Well, our distance riding season is over for another year and it ended on a great note yesterday when 5 of us competed in a Limited Distance and Endurance Race. Team members in the Limited Distance Race were Troy/Aziim, Tammy/Wind and Kathleen/Ali. Crewing for them was Carrilee and Marie. In the endurance race was Shelley/Spirit and me/Paris. Todd was crewing for Shelley and I. Everyone completed and it was a good day.
There is lots to write about and I am sure stories will trickle in in the next week or two. For now I just wanted to share a few thoughts about my very first ride on an Arabian!
Not just any Arabian. I bought Paris as a baby, raised her on our farm with the love and support of Gary and all the Tidal Treasures Crew, backed her myself, trained her myself, including all the necessary hours and hours of ground work (yech, yech) and conditioned her myself. She is 5 years old now and this was her first competitive season. So, yesterday was her first endurance ride.
I was so proud of her yesterday - of us - as we easily covered mile after mile. She is everything I ever could have dreamed of. Purchasing Evening in Paris was the beginning of a new chapter....a "real" endurance horse, and yesterday was the end of that particular chapter, with a lot more new chapters coming up. I love it when a chapter ends on a good note!
Shelley and I have been training for this endurance ride together. She was riding Spirit and it was her first endurance race. (Her story is so inspiring...and I will leave it for her to tell). We went into the ride with a pre-determined pace in mind. Based on our training and the horse's experience/parameters, we made our final decision about two weeks ago, to ride the first two loops at about 8 miles per hour, if the terrain allowed. We would decide on the third loop after we had ridden the first two - whether or not she would go out alone and I would ride Paris a little slower, or if we would go out together. I did not want to ride Paris any faster than around 8 miles per hour in total. In the end, we decided to go out together for the final loop - Our overall average was around 8.2 mph! That average happened to put Shelley and Spirit in 2nd place and me and Paris in 3rd place, with Spirit winning Best Condition. But I would like to think that regardless of whether it put us in first place or last place, that we would have stuck to our original plan, baring any unforeseen circumstances.
I was certainly tempted to go faster....Shelley and I had the lead early in the race and kept it till about mile 25. Halfway through the last loop, we could see the first place rider ahead of us on the pipe line... we could have caught up to him...(NOT saying we could have beat him), but my plan for Paris was 8 miles per hour...so I told Shelley to go ahead if she wanted, but Paris and I were staying at the pace we were going. Shelley decided to stay with us and it was a good decision...she still ended up with 2nd place and Best Condition! I was proud of myself....it is easy to have a "plan" - keeping it on race day is a whole different story!
Paris has never ridden in a Limited Distance ride, so yesterday was her FIRST experience with a mass start. I debated about hiding her behind the trailer until everyone was gone, but I've been able to manage her well all season and I had confidence that we would be ok, so I went with it. When the Ride Manager shouted "Trail is Open," Spirit was the first to take off...(of course!), followed in hot pursuit by Jim/Tango and Russlyn/Addy. Paris and I were cantering behind the three of them and although Paris wanted to be up front with Spirit, she was willing to compromise with me. After only a minute or two the three riders ahead of us went straight past the first bend in the road, so I slowed Paris down...hollered to the other riders that they were going the wrong way and for a brief second or two, Paris and I had the lead! Spirit caught up with us and we put him in front. However, in no time at all, Jim and Russlyn were quite a ways ahead of Shelley and I. Paris was certainly "aware" of everything going on, but remained willing to negotiate!
