3.5 miles sunday and 5.5 miles this morning

It is NOT the 'ride about 20 miles' in 1 or 2 days about a week before the ride as a final bit of good conditioning. But such is life. I think I have been more diligent about riding Shade than the last couple of years and she does have a good base at 13 years old and 21 50 mile completions. If the mountain kicks her butt I won't argue with the vet about whether to pull. If it is kicking my butt badly and Shade seems a 'little off' I will Rider Option pull. If we complete but it takes too much out of Shade and she cant do 3-days at Shamrock it will be just a typical Shamrock for me of riding only 1 or 2 days. Grey was pulled twice at that ride before I completed it and Shade was OT on one of her first few LD's there. But its a favorite ride. The setting is so peaceful, the RM gets cool stuff for completion awards, the vet is great and there is usually some yahoo or snake excitement or something so the scatterbrained redhead who muddles through --or not is probably not a top campfire story. I loff endurance because the people who do it are widely varied and very tolerant of different strokes unless its a 'ride the horse into the ground' to feed my ego style.