My nickname for Shade, started last year when we hit a gopher hole about 22 miles into a ride and took a good tumble. She skinned her nose, I scraped my cheek a bit. We had both had some minor wrenches but not serious damage and she finished that ride. She is made of steel under that magnolia pretty exterior. This pic is by Paschal Karl, Karl creations.
So yesterday I did remember to set my alarm. Good thing. I had put a water carrier in my truck friday night and didn't close the cab door right away because a cat had jumped in. Dumb, he could have exited thru the back window just fine. I didn't even notice when I ran out first thing after rising to give the bay girls more hay.
Off to the garage to grab the charger and extension cord Hook it up in the very dim light. Pretty sure I have pos/neg on battery but decide I need to grab a flashlight to make sure. Good thing, I had the battery right but had mixed the red and black on the charger. Plug it in and decide I'll let it juice the battery while I catch Shade, who had been eating with gusto all day friday -prepping herself for the ride.
Shade is too wound up to be caught so I let her into the diet pen in hopes that she will duck into the smallish pen off of it to see AJ. Well eventually I get her and my grey oldies in there, she does some laps around the pen while the greys are busy munching the hay I used to lure them in there. Truck fires right up so letting it juice for the 10-15 minutes of horse catching worked well.
I had to go get a stock whip to load Shade. -needed a pointer to keep her moving forward instead of backing up as we appoached the door. She hops in and I toss it next to the fence because she's usually a good loader and will be ready to come home later.
Arrive at the ride with almost 90 minutes till start. Yay. Get Shade unloaded and run to the portapotty while she munches grass. Then I drag out a hay tub and water for her and head to the registration area to sign us up. I'm ahead of the secratary, chat for a few minutes with someone parked next to reg. camper and then head off to get elytes mixed. See the sec. drive past before I'm 1/2 back so I use the portapotty again and walk back to sign in. The morning is calm and feels pleasantly warm. I wonder if we'll get windy or hot as the day progresses.
Manage to miss most of the ride meeting after vetting in, doing elytes, remembering to drink some rider elytes etc. No biggie, this is a familiar ride and I wont be leading the pack. Start off at the back of the main group. Proves to be a mistake, all 10-11 of us keep getting sucked along at the front-runners pace. We complete the 17.5 mile loop in just over 100 minutes. Way faster than what I've conditioned Shade for. I knew we were going faster than I really wanted to, but hadn't realized it was that fast. It is starting to get windy and clouding up. Poor Shade is chilly, even with the rain sheet thrown over her saddle to supplement the rump rug which the wind is defeating I have to walk her around to warm up to get her pulse down to the 60 BPM criteria. Well we've separated from the front runners a bit, pass the vet check no problems. I put on my rain jacket during the 45 minute hold to cut the wind and in case the clouds dump on us, pray that they wont. Shade munches some hay but is restless.
As we head out we are passed by a couple of riders really rushing and Shade is determined to keep with them. Luckily they soon passed a gal riding a sane pace and I tucked Shade in behind her. We still make quite good time around this 7.5 mile loop. Back at camp the wind has gotten cold, Shade is very shivery. I unsaddle to make the rain sheet more effective and still have to walk her around for 15 minutes before we meet criteria and she is still chilly. So we head to the trailer to get a wool blanket under the rain sheet even though its only a short hold. Shade munches more hay but is not diving in. She has cleaned up the flake of hay I had at the VC so I drag the hay tub back with us and she wears the wool blanket as I head back there to tack up & give elytes befor starting the next loop. Loops 3 and 4 are repeats of 1 and 2.
Start the 3rd loop with another gal. To prove the wind is cold it is now spitting a few flakes of powder snow, I send up a thank-you that we don't have wet stuff falling. It is not bad when we are moving. She is keeping a working pace. I notice that I twisted Shades headstall when I put on her hackamore like a halter. I decide I'll wait a few miles and fix it when we are under an overpass, out of the wind and with decent footing if Shade rushes to catch back up. When I do fix it it takes me a couple minutes to get it and Shade decides she is tired rather than needing company.
So we do the rest of this loop alone. Its a lollypop with a long stick and short loop and we meet several folks coming back which helps Shade not feel too alone. We walked quite a bit, Shade was really tired once the stay with the herd drive was removed. I felt bad that I let her expend so much energy going way too fast the first loop. But she gets a bit of a second wind about 3/4 way thru the loop and is drinking well and munching some grass when we are walking. I walked into camp from a pretty good ways and the wind was a bit less and some sun was out but I stripped the saddle off and stuck the wool blanket on right away, then we got our pulse. This worked better, she pulsed down in 3 minutes. Since it was finally warmer I pulled the blanket off for our trot out at the vet check.
Shade drank well and dived into into her hay tub. I left her tied and munching and went to the trailer to get another elyte dose for her, and top off my camelback, plus eat a bit. I have learned that I need to keep myself eating and drinking as well as the horse if I want to be functioning well enough to take good care of them at the end of the ride. We start our last 7.5 mile loop alone. Now she is not looking at another horse Shade is leery of the fire hydrant at the corner, LOL. We trot most of the good footing stretches on this loop, walking thru the deep sand bits and taking some quick eating breaks.
We walk across the finish line and Shade gets a drink and dives into her hay tub again. She is eating with such enthusiasm I tie her and walk to the porta-potty before doing our final vet exam. She was still munching as I put the saddle over her blanket and led her back to the trailer while bringing the hay tub. (I don't want to make a lot of extra trips) Back at the trailer I put away the saddle and swap her rain sheet for the wool blanket and she took a standing nap in the warmish sunshine while I went the to meal and awards.
Nice surprise at awards Deb & Paschal Karl (Karl creations) had gotten a really lovely pic of Shade and Deb told me Paschal had printed an 8x10 of it. Of course I bought it, my crooked, coarse resolution scan of it is today's image. I chose a T-shirt, (yikes white) for my official award. passed on sunglasses since I need prescription or wear-overs and on notecards because I don't put pen to paper very often. Afterwards Shade was refusing to load. I took off the rain sheet and walked her around to graze for a few minutes while a couple damp spots dried a bit. Then she was still refusing, I was wishing I had thrown my hip pointer in the truck that morning but someone came over after a couple minutes of messing and with someone at her rump she hopped right in. I was a bit insulted, I try to drive pretty considerately when I'm hauling horses.
Shade enjoyed a good roll and the generous hay I gave her and Sadie. She's been wanting to be with her geldings instead of just Sadie so this morning after I fed and put some sore-no-more brand liniment on Shade I opened the dividing gate and also walked down to the pasture and opened that gate so they can wander out and graze when they finish up the hay.
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