The first loop was 20 miles and a lot of it was pipeline. The footing was pretty good, lots of smaller, steep hills with little gullys and brooks/streams where the downhill turned into uphill. You could also see a fair distance ahead of you. We watched ahead of us and saw Russlyn and Jim turning right off the pipeline. When we got to where they were, we turned as well. But once we got going, Shelley noticed that the colour of the ribbons had changed and so we went back to check and sure enough, we were not supposed to turn. By this time Russlyn and Jim were long gone and we took advantage of the opportunity to garner the lead and make some good time on the great trail in front of us. Yippee such fun! Paris was all for it. She loves to run simply for the sake of running and she moves so efficiently when she moves out at the canter; it is such a joy to ride her! However, she decided that at canter speed, puddles were for jumping, not stepping in. After months of training, she picks her first endurance ride to start jumping with me on her back. OMG. Thankfully, she jumped long and low, and so I tried figure out some type of posture that was relatively accurate and just went with it. We disagreed about her jumping the larger puddles so I tried to rein her in a bit when I felt her curling up for the larger puddles which resulted in one incident where she managed a bit of a jump but landed hard almost in the middle of the puddle and her head went down, down, down (soft mud underneath?) and I thought oh oh... thankfully she recovered before we went ass-over-teakettle. After that, she only jumped the shorter puddles and decided to agree with me and canter properly through the larger ones. Some of the puddles had unforeseen hazards in them ( like hidden logs) but Shelley had a good eye and managed to spot the hazards and get Spirit down to a slower pace when it was needed.
We "flew" where we could because we knew there was a lot of down hill and rougher going ahead that would slow us down. It was soo exciting to put the horses into a controllable but relatively fast canter and just go for it. Shelley hollered back to me "We're doing it Lynn! We're doing it!" Yes we were.
The first loop ended well, and we started on the 2nd loop. The going got a lot tougher and Paris' balance on the downhills, especially the downhills in the woods that were mucky amazed me. She rocks that little butt of hers back and weighs down on her hind end every single time. Love it. Love it. Love it. Jim caught up to us on the 2nd loop. I didn't hear him coming. We were just trotting along on a narrow, mucky part of the trail and the next thing I knew, Paris had me in the woods at a canter, running away from something and heading STRAIGHT FOR A TREE. Oh wait a second, just as I was wondering which one of us was going to get hit in the head by the tree first, she ducks to the left...another tree...ducks to the right....balance Lynn....b.a.l.a.n.c.e Whew, endurance just turned into survival. I finally got her stopped just as Jim roared up behind us.
At the next pit stop, Jim passed us, and then Paris surprised me. As we left the hold, Paris and I were closer to the trail so we took the "lead" until Spirit could catch up and pass us. I put Paris up into a trot, which she immediately turned into a canter and made it very clear that if Jim and Tango could race, so could she! I tried to slow her down and was successful but her earlier willingness to negotiate and compromise was gone. By the time Shelley took over the lead, Paris was determined to catch up to Jim. In Paris' opinion, Spirit was not going fast enough and I watched in amazement as she stretched her neck as far as she could and bit at Spirit's ass two or three times to get him to go faster! I thought to myself, What just happened? I had flashbacks to when Spirit was younger. He was so strong and we spent the first couple years of distance riding in a constant battle of him wanting to do nothing but catch up to the rider in front. With him, it was more like he desperately needed to catch up, sort of a survival instinct with her it felt more like she was saying "oh yeah buddy...game on" She is not as physically strong as Spirit was, but I have a feeling she has a few more surprises for me in this area....to be continued next year.
I smiled a lot yesterday as I reaped the benefits of years of training, and enjoyed the efficient movement and narrow structure of a lovely Arabian mare, while enjoying the great outdoors in the lovely company of Shelley and Kindred Spirit, taking advantage of miles and miles of marked trail offered up selflessly by numerous volunteers, thinking of the crew waiting to help us back at the hold, giving up their weekends so we could ride, thinking of everyone that has given their time just to make events like this possible. Honestly, just about every mile was marked in gratitude and love.
Yes, Shelley and I "did it" and even better, we did it while continually sharing with each other the gratitude we feel for the privilege of "doing it" (chuckle). What an appropriate attitude to carry with us on Thanksgiving weekend. Happy Thanksgiving All. Happy Trails.
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