Mo pictured above after his 50 mile win with Best Condition as well.

This weekend we booted up and went to the Quicksilver Harvey Bear ride at Harvey Bear park.  The three dudes we took were Mo, who would do his second 50, NOS doing his second LD and the newest guy named Eagle to do his first LD.

We have only owned Eagle for 2 weeks so we had him carry our lightest option, our young rider Emma Orth.  I would ride NOS with her and together we would ride with friends Hillorie Bachmann and her young rider Pepper.

We drove to the ride late Fri afternoon and got to the race around 4 pm.  I went to check us in and saw that the vet line was crazy long so we decided to wait on that.

Hillorie arrived shortly after and she brought A LOT of cupcakes!! Hillorie is the recent owner of a very cool bakery called "Just Cakin' It".  The treats were delicious.  If you are in the need of a cake call Hill!

Hillorie and Pepper took care of their horses and then all 5 of us headed to town in search of dinner. I had followed Jeremy over in our car as we weren't wanting to unhook the semi and this ride is only 35 mins from the ranch.

We Googled a restaurant.  When we got there the worker/only person in the place looked shocked that there were "SO MANY of us..."  There were 5 of us.  This WAS Friday night, right???  He then informed us he only had food to go.  It just seemed too weird so we left.  As we got back into the car Hillorie and I, at almost the same time, concluded that this must just be a front to launder the guys money;)

We continued on and found a sushi place.  It was decent.  We had a fun time chatting about pretty much nothing and enjoyed every bit of it.

We got back in time to vet in before the ride meeting.  All three of our guys vetted in fine.  Eagle had practiced his trot out with Emma earlier in the afternoon and when he vetted in he was like an old pro.

The ride meeting went by and we headed off to our trailers to get ready for bed. We did decide to take the dog pack for a walk before bed.  We had Jeremy's brother's dog, Tyson, with us.  Tyson, Roo and Merlin went walking along with Hillorie's Chihuahua and hound.  The pack had a great time.

We went to bed and tried to sleep.  Sleeping in the particular trailer we were in was a lot like Chinese water torture.  The acoustics are crazy LOUD so each time a horse hits a water bucket or hay bag you think that a disaster is happening outside.  We didn't get much sleep. 

In the morning Jeremy had a 7 am start time and us LD riders had a wonderful 8 am start time.  I sort of woke up with Jeremy but really got up about 6:30.  Emma and I hung out and ate a little while we waited to get ready.  Around 8 we started walking over to the start, trying to be late so we wouldn't push our luck with NOS and Eagle.  Hillorie's two seasoned horses were great babysitters.  Although Eagle and NOS were both really good it was nice to have two veterans with us.

The first half of the ride went by and we all had a really fun time.  There was perfect weather and a lot of cows and calves.  Eagle looked a little confused around the 11-13 mile mark.  Then we had our vet check.  Eagle was 48/48 and NOS was similar.  Both horses ate well but NOS was frantic.  I have never seen a horse shove hay in his mouth like this, he was literally SHOVING it into his mouth.  He couldn't physically get any more into his mouth.  I was worried he was going to choke!  He was foaming and drooling green froth from his mouth.  Very hungry.  It was a bit entertaining.

After the check Eagle had a new found focus and determination in him.  I think he saw that we were heading back in the general direction from where we had started so he understood what we were doing, or at least where we were headed.

In the end we all 4 finished the LD in about 5:30.  It was really hot and hilly but super fun riding with friends. NOS and Eagle both looked really great.

Mo finished just after we vetted through.  It took Mo and Jeremy 10 mins LESS than us to win the 50.  Mo looked great.  He was floating around in his EasyBoot Gule Ons.  He looked effortless.  He had a great CRI and trotted out easily for BC, although he wasn't sure of the crowd gathered around to watch him.  

Jeremy later told me that from the halfway point he rode Mo in just a cavasson and a single rein clipped on like a leadrope because Jeremy kept getting on and off to run in the hills.  Most of this trail was single track and Mo doesn't have a left eye.  Super cool 6 year old, ex race horse!!

The Quicksilver Club hosts this race.  They provided lunch on Sat.  There was also the Deputy Sherrif's of Santa Clara County group that cooked an awesome BB-Q for dinner for all.  The chicken was unreal!

The race was very fun.  After the awards we hit the road. This was our last California race for a long while.  We won't be back in CA in 2014 for the summer.  We are going to stay and train in Florida next summer.  We will miss everyone.  We might come for Tevis but probabaly not.

Our next race will be in New Mexico at the FEI race Oct 25,26,27.  Hope we see some of you there!  We will be there with our ENTIRE traveling road circus as we will then continue on to Florida from there.

Heather