LBL, fun times and new Shoes!

LBL April 28, 2012

Our 2nd 50 and 2nd Completion! Came in 4th in our division Photo Credit: Becky Pearman  The loved Marco was a dream boat the entire ride, including being the slithery snake that he is going through the miles of "knee knocker" trail the management warned us about ;0. Poor Rose and Caitlin had a hard time following through that type of trail with the speed pony who bends and weaves his way at a break neck pace :). They were troopers though, and we rode the whole ride together. It was a bit difficult to really chat too much as the horses hooves/shoes on the rocks sounded much like glass breaking, so we mainly just got to see the beautiful scenery at the same time ;). At every vet check the loved Marco was already down to 60 or lower HR by the time I took the saddle off! How awesome is that?! He also was still chomping at the bit to keep going at the end of the 54 mile ride we ended up doing as I seem to have issues with ribbons ;). We finished (which is to win!), and came in 4th in our weight division :). I will definitely do this ride again, and I even get to see my niece who lives very close :) I had a wonderful and relaxing weekend of hanging out with the coolest people around, camping, eating good food, and riding the loved pony. Does not get any better than that! To the right was our "small" campsite that had "no       shade" :/... see all that full sun camp

Well, two days before the ride we realized the glue on boots we were planning on trying out were too big :(. So he got new shiny metal nailed in shoes on the front, and we tried out the boots on the back. Unfortunately, his back feet are about a size smaller than his front, so he went barefoot in the back for 90% of the ride... fortunately he has tough back feet and was fine ;). Tough but beautiful ride. Did the 50 in around 9 hours and 20 minutes, after a little detour on the second loop ;). We wanted to see the pretty scenery and an old giant abandoned barn! Rocky terrain with a bunch of nice dirt trails as well, and really beautiful trails at that. Wish there was a little more water on the yellow loop, but by the looks of it, this area gets flooded a lot, so I guess I should count my blessings instead ;). Blue Loop Yellow Loop (21 miles) Pink Loop (AKA awesome loop) We had a really great time, and even got to go early Thursday morning to get a campsite by the STALL the loved Marco received from the very nice Velvet Schultz :). This place is a really great facility with showers, stalls, power, and just about anything you could want. We of course don't need most of that, but it was a nice change of pace to be able to shower after the ride, felt quite nice :). Lots of friends were competing, and the vet check was in camp... albeit rather far from anyone's actual camp site ;), so we had to make a break station at the vet check ;).