Jeremy and I just returned from a fun weekend down in Inyokern.  Callie and Daniel put on another great ride.  Jeremy rode his 3/4, younger brother to Smitty, Stirgess.  I rode Stratagem.

The weather was really hot, as in 90's.  I clipped both horses on Friday afternoon after we arrived.  When we were all done getting set for the ride we went to dinner with our friends, the Donley's.  It was a lot of fun to see them and catch up.  As usual we went to Tokyo House, that is one of the best places in Ridgecrest.

We all got back to camp just in time for the ride meeting.  At the end of the meeting there was usual representative from the BLM that did the Tortoise talk.

Saturday it was very hot.  Strut and Stirgess did a steady pace and tied for 5th.  Stirgess got high vet score. Christoph won and Diane Woodard was 2nd and got BC.  Karen and JJ Donley were 3rd and 4th.  After the race JJ, Jeremy, the dogs and I went to a spring and Jeremy and the dogs swam.  JJ and I were too cold because all of the sudden the clouds were there and there was a breeze.  After the dip we stopped at the one gas station and bought ice and ice cream.

Dinner that night was excellent.  The ride made wonderful BB-Q Tri-Tip with all of the fixings.  It was delicious.  There is also a trophy for this ride each day to honor a true Bill Thorburgh spirit of family riding.  On day one JJ and his family won the honor.

On Sunday, we again rode at a very steady pace. We tied for 4th this time.  Christoph and Diane rode fresh horses and tied for 1st.  Christoph took BC this time.  Stirgess had high vet score again.  It was really hot all day, but it was slightly cooler than Saturday.  Right after the ride there was some thunder and lightening with a quick burst of cold rain.

I took care of the horses while Jeremy went to the crew area to gather our stuff.  We stayed for dinner and awards.  Dinner was great again.  After the awards we got on the road.  It was going to be a long night, we would get home around 1 am.

In all it was a great time.  You should mark it down on your calendar if you need something to do next year at that time.

Heather

Well I am about one week late on posting this.  When we returned from KY we arrived at our barn at 7 am on Friday the 1st.  After driving for way too long we got out of the truck and Jeremy decided to do our horse's feet for the race that was happening the next day.

We went home and took a nap and then went to Calero to vet our horses in for the 50.  I vetted in Tin Roof and Jeremy was to ride Stirgess and the final 5 year old for our 5 year old trio was Kongo with Megan Robinson aboard.  Lori Olson was on Strut.

The next morning we woke up and I didn't know where I was or why I had to wake up so early.  Then I realized that I was in my own bed and that we were going to do a local 50.

We went to the ranch and picked up the horses and then drove the 5 minutes over to the ride.

The ride was very surreal.  It turns out that there was a crazy amount of ground bees and everyone was having a really bad time because of them  Many people fell off that day and a few were badly hurt.  I wont go into other people's misfortunes but it was a mess.

At the end of the day the race was rerouted and we made it.  All three 5 year olds had another great outing and had little mishap with the bees.

Hopefully the next time this ride happens it goes better for everyone that had a bad ride this time.

Heather