Pictured above: RR Gogh Gogh Gadget

Just a quick update, Gadget is doing super, he is bigger and stronger than the fillies were at his age. He is only 2.5 months old.  He is very fun to have around and I think he is going to be a blast when he is finally old enough to be ridden.

We did our first ride in Florida since returning from CA.   The New Smyrna Beach 50.  Jeremy, Elaine, Marta and I all rode.  This ride is almost always a sticky mess.  We have camped at this ride two times and after the first time we swore we would never camp there again...after the second time camping there we remembered that we would would never camp there again!:)

The first time we camped at this ride we had two friends staying in the trailer as well. None of us slept.  The bugs were coming through our srceen door and we were not allowed to run our generator after 10pm so we were just roasting to death in our trailer while being eaten alive by bugs.  In the morning, we all felt like we had been on an episode of Naked And Afraid...Never again. 

That said, Marta (our new friend from Spain who is attending college in Gainesville for her masters degree) came to stay at our house on Friday night.  We got up at Oh-My-God in the morning and caught the horses to give them their electrolyte mash.  We would be taking 4 horses.  Jeremy on Lou, Elaine on Rictik, Marta on Gus and myself on Derby.

We left our house around 4:30 am.  It is about a 2 hour drive and we needed to check in, set up our crew/cooling area and vet in.  The drive was uneventful, always great when it's that way.  Elaine met us there.

I did hear of many people who auditioned for "Naked And Afraid" in camp the night before this ride too!:) One person even packed up and drove away in the night.  Glad we drove in, in the morning.  

We set up our crew area with lots of cooling buckets and put our two big ice chests that were full of ice nearby. (The ice chests held over 300 lbs of ice which we used every cube of during the ride due to the heat) The weather has been CRAZY hot in Florida.  This would be no exception.  It was calling for low 90's with 75-80% humidity.  

All the horses vetted in and we saddled up.  The start was a slow mosey for us, as it would be all day.  The horses seemed to enjoy being somewhere different than their home training trail.  The morning was fun.  Loop one went well.  The horses even recovered fast considering how hot it already was.

Loop two was going great until we were almost back to camp.  There was a log in the trail and Lou went over it and then Gus clunked over it, hitting his knee really hard on it as well as slicing his leg open on a knot sticking out of the limb.  He was still sound however so we continued. 

The next vet check went fine again, and all of the horses were dealing with the heat very well.  Loop three was fun but getting hotter still.  The trails at this ride are very repetitive.  You pretty much do the race two times with a couple of variations.  I still find it to be an entertaining ride.  At the next vet check Gus realized that his knee actually hurt.  He was pulled.  Bummer.  Marta's first ride in the USA.  Darn. She will be around for the next couple of school years so I am sure we will have many more opportunities for her to get around.

The last loop the horses all did fine.  We were sweating our asses off and turning into slap happy dehydrated riders, but the horses were great.  They had no trouble and we enjoyed ourselves.  We saw a turtle or two out there as well.  Good times for sure.  After all three vetted in we cleared out our crew area and had a bunch of yummy food that Elaine had packed.  After this we hit the road for our two hour trip back.  The horses were spectacular in handling the heat and when we got home all 4 galloped around their field.  

Our next ride was Skymont which I will catch up on soon. 

Heather

Pictured Above: Jerjes and I the day before the 80 km National Championship in Colombia.

I have once again missed the boat in a big way on posting my blog!  On our drive home from California to Florida (back in August!), just after we cleared Auburn, we received an invite from our friend Cristina Mutis to ride in the Colombian National Championship.  Jeremy and I would be riding her horses on the 75 mile FEI ride.  We thought about it very briefly and agreed to go...When else would an amazing opportunity like this come up?

This ride happened to be only a week after we left CA so we would have to get across the country and get things organized in a hurry and then head to the airport.  We managed to get everything done and found ourselves sitting on a plane just a little over a week after leaving CA.  CRAZY.

When we arrived in Bogota it was late in the evening and Diego Arboleda picked us up.  We had never met Diego in person so I sent him a picture of a bright ball cap I would wear, to which he sent me a pic of an orange Bass Pro hat he would wear.  It worked perfectly.  When we were walking to the car we noticed that we were at elevation as our breath was short.  Bogota is around 8675 feet.  

Diego drove us to his farm where we spent the night.  It was an amazing old house with a straw thatch roof, like from a fairy tale.  In the morning we looked around his farm and met his horses.  

It is colder in Colombia than we had imagined.  The whole time we were there it was around 55-65 for the high and drizzling rain off and on.  

We drove to the ride site, the road was a windy mountain pass.  The roads in general are pretty rough. There are also amazingly random speed bumps in the middle of a two lane highway where you were just driving 50 MPH and then... SURPRISE!  We managed to not meet the roof with our skulls but had a lot of really close calls.  

Once at the ride site it was the same familiar territory of any endurance camp.  The venue was really nice, it had an indoor lounge with full catering of breakfast, lunch and dinner that you could purchase as well as hot drinks and a fireplace going.  Then there was music playing over a PA system all weekend.  Just outside from this meeting area was a covered arena for vetting.  There was a very nice social aspect to this event as far as being able to comfortably hang out.  There were actually a surprising amount of spectators who had simply come to hang out.

The horse I ended up riding was a friend's of Cristina as the original horse had been hot nailed and was too sore.  I was introduced to my grey gelding, Jerjes who I called Hero.  I would now be riding the 80 km instead of the 120.  Jeremy rode one of Cristina's horses on the 120.

We stayed in an amazing hacienda that was just a mile from the venue.  It was an old style house that was made of clay bricks and it had a large open air court yard in the middle of it with the rooms all surrounding the courtyard.  It was a very special place.

The race was pretty different than a race in the USA.  The main difference was going through the towns.  The towns are very busy but small.  While riding through town you might see a horse pulling a milk cart, donkeys, goats, chickens, cars, bicycles, people sitting outside, motorcycles and tons of dogs.  The dogs were crazy in numbers.  (It bacame our joke that in order to be considered a true Colombian you had to own at least 4 dogs) I only rode 2 of my 3 loops and during that time I easily encountered over 75 dogs.  All loose, without an owner in sight.  Mostly running at you at top speed while barking and lunging at your horse.  Hero was great, for the most part he just kept on.  There were two times when Hero told me that the particular dog was "BAD" in which case we would bolt down the trail, which I happily let him do.  I figured he is a local and knows what to do.  

There were also crazy things like manhole covers missing or VERY deep holes in the pavement, the bridges were wood covered in dirt and almost every bridge had dirt that had fallen through a rotten spot in the wood resulting in a leg eating hole in the bridge.  It quickly became apparent that you should pull up and cautiously walk over bridges.

The hospitality was super.  Riding with the other riders I was offered water and one competitor even bought me a drink out in a town along the trail.  The countryside was also very beautiful.  It was a wonderful experience.

I was pulled after the second loop.  My horse came in looking super.  Then he would not recover.  He hung at 68.  I pulled.  He had all A's but a crazy pulse.  It was so odd, he gave no indication of anything being wrong.  He did seem like he had to pee but it was still crazy to not recover.  Around 20 mins after the pull he peed and then was at a very normal pulse.  In speaking to his owner about it (sheepishly as I have never had this happen before) he told me that the horse had done this at his last ride too.  In watching the other horses that came in, it became clear that at this milage this happened to many others as well.  Horses that looked great, not recovering.  I still do not have an answer for this.  The ride was at around 9000 feet and it was humid but not hot (sweat shirt on, sweat shirt off all day).  Jeremy made it 50 miles of his 75 and had a very similar experience, almost not recovering and then ultimately getting pulled for a subtle hind end lameness.

The ride was fun regardless.  All of the competitors stayed afterwards for a dinner and awards ceremony.  I have not been to a race in over a decade where people have actually stuck around to enjoy themselves after a race.  This was so much fun.

In our remaining days in Colombia we went to Cristina's farm (at 10,000 feet) and saw her awesome horses and also went for a ride.  She also took us to many local places and let us try the local flavors at restaurants.  The food was incredible.

We really enjoyed Colombia.  If you ever get the chance to go, take it.

Heather

Pictured Above: RB Code and I 

I have been super lax on writing my blog!!! I see that I haven't done one since March!  We went to Dubai after FITS with Rictik and Chachie.  The trip was really brief this time compared to the month long stay we had in Dec/Jan.  Both of the horses traveled well.  Chachie and Rictik both handled the desert without an issue.  On loop two Rictik did leave me in the sand, that was a drag as she really wrenched my back.  That was the only casualty we had though.  She saw something that I didn't (and no other living thing did either) and did a huge twisting leap from cantering on a loose reign. I was airborn before I even knew what had happened.

