Thought I'd sit down and write up a few general expereinces about my week at Fryeburg because the days are beginning to blur in my mind...This is in sort of a summary format just to give you a bit of a flavour of what my experience was like.
DAY 1 We arrive at Fryeburg Fairgrounds after a 14 hour drive that includes a flat trailer tire. The grounds are absolutely beautiful, and we were one the first to arrive so we had a good variety of choices as far as camp and horse set up went. We immediately get to work determining where to set up camp. Four of us go to the stalls and start setting up for the six horses. It is hot 34+ not including the humidity. Every 2nd stall had a pile of shavings that was about 2 feet deep and then the stalls on either side of it had none, so we had to shovel out the over-stuffed stall and put shavings in the bare stalls. In no time at all we were a soaking, sweating mess. The horses were getting impatient so we hurried as best we could. When ready, we tried to put the horses in the stalls...t.r.i.e.d. Some of them were not going into the scary box with the unknown smells. Eventually we were able to talk them into it.
Then we all gathered at the camp site. As I looked up from the site to the horses, I had a thought. You know the kind of thought when you go "oh no" and in some ways try to push it out of your mind....As I looked up from the camp site, I realized that if we had of put the horses on the other side of the shedrow barn that we would be able to keep our eyes on them from the campsite, but where they currently were this was not possible. Unfortunately, everyone agreed with this observation so the four of us that had originally lost gallons of sweat of setting up SIX stalls (the others were losing gallons of sweat doing other things) marched back up to the barn and spent another hour or more of heavy shovelling setting up six more stalls. I realized at that moment that our most precious resource for the week was going to be "energy" and that already with the heat and the "wasted" labour we might be close to drawing a negative balance!
I wanted to take a few pictures and had decided to use the ipad air so that I could blog instead of my camera. That damn thing is flat and black...could not find it in the 60 seconds I had between setting up the horses and unloading my gear into my tent...no pictures for me.
That night, as everyone was settled into their temporary homes, I decided to take the time to arrange all my gear in the tent in an orderly fashion so that I could put my hands on things quickly...riding gear here, shorts there, bathing suite here, toiletries there, batteries and electronics over in this corner...etc. I was sure it was worth sacrificing a little shut eye to be organized for the week.
I could see the horses right from the window in my tent, even as I lay in my sleeping bag. There was a small street light and it layed a layer of light over them perfectly. I watched them off and on all night. From what I could tell, they spent the entire night with their head out of the stalls looking all around, completely confused, then looking at each other for comfort.
DAY 2 My tent is a very light material so the light of the sun gets in early. I woke. Saw that it was daylight and got up. I was so excited taking it all in. Look where I was! THE Fryeburg Fairegrounds!!!! Funny, I thought, Troy's not up yet. He's always up early. I went back in my tent to find my phone and check out the time....4;30 am!!! So, I had only slept about 4.5 hours. Oh well, I thought, we are on vacation, I can make up the lost sleep tonight, and I stayed up, busying myself with getting breakfast ready for the horses, spending time with them, looking over the grounds etc.
From what I can remember now the rest of the day was really busy with shopping for supplies, setting up paddocks. We decided to go the "super' walmart to buy some supplies and realized too late that driving over an hour (one way ) after all the driving we did the day before was a mistake. I had to go to another store that was another hour a way to pick up some neigh lox. At the time I arranged this, I thought we wouldn't have much to do on Sunday, so why not...I did not realize that it was a two hour round trip. So on day two I ended up spending 4 hours in a car. The end result being that when i was at camp, I was really busy just "doing what had to be done" and didn't have time to spare to take pictures or go for walks etc. Lots of lessons learned this time around!
It was sweltering hot. As I gathered packages from my shopping trips, I would put them in my tent. You could not breath in that tent. It was like some kind of ritual buiding that First Nations people would use a virtual "sweat lodge" so the packages just got dumped at the door...to be put away and organized later.
