We have now been in Shaker Village for a week.  Almost all of the riders are here.  Meg has not arrived yet but both of her horses have been here and Michelle Roush and her horse arrived yesterday and we got to see Emmit, the ride manager for the World Championship.

Jeremy went straight to work on assembling the Supreme Horse Walker the first day we were here.  There was a problem with the fencing as they had not been arranged for.  Jason Stasuk fixed that problem with a few phone calls.  We are in full operation with the walker going for two sets a day. 

The housing we have is nice.  All riders got a room and each room has a full bathroom.  Jeremy and I got two rooms so Deborah's crew, Emilio is staying in our extra at the moment.  Something we were not expecting is that we are on our own for meals and there isn't a place to make food unless you can cook everything in a microwave and store enough stuff for 14 people in one hotel room size fridge!

The horses are healthy and things are looking good.  All of the people here are getting along well.   The barn is really cool as it is an old Shaker barn.  The only bummer is that there is a trail head right at the barn with ample parking for LOTS of day use riders.  Each day there are at least 10-50 horses coming right in our area on their way to the trails.  No one is checking coggins so I hope that they are healthy horses passing through.

Jim Bryant came here this Saturday and left on Sunday.  He trotted and examined everyone.  That was our first inspection.  Sam and Smitty both looked great.

The last two nights we have had team movie nights.  The first night we watched The Hangover and last night we saw Wedding Crashers.  Very fun.

On our first night here, as a team we went to the brand new local steakhouse.  It is in a beautiful building and the food is good but the service has a bunch of kinks to get worked out.  We happened upon Karioke (SP?) night.

Today we had a day off.  Smitty and Sam were supposed to have a day off too but ended up in the walker.  I might not take next Monday off.

Jeremy and I went to a town to try to get a pad insert for Sam's saddle but they didn't have it and while we were there we took the opportunity to go to Starbucks.  Oh the comfort of familiar goodness.

After we got back Jeremy took a nap and I went and took care of Kingley.  He had a bath and some grain while being groomed, a perfect afternoon for him.

At 4 pm the riders and a few grooms went on a river boat tour.  That was peaceful and pretty.  It lasted an hour.  There were tall rock cliffs that we floated by.  We saw some small fish jumping and a blue heron fly into some trees.  Us adrenaline junkies were talking about rather being on wave runners or a speed boat!  Endurance racers are too fast for a float!

I almost forgot about our dinner at the Golden Corral.  This is a buffet with a lot of options.  We couldn't figure out how they could break even at $10.00 per person.  Dave figured he drank enough sweet tea to make up for that $10. 

Ceci's final plate of food consisted of watermelon, strawberries, a tall mound of gummy bears and M&M's and a slice of peperoni pizza!  To give you a better picture, imagine the watermelon melting the color off of the M&M's and swirling around with all of the above.  Pretty colorful.

We just got back from the barn where the guys were trying to rebuild the wall of the historic barn that a team mates runaway truck had met up with earlier today.  The fun never ends.

I will try to keep up a little better than I have been as I now have better internet service.

On another note congratulations to Stirgess and Roof on completing their third 50 at the Camp Far West ride this weekend.  They were carrying Megan Robinson and Breanna Chamberlin.  Thank you both for getting these guys through.

Heather

On Sunday the 22 of Aug I went to Yosemite and stayed overnight to hike Half Dome with my parents and sisters and some friends.  We hiked on Monday and then drove home that night.  Jeremy had too many horses to shoe so we sadly went without him.  He has done the hike a few times already so it wasn't too horrible for him, although I am sure he would have loved to have gone.

We got back on Monday night around 11:45 pm and then I packed up my bag and got everything ready for my 10 am flight for Tuesday morning.  When our tickets to fly were booked, we booked them round trip from the time trial in Illinois to CA and back.  Originally I was going to go with Jeremy to Deborah Reich's house and then to home.  Unfortunately her dogs got mange from the local fox and I had my ticket changed to go directly home as Merlin was traveling with us.  Because of this, on our return trip Jeremy and I were on two separate flights at different times on different airlines from two different airports.

Tim drove Jeremy to San Francisco for a 7 am departure and my Mom drove me to San Jose for a 10 am departure.  We meet up in Chicago and drove to Jan and Grace's house.  It is about 2 and 1/2 hours from their house.  We landed on the 24th and I have yet to see my baggage... it is the 29th today!  Delta.

Our horses were great when we arrived with the exception of a sunburn on Smitty's nose.  Poor guy, it was bright red and cracked.  It looks a lot better now.  Their weight was both good though and they were in good spirits.