Rictik and Chachie finished the 120/75 mile ride as the sun was setting.  It was a successful trip. We had stellar crew once again.  The crew was my mom Jean, sister Hannah, Adam Farmer, Lynn Kenelly and my brother Jonathan.  

From here, the organizing committee graciously agreed to fly our horses to the UK rather than back to Miami.  The horses went to Nicki and Andy Thorne's place in the UK.  They would do the Windsor FEI race which was roughly 5 weeks after the Dubai race.  Nicki and Andy hosted us and took wonderful care of us and our horses.  They helped make us in making the arangements.

When we returned from Dubai we went to the McCulley Farm ride with Emma and Elaine.  We did the two day ride.  This is a very nice ride.  Fun trails and a well organized event.  Emma rode Code both days, Jeremy rode Liger day 1 and Sinister day 2, Elaine rode Benz both days and I rode Kellora the first day and pulled her on day 2.  It was a fun time.

Jeremy flew out to the UK after this to take care of the two horses feet and ride them for a couple of weeks after the horses had been resting in the UK for a couple of weeks.  At this point we found that Rictik was not sound.  After a vet work up not much was found.  Her suspensory was sore but clean in an ultrasound.  Bummer.  She would just rest in the UK and skip the race.

While Jeremy was in the UK I took his horse Danire to a local 50.  Elaine took her Rocky Mountain horse, Hershey.  It was an elevator ride so Elaine was starting with the LD and depending on how hot it was going to be she would either do the LD or elevate to the 50.  Danire and Hershey went around nice and easy together.  We had fun.  At the halfway point, we were arriving into our 1 hour hold as the leaders were getting ready to head back out and it was really getting hot so Elaine decided 25 was enough for Hershey.  I went out to do the rest of the 50.  I had trotted the first half of the ride and now for training purposes I planned to canter the rest.  Danire went around at a nice canter for the rest of the ride and won by a healthy margin.  The leaders had not expected to see me so that was pretty fun.  Danire also won BC and high vet score.  This was his first ride after his 100 in the UAE in Jan.

Jeremy flew back from the UK to the USA just in time for the Biltmore.  We took six horses, Elaine hauled two for us and we took the other three.  We had Kellora, Sinister, Errow, Benz, Lou and Code.  We brought Errow to trade for a new horse as the two horses (Errow and the new horse, Gus) seemed more fitting for opposite riders.

We did the trade right when we got there.  The new horse is named Galloping Gus, he is an 11 year old SamTiki son.  Jeremy did his feet and vetted him in for the 50 on day one at the Biltmore and I was to ride Kellora.  It would be Gus's first 50.

We vetted in and then went out to dinner.  It was fun, the town there at the Biltmore is really cute.  The next morning we had a rootin' tootin' Gus.  He would protest any time you aimed him away from the starting line while warming up, pretty entertaining for observers.  It was the strangest thing!  How did he even know where the starting line was?? It was clear that he definately did though!! The ride was fun until Kellora got pulled at the first vet check.  Gus went on to finish with Jeremy.

After Jeremy finished we pre-rode the horses for the 75 that was happening the next day.  Our friend Judith Ogus had flown in to ride Sinister with us.  I would ride Lou, Elaine would ride Benz and Jeremy would ride Code.  On our pre-ride Sinister seemed to have sore feet... Dang.  Jeremy did some adjusting to his feet after the ride but Sinister had taken a chunk out of his hoof the week prior and that seemed to be the culprit.  

In the morning we warmed up and all crossed the starting line but within 25 feet of crossing the line Sinister was clearly not able to do the race.  He was pulled, bummer as he literally went 25 feet.  The day was pretty out on the trail.  The horses all did a good job and all finished.  It was Code and Benz's first 75 as well as Elaine's first 75.

We drove home on Sunday and we were driving to the airport on Monday. It was the week of the Windsor race when we flew to the UK and got things prepared for the ride.  Jeremy and Chachie would be doing the race as well as Nicki.  While we were there we got to see our mare Cleo that Nicki and Andy now own and her stunning new Tiderbret foal.  Very fun to see.  

The race had beautiful scenery from what I could tell from crewing.  It was on the Windsor Estate grounds.  The Queen of England was even at the vet check for a while as well as the Crown Prince of Bahrain and Sheik Mohammed. The vet gate was like that of a World Championship.  Beautifully laid out with big catering tents for all.

The ride had very lumpy footing as well as a large amount of pavement.  At the last vet check Chachie was pulled.  He had a great CRI and he was sound but he looked lack luster and didn't really want to trot down the muddy, sticky trot lane. Bummer.  Nicki finished on Bold Grayson.  Lisanne Dorian also finished on her own mare Tulip (King's half sister).

Our crew was super, as usual.  This time we had my mom Jean, Lynn Kenelly, Sarah Engsberg, my brother Jonathan and Adam Farmer.  Great group of fun friends. 

 After the ride was all said and done and we had returned to Nicki and Andy's the real fun began.  We were toured all over the countryside and given many history lessons from Andy.  We also went to London and toured around.  Amazing, colorful history.   We really enjoyed ourselves tremendously.  We even got to see the opening or Parliament.  The Queen went by in her carraige and then we even got to go inside of the lobby (the original room where the word lobby originates) to watch the whole ritual of black rod and all of the proceedings.  Very special.

The trip was amazing.  We all made it back to the USA.  Rictik and Chachie included:)  It was now almost time to get loaded up for the big trip out West!!  Geez.  

We went to the Camp Osborn ride with Gus and Lou.  We also took Benz and Code as we would be doing a hand off at a gas station on our trip back to Florida.  Lynn and Misty had offered to help haul horses to Ft Howes so we would not have to haul to Montana, back to Florida then to California.  Instead we could go to Montana and continue on as they would shuttle the extra horses and keep them during our California trip.   

Gus was not right and Jeremy rider optioned part way through.  Lou was terrific and came in 4th with Best condition and high vet score.  This ride was fun. There was even a lake to swim in as well as water slides to play on.  Good times for sure, lots of families out having a great weekend.

On our way home we met Lynn at a gas station and she took Code, Benz and Lou and 13 bales of hay!.  Gus was lonely the rest of the drive...

Once we were home it was reorganizing and wrapping things up to head to Ft Howes and then continue on to Tevis.  We drove 3 hours to quarantine and picked up Chachie (Rictik, being a mare had an additional amount of days in quarantine so we said hi to her but she was not ready for pick up) We booted, packed, shopped and did paperwork and then hit the road.  Danire, King, Liger and Chachie were hitting the road!  Chachie was to be a back up for Tevis, hopefully he would not be needed for Tevis...

On our way we stayed at the Olson's for two nights.  We had a fun time as usual and hung out boating on the Missippi River for the day.  From there we did two short days (by crazy people's standards).  The first day we went to a horse hotel and went out for dinner.  It was really fun, we also got to visit with our good friends Christina and Jeff Martin and their new cute baby Brekken.

We arrived at Ft Howes without a mishap.  Lou, Code and Benz had been there all week already.  There were alot of boring details with team stuff etc. but we will skip that stuff.  Day one I rode Liger on his first FEI 50.  He did super.  He won the ride and looked fantastic.  That was really fun to ride one that we raised.

Day two was the 100 mile time trial for the World Championship Jeremy rode Danire and I rode King.  The pair were doing great together.  Around mile 40 King felt off.  I pulled up and walked in, he was "off and on" sound.  By the time I reached the check he was sound enough to trot soundly down the lane.  I decided to rider option.  He got all A's but we weren't even halfway through the ride and something was wrong.

Jeremy and Danire had a great race.  The last loop there was a three way race between Meg Sleeper, Ellen Olson and Jeremy.  The end was a surprise.  Meg had it won on her Anglo as he is very fast but at the last tiny bit she let off and he spooked, giving Danire the opportunity to blast past in the last 10 feet of the race.  It was very exciting to watch.  Danire won, Meg was second and Ellen third, all three horses looking spectacular right there together.  

Meg won BC by 1 vet point.  Danire was runner up.  Our crew was stellar again.  We had Misty McAdams, Lynn and Aiden Kenelly, Adam Farmer, then Yanica Haasbroek and Kelsey Russell jumped in later in the day and eventually myself as well as a few other people that lent a hand. There were also some first time riders who really had no idea what to do that our crew crewed for.  Very sweet.

From here we changed our mind on what horses we thought we would take West.  Originally King and Danire were not going to go to CA.  Then we decided we wanted Danire to go for training in case they  selected him for the team.  We took King for training as well.

