This is super belated.  This is the blog for the Jan Broxton Bridge ride:)

I was going to write the blog right away but after helping the Olson's on their way home with their awful trailer accident I just didn't get to it.

Jeremy and I booted up four horses to take to the Broxton ride.  The lucky ponies were: IBN Fiddlin, Sam Samstar, Chachie and Rictik.

The trip up was uneventful, which is ALWAYS a plus:)  The horses all traveled well.  Broxton is a super ride as it is really well organized and camp has a shower house and electric hook ups.  We set up our horses and then went to check in.  Many of our friends were there so that is always fun to see everyone.

I would be riding Sam on the first day on the 2* and Jeremy would ride Rictik also on the 2*.  This ride was so long ago I won't go into much but Sam ended up getting pulled for a lameness and Rictik did great.  She finished in 7:32 and looked super.  What a fun mare.

That night there was great food and an awesome bonfire.  It was chilly to say the least.  

The second day I got to ride the amazing Broxton Unicorn, Fiddlin.  Fiddlin is the one who had the horrible head injury at the previous Broxton ride in Nov.  He is well now and he had a super day.  He won the 1* in a three way sprint off at the finish.  He is such a sweet heart. It was funny because when I asked him to go at the end I could feel him thinking to himself what that meant, and he seemed to be trying to be polite and not "scare" me.  He picked up a polite hand gallop at first and then I asked him to really go, then he was like a rocket that accelerated through the finish line! After the race Jeremy looked at my GPS history and it read that we had hit 35.1 MPH in the sprint off!

On the second day Jeremy rode Chachie on the 50.  He had so much fun with Chachie I think his face was sore from smiling all day.  

I know this wasn't detailed but it's old news any how;)

Heather

Pictured Above (photo credit: Becky Pearman) Sudden and myself with Errow and Jeremy.  

This past weekend we did the "On The Edge" ride at Black Prong.  On Thursday afternoon we loaded up Sudden, Errow and Jetta to go vet in for the following days 50.  I would ride Sudden (of course, he's one of my favorite horses!), Jeremy would ride Errow and Cynthia Peticulous would ride her horse Jetta (that we have at our house, in training).  We put the horses in our small 4 horse to have a trailer to haul home and back during the weekend.  It was calling for rain both Friday and Saturday so we also took our LQ so that while it was raining we would have a place to hang out during our holds.  Lucky for us the race is only a 20 min drive.  

Just before we went over to the ride we realized that for the ump-teenth time our trailer wasn't charged.  It had been plugged in but everything was dead... very depressing as we have recently had it in the shop several times for this very issue.  We got the tractor and jumped the batteries so that we could operate the jack legs and put in the slide outs.  We were taking this trailer come hell or high water!

After the circus of getting both trailers road worthy we headed over to the ride.  Cynthia met us over there and Jetta went to her rig for the night.  I went and got our paperwork and then we vetted in Sudden and Errow.  This was Sudden's second time at this venue and he seemed like he knew what was going on this time, he was so much more relaxed.  Errow was cool as usual.  They both vetted great.  

We had to use our smaller rig to jump the LQ batteries so that we could put out our slides on the LQ, oh what fun!

When we were done with setting things up I went over to have Wes do some body work on me.  Some soft tissue, near my hip has been really bugging me for a while now.  Jeremy set up the crew area while I got started on the table with Wes.  What Wes does is really incredible.  You can feel things changing as he is working on you, all the while he seems to be doing very little.  At one point he was doing something on top of my stomach and under my back, beneath my stomach (I was laying down on my back so imagine over and under me) and I could feel my stomach twisting and contorting.  Very odd. 

After my session with Wes it was time for dinner, along with the ride meeting.  It was a pasta feed.  Lots of food, all very good.  Then right into the meeting.  I love it when things don't drag on, this was a nicely run meeting.  All I had to remember was Yellow, Blue, Yellow... Or Yeah, Baby, Yeah.  I always substitute the colors with words, it helps me remember and the more entertaining the better.

After the meeting we loaded up Sudden and Errow and went home.  It was much more fun to be at home to take a long shower and watch a few shows and hit my pillow.

The next morning we were up at 5:30 and had our breakfast and coffee and then headed out into the wet grass, darkness to find our horses.  Luckily they are both grey so it made it easier to see them. The "other" grey really wanted to go, Honor kept getting in our way.  He is finally back to work after a year off and he thinks he is ready to go, gotta love him.

Sudden and Errow ate their mash and we saddled them up.  When they were done we loaded up and headed to the ride.  The two of them ate hay at the trailer while we waited for the right time to bridle them for warming up.  Merlin came with us so I took him from the commuter truck to the LQ.

Sudden and Errow warmed up calmly, it was really nice to see that Sudden had improved so much from his last event.  When it was time to go we mossied out and followed the controlled start.  Within a few moments there was a big fuss up at the front of the ride.  We were all riding through a huge grassy area and I looked out there and saw a grey mustang bucking and leaping across the green.  He took many HUGE leaping bucks and finished with a full rear!  The woman riding him stuck with him, and when he was done she didn't even ask to get off.  Pretty great riding.

The first loop was fun and our two horses behaved themselves.  The lunch was really the best part if you ask Sudden.  Errow and Sudden both enjoyed their food for the 50 min hold and then we were out on the Baby...er Blue loop.  20 miles.  The yellow loop was supposed to be 15 miles and it was closer to 17 so we were hoping for a short loop.  Nope, it was 20.  That meant that this ride would be somewhere between 53-54 GPS miles.  Bummer.  The blue loop was fun.  We went into the Hogs Pond loop but there was a really fun single track that we had never done before. Near the beginning of this loop Jeremy realized that Errow didn't like the saddle he was riding him in.  It was a newer saddle from Argentina.  I offered to trade saddles with him, giving him my Reactor Panel.  Errow soon felt great again and the loop went fine.

After this there was an additional lunch, Sudden and Errow were surprised and delighted. 50 Mins later and we were on our last loop.  I was back in my Reactor Panel and Errow was now on a third saddle, the RP would have been the first choice but hey, it's my saddle:)

The final loop was going great.  Sudden and Errow were trotting along and taking breaks at the troughs.  The sky was getting heavier and darker by the minute.  I was hoping we would get lucky but about 5 miles from the finish (1 mile if the milage had been accurate!) it started dumping on us.  Just about then, we started trotting and within a mile it was clear that Sudden was off.  Oh NO!!!  My poor little ninja was limping. :(

We made it in to camp and tried several things.  It was the front left.  After nothing worked we tried pulling off his Easy shoe, now he was worse!  Oh boy.  Hard to say if he was worse barefoot or worse from standing still.  After 30 mins of messing with Sudden (who just wanted his hay) I went up to the vet and told him I was out.  He checked Sudden metabolically and that was that.  What a bummer for Sudden.  It was later found that Sudden had an extremely sore back.  The day after the ride he had a very hard knot on his left lower back, right where the back of the saddle would sit.  I think that trading saddles for a 20 mile loop may have been my issue.  Total bummer but the good news is that Sudden is fine now.  Errow finished without an issue.

