Permissible substances (preceding and during competition):
*vitamins
*minerals
*electrolytes
*liniments that do not contain materials absorbed into the body (alcohol and Absorbine)
*foodstuffs known as nutrients
*nonabsorbable topical wound dressings
*alcohol
*ice and ice water
*compounds to synchronize estrus
*****************************************
Nonpermissible substances include:
*any substance by injection or stomache tube
*vitamins in megadoses
*nutrient substances administered in doses to achive a pharmacologic effect (DMSO, DMG, yucca and MSM)
*any anti-inflammatory, stimulus, depressants, analgesia, or analgesia-containing products such as procaine penicillin
*antihistaminic
*vasoactive
*bronchodilator
*masking substances (sulpha drugs, benzimadole wormers, thiamine injections)
*dipyrone
*lazix
*trimethoprim
*liminments that contain DMSO, menthol or camphor
*E-SE injections
Wednesday, May 12, 1999
Friday, May 07, 1999
Kirsten`s First 100 Mile Ride - Kirsten
Yes, I made it!!! I rode my first 100 mile ride at Washoe Valley, Nevada, last Saturday and it was a lot of fun!!! I had a wonderful horse (thanks, Lari!!!), great help from Lari Shea and her crew, perfect weather, a challenging but beautiful and well marked trail that offered everything (rocky high desert, pine trees, mountain views, steep climbs, easy dirt roads and sandy lake side trails) and great company throughout the ride! I had been thinking about entering a 100 miler for a while but never quiet found the confidence to do it with one of my own horses. Whenever I thought that I was ready, I felt that the horse wasn`t and vice versa... There were all these doubts in my head, like: What, if I reach the point of feeling like I don`t want to go on? What, if my horse hits the wall `cause he`s never gone that far either? What about those endless hours riding through the dark? What, if we get pulled at 90 miles? What, if it starts raining at 10pm? ........
The idea of riding a horse with 100mile-experience had never occured to me, untill Lari Shea offered me to ride Nature`s Nikita, one of her big, strong Arab/Orlov crosses, at Washoe. I didn`t think twice. Although I had never sat on this horse before (not to mention that I`ve never ridden another horse than Slim or Zuma in an Endurance ride) I trusted Lari. If she thought that Niki and I could do it, I knew we would.
Thursday after work I flew from L.A. to Reno. Heidi Siegel picked me up from the airport (in pouring rain....) and I spend the night at her house (Thanks, Heidi, for the great dinner and everything!). The next morning the clouds were gone and we had a short 1 hour drive to basecamp where "my horse for the next 100 miles" was already waiting to take me on a test-ride. Trying to get on the 16h gelding was quiet a challenge (my guys at home are 14.2h) but once I made it up there, it felt pretty good. Niki has a big, floating trot and canter as well as a ground covering walk, which I really learned to appreciate the next day. With his "Let`s go"-attitude he seemed to be ready for anything.
The start for the 100milers was at 5am with a bright full moon shining over the snow covered Sierra`s. I was glad that Lari and I rode together on the first 50 mile loop. I pretty much just followed her through the various terrain while getting to know my horse better and listening to some great stories, and Niki seemed to be quiet content with Avanti`s company and kept on cruising down the trail. Just before we headed down into Dayton for the 32mile vet check we saw a wild Mustang standing on a bluff about 1000 -1500 feet from us. The stocky bay horse was watching us trot by. What a beautiful sight! I had never seen a wild horse with my own eyes before and I was thrilled. He was my lucky charm!!!
Niki vetted through the first and second vet check with flying colours. I was impressed by how fast his pulse dropped, especially for such a big guy. Both horses had been drinking well on the trail, wether it was out of water troughs, creeks or puddles. After the lunch hold Lari left 1 minute in front of me, saying something like "You`ll probably catch up right away...". That was the last I saw of her. Although Niki wanted to catch up with his buddy, I thought I`d better slow down a little, for the horse`s and my own sake. The next 20 mile loop had some climbing and some pretty rocky parts in it, and I didn`t want to take a chance. On the first steep hill, Niki acted like he was tired, so I got off and tailed up. As soon as other horses started passing us he kicked into a higher gear and dragged me up to the top. Of course he wouldn`t stand still while I was trying to mount and when I finally made it back in the saddle, I decided to stay there untill we got back to camp for the next vet check .
We left the 70 mile check at the same time as Dominique (? last name) and rode with her the next 26 miles. Our horses travelled well together and Niki sure appreciated to have a trail buddy again. It turned out that Dominique was also riding a horse that she had only met the day before, but she knew the course and therefore managed to get us over the pass and through the SOB`s in exactly 4 hours. Just before we reached the waterstop halfway through the loop, 3 riders passed us whose horses looked terrific. I remembered Lari`s words that "100 milers aren`t won on the first 50 miles". One of the 3, Judy Reens, stayed with us for the remaining part of the loop. We reached camp for the last vet check while the sun was setting. Judy`s and Dominique`s horses met criteria faster than Niki, who seemed excited and anxious to head for our campsite and see his buddies. I finally got him to stand still and drop to 60. He vetted through fine, except that his pulse was still a little high.
We left on the last 4 mile loop 5 minutes behind Dominique and Judy and I knew that we wouldn`t be able to catch them. And in a way I was glad, because I knew that there were 8 in front of us and one had to be 11th..... The last 4 miles took us down to the lake and along the shore before turning back through the dunes and towards camp. Little waves were splashing on the beach while we were walking through the sand and I was thinking "I can`t believe, we`re almost done!". I had expected to take about 50 - 60 minutes for this final loop, but Niki was full of energy. We had stayed in the vet area for the 15 minute hold so he knew that he wasn`t quiet done yet but willing to go a little further. We crossed the finish line in the last daylight at about 20.15 pm. What about all my worries re. riding in the dark......??? At the final check, Niki got all As exept for one B (attitude...:-)). What a great horse! He had taken such good care of me that I never reached the point of "Oh god, how much further...?"! Just a little sore and one good size bruise (from swinging my leg over the saddle to low and ripping off the cap of a waterbottle). I was hungry and tired and couldn`t wait to fall into my sleeping bag. But -- wait -- noone had told me how hard it is to fall asleep after riding for 15hours. I felt like I was jet-laged! My body was exhausted but my mind kept on going... Oh well, I didn`t expect not to have ANY problems at all, did I....???
Btw, Lari and her horse Avanti won the Washoe 100 by about 15 minutes (and 2 hours in front of Niki and me)! But Lari knows that I`m still waiting to hear the second part of that story she promised to tell me later in the day..... :-))
BC went to Marcia Smith and Samsoon, who looked phantastic the next mornining! And although about a dozen or so people were pulled (out of 42, I think), everybody I knew made it through the 100. The last riders finished at 3.30 am - WOW... guess, I`m really spoiled ..... :-))) !!! Thanks to everybody who helped to make May 1st my day!!!
Kirsten Topanga, California (Okay, I admit, I`m still a little bit sore. But nothing will ever compare to what I went through on my first 25 mile ride 2 1/2 years ago...)
The idea of riding a horse with 100mile-experience had never occured to me, untill Lari Shea offered me to ride Nature`s Nikita, one of her big, strong Arab/Orlov crosses, at Washoe. I didn`t think twice. Although I had never sat on this horse before (not to mention that I`ve never ridden another horse than Slim or Zuma in an Endurance ride) I trusted Lari. If she thought that Niki and I could do it, I knew we would.
Thursday after work I flew from L.A. to Reno. Heidi Siegel picked me up from the airport (in pouring rain....) and I spend the night at her house (Thanks, Heidi, for the great dinner and everything!). The next morning the clouds were gone and we had a short 1 hour drive to basecamp where "my horse for the next 100 miles" was already waiting to take me on a test-ride. Trying to get on the 16h gelding was quiet a challenge (my guys at home are 14.2h) but once I made it up there, it felt pretty good. Niki has a big, floating trot and canter as well as a ground covering walk, which I really learned to appreciate the next day. With his "Let`s go"-attitude he seemed to be ready for anything.
The start for the 100milers was at 5am with a bright full moon shining over the snow covered Sierra`s. I was glad that Lari and I rode together on the first 50 mile loop. I pretty much just followed her through the various terrain while getting to know my horse better and listening to some great stories, and Niki seemed to be quiet content with Avanti`s company and kept on cruising down the trail. Just before we headed down into Dayton for the 32mile vet check we saw a wild Mustang standing on a bluff about 1000 -1500 feet from us. The stocky bay horse was watching us trot by. What a beautiful sight! I had never seen a wild horse with my own eyes before and I was thrilled. He was my lucky charm!!!
Niki vetted through the first and second vet check with flying colours. I was impressed by how fast his pulse dropped, especially for such a big guy. Both horses had been drinking well on the trail, wether it was out of water troughs, creeks or puddles. After the lunch hold Lari left 1 minute in front of me, saying something like "You`ll probably catch up right away...". That was the last I saw of her. Although Niki wanted to catch up with his buddy, I thought I`d better slow down a little, for the horse`s and my own sake. The next 20 mile loop had some climbing and some pretty rocky parts in it, and I didn`t want to take a chance. On the first steep hill, Niki acted like he was tired, so I got off and tailed up. As soon as other horses started passing us he kicked into a higher gear and dragged me up to the top. Of course he wouldn`t stand still while I was trying to mount and when I finally made it back in the saddle, I decided to stay there untill we got back to camp for the next vet check .
We left the 70 mile check at the same time as Dominique (? last name) and rode with her the next 26 miles. Our horses travelled well together and Niki sure appreciated to have a trail buddy again. It turned out that Dominique was also riding a horse that she had only met the day before, but she knew the course and therefore managed to get us over the pass and through the SOB`s in exactly 4 hours. Just before we reached the waterstop halfway through the loop, 3 riders passed us whose horses looked terrific. I remembered Lari`s words that "100 milers aren`t won on the first 50 miles". One of the 3, Judy Reens, stayed with us for the remaining part of the loop. We reached camp for the last vet check while the sun was setting. Judy`s and Dominique`s horses met criteria faster than Niki, who seemed excited and anxious to head for our campsite and see his buddies. I finally got him to stand still and drop to 60. He vetted through fine, except that his pulse was still a little high.
We left on the last 4 mile loop 5 minutes behind Dominique and Judy and I knew that we wouldn`t be able to catch them. And in a way I was glad, because I knew that there were 8 in front of us and one had to be 11th..... The last 4 miles took us down to the lake and along the shore before turning back through the dunes and towards camp. Little waves were splashing on the beach while we were walking through the sand and I was thinking "I can`t believe, we`re almost done!". I had expected to take about 50 - 60 minutes for this final loop, but Niki was full of energy. We had stayed in the vet area for the 15 minute hold so he knew that he wasn`t quiet done yet but willing to go a little further. We crossed the finish line in the last daylight at about 20.15 pm. What about all my worries re. riding in the dark......??? At the final check, Niki got all As exept for one B (attitude...:-)). What a great horse! He had taken such good care of me that I never reached the point of "Oh god, how much further...?"! Just a little sore and one good size bruise (from swinging my leg over the saddle to low and ripping off the cap of a waterbottle). I was hungry and tired and couldn`t wait to fall into my sleeping bag. But -- wait -- noone had told me how hard it is to fall asleep after riding for 15hours. I felt like I was jet-laged! My body was exhausted but my mind kept on going... Oh well, I didn`t expect not to have ANY problems at all, did I....???
Btw, Lari and her horse Avanti won the Washoe 100 by about 15 minutes (and 2 hours in front of Niki and me)! But Lari knows that I`m still waiting to hear the second part of that story she promised to tell me later in the day..... :-))
BC went to Marcia Smith and Samsoon, who looked phantastic the next mornining! And although about a dozen or so people were pulled (out of 42, I think), everybody I knew made it through the 100. The last riders finished at 3.30 am - WOW... guess, I`m really spoiled ..... :-))) !!! Thanks to everybody who helped to make May 1st my day!!!
Kirsten Topanga, California (Okay, I admit, I`m still a little bit sore. But nothing will ever compare to what I went through on my first 25 mile ride 2 1/2 years ago...)
3K Renegade Pony - John Parke
My Icelandic horse Remington passed the three thousand career mile mark at Randy Eiland`s Renegade Ride in New Mexico a week or two ago. This ride covers 285 miles over five days, from Texas accross southern New Mexico to near the Arizona border. Miscellaneous things I recall (from Renegade, not the whole three thousand miles):
Day I, a fifty five miler, started near El Paso, Texas and followed much of the same ground we covered in a 100 miler last November. Most of the ride was sandy with an enormous number of rocks in the hills near the end. Many riders were troubled throughout the five days about how to protect their horses` feet from rocks with pads or Easyboots without having problems with sand intrusion. Temperatures reached the 90`s. I rode with my buddy Richard Fuess and his stallion Jake. Jake`s easy moving gaits are so beautiful to watch. We were very impressed with the near infinite variety of thorny bushes and cacti defining this part of New Mexico. Our rig arrived at camp later than we did, no doubt helped by the fact I had disabled both the brakes and the lights of Richard`s 38 ft. trailer by accidentally pulling the plug off the connection cable earlier. Many people helped us with blankets, hay and especially beer.
Day II, a sixty miler, started with an intense rock field for the first ten or fifteen miles. There were some hills although the whole day, like the other days, had a cumulative climb of only around 1,500 ft. according to my altimeter watch. I began to count the rocks. I think there were 9,028,806 rocks on the trail overall by my calculations. Randy may have a better count. Assistant vet Nancy Cryder (sp.?) was very friendly, helpful and generally adorable. (Head vet Barney Fleming is always those things too but maybe too grizzled to call adorable.) We saw a lot of dead cows. We rode into Columbus, the site of Pancho Villa`s infamous raid, after dark. I was too tired to go raiding the bars accross the border with most of the other riders.
Day III, also a sixty miler, mostly followed the border. US Army units were constructing a new road and were very accomodating about stopping their machinery to let us pass. Still, John Teeter had a big adventure which Stephanie will probably describe in her next post. After lunch we climbed some more hills with more rocks. I began to name the rocks. Ugly names. The weather started to get stormy. There was rain and even snow at the finish for some people. Short little Remington looked so cute getting down on his knees to reach the water at the bottom of the tank two miles from the finish, I took out my camera to take a picture. It broke. Watering your horse within two mile of the finish, by the way, is an example of the kind of horse management that works at multi-days. You have to do things that may not be necessary today but will help the horse for the next day. When Barney finished checking Rem for completion, I told him he had just vetted in the world`s first 3,000 mile Icelandic endurance horse. I sure wished my camera hadn`t died twenty minutes earlier.
Day IV, a fifty five miler, headed back to the Mexican border with a climb through the rocks. The border here consists of a two strand barbwire cow fence with a cowpath on our side. Not very intimidating. By noontime, I began to talk to the rocks. Ada Carr was very helpful at the lunch vet check like she was every day. She began to sound like she wants an Icelandic, too. We rode through Little Hatchita, an interesting mining ghost town. I finished after dark again and had a temper tantrum over something minor, thus violating my cardinal principle that any critical comments at a ride should be expressed in a brief, calm manner and be accompanied by either a constructive suggestion or offer of assistance to busy ride personnel. Oh well, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, or something like that per Emerson.
Day V, another fifty five miler, started with another climb through rocks. The rocks began to talk to me. It`s good there wasn`t a Day VI. Later, Kat Swigart from our list said to me that she hadn`t noticed any rocks. I remember feeling glad that her father was at the ride to take her home. After a long day we finished at the ghost town of Shakespeare, a registered National Historical Site with a 150 year history. After Nancy vetted Remington in, the town`s owner and last remaining resident Janaloo Hill gave me a personal tour while Nancy played with Rem. I was having too much fun to notice that my trailer ride to our final base camp at the fairgrounds in Lordsburg had just left. We were now faced with at least a one hour wait for the next available trailer as it was getting dark, windy and cold. So I re-tightened the girth, climbed back up and said to Remington, "Shall we?" He voted with his feet and trotted down the hill to Lordsburg. As we proceeded through Lordsburg looking for the fairgrounds, I observed that many neighborhoods needed urban renewal but was glad most people kept their dogs tied up. I finally stopped a drunk on a bicycle at an intersection to ask directions. He told me to turn right and go on down the road until I hit the fairgrounds, right behind the Fiesta Club. It`s funny what non horse people use as landmarks. We got to camp after dark just in time to go to the awards banquet .......... at the Fiesta Club.
The banquet was wonderful. Sharon Dumas was the overall winner on time, overall Best Condition winner and a very happy girl. Randy had humorous things to say about everybody and passed out lovely Tarahumara Indian pottery cooking bowls as ride awards to the twenty seven horse and rider teams, including us, who managed to complete all five days. Randy`s rides, like other multi-day rides, go to the core of what endurance riding is all about. I just didn`t have the heart to tell him that his Renegade Ride was the site of the completion of the AERC`s first 5 mile point to point Limited Distance Ride by Remington and me.
John Parke
Solvang CA
Day I, a fifty five miler, started near El Paso, Texas and followed much of the same ground we covered in a 100 miler last November. Most of the ride was sandy with an enormous number of rocks in the hills near the end. Many riders were troubled throughout the five days about how to protect their horses` feet from rocks with pads or Easyboots without having problems with sand intrusion. Temperatures reached the 90`s. I rode with my buddy Richard Fuess and his stallion Jake. Jake`s easy moving gaits are so beautiful to watch. We were very impressed with the near infinite variety of thorny bushes and cacti defining this part of New Mexico. Our rig arrived at camp later than we did, no doubt helped by the fact I had disabled both the brakes and the lights of Richard`s 38 ft. trailer by accidentally pulling the plug off the connection cable earlier. Many people helped us with blankets, hay and especially beer.
Day II, a sixty miler, started with an intense rock field for the first ten or fifteen miles. There were some hills although the whole day, like the other days, had a cumulative climb of only around 1,500 ft. according to my altimeter watch. I began to count the rocks. I think there were 9,028,806 rocks on the trail overall by my calculations. Randy may have a better count. Assistant vet Nancy Cryder (sp.?) was very friendly, helpful and generally adorable. (Head vet Barney Fleming is always those things too but maybe too grizzled to call adorable.) We saw a lot of dead cows. We rode into Columbus, the site of Pancho Villa`s infamous raid, after dark. I was too tired to go raiding the bars accross the border with most of the other riders.
Day III, also a sixty miler, mostly followed the border. US Army units were constructing a new road and were very accomodating about stopping their machinery to let us pass. Still, John Teeter had a big adventure which Stephanie will probably describe in her next post. After lunch we climbed some more hills with more rocks. I began to name the rocks. Ugly names. The weather started to get stormy. There was rain and even snow at the finish for some people. Short little Remington looked so cute getting down on his knees to reach the water at the bottom of the tank two miles from the finish, I took out my camera to take a picture. It broke. Watering your horse within two mile of the finish, by the way, is an example of the kind of horse management that works at multi-days. You have to do things that may not be necessary today but will help the horse for the next day. When Barney finished checking Rem for completion, I told him he had just vetted in the world`s first 3,000 mile Icelandic endurance horse. I sure wished my camera hadn`t died twenty minutes earlier.
Day IV, a fifty five miler, headed back to the Mexican border with a climb through the rocks. The border here consists of a two strand barbwire cow fence with a cowpath on our side. Not very intimidating. By noontime, I began to talk to the rocks. Ada Carr was very helpful at the lunch vet check like she was every day. She began to sound like she wants an Icelandic, too. We rode through Little Hatchita, an interesting mining ghost town. I finished after dark again and had a temper tantrum over something minor, thus violating my cardinal principle that any critical comments at a ride should be expressed in a brief, calm manner and be accompanied by either a constructive suggestion or offer of assistance to busy ride personnel. Oh well, consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, or something like that per Emerson.
Day V, another fifty five miler, started with another climb through rocks. The rocks began to talk to me. It`s good there wasn`t a Day VI. Later, Kat Swigart from our list said to me that she hadn`t noticed any rocks. I remember feeling glad that her father was at the ride to take her home. After a long day we finished at the ghost town of Shakespeare, a registered National Historical Site with a 150 year history. After Nancy vetted Remington in, the town`s owner and last remaining resident Janaloo Hill gave me a personal tour while Nancy played with Rem. I was having too much fun to notice that my trailer ride to our final base camp at the fairgrounds in Lordsburg had just left. We were now faced with at least a one hour wait for the next available trailer as it was getting dark, windy and cold. So I re-tightened the girth, climbed back up and said to Remington, "Shall we?" He voted with his feet and trotted down the hill to Lordsburg. As we proceeded through Lordsburg looking for the fairgrounds, I observed that many neighborhoods needed urban renewal but was glad most people kept their dogs tied up. I finally stopped a drunk on a bicycle at an intersection to ask directions. He told me to turn right and go on down the road until I hit the fairgrounds, right behind the Fiesta Club. It`s funny what non horse people use as landmarks. We got to camp after dark just in time to go to the awards banquet .......... at the Fiesta Club.
The banquet was wonderful. Sharon Dumas was the overall winner on time, overall Best Condition winner and a very happy girl. Randy had humorous things to say about everybody and passed out lovely Tarahumara Indian pottery cooking bowls as ride awards to the twenty seven horse and rider teams, including us, who managed to complete all five days. Randy`s rides, like other multi-day rides, go to the core of what endurance riding is all about. I just didn`t have the heart to tell him that his Renegade Ride was the site of the completion of the AERC`s first 5 mile point to point Limited Distance Ride by Remington and me.
John Parke
Solvang CA
New Mexico Renegade ... sort of - Steph Teeter
Sometimes things go well ... and sometimes it just seems like everything goes wrong.
