Doing Naive Things on Rides

["Thomas, Barb" <thomas@amgen.com>]

Linda's post on the Florida Classic was great!  Congratulations Linda!
We've all been there, done that with the naive thing!  I thought it
would be fun to hear other stories of naive or in my case, too stupid to
be real things.  Anyone else care to contribute stories?  
I, too, decided that I'd do my first 100 without a crew.  I was just out
of college and knew everything, including that I was invincible and
independent as hell.  My first 100?  The Old Dominion, Cavalry of
course.  OK, Cavalry on a 13.3 hand Morab mare.  Well, cavalry on a 13.3
hand Morab mare in a Crosby Prix des Nations jumping saddle.  Oh yeah,
in blue jeans!!  Actually, Whisper was an amazing creature who thought
she was a roadster pony, could out-trot most, and didn't care that she
was the littlest thing on the trail.  I think that God and an army of
guardian angels was working overtime that day.  We finished in 23.5
hours!  I made the mistake of getting into the creek at the bottom of
the last climb into basecamp on the way home and about froze to the
saddle.  It took me nearly an hour to get my wet jeans off when we
finished.  Matthew Mackay-Smith had to come and get me from my tent so I
wouldn't be disqualified by not presenting within an hour of my finish
time.  I was so pathetic by that time that thank goodness he took pity
on me and jogged my horse out for me while I stood there thinking I'd
blown cavalry.  Not that I'd finished one tough ride, but that I'd blown
cavalry!!  Ah, the mind of a child!!  YES, we ARE endorphin junkies!!

Barb (older, wiser??), Whisper (retired pony), Wind Dancer, and Katie