We decided to take Lou, Code, Chachie, Benz, King and Danire to CA.  Only Liger stayed behind. He went to stay with Misty while we were in California.  We pulled out of the ride site after the awards and went 4 and a half hours to Paradise Valley to visit our friend Carl Knutchel.  Adam had flown in and was now driving back to CA with us.  On our way we hit an epic hail storm.  We were thinking we might lose our windshiled over it!!  CRAZY!!!

We arrived at Carl's, put the horses up and went to dinner at Carl's restaurant.  Very yummy!!! After dinner Jeremy, Adam and I went to Chico hotsprings for a soak.  Mush deserved relaxtion time:) The next morning we went for a scenic ride up in to the mountains.  Jeremy rode Chachie, Adam was on Benz and I rode Code.  It was a pleasant and beautiful walking ride.  That afternoon Carl taught us all how to fly fish.  We weren't a successful bunch but we had a lot of fun! We ate at Carl's restaurant again to try more of the menu.

We hit the road that evening.  We wanted the horses to not have to be hot going through Nevada so we drove at night.  We arrived at Adam's around 2 pm.  We were all spent.  

We relaxed for a couple of hours and then went to get a massage!  There's a great place that we spent a lot of time at last summer that we hit up.  It's $25 an hour!!  Too great.  

Within three days of arriving we were at the Wild West endurance ride.  We rode day 2 and 3.  On day 2, I rode Hillorie Bachmann's horse Cuyucos on the 50 with her.  Jeremy rode Chachie who came in 3rd or 4th, I don't remember.  Day 2 Jeremy rode Benz for his first time and I rode Code for the first time at a race.  The Florida horses weren't too sure about the substandard footing!  By the second half of the ride they were figuring out how to deal with rocks.  These two Tevis horses had a steep learning curve.

The rest of our stay here at Adam's has been super.  It has been a combination of running, swimming, riding, visiting friends, riding, massage's, riding and having a great time.

A couple of days before the Tevis we got an email that dismissed Danire and Jeremy from being considered for the World Championship team so we switched Jeremy from riding Lou to Danire.  Danire did not have any Tevis preparation.  He had won the FT Howes 100 6 weeks prior but didn't have any trot training or hill work.  Danire is much further along in his career than Lou.

The Tevis was really fun as always.  We went up to the start on Friday.  Elaine and her husband Guy met us up there. Benz, Code and Danire were the lucky team.  All three vetted in and looked great.  The ride meeting was brief.  Bed time was upon us and we fell asleep.  That night it got down to 38!!  It's a first for me to have to put the heavy winter blankets on the horses at Tevis.  It was also a first to start in more than a t-shirt.

Our start was uneventful and Code and Benz did a great job.  The day was very fun.  The bogs were gone!!  They have been completely fixed, INCREDIBLE!!! So much work had to happen for this.  At Robinson Flat I had an underwear issue that I finally got to address which required a knife!  Too funny!  (I McGuyvered my underwear and it worked!) 

We only had one crazy thing happen, going up the second canyon, into Michigan Bluff Benz stepped off the edge of the trail/cliff.  Her left front went off the trail and she was teetering off the side.  I looked down and it was crazy STEEP and about 1000 feet down.  I yelled to Elaine to jump off.  She quickly bailed off as the mare went off the edge that was on our left.  The mare did a 180 as she slid down, so now we were to her left and the downhill was to her right.  Her right hip caught one of two trees that were there.  That stopped her sliding.  Then she took a step away from the tree, (so now she might slide to her death) all the while she was looking up to us on the ledge.  She was about two horse lengths down when she gathered herself up and made a Hail Mary leap/scramble to the trail.  She made it!!! So SCARY!!!  I had jumped off Code the moment she went down and now I was clearing the area as best I could on a tiny lip of a trail on the side of this drop off.  She just had enough room to be there.  All of the riders behind us (about 5 or 6) were silent.  It was stunning.  Both horse and rider were unmarked and fine.  Shortly after that all of the riders let out sighs of relief and we all wanted to get the heck out of there.  It was the craziest, near death thing I have seen in a long while.  

Luckily the rest of the day went well.  We would also get updates along the way that Danire and Jeremy were doing well.  The memories of that day are abundant and fun to recall.  Our crew was amazing.  We had my mom Jean, Lynn Kenelly, Adam Farmer, Will, my sister Hannah, Guy Lemieux, Emma and Giulia Orth, Tammy and Adam's mom and sister Laura and Jenna.  

In the end we finished at 4:40 am.  Code and Benz did their first 100 and Elaine did her first 100.  It was fun because our old horse Sam Samstar did from Francisco's to the finish with us and finished right with us as well with his owner David Shefrin.  My head hit the piloow at 7 am.  I was up at 9 am to help get Danire ready for the Haggin Cup judging.

Danire did great.  He came in 4th.  Hell of a horse for not having the specific training we usually do for the Tevis...like trotting!!! LOL

We are all resting this week and will head back to Florida Monday.  See you all out on the trail.

Heather

Bound For Honor on his way to winning the 100/160.  Picture by Becky Pearman

Jeremy and I were busy glueing up horses in Easycare products the week leading up to the Fun In The Sun ride, Jeremy was CRAZY busy!  This year the FITS ride was the first of three of the USA Time Trial rides, meaning the USA selectors and team veterinarians and Chef would be looking over nominated horse and rider combinations to start the selection process for the USA Endurance Team for the World Championship that will happen this December in Dubai.

Because of this we had to be at the race on Tuesday so that we could have Honor examined by the staff.  We loaded up Honor and Lou and went over to the ride.  We had dropped off our LQ the day before so we took our smaller shuttle trailer over.  Honor had his exam and Jeremy took Lou out for a ride.  We were told that we were to camp at the ride from that point forward but lucky for us we were then told that that wasn't the case.  We stayed at the ride site to have the dinner of shrimp and grits that Lynn Kenelly made for all, then we loaded up and took Honor and Lou home for the night and let them be in their pasture.  We live about 20 mins from the ride so this was super.

On Wednesday morning we rode Chachie and Rictik on their last training ride before they would fly to Dubai for a race we were invited to at the very last minute.  The race is on March 19th and it is a 140 km race. An odd distance of roughly 88 miles.  After this we loaded Honor, Lou and now Code back up and went over to the ride.  We did the usual pre ride things that afternoon.  Vetted in, weighed in and got things organized.  Jeremy had to help out a few friends with their Easyboots while I got the crew stuff ready.

When I vetted Honor in he was very questionable.  If I were trotting him out during the race and he looked the way he did, I would be nervous that he was about to get pulled.  That was a total bummer.  Nothing like vetting in with a marginally lame horse!  I trotted him out on alll different kinds of surfaces right after that and he didn't look as bad.  I decided to pre ride him.  He felt funky.  Dang it.  What the heck?  I was also getting comments from friends like, "did you know that Honor didn't trot well?" and I overheard someone say while I was trotting him out, "Well that one's lame".  A bit of a problem.  

As Jeremy and I were just getting into bed we were discussing Honor's feet and already losing sleep over it.  Jeremy got out of bed and drove home to get some things to try to change Honor's feet.  At 10:30 he returned (this is the night before the 100).  We trotted Honor out and we had nothing to lose.  Jeremy re-did his front feet and made some adjustments.  Then all we could do was try to sleep!

The next morning I got on Honor and he felt SUPER.  WOW!!  We would soon find out if he could stay this way, 100 miles is a lot to ask of a horse that wasn't sound the day before.  I decided to start and see how far we could make it.  A half an hour later Jeremy started the 75 on Lou.

We had an awesome crew, Lynn Kenelly, Misty McAdams, Sarah Engsberg, Jean Spinner, Elaine Lemieux, Holly Jonsson and Matt Torrens.  They really rocked and took excellent care of us and the horses all day long.  I love them, thank you guys!!

I rode in my new Reactor Panel, the Tribute.  Hands down, the best saddle I've ever raced in! Reactor Panel was at this ride and put on a nice wine and cheese social while displaying their saddles.  I would highly recommend doing a trial on one of these saddles, I think you will fall in love with it like I have.

The ride went really well.  Honor felt great all day and to my happiness and surprise he looked great all day too.  This was his first 100.  He flew through it like a champ and won the ride:)  He is Superman..the Beast.  10 mins after Honor galloped in, he was vetted through at a 56/56 pulse.  I love this horse!  Lou also did a fantastic job and finished her first 75 and came in 7th.  She looked fresh at the end too.  Perfect day, what a turn around from what Honor had vetted in looking like.