Jeremy put shoes on their front feet and we took them out for a spin.  They are in a great mood.  It also cooled off a great deal since our last trip.  It was dry and cool for the first few days.  It is now hot and humid again, but at least it is cooler than before.

Jeremy and I now have seen the expression "make hay while the sun shines".  Grace has been cutting hay and raking and baling all week.  We helped unload about 6 wagons of hay (about 100 bales per wagon) and loaded them up the elevator into the barn.  An elevator actually looks more like an escalator.  It is a ramp/conveyor belt that has hook/pegs that grab the hay you set on it and it takes the hay up into the barn loft area were a second elevator takes it lengthwise back into the barn.  You adjust where you want to hay to fall from the elevator and then you need people to take the falling hay and stack it.  It is a very hot job and you get covered in hay, which them sticks to your sweaty body.  We were sweaty but it could have been WAY hotter.  We were lucky with the weather really.  Another nice thing is that the bales are 2 string bales, unlike our 3 string bales I can actually lift one of these.

Joe and Michelle made their pond available to us to use and we have been swimming Smitty and Sam everyday.  Smitty has been swimming a lot in his life, Sam has never done it until now.  Sam watched Smitty in disbelief as he disappeared into the water.  He even neighed to him several times.  When it was Sam's turn he went in pretty easily and he was fine.  If he had given us trouble we would have skipped it as we don't want to risk hurting him.  Good thing he didn't know or he may have made a fuss to get out of the work!

Joe and Michelle have a lot of really nice horses too.  They also raise and sell their horses.  I don't know the web address but it is something like sporthorseconcepts.com?  You can find them if you Google it I am sure.

On Thursday night we went to the town of New Diggins for Taco Thursday.  You get two tacos for $1.50.  A great deal.  It is like a biker bar (actually there were two bikes parked in the road and you had to physically steer around them to not hit them) but they do not serve hard liquor.  We had fun eating and hanging out.  Ashley, who is a friend of Jan and Grace came with us as we had all just finished stacking hay.  This place also makes an outrageous assortment of home made desserts.  We had fun with that too.

Today Joe took us out on a fun ride through the community that he helps manage.  It is a country club/ estate neighborhood.  It has golf, tennis, boating, fishing and an equestrian center.  It was pretty out on the trails.  We went 14 miles in the heat.

There is a horse here named Kingley that I thought was cute.  I was talking to Jan about him on our first trip out here.  She had told me that his heart rates were REALLY low.  Jeremy rode him and found out that they were.  He had galloped up a climb on one of those extreme heat days and before he could get off the horse at the barn the heart rate monitor read 46.  We were entertaining the idea of buying him.  Then we thought that we had enough horses so I told a few people about him that I thought would like him.

Jerry Gellespie (SP? Sorry) was here to look at a horse for himself and I mentioned Kingley for Cheryl.  He looked at the horse as I rode him alongside the one he was trying.  After the ride Jerry took his potential horse's HR and it was 60.  Just for fun I told him to take Kingley's.  He listened and then stopped and shook his head and then took it again and then paused, thought about it and said, "God". 

I was now wondering what he had heard.  I asked him what it was and he said 28.  Right then Jeremy was standing behind Kingley where I could see him and he was mouthing to me that we needed to buy this horse.

I called Skip and it was decided to buy Kingley Bay.  No relation to Bey Shah.  He is about 15.1, 9 years old, bay with a blaze and four socks.  Very cute, he actually reminds me a lot of my first fast endurance horse, Tyler.

Jeremy and I went out for a ride on Kingley and Loki.  I rode Kingley and Jeremy rode Loki who was Jan's other horse for the WEG this year.  We were out on a dirt road riding when all of the sudden around the bend came a huge semi truck with a long flat bed came roaring around the bend.  It had an over size load sign on the front of it.  It was big and really loud.  The truck was going about 50 MPH.  There was no way for the driver to stop.  We had no where to go.  The shoulder was too tight for comfort but it was all that we had.  Jeremy quickly put Loki into the bushes and I could see Loki getting really tight and stressed.  It looked like he was going to lose it.  I had enough room to fit between him and the truck so I decided to ask Kingley to keep trotting to avoid both horses from bouncing off each other and ending up under this truck.  Kingley was amazing.  He trotted by and didn't miss a beat.  I could have touched the truck!  As the back end of the truck flew by it bounced and he didn't even flinch! 