Just as dark was approaching, me, Shelley and Kathleen felt like we had to go for at least a small walk into the woods...the spot where our riding trail would begin... just to do something that was on our "list "and so we did. We took a flashlight in case we got caught in the dark and went for a walk into the beautiful majestic pine forrest where the path was layered in a soft bed of pine needles. I fell in love with that little piece of forrest and the affection for that trail grew all week long as we rode it over and over again.
It was really hot that night and late by the time we got to bed. I turned on my dim little latern, pushed my way through the packages (still not put away), messed up a couple of my organized piles of cloths trying to find something cool enough to wear to bed, moved the air mattrress directly under a window and layed there with my nose against the screen trying to get some air. Hours passed by and I could not sleep. I was hot, overtired, full of adrenalin and exhausted. The minutes ticked into hours and the last time I looked at my phone it was almost 1am. Yep, I am seeing why they call it endurance.
DAY 3 5 am again...seriously? Only 4 hours sleep. Nothing I could do about it. There was no way with the light coming through that I was going back to sleep. The day is a blur as I think of it from a "summary" standpoint. Hours of chores and trying to organize ourselves with six horses and day-to-day activities such as taking them for walks and moving them from stall to paddock....no small feat when there are so many people involved. Definatley need a schedule next time (Like I said lots of lessons learned on this trip!)
More shopping....more packages thrown in the tent. Heat wave setting in permanently. Doing chores in the heat and in the sandy environment around camp, made for some very dirty, stinky people. Thank God there were showers. I brought a bunch of pants and 3 pairs of shorts. By day 3 I realized the pants would not even be coming out of the suitcase. I was wearing the cleanest of my three very dirty pairs of shorts and was very glad I had packed two week's worth of under ware because I had already used up a week's worth!
Tried to take some pictures but that meant I would have to crawl into the tent from hell to find the cord and charger as by this time all electronics were dead.
Adrenalin continued to charge up my TIRED, worn out self as LOTS of people and horses started arriving!!! There were people from Virginia and people from New Jersey and people from here and people from there. And sooo many horses!!!! WOW! Our horses felt the same way I did...I could see it in them as all the horses began arriving and the stalls filled up and the grounds filled with paddock areas. We were all on sensory overload. I honestly don't know how to capture these feelings on camera.
We had decided that pretty much everyone was riding the first day of the ride, despite the crazy temperature and we were all busy getting our gear ready for the next day. I think this was also the first day that a bunch of us gathered our bathing suits (tent no longer organized so by the time I found it I was literally dripping in sweat everywhere), and went swimming in the Saco river. The swimming was a lifesaver in all this heat.
That night we had our first ride brief. It didn't start until probably around 8pm or even later. Tired bodies once again injected with strong incoming adrenalin as we were handed our TRAIL MAPS and the different routes were discussed! Listened to our first ride instructions from the legendary vet, Art King. Then we had to leave supper and ride brief to get our horses ready for vetting in. It was really getting late and I was really getting tired!
We stood in line with about 35 other horses. Paris did not know what the hell was going on! She was hot and tired but could only stand still for a few seconds and then I would have to circle her around me. When we got to the vet (my heart was pounding so hard I could hardly hear what he was saying), he went to examine her and she popped up a bit off her front feet. I was mortified. I could have shot that mare right then and there. Anyhow, she behaved after that and we vetted in with all As.
That night there was so much activity around the stalls that I'm sure our horses didn't sleep a wink. In the night's lighting, they looked like little lost refugees with their heads stuck out the stall and they looked worried as they listened to all the other horses hollering and kicking at stall doors. I'm sure that fact that they had each other was very comforting to them that evening.
It was decided during the ride brief that the ride would begin at 5:30 am because of the heat.
That night in my tent, with very minimum light as the batteries in my lantern were now on their last legs, I waded through the now very messy, unorganized piles, sweat still dripping from my brow and running down my back, trying to organize my riding cloths for the morning. Gave up around 11pm and set my phone for 4am. Fell asleep almost instantly.
DAY 4, Canada Day, Our first Ride! How interesting, my first ever AERC ride would be in the United States on Canada day! I have to admit this was not the first thought that crossed my mind when I woke up at 3am and started getting ready. By the time my alarm went off at 4am, I had managed to find my cloths, clean up the tent a bit, and had breakfast.
