My recollection of the Shamrock weekend -Th and Fri.

Wednesday night driving home I thought -I don't have much food to pack and I have to feed myself supper one day and lots of breakfasts and I don't have any beer or anything so I better swing by Safeway. So I bought beer, bacon (regular and turkey) 2 boxes of Kashi granola cereal cuz I went through a bunch of that at the Mtn Mettle, some yogurt smoothie drinks, Mikes hard lemonade, some sweet and salty bars and some tp. I had string cheese, trail mix, luna bars and miscellaneous left over from MM . Then I made my lemonade ice tea mix and some grape kool aid with my special electrolytes before I went to bed and also gave the horses extra hay I like to top off their tanks the day before a ride. Thursday morning I pre-cooked the bacon --btw turkey bacon deep fried in regular bacon grease is delicious :) Then Idid the last minute packing of my igloo cooler, got beer, V-8, my e-lyte drinks etc packed in the fridge in the trailer. I had decided I would try to leave a little early and let the horses eat the lush grass in WY rather than let them out on our ratty pasture and have more work catching them. Caught Shade with no problem about 11 am.

Grey was running around teasing me and I was thinking "WHY am I messing with this when I don't even WANT to ride him this weekend, he is just a consolation 11 mile poker ride if Shade can't do all 3 days of the endurance ride and I could just volunteer or possibly ride someone else's spare horse so I don't need to have him along --BUT I thought Shade would enjoy his company plus I decided I should not let him decide whether he was coming or not so I asked dad to help me catch him and after another 10 minutes of running around Grey let dad walk up and put his arms around Grey's neck and stood while I walked up with the halter. Loaded both horses with no problems and we were finally on our way about noon.

I stopped in Chugwater at the rest area to dump my portable holding tank, wanted to make sure I had plenty of capacity. Parked and walked it over and dumped it and there was no water to rinse it out, there was a basic horse type hydrant there with a hose but lifting the handle produced zilch. Fiddled around, looked at the signs and decided it was just not working rather than me needing to turn on a valve or something. As I was stowing it back in its spot the caretakers walked over and set the sign to Closed at the dump station. Well at least I did not miss a Closed sign by hand walking the tank over rather than driving through like a full camper does.

The drive into the ride is 11 miles of private road. The rancher does have a bobcat and maintains the road to stay passable but they have had a lot of rain this year. The road had some muddy spots. It was really not BAD but I was stuck behind people who were taking an excess of caution so it took ages to make it to base camp. One of the ride vets was stuck behind me behind the cautious folks. We all made it to base camp eventually and there was still about 3.5 hours of good light left so I got busy and set up a good sized *electric tape fence for the horses, got them some hay out while I worked because Shade seemed to think she needed more than just the nice grass ..... Walked over and signed up, the RM said I could just wait and give her a check at the end rather than messing with a check for each day as I went. She knows where I live :) I took both horses over to the vetting area so Shade would not be carrying on. Grey carried on, while being tied 30 feet away and able to see her clearly while she was vetted. He is such a spazz sometimes.

Back to the trailer, fetched the horses water plus extra for the next day, gave them their grain/BP/complete feed ... mush; soak up some alfalfa hay cubes for them and put on their blankets. I had some of my bacon and one of the smoothies. Realized I had forgotten my string cheese. So I would have to heat bacon in the mornings to get any serious protein, figured oh well, the salt should help me drink and stay hydrated, I made coffee so I could just heat it in the morning since I never feel like I have time to wait for it to percolate when I am trying to get ready to ride by 6:30 (or whatever time the ride starts) gave Shade some electrolytes last thing and crawled into bed for 30 minutes -- Aired up my mattress for the second time and put duct tape over the valve, I also had to do this at Mtn Mettle. The bed holds air good but the relief valve bumps on the window or something and lets out air unless I have it taped. I think I will try to get a bed that is a bit shorter than standard. I really like sleeping crossways in my trailer rather than having my head (or toes) up in the nose but the full length air bed barely fits this way and that having to tape the valve cover after airing it up is one more thing to remember.