All you out there ought to look into Jan and Grace's horses if you are in the market.  There are a lot of choices and they are started right.  This will be our second one from them and the first one (Sam) isn't too shabby:)

Last night we were having culture shock so we decided to head to town and see "people".  Our first stop was Culvers.  Culvers is an ice cream and burger joint that my Mom and sister Hannah had just been talking about during our Half Dome hike.  We don't have them in CA, so we had to try it out.  I had an Oreo ice cream sandwich while Jeremy had a mango smoothie.

We went to the movies and saw "Grown ups" with Adam Sandler.  It was fun.  During the preview there was an ad for Live UFC fighting later that same night at the theater (live in Boston, live stream to the theater).  Jeremy is way into watching that.  He was a wrestler and enjoys the watching the tactics and holds. 

After the movie we went to Red Robbin and had burgers.  Then went to a sporting goods store to get a one piece swimsuit as it is required for where the USA team will be swimming and I do not own one.

After killing enough time we went back to the theater for the UFC fight.  It was 9 pm when it started and ended around 11:45.  I watched a few fights and then flipped up the arm rests lay down and fell asleep and had Jeremy wake me up for the Randy Couture fight.  After the main event we headed back to Jan and Graces.  We got home around 1 am. 

Tonight we go over to Michelle and Joe's for dinner.  It should be really fun as we always have fun hanging out and talking with them. 

So far so good.  We head down for Kentucky on the 31st and arrive on the 1st.  We will take Kingley down to KY with us and board him so we don't have to back track to pick him up. 

 I will keep you posted.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Strut went to a three day ride in Oregon with Scott Sansom and did days 1 and 3.  He won both!  Great job.

Heather

Yesterday it was announced who was in the top ten for the USA World Endurance team.  The top ten riders are: Ellyn Rapp, Michele Roush, Jan Worthington (our host), Meg Sleeper, Melody Blittersdorf, Lindsay Graham, Ceci Stasuik, Deborah Reich (friend and client) and Heather and Jeremy!!!  It was really cool to make it.  Sam and Smitty are both looking great.

It was a billion degrees yesterday and we all were putting up a healthy sweat as the announcements were made.  Then there were discussions of future details and time lines.

When it was all over we drove to Jan and Grace's house and we were really tired.  We ran into Jan at McDonald's and she said that Grace had asked if she should make supper and Jan had told her we would be home too late and then Jan added, " besides we can have popcorn and whiskey when we get home, we need to celebrate somehow."

We did just that.  A first.

Well I have to go take care of the beasts.

Heather

It has finally happened, the time trial is over.  We will find out tomorrow who will be in the top ten.  Smitty and Sam had a great day.  The weather was crazy and the trail was technical.

Loop one was a 17 mile trek through hazy humidity that would fog up your sunglasses, I tried it.  The bugs were crazy, it felt like it was raining on your face but it was just the bugs,  currently my right eye is bloodshot from the bugs landing in it.

We had a 40 min vet check after each loop.  Our next loop cooled off a bit.  The humidity lifted as it was preparing to rain.  The result was that loop 2 was cooler.  We were able to pick it up on loop 2 which was 24 miles. 

Another 40 min hold.  About 5 min before I was out, it let loose.  There was so much rain that it was crazy.  The thunder and lightning were there as well.  I reluctantly came out from under my tent and got on Sam and left for loop 4.

On loop 4 the footing had gone from ok to slippery and hazardous.  We all went as best we could.  After this loop we had another 40 min hold.  This is when it really got HOT and sticky... like a rice cooker.  I told Becky that I thought all of the horses had done really well and that we had a lot of talent out there but that it was getting dangerous.  She said that we would probably slow down on the next loop.  We all saddled up and mounted.  Becky had not told us our speed yet and we were instructed to go over to where she was to get instructions for the loop.  We all went over there and she informed us that we would be doing the loop at 3 MPH (this is where I got to thinking "This is going to be a long @#$% loop")  and then she added that we should head towards our trailers.  We all thought about this for a second and cheered.  We didn't need to do 80 miles after all, we would only do 52.  It was plenty, trust me.

I feel that Sam and Smitty had a perfect day.  We will find out tomorrow who is in the top ten.

Good night!!

Heather

Well this is really enjoyable.  We are about to go to sleep.  Tomorrow is the time trial where people will make it or break it.  Hopefully everyone makes good choices.  It was 93 degrees out today with similar humidity.  It was freakin' hot out to put it bluntly.  You know it is hot out when the local horses are sweating just standing still.

