Saturday, September 19 2009
Today was another great ride for Reynolds Racing! Jeremy and our friend/client Carole Kraft Edwards rode the Calero Classic 50. Jeremy was on our mare, Mya (Smitty and Stirgess' half sister) and Carole was on her own horse, Freebie Tiki. The pair rode together all day.
At the first vet check, which was 20 miles into the ride, they recovered 3rd and 4th. Dennis Tracy and Diane Trifethon (SP?) were one and two and then Jeremy and Carole recovered next. Shortly after leaving vet check one Dennis, unfortunately got lost moving everyone up a placing. Five miles later, 25 miles into the ride, was the one hour hold. Jeremy, Carole and Diane all arrived together. Jeremy and Carole recovered together and Diane was moments behind them. After the hour Jeremy and Carole rode out and had a great second half. Both horses were doing great and climbing the hills, hills and more hills. Did I mention that this ride is really hilly? At the third vet check, mile 35, Jeremy and Carole had close to a ten minute lead and the horses looked great still. They arrived and were both very hot so we spent a lot of time cooling them out all throughout their hold time. All day Jeff Townsend, Megan Robinson and I were crewing and having a fun time keeping each other company while we awaited our riders. Megan also is a ranger for the Open Space Preserve that this race goes into. She had to more or less stay stationed at that end of the park. Jeff and I went back to base camp to get things ready and then to sit and wait at the finish to see what would happen. At 1 pm Jeremy and Carole trotted into view and crossed the finish line for a hand held tie. What a fun ride! It was Carole's second 50. It was also her second ride on her new horse Freebie. What a great duo. Fifteen minutes later we did our CRI's on both horses. My was a 52/52 and Freebie was 52/56. Not bad for a really hot and extremely hilly ride. After a lot of feeding, cooling and icing legs it was finally time for Best Condition. Carole and I practiced this for the first time with her as well as her horse Freebie about an hour before they showed. We did not expect to be needing this kind of practice for a while to come yet, but oh well. Mya showed well by trotting in her nice circles. She really does not see a point in this sort of ritual and thinks we are all insane for demanding this of her. Freebie also showed well. Carole did well for her first attempt at this as it can be easy to get awkward on the circle portion your first few times showing. After we finished our trot outs we had a great BB-Q dinner of the best corn imaginable, tri tip, salad and garlic bread. I did not envy the poor guys having to BB-Q out in the sun. Thank you to whoever was the cook. After eating we loaded up and Jeremy and Carole headed home (a five minute drive) with the horses while I waited for the BC to be calculated and announced. It turned out to be worth the wait as Mya took BC and Freebie was reserve BC!!! Lori Oleson, the ride manager did an awesome job putting this ride together and keeping it very organized. The trail was tough but there was plenty of water, views, a photographer and much more. Heather | |||||||
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