Friday morning the 4:30 alarm goes off, it is still dark and I peek out and see that Shade is munching so I can get some coffee in me before venturing out. It was fairly mild overnight and I don't need to run the furnace to take the chill off to get dressed or anything so that is nice. I tack her up, complete with putting easy boots over her shoes on the front feet since I know the first loop of this ride is ROCKY, and putting splint boots on her. She never needs anything normally but the boots stick out a bit so I figure the extra protection is warranted. I get mounted up, see Mary and Dorothy Sue and ask if they are riding easy -they reply yes and I ask if I can ride with them if the pacing is working. They say sure, they have 4 people and I'm welcome to join in. We start out, walk the first 1.5 miles because that road is very rocky, with lots of 2-3 inch rocks that are just perfect to strain a tendon if the horse lands wrong moving at any speed. Shade is not wild about being in the group and as we start the first gradual climb she is huffing and puffing at the pace they are going so I dropped her back after a few miles. Hooked up with a gal doing her 2nd 50 on her Grey horse. Shade enjoys hooking up with grey horses and the pacing is working better so we go ride the rest of the 25 mile loop together.

At the vet check C is worried that her horse has yet to eat or drink. Shade vets fine, goes back to the trailer, where I untack her and she tucks into the alfalfa mix hay and soaked alfalfa cubes. I eat some trail mix and drink grape 'rider ade'. I make up some mash which Grey eats most of. Re-tack, try to get the easy boots off because I have not ridden much with them and the first loop is the really rocky one. Jam my finger twice when the screwdriver slips as I am trying to pop open the clamp and I decide "These boots are not hurting anything!, I will find my vice grips and take them off during the second hold" I am a few minutes late from my P/R and I dont see C, I am not sure if she is going on so I head out alone, but after a few minutes L catches up to me on her horse and those two work well together. About 5 miles into the 2nd loop we hit a stretch that is really rocky and I am glad to have the easy boots on. S and C catch up to us and we all 4 ride together most of this 18 mile loop.

I am late again getting out of the 2nd vet hold, I did get the easy boots off easily with the vice grips to lift the clamp. It has clouded up but does not look really ominous, I don't have my rain parka, just my oilskin duster, I don't feel like messing with the duster so I just tie my windshirt on. Well Shade and I get out about 1 mile and it starts to drizzle. I decide to see if this just fizzles before dragging out equipment. It does not, I put out Shades rump rug and go to untie the strings around my wind shirt. Shade is not wanting to go in the rain, I am having a heck of a time getting my shirt untied from the saddle. Finally I give up on the left side tie and work the sleeves and then the rest of my shirt out from the still tied loop, then I have to remove my helmet to get the wind shirt on. I am pretty wet by the time I get the shirt on and the two turtle riders catch up to me. WooHoo it is R and a friend he is riding with. J is riding the 30 on her young horse today. R and Bobby and I get pretty wet but the rain quits after about 30 minutes and it gets nice and sunny again. My nylon Kerrit tights have dried but the wind shirt has soaked through and the flannel lining is staying damp. I don't want to mess with helmet off and the too sticky saddle strings though so I just take my arms out of the sleeves but leave it draped around my neck. Aaah, my coolmax shirt dries off quickly now. We come into camp around 5:30 pm. Lots of light to take care of horses, make the ride dinner and awards, take the horses for a nice long walk to enjoy the grass and poach some BP mash that someone had thrown out. I swear horses get a guilty pleasure in eating other horses food, I had started worrying during the day that I did not have enough BP along, nor alfalfa mix hay since the horses are BARELY touching the grass hay. I had thought they liked this grass hay best at home, I relax about the food situation since I know that there will be lots of leftover hay and mush starting saturday from folks that leave early so I tell myself to just feed as much as the horses need of what they will eat now and we will scavenge later if we need to.