We were assigned our groups for tomorrow, it will be mainly groups of 6.  We are to do 80 miles at 12.5 MPH average speed.  The trail is pretty technical.  We will see what happens.

I am going to bed.  The next time I write, I should have who the top ten horse rider combos are.

Good night, hopefully I can sleep in this heat.

Heather

Today is Thursday.  This morning Jeremy took care of Smitty and Sam's feet for the trial.  They are ready.  This is the first day here that doesn't feel like we are in the Amazon.  The heat and humidity are much lower today. 

Merlin got in trouble today for going in the hen house and barking at the chickens (but it was so fun!!).  Jan made sure to let him know that it was a very bad idea.  Just last week Jan and Grace gave away one of their Jack Russels (Pee Pee, as he would get so excited that he would pee) for going on a killing spree in the hen house.  I am sure the birds are still traumatized.   I don't think that Chihuahua's have the strength in their jaw to shake a chicken but none the less it is against the rules to stir the hens up.

Right when Jeremy finished up with our horses feet Jan asked for help with the tractor tire.  Today was the first day good enough to cut hay and start baling it.  When Jan went to get the equipment ready it was discovered that the front left tire had a slash in it.  If it isn't one thing it's another.  Jeremy and Grace got the tire off and Grace went into town to get it handled.

If you are looking for a new horse you may want to see the website that Jan and Grace have.  They have WAY more horses for sale than what is on the site but you will get a small flavor for what might be here.  It is a place we will look in the future for sure.  We have been witnessing first hand how the horses are brought up and the training and terrain they ride through.  These horses have done a lot by the time they are for sale as far as being exposed to different situations.  I am pretty impressed by what her green horses and experienced horses as well, have to do.  They move cows, deal with tricky footing, steep muddy terrain, cross country riding, riding in large groups, deep river crossings, snow, ice, living out in hilly terrain in extreme humidity and dealing with herd life.  This is where Ssamiam came from and we see how he is turning out.  Their website is: www.jgranch.webs.com  The horses are reasonably priced too.

After lunch I think we are going to ride one set and then head into the town of Galena for some window shopping in the quaint downtown area and then have dinner with friends.

Heather

We were going to leave for Illinois for the final time trial on the road to the WEG on Tuesday after Tevis.  However, the new truck that we had just bought for the new trailer wasn't ready.  Dodge had to make some repairs to the truck before we could have it and they really took their sweet time with the parts order. 

We had been able to enjoy the new trailer at Tevis as Skip had pulled it with his truck.  It was really cool and much bigger than the old one.  We waited until Wednesday night and decided that we couldn't wait any longer and that I needed to pack up the old rig and we would head out on Friday.   What a bummer.  Oh well.  It is kind of ironic as we had told ourselves that we would save our money and take the old rig and then changed our minds to upgrade, to be more comfortable and then after spending the money, here we are in the old small rig.

We left at 10 am on Friday morning and we arrived in Scales Mound, Illinois on Sunday morning at 7:30 am.  We don't mess around.

Sunday we spent with Jan and Grace.  They are so awesome.  We rode a few of their horses and got stuff done around their farm.  Sam and Smitty both traveled well.  We ran fluids to them to help them recover from the trip.

On Monday we rode and then went into town to get some horse shoes and go to the grocery store.  When we got back Jeremy, Jan and I rode Smitty, Leon and Sam.  They are all doing great.  We also rode a set of younger horses after that.  Jan is really brave about some of the horses she will ride.  She rode a 4 year old mare that kept hopping around and even got to bucking a bit and she just hung on and rode it out.  Pretty tuff.

Sam is happy to see Jan and Grace as he used to live here.  He is really funny in the mornings when he hears Jan call the horses in for their grain.  He listens and then calls to her to let her know that he is here and that she should bring him some too!

Tuesday we rode three sets of horses and Jeremy took care of some of the horses feet that live here.  He did some shoeings and trims.  Grace and I wormed some of the young horses.  It was 92 degrees out with 94% humidity.  Damn warm.  I ran to get some wormer and I only ran about 200 yards.  It felt fine, there was a cool breeze and it was nothing.  About 5 min later it felt like my head was on fire and I was boiling over.  Pretty warm.  The time trials should be interesting.  I do feel better, as Jan and Grace both said that it was even hot for them!

After our riding we all headed into the house for the rest of the evening.  When I got inside the nice air-conditioned house I was cold because of the sweaty clothes so I showered and then made chocolate chip cookies.  Yum.