Since it was still raining pretty darn hard and we saw the trail had a lot of rocks on it we were in a hurry to get home to put hind EasyShoes on the two mares that would do the LD the next day before it got dark.  They only had Easy-shoes on up front and would need the hind ones for the trail that we had just seen.  After the horses ate a little bit we loaded up our two, plus Jetta (who had finished the 50).

At our house the herd greeted the horses back from the race.  The three seemed happy to be back home in their own pasture to hang out in the rain, rather than being tied to the trailer at the race.  

We caught the two mares for the Saturday ride to put their Easy Shoes on their hind feet.  Deen and Treasure were the two.  While we were doing them in our feed barn there was a tremendous down pour occuring on our tin roofed barn.  If that wasn't enough to deafen you then the huge thunder claps were!  Both mares stood very well considering!

It was good to get back in the house and chill the heck out.  We ate and showered and vegged out for a couple of hours before bed.

Since we were doing the LD we got to get up a half an hour later.  6 am and we were up and at 'em.  Breakfast and coffee.  We had put the mares in our front yard paddock as Deen can be tricky to catch.  The entire night it poured so hard it was unreal.  There was also a lot of thunder and lightening.

We fed the girls and loaded them up.  When we arrived at the race we saddled them up and they ate hay at the trailer.  (This is when I saw that Treasure had a notable swelling with a cut on her left forearm.  That was weird, she didn't have it the night before when we were working on her.)  I put Merlin in the LQ and it was time to get on.  These two mares are super awesome.  They are tremendous atheletes.  Deen is a bit hotter, while Treasure has a really pleasant temperament while still being forward.

We started right with the group for practice with group starts, both girls were very well behaved and trotted along perfectly nice.  It was so great to see that they were adjusting so well to this sport from both running on the track this past summer.  Neither mare was the least bit neurotic or jiggy, no wasted energy.

The first loop was the yellow from the day before.  The trail was entirely different than the day before however as it was mostly under water.  SOOOO much water.  Our mares won't have any trouble crossing water.  The vet check was nice as the weather was almost starting to warm up, but I wasn't complaining, it was not raining!

Our second loop was orange, also a water festival.  The two mares finished and looked fresh.  It was a really fun ride with them.

After we packed up we pulled our commuter truck and trailer up to jump the batteries on the LQ once more to put the slides in and then we were homeward bound.  Monday morning that LQ is going back in to the shop!!

When we got back to our house we put the mares out and went in to the house to relax.  After a couple of hours I went out to check on Sudden to see how he was doing (I didn't fully know it was just his back at this point as I had not seen the big knot until after I checked on him).  I am so glad I went to go see him.  It turns out that the front yard, paddock fence where the mares had spent the night had the big railroad tie, fence post (that is the anchor to the corner of the fence) fall down during the storm.  The big cut with the swelling on Treasure's leg now made sense.  Horses!  We were so lucky that the mares didn't get really badly hung up.

Today we booted the 4 we will be riding next weekend in SC at Broxton Bridge.  Hope to see you there.

Heather

Pictured above: Riverwatch on his 3rd loop

We went to the race venue on Friday afternoon.  We walked around briefly and then had lunch there.  The venue was beautiful.  The permanent vet check makes it very nice and established.  

The hold area is landscaped.  You arrive off of the trail on a track with gaurdrails.  You go through something that looks like a ticket window counter.  There is a walkway/bridge to get from the one side of the venue to the other, above the ticket counter window/walk throughs (kind of like you are entering a castle).  There are about 6 or so arrival walk throughs.  There is also a tower on both sides of the bridge for the announcer to view the race from.  

The horse wears a GPS tracking system which is on a headstall that is put on by the vet staff when you vet in.  It stays on for the whole event.  This system is the system that registers your arrival time.  When the horse passes through the arrival gate (ticket window) it registers to a computer system.  Then you proceed across the cooling area.  This is a wide area with many, many garbage cans full of water to cool the horses from.  In this section, whoever designed it had great foresight.  The whole ground is covered with rubber mats and there is a drainage system to recycle the water.  If you have ever done mass crewing with a lot of water, you would appreciate the fact that you won't be in a swamp of crazy mud by the middle of the race.  From the cooling area you proceed through another electronic time gate for your pulse.  Once the horses crosses over that line your recovery time is recorded.  Then the vet takes your heart rate with a hand held heart rate monitor and the pulse displays on a big digital read out so anyone watching can see the pulse.  This area is very nice, green grass.  Then you proceed to the trot out lanes, again being very nice green grass.  You stand for vetting as usual and then, when ready, you trot down and back on the manicured grass lane for the vet.  

Because of all of the electronic read outs and timing you can go to a booth to get a print out of the race at any time and it will give you the stats on everyone in the race as far as placing, arrival time, pace, recovery time etc.  Pretty cool.  You can see where you are and how long your horse has been taking to recover at each check (as well as any one else in the race).

After we ate lunch it was time for vetting to start.  We watched all of the horses from  North America vet in and then all of the European horses.  The USA riders were Melody Blittersdorf and Willemina Deboer and myself.  Jeremy and Ellen Olson had a horse there for the Guatemalans and Lori Schifflet had a horse there also for the Guatemalans. All of the horses vetted in.

There were about 26 invited riders.  172 riders total would start.

After the foreign horses vetted in then the UAE horses vetted.  It was great to see Riverwatch again.  He looked great. He vetted in perfectly.  Then we had to go weigh in.  There were 3 scales going and all 3 had live video, viewing the scale read outs to enforce correct weighing.  I found it to be very cool that the race had orange weight pads for any riders not meeting the weight requirement.  You would be weighed and then if you didn't hit the 75 kg then you would be given an orange pad with the added weight that you were short.  The pads had a GPS in them as well, if the pad didn't go the whole trail you would be pulled.  

There was then a riders briefing that basically went over how their vet check flowed and some basic rules.  We also found out that there would be prize money for all finishers and cars for the top ten and first 7 foreign riders!  When we left the meeting the USA Embassy representative had her picture taken with Jeremy and I.

After meeting with Anzac on what he wanted us to do and what time to meet him in the morning, we left the venue.  By this time it was around 6 pm.  We drove over to a restaurant that there was a dinner party at that night.  We had packed our nicer clothes and got changed in the bathroom.  It was pretty funny as a lot of riders went in looking like trail trash and came out all dressed up.  I'm sure the restaurant owner was relieved.

After we changed we went to put our clothes out in the car and on our way back there was a guy with a falcon so Holly and I stopped to hold it and get our pictures with it.  

Once inside of the restaurant all I kept hearing in my head was the song from Alladin, "Prince Allee, Fabulous he Allee Umbabwaa..."  The open sky seating with all of the lights and rugs was beautiful.  It was designed like an outdoor street bizarre.  Very awesome.  We sat with a lot of the USA rider group and had a great time.  After dinner, Melody and her group went out and rode a camel.  We decided to make the hour trek back to the hotel before the dinner show.  The race was in the morning and I didn't feel like staying up that late.

