked
him a bit, put up the pen, and settled him in with soaked shredded beet
pulp, hay and water.  He nibbled and sipped a bit, but didn't really dig
in like he usually does.  I assumed the long trip and the blustery weather
had him a bit unsettled.  In spite of a warm, dry bed available to me in
the house, I decided to sleep in the truck that night, so I would be close
to Lakota in case something happened -- especially given the weather
predictions.  So Bailey (my Dobie) and I crashed under the camper shell
around 9:30, with the wind literally howling.  Let me tell you, folks, if
you like the sound of rain drumming on a tin roof, you would LOVE sleeping
under an aluminum camper shell!  Talk about LOUD. :) For the next few
hours, the storm raged off and on -- heavy rain with light hail, wind
gusts up to 50mph, lots of thunder and lightning.  I felt terrible for
poor Lakota, out there in the weather with no run-in shed or even a nice
tree to stand under.  I was following instructions, however, from others
who had told me he would be better off outside in the storm, rather than
in the trailer.  Finally the storm ended, and Lakota asked me for more hay
(he's very vocal, especially about food).  So I put out hay, and he did
eat that.  I decided that eating was a good idea, so I had a Rice Krispies
Treat and some applesauce.  These midnight food raids in the truck are
getting to be a habit with me. :)) Lakota woke me again at 5 for his
morning grain, of which he ate about half.  Still wouldn't touch the beet
pulp, which he normally scarfs up. 

We loaded up again and headed for Oconee, arriving after about 3.5 hours
of driving.  I pulled into the ridecamp and was greeted by Peggy herself,
telling me that if I had 4x4 I could probably park there; otherwise, I
should go to the alternate ridecamp down the road (which I had just
passed).  Seems the storm the night before had turned the ridecamp into a
mudcamp.  Since I do have 4x4 and a small 2H trailer, and I live with mud
every day in Mobile, I decided to risk it, especially since it was my
first attempt at a 50 and I didn't want to be too far from the VC.  I set
up camp, walked Lakota a bit, tried to feed him, to no avail.  We took a
short ride (about 45 minutes) and he seemed rarin' to go, really happy to
be out on the trail instead of inside that dadburned trailer!  He drank
from mud puddles on the trail, and ate some grain when we got back, so I
felt much better.  We vetted in okay, all As except for gut sounds -- of
course. 

The dinner that evening was fabulous, my favorite kind -- home- cooked
veggies (corn, green beans, lima beans), meatloaf, chicken & rice
casserole, macaroni & cheese from scratch -mmmmmmmm!!  It was great.  I
got to meet some Ridecampers at the ride meeting -- Barbara Madill, Anne
Ayala, Robby & Diane (lurkers from KY -- I know you're reading this!!),
Jerry Fruth -- anyone I forgot?  Of course, the regulars were there too
(like Samm Bartee and her crew).  After the ride meeting, I checked on
Lakota (still not eating, drinking a little bit) and went to sleep around
9pm.  I must be getting the hang of this camping thing, because I slept
like a baby that night.  Except for fighting Bailey for the covers!  I was
happy to have her along, thinking she'd keep me warm (I was so cold at
Long Leaf) with all that body heat she puts out, but I never considered
that she'd be fighting me for the covers!  She wanted them under her, for
a nice soft cushy bed, instead of over me, to keep me warm. <g>

Ride morning, Lakota woke me at 5am for his morning feeding (he always
wakes me at 5 for his morning feed when we're camping together).  I mixed
a bit of sweet feed and alfalfa pellets in some soaked beet pulp and put
it out, but he turned up his nose.  Fortunately, he had finished his
evening grain off during the night, and quite a bit of hay was gone, so he
had finally eaten some, but not enough to make me happy.  At least he had
drank about half a bucket of water.  So, here it was 5:15 and it's still
dark and the ride doesn't start until 7:30, plenty of time, right?  WRONG! 
At 7:27 I was furiously running around, trying to finish saddling Lakota
and get all my VC stuff ready. Anne Ayala, who graciously agreed to
babysit me at the start of the ride, was walking her horse around to warm
up, while I'm throwing things around and saying "I WILL be ready on time,
I WILL" even though it was 3 minutes to start time and Lakota was still
naked. :)) Those of you who know me in real life know that I am NOT a
morning person.  Doing these endurance rides at ungodly hours of the night
(like 7:30 am :)) is the hardest part of this sport for me. 

