Wednesday, October 05, 2011

North American Endurance Team Challenge - Heather Reynolds

Reynolds Racing

Sunday, 02 October 2011
This is a little over due! Jeremy and I are still going full steam preparing five horses for Tevis.

On Tuesday before the NAETC we headed up to the ride. It was super hot out so we left at 6 pm. Skip was hauling our trailer up as we had had a license issue with our hauling vehicle and Jeremy was still in the process of getting his class "A" non commercial license. We pulled into camp about 12:30 am.

Wed we got up and Jeremy took Dee and Kutt for a nice long walk. Then we made coffee with the amazing machine Jeremy had gotten me for my birthday. The rest of the Pac South team trickled in throughout the day. Becky called and was having some rig issues and would be coming much later in the evening than planned.

We went out for a ride and both horses felt great. After hanging out and saying hi to friends we went to town for a few items and for dinner. Greenville is a small town. It is a very welcoming town and the locals all seem like friends. We had dinner in the local cafe/diner. It had a very hometown feel to it.

Thursday everyone had arrived that would be riding for our zone. My main crew Nicole Chappel arrived. We started to get all of the crew stuff out and buckets organized. The Pac South riders were: Alex North, Nicole Smith, Becky Hart, Jeremy Reynolds and myself. You should have seen the piles of buckets, ice chests and crew stuff that we had out!

A group of crew also went to scope out the crew points. Skip was keeping everybody informed as he was our chef and he was attending daily, morning meetings with the officials, who would go over logistics and details.

All of the teams had their passports inspected with the horses present. After the inspection we rode Dee and Kutt again and they got to see the change that had been made to the finish line loop.

I clipped both horses after the ride. It was still very hot and they both had decent coats growing.

Our team vet, Jay Mauro looked all of our horses over thoroughly and watched them trot in straight lines and circles to evaluate their soundness.

Becky went out for a ride on Pete and wasn't happy with him, she was feeling something funky in the front end. She asked Jeremy if he could check him out. She was thinking about not riding! It was decided that Jeremy would mess with his feet after he vetted in Friday.

That night there was a wine and cheese reception hosted by Pac North. It was fun to visit and see everyone. A lot of people were dancing to the live music. Jeremy and I left early and hit the hay. The next morning we heard that a few of our team mates and friends from other teams had shut the place down and then had headed into town to the local bar!

At O'Dark Thirty Rebecca Silva arrived. Jeremy had to drive her to the cabin where she would stay. About :45 after Rebecca, in the middle of the night when you are dead asleep Jeremy's main crew and identical twin brother, Tim arrived with Lori Olson, Becky's crew. Jeremy had to get up and drive her over to the cabin she would be staying! Becky you owe him!

On Friday we rode first thing in the morning as vetting in would be at 9 am. Dee and Kutt were both feeling ready.

Skip would have to figure out who he wanted to have as the official team of 4 and who would be the 1 individual rider. He would have to decide very shortly after vetting...

Read more here:
http://www.reynoldsracing.us/heathers_blog/view/357/north_american_endurance_team_challenge

No comments:

Followers