I fell asleep easily and before I knew it we were getting up.  We got to the venue witout any issue.  Riverwatch was walking around with his groom. He looked relaxed.  When it was time, he was saddled up and I got on to check my stirrups and then got off again as we had a lot of time.  All the while he was walked and I had a yummy tea, similar to a chai.  Anzac also told us that the Chalet (right behind our crew bay there was a one bedroom chalet fully stocked with drinks, food and a hostess) was open for us to enjoy as well.  The chalet also had a deck with lounge chairs on it facing our crew bay as well as a flat screen TV that had all of the electronic data being updated live for the race (this is where I could see things like my out time).  Very cool.

It was finally time to get on and ride Riverwatch around.  I would be riding with a girl named Annette who was riding Run (he came in 9th at the WEG with a different rider) and Sheikh Abdulla.  I went around a couple of times and then filed out to the start area.  I lost Abdulla and Annette for a while and was looking for them in the crowd of 172 horses. Moments before the start I found them and we all rode off.

The race was 5 loops.  The first one being 25 miles!  The footing was very sandy, from hoof deep to fetlock deep for the majority of the loop (about 60-70 miles were like this footing, so incredibly difficult).  A short ways into the loop our crew started handing off water bottles.  Riverwatch was scared of them (We had the same thing with him.  I was actually practicing bottle hand offs 2 days before the World Championship in England and got dumped off of him!).  He was scared of the bottles for a while, I started asking for the crew to toss them to me so I could get water on him.  I was getting pretty wet but so was Riverwatch so it was ok.  After a ways Riverwatch's groom started handing off the bottles.  Then Riverwatch was immediately happy and not worried.  It was very clear that he trusted his groom above all.

The three horses finished the loop looking great and all vetted in fine. (Unfortunately I found out that Melody and the Olson's horse and Lori Schifflet's horses all vetted out after loop 1) The hold flew by and we were off again, this time I went a little slower as planned and Annette and I rode together while Abdulla went on ahead.  The horses worked well and we got plenty of water bottle hand offs. This was another long loop, 22 miles.  

Run vetted out at this check.  He was just not moving right.  Darn it.  Riverwatch looked great.  I got to relax again as the grooms all did their thing.  Riverwatch was eating and so was I:)

On loop 3 I rode the majority of the loop with various riders switching around.  It was best to try to be in a group as the different crews would then rotate handing off bottles so that everyone got more. (It was here that I found out that Willemina had been pulled for metabolic).

Loop 4 I rode with 3 riders most of the way around and I got a tremendous amount of water bottles, this was also a very warm loop. After this loop there was an exit exam.  Riverwatch looked perfect.

My final loop I rode alone.  We did catch 1 horse halfway around the loop.  Riverwatch was really proud of himself for this.  As we were approaching the finish track a horse came up on us and Riverwatch decided that maybe he should try to speed up.  I let him speed up a hair but as the other horse was really going for it I told Riverwatch that it was not a good idea and he agreed, the track is very long.  We crossed the finish line in a time of 8:17 in 24th place, first foreign rider and first female (not that that was a big deal, we just happened to notice it in the results later and thought it was cool.)  I believe that there were 8 foreign finishers of the 26 that started.  There were 172 starters total and 72 finishers.

Riverwatch vetted through perfectly.  He has done around 9 FEI races, (4 100/160s and multiple 75/120s) since being in the UAE and he hasn't been pulled.  Pretty awesome.

After all was taken care of we left for our hotel for dinner and bed.  It was hard to stay awake driving back.  Dinner was wolfed down and shower and bed shortly followed...like the dead.

The next morning my arms were sore in weird places from grabbing and pouring bottles.  VERY sore:) We went to the Dubai vet hospital for Holly to make an Easyboot presentation and then went and met up with Juma and Maria for a visit.  That was fun.  Then we went over to Riverwatch's barn to have a look around and visit with Anzac.  The horses that Abdulla has there that Anzac is caring for are beautiful.  Anzac really loves them and that is very clear.  Riverwatch looked great, he didn't lose any weight and he was moving great and looked bright and happy.

After a nice long visit we went to lunch with Anzac and had fun conversations at a beautiful place over looking a golf course.  There was a cat there that helped me eat my burger;) I slipped him the part I couldn't finish.  It was late in the afternoon when we said our good byes.  What a great time.

We went back to the hotel and on our way we went to the falcon market.  In this complex there were many stores with falcons for sale.  There would be 20 or so in each "pet store" standing on perches.  They were stunning.  There was also a tack store in this complex so naturally we went shopping.  Also there was a big area (I didn't go in so I can't describe it) to take your falcon flying.  There was a group of men waiting to go fly their birds.  Pretty fun.  Seemed like a social hangout, much like a shooting range or bowling alley.

When we got back to the hotel we relaxed for a bit.  We were on the 1 am flight later that night/next day. Then we went down for dinner and then got a ride to the airport.  At 1 am the flight sat for another :45 mins waiting for some passengers.  Finally we took off.  14.5 hours later we landed.  It then took :35 mins for our bags to show up in customs.  By the time we got to our gate we had missed our flight by :10.  It was now 8:15 am.  The next flight, just after noon was totally full but we were put on standby.  

We decided to have a Starbucks, because we could! We got on the noon flight, sat on the parked plane for over an hour and finally taxied and then sat on the runway for another stint before the PA announced that we had weather delays in Orlando and we would be going back to our gate.  I looked at Orlando weather, light rain with 4mph wind...

Now we all deplaned.  After a couple of hours I asked what the real reason was and was told it was a mechanical issue.  4 hours later they had us back on the flight!  United is really great, said no one... 39 hours after we took off we were at our house.  By the time my head hit the pillow it had been over 48 hours since I was last horizontal.  Good to be home.

Pictured above: Ssamiam/ One-O-Six and I

Yesterday afternoon we had the privelage of going to the barn where Ssamiam, now known as One-O-Six, lives.  It is a beautiful stable with gardens all around.  There are also many cats and birds on the grounds.  The Pea hens were all pecking around in the grass, and the flowers were vibrant.

Our friend Uma Mencia came and picked us up from our hotel to graciously tour us around.  It was about a 10 min drive to the stable. This is one of Sheik Hammdan's stables.  There were over 200 horses, if I had to guess.  

When we arrived there were horses and grooms all around. The amazing thing is that each horse has their own groom, who is their groom all the time, this gives the horse a stable person to count on and be very familiar with.  The horses all loooked great.  They were all at a very healthy weight and groomed to a shine, and this was not a special occasion, just a regular day.

We went in to the barn that Sam was in and he looked like his usual self, he had a twinkle in his eye and a playful look about him.  Uma let us take him out for a walk around the grounds where he could graze.  It was pretty awesome as she was telling the people that we walked by that he was my horse.  Sam had fun hanging out with us and grazing.  He also was very quick to jog around when asked and he was springy and very sound.  After picture taking and a little visit we took him back to his stall and toured the rest of the stable grounds.  It is amazing seeing all of the tracks to train on and the pool for the horses and equipment at the facility.  There is also a lake full of flamingos on the training track, pretty awesome.