Jeremy went home right after his 75 and took Lou with him.  Jeremy had to fly to Dubai the very next day so he had a few things to take care of.  On Friday morning, around 5:30 am he took Chachie and Rictik to Dr Anne Christopherson's to meet the transport that would take the horses to the airport.  Then Jeremy came back to the race to exchange the shuttle trailer for our car and he went home and got a ride to the airport...what a jetsetter.

Friday, I didn't ride as I was to be available for the selectors and team of vets to present my horse and answer any questions.  It was a relaxing day, I crewed for Sarah Engsberg and Nicki Thorne, (who was riding RB Code on his first 1*) as well.  After I was done with my things that I needed to be at the ride site for I took Honor home and picked up Saturday's horses, Kellora and Benz.  I also took care of a few things at home.

When I returned I had to track down Benz's rider who was a Canadian that was riding one of Yvette's horses that day.  After I found her, we vetted in our horses.  Then I continued crewing for my friends.  After Nicki finished Andy drove the shuttle trailer back to our house with Code.  Now I only had the LQ to drive, phew.  

On Saturday morning Kellora and Benz went out well.  We were keeping a very mild trot pace.  The whole weekend had been much warmer than what we have been used to and the sand was deep.  Kellora and Benz didn't fair so well.  Both mares were pulled with hind end lamenesses.  Darn it.  I think this was due to them not used to trotting so much, as they canter more usually, as well as deep sand and heat.  Benz made it 32 miles and Kellora made it to the finish at 60 miles.  Bummer for sure.  To make matters worse the poor Canadian had been pulled both days in a row.  What a drag.  At least day one had gone super and Code did great on day 2!

I am sitting at the airport waiting to board my flght as I type this.  Wish us luck in the desert.  See you at McCulley Farm.

Picture is of RR Super Cool. Dam is Treasured Moments, sire is TH Richie.  Foaled 1/25/16

It seems like I haven't done a blog in forever and I guess I haven't!  Our herd has been keeping us very busy.  After Big South Fork we headed on back down to Florida.  We have so many younger horses that needed qualifications as well as Jeremy's new horse Danire needing to refresh his FEI rides that we went to the Scenic Spruce Creek 50.  I took Sudden and Jeremy rode Danire while our friends Pam Peacock rode Lou with us for the first half and her LD ended half way through the 50 (it was nice that we had the same start time and the same trail so that we could all stay together), Robert Ribley rode Chachie and Mallory Capps rode Benz on the 50 as well.

The night before the ride Pam and Mallory stayed in our trailer and it was really HOT and humid out.  We were not allowed to run the generator (in hindsight we should have any ways!) To make matters worse, somehow mosquitos were finding their way into the trailer.  No one slept well, it felt like we were all on an episode of Naked and Afraid.

All of the horses finished and Danire did a 1* while we were at it.  All of the horses were in Easycare products.

The next ride we did was Broxton Bridge in November.  I once again rode Sudden.  He did his last 50 needed to complete his novice FEI qualifications.  He also won BC and high vet score.  Cool little horse. Misty McAdams took Kellora on her first 50 and finished looking great. Jeremy rode Danire in the 2* with Nicki Thorne riding Errow in the 2* as well.  All of the horses had a great day.  Danire got BC and high vet score.

On the second day I crewed while Jeremy rode Rictik on the 1*.  Rictik came in 2nd with BC and high vet score.  Really a great weekend.  The horses all looked fantastic.  All of our horses were wearing Easyboot products.

Our next outing was Autumn Gallop.  We had a few young riders at our house for Thanksgiving as well as my two sisters and parents. We all woke up really early and loaded up the 6 horses. It was a bit over 2 1/2 hours of driving.  Jeremy rode Chachie and won the 50 with BC and High vet score.  I rode Sudden, Tori Uptegraft rode Benz, Haley Moquin rode Code, Eilish Conner rode Kellora and Holly Jonsson rode Lou.  Another successful weekend.  All horses wearing Easy Care products.

Next up, (It really was a long time since my last blog!) we went to the Goethe 25.  Jeremy rode Sinister, Tori rode Nemo, Eilish rode Code and I took Derby. They all did well considering they are all rookies and we had a lot of cross traffic with the lead group from the 50.  Very pleased with them.  All of them had Easycare products on their hooves.  In case you haven't realized it, we do not take our horses to rides without some form of Easycare product protecting their feet.  We believe it is truely a big part of our success.  

In the midst of getting all of these rides done we were also invited to compete in the HH Sheik Hamden Bin Rashid Cup in Dubai.  Irish rider, Hilda Donahue was also invited and did not have a horse.  We agreed to let her ride King.  Jeremy was the alternate and was to be the back up rider and I would take Honor.  In the end, after doing all of the paperwork, vet work and logistics we were taking all 3 horses.  The OC decided they wanted Jeremy to ride as well.  

Because the USDA labs are not open for the holidays we had to fly out very early.  We arrived in Dubai on the 19th of Dec.  and stayed until the 14th of Jan!  A very long time.  You've never seen how daunting a buffett can look after that many days.   All joking aside it was a very long time to be away from our farm.  My younger sister Hannah came with us to help care for King so that we would have three people with three horses.  It was fun.  The part you don't hear about is that it is not a trip of leisure.

You get up, have breakfast, leave the hotel, drive an hour to reach the barn (which is in the middle of the desert), log in to the quarantine barn (with your security badge), feed, clean stalls, ride, turn out horses (but only if you are in the vicinity of the stable, otherwise the horses must be in their 10x10 stall).  Then the stable closes from 12-2 pm.  You can then decide what to do.  A) hang out in the desert so that your horse can have turnout, or B) drive an hour each way to your hotel to eat and eventually return to the barn (another hour of driving) to feed, blanket and end the day.  Then an hour back to the hotel.  By now it is around 7-7:30 pm.  Grab food and go to bed.  Repeat...

After a month of this schedule you are really itching to get home.  Any how, we spent Christmas and New Years at the hotel and had a lot of fun throughout our stay.   It was fun to see endurance people from other countries while at the hotel.  

Madiya had Jeremy and I ride in a 50 the day after Christmas.  That was a really fun day.  Madiya is great.   Her horses were nice to ride and a couple of them were ones she bred and raised.  She does it right and trains her horses well and progresses slowly with them.

Our crew arrived a few days before the race.  Jeremy had Tim Reynolds and Adam Farmer, I had Tenney Lane and Holly Jonsson.  My sister Hannah Spinner crewed for King and my mom, Jean Spinner came out to help as well.  It was a great group of friends that helped us.  We couldn't have asked for a better group.  

On the day of the race our two drivers helped us as well.  In the end it was only Danire and Jeremy who finished from our three.  Honor made it 70+ miles and King made it 89 miles.  Both were lame. 

The day after the ride we took care of the horses and then hung out at the pool for our final day with the crew there.  It was relaxing.  The next morning everyone except for me left.  I stayed with the horses to help load them up for their return trip.  

Now all three horses have long since returned.  They are all happy and well.  Another thing you do not here about is that it is not a free trip.  We chose to go and we agreed to pay the import export fees on our horses.  This was very, very expensive.  

While we were in Dubai we had 4 horses go do the local Florida FEI ride.  We wanted to support the Greenway ride so we entered our horses even when we were out of the country.  On day 1 Eilish rode Rictik in the 2* and did a nice job.  Rictik looked great.  Also on day 1 Annie Whelan rode Sudden in his 1*.  She took great care of him as well.  A special thank you to Jeremy Olson for riding along with Annie and Sudden and also to Tori Uptegraft for crewing for both horses.  On day 2 Tori rode Code in an open 50 and Eilish rode Chachie in his 1*.  Another successful day.  Thanks girls:)

Shortly after we returned from Dubai was Jeremy's birthday.  Jeremy's birthday was fun.  We got to go riding with Shania Twain and her husband, as well as a good friend of ours.  Then we went to dinner with a whole bunch of friends.  Good Times!

The next race we went to was the On The Edge.  We did two days of LD's.  Day 1 Jeremy took Sinister and I rode Benz, we got really wet, it rained pretty good but it wasn't cold.  Day 2 Jeremy rode Liger, I rode Barkode and Holly rode Ready. Day two was really COLD.  All of the horses had on Easycare products once again.

Our mare Treasured Moments had a beautiful Filly on Jan 25. sired by TH Richie.  She is super duper cute.  We are naming her RR Super Cool, as that is what we keep saying when we talk about her...She's super cool.

