Kathleen preparing for her first Competitive Trail Ride!
Get ready, get set....time to get going!
The ride was called S.A.D. I can't remember why that was the acronym. It was held in Sackville, NB at a municipal part on the long weekend in May. As we were preparing the horse trailer on Thursday night, the weather forecast for the weekend wasn't actually that bad. (Weather discussion to be continued throughout this post...groan).
The plan was that on Saturday I would ride Spirit and mentor Kathleen (riding Ali) through her first 25 mile Competitive Trail Ride. This feisty 15 year old had been training her handsome new Arab (Ali) for this moment for about a solid 7 months. Then on Sunday, Kathleen's mom - Shelley would ride her first Competitive Trail Ride on Spirit, while I coached and encouraged along the way. Todd (Shelley's husband and Kathleen's dad) was driving the horse trailer. Todd also offered to stay with the horses so that the us girls could get a motel room for the nights. We did expect it to be a bit chilly at night - being May and all. Troy was going to come to Sackville on Saturday to help out over the weekend.
Well, Friday dawned grey and chilly. I saw Todd down tinkering around the horse trailer way before departure time and went down to investigate. Turns out that Shelley's beloved grandfather (Pup) had passed away Thursday night. A lovely man and big influence on Shelley. He lived just up the road from Todd, Shelley and Kathleen and was a big part of their day-to-day life.
I thought we would be pulling out of the ride, but the decision was made that Shelley would stay home, but Todd and Kathleen would continue on to the ride. It was a sober start to what is usually a fun-packed weekend with Todd and Kathleen wearing the loss of their Pup heavily on their minds and me trying not to worry about my son's looming CT scan booked for the following Tuesday. Anyway, off we went determined to make the best of it despite our circumstances and the dull, grey sky.
When we got there, it was bitter cold and so windy you had to holler to be heard. The site was a beautiful picnic park - but very open and that wind was strong and raw. It was nice to see old faces and as we set up, our mood steadily lifted and excitment started to seep in!
When we started setting up, we realized we forgot a few things - and I won't add any more details than that - think we deserve a break given the situation. Troy and Tammy surprised ups by showing up at the ride site Friday afternoon instead of Saturday. This was great fun!.....but unfortunately Troy now knows the stuff we forgot, so we will be hearing about it for a while!
Lynn, Kathleen and Tammy (freezing our Axxes off)
It was so cold that I had on a pair of snow pants, and three different winter jackets - one with a hood that was drawn up tight most of the time and no gloves so my hands were tucked into my jackets. It was hard to move around or socialize all bundled up like that. At one point, I went to use the Johnny on the spot - when my butt hit that cold metal-like seat - a four letter word I seldom used came screaming out of my body along with "what am I doing here" Once out of the Johnny, I immediately felt guilty and was glad no one had heard me. It was obvious that ride management had worked hard to put this ride together. I know how much work is involved in that and I vowed right there and then not to let this miserable weather bring down our spirits. Ride management has no control over the weather and I didn't want to hurt their feelings by being miserable about the cold. I was really good with my new found commitment too - until a few hours later when I sat on that Johnny on the Spot again! Same words - same phrase!! (I really have to got learn how to "hover")
Saturday morning dawned freezing cold and very, very windy. Poor Spirit, we had shaved him the week before. Even with a blanket, he must have been cold. Our vet checks went well and we were gearing up to head out to the first hold (16 miles). With the combination of cold and excitement, our horses legs were literally trembling as we climbed aboard.
In a CTR you go out every two minutes in groups of 2 or 3. We were sent out with Jim and we immediately put our horses up into a trot. I asked Jim (who was leading) to speed it up a bit because Spirit needs a good fast trot to start, otherwise I will have trouble. In retrospect maybe I should have asked to take over the lead. About 1/2 a mile into the ride (hopefully NOT because we sped up), Jim's horse pulled some kind of really fancy maneuver and the next thing we knew, Jim was on the ground and the horse was running away. Good grief not 10 minutes into Kathleen's first CTR (hopefully we would complete and it would be her first), and we were having difficulties. Our horses were half rearing in all the excitement and at first we weren't sure what to do as we watched Jim disappear into the woods calling after his horse and waving his hands around frantically.
We decided to ride back to camp and let someone know what happened. After we rode about 1/4 mile back, we could see Jim's horse galloping across the field and heading for the horse trailers, so we decided there was no need to go back to camp - the news was self-evident and we changed direction again and headed out into the ride.
A few minutes later, I started looking for a 3 mile loop where the CTR riders had to veer off from the IDR riders. I started to worry that we had missed the loop. This would have been disastrous early on in the ride and for about the next 15 minutes, I had that sickening feeling you get when you think you are off trail. Turns out I just didn't read the map close enough...the loop eventually showed up, just a little later than I was expecting.
We headed into the loop - and Jim caught up with us! Great job Jim. The loop was really nice. It was only 3 or 4 miles but the horses settled into a nice slow canter, got rid of their jitters and settled into the job.