Sam is in a great place.  He has been here since 2010 and is turning 14 this year.  He looks well and his legs look clean.

At the end of our visit we said hello to the trainer, Salem.  We had a brief talk of the races that we would be watching that evening at the Meydan Racetrack.  Salem had a few horses entered in the flat track races that night.  I then told him that Sam had been a pretty decent race horse before endurance.  He was a little surprised.  Good 'ol Sam is full of surprises.  He looks like someone's backyard pony and yet he was 4th across the line at the 2010 WEG (his second 100 miler) and he won over $42,000 on the race track.  Such an amazing horse.  

When we got back to the hotel we got changed and headed over to the suite that we would be viewing the races from.  Very fun evening.  There was 1 Arabian race on the card followed by 6 Thoroughbred races.  Bigg N Rich won the Arab race.  We noticed that Bigg is very closely related to the horse Jeremy rode in France this summer at the WEG, Gold Dust Rising.

After we had seen most of the races we decided to go back to our hotel restaurant for dinner.  There is an outdoor eating area that we could still see the remaining races from as we ate.  We sat with the other USA riders and had a fun time.

Around 10 we went back to our room to wrap up our day.  Friday we vet in and Saturday we race.  I still don't have credentials so hopefully that gets resolved!  I'm sure it will.  

Ok, now it is Friday.  Jeremy keeps waking up WAY too early, so he went to the gym and for a swim this morning in the amazing pool on the 11th floor.  The infinity edge of the pool, overlooking the race track, is a glass wall and glass floor so you can see through to the track and also see below you from the pool.  We got Jeremy from the pool and had breakfast and now we are waiting to go visit with a farrier who shoes a lot of the race horses for Mike de Kock.  My sister Holly is going to talk with him about the Easyboot products and we are going to tag along.

After that we will head out to the race venue, which is about an hour drive from the hotel.  Vetting in, weighing in and the ride meeting are all this afternoon.  Melody Blittersdof and I are having some type of interveiw as we have been selected as the USA Embassadors.  Then there is a dinner party out by the race venue.  After that I am sure we will be heading straight back the hour drive to the hotel and going to bed for an early start tomorrow.

Heather

We travelled all day yesterday, and even lost a day somewhere along the way.  We left Orlando at 3:40 pm on the 6th and landed in Dubai at 7:40 pm on the 7th.  When we reached Dulles, on our layover, we had dinner with Krista and Glen, who were both on their way to Dubai as well.  My sister also landed there but was later so she ate a quick bite just before we all boarded the flight for the long haul, the 12 hour flight to Dubai.

When we landed we got to skip to the front of the customs line and go straight to baggage claim.  After that there were suppossed to be people with signs with our names on them to pick us up to take us to our hotel.  There was one guy holding a sign and it was Glen's name on it!  We all piled into his car, Canadian flag hanging and all!  Very nice. 

Once we were at the hotel we all checked in and then regrouped about 30 mins later for a bite to eat.  The group was Holly, Jeremy, Glen and myself, later joined by Emmett and Krista.  Great food and fun conversation.  We hit our pillows just before midnight.  Our room is gorgeous.

This morning we got up and stepped out onto our balcony to see the track horses doing their morning workouts on the track just below our room.  Pretty awesome.  We went down to breakfast and saw several others from the USA group.  We decided to go to the Dubai Mall as there was a tour bus heading there and we didn't have a horse to care for.  We had a great time looking at things and seeing the aquarium and various sites like the huge waterfall and the fountain.  

When we returned to the hotel it was time for the Meydan luncheon.  We had another delicious meal and were also each given a swag bag with a hat, polo, jacket, gear bag and a trophy plaque.  Pretty nice. 

Now Holly, Jeremy and I are on our way to go see Ssamiam, or One-O-Six.  Can't wait to see him:)

Heather

We travelled all day yesterday, and even lost a day somewhere along the way.  We left Orlando at 3:40 pm on the 6th and landed in Dubai at 7:40 pm on the 7th.  When we reached Dulles, on our layover, we had dinner with Krista and Glen, who were both on their way to Dubai as well.  My sister also landed there but was later so she ate a quick bite just before we all boarded the flight for the long haul, the 12 hour flight to Dubai.

When we landed we got to skip to the front of the customs line and go straight to baggage claim.  After that there were suppossed to be people with signs with our names on them to pick us up to take us to our hotel.  There was one guy holding a sign and it was Glen's name on it!  We all piled into his car, Canadian flag hanging and all!  Very nice. 

Once we were at the hotel we all checked in and then regrouped about 30 mins later for a bite to eat.  The group was Holly, Jeremy, Glen and myself, later joined by Emmett and Krista.  Great food and fun conversation.  We hit our pillows just before midnight.  Our room is gorgeous.

This morning we got up and stepped out onto our balcony to see the track horses doing their morning workouts on the track just below our room.  Pretty awesome.  We went down to breakfast and saw several others from the USA group.  We decided to go to the Dubai Mall as there was a tour bus heading there and we didn't have a horse to care for.  We had a great time looking at things and seeing the aquarium and various sites like the huge waterfall and the fountain.  

When we returned to the hotel it was time for the Meydan luncheon.  We had another delicious meal and were also each given a swag bag with a hat, polo, jacket, gear bag and a trophy plaque.  Pretty nice. 

Now Holly, Jeremy and I are on our way to go see Ssamiam, or One-O-Six.  Can't wait to see him:)

Heather

Pictured above: Rictik and Jeremy Reynolds

This past weekend we did the Greenway Gallivant 2 day ride.  It was really fun.  The camp had changed locations from years past and with that there were entirely new trails.  The best part was that we had an FEI ride in OUR town!!!

Nicki and Andy came up, so it was fun to see them as well:)  When they arrived we loaded up our four horses and drove over to the ride site, a whopping 25 mins.  Part way over to the ride we got a text from a young rider who needed her horse's feet done.  Jeremy got out of the truck and he and Andy doubled back to get the size Easy shoe that was needed for her horse while Nicki and I continued on.

We got the four horses all settled.  King and Rictik would do day 1 so they stood on one side of the trailer, while Sam and Fiddlin were doing day 2 and they were on the other side.  After getting all of them hay and water I went and got the paperwork taken care of and then Jeremy was there and we vetted in King and Rictik.  

Nicki was going to ride Ellen Olson's horse, Scarlett on the 2* for day 1.  I would ride King on the 2* and Rictik and Jeremy Reynolds would do the 1*.

After vetting in and weighing in Andy, Jeremy and I went to grab a bite to eat while Nicki finished getting her things organized with the Olson team.  We had a nice time with live music at the Blue Gator, always a good time. (Andy brought her back dinner.) We got back to camp to go to the ride meeting.  The meeting was really lengthy... Oh well.  I just wanted to go to bed but then someone mentioned the Rider ranking list... Crap.  I hadn't renewed ours and we wanted the rides to count for our USA rankings.  I tried to renew on my phone but it wasn't working so after the meeting I had the pleasure of driving back to our house to use my lap top to try renewing.  I caught a ride back with Nicki and Andy and then I would drive our car back over to the race.