Fortunately a very nice woman from the next campsite heard me, came over
and said "I'm riding the 25 so I have some spare time, anything I could do
to help?"  I could've kissed her.  And I never did catch her name!  But I
was so grateful for the help. She carried some stuff up to the VC for me
(thanks so much, Tina Hicks, for giving me your VC list.  I never would've
thought of half that stuff myself) and I threw Lakota's saddle on and we
were ready to go only a couple minutes after the start time, which we had
intended anyway.  Ann was doing a conditioning ride and didn't want to
race, so we agreed to start a bit late. 

And then we were off!  It was so exciting!  I felt like I was part of some
great undertaking.  The first few miles of trail were really great, though
a bit daunting to swamprats like Lakota and me.  About 1.5 miles in, there
was a fairly steep small hill that had to be ascended and descended a
couple of times.  First we went down it, which was okay, then we went
around the base and started to go up the other side -- but Lakota slowed,
looked up at that big ol' mountain, and tried to turn around!  He said
"Huh-uh, Mama, we don't climb things like that."  He finally did, though,
of course, because it was so exciting to be riding with all these other
horses!  We picked up another rider or two fairly quickly, Dee Fortner and
someone else joined us.  Lakota was beside himself with excitement --
i.e., he was quite a handful and was pulling my arms off! <BG> About
halfway through the loop the group had thinned back to just me and Ann,
when we made the joyful discovery that we both speak fluent French and had
an opportunity to practice our French while riding endurance.  Talk about
serendipity!  It was wonderful.  Anne showed me the Flying Sponge Maneuver
several times, though I haven't yet had the nerve to try it from Lakota's
back -- that will come in future training rides. :)

We arrived back in camp at 9:18. Anne walked right in to the VC, while I
took Lakota to the trough first, hoping (to no avail) he would drink.  We
parted company with Anne at that point, as she vetted right in and out,
while we putzed around. :) You have to remember, after 12 miles and a VC,
it was STILL earlier in the morning than I usually GET OUT OF BED.  I had
never in my life been on a horse so early in the morning and couldn't
believe I actually did it.  I swear, it seemed like there were vets
everywhere. :) There were vet students too, which I thought was great,
because the vets explained everything to the students along the way, which
meant I got to hear and learn too.  So I hung out and putzed around. :)

When we finally went to Nancy Gooch (?), the timer, to leave on the 2nd
loop, she said "Number 50!  I've been looking for you!" which quickly
became her theme for the day. <BG> While everyone else hovered at her
elbow, waiting to be told they were cleared to leave, I always arrived
several minutes late, slowly trying to get myself together enough to head
out again. It was just SO EARLY in the morning!!  And poor pathetic Glenda
didn't have anyone to crew for her ....  Although Daniel Padgett was
terrific, sponging Lakota for me in between taking P&Rs for other folks
and generally trying to help me get back out on the trail -- a rather 
daunting task <g>. 

I headed out on the 2nd loop with Diane right behind me, so we rode
together for a bit -- until I slowed Lakota to let her go ahead, because I
was concerned that he was still too excited and trying to go faster than
he should, especially since he hadn't been eating & drinking well.  We
caught up with some other folks along the way, and ended up riding most of
the 2nd loop with Donna somebody on a black mare and some other folks
(sorry, I'm really terrible with names).  Lakota started drinking a little
bit, which made me feel better.  Another lesson learned:  it's much harder
to hold your horse back on a long road than on a twisty trail, at least
with Lakota.  When he can see a horse right in front of him, he wants to
catch up, whereas once they pass out of view from a curve or whatever, he
forgets them and settles down.  The 2nd loop at Oconee was a large
rectangle all on road, and you could see quite a long ways ahead of you,
which meant Lakota was looking at a long line of horses that he wanted to
catch up with. <g>