That night Grace made another great dinner.  Everything we had was grown on the farm, including the venison steaks we ate.  Super great food.  Joe and Michelle came over too.  It was great to see them and hang out with everyone.  Very fun.

This morning, Wednesday the 4th, we got up and had breakfast and then Jeremy and Grace went to get a better anvil while Jan and I caught the really young stock for worming.  There are some great looking horses here for sale. 

Today is my birthday.  It is the first out of state birthday that I can remember.  I have gotten a million messages and Facebook notes so far today.  It is nice to get them all. 

After worming and Jeremy shoeing some more horses we are going to go for a ride with the three WEG bound horses.  We were waiting for the supreme afternoon heat:)  Can't wait, oh so fun.

The farm here is very lively.  There are a large number of horses (obviously), cows, cats and four dogs (plus Merlin).  There are a large number of various birds around.  Peacocks, Guinea hens, ducks, chickens, swallows you name it.  I even had a duck egg go into the cookie batter.  That was a first.  Grace told me that it was a duck egg and that they are harder to crack and that the whites are stringy.  All true.  The whites will hardly let go of the shell.  Also the yolk is bigger.  New things are always fun to learn.  Jan and Grace are action packed and there is so much going on here all of the time.  They are really fun.

Well I need to go out and crack the whip in the humidity.  Talk to you later.
Heather

This year we had a lot of trouble deciding who we would ride who at the Tevis.  After loosing Makazin I had decided that I would try to get Kutt ready and see how that might go.

Jeremy couldn't decide between Bey, Strut and Tiran and Tim would be riding who ever we didn't.

17 days before the race we did a training ride on the Tevis trail.  We had planned to ride 22 miles.  My ride ended at 3.5 miles when Kutt tripped over some rocks and clearly needed stitches.  I turned back while the other 3 horses went on to complete the ride.

I rode back at a walk and then took Kutt to Loomis Basin.  It was a bit awkward telling the vets at the clinic that the horse who needed stitches was named Kutt.  Oh well.

I drove back up to where the other three horses were waiting for me and we loaded up and headed home.

Jeremy had been riding Bey, Tim was on Strut and Carole was on Tiran.  Jeremy felt that Bey wasn't ready for the race that Jeremy wanted to do so he was going to take him out of the equation.

Strut and Tiran had handled the ride well so now Jeremy would be picking between them.  I was still going to try with Kutt.  He had 5 stitches in his shin but the vet had said that if it healed well it should be fine and he also recommended that I race with the stitches in the leg to help hold things together.

Fast forward and we decided on Thursday before Tevis, that I would ride Kutt, Jeremy would ride Strut and Tim would ride Tiran.

Friday we drove up to the ride. Skip went with us and we picked up Carl at the Auburn airport.  We all had Chinese food for lunch and then continued on to Robie Park.

Eric was camping at Robinson so that we would have a spot secured and Peter and Kiki were at Robie as well.  Our good friend Shannon also came up to Robie to crew.

Friday morning all three horses were great.  They all handled the start well.  None of us started together.   All three of us were in the first pen.  This was by far the biggest crowd any of our horses had ever been in.

By the time I was climbing up Squaw I could see Jeremy and Strut up ahead of me.  I caught up and we rode together.

The snow was patchy up on the top of Immigrant Pass.  Granite Chief Wilderness Area was not as bad as I thought it might be.  We rode through carefully.  At one point a horse joined our group.  Very shortly after that the rider directly behind us told us that the horse didn't have a rider.  Jeremy hopped off and caught the horse and back tracked to the rider, Carl Bruno.  He seemed alright and was able to get back on.

As we were almost out of the danger of the bogs and rocks and I was thinking we were in the clear, we hit one final tricky spot.  You had to go up on top of a rock pile to the right (while still being on top of the rocks) when Kutt fell down to the left.  He was chest deep in rocks and there was nowhere for me to go so he had to figure it out while I stayed on his back.  He had a few new scrapes.  Luckily Jeremy had put silicone on Kutt's shin over the stitches.  The rocks had hit right into the silicone and had dented and ripped it a little but the stitches themselves were ok.

After that we went fine for a while.  Then right before Cougar Rock Strut fell onto his knees in a rocky area.  He seemed ok.  Good.
Over Cougar Rock for Strut.  I was going to go over but as I was thinking I would, Kutt almost went down.  I went around.  I guess as I went around, Diane Woodard saw me go around and thought about doing the same, changed her mind and then fell and either broke her ribs or damaged the cartilage between her ribs. Damn.  We found out from Tim that Tiran went up the rock part way and then was not sure what to do and Tim had to jump off and run up it with Tiran lunging up behind him.