After trying several times I emailed our endurance rep at the USEF saying that I give up and that I need to be on the rider ranking list but that the website wasn't letting me.  I decided to shower since I was at home and wanted some benefit! While I was in the shower I got an answer from Kristin at USEF on how to access the rider ranking list.  Not intuitive at all.  Like the thing that actually says "rider ranking" is not how you get to it...  Whatever, I got it done and went back to camp to go to bed.

The next day I got up at 4am to feed the horses then went back to bed.  For some reason the dogs were being extra "special" and kept wanting to go outside.  I was not getting the sleep I wanted.  When the alarm went off to get up I felt like I had been awake for a while.  Frapicinno time!!

At 7:30 the 2* started and King and I went trotting down the road.  Right as I thought that it was super that he was trotting, he realized he had been trotting too long and there he went into his canter.  Oh well:)

The loops were 10 miles with a 15 min stop (no vetting, just relax and then 15 mins later continue) then a 15 mile loop with a 50 min hold, same 15 mile loop with a 50 min hold, same 15 mile loop with a 60 min hold, 10 mile loop (that we had done on the first loop) with a 30 min hold and then the same 10 miles to the finish.  It wasn't as boring as that sounds.  The 15 mile loop was really fun, it was a very twisty single track with lots of lateral work, with a few obstacles and mostly sandy footing (which got deeper and deeper), by the 3rd time through it was really eating at the horses.  

Nicki and I rode together for the first 2 loops and then on loop 3 we were just minutes apart but then her mount was a little off and that was the end of her day.  By the 4th loop I caught up to Meg Sleeper. From that point on we rode together.   It was fun, the trail was very pretty. The sunset was especially beautiful, the pink hues were ever changing until you could see a bright pink/red stripe on the horizon, all the while the frogs and crickets were singing along. Exquisite.

At the end of the day King crossed the finish line in front.  He was really great all day and was recovering amazingly.  For the most part I was my own crew, (although Andy had brough ice and at one check he was there and at another check Jeremy was there, I appreciate both of them helping me).  It was pretty hot and humid as well.  I really think King is going to be a good one.  He trotted for BC looking snappy, even though he was scared of the flood lights in the vetting area and wouldn't really do a proper circle because of it!

Rictik did great as well, she finished her 1* and came in 11th, looking fabulous. 

After we took care of both of the horses we went to dinner with Nicki and Andy at Don Pepes, our local Mexican restaurant.  It was really fun, then back to the ride for bed.  This night Merlin wasn't feeling too well, he was moaning as he fell asleep.  His belly was bloated too, poor guy ate something that he shouldn't have.  Another poor night of sleep and then it was time to get up.  It was notably warmer.  

We started our 1* at 8 am on Fiddlin and Sam.  The 10 mile loop was uneventful followed by our 15 min stop.  The 15 mile loop was much deeper than the day before and it was warmer and much more humid.  Poor Fiddlin (the unicorn) was very hot and having trouble recovering, we did all we could but he did not make the 20 min FEI recovery time.  Totally odd, he has never had an issue with recovering.  We later thought it may have been due to a low grade sinus infection from his recent accident.  He was pulled from the FEI ride but was able to continue with the AERC ride.

At the lunch hold Merlin had thrown up an impressive amount of "things" for a dog of his size!  He seemed to feel much better though, so who cares?

The day continued on and Sam and Fiddlin both finished the AERC ride and Sam got his 1* as well. Overall, a super sticky day in the deep sand.

When I was gathering our awards I found out that King had won Best Condition and High Vet score on his 2* 75/120!  Super cool :)  

We cleaned up and after a few hours we headed home.  The horses were really happy to be out in their pasture.  We were really happy to be showered and relaxing in our air conditioned house!  We slept 11 hours that night:)  Back to human.

On Sunday, after we slept in, I made pancakes and then we went into work mode, there was a lot to get done before we would be leaving on Jan 6th for Dubai.  Jeremy did 10 of our horses feet, from trimming to pulling boots from the ride.  We also cleaned out our trailer completely and then we went to dinner at Panera for a quick bite before seeing a movie with Nicki and Andy with their family who was visiting.  We saw "Unbroken".  Heart breaking what that man went through...

Today is Monday and we ran a bunch more errands, we leave for Dubai tomorrow!!!  Yay! My sister Holly, Jeremy and I all fly tomorrow and meet at the Meydan Hotel tomorrow night.  I can't wait, I'm so excited to visit with our friends from the UAE.  I will try to keep up a blog while we are over there.  The race is on Jan 10th and we return home on the 12th of Jan.

Pictured above from Left to right: Kelsey Russell on My Wild Irish Gold, Jeremy Reynolds on Gold Dust Rising (no relation to Irish) and myself on Chanses

So France was an adventure.  After my 2 days of flying right after Tevis I was really walking like a crippled person.  It took a couple of days to work the kinks out.  

Jeremy had driven our two horses, Chanses and Gold Dust Rising to the USEF headquarters in New Jersey before the flight so they could be inspected one last time by the team vet.  It was decided that both horses were ready for the trip and were a part of the traveling squad for Team USA.

Jeremy flew with the horses while I flew by myself from California to New York to France.  I arrived in New York late at night but the next day I met up with Meg Sleeper and Ellen Olson, two of my teammates.  We had a good time in the VIP lounge, a little too good of a time! We almost missed our flight, and we were there most of the day!

The flight was alright but we were all really disappointed that we had booked ourselves onto an over seas flight that didn't have personal entertainment.  Darn.  Lucky for me I was good and tired.

We landed in France and found my rental car that we all piled into.  The drive to our house we were staying in was about 4 hours away.  Good times.  We stopped and had a coffee on the way.

We finally found our B&B and got the tour.  It was super cute, with a country flair.  We tried to then navigate to the stable as the horses would be arriving at o'dark 30.  We wandered around for a long while and gave up and had pizza instead! (By the way our B&B was more of a bed than a breakfast we found out!)

Jeremy Reynolds, Jeremy Olson and Lynn Kennely arrived with the horses and got to the B&B late that night.  It was good to see Jeremy and hear how the horses were doing.

The next couple of weeks were a slow blur of meetings, paddock watch, trot outs, riding, eating pastries at the bakery down the lane, staying out of the rain, starring at the horses, eating more pasteries, keeping dry, standing around, trying to find trail checkpoints,  watching the local guy who we rented the stable from work his thoroughbreds, riding in the least muddy area possible, putting horses on the walker, cleaning stalls and eating pastries.  We also ate pastries.

We had an amazing team and there were many group dinners.  They were really fun as you got to know everyone more and more.  One night after dinner Skip, Heather Martin, Jeremy and I went to Mt Saint Michelle for a night tour.  It was absolutely incredible.

Opening ceremonies were really fun.  We had a bus for our team to travel over together in.  The whole group went and we had food and laughter on our 2 hour drive.  We had nice uniforms by Hermes.  The sizes of Hermes run really small by the way!  It is always an amazing feeling walking in to the opening ceremonies with your team, representing your country, doing what you love.

