Saturday, November 28 2009
In our usual crazy over achiever style we went all out and brought the herd down to Desert Gold for Thanksgiving. When we entered this ride we over looked the fact that we had overbooked ourselves. The ride is a three day, starting the Friday after Thanksgiving, going through Sunday. One problem... we are flying to Cancun, Mexico on Sunday morning at the crack of dawn. So we changed our entries to only Friday and Saturday.
We took 7 horses (8 if you count Jeff's horse), for 7 riders and headed south for the ride. It is only a little over an hour drive. We arrived and set up all of the horses with feed and water, which is a longer process with that many horses. Then after organizing everyone's tack we relaxed and then went out for a short pre-ride. Jeremy and Jeff also went bike riding. Maryben asked what in the hell they were doing when she saw them riding and then they suddenly jumped off their bikes, picked them up and started running up a hill. I told her that they do cycle cross and she asked if I said psycho cross. There was a plentiful potluck on Thanksgiving at the ride. It was really nice eating by the fire that was going and sitting around with friends while enjoying some good turkey. On Friday morning bright and early Jeff arrived from his turkey night that he had spent at his house and Maddy arrived as well as she had had her turkey elsewhere too. Holly (my sister), Hillary Graham, Tim (Jeremy's brother) and Chris (Tim's girlfriend) all had slept at the ride. Jeremy rode Smitty both days. He won and got BC on the first day. He also won (a three way tie between he, Jeff and I) the second day and I am not sure who won BC yet as we are driving home right now and the awards haven't happened yet. Jeff rode Breeze the first two days and is staying for a third. He was 2nd on day one and tied for first on day 2. Tim rode Rising Heat on day one and on day two Razin had scratches and was pulled at lunch:( Chris rode Makazin on both days and was mid pack on day one and 4th on day 2. Holly rode Sam on the two LD's and he was great she said. Maddy rode Carnivalle (a clients horse) with Holly. It was Carnivalle's first time at an endurance ride. Hillary rode Bey for half of the LD on day one but they didn't get along so well so that was far enough. I rode Strut on day one and was 6th. On day two I rode Bey and tied for first. On a side note My Mamselle was there with her new owners and finished 3rd on day one. It was a family affair because Smitty, Breeze and Mya were 1st, 2nd and 3rd and they all have the same sire. On Friday night we went to a Korean BB-Q restaurant then went to the meeting and awards. There were S'mores after the awards and ride meeting. I thought that was awesome!! The completion awards were your ride picture, that was really nice. In all we had a lot of fun. The weather wasn't the best on Friday but it sure was perfect today, Saturday. After we had camp cleaned up squeaky clean ( a huge project with all of those horses!!) we all went to Denny's to get some food before driving home. It was fun to get the wrap up on the weekend over some food. When we were done we all wished Jeff good luck for the third day and headed home. Well I am going to go so I can do our last minute things before we fly out in the morning:) Heather Tuesday, November 10 2009
On Friday morning my friend Megan and I loaded up Strut and Tanner and headed to the Lake Oroville Vista Endurance (aka LOVE Ride) ride. Our drive was very uneventful. We did not take the Big Slow Rig, instead we took the Ford and were able to hit all the speed limits. Our first order of business was to stop at the local Starbucks, all good trips start with good java. Before you knew it we were in the lovely town of Oroville.
The base camp is in a flat gravel parking lot and it was already really getting full and it was only 2pm. We parked for a quick escape as we were planning to leave right after the race and head to my friend Hillorie's house. After we got everything all set up and packed up our crew bags we went for a preride. I remember in the past that the end of the race was a bit confusing. No problems with it now. After our ride I went for a run. I ended up running about 2 1/2 miles. Then it was off to the meeting and lights out. It's funny how you get sleepier when it gets dark earlier. Saturday morning we got up earlier than normal because at this ride you ride across a damn then over railroad tracks and up a hill and then you have reached the starting line. We had just crossed the tracks in the pitch black, which by the way looks way more scary to a horse when a flashlight is being waved over them, when we heard the train coming. We were very relieved that we would not be near the train as it rumbled by. It was intimidating enough just hearing it. As we warmed up Megan and I parted ways as she planned on going a little slower on her horse. Tanner did not even care. After they said go Strut was a bit rambunctious for the first few minutes and then he settled in nicely. The day went by really uneventfully and we ended up 3rd with reserve BC. Tanner was 5th. My throat was pretty sore though as I had been riding with someone who could not hear very well and I found myself yelling a lot. We cleaned up camp quickly and headed to Vacaville, from one Ville to the next! Hillorie had a pasture for us to turn Tanner and Strut out in. Strut has got to be the coolest stallion ever that you can load him up with a strange gelding go to a race and then next day turn them out together. Very cool guy. We showered and headed to Chevy's to have an exhausted girls night out. The next day I woke up feeling really crappy. We had breakfast with Hillorie said hi to all of her horses and headed out. By the time I got home it was all I could do to unwrap Strut and turn him out and head home. I have been in bed ever since, it is now Tuesday night and I have not left my bed. Jeremy's trip went well, he learned a lot and came home on Saturday. Heather Sunday, November 01 2009
We were going to do the Malibu Ride and take a horse for a client to try out but on Wednesday night we got word that it was canceled. Our client lives in S. Cal so the other option was Git R done. We made the decision to go and packed up Thursday and drove down on Friday. Michelle Roush was very accomadating to let us enter so last minute.