All was going well, albeit it cold, when we came across a part of the ride that included going in and out of a river bed. I took one look of what was ahead...muddy river bank, into the river, more mossy grassy stuff, more muddy bank, another little river ..., and said "Kathleen get off, we are walking our horses through this." I did not think it was safe to take her through this - her first ride and her horses' first competition. Just as I said it, we heard two people on the other side of the river. "Get off " they said. One said, "You better get off and walk through that, I just lost my teeth." Well, I thought, that's an odd thing to say.
We struggled through the muddy parts with a bit of a mess but the three of us fared out ok. When we got to the other side, sure enough there was a rider there holding her face with three of her front teeth pushed way, way back in her mouth. Poor Nicole. My heart went out to her. She had telephoned for help and she had a friend with her, so there was no sense in us staying with her and she did her best, even in her predicament, to encourage us to ride on. I thought I had lost Kathleen at that point. It was a lot for a 15 year old girl to take in (are you kidding, it was a lot for a 54 year old woman to take in), but she got back on her horse. After we left, I upped the speed quite a bit - forcing Kathleen to take her mind off of what had happened and focus what was happening. The strategy worked. In no time, we were back to the task at hand.
At around mile 9 (totally guessing here), we ran into Deanna and her horse Azzy (hope I spelled that right). Well, Spirit went into competition mode - he doesn't like other horses in front of him. I think he has a select list of horses that he really doesn't like in front of him, and Deanna's horse is on that list! We were on a beautiful country road, great footing and we cantered a long, long distance on that road. Kathleen said that was the most she's ever cantered.
We were aiming for about a 7 mile average going into the hold. In a CTR, you need to finish with a 6 mile and hour average - with a 15 minute window on either side. I like to try to get to the hold at 7 miles per hour as you never know when you might get lost and you can always walk the last couple of miles to let the clock tick down. It seemed really hard to get that average on this ride, but all of a sudden I think we were actually up to 7.5 mph. With about 1/2 a mile to go to the hold, we brought our horses down and walked in. We wanted to make sure they met heart rate criteria at the hold.
At the hold, once we were no longer riding, Kathleen and I got really, really cold. Our horses pulsed in fine. I was told that Spirit pulsed in at 42 - the lowest horse at the hold up til that time, and earlier that day the vet told me that his starting heart rate was 36 - also the lowest he'd seen up til that point! Criteria requires the heart rate be less than 60. Ali's was in the 50s but to be expected - so many new things for the boy to experience this weekend right from the moment he got on the horse trailer at home.
Arriving at the Hold
The second part of the ride (miles 17 to 25) were even colder and there was quite a bit of mud. We walked a lot of the mud because we had the time, but that meant that the riders got even colder. All of a sudden it started to hail. Big hail. It was bouncing off the horses everywhere - especially off their butts! The wind was so strong and the hail was stinging the right side of our faces. I should have just sped up and taken an "early" penalty. The hail lasted quite a long time - unbelievable. Well, don't ever say it can't get worse because just as I was thinking that....it started to SNOW. SNOW. So let me recap, we are cold, cold, it is windy, windy, we are slightly wet from HAIL and now it is SNOWING.The survival instinct kicked in and I decided it was time to teach Kathleen how to do a good solid trot through lots of mud!
Snow at the hold....helmet cam steamed up in the extreme temperature change, so we didn't get much footage from the riders' perspective.
A little tid bit about riding in the mud - Ride Management has told us about a couple of really muddy spots after the hold that might be a bit precarious but I couldn't remember where they were. So whenever we hit some really big nasty looking puddles, I decided to let my horse decide where to go. Guess what he did - he got up on the side of the road in that little bit of space between trees and puddle and that's where he walked! He never took a mis-step down into the puddles and not once did he get too close to the trees to put me into any kind of trouble. A well travelled trail horse is worth his weight in gold. Love my Boo.Kathleen never complained once. She stated rather matter of fact at one point that the right side of her face was cold and sore - and she was correct - that's what happens when you ride miles in strong wind and hail!
For the last couple of miles, we knew we were ahead of schedule so we came down and stayed at a walk. We met up with 4 or 5 other riders and we all walked in together. Sounds nice doesn't it - Not really. Once Spirit knows he is close to the ride site he does not understand why he can't canter home, so my job was to hold him in his place (pop, pop he went, as the pain in my shoulders screamed in protest at the combination cold weather and holding back 1000 pounds f horse) and to walk at a "normal" horse speed and not his 5 mile an hour monster walk!
Walking in at the end of the ride.
Our optimum ride time had us returning to camp at 2:29 pm. We arrived at 2:29 or 2:30pm - I can't remember. We went through all our requirements - heart rate, trot out, and "hands on". All was well and Kathleen and her wonderful little steed Ali, completed their first Competitive Trail Ride! Congratulations Kathleen - your hard work paid off!