Before I start, I want to thank Randy Eiland and his helpers for another great 5-day ride. This was our third time at Renegade - riding the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas to Lordsburg, NM (Arizona border) and I still LOVE this ride. The wide open country, mesquite, sand, rock, and you can`t help but think about the history when you ride there - the apaches, Billy the Kid, Poncho Villa - this country is so big - but so easy to get lost - or hide - in. Plus there`s something special about Randy`s rides - relaxed and friendly. Barney Flemming and Nancy Cryderman (?) are terrific vets - always there to help, always willing to spend extra time if necessary. It`s just a fun ride.
Our first few mis-haps were pretty minor - we had traded in our old Sundowner for a new one which was delivered to the ranch, and waiting for us when we arrived. The wiring didn`t match our truck`s so rather than charging the battery, the trailer brakes stayed on. Not a big problem, there wasn`t a lot of driving to do and our truck could do the braking, so we just left it unplugged. But while focusing on the trailer brake problem, John had failed to release the emergency brake completely during some of our tests up and down the ranch drive, so they sort of burned up. No problem, we just wouldn`t park on any hills :) The ride must go on....
We loaded the horses, hay, etc and headed over to base camp on Sunday. Beautiful weather - 70`s and sunny. John would ride Snip, our green-broke Arab/Saddlebred cross, and I was riding Nature`s Fantastic - a young Thoroughbred/Russian Orlov cross of Lari Shea`s that I was just riding for her for the winter. (yeah, right - as if I wasn`t going to fall in love with him!) I had ridden Fantastic at Death Valley - it was his first endurance ride and he was a bit of a handful in the beginning - but after he bucked me off I planted him behind John and Quicksilver and we somehow made it through the first 25 miles. He was fine the remaining 375 miles and l was really impressed with his ability - and attitude - he never did stop asking to go faster.
Base camp was the usual day of visiting old friends, preparing tack and feed for the week, vetting in, riding. It`s always so exciting before a ride. There were actually quite a few other snags - Alisa Waxman (from Chicago) had kept her horse at Spur C for the winter also - she arrived on Saturday, took her mare out for a short ride, all was well - until she vetted in and discovered she was lame. Alisa was crushed, but fortunately found some great folks from Montana (Dorothy Sue Phillips, Phyllis Arnold) who had a spare horse for her - (Alisa ended up riding their `spare` top-ten all week and finished top-ten overall - not bad!) Our other Spur C friend, Earle Baxter from Canada had a panic when his great Standardbred/Arab cross trotted out lame just an hour after an easy ride over to base camp. Earle worked on him - figured it was a shoulder problem - the horse worked out of it and went on to finish all 5 days, 5th overall. Just weird stuff going on. And then there was word from Nicole and Dave Luck - they couldn`t make it because their truck had just been stolen! We`re all shaking our heads at this point... what next?
The first day - 55 miles started Monday at 8AM - warm and sunny by the time we all left. John and I planned to ride very slow - neither of our horses were seasoned competitors, and we just planned to do the miles - conserve energy, easy pace. Unfortunately both our horses were very eager and not happy about the slow pace. We spent the first 2 hours keeping them at a walk (sort of) - we were finally able to let them move out as we turned along the railroad track - good footing, no horses in site, they should be more relaxed by now. We were moving along reasonably when Fantastic broke into a lope - it started getting more vertical, and then rather alarmingly like bucking when I heard a huge roar and we realized a freight train was bearing down on us (10 ft from the track). Both horses were sky-high by then and I just recall thinking ...circles ... we need to do circles... I`d love to go back and look at our tracks some day. We both managed to stay on, I have no idea what John and Snip were doing, but Fantastic and I were doing pirouette and piaffe circles around the mesquite. After I realized we weren`t going to die it was actually quite thrilling. This was probably one of my most exciting moments on horse back.
Poor Fantastic never did get the hang of watering at the cow tanks. Creaky windmills, big tanks on concrete platforms - and he was really afraid of the cows. I carried a collapsible bucket, so he at least drank a little at the stops. After crossing the mountain and heading down to Monday`s base camp we had one more tank to water at. There was a beast of a bull lying next to it, and another bull braying in the bushes. This was just too much for either of the horses. Fantastic just froze and started trembling. Snip was a little braver and we finally got them around the tank and the bulls - but I`m afraid it left a lasting impression on Fantastic, and he was even more frightened of the cattle after that. Finally made it to camp, a 9 hour ride time, getting dark, hungry, but both horses looked great. And Boyd was there with a nice cold beer!
Tuesday was pretty pleasant - and mostly uneventful. The vet check was at a god-forsaken ranch in the middle of an alkali flat - truly grim. Nobody lived there anymore, but still used it for stock. The trail in went by the cattle `graveyard` - bones and buzzards, a nice place to hurry by. I guess Sue Norris`s horse tried to hurry by a little too abruptly, bolted, broke Sue`s finger in his escape and raced around the ranch and vet check until he was finally caught. When I saw Sue, she had her finger taped up with purple and yellow vet wrap - and was determined to finish the ride. Typical endurance rider!
We rode into the border town of Columbus Tuesday night, storms brewing on all horizons and a pretty good wind blowing. Horses looked great, John and I felt good - all the walking we did kept us from getting sore. We had some nice trots and canters riding into camp along the border - into the wind, high sprits. But it was looking like Wednesday`s weather could be a little different from the 70-80 degree days we`d been having. That night, we all drove across the border into Palomas, Mexico for dinner - great food, good time.
And then Wednesday - our day of real adventure....
Wednesday dawned cloudy and cool - nothing nasty, actually less stressful riding weather for the horses. We started late (8am) after Tuesday night`s foray into Mexico. Snip and Fantastic felt great, nice working trot, loose rein, walked when asked to. We were travelling along the border most of the morning. The US Border Patrol is building a road along the border - widening, putting in culverts, ect. and they were going at it as we rode. We came upon the first big dozer and truck full of army-clad workers. Fantastic scooted around them, and then Snip scooted - but scooted even farther when a few of the guys waved from the top of the truck. He scooted into a string of construction/survey tape and panicked when it wrapped around his hind legs. He pretty much went ballistic - John hung on for a while, but the saddle slid to the side and he came off, and couldn`t hang on to Snip - who went flying back down the border with the saddle flopping sideways and under him. Our mare, Quicksilver, was back at camp and that may have had something to do with his determination to head back - but he was definitely going. A few riders tried to catch him but only managed to send him away from the border and across the desert in a straighter line to camp. (a very lucky thing, since he managed to avoid the fences this way!) What a horrible feeling! We were at least 8 miles into the ride, Snip was in panic mode, blazing away from us - saddle flopping under him - and lots of barbed wire fences between him and basecamp. After I got Fantastic calmed down we figured I`d better boogie back to camp, see if Snip made it - and in what shape he was in. John started walking and I took off at a barely controlled trot. Passed a few folks on the way that had seen Snip, but couldn`t catch him. He still had the saddle at that point. I made it back to camp in about 40 minutes (almost got spooked off halfway there!) - saw Snip`s tracks coming out of the mesquite and onto the dirt access road - somehow he managed to avoid the fences and concertina wire (yes this is border country!). When I got back, there was Snip, tied to a trailer - and there was John! He had gotten a ride from a border patrol guy - and beat me by 15 minutes. Snip was ok - inside hind legs dinged up, but nothing major, amazingly enough. But no saddle. By then it was 10:00 - two hours since we started, and we`re back at camp in Columbus. We figured we still had 12 hours to do the 60 miles, so heck, why not try again. There were still a few trailers in camp (most had already been moved to the next base camp) and we managed to find another saddle in Jim Barnett`s rig. We figured Jim wouldn`t mind, so saddled up and away we went again. We planned to search for the ill-fated Ortho-Flex on our way back out. As we were leaving, the border patrol guy drove back by - we asked him if he could drive out and help find the saddle - no problem! Nothing better to do. He drove out, we rode and found his rig parked by the edge of the field - and saw him way out in the distance carrying the saddle over his shoulder. What a great guy! The saddle wasn`t totally trashed, but ... close. The stirrups and leathers had been almost torn off the tree - they must have gotten hung up on something. The billet leathers were what finally broke (they were already in need of repair, and their weakness was probably a good thing since Snip was finally able to bust out of the saddle). Btw - since then John has received advice from Les Carr to always use a breast collar to prevent a saddle from slipping under the horse`s belly. Good advice! So now it`s 10:30 ... sure, we can still make it. We`re feeling better, the horses feel remarkably good - we make it past the first danger zone, start to relax, pass a few more scary dozers and then Snip went lame. Hind leg - probably where it got dinged up - maybe wrenched something trying to lose the saddle. So ... what now? It`s 11:30, and we`re wondering if anybody will even be left at the vet check (which was only 22 miles into the ride). John is going to have to walk Snip in the remaining 12 miles. We figure our best bet was for me to ride fast for the vetcheck and make sure there was still a rig there to trailer Snip in the rest of the way. So, once again, off we go! Fantastic was .... fantastic. He sensed my energy and just took me there. A few spooks at construction sites when guys popped up out of ditches to see what was flying by - but mostly he was all business. We got to the road into the vet check (another 2 miles in) just as Jim Barnett was driving out. Told him the story, and he headed back to tell everyone not to leave. They had assumed we would pull back in Columbus and were packed up and heading out! I got there just before the last riders (Trilby, Sandra and Julie) were headed out on the final 38 mile loop. Les Carr had pulled his horse (mild colic) so offered to pick up John and trailer Snip in. Randy and Jim drove out to try to locate John and let him know they`d be coming for him. Fantastic had been on the trail, working pretty darn hard, for 4 hours, but really looked pretty good. So I decided to give him the hour hold plus a little extra time to fuel up and then try to catch up with Trilby et al. Kat Swigart`s father, Jack, stayed around to help me - it was cold and blowing and I really appreciated his help! And thanks to Nancy (vet) for waiting an extra hour to make sure Fantastic was ok, and help me find my way out of the maze of corrals and gates and back onto the trail. So 2:00 - and I`m headed out to do another 38 miles. Gonna be a long cold night I`m thinking... I got out in the open range and could see Trilby`s group at the base of the pass - headed up the mountain. Snow/hail showers on the horizon in every direction, but somehow they managed to miss us. I got to the next cow tank - water stop - about 10 minutes after Trilby. ... more cows all around :( Fantastic was really thirsty, so drank well despite the hundreds of eyes on him. Most of the cows were lying down, so not very threatening. I was leading him away from the water, decided to lead him through the cows and mount after we left them. Got right in the middle of them and they all stood up at once! Poor Fantastic - it was too much and I didn`t have a good enough grip on the reins - so off he goes! Shit!!! Fortunately he had seen the other horses up the side of the mountain so ran straight for them. Julie grabbed him, he really didn`t want to leave them anyway, I caught up with them, got back on and Sandra noticed that he had lost an easyboot. Must have twisted off when he bolted. So ... they waited while I walked back and found the easyboot - put it back on - and FINALLY got going again. The remainder of the day/night was long, but uneventful. This was my first time ever to ride with Trilby Pederson. In case any of you don`t know Trilby, she is 65 years old and has 47,000 career miles! After her racing days, she settle down to become the mileage queen. She rides tail end, several thousand miles a year, and almost always on the same horse. Incredible style and horsemanship. So even though I really really hate riding slow, I decided it was time to ride with Trilby, and didn`t think heading out on my own was a very good idea considering the day`s events. Trilby has a million stories to tell, Julie and Sandra (from northern CA) were great company - lots of fun, we actually had a great time. The sky cleared, stars came out, beautiful sunset - and riding slow enough to enjoy it all. We arrived a little before 9pm - hooting and hollering, and FREEZING! I don`t remember ever being so cold. The footing was too rough to get off in the dark, so we just stayed mounted and walked in the last couple hours in the dark. 13 hours after we started, and only one 60 minute hold - Fantastic`s pulse was 40 - he looked terrific - and I`m now totally bonded to this horse. Looks like I`m going to have to take him home with me :) Well, that was the big day ... but there`s still a little more bad luck to come! - later... Steph Teeter
Before I start, I want to thank Randy Eiland and his helpers for another great 5-day ride. This was our third time at Renegade - riding the Mexican border from El Paso, Texas to Lordsburg, NM (Arizona border) and I still LOVE this ride. The wide open country, mesquite, sand, rock, and you can`t help but think about the history when you ride there - the apaches, Billy the Kid, Poncho Villa - this country is so big - but so easy to get lost - or hide - in. Plus there`s something special about Randy`s rides - relaxed and friendly. Barney Flemming and Nancy Cryderman (?) are terrific vets - always there to help, always willing to spend extra time if necessary. It`s just a fun ride.
Our first few mis-haps were pretty minor - we had traded in our old Sundowner for a new one which was delivered to the ranch, and waiting for us when we arrived. The wiring didn`t match our truck`s so rather than charging the battery, the trailer brakes stayed on. Not a big problem, there wasn`t a lot of driving to do and our truck could do the braking, so we just left it unplugged. But while focusing on the trailer brake problem, John had failed to release the emergency brake completely during some of our tests up and down the ranch drive, so they sort of burned up. No problem, we just wouldn`t park on any hills :) The ride must go on....
We loaded the horses, hay, etc and headed over to base camp on Sunday. Beautiful weather - 70`s and sunny. John would ride Snip, our green-broke Arab/Saddlebred cross, and I was riding Nature`s Fantastic - a young Thoroughbred/Russian Orlov cross of Lari Shea`s that I was just riding for her for the winter. (yeah, right - as if I wasn`t going to fall in love with him!) I had ridden Fantastic at Death Valley - it was his first endurance ride and he was a bit of a handful in the beginning - but after he bucked me off I planted him behind John and Quicksilver and we somehow made it through the first 25 miles. He was fine the remaining 375 miles and l was really impressed with his ability - and attitude - he never did stop asking to go faster.
Base camp was the usual day of visiting old friends, preparing tack and feed for the week, vetting in, riding. It`s always so exciting before a ride. There were actually quite a few other snags - Alisa Waxman (from Chicago) had kept her horse at Spur C for the winter also - she arrived on Saturday, took her mare out for a short ride, all was well - until she vetted in and discovered she was lame. Alisa was crushed, but fortunately found some great folks from Montana (Dorothy Sue Phillips, Phyllis Arnold) who had a spare horse for her - (Alisa ended up riding their `spare` top-ten all week and finished top-ten overall - not bad!) Our other Spur C friend, Earle Baxter from Canada had a panic when his great Standardbred/Arab cross trotted out lame just an hour after an easy ride over to base camp. Earle worked on him - figured it was a shoulder problem - the horse worked out of it and went on to finish all 5 days, 5th overall. Just weird stuff going on. And then there was word from Nicole and Dave Luck - they couldn`t make it because their truck had just been stolen! We`re all shaking our heads at this point... what next?
The first day - 55 miles started Monday at 8AM - warm and sunny by the time we all left. John and I planned to ride very slow - neither of our horses were seasoned competitors, and we just planned to do the miles - conserve energy, easy pace. Unfortunately both our horses were very eager and not happy about the slow pace. We spent the first 2 hours keeping them at a walk (sort of) - we were finally able to let them move out as we turned along the railroad track - good footing, no horses in site, they should be more relaxed by now. We were moving along reasonably when Fantastic broke into a lope - it started getting more vertical, and then rather alarmingly like bucking when I heard a huge roar and we realized a freight train was bearing down on us (10 ft from the track). Both horses were sky-high by then and I just recall thinking ...circles ... we need to do circles... I`d love to go back and look at our tracks some day. We both managed to stay on, I have no idea what John and Snip were doing, but Fantastic and I were doing pirouette and piaffe circles around the mesquite. After I realized we weren`t going to die it was actually quite thrilling. This was probably one of my most exciting moments on horse back.
Poor Fantastic never did get the hang of watering at the cow tanks. Creaky windmills, big tanks on concrete platforms - and he was really afraid of the cows. I carried a collapsible bucket, so he at least drank a little at the stops. After crossing the mountain and heading down to Monday`s base camp we had one more tank to water at. There was a beast of a bull lying next to it, and another bull braying in the bushes. This was just too much for either of the horses. Fantastic just froze and started trembling. Snip was a little braver and we finally got them around the tank and the bulls - but I`m afraid it left a lasting impression on Fantastic, and he was even more frightened of the cattle after that. Finally made it to camp, a 9 hour ride time, getting dark, hungry, but both horses looked great. And Boyd was there with a nice cold beer!
Tuesday was pretty pleasant - and mostly uneventful. The vet check was at a god-forsaken ranch in the middle of an alkali flat - truly grim. Nobody lived there anymore, but still used it for stock. The trail in went by the cattle `graveyard` - bones and buzzards, a nice place to hurry by. I guess Sue Norris`s horse tried to hurry by a little too abruptly, bolted, broke Sue`s finger in his escape and raced around the ranch and vet check until he was finally caught. When I saw Sue, she had her finger taped up with purple and yellow vet wrap - and was determined to finish the ride. Typical endurance rider!
We rode into the border town of Columbus Tuesday night, storms brewing on all horizons and a pretty good wind blowing. Horses looked great, John and I felt good - all the walking we did kept us from getting sore. We had some nice trots and canters riding into camp along the border - into the wind, high sprits. But it was looking like Wednesday`s weather could be a little different from the 70-80 degree days we`d been having. That night, we all drove across the border into Palomas, Mexico for dinner - great food, good time.
And then Wednesday - our day of real adventure....
Wednesday dawned cloudy and cool - nothing nasty, actually less stressful riding weather for the horses. We started late (8am) after Tuesday night`s foray into Mexico. Snip and Fantastic felt great, nice working trot, loose rein, walked when asked to. We were travelling along the border most of the morning. The US Border Patrol is building a road along the border - widening, putting in culverts, ect. and they were going at it as we rode. We came upon the first big dozer and truck full of army-clad workers. Fantastic scooted around them, and then Snip scooted - but scooted even farther when a few of the guys waved from the top of the truck. He scooted into a string of construction/survey tape and panicked when it wrapped around his hind legs. He pretty much went ballistic - John hung on for a while, but the saddle slid to the side and he came off, and couldn`t hang on to Snip - who went flying back down the border with the saddle flopping sideways and under him. Our mare, Quicksilver, was back at camp and that may have had something to do with his determination to head back - but he was definitely going. A few riders tried to catch him but only managed to send him away from the border and across the desert in a straighter line to camp. (a very lucky thing, since he managed to avoid the fences this way!) What a horrible feeling! We were at least 8 miles into the ride, Snip was in panic mode, blazing away from us - saddle flopping under him - and lots of barbed wire fences between him and basecamp. After I got Fantastic calmed down we figured I`d better boogie back to camp, see if Snip made it - and in what shape he was in. John started walking and I took off at a barely controlled trot. Passed a few folks on the way that had seen Snip, but couldn`t catch him. He still had the saddle at that point. I made it back to camp in about 40 minutes (almost got spooked off halfway there!) - saw Snip`s tracks coming out of the mesquite and onto the dirt access road - somehow he managed to avoid the fences and concertina wire (yes this is border country!). When I got back, there was Snip, tied to a trailer - and there was John! He had gotten a ride from a border patrol guy - and beat me by 15 minutes. Snip was ok - inside hind legs dinged up, but nothing major, amazingly enough. But no saddle. By then it was 10:00 - two hours since we started, and we`re back at camp in Columbus. We figured we still had 12 hours to do the 60 miles, so heck, why not try again. There were still a few trailers in camp (most had already been moved to the next base camp) and we managed to find another saddle in Jim Barnett`s rig. We figured Jim wouldn`t mind, so saddled up and away we went again. We planned to search for the ill-fated Ortho-Flex on our way back out. As we were leaving, the border patrol guy drove back by - we asked him if he could drive out and help find the saddle - no problem! Nothing better to do. He drove out, we rode and found his rig parked by the edge of the field - and saw him way out in the distance carrying the saddle over his shoulder. What a great guy! The saddle wasn`t totally trashed, but ... close. The stirrups and leathers had been almost torn off the tree - they must have gotten hung up on something. The billet leathers were what finally broke (they were already in need of repair, and their weakness was probably a good thing since Snip was finally able to bust out of the saddle). Btw - since then John has received advice from Les Carr to always use a breast collar to prevent a saddle from slipping under the horse`s belly. Good advice! So now it`s 10:30 ... sure, we can still make it. We`re feeling better, the horses feel remarkably good - we make it past the first danger zone, start to relax, pass a few more scary dozers and then Snip went lame. Hind leg - probably where it got dinged up - maybe wrenched something trying to lose the saddle. So ... what now? It`s 11:30, and we`re wondering if anybody will even be left at the vet check (which was only 22 miles into the ride). John is going to have to walk Snip in the remaining 12 miles. We figure our best bet was for me to ride fast for the vetcheck and make sure there was still a rig there to trailer Snip in the rest of the way. So, once again, off we go! Fantastic was .... fantastic. He sensed my energy and just took me there. A few spooks at construction sites when guys popped up out of ditches to see what was flying by - but mostly he was all business. We got to the road into the vet check (another 2 miles in) just as Jim Barnett was driving out. Told him the story, and he headed back to tell everyone not to leave. They had assumed we would pull back in Columbus and were packed up and heading out! I got there just before the last riders (Trilby, Sandra and Julie) were headed out on the final 38 mile loop. Les Carr had pulled his horse (mild colic) so offered to pick up John and trailer Snip in. Randy and Jim drove out to try to locate John and let him know they`d be coming for him. Fantastic had been on the trail, working pretty darn hard, for 4 hours, but really looked pretty good. So I decided to give him the hour hold plus a little extra time to fuel up and then try to catch up with Trilby et al. Kat Swigart`s father, Jack, stayed around to help me - it was cold and blowing and I really appreciated his help! And thanks to Nancy (vet) for waiting an extra hour to make sure Fantastic was ok, and help me find my way out of the maze of corrals and gates and back onto the trail. So 2:00 - and I`m headed out to do another 38 miles. Gonna be a long cold night I`m thinking... I got out in the open range and could see Trilby`s group at the base of the pass - headed up the mountain. Snow/hail showers on the horizon in every direction, but somehow they managed to miss us. I got to the next cow tank - water stop - about 10 minutes after Trilby. ... more cows all around :( Fantastic was really thirsty, so drank well despite the hundreds of eyes on him. Most of the cows were lying down, so not very threatening. I was leading him away from the water, decided to lead him through the cows and mount after we left them. Got right in the middle of them and they all stood up at once! Poor Fantastic - it was too much and I didn`t have a good enough grip on the reins - so off he goes! Shit!!! Fortunately he had seen the other horses up the side of the mountain so ran straight for them. Julie grabbed him, he really didn`t want to leave them anyway, I caught up with them, got back on and Sandra noticed that he had lost an easyboot. Must have twisted off when he bolted. So ... they waited while I walked back and found the easyboot - put it back on - and FINALLY got going again. The remainder of the day/night was long, but uneventful. This was my first time ever to ride with Trilby Pederson. In case any of you don`t know Trilby, she is 65 years old and has 47,000 career miles! After her racing days, she settle down to become the mileage queen. She rides tail end, several thousand miles a year, and almost always on the same horse. Incredible style and horsemanship. So even though I really really hate riding slow, I decided it was time to ride with Trilby, and didn`t think heading out on my own was a very good idea considering the day`s events. Trilby has a million stories to tell, Julie and Sandra (from northern CA) were great company - lots of fun, we actually had a great time. The sky cleared, stars came out, beautiful sunset - and riding slow enough to enjoy it all. We arrived a little before 9pm - hooting and hollering, and FREEZING! I don`t remember ever being so cold. The footing was too rough to get off in the dark, so we just stayed mounted and walked in the last couple hours in the dark. 13 hours after we started, and only one 60 minute hold - Fantastic`s pulse was 40 - he looked terrific - and I`m now totally bonded to this horse. Looks like I`m going to have to take him home with me :) Well, that was the big day ... but there`s still a little more bad luck to come! - later... Steph Teeter
Tuesday, May 04, 1999
THE HORSE LOVER`S LAMENT - Bill Fortner
(Sung to the tune of "Rawhide")
Ridin`, ridin`, ridin,
Oh, how I do love ridin`
Can`t get enough horse ridin`
RAWHIDE
In any kind of weather,
My ass is cravin` leather,
I can not wait until I get to ride!