We made it through Red Star without a glitch.  On to Robinson.  (It was somewhere in this stretch that Melissa Ribley had her accident.) Both horses recovered fine and looked good.  About 20 min later Tiran arrived.  He looked good too.  By this time all three horses had fallen.  Rocky bastard!  At this check Jeremy's mom and her sister Leslie were hand picking grass for the horses.  Great crew.

Onwards.  Right before Dusty Corners we were riding down the last steep, red dirt hill, before the gravel road and the dust was hanging about 2 feet above the ground when Strut fell down onto his knees and nose.  Jeremy was catapulted over his head and knocked the wind out of himself while getting a fair amount of road rash on his right shoulder.  After looking at Strut we could see that his knees had small cuts.  Within a short time Strut was sore from the fall. 

Jeremy pulled Strut at Last Chance.  As I was leaving this check after being there for about 20 min,  Tim came in with Tiran.

Kutt was feeling great.  We did the canyons and he handled it really well.  He did think the swinging bridge was really weird.  We made it into Chicken Hawk and he still looked really good.  We were in the group between 5th -9th, we were in this range pretty much the whole rest of my ride.

Foresthill was a welcome stop.  Kutt had a mild right hind and I would have a recheck.  Kutt ate and ate.  Tiran was there about 20 min later.  Jeremy was there too.  Strut had been dropped off at the finish and now Jeremy was crewing.

Kutt and Tiran both made it out of Foresthill.  I rode with a group of three almost the whole way to Francisco's.  Kutt felt really good.  He enjoyed the cooler weather and really liked going in the dark, a first for him.

When we got to Francisco's I let Kutt drink and eat for a minute and then went to vet him, in case his right hind got stiff.  I trotted him out and he was sore.  That would be it for me.  About 45 min later Tiran was there.  I watched as people came through. 

Eventually I walked up the big climb to where the trailer would take us from.  Melissa's horse, Monique and Kutt went together.

I got back to camp while trying to stay awake and took care of Kutt and Strut.  Then I went to the finish line to wait for Tim and Tiran.  The rest of our crew was down on No Hands Bridge waiting for Tim (and maybe me too).

The group of people at the finish line were all tired but having a good time.  I visited with a lot of friends while we waited.  It started to get chilly sitting there.

I got to see a lot of friends finish.

Finally Jeremy and Eric were there and that is when I knew it would be soon that Tim and Tiran would arrive.  Around 3:30 Tim and Tiran crossed the finish line of their first Tevis and Tiran's first 100.  It was really cool.

After taking care of everything we all hit the pillow hard.

The next morning it was already extremely hot.

We packed up and went to have breakfast at the stadium and then watched the Haggin Cup.  It was clear that Garret's horse looked great.  The horse stood out.

Carl left as he had to fly himself back to Montana.  Eric and Skip needed to get back as well.  Tim, Jeremy and I waited for the awards.  While we waited we hit up Starbucks.  Nothing like a cold caffeinated pick me up.  We got back to the fairgrounds and visited with Garret and Lisa then headed to the awards.

Lunch was good.  Barbara White earned her 3000 mile buckle!!  Holy moly.  I can't even imagine riding that trail that many times.  Great job.  Heraldic and John Crandel had won and Garret Ford on The Fury was awarded the Haggin Cup, wearing glue ons of course.

I am glad that Tim and Tiran were able to make the trip worthwhile.  Maybe next time:)  Congratulations to any one who completed.

Now we are off to Iowa (to rest at Jan and Grace's) and Illinois (for the final time trial)  and then hopefully Kentucky (for the WEG) with Sam and Smitty.

Heather

This is a little late in posting.  Jeremy and I flew out to the Canadian Championship to crew for Deborah Reich on the FEI 100 and also for a few of her horse's on the FEI and open 50.  Just before we left for the ride, I found out that Deborah actually had an extra horse for the open 50 and that I was going to be able to ride as well.

We flew out on Tuesday just after returning from the time trial.  We drove home and were home for just a day and then flew to Canada.  We arrived late at night.  But found our way after some confusion as to where we were headed.

On Wednesday we went to a local breakfast place and then Jeremy glued on all of the Easyboots for the ride.  While we were working on this there was a very elaborate parade happening.  The mayor of the town was even there!  It was the Canadian equivalent of the 4th of July on the weekend of the ride so there was a lot of celebrating.

