Photo Credit: Susan Franklin
Our 4th fifty mile endurance ride, and completion! Within this story are the folks who we camped with, as well as those who were directly involved with us at the ride, they include: Bill, Bill, Jody, Joni, Josie, Anna, Anna, Angie, Marty, Marty, and of course Marco and me... hence the title. Oh, and Caitlin!
For this ride our group all went separately taking our own rigs, it is close enough that the splitting of expenses is not worth the convenience of having all my stuff with me ;). The Dawson forest is in Caitlin's backyard, so she went Wednesday with her rig and saved us all our spots :). Unfortunately she also had to work, so she ended up not getting to spend a whole lotta time at the ride :(. I got there Thursday early morning and got to relax and set up my campsite. We decided that Caitlin and Anna would ride Friday, and then I would on Saturday, this way we could crew for each other :). That was quite a luxury for us, you mean I can go pee while someone holds my pony?! Anna brought her daughter and father (Bill #1) to the ride, and we also saved a spot for Jody and her daughter Joni, Angie and her daughter Josie and their two rigs. Josie and her dad Bill (#2) came later in the evening after she got off of work. This was also an elevator ride so Anna decided to start her horse on the 25 and elevate up if he was doing fine... and she did! Anna and Zany's first 50 mile completion! Caitlin was not so successful and was pulled from the ride on her home turf :(.
We started out this long weekend wondering if I was going to ride or not, as Marco stopped eating anything on Thursday, no grain or hay :(. All day he just stood there being surly and not touching the buffet in front of him. I finally came up with a brilliant idea... and gave him some of Zany's food. Guess what, he ate it like he had been starving for weeks. So, I realized that he was just tired of the same ole food again and went around to our neighbors getting a little bit of this, and a little bit of that to mix in with his regular food, and that did it for him, he ate like a champ all day Friday. Our neighbor, Anna, is also an acupuncturist and did an exam on him, we may get some acupuncture in the future. Then Marty Head came by and did a Chi adjustment on him, that REALLY perked him up and changed his surly attitude into a "lets go get em" one that finally made my decision for me... we would do the 50 on Saturday :). Marco even laid down right next to me and ate his hay that night, he has never laid down in front of me before, much less right next to me :.). I love all of the different types of folks in endurance, you can get just about anything you need for your pony at a ride! And everyone is so generous with their expertise and time :).
The GERA ride is in Dawson Forest in Georgia, in the middle of June, so it is "known" for being one hot as hell ride ;). This year was the first time anyone seemed to remember where the weather was actually quite pleasant! It was in the mid 60's at night and only 80 degrees during the day with a nice cool breeze. The trails are almost exclusively shady, so this made for one sweet ride for June. Unfortunately the folks who rode on Friday found out that the heat in the past is what kept them at a slower pace, they did not pay attention to the terrain. With the cooler weather many folks sped up and the terrain took em out! Only a 75% completion rate on Friday with mostly hind end issues... I decided to take that as a learning tool. Listen to the pony and watch the trail! I was planning on going slow, but Marco was SO incredibly happy and having such a great time that I just let him do what he wanted, which was a pretty decent clip. We stayed with the front runners for the first three loops! We were only 2 minutes behind Jody on Marty (the horse, not the Chi adjuster) and Joni on Booger at the third vet check, and they came in 5th (not sure who got the 5th place, but there was a tie)! Marco's HR was down to 60 or lower by the time I took the saddle off and sponged him off for all three loops! Between the Blue Ridge ride two weeks earlier, and the faster pace for this ride, I could tell Marco's poor little booty was getting sore though, so we just took our time on the final loop. While going fast is always a good time, I also like to look around and take pics, so it doesn't really matter if we slow down. I also like to make sure my pony doesn't just finish, but finishes HAPPY. We ended up coming in 11th place, and finishing sound and happy! Marco was still ready to go! We did the GERA 50 mile ride in 6 hours and 34 minutes (if my math is correct looking at my ride card)... not bad for a couple of newbies ;). I think we are taking the rest of the summer off from endurance and doing other fun stuff. We will come back to it in the fall for Big South Fork though, and that is where we are our best! The only time we got a top ten in LD rides was there, so maybe we will take a stab at making it our first top ten in endurance too ;).
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