It`s ALWAYS such a pleasure;
A joy I can not measure.
It does such wondrus things to me inside!
Moanin`, moanin`, moanin`
Yes my ass is swollen
In just 3 miles I`m groanin`
RAWHIDE
This buck, crowhop, and flutter
Has turned my legs to butter
I`m wishing that I had already died.
All the things I`m missin`
My soap op`ras and dishes
Like a dream are passin` by my eyes.
Runnin`, jumpin`, leapin`
Yes my eyes are weepin`
I wish I were home sleepin`
RAWHIDE
Blazin` way past lopin`
My lycra jeans are smokin`
Amazing! Since I think they`re soaked in brine.
My heart is palpatatin`
My liver`s dislocatin`
My God! I just got strangled by a vine.
Bitchin`, bitchin`, bitchin`
Now my crotch is itchin`
I could be home a stitchin`
RAWHIDE
Horse did a "Snowy River"
MID AIR! My heart`s a quiver
Damn fool thinks that he`s an aeroplane!
Though I am still a sailin`
My altitude is failin`
I think this horse is totally insane!
Prayin`, prayin`, prayin`
It`s too late for sayin`
I wish I was home playin`
RAWHIDE
My raspy throat`s a thirstin`
My drawers are filled to burstin`
Head to toe I know I`m black and blue.
This horse is nine tenths devil,
I`ll say this on the level,
If I survive I`m thinking barbecue!
Cussin`, cussin`, cussin`,
I`m eloquently cussin`,
I need NEW words for cussin`,
RAWHIDE
There`s one thing I`m a hatin`
There`ll be no procreatin`
I just landed on the saddle horn!
The pain`s excrutiatin`
No ambulance a waitin`
I curse the day that I was ever born.
Whinin`, whinin`, whinin`
My poor heart is pinin`
I could have been out dinin`
RAWHIDE
Hell bent through briar and thicket,
O`er barbed wire, post, and picket,
I`m clinging for dear life as on we fly.
If I can find the stable,
And get off if I`m able,
I`ll never ride again and that`s no lie!
Seein`, seein`, seein`,
I can`t believe I`m seein`
Yes my eyes are seein`
THE BARN
Around the bend I see it!
Too fast to stop! Oh sheyut!
I`m in the air again ... this time alone!
A triple flip `fore landin`,
Then on my feet a standin`.
A SUPER RIDE it was now that I`m home!!!
Chorus:
Horse broke wind! What a stink!
Oh my back! Broke I think!
Broke a nail! Need a drink!
RAWHIDE
Lost a spur, banged my knee,
Bumped my head ... on a tree,
Mercy sakes! Woe is me!
RAWHIDE
Ridin`, ridin`, ridin,
Oh, how I do love ridin`
Can`t get enough horse ridin`
RAWHIDE
In any kind of weather,
My ass is cravin` leather,
I can not wait until I get to ride!
It`s ALWAYS such a pleasure;
A joy I can not measure.
It does such wondrus things to me inside!
Moanin`, moanin`, moanin`
Yes my ass is swollen
In just 3 miles I`m groanin`
RAWHIDE
This buck, crowhop, and flutter
Has turned my legs to butter
I`m wishing that I had already died.
All the things I`m missin`
My soap op`ras and dishes
Like a dream are passin` by my eyes.
Runnin`, jumpin`, leapin`
Yes my eyes are weepin`
I wish I were home sleepin`
RAWHIDE
Blazin` way past lopin`
My lycra jeans are smokin`
Amazing! Since I think they`re soaked in brine.
My heart is palpatatin`
My liver`s dislocatin`
My God! I just got strangled by a vine.
Bitchin`, bitchin`, bitchin`
Now my crotch is itchin`
I could be home a stitchin`
RAWHIDE
Horse did a "Snowy River"
MID AIR! My heart`s a quiver
Damn fool thinks that he`s an aeroplane!
Though I am still a sailin`
My altitude is failin`
I think this horse is totally insane!
Prayin`, prayin`, prayin`
It`s too late for sayin`
I wish I was home playin`
RAWHIDE
My raspy throat`s a thirstin`
My drawers are filled to burstin`
Head to toe I know I`m black and blue.
This horse is nine tenths devil,
I`ll say this on the level,
If I survive I`m thinking barbecue!
Cussin`, cussin`, cussin`,
I`m eloquently cussin`,
I need NEW words for cussin`,
RAWHIDE
There`s one thing I`m a hatin`
There`ll be no procreatin`
I just landed on the saddle horn!
The pain`s excrutiatin`
No ambulance a waitin`
I curse the day that I was ever born.
Whinin`, whinin`, whinin`
My poor heart is pinin`
I could have been out dinin`
RAWHIDE
Hell bent through briar and thicket,
O`er barbed wire, post, and picket,
I`m clinging for dear life as on we fly.
If I can find the stable,
And get off if I`m able,
I`ll never ride again and that`s no lie!
Seein`, seein`, seein`,
I can`t believe I`m seein`
Yes my eyes are seein`
THE BARN
Around the bend I see it!
Too fast to stop! Oh sheyut!
I`m in the air again ... this time alone!
A triple flip `fore landin`,
Then on my feet a standin`.
A SUPER RIDE it was now that I`m home!!!
Chorus:
Horse broke wind! What a stink!
Oh my back! Broke I think!
Broke a nail! Need a drink!
RAWHIDE
Lost a spur, banged my knee,
Bumped my head ... on a tree,
Mercy sakes! Woe is me!
RAWHIDE
Tuesday, April 06, 1999
Our First 100 Miler, South Africa - Cindy Budler
After a sleepless Wednesday evening worrying about whether I had packed everything , my 2 sons and I loaded Shaliekah and set off at 8 am for the Platorand 100 miler in Machadodorp , Mpumalanga,South Africa. The 350 km trip went fine considering we were already competing with Easter weekend holiday traffic and we arrived at the venue at 12. Machadodorp is situated in the heart of forestry and trout fishing and the scenery is stunning with dams and fast flowing mountain streams. We were one of the first groups to arrive and set up camp right next to a small flowing stream under 2 large Oak trees. Some 50 milers entrants had started to arrive and it was time to socialise and hand walk horses through the lovely green grass and streams. The rest of our group started to arrive that afternoon and we all went out for a short ride through the town(population 1000 and a real 1 horse town!). Shaliekah was absolutely impossible , bucking and prancing and spooking at every rock and puddle. I knew I was going to have my hands full!!.
This 100 miler was a brave experiment by the Platorand Club to try and encourage 100 milers in our 50 miler season. Historically 100 milers are only held after our national finals in July and there has been a lot of negativity towards 100 milers prior to Fauresmith. We have all been encouraging this as there are many riders who wish to only concentrate on 100 milers and we would like to ride throughout the year!!. The club was offering the 100 miler and a 50 miler on the Saturday. My friend Sue Walker was to ride with me on her novice horse and my mentor Johanni on her very experienced mare Zaleyah. Sue and Johanni have almost 10 000 km in competition and Zaleyah was doing her 8th 100 miler. Rex(Sue`s horse )and my mare Shaleikah are only 2nd season horses and this was to be there first 100 miler. We were only aiming at finishing , while Johanni would ride more competitively.
On Friday morning we all went out for a warm up ride and then late on in the day we were taken out in bakkies(pickups) to see some of the course for the first time ever. At this stage there were 15 entrants, but after this drive only 7 entered!!!!. This is definitely THE most difficult ride on the calendar - of the 160 km . probably 50 km is flat and some of the hills were over 6 kms in length and at an angle of more that 45 degrees. We started out on the drive very noisy but slowly it got quieter and quieter on that bakkie as we all wondered what we were letting ourselves in for. The 3 of us decided we had to start , for the clubs sake, and just try to finish.
We got back to camp and packed everything into the bakkies and entered and vetted in. Shaleikah was so excited we couldn`t control her and she jumped the ribbon tape around the vet check - but pulse was 36 anyway and she was bursting with health and fitness. We then tried to get a few hours sleep . However , most of the 50 milers had arrived at this stage and with 80 horses to do the 50 milers camp was humming!!. After lying in the tent cuddling my "Good luck" teddybear I decided it would be better to just sit around the campfire and chat. 9 pm we saddled up and did last minute checks of goodies in the bakkies and started warming up the horses. After picking up so much info on Ridecamp I had bought the 3 of us glow sticks and we attached them to our horses martingales. The moon was very bright and the sky cloudless and the evening cool, so we had perfect weather. We were ragged unmercifully about the glowsticks(the first to be seen being worn by horses in SA), but took it good naturedly as it was intended. 10 pm and we are off - well as far as the gate anyway!!!!
There was a foot deep ditch t the gate with a rubber mat laid over it and no way were the horses going to cross that!!. Shaliekah saw Zaleyah cross , and in panic jumped the ditch while the others were fighting with their horses, and off we set snorting, prancing and spooking!! Through the little town and along the railway line , praying not to meet a train!!. The crews could not drive with us at this stage and we were motoring along at a HUGE trot in a bunch. The crews met us for the first time at 16 km`s and Sue and I took extra time to let the horses drink and eat so that the leading group could get out of sight as we felt we were going too fast for the novices. Off we went with both horses very keen and moving well. The scenery was lovely with a very bright moon and I was surprised how much I could see and how calm the horses were in the dark. We were climbing steadily all the way and the road surface was good with watering points at streams all the way, as the crews still were not with us. At 49 km`s there was a huge hill which the horses really motored up and on top was a running check point. We presented immediately with pulses of 48 and spent some time drinking and eating with the crews. Of again on our own and now it was getting cold. I discovered we had left my windcheater back at camp and hubby had to take off his sweater to give to me- very unselfish crew!!!!. This was a very eventful leg for me and not much fun. At one stage we were sure we had taken a wrong turn and I slowed to a walk to get out the map and flashlight to check our position and how far the vetgate was. Shaliekah seemed fine with the torch on and I hooked the reins over my arm and opened up the map. Well, that was it, she bolted off onto the verge and I was worried about fences as the grass was waist high. I tried to stop her and turn and the next thing I was in the grass on my back!!. She took off back to Rex and when I got up I came face-to-face with a cow!!!!!. We went on none the worse for wear but 2 km further down she bolted again!! Sue reckons I should enter her for polocrosse as she has never seen a horse move so fast so quickly!!!. I had not seen anything , but apparently there were some very strange shaped horse-eating rock monsters on the side of the road!!. It took her 5 km`s to stop snorting and dancing and we moved at a very slow hesitant pace for a while. The first vet gate was at 58 kms and we presented immediately we had untacked - pulse 48 again. Hold time of 20 minutes and a welcome break. I was off 2 minutes ahead of Sue and we very hesitantly left the farm spooking at the lime arrows on the road, while waiting for Sue and Rex to catch up. The morning mist was settling in and this leg was terribly cold and damp. I couldn`t see much as I wear glasses and the condensation was making vision decidedly difficult. We walked the horses a lot as this was a lot of downhill and the going was very stoney with holes in the road. Sue ended up around Rex`s ears when he stumbled, but luckily he managed to get them both upright without any harm done. The crews could drive with us here, but met us every 5 km`s and it was amazing how quickly the horses cottoned onto how bakkies mean food and water!!. The second vet gate was at 83 km and we were very glad to be warm and dry for a while, pulses 48 and everything fine. Some welcome coffee and banana bread from the P and R people and we were off again. This 3rd leg was the leg we had driven on Friday and we knew this was going to be difficult. The sun was starting to come up and the view was stunning- rolling hills covered in the beautiful pink and white cosmos flowers, interspersed with tawny golden waist high grass. Mist lying in fat white blankets in the hollows and the sky that soft baby blue colour you only find in Africa at sun-rise. We had earlier decided to tail and lead the horses up the worst hills and we toiled up the long ones stripping sweaters as we went. We both felt the horses were getting stilted going downhill so we lead downhill too, and when we could got on and found ourselves on very keen forward going mounts!! The leading was definitely working. The 3rd vet check was at 108km at the highest point of the ride and we had a 40 minute hold being spoilt rotten by the farmer- tea and scones on the best china and watching his horses running around the fields greeting the new day. Rex and Sue left before us and Shaliekah left the vet check jumping the ditches and doing a stallion impersonation!!! Down, down into the canyons with the rock formations looking like a giants playground of building blocks, and the rock faces shining red in the sun. It was now very hot and airless and we were starting to feel very footsore from the rocky footing. The horses seemed fine and still very keen. We met up with a local farmer who followed us for about 6 kms on horse back. Our horses were not impressed with this stranger and acted very possessively- Shaliekah lunging at him if he encroached on Rex , and Rex baring his teeth when he got too close to Shaliekah. We had done 125 km at this stage and were tired but still keen. The vet was leapfrogging us and was so supportive - coming back every 10 km`s or so to egg us on - The horses are looking great, you`re doing great. Only 3 kms to vetgate" etc etc. The horses were drinking and eating voraciously and were still keen and forward going. We came to a huge clear cool farm dam and walked them knee deep to cool off and drink. Shaliekah started doing her submarine impression- whole head in water with only ears showing-so I decided a roll might be imminent and decided to leave the dam- unfortunately not fast enough!!!!!! The next minute we were both under the water and I surfaced to find her lying down kicking and rolling in the water!! We both left the dam wit water streaming off us!! All I was worried about was my vet card, but it was till dry and handed over to hubby to look after. The next 5 km`s were absolute agony for me - wet jodhpurs and chaps are not fun!!!!!. Shaliekah was rejuvenated and pulled like a train to the next check . It took 5 minutes to get her pulse down from all the cantering!! I spent some quality time with my boots and socks while I tried to empty six inched of water out of waterlogged rubber boots and swapped dry socks with my husband!!! The last leg was the worst - all uphill, bad surface and extremely hot. We were trotting along feeling very depressed when in the distance we saw Johanni`s bakkie- she had finished and come back to encourage us on!! The horses saw the bakkie and decided to race it into the next running check!!!. We heard she had finished third and we vetted through the running check at 145 km `s with pulses of 40!!!. ONLY 20 km`s to go!!!!!! The longest 20 kms in my life as we anticipated finishing and trotted along the railway line again. The horses could smell camp and were pulling strongly. Our crews met us for the last time 15 km from home and Shaliekah grabbed one mouthful of grass from the bakkie and carried on- she wanted to finish and not mess about!!. As we approached the dreaded ditch we were met by people at the gate cheering us on!! Shaliekah just cantered straight up to the ditch and jumped it without a break in stride and we were in the camp and cantering straight at a sea of people!! Every single person in camp(including all the 50 milers who had long finished) was lined up along the lane and were clapping and cheering!!. It felt as though we had won the ride!!!. We untacked and presented immediately with a pulse of 58 and falling , trotted out sound and was congratulated by the vet on gut sounds and condition. WE WERE FINISHED!!!
Shaliekah and I were surrounded by smiling crowds and hugged and kissed by total strangers and friends. What a great experience , and many many 50 milers there and then vowed to do 100 next year. All we heard was "If you can ride so long and come in with the horse and rider looking so good then it`s not so difficult and I can also do it!!!" We had spent 17 HOURS out there, but it was worth every single step of the way. We saw great scenery(going so slow we also saw every single stone and blade of grass!!), enjoyed great companionship, and finished with two very keen interested healthy horses. Do it again?? Of course,..... and as soon as possible!! Do anything different? Make sure I have dry extra clothes packed, get fitter for running instead of walking, practise reading maps in the dark on a skittish horse without falling off, get contact lenses so I can see in the mist , and trust my instincts about my horse - she is a STAR!!!!.
Regards, Cindy Budler
This 100 miler was a brave experiment by the Platorand Club to try and encourage 100 milers in our 50 miler season. Historically 100 milers are only held after our national finals in July and there has been a lot of negativity towards 100 milers prior to Fauresmith. We have all been encouraging this as there are many riders who wish to only concentrate on 100 milers and we would like to ride throughout the year!!. The club was offering the 100 miler and a 50 miler on the Saturday. My friend Sue Walker was to ride with me on her novice horse and my mentor Johanni on her very experienced mare Zaleyah. Sue and Johanni have almost 10 000 km in competition and Zaleyah was doing her 8th 100 miler. Rex(Sue`s horse )and my mare Shaleikah are only 2nd season horses and this was to be there first 100 miler. We were only aiming at finishing , while Johanni would ride more competitively.
On Friday morning we all went out for a warm up ride and then late on in the day we were taken out in bakkies(pickups) to see some of the course for the first time ever. At this stage there were 15 entrants, but after this drive only 7 entered!!!!. This is definitely THE most difficult ride on the calendar - of the 160 km . probably 50 km is flat and some of the hills were over 6 kms in length and at an angle of more that 45 degrees. We started out on the drive very noisy but slowly it got quieter and quieter on that bakkie as we all wondered what we were letting ourselves in for. The 3 of us decided we had to start , for the clubs sake, and just try to finish.
We got back to camp and packed everything into the bakkies and entered and vetted in. Shaleikah was so excited we couldn`t control her and she jumped the ribbon tape around the vet check - but pulse was 36 anyway and she was bursting with health and fitness. We then tried to get a few hours sleep . However , most of the 50 milers had arrived at this stage and with 80 horses to do the 50 milers camp was humming!!. After lying in the tent cuddling my "Good luck" teddybear I decided it would be better to just sit around the campfire and chat. 9 pm we saddled up and did last minute checks of goodies in the bakkies and started warming up the horses. After picking up so much info on Ridecamp I had bought the 3 of us glow sticks and we attached them to our horses martingales. The moon was very bright and the sky cloudless and the evening cool, so we had perfect weather. We were ragged unmercifully about the glowsticks(the first to be seen being worn by horses in SA), but took it good naturedly as it was intended. 10 pm and we are off - well as far as the gate anyway!!!!
