Oakland Hills 50 *long&fluffy*

["Kimberly Price" <kim@plough-electric.com>]

Mystery the Morab and I finally completed our first 50 at  Oakland Hills
Sat. so you can now call me an endurance rider and Mystery is a bonified
endurance horse!!  We competed successfully for the Turtle award and had a
great time despite a few minor mishaps.  Hello to old friends I saw (however
briefly) and new friends I made and may we all ride together in health again
soon.  Thanks to the Fends and all the vets and volunteers who worked very
hard to make this a successful ride.  Special thanks to Jamie Kerr DVM for
taking extra time to recheck Mystery after the race as his CRI was up at the
final vet check.  Next a.m. he didn’t even look like he did the miles except
for his eyes and his E.D.P.P. was on 200%!

Mystery’s version:   ***total fluff****
My human decided to trailer me through miserable ugly traffic across the big
water to those other hills on the horizon.  She fed me all night long so I
knew she was up to something.  Around normal breakfast time she saddles me
up and we start off after those arabs.  Now, I KNEW I could beat those guys,
after all, I’m a Morab and I’m pretty darn strong this summer but she wouldn
’t let me run after them!! Instead, she’s yack’in and talk’in and chit chat’
in with all these ladies and admiring THEIR arabs!!!  Well, I was getting
pretty fed up I’ll tell you but finally she let me trot off ahead a little
and I felt better after stretching my legs.  We started down hill and there
she goes again, chatt’in and yack’in with this lady on a prancy pretty
little arab bay thing, when all of the sudden these bees started to bite my
butt since they are evil!  I tried bucking them off and there missy is yell’
in at me to let her off when all I wanted was the bees to get off!  So I let
her off and she is hitt’in me all over...humans are so irritating
sometimes....couldn’t she see the bees were off me!  Then she starts hitting
herself and off we go down the hill as fast as we can.   Pretty soon all
these people we passed catch up and she is just whining and sucking them up
for sympathy and then there they go, in a cloud of dust and she still wont’
get on!  I was sooooo mad......swishing my tail and pinning my ears...she is
so lucky I am a gentleman!  So I stop, stone still as a statue and allow her
big butt to climb aboard and then that was it.....no two ways about it I was
gonna catch me some aaarabs so I galloped downhill knowing she wouldnt jerk
me around and she just sat back and took it!  I saw the last arab to pass me
ahead and I guess she warned him we were coming cause he just stepped to the
side to let us pass so I figured I would be polite and stopped.  Well, missy
miss wasn’t too happy up there and his horse thought I was really crazy but
I guess it wasn’t too bad cause we ended up riding together the rest of the
ride.  His name was Mystery too (L.S.Mystery) but his owner called him Slick
for short.  Things settled in pretty easy after that and you know what,....I
wouldn’t mind doing it again!!

****
Ok, enough fluff!  It was a great ride, Mystery came in all “A’s” except gut
sounds “B” (which is normal for him) and the lowest HR of all the 50’s
according to the 2nd HR volunteer at the lunch vet.  (his resting is 38,
normal recovery 44).  He did recover extremely well and the bees put us into
the company of a very professional and friendly rider named Dave Walker of
Pesadero who allowed us to practice controlled pacing with him.  We
consistently came in 1 to 1-1/4 hours before cut-off times with excellent
results (and got to see happy volunteers just waiting to go home!).  The
last loop went a bit faster and the horse’s really had great fun with each
other.  The drag rider Linda ? was a wonderful inspiration and an all around
nice person and I am very pleased with Mystery’s performance both mentally
and physically.  Highlight was we left lunch vet on our own going out a
trail where other horse’s were coming in on (mind you, he’s only done 25,
30s and this was mile 23), and he didn’t complain that he wasn’t done at all
and tackled a huge hill with enthusiasm.  Oh, and he didn’t buck me off
although we both were stung in several places.   Since we are competing
against our own personal best I have plenty of margin for improvement!
Mystery looks great, his EDPP is 100% and he didn’t even look like he had
done a ride the next morning.  Back was all “A’s”, no muscle stiffness or
stocking...it is 4 years of LSD conditioning under him and it shows.

Thanks to all who encouraged me and gave me great advice and company over
the years.  See ya at another ride soon.

Kimberly (&Mystery the Morab...”yup, I’ll E.D.P.P. allll night long......”)
Eating. Drinking. Peeing.  Pooping.  (from Dr. Kerr)



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