The most recent ride we did was the Broxton Bridge ride.  Another 2 day.  Day 1 Jeremy rode Lou on a 50 and I rode Sudden on the FEI 75.  Jeremy finished and I won and then got pulled at the finish.  I was beating myself up after Sudden was pulled.  You know the whole, should have would have could have... maybe I shouldn't have... Maybe I...  you know.  Any how as I was poulticing him I found sweeling on his back legs and then was even more upset with myself (which was kind of goofy considering the horse looked great otherwise).  As I fell alseep I suddenly realized that the swelling matched up with where the top of his hind interfernce boots would be.  The next day I looked and sure enough that was it.  Oh well, at least I didn't really hurt him.  Bummer though.

Day 2 Jeremy rode Chachie on the 75 and I rode Derby on the 50.  Chachie came in 3rd and got High vet Score.  Derby finished easliy as well.  More Easycare products:)

Our next ride will be the Down Under Youth Benefit at Tidewater.  We hope we see you there!  If you have interest in knowing more about the Easycare products come find us at the next ride, we are here to help you do well.

Honor and I with our loot, photo by Becky Pearman.

This is long over due.  After our 10,000 mile summer road trip and two weeks of fixing and organizing our property from being gone all summer as well as getting back into a routine with all of the horses that we had left at home, it was time to hit the road again for a measly 11 hour drive.  We were heading to Big South Fork Tennessee for the AHA National Championship.

We booted up a few horses as well as putting on the Easyshoe Prototype shoe onto Honor.  

We loaded up Rictik and Chachie for Jeremy, (they would do a slow 50 each) and King and Honor for myself (King would do the 100 and Honor the 50).  It was an uneventful trip up.  When we arrived it had been raining and camp was super muddy.  We made some interesting manuevers that required not stopping the rig as we would have gotten stuck right then and there!  We stopped rolling at the crest of a small rise and left it there for the weekend.  

We got all set up and then visted with friends before the ride meeting.  The first day Jeremy and our friend Misty would be riding our mare Kellora in the Ride & Tie.  Misty has had Kellora all summer and she had trailered her to the ride.  It was to be Misty and Kellora's first R&T.  I would be running out to the 1 mile mark for a hand tie and then I would crew the rest of the day.

The next morning I was out on the trail waiting for the herd to come stampeding.  It was pretty fun.   Kellora led the charge, trotting.  I grabbed her and Jeremy took off running.  The horses started coming very shortly after that, Kellora was confused but really cool.  She watched as riders jumped off and tied their horses and then took off running away from their horses.  I can only imagine what she was thinking.  

Misty came running up and hopped on and away they cantered.  It looked super fun.  I ran back to camp and drove to the vet check.  It was a pretty relaxing day (for me anyhow!).  Misty and Jeremy came in 3rd.  A great first R&T for Misty and Kellora.  

The next day Jeremy rode Chachie and I was on Honor.  Honor is such a beast.  The first loop was total mayhem.  There were all sorts of people riding wildly through the woods.  I heard several of them say, breathlessly, "I've never ridden this fast before"... Bad sign, amazing what the word Championship does to people's brains.  Coming in to the first check there were probably around 15 of us that arrived at the same time.  More chaos.  Honor came right down and we were clear of most of the traffic leaving that check.  

On the next loop there were about 8 of us going strong.  Honor was behaving perfectly.  By the time we pulled into the last vet check there were 3 of us.  This part of the trail and time of day was VERY hot and humid.  Honor took an unusually long time to recover.  During his recovery another horse came in and out recovered us.  I was getting discouraged that something might be wrong with Honor.  I kept feeling him and he was still radiating an amazing amount of heat.  He finally was down, thanks to my amazing crew of Misty McAdams, Lynn Kennelly, Aubree Becker and many other people who kept filling our water buckets!  We had lost 13 minutes.  After he cooled out he ate like a mad man.  We left in 4th place.

Honor felt totally fine and like a freight train leaving that last vet check.  I let him roll.  It had cooled off a hair and a slight breeze had picked up.  He caught the front runners 7 miles in to the 12 mile last loop.  I rode with Cheryl Newman and Gunner Frank for a bit and then there was a big climb and Honor wanted to get 'er done.  After we left them we started to catch up to some LD riders.  Honor almost had a heart attack as he thought I had lost my edge and that I was unaware that we were NOT first!  He pulled on me and insisted to pass the LD horses.  Honor is really an amazing athlete.  I absolutely love riding him.  He won the AHA 50 Mile Championship.

Lynn and I pre rode King and Rictik while we were waiting for Jeremy and Chachie to finish.  Jeremy and Chachie had a fun ride and finished looking good.  Jeremy was smiling.  Dinner and sleep and then another round.

The start time was alarmingly late for a 100.  We started at 7 am.  King warmed up great and was relaxed.  He is really getting the hang of this sport.  About a mile in to the race a rider right in front of us and her horse went down and her air vest deployed.  King was so out of there, he was going the opposite direction immediately.  He is too funny.  

A little while later there was a horse that kept riding my tail and King did not like it at all.  I finally told the rider to pass me.  As the rider passed me his horse kicked King in the point of his shoulder.  The rider lamely said sorry and did not correct his horse.  I found out that this rider and horse have this happen at all of the rides they do.  It is a pattern.  There was no red ribbon either.  When I arrived at the first vet check there was a swelling where King had been kicked.  Also another horse had been kicked by that same horse.  That was it.   When that rider arrived I decided to let him have it in front of everyone.  I loudly informed him that he needed a red ribbon and that he needed to train his horse or leave it at home, apologies are worthless when it keeps happening. PERIOD.  That it was totally unacceptable.  This little talk had an audience but I didn't care, no one else was telling him and it was really a dangerous thing to have out there.

Later in the afternoon the trail markers disappeared.  We went 7 miles through MANY intersections without a single ribbon.  We were fortunate to have the trail master in our group.  I suggested she carry ribbon on the next loop so that if this happened again she could correct it for riders behind us.  She stated she "couldn't do that as the ribbon is just so heavy"...WHAT????  Strange.  All the riders in our group spoke up and offered that we would carry the darn ribbon if she would show us the way.

After this loop King was off behind.  In looking back this was my poor management. I really shouldn't have asked King to do another ride so soon after his Tevis attempt.  He was fine the next day and it was not the same hind leg from Tevis.  I'm sure getting kicked didn't help either.  Lesson learned.  I'm still an amatuer.   

Rictik came in looking great.  That evening we hung out under the stars chatting with Misty and Lynn. Over all it was a fun weekend. 

Heather

After Tevis we rested up for about a week at the Shackelford's house.  During this week we also made a trip to the Tamberbey Winery in Calistoga to visit Barry and Jennifer Waitte.  We had a very fun time seeing the beautiful winery and getting the full walk through of how things work.  Amazing wine and great friends.  We stayed in Yountville at the Waitte's house.  It was a very enjoyable time.  The next morning we had breakfast with one of my other moms, Jacqueline.  It was fun catching up and visiting.  The cameo visit from my highschool friend, Alethea was also amazing! We hadn't seen each other in over 20 years and we picked up right where we had left off.

Jeremy had recieved a pair of new proto-Type shoes to put on Honor for the NAETC.  Honor had been having some tenderness issues and this new product was what we believed would make the difference.  A few days after applying them Honor felt like a totally different horse.  We were VERY excited!!

After doing all of the paperwork for the Canadian border crossing with the horses and dogs and doing all of the summer planning it felt odd to be pulling out of CA.  We had an excellent summer staying with Mike and Janet.  We also made and stregthened some incredible friendships, old and new.

Onwards... we left in the early evening on Wednesday as the weather through the NV desert is brutal this time of year.  Jeremy is an amazing driver and drove all through the night.  In the early AM as the sun was rising I took the wheel.  Our layover spot was Nebraska, we arrived there around 3 pm.  The four horses were really happy to get out and relax.  The horse hotel was queit and clean and run by a very nice lady.  We stripped the trailer out, refilled mangers and took care of the horses.  When all was done we unhooked the truck and drove to "The Restaurant".  It was alright.  We were seriously zoning out by this point.  We went back to our trailer and crashed.  Sleep was instant. 

We got out of there for another long day to Iowa to stop at the Olson's for the weekend.  We arrived on Friday.  It was great to get out of the truck for a few days.  The horses were happy too.  We got everything all organized and cleaned up.  Then it was time to shut down and rest.  We went out to eat at a local place and it was delicious.  