There was a foot deep ditch t the gate with a rubber mat laid over it and no way were the horses going to cross that!!. Shaliekah saw Zaleyah cross , and in panic jumped the ditch while the others were fighting with their horses, and off we set snorting, prancing and spooking!! Through the little town and along the railway line , praying not to meet a train!!. The crews could not drive with us at this stage and we were motoring along at a HUGE trot in a bunch. The crews met us for the first time at 16 km`s and Sue and I took extra time to let the horses drink and eat so that the leading group could get out of sight as we felt we were going too fast for the novices. Off we went with both horses very keen and moving well. The scenery was lovely with a very bright moon and I was surprised how much I could see and how calm the horses were in the dark. We were climbing steadily all the way and the road surface was good with watering points at streams all the way, as the crews still were not with us. At 49 km`s there was a huge hill which the horses really motored up and on top was a running check point. We presented immediately with pulses of 48 and spent some time drinking and eating with the crews. Of again on our own and now it was getting cold. I discovered we had left my windcheater back at camp and hubby had to take off his sweater to give to me- very unselfish crew!!!!. This was a very eventful leg for me and not much fun. At one stage we were sure we had taken a wrong turn and I slowed to a walk to get out the map and flashlight to check our position and how far the vetgate was. Shaliekah seemed fine with the torch on and I hooked the reins over my arm and opened up the map. Well, that was it, she bolted off onto the verge and I was worried about fences as the grass was waist high. I tried to stop her and turn and the next thing I was in the grass on my back!!. She took off back to Rex and when I got up I came face-to-face with a cow!!!!!. We went on none the worse for wear but 2 km further down she bolted again!! Sue reckons I should enter her for polocrosse as she has never seen a horse move so fast so quickly!!!. I had not seen anything , but apparently there were some very strange shaped horse-eating rock monsters on the side of the road!!. It took her 5 km`s to stop snorting and dancing and we moved at a very slow hesitant pace for a while. The first vet gate was at 58 kms and we presented immediately we had untacked - pulse 48 again. Hold time of 20 minutes and a welcome break. I was off 2 minutes ahead of Sue and we very hesitantly left the farm spooking at the lime arrows on the road, while waiting for Sue and Rex to catch up. The morning mist was settling in and this leg was terribly cold and damp. I couldn`t see much as I wear glasses and the condensation was making vision decidedly difficult. We walked the horses a lot as this was a lot of downhill and the going was very stoney with holes in the road. Sue ended up around Rex`s ears when he stumbled, but luckily he managed to get them both upright without any harm done. The crews could drive with us here, but met us every 5 km`s and it was amazing how quickly the horses cottoned onto how bakkies mean food and water!!. The second vet gate was at 83 km and we were very glad to be warm and dry for a while, pulses 48 and everything fine. Some welcome coffee and banana bread from the P and R people and we were off again. This 3rd leg was the leg we had driven on Friday and we knew this was going to be difficult. The sun was starting to come up and the view was stunning- rolling hills covered in the beautiful pink and white cosmos flowers, interspersed with tawny golden waist high grass. Mist lying in fat white blankets in the hollows and the sky that soft baby blue colour you only find in Africa at sun-rise. We had earlier decided to tail and lead the horses up the worst hills and we toiled up the long ones stripping sweaters as we went. We both felt the horses were getting stilted going downhill so we lead downhill too, and when we could got on and found ourselves on very keen forward going mounts!! The leading was definitely working. The 3rd vet check was at 108km at the highest point of the ride and we had a 40 minute hold being spoilt rotten by the farmer- tea and scones on the best china and watching his horses running around the fields greeting the new day. Rex and Sue left before us and Shaliekah left the vet check jumping the ditches and doing a stallion impersonation!!! Down, down into the canyons with the rock formations looking like a giants playground of building blocks, and the rock faces shining red in the sun. It was now very hot and airless and we were starting to feel very footsore from the rocky footing. The horses seemed fine and still very keen. We met up with a local farmer who followed us for about 6 kms on horse back. Our horses were not impressed with this stranger and acted very possessively- Shaliekah lunging at him if he encroached on Rex , and Rex baring his teeth when he got too close to Shaliekah. We had done 125 km at this stage and were tired but still keen. The vet was leapfrogging us and was so supportive - coming back every 10 km`s or so to egg us on - The horses are looking great, you`re doing great. Only 3 kms to vetgate" etc etc. The horses were drinking and eating voraciously and were still keen and forward going. We came to a huge clear cool farm dam and walked them knee deep to cool off and drink. Shaliekah started doing her submarine impression- whole head in water with only ears showing-so I decided a roll might be imminent and decided to leave the dam- unfortunately not fast enough!!!!!! The next minute we were both under the water and I surfaced to find her lying down kicking and rolling in the water!! We both left the dam wit water streaming off us!! All I was worried about was my vet card, but it was till dry and handed over to hubby to look after. The next 5 km`s were absolute agony for me - wet jodhpurs and chaps are not fun!!!!!. Shaliekah was rejuvenated and pulled like a train to the next check . It took 5 minutes to get her pulse down from all the cantering!! I spent some quality time with my boots and socks while I tried to empty six inched of water out of waterlogged rubber boots and swapped dry socks with my husband!!! The last leg was the worst - all uphill, bad surface and extremely hot. We were trotting along feeling very depressed when in the distance we saw Johanni`s bakkie- she had finished and come back to encourage us on!! The horses saw the bakkie and decided to race it into the next running check!!!. We heard she had finished third and we vetted through the running check at 145 km `s with pulses of 40!!!. ONLY 20 km`s to go!!!!!! The longest 20 kms in my life as we anticipated finishing and trotted along the railway line again. The horses could smell camp and were pulling strongly. Our crews met us for the last time 15 km from home and Shaliekah grabbed one mouthful of grass from the bakkie and carried on- she wanted to finish and not mess about!!. As we approached the dreaded ditch we were met by people at the gate cheering us on!! Shaliekah just cantered straight up to the ditch and jumped it without a break in stride and we were in the camp and cantering straight at a sea of people!! Every single person in camp(including all the 50 milers who had long finished) was lined up along the lane and were clapping and cheering!!. It felt as though we had won the ride!!!. We untacked and presented immediately with a pulse of 58 and falling , trotted out sound and was congratulated by the vet on gut sounds and condition. WE WERE FINISHED!!!
Shaliekah and I were surrounded by smiling crowds and hugged and kissed by total strangers and friends. What a great experience , and many many 50 milers there and then vowed to do 100 next year. All we heard was "If you can ride so long and come in with the horse and rider looking so good then it`s not so difficult and I can also do it!!!" We had spent 17 HOURS out there, but it was worth every single step of the way. We saw great scenery(going so slow we also saw every single stone and blade of grass!!), enjoyed great companionship, and finished with two very keen interested healthy horses. Do it again?? Of course,..... and as soon as possible!! Do anything different? Make sure I have dry extra clothes packed, get fitter for running instead of walking, practise reading maps in the dark on a skittish horse without falling off, get contact lenses so I can see in the mist , and trust my instincts about my horse - she is a STAR!!!!.
Regards, Cindy Budler
Friday, March 26, 1999
Rookie Horse, Rookie Rider: Part III The end of the Trail - Howard Bramhall
So we back track, I find my mistake, the yellow ribbons are now on my right and all is well. But we just added three miles to our original 15 and I`m felling really stupid (Hey, I heard that). My exuberance has left me and Dance seems off too. Somehow I think he knows I messed up; lucky for me horses are the most forgiving creatures on earth. We finally enter the vet check from the right direction. I spot Joe talking to a woman, most likely his wife, and wave hello. He waves back, whispers something in his her ear and they both start laughing hysterically. I`m sure it`s a private moment between the two of them and has nothing to do with me. Yea, right. She then mounts her Arab horse and leaves the vet check area. Since I know there is a 30 minute hold before you`re allowed to leave, I figure I`m way behind the leaders now.
I doubt that many of you reading this are nonriders, but for those two or three of you who may be (Mom, Dad and sis), I`ll go ahead and explain the vet check, in my own abbreviated fashion. First thing that happens is one of the volunteers checks out your horse`s pulse rate. This count has to be down to a certain number before you are allowed to proceed, usually 60 beats or so per minute. I expected Dance`s to be high, but by the time someone gets to me (and it wasn`t that long), she takes it and tells me it`s 56. We are then allowed to go on to the next part of the check. (Exciting so far, don`t you think?)
We proceed to an area where riders and horses are jogging in a small arena, making turns around trees and markers with the whole thing bordered by a red rope. This part is not fun for me and Dance cause we didn`t train on this enough and I knew it. The rider must get their horse to trot, not walk, along side them for 20 yards or so. I have yet to master the "along side" aspect of this operation. When I do it I end up either in front of my horse, running for dear life, or I take a dirt bath with my horse dragging me till he feels like stopping.
The vet will tell you the purpose of this is to check out the horse`s legs and flexibility, but my belief is they want to see if you (the rider) are still crazy enough to continue. Either that or the vet is just bored and needs a laugh or two to make it through his long day. I mean where else do you get to watch middle aged, out-of-shape men and women running in circles, tugging on to a thousand pound creature, who usually doesn`t want to cooperate, cause they`re darn tired. I`m speaking for myself here, of course. Not all endurance riders are middle aged AND out-of-shape. I just happen to be blessed with both.
You get to perform this trotting-with-your-horse two different times, making sure to turn to the left and then to the right. Now on this particular day Dance, with his long legs that reach up to my neck, decided he wasn`t going to trot at all. So one of the kind assistants gets behind his butt, makes all kinds of noises, and Dance takes off loping around me. This maneuver pulls me off balance and down I go. He continues moving, steps on his reins, snaps them in half, and then trots beautifully right up to the vet and stops. The vet says, "That was lovely, now one more time. This time to the left." The laughter from the riders watching is still ringing in my ears.
Each rider has what they call a vet card, where the vet writes down numbers for the heart rate, and the respiratory rate. And he actually grades your horse in areas such as recovery, hydration, gut sounds (mine were fine), tack sores, and quality of movement. The vet added a special category on the card just for me. He gave me an A in "comedy of movement." The riders watching actually clapped when Dance and I had finished our show. But even this did not make me happy. Going the wrong way on the trail and a sloppy vet check had bought me down. Plus my face was caked with dirt from taking a fall behind my horse. I felt grimy, dejected and looked worse than that kid who always has that cloud of dust over his head in "Peanuts."
After the vet check we had to wait 30 minutes before we were allowed to continue. I went to my campsite, which was just on the other side of a dirt road from the vet check area. I sponged off Dance Line, loosened his saddle, threw him some hay and went to my cooler for a sandwich and a beer. I knew the beer was not a good idea but at this particular moment I just didn`t care. I was starting to relax and had just opened my second beer, when, all of a sudden, I heard screaming and cursing coming from one of my next door neighbors. I realized that 9MM had just paid the remains of her tent a visit and was very upset that it was dead.
I was amazed at the words she was using in her grief and when I heard her say, "Gonna kill that ******* firebug!" I knew it was time to leave. Luckily I was on the other side of my horse trailer and she hadn`t spotted me. I dropped the beer, ran towards my horse, tripped over my cooler, got up and grabbed what was left of Dance Line`s reins. We both ran as quietly and quickly as a horse and human can together. Actually, we tiptoed out of there, kinda like the horse and Bugs Bunny do in that cartoon (come on, I know you`ve seen it). I think Dance was afraid of 9MM as much as I was. We were both hoping she wasn`t going to shoot one of us in the back.
So I go back to the new clipboard lady, still wearing her football helmet, and she checks my card for time. She makes a mark on the card, hands it back to me and announces I can now leave. "Wrongway," she says "you know you`re following the white trail now, right?" GRRRRRRR. "Yes Ma`am," I respond holding in my frustration, "I know the way." "Sure you do," she says with an all too knowing smile on her face. And we`re off again. Back on the open trail with no one to follow. And, as par for the course on this day, I have no idea where that first white marker is.
Well, we only have ten miles left but my buddy, Dance, is burnt out. He just doesn`t have the lope or even the trot left in him. I`ve learned my first important lesson as a Rookie Rider. Control your horse at the start, don`t let him fly down the trail cause he`ll pay the price later if you don`t pace him properly. So we walk. He`s so darn tired I`m starting to think we should turn around and call it a day. This is some sport, this endurance thing I`ve gotten us into. And a 25 mile run isn`t even considered an official endurance distance. The official term for the 25 is Limited Distance and I think they call it that cause it`s just about the limit old farts like me can do on a horse.
I`m just about to turn around and quit when Dance`s ears perk up (Linda Tripp would be envious at the things he can hear) and he glances back, hearing a horse and rider approaching. And when I hear it I can tell they are coming fast. I turn around to see who it is and then I spot her. My stomach turns in a knot and the acid starts churning. It`s 9MM and I know she`s carrying. She`s still wearing that coat (to hide the gun, I`m sure) and I see it flapping in the breeze created by the speed of her horse. And, as the coat flaps away from her waist, a bright glare shines in my eyes from the reflection off her heavily polished revolver. "Dance, we got to get moving here. This woman is not well." Somehow he understands, and off we go. Almost as fast as when we started this race. Horses sense danger better than anyone. Even better than chicken humans like me.
I get the urge to play hide-and-seek with 9MM but I reconsider. She seems to have tracking blood in her and I don`t want her spilling any of mine. So Dance Line and I do the only thing we do well. We run like there`s no tomorrow. I`m just hoping he can last so we can see another day. Right now my burnt out forest back home doesn`t seem so bleak. I`m counting on her horse being more tired than Dance since I know they`ve traveled at least ten or fifteen miles more than we have. And even if she does not catch up she wouldn`t really shoot us, would she? I mean over a cheap tent and maybe a few minutes of lost sleep?
We`re loping and occasionally galloping. I keep looking back but don`t spot her. But I know Dance is tired and maybe we should trot or walk a bit. Suddenly, up ahead I see the Paint and know we`re right behind Pantyhose Joe. I`m thinking she probably won`t shoot me in front of a witness. So behind him we go. "Hey Joe, (I omit the Pantyhose) how you two doing?" He looks back at me and smiles. "Hey," he says. Another talker on the trail. His Paint is still loping, must be part rabbit this horse. Dance and I slow down to a trot and get into Joe`s pace; just like old times, except now I`m not so relaxed. "Bring me any beer?" he asks me. "I was going to Joe, but we had to leave in a hurry." "How come?" he says. So I tell him about 9MM; he already knew about the tent, even though he didn`t really believe me when I first told him the story. And then I tell him she`s close behind us and I think I`m in trouble. He laughs and says as far as he knows no rider has ever been shot in an endurance ride by another rider. A few have been lost to hunters` bullets, but that`s to be expected. I`m starting to like Joe`s sense of humor.
Dance is doing better, his trot seems to match the lope of Joe`s Paint. I feel like we`re halfway done by now and think we might actually finish. To complete is to win in endurance. For me to complete and get the heck out of camp before 9MM catches us is to live. I`m starting to feel better and think we might be OK. Joe says he had to slow down and that we`re probably not in the top ten for the 25. Oh well. I tell him that when Dance and I are finished we`ll have completed about 29 cause of my wrong turn. We both try and decide what nickname the other riders will give me. "Rookie?" "Wrongway?" "Firebug?" "Deadguy?" I decide I don`t like the last one.
All of a sudden we hear her coming. She`s galloping towards us, faster than a normal rider would travel. "You might as well face the music," Joe says to me. Easy for him to say, he`s never seen her up close. Bad enough Beethoven was deaf, he would have went blind if he saw this woman. So 9MM finally catches up to us and right away she`s yelling at me. Cursing worse than the Preacher and that French woman put together. "Did you tear up my tent?" she finally asks. "Well, Ma`am, it`s kinda like this" I say and then I start talking quickly. I try and blame my horse, but Dance looks up at me like "Hey, you`re joking here, right?" So I break down and just tell her, "Yes I did. I was trying to catch my horse, who got away from me, and accidentally ripped up your tent. Didn`t you get my note?"
Well, this sets her off. She loses it totally. 9MM flips back her coat so quickly I knew she had done this, or had practiced doing this, draw often. Before I could get in another word I was looking down the barrel of her revolver. And I could see the red on the safety button, which meant it was not on. My crazy life started flashing before me, but Dance decides he doesn`t like the movie. He rears up and, with his front long leg, he kicks 9MM right in the head. BAAAM. Down she goes. As she falls backwards her gun goes off and I hear Joe scream.
Oh damn, she shot Joe. Dance comes back down to earth and Joe and his Paint cautiously walk next to me. "Are you hit?" I ask Joe, not seeing any blood. He tells me no, but the bullet went so close to his ear he could feel it go by. And then Joe and I just stare at each other for a while looking like we had just seen a flying saucer or something.
"What are we going to do?" I ask. "We?" Joe responds. I get down off of Dance and Joe gets off his Paint. Joe holds the reins of both horses and I, carefully, walk over to 9MM. Her cowgirl hat is crushed from the fall and her face has an upside down U, which goes over the bridge of her nose and comes down on each cheeks. Her coat is opened and I read her T-shirt underneath which says HUNT NAKED. I have trouble picturing this, so I force my brain to think about the steps you take when performing CPR. This becomes another unpleasant thought because 9MM is the receiver. I start feeling queasy so I take a deep breath, bend at my knees and lower my head. This stops that nauseous feeling and gets me prepared for what I have to do next.
I approach 9MM and kneel down next to her head. This feels like being next to an unconscious grizzly bear, not sure whether he`s dead or just sleeping. I reach over and touch her neck, to see if there`s a pulse. Not feeling one I ask God (well, I am on my knees) if he`s really expecting me to perform mouth- to-mouth here. As I lower my head next to hers I listen intently, hoping to hear her breathing. And when I feel her breath on my cheek I let mine out in a sigh of relief. I move my hand lower on her neck and feel a weak, but steady pulse. "She`s still alive," I tell Joe. "What do we do now?"
"You keep saying we," Joe says again. "Just tie her to her horse and bring her in. I`ll ride ahead and alert the authorities so they can call an ambulance." Great, I`m thinking, I get to finally spend some quality time alone with 9MM. Well, at least she won`t have her gun, cause I go over and pick it up and stick it in my leather bag tied to my saddle. Joe holds my horse while I go get 9MM`s Arab, put her over the saddle, belly down, and tie her hands and legs together with some hay rope I find in my saddlebag. Joe helps me and ties some rope around her body, attaching it to the horse and the saddle. Joe says, "I can`t believe she was going to shoot you over some tent. I`ve seen this woman at other rides, but never really spoke to her. I think your horse saved your life today."
We finished tying up 9MM, both Joe and I looking kinda proud when we finished. We had ropes and hay lines and anything else we could find attaching part of her body to the saddle and the horse. Kinda felt like putting your kids bicycle together from scratch the night before Christmas. I even attached her crunched cowgirl hat to one of her beltloops.
Joe mounts his horse and trots away to alert everyone. I get back on Dance Line and we walk, with 9MM and her horse, on towards camp. This walk seems to take forever and I`m still nervous with 9MM at my back. I`m continuously looking behind me to make sure she`s still there and not looking up at me. I also check my saddle bag to make sure her gun is still there. Every once in a while she mumbles something incoherent. I think I hear her say words like "hunt" and "kill" and "death," but it`s difficult for me to tell if she`s actually speaking or if my fear is churning up my imagination. I start thinking about 9MM, wondering what exactly does she wear when she hunts? I picture this mean, nasty, unattractive woman naked, killin Bambi, deep in the woods and then gutting the deer and eating the heart, all covered in blood from the fresh kill. YUCK!!!
Finally, I spot the camp. Cop lights are flashing and an ambulance is up ahead. A crowd of riders and campers have gathered near the finish line and when someone spots us he excitedly yells, "Hey, here they come!" The crowd drifts my way and two of the ambulance guys quickly wheel out this gurney thing and come right up to me and Dance. I get down, someone grabs my horse`s reins (what`s left of them) and I continue holding the rope attached to 9MM`s Arab. The ambulance guys untie 9MM (one of them jokes about the number of ropes attached to her body) and gently remove her from the horse. They place her on the gurney and wheel her towards the ambulance. The men end up having to pick the thing up cause the wheels keep getting stuck in the dirt road. I`m thinking to myself that I hope I never see her ugly mug again.
One of the onlookers (he seems to be an authority type) takes the rope attached to 9MM`s horse from my hand, places one of his on my shoulder and says, "Here, let me take her horse for you. The law wants to speak with you." Right on cue, a Policeman wanders up to me and starts asking questions. He brings out an official looking pad and gives me a serious look, like I`m under oath here and better not lie. I`m thinking, "Damn, did Joe talk to this guy, and if he did, what did he tell him?"
I`m contemplating that the truth is what needs to be said, but then I start this internal debate with myself. Did I assault 9MM with my horse? Even though I knew it was self defense, will this guy believe me? The cop asks me if I knew her name. I tell him, "No, she was camped next to me but I didn`t get to meet her." Damn, told a lie already and didn`t even mean to. I start to sweat even though it`s getting cool outside.
About this time Joe walks up to us and joins in. I thought the cop would be bothered by this, but he isn`t. In fact, he had seemed bored with me, but when Joe appears the Policeman livens up and acts like Joe is some kind of celebrity or somebody important. Joe says to the cop, "You`re about done with your questions, right?" The cop says, "Yes sir, I just have one more." UH- OH, here it comes. I`m going to jail for sure. Maybe Dance too (I love my horse, but I`m hoping I don`t have to share the same cell with him). Assault with a deadly horse. Battery on a Naked Hunter. The Policeman asks me his last question. "Do you want me to give your name out to the newspapers if they ask me who it was that saved her life?" Instantly, I stop sweating. Being the humble hero that I am, I answer, "No thanks. I seem to draw enough attention to myself without the help from the media." The cop laughs and then leaves, but he has to shake Joe`s hand first before going. How does Joe have so much power here?
Joe escorts me to the ridecamp area. About 15 riders gather around and they all want to hear our story. Beer cans appear and chairs are bought around forming a circle. Joe goes first, and then I butt in, and together we tell a tale far different from what really happened. I`m not sure why Joe does this for me but I know I owe him a lot more than a six-pack for watching my back like this. After we conclude our story, a few of the women riders comment that they`ve seen 9MM at other rides, but no one in the circle can remember ever speaking with her. One of the ladies says she remembers her as the "unfriendly type" who didn`t seem to want to meet anyone or make any new friends. I`m thinking I doubt if she has many old ones.
Finally, one of the women changes the subject and the group starts talking about the race, who placed where, who were jerks and who was nice on the trail (trail etiquette is important in this sport), and some of the interesting stories that are a constant part of endurance riding. I start reflecting on my week-end, just sitting content listening and happy that I`m not being hauled off to jail. As I daydream (yea, I do this a lot), my eye catches two people, one male and one female, who appear to be staring at me. And it looks like an unfriendly one.
I shake the cobwebs from my head so I can focus on the two of them. My memory kicks in and I recognize them as the "French couple." What helps me is the female`s twisted eye glasses and, as they start walking my way, I notice she`s limping so much she has to lean on the man`s shoulders. And, as they approach me, neither of them is smiling.