It was finally time to go to the venue with the horses.  We arrived there the day before the race which was nice as our horses didn't need to stress out any longer than needed at the loud and hectic stabling.  We were ready to get unloaded but then it was found that the vet paperwork wasn't there.  Dwight ran back to our stable we had just driven from to find the paperwork.

Once the paper work made it we were allowed to unload.  Our awesome friends and crew had set up all of our stalls already.  The horses settled in nicely.

Our crew was: Misty McAdams, Sarah Engsberg, Holly Jonsson, Skip Lightfoot, Heather Martin, Nicki and Andy Thorne, Jonathan Spinner (my brother) and Jean and Howie Spinner (my parents). My step mom, Jacqueline also came to watch and friends Laura and Doug Schnieder were ther as well.

We all vetted in and had decorated our horses with USA stencils and red, white and blue glitter paint. They looked really cool.

The night before the race we went to bed early and got up before our alarm.  It had been raining off and on for the entire time we were in France.  The start was a muddy downhill with a good right hand turn at the bottom that we had walked the night before.  I was wondering about how that would go.

We arrived at the back parking and hiked our way in.  It was raining lightly.  The horses greeted us and looked bright.  We saddled up and got out of the barn, into the rain to go warm up.  The warm up area was a large, fenced off circle, like a keyhole just before the start line.  All of the USA horses looked smart and warmed up pretty quietly.  There was a lot of nervous energy in that circle, I was glad to be on Chanses.  

After what felt to be like a long time circling it was time to go.  The start was fast, as all of the horses galloped down the chute, across the pasture down the muddy hill and around the corner.  The pace was much better after that little dash.  It is difficult to stay exactly where you want at the start of a WEG, you need to be a little flexible!  During the start there was at least 1 loose horse that went around us and jumped over a fence and kept right on going.

The first loop was muddy and had some slippery parts as well as a lot of road crossings and travel through small portions of towns.  There were many horses falling down.  Very experienced riders were parting ways with their horses, this was happening at the trot even.  Chanses, Dust and Irish were all together on loop 1.  I made the mistake of going too fast around loop 1.  The course was much more hill than I had been aware of before we traveled to France.  I should have gone to the test event, in hindsight.  The entire training of our horses was for a flat rolling course, not a muddy hill course!  Bummer.  I should have slowed down but at the time it wasn't totally apparent to me.

Chanses arrived and recovered right away.  There was some confusion with our crew and Chanses ended up with almost all of the crew while Dust had only 2 people.  Chanses recovered and Dust was at 72.  I was told to go in to the vet check.  I should have waited there for Dust.  Biggest error of the day.  I will never again leave a USA teammate at vet check 1 without waiting for a couple of minutes to see if the horse will recover, no matter what I am being told to do.

Chanses recovered, vetted and went to the hold area.  Dust got upset that Chanses had left.  He recovered and marched in to where he thought Chanses was and got upset searching the vet area for Chanses and his pulse bounced.  He recovered again right away after walking around and was at 60, then walked back in where he thought he would find Chanses and bounced again.  He was pulled...disappointing to say the least.  Amatuer mistake on my part.

Chanses went around the next loop.  It was still slick but heating up and the rain had stopped, making it warm and humid.  When I was almost around the loop the mud was turning to sticky, peanut butter.  I made one more loop before I was pulled.  Chanses vetted through at the check that was around 70 miles and then was pulled on his exit exam CRI.  Irish was pulled at the same check on her first exam and Hot Desert Night was pulled at that same check as well, and like Chanses it was on the exit CRI.

That left us 1 horse in the fight, our alternate horse Wallace Hill Shade with Jeremy Olson.  Jeremy had been substituted in, the night before the race.  The day wore on and the whole team gathered round the finish line waiting as it began to get dark and the rain was falling lightly again.  Shade and Jeremy brought it home.  That was great to watch.  Thank you for finishing for the USA.

The race was really disappointing for many.  There was an overall 21% completion rate.  I feel like if I could do it over I could improve my race by a landslide but hindsight is 20/20, and it is even easier to critique from the peanut gallery.  I am sorry that I didn't get to do a better job.  Hopefully next time around will go better.  I do feel like our team got along very well and that we had a good group of sound horses.

After the dust had settled Jeremy and I decided to head towards the airport rather than waiting until the early morning to make the drive.  We drove over to the main venue to watch the USA Reigning team kill it with a tema Gold Medal.  That was fun.  We also bought ourselves some great Dubarry boots.  Then we drove towards the city and airport.  When we couldn't keep our eyes open any more we pulled over and got a hotel.  

Getting back to the USA is always a nice feeling.  We landed in New Jersey and Dave Augustine picked up Meg, Jeremy and I.  Just before Dave pulled up a car needed help so Jeremy went to help.  Then we got in to Dave's car.  When we had driven the hour drive to Meg and Dave's house we realized that Jeremy had set down the bag with the Dubarry boots somewhere as it wasn't in the car!!  Jeremy and I drove back up to the airport, like zombies!  So quiet as we were both tired and bummed about the boots but we had to go look.  Upon getting to the airport we saw that we had been picked up right by the Taxi line.  Great.  I was told to talk to lost and found, then I was told the boots were not there but to talk to the curb police that were directing traffic.  The officer told me that he had found them right by the line for the Taxi!  What are the odds???  We felt super lucky to have our boots back.

We drove back to Meg and Dave's and had dinner with them and Lynn Kennely.  It was fun.  Then we drove to Delaware to stay with our race track friends, Lynn and Mark Ashby.  It was super to see them both.  The next day we looked at the awesome race horses and also visited with our three, Liger, Code and Fast.  It is always fun seeing your boys looking fit as hell.

We had bought a mare just before we flew to France so we got to see her and take her for a ride.  She is a 2008 Sam Tiki daughter, her name is Rictik.  She is super cool.  We had also bought a gelding named Bold King who we had to drive up to get, he was in MA.  Both horses looked great.

We spent a few days with Lynn and watched a couple of races while we were there before we made our trek home.

The next ride will be The Alabama Yellow Hammer.

This past week I flew to CA for the Tevis.  I landed in San Francisco on Thurs morning.  Hillorie was all smiles when she came and picked me up.  We drove back to her place and finished the last minute packing.  The plan was to go drop off her young horse to trainer, Mark Schuerman (the trainer of this years Tevis mount Hadeia), and while we were there we would make sure all of my tack was in order, then we would go drop the trailer at Foresthill.

We loaded up Hillorie's big, young chestnut and hit the road.  There was  a bit of traffic.  The weather was super, but then again pretty much anywhere North of Hell would be an improvement to Florida's weather this time of year.

(On a side note, the Easyboot team booted up my mount on Wed for me in the Easyboot Glue ons.  I love that group.  Easycare has done a lot for the Tevis as well as for my horses personally.)

We got up to Mark's around 2 or so.  He was there as well as my good firend Nicole Chappel.  We all got organized and of course I had to check out how Hadeia looked.  He looked perfect! His body weight was nice and his coat was shiney.  I was now getting a bit more excited about the race that would be in less than 2 days.