As the day went on, Deborah went to weigh in and we all got our paperwork and vetting out of the way.  Then we went for a pre ride.  The horse that I rode was named Comet.  He was really fun.  He is a sporty, zippy horse.  Very fun to ride.

On Thursday the 50 started at 5 am!! 30 mins ahead of the 100 mile start.  What the heck??  I rode with Deborah's trainer, Kim and Deborah's son Amos.  It was a very beautiful ride.  We had a great time.

Unfortunately Deborah's ride was cut short from a very mild lameness (that wasn't there within a few hours).  All three of the 50 mile horses that were in our group completed. 

Since we were all flying out of Toronto on Friday it was decided to head in to town a day early and have a look around.  We packed up and said our good byes to Amelio.  He would trailer the horses back to New York on Friday.

We all went to dinner in Toronto.  The town is incredibly clean.  Jeremy and I walked down an old street that was not the nice part of town and in 10 city blocks we only saw one piece of trash, a coffee cup.  That was it, one cup!!  Pretty cool.

The next day, Friday, we all flew to Frank and Deborah's farm in up state New York.  Another very pretty place.  We all got settled and then met for dinner, followed by a swim and soak in the hot tub with a fireworks show in the background over the Hudson river.  I can't complain:)  It was really fun visiting with Frank and Deborah.

On Saturday, the 4th, we woke up early and got to work.   Jeremy was doing all the hooves on the place.  He trimmed and put shoes on a few too.  I think he worked on about 12 horses and 3 mini donkeys in all.  It was a busy day.  After that we still had time to go for a ride around the farm on a few of Deborah's mounts.

By the time we got onto our 7 pm Saturday night flight back to CA we were ready to sleep!  What a fun time.

On the 4th we were home and headed up to a local fair to watch our newest prospect run a game race on the race track.  She is going to be very cool.  We will get her in October when her racing season is over and her new racing career begins:)  She and Smitty have the same sire.

Well, we will be getting ready for Tevis now.  Maybe we will see you there.
Heather

Jeremy and I packed everything up to go to the West Coast Time trial on Wednesday and then went home to get some sleep.  We couldn't fall asleep so we watched an episode of House on our laptop.  We fell asleep around 11:45.  At 2 am I heard Jeremy ask if I was awake, I chose to pretend like I was still sleeping.  I heard him get up and realized that he was going to go running!!   He was too excited to sleep.  I slept until he got back around 2:30 am.  He then told me it was time to start our trip.

Up and at 'em!!  We caught the horses and started our 11:30 hour drive.  It was really uneventful, after the last trip that is a really great thing.

We arrived at the camp around 3pm.  There were a number of familiar faces already there.  After setting up camp we visited with Sue and Dennis Summers, Christoph and Dianne, Doug Swingley, Charisse and Carl, Andy Bown ( Andy caught wind of Jeremy's diet took it upon himself to keep Jeremy fueled on Chia seed concoctions all weekend.  They were great.), Darolyn Butler, Ceci and Jason and all of the Namibian girls that were with Darolyn.

Skip had flown up and landed before we even pulled in so he was there as well.

We prepared our crew stuff, which was super easy as we only had two horses to deal with.  Smitty and Sam were the lucky two for this adventure.

When dinner time came, Darolyn told us that her group had set up a reservation at the little store/ restaurant across the street.  There were about 10 of us that headed over for dinner.  Jeremy was the light eater in the group as he was trying to get his weight down so that he could weigh in at exactly 165 at Friday's weigh in.  He stayed for salad only and then left.  Good thing he did!  Dinner was HUGE!!!!  There was salad and fresh baked Beer Batter bread, then cowboy stew followed by the biggest steak that any one of our group had ever seen.
 
The waitress brought one out and we all thought that maybe it was a roast for the whole table, then we realized that it was "A Steak".  As in singular!!  She proceeded to bring 9 more of them out.  They must have weighed 5 lbs each.  They were huge and BB-Q'd perfectly.  The steak was accompanied by a double fist sized baked potato.  When we were all extremely beyond our stomach capacity the waitress asked us if we wanted heavy cream or ice cream on our fresh berry cobbler! 

We all cut up the 3/4 of our steaks that we couldn't eat so that we could make sandwiches out of it over the weekend.

After that dinner, we went back to camp and Carol Giles, who was the trail host and had set everything up for everyone, offered to tour us out on the trail.  Everyone loaded up into crew cars in a hurry and followed her out of camp.