I know I`m too tired to fight with them and decide to just sit there and take it like a chicken. The man has a bottle in his hand and my guess is he`s planning on hitting me over the head with it. He swings it around towards me, but instead of smacking me with it, he shows it to me and says, "Mon ami, Je suis Jean Claude." And the female says, "Je suis Louise Marie." Wow. These two really are French.
Turns out they aren`t mad at me at all. Joe happens to speak fluent French (this guy is constantly surprising me) and translates for everyone. The entire circle of riders stop talking and focus on the French couple and their story. Through Joe`s translation we discover that they were pursuing me to apologize for the rudeness of their horses. They had misunderstood my request to pass them on the trail. Marie then comes up to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Joe tells me she wanted to thank me for giving them incentive to ride as well as they did. Turns out the French couple came in second and third in the 25, just behind Joe`s wife, who had come in first.
So, in celebration, they uncork the bottle and it was the best tasting wine I had ever had. Later on, Jean Claude goes to his trailer and brings back some more bottles, some incredible cheese, a couple loaves of bread (French, of course), and the entire circle of endurance riders gets tanked. We all got so drunk they even let me sing. I sang my favorite song, "Shoulda been a Cowboy" and everyone was so smashed no one complained.
I remember someone helping me to my horse trailer later on that night and when I awoke the next day the place was deserted. Everyone had packed up and left. Dance Line was standing in his portable corral, looking content and well fed, but ready to go home. And inside my trailer, taped to the wall was a ribbon attached to a piece of paper saying, "To the best Rookie Horse and Rookie Rider ever to grace our ridecamp. We hope to see you both again at our next ride." And it was signed by every rider, except 9MM. Marie had even drawn a picture of the Eiffel Tower by her name. And one signature stood out, apart from all the rest, at the bottom of the page. It simply said, "Your Pal, Joe Nameth."
I doubt that many of you reading this are nonriders, but for those two or three of you who may be (Mom, Dad and sis), I`ll go ahead and explain the vet check, in my own abbreviated fashion. First thing that happens is one of the volunteers checks out your horse`s pulse rate. This count has to be down to a certain number before you are allowed to proceed, usually 60 beats or so per minute. I expected Dance`s to be high, but by the time someone gets to me (and it wasn`t that long), she takes it and tells me it`s 56. We are then allowed to go on to the next part of the check. (Exciting so far, don`t you think?)
We proceed to an area where riders and horses are jogging in a small arena, making turns around trees and markers with the whole thing bordered by a red rope. This part is not fun for me and Dance cause we didn`t train on this enough and I knew it. The rider must get their horse to trot, not walk, along side them for 20 yards or so. I have yet to master the "along side" aspect of this operation. When I do it I end up either in front of my horse, running for dear life, or I take a dirt bath with my horse dragging me till he feels like stopping.
The vet will tell you the purpose of this is to check out the horse`s legs and flexibility, but my belief is they want to see if you (the rider) are still crazy enough to continue. Either that or the vet is just bored and needs a laugh or two to make it through his long day. I mean where else do you get to watch middle aged, out-of-shape men and women running in circles, tugging on to a thousand pound creature, who usually doesn`t want to cooperate, cause they`re darn tired. I`m speaking for myself here, of course. Not all endurance riders are middle aged AND out-of-shape. I just happen to be blessed with both.
You get to perform this trotting-with-your-horse two different times, making sure to turn to the left and then to the right. Now on this particular day Dance, with his long legs that reach up to my neck, decided he wasn`t going to trot at all. So one of the kind assistants gets behind his butt, makes all kinds of noises, and Dance takes off loping around me. This maneuver pulls me off balance and down I go. He continues moving, steps on his reins, snaps them in half, and then trots beautifully right up to the vet and stops. The vet says, "That was lovely, now one more time. This time to the left." The laughter from the riders watching is still ringing in my ears.
Each rider has what they call a vet card, where the vet writes down numbers for the heart rate, and the respiratory rate. And he actually grades your horse in areas such as recovery, hydration, gut sounds (mine were fine), tack sores, and quality of movement. The vet added a special category on the card just for me. He gave me an A in "comedy of movement." The riders watching actually clapped when Dance and I had finished our show. But even this did not make me happy. Going the wrong way on the trail and a sloppy vet check had bought me down. Plus my face was caked with dirt from taking a fall behind my horse. I felt grimy, dejected and looked worse than that kid who always has that cloud of dust over his head in "Peanuts."
After the vet check we had to wait 30 minutes before we were allowed to continue. I went to my campsite, which was just on the other side of a dirt road from the vet check area. I sponged off Dance Line, loosened his saddle, threw him some hay and went to my cooler for a sandwich and a beer. I knew the beer was not a good idea but at this particular moment I just didn`t care. I was starting to relax and had just opened my second beer, when, all of a sudden, I heard screaming and cursing coming from one of my next door neighbors. I realized that 9MM had just paid the remains of her tent a visit and was very upset that it was dead.
I was amazed at the words she was using in her grief and when I heard her say, "Gonna kill that ******* firebug!" I knew it was time to leave. Luckily I was on the other side of my horse trailer and she hadn`t spotted me. I dropped the beer, ran towards my horse, tripped over my cooler, got up and grabbed what was left of Dance Line`s reins. We both ran as quietly and quickly as a horse and human can together. Actually, we tiptoed out of there, kinda like the horse and Bugs Bunny do in that cartoon (come on, I know you`ve seen it). I think Dance was afraid of 9MM as much as I was. We were both hoping she wasn`t going to shoot one of us in the back.
So I go back to the new clipboard lady, still wearing her football helmet, and she checks my card for time. She makes a mark on the card, hands it back to me and announces I can now leave. "Wrongway," she says "you know you`re following the white trail now, right?" GRRRRRRR. "Yes Ma`am," I respond holding in my frustration, "I know the way." "Sure you do," she says with an all too knowing smile on her face. And we`re off again. Back on the open trail with no one to follow. And, as par for the course on this day, I have no idea where that first white marker is.
Well, we only have ten miles left but my buddy, Dance, is burnt out. He just doesn`t have the lope or even the trot left in him. I`ve learned my first important lesson as a Rookie Rider. Control your horse at the start, don`t let him fly down the trail cause he`ll pay the price later if you don`t pace him properly. So we walk. He`s so darn tired I`m starting to think we should turn around and call it a day. This is some sport, this endurance thing I`ve gotten us into. And a 25 mile run isn`t even considered an official endurance distance. The official term for the 25 is Limited Distance and I think they call it that cause it`s just about the limit old farts like me can do on a horse.
I`m just about to turn around and quit when Dance`s ears perk up (Linda Tripp would be envious at the things he can hear) and he glances back, hearing a horse and rider approaching. And when I hear it I can tell they are coming fast. I turn around to see who it is and then I spot her. My stomach turns in a knot and the acid starts churning. It`s 9MM and I know she`s carrying. She`s still wearing that coat (to hide the gun, I`m sure) and I see it flapping in the breeze created by the speed of her horse. And, as the coat flaps away from her waist, a bright glare shines in my eyes from the reflection off her heavily polished revolver. "Dance, we got to get moving here. This woman is not well." Somehow he understands, and off we go. Almost as fast as when we started this race. Horses sense danger better than anyone. Even better than chicken humans like me.
I get the urge to play hide-and-seek with 9MM but I reconsider. She seems to have tracking blood in her and I don`t want her spilling any of mine. So Dance Line and I do the only thing we do well. We run like there`s no tomorrow. I`m just hoping he can last so we can see another day. Right now my burnt out forest back home doesn`t seem so bleak. I`m counting on her horse being more tired than Dance since I know they`ve traveled at least ten or fifteen miles more than we have. And even if she does not catch up she wouldn`t really shoot us, would she? I mean over a cheap tent and maybe a few minutes of lost sleep?
We`re loping and occasionally galloping. I keep looking back but don`t spot her. But I know Dance is tired and maybe we should trot or walk a bit. Suddenly, up ahead I see the Paint and know we`re right behind Pantyhose Joe. I`m thinking she probably won`t shoot me in front of a witness. So behind him we go. "Hey Joe, (I omit the Pantyhose) how you two doing?" He looks back at me and smiles. "Hey," he says. Another talker on the trail. His Paint is still loping, must be part rabbit this horse. Dance and I slow down to a trot and get into Joe`s pace; just like old times, except now I`m not so relaxed. "Bring me any beer?" he asks me. "I was going to Joe, but we had to leave in a hurry." "How come?" he says. So I tell him about 9MM; he already knew about the tent, even though he didn`t really believe me when I first told him the story. And then I tell him she`s close behind us and I think I`m in trouble. He laughs and says as far as he knows no rider has ever been shot in an endurance ride by another rider. A few have been lost to hunters` bullets, but that`s to be expected. I`m starting to like Joe`s sense of humor.
Dance is doing better, his trot seems to match the lope of Joe`s Paint. I feel like we`re halfway done by now and think we might actually finish. To complete is to win in endurance. For me to complete and get the heck out of camp before 9MM catches us is to live. I`m starting to feel better and think we might be OK. Joe says he had to slow down and that we`re probably not in the top ten for the 25. Oh well. I tell him that when Dance and I are finished we`ll have completed about 29 cause of my wrong turn. We both try and decide what nickname the other riders will give me. "Rookie?" "Wrongway?" "Firebug?" "Deadguy?" I decide I don`t like the last one.
All of a sudden we hear her coming. She`s galloping towards us, faster than a normal rider would travel. "You might as well face the music," Joe says to me. Easy for him to say, he`s never seen her up close. Bad enough Beethoven was deaf, he would have went blind if he saw this woman. So 9MM finally catches up to us and right away she`s yelling at me. Cursing worse than the Preacher and that French woman put together. "Did you tear up my tent?" she finally asks. "Well, Ma`am, it`s kinda like this" I say and then I start talking quickly. I try and blame my horse, but Dance looks up at me like "Hey, you`re joking here, right?" So I break down and just tell her, "Yes I did. I was trying to catch my horse, who got away from me, and accidentally ripped up your tent. Didn`t you get my note?"
Well, this sets her off. She loses it totally. 9MM flips back her coat so quickly I knew she had done this, or had practiced doing this, draw often. Before I could get in another word I was looking down the barrel of her revolver. And I could see the red on the safety button, which meant it was not on. My crazy life started flashing before me, but Dance decides he doesn`t like the movie. He rears up and, with his front long leg, he kicks 9MM right in the head. BAAAM. Down she goes. As she falls backwards her gun goes off and I hear Joe scream.
Oh damn, she shot Joe. Dance comes back down to earth and Joe and his Paint cautiously walk next to me. "Are you hit?" I ask Joe, not seeing any blood. He tells me no, but the bullet went so close to his ear he could feel it go by. And then Joe and I just stare at each other for a while looking like we had just seen a flying saucer or something.
"What are we going to do?" I ask. "We?" Joe responds. I get down off of Dance and Joe gets off his Paint. Joe holds the reins of both horses and I, carefully, walk over to 9MM. Her cowgirl hat is crushed from the fall and her face has an upside down U, which goes over the bridge of her nose and comes down on each cheeks. Her coat is opened and I read her T-shirt underneath which says HUNT NAKED. I have trouble picturing this, so I force my brain to think about the steps you take when performing CPR. This becomes another unpleasant thought because 9MM is the receiver. I start feeling queasy so I take a deep breath, bend at my knees and lower my head. This stops that nauseous feeling and gets me prepared for what I have to do next.
I approach 9MM and kneel down next to her head. This feels like being next to an unconscious grizzly bear, not sure whether he`s dead or just sleeping. I reach over and touch her neck, to see if there`s a pulse. Not feeling one I ask God (well, I am on my knees) if he`s really expecting me to perform mouth- to-mouth here. As I lower my head next to hers I listen intently, hoping to hear her breathing. And when I feel her breath on my cheek I let mine out in a sigh of relief. I move my hand lower on her neck and feel a weak, but steady pulse. "She`s still alive," I tell Joe. "What do we do now?"
"You keep saying we," Joe says again. "Just tie her to her horse and bring her in. I`ll ride ahead and alert the authorities so they can call an ambulance." Great, I`m thinking, I get to finally spend some quality time alone with 9MM. Well, at least she won`t have her gun, cause I go over and pick it up and stick it in my leather bag tied to my saddle. Joe holds my horse while I go get 9MM`s Arab, put her over the saddle, belly down, and tie her hands and legs together with some hay rope I find in my saddlebag. Joe helps me and ties some rope around her body, attaching it to the horse and the saddle. Joe says, "I can`t believe she was going to shoot you over some tent. I`ve seen this woman at other rides, but never really spoke to her. I think your horse saved your life today."
We finished tying up 9MM, both Joe and I looking kinda proud when we finished. We had ropes and hay lines and anything else we could find attaching part of her body to the saddle and the horse. Kinda felt like putting your kids bicycle together from scratch the night before Christmas. I even attached her crunched cowgirl hat to one of her beltloops.
Joe mounts his horse and trots away to alert everyone. I get back on Dance Line and we walk, with 9MM and her horse, on towards camp. This walk seems to take forever and I`m still nervous with 9MM at my back. I`m continuously looking behind me to make sure she`s still there and not looking up at me. I also check my saddle bag to make sure her gun is still there. Every once in a while she mumbles something incoherent. I think I hear her say words like "hunt" and "kill" and "death," but it`s difficult for me to tell if she`s actually speaking or if my fear is churning up my imagination. I start thinking about 9MM, wondering what exactly does she wear when she hunts? I picture this mean, nasty, unattractive woman naked, killin Bambi, deep in the woods and then gutting the deer and eating the heart, all covered in blood from the fresh kill. YUCK!!!
Finally, I spot the camp. Cop lights are flashing and an ambulance is up ahead. A crowd of riders and campers have gathered near the finish line and when someone spots us he excitedly yells, "Hey, here they come!" The crowd drifts my way and two of the ambulance guys quickly wheel out this gurney thing and come right up to me and Dance. I get down, someone grabs my horse`s reins (what`s left of them) and I continue holding the rope attached to 9MM`s Arab. The ambulance guys untie 9MM (one of them jokes about the number of ropes attached to her body) and gently remove her from the horse. They place her on the gurney and wheel her towards the ambulance. The men end up having to pick the thing up cause the wheels keep getting stuck in the dirt road. I`m thinking to myself that I hope I never see her ugly mug again.
One of the onlookers (he seems to be an authority type) takes the rope attached to 9MM`s horse from my hand, places one of his on my shoulder and says, "Here, let me take her horse for you. The law wants to speak with you." Right on cue, a Policeman wanders up to me and starts asking questions. He brings out an official looking pad and gives me a serious look, like I`m under oath here and better not lie. I`m thinking, "Damn, did Joe talk to this guy, and if he did, what did he tell him?"
I`m contemplating that the truth is what needs to be said, but then I start this internal debate with myself. Did I assault 9MM with my horse? Even though I knew it was self defense, will this guy believe me? The cop asks me if I knew her name. I tell him, "No, she was camped next to me but I didn`t get to meet her." Damn, told a lie already and didn`t even mean to. I start to sweat even though it`s getting cool outside.
About this time Joe walks up to us and joins in. I thought the cop would be bothered by this, but he isn`t. In fact, he had seemed bored with me, but when Joe appears the Policeman livens up and acts like Joe is some kind of celebrity or somebody important. Joe says to the cop, "You`re about done with your questions, right?" The cop says, "Yes sir, I just have one more." UH- OH, here it comes. I`m going to jail for sure. Maybe Dance too (I love my horse, but I`m hoping I don`t have to share the same cell with him). Assault with a deadly horse. Battery on a Naked Hunter. The Policeman asks me his last question. "Do you want me to give your name out to the newspapers if they ask me who it was that saved her life?" Instantly, I stop sweating. Being the humble hero that I am, I answer, "No thanks. I seem to draw enough attention to myself without the help from the media." The cop laughs and then leaves, but he has to shake Joe`s hand first before going. How does Joe have so much power here?
Joe escorts me to the ridecamp area. About 15 riders gather around and they all want to hear our story. Beer cans appear and chairs are bought around forming a circle. Joe goes first, and then I butt in, and together we tell a tale far different from what really happened. I`m not sure why Joe does this for me but I know I owe him a lot more than a six-pack for watching my back like this. After we conclude our story, a few of the women riders comment that they`ve seen 9MM at other rides, but no one in the circle can remember ever speaking with her. One of the ladies says she remembers her as the "unfriendly type" who didn`t seem to want to meet anyone or make any new friends. I`m thinking I doubt if she has many old ones.
Finally, one of the women changes the subject and the group starts talking about the race, who placed where, who were jerks and who was nice on the trail (trail etiquette is important in this sport), and some of the interesting stories that are a constant part of endurance riding. I start reflecting on my week-end, just sitting content listening and happy that I`m not being hauled off to jail. As I daydream (yea, I do this a lot), my eye catches two people, one male and one female, who appear to be staring at me. And it looks like an unfriendly one.
I shake the cobwebs from my head so I can focus on the two of them. My memory kicks in and I recognize them as the "French couple." What helps me is the female`s twisted eye glasses and, as they start walking my way, I notice she`s limping so much she has to lean on the man`s shoulders. And, as they approach me, neither of them is smiling.
I know I`m too tired to fight with them and decide to just sit there and take it like a chicken. The man has a bottle in his hand and my guess is he`s planning on hitting me over the head with it. He swings it around towards me, but instead of smacking me with it, he shows it to me and says, "Mon ami, Je suis Jean Claude." And the female says, "Je suis Louise Marie." Wow. These two really are French.
Turns out they aren`t mad at me at all. Joe happens to speak fluent French (this guy is constantly surprising me) and translates for everyone. The entire circle of riders stop talking and focus on the French couple and their story. Through Joe`s translation we discover that they were pursuing me to apologize for the rudeness of their horses. They had misunderstood my request to pass them on the trail. Marie then comes up to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek. Joe tells me she wanted to thank me for giving them incentive to ride as well as they did. Turns out the French couple came in second and third in the 25, just behind Joe`s wife, who had come in first.
So, in celebration, they uncork the bottle and it was the best tasting wine I had ever had. Later on, Jean Claude goes to his trailer and brings back some more bottles, some incredible cheese, a couple loaves of bread (French, of course), and the entire circle of endurance riders gets tanked. We all got so drunk they even let me sing. I sang my favorite song, "Shoulda been a Cowboy" and everyone was so smashed no one complained.
I remember someone helping me to my horse trailer later on that night and when I awoke the next day the place was deserted. Everyone had packed up and left. Dance Line was standing in his portable corral, looking content and well fed, but ready to go home. And inside my trailer, taped to the wall was a ribbon attached to a piece of paper saying, "To the best Rookie Horse and Rookie Rider ever to grace our ridecamp. We hope to see you both again at our next ride." And it was signed by every rider, except 9MM. Marie had even drawn a picture of the Eiffel Tower by her name. And one signature stood out, apart from all the rest, at the bottom of the page. It simply said, "Your Pal, Joe Nameth."
Thursday, March 04, 1999
Rookie Horse Rookie Rider, Part II: The Ride - Howard Bramhall
OK. First of all, we (my horse, Dance Line and I) didn`t kill the Preacher. You religious types have really been on me about that one. He is fine. Right before we were about to hit him he looked up at us like a deer frozen from the glare of headlights and then the Preacher man fainted; dead away. Dance Line jumped right over him; beautifully, I might add. The clipboard lady, now there`s a different story. I wish I could tell you she`s fine, but I can`t lie (you believe that, right?). The good news is they tell me she should be out of intensive care any day now. The bad news is she has an attorney who wants to meet with me and Dance. Right away, in fact he keeps sending me invitations to a hearing party, which I figure is a hanging party, so we don`t go. Evidently she was a little braver than the Preacher and just stood her ground, knowing that most horses will jump out of the way to avoid striking a human. Unfortunately, she never met a horse trained by me before. Her bravery has her in traction right now.
Anyway, we`re off. On the trail. And I mean we are really off. Dance Line is still in a full gallop keeping the same pace he had when we were terrorizing our fellow campers. I`m sure he`ll start that trot anytime now, the one we practiced on for hundreds of hours over a 9 month period of time; he`s just a little excited. So many riders. Must be at least 50 all jammed up here on this skinny trail. We are all going like we are in the Kentucky Derby; way too fast for a long distance race, and damn.... DANGER ..... ...DANGER...an Arabian horse and rider up in front of us both decided to just stop and then the horse turns her body 90 degrees so that she`s blocking the entire trail and.....NO, Dance Line, no, we don`t want to jump over this silly Arab......WOW. What the heck did he do there?
OK. We`re still going, I`m not quite sure how we missed that Arab back there. Some of the riders and their horses did not. BAAAAM, KAAABLAAAM, SMAAAACCKKKK. Screams, cries for help. Cursing. Language I hadn`t heard since my military service days. I`m sure they`re all OK. I should go back and help but there is no way I can turn this horse around now. I just don`t understand what has gotten into Dance Line. He`s never been like this, barely able to control himself; kinda like Mike Tyson at a beauty pageant. This is not the same horse I took on the trails to try and get into shape for our first ride together. I try and pull him back into atleast a reasonable canter but he won`t have any of it. He just stretches out his neck, which for him is like ten feet (did I mention I believe Saddlebreds were bred with Giraffes?), and pulls the reins forward, letting me know he is not to be denied. This horse is on fire and I`m not about to try and put him out. This is more fun than camping. And if you camp next to me, it`s just as safe.