After going over a few details, Hillorie and I left.  We went for a late lunch at the Flower Garden Inn.  We had a chicken salad to die for, it had all kinds of goodness in it, including different types of berries.  

When we were done we headed up to Foresthill, hitting up the grocery store on the way.  We parked in our regular area at Foresthill.  By now it was probably around 5 pm.  We were burnt out. 

On Friday morning Hillorie ran a few errands and then we met back up and went to Echo Valley Ranch to grab a few items.  We had fun goofing around in there.

The drive up to Robie was great, the mountains are so beautiful.  We stopped in Truckee for a bit, while getting something cold to drink we sat in a really cool cafe/restaurant and watched the locals go by.

We pulled into Robie around 2.   Mark thought he would arrive around then.  I checked in and looked at what the vendors had to offer, all the while running into friends.  Great to see everyone.

When Mark pulled in we helped him get all set up.  Hadeia was excited, he knew where he was.  He has done the Tevis the past 2 years with Mark, placing 11th and 7th.  

Hadeia (registered name, French Open) is a 14 yr old, 14.3 gelding.  He was gelded as a late 8 yr old.  He ran on the flat track before his endurance career, running an amazing 89 times.  His legs are very clean and tight, he's a beast.

After everything was done we went and vetted in.  Trotting Hadeia out was like flying a kite.  Then we went for a little pre ride.  Hadeia got a little squirrelly, he was in a great mood!

Hillorie and I didn't have a rig at the start so we stayed at a funky hotel by the lake.  It was one of the oddest hotel rooms I've been in in a while.

Saturday morning we had to get up at an extra special hour as we had to drive to the start and hike in.  Good times.

The warm up in pen 1 was uneventful.  Then it was time to file out of pen one and head to the starting line.  Hadeia was walking very relaxed.  He's such a goofball horse, his pre rides are the crazy rides and his race morning behavior is great.  I guess I'm glad about that!

The morning went by smoothly.  Hadeia only complained a few times about my choice of pace.  He was funny because when he would trip over a rock that was hidden under all of the dust he would grunt and groan in frustration.  He would also grind his teeth if he thought we should be going faster.

We went around Cougar Rock, I feel like it's an extra risk and I already have that picture...

The Redstar Ridge vet check was empty when we arrived but by the time I was getting my pulse (3 mins roughly) the vet check had filled with a crowd of total mayhem.  I got out of there just in time.

Robinson Flat was a welcome site.  My crew was super cute.  I had told Hillorie that I would be wearing pink so she had the crew in pink as well.  It turns out that this year the Tevis volunteers were all in pink too!! My crew was awesome.  It was Hillorie, Kassandra DiMagio, her son Denver and my parents, Jean and Howie Spinner. (When I got to Robinson, I almost died laughing.  My dad had on this hot pink, bad 80's shirt that said "Heart breaker" on it!)

Hadeia recovered well and we went in to the vets.  I was stopped on the way for a blood draw then went to vet.  The vet had me trot twice and thought he might be seeing a LF issue.  Great.  Went and fed Hadeia and let him relax.  When it was about 15 mins to our out time we found out that we had a recheck due to something that was seen in the blood draw.  I thought that was funky as there had not been blood drawn on Fri to get a baseline on any of the horses.  We went back to the vet and had to be re-vetted, but no more blood was drawn.  It was decided that I could continue.

So, now I had two things on my mind, LF and funky metabolics...super.

I took care of Hadeia at each of the following vet checks paying extra attention to the little details to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything.  He was looking fine.

I rode with many people throughout the day.  There were a lot of fast horses this year.  It was more fun this way, as we always had company.  By the time we hit Chicken Hawk Hadeia looked great, he had all A's.

Coming in to Foresthill Tom, Tennesee and I were all together.  My crew was on it!   They were so impressive:)  After vetting the vet held my card and I had to come back for a recheck.  I think as Hadeia was trotting back this time he stumbled and looked funky behind for a couple of steps.  Still makes you worry a bit.  I got back to the trailer and showered and changed and wolfed down a burger.  I felt like a new person.

Tom, Tennesee and I  arrived at Francisco's together and while we were there 4 horses arrived.  The three of us got out of there ahead again, we rode together to the Quarry.  It was just dark when we pulled in to that last vet check.  The three vetted fine.  While we were there horses arrived again and we were out of there.  The three of us galloped to the Highway crossing.  Then we trotted up and over to No Hands Bridge.

I had decided before hand that I would make my run at the bridge.  My crew was there and handed me a jug of water which I poured on Hadeia and then kicked it into high gear.  Hadeia was totally game.  I had a light but it was not on.  Hadeia trains on this section of trail regularly so he knew every step of the way.  It was like I was with Night Rider and I said,"Kit, take me home".  It was thrilling.  I don't know that section anywhere near as well as Hadeia knows it.  I was holding on, not sure if we were hooking left, right, up or down.  I was not steering at all.  Pretty awesome.  Hadeia didn't miss a beat.  When we got to Robie Point there were spectators who had to scatter as we flew through.  They didn't see me as I was on a dark horse with no lights.

After that I had Hadeia slow up a bit, feeling confident of my lead.  We trotted easily in the dark enjoying the thought of a win.  We made it from the bridge to the finish in under 25 mins.  Hadeia was incredible.  I was so excited to pop out at the finish by ourselves.

It was an amazing day for sure. My crew and horse were awesome.  I am really lucky to have great people around me supporting me. My husband is already in transit with our two horses for France, what a guy.

I'm sure I might have missed some fun details here but I'm sitting in a hotel in NY 2 days after the Tevis, about to get on a plane for France so I'm a bit scattered;)

Hope you are all well, wish us luck in France.

Pictured above: French Open aka Hadeia at the Fireworks 50.  Photo by Bill Gore

We recently went on a great trip to CA.  During this trip Jeremy ran the Western States 100 mile run, but that is another story, (he did finish it in 21:32). After the run Jeremy flew back to FL to care for the herd, Emma Orth flew back with him to lend a hand.  I, on the otherhand, was able to stay and visit all of my family and friends that I have been missing dearly.

The first several days after the run I spent with my parents and siblings in my hometown of Los Gatos.  It was great to be back in CA, even if there is static electricity!  I especially enjoyed that the temperature actually cools off to a chilly temp in the evening.

On Wed evening my friend Hillorie Bachmann drove 2 hours to come get me and take me back to her place.  We stayed up way too late catching up, it was great.  The next day I went running and hung out at her house in Vaccaville while she worked from home.  Later in the day we drove up to Auburn so that I could ride her horse, French Open aka Hadeia (which means gift).  I had only met Hadeia a couple of times before and I had never ridden him.  Hillorie was going to let me ride him at Tevis. 

When we got to the overlook in Auburn, Mark Shurman and his brother Tom were already there saddled and ready.  Hadeia was also saddled.  Hadeia is a short muscular bay, probably somewhere between 14.2 and 14.3  He had a very successful career as a race horse during his previous employment.  He has 89 starts on the flat track and his legs look amazing.  He also did Tevis with Mark in 2012 and 2013.