He came bouncing into the 2nd VC and passed with good recoveries, though
the lack of eating & drinking was starting to show in his vet scores. 
Since there was a 1-hour hold this time, due to the heat, I decided to go
down to our campsite so he could stretch & roll in his pen, and I could
fix up a beet pulp & grain stew to maybe tempt him into eating a bit. 
Another lesson learned:  if you fix up a bag for the VC, planning not to
come back to the campsite during the ride, then DON'T, because you'll find
yourself at the campsite needing things that are in the bag at the VC!!  I
decided to 'lyte Lakota, first time ever, because it was really warm and
he was really fuzzy with winter coat and sweating like a pig.  So I gave
him a dose of Lyte Now paste and mixed up some stuff which he refused to
eat, again.  I walked Bailey a minute and sat down to snack on PB &
crackers.  I was watching Lakota, who stood around some, then lay down,
and his eyelids got heavy!  I panicked, thinking I had given him some
rancid 'lyte paste or something.  I ran up to the vet and said "I gave my
horse some electrolyte paste, and now he's lying down and I'm afraid it
was bad or something and he's colicking."  The vet told me to bring him
up, which I did.  He checked out fine, CRI of 48/52.  The vet said
metabolically he was fine, but he looked dull, definitely had lost his
spark since he came "bouncing in" at the end of the 2nd loop.  Another
lesson learned:  don't put the horse in the pen during a hold.  I think
that Lakota thought it was all over, since we'd done 25 miles, which is
the most we'd ever done before anyway, and he lay down to take a nap!  In
his mind he was through for the day, and he had a hard time changing gears
mentally and going back out for the third loop.  I decided to go out
slowly and see how he was doing, prepared to turn around if necessary. 

The first couple of miles he was really dragging, but then he started to
perk up.  He discovered that Water Is Our Friend, and he began absolutely
guzzling water at every single puddle we passed.  Not from any streams,
mind you.  He wouldn't dare drink crystal clear sparkling water from a
babbling brook when there was perfectly good mud puddle water standing
nearby!!  But he still didn't want to eat on the trail for some reason,
turned his nose up at all the green grass I stopped him at.  For about 5
miles, he trotted and drank and seemed to be doing quite well, but then
the 2nd wind died out.  He dropped to a walk and wouldn't trot anymore
unless I kicked him, which I just didn't want to do.  So we slowly walked
on into the 3rd VC and I pulled him.  He passed the VC again, and the vet
said metabolically he was fine and could complete, but I knew that he was
over it and I didn't want to push him. 

So we returned to camp and settled in a bit.  He continued to drink quite
a bit and started to eat.  I was absolutely RAVENOUS, since I had eaten
mostly fruit during the day, along with 1 gallon of water and 1/2 gallon
of Gatorade!  I got out the Coleman stove I had borrowed from a friend,
but it didn't work!  Here I was, starving to death, and I couldn't heat up
my beef stew.  Fortunately the very nice people next door, the ones who
helped me get out that morning, had a propane burner and offered to heat
my stew for me.  When I walked over there with a can of beef stew in a
little pot, the woman (darn it, what was her name?!) looked at me with a
horrified expression and said "Canned beef stew?  Is that all you have to
eat?"  I said "Oh, no, I have plenty of food in the truck.  This is what I
WANT to eat."  At that point her horrified look changed to borderline
disgust. <BG> I tried to explain to her that Dinty Moore beef stew is one
of my great culinary loves, in spite of the 4 years I lived in Paris --
must be a holdover from my childhood, ya know?  Like my first VC snack --
a whole can of cling peach halves in heavy syrup.  Nectar of the gods!! :)
I inhaled my beef stew with crackers, followed by a can of mandarin orange
slices (canned fruit is great for rides!) and some applesauce and a Rice
Krispies treat (recognize these things from the ride food list?). 

