06/06/11, 07:54 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: SE WI
Posts: 1,350
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Another win for the 22yo blind mare!
Saturday was hot, muggy, and miserable. Our 12 mile novice ride began at 1pm, in the midst of 90+ degree weather and choking humidity. I rode with three friends of mine, one of whom was riding her young gelding on his first competitive ride. All the horses did quite well. My mare, Gazzy got a score of 386 (out of 400), which was the highest score of all the competitors for the day! My friend on her youngster took second in Novice, and my other friend got fourth place.
Sunday morning was much cooler, and as my friends decided to go home Saturday, I met another lady who was also riding the Novice on a beautiful warmblood type Morgan gelding and we rode together. My mare and her gelding got along famously, and we ladies were trotting the 12 miles together while chatting about all things under the sun. Gazzy didn't score as high on Sunday (351), but nobody else did either, and it was a high enough score to win second place!
My boyfriend decided to take his TB mare, Stefie, in the 25 mile Limited Distance endurance ride also on Sunday morning. They started at 6:30am. After 16 miles, Stefie pulsed down almost immediately as they got into the first vet check and 40 minute hold, and was in the lead only a couple of miles afterwards.
After my ride was over, I was watching for them to be coming back into camp again. Soon the other LD riders began coming in, but no sign of Vonn. I knew he had been in the lead and everyone said they hadn't seen him. Another hour passed, and still no Vonn or Stefie. The other riders and the ride managers were asking if anyone had seen him, but nobody had.
Finally, I saw him and Stefie riding up to the timer. They looked ok, Stefie wasn't lame and Vonn appeared to be fine, so I asked what happened. Vonn thought he was still in the lead because he hadn't seen anyone else on the trail! After we told him that everyone else had been back for an hour, we discovered that Vonn had missed the sign telling the LD riders to turn for their second loop - he ended up riding 32 miles instead of the 25 he was supposed to!
Stefie still pulsed down within 11 minutes of them coming in, and he had done the 32 miles in about 4.5 hours. Unfortunately, because they had taken the wrong trail, their ride was considered a non-complete, which was disappointing for all of us, but we were glad that the ride itself went well, and Stefie was sound, and still willing to do more. Vonn said that Stefie was doing so well for him, that he wasn't really paying attention to the trail markers, he was just so pleased with her!
All in all, a pretty good weekend!
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