On Saturday we went out on the Mississippi River in the Olson's boat.  It was a lazy day on the river.  We beached it and floated in the water with all of the other locals.  At one point Jeremy Reynolds and I decided to swim down the river to the end of the beach, with the current and then walk back up to the boat along the beach.  It was super fun, that is, until we had to walk back.  The sand was SOOOO hot!!  It took us a while to get back as we had to keep scrambling to the water to cool our burning feet off.

The next day we had a relaxing day and went to see Mission Impossible.  It was super, I loved it.

On Monday evening we pulled out to start the final leg up to Canada.  Originally Jeremy Olson had thought the ride was 9 hours North of their place.  I never checked on a map so that was what I was going off of.  We left the two spare horses at the Olson's (King was happy to not have to drive extra!)

It turned out to be a 14 hour North East drive.  Oh well.  Honor and Errow traveled well.  I had decided to let Jeremy ride Honor at the North American Championship as he had not been able to do Tevis this year.  I would ride Errow.  When we arrived it was late afternoon Tuesday.  We got everything all set up and turned the horses out in a grass pen.  The weather was hot and humid.

We went to the Team house that night for dinner and real showers.  It was great to see everyone and visit.  Lynn Kennelly had just been at Tevis so we were spoiled to get to see her again so soon:)  She made an awesome meal as usual.

Straight back to camp for after dinner and we fell asleep right away again.  This was the last race on our summer road trip.  Things felt good.  

The next several days are a blur of preparing the vet area, vetting, checking in and hanging out.  It rained most of thursday.  Thursday night there was a dinner and a ride meeting and then off to bed.  Friday was the ride day.

Friday morning Errow was a pro at the start, very nice and calm.  He even grazed some.  Honor on the other hand was ready for them to say "GO".  The start was uneventful.  Errow trotted and cantered around to the trot by and looked fabulous.  The trail was very technical, the saving grace was that it had soft footing beneath the rocks, roots, ruts and erosion.  There was also much more hill than anticipated.  

Unfortunately after the first 22 miles I was out.  Errow had done something and was lame.  He was great coming in and not great trotting down the lane.  Bummer.  As soon as I was done icing and taking care of Errow, I became crew.  

Honor was rolling along nicely.  He was in the second group most of the race.  On the second to the last loop he had closed his gap on the first horse to 2 mins.  Leaving on the last loop he looked incredible.  He caught up to Meg on the last loop.  Meg and Jeremy rode along and had even decided where they would race off (the finish was not a very safe one for racing) then Jeremy said with a mile to go Honor did something weird.  Jeremy asked for a canter and Honor got wobbly feeling.  Jeremy thought maybe he was cross cantering so he asked him to trot and went to canter again and it happened again.  It was too weird so Jeremy decided to get off and run.  Meg won the race with Honor coming in second.  The only thing Jeremy could figure was that Honor may have gotten too hot.  He recovered well at the finish and looked great.  Better safe than sorry!! Especially when it's your wife's favorite horse!!

The new Easycare Proto _type shoe made all of the difference between being able to do this race or not, and Honor not only did the race but won a silver medal.  Thank you Easycare and especially Garrett and Curtis.

In all, Canada was a lot of fun.  Meg won BC the next day. Oh and Errow was sound about 3 hours after we pulled him!

The awards brunch was the best I've ever seen at any race.  We stayed until early Sunday morning to head home, as we wanted the horses to rest. There was a very fun chili feast on Saturday night with music and dancing.  Good times.

We got back to the Olson's on Sunday night, in time for a delicious Spaghetti bake to celebrate Ellen's parent's anniversary.  The two horses we left were happy to see their friends return.

We stayed at the Olson's until Tuesday.  We went for a fun ride through their back hillside trails.  It was very fun.  I rode the Olson's Vagas and Jeremy Reynolds rode his new horse Danire.

The drive home from the Olson's was going to be a 2 day drive but the magnetic pull was too strong.  We kept the wheels rolling.  It was great to finally be back home.  It was over 10,000 miles of driving from the time we left.

We left in late May and drove to the Olson's in Iowa, Fort Howes, Durango CO, Licoln CA, (flew to Vermont for Jeremy's 100 mile run) back to CA, Iowa, Canada, Iowa, Florida.  It was so great seeing everyone along the way.  We got home Aug 26th.

Our place in FL was like a jungle from all of the summer rain.  The horses here at home were really happy to see us but our friend Lori Schifflet took great care of them while we were away.

Our next ride will be Big South Fork, hope to see you there.

Tevis was great up until when it wasn't.  My day started off perfectly with King behaving himself very well.  He trotted along.  King doesn't have a very fast trot as he is more of a cantering horse.  The trot pace in general for the morning was around 10 mph, King is really comfortable around 8.5.  My choices were trot faster than he goes naturally or canter bouncing around on a horse that was worried he was being left.  I opted for the trot.  I didn't feel the trot was so big that I was risking a strain or anything like that but it was bigger than ideal for King.

I was lucky that when I got to Granite Cheif I was in front of my group so I got to take my time through this section.  King was a perfect gentleman.  I did cause a bit of traffic by the end of it as many people were choosing to go faster through that rough section than I wanted to go.  Just after the Wilderness area the trail opens up and the Cavalry charged on past us.  It turned in to total mayhem for several miles.  People were passing by galloping down steep, REALLY rocky sections.  Impressive...not in a good way.

King trotted on like a professional.  We reached the cabin trot-by and we had gone from somewhere in the top ten to somewhere around 30th I'd guess, after the stampede:)

At Red Star ridge King came down very quickly so we passed the majority of the Mad Dash riders.  The trot down the boring road into Robinson passed by.

At Robinson Flat my crew tried to hand me jugs of water filled with to pour on my horse.  King was convinced he was literally going to be killed by these so I had to drop the jug before he almost ran over the crowd.  When the jug hit the ground he did a spectacular leap...again the wrong type of impressive!!

King ate well at this check and for the second year in a row I had a recheck on my blood work.  I would love to see what it is they are seeing.  When I went back for my recheck the vet admitted that most of the top horses that were in, were all getting rechecked and that they all looked great.  The weather at Robinson was really weird too.  It rained on us and got chilly enough that I wrapped myself up in a blanket.

King and I headed back on down the trail.  He felt good.  Somewhere along the Pucker Point trail there was a tree down that made life REALLY interesting.  We had to scramble up and around the tree on a very tall, steep mountainside and then drop back down onto the single track.  King was not sure I was seriously asking him to do that!  Luckily for the riders behind us the tree was moved by a rider in the next group back, I hadn't been manly enough to heave it out of the way.

The canyons were hot as usual and a little humid (by Florida standards it was dry).  King was happy to get cooled off at Michigan Bluff.  My entire crew was super!!  Then we were off to Chicken Hawk.  At Chicken Hawk we cooled him again and let him eat a while.  When we had stayed long enough we headed to Foresthill.  King was surprised to see all of those people there.  He is a skeptical kind of guy.  I went and took a shower while King ate really well there.

When our hold was up I had my crew ask the out timer how far ahead the next two were and also how far ahead Potato was.  Gwen and Dace were 7 minutes ahead and Potato was 28 mins ahead.  King looked good as we left through town.

I was happy, as I knew that the California Trail would offer some spots to move out and let King finally canter some.  About 4 miles into the loop I caught Gwen and Dace who were doing an easy jog.  I decided to go around and continue on my pace King was doing as he was moving effortlessly.  That section was pretty warm.  The horses were working.  Just before Francisco's we caught Potato.  King had pulled us up to the front.

I backed off and let the three others pull away in to the Francisco's check.  King looked ok but was starting to look a bit worn.  I cooled him out and let him eat for a while.  Dace and Potato raced out of there.  After King ate for a bit we vetted and left.  Gwen and I rode together from this point to the quarry.  The river crossing was deep and chilly.  

At the Quarry I cooled King down and then vetted him.  He wasn't right.  He had felt fine on trail but now had a hind end issue.  After looking at him for a bit I made the tough choice to rider option.  In hindsite I am pretty sure it was all of the big trotting combined with the amount of hill effort involved that finally caught up with King.  The good news is that he was sound on Sunday.  He is such an amazing horse.  I really enjoy him.

I want to thank all of my amazing crew that I had that day, my husband, the Shackelford's for putting us and our four horses up for the summer and to King for taking me on an amazing 94 mile ride.

From here we went to Canada!!

Jeremy at the finish line of the Vermont 100 after completing in 19:51:28

On Wednesday afternoon Mike Shackelford drove us to the Sacramento Airport for our red eye flight to Boston.  We took off around 6 pm and landed at our lay over in Long Beach an hour later.  We had two hours to kill.  Long Beach is a very small airport but super nice.  There are two "terminals" each has about 3 or 4 gates.  Between the two terminals there is a large open air landscaped, outdoor area that is still within the security area of the airport.  This was super cool for Merlin.  He got to get out and walk around and sniff a few things.  There were also two nice places to choose from to have dinner, both had outdoor patio seating available.  Again, Merlin liked this as he could be outside hanging out.