So up ahead of us is a couple of riders, looks like a husband and wife kinda thing. Riding side by side. Romance on the trail. They must not realize how close Dance and I are and how fast we are approaching. And both of their horses have those red ribbons tied to their tails. I just love the Christmas time of year. Now you think they might want to move over for me and Dance Line. I mean I`ve read the endurance handbook and I`m asking politely to pass here. "Passing left," I say. Hmmmmmmmm. The female rider just gives me a dirty look and keeps on trucking. OK. "Passing right," I say, hoping the male is a bit friendlier. He ignores me totally. Are these people from France or something? GRRRRRR. Well, there`s only one place left. Through the middle Dance Line and I travel without any warning.
I try and assure the Siamese couple that this is a temporary split, I`m happily married and not allowed to participate in threesomes. But this is endurance racing and there is just no stopping my horse today. As Dance Line and I snuggle between the two lovebirds, I suddenly remember what I read in the handbook about those red ribbons on a horse`s tail. Turns out it`s not a "Tis the Season" decoration at all. RED stands for kicker and just as I remember this the two horses simultaneously (and this is one of those "happened in slow motion" kinda events) turn their rear ends (I`m talking horses here, not hubby and wifey) and start attacking me and Dance Line. One of the horses actually trots backwards just so she can get in a really good kick. Well, my buddy Dance Line moves laterally so quickly that the backwards trotting horse misses him completely. It was a thing of beauty (to me) cause it caused the two red-tailed horses to collide and down goes wifey. She`s OK, but hubby seems a little upset. Again with the cursing. Good thing the Preacher man isn`t here on the trail listening to such language. When we all get back to camp I`m sure everyone will all have a big laugh about the fact that I forgot red ribbon tied to the tail means kicker. Ha Ha.
I`m just amazed at my horse. We`ve covered over three miles already and he`s still hauling. I`ve finally got him into a reasonable lope but he won`t consider trotting yet. He spots a Painted mare up ahead. We`ve already passed nine riders (all female by the way) and I think we`re in sixth or seventh place. So we get behind the Paint and Dance Line finally slows down a bit. I own a painted mare back home and Dance Line is terribly in love with her. Turns out the Paint`s rider is one of the few males out here on the trail, besides me, hubby and a couple others I spotted in camp. He seems to be a good rider and the pace is not too fast, so we stay behind. Plus I think Dance is reminded of his love back home. "Wanna pass?" the rider asks. He`s obviously not from France. No thanks, I reply. Dance Line has sweated up pretty good and I want to try and cool him down some.
I notice that the male rider is wearing jeans, something I gave up a long time ago when I started training for this sport. I know I look a bit funny in riding tights but, hey, I`m not out here trying to make the cover of GQ, so who cares? Jeans create riding sores and once you get them you can`t get rid of them if you ride constantly like I do. I start thinking maybe this guy is a rookie, like me, a fellow comrade on the trail of danger, even though he rides pretty well. Then I notice his pants creep up a bit on his right leg and, I swear, he`s wearing, Noooo........, it can`t be. But it is. He`s wearing some kind of fishnet pantyhose thing under his jeans. Haven`t seen a guy in pantyhose since that Joe Nameth commercial (yes, I am that old). My, oh my, is this a unique sport or what? How bout those Jaquars? I ask him, just checking to see if he`s into football. You see, I`m a little concerned about being alone here in the woods, out in the middle of nowhere, with a large guy who wears pantyhose. Turns out he is into football (whew!), has season tickets to the Dolphins, so, hey, I`m not too worried about the pantyhose. But I am kinda curious what size he wears. And what size would fit me?
So we are riding alongside Pantyhose Joe and his Paint and just loping away like there is no tomorrow. Joe says to me, "I know this sounds weird but I swear I smell beer," and I kinda chuckle. I start telling him about my night of camping and he starts laughing so hard, especially when I tell him about my fire and my neighbor with the 9mm handgun strapped to her waist. By the time I get to the part about Dance Line taking off and me ripping up 9mm`s tent he is just beside himself. He tells me to stop, he can`t take loping and laughing so much at the same time, so I stop and don`t tell him about the Preacher and the clipboard lady. Joe thinks I`m making the whole thing up, nobody could have a night like that. This kinda hurts me a bit, but I let it pass cause he seems like a nice enough guy, pantyhose and all, and did laugh a lot at my story, even if he doesn`t believe me. I think that if I tried to tell Joe my life story he just might die from laughter, right out here on the trail in the middle of nowhere.
So we get kinda quiet (actually I just shut-up) and enjoy the ride. I am so into this that I reach down and touch Dance Line`s mane to make sure everything`s real. I am enjoying the scenery, the tall pine trees, the underbrush (palmettos mostly). Where I normally ride, near my house in another part of Florida, the forest is all burnt from last summer`s fires. Not a tree was spared for thousands and thousands of acres. But here, it`s so different, the trees go up unscathed over a hundred feet into the air. Back home they look like black missiles and some areas are so bleak looking it reminds me of a nuclear holocaust. My forest back home will never look like this one, atleast not in my lifetime.
Fifteen miles can take forever but I know we are covering ground quickly and I feel like I don`t want it to ever end. I`m going on some kind of adrenaline high and so is Dance Line. I finally slow him to a trot, Joe`s Paint still lopes, the eternal loper. Joe figures we`ve gone halfway, maybe more. He says his wife and a few of her friends are in the lead. All of them are riding Arabs, naturally. He and I are in 4th and 5th place. I spot hubby and wifey (remember the couple I split up?) behind us. They are doing better than I expected. Wifey appears a lot dirtier than the last time I saw her. Her eye glasses are grass stained and twisted, her helmet has a clump of dirt hanging right over the visor, her beige riding pants are covered with sand and dirt, and her left leg seems to be hanging from the side of the saddle abnormally, like it`s twisted or deformed. The look on her face and on hubby`s has about the same expression I expect to see on 9mm when she sees what I did to her tent so I ask Joe if he minds picking up the pace a bit. I hear the French have quite a temper.
So on we go. Winding thru the trails. Turns out we`re following the yellow trail and so we see little yellow ribbons tied to the trees every half mile or so. And where there`s an intersection of trails some nice person has drawn a yellow arrow pointing us in the right direction. This ride is awesome to me even if it is my first one and I don`t have another one to compare it to. I start singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the ole oak tree......., but stop when Joe looks at me as if I`m spoiling his moment of reflective loping. It can put you in a trance, riding so far can be hypnotic after a while. The weather is just perfect, nice and cool for the horses and not as cold as it was last nite when I set my trailer ablaze.
We reach a spot where some ride helpers have put out water for the horses, one in a big metal tub and the other in a plastic one. A few men are standing nearby. I stop and try to get Dance Line to drink. He normally drinks quite a bit but hasn`t touched a drop since we started the race. He won`t drink; this disturbs me. He`s still too excited, somehow he knows we aren`t finished yet. Joe lets me borrow his sponge and I proceed to put it in the metal container to soak it. "Not that one," yells one of the men, "Use the plastic one." OK, I say. Plastic is for sponges, metal for drinking. I remember that now, one of the many things covered at the rider`s meeting and so far I`ve violated almost every rule they mentioned.
Joe wants to take off; I`m worried about Dance Line not drinking so I hand him his sponge and say I`m gonna stay a bit longer. But no matter what I do, the horse just won`t drink. A few minutes later I spot hubby and wifey coming our way. And the looks on their faces have that "gonna kill somebody" expression on them as soon as they spot me and Dance Line. I figure it`s time to get back on my horse and go, since I don`t speak French and Dance Line won`t drink anyway. Now to just find a dip in the trail so I can get back on my giraffe. Here`s one, now stay still long neck, stay still. Can`t tell you how many times his head has collided with mine cause of that darn neck. And we`re up and going. We start out in a lope and I can tell Dance is looking for Joe and his Paint. But they are out of sight; Joe and his horse are obviously serious competitors. I back Dance into a trot cause I`m concerned about his lack of drinking water. I am glad that I sponged him off cause he seems to have cooled down a bit.
One of the men at the water hole said we only have 5 miles to go to the vet check. I get excited. Might actually finish this first 15 miles in the top five. I`m still pumped and so is Dance. We start loping again. Following the trail, all alone, is a bit of a pain. I liked it better when I was riding with Joe in the lead. Damn, where is that yellow ribbon? I spot it up ahead. Wasn`t it supposed to be on my right? It`s on my left for some reason. But hey, I remember this area and I continue trucking. Dance Line and I are flying now. He`s so awesome, I wish I could clone this horse. But we`re going against the grain, we are on part of the trail where we go in on the same trail others leave the ride camp/vet check area and, hey there, WHOA......here comes a young girl flying like me but in the opposite direction. DANGER, danger, collision avoidance activated.....man, stop Dance, stop.....I pull back hard on the reins, the girl pulls back, and the two horses are face to face, both heavily breathing into the others nostrils. How they missed hitting each other I`ll never know. The young lady and I exchange words (I`ve made another friend). Again with the cursing. I must speak to her parents after the ride. Dance and I walk into ride camp. I see the vet check area and it looks like heaven to me. We proceed slowly cause I don`t want to break any more rules, atleast not with all these people watching. I`m wondering why they would set up the trails like this, it just seems so dangerous, people and horses headed right at each other, especially with the trail being so thin (not wide) at the beginning/end with no room for passing at all. I must speak to ride management about this danger.
Dane Line and I enter the camp area where the vet checks are held. This is going to be our first vet check in the ride, besides the precheck they made the day before the ride started. I spot clipboard lady, actually it`s a different lady, and this one seems to be wearing a football helmet for some reason. She looks at me and yells, "Why are you coming in that way?" I ask if she`s talking to me and she says, "Yes, you are coming in from the wrong direction." I look around and don`t see Joe or anyone else from the 25. Oh my.
So another lady joins us (I`ve noticed that women control just about everything here), she`s the one who told us not to trot our horses into camp, and the two ladies and I all have a Powwow. Seems as though I have violated another rule. They explain to me, and I swear one of them called me "wrong- way," that I made a wrong turn a mile back and did not follow the trail correctly. "Didn`t you realize you were coming in the same way you started and that this is dangerous?", the no-trotting-allowed lady inquires of me. Off in the distance I spot the Preacher man and he`s pointing at me and Dance Line, yelling to someone nearby, and I swear I hear him cursing. He also says something with the word "police" attached and I realize it might be safer for me back on the trail. I ask no-trot if I can go back out and try and correct my mistake. She says yes and we`re off. Back in the saddle again.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART III CONCLUSION (FINALLY) THE END OF THE TRAIL
Anyway, we`re off. On the trail. And I mean we are really off. Dance Line is still in a full gallop keeping the same pace he had when we were terrorizing our fellow campers. I`m sure he`ll start that trot anytime now, the one we practiced on for hundreds of hours over a 9 month period of time; he`s just a little excited. So many riders. Must be at least 50 all jammed up here on this skinny trail. We are all going like we are in the Kentucky Derby; way too fast for a long distance race, and damn.... DANGER ..... ...DANGER...an Arabian horse and rider up in front of us both decided to just stop and then the horse turns her body 90 degrees so that she`s blocking the entire trail and.....NO, Dance Line, no, we don`t want to jump over this silly Arab......WOW. What the heck did he do there?
OK. We`re still going, I`m not quite sure how we missed that Arab back there. Some of the riders and their horses did not. BAAAAM, KAAABLAAAM, SMAAAACCKKKK. Screams, cries for help. Cursing. Language I hadn`t heard since my military service days. I`m sure they`re all OK. I should go back and help but there is no way I can turn this horse around now. I just don`t understand what has gotten into Dance Line. He`s never been like this, barely able to control himself; kinda like Mike Tyson at a beauty pageant. This is not the same horse I took on the trails to try and get into shape for our first ride together. I try and pull him back into atleast a reasonable canter but he won`t have any of it. He just stretches out his neck, which for him is like ten feet (did I mention I believe Saddlebreds were bred with Giraffes?), and pulls the reins forward, letting me know he is not to be denied. This horse is on fire and I`m not about to try and put him out. This is more fun than camping. And if you camp next to me, it`s just as safe.
So up ahead of us is a couple of riders, looks like a husband and wife kinda thing. Riding side by side. Romance on the trail. They must not realize how close Dance and I are and how fast we are approaching. And both of their horses have those red ribbons tied to their tails. I just love the Christmas time of year. Now you think they might want to move over for me and Dance Line. I mean I`ve read the endurance handbook and I`m asking politely to pass here. "Passing left," I say. Hmmmmmmmm. The female rider just gives me a dirty look and keeps on trucking. OK. "Passing right," I say, hoping the male is a bit friendlier. He ignores me totally. Are these people from France or something? GRRRRRR. Well, there`s only one place left. Through the middle Dance Line and I travel without any warning.
I try and assure the Siamese couple that this is a temporary split, I`m happily married and not allowed to participate in threesomes. But this is endurance racing and there is just no stopping my horse today. As Dance Line and I snuggle between the two lovebirds, I suddenly remember what I read in the handbook about those red ribbons on a horse`s tail. Turns out it`s not a "Tis the Season" decoration at all. RED stands for kicker and just as I remember this the two horses simultaneously (and this is one of those "happened in slow motion" kinda events) turn their rear ends (I`m talking horses here, not hubby and wifey) and start attacking me and Dance Line. One of the horses actually trots backwards just so she can get in a really good kick. Well, my buddy Dance Line moves laterally so quickly that the backwards trotting horse misses him completely. It was a thing of beauty (to me) cause it caused the two red-tailed horses to collide and down goes wifey. She`s OK, but hubby seems a little upset. Again with the cursing. Good thing the Preacher man isn`t here on the trail listening to such language. When we all get back to camp I`m sure everyone will all have a big laugh about the fact that I forgot red ribbon tied to the tail means kicker. Ha Ha.
I`m just amazed at my horse. We`ve covered over three miles already and he`s still hauling. I`ve finally got him into a reasonable lope but he won`t consider trotting yet. He spots a Painted mare up ahead. We`ve already passed nine riders (all female by the way) and I think we`re in sixth or seventh place. So we get behind the Paint and Dance Line finally slows down a bit. I own a painted mare back home and Dance Line is terribly in love with her. Turns out the Paint`s rider is one of the few males out here on the trail, besides me, hubby and a couple others I spotted in camp. He seems to be a good rider and the pace is not too fast, so we stay behind. Plus I think Dance is reminded of his love back home. "Wanna pass?" the rider asks. He`s obviously not from France. No thanks, I reply. Dance Line has sweated up pretty good and I want to try and cool him down some.
I notice that the male rider is wearing jeans, something I gave up a long time ago when I started training for this sport. I know I look a bit funny in riding tights but, hey, I`m not out here trying to make the cover of GQ, so who cares? Jeans create riding sores and once you get them you can`t get rid of them if you ride constantly like I do. I start thinking maybe this guy is a rookie, like me, a fellow comrade on the trail of danger, even though he rides pretty well. Then I notice his pants creep up a bit on his right leg and, I swear, he`s wearing, Noooo........, it can`t be. But it is. He`s wearing some kind of fishnet pantyhose thing under his jeans. Haven`t seen a guy in pantyhose since that Joe Nameth commercial (yes, I am that old). My, oh my, is this a unique sport or what? How bout those Jaquars? I ask him, just checking to see if he`s into football. You see, I`m a little concerned about being alone here in the woods, out in the middle of nowhere, with a large guy who wears pantyhose. Turns out he is into football (whew!), has season tickets to the Dolphins, so, hey, I`m not too worried about the pantyhose. But I am kinda curious what size he wears. And what size would fit me?
So we are riding alongside Pantyhose Joe and his Paint and just loping away like there is no tomorrow. Joe says to me, "I know this sounds weird but I swear I smell beer," and I kinda chuckle. I start telling him about my night of camping and he starts laughing so hard, especially when I tell him about my fire and my neighbor with the 9mm handgun strapped to her waist. By the time I get to the part about Dance Line taking off and me ripping up 9mm`s tent he is just beside himself. He tells me to stop, he can`t take loping and laughing so much at the same time, so I stop and don`t tell him about the Preacher and the clipboard lady. Joe thinks I`m making the whole thing up, nobody could have a night like that. This kinda hurts me a bit, but I let it pass cause he seems like a nice enough guy, pantyhose and all, and did laugh a lot at my story, even if he doesn`t believe me. I think that if I tried to tell Joe my life story he just might die from laughter, right out here on the trail in the middle of nowhere.
So we get kinda quiet (actually I just shut-up) and enjoy the ride. I am so into this that I reach down and touch Dance Line`s mane to make sure everything`s real. I am enjoying the scenery, the tall pine trees, the underbrush (palmettos mostly). Where I normally ride, near my house in another part of Florida, the forest is all burnt from last summer`s fires. Not a tree was spared for thousands and thousands of acres. But here, it`s so different, the trees go up unscathed over a hundred feet into the air. Back home they look like black missiles and some areas are so bleak looking it reminds me of a nuclear holocaust. My forest back home will never look like this one, atleast not in my lifetime.
Fifteen miles can take forever but I know we are covering ground quickly and I feel like I don`t want it to ever end. I`m going on some kind of adrenaline high and so is Dance Line. I finally slow him to a trot, Joe`s Paint still lopes, the eternal loper. Joe figures we`ve gone halfway, maybe more. He says his wife and a few of her friends are in the lead. All of them are riding Arabs, naturally. He and I are in 4th and 5th place. I spot hubby and wifey (remember the couple I split up?) behind us. They are doing better than I expected. Wifey appears a lot dirtier than the last time I saw her. Her eye glasses are grass stained and twisted, her helmet has a clump of dirt hanging right over the visor, her beige riding pants are covered with sand and dirt, and her left leg seems to be hanging from the side of the saddle abnormally, like it`s twisted or deformed. The look on her face and on hubby`s has about the same expression I expect to see on 9mm when she sees what I did to her tent so I ask Joe if he minds picking up the pace a bit. I hear the French have quite a temper.
So on we go. Winding thru the trails. Turns out we`re following the yellow trail and so we see little yellow ribbons tied to the trees every half mile or so. And where there`s an intersection of trails some nice person has drawn a yellow arrow pointing us in the right direction. This ride is awesome to me even if it is my first one and I don`t have another one to compare it to. I start singing Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the ole oak tree......., but stop when Joe looks at me as if I`m spoiling his moment of reflective loping. It can put you in a trance, riding so far can be hypnotic after a while. The weather is just perfect, nice and cool for the horses and not as cold as it was last nite when I set my trailer ablaze.
We reach a spot where some ride helpers have put out water for the horses, one in a big metal tub and the other in a plastic one. A few men are standing nearby. I stop and try to get Dance Line to drink. He normally drinks quite a bit but hasn`t touched a drop since we started the race. He won`t drink; this disturbs me. He`s still too excited, somehow he knows we aren`t finished yet. Joe lets me borrow his sponge and I proceed to put it in the metal container to soak it. "Not that one," yells one of the men, "Use the plastic one." OK, I say. Plastic is for sponges, metal for drinking. I remember that now, one of the many things covered at the rider`s meeting and so far I`ve violated almost every rule they mentioned.
Joe wants to take off; I`m worried about Dance Line not drinking so I hand him his sponge and say I`m gonna stay a bit longer. But no matter what I do, the horse just won`t drink. A few minutes later I spot hubby and wifey coming our way. And the looks on their faces have that "gonna kill somebody" expression on them as soon as they spot me and Dance Line. I figure it`s time to get back on my horse and go, since I don`t speak French and Dance Line won`t drink anyway. Now to just find a dip in the trail so I can get back on my giraffe. Here`s one, now stay still long neck, stay still. Can`t tell you how many times his head has collided with mine cause of that darn neck. And we`re up and going. We start out in a lope and I can tell Dance is looking for Joe and his Paint. But they are out of sight; Joe and his horse are obviously serious competitors. I back Dance into a trot cause I`m concerned about his lack of drinking water. I am glad that I sponged him off cause he seems to have cooled down a bit.
One of the men at the water hole said we only have 5 miles to go to the vet check. I get excited. Might actually finish this first 15 miles in the top five. I`m still pumped and so is Dance. We start loping again. Following the trail, all alone, is a bit of a pain. I liked it better when I was riding with Joe in the lead. Damn, where is that yellow ribbon? I spot it up ahead. Wasn`t it supposed to be on my right? It`s on my left for some reason. But hey, I remember this area and I continue trucking. Dance Line and I are flying now. He`s so awesome, I wish I could clone this horse. But we`re going against the grain, we are on part of the trail where we go in on the same trail others leave the ride camp/vet check area and, hey there, WHOA......here comes a young girl flying like me but in the opposite direction. DANGER, danger, collision avoidance activated.....man, stop Dance, stop.....I pull back hard on the reins, the girl pulls back, and the two horses are face to face, both heavily breathing into the others nostrils. How they missed hitting each other I`ll never know. The young lady and I exchange words (I`ve made another friend). Again with the cursing. I must speak to her parents after the ride. Dance and I walk into ride camp. I see the vet check area and it looks like heaven to me. We proceed slowly cause I don`t want to break any more rules, atleast not with all these people watching. I`m wondering why they would set up the trails like this, it just seems so dangerous, people and horses headed right at each other, especially with the trail being so thin (not wide) at the beginning/end with no room for passing at all. I must speak to ride management about this danger.
Dane Line and I enter the camp area where the vet checks are held. This is going to be our first vet check in the ride, besides the precheck they made the day before the ride started. I spot clipboard lady, actually it`s a different lady, and this one seems to be wearing a football helmet for some reason. She looks at me and yells, "Why are you coming in that way?" I ask if she`s talking to me and she says, "Yes, you are coming in from the wrong direction." I look around and don`t see Joe or anyone else from the 25. Oh my.