We were all very focused as we prepared our horses for our first AERC ride. We were all riding the 25 mile LD and we split up into groups of two. Shelly and I, Troy and Kathleen, Todd and Pam. As we mounted our horses and headed up to the start line where about 34 other horses were prancing and milling about it was hard to even breath! I had confidence in my riding ability and I knew Paris well enough that I thought we'd be ok, but when she saw all those other horses ...not knowing any of them...not knowing the trail...well I'm not sure there are words to describe what she felt like under me. It would have been an appropriate time to say a little prayer.
Next thing I knew the trail was open. The whole herd of 30+ horses trotted across the field and then jostled for position as we entered the single track trail in the pine forrest. Spirit and Paris both wanted to GO. I cannot describe the feeling of cantering/trotting in a line up of 30+ horses on single track trail on an animal that is so charged with adrenealin that she thinks she can fly!
Nearing the end of the wood's trail Shelley let me know that she was losing the strength to hold Spirit back (he is very strong in these situations) and so when we hit a dirt road, I told her to pass a few horses and find a spot where she could settle in a bit better. Well, when we let loose enough to let our horses increase speed and start passing horses...oh yeah I was in for an interesting ride. Once I let Paris loose and she started passing a few horses, she wanted NOTHING to do with slowing down. We sailed down that road, me trying to let her out just enough to pass and no extra....as she bucked, popped and kicked every s.i.n.g.l.e step of the way. She was very unhappy about being held back and was expressing her dissatisfaction loud and clear. We went along like this for about 1/2 a mile and then we found a bit of space and settled in. And that was that....our first official start of an AERC ride....it wasn't pretty but we did the best we could and we got through it.
There are more ride details but I'm straying from my summary of the week so for now, back to the summary.
We finished the ride around 11am. We all vetted in fine. Tiki got very fussy about his ears at the hold. Pam was worried that something may be wrong (she did find the scab from a bad bad fly bite on his ear several days later which may have been the issue) and so she decided not to continue for the rest of the ride. (She rode again on Friday and they did fine.)
A lot of time during the first of the week was dedicated to electrolyting and mixing beet pulp, sponging and hosing down the horses, and generally managing horses in the heat, taking them back and forth between stalls and paddocks etc. It took a lot of extra concentration and energy on our part but it paid off. All the horses stayed healthy and we competed under some extreme heat conditions with positive results.
The afternoon was spent cleaning up, taking care of the horses, a swim I think, and trying to take care of ourselves as temps hit "feels like 40+".
I'm going to end the "summary" here for now, but I think you get the drift. The week consisted of
-adrenalin packed riding
-the excitement that comes with meeting other endurance people and watching their horses
-learning lots of new things (haven't talked about any of that yet)
-dealing with extreme heat
-lessons learned (sometimes the hard way) for travelling and performing chores as a large group
-lessons learned on a personal note regarding camping in general
-sleep deprivation (In one way or the other, the week continued to enable only limited amounts of sleep; every night went late and that 5am morning way back around day 2 was the latest I slept in all week! There was one 48 hour period later in the week where I managed to get a combined sleep of 7.5 hours primarily due to weather....had to sleep most of one night in a barn because the rain came so fast it flooded our tents...... )
All in all, it was an amazing week. We all got in some amazing riding. Personally, I completed my first AERC endurance ride later in the week (50 miles). We are exhausted right now but as we rest up and the week comes back to us in bits and pieces there will be many little smiles popping up on the faces of seven tired, worn out, exhausted, Tidal Treasures trail riders who were tested against challenging technical trails, extreme heat, flooding, group dynamics in an unknown environment, and through it all they took care of their equine partners, completed an AERC distance ride, helped their team-mates also acquire completions, and now each and every one of us that journeyed together through this Tidal Treasures adventure is officially an International Distance Rider.!!!
Wow, from the little barn on the Kempt Shore to that. Well done everyone. Congratulations to Troy and Tammy Beazley, Pam Rustige, Shelly, Kathleen and Todd Schaefer and to myself Lynn Beazley! (Insert the tears that are falling on the keyboard as I type here).
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