We ordered some crazy hot wings that lit our mouths up and a California burger (had to, we were in CA after all!) It was relaxing and the weather was great for this.  You could see the jets out on the runway and the sun setting behind them.

Our next flight went smoothly and we sort of slept! As best you can any how for sitting practically vertical while "reclining" in your airline seat.  We landed at 6:30 am in Boston.  We were meeting our friend, Adam Farmer who was flying in to Boston to come help pace Jeremy and also to help Jeremy shoe in Delaware after the race in Vermont.  His flight would land around 8:30 so we decided to go get our rental car while we waited for him to land.

The drive from the airport to the town where the Vermont Endurance ride and Ultra run are was about two hours and forty five minutes.  We were all really tired from our red eye adventures.  When we were getting close we found a cute country diner to have brunch at.  It was really good and we were starving so it really helped us get going again.

Our friends Lisanne and Beth had offered to let us stay at their place so that is where we were headed.  Did I mention that GPS doesn't really know the area??   We wandered around for a bit but eventually ended up at the right house.  Beth's house was the perfect place to stay.  She has a beautiful house and it is right on the trail.  She housed 6 of us!! Thank you doesn't begin to cover how much we appreciated her generous hospitality.

We dropped off our stuff and then went to find camp.  It  was about 10 mins away, maybe less... We saw several familiar endurance faces there.  After that we decided that it would be a good idea to find a grocery store and we also went to Steve Rojek's tack shop, Slypner Gear.  Super cool tack shop! It actually has everything that myself, as an endurance rider would want in ONE store:) So of course we shopped!

Everything in Vermont was a long drive away.  Groceries included.  We did find a Walmart and picked up what we needed to make a dinner for everyone.  By the time we got back to the house my parents were pulling up.  My mom and dad and brother Jonathan had driven up from NJ where they had been visiting with my grandparents.  It was great to see them all. 

We got them all settled and then made a spaghetti dinner with a big salad.  It was great.  After we cleaned up from dinner we all went out for a walk.  Lisanne drew us a trail map so we could find our way.  We ended up at the top of one of Steve Rojek's hills and it was beautiful up there.   The race trail markers went right through there as well.  Merlin loved the walk as well as Lisanne's dog, Hamish, who had snuck out with us. (He didn't come on our next walk as he is old and got pretty sore from this walk).  When we returned it was just about dark.  Bed time!

On Friday morning we all got going and went over to the race site for Jeremy to check in.  There was a very large turn out for the run.  Vendors and all.  Jeremy got his stuff and we hung out for a long while looking at stuff and talking.  There was also an ice cream truck at the race site.  It was painted like a cow and was called "The Lazy Cow".  I had to try it and they had one of my favorite flavors, Salted Caramel.  As I ordered the ice cream I saw a print out about the owner of the ice cream company.  She was an 18 yr old girl who made the ice cream and started this company.  She was the one scooping the ice cream.  I complemented her on her business.  She noticed I was holding a leash and leaned out the window of the ice cream truck, looking down to see Merlin.  She quickly asked if he needed some ice cream too.  I told her that he definately did.  She went and got him a scoop of vanilla.  He loved it.  

When we were all done with the venue Jeremy and Adam went back to the house while my parents, brother and I went to the grocery store again to get Friday nights dinner.  We went with grass fed hamburgers, salad and homemade egg salad.  While we were shopping Jeremy and Adam went for a short run.  When we returned we went to the run briefing.  It was a nicely run briefing that didn't go on forever.  Right after that we went back home and we made dinner and then Jeremy got ready for bed, the rest of us went for a nice walk in the woods again.

We got back from the walk about 7:30.  I got ready for bed then too.  The alarm was set for 2:45 am with a 4 am start time.  Sleep didn't really happen. A lot of laying awake and restlessness.  It started to rain really hard about 1 am.  When the alarm went off we got up.  I put my watch on and realized (since I hadn't changed the time yet) that it was only 11:45 pm PST so that is why we probably didn't really sleep.

Jeremy did his routine of whatever that is, I was not aware enought to care!  I got dressed and waited to get in the car.  When he was all set my parents got into their car and we got into ours.  We took two cars so that when Jeremy finished tonight we wouldn't have to worry about going to get the second car for us to all fit in on the way home.  We pulled into the dark field of camp, where it was raining lightly.  At the bottom of camp there were two big race tents lit up.  There were hundreds of people down there.  I parked the car while Jeremy went to go check in.   When we got to the tents the crowd was buzzing.  There were tables with a huge amount of coffee and bagels.  I didn't see anyone eating them...

The run started right at 4 am.  Jeremy disappeared into the dark, drizzling mass of headlight wearing runners.  My parents and I hopped into one car and went back to the house. We had left Adam and Jonathan to sleep as they would be pacing Jeremy in to the night.  When we got back to the house we set our alarms and went back to sleep.  ROUND TWO...we got up again at 6:30 (It wasn't raining) and got ready and the five of us jumped into the car to go to the first crew spot at mile 21.  

Jeremy came through looking great.  He was running well and was in and out.  He was looking so much better than he had at a similar milage last year at Western States.  It was cool outside but still very humid.

The next crew spot was at mile 30.  Jeremy was looking great again and seemed to be in good spirits, even without being allowed to listen to any music! (Race rule as there were also horses doing the endurance race sharing the same trail with the runners and they didn't want to have any troube with people not hearing what was going on).

The next crew spot wasn't until mile 48.  We went in to a town to kill some time and walked around.  We got excited when we saw what we thought would be a street fair or farmers market but as we walked nearer we saw it was a used book swap/ junk sale.  Disappointing.  

The 48 mile crew point would also be the 69 mile crew point.  It was a crowded place.  This was also a weigh-in check point where the runners would be weighed by the medic.  If anyone lost 6% of their body weight they would be pulled, similarly if they gained too much they would also be pulled.  

While we waited for Jeremy the 100km runners were starting to come through.  A lady came in and was totally freaked out because there was thunder and lightening happening.  She needed to get into a car right now!  I told her she could get in our car and I took her to the car.  I explained she could stay as long as she'd like and to not let Merlin out.  As I was about to walk away her crew came over and told his runner that hey could sit in their own car and she told him that she was not getting out so he also got in our car.  I left to wait for Jeremy.

Jeremy looked happy and was moving well.  He changed his shoes.  He hadn't been able to eat as much as he might have liked as his stomach was doing its normal thing of getting picky.  He left this point at 12:45. After he left, I went to go check on the thunder runner.  She was walking up from the car.  I asked her if she was feeling it and she told me she was.  She then added that she had said bye to Merlin and that she and he had taken a selfie together!

The next crew point was the famous Margaritaville at mile 58.  This is where it started to heat up.  There was a very long climb into this check.  Jeremy arrived and changed his shoes, he also grabbed a few small bites of food and was on his way.  He left here at 3:20.  I saw a few of my endurance friends ride through this check, I couldn't resist, I had to go spray their horses off with the hose.  

After this check the runners looped back to the check that was the 48 mile check, only now it was the 69 mile crew point.  This is where the runners were allowed to start having their pacers run with them.  It was decided that Adam would do the first stretch with him.  Jeremy came in, weighed, changed his shoes, chugged some pickle juice and took off with Adam.  They left this check at 5:24

Mom, Dad, Jonathan and I headed to the next check "Spirit of 76".  We hiked in and then got all of Jeremy's stuff organzied and then waited.  This was also at the top of a climb, we could see down the hill.  It was fun because by this point in the run we were familiar with other runners that were near us whenever we were waiting.  We had nicknames for them like, cat shirt guy, flannel shirt guy, muscle guy, Ember's mom, back crack guy, etc.  We would get excited and say things like "Oh good, flannel shirt guy is here so Jeremy should be X amount of time from now".  We were trying to figure out the milage of this check, it must have been hot and we were starting to fade, eventually another crew person piped up and said that the name of the check was THE SPIRIT OF 76!  HAA, so you're saying mile 80? Right???  Any how it was the 76 mile mark.  Jeremy and Adam arrived.  Jeremy wanted to lay down and put his feet up for a minute.  Never a great sign.  He rested a few minutes and then changed his shoes, grabbed his headlamp and left with Jonathan.  Jeremy looked a little rough at this point.  They left at 7:06.