So another lady joins us (I`ve noticed that women control just about everything here), she`s the one who told us not to trot our horses into camp, and the two ladies and I all have a Powwow. Seems as though I have violated another rule. They explain to me, and I swear one of them called me "wrong- way," that I made a wrong turn a mile back and did not follow the trail correctly. "Didn`t you realize you were coming in the same way you started and that this is dangerous?", the no-trotting-allowed lady inquires of me. Off in the distance I spot the Preacher man and he`s pointing at me and Dance Line, yelling to someone nearby, and I swear I hear him cursing. He also says something with the word "police" attached and I realize it might be safer for me back on the trail. I ask no-trot if I can go back out and try and correct my mistake. She says yes and we`re off. Back in the saddle again.
TO BE CONTINUED
NEXT: PART III CONCLUSION (FINALLY) THE END OF THE TRAIL
Rookie Horse, Rookie Rider: Part 1 - Howard Bramhall
Well I just finished my first endurance ride. That`s if you can count a measly 25 miles an endurance run. I do. So does my back and my horse, who was so tired he fell asleep during the last vet check. And for those of you who complete 50`s and 100`s, you have my respect and admiration. I bow before you and recite, "I`m not worthy to be among you." This is my story.
First off, I didn`t realize primitive camping meant prehistoric. No running water, no plumbing, no stalls, no nothing except a port-a-pottie with a line of people. And the weather. Did i mention it was colder than Ken Starr`s bedroom? And this was Florida. I thought I had prepared for everything. I even downloaded ten pages of information on what to bring when camping with your horse (had to have been written by a woman), read it, even tried to follow it, until my truck and horse trailer became filled with stuff before I finished checking off the items on the third page.
Ever spend the night in your horse trailer? Ever want to? I tried it. Next time it`s the Holiday Inn for me (do they have horse stalls?). After spending over two hours sweeping and cleaning, i came to realize you just can`t get that "smell" out. Even when you throw in a couple bales of hay. And use good beer (ok, maybe not that good) cause you forgot the Pine Sol (that must have been on page 4 of her list of things to bring).
So to keep warm I lit up the Coleman lantern. This worked for awhile; I was almost asleep when i started smelling something burning. I knew it wasn`t me cause I was freezing and my lips were still purple and i quit smoking just last year. I woke up looking at one of my bales of hay aglow. It was totally on fire. Somehow my Coleman lantern had wondered a bit close to the hay and the two of them had gotten way too cozy with each other trying to keep warm. That song Burn Baby Burn started playing in my head. It`s a song I heard often during the Florida fires I had the honor of living through last summer. It took me over three bottles of beer to put the hay fire out. And, yes, beer can put out a fire (the cheap stuff I buy doesn`t have enough alcohol to burn) and the horse will eat the hay the next day.
Well my camping neighbors were not too happy with having me live next door, I must say. One lady looked at me, looked at the burnt hay in my trailer, frowned at her horse and mine who were hysterical, stared at my empty bottles of beer on the trailer floor, and said, "First ride, eh?" She had a way with words. She then moseyed up to me close enough to hug me (although i don`t think this is what she had in mind) and told me not to wake her again. To emphasize the importance of her words she moved her coat aside to expose a 9 MM revolver strapped to her waist. I guessed that the gun was to keep off dangerous hombres like me from disturbing her much needed rest. I promised her I wouldn`t wake her again since I planned on staying up anyway cause i was too cold to sleep. And now too afraid of waking up my neighbor. I watched her calm her horse with two words (Shut up) and then mosey on back into her heated tent. As i stood there and just shivered, wet from the beer i had used to put out my fire.
So morning finally arrives. Cold, damp, but I`m excited anyway. I feed the horse and go out to watch the 50 milers saddle up and warm their horses. Plus i feel a necessity to remove myself from the campsite as my neighbors rise to prepare for their ride. This is not just any horse race. These horses have more energy and excitement than you`ll see at any racetrack. I watch them canter and some of the horses buck and even rear up, but their riders remain in total control. After seeing one Arabian rear up several times I was kinda surprised to see the rider not be bothered by any of it and merely say "he won`t be like this after the first vet check." I couldn`t wait to see what my horse was gonna do in an hour under similar circumstances.
So I wandered towards the start expecting to see a gun in the air and hear a loud boom signifying the start of the race. Instead I see this tiny old man dressed up kinda formal for the surroundings bowing his head and saying a prayer to the riders. Where`d this guy come from and why do we need him here, I ask myself. Turns out he`s the local preacher. Then a lady with a clipboard in her hand does a ten, nine, eight... count down and they`re off. 55 riders all at once all heading towards a tiny trail barely wide enough for a Florida deer. It was at this point I decided I`m gonna wear that riding helmet after all. I hadn`t worn it since last Christmas when my wife gave it to me. But it had just dawned on me that i`ve never done anything quite like this ride either.
So now it`s time for me to get my Saddlebred ready. Did I tell you he`s 17 hands tall? And that I`m barely 5`7"? And man is he jumpy. He didn`t get any rest the night before camping with me and the fire and all the other horses, but he doesn`t seem at all tired. It`s everything I can do to get the darn saddle on him. I spent three weeks planning for this ride but all of a sudden the reality of it all kicks in and I`m a bit scared and jumpy just like my buddy. Man am i antsy.
I put the saddle pad on my horse. I wander towards the trailer looking for my saddle. The smell of burnt hay and beer is in the air, I`ve definitely marked my territory here. I find the saddle, go back to my horse, and can`t find the damn pad. Did i mention it`s still dark outside? I go back to the trailer and get the Coleman so i can find the pad. On the way back the horse spooks from the lantern, breaks my tie, and off to the races he goes. And the clipboard lady hasn`t said go yet.
Hoa there, loose horse on the run. Watch it! Grab him please, someone. Shit, I`m too old for this. Have you ever tried running with a Coleman lantern in your hand? My leg hooks up in my neighbor`s tent peg and Ripppppppppppp. They just don`t make tent`s like they used to. With 50 horses tied up going crazy and people yelling at you wondering why you`re trying to set your neighbor`s tent on fire with your lantern, I`m thinking that the tent i just destroyed belonged to my neighbor with the 9mm and that i`m a dead man.
Some lady has my horse. Whew. Thank God, I might make the start after all. I go up to her and she tells me that maybe I shouldn`t ride today. I ask her why and she says, "Well, you kinda smell like beer and it might not be safe for you if you`re hung over." I love considerate women. I tell her it`s OK, I`m only the groom and take the horse back to my campsite. Man is he jumpy. And I`ve got ten minutes till the start. At least I got my riding pants on. That`s cause i slept in them; part of my planning ahead. Too bad they`re so wet.
I`m back at my site and I realize the good news is that my 9mm neighbor had already left cause she was in the 50 race. The bad news is I knew she was gonna come back sometime and that she would probably guess who it was who ripped up her tent. So, should I leave her a note like i do when I back up into a parked car? Well, no time to worry about that now, I have a race to enter.
We finish saddling up. I say "we" cause endurance is a team sport, you and your horse fighting you every step of the way. My saddle and pad are both caked with mud from hitting the ground a dozen times. But, if nothing else, I am perseverant. I`ve got three minutes to warm this guy up. We`re doing fine. Now i`ve got to find a fence post or a ditch so I can get up on his back. Did I tell you he`s 17 1/2 hands tall? And that I could pass for a jockey? I finally find the spot we went to yesterday. Glad I planned so well.
Well I get halfway on the saddle and he`s up bucking away. Hasn`t done this to me in altleast three weeks so i`m not totally prepared. Now most riders pull back on the reins when a horse does this to get him to stop. Not me; I kick away and we`re off to the races in a full gallop. Course now I remember some authority figure speaking at the rider`s meeting the night before telling us (and for some reason she seemed to stare at me as she said it) that the riders were not to trot their horses in the camp area for safety. Well that`s good she said that cause I`m a firm believer in being safe and we`re not trotting. Not even loping. We are in a full throttle wide open gallop and I have no idea where we are going. But man can i hang on or what? And hey, isn`t that the preacher man standing right in front of us with his head down? We must be headed in the right direction.
First off, I didn`t realize primitive camping meant prehistoric. No running water, no plumbing, no stalls, no nothing except a port-a-pottie with a line of people. And the weather. Did i mention it was colder than Ken Starr`s bedroom? And this was Florida. I thought I had prepared for everything. I even downloaded ten pages of information on what to bring when camping with your horse (had to have been written by a woman), read it, even tried to follow it, until my truck and horse trailer became filled with stuff before I finished checking off the items on the third page.
Ever spend the night in your horse trailer? Ever want to? I tried it. Next time it`s the Holiday Inn for me (do they have horse stalls?). After spending over two hours sweeping and cleaning, i came to realize you just can`t get that "smell" out. Even when you throw in a couple bales of hay. And use good beer (ok, maybe not that good) cause you forgot the Pine Sol (that must have been on page 4 of her list of things to bring).
So to keep warm I lit up the Coleman lantern. This worked for awhile; I was almost asleep when i started smelling something burning. I knew it wasn`t me cause I was freezing and my lips were still purple and i quit smoking just last year. I woke up looking at one of my bales of hay aglow. It was totally on fire. Somehow my Coleman lantern had wondered a bit close to the hay and the two of them had gotten way too cozy with each other trying to keep warm. That song Burn Baby Burn started playing in my head. It`s a song I heard often during the Florida fires I had the honor of living through last summer. It took me over three bottles of beer to put the hay fire out. And, yes, beer can put out a fire (the cheap stuff I buy doesn`t have enough alcohol to burn) and the horse will eat the hay the next day.
Well my camping neighbors were not too happy with having me live next door, I must say. One lady looked at me, looked at the burnt hay in my trailer, frowned at her horse and mine who were hysterical, stared at my empty bottles of beer on the trailer floor, and said, "First ride, eh?" She had a way with words. She then moseyed up to me close enough to hug me (although i don`t think this is what she had in mind) and told me not to wake her again. To emphasize the importance of her words she moved her coat aside to expose a 9 MM revolver strapped to her waist. I guessed that the gun was to keep off dangerous hombres like me from disturbing her much needed rest. I promised her I wouldn`t wake her again since I planned on staying up anyway cause i was too cold to sleep. And now too afraid of waking up my neighbor. I watched her calm her horse with two words (Shut up) and then mosey on back into her heated tent. As i stood there and just shivered, wet from the beer i had used to put out my fire.
So morning finally arrives. Cold, damp, but I`m excited anyway. I feed the horse and go out to watch the 50 milers saddle up and warm their horses. Plus i feel a necessity to remove myself from the campsite as my neighbors rise to prepare for their ride. This is not just any horse race. These horses have more energy and excitement than you`ll see at any racetrack. I watch them canter and some of the horses buck and even rear up, but their riders remain in total control. After seeing one Arabian rear up several times I was kinda surprised to see the rider not be bothered by any of it and merely say "he won`t be like this after the first vet check." I couldn`t wait to see what my horse was gonna do in an hour under similar circumstances.
So I wandered towards the start expecting to see a gun in the air and hear a loud boom signifying the start of the race. Instead I see this tiny old man dressed up kinda formal for the surroundings bowing his head and saying a prayer to the riders. Where`d this guy come from and why do we need him here, I ask myself. Turns out he`s the local preacher. Then a lady with a clipboard in her hand does a ten, nine, eight... count down and they`re off. 55 riders all at once all heading towards a tiny trail barely wide enough for a Florida deer. It was at this point I decided I`m gonna wear that riding helmet after all. I hadn`t worn it since last Christmas when my wife gave it to me. But it had just dawned on me that i`ve never done anything quite like this ride either.
So now it`s time for me to get my Saddlebred ready. Did I tell you he`s 17 hands tall? And that I`m barely 5`7"? And man is he jumpy. He didn`t get any rest the night before camping with me and the fire and all the other horses, but he doesn`t seem at all tired. It`s everything I can do to get the darn saddle on him. I spent three weeks planning for this ride but all of a sudden the reality of it all kicks in and I`m a bit scared and jumpy just like my buddy. Man am i antsy.
I put the saddle pad on my horse. I wander towards the trailer looking for my saddle. The smell of burnt hay and beer is in the air, I`ve definitely marked my territory here. I find the saddle, go back to my horse, and can`t find the damn pad. Did i mention it`s still dark outside? I go back to the trailer and get the Coleman so i can find the pad. On the way back the horse spooks from the lantern, breaks my tie, and off to the races he goes. And the clipboard lady hasn`t said go yet.
Hoa there, loose horse on the run. Watch it! Grab him please, someone. Shit, I`m too old for this. Have you ever tried running with a Coleman lantern in your hand? My leg hooks up in my neighbor`s tent peg and Ripppppppppppp. They just don`t make tent`s like they used to. With 50 horses tied up going crazy and people yelling at you wondering why you`re trying to set your neighbor`s tent on fire with your lantern, I`m thinking that the tent i just destroyed belonged to my neighbor with the 9mm and that i`m a dead man.
Some lady has my horse. Whew. Thank God, I might make the start after all. I go up to her and she tells me that maybe I shouldn`t ride today. I ask her why and she says, "Well, you kinda smell like beer and it might not be safe for you if you`re hung over." I love considerate women. I tell her it`s OK, I`m only the groom and take the horse back to my campsite. Man is he jumpy. And I`ve got ten minutes till the start. At least I got my riding pants on. That`s cause i slept in them; part of my planning ahead. Too bad they`re so wet.
I`m back at my site and I realize the good news is that my 9mm neighbor had already left cause she was in the 50 race. The bad news is I knew she was gonna come back sometime and that she would probably guess who it was who ripped up her tent. So, should I leave her a note like i do when I back up into a parked car? Well, no time to worry about that now, I have a race to enter.
We finish saddling up. I say "we" cause endurance is a team sport, you and your horse fighting you every step of the way. My saddle and pad are both caked with mud from hitting the ground a dozen times. But, if nothing else, I am perseverant. I`ve got three minutes to warm this guy up. We`re doing fine. Now i`ve got to find a fence post or a ditch so I can get up on his back. Did I tell you he`s 17 1/2 hands tall? And that I could pass for a jockey? I finally find the spot we went to yesterday. Glad I planned so well.
Well I get halfway on the saddle and he`s up bucking away. Hasn`t done this to me in altleast three weeks so i`m not totally prepared. Now most riders pull back on the reins when a horse does this to get him to stop. Not me; I kick away and we`re off to the races in a full gallop. Course now I remember some authority figure speaking at the rider`s meeting the night before telling us (and for some reason she seemed to stare at me as she said it) that the riders were not to trot their horses in the camp area for safety. Well that`s good she said that cause I`m a firm believer in being safe and we`re not trotting. Not even loping. We are in a full throttle wide open gallop and I have no idea where we are going. But man can i hang on or what? And hey, isn`t that the preacher man standing right in front of us with his head down? We must be headed in the right direction.
Wednesday, March 03, 1999
Worms - Donna Paton
SMALL STRONGYLES (Strongyles spp.)
This worm is also known as the redworm. The new name for this species is Cyathostomes. Although very similar to the Large Strongyles they do not cause as much damage, as they do not migrate through blood vessels. They are the most common worms for horses of all ages, up to 95% of horses have them.
Redworms are usually 2.5cm long and are thin with tapered ends. They are red to brown in colour, and have a small mouth and sharp hooks, which are used for grasping and penetrating.
99% of the worm eggs are passed in manure. They take 12 to 24 hours in manure to hatch into larvae. The larvae then develop for seven to ten days, before crawling into grass where they are then eaten by a host. Some larvae enter the gut wall and form deep nodules or cysts, where they may remain for up to two years. Other larvae may burrow but not cause a tissue reaction. Only a few species attach and suck blood. Either worming or the intake of green pasture then triggers the larvae to move on to the large intestine.
The adult worms are found in the large intestine where they cause irritation, utilising blood and protein for themselves. They cause persistent diarrhoea and may sometimes cause colic.
Foals are the most susceptible. In young foals, usually around 6 to 12 weeks, they may stunt growth and cause persistent diarrhoea. The more common signs of infestation are high fever, depression, intermittent diarrhoea, constipation and colic. Colic is the best indicator of Strongyle infestation. The incidence of colic in a group of animals is also a good indicator of the effectiveness of the worm control program. In adult competition horses, infestation may cause poor performance.
LARGE STRONGYLE (Strongylus spp.)
These worms are also known as bloodworms, and are not to be confused with redworms (small strongyle). The bloodworm is considered the most dangerous internal parasite. Every horse has bloodworms, even though the symptoms may not be displayed. They can cause permanent damage. There are three species Strongyle vulgaris, Strongyle equinus and Strongyle endentatus.
Bloodworms are usually 5cm long and are thin with tapered ends. They are usually red to brown in colour. The Large Strongyle have very large mouths with sharp hooks, used for grasping and penetrating.
The adult female may lay up to 6,000 eggs per day. The eggs hatch in 12 to 24 hours in fresh manure and will develop into larvae within seven to ten days. Larvae may survive for up to 26 weeks on pasture before being ingested.
Strongylus vulgaris
This is the most harmful worm in the large strongyle family. Damage occurs from the immature larvae, which travel through blood vessels, located mainly near the gut and hindquarter region. They irritate the arterial wall causing the wall to thicken; this causes the formation of Thrombi. The Thrombi then break off and from clots, which block the blood supply to the bowl. The immature larvae also weaken the blood vessel walls. They also can restrict blood flow and even block the arteries. They travel in these arteries to the cranial mesenteric artery. Small numbers may even be found in the aorta and other arteries.
Adult worms live in the large intestine where they damage the lining as they burrow through it, to suck the blood from the small blood vessels underneath. They can cause blood loss and haemorrhages, when they detach and reattach. In the large intestine they use up precious nutrients that are vital for the horse.
Signs of infestation are high temperature, loss of appetite, loss of body condition, depression and colic. The larvae may also cause a cranial aneurism, which can rupture.
Strongylus equinus
Ingested larvae penetrate the colon forming nodules; they emerge from these 10 to 11 days. After penetrating into the liver; where they remain for six to seven weeks. They go back to whence they came and penetrate the pancreas. It takes four to five months to develop into adults. Once adults they attach themselves to the caecum as bloodsuckers.
Horses usually infected with these worms show signs of high temperature, colic depression and loss of body condition. They also cause the necrosis and hepatitis.
Strongylus edentatus
Slightly smaller than S. equinus, being 26 to 38mmm in length, it is found commonly in horses (along with S. vulgaris). These worms tend to erratic migrations and have been known to be found in the testes, kidney, the abdominal cavity and elsewhere.
The migrating pathway to the vulgaris is similar but the pathway of the larvae is different. The larvae invade the liver within two days, by travelling through the cecal veins from the caecum.
Horses generally suffer from a high temperature, depression, colic constipation and diarrhea. Illness and death can result in two weeks. Horses do not generally suffer unless infested with large numbers.
If anyone else would like more of this article e-mail me and I will send you the copy.
Donna P.
This worm is also known as the redworm. The new name for this species is Cyathostomes. Although very similar to the Large Strongyles they do not cause as much damage, as they do not migrate through blood vessels. They are the most common worms for horses of all ages, up to 95% of horses have them.
Redworms are usually 2.5cm long and are thin with tapered ends. They are red to brown in colour, and have a small mouth and sharp hooks, which are used for grasping and penetrating.
99% of the worm eggs are passed in manure. They take 12 to 24 hours in manure to hatch into larvae. The larvae then develop for seven to ten days, before crawling into grass where they are then eaten by a host. Some larvae enter the gut wall and form deep nodules or cysts, where they may remain for up to two years. Other larvae may burrow but not cause a tissue reaction. Only a few species attach and suck blood. Either worming or the intake of green pasture then triggers the larvae to move on to the large intestine.
The adult worms are found in the large intestine where they cause irritation, utilising blood and protein for themselves. They cause persistent diarrhoea and may sometimes cause colic.
Foals are the most susceptible. In young foals, usually around 6 to 12 weeks, they may stunt growth and cause persistent diarrhoea. The more common signs of infestation are high fever, depression, intermittent diarrhoea, constipation and colic. Colic is the best indicator of Strongyle infestation. The incidence of colic in a group of animals is also a good indicator of the effectiveness of the worm control program. In adult competition horses, infestation may cause poor performance.
LARGE STRONGYLE (Strongylus spp.)
These worms are also known as bloodworms, and are not to be confused with redworms (small strongyle). The bloodworm is considered the most dangerous internal parasite. Every horse has bloodworms, even though the symptoms may not be displayed. They can cause permanent damage. There are three species Strongyle vulgaris, Strongyle equinus and Strongyle endentatus.
Bloodworms are usually 5cm long and are thin with tapered ends. They are usually red to brown in colour. The Large Strongyle have very large mouths with sharp hooks, used for grasping and penetrating.
The adult female may lay up to 6,000 eggs per day. The eggs hatch in 12 to 24 hours in fresh manure and will develop into larvae within seven to ten days. Larvae may survive for up to 26 weeks on pasture before being ingested.
Strongylus vulgaris
This is the most harmful worm in the large strongyle family. Damage occurs from the immature larvae, which travel through blood vessels, located mainly near the gut and hindquarter region. They irritate the arterial wall causing the wall to thicken; this causes the formation of Thrombi. The Thrombi then break off and from clots, which block the blood supply to the bowl. The immature larvae also weaken the blood vessel walls. They also can restrict blood flow and even block the arteries. They travel in these arteries to the cranial mesenteric artery. Small numbers may even be found in the aorta and other arteries.
Adult worms live in the large intestine where they damage the lining as they burrow through it, to suck the blood from the small blood vessels underneath. They can cause blood loss and haemorrhages, when they detach and reattach. In the large intestine they use up precious nutrients that are vital for the horse.
Signs of infestation are high temperature, loss of appetite, loss of body condition, depression and colic. The larvae may also cause a cranial aneurism, which can rupture.