The way it was set up was that the staging area would be about 2 1/2 miles out of camp and we wouldn't return to camp until all was said and done.  (We had already dropped off our crew gear, including our Easy- Up tent which would self destruct on Saturday when a dirt devil, twister would take it out and it alone).

We drove the 11 mile loop.  The footing was terrific.  The flagging was a bit different but we all got the hang out it.  Carol drove us around and pointed out hazards and then we all stopped at water 1 and she drew us a map so we could see how the loops intertwined.  It was getting dark so we all headed back.

On Friday Jeremy and I went for an early ride.  The staff was going to arrive around 11 am so we wanted to be done with what we needed to before that, in case we were needed.  Smitty and Sam felt perfect.

Becky and Vonita as well as the selectors were there right on time.  The vets would pull in around 2 pm.  We checked in with Vonita and weighed in as well.  Jeremy's dieting had paid off, he weighed 165 with tack and was almost 164!!

When the vets got there we all vetted in.  The vets inspected each horse closely and we did our trot outs.  There were 19 horses to look at.  All but two looked great.  17 would start on Saturday morning.

There was a briefing that evening so that we would all know what the plan was.  There were to be three different loops.  An 11, 17 and 24 mile loop.  We would do the 17, 24, 11, 17, 11.  There were vet checks in between each one with varying hold times. 

We were also split into groups.  Our group was: Jeremy on Sir Smith, myself on Ssamiam, Cheryl Dell on Reason to Believe, Lindsay Graham on Monk and Carol Giles on Galaxy (I do not know the mares full name).

After the meeting we broke off into our own "new team" meeting.  The five of us went over how our horses are and worked out riding tactics as a group.

Skip's friend Carl drove from Montana and got to Bend on Friday night.  Another friend, Eric, flew in on Friday night as well to help us crew.  Eric would be sent out to help at the crew spot on the 24 mile loop to hand off water bullets and give us electrolytes.  We didn't get to show Eric how to do them so we planned on giving them ourselves when we got there.

On Saturday morning our group's start time was 8 am.  At the beginning of each loop we were given an exact average speed that we were to keep for that loop. 

When we came into each check the crews were on it, helping us get the tack off and getting the horses cooled.  Sam ended up being the star of the day as far as recoveries went.  He was able to come right in and be down in a minute or less.  He was really amazing.  Our group was really great together.  The horses recovered within 3 minutes of each other.

In all it was really exciting to see that the West Coast does have some fast horses.  Our group ended up with 3 in it by the end of the 80.3 miles.  Monk, Smitty and Sam all looked great.  They had gone really fast.  We did the 80.3 in under 6 hours.  All three horses recovered very fast all day long.  We were all really proud of them.

8 out of 17 completed the full course.  It was a very challenging day and I think that everyone learned something.  I learned that Sam is even better than I thought and that he can really recover!

We found out that Eric had been giving other people's horses electrolytes at the aid station because they would ask for him to do it assuming that he had done it before.  Being the cool guy that Eric is he looked at the syringe thrown in his direction, put two and two together and "plunged the stuff down the horses throat!".  We had a good laugh about that.

The crew was truly awesome as well.  Skip gave everyone on the job training and made sure that every one knew what to do and when to do it.   They went through 9,000 gallons of water and $400 worth of ice (and there could have been more ice even!).  Kudos to them for helping everyone.

That night we overwhelmed the local restaurant/store.  There were probably 40 of us in a place meant to serve 12.  This time we were able to talk them into splitting the steaks between people.  The meal was fun filled and merry.

At one point Melody came up to us and asked us to be part of some contest she is involved in.  She is a personal trainer and apparently she is part of a burpy contest.  This is where you drop down and do a push up and then leap up in the air from the ground quickly.  Ernie got it in a picture so now she is set for her contest!

In all it was a successful trial.  A lot was learned and there were fast sound horses.  All good news.  On Sunday the horses were vetted out, like a BC judging.  Our three group member horses still looked great!

After packing up and saying goodbye Eric, Skip, Jeremy and I hit up the restaurant one last time for a great breakfast.  Then we hit the road around 10:30 am.

We had a nice drive home.  The north part of Highway 5 is so pretty with Mt Shasta and all of the lakes.   We were home by 10 and in bed by 11. 

Now we just have to plan the trip to Illinois for the next trial!  But wait we will crew in Canada at an FEI ride this weekend and ride Tevis first!

By the way Tim did another Ironman Triathalon this weekend in Idaho and that is why he wasn't at the trial.  He did well and was 14th in his age group with a time of 10:08.

Heather