The next stretch was 12 miles and we were right by the house so we stopped in for about an hour and a half to regroup and rest for a minute.  That was a nice break.  Crewing for this run was so much more fun and enjoyable compared to Western States.  There were so many more crew points so you knew how long you had before your runner might arrive again.  At WSTR you have such huge gaps of time between seeing your runner that you end up waiting forever as you don't want to miss your runner coming through.  This race you could really stay in touch with your runners pace.

At the next stop, which was mile 88 we missed a turn driving because it started pouring and we couldn't see the map landmark, which was a 6x6 foot sign!!  We turned around right away as we had our odometer working for us. When we got to the check we pulled DOWN in to a muddy field.  This is never good in a 2x2 rental car.  Adam told us good luck, he would be running so he wouldn't need to worry about a stuck rental car!  

Jonathan and Jeremy came in looking pretty good.  The rough look to Jeremy had improved.  It was totally dark by now.  Jeremy changed his shoes again and was now on a mission.  He was cutting it close for his 20 hour time goal.  Adam and Jeremy left out of here at 9:25.  It was raining a little here.

Jonathan, my parents and I went back to the car that was in the muddy field.  We all got in and I put it in reverse.  It seemed a bit boggy.  I went to put it in to drive and we were sinking.  I reversed again and tried once more.  Before I buried it, I told everyone that they had to get out.  I then reversed a good distance to where there was some grass then I put it in drive and slowly gained speed.  By the time I hit the mud ramp that took me to the road above I had a proper Dukes Of Hazard exit.  Once I was on solid, level ground I unrolled my window to hear laughter from my crew as well as other crews.  I was glad we made it out of the field, we didnt have time to get stuck.

We navigated to the next stop, mile 95.  We waited around until we started seeing familiar faces like flannel shirt guy, muscle guy, back crack guy, etc.  I saw a group of horses come through and Steve Rojek was in that group.  Then we saw the two headlamps we were looking for coming down the road.  Jeremy was a man on fire at this point.  He knew his 20 hour mark was close.  He quickly switched his shoes (by this time his two big toes had let go of their toe nails) and told me that he had to go, that he was 11 seconds over time to hit the 20 hour mark.  All I could think of was whether he was for real or not...11 seconds...really??  His GPS had his pace going though, so yes, he was correct.  Step it up!!  Jonathan and Jeremy ran into the darkness with us hoping they would make it by midnight, the 20 hour mark.  They left here at 11:01.  5 miles between them and the finish, 5 miles of muddy, mountainous terrain in the dark after running 95 miles prior.  Could they do it??

Funny side story from Adam, during the stretch coming in to the 95 mile mark Jeremy was worried that they were on the wrong trail and that they were following the morning trail that he had started on.  Adam told him in a super confident voice that there's no way that would happen to them.  Then on the inside Adam was sweating it and worrying about if Jeremy was getting lost on his watch.  Too funny, Adam was an awesome pacer.  He was a tremendous help to Jeremy.

We navigated to the camp where the start and finish were.  While we were driving it was a surreal scene of fog/humidity and runners in the dark with headlamps, glow sticks, cars and horses.  It almost seemed like a scene from the movie ET.  A bit crazy.  We drove very slowly and dimmed our head lights whenever any runner or horse was near.

We arrived at the finish line and waited.  We saw runners we recognize finish.  Then at 11:51 Jeremy and my brother came across the line!!!  Super cool.  After congratulating Jeremy I took a shot of Adam, Jonathan and Jeremy all at the finish line together.  It really took a team.  On this last stretch Jeremy's little toe let go of its nail too and Jeremy was having doubts about being able to run any further.  Jonathan encouraged him and got him pumped up to make his goal.  Jeremy was 24th out of 300.

After crossing the finish line we went to the medic to get toe nails examined.  While we were in there there were many runners passed out on cots, some throwing up, others looking alright and some looking not so great.  Jeremy had also asked for some Pepto Bismal.  He was handed a pink pill.  He ate it and commented on how good it tasted.  Just after that one of the medic volunteers told him that he had accidentally just had a Canadian mint!  Real Pepto Bismal followed.  

We drove back to the house and Jeremy relaxed and looked at all of the Facebook posts I had posted from his race, he was enjoying the pics and comments.  It was very late by the time we all wound down and hit the pillow.

Sunday we went to the awards and then hit the road for the Boston Airport, which was about a three hour drive.  Jeremy and Adam were flying to Philly to go shoe race horses in Delaware.  Merlin and I were returning to Sacramento so I could get back to train our Tevis horses and NAETC horses.

We are all rested up now.  Jeremy and Adam did a lot of shoeing on Monday and Jeremy even worked a horse on the track.  No rest for the crazy.

Next adventure...TEVIS:)

Heather

The Lake Almanor ride was cancelled at the last minute and then in a mad dash, scramble it was re-established at a new location, the Camp Far West venue.  Jeremy and I are staying near the Camp Far West camp so we volunteered to help mark trail so that it would eleviate some of the work load from the generous volunteers that had agreed to help host the ride.

We met up with Shawn Bowling and his friend John on the first day of marking.  It was HOT and dry.  We did 22 miles of the long loop and had some fun with it.  When we were done we enjoyed a yummy spread of food and drinks provided by Shawn's wife, Lisa.  Very much appreciated.

The next day I went without Jeremy, as he had to do a long run in preparation for his Vermont 100 mile run that is happening on July 18th.  Shawn came and picked up my horse and I again.  This time Nicole Chappel and I marked one loop while Jeremy Precopio and Shawn morked a different loop.

When we were done we had another Lisa meal:) Then we went over to the base camp to mark out where the FEI and AERC parking were.  There were several rigs already in camp.  Both days of marking trail were long, hot ones.  I got home after 10 pm. 

Jeremy booted Honor for me when we first arrived in CA, before he flew to Delaware so that I could train in the rocky terrain for the two weeks prior to the race.  

On Friday we went for a ride on our Tevis horses and then loaded up Honor in the afternoon to go to the race to vet in and get organized.  On our way over to the ride we got a text from Emma and Giulia Orth.  They had broken down on Highway 5, in Lodi.  It was blazingly hot and they were stranded on the side of the highway.  After several phone calls and texts it was decided that Jeremy would go get them after he dropped me off.  In the meantime they were also towed off of the highway.

When we arrived, I got Honor and the dogs all set up and then set up our crew area while Jeremy glued boots onto Carolyn Hock's client's horse, then Jeremy and I went in the lake.  He had to wait for the rush hour traffic to die down and then he hit the road to pick up Emma and Giulia.  

While Jeremy was gone I vetted in the horse that he was going to ride on the FEI 1* 50 mile ride.  It is a horse that Alex North has named Pantin.  Later I went to the ride meeting.  After the meeting I went to the lake again with Nicole and Andre Ruggeri and their crew, that was fun.

I was getting ready for bed when Jeremy returned with the Orth's trailer, hooked to our truck.  It was a bit after 10 pm.  

Jeremy and I had not eaten dinner yet so we ate and Emma joined us and had watermelon with us.  Then with the generator still running to power our AC, we tried to sleep.  It was a horrible night of sleep.  Between the generator going, the heat and then the cold air blowing on our head and the hydraulic jack making an alarming clicking noise (we were parked on a decent hillside with the lake below!) it was hard to fall into a good sleep.

In the morning Honor was nice and relaxed.  It was a controlled start.  It was already feeling warm at 5 am when we started (it got up to a bit over 100).  The trail was pretty wicked, lots of rocks and ruts.  Honor and I did the majority of the ride alone.  Jeremy rode Pantin to the 40 mile mark and then was pulled for lameness.  Bummer.  Honor and I did see them on one loop where the trails happened to be near each other for a few 100 feet!

Rebecca Silva and Alex North were great crew.  They had everything ready to go each time I came in.  On my last 2 loops Jeremy crewed for me as well.  On my second to my last loop I got to ride near a few riders, (including Giulia and Emma) so Honor and I enjoyed that.  The last loop was the prettiest.  It went along the edge of the lake.  There was a lot of cross country and sand riding but it was scenic and cooler near the water.

Honor finished up (he won the 75) and went right to chowing down.  I didn't show him for BC as he wasn't moving as well as he could have been.  Oh well, after all of that horrible footing I can't fault him.

Jeremy, Emma and I went back in the lake after we iced and wrapped Honor.  A couple of hours later we drove the :30 mins to the Shackelford's as Honor would be more comfortabe being turned out for the night.

Next stop, the Vermont 100!!  Jeremy has been running a lot and is ready to see all of you ride by while he rides the 100 on his running shoes!!

Heather