I went out on a great ride and really had fun riding him that night.  After the ride I did a few BC trot out practices.  He caught on pretty well.  I felt good about riding Hadeia, I would be staying in CA long enough to ride him at the Fireworks 50 before heading back to FL.

That night Hillorie and I went to dinner with Mark, Tom and Tony Bennedetti.  During dinner, Mark invited Hillorie and I to go white water rafting the next morning on the North Fork of the American River.  I had never been so of course I said yes!  That meant we had to drive an hour home go to sleep and drive back up and be in Auburn by 7 am.  Oh well.  So worth it.

Rafting with the group that took us was a blast, a great way to spend the fourth of July.  The rafting was followed by a BBQ.  Good fun.

That evening we drove back to Vaccaville.  Two of Hillorie's girl friends had driven up from San Francisco for a night in "the country".  They were super fun to hang out with.  When the sun went down we all got in the gator and drove to the top of Hillorie's pasture to see a panoramic view of 8 fireworks shows, all in the far distance and we all chatted under the stars sipping wine.  While we were up there we saw a huge fire start a few canyons away.  That was crazy.  On the drive back down through the pasture the horses were running around us and dust was flying everywhere.  Good times.

Bright and early the next day, two endurance friends, Rachel Shackelford and Nicole Chappel came down from Aubrun to join Hillorie and I for a day at the track.  We had fun as usual.  The horses were awesome and the weather was great.  I ran in to several track friends while we were there.  After the races we went to the backside to look for prospects.  I put the bug in a couple of trainers ears about a few that I liked.

That night we had a fun dinner at a small local restaurant in Winters.  Then went home and caught up some more.

Sunday Hillorie took me back to Los Gatos.  I spent the rest of the next week hiking, going to the shooting range, visiting my Grandma, going to sushi, going to the local coffee shop (where my brother works) with my mom and sister, seeing my other dad and his family and organizing and executing our 30 mile family hike on the Skyline To The Sea trail.  So many fun things going on. Oh, I also did my first... and probably last Bikram Yoga class!  Thanks Megan and Bre;)

As a grand finale I drove over to Santa Cruz to do the Fireworks 50.  My friend Nicole Chappel picked Hadeia up and hauled him down for me, she rocks.  I got to the race before my horse did so I checked in and walked around looking at horses.  In the process I was swamped by people I knew.  That was fun seeing all sorts of people.  I even got to visit for a bit with Julie Suhr.  It was great to see her.

Nicole and Brett pulled in without me knowing and they were able to find me from the sound of me laughing.  I helped set up the camp and then rode Hadeia a little to pick which bit I would use.  They were equally useless.  After riding around camp 4 laps my arms were sore.  Oh boy. 

I waited for the exceptionally long vet line to go away.  I was literally one of the last riders to vet in.  It was great to see Chuck Kessinger.  He has been involved in vetting my horses as my personal vet since 1988.  Love him.

Nicole and I went to town for dinner and ate some great sushi that had macadamian nuts in the roll.  Super yum. This was the same place that years back Jeremy and I ate at for an anniversary and we had grabbed our AMEX card and that was the one card that they did not accept.  We had to talk our way into letting us leave to come back to pay.  When we did return the restaurant owner was shocked we had returned!  Weird.

Saturday morning there was a controlled start as usual for this race.  The start is down a little ravine on a single track which then crosses a narrow stream and climbs up on the other side of the ravine on a single track.  After the control ended Hadeia continued on like a perfect gentleman.  All of his nonsense in camp the day before had disappeared.  Nice.

Around mile 7 the bicyclists had pulled a funny.  I got to a point where we have always gone right and there were ribbons to the left...odd.  I did remember being told that there was a lot of new trail.  I went a decent ways before the single track ended at a parking lot.  Awesome.  I turned around and measured my bonus miles on my GPS.  I ran into a large number of people that I now had to tell to turn around, on the single track, all the while they were questioning me and asking if I was sure.  I was now stuck behind people jogging slowly along.  I found ways to pass and found the front of the directionally challenged, myself included in the challenged category!  When we made it back to the point that we normally go right, there were now fresh ribbons, someone had seen it and corrected it.  My GPS read that I had done 4 extra miles.  That would put me at least 20 mins back from where I had been.  Oh well, more training!

The other perk was that I now got to see ALL of my friends who were now ahead of me.  As I started passing my friends they were all having a great time that I was coming up from behind them, I played along and joked right back with them.

The Fireworks race has spectacular scenery as you ride through the redwoods and you also get amazing views of the Pacific Ocean.  Beautiful.

Hadeia did a great job keeping motivated and focused.  At the lunch check I headed out of the check alongside an Appaloosa.  It was the Appaloosa championship.  I was about 20 mins behind the leaders.  The next section had a lot of fun twisty technical single track, that was a blast.  Before I hit the last vet check I had caught the front.  Hadeia and his brother French Quarter came in to the check together and Hadeia recovered about a minute ahead.  After the hold I cantered out and pointed Hadeia for home.  He was fun.  He got really concerned when we started catching the LD riders.  He thought that was all wrong.  I let him pass all the ones we could find until the finish.  

When I finished and I was pulling my saddle to weigh, I was told, "You should cool your horse quickly and pulse, it's really important".  After a brief moment of confusion I had to explain that I was not on the 25.  (Hadeia finished the 50, 18 mins ahead of 2nd place) At the finish line the officials were getting a kick out of the fact that my rider number was 1, I was first and I finished at exactly 1 pm.  I just told them that it took exceptional skill to plan that;)

I stood in a very long vet line behind the massive herd of LD riders to vet out (this ride has the most diverse group of horse breeds of any ride I have been to) then went to relax for a bit before BC.  A brief side note: I told Hillorie that I wanted to win BC and she told me that if I could do that she would kiss the ground I walked on (as well as other crazy promises) as Hadeia doesn't really like to trot out. 

After the awards I told Hillorie she needs to start kissing the ground.  Hadeia won BC and High Vet score.  This was Hadeia's first win and first BC.  Fun ride.  Thank you Nicole, Hillorie and Mark.  It was truely a group effort.

The next day I helped my sister grocery shop for her upcoming John Muir Trail hike she's doing at the end of July.  Then in the evening I flew back on the red eye to FL.  I miss everyone already.

I arrived at the Orlando airport at 7:45 am, 45 mins late.  Jeremy and Emma were there.  I met them at??...Starbucks of course.  After I was handed a drink, Jeremy said his hellos and good byes and got on a plane to go up to Deleware Park and Lynn Ashby's to work on Liger and Code as well as many other friends horses.

Next on the plan is Jeremy driving Chanses and Dust to get on their flight to France.  While I fly out to CA for Tevis.  The horses fly out Aug 12.  I fly to CA on Aug 7th, do Tevis Aug 9, fly to JFK Aug 11th to then joing the group of riders flying to France on Aug 12.  The big race in France is Aug 28th.  Wouldn't want to get bored!!

See you all soon,

Heather