Long Leaf ride report (kinda LONG as usual)

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

Oh, what fun!  The weather couldn't have been better -- 50ish at night,
70ish in the afternoon, gorgeous blue sky, warm sun, cool breeze.  Perfect
camping and riding weather (to me, at least <g>).

Lakota and I just did the 25 this time, cuz we haven't been able to ride
much the last few months (one thing after another, ya know) so we weren't
in top condition, and he had 2 days of inexplicable diarrhea last weekend
that had me a bit concerned, so I figured a 25-mi conditioning ride with 3
vet exams included in the price was just the ticket!

This ride was very small -- only 49 riders started.  But frankly, I loved
being at a ride so small!  None of the Big Dogs were there (that means
you, Angie McGhee! LOL) so the times were pretty slow -- there were 7+ hr.
ride times in the Top Ten (tho the winning time was 4:04 I believe, but
there was a large gap after the first couple riders and everybody else).
The last two 50s to finish had just an hour to spare, I believe -- a rider
starting a new horse, and his buddy who was doing his 2nd 50 (who
literally drove straight from work in Arkansas at 11pm the night before
and jumped on the horse to ride 50 miles without having any sleep in
between -- now THAT's endurance! :))  Even the 25 was won in 2:27 I think,
which unfortunately is sorta slow for a flat 25 in our region.  This was
the first ride I've been to where the pulse was to be 60 at all VCs for
all riders.

Lakota and I arrived Friday after lunch, set up camp and took a short
leg-stretcher ride.  He ate & drank like a champ, better than ever before
really, and his poop was nice & firm. :)  He vetted in all As and looked
really great.  I was even wishing maybe I'd entered the 50 after all, but
knew it was better to be conservative.  I got up at 3am to feed him
breakfast and scooped up several thousand tons (or so it seemed) of pretty
horse apples, so I was happy.  Then I got up again around 6am, just after
the 100s left and while the 50s were trotting around warming up and the
whole camp was beginning to bustle, and Lakota started dumping cowpiles.
:( I was so upset!  I went to see the vet, told her he'd had inexplicable
diarrhea the weekend before but had been fine all week, and she came to
see him.  Checked him out, said his temp/pulse/respiration were all fine
and he looked terrific, and she had no reason to pull him.  I was most
worried about dehydration, knowing there was very little water on the
first loop (16mi), and didn't know quite what to do.  The vet suggested I
have someone ride behind me the first couple miles and watch to see
whether the loose stuff continued, and if so, or if it got worse, I'd just
turn around and come back to camp. So I did -- fortunately Cindy Braswell,
a new endurance rider in my area who also happens to be a vet! agreed to
ride with me and watch Lakota.  He was perky and bouncy and happy to go,
though still sane, and Cindy reported that his first few poops looked fine
to her, so we kept going.

Lakota and Rudy, Cindy's adorable buckskin mule, were well-matched, so we
did most of the 25 together.  We rode the first loop with Eddie Edwards on
a new 4yo Appaloosa mare, Misty, that he was just starting out.  About
halfway through the first loop, we were cantering on a nice stretch of
open trail with good footing, warm sun, cool breeze, having a blast, and I
shouted out "Is this living OR WHAT?!?!"  And Eddie, trying to talk around
a mouthful of fried chicken (yes, this man can eat fried chicken while
cantering down the trail, can you believe that?), and Cindy said "yes!
yes!"  We were all happy campers. :)  Eddie backed off some after that,
wanting to take it easy with Misty, so Cindy and I continued.  We finished
together with a ride time somewhere under 4 hours (I really didn't keep
track).  There were shouts of laughter and lots of handclapping when Eddie
was announced in last place in the 25 at the awards meeting! lol 

I know that Angie and others are going to scream because I can't tell you
much about placings. :( The winner of the 50 was someone I know by sight
but not by name -- she's from Florida, and she has this really kewl funky
corral panel system that her husband made for her, does that help any? :))
Most of the Top Ten were from Florida, interestingly enough.  I know that
Joe Schoech finished the 100 (Tamra finished 4th I think in the 25), but I
don't even know who most of the other riders were and I don't know
placings.

The diarrhea thing really has me puzzled.  It seemed like a
straightforward case of nervous diarrhea -- but Lakota has never done this
before!  And he's definitely NOT a nervous horse by nature -- he's very
laidback, tends to be lazy on trail, and takes most everything in life in
stride.  He rarely gets worked up about anything.  Hard sometimes to
believe he's an Arab <g> -- though he did narrowly save us (by quickly
sidestepping, of course) from being attacked by a Killer Dead Tree Branch
and a Horse-Eating Dead Tree Stump on the ride this weekend.  (I think his
mother was attacked by a tree stump when he was just a little colt, and it
traumatized him. <BG>)  His poop was fine throughout the ride and after,
and all night long, got a bit sloppy the next morning while all the
horses were loading up to leave, and was normal in the trailer coming
home.  Anyone got any ideas why a 12yo with 5 years experience at CTR,
endurance, and camping/riding for fun would suddenly develop nervous
diarrhea like this?

Anyway, it was a good conditioning ride for me and Lakota, and it was a
nice weekend getaway for me -- no computers, no phones, no pagers! Looking
forward to doing the 50 at Goethe again this year, I hope.

Glenda & Lakota
Mobile, AL
AERC # M18819 & H27310
SE Region


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