We did our first Endurance ride since moving out here.  On Wednesday Jeremy booted all of our guys for the race, we were really excited as we were going to be testing out some new tread patterns. 

On Friday we loaded up Tiran, Chanses and Marvel to drive the 8 miles over to the Goethe Challenge Endurance Ride.  We got to camp around 10 am, I drove seperately as I had to take our dog Daisy to the vet for an acupuncture appointment.  I was only present for the picking of the parking spot, then I had to leave. 

I drove to Ocala and went to the vet appointment and then the grocery run and then back to the race.

When I got back to the ride Jeremy had set up camp and the crew area.  We went to the check in and did our paperwork and then went to vet in and get our passport inspections done. 

After all of the official business was taken care of we went for a pre ride.  Our friend Barbara Hershberger was riding her horse AnyDayNow aka "P" and our long time friend Sarah Schick (from back in our days of training in VA) were riding with us as well.  Sarah was on Barbara's other horse Storm.

Our pre ride was short and sweet.  All 5 of the horses looked great.
Barbara and I were entered in the 75 FEI 2*, Jeremy on Chanses, Sarah on Storm and Rachel Shackelford on Marvel were entered in the 50 mile 1*.

After the Pre ride we hung out a while and then went to the dinner and the ride meeting.  The cool thing about the East Coast rides is that the dinner is usually on Friday night. After dinner we headed to bed.

Saturday morning I started out at 7 on Tiran.  He warmed up really well and was nice and calm. Our start was uneventful.  The first loop went well, about 5 miles into it Barbara joined us on P.  He was looking nice and was moving well. 

We arrived at the first vet gate after the 20 mile loop and both P and Tiran recovered well.  Barbara and I went to the vet and unfortunately P was asked to trot again and was sore in the hind.  The sand had taken its toll.  It was truely disappointing.

Tiran and I headed off on the second loop which was a 15 mile loop.  Tiran was recovering really fast after each loop.  After the second loop he had caught the lead group by having fast recoveries. 

Loop three was 10 miles.  We rode with the lead group for the whole loop.  Tiran was the first to recover so I had a few minute lead.  It was about 75 degrees out and decently high humidity.  Tiran was doing great.  I didn't have crew to meet me for cooling so I would strip my saddle while the in timer wrote on my card, I would throw the saddle down and then run on foot with Tiran to our crew area and pour two buckets on Tiran and then he would be down.  A couple of times Jeremy and Rachel were in on their hold and were able to help me cool Tiran quickly.  Later Sarah helped as well.

On loop 4 Tiran and I did the whole 15 miles solo.  It was the hardest loop and was in the heat of the day. Tiran did his job well. 

On loop 5, the final loop, Tiran and I led for the first 4 miles and then Tiran started to hear the other horses.  I stopped at a water trough to cool Tiran and the next two horses came along.  We rode together for the next 6 miles and then I asked Tiran to speed up for the last 5 miles of the 15 mile loop.  Tiran happily accelerated.  We were also lapping the 50 mile horses at this point.

Tiran won by 3 mins and looked great.  He did the 75 in sand with heat and humidity in 6 hrs flat.  Pretty awesome.

Chanses came in 6th and Marvel was 5th but he was pulled from the FEI portion at the finish for a hind end but got his AERC finish.  Earlier in the day Storm had a hind end pull probably from the sand as well.

After an hour we showed Tiran for BC.  He looked great.

The new tread patterns on the Easyboot Glue on Boots really worked well, I was able to take fast turns on the grass without any slipping.

Later that evening we got clearance from the vets to take the horses back to our house instead of staying at the ride.  The next morning we would head back for the awards.

Sunday morning we went to the awards and bought some ride pictures.  It was announced that Tiran had won BC! 

A great weekend for the start of our Florida season!
Heather