Norco retired partner's ride (long)

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

Back to work today and access to my computer.  I still have 13 ridecamp
digests to get through but I decided to put this out before reading any
more.  

I want to thank Lynne for having the Retired Partner's ride at Norco this
year.  This woman is an inspiration to us all.  I was having a time getting
award sponsors and she comes up with Grand Meadows and $600 worth of product
as completion awards!  We also had Karen Chaton of Saddle Up give us water
bottles.  One award for the horse, one for the rider.  Teddy Lancaster
generously donated a gift certificate for our high mileage retiree, and
Linda Chapman gave one of her beautiful handcrafted halter bridles to our
first to finish horse.  Many, many thanks to all our Sponsors!!  

This idea actually was conceived in "camp talk" at the Old Dominion.  Some
of us thought it would be fun to bring back some of the old horses that had
done the ride just for a fun ride.  From there it evolved to the Norco
Riverdance Retired Partners ride.  I wanted to call it the old fart's ride,
but fortunately good sense prevailed.

We picked about five miles of trail which turned out to be the last 2.5 of
the 25 and the last 2.5 of the fifty.  My friend Carol Miller and I
"pre-rode" the trail Friday.  (OK, really we had just picked the trail out
on the map and wanted to be sure it would work!)
 
The morning of the ride started at 430 with the most wonderful wake-up call.
Starting very quietly, then increasing slowly to a very pleasant volume was
the music from Riverdance!  I lay in my sleeping bag with a smile on my face
and my wee Irish toes a tappin'.  Then came this haunting Irish melody
floating over the mist that got me Irish eyes a cryin'!  I looked out of my
trailer window at the horses stirring in the misty darkness; white shadows,
dark shadows, ghost animals nickering quietly, moving about with the fog
parting to let them pass through.  Ah, peace, I thought.  All is right with
the world and we can get up now.

End of reverie.. things got busy pretty quickly.  The 50's left with a
shout.  The 25's left in the daylight and we watched the controlled start
from the hill.  It was still a bit foggy and they were lead by a horseman
carrying a large yellow flag, trotting down the road, across the lane along
the pond, and into the trail.  It looked for all the world like the cavalry
on the march!  At the back of camp, we could watch the horses racing up the
hill about 10 miles out, silhouettes against the gray sky.  Ok, now I'm
going to spend a leisurely time in camp getting things in order for the RP
ride.  Lorin's daughter helped me put the last touches on the horse's
biographies that we presented at awards.  Then I went up to the vet check in
camp to see what was cooking.  Then I got put to work!  P&R, now out-time
the 50's from lunch, now P&R, now in-time the 25's finishing (give the 50
out-time sheet to the next volunteer), now P&R...boy did we have fun!  I
gave the vets a quick reminder that they had to pick a BC for the RP ride
and went off to get ready.

What a congregation of retired horses, plus a few others who just wanted to
go along for the ride.  Bobbie L. did her very best to get this group
together for a few seconds for a group photo.  You try to keep 11 endurance
horses still at the starting line, retirees or not!!  Photo done, we're off!
None of theses horses had any intention of going slow.  They were all back
in the groove!!  Linda Smerber took off after the first mile on her
magnificent Shahleen and we never saw her again!  Next off was Diamond on
Grenzal, disappearing around the bend much to the frustration of my pony,
Whisper.  She was pissed!!  Well, ol' Diamond took the scenic route,
forgetting to turn left and stay on green ribbons.  We're sorry he got lost
but he saw more arrundo tunnels than the rest of us!!  Now, I'm next on
Whisper and she's forgotten she's 28!  I'm swearing, pulling back, bracing
in the saddle and she's off,  somewhere between the morgan roadster trot and
a canter.  Hackamore, what hackamore...she's racing!!  Just behind me is
Cynthia Binder on the beautiful Meksiko, a Russian stallion.  She says to
me, "Boy, that pony sure has quite a reach.  How big is she anyway?"  13.2 I
shout back, yanking and swearing.  This was supposed to be a fun ride, not a
race, but no one told the horses that.  They were all having fun.  The
others, well, they were back there.  Now it's Whisper, Siko, and Sandy's
mare Harlot.  By the way Harlot's ride letter was "A"!  Very appropriate.
About a mile from home, Siko decides he really likes Whisper and lets out
the studly shout!  Now, I've trained and ridden many miles on mares with
this horse and he's never been a bad boy.  But something about Whisper just
heated him up.  Anyway, he got himself dignified again in a split second and
we headed toward the finish.  Sandy pulled in front of us, Whisper hot on
her tail, Siko right behind her and we galloped up the hill and across the
finish line!  A timer recorded our in times and we went to pulse.  Here's
where poo-poo occurs.  Remember, we were supposed to do a BC?  I thought
we'd have one guy, Nigel, taking pulses.  Some others joined in but didn't
write the recovery times on the cards.  Vets couldn't make a fair BC
assessment without them, so drop back and punt!  Ok, Linda finished ahead of
us, so I gave a first to finish instead of BC.  Sure am glad it was all in
fun!

At the awards ceremony, each owner got up and talked about their horse.
There were some very moving stories to be heard.  We typed up the
biographies on parchment, put them in presentation folders with silver and
gold ribbon and gave them to the riders.  Each had their choice of Grand
Flex, Grand Vite, or Grand Hoof and one of Karen's water bottles.  Talk
about retirement benefits!!  Linda Smerber and Shahleen won first to finish,
Jane McGrath on Sierra Fad Farah (Happy) had highest mileage with 5,285
miles.  Hey, that's just over a "mile" of miles!!  The rest of the finish
order (to the minute) was:  seconds, Sandy Adams on Harlot, Barb Thomas on
Whisper, Cynthia Binder on Meksiko; thirds, Lauren Horn on Kyla, Sharon
O'Halloran on Miso; fourth, Jane McGrath on Sierra Fad Farah (she rode her
own race!!);  fifths, Heidi Paul on Callie, Robert Paul on Duke, Lynn Kinsky
on El Sinchi Roca (Peruvian Paso!!), sixth, Diamond on Grenzal, who not only
rode his own ride but rode it on his own trail!   I hope a good time was had
by all and we sure had a good looking bunch of old farts!!!

This ride was, for my horse, a Celebration of Life!  It was one year ago to
the day that I came back from Norco to find Whisper so lame she could hardly
walk (reason has been resolved among the involved parties).  Her bruised
soles progressed into laminitis and she was hospitalized for several weeks.
Many may remember my agony on ridecamp last September through November as
she was not healing.  By mid November, I was seriously considering putting
her down.  Last resort was to pack her feet with arnica/witchazel poultices
and put magnetic wraps on her legs.  It worked and she turned the corner.
Then with the help of my miracle farrier, Jim Clark, we got her shod and
stopped the toe curling and separation.  I owe a debt of gratitude to the
staff and veterinarians of Humphrey, Giacapuzzi, and Cox, especially Drs.
Cox and April, for their countless hours of care and their moral support.  I
owe Jim my pony's quality of life for his wonderful correctional shoeing
that has given me a sound horse today.  Whisper and I have been friends
since she was a weanling and none can ever have that special place in my
heart!  I'll post the biographies as soon as I can, but I'd better do some
work first!!

Barb and Whisper (alive and kicking butt!)  


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