On Friday we pulled in around 2 pm. We set up camp, got our crew bag ready and checked in. Very uneventful. Our friends/clients, Karin, Ron and JJ Donley arrived around 4 pm. While they were getting set up Jeremy took Bey for a pre ride. He had been pinned on the trailer ride and had had a rough day and Jeremy wanted to make sure everything was alright for Saturdays ride. Bey was perfect and really ready. After we all vetted through we headed to the lovely town of Ridgecrest for a nice dinner. We ate at Tokyo House. Jeremy and I had some good sushi while the Donley's enjoyed steak and salmon. JJ & Karin got curious as to how eel tasted so they did get brave and tried one of our rolls. We headed back to the ride after dinner for the ride briefing. During the briefing we had the usual desert Tortoise lecture as well as the normal trail, vet, etc data. This time the tortoise lady brought two live tortoises. They were really tiny. The one that was a year old was only the size of the palm of your hand! I guess they can live 100's of years and that is how you get the big ones:) Karin and her son JJ were doing the 30 to try out My Mamselle, aka Mya. Jeremy and I were doing the 50 on Bey and Makazin (I rode Makazin). The ride started at 7 am. It was Halloween so I was in my costume. My friend Maddy lent me a Tinkerbell costume with wings and all. It was too cold to have the wings on the first loop (which was a bummer as I missed out on having my picture taken with the wings on, Rene did get one for me after the ride though) but I put them on for the rest of the ride after that. They even flapped when I cantered! Jeremy sported some tall striped orange socks and away we rode. There were many other riders in costume as well. There was a bumble bee, a princess warrior, a spider, a pink princess and many more. There was a guy at vet check one who said that someone had complemented him on his costume. He was shocked as he was not wearing a costume, just his normal attire!! Maybe some of us dress up more than others. Karin and JJ arrived into the first vet check just ahead of us. All of the horses looked great. All of the riders were having fun too. This is when the day started to really heat up. It turned out to be around 80 degrees! Very warm for fuzzy horses. It was at this point that someone asked me how many horses we had. I had answered that we had 12 in endurance training and Ron quickly told me that it was actually only 11. (They really liked Mya!) The day flew by and Jeremy and I had fun riding together. Bey and Makazin have a very similar pace at the canter so they were well matched. The trail was deep with sand in some places and single track in others. The hissing, burrowing Owls were not out so it was a little less spooky than usual. Not a tortoise in sight. By the end of day one Karin and JJ were first and second on the 30 and Jeremy and I tied on the 50. (They didn't allow the tie so my cute husband gave me the win.) We hung out after the ride and went into town and got a Starbucks and checked movie times. Nothing was showing at the right time, darn. We headed back to the ride for dinner and the awards. Makazin won the high vet score and Best Condition. I was extremely happy with that. The awards for First and BC were cool hand crafted, iron work, powder coated cut outs of a horse with the ride name on it. It was art work for sure, very nice. The ride meeting followed the awards and we were all reminded to change our clocks back that night. This was a little concerning as our alarm clock is one that sets itself, and our cell phones set themselves as well. I did manually set my watch alarm, which I have never used before and we hoped for the best. Luckily all of the "self setting" devices did their jobs and it was not an issue. Day 2 Jeremy Rode Smitty and I opted to crew. I did the early AM feeding and then slept in. Karin, Ron and JJ packed up and headed out with their new horse Mya. Best of luck to their future success. Smitty breezed into the first vet check and was on his own all day long. Leaving the last vet check I drove out along the road that was parallel to the trail. I had some fun with our video camera and got some footage of Smitty and Jeremy. Good times. It was about 85 degrees today. Really hot. Smitty won by a large margin. He also won Best Condition. We relaxed and got packed up. After a few hours we loaded up and are currently on the road home. It was a great weekend. Next weekend I am off to Lake Orroville and Jeremy is off to Pennsylvania for a hoof care clinic. See you all soon. Heather | |||||||
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