Strongylus equinus
Ingested larvae penetrate the colon forming nodules; they emerge from these 10 to 11 days. After penetrating into the liver; where they remain for six to seven weeks. They go back to whence they came and penetrate the pancreas. It takes four to five months to develop into adults. Once adults they attach themselves to the caecum as bloodsuckers.
Horses usually infected with these worms show signs of high temperature, colic depression and loss of body condition. They also cause the necrosis and hepatitis.
Strongylus edentatus
Slightly smaller than S. equinus, being 26 to 38mmm in length, it is found commonly in horses (along with S. vulgaris). These worms tend to erratic migrations and have been known to be found in the testes, kidney, the abdominal cavity and elsewhere.
The migrating pathway to the vulgaris is similar but the pathway of the larvae is different. The larvae invade the liver within two days, by travelling through the cecal veins from the caecum.
Horses generally suffer from a high temperature, depression, colic constipation and diarrhea. Illness and death can result in two weeks. Horses do not generally suffer unless infested with large numbers.
If anyone else would like more of this article e-mail me and I will send you the copy.
Donna P.
Friday, January 01, 1999
'98 Death Valley Encounter - Karen Chaton
We just returned from a wonderful week spent in Death Valley, California riding the DVE ride - 4 days and 200 miles. I think a large portion of the riders there are all RC`ers so you`ll probably get a lot more stories.
The ride is a lot of fun. A real challenge and a test that only the toughest horses are able to complete the entire 200 mile distance. Not only are there some very challenging climbs, but the footing is also a challenge all by itself. Add to that the incredibly warm temperatures and sunny days and you`ve got one difficult winter ride. I know I learned a lot about my horse - we had enough of our own problems - but managed to perservere and I think due to a great deal of luck, experience from others and having one tough horse - we managed to get thru it. (we being me and Rocky). This was Rock`s first multiday.
As usual, this being a Bumgardner ride....it was an adventure. We should expect no less, I suppose. I think Jackie wants the second day of this ride to become legendary.
The first day of the ride we started at Valley Wells. We rode to Ballarat the first day. We did one loop back into camp, then rode out from there to the next ride camp location. There was plenty of room in camp to accommodate 108 riders and horses. (I think that is how many started the first day)
I knew from the start that I would have problems with Rocky`s soft heels. And I did. I knew I couldn`t ride him in easyboots because I couldn`t put the heel strap on over the soft heel bulb. He normally has very tough feet and loves to go over rocks (how do you think he got his name!) I decided to put the boots on at the start of the first day, hoping that his feet had dried out some from being down there overnight. I rode the first loop with Becky Hackworth and her daughter Heather. The trail was actually very nice, the footing wasn`t too bad at all. Only we came into the vet check and Rocky was a little sore/off on one of his front feet. So I took off his boots, walked him around every few minutes for his hour hold and re-checked him and he was fine. The rest of the trail that day was such that he didn`t have any trouble for the remainder of the day. Jackie implemented a new vet check procedure (new for this ride, not for every ride). When you went into the vet check, you were supposed to vet right away. Then, before you could leave again the vets had to watch you trot out - just to make sure everything was okay. After lunch on the first day we headed over to Ballarat and the crews/drivers moved our rigs over to the new ridecamp location. The new location was a little more crowded, but everybody had room. The RC in Ballarat has showers and an interesting little store. Though the showers weren`t working - I think somebody said they filled up the horse water and used up all the pressure in the tanks. Oh well.
Day two was to be the most difficult day, same as the year before. Only this time because of the ice on one side of the mountain Jackie decided to send us around in a "P" shape on the mountain rather than a full loop. That way we would not have to go over the large sections of solid ice on the trail. Only, at the very start of the ride, a miner (there are lots of mines there) had marked with - you guessed it - orange trail tape - how to get to his mine. Which started out going up the same way as our trail, but then went to the left. Well, everybody - and I mean everybody - went the WRONG WAY! I think almost everyone went at least 1-2 hours out of the way. Straight up the mountain - and when the frontrunners ran out of trail (which was a lucky thing, actually), we all turned around and headed straight back down. Finally got onto the correct trail. I had commented to Becky that `this trail doesn`t look familiar`, but being that I came down the trail in the dark the year before I wasn`t exactly sure that it was wrong. At least going up the correct trail there were creeks along the way. Yay! We had a loooooooong climb ahead of us (again!) and we chose to walk most of it (as we had the original hill that we climbed, at the first start). Once we reached the top and Sparrow (water guy) - we had more water for the horses, and some hay. We stuck around for a few minutes and let the horses eat the remaining hay and talked with Sparrow for awhile. Becky joked that we had probably climbed 9000` feet - and he said - in all seriousness - `oh no, you didn`t even come close to that - you only did a little over 8,000`. Ha ha. And we`d only gone what, 16 miles? This was going to be a long day. Headed back down the mountain, got off and walked the horses thru the steepest parts. Finally made it back down, I think we made it into lunch check at about 2 p.m. - had an hour hold. Then headed out for the last loop. (we passed Trilby on our way back - she was cantering!) This loop was good footing, and the horse was still feeling good without the easyboots. His urine didn`t look too good, and I told Barney who checked him over and said to bring him back if it didn`t look better next time - and luckily, it was perfect for the remainder of the ride - other riders told me that it could have been nothing more than the change in diet. He had been eating a lot of alfalfa at this ride, and he usually doesn`t get any. I was also giving him more probiotics than normal. But it didn`t stop me from worrying about him all night and day . I kept a close eye on him, and everything else was normal. He was eating well, drinking, had a great attitude, never got stiff, and continued to urinate large volumes and normal color so I can only hope that nothing happened to cause any damage or harm to him in any way.
We started out the third day full of optimism. This is my least favorite day of the ride. The first 8 miles or so was nice, good footing. Water for the horses, they drank well. I was still riding with Becky and her horse Mark. soon after that the trail changed and became very rocky. I stopped and put an easyboot on Rocky`s tender foot and he was fine for awhile. Then he got a little sore so I took it off. The vetwrap that I had around the heel strap was soaking wet - that is how full of moisture his feet were. So we continued, at a walk all the way down to the lunch vet check. He was moving nicely on the firm stuff, but very owie on the soft deep sandy rocky stuff. We made it into the vet check and now the horse was sore on the other front foot. I think that both of his heels were just tender and bothering him from going over all those rocks. So this is what we did - I had my crew bag there with all my EB stuff, luckily. I pulled out two size 1`s, cut the heel straps off completely. Then, cleaned up his foot and easy-foamed the boots on his front feet. We did this while he ate and during the hour hold the foam set up Linda (Barney`s wife) helped me clean up the mess - hay sticking all over his feet - and trim away any hairs stuck to the foam around the edges. Then we left the check with him still a little sore but I knew that once he walked a ways with the heels protected that he would be fine - plus the footing on the way back was a lot better. By the time we reached the next water he was trying to go go go and felt absolutely 100% again. Whew! All morning I thought for sure I would have to pull him at lunch, so I found this to be some sort of miracle that he was now sound from something so simple as foaming on those easyboots without the heel straps. What a lifesaver!!! We could see the lights of Panamint Springs for quite some time and the horses seemed to know that is where we were going. By the time we reached the highway crossing it was completely dark. My husband waited for us at the intersection and drove behind us with his flashers on to keep anybody from running us over, since it was a 65 mph zone. The shoulder alongside the highway was nice and wide, and we had to let the horses trot some - otherwise Rocky was trying to jig, he wanted to go so bad. I thought for sure by the third day he would be over that jig thing. Was I ever wrong. I felt good that night, confident that the horse would be sound in the morning. It was 6:33 p.m. when we finished. A long day, but good for the horses not to have gone any faster over the terrain that day.
I got up at 4 the next morning to walk Rocky and make sure everything was okay. I had apparently worn out the switch on the light (it`s by the bed in the gooseneck, so I can turn it on and see the horses outside in the pen), and could no longer blind my horse 50 million times a night looking to see what he was doing every half second.
I think that due to the difficulty of this ride, among other things, that many of the riders were a little short with their tempers. All around us, people were yelling, snapping, and biting each others heads off. Eeeeeeeeeeyikes!!
Our RC at Panamint Springs was nice. Each of us had our own RV campsite, with water. There are showers there - tiled and everything. A little restaurant across the street too. The ride starts going up the highway, then Darwin Canyon - thru Darwin then up to the vet check which is somewhere in the middle of nowhere. At this point I was a little tired of Rocky wanting to jig, so I let him go a little more and trot out. The vet check was a little cool and windy, but before that it was really nice and warm. I think some of the longer haired horses were getting a little hot. I had clipped Rocky`s neck, which I`m sure helped him a lot. He seemed to adapt to the warmer weather just fine. I left the vet check with a nice fresh feeling horse. I think he knew we were going back to camp. A little while later, April Mitchell riding Zayante caught up with us. Our two horses were very competetive together. We were going over really nice footing, and both of us let the horses out. I think we were going over 15 mph. What a blast! We were still holding the horses back. It was like we were floating - and this was on the downhill too. The horses weren`t feeling the least bit tired and we continued letting them move out. We walked thru the town of Darwin. Interesting place. Then we went down down down a long paved road. I didn`t remember it being paved for that long on the way out in the morning. We made it to the top of Darwin Canyon and decided to get off and walk down. It`s pretty rocky and the last thing I wanted to do was lame up my horse at the very end of the ride. Once we got to the bottom, I got back on and Rocky and Zayante resumed their competetiveness and we just hauled butt all the way to the finish line! We finished in 10th and 11th place. :) Yippee!! Walked into the camp back down the highway and vetted the horses right away. Lucy had come down to ride on the last day, but nobody had any sound horses left for her so she took Rocky for me while I went to shower :)) and cleaned him all up for me. I think he was most interested in eating. I had kept up the carbos on him during the ride, every two hours, and electrolytes three times a day (pre-ride, lunch, post-ride). Rocky didn`t want to eat much of anything except hay - which he ate lots of. He did eat a fair amount of the beet pulp based feeds during the ride, but that was about it. On the last day he did eat a couple of pounds of LMF and I find that kind of funny. At this ride he brought his mileage total up to 1075 miles. It was at almost the same exact mileage marker that Weaver started to eat the grain feeds too! I guess what they say is true - it really does take about 1,000 miles to know if your horse has really got what it takes to be an endurance horse! I sure hope the next thousand are as much fun as the first....though with less of a learning curve .
We got nice insulated coffee/travel cups each day for completion awards. Everybody that completed all four days on the same horse will also receive a sweatshirt with the ride logo and our name and horses name embroidered on the front. The ultimate status symbol! ;+)
Jackie had a band for us and a nice awards dinner on the last night. I think I was the only one (ah hem) that didn`t get on her list for completing all 4 days on the same horse. I suppose that`s okay, cuz now the whole world knows anyway, right? ha ha The band played till midnight and many people danced. Mostly Trilby and Dave Rabe. I don`t know how Trilby has so much energy. I`m half her age and don`t have that much energy. (wimp)
I`m sure I left out lots of stuff. We had a nice time, it was especially enjoyable because my husband was NOT grumpy and we got along the whole time :). I took lots of the human form of Pro-Burst at this ride and came home feeling great - no stiffness at all. Just tired. I liked that stuff- works better than taking Orudus or Vitamin I.
Happy Trails,
Karen in Gardnerville & Rocky, 1075 miles, just weight taped him and he came back with exactly the same measurements he left with! & Weaver, on vacation :-)
P.S. and the ride song goes something like this.....
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
why did you jump........into the road
you used to be.....so green and fat....
and now you are.....so red and flat....
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
why did you jump........into the road
;-) (you had to be there)
The ride is a lot of fun. A real challenge and a test that only the toughest horses are able to complete the entire 200 mile distance. Not only are there some very challenging climbs, but the footing is also a challenge all by itself. Add to that the incredibly warm temperatures and sunny days and you`ve got one difficult winter ride. I know I learned a lot about my horse - we had enough of our own problems - but managed to perservere and I think due to a great deal of luck, experience from others and having one tough horse - we managed to get thru it. (we being me and Rocky). This was Rock`s first multiday.
As usual, this being a Bumgardner ride....it was an adventure. We should expect no less, I suppose. I think Jackie wants the second day of this ride to become legendary.
The first day of the ride we started at Valley Wells. We rode to Ballarat the first day. We did one loop back into camp, then rode out from there to the next ride camp location. There was plenty of room in camp to accommodate 108 riders and horses. (I think that is how many started the first day)
I knew from the start that I would have problems with Rocky`s soft heels. And I did. I knew I couldn`t ride him in easyboots because I couldn`t put the heel strap on over the soft heel bulb. He normally has very tough feet and loves to go over rocks (how do you think he got his name!) I decided to put the boots on at the start of the first day, hoping that his feet had dried out some from being down there overnight. I rode the first loop with Becky Hackworth and her daughter Heather. The trail was actually very nice, the footing wasn`t too bad at all. Only we came into the vet check and Rocky was a little sore/off on one of his front feet. So I took off his boots, walked him around every few minutes for his hour hold and re-checked him and he was fine. The rest of the trail that day was such that he didn`t have any trouble for the remainder of the day. Jackie implemented a new vet check procedure (new for this ride, not for every ride). When you went into the vet check, you were supposed to vet right away. Then, before you could leave again the vets had to watch you trot out - just to make sure everything was okay. After lunch on the first day we headed over to Ballarat and the crews/drivers moved our rigs over to the new ridecamp location. The new location was a little more crowded, but everybody had room. The RC in Ballarat has showers and an interesting little store. Though the showers weren`t working - I think somebody said they filled up the horse water and used up all the pressure in the tanks. Oh well.
Day two was to be the most difficult day, same as the year before. Only this time because of the ice on one side of the mountain Jackie decided to send us around in a "P" shape on the mountain rather than a full loop. That way we would not have to go over the large sections of solid ice on the trail. Only, at the very start of the ride, a miner (there are lots of mines there) had marked with - you guessed it - orange trail tape - how to get to his mine. Which started out going up the same way as our trail, but then went to the left. Well, everybody - and I mean everybody - went the WRONG WAY! I think almost everyone went at least 1-2 hours out of the way. Straight up the mountain - and when the frontrunners ran out of trail (which was a lucky thing, actually), we all turned around and headed straight back down. Finally got onto the correct trail. I had commented to Becky that `this trail doesn`t look familiar`, but being that I came down the trail in the dark the year before I wasn`t exactly sure that it was wrong. At least going up the correct trail there were creeks along the way. Yay! We had a loooooooong climb ahead of us (again!) and we chose to walk most of it (as we had the original hill that we climbed, at the first start). Once we reached the top and Sparrow (water guy) - we had more water for the horses, and some hay. We stuck around for a few minutes and let the horses eat the remaining hay and talked with Sparrow for awhile. Becky joked that we had probably climbed 9000` feet - and he said - in all seriousness - `oh no, you didn`t even come close to that - you only did a little over 8,000`. Ha ha. And we`d only gone what, 16 miles? This was going to be a long day. Headed back down the mountain, got off and walked the horses thru the steepest parts. Finally made it back down, I think we made it into lunch check at about 2 p.m. - had an hour hold. Then headed out for the last loop. (we passed Trilby on our way back - she was cantering!) This loop was good footing, and the horse was still feeling good without the easyboots. His urine didn`t look too good, and I told Barney who checked him over and said to bring him back if it didn`t look better next time - and luckily, it was perfect for the remainder of the ride - other riders told me that it could have been nothing more than the change in diet. He had been eating a lot of alfalfa at this ride, and he usually doesn`t get any. I was also giving him more probiotics than normal. But it didn`t stop me from worrying about him all night and day . I kept a close eye on him, and everything else was normal. He was eating well, drinking, had a great attitude, never got stiff, and continued to urinate large volumes and normal color so I can only hope that nothing happened to cause any damage or harm to him in any way.
We started out the third day full of optimism. This is my least favorite day of the ride. The first 8 miles or so was nice, good footing. Water for the horses, they drank well. I was still riding with Becky and her horse Mark. soon after that the trail changed and became very rocky. I stopped and put an easyboot on Rocky`s tender foot and he was fine for awhile. Then he got a little sore so I took it off. The vetwrap that I had around the heel strap was soaking wet - that is how full of moisture his feet were. So we continued, at a walk all the way down to the lunch vet check. He was moving nicely on the firm stuff, but very owie on the soft deep sandy rocky stuff. We made it into the vet check and now the horse was sore on the other front foot. I think that both of his heels were just tender and bothering him from going over all those rocks. So this is what we did - I had my crew bag there with all my EB stuff, luckily. I pulled out two size 1`s, cut the heel straps off completely. Then, cleaned up his foot and easy-foamed the boots on his front feet. We did this while he ate and during the hour hold the foam set up Linda (Barney`s wife) helped me clean up the mess - hay sticking all over his feet - and trim away any hairs stuck to the foam around the edges. Then we left the check with him still a little sore but I knew that once he walked a ways with the heels protected that he would be fine - plus the footing on the way back was a lot better. By the time we reached the next water he was trying to go go go and felt absolutely 100% again. Whew! All morning I thought for sure I would have to pull him at lunch, so I found this to be some sort of miracle that he was now sound from something so simple as foaming on those easyboots without the heel straps. What a lifesaver!!! We could see the lights of Panamint Springs for quite some time and the horses seemed to know that is where we were going. By the time we reached the highway crossing it was completely dark. My husband waited for us at the intersection and drove behind us with his flashers on to keep anybody from running us over, since it was a 65 mph zone. The shoulder alongside the highway was nice and wide, and we had to let the horses trot some - otherwise Rocky was trying to jig, he wanted to go so bad. I thought for sure by the third day he would be over that jig thing. Was I ever wrong. I felt good that night, confident that the horse would be sound in the morning. It was 6:33 p.m. when we finished. A long day, but good for the horses not to have gone any faster over the terrain that day.
I got up at 4 the next morning to walk Rocky and make sure everything was okay. I had apparently worn out the switch on the light (it`s by the bed in the gooseneck, so I can turn it on and see the horses outside in the pen), and could no longer blind my horse 50 million times a night looking to see what he was doing every half second.
I think that due to the difficulty of this ride, among other things, that many of the riders were a little short with their tempers. All around us, people were yelling, snapping, and biting each others heads off. Eeeeeeeeeeyikes!!
Our RC at Panamint Springs was nice. Each of us had our own RV campsite, with water. There are showers there - tiled and everything. A little restaurant across the street too. The ride starts going up the highway, then Darwin Canyon - thru Darwin then up to the vet check which is somewhere in the middle of nowhere. At this point I was a little tired of Rocky wanting to jig, so I let him go a little more and trot out. The vet check was a little cool and windy, but before that it was really nice and warm. I think some of the longer haired horses were getting a little hot. I had clipped Rocky`s neck, which I`m sure helped him a lot. He seemed to adapt to the warmer weather just fine. I left the vet check with a nice fresh feeling horse. I think he knew we were going back to camp. A little while later, April Mitchell riding Zayante caught up with us. Our two horses were very competetive together. We were going over really nice footing, and both of us let the horses out. I think we were going over 15 mph. What a blast! We were still holding the horses back. It was like we were floating - and this was on the downhill too. The horses weren`t feeling the least bit tired and we continued letting them move out. We walked thru the town of Darwin. Interesting place. Then we went down down down a long paved road. I didn`t remember it being paved for that long on the way out in the morning. We made it to the top of Darwin Canyon and decided to get off and walk down. It`s pretty rocky and the last thing I wanted to do was lame up my horse at the very end of the ride. Once we got to the bottom, I got back on and Rocky and Zayante resumed their competetiveness and we just hauled butt all the way to the finish line! We finished in 10th and 11th place. :) Yippee!! Walked into the camp back down the highway and vetted the horses right away. Lucy had come down to ride on the last day, but nobody had any sound horses left for her so she took Rocky for me while I went to shower :)) and cleaned him all up for me. I think he was most interested in eating. I had kept up the carbos on him during the ride, every two hours, and electrolytes three times a day (pre-ride, lunch, post-ride). Rocky didn`t want to eat much of anything except hay - which he ate lots of. He did eat a fair amount of the beet pulp based feeds during the ride, but that was about it. On the last day he did eat a couple of pounds of LMF and I find that kind of funny. At this ride he brought his mileage total up to 1075 miles. It was at almost the same exact mileage marker that Weaver started to eat the grain feeds too! I guess what they say is true - it really does take about 1,000 miles to know if your horse has really got what it takes to be an endurance horse! I sure hope the next thousand are as much fun as the first....though with less of a learning curve .
We got nice insulated coffee/travel cups each day for completion awards. Everybody that completed all four days on the same horse will also receive a sweatshirt with the ride logo and our name and horses name embroidered on the front. The ultimate status symbol! ;+)
Jackie had a band for us and a nice awards dinner on the last night. I think I was the only one (ah hem) that didn`t get on her list for completing all 4 days on the same horse. I suppose that`s okay, cuz now the whole world knows anyway, right? ha ha The band played till midnight and many people danced. Mostly Trilby and Dave Rabe. I don`t know how Trilby has so much energy. I`m half her age and don`t have that much energy. (wimp)
I`m sure I left out lots of stuff. We had a nice time, it was especially enjoyable because my husband was NOT grumpy and we got along the whole time :). I took lots of the human form of Pro-Burst at this ride and came home feeling great - no stiffness at all. Just tired. I liked that stuff- works better than taking Orudus or Vitamin I.
Happy Trails,
Karen in Gardnerville & Rocky, 1075 miles, just weight taped him and he came back with exactly the same measurements he left with! & Weaver, on vacation :-)
P.S. and the ride song goes something like this.....
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
why did you jump........into the road
you used to be.....so green and fat....
and now you are.....so red and flat....
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh the toad
why did you jump........into the road
;-) (you had to be there)
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