On Thursday we loaded up Erebus and Dust to go to the Boy Scout 50.  We also hauled up a cute mare for Pat Thomas that belonged to the ride manager, Kim Williams. 

When we were about an hour from the ride it looked like it was going to be raining soon.  As we exited highway 75 I saw a Starbucks and made a comment on hitting that up on our way home.

The rain started and it was pouring.  We pulled into the ride camp and got our rain gear on.  We then went to check in and after that the mare was unloaded and taken to Kim's camp.  We decided to leave Erebus and Dust on the trailer for a while to see if the rain might let up.

Jeremy and I went to hang out in the trailer to kill time and wait out the rain.  Right when we got into the trailer it was clear that the recent trailer repair to seal the roof did not work!  The ceiling was dripping from multiple places, including over our bed!  We quickly got out some buckets (unfortunately we are well versed in what to do when you are camping in a rainforest trailer!  This happened to us already this season, hence the trailer repair to seal the roof!!).

The rain was coming down heavy.  Jeremy had the idea that he should check to make sure the truck and trailer were parked in a straight line so if we had to get pulled out it would be easier to pull us.  (Our neighbors were getting pulled out of the mud right about then)  He decided to fix our parking job.  After he moved the rig into a straight line the roof above our bed stopped leaking as it changed the angle of the roof and now the leak was further back, hooray!!  But now Roo's bed was getting wet, so we moved him to the couch. We had about 8 buckets in various places and the whole thing was so ridiculous that we just had to laugh!

We offered the horses water in the trailer and eventually unloaded them when it was time to vet in.  We did not pre ride but we did walk and jog in hand a little. 

The dinner was at 6 and it was made in the Boy Scout camp kitchen.   It was yummy.  The ride meeting was at 7.  Lisanne and her rider Molly sat with us and we goofed around for awhile before heading off to bed.

In our conversation, Molly and I discovered that we share a past Halloween costume, we have both been a Spice Girl (that is weird enough, right??), and better yet we were both Scary Spice!!  That is the African American Spice Girl:) What are the odds??? Small world!!

Around 9 pm the rain stopped and we were able to put the buckets away, good thing because I might have been hospitalized trying to find my way through the bucket maze on my way to the bathroom in the night!!

The next morning it was foggy and damp but not raining.  There were about 1/2 the entries that had been at the ride the year before, there were over 60 riders for day 1.  Our only day.

Erebus and Dust were feeling good and we had decided to start late as it was their second 50 and we wanted to have a peaceful ride.  We started 6 mins late and walked out across the starting line. 

The ride has really fun winding single tracks for the first loop.  We would be doing the Blue loop, Pink Loop and then repeat in the afternoon.  Having 2 vet checks, a trot by after the blue loop with a 50 min hold after the pink loop.   Then the blue again, a 50 min hold and the final pink loop.

Both horses had a great day, they increased their speed a bit each loop.  The final loop they cantered easily around.  We actually ended up 9th and 10th!  Pretty cool considering we left late from each check and started late.  The guys did well and looked great.

After the ride we let the two guys hang out and after about 2 hours we loaded up.  On the way home we hauled Amy Whelan's horse back with us to go to the Olson's. 

I was excited to hit up Starbucks.  Our drive would only take 3:30 so it was going to be a simple drive and we would get home by 8.  We got out at Starbucks and Jeremy noticed a smell that was like burnt rubber.  He felt the rims on the trailer and one was really hot and could barely be touched.  Not good.  He was thinking a bearing was going bad.  Which we also just had fixed, as well as the trailer brakes and multiple other things.

I made a few phone calls and found a big rig repair 2 miles down highway 75.  They said they would check it out.  We took our coffee and headed over to that shop.  After they checked it out it was found that the brake was dragging and could have caught on fire! 
The trailer repair place that "fixed" our roof and brakes and other things will be hearing from us...

We got back on the road, our new ETA was 10 pm.  Oh well, at least we didn't brake down on the highway or worse yet catch on fire.

The rest of the drive was uneventful.  We dropped off the horse to the Olson's and then cruised home.

The next day Erebus and Dust were bathed to get all of the mud and grime off from the race and then proceeded to gallop around the pasture bucking, that's always cool when they do that.

Our next race will be FITS on Feb 28, March 1-2, we will be taking 8 horses all of which will be doing FEI races.  I hope we see you there.
Heather