At that point (about 5pm) my only goal in life was to stay awake until
after dark. <VBG> I was one tired puppy, let me tell you! But I felt much
better than I had anticipated.  My ankles were fine, my knees were pretty
good, and my hips didn't hurt at all.  Instead, I had muscle soreness in
my thighs and rear.  I'd been trying to practice the tips Tina gave me
last weekend, putting more weight on my thighs rather than my knees, and I
think it paid off.  Anyway, I made it through the awards meeting and was
in the truck, asleep, before 8pm.  I slept almost nonstop until 5 the next
morning, when Lakota woke me to feed him, which he finished!  Hooray!  And
he drank.  And it was good. <g>

So we loaded up and headed out of camp at 7:30.  Amazing! And I was
relaxed and felt pretty good, after a really good night's sleep.  We were
going through Greensboro, heading back to I-20 to home, when I stopped at
a stoplight, and was surprised to find a woman standing outside my truck
waving at me.  I rolled the window down and heard those five nasty words
"You have a flat tire."  ANOTHER flat tire!  I couldn't believe it!  How
on earth could I have a flat 2 out of 3 times I took Lakota on a trip?!?! 
It's just not fair!!  Fortunately there was a gas station at that corner,
so I swung right in and looked -- sure enough, I had picked up two
horseshoe nails and the tire was quickly going flat.  I began emptying the
tack compartment in the trailer to get the spare out, shaking my head and
sighing and muttering obscenities quietly to myself, when I looked up --
and saw, across the street, driving through Hardee's, two Endurance
KnightRiders in Shining Armor (Robert Chambless and Rob Oscar? I believe). 
I waved, smiled, batted my eyelashes (no makeup, greasy hair, hadn't had a
shower in 3 days, dressed in mud-caked and hay-flecked clothing, no doubt
I was a VERY appealing sight <BG>), and they agreed to come help me change
the flat.  I thought I would have to jack the trailer up, and I didn't
know how to do that properly, but fortunately I learned that the
TrailerAid thingy was all that I needed with this trailer, so it was over
in a heartbeat.  Honestly, Robert had that tired changed so quickly I
couldn't believe it.  Lucky for me, I picked an Endurance KnightRider who
was in the tire business for 10 years!  And Rob Oscar did a great job of
supervising while eating his breakfast biscuit before it got cold. :)

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  We arrived back at my barn just
before dark, very tired but glad it was over -- and glad we had gone. 
Lakota came roaring out of the trailer, eating every blade of grass in
sight. I walked him around a few minutes, then trotted him in hand to see
how he felt -- he immediately went into his jammin' trot, dragging me
around the barnyard like a rag doll.  I put him in the feed stall and he
inhaled his entire regular grain ration.  I put him in his pasture, and he
drank about 75 gallons of water, then chased his mares around.  Was this
the same horse I had at Oconee?  I don't think so!!  But I was glad to see
he looked so good, obviously suffering no ill effects from the ride.  I'll
give him a couple days off, then start training for our next first 50! 

While I am a bit disappointed not to have completed our first 50, I'm glad
I pulled him.  It just wasn't worth it to me to go out on that last loop,
especially with the risk of colic or tying up, since Lakota hadn't been
eating or drinking normally for 2 days prior to the ride.  And after I saw
horses in the treatment tent, getting fluids IV, I was really glad I
pulled and didn't take a chance on Lakota ending up in trouble.  We did 3
loops, more than we've ever done before, and he did pass all the VCs, so I
consider that a successful step up from 25s.  Now he knows it doesn't end
at the second VC and he'll be ready for our next 50 (Million Pines, I
hope).  And I gained a lot of experience, and learned some valuable
lessons, and feel much more confident about tackling those long hauls all
alone, with the dog and horse and trailer and about 8 million cubic feet
of STUFF!! 

Glenda & Lakota (25 miles of LD + 3 loops <g>)